Stepping Up (24 page)

It’s afternoon on our eighth day.  Shawna has come out of
her flight suit and is holding her canteen and a washcloth in hand.  “I need a
bath.  Anybody want to wash my back? Or my front?”

Sherri and Doyle each raise a hand, looking to me for
approval. “Have fun, I’ll sit this one out.  Just clean up after yourselves. 
Sherri, don’t pull anything. Change of plans: Seams and Loki will do local
security. Jonesy, you and Sherri will be going on patrol in their places. 
Patrol leaves in two hours.”   Sherri is already grinning, Jonesy shows no
emotion.  Loki and Seams look a touch relieved.

I wag a finger at Avi. “Come up to the bridge and look at
something for me?” When we get there, I close the door behind us.  “I suppose
you’d like a quickie, as well, before we get too busy?”

“You’re breaking your own rules. You are ‘Boss’ on this
trip, remember?”

“There are no problems with my memory. I remember exactly
what I said.  Is that a yes or a no?”

“A most emphatic ‘No.’ I want our lovemaking to be a special
time; not a quickie.  Please forgive me, but I think that would cheapen our
relationship.  And I can’t tell you exactly why I feel that way, I just do.”

That earns him a
big-jump-up-and-wrap-my-legs-around-his-waist hug.  “Me too.”  I reinforce my
point with a quick round of tongue rugby.  “Help me get into my armor?”  I pull
down the zipper to my flight suit.  He grins.

The patrol departs at dusk.  Night vision systems are of
course the order of the day. The Combat Armor is outfitted with a tech level 13
NV system. My prototype PeteArmor has a system that is a bit more advanced; I
took it from a scrap set of Advanced Strike Armor. It makes all night vision
just as clear as plain sight and without mangling the spectrum. In layman’s
terms, they can read the book title and maybe chapter headings, but I can read
the copyright information. And admire the pictures in their original color.

Everyone is ready. We set out for the railroad tracks. It is
a naturally cloudy night, about 98F and calm. There has been no communication
from
Night Searcher
.

We head towards the track but keep it to one side as we
approach the city, about fifty meters, but changing as terrain dictates.  At no
time will we walk on the track, unless it is absolutely unavoidable, and at
that time, we will treat it as a danger area.  I’m grateful that my prototype
armor has a cooling system; the combat armor has a rudimentary system, but it’s
more about venting heat than pushing coolant though.  One hundred Fahrenheit is
pretty warm to walk around dressed like a water heater.  Sherri and Jonesy are
experienced and tough. The others start whining after the first hundred
meters.  We take cooling breaks from time to time.  Our progress isn’t as quick
as I’d prefer, but we’re making it.  For grins, I switch my sight system to
“thermal.”  They all light up like a herd of wills-o’-the-wisp.

After about an hour of patrolling, Shawna calls from the
launch.  “Sensors indicate a large moving vehicle heading in your
direction—probably a train.” Sherri, Jones, and I take a knee.  Avi and Reeber
drop prone and douse their helmet-mounted lamps.  We wait ten minutes before I
see a train approaching from the south, going towards the city.  As it passes,
we count six passenger cars and two cars with some sort of enclosed turrets
mounted on flat decks.  As it retreats, I shoot a targeting laser at it.  The
train is moving at about 70 mph.  I’ve no doubt they’ll get there before we
do.  Shouldn’t take them long to get out of sight either.  Once they have, we
resume movement towards the town.  Ideally, we’ll be able to crouch just below
the crest of a hill somewhere and look into the town unobserved.

And we do exactly that. There is a hill overlooking the edge
of town. The city is small, but has what looks to be pretty modern facilities.
No starport is in evidence.  No surprise there.

“Have you seen enough of the uniforms to be able to guess
between the officers and the enlisted?” I ask Sherri.

“Based on scarcity and apparent deference, the officers are
the ones with the gold on the epaulets. The enlisted? If they wear insignia,
it’s either non-descript or too small to read from any distance.”

“Okay, let’s make our way to the train station.  Ideally,
we’ll get an officer, but if not, we’ll get whomever fate drops in our laps. 
And that person doesn’t do us any good if he’s dead.  Avi, do you have anything
in your bag of tricks that will knock a person out for a few hours, or long enough
for us to get them back to the boat?”

“Sherri has some accelerator darts for the rifles. I can
load them up with a short term tranquilizer, but you’ll have to shoot someone
who isn’t wearing armor.”

Sherri pipes up, “I have a pistol version also.”

“Can you make some for both?” I ask Avi. 

He nods.  Sherri hands him two packets of darts, one set
larger than the other.

Sherri scopes the town. “No worries. I see our target.  He
and several others are just in uniforms, no body armor.  It must be too hot for
them, what a bunch of wimps.”  Jones and I chuckle, but no one else does.

We move around the fringes as best we can, trying to stay in
the woods and—failing that—in the shadows as much as possible.  It takes four
hours and numerous breaks, but we are finally about five hundred meters from
the station. There must be a pretty big deployment happening. There are
somewhere between two- and three-hundred soldiers milling about and getting on
and off the train. Whatever we do, we need to do it quickly, because we’re
running out of night.

Jonesy has an idea. “You guys hang here and do look-out.
Sugar Britches and me will follow homeboy into the shitter and bag him. Sound
good?”

I think about it.  “Bold. Use the tranq as soon as you get a
shot. I’m okay with capturing him, but I’d rather he not slip into Prisoner of
War mode and start screaming as soon as he sees you.” We melt into the forest. 
Sherri and Jonesy come out of their armor, moving forward in coveralls and
torso armor they had in their packs. Sherri has an accelerator pistol that can
be readily concealed, if needed. Jones carries his assault rifle.  They stay to
the shadows and head down to the station.

On the platform, we see one man consulting a clipboard and
then issuing directives to soldiers as they pass him.  He has a bottle of
something in his pocket, and he sips from it often.  I hear squelch on the
perCom break twice.  Jonesy and Sherri are in position.  Now we wait.  Three
more formations, and after dismissing the third, our guy walks toward the
latrine.  The rule in a hot climate is, if you aren’t peeing, you are
dehydrated and should be drinking.  This guy has been drinking.  Sherri follows
him in.  Two very long minutes later, she emerges with him draped over her
shoulder.  She and Jones vanish back into the darkness of the forest.

Forty-five minutes later, they return. Jonesy carries the
guy with a gag in his mouth over his shoulder.  The captive’s hands are tied
behind his back and his ankles are tied together.  Both of them are literally
dripping sweat.  They both drink deeply from the hydration systems of their
armor.

“Lucky the officer is a little twerp,” Jonesy pants. “But
we’ll still have to take turns carrying him.”   He is a little twerp by Trooper
standards.  I don’t have a tape, but I bet he’s about five and a half feet tall
and maybe a hundred pounds.  He’s an average-sized man by civilian standards
but small for the military.  I pat down his pockets.  There’s next to nothing
in them.

“I can give him another knock-out shot just to be sure, if
you want,” Avi offers.

“I want.  Dose him.” Avi gives him a shot of snoozy juice. 
“Good work, you two,” I say to Jonesy and Sherri.  “Hand him here; I’ll take him
the first leg.  You two get back into your killing suits.  Any collateral
damage I need to know about?  Not that it really matters, but did you get him
going into the stall or coming out?”

“Coming out,” Sherri answers.  “He didn’t have a chance to
wash his hands though.” 

Once Jonesy and Sherri are armored up, we head back to the
cutter.  I am truly amazed at my strength and endurance in the Prototype Armor.
I find myself stopping a few times and telling the others to “Get moving” or
“Come on, a bit further.” They always reply with: “We’re hot and tired, gotta
go slower,” I tell them to quit their bellyachin’, or I’m telling everyone the
toughest member of the patrol is the engineer—the
female
engineer.  At
one break, I set the captive down.  Sherri offers to carry him.  “I’m fine,” I
tell her.  And it’s true.  By the time we reach the launch, everyone is
exhausted, except me.  I’m tired, yes.  It was a long walk, but I feel like I
could do it again.

Sleepyhead is still out. Avi checks him and says he will
probably have to be chemically awakened, mostly due to dehydration and fatigue.
He starts an IV, pushing fluids in him.  He also catheterizes him, muttering,
“What goes in must come out.” Avi looks at me and says, “This is a field test
of that hibernation drug you wanted. He is down for the count for at least four
or five more hours.” I’m looking at my watch and our progress. Thirty minutes
out from the cutter (estimated of course), I’ll tell Shawna to have everything
spinning up and ready to go, because we have what we came for, and we are
leaving. Everything at the launch is okay. The rest of the crew has collapsed
base camp and stowed it in the cargo module.  The recovery operations must have
started when the patrol left.  Shawna welcomes everyone back with a big smile
and a thumb pointing to the passenger compartment.

I put Snoozy in a chair and check his bindings just in case
he should awaken (weird things
do
happen). As soon as everyone is out of
their armor and strapped in, we leave for
Night Searcher
.

When we’re free of the No-COM zone, I alert the ship we are
inbound with one subject for telepathic interview.  I explain my decision to
Aria, as well as the reasoning that led to it.

In a matter of moments,
Night Searcher
appears on
our viewers. Her small craft bay doors open, anticipating us.  I see the decon
team ready in the small craft bay to run everyone through the process. The
Troopers standing off to one side will take the still sleeping ‘prisoner’ to
the detention cells. I wonder if the decon shower will rouse him. We break into
buddy teams to clean each other in the decon showers. Avi, as the medical
professional, takes the prisoner.  I see the gurney Avi ordered for our guest
awaiting him.  No sooner has Shawna announced the launch down and secure than I
get a message from Aria. “Good job, Sonia. Your team is authorized two days
down.”

I pass that good word on to the team as they prepare for
decontamination. To myself I think Rest? And leave sleeping dogs lie? Perish
the thought! I respond without considering alternatives.  “Here I go, stepping
outside of bounds again.  It seems to me we’d be better off treating him as a
guest, not a prisoner.  We want his cooperation.  But that’s not my bailiwick. 
Have there been any developments with Gwen?”

“The Captain’s need-to-know policy is in effect. And you
know how secretive he can be. You have done your part; celebrate that.”

Gods above, has she any idea how frustrating the not knowing
is? “Very well, MacTaggert out.”

I’m still sitting in the co-pilot’s seat. I figure I can
take the time to get a systems report before I strip down for decon. “Hi Gorb,
I’m back aboard. Have there been any developments I need to know about?”

“Hi, Shownya! Ginny is being nice to me! Everything is going
fine.” I tell him I’ll be there—a quick glance at the chronometer on the
wall—in the morning.

Avi has all his gear collected and is standing in the
doorway to the flight deck.  I lose nothing by asking, “Join me for a shower
and a nap after decon?”

“A shower?” He looks at me incredulously.

“More conditioner than soap. You, of all people, know how
astringent that stuff is.”

“Definitely. This second shower may include some…interesting
developments.”

“And probably the odd emission.  I’ll do my best to contain
them.”

The decon goes without incident.  I join Avi in scrubbing
the visitor; between the two of us, we get him clean rather quickly.  Avi and I
then scrub each other.  As it happens, our guest sleeps right through the decon
procedure.  Good drugs indeed.  Avi and I go to my cabin and take a warm,
relaxing shower.  Without discussion, we fall into a deep, refreshing,
comfortable slumber. Eventually.

The team has two days downtime, but I’m a department
head.  My morning is filled with a routine walk-through of the engine rooms,
conferences with the team leads, and review of the maintenance logs.  My people
are good to their word. I see nothing to complain about.  In fact, it looks
like they do their best work when I’m not around. 
That may be why I hardly
ever saw Mack down here.
  I’ll take that as a good thing.  I go to the LEO
to post my reports.  I attach an annex about the prototype armor and recommend
we eventually make at least one set for each Trooper.  I attach a materials
list and projected cost.  It’s a lot of money, but it will be well spent.  I’m
looking over the daily inspection reports when I get a message from Aria. Six
hundred seventy five thousand credits have been added to my budget with the
directive “Get busy.”  I review my final materials list and forward it and my
budget data to the purchasing officer.  I hope she’s sitting down.

Just prior to heading to lunch, the Captain calls me.
“Sonia, I have mentally scanned the prisoner, and he is now your charge. You
are authorized to put him to work in ‘slave’ status. You may interview him at
your convenience in cell two of the detention area, but understand you will
need to bring an interpreter unit.  Notify the detention section when you wish
to interview him.”

“Yes, sir. I’ll get on it.” But before I can get up from my
desk, I get a message from Aria.  There’s a briefing in the conference room in
two hours.
Good thing I got some rest last night. Two days down my foot!
Of course, to be fair, she did say “the team.”  She said nothing about me. I
acknowledge her message and start my ‘briefing packet’ script.  It’s an
automated routine that gathers all the information I am likely to need in a
command brief and loads it to my notepad for easy reference.  I’ve long since
signed off on Ginny green lighting Transit, but she is still required by
protocol to notify me when she does so.  I’m going to have to go for fast food
rather than a real meal.

On the way back from the chow hall, I stop by the ship’s
locker and get a blank perCom and a translation unit.  It’s a pretty slick
piece of hardware.  It’s a box a bit larger than a pack of cigarettes.  It
comes with a lanyard so the unit can be worn around the neck.  Typically, after
a break-in educational period of the unknown language, whatever the unit
“hears” is identified and a translation is relayed through the earpiece. 
There’s also an education kit with various items and pictures to establish baselines. 
Things like red and blue balls, cubes, pictures of men and women, things that
should be established universal nouns. 

The briefing is pretty boilerplate.  I do get formal
instructions to take our guest under my wing.  Apparently, he is a trained starship
engineer. He gave the Captain coordinates of two planets, and
Night Searcher
is headed to the first, BaineRa’ah III, for another find-out-where-we-are
mission.

After the briefing, I head down to the detention block to
talk to the new kid.  I find the prisoner is in his cell. He stands when the
guard opens the door. 
If nothing else, he’s well mannered.
With a bit
of sign language, the guard escorts him to an interview room, then puts the
translator on the table between us, and stands back out of the way.  His thumbs
are hooked in his pistol belt. The “guest” looks at me curiously.  I open the
education pack and pull out the red ball. “Red ball,” I say.  I pull out the
blue ball, “Blue ball,” I hold up the red one and point at him. 

He tries to mimic me.  “cHwed bahl.” I shake my head and try
to make him understand to say it in his language. He does.  I pick up the blue
ball and point.  He says something similar, but different.  It takes us the
better part of an hour, but we do get to where we can understand each other.

“Now, let’s start your interview in earnest.” I tell him.

“As you wish, ma’am. Your captain told me, apparently
telepathically, that I will be a slave in your engine room. My name is Viggo
Sardone. Please excuse my appearance. I lack more appropriate clothes.”

“Good afternoon, Mr. Sardone.  And I apologize for your
confinement.  My name is Sonia MacTaggert; I am the Chief Engineer aboard
Night
Searcher
.  I am happy to have your services and your expertise for as long
as you are willing to provide them.  I will have to do some coordinating I’m
sure, but I’ll see what I can do about getting you some other clothing and more
suitable quarters.  But first, tell me about your skills and abilities. I
understand you are a starship engineer?”

“Miss MacTaggert, Chief MacTaggert, it is my pleasure to
make your acquaintance. I did not know this ship carried so many beautiful
women. If you scan my left forearm, an embedded chip will give you my full
military dossier. I have been a soldier since age fifteen; I am now
thirty-four. I know hydrogen power plants and various drive systems.”

“I believe you’ll find many surprises aboard
Night
Searcher
.  And it’s ‘Sonia’ please. Or ‘Chief,’ if that’s a little too
familiar for you.  May I call you ‘Viggo?’  I’m sure by now, you’ve been
scanned six ways from Arioch’s nose.  And then we’d have to worry about
translation.  And while this unit allows us to understand your spoken language,
reading it is a different matter.  So, oral communication is more efficient. 
I’ll check the intelligence database later.  But first, please let me make
something clear:  I do not employ slaves.  The Captain would not have assigned
you to me unless he felt you could be at least minimally trusted.  But I’ll not
have an indentured servant in my department.  Do you want to work in my engine
room? I desperately need another pair of hands with an informed brain attached
to them.  I do not believe in Hobson’s choice.  So should you so desire, I will
do what I can to allow you off the ship when we get to our destination. Before
you answer, know that our security forces will shadow you for an unspecified
period of time.  I’ll also ask you to keep this,” I lay the perCom on the
table, “with you at all times.  Until you have some mastery of the language,
your translator,” I hold it up, “will link up to it.  Not because you’re on
house arrest, but because, if I need to get in touch with you, I need to do so
without a significant delay.  I can promise you a paycheck and fair treatment. 
Your move.”

His eyes fill with tears. He briefly loses his composure,
and then comes back to the seated variant of ‘Attention.’ “I accept, thank you,
Chief. I appreciate your help and your trust. You will not be disappointed.”

“I hope not.”  There is a knock on the door.  One of the
supply runners has two sets of coveralls and an APE suit for Viggo.  “I believe
those are for you; I’ll leave you to try them on.  I’ll make arrangements for
some more relaxed items as well.  I’ll see what I can do about getting you out
of detention and into the barracks, if nothing else.  Be patient.  I’ll see you
in the engine room.”

I ask the guard, “You’ll help him with the APE suit?”

He nods.

After the interview, I call Aria. “If he’s going to be
working aboard this ship, he doesn’t need to be sleeping in a cell.  Is my old
stateroom available?  Or since I’m no longer a parent, do I need to move back
into it?”

“A stateroom would be a bit above and beyond for him. But
assigning him an alcove in the barracks with the spacers will not be an issue,
in time.  Have a Trooper assigned to shadow him for a few days. During that
time, he will be in Detention, but that is really a formality until he is not shadowed. 
You are primary staff now, Sonia.  You merit a Suite Stateroom whether you have
dependents or not. The fact that you do not presently have Gwen does not call
for your eviction.  And since I have no directive taking her from you, we will
continue to consider her absence temporary.  But should you feel lonely, call
me.  Viggo will also require three more anti-radiation treatments, so make sure
he gets to them: One each week for the next three weeks.”

“I’ll keep your offer in mind, but for the moment, Dr. Took
is keeping me from getting too lonely.  And I’m afraid you aren’t the first one
waiting in the Lady Lover line.”

Aria laughs. “That does not surprise me. You are a lovely
example of your species, Sonia. You should see the other androids from my model
line. Of course, none of them is as desirable as I.”

How could they be?
“Thank you.  I see modesty is not
among your programming.”  We both laugh. “I can believe that about you. 
Although you may be the product of an assembly line, I get the feeling that you
are unique.”

“I am. No other DEBI model has my exact programming. By the
way, the Captain has ordered us to build another android using some of my
system specifications. You and I have received the task. We will start planning
it tomorrow. You will need to divide up your days accordingly.”

“Tomorrow it is.  Can we do it in the morning? I’m working
with Sherri on the armor in the evenings.”

“That will be fine.  Are you giving yourself down time?”

“I’m limiting myself to 14-hour days, so I do have
some
down time.  And I’m not sure, but I think Avi’s been dosing me with sleeping
meds when he thinks I’m pushing myself too hard.  But with a long list of
things to do, and a short list of people to do them, let’s just say there’s
plenty of overtime to go around.”

“Understood. By the way, the Captain wants to see you; it is
Fitness and Performance report time. After he does yours, make sure you do
those of your subordinates.”

Oh joy, more good news.
  “I’ll get them done.”

“Aria out.”

Just what I need, another project.
I call the Troop
Commander and arrange for a Trooper to shadow the BaineRa’ahian for at least
three days.

I pick up a few other personal niceties (comfy clothes,
hygiene items, etc.) and drop them by Detention for him.  When whoever gets the
shadow task gets to detention, they’ll get the instructions for them to bring
Viggo to the engine room.  I also contact Ginny and Gorb so we can have a team
huddle and introductions.  I direct Gorb to show him around the engines,
Transit and maneuver, because likely as not that’s where he will be working.
Ginny’s eyebrows move up a bit when I say her sphere of influence is growing.

Sherri wanders in. “Hey, Baby, I’ve been directed to help
you with the armor. You get me for three hours per day for the next four days.
Just tell me what to do, what to have, where to be, and when to be there.”
Apparently
she’s now comfortable around me.

“Hi, Sugar,” I respond. “Let’s go into workshop 2. Yes, you
and I are going to deal with some of the ‘gender specific’ issues of PeteArmor,
so get into this body-suit.”  The material is form fitting and leaves very
little to the imagination.  After she has it on, I tell her, “And stay away
from my boyfriend when you’re wearing this, or I’ll scratch your eyes out.” We
both giggle. “I wish I looked like that in it.  What I’m thinking now is to use
this as a form-fitting inner suit with a variable density garment over it to
fill up the voids between the operator and the actual armor.  You know, where
one Trooper may be larger than another.  I think it would help to have an
expandable layer between that and the armor. That should eliminate chafing,
calluses, blisters, all that junk. What do you think?”