Part One

“Be extremely subtle even to the point of formlessness.

Be extremely mysterious even to the point of soundlessness.

Thereby you can be the director of the opponent’s fate.” 

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

- 1 -

It was an iconic view, one that precious few human beings had witnessed. Despite this, nearly every single person on the planet recognized it.

Earthrise. It was unmistakable.

Even through the ship’s canopy the sight took Jon’s breath away. There was something about the crisp blue and white orb, framed by the stark gray lunar regolith that invited introspection. If he wanted, Jon could reach out, hold up his palm and blot out the whole human race.

It was no wonder Anneliese had stopped talking.

“Come outside,” he said. “I want an unobstructed view.”

Anneliese was standing stock still, just staring out the canopy. “Sure,” she said reluctantly tearing her eyes away. She turned to leave the cockpit, then stopped. “Is it safe? I’m not wearing a suit.”

Jon reached across and activated her harness clima-field. “You’re good to go, no suit required.”

“Really, I’ve read about these. But it’s one thing to hear about what they can do, and another to trust your life to some mysterious piece of gal-tech.”

“Well, it’s lucky then we didn’t get to read up on them before we used them.”

Anneliese’s eyes widened. “You mean you just wrapped this belt thing around you and wandered out into hard vacuum?”

Jon cast his mind back to the first time he’d used a harness outside training. “We didn’t just wander into hard vacuum. We strode out, trying to look like we owned the place. To be honest, I was more worried about the squad looking like a bunch of gawking hicks and giving us away, than whether or not we had anything to breathe.”

She looked down at the control he’d just activated, then reached towards the other switches on her belt. “What do these do?”

Jon blocked the movement. “Best if you leave those alone for the moment, huh?”

Anneliese’s hand snapped away from the belt and the look on her face made Jon feel like he’d just kicked a puppy.

“Sorry,” he said. “I’ve been demonstrating this gear for weeks, and ever since that senator brained himself on the hangar roof, I’ve been oversensitive when people reach for the controls. I should know better, you’re levelheaded enough to handle this kind of equipment.”

Jon took her hand and gently placed it back on her belt. “That’s contra-grav, next to it is impulse and attitude controls. But I don’t imagine we’ll need any of those for a short walk outside.”

Anneliese gave a small nod, but Jon could tell that she was itching to have a play with the controls. He left the cockpit, motioning her to follow before she could give in to the temptation. Operating contra-grav and harnesses in enclosed spaces took skill, more skill than Jon possessed, and from hard learned experience Jon knew that until she’d developed proficiency with the controls, Anneliese had best do her practicing outside.

That would be for another day. Today Jon wanted to witness an event that had been months in the planning, and while having Anneliese along wasn’t necessary, Admiral Katona would be back with the starship soon and that meant the days Jon had with her were numbered.

So he’d convinced her to take a long lunch, and met her in the hangar housing the galactic ship he’d ‘acquired’ during the Regiment’s last deployment on Marbel. She worked in the adjoining hangar, supervising an engineering crew hastily adapting a McDonnell Orbital shuttle with gal-tech power systems, so she had access and could disappear for a time.
Her project had been set up shortly after Jon had left for Marbel. As one of the few McDonnell Orbital employees with base clearance, she’d been the only available person to manage the operation. As a result, she’d been living in Trenton the whole time Jon had been away.

“I still can’t believe you got permission to take me here,” she said, jogging to catch up.

Jon was already in the main cargo hold and didn’t reply. Instead, he made a point of operating the access ramp controls. He was hoping she’d just keep talking, as she usually did when he went quiet.

Anneliese stopped, then cocked her head. “Hold on, you didn’t ask permission did you.”

Jon tried, unsuccessfully, to keep the guilty expression off his face. “Look, the entire trip hasn’t been sanctioned. I figured that having you along wouldn’t make much of a difference.”

“Avis will tear you a new one when you return.”

Jon twitched one shoulder half-heartedly. “If he does, I’ll wear it. This journey is necessary, and I didn’t want to navigate a morass of permissions and paperwork to make the trip.”

“What’s so important?”

“Come on, I’ll show you.” Jon hit the ramp release, and with a grinding noise the ship’s ramp lowered. He started down it, but then stopped just before stepping off.

“Are you going to quote someone?” Anneliese asked. Jon could hear the humor in her voice.

“No. But I’ve just realized that I’ve got no idea what this surface is like. It looks dusty, we might sink.”

Anneliese grinned. “It’s lucky you have me along then. NASA did a bunch of studies in the nineteen sixties on just this topic.”

“What did they conclude?”

“That it didn’t really matter how powdery or deep the dust was. It will support us fine in this gravity. Watch.”

Before Jon could stop her, she stepped off the end of the ship’s ramp and took a couple of steps. The first one was normal, but with the second she bounded up in the air like a kangaroo and landed a short distance from the ramp.

She turned with a grin like the Cheshire Cat on her face and started talking. Well, she tried talking, but now she was outside the ship’s clima-field there was no air to carry her voice.

Jon smiled and tapped the ubiquitous galactic com pod clipped to the chest strap on his harness, making sure she saw the movement. Then he pressed the actuator. “No air. Use this to talk.”

The look on her face was priceless. Then she mimicked his movement, bringing her hand to her chest and activating the com pod. “You’d think a space nut like me would have figured that out straight away. Using a com pod to talk when we’re so close seems weird though.”

“There’s another way,” Jon said. He stepped off the ramp and joined her, slipping one arm around her waist. “When we’re close, our clima-fields will merge. It makes talking a lot more natural.”

“And I get a nice cuddle,” she said.

They stood for a moment and Jon admired the view. The Earth was rising off to their left, and the crater spread below like a gray lake; a lake with an island in its center. Jon had landed the ship high on the crater’s mountainous rim, finding a flat spot with a clear view across the crater’s plain and central mound. He’d found the crater easily enough from the images Katona had supplied. It was facing Earth, and close to the iconic Copernicus crater.

It was an ideal location to place the survey probe that had for centuries been monitoring Earth.

The captain of the Mondrian had located the probe, on orders from the previous centarch. The Mondrian had been in-system during Jon and the Regiment’s deployment to Marbel. Its task was to first find the probe, then re-orbit a suitably sized asteroid to destroy it in what appeared to be a natural accident.

“Why exactly are we here?” asked Anneliese. “Unless you’re planning to make the most romantic proposal in history.”

“You’ve been talking to my mother again haven’t you.”

“Well you’re away so much…”

Jon gave a chuckle at the playful tone in her voice. “I can’t imagine that McDonnell Orbital are giving you much time for chats with my mother.”

Anneliese gave a decidedly unladylike snort. “That they are not. I can’t even remember the last time I slept at the apartment.”

“The apartment?”

Her hand went to her mouth. “Oh dear, I meant to say ‘your apartment’. I’ve been in Trenton too long haven’t I.”

Jon gave her a little squeeze. “I can’t see that changing anytime soon. Actually, I hadn’t planned to renew the lease. You know, move back to the base. Though with all that’s happening in Trenton these days, it might be good to have an escape somewhere close. Even if we don’t end up using it all that often.”

“Jon Moss, are you suggesting that we move in together?”

“Well, you already have the door code.”

“True, and it’s only ten minutes from the base. It’s a tempting offer. I’ll consider it,” she said, lifting her nose slightly.

But she was feigning disinterest. Jon could tell from the eager tone in her voice she was already planning her half of the closet space. Actually, that’s not true, he thought, she’s not the type that needs to put her stamp on a place. She’ll probably just slot right in, as if she’d been living there the whole time.

Anneliese put her hands on her hips, suddenly all business. “What are we looking at here?”

“A crater.”

“I can see that. What’s special about this particular crater?”

“Perched somewhere on the central mound of this crater is Earth’s survey probe.”

“Another piece of gal-tech?”

“Actually, this is different, that probe is a piece of precursor tech.”

Anneliese’s eyes widened. “We’re going to get it?”

“No, we’re going to watch it being destroyed.”

“What!” Anneliese exclaimed, then her eyes narrowed. “Hold on, it’s not just the trip you don’t have permission for is it?”

“No, but I couldn’t stop the strike anyway.” Jon checked the chrono in his HUD. “The meteorite strike is due in a little under ten minutes. I’m only really here to make sure it works.”

“You want this to happen?”

“Absolutely.” Jon pointed an accusing finger at the center of the crater. “That device has recorded everything that’s happened on Earth for the last hundred years or so. Now I couldn’t give a fig about human activities, but it’s also recorded all conclave starship visits, and presumably a sudden surge in galactic technology usage. And that is evidence of tampering.”

“Tampering?”

“Technically, unsanctioned annexation. The Sol system lies in a segment of the galaxy between two powerful conclaves, Tauriel and Spavin. It’s called a buffer, and it exists to keep these two powers apart. Neither may develop this region in any way at all. Earth is supposed to have been left alone, but that probe contains evidence it hasn’t been.”

“How is that our fault?”

“It’s not. But that won’t stop the rest of the conclaves from cleansing the system.”

“Cleansing?”

“That’s the word they use, and judging by the tone in Katona’s voice when he said it, I don’t think we want to discover what’s involved first hand.” Jon took a deep breath and let it out. “Which is why I’ve kept this from everyone except Avis. With the colonel gone, he’s the only one I’d trust not to take advantage of a stray piece of gal-tech.”

“And he agreed?”

“Yes, but it’s not like we had to do anything. The Mondrian had already set the wheels in motion as it were.”

Anneliese gazed wistfully towards the crater. “Seems a shame to waste something built by these precursors.”

“It’s just a passive recording device with a small impulse drive and power store. Nothing special.”

“Still, imagine what we could learn from it.”

“Spoken like a true engineer. And precisely why I’ve kept its existence secret. It’s not worth the risk. If a survey ship appears in system, that thing will disgorge everything that’s happened here.”

“But…”

“No. The only safe course of action is to destroy it. Look on the bright side, you’ll be one of the few who’ll ever witness a lunar meteorite strike in person.”

Anneliese perked up a little. “True, so when’s that happening?”

“Not long now,” Jon said. “In fact, it’s probably best we’re in the ship when it hits.”

Anneliese nodded, then took one last look around. “Incredible view though, thanks.”

“I thought you’d like it.”

“I do, but it’s just brought home how fragile and tenuous this existence is. We really need to get off the Earth.”

“We are off the Earth.”

Anneliese punched him playfully in the arm, then shook her hand. “Ouch, you’ve become even bigger and lumpier than you were before, if that’s possible. You know what I meant.”

Jon’s head lowered. “I do, and you’re right. But at the moment I’m just trying to keep us safe.”

“Speaking of safe, isn’t a meteorite about to hit.”

Jon checked his chrono and his eyebrows lifted. “Yes, we’d better get inside.”

They turned and made their way back into the ship, and up into the cockpit. Jon settled down into the pilot’s couch and initiated a light mental meld with the ship.

Jon had discovered this ability during his earlier deployment to Marbel. A mental meld was used to control the more complex pieces of galactic technology. During a raid on a Marbelite installation, Jon’s squad had discovered that this particular ship had been earmarked by the local Marbelites to be used for a catastrophic suicide run. To prevent that, Jon had tried to destroy it, discovering in the process he had the knack for melding, and had ended up stealing it instead.

Melding was a skill that only a small percentage of galactic races possessed. Oddly, nearly all humans could meld with sufficient clarity for basic flight functions.

Once the meld formed, Jon could ‘hear’ the ship in his mind.

~Welcome preceptor. Good to meld. Where you-me go?

“Nowhere for now. Please raise all barrier fields. A meteorite strike will occur nearby soon.”

~Am aware of imminent impact.

Jon cocked his head, he hadn’t realized that the ship was tracking the incoming rock. “Are we at a safe distance?”

~Yes. Impact mass-velocity energy is within capacity of field barriers to absorb.

“Good, do whatever is required to keep the ship safe.”

Jon broke the meld and stood. The view from the cockpit wouldn’t compare to outside. But with the ship’s barrier fields protecting them, they could view the event from a much closer distance than if they’d only been protected by their individual harness fields. The ship’s barrier fields could absorb or divert impacts from small objects at interplanetary speeds, so a large rock traveling at mere orbital velocities shouldn’t pose any trouble. At least that was the theory.

And they’d only just returned inside in time. Not long after they’d re-entered the ship it announced that the impact was only seconds away.

Both Jon and Anneliese craned their necks at the ship’s announcement trying to see the incoming rock. Just as Jon realized that looking up was pointless, because there was no way they’d be able to see the meteorite without an atmosphere to mark its descent, a searing blue beam of light lanced up from the center of the crater.

After a couple of seconds the beam stopped to be replaced by a broader purple light. This tracked slowly across the sky, then split into four separate purple columns. After ten or fifteen seconds, it too stopped.

Jon and Anneliese looked at each other, then out of the corner of his eye Jon saw a flash outside. Four rapidly expanding fountains of dust had bloomed in the crater’s bowl. Each one equidistant from its center.

“That was spectacular,” said Anneliese.

“It was,” said Jon in a low voice. “But I’m fairly sure that’s not what was supposed to happen.”It was an iconic view, one that precious few human beings had witnessed. Despite this, nearly every single person on the planet recognized it.

Earthrise. It was unmistakable.

Even through the ship’s canopy the sight took Jon’s breath away. There was something about the crisp blue and white orb, framed by the stark gray lunar regolith that invited introspection. If he wanted, Jon could reach out, hold up his palm and blot out the whole human race.

It was no wonder Anneliese had stopped talking.

“Come outside,” he said. “I want an unobstructed view.”

Anneliese was standing stock still, just staring out the canopy. “Sure,” she said reluctantly tearing her eyes away. She turned to leave the cockpit, then stopped. “Is it safe? I’m not wearing a suit.”

Jon reached across and activated her harness clima-field. “You’re good to go, no suit required.”

“Really, I’ve read about these. But it’s one thing to hear about what they can do, and another to trust your life to some mysterious piece of gal-tech.”

“Well, it’s lucky then we didn’t get to read up on them before we used them.”

Anneliese’s eyes widened. “You mean you just wrapped this belt thing around you and wandered out into hard vacuum?”

Jon cast his mind back to the first time he’d used a harness outside training. “We didn’t just wander into hard vacuum. We strode out, trying to look like we owned the place. To be honest, I was more worried about the squad looking like a bunch of gawking hicks and giving us away, than whether or not we had anything to breathe.”

She looked down at the control he’d just activated, then reached towards the other switches on her belt. “What do these do?”

Jon blocked the movement. “Best if you leave those alone for the moment, huh?”

Anneliese’s hand snapped away from the belt and the look on her face made Jon feel like he’d just kicked a puppy.

“Sorry,” he said. “I’ve been demonstrating this gear for weeks, and ever since that senator brained himself on the hangar roof, I’ve been oversensitive when people reach for the controls. I should know better, you’re levelheaded enough to handle this kind of equipment.”

Jon took her hand and gently placed it back on her belt. “That’s contra-grav, next to it is impulse and attitude controls. But I don’t imagine we’ll need any of those for a short walk outside.”

Anneliese gave a small nod, but Jon could tell that she was itching to have a play with the controls. He left the cockpit, motioning her to follow before she could give in to the temptation. Operating contra-grav and harnesses in enclosed spaces took skill, more skill than Jon possessed, and from hard learned experience Jon knew that until she’d developed proficiency with the controls, Anneliese had best do her practicing outside.

That would be for another day. Today Jon wanted to witness an event that had been months in the planning, and while having Anneliese along wasn’t necessary, Admiral Katona would be back with the starship soon and that meant the days Jon had with her were numbered.

So he’d convinced her to take a long lunch, and met her in the hangar housing the galactic ship he’d ‘acquired’ during the Regiment’s last deployment on Marbel. She worked in the adjoining hangar, supervising an engineering crew hastily adapting a McDonnell Orbital shuttle with gal-tech power systems, so she had access and could disappear for a time.
Her project had been set up shortly after Jon had left for Marbel. As one of the few McDonnell Orbital employees with base clearance, she’d been the only available person to manage the operation. As a result, she’d been living in Trenton the whole time Jon had been away.

“I still can’t believe you got permission to take me here,” she said, jogging to catch up.

Jon was already in the main cargo hold and didn’t reply. Instead, he made a point of operating the access ramp controls. He was hoping she’d just keep talking, as she usually did when he went quiet.

Anneliese stopped, then cocked her head. “Hold on, you didn’t ask permission did you.”

Jon tried, unsuccessfully, to keep the guilty expression off his face. “Look, the entire trip hasn’t been sanctioned. I figured that having you along wouldn’t make much of a difference.”

“Avis will tear you a new one when you return.”

Jon twitched one shoulder half-heartedly. “If he does, I’ll wear it. This journey is necessary, and I didn’t want to navigate a morass of permissions and paperwork to make the trip.”

“What’s so important?”

“Come on, I’ll show you.” Jon hit the ramp release, and with a grinding noise the ship’s ramp lowered. He started down it, but then stopped just before stepping off.

“Are you going to quote someone?” Anneliese asked. Jon could hear the humor in her voice.

“No. But I’ve just realized that I’ve got no idea what this surface is like. It looks dusty, we might sink.”

Anneliese grinned. “It’s lucky you have me along then. NASA did a bunch of studies in the nineteen sixties on just this topic.”

“What did they conclude?”

“That it didn’t really matter how powdery or deep the dust was. It will support us fine in this gravity. Watch.”

Before Jon could stop her, she stepped off the end of the ship’s ramp and took a couple of steps. The first one was normal, but with the second she bounded up in the air like a kangaroo and landed a short distance from the ramp.

She turned with a grin like the Cheshire Cat on her face and started talking. Well, she tried talking, but now she was outside the ship’s clima-field there was no air to carry her voice.

Jon smiled and tapped the ubiquitous galactic com pod clipped to the chest strap on his harness, making sure she saw the movement. Then he pressed the actuator. “No air. Use this to talk.”

The look on her face was priceless. Then she mimicked his movement, bringing her hand to her chest and activating the com pod. “You’d think a space nut like me would have figured that out straight away. Using a com pod to talk when we’re so close seems weird though.”

“There’s another way,” Jon said. He stepped off the ramp and joined her, slipping one arm around her waist. “When we’re close, our clima-fields will merge. It makes talking a lot more natural.”

“And I get a nice cuddle,” she said.

They stood for a moment and Jon admired the view. The Earth was rising off to their left, and the crater spread below like a gray lake; a lake with an island in its center. Jon had landed the ship high on the crater’s mountainous rim, finding a flat spot with a clear view across the crater’s plain and central mound. He’d found the crater easily enough from the images Katona had supplied. It was facing Earth, and close to the iconic Copernicus crater.

It was an ideal location to place the survey probe that had for centuries been monitoring Earth.

The captain of the Mondrian had located the probe, on orders from the previous centarch. The Mondrian had been in-system during Jon and the Regiment’s deployment to Marbel. Its task was to first find the probe, then re-orbit a suitably sized asteroid to destroy it in what appeared to be a natural accident.

“Why exactly are we here?” asked Anneliese. “Unless you’re planning to make the most romantic proposal in history.”

“You’ve been talking to my mother again haven’t you.”

“Well you’re away so much…”

Jon gave a chuckle at the playful tone in her voice. “I can’t imagine that McDonnell Orbital are giving you much time for chats with my mother.”

Anneliese gave a decidedly unladylike snort. “That they are not. I can’t even remember the last time I slept at the apartment.”

“The apartment?”

Her hand went to her mouth. “Oh dear, I meant to say ‘your apartment’. I’ve been in Trenton too long haven’t I.”

Jon gave her a little squeeze. “I can’t see that changing anytime soon. Actually, I hadn’t planned to renew the lease. You know, move back to the base. Though with all that’s happening in Trenton these days, it might be good to have an escape somewhere close. Even if we don’t end up using it all that often.”

“Jon Moss, are you suggesting that we move in together?”

“Well, you already have the door code.”

“True, and it’s only ten minutes from the base. It’s a tempting offer. I’ll consider it,” she said, lifting her nose slightly.

But she was feigning disinterest. Jon could tell from the eager tone in her voice she was already planning her half of the closet space. Actually, that’s not true, he thought, she’s not the type that needs to put her stamp on a place. She’ll probably just slot right in, as if she’d been living there the whole time.

Anneliese put her hands on her hips, suddenly all business. “What are we looking at here?”

“A crater.”

“I can see that. What’s special about this particular crater?”

“Perched somewhere on the central mound of this crater is Earth’s survey probe.”

“Another piece of gal-tech?”

“Actually, this is different, that probe is a piece of precursor tech.”

Anneliese’s eyes widened. “We’re going to get it?”

“No, we’re going to watch it being destroyed.”

“What!” Anneliese exclaimed, then her eyes narrowed. “Hold on, it’s not just the trip you don’t have permission for is it?”

“No, but I couldn’t stop the strike anyway.” Jon checked the chrono in his HUD. “The meteorite strike is due in a little under ten minutes. I’m only really here to make sure it works.”

“You want this to happen?”

“Absolutely.” Jon pointed an accusing finger at the center of the crater. “That device has recorded everything that’s happened on Earth for the last hundred years or so. Now I couldn’t give a fig about human activities, but it’s also recorded all conclave starship visits, and presumably a sudden surge in galactic technology usage. And that is evidence of tampering.”

“Tampering?”

“Technically, unsanctioned annexation. The Sol system lies in a segment of the galaxy between two powerful conclaves, Tauriel and Spavin. It’s called a buffer, and it exists to keep these two powers apart. Neither may develop this region in any way at all. Earth is supposed to have been left alone, but that probe contains evidence it hasn’t been.”

“How is that our fault?”

“It’s not. But that won’t stop the rest of the conclaves from cleansing the system.”

“Cleansing?”

“That’s the word they use, and judging by the tone in Katona’s voice when he said it, I don’t think we want to discover what’s involved first hand.” Jon took a deep breath and let it out. “Which is why I’ve kept this from everyone except Avis. With the colonel gone, he’s the only one I’d trust not to take advantage of a stray piece of gal-tech.”

“And he agreed?”

“Yes, but it’s not like we had to do anything. The Mondrian had already set the wheels in motion as it were.”

Anneliese gazed wistfully towards the crater. “Seems a shame to waste something built by these precursors.”

“It’s just a passive recording device with a small impulse drive and power store. Nothing special.”

“Still, imagine what we could learn from it.”

“Spoken like a true engineer. And precisely why I’ve kept its existence secret. It’s not worth the risk. If a survey ship appears in system, that thing will disgorge everything that’s happened here.”

“But…”

“No. The only safe course of action is to destroy it. Look on the bright side, you’ll be one of the few who’ll ever witness a lunar meteorite strike in person.”

Anneliese perked up a little. “True, so when’s that happening?”

“Not long now,” Jon said. “In fact, it’s probably best we’re in the ship when it hits.”

Anneliese nodded, then took one last look around. “Incredible view though, thanks.”

“I thought you’d like it.”

“I do, but it’s just brought home how fragile and tenuous this existence is. We really need to get off the Earth.”

“We are off the Earth.”

Anneliese punched him playfully in the arm, then shook her hand. “Ouch, you’ve become even bigger and lumpier than you were before, if that’s possible. You know what I meant.”

Jon’s head lowered. “I do, and you’re right. But at the moment I’m just trying to keep us safe.”

“Speaking of safe, isn’t a meteorite about to hit.”

Jon checked his chrono and his eyebrows lifted. “Yes, we’d better get inside.”

They turned and made their way back into the ship, and up into the cockpit. Jon settled down into the pilot’s couch and initiated a light mental meld with the ship.

Jon had discovered this ability during his earlier deployment to Marbel. A mental meld was used to control the more complex pieces of galactic technology. During a raid on a Marbelite installation, Jon’s squad had discovered that this particular ship had been earmarked by the local Marbelites to be used for a catastrophic suicide run. To prevent that, Jon had tried to destroy it, discovering in the process he had the knack for melding, and had ended up stealing it instead.

Melding was a skill that only a small percentage of galactic races possessed. Oddly, nearly all humans could meld with sufficient clarity for basic flight functions.

Once the meld formed, Jon could ‘hear’ the ship in his mind.

~Welcome preceptor. Good to meld. Where you-me go?

“Nowhere for now. Please raise all barrier fields. A meteorite strike will occur nearby soon.”

~Am aware of imminent impact.

Jon cocked his head, he hadn’t realized that the ship was tracking the incoming rock. “Are we at a safe distance?”

~Yes. Impact mass-velocity energy is within capacity of field barriers to absorb.

“Good, do whatever is required to keep the ship safe.”

Jon broke the meld and stood. The view from the cockpit wouldn’t compare to outside. But with the ship’s barrier fields protecting them, they could view the event from a much closer distance than if they’d only been protected by their individual harness fields. The ship’s barrier fields could absorb or divert impacts from small objects at interplanetary speeds, so a large rock traveling at mere orbital velocities shouldn’t pose any trouble. At least that was the theory.

And they’d only just returned inside in time. Not long after they’d re-entered the ship it announced that the impact was only seconds away.

Both Jon and Anneliese craned their necks at the ship’s announcement trying to see the incoming rock. Just as Jon realized that looking up was pointless, because there was no way they’d be able to see the meteorite without an atmosphere to mark its descent, a searing blue beam of light lanced up from the center of the crater.

After a couple of seconds the beam stopped to be replaced by a broader purple light. This tracked slowly across the sky, then split into four separate purple columns. After ten or fifteen seconds, it too stopped.

Jon and Anneliese looked at each other, then out of the corner of his eye Jon saw a flash outside. Four rapidly expanding fountains of dust had bloomed in the crater’s bowl. Each one equidistant from its center.

“That was spectacular,” said Anneliese.

“It was,” said Jon in a low voice. “But I’m fairly sure that’s not what was supposed to happen.”

- 2 -

Jon had just returned the galactic ship to its hangar when his implant trilled with an incoming meet request. It was Avis Louwe, now a lieutenant colonel and currently acting as the Regiment’s commanding officer. Jon still thought of him as the XO though, and he’d likely return to that role once regimental command assigned a new permanent CO. By all accounts, brass in every branch of the North American Union were frantically pulling strings and calling in favors to be considered for the position. Hence the delay in filling it.

Jon accepted the meet. His datatacts lit up, painting images directly on his retinas and the XO’s holo shimmered into place beside him. “Jesus fucking Christ Moss, what were you thinking?”

Jon swallowed, pleased that Anneliese had left the moment he’d returned. “Sir? I’m not sure I follow.”

“You just took the single most valuable piece of galactic tech we have on a joyride to the moon. You lit up every NORAD board in the process, and now I will have to explain it to command, not to mention smoothing things over with NORAD, and you know firsthand how officious those pricks are.”

“I’m sorry, sir, I didn’t anticipate that anyone would notice my absence.”

The XO folded his arms and stared Jon down. He waited for what seemed an age though in reality it was probably only a handful of seconds. “Why couldn’t you just let events take their course. Now we’re going to have to explain the trip. And don’t even think about using that nonsense you put in the flight log. No one will believe a jaunt to the moon was for refueling and maintenance.”

“Actually, sir, I did connect with the Mondrian in parking orbit to refuel.”

The XO slowly cocked his head. Before his superior could say anything, Jon continued. “No, that won’t fly. I took Anneliese along though. Could we chalk it up to a mistaken romantic gesture?”

The XO’s eyes widened. “You took a civilian…” Then he stopped, and a sly smile crept across his face. “Actually, that might work, though you’ll probably get into hot water for it.”

Jon screwed up his face. “Any worse than I’d get for keeping the existence of that survey probe, and its planned destruction, from command in the first place?”

The smile disappeared from the XO’s face. “No, they’ll probably just suspend you for taking your girlfriend on a joyride. They’ll make an example of you, too much of this galactic equipment and technology has gone walking over the last few months.”

“Frankly, sir, I could do with the R&R.”

“You’ll change your mind when you’re in front of a court martial, Moss. Get over here, we need to get your story straight.”

With that, the XO terminated the meet.

Jon had heard stories about what had been happening to the cache of gal-tech trade goods that had been exchanged for Jon and the Regiment’s service on Marbel.

The first incident had been a corporal assigned to guard duty. He’d pocketed several of the power cells, walked off base and was never seen again. It had been pre-arranged of course. He’d been met by a couple of Brazilian undercover operatives, who’d smuggled him south.

Regimental intelligence hadn’t figured out how the Brazilians had turned him, but the fact that he was now living a life of luxury in Sao Paulo spoke volumes. And he was only the first.

Piece by piece, and person by person, weak people and cracks in security were exploited as every corporation and political block in the world focussed herculean efforts at getting their hands on the new technology. And, as more gal-tech walked, ever more draconian security measures were successively put in place. First, the NAU government relocated every remaining piece of gal-tech to an isolated group of hangars at Trenton. One of which housed Jon’s ship. Every research and engineering program was now being shifted to be run from those hangars, and nowhere else.

Access to Trenton was already heavily restricted. And to reduce that even further, only personnel who had received clearance, and been granted it before the galactics arrived, were now admitted. Except on presidential orders.

The security measures had stemmed the tide of theft, but at the cost of stymying research and hampering efforts at incorporating gal-tech into existing systems. Still, the upside for Jon was that because of her association with him, the Regiment had already cleared Anneliese. As a result, she’d been a shoe-in for the job of adapting the power systems on McDonnell Orbital’s shuttles. The only possible candidate in fact.

Jon shut down the ship’s systems and instructed it to go dormant. Then he closed up and left the hangar.

It was time to face the music.