The Peacekeepers. Books 1 - 3.

by Ricky Sides

  “Where is the old base?” Pete asked.

  “Hannibal, Missouri,” Patricia said smiling.

  “Oh you’ve got to be kidding!” Jim said in surprise.

  “Oh, but she is not.” Pol said laughing.

  “You mean that the government put a secret base for the research and development of this ship in the home of Mark Twain?” Jim asked grinning.

  “Well it isn’t exactly downtown, but yes. The base is located a few miles outside of town,” Patricia admitted.

  “I always wanted to go there. Now I have this sudden urge to read, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” Jim said quite seriously.

  Chapter 2

  The trip to Hannibal was postponed twice when emergencies arose that required the crew take the ship to different locations. Two weeks after the initial conversation, they were within a few miles of the city. They approached Hannibal from the west due to Jim’s concern that the bridge spanning the Mississippi river might be down. Though the Peacekeeper could cross the river, he felt it best not to advertise that ability. The city had a pre-disaster population of approximately eighteen thousand residents. Therefore, if the city population followed the trend of most cities known to the peacekeepers, at least ten thousand residents would still inhabit that town. The chances of being able to cross the river unnoticed by large numbers of people were very slim.

  As the ship approached the city of Hannibal, Patricia and Pol both stared sadly out the window and Jim assumed that they were lost in memories of the past. He hoped that this trip wouldn’t be too hard on the pair but their presence was critical to the success of the mission.

  Turning to stare out the windshield himself, he mentally reviewed what the two scientists had told him of the location to which they were speeding and the history of the development of the ship. He knew that the secret location was northwest of the city. On the outside it appeared to be just another poultry farm that had seen better days and been closed as a result. The farm was located in a cul-de-sac. To get to the farm you had to leave the main highway and travel down a backcountry road, which meandered through the countryside for approximately two miles before coming to a dead end at the farm. Within a half mile of the farm, the forest crowded to within about thirty feet on both sides of the roadway. When they reached the farm, they would find a two-story farmhouse in good condition, considering its age. The development team members all had rooms in that house. Situated between the two massive poultry houses, located out behind the farmhouse, there would also be a small feed silo.

  Pol had assured Jim that on the outside it would appear that the only business ever conducted there had been the farming of chickens. Yet behind the poultry houses, out of sight of the curious eyes of wayward visitors, were the modern cooling and heating units, which controlled the temperature inside the facilities. The steel ventilation shutters on the sides of the old chicken houses had been welded closed. On the inside of both buildings, all of the paraphernalia needed in the production of chickens had been removed. The floors had been thoroughly cleaned and sanitized. In one of the buildings, small offices and adjacent storage rooms had been fabricated for each development team member. The remaining huge section of the building was used as a lab by the team as a whole. The other building was reserved strictly for the assembly of the prototype. Private contractors who didn’t have a clue exactly what they were assembling had conducted the assembly of the airframe. One of the guards had planted a cover story in the minds of the men that it was a training module for a manned spaceflight to Mars. The guard was of course acting under very specific orders as to what information he was to leak. The contractors had completed the assembly of the airframe when they had attached the prefabricated skin and doors. When their duties at the location were completed, the contractors were reminded of the non-disclosure agreements they had signed to work on the project. They were each given an early completion bonus which ensured that they went away happy as they left the site.

  Factory representatives and their installation crews came next. They installed such things as the galley appliances, the beds, the interior lighting, the water heater, the water condenser system, the special shower, and the toilet system. The cover story leaked to these men was that they were working on a nice recreational vehicle for a powerful general to use to entertain members of the opposite sex. Again, non-disclosure agreements were required of all the representatives and their installation crews. The government procurement officer had winked and smiled when he presented the forms for them to sign, hinting that he was looking forward to visiting the general in the future. Each factory representative left under the impression that there would be full testing of their products, and they would have fat government contracts if the general liked what they had delivered. They had delivered products that met or exceeded the specifications of the government procurement official who had worked with each factory representative to ensure that specifications were met in a timely manner. They had assurances that the vehicle would get adequate testing after adding the engine, drivetrain, and wheel assemblies.

  The factory representatives never knew that the development team who lived on the site had carefully researched the newest technologies available and selected those that met or exceeded the very specific criteria set by the team.

  The real development work was in the skin of the ship, the highly advanced battery system, the weapons technology, the communications system, the computer system, the navigation system, and the drive system, which levitated and propelled the ship.

  Jim was just beginning to appreciate fully, just how large a role Patricia had played in the development of the ship. Pol had patiently explained that a very large portion of the research and development was done by utilizing sophisticated computer software to run simulations. A few of these programs, the team acquired through outsourcing prior to the addition of Patricia, but when Patricia had joined the team, the first thing she’d had to do was fix the bugs in the programs that they were working with at the time. After she accomplished that, she had then concentrated on creating programs, as the team needed them. Because of this work, she had developed some excellent simulation programs, a diagnostics program that was simply incredible, and an interface with the computer, which was probably ten years ahead of anything else on the market. Once these programs had been created, she turned her attention to creating a program that monitored the power flow throughout the ship. Then she turned her attention to a communications system and created one that was the most advanced in the world. Yet the program was so easy to work with that a minimum of ten hours training would prove sufficient for most personnel to become quite capable with the system.

  Then Patricia had turned her attention to the navigation system, creating a database of maps, which ranged from numerous Google Earth images to the Rand McNally atlas. Of course, she hadn’t downloaded all of the Google Earth images, but she did access a substantial number. Unfortunately, now they could no longer access the system to add the maps they did not have in the database. Patricia also worked out a good system for linking with the global positioning satellites so that at any given time they could access the current location of the ship. This was considered a critical security function as well as a great navigational aid. If, heaven forbid, the ship were ever stolen she would be able to pinpoint its location from the peacekeeper headquarters computer system by accessing its coded identity. She could then send the ship a coded signal, which would cause the ship to respond with its location.

  “We’re almost there,” Patricia said snapping Jim out of his ruminations. “We turn left at the next opportunity,” she said to her husband.

  “Lieutenant Young, please go aft and remind the men that I said full armor, and then take charge of the other five man team. Tell the snipers I said to take regular assault rifles. I want your team to check the farmhouse while Lieutenant Wilcox’s team checks the rest of the buildings,” Jim ordered.

  “Yes, sir!” Bill said happily and Jim suspected
that Pete had been right in his assessment that Bill might be feeling sort of left out of things. He was fully trained at all stations in the control room and was the replacement man should another critical member of the team be absent from the control room. However, he rarely had the opportunity to substitute for the others, and therefore he was the least active of all the crew. They’d discussed the matter privately and Pete had suggested assigning Bill to the extra team of men as their leader from time to time. He was a qualified leader with field experience. It had been a great suggestion, and now seeing the happiness on Bill’s face as he strode toward the cargo bay Jim was glad that he’d agreed to the arrangement.

  “Bill, you’d better wear that chest plate because I will be checking when you return!” Pete shouted after Bill.

  “Yes, Pete, I’ll wear the thing but I’m still glad we have to wear it under the shirts. That thing looks ridiculous,” Bill grumped as he once more headed aft.

  Pete grinned and thanked Jim, when he was sure that Bill was out of hearing range. Smiling Jim said, “You really should let him try the guns at some point. He needs the experience and you never know. Someday you and I may both be off the ship when she has to do battle.”

  “I’d probably be second guessing his firing, but you’re right. He has to learn sometime, so the next time a small fight comes our way I’ll make an excuse to need to go aft. That would give him the chance to cut his teeth without my presence looming over his shoulder,” Pete said thoughtfully.

  “He can fly the ship quite well too,” Tim observed. “We could rotate on the longer trips. That would give me a chance to stretch my legs from time to time.”

  “And he is welcome to man the communications while I take an occasional break from the duty to work on my to-do list from my computer in our cabin,” Patricia volunteered. She had set up a terminal in their quarters so that she could immediately access a computer if she awoke in the middle of the night with a solution to a vexing problem she had been troubleshooting.

  “Those are all admirable solutions. Thank you all for understanding your fellow crewman’s plight,” Jim responded.

  “He can take my place at my station and I could always go take a nap,” Pol said grinning.

  “And have your snoring set off the proximity alarms?” Tim asked laughing at Pol’s expression. Then he became serious and said, “The buildings are now within sight.”

  “Lieutenant, alert the two strike force teams that the cargo bay door will open momentarily and remind them that I said to treat this as a hostile situation. Take all precautions,” Jim ordered.

  “Aye, Captain,” Patricia replied and then relayed the message. A moment later she said, “Strike force teams one and two report their understanding and say that they are ready when you are, Captain.”

  “Thank you, Lieutenant,” Jim responded. Turning to Pete he asked, “Pete, would you go aft to act as security until the door closes?”

  “I’m on my way,” Pete said rising from his chair.

  ***

  Pol and Patricia had given the access codes to the electronic locks to the strike team leaders when they had reported the doors locked. To their surprise, when they input the codes the electronic locks opened easily. “That must mean that the power is on here at the facility. That is a lucky break,” Pol observed.

  The two strike force teams were thorough, so it took fifteen minutes for them to sound the all clear. Jim ordered Lieutenant Wilcox to return with his strike team to set up a security detail since the control room crew would all be entering the facilities. He reminded Lieutenant Wilcox to make certain a pilot and a gunner remained in the control room at all times. He also wanted someone to monitor communications and at least one guard aft in the cargo bay just in case someone should attempt to breach the door. Once they were certain that the area was safe then they could relax to a looser security arrangement.

  The control room crew exited the moment that the other team reported for duty. Pol led the way to the place where he thought that the components they sought would be located, if they were here at all. Entering one of the large poultry houses, he noted with approval that everything seemed to be just as they had left it, though there was an accumulation of dust.

  Pol made his way to the lighting and heating control panels. The early December weather was downright cold and everyone would be grateful for some heat as the crew conducted their search.

  Once the lights came on, the crew followed Pol toward the back of the lab where the offices were located. He walked toward a door that had the name Malcolm Tidwell on a placard attached to it, but he did not enter that room. Instead, he tried the door to the left of that room it was locked. This door used an old-fashioned lock that required a key. Pete quickly announced that the lock was one of the better grade locks that were supposedly very difficult to pick.

  “I think it is highly unlikely that Malcolm would have left a key to the door in his desk, but I suppose that we could look,” Pol suggested, and then he shouted, “Pete, no!”

  Pete had been about to ram his shoulder into the door when Pol’s shout caused him to stop. “What’s wrong, Pol? He asked.

  “You cannot simply crash through the door!” Pol said appalled.

  “Pol, I know you consider this home, but under the circumstances…,”

  “It’s not that, Pete,” Patricia said beside Pol. Malcolm may have trapped the door against such an attempt to break into the storage room.” Blushing a bit, she said, “Malcolm was a little eccentric about some things.”

  “You folks let him place traps in your facility?!” Pete asked incredulously.

  “One didn’t permit Malcolm to do things. Malcolm did as Malcolm pleased. But the man was brilliant when it came to weapons,” Pol said by way of explanation.

  “The truth is, Malcolm was favored by some of the military establishment,” Patricia explained. “Remember that toward the end of our stay here, millions of Americans had died as a result of the natural disasters, and lawlessness was beginning to break out all over the country.” Shrugging she said, “Our last week here, the normal complement of security left, so we had to devise our own security. The farmhouse is safe, but Malcolm’s storage may have been trapped. The rest of us just encrypted the files and locked doors.”

  “And shredded documents,” Pol added with a frown.

  “So, we have to either find a key or pick the lock?” he asked.

  Nodding Pol said, “That would be the safest course of action, though I doubt that Malcolm would have placed a very powerful trap here. It would damage components he needed for his work. Still a small trap can easily kill or maim a man,” Pol explained.

  They spent thirty minutes scouring the weapons specialist’s office for the key. Finally, Pol located the key taped to the bottom of the desk chair. They assumed that it was a spare and weren’t certain that it was the correct key until Pol tried the door. It opened easily. When the door opened, Pol stopped and said, “Do not turn on the lights. Do not touch anything without first checking with me. I know a bit about some of the traps that Malcolm favored.”

  Pete said, “Hold up, Pol. Let’s do this right.” Turning to Jim he said, “I think you should take the rest of the crew to the other end of the lab. Let Pol and me search for traps and disarm them first. It is foolish for everyone to be endangered in this room.”

  “We’ll need a flashlight, Pete,” Pol interjected.

  “Pete is right everyone. We’ll withdraw to the other end and let them carefully examine the room to check for traps,” Jim said. He took a mini flashlight from a pouch on his side and handed it to Pol. “You two take your time and be careful,” he warned, and then Jim led the rest of the crew to the other end of the lab.

  “You think he trapped the lights?” Pete asked when the others were safe.

  “Possibly,” Pol said thoughtfully and then he motioned with the beam of light from the flashlight. “Please note my friend, why would Malcolm have installed an incandescent light in this r
oom with a fluorescent light right beside the incandescent?”

  “Wait here a moment,” Pete ordered and walked out of the room to the office next door where he got a folding chair and returned. He sat the chair beneath the incandescent light and asked for the flashlight. Climbing onto the chair Pete held the flashlight behind the bulb and examined it carefully. “You’re right, there is some liquid half filling the bulb. I’ll remove it from the socket but you’d better wait outside. It’s crazy to risk both of us at this point.”

  “Agreed, but I disarm the next trap if we encounter another,” Pol said setting his jaw for an argument. “I will not permit you to take all the risks my friend. This excursion was my idea. I am responsible, and therefore I must act responsibly.”

  Pete agreed to the man’s terms and waited until he had left and then he moved the chair out from under the bulb just as a precaution. He climbed back up onto the chair and extended his arm. It was all he could do to reach the bulb, but his body would be out of the majority of the spray should the bulb trap detonate somehow. He gently unscrewed it one turn and then another. Finally he had extracted the bulb which he carried outside the building a safe distance. Pete threw the trapped bulb in a high arch as far away from him as he could. The bulb smashed into the ground and there was a slight popping sound, but there was no accompanying explosion. That would have required an electric discharge to set off the flammable liquid contained within the bulb.

  Returning to the room, he joined Pol who was still carefully searching for traps but was having no success at finding anything out of the ordinary. For another ten minutes, both men carefully searched the room but found nothing else even remotely suspicious. Shrugging Pol said, “I guess he assumed that the one trap was sufficient.”

  “It would have been in most cases,” Pete confirmed. Still he took the precaution of examining the fluorescent bulbs too, but those bulbs appeared quite normal.