Chapter Ten
“Hey, get up.” Karen shook Galen’s shoulder. She was dressed in combat coveralls, garrison cap and pistol belt with side arm.
“What time is it?” Galen rubbed his eyes.
“You missed breakfast and you have to meet the Director and the liaison team in thirty minutes.”
“Okay. Thanks for waking me up.”
“See you downstairs.” Karen left.
Galen got up, shaved, showered, scrubbed his teeth and put on a fresh set of coveralls. He also chose a new garrison cap and clipped on his new pistol belt, removed his side arm from the old one and put it in the stiff holster on the new one. Then he moved the seven spare magazines into the pouches of the new belt as well. He went downstairs and left the building and took the Vehicle Commander seat of the wheeled sedan. The driver was a EugeneX security troop who had completed her training and was now performing regular assigned duties as protocol driver.
Karen sat in the back seat of the car. “Galen, this is a pretty big deal today.”
“Yes I know. We pass off a lot of responsibility to the Director and coordinate with the liaison. Starting today, I am no longer the Lord-Master General of this planet.”
The driver looked over at him. “Lord-Master General?”
“I was joking. It’s just made up. EugeneX owns this planet and until today I was the most senior representative of that corporation. But as soon as I pass the torch to him, it’s the Director of Research.”
Two more sedans followed, empty except for their drivers. The driver pulled into the spaceport passenger pickup area and parked along the curb. Galen told her, “Wait here.”
Karen and Galen went inside and waited on a bench at the incoming passenger gate. The Director was flanked by a security guard on the left and Mr. Pedimore, the liaison officer, on the right. Behind the Director followed two spaceport workmen in blue coveralls pushing carts loaded with luggage.
Galen stood and when the group stopped in front of him, he reached for the director’s hand. “Welcome to Juventud, Director.”
The Director’s handshake was confident and firm. “Commandant Raper, I assume. Please, call me Tom.” The Director was taller than average, but still a good five centimeters shorter than Galen. A square face that seemed rounded by a receding reddish-blonde hairline that also had thinned on top, the beginning of a bald spot on the crown. Broad shoulders and beefy arms filled out the business smock he wore, no need for padding in the shoulders. Intelligent and cunning blue eyes. Galen knew the type, executive leadership material. A jock who studied business management; being a senior executive in a biotech research corporation didn’t require knowing a ribosome from a chromosome.
Galen said, “This is our logistics genius, Karen Mitchell. She coordinated all the great work that has taken place so far.”
The Director reached out to shake her hand. “Outstanding work, Karen. I understand the facility was completed three days ahead of schedule.”
“Thank you, Director. Your car is outside, we’ll escort you.”
“If you don’t mind, can I ride in your car? I have some questions and it will save time. My people will follow in the other cars.”
“Right this way.” Galen stepped outside and opened the back door of the sedan. Karen got in first and the Director sat next to her. Galen got in the front seat and watched over his shoulder for the rest of the group and its luggage to load into the two other cars.
“Okay driver, to the mountaintop.”
The driver pulled out of the spaceport terminal and drove along the street of the downtown district, then made a left and after a few hundred meters drove across the low bridge spanning the lake. The bridge was constructed on sturdy pylons driven into the bed of the lake, and a steel running surface was covered with a rubberized material. The guard rails were a meter high, built far enough out from the driving surface to allow for a sidewalk that was raised three centimeters above the driving surface.
“I like this bridge,” said the Director.
“Well, it wasn’t here two weeks ago, Director.”
“Please, call me Tom,” said Tom. “And the facility?”
“Well, Tom,” said Karen, “As soon as the tunnel was finished, we started cutting the top off the iron mountain. We saved time by burning trenches in the surface and building inside them. There was construction material left over that we haven’t used, but it’s still up there if you get any ideas later on. The space shield and the command center are in place, and most of your technicians and engineers and scientists are settled in to their quarters and work stations.”
“Good. Any problems at all?” said Tom.
Karen said, “No. I took the liberty of scheduling a lunch conference. All your people will be seated in the restaurant at noon so you can give a brief and then do a meet and greet afterward.”
“Excellent.” Tom looked out the window. The sedan wound its way clockwise up the mountain road that spiraled a full three times around its bulk on its way to reach the top. Tom said, “It’s an impressive view on the way up. I knew what was supposed to be here, but seeing it for myself, it’s very impressive.”
Karen said nothing; Galen followed her lead. She was an expert, after all, at handling corporate types. When the car stopped in front of the facility administrative building, Galen got out and opened the door for Tom.
“Do you need any help from here?” said Galen.
“No, that’s fine. I’m back in my element, I got this,” said Tom. He got out of the car and rounded up his group from the other two cars and went into the office building.
Galen got back in the sedan, in the back seat with Karen, and said, “Take us to the command center, driver.”
She drove past two steel buildings and turned right until she came up to a garage entrance that led into the living rock foundation of the command center. She parked the car and waited for Karen and Galen to get out. She said, “You need me to stay with the vehicle?”
Galen said, “No, we won’t need you until about fifteen hundred hours. I’ll call you if anything changes.”
“Okay.” She got out and locked up the car and left the parking garage.
Galen led Karen to the stairwell up to the plateau of ground left ten meters higher than the rest of the compound. The surface was more than two hundred meters across, more or less in a circular shape. The command center and the space shield and its battery reserves and two space lasers were there, along with a four-gun 240mm battery. Galen and Karen entered the low concrete structure of the command center, descending its twelve steps to enter the main conference room.
Tad greeted them, “So how’s that director?”
“He’s all right,” said Galen. “Big dumb ex-jock.”
Tad said, “Well they can’t have a scientist running the place, that would be like letting the lunatics run an asylum.”
Sevin said, “Hey Smaj, what’s up?”
Galen looked around. Technicians sat at terminals, four on each side wall. The large table in the middle of the room had a dozen comfortable chairs. The full-D screen was on the same wall as the entrance, a big screen that went from half a meter off the floor to within ten centimeters of the ceiling three meters high. The polished stone floor reflected like a dark mirror, the iron ore allowing a nice sheen. The back wall had two doors, one leading to Tad’s office and quarters, the other into a smaller, more private office for the EugeneX liaison officer.
Galen sat at the table, taking the chair next to Sevin. Karen sat next to Galen. Tad sat in the op center control chair at the head of the table, and Spike in the chair to his left.