HADRON Axiom

by Stephen Arseneault

  Two Mawga crewman carried a container down the ramp, setting it on the ground.”

  Mace asked, “What’s this?”

  “I promised you an exosuit for Mr. Collins. I had the instructions converted to standard English. I believe you will find it easy to assemble and a good fit for your associate. If your diagnosis of arthritis is correct, you should see a marked improvement in his mobility. This suit by the way, is a staple for our warehouse workers back in the colonies.”

  Mace nodded. “How many colonies are there in your empire, Mr. Montak?”

  Bontu began to answer and then caught himself. “Ah. Very good question, Mr. Hardy. However, I’m not at liberty to discuss such things. Perhaps once we are all better acquainted?”

  Mace offered a nod as he stooped to pick up the exosuit container. “Let me know if you’re in need of my assistance again, Mr. Montak. It’s always an interesting ride.”

  The ramp closed and the shuttle lifted up toward Chancellor Bontu Montak’s command ship. Seconds later, with a hush, the great gray vessel slipped off over the tree line.

  The container was set on the porch.

  Jasper looked at it curiously. “What we got?”

  Jeff grinned. “We brought you a gift.”

  After flipping it open, Mace pulled the small instruction booklet from the container, handing it to Jasper. “Read up on how to use it. Montak says this should give you some mobility.”

  Jasper pulled a pair of reading glasses from his shirt pocket and began looking over the booklet. Mace pulled seven sections from the container, laying them out on the planks of the porch.

  Jeff pointed, “We have legs, arms, spine, hips and shoulders. I’d say that looks simple enough.”

  Mace gestured toward the items. “Have at it, Doc. Jasper, where’s Johnny and Jane?”

  Jasper motioned in the direction of the town. “They’re out doing recon. Should be back within the hour.”

  Jeff looked over the legs before snapping them into place in what appeared to be hip-joints. Next was the spine connecting the hips to the shoulder, and finally the arms were snapped into place on the shoulders.

  Jeff stood looking at the device for several seconds. “Mr. Collins, you ready to give this thing a try?”

  Jasper glanced up from his reading. “Hold your horses, I’m on the first page still. Gotta be twenty-five pages in the how-to section.”

  Jeff laughed as he stood the newly formed exo-frame up against the wall beside Jasper. “Whenever you’re ready, just set your feet here and lean back. The suit will strap itself on. It has its own power source built into the spine.”

  Jasper continued to read for most of a minute before tossing the booklet to the floor. “What the heck. I never was one for reading instructions.”

  Jasper slowly stood, shuffling his feet as he moved the four steps to the exosuit. After turning and leaning back against it, the straps of the suit bound the thin frame to his arms, legs and abdomen.

  Jasper asked. “What do I do now?”

  Jeff shrugged. “You walk?”

  Jasper took a deep breath as he stood up from the wall. “Whoa, what’s that? What’s going on?”

  Jeff moved closer. “What’s wrong? Something hurt?”

  Jasper shook his head. “No ��� just strange, that’s all. I feel this vibration in my joints but not on my skin. Is it supposed to do that?”

  Jeff laughed. “You read the instructions. What’d they say?”

  Jasper looked up. “They said I should punch your smart ass in the nose.”

  Jeff reached down for the booklet. “Tell you what, you try to walk around the porch while I read what you can do.”

  “Sounds fair.”

  Mace took a seat as Jasper took his first two steps, still shuffling his feet. “I’d say it’s already worked wonders.”

  Jasper stopped and looked down with a mocking scowl. “I’d say it’s already worked wonders. What, are you fillin’ in for Bigfoot while he’s gone?”

  “Interesting���” Jeff said to himself as he read.

  Jasper asked, “What’s interesting? Not this suit, it’s not doing a thing for me but wasting my time.”

  “Says that vibration you’re feeling should last two to three minutes. Is it still there?”

  Jasper glanced down. “Hmm. Just stopped.”

  “Says you should have better mobility in your joints now. And that exosuit, the more you use it, the better it will learn to respond to your movements. Says you should be able to lift and carry a two hundred fifty kilogram load. That’s about five hundred fifty pounds. If so, this could get interesting.”

  Jasper attempted his standard shuffle step and moved three feet with each foot plant. “What the���? Did you see that?”

  After several hops and a quick walk around the porch, Jasper came to the steps. “Mr. Hardy, if you would be so kind as to get out of my way…”

  Mace stood and moved to the side. Jasper gently stepped down the first step before hopping down the other two onto the gravel of the drive.

  A grinning Jasper turned. “I think I might just like this rig!”

  Jeff read on: “It says to take it easy until you get a good feel for how the suit will react.”

  Jasper waved his hand. “I’ve walked before. I know what I’m doing.”

  Jasper moved at a hurried pace up the drive and back. A smile ran wide across his face. After sliding to a stop in front of the gift shop steps, he began to hop up and down in place. On his fifth hop, his feet reached two meters off the ground.

  Jasper came to a stop. “Who wants to play some basketball? Ah-hehehehe!”

  After running in a small circle, the previously immobile Jasper Collins sprinted across the drive, over the creek, and up into the field beyond. Several loud hoots could be heard coming from his direction.

  “I think we’ve created a monster,” said Mace. “Look at him. You’d think he just won the lottery.”

  Jeff winced. “Still looks a bit off-balance, though. He might want to watch himself.”

  As Jasper raced down through the field and across the bridge, moving faster than a teenage track star, he lost his footing. After a hard flop on the grass and a slide, he came to a stop face down on the gravel of the drive.

  Mace rushed over, helping him to his feet. “You OK there?”

  Jasper took a deep breath as he reached up to touch the large scrape on his forehead. “Yeah, I might have overdone it there a bit.”

  Jeff was standing on the porch. “He OK?”

  “Just a few scrapes. He’ll live. Let’s get that cleaned up.”

  Jasper stood firm as Mace attempted to help him walk. “I ain’t no four year old. You don’t have to hold my hand.”

  Mace laughed. “OK. Just try not to fall on your face again between here and the porch.”

  “Smartass.”

  Chapter 14

  *

  Jane and Johnny pulled up in the Jeep. Johnny was the first up on the porch. “They’re building like crazy over there. Hey, what happened? And where’d he get that? The townies are all wearing those skeleton things as they build that center.”

  Jasper replied, “It was a gift from the little gray rat.”

  Mace chuckled as he looked over at Jasper. “Please make sure you don’t call him that when he’s here with us.”

  Jasper waved his hand and scowled. “I wouldn’t say that where he could hear it. Not stupid.”

  Johnny cut in: “Not stupid. Who told you that?”

  Jasper stood and walked to the edge of the porch, hopping off onto the ground. “Johnny Tretcher! I’ve had about enough of you!”

  With a single jump, Jasper Collins flew up and landed on the metal roof of the gift shop.

  Johnny asked, “Did he just do what I think he did?”

  “You���d better watch yourself,” said Jeff. “He can supposedly lift and carry five hundred fifty pounds now.”

  Jasper impacted the ground with a thud as
his feet sank two inches into the soft West Virginia dirt.

  A scowl and a look of pain covered his face. “I think I just dislodged a kidney.”

  Johnny began to laugh, which brought swift retribution from Jane.

  Jeff said, “Maybe it’s time you took a rest and read the rest of this manual.”

  Jasper slowly walked up onto the porch, holding his lower back. “That might be a good idea.”

  Mace asked, “What’d you learn from your recon runs?”

  Jane sat in a chair. “They have people working around the clock on that building. Looks like it will eventually hold everyone in town and then some. They all have on these same contraptions for doing the work. It’s all highly coordinated and moving along at a fast pace. They’ll have the exterior, walls, and roof, up in a week if not sooner.”

  Are there any Mawga helping?”

  Jane shook her head. “Just a few supervising. It’s an impressive undertaking.”

  Johnny added, “Get this. They tore down half the town. That building is huge.”

  Mace nodded. “We went for a tour of the one in D.C. It’s five stories at the moment, and they’re adding on. Each floor holds twenty-five thousand people. The housing, medical facilities, and even the entertainment they have planned, I’m sure the people moving there will love it. Did you happen to see Tres and Vanessa out there working?”

  Jane sighed. “We did, and they both had these gleeful grins on their faces. I’m starting to think we need to steal them out of there. They wouldn’t go willingly, I can tell you that.”

  Johnny sat by Jane. “We saw something else happen that was alarming. A newly-constructed column fell over before it was complete. One of the people got caught under it. Crushed their leg. Under the supervision of the Mawga, they were carried over behind a wall. The people went back to work with smiles on their faces. Anyway, the Mawga stayed behind the wall for a minute or two before we saw the reflection of a bright flash. The Mawga came out a few minutes later. The injured guy never did.”

  Jane nodded. “Nobody else went over there for the rest of the day. I half think they might have vaporized him.”

  Mace rubbed his forehead. “We’re at such a huge disadvantage to these Mawga. They already have most of our people drugged. We can’t compete with their technology. Even our communications are superficial.”

  Jasper said, “Maybe we should go pick up a few of these suits. We’re already bigger and stronger.”

  Mace replied, “In battle I suspect they strap these suits on over those hardened ones they wear. They’d be fast, strong, and tough to kill.”

  Jeff said, “I could work on ways to defeat their suits if you could get me one. I did a stint at a company working for DARPA where I evaluated a number of materials for combat use. A lot of that work included ways to defeat it.”

  Johnny looked over at Jasper.

  Jasper crossed his arms. “Not taking mine. It was a gift from the chancellor.”

  Johnny asked, “The chancellor?”

  Mace nodded. “That’s what they were calling Bontu in D.C. I’m guessing it’s the title given to their regional managers.”

  Johnny half laughed. “I guess it does sound a bit more impressive.”

  Jane said, “I say we do another recon run and look for a way to swipe a few of those suits. They have a single building where the people were putting those on.”

  Johnny asked, “That building has been busy 24/7. How are we supposed to get in there?”

  Jane thought for a moment before smiling. “We could just walk in there, put on a couple of those suits, and walk out.”

  Mace turned. “Jeff, you think you could determine if Jasper’s suit has a tracking beacon? Not gonna do us any good to walk out of there with suits if they can track us.”

  Jeff slowly nodded. “We have power now. I think I could rig something up. It would be limited, but I should be able to cover the standard frequencies we use. If they go any higher than say ��� five gigahertz, forget it.”

  “Make it happen.”

  Jasper closed the booklet he had been looking through. “I want to go this time. Plop me down on one of those hills outside of town as an observer. I won’t be able to get any word to you, but when you get back, I can tell you what else happened.”

  Johnny began to open his mouth but was cut short by an angry stare from Jane.

  Mace replied, “I think it’s a good idea.”

  Jeff raised his hand. “Anyone else think it might be a better idea to just ask Bontu for a few more of those exosuits? He may give them to us without us having to risk anything.”

  Mace thought for a moment. “No, I’d rather he not know we have them. We’re looking for anything that will give us an advantage. If they know we have them, that advantage is lost. You focus your energies on finding out if those things are bugged.”

  Johnny rubbed his chin. “You know, each of the Mawga on the ground in Ronceverte was sporting a weapon on their side. I wouldn’t mind getting a hold of one of those so we know what we might be up against. Maybe Jeff could figure out how to defeat it, or at least reduce its effectiveness. You ever have access to the weapons when on the ship?”

  Mace shook his head. “Closest I’ve been is walking by the armory room when one of their crew was coming out. Just looked like rows of rifles lining the walls. However, the colonel in Cincinnati has a half dozen. Next time you converse with the resistance, see if they can tell you anything about them.”

  Johnny replied. “Would be nice if we could take down one of those ships and overrun that room. I’d like to know what other weapons they have available.”

  Jane crossed her arms. “Sounds like we’re going to war here.”

  Mace sighed. “I’ve been wondering if it’s not going to eventually come to that. With the drugged food, they already have control over a large part of our remaining population. With these community centers, they will have the masses concentrated. One of the things I noticed in D.C. was the number of people in and around that center. And most seemed to be moving toward it.”

  Jane took a deep breath. “What we need is someone on the inside. I wish Tres and Vanessa weren’t all doped up. We could use the intel of what’s really going on in there.”

  Mace replied, “They gave us a thorough walkthrough. I didn’t see anything that would make me suspicious they were up to no good, but my gut says otherwise. Take the medical facilities for instance: they claim they can eradicate cancer by identifying and zapping every defective cell ��� no more heart disease. Those in themselves would be hard for most families to turn down. Here, eat this food and we’ll cure your family member. Who would refuse?”

  Jeff added to the conversation. “One thing we haven’t discussed much is their reason for drugging everyone. What if their motives are pure and this is their way of managing the populace until such time as order and government has been restored? What if they do actually have our best interests at heart? Is that not what we would want to do if the roles were reversed?”

  Mace turned to Jane. “If we managed to get someone in with the others, how would we keep them fed? They can’t be eating that food.”

  Johnny took a deep breath. “I know I might regret it, but I’ll take on that challenge. Worst case, I just leave and come back here. After all, this is all supposed to be voluntary, right?”

  Jane frowned. “I can’t see any of us going in there as being good for us. What if they drug you in some other way? How do we know their water isn’t tainted as well?”

  Jeff said, “If you can bring me a sample, I can check.”

  Jane shifted in her chair uncomfortably. “If you were to go in there, and I’m still saying if, I guess we could try to set up a system whereby we could drop off food and water for you to pick up. Not sure how you would slip away without them noticing, but we could set that up.”

  Johnny shrugged. “Who’s to say they’ll even care if I bring my own food?”

  Mace replied, “He’s got a p
oint. Maybe we just send him in with a week of supplies and let him volunteer. Could give us some good insights into just how zonked our people are. And another thing: who here would be opposed to us grabbing someone to detox from that stuff?”

  Jane winced. “You talking kidnapping?”

  Mace nodded. “I am. If these people are being drugged without their knowledge, we might just be doing them a favor.”

  Johnny said, “They do have workers moving all over town getting materials and such. Much of it’s being supplied by the Mawga, but we’ve seen them scavenging for some items. We could probably grab one when they’re out on one of those runs. Question is, how do we get around the exosuit they would be wearing? I don’t want to get in a fight with some fanatic wearing one of those.”

  Jeff said, “We have a taser in our supplies. I traded for it on one of our last runs into town. But one thing I don’t get: we took five gallons of shine in there about ten days ago. If they’re all zonked out on the Mawga drugs, why would anyone want it? They were still eager to trade, at least the ones we dealt with.”

  Johnny agreed. “We saw some people in town who didn’t look so gleeful walking around.”

  Jane added, “More like stumbling around.”

  Jeff leaned forward in his chair. “If we grab someone, maybe we can run some tests with the alcohol.”

  Johnny laughed. “Wait, you saying we get them drunk to get them off the drug?”

  Jeff thought before replying. “Not exactly, but that’s actually a possibility. I was thinking of using it to ease any pain of withdrawal they might have. But I suppose it is possible that alcohol inhibits the effects of whatever drug they���re using. If you’re seeing drunks walking around when everyone else is gleefully working, our moonshine might be more valuable to us than we think.”

  After the discussion ended and a short lunch was had, Johnny made his decision. “I’ll do it. Give me a pack with food and I’ll volunteer.”

  Jeff said, “We have a small hand-operated water filter you can use with any decent supply, just in case they���re drugging that, too.”

  Johnny nodded. “Sounds like the plan. Let’s get it underway.”