Colossus

by John Ricks

  Stacy said in wide-eyed awe, “I caught every bit of it.”

  “Can you duplicate what I did?”

  “Yes, not as well as you did, but with practice I could. I never realized I could see that way. It’s so much more efficient. It saves power, and I could find and correct many more diseases using that method.”

  I smiled at her. “You practice, then. You have the power to heal far better than I can. Exercise your talent.” I looked down at the baby and kissed her on the cheek. I passed her back to the father, letting him know what the problem was, that it was fixed, and that the poison would be completely out of the body in just a couple of days. “Watch her very closely for the next week, but I don’t think you’ll have any more problems after the poison is gone.” I received more hugs from the mother and a big handshake and thank-you from the father. They stayed in the living room under guard, and we returned to the dining room table.

  Susan asked me, “How did you feel about your scanning equipment being used for the care of the sick, Freddy?”

  “Very good. I like that. I like it a lot.”

  She smiled and so did the others, including Julia. Susan then said, “How did you feel about saving that child’s life?”

  “That I loved doing.”

  “And how did you feel helping the parents?”

  “I loved that also.”

  “Your AD will do that same thing for thousands every day for the rest of your life and all eternity.”

  I stared at her for a few minutes with wide eyes and said, “I’ll get on it right after I get the dome in place. I’ll need Stacy’s and Dr. O’Brian’s help.”

  “You’ll have it. Stacy is still underage, so she has to volunteer and get permission, but I don’t think they’ll be a problem. Let’s eat before it gets cold.”

  Blue said, “He cares a lot about his people not being hurt.”

  Gray said, “We can use that.” The others looked at him as if he’d profaned.

  Little Yellows said, “It’s not just his people. He cares about our people also. He does not like to see anything harmed.”

  Blue said, “You know the Fimireians. Kindhearted to the last. Would never harm anyone or anything intentionally. But they fought like Rapggersins when we tried to invade.”

  Gray said, “It was a grand fight. Many heroes on both sides.”

  Blue looked like he wanted to hit the Gray and said, “We lost eighty-six ships and ten thousand men to that one battle, and we could have achieved the same results by asking first. They were friendly!”

  Gray said somewhat proudly, “Now they’re gone. They will not present a problem anymore.”

  Big Yellows said, “Yes, now they are gone, so we do not have the benefit of their knowledge, their culture, their friendship, and their help in our main two wars. They would have been great allies.”

  Blue said, “Their books tell us they did not like the undead.”

  I said, “Who does?”

  All stared at me as if I’d just grown wings. Blue asked, “You helped a ghost. Yet you say you do not like undead?”

  I said, “First, ghosts are not undead. They are the dead not at rest. And in that situation I helped the ghosts to give them rest so they would stop haunting the town. They tend to leave permanently if they are at rest, though it is said that this war may cause our dead to rise and take vengeance. As I’ve said, we never give up. Not even in death.” For the first time I felt fear from all of them, and it was because of me. They fear ghosts and possibly the undead. I added, “I need to know something.”

  Blue asked, “What do you need to know, little one?”

  “Are these undead creatures heading our way?”

  Blue answered, “If we cannot stop them, they will take over this entire galaxy.”

  I said nothing else but Yellows could sense my emotions and read what I was transmitting to our fleet about the undead. I sent: “According to their thoughts, they are in two other major wars. They are in a war against undead on one front and intelligent machines on another. Check their files. Find out if this is correct. They may be lying to me. If it is correct, after destroying them, I have an idea on how to fight the undead. Actually, I have several. I cannot speak now, as they are monitoring. Check my second book on extra-dimensional travel and my twenty-eighth and six hundred fourth note on the ethereal.”

  Little Yellows said, “This creature just warned his fleet about the undead. He has given them clues on making some kind of weapon against the undead and against ethereal creatures. In perfect knowledge, as if it were a fact, he told them that after destroying us, he has several ideas on how to fight the undead.”

  Gray frowned. “These pathetic creatures cannot destroy us. Did you catch what the weapon was?”

  Yellows answered, “No, only that it would be very useful. Are we correct in believing we still have not found a way to destroy the undead?”

  Gray said, “We are holding them in place by destroying their ships, but we cannot destroy the creatures themselves.”

  Yellows said, “This one can.”

  Green said, “Lets continue. Maybe we can find a clue.”

  Chapter 6

  Doing the Impossible

  We sat down and had a very good lunch of spaghetti and tiny meatballs that were very flavorful. The president came in with several of her approved special-service guards, and we exchanged hugs. The issue came up several times and in different ways about how I was going to get the ship outside. I just smiled and continued eating.

  Susan said, “He likes his surprises. He’s not allowed to tease”—she paused and gave me a very harsh look—“anymore. So he gets his kicks in other ways. All children”—this time she smiled at me—“need a fun outlet.”

  “Captain, you’re not going to get me mad at you with that ‘children’ remark, and I’m not going to be teased into giving away how I’m going to do this. After all, I am just a child,” I said in a meek voice. “I still have babysitters. I’m afraid that when you see how easy it is to accomplish, it will be anticlimactic. Everyone will go away saying, ‘How simple.’”

  Just about the time we were finishing up the last of the garlic bread, someone asked. “Are we going to have time to brush our teeth?”

  I stopped eating after that and went upstairs to ensure that the media would not report that I had bad breath. I took the time to comb my hair again. Several months ago, I’d told Susan that I needed a haircut or at least a trim, but she talked me out of it. Something about my long hair being my status symbol. I went outside and couldn’t believe how many people were waiting to see how I was going to accomplish getting the ship outside. The area I was sending it to was clear, though the ship would take up a lot of room over several raised parklike sections. It would hover over that area until the landing gear found the ground and then level itself. Everyone on the base must have been there.

  The team had emptied the area that I’d requested for landing the craft. The reporters were set up and ready. I went inside the shop and entered my private area.

  “Good afternoon, Shop.”

  “Hi, Freddy.”

  “We’re going to test our new system today.”

  “Which one?”

  “The TP, of course. We’ll be moving the Folly out into the yard. Is everyone outside?”

  “Yes. I have looked over your math, Freddy. I must say, I don’t understand it.”

  “We’ll work on that. I need you to understand it so that you can watch for mistakes. Where’s the issue?”

  “I don’t think I have a processor capable of handling that complicated level of physics.”

  “That’s not good. You have the fastest, most powerful processor in the world. I’ll work on it later. Please make it one of my top priorities.”

  “It’s on the list as number three, Freddy. Number one is now the AutoDoc.�
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  “Good. Let’s get this show on the road before everyone becomes nervous. Scan the yard, and ensure that no one moves into the landing area.”

  “Scanning. All clear at this time.”

  “Good.” I turned to my console and started up the equipment. I scanned the ship and locked it in and then scanned the area to where I wanted the ship to move. “Shop, remodulate shields at coordinates 15.2.28 on the base grid.”

  “Shield remodulated to allow for transference through the ethereal.”

  “Thank you.” I hit the button and teleported the ship to that spot.

  Gray yelled, “What?”

  Blue said, “Quiet! Green, continue.”

  Some people look at teleportation—or as some people call it, transmitting—as one of two possibilities. First is the copy or faxing method, where you completely scan an object, send the information details across space, and reconstruct the object from materials on hand in the desired place.

  This theory is nice but impractical. For instance, if I were to teleport you outside of my building, where am I going to get the exact parts and materials to build an exact copy of you, how would I copy your exact thoughts or emotions into your new body? What if the transmission of the information about you gets distorted? Nothing we have, to date, can transmit pure information, distortion-free. Just the tiniest glitch in information transfer would be devastating, and you would be dead, if you’re lucky. And what happens to the original? Either the original is destroyed, or now there are two of you. I wasn’t happy about either of those possibilities.

  The second is called “breakdown and reassemble.” This is where you change the molecular structure of an object so that the parts can be easily transferred and then reassembled somewhere else. However, you still have to transfer the parts to the other place. Say you can put the parts onto a laser beam. Great—now you’re stuck with line of sight, and anything that disrupts the beam would destroy the object. Also, you had better hope that nothing disrupts the beam. Anything from a dust speck to a planet can interfere, and radiation or solar winds or other transmissions can interfere. Even a cricket that makes its leg-rubbing noise can create sound waves that can interfere and change the information transfer. Very dangerous way to move objects, and I would never move something alive by using that method.

  My teleportation system does not break down anything. It does not copy and does not fax. As I could teleport myself from one place to another, I became curious as to how. A little research led me to believe there were other planes of existence, and I was crossing them. I researched this and I found the astral plane. This plane occupies the same space as ours, but objects on the astral plane are not affected by most objects on the prime material plane (our normal plane). In fact, the only thing that crosses both planes is energy, or force. This gave me an idea. If I could move an object into the astral plane and then use force to control where it moves, then I could move objects through walls. It took a lot of work to develop a way to move objects into the astral plane, but one day I did it. I lost that object. I tried over and over until I figured out that I was moving them too far. One inch on the astral plane is hundreds of miles on the prime material plane. After that, it was just a matter of breaking down the distance variables and walls. I could move a glass of water from one table to another without spilling a drop, even with walls and other objects in the way.

  Now, when I teleport myself it’s by using pure thought, and the astral plane kicks me out at the desired position. I wasn’t going to make objects think, so I would have to rely on the dots. Everyone receives a dot when they enter my workshop, as the dots watch, report, and provide communication. My dots are small balls of pure force that hover near the left ear. I created and sent one dot with each object and had it move the desired distance. Now I had control over my transmitter system, which could teleport objects anywhere in the world.

  “Shop, please scan for the Folly.”

  “The Folly has teleported to the landing area and is completely intact.”

  I jumped up, shouting, “Yes!” I knew it would work. All the little moving around of things and the practice had paid off. “Shop, please give me a view of the yard and the Captain’s face.”

  “Compliance.”

  There she was, her mouth open so far that her chin was almost hitting her chest. She was in total shock, and it was wonderful. All that security had paid off. This was even better than pretending to turn her into Tammy. She couldn’t punish me for doing this, but she was going to try to get the information out of me. I shut down the transmitter and waited a few minutes so that people had time to calm down, and the lieutenant had time to restore order. It was a madhouse out there. When everything was pretty much ready, I left my area and headed out. Both guards congratulated me on my accomplishment, and I thanked them. As soon as I exited the main door, the cheering started again. I was put up on the shoulders of two team members and carried over to the captain and the media. After they put me down on the raised platform and after I received handshakes and hugs from almost everyone, I held up my hand for quiet. I had the biggest smile on my face. I was so happy. If it hadn’t worked, then this would have been completely different. When everyone calmed down and there was quiet, I stepped up to the microphones.

  “I know this is the wrong thing to do, and it’s slightly childish,” I said. “But as the captain so elegantly pointed out during lunch, I am just a child. This is for all the people who thought I couldn’t do it, for the people who helped me name this ship Freddy’s Folly.” With a laugh in my voice, I said, “I told you so!”

  The cheers roared throughout the canyon. I couldn’t help but think that this was definitely one of the best days of my life.

  Susan said, “Time to climb aboard.”

  We went down the ramp and then up into the ship. We were followed by several people from the team, the crew that was picked to run the ship, the media, our president, and all the people who had worked on the ship. There were over two hundred people in all. The crew started her up. Testing was completed, and we were flying past Pluto in less than three hours. Each person who worked on building her stayed with the crew person who ran the part of the ship they worked on. We found out later that this was an excellent eye-opener for the workers, and it generated a lot of feedback for improvements. When the flying tests were over, I could feel the jubilation from the crew, the workers, and the team. I turned to Susan and the media.

  “Well, Susan, the primary test of my transmitter system worked well. I was worried that teleportation might adversely affect parts of the ship, but it looks like everything is doing great. The ship’s crew and the workers did a wonderful job. I’m very proud of them. I would say we’re ready to test the rest of the ship. We can pick up the dome now.”

  Susan looked at the ship’s captain and said, “Captain Nervloe, Freddy is extremely happy with the way the crew and the workers have pulled together and completed this ship and the current testing. He would like to thank you, the crew, and the workers for the great effort it took to get this ship on line and within time. Please let everyone know he gives his highest respect and has great pride in their accomplishments. He gives his permission to keep everyone onboard for the next step. Please proceed.”

  I turned to the media and said, “She does that really well. Much better than I could.”

  They smiled, and all started talking quietly into their mikes.

  Susan was smiling also. “Freddy?”

  “Yes.”

  “How long have you had a working transmitter for teleportation?”

  “Oh, I’ve had the transmitter fully functional for about a week now, but it’s got a long way to go before I can release it. The first ship with it will be the—” I stopped and put my mental shields up fully. I smiled at her and waved my finger at her, as if she were a naughty little girl. “No reason to talk about that now,” I added.

 
“Only a week? Then how were you going to get it out before that?”

  I reached over and whispered in her ear, “I have no idea.” We were interrupted by engineering, but I could see that Susan was not going to leave it at that.

  Gray said, “Teleportation! He can travel into and out of the astral and possibly the ethereal! Is he royalty?”

  Green said, “No. Apparently only a select few have the ability, and he is the strongest.”

  Blue said, “Teleporting himself is one thing but an entire ship? That is another technology we need. Complete annihilation of this species is not acceptable at this time.”

  Little Yellows was near to tears. “We would think not. Their reinforcements are coming.”

  Gray said, “Do not worry, Yellows. We are ready and will smash his fleet, and when our reinforcements arrive, we will smash what is left.”

  Chapter 7

  Bringing It Home

  “Captain Nervloe, this is engineering.”

  “Go ahead, Lieutenant.”

  “Captain, we have a special panel down here that is not part of the training. The workers said that Freddy installed it himself. I don’t know what it’s for, but it just lit up and appears very active.”

  “Hold on.”