Hammer's War 1: Forging the Hammer (10 page)

In the
kitchen, he found Doctor Hammer busily working away making sandwiches for lunch.  “So how is it going in there with Miss Eve?”  Doctor Hammer asked as he put a plate in front of Thad.

Thad
picked up a sandwich and took a big bite “Well apparently I’m a walking talking Rosetta Stone.

“That is very interesting,” Doctor Hammer said as he took a bite of his own sandwich.

“What do you think it means?”  Thad said through a mouth full of sandwich.

“Well it tells me you had a need to be able to move through and fit into any group
.  Being able to speak the language goes a long way from keeping anyone from noticing you.”  Doctor Hammer said then took another bite.

The
two sat and ate lunch while discussing the possible reasons for the different languages he could speak.  After lunch Thad went back to the Holo-room to find the scene had changed and it was not Eve, but Rhonda dressed in a martial arts Gi, standing in the middle of a dojo.  As soon as he entered the room, she did a quick bow then launched into an attack.  Any normal human who was on the other end of the attack would have been looking for their teeth by now. Not Thad. He moved with skill and speed that surprised Rhonda, as he blocked every blow and landed a few of his own.  “Very good Thaddeus, but let’s see how you handle this.”  Again, she attacked and again his skill was as good if not better than hers was.  His lighter bones gave him the edge in speed.  Rhonda could have easily matched it, but she was programmed to run at regular human speed.  The grueling work out went on for an hour and when it was done she had run through every marital art still practiced.

Thad wiped the sweat from his head, “So why did you get to be the one to run me though my paces?”

Rhonda smiled, towel in her hand, as she wiped the rest of the sweat from his brow, “Mom said that you might like to interact with someone else this afternoon and when I found out about this halo-room, she couldn’t keep me out of here.  Besides, I couldn’t miss the chance to get out of that bike and be able to stretch my legs a bit, not to mention the chance to spread them for you.”

Thad blushed at her forwardness, but she looked and felt so real he forgot
for a minute that she was an AI programmed to keep him happy.  He also forgot her sense of sexually had been programmed by an AI that had learned everything about human sexually from media shows.  Therefore, Rhonda didn’t have the normal social blocks to her sexuality.   In a word, she had no inhibitions, and she seemed Hell bent on pleasing him in every way.  She pulled him close and kissed him deeply.  She felt so real, but something about her was missing, smell that was it she had no smell. 

Rhonda
dropped her towel, “Whoops I have dropped my towel.”  She went down to get the towel, and never came back up.

After his time with
Rhonda, he needed a break to rest as well as a shower. He finished his shower and went looking for Doctor Hammer. He found him in the lab working on his latest device.  They spoke for a few minutes tell he felt that he was ready to get back to the Holo-room and finish.

This time he found Eve on a firing
range dressed like a drill instructor, complete with the iconic Round Brown and mirrored aviator sunglasses. He also found Archie there and that puzzled him.  “Hey big Arch what are you doing here?”

It was Eve who answered him, “I was
supposed to shoot with you so you would have something to compare with, but I just hate guns so I uploaded a firearms program into Archie and he will be your partner this time.”

“Who would have known
, a computer that hates firearms, go figure,” Thad said with a bit of a chuckle.

“Oh hush you, now go grab your first weapon and take your place on lane one please.”

Thad did as he was asked. His first gun was a standard issued sidearm to the Federation Star Guard Officers, a Model 2211 laser pistol.  Thad, with Archie in the next lane, went through a series of shooting drills, moving targets, pop ups, and stationary targets, with each weapon. He handled each sidearm as if he had been shooting his whole life.  After each round of shooting was completed, Eve would compare his targets to those of Archie’s, which were perfect.  She determined that Thad was ninety-eight percent as accurate as Archie.

After the
shootout, it did not take a brain surgeon to figure out just what job Thad had before he lost his memory.  He walked into Doctor Hammer’s lab, “I was some kind of special force solider or assassin.  It is the only thing that makes any sense.”

Doctor Hammer did not look up from the circuit board he was working on, “I was worried that is what the data would point to.”

“So we know I’m a grade-A bad ass, so now what?”  Thad asked as he plopped down in a chair.

Doctor Hammer stopped working
, but did not look up.  He pointed at the screen on the end of the table, “I have taken the liberty to have all the necessary documents created.  They are all-legal and give you a real identity.  You are now officially Thaddeus Jay Hammer my son, well on paper anyway.”

“Jay?”

“It was my father’s name and I had to put something in for the middle name or the damn computer would not accept the filing.  Do you have a problem with it?”

Thad looked at all Doctor Hammer documents on the screen and a tear came to his eye, but he was to
o proud to let Doctor Hammer see it so he kept looking at the screen, “Not at all, this is well I…”

“I know.  You don’t have to say anything.  The hard copies are coming in the next post
.  These, as well as the plastic surgery you got when I rebuilt your face, should be enough to keep anyone from figuring out who you really are.  As far as anyone else knows you are and have always been my son.”

“I don’t know what to say or h
ow to thank you,” Thad said choking back tears.

“You have been given another chance at life
son, so if you want to thank me, do good with your life.  Help your fellow beings out. Remember your old life died out there in the desert.”

Thad walked up Doctor Hammer and hugged him, “I will
, dad.”

After the night with the robbers, Thad had become a bit of a local hero, whether he wanted it or not.  Fame was not something he wanted, however it was a small town, and news traveled fast.  The Doctor and Thad headed into town for another supply run and when they had barely exited the old sand crawler, Xandra came running.  She was out of breath, but she tried to talk anyway, “Thad, please help, please come quick.”

“
Breathe Xandra. Take a breath girl, what’s wrong?”  Thad asked.

“It’s
Leonard,” she said.

“Who is
Leonard?”  Thad asked.

Finally Xandra had caught her breath, “He is my maintenance man and has been for many years
.  He is a little slow, if you know what I mean, but he does a good job.  However, lately he has been acting strange.  I think he has some kind of fascination with Dorothy.  He has been watching her and following her around.  For some reason today he snapped or something because he kicked in her door and beat up the client she was servicing.  Now he won’t let her go until she agrees to marry him.  He has a knife and I’m worried that he is going to hurt her.  Please you have to come!  You have to stop him!”

Thad
had no deSire to deal with a problem that clearly had nothing to do with him.  He was not the town Sheriff, but he knew the Sheriff did not have the skills to handle this. He placed his hand on her shoulder, “Okay I will come, but you go fetch the Sheriff.  After all, I’m not the law around here.”

“Okay, but please don’t let him hurt her,” she begged
.

“
He won’t hurt her. I’ll make sure of it,” Thad said as he took off at a full run for the hotel.  Luckily, the general store was not far from the hotel, and he covered the distance quickly.  Thad burst through the front doors to find the lobby filled with girls and customers all looking worried.  In a chair in the corner was a man holding a bag of ice to his face.  His bare chest was covered in his own dried blood. 

Thad strode up to him, “What room?”

“Who the fuck are you?”  The man asked rudely through his broken nose.

Thad did not have the time for this so he grabbed the man by the throat and lifted him out of the chair, “What room were you in?”

“215, room 215!”  The man managed to squeeze out of his crushed throat.  Thad dropped him into the chair and headed for the stairs.  “You’re welcome, asshole,” he said as Thad disappeared up the stairs.

On the second
floor, Thad quickly found the right room.  As he stood outside the door, he changed the sight mode on his eye implant to thermal, checking the room through the wall.  He could see two people, one smaller sitting on the bed, and the other much larger standing next to the bed.  Thad changed the sight mode back to normal then he listened, but all he could hear was Dorothy crying.  Thad was ready to make his move.  He stepped inside the room, “Leonard.”

Leonard
, the maintenance man was big, tall, and wide and not one most people would want to confront.  He had arms like branches, legs like tree trunks, and his belly was large enough that it could be considered almost another person.  It only took Thad one look to see Leonard’s balding head held a damaged brain.

“
Leonard.”

Leonard
turned towards Thad and pointed a long knife at him, “How do you know me?”

Thad started
slowly to inch his way forward, to close the gap between them, “Xandra told me about you, she said you are a really nice guy.”

Leonard
smiled and said, “I like her, she’s nice.”

Thad inched closer, “Yes she is nice
.  She likes you and doesn’t want anyone else to get hurt.”

“I don’t want to hurt anyone else, but Dorothy is mine
!  I love her and she loves me!  I’m not going to let anyone else hurt her no more,” he said shaking his head to emphasize the point.  He noticed Thad was getting closer.  “Stop, don’t you come any closer or I’ll cut you.”

“Okay,
Leonard, okay, but why don’t you put the knife down and we can talk about this?”  Thad said as he halted his advance.

“No,
I will kill her and me before anyone has her again.” Leonard said, grabbing Dorothy by the hair, and pulling her up in front of him.  He pressed the knife to her throat, “I’ll cut her like a pig, if you don’t leave us alone.”

Dorothy was crying, “Please don’t leave
, he will kill me, please Thad, please!”

Thad took another step
closer, slipping his hand over the bedpost.  He turned his body so Leonard could not see him unscrew the fennel from the bedpost.  “Look Leonard, nobody wants to hurt Dorothy. Put down the knife so we can talk about your wedding plans.” 

At
first, Dorothy looked confused, but after a second, she caught on, “Yeah, Leonard please put down the knife and I will marry you.”

Leonard
thought about it and started to lower the knife.  “I knew you loved me,” he said.

Dorothy was
calming quickly now, and working the plan to get herself free, “Yeah Leonard, I have loved you for a long time, but I was too scared to say anything to you about it.”

She was almost free
. Leonard was releasing his grip on her.  Things where looking like they were about to end peacefully when the Sheriff burst into the room gun drawn, “Don’t make me shoot you Leonard. Put the knife down now!”

The
Sheriff’s appearance in the room spooked Leonard and he tightened his grip.  The knife was pressed so tight to Dorothy’s neck this time he broke the skin, blood was starting to trickle down her neck.

Thad’s plan had been fouled by the
Sheriff’s attempt at dealing with the problem.  Now there was nothing left to do, but to take Leonard out.  Thad stepped in front of the Sheriff, to block his shot.  The way the Sheriff was shaking, he almost certainly would hit the girl.  Thad said, “Leonard, do you like games?”

This question threw
Leonard for a loop, “Yeah, what kind of games are you talking about?”

“Catch!
”  Thad yelled launching the fennel from the bedpost.  Thad’s shouting and sudden movement made Leonard drop the knife as the fennel stuck Leonard in the forehead, making a wicked thumping sound.

He let go of Dorothy and grabbed his head
.  “Ouch,” he bellowed as Thad closed the distance in a flash.  He threw Leonard to the ground twisting his arm and pinning him to the floor, or so he thought.  Leonard was a big man who was definitely more muscle than brains.  With his free arm, he pushed at the floor, lifting him and Thad off it.

The
Sheriff mouthed slowly, “Holy Shit!”

Leonard
tossed Thad from his back, so that he flew across the room as if he was a rag doll.  The Sheriff pointed his gun at Leonard, but before he could fire, Leonard rushed him slamming him into the wall.  The two men went through the soft plaster wall landing in a heap of dust and debris.  The Sheriff felt as if all his ribs were shattered; he couldn’t get a breath.  His gun had flung from his hands, as they smashed through the wall.  Leonard got up to his knees, his hands came together over his head, ready to bring them down on top of the Sheriff’s face.  With Leonard’s massive strength, the blow would easily kill him.  Thad appeared from the doorway jumping onto Leonard’s back.  He was trying to get him into a chokehold, but Leonard was so big it was hard for him to get his arm around his neck. Leonard stood up with Thad still on his back.  Once he got to his feet, Thad found himself hanging off the ground by a good six inches.

Leonard
spun left, then right, trying to throw Thad from his back, but Thad held on with an iron grip.  Leonard did the only thing he could think of, he ran backward towards the wall and slammed Thad into it.  This time he didn’t have enough energy to go through both sides of the wall, but the blow was enough to dislodge Thad which left him stunned and stuck in the wall. 

The
Sheriff, however, was back on his feet and was trying to catch his breath when Leonard turned on him.  He lifted his massive hand to strike the Sheriff, but before he could, there was the sound of wood breaking.  Leonard’s eyes rolled up in his head and he stood there for a fraction of a second.  Then his body flopped to the ground revealing the manner of his sudden change in demeanor. 

Dorothy stood over his body with
the handle of a broken bat in her little hands.  She spat on him, “You son of a bitch!  I hope you hang for this.”

Thad had extricated himself from the wall
.  He dropped to his knees, trying to get both of Leonard’s large hands behind his back.

The
Sheriff picked up his gun and said, “Well, that worked I guess.” Grabbing his handcuffs, he dropped down next to Thad and helped put Leonard in cuffs.

Once
Leonard came around, Thad and the Sheriff escorted him down the stairs to the lobby.  Dorothy was right behind them.  As they passed the crowd, Dorothy’s former client saw them, stood up, and opened his big mouth, “Good, you got that crazy son of a bitch!  So now baby you can get back to taking care of me.”

Dorothy was in no mood to deal with this asshole.  She walked up to him and tried to
be nice, “I’m sorry Sir, but I’m done for the day.” 

He didn’
t like her remark, “Look whore, you get your ass back up there and get on your knees!  And after this you will be doing it for free!”

This did not sit well with
her at all.  Saying nothing, she stood, hands curling into fists.  Thad didn’t like the way this guy was talking to her and started to advance towards them.

The man grabbed her left arm, “Let’s go whore!
”  This was all she was going to take. Her fist hit him in his broken nose, smashing it up worse.  Blood flowed anew from his twisted swollen nose.  He let go of her, grabbing his nose.  “You stupid bitch! You broke my nose again.  I’m going to ugly you up so no one will ever want you!”  He slid a knife out from the small of his back.

Before
he could do anything, a vase smashed over his head knocking him to the floor. He tried to get up, but Madam Xandra was standing over him now, holding the chair he had been sitting in.  “No one hurts my girls!” she said as the chair came crashing down, delivering the knockout blow.

Thad looked at Xandra and laughed
.  “Remind me never to get on your bad side.”

She looked at him, “Oh Thad
honey I don’t think you ever could.”  She turned to the Sheriff, “Get this piece of shit out of my hotel!”

“Yes Xandra,” was all he said.

After the excitement at the hotel, Thad met back up with Doctor Hammer at Bob’s for lunch, while Leonard and the John had their lunch in the town’s jail. 

Doctor Hammer had already ordered for them
.  Eyeing small chunks of plaster that were still on Thad’s clothes he said, “So I take it everything was sorted out okay?”

Thad answered as he plopped himself down into a chair, “It’s sorted.”

Doctor Hammer smiled and nodded his head in approval.  Jenna appeared out of nowhere with a tall, cold glass of her lemonade for him.  “Here you go love, large lemonade on the house for the hero.”

Thad blushed a bit, “Jenna, I’m not a
hero, just a guy that helped out.”

Jenna laughed, “Sure,
like you helped out around here.”

“Yeah, something like that
,” he said.  Desperate to change the subject he said, “Hey Jenna, have you ever thought of bottling your lemonade and selling to the truckers?”

She smiled, “I haven’t thought about
it, do you think it would sell?”

Thad finished a long drag off the glass, “Yeah it will sell
.  In fact, I will be your first customer.  Put me down for two cases a month from now on.”

Jenna giggled, “Okay then I will do it, but I’m going to need some capital to get started.”

“Leave that to me,” Doctor Hammer said.

In six
months’ time, Jenna’s lemonade business was so busy she had to build an automated bottling factory.  The increase in business was good for the whole town.  Construction workers came and some of them chose to stay, opening up their own businesses in Nome.

The old
spaceport was seeing so much more traffic that the landing fees and taxes from the shipping was more than enough to remodel the building.  After the makeover, the spaceport was looking like any updated spaceport found anywhere in the inner planets and the memory of old port was fading fast.  The hotel, general store, and Bob’s all got makeovers, even the robot Indian in front of the general store got a fresh coat of paint.

Dorothy
left Nome a few days after the incident with Leonard. Her John spent a night in jail before being sent off world on the next outbound ship.  As for Leonard, he spent a few months in jail before the judge let him go because he was slow.
  Of
course, he was fired from the hotel.  The only work he could find was sweeping up at the general store, and most of the people in the town would have nothing to do with him now.