Broken Soldier (Book One) (29 page)

Stassen shook his head. “That’s all well and good,
if in fact you can do that. But in doing it, you could start a war
without nuclear weapons. Think of the fear in our country, if we
lost our nukes, and we’re a whole lot less likely to freak out than
the Russians would be. They’d go completely crazy. These things
have to be handled delicately, by experienced diplomats, not well
meaning military types. And, all of these decisions will need to be
approved by the various representatives of the different
countries.

“We are a country of laws. I can’t just approve what
I think you’re suggesting, without congressional approval.”

Mike was disappointed, but not surprised.

When he stood, Max and Jo did also. “Mr. President,
We’ll be in touch.” He looked at Jo, who held out a portable
device, which could be used to access the communication units the
upgrades used, the comm.

Jo held up a small comm unit, about two by four
inches. It could easily be mistaken for an old cell phone. “Mr.
President, this small comm unit can call us at any time. It is
always on and when you call, we will be listening. It is not a
means by which we can spy on you. We already can do that, without
using something so large and cumbersome as this monstrosity. We
will never reveal anything we overhear, unless you are in danger,
which is highly unlikely to happen, because we have your back now.
You are not under our control, but you are under our
protection.”

Jo held his arms away from his body, palms up and
said, “This is certainly an awkward beginning, but it was
necessary. By the way, I’m told your wife has been diagnosed with
an ailment that we can curer. We are able to do so, without the
brutal methods your physicians suggest. We will return at your
request and when we do, we’ll bring you a med unit, which can
provide a complete recovery for your wife, Agnes. By the way, it
will take care of her diabetes too.”

Stassen looked at Jo in wonder, as Mike was thrown
on his back, when a bullet him dead center in the chest.

Bambi cried out,
Sniper, I’ve got him.

But, before she could neutralize the man, he was
able to get off another shot, putting down Jo.

A loud crack and a sizzle came from a group of
trees, four hundred meters away.

Max was holding Mike in his arms, as the president
hid behind a chair. Mike looked up at him and said, “Ouch. That
hurt, but I’m all right. What about Jo?”

“Like you, I have significant pain, but I’m going to
be OK. Thank you, Bambi.”

You’re welcome. Sorry I missed the guy, earlier. He
didn’t give up his position until after the meeting started. I
suspect the absence of any response on his radio and the presence
of Jo got him thinking he should take a shot. It was probably
standing procedure to use his best judgment when that happens.

Mike stood up and said, “Yeah, I imagine that you’re
right, Bambi. What about the sniper; is he OK.”

I’m afraid not, General Hurst. I fried him, in my
excitement and desire to protect you guys. I hate to admit it, but
I wanted to hurt him for hurting you. A computer wouldn’t have felt
anything and might have just stunned him. I’m truly sorry,
Mike.

“It’s all right Bambi, I’d have done the same thing.
You had to be sure he wasn’t going to get off another shot.”

The President was beginning to stand and asked,
“Who’s Bambi?”

Max explained, “She’s our technical expert and in
charge of watching everything for us, and I mean everything. Don’t
mess with Bambi.”

Bob Stassen was a quick study. “So she’s the one who
broke through our encrypted security net and handled the operation
to subdue my Secret Service men?”

“Yes Mr. President.”

Mike looked at Jo and said, “I think it’s time we
leave and allow the President to think about this.”

As they began to walk off of the terrace, Stassen
said, “Allow me to compliment you on your excellent bullet proof
vests.”

Mike spun around so quick that it frightened the man
and told him, “If I was stark naked that bullet wouldn’t have
penetrated my skin, although I have to admit it did hurt. The
upgrade does that for a warrior. As for the young man who took that
shot, he’s dead and I sincerely regret the overreaction to my being
shot. It means little now, but in the future, we will see to that
man’s family and provide them the true details of this unfortunate
incident. His family has the right to know that he acted as a
hero.”

He took a deep breath and let it out, trying to
remain calm and failing. “Mr. President, I might as well tell you
now, so can you begin to contemplate the reality of what is
happening and what needs to happen. I am a proud American and so is
Max Kolbe. But we won’t allow the political machines of two hundred
countries to screw this up.

“Look, sir, it’s like this. We are going to build a
space army and navy that does not…NOT…answer to any one government.
We will listen to all complaints and all suggestions. They will be
quickly acted on, or tossed out, by our small staff. We don’t give
a damn about anything but the continued survival of the planet
Earth. As for international politics…fuck it.”

He turned and left, as the President threw out more
questions, which Mike ignored. When he entered the shuttle, Bambi
said, “I thought that went well.”

Chapter
16

Mike went straight to the tiny restroom on the
shuttle and sat on the throne to try and calm down. He had Bambi do
a mental replay of the video of his visit with Bob Stassen. He
definitely could have handled that better. The problem was, Mike
believed in what he was doing and it made him a fanatic. When the
President didn’t show the same concern for the Earth that Mike
felt, it angered him. If he had given it some thought before his
presentation, he would have seen that there was no other way for
the President to react.

Every day, people were running things by the
President and, although his staff filtered most of it, ultimately
he had to decide the difference between what was pertinent and what
was bullshit. The President had become very skeptical of all things
that were offered as new and exciting.

If Mike attempted the same approach with all of the
leaders they wanted to bring on board, it could turn into a
disaster. They had to do a better job of preparing those people for
what he had to say.

He began comming back and forth with Bambi about it.
All of them had been concerned that there was no good way to get
the facts out, without being interrupted with a barrage of
questions and probably insults. They could deal with specific
questions after the leaders had some facts to go on, even if they
didn’t believe them.

When he was alone with Bambi, she usually spoke out
loud, rather than comm. She said she noticed his blood pressure and
heart rate seemed calmer when she communicated as a human
would.

“Mike, I think we’re going to have to go with Mary’s
plan. We need to make a video that explains what has happened thus
far. They won’t be able to interrupt a video with nonsense
questions and accusations. At the end of it, we can explain what it
is we need from them to defend the planet. And we must emphasize
that we’ll do it off planet, so it won’t affect the balance of
power on Earth.”

“Bambi, we can’t tell them everything, at first. We
don’t dare risk letting them know how few of us there are. We’ll
give them just enough to wet their appetite for more info and more
gifts. I know they’ll like the added wealth, but real enticements
will come in the form of things like a cure for cancer, nerve
regeneration and new limb growth. They can take credit for it, by
claiming it was accomplished through the efforts of the allied
English speaking countries, and they’ll look like heroes for
it.”

Mike continued to think out loud, as he said, “Then,
in the next video, we’ll hit them with your plan for a training
base in the asteroid belt. Each country can recruit for us, by
seeking volunteers for a top secret military mission that will
require them to be away for two years. When the men report, they’ll
be put to sleep and taken to the new base. By the way, have you any
idea where that might be?”

“Yes. I’ve been reviewing possible sites in the
outer belt, in Jupiter’s orbit, and I’ve found four that are
relatively close together. I’ve already started the robots working
on one of them for us. Those robots have discovered gold on one and
a lot of iron, as well as a few other resources we’re going to
need. Those four asteroids can be hollowed out and restructured by
the big celestial mining robots we have on board the Mother Ship.
As soon as we return to the ship, I’ll have the large shuttle
reloaded and sent out to get the project moving a lot faster.”

Mike nodded and mumbled, “Good, good.”

“General, we have an awful lot of difficulties to
overcome and one of the biggest is going to be transportation. Mary
has been reviewing the maintenance records for the shuttles,
especially the large one. Those records include complete design
documents, which are needed for keeping up with maintenance. She
thinks we can manufacture our own, now that we’ve identified some
resources in the belt.

“At first, they would be very basic and lack all of
the bells and whistles. They wouldn’t have the speed capability, or
the stealth of the original Sauran models. But, they could be
constructed rather quickly. Once the fabricator has her design
downloaded, I believe it can begin pumping out one a month. Just
one would double the number of men we could bring up and, as more
became available, we could make substantial progress on the
asteroid.

“One of our other big problems is the amount of time
it takes to move around in the solar system. I realize we are way
faster than anything the humans have been able to put out here. But
by experienced space traveler standards, it’s terrible. The big
hold up is our fear of the beacons discovering our movement.
However, I may have found a solution to that, thanks to some TV
shows I’ve seen.

“It’s a method that’s long been known, but not used
for hundreds of years by the Saurans. I don’t think they would be
looking for it from such neophytes in space, as humans. It’s going
to be tricky and if I’m wrong, it could trigger an interstellar
alert to the Saurans. That’s why it’s your call, General.”

She always went into a formal, polite voice, when
something important was going down. Normally, he liked that. This
time it scared him.

He grimaced and told her, “Well. Let’s hear it.”

“Sir, I’ve been looking at the downloads from the
beacons and I made a copy of the area of space they record. If I
can hack in through the beacon security, I can set the beacons to
replay the area of space we need to use. If a Sauran ship looks at
the beacon’s record, it will only see the last ten months of
recordings, before we began running around. It’s a nice long record
so they are unlikely to notice that what they’re seeing is a video
loop. Do you think that might work?”

“Yes, it just might.”

He sat there thinking about it, and then asked, “How
sure are you that you can do this without setting this part of
space on fire?”

“Sir, these beacons were already in place, when I
got here. When I checked them upon arrival, which is standard
operating procedure (SOP), I used an old code to bring up the
record in their files. That code had no problem giving me access.
However, just because these seemed to be old beacons, doesn’t mean
they haven’t had a recent security upgrade.”

He was getting irritable and still hadn’t calmed
from his misjudgment with the Presidential meeting. “Well, can you
do it or not, damn it?”

“I believe so, sir. I’ll know better when I enter
the beacons protection file and tweak it before I try changing
anything. If I don’t trigger anything, then I’ll proceed and we’ll
have more than just a back door into the beacons. We’ll be able to
control what a Sauran ship sees, if we have to fight them.”

He rubbed his chin, as he gave it some thought. “OK,
Bambi. Let’s give it a try. If we set off an alarm, will you know
it?”

“Yes sir.”

He had a degree in computer science, but he only
obtained it to get a job, after losing his legs. He never really
pushed to become an expert or to learn more, once he was employed.
His area of expertise was actually in managing people, not
computers. Still, Bambi had initiated a thought stream for him and
it wiggled around in the forefront of his thoughts.

He asked, ‘Hey, sweetie pie, did I understand you
correctly, the Saurans will check on the beacons when they
arrive?”

“Yes sir; that’s SOP.”

“If you’re already inside the beacon brains, could
you put some sort of virus in there that would transfer to the new
Sauran ships?”

“Doubtful, sir. The anti-viral software on a Sauran
ship is very touchy and most Senior Pilots have their computers set
to change entire virus prevention programs fairly often. It would
be common for them to initiate a change, as soon as they entered
the area.”

“But, would they do that before or after they
checked the beacons?”

“It’s hard to say, sir. That’s always up to the
Senior Pilot. But, if I could get a virus in the beacons and a
visiting ship did pick up my virus, it won’t do us any good, unless
the shooting starts. We could be dead, before the virus has a
chance to engage.”

“Bambi, I trust you to do the best you can. I want
every advantage we can muster. First, tweak the damn beacons and
let me know how that goes. We’ll take it one step at a time.”

“Yes sir, one step at a time it is.”

He walked out of the small toilet to find Max and Jo
standing close by and staring at him. He laughed. “Damn, can’t a
guy take a piss?”