by John Ricks
“Freddy, I know you don’t want people in your shop, but if you’d let us help, most of your issues would go away.”
“I know, Susan. After we remove that rock, I will let people into the shop to help. I have so much to do, and I can tell you right now I’m going to take a rest after this and then slow down. I have no problem farming out work and having people come in after that. Until then, I just can’t take the chance.”
“It’s a lot of work, sweetheart. We should start calling you Noah.”
I smiled. “When I build the Ark II, then they can call me Noah. Until then, I’m just Freddy.” With enthusiasm, I asked, “Did you know that I have already identified three planets that may be good for colonization?”
“I don’t doubt it, but how did you do that?”
“I had to test out my drive system and shields, and I also had to test out my FTL communication system. I built several probes and sent them out at nearly 250 times the speed of light. Sounds fast, doesn’t it? What it means is they crawl along at about one light-year every four minutes. I’ve been getting information back from them for five months now. I sent out one hundred of them, but I haven’t had time to go over the data lately. I suppose I could give that information to someone to look at for me. Shop, give me a data chip on the information sent back from my Class One probes.”
“Working.”
“Send it to the front office.”
“Will do, Freddy. It’s a lot of information and will take three minutes to download onto a data chip.”
“Three minutes! How much information is there?”
“Approximately 157 billion gigabytes.”
“That’s a lot of information to sort through!” A smile crossed my face as I asked the commander, “That information is highly important, isn’t it?”
“Yes, Freddy. I believe it would be. There could be vast amounts of information about the galaxies, stars, habitable planets, and other life forms.” Her eyes narrowed. “Why?”
“The information is important and would make the people giving it out look very good, wouldn’t it?”
“Yes, it would.”
“If I gave this information to the army to investigate and study, wouldn’t it take them a long time and possibly give them so much to do that they would stay out of our hair for a few months?”
She smiled. “Yes, it would.” She paused, thinking. “Freddy, let me handle the conversation. You just—very reluctantly—hand over the data cube when I tell you.”
“Bad cop, good cop?”
“More like a parent telling a child to do something he doesn’t want to do.”
“I can play that real well.” I took hold of her hand and added, “Mommy.”
She smiled and said, “Don’t overdo it. They’re not that easy.”
“Susan, this could actually be some of the greatest discoveries ever. The army will become very popular if this holds the information I think it does.”
“I know—and that’s why it will work. Let’s go.”
Gray said, “He has information on systems in this area. We could use that.”
The little Yellows tried to shut me down but failed. They tried again and failed.
Green said, “We have good maps of the area.”
Gray said, “Not detailed like his. Ours are scanned from afar, and his are up close.”
Yellows said, “Quiet! What is wrong, my friend?”
In a beginning panic, the little Yellows said, “We cannot shut it down. It has found a way around our shields.”
The bigger Yellows reached in and did something unexpected. They tickled me. I lost concentration, and everything went black. Yellows said, “We learned that from one of their transmissions. We have used it on several of our own.”
The little Yellows said, “They are ticklish as we are. How interesting that they could be so different, so ugly, and still be so much like us.”
Yellows said, “Please continue, Green.”
Chapter 17
Giving Away Information to Protect What You Have
We left the shop and headed back to the house. Two girls were waiting for us; one left with us, and one stayed at the invisible shop door. At the house we both said hello to Lieutenant Morgan, as she was waiting up for the commander. I picked up the data cube and left to clean up and go to bed. Just before I left the room, the commander said, “First thing in the morning is eight o’clock and no earlier, Freddy.” I nodded my agreement. It’s a good thing she said that, as I was thinking five o’clock. The hot shower felt great.
The alarm went off at seven thirty, and I slowly climbed out of bed and dressed. I was still very weak. Since I was going to the shop, I figured that a work jumper and my nonslip tennis shoes would be best. I was going to only tie my hair back, but I had the time, so I braided it like my mother use to braid hers. That took all of ten minutes. I brushed my teeth and went out. I slid down the banister and was caught at the bottom by the master chief. There I was, getting chewed out royally, when the president and Melanie came down.
I paid no attention to them, because when the master chief is ripping you a new one, you pay full attention to what she says, or your backside pays the price. I had learned that the hard way. She has a hand as hard as the knot in an old oak tree and an arm that never tires.
I took my reprimand, as I knew I had it coming. She had told me many times not to slide down that banister because I could get hurt, or worse yet, I could harm someone coming up the stairs. She was raised believing “No horseplay in the house! You want to fool around, you take it outside.”
When she was finally winding down, she took me in her arms and helped me to stop crying. Hey, you’d cry too if you thought she was going to spank you right there in front of the president. She doesn’t let you keep your pants on when she lays into you. I’m not sure where in the South she comes from, but when she gets mad she says things like “yeah, boys” and “ya don’t know nuttin.” I’d laugh, but I learned that that can be a very painful mistake. Besides, I become too scared to laugh.
After I stopped crying, she sent me back to my room to calm down and wash my face. When I came back down a few minutes later, walking this time, everyone was in the dining room, eating breakfast. I sat down and ate in silence for a few minutes. I could sense that everyone was worried, so I said, “The master chief really has that down good, doesn’t she?” The girls smiled. “I think that we should rent her out.” Betsy was coming close to losing it, so I added, “I think we should consider renting her to the president to get Congress in line.”
Betsy nearly spit her food out, she was laughing so hard. When she finally calmed down, she said, “Freddy, you did that on purpose.”
“The sad emotions were getting too thick in here.”
Melanie looked horrified. “How can you let her get away with that?”
“Melanie, I can feel the love she has for me, so I understand that it’s her way to handle these things, and it works for the team. They don’t do anything that would cause her to get mad. When they heard me get chewed out the first time and saw that I took it, that’s when I was considered part of the team. The girls treated me a lot differently after that because then, I fit in. I was one of them, part of their fraternity. Besides, I deserved it. The master chief has told me before about not doing that, but all I could think about at that moment was breakfast, and I forgot. It was my fault, and I deserved the punishment. If I didn’t deserve it, I would still take it, but when she calmed down I would let her know. So far, every time she’s ripped on me, I’ve deserved it.”
“Yes, you have.” The master chief had entered the room. “I don’t see treating any member of this team any different from the rest. If I have to do that, then that person is not a part of the team. Freddy knows that even in an emergency, he has to obey, just like the rest, and we don’t have time for questions. So when I holl
er, everyone jumps. It’s the way it has to be. We can talk about it later and decide if I was right or wrong, but at the moment I tell you to jump, you had better jump.”
The admiral added, “Quick-response training has proven to be the best and most highly effective training for all military functions, all ship functions, and all situations where there is a command structure. Police, firefighters, and emergency rescue teams—everyone uses it except the government.” He looked at the president. “It would run better if people would stop debating everything and just do what’s right. It’s nice to see that Freddy is willing and able to handle the training. It says a lot for the lad.” Both generals had to agree. The talk around the table was light and easy after that.
The president asked, “Is everything ready to go inside, Freddy?”
I looked at Susan, who said, “I’ll answer that.”
The president exclaimed, “Oh, sorry! I keep forgetting that you’re in charge. Actually—and please don’t take offense, Freddy—I find it less frightening to know that the commander is governing everything and that you’re willing to be governed.”
I looked at her and said most sincerely, “So do I.” That made her relax even more.
Susan said, “We know that you’re a very busy person, so we worked until after midnight to get everything ready. We can go in right after breakfast. We’ll be taking everyone in with us.”
I looked at her with surprise and hoped I looked just a little upset. I pathed to Melanie and Katie, “Don’t let on, please.” Then, out loud, I said, “I thought we talked about this!”
“We did, and I said I’d think about what you said last night. I thought about it and have made my decision. I would like everyone to see what you’re doing. I need the team to understand the enormity of the job you’ve taken on and why you’re so tired all the time. I need the admiral and the president to see what you’ve done so that they know what they need to do. The civilians need to help so they should see. The generals are the only ones who won’t be going in.”
“You can’t … please don’t do this!” I begged.
“I have decided to give the generals the cube.” She said “the cube” quietly and with great respect, as if it were the most priceless thing in the world—and she might have been right.
I started crying a little. Just enough to let everyone know something major was up. “Please, Susan, don’t give them that information. How can you trust them? These are the most important discoveries since … since … well, ever. They make my little toys look like little toys. Information is power, Susan. This will give them great power.”
“Wait!” the president said. “What are you two talking about?”
“Tell her, Freddy,” Susan ordered.
I looked down at the table and kept my head down, looking as humble as I could as I pulled the cube from my pocket. “I wanted to test some of my toys,” I said, pouting. “That’s the FTL—faster-than-light—drives, the FTL communication, and special sensors, so I built one hundred probes. I sent them out five months ago at 250 times the speed of light. They’ve been sending me information ever since. There are over 157 billion gigabytes of information on space, solar systems, habitable planets, and other life forms, including intelligent life, all on this one cube. I told the commander last night that with everything else I’ve had to do lately, I just don’t have time to look at it, but I have the feeling it’s real important.”
I could hear the intake of breath all around. Melanie looked at the president and said, “Breathe, Madam President, breathe.”
She let out a breath and asked, “Freddy, do you know if there are habitable planets out there?”
“I only saw a small fraction of the information, so I only know of three. Two are like Earth, and one is better, I think. But I’m not a specialist in these things. Lots of vegetation and animals, if that means anything. I didn’t look any further, as I have a lot of other work to do. I simply don’t have time. To give this information to the army is asking a lot. They would need to study it, get expert opinions, and have press conferences about their findings and all kinds of things.”
I could feel the generals’ eagerness.
The commander pressed in. “Madam President, I think this information is extremely important and needs to be looked at and studied right now. The navy is going to be too busy learning to fly Freddy’s ships. The army has all the connections to pull this off, and they’re under your thumb. They know what data to reveal and what to keep secret, and they’ll be the ground crews when we start to explore new planets. I think the army is the best choice.”
“I agree,” said the president.
“I don’t!” I said.
General Tankman said, “Look, Freddy, try just this once to trust us. We won’t let you down. You have my word.”
The commander said, “Freddy, I want the generals to take that cube and a player right now and get on the helicopter. They need to get started.” She reached over and whispered to General Tankman, “Before I lose control over him.”
I picked up the cube, and, with a tear in my eye, I set it in the commander’s hand. “Make sure they only let the media that’s cooperating with my lawyers have any information.”
She gave the cube to the generals, and they immediately said their good-byes. The president said, “I want reports daily.”
“Yes, Madam President.” They turned and left. The president told the flight crew that she’d get a different ride home.
It was only a matter of minutes before they were gone. As soon as they were outside the shield, the admiral asked, “I know what you pulled in there, Commander. But are you sure that was a good idea?”
“Ask me that after you see what Freddy’s been building in his shop.”
He said, “I need a phone. I’ll need to get a ride from Admiral Bates to get the president home.”
I said happily, “Not to worry. We’ll take her home in one of the shuttles. As long as we treat it like a plane, then no one should care. Right, Susan?”
“Right, Freddy. It will actually give us some productive flight time in the real thing. Petty Officer Smith will get us flight clearance to Washington, DC, and back. We’ll set you down right on the White House lawn. Right, Freddy?”
“Right. We’ll have you there in about ten minutes after takeoff. Right, Susan?”
“Wrong. Petty Officer Smith, you set it up for military high-level flight at eighty thousand feet, and we’ll run her up to two thousand miles an hour, max. I don’t want too many questions.”
“Sorry,” I said.
“That’s okay, Freddy.”
I looked at the president and said, “See? That’s why she’s the boss.”
Gray took hold of his weapons so hard that all the color was forced from his hands, and his face was scrunched in nearly a growl. He was furious and said, “He tricked those generals.”
Everything went black after a few seconds of tickling. “Not fair!”
Yellows said, “The mistrust in the army is well founded. You can read the reports later. His trust in the navy is remarkable.”
Blue added, “This president seems different from our royalty. I would like to know more about her.”
Green said, “I will cut a crystal for you tonight.”
Blue said, “Thank you.”
Yellows said, “Another interesting thing—how much is a gigabyte of information?”
Green answered, “If I understand correctly, then 157 billion gigabytes is 157 x 1018 power.”
Yellows asked, “How much does one of our crystals hold?”
“Less. Much less.”
Blue said accusingly to Green, “Another bit of technology we could use. Amazing how some young systems can come up with inventions we cannot. Please continue.”
Chapter 18
Healing a Friend
After breakfast
, I asked, “Madam President, can we talk, just you, Melanie, Susan, and me, please? It will only take a minute.”
She looked at the admiral. “I guess so.”
I said, “Admiral, this is about girl stuff. It has nothing to do with my project. Okay?”
He laughed. “No problem, Freddy. I understand. I’d still like to talk to Admiral Bates.”
The commander took control and sent the admiral away with one of the girls. I took the president, the commander, and Melanie into the commander’s office. I pulled the curtains closed and turned to the women. “Melanie, you’re thinking out loud, and you’re doing it on purpose.”
Melanie said, “I’m worried about her, and she won’t ask you herself.”
The president started to say something, but I raised my hand for her silence and asked Melanie, “Why?”
“She doesn’t want to impose on you.”
I put my fists on my hips, and, mimicking my mother, I said, “Oh, for goodness sakes. How childish! Madam President, you came here to impose on me, to get me to work on a world crisis, but you can’t ask me for a simple favor that would take little or no time?”
“I thought I was already asking enough of you. I didn’t want to take advantage of our friendship.”
“What’s friendship for if you can’t push on it a little? I’ll be asking you for favors sometime, and I won’t hesitate. I may send the commander to ask, if I think you’ll get mad at me.” I looked at Susan with a sly grin. “But I’ll still ask. The worst you can say is no. And the worst I can say is no, so what do you need?”
She straightened up, showing her good upbringing, and with shoulders erect, she asked, “Freddy, will you please heal me?”
“No!”
Everyone’s mouth dropped open in incredulous disbelief. I started laughing. Susan smiled, and so did Melanie.
Melanie said, “Madam President, he’s kidding. He fully intends to heal you. I think he would whether you asked or not.”