Christopher Nuttall - A Learning Experience

Romford cleared his throat. “We have two thousand volunteers so far from people who applied to join the lunar society,” he said. “Charles has sent out a general request to the other people waiting in line, with the promise of lunar citizenship for them and their families if they accept. Quite a few old-timers have accepted in exchange for rejuvenation treatments, so I’ve authorised them. I’ve limited recruitment to Americans, so far, but I would like to change for the second batch. There are quite a few potential recruits in other NATO countries. After that…”

He shrugged. “We’ll have to start inviting Russian, Chinese and Indian soldiers,” he added. “And probably soldiers from quite a few other countries. There will be problems.”

“I know,” Steve said.

“But we’re not the UN,” Romford concluded. “Anyone who causes minor problems will be booted out — and sent back home, if they have been real assholes. And anyone who breaks the ROE will be interrogated, then summarily shot if they fucked up badly enough.”

“Just make sure you devise a sensible set of ROE,” Steve advised.

“The aliens might devise them for us,” Romford said. “But as long as we have a say in the decision, we shouldn’t have a problem.”

Steve nodded. “Keep me informed,” he ordered. “I want to know about any problems as soon as they appear.”

“Understood,” Romford said.

Heinlein Colony, Luna

“You do realise,” Kevin said, “that this is still quite distressing.”

Steve looked unsurprised. He’d grown up a little in the last few weeks, Kevin noted, even though he was still being far too casual about his decisions. But at least this would — should — cause fewer immediate problems. The nanotech had hunted down North Korea’s stockpile of nuclear warheads and casually disarmed them. It would take a careful inspection to reveal there was a problem and, somehow, Kevin doubted the North Koreans would dare to report any problems if they found them. The Dearest Leader was far too fond of lopping off his subjects heads for them to dare to face him with bad news.

Idiot , he thought, as he stood up. If you kill the messenger, the only thing you get is less mail .

“But it’s done,” Kevin said. “The North Koreans will be unable to fire nukes in all directions, should war break out.”

The President had been right, he’d decided, after catching up with the torrent of information from Earth. North Korea was starving, there were threats of revolution and the Chinese were completely distracted. Why wouldn’t the Dearest Leader gamble? Better to go out in fire than be torn apart by one’s own people. But now, between the nanotech and the handful of automated weapons platforms deployed to a position over North Korea, any major offensive across the DMZ would become a squib.

And countless North Koreans will die because of their leader’s madness , he thought. It would be simple, almost too simple, to remove the Dearest Leader too. But it would almost certainly result in outright civil war and hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing into the south. It could not be risked until war actually broke out. At that point, the Dearest Leader’s lifespan would be numbered in seconds.

He smiled, then led Steve through the network of corridors into the small factory complex. Building it up had required the dedicated use of four shuttles — and he was so glad they’d been able to obtain more shuttles on Ying — but it had been completely worthwhile. Now, they could start putting together a handful of nasty surprises for the next Hordesmen to come calling at Earth.

The nuclear techs looked up from their work, then nodded. Most of them had worked for the American government in one role or another, before being invited to come to the moon as part of the joint weapons research program. Not all of them were lunar citizens — they were still loyal to the United States — but as long as they worked on joint defence, no one actually minded. Besides, the more people involved in the theoretical part of the program, the greatest the chance of a significant development.

“These were backpack nukes,” Doctor Quinn said. He was younger than Kevin had expected a nuclear scientist to be, with a face that was surprisingly handsome. Some of his female research assistants were absolutely stunning. “Thanks to our modifications, they’re now bomb-pumped lasers.”

“Excellent work,” Steve said. “How do you propose we use them?”

“At the moment, I was going to suggest using them in minefields,” Quinn explained. “Our missiles are nowhere near as capable as Galactic-level weapons… and even Galactic missiles are slow, compared to point defence systems. We would need to lure the enemy towards the mines, rather than anything else.”

He paused. “The good news is that we can start mass-producing these weapons very soon,” he added. “And, with a little reprogramming, the fabricators can actually turn out the nukes.”

“Pity about the missiles,” Steve commented. “But I see your point.”

Kevin nodded in agreement. The fastest spacecraft built using purely human technology crawled, compared to Galactic missiles. But even they couldn’t outrace the warning of their arrival, allowing point defence systems to engage them before they entered engagement range. Keith Glass and his partners had several ideas for adapting humanity’s concepts to give the aliens a nasty surprise, but most of them were completely untested. The Galactics, it seemed, had the concept of Superiority , even if they had never read the book. They didn’t dare throw too much of their resources into scientific development out of fear of being overwhelmed by their opponents.

But you’d think they wouldn’t have a choice, he thought, as Quinn kept talking, explaining the number of minor improvements they’d made. Their enemies are slowly gaining on them in any case.

He waited for Quinn to finish, then led Steve into the next section, where Carolyn was waiting for them. Kevin smiled at her and allowed himself a moment of relief when she smiled back, rather than the odd expressions she’d given him on the ship. He introduced Steve quickly, then looked expectant. Carolyn didn’t disappoint.

“We have successfully unlocked the secret of basic antigravity,” she said. “I could give you the technobabble” — both Steve and Kevin shook their heads — “but the important part is that we can produce a limited antigravity field on command. We don’t have the sheer proficiency of alien technology, at least not yet, but we do have a way to get large amounts of cargo off Earth and into orbit without messing around with booster rockets. The downside” — she paused, significantly — “is that the system isn’t particularly stable and requires careful monitoring.”

She smiled at their expressions. “But, overall, it’s one hell of a step forward,” she added. “And we are working on unlocking more of their older secrets. For example, antimatter is actually quite simple to make, once we fabricate the right equipment.”

Kevin had to smile. The Galactics had never realised just how many clues their tech manuals, particularly those for technology they considered primitive, could give to the younger races. Maybe they couldn’t instantly duplicate Galactic technology, not now, but they could start understanding the underpinnings of the more advanced technology and inch towards mastering the best of Galactic science. And if they got some help, perhaps they could advance further forward than anyone dared to dream.

They’d programmed the fabricators not to produce antimatter-production systems. But the unlocked fabricators had no such restrictions. Given time, the human race would be able to produce vast amounts of antimatter too, which could be used as a weapon or converted into another power source. But it wasn’t something that could ever be used on a planet’s surface. The risk of disaster was too great.