When the Earth Had a Moon (Part 2) by A.M. Cunning

Author:A.M. Cunning [Cunning, A.M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-03-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

A young soldier escorted Rex to the door of Ty’s office and left him alone. Rex knocked and entered without waiting for a reply. The office walls were bare, and there was a solitary computer-integrated desk like Commander Usov had on the space station, only smaller. An older man sat at the desk where Rex expected to see Ty. The man had pale skin and a receding blond hairline. Rex stepped toward the old man. “Is Ty around?”

The man looked up and stared at Rex for a moment. “Rex?” The man’s voice was familiar to Rex, but his face was not.

“Have we met?” Rex asked.

“Please, have a seat.” Rex sat down. “I heard you were here. I’m glad you made it back all right.” As the man spoke, Rex realized that he sounded like Ty.

“I’m sorry, I’ve been away for a while. Do I know you? I’m looking for Ty.”

“I am Ty.”

Rex shook his head. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand. Did you say that you are Ty?”

“Yes, and I know that I owe you an apology,” Ty said.

“What’s going on here?” Rex asked.

“I’ve found over the years that on these types of projects, people react to older people in two ways. They either dismiss them as has-beens in the field or they placate them,” Ty said.

“I’m sorry. I’m not following,” Rex said.

“I created an avatar to communicate with you on the base.”

“Why?”

“I wanted to participate in your work. So, I used a younger image of myself,” Ty said.

Rex remembered thinking that Ty knew too much for someone his of his age and experience, so this made some sense. “You didn’t need to do that.”

“I think I did,” Ty said.

Rex did not know what to make of the older Ty. He came to see Ty to discuss the fusion project, Moon-X, and recent events, but now Rex did not know if it was wise to confide in him. Rex concluded that Ty’s deception was not malicious and decided to treat Ty as an ally. “I just talked to Hendricks. He wants me to keep working on the project.”

“I heard. Do you want to keep working on it?” Ty asked.

“No. Without the helium-3, it’s pointless. Doesn’t that bother you?”

“I’ve been working to make nuclear fusion commercially viable for so long that I can’t stop when we have this much support,” Ty said.

Rex sat down at the chair by Ty’s desk. “Hendricks is blackmailing me to keep me on the project.”

“How?”

“Major Savalas thinks I tried to defect and told the Russians some secrets. Hendricks said he’d fend him off if I came back to work,” Rex said.

“What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know. I need to think.”

“You’re in a tough spot,” Ty said.

“Have you heard anything about the rest of the Moon-X crew that made it back?”

“You mean Mei and Sergei?” Ty asked.

“Yes.”

“I have. They made it to port.”

“How were you able to make contact with them?” Rex asked.

“Xiao sent the message to Moon-X headquarters. He said they gave Mei a hard time.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.