Colossus

by John Ricks

  “Good night, Captain.”

  Susan sat back, thinking, Well, that went better than I expected. I wonder who the admiral has in mind for the Mars base. I’ll worry about that later. Right now, I have a lot of work. I just hope Freddy is willing to listen. Perhaps—just perhaps—I can talk Becky into visiting Mars when everything is set up.

  The Red said, “So he does have the knowledge to build a black hole. And in that bit there was a shielded suit, teleportation, healing, and healing used as destruction. Why does he not use his destructive healing to attack you?”

  Little Yellows stiffened, and so did Green and Big Yellows. They were all touching me.

  I said, “That would be rude. Have Gray touch me, though. He reminds me of the army.”

  Green and the Yellows relaxed a little.

  Red said, “So even with two Yellows and a Green trying to block, you can talk through their efforts. I may need to redesign this tank.”

  I said, “There are many things you could do to make it a better tank.” I mentioned a few using physics. He talked back in physics terms. The conversation carried on for several minutes before the Black stopped it.

  Black said, “Red! You will stop now. We need to know things, and we are running short on time.”

  Red looked sadly at Black. “I learned more in that short time than I have in the last ten years. I hold you responsible, Black. If you allow this Red to be harmed in any way, there will be war.” He crossed his arms and stood quietly. The others could not stop looking at him in amazement. He said, “Well?”

  Green continued, after shaking his head to clear his thoughts.

  Chapter 22

  Rescue

  I was having a nightmare about some dark force harming Becky. I must have been screaming, as Colleen came in, as well as Marian.

  Colleen shook me. “Freddy, wake up! Freddy! Wake up!”

  Marian took my hand and bent my finger back.

  With the pain, I groggily became aware of my surroundings. “Ouch! What’s going on?”

  Colleen said, “You were having a nightmare. You were yelling out ‘Save Becky’ at the top of your lungs.”

  Everything came rushing back to me, and I quickly got up and started dressing.

  Colleen asked, “What are you doing? It was only a nightmare.”

  “No, Colleen. Becky’s in trouble. I can feel it.”

  Colleen started helping me dress. “Are you sure, Freddy?”

  “Yes.”

  Marian contacted the watch. “Denise, Freddy says Becky is in trouble. Contact the town watch, find out anything you can, and ensure they are on high alert.”

  The watch answered, “I’m on it, Marian. Several specials are on the way. Freddy must have woken them.”

  “Understood.”

  Marian said, “Freddy, the watch is checking on Becky at the Seaward Inn. She is probably all right.”

  I looked up just long enough to say, “Marian, Becky is not at the inn. She has been kidnapped. I’m going after her. You with me, or do I go alone?”

  Colleen said, “Home.”

  “Yes.”

  “Scan for Becky Crain at the Seaward Inn, and report.”

  “Working. Becky Crain is not at the Seaward Inn.”

  “Check the town.”

  “Working. Becky Crain is not in town.”

  Shop broke in. “Colleen, I have run a check, and Becky is not detectable on the planet.”

  Marian’s hand flew to her mouth, “Oh, my God!”

  I said, “Shop! Have K1 power up.”

  “Very well, Freddy. Your new ship is coming on line.”

  “When she is at full power, use the transporter and teleport her outside.”

  “She is at full power, and I will be able to teleport her in three minutes. She wants orders.”

  “Tell her that I want her to go to stationary orbit and look for Becky through all modes. I sense Becky is in the air somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean.”

  “She understands, Freddy, and will do so and report.”

  Marian took hold of me so that I would not fall over, trying to get my foot into the wrong shoe. Colleen came around and saw the problem, saying, “The other foot, Freddy. That’s the left shoe.”

  Two of my special friends came running into the room at about the same time as the Captain.

  Captain Susan James said in a commanding tone, “Stop!”

  No one in the room moved an inch, and for some silly reason, every one of us look guilty.

  “What in the blazes is going on in here?”

  I seldom see Susan in this mood, but when she is, it’s scary. Both my special friends started to back out, and Susan said in a quiet voice that would have made a speeding train stop, “Don’t you even think about moving.” Susan surveyed the room. “Colleen, why does everyone in this room look guilty?”

  Colleen said, “I’ll explain that later, Captain. Right now, we have an emergency.”

  “Report.”

  “I believe Becky Crain has been kidnapped and is in a plane over the Atlantic as we speak.”

  The captain yelled, “Shop!”

  “I have scanned the traffic over the Atlantic, Captain, and none of the 264 planes has Becky aboard.”

  I had my left shoe on my right foot now and was working on the right shoe when K1 said, “Freddy, I have finished the scans of all planes over the Atlantic Ocean. One plane has a box inside with a magnetic field surrounding it. I have penetrated the field, and Becky is in the box. She is drugged, tied up, crying, and afraid. She is gagged, but she is calling your name.”

  I stopped what I was doing and put one hand on each of my friends’ arms.

  Rodney Brown was eighteen years old and a strong telekinetic, easily capable of lifting a medium-sized ship, though not for long. He looked like he could lift them without the kinetics, as he was a big, heavily muscled, high-school football star. However, he was not very intelligent. He was very street-wise, but he could not obtain a high enough score to get into college, even on a football scholarship. Rodney was in prison for lifting a train and setting it back down—and none too gently. During a meeting with several specials who worked in a charity group, they found out that the train was about to hit a busload of primary-school children. He quickly became a hero but was placed into our custody just the same. The official’s words were, “Just in case.” Rodney was drawn to beauty and intelligence and that led him to pair up with Georgia.

  Seventeen-year-old Maxine Stump, aka Georgia Peach, was a great telepath with the added ability of placing thoughts inside a mind with pictures. The person receiving the thought would know it wasn’t his, but he would receive it. She won several beauty pageants but missed out on the Miss Teen America by a small margin, and she didn’t even cheat. She was highly intelligent but not street-wise at all. Rodney was in love with her. It was her Southern accent that caught him. She came from a family that did not like her abilities. They tried to kill her in her sleep, and nearly everyone with any telepathy heard her cry for help. Maxine loved big, strong men who could protect her from people like her family. She also liked men without too much intelligence. That way, she could control them. Rodney was the perfect sucker. They were inseparable.

  I said to them, “Please let me borrow your energy.” Both nodded, and I reached inside them, and we became as one. We reached out, found the ship and found the box, and I penetrated the outer magnetic shielding, the three feet of steel-reinforced concrete, eight different types of metal linings, some strange type of liquid, and a plastic liner—and there was my Becky.

  I touched her mind gently and said, “Hello, my love.”

  “Freddy?”

  “Yes, sweetheart.”

  “Freddy! Oh, Freddy. Help me! Please help me!”

  “Of course I am going to help you. Would I let t
he girl I love so very much fall into the hands of fools?”

  A tiny bit of my Becky’s feisty spirit shone through for just a second. “You just did!”

  I smiled and let her feel my love and amusement. Then I filled her with calm and reassurance. “I will be there shortly. I cannot hold this contact for long. Wait for me, my darling.”

  The last thing I heard was, “Where am I going to go, you idiot? Oh, Freddy, I didn’t mean it that way. Freddy? Freddy!”

  I let go of Rodney and Georgia, and our union collapsed. Georgia playfully hit Rodney on the arm. “Why don’t you love me like that?”

  Rodney answered, “If I were tied up, gagged, and stuffed in a dark box, and you were my only hope of rescue, I would love you any way you wanted.”

  She looked up at him with evil eyes and said, “That can be arranged.”

  I paid little attention to them as I was working out a plan to save my Becky.

  The captain saw this and said, “Freddy, think out loud so we know what you’re planning. Colleen, get the team ready. Freddy, how is Becky? I assume that was what you were doing—contacting Becky.”

  Colleen said, “Half are already in body armor and waiting, Captain. The other half will be ready in seconds.”

  I said in a tone that revealed both immense worry and great joy, “Becky loves me again.” Then I said angrily, “How many ships do we have at the base at this time, Captain James?”

  Susan knew I was livid. She knew from my tone and the fact that I called her Captain James. She answered, “Eight ships arrived during the night to help with the move. Three are destroyer escort class. The rest are shuttles and one building mover.”

  I was a little shocked, as I thought I’d have to argue to obtain help from my ships. “Susan, I’m not ready to move yet.”

  “I know, and I told them to wait for four weeks. They want to help so badly that they came anyway.”

  “Good. I want a destroyer escort ready to go now. We are going to pull that box out of that plane, and I will open it myself.”

  “How is Becky doing?” Susan repeated.

  Now that I had made contact I could at least hold my tag on her. And with that tag, I could feel her emotions. “Susan, she is horribly frightened, but now that she knows we know and that we are coming to rescue her, she has become her spirited self.”

  Susan saw my worry. “Good. Freddy, does Becky know that box has a deadly trap?”

  “No.” I looked up at Susan, thinking, I can never get anything past her. Out loud, I said, “And she never will.”

  Henry came in. “Captain, the troops are ready, and all three destroyer escorts are standing by.”

  I looked out my window and teleported every one of them onto the quarterdeck of the first destroyer escort I saw. “Captain, we’re ready to go.”

  As shocked as the Captain of the Harm’s Way was to have thirty armed SEALs and eight specials on his quarterdeck, he quickly adjusted and started giving orders. We took off, and within three minutes we were directly over the plane, five miles up.

  Rodney turned to the specials and asked, “How did you get here?”

  Joe Crysem was a twenty-four-year old major empath. He had the ability to make people feel any way he wanted, and he knew exactly how people felt around him. It made him great at crowd control. Joe answered, “You think you’re the only one who cares about Becky? Besides, two clairvoyants said we would be needed.”

  I looked over and said, “And I sent for them mentally.” I turned to Susan, saying, “I need to send SEALs into that plane to knock out everyone. There are twenty-six people. Someone will have to quickly take over flying. Please prepare.” I turned to the specials and said, “Joe, please use your empathy and spread confidence and peace throughout that ship. I need them thinking they got away with this. Mally, I am glad to see you here. Can you sense the plane below us?”

  Mally looked up at me with big eyes and said, “Yes, big brother.” She gave me a hug.

  Mally was eight years old, and I looked at her as a little sister. She’d had a bad childhood, and I tried to make it up to her with as much loving kindness as possible, without spoiling her—well, not too much spoiling. She had the ability to scan anything, sense through almost anything, and stop movement on a molecular level. I stroked her hair lovingly. “Now look closer. See the man with his finger tied to a switch.”

  “I see him. He’s a bad man. He has bad thoughts.”

  “Yes, he is. Can you make it so that the switch will not move?”

  She smiled. “Yes. I can do that.”

  “Mally, this is very important. If he moves that switch, your big sister Becky will die.”

  Mally started tearing up and said, “He’s not going to move that switch. No one will ever move that switch!”

  “Thank you, princess.” I turned to Susan. “Once everything is secured, I will come onboard to remove Becky.”

  “Understood. We’re ready.”

  “Good. Here you go.”

  I teleported twenty-nine SEALs into the ship in various areas and one directly into the cockpit. The battle was quick and deadly. One kidnapper tried to turn the switch. He only had that one try before he died. Susan took no chances with him having a second switch. Three SEALs were stationed at that console. Katie sent a mental signal: “All secure, Freddy.”

  As soon as everything was done, I teleported down and mentally scanned the equipment. Susan was right next to me. “It’s trapped in several ways, Susan,” I said, “and there is a magnetic field with a strange, fluctuating electrical frequency around this box, caused by some of the equipment on this plane, that stops me from teleporting her out without having my hands directly on the box.” Then I reached out and teleported Johnny Cannon down. Johnny looked confused, so I gave him a second to adjust to suddenly being someplace else. Johnny was fifteen going on forty. He had the ability to change toxics into pure water. No one has figured out how, but he will have a great and everlasting high-paying job when he graduates from our school.

  “Johnny.”

  Johnny heard me and came my direction. “I wish you wouldn’t teleport me without giving me warning. Darn, that’s irritating.”

  “Sorry. I’m in a hurry. Touch my arm.” Once he did, I said, “What I’m showing you is Becky inside the box.”

  “I see her. Nice teddy.”

  “Johnny!”

  “Okay. Don’t get jealous.”

  I stopped myself growling and concentrated on saving my Becky. “Do you see that liquid surrounding her in that plastic layer?”

  “Yes. Nasty stuff.”

  “What is it?”

  “Some sort of highly oxygenated acid. Much stronger than sulfuric.”

  “Can you change it?”

  “Sure.”

  I felt his energy flow through me and into the box. It took several minutes, but slowly, after what seemed like years, the liquid was water. Johnny collapsed next to me. I teleported him to the quarterdeck of the Harm’s Way and sent a mental to Trisha to take care of him.

  Trisha Zoemal was thirteen but thought she was eighteen—and acted like she was twelve. She was the third best healer known, and she had the added ability to help burned-out specials. I did not intend to burn out anyone, though, and Johnny was far from it.

  Trisha instantly checked him and reported he was still weak but would be fine.

  Susan said, “I don’t see a lid or opening.”

  I answered, “There isn’t one. She was teleported inside before the magnetic field was turned on.” I got up and checked everyone on the ship. There were only twenty-five. We scanned and tore the ship apart. The Harm’s Way was warned, and they scanned and triple-checked everyone and every place. The monster was not found. Somehow, he’d escaped. I say “monster” because only a monster would dream up a cage like this. If the switch had been turned
or the magnetic field dropped before a certain unknown time, Becky would have been submerged in acid that would keep her alive and awake until most of her body was painfully eaten away. Thanks to Johnny, now she would only drown. “What to do … what to do.” Then it hit me, and I teleported Lisa and Chuck down into the plane. As I expected, they were kissing.

  Chuck “the Octopus” Stewart was sixteen years old—a sports-minded high-school quarterback and basketball star. Nicknamed Octopus for reasons I won’t discuss, he had the ability to temporarily weaken metal to the breaking point or strengthen it to beyond anything known. He loved Lisa Ann because she was a cheerleader and easy, though being easy had nothing to do with cheerleading.

  Lisa Ann was fifteen, head cheerleader, and a sports nut. She was born and raised on a pig farm, and she developed an uncanny ability to import fresh air and breathe for everyone around her. She would be of great use in ambulances to give air to people who were not breathing. She loved Chuck because of his sports ability—and “a great kisser.”

  “Stop that, you two.” I said.

  Lisa Ann said, “Jealous.”

  Chuck said, “Be serious, Lisa Ann. The team needs us. Sorry, Freddy.” Then he kissed Lisa Ann again and let her go. “What do ya need?”

  “Chuck, I need both of you to touch me so we can focus together.”

  They both came over and touched me.

  Chuck said, “Lisa! Not there!” Then he took her hand off my chest and moved it to my arm, tsking at Lisa. She pouted but kept her hand on my arm. I showed them Becky, and Lisa became very serious.

  “Lisa, when I break the connection to the magnetic shield, the bag of water surrounding Becky will break. She needs you to breathe for her.”

  “No problem, Freddy.”

  “Chuck, notice the metal shackles on her ankles and arms as well as around her waist and neck?”

  “I see ’em.”

  “I can’t break them; they are too strong and are magnetically shielded.”

  “Just a sec.” Chuck concentrated for a few seconds and said, “You can break them now.”

  “Thanks. Ready, Lisa?”