Chapter 16

Captain Scarlett nudged his ship closer to the Eastern Bloc fighters. As he pulled to a stop, the rear canopy of the closest Flounder opened up and slowly a spaceman rose out of the cockpit. “Don’t go anywhere,” said Alan to Eileen.

“What?” cried Eileen, but before she could protest further, Alan’s canopy slid forward, and he floated up out of his seat. Using a “puff pack” he drifted close to the Flounder fighters. The eastern bloc pilot did the same and met with Alan between the formations.

“What do you want?” asked Alan.

“Me? Personally, I would like beef on weck sandwich,” came the accented female voice. “Brevet Space Force Colonel Alan Scarlett, I am Colonel Antonina Matrona Markov of the Peoples Space Force.”

“I know you,” said Alan. “You were at Thundering Waters.”

“Da. I was emissary for the Russian people at Thundering Waters. I can purchase the, how you say, Genesee Cream Ale, but beef on weck is beyond me. Where do you get the kimmelweck for the beef sandwich?”

“You don’t purchase them, you make them.” In the reflected light of the earth far below, Alan could see the familiar face of the attractive middle-aged woman. He never spoke while she was at Thundering Waters, but he knows Pandora spoke with her occasionally. “We can go out to dinner when we get home,” he continued. “I know you didn’t attack Camp Schmitt.”

“No. We did not. Can we speak closely?” To answer, Alan pulled her close, and they held each other in an embrace, the faceplates of their helmets pressed together. They both turned off their suit radios. “Can you hear me?” Antonina asked. Her voice echoed in his helmet.

“Yes, for some reason, your people left me with my hearing.”

“They were not our people. Those pridurki have no honor! I apologize for your pilot that was lazed, I argued against that. How do you know we did not attack Camp Schmitt?”

“The weapon used is not yours. Several of your own ships have been hit by the same weapon and then pilfered by a scrapper.”

“Da, not The scrapper, am I right?”

“Yes you are right. Why are we here?”

Antonina didn’t pause a single beat. “Some in my government want this weapon. Others, me included, want it studied for its scientific value and removed from untrained hands. From what we know, the weapon is difficult to deploy. It would be best in the hands of people that understand powerful weapons.”

“We agree, so why are we here?” Alan asked again.

“The eastern bloc has chosen not to invest time and money on the search. The government has taken a position of ‘watch and laugh.’ They believe that the deployer of the weapon will cause much pain to the Western Alliance then we will sweep in and take what we want from the ashes.”

“Politics sucks.”

“Da. I cannot help you other than give you a name. Doctor Franco Aldini, he was last seen at the Albatross Mine. More than that I cannot say.”

“Yes you can. You make sure Pandora gets home. Just promise me that.”

Antonina paused, then said, “I cannot promise.”

“Colonel Markov, if I make it home and she does not, I have two moons inbound from Saturn. I make a minor course adjustment then call out on the radio how they got away because of that machine, and one hits the Eastern Bloc in Moscow, the other hits Western Alliance HQ at Mexico City and I sit back and laugh ... Both sides will blame each other, and the war of 2085 will seem like a skirmish.”

Antonina Markov studied Scarlett’s eye. Tension on both sides was at an all-time high. The right assassination at the wrong time would set off a firestorm that the earth would not survive, but this plan of his is madness! “You are willing to sacrifice your children for their mother?”

“I’m a Martian, I’ve lived with death every moment of my life. Thanks to the Eastern Bloc, Pandora is all that I have. Her children will be safe, but I cannot say the same for yours.”

Antonina Markov paused for a long time before saying, “My friend Pandora Vermillion will return home, her children are too cute to leave alone with their pridurok father. When this is finished you will show me how is made kimmelweck. Da?”

“Da. Thank you.”

Without another word, Alan returned to his F-733 and asked Eileen to join up with the SS Peake. “What does pridurok mean?” he asked.

“It means Jerk,” said Eileen. “Why?”

“It’s the word of the day.”

“What did he say?” asked Antonina’s pilot, Captain Kazimir Novikov, as Antonina returned to her Flounder, and the F-733s retreated to the big, ugly freighter.

“He said he would start a war that would leave the earth in cinders if anything happened to his wife.”

“Blowhard!” scoffed Novikov. “Western forces, so weak and soft. They don’t know what they’re talking about.”

“No Kazimir, he’s not Western. He is Martian, and they don’t lie, nor do they exaggerate. They are fatalists, exactly what Russians were two hundred years ago. You will be proud to meet him. He said he would bring water to Mars, and he did it.”