On Distant Shores

by Mark Harritt

  Chapter Five – Then

  The van took them to pick up the rental cars. Then they followed the van back to the BOQ. They secured their bags out of the cars and took them into the rooms pretty quick. Before dinner, Mike called back to the unit and checked in with Sergeant Major Galloway and let him know about the interaction with the command team, especially Jamison, the director. They talked back and forth about how to approach things, but the main part was to ensure that Major Salk knew what was happening, and more importantly, that it would be passed on to LTC Bretscif. It was always good that your command heard about a potentially volatile situation from you than from somebody else. That way the command could get all of their political ducks in a row. Forewarned is forearmed.

  The team got together and went to Burger King on the base. Afterwards, they retired to their rooms and spent the night in. Mike called Jo to tell her that he made it safely. They talked for a while, then Mike got ready and went to sleep. Like always, he woke early. Normally, he would go for a run, but, since he didn’t know the area, he decided not to. He met the team downstairs, they had breakfast, and made it back to the BOQ as Lieutenant Pang showed up. Something came up and Captain Dickenson couldn’t make it.

  Lieutenant Pang drove carefully to make sure that she didn’t lose her charges. She signaled with plenty of time before she did a lane change, and made sure that she signaled turns well in advance. Soon they were turning into the Area 19 parking lot. They got out and started chatting with Lieutenant Pang as they walked through security. All of the team had lanyards for their security badges, and fished them out to show them to security. They left their cell phones and other electronics in the rental cars so that they didn’t have to mess with them at security. Pistols still had to be checked.

  Lieutenant Pang asked if they had a good dinner, and a good night in the BOQ. She talked about some of the other restaurants that they could visit in the area. They went through security, then through administration, and stepped onto the elevator.

  The elevator stopped and the doors opened. Security was waiting for them. The Guards stood at the ready until the cards they were wearing were interrogated with hand held scanners. When a positive response came back from the card interrogation, they had their iris scanned to ensure that they were the person on the card. Once they passed this check, one of the security personnel pressed a button, and the access door slid back. They stepped to the second elevator, and stepped inside. This time Lieutenant Pang pressed the button that had a four on it.

  “What’s on the other floors?” Rob asked.

  Pang answered, “First floor is Security and Administration. Some of the big wigs have offices there.”

  “Jamison and Mitchem?” Mike was still pissed from yesterday.

  Pang nodded, “Yes, they have offices there as well.”

  She continued, “The second floor has offices for the scientists, medical staff, and techs. The third floor has labs, and fabrication facilities. Fourth floor is the play room . . .”

  Tom didn’t let her finish, “Play room?”

  The elevator moved past the second floor, the third floor, then on to the Fourth. Pang turned and smiled at Tom. “Don’t worry, you’ll see. I don’t want to spoil the surprise.”

  “And we’re here for?” Mike inquired.

  “To see if the prototypes actually work as designed.”

  “By prototype you mean . . . ?”

  “You’ll see. I think you’ll enjoy what’s in store for you.” Lieutenant Pang had a smile on her face as she talked, “Besides, I told you, I don’t want to spoil the surprise.”

  Everett spoke, “What about the gear that we brought. I only had a few change of clothes in my backpack, and we’re going to need to get into our pallet so that we can pull out some more clothes.”

  “Don’t worry, everything is on the fourth floor. We haven’t touched a thing. We just sat it close to the mech armor so that you could access your equipment as needed.”

  “The mech armor?” Mike asked.

  “Yeah, from the video yesterday,” she replied.

  The tension in the elevator went up. “You mean that we get to see those suits that we saw in the video yesterday?” this was from Mickey.

  She turned around, “Yeah, that’s why you guys are here. We need somebody to test the mechs.”

  Tom leaned against the side of the elevator and whistled.

  “What did you think you were here for?” she asked as the door opened.

  They stepped out and found themselves in an area that was three hundred meters by three hundred meters. The room was huge. The roof was a good ten and a half meters tall, or about forty five feet. The room was a light gray around the walls and ceiling, the floor a darker gray. The lights were bright and there was not much in the room. That was not the important thing about the room, though.

  “Wicked. Mech! Fucking! Warrior!” The curse was out of Mike’s mouth before he even realized it. He looked over at Lieutenant Pang to see if he had transgressed.

  There was a big smile on her face, “Don’t worry, that’s the usual response.”

  Strangely, there were no pillars to hold up the roof. Rob, a structural engineer, knew that was impossible, with four rooms directly above. It made him very nervous. He was worried, “Ah, why are there no supports, no columns in a room this size?”

  She smiled again, “We have our secrets. We have material scientists that have produced some pretty cool materials for building. And for the mech suits. We use a lot of graphene and other unusual materials here.”

  There wasn’t much in the room. They could see their pallet, sitting close to five large hulking figures, the mech armor. Along one wall was an area that held what looked like personal body armor and flight suits. Next to that area was a few desks with computers on them. There was a group of engineers and techies.

  “Why are the walls and the floor gray? White might lighten things up down here,” Everett asked.

  Pang pointed at the mech armor, “Those things leave some wicked skid marks. Gray just makes things easier. If it was white, Colonel Mitchem would have some poor Airman down here scrubbing the floor every day.”

  Everett thought about it, then nodded, “Gray, good choice then, I think.”

  The mech armor sat there like offensive linemen in a football game. They were huge, but they needed to be so a person could climb inside and drive them. They were charcoal gray. The suits were set like sumo wrestlers standing on line, fists on the ground.

  Both arms were straight down, resting on the floor. The butt of the suit sat down on the haunches of the back legs. They were arrayed in a straight line, one next to the other. A hatch on the back of each suit of mech armor was open and pointing towards the ceiling. There was a platform on wheels next to one of the suits. Two engineers were checking the inside of the suit, and going over readings to ensure that it was working. Nine engineers were standing in a group close to the mechs, waiting for the team to come to them. Lieutenant led them over to the group. In the background, behind these engineers, there were other techs and engineers moving around the mech armor. Evidently these nine were the brain trust.

  There were 7 men and two women in the group. Dr. Humphreys was there, and he introduced the rest of the group. Dr. Ed Nachman was fiftyish, short and overweight. His expertise was materials science. Dr. Jessica Randall was one of the two women. She was in her forties, long blond hair pinned up, tall for a woman. She was a computer scientist, also an electrical engineer. Mike noted her face, and silently thought about the statement that Captain Dickenson made. Bob Leitz was one of the mechanical engineers, late thirties, average height, balding. There were two electrical engineers, Luis Garcia and John Smith. Luis had light skin and blond hair and John was black, dark skin, built like a linebacker. Tracy Sheffield was another mechanical engineer. She was average height, brown hair, skinny and shy. Mike Crandall, who waved down
from the back of the suit that was being checked, was mid-thirties, big smile on his face. The other guy, who had a computer tablet in hand which was plugged into the back of the suit, was Josh Weitz. Josh was a small guy, about five foot six, skinny, looked like he couldn’t weigh more than one hundred and thirty pounds. He nodded when introduced, pushed a shock of black hair out of his eyes, and then went back to checking the screen on the tablet in his hand. Every few seconds he would touch the screen and move his finger to make an adjustment to the program.

  Dr. Humphreys said, “And of course you’ve already met 2nd Lieutenant Jennifer Pang, and our other Neurologist, Major Nosstrand.”

  Everett perked up at the mention of Major Nosstrand.

  Dr. Humphreys continued, “Major Nosstrand will be joining us later today.”

  Everett’s eyes swung back to the mechanical armor.

  Dr. Humphreys asked, “So gentlemen, what do you think?”

  “I think that’s the most awesome thing I have ever seen,” Rob said.

  The pallet was forgotten in the wake of them interacting with the engineering team. The spec ops team walked up to the armor at the end of the line, closest to them. The engineers watched as the men touched the suit, and marveled at what it meant.

  “So, what’s it made of, how does it work, who’s giving the nickel tour?” Everett asked.

  Dr. Nachman looked at his colleagues, “If I may?”

  Dr. Humphreys indicated that he start, “It’s your expertise, Ed.”

  Dr. Randall nodded her assent. The others in the group didn’t even speak up or indicate a yes or no.

  “Evidently you needed to have a doctor or officer title in front of your name to be able to speak in this crowd,” Mike thought to himself.

  Independently, the others on the team were also coming to the same conclusion. Lieutenant Pang stood at the back of the crowd. Her expertise in bio mechanical engineering aside, it probably didn’t help that she was a 2nd Lieutenant and looked so young.

  Dr. Ed, as Mike thought of him, walked up to the mech armor that they were standing next to, “Gentlemen, this is technically an exo-skeleton; a suit of armor that has all of its movement capabilities tied to the internal portion of the suit.”

  “Kind of like an insect?” Everett asked.

  Dr. Ed just smiled, “Yes, exactly like insects, but instead of muscle, everything moves with mechanical servos at the joints.”

  Mike and the team nodded understanding. Dr. Ed continued, “The suit is comprised of sheets of micron thick graphene, weaved and suspended in a polymer that bonds the layers together to form a very strong armor for the person wearing it.”

  “Because graphene is two hundred times stronger than structural steel,” Rob interjected. The engineers looked intrigued that Rob knew about graphene.

  Bob spoke up, “Not many people know about the structural properties of graphene.”

  Everett nodded, “Yeah, we have quite a few different interests.”

  Tom was next, “We have a special expertise in what some people might call,” he paused for dramatic effect, “science.”

  The engineers smiled at this, intrigued at this announcement. Dr. Randall looked amused. Mike got the impression that she was laughing at, not with, the team.

  Mike spoke up, “Sir, if I may continue. My team is not what you would call, normal infantrymen. We have a special skill set. My team is a technical team. We’re a nuclear and biological response team. We all have science or math degrees. I have a master’s degree in mathematics. We work directly with the FBI nuclear emergency support teams, and the engineering knowledge, structural materials knowledge, and electrical engineering knowledge that my team has is rather higher than you would probably expect from the average ground pounder.” Then he spread his hands wide and held them out, “Not that we even come close to understanding your specialties, but we ain’t as dumb as we look. Oh, and we kill terrorists as well.” Now Dr. Randall looked impressed. Probably more due to the statement about killing terrorists.

  The engineers started asking questions. Mike held up his hands in supplication. “Folks, we can’t answer all those questions, because most of the details are classified.” He smiled, “But we might be able to tell some lies that might, indirectly, have something to do with a few missions we’ve done.” The engineers adjusted and relaxed, now that they knew they weren’t dealing with dummies. Groups of techs broke off with individuals of the team.

  Rob, Mickey and Tom were asking questions, and the engineers answered. Everett used a series of cleats in the side of the leg to climb up onto the back of the mechanized suit. Lieutenant Pang scrambled up the suit with him.

  “So, what you’re telling me, is that there’s a foam that, when an electrical charge at a certain frequency is sent through, makes the foam expand and stiffen?”

  Lieutenant Pang nodded.

  “Yes, the foam isn’t rigid, and it helps bring the lining of the suit in contact with the lining of the jumpsuit that you wear. This allows for small movements and pressure of your legs, arms and body to direct the movement of the suit itself. Plus, if the suit is damaged, and you have to get out, the foam deflates and you’re able to get out without being trapped.”

  “Where do we keep our equipment, like food, water, weapons?” he asked.

  She smiled, “Actually, that’s why we asked you to bring all of your equipment.”

  --------------------------------------

  Mike listened as different engineers engaged with his team members. Bob Leitz, like he, was standing to one side as the other team members interacted with the engineers. Mike smiled at him and asked, “What do you think about all of this?”

  Bob smiled back, “overwhelming at first, don’t you think?”

  Mike nodded, “Yeah, I was overwhelmed by the entire underground, super-secret, mad scientist laboratory thing.”

  Bob barked in sudden laughter, “I guess that makes me a minion. I should be wearing a see through plastic suit and helmet twisting a dial someplace.”

  A few heads twisted at the laughter.

  Mike warmed up to Bob, “Nah, the evil overlord gets the plastic suit. You just get to wear the white lab coat.”

  Bob took Mike over to one of the suits. He reached up and slapped the suit on the butt, “This big guy is state of the art. Of course you heard about the graphene?”

  Mike nodded, “And I heard Lieutenant Pang talking about a foam in the suit.”

  “Yep, that was the best way to ensure the safety of the soldier in the suit. Otherwise he’s just rattling around inside a tin can.”

  “Graphene can,” Mike corrected.

  Bob smiled, “Okay, graphene can. Of course, the layers of graphene are three inches thick in some places, insuring that no shrapnel would penetrate, especially from any antitank warhead that would be shoulder fired.”

  “But you had the problem of over pressure, correct?” Mike pointed out.

  “Yep, doesn’t matter how rigid you make the outer carapace, you’re still going to have energy transferred via high energy compressed air waves. That energy will still leak inside the armor.” Bob replied. “So we did some searching, and thought about the problem for a while. We had an idea that came up when we did some materials research, and found this foam that possessed unique properties when electricity was applied to it. It would expand, and then contract when the electricity was turned off. Also, it did a really good job of absorbing shock, and would collapse as the shock was absorbed. This allowed the foam to collapse, and then re-expand once the kinetic energy was dispersed.”

  “What about claustrophobia?” Mike asked.

  Bob nodded, “Yes that is a consideration, but we’d have to test everybody to ensure that they’d be able to wear this for a long period of time.” Bob looked at Mike, “What about your team, can they handle this?”

  Mike replied with a wry grin on his face, “We’re all combat divers. When you’re in a torpedo
tube for a while, you quickly find out who is claustrophobic. So, no problems with that.”

  Mike thought, “What about urination and defecation?”

  Bob nodded approval, “Most people don’t think about that kind of thing. We didn’t think about it for about a month. We started designing the tubes for food and water, when Tracy brought it up.”

  Mike thought about a mech armor suit without being able to use the latrine. It wasn’t a pleasant thought.

  “You’d smell worse than a diesel submarine from World War II,” Bob said.

  Mike didn’t get the reference.

  Bob noticed the blank look on Mike’s face, “Sorry, my granddad was a submariner during World War II. They called them ‘Pig Boats,’ because of the smell after six months at sea. Bit different now a days.”

  Mike remembered the blueberry cobbler he had eaten on an attack submarine prior to an operation, “Yeah, much different.”

  “Well, what we did was ensure that all electronics are completely sealed, so if there is an accident, you can hose out the suit. But, we also rigged the personal suit so that you can relieve yourself without having to open the hatch. But to defecate, you still have to pop out of the suit and find a hole.”

  This didn’t faze Mike. He dug many a cat hole on missions around the world. That was just part of soldiering.

  “Communications are handled within the suit via Bluetooth connection.”

  Mike looked concerned, “Aren’t you worried that somebody could block the signal.”

  Bob shook his head, “No, the signal is only transmitted inside the suit. The helmet you wear is tagged directly to one of the Mech suits. Here, let’s walk over and look at one of the personal suits.”

  Mike and Bob walked over to the row of hangers. On it was a suit that looked as if it was made of silk. It was constructed like a flight suit. It was black, loose and baggy around the arms and legs, but it tightened across the shoulders and chest. It had a zipper that started at the crotch and went up the front of the suit. There was also a belt incorporated into it. It was designed to be worn with ballistic armor. The crotch of the pants had a hard cup. It had a tube that dangled from the cup. Mike knocked on the cup with his knuckles.

  “We had to put that on there, otherwise the foam gets a little too uncomfortable. Plus, we were able to put in the tube for drainage.”

  “And it drains out to where?” Mike asked.

  “Well, it plugs into a tube on the suit, so it depends on the environment you’re in. If you’re in the desert, you can recycle. If you don’t want to recycle, you can just drain it into the environment,” Bob replied.

  Mike didn’t like the idea of drinking recycled urine. Still, if it kept him alive, he would do it. “So, is everything going to be black?” Mike asked.

  Bob shook his head, “No, once this goes into production, we have a few different ideas. Another thing, this fabric is manmade, created from the modified DNA template of black widow dragline silk. Very strong, unlikely to tear or rip.”

  Bob picked up a helmet. The name ‘Duggins’ was inscribed on a plate on the right side, “You want to put it on?”

  Mike took the helmet from Bob.

  “The on switch is right there,” Bob pointed.

  Mike examined the helmet. It looked like a standard motorcycle helmet, but there was no visor to flip up. It was padded like a motorcycle helmet. When he looked inside the helmet, he couldn’t see through the face plate. The outside of the helmet had small pits where the opaque material was replaced by what seemed to be small lenses. The helmet was dull black with no reflection. As he ran his hand over the outside of the helmet, it was completely smooth.

  “Go ahead,” Bob encouraged him.

  Mike flipped the switch and then put the helmet on his head. There were two small tubes. One for water, the other for food, he assumed. The visor in front of his face flickered for a moment, and then turned on. He could see everything around him, as if he wasn’t wearing a helmet at all. There was a small patch that acted as a rear view to the side of each eye. He could see 180 degrees plus about a 90 degree swath behind him. He couldn’t hear anything but he could see Bob’s lips moving.

  As he thought about hearing Bob’s voice, the volume of his surroundings increased until he could hear Bob talking. That was disconcerting, but Mike went with it. Mike turned his head, and looked over where Lieutenant Pang and Everett were standing next to the Mech Suit. As he focused on Lieutenant Pang, the vision sharpened and moved in on her face. He quickly pulled the helmet off of his head, “This damn thing is reading my mind.”

  Bob nodded, “Yes, it is.”

  Mike looked at Bob, “That’s just plain freaky.”

  Bob looked over at the group and caught Dr. Humphreys’ eye. He waved him over. Dr. Humphreys walked over and started talking to them, “So, what do you think about the helmet.”

  “Freaky, Doc.”

  A small smile curled Dr. Humphreys lips at the contraction of his title, “Mike, we had to do it. We couldn’t make the mech armor viable without the neural interface.”

  “What do you mean, Doc?” Mike asked.

  “Well, we tried to make the Mech armor respond to pressure only, and it worked to a degree, but we weren’t able to get the suits to move fast enough with contact pressure,” he replied.

  “So you didn’t have a good reaction time with pressure only?” Mike surmised.

  “Exactly. The Mech armor moved like Frankenstein’s monster from the old movies in the thirties and forties. And, frankly, I wouldn’t want to put the lives of our soldiers and marines in danger with something that slow.”

  Mike nodded. He could definitely relate to that. If the Mech armor wouldn’t move fast enough for combat, then it was a big boondoggle, a large waste of money.

  “So we started experimenting with mapping brain wave patterns and movements.”

  A light clicked on in Mike’s head.

  “So that’s why we did all of the moving and calisthenics yesterday,” he replied.

  Dr. Humphreys face glowed at Mike’s comprehension, “Exactly. With that data, we were able to map your neural activity with each movement of your body. And, the more we had you do, the broader a roadmap we have for your neural activity. With this roadmap, we’re able to interface you with the mech armor for integration, which will allow you to fully control the suit. That plus the pressure controls allow you to move almost instantaneously, as if your mech armor was part of your body.”

  Mike pursed his lips and thought about this. It seems that these guys had thought about everything.

  “Plus, you won’t be able to do basic controls with your hands, such as flip switches, so you have to think about what you want, and have it happen.”

  Mike asked, “Such as?”

  “Such as being able to talk over communications, zoom in your visual, increase your audio, turn on targeting, fire your weapons.”

  The last made Mike’s ears perk up, “Weapons? These things have weapons? What kind of weapons?”

  Dr. Humphreys chuckled, “Well, unfortunately you don’t have the need to know, or have clearance for that information, so I can’t tell you what kind of weapons.”

  Dr. Humphreys put his hand on Mike’s arm, leaned in and looked into Mike’s eyes, “Which is a shame, because it is just as cool as the Mech armor.”

  “Wicked,” Mike whispered.

  Bob shook his head, “Dr. Humphreys, you shouldn’t tease him like that.”

  Dr. Humphreys winked.

  Mike was really warming up to Dr. Humphreys and Bob.

  Dr. Humphreys turned to Mike, “Would you please go ahead and put on the suit?”

  Mike nodded, “Sure, I can do that.”

  Mike walked over and picked up a suit and then proceeded to a screened area to put it on. He stripped down completely to put on the suit. It was sized to fit him. He took off his civilian clothes and put on the jump suit. The armored
codpiece was odd, uncomfortable for him to arrange. He wondered about urinating in that suit. He hoped he wouldn’t end up with a lapful of urine. But, if you can hose down the inside . . . No harm, no foul.

  He got the jumpsuit on. The body of the shirt was tight, and the sleeves and legs were loose. He stepped out from behind the screen. Bob was standing there with the body armor.

  Mike could tell that it was made from the same thing as the Mech suit. It was light compared to the ballistic armor that he had always worn. Plus, there was some kind of foam cushion behind the graphene plating. He assumed that it served the function as the foam in the Mech suit to disperse energy from any hits on the graphene plate.

  The other guys on the team drifted over to see the get up that Mike was dressed in.

  “Sexy, I like the basic black look.” That was Mickey, being his usual self. “You need a bow tie.”

  “Can I just get the t-shirt with the tux printed on it?” Mike asked.

  “Heathen, I always wondered what Jo sees in you.” Mickey stated.

  “Well I can cook and I have a large . . .” Mike started.

  “Bank account?” Lieutenant Pang asked.

  Mike looked at her, and shook his head, a sad look on his face.

  “I’m just sayin’,” she said as she pointed to the tube that was dangling from the groin armor.

  Everybody laughed, even Mike. The team, Bob, Dr. Humphreys, Dr. Ed, and Lieutenant Pang were present. Everyone else was over at the Mech armor running diagnostics. Mike was getting a feeling about who the misfits and malcontents on the engineering team were.

  Bob swept his hand towards the hanging outfits, “Gentlemen, if you please.” The team members walked over, grabbed their clothes from the hangers, and went behind the screen to change, or stand in line to wait.

  Everett made it to the screen first.

  “Age before . . .,” he started.

  “Wait a minute, that doesn’t work,” he finished.

  “No,” Tom said, “but it is appropriate, because I’m a beautiful man.”

  Bob chuckled, “No egos on this team.”

  Rob nodded, “In our line of work, a healthy ego is a good thing. It drives you to get things accomplished. Plus, it looms and kicks you in the ass if you start to lag.”

  “That’s not the only thing that kicks you in the ass, amigo,” Everett threw out from behind the curtain.

  Mike knew that. Everett was an animal. He was older than anybody else on the team, and still did a four hundred on the extended Army Physical Fitness Test, or APFT. It didn’t matter how much Mike trained, he still couldn’t catch Everett on a run. That was one of the things that made Everett such a good team sergeant. He could kick anybody on this team in the ass if he felt they were half stepping. The only thing that he couldn’t physically do was lift as much as Mickey could. But if it came down to a fight between the two, Mike’s money was on Everett.

  Mike spoke up, “We may be young, but Everett has one thing going for him.”

  Everett spoke up cautiously, “And that would be?”

  “Young men are idyllic, old men are treacherous.”

  Everett stepped out from behind the screen, “Don’t knock it, treachery is recommended by the greats, Machiavelli, Sun Tzu, Clausewitz.”

  Mike finished, “Stalin, Mao, Castro, Che, Pol Pot.”

  Everett conceded defeat, “Okay, you got me there.”

  Bob looked at the team of soldiers with new respect, “Wow, read much?”

  Tom nodded, a mournful look on his face, “The bane of my existence. I can’t figure out half the stuff they talk about.” He had just finished dressing, the last of the team to do so.

  The group was laughing as they walked over to the mech armor.

  They arrived at one of the suits. Bob motioned them around to the left arm. There was a name tag on the forearm. It said Torres.

  “How do I get up?” Rob asked.

  Bob pointed out the cleats on the back leg and the hand holds that were present to allow him to climb up onto the back of the mech armor.

  Torres started climbing up the leg of the suit.

  “Remind you of any of your girlfriends, Rob?” Mickey asked.

  “No, but it reminds me of a few of yours.”

  Mickey remembered that Lieutenant Pang was standing with them, “Ah, sorry Lieutenant.”

  “Don’t worry, I have three brothers in the Marine Corps. You won’t say anything that I haven’t heard before,” she replied.

  Mike asked, “If you have three brothers in the Marine Corps, why did you join the Air Force.”

  She looked at him in all seriousness, “Because I have three brothers in the Marine Corps. I get tired of being treated like little sister whenever I’m around them. At least in the Air Force, I stand on my own merit. Plus, I don’t think the Marine Corps needs a Bio Mechanical engineer, and this project does.”

  “Good on you,” he thought, impressed that the lieutenant wanted to stand on her own feet and not walk in the shadow of her brothers.

  Mike watched as Rob climbed up to the opening in the back of the suit. He felt a tug on his sleeve. It was Lieutenant Pang.

  “Are you ready to check out your mech armor?” she asked.

  Mike nodded yes.

  She smiled, “good, your suit is right over here.”

  She walked to his suit, which was the next to last in line. When she got there, she stopped, and did a move from ‘Let’s make a Deal’ with her hands.

  “And this is your new suit,” she said.

  “Why thank you, Vanna. You or me first?” he asked.

  “I better go up first, that way I can get into position to advise you on getting into the suit,” she replied.

  It was easy for her. She scrambled up handily. She beamed down at him, “I’ve been practicing for a few weeks.”

  Mike replied, “I can tell, you shot up there like a squirrel after a nut.”

  “Well, youth has its perks.”

  Mike shot a dirty glance up at her, “Make sure you aren’t in the way. I’d hate to ‘accidently’ knock you off of the mech armor.”

  She grinned.

  He walked over to the leg of the suit and climbed up.

  “See, that wasn’t too bad, now was it.”

  He nodded, “Nope, not at all.”

  He took a few steps to the open door of the mech armor. Lieutenant Pang was squatting on the shoulders of the suit.

  He looked in. The interior of the suit was a dark green, in contrast to the black that he was wearing, and the exterior of the mech armor

  “You’ll notice your body, to include your arms and legs, will fit entirely inside the body of the mech armor,” she said.

  He had been wondering about that. “So, how do I control the mech armor arm or leg?”

  “Well, your control of the arms and legs will be based off of the slight movement of your arms and legs against the contact foam of the mech armor and your neural interface. Notice the separate tubes that your arms and legs fit into. These expand to keep you snug in the suit. Then, there are gloves in the suit, blue toothed. There will be a space large enough for you to move your hands. The suit tracks the movement of your hands. The suit will use the data produced to manipulate the mechanical hands on the end of the mech armor. So, in you go.”

  He maneuvered himself into the back of the suit. It had more room than he thought it would, but that would probably change when the foam expanded. Lieutenant Pang had a headset strapped to her belt. She pulled it off the belt and put it on. Mike sat down and looked at the mech armor. It also had small pits that looked like the lenses on his helmet, but the camera lenses were all over the body of the mech armor. He pulled his helmet on, and adjusted the chin strap. He hadn’t turned it off, so it was still transmitting images to him. He lowered his body into the suit, maneuvering his legs into the legs of the suit. He heard Lieutenant Pang in his helmet.

  “Can you he
ar me, radio check, over?”

  “Roger, read you five by five.”

  He laid down on his stomach and pushed his head into the dome that comprised the head of the mech armor. As he looked at the inside of the dome, he noticed a panel at the front of it.

  Lieutenant Pang started, “Okay, before the foam expands, we have a few things that need to be done. You see the heads up display on your helmet. Don’t be alarmed, but when you turn on the mech armor, your helmet will be slaved to the cameras of the armor, and you’ll see what surrounds the suit. But, until you turn on the suit, you’ll just see the inside. Notice, you have a panel directly in front of your face. You can move your hand forward and touch the screen. Please do so.”

  He moved his hand forward to touch the screen.

  She continued, “Okay, you notice a series of commands on the screen, correct?”

  “Yes.”

  “What’s the first command prompt that you see, and what color is it?” she asked.

  “It says power, and the color is red.”

  “Okay, touch the prompt with your finger.”

  He did so, and the prompt turned yellow, then quickly turned green. He felt a difference in the suit, though there was no sound. It felt like the suit was tensing in anticipation of being used.

  “Okay, what’s the next prompt?” she asked.

  “It says, ‘Hatch,’ and the color is red,” he replied.

  “Okay, let me move,” he heard her shift on the outside of the Mech suit, “Now, touch the prompt.”

  When he did, it turned yellow, and then green. He heard servos and he knew that the hatch was closing behind him.

  “What’s the next command?” she asked.

  “It says, ‘Lock,’” he replied.

  “Okay, go ahead and touch the lock prompt.”

  He heard the locks seal when he touched the prompt.

  “Now, just so you understand, if the suit powers down, the locks will disengage. The electrical system has to be on and working for the locks to stay engaged. This is to ensure you aren’t stuck in the suit for the rest of your short life if you sustain extreme damage,” she explained. “There’s also a mechanical switch in case you need to keep the door shut. If you move around, you can feel it behind you. All you have to do is move the mechanical handle up, and the hatch is secure.”

  “Glad to hear that. I have plans for the rest of my life, and I don’t want to waste them in a tin can.”

  “Carbon, not tin,” she corrected.

  He smiled, remembering his exchange with Bob.

  “Now, you’ll find a tube on the left side of your helmet, and one on the right side of your helmet. Ordinarily, you’d go ahead and place them into the holes on your helmet where they would fit. You can take the time now to put them in if you want to, but it’s not necessary.”

  “In for a penny, in for a pound,” Mike said as he hooked them up into his helmet, “might as well go all the way with this.”

  Lieutenant Pang continued with the walk through, “Are you firmly seated?”

  “Yep, I’m comfortable.”

  “Okay, now what does the next icon on screen say?” she asked.

  “It says, ‘Neural Interface,’” he replied.

  “Okay, this is where you turn on the neural interface of the helmet, and it will take over for you. Now, go ahead and touch the icon for ‘Neural Interface.”

  Mike touched the screen. The icon for neural interface went amber, and then turned green.

  “At this point, you no longer need to use your hand to press the icons,” she said, “Now, look at one of the icons.”

  Mike looked at one of the icons on screen. As his gaze lingered over the icon, it grew just a little bit larger, and turned a shade lighter, indicating that it was active.

  “Did the icon change?” she asked.

  “Yes it did. Is that part of the neural interface?”

  “Well, partially. The helmet tracks where your eyes are, and then you can activate the icon by speaking. As the neural interface gets used to your brainwave activity, eventually, you won’t have to say anything.”

  “What do you mean?” he asked.

  “Well, for instance, if you wanted to arm the weapons system, then you would look at the weapon system icon, and say or think, ‘Weapons, Arm.” That’s the command to arm your weapons. The neural interface will only be able to help you make the armor move right now, but the computer interface will begin to learn how you control the machine, and eventually, you’ll be able to do a lot of things without having to consciously think them.”

  He looked at the icon for weapons.

  “Weapons, Arm.” The icon started flashing amber, went to flashing black, and then shifted back to red.

  “Sorry, cowboy, no shooting today. What happened as you relayed the command?” Lieutenant Pang asked.

  “Well, it turned from red to flashing amber, like the other icons did, and then flashed black, and then turned back to red.”

  Lieutenant Pang confirmed that the system was working correctly, “Yes, that’s what it’s supposed to do. The amber means that the system is running a check. Black means that the system is damaged, or not present. Red means that the system is offline or turned off.”

  “Damn, so no weapons on board,” he replied.

  “What, and have you burn down the facility. I don’t think so.”

  Mike grinned, “So it’s an energy weapon?”

  There was a pause on the other end, “Please don’t repeat that. You’re not cleared for that information and it would end my career.”

  Mike said, “Mum’s the word. I won’t say a thing.”

  “Thanks, Chief.”

  “Please Lieutenant Pang, call me Mike.”

  She paused, then replied, “And please, when we’re away from here, call me Jennifer, or Jen.”

  Mike said, “I guess your boss doesn’t like his officers to use first names.”

  Lieutenant Pang replied, “It’s not just him, we have a lot of junior Airmen here, and it’s bad for discipline.”

  Mike nodded. He was so used to his team he sometimes forgot about the problems conventional forces had. Of course, this unit wasn’t necessarily what he would call conventional.

  Lieutenant Pang continued with her checklist, “Okay, so we have everything going well, all lights are green. Now, go ahead and stick your arms in the tubes.”

  Mike complied. He pushed his arms in. At the bottom of the tube, he could feel what seemed to be a glove.

  “Okay, I have what feels like a glove down here.”

  “Yes, that’s the control for the hand of the suit. Go ahead and put your hand inside it.”

  Mike put his hands inside both gloves.

  “Alright, now once you have full control of the suit, you’ll be able to make a fist, or grab with an open hand. You’ll even be able to pick up equipment, and throw it if necessary.”

  “Texas Rangers, here I come,” he replied.

  She chuckled, “Nope I don’t think that fifteen foot suits of mech armor are allowed to play. It gives an unfair advantage to the pitcher.”

  He replied, “And the pitcher wouldn’t have to worry about anybody charging the mound, either.”

  “That’s very true,” she answered.

  “Okay, there are three more things we’re going to do, and then we’re going to break,” she said.

  “Break? I’m just getting started,” he replied.

  “You may be just getting started, but it’s almost lunch time, and I want to get something to eat. I’m hungry.”

  “Food’s a crutch.”

  “But it’s a crutch that I like to use.”

  He conceded the point, “Okay, what’re we going to do?”

  “Well, you’re going to foam up. See the icon?” she asked.

  “Yes, I see it.”

  “Okay, go ahead and activate it. Just look at the icon, and say, ‘foam activate.’”

&nb
sp; He looked at the icon.

  “Foam, activate.”

  He felt the foam expand around him. As it expanded, it didn’t feel too uncomfortable. He could feel foam at the back of the helmet, but there wasn’t any in front, or to the sides of his helmet.

  “Hey, there is no foam in the dome of the suit,” He exclaimed.

  “We did that for a reason,” she replied.

  “Why is that?” he asked.

  “Well, you’ll see once you do two more things for me.”

  “Okay, I’m game, what’s next?”

  “Next icon, look for the icon that says, ‘Engage.’”

  “Got it, amber, now green.”

  The tension in the suit seemed to increase. There still wasn’t any sound. The mech armor was strangely quiet.

  “Okay, Mike, don’t do anything else just yet. I have to get a thumbs up before we go to the next part.

  “Roger, Wilco. Standing by.”

  Nothing happened. He lay there for a few minutes, and then he heard the Lieutenant speak again, “Now, Mike, I want you to slowly move your right hand. You’ll find that you don’t have to move much to get a reaction from the armor. You just have to make subtle movements, and think about moving your arm,” she said.

  “Uh, how do you want me to move it?” he asked.

  “Just bend the elbow, not much.”

  He moved the elbow slowly, and felt the mech armor shiver.

  “Damn, I hope I don’t topple over,” he thought.

  “Okay, that was good. Now push back and you want to shift your weight back on your legs and squat. No big movements. Remember, everything is multiplied.”

  Mike gently applied pressure and felt the mech move in the direction he wanted. He was trying to get the weight of the mech armor over the legs. He pushed back, and then he felt the armor shift and topple backwards.

  “Lieutenant, get off the suit, I’m losing it.”

  “Chief, no worries, I’m already off of the suit. Everybody is far away from you. There’s nothing that you can damage, or that can damage you in the vicinity right now.”

  Mike was relieved. He felt the suit fall backwards. Now he was lying on his back, and the mech was rocking. He stretched his feet down, and his arms out, so that the suit was lying on its back as flat as he could get it.

  “Ah, this is disconcerting. I can feel my position, but all these cameras are messing with my concentration. I can see the arms and legs, but I’m having problems getting them to work correctly.”

  A man’s voice spoke up. “Chief, can you hear me.”

  “Yes, I hear you,” Mike replied.

  “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to shoot you a video feed of your suit. What I want for you to do is watch the video feed, and try to move your arms and legs. Once you’re comfortable with that, I want you to roll over the suit into a push up position. Do you think you can do that?”

  “Yep, just give me the feed, and I’ll see what I can do.”

  A window appeared on his head’s up display. It was video feed of his mech armor on the ground, with a lot of people surrounding it, standing well away from it. The other four suits were still in their linebacker stance.

  “Using me for the guinea pig, eh, Lieutenant.”

  “I don’t like the phrase, ‘guinea pig.’ I prefer, ‘experimental subject,’” she replied.

  Mike watched the video feed. One by one, he experimented with his arms and legs. He started with the hands. He checked to see how much range of motion the armor gauntlets had. They bent forward very well, but the movement was checked as he tried bending them back. It was that way with both hands. Then he watched as he moved his arms around. He bent the elbow, and saw how little pressure was needed to move the arms. The movement was quick and jerky as he started. The movement smoothed out with practice and the motion was not as rapid. The servos and the lightness of the mech armor were not bulky, and the arms and legs felt unencumbered when he moved them.

  He moved the foot of the armor. There wasn’t as much play in the foot of the armor as there was with the gauntlet. He moved and bent the knee, and then pulled the legs towards the abdomen of the mech armor. The mech armor rocked, and he was able to sit up. With the legs of the suit straight out, he explored the range of motion by turning the shoulders of the mech so he could place the right hand of the suit on his left hip. Slowly, he worked different movements into the suit to get an idea of how the suit responded to him. Once he had an idea of what he could do, he set the suit in motion so that it rolled over onto its belly.

  “Folks, I’m going to try and take this further than just the pushup position. I’m going to try and stand up in it. Are there any reasons why I shouldn’t do this?”

  The male voice spoke up again. Mike had the feeling it was Dr. Ed. “We have a go. If you think you can do it, then try to get it standing.”

  Mike put the hands down on the floor. He moved the suit slowly, experiencing the positions, the shift of mass, the individual positions of the arms and legs. He was getting used to the capabilities of the armor. The hands were covered with some kind of material that produced friction against the floor. He hoped that the bottoms of the feet were covered with the same material.

  He felt comfortable with the way everything was moving and shifting. He pushed up off of the floor, and moved one of the legs of the suit forward. The foot held in position. He moved the other foot forward. He stayed in that position momentarily, and then he tried to stand the mech armor up. The armor trembled as it moved. Then it was up. The armor was standing in an upright position. He stopped, and stood still. He brought the arms of the armor down so that they were directly in contact with the sides.

  He couldn’t really hear it, but he could see the group of engineers and his team clapping as he maneuvered the suit up into the standing position, “Alright, I feel like I may have accomplished something today.”

  “Can you get it back into the linebacker position? We want to get you out of there and then its lunch time.”

  --------------------------------------