Smith's Monthly #8

by Smith, Dean Wesley

  She stared at the formation of the Dog fleet. With their weird long shapes, there was just something about them she couldn’t get a handle on.

  Then suddenly it struck her.

  They were staggered like bowling pins on an alley, with lead ships protecting other ships in the middle of the formation.

  The Dog fleet was flying in bowling pin formations, a couple dozen of them per formation.

  She and her husband had spent a lot of years bowling with friends a couple times a week until all their families started to get too old and his job kept him too busy. She had loved to bowl.

  Not as much as she loved to dance, but since the accident that killed him and crippled her, she hadn’t thought of bowling at all, where every night she had dreamed of dancing until Brian got her out here in space and allowed her to be young and dance for real again.

  She had loved the smell of the old bowling alley in Chicago she and her husband used to go to, the feel of the silly leather shoes they had to wear, the weight of the ball in her hands. She usually came close to beating her husband most nights, and would have if he wasn’t as competitive as she was and a darned fine athlete.

  She loved most of all the feeling of getting a strike, sending that big ball right down the center of the pins.

  She stared at the Dog ships and understood how they might just make a difference in this fight. It might get them all killed a little faster, but if her idea worked, it would cause huge damage to the Dog fleet.

  “You know how to override the Trans-Galactic drive limitations on this ship?” Dot asked, turning to Carrie as the fighters broke into attack groups and swarmed around the oncoming Dog warships like so many bugs on a hot summer’s afternoon.

  “I think I could do it,” Carrie said, frowning and looking at Dot. “Why?”

  “I’m just wondering,” Dot said. “Tell me what would happen if we plowed right through the middle of that fleet at full Trans-Galactic speed?”

  “Besides destroy us?” Carrie said.

  “I’m not so sure it would hurt us that bad,” Dot said. “If I remember right, at full and complete Trans-Galactic speed, we’re on complete force-field shields, big enough to knock just about anything short of a small moon out of the way. I think I’m remembering right from all those confusing lectures back in basic training.”

  “Actually, our shields would just knock a small hole through a moon,” Steve said. “Like drilling from one side to the other.”

  Carrie stared at Dot for a moment, then glanced back at the big view screen showing the alien fleet.

  “They sort of do look like bowling pins, don’t they?” Dot asked.

  “Bowling for Dogs,” Steve said, clapping. “I love it! I haven’t been bowling for years.”

  Carrie set to work to see if she could get complete control of the top speed of the Trans-Galactic drive controls. If anyone in the fleet could do it, Carrie could. In the Command Center they had control over slower Trans-Galactic speeds for short trips and battles like this one, but never full speed. It was just too dangerous to leave in the hands of a bunch of senior citizens, no matter how well-trained.

  In thirty seconds, Carrie looked up, smiling. “Got it. Easier than I thought.”

  On the screen the fighters were having some luck. The Dog warships were firing, but not really hitting anything. The fighters were picking at the thrusters of the ships like a kid picked at a scab.

  Two dog ships were already dead in space, left behind by the fleet. But there were already four single-man fighters destroyed, four elderly humans who wouldn’t be returning alive to their nursing home rooms tonight on Earth.

  In fact, the way those fighters had exploded, replacement bodies would have to be put in those beds to fool the families.

  Dot quickly called the other captains and explained her idea, looking for any of them to knock a hole in the idea.

  None did.

  For a moment they all looked sort of shocked at the idea.

  After that, they all just broke into smiles and a couple made really bad bowling jokes.

  “Have the fighters pull back and give us plenty of room. We’ll give it a shot. Keep them back for five minutes or until you hear from me again,” Dot said. “We hope to be coming back the same way.”

  All acting captains wished her luck and signed off.

  “Yup, Acting Captain Knudson is good enough to eat,” Carrie said, smiling at Steve. “Five course meal and three desserts.”

  “Yeah, I do a mean barbeque,” Steve said.

  “Sloppy and covered in sauce,” Carrie said. “Figures.”

  “When you are ready,” Dot said to her first officer as she shook her head.

  “Not too far,” Steve said.

  “I’ll be careful,” Carrie said, smiling at Steve. “Last thing I want is to have to change your diapers.”

  Dot, on instructions from Carrie, carefully sat the Trans-Galactic drive for only a six second burst. That would take them through the Dog Warship fleet and some distance beyond, but not too far. Too far and they might end up too young to pilot the ship back into position. Or worse, end up in Dog territory beyond the border.

  Then Dot moved The Blooming Rose around and to a position a distance in front of the Dog fleet.

  “Ready to lose a little age and wrinkles?” Dot asked.

  “And with luck, a few Dog Warships in the process,” Steve said.

  “Right down the lane,” Carrie said. “Go for the strike.”

  Dot punched the T-G Drive engage, and for the first time in all the missions, she saw what space looked like at full Trans-Galactic speed.

  It was a blur of black and white streaks.

  Nothing more.

  Not even pretty.

  Just weird.

  She was glad she normally slept through it.

  Then as quickly as it started, it ended and the stars were back, solid in space.

  There was no sign of the Dog Warships, or the rest of the League fleet.

  “Damage report?” Dot asked.

  “Nothing major,” Steve said as his fingers flew over his board, checking everything.

  “Some really minor strain on the shields, but they are holding fine at ninety-eight percent,” Carrie said.

  “Where are we?” Dot asked.

  “We’ve gone a bunch closer to the Dog Border and we’re four weeks younger than a few seconds ago,” Carrie said.

  “I knew I felt better,” Dot said. “Don’t you just love how this relativity and mass and time stuff works?”

  “Yeah,” Steve said. “Just wish I really understood it.”

  “I hear you there,” Dot said.

  “Thank heavens one of us on this ship does,” Carrie said, laughing.

  Dot didn’t argue with that at all.

  Dot flipped the ship over and, with a quick run of her fingers over the board, reset the controls to return them to just a few seconds after they had left and just a slight distance farther ahead of the Dog fleet to make up for the speed of the Dog ships.

  “Getting older,” Dot said.

  Again the view screens showed black and white streaks for a long six seconds, then normal space returned.

  “Damage?” Dot asked.

  “No more than last time,” Carrie said. “Shields at ninety-seven percent.”

  “Holy cow!” Steve said. “I think we got a strike.”

  “Maybe two,” Dot said, staring at the damage they had done to the Dogs. They had punched not just one, but two holes in the fleet of Dog warships, damaging and destroying at least thirty of them in the process.

  And the single-man fighters were now swooping in to take advantage of the confusion to cause even more damage.

  For the first time since Dot heard about the mission, she felt there might be a chance she would see Brian again.

  Just a chance.

  But there was a lot of work to do.

  “Get ready to hit them again,” Dot said. “Tell the fighters to get out of the
way in thirty seconds. We’re coming through.”

  As they waited the few seconds for the fighters to again withdraw, Steve said, “They’re going to come up with a terrible name for this, you know.”

  “And what would that be?” Dot asked

  “The Leeds’ Yo-Yo Maneuver,” Steve said.

  “Sounds good to me,” Dot said, laughing.

  “Nah,” Carrie said. “I think it will be the Leeds’ Bowling Maneuver.”

  Dot waited until the other pilots confirmed that they were ready and the fighters were out of the way, then she punched them back into full Trans-Galactic speed once again, aiming directly at the thickest part of the Dog fleet.

  And for a few seconds, she got even younger.

  And she really, really loved being young.

  She just needed the man she loved here beside her to make this perfect.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  April 20th, 2022

  Equivalent Earth Time

  Location: Deep Space

  AFTER EVERYTHING WAS cleaned up, and she had sent Carrie and Steve to get some dinner and enjoy the coming party, Dot put in a call to General Banks.

  “Captain Leeds,” the general said, nodding as he came on the screen. His face was again smiling, the wrinkles that surrounded his eyes and mouth clear once again. “Great job out there.”

  “Thank you, General,” she said. “But I’m worried about Captain Saber.”

  He nodded and his expression became serious. “We are watching his condition very closely. If you hadn’t been able to stop the Dogs, we would have taken a chance and pulled him to lead a second line of defense.”

  Dot nodded. That made sense to her. If they could let him rest, they would, but if they couldn’t, why not have the best Captain in the fleet fighting a second line of defense for Earth, even if it endangered his life.

  “So if his condition worsens, what are you going to do?”

  “Captain,” the General said, his voice firm, his eyes intent. “We have our procedures and our rules and all of us are bound by them, including Captain Saber.”

  She started to say something, but he held up his hand. “I have been told Captain Saber is stronger. We are watching his condition. Again, great job today.”

  With that he clicked off, leaving the screen blank in front of her.

  Somehow she managed to not put her fist through the blank screen.

  Then she almost called him back, but decided that until she got back and understood what was really going on with Brian, she didn’t dare. She might have just saved all of Earth, but it didn’t seem that the EPL was going to be very grateful with the man she loved.

  The man who had saved them all many more times than she had.

  She didn’t dance that night at the party, but instead just sat and drank and watched Acting Captain Marian Knudson and Dot’s third-in-command, Steve, flirt. They were clearly good together.

  And Steve made Marian laugh, which from what Brian had told Dot, was unusual.

  Dot wondered how many people had watched her and Brian do the same thing over the last few years.

  Finally, it was time to head back.

  Normally she hated going in and putting on her old nightgown and going back to her old body. But this time she was anxious to be old again.

  Brian was there.

  And spending even another minute without him wasn’t something she really wanted to do.

  She crawled into her sleep coffin and closed the lid, letting the gas knock her out.

  A moment later she was being picked up from the coffin by Lieutenant Sherri.

  “Good mission, Captain?” the Lieutenant asked.

  “We got the job done,” Dot said.

  What seemed like only a moment later she was being carried through the chill evening air of Chicago and into Brian’s room.

  He still seemed to be sleeping comfortably.

  The lieutenant carried Dot across the hallway and put her in her wheelchair as Dot instructed.

  “Have a good night, Captain,” Lieutenant Sherri said, snapping off a salute and heading back across the hall and out the door.

  Dot waited a moment, then wheeled her chair across the hallway and into Brian’s room.

  She reached up and touched his arm and he stirred slightly, but kept sleeping.

  She moved in close to his bed, locked the brakes on her chair, and put her head down on his bed next to him.

  Somehow, she had to save him.

  She could save all of Earth.

  Why couldn’t she save the man she loved?

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  April 20th, 2022

  Actual Earth Time

  Location: Chicago

  AN HOUR LATER Joyce, the night nurse, woke her and helped her across the hallway and into her own bed. She didn’t think she would be able to sleep because she was so worried, but she did, waking at her normal time.

  After her morning bath and dressing, she pushed her wheelchair ahead of her out into the hallway, working to get her old legs loosened up a little. She had to see how Brian was doing, then get a little breakfast and come back to sit with him.

  Two people she didn’t recognize were talking in whispers in the hallway and Brian’s door was closed. One was a middle-aged man, the other a younger woman. Both had on dark winter coats and jeans. The woman had dark brown hair pulled back and stuffed in the collar of her coat.

  The man was tall and held himself with great posture, his thinning brown hair combed back and slightly long. The younger woman looked like she might be his daughter.

  “Is Brian all right?” Dot asked, her stomach twisting into a hard knot as she moved toward them and Brian’s door.

  He couldn’t have died in the middle of the night. He just couldn’t have.

  “We’re not sure,” the middle-aged man said, stepping away from the young girl with a nod.

  The girl smiled at Dot and then turned and headed for the nurse’s station down the hall.

  The man stuck out his hand and smiled. “I’m Brian Wilson Saber, Brian’s oldest son. But I have always gone by Wilson. And yes, my dad loved the Beach Boys. You must be Dot Leeds.”

  “I am,” she said, shaking Wilson’s hand.

  Now that he said it, she could see the clear likeness. She only knew Brian young or old. Not middle-aged, which is why she hadn’t seen the resemblance with his son instantly.

  But he was clearly as handsome as his father. Brian had talked about Wilson at times and told her that someday he would make a great Captain.

  “Nice meeting you,” Wilson said, shaking her hand gently and then releasing it. “Dad has talked a lot about you.”

  “I hope all good,” she said, smiling.

  “All very good,” he said, smiling back with Brian’s smile.

  “So what do you mean you’re not sure how Brian is?” she asked.

  “My daughter has headed to the lunchroom to get something to eat,” Wilson said. “How about we go there and you can have some breakfast and I’ll try to explain what the doctors have said.”

  She nodded. At least Brian’s son was willing to help her and get her into the loop. That was a start. She would have to be very careful to not say anything to him about the EPL. Even though Brian had said Wilson would be a good Captain some day, he hadn’t told her that he knew about the EPL. And he didn’t need to know that she hoped to save his father by getting him out of here somehow and into deep space.

  To Brian’s son, that would not be saving him, since his father would be considered dead at that point.

  But Dot had no other choice. She had to save the man she loved by killing him in his son’s eyes.

  Wilson walked with her slowly down the hall and into the lunchroom. Again the bright room smelled of pancakes and eggs. The drapes were all open showing the bright Chicago spring morning outside the windows. She had always loved Chicago in the spring, especially after a hard winter. It always felt like a rebirth.

  After she met
Brian’s granddaughter, a young woman named Sue who worked as a head nurse at another nursing home about ten miles away, Dot steered the conversation back to Brian.

  Neither one of them let on that they knew about the EPL, so she was careful.

  Wilson looked worried, an expression she had seen on his father’s face many times.

  “The doctor thinks Dad may have had another small stroke yesterday,” Wilson said. “He wants Dad to rest and his condition is now being monitored every few hours by the nurses here.”

  Dot took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “That doesn’t sound good, does it?”

  “We honestly don’t know,” Wilson said and his daughter nodded. Brian’s granddaughter clearly had some medical knowledge as a nurse and that was who Dot would turn to.

  “Any idea how long?” Dot asked Sue after they paused for their breakfasts to be delivered. Dot had her normal eggs and pancakes and both Wilson and his daughter had a glass of orange juice and toast.

  “He might get a little stronger and last for another two or three years,” Sue said. “The kind of small strokes he suffers are that way. We just have to see what is happening with him, and if he gains strength in the next day or so.”

  So that was what the brass in charge of the Earth Protection League were hoping. They wanted their top front-line fighter to get better here and keep going on missions for them.

  But if he didn’t, that’s what worried Dot. She had no idea if the League would just let him die at that point.

  “I’ll watch him as much as I’m able,” Dot said.

  “Thank you,” Wilson said. “I know dad would appreciate that.”

  Dot nodded and tried to force herself to eat. If she was going to sit with Brian, she needed to keep her strength up.

  That last thing either of them needed was for her to get sick as well.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  April 23rd, 2022

  Actual Earth Time

  Location: Chicago

  THE LAST TWO days had been a total nightmare for Dot. She had spent her day either resting beside Brian or eating the three meals she didn’t want to eat or even taste.