by Charles Lamb
“It looks like it keeps going,” Sandy said as she pointed over Becky’s shoulder into the room beyond.
“Yeah, let’s try,” Becky replied, as she stepped into the room, hurrying to check.
No sooner had both women entered the room, than the panel closed behind them, sealing them in the room. Continuing into the space, they discovered that the left turn only represented the end of the shelving, and allowed access to a wall panel of displays and buttons.
Returning to the panel they entered through, Becky touched the wall, as she had done on the other side. Nothing happened.
“Open!” She commanded as she first touched, and then pushed on the wall.
“What’s wrong?” Sandy asked as she watched Becky slap at the wall with her open hand.
“It won’t open! All I did was touch it on the other side, now it won’t budge,” she answered in frustration.
Looking around, Sandy noticed that the shelves were all stocked with cooking supplies. Since they had seen a galley just up the hall, it made sense that the stores would be nearby. There were various containers of things like cooking oil, flour, rice and other goods that kept well outside of stasis. On the other side, there were large cylinders that ran from floor to ceiling.
She didn’t know much about spaceships, but she suspected these were some kind of oversized pipes. They were evenly spaced, with about eight or nine inches of open space between them. Through the space, she could see there was another room on the far side, and to her excitement, the door was open to the passage they had left earlier.
“Becky, look!” Sandy said while pointing between cylinders.
Seeing the open door herself, Becky stepped over to the pipes and appeared to be estimating the gap. As Sandy watched, she tried to slip sideways between two of them, only to be stopped by her helmet. Sandy could see there was no way the helmet could pass between the two pipes.
“We could call for help?” Sandy offered.
“We are not supposed to be here, remember. Jake would have our ass!” Becky replied, obviously not willing to take the heat after Jake had told them to wait for him before boarding.
Both women stood staring at one another, before Becky turned back to reexamine the gap between the pipes.
“I have an idea!” Becky said as she started to remove her helmet.
Sandy panicked at first, and then recalled the ship was earth normal atmosphere. They had only kept their helmets on, as it was easier to wear them than carry them. Once she got her helmet off, Becky handed it to Sandy. She then attempted to slip through the gap, only to be held up by her jacket.
Stepping back, she slipped off her jacket, boots, and trousers, standing in front of Sandy in just her BDU undergarment. As she tried again, she was much further along, but just couldn’t seem to get passed.
Looking over her shoulder, Sandy saw the oil on the shelves next to her.
“Becky, look!” she said as she set the helmet down on the pile of clothes so she could grab one. Fortunately, the canister had an easy screw off top, as neither had anything on them that would have opened the can.
“Hold out your hands,” Sandy said as she held the can up to pour.
Doing as she was told, Becky held out both hands, as Sandy poured a small amount of oil in each.
“Ok, now spread it on you. That should help you slip through,” Sandy said with a smile.
As Becky spread the oil on her chest, she stopped.
“The suit is absorbing it!” she exclaimed in frustration.
While Sandy watched, she could see the oil Becky had just spread on the material disappear before their eyes.
“Crap, I forgot about that,” Sandy said.
Standing there for only a moment, Becky reached the only logical conclusion and began shedding the undergarment. Sandy knew, as it was with herself, neither woman had worn anything under the undergarment. So in no time, Becky was standing stark naked in front of Sandy, with both hands out for a second try with the oil
Pouring several rounds, Becky oiled herself down well in front and on her butt, asking Sandy to do her back as a final touch. Setting the oil down, Sandy watched as the naked Becky slipped between the pipes with no room to spare. Hearing Becky’s bare feet on the decking, Sandy watched her rush to the open door. Next, she was startled to hear her exclaim as she disappeared from sight entering the hall.
As Sandy waited, a moment later the door opened with the naked Becky standing before her and Jake right behind her, hands on his hips.
“Normally, finding a naked girl covered in oil would be considered a good thing,” She heard Jake say in a less than humorous tone.
----*----
Jake watched in his helmet display as the transport approached the English coastline. Inside the Lanai built transport with him were the 10th Cavalry and their hovercycles. Per Patti’s plan, the transport was to arrive under the cover of darkness and at an altitude of one thousand feet. Once in position, the 10th would take their hovercycles to predetermined points in the city of London.
Jake was not really put out at the delay recovering Sandy and Becky had caused. He hesitated calling it a rescue as they had technically freed themselves from the locked storage room ALICE had placed them in until his arrival. The memory of a naked, oiled Becky emerging from the adjacent doorway made him smile.
After Sara announced her pregnancy publicly, Becky had become a first rate attention whore. Jake had expected something like this, which would require his direct intervention. When ALICE informed Jake that the two women had secreted onto the shuttle, he had expected he would need to go collect them. The trip to space and back had not effected the timeline.
Since it was midnight, local time, it was sufficiently dark enough to cover their approach and hovercycle landings from prying eyes on the ground. Each of the eight troopers had a rider for this mission. They had pulled two fire teams from the 1st Space Marine Expeditionary Force to provide extra eyes and prevent a repeat of Jake’s experience in Pasadena.
Including Jake’s passenger, the mission had a total of eighteen shooters on nine hovercycles. While he felt that was more than enough firepower, ALICE had insisted on using a separate Lanai patrol craft in high cover, an additional squad of Marines as backup inside. Jake felt bad for them, having been in the same hurry up and wait situation himself. Sitting on standby, waiting for an event that probably will never happen was never fun.
While he could tell the craft was slowing via the display, the inertial dampers prevented any of the occupants from feeling the effects. Traveling from the Nevada ALICE, the trip had been just over two hours, even at the higher speeds it achieved. They could have traveled much faster, but Jake didn’t see the rush, this timetable gave everyone time to get their heads into the game.
The pilot placed the transport in a stationary hover, directly over the target area, right on time. Jake was happy to see more of the staff taking active roles in these positions. He had nothing against ALICE doing the flying, but they needed experienced pilots and that only came with time in the pilot seat. The ill-fated drop on Klinan still haunted him.
Turning to both Joe and Abby, each with their troop lined up behind them, he gave the thumbs up before mounting his own ride. The Marine he was carrying was already astride, sitting in the passenger seat. All their weapons had been stowed in the on-board boxes to the rear, except the side arms.
They killed the lighting in the bay as the ramp dropped. Switching to night vision, Jake checked to see that everyone had reported in, and was ready to go. With everyone green, he led the 10th out of the transport bay and into the night.
Per plan, Jake and two of the other 10th hovercycles were to land on the roof of the MI6 building. Joe and Abby would oversee the remaining troops and Marines dispersed throughout the nearby rooftops. Each of those was selected based on the locations of the remote dishes or their oversight of the entire area.
While they had no expectation of a firefight, they had no idea what to expec
t from the occupants below. The entire time they had the area under observation, they had caught no indications of who might be behind the activity there. There had been quite a discussion on whether or not to try to contact them prior to arrival.
In the end, they decided on a mixed approach. Jake would lead a small team down and tap into their communications line while the rest took over watch positions covering the group. Once tapped in, they would announce themselves. If things went poorly, they would high tail it out of there and back to the ship, covered by the others. Hopefully, that wouldn’t be necessary.
The night air was still a bit chilly, it being the typical English May weather, but their combat suits made the temperature irrelevant. What was important was that it was a clear, cloudless night, giving everyone a clear view as they approached their landing zones.
Whether a point of national pride or as an attempt to show friend or foe, Jake had everyone sport a US flag on their right shoulders, star field forward as per regulation. That requirement was hardly necessary, as he was likely the only one alive that knew the rule, but anything worth doing was worth doing right.
It was of note to Jake that all the Marines had their Eagle, Globe, and Anchor collar pins while the 10th all sported their crossed sabers, the 10 prominent in the valley they created. While Jake promoted a one-service attitude, he did not dissuade the various units from embracing their unit designators.
Jake waited for all the others to get into position before leading his team onto the building rooftop. Jake was less than thrilled that the area containing the antenna and dish array required them set down in a narrow area between the old cooling towers. As leader, he had each of the other hovercycles to take a position over the towers while he settled into the gap.
Once down, he and the sergeant assigned as his security dismounted and headed to the closest array. The sergeant had paused long enough to retrieve two of the 5.56mm rifles from the box at the rear of the craft, while Jake identified the cable he needed.
The cable tap that ALICE had provided was a small clamshell box that closed over the wire and allowed them to both transmit and receive as if they were directly wired into the system there. Once the LED turned green, Jake knew he was good to go.
Taking the rifle the sergeant retrieved, he did a quick check to insure everyone was ready. Just as Jake was preparing to announce himself, there was a burst of gunfire from the street below. Switching his helmet image to the overhead view provided by the transport ship, the night vision transmitted a view of a large armed group emerging from the tunnels across the way from the building, firing into the structure they were standing on.
Jake’s map indicated the tunnels were under Vauxhall station, the local rail transport stop. What the group lacked in military precision, they made up for in numbers, as there had to be at least twenty five to thirty shooters. Jake assumed there were tunnel entrances below the rail station as their infrared hadn’t picked up the approaching force.
Moving to the edge of the building, he could now see that there were several shooters in the building below them, defending against the onslaught. At this point, Jake had a decision to make, as it really wasn’t clear who any of these people were.
Pulling up the inventory of the hovercycle box, he found what he was looking for and headed back to his ride to retrieve his selection. Returning to the edge of the building, Jake pulled the pins in several CS canister grenades and began tossing them out in the direction of the oncoming shooters.
Early on, they had decided to start carrying non-lethal responses to aggression. Unlike their earlier successes with initial contact, Patti had suggested a means of addressing misunderstanding without returning fire.
Jake watched in his night vision as the gas dispersed in the still night air, causing the attackers to hold in place. The all too familiar response to the gas effects had several vomiting while others retreated to avoid contact. Within minutes, firing below had ceased and the streets were clear.
Jake shifted to the overhead view provided by the transport, looking for any stragglers. Once he was sure the area was clear, he led the sergeant back to their ride. Mounting up, he waited for the sergeant to follow suit before he lifted off the rooftop. As he headed over the edge of the building, he ordered the two escorts to follow him while everyone else held their positions.
With the lights of the transport above illuminating the area, Jake used the external speakers to present himself to those inside the old MI6 building. As the three hovercycles dropped slowly into the open space once filled with gas, he proclaimed his identity.
“This is Colonel Jake Thomas, we are looking for those using the satellite uplinks,” Jake announced.
After a few moments, there was a rustling from the third story window opening. In the opening where there had once been a glass pane, stood four armed men, all in uniform. The uniforms, registered with ALICE as British military, with what Jake swore were SAS berets. While two stood staring at Jake, the other two were working with something.
Jake could see from this location that all the first and second story openings had long since been closed off in some fashion, stoutly barricaded. As he watched, a rope ladder was rolled out of the window opening by two of the men while the other two stood in conversation. Soon, the closest standing man began to descend, his rifle slung across his back.
While the man descended, Jake could see the other standing in the opening, studying him. Scanning the building, Jake could see movement in several of the adjacent windows, as well as several higher up in the structure. He was positive they were under the watchful eyes of several more shooters inside. He didn’t blame them. After descending, the man turned and slowly advanced, giving the sergeant behind Jake a hard look, as he approached. He studied the four flanking out to the right and left, behind Jake.
“Colonel Thomas?” The man asked with a distinctly British accent, “of what army?”
“Bite your tongue man! I'm a Marine. I am from what once was the United States. We detected your access of the geosynchronous satellites and decided to come introduce ourselves,” Jake replied. He had made sure to leave his faceplate transparent. At this distance, Jake could clearly make out the SAS badge on the man’s beret.
“Yank, huh? Right, I am Sergeant Carson. I presume you provided the gas,” the man asked as he pointed to the spent canisters.
“Yeah, nothing personal, but we really had no idea who the bad guys were,” Jake replied with a shrug. Jake could tell the man was wearing an earpiece, so he assumed the entire exchange was being transmitted to others in the building.
“So the point of our visit is to establish relations. As you can see, we have managed to reestablish ourselves to a respectable point,” Jake offered, while pointing to the others in his party.
As he watched, Jake thought he could see the Sergeant getting instructions over his earpiece. After a few seconds, the man nodded.
“Apparently you have already spliced into the communication lines as I am being informed we are receiving a substantial amount of information on your operations. Welcome to London,” the Sergeant replied with a smile.
Chapter 7
Brian was now working on the newly arrived carrier, as ALICE-3 had everything well in hand on the battleship. Several of the ALICEs were supervising the refit for all the protected technology that needed to be installed. He thought it unusual that so many of them were involved, it was as if each wanted their own chance to look it over separately.
The incident earlier with Becky and Sandy notwithstanding, everything was going very well and he hoped to have the ship ready for trials in a few months. He was aware that there was a question about how they might get an ALICE aboard, but that was for others to decide. His biggest challenge was real people, or rather lack thereof.
There was also no way they were going to fill the hangars any time soon, but the capacity they could hold was enough to make the Battle of Klinan fleet look like a boat parade. If they could add an ALICE sys
tem to control things, he doubted any NeHaw challenge could threaten the earth.
----*----
Sara was sitting in the Nevada ALICE command center, watching the London operation progress. As expected, once Jake was informed of Sara’s condition, she was blacklisted from any of the combat activities. He even prohibited those in support, like the transport or patrol ships hovering over the MI6 building.
Fortunately, other than the incident at the beginning, they were progressing in quite a civil manner. While Jake and the Sargent talked, ALICE had established a link to the computers somewhere inside. Once she had evaluated the occupants as a friend, she began with the standard communications package given to all alien initial contacts.
As Sara watched, she saw a sizeable data exchange take place. At one point, Sara had to speak up.
“Alice, why am I seeing so much new data, people do not respond so quickly?”
“The systems I am in contact with acknowledged security protocols put in place before the fall.”
“Seriously?” Sara replied in surprise.
“Yes, it appears they may be in possession of some early NeHaw adapted technology provided by the United States. These are not ALICE systems, but there are references to stasis lockers and a passive reduction nuclear generator. They are in fact in need of some equipment spares we have in inventory.”
“You might pass that along to Jake,” Sara said absently as she sorted through some of the information ALICE had exchanged.
----*----
Jake and his team stood out front of the MI6 building for a measurable time, while the Brits evaluated the information they were being provided on the American operations. During the entire time, ALICE was streaming Jake Intel on the Brits. As they were waiting for the all clear from the English side, a question hit Jake.
“So, who were those guys earlier?” he asked.
“Right, well, we have done our best to keep a very low profile here over the years. All this you see boarded up behind me, was done in the very early days so long ago. There was always the expectation of invasion, then, so they created the barricade. The invasion never came, and the city was left deserted and abandoned,” Carson replied.
