Forbidden the Stars (24 page)

The elevator door opened to opulence. The sight before him was so grand that it was a good minute before Alex the absence of artificial gravity in the room; the magnetos were not operating this deep below the surface of the moon.

It was as if this were a whole new world within Luna.

Alex had never seen such luxury displayed before him except in elaborately produced DMR vid-flicks.

The room was large enough to dock a mid-sized space freighter, though it would be crowded with all the furnishings and draperies covering the floor and walls of the room.

Settees, couches, antique chairs, vases that must have dated back centuries, as well as fine works of art Alex recognized from cultural reference adorned the room. Four thick pillars had been erected at geometric points within, though only for decoration; the polysteel used to construct the station was strong enough to support itself without the use of any kind of pillars.

Dragons hung from the ceilings. Red, Gold, Green, and Purple, they were embroidered on long banners of silk and satin.

Any kind of wood was almost as expensive as gold on Luna, when including the cost of transport, but in the middle of the far wall of the room there stood an enormous oak desk, waxed to a brilliant shine, its legs embellished and carved with images from Chinese mythology.

From behind the desk, a figure dressed in a robe of richly woven red and gold silk slowly stood. There was a satisfied smile on his oriental face as he shuffled around the desk and toward Alex and his two captors.

“Greetings, gentlemen! Greetings. Welcome to my humble little slice of the universe.” He spread his arms open in a welcoming gesture.

As if he hadn’t spotted Alex the moment the boy stepped out of the elevator and had not moved his penetrating gaze from the object of his obsession, he said, “Ah, I see you have brought me my prize. For which—I believe this is how they say it in those pirate vids—you will be handsomely paid.”

As if struck by an out-of-place sense of conscience, the captain said, “You’re not going to hurt him—”

The Chinese man looked deeply offended. “Hurt? Why, I would sooner cut out my own heart. Young Alex here represents the world to me. Nay, shall I even say it? He represents the entire Universe. Hurt him? On that account, my dear swashbuckler, I can assure you, your fears are completely unfounded.

“I have received the datavise sent by your ship’s doctor, and the results are everything I expected. You have honored your end of our pact to the letter. Now, if you would be so kind as to leave Alex and me to get acquainted, my assistant Dexter will see to your generous reward.”

From nowhere, it seemed, a teenager with bad acne appeared and gestured for the pirates to re-enter the freight elevator.

“I thank you, gentlemen, for your service to me. You have no idea how you have benefited me, and yourselves, for I shall remember the alacrity with which you have completed your objective.

“Good day.”

The pirates were immediately dismissed from his awareness, all his attention focusing uncomfortably upon Alex.

Feeling his heart beat a few pulses per minute faster, Alex had no choice but to await the other man’s lead. He had briefly contemplated making a break for it, but to where? The pirates would not offer him sanctuary. And he would very quickly lose himself if he ever managed to find his way out of this room of opulent splendor.

He blinked when he realized there was an open hand thrust out before him. “Good day, Alex. My name is Chow Yin. I’m sorry that we had to put you through that terrible, terrible ordeal, but I assure you, it is for your own good.”

Alex debated whether to shake Chow Yin’s hand, or bite it and try to run. Demurely, he extended his own hand to his new captor.

“Good. It seems you are not only a fortuitous youth, but one who has intelligence as well. That is good. Come, Alex, and make yourself comfortable.”

Chow Yin led Alex to a voluminous couch placed in front of a short table covered with fruits and pastries and glass carafe’s of juice—one-hundred percent pure, if Alex had to guess.

“Help yourself, if you are hungry.”

“Thank you,” Alex managed to say as he helped himself to a macaroon.

Any normal ten-year old would either be completely terrified in Alex’s situation, or completely oblivious. Alex was neither. Although he felt some trepidation when contemplating his future, the knowledge of his own powers helped comfort him. If the circumstances turned malevolent, he knew he could plunge the entire room into darkness. With his vision, he did not need light to see. He doubted Chow Yin could match that skill with all his money.

And he did not doubt that Chow Yin had paid for his capture precisely so that he could plunder that ability from Alex. He had to form a plan of escape. He saw no way out, and for the moment, he could only bide his time.

Chow Yin sat upon the couch very close to Alex, too close for comfort, really, but Alex had no room to move farther away. He paused in mid chew as Yin put a thin hand upon the boy’s shoulder.

“Now, Alex. I brought you here for reasons you might at first suspect, but rest assured, I have your best interests in mind. My best interest as well. I will not hide that fact from you. Yes, you have some special abilities that could benefit me in ways that would change the very face of the solar system. Oh, how I’ve longed for those changes.

“You see,” he said, “I am exiled from Earth. I cannot return. Oh, not for any reasons political or criminal, I can tell you. It’s because of a twist of fate.”

The oriental pulled up the silk leg of his pajama to show Alex the wreck life had made of his leg. Alex couldn’t swallow the half-masticated piece of chocolate and coconut sweet in his mouth, and nearly vomited it out, but somehow managed to keep it right where it was.

Yin dropped the pant leg, and mercifully covered the mass of scar tissue.

“My bones are brittle. They could not hold up my body weight in Earth’s gravity. Even the artificial gravity on the moon here that they have installed in the last ten years is too much for me; that is why I have had to retreat to my little haven here under the surface. Even Luna Station is forbidden to me. I am trapped.

“But space…ah space…now that is wide open.

“Up until now, there have been so many physical limitations on exploring space. What! A trip to the asteroid belt takes upwards of a month. Insane! And costly. Too costly. Why should it be that only the ultra-rich country corporations can go and plunder the incredible wealth in the belt? The rest of us grow relatively poorer as they grow so much richer. It is a story that has been repeating itself for centuries on Earth.

“It is time to change that. If quick, cheap space travel is provided, then anyone with a little entrepreneurial spirit could start up their own asteroid prospecting business. How many people grew wealthy in the Alaskan Gold Rush? Entire families pulled themselves from the muck of poverty, and became powers unto themselves, able to determine their own futures, instead of being the puppets of their governments.

“You, Alex, have the ability to cause greatness to come once again to our universe. Once we determine the extent of your ability, for I am certain it is in you, the key to light speed travel, the mysteries of the element they are calling Kinemet. Yes. Once we have explored your powers, all you need do is to share your secrets, and everyone would benefit.”

Chow Yin smiled benignly upon Alex, but the boy was not looking at his captor. His determination to say nothing was breached with a thought. He had to be sure, be certain that Chow Yin was truly malevolent, and wanted the information inside Alex’s head all to himself.

“Why can’t I just share it from Earth?” he asked the man. “It would be easy enough to go on the newsvids and tell my story.”

Chow Yin shook his head disapprovingly. “But then you would be mobbed by a thousand different organizations, all demanding that you submit yourself to their tests. You would spend the rest of your life under glass, an animal in a zoo. Is that how you envision your future?”

Without waiting for a reply, Yin stood and waved his hand to encompass the room. “Why not share your secret from here, and live in luxury? You would have my protection; I will keep away all the crackpots and unreasonable organizations that would only want to tear you apart to see how you work.

“Stay here with me, and you can choose when and where you share your information. I will be your agent,” he suggested. “Your guide, your mentor. Your friend.”

“Agent?” Alex had to ask, “Why would I need an agent if I share the information freely?”

“Oh Alex, you have so much to learn about people. If you give someone an ounce freely, they will demand a pound of your flesh, if they take you seriously at all. But if you require that they pay a nominal fee for the license of your information, and a small royalty, then they will be more inclined to deal with you on a professional, serious basis. You will cut through ninety percent of the riffraff.

“I will guide you through this confusing process. You won’t have to worry about anything. I will take care of all that needs to be done, present a proposal to the world, and deal with those who are serious enough to line up in wait for your wonderful gift.”

Alex could barely believe his ears. It sounded like a speech rehearsed from some bad vid. Did Chow Yin really think Alex only had the mind of a ten-year old? The body, perhaps, but Alex was far more intellectually advanced than that. And he had more insight into people than most pre-adolescents could be credited with.

He had to be careful in dealing with Chow Yin. The man had achieved his incredible wealth somehow, and there was no indication that the means was legitimate. He had hired pirates to kidnap him, attacking a NASA vessel. The man was unscrupulous, and very dangerous.

Best to play along.

“I guess,” he said in that offhand agreeable way that most young, naive, children had. “Could I have my own room?”

Chow Yin broke out in a big smile. “Of course.” And rubbed his hands together.

__________

Quantum Resources, Inc.:

Toronto :

Canada Corp.:

“
Michael!”

It was Calbert.

Michael straightened from the desk over which he was leaning, trying to figure out coordinates for a secondary Kinemet survey mission. His assistant’s eyes were wild, exhilarated.

“What is it?”

“We did it!” Calbert replied. “We struck Kinemet. They have positive spectrometer readings, identical to the ones George discovered on the Macklin’s Rock data. The MS can’t define the element, but the characteristics are exactly the same.”

Michael never thought this moment would happen. Macklin’s Rock was a fluke, he had said to himself half a dozen times a day. An astronomical anomaly. Isolated phenomenon.

But it was true. It was real. It was here.

Kinemet.

“Are you sure?”

Calbert waved a digiscreen report. “Read it for yourself.”

Michael had to, in order to completely believe. He was so excited, it was difficult to keep his concentration, and he had to start again three times before he read the entire finding report.

“If the number of asteroids on our list of candidates is only partially valid, there will be more Kinemet out there than we know what to do with!”

It was the time for decisiveness. “All right, begin the excavation procedure as we discussed. I’ll talk to the colonel, and get Ottawa on the comm. If this is it, we’re going to need max security on this. From now on, everything is top shelf. Need to know. I don’t want any screw-ups, especially if our communications are being monitored.”

“Gotcha, boss.” Calbert pirouetted, and was off at a run, a big grin on his face.

Michael undertook the task of finding the colonel, who was in charge of Quantum Resources, Inc.’s security. He was in the coffee room talking with a couple of his lieutenants, discussing what seemed to be the security of the perimeter of the Quantum Resources outbuildings. He looked up from his conversation when he noticed Michael approach.

“Aces,” Michael said, his face caught between a professional stoicism, and a juvenile grin. “We have confirmation of the existence of Kinemet, and I’ve just ordered the team up on the asteroid to being excavation. It’s time to put your security contingency plan into effect.”

The colonel glanced at the digiscreen, raised an eyebrow, and wasted no more time. His implanted comm speaker turned on with a movement of his tongue, and he began issuing orders to his men.

Michael practically vibrated, awaiting the colonel to complete his directive so that they could contact CSE and EMR in Ottawa, and plan a conference to coordinate their security with NASA and the USA, Inc. military.

Before the colonel finished his briefing to his men, he blinked twice, his face taking on a surprised look for an instant. Then his eyebrows furrowed and his chin set in a hard vice. It was obvious he was getting a private comm on his ear implant receiver.

Trying to contain his anxiety, Michael waited patiently until the colonel’s eyes focused on him, his communication terminated.

“Michael, I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but we’ve been ordered a complete cease and desist of all operations until further notice.”

“What! You can’t be serious. Not right now! We’re on the brink of the most important confirmed discovery in the entire history of the world. We—”

The colonel cut off his growing tirade with a sharp chopping motion.

“There’s been an incident on Luna. And,” he added with a twist of his mouth, “some politician put a comma in the wrong place in a memo, and pissed off a communist.

“Michael, we’re now officially at war with China.”

__________

Luna Station :

Chinese Sector :

Luna :

Klaus Vogelsberg
was in deep concentration.

His DMR screen was aglow with explosions as he tried to maneuver his Starspear through the mass of enemy warships and battle cruisers. If he couldn’t get past the globule defenders this time, he swore he was going to kick in the damned computer’s casement.