by John Ricks
“Don’t worry. I won’t let that happen.”
Blue asked with some irritation, “Game? His first ship is a game? What is a game?”
Green answered, “A game is not fully understood. At first we thought it was something that children do to pass the time before going to their form of mind-conforming protocol they call school. Then we found out that games are used to teach as entertainment and to bash each other senseless, as with destructive games called football and soccer. At this time we see ‘games’ as possible military training for the masses. There is almost always a winner and a loser.”
Yellows added, “It has come to our attention that they call many games ‘war games.’ This conforms with many of the messages we witnessed in their transmissions.”
Blue said, “Then Gray was correct in thinking that they are trained for war at birth. No wonder they are so devastating.”
Twenty Grays marched in and stationed themselves around the room. They were in armor and heavily armed. The large Gray who was leading them looked like he would kill for no reason. He said in a voice meant to intimidate, “Devastating isn’t the half of it. Our commanders are now trying to figure out how to keep them from destroying our home world. All but one of their ships passed us and are heading that way. As they passed, they sent a message in every language they know.”
Yellows asked, “Was the message deciphered, little Gray?” Their intimidation did not work, as Blue and Yellows were not the least bit afraid.
“Yes.”
Yellows decided to do their own intimidation. “Well!”
The Gray backed up a little. “The message was the same three words over and over: ‘Give him back.’”
All eyes turned to me. I smiled. It’s nice to feel wanted.
Green quickly continued. “Then we have little time.”
Chapter 9
New People—and One’s a Government Inspector
The next eight months were a blur, as I spent most of that time in the shop, coming out only to grab something to eat. I received reports about how the government wanted to have more of the scanners and power systems—a lot more—so I released the full patent to them for temporary use in the research of its possibilities. The girls came up with some requests for changes to the layout of the shuttle controls, and I gladly made them. The more I agreed to their suggestions, the more they opened up. One day, I received a request for over twenty changes—silly stuff like backup systems, lights, IFF (Information Friend or Foe), a black box, and—can you believe it?—restrooms, as if I wouldn’t have thought of that for the real thing! It grabbed my attention, and I came out.
There were three people near the trainer whom I’d never seen before, but none of the girls were visible. I went back into the shop.
“Shop, please contact Home, and find out where the girls are.”
“Freddy, two of the team are now headed toward the door to this shop—the commander and Katie. Two are in the upper forest, one is in the watch room, eight are in the new home complex, two are in the trainer, and the rest are in the house.”
“Shop, please hold. It does not sound like there’s a problem.” Telepathically, I called to Katie.
“Hi, Freddy.”
“I came out, and there were people here I do not know.”
“I can sense your worry. How sweet. Don’t worry; everything’s fine. The girls are all doing well. The extra people are from NASA. The commander thought that it would be good to have their opinions on a few things, mostly to ensure we run legal.”
“That would be why I got this long list of requests?”
“Correct. Are you coming out?”
“Are you sure it’s safe?”
“It’s safe; don’t worry. We checked them out thoroughly. They didn’t like it, and we did turn down three before we agreed to the five we have now, but these guys checked out.”
“Okay, then, I’m coming out.”
I opened the door and went through. “Hi, Commander. What’s up?”
She knelt down to my level and said, “I’m sorry. I should have warned you or at least placed a watch out here to guide you. When Katie said you were outside but ran back in because you were afraid, we knew we’d messed up.”
“That’s okay, Susan. Stuff happens, and we learn. How long have they been here?”
“Two days. You really need to come out more often. They have questions that I can’t begin to answer.”
“That’s nice. I don’t see why I need to answer anything they ask. Have they been approved by the president?”
“Yes, and to be honest, we’re a little excited that they’re here. Two are astronauts in training, and one is an astronaut with four flights under his belt.”
“And the other two?”
“One is an FAA safety inspector, and the other is an aerospace engineer from MIT. NASA sent them out to help us figure out what’s needed to make your equipment legal for flight and to look at standard connections. They would like it if you could connect to the space station and deliver supplies. Though, for some reason, I feel that they don’t believe you’re actually going to get anything off the ground. The president had to order them to help.”
I thought about that for a minute. “That’s an interesting situation, but these people are working with the wrong information. This is just a trainer. It does not have the running lights, cargo holds, restrooms, or any of the hundred other options I’ve worked out.” I smiled. “Commander, they have no idea. I’ll be right back. Keep this area clear.”
I went back into my shop. “Shop, please open the bay doors, and have two shuttles power up.”
“Complying. Doors open. Shuttle One is at 50 percent power and climbing. Shuttle Two is at 28 percent and climbing.”
“Shop, please contact Shuttle One and Shuttle Two, and have them move out to the first and third launch pads, respectively.”
“Working. Completed.”
I watched as both shuttles lifted and moved out, pursuant to their preprogramming. They moved through what looked like a solid rock face and out into the compound. I left the shop and stood next to the commander and Katie. Both shuttles moved soundlessly over our heads and out to the launch pads, where they settled down on “multilanders” and powered down. I pathed, “Shop, place them on A-1 security, and close the bay doors.”
“Completed.”
You could just barely see the shimmer surrounding them from the shields. “Darn,” I said. That startled Katie and the commander. “I need to adjust the security shields so they don’t show. I couldn’t see that in the lights of my shop.”
The commander asked, “Freddy, do both of them do what the trainer does?”
I looked at her in amused disgust. “Commander, the trainer is just a simple device. These two do much, much more.” With a smile and a lilt in my voice, I said, “I’m hungry. Any chance the kitchen’s open?”
“For you, Freddy, there’s bread pudding.”
I eagerly started toward home. “Really? I love bread pudding.”
We entered the house, and I headed upstairs, yelling back over my shoulder to the commander, “Susan, I’ll be down to eat after I clean up. Then we can talk, if you want.”
I took a quick shower, brushed my teeth, and ran a brush through my hair, which was down below my waist now. I really did need to get it trimmed. I dried it using my telekinetic abilities and then braided it. I put on some new earrings I’d received from the town for Christmas. I liked these earrings. They dangled nicely and tickled my neck, and the girls had stopped laughing long ago.
Almost everyone was outside around the two shuttles. The commander and one man were waiting for me. They were talking at the bottom of the stairs when I came out. The commander said. “Freddy, this is Dr. Michael Landers. He’s an aerospace scientist from NASA and MIT.”
I put my hand out, asking, “A
re you the same Dr. M. K. Landers who wrote Space and the Reasons Man Must Conquer It and Traveling Faster than Light?”
He shook my hand. “Why, yes, I am. Have you read my books?”
“Of course. They were required reading for my doctorate in spatial physics.”
“Well, it’s very nice to meet you, Dr. Anderson.”
“Please call me Freddy. We’re not much on titles here.”
“And you can call me Mike.”
“Thanks. Have you had lunch, Mike?”
“Yes. We just ate an hour ago.”
“I have not eaten for …” I looked at the commander.
“Three days.”
“Thank you, Commander. Three days. I’m a little hungry at the moment. If you don’t mind, I have a few things to discuss with the commander, and then can we talk while I eat.”
“Of course. Do I need to leave?”
“No, sir. Commander, how’s the training going?”
We talked through the meal, and she brought me up-to-date on what had happened in the last few weeks. She stopped long enough to explain to Dr. Landers that I paid little attention to my surroundings when I was working. He laughed and said that his wife often said the same thing about him.
“In essence,” the commander said, “the training went well until the scenario of going past the moon and out to Mars. None of the girls has had the training needed to work out the math. Every time they tried, they missed Mars by hundreds of thousands of miles. I asked NASA for help. They sent two astronavigators to teach us, Lieutenant Cal Bergman and Lieutenant Yuan Nguyen. With their help, the girls are at scenario forty-eight.” Her eyebrows rose a little when she pointed out the fact that they had crashed or died in one way or another over a hundred times before getting through scenario twenty-six. She said, “That’s a ridiculous scenario. Nothing like that will ever happen because there’s no such thing as a UFO.”
“Susan, did I give you the scanning equipment to watch the solar system yet?”
She looked wide-eyed and startled, took a small step back, and said, “No.”
“Remind me to give it to you. You’d be surprised the education it can provide.” I changed the subject. “Mike, you had some questions for me?”
“Yes, well …” He paused and then said, “You have just increased the questions I have by a factor of ten.”
I smiled. “Then we’d better get to them before I go back to work.”
“First, can your craft really do what the scenarios show? Can they really go that fast?”
“You’re as bad as the commander here. The trainer is just a simple mock-up of the real thing. Please understand that I was in a hurry when I made the trainer, and I slowed it down to allow the trainees a chance to learn to control it. The two shuttles out there on the launch pads are much faster and have much more capability.”
“The two shuttles look like they’re able to carry a lot of cargo.”
“I built the shuttles so that they can connect to a number of different cargo or personnel carriers. I did not wish to limit myself to having a ship that could do only one thing. I thought about it for some time and decided to use our trucking system as a good way to move materials from one place to another. Our semitrucks can carry any type of cargo, pull a bus of people around, move frozen products through the desert, or pull a house across country. What you see out there are two semitrucks with standard trailers. I can easily interchange the trailers. The reason for the two long wings going down both sides of the truck—or in this case, the shuttle—is that at the end of each wing is a small tractor beam to hold the cargo in place and take some of the weight off the connection. That way, I can use a long trailer without having the end weight pull the truck apart. So to answer your question, these two shuttles can carry anything that we can attach to the rear docking connection and that will fit between the two wings. Once in space, you could connect multiples. So this request to have my connection changed to a standard connection is not needed. If I need to dock with the space station, then I would simply ensure that the trailer has that type of connection on the other end. The connections that you use for the space station are not strong enough for my purposes. I can entertain changing them if the need arises but not on these two; the material I used to form them will not permit changes.”
“What do you mean?”
“The material is new, something that I still need to patent, so I won’t go into detail, but you cannot cut, drill, scrape, scratch, or mar that hull, not with a laser, a diamond drill, or even other equipment I have that we won’t talk about yet. I can dissolve the hull under certain precise conditions and reuse the material, but that would mean scrapping the entire hull. The hull was formed around the connection, so removing it would be impossible at this time. I could try to change the molecular structure by …”
I got up and walked off, talking to myself. I was thinking about ways to change out the connections when the commander must have taken my face in both hands and turned me around. Her face was only inches from mine when she yelled, “Freddy!” This brought me back to my surroundings.
“Are you with us again?” she asked.
“Yes. What do you want?”
“You have a guest, and it’s not polite to drift off right now.” She turned to Dr. Landers. “See what I mean by ‘drifty’?”
I turned red and went back to sit down.
Mike said, “Your amount of total concentration could be dangerous in space or on the moon, Freddy.”
The commander added, “Or here. He has walked off the terraces twice, and once he fell into the water. We’ve had to ensure he has someone with him at all times when he’s outside of his shop. I worry a lot about him being in his shop alone.”
I turned even redder. The master chief came in and said with a laugh, “He’ll break his neck some day and won’t even realize it until someone sees his head flopping around.”
Everyone laughed except me.
“Dr. Landers,” I said, “this is Master Chief Jacquelyn Uniceson.”
“We’ve met, Freddy. After all, I’ve been here for two days.”
The rest of the team was coming in, and the commander made introductions. She was right; it was a good group.
“Freddy, this is Captain Mark Twain Williams. He’s the astronaut with all the experience I was telling you about.”
“Nice to have you visit, Captain.”
“I’m hoping for more than a visit.”
I tilted my head, looking concerned.
The commander asked, “What’s wrong, Freddy?”
I directed my comments to the NASA captain. “Please understand that I am highly empathic.” I paused for this to sink in. “I cannot help but feel what you’re feeling, so I know that this”—I held both braids and flipped one earring up about an inch to show that I was talking about my choice of adornment, and I squinted my eyes in distaste—“disturbs you very much.”
“Well, sir, I’m just not used to it.”
“Be that as it may, please understand that I’m not likely to change. If you wish to remain at my residence or work with me for any length of time, please get used to seeing things that you may not understand or approve. I am open-minded enough to discuss this or any other issue with you, but I cannot and will not put up with someone feeling disgust toward me or any member of my team because of what I consider to be that person’s close-mindedness.”
“I will try my best.”
I smiled. “I can ask for no more.”
The commander quickly introduced me to the next two people. “Freddy, this is Lieutenant Cal Bergman and Lieutenant Yuan Nguyen. They are the two astronaut trainees in astronavigation and piloting that I told you about.”
Cal Bergman said, “Nice to finally meet you, Dr. Anderson.” I shook hands with both of them. “We both are also hoping to be able to do more than just t
rain.”
I responded, “It’s nice to see two people who have such positive feelings. I can see that we will get along very well.”
“Thank you, sir.”
Gray asked, “What is a UFO?”
Green quickly turned to laughter inside. “A UFO, master, is an unidentified flying object.”
Gray looked disturbed, his head tilted and his face wrinkled. “And what is an unidentified flying object.”
Green smiled. “No one knows. That is why it is unidentified.”
Every Green in the room laughed inside.
Gray’s eyes seemed to wander in two different directions with a look of confusion, so Yellows helped. “Nice joke, Green. OPR, Master Gray. In their language, we were OPR. It seems that anything in space or flying through their territory that they cannot explain is opwernekul (or unidentified), prfereret (or flying), and a ratemer (or object); therefore, UFO. Their language has surprisingly similar words to ours. It is one of the reasons that this creature is mastering our phonetics so quickly.”
Gray exclaimed with narrowing eyes, “It is learning our language?”
I decided to mess with them a little more. “He! He is learning your language. I am not an it.”
Eyes widened, and everyone, except the Yellows and Green, backed up as they all looked shocked. Yellows quickly added a third and fourth tentacle, nearly completely covering my head. “We are running out of time in more way than one. He is adapting to the tank. Continue—and hope he does not do anything stupid.”
Chapter 10
Inspectors or Plants—Pick One; They Both Suck
“Freddy,” said the commander, “this is the FAA inspector, Mr. Terry Fly.”
“Hello, Mr. Fly. I take it you’re the one who generated all the change requests? I am very sorry that they started you out looking at just the trainer; that was my fault. I failed to communicate to the team what the real product would be like. I’ve brought the shuttles out for you to inspect.”
