Ben Bova - Moonwar

Someone said, “But if Yamagata’s going to take over the base—”

“They’ll staff it with their own people,” another voice countered. “Yamagata’s not going to keep us, that’s for sure.”

“What the hell can we do?”

Jinny Anson turned her back to Doug, to face the crowd. I’ll tell you what we can do. Fuck ’em! We don’t have to ask the U.N. for independence. We are independent! We can live here indefinitely. And if we have to expand the farm or build more solar cells outside, we can do that! We don’t need those fuckers! We’re free!”

The crowd roared, but from Doug’s vantage atop the table it seemed that almost half the people in The Cave were roaring in protest against Anson’s outburst.

“Okay, okay,” Doug said, waving his hands to quiet them down. “I’ve got to admit it, Jinny, I agree with you about ninety-five percent.”

“Only ninety-five?” She planted her fists on her hips defiantly.

“Hey, I wanna get back home!” a man hollered. “I don’t intend to spend the rest of my life here.”

“Me neither.”

“Listen,” Doug said. “For the time being, nobody’s leaving. We’re in a state of siege, looks like.”

“For how long?”

“Until this thing gets settled, one way or the other,” Doug answered.

“Or until the Peacekeepers come back with more troops,” came a voice from the rear.

Doug conceded the point with a nod, thinking that if he were pushed far enough, Faure might destroy Moonbase rather than admit defeat.

“Okay,” Doug said, loud enough to bounce his voice off The Cave’s back wall. “We’re going to have to act as if we really are independent. Jinny’s right about that. As long as we’re under siege, nobody can leave, so we might as well go about our work and show Faure and the rest of those flatlanders that we can get along without them.”

“Then I can launch my rocket?” Kadar asked.

“We’ll look into it.”

“But I still wanna get home!” a voice wailed.

“Once this matter is settled,” Doug told them, “anyone who wants to leave Moonbase will be free to do so. And anyone who wants to stay here permanently and become a real Lunatic, you’ll be free to do that, too.”

They asked questions and gave opinions and griped and argued among themselves for more than another hour. As Doug watched and listened, he realized that very few of these men and women had ever thought about remaining at Moonbase indefinitely. They were all contract workers, even Jinny Anson, accustomed to working on the Moon for a fixed period of time, then returning to Earth, to home.

Of all the people here, he realized, only Zimmerman and Kris Cardenas and her husband have consciously decided to live in Moonbase permanently. Maybe Jinny, he conceded. Her marriage had broken up because she spent so much time at Moonbase while her husband stayed Earthside.

And me. If I have to go back Earthside with these nanobugs in me, some crackpot nanoluddite will kill me, sooner or later. That’s the sweet part of religion, Doug thought, you can be as fanatical as you want in the name of God.

The mercenary hung at the rear of the crowd, wondering how long these people could go around the same mulberry bush. Then Kadar climbed up on the table beside Doug and began telling them all, in elaborate detail, how wonderful the Farside astronomical observatory was going to be and how important it was to the future of the human race.

People started to drift out of The Cave, most of them still talking among themselves as Kadar droned on, unperturbed. As if talk’s going to do any good, the mercenary thought. They’ve been talking for damned near four hours with nothing to show for it but a bunch of sore throats.

He watched Doug climb down stiffly from his perch on the table. Okay, he told himself, Doug’s going to go back to his quarters now. Christ, it’s after midnight. Okay, just tail along behind him and when he gets to his quarters, invite yourself in and get the job done.

“It’s past midnight,” Claire Rossi said tiredly as she trudged along the corridor that led from The Cave to her quarters. Nick O’Malley, at her side, towered over her like a redheaded bodyguard.

He nodded. “I’ve got the early shift tomorrow. Gotta be up and moving by six a.m.”

She smiled up at him. “You can sleep in my place. It’s closer.”

He smiled back. “How could I refuse?”

But once they were snuggled in her bunk together, Claire whispered in the darkness, “Maybe I should get an abortion.”

She felt the shock that went through him. “Abortion? Why? You can’t! I don’t want you to.”

Feeling more miserable with each word, Claire said, “With all this going on, all this uncertainty… and if there should be any complications…”

He touched her bare shoulder tenderly. “You feel okay, don’t you? There’s nothing wrong, is there?”

“No,” she said, “I feel fine.”

“Then what’s this talk about abortion? I don’t like it.”

“It’s just…” She couldn’t put the words together.

“Just what? This siege thing? Don’t let that frighten you. Even if we have to go back Earthside we still have employment contracts. Masterson Corporation’ll have to honor our contracts. We’ll have our jobs.”

“Suppose there’s fighting?”

“How could there be?” he said. “We don’t have anything to fight with.”

“But Doug said Yamagata wants to take over the base.”

He propped himself on one elbow and looked down at her. “And what’s that got to do with it? We’d have to go back Earthside anyway, now that you’re pregnant.”

’I’d have to go back,” Claire said. “I’m the one who’s pregnant.”

“Well, I’d have to go back with you, wouldn’t I?”

“Why? We’re not married. You’re not under any obligation.”

For a moment he was silent, then Nick chuckled softly in the darkness. “So that’s it, then. You’re worried that I won’t make an honest woman of you.”

“I never tried to—”

He smothered her lips with a kiss. “Listen to me, Claire darling. I love you. I love our baby, too. I’m going to marry you… if you’ll have me.”

She wrapped her bare arms around his neck and pulled him down to her. “I love you, Nick. I’m mad about you.”

After a few moments he caught his breath and said, “So there’ll be no more talk of abortion, right?”

“Right.”

He fell silent for several heartbeats. Then he murmured, “I wonder if there’s anybody here in Moonbase who can perform a wedding?”

Doug sat on the table’s edge up at the front of the cafeteria until even Kadar ran out of steam. Only a handful of people were still in The Cave. Most had left long ago.

Edith was still by her minicams, recording every word of Kadar’s monologue. Doug walked slowly over to her as the astronomer at last climbed down from the table and headed for the double doors to the corridor.

“You’re a glutton for punishment,” Doug said as she clicked off the two cameras.

Edith grinned. “He seemed to enjoy being recorded. He played to the camera for the last half-hour or so.”

“Is any of that stuff useful to you?”

She started to dismount the minicams. “Maybe,” she answered over her shoulder. “A couple of sound bites, add a few clips of the artist’s renderings of what the Farside base will look like.”

“Artist’s renderings?”

“You do have drawings of the facility, don’t you? Architect’s sketches?”

“Computer graphics.”

“Fine,” said Edith. “Perfect.”

Doug helped her to collapse the tripods, then hefted them both in one hand.