Chapter Nine
In deep space a ship becomes a small world. While there is radio contact with the moon and with the more powerful stations at Houston and DOSEWEX, that contact is limited to official and functional communications. Radio messages from the Kennedy should have been less limited than those of an ordinary ship, for the Kennedy had as much computer power as either of the two main control stations. But since anyone on Earth with a powerful receiver could monitor ship channels, the Kennedy was limited in the information she could safely send.
Still when things settled down and the watches became long and boring, a favorite form of entertainment was to listen to traffic between ships in space and the home control stations.
To be in deep space was to be cut off from any accurate knowledge of affairs on Earth, for the daily broadcasts to spacers were from government-controlled stations. Much of the news content of such programs was shameless puffs of current Publicrat policies, promises of the Utopia to come. There was no mention of the attempt to destroy the Kennedy or of the death of the terrorists on the moon.
In the early days, when a few brave men were the focus of the attention of the world, nothing was too good for spacemen. On the first Mars flights the hours of boredom were partially dispelled by broadcasts on a special channel, news, music, and even long chats with relatives and friends of the men who were riding the ship through a long, tedious flight. Now, in the name of economy, broadcasts were limited and consisted mostly of propaganda.
No one aboard the Kennedy bothered to listen to the government stations. The ship carried a sizable film library and good music tapes. Because power was unlimited, there was a decent library of real books, plus a larger one of microfilm. Still, one of the favorite forms of passing time was to listen to the cool, professional voices of spacers sending reports to Houston.
For essential communications, the Kennedy was equipped with a squirter, a device which compacted voice messages into a split-second burst of energy and beamed the messages down to DOSEWEX, where they were recorded, stretched, and decoded. Messages were received in the same way, and only J.J. had access to the decoder. He held briefings on important communications. He was concerned by a new, all-out attack on the space program. Budget cutting in Congress was only one symptom. There was nothing definite as yet, but the FBI reported an apparent lessening of competition among the various radical groups. One indication was an attack on the DOSE communications station during which both Earthfirsters and Worldsavers had been killed.
One of the persistent questions sent by J.J. asked who had made the decision, at the last minute, to reverse a continuing policy of appeasement in dealing with terrorists.
“It is very strange,” he said, “because for years I’ve advocated a get-tough policy. I have always said that it would be best, in the long run, to sacrifice a few lives by refusing ransom demands. Sure, it would be rough on the victims, but it would save lives over the long period. For years I’ve been overruled from the political side. A gang of terrorists takes a hostage and demands the release of imprisoned terrorists, or money, or some political objective. In the past the bleeding hearts have forced us to give in in the name of saving the life of the hostage. Then, all of a sudden, when there’s more at stake than there ever has been, when the Kennedy herself is the pawn, when the last hope for space is the prize, we embark on a new policy of non-negotiation.”
“A political decision?” Dom suggested. “Because the politicians really wanted the Kennedy to be destroyed?”
“I’ve asked repeatedly,” J.J. said. “I get no answers. My main question is this. How did the Earthsiders find out about the situation when the moon was blocked off from any communications?”
“Any one of a dozen facilities could have broken radio silence,” Doris said.
“Or someone in Washington could have known in advance about Benson’s bomb,” J.J. said. “Someone at a high level had to be involved to get a bomb into Canaveral for that first attempt, and ditto to getting Bensen assigned to load the water.”
“Admiral Pinkerton?” Neil asked.
“He has only a couple of years to go before retirement,” J.J. said. “He’s had a good career. I don’t see him as a traitor to the service.”
“That’s the problem,” Dom said. “Who can we trust? There had to be a relatively high-level traitor at DOSEWEX to arrange the raid there.”
“We have one advantage,” J.J. said. “We know we’re fighting for survival, not only for the space program but for all of humanity. I seem always to be giving pep talks, but what the hell. It all boils down to seven people, us. We bring back the bacon or that’s it for space. The Kennedy will make a few Mars runs and then she’ll be scrapped. The Mars stations will be closed. Eventually even the moon will be closed and we’ll all be down there breeding ourselves into starvation. What follows will make the Dark Ages seem like an era of enlightenment.”
“It makes you wonder, doesn’t it?” Jensen asked. “Sometimes I think what we need is a man on horseback, a real leader.”
“A military takeover of the government?” J.J. asked sternly.
“What government?” Jensen snorted. “That bunch of idiots in Washington?”
“Are you saying that you feel democracy has outlived its usefulness?” J.J. asked.
“There never has been true democracy,” Jensen said. “And certainly not in recent years. Not with terrorists depriving people of their right to live, their right to make their own decisions.”
J.J. nodded grimly. “There have always been criminals among us, but when the cities grew too large to be governed properly the criminals were more free to act. Sensible citizens locked themselves in their apartments when they were deprived of the right to walk the streets in safety, and the early efforts to remedy the situation were one hundred eighty degrees off target. The bleeding-heart school of sociologists said that the criminal was merely a product of his environment, that he was to be pitied. Criminal penalties grew steadily less severe. A man can commit murder now and either walk free or serve no more than three years in a government detention home which is much like a country club. When the bleeding hearts finally pushed through anti-gun legislation and confiscated all firearms from lawful citizens, they left enough arms in the hands of criminal types to start a revolution. Then the terrorists gained a foothold in the twentieth century. At first there was no international condemnation, because certain groups of terrorists had the secret support of certain countries. The individual had no protection against violence. Government failed to live up to the obligation to protect the people. Sensible men refused to remember that since the beginning, force can only be countered by force. Man has always been a predator, merciless to his fellow men. And when the majority lets a minority composed of predators control policy and topple governments, it’s all over.”
“You’re saying that most of us have become overcivlized,” Doris said.