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"We're trying to get a fix on it, Columbus. Please stand by."
"I don't know who you are, fella," snapped Sherman, "but you're in deep trouble."
"The name is Eli Steinmetz. Please have medical assistance standing by. I have two injured men onboard."
Sherman pounded a fist on the back of the engineer's chair. "This is crazy."
"Who am I communicating with?" asked Steinmetz.
"This is Jack Sherman, commander of the Columbus."
"Sorry about the abrupt intrusion, Sherman, but I thought you'd been informed of our arrival."
Before Sherman could reply, Houston Control returned. "Columbus, his signals are
not coming from earth, repeat, not coming from earth. They originate in space beyond you."
"All right, you guys, what's the gag?"
The voice of NASA's director of Flight Operations broke in. "No gag. Jack, this is Irwin Mitchell.
Prepare your crew to receive Steinmetz and his colonists."
"What colonists?"
"About time someone from the ìnner core' showed up," said Steinmetz. "For a minute there, I thought we'd have to crash the front gate."
"Sorry, Eli. The President thought it best to keep things quiet until you reached Columbus."
"Will someone please tell me what's going on?" Sherman demanded in exasperation.
"Eli will explain when you meet him," answered Mitchell. Then he addressed Steinmetz. "How are the wounded?"
"Resting comfortably, but one will require major surgery. A bullet is lodged near the base of the brain."
"You heard, Jack," said Mitchell. "Alert the crew of the shuttle. They may have to advance their departure."
"I'll take care of it," Sherman said. His voice settled and the tone was calm, but he was far too intelligent not to be bewildered. "Just where in hell does this. . . this Jersey Colony come from?"
"Would you believe the moon?" Mitchell replied.
"No," said Sherman flatly. "I damned well wouldn't."
The Theodore Roosevelt Room in the West Wing of the White House was once called the Fish Room because it contained aquariums and fishing trophies of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Under Richard Nixon it was furnished in Queen Anne and Chippendale style and used for staff meetings and occasional press conferences.
The walls and carpet were in light and dark shades of terra-cotta. A painting of the Declaration of Independence hung on the east wall over a carved wooden mantel. Sternly surveying the room from the south wall, Teddy Roosevelt sat astride a horse in a portrait painted in Paris by Tade Styka. The President preferred this intimate room over the more formal Cabinet Room for important discussions partly because there were no windows.
He sat at the head of the conference table and scribbled on a note pad. On his left sat Secretary of Defense Jess Simmons. Next to him came CIA Director Martin Brogan, Dan Fawcett, and Leonard Hudson. Douglas Oates, the Secretary of State, sat immediately to his right, followed by National Security Adviser Alan Mercier and Air Force General Allan Post, who headed up the military space program.
Hudson had spent over an hour briefing the President's men on the history of the Jersey Colony. At first they sat there stunned and silent. Then the excitement set in and they fired a barrage of questions that Hudson fielded until the President ordered lunch served in the room.
The utter astonishment gave way to enthusiastic compliments for Hudson and his "inner core," which slowly faded to grim reality at the report on the conflict with the Soviet cosmonauts.
"Once the Jersey colonists return safely to Cape Canaveral," said the President, "perhaps I can appease Antonov by offering to share some of the immense data accumulated by Steinmetz and his team."
"Why should we give away anything?" demanded Simmons. "They've stolen enough of our technology as it is."
"No denying their thievery," replied the President. "But if our positions were reversed, I wouldn't allow them to get away with killing fourteen of our astronauts."
