Moonbase - Moonwar Part 31

Nick struggled up on one elbow and squinted at the digital clock.

"It's nine-twenty!" he yelped. "Good lord, Claire, you've gotta das.h.!.+"

She opened one eye and snaked a bare arm around his neck. "Married hardly more than eighteen hours and you're already giving me orders."

"But the time-"

"Relax," Claire said dreamily. "I'm not going anyplace."

"Not going? What do you mean not going?"

"I'm staying right here with you," she said, opening both eyes at last.

"But you can't do that!"

"I gave my boarding papers to Ellen Berson," Claire said. "Last night, while the rest of you were getting blotto on rocket juice."

"You what?"

"Ellen's got a boyfriend in Philadelphia. My boyfriend is right here."

"You can't do that," he repeated, his voice high, panicky. "They'll stop her at the rocket port."

"No they won't. And even if they do, I decided I'm staying right here with you."

"But they'll force you-"

"n.o.body's going to force anybody," Claire said, quite firmly. "And if they send some goons from security I'll put up such a battle they'll be afraid of harming the baby."

"You're crazy!"

"Over you, sweet-face."

"But you can't have the baby here. It's not allowed."

She smiled knowingly. "Nick, there's a first time for everything."

"But...' He ran out of steam and sank back on the pillow, defeated. Yet delighted.

"It was during the wedding," Claire said. "When the archbishop said that bit about cleaving together. I made up my mind then that I'm not going Earthside until you can go with me."

Staring up at the low ceiling, Nick said, "There's going to be h.e.l.l to pay over this."

But he was grinning from ear to ear.

DAY THIRTY-NINE.

Joanna deliberately took the seat at the end of the long conference table, where she could look directly at Ras.h.i.+d, up at the head. Every member of the board was present in person, even old McGruder in his powered wheelchair and its bulky life-support system. The old man was still waiting for a heart donor; he was more heavily wired up than an astronaut, Joanna thought.

Ras.h.i.+d and Tamara Bonai came in together, not exactly holding hands, but obviously happy to be in each other's company. Joanna seethed. If that little tramp has gone over to Ras.h.i.+d's side I'll...

She stopped, not knowing what she'd do. Or what she could could do. She had told Doug to woo Bonai and win her over. It looked as if Ras.h.i.+d had done it, instead, and there was nothing Joanna could do to counter that. do. She had told Doug to woo Bonai and win her over. It looked as if Ras.h.i.+d had done it, instead, and there was nothing Joanna could do to counter that.

The conference table was buzzing with whispered conversations, board members catching up with the latest news and gossip among themselves. No one spoke to Joanna. She sat as if in an isolation ward down at the foot of the table.

The murmurs died away as Ras.h.i.+d sat down and smiled brightly at the board members.

"I'm delighted that all of you could manage to make it here in person to this special meeting," Ras.h.i.+d said in his slightly reedy tenor voice. "Including you, Mac."

From behind his oxygen mask McGruder rasped, "Couldn't keep me away from this one if you tried, my boy. When all this nonsense with the U.N. is over, I'm going to Moonbase and get some of those nanomachines to fix my heart."

He broke into a cackling laughter; the other board members joined with him, politely. All except Ras.h.i.+d, Joanna noticed, who sat with his original smile frozen on his face. Mac's on our side, Joanna knew. She had been feeding him information on nanotherapy for months now.

"There's only one item on the agenda," Ras.h.i.+d said, "and we should be able to take care of it fairly quickly."

All the heads along the table swivelled to Joanna.

"Since you called for this meeting," Ras.h.i.+d said to her, "and it's your resolution that we're here to discuss, why don't you give us the formal reading, for the minutes, Joanna?"

She didn't bother even glancing at the display screen set into the table before her. Joanna said in a clear, strong voice: "Resolved: That Masterson Corporation exert its best efforts to support the political independence of Moonbase."

A dead silence fell upon the board room.

Finally, one of the white-haired men halfway up the table asked, "You mean we don't don't support Moonbase's independence?" support Moonbase's independence?"

"Why should we?" a woman board member asked.

"Because if we don't," Joanna answered before anyone else could reply, "we stand to lose the Clippers.h.i.+p manufacturing to j.a.pan."

"j.a.pan?"

"That's not entirely fair, Joanna," said Ras.h.i.+d.

"The Clippers.h.i.+p product line belongs to our Kiribati subsidiary, doesn't it?"

"How's j.a.pan going to get it? I a.s.sume you mean Yamagata Industries, not the j.a.panese government."

"They're pretty close to being the same thing," Joanna said.

"I don't understand how Yamagata can take the Clippers.h.i.+p manufacturing away from us."

"But we don't manufacture them; Kiribati does."

"We get the profits, don't we?"

"Wait, wait," Ras.h.i.+d called out, motioning them to silence with both hands. "Let's go through this calmly and logically."

Joanna immediately said, "We set up Kiribati Corporation to get out from under the nanotechnology treaty."

"Yes, and then the d.a.m.ned islanders signed the treaty anyway," said one of the men. Suddenly he realized that Tamara Bonai was sitting across the table from him, and his face reddened. "Ah, sorry," he mumbled. "No offense intended."

Bonai looked directly at him as she said, "Kiribati was forced to sign the nanotech treaty by unbearable pressure from the United Nations. We never expected the U.N. to try to extend the treaty to Moonbase, however."

"Where do you stand on Moonbase's independence?" asked the woman sitting next to Bonai.

"We have been a.s.sured that Moonbase's political independence will not interfere in any way with their contractual agreements with Kiribati Corporation. Therefore, we support their independence."

Several people along the table nodded.

Bonai added, "What we fear is that the U.N. will turn over all Clippers.h.i.+p manufacturing to Yamagata once they have thrown us out of Moonbase."

Ras.h.i.+d's face clouded. "There's more to it than that," he said. "Much more."

"The core of this issue," said Joanna, "is that the U.N.'s fervor to force the nanotech treaty on Moonbase is a sham-a coverup for turning the base and all its operations over to Yamagata."

"And that includes manufacturing Clippers.h.i.+ps with nano-machines?"

"Yes. Certainly."

McGruder swivelled his wheelchair slightly toward Ras.h.i.+d. "You knew about this?"

"I found out about it," Ras.h.i.+d answered.

"And what are you doing about it?"

Ras.h.i.+d took a deep breath. "I am trying to lead this corporation to a new level of profitability. And to a new product line, while we make a greater profit than ever from the Clippers.h.i.+ps."

He had their full attention now, Joanna saw.

Leaning forward intently, Ras.h.i.+d said, "I want to negotiate a partners.h.i.+p between us and Yamagata to produce nuclear fusion power plants-"

"We went over this ten years ago," McGruder rasped.

"It was eight years ago and we made a mistake then," Ras.h.i.+d said hotly. "Let's not repeat the same mistake. Fusion power will be a multi-trillion dollar business. This corporation has a chance to get in on it; one chance, take it or leave it."

Forcing her voice to remain cool, Joanna said, "So you're offering Yamagata the Clippers.h.i.+p product line in exchange for a partners.h.i.+p in their fusion program."

"Fusion can be profitable if it can be fueled by helium-three, which can be mined on the Moon," Ras.h.i.+d said.

"Then why don't we mine it ourselves?" Joanna asked. "With nanomachines we can produce helium-three at a fraction of Yamagata's costs."

"Joanna, it's time you stopped clinging to Moonbase as if it's your personal nursery!" Ras.h.i.+d snapped.

She felt his words like a slap across her face. "You've been carrying a grudge for eight years now, Omar; ever since this board voted to back Moonbase in preference to your ideas about fusion."

"That was a mistake and we have a chance to correct it."

"By giving up Moonbase and allowing Yamagata to take the Clippers.h.i.+p line away from us."

"We own the patents," Ras.h.i.+d countered. "Yamagata will pay us royalties while our costs go down to zero."

One of the women muttered, "Yamagata will pay us royalties until they figure out how to reverse engineer the Clippers.h.i.+ps and come up with a manufacturing system that's different enough from ours to break our patents."

"Which will take a year or two, at most," another board member said.

"Not if we merge with Yamagata," Ras.h.i.+d said.

Silence again. They all looked stunned, Joanna thought.

"A merger makes perfect sense," Ras.h.i.+d went on, more calmly. "Our combined corporation will be the world's leader in aeros.p.a.ce transportation and fusion power. Your stock will be worth ten times what it's going for now. Even more."

"I will never vote to merge with Yamagata Industries," Joanna said, her voice venomously low.

"And why not?" Ras.h.i.+d taunted. "Are you afraid that your son will have to come back to Earth and live with the rest of us?"

"That is unforgivable," Joanna said.

"It is is out of line, Mr Chairman," said the bald, portly man sitting at her right. Others muttered and nodded. out of line, Mr Chairman," said the bald, portly man sitting at her right. Others muttered and nodded.

Ras.h.i.+d closed his eyes briefly, then said softly, "You're right. I went too far. Joanna, I apologize. The heat of the moment . . ."

She glared directly into his eyes. The silence around the table stretched painfully.

Tamara Bonai broke the spell. "I move that we vote on the resolution presented by Mrs Brudnoy."

"Second," said the man across the table from her.

The resolution pa.s.sed by one vote: Bonai's. Joanna sighed with relief. She's not in his camp, she realized. Maybe in his bed, but not in his camp.

Then she thought, But the resolution doesn't mean much, not compared to this issue of merging with Yamagata.

Ras.h.i.+d was saying,'... each board member should express our support for Moonbase with his or her senators, I imagine. And I will appoint a committee to meet with the President in support of this resolution. Joanna, I suppose you should chair that committee."

He seemed to be taking his defeat graciously enough. Why not? Joanna asked herself. He's got every member of the board dreaming of a ten-fold increase in the worth of their stock.

"I think we should set up another committee, as well," Joanna heard herself saying, not realizing where she was going until the words formed in her mouth,'to work with our board chairman in his negotiations with Yamagata."

"That's not on our agenda," Ras.h.i.+d snapped.

"Call it new business," said Joanna. "Yes, I want to be on the Yamagata committee," said the oldest member of the board.

"And so do I," Joanna added sweetly.

DAY FORTY.

Tamara Bonai cancelled her plans to return to Kiribati and extended her stay in Savannah for twenty-four hours-at Ras.h.i.+d's request.

As the board meeting had broken up, he had asked her to remain an extra day. "Now that the pressure is off, I'd like to take you sailing."