Freddy Anderson’s Home: Book 1 (17 page)

Chapter 27
Whoops, I Think a Visit from the Navy Would Be Good

B
ack at home, I made a short but wide tunnel in the side of the cliff and moved everything inside. I had plenty of time to just relax now, so I tried on the earrings that Becky had given me. They were surprisingly comfortable, and I enjoyed wearing them immensely. The bells were fun and did remind me of Becky.

I had plenty of power with the two generators that the army had not destroyed, so I continued working on setting up things. Two weeks later, the lieutenant called to tell me that a lot of equipment just had come in and that some of it was quite large. I told her I’d be right there.

I flew to the base and saw that nearly everything I’d reordered was there, plus a lot of the things I’d ordered from town. This would keep me busy for a while. Now, if I could just get my new generators. The big items were the metals that I had requested. The machines I ordered were also there. One was much bigger than I expected, but I could work with it. I thanked them and took it all home—in eight trips.

The first things I hooked up were the washers and dryers. I didn’t have a house, but I had plenty of dirty clothes. I had ordered five of each so that I could get everything done quickly. Next, I unpacked the hot water heater and hooked it up. This was a new design that took up almost no room. It heated water on demand with a continuous loop. Everything worked really well, and soon I was pulling out clean clothes from the washers. They were a little small, though. I thought about that, as I had dried them on the highest heat. When I finally figured out what had happened, it was too late. I took my pants out of the dryer and could not get them on—and it was the same with almost everything else. I was sitting there in my birthday suit with nothing to wear. It occurred to me that I might need to cut the temperature on the hot water heater to below 175 degrees Fahrenheit.

I called the lieutenant to ask if she could bring me some new clothes. She said she’d be glad to shop for me and bring the clothes out to my home.

I went back to work. First, I looked up the correct temperature for a water heater and set it to 135 degrees Fahrenheit. Next, the lieutenant would need a place to land. I had the landing platforms, but they were covered with equipment while I assembled and installed the lights. These installed flush, so I had to do some tiny drilling and run a trench around in which to place the wire. Then I had to fill it with rock and compact it down, flush with the rest. I also needed to roughen the walking areas, as they were like glass and very slippery, especially when wet. Another learning experience and a sore back end.

The lieutenant called me back the next day to say that she had everything.

“Great, Susan, and a big thanks!” I said. “I’ll scan the area and if it’s safe, you can land your helicopter on the landing pad. I’ll have it lighted for you.”

“Those are the round, flat areas I saw in the tapes?”

“Yes, the center one is all clear. If the pad is lighted, then it’s okay to land. Give me a few minutes to scan and turn off the protective grid.”

“I’ll be there in an hour,” she said.

Everything scanned fine, so I turned off the grid and turned on the lights. I was wearing the few things I could piece together or that stretched enough to get on. I was determined to see Becky this week and have her teach me how to do laundry. I could use the rest anyway. Besides, I missed Becky.

In exactly one hour, the lieutenant’s helicopter showed up on my warning scanner. She flew over once and then circled around and landed directly in the center of the pad. She climbed out with two others. I ran over to help her with the packages, and that’s when the master chief reached out and grabbed me. She had been trying to get to me every time I was off the base since we made that bet that they could not sneak up on me. I would have detected her, but I did not use the scanner for such, and I turned it off once I was sure everything was safe. The lieutenant was surprised and yelled, “Master Chief, what are you doing?”

“Lieutenant,” I said, “she was just playing with me—and she won the bet.”

The lieutenant looked at us and said, “I had forgotten all about that.”

“She was not supposed to come on my land, though, but now that I think back on the bet, I forgot to state that. Well, I said I would grant one thing within reason. Any idea what you want?”

“Yes,” said the master chief. “Any chance we could come out here and guard you?”

“That’s not within reason, Master Chief.”

“Then the lieutenant and I will come up with something.”

I thanked the lieutenant for bringing me some clothes and wrote her a check for the amount I owed her. As I handed it to her, she looked around with her mouth open. I could read the astonishment in her mind. “Big change, isn’t it, Lieutenant?”

“Big change isn’t the half of it. I could bring a division of engineers out here, and they couldn’t do this in a year. It’s been only three months.”

“If you don’t mind the mess, Lieutenant, I’d be glad to show you around. I’m leaving in an hour anyway.”

“Why?” she asked. “Where to this time?”

“The Seaward Inn. I need to get someone to show me how to wash my clothes so that I don’t shrink them again.”

The lieutenant shook her head. “They won’t be able to help you for a day or two. The boats are coming in tonight, and everyone’s going to be busy. Petty Officer Smith can help you, though. She’s very good at laundry. The master chief, ensign, and I will look around here, if that’s all right.”

“You can help me?” I asked Petty Officer Smith.

“I should think so. I come from a family of fourteen, so I know how to do laundry. I’ll get you started while the others wander around for a while.”

“I should show them around,” I suggested.

“They can find their way around, believe me.”

“Okay, but let me tell them a few things first. Lieutenant, please don’t press any buttons on anything you find. If you just can’t help it, and you find you have to press something, point it away from me. Aim it at the water, and if you’re not absolutely sure which end the energy comes out of, then don’t stand behind it.”

Her eyes got wide, and she said, “Of course.”

“If you fall into the water, swim to the center ramp over there,” I said, pointing to it. “The others are still like glass. I haven’t had a chance to roughen them up yet. Be careful—things are slippery.”

“Understood.”

“Don’t go into the cave over there, as I have my tunneler digging in there, and it could be very dangerous. Okay, that’s all. Let’s go.”

As Petty Officer Smith and I headed off to do laundry, the lieutenant said, “I want to see that opening to the ocean. There seems to be a ledge going most of the way around.”

“Lieutenant, take the skid if you want to do that.” I pointed to where it was. Then Petty Officer Smith—Marian—and I went to my laundry area. Marian was happy to see five washers and dryers all in a row.

I had picked up a tractor beam gun—I called it a TBG—and had it close to me at all times. The TBG was my newest small invention, a tractor beam that could hold, pull, or repel. I could sense it made Marian nervous—it did look a little unfriendly. We talked and sorted clothes, and she showed me how not to turn my clothes pink or shrink them. About halfway through the wash cycle, the lieutenant and master chief returned but immediately took off to look at other sights. Marian and I were putting the wet clothes into the dryers when I saw the ensign slip on the stairway and fall over the side. I pulled out the TBG and shot at her on wide beam. I made a perfect catch—she stopped in midair. I’d had it set on “hold,” and now I put it on “pull” and moved her toward us while slowly bringing it toward ground level. When the ensign was only an inch from the floor and ten feet away from us, I turned off the TBG and set it down.

I walked over to her and put my hand on her arm, using my abilities to check her out internally. She was in great shape but a little shaken up. “Ensign, please be careful. I would feel really bad if you got hurt.”

She grabbed me and hugged me so tightly that I thought my eyeballs were going to pop out. The lieutenant and master chief came running up. “Are you all right, Daphne?” asked the lieutenant.

Daphne wiped tears from her eyes. “I’m okay, thanks to Freddy.” She held me at arm’s length and said, “You saved my life. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” I said with a smile.

The lieutenant was looking at my machine. “What is this?”

Marian said, “It’s some sort of tractor beam. It holds and pulls, and I would bet the other setting is for push. Right, Freddy? I’ll bet these adjustments are for the intensity of the beam.”

“Marian,” I asked, “what academic degree do you have?”

“I have a master’s in aerospace design from the University of Washington and a doctorate in physics from Stanford.”

“Do you have any idea what uses this device can have?” asked the master chief as she picked up the TBG and examined it.

I reached over and took the TBG from the master chief. “I know what I need it for, and that’s why I invented it,” I informed her. “I needed to pull cables through little holes to get power to the lights.”

The master chief asked, “How powerful is this, and what do you have powering it?”

“This isn’t patented yet,” I said. “Information is strictly limited. Next subject?”

No one spoke until finally, the lieutenant broke the silence. “Freddy, someday you’ll come to trust us a little more.”

“I let you come out here and look around. That’s more trust than I’ve extended to anyone. I do appreciate your help, and I want this to work out, but I’m sure you’re working for the government and will do whatever they tell you to do. Be honest now; you’re going to report everything you saw here today, including my TBG, aren’t you?”

“Yes, I am, because those are my orders.”

“It’s not a matter of trust, Lieutenant. I trust you to do exactly what your orders say you must do, and right now those orders include reporting everything you see or hear, correct?”

“Correct.”

“Then we have a problem, don’t we? And I don’t think this problem will go away.”

“No, it probably won’t,” she agreed. “Next subject. You mounted a scanner on your skid so we used it. The channel is wide enough and deep enough to allow a very large ship to enter this base. Why?”

“To bring my supplies directly here. I’m hoping that bringing supplies in by ship or barge will be simpler. Once my home is finished, I’m going to work on a project that will require a large amount of supplies.”

“A project?”

“Oh yes, I have a long list of projects, but this one is extremely important. I’m going to …” I looked at them and said, “Twiddle my thumbs until you all leave so I can get back to work. Thank you very much for teaching me how to do laundry, Marian.”

I showed them to the landing pad and after hugs and good-byes, I watched them take off.
Man, I need to be more careful with my informa
tion.

“So, what is the problem with not having clothes?”

Everything went a little dim.

“Master,” said the Green. “This species seems to be paranoid about showing their bodies to others of the same species.” Proudly, he added, “In fact, we have found out that the politicians have made it against their laws.”

“You have to be kidding.”

“No, master, in most places on this planet, it is against the prescribed regulations. There are a few small areas where nudity is allowed, but those are few.”

“Considering how ugly these humans are, I would have to agree with the politicians on this subject.”

The Blue reached out with a tentacle and tapped the Gray very hard on the top of the head.

The Gray quickly ordered, “Continue.”

Chapter 28
You Need a License for the Silliest Things

N
ow that I had clothes to wear, I started working on the indentation for my home. One of the reasons I needed to go to South Carolina and take measurements was because I needed to ensure that the foundation would fit exactly into the indentation. When I called, I was told that the house would be ready in less than a week. My house was being built to be completely self-sufficient. It was to be up on blocks so it would be above the ground, with its own foundation of reinforced concrete, a sewage container, and everything a house would need. I had supplied the manufacturer with a platform to build it on. I had Ethan Allen do the interior in Victorian.

I used the tunneler to make the indentation that the house would sit down into. The rock on which it would sit was as solid as steel and would last forever. Mommy had taught me that to make a cake you needed a great foundation—something to put the cake on—or it would fall. I was determined that my house would not fall. Everything was built far better than federal and California state regulations. I set the place for the septic tank, and made the places, and ran cable for the power and water. The water storage tank had come in, so I planted it into the ground and connected it to the water coming from the mountain. I had great water pressure.

I connected two closed-loop, continuous water heaters, large enough to supply an army. I do tend to go overboard, but why not? It was a big house, and if I had a lot of visitors at one time, I would need the hot water. It took two weeks to get everything ready. There were a lot of little things that still had to be done—outdoor lighting, a walkway to the front door and back door, and a wood shed. When I was finished, I called the house builders, and they told me that everything was ready to go, but they had no idea how I was going to move it, as the house was far too big for the roads.

I called the lieutenant to let her know I was leaving in about an hour for South Carolina to pick up my house.

“How long are you going to stay?”

“I’m not staying. I’ll just fly in, connect up, and fly out with it.”

“Freddy, do you have a license to fly a house?”

I had to think about that one. “No, I don’t.” I giggled. “There’s no such thing.”

“Guess what? Yes, there is, and I have one.”

“How silly, Lieutenant. Why would I need a license to fly a house, and why on earth would you have one?”

“Because I have a license to fly experimental aircraft, and a house would fall into that category.”

“Oh. How long would it take me to get one of those licenses?”

“About two years, if you work hard at it.”

“I don’t have two years to waste trying to get a license to fly something that should never require a license.”

“Where are you planning to fly?”

“About two thousand feet above the ground all the way here, in a straight line.”

“Did you file a flight plan so that other planes won’t be running into you? Did you check to see if the other states have regulations regarding flying over areas that might be restricted?”

“I understand, Lieutenant. Any chance I could talk you into doing a little flying for me?”

“Be happy to, Freddy, for a favor.”

“What favor?”

“It will take some time to get that house back here won’t it?”

“I figure about three days if we don’t land.”

“I want to talk to you about something, just talk. I want a chance to try to persuade you that we would be a benefit to you, not a hindrance, if we guarded you on your land.”

“Lieutenant, we’ve already been over this.”

“Not really. I do not know all your issues, and you do not know all we can do for you. You may turn me down flat, Freddy, but at least I can report that I tried, and you will be working off all the information, not just what you perceive.”

I had to think about that for a minute. “Very well, Lieutenant. I hate to admit that I may not have all the issues out in the open. I will allow you to help me build a pro-and-con list.”

“And if the pros outweigh the cons?”

“One thing at a time, Lieutenant. Let’s buy the goat before we start counting on milk or something like that. If you’re coming along, how many others are you bringing?”

“How many can you fit in the thing you’re flying it with?”

“We’re flying a house, Lieutenant. It can fit quite a few.”

“We’re going to actually fly the entire house?”

“Yes, any problem with that, Lieutenant?”

“No! No! I can do it. I think I’ll bring three others.”

“Very well. I’ll set up air transportation to get us to South Carolina and a limo to the construction site. You get us to the airport and get clearance or whatever to fly my house home. Deal?”

“Deal.”

The Gray exclaimed, “Primitives! We fly houses all the time.”

Everything stayed clear—not perfectly but almost there.

The Green looked at the Blue in frustration.

The Blue said, “Yes, and we’ve been doing it for a little over one hundred years.”

The Gray proudly said, “That’s correct.”

Blue continued, “The problem is, Gray, that they are supposed to be thousands of years behind us still. What caused Freddy’s intellect to soar so high as to bring them to our level through his inventions? Now be quiet.”