What's this, Tatiana?
It's a warp drive! She grinned back at me.
"A warp drive! Does it work?" I verbalized.
"Why of course it does, Steven! Well, we think it will. It hasn't been tested yet."
"How does it work?" I was astounded.
"It uses the Alcubierre warp theory with a van den Broeck bubble and some Clemons field modifications," she said knowingly.
How did she know about Clemons? I accidentally thought on the top layer of my mind and it was communicated.
How did I know about Clemons? Mikhail told me. He is apparently some American physicist and is responsible for inventing the propulsion system for the U.S. Air Force vessel that shot us out here. The Grays know all about him for some reason.
On a deeper level of my mind I immediately thought of Senator Grayson from the SSCI. During his abductions they must have learned all of our National Defense secrets. This was no good, but there was nothing I could do about it right this second though.
"So, the Grays knew how to make a human-designed warp engine?" I asked Tatiana.
"Sure they do. They don't need one since their engines are thousands of times faster and more energy efficient. But they are easier to build than it is to repair the alien space drive."
Mike! Why didn't we think of this? We should've thought of it—after all, I had all that knowledge downloaded into me. I was beginning to realize that having knowledge and being smart were two different things. I would have to get Mike to work on improving my cleverness, wit, and general problem-solving abilities.
Sorry, Steven. It never occurred to me. Perhaps you were sidetracked with the other problem we have been working on.
"How long have you been working on this?"
"Only about a week or so. It was hard doing it when you weren't around, since you are always around. I got chances here and there when you would go off to the bridge by yourself. What are you doing up there anyway? Oh well, doesn't matter. I would've asked for help but I wanted to surprise you with it. You're surprised, right?" She looked concerned only about the surprise.
Tatiana had a knack for saying a lot in one breath. A lot of times she would only seem interested in the last thing she would say. Until later, of course, when she would ask why I never answered her question. Women!
"Surprised! I had no idea! This is great. How fast does it go?"
"Well, why don't we sit down and eat some cake and then we'll try it out. But my initial calculations suggest that it will go about thirty-seven hundred times the speed of light. We should be able to get home in a few hours. Mikhail and I made some modifications to the field coil design that made it about ten times faster than the Clemons design. But enough of that, blow out your candles before they melt the cake!"
"Uh, okay." I bent down and blew on the candles. They wouldn't go out.
"Ha, ha, ha." Tatiana giggled like a schoolgirl.
Mike, make sure they go out this time when I blow.
Okay, Steven.
"I must be getting old," I put on a show for Tatiana and then blew the candles right out.
Tatiana frowned. "Aww! You cheated. Cheater." She punched me on the arm and frogged it pretty good.
"Shit!" I cursed and punched her back, but not nearly as hard.
CHAPTER 15
We decided that we would warp back directly to the Moon and contact the people who we'd learned lived there. It made sense that if they were the ones trying to defend the Earth from the Grays then the Moon was where we should take our ship and all the knowledge we had discovered. The Grays apparently knew almost everything about the human race that there was to know. Neither of us liked that. If they ever decided to conduct a final invasion, they would have more than enough information—not to mention technological advancement—to totally wipe us out. That brought up another point. Why hadn't they wiped us out already instead of playing with us for thousands of years? Nothing made any sense. What was the Gray motivation? Why were they toying with us and abducting us and killing some of us? It didn't matter. Tatiana and I didn't like it, and it had to be stopped.
We dropped out of warp on the far side of the Moon and I'll be damned if there wasn't a huge lunar base there. Three warp ships with U.S. Air Force markings met us with full force. Fortunately, Tatiana had the foresight to suggest we sit in our safety chairs and had them materialize before we warped. We had to take evasive maneuvers to keep from being blasted back out into deep space again. There were no g-forces this time since we were inside a warp bubble and the spacetime inside the bubble was simple one-gravity space. The alien's quantum string spacedrive would allow a ship to travel much faster but it required some type of inertial damping system. I think I like the warp drive better.
So we didn't really need the chairs. One of the vessels fired several warp missiles at us. We warped past Mars and up out of the ecliptic plane and were still being pursued by the missiles. Mike flew the ship and I had a communications system set up and began hailing the Earth ships. Tatiana found the weapons and blasted one of the warp missiles off our tail. We finally went to maximum warp speed and left the other missiles in our space dust!
We warped out a few minutes and then went back to the Moon. This time I continuously hailed the Earth ships. The bathroom wall navigation map showed that the Earth ships were still out at Mars looking for us. So, I sent a hail toward Mars and waited for the slow, normal speed of light microwave signal to get to them. This time of year Mars was about seven minutes away by lightspeed. Seven minutes and thirty seconds later the ships warped from Mars back to the Moon.
"Please do not shoot! I repeat please do not shoot! I am broadcasting a standard digital video signal at two point three one gigahertz along with this radio signal. There are two humans, one American and one Russian aboard this vessel. We have liberated the vessel from the aliens and discovered your lunar facility. We need to communicate with you please! I repeat . . .
Steven, there is a video signal being received. Do you want to see it?
Yes, Mike.
A video image of a young red-haired Air Force lieutenant appeared in front of us. "This is Lieutenant Ames of the United States Air Force Space Wing. You will stand down and prepare to be boarded or we will fire upon you."
"What a small universe," I muttered.
"Hunh?" Tatiana looked over at me.
"Never mind. So, do we let them board us or what?"
"Doesn't matter to me," Tatiana replied.
"Okay." Mike, will one of those ships fit through the bay doors?
All of them will, just barely, Steven.
Can we cycle the external bay doors safely?
Of course. I am doing it now.
"Lieutenant Ames, this is Steven Montana, captain of the . . ." Tatiana?
How about the Phoenix since it is where we were reborn and reinvented?
You don't think that's too cliché?
NO I DO NOT!
Uh, you don't have to scream." . . . uh, the Phoenix. We are opening the external bay doors on the lunar-facing side of the vessel. One of your ships should be able to land there and then we can close the bay doors."
"Roger that," Lieutenant Ames replied. "Uh, did you say Steven Montana?" she asked.
"That is correct, Lieutenant. It is good to see you again."
"How in the hell? No, I'm sure this will take a while. We will see you in the bay of your vessel."
You know her? Tatiana's thought sounded a bit jealous.
Not really. I met her in a meeting once about nine months ago. I told you I worked for the Air Force Research Labs. Well, she and her mother, a general and an astronaut, were both involved somehow or other and I never knew how. Now I do.
Hmm.
Think we should be armed or anything?
You know her; why should we be?
Well, think about it. They are soldiers fighting aliens. How do they know we aren't aliens in disguise or being controlled by parasites or something?
Good point
. But we don't want to provoke them either.
Well, how about this: We can have Mike or Mikhail build us any firearms we want in a matter of a second or two. Let's just be prepared for that.
Sounds good. Tatiana stood up and all of her clothes vanished and then she was wearing a skintight long-sleeve black bodysuit and I noticed that I was also wearing one.
What's this?
It's armor. I've been thinking about this for a while. Mikhail and I designed it. It should resist damn near anything from fire to bullets.
I looked at her and thought that the material must be amazingly strong because she basically looked naked in the thing. So did I. I made me a pair of loose-fit jeans and hiking boots that fit just right. I topped it off with a light red short-sleeve button up.
You know you look naked. Not that I don't like it but . . .
Prude, ha ha.
She was suddenly wearing multi-pocketed baggy low-rise jeans and a pair of white aerobics cross-trainer shoes. She didn't add anything on top. Images of JackieZZ's computer persona popped in my head. Tatiana also had a three-section chain for a belt and I guessed that there were knives and other various weapons in her pockets, and her hair was pulled into a ponytail with metallic six-inch-long pins—each of which could be a nasty weapon.
I wasn't worried. Anything we needed in a hurry, the nanomachines could provide. And unless the humans had figured out how to prevent the nanomachines like the Grays had, we could just use them to stop any human attackers. My hope was that there would be no need for self-defense. After all, the U.S. Air Force should be on our side.
Tatiana and I reached the external bay of the Phoenix.
Mike, are they in yet?
Yes, Steven. I have closed the doors and the room is at one atmosphere.
Good.
You ready, Tatiana?
Yes. She said something else to Mikhail but I didn't pay close attention.
Okay, Mike. Open the door.
The door dissolved away and Tatiana and I walked up to the impressive little spaceship. Tatiana started to touch it.
"Don't do that!" I tried to stop her but I was too late and her hand freeze-dried and stuck to the ship's skin. It must have been on the dark side of the ship.
"Yiiiikes, goddamnit . . ." She jerked her hand from the ship ripping skin from her hand and continued to curse in Russian. Blood ran profusely down her arm for a split second before Mikhail took over and shut off her pain and healed her hand.
"Are you okay?" I grabbed her arm and looked at the palm of her hand as it went from bloody to fuzzy to healed.
"That was dumb, huh?"
Mike, how long until the ship's hull reaches equilibrium with the room? I noticed moisture collecting and forming ice crystals on the surface of the ship.
About fifteen minutes.
Can we speed that up somehow?
Not any way that I know of.
All right, thanks.
Mike, open me a comm. Link to this ship.
Okay.
"Lieutenant Ames, we are here outside your ship. The air is at one atmosphere and is breathable." I shouted for some odd reason.
"We will be out momentarily. Stand with your backs to the wall and keep your hands where we can see them," Lieutenant Ames's voice boomed in our heads.
Steven, I'm not sure I like this. Tatiana grabbed my hand and squeezed it.
Relax. We will be okay. I assured her as if I knew.
Mike, they can't move this ship without you or Mikhail, right? Mikhail ran the warp system.
Well, they cannot fly it, but they could bump it or drag it or carry it with their own means of propulsion. But they could not access its functions without your permission.
Thanks.
The ramp of the USS Starbuck lowered in front of us. Tatiana and I stood deathly still and didn't make a sound or move a muscle. Then Tatiana started reciting something in her mind.
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that . . .
What are you doing? I thought to her.
Uh, reciting the Bene Gesserit fear litany.
The Bene whatsit?
It's from Dune. You should read it, she said, and went back to reciting the thing.
Mike, download Dune for me.
There are many books in the Dune series, Steven. Which one?
Uh, all of them I guess.
Okay, Steven.
Then I realized what Tatiana was doing. The first was the best I thought, although the Prince Leto transformation really struck home with what had happened to Tatiana and myself. If you don't understand what I mean, go get a copy and download it for yourself. I joined in the litany with Tatiana.
A few seconds passed and four soldiers took flanking positions on each side of the ramp and trained firearms on us. "Don't move!" one of them said.
Lieutenant Ames and another female that I didn't recognize seemed to appear at the top of the ramp. Tatiana and I looked at each other—puzzled.
Did you see that?
Did you see that? We both thought at the same time. We weren't sure if we were seeing things or not. But if we were, we both were. Perhaps it was a trick of the lighting? I thought.
Steven! We have been engulfed in a warp bubble from one of the outside ships! It would appear we are being dragged down into the interior of the lunar crust! Mike warned me. He never sounded alarmed before. He must be experimenting with voice inflections.
Keep me posted, Mike. Unless you think it's necessary, talk to me on the open channel where Tatiana can hear it. Repeat what you just said on the open channel.
Okay, Steven.
Steven! We have been engulfed in a warp bubble from one of the outside ships! It would appear we are being dragged down into the interior of the lunar crust! Mike warned us and I tried to act surprised again. He used the same voice tones this time, also. Tatiana's eyes grew wide and bulged.
Steven! She called to me.
Take it easy. We don't know what's going on yet.
"Why are you warping our ship!" I questioned Lieutenant Ames with a voice of command tone.
The fact that I knew what was going on seemed to startle the lieutenant and her cohorts. Then the girl beside her vanished right before our eyes.
"Shit, 'Becca!" the lieutenant said and then vanished.
Both of the women appeared on either side of Tatiana and me and the dark-haired one caught me unaware with a chokehold around my neck and she kicked my left knee out from under me. She was on top of my back and was holding me down and attempting to choke me out. Tatiana leaped four meters in the air over Lieutenant Ames and landed on the ramp. She dodged crossfire from the soldiers holding the flanking positions and flung her hairpins—deadly projectiles headed for each of the soldiers. The hairpins simply deflected away from the soldiers, who continued to fire at Tatiana.
Mike, give me as much strength and speed as you can.
"Yeeeoowww! GET OFF MY BACK, BITCH!" I screamed as I stood up and forced my attacker's grip from my throat. It was difficult and took all of my strength. Mike, how strong is this woman?
Her strength is only slightly above average for human, but she is wearing some type of force-field-enhanced armor. I believe it to be a miniature Alcubierre warp field system.
Tatiana! They have personal force fields!
Tell me something I don't know. I caught a glimpse of her out of the periphery of my vision. She was kicking and jumping and flipping almost too fast for the human eye to see. Of course, Mike had enhanced my vision a long time ago. We had both realized that faster vision and reflexes would be useful in combat back when we were going through our sparring phase—way back a month ago.
Lieutenant Ames appeared out of nowhere in front of me and I sidestepped her just before she opened fire on me with some sort of projectile weapon that passed through her force field.
Mike, did you see that? The bullet passed through the field.
Yes, Steven. I am working on it.
I noticed that also, lover! I think they are timed with the warp bubble oscillating on and off . . . "Yeouch, @#$%$@!@" Tatiana began cursing verbally in Russian and I pushed the lieutenant and her sidekick away from me far enough that I could jump to Tatiana. She had been shot through the hand—one of the only vulnerable spots besides the feet or the head. I bounced off the ceiling above her and flipped to the floor beside her. She crouched for a split second and I noticed the wound was already healing. I grabbed her and jumped with her over the spaceship to gain cover for a second.
Mike, make a hole in the ceiling into the engine room above.
You are too far away, Steven. The nanomachines cannot be controlled more than a few meters from you or Tatiana.
Shit! Right, I forgot.
I put my hand on the hot side of the spaceship hull. It was just a little warm now. Mike?
I understand, he told me as the ship's hull started rippling and grew fuzzy.
In you go, Tatiana. We pushed through the hull of the little spaceship and rushed to the control room. Tatiana was now covered from head to toe in the black material and I noticed that I was also. The fabric must be mostly see-through.
We found the controls of the spacecraft and Tatiana raised the ramp. It was too slow. Lieutenant Ames and her dark-haired friend were on top of us. We were kicking and punching and crawling and generally tearing the living hell out of that pretty spaceship.
"For God's sake, would you stop it!" I screamed. "I'm an American, damnit!"
"You're a lot more powerful than any human I ever seen!" I heard in a Southern accent just as I caught a fist in the face that really hurt.
The nanomachines killed the pain and set about repairing the damage while I returned the favor to Lieutenant Ames. I was able to grab her by the arm once as she punched at me. I couldn't actually feel her arm, instead I felt an infinitely hard substance. I squeezed it hard so as to maintain my grip and then I whirled her with all my strength. I wiped out a wall while spinning her and then let her go. She flew up and out through the hull of the spaceship and clanged against the wall of the alien spaceship's payload bay.
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