by TS Paul
“It shouldn’t be Nestor. Marcus is a fun guy. But then so are William and Bobcat.” Tina really was excited. She had always wanted to work with Marcus. He had taught her so much about orbital mechanics and trajectory targeting when she was younger.
“This Bobcat is Were? He comes from China?” Maxim almost growled the words.
“No, no Maxim. It’s just his nickname that’s all.” Tina cocked her head to one side as she searched her memory. “I think his real name is William something. I can’t remember his last name. Everyone just calls him Bobcat, even the Queen.”
The large Were nodded his head. “Is good.”
“Do any of you need clothes or anything? The train should be here soon.” Yana looked at all of them.
None of the others in the group moved, they all looked at the tall blond girl attentively. This was one group that was actually a unit, leader and all. Their bond had developed early and was holding so far.
“Good. We should go outside then.” Yana led her small team out the large double doors into the main corridor of the Asteroid base. Dozens of pathways like this zigzagged through the base. An invader would be hard pressed to discover the proper way around without a map. Physical maps didn’t exist and were not posted. Why, when you had only to ask aloud, and the base’s E.I. would answer your question.
The people-mover train looked to be the same one as before with Max, the school's maintenance supervisor as the driver. Several of the other groups slowly made their way outside to join Team Alpha standing by the main doors. Many of the other teens carried notebooks and excessive clothing items.
“Should I have brought a coat too?” Ronnie looked over at Yana.
“Only if you wish one. It seems comfortable in here now. There is no ‘outside’ to go to, so it’s up to you.”
Ronnie nodded. “One of my favorite authors calls that ‘Earth think.’ We should adopt it. We don’t belong down there anymore, do we?”
“No, Ron. We don’t.” Tina tapped her chin with a finger, before continuing. “‘Earth think,’ sounds like a good way to explain the differences. Tell me about your favorite authors later. I like to read too.” Ron got the shivers when she smiled at him.
“You kids ready to go?” Max was now standing in front of the train.
—
“Uh, guys? Did you see this?” William held up his tablet for the others. They were hard at work trying to configure one of the Pods so it could hold more than two people. They had made a five-person Pod work, but the boss said she wanted more.
“What is is?” Marcus had his head down and was peering at a notation on the holographic table.
William continued, “Did you forget that today was the first day of class?”
“Hmm, class? What class would that be?” Marcus tried to fine tune the virtual engines for the Pod. Four just wasn’t cutting it. Maybe six?
“The Academy class that will be showing up in about a half hour. Five kids that you are supposed to teach. Remember now?” he asked, without much patience.
“What? Is that today?” Marcus rose up with a jerk. “How many did you say?”
William hit a button on his tablet and stared at it for a moment. “This says five. But it’s for six weeks.”
“Six weeks? That can’t be right. Let me see that.” Marcus reached for the tablet, but William pulled it back.
“Uh, uh. The last time you took mine, it got left behind on the moon! Use your own.”
“Fine.” Marcus jerked out his tablet and called up the information. “No. We don’t have time for this today. Tell them to come back later.”
Bobcat opened a beer and set it on the table. “It doesn’t work that way, and you know it. Don’t worry I have just the thing to keep them busy and out of our way.”
“What?” asked Marcus.
“I’ve got this. Don’t worry about it.” Bobcat smiled to the two of them.
This would kill two birds with one stone.
—
The ride on the train was, as always, one of the best parts of the trip. Every day, the engineers made functional and other safety improvements to the station. Updates on construction were posted often, and everyone was excited to hear they might have a virtual sun inside the base before long.
“We’re almost there guys!” Tina was excited to see her friends again.
“I hope this is everything you say it will be Tina. These guys sound a bit boring.” Maxim had pulled a knife from somewhere and was cleaning his nails, as he spoke.
“It is I promise. It’s not just them. They have a ton of engineers and scientists backing them up. Look at this train. They had a hand in creating it too.” The others looked down at their feet for a moment. The magnetic propulsion train was state-of-the-art.
Ronnie looked around the car and pulled up the video map on his tablet. They had passed through the main part of the asteroid, stopping numerous times to drop off groups of kids. According to the map only the engineering, and BMW areas were left. Even now he could feel the train starting to slow down.
“This must be the Engineering area.” Ronnie peered out of the window of the car. “It looks like Delta team gets to work with them this session.”
“Engineering would be cool. My mom said they are building the interior of the base as well as working in the shipyard.”
“Do they fly around in space with jetpacks?” Nestor peered out of the window too.
Tina looked at him funny. “I don’t know. They might. We will find out in six weeks according to the schedule. So unless Delta tells us…”
“Cool.” The older boy sat back down with a smile to find the others watching him. “I read about it in a comic book.”
They all felt a slight movement as the train resumed motion. Their stop was next!
“Tina, have you been where we are going?”
“I have, but not for several months. I’ve known Marcus for years. William and Bobcat are like brothers from another mother the way they act. When we lived on the old Space Station, I saw them almost every day. But since we moved here I’ve been busy with school and helping to take care of the littles.”
“You worked in the nursery?” Yana looked over at her friend.
“Yep. In the beginning, they needed lots of help. Since the Queen opened us up to immigration, there are plenty of certified day care people now for the center.”
“Does it worry you that the wrong sort of individuals might get up here? I mean, spies are everywhere in Russia. What keeps them from coming up here too?” Nestor stared at Tina.
She answered, “Nestor, I know you would be able to sniff out anything with that nose of yours, right? The Queen has people who do the same sort of thing with other senses. We are safe here.”
Yana put her hand on Nestor’s arm. “If I can trust these people, you can too. You know what the Cheka would do to me.”
Tina looked puzzled, “You keep mentioning the Cheka, Yana. Who are they?”
Yana made a spitting noise. “They are Russian secret police. They were known as KGB many years ago and NVA now. Evil, evil men. They have hunted my family for almost a hundred years. Romanovka was our last refuge. We were moved so many times I lost count. My mother was not so lucky as I.”
“Why? Why hunt you down? You’re just a kid like us,” she asked.
“Politics, hatred, status maybe? Hunt down the unreachable. My family has a claim to the throne of Russia. Is a moot point now. Part of something else. Something better. As you say, that is Earth think now.” Yana stared out the window.
Tina laid her hand on her friend's arm. “I’m sorry Yana. Sorry about your mother. Does that make you a princess?”
Maxim began to laugh. “She could be a queen if she wanted to, even we know that. That option is gone now.”
Yana spoke, “He’s right about that option being gone now. We abdicated and swore fealty to a new Queen, a more powerful one. Earth and Russia are no longer my destiny.”
The train began to slow
down again. “This looks like our stop. Time to go to school.”
CHAPTER SIX
“Are you sure this is the place?” Ronnie looked at the simple door cut into the rock wall. He had been outside of All Guns Blazing, it was garish and loud. This was just a door without any signs or names on it.
Tina shrugged, “I’ve been here before. Bobcat calls this his lair, so I guess they want it to be secret?”
The five kids stood outside of an unassuming plain metal door. Max had dropped them off telling them to “go on in.”
“Do we just go in?” Yana looked at Tina. She claimed to have been here before.
“Sure. Come on.” Tina opened the door and stepped inside. The door opened to a smallish room that only contained another door and a scanner station. It was blinking on and off. The device was brand new to Tina’s eyes, and she didn’t know what to do now.
“Problems?”
“Sorry Yana. That wasn’t here last time. Maybe they have a doorbell?” None of them could see a button.
Nestor called out to the E.I., “Meredith? Can you tell the BMW team we are here?” Everyone turned to stare at him.
“Certainly Nestor. Thank you for asking.”
Seeing the looks, he held out his hands in supplication. “What? You are the ones that said the E.I. knows everything.”
“We did. But we didn’t think you were listening.” Tina grinned at the boy.
A loud BOOM echoed through the door causing everyone to jump just a bit. The scanner lights changed from red to green as the door opposite opened.
“Hello, Tina. Who are your friends?” A man in what looked like military fatigues stepped into the room.
“Hi, Bobcat! This is my new team from the Academy,” she pointed to everyone as she introduced them, “Yana, Ronnie, Nestor, and Maxim.”
Bobcat nodded to all the new interns and smiled. “We aren’t quite ready for you inside at the moment. Marcus is working on a delicate systems drawing that requires his constant attention. However, I have a project you can get started on that should make the time pass rather quickly.”
Waving his hand over the scanner causing the door to open.
Peering at the flashing lights, Ronnie looked sharply at Bobcat. “Biometric?”
Bobcat shook his head, “Not anymore. We had a few problems with unannounced visitors, and some of the enhanced folk don’t have fingerprints anymore. The scanners work on both DNA and computer monitoring. Meredith double checks all entrants just in case. All of you have had your DNA entered into the system as part of your enrollment testing. Not every system door will open to you, but as you progress in your education that will be updated too.” He led them through the large door.
The door led to a ‘T’ intersection of unmarked doors and hallways, he pointed down one. “Down there is the access to ‘All Guns Blazing,’ our bar. You are all underage so that door won’t open for you. Back the other way, are the workshops and our manufacturing area. We will go that way later, but for now, you will be working in the office section.”
The offices were a quartet of doors along one wall. On the other wall was a small kitchenette complete with Alcoholic vending machines. “Those are off-limits too. My office is down there at the end. William and Marcus have these offices.” Bobcat pointed to the doors in the middle.
The last door was where he led them. As he opened the door, he spoke. “This is the project I have for you.”
File cabinets lined one wall as well as three large piles of boxes. A table with chairs stood in the middle of the room. Scanners and computer input devices were set up and looked ready to use.
“The job I have for you is simple. Input the files and contents of the boxes into the system. Super easy.”
Yana looked at the boxes, there must have been over thirty of them. “All of these?”
Bobcat looked around, “Sure. This is all stuff from before we came up here and went entirely digital. Research notes, a few blueprints and sketches, tech diagrams, and all the mathematical equations. We couldn’t leave it at any of the bases safely but haven’t transferred it yet. It should keep you busy. Have fun.” He left contact information and directions to the bathroom facilities.
Yana turned to stare at Tina who looked a bit down and mumbled, “That was a bit uncool of him.”
Yana nodded, “You think so? We might as well see what we need to do. Maxim, can you bring one of those boxes over here?” The large Were grabbed a box like it weighed nothing and set it on the table.
It may have been a file box, but it was filled to the brim with loose paper. Ronnie peered into the box. “Are all of them like this? This could take forever!”
“He did say they were busy in the labs. It’s just busy work.” Frustrated, Tina grabbed a handful and began to sort it.
Nestor shook his head. “They should be more prepared for students. It’s school after all.”
“Marcus can be a little scatterbrained when he’s working. The three of them have been at the forefront of TQB technical developments. The Queen trusts them. We should too.” Tina looked at her friends.
“If you say so.” Ronnie sat down at one of the terminals, “I trust you, Tina.”
The rest of the day was spent pouring over the many notes and diagrams. One box was what appeared to be bets and payoffs.
“Should we even record this stuff?” Ronnie held up a sheaf of papers, “It looks like the results of betting who would grab a hot piece of metal first.”
“They like both jokes and betting here. Set it aside, we can ask Bobcat about it.” Tina took the papers and glanced at them with an audible sigh.
“What does electrogravitic propulsion mean? Is it the properties that make the Pods go?” Maxim held up a sheet of paper.
“Ooo, that may be some of the original research work. What else does it say?” Tina tried to look at the paper he was holding.
“Something about ‘Project Winterhaven’ and using electrostatic energy sources coupled with a form of gravitic energy to produce lift in saucer shaped craft,” he answered. “Did this come from TOM?”
Ronnie spoke as he looked at his own handful of papers, “Project Winterhaven is a catch phrase for secret projects the US Government did in the 1950s using Tesla technology along with some stuff stolen from the Russians, to build their own version of flying saucers. Or at least according to some groups on the internet.”
He looked up to see everyone staring at him. “What? Secret societies and aliens are sort of a hobby of mine, sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry, Ron. It’s a good hobby to have. We are in space after all and The Queen knows an alien.” Yana smiled at him.
“Good work Ron.” Tina beamed at him which gave him goosebumps all over. It was only later that he realized they all called him Ron instead of Ronnie.
—
“Eight engine points along with an extra generator is what we need to make the ten passenger pod function the same as the others. TOM agrees that more power is better than less. What do you two think?” Marcus looked up from his calculations at the holo table.
“Uh, what did you say?” William was staring at his tablet making notes on a piece of paper.
“What are you doing?” Marcus pointed to the paper.
“Making notes. Why?”
“Do it on the tablet, please. We already have an entire room filled with hard copy research. Don’t make more of it! What do you think of the Pod?” Marcus pointed toward the hologram.
“I like it. According to my figures,” William held up the paper. “We should be able to make the shell here in the fabrication shop. It’s four times as big, but we can save material here, here, and here by using those new composites they cooked up by accident in Jean’s area. It will save on weight, too.”
“Why worry about that? The extra engines we are placing will lift a chunk of metal the size of...of… a jumbo jet.”
“Call it material cost then. You forget I’m used to dealing with cheapskates like Bobcat.�
�� William pointed with his thumb toward the man in question.
Bobcat looked up from his own work, “Hey! I resemble that remark.”
Marcus raised his eyebrows and laughed. “Forget about cost. These are for the Queen. Those composites look good, and we can use them for some of the other projects. What were they making that created them?” Marcus squinted at William’s tablet over his shoulder.
“Jean wouldn’t say. Some sort of armor I think. We would have to test it, but that might be good for re-plating the older spacecraft.”
“Pass that off to the captains and shipbuilding. We don’t need another project dumped on us. Say, what happened to those kids?” Marcus looked between his two brothers-in-arms.