by Keith Martin
“What the heck are you talking about? Have you been drinking?” She could smell the booze on his breath.
“Who cares what I’ve been drinking. Take a look at these.” He opened the toolbox and handed Monica the skull, then pulled out the femur.
“How did you make these?” Monica was unmoved and didn’t believe this one bit.
“I found them in the slide area. They are my find and I’m going back to Earth now. You have to tell everyone I found them.” His voice gave no sign of this being a prank. He was deadly serious.
As she turned it over in her hands she began to see that this was no fake. She was holding real bone. “Oh my God!” She knew Starla had been the first to see them but could do nothing about it now. She hit her Com Link “Starla could you please get to the shop right away.” She needed her to carbon date this at once. If this thing were real, it would change the way humans looked at their place in the universe forever.
* * *
“Mission Control this is G-1 Come in. Over.” He waited a few seconds. “Mission Control this is G-1. Come in. Over,” Joshua radioed.
“G-1 you have the General here. What’s new Jackal? Over.”
“We were just wondering if you have found anything on this new cargo. Over.”
“Not a line. It’s weird…. You would think with my clearance I would get some kind of information on this. But it’s a blank. Over.” Fred reported totally frustrated. He spent hours trying to dig information about The Seeker from the computer and got nowhere.
“General there is a kid at the school, she is amazing with a PC; good kid too. She can beat me at chess every time. She calls herself Hackett. I think you should get hold of her, enlist her help on this. She tells me she can find anything in a computer or get anything over the Internet. Over.”
“Hackett, what kind of name is that for a child? Over.” He was older and set in his ways. This was going to be a huge leap of faith for him.
“She fancies herself a hacker General. She’s been helping out the wiz kids that came up from the colleges. She is real General; you need to talk to her. Over.” Joshua tried to show the General that he was not playing around.
“If this is a goose hunt… Over.”
“No Sir, not at all Sir. Just trying to access the information we seek Sir. Over.”
“Hackett? Over...”
“Yes Sir, Hackett. Over.”
“ Should this be a joke… don’t bother flying back here. Do you copy Jackal? Over…”
“Copy Sir, Just try her Sir, then give me the heads up. If it’s there, she will find it for us. Over.”
19 Hackett Finds Her Wings
The General was now on the most unusual mission he’d ever been on. He went to the school to find this child. He asked for the computer lab and was shown where to look. Entering the room he found a gaggle of kids all working at PC’s. One very small young girl was helping the others with their work. Joshua said she was a helpful young lady so this looked like a good place to start. “Excuse me young lady.” The General caught her attention. “Could you please direct me to a Hackett?” All the children started to giggle.
“You found her General.” Hackett gave him a little salute. “I’m Connie Keys. But my friends call me Hackett.” She shook his hand.
She was so young, so small. He didn’t think she was more than twelve. He trusted Jackal more than he had trusted any man in his life, so he just went for it. “I am told that you are the one I need to talk with. I have a problem. Would you like a challenge?”
“Can I get a grade for this?” Hackett asked hoping to play and get paid for it.
The General almost laughed at such an innocent question for such an important subject. “I’m sure we can do better than that. Are you interested in trying this for me?”
“More input please?” She asked with a wry grin. She could tell something big was up and was ready to show the General just how good she really was on a keyboard.
“Commander Chisholm sent me to you, he assures me that you are the one we need to enlist to find what we need. Come to my office, we will talk more. Its top secret you see. Also, bring your mother or father. They should know what you’re doing.”
“Or a teacher…?” Hackett asked. She didn’t know if her parents could understand anything that would be said in a Generals office. To hear Jackal had sent the General to see her personally just blew her away. She had bested him every time at chess, he was teaching her to fly on a fixed wing simulator. It was her intention to learn all she could from Jackal. But she knew no one could ever best him in a cockpit. Even she wasn’t fool enough to dream so high.
“When will you be able to start on this for me?” He was used to his orders being executed at once. This asking permission from a child was out of his league.
“Right away.” She assured him.
“That’s great; I’ll see you at my office right away then.” He turned to the small boy Hackett was helping. “And I will see you in ten years.” He tousled the boys’ hair making his offer.
The boy smiled and gave him a little salute. Then asked… “Can I fly like Jackal?” The hero worship was plain to see in his youthful bright eyes. He was surprised the children all seemed to know Jackal personally.
“That’s the plan son. Just grow big and do well in school. Once you’re done with all of that, you get hold of me.”
“You can count on me General Fred.” He saluted again. The General returned his salute and took off for his office smiling from his contact with these young minds. He started thinking that maybe Joshua had a real plan he was working on and was now assembling the team that would help him do … whatever it was he was planning to do. If Joshua was the kind of leader the General was, he knew all the planning was by the seat of his pants and would some how work out in the end?
* * *
Connie was just a strap of a girl, very small for her years and kind of plain looking. She wore thick glasses, her hair was ratty and the color of sand. Thin as a rail, yet she looked strong. She also had an air of confidence that was not found in most children. She was going to be an asset to the base once she had had a chance to grow into a working part of the crew. He already liked her and Jackal was off the hook.
He ordered a copy of Connie Keys records so he could recon this mission a little. He knew it was the place to begin knowing a new member to the crew. He got a laugh when he called Records and got this reply. “Sir there is no Connie Keys listed here at S.M.B.?”
“Try … Hackett?” He just threw it out there.
“Oh her Sir. Yes we have extensive files on Hackett. She a real firecracker and one smart girl, Sir. You know she aces every test we give her and she’s not even trying.” Her words were said with love, this woman knew Hackett and was impressed. That was a great sign. “Her name is Connie Keys? I have to make sure that’s entered into her file.”
She sent everything they had on Hackett to the Generals desk and sent an endorsement of Hackett’s abilities written in her own hand as a cover letter. She didn’t know what was up but what ever it was, if Hackett was needed to help work it out. She wished to make sure Hackett was given a chance to prove she was ready for responsibilities well beyond her age.
In her file he found that Jackal had logged in all of her simulator time on fixed wing aircraft. She was dog-fighting Jackal in an F-36 on Earth, Copiloting G-1, Navigation G-1, fighting dragons in flight, barn storming in old triwinged WW1 aircraft.
Thousands of missions, thousands of hours locked in battle... with Jackal!
* * *
Steve woke and figured he must still be dreaming. There was a very gorgeous blond sitting next to him reading something about fish on a laptop. Her eyes were so blue a man could swim in them. “Excuse me?”
She jumped at the sound of his voice.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you!”
“No Steve. I’m fine.” She assured him.
“So who are you?” “I know I’ve never
seen you before. I would have remembered that.” He started to get fresh.
“I’m Jill Chisholm as of tomorrow.”
“You and Jackal are getting hitched? You can do better then that Jill. Hell I’m not so banged up if you want a real man.” He teased her.
“Thanks for the offer Steve, but Linda and I will be hitched with Otto tomorrow.” She filled in the blanks for him.
“I still must be dreaming.” He exhaled as she started to giggle knowing she had him really confused now.
“We will marry after Samantha Craft and Joshua Chisholm are married.”
“Samantha, from here in the med lab?”
“Yes I do believe that is correct. She is now a pilot if I’m not mistaken.”
They sat quietly for a few minutes. Jill did not want to push too hard with him just recovering.
“So why are you here?” He asked.
“Because I am your friend; silly man!” She said with conviction. “You just hadn’t met me before you decided to get yourself blown up. You lived, so here I am to watch over you.”
“Bless Otto for that… and Ben?”
“He is just fine. He was not hit by the blast.”
“That’s good to know. That’s a weight off my mind.” He looked her in the eyes and asked. “Is Linda as beautiful as you?”
“Yes Steve. She is quite stunning.”
“You go Otto.” He teased her again.
“Thank you Steve. You’re a real card aren’t you?”
“You have no idea!” He agreed then announced. “I’m starving. Could I have some food?”
“Yes; I will get you something right away.” She rose to find him a meal.
“You just scare a buffalo in here and give me a knife. That will work just fine.” He called after her.
* * *
Monica and Starla worked on the skull and femur for hours before they were finished with the tests. They had scanned the bones, carbon dated them, and had done a DNA test.
What they found shocked them both.
They where humanoid, but not human, they were one hundred and ten thousand years old and they were real.
“I will need you to take me to where you found these Larry.” Monica said.
“Do I get credit for the find Monica?” He asked a bit anxious.
“Yes Larry. You get the credit.” She guaranteed. “We can go to where you found these in the morning.”
“I don’t think so.” Larry announced. “Have you heard the wind out there?”
She had been so absorbed by the skull and femur she hadn’t noticed the weather at all. She checked the radar and found that the force of the storm had been building the whole time they worked. This would keep them inside until it abated. “We need Mission Control to have this information Starla. Could you get us online with them, and ready a scan of the objects for transmission?”
“I’m on it boss.”
* * *
The storms of Mars were some of the strongest storms humans had ever experienced. These were not like the storms on Earth at all. These storms twist up like a hurricane and continued gaining power. It was normal to see winds over a hundred. It was a storm that reached a hundred and sixty five miles an hour that had caused Larry to bury the base and build the massive burm that now protected it from the flying rock, sand and winds.
Monica knew the antennas would have to be retracted soon to protect them from damage. The rock and sand impacting the antennas could eat them away in just hours. She would have to transmit all the information she had to the moon right away; else it could be weeks or even months before she could try it again.
Last year had been the worst storm ever known on Mars. The sound of the airborne rock was like a nonstop shotgun blast lasting for more than a week. It had worn off a layer of the surface of the bases skin, and it had ruptured the roof in the grow houses killing all of their fresh vegetables. Larry figured his work would save them this storm season.
“S.M.B. this is Mars Mission Control. Come in. Over.” She waited for the delay to pass.
“Mars Mission Control...This is S.M.B. we copy. Over...”
“S.M.B. please put Commander Walker on line for me. This is a need to know broadcast. Over.”
Three minutes had Chris on line and Mission Control cleared. He used his code to override the recording equipment and he got ready to burn a hard copy of this transmission. “Mars Mission Control… This is Commander Chris Walker. What can I do for you Monica? Over.”
“I need to send you a scrambled transmission. Give me coded frequency for broadcast. Over.”
“Scramble to frequency one two seven zero one. Over.”
“We copy to one two seven zero one. Will transmit in ten seconds. Over.”
They both switched over to one two seven zero one and Chris waited for the transmission. A burst of information that lasted less then a second flashed into the system and the computer digested it all. As the screen filled with the scan of the skull and femur bones, Chris thought he was being fooled with for a moment, but it would be unlike Monica to be involved in a game. …Just to be sure he asked. “Mars Mission Control… We copy the transmission. Monica is this on the level? Over…”
She completely understood his doubt. She would have questioned this information had she been the one to receive it. “That is a big affirmative. We have carbon dated it to be one hundred and ten thousand years old and humanoid, but not human. Over”
“No joke? Over.”
“No Chris. No joke. We are still reeling from this ourselves. Over.”
Chris sat there looking at the information he just received. “We will be sending Jackal on a return crossing at once. Over”
“No point in that right now Chris. The storms are here, could last weeks as you well know. As soon as the winds die down I will let you know. Send Jackal and Samantha out for us then. For now, we have to break off and pull in the antenna. It’s kicking up out there. This is Mars Mission Control signing off. Over and out.”
Chris wished he had more time to talk with Monica about this. He felt he was just getting a little of what he needed to make a decision on how to proceed.
Little did he know that he would never hear from anyone on Mars, ever again? Nor would the base be seen again. The storm was building; and it was just getting started. This would be the most powerful storm ever experienced by humans on the surface of Mars.
* * *
“Let’s get suited up sweetheart. S.M.B. is getting close.” Joshua ordered.
“Only if you give me one last kiss first!” Samantha demanded.
He took her in his arms and he gave her what she wanted until it took her breath away. “Now get suited up woman.” He barked playfully.
“Yes Commander Lover Boy.” She ran from him giggling so he could not catch her. “Do we have to go back now? We have food onboard for another month. We could spend the time making love!” The lust in her voice was infectious.
“Yes, we must go back now, but I am willing to do the Mars run with you from now on, if they can put a queen sized bed in here for us to share.” It was his turn to lust after her. He had just experienced the best days of his life. If they could get away with it he would have stayed onboard for another month gladly. But he also wanted to get home and make this woman his wife. He was starting a new life with her as soon as they touched down.
“S.M.B. this is G-1. Over.”
“G-1 this is S.M.B. We have you on radar and you have been cleared to land on Alpha. Welcome home Joshua. Over.”
“Thanks S.M.B. Its good to be home. Over.”
“Jackal it is ordered that you report directly to the General’s office as soon as you’re finished in suit up. Copy that. Over…”
‘Now what was up?’ He just got back and he had work to do. He just wanted to be with Samantha and he had to ask her father for her hand before he could go forward with his plans. He was going to blow a gasket if things didn’t work out the way he wanted them to.
�
��Copy that S.M.B. Over and out.” The anger in his voice was plain for all who knew him to hear. The controller didn’t know what was going on in the General’s office. She only knew that after they had received a transmission from Mars there had been a meeting of all the department heads. It had lasted for hours. Whatever was going on was big. Real big!
* * *
The plan was in motion. Jill had taken care of it completely except for this meeting with the General as soon as the shuttle touched down. But that just made things even easier.
She would pick up Samantha at suit up and escort her home. Linda and DR. Dianne Craft would meet her there and she would be kept busy for a few hours. Dinner with both families would take place at the Crafts house. There would be no talk of the impending weddings. After dinner was finished they would separate the young couple again and they would be kept apart until their vows were said the next day.
Everything was going great so far. The main chamber was almost finished with the decorating. The feast was in the hands of chow hall personnel, and they promised to deliver a meal fit for a king. Chief guaranteed to be there to be married and promised to be “Ready with the weed indeed.” The beer and wine was chilling and the dresses where all being finished for this happening. The seamstresses who were making the dress for Samantha would have her scanned to make sure the dress fit like a glove.
Otto and Linda where impressed with the energy Jill was putting into the event, all of her waking hours were spent working to make this day perfect for them all. Her presence in the halls seemed to make those around her smile and she had enlisted everyone to help make this day one to remember.
But the nights belonged to Otto and Linda. They would spend their love with each other until drained and sleep took them.
* * *
“Hi Hackett, welcome to my office, please have a seat.” He stood and offered his hand to Connie’s mother. “You must be Connie’s mother?”