“That’s risky.” He began to flip through a tablet, light reflecting back onto his face. “There’s the radioactive fallout, and a small chance we could kill those traveling between the hidden city and Arsia Mons. I’m not sure what sort of damage it will do. The computer models are only so accurate.”
“We’ll warn them ahead of time, but not too far ahead, and there will be nothing they can do to stop us.”
XO pinched the bridge of his nose. “Have you decided on a political platform? Sure, wanting to see change is one thing, but you must have a solid plan. We can’t just walk in and demand that the wealthy give everyone a hand out.”
“Sure we can.”
“No.” He shook his head. “We can’t. You’re going to need to think about that. The only thing we can do is control the flow of money into their accounts. Taxes and fees. Have you considered setting up a profit sharing fund for the colonies? These families did take a substantial risk moving away from Earth, and we could give back to them in this way. That would equal out some of the income gap without causing too much political wake.”
“I have thought of that.” Liberty tapped her lips with a finger. “But we will need something more drastic than that method alone. We need a revolution.”
“Listen, ma’am, you can take peoples’ money and property with your weapons, but you can’t change their minds. Remember that. I’m not saying we shouldn’t do this, but making more enemies won’t do you any good.”
Out of the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of Kelly loitering in the hall—or was it eavesdropping? A man after my own curious heart.
Liberty went on, “If it comes down to it, I’ll bomb the city and see their bunkers turned to dust.” She struck the table with her fists. “We have to see an end to this war and poverty, once and for all. And this will be the end. No more deaths. No more suffering.”
Kelly’s face blanched at her words. I nodded at him and he scurried off up the hall, looking shaky.
“Who’s that?” XO asked, leaning to look out. “Knew we should have shut the damn hatch.” It was a rebuke intended for himself.
“Kelly,” I replied. “He’s not been doing so well lately. I think he misses his family, lost them on Ceres those years back. You know how it is, certain events can bring it all back. Things are coming to a head.”
XO raised a fist. “Remember Ceres.”
Liberty and I returned the gesture. “Remember Ceres.”
The three of us stood, our meeting silently adjourned.
Liberty palmed her coat flat and pulled on the hem. “Are you with me?” She glared at XO. “Because if you’re not I can replace you. I’d rather not have to do that.”
He let out a sigh that betrayed more emotion than I’d ever seen in him. “Yes, ma’am. I’m with you. But if this little game threatens my wife and daughter, so help me—”
“Understood, Stone.”
XO left the room, leaving Liberty and I alone. I hadn’t said anything during the meeting, but something XO brought up had gotten me thinking again.
“You alright, Davie?” Liberty asked, snapping me from my reverie.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” But the thought he’d summoned wouldn’t go away. I had to get to the bottom of this.
Liberty and I spent the day in bed. It was nice no longer having to hide how we felt. This made some of the crew uneasy, an enlisted engineer and the Captain hooking up being a scandal and all, but as Liberty and I had decided awhile back, fuck ’em. Life was too short to worry about what others were thinking all of the time. We were far past the point of reprimands, so why the hell not?
As Liberty slept soundly, her naked body curled up beneath the sheets, I got up and searched for William Fryatt’s personal tablet. There was one question I needed the answer to. After a minute I found what I was looking for, resting inside the drawer of his massive four foot long desk. I took it with me back to the bed and eased up against Liberty’s warm, sleeping body. She was like a stone pulled fresh from the hearth.
I took a deep breath and unlocked the tablet with the sinking suspicion I wouldn’t be disappointed at the results.
Search: Pan-X Trade Agreement.
I’d been right, the information network was being censored. In less than a heartbeat, the full details of the Trade Agreement pulled up, and I wasn’t liking what I saw. It involved three players: China, Ceres and the Axis.
When the Axis had gone into business in 2055, they’d made an agreement with China to supply them with all the consumable materials required to keep Europa’s base running until it was self-sufficient. As the Axis began to turn out record profits, mostly in rare materials and advanced electronics research, word got around and China began to ask for higher prices on their goods. The Axis complied for a time, but it soon became a major burden as these trade prices weren’t set in stone.
In 2057, The Pan-X Trade Agreement, brought before China by the Axis’s high council, was meant to rectify this issue by granting the Chinese government a portion of the Axis’s profits in exchange for the necessary goods, thus increasing long-term incentives over short-term gain. Upon hearing of this, the Brethren moved into action, and with some creative, legal leg work, found a way for them to circumvent the deal after it had already been signed. As the Axis scrambled to form a new agreement, the Brethren swept in and offered a larger share of their profits to secure a twenty year deal with China, under the provision that all shipments were sent via Russian freighters owned by Bear Logistics. At the time China was in a bind, being that consumer driven luxury goods and novelties were down worldwide, and so they took the best deal they could out of economic survival.
The result: The Axis’s supply lines thinned, being the only goods they could purchase were at astronomical prices. The Jovian people began to starve, realizing the gravity of their situation being a sovereign corporation several hundred million miles away from Earth. Out there, you were alone in the truest sense. And without support, you were dead.
In 2058, three years later, as a last ditch effort to secure a new supply chain, the Axis made a deal with corrupt officials at Ceres station. By circumventing the Brethren government, they could secure their goods at a discount and keep Europa alive, while still being gouged. However, during their second visit to the asteroid belt, a bomb was set off, destroying both Ceres station and the Axis vessel. No one knew for sure who set the explosive.
2059, war was declared on both sides.
I set the tablet down and rubbed my eyes. Liberty stirred but didn’t wake, a sleepy moan escaping her. I ran a hand across her arm and down her warm back, tickling her skin. Her shoulders rolled and she edged closer.
“Shit,” I mumbled. “We pushed them to it.”
Even still, there was nothing I could do now. Just because we’d created the situation that had started the war, events were already set in motion and long past the window of apology. Our politicians had done this to us, knowing just what they were doing. God help us, we had to fight through this to reach the other side. There was no other option.
“David? What are you doing?” Liberty asked groggily. “Lay back down.”
I followed her instructions while wondering how much she knew. How much her father had told her. But I guess It didn’t matter. I’d keep it to myself.