Forbidden the Stars (23 page)

If interplanetary space was opened up with FTL—or, almost as fast as light—travel, then the moon could be bypassed by the country corporations of Earth. Those tariffs and fees that kept Yin in luxurious comfort would be diverted to other stations on the nine planets, and to outposts that would quickly be erected on the other thirty-three official moons of Sol System. Luna Station might still retain some influence through its proximity to Earth, but the resources that Yin had enjoyed would hereto forward be severely restricted.

Unless…Yin himself held the technology of FTL, and licensed it out under front corporations. There could be quadrillions of dollars involved, power enough to control the Country Corporations of Earth (behind the scenes, of course).

Or…enough capital to launch his own interplanetary real estate development project, build those stations on the planets and moons under his own banner. Earth would belong to the Terrans, but the rest of outer space would be his. And those who wished to leave the safety of their little blue planet would have to pay dearly for the privilege.

He knew that acquisition of more of the FTL element was paramount to control of the interplanetary industry, and he had two teams of researchers working on it; one team of spies well-placed in various space organizations: ESA, PRC, CSE, and NASA.

Another team was using the information gained through subterfuge, and were attempting to apply it in finding their own deposit of “Kinemet”, the term the researchers were adopting for the element.

But the key to solving that element crucial days or months before anyone on Earth—something that had evaded the scientists on Earth to date, as far as Yin’s intelligence could discover—the key was in young Alex Manez. Yin knew this as certainly as he knew that his leg would ache when he rolled out of bed and put pressure on it.

Whoever could study Alex first would have a head start on opening up the secret of Kinemet.

Yin was determined to have Alex; and his plan to capture the youth, if the memorandum on his personal computer console was accurate, had come to fruition. The pirate ship he had hired to kidnap the young boy had just docked at Luna Station.

Yin had given orders to have the boy brought to him immediately. He wanted to see for himself that the child was undamaged.

Then, the research would begin, and his domination of the solar system would be assured.

Fate had denied him Earth; he would turn his back on that ancient Nemesis, turn the tables on destiny, and take the universe for his own.

__________

Quantum Resources, Inc. :

Toronto :

Canada Corp.:

“
What the hell
is going on?” Michael roared.

Calbert Loche stared at him dumbly, at loss to an explanation as anyone else in the room.

One of the techs turned in his seat. “Sec cam shows five men in the lift. They’ll be here any minute.”

In anticipation, everyone turned to the doors, awaiting the new arrivals much like barracudas in their lair ready to spring on anything that came within view.

When the doors opened, three men dressed in army fatigues and holding sub machine guns entered the room in standard military fashion, deploying themselves one on either side of the door, the third entering halfway into the room. All stood at the ready, their SMG’s held vertically across their chests.

The fourth military man entered, his narrowed eyes assessing the room strategically, expertly. He wore the dress uniform of a Major-General, his branch cap and collar badges showing him to be attached to the infantry corp. His cool assessment of the room seemed to pass right by Michael and the others.

He turned around and said to someone beyond the doors, “Secure, sir.”

“As if I expected otherwise, General,” said Alliras Rainier sardonically. He strode into the room, and despite the tone in his voice, gave the military man a nod of concession.

Ignoring the looks of cool detachment with which he was being regarded by Michael, he stepped up to the CEO of Quantum Resources, Inc., and held out his hand.

Michael took it, but kept his silence, forcing his old friend to explain himself and the presence of armed men on private property.

“Michael,” Alliras addressed him. “For the time being, I would ask that you suspend all communications to and from this site until I can debrief you.”

“What is going on? We’ve got a team, for all intents and purposes, stranded and cut off from all communication almost five hundred million kilometers from here—”

“We should talk in private.” Turning, the Minister’s eyes found Calbert Loche. “You might want to hear this, too.”

Making up his mind immediately, Michael nodded approval for Calbert’s participation, and then said to Raymond Magrath, “I’d like you to join us as well, if you don’t mind.”

“Not at all.”

A concerned mien fell over Alliras, but he did not protest as he followed Michael and the two other men into one of the attached conference rooms.

Inside, they quickly took their seats, though Michael had the urge to stand and pace. He looked to Alliras to begin.

Because of the Minister’s position, and his long-standing relationship with Michael, he gave Alliras the benefit of the doubt, and a certain degree of respect. With any other person, Michael would have not been able to check his impulse to shout and badger.

As CEO of Quantum Resources, Michael was technically a part of the private sector, and although his company was accountable to the Canadian Space Exploration department as well as NASA, that did not preclude his deferment to them, or allow for any surprise inspections or unexpected takeovers. Alliras’s explanation would have to be very good.

“The USA, Inc. has gone to Defense Condition Two,” was the first thing the Minister said, and that was sufficient to grab Michael’s full attention. “Canada Corp. followed a few minutes later.”

“What?”

“Unofficially, of course. It’s the Chinese.”

“The Chinese?” Calbert protested. “Again?”

“I thought we had treaties in place. There hasn’t been any serious trouble with the Chinese in over a year!” Raymond furrowed his brow. Michael recalled that Raymond’s wife’s grandmother had been born in Hong Kong before the reversion to mainland China a century earlier, and had immigrated to Vancouver shortly thereafter. China was the only bastion of communism left in the world, after the death of Castro in the Cuban Papal Revolution that had led to that country’s pledge to democracy and joining the United Earth Corporate many decades before.

The Minister of Energy, Mines and Resources, the official Canada Corp. attaché to Quantum Resources, sighed.

“Two days ago, the
Orca 1
landed on the moon. The captain, one Justine Turner, was touring the station this morning, and because of her close involvement with the Alex Manez affair, came under the impression that the young boy was on the moon with her. She thought she spotted him under escort of three men, one of them decidedly Chinese. Following after, she saw them enter the Chinese Sector of Luna Station, and was refused admittance to the area. She reported this back to NASA.”

Before anyone could pose any questions, Alliras continued, “Also, this morning, Dr. Sakami Chin was scheduled to report for debriefing under arrangement with the Chinese Government. Standard procedure. Both he and his governmental representative failed to show up. Now, in the political spectrum of things, such an occurrence would not necessarily precipitate any kind of military response—it is a minor infraction of our treaty with the Chinese Republic.

“When the USA, Inc.’s Foreign Secretary approached the PRC for comment, he was stonewalled for most of this morning, then, the Chinese Consulate in Washington issued a statement to the effect that NASA was responsible not only for the kidnapping of the valuable world resource of Alex Manez in an attempt to monopolize the technology he represented, but went so far as to thereafter kidnap two Chinese nationals, Dr. Chin and his governmental representative.”

“What!” Michael cried out. “That’s preposterous. They think we kidnapped our own citizen as well as one of theirs?”

“Not as preposterous as the fact that the Chinese have also declared that the United Earth Corporate has conspired and effected the takeover of their allotted sector of Luna Station.”

“Their—? You mean—”

“Yes. The Chinese seem to have lost communication with their people on the moon.” Michael shook his head. “You know what this suggests to me?”

“Of course. A third party interest. The politicians are negotiating with the Chinese as we speak to form a joint investigative committee. The Chinese know well that it wasn’t NASA or any of the other country corp.’s, but their foreign policy requires they cover their own ass first. We’ll get to the bottom of this soon enough; but for now, we have a rogue element that is obviously tapping into secure links with our space operations.”

“Speaking of which,” Michael reminded the Minister, “our team in the asteroid belt is probably starting to feel like they’ve been abandoned.”

“Not to worry. I’ve already commissioned a skimmer from the Canuck Flyer to rendezvous with your team and explain that we need a blanket on communications until we resolve the lunar crisis. They should arrive in a matter of about twelve hours or so. I’m sorry, but your operation will have to be temporarily suspended.”

Michael shared a conspiratorial look with Calbert, and then said to the Minister, “What if I can promise you an absolutely secure communication with our team? Could we continue then? Every moment we delay costs us a lot of money and resources. Our team will have to be replaced if this goes on for a few days or more, and knowing politicians, it just could. If I can clear security with you, may we proceed?”

Alliras was on the verge of summarily rejecting the proposal, and then he caught himself.

“How?” he asked.

“You remember the charity last summer, when I got the message about the Macklin’s Rock incident?”

“The code you and Calbert worked out. Messages on plastic and such.”

“Yes. Public thoughtcomm is mimocorded as standard procedure. This is the same kind of situation, only at a longer distance.”

“You can’t send a plastic memo five hundred gigs in any reasonable amount of time,” the Minister protested.

“Right. But the regular EPS is being monitored, just like thoughtcomm here on Earth. Even if we used just our code, there is always the possibility that it would be cracked. It’s not the message that has to change, it’s the medium.”

“What? The only methods we know of sending messages is radio. Electronic Pulse Signal can be intercepted at any frequency, if the hackers know where to send out their nets.”

“This time you are wrong. There are an infinite means of sending messages. Radio broadcast is only one of them. How do you think we keep up-to-the-minute account of our craft in the asteroid belt? Radio or EPS is too broad a frequency, too cumbersome. We track our ships with optical radar. Lasers. It’s just a matter of programming to piggyback a message on the beam in either direction. As far as security is concerned, any attempt to intercept the laser beam will register on our monitors; we can then change our code.

“Although the ships used by us are charted from CSE and NASA, Quantum Resources members all know our codes and rotations. I can guarantee a secure up- and down-link to the asteroid mission. Any attempt to intercept the beam would be known immediately by us. I would think that, given the current political climate, any positive discovery of Kinemet would be in our mutual best interest.”

Michael let the Minister ponder this for a few moments. He was fairly certain Alliras would agree, and he was not disappointed when his old friend finally nodded.

“All right. I’ll trust your techs. But I have to leave the guards here and downstairs as a matter of SOP’s.”

“Of course.”

They stood, and Michael accepted Alliras’s offered hand. They shook, and exchanged slight smiles.

“And I hope you keep me updated on Luna Station. I have a vested interest in Alex Manez, and more than just because of his connection to Kinemet. His parents were under my sphere of responsibility.”

“I understand,” the Minister told him. “I’ll keep in touch.”

The four men exited the conference room, and with little more than a nod to Alliras, Michael got right down to business.

“Calbert, initiate laser 1 protocol. I’m sure there are more than a few of our fellows up there eager to hear our voices.”

“Yes, sir. Initiating protocol,” was the reply as the control room burst into activity.

__________

Luna Station:

Luna :

Alex was marched
through a maze of corridors. Finding his way out would be impossible: the halls all looked the same and the only markings on various doors were written in Chinese characters. The pirate captain on his left was grim-faced. It was as if he knew he was selling Alex’s life over to whoever had hired him, and though it left a sour taste in his mouth, was determined to see the contract to the end.

Alex suddenly realized that the games he played on sim were nothing but fantasy. There was too much dichotomy in real life; translating that reality into a game would take all the fun out of it. Nova Pirates was much easier to play when the lines between good and evil were easily defined.

The captain was on the side of evil, but so was the doctor who had tried to be nice to Alex, and make him feel comfortable. But were they any different from Justine and the people back on Earth? They all wanted Alex for his powers, for his relationship with
Dis Pater.
Did anyone, good or evil, truly care for Alex himself.

The long walk finally came to an end at a non-descript freight elevator. They entered the elevator, and the pirate punched the lowest button; since the buttons were inscribed with Chinese characters, Alex could only assume they were heading for the basement.

Not a word was spoken on the short trip down, but Alex looked up at both of his escorts; neither would return his glance.