Wasteland Rules: Born to Fight (The World After Book 2) (14 page)

June 20, 2029

NASA Complex Cape Canaveral, FL

   They were picked up by another helicopter just
south of NASA at Melbourne beach. It turned out that NASA had heavily mined the
waters around the base so that no boats could get in. It also meant no boats
could get out. Derek suspected that wasn’t entirely true. There must be a safe
passage through the mines; no one would trap themselves like that. But they
probably didn’t want anyone to know the path and were worried he would memorize
their route in.

  They still didn’t trust him. That was okay,
because he didn’t fully trust them either. There was something not right about
the whole operation, he just couldn’t place it. It was odd that the defenses
and the village and fields had popped up so quickly after the Collapse. That
implied a long term plan that had been put into effect, but as far as he was
aware NASA didn’t do things like that. Members of NASA were obviously involved
but it must have been far greater reaching than that.

   When they arrived, Augie and Dr. Banek were there
to greet them along with a squad of troops. Both men had huge smiles on their
faces as they saw the scientists get out of the chopper with their cases
containing the research. The black couple that Derek and Rora had rescued were
separated by the squad of troops and escorted towards the facility that Derek
and Rora had entered when they had arrived. Derek chuckled to himself, lots of
probing for them.

   He approached the two leaders of the NASA group
and announced. “Well. We completed your mission for you.”

   They both nodded and smiled. “You are as good as
advertised. The loss of the chopper and the pilot were unfortunate, but you got
our scientists and their research back. ” Dr. Banek replied.

   “Maybe better than advertised actually.” Augie
agreed. “You were ambushed by Red Berets and killed managed to escape. I’m
impressed.”

   “Yes…I’m wondering how they knew where we were in
the first place.” Derek mused.

   “The Cartel must have been trying to trade our
people and the Red Berets were sent to pick them up.” Augie suggested.

   “And yet, they didn’t pursue the scientists; they
tried to kill me personally.” Derek argued.

   The two NASA leaders looked at each other and
then back at Derek. “They must have been after the device.” Dr. Banek said.

   “So how did they know where you were?” Augie
asked. “The Cartel certainly wouldn’t have contacted them about you unless
there was a bounty on you, and we would have heard about that.”

   “Who else knew about our mission?” Derek asked.

   “Only our immediate team and the chopper pilot
were aware of the mission and destination. We have a communications blackout
for the complex, so no one here could have sent a message. The pilot is dead so
we cannot ask him, but we didn’t detect any extraneous transmissions from the
chopper…” Augie replied.

   “It didn’t come from us.” Dr. Banek insisted.

   “It does seem unlikely, but somehow they knew
where we were going to be and when.” Derek agreed reluctantly. “That doesn’t
bode well for future missions.”

   “Can we go get something to eat? I’m starving.”
Rora broke in, defusing the tension.

   “Sure, let’s head over to the main building. We
can get something to eat and then discuss your future with us.” Dr. Banek
offered.

  The four of them hopped into the armored golf cart
that Augie drove and they headed over to the headquarters building. This time
they entered through large garage entrance in the back. There were guards
posted at the door and they checked everyone out, including the two NASA heads.
Once they were cleared they rolled inside into a large open space with parking
for multiple carts. A steel blast door closed slowly behind them, sealing them
in.

   Dr. Banek led them into the building through an
airlock and up to a conference room with a large window looking out onto the
ocean side of the complex. Derek could see the waves in the distance. He could
even pick out the steel boat obstacles and fence that had been erected along
the shoreline. Turret emplacements dotted the shoreline. These guys certainly
took their security very seriously. Maybe now he would find out why.

  Dr. Banek gestured for them to take a seat around
an oval wooden table. The seats were simple office chairs, but were
comfortable. There was no decoration on the walls, no plants, and the carpet
was standard commercial grade brown carpet. The room was surprisingly Spartan
for a high level meeting room. But it did make hiding a listening device very
difficult. The only sign of money being spent were the high end electronics
that Derek identified as a sophisticated projection system with video
conferencing capabilities.

   An aide brought in sandwiches and drinks on a
cart and served everyone before leaving and closing the doors to the room. There
was a hissing noise as the room was hermetically sealed. Augie hit a button and
shades rolled down over the windows. The lighting in the room automatically
brightened to adjust for the reduction in light. Derek assumed the walls were
soundproofed. Obviously they did take their information security very
seriously.

   The sandwiches were ham and cheese on white
bread. Simple fare, but surprisingly hard to get nowadays. The complex must
have a bakery, a dairy, and slaughterhouse to provide the food. Either that or
they had one heck of a storage facility for food. Derek ignored his food and
looked at the head of NASA, waiting for his explanation. Rora on the other hand
started scarfing down the food like she hadn’t eaten in weeks. That was
probably not too far off. Someone used to being fed all the time would have
trouble adjusting to the scarcity of food in the wastelands. Derek noted none
of the NASA folks had appeared underfed.

   Dr. Banek noticed Derek’s stare and colored
slightly. He stopped eating and wiped his mouth carefully with a napkin. Derek
noticed how immaculately he was dressed and his precise mannerisms and
concluded the man was probably at least a little bit OCD and very vain. He must
be smart though. You didn’t become the head of a technology based group without
intelligence. You also needed some level of political ability, which meant he
was probably also a good liar. Derek would have to take everything he said with
a grain of salt.

   “I guess you want me to explain what is going
on?” Dr. Banek asked Derek.

   “Since that is what you promised me. Yes, I would
appreciate an explanation.” Derek replied sarcastically.

   “Very well.” Dr. Banek said slowly and looked at
Augie. ”The General and I will attempt to explain the situation to you. You
understand that some things are too sensitive to tell you about. So I hope you
will respect that when we leave out a few details.”

   “We don’t trust you enough to share all our
secrets, but we do need your help.” Augie added bluntly.

   Derek smiled. “I get that. But I’m not going to
help if I don’t like what I hear.”

   Dr. Banek nodded. “We understand that.”

   “Get on with it doc.” Augie grunted and went back
to eating his sandwich.

   “Before the Collapse, NASA had been relegated to
backwater status with the virtual cancellation of the space program and its
subsequent commercialization.” Dr. Banek started. “We still did some space
launches, usually of satellites, since we weren’t ready to cede space to the
Chinese and Russians just yet. But our program was slashed in half and many of
our better minds left for other projects. We had to find another way to fund
our operations or risk shutting down altogether. So we signed on for a number
of black projects run by the military. The development of space based weapons
systems and defenses to be exact. We also worked on creating a new spaceplane
to replace the shuttle, a project that neither our enemies nor our friends knew
anything about. It was designed to be smaller, be undetectable to radar, and
was armed. The mission plan was for a vehicle that could enter and exit space
undetected, and destroy enemy satellites in orbit or deploy small forces into
space.”

   “You mean like to capture a Russian space station
for example?” Derek interrupted.

   Dr. Banek nodded. “Exactly.”

   “And you took the money because you needed it.
But once you took it they owned you right?”

   “I wouldn’t put it that way.” Augie scowled.

   “The General was our liaison, so pardon him if he
is a little sensitive about how our relationship started.” Dr. Banek explained.
“I would say we became much more entwined with the military than we had been
and our research shifted from purely scientific to military. We still continued
projects on the side but we now had to justify everything with a possible
military application.”

   “Which wasn’t that hard, was it doc?” Augie
asked.

  Dr. Banek laughed. “No you were very creative in
that regard.”

   “So how did all this get set up?” Derek asked
gesturing out the window. “I had top clearance and I never heard about this
becoming a military base.”

  “Well, we tried to create jobs for family members
to work on the projects and tied them to military needs. For example, the
farming you saw came out of a project to grow food for a projected military
moon base. Over time we tied more and more people into our projects. They were
scattered all over the country, but one of the requirements was the ability to
pack them up and move them in case of an invasion. So when the Collapse
started, we were able to pick them up and move them here.” Dr. Banek explained.

   “What about the troops and defenses? How did you
get all those resources when they were needed to try to help prevent the
Collapse?” Derek pressed.

   “We had sympathetic friends, like the General, in
positions of authority. When the Collapse started they moved troops and other
resources here to protect our burgeoning community. Most of the soldiers here
came from a unit whose family members worked on our project in Alabama.” Dr.
Banek continued.

  “So they deserted?” Derek accused angrily.

   The general bristled at that accusation. “We
didn’t desert, the government deserted us. We came here to protect the only
hope of civilization surviving after it became obvious that the legitimate
government was decapitated and the new government was only interested in
accruing more power.” He snapped.

   “Hold on. The ‘only hope’? Isn’t that a bit
melodramatic? What is really going on here? And how is it connected to the Collective?”
Derek demanded.

   He noticed that Rora had stopped eating and was
listening intently. Both the general and the doctor squirmed in their seats. It
was obvious they were holding something back. Derek figured they were holding
back the real reason this was all here. It wasn’t just a spontaneous movement
of people and resources to a possible safe place. It was an organized and well
planned creation of a well-defended and fully supplied safe haven.

   “All right. Cards on the table.” Dr. Banek finally
acknowledged. “This is much larger than NASA. It started back in the 2001,
before the decline of NASA. Following 9/11 the government formed a think tank
to postulate possible disaster scenarios and design responses to them. It was a
disparate group that included Hollywood screenwriters and science fiction
authors, as well as scientists and CEOs. From the beginning it was run by the then
Vice President and now President Rickard Channing. When he was reported to be
at an undisclosed location, he was meeting with us. Rora’s father and Stefan
Doors were founding members. It quickly became known as ‘The Collective’,
apparently Doors was a huge Star Trek fan.”

   Derek was stunned. He had never heard mention of
such a group, and to learn that Doors and Channing had been co-workers was
astonishing. Even more amazing was that the genesis of the current Collective
had been in a government think tank. He wasn’t surprised Rora’s father had been
part of the group; it was obvious he had been connected to Doors.

    “At first we stayed true to the mission and
thought up possible scenarios and possible solutions. But Channing and the
military started pushing us towards developing weapons and other projects to
counteract or pre-empt the possible scenarios. Things that were pure science
fiction, and science currently prohibited by law, were pushed into development.
Rail guns like the one we confiscated from you were the first thing to be
worked on. Then we started working on viruses and other biological weapons.
That was when we realized they were trying to create ways to
inflict
the
scenarios on our enemies.” The doctor continued.

   “Wait.” Derek interrupted. “You mean like a crop
virus that would decimate enemy food supplies rendering them helpless?”

   Dr. Banek sighed and Augie hung his head. “Yes,
I’m afraid the crop virus that decimated the world’s plant life almost
certainly came from that project…But we never intended it as a weapon. And we
certainly never designed it to wipe out all plant life. It was supposed to only
target a specific strain of plant. We created it to use as part of the project
to develop the counteragent and it was also considered as a possible weed
killing solution.”