by Robert Boren
“Why?” I asked.
I laughed. “Had an uncle like that. Wish he was still alive today. He’d love this.”
“What do we dictate?” Nolan asked.
“Does it expire, like the Nanos?” Nolan asked. “I didn’t see anything about it in the documentation.”
“No, that wouldn’t be good,” I said. “Are there different levels, like there are in the speed enhancements?”
“Hey, I’ll bet we can jump a long way, can’t we?” Nolan asked.
“Perish the thought,” Nolan quipped. I shook my head, laughing.
I glanced at Nolan, grinning. “Yes, Butch, I think we’re ready.”
“I already know what mine is,” Nolan said, “because I still work out three times a week. I can do about 220.”
“Wow, better than me. Last time I benched, it was about 190.”
“I think we get the concept, Butch,” I said, sitting down on the bench station of the first weight machine inside the door. Nolan went to the next weight machine.
Nolan and I did some stretching exercises. Then I set the weight at 190 and lifted, struggling slightly, but able to do about five reps.
I changed the weight and tried again, barely able to raise the weight, not able to complete a second rep. “That’s all I’ve got.”
I did the dictation. A status message flashed onto my heads-up display, then moved to the periphery. “Shall I proceed?”
I pushed, the weight going up. “Geez, this feels like about a pound.”
Nolan laughed from his station. “This is amazing.”
“Does it matter which order?” Nolan asked.
I chuckled. “Now I know why you told me not to run too late on the training sessions. This is gonna take more than an hour.”
Nolan and I cut the chatter and worked through the process. JJ showed up after we were at it for about forty-five minutes.
“How are you doing?” she asked.
“Good. Watch this.” I put the bench press all the way to the highest weight, then lifted it with one hand.
“Naughty naughty,” JJ quipped. “Can you use this capability anywhere?”
“Kidding,” JJ said. “How much longer?”
“Less than a half hour,” I said. “Maybe you can get started.”
Nolan and I finished, then put our street clothes over the suits and left the weight room.
“Care to go get a bite to eat, Nolan?” I asked.
“No thanks, Captain. You two enjoy. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He left the room.
“Well, what do you think?” JJ asked.
“About the training, or dinner?”
“The training, and the capability.”
“It’s a little different than I thought it would be,” I said. “You don’t just turn this on and go into a battle. This functionality is very task-driven. Mind dictation has to be used to turn it on and off, and you have an indicator on the heads-up display always showing when it’s on. You don’t know your own strength when you’re using this.”
“Oh, so you’ll break things you might not want to if it’s on?”
I nodded. “That said, it’s amazing technology.” I spent a few minutes describing it to her.
“I’m anxious to try it, although I don’t see myself enjoying it as much as the speed functionality. That’s fun.”
“We aren’t finished with that training yet, by the way. The AIs are managing our training in ways they don’t explain to us.”
“Yes, Butch yelled at you for the one-handed bench press.” JJ chuckled.
“I’ll take that under advisement,” I said.
“So what part of the speed training have we not had yet?” JJ asked.
“Apparently we can jump. Far.”
JJ glanced at me as we walked into the hall, the mustering room door clicking shut behind us. “Hell, I should’ve thought of that. Emerald told me that the highest-speed mode is more like jumping than running.”
“Wonder what the training is, other than think your destination and leap?”
“There’s one more Nano mode to learn as well, isn’t there?” JJ asked.
“The shield Nanos,” I said. “Can we do that part before I work with Drake again?”
“Why?” I asked. “Not fully functional yet?”
“You’re being prevented from telling us?” JJ asked.
“I can guess,” I said.
“I was unavoidably detained,” I said. JJ cracked up.
We got to the transport station, and grabbed a tin can to the Officer’s dining room, getting our usual private room.
“Butch, sleep.”
“Emerald, sleep,” JJ said.
“So what were you gonna say about the shield Nanos?” JJ asked.
“I knew you were going to ask me that, you trouble maker.”
&nbs
p; “Just tell me.”
“Once we have that, I’ll bet there isn’t anything Drake or Vermillion can do to stop us if we do something they don’t like. They want to watch us for a while. Or at least Drake does.”
“That’s what you were thinking? I figured you didn’t have confidence that they had the technology settled.”
I shook my head. “No, the Nano technology is amazing. Frankly, it might be more advanced than our society can handle. Drake has a cynical edge. Maybe he doesn’t trust the human species.”
“What’s on tap for me tomorrow?” JJ asked.
“Strength enhancement training, then you’re on your own to work the refinery. We’ll need to get up earlier tomorrow. That strength training takes some time, and there’s no way to rush it.”
“Okay, then we should get to bed earlier,” JJ said.
“How’d it go with the refinery today?”
“The system is put together, and we ran some tests today. It’s working better than expected. Too bad we have the waste problem. We could put a system like Tac has on this ship without too much effort.”
“We have what we need to do that onboard?” I asked.
“No, but we could have Tac’s folks fabricate it for us,” JJ said. “After we get past all the jobs that are currently on our plate, I’d like to spend some time looking into waste handling technology. Maybe there’s a way to handle it that doesn’t carry so much risk.”
“Keep in mind that our Zephyrus mission is still important,” I said. “The Clan is always at the back of my mind. They could do something unexpected that we aren’t equipped to handle. We need to plan around that task.”
“Do you think we’ll run into them at Boroclize?”
I thought about it for a moment. “I’m afraid that we might, but realistically I’d be surprised. It’s a long impulse cruise, and this part of the Central Authority Zone is a long way from the border to the Clan Zone. It’s closer to the Free Zone. There aren’t good natural worm holes from the Clan Zone to get them to the one we’re in now.”
“They’ve been active in the Free Zone, from what we’ve heard,” JJ said. “They also might have technology similar to the Samson Drive themselves.”
“Yes, we’re in a lot of danger right now. More than anybody is talking about.”
“How so?” JJ asked.
“We had a balance of power. The Central Authority, The Clan Authority, and the Free Zone commission controlled things, along with the Samson Corporation. Some of that structure is weakened or gone now. Add to that the fact that the Overlords are still out there, with more ships than we have.”
“Thanks. Now I won’t be able to sleep tonight.”
“Yes you will,” I said, grinning at her. “I’ll wear you out.”
“Check, please!” she said.
“We haven’t ordered yet.”
“Oh yeah.” She looked at me, her eyes misting. “I have so much fun with you. When I’m not with you, I’m wanting to be.”
“You know what that’s called, don’t you?”
“Love. Yes, I’m in love with you, Trey Clarke, and it’s growing by the day.”
“Good, glad we’re on the same wavelength.”
We had our dinner, and were in bed early, both of us falling asleep quickly enough. JJ woke first, thanks to a reminder from Emerald about the long day ahead of us. I felt her push me.
“Rise and shine, honey,” JJ said.
I stretched, looking over at her, then coming in for a kiss.
“Whoa, that breath,” she said, backing away. “Your food had a little too much garlic last night.”
“Sorry. You need to cleanse?”
“I can skip it today, I think. You?”
“I’m just gonna get all sweaty again either way, and my suit should’ve gone through a cleaning. Maybe I’ll just wash my face. Full day of training today. Then Nolan and I go through the second phase of the strength enhancement training.”
“You’ve got a lot of pilots to train today, don’t you? Maybe we should have Nolan help out, so you can process the students faster.”
“That’s a good idea,” I said. “I’ll talk to him. Ready to get up?”
“Since a kiss isn’t safe at the moment, yes,” she quipped. “Emerald, wake up.”
“I did, thanks.”
I woke up Butch, and we went to one of the small eateries to get a quick breakfast. Then it was off to the weight room, where I watched JJ go through her first session of strength training. The pilots started arriving shortly after she left for her refinery job. Nolan showed up to help, and we processed pilots as quickly as we could, all of them taking to the training well.
Nolan plopped down onto a bench in the mustering room when we were done. “Wow, that was a lot of work. Have you been working this hard every day?”
“I was a little more leisurely with the first groups. There are so many pilots to train that we had to adjust the schedule. I’m pretty beat too. Maybe we should take a break before we do the second phase of the strength enhancement training.”
“Great, then we can go have a few beers first, and then chuck some weights around,” I quipped, Nolan laughing at me.
Nolan and I shot each other a grin, then we put on our street clothes and headed out to a snack stand nearby. A few of our students from earlier in the day where there, and invited us to join them. We shared some pizza, most of the young men drinking beer. It was hard to abstain. We said our goodbyes and left after nearly an hour, arriving back at the mustering room.
“Yes, it’s great to chat with our young fighter pilots,” I said. “Gives me hope for the future.”
“It gives me more respect for Earthlings,” Nolan said.
“Only about a third of our pilots are from Earth.”
Nolan nodded. “I know, but the guys we shared the pizza with were all from Earth.”
“Oh, crap,” I said. “You stopped it, right?”
“They know we stopped the last one,” I said.
“Don’t be so sure about that, Captain,” Nolan said, looking at his PA.
“Somebody gonna clue me in?” I asked.
“This was a scheduled message,” Nolan said. “This is the same exact time as the transmission attempt day before yesterday.”
“Good thinking, Nolan,” I said. “Butch, same general placement in the ship?”
“It makes sense when you think about it,” I said. “They send out a periodic ping of our location at regular intervals. That makes it easy for them to track us. The location it pegged us in with the first transmission won’t help anybody find us.”
Nolan smiled. “The protocol was probably developed for Samson Drive worm holes. They’re just running it here.”
I nodded. “You’re probably right. And by the way, most of the crew have no idea we’re in a natural worm hole as opposed to a generated worm hole. Some might suspect as much, since it feels slightly different when we enter it.”
“True, some might have noticed, but the difference is subtle,” Nolan said. “I might not have noticed it if I didn’t know what was going on.”
omorrow. If there’s no transmission at the same time, we’ll know we might be in trouble. Until then, let’s keep our noses to the grindstone and get the Nano training done.
“Send a message to Chairman Vermillion about this transmission and our thoughts about it,” I said. “Invite him to summon me if he wants to chat about it.”
Nolan and I walked into the locker room. A large, tall door opened for them. The sheets of steel were leaned up in there.
“This is what we’re supposed to lift?” I asked. “These can’t weigh more than a few hundred pounds each.”
“Steel with hard rubber padding on one side,” Nolan said. “These are to protect the floor. It’ll take the two of us to carry them out, though. They’re an awkward shape.”
“Thanks,” Nolan said. “Done. You ready, Captain?”
I did my mind dictation to activate strength enhancement and nodded to him, helping him pull the first sheet out of the cabinet. Then I got on the other end and we carried it out.
“This is like carrying a big piece of cardboard,” I said. We placed the first sheet on the floor of the mustering room, then went back to grab the second one, placing it next to the first. “Okay, Butch, we’re done.”
“All right, cut the nonsense,” I said. “What now?”
“One each, right?” I asked.
Nolan and I went into the storage room, and saw the open door on the far end.
“Look at those things,” Nolan said. “Two-ton barbells?”
I looked a them. They had very large round weights, with a bar between them small enough for a human hand to grasp. “What are these made of? Can’t be lead. They’re not big enough.”
