Allen Steele - The Tranquillity Alternative

370 Pages·2016·0.62 MB·English

by  Steele Allen

file:///J|/sci-fi/Nieuwe%20map/Steele,%20Allen%20-%20Tranquillity%20Alternative.txt

"Allen Steele is the best hard SF writer to come along in tl~-Ile last decade,"
-JOHN VARLEY

L, L I
ITRAN
ALLEN STEEL
Bestselling Author of The Jericho fterartion

I I'll.,11 'It 'It '1! 11

ISBN 0-441-00299-
>*21-95 U.S
(>*30-95 CAN

77iii"TEPNATIVE
ALLEN STEELE

Hailed as "a worthy successor to
Robert Heinlein" (The Washington Post)
bestselling author Allen Steele has
captivated science fiction readers with
his novels including The Jericho Iteration
and Labyrinth of Night. Now, this gifted
writer recasts a part of our history that is
as American as apple pie-the space
program-and gives this hallmark of
technological wonder a double-edged
vole, the powei loi both good and evil...
Tranquillity Base is a permanent moon
installation, civilian-manned and
devoted to peaceful scientific research.
Its dark side is Teal Falcon, a lunar
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nuclear base implemented during the
Truman and Eisenhower years, six missile
silos housing rockets poised to attack.

Now the Cold War is over. The U.S. space
program is a victim of politics, and
Tranquillity Base, long deserted, is
about to be sold to a foreign industrial
conglomerate. Leading the symbolic
mission to turn the base over to Its new
owners-and to dismantle the missiles-is
Commander Gene Parnell, a pioneering
astronaut who installed Tranquillity thirty

But the commander soon realizes that
someone on the mission has other plans
for Teal Falcon. Who is it? Who can
Parnell trust*7 Who should he fear?

The veteran astronaut is forced to play a
deadly game with the unknown terrorist.
The stakes: the future of Dianet Earth.

I

I v t
T H E

Ace Books by Allen Steele

ORBITAL DECAY
CLARKE COUNTY, SPACE
LUNAR DESCENT
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LABYRINTH OF NIGHT
THE JERICHO ITERATION
RUDE ASTRONAUTS
THE TRANQUILLITY ALTERNATIVE

T H E

I
1

w

I L L I I
~ I I v
ALLEN STEELE

A
ACE BOOKS, NEWYORK

This is a work of fiction. The events described are imaginary and the characters an
fictitious and not intended to represent specific living persons. When persons or enti
ties are referred to by their true names, they are portrayed in entirely fictitious cir
curnstances; the reader should not infer that these events ever actually happened.
Excerpt from Across the Space Frontier by Cornelius Ryan, copyright C 1952 b)
Crowell-Collier Publishing Company, 1980 renewed by Viking Penguin Inc. Used b)
permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Books USA Inc.
Excerpt from You Will Go to the Moon by Mae and Ira Freeman, copyright 0 1959 by
Mae Freeman and Ira Freeman. Reprinted by permission of Random House, Inc.

THE TRANQUILLITY ALTERNATIVE

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An Ace Book
Published by The Berkley Publishing Group
200 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 100 16

The Putnam Berkley World Wide Web site address is http://wwwberkleycom

Copyright (0 1996 by Allen M. Steele,

Cover art by Bob Eggleton

Book design by Stanley S. Drate/Folio Graphics Co., Inc.

All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form
without permission,

First Edition: March 1996

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Steele, Allen M.
The tranquillity alternative / Allen M. Steele. - Ist ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-441-00299-4 (hardcover)
1. Title.
PS3569.T338425T73 1996
813'.54-dc2O

Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 21

95-21056
CIP

In memory of Dot Hill

Icters are
s or enti-
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tiou,, cir-
iened.
052 by
Used by

1959 by
ric.

F

The space station, with all its potentialities for exploration of the
universe, for all kinds of scientific progress, for the preservation of
peace or for the destruction of civilization, can be built. When the
decision has been reached and the funds have been appropriated, the
rest is only a matter of time. Many factors make the station inevita-
ble-not the least the insatiable curiosity that has sent man across
the oceans and finally into the air. Perhaps the military reasons for
building such a station are in the long run the least significant, but
in the existing state of the world they are the most urgent. Unless a
space station is established with the aim of preserving peace, it may
be created as an unparalleled agent of destruction-or there may not
be time to build it at all.
Under the impetus of their considerations, perhaps the space sta-
tion will become a reality, not a generation hence, but in-say-
1963.

-Wernher von Braun,
Across the Space Frontier (1952)

If we had a base on the moon, either the Soviets must launch an
overwhelming nuclear attack toward the moon from Russia two to
two-and-a-half days prior to attacking the continental U.S., or Rus-
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sia could attack the continental U.S. first, only and inevitably to
receive from the moon some 48 hours later sure and massive de-
struction.

-Brig. General Homer A. Boushey,
director of advanced technology, USAF
(as quoted by Aviation Week;
September 29, 1958)

T H E

I L L I I ~
I I v t

rA

President Harry S Truman; White House radio address to the
notion, May 26, 1944

"My fellow Americans ...
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"Early this morning, a giant rocket was launched from a secret military
installation in Germany. Unlike the V-2 missiles and buzz bombs which
have been previously launched by the Axis against France and Great
Britain, this rocket was a manned space plane, piloted by a single human
being. This space plane, which is known to have been code-named the
Amer~ko Bomber, was believed to have been carrying an eighty-ton incen-
diary bomb, which the Nazis intended to drop from high altitude above
Earth's atmosphere into the New York City metropolitan area.
"This sneak attack on American soil, the most scurrilous assault against
a civilian population since the beginning of this war, was unsuccessful, It
was foiled because our allies in Europe became aware of Nazi Germany's
efrorts to develop such a weapon, and they warned us that an attack
from outer space was forthcoming, thus allowing our own scientists to
develop a countermeasure.
"At 5:35 A.M. Pacific War Time on the West Coast, another space
plane, this one built by the United States Army Air Force, was launched
from a secret location in the southwestern United States. I can now tell
you that this manned space-fanng vessel was christened the Lucky Linda,
and its sing~e pilot was a young U.S. Navy captain named Rudy Sloman.
In a feat of great daring, Captain Sloman flew his craft above Earth's
atmosphere, whereupon he intercepted the Ameriko Bomber above the
Gulf of Mexico and destroyed the invading space plane before it could
complete its foul mission.
"Captain Sloman then piloted the Lucky Linda through fiery reentry in
American skies and successfully landed his cr-aft at Lakehurst, New Jersey,
not far from the city he saved. Because of Captain Sloman's heroism and
the great efforts of the scientists and engineers who designed and built
his craft, the United States of America has nothing to fear from Adolf
Hitler and his Nazi war machine.
"I realize that many of you may be incredulous at this news, and that
much of it sounds like the stuff of newspaper comic strips. Yet I assure
you, as your President, that these events have occurred just as I have
spoken of them. The first American has braved the aidess reaches of
outer space, and surely there will be more to follow.

2

ALLEN STEELE
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"This is a great victory for our nation, a great day which will be re
bered throughout history, and a great step into the future for the h
race.
"May God bless us, and thank you."

e remem-
he human

O-N-E

211 S195 - 1834 EST

atellite Beach, Florida, is a
small town on Cape Canaveral, located on Route AlA at the
doorstep of Patrick Air Force Base. Once a tiny fishing vil-
lage whose original name is long forgotten, it received its
more glorious nomenclature with the beginning of the Space
Age and the arrival of the Air Force. Even so, it's still little
more than a wide spot in the road: a handful of residential
neighborhoods and retiree trailer camps, some strip malls, the
inevitable fast-food restaurants. One has to drive north to
Cocoa Beach or south to Melbourne before finding much more
on the highway than a line of motels built for visiting ser-
vicemen.
The night was cool-64 degrees, chilly by Floridian stan-
dards even at this time of year-but compared to the harsh
Massachusetts winter he left behind two days ago, the man in
Room 176 of the Satellite Beach Holiday Inn thinks it's a
balmy summer evening. He had wanted to leave his motel
room door open to allow in the sea breeze and the dull sound
of the Atlantic surf from across the highway, but the plain-
clothes security escort the company had assigned to him
wouldn't hear of it. fust normal precautions, the private dick
whom he had taken to thinking of as Mister Mom had said as

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4

ALLEN STEEL

he gently closed the door. I'd rather keep it shut, sir, if
don't mind ...
Yes, he minded. In fact, he minded just about everyth
right now. This motel, purposely selected because it was
of the way and unlikely to be found by reporters covering
morrow's launch. Having Mister Mom for a roommate on
last night on Earth for the next ten days, when he'd just
soon be left alone until morning. And the job itself-Jes
why hadn't the Germans picked someone else instead of hi
Someone who really wanted to go to the Moon?
But if anyone had asked what the single most irritat
thing in his life was right now, the one thing that irked
the most in a universe seemingly determined to make life
sufferable, he would have replied that his pizza was late.
It had been almost a half-hour now since Mister Mo
whose real name, almost forgotten by now in his disdain,
Mike Momphrey-had used his cellular phone to call so
no-name pizzeria just down AIA and place an order for a
inch pizza. A half-hour ago, for Christ's sake ... in Bosto
would have been delivered ten minutes ago, and not just
cause it came from Domino's. It was this kind of lousy se
that drove him straight up the wall. No wonder the cou
was going down the toilet; twenty miles from the place w
rockets are launched into space, and you can't get pizza de
ered before it's cold.
Of course, he realized upon further reflection, if the cou
wasn't heading down the tubes, he wouldn't be killing ti
before he boarded a ferry rocket almost as old as he was. Pi
and the American space program: they were much the sa
thing these days, when you stopped to think about it....
He didn't want to think about it. He tried to shut it ou
his head as he hunched over his Tandy/IBM, set up on a t
at the far end of the room and wired into the room pho
dataport. Meanwhile, his jacket off and cast aside to.exp
the black leather shoulder-holster strapped across his s
Mister Mom lay on the single bed near the door watching
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ATS Evening News on TV. The volume was turned down I
but the man at the computer could still hear the anchorm
droning voice ...

THE TRANQUILLITY ALTERNATIVE

ir, if you

erything
was out
ering to-
te on his
Id just as
If-Jesus,
d of him?

irritating
rked him
e life in-
late.
r Mom-
dain, was
all some
for a 12-
oston, it
t just be-
sy service
e country
cc where
za deliv-

e country
ling time
as. Pizza
the same

it out of
n a table
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