Chapter 5

"Shermeen, that's..that's just... !" said Dawson, struggling for words. George Crato was still considering it all.

"I know Harlan, I know. And there are a lot more details I'm sure. I didn't have a chance to interview everyone, or even write down all the details.."

"So, did you tell Koenig?" asked Crato.

"I put it all in my report." she paused to take a deep breath, "along with my resignation."

"Shermeen. Are you sure?" asked Dawson, leaning forward.

"I've never been more sure of anything in my life, Harlan." she said with a smile. She reached forward and took his hand, then Crato's. "That doesn't mean I'm not going to miss you two. Come visit me sometime, if you can. Sursum Corda is just a stone's throw from where Base Main will be"

"Commander, it's been a most interesting tour. I want to thank you and your staff for its hospitality." said President Honorius, extending his hand in the human fashion.

"It was our pleasure, Mr. President. You're always welcome here, and of course that welcome extends to wherever on Earth we end up settling" said Koenig. He kept a diplomatic smile on his face, but he was anxious to get Operation Exodus underway. Despite the generally good news, and continuous flow of fresh food, he knew that there had been rumblings about the delay. Sandersons revolt was still fresh in his memory. The door to the travel tube had no sooner closed on the ape delegation than Koenig reached for his commlock.

"Tony, I want a senior staff meeting at 15:00."

"Right, John. Any agenda?" asked Verdeschi.

"I'll be sending it out momentarily," said Koenig. He replaced his commlock on his belt.

Koenig looked around the table at his senior staff, trying to gauge their reaction to the revelation contained in Shermeen William's report.

"Comments?" he asked.

"I don't see that this changes anything, John." Tony Verdeschi was never shy about expressing his opinion.

"So you don't believe her, then" asked Helena.

"No, it's not that. I have no reason to doubt Shermeen, or the Sursum Corda people. But regardless of whether it's true or not, it has no bearing on our situation. We've got to proceed with Operation Exodus as originally planned." said Verdeschi. "We've been cooped up on this moon for six years, John. Every other world we've encountered has been a disappointment. But now, Earth is literally within our reach!"

Koenig was taken aback by Tony's vehemence. He was a passionate man, but always scrupulously loyal. "Tony, if you've got something to say, just come out and say it." Koenig prompted.

Tony clearly didn't want to , but he plowed ahead. "John, all I'm saying is that since Breakaway, these people have endured a lot. Danger, hardship, loss. We've come through it all, but I think they are about at the end of their tether. There has been talk of ..well, abandoning Alpha."

Koenig took this quietly. He had suspected something like this, and Shermeen's resignation had only confirmed it. Now Tony. He looked around the table at the rest of his senior staff: Victor Bergman, Alan Carter, Sandra Benes, Peter Petrov, Terry McAndrew, Maya and of course Helena. "You all feel the same way? Victor? No advice of caution?"

"John, I'm willing to take Shermeen's report at face value. And if I had to guess, it sounds like the phenomenon that affected us when we lost Regina is the same one that propelled the Sursum Corda community two-thousand years into the future."

"And with all that, and the possible threat of the Dorcons hanging over us, the apes, the Icarus crew and all we still don't know about what could face us on Earth, you still advise we go ahead?" asked Koenig.

"It becomes all the more critical, Commander" interjected Petrov. "On Earth, we'll have access to more resources, more options for defense, for concealment. On the moon, we are totally exposed. Remember what happened last time we tangled with the Dorcons…" McAndrew was bobbing his head up and down at this.

"We have upgraded our defenses since then," said Carter.

"All that means is that we might have a chance of not getting wiped out. I agree with Petrov.

I'll sleep easier when we don't have all our eggs in this one basket." said McAndrew.

"The X factors are self-evident. The risk is real. I can't put it into words exactly but.. I feel that the time is right. If not now, when?" said Bergman.

"Sandra, can you give us an update on Exodus?" asked Koenig.

"Everything is in position for Option 2. We can begin whenever you give the word."

Koenig knew this of course. Option 2 was the plan to move the bulk of the Alphan population planetside, while keeping Moonbase Alpha operational at a minimal level with a rotating skeleton crew. This was the moment of decision. It was all that much easier because there was only one decision possible.

Koening stood up. "The word is given."

The original plan had been conceived on Earth over ten years ago, the product of a committee. Since Breakaway, Operation Exodus had been refined many times, mainly by Sandra Benes and the late Paul Morrow. Just as in the original Exodus of biblical fame, the movement was not one of simply people, but an entire society, its goods, wealth, history, and resources. The close proximity of the moon to Earth eliminated a lot of the guesswork, but it was still a herculean task. There were a thousand details. Only Sandra and her staff knew the total depth and scope of what a logistical feat Operation Exodus was. Each of Alpha's six sections had hundreds of critical items to transport. These all had to be packaged, then labeled with a computer printout designating which launchpad, eagle, and flight would take it to Earth, and even its final destination. Each section's equipment had to be brought to designated marshaling areas according to a strict timetable, based on eagle availability and flight time. The initial encampment/ staging area in the Frazier Valley had been given the temporary designation of "Base Main''.

There were inevitable snarls. Hydroponics had by necessity expanded far beyond its original quarters. It could no longer fit all of its designated equipment onto one eagle. Commander Koenig had given her the authority to make any decision about priority. This one would be easy.

"Seeds and living specimens have priority." she ordered through her comm panel. "The equipment can wait, " With real soil in unlimited quantities now available, she wondered idly if hydroponics might become a lost art before long. Not her worry.

From her desk in the Command Center, Sandra dispatched her staff to trouble-shoot and keep the flow of Alphans and their chattel moving on towards the Promised Land. In her own mind, she likened it to having arrived at an empty field in the middle of nowhere, and assigned the job of setting up a major metropolitan airport in only twenty-four hours. False modesty aside she knew no one else on Alpha could do the job half so well. Paul Morrow could have, but.. she thrust that thought aside quickly. She hoped her best would be enough. She toggled over to traffic control and quickly scanned the arrival and departure times of the eagles. Not since before Breakaway had so many eagles been flying above Alpha all at the same time. Had the pilot's stationkeeping skills gotten rusty? Everything looked smooth and routine so far. Next, she called down to Base Main for Pat Osgood. The eagles had to be off-loaded and refueled fairly quickly to keep the timeline.

"Pat, status report please." she asked.

"We're on schedule here, Sahn." said Osgood. She could hear the sound of an Eagle taking off through his commlock. "Maybe a little ahead of schedule. The construction crews have two landing pads set up with refueling posts, and a third one will be operational in a couple of hours."

"Good." The use of prefabricated landing and refueling sites would give the pilots much needed time to rest and recuperate. Exodus would by its very nature push both man and machine to their mental and operational limits. She had to make sure everything ran smoothly and on time, while ensuring the safety of all Alphans. An exhausted pilot could mean a disaster.

She switched view to lunar radar and noted the arrival of Eagle 14 into orbit."Eagle 14, this is Exodus control. What is your ETA to launchpad four?"

"Exodus control, our ETA is twenty-one minutes." came the response.

"Roger that, 14." She looked at her screen, which showed each section and the lots of cargo ready for boarding, highlighted in green. By moving her cursor over a lot, she could see the size, weight, contents of the cargo, and assign it a priority and loading destination. This took her about three seconds. She then switched to internal communications. "Technical Section, this is Exodus control. Proceed immediately to travel tube four with Lot tango-four-niner."

"Copy that, Exodus control. We're on our way." Sandra Benes leaned back in her chair to take a sip of real coffee before the next eagle came into range. The Exodus continued.

The passenger module of Eagle 1 had been silent for the trip back to Earth. Each ape was lost in his own thoughts, somewhat overwhelmed with what they had seen on Moonbase Alpha. President Honorius particularly had been in a blue study. Over and over, the question in his mind was what will this mean for the future of apekind? There was no immediate answer for him. He slept a little easier after the changes he had made to the military and police. Some changes had been discrete, some not so discreet. So many worries. He had heard rumblings from the gorillas and some orangutans. He recalled a conversation he had with Platonius, an influential legislator, in the receiving line of his fortnightly reception at the presidential residence.

"Humans will get civil rights in Ape City over my dead body!" he had proclaimed.

"I do hope it will not come to that, Senator." Honorius had replied evenly, letting Platonius draw his own conclusions.

Platonius didn't worry him, though. It was the silent ones that kept him up at night. Zaius and Aldo, who revealed nothing. Aldo was a compromise. In order to get gorilla backing for creating the new Police Service, he needed to give them something, so he had appointed Aldo, a known hardliner, as Octavius' second in command. Aldo had been a protegee of Urko, and had adopted all of Urko's noxious attitudes about humans. Honorius knew he had no choice, especially in light of the incident that had occurred just prior to his trip to Moonbase Alpha. A gorilla at the market had decided to use a human for a punching bag. The human had been armed with a knife. Now the gorilla was in the hospital, the human in a police jail, and a crowd of gorillas surrounding it demanding the human's head on a platter. Honorius had acted quickly. If the gorillas had dragged the human out of the jail and lynched him, it could mean war with both Taylor's tribe and Moonbase Alpha. He had ordered a trusted police lieutenant, Magnus, a newly appointed chimpanzee, to secure the jail.

"Take your squad down there and deal with the situation, Lieutenant. Gorillas have to know that the Police Service now enforces the law here in Ape City, not the army and certainly not a mob. Understood?"

"Yes, Mr. President." Magnus did not disappoint.

As Magnus and his squad had approached the jail holding the human, he saw a single chimpanzee police officer standing at the door, with a frightened look on his face. About fifty gorillas surrounded the building, all grunting and hooting and ready to fight. He recognized a few of them. One had been a classmate of his in school. Another was a neighbor.

"Break it up there! Go home!" ordered Magnus. "All of you gorillas, go home now if know what's good for you!" The gorillas all turned around. When he saw the faces of the crowd, he wondered if the rubber bullets he had ordered his squad to load into their carbines would be enough. The gorillas all had murder in their eyes.

"We aren't going anywhere until the human is dead!" said the apparent leader of the mob. This was met with a chorus of "That's right!".." by the lawgiver!" .. "you better believe it!" They started to advance on Magnus and his squad of chimpanzees. As if by remote control, the squad as one brought all of their weapons up and pointed them at the crowd of gorillas. The sound of multiple rifle bolts being pulled back simultaneously finally managed to cut through the crowd's rage. They paused. Magnus had picked his squad well.

"Go home now." he ordered, not unkindly. "This is your first, last and only warning. Once we start shooting, we don't stop."

The gorillas had gone home. But what if they hadn't? What if Taylor's tribe (he could think of the local humans by no other name) decided to retaliate? So many challenges. So many decisions.