In the VIP lounge, Captain Rafe handed me a lap top of unknown design.
He said, "Put your palm on the screen. You'll be implanted with instructions. It does a few things beyond what yours does. We've got a situation. One of the South Pole ships might blow, maybe 10,000 kilo ton, Hydrogen."
I did as told. Mine couldn't communicate over trillions of years. The screen split into various faces. Speakers were built into the lid. I learned who belonged to which face as they spoke.
"This is Lillian and M.Verdai. ARK IV is now parked halfway to the moon. We concur with the Assault Commanders conclusions."
"Nerre here. The dead Captain concurs, about 93%."
"Prestrillo speaking. I'm three days away from four station lock-up. So in that time you'll have a planet to retreat to, 100%."
"Lillian with Markus. The ANNU KI ship we're on now isn't affecting the magnetic field. It's capable of doing so, but its pre-sets aren't such that it's exerting any influence."
"Betty, I'm speaking for the Essence data bank, we go with the 93% success probability."
I thought, to myself, 'is she always this long spoken?'
ABSOLUTELY! A voice inside my head said. Damn, can't even think badly of anyone.
Jesse spoke out of thin air, "Seventeen more Carriers, equal containment capable. Two days. Contain event, no matter what."
Captain Rafe said to nobody in particular, "We stepped out only to exclude civilians." Nobody answered him.
Ranger Margaret said, "Not in our data base, practically. Theoretically we concur."
Admiral Secallo asked, "Anybody else? Apparently not. In that case here's what we'll do. Whoever Cross and Scerne report to, suggest they hold position, rather than skipping back past their location, just a suggestion. Regardless we lift the ANNU KI ships we control so they won't also blow. Bring in the A-I Carriers. Along with that, somebody find out why our Carriers have such anemic presser beams. The limiting factor is putting together the Erasures, Ted, Lillian?"
"Our labs are back then."
Captain Rafe said, "Use the ones on ARK IV?"
There occurred a triplet, at least, pause.
A face, somebody whispered, "Thelma," appeared, which took the whole screen. "Do it!" I heard the words in my head also. Then the face went away.
There was no further conversation on deciding.
Captain Rafe said, "Keep the lap top handy. You'll need it again. I think Tom is about to recreate the Russian Gulag system on yours. You'd better reclaim that seat. Let him look up Gulag systems in that one."
Over the next four days, I juggled two lap tops and a million questions.
When the Earth's countries reported felons ready to transport, I mentioned the fact to Captain Rafe. He wasn't short with me, but close. So I called someone down time, Passenger Balls were sent; problem solved. Thereafter I didn't initiate conversations. I handled whatever came up. I didn't find any mention of court martial in the data base. Tom brought me coffee continuously. Beverly came by every so often and gave me a transfusion of energy. After those treatments, I flew for a while. I couldn't imagine life at this level all the time.
Betty came into my mind once at 0300. KEEP ON GIRL YOU WILL.
Before day Five, we'd removed everyone from the planet with any remote connection to us, over every reality, in this (2012AD) time frame. Swarms of Frigates and Wagons, were in the air. Sometime in there I passed on a message to The Admiral and Captain Rafe from Thelma. "Nebu exists no more." They actually shook hands and smiled at each other. First, and last time, I ever saw that.
Admiral Secallo's Carrier, with Tom and me aboard, lifted from the Ayers Rock vicinity last. Ted and Lillian were on different Wagons, with their Techs, at the South Pole. The Assault Team's craft left for somewhere. I would have liked to be with them, the Assault Team, for a while. Someone named Hector spoke into my mind and said, FIRST ROUND IS ON ME WHEN YOU AND TOM GET TO THE ISLAND. I didn't have a reality on that, at first. Then, about 0200-0400, Tom sleeping beside me, head on the table, I began to see the beach.
We held halfway to the Moon while Lillian's and Ted's countdowns progressed. High noon marked the Erasures initiation. Everybody in the fleet had the event on their screens. Remote viewers held up by anti-gravs showed every square centimeter on any wave length known.
The time variation exposures told the tale. Billowing clouds of energy converged on the ship from the past and from the future. They became one cloud which fluctuated madly. Then not so madly. When the cloud became a fraction smaller and smoother I started to breathe again. I suppose there should have been cheers when the cloud couldn't be seen anymore. I would personally have cheered had I not been taking deep, careful, inhalations. I had experienced my own birth.
Molly showed up from somewhere and said, "I'm to spell you for 24 hours, don't go far. There may exist a situation I can't handle, which won't wait."
I rose stiffly and held the chair for her. "Just make the calls, and let fall what falls. Tom says there's a soft couch in the Admirals office. We'll be there."
Molly grinned, and gave a 'thumbs up.' Tom and I staggered to a shaft and stepped into it. Four floors downward he grabbed a bar and my arm and swung us out onto the Command Deck. Nobody paid any attention to us as we went to the Admiral's office, threw our bags into a corner, stripped, and fell onto the couch. We didn't even bother to close the door. I fell asleep with an overheard conversation going through my mind for the umpteenth time. (Rafe thanked Jesse for calling down the Green ship. Jesse congratulated Rafe for possessing advanced technology. Both made a zipping motion across their mouths, did 180s, and walked away.) Evidently all of the players weren't known yet. Why did the Island pictures/scenes bring me solace?
OPERATIONAL AREA SPECIAL EVENTS COMMAND 2012 AD
JUST AFTER THE ERASURE INCIDENT
PLATOON LEADERS IRENE SCERNE AND JEFF CROSS
CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE
The next ANNU KI ship encountered in the march to the past had someone in it, multiple, and different body readings. It also had an electrical field which made it impossible to touch the key pads.
Jeff and Irene radioed, "Plan B."
The teams split and each person positioned themselves a hundred yards away from the H/Fu reactors that were located at the outer ends of each spoke, inside the rim. Slinging their anti-ANNU KI rifles, they took from the opposite shoulder disintegrator beam rifles.
The readiness observed by the leaders, Irene and Jeff began a count, "Five, four, three, two, one, Fire!"
Irene and Jeff concentrated on the Control Room and the figures moving about. The Beam rifles didn't care what impeded their desire to go twenty miles away and fizzle. The reactors were cut to scrap metal before any critical mass happened, the same with the Control Room. That let loose a blazing mental assault. The troopers used their bulbs to run frequencies which made mush of the enemy's circuitry. Then the enemy were stripped to their basic beingness with no sense of identity, or purpose. The beingness slowly drifted away and soon couldn't be identified.
Jeff and Irene observed, "This one logs as spare parts. Form on us, going to do it again."
Twenty three destroyed ships later they decided to 'call it a day.' Some ANNU KI had emerged from the ships to fight. They should have spared themselves the bother, and just lain on the cold ice. One ship sent up a Saucer cloud. The support ship had swept them from the sky, like leaves ahead of a broom. The last ship had only a lower life form observer as its occupant. Hector copied its mentality before it died. It reflected maddening screams from its masters as to why the intended North Pole ship didn't arrive.
The Assault ship contained all that they needed. Within its force fields no time existed, just a series of events. The events blurred into each other. The log kept count. Nobody asked it what had been done, or what needed doing. The force rolled back to the beginning of the ANNU KI time track gathering magnification of its intention with each ship destroyed, or each ship marked for retrieval later.
&n
bsp; When they got to the end/beginning of the Track, and boarded the last/first ANNU KI ship, whose inhabitants had fled, they made a decision, an outside of plan/purpose decision. They lifted the ANNU KI ship, positioned their Assault ship next to it, and flew both of them off to their Island.
Their final report, which they didn't send to anyone, concluded, 'Get there first, with the most.'
OPERATIONAL AREA AYERS ROCK AUSTRALIA 2012 AD
LIEUTENANT LIN TI
CHAPTER THIRTY SIX
Tom and I awoke to find a food tray on the desk. Someone had shut the door. We cycled through the facilities and changed clothes. The food needed warming. We didn't care. As we chewed both of us gradually were able to focus on each other, instead of the events I'd directed. I was hesitant to broach the subject of the rest of our lives.
"Finally Tom said, "I'm just the driver. You're the navigator. Call it."
"I don't think we can go back, to not knowing. So we have to go forward. I might be able to go it alone, but I don't want to."
"I just said I'd back you, wherever you go."
I relaxed and grabbed his hand and squeezed. He smiled.
I said, "Time to go back into the ring. We should grab our bags. I don't think we'll be coming back here."
"Oh, you think the Admiral needs his office?"
We both laughed and walked out of the office. A figure stepped down from a circular chair in the middle of the room and came to meet us.
"I'm Nerre. I drive this contraption, as you would say. I want to tell you, Lin, we wouldn't have been able to do what we did without you. You can write your ticket among us. I personally would be glad to have you aboard in any capacity you'd care to have."
I didn't have any words. Nerre saw that.
She said, "I mean it. Go see the Admiral. Molly has a few items she didn't know how to handle. The fleet is standing ready, but there are no immediate threats."
We saluted each other. The brown arrow indicated 'up.' We grabbed bars when we got to the Rec Deck. Molly saw us and waved. When we neared she said, "I tried to keep the backlog minimal, but some people wouldn't talk to me. Your operatives I gathered."
'Don't take it personal. That's their instructions."
She stood and handed me a written list.
"Thank you Molly. We were about at our strengths end."
She laughed softly. "I doubt that, but it's nice to get horizontal now and then. I'll be back in twenty four."
I sat, two lap tops in front of me, and got on with it. While I fielded the calls I went back twenty four hours in the logs and came forward getting an overview of what had transpired. The information showed a standing down curve, with an occasional balking person. Oh well, 'T' has a lot of bridges, was the usual outcome of that.
Tom brought coffee, and spelled me occasionally. A one hundred mile diameter contaminated area encompassing the ships site came into being. I authorized payment from my funds to the resort owners, initially. Then Jim brought me another computer, this one linked to the Bank of Australia. The starting balance showed one trillion Aussie.
He said, "Use this. Don't argue over the prices. If you can put some to use outside the 'C' area, that's good too." He winked and left.
What the hell. I could go along with the joke. I pushed the area out another hundred miles and started buying. Nobody told me what name to list the property in so I listed it in my name. Monopoly had always been a favorite with me.
Nine hours later I owned everything within two hundred miles of Ayers Rock. How to mark the boundaries? Put a moat around it. So I bought a newly built desalinization plant on the south coast. Then I contracted for a construction firm in my home town to build the moat. Of course that entailed exemptions from the imported laborer rules, which I got back stamped within fifteen minutes. Maybe we were going to get this reality shaped to fit together after all.
Admiral Secallo made his presence known by projecting himself and his living room aboard one of the Weapons Balls.
"We're testing this new 3-D projection technology. Rumor is that it will save many miles. Somebody is monitoring that we have a shortage of miles. That person will be hunting dinosaurs with a pen knife when I find them. Don't worry about using my office. I won't be there. Maybe you can have a conversation with Captain 'Dead.' Nerre will explain. Got plans for your castle yet?"
With that he blinked out. Castle? No, even I didn't dare. But, we did need an underground parking/repair garage for the Tractors and trailers. Tom. He could do this. I explained the idea, someone brought in another linked computer, and he beamed while the account balance dwindled.
I received a copy of the United Nations reorganization. Evidently there existed agreement on the concept of putting it on a cruise ship. Said ship to be on an eternal voyage, to points here and there. I bought the largest cruise liner I could find, along with four tender ships. Cruise liners had long since gone to atomic power plants. With the reduction of the armed forces, everywhere, the crews wouldn't be a problem. Maybe my old team member, Eric, would like to be the Captain of the liner. He would. I transferred two years of operating capital to the U.N. account over his signature. He said he'd send post cards.
Molly came back after twenty four. She patted the two new computers. I got a twinge that she'd incorporated their activities just like that. But that would take---. And I would be diaper bound in comparison. Couldn't have that. I just saluted and left, pulling Tom along. He didn't know what had transpired, but he stepped up the pace.
We slept for eight hours. Evidently some one watched because breakfast arrived shortly after we arose. Nerre joined us.
She said, "The Admiral asked me to explain how you ask questions of Captain 'Dead.' He acted as test pilot on this vessel, this class of vessels. We assumed he had been from Phaeton, the planet you know of as the asteroid belt. But we found no trace of him there. Come over to his consol. Have a seat. Tom, pull that chair over. You don't need any codes, or log-ins. You just type the question. Ignore the non-English keys. The answer appears on the screen, and a door usually opens in this wall behind us giving back-up data. It's possible a different mind-set could find a path way of inquiry that would result in finding out where he went to."
"We'll try. Tom's mind moves in mysterious pathways."
"You have six days until we depart to try. My offer still stands. Duty calls."
She left. "Tom, I meant that as praise."
"True is true. You try first. I'll get the hang of it quickly."
I started to reason out loud, to save Tom duplicating my efforts.
"If they haven't found him in this solar system it stands to reason that he wasn't from this system. But he evidently interacted with people here. If they didn't find any mention of his home planet, and the records can be openly accessed, no attempt to hide data, the only conclusion is he didn't have a home planet. That leaves a lot of space where he could have come from. These people don't care about time and space. It doesn't limit them. So we can agree it wouldn't have been a factor in the Captains thinking either. So, the question becomes, from where in space would you be equi-distance from the known galaxies. Because someone thinks in distance terms among these lines, and we can extrapolate that thinking to the Captain's people. So we need some star charts. Then we'll ask where in relation to Phaeton he came from, traveling distance, elapsed time etc. Follow?"
"Yes."
"So we'll ask; most space without planets?"
The screen read, 'adjacent to Polaris'.
So I asked, 'information on journey to Polaris.'
The screen read, 'See chart table---open drawer13201.'
A drawer opened to the far right behind us. The chart table made rustling sounds. Tom headed for it, and I went to the drawer. We met at the plotting table. He spread out the chart, a straight line with some minus and other plus numbers along the route. I opened the papers I had. They were a list of provisions needed, journey time at some markings which I took as speed, and some distances to different ga
laxies along the route.
I suggested, "Let's ask another question while we have the drawer open."
We asked, 'directions to Interplanetary Development Group Headquarters from Polaris?
The charts moved on the table. A flap swung up from the bottom of the open drawer with a chiming noise. We looked at the chart. An 'X' had appeared on it. I unfolded the papers that I'd brought back to the plot table. The same info, route information to 'X'.
Nerre came rushing in, "What's going on in here? A chair became active of which we didn't know the function!"
We spread out the charts and papers and stepped back. The light didn't take long to come on. She yelled, "Get Captain Berger and Admiral Secallo here now. Situation Blue one."
She shooed us to a two person table along the side wall and indicated we should sit. Kicking an ottoman in place she sat with her knees too high and asked, "What did you do? And what reasoning prompted you to do it?"
We explained our reasoning. She looked like her arm wanted to hit her head but she got the twitches under control. Captain Berger stormed in. Nerre pointed at the plotting table. He read everything without touching anything. Admiral Secallo came in and headed for the plotting table. Somehow he knew the story already.
Both he and the Captain came in our direction, so we stood, Nerre alongside us. The Admiral, said, "Captain Berger and I can't say enough words to you two. So we'll just say, thank you. Nerre, the Captain and I have agreed on One Ball, two carriers, and as many Frigates of his as we can get into the Ball freight bays. Departure twelve hours from now, neither of us, nor you, will be going. Pick someone who would do the job as good as you. Go on."
She saluted, and left with disappointment plainly stamped on her face.
They took another look at the charts and papers, then saluted, and left.
I sat back down. Then it dawned on me, lower left desk drawer. Sure enough, bottle and glasses. I brought the bottle and three glasses back to the table, and poured. Tom and I picked ours up. He said, "She'd appreciate the sentiment. Here's to Captain 'Dead.' Bottoms up."
Greener Green II: The Balls Brigade Page 33