Hello!
And so we drive on towards the end, with only 5 more chapters after this one.
Chapter 89
The Evil That Men Do
The last few days of the journey from Mars had been very bittersweet for everyone onboard the MTV. When she first heard the news about her sister and brother leaving the ship, Saffron had been quite inconsolable, but a personal message from her friends on Mars had changed everything.
The new Citizens Council had decided to be more inclusive now that Redding and the Deep Council no longer held any sway over the population. All Martian medical staff had seriously looked into the risk of illness and disease associated with the possible arrival of more people from Earth in the future and without any interference, it had been a simple task to develop a genuine series of medical tests and an appropriate quarantine procedure for new arrivals. It was generally accepted that the only ones at any real risk were the people born into the sterile environment of Mars Base One and all they really needed was a good, strong immune system and some targeted immunisation.
The upside of all this for Saffron was that the families of some of her friends would eventually be joining her in the asteroid belt, because the Mars Council had authorised the construction of a bigger Mars Orbit Station, that would eventually be expanded to become a settlement in its own right.
The thought of one day being reunited with her friends cheered Saffron up greatly but even so, there had been many tears when the two sisters parted company. Abigail was still wiping her eyes as she strapped herself into the co-pilots seat of the Star Runner II, just in front of Calla.
"Looking forward to seeing you Mom and Dad?" Abigail asked as she tried to distract herself.
"Don't tell my Mom but I'm really looking forward to seeing Doom again" Calla admitted "I've got so much to tell her."
As the girls chatted, Blue floated into the small ship and stowed his gear under one of the unused rear seats.
"Hope you've both finished saying your goodbyes because we detach in under fifteen minutes" he noted.
"I've already visited the little astronauts room so we're all set to go" Calla grinned.
"Actually, that's not a bad idea" Blue thought as he floated back out again.
"Hmm... better safe than sorry I suppose" Abigail agreed as the unbuckled her straps again.
Twelve minutes later, with all final business taken care of, the Star Runner II was released and floated free from the MTV. As acting communications officer, Calla made contact to verify their condition.
"Star Runner to Star Cruiser; detachment successful, proceeding with departure procedure."
Blue shook his head and sighed before trying to convince Calla that she should stick to convention.
"I really don't thing Dad likes it when you refer to the MTV as..."
"Star Cruiser to Star Runner; trajectory confirmed" the voice of Luis Dias came over the comms.
"Then again... what would I know" Blue resigned himself.
Down in the depths of the El Centro bunker, Professor Adisa once again found himself being pulled from his uncomfortable bed by a couple of excessively cruel guards, and dragged out of the overcrowded dormitory. He tried not to step on anyone forced to sleep on the floor due to the lack of beds, but with such low light and having only just awoken, he failed miserably.
He was usually taken to an interrogation room near the Colonel's office, but that night he was taken to Redding's old house. The grounds around it had changed considerably as trees, ferns and flowers had been replaced by the much needed food crops. Now that the main population of El Centro had fled, only a small number of people were permitted to work the farms outside while under heavy guard. For most of the people kept captive, fourteen hour days of work inside the bunker had become the new normal.
They worked long and hard both growing food and creating ammunition in the workshops, while those with the right skills were pressed into refitting an ever increasing number of ships. These were not like the raider vessels of recent years, but ships of war outfitted with military weapons plundered from bases up to one hundred kilometres away.
"Your friends in Sumatra have been rather busy" Sage noted when the Professor was pushed into the room.
"How do you know what they've been doing?" Linton asked, hoping Sage would not be too secretive.
"Believe it or not, I have found a small satellite system in geostationary orbit that I can use to monitor anything in Earth orbit; if they could see inside the atmosphere, Redding would have known about the tanker ship in Sumatra years ago."
"No that can't be true; any satellite in the vicinity of Earth would be smashed to pieces when the Sholf-4 cloud passed by" Linton argued.
"Yes I admit it is a mystery, but I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth" Sage shrugged.
"So what have you found?" Linton asked.
"There have been regular appearances of rather large capsules on the high side of Low Earth Orbit and when I track the trajectory back to their launch site, surprise surprise they all come from the Railgun in Sumatra."
"Don't you see Sage, you don't have to attack the Railgun; with so many launches taking place, you'll be able to get back to Mars just by asking."
"It's not enough for just me to go" Sage went over his plan again "If I want to make the Deep Council pay for trying to kill me, and believe me I really do want to make them pay, then I'm going to have to take an invasion force with me; and that means I have to control everything that happens in Sumatra. Now I wanted to show Doctor Spencer that I mean business by shooting down a few of her cargo pods. But unfortunately for me, by the time they are detected it is too late to launch a missile because they are out of range; on the up side though, now I have a new target."
"What new target?" the Professors eyes widened.
"The MTV entered orbit yesterday afternoon and while it is too high for me to shoot as well, it has just launched a small ship which is on course to land near the Railgun."
"You can't shoot that one down" Linton said desperately "It could be a crewed vehicle."
"Oh I can assure you it is" Sage grinned. "I have been able to monitor its communications and I believe it has the two brats who stole the MTV from me last time, as well as Dias's daughter who fancies herself as a space cadet. The thought of blasting them all out of the sky doesn't seem to bother me at all."
"I'll make you a deal Sage; leave them alone and you win" Linton gasped "I'll co-operate in any way you want and never give you any trouble, ever again."
"I am pleased to hear you say that Professor" Sage smirked "because that is what I expect from you... if you want to be sure that I will not have to do this for a second time. When we eventually get to Sumatra, you will confirm to Doctor Spencer that I am not to be trifled with, and the only way to assure she will be able to assist the people of Earth to evacuate, will be to allow me to take over the Railgun for a short time; four to five years I'd say. Once I have succeeded in taking over Mars Base One, she will be free to send as many others as she can manage."
"I don't believe you" Linton stated "I doubt you would let Sarah sent large numbers into space; you'd be too afraid they would amass a larger force to take you down."
"How stupid do you think I am Professor? I may let people go off planet, but when they arrive in Earth Orbit, they will be greeted by my army and they will go where I send them and no one except my soldiers will ever be permitted to be armed."
"You're going to try and rule the entire solar system... with Marshal Law?" Linton squinted "That's ridiculous."
"I'm not going to try" Sage sneered "I'm going to do."
"But that's crazy; how can one man hope to achieve such a massive undertaking?"
"Oh I wouldn't have a hope if it were not for two things; firstly the Sholf 4 meteors destroying the entire old world government system, and secondly Redding and his Deep council doing all the hard work. All I have to do now is use what they have built and I'll never have to worry about people like Florian Klein having power over me ever again."
"Is that what this whole business is really about?" Linton shook his head.
"None of the Deep Council members had the guts to really keep order" Sage sniffed "They just wanted to feel important; but Redding was the one with the real power. He thought he could just let his underlings have their fun while doing his bidding, but the death of his grandson proved he was wrong; I intend to be a lot more careful when it comes to sharing power."
"In other word, you won't" the Professor noted and Sage just smiled.
Professor Adisa had made sure not to stare at the large screen behind Sage during their argument. An intercept countdown had already passed zero and was now counting up to the time when the small ship would pass through the range of Sage's missile. Linton just stared at his foe, willing him to rant on for another twenty five seconds, when Calla and the Dias siblings would finally be safe.
"It's been fun watching you try to distract me" Sage said with a smile "If you're wondering why I'm not rushing over to launch the interceptor missile, you'll be sorry to hear it has already set to fire at the optimum time when there is four seconds remaining in the launch window."
Professor Adisa felt the pressure building on his heart, as if metal bands were being tightened around his chest. His breathing shallowed and he soon reached the point where he could stand it no longer, so he turned his head to look as the monitor screen. He soon realised Sage was telling the truth; for as the clock counted down from six, a soft vibration shook the building and a few seconds later, the powerful missile blasted out of its hidden silo and into the sky, tracking its way inevitably towards the small ship in orbit.
I watched the recent launch of the Falcon Heavy rocket with great interest and was surprised to hear reports that a lot of people were angry about Hugo Drax... sorry, I mean Elon Musk... launching his Tesla Roadster into space. They apparently believe there should have been a more useful payload put on top, but these people forget one important detail; IT WAS THE FIRST TEST FLIGHT OF A NEW ROCKET!
Until the 'Car in Space' idea came up, the original payload was to be the same kind of simulated payload mass as was used in the past. When rockets are tested, the mass they carry can be as simple as a big lump of lead, concrete or even a tank of water. If one of these mass simulants had been used on the SpaceX FH, no one would have known, no one would have cared and no one would have been angry about there not being science on board.
Note; TESTING THE ROCKET WAS THE SCIENCE (well... engineering at least) so why not have some fun on the side?
Who knows; maybe some early rocket tests also had joke payloads... like a Snoopy doll in a space helmet or an Astronaut Barbie (the doll, not a bar-b-que).
Sometimes we just have to face up to it; some people are simply boring.