Earth Ship Protectress: Book Two in the Freddy Anderson Chronicles (10 page)

“What do you think, Freddy? I know you’re listening.”

I pathed to her, “
She’s telling the truth, and the generals are with her on this. Ask her if I can look de
eper.”

“Freddy wants to know if he can have permission to look deeper into your mind, Madam President.”

“Yes, anything.”

I paused, thinking.

Melanie asked,
“Aren’t you going to
look?”

“Katie, please tell her that I don’t believe in raping minds. If she’s that willing for me to look, then I don’t need to. And tell her for me: welcome to our
home.”

The commander called, “Stand down, and resume normal duties for visitors. Madam President, Freddy says that he doesn’t need to look into your mind. He can see you’d let him, and that’s enough. He also says welcome to our home.” She moved back to the generals, and as she allowed them to stand up, she said, “I’m sorry, sirs, but you understand.”

“We understand, and thank you. Please tell Freddy that we’re very sorry for frightening him, and thank him for not ordering our executions.”

“He would never do that, General; that’s my job,” she said with steely eyes. “You’re alive because Freddy says that the president is telling the truth and has welcomed her. That means it would be slightly rude to shoot the people she brought with her. On the other hand, please understand that I don’t trust you, and you will be watched at all times.” She turned to the admiral and said in a pleasant voice, “Nice to have you aboard, sir. Everyone, please come up to the house.”

Yellows said, “She is a Black. No wonder it was so difficult to grab her.”

Everything went black, almost. I sensed the little Yellows’ astonishment, and then it all went black completely.

Gray said, “Difficult! She killed eighteen of our best in the attempt. We should have never let this ‘Commander Susan’ go. A Black is the only creature that can kill our royalty. She has that ability and would have used it with her royalty, or ‘president,’ and they would allow it. She can only be a natural Black.” Gray looked at me differently. “He has been surrounded by Blacks for years. The Grays renounce calling him weak.”

Green said, “Our Reds are often surrounded by Grays but never Blacks. That would drive them to suicide. Yet he considers them pen mates.”

The little Yellows said, “We don’t think we understand their relationships. Theirs seem to be far deeper than ours. Please, let us continue.”

Chapter 14
Apologies

T
hey headed toward the house but had to pass the two shuttles to do so. The president was impressed, and so were the generals. One said, “It’s too bad that the navy gets all the ships.”

The admiral asked, “Do they actually fly in space?”

The commander replied, “You need to ask Freddy that question. Just for your information, not everything Freddy has invented is for the navy. But it will take some talking to get him to trust you enough to let them loose.”

I pathed,
“Now, how did she know that! K
atie?”

“
Yes, Fr
eddy?”

“Are you peeking into my
mind?”

“Stop thinking out loud when you’re inventing. You know I can’t block
yet.”

“Remind me to teach
you.”

“Thank you for saving my n
iece.”

“You’re welcome, but next time, let’s warn the commander first.”
I showed her why.

She laughed one of those “thank God it didn’t happen” kind of little laughs.

Everything must have been too much, as my legs gave out. Colleen grabbed me before I hit the floor.

“What’s wrong, Freddy?” Melanie asked, worried.

Colleen said quietly, “He needs to sit down. His little legs are very weak after all that work, then worry, then depression, which caused him to sleep for the last four days without food or water, and now all this excitement. It’s a wonder he’s been able to stay standing this long.”

“Was I really asleep for four days?”

“Yes, Freddy, and we were very worried. I’m going to leave you here with Maggie. You need some water, so I’ll be right back. Don’t you dare argue with me or tell me that you’re not thirsty.”

“But I’m
…
”
I saw a look of stubbornness cross her face and knew that I’d lose this time, so I said, “Thanks.”

She smiled and left for the kitchen, saying, “That’s better.”

She came back out in less than a minute. “Dinner is almost ready, so Cooky won’t let me ruin your appetite, but she gave me this for you instead.” It was cherry Kool-Aid, which is my favorite. “She says the sugar will do you good.” She handed a second glass to Melanie.

“Thanks, ma’am,” Melanie said.

“You’re welcome, young lady. So you’re Katie’s niece? What are you doing here?”

“I can answer that.” The president had just come inside with the admiral, the commander, the two generals, and half the SEAL team. “Hello, Freddy. I want to apologize face-to-face for my failure to put a stop to the army’s interference. I’m very sorry.”

I tried to stand up, but Colleen put a hand on my shoulder and said, “He’s weak, Madam President. If he stands up right now, there’s a good chance he’d fall right back down.”

I put my hand out and said to the president, “Still friends?”

She happily took my hand. “Still friends and hopefully always will be. As you know by now, this is Melanie Orgonna, and she’s a telepath. Freddy, when you showed us your ability to read minds, the government started looking really close at how they could protect me.”

“I would never harm you.”

“Not protection from you, Freddy. With you, we were very lucky. We had a kind, morally stable American who wants nothing more than to invent and build. This is a quote from the FBI report I received on you: ‘A kind kid who would never harm anyone intentionally.’ Think, though—what if it was a spy? What if the telepath was from a hostile country, or what if he or she had no morals regarding scanning my mind? This country would be in deep trouble. The FBI had no solution until you gave us one.”

“Me?”

“That’s right. When you came to see me the last time, you said that I should have my own telepath to help me know when someone was lying to me.”

“I remember that very clearly. It was just after the meeting with those congressmen. They lied a lot.”

“Yes, they did, but because you were there, they had to tell the truth—and every bit of it. That saved us a lot of trouble and made honest men of them all—for at least a little while. The FBI decided to find someone with this capability, so they did a nationwide search. Freddy, you wouldn’t believe how many people can receive or transmit using telepathy.”

“Being a telepath, yes, I would.”

“That’s true, but you know that most are not strong enough to actually do anything with it?”

I said, “Most people burn themselves out and can never use it again. When emotions run high, like when telepaths become hurt or come close to dying, those people transmit with everything they have on a wide range. They don’t do it on purpose. They don’t even know they can. It just happens. Others who are especially close to them receive just enough to understand something has happened. I’m sure all of us have heard of people who have known that someone close to them was in trouble, even if that person was across town. Many people have this experience but usually only once with an individual, as the individual burns himself or herself out on that initial burst of sending. That’s why I need to stay away from big cities as much as possible. My shields tend to come down a little when I sleep and relax. Each time they burn themselves out, I hear it and wake up. It drives me nuts.”

She smiled. “That’s exactly how we found most of our candidates to be. We looked for people who complained that they were hearing things. We put some of them together and found out that a few could talk with each other telepathically. Some could only receive, and some could only transmit. On that initial search we found only three who could do both. We were too late for all three of them, as they were already insane.

“The FBI started looking into children then. Over the last six months, we’ve found hundreds of children who have potential. Melanie, here, is the best and most stable. Freddy, she has already pointed out several people who are telepaths who were spying on us. We’ve been using her to clean up this issue. I take her with me to most meetings. She is still underage, and there is a protection group that is monitoring us very closely to ensure we don’t take advantage of her or any of the children. They stay with their parents whenever possible, and now that we know what to do, we’re doing things to ensure they don’t go insane also. These kids are a national resource, and we need them desperately, now that we know that other countries are doing the same thing and using them as spies.”

Katie came in and put an arm around her niece. They were talking mentally, bringing each other up-to-date.

The president continued. “One of the things that Melanie brought up was just what you said. The city is no place for a child telepath to live. We’ve moved many of them and their families out to the country, at the government’s expense.” She looked at the generals. “However, I’m being rude by continuing this conversation. We can talk about this later. Right now, I’d like you to meet Chief of Operations General Alan Slaven. He is the top rank in the army.”

I looked at him coldly with eyes narrowed.

“Dr. Anderson,” he said. “I am truly sorry that in the past I have not been able to maintain cooperation in my ranks. Please be assured that steps have been taken to ensure that this will not happen again.”

“I like that, sir, and I like your use of the word ‘I’ versus ‘they,’ which means that you’re taking responsibility for what has happened. That makes me feel like the problem may be over. I hope it is and will treat it as such, but please understand that you’re going to have to earn my trust.”

“I understand, and I think I would feel the same way, Dr. Anderson. Let me introduce you to my second in command, General Raff Tankman. He and his family have been in the army for seven generations.”

I looked at him. “You poor man. You have my sympathy.”

Susan smiled inside but said, “Freddy, don’t be discourteous.”

I bowed my head and said, “I’m sorry, General. It was just such a good setup line, and I couldn’t help myself.”

The general smiled at the commander. “Well, sometimes I feel the same way. It’s difficult to live up to the expectations of others when your family history is full of heroes.”

The president said, “This is Fleet Admiral Martin Pinn.”

I put out my hand. “Nice to meet you, sir. Do you think I could talk you into helping the commander find some really great pilots? I need some with very quick reflexes who can work in three-dimensional situations with no gravity. We’re going to need a large complement of people to run my destroyer and all the toys that go with it.”

“Nice to finally meet you too, Dr. Anderson. Yes, I’ll help in any way I can.”

“Great! I’ll show you what I mean.” I tried to get up, but my legs were still wobbly.

Colleen guided me back down onto the chair. “It can wait until you’re better. Calm down, Freddy. Stop getting excited. The admiral can wait until tomorrow to see your toys. You can discuss them with him tonight after dinner, if you want, but you won’t be going outside to do anything until I think you can stand up on your own.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

I saw the commander flash Colleen a sign. Colleen helped me stand and said, “It will be time for dinner soon, so let’s go wash up. You didn’t get behind your ears very well, and I need you to concentrate on slowly finishing that Kool-Aid.”

I put my arm around her waist and said, “I’ll be right back. It was very nice meeting all of you.”

Once I was upstairs, the conversation changed. The commander started off. “Admiral, Freddy’s very easy to get along with and loves to show people his ‘toys.’ The problem is that he doesn’t know when to stop. I’m sorry.”

“No need to apologize. That child is very precocious and unreserved, isn’t he? You seem to have a good handle on him. How do you do it?”

“You left out extremely tenacious and highly dangerous to himself. We’ve saved his life three times over the last six months. He gets to working on something and walks off cliffs or into helicopter blades. Watching him is a twenty-four-hours-a-day, 365-days-a-year job. He has no sense of time and will come out of the shop at midnight, wondering why it’s dark. As to your question, it’s easy.” She looked at the generals and said, “We don’t do anything to ruin his trust in us. He loves and trusts everyone naturally, until they harm him or try to do something bad to him. Violate his trust, and that’s it. He never forgets, but he forgives quickly, so you have a chance, generals. Don’t blow it.”

Katie said, “He’s coming back down.”

Blue said, “Interesting bit of fact. We can use that.”

Everything went black. I thought,
Good! About time they started talking. Now for some
fun.

Yellows said, “What did you gain in that?”

Blue answered, “We can gain the trust and friendship of their top scientist if we simply do as this ‘commander’ stated. ‘Don’t do anything to ruin his trust.’ This is an easy thing to do.”

Green said, “He would not have this problem if his entire race were telepathic. It took hundreds of years before we learned to lie while in telepathic bond.”

The bigger Yellows snapped Green hard with a tentacle. “And did he just hear you announce that we have the ability to lie?”

Green exclaimed, while rubbing his head, “Oh no, I did not think.” Yet his emotions screamed,
I will not allow them to deceive a
Red!

Yellows looked at Green skeptically and ordered, “Continue.”