Free Prometheus and the Dragon (Atlas and the Winds Book 2) by Eric Michael Craig Page A

spend time outside during the lunar daytime. He’d jumped at the offer, because he knew going back to Earth and its heavy gravity would have just added more stress to his already burnt-out body. At least up here he was still on the front lines in the war against Antu. And close to Susan.
    After he’d been grounded six months ago they’d resumed their affair, but he knew it meant more to him than to her. She had the weight of the colony, and maybe all of humanity, on her shoulders, and she didn’t need the extra distraction of an emotional entanglement. Instead, he tried to be a friend. A warm body to hold her when she felt the biting cold of bitter reality. He was ok with that.
    At first their relationship, such as it was, had been awkward. There were very few people who had private rooms in the fledgling colony, so privacy was a luxury few enjoyed. Even those who did have their own space didn’t have any way to keep secrets. Within hours, any liaison was common knowledge, even for the privileged few. It wasn’t until several other relationships had cropped up that they felt comfortable with theirs. Now it was an occasional evening as friends. Sexual friends.
    Randy strolled into the Operations Center ten minutes before his shift started, smiling with the memory of last night’s coupling, hurried and needful as it had been. It had ended with a slow night of holding each other. It had been good, and he felt good about it this morning. Of course, she’d already been gone when he got up. She was the busiest person at New Hope, with the possible exception of Dr. Anthony.
    “Randy? A minute?” She stood waiting for him. He followed her into her office, a small room with a window overlooking the rest of the control stations. She shut the door behind her, something she rarely did.
    “What’s up?” he asked, perching on the edge of her desk.
    “Just got off line with General Marquez at Space Command,” she said, sitting on one of the chairs that faced her desk. “He’s sent up a special delivery for us, and I need to keep it low profile. Are you willing to make a run outside to pick it up once it bounces?”
    “Sure,” he said. “What is it?”
    “Keep it quiet?” she said. He nodded. “Weapons, and ammunition.”
    “What do we need them for?” he said.
    “They confirmed that Beijing Bennie wasn’t an astronaut. He was Lieutenant Teng Quon Gi of the Chinese Special Forces.”
    “Oh shit,” he said.
    “That’s why they sent us something to defend ourselves,” she said. “They’d apparently been aware for a while that some of the crew China is sending up is strictly military.”
    “And they just got around to doing something about it?” he asked.
    “They’ve been discussing sending us a security detachment eventually,” she said, “but when this guy showed up they pushed it.”
    “When do the troops get here?” he asked.
    “That’s probably going to take a while,” she said. “Six to eight weeks.”
    “So what are we supposed to do until then?” he said. “Form a militia?”
    “What a good idea,” she said grinning. “Now, are you going to volunteer to get it organized, or am I going to have to institute the first draft in lunar history?”
    “I guess I have insufficient reluctance,” he said, shaking his head. He knew a lot of the astronauts were ex-military, unfortunately most of them were still Earthside, while the crew up here were mostly civilians who’d been payload specialists. That didn’t bode well for their ability to defend themselves against real troops. Especially if they were Special Forces.
    ***
     
    Mount Weather, Virginia:
     
    It was a long concrete corridor curving gently to the left, just like all the other corridors in this cave of steel. She hated it, even if it was safe. She also hated William Worthington for condemning her to this prison. For the first few months it had made sense to be somewhere the outraged public couldn’t reach her, where she could