Bassline Night Owls 4: A Moon Colony Sci-fi Adventure by Stephen Gay

Author:Stephen Gay [Gay, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-03-22T00:00:00+00:00

13

NING SHEN

The rest of the journey is uneventful but somber. Our private space pad in Dome 12 awaits us, but no one says anything once we land. No one gets up. The only sounds are Nico and Desi—Nico is running diagnostics and Desi is trying to figure out how to track any ships coming from Earth to Luna. The rest of us sit in shocked silence.

I can’t get the harrowing images out of my mind or anything else that happened in the last two days. Everything feels heavy and clouded, as if it all happened in a dream to someone else. I wish. But the sight of Abaddon’s bomb decimating a peaceful day is etched onto my eyelids, on a constant loop in my brain. If we don’t get to the bottom of this, we’ll be seeing it again. This time at home.

When coverage of the bombing comes on the display, I unmute the LBC feed. A tired-looking Erin appears.

“More details are emerging from the recent LIF attack on Earth,” she begins. “The China Union reports at least six hundred military and civilian employees have been killed, with three times that many injured.” She pauses, pulls back her shoulders, and taps her fingers on the desk. “We now have an exclusive interview with Sofia Gorman, the Earth Alliance under-secretary general.”

The display turns to a split screen. On the right is a woman in her early thirties. Her brown hair is pulled back in a bun, and her bronze eyes are welcoming. “Thank you for having me.”

Erin gives her a short nod. “You’ve recently been elected as the under-secretary general, but now with the retirement of Madame Chen Huang, the former secretary-general, you’ve been flagged as the frontrunner for the open position. How do you feel about such a possibility?”

“It’s an immeasurable honor to even be considered for such a role,” Sofia says, “but concurrently I do not let such hearsay distract me from my work. It is true we have had lots of change with the Earth Alliance, but even more so, we need to stay focused on Earth and its security,” she adds smoothly before Erin can get a word in.

“Given the recent bombings, we’ve seen an increase in global security from the Earth Alliance,” the anchor continues. “While not all unions have turned over security to the EA, what are the plans to support the increase?”

“We’ve been partnering with each union to merge military resources under a single structure,” Sofia responds promptly but not in a practiced manner. “We’ve also turned to our corporate partners for private military support.”

Taylor shakes her head. “Great, more security. It’s like the gestapo.”

Erin nods again. “Your father, Warren Gorman, runs Titan Industries. Titan is a leading provider of military hardware and private contractors. Do you see a conflict of interest?”

“Not at all.” Sofia’s expression doesn’t change. “I represent the citizens of Earth first with a focus on safety and security. I’ll utilize any resources that enable that security.”

“While China has denounced LIF,

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