Broken Soldier (Book One) (25 page)

“Good grief, Bambi. If you’re correct, I’ll be
missing out on my child’s cutest years. Humans need time to bring
along their offspring at a slower Pace.”

Bambi took exception to Mary’s concern.

“Mary, you will be able to transmit directly into
your child’s thoughts. Everything you do with him, or her, will be
at the new speed. I believe you’ll find that because both of you
have that ability, you won’t miss out on anything. It will just
happen quicker than it does for standard humans.”

The second question, about rank, was thrown to Max.
“Mary, I consider us damn lucky to have such a well qualified
engineer join us. If I were recruiting new tech people, and of
course I am, I would start you at the rank of first Lieutenant and
wave length of service requirements for promotion to Captain. We
can play that by ear.”

Displaying shocking bravado, she said, “Lieutenant
my ass. I’m the only damn engineer you have and I’ll be helping you
to obtain others. I am the foundation of Space Navy engineering.
You’ll start me at Major and that’s that. From that point forward,
I expect regular reviews and promotions, based on performance. If
I’m not doing the job, then fire me. Those are my terms and I won’t
budge an inch on that.”

General Kolbe was thrown off kilter, by her strong
response. Before he could say another word, she added, “Oh, and I
expect my husband to be brought in as a full bird Colonel. At the
moment, he’s the only qualified fighter pilot you’ve got.”

Kolbe angrily said, “He never asked for that.”

Mary shot right back, “Well, he’s a dumb ass and I’m
not.”

Kolbe looked at Mike. Who was fighting hard not to
crack up. “I gave you the job, General Kolbe; so it’s your
call.”

Kolbe gave Mary a hard glare and warned, “All right,
Major Hurst, I’ll grant you your demands. But if you ever try that
bullshit on me again, I’ll have you thrown into outer space.”

She grinned and hugged the old man, saying, “Thank
you General. You won’t be sorry. I’m really good at what I do. By
the way, how much does a Major make?”

Mike answered. “There’s another thing we have to
figure out. We’ll have men at different levels of ability, even
with upgrading. They will expect to be paid on a fair basis. But
how should we determine a currency and where will they be able to
spend it?”

Bambi kicked in, “Gold of course, or gold credits.
Come to thing of it, we can use gold and a variety of precious
metals to buy our way into the hearts of the world leaders. The
asteroid belt is loaded with the stuff. This ship comes with the
ability to replenish its own resources, by mining asteroids. We
have several large robots for just that purpose.

“So, we issue credit cards to the men and I’ll keep
track of the accounts. That’s very similar to the Sauran method,
with which I’m familiar.

“And speaking of gold, we’re going to need a bunch
of it. For now, the best ion bolts we can shoot will be made of
compressed ionized gold. It’s very dense and it’s the perfect metal
for shooting in the ion weapons. Once we have a good supply of
that, we’ll convert to one of the rare exotics. That could take a
lot of time to accumulate and we don’t really know how difficult
the exotics will be to find and process.”

Mary said, “Bambi, I’d like to have a chat with you
about weapons, what they are and how they work. Range and accuracy,
as well as any info you can give me on what the enemy could bring
against us.”

“Sure, I’ll be glad to. But, the Saurans don’t allow
transports to have that info. I can speculate, but I can’t offer
much more than that. As for what we have to shoot…not much.”

“Tell me what you have, and then we’ll chat about
possibilities.”

Wayne had entered at the end of the discussion and
loudly announced, “NO. Before either of us do any more work, we’re
going to go through the upgrade.”

“Yes dear. As always, the man knows the best
direction for his little lady to take. Thanks for reminding me how
wise and wonderful you are.”

Mike mumbled to himself, “Oh dear, sometimes she’s
just like Sherry.”

So, four humans went into the upgrade program. Mike
and Jo held there hands and did the best they could to comfort them
in their aguish. Fortunately, Bambi was learning the finer
intricacies of the human genome and was able to distribute the
worst of the process in rapid cycles. However, pain was unavoidable
and each one of the four suffered a great deal.

Wayne had the easiest time of it. Bambi said that
was because he was basically in the best shape at the beginning.
The General had a rough time at first, but seemed to endure the
agony much better after a few days.

Mary had a bad time of it and Bambi felt it was
because she hadn’t fully recovered from her severally burned
body.

Poor Al Benson had the worst of it. The old soldier
had been a drug addict for years. Curing him of his infirmities had
been somewhat of a guessing game for Bambi. She felt badly that he
hadn’t been better prepared for the upgrade process. She assured
everyone that she was learning a lot more about human reaction to
her methods and that the next humans would have an easier time of
it.

By the time the last of them had been released from
sickbay, Mike and Jo were exhausted. He told Wayne and Max,
“Gentlemen, the next time we upgrade someone, you guys get to hold
their hands.”

Kolbe looked at him and said, “I’ll do it, Mike.
But, I think it’s important that we put a little more emphasis on
how painful it is, and how wonderful it is, once it’s over. I don’t
believe in sugar coating it. These guys have to know what they’re
up against.”

Mary was there and she added, “We have to think
about women, too. There’s going to be some good female candidates,
with good records in the military, which can be a huge help out
here. Also, many of our best candidates will have wives and girl
friends. If we want to keep them happy, we’re going to have to
offer the ladies upgrades too.”

Mike told her, “Yes, I agree. The guys and I were
kicking that around and as long as the women agree to do something
that benefits the Terran Space Navy, then we’ll take them on.
Otherwise, we don’t need them and if that cost us a good man, then
so be it. Bambi can give any person who has been upgraded a
knowledge base that exceeds any knowledge we could find on Earth.
The new upgrades will have to practice with their new info, but
with quicker minds and more strength, they should come along
fast.”

Bambi had been working with Mike to develop a staff
conference room that would accommodate all of them. The table was
only slightly lower than the one used by the Saurans, because the
upgraded humans were all a little taller now. The chairs were also
height adjustable, which helped Mary, who was still shorter than
the rest of them. Coffee and tea were ever present and the food
processor had been able to replicate nearly all of the items Mike
had brought back. Still, there was a growing list of foods that
Bambi maintained for retrieval on their next trip to Earth.

For the next week, many different possibilities were
discussed, some sounded great and some were discarded as
unworkable. There was hope and disappointment, as Bambi would
realize an idea that could be expanded upon and explained how it
could be done. Disappointment came more often, when she would tell
them something they had suggested couldn’t be done or wasn’t
feasible. She demonstrated an amazing understanding of humans and
Earth politics.

At one meeting, when Mary asked her how she was able
to learn about humans so quickly, Bambi explained, “Ever since we
left the Earth, I’ve maintained a constant watch through the
Internet. I’m usually researching four or five thousand subjects at
a time. So, with every second, I get smarter.”

“That’s wonderful,” Mary gushed. “How can I do
that?”

“Open up your head, so I can ping the appropriate
marker on your MCP.”

Bambi’s comment drew a lot of laughter from the
others. The term “Open up your head” quickly became “Pop your Top”
and was used as the short method of requesting a deep intrusion
from Bambi, in order to make thinking process adjustments, which
saved weeks of practice. Popping the Top was a combination of
teaching a human the fastest way to think about using certain
abilities and training their mind muscles how to be utilized in the
proper way.

Only Mike and Jo knew that Bambi could go into
someone’s mind any time she wished. He was convinced that Bambi
would never intrude into someone’s mind, unless they requested it
first. She was fiercely protective of that concept, because, as she
said, it was tantamount to mental molestation and slavery. They
agreed it was best if people thought they had complete security of
their private thoughts.

Mike called a meeting, which he titled, “The Big
One.”

“Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time to return to Earth.
We have all contributed our ideas about recruiting the largest
number of warriors possible. Bambi has the fabricators making as
many upgrade med units as possible. By the time we return, we
should have more than one hundred of them and possibly as many as
two hundred.”

Al whistled softly, as others looked surprised.

Mike nodded and explained, “The speed, with which
Bambi was able to have them made was due to a lack of other
projects. She assures me that once we have a full crew to man the
Mother Ship, the fabricators will be kept busy on many other
projects.

“I will make the final decision, with regard to
which ideas we pursue. No one else will have to bear the
responsibility of screwing it up but me. The ideas you have each
submitted have been excellent and widely varied. I’ve narrowed them
down to four methods of acquiring warriors and each of you will be
managing one of them.

“Al, the first is your idea. You will be going after
wounded vets in a retirement center. You will hold a veterans
appreciation celebration, in a separate pavilion, and it will be
for the residents only. A fire will occur and there will be lots of
smoke. All of the vets will pass out and that’s your chance to
begin loading them into the large shuttle. Once that’s done, you
will start the real fire, which will burn up the entire pavilion.
It will be listed as a horrible tragedy. Only later will it come to
light that no bodies were recovered. It will be a mystery that is
never solved.”

Turning to Mary, he explained, “You, my dear sweet
daughter-in-law, will head to a meeting of retired physicists,
which is held annually at Stanford University. You will identify
the key people we are after and invite them to a private breakfast
seminar to be held the following morning. You’ll tell them it’s
being sponsored by DARPA and is about a classified project of the
greatest importance to the human race. Those people will be stunned
and carried off in the other small shuttle. If we have good
attendance, we should be picking up fifteen or twenty top level
people.”

She nodded. It had been her idea for the ruthless
plan. They would bring in the best of the old retired scientists.
She felt certain that most of them would not have a problem with
the offer of continued life as a younger person and have the
ability to aid in the preservation of the human race.

Mike and Wayne had been quite shocked by her idea.
Kidnapping sweet old scientists just didn’t seem like something she
would want to be involved with, let alone suggest and plan.

She told them, “If the human race is destroyed, what
good are the lives of these people. They will be happy and proud to
join.”

Mike kept the meeting moving along. “Wayne, you have
the second toughest job, recruiting pilots. Unlike many retired
military types, old aviators don’t settle near air bases or collect
in one spot. However, We have sent certain select old pros a
discrete invitation to an air show, in west Texas. They think
they’ll be seeing one of the top-secret aircraft in development,
for the purpose of getting their input. As you pointed out, it’s
inconceivable that a pilot could turn down such an opportunity.
Obviously, we gas them and carry them away. But the shuttle will
still put on a show, before we grab them. I wouldn’t want to deny
them the chance to see the real thing. At least we won’t have lied
to them about that.

“As for Max and me, we will be attending a
top-secret meeting with the President. He’s going to be at Camp
David and he thinks we’ll be agents of the DIA who have a special
report to make, regarding the Chinese Military. Bambi will have the
job of neutralizing his security before we bring in Jo. Then, we’ll
make our pitch and see how he deals with it.”

Wayne interrupted, “How are you going to arrange a
meeting with the President?”

“We can use Bambi for that. She’s been monitoring
audio, text and e-mail correspondence between the White House and
various departments and agencies. It seems that the chief of staff,
John Oldfield, has a close relationship with the Director of the
DIA. Both of them were Marines.

“Once we’re close enough to the Earth for immediate
communication, Bambi will send her voice through the beacon we left
behind, call up Oldfield and imitate the Directors voice. She’ll
bring up a few items from their last discussion, making her
believable.

“When she tells the man that something serious is up
with North Korea and that the President should be made aware of the
specific threat to the US, the guy won’t refuse. When Oldfield says
he wants to know what it is all about. Bambi will inform him it is
extremely hush-hush and the situation is still in development.
She’ll assure the chief of staff that in a day or so two special
agents will arrive at Camp David to meet with the President and
explain the nature of this threat. Mr. Oldfield should agree to
give them ten minutes with the President. That’s all we’ll need to
get in.”