by Tony Teora
Karr, who was now on a first-name basis with Major Mahan, could see the benefit of the plan, but had to admit to himself this would put her in firing range of the laser cannons. Manpower made the point that, because the Aurora was such a huge ship, it would be the main target of the infected scientists. Plus, the small recon stealth scout would be harder to target. The scout, although small, was very fast and had been refurbished with advanced stealth shielding. Theoretically, it should be hard to find—but that still did not sit well with Karr.
Karr had a meeting in his cabin scheduled to discuss plans with Melissa and he somehow felt this might be a good time enjoy some time with her. He had taken a real liking to her, and as that thought ran through Jeffrey Karr’s head, so did his loud stateroom buzzer.
Karr walked to the door and opened it. To his delight, Melissa was standing there with her auburn hair looking like it’d just been showered. Her petite, slim body stood almost at attention, and Karr could have sworn he saw her nipples perking out of her outfit. She had to be wearing a bra under her fatigues—didn’t she? Karr thought there was a regulation about woman officers wearing bras, but he wasn’t sure. Some of the new bras were so thin, it didn’t even matter anyhow. Karr just stared and smiled, losing track of time. Melissa smiled back, smelling like a sweet rose garden.
Melissa spoke: “So Captain, are you going to let me come in, or do you plan on having me stand in the hallway until I complete some kind of secret code?”
“The only code is that you must call me ‘Jeffrey’ in my state-room.”
“Heard you were a Scientia Sodalitas, Jeffrey. Thought the code would be a little more complicated,” said Melissa, sauntering into the stateroom. “What does ‘Scientia Sodalitas’ even mean?”
“It’s a fraternity is all I know. Good question. I’ll ask my editor when I get back to Earth and start writing my big hit Space Navy novels.”
Melissa laughed. “Jeffrey, you—a writer?”
“Sure, why not? They say military men make great writers. Did you know that science fiction great, Robert A. Heinlein, served time in the Navy?”
“He did?”
“Yep, and so did a few others.”
“Well, I hope your story has a good ending, and I hope things fare well on Kabbalah. I suspect dead men write poor novels.”
“I agree,” said Karr soberly. “Please take a seat so that we can focus on first things first.”
Melissa sat on a black sofa. Karr walked over and sat on a smaller, leather two-seater chair and stared across at Melissa. “Would you like JoJo, or tea, or something? I can have a steward bring something.”
Melissa looked over at the counter and saw a bottle of 2041 Amarone Della Valpolicella . She smiled. “I guess being a captain does have some advantages. That’s at least a $5,000 bottle of wine you have up there. Where’d you get that?”
“Some of the decent Amarones now go for $20,000 dollars, although dollars are not as strong as they used to be. I changed my dollars into credits years ago. I got that bottle on a trip to Novus California. It’s a great wine.”
“Oh,” said Melissa, smiling wide, her pink lipstick shining with enthusiasm. “Mmm …” Melissa puckered up her lips.
Karr gave an embarrassed smile. “My apologies. Would the lady like a glass of wine?”
“Why, I’d love one, Jeffrey.”
Captain Jeffrey Ozias Karr poured two glasses of wine, thinking that Melissa looked stunning and sexy. He knew he was in big trouble.
“Here’s some wine for DARPA’s smartest pilot in the Galaxy. Cheers!”
Melissa took a sip and then another. She smiled. “Wow, this is good!”
“I agree. Okay, so let’s get down to business. I’d like to hear about your plans to use the scout.”
Melissa fiddled with her hair, twisting it. “Jeffrey, I don’t want to sound funny, but I heard Manpower filled you in earlier and I know he doesn’t miss anything. We all do, but I don’t think there’s much more I can elaborate on. And, frankly speaking, I’d prefer to relax and talk about something other than work. I’d even like to hear your ideas on becoming a writer. I could really use the off-time to recharge.”
Karr sipped his drink and smiled. “I’ll drink to that Melissa. Recharging is important. So tell me, what are your plans when we get back to Earth?”
“Well … I was thinking that I’d like to take a vacation with this Space Navy Captain that I know.”
Karr’s heart sank. Did Melissa have a boyfriend that he didn’t’ know about? That would make sense. She was gorgeous, and as a pilot in DARPA, she could date a Navy Captain without there being a chain-of-command issue. Was she joking? “Oh, that’s great, I’m sure you two would have a great time. I always love a vacation after these long trips. Where are you two planning to go?”
Melissa laughed. “Jeffrey, I thought we could take a trip together to Hawaii and do some snorkeling, fishing, and maybe even some nude sunbathing—that is, of course, if you’d like to join me for that kind of adventure. And of course, that assumes we all make it out alive tomorrow.”
Karr’s heart pounded. Although Melissa was smart, pretty and a DARPA officer, she still had that directness that was somehow built into really intelligent women. And that was refreshing. Karr smiled and held up his now mostly empty glass: “Melissa, cheers! I’d be honored to take a trip with you after we get out of here.”
Melissa and Jeffrey touched glasses and drank their wine. Melissa moved next to Karr on his couch. She looked at him, her face only an inch or so away. Her sweet, rose-laden perfume flooded his senses. Her breasts bounced braless under her clothes. She smiled seductively. “Why don’t we start our vacation today?”
Karr’s heart picked up its pace. He looked at Melissa. Her hazel eyes sucked him in like a vacuum cleaner on turbo. He leaned over and kissed her. Her soft lips numbed his senses. “The lady is on vacation,” said Karr softly.
Melissa reached over and kissed him back, a little harder, and then let go. “I feel like I’m in Hawaii already, but the service at this table is really slow. I think my drink’s empty. Where’s our waiter?” said Melissa, holding her now-empty glass up in the air and inspecting it.
“Waiter!” yelled Karr, standing up. “The lady needs a drink.”
Karr walked over and brought the bottle to the table and filled both glasses. He enjoyed serving someone so pretty. He and Melissa then talked about his dreams of becoming a writer, and Melissa talked about how she wanted to have a son and daughter but wanted to work on terrestrial DARPA work. Jeffrey jokingly agreed to stay home with the kids if his first book sold.
They laughed and drank for almost a half hour before heading to the captain’s bed. Karr was right—Melissa wasn’t wearing a bra! Melissa’s body didn’t have an ounce of fat; she worked out hard at the gym, harder than most Marines. Her curves were all tight, and she kissed Karr all over. The woman was an animal.
Karr hadn’t had sex like that in more than a year, and that experience had cost him a bundle, as it was during a trip with friends to Las Vegas. Although not officially a hooker, the girl he’d met in a bar had cleaned him out by showing him the town. He’d gotten drunk and bet half a month’s salary in the casinos. But the girl was great in bed, which softened the financial blow. It always does, thought Karr. But Melissa was even better, and because he really liked her, and because she had killer body, Karr’s mind was lost.
After finishing up, Karr slept the best he’d done in years, and after a couple hours of sleep, Melissa got dressed and quietly left. Karr awoke a half hour later and ordered some hot JoJo coffee. He drank it slowly, thinking that life didn’t get any better than this. That feeling was soon drowned out by a steward banging on the door to inform him that Engineering had discovered some new information on Kabbalah. Thoughts of love had to wait for plans of war to finish.
***
Ace and Ivan met Professor Mendez and Hiro at the robotics lab. They stood admiring the various weaponized robots and sma
ll, pilotless drones. One of the newer robots was built from the recent robot parts acquired on Kabbalah.
Professor Cheryl Mendez—a young, tall, blond, curvaceous woman—looked at the strange robot and tried to hold back a smile. “So, please tell Big Gun Ace Archer and Ivan Putsky your ideas on how you’re going to control this recon ‘robot’.”
Hiro, a tall, fifth-generation Japanese engineer, stared at Cheryl and at Ace, blushing slightly. He was still angry at the credits he’d lost in the battle with Ace and Krill, but Cheryl was hitting a sensitive bone, and that bothered him more than the lost credits. He felt the heat of embarrassment rising to his cheeks, but knew the mission was important.
“I didn’t have much time, so I took some parts from a state-of-the-art gaming system, and well … I figured out how to connect this to a repaired version of our tin-man from Kabbalah. I had to extract some of the brain matter and neural chips out of his head— and since he was pretty shot up, I had to fabricate some parts and use some spares from the other robot you guys brought back … I added a robotic controller that will allow me or anyone to enter the robot’s body via a virtual body suit. For all intents and purposes, I’ll be him, but I’ll be remotely controlling him from my lab in a room with sensors.”
“You sure you can control this thing? What kind of ‘robotic controller’ and gaming system you talkin’ about?” asked Ace.
“Ah … it’s just a new gaming system …” Hiro hesitated.
Ivan picked up a tefskin sensor and looked at the manufacturer’s name. “Genki Game?” he asked, smiling. “Good game, invented in Russia.”
Hiro pulled the part out of Ivan’s hand and slammed it down on the table. “It was invented in Japan, not Russia you id—ah, forget it. A Russian company hacked and stole the original designs. But that doesn’t matter. I was doing some advanced studies on remote body controllers and I picked one up from a Japanese firm called Genki Ecchi Corporation.”
Professor Mendez chuckled.
“Genki Ecchi?” asked Ace, knowing the Japanese words. Genki meant “happy” and ecchi, loosely translated, meant “sexy” or “sex urge.” He laughed, thinking of what the Japanese must have thought of a company called “Happy Sex Urge Incorporated.” It was something only the Japanese could get away with.
Cheryl answered: “It’s a sex gaming company, based on a perfectly functioning robotic woman called Mika. Isn’t that correct, Hiro?”
Hiro thought the room was getting uncomfortably warm. “It’s purely for research. Some of the best technologies come from that industry,” he huffed.
Ace grinned. “I really don’t care where you got the controller. All I care about is, will it work? I don’t want this getting discovered—at least not until we get deep into the base. I want to sneak in, sabotage it, and blow it up.”
“I tested this in the ship and simulated the signal loss. As long as there’s no interference, I should be able to operate as Mr. Boss Robot and even pass along phony comm-check signals. The robots appear to use a uniquely coded device in their heads the size of a golf ball. It’s their key into other systems and I believe even parts of the underground city—”
“Underground city? What are you talking about? Did you confirm the Dream Land base?” asked Ace, thinking that had to be the reason for Operation Clean Sweep.
“I translated some of the alien robot codes and got a few sketchy vids. Looks like there’s a small city underneath GEN-6.”
“Underground city? Shit. Is it a military base?”
“Oh yes. I just informed the captain that this looks like a Dream Land base. Hank Kumar, poor soul, discovered it before he was killed. He had the computers decoding a lot of the data cube storage devices. Some had maps, and it looks like either BOT or the crazies are building some kind of underground weapon within Dream Land.”
“More fuckin’ trouble. No wonder the captain’s orders are to put a bomb below the base. We’ll definitely need to get into that underground compound and take care of Dream Land. So how do you think we should use these robots, Ivan?” asked Ace.
Ivan walked up to a robot. “We need explosives. Russia solve many problems with big explosives.”
Hiro gave a frustrated grunt. “Guys, hear me out first before start talking about blowing shit up. You need to understand how these robots work. I believe these alien robots have a ranking system. We got lucky with this one; I think it’s a master level, Rank One, kinda like you being a Sergeant in the Marines.”
Ace looked annoyed. “I’m a Marine captain, otherwise known as a ‘Major’ on a Space Navy vessel. But I got it. Anything else?”
“Sorry, Major, I’m not good with military ranks and all the crazy rules. Well, sir, this robot appears to be the highest on the food chain, except for one called a ‘Davar’. I found some communications to this Davar, but I’m not sure if it is a main computer operating system or just one robot. In any case, I should have access to the underground city just because of the transponder type codes being sent.”
“I want to enter suit,” said Ivan. “Real suit.”
“What?” asked Hiro, looking at Ivan as if he had eaten his boot.
“Give me Halloween costume. I want to go with alien bot, be partner with me and Yogi. Close control, no jamming.”
Hiro’s mouth dropped open like a large bluefin tuna spitting out a fish hook. “Are you nuts? That underground base is filled with crazies and alien bots.”
“I can control bot, close by. No signal problem. I help destroy base.”
Hiro thought for a second. “I have more parts, and I guess could create something that looks like a robot … a suit … I can also give you a transponder. It could work, but if you’re discovered, you’ll be in a rat’s nest.”
“I live in rat’s nest.”
Ace shook his head. “Give me a second with Ivan. I want to talk.” Ace and Ivan walked into a nearby conference room and wrote ideas on a holo-screen. Fifteen minutes later, they came back with a plan for Ivan and his robot partner to enter into Dream Land. They’d wire up the underground Dream Land base while Ace made preparations to take out GEN-6.
Ace fired up the plan. “Okay, Hiro, Ivan and I are going back to GEN-6 and I want Mr. Robot to be aboard one of the shuttles with Ivan. I may need you dirtside if there’s a signal problem. You can control Mr. Robot while Ivan figures out how to take out Dream Land. If the signal drops, Ivan can control him locally.”
“Dirtside, sir?”
“Yeah, dirtside. You gotta a problem helping out our men dirtside?”
“Ah, no sir—yes, if the signal doesn’t work well from the shuttle’s orbit, it will be much better dirtside. I can bring a controller kit designed for camping. Genki Ecchi makes one for the road … not really sure why, but—”
“Take whatever equipment you need and get it ready. We’re leaving tomorrow at 1600. Wakata ka?”
“I’m sorry, sir, what did you say there at the end there?”
Cheryl smirked. “He said, ‘Do you understand?’ in Japanese.”
“Oh, yes sir, understood,” said Hiro, not feeling well and wishing he’d studied his distant relative’s language of Japanese.
“Good, see you tomorrow.”
Hiro watched as Ace and Ivan left. Going dirtside would not be good. It was rumored that Kabbalah was an alien hornet’s nest, and he was going to be in the mixer. Maybe Cheryl would be impressed? Or maybe he’d just get killed? He tried to calm those fears by thinking of the potential fruits of his bravery. He just hoped that Cheryl and Ace didn’t see just how scared he really was. They would land in less than an hour.
***
Kiya looked at the pale grey alien. The facial movements ceased and the telepathic presence slowly faded away like a drop of ink in a large lake. The energy faded, but Kiya couldn’t leave just yet. She caressed the alien’s oversized head. It was ugly on the outside, but she’d seen things on the inside that spoke of intelligence, elegance, clarity, and even beauty.
The inform
ation it’d passed changed Kiya. She saw a purpose in life, but she also saw evil. The beings at GEN-6 were cold, intelligent predators. No thought for compassion, no understanding of a shared purpose, only a singular function to expand, control, learn, and destroy anything in the way.
Kiya gently rested the dead alien’s head on the floor and proceeded out toward the reactor. A telepathic link told her someone was waiting for her.
***
Jimbo lay slumped over in the reactor room, looking dead as a fried catfish who accidentally chewed on a 20,000 volt underground power line. The radiation in the reactor room was lethal to humans—but Jimbo wasn’t exactly human. Jimbo’s body was built with human-looking, cloned tissue. That “tissue” was filled with nano-sized miniature machines. Those machines were many times smaller than blood cells. And although susceptible to radiation, they worked in a sophisticated network to repair compromised systems where possible.
The radiation initially shut down most of Jimbo’s core biological systems, but those nano-machines worked in a backup mode to keep Jimbo’s brain alive. They stored his memories and thought algorithms in a radiation-protected environment. Then the machines focused on fixing the body’s internal systems. Humans were essentially nothing more than a set of systems working together in harmony.
Jimbo was not aware of the forces at work, and even with his advanced degree in engineering, the full explanation would take years of study in new fields of science. But in essence, Jimbo’s cells were morphing into ones that used the radiation for energy. Jimbo could thank the engineers and scientists at the secret Falcon Advanced Research Facility (FAR). FAR was a top-secret, hidden military base built up in the mountains in Mount Laguna, California. A couple of years back, when Jimbo was just about dead, the best of the best put him back together. They used all the latest technologies, compliments of favors owed to Jimbo’s old man, who was an Admiral at Earth Command.