Smith's Monthly #8

by Smith, Dean Wesley

  Very, very tricky flying and a slight miss and the EPL warship would crash into the moon’s surface, or be too far away to intercept the signal.

  Brian could see The Blooming Rose turn and settle into its assigned position above the moon surface. Dot would be flying it. She had one of the steadiest hands at the helm of a ship that he had ever seen.

  Three other warships signaled ready.

  Then Dot signaled The Blooming Rose was in position and steady.

  “Ready here,” Brian said, checking to make sure his people were ready with the computer download and new signal into the moon’s computer.

  At the same moment the other two ships reported they were in position and stable.

  “Hold and be ready to turn with the moon,” Brian said.

  “Intercept signal,” Brian ordered the other ships.

  As one all turned green that they had the sensor signal.

  Then he turned to Marian. “Feed it.”

  Her fingers flew over the panel and the new programming for the Dog’s computer was fed through all six sensors.

  An instant later the moon started to turn off its course for Earth.

  “Stay with it, everyone,” Brian commanded to the other ships as he moved The Bad Business to maintain position and keep the feed to the other ships constant.

  The moon kept turning and somehow the EPL warships held their positions.

  “We got some swearing and close calls,” Carl said, “but everyone’s holding.”

  “Ten more seconds,” Marian said. “And the virus will be loaded.”

  At five seconds Brian counted it down for the other Captains.

  “Five. Four. Three. Two. One.”

  Marian signaled cut.

  “Get out of there now!” Brian shouted to the other pilots.

  As one, the other pilots moved their ships up and away from the rough surface of the moon.

  Brian had The Bad Business moving with them, pushing the ship as fast as he could to try to reach a safe distance.

  Twenty seconds later the moon vanished into Trans-Galactic drive space, headed back into the Dog’s territory and right for a large military base.

  “Clear,” Carl said. “All ships made it out of the wash zone from the drive.”

  Brian slumped in his chair, just smiling as both Carl and Marian applauded and laughed.

  Somehow, Earth had dodged that moon.

  Barely.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  September 3rd, 2021

  Equivalent Earth Time

  Location: Deep Space

  BRIAN LOOKED DOWN into the wonderful brown eyes of Dot and smiled. “One more dance?”

  Around them the music of the last slow song had just died off and a few remaining crew members from other ships were slowly working their way toward the doors that led to the transport ship. The huge ballroom that had been an ongoing party for days was now mostly empty.

  She laughed, the sound high and wonderful and something he needed to remember in the long days and nights at the nursing home.

  “Our bus is going to leave without us,” she said after kissing him quickly.

  “Let it,” he said, pulling her close and enjoying the feel of her against him.

  Since they had turned the moon weapon back on the Dogs, the general had allowed all seven EPL warships to dock at Stevens Base for some well-deserved time off while in younger bodies.

  Brian and Dot had spent the first night dancing until they had no energy left to even drag themselves out onto the floor.

  They had gone back to his room on the base and found a lot more energy. The next day they had spent in meetings with the general and others, then dancing more that evening, then back to her room for the night.

  He kissed her again, then together they turned and walked hand-in-hand to the big double doors of the large room, not saying anything.

  In fact, they said nothing all the way down the corridor that seemed to stretch for a good mile, then up into their transport. He just wanted to enjoy her company and walking with her.

  He needed to remember it all.

  He kissed Dot one more time at her cabin door.

  “Help me with my applesauce in the morning?” he asked

  She smiled. “Always.”

  Then like two kids saying goodnight after a date in high school, she stepped inside and closed the door.

  He walked slowly to his cabin and took off his uniform.

  He loved putting it on every mission. He hated taking it off because that meant he wouldn’t be young.

  He wanted to stay young, to keep serving Earth and defending the League.

  Going back to his old body was part of that, but not a part he liked.

  He slipped back into his old nightshirt and crawled into the coffin-like chamber and pulled the lid closed.

  The next thing he remembered, he was being lifted by Lieutenant Kennison from his sleep chamber.

  His old stroke-damaged body now part of him again.

  Dot and Lieutenant Sherri met them at the transport chamber.

  Brian so wanted to reach out to touch Dot’s hand, but he could no longer move his arms hardly at all.

  The warm thick, humid air of the Chicago night hit him as the transport beam let them go in the nursing home center court.

  Above him the golden moon was full in the late summer night air.

  He stared up at it as the lieutenant carried him toward his room.

  “Not so pretty any more, is it?” Dot said softly from behind him.

  She was right.

  It wasn’t.

  After this mission, he wasn’t sure if he would ever look up at the moon in the same way again.

  It was amazing how seeing the universe and defending Earth could change a person’s perspective on things in such a short time.

  Simple things like staring up at the moon.

  THE LAST MISSION

  Seven Months Later

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  April 19th, 2022

  Actual Earth Time

  Location: Chicago

  DOT PUSHED HER wheelchair ahead of her into the breakfast room of Shady Valley Nursing Home. The big room where she and Brian ate three of their meals every day smelled like pancakes and eggs this fine clear spring day. One morning she had come in and actually smelled bacon, but that had only been a special treat for one resident on his birthday.

  She had never liked bacon that much, but the smell had been heavenly.

  She liked the warm feeling of the room full of twenty tables set up like a restaurant. Outside the open windows and brown drapes that were tied back and open, she could see the spring starting to bloom on Chicago, and the sun was shining, putting everyone in a light mood.

  It felt like the long winter was over.

  She could feel it as well.

  She got most of the way to her normal table, pushing her wheelchair ahead of her through the obstacle course of the tables and chairs, when she looked up and realized Brian wasn’t in his place yet.

  Her stomach twisted slightly at the empty place where the nurse would wheel Brian up in his wheelchair and tuck a bib on him. Then three meals a day Dot would help feed him.

  It always amazed her how much she loved that man, both in his old form and when he was young, the handsome Captain Brian Saber, and they were in deep space fighting for the survival of Earth.

  What mattered to her was that incredible brain and his strength and caring. Old body or young body, she loved Brian.

  She had never thought she would find love again in her life. But she had and now just having him late for breakfast bothered her more than she wanted to admit.

  When Janice, the orderly, brought her normal two eggs, two pancakes, and orange juice, Dot asked her, “Where’s Brian?”

  He’s a little under the weather this morning,” Janice said, “so he’s still in bed.

  Alarm bells went off in Dot’s mind and her stomach twisted into a knot. If Brian died here, from anoth
er stroke, or a heart attack, she would lose him forever.

  That stroke that had taken the last of his movement a year or so ago had scared her more than she wanted to think about right now. He had survived it, but barely. Another one like that he wouldn’t survive.

  It was one thing to watch his ship go into battle because she knew that if he died in battle, defending Earth, he wouldn’t mind.

  But he couldn’t die of old age in a nursing home. Not the great Captain Brian Saber, the most decorated Captain ever in the history of the Earth Protection League.

  She left most of her breakfast and headed back down the hall toward their rooms. Her room was across the hall from his and it hadn’t occurred to her to see if he was there when she left.

  She hurried as fast as her damaged legs would allow her, pushing her wheelchair ahead of her. The trip down the hallway seemed to stretch, but eventually she got to his door and eased it open.

  His room was dark and she could hear his labored breathing.

  “Oh, thank God,” she said softly to herself.

  He was covered by a sheet, and his frail, old body seemed tiny on the large hospital bed.

  She moved into the room silently, letting the door close gently behind her, dropping the room into a dimness lit only by the nightlight from the open bathroom door.

  She moved over beside him and brushed his rough cheek gently.

  He didn’t wake up.

  She sat in her wheelchair, facing his bed.

  This was where she belonged.

  At his side.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  April 20th, 2022

  Actual Earth Time

  Location: Chicago

  “CAPTAIN LEEDS,” the young, female voice said in a very gentle tone.

  There was a mission tonight. Oh, thank heavens. She would get to see Brian again and talk with him about what they were going to do to get him out of the nursing home before another stroke took him from her.

  She had sat all day, off and on, beside his bed as he slept, only leaving to use the bathroom and go to lunch and then dinner.

  But at both she hadn’t felt like eating much at all. It wasn’t the same sitting there without Brian.

  Finally, Joyce, the night nurse, had woken her early in the evening since she had fallen asleep in her wheelchair beside Brian, her head on his bed beside him. The nurse had convinced her to go to bed even though she didn’t want to leave Brian’s side.

  Lieutenant Sherri picked up Dot in her strong arms and moved quickly, but carefully, across the hall and into Brian’s room, then toward the sliding glass door that led into the center courtyard.

  Brian was still in the bed, sleeping.

  “Isn’t Captain Saber coming on this mission?”

  “He is not,” Sherri said. “I honestly don’t know why.”

  Dot felt her stomach twist into a knot and she almost told Sherri to put her back to bed. She had never gone on a mission without Brian and she didn’t want this to be the first.

  “Stop for a moment, Lieutenant,” Dot said, her voice firm and almost an order. Sherri did as instructed.

  Dot needed a moment to think this through.

  She glanced at Brian’s old wall clock that ticked like a bomb, filling his room with a constant reminder of time passing.

  Three-sixteen in the morning.

  She would be back shortly in Earth time. Maybe fifteen or twenty minutes at the most, even though she might spend days or weeks on the mission. Somehow the weirdness of the space travel could bring her back just a short time after she left.

  So she wouldn’t be gone that long in nursing home time.

  Brian seemed to be resting peacefully, his breathing normal. Maybe it was right to not stress him with a mission and tire him out even more if he wasn’t feeling well.

  Plus, if she left for these few minutes, it would allow her to talk with someone in the League, get them to get Brian out of here before he died. Surely there was something the most decorated captain in the Earth Protection League could do in deep space in a young, healthy body.

  So going on the mission would be her best chance to help Brian. She would talk with someone as soon as the mission was over.

  If she lived, that was.

  If some alien didn’t kill her first.

  “I’m ready,” Lieutenant,” she said with one long look at Brian.

  She had once figured up that in the last four years of going on missions, she had actually got to live another fourteen years of life in space, young again. And every extra minute had been wonderful. Scary at times, but wonderful.

  And all of it had been with Brian.

  The first year, until she earned her own ship, she had served on Brian’s ship.

  They had danced so many times.

  She didn’t want that to end now.

  She wouldn’t let it if she had anything to say about it.

  The sliding door to the outside slid silently open and the Chicago early spring air bit hard against her old skin. Lieutenant Sherri didn’t even pause at the door other than to slide it quickly and silently closed.

  They were only in the cold air for a moment before a yellow beam of light lifted them both quickly into the transport ship that was cloaked above the nursing home.

  Dot knew that around the country the same thing had happened, or was happening, at least forty-one other times as the crew of The Blooming Rose was gathered from their perspective nursing homes and retirement apartments. A couple of them even lived in the same nursing home, which General Brooks had once said made things a lot easier, but was too dangerous for the most part to have more than two because if their entire ship was lost, the league didn’t want to try to explain why half of the population of a nursing home died suddenly one night.

  She couldn’t imagine going on missions without Brian there as well to talk with. Although for years before she had known about the league, he had gone on missions and not told her a word.

  Lieutenant Sherri quickly carried Dot down the hallway in the ship to a room with a silver, coffin-shaped sleep chamber and laid Dot down slowly on the soft cushions inside.

  Dot loved the symbol of the coffin allowing her to be young again. It made her smile every time.

  The young lieutenant patted her shoulder. “Have a good trip, Captain.”

  Then she closed the lid on the coffin and tapped it twice as a signal to Dot that it was secure. In this old body, it didn’t matter. Dot wouldn’t have been able to even push the lid open if she tried.

  A moment later the orange and rose-smelling gas filled the chamber and she drifted off into the sleep of the dead.

  Her coffin would be transferred to her ship The Blooming Rose with the rest of her crew in deep space.

  Only then would she discover what was so important as to pull her away from the man she loved.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  April 20th, 2022

  Equivalent Earth Time

  Location: Deep Space

  THE TOP OF the coffin snapped open with a hiss and cool oxygen bathed over her face. Captain Dot Leeds snapped her eyes open, then held her arms up to look at them. What she saw was the young skin and shapes of youth.

  She flexed her fingers and the muscles under the skin rippled.

  It felt wonderful.

  It always felt wonderful.

  No pain, no aches.

  Just the sense of health and youth.

  She had made it again.

  The room smelled faintly of oranges and roses mingled with machine oil, and she loved both smells. She had called her ship The Blooming Rose because of that smell.

  With both hands, she grabbed the sides of the coffin sleep module and lifted herself out, kicking over the side without so much as a caught heel. The feeling of youth was simply wonderful, better than any drug ever invented.

  She still wore her old woman’s nightgown, but she quickly pulled that off and tossed it back in the coffin. She would need it for the return trip, if she li
ved through this coming fight. If not, they’d need it for her body. And tomorrow morning her son on the west coast would get a call that she had died peacefully in her sleep.

  But she had no plans on dying this mission. She wouldn’t do that to Brian. She wouldn’t leave him there alone to die in his old body. That wasn’t going to happen.

  She flexed the muscles in her shoulders and neck. Her body was one she barely remembered from her youth. Yet each time she went on a mission, this body returned, good as ever. Whatever the strange relative-matter-physics involved in Trans-Galactic travel, she loved this body, and hadn’t appreciated it enough back when she was young.

  At least she hadn’t appreciated it in the right ways.

  She got dressed and then brushed a hand through her now full head of brown hair. Then she turned and glanced at the only mirror in the small room.

  The reflection that greeted her was one of her youth, control, and power. She couldn’t be more than twenty-one or twenty-two on this mission. Only the knowledge and memories inside the young body were of an eighty-seven year old woman who had, seemingly moments before, been asleep in a nursing home room in Chicago, on the planet Earth.

  No telling exactly where in space she was at the moment.

  She looked twenty-one, but was a four-year veteran of the Earth Protection League. Earth time.

  She had earned her ship and her captain’s rank faster than even Brian had done. Brian’s advice and guidance had been amazing and part of that quick rise to being a Captain.

  One nice thing about being in the EPL. Out here it didn’t matter how young you looked. Just that you got the job done.

  She patted the stunner on her hip, enjoying the solid feel of the hard-rubber handle. Years ago she never would have thought she could ever fire a gun, let alone enjoy feeling one on her hip.

  With one more quick look in the mirror, she turned and strode out of the room, turning right toward the Command Center of The Blooming Rose.

  She had a mission to finish and people to talk to before getting back to Brian and getting him out of that nursing home.