I saw the Admiral enter the room and stood and waved. He saw me and came to our table. We hugged all around. I said, "This is Lenh."
They shook hands and he said, "I read the memo. May I take a seat?"
We offered him ours, but he sat in Lenh's seat while she dragged a chair from a nearby table. We made room for her and sat looking at each other, with our canteens and Lenh's coffee cup on the table.
He finally said, "That stunt could be considered brave, or stupid. Five days in ANNU KI land changes anyone. Betty and I hope what you've changed into is a plus."
"It's just a step to being an essence, Admiral. I'll look out for them. But while you're here, I want to mention a few things. Earth and Phaeton aren't pulling their load, in your terminology." Lenh said aggressively.
"What do you mean?"
"You have a Rail Gun Dock in orbit keeping one ANNU KI pinned down. You have a lot more of them, sitting around Earth Space doing nothing. You have brilliant military minds spit shinning shoes."
The Admiral's bulb changed hues. He said, "Betty, pass this young ladies comments on to Thelma-Earth with my question mark."
Lenh plowed on, "Also you have countless Weapons Balls in storage and a doomed planet to crew them with. They could be used here, and the Phaetons, you, didn't have bad minds either."
"There's the madness factor."
"To me, or any of us, this is a minute baby like problem. You crew them, we'll put their minds together, deal?"
His bulb changed several more hues; he started to speak several times, like he carried on a conversation with himself, which had to come to an end before he could talk to us.
"Have your people report to Admiral Prestrillo. He'll drag everything flying out of storage and send it out here."
"Our ship is alongside his already."
Another pause ensued. As spacey as we were, this delayed business didn't help.
"They send you their regards Lenh; and their joy at an assignment."
"That's all I can think of at the moment," Lenh said with a flashing smile. "We are going to go talk to the Workers. It seems they are going to be the Assault troops with the Phaeton A-I ships as close support, and Melin's ships as long support, or do you see it different, Admiral."
"Were this Admiral insignia not sewn into my coveralls I would give it to you and ask for a front line command under your guidance. But you're not dour enough so you'll have to just whisper in my ear; and I'll flap my jaws. That's about as I see it too. And that's where I see us fizzling out, because we have too much time to cover with too few Workers. They'll control where they stand, but a day away an ANNU KI will stand. What's your solution to that?"
"I'll tell you when I've talked with the Workers. It may entail a trip to Hendes I to talk to their Masters."
"I sincerely appreciate your input Lenh. Let me know what you discover. You four, and your Carriers are assigned to her for the duration. Don't pout, Lenh, that's the way I treat all my valuable people; and when you outrank me I'll expect the same treatment from you."
We watched him walk away, knowing there were depths in him we hadn't seen yet.
Lenh commented, "Oh well, just keep up won't you."
I said, "Go get some straws Tina."
"I joked. We don't have time to kick each others asses, shapely as ours are, let's go get a runabout. Did I tell you three about last night, no; well we were in this bar--."
I tuned her out and let her ramble. I knew now she could carry on countless conversations at once, and do the element tables backward in French, all at the same time.
The five of us crammed into the runabout and flew to the nearest ridgeline where the Workers had their gun emplacements. Not a thing to be seen, so we landed in a clearing as high up as we could. No sooner had we stepped out than two Workers appeared with a camouflage net. It would have been my next move, sure.
We waited until they were happy about the placement of the net, standing under a tree, suddenly aware that we should tune in our woods smarts.
A worker stopped in front of Lenh and said, "We expected you yesterday, but we understand your need to reconnoiter and rectify bad orders. Come along, we have arranged benches."
We followed them on a well trodden path to a cluster of tall trees close together. In between seven benches had been arranged in a circle. The air blew constantly, and the elevation caused it to bite. We sat as the Worker indicated.
He began, "My Masters are overjoyed that others survived, and ask that you visit them when our mission is over."
Lenh smiled and said, "We are also glad to hear they survived. Someone will visit them today. You can imagine we don't differ much from each other."
"You are kind. What can we add to your reorganization?"
"Your number is 15,000, correct?"
"We can expand to 20,000, but some will be used for rear area duties."
"And no more? Why?"
"It has to do with the mental relays. More and we become inefficient. The net will not handle the load. Then one waits for net time to proceed. Not a good trait for front line soldiers."
We had a good laugh over that. The Workers eyes swirled."
Lenh asked, "Am I permitted to approach you and touch you?"
"Not a problem. If you damage me I will be cut out of the net, one fewer."
"No, I won't hurt you."
She walked to the Worker, being careful to approach him straight on, and laid her right hand on his left shoulder. Nothing happened, I'd become used to not happenings with her.
After a while she sat down next to him and said, "It is as you say. Changes could be made, but we don't have the time. Worker, do you know where we get 300,000 troops who can function in no time near the Void?"
"Melin can make bodies, but who will animate them?"
"Me, if no one else comes along."
"You could, but there will be a price, most likely your persona."
"I know. There is one other request. The ANNU KI ships coming out from Earth are improved. Can you place one in your shipyard and do the same for the ones coming out of Frizdier?"
"Sure, simple pass through."
"And if we give you our net Technology can you put it in also?"
"Don't know it."
"Look under GSNET."
"We can do this, as an offensive weapon on the ships. Also we can use the idea to make a net to be thrown over soldiers to tighten around them and kill them.
"Good thinking. Can we sit here and discuss something between us five?"
"Should I leave?"
"No. Now, somebody tell me about this Special Events Platoons."
Helga started first, "They are taller than us by a foot, and much heavier. Their belts or their support ship let them go back and forth in time as they wish. How they would do up against the Void is another question, for which we have no answer."
"Thank you, Helga, perhaps no one knows for sure what they would do then. But if the ANNU KI does it, we can. Does anybody know how to contact them?"
I said, reluctantly, "Ask Marvin, he may know."
I'LL PASS THE REQUEST ALONG. THEY SAY, STAY THERE, AND ASK THE WORKERS NOT TO FIRE ON THEM.
The Worker said, "We receive his request. We know their signal, no firing."
Without the slightest warning a black ship appeared overhead and three figures floated down from it. They landed outside the tight grove and walked in.
One said, "Hello Lenh. You are causing quite a stir. I'm Hector, and this is Irene and Jeff. You can see who we are. May we sit?"
Before anyone caught their breath, Lenh included, they sat and laid their two rifles apiece, on the bench beside them.
"Worker, I am called. May I touch your rifles?"
Hector rose; took a pair to him and said, "They won't fire, personalized, but you will realize them anyway."
He sat back down and said to Lenh, "We don't know whether we can function near the void. We haven't been there."
A voice spoke out of the air. This i
s Melin ship M2ZIR. You are invited to accompany us to the edge and find out."
"And we just relaxed; give us a moment and we'll lift away from the planet and not resist your tractor beam."
"What is time?" The voice asked.
"Quite," Jeff asked. "Worker, we will key these six rifles to you. You can make more, probably better. If much better we will come back for a thousand."
He started doing that while Irene spoke, "Good to see again Nerre. We're having spitted turkey tonight, an experiment. You ladies are also invited. I see you are no longer bound to here, and of course you, Lenh, can come. Think this, Lenh. You will be mightily bound when you have 300,000 bodies. Finished, Jeff? Good we'll be going now. We'll report back to you, Lenh, where ever you are. I see that will be Hendes I. Tell them to set down some more Trading Posts up from the first, four of them, apart, to start. Goodbye."
Once outside the grove they stood touching, and were lifted up to their ship, which vanished when the bottom bay door shut.
The Worker said, "I'll leave you now, follow your steps back. Thank you for coming, and being such good comrades."
He left with his six rifles. I asked, "Do we leave today, or tomorrow?"
Lenh considered, "We have a few loose ends, the computers, though I expect the Phaeton experts will bring their own. I certainly would. And then we have to say goodbye to the Admiral, defiantly tomorrow, at first light."
Operational Area Hendes I
Chapter Twenty Nine
Captain Tina Belsen
I looked behind First Federation Leader Quisier's head at the meeting of the two rivers and lost focus on him for a moment. Pulling myself back to the saloon and looking him in the eyes I repeated, "I need 300,000 soldiers, 500,000 would be better. I need them in two months. Later they would be involved in a counter attack, not an attack, according to our best guess."
He twisted his chair slightly, leaned forward and poured himself more tea out of a carafe and said, "That's an uplifting view, the rivers, I see you as one and me the other. We will blend. You will get your soldiers, Tina, as many as you like, of a kind you specify, but then you are in trouble."
"I know there's training etc. but beyond that, I don't understand."
"You'll have the whole Universe looking down into your coveralls, no matter how the battle goes, because people don't trust robots, and indirectly the people who make them. Our Workers were a unique response to a unique situation. But even then the Elders limited their number. I can get around their proscriptions by making limited runs of them, and then changing the model to reflect a new skills need. Worst comes to worst we tell the Elders to come back and help."
"You can do that?"
"Yes, only I have a frequency, which I listen to. It sends a carrier tone, so I know they're still there. But we don't want to involve them. They may decide our plan is all wrong, and in five more billion years the ANNU KI will contact a disease, which would make our efforts needless."
I reflected, "There's that danger, no, let’s not involve them. I suppose since you brought the problem up you have a solution, give."
"It's a Universal solution. We ask for volunteers from every planet to be drawn from old soldiers' homes, those terminally ill. The soldier body will have the capability and training, the human, or trusted human like species, provides the spark. It's a one way trip for them, but death, the popular conception anyway, is a one way trip too. The ARK will have to be garrisoned. I haven't spoken to Melin herself, but I gather the ARK will accept its' new passengers once the ANNU KI are gone."
"I gather that too, we'll have to get verification. One attack failed, I'm told, because the method, a big bomb, would have damaged the ARK itself. Some notice will have to be given to that fact when methods are programmed." I insisted. "We will never have another chance to do this right."
Quisier swished his tea carafe, empty, he waved it and the bartender signaled he'd bring another. "There's another calculation our theoreticians have. While time doesn't exist, by definition, near the Void, the massive amount of ships and personnel will cause time to exist in a bubble directly forward from the attacking force. Therefore, they will have to have some method of moving through time, however slight and uneven it will be."
"People who will arrive in a day or two have that capability. They are now near the Void to experiment on how they react to it."
"Their input will be valuable. Also you could, if possible, get Battle Suits from your allies to magnify the individual soldier's capabilities. The internal dimensions of such would make a good starting place."
I wondered, "Are your people ready to go back into space, to the lab?"
"Won't be necessary, everything works on telepathic interfaces, a problem comes up, and Workers handle it."
I smiled, "It seems we have solved all of the problems."
He laughed, "Oh no, here's a list of what we'll need."
He handed me a memory crystal. My combat frequency radio beeped. "Lenh here, within the week, everything on his list, tell him."
"Lenh says, within the week."
"I'll just have to take her at her word. We'll start the specifications after lunch. Let's go for a walk now. It will probably be our only chance."
"I know, let's go see the new Trading Post they put in behind us."
"You're on, make that tea to go, bartender, and don't slip anything into it, must remain on my best game for our charming visitor."
A steep three mile walk later we stood before the Trading Post Irene requested. A fellow and his wife and their two children had agreed to run it. A Med Bay Tech had been ordered. Not for them, the Assault Team, who healed themselves, but for any locals who wandered by. Quisier assured me most of the people left on the planet had been contacted and made aware of the Posts.
We went into the restaurant and he ordered lunch. A young lady said, "There's soup and fresh bread."
He said, "That's fine with me. Can I open an account with you?"
She ran off to ask her mother and came back, "She says that you should come teach us something when we get settled, will you?"
"Anytime after two weeks. Did you get a phone already?"
"No phone."
"Take mine, I have more, call anytime."
A yell from the kitchen said, "Order up." She ran to get it.
With him happily feeding his face I turned my thoughts to my problem. I did not intend to miss the party on the Universe ARK if I had to sprout wings and fly there. Most of the volunteers felt the same way. The question to answer, how did we do it? An armored body suit, a tracked/wheeled vehicle, one inside the other, there must be a way.
I asked Quisier, "Who had the idea for the two person Worker ship?"
"An Elder, who recognized the need, why?"
"Can you or any one of you develop a one or two person small tank, with atmosphere which could function out there?"
"That's not my field, but I'll ask. When I'm done we'll sit on the front porch and decide basic parameters. How I'm going to get a sense of humor, I don't know yet."
"Maybe put on a tail, a short tail."
"I think I'll have a drink from your canteen."
"Here."
"Not bad, will I grow a bulb?"
I swiped at him. "No, but you might include one in your design, comes in handy at times."
"Good thought, I'd calibrate it to pick up snake and ANNU KI, or for that matter, anybody other than its own."
"Now you're starting to cook, go on."
We traded ideas back and forth until the sun started to set. He said he had enough to go on and he'd have the preliminary design in two days. We walked down to his runabout. He said he'd have the mechanic Tech call me.
I went into the Saloon and found Lenh at a table. I joined her.
She reported, "Melin has sent my four ships back. She says we are to pair off and stick to each other. So you'll find a Green Ship parked next to yours in the same orbital pattern."
I put my legs on a free chair, "I m
ay go to the Reg World for a few days, pick up some Battle Suits. I'll probably leave later on."
"Fine with me. Put my green ship in front of you, cuts through space better, you follow."
I teased, "I may run into its rear."
"In that case the Captain volunteered to be the first one on the ARK in a ground digger's body."
The Phone rang that Quisier gave me, a new voice said, "Think ball shaped, three days, we'll talk then."
I put it away. Lenh asked, "A new friend?"
"A design for a two person tank to carry the attackers. He said, think ball shaped."
"Indeed, I will, when will he have something?"
"Three days."
"That's your excuse, get out of here."
I called Nerre' on the tactical radio, "I'm going to go to the Reg World to get Battle Suits. ETA back, three days."
"Good call, give my regards. I hear we're paired to a Green Ship. Don't run over them, Nerre' out."
Lenh scowled, "I heard that. Maybe I'll take you on board sometime. Then you'll know you're talking in a vacuum."
"We'll see." I hit the radio send button, "Skiff crew, we're going up."
We boarded and I floated down to the Bridge and took the Captains chair. "Comm, send to our Green Ship, destination Reg World, maximum speed that we can make, you ahead, according to Lenh."
An hour later, satisfied as to course, on a whim, I went to my console and typed in 'green field around ship to increase speed.' A box at the very right end by the floor opened. I retrieved the three page memo and sat at my desk and read. 'Green screen is an extra drive which collects space in front of the vessel allowing it to move unobstructed. Make sure the drive operator doesn't overload the accumulator capacitors. Page 2 and 3 give exact control board sequence of how to activate. Make sure enough space exists around your vessel.'
I took the instructions to the Drives operators and when they had the sequence I told Comm, "Have them get out of our way. We're activating our green screen."
The leading ship zipped to the left, whereupon we slowed. I said, "Activate."
They caught up about an hour later and called, "We'll be on your tail; you have more thrust. We didn't know."
Greener Green III: Let Light Reign Page 27