The Navigator 2: We the People (16 page)

During their physical therapy, the members of the Council met with Sharon so they could get to know her and to discuss her duties in the new Citadel structure. Even though Joe had already talked her into taking the job, the Council did ask her if she would take the position. She was so surprised that it took her a few minutes to get over the shock of actually having the choice. She agreed, and the Council thanked her. She was given access to all the data the Council had regarding the Citadel, as well as the current plans for its rebuilding. Councilor Young introduced her to the project leads on BC IV via holographic calls, and off she went; getting to work almost immediately.

Laura wasn't very happy when she found out they couldn't stay with Joe, but he grinned at her.

"There is a reason you can't stay in my quarters here, Sweetheart," He said.

"Oh? Just what might that be?" She asked testily.

"Because I don't have any. I don't live here. I was given guest quarters until you and Sharon were released from Medical. Now that you are, we'll be leaving the station," Joe replied.

"What about Merry, have you seen her?" Laura asked.

Joe nodded. "She has been checked out, treated, and was released by the Vet three days ago. She's been staying with Shana on the ship, since it's closer to the 'Park' so she can go potty."

"There's a park on the station?" Sharon asked.

Joe nodded. "Well, they call it a park. It's really more of a large atrium for oxygen recycling and the mental health of the people that are stationed here. I'm told that even the exploration ships have them."

"How and where is all that built? It can't be done on Earth, someone would have seen it by now," Sharon said.

"The smaller craft like the shuttles and transports were built on BC IV, the larger stuff is built by an orbital constructor, a mostly robotic gantry located in the Centauri system. I don't really know much more than that about it," Joe replied.

"Other than the exploration ships, what other larger ships are there?" Sharon asked.

Joe shrugged. "I'm not sure. I do know of at least one mining/refining rig the roams the Centauri system; I've heard that's pretty big. I don't know of anything else. You've also got to realize we simply don't have a lot of people up here yet. The city of New Hedron, on Beta Centauri Four, only has a total population of around sixty thousand. The rest of the population is rural, out on the mining ships, or on the exploration ships."

"How many people are up here?" Sharon asked.

"I don't know for sure," Joe shrugged. "I'm pretty sure it's less than two-hundred thousand though."

"So, when are we leaving?" Laura asked as Joe's comm unit beeped at him. He took it out of his pocket and clipped it to his ear.

"Anderson," Joe said.

"Colonel, the Admiral would like to see you in his office as soon as you can get there," a voice Joe recognized as the Admiral's aide, said.

"Understood, Lieutenant. I'll be on my way in a moment," Joe replied and looked back to the two women. "Well, we were going to leave now, but the Admiral wants to see me. I'll show you guys to the ship, and then head up."

"You're a busy man, aren't you?" Laura said.

Joe chuckled. "Well, it's a new job, and I'm still getting used to it. But yeah, I'm usually on the move. Honestly, I don't even have a home yet. We'll be staying in transient quarters at New Hedron for now, but moving out to the construction location as soon as we have a place to stay out there."

"You don't even have an apartment?" Laura asked.

Joe shrugged. "I've been so busy I haven't had the time to get one. I've been sleeping in guest quarters, ships, or whatever flat surface presented itself when needed. Honestly though, things should start to settle down soon. We have the new Citadel to build and set up. That's going to be a project in itself."

The elevator doors opened and he led them through a series of doors to a large open bay. Seeing nothing but parked cargo shuttles, Joe had to ask a passing crewman where the new transport was located.

The man grinned. "It's too big to fit in here. She's docked over at cargo area 'C'. Just go back through the main hatch there and follow the corridor around until you see the big C on the doors. You can't miss it."

Joe nodded, said thanks, and then led the women back through the first set of doors and left down a circular corridor.

"This place is huge," Sharon said. "I wonder how they got it built without anyone knowing about it."

"The governments do know about it. They didn't really help all that much, but they did allow the construction. Personally, I don't think they really have a clue about this place. I know they have no idea about all the tech. If they did, we'd already be at war over it," Joe replied.

"What do you mean? They would have to have some idea," Sharon said.

Joe smirked at her. "The Council is comprised of representatives from all over the planet. Supposedly, they work for each of their respective governments and submit reports on everything that happens up here. In reality, they work together to make sure the reports turned in say the same things, and do their best to keep the governments out of this project. The governments can't even threaten to shut them down by pulling their funding anymore. We don't need it: we don’’t need the governments at all, actually. What we do need are people: farmers, builders, administrators, miners, store keepers, factory workers… the list is endless. But what we don't need is the greed and paranoia of the leading world governments. So they are playing a dangerous game with the world leaders while we recruit people and get ourselves set up."

"I don't even see how any of this even got off the ground to begin with," Sharon replied. "It had to be extremely expensive to get going."

"It was, I'm sure. They pulled it off and here we are." Joe stopped in front of the doors with a big C on them. He opened the doors and entered the busy area. It wasn't as large as the first bay they had entered, but there were a lot of people. Joe recognized some of them as members of the community Cassie had built.

Saying hello to the folks he knew, he led the ladies through the crowds to the outer bulkhead and the docking hatch. Shana was there talking with Becka, Cassie, and Abby. Merry was on a leash held by Shana, but was very busy sniffing everyone she could reach. When she saw Laura, she got very excited.

"Becka! The Admiral wants to see me before we head out. Can I leave Laura and Sharon with you to make introductions?" Joe said.

"I'd be happy to! Say 'hi' to the old man for me," Becka replied smiling.

Joe winked at her, gave Laura and Becka kisses, and headed back for the door.

"Hey, what about the rest of us?" Abby spouted off. "Where's my kiss?"

"Shut up brat, or I'll give you a spanking!" Joe replied.

Abby grinned. "Oh! Foreplay!"

Joe just shook his head and left to see the Admiral.

When Joe got to the Admiral's office, he was again surprised by the presence of Councilor Young. He'd heard that the Council had returned to Earth after the crisis with the gifted had been resolved.

Upon entering the office, Joe came to attention and saluted the men.

"At ease, Colonel," Young replied. "Please, have a seat."

"Thank you, Sir," Joe replied and sat down next to the Councilor.

"Before we begin, can I get you anything to drink?" Hawklings asked.

"Thank you, Sir, but I'm good," Joe replied politely. "What's up?"

"One of our exploration teams discovered ruins on a world in the 44 Bootis Star System. It's a binary system not unlike Centauri, except it's forty-two light years away. The planet turned out to be earth-like enough for our team to check it out. When they got there, they found whole cities in ruin, blown apart as if there had been a war. They have detected life, but so far it's all animal life. The ruins appear to be pretty old, and their not radioactive, so the team is going to be checking them out." He paused. "What has been detected of the buildings and structures there indicates they were built for a human-like civilization."

The councilor spoke next. "There is nothing like definitive proof of extra-terrestrial life to force a rethink of our methods. The Admiral told us that you suggested we consider creating a military based on your belief in alien life as well as what may happen on Earth. As much as it pains us to admit it, and in light of this new information, the Council has agreed with you.

"We will be asking our researchers to begin developing warships for defensive purposes, and recruitment is to be greatly expanded, not only for the purpose of the military, but also for the archaeological research of the 44 Bootis-Five ruins. By necessity, we will need military Navigators for those ships and security teams for the researchers that will be going to 44 Bootis-Five.

"We are aware this type of thing is not really your area of specialty, but we would like you and Admiral Hawklings to find the people we are going to need to build this force. We would also like you to try to share some of your training with the security teams we will be sending out. You have a week’s leave coming; we would like you to use this time to get your wife settled on BC IV, then return here to begin this next task.

"Before you leave, however, we would like to know if you have any other thoughts or concerns we should be looking at or be considering from a security stand-point?" Young finished.

"I can think of two at this moment. The first is that the Council should consider relocating to BC IV. You are far too exposed on Earth. With the shit we are going to be stirring up by expanding recruitment, as well as rescuing the gifted, it's only a matter of time before they figure out who's responsible and come looking for you," Joe explained.

Young nodded. "Our security chief, I believe you called her Madam Shinobe, as well as Admiral Hawklings, have also expressed this concern. As all three of our security specialists agree, I will make sure the Council considers it. However, the very act of our departure will undoubtedly tip our hand to the world governments."

"With respect Councilor, it doesn't have to; I assume your reports and all contact with them is done via video phone, am I correct?" Joe asked.

"You are, our only contact with our 'handlers' is done over the phone lines," Young replied.

"Then we set up a comm relay for your current location. It would be a simple matter to create a mockup of your offices for use as a back-drop. They would never know the difference," Joe explained.

"It would be a bit more involved than that as we have families as well, Colonel, but I believe your point to be valid," the man replied nodding his agreement. "What was the other concern you had?"

"Mankind last visited the moon in 1972. We went, we explored, we left and never went back. Why?" Joe asked. "It's not for the economic reasons everyone has been told, since proof was brought back of the rich mineral resources there. The Internet is full of conspiracy theories posing the suggestion that the moon has already been colonized and we were warned to not return. I honestly don't know if that's true or not, but there has to be a reason we never went back.

"If we can prove the moon is clear, it would be a much better place for us to put a base. This station is far too close to the planet to be defended from any Terran attack; it's well within range of fighter-launched Pegasus missiles.

"If the moon is indeed already occupied, then that opens a whole new can of tomato sauce we are going to have to deal with. Either way, before we worry too much about distant worlds, we need to make sure our home is secure," Joe finished.

"Councilor, Joe asked me to look into a couple of UFO reports he believes were real. As it would pose a threat to our security, I used our resources to satisfy my curiosity and looked into them.

"Both events did, in fact occur, and not as the government reported them to the public. However, the most troubling thing I discovered was that of the craft reported and described; they shared no similarities whatsoever. That tells me that they were designed and built by two separate races. We are most definitely not alone up here Councilor, and our neighbors are very good at hiding," Hawklings replied. He gave Joe a half grin. "Tomato Sauce? Really?"

Councilor Young looked a little uncomfortable at the news. "Admiral, could you put all that into a report I can present to the Council? While that sounds ominous as hell, we also have to take into consideration that they haven't attacked us yet. While I will agree we need to know what their intentions are, without more evidence to support it, I would have a hard time believing them to be 'hostile'.

"Admiral, please try to find whatever information you can on the moon, as well as the planet Mars." He paused. "When we first launched this project, we were strictly forbidden from even approaching those two places by several national agencies. Most of whom were American, but the prohibition was immediately and strongly endorsed by several other nations as well. That alone was somewhat suspicious, but as we had no plans involving this system anyway, we agreed to it. Perhaps it's time we knew why."

Before Joe left the two men, they asked him to keep the information confidential for the time being; at least until the investigations were finished. He had no problem with that as there was plenty of other stuff to get taken care of. When he rejoined Laura and his friends at the ship, he sent word ahead for his two 'Marines' to meet them at the starport in New Hedron.