Part 48 (1/2)
”They won't need more than a few seconds to nail your orbit,” Anson said flatly. ”Besides, they know G.o.dd.a.m.ned well it's gonna pa.s.s over Copernicus. They got lots of time to focus a laser on it.”
Clemens' high forehead wrinkled. ”You think they'll zap it?”
”If the Peacekeepers've put a big enough laser at L-l, yeah, they will.”
”Do you think they've put weapons-strength lasers in Nippon One?”
Anson gripped Clemens' shoulders and grinned down at him. ”We'll find out pretty soon, won't we?”
Edith was reviewing her day's shooting in the video editing booth at the lunar university's studio facility. The studio itself was dark and empty; no lectures or demonstrations, no interactions with Earthside students had taken place since the U.N. had cut off regular communications. The editing booth felt almost like home to Edith, though. Even though she was alone in it, she enjoyed working the big control console. When she had first started in television news, sitting at the console with all its switches and keypads made her feel like the captain of a stars.h.i.+p in some futuristic drama. Now it just felt like a familiar, comfortable place where she could edit her work until it was a finished, polished piece of TV journalism. The fact that she was doing the work on the Moon no longer impressed her.
She was splicing together scenes from three separate shoots, trying to put together a coherent report on the preparations that Moonbase was undertaking to face the impending Peacekeeper attack-without betraying any of the steps that might tip off the U.N. about what to expect. Her footage dealt almost entirely with the human side of the coming battle: the tiny medical staff getting ready to handle wounded men and women; the highly-trained technicians and engineers and scientists moping in The Cave, their work, their careers, their lives in limbo until this war was settled one way or the other; the silent emptiness of the construction pit where the grand plaza was going to be built. Nothing was moving there now, not even a teleoperated tractor. All work on Moonbase's future had been stopped.
She had scrupulously avoided the nanotech labs and the plastics processing center where Falcone was driving the chemists to produce tons of foamgel. She had done a long interview with Claire Rossi, already known to TV viewers Earthside as Moonbase's first bride. Now Edith revealed that Claire was pregnant, but could not return Earthside because of the impending battle.
Good, human interest stuff, Edith thought as she edited Claire's interview. It's a shame I couldn't get her to cry, though.
The phone's chime startled her out of her concentration. She swivelled her chair from the editing screens to the phone screen and tapped the ANSWER keypad.
A young male comm tech's face appeared on the screen. ”A call for you, Ms Elgin. From Earthside.”
”Earthside? I thought all links were shut down.”
”This is coming in on a special laser tight beam, from Atlanta: a Mr Edan McGrath.”
Edith felt her eyes go wide. ”McGrath? Put him on!”
Someone had once called McGrath the s.e.xiest bald-headed man on Earth. Looking at his image in the phone screen, Edith thought he wasn't really s.e.xy, but he sure radiated energy and power.
”Mr McGrath,” she said, surprised at how humble she sounded.
Three seconds later he said, ”Edie, I wanted to tell you that I think you're doing a fine job up there. An excellent job! I'm proud of you.”
She blinked with surprise. The top boss doesn't break a U.N. blackout just to praise one of his reporters, Edith told herself, even if I am his number one on-screen personality.
”Thank you,” she said. Again, timidly.
McGrath hadn't waited for her response. He kept on talking. ”After this is all over and you get back here, I'm going to personally personally see that you get a regular prime-time slot for yourself. No co-host, all yours. And a full-length doc.u.mentary on your experiences up there. And a book deal, too. The only reporter at Moonbase. I've got to hand it to you, kid. You're the greatest.” see that you get a regular prime-time slot for yourself. No co-host, all yours. And a full-length doc.u.mentary on your experiences up there. And a book deal, too. The only reporter at Moonbase. I've got to hand it to you, kid. You're the greatest.”
It was the 'kid' that broke Edith's spell. He wants something, she realized. Of course he does! He wouldn't go to the trouble of establis.h.i.+ng a clandestine laser link unless he wanted something from me.
”I'm glad that you like what I'm doing,” she said. ”Now what's the reason for your call?”
When her words reached him, McGrath's brows hiked. Then he broke into a big, boyish grin.
”Can't fool you, can I?” he said, brus.h.i.+ng at his moustache. Edith thought it had been considerably grayer the last time she'd seen him. He must be coloring it.
”The Peacekeepers' attack is imminent,” he went on. ”From what I've been able to find out, they'll come at you in another few days. A week, at most.”
He stopped, waiting for her reply. Edith nodded and said, ”That's the way it looks here.”
”Okay,” he said after the delay. ”Here's my question. Can you cover the battle for us?”
”Cover the battle?”
He hadn't stopped for her reply. He was saying, ”I know you're only one person, Edie, but I've been thinking maybe you could get some of the Moonbase people to handle cameras, give us a blow-by-blow, minute-by-minute eyewitness account of the fight. Like Ed Murrow did in London during the Blitz.”
Edith knew who Edward R. Murrow was, but she wasn't certain of what the Blitz might be. She didn't fret over it. McGrath wants real-time coverage of the battle! I've got to tell Doug. This could be the biggest publicity break of all for Moonbase, showing the brave unarmed Lunatics desperately trying to hold off an army of U.N. Peacekeepers with their missiles and guns and all. Wow!
”Can you do it?” McGrath asked, almost plaintively.
”Mr McGrath,” Edith said, slowly, feeling the strength welling up inside her,'do you realize that if we show the battle in real-time it's going to give Faure and the U.N. a terrible black eye? I mean, they'll look like monsters, attacking these unarmed people.”
The three seconds were agony now. At last McGrath nodded grimly. ”That's right. I'm fully aware of it. I was wrong to back Faure against Moonbase. It may be too late to save the base, but I want the Global's viewers to see what the little s.h.i.+t is doing to you. I want the world world to see it!” to see it!”
”Okay!” Edith said happily. ”You've got it!”
He broke into a fleshy grin when her acceptance reached him. ”Can you do it? How much of the battle can you actually show?”
Grinning back at him, Edith replied, ”Moonbase has security cameras in every corridor, in every lab and workshop. And outside, too. I can show you the crater floor outside the base and even a view of the Mare Nubium, on the other side of the ringwall mountains. We'll get it all, don't worry.”
Three seconds ticked by, then McGrath said, ”Great! Do it. Don't worry about expenses.”
She signed off, almost delirious with joy. But as she hurried down the corridors to find Doug and tell him that Global News was now on his side, she realized that what she would really be showing the world was how the Peacekeepers marched into Moonbase and either accepted a surrender or blew the place apart.
BASE DIRECTOR'S OFFICE.
”Take a look,” said Jinny Anson.
She touched the keyboard on her desk and the wallscreen lit up to show a satellite view of the beautiful crater Copernicus.
Doug paid no attention to the crater's symmetry, however. He stared at the array of tractors and other vehicles parked on the plain of Mare Imbrium, just outside Yamagata's base, Nippon One.
”No wonder they're not flying here on Jobbers,” Anson muttered. ”There aren't enough rockets on the whole Moon to lift that much equipment.”
Doug felt almost breathless. ”There must be enough transport there for a thousand troops.”
Bam Gordette, sitting on the other side of the table that b.u.t.ted Anson's desk, said quietly, ”Not that many. More than half those vehicles'll be carrying food, water, air, ammo, missiles-logistics.”
Doug sank back in his chair. ”How many troops do you estimate, then?”
Gordette waggled a hand. ”Three hundred, three-fifty, tops.”
”That's enough to do the job,” Anson said. To Doug. She pointedly kept from looking at Gordette.
Staring at the ma.s.s of vehicles parked out on the open mare, Doug muttered, ”What we need is a good solar flare to knock out them out.”
”That would only postpone the inevitable,” Anson said.
Doug looked at her, sitting behind her desk. ”Jinny, you used to be a lot of fun to talk to. You're getting morose.”