Freddy Anderson’s Home: Book 1 (22 page)

Chapter 37
Refueling

O
n the third day, we had company. The media had tried to get to us several times that morning, but our escorts chased them off before they could get pictures. This time, they settled themselves on the top of some hills and waited for us to reach them. Leave it to the media to never give up. Within minutes, we were on television, and by the next morning, we were plastered all over the papers.

The lieutenant’s plan was working, and no one could come near us. We stayed over military and government land for almost the entire trip. On the fourth day, while we were over Nevada, I asked the lieutenant to land.

“Lieutenant, the power does not seem to have drained much, but soon we’re going to be out over the ocean, and we’ll have plenty of company. We may need to go shielded, and that will take more power. I have the replacement disks ready to install and would like to change them out.”

“We’re over government land, and we’re in the middle of the desert. We should be able to land right now. Master Chief, scan the area and find us a landing place away from prying eyes.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Petty Officer Smith, contact our escorts and let them know we’re going to land for refueling. How long will this take, Freddy?”

“About two hours.”

She looked at me hard. “That’s a long time to be sitting out in the open, powered down.”

“I’m sorry, Lieutenant, but I really wasn’t planning to be out here this long.”

“Understood.”

“Lieutenant, there’s a base where we could land at Area 51,” said Master Chief Uniceson. “We’d need clearance, but it’s the safest place.”

“Lieutenant, I have an incoming call from the area commander,” said Petty Officer Smith. “He’s going to allow our escort to land and refuel. He’d like to extend the same courtesy to us.”

“Tell him that I appreciate the courtesy, and we’d be happy to accept.” She started the turn toward the base only a few miles away. Our escort stayed up until we landed.

The base was out in the middle of nowhere, and the scanners showed that a lot of it was underground. There were some interesting elements stored below that my scanners could not identify. After we landed, I went right to work. The entire group was armed and watching to ensure that we had no issues with this commander. He did show up and asked the lieutenant if she needed anything. Shortly after he left, a jeep drove up with her request. She checked it and took it inside.

I finished the replacement in just under the two hours, and we immediately took off. Once we were in the air, our escorts also took off and resumed following us.

“Master Chief, please check that those F-14s following us are manned by the same pilots.”

She had her new equipment out and set up in the flight office. She turned it on and called Admiral Bates, telling him, “Place your phone on ‘scramble,’ please.”

“We’re on scramble now, Lieutenant,” Bates confirmed. “What’s going on? I’m getting all kinds of orders requiring me to lend you every possible courtesy. Seems you’re no longer attached to my base.”

“I’ll fill you in when we return, Admiral. It’s a long story, but you’re right. We now work directly for Dr. Anderson.”

Both my eyes went wide in shock. “I thought—”

The lieutenant put a finger to her lips, letting me know to be quiet.

“I’m sorry, Lieutenant. I had no idea this was going to become such a permanent situation. My condolences,” said the admiral.

She smiled, but I was frowning and placed my arms across my chest. I was ready to read him the riot act, but she shook her head, so I held back.

“I think I can handle the orders, Admiral. I will need to use part of your base as a staging area. We should be there in three days. We have an escort of two fighters that will need refueling.”

“I understand, Lieutenant. I’ll prepare my people.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“What’s it like, flying a house, Lieutenant?”

“Slow, sir, very slow.”

He laughed. “You know it’s all over the news. The whole town is in an uproar. The media knows it’s coming, and they’re here in flocks.”

“Thanks for the warning, Admiral. I’ll take measures to that effect.”

“Good luck, Lieutenant. If you need anything, just let me know.” He hung up.

“Condolences, indeed,” I grumbled. “Why didn’t you let me give him a piece of my mind?”

“Because we’re going to need him,” Lt. James said. “That’s why.”

“Why did you say that you work for me? I know what the president said, but that’s crazy! He can’t believe that.”

“Smith, take over the controls and keep to the plan. Let me know if anything happens. Freddy, we need to talk.”

“Interesting. Their Blues gave a Red power over Grays.”

Everything went black.

Gray said, “Disgusting!”

Green said, “Not so. If we need Grays on a scientific mission, we have to bother the Blues so that we can keep the Grays in line and not destroy the subject. It would be far easier if we had some control.”

Blue said, “Yes, something we have not thought about or tried. We may, though.”

Gray looked at Blue, with total shock registering in rippling shades of gray.

Blue said, “Continue.”

Chapter 38
The Answers to the Cons—Seems Simple, Doesn’t It?

L
t. James and I went into the living room and sat down. Everyone was there except Petty Officer Smith and the master chief. They had the flight watch.

The lieutenant started. “Freddy, you’ve made your concerns known to me, and now I’m ready to give my arguments. Colleen, please place the chart of his concerns on the wall.” After I read them over, she asked, “Are these correct?”

I agreed that they were.

“Let’s take the first one: increased government knowledge and influence regarding your projects, which you rated five. I’ve thought about this and realize that you’re limiting yourself. You’re tying your own hands and making it harder for you to complete your projects.”

“How’s that, Lieutenant?”

“I talked with several people. The best way—and the only
good
way—to market products like the power inserts, which are very volatile to politics, would be to fully test them. After they’ve been completely tested and proven, patent them, and let the government run the contract out to everyone. You’d get the profits you need, and at the same time, you’ll be hidden so deep in red tape that no one would find you. Even if they did find you, they would not care, because killing you would not affect the process. Also, if the president doesn’t know what’s going on, she’ll get nervous, and you don’t want that. You already have government involvement on moving your home. A fighter escort would never be given to just Freddy Anderson. You have a presidential detachment flying this house and therefore, you get every courtesy the government can possibly give. Without us, you wouldn’t have gotten twenty miles before the FAA had you brought down. You need our protection.”

She waited for me to dispute this, but I just looked at her and said, “So the ensign found a way in?”

“Yes, she did, and she said it wasn’t all that hard. In fact, she found three ways in.” I must have turned red, as she said, “Nothing to be embarrassed about, kid. She’s the best there is at escaping—that’s the main reason she’s on the team. She just reversed the process and tried to escape into your home. She’s been there, camping out, since the first day. Oh, by the way, when we get back, Maggie would like to know if you’d fix her broken leg.”

I stood up, surprised by the amount of concern I was feeling. Colleen placed a hand on my arm and pulled me back down. “She’ll be okay,” Colleen said. “It’s just a leg, and she’s young.”

“Tell her I would be happy to heal her leg.”

“I already did, dear.”

I looked at Colleen and smiled.

“You see, Freddy,” said Lt. James, “it’s that kind of concern that makes it hard for us not to want to protect you. You’re the kid brother we all wish we had. Let’s go on.”

“Two: security risk—the personnel changes and people who transfer out who may talk about what they’ve seen. You rated that an eight. I talked with the president about this, so she called an emergency closed session with the House and Senate. By unanimous vote, it was decided and a bill was signed into law for the creation of a special presidential detachment for the protection of Freddy Anderson.” She pulled out a piece of paper and read from it. “‘The detachment will be fully funded by a special fund from the office of the president of the United States. The detachment’s sole purpose is to protect Dr. Freddy Anderson and his work from adverse private and political situations and to take all actions necessary for the continued development of technological inventions by Dr. Anderson. Furthermore, no person, including the president, will have control to override Dr. Anderson’s orders, as long as the leader of the detachment believes that such orders do not jeopardize the security of the United States.’ There’s a lot more, and you need to read it. It gives you full authority to select people to fill the positions. It gives you the right to reject or replace personnel for no reason at all. They know you can read emotions and expect you to screen everyone who joins the group. That seems like it puts a lot on your shoulders, but if you can trust the person you put in charge—and yes, you get to select that person too—then that person can use that lie detector of yours to screen people for you, and you’ll only need to be notified of the decisions.”

“I can’t believe that Congress signed that into law,” I said. “Do they understand what they just gave me? They must want something from me.”

“Yes, they do, Freddy. They want your inventions. They have done several studies of you and think you’re going to build a spaceship or at least invent everything needed to build one.” There’s no way she could miss the guilty look on my face. “Freddy, you’re not hard to read, and anyone who got his hands on you could easily get information out of you. How far along are you?”

“I have the plans for a shuttle and most of the plans for a destroyer now. I was hoping that after I get my house in place, I would have time to build it.”

“Destroyer?”

“You know, a ship with the ability to protect my interests.”

“We’ll talk about this later. Therefore, it’s this detachment’s job to ensure you get that time. Let’s continue, shall we? Number three: human interference and mental distractions, which you rated an eight. Freddy, I can’t control the fact that there will be people around, but you get to screen each one, and if anyone leaks too much emotion and disturbs you, you can have that person transferred. With regard to your taking care of them, they can take care of themselves. They will be
your
cooks,
your
housekeepers,
your
personal shoppers for supplies or do anything else you need or want them to do. They’ll even take care of the grounds, be your gardeners, if necessary. You won’t have to take care of them, and you won’t have to take care of yourself; they’ll do that for you.”

“Why do you keep saying ‘they’? If I am to choose someone to stay with me, it will be your team, and you will be in charge, so stop with the third-party stuff.”

Her emotions peaked, but she showed nothing. “Very well. Number four: lack of control, which you rated five. I think we already hit on that one. You get your choice. Number five: teasing, laughing, and disgust. You rated this a three. You want to try different things, like swimming in the nude. If you run around nude, then expect to be laughed at. We would all get used to it, but you’re going to receive adverse emotions every time you’re somewhere other than within your own property. I can’t help the fact that you’re empathic, but ordering people to hold back would be unproductive. It’s contrary to human nature. You’ve got another problem—what about love and crushes? All of these emotions will come out eventually. You’re growing up, and people will start looking at you differently. Don’t you think you’d better get used to it in a controlled environment, so that it won’t surprise you when you visit other places, like Washington, DC?”

“Yes, well
 …
that does make sense,” I said.

“Number six: lack of privacy. You rated this high—a nine. But realize that if everyone knows about your abilities, then they won’t be as afraid of what you can do, because their minds will be on what you can do for them instead. They know that you can read minds, but they also know that you won’t do so without permission or if you’re threatened. They tried to bribe you into doing things for them, didn’t they?”

“Yes, they did!” I said with contempt.”

“Well, they believe that moral stance of yours makes you harmless, now that they know that you refuse to use your abilities to do bad things. As long as you remain steadfast in that stance, then they won’t care. As long as they don’t think you’re after them, then everything’s fine. Number seven: witnesses to your little pranks. This obviously isn’t very important to you, since you gave it a two, but it is a worry for me. You’re dangerous, and I want to know about any pranks you might want to pull before you do them. I don’t want to wake up to find myself floating on my bed in the middle of the ocean, or something worse.” She pursed her lips and gave me a stern look.

I said innocently, “Okay, I’ll be good.”

She looked skeptical but continued. “Number eight: projects to become national security issues. This you rated ten. When I talked to the president, she nearly had a fit, telling me that your projects already
are
national security issues. She emphasized that I am ordered to do anything possible to ensure that the media does not get hold of information related to anything you are doing.”

“That attitude may save the world, Lt. James,” I said, and everyone stared at me for a second.

“Continuing on
 … number nine: g
etting attached to people and their dying. This one you gave your highest priority—ten. Do you remember what Colleen said?”

“Yes.”

“Have you thought about it?”

“Yes, I have,” I said. “It comes down to this: no matter what life brings, it’s not worth living if you don’t love. That includes your family, your friends, your job, everything. It’s not my fault that God decided to let my mother and father die, and it’s not God’s fault that it happened. It’s no one’s fault. I’ll concede number nine on the grounds that I need to love and that with life comes death. I should rejoice in one and expect the other.”

“That’s very true, sweetheart,” Lt. James said kindly. “What about the other eight?”

“I’ll concede numbers two and four, on the grounds that I can scan each person and select the ones I think will work, and I can change my mind at any time about that person. I’ll concede number three, gladly, if you can take some of the mundane work off my hands. Numbers five and seven are small issues, and you’re right. Number eight is important, and I hope the president is telling the truth, as the media can cause a lot of pressure, and she may buckle. Numbers one and six … we still need to talk about those. I’m not convinced that the government will give up control so easily.”

We talked for hours and finally, I gave in, on the condition that this was a tentative plan for a trial period of one year. I wanted to make it on a day-to-day basis, but the lieutenant said that would not be fair to anyone, so I agreed to a one-year trial. If it worked out, then I would extend it for five more years. She agreed that was fair. By the time we were finished, it was late and time for bed.

Green took a deep breath.

Everything went black.

Blue asked, “What is wrong, Green?”

“I am becoming tired. This child’s mind is stronger than mine, and he is fighting. I am afraid that he will learn as much from us as we learn from him.”

Blue thought on that for a turn. “Green, let him look and learn.”

Green and Gray looked astonished.

Blue added, “I will take full responsibility. Don’t fight him. A Green to a Red of another species. You should be able to pass information to him, and he may actually understand. Give him mostly history. He will be so busy trying to assimilate the information that he will not have a chance to grab technology or the way to get out of his present situation. In addition, you will be able to work longer.”

“Very good idea,” said Green.

“Please continue.”