One-Move Checkmate - Part II

17th March

Old Settlement, Artemis, State of Luna

Talking with Alexander, and trying to think things through myself, didn't help at all. I'm still just as confused as I was before I tried to work my way through this. Frank still hasn't called, but if he did, I don't know if I should respond or not. Should I still be supporting him? Is Frank's dream worth it? I'm not sure anymore.

When Frank did finally call, without hesitation, I ran to him. I didn't think about it, or what it meant, or what I was doing… I just did it. Perhaps it's simply too ingrained in me for me to refuse him. I don't want to refuse him. I want to stay by his side. I want to see this through. Maybe that's what I've thought for too long to think of anything else, anywhere else for me to be. It's about ten minutes walking from my temporary accommodation in Staghead to Old Settlement, but I run. Or I run as much as I can, whilst dodging people, and trying to read a file that Frank sent me. When I heard the panic in his voice, I realised something out of the ordinary was up. I mean, what could it possibly be to make Frank Scuderi worried? What could Frank not have foreseen?

As I read the file, it began to dawn on me what had happened, and exactly why this would terrify Frank so much. Earlier this morning, Indonesia finalised a trade deal with China, and declared war on the Freehold of Artemis and its' allies. Satellite imaging showed that an Indonesian fleet was being assembled at Lanal Batam, just across the Straits from Singapore, and Lee Kuan Yew Spaceport. If the spaceport fell, Frank and his allies would lose all their leverage. It would no longer just be Frank's enemies that aren't receiving helium-3 supplies, it would be the entire world. In a bid for survival, all of Frank's Terran allies: Israel, Singapore, India, and the rest, would abandon us to save themselves. It would be the end of not just the moon's bid for independence, but also the end of Frank's dream.

The fact that Frank didn't see this coming, not even a hint of it, is terrifying to me. How can that be the case? Frank has always been two steps ahead of everyone up to this point. Perhaps he assumed that if he had Singapore's support, the rest of the ASEAN block would follow. That does seem likely. Frank was always looking to the future, sometimes to the point where he forgot about the present. It's possible that he missed something. Missed by some oversight, the chain of evets that has led to him being backed into a corner. But surely Frank has a way out, he always has. No matter what has happened before, he has always been able to come up with some way forward. Some path that no one else can see. And though I think that, the tone of Frank's voice when he called me… it was shaking. Shaking, like the voice of a scared young boy. I don't know. Maybe this time, there is no way forward. That we're at the end of the line. That Frank's dream ends here.

I arrive in the lobby of the former DELOS offices. Frank told me that he would send someone to bring me to him. By that, I guess Frank isn't in his office, but that still leaves me at a loss to where he is. The offices, now being used as a temporary government building, are large and packed full of people. Officials from DELOS, Artemis Energy, and Huesong, all move around the lobby, and every corridor and room for that matter, until it's a miracle that anyone can make it anywhere at all. The people that no one seems to know, the strange people that seems to work for Frank, are nowhere to be seen. Even I know very little about them, but it dawns on me then that perhaps they're with Frank at the moment. What I do know about them, is that they arrived in Artemis from Farside the day of Frank's declaration, and that they work for Seine Montague. Seine Montague, like myself and Jazz, is a close ally of Frank's. She previously worked as a research scientist in the French military, before moving to the private sector. Seine came to the moon because she understood that it was becoming a world leader in scientific advancement. Since then, Seine and her team, the strangers from Farside, have worked for Frank closely.

Eventually, however, I see someone who appears to be heading towards me. Even through the crowd, I can tell by the way he, or perhaps she, walks, that their Lunar-born. The Lunar-born slips through the crowd in a way that only someone born on the moon could achieve in this gravity. The slender body and lightness of foot is not something that any Earthling could manage. As they get closer however, I realise exactly who it is that stands before me. Akira Scuderi – the adoptive son of Frank. I have only met him a few times, but even though he's a young child, something about him has always been unnerving to me. The look in his wide crimson eyes can scare even a grown man into submission, or at least I imagine. Akira is a strange child, but there's something about him, even at that young of an age. He isn't a bright light that you can't help being drawn to, like Frank, or like Alexander, but he's something.

Akira comes to a stop in front of me. I notice that he's approaching the height of the adults around him, in fact he's taller than some of them, even though he must only be six or so.

"Follow me," Akira says flatly, before turning around. That's right. I remember he was never one for talking much. I thought that was probably just because he was so young when we first met, but maybe that wasn't the case. Akira leads me down a series of corridors, all of which are full of people, stacks of paper, and yelling, so much yelling. People ran down the halls, whom Akira seemed to slip by effortlessly, but who seem to purposefully run into me by comparison. In a rare gap in the crowds, I rush to catch up with Akira.

"Where are we headed?"

"Father calls it the situation room," Akira replies, his tone still flat, clearly indicating the conversation is over. Situation room? I didn't think there would be such a thing within the DELOS offices. I can't imagine anyone who didn't know Frank's immediate plans believing there was a reason for one. Akira has led me through a maze of tunnels and corridors, with less and less people until the corridors we walk along are now practically empty. I don't know where we are, and I'm starting to think we might be lost, when Akira stops in the middle of the hallway. He reaches out with his left arm, and points at the wall, though once I look closely enough, I realise that there's a door. A door set into the wall, and painted the same colour as the wall to make it as unnoticeable as possible.

"Through there."

As soon as he says that, with the job of delivering me done, Akira begins walking away without another word. As I watch him, I think just how strange he is. What a strange child indeed. He reminds me a bit of… I see, that's who Akira's birth parents are. I smile to myself. Now that I've realised it, everything makes a bit more sense to me, unless I'm just drawing conclusions that aren't there. With one last look at Akira, I open the door with the small indenture that serves as its' handle. Through the door, there's a small flight of stairs at the bottom of which, I can see light coming though.