Greener Green II: The Balls Brigade

by Peter Sowatskey

  Trist said, "Attention, people, the central chair revolves. The nine chairs on the floor a step down revolve, too. They have to do with special functions, like surface cannon, mine fields, manned fighter control, remote fighter control, and so on. Also there are engines, navigation/communications, landing party/courier. There's one chair's not wired yet which will be used for other than present time reports. The central chair oversees, and can override the individual chair. The pulsing blue light means we are presently on the highest alert. This level has two control room crews present. Also one on standby--in a ready room above us. All three crews are abreast of the current conditions and change every hour. How you will find your optimum method of operating with your bulbs we don't know. That's how we did it back then."

  I said, "That's how we'll do it now to start. Try the chairs out folks. We'll change the sizes if we need to."

  The chairs weren't a problem. We looked around the control room a bit longer then went back to the Mess. Men and women sitting around, or were writing. I walked up to a female who was doing stretching and balance exercises and said, "Name please."

  "Carol Skiller."

  "I'm Tildore, first names only. Tina is Unarmed Combat instructor. You are her first assistant. After this task, report to her. But now we must get organized. I know nothing about anyone. The life histories will help. Make a list of the new arrivals by their skill fields. Then list them in numerical order of training and education, within their skill fields. We expect 100,000 arrivals. They will all filter through this Mess. At 5,000, we will start transferring to the other Balls. Manuals will be arriving and you'll know what skills we need from them. If anybody is the least bit uncooperative, have them report to me. Do you understand?"

  "Yes, I'm to assign incoming personnel by their skill level and experience."

  "Yes, when you've decided who the 20 Captains are, have them report en-masse to me."

  "I might be one of them."

  "In that case the assignment to unarmed combat is rescinded."

  "Very well. I'll get on with it right away."

  TILDORE, CAN YOU AND TRIST COME TO MED DECK?

  'Yes.'

  I walked across to the door where Trist had been directing new arrivals and said, "Excuse me, Trist, we've been summoned. Folks, Carol, over there, will answer your questions and hand out assignments."

  As we walked out of the room, I said, "Paula wants us on Med Deck, no idea why."

  When we walked in, Paula motioned us toward an office, TWO MINUTES.

  She had many teams in place gathered around the 50 Birthing Tubs. That's what they reminded me of when the lids were raised. We'd get to our full complement soon enough. Inside the office, we sat in chairs before a desk. Odd, I never thought of Paula having a desk.

  She came in and shut the door. "Why the hell would I not have a desk? Everyone needs one to have unfinished work pile up on. But I didn't call you here to complain. I wanted to bring you two up to date on what happened when I left the Reg world tied to an ANNU KI. I have secured this room. To start, the ANNU KI knew its body was dead but it had a sense of self not dependant on a body, like us Essences. However its sense of self was magnified and we had to take it apart little by little, first memories, then skill patterns, then racial memories. It took a long time, and it took no time. When it realized it was losing, he/it helped us erase its beingness down to a point where it had no identity, just a picture of a constellation, and a mental machine which looked somewhat like a needle. This machine had a forward part and a rear part, which revolved in opposition to each other. When it had attained a certain speed of counter revolution the machine, the spark of an ANNU KI, left. I suppose it will arrive out in the furthest rim of space, but it will have no memories. Nevertheless, it will be a problem because its senders will arrive at conclusions when they do roll call and add things up. I lured it to Earth Space to expose it to the ANNU KI already here to see what would happen. What has happened is a routine of scouting and exploration by the locals. From that scouting, which hasn't been limited time wise, we've concluded the enemy was on Phaeton and behind the planets mental and geological problems."

  Trist held up a hand, "Are you telling us they killed our planet?"

  "Yes. Same old story--gold. Easier to find when the planet is in pieces. They took the gold and moved sunward. Earth would have been much more stable, rotation wise, had the Terra Forming been allowed to be concluded, but they didn't want it to be stable. Easier to throw a planet out of balance when it's not stable. Adam and Eve have shown us how to be equal to the ANNU KI on a physical level. We have yet to develop the singleness of purpose of our enemy. Any ideas of how to do that you tell me. I'll help if I can. There's one other point to put in your pipes. This came up when I was talking with Erlo. His prior Universe had a Time, Space war which spread. In the end whole galaxies became unstable. His recommendation, when I discussed our problem with him was, hit them hard, decisively, across the whole time exposure. Got to get back. Use the office as long as you like."

  She left and we sat in stunned silence. The problems appeared insoluble, the main one being the inability to match the ANNU KI mental strength. Eventually Trist said, "Let's don't borrow failure. Let's organize instead. If nothing becomes apparent, we'll have to go find some ANNU KI to kill, properly, and learn from doing."

  "I've got no better suggestion. But I do have a thought. If we, the two of us, get tied up in shipboard concerns, like I was involved with back on ARK IV, we won't have time to see the overall picture. I suggest we become Admirals. I'll handle the tactical and you handle the scientific. We'll have different Flagships so we won't get killed together."

  "Those are excellent points. Details can sap the very mind out of one."

  GOOD IDEA. I'LL SEND A SIGNALS ENSIGN TO WORK WITH EACH BALL CAPTAIN, ALSO TWO EXTRA TO BE CLOSE TO YOU TWO PERSONALLY. WE, ESSENCES MAY BE ABLE TO REACH INTUITIVE CONCLUSIONS OF SITUATIONS. YOU'RE NOW ADMIRALS. I'LL REPORT TO THELMA OF THIS. YOU'LL BOTH BE COPIED OF ALL OCCURRENCES IN OTHER SPHERES OF ACTION.

  I said, "Then I suppose we're done, Admiral Trist."

  "Quite so, Admiral Tild. Let's go see what has transpired. Maybe they will have solved everything in our absence."

  We left the office laughing so hard we could barely walk. I heard Paula joining in.

  OPERATIONAL AREA EARLY (ONE CONTINENT) EARTH

  TILDORE SECALLO

  CHAPTER TWO

  Back at the Mess I saw slightly organized chaos. Seeing us enter, Carol waved us over and said, "Sirs, I have come up with a weighted point system. Highest in any field goes to the job position and starts learning, knowing if someone comes along with a higher score that one becomes that person's boss. It's working. Arrivals are at the peak level I'm told, one each five minutes. At that rate it will take approximately two years to fully crew the twenty Balls. That's the situation to date."

  "Very well done. We're going to use standard Navy ranks. Captain Prestrillo and I have been promoted to Admirals. There will be a Captain on each Ball, FO, 2nd O, 3rd O, and so on. Initially we are going to staff two Balls completely. They will be Flagships for Trist and me. That will take fifty three days according to you. You're Captain on mine. Trist will tell you who he wants as Captain. Use your point system for all other positions. You can help Tina on unarmed combat in your free time, if you wish. Everyone going to a position is to read the manuals and make sure they can do the job. If not, do a write-up. We'll form committees later to re-write manuals, if necessary. Any questions?"

  "No sir. Thank you for your confidence."

  "You're welcome. Trist, let's go to the Control Room and start testing systems. Carol, anyone we can take along as recorders?"

  She called, "Jake Belling, Mimi Tasko, front and center."

  I looked at their eyes when they presented themselves. Their slits were almost closed. I could feel their energy level was as active as mine. Maybe we opened our eyes to sleep. That reminded me. I walked to a corner of the room and b
rought back a box. Setting it on a table I opened it and took out a bundle of pamphlets. Waving two copies, I said loudly, "These pamphlets are about us. Read them first. Discuss them. Take any problems about the pamphlets, or your bodies up with Med Deck. I seem to remember checkups are done every ten years, but clarify that point as you read. Carry on, Carol."

  I headed for the elevator, Trist, Jake, and Mimi in tow. Nerre', Helga, and Heidi appeared out of the crowd and followed me.

  I told Carol it was the usual circular Phaeton control room, with the dais in the middle, where the Captain sat on his elevated chair. Trist took Carol over to it and started explaining how it operated. I found the one which said Fire Control and sat. I had one large and two small screens in front of me. I flicked a switch and learned that the large one was the whole ball and the smaller ones were the northern and southern hemispheres. The defense systems were all automatic so the FIRING/CO was essentially a spectator. There was a nearby 1-2 switch, (so I switched.) Another screen came on showing me another control room. South blows out, go North. The last screen showed if everybody had made the shift. I stood and saw that other control positions were being investigated. No one seemed puzzled from what could be taken as an emotion on our stiff faces.

  I said to Trist, "Map out a route, I’m going to the Fighter Bay and see what we have."

  "Sure, we have a location device which walks with you. I'll put in the destination and when you get to an intersection it will indicate where to go."

  He took the device out of a drawer and made entries, and pushed a final button.

  "You're good. Comm boxes are everywhere; push a number, then talk. The Control Room is one, naturally. Keep in touch."

  He handed me the device and went back to Carol who seemed to be absorbing everything.

  I said, "Nerre', you're with me. The rest of you keep at it."

  We followed the directions to the nearest Fighter Bay. The instrument indicated that there were seven more bays and we had only to touch a number to change direction to the others. We entered through the usual double air lock. The Phaetons were paranoid about airlocks, but this vessel had more than usual. I was getting the impression that this project was a dream project with no budget. If so we were going to find more redundancies. Nerre' and I walked to the control area and pushed the button which activated it. It said, in Phaeton, that there were 146 fighters on hand and all of them were action ready.

  I marveled for a moment that my recall of the Phaeton language was better now than I ever remembered it being in Tildore's best moment. Was that fact due to my new brain, or were we implanted with more than the language. I must ask Paula.

  BOTH. EVERYBODY IS COMING THROUGH WITH THE UTMOST COMPOSITE OF THE RACES' BEST MINDS AND THE WIDEST VOCABULARY THAT PRESTRILLO AND I COULD FIND. EACH OF YOU KNOWS ALL THAT THE PHAETONS DID.

  Nerre' sat and called up the specifications of the fighter. It was a smaller version of the station, but in addition the North and South hemispheres could rotate in opposition to each other. Each was powered by a small hydrogen fusion/electric reactor which gave plenty of power for force fields and anti gravs. It would fly like a whale in an atmosphere. Nerre' and I looked at each other in disappointment and incredulous disbelief. They must have thought about conflict other than deep space.

  I asked, "Have you integrated your prior knowledge with the implanted Phaeton technical data base?"

  Nerre' turned back to the screen saying, "Most of it. You want to know what we are going to do in the atmosphere, yes?"

  "Yes, do a search in this terminal's memory and expand to other data bases if necessary. Meanwhile I'm going to walk around the bay to get a feel."

  Nerre' knew me well enough to not look at me sideways when I talked about 'feel'. I just needed to see it all to activate my subconscious mind which made sense of more complex relationships. Anyway it worked for me. As I walked, I noticed that the fighters were anchored to the floor with cables. That meant they didn't trust, or didn't have, grappler beams, or maybe simple over caution. The outer hulls were smooth with no evidence of weapon ports. Doors opened behind each fighter every one hundred and fifty feet. The craft appeared to be about a hundred feet in diameter. In the middle of the bay there was a huge door wide enough to take the fighter through. I opened two small door/airlocks to come to a repair bay which would hold ten fighters for repairs. There were ten separate tool cabinet arrays. I marveled at the amount of thought this would necessitate to reach this result. What else to do when the fiddler was playing the final tune of your planets existence.

  Deciding that 'they' had done sufficient thinking to suit anyone's satisfaction, I went back to Nerre' at her station.

  "What have you discovered?"

  "Only references in part designations that some parts also fit another fighter craft class. I made a list of those parts. They are all internal systems, so I concluded the airframes were different. More than that would be speculation."

  I picked up the location device and activated the intercom function and said, "Secallo, for Prestrillo."

  His voice came back, "Problems?"

  "No intra atmosphere airframes."

  "That's a problem. I gathered all of the space fighting balls that were inventoried. Maybe I should have been more descriptive in my search parameters. I just took it for granted the capability would be combined."

  I said, "It wasn't. Hasn't this whole effort appeared to you like a 'no limit on resource draw', project?"

  He musingly answered, "That's so. I didn't put my finger on it. Assuming you have it right, they would have made another type of support platform for intra atmosphere capability. How unthoughtful of me. Get back to you later. By the way, I sent a fellow along to you who's mind you must examine."

  "I'll do so, Secallo out."

  Nerre' and I looked at each other a bit puzzled, but shrugged. I said, "Run through the schematics of these things, starting from the framework outward to see what kind of stress factor was built in."

  She proceeded to do so and we became totally engrossed in the screen's revelations. We saw that the two pilots sat opposed to each other. I assumed that was to counter 'G' forces. The fighters smooth skin resulted from rapidly-acting, multi hinged doors over the missile tubes and the Plasma Cannon apertures. The outer two thirds of the ball blew away in case of gross damage leaving essentially an escape capsule with one cannon. A small break room with a bed and toilet facilities sat near the control room. The designers had planned for longer term flights. I couldn't imagine why myself. We needed the design specifications and the craft's developmental history. We were so engrossed, as to disregard our surroundings so when a voice behind us said, "Good for what it's good for." Nerre' and I both went into a combat stance.

  He jumped back ten feet and held his arms up, palms outward, "Sorry to startle you. I came on the scene when you were on the framework and got caught up in what we were seeing."

  I said, "Terribly sorry, shouldn't have reacted. Or maybe that's the way we're wired. I'm Secallo, she's Nerre'.

  He said, "I'm Jandor Zorn."

  The three of us shook hands and Nerre' found the pilots break/briefing room on the floor plans display. We retired there, for juice, and exchange of information.

  I said to start, "You didn't hear probably, but I asked Prestrillo to do another data base search through his shipyard to see if we have any intra atmosphere craft. He said you have some special information?"

  "I was, am, a test pilot. I flew Hydrogen powered shuttles from area 51 to the Moon and back shortly before the end. We, the USA, established a base there, and were burrowing downward. I got killed on the last flight back to Earth to pick up more VIPs. The project had been going on for thirty years or more. A lot of preparation for the end was centered around my base."

  I said, "My reference point in Earth's affairs is 1880, and Nerre' is from Irkilon IV. We have no other reference points, outside briefings and the Vid flicks."

  "Well then, some background is called fo
r. I've been extensively debriefed and I thought you had perhaps read my file."

  "We were both out of system. I was commanding the run to Bren. Nerre' commanded a Frigate."

  "That's understandable then. Adam and Eve are quite a popular show onboard and in the settlement. From the looks I see that you didn't get that gem either. Thelma started a settlement for folks who didn't fit in ship life, or weren't immediately needed for duty. It's quite well organized, but that's Thelma. Anyway, back in my time and space this area 51 was a top secret facility from the nineteen fifties onward; to back engineer the data from crashed extra terrestrial craft. That's where we got the Hydrogen rocket engines. Not from the craft but from their data bases. I have two master's degrees from MIT, but I downplayed them and got on the project because I was a lifelong pilot. I got in at the age of twenty six and was fifty two when I checked out. I saw a lot of things in my years. Area 51 was expecting the storms so it will still be there. They budgeted for a fifty year confinement. The base inside the Moon was good for fifty years also. I was sent along for this job mostly because of my knowledge of metal stress when crossing dimensional boundaries and of saucer type construction and propulsion. I've been brought up to date and I realize now what we called dimensions is Negative Space and now the threshold cross over is eased by force fields. But, the saucer craft used by the different species that contacted us, were, are, very proficient for cutting through air or water."

  We drank juice while what he said sunk in. Nerre' was the best pilot that we had, I thought, so in my mind our Flight School began. I could see that their dust had settled and they were waiting for me to make some decision.

  "You're going to make a good First Officer in our Flight School, Jandor, and you'll be XO Nerre'. We'll assume Thelma will act on what you've said, Jandor so we'll not concern ourselves with those logistics. You might speak to Paula about any entry codes to your Earth areas, if you haven't done so already. While you're there, have Paula pull what you know of saucer craft for general insertion. The knowledge might coincide with something somebody already knows, or will be discovered during regression. Both of you have your own way of training pilots I'm sure. Rectify your differences; go over the manuals, the craft, and whatever hours you have free in the next twenty four, after you're prepared to start your first class, you can use to sleep. You can contact me in the control room. We need to see that everyone gets a walk around device for a while. See to that too, won't you?"