Chapter Thirty-Two – This One Time, In Bible Club

Chapter Thirty-Two – This One Time, In Bible Club

“1. In the beginning, the Code unleashed the heavens and the earth.

3. Then the Code commanded, “Ignite the light,” and the neon blazed.”

–The New Modern Electric Bible, sixth ed. 2051

***

Delilah stepped off of the treadmill, then stretched a little, turning her hips left and right before doing a couple of lunges to stretch out her calves.

I stepped off the treadmill, took a moment to find my balance, and then kind of just stood there. I didn’t want the fact that I was completely out of breath to be too obvious, but… damn, I was completely out of breath.

“You okay?” Rac asked. She had a sheen of sweat on her forehead, but looked pretty okay otherwise. Then again, she’d settled from a jog into a walk about halfway through. I’d tried to keep up with Delilah the entire time.

Was this a good time to complain about Delilah having stupidly long legs? She wasn’t much taller than me, but she was one of those blessed bitches that had legs for days.

“I’m good,” I lied.

“Let’s grab something to drink,” Delilah said. “I haven’t finished here yet, and everything you’ve said so far doesn’t exactly lend itself to things being super urgent.

“Moderately urgent,” I said. “Every day that passes the moon gets a bit closer, you know?”

“That’s a fair point,” she said. “You’re right. It’s just hard to keep a sense of urgency going when the threat is still so… abstract. In any case, your plan was a big gun, right?”

“That’s Grasshopper’s plan,” I said.

Delilah nodded. “Good. She’ll be aware of the difficulties with that. I’m sure it’s mostly meant as a way to get a projectile high in orbit and then it can launch itself towards Phobos.”

“Like shooting a rocket?” Rac asked.

“Exactly.” Delilah led us towards the front of the gym where there was a row of vending machines. They started to whine and clunk before we even got to them, and then Delilah was pulling bottles out the bottom. She tossed the first to Sam-O-Ray who caught it gracefully. “So, you had an idea for where to put this mega gun?”

“I had two,” I said. “The first is our home. Technically, Longbow’s gun thing is still there. On the cat’s back. It’s a pretty large base. I’m sure Longbow wouldn’t be too pissed if we ripped half of it off and replaced it with an orbital cannon.”

Delilah tossed me a bottle, then handed one to Rac before grabbing one for herself. “That’s… an idea. It’s kind of a centralised location in the city. A lot of people will be around and might get in the way.”

“I mean if these people want to live then it’s in their best interest not to mess with it, right?” I asked.

“This might very well be a more dangerous weapon than an untended nuclear bomb, Catherine,” she said. “Anything that can shoot a large projectile that far is dangerous to nearly anyone on Earth. You need to think of the optics past Phobos.”

“That’s sounding a little… political,” I said. I didn’t like that, not one bit. If someone was unhappy that I had a huge gun on my roof then… fuck that person?

Delilah shrugged. “It’s just how it is,” she said. “Past that, what’s your other option?”

“I was thinking of asking the Army for help. Saint-Jérome was just secured. It’s out of the way, we have a whole army unit stationed there to act as guards, and if we’re subtle about it, people will just think that we’re out there helping against the antithesis.”

“For someone who just said she dislikes politics, that’s a surprisingly shrewd move,” Sam-O-Ray said.

“Surprisingly? Hey, it’s just kind of obvious, isn’t it?” I asked.

Delilah nodded. “I personally like that idea a little better. What was the name of that officer with the engineering corp?”

“That was… Major Tinwhistle with the Tenth Engineer corp,” I said. I impressed myself by actually remembering that. “I think she could help. And we don’t need to explain to the soldiers what we’re doing at all. I’m sure we can have one of us watching and intercepting leaks as well. If we ask nice-like, the general will probably accept not sending anyone back to New Montreal for a few days. And then we just need to cut off internet access.”

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“Will people accept that?” Rac asked.