The Monkey and Squirrel fight for freedom. (33 page)

Chapter 33

The bitch won't turn

The diversion attempt was not going well, the fighters fired on the designated target zone, but the dust and debris cloud round it dissipated most of the energy. Less than ten percent was hitting the central mass, they were synchronising fire so it was one big pulse that hit Aimee 237. All they seemed to have achieved so far was to expand the central mass so the component parts were twisting and turning around each other.

Only observation over a few days would tell if they had changed its course at all, but they felt they needed more power to get the job done. The only resource they had to call on was the carriers fighters, the only problem was to get them there. The next space cruse ship was offered to collect them and act as support ship, it just needed a structure to dock them to, so they could be towed and supported institute.

A fresh negotiation with the New People, secured the required structure for the Chinese. All they had to do was publicly grant the New People's rights demands in full and actively promote them in the UN and within their sphere of influence. The structure would be delivered to the carrier just before the cruse ship arrived, this deal was not hidden but quietly announced at the UN by way of starting the promotion of the new policy.

Group Captain John Hampton, received the news that the future of humanity was now dependant on the cooperation of the monkeys. It wasn't what it actually said in the communication that was carefully worded to avoid giving that impression. But he could read the real meaning between the lines, the rest was just face saving verbiage. That said it was a miracle they were prepared to help in any circumstances, given the intentions behind his original mission.

The cruse ship and the trailer as he thought of it were both coming towards him at high speed. If only his carrier could match that performance it could get where it was needed on its own, but it would probably disintegrate under that acceleration they had already used the engines to turn to the new heading. Once his force was unloaded it would resume its course to the mines, the missile ships and those crew he didn't need had to stay with the habitat, this was going to be lasers only.

Both ships arrived on time, the cruse ship waiting while the New People mated the trailer to it, that didn't take long. Then it was John's commands turn it didn't go as smoothly, they were all rusty from lack of practice, yes as soon as he found out they had a new mission his men were straight into the simulators. But the real is always harder than the simulations, but in less than a day they were under-way to save the planet.

Mid June 2128 they matched velocities with Aimee 237, they had brought as much fuel for the fighters with them as they could, the tanker runs from Earth struggling to keep the current fighters on station going.

They started straight away their concentrated fire power having a greater effect, all acting together they believed they must be able turn the bloody thing.  A couple of months later the news wasn't great, but they had produced a measurable change in its course, it would land two to five hundred miles to the west of Dallas. Keep it up you'll do it was the cheery message, but the numbers spoke for themselves they weren't going to turn it enough in time. Wing Commander Harry Glover, put it quite succinctly,

“The bitch just won't turn.”

“All we can do is to keep trying Harry, on the positive side we have reduced it's mass by a few thousand tonnes that must help.”

“Unfortunately sir, it's millions of tonnes we need it to lose, we're not achieving enough fast enough, if we had one of those big carriers of the monkeys, we could do it, could you get high command to see about a rental?” asked Harry with a sickly smile.

“One of your better ideas Harry! unfortunately the price would be to high for them to pay, eating humble pie and agreeing to all the New Peoples demands, add to that they can't accept the possibility that we'll fail, you see the problem?” asked John.

“Yes sir, it's as beyond their minds reach, as that thing is outside ours to control, just the sheer size of this problem makes it to big for us.”  agreed Harry grimly.

Not long before the same subject had come up in chamber,

“It is now almost certain the humans will fail with out our help, the question is do we give it? You all know the arguments for and against, so give your decision.” said the chair for September's meeting.

The assent was unanimous, the three big carriers would be sent, with two representatives to talk to the humans if the situation required them to, due to the relative positions, even with the new engines, it would still take nearly seven months to get to the intercept point. The carriers were quickly prepared and sent off on the save the Earth mission their new enhanced laser cooling system now allowing each laser to be fired five times in thirty minutes, before having to cool for another thirty minutes.

With the official trade representatives currently shipping soil and other cargo to Jupiter, Chamber picked two other representatives, that had at least been present for previous talks and had interacted with the idiot human prisoners before they had been shipped back to their carrier.

On the shipping leg to Jupiter Tman, reflected on how well the loading had generally gone, there had been the odd moment of excitement. Such as when the other space powers decided to have a closer look at the new Chinese freighters they got a bit of a shock. Three alien carriers, the New People hadn't covered up the names, anybody that got close enough to read the names could see what they were.

Politicians shouted, the media fizzed with excitement and speculation, China took all this calmly, replying it is just a simple commercial arrangement between friendly nations, if you have any problems, take it up with them, we believe they can answer for themselves. The most aggrieved politicians had hissy fits then sulked about it, the Humans Supreme party went on longer than most, on the old betrayers of humanity axe they were still grinding.

Tman and Chatty had a lot of media interviews, along with the banal and trivial were questions such as,

“Are you carrying weapons?”

To which they replied,

“Of course, we have had trouble from hostile elements in the past, we are well prepared to deal with that sort of thing! If it comes to a fight we will be the last ones standing, be under no illusions about that, have a nice day.”

Then there were the few passengers who hadn't paid attention to the ground briefing, before arriving at a carrier, suddenly faced with monkeys with guns and scanners. There had been some shocked looks, a few screams and hysteria, but eventually all had been settled in, some had to be sedated. But it was with a pressure injector not a tranquilliser gun, by the end of a week they had calmed down and were in the ship board routine.

They were allowed to freely use their e-coms systems to call home. Once the media found out there were human passengers on board, they were eager for interviews, the resulting sessions hardly set the world on fire.

The boarding procedure, weapons search, the shock of the reality, the briefing had told them it was a monkey ship, but it was only when actually faced with a crew of monkeys, giving them instructions, that it sank in. It had been a bit much for some people, who had to be sedated and assisted to their cabins, that was the high point of the drama.

Now there was news of this new mission, so his suggestion had born fruit, it wouldn't be announced to the humans until later, no point in announcing it to humanity if they were about to succeed. But if they were failing then it should be a welcome intervention, even if some would resent it, survival usually took precedence.

Now we know the nature of the logistics problem, thought  Major Johnson to himself. They needed transport for thousands of tonnes of cargo and a few hundred construction workers, shipped out to Jupiter. Speeding completion of the new habitat, so it would be ready before Aimee 237's deadline.

The Chinese plan to house two million Chinese nationals in their habitats had been leaked, this just proved they were serious. He could see the future if the unthinkable happened, by default China would rule the earth and human space. If it didn't they still would effectively rule human space and that would only grow their power on Earth, yes he could see the future it was Chinese.

The other habitat owning nations were fitting engines to their habitats, they might have to doge the bullet. As they were also doing everything possible to finish those under construction and build extensions to existing ones, the Japanese were turning their largest space station into a habitat. Having had bought every heavy lift shuttle they could, and were shipping prefabricated sections up and it was going together like a three dimensional jigsaw. Their announced plan, said it would be six hundred meters in diameter, completed and occupied in hundred meter sections. The finished length planed to be one kilometre, housing one million Japanese, the emperor's heir was already in residence.

The Mars colony was getting a lot of support, every transport was shipping key supplies and new colonists, it really would become self-sufficient in the next three months.

The Chinese were allocating places in their habitats by a lottery of those of their nationals that met their requirements, two parent families complete with single dependant child. Once all the 'essential' personnel had been accommodated, around forty percent of the total.

It was the same story all over, governments, banks and institutions all moving into space and under mountains that told Carl. Regardless of all the public announcements, Aimee 237 was going to hit and there was nothing he could do.

He had suggested to Daisy maybe she should try for a space habitat job, she had given him a funny look, then asked,

“Are you telling me what I think you're telling me?”

“Yes” he had replied.

Then she said,

“I'll think about it, tell mum.”

All he could do now was hope, he didn't even qualify for a place in a bunker. The only amusing thing to cross his desk was a report that Charlotte Thatcher was pregnant at sixty six. As Charlotte Thatcher had received the longevity treatments her pregnancy would last between twenty and twenty four months, that was why most women with access to the treatments had children beforehand.

It was definitely an accident, the Iranian authorities had tried to expel her, but she had out manoeuvred them, using their own laws, regulations and quotations from the Koran. Charlotte Thatcher hadn't even needed her political or financial clout. She somehow had gained ownership of over a third of the habitat, her enclave was virtually a separate state, in the habitat she queened it over.

Carl checked her background profile, it wasn't happy reading, after the success of her first book. It had five hundred and sixty three million downloads and fifty thousand hard copy sales, and was still selling. She had invested in some personal enhancements, an e-com computer interface, she could now use any e-coms enabled device without even touching it. In addition to memory and intelligence upgrades, her IQ had gone from around one hundred and fifteen up to two hundred and sixty.

Then she had written another book Charlotte Thatchers Fantasises, it purportedly was all the things she fantasised about doing. As it was a work of 'fiction' she had really given herself free rein, it had not sold as well only a hundred and twenty million downloads so far. Both books were still selling of course, but it had given her a good sized nest egg and with suspiciously clever investment turned it into a mid sized fortune, on it's way to becoming a large one, no one could prove anything but the richer she got, the less inclined anyone was to try, wealth still equals power.

The Jupiter colony had seen the news, they had been expecting a delivery of soil, key supplies and construction workers, the transport was a surprise, but they knew now and were ready. The Chinese government was now shipping people to it's habitats as fast as they could, as soon as a ship was completed it was pressed into use.

When the convoy arrived the transfer of cargo and passengers went smoothly, it was just how do we move the soil into the new habitat. Tman's team had examined the new construction, the outer shell was nearly complete but one end was nearly completely open. They offered to back the trailers in, so the colonists could unload them directly into the new habitat, securing the bags to the internal structural members of the core. They accepted immediately, it made a lot of sense,to work inside the structure, the bags could be guided by ropes secured before being unfastened from the trailer. By doing it that way it took them less than two weeks, not only faster, but safer for the workforce.

Transfers complete they said farewell and went their separate ways. The large cruise ship had been completed, and was on its way to Jupiter packed with ten thousand colonists. Not long afterwards the announcement of the New People's save the Earth mission was a surprise to most of humanity, but the friends of the New People cheered, declaring now we'll see Aimee 237 turned away.

Group Captain John Hampton didn't know whether to be relieved or annoyed and finally settled on both. Relieved that sufficient force would be brought to bare on the problem, but annoyed that it wasn't his force to command. Years of frustration coming to the boil, and nothing alcoholic to drink, the ships bar had run dry months ago and resupply was not considered important.