April 3: The Middle of Nowhere (16 page)

* * *

The controller at ISSII looked more concerned than frightened. He muted his audio and was talking excitedly with someone. They all stopped talking anticipating something from him even before he came back.

"Security has arrived at the emergency lock for the boom," the ISSII controller announced. "They tell us all the Chinese soldiers were unable to gain access to the station and are trapped in the boom. Security is dispatching an ambulance to the boom, but ETA is three minutes and it appears all of them stripped their suit tanks off when they abandoned the
Tranquility
. Some of the first to surrender their tanks and jump for the station are past the twelve minute mark. It's doubtful they can still be conscious and the ambulance will arrive right at the limit for saving even the late comers."

"What's the problem with the lock?" Dave asked them. "Did it get damaged in the decompression?"

"The
problem
is the crewman from
Eddie's Rascal
, your Mr. Waldecker, regarded the Chinese as a continuing threat. He insists they were armed and pursuing him after assaulting his crewmen, so he bottled the first two in the lock by smashing the controls and then shot them through the hatch before they could work the manual valves and pressurize it."

"Well, one certainly could see his point," Jon allowed. "All the evidence before his eyes was they were intent on theft and kidnapping, if not outright murder. I don't think I'd have let them follow me through that lock either if they were still armed. I'd ask you to allow us to take custody of our citizen so we can determine if there was a crime or if it was self defense."

"He insists it's war," the controller said. "I don't know if he can speak for Home, but he's used the word several times."

"The full electorate has to declare war for Home," Jeff jumped in quickly to explain. "However we have a different system here. There is nothing in our law keeping Thomas Waldecker from unilaterally declaring war on the People's Republic of China. The nation has not taken that right from the sovereign people. And there are no restrictions on arms so the right has - bite," he said with a unfriendly smile. "He may simply be distraught, but when he has had time to compose himself from his shock you might ask him if that is his considered intent."

"That's crazy. What can one person do against a huge country?" The face of the Earthside controller said he agreed, but he didn't comment.

"I'm not sure," Jeff allowed. "I may find out however, if the Chinese do not release the
Eddie's Rascal
I may have no other choice myself. Earthside Control, could you bring in whatever agency is your liaison to the Chinese government?"

"I have a line to the CAAC. They are what you'd think of as China Local. They control all air traffic and anything coming sub-orbital. I'm bringing him in."

Another window opened. There were so many open now the display switched to enlarging whichever one was actively speaking. The person answering was in a suit and without spex or even earphones, but behind him were active controllers at work stations.

"CAAC - Central, how may I help you," he asked visibly perplexed at the crowd on his screen.

"Earth Control here. We have a contact request involving the heavenly vessel
The Moment of Tranquility
. The other on screen are local controllers and the owners of
Eddie's Rascal
 which is involved with
The Tranquility
."

A hand went out to an unseen keyboard below the camera view. "
The Tranquility
is an Army vessel. The CAAC does not direct military vessels. They tell us where they shall move and we direct civilian traffic to yield to them. I suggest you contact The People's Army for anything involving her."

"Do you have a contact person for the Army?" Earth Local asked.

"Certainly," he dropped a text box on the Earth Control screen and dropped out of the circuit before he could be asked to stay.

"Home, we have a report from ISSII security. The ambulance says there is one survivor among the Chinese. They are standing off waiting for security to arrive, because he pointed his weapon at them when they approached, so they fear for their safety. They can't get past him to check for survivors inside the boom. A count from the camera of those entering was seventeen however."

"Hey ISSII, still think our boy was delusional to think the Chinese a threat?" Jon asked.

"That is strange to threaten an ambulance with lights and rescue symbols," he admitted.

"Strange? It's frigging nuts."

"Why don't I contact this address the CAAC left us?" Earth Local suggested. "I don't want to click on it and have them come in to the middle of a discussion between us they wouldn't understand. Are you gentlemen ready to address him instead of each other?"

"Yeah, I can talk to ISSII later," Jon agreed. ISSII just Earth-nodded an agreement.

The officer was older than they were used to seeing with Life Extension Therapy so common now. He had a perfect poker face and enough medals on his jacket that they should have tipped him on his face from the weight.

"Sir, I'm Jonathan Gilmore of Earth Control who is affiliated with your CAAC. We were directed to take any questions about Chinese military traffic to you." The fellow didn't offer his identity in return. The older gentleman just barely dipped his head in acknowledgment.

"Which of you wants to speak for Home?" Gilmore asked the assembly.

"I speak for myself," Jeff informed him. "Jon can speak for Home Militia if he wishes. Sir, your vessel
The Moment of Tranquility
has taken my associate's vessel
Eddie's Rascal
on board by force of arms and removed it from the Second International Space Station. It contains proprietary technology that I'm unwilling to share and I must insist it be released in Earth orbit for us to recover or I will have to commit to its destruction."

"Yes, I'm aware of the seizure. The People have an interest in this technology because it was developed by the infamous Dr. Nam-Kha. She has illegally removed herself and thus stolen the benefit of her education from the People. This is merely a start to setting matters right. The full resolution of the matter will only be fully satisfactory when she is apprehended and sentenced to reeducation and some service of restitution to the people for her errors. You will not be permitted to interfere with its recovery." The delivery was dead-pan.

"She is my step-mum. I will show her an exact recording of your words," Jeff promised. "I'm sorry you reject my request. There will be bloodshed and treasure ruined for no reason now.  If you refuse I will make war upon the People's Republic to at least the extent needed to remove the
Eddie's Rascal
from your hands."

"You are a young fool," the officer said with the slightest smile. "Do you have anything to say to me?" he asked Jon by simply looking directly at him with the same mocking smile. The software read his gaze and directed it properly. Nobody had introduced Jon. The man obviously knew him already.

"No, it seems Mr. Singh feels he can settle his own disputes. I doubt that my fellow citizens would appreciate me involving them uninvited."

"With more years you display deeper wisdom," he said. The window closed with no apparent signal on his part.

"Nuts, you are all frigging totally nuts over there," the controller from ISSII swore. "Oh crap," he added and took a deep breath. "ISSII security reports when their scooter arrived where the ambulance was holding position, the surviving Chinese soldier opened his face plate and committed suicide."

"Looks like you have a few nuts over there too," Dave said shaking his head.

Chapter 12

"I have no idea what kind of yield my device has," Jeff explained his dilemma to his mum, upset and unhappy.  "I was going to send one copy and a robot ship around the other side of the sun and test it secretly. I just ran out of time and deployed them. I'd hoped they wouldn't
push
me like this."

She'd heard the entire story before but patiently listened. He wasn't telling her so much as laying it all out to in front of them to examine again and see if there wasn't some solution they hadn't found before to avoid war.

"What does it really matter?" she asked. "It's big enough to vaporize the
Eddie's Rascal
if it was a technical dud and only yielded ten kilotons. Their main spaceport is way out in the middle of nowhere in the desert for security. If they're treating us like this cutting their launch capacity down a notch is a good idea. If it turns out to have a ten megaton yield and takes out the whole launch complex
good
, they asked for it. Maybe they will learn to keep hands off."

"I figured over fifty megaton just from the hydrogen reaction. If you have a cascade of reactions like you thought possible it will be higher."

"So you'll vaporize the target and a few hundred square kilometers of empty dessert instead of fifty. So what?"

"We're putting more surveillance in place and I'll have a tiny, stealthed, geostationary eye above Jiuquan in six hours. That's sooner than they can transfer to a whole ship and drop the
Eddie's Rascal
from orbit in any case."

"Jeff?"

"Yes mum?"

"You do have some more warheads made up don't you?"

"Four more in reentry vehicles. One reserved for Beijing I think. But what if they are still willing to fight after I drop all five on them?"

"You aren't isolated in their attention boy. Might I remind you it was my defection the official cited as reason for their piracy? I've known it might come down to this before I ever came to M3. I made my own plans to deal with the People's Republic dear. I have an interest here and indeed reserve the right to act independently," she said with an ugly smile.

Jeff just stared at her mouth hanging open. It wasn't what she'd said but the level of anger on her face. She had intimated this before, but not shown such anger. He suddenly closed his mouth and reevaluated his world in depth. There are ways to grow up a little at a time and then there are things that change you wholesale in seconds. This was the latter and he suddenly felt different and much sadder and resigned to the world being foolish beyond his fixing. If China counted them as nothing and had no fear despite his warning it wasn't his job to convince them. Once he actually
demonstrated
why they should care it would be too late.

"Thank you Mum. I hope they don't push it that far, but I don't have a whole lot of confidence in them doing the right thing."

* * *

"No idea at all where it is?" Jeff asked the traffic controller, Marion. He was also a member of Home's militia, but off duty for anything right now and speaking to Jeff only as a friend. "I queried three hundred and seventeen objects in orbit big enough to harbor the hull or shadow it. That's assuming they didn't cut it in sections or completely dismantle it to take it down in pieces. They could decide to work on the really interesting parts in orbit. We were blind to it behind the Earth for hours. There was no Home registered vessel in line of sight and when the Howard's Line courier returns from Mitsubishi II we'll be blind to the other side for another several hours."

"My Mum assured me they'll take it home. They won't feel it is secure until it is on their territory and they wouldn't let subordinates do something as important as disassembling the ship without lots of political officers to look over their shoulders and keep them honest."

"Then all you can do is watch the East Wind facility in Jiuquan. They could drop it on almost any military airfield with a long enough runway, but that's where all their deep security space work is and the approach over the Gobi desert is secure in case you have a lander go down short. You can keep a real time watch on them using commercial services, or position your own cam. I wouldn't assume they will have to lift a ship to bring it down. They may divert something already up and transfer it."

"Okay, thanks Marion. They must not have tried to open a generator. I wish they had. That would take care of the whole matter. I suspect they know now from the loss of the
Home Boy
that they are booby trapped. They will cut the generators out and separate them widely to work on each. Probably the same with the compensators until they get at least one open. I want to hit them within minutes of being on the ground before they can disperse the pieces to get open and study. I see no possibility they will back down. If I see them land that ship I'm going to destroy it on the ground to keep the tech from them. They may lump Home in with me and retaliate. If you have people here you might consider evacuating them."

"Why do you expect them to retaliate? Busting your ship up shouldn't be that big a deal to get them all excited."

"It's going to take out everything around the ship too," Jeff explained. At Marion's quizzical look he added. "For quite a distance around it, like maybe the whole base. And if they decide to get pissy about it with me I am prepared to systematically bombard the shit out of the People's Republic of China," he added, plainly.

Louis looked alarmed for the first time. "My wife has folks in Scotland. I think it's a good time for her and the kids to visit. How fast should I get them moving?"

"I'd do it today, tomorrow for sure if there are connections," Jeff admitted. "I guess I better talk to Jon about this too. Other folks might want to evacuate too, wouldn't they?"

"Talk to him and maybe even do an all addy com announcement," Marion suggested.

Jon agreed with Marion. "It's just the correct thing to do to make a public announcement if you feel folks are at risk." He refused to compose it or do it for Jeff however.

April's pad chimed and she was mildly surprised. There were few people who could make her pad do a single chime and they had to specifically tag their message as urgent. When she saw it was a system wide message she was even more alarmed. Anyone could do an all addy broadcast on their net, but people were very good about not abusing it. There had only been two all system broadcasts since the war, one over a missing seven year old and one when an off station visitor turned out to have an active case of nasty drug resistant TB. The screen showed text and she read: