by Unknown
“Your engineers were more advanced than you thought,” he said. “What you have here is an advanced propulsion system for this ship that was built but never completed.”
“It is usable?” one of the men asked.
“Very much so,” Pike said going over the schematics again. “It’s crude, but it will work,” he said. Then he punched his communicator.
Captain Dickson had just completed a tour of the Lexington for his counterpart and had been discussing the rest of the trip. He had planned on returning to Thera that afternoon, and then shuttling back and forth as needed for the next few days. He had been a little surprised to find his engineering section manned by a skeleton crew as they had continued the tour. But the duty officer had explained that Commander Pike had summoned a working detail to do some work on the engines of the Antheran ship. He was interrupted in his meeting by a communication from Pike himself.
“What is it Chris?” the Captain asked.
“Captain, I would like to request you and the Antheran Captain come aboard their ship. We’ve made some discoveries that I think you will find useful.”
Dickson looked at the Captain who nodded in agreement. “We will beam directly to engineering,” he said.
“It would be better if you met me on the bridge, Captain.”
“Very well,” the captain said with a little surprise. “We will meet you there shortly. Dickson out.”
The two men materialized in the command center of the Antheran ship, and were surprised to find it fully manned by both Antherans and Lexington crewmen. All of the systems were engaged and operating. Even the captain of the Antheran ship was impressed. “I don’t think I have ever seen all this operating,” he said.
Pike stepped forward. “No sir, you haven’t. It seems the original engineers were making improvements as they made their first voyage and had developed a new drive system, hoping they could finish and test it out after arriving at their new home. Unfortunately, they never got the chance. The one critical item they needed, they didn’t have. Fortunately, we have an abundance of it.
“What material was this Commander?” Dickson asked.
“Centirium, sir,” came the reply. Centerium had been one of the new elements formed in the vacuum of space that had allowed the Earth to transition beyond light speed.
Dickson’s eyes opened wide. “You mean to say this is a transpace drive ship?”
“It wasn’t built that way, but they installed the systems. I reviewed the logs and the chief engineer was in the process of asking for permission to manufacture Centerium, or explore for it naturally just before they arrived. But the leadership wasn’t interested and had other plans. It was never completed,” he said.
“What will it take to get the ship ready?” the Antheran Captain asked.
Pike smiled. “Your permission, Captain.”
Dickson saw it coming and was trying to maintain his composure. This would make things much easier and help the Therans progress even more. He turned to his counterpart. “I recommend you give it a try Captain. I feel certain my people will make sure things go well,” he said.
Obviously, the Antheran was out of his depth. Centerium? What is this thing, he wondered. But the Alliance people seemed sure of themselves, and they had far more experience with these things than he did. He turned to Pike and said, “Granted.”
Pike tapped his communicator. “Pike to Thompson. It’s been approved.”
“Very well Chris. Is the Captain there?”
“I’m here, Number One. I take it you plan on being an escort for this experiment?”
“Yes sir. I will stand by to come in just in case,” he said. “We will also provide deflector coverage, since the Antherans hadn’t thought of that one yet.”
“Make it so, Number One. Dickson out.” Then he turned to Pike.
“Sir, I recommend you advise all the ship’s inhabitants to sit on the floor or the ground, in case this gets a little bumpy,” he said.
The captain nodded and made the announcement. They could hear it echoing through the ship.
Pike then turned to the crew. “Ok guys, let’s take this nice and easy,” he said reassuringly. “Initiate core intermix. Let’s see if she’ll form a staging field.”
The Alliance and Antheran crewmen began pushing buttons and the controls began to light up. Outside the ship, doors opened and two cylinders about one third of the length of the ship extended from the main support mountings and began to glow a bright blue as the Centerium energy flux began to surge through the plasma conduits. Emitters were also extended to regulate the staging field, and in the core, the temperatures began to climb. Pike had siphoned off one metric ton of Centerium from the Lexington engines, which now completely filled the reservoir on the Antheran ship.
Pike watched as the first Centerium reached the cracking chamber and reacted with the matter within. The controlled energy release was then transferred through plasma conduits to the two pods. The staging field immediately began to form, and with the increase of Centerium flow, completely enveloped the ship. Pike then ordered the shield systems up and then began to increase the speed.
The ship had been traveling at stage point 9. With the staging field in place and the energy to the propulsion systems, the Antheran ship accelerated past the speed of light. Inside the ship, there was a little buffeting as the inertial dampers adjusted themselves, but the crew stared in awe as the stars began to speed by. Soon the ship was at stage two. Then stage three, finally settling at stage four. Pike scanned all the readings and smiled at his captain.
“Maintaining stage four, sir,” he said with a grin.
Dickson nodded to Pike and turned to his counterpart. “Captain, welcome to the Twenty Fourth Century,” he said with a smile.
For the rest of the morning, the Antheran ship flexed its new muscles with Lexington riding herd.
The first group to get to their destination was Major Desti and the natives in his group. They came to the same clearing that Mike had been to the day before and began monitoring the patrols and breaking out the materials they had brought. Desti also unpacked the box he had been carrying the evening before and walked a short distance into the woods. There, he opened the front and pulled out an antenna, attaching it to a small receptacle on the top. Then he glanced at the dials and switches on the face and turned the power on. The self contained batteries warmed up the vacuum tubes inside and he took out a small microphone and began to speak. After a few minutes, he turned off the power, replaced the antenna and microphone and repacked the equipment. He then joined the rest and watched as the next patrol passed exactly 15 minutes after the last one. The natives had settled into their places of concealment and some were even munching on some nuts and berries they had picked along the way. Beside him, the explosives and detonators lay ready for use. Desti was fully briefed on explosives, but the small container Hadaie had given him didn’t look to be very much. He shrugged the thoughts off and reached into his pocket for a ration bar. If the natives could do it…..
Colonel Leftin and his group made it to the road near where the wrecked truck was hidden in the trees. When they arrived, they watched as the daily convoy passed their position, going toward the town. There were only eleven trucks in this convoy, which determined where he and the natives would wait that afternoon. Mike sat alone further from the men as they entered the back of the truck and found uniform items to dress in. Rokka and Jim Ramey were busy helping each man to select the proper size and fit. Much of their plan depended on Mike, and he knew it. He would be the reason for the convoy to stop that afternoon. He would be the one to get them inside. Then once he was inside, it was up to him to find and get with Timothy. The magnitude of the operation was only now hitting him. Leftin watched Mike for a few minutes as he sat and thought to himself. Once again, he had seen it before. Just before going into an action, it was the leadership that was faced with the gravity of each situation. Because of what they would do or tell others to do, some of the p
eople might not get home. Or worse, none of them would get back. The troops didn’t have that worry. They followed orders. So all they had to worry about was making sure they didn’t get their tail shot off. He chuckled to himself with that thought. Yes, Mike was one of those born leaders. He didn’t know he was, but if he were lucky, he would never really have the chance to know. It’s best to just be one, he thought.
Colonel Leftin got up and walked over to Mike and placed his hand on his shoulder. “Yea, I always worry just before we start something,” he said.
Mike looked up at him with some surprise. “How did you know?” he asked.
The Colonel crooked his head to one side. “Been there and done that,” he said. “Never fails. I sit there and worry about what might go wrong. Between the guys I might be going up against and what my own people might do, I would watch my own hair fall out,” he said running his hand through a thick mass of speckled hair.
Mike caught the joke and smiled. He could feel the tension ease some. “And how did you handle it?” he asked.
“Well,” the Colonel said standing back up, “I remembered all the planning and hard work that had gone into our training and the set up for this mission,” he said. “Remember, we have thought this through with some detail. We have studied each aspect and have made plans accordingly. Between Major Desti and me, we have over 40 years of experience in doing this kind of thing. And you and your people have a far greater knowledge of the equipment and those people than I ever had. Besides, I don’t think they could even hurt Hadaie, much less kill him,” he said with a grin. “So we are in control of this situation as best as we can be. About the only thing I don’t know about is what these natives will do,” he said gesturing to the men jumping around trying to put on clothing they weren’t used to. “But I wouldn’t want to go up against them with those blow guns without a battalion to back me up. So I guess we’ll do okay despite them.” The Colonel then walked back toward the Chief to help instruct the men in how to put the uniforms on.
Mike thought about what the Colonel had said. Then he got up and joined him in explaining to the men what a zipper was and how they used it.
Hadaie had left the men and walked another half mile up the road to the green painted junction box beside the road. Examining the box, he quickly found the padlocked door and, using a crowbar, twisted off the lock. Inside was a maze of wires for the buried telephone system and other communications leading to Brana’s base. Hadaie quickly pulled out a small pouch of explosives from his pocket. Placing the putty like substance behind the circuit boards holding the connections, he then attached a small electronic device to the putty and activated it. Then he closed the box, making sure nothing looked as if it had been tampered with, and replaced the lock, bending it so that it looked as if it hadn’t been opened. This done, he re-entered the jungle and made his way back to the others. The whole thing had lasted only a few minutes.
Josen and Panor were sitting beside the Catalina, totally disgusted that they were left behind. Mike’s reasons were true enough. They were the ones that knew how to fly the plane. But that didn’t help the way they felt. Once again, their father and Mike had all the fun while they sat back twiddling their thumbs. They had already pulled in the camouflage netting and stowed it in the tail. The tanks were full and the batteries charged. They had even completed the task of hand turning the engines over so that the seals were well oiled and the cylinders lubricated. In the space of a few minutes the Catalina could be airborne and coming to the rescue. But in the mean time, they had nothing to do but wait.
Neither man talked to the other. There wasn’t much to say. After lunch, Panor began looking around for something to do. He began going through the plane looking for things they might have forgotten. His thoughts turned to the guns.
“I was just thinking,” he finally said to Josen. “What would happen if they started shooting at us?”
“They’ll make little holes in us,” came the disgusted reply.
“Then I guess it would be a good thing to get these things ready so we can make some little holes of our own,” Panor said.
Josen looked as if a light bulb had gone off in his head. He straightened up and started climbing into the blister. “I know where he put those bullets,” he said reaching into the rear hatch and dragging out a large metal box.
The guns were clean and well oiled, but the men hadn’t paid that much attention to them. That changed when they opened the first box. There, in a continuous link belt, were the bullets to make the little holes. Only these bullets would make great big holes. They had known the machine guns would fire bullets, but not bullets this big. They and their cartridges were huge. The Lexington crewmen had even thought of putting instructions for the care and feeding of a .50 caliber machine gun in the ammunition boxes. It took both the men to lift the ammunition box into its holder and then they fed the belt of ammunition into the gun and loaded it, careful to feed the round into the gun, but not chamber it. They then turned and did the same for the gun on the opposite side in the blister. One by one, they loaded up each weapon and prepared the plane for battle. The final gun loaded was the .30 caliber machine gun in the nose of the plane. This was a tight fit, but they managed. By the time they were through, it was mid afternoon. As the two men sat down again, they were both thinking the same thing. It’s going to start any time now.
Jo had spent all day going over the last minute details for the program, which would start at 7 that evening. Her dresses were ready, the orchestra had been rehearsed and the stage people had assured her that everything was ready for both the sound and the lighting. Extra security had been laid on to make sure no one would interfere with the concert. Already the television trucks were in place and the cables from them linked to the cameras that would broadcast the concert live. Sharon Ramey had told her to take a short nap so that she would be refreshed for the evening. Jo had finally given in and left word for her to be awakened in no more than an hour.
As she lay down on the bed, she looked over again at the picture of Mike and Timothy. Their smiles were the ones she had known and felt secure with. The same worries and fears crept back into her thoughts – the ones she had tried so desperately to force aside. Would she see those smiles again? Would she feel her husband’s arms around her, holding her and making her feel so warm? Would he ever dance with her again? She let out a sigh, as she lay alone on her bed. There would be no nap this afternoon.
Timothy was really enjoying helping Corporal Tanea work in the base motorpool. The Corporal had been his guard for the whole time he had been there. During that time, the Corporal had grown to like the little foreign kid. Tanea had received permission to take the boy on some of his other duties and to let him help out, especially when working on motorized vehicles, his passion.
Today they had removed the valves from an engine and Timothy had gotten the chance to see the insides. It had amazed him that he could watch the pistons move as the Corporal had turned the drive shaft. He could even see some burned places on the piston heads where the fire from the gasoline had made the explosion.
Tanea watched with pleasure as Timothy’s little eyes lit up at the new knowledge. Tanea had lost his wife and a son during childbirth, something that happened too often in his village. This young boy had reminded him how much he had wanted to be a father. He liked showing Timothy the things he knew and watching the little boy’s excitement. He had been told these Alliance people were bad and that they really wanted to control the Therans. But if this boy was any indication, his father and mother were nice people and had raised a very nice, polite and smart boy so far. After reinstalling the cylinder head and replacing all the bolts, he and Timothy cleaned themselves up and walked back to Timothy’s room. It was such a shame that the boy had to spend so much time there, but the General had given his orders. He would just have to wait there until supper.
The dust cloud was the giveaway. Through his binoculars he could see the trucks stirring up the dust from m
iles away. He lowered the binoculars and looked at Mike. “I guess it’s time,” he said.
Mike took a deep breath. “I’ll be counting on you guys to help get me out of this place,” he said with a half smile.
The Colonel laughed. “Don’t worry, marine. That’s what we’re here for,” he said strongly, taking Mike’s hand and shaking it. Then in a softer tone, “We’ll be there.”
“I will attempt to make sure of your location and be ready to come in before I initiate the action,” Hadaie said, standing beside Jim Ramey, who was still intent on watching the road.
“I hope so, otherwise it’s going to be a lot of fun trying to find each other in all the confusion,” Mike said touching Hadaie’s arm. Then Mike slung his pack over his shoulders. Before he left he turned again. “Before I go, I want to thank you guys. For all you’re doing for Timothy and I. I really appreciate it,” he said.
The Colonel gave him a wink. “You have a job to do, marine.”
Mike smiled at them and turned for the road. He passed Jim Ramey and got a reassuring wink as he moved into the clearing.
“And just remember your distances. I don’t want to have to chase a truck,” the Colonel called out to him. Mike didn’t even turn around, but just waved his hand.