The Fixer #4

She reached J9 forty-five minutes later. It was strange to get somewhere so quickly, but no one said time travel wasn’t strange. Another oddity was that the T. Minorans named each city a letter and a number, as if they couldn’t be bothered with anything creative. She believed that they were up to KK999 now. The planet was certainly growing by leaps and bounds and she hoped that this wouldn’t create a problem for the fixer. How was he to find Juneau on a planet that was expanding that fast?
Some faq’s about Juneau and his former position as the director might benefit the reader. The first question: Director of what? Juneau was director of covert operations for NASA – yes, the NASA. Things have changed in the last fifty years and with the continued need to populate more planets because of the North American Irradiation. NASA had become more powerful until it became the sole overseer of the world. So yes, they did need a covert operations department. They needed it for sheer survival. So NASA was in charge of all space exploration, settlement, policy, etc. You name it, they did it. It finally started to annoy the other countries as they had to give up all autonomy in their programs. It was one huge bureaucracy.
But now I’m being redundant, so on with the FAQs.
Why wasn’t Juneau director anymore? Six years ago there was a shake up at NASA – a new regime entered the playing field led by a man named Jacob Ladden. Ladden had been in charge of primary planet exploration. He was tired of the bureaucracy that he faced so he decided to go into business for himself so to speak. He aligned himself with Jim Johansen, the primary in the enforcement division and with Kara Martell, the director of communications, off and on planet. The three of them were reminiscent of the Roman triumvirate of Pompey, Crassus, and Julius Caesar. They wanted power and would do what was necessary to gain it. The three of them created a situation on Dicon 5 that needed the immediate – on site intervention of the director! Juneau went. When he returned his position had been usurped by Ladden. He had nowhere to go, so he went under. Way under. Where did Juneau go under? What do you mean by under?
Juneau went under in NASA. There is a secret wing of the agency that even Martell and Johansen knew nothing about. Juneau was given a new face, a new name, and a new life. But I’m afraid that life wasn’t agreeing with him and he wanted his old job back. NASA wasn’t any better with the terror trio in charge, but it wasn’t any worse and the official party line was to go with the flow.
That doesn’t explain with the unofficial line was, but I have a feeling Juneau is a part of that line.
The float touched down. All these questions, but are the answers correct? Has Juneau gone rogue or is he following doctrine? Emily hoped she would find out before the fixer fixed the problem.
Upon disembarking Emily heard, “Emily Jerris please go to a white courtesy comm.-portal.”
“Damn!” she thought. Seriously no one was supposed to know she was here. She strode over to the nearest comm.-portal watching the crowd diligently for any signs of trouble.
“This is Emily Jerris,” she said when she reached the portal. The comm.-portal was a device similar to a TV. The person you were speaking with showed up on screen and you could see each other. Because of the advances in technology there was no longer a time delay between the speakers. Up flashed the face of someone she didn’t want to see. “Juneau, what are you doing? How did you know that I would be her? And who was the girl calling my name as I boarded the transport?” she asked in one breath.
“Number 1, I’m not Juneau. I’ve never heard of anyone by that name. Number two, who are you? I was paged to the comm.-portal and number three, I don’t’ know what you are talking about.”
“Shit!” she exclaimed and hurriedly signed off the comm.-portal. “Damn, Damn, Damn. Will I never learn?” The wheels were turning hard and fast. “Not Juneau, doesn’t know who I am, looks like Juneau, knew (I’m pretty sure) why we were both at the comm.-portal even though he pretended ignorance. Hell, how could it be Juneau – he’d had plastic surgery. Things were getting funkier all the time.” Jerris quickly left the tube station to find her accommodations in J9.