by Ben Winston
"Captain, don't make me demonstrate my skills at hand to hand on you!" Sheness retorted, and winked at him so he knew she was teasing him back. "Unless you're in a lot of pain from that," she said indicating his legs. "Come back tomorrow and I'll take a look at it."
"I'd appreciate it, I've been worried that the painkillers are affecting my judgment. It'll be nice to not have to take those things anymore," Randy replied.
Sheness narrowed her eyes at him. "Sit down, that doesn't sound right."
"One moment please, Doc," Randy replied. He looked around the big room and saw who he was looking for. "Yo! Z-Lay! Check this out!"
Across the room, a really big, African-American man waved back and started their way.
"Wow, now that is a big man," Jarad replied.
Randy chuckled. "Yeah, he's one of the local gang heads. I think it's funny as hell that the Cabal could do the one thing that no one ever thought would be possible; they got the gangs to start working together." He shook his head. "It's almost scary what the combined might of three major gangs can do."
"Wassup, G-Man?" the big man said as he walked up. "Whoa, who's the cat?"
Sheness snorted in amusement at the comment. Randy and Jarad chuckled as well. "She's the Doctor the Alliance sent down to help us. Don't piss her off; I have a feeling she could take on a tin can alone with nothing more than a knife and come back with a new car and a degree in robotics. Look here, check with Carlos if you would and see if you can get Doc Symms to get our wounded folks over here so they can get checked out.
"This is Ranger Fighter Jarad Danielson of the Alliance Military. All those crates you've been unloading are full of new guns and armor for our people. Danielson and his folks will teach us how to use the stuff before they have to leave. We'll need to start bringing in our people a squad or two at a time to get outfitted and rearmed. I'd do that myself, but the doc wants to take a look at my legs. Go get your baby sister too."
"They can fix her eyes?" Z-Lay asked.
"Maybe, I won't know until I can see what kind of damage was done to them," Sheness replied. "Our medical knowledge is far more advanced than current Earth standards, but it can't fix everything."
The big man nodded. "I'll tell Carlos that too, He's sweet on her an' has been over to mah crib every night to see her. Normally, I kill him for even looking at her, but things is different now. Besides, Carlos ain't as bad as he was before' the zombies." He nodded once to Jarad and smiled at the doctor. "You sure is pretty for a doctor," With that, he turned and left.
"Wow, you weren't kidding. That thing with his sister would have normally started a gang war," Jarad replied.
Randy nodded. "Yeah, a very bloody and destructive one. I've been slowly integrating the two gangs, so they learn to work together better. I think that eventually, Carlos and Chissandra will officially become a couple and the two gangs will declare a more permanent truce. I just wish Carlos and Z-Lay had a few more sisters we could hook up with the other gang leaders. Still, there is peace between them for now, they all know that the Cabal has to be dealt with first. The local skinheads are a different matter, though. They refuse to work with either side and will attack both on sight. Fuckin' white supremacist idiots."
Jarad could only nod his agreement. "Well, with that mentality, they most likely won't last very long. They'll end up getting themselves killed off all on their own," Jarad replied.
Randy agreed. "Yeah, but I had a hell of a time convincing the others about that. They wanted to mount up and go wipe them out before dealing with the Cabal. I did get them talked out of it, but only just. I think they still want to handle the issue but are leaving it alone for now."
While they'd been talking, Sheness had been checking out Randy's legs. Her equipment began beeping at her urgently. "Captain, how long ago were you wounded?"
"It's been about six or seven months I guess. I'd just been released from the VA hospital when the Cabal moved in and shut everything down," Randy replied. "It sure doesn't take the military long to drop you when you get messed up."
"I thought they were keeping injured soldiers and putting them back out once they were healed up?" Jarad asked.
Randy grinned. "Yeah, the normal military does that, but I wasn't in the normal military. You can't be sneaky and it's hard to run when you have a fake leg."
"Well, that's fixable, but you have other issues now. You've been getting sick to your stomach a lot lately, haven't you?" Sheness asked.
"Yeah, but I figured it was just the poor food and stress, why?" Randy asked.
The doc shook her head. "That could be a part of it, but you've got an infection started in the other leg, and the prosthesis they gave you hasn't been fitted very well. I would imagine the doctors treating you simply ran out of time to finish treating you. Look, I know you can't take any time off right now, especially with us just arriving, but I need you for two hours to get you treated. You'll only be unconscious for about fifteen minutes of that, but you won't be able to move around until it's finished."
"Can't it wait for a bit, Doc?" Randy asked, concerned.
"The longer we wait, the higher the odds you are going to lose the other leg as well, or worse," Sheness explained. "This will eventually kill you, Captain. The longer we wait, the greater that risk becomes. Infections cannot be messed with; they have a way of biting your tail when you're not looking."
"Although I don't have a tail, that doesn't sound like any fun at all," Randy replied, he looked up and called one of his people over. "Jinny, could you please go find Z-Lay, Carlos and Doc Wharton? Ask them to meet me at the spaceship?"
"Sure thing, Boss. Uh, I'll get Sarah too," the girl said and trotted off.
"She's kinda young to be a fighter isn't she?" Jarad asked commenting on the girl's obvious age.
Randy nodded. "Yeah, she is. We use the young ones like her as messengers primarily. If we didn't give them something to do, then most of them would steal weapons from someplace and follow us out on missions. I just wish we could save more of them."
"What do you mean?" Jarad asked.
"The Cabal rounds up a lot of people for workers of all kinds. The young girls, like Sarah, and some of the younger boys, are sent to the casino's downtown to work as 'entertainers' for the troops and visiting V.I.P's. Basically, they're used as sex toys. The older boys are usually sent to the training and indoctrination center, but some are sent to the labs as well. From some of the stuff we've heard, I don't know what would be the worse fate," Randy replied. "We've heard rumors that there is an 'Imperial Brothel' that has a very high turnover rate."
"The more I learn about those assholes the less I like them," Jarad replied.
Struve Rim Training Base
Struve Crater, Selene
Earth's Moon, Sol System
The Ranger teams arrived back at the lunar base shortly after the Marine assault shuttles landed. They went through their standard debriefing and Greg immediately went to the command center.
"Have we heard anything from Jarad yet?" He asked the operations officer.
"No sir, nothing yet," the man replied. "But he really isn't supposed to make contact until tonight anyway. We have been monitoring the Cabal troops in Vegas, and they're mostly just dealing with the damage that was done, and trying to figure out how you and the resistance folks made a coordinated attack on the headquarters building."
"Yeah, good luck with that; it just happened. When Jolene and I got there, the Resistance was already involved in an attack on it. We just stepped in and helped a bit," Greg replied.
"The intel folks think that Vegas was supposed to be a trap for you and the other Rangers. That decloaking thing combined with how quickly those fighters showed up has them convinced it was intended to be a trap for you," the operations officer said.
"Yeah, it would have been if they had waited to turn it on until we were deeper into the city, They would have blown us out of the sky pretty quickly if that would have happened as those fighters were arri
ving; we got lucky," Greg replied. "I think we should add a Fixer to mission staff during operations. Mandi saved our asses today."
The officer nodded. "I'll take care of it sir, but for now we only have the two of them, considering how often you folks have been going out lately, it might put a strain on them."
"If I may interrupt, Major Jeffreys," Abraxis said. "It is beginning to look like we might have located a couple more candidates. Based on the history I could find for them, they will most likely be either Fixers or Pilots."
"Where did you find them, Abraxis?" Greg asked.
"Baikonur, Kazakhstan and Taiyuan Space Facility, Shanxi Provence, China. Tuan Xi is on her way up here as we speak, but the other gentlemen asked to be allowed to gather his family before accepting transport up. He should be arriving by the end of the week," Abraxis explained.
"Even if they are Pilots instead of Fixers, it would help to have them in here during a mission for technical assistance. Perhaps we should make it 'whenever possible' one should be here," Greg replied. "At least until we can figure something else out."
Major Jeffreys nodded. "I see what I can come up with, Sir. I"ll send you a copy before I implement it."
Greg nodded. "Thanks Hank, I'll talk to the Fixers about it too." He paused. "Well, since there is still a couple of hours before he reports in, I'll be in my office seeing what other trouble I can stir up."
"You'll be the first to know if something else happens, Sir!" Hank Jeffreys replied, grinning.
As Greg left the command center, he activated his internal comm and spoke to Abraxis. "Have you had a chance to analyze that fighter craft the Cabal was using? They looked like they were based on the U.S. F-22, but they sure as hell didn't fly like them."
"We are still processing it, but it is clear that any resemblance to that plane is purely cosmetic. Based on the operational profile exhibited, there is no possible way they could be rebuilt F-22's," Abraxis replied. Fixer Arless and Fixer Amanda are still going over the sensor logs from all the sleds, but they have mentioned an unusually high level of omega radiation present during combat operations. This would indicate the use of anti-proton reactors as power units for the planes. However, the amount of shielding required by that reactor would seem to disqualify that type of power as feasible for this application."
"Unless they are using them without the required amount of shielding. My question would be why aren't they using the ZPM's that sleds use? If they do have a Drellian there to help them, he would have to know how they were made," Greg replied. "Hell, if I remember correctly, even the Earth folks figured out how to make them even before you arrived."
"That is correct, however, The ZPM units used by the Hyper sleds require a very rare mineral called Reidite by Earth scientists. While this mineral can be artificially created in a laboratory, it tends to break down rather quickly when used in the creation of a ZPM. Only the naturally occurring mineral can be used to create a stable and usable ZPM unit. Unfortunately, Reidite does not occur in its natural state on Earth.
"While we do have a source of natural Reidite within the Alliance, the Cabal would not have access to enough to create power units for even a squadron of fighter craft. They will have had to find an alternative power unit for their equipment," Abraxis explained. "The use of unshielded or even poorly shielded anti-proton reactors would have fatal long term effects on their pilots and crews. Omega radiation affects the molecular bonds that make up any biological organism. It would be a very long and very painful death."
"What effect would it have on their pilots during combat?" Greg asked. "Will their performance suffer from this?"
"This type of radiation has a rather strange effect on those exposed to it. Their pilots will experience more of a euphoric effect while they operate the aircraft. They will be somewhat more suggestible, but paranoid at the same time; almost like a mild dose of Methamphetamine. However, once they reach a saturation point, their body will begin to dissolve. That's when the pain will start. I would imagine at that point, they will no longer be worried about combat. They may even go berserk or try to suicide just to end the pain," Abraxis replied. "This conversation is very disturbing to me as the thought of one being intentionally doing this to another is… unimaginable for me."
Greg nodded to himself. "I can understand that Abraxis. It proves there are truly no limits to the cruelty one human can visit upon another. If the ejected pilot were to be recovered, is there treatment available for this?"
"As with most forms of radiation, it would depend on the level of exposure. That being said, based on the levels we are seeing from these planes, the pilots flying them would have received a fatal level of exposure during take off. I can only surmise that the ground crew would have to be robotic as a human worker would die just performing routine maintenance."
Greg shook his head. "How certain are Mandi and Arless that this is the power unit they are using? What would happen to the population if one crashed in a city?"
"The level of potential destruction in a populated area is very high; on par with the detonation of a very small nuclear weapon. Even if the craft did not detonate upon impact, exposure to this reactor would have close to the same result. The one good thing about this reactor, which is why they are used at all, it that they can be shut down very quickly with little to no toxic residue. This power unit is what you would call an anti-matter reactor. When used without proper shielding, they are a very dangerous power source." Abraxis explained. "Both Mandi and Arless are convinced that this is what the Cabal is using. However, I believe that conviction is based more on their feelings about the Cabal than it is on the evidence we actually have."
When Greg got back to his office, he asked Mandi if she and Arless had a moment they could spare him.
"Greg, with the exception of possibly the Greynus, Arless and I are probably the two busiest people on this base," Mandi replied, grinning. "So, no we don't have 'moments to spare', but we will make time to see you if you need it."
Greg chuckled at her. "That's kinda one of the things I needed to talk to the two of you about. You both still eat, right? How about I buy you lunch and we can talk then?"
"Let me go get Arless and we'll meet you at your office," Mandi replied. "Our assistants should be able to handle things for an hour or so without blowing up the base."
Greg snorted and ended the call. He told his own aide that the two Fixers were on their way up for lunch and to please send them right in.
A few moments later, Mandi and Arless entered the office. Greg stood and thanked them both for coming up. "I know you two are very busy, but there are a few things I needed to talk to you about. Please, have a seat and we can order lunch."
Arless took his seat like Greg had asked, but Mandi just walked over to the replicator. "We already ordered when we left the pit," she said referring to the pet name for the maintenance bays near the main hangar. "I even guessed about what you would want."
"Really?" Greg asked. "What did you get me?"
"Shrimp Scampi with steamed garlic cauliflower and iced tea," Mandi replied.
Greg shook his head. "You're getting pretty good at reading my mind."
She grinned as she brought the food to the table for the other two. "Uh huh, just like I know you are going to put more of a load on us, but you'll also offer something else to help. I'm not reading your mind, Greg, I just know how to read you."
"Okay, smart lady. Here it is in a nutshell so you both can apply that formidable intellect to it; we need to have a fixer or at the least a Pilot in the command center for all mission from now on. You saved our asses today and convinced me that this was something that we need to have on every mission. Now, I know you guys are overstretched already, even with all the assistants you have down there.
"Abraxis tells me that he believes he has located two more potential Fixers or Pilots in China and Kazakhstan. I still think there should be more we just haven't found yet," Greg explained. "Even if they are not Ranger level like y
ou two, there would still have to be more folks out there we need to find."
Mandi chuckled. "I knew it!"
"Excuse me, Commander, but as things are right now, that just isn't possible. However, I think I might have an idea we could use for this," Arless said somewhat nervously. He took out his portable terminal and set it beside his plate. "It shouldn't be very hard to implement either. I've been working on a special dedicated terminal for us to use when we'd have to go out with you. I borrowed some of Mandi's slip-gate technology to use as a data link. We could keep this with us, while we are working on our usual stuff and while the teams out simply keep it active so we can monitor what's going on. If something unusual happens like the decloaking pulse you were hit with today, we can pull this out and deal with it. With a little reprogramming, we can make the terminal identical to the engineering station in the command center. The holo-display unit can be modded to make it just like we were actually there. That way, we can help with missions and still work on our projects."
"How is it you always seem to have the answer to something before we discover the problem?" Mandi asked her friend.
He grinned back at her. "I didn't have the answer, I just thought we could re-purpose something we already have for a better use."
"So, you'd be basically attending via telepresence?" Greg asked.
"Uhm, yeah, you could call it that. Except it would be fully interactive. Our terminal would basically take over the engineering one in the command center. Because of the data link, there would be no lag at all, it can't be jammed, hacked or even detected really. The comm unit we sent with Jarad down to Las Vegas works on the same type of principle," Arless explained.
"Wow, undetectable comms will certainly help us. No more tracking us by the Drellians based on our comm chatter," Greg said.
"Well, it's gonna take a while for us to get everything updated. There are a lot of comm units to replace out there," Mandi replied. "So I guess asking for a short leave of absence to work on the slip-gates is out of the question then?"