by Jim Laughter
“That’s good to hear,” Mike said. “Now, I for one want to get some shuteye before arguing over words tomorrow.”
Everyone agreed and the discussion wound down. They broke up and went to their rooms. Later that evening, Delmar lay in his bed staring up at the stars. So much had happened so fast, and the next day things would happen even faster. With a contented sigh, he finally rolled over and went to sleep.
∞∞∞
Morning came with its usual luster and the Hassel farmhouse was a little more hectic than usual. Mike, Sherry, and Agnes left early to see Robert and then to waste a perfectly good hour in court. Jake and Delmar shuttled to the enlistment office to have Delmar tested and evaluated.
At the hospital, Agnes and Mike found Robert up and alert. Most of the visible wounds of the attack had healed enough that the doctor no longer worried about infection. After checking him over, his doctor arranged for him to start physical therapy on the wounded leg. Although the re-enforcement plate installed years ago had deflected the bullet, there was still considerable tissue and tendon damage. Mike wheeled Robert into the therapy room.
When they entered the room, Agnes heard a familiar voice. “Long time no see, Crazy Agnes,” said a deep female voice.
Agnes whirled around and found herself face-to-face with the physical therapist. “Well, if it isn’t Bulldozer Betty!” Agnes exclaimed and the two women embraced. “I didn’t know you were on Erdinata.”
“Yep! Been here almost a month,” Betty answered. “Just transferred up from the southern continent.”
Turning to Mike and Robert, Agnes introduced her old acquaintance. “This is my old drill instructor, Betty ‘Bulldozer’ Brown,” she said affectionately. “We called her Bulldozer because she pushed us so hard. She heard the nickname and liked it, so it stuck.”
“This,” said Robert, looking up warily at the large woman, “was your drill instructor?”
“I sure was, deary,” answered Bulldozer, “and I’m going to be your physical therapist!” Poking a stiff finger into Robert’s chest, she added, “So don’t give me no lip!” She took control of Robert’s wheelchair and guided it further into the room. Agnes and Mike waved goodbye. The last thing Agnes saw was Robert with very wide eyes.
In court, Mike formally presented charges against Dorn for the attack on Robert. The court accepted the charges and issued warrants so the police could bring in the rest of Dorn’s friends for questioning and possible charges. The preliminary hearing was delayed until after Robert could be released from the hospital and certified by his doctor.
After court, Mike took the underground tube to the liaison office while Agnes went back to the hospital to be with Robert. The assistant to the lieutenant was able to help Mike arrange for a caretaker for the Eagleman farm. Just as they were finishing the paperwork, the radio squawked the report that Mike’s transport would soon touch down. The two men stepped outside to the landing zone to watch it come in.
Soon two ships appeared in the sky over the field. The retrieval ship hovered above the disabled transport and the men could see the purple-gold levitation ray lacing the two ships together. The retrieval ship lowered the transport onto the tarmac and cut the ray. An audible groan rumbled across the field as the stressed metal of the damaged ship settled.
The hatch on the ship opened and the captain emerged and began to survey the damage to her ship. Mike saw her shoulders slump as she took in the extent of the battle damage.
∞∞∞
Across town, Jake and Delmar were at the enlistment center. After filling out the lengthy application, a trooper interviewed Delmar and took documentation from Jake concerning Delmar’s status. Delmar also submitted his graduation certificate for copying, and his identification for verification. A trooper led Delmar to a separate room where he struggled through the evaluation and placement test. Three hours later, Delmar’s head was hurting and his eyes would not focus.
The test results came back very high, which surprised the boy. He could not remember half of the questions. A trooper-first came out to double-check some of Delmar’s answers on the application and then signed off on it, then left Delmar and Jake alone in the waiting room for what seemed like hours.
“There’s one thing you have to get used to, Delmar,” Jake said. “In the service we have a saying—hurry up and wait.” A half hour later, the same trooper-first asked them to accompany him to an adjoining room.
“Well, Delmar,” the trooper began, “you’ve passed the application process.”
“Now what happens?”
“Be here tomorrow morning for a complete physical,” the trooper answered and handed Delmar an appointment slip. “If you pass that, you’ll be sworn in within thirty days and scheduled for a year of basic and advanced training.”
The enormity of enlisting caused Delmar’s throat to dry up. Fortunately, Jake spoke before Delmar had to.
“What time do you want him here?” Jake asked the trooper.
“I know the appointment slip says eight a.m., but being here early helps a lot. I suggest he get plenty of sleep tonight and have a plain but filling breakfast tomorrow. Lots of fiber! If things run long, he may not get out of here until late afternoon.”
“I’ll have him here by seven-thirty.”
In the meantime, Mike and Agnes had again visited with Robert and were on their way home. Robert looked pretty beat after his therapy, so they had not stayed long. Mike was still chuckling about Robert’s comments about his therapist. “A bulldozer only pushes things around. This woman was more of a road grader and pavement smoother. Only my leg was injured. Why does every muscle in my body ache?” Bulldozer Betty had really worked him over.
Chapter Fourteen
The sun was just topping the horizon when the ground car pulled up to the enlistment center. A young man hopped out and briskly climbed the steps and slipped inside. Reporting to the trooper at the counter, Delmar presented his appointment slip. The trooper signed him in and issued him a neck chain on which hung a locker key. He then gave the young man directions to the lower level where he found himself waiting with a half dozen other young men in a locker room.
Too nervous to sit, Delmar paced around the room and located his assigned locker. A plain jumpsuit that he had been instructed to wear instead of his regular clothes was folded neatly on the locker shelf. Underneath was a pair of shower thongs.
Stripping completely, Delmar stowed his personal gear and wiggled into the jumpsuit. He noted that it appeared designed to fit no one in particular, ever. The jumpsuit had a drop-down panel in the seat as well as the front. I wonder what these are for?
Hanging the key around his neck by its chain, Delmar then slipped on the shower thongs and sat down to wait. The clock on the wall read five minutes until eight.
He didn’t have long to wait. At two minutes before the hour a crush of about fifteen young men of all descriptions crowded into the locker room. They searched frantically for their lockers amid considerable commotion.
At eight sharp, a deep, thunderous voice pierced the confusion. “Alright! Find your lockers and change! Now!”
The voice generated even more frenzied activity on part of the men still looking for their lockers, and on the few stragglers that had just come in. Delmar tried to stay clear while several young men attempted to change into their jumpsuits while balanced on one foot.
“Come on! Move it!” the voice of doom yelled. “You’d all be dead in space at this rate!” Delmar could see why the trooper at the front desk had advised him to be here early.
“Those who are ready, line up with your toes on the blue line!” Almost everyone ran for the line on the floor, which allowed the few recruits still madly changing to have room to finish. Within a minute, all of the young men were standing fearfully with their toes on the blue line.
In front of them stood a trooper-first who looked much too small to have such a commanding voice. He walked up and down the line looking over the young men, a wolf se
lecting his dinner from the herd.
“Okay, listen up!” the trooper boomed. “Sound off when I call your name.” He then proceeded to call roll and seemed barely satisfied when everyone announced their presence. Again pacing the line, he looked as if he was daring any of them to break and run.
“So you want to be troopers?” he boomed. Delmar wondered if the man was capable of speaking at a normal volume.
“I’m here to take you through the physical examination process where you will be examined by a battery of doctors and specialists, one for each type of exam. You will keep your mouths shut except when required to speak. Stay in line and step lively.” The trooper paused and waited a moment.
“Are there any questions?” The young men in line were by this time too scared to speak.
“Good! Now, move out!”
The trooper led them to the first of countless rooms. An hour later, Delmar exited a room and stood at another blue line along with those who had also finished. He didn’t realize there were so many methods to weigh and measure the human body. Dignity was something best left back in the locker room with your civilian clothes. Delmar was glad that he had dressed in the jumpsuit. Now he waited at the line while the trooper again paced back and forth.
As soon as the last young man was at the line, the trooper led them into another examining room where they stripped and carried their jumpsuits. One by one, they had to lie down on an elevated table while a scan was made of their bone structure. After that, additional tables followed where other scanning machines probed them for things Delmar had never heard of. Finally allowed to dress, they found themselves again at a blue line where the ever-present trooper eyed them while he paced.
Released after several minutes, Delmar joined those in front of him and they each went into a small room to have their teeth x-rayed, followed by a large examination room that held half a dozen dentist chairs with two examiners at each. The trooper had them sit down in small groups. Bright lights swung over their open mouths and two dental examiners probed and poked Delmar’s teeth and gums. Afterwards, there was the familiar blue line and the pacing trooper.
The next delight was the full examination of their eyesight. Another room with a half dozen separate booths, each with a vision technician, greeted the young men as the trooper sent them in. He checked their sight for visual acuity and depth of field. The usual full spectrum of vision and color-blindness tests followed. Lastly, the doctor examined their eyes as organs themselves. The bright lights they used left spots in front of Delmar’s eyes for several minutes. It made finding the blue line a little more difficult.
The hearing test was next. Each young man put on a set of earphones and sat quietly in a soundproof booth where he signaled with a handheld button when he did or did not hear the differing tones playing to test his auditory sensors. Seconds turned into hours while Delmar listened to what seemed like thousands of different tones.
Delmar soon found himself standing at yet another blue line where the trooper-first ordered the group of wary young men to drop the panels in their jumpsuits. Internist that specialized in the reproductive and digestive systems examined each man. Fortunately, it didn’t take long and they again lined up, trying desperately to button the panels back in place.
A specialist of Dermatology collected skin and hair samples from various areas of their bodies at the next station. Another examiner took blood samples, and then they were ushered into the latrine to produce samples of other bodily fluids and solids. Allowed to dress again, their toes were once again at the blue line. Delmar was starting to think that blue lines were one of the constants of the universe.
Led by their bulldog of a trooper, the young men found themselves in a small gymnasium. There were several blue lines here and the trooper had them spread out among them.
“Now the fun part!” bellowed the trooper. “We’re going to run you through some basic exercises. Assume the push-up position with your fingers and chin on the blue line.” He waited a moment while they got ready. “All right! On my count... up one!”
Delmar found himself doing a steady rhythm of push-ups with occasional pauses. Several of the others had to quit after only a few but most kept going. Delmar decided that he wasn’t going to let the trooper get the best of him. His arms began to weaken and shake at fifteen and he was glad when they stopped at twenty.
Next, the trooper had them do sit-ups with their heels on the infamous blue line. Twenty was the ending count on this exercise which seemed to be a favorite of the trooper as he had them go through a dozen more drills. Sweat soaked through their jumpsuits while he had them run in place for ten minutes.
Finished with the exercise ordeal and again lined up on a blue line, the trooper herded them back into the locker room and had them strip for a quick shower. Afterwards they dressed back in their civilian clothes and lined up again. The trooper had them file out, throwing their used jumpsuits, thongs, and towels in different bins by the door. As they walked past him, the trooper collected their locker keys.
Delmar looked at the clock in the reception area and was shocked that it was only four o’clock. He went to a pay phone and called Jake. While he waited, Delmar asked at the counter when he would receive the results of his examination. The trooper behind the counter told him that he would know in twenty-four to forty-eight hours.
Delmar spied the trooper who had shepherded them downstairs. One of the other troopers was talking to him and Delmar was surprised to hear the trooper speak in normal tones. Another young man approached the trooper. “Excuse me, sir,” the young man began. “How many push-ups can you do?”
“Left-hand, right-hand, or both?”
The young man looked astonished, but persisted. “All of them, sir.”
“I can do one-hundred fifteen with either hand alone and two-hundred forty with both,” the trooper replied with a grin.
“But I could never do that. I dropped out at twelve.”
“Don’t worry, son,” the trooper said with a friendly smile. “You will by the time you finish basic.”
The sound of a horn broke Delmar away from the conversation and he looked out the window to see Jake waiting for him. On the way home, Delmar didn’t say much about his day.
“By your quietness, I suspect they got their pound of flesh,” Jake said with a grin.
“Literally!” Delmar replied with a grin of his own.
“Don’t let your experience today phase you any,” Jake continued. “It was a way of testing you early to see who can take it and who can’t.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really,” answered Jake. “It’s even worse in basic.”
∞∞∞
While Delmar suffered through his physical, Mike met with the liaison lieutenant about another important matter.
“I have another problem for you,” Mike said. “I need someone to be caretaker of the Eagleman farm until Delmar is of legal age to assume his half of the title.”
“What’s the legal standing on the deed?” the lieutenant asked.
“It was divided in half between the two heirs, Delmar and Dorn, at the time of their mother’s death. Dorn legally owns half and managed the other half as Delmar’s guardian. Dorn took out a lien on the whole property to pay off his bad debts but there should be no problem seeing that it goes against him for misuse of trust property. With him in prison, his lien will come due and be sold at auction.”
“How soon will that happen?” asked the lieutenant.
“About the same time Delmar turns twenty-one and is able to assume his half of the trust,” answered Mike. “It is my intention to see to it that Delmar has first offer rights to redeem the lien and assume full undivided title. That’s why I need someone to keep it up for him.”
“Let me check my files,” the lieutenant said as he pulled open a drawer. “I can think of several troopers and their families who might work out.”
∞∞∞
The two men accompanied the young trooper and
his wife, Daren and RoseMary Sabeti, around to the front of the house. Mike was careful to stay on the left side of the young trooper in case the cane he was using slipped.
“So there you see the whole of it,” the liaison lieutenant said. “Some of the neighbors have offered to come in with their equipment and get those fields in shape, and I heard talk of a work party forming to clean and repair the house. What do you two think?”
“We like it a lot, sir,” the Sabeti said and smiled at his wife. “It’ll give me something useful to do while I recover, and will help us stop living out of a suitcase.”
“Your service pay will be unaffected, and you pay the rent by your efforts,” Mike said.
“Where are the owners?”
“One is going to a penal colony for a long time and the other has enlisted in the service,” Mike answered. “We’re authorized to find someone to take care of the place.”
“Why isn’t the one owner here right now?” Daren sat down on the porch to rest his injured leg.
“Because,” Mike continued as he checked his watch, “he’s just finishing his physical exam for enlistment.” The young trooper grinned at Mike and the lieutenant knowingly.
“If he approves of us, we’ll take it,” RoseMary said.
“I’m not too worried about it,” Mike said. “Let’s go back to the office and draw up the paperwork.”
∞∞∞
The ladies were just setting the dinner table when Jake and Delmar pulled into the driveway, followed closely by Mike who pulled in and parked his vehicle behind theirs. Together the three went inside, changed, and washed for dinner. Everyone shared their news around the dinner table.
Agnes and Sherry had been to visit Robert and had gotten to see him walk a little. Agnes wasn’t sure whether it was determination to get better or a desire to get out from under his drill instructor of a therapist. Either way, she was glad to see his progress.
Delmar told of his trials that day and received hoots of appreciation and sympathy while he described the trooper-first. The older generation winked at each other in anticipation of what the boy would experience in basic. Delmar was a little worried that something would prevent his enlistment but Jake and Mike both assured him that his chances were good if he’d made it this far.