Hey, this is Dave the miracle Maker again. It’s another lovely Sunday up here in the high desert of Southern California. Today I would like to talk about happiness. Are you happy, or do you feel like happiness is overrated? I believe that happiness is a choice. Choose to be happy. Stop dwelling on the negative and concentrate on the positive things in your life. One day my wife was in a bad mood and said, “I’m not happy.” As I spoke of in one of my earlier blogs, I took two seconds to respond and kept my opinion to myself. What I was thinking was, If you are looking for me to make you happy you’re going to be disappointed. True happiness comes from within. You could be a multi-millionaire and provide your wife or husband with the fanciest cars, and the best house in town. You could supply her, or his every desire, but if that person has not found inner peace, the happiness of wealth and material things will fade. Happiness is a choice. Choose to be happy.
Now I’m going to talk about being happy in the gap. If you are trying to manifest the love of your life, or if you make around four thousand dollars a month and you are trying to manifest ten thousand dollars a month you need to be happy in the gap. Your reality is where you are right now. Your proffered reality is when you receive what you are trying to manifest. In between is the gap. Your day-to-day lives as you work toward your goals. Don’t concentrate on what you don’t have because you get what you focus on. Concentrate on what you want and be happy and grateful for what you have now. Choose to be happy and be happy in the gap. Leave a comment below and let me know what you think. Peace Out!
Now for your reading plause, check out Chapter seven of my science fiction novel, the Battle for Europa.
Shawn Gallagher leaned back in his chair at his desk in the office complex on Europa. He heaved a sigh. His mind flashed back over the last three weeks, and he marveled at all they had accomplished. They had formed a temporary government. With John Wilson’s help, they drafted a written Declaration of Independence and transmitted the document to the Council of Economic Unions. Wilson wrote a manifesto declaring their demands. Shawn transmitted it to the council as well and completed the final draft of their government’s new constitution.
Shawn served as the temporary president. He appointed John as his temporary Secretary of Defense. Another one of his closest friends, James Atkins, filled in as the Vice President. Jerry Holliday accepted a position as the head of security and intelligence. Jerry was another good friend of Shawn’s with a former military background. Another former military man, Chuck Ballantine, became the Secretary of the treasury.
For the past three weeks, the former miners had been busy training. They familiarized themselves with the new weapons, preparing for the eventual federal assault. Others built defensive positions. Chuck Ballantine, who was in charge of the new mint built a press, where they minted gold and silver coins. Their preparations for the federal assault were going well, but Shawn felt vulnerable. The mercenary force that Ludwig Von Wolf promised had yet to show up. If the federal forces arrived first, they would be in a world of hurt.
“When can we expect Ludwig’s MERCs to arrive?” Shawn asked looking up at the men gathered for the morning briefing.
Holliday drummed his fingers on the armrest of his chair. “Any time now. I sent him an encrypted VID transmission. Supposedly they left their base in the asteroid belt two months ago.”
“What do your sources say about the federal response, now that we’ve made the declaration?” Shawn brushed a strand of hair from his face.
“Rumor is that they might be trying some clandestine operation using the PPF. I also hear rumors of a much larger troop buildup.”
“What about our aw-shit plan?” Shawn whipped a few beads of sweat from his brow.
Holliday laughed. “Everything is going according to the plan.”
“It’s good to have friends in accounting that can hide where the money or material is going,” Shawn said. “I still can’t believe we pulled this off right under Consolidated Security’s nose.”
Holliday nodded. “Yeah. It took a lot of time and hard work. If you have the paperwork filled out, right, they give it the rubber stamp and send it on its way.”
Shawn looked at Wilson. “John what about the troops? How goes the training?”
“They’re doing as good as we can expect for men that have been out of the service for a while. We’ll speed up the training when Ludwig’s people get here.”
“Will they be ready when the feds arrive? That’s the question.”
John paused and then lit a cigar. The rich aroma of tobacco smoke drifted across the room. “They will be. When it comes to that, everyone will fight.”
“What about the mint? Are the men happy about the new coinage and the new pay scales?”
Ballantine shrugged. “Pretty much. Right now, our warehouse is full. If this thing goes on too long and commodities get scarce, things might change.”
“If there’s nothing else, I’ll go down to site D and see how they’re coming on my new space cruiser,” Shawn said.
John laughed, fanning smoke from in front of his face. “It was nice of the PPF to have one at the spaceport when this went down.”
“Yeah, I know. As soon as the boys finish the modifications, I need to take a trip to the asteroid belt. I need to see if we can make that deal with Mr. Wolf about those ships. I wish his MERCs would show up first.”
“There is that other matter you asked me to look into,” Holliday said.
Shawn’s face took on a look of concern. “I’d almost forgotten about that. What did you find out?”
“He graduated high school in San Diego, and applied for robotics school but got rejected. They drafted him into Federal Forces like we figured they would. They assigned him to Fleet Marines Space Division. He is doing his boot camp right now at the Lunar training depot on the dark side of Earth’s moon. He’s taken some flack because of all this.”
“I hope he doesn’t suffer too much because of what I’ve done.”
Holliday shrugged. “It’s not too bad. The political officers are keeping an eye on him. From what my sources say, he’s pretty much following the party line.”
Shawn leaned forward resting his elbows on the table. “I wish I could get him out of their clutches. If he was here I could undo the brainwashing that the system has stuffed in his ears for the last fourteen years. When he completes boot camp and advanced training, see if you can find out where his first duty station is. I’d like to send a team to pull a snatch and grab, then bring him back here.”
Holliday nodded. “I’ll see what I can do.”
“Good. Keep me posted. I guess that’s it. I want to see how they’re coming with my ship.” Shawn dismissed the men from the briefing and stood to his feet. A sense of sadness and regret sank into Shawn’s being when his thoughts drifted to his brother David. God how I wish he were here with me now.
Shawn stepped out of his office and headed down a corridor. He passed several more offices and exited the office complex. Heading down another hallway, he passed the company store, the miner’s lounge, and the REC room. A large building with a hardened glass dome covering its roof was on top of the mining complex. The top-level housed the support facilities, such as the medical center, and the cafeteria. It housed other facilities that the miners needed to survive on Europa.
The second level housed the maintenance and engineering department. The engineering department held the machines, which provided the oxygen for the facility. It held huge gravity generators, which produced an Earth-like gravity for the mines. There was a network of tunnels that connected all the mining sites on Europa.
Shawn shivered from the cool temperatures in the corridor and hurried to the nearest turbo lift. He rode it down to level two and headed down a narrow corridor to maintenance. A young maintenance tech smiled when he stepped into the maintenance shed. “Hello, Mr. President. What can I do for you?”
Shawn laughed. He was having a hard time getting used to people calling him Mr. President. “I need a sled. I’d like to go over to site D and see how the boys are coming along on my new space cruiser.”
“I got one right here. I charged the batteries and did a tune-up on this one. It’s yours if you want it.” Shawn looked down at the small vehicle. It reminded him of the old-fashioned scooters that kids used to ride. It consisted of a driver’s seat with a T-bar control handle. Behind the driver’s seat was a flat dump bed, which the miners used to carry equipment back and forth in the mines.
“Thanks.” Shawn sat down in the driver’s seat and switched on the machine, using a thumb switch on the left T handle handgrip. The sled hummed to life and rose two inches off the ground on a cushion of air. He turned the handle hit the forward thrust button with his right thumb and cranked the throttle. The machine moved forward and Shawn turned around. He exited the maintenance shed through a large roll-up door and headed down the corridor. Passing several doorways in the metal bulkheads on his left and right, he headed down the corridor. He took a turbo lift down several levels into the bowels of Europa.
Shawn exited site A through a massive set of steel-reinforced doors. The metal bulkhead gave way to the icy walls of the tunnel system. He left site A behind traveling underneath the surface of Europa through the vast network of tunnels that connected the mining sites. Tiny flakes of ice flew up into the air while the sled hummed along. To Shawn, it felt as though he was driving through an ice storm. He leaned over the T bar peering into the tunnel ahead of him. The hum of the sled’s thrusters echoed off the icy walls of the tunnel and provided, a background noise.
Forty-five minutes later, Shawn reduced his speed. The electronic eye on the door registered his approach. The steel doors opened. Shawn pulled into the maintenance building and turned off the sled. He climbed off the vehicle and crossed the messy floor to a raised platform. Men gathered around a sleek-looking space cruiser. Shawn breathed in the smell of grease and oil. He watched one of the men put a fresh coat of ocean blue paint on the exterior of the craft.
“How goes it?” Shawn asked, stepping up to the group.
“Fine Mr. President. Our painter here is going to add the gold trim plus the presidential seal, once the base coat dries. Your new ship should be ready for space in a couple of days,” a young blond-headed maintenance tech said.
Shawn gazed about. “Would you mind if I take a look inside?”
“Not at all. I’ll give you the grand tour.” Shawn jumped up onto the platform and followed the maintenance tech up the boarding ramp. They went through an airlock and stepped into a lounge area. Another maintenance tech rolled out a long roll of ocean blue shag carpet. Shawn looked around the lounge. There were two leather couches, a bar, and a food and beverage center. There was a stereo system and a VID screen on the bulkhead next to the airlock.
“What about the hidden storage areas I asked for?”
“They’re right under our feet. These J bolts on the floor will be out of sight, once they install the carpet. You’ll have to move the furniture and lift these little squares of carpeting to get to them. Pull up on the J bolts, give them a turn and remove sections of the deck covers to access the storage. We tore out part of the former crew area and created a small cargo bay. We also created a hidden storage area under the deck in the bay. We had some guys cut away a section of the hull on the aft end to create a door to unload equipment. They’re installing the hydraulics to raise and lower the ramp as we speak.”
Shawn smiled. “Excellent.”
“Would you like to see the bridge?”
“That was going to be my next request.” The maintenance tech led him forward and through a hatchway to the bridge. Two plush black leather seats were set facing forward. A bank of computer consoles was set in front of the chairs. Mounted in the forward bulkhead was a rectangular viewscreen.
The maintenance tech smiled. “One person can fly this baby with ease. The seat on the left is the captain’s station. He operates the helm. The one on the right is the co-pilot’s station. It doubles as the communications officer’s station. If you have to fly by yourself, let’s say your co-pilot is unavailable. Maybe he’s getting a few hours of rack time; you can divert his systems to your station. We’ve installed small laser cannons and small plasma torpedoes to the bottom of the vessel. This baby packs a big punch. You access the weapons from both the pilot and co-pilot’s chair.”
“Cool. You people are doing a great job.”
“Would you like to see your quarters?”
Shawn nodded. “Lead the way.” Shawn followed the maintenance tech back the way they came. They headed across the lounge to another hatchway. They stepped into a narrow passageway. The maintenance tech opened a door on his left.
“This is your quarters.” Shawn looked into the room and saw a queen-sized bed that was set on a sea of plush blue carpet. There was a small wet bar, a small table, and a doorway that led to what he assumed was the bathroom.
“Nice.” Shawn stepped back out into the passageway. The maintenance tech opened a door on his right and Shawn stuck his head in the door.
“This is the crew berthing area.” Shawn saw four flip-down metal racks. There were two on each side of a narrow passageway, complete with mattresses and blankets. There were storage bins built into the bulkhead underneath each bunk. At the end of the passageway set a table, with four chairs set on the metal diamond plate covering the floor. A hatchway in the aft bullhead lead to what Shawn assumed was the crew’s bath and shower room. They stepped back into the hallway. Shawn followed the maintenance tech to the hatchway at the end of the central corridor. “This is your cargo bay.” Shawn looked across the small rectangular-shaped bay. He watched the men on the aft end raise the door. “We’re putting in the hydraulic system now. When we’re finished, you’ll have a ramp to load and unload cargo, plus another airlock back here.”
“Good. Let your people know that I’m pleased. They do good work.” Finished with the tour, Shawn stood with the men gathered around the small vessel. He shook their hands. “Thank you men for all your hard work.”
“When do you think the feds will attack?” one of the men asked.
“I hope they don’t. I hope they give in to our demands, but if they do, it will take at least six months for them to get a sizable force together. We’ve got a lot of work to do between now and then.”
“Where are you off to now sir?” someone asked.
“I thought I’d check on our new military forces and see how the training’s going. Then I thought I’d take a rover out on the surface and check on the men preparing for our defense.”
“Thanks for stopping by, Mr. President. You’re welcome here any time. We’re putting in a lot of overtime to get your ship ready. The men will do you proud,” the maintenance tech that had given Shawn the tour of the vessel said.
“I’m already proud.” Shawn climbed back on the sled, exited the maintenance shed, and sped down a wide corridor toward a large turbo lift. He rode the lift down to the next level, housing the new military complex. He hit the thrusters on the sled, exited the turbo lift, entered the new military complex, and headed through a -maze of corridors until he reached the office complex. Shawn met Wilson at his office, left the sled there and they climbed into a hovercraft. John climbed into the driver’s seat, flipped a lever on the dashboard and a clear glass dome flipped down covering the driver’s compartment. There was a faint whine inside the vehicle when John turned on the craft’s engine. John moved the T handle in the center of the console forward and the vehicle moved forward riding on a cushion of air.
“Where to first Mr. President?”
“Knock off the Mr. President stuff. I’ve about had enough of that.”
John laughed. “That’s something you’re going to have to get used to. So where to?”
“You’re driving.”
John moved the joystick forward. The hovercraft increased speed and they headed down the main corridor. “Let’s head to the rifle range.” They approached an intersection where two tunnels met. John took a left turn and pulled into a large cavern. The interior lighting lit up the underground shooting range. John pulled up next to the range tower. He stopped in front of a large wooden structure set next to the firing line. Men lay in the prone position at their shooting stations. They fired at targets three hundred yards downrange. Shawn climbed out of the hovercraft. The voice of the range master came from exterior speakers on the tower.
“Cease fire! Let’s take a break!” The soldiers of the New Republic gathered around their new president. The men saluted and stood at attention.
“As you were,” Shawn said and the men gathered around him. “Are you guys ready to kick some federal ass?” A cheer rose from the group.
“You bet your ass we are,” one of the soldiers said.
Shawn smiled. “Good. I hope it doesn’t come to that. I hope the council will listen to reason.”
“Fat chance of that,” someone said.
Wilson grinned. “What other government can the president walk among his people freely? The presidents of the economic unions don’t go anywhere without their entourage. They couldn’t even do that in the old United States.”
“I hope it stays this way.”
The range master climbed down the wooden ladder from his tower. The grizzled old sergeant smiled, extended his hand and they shook. “What can we do for you, Mr. President?”
“I came to see you people shoot.”
“We’ve spent the last three days familiarizing ourselves with the new weapons and snapping in. Now we’re shooting to qualify. If you’ll take a seat in the bleachers behind the shooting stations, we’ll continue.”
“Good. Carry on sergeant,” Shawn said.
“You heard the man! Take your positions!” a young corporal assisting the range master yelled. The men scrambled to their shooting stations. Gallagher and Wilson took seats in the bleachers. The troops opened up with their M-23 blasters. They fired solid projectiles and then switched to laser blast. After using up several energy packs, they switched to the explosive rounds. The sound of gunfire echoed through the underground cavern.
“What do you think?” John asked after watching the first group shoot.
Shawn paused for a second. “They’re doing all right. They could use more shooting time.”
“Have you seen enough?”
Shawn nodded. “Yeah. Let’s roll.” They climbed back into the hovercraft. John headed across the icy cavern leaving the shooting range behind. They stopped to watch some men run through an obstacle course. The troops jumped over walls and ran across balance beams. They climbed wooden towers, and at the top, they repelled to the ground.
“They’ll shape up,” John said.
“Yeah, but we need to be outside on the surface training with their weapons in EVA suits.”
“That’s in the works. Have you seen enough?”
“Yeah. Take me back to my sled.”
John drove across the cavern heading back to the office complex and passed a squad bay. Shawn glanced out the passenger window watching a platoon practice close order drill. His mind flashed back to his days in the Federal Defense Forces.
“Do you think they’ll be ready?” Shawn asked watching the troops marching in step.
“God I hope so.”
***
Linda Van Horn sat at her station listening to music on a set of headphones. She drummed her fingers on her console and logged onto a computer game, trying to stave off the boredom. Normally, a shift in traffic control was stressful. There were always ships entering and leaving the system. She zoomed in with the station’s exterior cameras. She saw all the tanker ships parked on the surface of the various moons orbiting Jupiter. Before they took over the station, a shift in the main control center flew by. You kept busy talking to inbound or outbound vessels and tried to verify each ship’s registry.
Her orders were simple: to watch for and identify inbound traffic. Since the takeover, not a single ship had approached from the Asteroid belt. Jan Cunningham worked at the next station. She crossed the control center from the beverage station, handed Linda a cup of coffee, and offered her a doughnut from a tray.
“Thank you,” Linda said taking a doughnut and a cup of coffee. Jan brushed a strand of strawberry blonde hair out of her face and sat down at her workstation.
“Another boring shift. Things were never like this before,” Jan said. She tossed back her dark hair and took a drink from her coffee cup.
“We’d better enjoy it while it lasts. When the federal troops arrive things are going to get exciting.”
“That scares me. What are we supposed to do if they retake the station?”
“Didn’t you see the directive? If they get by the troops garrisoned here, we’re to seal off the control center. We’re to flee in the escape pods.” Linda blew across the rim of her coffee cup cooling off the hot liquid and brushed doughnut crumbs off her lap.
“I hope it doesn’t come to that. I hope they can reach some kind of agreement.”
A beeping sound coming from her console caused Linda to look down at her screen. “Holy shit!” Linda said. She straightened up in her seat. Her hands moved across the virtual keyboard activating her communications system.
“What?” Jan asked, turning to her screen.
“I’ve got over two hundred frigates and space cruisers inbound from the asteroid belt on my scope. I hope they’re friendly and not PPF!”
***
After viewing the troops, John drove back to where they left the sled. “Where are you off to now?” he asked.
“I thought I’d head topside and go out on the surface. I want to check out a rover from the motor pool and see how the construction crews are doing. Those fighting positions need to be right when the federal boys show up.” Shawn climbed out of the vehicle.
“Climb back in. I’ll take you there and go with you.”
Shawn climbed back into the hovercraft. When they reached the office complex at site A, they donned EVA suits and headed down the corridor to the main exit. Inside the airlock, they put on their helmets and checked their oxygen tanks. Finished with the equipment checks, Shawn opened the outer door. They stepped out onto the surface of Europa. Their gravity boots kept them from floating away in the low gravity. They crossed the icy street to the motor pool. Inside the EVA suit, Shawn shivered from the cold. He adjusted the suit’s environmental controls using a tiny knob on the base of his helmet. They entered the motor pool through the main airlock. John secured an atmospherically contained land rover and headed out onto the surface. Shawn stored their EVA suits in a storage compartment behind the cockpit of the vehicle. On the first day of the strike, the pilots parked the tanker ships on the surface. Shawn had them moved to create obstacles for an invading federal force. He wanted to channel the opposing troops down a small series of canyons, near the mining facility.
Near the top of these canyons, construction crews built bunkers and fighting positions. On the floor of the canyon, a work detail dug spider holes and tank traps. What Shawn hoped to do was to catch the federal troops on the canyon floor in an ambush. He wanted a good field of fire from both sides to catch the federal forces in a crossfire.
“Pull over,” Shawn said.
John brought the Land Rover to a stop. They suited up in their EVA suits and did an equipment check. Finished with the equipment check, Shawn exited the vehicle and John stepped out of the airlock behind him. Using the jet packs built into their EVA suits, they shot up into the air and set down on the top of the ridge. Shawn paused for a few seconds looking across the icy planes of Europa. The surface of the moon looked like a rolling sea of ice. The canyons were created using heavy equipment and they used tanker ships to set them up as obstacles between the series of canyons. The canyons looked like scars upon the ice. The intent was to close off all other approaches to the mining colony. Entering the fighting position through a tunnel leading down into the ridgeline, they descended toward the edge of the canyon and stepped into a ten-by-ten rectangular room. It had an opening in the ice where a man could shoot down at the floor of the canyon below. Two men working in the fighting positions snapped to attention.
“Mr. President, sir. Nobody told us you were coming,” one of the men said. He seemed nervous.
“I thought I’d stop by to see how things are progressing,” Shawn said.
“As you can see sir,” the man said motioning to the room. “We have finished construction of this position. We’re mounting the main guns and storing equipment. We’ll move to the next position shortly. There’s another crew working on the other side of the canyon.”
Shawn took in his surroundings. Construction crews mounted a large laser-powered weapon to the opening overlooking the canyon. Stacks of M-23 blasters along with ammo and energy packs were set in the corner. There were also boxes of grenades and a stack of rocket launchers. “Good. You men are doing good work.”
“Thank you, sir.”
Shawn’s com-link beeped. “Gallagher here,” he said into the voice-activated mike.
The voice of Shawn’s secretary came through the speakers on Shawn’s EVA suit. “Mr. President. I got a com from spacedock. Linda says we’ve got company coming. You’d best get back here in a hurry.”
***
Dave the Miracle Maker 