TKG08 WE WILL BUILD Rel 01 (37 page)

Cheryl Lynn grabbed the remote and made sure the ‘record’ button was punched.
 
“Got you covered boss.”
 
She never looked up from the tv, but waved a hand at Bethany Anne as she stepped around behind her, grabbed Ashur by the scruff of the neck, and walked through the Etheric into her closet in Florida.
 

From there, Bethany Anne changed clothes and slung one sword over her shoulder and belted on her pistols. “Time to make sure no one leaves the party my Own are throwing.”
 
Reaching down, she grabbed Ashur once again and walked to a building over in Shanghai China.
 
She had visited it hours earlier via a Pod delivery.
 
Then walked the Etheric back to Colorado to see the beginning of the news coverage.
 
She would in place hours before anyone should be around.
 
It might make for a boring time, but she wasn’t going to allow that certain someone to escape if she could stop it.

At that same time, there were three pods moving smaller hunks of rock and rapidly approaching the earth’s atmosphere on the other side of the world from the show going on approaching the moon.

Aboard Moon Base One Command Module

“I’m telling you, let’s not fuck up on national television Coach.”
 
Penn told his second, Steve Hewgley.

Steve came over from the Navy as a retired Navy Avionics Electronics Technician.
 
He was in his early fifties, or if you believed him, his ‘late late thirties’.
 
Whatever, Penn didn’t care because he was hell on wheels getting things going on the electronics side and was a master with the video equipment.

“What?” Coach asked him from container two, “You don’t just want me to run the video with a fifteen second delay, that way if something goes wrong I just loop it?”

Penn looked at him, “That’s great!”
 
he exclaimed, “how fast can you make that happen.”

“Now.” Coach replied.

“Now?” Penn answered, confused.

“Yes, as in I’m running it that way right now. It’s common in situations like this.”

“Oh, I’m used to ‘live - live’, not ‘mostly live’.” Penn retorted.

“I’m used to captains of ships not wanting a fustercluck to show up on the news at six.”
 
Coach replied.

Penn thought about his own feelings as the captain of this effort, “Smart people,” he said.
 
Coach just nodded his agreement.

The team brought their containers around the moon to the most level location that they could find.
 
It had been pre-surveyed two days back and the locations for the seven containers had been programmed in and ADAM had checked everything.

Twice.

For global PR support, there was a video camera in each of the seven modules and the insides of the containers looked more like true science modules than what the team would have brought along if they did not have the cameras involved.
 
There was no reason, the team felt, to give away too much by showing how little of this stuff they needed.
 
Most of it was just pretty dressing done up by William.

The world, who was watching intently on the edge of their seats viewed the graceful slow down of the seven containers as they started to align themselves.
 
Jeffrey had a pod above them with a video camera trained down on the seven containers.

The team had built the beginning of Moon Base One to be three across the middle with two on each end perpendicular to the three.
 
One of the two containers on each end had a special connector built into the side of the container in addition to the two on the ends.

The seven team members included ‘Coach’, John Jensen (on loan from the Guardians), Adarsh Venkatesh, Kris England who had gotten involved with the base after a stint in the police force, Bree Breeza and ReaLea Hurt.

This team had been through hell and back preparing for this operation and, by God, Penn was going to make sure they all survived it.

“Bree, make sure we are on track to bring your module in first.”
 
While the team allowed the computers to handle most of the tracking, they were to be available for override or highlighting if there were issues quickly.

“Dammit John, pull that ship back a bit.
 
I know the computer is happy happy, but I’m not explaining to Bobcat why we scratched his pretty container.”

“Penn, we have a janky video connection on container four.”
 
ReaLea said as she watched the video link cut in an out and then felt the hesitation in the movement as they computer would stop movement each time it lost visual lock.

“Dammit.” Penn sighed, “Coach, suggestions?”
 
He turned to the monitor Coach was on.

“Not a problem, we have redundancies on our redundancies.
 
I’ll go to another channel and ReaLea and we will deal with it.
 
Worst case, I go moon walking.”
 
He cut off his channel.

Penn sure hoped they didn’t have to show the world their suits.
 
They were far less bulky than anything he had ever been shown outside of the movies and frankly too form fitting.
 
He was good, but a couple on the team were a bit too curvy for prime time in some countries while wearing those things.
 

During one session training in the suits, the team laughed about how their video show would go from PR to PoRn if the ladies stepped out.
 

Coach said he would take it for the team and go out in one of those suits. He claimed this would pull the attention from them to his elder ‘thirties’ body. Because ... no one would be able to pull their eyes away from his amazingly tight man figure.

That had caused Bree to snort out the coffee she had been drinking which was a pain all of its own to handle, but only caused the laughter by the rest to be more raucous.

The containers continued to come together and Penn watched them all doing the similar choreography that had happened in Paraguay, the south pole, the desert, during wind, rain and once they even tested it under sunshine.

Penn could feel Bree’s container link up with his and the scraping as the container twisted and connected tight.
 
One minute later, Coach’s container connected on his left.
 
Then John’s next to Coach and ReaLea’s behind John’s.
 
Finally, Kris connected to Bree’s and Adarsh behind ReaLea’s.

“Hold!”
 
Came from Adarsh. “I’m showing a leak between myself and ReaLea.

“I’m not seeing any warnings, Adarsh.” She supplied.
 
Penn could see her anxiety as she checked if there was anything she could do to help him.

“Let me think about this, one sec.”
 
He stepped away from the video and walked off screen.
 
A minute later he came back on.
 
“It’s a small issue with the seal.
 
I’m going to back off a bit and disconnect.”

A few tense moments later he spoke again, “Ok, I’m disconnected, I didn’t suffer any significant air loss.
 
Let me turn the container around and try the other side.”

Coach got Penn’s attention, “Maybe we missed something getting everything refurbished?”
 
Penn shrugged and didn’t say anything but rather stayed glued to watching the monitor for Adarsh.

The team had no idea a huge portion of the world was watching and universally holding their breath.

The world could see the last container pull back and slowly turn a half circle to present the other connector and slowly move closer.
 
Finally, Adarsh came back online, “I’ve got connection…I’m airtight!”

The whooping and hollering of the team was heard around the world.

TQB Base, Colorado - USA

Terry slowly regained consciousness in a cell.
 
The bed wasn’t uncomfortable, but the fear he felt when he blacked out was back in a second.
 
He stumbled up off the cot and swung around, backpedaling to put the rock wall behind him.

No one was there.

His mouth was dry and his pounding heartbeat overpowered his ability to hear any other sounds.

Vampires!

That had to be the answer. He felt his neck, but nothing was there.
 
He couldn’t feel any marks.

Whatever he had gotten into, he was thinking he would never get out.
 

It was time to end it.

Looking around, he realized he no longer had his glasses.
 
They were supposed to be something he could claim he needed in case he was found and then chew on the end to break the tiny glass capsule to ingest poison.

But the glasses weren’t on his body.

He moved over to look around the bed and couldn’t find where they might have left his personal stuff.

He heard a door open outside and immediately ran back to the wall, turned around and stared at the door with the tiny opening.

There was a knock on the door before it opened and a sharp looking man was in the doorway.
 
Terry considered his chances to escape and was getting ready to attack the smaller man when he stopped him with a few, short words.

“Hello, I am Samuel…”

QBS Polarus - Mediterranean

Barb walked into the cafeteria and looked to see Frank at a back table talking with someone in what looked like a monk's robe.

She breathed deeply once and then exhaled.
 
She walked by the tables smiling a couple of times to people who said ‘hi’ to her as she made her way over to Frank.

He was in a deep conversation with the man who had his back to her.
 
The man put out a hand and turned in his seat to regard Barb.
 
It was at this time that Frank noticed her.

“Sorry!”
 
Frank stood up and reached over to pull out a chair, “My apologies Barb.
 
Let me introduce Barnabas to you.
 
Barb, this is Barnabas and Barnabas, this is my guest, Barb.”

Barnabas stood up halfway and bowed, “It is a pleasure.”
 
Then sat back down to continue his discussion with Frank.

Now, Barb didn’t know what to do.
 
She had hoped to ask Frank an important question, but it was rude to ask someone she didn’t know to leave the table and she didn’t know if what they were talking about needed to change around her.

Dammit!

Frank continued his conversation, “So, you are saying that Kamiko Kana learned to walk the Etheric from you?”

“Sadly, yes.”
 
Barnabas agreed, “Not that I can walk it, but I was working on learning more for the last four centuries when…”
 
The two men heard Barb gasp.

“Oh, sorry about that Barb.”
 
Frank said, “I didn’t explain to Barnabas that you weren’t totally dialed into the UnknownWorld.
 
I should probably explain more to you…”

“You won’t wipe her memories?”
 
Barnabas asked, “Has Michael made a change to the Strictures?”

Frank shook his head, “Not Michael, Bethany Anne.”

“Truly?
 
Another major change to the Strictures.
 
It’s a wonder the whole thing hasn’t come falling down.”
 
Barnabas opined.

Frank retorted, “Do you really have a clue?
 
It’s like you throw these little comments left and right to see what blows up and how it lands.
 
Sometimes Barnabas, I swear you are like a …”

“Careful Frank Kurns, where I come from…” Barnabas started only to feel a hand on his shoulder.

Stephen’s voice held a hint of rebuke, “And where I come from, Barnabas, you never threaten the person under the aegis of another.”

Barnabas’s shoulders seemed to relax, “Sometimes brother, the old ways still drag me down.”

Stephen left his hand on Barnabas’s shoulder, “Then maybe we should go and discuss the old times with a brandy?”

Barnabas smiled to Frank and Barb, “My apologies, I seem to forget myself.
 
If you would forgive me, I’m going to adjourn with Stephen.”