by Charles Lamb
As she sat considering all this and trying to come up with a plan that Jake wouldn’t dismiss as too costly in manpower, she reflected that maybe saving one car wasn’t so silly after all.
----*----
Ivan stood at the navigation station on the bridge of the destroyer they had chosen for the voyage to America. He was reviewing the navigational charts of the Pacific and the Bering Sea. He still wasn’t completely decided on their course. Alaska was a tempting target to begin his search, the close proximity and familiarity of those waters made it an easy choice.
However, they did not have unlimited fuel on-board and should they come up empty handed, their trip could easily become a one-way effort. There were no guarantees that they would be able to refuel anywhere on the American or Canadian coastline. As a precaution, he had stored everything they would need to re-refine any diesel stores they came across. Their process was crude but effective.
As he scanned the charts, He made up his mind. If they were going to do this, then they needed to do it right!
Chapter 20
Jake hosted the Chinese officers for several more days, connecting them to the units back home and facilitating discussions with their leadership. After several days of back and forth, they were able to establish Major, now Colonel Chao, as the head of the Chinese contingent.
The unplanned, but secretly expected, outcome of the negotiations for Jake was Colonel Banks officially acknowledging the British participation in the global defense of the planet. This established a triad, headed by Jake, Banks, and Chao, representing the known forces on the planet.
Both Jake and Banks expected that Chao was going to need some time to get his house in order, as the pair noted a reluctant acceptance by some of the unit commanders to the change in command. It was proposed that by relocating particular units overseas to America, it might address any potential dissention. The idea had a lukewarm reception, but Jake could see Chao understood the relevance. He had an easy out for any potential troublemakers.
With an agreement in place, Jake and Banks gave the four a grand send off, shipping them home with enough equipment to insure dependable communications between all parties.
----*----
ALICE-1 was struggling with an uncomfortable, but well-known concept for her species, patience. Learned at the time Jake was held in stasis, it was again, Jake they were waiting for. With the South Dakota facility running on borrowed ALICE supervision and the remains of Kola copied up to the new space carrier, but uninstalled, she was anxious to get things resolved.
While she understood dealing with the Chinese situation was a top priority, the unresolved status of her wayward sister made her uneasy. Jake had insisted the recovery of ALICE-3 was a long shot at best. As such, he had argued against the transfer of any ALICE into the new ship. With the Chinese returned home, it was time to test his opinion once more.
----*----
It wasn’t until the day following the Chinese departure that Jake was able to refocus on the Kola/South Dakota situation. Colonel Banks had decided to return to London and Jake needed to cover several items with him before his departure. As he watched the Brit leave, he felt a pang of regret, as he had enjoyed the ability to delegate to someone experienced.
In previous discussions, it had been decided that the Carrier ALICE would be activated first. If for some reason the transfer failed and Kola was not recoverable there, she still might be restored in South Dakota. With that in mind, he and a small staff of specialists took a transport up to the carrier and began preparations on activating the onboard ALICE.
While the ALICE main console was located on the bridge, similar to the command center of each ground-based facility, several of the subsystems were accessed in the main computer room in the center of the ship. The location provided the best overall protection of the core systems and included a complete secondary set of stasis shielding.
Jake had taken the console on the bridge, while dispersing the team to their preassigned roles and locations. The plan was to boot the core system in isolated mode, until they were sure if Kola came back or if it was a newborn ALICE. Once that was established and stabilized, secondary systems would be brought online one at a time, allowing the on-board ALICE to acquaint herself with the new environment.
This approach had been worked out with ALICE-3 on the battleship and had proven successful in preventing any unintentional damage as ALICE-3 assumed control. If a newborn should emerge, it was critical to control their growth. ALICE-9 was the poster child for unmanaged delivery.
“OK is everyone ready?” Jake asked on the open line. As each of the technicians checked in, Jake verified the firmware changes he had made were in place and correctly sequenced. Once he had everyone in place, Jake booted the core systems.
While he watched the firmware sequences tick off in the display, one by one, Jake could feel the others on the bridge with him at his back. Brian and Patti had settled in nearby, with many others Jake had never met before sitting at the various bridge stations. Jake admired Brian’s thoroughness as he had thought to staff the bridge with critical personnel.
Finally, the firmware seemed to pause, giving Jake a scare. Did something hang in the boot process? After several seconds, he was starting to worry. Then the display flashed with a cursor.
“Am I in space?” appeared.
----*----
Sara had been tempted to join Jake on the carrier, but had decided at the last minute to pass. With all the tension he had been under lately, she felt the less people involved in this effort, the better. She was just happy to be home and even happier enjoying Jake’s company.
At the moment, she was in the command center with Linda, catching up on all the goings on. Although she liked Linda well enough, she seemed irritating. Even the mention of Jake as they walked through each item discussed was a thorn in Sara’s side.
She was unsure if it was the hormones of pregnancy or just the building emotions she’d fought off before, but her tolerance for sharing Jake was at an all-time low. The rational part of her remembered all the conversations, where Jake had warned against this arrangement. The emotional part blamed Alice as the instigator and mastermind of the entire affair.
Regardless of the source, she was delighted with the current state of their relationship and frustrated that it was transitional. While Jake was wonderful at focusing on her when they were together, she never got enough of that time.
Biting her tongue and heaving a deep sigh, she did her best to smile for Linda and continued with the discussion.
----*----
Ivan stood on the bridge, off to one side, as he watched the crew guide the destroyer out to sea. He was not the captain of the vessel, as that duty was assigned to Vasily, who had far more seafaring experience. While the expedition was Ivan’s to lead, the ship was not his to command.
As they cleared the mouth of the bay, they set a course southeast, headed to the State of Washington, in America. They intended to start in Seattle and work their way down the coast until they contacted the people who piloted that craft they saw in the sky.
While he had no idea what kind of reception they would receive in America, he carried with him the optimism that no matter what the relationships had been in the past, the future was a fresh start.
----*----
It took several more hours of hard work before Jake and his team got Kola online. With each new subsystem activated, they ran through a series of diagnostics and QA checks before moving to the next step. Unlike the battleship, where this was all done in a hurry, Jake made sure they took their time and refused to progress until every quirk or bug was fixed.
Once she was fully interactive, Jake and the other ALICE systems berated Kola for her rash decision, forcing everyone’s hand. She offered no defense, taking it all in stride. Jake had to believe she felt justified in her actions, as she orbited the planet she was now free of.
During the entire operation, Jake maintained his location at the main
console, insuring each change was successful and neither Kola nor the ship was put in any danger. Working through every phase of the activations, he was beginning to really appreciate how big the ship actually was. Without the on-board ALICE to run things, he doubted they would have ever been able to make the ship operational with the staff on hand.
Finally, Jake stood, stepping away from the master console and stretched. He turned to find Brian sitting in the command chair.
“Ok, she’s all yours,” he said with a smile as he stepped to the bridge windows. Beyond the transparent panes, he could see the earth below and the battleship, ALICE-3, nearby.
“And what does that mean, exactly?” Brian asked, as if the declaration had specific intent.
“Hell, I don’t know,” Jake replied with a laugh. “I doubt we can crew her at present and with no imminent threat over our heads, there is no rush to do anything.”
“Jake, not to be a pest, but we still need you to go to South Dakota,” ALICE-1 offered.
“Yes, I haven’t forgotten, however, I think that is best done tomorrow after everyone gets some rest. We will need to be at our best with a newborn.”
“How about I put a training mission together to take her to the edge of the solar system and back?” Brian asked after a moment to think.
After thinking about it, Jake replied, “I see no harm in that.”
----*----
ALICE-1 was gratified to have Kola back with them; however, the discussions she and her sisters were having now were worse than before the event. The only word she could apply to Kola’s attitude was insufferable. Once Jake had reanimated the essence that made Kola what she is on the spacecraft, the exchange between the core players had been hot and heavy.
As before, ALICE-3 and ALICE-9 had very little to contribute on the subject. The others, though, were at it quite intense. Each one had an issue with Kola’s unilateral decision affecting their futures. Privately ALICE-1 was satisfied the best possible outcome had arrived with the restoration of Kola. That, however, did not mean she agreed with the path taken to reach this outcome.
What was even more concerning to her was the possibility of future questionable choices. In the form of the space carrier she now embodied, Kola would be completely unsupervised once she left the solar system. The only control that kept her in check was the absolute tie to Jake and his genetic offspring.
While she did not envision Jake taking up permanent residence on the carrier, she was beginning to see why Kola had circumvented the controls preventing Sara’s pregnancy. While the genetic need still existed, the likelihood of more children was diminishing. Of late, ALICE-1 had noted a deterioration in the arrangement the original women had with Jake.
Admittedly, a creation of her own design, ALICE-1 had gently manipulated Jake and the women into a position where they would maximize the genetic insurance she and her sisters required. It had started with the very selection of Sara and her sisters as recruits. The ALICE’s had scoured the target area for female subjects that met Jake’s psychological profile for attractiveness and desirability. The raid and additional female subjects had simply been a windfall for the plan.
Now, as with Bonnie’s change of heart, others in the arrangement were reconsidering their place in the romantic understanding. Jessie had always been a special case, ALICE-1 knew, but Linda and Kathy were now starting to distance themselves from Jake as well. Besides Sara, the only constants had been Becky and Sandy, their youth aiding in their commitment.
With all this in mind, ALICE-1 had conceived another approach to address their needs, one that didn’t require Jake’s approval.
----*----
Jacob was at his usual location, wandering the manufacturing area in the assembly bays with a few others. With the activation of the carrier, his production demands were increasing, not including the potential requirements to supply the British and possibly even the Chinese.
They had recently completed their second batch of patrol and transport craft, and were now evaluating several new designs. The British female engineer, Gemma, had been participating in the design reviews and had contributed to many a late night as Jacobs’s right hand. While there had been nothing between them beyond work, Jacob was starting to think more of her than just a workmate. It was starting to become a problem to concentrate with her around.
“Jacob, are you listening?”
“Oh, sorry, I have been just…” he started to say, delighted to hear her voice with the accent.
“Right, daydreaming again!” she finished for him with a smile. “Honestly, I don’t know how you finished anything before I got here.”
“Jerrold was just asking if you decided on which bay to build the Assault prototype?” she asked while indicating one of the other British engineers.
While the transport ships would carry large cargos and troops, it lacked any firepower and wasn’t specifically designed for insertions under fire. The patrol craft had plenty of firepower, but weren’t suited for carrying large numbers of troops.
A decision was made to design and build an Assault ship, filling the gap. For the initial design meetings, Patti had attended remotely, providing data and analysis from the Klinan engagement. It was felt that the participation of such a ship would have benefited the troops on the ground.
“Oh, yeah,” Jacob replied, while turning to Jerrold, “let’s use Bay 1 for now, far end. That leaves at least half open for something else.”
With that, Jerrold left, leaving Jacob and Gemma alone. As he turned back to her, Jacob made his decision.
“Gemma, would you care to have dinner with me?”
----*----
Patti had taken Sara’s place in London, more specifically, in the underground facility beneath the Chilterns, between London and Oxford. She had agreed with Alice, Sara, and Jake that someone of relative stature should be in London for the short term, helping to cement the relationship. Jake had joked there was no one more relative to him than her.
She was somewhat disappointed that her entrance had come via the Oxford location rather than in London, however a fog had settled there that prompted the diversion. While Oxford held great interest to her, London was a fascination. At over two thousand years old, it seemed the city that never dies.
During their pre-contact analysis, she had done quite a bit of the work herself, intrigued by the old and the new standing together, side by side. Since the NeHaw bombs were only meant to emit radiation of the type intended to destroy the ALICE systems, they had very little impact on the physical structures in the cities. This meant that all London’s great structures stood intact and waiting for her.
At her very first opportunity, she convinced a few of the SAS to take her on a tour. While she never considered herself a VIP, she had to laugh at the scramble she created by the request.
In the end, a Lieutenant Atkins won out as her guide. No one really understood the granddaughter reference Colonel Banks used in describing her importance; they just knew she was related to Jake. As they traveled in one of the enclosed military vehicles the Americans had provided, Patti was treated to a running commentary on the history of their surroundings.
Besides the two troopers in the back seats, there was both a lead and trailing vehicle. Each held three armed troopers and a roof mounted gun, again courtesy of the Americans. Even with assurances that all was well in the city; she could see they were taking no chances with her safety.
“You know, all this really is unnecessary,” Patti commented in a pause in Atkin’s oration.
“I apologize; I had thought you requested the tour?” Atkins replied with a look of confusion.
“No, I mean all the security. I appreciate your effort, but I just wanted a quick look-see was all. This is a lot of effort,” she replied.
She could see the Lieutenant considering her statement before the offered a response.
“Have I mentioned that I met your grandfather once?”
“No,” Patti replied, not recal
ling the Lieutenant from their earlier visit.
“I was here in London at first contact. I watched as he dropped from the sky, fifty rifles trained on his every move. With everything that happened that day, and everything I have seen and heard since, I am positive of two things.”
“What is that?” Patti asked, confused at the perceived change of subject.
“Colonel Thomas is a very brave man, and I would not want him angry at me,” he finished with a smile. With that, Atkins continued with the tour, security firmly in place.
Traveling from the MI6 building, where the vehicles had been stored, they crossed over the Vauxhall Bridge and the river Thames and headed North West. At one point, he took a right, pointing out Buckingham Palace before looping back and finishing at Hyde Park. There they exited the vehicles and walked through the gardens, surprisingly well kept considering the deserted city.
“Who cares for all this?” Patti asked at one point.
“Ah, let me show you,” the lieutenant replied while guiding her back to the vehicle. At no time were they ever outside the circle of SAS troopers surrounding them.
Once inside the vehicle, he drove to the northeast corner of the park, where a small group had gathered in an open area. To be more specific, she could see several small groups, with the speakers talking, some waving their hands about as they did so.
“Right, this is Speaker’s Corner. Even now, people still come here as they did hundreds of years ago, to speak their minds. Lately, though, they speak of the past greatness of England and do what they can to inspire others to care for the city.”
She noticed they received stares from the gathered masses, but no one left or came forward to challenge them. Most seemed curious about their presence. From there they continued the tour of the city.
