<div class="floatleft">(http://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/f/fa/Mars_test.jpg)</div><table class="bbc_table"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Character name:</strong></td><td>Wing Commander Louise Cotter</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Location:</strong> </td><td>Quad bike en route to the reactor</td></tr><tr><td><strong>With:</strong> </td><td> Lena Holzmann</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Doing:</strong> </td><td>Power To The People!</td></tr></tbody></table><br/><hr/><br/>Sitting there, waiting for Holtzmann to get her shit together, I watched the people moving around. Lt Monroe came over and reported that the shuttle was unloaded, as he ticked off the bike I was sitting on with the bright red box strapped to the back.<br/><br/>Oh that box! That had been under guard from the moment it left the Tricastin processing plant at Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux in Southern France until the moment it was loaded on the bike. Technically it was still under guard, by me. The trooper concerned slung his gauss rifle and hurried off to other duties, and I looked around. Everyone was busy. The place looked like chaos, but it was ordered chaos. By the time we got back, everything would be in the hanger, and with the power on, people would be moving into the base.<br/><br/>Groups of scientists and engineers, and ancillaries and miners moved slowly through the airlock into the dark interior. I growled slightly. I wanted to be the first one in there, but my job right now was to see to the secure transport of that big red box with it's yellow and black warning stickers. I had my side arm in it's special holster on the outside of my suit. Gauss weapons were the order of the day here, because no oxygen means no combustion. Oh sure there were propellants that would burn without it, but they were less effective than good old cordite, and a lot more expensive.<br/><br/>Gauss weapons, on the other hand will work in vacuum. They will work underwater. They will work anywhere with no need to change anything. All of ours had been modified to fire low velocity flechettes, or LVFs, powerful enough to kill a human, especially one in an environment suit, but not powerful enough to cause damage to vital equipment or machinery, nor to puncture a pressure hull!<br/><br/>The precaution was, in my not so humble opinion, totally unnecessary, but orders are orders. And until MCM-1 left orbit, I was still, technically under the command of the ship's captain in spite of the fact that I out ranked him.<em>Nothing will go wrong, this time my darling,</em>I told the ghost that my imagination wanted to be there.<br/><br/>Finally Hotzmann climbed on the bike behind me, and in front of the big red box. I noticed that she didn't comment on it. She had bloody well better know what's in it, or I would be sending her back to Earth. The slow way. Without the benefit of a ship. And possibly no suit if I was feeling generous. I laughed and gunned the bike forward.<br/><br/>The one kilometre trip took about two minutes. During that time what I'd said to Laura came to mind about ruling the planet. I was reminded of an old Tony Bennett song from the twentieth century. I began to sing happily, a capella, in a crisp clear alto.<br/><br/>"If I ruled the world, every day would be the first day of spring.<br/>Every heart would have a new song to sing<br/>And we'd sing of the joy every morning would bring<br/><br/>"If I ruled the world, every man would be as free as a bird<br/>Every voice would be a voice to be heard<br/>Take my word we would treasure each day that occurred..."<br/><br/>I knew that I was on an open mike - the base commander's suit mike could not be closed - and I didn't care. I was full of joy and excitement. In my imagination the ghost of Henny smiled at me and sang along, the way she always used to.<br/><br/><tt class="bbc_tt">Colonel Cotter, is everything okay?</tt>The signal bounced directly into my head from fifteen miles up.<em>Shit shit shit. Open bloody mike.</em><br/><br/><tt class="bbc_tt">"Everything is fine, thank you MCM-1, just happy to be here.</tt><br/><br/><tt class="bbc_tt">Ruling the world huh? I guess you do now. We have confirmation from lieutenant <em>commander</em> Hicks that shuttle two is cleared for launch and landing. Do you concur?</tt><br/><br/>I didn't miss the subtle emphasis on Allie's promotion.<tt class="bbc_tt">"If Commander Hicks says it's okay then I concur fully. I'm just arriving at the reactor. Power will be up in the next few. This is Mike Charlie six six out."</tt><br/><br/>I stopped the bike and climbed off. There were four people on Mars right now who knew the code to open the big grey door in front of us. Laura was one, Stefan Versatile, the MarsCorp rep and my civilian second in command, was the second. And the other two were standing right outside. "Do the honours, please, Lt. Holtzmann?" I ordered, phrasing it as a request because the woman was only technically under my command, and pointing at the keypad.<br/><br/>While she got the door open I unstrapped the big red box, heaved it off the bike and carried it past her into the bunker, down the steps and into the reactor room. I set it down with a thud, muttered "Ow!" as I straightened back up and tapped in the code - that I and I alone knew, that would open the box. The damn thing was heavy even at one third it's weight!<br/><br/>Eight gleaming yellow-grey rods looked up at me from within their lead shielding. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end. I turned to Hotzmann. "All yours Lieutenant." I stepped back. Radiation shieled suits are all very well, but I'd seen what that stuff could do in the wrong hands, and so had the entire population of Cairns, Australia!