AL:ICE-9

by Charles Lamb

  “What were you doing there?” Jake asked, curious about wandering so close.

  “Scouting their location. Everyone here is family, and you don’t abandon family. If there was a way to get her back, we were going to try,” he finished.

  “We have the same policy, only if she’s not alive and unharmed when I get there, the stadium won’t be standing the next day,” Jake stated with a tone so cold Chris gave a visible shake.

  Chris turned away and gave a wave to the doorway and Jake saw another man come scrambling out. Chris stepped aside, and the two had a short conversation before the man darted back inside.

  “While he looks for Lisa, we should probably talk about why you came here in the first place,” Chris offered.

  ----*----

  Brian sat in the command chair of Revenge as she headed to the edge of the solar system. Assigned as captain of the ship for the first space trials, he was as shocked as any, regarding his selection. The competition for the position had been fierce, and he hadn’t even been aware he was in the running.

  Recruited very early in the ALICE populating activities, his life’s goals had always been around farming. Growing up, he never imagined he would have the option to farm as his great grandfather once had. Then Jake came, and for him the ramifications were overwhelming. Moreover, as with most people Jake plucked from their limited opportunity existences, he watched as his horizons expand beyond his wildest dreams and got to go to places he had never imagined possible.

  In the beginning, his agrarian studies led to combat training. Then combat training led to a team leader position and leadership courses. He was then introduced, to of all things, astronavigation. Who would have guessed he excelled as an interstellar navigator.

  He had been in the first group assigned to Revenge when space duties became available. At that time he hadn’t been selected to stay behind for ship’s captain, rather he was rotated out for additional studies in navigation. Once his studies were completed, he returned with a different crew as part of another rotation.

  For this assignment, he was in the role of XO to a female crewmember from the last rotation as captain. He spent this duty watching a technically excellent officer alienate the entire crew with her lack of people skills. The impression was a lasting one. The fact that she was now his XO for this trip was a telling statement on the importance of how you say things.

  Again, not asked to remain behind for that rotation, he personally initiated additional training for classes on people skills and leadership beyond his required class load. The things he learned gave him pause to reconsider Jake and his leadership skills. The man must truly be a natural born leader to pull off all he had accomplished so far without revolt from within.

  As Brian looked over the bridge personnel, he again was reminded that he was at least 10 years older than the next closest crew member present. His entire bridge staff consisted of an engineering officer, a helmsman/pilot, a navigator and a communications and weapons officer. With the chief engineer down below, the six comprised a full shift of personnel and none over 25 years old.

  Currently Revenge herself held a total complement of 28 personnel. The decision to adopt the United States Navy’s submarine service schedule of 6-hour duty shifts on an 18-hour rotation was part of this space trial. Brian and the XO rotated the command chair, as no one was comfortable with just an officer of the watch just yet. A nurse/corpsman and the medical officer/Doctor were part of the 28 and on a 24 hour on call.

  For this voyage, additional personnel were included as part of the testing program and although there was a cook staff with a fully functional kitchen, the ALICEs had ensured sufficient pre-made stores in stasis to ensure no one would go hungry. It was a bit odd not to see one of the bots onboard, but without ALICE, they were non-functional.

  With all the additions to Revenge completed in Alaska for Jake’s experiments, permission to depart was given and they made orbit and beyond without a hitch. It was to be several days before they reached the edge of the solar system and were able to engage the faster than light drives, the true basis of their testing.

  With the removal of all known inhibiting technology, as the discovery that ferrous materials disrupted the field generation, a general roll back had been required. No more rail guns or other advantage giving firepower remained on the hull. Stasis shields were still in place though as well as a couple of other alterations Jake had request. This trial was to see if that technology created a problem as well.

  The ALICEs had the entire exercise pre-programed into the ships computers, but Brian was to run the ship as if it were not so. An evaluation of every action taken by the crew would be run against the programs to identify deviations or errors. Each incorrect decision needed correcting as part of the training.

  The risk of having three interstellar navigators on board at one time had been argued, as they were such a precious resource in such short supply. The loss of the ship would be devastating to the fleet. It had almost cost Brian the command, but in the end, the decision was made that the risk was worth it. This was a valuable exercise, and they all needed the experience.

  One issue they still hadn’t worked out was the light wave communications. Past Pluto, it was a 4-hour delay to talk to earth. Everyone knew with the NeHaw relays, point-to-point communications were really fast due to the technology involved, but linkup to the relay was still light wave and earth didn’t have one yet. This was going to make interactive communications extremely difficult. He suspected that the NeHaw were big on fire and forget, for their communications style.

  ----*----

  Sara was sitting at the bottom of a square concrete shaft, about 6 foot by 6 foot and ten feet down. The walls were bare and she could plainly make out the metal grate covering the opening above her. She was also in about three feet of standing water.

  She was fairly sure this was what was called a sump well. Water was to drain into this hole and a pump would pull it out and pump it away. She very much doubted the pump still worked, but it indicated she was at the very bottom of the building above. There was a ladder on one wall, she assumed at some point she would need it to leave, but the two men who brought her here had simply lifted the grate and dropped her in.

  The water was actually good news for her. Once wet, the ropes tied to her wrists loosened enough, and she removed them. Her suit provided both insulation and climate control so she wasn’t uncomfortable, but she didn’t want to lay down. At least the filtration system in her suit was able to absorb and purify the water for drinking, so she wouldn’t go thirsty.

  She did try for the one thousandth time to reach ALICE, Jake or anyone who might be nearby. She had thought at first, her suit might have sustained damage in the fight. Then after having time to assess her status, realized only the transmit and receive functions were down, displayed as offline. She suspected that was done on purpose but couldn’t understand why.

  She was also starting to feel the effects of the beatings, but those aches were far less than the rage that was building towards the men who had provided them. Images of what it must have been like for other women who came before her ran through her head. Those not given the protection of a sealed combat suit would have suffered unspeakably. She thought of all the possible horrors inflicted on them and most likely of all, how that would have been her and her sisters had Jake not saved them that day just over one year ago.

  ----*----

  Cal and the man Sara thought of as string man, sat at a table in a different room than the one she had been hanging in. Although the decor was remarkably similar, this room was larger with several tables that had food stores spread about in a disorganized mess. In all, there were a dozen or so men spread out in different parts of the room, eating and drinking, well mostly drinking. The more vocal of the lot were recalling the events of the day and telling tales of the flying devils that had left over 30 dead in the streets.

  “You think they are the same ones?” String man was asking Cal.r />
  “Description matches,” Cal replied, while looking like he was deep in thought.

  “But the survivors said it was one big flyer, not a buncha small ones,” he replied.

  “You think they only got one?” Cal shot back in anger, “we lost as many today as a year ago and then there was that wagon load of women. Plus, we lost several weeks’ worth of food. These are the same ones, I’m sure of it. Remember Jack said besides the flyer, some jasper in a mirror faced helmet stood up on the hill, picking off riders. Just like the one that bitch in the hole is wearing. I think tomorrow we are gonna pull her out of the hole and see how that outfit takes to fire, maybe burn her out,” with that Cal turned away and looked down into his glass.

  The sat quietly for a while, then the string man asked, “Aren’t you worried someone will come looking for her?”

  At that Cal turned back slowly and with a stern glare asked, “Did anyone one see you grab her?”

  Realizing he may have stepped in it, string man stuttered, “No, no one else was on that roof and we never saw a soul all the way back here, but our own people.”

  Dropping the conversation, as it was clear Cal was in no mood to chat, the string man got up to leave. As he turned to go, Cal looked up and called out while holding up his glass, “Hey go get me another bottle of Rum, you know, from that raid on those gomers south of here. Too bad we had to kill them women to get it, they were pretty,” he finished absently.

  ----*----

  Jake had just finished one of the most uncomfortable conversations of his life while waiting to speak to Lisa. His discussion with Chris had him admitting he hadn’t given a second thought to the people of LA, other than to brand them all as lawless thieves.

  Chris spoke of the complex nature of their existence in LA prior to Jake’s meddling. He described how Jake’s efforts to save the world had nearly ended theirs. The last straw for Chris’s “family” had been with the capture of Lisa and another woman from the fields in front of the compound. Their lack of firepower had prevented the type of response required to recover the women. Those hold up in the stadium had serious military grade weaponry. In the end, Lisa had survived to return, the other woman was not as lucky.

  Chris outlined their plans to even the playing field, explaining the joining of the patrol and on how they hijacked the arms shipment in a bloodless coup. The stuff Jake was supplying the patrol far exceeded what the group at the stadium wielded. Jake praised the effort and specifically the finesse with which it Chris had pulled it off. That subtlety had led Jake to conclude there was more to the story than a rogue patrolman.

  After a lengthy conversation about the future, Jake touched on the option of relocating the entire group to a more secure location. He also implied that inclusion into an ALICE facility was not out of the question. Chris politely declined both options. His home was here, his family liked it here, and this was where they needed to be.

  In the end, to make things right, Jake agreed to subsidize the group here with more than just weapons. Supplies of food, medical assistance and technology upgrades in exchange for an observation post and sanctuary for those caught up in the struggles of change here. Jake was positive stability in LA would not come cheap or easy, but this was actually a better start than Jake had hoped.

  Jake had also accepted Chris’ offer of hospitality in letting B Troop land and allow him to use the compound as HQ for his rescue attempt. With Joe’s troop on the ground in the courtyard and Abby securely dug in, Jake asked ALICE to review what she had found with him. They covered what they had on record for the stadium construction as well as video from various angles. He asked her to do some speculative imagery on what the insides might look like as well.

  When Lisa finally agreed to see Jake, he pulled the display screen they had been using off the door of his box on the hover cycle and had only one of Joe’s troopers follow him inside the building. Jake could see the confusion on Joe’s face regarding his selection, but made no comment on it.

  Chris led the two through what looked to be the main gathering area inside the ground floor. The well-lit room had plenty of daylight with oil lamps in the darker corners. There were several women busy at various tasks, but all stopped to watch as the group passed. Evidently, they weren’t considered a threat, as the children continued to run free throughout the area.

  As they passed one room in particular, Chris commented as he pointed, “That’s the guy we shot earlier today. He’s just a kid, can’t be more than seventeen. We just couldn’t leave him there to die.”

  “What happens to him?” Jake asked.

  “He can stay if he wants, or we’ll turn him loose when he’s better. Several of the people here started off just like him, trying to steal from us in some fashion.”

  Jake looked in to see the boy bandaged in a bed, an armed guard sitting in a chair on the far side of the room.

  “This is our room,” Chris stated as he opened a door leading into what had to have been a small office at some point in the past. There was a table with several chairs, and a couch against one wall. Oil lamps on the table and in wall sconces provided ample light for the windowless space. Sitting in a chair at the table was a small woman, who couldn’t have been 100 pounds soaking wet, and was plainly, very nervous.

  After Chris, Jake and his selected trooper entered the room, one of Chris’ people stepped outside closing the door behind him.

  Indicating everyone should sit, Chris opened with, “Lisa, this is the man that needs to talk to you. They’ve grabbed another woman and he needs your help.”

  Jake could see Lisa’s eyes go wide at the statement, as she slowly began shaking her head no. Jake gave her a moment and then reached up to remove his helmet.

  “Lisa,” he began, once his helmet was free of his head, “please listen to me for a moment. They have taken one of my family, just like what happened to you. I only need you to tell me where they took her so I can get her back. If I can’t find her fast, I’m afraid they will kill her before I can get to her.”

  Jake watched as she looked at his face for a moment as if to speak and then clamped shut again. Giving her a few more seconds to think about his words, he began again.

  “I know those men did horrible things, things you never want to even think about, but I am trying to stop that from happening to another woman just like her,” Jake finished pointing at the trooper he had selected to accompany him. With a hand gesture, he indicated for the trooper to remove her helmet.

  Pausing for a moment and with Lisa watching her every move, the trooper slowly removed her helmet to reveal the face of a child. Sanchez was the smallest of all the troopers, at 4 foot 10 inches, the joke had been she couldn’t reach the running boards to fly. Her jet-black hair framed a pixie face that contradicted her 22 years of age.

  Why they called her by her last name, even Jake didn’t know, but she was a ball of energy that didn’t stop. One of the fiercest members of the 10th cavalry, she tested the limits of the entire group with the tenacity and determination she possessed. She was what Jake loved about Special Forces, the sleeper. You would never suspect she was a threat until it was too late.

  He knew, however, that is not what Lisa was seeing. She saw a child, potentially exposed to the horrors she had endured and survived. As he quietly watched, he saw her eyes close and then the words started to fall out.

  “We were in the field, removing weeds when they grabbed us. I wasn’t even sure what had happened at first as they had pulled a sack over my head and then hit me hard with something. Once my head cleared I realized I was draped over a saddle, tied hand and foot.”

  As she paused, no one dared to speak for fear of stopping the flow of words.

  “I think about half way there, we stopped, and I was dropped to the ground and the sack removed from my head. It was then that I saw they had taken Maria as well. She was laying on the ground nearby, crying. I don’t think they had hit her, like me. Anyway they said they wanted to see if we were ke
epers or not, then agreed we were. With that, we were draped back across the horses but I was able to see the rest of the trip.”

  After a sigh, she continued, “We got to that place, and they pulled us down off the horses. Someone grabbed the rope on my feet and started to drag me inside. I looked over to see several men pass me as they were carrying Maria inside. I think I would be the dead one now if they had taken me first,” she added with a sob.

  Everyone waited while Lisa composed herself, then she said, “Soon enough others came out and I was lifted and carried inside as well. We went down several hallways and down some stairs. As we past one room,” Lisa stopped with a gasp, and then blurted, “Maria was hanging by her wrists, she’d been stripped and they were, were doing things to her while she hung there crying.”

  Lisa dropped her head into her hands and continued to cry for a moment, and then Sanchez took her hands and held them. Once Lisa had composed herself, while still holding hands, she continued, “they dropped me on the floor in a room next door and I had to listen to Maria. They cut my clothes off, untied my feet, kicked, and hit me a few times, saying I would die if I tried to run. Someone came in after that and said they didn’t have time for me right now, I was to be dropped in the hole for later.”

  “Two men came in and took me farther down the hall, lifted a grate on the floor and dropped me in a hole with water at the bottom. After a long while, I was able to untie my wrists and climb the ladder. They never latched the grate, I think they were all drunk, and I slipped out. I think it must have been very late because I came across men passed out drunk in several places. Once I slipped out of the building, I ran as fast as I could. I fell several times, but eventually, I dropped at the stream where Chris found me,” she finished still holding on to Sanchez.