Step Back - Part 26

On Sunday afternoon after the worship service at his church John Huhn sat in prayer within the tiny office within his home. In this he asked God for guidance about the people who claimed to have come from the future,

From his own view as a True Christian their claim had to be a lie, and this was the first of their lies. They openly declared that there was no God nor had his son Jesus Christ ever lived. They also claimed that the child who led them was an ancient man reborn.

There was no question these were lies. Clearly these people were the servants of Satan, the first liar himself. And Huhn had also watched the Saturday broadcast of The First Line. The host Bill Burke and his guest Katherine Grant were clearly good and True Christians. Their account of the murder of the Reverend William Grant and kidnapping of his daughter Judith struck him to the depths of his very soul.

How could a True Christian respond to these lies? And what was to be done in the long run?

Huhn continued to sit in prayer.

Obviously the lies and their true source had to be exposed. Although there was a drafting board in his office he decided to use a sketchbook to do the initial draft of the next small comic book in the series for distribution to other True Christians.

In the Oval Office President Richard Nixon was seriously wishing that he could take the day off, or better yet, most of the year off. But he couldn’t. Many of the Sunday editorials in newspapers from the New York Times on down were calling for the destruction of the Uptimer ship, the seizure of their ground base in Nevada, and the prosecution of their leaders for various crimes.

Were they serious? And how were these miracles to be performed? The various editorial writers clearly didn’t say.

Morons, he thought.

That afternoon Doctor Boatman did rounds in the sick bay aboard the Eagle. In particular she wanted to check up on Miss Grant. Shortly into their conversation Judith touched on a topic that was uncomfortable.

“Alice?”

“Yes?”

“I just read about what happened to you on the Integral.”

Alice nodded with a slight frown.

“And now Burke and my mother are claiming that I’m being used the same way aboard the Eagle, that’s wrong!”

“Yes, it is.” Said Alice.

“So what can be done about it?”

To Alice Boatman the answer was obvious.

“The answer to a lie is to shine the light of truth upon it.”

“Yes.” Said Judith.

The process required to reveal the relevant facts suddenly became clear to her.

“Judith,” said Alice, “I know someone who’s a friend of Mike Wallace at CBS News, would you be willing to speak to him about what happened to you?”

“Yes?”

“Okay,” said Alice, “I’ll arrange it right away. Now try to get some rest, okay?”

“Okay.”

With that Alice went straight to the command deck. Captain Sterling was on watch when she arrived.

“Denny,” she said, “I need a favor, I need to make a phone call to New York.”

It was clear to him that Doctor Boatman had stated this as a fact and not as a request.

“Who to?” He asked.

“Ayn Rand.”

It was clear that the doctor was dead serious.

“Yes, go ahead.” He replied.

Alice walked over to the communications station on the command deck, spoke to the petty officer on duty and made the necessary connections. The first was a digital microwave link to the ground station at Arlington. The next was the analog telephone link to New York. As the line rang Alice picked up the connected receiver.

A woman with a clear Russian accent answered.

“Miss Rand? This is Doctor Boatman aboard the Eagle, we met at the meeting in New York.”

“Yes, Evelyn’s daughter. How are you?”

“Good.” Alice replied. “Miss Rand, have you seen this week’s broadcast of The First Line?”

“I normally avoid that trash, but someone gave me a tip on it.” Rand replied. “It was appalling.”

“Well yes, it was,” said Alice, “Miss Grant and I were discussing the contents of that program and we want to respond to it.”

“We?” Said Rand.

“Yes,” said Alice, “I want to specifically respond to the charge that children are subjected to sexual abuse by Uptimers. And I believe I must clearly state how we deal with those who do engage in such conduct.”

“Something happened?” Rand asked.

“Yes,” said Alice, “Did Harry Barnes say anything about what happened to me aboard the starship Integral?’

“Doctor Barnes did say that something horrible had occurred,” Rand replied, “but he didn’t go into detail on it.”

“I don’t blame him,” said Alice, “It was Communist leadership behavior, just like Mao.”

Although Alice couldn’t see it over a phone line Ayn Rand had raised both eyebrows upon hearing this. She had read the Uptimer’s history report on Mao’s personal conduct and was not at all surprised at his depravity.

Ayn Rand asked the next question.

“So how can I help?”

“Miss Rand, I believe that you know Mike Wallace at CBS News, if you could forward him our contact number we should be able to arrange an interview and sort this mess out.”

Rand nodded.

“Yes, I can do that.”

Thank you.”

Several phone calls later the interview was arranged. A lander would be sent to Kennedy Airport to pick up Wallace and his crew and bring them to the Eagle.

Step Back - Part 25

The broadcast of The First Line on that week would be digitally recorded aboard the Eagle and played for the mission commander and his staff. Judith Grant would also be present for the staff meeting.

Doctor Alice Boatman was the first to speak after the end of the program.

“‘Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?’”

“I’m sorry,” said Judith, “I don’t understand.”

“The quote was a reference to a historic conflict between secular and church authority,” said Doctor Boatman, “specifically between King Henry the Second and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket. It was alleged that the King had ordered the murder of Becket to resolve the conflict.”

Judith was speechless.

“Don’t worry,” said Evelyn, “the incident wasn’t covered in secular schools in the United States at this time either.”

“But why did it happen?” Said Judith.

“That is a good question,” said Evelyn, “King Henry saw the English branch of the Church as an asset of the state and had appointed Becket, who up to that point was his friend, to run it as such. But Becket subsequently saw himself as an actual servant of God, and saw himself and the church as being above the state, including King Henry. Thus the conflict and the subsequent outcome. So what happened in Dallas? Here we have William Grant, the Servant of God who was apparently untouchable by the law. He chose to physically block a medical evacuation to this ship and prevent us from saving a life. The act was simply intolerable and the response to it was simply obvious.”

Everyone at the table nodded in agreement.

A thought came to Judith’s mind. Her Uptimer hosts were consistently thinking and speaking in principles. That some of these people were personally involved in the incident simply did not matter to them.

These were clearly the children of Reason, she thought.

Boatman continued.

“Now Burke does declare that a homicide had occurred but presents it as an absolutely depraved act of murder. That he lied about this should not be a surprise. When Atlas Shrugged was published he printed a review in his own Conservative magazine, which was written by a former Communist, had denounced it as a work of propaganda that called for the extermination of Christians.”

“That’s wrong,” said Judith, “I just read Atlas Shrugged and Rand said no such thing!”

“Correct,” said Evelyn, “ the truth is completely irrelevant to them, what does matter is belief in and submission to the witch doctor, thus their twisting of the facts or outright lying. To those who value power above all else nothing matters, not the truth or the life of another person, not even of their own child. And had you died as a result of his actions without an adverse legal consequence it would have demonstrated his power over the secular authorities. ”

Judith nodded.

Boatman continued.

“And now Burke is openly calling for the legal suppression of Atlas Shrugged and other works of Objectivist literature regardless of the truth. And for the seizure of our assets both in space and on the ground.”

“And what happens if they get their wish?” Said Judith.

“We will respond with deadly force.” Said Boatman. “And with nuclear force.”

Everyone else at the table nodded.

It was after the local sunset when the chartered Aeroflot flight landed at Baikonur. A very tired and unshaven Mikhail Gorbachev stepped off the airplane and was met by two men on the ground. The first was clearly a civilian and the second was a senior Air Force officer.

The civilian spoke.

“Comrade Gorbachev, welcome to Baikonur! I’m Administrator Ivan Taganov and this is General Alexi Leonov.”

Gorbachev’s eye widened as he reached out his hand.

“I’m honored.” He said as he shook hands. And then he spoke again.

“So what do I have to do to prepare?”

“Not much,” said General Leonov, “as a passenger you will need to be fitted for a pressure suit and go up in an airplane for simulated zero gravity training, but that’s it.”

“Nothing else?” Said Gorbachev.

“You should have your personal will updated,” said Taganov, “the Proton launcher is not currently man-rated.”

“Oh...”

Neither Taganov or Leonov would at this point mention the failure of the first attempted launch of the extremely complex N-1 rocket that was designed by Sergei Korolev for lunar missions.

It was Sunday afternoon in the Bronx when two gentlemen of Sicilian descent would meet with an older gentleman in a bar.

The first of the pair spoke.

“So what do you want, Boss?”

The Mob Captain opened a folder and took out a newspaper photograph.

“Those people from the future are somehow blocking our every effort to get in on their thing. This is clearly unacceptable and we are sending them a message. We got orders from upstairs to take out this bitch, she’s running their office in Washington and it should be a simple job.”

The Mob Captain handed the folder to the two gentlemen

“Okay, Boss.” the first replied and the second nodded.

Evelyn Boatman wasn’t able to sleep, he went outside his cabin for a walk and the think.

It was obvious that things on the ground were getting out of hand. Even though there was no ethical issue with the summary execution of the Teamsters goon, a virtual nest of shrieks had been stirred out.

We went up the Command Deck and spoke to the officer of the watch, Lieutenant Krier.

“Jeff, I’ve decided to recall Commander Keller back to the Eagle for the time being. And want Commander MacDonald to down to take her place.”

Lieutenant Commander Alan MacDonald was the chief engineer. This was to be a temporary assignment until the entire mess was properly cleaned up.

“Yes, sir.” Krier replied.