“No, Lorry, I guess not. You don’t find too many easy chairs aboard the kind of ships you pilot when you’re transporting the Banjoman’s flilox to his customers in the Belt. But when our plan succeeds, you’ll be able to buy all the soft chairs you want. Let’s get down to business.”
Zimbardo stood before the assembled company. Behind him, taking up most of the wall, was a map of a large portion of Mars. “As I was saying when we met in the hangar assembly room yesterday, it is simply a matter of choosing an appropriate target to convince them we have the capability. What should our target be? Well here, gentlemen, are the five major atmospheric generation plants on Mars.” He turned to the map and pointed out five places—two in the northern hemisphere, two near the equator, and one in the southern hemisphere. “Each is valued at two billion solars and would take several years to replace. The damage won’t bankrupt the government, but the expense is far from negligible! Even more importantly, when they are destroyed, Starlight Enterprise’s terraformation project will suffer a severe setback—possibly as much as three to four years. Now, data gathered from analysis has shown that these plants can be removed very easily by the proposal we have suggested. Mr. Crass, do you have anything to add?”
“No, Mr. Zimbardo. I’ve checked the specs on the asteroids you’ve selected and I’ve checked progress with what Stubb is doing. If he has the propulsion units ready in ten days, we can deliver our first package to Mars in precisely two weeks.”
A muscular man in short sleeves spoke up. Since no one else wore short sleeves, everyone suspected that he wore his sleeves short to show off his biceps. “Lurton—what about the ships that went to interrogate Vly? We know five took off, and yesterday I only saw one return. No one else wants to ask about it, but I’m asking. If I’m going to risk my men and my ships on this venture of yours, I want to know what’s involved.”
As the man was speaking, Gene lowered his head and kept his eyes on the floor.
“All right, Captain Kimball. It’s a fair question. You’re right. Five went out and only one returned. None of the men was lost—the returning ship brought them all back. But four of the ships were destroyed before they could land on Montezuma’s Castle.” Zimbardo’s five lieutenants were already aware of the setback. The visitors, Jeff Jenner and Lorry, were stunned. Kimball grunted, as if a suspicion had been confirmed.
“Well?” he pressed, his face hard and demanding.
“Gene,” said Zimbardo, turning away. He didn’t like to deliver news of defeat.
“The pilots of the ships tell essentially the same story,” began Gene. “They came directly to Montezuma’s asteroid, opened communications, and insisted that they were going to land. There was no response. But within seconds some kind of energy beam came forth from Adamant, the neighboring asteroid, and sliced the four ships into small sections. It was clear that there was no intention to kill any personnel—only to destroy the ships. The crews were left floating in space. Forces of some kind we are not familiar with pulled them into the proximity of the remaining ship, where they were taken aboard. Clearly, against forces like that we are helpless. The ship returned immediately. The men are badly shaken.”
Kimball grunted again. “And Vly?”