by Ricky Sides
Throughout the base, the walls were steel gray in color. The hard tile floor was a darker shade of color that was almost, but not quite, black. Jim estimated that the ceiling in the hangar bay was about forty feet from the floor. This made the cavernous room look even larger. The corridors seemed normal to Jim and reminded him of hallways in large hotels because of the recessed lighting overhead, and small wall lamps spaced every twenty feet or so that helped illuminate the hallways. The ceilings were eight feet from the floor in the corridors and all of the other rooms of the base with the exception of the geothermal power supply room. That ceiling was twenty feet above the floor.
There was a large, well-stocked recreation room, which delighted the teenagers. It contained a two big screen televisions set up on opposite sides of the room with sound absorbing partitions set up behind the viewing stations to prevent the other sounds in the room from disturbing the people watching the movies, and to prevent them from disturbing the other occupants of the room. There was a couch and several chairs situated in those areas for the comfort of the viewing participants. DVD players sat atop tables that were situated beside the televisions. Shelves mounted to the walls contained countless movies.
The room also contained two ping-pong tables and two pool tables that were located just to the right and left of the entry door respectively. But the centerpiece of the large room was the movie screen set up on the back wall. It wasn’t a full size movie screen. Jim estimated that it was about fifteen feet wide by ten feet tall.
“There aren’t enough chairs for the movie, Dad,” Lisa remarked. “You said the base was supposed to hold one hundred pilots, then another hundred or so support personnel. But there are only forty chairs for the movie.”
“That’s because at any given time a significant number of people would be sleeping. Remember this base would be active at all times of the day and night. The people would have to sleep in shifts and their lives would revolve around different schedules,” Pete explained. He added, “Others would be manning critical posts, and during their duty shift they wouldn’t be able to watch the films.”
The fitness room didn’t attract the interest of the younger members of the group to the extent that the recreation room did, but Jim liked the treadmills and weight training equipment. He made a mental note to have one of his wooden dummies installed for his martial arts practice.
Maggie’s new infirmary was impressive. It was suitably stocked with emergency treatment supplies and equipment that would serve the staff well. She estimated that she should be able to handle anything from minor surgery to broken bones. Compound fractures would require more extensive treatment than the infirmary was equipped to handle. There was even emergency dental care equipment, but she informed Pete that he needed to make sure they brought in someone with dental experience to handle those emergencies, as she was not qualified for that form of medical treatment. He replied that they would bring in someone if they could, but that it would always be possible to transport the patient to another location for such treatment. Maggie arched her brows and pointed her finger at Pete, when she replied, “Well, let’s just see how blasé you are about the matter when you have had a tooth broken by some training accident, Pete.”
Jim laughed and said, “Maybe you should listen to her. You weren’t all that nonchalant when we had to fly you to a dentist last year.”
“You two are never going to let me forget that, are you?” Pete said plaintively.
“No,” they said in unison and they both laughed at his facial expression.
“Alright,” Pete said in resignation. “I’ll have someone find a peacekeeper with dental experience and see if that person will accept an offer to come to the base.”
“I think that’s a wonderful idea,” Maggie said sweetly.
For another hour, they toured the facility. Pete declared the maintenance and electrical rooms off-limits to the teens. It was too dangerous to permit unauthorized personnel to access those portions of the facility. They saw the sleeping barracks that would house the bulk of the base personnel. Sets of bunk beds lined the walls along both sides of the large room. To the right of the headboard of each bed, mounted to the wall, was a footlocker-like box in which the pilots and other personnel would store their belongings.
There was a huge bathroom with ten stalls, ten urinals, and a large shower area with ten showerheads. The showers would offer no privacy, but the base had been designed for the military. The female peacekeepers would use the bathroom in officers’ country. It was smaller, with only three stalls and three urinals, but it contained two private shower stalls. That room was located at the end of the hall in the section where their rooms were located. That bathroom door could be locked from the inside to guarantee the privacy of the females.
Next, they toured the large mess hall, which reminded Jim of the mess hall aboard the battleship, Constitution. The room was filled with tables and chairs. There was a large buffet serving area, which the cook was stocking during their visit. Pete inquired if the cook was finding everything he needed, and the man responded that he was. He added, “It’s not going to be a problem for me, but you will need to get the cook some help when this place is up and running. It’s going to be too much for one man to try to feed the staff.”
“We were thinking of bringing in a cook and three assistants,” Pete said.
“That will work, provided you assign a couple of personnel a week to help with the cleanup detail,” the cook responded.
“Can’t the assistants handle the cleanup? Aboard the Constitution, they do,” Jim stated.
“They serve three meals a day, sir. The staff here will have to serve six, if you plan to operate the base on the 24/7 military standard,” the cook explained.
“I hadn’t thought of that,” Jim admitted. “Yes, of course they’d need help then.” Looking at Pete, Jim said, “Now you see why I said I needed you to be the base commander.”
“That’s alright. No one knows everything,” Pete responded. Turning to the cook he said, “What do you recommend in the way of staffing this place?”
“Well, now that you ask, Pete, I’d suggest two well trained cooks. You need one cook for each shift. Otherwise, you’re going to work a single cook to death. You’ll want two competent assistants per shift. In total, you need six people. That is based on the assumption that you plan to staff the base fully with around one hundred twenty to two hundred personnel. That crew will still need help occasionally. Breakfast and lunch cleanup is generally easy because the personnel will eat and run. However, they will linger over supper and are usually messier during that meal. Cleanup after that meal should include a thorough cleaning of the entire mess hall. That means the floor needs to be swept and mopped. Tables and chairs wiped down. It’s a lot of work. Then the kitchen has to be sanitized and scrubbed down.”
“I get your point,” Pete said. Smiling he added, “Get ready to train a new group of personnel.”
“That will be my pleasure, sir,” the cook responded. Turning to Jim, the cook said, “Sir, I understand that you are leaving the Peacekeeper for reassignment here. I just wanted to say that it has been a pleasure serving under your command.”
Jim was touched. He responded, “It’s been a pleasure serving on the same ship all these years. I know you’ll serve Tim as faithfully as you served under my command. Thank you for your loyalty and dedication to your duty. Above all, thank you for your discretion.”
“Captain, it’s been an honor and a privilege,” the man responded. He saluted, then turned, and walked away after Jim responded with an answering salute.
Jim didn’t notice when Evan quietly turned and walked out of the room, but Lisa did. She followed Evan out into the hall. The young man stopped out of sight of the doorway and stood with his back to the door. Lisa stopped behind him and asked, “Evan, is something wrong?”
“Didn’t you see the look on Jim’s face, Lisa?” Evan responded.
“Yes, he seemed pleased that the
cook said what he said, but sort of sad as well,” she answered.
“I think Jim’s leaving the Peacekeeper because of me,” he said, revealing what was troubling him.
“That may be true, but it’s his right to do what he thinks best for you. But, Evan, I don’t think it’s all because of you. That may be part of the reason, but I think he really misses your mom, and being in the ship hurts him as much as it hurts you,” Lisa explained.
“Oh he’s hurting. He’s hurting a lot. You won’t tell anyone if I tell you something will you, Lisa?” asked Evan.
“Have I ever blabbed a secret you shared with me?” she countered.
“This one’s different,” Evan said.
“No. I promise I won’t say a word to anyone,” she said.
“I found him in our cabin today. He was cleaning out our things. He’d sat down on the bed and started crying. So, yeah, he hurts. He hurts a lot.”
Lisa didn’t say anything. She just hugged Evan. She didn’t mention that she had heard Jim crying through the thin partition wall of the cabin. Nor did she mention that she’d heard Evan talking to Jim from her room. She saw no point in revealing that her own tears of grief had joined theirs in the next room. But she grieved more for the two of them. Lacey was gone now. Nothing would bring her back, but Evan and Jim were still here, and their suffering saddened her.
They had just broken their embrace when the others joined them in the corridor.
Chapter 11
In the month that followed the official opening of the new base, the peacekeepers were busy. A call went out for volunteers to take flight training. Fifty fighters would be housed at the base. They also needed pilots to fly four of the new transport ships that could carry twenty peacekeepers into battle, and they needed a pilot for the newest ship in the peacekeeper fleet. Lina surprised many people when she volunteered to fly the new ship.
With the new division of the economic burden of the peacekeepers, the national organization now had sufficient trade goods with which they could purchase four of the new transport vessels. Those were acquired and flown to Base 1, where they were retrofitted with weapons, communications, and navigational equipment.
Namid waited a week, as Jim had ordered, and then she again volunteered to join the team as the escort fighter that would accompany the new ship on its missions. Her offer was immediately accepted.
Namid also began to see Lieutenant Wilcox and though their relationship evolved slowly, she found it satisfying.
Lieutenant Wilcox drilled his new team incessantly. He also requested and received three additional men who were highly skilled snipers. The Lieutenant also trained another security officer who would be responsible for the base security. It quickly became apparent that they would need the additional officer, if Lieutenant Wilcox were to accompany the captain on the new ship with his strike force team.
Pol spent his time shuttling between the citadel, where he worked on the base defenses, and Base 1 where he worked on the new ship. A Quonset building, manufactured by Reager Industries, was acquired and set up near the front of the new base. With a portion of the mountain face sheared away, thus revealing the door, it was impossible to conceal the entrance. Therefore, the peacekeepers had decided to put the Quonset building up outside the front of the base. That building would serve as a shelter for the exterior guards when they weren’t making their rounds.
A fence was strung from one section of the mountain to another. The fence crossed in front of the entrance to the base, sealing off access and thus effectively stopping people from being able to just walk up to the base. That fence was augmented by the defensive screen, which would disable trespassers who flew to the entrance in the new flying vehicles being manufactured in Detroit.
The old external cameras had been destroyed when a portion of the mountain had sheared away. New cameras were installed. Two laser defensive weapons were also installed, but the real defense for the base would lie in the air cover provided by the peacekeeper aircraft it housed.
Tim, now officially in command of the Peacekeeper, conducted a detailed survey of the area around the base and discovered a small settlement of people who lived in a little community of homes and barns they’d built themselves about thirty miles to the southwest. They lived by growing food crops, hunting, and fishing. Tim landed and met with the people in an effort to determine if they would pose a problem for the base. He reported that they seemed to be decent, hard working survivors, not interested in bothering anyone. He also reported that many of them were from Mexico and had fled problems there. They’d stopped to live in the little river valley where he’d found the settlement. He suggested that Pete and Jim add the community to their protection grid. He then surprised them when he said, “One of the Mexicans asked me if we were going to fight the blue hats when they come.”
“Blue hats?” asked Pete.
“I have no idea. My Spanish is almost non-existent, none of my crew speaks Spanish, except Patricia, and she’s back at Base 1, working on the new ship with Pol. The man’s English is almost as bad as my Spanish is. None of the other people in the community seemed to know what the man was talking about, and he left before I could get to the bottom of the matter. He was agitated at my inability to understand him and walked away in a huff,” Tim explained. Shrugging his shoulders, Tim added, “As he walked away I heard him say, ‘the blue hats are coming.’ That was just about the extent of his English.”
“He may be talking about some sort of gang. I’ll be sure to tell the pilots to watch for groups of people heading our way. Thank you for the warning, Tim,” Jim said.
Jim and Evan stayed at the citadel and established a new routine. Jim would see to the base modifications with Pete. They also dealt with a steady influx of personnel and materials. Evan studied with the aid of the computer in his room and spent time with Lisa in the recreation room when they had free time.
By the end of the fourth week, the geothermal system went live. The contractors wanted to begin the removal of the transformers immediately, but Pete put his foot down. He insisted on a week trial period for the new system as they had agreed during the negotiations. During that week, the personnel at the base executed several power consumption tests. They were deliberately trying to draw more power than the system could produce. The geothermal generators easily passed all of the tests.
Jim ordered Lieutenant Wilcox and his new strike force to take one of the personnel transports and visit the community of farmers to their southwest. They took trade goods and established a trade agreement with the villagers. Upon their return, they also informed Maggie that some of the villagers had suffered injuries, and the villagers had asked if the peacekeepers could bring a doctor with them, when next they visited. She went with the lieutenant and his men the next day to visit the village and treat those in need of medical attention. During both of those trips to the village, the Mexican man tried to talk to the peacekeepers. The only thing that they could understand was, ‘the blue hats are coming.’”
Lieutenant Wilcox reported the matter of the man’s warning to Pete and Jim. Jim put in a call to the Peacekeeper and asked when they would be available for Patricia to act as interpreter. He learned that she was making the final adjustments to the communications gear and computers in the new ship, which was scheduled for testing the next day. Tim suggested they make the trip to the citadel after the test flight. Then they could visit the village the following day.
***
Jim and Pete stood in the shipyard at Base 1 and examined the exterior of the new ship. In the background behind them, the transport ship that had ferried Jim, Pete, and the strike team to Base 1 was lifting off for the return flight to the citadel.
As they examined the new ship, the men noted that the exterior looked only slightly different than it had looked when they’d first seen it the previous month. But in the weeks since they had acquired it, the interior of the ship had been radically altered.
Most of the airliner seats had
been removed from the interior in order to make room for the modifications that Pol wanted to make, and the council had approved. Pol had installed two drone operator stations in the cockpit, situated one to each side of the aircraft. Two drones had been customized to improve their aerodynamics. The noses of the drones had been reconfigured to reduce air drag. Those drones would be attached to the top rear section of the fuselage. When needed, the drones could be detached and utilized to defend the aircraft or take on other missions at the discretion of the captain.
Aft of the port drone station was the communications and computer console that Patricia had painstakingly installed. The aircraft had been equipped with a radio system to be utilized by the pilot or copilot, but the peacekeepers felt that the aircraft needed a system similar to those utilized by the rest of the fleet. Therefore, the ship was now equipped with Patricia’s advanced radio system and a computer research station.
The engineer’s station was directly opposite from the communications system. From that station, an engineer could monitor the power flow system and alert the captain, should the ship run into power issues. The engineer was responsible for the inflight maintenance, or any mission-oriented maintenance that would need performing while the ship was away from a base. It would also be his responsibility to advise the captain when it was imperative that the ship cease firing its energy weapons.
The previously unarmed aircraft now sported the typical peacekeeper main laser and a laser minigun. It was also armed with a conventional minigun.
The weapons were controlled from the cockpit copilot’s position. Because it had been designed to transport top ranking government officials, the aircraft had been designed with both a pilot and a copilot’s position. The copilot could still fly the aircraft, but the peacekeepers favored gunners to concentrate on weapons and pilots to concentrate on flying aircraft of this size.