When the Navy called for companies willing to construct new exploration ships, the Numu Federation of western America quickly answered the call by offering the services of their yard complex. They had been building Yosemite Yard for years to support a planned Numu Colony Mission. In a mere five years they retooled it to begin mass production of a new generation of Navy exploration ships, superior in every way to those produced by any other yard complex.
I really did have a chance to retire after The War. I did retire from the military. But no one really retires from being a Marine. Turns out, it’s the same thing for Cowboys. A lot of us have gone back to our day jobs. Accountants. Engineers. Doctors. And some of us travel, meeting new and interesting people. But you know, wherever we are, when the wolf howls at the door, we howl right back. Of course, our leader did earn the name Wolf.
Americans have a flair for using names like Freedom, Independence, and Liberty to celebrate the rugged individuality that supposedly won the rebellion. In actuality, it was teamwork and hanging together that made America great, and it was just that organization that made the Liberty Colony Mission a success. It also became one of the giants of American industry during The War, and many ships sailing today were built there. I may have helped design them.
After a decade of failed Navy exploration missions, the government moved to acquire NASA resources to fix the program, but the NASA ships had been sent to the ship breakers, the companies that built them went out of business due to loss of business, and the Astronauts were years out of practice. The Navy had to rebuild a new space exploration program from the ground up, using what NASA expertise remained, and looking for help from the outside.
I remember an old saying. Join the military, meet new and interesting people, and kill them. I never wanted that as a boy. I don’t really want that now either. I’d really like to sit back and party and never pick up a gun again. But another old saying comes to mind. It’s about eternal vigilance and liberty or freedom or something like that. Point is, good guys have to be ready to keep the bad guys on the other side of that door. Or…you know…two meters under.