The Commander by CJ Williams Page A

and the rest.
    The construction pad was impressive. Four hundred midnight-colored spikes sat ready to launch out to the edge of the galaxy, seeking an enemy whose strength and capability was unknown. Their return might bring back the secrets of how to defeat the Bakkui, or herald a swift doom for mankind.
    “You want to do the honors?” Samantha asked.
    “No.” Luke acknowledged her offer with a nod. “You guys did all the work.”
    “Very well.” Samantha faced the crowd around the podium. “Everyone ready? Let’s hear it!”
    With an uncoordinated cheer everyone shouted, “Launch the Hermes!”
    One second they were there, the next they were gone, already out of sight, accelerating at unimaginable speeds.
    “That was kinda anticlimactic,” Luke observed. “Those little suckers are fast.”
    “They better be where they’re going,” Samantha replied.

Day 327—Population 11,122
    It was one of the rare times that Luke and Annie were on the moon together. They stood on a small stage in Far Side’s main hangar. He praised the five thousand colonists who were about to depart for Mars. The settlers would establish new lives on another planet in the solar system, the first humans ever to attempt such a feat. Luke hoped it would be the prelude to a mass migration of humanity to the stars.
    He pointed to the launch pad and the space ship Demeter, named after the Greek goddess of the harvest. The ship looked like the top half of a sphere, the wide base rested on the concrete-like tarmac, slightly over one thousand feet in diameter. The top of its dome was almost five hundred feet high. The interior included twenty separate levels for crew accommodation interspersed with life support systems, workshops, entertainment areas, supplies, and equipment. The cargo holds contained vehicles of all descriptions that would help sustain the new settlement.
    The Demeter also carried replicators of varying sizes, the largest being equivalent to the one in the hangar at Moonbase. And most importantly, Demeter’s AI mirrored many of George’s talents. She and George were linked via their own communication system so that Luke’s team could benefit from the lessons learned by the Martian colonists.
    When the ship landed on Mars, the Demeter would become the center of the new community. A few of the colonists would maintain their residence inside the massive structure, but most would venture out, creating their own homes on the planet’s surface or burrowing into the mountainous landscape. There were five different projects under consideration to provide Mars with a new atmosphere. Luke hoped the initiatives would be pursued simultaneously; that alone would be an exciting experiment from start to finish.
    “The adventure has only begun!” Luke finished to more applause.
    He returned to his chair next to Annie, handing the microphone to the last speaker, the ship’s captain. The colonists were already on board, and the final countdowns were proceeding now that the launch ceremonies for the historic departure of the Mars colony transport were almost over.
    When the Demeter departed, the moon’s population would decrease by almost half. Annie’s recent planetside activities were focused on opening new recruiting centers around the world. Employment agencies in Europe, Asia, and Australia had signed contracts. Globalized recruiting meant the number of lunar residents would be back to the current level in little more than a month.
    Not long ago Annie increased the daily recruiting flights from five to six times per week. The international centers promised that number would soon stand at eight; that meant almost twelve hundred newcomers a week. Roth had adjusted everyone’s work schedule to accommodate the increased training load.
    The captain finished her comments and left the podium at a jog, heading toward the waiting ship.
    “I still think it looks like an upside-down bowl,” Luke whispered to Annie, nodding at the Demeter