Hope at last
Tim stood outside looking at the structure that held up the secondary communications array. Meagan had assured him that it was functional, although repeated requests at communication with China Lunar and Pluto Deep Space resulted in silence. HAL had also independently tried to communicate with China Lunar’s A.I. but again silence ensued.
He was worried. With the scientists busy working the last two weeks to get SETE going, they indicated they would be ready to fire in one more day. He looked admiringly at the work the base personnel and tribe had accomplished together, happy to see one more milestone reached. It gave him a small measure of hope to see two completely different groups of people working together.
The remote location of the array allowed him to be out of reach of almost all personal communication. Meagan could find him, and he was sure HAL had his whereabouts marked to the nearest millimeter with his transponder, but he had left specific instructions not to be bothered unless it was urgent.
He thought back to the moment when he had walked in on the scientists. The rag-tag group of twenty-eight were dirty, hungry and afraid. They had been kept in the dark for nearly a week for some punishment that no one was too clear about. When Meagan turned on the lights, they scrambled to the corners cowering in fright, half blind and thinking more punishment was on its way.
It took him almost an hour to convince the group that he was there to release them, and another three hours to explain what was going on. After the group spent a few hours eating and talking over these new events, twenty six of them agreed to help and preparations were made for them to receive adequate learning from the now functional base instruction units. The other two were released with instructions not to interfere in the work being done.
The base was now running at sixty-eight percent efficiency, and almost all areas were now functional to some degree. China Lunar was the only fly in the ointment. Timothy wondered how they would react to this soon-to-be fully functional base. And how could he prevent another attack if they refused to cooperate? Neither he nor anyone else had any ideas.
His mind wandered over to Darlee. Elkana appeared smitten by her, much to Ruth’s chagrin. Ruth didn’t trust her at all, but Timothy wasn’t so sure. She had been completely cooperative, and Timothy put it down to her desire to survive and live comfortably within the confines of the base. He was happy to know that most of the soldiers decided to stay and they had also been kept busy working. Sam had organized them into groups with their own team leaders, and Timothy was impressed with Sam’s resourcefulness.
The group of women and children that Sam had found earlier was another issue. All attempts at re-integration resulted in horrific failure. After considering matters with Timothy, HAL deported the women to an isolated, deserted but well supplied island where they could live out their lives without doing any harm to others. A delegation would be sent there periodically to see if any had a change of heart, but Timothy felt that the women were too far gone to change into useful members of society.
The children were a different matter. The twenty-six children were all younger than ten for some reason, and they seemed to do quite well with the instruction units. Their integration would be a long and difficult process, but almost all children had been adopted and HAL reported no unexpected difficulties. James, a capable but stern person had supervised the adoption process, ensuring that only those couples with exceptionally good parenting skills would adopt these psychologically damaged children.
Timothy’s reverie was broken when he felt a hand rub and caress his shoulder from behind. He grabbed it and kissed it gently.
It was only after he heard the words: “A lonely man, thinking lonely thoughts,” that he realized that it was Darlee. He grabbed her hand hard as he angrily turned around and said, “Don’t ever touch me like that again!”
“I didn’t mean anything by it, Sir! You must be hungry! I only came by to offer some food.”
Timothy eyed the fruits she carried in a basket she had put down by her feet, and after a moment’s hesitation, he picked a pear. “Thank you,” he said, “I didn’t mean to be rough…”
“It’s fine, Mr. Timothy, I understand. I didn’t mean to startle you. But I saw you standing here for quite a bit and felt that perhaps you were lonely. I can go…”
“No, it’s alright Darlee.” Timothy wasn’t sure if he should mention this but added it anyway, “I don’t mind the company.”
Darlee smiled and sat down on a large rock near him. Timothy was painfully aware of her femininity but was trying hard to ignore it.
“Sit down beside me while you eat the fruit,” she said.
“I better not,” Timothy replied.
“Mr. Timothy, I’m not going to bite. Can I ask what you were thinking about?”
He stood silently eating the pear, undecided on whether he should sit or stand. Finally he sat down at the furthest edge of the rock, but it still left little space in between them.
“I was thinking about the base, how the work was going,” he said awkwardly.
“The base, yes. I overheard Meagan say that the base’s positron emitter will be working soon. The scientists are very excited.”
“Yes they are. I’m worried though.”
“About the scientists? Or are you worried it might not work?”
“I’m sure the scientists know what they’re doing,” Timothy said. “And Meagan assures me that the base will be operational, and so will the positron emitter. I’m worried about how China Lunar will react to the emitter.”
“I can understand why you’re worried. They almost destroyed this base once before. But perhaps they no longer have the technology to do it again. One of the scientists was telling me…”
“You sure get around, don’t you?” Timothy interrupted, and he could see a flash of anger cross Darlee’s face.
“I don’t ‘get around’, Mr. Timothy. This base has been my home all my life. It’s you that came to it recently, Sir,” she added. “In any case, I know those scientists well and some of them are my friends.”
“They sure didn’t look like they were your friends,” Timothy said, ignoring her anger.
“But they were. I hated the way they were treated! Honestly!”
Timothy wanted to believe her, but the first time they met two weeks ago was still vivid in his mind. Sensing his thoughts, she said, “But it doesn’t matter if you believe me or not.” She sat there pouting, and her stunning beauty shocked Timothy into embarrassment.
“Actually, it does matter,” she said as she touched Timothy’s arm again. “Mr. Timothy, I really did not like they way they were treated, but Stormdancer told me he’d kill me if I complained again. And the same went for the R&R camps, as Stormdancer called them. The children! I hated what he had done, but he refused to listen! He was an…evil person, and questioning him brought death to a number of people. I tried, and got more than this simple broken wrist, Sir. Doing what I did with General Harvard was the least of the evil things he had asked of me.”
Timothy wasn’t sure if she was trying for sympathy or not, but she certainly was effective.
“How are the women and children doing?”
“The women…couldn’t be helped, Darlee. We tried but they simply refused to integrate. HAL has placed them in a well supplied island, isolated from all other humans. He’s keeping an eye out on them to make sure none starve, so they should be fine physically. We wanted to place a Guard-Bot there to ensure each one’s safety, but we are shorthanded as it is.”
“They will kill each other, I’m afraid. As horrible as that sounds, if they remained here they would kill all of you first if they could. And the children?”
“They have been adopted by my tribe. I’m sure most, if not all, will grow up to be fine, upstanding citizens.”
“That makes me…very happy. My daughter…Could I trouble you to look in on her every once in a while?”
“Your daughter! You had a daughter in the camp?” Timothy asked, aghast. “My god! Why didn’t you tell me? I’ll call James right now and ask him to return…”
Her hand on his arm stopped him again. He saw the pained expression on her face as she said, “Sir, please don’t. I love my daughter, but…” Tears started rolling down her face. “…but I’ve had to shut her out of my heart! I couldn’t think of what she was going through, and Stormdancer threatened to kill me if I brought her up again, even though she was his daughter too, and now she doesn’t even know who I am, and I’m sure your person could take care of her much better…”
The words rolled out of her mouth and he couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. He put his arm around her in comfort until she stopped sobbing and regained her composure.
It was at that moment that he remembered what she had been trying to tell him. “You said something about the scientists? Something they were telling you?” Timothy moved back and let her talk.
“Ah yes. One of them was saying that to send a meteor at an angle shallow enough to avoid the base’s defense systems was extremely difficult, because of something called a window. I’m not sure what he meant by that.”
“The entry window.”
“Yes! You’re so smart! I can see why you’re the New World Leader!” Timothy felt embarrassed as she said it proudly.
“Anyway, he said it was extremely small and the technology needed was at the limit of their ability. He felt that they had to have some help, either earth based or alien help to be able to do it. He said that if they were off by less then something, I can’t remember the amount…I think he said a half degree, whatever that means, the meteor would bounce back or break up and never reach the surface.”
Timothy had come to the same conclusion before, but other than testing his conclusion with Meagan he hadn’t said anything to anyone else. One thing was for sure, he thought. It was obvious she was valuable. “Who is this scientist? He seems like he certainly knows what he’s talking about.”
“Is he in trouble?” she asked fearfully.
“No, not at all! As a matter of fact, I think he can be of even more help and that’s why I want to talk to him.”
“His name is Andrey. We found him wandering around in the forest as a child, and because he was so smart, General Harvard decided to school him and put him in with the other scientists.”
“I see. Darlee, was the R&R group already in existence when General Harvard ran the base?”
“No. That came when Stormdancer took control. He thought it would make the soldiers loyal to him, and it worked.”
“But wouldn’t some be upset that their wives or girlfriends had been taken away?”
“No, Sir. The ones that had their wives taken were killed. The rest of the women were found in the forest or taken from raids from wandering tribes that happened to cross our path. I was taken from my tribe myself when I was only ten…”
Timothy could see tears start to well up again, although Darlee tried to control them. He couldn’t believe the horror of what he was hearing. All he could think of was how power was abused, and how it seemed that it was always the worst people that wanted it the most. As he sat there mulling over Darlee’s words, Ruth came up behind him. “There you are! I’ve been looking everywhere for you,” she said.
Timothy, surprised by her sudden appearance said, “I did mention that I needed some time to think.”
“So I see,” Ruth said as she looked at Darlee.
Not helping the situation, Darlee said to Timothy, “Thank you so much for your help. I really appreciate it! I’ll go look for the scientist and tell him you’d like to meet him,” and she got up and walked away after giving Ruth a smile and wave.
Once she had left, Timothy said, “Ruth, I can explain,” but she replied tersely, “No need. I’m sure she needed your help. In any case, we’ve received a communication.”
“Finally! I was getting worried that China Lunar wouldn’t respond at all!”
“It didn’t come from China Lunar.”
“It didn’t? Then who?” Timothy asked, puzzled.
“Mother Russia Base.”
“You’re kidding,” Timothy said, not believing it. But the angry look still on her face revealed that she wasn’t interested in joking around. “Did they say what they wanted?”
“They want to speak to you,” Ruth said.
“Oh.” Timothy got up and went to hold Ruth’s hand but she refused to hold his. Trying to diffuse the situation, he said, “By the way, did you know that Darlee has a child?”
“Only one?” Ruth asked sarcastically. Ruth couldn’t believe that Timothy was still thinking of Darlee even after she told him of the communication from the Russian Base. She had stood there in the distance while she watched the two talking, looking as Darlee first touched his shoulder, then his arm, and she finally turned away when Timothy moved up to her and hugged her.
Frustrated, Timothy walked to the communications center as she trailed behind, and remembered that Darlee had asked him to watch over her child, but she hadn’t described her. He had to remember to ask HAL to run a DNA check, but he’d only do it out of Ruth’s earshot. Now was certainly not the right time.
Mother Russia Base? HAL had never actually told him how many bases there were even though he’d asked. So far he knew of five – this base, Base USA where HAL was, the new Mother Russia Base, Pluto Deep Space Base and China Lunar.
But now that he thought about it, it didn’t seem like enough. He thought of an imaginary cube nestled neatly inside the earth, its eight points touching the surface. Really, a base should be located on each of its eight points. And if there were basses at both poles, it would certainly help, unless there were orbiting bases. And what about bases deeper in space, beyond Pluto, or closer to home?
Only HAL could answer that question, and now was the time to find out, Timothy thought.