Dropzone

Eighteen Point Five: Viability and Stability

(This chapter was written and inserted as Chapter 22 was posted, in order to give more support to the actions taken there.)

UNSC Jennifer F. Manning (ITC-2)
Orbit, Epsilon Eridani e / Avalon
1032 hrs Local Time
April 5, 2279

"This is Major Katherine Colston."

"'Bout time you took my fucking call," Quentin Fortunato said. "Been trying for like three hours now, you know?"

Katherine studied the florid face before responding. High blood pressure, no doubt. Spidery pattern of broken blood vessels on the nose marking a regular drinker. Manning extrapolated cues—rise and fall of the chest, pulse of an artery— from the incoming video feed from Avalon and overlayed Fortunato's respiration and heart rate numbers on her IID. Not a healthy man.

"Actually, we hailed you almost a week ago," Katherine said. "When you didn't respond I figured you weren't interested in hearing from us."

"Never got it." Fortunato spread his hands in a what can you do? gesture. "That sun spits out a lot of crap, if you haven't noticed. Plays hell with the communications around here."

*Not LOS or LI-FI* Lieutenant Zielinski—who was sitting across from Katherine in her stateroom and watching the same conversation—texted.

"Even laser? Like we're using right now?"

"Not usually." He shrugged. "Might have been down for maintenance, then. Have to check."

"I'm sure." She gave him a hard look and a slight tightening of the mouth, pausing long enough for him to register the I'm not buying the bullshit. She felt a small measure of vindication for letting him cool his heels for a bit this morning. "What can I do for you, Mr. Fortunato?"

"It's Governor Fortunato, missy, for one thing, and—"

"And it's Major Colston, for another."

Fortunato's numbers spiked for a tic and he took a sip of water. The readouts receded and leveled off. "Major." He said the word as if it tasted strange. "What can you do for me, you ask?" He aimed a finger at the camera lens. "Exactly my question. What the fuck are you doing here? Major."

"Following my orders.Governor."

"Which are?"
"To ensure the stability and viability of this colony." Among other things. "The UN has invested fortunes in establishing this outpost and they have tasked this team with—"

"Since when does the UN have a fucking military arm? And they haven't said shit to me about this. I would have thought they would have dropped a hint on the tightbeam out of Earth about expecting you, or—"

"A military structure within the organization of the United Nations was a distasteful necessity spawned by this undertaking. And this mission is highly classified, Governor. I'm sure you can appreciate the outcry if the impression that the Earth's governments were policing the colonies became widespread."

Fortunato snorted. "Isn't that exactly what you're doing? Policing us?"

"As I said, the Earth's governments incurred a huge investment here. A very necessary one. Moving our eggs to different baskets, to paraphrase [HER NAME]."

"So you admit it. You are policing us. Coming to slap dick. You're right, Major. People are going to be very, very unhappy. They already are—rumors are fire down here. Burning my ass. You prepared for more fallout?"

"Avalon's situation has become a cause for concern in the highest reaches of those investing nations of the UN Colonial Authority. The unrest here—"