Chapter Forty – Race Me to the Moon

Chapter Forty – Race Me to the Moon

“‘We need a publicity stunt. Something big for our people to rally around. Something like we had in the golden age of America.’

‘What? No you idiot, are you mental, that’s too expensive. I was thinking… let’s give everyone a car?'”

–USTWO GOP2 Discussion, 2038

***

“Wait, so let me get this straight,” I said as I gestured to the globe. “Some fucks from around the world found out about our Big Gun project and they’re not happy about it?

“That sums it up, yes,” Grasshopper said. “But for two small details.” She raised a hand, two fingers splayed in a peace sign.

“Go on,” I said.

“First, I don’t think that we can really ascribe negative emotions to either group. We haven’t spoken to them directly yet, so it’s not fair to assume that they’re angry or even unhappy with us. Second, they might not be adversaries to begin with, and the way you’re framing things could lead to bigger problems down the line.”

I worked my jaw, wanting to disagree on principle, but… Grasshopper was probably onto something.

Two other samurai orgs were working to stop the end of the world. If anything I ought to be happy about it because just a couple of days ago I was pissed that no one was taking action. “I guess we don’t hold a monopoly on saving the world,” I said.

“We share the same planet,” Grasshopper said. “It’s only fair that we all do our best to save it too. Especially when saving it only means using great amounts of violence on a deserving target.”

I nodded slowly. Something told me that Grasshopper was a card-carrying member of the ‘blow up pipelines’ school of ecological preservation. “So, can we chat with them, or are we in an unofficial race to see who can blow up Phobos first?”

“I’d much rather we talk first,” Grasshopper said. “Which is why I’ve set up a meeting with a representative of both groups. I was hoping you wouldn’t mind representing us? I need to help Major Tinwhistle with some final notes on the Big Gun’s construction, and the others are all quite new for samurai.”

“So am I,” I defended. “What about Gomorrah?”

“She didn’t want to.”

What if I didn’t want to? I grumbled a bit, but… yeah, it was this or try to find something to do so that I wasn’t just standing around with my thumb up my ass. “Fine,” I said. “Just two samurai, right?”

“Yep! One from the German Nachtwächternetzwerk group, the other from the Keiretsu association of east Asia.”

“… The what?”

“Do you want me to write the names down for you? It might make it easier to pronounce them,” she said.

I shook my head, but did look at the text she sent me a moment later. There were little spaces telling me which syllables to pronounce in the mismash of letters that was supposed to be a name. “Anything I should know about these two?”

“The Nachtwächternetzwerk group is, as the name suggests, more of a network than a corporate group like the Family. It’s founded in Germany, with members in Austria and Switzerland. The group only allows samurai as members, though there are some who have family members and close friends as support staff. It’s more an interconnected network of friends who support each other than anything else.”

“Weird,” I said.

Grasshopper giggled. “Catherine, it’s exactly like what we have here.”