Free The Commander by CJ Williams Page B

his staff. “Are you kidding?” Samantha said. “We went over a thousand this week.”
    “I know. But it’s not enough. As soon as we finish the design for large ships, I want to open a colony on Mars. We don’t actually have any assurances that we’ve got five years. It could be tomorrow. We’ve got to send colonies to other star systems yesterday, so if the Bakkui show up, at least our species will survive. Anyone think differently?”
    A general murmur of agreement ran around the table before Luke continued. “Speaking of large ship construction, what’s the status?” He looked at Morrow.
    Public speaking was not Morrow’s forte, but when he did contribute to the discussion, everyone listened carefully.
    “I’ve been working with George and our engineers. The good news is, it is possible to manufacture a large-scale replicator the size you want. But it can’t happen here at Moonbase because it’s just too big. If we locate it outside, which is what we need to do, it’ll be visible from Earth.”
    “So where are you thinking? Luke prompted.
    “Far side of the moon. We can make it as big we want. Just put down a few acres of tarmac and go for it.”
    “What about NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter?” Roth asked. “Take it out?”
    Morrow nodded. “No choice if you want to still keep this secret?
    “Understood,” Luke agreed. “Kind of a shame to do that to NASA but I guess it’s inevitable. Maybe when this is all done we can recruit some of the astronomers who lost their toy.”
    Morrow cleared his throat. “Yeah. About that.”
    “What?”
    “Let’s start recruiting those guys now. Same time we’re building a construction base, let’s put up a new telescope. Not some puny thing like the James Webb mirror. I’m talking the size of a football field, and a research center to go with it.”
    “I’m not opposed,” Luke said. “But what’s your thinking?”
    “You just talked about your plan to go exo-solar system. Be nice to have a good look at any planets you want to visit before you waste a trip. We need a huge telescope and astronomers for that kind of thing. That’s out of my field. You keep promising to bring on an R&D guy.”

Day 222—Population 1,498
    Luke smiled at the young mechanic. Carrie Faulkner did not look like someone ready to sabotage NASA’s $500 million Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter program.
    Carrie’s profile said she was twenty-eight and had a criminal justice degree from University of Missouri in Kansas City. Recently she’d worked for Ambrose’s construction team by furnishing new residential units. At Morrow’s request she moved to his department to help with the telescope construction.
    She was wearing a thick pullover under denim overalls. Her ponytail was knotted high on her head and bounced like a flag as she moved about. Slung around her waist was a standard tool belt, which included the beer-can-sized personal force field.
    The personal force field created a flexible gravitational field around the wearer that kept in air and heat. It allowed someone to work on the surface of the moon, or anywhere in space for that matter, in a shirt-sleeve environment and still communicate with others. It was one of those small technological devices from George that blew Luke’s mind.
    Today Carrie’s job was to take out the satellite’s three cameras so they could no longer transmit ground photos of the lunar surface. Once it was disabled, Morrow could move forward with his planned research center and the construction platform for the large-scale replicator.
    Carrie stood next to a small cycle with skids instead of wheels; it looked more like a Jet Ski than anything else. It was a one-man scooter for getting about on the moon and was perfect for outside construction.
    “Are you all set?” Luke asked.
    “Yes sir,” Carrie replied quietly.
    “Tell me what you’re going to do.”
    Carrie patted the seat of the scooter. “This will take me to the Lunar