The Peacekeepers. Books 1 - 3.

by Ricky Sides

  Jim authorized the attempt. He had visited Lina the previous day and he believed Maggie. He also agreed with her assessment. Unless something changed, he thought that Lina would soon die.

  Maggie met with Namid in her infirmary where she explained her plan. Namid readily agreed to try to reach Lina. She walked out of Maggie’s infirmary with the intentions of leaving the ship to go to the base infirmary. She saw Lisa standing in the hallway and the girl spoke quietly when she asked if Namid was leaving to see Lina. She’d overheard Maggie speaking with Pete about the matter.

  “Yes I’m going to visit Lina. She isn’t doing so well at the moment and Maggie thought I might be able to help her,” Namid explained.

  “I would like to go with you, if you don’t mind,” Lisa replied.

  Namid hesitated briefly. She was concerned that some of the things said between Lina and herself might be too explicit. Lisa’s next words eliminated her reservations when the girl said, “I know what she is going through. I can relate to her experience in Kansas. It wasn’t that different from my own experiences with the man who killed my family.”

  “Maggie may kill me for taking you with me, but we’ll go together,” Namid responded.

  They found Lina in her room at the bunker infirmary. She was staring into space when they walked into the room. She turned her head to stare at them as they entered, but said nothing by way of greeting.

  Namid said, “Good morning, Lina. We thought we’d come to see you this morning.” When Lina made no response Namid continued, “We understand what you have been through. Both of us have been through similar experiences. I want to remind you that you can get well and do something positive with your life. You needn’t let this destroy you.”

  Lina regarded Namid in silence for a moment. When she spoke her voice sounded horse from disuse as she asked, “Something positive? Like raise a family? My husband is dead Namid,” Lina said bitterly.

  “So are the people responsible for his death,” Namid countered, but Lina turned her head away from the pilot.

  “Lina,” Lisa said, speaking for the first time. “I know how you feel. I felt the same way when I was captive.”

  Lina turned her face in Lisa’s direction. Anger flashed in her eyes as she responded, “You can’t know how I feel. I saw my husband murdered and was raped by the men who killed him.”

  Unbidden tears came into Lisa’s eyes but her voice was calm as she responded, “I saw my father die when Reggie shot him in the head. I didn’t see my brother’s body. My mom wouldn’t let me see what Reggie had done to him. But I saw my mom die when Reggie killed her. I saw him cut off her ears. I saw her face as that man raped me beside her body. He…, He did that more than once.”

  Namid wrapped an arm around Lisa who had begun to cry softly. She stared at Lina accusingly for what she’d said to the young lady, but Lisa sniffed back her tears and continued, “I wanted to die when the peacekeepers first found me. But Maggie and the rest of the peacekeepers aboard the ship helped me to want to live again. That’s why I am here now. I want to help you like they helped me. I want you to live again because if you die, then the bad men who had you win. I don't want them to beat you Lina.”

  Those simple words spoken from the mouth of a child reached Lina on a level that no one else had touched. Lying there in the infirmary bed, she realized that what Lisa had said was the plain and simple truth. If she died, then the men who'd murdered her husband and so abused her would win. They'd beat her even though they were dead and gone. She also felt contrite that she had roughly brushed aside Lisa's attempt to speak to her and in the process reopened old wounds in the girl's life.

  Lina sat up in her bed. She weakly shifted her body around and got her feet on the floor. “I’m so sorry, Lisa. I had no idea that you had endured all that. I apologize for what I said,” Lina said contritely. But then she said, “But what am I supposed to do now? My life is totally upside down. It’s as if I didn’t just lose Robert. I lost my entire life. I can't go back to trucking now. Not without Robert.”

  “Fight back,” encouraged Lisa earnestly. Namid nodded smiling.

  “Make a new life Lina,” Namid replied. “That’s what I did when the peacekeepers liberated me from slavery in Texas. I went to flight school and got a seat in a fighter.”

  “Now there’s a thought,” Lina said with the beginnings of interest for the first time. “But aren’t fighter assignments hard to get? I understand that there is a very long waiting list and no notion of when more fighters will be built.”

  “Flight leader recommendations go a long way with the council and the flight instructors,” Namid said smiling. “Of course you’d still have to pass flight school and that’s not a sure bet. And there aren’t any fighters available at the moment, that's true, but there is talk of adding additional pilots to the program because the aircraft can be flown in shifts.”

  “I wonder if you can point shoot with a fighter.” Lina asked thinking aloud.

  “I do it occasionally,” Namid said. “It’s not recommended by the flight instructors and Pol says a pilot should wait for computer lock, but I’ve found that I can shave a few seconds off the targeting. However you do miss a lot till you get the hang of the technique.”

  “Yeah, I had that problem with firearms when Jim was teaching me to point shoot.” Looking up at Namid, Lina asked, “Will you speak to the council and flight instructors on my behalf, Namid. I think I want to try flight school as soon as I am back on my feet.”

  “Consider it done, Lina,” Namid responded.

  ***

  Two weeks after the battle of Salina the crew of the Peacekeeper gathered at Jim and Lacey’s farm for an outdoor barbeque. They were celebrating Namid being awarded the peacekeeper medal of valor for her actions to save the peacekeepers on the ground from the helicopter attack in New Mexico. For the moment, all was peaceful in their territory. This was one of the very rare occasions when not a single crewmember was aboard or near the Peacekeeper. The ship was safely tucked away inside its hangar under very heavy peacekeeper guard.

  After a huge meal of grilled foods and vegetables, they all assembled around a bonfire where they sat talking well into the night. They discussed their hopes and dreams for the future of their country and the people of America in general. Then finally, the talk gravitated to the peacekeeper organization as a whole. They were growing fast. Less than three years ago, the peacekeepers had evolved because of the breakdown of America. Yet today the peacekeepers were a dominant stabilizing factor in fifteen states and the people who’d organized survivors in several other states were holding dialogs with the peacekeepers and considering sending recruits for training and joining the peacekeeper organization.

  The peacekeepers were tolerant of many forms of governmental organization. From city states to corporate controlled cities, they treated all fairly and only intervened when the citizens of an area were being abused. It was still relatively lawless outside the large population centers but when crimes were committed, peacekeepers investigated and if the guilty parties were found they exacted a heavy price.

  The conversation turned to the Millbrae facility and Pol again made mention of the need to locate the supplier of the materials that the government had used. They needed more fighters and Pol was eager to develop some other products with the special alloy. He’d toyed around with the idea of creating cars that hovered and flew instead of driving on the surface of the road. Of course their altitude would need to be lower than the peacekeeper vehicles flew to prevent congestion of the airspace, but that was a simple matter of setting the altitude limits at the engine itself. He also spoke of rooftops fashioned from the alloy that could be utilized with the battery system to power homes. If more electricity than the roof could generate was needed then the homes could have exterior walls covered with a layer of the alloy much as aluminum siding covered many American homes. Of course painting the alloy would kill its solar collection ability but the alloy, when exposed to the air,
developed a nice even patina of whitish-gray that was not unattractive and did not hinder the solar collection process.

  “There is so much that we could do to improve our world if we could just locate the manufacturing facility that the government used and find the formula and process involved in creating the alloy,” Pol said wistfully.

  Tim said, “It’s a shame that Patricia’s father didn’t have the formula listed in his book he gave me in Missouri.”

  “He gave you a book?” Pol asked surprised.

  “Yes, years ago when we met in Missouri the day he died,” Tim said.

  “May I see that book?” Pol asked.

  “Sure Pol, the next time we’re in the ship I’ll show it to you,” Patricia said and Pol frowned. “You want to see it now?” she asked surprised.

  “Yes please. I know it’s inconvenient, but that book may hold secrets that you have yet to unlock. Had I known that you had such a book, I would have asked to see it ages ago,” Pol said apologetically. Then by way of explanation he added, “You see dear, your father was a man of few hobbies outside his work, but one of his hobbies was cryptography.”

  “Oh yes I remember. He was constantly handing me papers to try to decode. He got pretty good at that didn’t he?” Patricia asked smiling.

  “Indeed he did my dear. We used to send messages back and forth on our days off through email and toward the end he got good enough to stump me,” Pol said remembering those days with a smile.

  “We’ll go get the book and be back with it soon,” Tim said and helped his wife to her feet.

  While they were gone, the crew discussed the training that the men and women from Kansas would begin to undergo soon. A surprisingly large number had volunteered to become peacekeepers in the wake of the events in Salina and indeed throughout much of Kansas. Several Nebraskans had also expressed an interest in becoming peacekeepers.

  When Patricia and Tim returned with the book, Pol opened it and examined the pages carefully. Looking up at the couple Pol asked, “Have either of you ever marked in this book with a pen?” Both shook their heads indicating that they had not. “Then I believe your father left an encrypted message, Patricia,” Pol stated with confidence. “See the very small dots above some letters?” Pol asked. “That’s a primitive encryption method. One that is easily detectable. I’m surprised you didn’t notice my dear,” Pol said.

  “I was crying the first time I looked at the book. I’d just lost dad,” Patricia pointed out.

  “I’m sorry my dear. I didn’t mean to be so insensitive. Of course, you were heartbroken at his loss and wouldn’t be thinking about encryptions. My apologies,” Pol said sincerely.

  “None needed of course, Pol,” Patricia said smiling for she dearly loved that gentle scientist with a heart of gold. He was her oldest friend in the world now.

  “Well, Pol, break the code. Don’t keep us all in suspense,” Tim said laughing.

  Smiling, Pol took out a small notepad and pen and then he started checking the pages one by one. When he closed the book, he stared at the paper for a while and began to add commas separating individual words. Finally smiling he said, “It is a name and partial address. Brentworth Steel, Johnston Street, Saginaw, Michigan.”

  “Now that sounds promising,” Pete said smiling.

  “Good work, Pol,” Jim said grinning. “I guess we all know where we will be heading soon,” he added. Personally, I’d like to see more fighters and we have the manufacturing facility in Millbrae for that. I’d also like to see some of those cars that Pol was speaking of earlier.”

  “I’d like to see more vehicles like the Peacekeeper which is big enough to house a crew of peacekeepers. And some of Pol’s battleships built big enough to actually load with a crew would be nice. And floating platforms with that new minigun style laser to cover the base, not to mention transport ships for large numbers of peacekeepers,” Pete said just wishing out loud.

  Laughing, Pol said, “My friends the work that you described would take years to accomplish.”

  “Yes, but what a world we’d be building,” Namid said wistfully.

  The End

  About the author.

  Ricky Sides was born in Florence, Alabama in May of 1958. He has a wife named Sue that he married at age 18. He has one adult son named Larry Dale.

  The author studied martial arts from 1981 to the mid 1990s. He has been an avid camper and student of survival. The techniques described in his fight sequences are often from his own experience and training. He has taught women's rape prevention seminars in the 1980's.

  The author's writing experience includes The Birth of the Peacekeepers and the other six books in the Peacekeepers series, the Brimstone and the Companions of Althea series which is a nine novel set based on the on line game t4c (the fourth coming) and was written by the author under the pen name Raistlin and edited and collaborated on by a wonderful lady from Louisiana under the pen name Kittie Justice. The author also wrote a book on women's self-defense named The Ultimate in Women's Self-Defense. The author also wrote a short story collection titles Adventures in Reading that is a mix of genres, some of which are fiction and some are nonfiction.

  Excerpt from book 4 of the peacekeeper series:

  “Resume your search, Phoenix, and go to maximum altitude,” Jim ordered.

  “Aye, sir,” Namid responded and throttled her fighter away from the victims, all too willing to put that scene behind her.

  A bit later, she came to a larger city. “Oh my God!” Namid said in shock as she saw the hundreds of bodies lying where they had fallen along the streets of the city. “My God, sir. Are, are you getting this?” she asked quietly as she stared at the dead and noted not a single living soul in the city below.

  “We see, Phoenix. Proceed to the next city. We have to determine the extent of the spread of this disease,” Jim replied.

  “Roger, Peacekeeper, on my way,” Namid replied and tore her eyes from the scene below. She throttled up the fighter and soon she was back over the rural countryside. All too soon, she came to the next small community and saw a similar scene. In the streets below were scores of dead bodies.

  It was the same at the next city, and the next. Finally, Namid flew within sight of columns of smoke rising into the air to the east. Turning on her camera, she sent the feed to the Peacekeeper and reported the sighting. Jim asked her to fly toward the nearest smoke column to see what she could learn. The flight to the designated smoke column took just minutes. Namid saw the source of the black oily smoke column and stared stunned at the tableau unfolding on the ground beneath her.

  Excerpt from book 5 of the peacekeeper series:

  Slamming the door of the truck, the lieutenant shot the man who’d stabbed the wounded peacekeeper. His mind was calm now. The base had been alerted, a report had been made, and the beacon was activated. Now all he had to do was kill the enemy attacking his people.

  The lieutenant wadded into the enemy then with a ferocity that belied his normal calm and peaceful demeanor. He shot the enemy until he ran out of ammunition in his rifle and dropped that weapon. Moments later, he had his nine-millimeter aimed at a shadow and pulled the trigger. He saw three peacekeepers fighting back to back with knives. They had apparently run out of ammunition. Their discarded weapons lay near them on the ground. He made his way toward that small group of men to join them. One of the men went down with a knife in his chest. Another toppled aside as a small shadowy form leapt at him and bowled him over. The lieutenant reached the stricken man, and kicked hard at the shadowy form. He heard a yelp, and the obscure form ran away. He fired two shots at two more indistinct forms closing in on their position and spun about to check his left flank. He fired four rounds in that direction as dark forms closed in.

  Spinning to check his right flank, the lieutenant felt the man behind him stiffen and fall. He turned his body and saw a dark shape atop the peacekeeper. The lieutenant emptied his pistol into the shadow’s side.

  Dropping his now
empty pistol the lieutenant drew his fighting knife and dropped into a crouched fighting stance. He spun in a slow, deliberate circle glaring at the enemy that was moving to encircle him. All around him, he saw the enemy closing, and he saw the bodies of the dead men and women he had sworn to protect with his life. In a fury the lieutenant leapt toward the nearest vague form and stabbed the man in the chest.

  Excerpt from book six of the peacekeeper series:

  Outside the shelter, he heard the bear begin to circle the tree. It was noisy as it scratched at the ground and leaves around the spruce tree. He waited until the bear was on the side of his shelter opposite the trail before making his move, and then Evan darted out from under the tree and lunged to his feet. He was almost to the trail when he heard the bear let out a roar. Behind him, Evan heard the sound of the bear running in pursuit.

  The moment he made it to the trail, Evan turned toward the stream, running as fast as he could. He had a desperate hope of crossing the stream before the bear was in position to see him, and then hiding on the other side. He hoped that the bear would think he was in the water and seek him there. If he did so, then Evan planned to slip away and make his way to the open field. He’d hide there for the remainder of the night. In that field, he’d have a chance of seeing the bear coming.

  Evan could hear the bear running behind him. It sounded to him as if the bear was right on his heels, so the boy redoubled his efforts. Fear produced adrenaline made it possible for him to run faster.

  The boy felt the hot breath of the bear on the back of his neck. His terror caused him to emit another involuntary scream. He wouldn’t have thought it possible, but he ran even faster. Then his foot hit a snag and the young man went flying face first toward the ground.