by Charles Lamb
“Like what?” Bonnie asked with a look on her face that Sara took to mean she was nuts.
“I don’t know and that’s what has me scared. Alice never wanted me pregnant before, so why now? What’s changed?” she replied.
Sara watched as Bonnie considered her questions. Finally, she shook her head.
“Look, you have been under a lot of stress, captured and almost killed, and have only recently been able to relax. We both know those kinds of issues prevent you from becoming pregnant. I’m not saying you’re wrong, it’s just that I don’t see why Alice would mess with you like that. Everyone knows nothing would make Jake happier than to see you pregnant and have a good reason to ground you!” Bonnie finished with a smile.
Sara nodded in agreement, even though she was sure there was something else going on. She wasn’t getting her sister on board with her suspicions.
“Ok with that settled, let’s go tell Becky, this is sure to piss her off!” Bonnie said with a smile as she led Sara back to the facility doors.
----*----
Jake spent the entire day in his office, splitting his time between the London surprise and all his other duties. As requested, ALICE had provided two new monitoring satellites which Linda had delivered into earth orbit. With all the training going on, it had been easy enough to slip the delivery into one of the previously scheduled space flight activities.
Dealing with all the distractions, Jake hadn’t had an opportunity to reach out to Sara to see what she was up to. Several times that day, he had started to ask Alice to get her for him. However, he stopped when he remembered she was with her sisters. He felt she needed the family time, as she had seemed particularly stressed the last few days.
It was then that Patti came knocking, having left him earlier to address other matters.
“Jake, are you busy?” She asked as she stood at the doorway.
Thankful for the distraction, he waved her in, “Nope, what’s up?”
“We have a group of inbound ships. They transmitted the typical greetings, and requests for an audience,” she replied.
“That’s what, three days off?” Jake replied, not seeing the urgency.
“Well, yes, but we need to go over the Wawobash order for replacement ships so I thought I’d let you know now. Oh, and the Wawobash wanted me to relay to you the special ship you ordered is near completion, the holo file is in your inbox. They wanted to insure you didn’t require any changes in the design. And they also wanted to remind you they are delivering two months early.”
Jake knew that was a gentle reminder that they were invoking his incentive clause. He promised a 50% bonus for every order delivered measurably early. So far, they hadn’t disappointed and neither had Jake.
“So are you going to share with us?” Patti asked, referring to the secrecy surrounding this particular order, as she entered the room, closing the door behind her.
“All in good time,” he replied with a smile, “Ok, let’s see what you have?” he finished, referring to the Wawobash order for replacement ships.
They spent the next hour going over the number, size, and types of ships in the order. Jake had also proposed having a new type of fighter built by the Wawobash. It was common knowledge that the ferrous materials the ALICEs used in shipbuilding made them very durable, but incapable of Faster than Light or FTL travel.
To overcome this hurdle, Jake had proposed the installation of stasis bubbles in the larger ships, permitting their transport inside a host ship. Jake was now suggesting they submit the specifications to the Wawobash and see what they came up with as a solution for a non-ferrous fighter with FTL capabilities.
At no time had he considered the concept of releasing the secret of the stasis fields for manufacturing “offshore.” That technology was for internal ALICE/human installation only and top secret, to be guarded at all costs. That thought did create a question in Jake’s mind though.
“Alice?” he asked, knowing she was always listening.
“Yes, Jake,” she replied.
“How are we tapped into the NeHaw communications network?” he asked.
“How do you mean Jake?” ALICE asked in return.
“How are we guarding against possible hacks? I don’t know if that notion is even germane in this case, but as we seem to be running wild and free in their data. How are we protecting ours?” he answered.
“Our tap into their network is a kind of a firewall. We inspect all traffic; both in and out bound, and verify its validity before releasing it. We initiate queries and capture traffic, but block any inbound traffic initiated from outside our own systems unless it’s from a known source. We also proxy all traffic so there is actually no direct connection with the NeHaw infrastructure. We haven’t seen any NeHaw attempts to access our systems, but we have seen several from other races. All were intercepted and blocked,” ALICE finished.
Jake was satisfied for the moment, but made a note to investigate this topic further. As he was about to return his attention to Patti, ALICE added, “Jake, Chris Wade is asking to speak to you, apparently there is an issue in Los Angeles.”
“Of course there is,” Jake replied, exasperation in his tone.
Chapter 3
Becky was just as irritating as Sara had expected her to be. She seemed to take it as a personal affront that Sara had gotten pregnant before she had. Once they were passed this initial drama, she had eventually congratulated her sister.
They had gathered in Bonnie’s quarters, where Julie, Sara’s niece, was playing on the floor while they talked. Sara adored her niece, all the more so as she was also Jake’s daughter. Not quite a year old, she was into everything.
Sara had chosen not to include Becky in her earlier conversation with Bonnie, as she doubted Becky cared about her suspicions. She would look at any interest the ALICEs had in additional children as her own personal opportunity. As it was, she had been complaining incessantly about Jake’s negligence since they had returned from Australia.
That trip had been wonderful, even with the other women in attendance. They had worked things out to allow private time for each, while not making things awkward. It was likely that it was there that Sara had become pregnant.
“Are you listening to me?” Sara heard from Becky, bringing her focus back to the present.
“Oh, I’m sorry, I was watching Julie,” she lied in response.
With that, Becky reached over and picked Julie up, holding her in her lap while continuing.
“I was just saying I don’t see why Jake has to work out of Nevada, when Texas is just as good. Better, in fact, as we are more centrally located,” Becky repeated as she played with Julie.
“I don’t know Becky,” Sara replied in frustration, “it just worked out that way.”
Sara watched her little sister with their niece. While the three sisters continued to talk, Becky’s mood improved with Julie in her lap. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if she did have one for herself, Sara thought.
----*----
Jake found his mood improving the farther he got from the Nevada facility and his dreaded office. On his hovercycle, he was leading Joe and Abby, his Spec Ops team leaders, across the desert at 180 MPH and a few hundred feet above ground level. They were in a loose V formation and headed to Pasadena.
The call from Chris had come in the form of a request. As of late, there had been an increase in hostile activity in the greater Los Angeles area. He had asked if Jake could send some flyers to act as air cover for a few days.
After the last slap down Jake and his Marines had delivered there, the overall level of violence had dropped significantly. Chris had been able to address any of the little incidents since; however, these were starting to become more frequent. They were also starting to involve larger numbers of bandits.
The specifics varied, but the core issue was always the same. Chris’s teams roamed the abandoned areas of Los Angeles, filling orders from the remote communities. The collectors were set upon afte
r exiting their vehicles, while trying to fill their pick lists. They were never molested on the way out or returning,
The teams collected a wide selection of non-perishable goods, which were then shipped all over the country. In exchange, the farming communities paid with their local specialties, all perishable foods grown or raised outside the old city boundaries. So far, Chis had a substantial credit going with several locations, as their needs exceeded his.
Jake was aware that the trade between the communities ranged as far as Maine and Alaska, with the Hawaiian facility still too understaffed to support such efforts. The other facility commanders continued to coordinate activities to establish a robust transport network between all the sponsored communities. From the reports he reviewed, things were going very well.
It was early evening when Jake led the other two riders into the open area inside the walls of the Pasadena compound. He had radioed Chris when they were 30 minutes out, switching to one of their local frequencies. As they slowed, he could see there was a small reception committee in the courtyard waiting for their arrival. Outside the compound walls, the open-air market still had a few stragglers trading their wares.
As they were still the only airborne traffic on the entire planet, he had little fear of being mistaken as a hostile on approach. They halted midair and slowly descended. The three had no sooner settled on their skids, than Chris and a few others strolled over to meet them.
“Thanks for coming so soon,” Chris said while greeting Jake with a hand out.
Taking the offered hand in his own gloved one, the two shook before Jake reached up, removing his helmet. Historically a no go as far as ALICE was concerned; the removal of their protective gear had been negotiated for a few special locations. Chris’s compound, the resort they had established off the California coast, the island of Lanai in the Hawaiian Islands and the Australian island location were all considered safe zones.
The compound here had been a hard sell until Chris’s people grew so great in numbers that they had to expand into the surrounding structures. This established a buffer that even ALICE had to accept as a protected area.
“No worries,” Jake replied after his helmet was off.
Jake caught movement out of the corner of his eye, and turned to see both Joe and Abby greeting members of Chris’s team. Apparently, they all knew one another, something that surprised Jake, though he knew it should not.
As members of Jake’s Special Forces unit, the two were frequently called upon to train various community patrols in small unit tactics. The Pasadena location was at the northern edges of the greater Los Angeles ruins, so the need for urban tactics training was greater here than any other place.
Following Chris inside, Jake left the others to their own devices. As they entered the building, Jake immediately noticed the changes since his last visit here. Looking around, he could see the addition of functional lighting, replacing the oil lamps and candles.
As it was late in the day, it appeared as if they were preparing for the evening meal. Men and women were in various stages of food preparation, with a couple of the older children assisting as well. It had been a while since Jake had actually seen anyone cooking, since ALICE handled all such endeavors behind the scenes.
Jake followed Chris across the room and down a hall to their right. Stopping about halfway down the hall, he entered a room on his left, waiting for Jake to enter before closing the door behind them. The room was crowded with people and equipment.
About twice the size of a large bedroom, Jake saw desks lining the far wall, all with various pieces of computing equipment and monitors. Tables down the center of the room held papers and maps, mostly generated from the printers at the far end of the room to Jake’s left.
The furniture was all mismatched and probably scrounged from the nearby office buildings outside the compound walls. Jake was aware that one of the first upgrades provided to the compound was a portable power source. The unit was similar to the one they had installed for Prosperity, embedded in the medical module they dropped there. However, it supplied plenty of power for the electric lighting and all the equipment he saw before him.
While he was looking around, Jake heard Chris explain, “This is our version of a command center. I hear you all have quite a fancy setup, holographic projectors and all, but this suits us just fine.”
Jake turned and smiled as Chris pulled one of the maps closer to them.
“These help us locate the stuff that the farmers ask for. Your Alice helps us by marking the spots where specific items were once stored or sold. Once we know that, we can go searching for items still in good condition,” Chris finished.
As Jake examined the map, he noted several red marks in areas around the old industrial parts of Los Angeles.
“And these?” He asked Chris.
“Yeah, that’s where we are having issues. Each of those red marks is where we had a run in with someone. I don’t believe they were after the goods, as the runs were for clothes and furniture. People here value food and weapons,” Chris replied.
Jake nodded in agreement. He had put a bit of thought into the motivations, there, considering they may just be after the vehicles. After establishing relations with the Pasadena compound, Jake’s people had delivered several trucks and jeeps for their use here. This was extremely well received, providing Chris with the necessary transports for larger quantities and heavier loads. It also lets them move more pickers and guards.
Since the vehicles were electric powered and solar charged, they could run indefinitely, limited by breakage due to wear and tear or gunfire. Considering all the other factors in the attacks, Jake was inclined to believe that were the target. Unfortunately, what the bandits didn’t know was that any ALICE could shut every vehicle down on command.
As Jake listened, Chris continued on, describing their current activities. Jake already knew most of it, as it was covered in his daily reports. However, he let Chris continue, as the man was obviously very proud of their organization and rightly so.
“So, are you going to be able to stay tonight?” Chris asked as he completed his overview.
Jake instinctively started to decline, but then stopped in mid-sentence.
“Why not,” He replied. He was well aware that ALICE was wired into the communications here and would be notifying the others of his decision.
The reply brought a broad smile to Chris’s face.
“Wonderful!” Chris answered, “This gives us a great excuse to have a barbeque!”
Jake followed the man, as he hurried out of the room and back into the common kitchen area. As he watched, Chris set everything in motion for an old style family barbeque.
----*----
MeHak found herself in the unenviable position of hosting her male subordinates in a private planning meeting. She had found it necessary to intervene in calling it a crisis session, killing any insinuations that she didn’t have everything well in hand.
After the disastrous ending to the Klinan trap she had lain, there had been rumblings that she was unfit to deal with the situation in Nu Tao Beta. Admittedly, military strategies were not her specialty, however, political manipulation was, and she didn’t see the two as all that different. The object was to hit your opponent when and where they least expected it.
The Klinan plan was almost a success; it was only the late arrival of the peculiar battleship that had saved the humans. Her analysts speculated that the ship was once the NeHaw battleship lost earlier, however, it no longer resembled anything in the NeHaw inventory. She suspected the Wawobash had a hand in its creation.
The escaping destroyers had also captured some very disturbing data emanating from the ship, emissions that had prompted the bombing of the human home world. Information of the highest secrecy had tied those same readings to the possible creation of artificial life. It was only for a moment, possibly the fluctuations of a cloaking technology, so they couldn’t be positive.
If the humans had bee
n able to replicate those systems, there might actually be a danger to the NeHaw. It was that concern that had her working with the top NeHaw military minds, directing them with her wisdom in forming the next steps in dealing with the human threat.
----*----
While still with Bonnie, Sara checked in with Linda, debating on whether she needed to return to Nevada that night. To her surprise, she learned Jake was spending the night in Pasadena. She laughed when Linda informed her that Alice had dispatched one of the Lanai patrol craft, unasked, into a permanent hover at high altitude over Pasadena. Its complement included a squad of Jake’s 1st Space Marines on standby, should they be needed. ALICE was taking no chances.
Satisfied she wasn’t required anywhere else, she excused herself and headed to her own quarters just down the hall from Bonnie’s. Becky had left earlier, her medical duties calling her away. Since each of the senior staff maintained quarter’s at all eight ALICE locations, Sara’s room was already stocked with everything she would need.
Entering her room, she started stripping down as she crossed the living room, dropping clothes along the way and heading to the bedroom beyond. By the time she had reached the bathroom, she was already naked and ready for a nice hot shower. While no longer a novelty, she still delighted in a hot shower, taking far longer than the necessary time to get clean.
With Becky working late tonight and Bonnie busy with other duties, Sara took the opportunity to pamper herself. Using an overlarge T-shirt as a nightgown, one she had secreted from Jake’s personal stock, she ordered dinner in her room.
Since her original rescue from the LA raiders that killed her parents, which seemed so long ago, Sara had been afforded little time to explore her more personal interests. As she was usually with Jake or working some urgent issue, her own down time was rare. What she had discovered in those rare moments was her love of music.
More than once, she had seen the surprised look on Jake’s face as she hummed some tune he recognized. While her voice wasn’t spectacular, she could carry a tune and liked to sing along. Usually she would have ALICE play something in the background as she worked or created playlists from her terminal when at her desk.
