It's Hell To Choose (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 9) (6 page)

>>MyNam3isADAM - Yes.

>>luckyu11 - One second, let me confirm with our group.

>>ki55mia55 - We’re in.

>>Ih8tuGeorge - Votes done, we are in.

>>luckyu11 - 100% on yes’s. Our group is in. We are bringing 32 of us from across Europe. When a couple of others find out who we are going after, I bet it grows.

>>MyNam3isADAM - Then welcome to ADAM’s Revolution.

West Coast - USA

“Right now, I have responsibility for almost 200,000 people on my payroll.” CEO Sean Truitt spoke across the table from his head of Aerospace, Javier Fernandez. The two men were in an exclusive area of the cafeteria that was soundproof and actually a Faraday cage, blocking all communications in and out.

“So tell me again,” Sean went on as he cut into his steak. “Why the four billion in R&D we spent last fiscal year was inadequate to even understand their technology, much less copy it?” He put the piece of steak in his mouth.

Javier was annoyed. His ‘best and brightest’ didn’t have anything for him. In fact, one of the little pricks quit before he could fire him. If it weren't for the HR benefits he would have had to pay, he would have told Jeovanni you can’t resign from a job you had been fired from.

“I don’t have an answer to that.” Javier replied, “I’ve been on their asses for two weeks, and we still have nothing to go on. One guy has been sacked.” No need to be too exact on sacked or quit, “and the others live at the job right now. Still, for all of that we have nothing” he finished.

A few choices went through Sean’s mind. He could sack Javier right now, but that wouldn’t get him anything, and the company was doing well. It wasn’t like this same discussion wasn’t happening all over the world with other bosses. If there was any consolation, it was in the rumor mill that no one knows how TBQ is doing what they are doing.

The industry reports have all sorts of guesses from high-level theoreticians spouting a variety of ideas. The best yet was from a quack using quantum theory to pass through another dimension siphoning energy.

Idiot.

Sean leaned a little forward, looking into Javier’s face and lowered his voice. “I don’t care what you have to do to figure it out. I don’t care if you hire more, fire more, hack it, attack it, or steal it. But, you need to make sure we are the ones who have that technology. Is this clear?”

Javier paused, then came to a decision and nodded his head.

“Good,” Sean said. “Make it happen. Let’s get off of that subject for a few minutes; it makes me nauseous.” He picked up his tea and took a swallow before asking, “So, how are Helen and your three children?”

Moon Base One - Moon

“Alright, Gott Verdammt!” Kris noticed a slight twitch on container number 54. "John get your shit together! I swear to God if this has anything to do with the scotch last night, I will personally do a spacewalk to come over there and kick your ass." Laughter was heard through the line. Everyone understood John never let his occasional drink get in the way of business.

So far, the team has been able to connect seventy-two of the containers. The rather square design that they had figure out which included the occasional cross-member was working fairly well. They had seven cameras taking video of the whole project. Unfortunately for the world, they were not presently streaming the video back. No one wanted to screw up something this large on TV.

Adarsh was quickly showing himself to be the best at manipulating the finer controls, and Penn had put him in charge of the particularly difficult tweaks. Although the computers did most of the work, there was always a human to make sure something unexpected did not cause a permanent problem.

Penn spoke, "People, let's focus. We got another hour and a half of this to go. So far, so good, and I'm sure we will all be happy with the new facilities these containers bring us."

"Hell yeah!" Bree commented, "Bobcat promised me at least a year and a half's worth of coffee on one of those containers. Although the wicked little bastard wouldn't tell me which one it was."

A few chuckles were elicited from that comment. ReaLea broke in again, “I’m looking forward to the Jacuzzi container.”

“Workout container,” John piped in.

“Lounge with Video Games container,” said Coach.

“That’s going to be one of William’s favorite locations," Kris commented.

“Which is why I think it says 'Williams’ on the outside.” Adarsh pointed out.

“Really?” ReaLea said. A moment later she followed up with, “Wow, could he possibly have painted those letters any larger?"

“Not without wrapping them over the top." John agreed.

“Okay, I can see where this is going. Everybody pause and let's take ten before we continue. We are almost three-quarters of the way done, and it won't hurt us at all to relax. In fact, let's make it more like thirty minutes of downtime.”

Everybody gave him a thumbs up on the monitor. Things were going to plan, so far; there have only been four minor hitches and Penn was feeling okay with the results. He knew that Bobcat, William, Marcus, and Jeffrey were watching from Earth; however, they never jiggled his elbow in these situations. Penn was the man on the spot, and they left it to him to get the job done. It felt good knowing he had their support, and he sure as hell didn't want to make a mess of things.

He took one last look at the video feed from outside, watching as the containers held position, waiting for his group to start connecting them again.

Space-Station One was taking shape.

TQB Base - Colorado, USA

Cheryl Lynn nodded to Eric, who was standing by the door warming up. She walked over to where Bethany Anne was going through a kata and took position near her to slowly mimic the same actions.

“So I have a question,” Cheryl Lynn started, “and it has some far-reaching consequences.” She gently brought her arm around in an arc as she stepped forward on her left foot.

“I figured as much. It isn’t often you schedule the time to work out with me just because you are looking for a reason to get sweaty.” Bethany Anne pivoted on her left foot a hundred and eighty degrees and both women now faced the opposite wall. “This time give me the negative part first and what you are suggesting we do about it second.”

Both women took one step forward and rapidly punched the air with their right fist while pulling their left elbow back against them. “We have a large faction of people around the world screaming for us to release the space technology. I am working with seven agencies to contain that issue. I would like to consider other options outside of forbidden technology where we could at least refocus their attention if possible.” Each woman had taken three steps forward and now blocked with her left arm, then kicked with their right.

Bethany Anne nodded, “Okay, I’ve seen a lot of the news reports and ADAM has provided me a very detailed update. Which technologies are you interested in?”

Both ladies twisted their heads behind them once again and blocked with their right arm following up with snap kicks, leaving them with their weight balanced on the right foot.

Cheryl Lynn continued, “Is there any way we can use the medical technologies we have available to us to both support people who have given up part of their physical bodies for their countries, and what we are doing in space at the same time?” Both ladies stopped with their feet together and bowed forward slightly. Then both broke and started stretching out a little, sitting on the mat to talk while they stretched. “I really wish I had warmed up more before joining you on this one kata. I’m going to feel this later,” she complained.

“I suggest four ibuprofen, it’s the same as taking one of those 800 mg pills, or at least that’s what the pharmacist told me one time.” Bethany Anne commented.

Cheryl Lynn groaned as she stretched her calves, “I thought TOM took care of that for you?”

“Oh you do, do you? And which little birdie is telling you this?” Bethany Anne inquired.

Cheryl Lynn blushed, “Um, a really tall one?”

 
Bethany Anne smirked, “TOM doesn’t do that as often as John thinks he does. I have been known to ask TOM to alter my emotions or pain level occasionally. However, if I do it too much I’m concerned that not only would reduced pain levels possibly become habit-forming, but also it lowers my situational awareness.”

“So, you actually feel a lot of the pain when you go out on operations?” Cheryl Lynn asked for confirmation.

“Oh yes, I will tell Tom to adjust the pain if I can’t focus on the problem at hand. However, as soon as we are out of danger he will bring it back up, so I feel it. Except for that time when half my chest was blown out. I didn’t want to deal with that shit at all. Occasionally, I still wake up from a nightmare where I’m reliving that moment. If I could bring Petre’ back from the dead, I would do it just so I could kill him all over again.” Cheryl Lynn noticed that Bethany Anne had subconsciously started rubbing her chest.

Cheryl Lynn was starting to understand just how much Bethany Anne had suffered in the last few years.

When she first arrived at the base, it seemed to Cheryl Lynn that nothing affected Bethany Anne. The longer she was around the woman, however, it became apparent that each little problem was another tiny rock on her shoulders. Fortunately, it seemed that her relationship with Michael was slowly starting to take rocks away. Perhaps, one day, he would be able to get to the rock that was the situation with Petre’ and lift it off for her.

“So you are thinking something like military personnel?” Bethany Anne asked, “or are you talking more like first responders?”

“I’ll admit I was thinking more of military personnel; however, first responders or frankly anyone that had done something amazing would be good. Plus, if they already had citations or other awards for what they had sacrificed, it would allow us to quickly filter who gets into the program.” Cheryl Lynn said.

“Okay, I’m good with where you are going so far. Now tell me more.” Bethany Anne started reaching toward her right leg, bending all the way to where her head touched the ground.

Bethany Anne’s hair was blocking her eyes so Cheryl Lynn stuck her tongue out at the woman for her display of athleticism. Cheryl Lynn turned to her left leg and reached over to grab her foot. Pulling herself a little bit closer, the pain in her hamstrings intensified.
 

One of these days she would be able to touch the floor with her head. “So, I thought we would look and offer to any individual who had sacrificed a lot for an altruistic reason. While I was thinking military to help their comrades, I see your point. We could filter first on firemen, policemen, or frankly anyone that helped someone else and lost limbs or were substantially physically disabled as a result.”

Both women switched legs and started stretching again.

“I thought that the second filter would have to be something related to a willingness to go up into space with us.” Cheryl Lynn grunted when one of her muscles twitched. “Son of a bitch, that hurt!”

“Pain is just weakness leaving the body.” Bethany Anne mumbled from underneath her hair.

“Don’t you believe that crap,“ Eric piped in from across the room, “Well, not just that. It is weakness leaving the body, but the pain is a total bitch when she leaves!” He was standing with his feet together and bending down to grasp his ankles and stretching to where his head was just about touching his knees.

Bethany Anne’s voice erupted from underneath her hair, “Eric, you wrinkled bunghole sniffer! Stop bitching and keep working out. If you interrupt my effort to make Cheryl Lynn all she can be by telling her the truth again, I’ll let Ashur use you for a chew toy!”

Eric chuckled, but he didn’t say anything.

“How are you going to deal with the massive amount of people signing up for the program?” Bethany Anne asked.

Cheryl Lynn sat back with her arms behind her, “I think we have Frank and Barb do research to look for the best recipients. Somehow, they will have to figure out if those recipients are willing to go into space. Personally, I’m not sure how they can do that, but I figure it’s worth a try. Perhaps we could find news clippings or other info regarding their heroism.” She bit her lip for a few seconds before continuing, “but I have to admit that I don’t have a clue what to do about getting overrun. I’ve spoken with Kevin regarding the base, and he agrees the base is pretty secure, but he would prefer not to have five thousand people camped out in front of the gates all of the time.”

Bethany Anne sat up and looked at Cheryl Lynn, “No, it would be preferable not to have that. I would suggest a ship.”