Ben Bova - Moonwar

She had scrupulously avoided the nanotech labs and the plastics processing center where Falcone was driving the chemists to produce tons of foamgel. She had done a long interview with Claire Rossi, already known to TV viewers Earthside as Moonbase’s first bride. Now Edith revealed that Claire was pregnant, but could not return Earthside because of the impending battle.

Good, human interest stuff, Edith thought as she edited Claire’s interview. It’s a shame I couldn’t get her to cry, though.

The phone’s chime startled her out of her concentration. She swivelled her chair from the editing screens to the phone screen and tapped the ANSWER keypad.

A young male comm tech’s face appeared on the screen. “A call for you, Ms Elgin. From Earthside.”

“Earthside? I thought all links were shut down.”

“This is coming in on a special laser tight beam, from Atlanta: a Mr Edan McGrath.”

Edith felt her eyes go wide. “McGrath? Put him on!”

Someone had once called McGrath the sexiest bald-headed man on Earth. Looking at his image in the phone screen, Edith thought he wasn’t really sexy, but he sure radiated energy and power.

“Mr McGrath,” she said, surprised at how humble she sounded.

Three seconds later he said, “Edie, I wanted to tell you that I think you’re doing a fine job up there. An excellent job! I’m proud of you.”

She blinked with surprise. The top boss doesn’t break a U.N. blackout just to praise one of his reporters, Edith told herself, even if I am his number one on-screen personality.

“Thank you,” she said. Again, timidly.

McGrath hadn’t waited for her response. He kept on talking. “After this is all over and you get back here, I’m going to personally see that you get a regular prime-time slot for yourself. No co-host, all yours. And a fulL-1ength documentary on your experiences up there. And a book deal, too. The only reporter at Moonbase. I’ve got to hand it to you, kid. You’re the greatest.”

It was the ‘kid’ that broke Edith’s spell. He wants something, she realized. Of course he does! He wouldn’t go to the trouble of establishing a clandestine laser link unless he wanted something from me.

“I’m glad that you like what I’m doing,” she said. “Now what’s the reason for your call?”

When her words reached him, McGrath’s brows hiked. Then he broke into a big, boyish grin.

“Can’t fool you, can I?” he said, brushing at his moustache. Edith thought it had been considerably grayer the last time she’d seen him. He must be coloring it.

“The Peacekeepers’ attack is imminent,” he went on. “From what I’ve been able to find out, they’ll come at you in another few days. A week, at most.”

He stopped, waiting for her reply. Edith nodded and said, “That’s the way it looks here.”

“Okay,” he said after the delay. “Here’s my question. Can you cover the battle for us?”

“Cover the battle?”

He hadn’t stopped for her reply. He was saying, “I know you’re only one person, Edie, but I’ve been thinking maybe you could get some of the Moonbase people to handle cameras, give us a blow-by-blow, minute-by-minute eyewitness account of the fight. Like Ed Murrow did in London during the Blitz.”

Edith knew who Edward R. Murrow was, but she wasn’t certain of what the Blitz might be. She didn’t fret over it. McGrath wants real-time coverage of the battle! I’ve got to tell Doug. This could be the biggest publicity break of all for Moonbase, showing the brave unarmed Lunatics desperately trying to hold off an army of U.N. Peacekeepers with their missiles and guns and all. Wow!

“Can you do it?” McGrath asked, almost plaintively.

“Mr McGrath,” Edith said, slowly, feeling the strength welling up inside her,’do you realize that if we show the battle in real-time it’s going to give Faure and the U.N. a terrible black eye? I mean, they’ll look like monsters, attacking these unarmed people.”

The three seconds were agony now. At last McGrath nodded grimly. “That’s right. I’m fully aware of it. I was wrong to back Faure against Moonbase. It may be too late to save the base, but I want the Global’s viewers to see what the little shit is doing to you. I want the world to see it!”

“Okay!” Edith said happily. “You’ve got it!”

He broke into a fleshy grin when her acceptance reached him. “Can you do it? How much of the battle can you actually show?”

Grinning back at him, Edith replied, “Moonbase has security cameras in every corridor, in every lab and workshop. And outside, too. I can show you the crater floor outside the base and even a view of the Mare Nubium, on the other side of the ringwall mountains. We’ll get it all, don’t worry.”

Three seconds ticked by, then McGrath said, “Great! Do it. Don’t worry about expenses.”

She signed off, almost delirious with joy. But as she hurried down the corridors to find Doug and tell him that Global News was now on his side, she realized that what she would really be showing the world was how the Peacekeepers marched into Moonbase and either accepted a surrender or blew the place apart.

“Take a look,” said Jinny Anson.

She touched the keyboard on her desk and the wallscreen lit up to show a satellite view of the beautiful crater Copernicus.

Doug paid no attention to the crater’s symmetry, however. He stared at the array of tractors and other vehicles parked on the plain of Mare Imbrium, just outside Yamagata’s base, Nippon One.

“No wonder they’re not flying here on Jobbers,” Anson muttered. “There aren’t enough rockets on the whole Moon to lift that much equipment.”

Doug felt almost breathless. “There must be enough transport there for a thousand troops.”

Bam Gordette, sitting on the other side of the table that butted Anson’s desk, said quietly, “Not that many. More than half those vehicles’ll be carrying food, water, air, ammo, missiles—logistics.”

Doug sank back in his chair. “How many troops do you estimate, then?”

Gordette waggled a hand. “Three hundred, three-fifty, tops.”

“That’s enough to do the job,” Anson said. To Doug. She pointedly kept from looking at Gordette.

Staring at the mass of vehicles parked out on the open mare, Doug muttered, “What we need is a good solar flare to knock out them out.”

“That would only postpone the inevitable,” Anson said.

Doug looked at her, sitting behind her desk. “Jinny, you used to be a lot of fun to talk to. You’re getting morose.”

“Yeah, I’ve noticed that, too,” she answered, straight-faced. “Wonder why?”

“How old is this information?” Doug asked, pointing at the wallscreen.

“This is real-time,” she said. “The bird’s made four passes over the region, so far.”

“And they haven’t tried to blind it or knock it off the air?”

“Why bother?” Gordette said. “If I was running their operation, I’d want you to see how much stuff we got.”

“It is kinda depressing,” Anson agreed. Again, without looking Gordette’s way.

“Who else has seen this?” Doug asked.

“Nobody,” she replied sharply. “The bits are transmitted from the satellite to our computer and straight to my office. That’s why I asked you to come here and see it. Not even Harry Clemens is getting this data.”

“Good,” Doug said. “It certainly is depressing.”

“Three hundred troopers,” Anson mused. “With missiles and all the other goodies.”

“Well,” Doug said, trying to brighten the mood, “at least we know they’re still at Copernicus. They’re not on their way here yet.”