Marcus looked around in frustration for the non-existent pen to throw at his friend.
—
“What’s up William?” Bobcat asked over his phone. He was scootering down one of the corridors when he drove around a corner and just about ran into two guys carrying a large box between them. “COMING THROUGH!” he yelled. He ducked, the box was lifted, and he drove under. It just scraped the top of his head. He yelled over his shoulder, “My bad!”
He continued down the hall until forced to slow in order to enter the large Pod hanger, which was empty at the moment. He parked the scooter, “Ok, sorry. What’s up?”
“Ok, so, you want the good news or the bad?”
“Mix them like peanut-butter and chocolate,” Bobcat retorted, “make something good out of this.”
“Ahhh,” William responded, “Okay. I’ll try. So, the first problem is that we have figured out how to create a second field outside of the first. It isn’t very powerful, but it is possible to accomplish. So, it will give us a new type of defense shielding.”
“So, how do we defeat it,” Bobcat answered, realizing why William had to leave so suddenly the last time.
“Well, the best we can do at the moment is layer the attack. The Pucktards can’t penetrate to the main shield in this formation without the first minor shield out of the way. So, we have to adjust our offensive efforts again,” William admitted.
Bobcat “And, the other shoe drops. Ok, better to know about it now, and see how we can use it and why we might want to use it. There have to be bad reasons to do a double shield.” Bobcat considered for a moment, “This isn’t stopping us. Move forward and make sure we understand what we can. We need some sort of R&D location for the mad men and women to play with this gravitic stuff away from here. I’m concerned you are going to cross the streams and that would be bad, buddy.”
“Ghostbusters style?” William asked.
“Yeah,” Bobcat answered.
“Ummm,” William responded, “Yeah, doing that too close is a bad idea. Ok, I’ll move that issue to the right person. How are we with the ship?”
Bobcat looked around the empty Pod hanger, “Well, it’s sparkly. Clean and mostly put together here in the hanger, but that bugs me. We are people short. Either we need to get some people moved over, or we need to move the ship closer to Earth which is going to cause a problem. I hate having a massive, empty ship.”
“Well, it isn’t like Samantha can’t do most of the effort for a short time, it is pretty automated,” William said.
“That’s just not right. Don’t worry about it, I’m getting with Bethany Anne in a few hours to discuss personnel, and she is presently talking over things with Boris in Russia. She needed to help them out, and I understand we are going to have some more people join us. Damn, I never thought I would say I can’t wait for Russians to join us.” Bobcat chuckled and then sighed, “Dude, sometimes it amazes me what we can do as a race if we would stop trying to fuck each other over.”
“You and me both, boss, you and me both,” William agreed.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
QBS Polarus - Mid-Atlantic
Call coming in from Ad Aeternitatem, Captain Wagner,” called Comms.
“Put it over here,” Captain Thomas told him as he heard the call beep.
“Captain Thomas, this is Captain Wagner,” his speaker squawked.
“Hey Max, what’s going on?” he asked.
“Hey, we were talking about the Chinese sub that’s heading our way. Do you guys have a resolution on how we handle this yet? Or have you talked with Bethany Anne so far?”
“Not yet, they just cleared their own ships, so I figure we have a little while. Other than sinking it, which I don’t want to do as a first option, I’m open to considering other options than destruction,” Captain Thomas admitted.
“Yeah, it might go there if we take too long, and they get too close. Even with a Puck shield below the water we don’t have a hundred percent protection if they get close enough. Well, not without sticking something almost right in front of them. If they happen to have a cavitational torpedo, we might be a little screwed.”
“Agreed, we would have to go shields up and keep them up. I don’t like that idea either,” Captain Thomas mused, “Seems to show a little too much weakness. I really am not happy with the Chinese at this moment.”
“Well, we had an idea over here. Do you think the teams could place enough gravitic engines on their sub to move it?”
“Like, force it to go somewhere else?” Captain Thomas asked.
“Well, that’s one idea. However, my XO suggested it would be funny as hell if we could pull them out like a fish,” Wagner said.
Captain Thomas started chuckling, “What? Tail up out of the water?” He thought about it. “We would have to go slow when turning it down, but why the hell not? I’ll get Bethany Anne’s thoughts, but I’m pretty sure this would be a better solution, or at least a less destructive solution, than she might have on her own.”
“Agreed,” Wagner responded.
—
“So, that’s the idea,” Captain Thomas reported through the speaker as Bethany Anne viewed South America below her.
“Do we have enough power to do that?” Bethany Anne asked, “And how is it going to work?”
“We need to tweak at least fifteen of the ten-pound Pucks and six of the five-pounders. I have people working on that right now. The setting changes are being done based on advice from TOM and ADAM. We will drop them over the side and let them sink down. When they get close to the bottom, they will engage and move next to the ship. We use the ten-pounders for the body, and the fiver’s for the conning tower. We are going to put the Puck shield in place and have our defenses ready to engage if they fire anything. However, when we activate, it will mess up any communication capabilities they have, so no options to get commands from their leadership.”
“Make sure everyone is safe. However, I want you to request one American and one Russian ship, smaller ones, to get closer if they want to see you guys fish, ok?”
Bethany Anne heard her Captain chuckle, “That would be a pleasure, ma’am.”
“Ok, take video, will you? I’m going to be out a little while longer,” she told him.
“Will do ma’am,” Captain Thomas cut the connection.
TOM, take us down a little closer. I want a good seat to watch this when it happens. We can take some eye-in-the-sky video. Damn, I wish I had popcorn!
—
“Sir?” Comms specialist Jerrons said, “We have a invitation for one of our ships to come in closer. The QBS Polarus is saying that they are going to go fishing and that you really will want to see this.”
Commander Fred Branon walked over to review the message, “Huh, looks like Bart is up to something.” He turned, “Jerry! Get me a ride to the Independence, I’m going in closer.”
—
The captain of the Russian Corvette Vyshniy Volochek reviewed the message received from the QBS Polarus. While he wasn’t happy with the apparent ease they had delivering the message, he was intrigued.
“Captain, the Americans are cutting out one of their own corvettes, the USS Independence and heading towards the QBS area,” The comms specialist told him.
“Very well. It looks like the QBS ships are going to do something and want us to see it. XO, make sure we are not between the QBS ships and the Chinese. I don’t trust the Chinese not to try and get us involved in something. Put us outside the ring of the American corvette and off ten degrees further from the Chinese.”
—
“Sir, we have changes in the ships above. We have one Russian and one American leaving their groups to move towards the QBS Ships.”
Captain Zhang pursed his lips, “Size?”
“Both seem to be corvettes, sir,” Sonar answered.
“What are they playing at?” Zhang wondered.
“Sir?” Comms asked.
“Nothing.” Zhang walked to his
chair and sat down, “Sonar, what is in front of us?”
“Nothing that we can find sir,” he replied.
“So, what are you doing?” Zhang wondered aloud, “And what am I going to do to out think you?”
—
“Puck defense is under water, sir,” Jean Dukes commed.
“Very good, thank you,” Captain Thomas replied and clicked off his speaker.
“Sir, we have confirmation the Fishing Pole Pucks are on their way,” another specialist told him. He nodded his understanding, “Good to hear. Let me know when Fishing Pole is surrounding our fish.”
“Aye aye, sir,” the specialist replied.
—
“Sir, the Russian Corvette Vyshniy Volochek is heading in our direction,” Captain of the Independence informed the commander of the American group. Fred nodded his head, “Thanks, Ben, I bet they were invited to see this as well.”
Fred looked around, “Hey, anyway we can get some popcorn going? I think this is going to be something to see.”
—
“Sir, the Americans are offering a spot by them, and they say they are popping the popcorn if we need some,” Specialist Gregor told his Captain.
Captain Eugene Kuznetsov turned to his comms officer, “Popcorn?” Gregor nodded. “That is interesting. They are expecting a show, not something that will get them involved.” He considered how this could go bad, smiled and said, “Make a notation and send the information back to headquarters. Tell the Independence we will provide the drinks.”
—
“Five minutes to Fishing Pole activation, five minutes to Fishing Pole activation,” The call went out to both TQB ships. Those crewmembers that could, left their stations and started crowding up on the decks. Many of them had their phones and video cameras out. Some took pictures of the Russian corvette as it got close to the American Independence. Both of the corvettes looked cool as hell with their angles and special hull designs.
Both deadly.
Both waiting to see what the QBS ships were about to pull off. A thousand meters above them, a small black Pod was watching the show as well.
—
Inside the Chinese SSN 405, sudden, loud ‘clangs’ could be heard over the already noisy mechanicals operating throughout the ship.
CLANG, CLANG, CLANG, CLANG, CLANG … The noises kept going on and on. The men could follow the clangs as they traveled down the ship, and then smaller ones around the tower.
“What is going on?” Zhang demanded.
“Sir, no idea!” Sonar answered, “We have nothing on screen, sir.”
Zhang grimaced, He had no commands yet to attack, and those commands would not arrive until they were in position. “Comms, contact.” He started as comms called out at the same time.
“Captain, we have lost all communications,” Comms admitted, “VLF and ELF are offline.”
“Bring us up to one hundred chi and stabilize,” Captain Zhang ordered.
“One hundred chi and hold, aye sir!” was called back to the Captain.
The submarine proceeded to move up to a one-hundred chi depth. As the ship started to stabilize, groaning could be heard.
Then all hell broke loose.
—
“Commander, loud clangs heard underwater,” Captain Ben Rose turned towards his commander, “I think the movie just started,”
Fred turned to him, “Where’s that popcorn? I’m going outside.”
Fred was handed a bag of microwave popcorn, which smelled delicious. He stepped off the bridge and walked around to the front of the ship. He could see the Captain of the Vyshniy Volochek and raised his popcorn bag to him. He could tell the man saluted him back with a bottle. Fred turned back and dropped some of the buttered popcorn in his mouth. He looked around, “Is somebody recording this?” He heard back three confirmations. “Ok, just wondering.” He turned back to the sea.
Fred was halfway through his bag when large amounts of roiling water caught his attention about a quarter mile away.
Twenty seconds later, the popcorn bag completely forgotten in his hands, Commander Fred Branon watched as the submarine was lifted out of the ocean.
By its tail.
Into the air.
Over two miles away, too far for Fred to hear, there were hundreds of people cheering and clapping on the decks of the QBS Polarus and QBS Ad Aeternitatem.
A thousand meters above them, a contralto voice, said into the silence of her pod, “You don’t fucking push my people. If you do, you won’t like the results, I swear it.”
>>Bethany Anne, I have a request routed through Cheryl Lynn that the President wants to speak to you.<<
President of what company?
>>The United States, she said<<
Oh. Bethany Anne was sitting in her Pod, taking an hour for herself. Put him on the speakers.
“This is Bethany Anne, Mr. President,” she spoke.
“Hello, Ms. Anne,” the President said.
Bethany Anne chuckled, “Sorry sir, that is my name, I don’t respond to a last name. Just Bethany Anne works well.”
“Sorry, I was a little confused about the name situation,” he admitted. “I wanted to reach out to you regarding many of the changes going on with your technology and see if you would be willing to meet and discuss a few issues that are occurring. I’m sorry, but this would be outside of normal channels.”
“Yes, I am open to a discussion. Where are you thinking? You may not be aware, but it is a problem every time I show up in America. Mysterious requests to arrest me happen all of the time,” she told him.
“I happen to have a report coming to me, letting me know all of the different, annoyances, that have been pointed in your company’s direction. I apologize, but your technology and method of handling challenges are throwing a lot of people into a level of uncomfortableness they are ill-equipped to handle.”
“No need to apologize to me. I’m sure, as an American, you understand the concept of talking softly and carrying a big stick, yes?” Bethany Anne asked, taking a trick of Ecaterina’s to try and hide her American roots.
“Yes, yes I do,” he admitted then paused a moment. “Just curious, where are you right now? There is an office pool wondering where on earth you are as we are speaking.”
Bethany Anne looked out the window down at the globe below, “Above Africa, sir.” Bethany Anne heard a lot of ‘I’m out,' ‘not my guess’ and something else mumbled.
The President came back online, “Nope, no one is a winner.”
“Did anyone say how high?” Bethany Anne asked, humored that there would be betting in the President’s Office.
“How high?” he asked.
“Yes, I’m about two hundred miles above Africa, so if you wait a few minutes, I’ll be above South America.”
She heard a loud, “That’s me!” and a few chuckles in the background.
“So, you are really up in space? This connection is astounding.” he admitted.
“Yes, actually in space. I apologize, but I’ve got another situation I need to address. I know you have people to deal with your schedule, and my preference would be to keep this quiet, as I am neutral and prefer to also be seen as neutral. So whomever you have designated, please have them work with Cheryl Lynn and I will work my schedule as best I can to fit yours.”
“Thank you, Bethany Anne. I look forward to meeting you,” the President said.
“My pleasure, and I do as well,” she had replied before the connection was closed.
What situation do we need to address? TOM asked her.
My emotions, TOM, my emotions.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Washington D.C. - USA
The black SUV was waiting for them as their Pods dropped down to the darkened parking lot half-past one in the morning.
Three Pods landed, five people got out of the pods. The SUV driver stepped out and walked over to the men.
“John, Eric,” he said as he clasped hands with the first two he
came to, “someone want to tell me why I got dropped from flying, and now I’m driving?” Captain Paul Jameson asked.
“You will have to speak to BA about that,” John said, with a thumb to one of the pods, “she’s in the middle one, waiting for you.” John smiled at the pilot to reassure him before he and Eric followed Darryl, Scott, and Akio to check out the SUV Paul had driven from Florida.
Paul walked to the Pod, the doors opened, and Bethany Anne was sitting inside wearing a black executive suit with a maroon shirt underneath. “Hello Paul, long time no see!” She smiled at him as she sat up and stepped out of her Pod. She grabbed his offered hand and shook it before giving him a hug. “What? You think I’m not willing to embrace one of my people who have been with me forever?”
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