Chapter eight
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Will Berrigan stood up from the chair he'd been sitting in while watching the special news cast and walked to the window. He looked out at the lunar landscape, crescent Earth was just above the horizon. He turned to his wife, Leslie. Both of them were smiling, Leslie wiped a tear from her eyes. "It sure was good to see the kids," Will said. "Our little girl is turning into a beautiful woman."
"They were both great," Leslie responded. "I'm glad Inocente found them, but, gosh, now they're in really hot water."
"Out of the frying pan and into the fire?"
"Something like that. It's nice they found some friends their own age, though."
Will rolled his eyes and whistled, "Kevin's sweetheart, Leona, she's a babe."
Leslie laughed at her husbands exaggerated antics. "They are all still sweet kids to me. What do you suppose Inocente meant when he said his ship captain received advanced flight training from Melodians?"
"I am suddenly comitted to knowing what that means."
"Will, we've done about all we can here on the moon, at least for now. What would you think about joining up with Inocente and his crew for awhile?"
"It sounds pretty dangerous to me. And what will happen to your medical research here at the lunar science base?"
"Oh, everybody can do just fine without me. I don't like sitting here and worrying about the kids. Maybe we can eventually go to Planet Pacifica and see Walker and Sean, too."
"Sounds good to me," Will responded walking toward the radio, "their side of Earth is aimed at us, I'll send a message now." A green light on the radio receiver started blinking at the exact moment he reached for the phone. "Someone's calling us now," he said as he picked it up.
Leslie watched Will's eyes grow suddenly wide. He covered the phone mouthpiece and whispered, "It's Chief Executive Daniella Johnson calling from Pacifica." He signaled with his free hand for her to pick up a second phone. Leslie reached for the phone and also turned on the two way television screen. The "Chief", as they fondly called her, stood before a large window in the Capitol. Daniella, the chief, was an attractive woman and an intellectual heavyweight who walked with graceful assurance in political thickets around the world, she was pacing back and forth in front of the window like a caged tiger. Beautiful tree lined avenues of the city stretched behind her over rolling hills. The neat checkered patterns of valley farms, which were reclaimed urban areas from an earlier and more primitive era, were visible below. Seeing Earth's landscape cemented Leslie's desire to return and be with her family.
"I've been watching your children's prime time news show on television," Daniella commented wryly, turning toward the screen as soon as it lit up.
"So have we," Leslie replied.
"They are quite professional and certainly surprised everyone here at the Capital," said the Chief. "The President of the United States of Earth just hung up, he's furious. He threatened to blow every communication satellite out of the sky if that's what it takes to keep them off the airwaves before they're caught."
"I'm glad Inocente found them, though," Will responded, wondering what was going to happen between Use and Pacifica as a result of the broadcast and capture of the submarine.
"We seem to have acquired unsought allies," the Chief said, somewhat pensively.
"Inocente told us they plan to colonize Earth," Leslie answered.
"I think the Delfinians look like interesting new neighbors," Will said with a chuckle. "The president of Use is going to have a difficult time figuring out how to answer questions from intelligent aliens." He laughed out loud at the thought. "There's going to be some real double talk going around about this one." He began laughing so hard he was barely able to finish his sentence. Tears of laughter were streaming down his cheeks.
The Chief smiled warmly as she waited for Will to regain his composure. "It is rather funny," she said when he had quieted down. "Though you should know your children's special broadcast has been kept off the air outside of Pacifica."
"How was it received in Pacifica?" Leslie asked.
"Everyone is ecstatic from what I hear so far. People are a little confused by the idea of being a protected colony of Planet Pacifica, but they figure anything is better than a police state occupation by Operation Freethem. Do you know they are making us pay for it?"
"No." Will and Leslie said in unison.
"Yes. And on top of that, we are also paying the expense of their navy in the Pacific, which has us blockaded from the sea. We have limited independence only because the United States is so broke from military spending they need us to help keep them from going under."
"Are you saying the United States is so broke it doesn't want to hurt you because Pacifica is paying their bills?"
"Precisely. Use corporations are here to buy our businesses, but so far they haven't been able to figure out how to make a profit running a company that is completely responsible for cleaning up after itself.
"Everything seems to be on hold until after their elections. Though none of this is why I called." "What's on your mind, Chief?"
"Please, keep calling me Daniela. As you probably know, I worked quite a bit with Inocente before he retired to Luna. He worked mightily to keep Use out of Pacifica when he was our top admiral.
"Use can't intercept this laser communication but we still should keep it short. Do you have any experimental spaceships that work?"
"As a matter of fact, I do have one. It's a small version of the Admiral's. A very good ship if I do say so myself. You're the only person other than Leslie that knows about it. We were discussing a trip to see the kids just before you called."
"So you do know where they are."
"Yes. They're...."
"No! Don't tell me anything. The president of Use is almost crazy with rage over this. He all but said he was going to come get you and use you to force your children to give themselves up. I called to warn you. Do you think you could get there without being seen."
"We watched how Inocente's ship did it."
"Okay. Don't pack anything. Go straight to your ship and get out of there," she said with a note of urgency rising into her voice.
Leslie and Will glanced at each other nervously. "We have quite a bit of research work," Leslie stammered.
"Forget it. I can't help you physically from here but I can probably have your work sent to the university. You are in danger, get a move on, now." The Chief winked, waved, and turned off the screen.
"Let's go," Will said. "We better hurry."
Leslie saw the look of worry on her husbands face and nodded as she stood. He went to the door, opened it, and looked out. "All clear," he said.
They slipped quietly out the door and into the dimly lit hall. Their own softly padding footsteps were all they could hear until they stopped to look around the corner of the passageway leading toward where the research ship was hidden. The sound of a single footstep stopping behind them was stealthily quiet but pounded in their heads like a drum beat. Hallways which looked much like those of any school campus suddenly became sinister, and dangerously lonely.
Will looked into Leslie's wide eyes and held his finger to his lips. He hooked her arm with his, led her around the corner, and ducked into a shadowed alcove and another door. He then activated the door lock with his finger prints, pulled Leslie inside, and quietly closed it. A satisfying click told them the door had locked.
"We are safe, for the moment," Will whispered.
"Where are we?" Leslie asked, also whispering.
"This is one of the machine shops we used to develop the spaceships," Will replied, turning on a desk lamp and opening a small, concealed drawer. "Here, take this," he said quickly handing her a flashlight with buttons all around the lens area.
"What is it?" Leslie asked, looking at all the buttons.
"A stun beam," Will answered, walking back to the door. "Set it on number one or what happens if you hit someone will be too gory. This is a high security area, I'm hoping there's nobody left on the base who knows their way around like I do."
He turned on a surveillance camera which covered the area outside the door they had just entered and locked. The screen showed three people standing outside the door. One was talking on a two-way radio, another pointed at the camera above the door, the third pulled a role of duct tape from her pocket and stuck a piece over the lens. They saw two guards carrying tool boxes run up to the door before the screen went blank.
"Uh-oh," Leslie sighed.
"Run!" Will said, taking her hand and leading toward the back of the shop. "There's a door to the next shop in the back corner."
It was pitch dark in the shop once they ran past the circle of light cast by the desk lamp. They were almost to the door when Leslie tripped. She hung on tight to Will's hand as she fell, jerking him around and down to his knees. A flash and explosion ripped the door they had just left from its hinges. Pieces of the blown out door flew over their heads. "That was lucky," Will said in a low voice. "Are you okay?"
She squeezed his hand and he pulled her to her feet. They crouched low and ran the few remaining steps to the next door, which opened when the sensor lock again recognized his fingerprints. Guards ran in through the blasted out door as Will and Leslie shut their door.
"They must be using plastic explosives to blow the doors," Will said. "I'm going to set my stun beam on zero and use it for a light. If we can get through this series of connected shops fast enough, we can reach the ship without using the main corridor."
They ran across the second shop and made it to the next door before hearing a second explosion. "They gained on us," Leslie gasped. She was beginning to breath hard and her heart was pounding.
Will was just reaching to open the door when they heard gun shots from behind. They dove to the floor as bullets slammed into the wall and door ahead. "Let them have a taste of your stun beam," he said reaching upward cautiously to activate the door. "Try not to hit them in the head or they'll be out for a week."
"At this point I don't care much about them at all," Leslie responded as she reached upward and randomly aimed her stun beam in the direction of their pursuers. They heard a shout of warning and the thud of someone falling unconscious to the floor. "I got one!" Leslie exclaimed as Will pulled her through the door and slammed it closed.
"That will slow them down," Will said. "There's one small room after the next door, then an airlock and we're at the ship. It's not far now. Keep running!"
They dodged around a maze of equipment, running in a low crouch. Will opened yet another door and they ran full speed without caution through the last machine shop area to the door on the far side. They quickly entered the smaller room and the airlock. Leslie leaned on her knees with both hands and stared at the floor, her chest heaved and her heart pounded as she gasped for breath. A muffled explosion boomed behind them as Will opened the airlock into the ship hanger. He switched on the lights and pointed to the spaceship door. "As soon as we are inside I'll open the hanger door to the outside. They'll regret it if they ignore the red light and blow through that airlock."
Leslie ran into the ship and sat down. Will leaped into the seat next to her. He started frantically pushing buttons and throwing switches. The ship hatch closed with a thump and squeezed into its airtight seal with a soft whining sound which shut out the rising howl of the joy generator.
Will clicked another switch and and a red laser beam lit the hanger door, which quickly began to open. A blizzard of papers, work clothes, and just about everything that was light enough to move whooshed out the hanger door with the escaping air, even the ship was dragged a few feet outward before there was no more air in the hanger.
"That's not the way it's usually done," Will said with a grin as he eased the ship out onto open ground. They taxied along a small smooth-floored canyon that opened onto the wider spaceport area and were immediately confronted with a fleet of police robot vehicles racing across the plain toward them. "Push that green button on your right. Then the red one beneath it. Keep doing it 'til I figure out what to do next."
Leslie looked out the front window. Fast approaching police robots were all that stood between them and the beautiful Earth floating above the forbidding lunar landscape. A green laser beam aimed at the approaching robots when she pushed the green button, the beam turned red when the closest vehicle was computer selected for focus. The beam turned to pure golden yellow joy power when she pushed the red button, a split second later the robot vehicle vanished in a puff of smoke.
"Now push the yellow button for automatic fire!" Will said as he searched around the ship control panels. Leslie pushed the yellow button.
A series of alternating green, red, and yellow beams flashed from the ship almost too fast for the eye to see individually. The last police robot flashed and disappeared before Leslie had moved her finger from the yellow button. "Wow!" she exclaimed, "That was awesome." She felt a sudden pang of doubt as she turned and saw the puzzled look on her husbands face. He was intently studying the switches and dials in front of him. "Can you fly this ship, Dear?" She demanded, still feeling a tingle of super-power her fingertips had just sent flying to destroy the enemy robots.
"There's no time for doubt," he responded, grinning. "Remember? I invented this ship."
"Yeah. I know. But have you ever actually flown one?"
"A little bit. During test flights. Whenever the pilots let me. The problem is that they always build these darn things a little differently than I design them. You send a message to the kids before their part of Earth turns away from us. There's the radio," he said pointing."
As Leslie reached for the radio controls she listened to her husband muttering things like, "Ah, here it is," and "Oh, no wonder I couldn't find it." She turned on the radio. "We're leaving Luna for pioneer earth base, if your father can make this thing fly," she said as the ship suddenly lurched straight upward.
"Okay, that was the tricky part!" Will cried exuberantly. "Now we have room to fly. Tell them we're following their route."
Leslie finished on the radio and Will set the course for Earth's south pole. "Blast-off," he said as he gently eased the power control forward. They watched Earth suddenly swell and fill the entire windshield. Leslie immediately began to worry about the landing.