by Saxon Andrew
“Send her to the main lab,” they heard over the speaker.
“Yes, Sir.” The Sargent took a device out of a box and handed it to Karen, “This GPS will lead you to the lab. Have a nice day.”
Karen took the device and drove through the gate after the barricades lowered into the pavement. Tal asked, “How did you know there was a problem?”
“In a facility this large, there is always electronic problems. If there weren’t any, we would have been told the issue was handled and we weren’t needed.” She turned to Tal, “While we’re inside a building, do not use our communicators.”
“Why not?”
“They use energy, Tal, and even though it’s small, I know those buildings are scanned down to a micron.” Tal nodded and watched as they drove through the giant complex. Everywhere he looked he saw armed military guards that watched them closely as they passed. He knew the device Ka was holding was the only thing that kept them from being fired on.
• • •
They finally arrived in front of a giant building in the center of the complex; the guards walked forward and opened their doors. They stepped out and the guards immediately scanned them for weapons. A General came walking down the front steps and they both went to attention, “At ease. Why aren’t you in uniform?”
“Sir, we are on vacation at Disney World and my commander asked me to come and see if I could help you.”
“Thank you for coming, Major. Follow me.” He turned, and Ka nodded to Tal. They followed the General into a long corridor and Tal saw that every place they stepped, the floor would illuminate under their feet. Their invisibility wouldn’t have gotten them into the building. They passed through three-electronic gates and the General used his ID to open each of them. They finally arrived in a giant room, where Tal saw the walls were covered with monitors. At that moment, none of them were operational. The General led them to the front of the room and said to a man in a white coverall, “George, this is the Major sent to help us.”
“Sir, I doubt she’s going to be able to do anything.”
“Give her a chance and do what she asks.”
“Yes, General.” George replied and turned to Karen, “We’re not getting power through this unit. We’ve checked it six-ways from zero but can’t determine what’s causing the problem.”
Karen looked at the ten-foot long plastic covered unit on the table and asked, “Why don’t you just replace the unit.”
George snorted, “This is the only one of its kind in existence. Don’t you think we would have done that if we could?!”
“The only dumb question is the one you don’t ask,” Karen replied.
Tal looked around and saw most of the men in the room had stopped what they were doing and were staring intently at Karen. He knew what they were thinking, how could someone like him end up with someone as beautiful as her. It was a very good question, but he really didn’t have her.
“What happens when you turn on the power?”
George rolled his eyes, “Nothing.” Karen nodded and reached for a plastic screwdriver, “What are you doing?!” George asked firmly.
Karen looked at him, “Obviously, there’s something wrong inside it.”
But this is not a clean space!” George said harshly.
“GEORGE, IT’S CLEAN ENOUGH! IT DOESN’T WORK SO OPENING IT UP WON’T MAKE A DIFFERENCE. STOP BEING A HINDERANCE TO THE MAJOR!!”
Karen and Talon jerked their heads to the right and saw a young man sitting in a raised chair. He was remarkable. His eyes seemed to look through you and he had a sense of presence that couldn’t be missed. George bowed his head and said, “Yes, Dr. Meier.”
Karen and Talon showed no reaction but had no doubt this was the scientist developing a stardrive; he was the target.
Karen removed the twenty-plastic screws from the box enclosing the unit, then snapped it apart from the lower case, and set it aside. She stared into the unit and moved to the far end. She looked at George, “When I tell you, turn the unit on and then quickly off.” George nodded. Karen stared into the end of the unit and raised her hand, “Now!” George flipped the switch and immediately pulled it back. Karen moved two-feet and stared into the unit again, “Now!” George operated the switch and Karen moved another two-feet. The process continued until Karen was four-feet from the end of the unit. “Now!” George threw the switch and Karen didn’t move. She stared intently into the unit and then looked up, “I believe you have a bad voltage regulator.”
“I checked that regulator before it was installed!”
The young man yelled, “GEORGE!”
“But I did, Dr. Meier.”
Karen looked at him, “Do you a have another regulator on the premises?”
George glared at her and heard, “DO WE HAVE ANOTHER REGULATOR, GEORGE, AND IF YOU INTEND TO CONTINUE WORKING HERE YOU WILL STOP BEING AN ASS AND PLAY NICE WITH THE MAJOR!!”
George flinched, “I’ll need to go and get it.” He turned and walked toward a side door. Karen took the top of the unit and put it back in place.
The young man stood up and walked over to Karen and Talon, “What have you determined?’
“Sir…”
“Call me Doctor or Mr. Meier. I’m not in the military.”
Karen tilted her head toward the unit, “Doctor, the power going into the unit goes no further than the area of the voltage regulator. All the power flows through it and that must be the problem, in my considered opinion.”
“How were you able to make that determination?” he inquired.
“I looked closely at the ceramic diodes and none of them were changing color. They weren’t receiving power. However, the ones located in front of the voltage regulator were changing color.”
The Doctor looked Karen over and smiled, “I don’t see very many officers out of uniform.”
“My husband and I were on a vacation at Disney when I was called in to see if I could be of assistance.”
The Doctor looked at Talon, “I imagine that made your day.”
“She’s working all the time, Doctor.” Talon replied angrily.
“Well, let’s see if we can get you back to your vacation.”
George came back into the room carrying a plastic packet and handed it to Karen. “Do you have a wire connector?” she asked as she put the packet down.
George went to a wall cabinet, came back with a tool, and handed it to Karen. She lifted the top off the unit and set it aside. She looked at George as she held her hands up and asked with raised eyebrows, “Gloves?” He reached in to his top desk drawer and pulled out a set of insulated gloves. Karen put them on, opened the packet, and took out the new voltage regulator. She placed it on top of the plastic packet and leaned into the unit. She gripped the voltage regulator and used the wire connector to cut the three connections. She placed the old regulator aside and picked up the new one. She held it over the computer board and used the wire connector to spice it in. Tal was astounded at how steady Ka’s hands were in performing the process. They were in an extremely stressful situation and his hands would have been shaking like maracas. Once the connections were made, Ka lifted her hands and put the cover back over the unit. She looked at George and smiled, “Give it a try.” George flipped the switch and every monitor in the room came on. Ka looked around the room, as the scientists and soldiers began clapping. She smiled, and George said, “I’m sorry, Major. I was wrong about you.”
Karen put her hand on his shoulder, “Don’t worry about it, George. You were looking after your baby.”
Dr. Meier’s smile was large as he raised an eyebrow and said, “I must say I am impressed, Major.”
“Thank you, Doctor.” She walked over to Tal and put her hand on his arm as he put it in his pocket. He flinched slightly, and Karen said, “We need to get back to our vacation before my husband stops speaking to me.”
“How long are you on vacation, Major?”
“Ten-days.”
Dr. Meier smiled, “Enjoy it
. And thanks for your assistance.”
The General glanced at an officer to his right and ordered, “Colonel, please escort them to their transport.”
“Yes, Sir. Please follow me.”
Karen turned to leave and kept her hand on Tal’s arm. She only released it when they went through the first gate.
Dr. Meier looked at the General, “We can use her here.”
“I’ll look into transferring her, Doctor.”
“Wait until their vacation is over. We don’t need to interrupt it again.” The General smiled and nodded.
• • •
When they arrived at the front of the building they saluted the Colonel. He returned their salute and nodded, “Thank you.” He turned to one of the guards, “Take one of your tracks and escort them to the front-gate.” The Colonel looked at them, “Getting around here is not easy. Enjoy your vacation.”
The guard fired up an armored track and said, “Follow me please.” Lis turned on the transport and followed him. Sig was past anger and he started to speak but Karen shook her head. They heard a loud noise overhead and they saw a giant warship moving over the complex. Tal was shocked; the colony’s warships would be useless against the ship he saw moving above them. He remained silent and they finally arrived at the front-gate. Karen handed the Sargent the device and pulled out of the base. She drove slowly up the long though fare and continued to shake her head every time Tal tried to talk. They arrived at the Doctor’s clinic and Karen again pulled into the back-parking lot. She held up her hand, “I’ve reactivated the transponder; change back to Sig.”
Tal made the change and glared at Lis; his anger was obvious, “I could have taken him out, Lis! Why did you stop me!?”
“Sig, I have been seriously considering your offer to team up with you. However, you are causing me to doubt if doing that would be in my best interests.” She turned away and he saw she was angry, very angry. She turned back to him and said sternly between clinched teeth, “I’m giving you 24-hours to tell me why I stopped you. If you can’t figure it out, you and I are over when we get back to the colonies.”
Sig stared into her eyes and his anger vanished, “You’re serious?”
“As a blown voltage regulator!” Sig stared at her and she repeated, “Twenty-four hours!” They drove back to the Floridian and she left him in the room alone.
• • •
Sig laid down on the bed and moved out of Sig’s memories and entered his own. He had missed something very important and didn’t have a clue as to what it was. He knew that she was fine until he reached for the dart tube in his pocket. All right, focus on that. Something she saw in the lab caused her to do that. What could it be? He closed his eyes and focused on everything that happened up to the instant she grabbed his arm. His memory was outstanding, and he replayed everything again. He still came up empty. Ok, if he couldn’t figure it out from what he saw, he’d have to reason it out. They went in to take out Doctor Meier. That changed while they were in the lab. Why did they need to take out Dr. Meier? He represented a clear danger to the colonies and her daughter. If that were still the case, she should have allowed him to fire the dart. Tal opened his eyes. He remembered Major Montana’s last words and then saw the giant Earth Warship moving in to land at the complex. He missed something and still didn’t know how, but he knew what it was. He’d find out if he was right when Lis showed back up.
She didn’t show up until the next morning. It was a very long night.
Chapter Eleven
Sig was still on the bed when Lis came in the room. “I need to change clothes.” She said softly.
“I know what I missed.”
Lis was startled by the comment and stopped in her tracks, “Sig, you have another seven-hours. You should use all the time to be sure. If you’re wrong, I won’t give you another chance.”
“That’s because you think seeing what I missed is so simple. You don’t think I’m smart enough to be a good teammate.” Lis stared at him in silence. “Let’s say I put you in a room with a lineup of ten-people and asked you to determine which one was an assassin. All you could do was examine them visually; do you think you could come up with the right answer?”
“What are you getting at?”
“Answer the question. Could you do it?” He pressed her to answer.
“Probably not, could you?”
“In an instant; that’s where my talent lies. It would be simple for me, but you’d be lost in making the determination. What if I then told you to take 24-hours to decide which one was the assassin and said to you exactly what you said to me. How would you feel about that?”
Lis was silent as she contemplated how to respond. Then she decided to be blunt, “Tal, there’s a lot more evidence you missed than what was in that lab.”
“Where does your talent lie, Ka?” She was silent, and he continued “You see things about technology I know nothing about. Do you not see that?”
“There’s more than technology here, Tal.”
“Ok, I’ll agree with you. But answer one question honestly.”
“What is that?” she asked.
“When did all the pieces fall into place for you? Was it before you went into that lab?” Ka stared at him and then lowered her eyes. “Yet you expect me to see all the pieces without having the benefit of what you saw. I suspect the pieces were obvious and you probably wanted to kick yourself for not seeing them before we risked going in there…am I right?” Ka sighed, then nodded, and looked away, as Tal continued, “Earth already has a stardrive and it’s in all of their warships. Killing Dr. Meier wouldn’t have accomplished anything.”
Ka looked into his eyes, “How did you figure that out?’
“You wouldn’t have stopped me from killing him if he still represented a danger to your daughter.”
“Go on.”
“There is no way you could put a stardrive in that warship we saw without tearing it apart. You saw a working stardrive in the lab, didn’t you?”
Ka took a deep breath, “No, I saw it on one of the monitors when they came on.”
“Which one?”
Ka’s eye brows went up, “The third-row, fourth one from the left.”
Tal focused and saw the object on the monitor in his mind, “Is that what a stardrive looks like?!”
Ka rolled her eyes, “Actually, it’s one that was built at the time the colonies were discovered. It’s ancient but it was glowing showing it was operational.”
Tal glared at her, as his mouth became a tight line, and his eyes narrowed. He stood up and walked out of the room, “Consider us over!!” He said angrily over his shoulder as he slammed the door behind him.
Ka sat down on the bed and realized she had been completely unfair to Tal. He figured out what happened without the benefit of understanding what was on the monitors. She had adopted a holier than thou attitude and used it to lord it over him. She made a mistake and there wasn’t going to be a recovery from this one. She thought about him leaving her and felt something that frightened her. She stood up and rushed out of the room. Where was he? She panicked, rushed down to the lobby, and asked the front desk clerk, “Have you seen my husband?”
“No, but all you need to do is roll your bracelet around your wrist and it will get brighter as you get close to his bracelet.”
Ka lifted her arm to her chest and she moved the bracelet around her wrist. “Not like that. Didn’t you read your information packet?” Ka shook her head and the clerk turned the bracelet inside out. It immediately started glowing. She walked away from the desk and the bracelet grew dimmer. She headed toward the front entrance and it grew brighter. It took three-hours for her to find him; he was sitting on a bench beside the teacup ride.
She walked up behind him and asked, “Thinking about taking it on again.”
Tal’s head was down, and he released a heavy sigh, “No. There are somethings that can’t be tamed. You have to know your limitations.”
Lis walked around
and sat down beside him on the bench, “You know you and I will have to stay together until we get home.”
“I know.”
Ka exhaled slowly and lowered her head, “You’re right; I was not being fair.”
“I know that as well. I know it better than you do.”
“Can you forgive me?” she asked in a soft voice.
Tal shook his head slightly, “Ka, you’ve constantly tested me to prove how much smarter you are than me and I’ve endured it. I’ve done my best on this mission and I don’t have anything else to offer. You need to just consider our relationship, if one ever existed, over and done. I’m sure there’s a normal man out there that will meet your expectations. I’m going into Sig’s memories and stay there until we get back to the colonies.” Tal stood up and walked away. Ka did something she hadn’t done in decades, she wept.
Ka finally left the park and went to the room. Sig was already in bed and she undressed, put on a gown, and crawled in beside him. He put his arms around her and she could feel the difference; Tal wasn’t present. He was locked up just a few inches away and she couldn’t get to him. She moved away, and Sig asked, “Is something wrong?”
“No, Sig, I just need some space.”
“Ok.”
Ka thought about all the things they had been through and felt her tears start again. She remembered vividly when Tal convinced her to assume her normal form. His look of admiration was something she would never forget. She never really considered herself beautiful; Tal was right about the genetic modifications hiding her true appearance. He had it right about how beautiful she is. Every man in the lab was leering at her and even Dr. Meier was coming on to her. She shook her head and suddenly sat up straight in bed, “HOLY CRAP!!” She reached over and grabbed Sig, “TAL, GET OUT OF THERE! WE’RE IN TROUBLE!!” Tal suddenly appeared on Sig’s face and he looked at her with raised eyebrows. “Did you notice that Dr. Meier was coming on to me in the lab?”
“Every man in the lab was coming on to you, except George!”
