That’s when he saw it.
“Holy…” Timo said. He wanted to say more, but he couldn’t think of anything to say.
It was the Moon.
The Earth didn’t really explode. The eggheads thought it might have been a piece of a neutron star, or something like it. It had fallen right though the Earth and left in its wake an ever expanding donut of debris.
Maybe half a million people on the planet survived the initial impact. There were a few dozen more in space ships or on the Mars expedition — most of them survived. The people who happened to be in some kind of sealed environment and who had found some form of sustainability were the lucky ones. If one could call it luck.
Recently, someone had salvaged a nuclear submarine with sixty live sailors. It had been lodged in a thick piece of ocean — rare enough in itself. The sailors had been using electrolysis to make air out of the water, and there had been fish in their frozen ocean.
The best guess had the human race down to about sixty thou, maybe less.
The Moon was the holy grail of the parts of what used to be Earth. Some prospectors had been looking for it since 3 A.D. (After Disaster). The geeks said it could help them terraform Mars. It would be worth its weight in… Well, just about anything of value.
Timo looked at the pictures he had taken of it on his fly by. The Moon looked none the worse for wear. There were new craters, but even in the dim sunlight, it was quite distinctive.
Timo sent a help signal, one indicating he needed help with salvage. On the one hand, it would take some serious muscle to get the Moon to go where he wanted it. On the other, the more people involved, the smaller his cut would be.
“Timo?” a voice cracked though the short range. Timo fought the urge to slam his head on the wall. It was Den. Of all the people in all the sky, Den was the last man he’d want to share anything with. Den had greed issues. “Is that you?”
“Who else would I be?” Timo said.
Den thought he was clever. He thought no one noticed how he cheated everyone he did business with. The fact was, Den was stupid and mean, with the emphasis on mean.
Timo had never actually seen Den. He hid in his ship even when the other prospectors were having a night out on the city. Timo had first run across him at the remains of Manhattan, the largest human settlement left. Den had needed some help pulling in an ocean liner.
Timo had never seen his share.
“So you got something?” Den asked. He was attempting to be slick.
“Something big.”
Timo thought it might be best to swim with the sharks as opposed to not swimming at all — and load the spear gun. “How much can you push?”
“A hundred thou,” Den said. “What do you got?”
Even before Timo did some rough figuring, he knew it wouldn’t work. With their two ships, it would take more than a year to get the Moon to Mars, by then the vultures would be picking them clean.
“You calls for help, no?” a feminine voice came over the short range. Timo looked around. If a ship could have voice contact, it had to be nearby. He missed it the first time. A mountainous object loomed behind him, then he saw a glimpse of light along an edge.
It was one of the ejected stages from the first Mars mission adapted for something more long term. The whole of the human population could fit in its fuel tanks, and have room left over. It could match the size of the sky island Manhattan. An absurdly small control module sat on the leading edge of the containment tube.
“Who are you?” Den demanded. He didn’t know how to ask politely. It wasn’t in his nature.
“Vera,” she said. She wasn’t comfortable talking. Timo couldn’t quite name the accent, but he thought he’d heard it in a movie once.
“Vera,” Timo said. “I think you have what we need. Follow me.”
Timo didn’t talk percentages until they could both see the Moon. He figured they’d both be too awed to do anything but listen. He was right.
“I’m thinking straight split,” Timo said. “Mars wants it, and they won’t be able to pay us enough anyway, so we just hang out on Mars and live like kings until we die.”
“Yeah,” Den said. “Kings…”
“We push to Mars,” Vera said. “Who can get numbers?”
“I can rough it out,” Timo said.
“I can do better,” Den said. “I got a laptop. Vera, put your ship in place to push, somewhere along the equator.”
Vera separated her control module and remote landed the engines of her ship in a nose-down landing on the Moon. It was tricky; if she went too fast, the ship would splatter all over the surface and not be useful for pushing at all.
There was a timer on his control board. It was off in the corner, out of the way and small. He had hoped he’d never need it. He set the timer for six hours.
“Den,” Timo said. “I want you out front to run interference. If anyone bothers you, I’ll move up as well. Maybe we can sidestep any real problems.”
“I can do that,” Den said, no doubt thinking he could set himself up as the front man, and maybe even cut the others out. After the conversation, Timo saw Den’s ship come around behind and underneath Vera’s ship. He had a feeling he knew what that meant.
“Okay,” Timo said. “If I got it right, the engines will be in position in one min ten secs.”
He hoped it was enough time.
Den was going to the other side of the Moon now. He had set his trap and would be playing the rest by ear. Edging his ship up to Vera’s, Timo got close enough to see her. She looked small, petite, with dark hair and eyes. He motioned for her to be quiet.
Timo quickly drew a picture. He put it up on the window, hoping she would understand.
A few moments later, Vera was in his air lock. He was already moving away as quickly as he could.
“Den put a bomb on your ship,” Timo said. “He’s about to get rid of you.”
“Bomb?” Vera asked.
“Yeah,” Timo said. “Play along for now. If I’m wrong, I can drop you back on your ship once we get started. It’s time to activate your engines.”
Vera opened her pack and pulled out a control board. She pushed a button on the top and pushed the lever forward. The engine on the Moon came to life, pushing the Moon on the course Den had provided. Progress would be slow. They were moving a lot of tonnage.
Timo reset his timer. As long as Den was out there, it was his best protection.
“Is it on course yet?” Den asked. He was ever impatient. It was one of his charms.
“Not yet,” Timo said. “Vera? Three degrees to the right.”
“Three degrees,” Vera answered from the remote mic Timo had on the other side of the control board. Hopefully, it would sound like she was still on her ship. He made a mental note to find out how long it would take to get to Mars. With Den around, it would be best not to sleep.
“There,” Vera said as the Moon aligned with the red course on the screen. “Is on line. We are on way.”
Vera sounded triumphant. Timo was trying to figure out how long it would take to get to Mars. Then her ship blew up.
“What was that?” Den asked. He sounded almost genuinely concerned. Like he had no clue what had just happened.
“Vera’s ship just blew up,” Timo said. He tried to sound shocked, and surprised. “How could that happen?”
There was a long pause, Den was probably trying to decide what his next move would be. He would try to divert Timo’s attention.
“Maybe she pushed a wrong button or something,” Den said. “That is too bad. Is our prize still on course?”