Overture (Earth Song) (28 page)

The office building had once held a coffee company; it now housed hundreds of clerical workers who labored for an organization that didn’t exist. The people who coordinated the effort called it the Relocation Initiative. The workers called themselves the Portal Project, but not around their section chiefs.

Mindy
had been assigned along with Harold to an office that would have been crowded with only one person. They crammed in back to back for twelve hours a day, and at the end went to a small apartment they had been assigned to together within walking distance. Several times a day someone brought in a box full of paperwork that they were expected to get through by quitting time. When they got home every night, it felt a lot like military service.

Mindy
looked up from the pile of papers and sighed. Only a few minutes ago she had read the last report from the FBI in Seattle on the explosion of the SETI offices. “The event was ruled an accident, the result of a gas leak sparked by an undetermined ignition source. The buildings subsequent demolition is attributed to its age, lack of structural reinforcement, and the extent of the gas leak.” She didn’t buy it for a second and neither did Harold.

“
Man, I walked out of there ten minutes before that place went sky high. I didn’t smell a whiff of gas. I did the numbers, man, and to get a blast that big there would have to be about four hundred cubic meters of gas in that place. That much gas would suffocate everyone in there before it ever exploded. There ain’t no way I wouldn’t smell it only a few minutes before it went up!”

He
had a good point. It looked like there was a cover-up going on. When she read the signature on the report, she shivered. Bureau Chief Edward Masciler himself signed it.

She
was working on lists of proposed equipment to be taken through the Portal. She knew she didn’t have much help in this project because there were only a few hundred people with complete knowledge of the alien artifact. At Leo Skinner’s instruction, she and Harold had showed up at this building. There were about fifty others waiting in chairs and looking around apprehensively. She knew without asking that they all were in on the secret. They viewed each newcomer as a mortal enemy. Not many of them would be passing through that Portal, and they all wanted to.

After
waiting for about an hour, Skinner showed up. A few of those waiting recognized him, but none approached him personally like Mindy and Harold. Well, like Mindy anyway. Harold followed her, the look he gave Leo was anything but friendly. Luckily Leo realized the situation quickly and made the first move. “I’m sorry about what I said, Harold, I had no choice under the circumstances.” That was all that needed to be said. Harold shrugged and mumbled that it was cool and the two shook hands.

A
few minutes later a group of government officials showed up armed with tablet computers. They quickly took control and made it obvious they were in charge. “Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Some of you are here by invitation and some of you are not. Those of you that are here on the shirt tails of those who are qualified come over to this gentleman and answer some questions that will determine if you will be allowed to work on this project. The rest of you line up over by this lady to be checked in.”

Mindy
and Harold got up to head toward the guy interviewing despondent looking candidates. Leo caught them by their shirts. “Over here,” he said. They looked concerned but did as they were instructed. When the queue had worked its way to them Mindy went first.

“
Names?”

“
Mindy Patoy.”

“
Harold Binder.”

“
Husband and wife?”

“
Hardly!” Mindy laughed.

“
Neither of you are on the list, you’re in the wrong line.”

“
No they’re not,” Leo said and stepped between them. The agent looked at them, then at Leo before calling over another person.

“
Hi, Dr. Skinner, can you tell me what this is all about?”

“
Agent Bradley, how are you doing today?”

“
A little harried, actually. Who are these people?”

“
They’re with me.”

“
We went over this at the last meeting; we all agreed.”

“
No, you agreed. I told you I need scientists to make this happen. They’ve not been guaranteed anything, just like the rest of your sheep in the other room. The only difference is these two are actually qualified to cross over.”

“
That’s not up to you or Dr. Osgood for that matter.” The man glared at them and Mindy felt sweat trickling down her back.

“
Right, calmer minds will prevail. Regardless, they are with me, and I insist.” The man named Bradley looked from Mindy to Harold then to Leo. He narrowed his eyes and acted like he’d made a decision. “Volant would recognize an asset when presented with one. This is Mindy Patoy and Harold Binder of SETI.”

“
Really now.”

“
Really,” Mindy said, “you might be interested in knowing that we’ve been busy deciphering a message from space.”

“
I know all about that little scam of yours. Old stories won’t get you on the team.”

“
Old story? Maybe you weren’t aware that the code we received was identical in pattern to that which is on the side of the Portal.”

“
How do you know what the Portal looks like?”

“
We have our sources.”

Just
then one of the doors was pushed open and an older man with gray hair shoved his way in. “What code?” he asked them point blank. Bemused looks passed between Mindy and Harold as they realized their interview had been observed through hidden camera.

Leo
shook his head and spoke. “Dr. George Osgood, this is Mindy Patoy and Harold Binder of SETI.”

“
I know who they are,” Osgood said. “I want to hear about this code.”

“
So we’re onboard?”

He
looked her over and then chuckled. “Sure, why not. You’re working on the team, we’ll see about the eventuality of that assignment. I only have a say in who crosses over, not the final decision.” They both understood and agreed. Now here she was, days later, working as quickly and efficiently as she could to evaluate other people’s recommendations for equipment to be moved through the Portal.

“
Some of these people must be blithering idiots,” Harold said from the desk next to her. He handed Mindy a request form, referred to as an FU2 because of the designation on the bottom, Form U-2. Some faceless bureaucrat had designed the form as a general appropriations form and it had been modified for the Portal Project’s purposes. There was a space for the requesting party’s name and work assignment, a description of the equipment, size, time required for appropriation, and a picture. Many of the forms arrived with either no picture or a hand drawn one, others had catalog pages attached. The form Harold handed her had no picture, and only a description. It said simply “a nuclear power plant”.

“
Good Lord,” Mindy said and tossed the form back to Harold. “It’s frightening that this person is working for the same goal as we are.” Harold nodded his head and picked up a stamp, of which he had several. Reject and Return was pressed onto the page, which he then tossed in an overflowing out basket.

“
Two days and we’ve hardly made a dent,” he said and ran a hand through his thinning hair. “I never thought I’d be playing bureaucrat, man!”

“
They’re going about this all wrong,” Mindy agreed. “Only a couple hundred extra kilos each and we keep getting requests for Humvees, helicopters and artillery pieces. If this is the best we can do, the species is doomed.”

They
kept working into the afternoon until Skinner suddenly made an appearance. “How are things going?” he asked with a grin.

“
Not too well,” Mindy said and stood up to stretch her legs. “Have you seen the kind of idiotic shit they’re trying to send through? Some of it weighs tons, not kilos!” She fished out the nuclear reactor request a handed it to him. He shook his head so she handed him another.

“
Can it be broken down and moved through in lots?”

“
Sure, but what is the sense in taking a gasoline powered vehicle when you have to take the gas too.”

“
We can always drill for more gas on the other side.”

“
Leo, it could take decades before we get to the point of being able to search for petrochemicals. Besides, we don’t know if that world even has petrochemical stores, it might not be old enough!” Leo scratched his chin and thought about what she’d said.

“
I hadn’t considered that.”

“
Neither has anyone else. What happened to getting me a look through the Portal so I can finish fixing that planet’s location? It could tell us a lot about the planetary composition. What region of space it inhabits will tell us a lot about the age of that star system.”

“
More politics, kid. We haven’t sent anyone back through since we retook the Portal. They’re planning for the first crossing in about a week which is why we’re pushing to have a list of absolute essential equipment ready.”

“
Who’s handling the lists of absolutely essential people?” Harold asked. Leo shrugged and left them alone again. “I fear this whole endeavor is just like the Aries; a way to keep us distracted while they make their own plans.”

“
In this case, I don’t agree,” Mindy said as she looked over a particularly well presented requisitions form. Harold gave her a look so she elaborated. “There is a lot of effort being placed into this project by a lot of heavy hitters. Look at some of the names we keep seeing. Senators, Admirals, scientists (though not many), and even a few businessmen. There must be a couple thousand people in on this whole thing right now. They’re beginning to get lax in their security containment. The entire operation is developing an edge of desperation. A “get it done no matter what” attitude. What good is that going to do anyone? If they keep it up they’ll manage to put through a hundred or so completely unqualified people and tons of worthless junk.”

“
This is a bummer, man. I mean, no one is even trying to save the Earth. It’s like we’ve all just written the planet off.”

“
We’ve been murdered, Harold, that much is obvious.” He looked at her dully and shook his head. “I’m still working on the data from the Portal inscriptions and the signal we received. There might be something in there to help us. A super weapon, a way to make the Portals recharge after one hundred forty-four, or maybe at least some more answers.”

“
Answers would be nice. I was thinking of some more direct action.” She looked up and listened. “We’re getting all this data first hand,” he said and tapped a pile of forms. “We know where the stuff is that’s approved; locations anyway. I met this chick, Anabella, she works in personnel. She sorts lists of candidates and looks their personal files over. We were talking over a burrito this morning about how she knew me and you because she’d read our files.”

“
How quaint,” Mindy snorted.

“
My thoughts exactly.”

“
You going somewhere with this?”

“
Yeah. Why don’t we make our own lists? Personnel, equipment, everything.”

“
Seems like mental masturbation.”

“
So we give it to the powers that be when they’re about to make the decisions. At least they get to have competing opinions. We’ll be brutally honest, utterly efficient, and as logical as Mr. Spock.” She chuckled and shook her head as he continued. “We can even insert our own requisitions for equipment these idiots are leaving out.”

“
We’d need new forms to do that.” Harold took out a bottle of whiteout and she laughed out loud. “They should never have put a hippie on this project.” He grinned big at her. “Okay, let’s do it then. But let’s keep it quiet. Only those we know we can trust.”

“
And you know who that is?” Harold asked.

“
No, but if I know a sneaky hippie half as well as I think I do, that shouldn’t be a problem. I mean, we’re just doing this as a protest, right? So what difference does it make? I just don’t want to be handed my hat because of our little game.” Harold agreed to be diplomatic and quiet at the same time and they went back to work. All that day they sorted paperwork, stamped forms, and made an occasional photocopy.

It
was after seven when they headed home. When they got to their apartment Mindy smiled. There was an unmarked NYPD unit parked across the street. Harold followed her gaze and groaned. “Sorry,” she said and hurried inside.

“
Don’t take all night, man!” he called after her, but she was already running up the stairs two at a time. He sat on the bench in front of the building and pulled out his dinner, a sandwich he’d bought on the walk home. “They’re worse than rabbits,” he complained and took a bite, followed by a swig of beer. An older woman walking by with her poodle gave the long bearded, roughly dressed, beer-drinking hippie a dirty look. Harold shot the same look back and took another drink. “Wish I had someone to curl up with,” he said despondently. Sharing an apartment with the long legged and sexy red haired astronomer was driving him to distraction. Even though they’d only been lovers briefly many years ago, he could remember every curve of her body. His hand was no replacement for her sweet secrets. “This sucks, man.”