Moonbase - Moonwar Part 20

"I quite understand," said Faure, "and I agree. Your detention has been a sad error on the part of certain over-anxious members of my staff. I apologize most humbly."

Joanna looked totally unconvinced.

Faure went on, "I am giving orders this instant that you are to be released and provided transportation for whatever destination you wish."

Warily, Joanna replied, "We've been given to understand that we'll need some hefty security because of public resentment over the Peacekeeper's death."

Faure made himself nod reluctantly. "Alas, that may be true, Madame."

"If you don't mind," said Joanna, "I'd rather provide my own security. And my own transport, too."

"Of course! Whatever you wish."

The woman looked suspicious. Faure made himself smile at her as he thought, With a bit of luck, some fanatic will a.s.sa.s.sinate her.

Joanna mumbled her thanks to Faure and broke the phone link. Looking up from the screen, she saw that Lev was already on his feet.

"We're free to leave," she said, not quite believing it.

Lev scratched at his beard. "Something's changed Faure's mind. I wonder what it was?"

Joanna had no answer.

"Do you think Rashid got to him, at last?"

With an angry shake of her head, Joanna replied, "No. I think Rashid was very happy to keep us bottled up here. I think he's going to be badly shaken up when we arrive in Savannah. At least, I intend to shake the little rat as hard as I can."

DAY TEN.

He hasn't been alone for more than five minutes, the mercenary grumbled to himself. I don't mind taking him out in front of witnesses if I have to, but it'd be better to get him alone, make it look like an accident or something natural, like a heart attack.

He almost laughed to himself. Heart attack. The kid's twenty-five years old and healthy as a horse. It's going to have to be an accident.

Plenty of places for an accident to happen, he reasoned. Might have to take out a whole lot of people, though. Knock out the air pumps or rig an explosion in one of the labs.

He hasn't gone out on the surface since this thing started. It'd be easy to get him when he's in a s.p.a.cesuit. Or maybe in the airlock. Christ, I'm starting to grasp at straws! Why's it so f.u.c.king tough, knocking off one guy?

Because you don't want to do it, he answered himself. Because you really admire the kid. He's everything you could've been if you'd been born different.

Yeah, sure. And I could fly if I had wings. The facts of the matter are that you've been a.s.signed to decapitate the leadership here and this Stavenger kid is is the leadership. Sooner or later the Peacekeepers are going to come back in force and either take this base or flatten it. If you haven't done your job by then you're dead. Either you get killed in the battle or they drag you back to headquarters, a failure. And you know what that means. Better to get yourself killed trying to do your job. the leadership. Sooner or later the Peacekeepers are going to come back in force and either take this base or flatten it. If you haven't done your job by then you're dead. Either you get killed in the battle or they drag you back to headquarters, a failure. And you know what that means. Better to get yourself killed trying to do your job.

He tried to calm himself and think his problem through. The only time Stavenger's alone inside the base here is when he sleeps. And he hasn't been doing much sleeping, the past ten days. Conferences all the time. He's always got a gaggle of people around him.

Maybe tonight, though. He's got to sleep sometime. Maybe I'll walk him to his quarters and do him there and get it the h.e.l.l over with.

"All right," Doug said, standing on a table in The Cave. "This your meeting. Let's hear what you have to say."

Almost the entire population of Moonbase was jammed into The Cave. Only a skeleton crew was left on duty at the monitoring center, and they were piped into this meeting through the base intercom. The dinner shifts were finished. The other tables and chairs had been pushed against the far wall so everyone could gather into the s.p.a.ce. From his vantage atop the table, Doug saw their faces focused squarely on him. They were standing shoulder-to-shoulder; the only empty spots on the floor of the big cafeteria were the little squares of gra.s.s.

Edith Elgin, now in a Moonbase-issue white coverall, stood off to one side, where she had set up both her minicams on tripods to record the meeting.

Jinny Anson was standing in the front row at Doug's feet. She asked, "Well, are we independent or not?"

The acoustics in The Cave were good enough so that she didn't need amplification.

Doug answered, There's been no confirmation of our declaration of independence from the U.N. or any recognition by any country on Earth."

"Great," someone sneered.

"Physically, though," Doug went on, "we're showing that we can exist independently of supplies from Earth. The U.N. hasn't allowed a flight here since the Peacekeeper mission took off. We're under siege."

"Big deal.'.

"Wait a minute," one of the women asked. "You mean we can't go back Earthside if we want to?"

"I don't know," Doug said. "I'm sure we could arrange with Faure for transport to take people back Earthside, if there're enough who want to leave to make a flight necessary."

"What about us?" asked the manager of the Canadian dance troupe.

Doug lifted his hands in a gesture of helplessness. "Until we can negotiate your return Earthside, you'll have to remain here as our guests, I'm afraid."

"But we have contractual obligations! Dates in a dozen cities!"

"I can let you call Faure yourself, or your government in Ottawa," Doug suggested. "Unfortunately, no one is returning our calls."

"I don't want to be stuck here forever!" another voice called out.

"It won't be forever," Doug said, with a grin. "It'll just seem that long."

"My son's birthday is next week."

Doug made a can't be helped can't be helped shrug. shrug.

"How soon can I launch my survey satellite to the Farside?" asked Zoltan Kadar. He had pushed his way to the front row, Doug noticed.

"That's a good question," Doug replied, stalling for time to think. "We'll have to work it out with the logistics program, to see if your launch will use any supplies that we might want to hold onto, in case this siege goes on for a while."

"All I need is rocket propellant and some electricity," Kadar shot back.

His rocket would be propelled by powdered aluminum and liquid oxygen, both extracted from the regolith and both in plentiful supply, Doug knew.

"We'll see," he said to Kadar.

"What're Lev and Joanna doing?" a man's voice asked from the crowd.

They went Earthside to negotiate face-to-face with Faure and the rest of the U.N. leadership," Doug said.

"Have they met with Faure yet?"

"Not yet. They were detained at the Peacekeeper base in Corsica for a couple of days, but they're back in Savannah now. She should be meeting with Faure in a few days, at most, I guess."

"How is this thing going to be settled? Are we going to be an independent nation or will the U.N. take us over?"

"It won't be the U.N.," Doug said. "It's starting to look as if Yamagata is really behind this whole business. If we lose, then it'll be Yamagata Corporation that takes over Moonbase."

"You mean this whole thing is a fight between corporations?"

"No," Doug snapped. "That is not not what I mean. This crisis is a fight between our right to live and work the way we want to, and a power grab by the U.N. and/or Yamagata Corporation. The question is: Do you want to keep on living and working the way you have been, or do you want to be shipped back Earthside without a job?" what I mean. This crisis is a fight between our right to live and work the way we want to, and a power grab by the U.N. and/or Yamagata Corporation. The question is: Do you want to keep on living and working the way you have been, or do you want to be shipped back Earthside without a job?"

Someone said, "But if Yamagata's going to take over the base-"

"They'll staff it with their own people," another voice countered. "Yamagata's not going to keep us, that's for sure."

"What the h.e.l.l can we do?"

Jinny Anson turned her back to Doug, to face the crowd. I'll tell you what we can do. f.u.c.k 'em! We don't have to ask ask the U.N. for independence. We the U.N. for independence. We are are independent! We can live here indefinitely. And if we have to expand the farm or build more solar cells outside, we can do that! We don't need those f.u.c.kers! We're free!" independent! We can live here indefinitely. And if we have to expand the farm or build more solar cells outside, we can do that! We don't need those f.u.c.kers! We're free!"

The crowd roared, but from Doug's vantage atop the table it seemed that almost half the people in The Cave were roaring in protest against Anson's outburst.

"Okay, okay," Doug said, waving his hands to quiet them down. "I've got to admit it, Jinny, I agree with you about ninety-five percent."

"Only ninety-five?" She planted her fists on her hips defiantly.

"Hey, I wanna get back home!" a man hollered. "I don't intend to spend the rest of my life here."

"Me neither."

"Listen," Doug said. "For the time being, n.o.body's leaving. We're in a state of siege, looks like."

"For how long?"

"Until this thing gets settled, one way or the other," Doug answered.

"Or until the Peacekeepers come back with more troops," came a voice from the rear.

Doug conceded the point with a nod, thinking that if he were pushed far enough, Faure might destroy Moonbase rather than admit defeat.

"Okay," Doug said, loud enough to bounce his voice off The Cave's back wall. "We're going to have to act as if we really are independent. Jinny's right about that. As long as we're under siege, n.o.body can leave, so we might as well go about our work and show Faure and the rest of those flatlanders that we can get along without them."

"Then I can launch my rocket?" Kadar asked.

"We'll look into it."

"But I still wanna get home!" a voice wailed.

"Once this matter is settled," Doug told them, "anyone who wants to leave Moonbase will be free to do so. And anyone who wants to stay here permanently and become a real real Lunatic, you'll be free to do that, too." Lunatic, you'll be free to do that, too."

They asked questions and gave opinions and griped and argued among themselves for more than another hour. As Doug watched and listened, he realized that very few of these men and women had ever thought about remaining at Moonbase indefinitely. They were all contract workers, even Jinny Anson, accustomed to working on the Moon for a fixed period of time, then returning to Earth, to home.

Of all the people here, he realized, only Zimmerman and Kris Cardenas and her husband have consciously decided to live in Moonbase permanently. Maybe Jinny, he conceded. Her marriage had broken up because she spent so much time at Moonbase while her husband stayed Earthside.

And me. If I have to go back Earthside with these nan.o.bugs in me, some crackpot nanoluddite will kill me, sooner or later. That's the sweet part of religion, Doug thought, you can be as fanatical as you want in the name of G.o.d.

The mercenary hung at the rear of the crowd, wondering how long these people could go around the same mulberry bush. Then Kadar climbed up on the table beside Doug and began telling them all, in elaborate detail, how wonderful the Farside astronomical observatory was going to be and how important it was to the future of the human race.

People started to drift out of The Cave, most of them still talking among themselves as Kadar droned on, unperturbed. As if talk's going to do any good, the mercenary thought. They've been talking for d.a.m.ned near four hours with nothing to show for it but a bunch of sore throats.

He watched Doug climb down stiffly from his perch on the table. Okay, he told himself, Doug's going to go back to his quarters now. Christ, it's after midnight. Okay, just tail along behind him and when he gets to his quarters, invite yourself in and get the job done.

DAY ELEVEN.

"It's past midnight," Claire Rossi said tiredly as she trudged along the corridor that led from The Cave to her quarters. Nick O'Malley, at her side, towered over her like a redheaded bodyguard.

He nodded. "I've got the early shift tomorrow. Gotta be up and moving by six a.m."

She smiled up at him. "You can sleep in my place. It's closer."

He smiled back. "How could I refuse?"

But once they were snuggled in her bunk together, Claire whispered in the darkness, "Maybe I should get an abortion."

She felt the shock that went through him. "Abortion? Why? You can't! I don't want you to."

Feeling more miserable with each word, Claire said, "With all this going on, all this uncertainty... and if there should be any complications..."

He touched her bare shoulder tenderly. "You feel okay, don't you? There's nothing wrong, is there?"

"No," she said, "I feel fine."

"Then what's this talk about abortion? I don't like it."

"It's just...' She couldn't put the words together.

"Just what? This siege thing? Don't let that frighten you. Even if we have to go back Earthside we still have employment contracts. Masterson Corporation'll have to honor our contracts. We'll have our jobs."

"Suppose there's fighting?"

"How could there be?" he said. "We don't have anything to fight with."

"But Doug said Yamagata wants to take over the base."

He propped himself on one elbow and looked down at her. "And what's that got to do with it? We'd have to go back Earthside anyway, now that you're pregnant."

'I'd have to go back," Claire said. "I'm the one who's pregnant." have to go back," Claire said. "I'm the one who's pregnant."

"Well, I'd have to go back with you, wouldn't I?"

"Why? We're not married. You're not under any obligation."