CH2 (83)
Captain Montgomery had landed the shuttle. "I need to check in with your father to go over the supplies and people that came on this trip." And Roy excuses himself.
Rick takes his vacated seat. "Now what?" Rick was still shocked by it all.
Kate only shook her head. Her planet was peaceful compared to Earth. It was what had shocked her so much when she found out how homicidal Earth really was.
"They have the weapons, so there isn't really anything we can do about that. …. So let's focus on what we do when Captain Montgomery comes back and tells us he's found another colony planet.
Our home on Ariel isn't going to be dome for another year still. About the same time the biggest of the dry docks here will be done, and then 4 more years for our ship to be constructed." Rick starts off.
"Emily and Kali will not be starting school for another few years, and they will adapt the quickest to a new place." Kate adds. "But what about Alexis? She hasn't been in school since we left Earth and she still doesn't have any friends her own age here. She could on Ariel." Kate hated what they kept asking of her.
"And she's 15 now Rick, she's going to start noticing boys soon. If she hasn't already. She isn't going to meet kids her age on this new colony planet." Kate was hating this idea fast. "And we're likely going to be there for at least 2 years."
"Plus there is Madison, Shawn and your father. …. And her parents. I mean I'm sure they came out here for their own daughter, but to them you are their daughter too. And I'm betting Kali had at least some say in what they were thinking when they moved out here." Rick was thinking what if Madison and Shawn went with them and Jim and the Queller's didn't?
"And they need dad here. He's good at what he does. He has this place running like clockwork." Kate had just gotten everyone in the same place.
"Your dad's skill is going to be useful on the new colony planet too. It's going to get supply runs just like Athos does." Jim could go or stay. Rick could see it good either way.
"In 2 years Alexis will be almost 18. And not have a boyfriend. Not even developed the social skills to get one. She was 13 when we left Earth Rick. Five years with no one her own age. As smart as she is she could be in college at 18. Making friends, doing what girls her age should be doing." Kate loved Alexis, just not what they were doing to her, ….
"And if we asked her, we already know what her answer would be." Rick points out.
"I know. But we're her parents. We're here to help her grow, not stunting her growth sticking her on colony planets." Kate had switched to moaning about the situation.
"And yet she is perfect for the job. Her knowledge is what makes these colony planets work so well. … And then there is the big picture." Rick brings up the 800 pound gorilla in the room.
"Interstellar war. …. And if we're not ready. …." Kate hangs her head.
"Roy and the council may be right. If say we were just one planet. Earth or Tellus, how many ships would be have? How many could we man? And if or when we lose one in combat, how do we replace it.
And who is going to man them? Kids? Even younger then Alexis is?" Rick knew they were right. They needed people and the resources other planets could give them.
"Technology isn't everything Kate. In WWII the Germans had better tanks. The Tiger tank was a killer of a tank. The Sherman that the U.S. had was no match for it. The Sherman may have been a rolling coffin, but one Tiger was no match against 10 Sherman's.
The German panzer groups only ever got 2 new tanks for the entire war.
The German's didn't have the numbers that the U.S. or Russia had, so they lost. If whoever is coming has numbers on us, even these new weapons aren't going to stop them." Rick points out. Seeing that the wars that Earth had, had at least taught him a lesson.
"We need more colony planets." Kate understood, just not liking what it meant for Alexis.
"And Alexis is smart Kate. Maybe smarter than we give her credit.
For now though, let's take it one thing at a time. We wait for Moon Shines to come back. Then we wait for Roy to find us another colony planet, and then we have a family talk. A really big family talk." Rick arches his eyebrows a couple of times.
It got the reaction from Kate he was expecting though. A little levity to break the ice and get Kate to giggle.
"Besides, maybe Madison will be pregnant by then and not want to go to a new colony." Rick smiles knowing he may have found one of Kate's buttons.
Kate was now laughing. "Mags will go nuts."
"And if what she's done for Emily and Kali is any indication, she'll be the perfect mother." Rick had seen firsthand how Madison handles children.
Kate was nodding her head, smiling. "Still doesn't mean she won't freak out though."
James Comey had just entered the White House and was escorted to the President's location. "James, thanks for coming. I've got a conference call in 30 minutes so we need to be quick." And offers him a place to sit.
"I'll be quick then.
We think we have found where our "Aliens" may have been staying in New York." James tells him.
He had the President's attention now.
"It looks like a Richard Castle is somehow involved." James starts off with.
"Castle? As in Richard Castle the writer?" The President doesn't understand.
"You know him?" Now James was shocked.
"Not personally, my wife has been reading his books for years. …. You sure?" The President couldn't see it. Castle had lived here for years for him to be an alien, ….
"We don't think he is our alien, we can trace his history back to even where he was born. The same for his ex-wives and his daughter. However he was married recently and her history appears to have been fabricated.
It's good too, but there just isn't any paperwork on her or pictures from the high school or college she supposedly went to." James tells him.
"Not necessarily, maybe she didn't want memories or her parents couldn't afford it, or were just mean." The President counters.
"We don't think so. We have found that she started a company security service. We talked to some of her clients, which wasn't easy since most companies are still closed and may stay that way." James pauses.
The President sighs, this Bracken guy had created a real mess.
"Apparently she was good at her job, almost scary good. One considered her work CIA or NSA compatible. We've also gained a list of her employees. Three are presently working for the NYPD, one is working at a hospital and one is Pamela, an ex- CIA employee who is now back with the CIA." James adds, maybe that will get his attention.
By the look on his face, it did.
"We've got most of them coming into a local office to interview them; once we're done we will know more. …. We also found that hers and this Castle's bank accounts are empty. Her employees all seem to have been the recipient of all the money." James adds.
"Now that does sound suspicious. Though they left just after or about the time we started throwing nukes around. Maybe they emptied their bank accounts just before they left the planet." The President speculates.
"That is our thinking too. But we will know more after we interview her employees." James tells him.
"What about his ex-wives?" Why didn't they leave with them?
"One is in New York City and has been detained and transferred for interrogation. The other is in California. She is being picked up by the local FBI office and will be flown out here for interrogation." James tells him.
"So maybe they didn't take everyone with them when they left." The President speculates.
"We are only just starting to dig into their histories and will know more soon." James was going to take them apart and hold them in Gitmo along with Bracken if he had his way if they were involved.
"Anything else on what they took with them." The President asks not sure stealing is the word he wanted to use based on what they took so far.
"Some, but we think there is still more. …. They got information of how to generate power using waves and other things using water." James tells him.
"Really? …. I thought our resident alien said their planet was more desert, what's with the water aspect?" It didn't make sense.
"That one has us baffled. With no oceans we don't understand either." James was forced to admit.
"And the possibility our alien friend is lying?" Getting James to shake his head.
"I have a conference call to get to. Keep digging. I don't understand what our friends are after or what they were doing here in the first place. They obviously don't want to talk." James sees himself out while the President heads downstairs to a secure conference room.
First up was a video conference with Admiral Quast out in the Pacific dealing with the Chinese.
"Admiral."
"Mr. President." They greet each other.
"As you know the WHO and CDC personnel are exiting Chinese territory as we speak." Quast starts out.
"It had gotten out of the Philippines just as predicted. And had made it to other South East Asia areas. The worst is when it reached India and worked its way into Europe. Thanks to China not trading with us and the airlines still being grounded back then, it so far hadn't made it to the U.S., … till now" The President tells him.
"The Chinese may be pacified at the moment, however I've got Intelligence telling me the Chinese and Russians both have units headed for their common border." Quast informs the President.
"They do. It's the Russians blaming the Chinese for the little medical problem our WHO and CDC people were chasing down. It seems it has crossed the border and is into Russia and headed west towards Moscow." The President informs him.
"Great, if we aren't trying to kill ourselves, mother nature is trying to help us along." Quast could handle the Chinese. That's what he was good for and could handle. Mother Nature was a different problem.
"Just keep an eye on the Chinese and keep an eye on our WHO and CDC friends." The President tells him and the conference call ends.
The President had 30 minutes before his next video conference call, so he went to the water closet and then looking for something to drink.
The conference call with General Campbell in Europe was next.
"General."
"Mr. President." Introductions are made.
"As you know the Russians after having successfully invaded the Ukraine had invaded the Baltic States. Given that our ground forces presently stand at 30,000 men with only the one mechanized unit, we have been forced to rely on air power.
Except for the rapid deployment force no other ground units have entered the area. However a number of air units were deployed forward and new units are still coming in now.
Not to belittle the Russians, but while their hardware is adequate, their training and tactics leave a lot to be desired. Our capability to slow and harass their movements has limited what they can do on the ground.
We also recently gotten intelligence that a number of their ground units are being deployed to the East. No doubt to counter China's movements in that area. Because of this their movement into the Baltic States has stalled and the remaining units are taking losses.
However without ground support we will not be able to drive them out of the area completely." Campbell informs him.
"It isn't so much what China has done that has caused the troop movement General. The WHO and CDC have been chasing a new bug that has probably already reached your area. The Russians seem to think it was deliberate and are sending units to bolster their joint border area with China." The President explains.
"They want to start a fight because a new bug has broken loose and they want to blame China?" Campbell is at a loss. Mother Nature doesn't give a damn who lives where, bugs are bugs.
"It has made its way out of China, and into the Philippines and India. It then spread West towards you. We believe that it was when it crossed the border into Russia and that is what they are reacting to." The President informs him.
"You can't fight virus's using troops, that'll just spread it faster. Begging your pardon sir, but has Putin lost his mind?"
"We believe Putin is acting for a short term gain and not paying attention to the long term costs. He can't be President forever so he is acting now in the belief that it will secure Russia's borders." The President reads from one of his update papers he receives. "Just keep hurting him and keep an eye out for that bug. We've already got additional WHO and CDC people headed your way to help you." The President informs him.
"Yes sir." And the conference call ends.
His next item is to read the paper briefing on the local problems.
The oil refinery re-construction was on schedule. Final completion was in about a month. The grocery store re-stock was working out nicely so far with only a few isolated problems. The National Guard was stretched thin guarding all the shipments. The bigger cities like New York or L.A. had their police departments taking up the slack. It was the really small cities and towns that were still feeling the pinch.
Banks and Credit Unions were open and while gasoline was being made available for local purchase, only a small number of stations were open to sell it, and those that were didn't really have too many customers.
The restriction on airline travel had been lifted 6 months ago, however very few people had been flying due to the increase in fuel costs being passed on in the form of increased ticket prices. Mostly only military planes were flying.
However carriers like UPS, USPS and FedEx were using aircraft and delivery trucks. Except they had also passed on the increase fuel costs.
They had managed to work thru Congress and the House for three new oil refineries to start construction. The environmentalists had of course complained and had already filed any number of lawsuits to prevent it. They would get built; it just might take a little longer, but not stop construction. In fact two of them had already broken ground. And since it cost too much to get to the site to protest, the sites were quiet.
They were at least a year out from anything resembling normalcy.
It was difficult to judge just what was going on everywhere given that even the journalists had to have gasoline to get around with, and none of them were on the priority list to receive any, so they had to purchase their own just like everyone else. There were so many other places it was needed more.
Then there were the Medicare and social security checks that had only recently started going back out. A lot of people had stopped making payments on loans. Credit cards were almost useless. If you didn't have cash you didn't buy things. But then except for the grocery stores very few places were open anyway and they by Presidential order were forced to accept credit cards.
Banks were open, though mostly for on-line users. With gas prices being so high still, it was hard to get workers to show up at any store, even the grocery stores.
The President was still in a fight with the oil companies over their profits. He had finally had enough and was going to have them arrested and have their companies taken from them to lower gasoline prices when the oil refineries had completed repairs. The country had to get running again, and soon.
The President didn't care about their profits. He wanted the country back on its feet again. So far only one had relented to do as ordered. The other two had indicated they would rather fight. He had already ordered a number of National Guard units to be deployed closer to those refineries for when the time came.
The President had also ordered the FBI to keep an eye on all senior executives. They were not going to be allowed to leave the country to escape justice. For once they were going to be held accountable.
All this because of one man and an alien at that. Well sort of.
The President was done with his conference calls and reading his morning paper updates and was now in his residence, resting. It was still a long day to go, and likely be up all night in addition.
There was a nock and his door was opened. "Sir, we have a situation."
The President was headed back down to the basement and the conference room he had just left, wondering what now?
He found General Campbell and Admiral Quast on one split screen with James Comey and John Brennan on another split screen. With him was his Secretary of State. "Gentlemen, what have we got?" It must be big to get everyone on the same thing.
"I've gotten confirmation from Space Command. " Brennan tells them all. "They're back. …. They detected a ship in lunar orbit less than 45 minutes ago. It matches the orbit and size parameters as the earlier ships."