Colossus

by John Ricks

  She wasn’t gone more than a minute or two before Colleen came in with Kim. Kim is a special who is high in empathy. They sat down on each side of me and took my hands. I poured out my feelings without even wanting to. Kim is good at getting people to talk about their troubles. I even told them about missing Becky. Colleen is my best friend, and with her there to assist, I worked out my issues. It took a long time. I won’t go through all that was said over the next three weeks, but I’m okay now.

  Gray looked at Green. “Are our Reds that way? I have not had much dealing with Reds. There are so few of them. But this one seems strangely sad about protecting himself. I do not understand.”

  Green said, “Most of our Reds are exactly that way. It is one of the reasons that they do not invent some of the things you request. Some Greens are also that way. It is not a matter of protecting themselves. They do not like to see others harmed. Most Greens could not care less. I am one of the ones who cares.”

  Little Yellows said, “This creature does not like to harm anything. But he puts that aside to protect his species. He is blocking me from reading his thoughts at this time, as he is designing a weapon to fight against the undead. He believes that undead are an abomination to his God. Though he does not like doing so, he would destroy anything that is a potential threat to his people or world.”

  Gray asked, “Can you tap into that designing?”

  Little Yellows said, “Yes, and every time I do, he stops and hides the information.”

  Gray said, “Be sneakier!”

  Little Yellows was just about to slam him, but Blue grabbed him and lifted him up. Instantly, the other Grays pulled weapons; just as quickly, Big Yellows telekinetically removed them and stood between the Blue and the other Grays.

  Blue said, “Gray, you go too far. First you question Yellows on doing her job, and then you threaten me.”

  Black walked back into the room. “Blue, allow me to straighten this one out.”

  Blue put the Gray down. “As you wish.”

  Black picked Gray up and walked over to the other Grays and started beating them with the body of the lead Gray. Shortly, they were all cowering. Black walked over to the tank and said to me, “We place Grays as our fighters for two reasons. They are the weaker, but they are the more aggressive and multiply quickly. They are tough little creatures, as you can see.” He dropped the lead Gray, and the Gray scrambled to his feet and took his proper place. “However, the second reason is that we can control them, as we are stronger. It is not the same with your species. Your strongest is in your military, and they are trained to be that way.” He paused before telling me, “Even a Black cannot destroy an undead. What makes you think you can?”

  I said, “Because I can. I am working on the fourth way to do so now. The other three have already been sent to my people.”

  Black said, “You are under a delusion that your species will be alive to fight the undead.”

  I said, “You are under the delusion that you have won this war and that it is over.”

  Black stared at me long and hard before saying, “Green, continue.”

  Chapter 16

  Rumors

  Susan came by when I was feeling better. “Freddy.” She gave me a hug. “You’re amazing. The whole world wants to hug you. Again, you saved us, and this time you saved several hundred worlds from a threat that was just as devastating as that rock. Now about those gun emplacements …”

  It figured she wouldn’t forget about that. I spent several hours showing Susan some of my newest protections. She then told the rest of the team and set up training. Everything had to be run from my area of the shop, so I now had others in my workspace. Nothing seems to work out the way I first imagined it. I think I need to rethink my thinking. Of course, I do have another surprise or two.

  With the whole team in my area, the new ship was now out for everyone to look at. The guesses about what it was were flying around base. In only one day, I heard the following:

  “It’s a super-cruiser just for Freddy’s use. With it, he can destroy the fleet.”

  “Freddy’s going to use it to elope with Becky when he’s old enough.” (Nice thought, but she was still mad at me. Women hold grudges for the longest time.)

  “It’s a starship to take us to other galaxies.” (Good guess but no.)

  “It’s a time machine. He can go so fast in it that he can outrun time.” (I did the math; not going to happen. At least not yet.)

  My favorite was the bad-boy theory. One of the team spread the story that I built the ship so that I could outrun the captain the next time I was in trouble and needed to be taken down a notch or two. That was a great possibility, but Susan hasn’t had to smack me in two years. Not since just before the war began, and now that I’m fifteen, I don’t think she will—at least I hope not. I nearly lost my lunch with laughter when I heard that one. Susan was not amused.

  She came to me in my shop that afternoon. It was about two months after the war. “Freddy, where are you?”

  Since my AD was completed and patented now, I spent most of my time in the new ship. It was taking me a lot longer than expected, but during the war I had to work on other issues. The ship was nearly completed, and that’s where I was. “I’m in here, Captain,” I said from engineering. I listened to her walk up the aft gangplank and head back to engineering with new exclamations of astonishment every several yards.

  I had just finished putting in the controls for the new drive. This system gleamed. The entire ship was designed to make the average person, like me, feel like he had to walk quietly. You know that feeling you get when you’re walking through a great museum or religious monument? That’s the feeling I get every time I walk through this ship. Its design is very sleek, yet it‘s bigger than the carrier. The walls glow brightly with light and colors, so no other lighting is needed. There are only a few shadows. The power built into the walls will last for hundreds of years, and each individual section can be regulated for sleep.

  The ship is laid out so that you can start at any point and get to any other point with the smallest effort. All connections run into hubs that use transporters to teleport you to any other hub you request, as long as you have the clearance to go there. I can go from the top-forward starboard side of the ship to the bottom-aft port side in only seconds, yet the ship is nearly four miles long. In case the transporters are down, there are standard moving shafts—one shaft for moving aft and one for moving forward, with several cross sections spaced at convenient points.

  I have to say that this ship is my masterpiece. The drives in this ship look like large white funnels. In actuality, they are pure energy, concentrated so much that they pulsate and spin. To put it in a simple nonmathematical term, they’re the opposite of black holes. I like to call them white vortexes, as they are so lightweight they generate negative gravity. The energy they give off creates a power that will allow for travel that will far exceed anything running.

  Susan made it to engineering. I asked, “What’s up, Susan?” She didn’t answer. Her eyes were stuck on the drives.

  “Ship’s computer ‘Susan,’ please modulate the power shields to opaque.”

  A nice lower-range soprano voice said, “Compliance, Freddy.”

  The shields around the vortexes changed, and the drives were hidden.

  “Is this the person I was named after?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  “Because she is the only person that I consider smarter than I am and because she is beautiful, just like you.”

  With a smile in her voice, she said, “Good reasons, Freddy. You’ve been around the team enough to understand the right things to say. She’s coming awake. If this is the normal reaction to my drives, then I think I need to keep them out of sight most of the time.”

  “Good idea.”

  Captain James came to her senses w
ith a shake of her head. “Freddy, this is wonderful. It’s the most fantastic vessel I’ve ever seen, or read, or thought of.”

  “Thank you, Capt. Susan James.”

  “You’re welcome,” Susan said, looking around.

  “Capt. Susan James, meet Susan. She is the smartest computer in the known galaxy.”

  “Hello, Captain.”

  “Hello, ah, Susan. Freddy.” She turned to me. “We’ll talk about you using my name for your computer in a minute, but right now I need your help. I’m getting very tired of trying to squelch the rumors of what this ship is supposed to be for. The imagination of some people on this base is way out of control. Will you please tell me what you’re building?”

  I took the time to think on this by wiping my hands on a towel and heading out of the ship. Finally, I asked, “Just between the two of us?”

  “No. I need to squelch the rumors before some of them strike fear in the wrong people, and they start causing problems. Have you heard the latest?”

  “Probably, but go ahead anyway.”

  “‘Poor Freddy has gone insane. After the war and after having to kill the enemy, he lost it. He just couldn’t take destroying anyone. Not even the Sycloyeds. Now he’s building a ship to leave us all. He’s going to leave us because he can’t stand being around all this fighting. He’s going to take everything with him and destroy the fleet so we can never catch him.’ I transferred the fool who made up that rumor. I wanted to have him skinned. People are thinking you’re leaving us, and they’re starting to panic. I’m expecting a call from the president any moment. This is starting to upset me a lot, and it’s causing problems for the base. So spill it. What’s it for?”

  “Think, Susan. What is my priority?”

  “Making up with Becky?”

  “Well, I spent two days at the inn, and she still won’t talk to me. Besides that.”

  “I would have to say the colonization of other planets, but you’re not scheduled to start that for another two or three years. And besides, we have already started.”

  “Emergencies like war being the exception, what do we need to do before we put people down on a planet we are not sure of?” I asked

  “Investigate it. I suppose you need to determine if it’s safe. Ensure that there are no microorganisms that could spread to home. You were correct on that one, Freddy, and the president is grateful. You’ve told us several times, ‘Keep it simple,’ but …” She paused, and I could sense an idea forming in her head. “Simple. Keep it simple, and do everything in order. You always preach this. It’s the research ship, isn’t it?”

  “Yes.” I had a big smile on my face. It changed to one of determination. “This ship and I”—I pointed to myself for increased emphasis—“will be going out to other planets sometime within the next year.”

  “Freddy, you really can’t think that—”

  “No, Susan! Due to the war, I lost the chance to be the first to set foot on another planet. I won’t lose this chance. I am fifteen now. I expect I will be sixteen before I leave, but I’m going with her to the stars!” I crossed my arms and put on the most stubborn look I could manage.

  She looked at me and said, “I can see that your mind is made up on the subject. Perhaps we’ll talk about it later, when you’re a little more open-minded.”

  “Don’t hold your breath. I don’t care what the president says about my not taking chances. This is my ship! I built it! I paid for it! I’m going with it! And that’s that!”

  “I won’t argue with you at this time, Freddy. Any idea how long before she’s ready to go? What personnel will be needed?”

  “She’ll be ready for the finishing crew in about a month. They’ll need about six months to get her ready for flight. Who will be going with me is still up in the air. I plan on inviting Dr. Landers and his team. Possibly Dr. Nguyen and his team also. I would expect that some of the SEAL team will come with us. I would also expect that some of the fleet would come with us. This ship is capable of protecting herself, but we don’t really know what she may find out there. And”—I turned to the ship and placed a hand on the side—“she’s very experimental. Everything is new. We need that escort to help us if anything goes wrong.”

  “She’ll have an escort; I can promise you that. She’s beautiful. Now change her name. Try Becky—that could get her to spend more time with you. You could have Becky christen it.”

  “Okay, Mother,” I said in my best little-boy voice, which was difficult to do when my voice still had the tendency to crack at the worst possible moments. “I think that’s a wonderful idea.”

  Susan grabbed me and rubbed the top of my head, laughing.

  When we both calmed down, I said, “Susan, ‘Becky’ will be a good name for the ship, but for the computers, we don’t have time in space to call out some long name to get the computers’ attention. And it has to be one that’s not too common. We’re having problems with people who have the same name as the computer on my other ships. Admiral Penn says it gets confusing. Please, find me some naming criteria for my ships’ computers.”

  “I’ll put Colleen on it right away. We may be able to get your fan club to help. I’m sure they would love the chance.”

  “Speaking of my silly fan club, how’s Julia Pears handling all that mail?” With hope, I asked, “Has she decided that I don’t need a fan club anymore?”

  “At first she had some real problems, trying to handle everything and still go to school. Her father started charging dues to belong, and now she has enough money to hire people to handle all the mail. It didn’t work, Freddy. Your fan club has doubled since she started running it more professionally. Her father quit his job and is now in charge of mail and marketing. Her mother is going to personally answer some of the mail in a new magazine that’s coming out next month.”

  “I hate to ask.”

  Susan smiled. “The name of the magazine is Freddy’s Folly. And it’s expected to have record sales for a magazine.”

  “It’s got my name on it! Do I at least get some say on the contents?”

  “Actually, your lawyers have insisted on editing it before print. You can edit it yourself if you want.”

  “No thanks! Can’t we do something?” I asked with a whine.

  “I knew you’d want to try, but if we put a stop to it, they would change the name to Folly and sell it without our edit.”

  “Darn.”

  “Julia would like to know if someone on the base could write a column about you and if you could write a column each month.”

  I was about to say “no way,” but then it hit me. I smiled really big and said, “Yes, I’ll write a column each month or each week, if she wants. You think I can put an apology to Becky in there?”

  Susan looked at me skeptically. “The apology I understand, but why would you want to write a column, Freddy? What are you up to; you little sneak?”

  I thought, I wish she would stop looking at me as little. I’m nearly as tall as my father, and he made it all the way to five foot five. With a smile, I said, “Nothing really, but the entire column will be in math. If they want to read it, they’ll have to learn the math to decipher it. I’ve been looking for a way to get my ideas on math out to the public, and this may be a very good way. I’ll start out simple, using only one principle. If that goes over well, I’ll add another mathematical idea. At the end of the year, I’ll have twelve ideas out to the general public. Do you think anyone will actually read my article?”

  “Freddy, if you write it correctly—and we’ll help—then yes, I do. I think many will count it the puzzle of the month. I warn you, though. If you do this, you may increase the circulation of the magazine considerably.”

  “If it gets the mathematical word out there, and people start using it and teaching it, then I’ve finally found a reason to have a fan club. Tell Julia that I said yes. I will write
a column, and let her know that the first twenty people that answer the final question at the end of one year get a free trip on one of my ships and a walk on Mars—if they pass the inspections to qualify.”

  “Freddy, Julia is going to want to kiss you for this.”

  “Yuck! If she comes anywhere near me, shoot me before she gets the chance, please.”

  Susan hugged me, saying, “Thank you for the information. This will help a lot.” Then she left. I went back to work in the drives.

  Blue asked, “Do we have this Becky person?”

  Green said, “I wish. No, we do not have Becky or Julia. We had the entire Crain family, but after some tapping of their knowledge, we let them go. Bad mistake.”

  Gray said, “Yes, we could have used her to make this one give us the information we want.”

  I laughed. One of those “thank God it didn’t happen” type of laughs.

  Little Yellows said, “We do not think it would have worked.”

  Gray asked, “Why?”

  “When you said it, he laughed at you.”

  Gray said, “He is easy to read. His emotions will always tell us the truth. Notice that he was completely serious when we talked about weapons.”

  Blue added, “And when he says that the war has just begun.”

  Gray said, “Yes. That worries me. I have taken special protections just in case. A Great Ship is on its way with one of our top admirals.”

  Black exclaimed, “You ordered a Great Ship to this tiny battle?”