Greener Green II: The Balls Brigade

by Peter Sowatskey

  "They will be here soon. When they come there will be bumping. Then there will be movement. Then we'll land and we'll be safe. Let's get food. I have meal cakes to give the beast, but you will have to open many packets."

  So I sat on the floor opening packets, like he said, and putting them in my mouth and then some in the beast's mouth. We had water in containers. Every so often I would lift its head and pour a container down its throat. The process, after it had its fill, bothered me, but then I laughed. The two of them looked concerned, but I waved, they understood. Here I sat, bad killer, feeding an animal like a nursemaid. I laughed and laughed.

  His friends were quick. The cupboard flashed and made sound. I didn't stir because his mind read great relief. I finished the box of cakes. The beast's eyes closed. Our house got bumped, shortly after we moved. It was almost not noticeable at first. But when I didn't hear the planet noises in my mind anymore I knew we were going far away. I'd be back. Many would suffer, like I had. I crumpled the cakes container, put in beneath my head and fell asleep.

  I tossed about while sleeping, still aware of great speed. Then came differences in speed, and a bump, and no speed. The door opened and there was grassland. I went out and walked a distance away from the house and turned. I saw our house was connected with girders to other houses, most confusing. Turning away from the house I saw that some one had placed a feed and watering trough in the middle of the grass. Beast was going to like this. I sent a message, 'Wake you useless pile of flesh and bones, come eat, food, water'. Five times it took to get its nose out the door. It saw me and came close. It saw the troughs and I was forgotten. 'Don't stray'.

  Why would it stray, food, water, cave, heaven?

  I cast my mind about and sensed some other big animals somewhere near. And people, who said, 'hello, greetings' with their minds. I sent, 'don't come near, dangerous beast'. There was laughter at that. Let them learn.

  The Sleen, Melin, she had given her name, and the Alien came out of the house. I was half surprised he wasn't dinner already, but then she liked big fellows like me.

  A wagon with nothing pulling it came slowly upon us. I went and stood by to greet the occupant. I already knew her name was Betty, and she was a powerful witch. The Sleen, Melin, would learn to ask me about who should be our friends.

  The wagon stopped and Betty got out. For the others benefit she said, "I'm Betty. You are in my home. I will be showing you where you sleep and eat. You, Elster, are welcome to stay on your ship, or go to Central City. Anything you want will go on my account."

  "I will go to the city, you'll understand. I'll gather some things and be ready for pickup in a half hour. My friends, I will see you when you're ready for the return journey."

  He went off. I saw in Betty's mind that we might be old before that journey began. No matter, old people can kill their enemies as well as young.

  Betty said, "If you two will sit in the back seat I'll show you around. We'll stop for supper. Melin, do you need big food now?"

  "Yes, best."

  So we went first to a cold room. Betty and Melin went inside. When they came out Melin appeared very relaxed. I hope she had asked his name first. Then we went to a big room with food coming out of a wall. Betty showed me how. I couldn't carry more than two laden trays. She said I could eat when I wanted to and as much as I wanted. I was going to like this place and grow fat, must find a grist mill to play with. I laughed so much at that I couldn't swallow for a moment. Betty smiled too. I thought to explain what I thought to Melin. No. Let it be mine and Betty's secret.

  OPERATIONAL AREA EARLY (ONE CONTINENT) EARTH

  TILDORE SECALLO

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  At the conference two days later Trist said, "I personally think that it is about a seventy five per cent possibility that we can take the results of the scouting mission at their face value. So, having heard nothing to the contrary from any ship Captain, or any specialists, we are going to attack. Ted, tell us what you are going to do."

  "When and where I came from we called them killing fields. We are going to declare one thousand years a killing field. To cut off that area of time we will 'phase out' the installation's Time Track, once at a particular point, and once a thousand years earlier. The equipment will be triple redundancy to ensure against failure. That's it."

  I said, "Captain Singh, what's your part?"

  He said, "Fifty years back from the time freeze I will undertake a bombardment from twenty five thousand feet. The 'X' will be the center of the wheel. After the initial fifty bomb drop, I will keep up my bombardment for one week at the rate of a thousand pound deep Penetrator bomb every five minutes using bombs carried in right angle space."

  I said, "The actual attack, with five carriers, will be nine hundred years earlier. A fighter swarm will go in with their aim being to break the installation into smaller pieces and to destroy the power plants. The object is to level the place. Precisely one hour will be spent on this attack. Then the Carriers will break off and come uptime at fifty year increments. One carrier will stop every fifty years. The individual mission is to penetrate the installation with a nerve agent. We don't know exactly what will be effective so five different mixes will be used at five different attack points. The object here is to gain entrance to an almost intact installation for intelligence purposes. Our attack teams are made of people reborn post Tina. We will regroup at our present location. At eight days after attack we will relocate. If you don't make it back in that time frame, do what you can for the cause any way you can. After that, be a good Ranger. You've all been imprinted with the directions of the fastest route to their HQ. Any last minute questions? If not I lift my arm to drink a drink to our success, Juice up, and down the hatch."

  The acknowledgements came via our Signals Ensign, Marvin Sterkett that all units were in position. The countdown had twenty minutes to run. I said to Marvin, who was standing next to Nerre's Control Chair, "Send brown, for go."

  He said, "Sent. Word is go, every unit."

  I said, to no body in particular, "Now it's in the hands of the Gods."

  Ted, whose Negative Space people were first to engage came up behind me and said, "Amen."

  His people were going down in Landing Craft from Tina's and Singh's Carriers, two from each. Under Invis they'd shoot the electrodes into the ground in a circle, all at once. Once in, the ground they turned on automatically and formed the Negative Space crease. It was simple. Why was Ted fumbling through his pockets for a cigar, which he'd never have again?

  Twenty five minutes went by. Marvin held up his hand. We quit breathing. He said, "Success, both ends sealed."

  I said, "Excellent. Now we only have to skin what's in our trap."

  Nerre' looked at me oddly. I guess they don't skin things on Irkilon IV. I looked around the Control Room. It's a study to see how people don't do what they're trained to do, but the moment to perform isn't quite yet. All sorts of escape mechanisms were on display. I'd decided to not have a chair. How would it look to have an Admiral sitting down worrying? It was so much more a statement to do ones worrying standing up. Like right now, but I didn't hover over Marvin. When did Essences grow up to my nine foot level? I'd never noticed.

  He started to give a running commentary on what was happening with Singh, "The Carrier is in place. No target activity patterns altered on the ground, initial bomb load away, trouble, trouble, bombs didn't penetrate as much as planned. More reactors coming active. Spire in hub is a beam weapon, direct hit midship. All power going to shields, can't escape. Dropping entire bomb load now."

  He quit talking. His eyes weren't seeing anything we were. Four minutes later he resumed his delivery, "Beam stopped, seeing large crater, growing bigger, secondary explosions, reactors flashing, our absorbers working now, power coming back to propulsion, inner hull not breached, less than three percent power reserves remaining, breaking away, destination South West to the Pacific coast. We'll be on a mountain top there. Sending burst of all instrum
ent readings. Going silent. Will receive only. Singh out."

  Suddenly I regretted my decision to not have a chair handy. I saw slight slumping going on. I said to Marvin, "Message to Prestrillo, need more Carriers, suggest your previous Ranger HQ, to Paula, reissue Singh and crew."

  I looked again at the faces around me. Paula didn't issue hair on them. So the anger was plain to see. Set jaw muscles were plain to see.

  Marvin, send this to the three remaining Carriers, "Deliver five light speed missiles from orbit on hub before approaching, sequentially, five Mega ton each. Then shift twenty five years forward and continue main plan."

  I looked at Fire Control. The two there had fingers racing over screens. We'd experimented with direct bulb control, but we didn't have it perfect yet. We were learning. The ship learned also. I tried to imagine the Artificial Intelligence which held this ship together, couldn't begin to write the sub routines. Nerre' looked at her board and nodded, "Ready to fire."

  "Good. We wait. We learn."

  Tina and her crew went at the installation next from the other end of the thousand years. The five missiles from space met the energy dome. It stopped four of them. The last one got through and destroyed the hub. Somebody inside got angry, or smart, and blew the whole ship. There was debris at ten thousand feet according to Tina. When they went in at tree top level, fifty years later, the troopers concentrated fire on the reactor positions. They took out seventeen of them with tactical low yield Nukes. Then the hub, slightly bent on its hoisting mechanism, rose out of the ground. It started firing on the Landing Craft. The Craft ejected all of the troopers and the pilots. Then the Craft, on remote control, crashed into the beam projector. The Landing Party was fighting ANNU KI and snakes hand to hand along the corridors when the whole ship went up to ten thousand feet, again. The Carrier got out of the way. More reissues. I started to remember things that Tina had said and hinted.

  Marvin, I said, "Send to Lillian. Deploy deep penetrating Neutron Nukes on the hub, twenty, one after the other, before getting close."

  Marvin said, "She has the picture. I'll relay what the Essence there sees."

  Her bombardment started, and finished in two minutes. I tried to calculate how deep she had bored. Fast answer was three point seven miles. If their 'brain' was deeper than that, he won. Her troopers landed and set the diggers like the last site. They were down and into the corridors in three minutes. All they encountered were dead bodies, dead shrunken bodies. Data started pouring into Jandor's Intelligence people. Then after, out to his troopers.

  Marvin said, "Jandor starting bombardment. This site almost got the shield up. When it failed, boom again. Deep crater was all they left. Going down anyway. May be for show, to cover any escapees."

  Then it was our turn. I asked Nerre', "What have we learned?"

  "Seems long distance attacking isn't winning."

  "My thought exactly. It's your call."

  She got that diving toward Earth look in her eyes. I was already feeling that damn cold operating table under me. Why don't we heat them?

  She said to Fire Control, "I want all the Absorbers we have in forward tubes. Set them for deep bore. Transfer control to my chair. Strap in with 'H' harnesses. We're going to try to surprise them. Jump eighty seven years forward. Launch all Fighters and Landing Craft upon arrival. Lieutenant Shim, Fighter Wing OIC will be in charge of ejected Craft. Follow standing orders."

  To me she said, "That chair goes for you too."

  I ran to the nearest remote pilots chair, strapped in, and swiveled it to watch her.

  I could feel the time shift stopping in my head. I felt the Fighters and Landing Craft being ejected. The moment they were gone she nosed over, and headed Earthward. I saw she wasn't in my world anymore, or anybodies, but hers. I looked through my bulb at the magnetic matrix lines. They were getting denser, quickly. The absorbers released and streaked down just barely keeping ahead of us. When I started looking for a prayer to go out on, she hit all reversers, tilted over, and put down a broadside from the Plasma Cannon. We swung upward at ten feet over target, did a figure eight and came back with the opposite side firing. Then whatever she did to control the ship resulted in us laying down two more broadsides at right angles to the first two.

  After the first stop I'd gone to internal breathing to get some oxygen out of my water. I was sore from the harness. But glad that it held. Even we weren't made for that many Gs. Marvin had remained standing through the maneuvering, not wavering. I guess when you're everything you don't concern yourself with what or where you are at any given moment. I motioned him over to me after sending him a burst of attention.

  He said, "Yes Admiral. What do you need to know?"

  "Anybody sentient down below us?"

  "No. They left for other parts. Lots of dead bodies."

  I asked, out of curiosity, "Anybody that you can breathe some life into."

  I could feel him casting about. Then fixing on something.

  He said, "One old fellow, ANNU KI, had been working a long shift and just went to bed. There's not much personality left, but I put him back to sleep. I'd suggest we secure the place and undo traps. Then I'll put on the disguise of his supervisor and wake him up."

  I said, "There's a devil in you Marvin, bless you. Run that by Nerre' so she don't feel left out."

  "Right now!"

  Marvin spoke with Nerre'. She then righted the ship. We were allowed to get out of our harnesses after this maneuver. Hanging sideways wasn't ever my choice.

  From the reports coming back from the fighters, it seemed that this particular piece of commander had other ideas instead of escaping through time. The fighters were picking off all sorts of land craft and skimmers departing in many directions. When the fighters stunned, or gassed them, they went out of their bodies and attacked the pilot's mentalities. That didn't work so they dispersed leaving their bodies dying for lack of something to tell their hearts to keep beating. Marvin roamed the area keeping those from dying which weren't damaged beyond repair.

  I called Ted in from his Maintenance Tug boat to set up double Phase Out Negative space barriers at five years and at ten years in both directions from our present location. I put Tina and Jandor flying low cover in that space and time. Lillian, I put on high cover. She had developed a very good working relationship with her Essence Ensign who'd followed her here from the 1880s. Next life time I was going to be a juggler. Marvin about laughed at that idea. I felt secure. Now we were going to learn something definitive about our enemy.

  I asked Marvin, "Have you gathered enough from their mentalities to pass on an opinion as to how many traps we are going to encounter?"

  "Unbelievably, none. That farthest thing from their minds was a necessity for repelling boarders."

  I ordered, "Get Lillian and Ted on the ground now. They're the best we've got. While they're doing that ask Ted if he can set up a Time Drop around the ANNU KI ship?"

  From the probing of our deep space position, we knew there was enemy capability beyond beached ships. I didn't want to be surprised.

  Marvin said, "Message from Prestrillo. Two Ranger carriers en-route; ETA your space, and time, three hours. Decision made at Ranger HQ., treat the cause of disruption."

  I thought to myself, the enemy has made a fatal mistake. They stung the bear one too many times.

  Marvin reported, "Landing party has recovered an intact saucer craft."

  "Get Zorn down there. Tell the landing party to get a couple, if possible, of the craft out for pickup by the tug."

  Precious moments went by. I was very uneasy and I'm seldom uneasy. I tried all my senses. I checked my reasoning. I didn't loose the unease. Finally I cast about on the Magnetic matrix. There were impingements on it at 190 degrees. We were not going to have time, damn it.

  Lillian reported through Marvin, "Ted and I are in the main control room. They just cut and ran, left everything operational green. Nerre's damage was limited to the weapon tower due to the ships distance un
derground."

  I ordered, "Lift it."

  Ted came through, "This thing has sat here a Trillion plus years. We're not miracle workers."

  "From here we show a field around all of the ship which isolates it from contact with anything. Look around the gauges. It should show as magnetic repulsion. Read all minus versus plus dials, quickly. An enemy force is building up around the planet from us."

  Marvin's, "Oh, shit, was from Ted I'm sure."

  I asked Marvin, "Can you estimate tonnage of the force. This magnetic sensing is new to me?"

  "Small craft so far, but the placement, in a circle suggests awaiting arrival of something big. From the size of the circle, I'd say fifty miles in diameter."

  It was my turn to think, oh shit. We couldn't do anything against something fifty miles in diameter.

  The whole control room crew was waiting for me to tell them what to do. I cast around for something to lean against. The nearest stanchion was too far away.

  I said, "Get the saucer craft onto the tug, any other vehicles of interest also. Then get them out of here. What they can't do in a half hour, don't undertake."

  Marvin relayed the message while I started thinking about who I was going to sacrifice in a delaying maneuver.

  A Lieutenant whom I'd seen at the Nav Table earlier approached Nerre', Marvin and I with a print out in her hand, "I've been to the Negative Space Nav Room. The instruments say a three point mass is en-route to Earth. They're making a lot of waves so they're at maximum speed. Their ETA is two and a half hours."

  Nerre' said, Very well done Lieutenant Shane."

  I had Marvin send to Lillian and Ted, "It's not lifting yet!"

  Lillian came back. "It could, we've ascertained, but we don't have time to figure out the controls."

  I asked Marvin, "Could you promote your sleeping worker to Captain due to casualties, and convince him the ship has to lift now?"