Trooper Down

by Jim Laughter

  Chapter Two

  “Ooow!” cried a young female voice from the bedroom at the end of the hall. A middle-aged woman passing by on her way downstairs was startled by the outcry.

  “You all right in there?” her mother called through the closed bedroom door.

  “Yes Mother, I’m fine.”

  Melissa Boren sucked at the solder burn on her finger. She looked down at her handiwork and frowned. Picking up an old dental pick, she scraped at the new solder joints to test for integrity. Finally satisfied, she reassembled the computer drive unit.

  It was a real stroke of luck finding this old unit in the dumpster behind the electronics store. She’d gotten approval from the manager to take it. He’d kindly gone out and helped her extract the discarded drive unit and secured it to her bicycle. He seemed amused that a girl would want something like that.

  At home, she’d lugged it upstairs to her room and set it on her desk, which served as a makeshift workbench. Not many fourteen-year old girls had an electronics workshop in their bedroom. She’d assembled her first radio on it several years ago, and that only whetted her appetite. She progressed to other projects and was always dragging junk home. After a while, her parents ceased to be surprised.

  Melissa opened the drive and explored its inner workings. At first glance, everything looked fine, except the main circuit board was broken in half. The usual solution was to replace the board, but that cost money she didn’t have. Instead, she began the tedious task of soldering dozens of jumper wires across the break. It was while fixing the last of the jumper wires that she had accidentally burned her finger.

  She hooked the repaired drive unit up to her keyboard and video display. Then using an adapter cable she’d previously built, she connected it all to the mainframe of her cobbled-together computer. She mentally reviewed her work and could think of nothing she hadn’t taken care of.

  Melissa placed one finger on the power switch, closed her eyes and crossed the fingers on her other hand. This was always the most exciting part—the smoke test. With a decisive motion, she threw the power switch. The drive began to hum. She opened her eyes to see that the screen displayed the diagnostic readings. She wanted to squeal with delight but knew it would only alarm her parents. Instead she ran her new toy through its paces.

  ∞∞∞

  The Red-tail commander leaned forward and studied the three-dimensional map of this section of the galaxy, his heavy pointed tail twitching back and forth. Little specks of light showed him the distribution of his raiders around the various planets they had targeted. With satisfaction, he noted they had kept themselves well hidden from the sporadic human mass patrols. It was inefficient to lose ships through carelessness.

  Glancing to one particular sector of the display, the commander saw the blue marker depicting the location of an Axia mothership. He knew from experience that it was capable of holding several squadrons of fighters, patrollers, and smaller ships, and was usually well defended.

  It was this last bit of information that excited him. Either the normal defensive globe the Axia kept around such a ship was well hidden, or perhaps someone was getting sloppy. If it was the later, an opportunity to destroy the giant ship and gain access to the planets it protected was waiting to be seized. And if by some miracle he could destroy a Galactic Axia mothership, his position in the hierarchy would increase considerably.

  A plan began forming in the commander’s mind of how to make sure he wasn’t being drawn into a trap. Snarling orders at an underling, he knew he’d have to plot small decoy missions to ferret out information about the enemy. If the defenders of the Axia mothership were being lax, it would also put his raiders in a position to strike decisively against an unwary prey.

  ∞∞∞

  “Are you sure we can’t convince you to stay longer?” Stan asked when he and Leatha dropped Delmar off at his ship.

  “Can’t do it,” Delmar answered. “But you can come in for a minute.”

  Stan and Leatha looked at each other and shrugged. In a moment, they were out of the ground car and following their friend inside his fast attack patroller.

  Delmar waved them to the extra chairs and food synthesizer while he went aft to store his overnight bag. He returned to find them both looking over his equipment. Leatha, as was natural for a fellow captain, was examining all of the new equipment recently installed on the Cabbage Patch.

  “Some of its pretty experimental,” Delmar offered as he walked up next to her.

  “Hope I get something like it soon,” she said, looking through the spectral analyzer.

  “From what my last C.O. said, the rest of the FAR ships will be getting theirs soon.”

  “Hey, Delmar!” Stan called from where he sat hunched over the computer console. “Come check this out.”

  Delmar stepped across the control cabin and looked over Stan’s shoulder. “What did you do?”

  “Nothing much,” Stan said with a grin. “I just installed a little program Ert and I came up with.”

  Stan’s fingers flew over the keyboard and set the new program in motion.

  “What does it do?”

  “It modifies the aura detector to automatically trace the person it’s tuned for,” Stan replied. “This way the person can be followed even if they’re not wearing a transponder.”

  “You can get it to be that discriminating?” Delmar asked in surprise. “How does it know who it’s looking for?”

  “Ert said it isn’t that hard. I tuned this one to you. I just called up your medical records from your computer and tied in your DNA code. Now all anybody would have to do is key in your name, and wallah, the sensor can locate you within a twenty-mile radius anywhere within sensor range. That way if you ever lose the Patch, she can find you.”

  “Fat chance!” Delmar exclaimed. “Me and this baby will never be more than a very short distance apart.”

  “Can’t ever tell,” Stan teased. “You might find some sultry native girl on a planet somewhere and just forget all about the old Patch. Then where would the Axia be?”

  “Like I said, fat chance.”

  “This new program will be great in searches,” Leatha said, coming up behind the two. “Not all of the suit transponders work properly, especially if they’ve been damaged in battle or if there’s atmospheric interference.”

  “I guess it’ll add a safety factor,” Delmar agreed. “Then if hostiles are looking for a trooper, he could keep his transponder off and still be found by Axia searchers. Have you shown this to Research and Development?”

  “Not yet. We only got it working last week. We were going to try it in Leatha’s ship but you got here first.”

  “So you want me to try it out before you present it to R&D?” Delmar asked. The picture of suddenly becoming someone’s guinea pig flashed through his mind.

  Stan nodded.

  “Sort of an impromptu field test first.”

  “Okay,” Delmar said. “I’ll let you know how it works.”

  “Now that you two children are finished playing with your toy, Delmar can answer our question,” Leatha interjected.

  “Which question?” Delmar asked.

  “Whether or not you can stay an extra day or two.”

  “As much as I’d love the break, I’m already stretching it to work in this visit,” Delmar assured the couple. “As it is, I’ll have to push it a little to report in on time.”

  “Where are they sending you this time?”

  “Sector 2046-W. It’s an empty sector out near the rim. And if everything goes according to the norm, the people out there have saved their hot potatoes for me.”

  “That’s what you get for being so good,” Stan remarked as he pushed up from the computer console.

  “When will you go out next?” Delmar asked Leatha.

  “Not for some time. While we’re both stationed here, the shipyard is going to modify the Aurora.”

  “What are they doing now?”

  “Something about
increasing the heat transfer efficiency,” Leatha explained. “Someone has an idea on how to transfer heat through the drive field.”

  “That’ll help if it works.”

  Delmar glanced at the open hatch, anxious to get on his way and break orbit before he lost his exit window.

  “It looks like we can’t keep him any longer, Leatha,” Stan said and turned toward the main hatch. She and Delmar followed him outside.

  “I want to say thanks for inviting me for a visit,” Delmar said to the couple. “Although it was too short, any break is welcome.”

  “You just take care of yourself out there,” Stan said as they clasped hands. Delmar nodded.

  “And no excuses for being late to the wedding, you hear?” Leatha quipped. She gave him a quick hug.

  “And miss seeing the unit’s most eligible bachelor bite the dust?” Delmar replied with a grin. “Hearts will be broken all over the galaxy!”

  Leatha stepped over next to Stan and he put an arm around her. Delmar stepped back into the hatch and then turned around.

  “You two take care of each other,” he said with a smile. “I’ll see you soon.”

  Delmar closed the hatch and then strapped into his control chair. After receiving clearance, he lifted the ship off the static pad and turned it so he could see the couple standing near the ground car.

  Stan and Leatha both raised a hand and waved, which Delmar returned. Advancing the throttle and rotating the axis ball, Delmar vectored the ship up through the clouds and into his assigned exit lane, heading for deep space.

  ∞∞∞

  For the third time, the fourteen-year-old operator entered a possible password. The first two attempts had been wrong and this was her last chance. The consequences of trying to break into the computer net unauthorized was more than Melissa cared to contemplate. It wasn’t that she wanted to do anything illegal. The plain fact of the matter was that she didn’t have the necessary hookup fee at this time. She fully intended to reimburse the net after she’d earned more funds from babysitting.

  The screen went blank after she entered her last choice and she waited anxiously for it to display her success or failure. It was the not knowing that bothered her the most. Before long, the computer displayed a welcome screen.

  “Whew!” she sighed.

  She glanced nervously at her bedroom door and hoped her parents had not heard her. She’d draped a heavy comforter over the door to help muffle any sound.

  It was well past lights-out in the Boren household. To prevent the glow from the computer screen from leaking past the curtains, she hung two extra blankets over them and carefully tucked in the edges. Her parents had gone to bed a couple of hours earlier, and fortunately their room was at the opposite end of the two story house. Still, she didn’t like to take chances.

  “Well, here goes nothing,” she whispered to herself as she called up the menu screens. She found herself immersed in the records section for system users. Prudently, she adjusted the welcome and user verification program to allow her regular access. She even expanded its input parameters to run at the speed capable of her homemade machine.

  Maybe her computer wasn’t the greatest or prettiest (her father called it a cross between a rat’s nest and an angry hair dryer) but she was proud of her handiwork. She suspected her parents were also proud of her abilities but they never said it out loud.

  After securing her own access code, she delved further into the filing system of the computer net. With little effort, she began retrieving the files she desired. A glance at her desk clock told her that it had already taken her a couple of hours to get this far. Maybe it was simpler to use a pen and paper but she wanted to do her book report her way.

  ∞∞∞

  The Sector 2046-W mothership commander entered the main control room and wearily sat down in his chair. Various workstations hummed around him with their usual activity. He looked over at the holographic map of this sector and frowned.

  Just a big empty nothing, he thought disgustedly. Why are we wasting our time out here?

  Watching the map, he could see the slow movement of his squadrons of scout ships as they flew their survey pattern. He anticipated their evening reports of nothing significant. He pushed up from his command chair and crossed the bridge to the communications officer and laid a hand on his shoulder.

  “Yes sir?” the officer asked.

  “Call all of the scouts back,” the commander ordered. “They’re wasting their time and fuel out there.”

  “Yes sir.”

  While the commander watched, he sent out the new orders and received confirmation from the two dozen ships on patrol. After listening a moment, he turned again to the commander.

  “Sir, I have received confirmation from all of our ships.”

  “And?”

  “And frankly sir, they’re relieved.”

  “They’re not alone,” the commander agreed. “I’ll be glad when we can pull out of here and get to something more interesting.”

  “Sir?” the comm officer continued. “I’ve also received an incoming call from that new FAR ship they’re sending us.”

  “What does he want?”

  “He’s just reporting that he’ll be in a little early.”

  “Wait till he sees what we saved for him,” the commander said with a wicked grin playing on his lips. “Then he won’t be so eager. Go ahead and tell him we’re looking forward to meeting him and all the usual claptrap. Have the dock chief park him near the hanger door so he won’t have any trouble departing tomorrow. I want to get out of here as quickly as possible.”

  “Yes sir.”

  “In the meantime, I’ll be in my cabin.”

  “Yes sir,” the comm officer answered as the commander ambled off. In moments, he signaled the new ship and routed him to one of the large receiving bays.

  Delmar received and acknowledged the signal from his new mothership. As he changed course, he frowned when he thought about what the comm officer had just said. It wasn’t so much what he said as the way he said it.

  There’s something funny going on.

  Resigning himself to whatever lay ahead, he took his place in the approach pattern for the landing bay. While waiting in line to land, he sent a message to Stan and Leatha that he’d arrived at his new assignment and asked them to forward the message on to Mom and Pop Hassel.

  An hour later, Delmar stood outside the commander’s office aboard the mothership. He heard the gruff response to his knock and entered the cabin.

  “Trooper-Third Delmar Eagleman reporting, sir,” he said as he saluted, his right hand across his chest, palm down.

  The commander sloppily returned the salute from where he sat behind his desk. He motioned for Delmar to take the chair opposite his own. He thought it odd the commander did not rise and greet his new pilot formally as was customary when reporting to a new duty station.

  “So you’re the hotshot pilot they sent to us,” the commander said sullenly.

  Delmar didn’t answer. Instead he handed the officer his packet of orders. He tore open the package and idly scanned the papers, then tossed them on his desk.

  There was something in his attitude that Delmar didn’t like. He decided to play it strictly by the book of service protocol. There was no need to get off to a bad start with a new commander, especially one that appeared to have a chip on his shoulder.

  “We’ve got a special project for you, Eagleman,” he continued, apparently not impressed with Delmar’s orders. “This should be right up your alley.”

  He leaned back lazily in his chair and placed his feet up on his desk, something Delmar had never seen a senior officer do.

  “One of our scouts accidentally ran across an inhabited planet on the very rim of our sector. It wasn’t scheduled to be explored for another twenty years, but as it turns out, it has a human population just getting started on their industrial revolution. Your assignment is to scope it out on-site. Here’s all we’ve got on it, includi
ng a sample of the dominant language recorded through a remote probe the scout sent down.”

  The commander took a file and disc out of his desk and slid them across to Delmar.

  “Record the audio onto your subliminal tutor and sleep with it tonight. You should have a rudimentary understanding of the language by morning. If not, you can listen to it on your trip to the planet. It should take you about a week to get there, that is, if you don’t burn up all your fuel trying to get there in one day.”

  Delmar didn’t like the commander’s tone of voice. Was his last statement a jab at him for arriving early? Was there something about efficiency this commander didn’t like? Had he been so long on boring assignments that he’d lost his enthusiasm for the service?

  “When would you like for me to begin, sir?”

  “Tomorrow morning will do,” the commander answered nonchalantly. “Just be ready to depart by 0900 hours.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Delmar said, standing back up. “Is there anything else, sir?”

  “Yes,” he answered idly. “This ship departs Sector 2046-W at exactly O915 hours tomorrow. There will be a new command ship arriving on station in a few days. I’ll contact them and arrange for your new backup to contact you while you’re planetside. Dismissed.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  Delmar saluted and left the cabin. As he made his way back to the docking bay, he thought hard about what had just transpired. Doing an on-site investigation without immediate backup was against Axia protocol. It was obvious the commander wanted to be done with his new hotshot pilot and this sector.

  After considering his options, Delmar decided he might as well spend the night on the Cabbage Patch. He had plenty of provisions onboard, so there was no reason to get to know a ship and crew that were abandoning him in the morning. He’d feed the coordinates of the newly discovered planet into his automatic navigation system tonight so he’d be ready to leave first thing tomorrow morning. He’d also upload the subliminal language tutor into his jumpsuit headset so he could sleep with it tonight.

  Might as well get an early start, he thought. I’m sure not welcome here.