The Many Worlds of Dean: Book 1 - Mars (13 page)

The next morning, Dean marveled at himself
in the mirror. He was clad head to toe in a matte black armor that
made him look just awesome! There was plating that covered his
chest and torso, his arms, his legs, and even a plate that wrapped
around his man parts. He could touch a button on his wrist that
made a segmented helmet appear from his collar that covered his
head. A clear screen would then lower in front of his face and
light up with a display he was still learning to read. At the touch
of another button, his gloves would come apart and retract into his
sleeves.

The armor was light and surprisingly
comfortable. He found he would have no problem wearing it under the
jumpsuit he normally wore. And, with the helmet and gloves
retracted, the only part anyone could see were the boots and they
looked close enough to normal footwear nobody would give them a
second look.

He had spent about ten minutes standing
inside the SAA factory while its internal computer scanned his
body, both externally and internally. Once completed, Dean had
waited for almost two hours for the machine to produce his armor.
When it had been completed, he had been astonished. It looked so
futuristic, and so cool.

The shop owner had spent another hour going
over the various feature of the armor. He had explained that in
addition to being impenetrable to most known weapons that could be
fired by a single being, the armor contained many hidden surprises.
He had shown Dean the heads up display which could be magnified,
could present various targeting data, and could link to many types
of firearms to increase accuracy. He was shown the flachette
launchers mounted in each shoulder, subtly hidden away until
needed. Dean had learned that flachettes were tiny darts propelled
at incredible velocities. The right arm contained a net launcher
that could be used to trap a being. The left arm contained flares
that could be used to signal, or could be used as a decoy for heat
seeking weapons. And the entire armor set was covered with small
rocket nozzles that would halt his descent if the computer mounted
to his left forearm detected he was falling. They could even help
him make jumps up to thirty meters in height. Even without them, he
could jump almost six meters because the armor contained computer
controlled microfibers that enhanced his natural strength.

This was the first time Dean had been able
to try on his new armor. As soon as the shop owner had finished his
explanations of the armor’s functions, Dean had had to run to make
his appointment at the martial arts school. He had arrived winded
and had been shown no mercy. As soon as he walked through the door
and explained to the short, jet black being sitting behind the
counter, he was escorted into a large room covered in mats. There
was another small, black being waiting for him in the center of the
room. Still trying to catch his breath, Dean dropped the bag
containing his new armor and walked toward the ebony dwarf to
introduce himself. When he got to within a meter of what he assumed
was his new teacher, the little monster launched itself at Dean and
proceeded to pummel him in the arms, chest, and stomach.

Dean had tried to run way, but he found the
door to the room securely locked. The nightmarish creature
continued to pound on him for nearly an hour while Dean tried in
vain to defend himself. Finally the creature simply stopped as if
he had been frozen. He looked at Dean and said, “You will return
tomorrow to learn how to prevent what just occurred from ever
happening again. With that, the little black dude, which Dean was
sure had several more arms hidden in his clothing, turned and
walked out the door. Completely exhausted and bruised over much of
his body, Dean gathered up his bag and stumbled out of the school.
Once he had made it back to his room, he had collapsed on his bed
and fallen straight to sleep, without even removing his
clothing.

He had felt better once he awoke this
morning, but he was still sore all over. Sore or not, he couldn’t
resist trying on his new armor. Once he discovered how comfortable
it was, he decided he would wear it under his jumpsuit. If it
continued to be comfortable after wearing it all day, he vowed he
would only take it off when he showered or slept. And, he wasn’t
sure about the sleeping part.

Dean quickly gathered his things and headed
out the door. He had an appointment with a commando to keep.

Part III

Two months had passed since Dean had begun
his martial arts and weapons training. The martial arts was going
well, although painful. His teacher would show him two new moves
each day, and would make him practice those moves until he fell
from exhaustion. After three weeks, he had been informed that he
knew all the moves of the art and now just needed to learn how to
perform them without thinking. He practiced with his teacher for
several hours each evening. His skill was improving rapidly with
each lesson.

He had had an awkward moment during the
first week when he had returned from his class to find Meriyl
waiting for him at his door. He had completely forgotten the weekly
tutoring session he had arranged to have with her. Sweaty and
exhausted, he had tried to apologize for being late, but she merely
shook her head and followed him into his room once he entered.

From that point on, he made sure he got home
with enough time to shower and have dinner delivered before she
arrived. His weekly sessions with Meriyl were always the highlight
of his week. Once she became more comfortable around him, he found
she had a great sense of humor. He couldn’t believe she could
actually smile and laugh so readily after everything that had
happened to her. Tonight was to be their next tutoring session, and
he was looking forward to it with great anticipation. He planned to
try to convince her to let him pay for more sessions so she could
pay back her debt sooner.

The business was going great, even without
his input, and he had more money than he knew what to do with. That
was even after spending a couple million on two hand held pistols
that used magnetic rings to propel slugs to insane velocities. The
pistols were similar to those found on Earth, but each one had an
extra thick barrel more than twice the length of any Dean had seen
at home. He had been hoping for some type of ray gun, but his
weapons instructor had shown him that it was too easy to disrupt
the electronics and disable those types of weapons. While his new
guns did use electricity, they were specifically designed to
contain few actual electronic components; only a battery and a
capacitor. A mechanical block was moved when the trigger was
depressed and the capacitor would dump its power into the magnetic
rings. He was told it was next to impossible to disable this
weapon. Best of all, he could use just about any metal that was
close to the right size as a bullet.

He had only wanted to purchase one, but his
instructor had insisted he needed two and should learn to shoot
with both hands. After two months of practice, four times a week,
Dean could now hit a three centimeter target at twenty meters with
just his eyes and the pistol sights. His instructor told him he was
a natural and many professionals couldn’t shoot as well as him.
With his heads up display, he could hit the same target at one
hundred meters. His instructor, completely impressed when Dean had
shown him his armor, explained that the armor could track his eye
movements to determine his target. Once the target was set, the
armor linked to his guns and only allowed them to fire when the
trigger was pulled and the aim was right where it needed to be. The
armor would help bring his arm to the correct orientation, but this
usually took a second. This meant that there was a small delay
between when Dean squeezed the trigger and the weapon actually
fired. He figured it was a small price for pinpoint accuracy.

Dean had just finished showering and putting
on his armor. Now that he carried a pistol on each hip, he had had
some special jumpsuits fabricated. Each one had a seam that ran
down the arms and sides. All he had to do was grab his collar and
pull, and the entire jumpsuit would split into two pieces and fall
away.

As he was reaching for one of his new
jumpsuits, he heard an alarm sound come from the computer embedded
in his forearm. He brought his arm up to look and was completely
taken aback when his gloves and helmet deployed. Once the clear
screen lowered from his helmet, additional material flowed up his
neck. He soon found his head and face completely enclosed with cool
air flowing across his face. He didn’t even know his armor could do
that.

He brought his arm up once again to read the
small computer display. The display was flashing an angry red with
the words “Chemical Agent Detected” showing prominently. Confused,
Dean looked around his small room, but couldn’t see anything out of
the ordinary. He reached out to push the button that would retract
his helmet. As soon as he pushed it, his computer beeped at him. He
looked at his display again and it read “Outside Environment
Contaminated – Recommend Maintain Suit Integrity”.

Ok
, he thought to himself,
that
was probably a bad idea
. Turning, he quickly moved to his door
and touched the control to open it. Nothing happened. He hit the
control again, and again nothing happened. Thinking furiously he
said aloud, “Computer, open the door.” Silence was his only
response. Thinking perhaps he couldn’t be heard outside his armor,
he brought his arm back up and began to rapidly scrolling through
the various menus. After a couple minutes he found a menu item
labeled “External Speaker”. He pressed the activate command and
repeated his earlier instruction to the room’s computer. Again he
got no response.

Completely frustrated, and with fear
beginning to well up inside him, Dean began hammering his fists
against the door. Normally he would not have been able to even
scuff the heavy metal door, but with the augmented strength his
armor provided, he began to put some impressive dents in the door.
Unfortunately, he didn’t think it was going to be enough to break
through the door.

Nearing panic, he turned and looked about
trying to find something he could use to escape. A flashing icon on
his heads up display informed him that he had about five minutes of
internal air left. He had no idea how much he had started with.
Trying as hard as he could to figure out what he could do, he was
completely startled when he heard the door swish open. Turning back
to the door, he was shocked beyond words when he saw Meriyl
standing just outside his door wearing some type of mask.

“Are you just going to stand there staring
at me, or would you like to leave this deathtrap?”

Dean stared dumbly at her for a moment
before asking, “What is going on?”

“See; and I thought you were smart,” Meriyl
replied sarcastically. “Someone is trying to kill you genius. If
you don’t want them to succeed, I suggest you follow me.”

Without another word, she turned and ran
down the hallway. With little thought, Dean ran out the door and
followed her. As he passed the door, he noticed the control panel
hanging from the wall by its wires.
So that’s how she opened the
door
, he thought. He heard running footsteps coming from behind
him, so he picked up his pace, and with the help of his armor, he
quickly caught up with Meriyl.

As they ran, he noticed Meriyl pull the mask
from her face and toss it aside. He assumed her doing so meant the
air out here was okay, so he quickly hit the button on his arm to
retract his helmet. Much to his relief, the helmet immediately
retracted, along with the extra material that had covered his neck
and chin. They turned left at the next intersection and continued
running past door after door leading to other residences. When they
reached the end of the hall, Dean could see it was a dead end, with
no other hallways leading away. He was just about to ask what they
were going to do now, when Meriyl reached down and grabbed hold of
a ventilation grate. She twisted it sideways and he could see that
all but one of the fasteners had been removed. Once the grate was
away from the opening, she turned to Dean and said, “Inside
spaceboy.”

Dean cringed. She had taken to calling him
that after their first meeting when he had explained how he had
come to be on Gorrosh. He knew she continued to do it only because
it never failed to elicit a reaction from him. If he were to be
honest with himself, it was the boy part that stung.

The sound of running feet continued to get
closer, so he decided not to argue. He bent down and climbed into
the open duct. Moving forward, he heard Meriyl climb in behind him
and slide the grate back into place. He heard her turn around and
whisper urgently, “Keep going.”

Dean continued to crawl down the narrow
tunnel. This would have been much easier if he was not wearing his
armor, but he was pretty sure the armor had just saved his life, so
he wasn’t going to complain. After crawling for about a hundred and
fifty meters, they came to a much larger, vertical shaft with a
ladder bolted onto one wall. Dean was puzzled for a moment as he
considered how a Gorroshtic could climb a ladder, then quickly
decided it really didn’t matter at this moment.

“Up or down?” he asked over his
shoulder.

“Down,” Meriyl replied.

Reaching out, Dean took hold of the ladder
and then swung his legs out of the duct he had been climbing
through. Catching his feet on a rung, he immediately began to climb
down. Looking up, he could see Meriyl on the ladder above him. It
took a long time to reach the bottom. Dean assumed they had climbed
down the entire ten stories, from the level his room was on, to the
ground floor.