Far Side Two
Copyright© 2025 by Gina Marie Wylie
Chapter 3
I
Kris Boyle had joined Andie and Linda, and the three of them were ushered into a meeting room at the White House where the president and others were waiting for them.
The President was standing and waved the trio of women to sit. “Miss Schultz ... I am pleased to meet you again. I know Miss Boyle, but most of the advice I get these days is to let either of you have your head. That’s a request from the governor of California and the mayor of LA.” The president laughed, “Give her whatever she wants -- just so long as she gets off our backs!”
Andie shrugged. “As soon as they resign, they acquiesced in unconscionable actions against my family, Kris’s family, and our friends. One of those friends was killed. They have sacrificed some minions; the big guys have to go too. Also, the Chief of the LAPD and the LA County Sheriff.”
She didn’t hesitate but went right on. “I had asked for a small meeting, Mr. President. There are ten people in the room. If anything is leaked about this meeting, I will assume you all are untrustworthy and seek your removal as well. All of you. Mr. President, I would recommend fewer ears.”
“I’m here, so is my Chief of Staff and my Press Secretary. The majority and minority leaders of the Senate and House, the Attorney General, the heads of the Army and Navy. You said the topic of this meeting was ‘Interstellar War. This is the minimum for such a discussion.”
“May I make a proposal, and then I’ll leave,” the Navy admiral said.
The president gestured for him to go ahead.
“My people have looked into the power requirements for a Far Side door. In particular, one that is 50 feet wide and a hundred feet tall. That would allow a nuclear submarine to go through. I admit my people blanched when they saw how much juice was needed. We did a little research, and surprise! Andie Schultz had a power supply large enough. It was located at China Lake, but it would fit inside a C-5 and was described as ‘light as a feather.’ Miss Schultz, come and talk to me after this meeting. An Ohio-class boomer is a simply awesome force multiplier.”
Kris spoke up. “Over my dead body. We will not introduce nuclear technology to Arvala. Never. Andie can explain later.”
“It can be armed with cruise missiles and regular torpedoes. We’ve talked to the NRO, and we can loft the satellite they have for you.”
Andie turned to face the President. “Sir, I know Jon Bullman has talked to you about why we don’t want anything nuclear on Arvala. I hope you’ve kept the reason close to the vest.”
“I have. Admiral, how would a regular, non-nuclear submarine do?”
“Aside from the major hit in range? It would be limited to five thousand miles, out and back.”
“And the ocean between Arvala and the other known continent is nine thousand miles, two thousand wider than the Pacific with a paucity of islands. There doesn’t appear to be anything in the middle,” Andie told them.
The Army general spoke up. “I understand you need more than a hundred special operators, and you don’t want mercenaries.”
Andie sniffed in derision. “I would hire the men myself, but when we ask for their records, we can’t get them. I’ve already hired a half dozen duds. I do not want operational details; I simply want their performance evaluations. Without that, men are going to get dead. If I have regular troops, their bosses will know who the duds are.”
“You are too tender about casualties. Shit happens,” the Army general said.
“It’s going to happen to you,” the president said. “I’ve never heard a more despicable comment in my life. You are relieved, General.” The man hesitated, and the president laughed bitterly. “General, before you think about running to the media, be aware that Andie Schultz will only ruin your professional reputation. I, on the other hand, will put you in jail for the rest of your natural life.”
“You can’t! My First Amendment rights!”
The Attorney General said, “I was told that everything discussed here would be top secret, compartmented. So sorry, that’s a hundred thousand dollar fine and twenty years to life in prison for each infraction. One word for you, General: don’t. We are tired in this town when every two-bit pipsqueak takes it upon himself to blab secrets critical to the National Defense. The President has said he was going to crack down on such leaks, and I’ve added the word ‘hard’ to the description of his intent.
“General, send in your deputy,” the president added some final words.
The president waved at the Chief of Staff and Press Secretary. “Later, people.”
Andie interjected, “Before they go, I have a message for you, Mr. President, from Oliver Boyle. He had your promise of something, and Mr. Boyle thinks you might be contemplating reneging. He would like a public statement of your intentions in the matter.”
The president sighed. “It’s a very heady time to be president, trying to guide our country in this, one of our greatest hours. Oliver Boyle reminded me that feeling is what got so many of my predecessors in trouble over the last hundred years. I’ve prepared it; lately, I keep moving commas or inserting semicolons, but not changing the wording.”
He leafed through some papers and pulled out one and handed it to his press secretary. “Here, this will keep you busy for a few weeks or months.”
The press secretary took it and read it. “For release right now. Give it to Dick to read.” The press secretary handed the single sheet to the chief of staff. He read it and looked the president in the eye.
“Between that sum-bitch before you and now this, our party is going to spend a decade or two in the wilderness.”
Andie laughed. “The former president conspired to cover up the most important scientific discovery of all time. He conspired in the kidnap and murder of those working on that discovery, the arrest, imprisonment, and torture of innocent citizens going about their innocent pursuits, and to cap it all off, ordered a nuclear weapon used on Chicago. He was aided and abetted in these acts by many in your party and by not a few in the other party. A plague on both of your houses.”
The president calmly announced, “I will not stand for reelection. As an aside, I recommend that legislation be introduced to make the same rules apply to civil service and elected official pensions as they do to Social Security. The amount paid to individuals from private sources is subject to a dollar-for-dollar reduction of a public pension. No more double- and triple-dipping from the public trough.”
He waved and said, “Go now.”
The two men got up without any further words and left.
“Admiral,” the president asked, changing the subject back to what it had been before, “What kind of diesel subs do we have?”
The admiral shook his head. “Zero, zip, nada. All we have are nukes.”
The president grimaced, and Andie said, “Sir, I apologize in advance. Fuck!”
“I assume that the development time of a new diesel sub makes it prohibitive,” the president said.
“Not only that, just plain stupid. With the new tech available, we could make something longer range than a nuke. But it would be new tech ... if we don’t want nukes on the Far Side, I assume that you don’t want that either.” He stopped speaking for a moment, then said, “May I use my phone, sir? I just thought of something.”
The president waved his hand, and the admiral spoke to someone, using a lot of acronyms, before turning back to the room. “Yes, sir. I can get a sub, not nuclear, available in a week or so. We’re back to having the Air Force launch their bird because while we can rig the sub for cruise missiles, certainly not an ICBM. I propose we lease one from one of our NATO allies. The Swedes did lease one to us a few years ago that we used as a red target. It slipped right up to the Reagan, not just once but several times. It’s more or less a hybrid; the Greens should love it. The Germans and the Italians have similar vessels. And the door would only need to be half as large.”
“It would be unconscionable not to fully brief the government we are borrowing the sub from as to the particulars, all of the pertinent particulars,” Andie said, eyeing the president.
“Which are?” the admiral asked.
“Life on Arvala is -- interesting -- just now. Dare I say, rather sporty. What have you heard, Admiral?”
“There are issues with slavers, flying predators that are large enough to eat people, but not much beyond that, not really.”
“Kristine Boyle had no end of problems getting foster parent rights to a young woman of Arvala. The young woman is from a race of slaveholders. And black. The reverse of the American South -- blacks are the slaveholders, and the other races that oppose them are subject to enslavement -- and are white. Of course, the ‘whites’ on Arvala look like Italians or Spaniards, like North Africans.
“The worst news we just learned. We had thought there was an insurrection underway among the Arvalans. One of the fighting orders was trying to supplant the others. Now we know that there are at least two more intelligent species on the planet. One is the equivalent, more or less, of human six-year-olds. The other species’ intelligence has not been measured as yet, but is at least on the same order as humans. Those last two are the winged predators,” Andie said.
“The submarine needs a range of at least 9,000 miles. Do these have that?”
“The subs of this class can do that, but they would not have a very large patrol area at long range. These are the near apexes of diesel technology ... for all that they aren’t even pure diesels. They use hydrogen fuel cells to charge their batteries, in addition to their diesel engines. The latest German boats are a bit longer, but they mount a 30 mm cannon and can also load 3 UAVs. The crew is about 25.”
“There is no GPS on Arvala,” Andie stated bluntly.
“That can be dealt with -- just ship a few extra sextants. Charts...” the admiral’s voice trailed away.
Andie went on to explain, “Until I convinced them that sailing ships were useless without them, maps were verboten by the Arvalans. Now we have a few rough maps of Arvala. At our headquarters, we have a large-scale map, eighteen feet long and nearly eight feet high. We had two map parties, one going up the east coast of Arvala and up the west coast of the East Finger. The guys mapping the east coast are in a steel-hulled submersible we got from the Coast Guard, who got it in turn from some drug smugglers. It is thirty feet long and twelve feet wide with radar, sonar, and an echo finder. It has a hundred-mile range and is halfway to Siran-Ista with a three-man crew. I sent word for the west coast survey to head to Arvala; they are four guys in an open boat, with a secure cabin and where they keep the electronics. They are too exposed. We’re going to need a submersible on that side as well.
“The plan was to go a hundred miles north of Siran-Ista, then make a pass twenty miles out, on the way back, just mapping the sea bottom. We have a small coastal patrol boat from the Coast Guard to support it, armed with six thirty-caliber machine guns, and they have a radar which should, in theory, see dralka. If it is a few, they kill them with the thirties, and if there is a lot of them, they button up and wait until dark.
“The ship on the other side is a cabin cruiser, a 32-footer with a closable cabin. They could probably defend against as many as ten dralka, but a large attack -- they’d be screwed.”
“I can talk to the Coast Guard and get you another cutter like the first, but fitted for survey,” the admiral said.
“Sir, you can try, but the president had to make it a direct order to the Coast Guard for them to release a patrol boat. We got the Sea Otter from San Diego; I checked and there is one in Marina del Rey, the Halibut. The Coast Guard says we can’t have it.”
“Consider it delivered,” the president said. “The same place?”
“Marina del Rey, sir. We have a C-5M from the Air Force and a movable power plant and Far Side door. We had to take off the antenna mast from the patrol boat and a couple of flex antennas had to be flexed. But that was just a few hours. Mr. President, if you get any guff from them, remind the guy in charge that over two hundred Coast Guard sailors volunteered to man that boat -- including an admiral -- and that was just among those in San Diego.”
Another general had entered and remained silent until Andie had finished speaking. Now he spoke, “My boss told me he was fired, but recommended that I agree to Miss Schultz’s troop requests. We will ask for volunteers and have the requisite number in China Lake in 72 hours.”
“Said volunteers will be made aware that this is a combat tour, and they will be there for twelve Earth months,” Andie said. “Whoever you send, you have to send their complete performance reviews. I don’t want duds, this is going to be active combat; they will be killing aliens ... some of them will look like their cousins and some are just critters. Married people are discouraged, but not banned. These will be mostly ground actions but there may be something similar to airborne insertions; there is no way to take dependents.”
The new general turned to the president. “Is this your wish, sir?”
“Please, make it so. Don’t make a mistake like your predecessor made, denigrating the dead.”
“I won’t, Mr. President, but I have to ask how someone not yet twenty is giving orders in this office.”
The admiral laughed. “Do you see anyone here from the Air Force? She shot down every single aircraft in their inventory. She carries a hand weapon better than anything you have, we have, or anyone else has, and she has a defensive screen which has been demonstrated as proof against the sort of bomb the former President dropped on Chicago. So yeah, everyone in the Air Force is sweating whether or not they’ll have a job next year.
“In case you haven’t noticed, the City of Los Angeles is going to be under all new management. The state of California and the United States have already changed leadership. Miss Shultz has drafted treaties with at least one alien government and is working on another. What have you done? Anything comparable?”
Andie had a smile. “In a few months, General, I’ll stop being a teenager. The same age Alexander was when he came to power in Macedonia. Two years later, he started on his world conquest tour. It might be that people understand that the conquest of interstellar distances is as important as conquering the world. Can’t say as I feel that way, but some do.”
“And you want to lead men to the other side of the universe, perhaps to die in unmarked, unlamented graves.”
“General, I’ll tell you the truth. Leading soldiers half the world away or half the universe away, perhaps to die so far from home ... I think the death is what’s important. You have piled up lots of bodies half a world away.”
“General, change the subject, right now,” the president ordered.
II
Erica reported to Andie when she returned from a trip to Washington. “Boss, the dralha have been recruiting ‘hands’ here on this continent. They have just a few hundred and they are hyper-careful of them. The Americans enthralled have given them a severe shock. The dralha have never considered technology. The Builders weren’t pushed to advance and didn’t. Dralha buildings are masonry rookeries, only slightly larger than dralka rookeries, and located near rivers. Rookeries have always had easy access to water, but running water was a Builder improvement that they quickly adapted.
“The ‘mother’ I can overhear talked to her daughter during the meeting, essentially repeating what the others in the meeting told her. As far as I know, she has never thought about writing something down; it would be hard without hands. She occasionally thinks of others, but it’s just a burst of noise, meaningless to me. Associated with names are other bursts of noise, which I assume are titles or ranks or something like that. Most of those are just noise, but I occasionally understand ‘daughter’ and ‘daughter-mother.’ Males are second-class as far as I can say, and only referred to by name or by the label ‘male.’”
Andie didn’t hesitate. “Kurt, assign two guards to Erica, full-time. One of them with a Barrett or equivalent. Erica, I hate to tell you this, but you’ve just become a major asset. You are not to go outside unless in a Humvee, and that sort of movement is to be kept to a minimum. I’ll see to your new quarters in the headquarters building. This is to last until we are really, really sure that they don’t know they’re being eavesdropped.”
“Andie, I saw it in her mind, what they did to the Builders. The Tengri are bad; but the dralha are evil incarnate. At least the Tengri only kill their slaves...” Erica stopped again.
She looked at Andie a few minutes later, a haunted expression on her face. “I have to get used to this shit. Kris told me that the first thing that flew out the window on the Far Side was moral relativism, that you had to make judgments on what is right. What’s right about this? In three days, there will be an attack on the Tengri outpost by two thousand of the dralka. The intent is to destroy them utterly because there is no way the dralha figure that they can compete with the Tengri.”
Andie looked at Kurt. “Wake up our Tengri linguist and get her to the headquarters ASAP. Get the Siran-Ista station up and awake.”
Linda looked at her friend. “You’re going to give the Tengri a heads-up?”
Andie’s laugh was the nastiest thing Erica had ever heard. “Yep, it would be unconscionable not to do so; Kris would have cat fits if Diyala’s father became bird feed. Of course, the Tengri are arrogant fools, and I expect them to ignore me. Tough ... shit happens. Then I’m going to remind Glaive Trennys of the last time we negotiated. I want him to send a heads-up to the Emperor -- Andie Schultz is coming for him. The best choice is to surrender all of their slaves; failure to comply will have dreadful consequences.”
“The dralha have to be target one; the Tengri are a distraction. Kurt, you and I will work up a plan to beat the shit of the Tengri imperium with the least risk -- with the goal of a war about as short as that awful one in Kuwait. I’ve already arranged for a hundred and fifty special operators to be here day after tomorrow.”
Kurt left again, and Andie turned to Erica. “We will shortly go to headquarters, near the Arvalan fort. You and the Tengri linguist will remain there until further notice. Those are nominally VIP quarters, and the VIPs will go in the barracks henceforth. You will tell her nothing about the dralha, who we suspect, or even that we suspect people. Unless I tell you differently. You can’t talk to her about your communications with the dralha. You will have access to everything she knows about Tengri ship positions.
“Look, I know this is a draconian imposition, but the planet hangs in the balance. If the Arvalans lose their foothold on this continent, it will be really bad. Millions would die. You say we have a technological edge, and I want to exploit that. I want to exploit the fact that we aren’t from around here.”
“Spooky action at a distance? Didn’t Einstein say that?” Erica asked.
“Far Side doors are intimately connected to the quantum side of the universe. Human thought is connected to that side. Linda, will telepathy work through a Far Side door?” Andie inquired.
“Yes, while I don’t remember chapter and verse. Paired quantum events on one side of a Far Side door will be repeated on another side of the door. Those are on a very fundamental level,” Linda responded. “Human thought is at that level.”
Kurt returned. “Rogers would have had the duty; I let him sleep. The Hummer will be here in ten minutes.”
Andie nodded and turned back to Linda and Erica. “You said something about a sunrise ceremony earlier.”
“Yes, Andie. It was a rather lengthy ritual, about a half hour, and all sorts of formal responses. I understood about a tenth.”
“Tonight is a double-dark night. The Big Moon cleared the eastern horizon last night after sundown. Tomorrow, after a day of absence in the day sky, there will be a sliver over the western horizon tomorrow. This is like a lunar eclipse -- the Earth’s shadow occludes the moon. A solar eclipse is where the moon’s shadow occludes the Earth. On Earth, solar eclipses are only full in the narrow path of the moon’s shadow, and lunar eclipses occur more frequently than solar eclipses because the Earth’s shadow is larger than the moon’s. Is it possible that the ritual was because it was a full day where the Big Moon wasn’t visible?”
“There were repeated references to the sun; none about the moon,” Erica told her boss.
“Considering the size of the Big Moon, the absence of a reference is probably important, sweetie,” Linda Walsh added.
“Mark that as likely, but unverified,” Andie replied. She turned to Erica. “I am interested in references to the Big Moon from today onward.”
“Let’s go,” Kurt said, and they all left.
Andie and Linda sat in the front seat, Kurt manned the chain gun, and Monica and Erica were in the back. A private drove the Hummer. They rode in silence, and they disembarked about ten minutes later under another jail-awning, where Monica was waiting for them.
“What’s up?” Monica asked after they got to the headquarters building.
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