WE WILL BUILD

by Michael Anderle

  “What, how?”

  Pete shrugged, “Drop a massive rock on it.”

  “Another dinosaur extinction event?”

  “Yes.” He responded, “With us as the dinosaurs of course.”

  “Who’s to stop her?” Cheryl Lynn mused out loud.

  “Her.” Pete said simply.

  “She’s the only one?” Cheryl Lynn asked.

  “Well, honestly no. There is no one that could really physically stop her if she set her mind to it, but her heart is way too big to allow herself to do something like that.” Pete said.

  “You love her, don’t you?” Cheryl Lynn questioned.

  Pete smiled, “If you mean like an older sister? Then yes. If you mean something else? Then I tend to fall into John’s camp.”

  She smiled, “Oh, I just have to hear what my cousin thinks.”

  “Promise me you won’t tell him I told you this?” He retorted, one eye raised.

  Cheryl Lynn’s lips pressed closed and then her shoulders slumped, “Fine, yes!”

  Pete answered, “He would die for her, he just didn’t want to die in bed because of her.”

  Cheryl Lynn’s face scrunched up in confusion, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Have you seen her vamp out yet?” She shook her head, “Oh. Well, that explains it. Tell you what, come with me and I’ll give you a Wechselbalg demonstration. Then, you can figure out what kind of person could make someone like me bend a knee to her.”

  The two bussed their dishes and Pete took Cheryl Lynn to the workout area on the boat.

  Cheryl Lynn looked around the room at the floor mat and the obvious signs of wear and tear before turning back to find Pete almost naked, “Excuse me!” She quickly turned her head.

  She could hear him quickly say, “I’m sorry! I forgot you don’t know much. I’m not getting any more undressed than this and I promise you that you will be safe. However, I’ll need you to step farther away so that you don’t hurt yourself when I change and you will need to look at me to get an understanding of the change.”

  Cheryl Lynn walked fifteen feet away and sat on a weight bench and turned to look at him. Like that was hard work for her eyes. He had rips on his rips. “Ok, but you better realize I’m old enough to be your mother!”

  Pete laughed, “Hardly! But that isn’t the point. Are you ready?” She nodded and Pete thought back to a time that made him angry, a time when he thought he had lost Ecaterina and the room became brighter and he was taller again. The scents were clear - sweat, dirt, fear… He turned to view the small woman on the bench, her eyes wide open.

  “This issss myyy fooorrrmmm.” He said.

  She nodded her head and tried to get her voice to work. “John punched you and you could turn into this? Was he fucking nuts?” her two hands quickly covered her mouth as she mumbled between her lips, “I’m sorry!”

  “Hehh heehh heehh. Nooo, III cooullldddnnnnnntt chaahhnnngge aaatt thaaat ttiimmme.”

  “I bet he wouldn’t punch you now!” She wasn’t willing to move. She had heard you never ran away from a predator as it just caused them to want to chase you.

  “Oooonnnnee mmmmooooommmeennnnt.” He growled. A few seconds later Pete was standing in front of her again. He moved his head back and forth and coughed, “Sorry! Not easy to carry on a conversation in that form and without something violent to do, it’s hard to stay focused.” He walked to his clothes and started putting on his pants. “However, there is no way on God’s green earth I would purposely punch John Grimes and offer to fight him.”

  “Is that because of what he did for you?”

  Pete put on his shirt, “Well, certainly that but I’m talking hypothetically. John would kick my ass and then use my hairy hide as a mop to clean up my own blood off the floor.” Pete smiled as he put on his socks and shoes.

  “But, you look so powerful.” She argued.

  “Oh, I am.” He agreed.

  “Then…” Cheryl Lynn stopped. “He’s been changed too, hasn’t he?”

  “Yes, yes he has.” Pete replied.

  She got up from the bench and walked over to the mat and sat down. Then, she laid back and talked up into the air. “So, John can take you out and Bethany Anne could take John out?”

  “She could, yes.”

  “But she wouldn’t?” She looked over to Pete to gauge his reaction.

  “No. She loves him too much.”

  “This is one convoluted family.”

  “Don’t you mean dysfunctional?” Pete asked. He walked over to join her on the mat.

  She sat back up, “No, convoluted. You aren’t dysfunctional, in fact I’d say you are so functional it is damned near unbelievable. But the ‘why’ it works is convoluted. It all revolves around Bethany Anne and this need to not protect the earth, while protecting the earth.” She looked over to Pete, “What if the earth doesn’t want you to protect it, or God forbid attacks you?”

  Pete snorted, “Well, if they refuse protection I imagine she will just attack the aliens and leave it at that. But, if they attack her people?” Pete shook his head, “Then they will learn deep in their souls the meaning of regret.”

  “She’s only pro-earth if earth doesn’t attack her?”

  He shrugged, “I doubt she would do much if they just attacked her. She would get away somehow. But if someone hurts her people?”

  “You mean John and Eric and Darryl and…” She faltered.

  “Scott?”

  “Right! His name was right on the tip of my tongue.”

  “Ok, I’ll believe that. No, I mean ‘any’ of her own. All of us, any of us. If something is wrong for one of us, it’s personal for her.”

  “Like me.” She said softly.

  “Do what?” He asked.

  “Sorry, I just realized that because of John, I became one of her own.”

  “Yes, that’s probably true. You are family that John cares about, therefore Bethany Anne cares about you.”

  She looked up to Pete, “What if John didn’t care about me?”

  “Well, I imagine he wouldn’t have mentioned you to Bethany Anne and you would still be in whatever situation you were in.” He said matter-of-factly.

  “What kind of love does she have that she is willing to stop trying to save the world to go to Dallas, Texas and help a mother of two kids with a personal problem?”

  Pete answered solemnly, “The kind that can take a punk-ass spoiled rich brat and help make a man out of him.”

  Cheryl Lynn continued, “And a Romanian bar maid into something amazing, and a washed-up rocket scientist working to help change the future…” She paused for a moment and turned to look over at Pete, “And the type of person who would see something special in a mother from Dallas Texas and tell her she is going to be her personal assistant.”

  “Oh that’s great!” Pete said.

  She scrunched her face together, “Why is that so great?”

  “Cause, that means I’ve got an inside contact.” Pete grinned, “Don’t forget how nice and friendly we are right now.”

  She laughed, “Stop it! I’m … well, I’m old enough. It doesn’t matter that you have abs women would want to practice braille on, you’re still too young for me.”

  “Damn,” he muttered, “that’s a good one. Abs women want to practice braille on.” He thought about that for a second, “I’m going to have to put that on my dating account.”

  “You have a dating account?”

  He smiled, “No! God, I can only imagine what would happen if the teams found me with a dating account. Oh, the shit they would pull.” This time, Pete put a hand over his mouth, “Oops! Sorry.”

  She giggled, “It’s ok. I try to watch my language around Tina and Todd, not other adults.”

  Pete dropped his hand.

  “It’s all real, isn’t it?” She asked. Pete stayed silent, it didn’t sound like she was asking him a question. “We really are in a battle. Bethany Anne really is what she seems like and I real
ly do need to worry about if there will be a future for Tina and Todd.” She turned to look at Pete, “Don’t I?” Pete nodded his head. She asked, “And you would really die for her?”

  “Not only her, but John or Eric or Dan or Ecaterina or Gabrielle or my team and now, for you.”

  Cheryl Lynn closed her eyes and Pete noticed one small tear making its way down her cheek.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  TQB Base, Colorado - USA

  Kevin and Lance looked over the digital map of the emplacements surrounding the base with Stephanie, the new head of the Engineering group. Stephanie was big, bold and boisterous which almost succeeded in hiding the treasure-chest of knowledge she possessed.

  Kevin had found that out early and had used her expertise to great effect.

  She was very much a woman though, and it was distracting Kevin. Now he had a taste of what Lance must have gone through with Patricia, at some level. Stephanie was of African American and Japanese descent and Kevin was trying to focus on her engineering abilities, not her other attributes, and it was becoming a stone-cold bitch to accomplish.

  His data on the three possible replacements had been restricted, except for their skill sets. Bethany Anne had provided him candidates with the exact skills he had requested, but she said she wanted to go to another country to find candidates with those skills.

  Fluent in Japanese, Stephanie was considered ‘hafu’ or half-blood in Japan. Stephanie had decided to stop trying to beat her head against Japan’s homogeneity and had opted to work for a company in New Zealand instead. That company had contracts with the military, allowing her to produce an impressive resume. Her job in Wellington was where Frank and ADAM had found her.

  When Stephanie had gone for the interview, she had been surprised to find a beautiful young woman was obviously in charge of the meeting. A young looking man, that the woman had slipped and called ‘dad’ a couple of times, seemed to be the one with the field knowledge.

  She thought that Lance was some kind of ‘really’ close friend, until another man had joined them some ten minutes later, and DAMN! He was a looker. She was considering what a nice package he made, until Bethany Anne kissed him after the two men had shaken hands. It wasn’t a chaste kiss, but it wasn’t inappropriate for a meeting either, and it sent a message that this man was taken.

  Some women have all the damned luck, she thought.

  During the interview, Bethany Anne fired questions at Stephanie which were significantly out of the norm. It was almost like Bethany Anne was testing on the fly and using the out of the box questions for her follow-up questions. Michael - as he was introduced - didn’t say much, but would ask an odd question from time to time, almost like he had his own agenda.

  All of Michael’s questions had to do with ethics, morality and various dilemmas one might find themselves facing. Right before it was time for coffee and dessert, he begged off and Bethany Anne told him she would catch up with him later if that was ok.

  By his smile, Stephanie figure, it was better than ok

  Stephanie did grin to herself. She wasn’t used to being upstaged, and now she understood why some women could be snippy to her. Right now, she wanted to be snippy with Bethany Anne, who had only been generous and gracious to Stephanie this whole evening.

  Well, she had to focus on what would absolutely sell her. That was her qualifications in engineering, and her history of engineering wizardry. Her efforts to prove her qualifications were proving to be a cold bitch, too.

  It was almost like Bethany Anne had an engineering testing group inside her head throwing questions at her. Pretty soon, the challenge of answering those questions focused her attention, and she forgot all about anything else but the challenges. It became a competition to see if she could engineer her way out of the hypothetical situations thrown at her.

  Bethany Anne would pose a question. Then Stephanie would request details about the landscape or other resources she would have available. On most occasions, Lance would answer those questions. By dessert, she knew two things: the first was that she was mentally exhausted! This had been unlike any other interview she had ever attended, and she had been to some very challenging interviews in Japan. The second was that she ended up wanting - no needing - to impress the hell out of Bethany Anne.

  Stephanie had always wanted to work for a woman, and she desperately wanted this woman to be the one.

  A little while after Michael left, they ordered dessert and spent another hour just chatting. This provided the opportunity for Stephanie to ask her own questions. It was at this time Stephanie learned that Lance was responsible for overseeing a portfolio of more than a thousand companies.

  That was the first bomb-shell. The second was that Bethany Anne owned all of them.

  She really, really wanted to work for this woman.

  They had already interviewed one man from Great Britain and still had another candidate to interview in India.

  Two days later she received a call officially offering her the position. She didn’t scream, she didn’t jump up and down or yell. She simply turned, closed the door to her engineering office, and locked her door. Then, she took two steps to her desk, sat in the chair, put her head on her desk and let the tears of joy pool underneath her eyes.

  Someone wanted her brain and her skills.

  Period.

  Now, Kevin was asking for her opinion on base enhancements. She was having to use all of her experience, and a shit-load of creative genius, to provide solutions to those issues. Considering that many of the issues Kevin had were similar to the questions she had answered during the interview, Stephanie was impressed. It was a pretty slick way to make sure she could handle the job. Give her the exact problems they wanted resolved and see if she could provide workable solutions.

  Apparently, she could.

  First, they began by discussing layered defenses for targeting human trespass, then motion activated cameras to help detect incoming drones. Then, fast reaction teams would be put in place which Kevin said Bethany Anne would provide.

  Those fast-reaction teams would be required to visually identify targets and cover any blind spots. Kevin mentioned they would start running exercises to see if their own teams could penetrate the current defenses. They would use that data to make modifications where needed.

  Stephanie agreed that time spent gathering data was seldom wasted.

  Then, they considered a scenario of being overrun by civilians trying to acquire medical compounds that could only be found on the base. She addressed the civilian issue and related how she wanted to channel people into smaller areas. Areas where it would be obvious that going forward would be a really bad idea.

  Whether it was sonic noise projectors, glue guns, or something more devastating. She made sure that should anyone decide retreat was a better solution, they would always have the option. It’s never a good idea to make people choose between fighting or dying.

  Then, they reviewed options for hiding medical support out in the fields for fast reaction times. Their own people would be the priority, then any of the attackers who might need assistance.

  “After looking at the power output of the new emplacements, I believe we can effectively run twelve emplacements. Two here, two here, three more on this ridge, three covering this valley and two more on that side of the ridge.” Stephanie pointed to different areas of the base. “Have you considered the sheer devastation those things are going to create?”

  Kevin nodded slowly, “Yes. Unfortunately, they are going to make pulp out of any human and depending on the charge, they can go through armored units as well. They will be our last resort, but we should have advanced warning if anything bigger is coming.”