In essence, he had excommunicated all of us from the human race. Maybe it wouldn't be that bad. Once we got there and got settled, living on the Moon could be pretty cool. Maybe. Besides, we would have to be awarded near infinite resources to maintain such a facility and conspiracy. We had infinite power with the flubells. And if we ever needed anything, hell, we could just fly down to Earth at night and abduct it. I thought of some funny crop circle patterns that I was planning to make with a warp field on some of those trips also. Hey if there is a fire, you have to throw gas on it.
Well, we were going to live outside of the Earthly society and develop technologies years ahead of anything anybody had ever dreamed of. Living on the Moon would be cool. How about that?
* * *
It took us several days to gather our thoughts, technologies, personal stuff, and implement a security plan. The entire facility was surrounded and protected by armed guards from various branches of the military. Any individuals who knew anything about what had happened were debriefed, sworn to far far above top secrecy, and then reassigned to Tabitha or to Alaska or they were discharged immediately. During the debrief all individuals were warned that if any of the details of the technology or events were leaked they would be publicly and actively ridiculed by expert sources. Debunking government conspiracy nuts is always easy. Who really believes in Roswell, alien abductions, and flying saucers? Nobody does in public, because it labels him or her as nuts. Well, there are some that are making money off of the alien folklore; they are either brave to put themselves out on such a limb, smart for raking in the money from the entertainment industry, or just don't care what happens to their reputation in quest for the truth.
But nobody really believes them, do they? Seeing how the really secret world works, I was beginning to wonder.
Oh well, the security plan was in place and it was working. About fifty personnel had to remain on the payroll. Tabitha and I discussed it and decided to take a month off. She ordered leave for the fifty personnel and told them to return in exactly one month. The facility was locked down and placed under armed guards. The rest of us went home.
By the time we got to Huntsville International Airport, our parents were already there waiting for us. My mom had been carrying Friday in a travel cage. I'm sure she didn't like that, Mom not Friday. Friday is a lazy cat. She was probably asleep, Mom on the other hand was tired of carrying her. Tabitha and Annie hugged and kissed their parents/grandparents and cried. It was a lot of fun. We rented a minivan and headed for my house.
My house had been trashed. Probably by the same team that got Al's house. We weren't really concerned about our personal safety any longer for two reasons. The first is that mercenaries usually only kill for money and their paying customers had been smashed into the Earth or pushed into the sea. The second reason is that we were always being shadowed by plain-clothes security. Tabitha had ordered my house to be a safe zone. So, there were guards waiting for us when we arrived. I guess this is how life would be for all of us from now on.
I took Friday out of the cage and nuzzled her to me as we entered the living room. I sat her down and she looked around, then up at me and said, "Raaooww?"
"I know it's a mess girl, but it's home. Go on." I said. I looked around at the mess and wasn't sure where to start.
Jim dragged in behind with his arms full of luggage, "Ah, home crap home." He laughed. "Nobody worry about the luggage, I've got it," he said sarcastically. Al and I turned to help him.
We spent a few hours cleaning up. It made us all feel normal again to do menial daily type tasks. Jim, Al, and I drove to town and picked up some steaks, hamburgers, hotdogs, buns, potatoes, charcoal, chips, dips, limes, lemons, margarita mix, and a lot of beer. We stopped by the package store on the way back and picked up some ice and tequila and triple sec and decided we better get more beer.
By the time the grill was ready for the steaks, burgers, and dogs, I had about three beers down. My fiancée stepped through the back door wielding two very large margaritas. The sunlight nowadays was redder than usual because of all of the dust thrown into the upper atmosphere from the Warp Weapons of the Secret War. The strange reddish summer sun illuminated the glitter in Tabitha's blue bikini top in a most unusual way. Her cutoff denim shorts brought out her, uh Southern charm. And the fifteen or twenty degrees cooler weather than usual for July brought out some of her other, uh perky, features. She sure didn't look like General Tabitha Ames the astronaut and warrior-leader of the super secret Warp Weapons Contingent of the United States Space Force. I chuckled inside.
"Hey Anson, brought you something." She said. I reached for one of the margaritas and she pulled it back. "Not that. These are for me. I brought you this." She leaned forward and kissed me deeply. "August fifteenth." She said, "And happy birthday!" She kissed me again and then took a big draw from her left margarita and then her right one.
"Thanks," I replied. Then I thought about what she had said for a second longer. "Hey that is like three weeks from now."
"Uh huh." She said. "We're a fixin' to git hitched!" She said in her best Texan and then hit the margaritas in reverse order this time.
"Okay with me. Can we get it arranged that fast?"
"Our moms, 'Becca, and Anne Marie are in there just a plottin' and a schemin' as we speak."
I wiped my hands off on my Kiss the Physicist Please apron and then planted my hands on each side of her face. "I love you," I told her, then kissed her again. Then the hamburgers flared up and I had to attend to the grill. I never did get a margarita.
CHAPTER 21
The wedding planning had gone off without a hitch. The girls had decided it would be best to have it in the big nondenominational church downtown. Tabitha somehow pulled some strings and managed to get us in on such short notice. She spread the rumor that the NASA Administrator, Secretary of Defense, and the Vice President were on the invitation list. Things started happening. Of course, I'm not sure that Tabitha hadn't really gotten an R.S.V.P. from any of their offices, but it was a good ploy one way or the other. Imagine my surprise when not only were they there, but they were seated next to the President himself.
Jim was my best man and Al and Calvin and my brother stood up with me. The bridesmaids were Sara, 'Becca, and an old flight school buddy of Tabitha's, Colonel Margie Finest. Anne Marie stood beside her as her maid of honor. The men were wearing charcoal tuxedos with tails except for my brother, who wore his dress blues. The ladies all wore long slender sky blue gowns, except for Anne Marie and Colonel Finest, of course, who were both in their Air Force dress blues. Tabitha, not being General Ames at the moment, of course was wearing white. She sported a long white form-fitting backless gown with lace trim covering the chest and open cleavage and a train that had to be carried by two flower girls. Fortunately, a cousin of mine had two twin youngsters who fit the bill perfectly.
I was a nervous disastrous mess! I fumbled over the words that the preacher had me follow and even put the ring on Tabitha's wrong hand. She changed it without anybody ever noticing. She was cool as a cucumber, her typical head-astronaut-what-be-in-charge self. I had never been more in love. Eewww God this is mushy. Sorry. Weddings are like that.
The President and his entourage stayed just long enough to let Tabitha salute him. He saluted her back smartly, then shook my hand and whispered to me, "Good luck son!" Not real sure if he was talking about with Tabitha and marriage or about protecting the world and living on the Moon. Either one was a daunting task. I couldn't wait to get started on both, but the Moon was just going to have to wait tonight.