The Pathfinder Project (3 page)

All of those assembled before
him returned it without hesitation. “
Be ready and be strong!
” they
shouted back. Then, in an orderly manner, they formed two slowly moving lines
and filed back out into the corridor.

When they were gone and only
the Triumvirate remained, Durgon cast a wary gaze in the direction of Valiana.
“Gyilto is correct about the United States,” he pointed out to her. “Their
nuclear launch codes, in particular, are heavily encrypted and subject to
extremely tight protocol. We may not be able to initiate launches from here.”

“It does not matter my friend,”
replied Hobak reassuringly. “We have stirred up such paranoia within the
Chinese government regarding America, that they will almost certainly target
the U.S. first. Once enough missiles begin to explode within their borders, you
can bet that their President will order a counter-attack. He would be a fool
not to. The smaller nuclear powers will join in as soon as they recognize that
they too are targets – our control over facilities in India and Pakistan will
fire on them and almost certainly send the final dominoes toppling.” His
expression soured, and he glanced down at the empty desktop in front of him
before shooting an angry glance in Valiana’s direction.

“It is not
our
fault
that this is happening earlier than we anticipated,” she insisted defiantly,
sensing his outrage. “There will be a new American President soon, and
regardless of who wins the election, their new leader will undoubtedly begin to
increase the armaments on merchant vessels traveling throughout the solar
system.”

“The victor will also increase
their military presence in outer space,” Durgon predicted. “We have stolen too
much from civilian vessels over the past few years. America as a whole might be
in steep decline, but their military is well-known to protect the weak and
defenseless. Here on Earth we will immediately dominate, but it will take time
for our starships to hunt down their space-borne defenses and eliminate all
capital ships.”

“That isn’t what bothers me,”
Hobak decided with a deep frown. “What bothers me is Cassiopeia, the secret
project the Americans have had in development for more than a decade. They have
an entirely
new
form of Point-to-Point wormhole engine design under
construction at their base on the moon. Everyone who is officially asked will
publically deny it, but I know that it’s up there.” He leaned back in his chair
and stretched, pondering the matter a bit further. “I don’t like it at all,
because Cassiopeia
is
the project that is forcing us to act earlier than
planned. All our work could be for naught if they get that new system
operational before we’re ready.”

Valiana shook her head. “
All
of my contacts in the U.S. have claimed that the Americans are still more than
a
year
away from bringing anything substantive on-line,” she told him
sternly. “In the meantime they will have to rely upon standard Point-to-Point
transit like every other space-faring nation.”

“The reports from your contacts
are probably one hundred percent accurate,” acknowledged Hobak, although his
mood remained restive. “That’s the problem. When the Americans have such tight
control over a project on the moon, it is easy for them to shut off information
leaks. The people up there,” he paused long enough to jerk a thumb toward the
ceiling, “are probably feeding the population down here whatever propaganda
that they choose to. After all, didn’t they originally say they were trying to
mine some sort of new ore? I now
know
that troublesome rumor to be
false. I also know they have an underground complex despite claims to the
contrary.”

Taking a deep breath, Valiana
noted that her words failed to reassure him. Nevertheless she persisted. “Even
if the Americans manage to extend the range of PTP transit beyond our solar
system, where would such a ship go? To date, there is still no tangible
evidence of alien life beyond this planet.”

“It is not their flashy new
transit drive that concerns me,” concluded Hobak with a restless sigh. “I am
worried more about the fundamentally
new
type of power source that they
must be developing in order to power it. Such an energy source could easily be
adapted for use in powering
weaponry
, and that would not bode well for
us. It could ruin everything, in fact.” The three of them fell silent for a few
minutes, deep in thought. Finally, Hobak looked toward Valiana as a sudden
thought struck him. “Were you successful with your assignment to plant an
operative in that moon colony?” he inquired.

Her cheeks flushing red with
embarrassment, Valiana shook her head in response. “Their screening of
applicants for the science team is much too tight, even for us. Three years ago
we had a strong possibility in the making, but she was unfortunately rejected.”
The beautiful brunette shrugged helplessly. “It’s a bottleneck up there… they
don’t need people that often, and when they do they tend to select the best of
the best.”

Hobak’s frown deepened. “
I
don’t LIKE not KNOWING what is going on up there!
” he thundered suddenly,
his deep voice reverberating loudly throughout the huge chamber. He rose to his
feet so quickly that his chair fell over with a loud clatter as it skittered
across the wooden stage floor. Turning toward Valiana, his face reddened. “It
was
you
who was tasked with placing an operative there…”

Also rising to his feet, Durgon
stepped protectively in front of Valiana and raised a reassuring hand toward
Hobak. “Relax,” he stated calmly but surely. “There are always other options
that we have considered. The Cassiopeia moon base also requires a great deal of
skilled labor, and
that
is the expertise of
my
cloning line. Thus
far it is at a low level clearance only, but we
do
have an undercover
agent working there.”

The news calmed Hobak
considerably. He took several deep breaths to soothe his fierce temper, then
picked up his overturned chair and reseated himself. “Has this operative,
perchance, checked in recently in order to keep our intelligence up to date?”

“He has,” nodded Durgon with a
satisfied smile. “The information he transmitted several weeks ago matches the
reports from Valiana’s people. He stated very clearly that the Americans are at
least a year or more away from full development of their new engine system.”

“Good,” said Hobak approvingly.
“Then we may proceed with our war.”

THE PATHFINDER PROJECT

He was on the moon’s surface
when the first reports began trickling in. Once again he had decided to take
the time for a personal recon hike to look for the best spot to land the
Pathfinder
.
At first the crackle of his helmet transceiver annoyed him slightly, until he
heard the tone of voice on the other end.

“
Denny… I mean, Captain
Kaufield?
” The voice was faint but filled with strong emotion.

“This is Kaufield,” Dennis
responded, stopping to rest against the dusty side of a small lunar hill. “What’s
the problem, Mary? You sound stressed.” He chuckled a little bit while
adjusting the O2 setting on his standard-issue flight suit. “I know the
revised schedule moves our next test up two weeks, but I’m sure we’ll get the
work done in plenty of time. We always do.”

“
It’s not that, sir
,”
his communications specialist responded. “
You’re not going to believe this.
We’re receiving reports of at least
three
nuclear detonations on Earth!
”

“
What?
” Kaufield asked
with surprise. “Are you certain? Who is responsible?”

“
At this point no one knows,
sir. New reports are coming in… dozens of explosions. The news feeds I’m
listening to are calling it an all-out attack!
”

Kaufield stood, stunned, for a
moment. His eyes were still surveying the lunar surface, but his thoughts were
racing wildly. “I’m on my way back,” he decided suddenly. “Have the base go to
full alert, and post armed guards around the
Pathfinder
.” A sudden rush
of anger caused him to take too large of a step and he stumbled, landing
awkwardly on his back. “Damned low gravity environments,” he growled, leaping
to his feet. “And
damn
whoever is behind this. Almost a century of peace
and
NOW
the world decides to go insane.” He ran as fast as the moon’s
conditions allowed, kicking up clouds of dust in his wake that would take some
time to settle.

“
It’s confirmed sir
,”
Mary’s voice crackled a bit from static, but cleared almost immediately. “
At
least
five
nations are involved, including Russia, China, India,
Pakistan… and the United States! We’re retaliating in what appears to be the
beginning of a huge global conflict!
”

“May God help us!” he stated,
adjusting his transmitter frequency as fast as his gloved fingers would allow.
“Attention all base personnel, I repeat, attention all base personnel. This is
Captain Dennis Kaufield. At this time I am ordering an immediate suspension of
all incoming and outgoing ship launches. If there’s anybody in the air get on
the comm system and order them back. After that, initiate a communications
blackout and shut down all non-essential systems base wide.”

“
Captain, this is Thomas
cutting in
,” said a new voice in his ear. “
We’ve got several seriously
critical tests in progress on the
Pathfinder
’s CAS upgrade. I don’t
think you want…
”

“Shut
everything
down,
dammit!” Kaufield repeated. “If there are hostile vessels in the area – and you
can bet there are – then they’ll be coming here too. I don’t want bulls-eyes
painted on the key areas of our complex when they get here.”

He reached the base of one of
the larger hills. A massive niche was carved in its side with a hatchway
located in the center. Kaufield quickly activated the door’s entry mechanism
and stepped into an airlock. “I’m in,” he said, waiting impatiently for oxygen
to flood the inner compartment. “I’ll be up in Central Operations momentarily.”

*    
* * *     *

Khyber Base was only ten years
old but built to last, even on the moon. Kaufield had been stationed here for
seven of those years, insuring that the larger Cassiopeia Project directing
construction of the
Pathfinder
stayed on schedule. Most of the specific
details were just a dream when he was a kid, but now – at age 39 – the
revolutionary new science vessel had become his one and only focus in life. He
had been lucky, because his father had always supported his decision and
admired his determination to get to space.

Until now, the best part was
that the brand new ship was almost ready for testing!

He cussed again as he ran
through the corridors of the base, descending gradually into its underground
labyrinth. Just a few more weeks, and all they would have left to correct were
the minor glitches. That’s what frustrated him the most at the moment – the
fact that the “bells and whistles” stage of the project was so close at hand.
No longer limited by the moon’s low gravity, Kaufield blew through the nearest
door to the Operations Center at a full sprint.

“Take a look at this, sir,”
Lieutenant Mary Hastings reported quietly, without looking up. Her short,
brunette hairstyle always caught him by surprise. She was a very pretty woman
but chose to look professional first, especially while on duty. That was the
way she always did her job, too.

On the main monitors at the
center of the room were various pictures of Earth’s continents, fed to them
from orbital communications satellites. Massive glowing explosions covered most
of them, with additional new blast points sprouting up as quickly as the others
began to fade.

“God forgive!” someone across
the room said in astonishment. Several of the technicians next to her were in
tears, and there wasn’t a member of the crew who didn’t look shaken by the
unexpected turn of events.

“Is the picture on the right
North America?” Kaufield asked, more than a little astonished by the fact that
there
were already so many explosions he couldn’t even be certain
.

“Yes,” Mary replied. “These
images were recorded only minutes earlier. Since then we’ve lost all contact
with most of the standard government channels. But there’s lots of civilian
chatter, and military Comm-traffic is rising steadily.”

“What are the civilian Captains
saying?”

“We’re receiving distress calls
and reports of large, unknown vessels.”

“Unknown vessels?” queried
Kaufield. “What kind?”

“Well, for one thing our supply
shuttle just called in, sir,” she stated matter-of-factly. “They
were on their way back to rendezvous with the rest of the supply convoy. A
larger capital ship dropped out of PTP transit almost on top of them and
immediately opened fire. All attempts to communicate with the newcomer are
being ignored. That’s it… then the message ends. I know the whole story only
because I received a follow up message from one of the crew – he contacted me
with an emergency transmitter someone had on board. I was just about to send
the
Ranger
to help them out when you ordered a halt on all traffic.” She
shrugged. “It’s the same with the military vessels, too. Unknown ships are
dropping out of transit and immediately opening fire.” Her lips pursed tightly
as she listened, trying to filter out the unnecessary conversations. “There are
also frantic reports from the officers on military vessels regarding some sort
of electronics problem.”

“Confirm base blackout,”
Kaufield ordered, “With the exception of that shuttle. Try opening
communications with her Captain. I want to know if they’re okay.” Standing next
to Mary, the Captain activated another of the Comm-links that lined her
console. “Thomas,” he stated firmly, “If you have everything on
Pathfinder
shut down I’d like you to get up here and help Mary monitor communications. She
kind of has her hands full at the moment.”