by TS Paul
“Did he really? And what did they say exactly?” Shing peered at Kwan more intently.
Kwan swallowed the saliva that was pooling in his mouth. This was it, his moment of truth. He launched into the story but left out the bit about digging a hole.
“Interesting. There is a sudden push by the bandit groups to a certain area. That might explain why they are here this time. But TQB? If these men have even a portion of that technology… We need to get it first! Good work, Rong! This could mean a promotion for you.” Shing smiled at him.
“What about me? I brought you the information!” Kwan looked at the man in black.
“So. Want me to arrest you for theft of National treasure?”
“No. I’ll just go home then.” Kwan turned to leave.
“Wait. I need you to show Rong exactly where you saw the men. And I do mean exactly.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“Sir, we have them!” The messenger was so excited he misspoke to General Chun.
“What? Where? Are they still alive?” The General rose up out of his chair in excitement.
“The Mongolian border defense force is scrambling into action, as is their pitiful excuse for an Air Force. Intelligence has picked up chatter about men with ties to TQB. That has to be the scientist and his guide.”
The General sat back down in his chair a look of disgust on his face. “Do we have them in custody or not?”
Horrified at what he said, the messenger started to plead for his life. The sound of the shot echoed in the room.
“Stand up for yourself and own up to any mistake you make. Lie like a dog, and I’ll shoot you like one. Idiots!” He strode across the room stepping over the cooling corpse.
Wham! The doors flew open slamming against the walls. “Call the general staff! I want representatives from the PLASF, IAU, and the Air Force in the War Room as soon as possible. Consider yourselves on a War footing as of now!”
Special operations didn’t have much this far out, but the Intermediate Action Unit did. They might be police, but out here they were as good as the regular army.
Chun’s second-in-command Colonel Li Ming Jung ran into the outer office. “What is happening? Have we been attacked?”
Looking at her mussed uniform and undone hair Chun chuckled inwardly. Shameful. “No. Worse. The Mongolians have discovered our wayward agents and are moving to intercept the technology themselves. That must not be allowed. Only China should benefit.”
The Colonel ignored the men dragging the dead messenger out of the room. Death in the line of duty was the norm here on the fringe of civilization. “I agree, sir. Those men belong to us. Should we inform General Bao Kou? They are on his border too.”
Chun rocked back on his heels. His desire for the technology blinded him to the danger that the Northern Theater Command represented. General Kou was a complete unknown. If they were about to battle with the pitiful remains of the Mongol Empire, he would want in. He rubbed his hand across his face. “I will call and inform him. Open up the War Room and start alerting our forces. I will notify Beijing.”
Colonel Jung saluted and ran to open up the tactical command center otherwise known as the war room.
Chun walked back to his office. Grabbing his phone, he dialed the number from memory. He stared at the large map of China as he waited for the phone to connect.
So close!
~~~~~~
“Did somebody order some camping gear?” Kris and Vanko came into the construction bay. Behind them floated a half dozen large boxes on floaters.
“That was fast. Tell Isaac thanks when you see him.” Jeo walked over to the line of anti-gravity pods. They called them floaters down in supply.
“Peter? How in the god’s name are we supposed to put all of this? In there.” He pointed to the large pod.
“You don’t think your drinking buddies didn’t consider the Queens need for shoes? The back seats fold down. Watch and learn grasshopper.” Peter asked the EI to open up the pod. Both the rear and side doors opened up.
“It’s all voice operated by the EI. Please fold down the rearmost seats into cargo configuration.” As the men and half of Alpha class observed the rear seats folded down and made a platform in the back.
Jeo asked. “Can someone bring the boxes over here?”
When nobody answered, he looked behind him. All five Alpha Class members were clustered around the delivery people. Jeo stepped away from the pod and got close enough to hear what they were saying.
“She was a hero. Craig was just goofing off as usual. He only lost a hand, but he could have died! Halli pushed past the others and ran right over to him.” Kris could only shake her head.
“That’s crazy! Moonwalking is tough. I wonder how she learned to do it so fast?” Ron asked.
“We don’t know. They are still on the moon, well, everyone but Craig. He’s still in the med bay. Doc Running Wolf says his hand will grow back in a few more weeks. He’s lucky. I’m going to start calling him stumpy.”
“Oh, stop. You will not! Vanko stop kidding around.” Kris gave her companion a push.
Nestor laughed. “Was it the same hand? Now that would be funny!”
“No. Craig really was lucky. General Lance gave him a real talking to. The gist of it was he could’ve lost his head instead of the hand. This might calm him down some.” Kris looked in Maxim’s direction and blushed a little. Nestor saw it and made a note to poke fun at his cousin later.
Jeo thought to break it up. “Is everything OK here?”
Tina introduced her friends, “Hey, Jeo. This is Kris and Vanko from Charlie Class. They were just telling us about a crazy accident Bravo had down on the moon.”
Jeo winced. “Aliens again?”
All the kids laughed. “No, just stupidity. He may have learned his lesson this time.” Vanko had a deep, sonorous voice like Maxim.
“We need to start getting this loaded up. We’re burning daylight.” Jeo grabbed one of the floaters and pushed it toward the pod. Tina and the rest said their goodbyes to Kris and Vanko and grabbed the rest of the boxes. As they loaded, nifty little tie-down straps came out of the walls of the ship.
“This new pod is really neat,” Ron grunted as he stretched to lock the strap down. The inertial compensator should prevent any shifting, but this was supposed to be an ambassadorial ship. There were fail-safes on top of fail-safes in the pod.
“Nothing but the very best for our Queen. Go get your stuff and tell the others to put on their suits!” Peter told Ron as he climbed out of the pod.
Four of the five Alpha Class students still needed to put on spacesuits. Maxim already had his on.
“That isn’t fair you know,” Nestor commented as he pulled on the booties and locked them down.
“What isn’t?”
“That suit. You have it on already. How did you know?”
Maxim laughed. “They said we were taking a trip. Besides, you were standing right next to me when the Ds announced the spacesuit rule. We have to wear them anytime we step foot in any pod until they tell us otherwise. It’s our fault because of the moon. I think we scared them.”
“I know all that. What made you put it on early?” Nestor said.
Maxim blushed just a bit. “It’s hard to put on. I have to squeeze and pull so much it’s easier to do it here than in the field.” Maxim wiggled a bit to demonstrate.
“What happens if you have to use the bathroom?”
Maxim laughed. “I go in the suit, of course.”
“Eeew. That’s nasty!” Nestor replied.
Maxim tilted his head to one side. “Like you didn’t do that down on the Moon the last term? I don’t remember taking bathroom breaks while we fought those robots. The suits are designed for this, remember? We just have to change out the dust vial once every twenty-four hours.”
“I sort of remember that. But I’m going to hold my nose and call you stinky from now on.” Nestor pulled out his own suit and began slipping it on.
Maxim just sighed. Since he just reminded his cousin, he opened a small slot at the belt and removed an even smaller vial. Shaking it out over the sink, a fine dust fell out. There was a tiny Etheric energy elimination device inside the walls of the suit. All body waste was dissolved and dried out in the blink of an eye.
Simple.
Since he was already suited up, he casually looked around the room. The girls were ready as was Ron. Nestor was still jumping around trying to get his back to slide in properly. “Need some help?”
“I’ve got it.” Nestor jumped to the left and gave a little wiggle. Maxim laughed and stood behind him. When Nestor jumped so did he. Soon all the members of the class were jumping and wiggling.
“Is this some sort of preflight ritual?” Jeo stood watching the dancing class for just a moment.
“No. Sorry. We were just messing around.” Tina spoke up first.
“Are you all suited up and ready? Because it’s time to go! First stop is Paris. We have a radio tower to check out.”
Tina followed by the rest of the class trailed after Jeo over to the pod. Peter waved at them from the Black Eagle fighter as he climbed on board it.
The controlling EI was going to do all the flying for this one. Peter was proficient enough to fly the Black Eagle, but if it came to a fight, he would let the computer do it.
The pod and fighter lifted off and out of the construction bay. The kids were all strapped in with helmets resting in a specially designed pocket in front of them. This pod wasn’t set up for Jeo to unstrap but it did have a complete video and holo suite built in. He was able to focus the camera on him and project to each student individually. Screens folded down from the ceiling.
“Paris. City of art, culture, history, and architecture. This is a city that has continuously been in the same location since the 3rd century. History has walked through this city and has left its mark everywhere. While there are many architectural masterpieces in Paris, the Eiffel Tower is what matters to us the most. My brand of engineering is ship building and metallurgy. I like the science of metal and how it is applied to things.”
Jeo paused and stared off into space for a moment before he continued.
“Gustave Eiffel is the man who constructed the tower. It was the company that was founded and owned by him that conceived the idea to build a tower for the 1889 Universal Exposition. This is the same construction company that designed both the base and the support structure for the Statue of Liberty. Unlike other monuments of the time, it was to be made of metal, not rock or wood. An Engineering feat for the ages. The metal it is built from weighs 7,300 tons. Each time it is painted it takes sixty tons of paint to do it. They have done it nineteen times. Heavy metal indeed. For something this groundbreaking to have survived more than one hundred years is remarkable. Things like this were built to last.”
The EI broke into the lecture. “Sir, the pod will be at the destination in twelve seconds.”
Pressing a button, Jeo directed the outer cameras to show Paris in all its glory to his students. “I give you Paris and the Eiffel Tower.”
The kids all stared at what many call the ‘City of Lights.’ Buildings both touched the sky and the earth. All shapes and sizes in view were dominated by the metal structure in the center of the city. The pod took up station opposite the tip-top of the tower. “Radio and television stations use that portion of the tower. It was of course added to and upgraded to support newer technology.” Jeo pointed to the blocky shape with all the antenna sticking out.
Peter heard none of this. He was circling several hundred feet above them in his Black Eagle pod ever watchful.
“Sir. I am picking up signals from Villacoublay Air Base just outside of Paris. They are launching all available aircraft as well as three attack helicopters.” The EI’s voice sounded calm to Peter.
“Are they moving to intercept the pod?”
“Not at this time. Their instructions are to keep pace with the pod for now.”
“Notify me the instant those orders change,” Peter ordered the EI.
Villacoublay was only eight miles away, and two squadrons of Dassault Mirage 2000s made quite a racket when they buzzed the city. Jeo continued to talk, but even he couldn’t help noticing the groups of fighters.
“Peter, should I be worried?”
“Not yet. So far, they’re just watching us. I would try to hurry up that lecture you are conducting, though.” Peter was tracking all the planes.
“Sir, they are launching additional squadrons. ETA two minutes.”
Peter stared at the swirling fighters on his map. It would be pretty easy to try to force the pod down with that many planes. Speaking aloud to the EI he began giving orders. “EI. Take control of the pod and fly to rally point one. Use evasion pattern Beta.” He quickly pressed a button. “Jeo, hold on to your cheese.”
Jeo and Alpha class felt a slight vibration as the pod they were in shot sideways at a ninety-degree angle surprising the closing French fighters. The scenery outside was rushing by so fast it wasn’t being read by the cameras.
“EI. Please inform the Queen that France is still hostile to the Etheric Empire.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“Sir, there was a pod sighting in Paris, France, just a short while ago.”
“Did your contact say where they went after that? We have to possess that technology! The speed of the pods alone would change our entire way of life!” General Vlákas paced back and forth in the small reception area.
Lieutenant Buckley shook his head. “No, Sir. Our sensors can barely register that they are even there. This one was hovering over the Eiffel Tower and easy to see. Several squadrons of French Mirage 2000s were dispatched to force it down. They never even got close to it.”
“See that is one of the points I made with the President. Someone or something is tipping these people off! How do they even know that planes were en route?”
“It’s possible they can see them from space.” A new voice entered the conversation.
“Well, it’s about time someone took the time to see me!” The General shouted at the newcomer.
“Nice to meet you General. I’m Special Projects Director Kenneth Bigham. The last time you were here I was off base dealing with a small family issue. Nice to finally meet you.” He held out his hand.
General Vlákas took it and squeezed it. “I’m here about a comment made to me about those TQB pods. One of our scientists mentioned a gravitic drive and how they were making it work. Does that mean we already use that technology? And if we do why in the hell is it just sitting here?”
Kenneth mentally shook his head. He was torn between revealing all to the General or going forward with Majestic’s plan for him. Valuing his own life foremost, he would stick to the plan. “If you and your aide would come with me, I can show you a few things.”
“Son, I already had the tour the last time we were here. You better be showing me something new!”
Two minutes after meeting this man, Ken already wanted him gone. The aide at least kept a low profile. He led them through the main doors into the underground portion of the base. They stopped at the checkpoint.
“General if you and your aide would please deposit all electronics into the bin we can get started. This portion of the base is one of the most secure in the country, very similar to what the President has set up inside the Treasury building.” The Director paused in the doorway.
“How is it you know about that?” General Vlákas looked at him suspiciously.
“I was the person who advised both the NSA and the CIA to not allow electronics inside. You are correct in your thinking that someone is giving away our secrets. We believe it is an Artificial Intelligence.” Kenneth stopped at the counter and deposited his cell phone and tablet. He looked expectantly at the General.
Lieutenant Buckley placed his phone, tablet, and portable charger in the tub provided. He looked at the General.
Thinking he needed to get this over with,
General Vlákas shook his head and complied. He placed the phone and tablet he used daily in the bin.
“Is that everything General?” Kenneth looked at both military men.
“Yes, yes. Let’s get this over with. We are both far too busy to pussy-foot around with trivial things.” If he had been paying attention at all, he might have noticed the brand-new smartwatch that his wife gave him was switched off. They rarely gave each other gifts, and he promised to never take it off. Most days, like today, he forgot he was even wearing it. He was used to checking the time on his phone or getting it from his aide.