The Monkey and Squirrel fight for freedom. (25 page)

Chapter 21

A death in the family

February the fourteenth 2116 was the day Plumber gave up his fight and died; he had lived longer than any one had expected. Particularly his mistress, Penelope Goodbody, as were the contents of his will, where she was described as a house keeper. Contesting it would result in automatic exclusion from benefit, this annoyed Penelope, she had been expecting a wife’s rights, but wisely accepted what was on offer.

Sparks was shocked, he'd had no idea he was in Plumbers will. He decided to donate most of the funds to Humanitarian and wild life charities, as he had more than enough for his and his family’s needs. The old crew remembered their comrade, knowing he had lived the life he wanted, getting as much fun out of life as possible. When fun was no longer an option he had given up the fight surrendering to death, as from his outlook there was no point any more.

After the funeral Penelope found to her surprise, she missed the randy old sod and genuinely mourned him, deciding to take stock before doing anything else. Plumber had arranged for  her to have the longevity treatments, soon after she became a fixture in his life. He couldn't have them himself because of his cancer, now she was effectively a young widow.                

Tman had commiserated with his old crew. One of Sparks comments about them being a sort of family, had rung a bell with him, triggering the realisation that they were a sort of family, the only one he had ever known.

Knowledge in the parental role, the others being brothers, even if Afro-man was more of a dotty old aunt. It was the foundation of their bond that united them against all comers, the six musketeers now alas, the four musketeers. The fact that the New People had automatically made families for their children, proved they all felt the need for family themselves, the Newp child care systems were working well for all involved.

Tman digested this revelation for a bit, realising those who had set the up the system knew this already, having done their research, and being in touch with their own feelings and needs.

It must have bypassed him while he was preoccupied with his own projects. Now his thoughts turned to his work with the new engine projects, which had given him some new developments for his interstellar experiments engines. This had delayed the launch of interstellar four, but as they didn't have a prototype design yet, it was decided to finish four anyway so it could be ready for mid March.

It might be worthwhile delaying five until the latest engine was ready, it all depended on the rate of progress. Ernest just happened to bump into him fairly often, just in case he started reminiscing. Tman often gave in and this time told him,

“We were a family on the station, even though Knowledge and Sparks had their own family back on Earth. We depended on and had to trust each other, our lives depended on each other getting it right. Living together like that just pressure cooked our relationships, we became a family or enemies, becoming an enemy of the family was not a survival strategy.”

“Was there any resistance to this process?” asked Ernest eagerly.

“The odd one now and again, human misfits usually left after one tour at the station I was told. Moaner was one, not only was he obsessed with the coming judgement of the lord, he was a total killjoy. His continual preaching really wound my old crew up and he wouldn't take orders from Sparks, this was a problem as being Sparks assistant was his job. Moaner only complied when informed by HR he would be shipped back to Earth without pay and charged for the round trip as a passenger. His only tour finished not long before I was shipped up.

Knowledge told me all this, when I asked why Moaner was never mentioned? When they talked about other old crew mates all the time. Knowledge also said it was a good job they had hidden Afro-man's condition from Moaner as he would have reported it immediately. Moaner was a cauldron of spite and bitterness with only hatred for everything, he regarded as other than the 'true path to salvation'. Totally untrustworthy, without compassion and no empathy, in short a failure as a person.” explained Tman

“Was he totally without redeeming qualities?” enquired Ernest.

“I asked that same question, Knowledge gave me an example, they were fund raising for the victims of a tsunami. When they asked Moaner if he would like to contribute, they were still trying to win him over at that point. His response was,

'God has punishing them for the sin of worshipping false gods, I will not go against Gods will!'

The benign God of Christian and Islamic faiths, who loves all his children, forgotten, as is normally the case with the self appointed true believers, blinded by their fanaticism. So I can only answer none to my knowledge.” answered Tman.

“You have met worse?”

“I never met Moaner so no direct comparison is possible, but I would nominate George as the same class of person. His sense self importance was based on his presumed superiority to those around him, being replaced my monkeys really attacked the foundations of that belief, regardless of the circumstances. 

By far the worst person I have ever met was Charlotte Thatcher and you know more than enough about her, the biggest shock I have had since we came to Saturn was an e-mail from her claiming that I had freed the real Charlotte from the confines of normality allowing her to be true to herself.” explained Tman.

“That must of made you feel unclean?” speculated Ernest.

“As reading that book must have done to you.” Tman retorted.

“How do you know, I never told anyone?”

“I see it in you eyes every time she is mentioned, you give yourself away. Not a pleasant memory is it?” asked Tman.

“No it isn't, but there was enough in the book for me to know why you don't want to talk about it.” replied Ernest.

“On a brighter note, apparently Penelope Goodbody has discovered, to her own surprise, that she was actually genuinely fond of Plumber! She tells us in an e-mail to his old friends also asking if there is anything of his we would like as a memento, with an apology to me saying it could be just a bit of a problem getting anything to me.

I sent back just tell me he lived life his way right to the end. Her reply was he definitely did, of that I can assure you, when there was nothing left he could do that he wanted to, or I could do for him, he said that's it no more to be had. The light left his eyes, it was just like someone switched him off, he was dead before the doctor arrived, summoned by his remote monitoring system.

It was only after I got over the shock, I realised that I missed the randy old sod and really liked him, even thought of him affectionately. The compensation for satisfying his appetites was good, but my affection stemmed from the rest of the time we spent together. He was good company and got as much pleasure sharing a meal, a glass of wine and the conversion that went with it all.

He actually saw me as a person, not just a body for his pleasure, although I enjoyed that part surprisingly often. As he was always considerate and enjoyed giving, not just taking pleasure, it made me want to please him. The only problem I have now is finding someone to recapture that feeling of contentment I had living with him.” reported Tman.

“No wonder she was astonished, being a paid concubine and then falling in love with her employer, she must have gone for the money and got more than she bargained for, this is one for the biography.” signed a happy Ernest.

“But it's not about me, it's about a friend of mine.” protested Tman.

“An important life lesson, I'll stick it in the appendix as associates stories.” was Ernest's comeback.

“That'll teach me not to take pity on you, go now and let me eat my now cold meal, a person could starve talking to you.” stated Tman. 

Major Johnson had read the latest e-mail intercepts, nothing for us in this lot, but it is another mark on unusual people scale for them. Their focus is definitely not on the mundane or petty selfish considerations of the human masses. They are more the impractical dreamers who actually believe in and try to live by equality, justice and compassion.

But these people have always been very practical, never taking on lost causes, no pointless posturing, even the monkeys are nice people to web site, was making headway with popular opinion against the support our brave boys and girls campaign. Which was also losing ground to the bring our boys and girls back home before its to late campaign. These opposition groups had mysteriously gained access to the financing arrangements for the military war chest, har bloody har, mysteriously my bottom.

The information was all in the computerised finance system, and who do we know who can access all our computer systems cracking the encryption like it was a box of eggs. Its those very same very intelligent aliens we created and are now trying to kill, that is who. As a result all those people who now had to work an extra three years until retirement were demanding the resignation of the politicians responsible. That information also had been helpfully provided, and they demanded restitution of the welfare fund.

Those politicians and officials who had been against the expedition from the start aided by the young and ambitious, under mined the hard-liners using the wave of popular support to sweep them away. Restitution was impossible the money had already been spent on the war machine, and even more was committed to the repayments on the massive loan from the Chinese.

The best they could do was stop it getting bigger, and the gap would close eventually as the longer people worked after sixty years of age shortened their life proportionally. Most people wouldn't even live long enough to collect the state pension, even more would not get long to enjoy that pittance, dying years earlier than they otherwise would have.

I may well be one of them thought Carl to him self, but I'm better off than many and if I'm very very careful I could retire at seventy, depending on what university Daisy goes to.

Chapter 22

Fly bys and a war of words                                                                                                                                        

Interstellar experiment four was sent off at the end of March, interstellar experiment one had the Oort cloud before it, the orbit of Sedna behind it. The target velocity of ten percent light speed would soon be attained, the five meter telescope it carried was deployed to study the Oort cloud and the space in between. Not as empty as had been assumed, there being no clear dividing line where the Kuiper belt finished and the Oort cloud started. The engine had to be used to steer round objects too big for the laser to deal with, impact damage would wreck it. It was all new and somewhere out here, the dead Voyager probes drifted, only of historical interest but worthy of note, if detected.  

The flyby fighters were sent off in groups of ten every ten weeks, after their round trip of flybys, they returned to Saturn for servicing and refuelling. The first visit was to the carrier, they went in fast buzzing it, taunting it's fighters for an hour, then leaving for the asteroid mining stations.

A very anxious and angry Group Captain John Hampton, was letting off a bit of steam to the only person he could Wing Commander Wendy Glendower.

“Coming all this way just to taunt us, they didn't even bother to use paint balls. Hanging around then shooting off at a higher acceleration than our fighters maximum just before we get in range. It's all so humiliating, rubbing our faces in the fact we are so hopelessly outclassed by their new fighters, we're not even on the same page of capability, our only chance against them would be if they were defending something they couldn't leave, like those habitats of theirs.”

“There is some good news sir, the Chinese observation crew was awake and got some great pictures of this new type, although it does confirm what we suspected from Major Johnson's warning, the pictures have been e-mailed to you, much better resolution than our gun cameras, but they are meant just for kill conformation, intelligence is a secondary function.”

“OK Wendy, lets have a look at these vipers I covet. I'll put them on the big screen” said John without enthusiasm.

“Not much there to cheer us up sir, it even looks nastier than the old one.” observed Wendy.

“That obviously is deliberate, just look at it closely and tell me what you see, any new capabilities?” asked John desperate for any insights.

“For starters it looks to be designed as a fighter from the start, it makes the old one look makeshift. Those laser clusters are I think we can assume are for missile defence, it appears to have rail launched drones, probably armed with anti-missile munitions and worst case a tactical nuke. Or they could be missiles to be used against the carrier.

It has gained a second big laser and presumably the means to power it. There are two drones of a size with the ones that have been harassing us, on a different launch station, a pure combat version I would guess. Add in the demonstrated acceleration it makes them some where between ten and a hundred times more deadly. How am I doing sir?” enquired Wendy.

“About as well as I am, possibility better, those you called small drones, I had down as short range attack missiles. I could be right, but they could also be used the way you described, in fact if I'm right they would be even more effective in that role. Our twenty missile ships could launch their entire load out at one fighter in the formation, and with the support of its drones could take out the entire load before sending, the drones on to take out the carrier. God I'm not going to sleep tonight and I'm out of whisky. Do you know if the Chinese have any to sell?” asked a raged John.

“No whisky sir they do sell a passable grape brandy, a pleasantly drinkable plum brandy, but the hangover is the same. According to the lower ranks there are two grades of rice wine they have nicknamed Rocket fuel and Paint-striper respectively. None of it has made anyone go blind but the Paint-striper hangover is of the you wish you were dead variety, no one has gotten drunk on it twice, but it makes an excellent solvent. For more civilised drinking there are wines  Merlot, Tempranillo, Sauvignon blanc, Riesling and a plum desert wine.” answered Wendy.

“You had been studious in your research I see, what do you recommend for getting out of my skull quickly?” asked John too eagerly.

“It depends sir, if you were in total despair in need of a shock to the system to snap you out of it Paint-striper. But if you want to have a fighting chance of remembering your name in the morning stick to the brandies, if you just want to distance yourself from reality enough to get to sleep a bottle of Merlot and some company.” elaborated Wendy.

“Are you offering Wendy?” enquired John sheepishly.

“No sir, we're in the same chain of command, just saying you need to get your head elsewhere.” clarified a suddenly formal Wendy.

“I agree, that's why I asked the original question.”

“Not just out of your skull sir, visit somewhere different! If you like, I can show you a couple of wine come singles bars the Chinese have opened up in the inter space area, between the military and civilian zones. I'll come back for the rest of the watch, you unwind the best you can, before I find myself in command of this mess, as you've gone off your rocker, your heart packs up or you have a stroke.” explained Wendy.

“I look that bad?”

“Sir you look like death warmed over, I think you need a good meal to, you're not eating regularly or properly.”

“How many have noticed?” asked a concerned John.

“Just the command staff so far, but the lower ranks will start noticing soon and that would be bad for morale.” answered Wendy.

“I'm tempted to say what morale, but I'll go with your suggestion Wendy, lead on.”

The Mars station fly by panicked the people there, they did an emergency evacuation to the surface. The result of which was a host of minor injuries, damage to the station and shuttles, from crash departures and landings. They were better off than those on the carrier as they had somewhere to run and a locally produced reasonably priced drinkable whisky was available.

The only other thing was two of the fighters clamped onto the old mining vessel, used to store the now old nuclear missiles from the former deep space vessel, and took it with them.

The fly bys of all mankind’s facilities in the asteroids caused a lot of anxiety to all those present, when it happened again a few weeks later there was an increased demand on the pharmacies and distilleries immediately afterwards.

When it came to the Chinese mining/resupply vessel's turn, the military commander, Wing Commander Harry Glover had managed to get two fights of fighters clamped on the outside. After the last visit he wanted to be ready, crews rotating though every four hours ready for immediate launch. Launch them he did, they tried but never got within range; two ran out of fuel, lost and alone, out of sight and out of contact, the crews were just beginning to realise the depth of their predicament when New Peoples fighters clamped on. Towing them within fifty kilometres of the Chinese mining/resupply vessel at a closing velocity of ten kph, they would get home with around an hours life support left.

The crews were confused but grateful; command was not so pleased, he was having a rant about being treated with contempt by the enemy. The mining vessel captain was of the opinion that it was better to be treated with contempt than to be seriously dead.

It was a similar picture when moon station and earth orbit was visited for fly bys, it slowly emerged that every bit of human space hard ware could expect a fly by every four to ten weeks.

Major Johnson and his team, was required to sort the resulting information for intelligence. Well he thought, so much for it's all a con-trick brigade. Even with the documented speeds and accelerations, they have to have at least fifty fighters in play at any one time to maintain these flybys. Probably more, considering the Monkeys tendency to be defence focused, say a minimum of a hundred held back for system defence.

Ah to hell with it, they all ways accuse me of being pessimistic, a victim of enemy propaganda. I'll give them pessimistic. He listed his conclusions so he could write his report.

One, the flybys require ninety to a hundred and twenty fighters supported by a minimum of three carriers, one near Earth, one between Mars and the asteroids, the last near Jupiter. Two, given that they generally favour defensive deployments, we must assume a similar if not larger force retained for home defence.

Three, the purpose of this harassment is to persuade us to withdraw, by giving a big enough show of force to convince us of their case. I recommend we do withdraw our forces, as they have done everything they have said they would to date.

Four to those who say we destroyed the attacking force on the carrier I will point out we lost ten fighters for every one of theirs. The only reason we didn't lose more was they didn't have a missile defence system, the monkeys new fighters do, and also have enhanced weapons, offensive and defensive drones.

Five, the commander of our forces Group Captain John Hampton does not believe we can win without major force multipliers. Our weapons and forces need to be within shooting range of the enemy's, before the  bravery, dedication and training of his men can make a difference. Pointing out that he lost eleven fighters before they could get off a shot and it was only his deployment of the missile ships he had insisted on having, that saved them all from getting slaughtered. It is taking a large part of his current force just to keep the carrier intact from a handful of high stealth drones, he still lives in hope of getting his hands on one to analyse and back engineer its systems.                                                               

When he presented the report it didn't cause as much upset as he had been expecting, then he got a copy of technical sections report. They had estimated five carriers, each supporting twenty five to thirty fighters, with a similar or larger force retained for home defence. Their analysis of the Newp fighters capabilities was in line with the Group Captains, ultimately recommending, withdrawal as victory was not a possibility but total defeat was.

If this recommendation sat badly with the military, they at least recognised it was based in reality, an alien zone to most politicians. Such politicians actually believed if they said something often enough it became real, but you can't brainwash physical objects, they just are. Just as in the first world war, other people would have to die to convince them of that. Marching men into no man’s land armed with rifles against machine guns, those men lasted as long as it took to sweep the machine guns up and down the line. Only after tens of thousands of men died, the message got though and tactics were changed.

Fortunately few of the military had that mind set any more, disastrous defeats not being the path to promotion, but it was still common amongst politicians. They managed to get more concessions from the Chinese who having effectively written off the carrier, said anything that could be produced by the on board factories and those on the mining habitat before the carrier departed for Saturn they could have for free. The condition was all mothers, children and none essential personnel had to be left on the mining habitat when the carrier left on it's mission, leaving no doubt of what the Chinese thought of the missions chances of success. This was agreed but effected about a quarter of Group Captain John Hampton's fighter crews, he set his men the task of making his two man fighters into one man fighters, and retraining the crews again. Sending the specification to his reinforcements so they could also rebuild their fighters and retrain their crews.