Chapter 4

Chapter 4 Draft
(7-15-08)

Warrick Gates sat back down in the deeply concealed and shielded workroom underneath the house of Chris Webb. They changed their meeting locations to coincide with real world business meetings so as not to establish a pattern. As Chris walked in Warrick tipped his coffee cup (New Texas was actually better than Earth) and asked plaintively, “Why do I feel like I am shattering history here?”

“Warrick, you constantly amaze me but; what the hell are you talking about this time?”

“OK Chris, I know you know your military history and will understand this. How are we any different from two dumb asses in the old American War Department in March 1924 planning June 6, 1944, based on systems we don’t know will be built, work the way we think they will or against the same enemy?”

Chris just stared, “Warrick for once I think I understand how you think. First we know who the enemy is going to be, the FG. We know their basic rate of scientific development, so we have a base to project against.

“We do not know exactly how our new systems will work but again, we can project due to the fact that we can handle the mathematics. We don’t know how much better our systems will be, only that they will be better because we follow Science not Doctrine.

“We know where we have to fight and if we do it right, we get to choose when! Not only that, they train glorified goons while we are going to train Warriors.

“Last but, not least. If the old Americans had started planning in 1924 against anybody, think they might have done a better job?”

Warrick grinned, “That’s a given, can you imagine Omaha Beach with Marine LAV’s instead of the murder holes of LCI’s? Maybe this ain’t so dumb after all. Did you know that Caitrin says you and Andy are the best thing that has happened to me lately?”

“Why? Because we knocked on Warrick Gates’ head and asked if Admiral Gates was still at home?”

Gates spit up his coffee, “That’s exactly what she said!”

* * *
After a long session where Chris Webb had again left his head spinning, Warrick was trying to wrap up when a voice came from the doorway.

“I see that the younger Webb brother has left mathematical confusion in his wake yet again. Someway we must harness that engine of creative thought and that is why I am here to speak to you.” The low but carrying tones of Robert Mickelson filled the room.

“I am afraid,” Warrick said, “that I must ask how you got down here? This is supposed to be one of the most secure facilities that Webb and Davis could build.”

“Yes, but young Andrew builds to the security handed to him by his fathers and my position is on that list. It is well that Linda Webb has taken over the engine that is Webb Enterprises and allowed me to fade into the background as the Chancellor of Travis Central University. The head of Webb and the coordinator of the Colonial Organization should never be the same person. That is a bullet we dodged.”

“What,” Warrick asked in a stunned tone, “is the Colonial Organization?”

“We are a group who for 104 years have gathered and disseminated information to people whom we thought needed it. We were formed by William Webb, Carlton Davis and David Edwards during the second day of the original survey of a planet that would later be called New Texas. They saw the threat of the Redmond faction even back then.

“Old William who was the inventor of the Reactionless Drive by the way, referred to us in terms of a series of novels by the old master Isaac Asimov. He said we were to be ‘The Second Foundation’.

“We gather and analyze information and feed it to people who we think need it, we never act. We have members in the Federated Government and on all Colonies.

“By the fact that we never act, we have escaped the notice of every Master Spy in all the systems for all these years; although Carling and Saunders do have us worried.”

“What does all of this mean to me?”

“We need you to be our conduit to what is going to be the stream of innovation coming out of the mind of Christopher Webb. He is the true descendant of William Webb and has a visceral understanding of our Technology that has not been seen in over a hundred years. How the FG was stupid enough to let him and his brother wind up out here is beyond our comprehension. Be that as it may, we need to spread the data that will pour from him to the people that can use it. We need you to be that filter.”

“I think I understand, even if it is a bit from out of left field. So, what’s in it for me?”
Robert handed him a small memory unit, “Look at this picture. That is Joachim Minters who runs a flitter repair shop on New Carolina.”

“Bullshit,” Warrick exclaimed, “that is David McCallister and he is dead. I was a pallbearer at his funeral.”

“Yet Admiral, that picture was taken on New Carolina three weeks ago. Joachim Minters is Commander David McCallister and alive and well on New Carolina. We thought that might be of some interest to you.”

Warrick stared at the photo for several long moments and felt himself make yet another mental shift. “OK, I will be your conduit. God only knows you have given me my price. David is simply the best Fleet Engineer who ever lived.”

“Good, by the way. I was here to discuss the new Oceanographic Deep Search Program, which by the way is approved. Have a nice day Admiral!”

* * *
Harriet Fletcher, the Progressive Leader, played her role to perfection, award winning if only she knew it. Rob Williams made a point of resisting her demands to set up an observation station close to the system’s central binary pair, and then gave in with little grace. “How do I score this Harriet?” he asked upon concession. “As one for the ‘Children’, or for Women, Widows and the Homeless?”

“That’s just like you,” Harriet said, “always talking in terms of winning and losing instead of right and wrong. It just stands to reason a person can see more when close up than far away. And that has to hold for astronomers too. And since they are some of the few scientists we are permitted to train without oversight, you should be happy rather than complain about the expense.”

“And one more thing Mr. President! Just because one of your supporters, Lincoln Ditmars, will be providing the transportation, doesn’t mean he gets a free ride on his cost proposals. Part of the problem with your current coalition is that they let you insure that no matter how noble the purpose, some cash always sticks to your supporters’ hands.”

“If I thought you were capable of being serious, I would take offense Mrs. Minority Leader! But even you should be able to see that only the freighters Ditmars uses to haul fuel around the belt here have enough tankage to handle the much longer flights involved here. Now if you could convince out friends in the Federation to supply transport with their reactionless drive ships we could do this for half the money.”

“Jamil M’butu fully sees the need for this program but as he says, this is our problem not the Federation’s. I am surprised you would run for help on something so vital for out future as learning more about stars we circle, so integral to our lives and destinies. And furthermore . . .”

Harriet blathered on but Rob, tuning her out, thought his own thoughts and saying only what was required finally ended the session on autopilot. Linc Ditmars was certainly scanning the News Broadcasts for the vote results, but he was going to have to hammer out a transportation and probably a construction contract, so they would have time to talk soon enough.

Rob went back to his office and spent a couple of hours on other things before going home. The rest of the government still had to function if he was to stay in charge long enough for this part of the long-term plan to happen. He would send a message to Linc tomorrow and get a cost estimate for the final budget vote. He didn’t need to talk to Hank or Emmet at Plans and Intent’s in order to figure Harriet was already calling political cronies and tame academics, to spread the word and the promise of grant monies to reap the maximum political benefit from her victory.

“Dad, I don’t like Sally having anything to do with this.” Chuck Ditmars said to his father while the two of them worked up the preliminary details for mounting the expedition to Velorum A and B.

“She’s an adult, twenty-three, free, white, and single. A damn fine pilot and she already knows part of the plan. Do you want to be the one to tell her this is too dangerous for a girl to be involved with?” Chuck remained mute, not saying anything but with a defeated look on his face. “I didn’t think so. Look at it this way son. We are going to do this, and if we get caught it isn’t going to make a whit of difference how much or little any of us are involved. The price will be the same. I want to earn my reward whatever it is. Sally deserves the same and so do you. So let’s continue here so we can have some numbers ready.”

“Well it’s very obvious that either of our large tankers are the only vehicles in the system to supply this kind of operation. That limiting factor gives us a chance to set up the storage tanks we want to build anyway, and put them in plain sight rather than try and hide them.”

“Yes that will help. Even though Mrs. Fletcher will hate this at first, building some extra tankage where we finally put the observation station will mean that transportation options are opened up for all of the local ship owners. I assume we will set up the station on one of Velorum’s mid-distant planetary moons, provided we find one suitable. That’s a one way distance of seventy-five AU fifteen times greater than most any trip we make out here around Vela.“

“Right so even after we build the station and the tanks Ditmar’s Mining Ltd. still has to make the trips to keep them full. In the long run that gives us more trips to the scientific observation post than if we just did all the supply ourselves. A lot of little cargoes are much less efficient than a few large ones.”

“Absolutely, I suspect that Rob Williams will argue that exact point. But Fletcher is going to have to oppose him. She is going to look at this as a jobs program so she will need to get as many of her supporters involved as possible. And this is one way, probably the only way, she can do it.”

At least initially, Chuck began, “People need to know we will need to handle all of the tank construction but really can’t even begin to estimate the cost until we know exactly where the station is located. That means getting an expedition mounted to do a real survey of the space and planets and moons circling A and B. That’s something we should have done fifty or a hundred years ago. We have only medium fair long distance views. Looking inwards towards those two bright stars makes things tough and we haven’t funded a probe in decades.”

“I see you already have some numbers written in,” his father said.

“Wasn’t too hard. Except for the time involved this isn’t much different from taking a load of fuel to the other side of the belt. We run everything else on a cost plus basis and let Williams and Fletcher fight out the details of who supplies and how many smaller ships come with us. I figure two is enough but that’s not really our problem. We will have the tanker’s boat for any exploration we want to do and I have that covered.”

“Yes, very simple and no one can accuse us of asking for too much. Have it prepared for a final review and we will send it off as soon as the official request for quotation arrives. I figure that will comes in later today.”

As predicted the message with quotation came in a few hours later. Chuck had his end of the numbers firmed up but it looked like they were going to be involved with the observation station’s base constriction in addition to providing transport

“We should probably go to Chris and Webb Enterprises for a little help in design and construction. Hard to do much more than use the first trip to supply some extra structural metals and a small outside ship habitat until we get our first look see. We will need some atmosphere recycling equipment and have a need docking and servicing gear and they do that well. But how can we price any of that sort of thing till we see the lay of the land?”

Chuck was puzzled and Link found it easy to understand why. Even though he knew better, Chuck still wanted to cover too much ground in the initial proposal and keep the cost down at the same time so as not to frighten away the customer. But this was one customer who wouldn’t be scared.

“Son, this proposal works well for a first go around. We have what we want, the tanks, and are providing a start for what Fletcher wants in the habitat for her scientists. Just throw in some suitable notation, that the specification and design for the scientific part of the station will by necessity, affect the overall scope of the tankage and other construction and what we propose herein is subject to modification etc.and so on.”

“Yeah—I can see that’s best. We should be sending a first team out to do some close up examination of Velorum’s inner system. From the old records there are three likely places to site a base. And knowing whether the science gets done in free fall or a body with some gravity changes the scope of that part of the problem.”

“Fletcher’s tame scientists will have no trouble seeing that. I guess it might be unfair of me to talk about them that way but I am going to be suspicious of anyone involved from here on in. We need this to work if only as a first step.”

“I’ll have the final version to sign and send in an hour.”

“You take care of it Chuck. I have some letters to write and I need to talk to your mother.”

Linc suited up and went outside for a walk across the airless moon outside the Ditmar’s Headquarters Building, moving up the fractured trail to the top of a low rise, the only high spot in the area. He saw the burnished cross marking his wife’s grave and turned for a moment towards the distant twin suns central to the New Texas system before turning back to the marker. The two close together spots of light caused his eyes to water. That and his thoughts.

“I told you I would raise them right and keep them both from harm. But dear, it’s out of my hands now. If you were here maybe things would be different—but I don’t think so. Sally and Chuck pay attention but they make their own choices and if I held on any tighter they would slip from my grasp and I fear I would lose them both. And that would never do. Whatever the future holds they will make a part of it their own like you and I did. I’ll just sit here a spell, and you can go right ahead cry if you must, and then tell me anything you want. I always hear you.”

Sally Ditmars was glad to be on board and more than happy she wasn’t the captain of the massive tanker doing double duty as a transport. She would end up in charge of this ship or one like her but that would come in time. Now it meant she was in charge of the launch and doing some real piloting. The Maggie D. was orbiting ten planetary diameters above the atmospheric fringe of the ammonia seas of Nimbus, the second of three planets that circled both of Velorum’s signature stars, and the one with the most regular orbit. At one time there must have been others but the constant play of gravitational geometry by the A class central stars had either swallowed them up or tossed them away to escape or into orbits that took thousands of years for every close approach.

She was alone in the Maggie’s launch monitoring the data being sent back to captive audience on board the larger ship. It was going to take a few more hours for the Donovan, the smaller of the two longer range insystem ships that came on the expedition to top off her tanks and head further inwards, and even longer for the ancient Kiwi to leave and examine the possibility further out. The Kiwi’s crew was busy troubleshooting some redundancy errors in the ships control system, something they had lots of practice doing on the sixty years old vessel. She would probably be ready to go in a day, give or take.

Each of those ships would complete a preliminary examination of their slated planet and system and the data gathered, and reports compiled, sent back to the scientific team staying on the Maggie D. Sally had a feeling that those other trips would turn out to be a waste of time. With eleven moons and a near circular orbit, Nimbus was sure to provide a good location for the observation station.

Moons one and two circling Nimbus were small and orbited in close. Moon three was Sally’s first target. She checked the navigation display one last time while waiting for the engines to shut down. That was it. On course, and everything in the green. She leaned back in her acceleration couch for a nap. The ship would wake her upon approach if she overslept. A few days in orbit around M-3 with nothing unusual to show and Sally was off to her next target.

One month later the decision was made and Nimbus, M-5, came in first. It wasn’t close and there was no debate. The head of the science part of the mission had the honor of bestowing a name and chose Spindle Top for obscure historical reasons. At least they were obscure to Sally; what need had she ever had to learn about the pre-fusion hydrocarbon industrial age back on Earth?

Spindle Top had oil— pools of it, lakes of it, even one body that could be called an ocean of it! Produced by some kind of a geothermal process maintained by the tidal forces caused by the two large nearby suns the liquid built up underground and when the pressure became to great to be contained burst forth in an eruption that could be volcanic in scope. Though that must be a relatively rare situation as only past evidence of such eruptions showed on the moons surface. There were however dozens of smaller geyser like spouts erupting on a regular basis.

Communications back to New Texas were slow, the near six billion miles separating them from home meant even at light speed the signals took almost eighteen hours for a round trip. Still the sense of excitement was obvious in both directions. This find would cause huge changes in the economy of New Texas, large enough to make interference by the Federation Government a distinct possibility. That needed dealing with at once.

* * *
Have you had any conversations with Jamil M’butu since the ships left for Nemesis Hank?” Robert Williams asked his director of Plans and Intents. He called me about the oil find, I think looking to make a deal. I’d like to know how much he wants before I talk to him and that is your department.

“No surprise he knows, and no I haven’t talked to him but once since getting back from Earth. We talked about my meeting with his father and not much else. I don’t think it a good idea that I approach him now either. For all of his vices, stupidity isn’t one of them. He might wonder why P&I was interested in him and start to wonder what we might be up to. He is capable of figuring out there was more to setting up the observation station than just soothing the political feelings of the Progressives. I think he is just looking to make a profit. But I am not going to make any attempt to contact him. I think you will have to do that Rob. And if I get dragged in, then it won’t set off any alarms.”

“Oil. . . They used to call it ‘Black Gold’ before the Warmers started calling it ‘Black Death’. Jamil and Rob were seated at Liza Morgan’s. M’butu had two guards in the room and one at each of the buildings entrances, there were no weapons inside and none would be brought in. Other than that business was as usual. M’butu spent enough time here that the precautions were a regular experience for the usual customers and they thought nothing of it. Liza herself, alerted to M’butu’s presence was behind the bar and pouting the drinks herself. This was something she rarely did, but something M’butu expected.

“Yeah the Warmers had it half right. Or maybe just a quarter. All those greenhouse gases they complained so much about were just holding off the ice. The fact that as much as they postured, no government could even come close to limiting CO-2, staved off the inevitable another fifty years, till the oil ran out. And then with the Arabs flush with so much cash and building the nuclear plants to hold on to their control of the worlds energy supplies, no one in the West had the gumption to invest in coal to take up the slack.”

Jamil smiled broadly. “Yes such an unpleasant time for the West. I of course view it as payback for years of oppression, just as I was taught.” He continued to smile and added, “Though I must admit without the benefit of the changed climate, and the fact that so little industrialization in the previous century left the African continent with so much of the remaining easily exploitable mineral wealth on the planet, I wouldn’t be sitting here right now.”

“That and the fact the Arab’s, after investing so much in Africa, fought it out to a stalemate with the old USA, weakening them both to the point of breaking in the process,” Rob said.

“Forgive me if I shed no tears. I quite approve of the result. But let us discuss the new oil your explorers have found. I had my economic team run some numbers and with oceans of oil ready to load and ship as a power source, even on Earth, not to mention the other industrial uses, there is going to be a boom that will make even the old Arabian cartel look small. I am wondering if perhaps our agreement to let the colonies get more involved with, and handle most inter-system shipping might need some modification due to the strategic nature of the new find.”

“I too have given it some thought Jamil. But I see it as a plus in all areas for all parties concerned.”

“Do continue.”

“Naturally the Federation will control the transit points and between system jump-ships. But to expand the Colonies insystem transport systems will go much faster if driven by experienced people with a profit motive behind them. More forward progress with a carrot than a stick. I understand the suitable taxes will be levied, how else to fund the ship building program even Earth will need for reactionless drive vessels to keep up with demand. Even after that a shrewd man should still be able to do nicely for himself.”

“That is very true Robert. Perhaps you might go into your own feelings on how shrewd men might profit. I am sure to find them interesting.”

By the time they left Liza’s, Rob was sure that a deal was possible and it was just a matter of detail. It was going to cost, there were more Federation officials than just Jamil that would need to be dealt with. But ultimately it was the oil paying for every thing, and if they didn’t make any profit it was still the perfect cover for the shipbuilding and infrastructure expansion they had wanted from the beginning. Even, perhaps especially, in the Colonies, new fortunes would be made and others expanded. It almost made him want to leave government and try for his own slice of the pie. But, as one time in history others had done, he had pledged his sacred honor, and there was no going back.

* * *
Today’s meeting was at Andy Webb’s place. The cover was perfect, the kids had a four team round robin Baseball Tournament going, which all of the females were happily running. The core group was down in the vault which housed Andy’s rapidly developing electronics labs.

“So, Andy how did the Truscott trip go?” Davis asked.

“Better than expected, Paul is on track, just a little confused. Shit, I should have seen his reason coming; Dumb Ass on me. The New Masada leg seems to be OK. Chris you ready to run out to Kie, that’s the second leg out of here?”

“Sure, but why me?”

“I think you can figure out why once you are out there. The key is that I cannot go, too much to do here. We are going to have to negotiate with Ditmars to plan for and train up crews for the out-system extraction plants for fuel. We have to get with Edwards to plan for and train up the Asteroid mining in the out-systems. And poor old Walt here has to figure out how to train up the Planetary Mining and construction.

“Me, I just have to figure out a way to turn over our Earth Intel to Hank Carling. I think he’s going to shit a brick when he realizes that we make about 90% of the FG’s computers. Every one of them has a back door that we built in. He’s going to be able to read their mail.

“Chris, go out to Kie and find us a place to build these damn things. We will be back here getting the machine in place to make it work.”

Walt chimed in with, “One question, why is it that every damn thing you do seems to make credits for somebody?”

“Maybe because we ain’t a Government!”

***
Warrick came into this meeting a little more cheerful than normal, this one was a least in the open. If open could be described to two layers deep in the three layer Faraday Cage, that Andy had built around his production room to “Reduce problems with Bad Chip Production” which, was a wonderful public way to build a black hole right in the middle of downtown Travis.

Andy had his usual lop-sided grin, “Pour yourself one Warrick and drag up a chair. All we have to do to start Hull construction for your new subs and other things is sign the contract. We can’t talk to the Ditmars until next month when one is going to come down.

“They need to talk to us about Refining Controls and some other stuff that Chris will handle. Damn but they found one shit load of petroleum. Talk about a nice handy diversion for the FG, Earth is going be screaming for that Black Gold!”

Warrick was puzzled, “I would think that would put more attention on New Texas, why would we want that?”

“Because it’s at the wrong place that’s why. Earth is going to put everything they have into getting that stuff. Willing to bet that they won’t demand we start building tankers so their FD ships will have a faster turn around time?”

“Andy, I would not touch that bet with a ten foot pole! What a cover for a busy shipyard and it’s on their demand. I can’t help it, I love it. But, to get serious I need to run out to New Carolina so I will be gone for a while. I have a line on a possible Fleet Engineer.”

“Need some cover for the trip? It would sure save me a trip.”

“I guess it can’t hurt, what do you need?”

Andy passed over a data chip, “Go recruit this guy to teach at Travis Central?”

Warrick popped the chip into his comm and read, “OK, Jeffry T. Bates Mathematics and Quantum Physics. Looks like he’s underpaid as hell, so it should be easy. Why him?”

“Well, first he can make Chris’s head hurt in both fields. More importantly he has something that he would only give to a Webb. Our distant Grandfather Wild Bill Webb’s original math for the Reactionless Drive.”

Warrick did his best to keep his jaw from bouncing off of the floor. “What? According to what I learned the original math died with William Webb on his ship that blew up!”

“Yep, right after the Redmond’s got a bootleg copy and sabotaged his ship. Warrick, this feud goes deep and it goes long!”

Warrick knew he was in friendly space but Andy’s eyes did not show it. This was the first time that he had seen would come to be known as the Webb Eyes. “No problem Andy, I’ll bring him back. Hopefully I will bring mine with him?”

“All I can ask buddy, all I can ask!”

***
Andy was finishing up one of the all night sessions that had become all to frequent. All he wanted to do was get out to the house for a long weekend, when a knock came at the door. The portal then cracked open with the face of Greg Galaz.

“Sorry to bother you Boss, but Cisco bring bad news. We have a security problem!”

“Of course what else, sit down Pendejo and give me the bad news!”

“Well one of the programmers on the MBE line knows more than he is letting on. He got the specs for the new experimental chips we are doing the short run on for Chris and twigged what they really are. Turns out he is a FG mole and called for a meet with his handler for tomorrow night.”

“Exactly how do we know this and how does a Line Programmer know that much abut Quantum Physics. Never mind he’s a Spy, how did we find him?”

“Thank God for Ric’s paranoia, his cut-out is one of our doubles. Meaning his handler don’t know shit yet and won’t if this gets handled.”

“Where did he ask for the meet?”

“Are you ready for this, in the Red Light District where M’butu’s taking the FG staff for a promotion party for one of his staff members. Perfect place for our boy to do a brush pass and because His Highness is there, the surveillance will be shut off!”

“Give me the ID data on this punk and it will be taken care of.”

Greg recognized that flat cold stare and just handed across the data unit!

The following night Greg walked into the dedication Ceremony for the new Civic Center to see Andy beside his Mom. He fidgeted for at least fifteen minutes before he could get close enough to ask, “I thought you said you would handle our problem?”

“No Greg, I said it would be handled!”

In the Red Light District Zuntov Muroskivy was wondering how the tall well endowed Redheaded Hooker had decided to push on him. Of course she was a hooker, what other type of Female would work this sector. He really did not care, he had two hours to kill, might as well get in some fun while the cameras were off. Slipping a Hundred Credit note to the barkeep, he got the key to one of the cribs with a one hour time frame.

Freely feeling up the hooker, he moved the pair to the back and opened the door, moving into the room, he never felt the stiletto blade that went between the C-2 and C-3 vertebrae. The well-endowed Female was moving before the body hit the floor. Slapping open a back door very few even knew existed, she was into the adjoining building via a hidden corridor.

Ripping the wig off of her head and the slinky clothes off, she moved into the shower of the small apartment. She had to get that grimy, dirty filth off of her. Exiting the shower with a skin tone several shades different, she pulled on her normal clothes. Moving through another access way she took an elevator to street level, she walked out into a mid-level shopping area.

Walking down the street she stopped at a shop that had a reputation for Custom Jewelry and proceeded to enter into a haggling session. They had been at it for less than 10 minutes when FG Security busted in the door.

“Freeze,” barked the cold voice.

The tall willowy Blonde turned slowly, “Can I help you Sir?”

The FG Security Commander was stunned by the face of Muriel Webb, one of the ten or fifteen people he was directed not to piss off.

“Oh, sorry Ma’am! I am looking for a suspect in a homicide. She is supposed to be a Redheaded Female, who quite frankly does not meet your description Ma’am.”

“I should hope so, my job is normally to save lives,” She said with a smile that would not have melted Butter in her mouth. “Can we be of any assistance, Officer?”

“No Ma’am, we will keep searching.”

The counter clerk wrapped up her purchases and took the large shopping bag from her. Moving into the street Muriel normally keyed her Comm, “Sweetheart, I coming over. Found just what I was looking for.”

On the other end of the call was simply a cold smile. “Hey Greg, it’s a done deal”

***
Christopher stared out the view port of a rustic Planetary Shuttle and was awed by what he was about to do. He had come to the planet Kie to offer its inhabitants something that Earth had tried to keep from their Ancestors for centuries.

The settlers of Kie had gone back to their roots and revived the Code of Bushido, but with some major changes. Their current version was quite similar to the Scots-Irish Code of Honor, but was something he did not fully comprehend. Staring at his escorts, he was sure that he was confused beyond his simple comprehension.

He had never seen such protocol; this straightforward meeting with Hiroshi Yangtze the Prime Minister should have been as simple as the day was long. He was here as a Financial Factor for Webb Enterprises, that should not have caused this level of Military Protocol.

Dear God but Andy was right, Police they might call them but an Army they were.

He was stunned by the reception he got. The Prime Minister Himself was there ready to talk simple monetary crap. Also, the Chief of Police for the planet who like every other cop he had seen was decidedly mixed American blood.

The Prime Minister wasted no time in stating the obvious, “I have to assume you are here because we are at the end of our particular Transit Chain? The rumors are that Webb Enterprises intend to start building at the ends of the chains!”

“That is quite correct Mr. Yangtze; we firmly believe that encouraging growth at the ends of the chain will feed back upstream to the intervening chain. Credit flowing though the middle systems can not hurt.”

“Please it’s Hiroshi, Christopher. My security team is good enough to inform me that I am talking to in effect the War Prince of Clan Webb, who could buy my planet out of petty cash. I am not at all upset by that, I am most interested in what you plan to offer.”

“Well to start with we are going to contract with the Ditmars combine to build an extraction station around your gas giant and train your people to run it. Second, we plan to build a shipyard and will need to train your people to build the in-system ships as well as crew them. Thus, getting the Earth ships out of your in-system traffic. After that we can discuss some other building projects.”

“In other words Christopher, you intend to bring my poor backwards planet up to a potential industrial powerhouse. Even if we are at the end of the Transit Chain, there must be some other reason why you would expend this effort and resources.”

“I must first ask Hiroshi, are you in for this?

“I would be a fool not to be, surely that is obvious!”

“Some people Hiroshi are afraid of change as well as afraid of the FG!”

The young looking Police Officer wearing the rank tabs of a Military Major replied, “Quite frankly, fuck the FG.”

Hiroshi merely nodded towards the young Major, “He speaks for my planet Christopher!”

Chris merely stared at the roof as he asked the universe “Why Oh Why Oh Brother did you send me?”

Out loud he replied calmly, “Because the Senior FG Inspector in your system is an Impostor. His cover is perfect and he is highly trusted by the FG. He is a former Colonial Soldier who was gravely injured at the same time as a Senior FG official. The FG official died and he assumed his identity. After the required surgery to repair his facial damage there was no way to tie him to his original appearance. Someone, I do not know who, managed to change his DNA records. His emotional ties to New Texas are impeccable and you would not believe what he has given up to maintain this cover.

“He is in fact loyal to Webb and New Texas. Here we can build stuff that will scare the hell out of the FG”

Both Kie residents asked at once, “Like what?”

Chris moved to the meeting rooms projector and attached his PDA to it. Selecting Warrick’s design file he calmly stated, “Like this Gentlemen.”

It was the Major who replied, “Lieutenant Colonel Webb, what may the descendants of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team do for you?”

“You can crew one of the twenty-four of these we plan to build. We tentatively plan to name one of them ‘Yamato’.”

The Major and the Prime Minister stared at each other for a moment and replied as one, “Go For Broke.”

To Be Continued.

Page Author | OldDog November 9th, 2008