TerraCom Inception

“Such kind words, Reynold… still a gentlemen and a scholar, I see,” Kinkaid said and gave a slight bow, eyes locked on the tall Congressman. “I’m pleased that your constituents find the wisdom of your continued office.”

“As they have since before your last hibernation began,” Reynold said as he smiled, clearly pleased with the praise that flowed from Kinkaid. “How long has it been? Ten years?”

“Time has no meaning for men like us,” Kinkaid said and shifted his gaze from the taller man to the shorter, fatter one smirking beside him. “Isn’t that right, Harpsprung? The older we get the younger we feel… or act, at least.”

Congressman Harpsprung snorted and said, “I see you’ve lost none of your eloquence, Admiral. I might say that all that time in cold sleep has been good for you.” He let his piggish eyes drift from Kinkaid to Jena. “Although your manners seem to have suffered. How could you not introduce us to your… friend?”

“Pardon me, gentlemen,” Kinkaid said and dropped a hand to the small of Jena’s back, who nearly lost her balance as he gave her a slight nudge, but compensated for it by taking a step forward. “This is Commander Mitchell, daughter of Captain Nathan Mitchell. I believe you know of him.”

They apparently did, Jena noticed as their eyes widened slightly, all save for the youngest one who cast Reynold and Harpsprung confused glances. Kinkaid continued. “She was responsible for bringing the freighter Mordicai in recently… which got her some favorable press, you might say. Her ship had already jumped for the frontier and we had to find something for her to do.”

“You father was one of our finest military leaders,” Harpsprung said and smiled as he bowed slightly. “I didn’t know him as well as the admiral here, but he was most certainly a hero by any accounting. It is our pleasure to meet you, Commander.” He turned to the junior congressman standing behind him and waved the man forward. “This is Duncan… newly elected and appointed to our committee. I wonder if you two might excuse us for a few minutes… there are some things we must discuss with the admiral.”

“Of course.” Duncan said as he locked eyes with Jena. He was thinner than Reynolds and appeared to be in his mid-30’s, balding, with gray eyes. Jena found Kinkaid, who nodded slightly at her, confirming Harpsprung’s request for momentary privacy. She and Duncan stepped away together.

“How long have you been in the Congress?” Jena said as soon as Duncan led her toward the service bar. “I’m sure you hear that a hundred times a day but I’ve never been to a function like this. To be honest, I’m not really sure how to act.”

“Get drunk,” Duncan said as he looked over his shoulder to smile at her, as if sharing some private joke. “Then you’ll acting like everyone else here. I just started my term actually. That’s one of the first rules they teach once you after you get issued your robes.”

Jena laughed and said, “What district are you from?”

“The Southern Atlantic region,” Duncan said as they waited for a spot to open up at the crowded bar. “Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina. Half the people who elected me don’t even know who I am. They just saw one of my commercials and touched on the face they recognized at the polls.”

“I used to live in Florida,” Jena said as Duncan leaned through a gap he saw and pressed the call button for the steward-bot dispensing drinks. “Curtis Lemay Displaced Family Center. My mother and sister probably voted for you.”

“Then tonight we’ll toast to their excellent judgement,” Duncan said as the steward arrived with two glasses, promptly filled with a greenish-tinged liquid. He turned away from the bar and handed one to her. “I know the Curtis Lemay DFC… if you came up from there and have gotten as far as you have, you must be something special.”

“I got lucky,” Jena said as she accepted the drink. Duncan smiled and lifted his glass to touch against hers. “Never in my life would I have expected to be here… now. They say that, during a jump to the frontier, your dreams last so long that it’s like experiencing a different life… one you keep expecting to wake up from. This is what it feels like to me.”

“Then here’s to your family,” Duncan said. “And to never waking up from the dream life.” His face contorted as he sipped from his glass but finally he was able to form a smile again.

“Is there something wrong?” Jena said and hesitantly lifted her own glass up to her lips.

“The bastards have watered down the Centauri Brandy,” Duncan said and looked into his glass. “Christ and Allah, if you want the good stuff you have to get it yourself. Go on… try it and tell me what you think.”

The odd sweetness that hit her tongue when her first sip did expanded until her whole mouth was tingling. For several moments, her facial muscles refused to respond, but finally the tingling begin to fade. She smiled and lifted a hand to her mouth.

“I’ve never had anything like it.” Jena said as she swallowed. The tingling numbness left a trail down her esophagus.

“Not many people have,” Duncan said and looked back toward where the two Congressmen and Kinkaid were still engaged. “It’s produced in the Alpha Centauri system… Horseman Station. The price of getting it from there to here is… prohibitive… so it’s rare,” His face took on just a hint of malice. “Ask the admiral to explain it to you sometime. I’m sure he knows all about it.”

“I’m aware of the admiral’s history,” Jena said and flushed with hot anger. “And for someone who doesn’t know how it affects him, I’d advise you to be careful about what you imply.”

Duncan dropped his gaze on her and smiled in a way that was supposed to be disarming. “You’re entirely correct, commander. My apologies if I’ve offended you. It’s just that it’s very easy to judge someone when all you hear are the bad things about them. The truth is that I don’t know the admiral at all.”

“Apology accepted, congressman. All I ask in return is that you remember what you just said when you start hearing things about people you don’t know. In fact, had I not heard such great things about you before we met, I would’ve assumed that you were an unrepentant ass.”

She smiled at Duncan, who again looked confused, then she realized that perhaps it was an excellent trait for politicians to have.

“You heard good things about me?” Duncan said.

Jena laughed victoriously and said, “No… but do tell me what you think of all this unification talk? Will we be able to make it happen?”

“We’re pitching the plan under the slogan, Whole Earth. We got thirty second slots on all major networks and net-sites,” Duncan shrugged and said, “A lot of people are afraid that the cost of it will be more than the civilized world can collectively bear. There are lots of areas that are still a step backward in time… a hundred years… two hundred years. It’s going to cost quite a bit to bring everyone up to speed. We’ll have our means of making that money back.”

“What made you decide on a career in politics?” Jena said and stepped back to allow a group of well-dressed men speaking Russian to step by. They joined a larger group monopolizing the large bowl of jumbo shrimp at one end of the well-appointed table.

“I didn’t want a job with some corps that would find some excuse to let me go a week before my retirement was due,” Duncan said and took another sip from his glass. “The money is the best part. It’s like liquid… impossible to keep track of. Look around you, everyone here is trying to figure out how to get their cut, but there are other perks.”

“Like what?” Jena said.

Duncan shrugged and said, “I get to eat in the finest restaurants in the world and somebody else always picks up the bill. I get to feel like a make a difference… sometimes… and the women are nice. You should think about it when you get out of the service. You could go a long way on the name you’ve made for yourself. Since you’re already on the staff, you’ve probably already heard about Whole Earth.”

“No… not really.”

His face lit up. “That’s great! A virgin mind, as we like to call it, not all hung up on that outmoded concept of this…. nationalism thing, someone willing to imagine that we’re all in it for the common good. We can do it… it’s about time we did it.”

“What makes you think I’m leaving the service?”

“There you are, commander,” Kinkaid said and Jena turned to face him. “I see that the good congressman has kept you out of trouble, thanks to you, Congressman Duncan.”

“No trouble, admiral.” Duncan said and took his leave.

Kinkaid watched him until he was out of earshot before speaking again. “Those jackals… they must think themselves exceptionally clever. Reynolds and Harpsprung made me an offer they imagine I can’t refuse. If I go along with their plan, they’re offering me command of the new naval organization that will come out of Terran unity. If I do not, they promise to oppose my command and replace me as soon as enough support can be mustered to do so, something that you’ve made more difficult for them.”

“It sounds like a very hollow threat, considering that you already command all the naval units in Sol system,” Jena said as Kinkaid snagged another flute of champagne off a passing tray. “And given your reputation, sir, I doubt that they would find anyone willing to step into your shoes.”

“True, but one cannot easily see the future,” Kinkaid said and downed the champagne in a single draw. “I have no reason to oppose them, so our concerns may well be moot… but, my dear commander, our lives depend on contingency planning. Have you learned anything from him?”

“From whom?”

“Congressman Duncan,” Kinkaid said and leaned away to place his champagne flute on the bar. “Surely he must’ve said something relevant to you in the time you two had to get to know each other.”

“He’s in it for the money,” Jena said. “And he has a great mistrust of our intergalactic corporate partners. He finds them dishonest and manipulative. Besides that, he’s very lonely.”

“Good… we can use that,” Kinkaid and wiped his mouth between his fingers again. “Mark well, commander… the life of an admiral.

“Admiral Kinkaid… is that you?” A crass female interjected. “It is you… and you haven’t changed at all. Remarkable.”

Kinkaid turned to find a couple standing next to them, an older looking man and woman wearing the colors of the new Organization of European Constituencies, the governmental council that had arisen to replace the EuroCon, that name no more than a speck of dust in time.

“Commander… may I introduce the EuroCon ambassadors… Don Gerano and Lady Gerano. I’d hoped that time would’ve removed their thorn from my side by now,” Kinkaid said and snorted at his own humor. “Although now I see that it has been quite kind to them.”

“It was nothing,” Don Gerano said and pulled Lady Gerano closer to him. He was a short, 50-something man with a brunette thatch and a salt-and-pepper beard, Lady Gerano was of a similar age and had been in holo-vids from earlier years. “The people can identify those with their best interests at heart no matter what the governing body is called. When they called for new elections, they voted what they knew, thus… here we are.”

“Indeed,” Kinkaid said and gave Jena a glance. “Let me introduce my aide… Commander Jena Mitchell… daughter of Nathan Mitchell.”

“I’m sorry I never had a chance to meet your father,” Lady Gerano said with a tight-lipped smile. When she spoke again her voice was laden with venom. “I would have very much liked to meet him,” She smiled at Kinkaid. “Interesting choice for personal ass-is-tant.”

“So tell me, Admiral,” Don Gerano said and took a sip from the champagne flute he was holding. “Do you think that perhaps this time we can make Whole Earth work?”
“That depends more on people like you than like me,” Kinkaid said. “Judging by the reaction I’ve been seeing so far, people are ready for change, but they aren’t willing to stake their own careers on it. If this thing is going to happen, it’s because everyone agrees that it’s the best thing for the planet and are willing to put aside their own agendas.”

“How is the Outworld Alliance reacting?” Lady Gerano said to Kinkaid though her eyes were still fixed on Jena. “Will they support a unified government.”

“Everything I’ve been able to ascertain says that they’ll support a unified Earth,” Kinkaid said and swept his gaze across the room for a waiter carrying more champagne. “It happened before… during the Procyon Crisis… and they were OK with it then. If we can demonstrate that we can make it work… that’s when they’ll really come into line,” He turned to Don Gerano. “It may please you to know that the officer assigned to radar watch when Atlas twelve came down has been reprimanded.”

“You could please us more with trained cleanup crews and heavy machinery. Most of the hospitals in the region are overflowing with radiation sickness. We’re hoping an agreement can be reached soon that would allow our friends in the Combine to send over support. The Russians have offered experts but they are insufficient for our needs.”

“I imagine they have their own problems with the Kola Exclusion Zone.” Kinkaid said as he sighed and waited for a space to open at the bar.

“What’s that?” Jena said, shifting her gaze from Kinkaid to the EuroCons, who seemed loath to answer, as if she were bringing up a subject painful to them.

“Kola Peninsula in Russia,” Kinkaid replied over his shoulder. “The old Soviet regime had a few big naval bases for their nuclear submarines. When the money ran out they just abandoned them to rot. There’re a few thousand derelict submarines up there that’ve been rusting at their piers for the last two hundred years. Some of those old reactors have gone critical… melted down or exploded. The area’s so full of radiation that the city of Arkangel won’t be fit for human habitation until the year four-thousand… or three thousand, I forget which.”

“Yes, most of the peninsula, particularly the cities of Arkangel, Murmansk, and Severodvinsk is off-limits,” Don Gerano said as Lady Gerano signaled for more drinks. Several nearby flunkies hopped to comply. “The European Confederation… excuse me, the Organization of European Commons… regularly experience contamination effects as far south as Budapest.”

“I wonder what happened here in the past for the land to be so cursed?” Jena wondered aloud to Kinkaid’s amusement.

“First it was the Romans and the Visigoths, then it was the Mongols, then the Germans, then the French, then the Germans again, then the Russians,” Kinkaid said as Don and Lady Gerano moved away to circulate the room. “Central Europe has been a crossroads for armies since before recorded history. Blood has watered the lands here as often as rain it seems.”

“When is the vote taking place?” Jena said as she and Kinkaid wandered down the buffet table.

“At the end of the week,” Kinkaid said as he removed a plate from a stack of same and scrutinized it for cleanliness, then he served himself a portion of brown pork-pate. “There has to be appropriate pomp and circumstance… it always takes the longest damned time, but the politicians demand it. They’re like spoiled children in a way.”

Jena laughed and said, “Congressman Duncan told me I should go into politics after my military career is over. Have you ever thought about running for office, Admiral?”

“Bite your tongue,” Kinkaid said as he looked around for crackers but, finding none, garnished the pate with chopped onions and black caviar, spread it on a round of French bread and popped the works into his mouth. “Generals and admirals have traditionally made very poor presidents,” He said as he chewed. “It’s too easy to fall into demagoguery. That’s one temptation I’d rather not put myself into position to deal with. Christ and Allah… what does it take to get a drink around here?”

“Admiral, I’m surprised… I’ve never seen you like this before,” Jena said as Kinkaid set the plate on the buffet table and stormed toward the auto-bar. The crowd leaning against it melted away as if the old man was giving off the Sun’s heat. “Are you all right?”

“Never better,” Kinkaid growled as the robotic steward stopped in front of him. “It’s just that I’ve always disliked these types of functions. The sooner I get drunk the sooner I can leave.”

“I see,” Jena said and suppressed the disappointment she felt inside. The UNE reception was the closest she’d ever come to Earth elite. “How much longer do you think that will take?”

“Difficult to tell,” Kinkaid said and shot a half-smile at her over his shoulder. “We haven’t been here an hour yet and the only people we’ve talked to were four prickly thorns that time and old age should’ve removed from my side by now but strangely hasn’t,” He shook his head in half wonderment/half disgust. “If only we could find the TIL delegation. A month ago they were falling over themselves to get access to the Omega field. We give them approval to send a survey ship in and we hear nothing back from them since. That’s more than simple ingratitude… they know something… and I intensely dislike groping for answers I should damn well already have.”

“Should we send one of the destroyers in for a closer look?” Jena said as Kinkaid drifted away from the bar. “I can check on available units once we get back to the hotel.”

“This is not the place to discuss our destroyers… loose lips scrap ships… world government be damned,” Kinkaid said as he scanned the crowd for recognized faces. “Make a note… as soon as we leave here, I want fleet intelligence to start compiling a dossier on the Omega field and on the ship TIL sent in to survey it. I will not be kept in the dark about this any longer. I want to know everything that TIL knows and plenty they don’t.”

Jena felt her purse begin to vibrate as a transmission arrived at the slim datapad stored inside it. She opened the purse and first removed a wireless earbud, which she slipped into her right ear, then took out the datapad and flipped up the display screen.

“Can I help you?” She said as the face of a young NorCom warrant officer appeared. The picture jittered as the frame rate lagged, then it caught up and stabilized as a better connection was established. The signal was being transmitted from the Holdfast on Mars.

“Warrant Officer Ford, operations center… sorry to bother you, ma’am,” He said. “We’ve just received word from our blocking fleet that Omega field has stopped dead in space. They are not asteroids… I repeat, the Omega field is not an asteroid field but is a fleet of unknown origin. A single contact has broken away from the main body and continues on course for the outer planets. At current speed it should reach Neptune in seventy-two hours.”

Jena felt her face go slack and dimly registered the call-signals of other data-pads in the room going off around her. She lifted her gaze to find Kinkaid watching her with an eyebrow raised. Her mouth opened and closed several times but no sound came out. A numbness not caused by Centauri brandy was spreading through her. She lowered the data-pad and slowly found words.

“Christ and Allah.”

***

UM-3/Avalon

Underground, time passed for Kray imperceptibly, counted only in the time taken to be moved via battery-powered cart or by porter to different holding areas. He got a little sleep here, a stim-patch there, some water now and again, but no food. The longest time he’d spent in one place was ten hours by his own reckoning, reclined on an olive-drab cot in a room with a dozen other recovering wounded.

“Mister Kray, you’re awake,” An enthusiastic voice broke the silence of sleeping men. Kray shifted his eyes from the rough stone ceiling overhead and sat up. A portly man dressed in common Avalon attire stood next to the cot. He held a tray. “The medical people mentioned that you were a quick healer… excellent,” He set the tray down and lowered himself to one knee. “How are you feeling?”