Absolutes

Chapter 03

As he descended to the Toutatis Colony's power plant, Jon kept thinking about Trevor's words. There had to be an alternative! He was trying to reconcile two things seemingly irreconcilable at that moment: to preserve the colony and its secrets. The nuclear fusion plant was one of those secrets they had to keep at the cost of their lives, if necessary. It was also the most obvious and the most radical option if they had to destroy themselves.

The colossal structure on the Moon harbored the most advanced researches and the best Transterran scientists. It was built over decades, while the Terrans did not yet have the technology to detect it. The Temple of Life brought together, every Full-Earth ceremony, an impressive cluster of exponents. They were scientists from various research fields, who devoted their priestly lives to bold projects.

At each floor of the underground structure, Jon passed by the most incredible laboratories: new materials, molecular biology, space-time folding, nanocomponents, and metamaterials, among others.

Trevor was right: it was not acceptable that all that was to be lost! Sometimes Jon thought that letting it all fall into the hands of the Terrans might not be so bad compared to destroying everything. Yet, that thought could not survive the memory of what the Terrans were capable of doing. Even possessing inferior technology, they were a permanent threat. If they mastered those technologies, there would be no way to stop their imperialist expansion.

Jon talked for two hours with the chief engineer of the nuclear fusion plant, an older, peaceful priest. He received a new task with astonishment, but completely resigned. If necessary, he would speed up the plant's hydrogen fusion process. It should turned it into a nuclear bomb that would consume that entire lunar crater in a few milliseconds. It would release enough energy to transform the entire colony in glowing plasma, leaving no trace of its existence.

When he left the plant, he just wandered, guided by intuition, since rationality was not bringing him any solution. He went to the center of research on space-time folding where he talked to Miguel and Harold. Those priest-scientists were the research leaders in that field and they were good friends of him.

Jon told them about the issue and asked them whether there was a way to get them off from the Moon using space-time folding before the Terrans come.

"No, Jon, that's out of the question!" Miguel said. "Our power plant, although impressive, barely supports the experiments we do here at the atomic level... We do not have the capacity to generate the energy needed for any macroscopic folding. Such a space-time fold capable of transporting spaceships is unthinkable at the moment..."

"Anything we could use as a weapon?" Jon asked.

"It is impossible, now!" Said Harold. "It's not a matter of scruples, believe me! If it were possible, I would put a gun in your hands so you could save us, but we still need many years, maybe generations, to make something like what you want."

Jon left that place feeling like an ignorant idiot and definitely cornered by the events.

Meanwhile, Trevor made contacts with colleagues on Earth. He spoke to several of his most trusted acquaintances. He asked for suggestions on how to dissuade the Terrans from reaching the Transterran lunar colony. He heard only regrets and reproaches from the fact that the settlers had allowed themselves to be spotted.

In fact, upon receiving the news, most were in a state of great uneasiness or even panic, which did not help at all. Finally, after a dozen fruitless contacts, someone looked at him in a different way. Frederick, on Earth, was no less shocked than the others were, but he remained silent for a long time, not paralyzed as the others but reflecting. Somewhat embarrassed, he said:

"I have a suggestion, Trev, that may be the only manner to prevent the end of the Toutatis Colony, but you may not like what you will hear..."

"Frederick, my dear, there is nothing that could worsen the situation we are in. Nothing that can shake me more than I am."

His friend smiled bitterly on the other side.

"Do you remember Francis and James, who had to come back from the Moon after less than one year in the colony?"

"Yes, I remember them!" Trevor confirmed. "They had serious problems to adapt themselves to our confinement and got a rare permission to go back to Earth. The 'Francis and James' Case' is always cited as an example of carelessness in psychological profile selection."

"After their return," interrupted Frederick, "they formed a clan and went on with their research. They've come up with some impressive but... troubling results."

Frederick went on telling Jon more details about Francis and James' work on genetic manipulation and life synthesis. Trevor crouched again, feeling his legs weaken. Now he understood Frederick's incredulous expression when he said that nothing more could shake him.

"I can't believe this kind of work is being done on Earth!" Said Trevor finally, after a time to absorb the news. Frederick just shrugged.

"We cannot control everyone all the time, Trevor..."

"We built a colony on the Moon," Trevor insisted, "so as not to expose the Earth to the hazards in researches like these. This research has to be transferred to the Toutatis Colony immediately!"

"Please, Trevor, what are you talking about? If they were on the Moon, they would be as much condemned now as you are. Their research is safer here than on the Moon!"

"Frederick, it's not about the safety of the research itself, it's about the safety of our people! They are doing things that may have disastrous consequences for the environment, for our lives, in the event of any leak!"

"So, my dear, it was exactly about those dangers I thought, when you asked me a way to dissuade the Terrans from approaching our colony on the Moon."

"You're not suggesting..." Trevor started the indignant question. Frederick cut him off before he finished:

"...attack them with biological weapons! Of course, I am suggesting that! We have to use whatever is within our reach! Otherwise, we just surrender to the Terrans. This is no time for ethical considerations. Ethics is for when we have options to choose. Right now, there are no options."

"This is insanity! We have a treaty that forbids..."

"Have you ever thought," Frederick interrupted, "how insane is a treaty that limits the types of weapons that can be used in a war? Hey guys, you can kill yourself at will with these guns, but you may not ever use those other guns, because they are forbidden! It is ridiculous! You keep the war within acceptable limits, so you can keep in permanent warfare!"

Trevor was dumbfounded and he just stared, while possible outcomes of that plan paraded in his mind. Biological weapons were inadmissible for a priest of the Temple of Life. He could not believe what he was hearing!

"Trevor?" He called Frederick to get his colleague out of shock.

Trevor blinked and shook his head, as if casting out his evil thoughts.

"I'll discuss it with Jon. I'll get back to you soon..." He said, speaking slowly, closing the conversation. Yet, Frederick still had more surprises:

"Trevor, this is not your decision, on the Moon. If the Toutatis Colony is threatened, or our territory here on Earth is in real danger, we will use whatever we can to defend ourselves!"