technically eight.”
“ And you feel no remorse for that, do you, you piece of shit?”
“I already explained this to you. This mission to the seed planet is a multinational, multibillion dollar endeavor. We couldn’t risk it failing because of inept personnel.”
“And do you know that this is not a secure channel we’re speaking on , and everyone at mission control has heard your confession?”
“I have done no wrong. Our experiments are completely legal under the circumstances, not to mention that they were also sanctioned by the President of the United States.”
“I don’t care about legalities. I don’t care if you go to jail or not. I just want people to know what you’ve done. You’re a sick man and I can only hope you get what’s coming to you one day.”
With that, she switched channels and asked ground control for a secure channel to the guy who had sent her the personnel files. She felt like an idiot when she said, “I only know him as Greg. I didn’t get a last name.”
Ground control came back moments later to tell her there was no Greg in the program.
"Whatever," she sighed.
The guy from ground control said, "When did Greg get a hold of you?" There was tension in his voice.
"Maybe forty five minutes ago. Why?"
“This is a matter of national security, so this is strictly confidential, do you understand?"
"Of course. Who cares? I’m in outer space, dummy."
Forty two minutes ago , a nuclear warhead was launched into space. We tried to track it to see where it would land. We thought the Chinese might be striking Japan again, or even United States soil, but so far the warhead hasn't touched down."
"Does that mean what I think it means?"
"We don't know yet. What did Greg say to you?"
"He sent me files on my crew. He said it was important."
"Good. I'm going to go into your computer and find out where he sent the files from." After a few seconds he said, "The files were sent from China. The warhead was fired from China. I'm going to go out on a limb and say he only contacted you to get a reading on your location. That’s why he asked to send those documents, to get your bearings. Make a mild course correction and you should be okay. We'll do our best down here to find the nuke before it finds you. Once we do, I'll let you know when you're out of danger."
"Jesus Christ. Why would the Chinese want to shoot us down?"
"Probably because we excluded them from the mission."
"What are you talking about? There are a bunch of Chinese colonists here."
"We excluded the Chinese government, not the citizens. And now I'm pretty sure they took more offense to our slight than they let on. Now, enough yapping. Change your heading already."
"I changed it while you were talking."
"Send me your new coordinates so I can draw up a new course once the danger has passed."
"You'll have to forgive me, but I think I'll wait to give you my coordinates until after the nuclear threat is over. I don't know you any better than I knew Greg."
"Copy that."
Sarah was sweating. She had no idea the Chinese would go to such lengths to exact revenge. It was mindless rage. The Seeder program was trying to ensure the human race lived on past the destruction of Earth, and those idiots were trying to spoil that chance, for their own petty revenge. Once again, she was glad to have left that cesspool behind.
For a split second she worried that one of the Chinese colonists on board might be some kind of sleeper agent. Maybe one of them had a beacon or something that the Chinese nuke could home in on? But then the call from Greg wouldn't have been necessary, would it? She dismissed the paranoid suspicion out of necessity. It made no sense, and if she wanted to check into it, it would take her all damn day to find, and then wake, those of Chinese descent. They'd all been searched anyway, inside and out. There was no way someone could get on board with anything out of the ordinary.
She told the computer to watch out for
“ And you feel no remorse for that, do you, you piece of shit?”
“I already explained this to you. This mission to the seed planet is a multinational, multibillion dollar endeavor. We couldn’t risk it failing because of inept personnel.”
“And do you know that this is not a secure channel we’re speaking on , and everyone at mission control has heard your confession?”
“I have done no wrong. Our experiments are completely legal under the circumstances, not to mention that they were also sanctioned by the President of the United States.”
“I don’t care about legalities. I don’t care if you go to jail or not. I just want people to know what you’ve done. You’re a sick man and I can only hope you get what’s coming to you one day.”
With that, she switched channels and asked ground control for a secure channel to the guy who had sent her the personnel files. She felt like an idiot when she said, “I only know him as Greg. I didn’t get a last name.”
Ground control came back moments later to tell her there was no Greg in the program.
"Whatever," she sighed.
The guy from ground control said, "When did Greg get a hold of you?" There was tension in his voice.
"Maybe forty five minutes ago. Why?"
“This is a matter of national security, so this is strictly confidential, do you understand?"
"Of course. Who cares? I’m in outer space, dummy."
Forty two minutes ago , a nuclear warhead was launched into space. We tried to track it to see where it would land. We thought the Chinese might be striking Japan again, or even United States soil, but so far the warhead hasn't touched down."
"Does that mean what I think it means?"
"We don't know yet. What did Greg say to you?"
"He sent me files on my crew. He said it was important."
"Good. I'm going to go into your computer and find out where he sent the files from." After a few seconds he said, "The files were sent from China. The warhead was fired from China. I'm going to go out on a limb and say he only contacted you to get a reading on your location. That’s why he asked to send those documents, to get your bearings. Make a mild course correction and you should be okay. We'll do our best down here to find the nuke before it finds you. Once we do, I'll let you know when you're out of danger."
"Jesus Christ. Why would the Chinese want to shoot us down?"
"Probably because we excluded them from the mission."
"What are you talking about? There are a bunch of Chinese colonists here."
"We excluded the Chinese government, not the citizens. And now I'm pretty sure they took more offense to our slight than they let on. Now, enough yapping. Change your heading already."
"I changed it while you were talking."
"Send me your new coordinates so I can draw up a new course once the danger has passed."
"You'll have to forgive me, but I think I'll wait to give you my coordinates until after the nuclear threat is over. I don't know you any better than I knew Greg."
"Copy that."
Sarah was sweating. She had no idea the Chinese would go to such lengths to exact revenge. It was mindless rage. The Seeder program was trying to ensure the human race lived on past the destruction of Earth, and those idiots were trying to spoil that chance, for their own petty revenge. Once again, she was glad to have left that cesspool behind.
For a split second she worried that one of the Chinese colonists on board might be some kind of sleeper agent. Maybe one of them had a beacon or something that the Chinese nuke could home in on? But then the call from Greg wouldn't have been necessary, would it? She dismissed the paranoid suspicion out of necessity. It made no sense, and if she wanted to check into it, it would take her all damn day to find, and then wake, those of Chinese descent. They'd all been searched anyway, inside and out. There was no way someone could get on board with anything out of the ordinary.
She told the computer to watch out for
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