Uplift (25 page)

The agents were freaked. Agents were conditioned to instantly react, and would throw themselves between a threat, and the president in a heartbeat. I was doing my best to be no threat. They still hadn’t heard about the military operation against me, so I guess I was living on borrowed time. I did make a note to have Corey send the two sets of armor for these guys ‘cause I do like to back up what I say. I keyed up my auditory senses, and heard one of the agents, request the white house chief of staff, to come see the president. I doubted he’d watch the videos tonight, but he’d have his chief of staff do so. I did wonder whom the president would get to take the language training.

I made it to the turnstile, and saw that Joey was ready to go through with me. Mel jumped right over the fence. Those nanites were hot stuff. Joey goosed my crotch as we went through the turnstile. I headed away from the security building, and acted like I was calling somebody to give me a ride. The shuttle landed on the road out of sight ahead, and we all walked up the darkened ramp, and were whisked away into the night.

“Damn boss. You are one slick dude,” Joey said, and then she elbowed Mel. “Mel. You have not lost your touch. Those guys didn’t know whether to shit, or go blind.” She turned to the rest of the security folk, and related a ‘Joey’s eye view’ of what happened. Then everyone asked Richard what happened with the president.

I told the security detail about the videos we had compiled, and played the videos for them on the monitor in the cargo bay. I sighed afterward, and asked them where they’d like to spend the night. They said the house up near the Linville, North Carolina resort. It was secluded, and cool in the mountains there this time of year. I told Corey to head that way, and have some fresh food, and beverages delivered. I thought the location was sufficiently off the books that it’d be a good safe house for a while. I asked him if he thought I should start giving everyone the ‘alien language, and history synopsis.’

Good a time as any,
he said.

That didn’t instill the greatest confidence in me, but I had been putting it off. I knew it would take a leap of faith from my employees, but what the hell. I had Corey make a copy for everyone in the shuttle. I spoke with Carole through our link, and asked her to make copies available for many of her employees. The module was pretty persuasive, and showed where we were, and why we were doing what we were doing. This module was slightly adaptive, and gave more scientific information for those so inclined. The module tried to evoke more emotion from the mathematically challenged. It depicted the threat, and showed the progress of nova, and supernovas over the last tens of thousands of years as civilization after civilization was destroyed. You could see the pattern if played one after the other, and viewed the march outward in the galaxy. The progresses of the novae were toward our area of the spiral arm.

The language portion was the most convincing. It forced you to view civilization after civilization, as it taught you a different language by showing the context of their languages. You saw the beings – many grotesque, or lithe, or poetic in movement. Corey managed to convey customs, and manners that were both charming, disgusting, and even outright humorous. I thought I’d try to sell it to everyone after a good dinner and sleep. Then we’d have a grand brunch with mimosas to dull the pain of the module. The damn module was painful to take.

      
Linville Lodge – Linville, North Carolina

Joey Sanchez thought the delivery company up here must have had a regular supply of upper class customers because the supplies were top-notch. We partied pretty late. Boss didn’t get butter – he got organic, Irish butter. We didn’t get sparkling wine – we got excellent champagne. No farm raised fish – wild caught salmon straight from Alaska. AcuMint set a fine table. Everyone was in a much better mood than when soldiers at Wallups Island had surrounded us, she thought. She sat up as the boss came in with a very serious look on his face. He had a box of training modules with him, and she knew from experience that some of them hurt, but she didn’t mind. She now had the equivalent of several college educations – they were officially awesome.

Richard Patterson stood in front of his team, and put the box down on the low table in front of him. He looked at each of them individually. Everyone got quiet, but Word had to say something.

“Are these the door prizes boss?” Word said, and several of us groaned.

Hell – would he EVER just keep his mouth shut. We all rolled our eyes.

I shut my eyes briefly, chuckled to myself, then wiped the smile away, and got that serious look again. “I’ve been hiding something from you, and its time to let you in on the secret. This training module will teach you several languages – some of them may no longer exist, but we may need them. This is going to come as a shock to ALL of you. You have seen some weird things, but this will test your limits. It isn’t a joke – it isn’t fiction. The Earth is in grave danger, and I have been trying to get into a position that I could help. I should say – we could help. I told some of this to the soldiers at Wallups Island – they thought I was a bug-eyed nut – certifiably crazy. Without the supporting information it sounds crazy to me, but I have a unique perspective.”

“A friend of mine – Corey, designed these modules. You do not have to take the training. It was intensely painful for me when I did it. I’m sure it will be to you. I won’t think any less of you, but it will clear up many of your questions about our technology. You will be fluent in a dozen languages this afternoon. Modules take about four hours.”

“I’ve always wanted to learn Chinese, and Spanish,” Mel said.

“Mel. These are not Earth languages…” I said, and the room got deathly quiet. “It’s serious, and we may soon be out of time.”

Joey was the first to grab a module. One by one they got them until one was left, and Word just sat there.

“Boss,” Word said. “I talk enough in English…a dozen more languages? Not sure everyone could handle it.”

“No problem. You just won’t know when they are talking about you,” I said.

Word grabbed a module, and I had them put the headpieces on at the same time. I told them to wait, and start them together. We started a countdown from ten together, and when we hit zero the grimacing began.

The team tried to tough it out, but one by one they would cry out. A couple men wet themselves, but I didn’t stop their training. It was like doing an upgrade on a computer, and you didn’t want to stop it midway.

          Mid-Atlantic Regional Space Facility

The chaos of setting up a secure perimeter with new people by replacing soldiers who had been on post for twelve hours, is hard to describe. A hot meal had been the first thing to be set up, and the REMFs, and brass enjoyed it thoroughly before the SF Colonel allowed his Captain to get hot food, and relief for his people. Captain Thomas Pates was one of the most literate men in Special Forces. He had finished all, but his dissertation in Physics at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. His colonel had been called to the command post shared with Admiral Simpkins. A video of their entire operation was playing on the Net, and news feeds around the world. It was NOT complimentary. It was incredibly accurate, and detailed.

The internal memos, and orders were shown, and read. It showed how each order showed the personnel moving out, and was stitched together in a way that would have taken weeks for movie producers. It was about to repeat when the captain was called to the command post.

“I see from your expression that you’ve seen the video this nut put together,” said the colonel. “Admiral Simpkins, and I have just received a parcel from the president of the United States to have one of our soldiers – particularly one who speaks several languages to use it. Which languages do you speak Captain – fluently?”

“Sir. I speak Spanish, French, Arabic, and Mandarin. I am conversational in several more.”

“Don’t care what else you’re conversational with – just fluent. You handle math pretty well also don’t you Captain?” said the Colonel with his words slightly slurred. Seemed he might have been having a nip, or two, and was somehow resentful.

“Yes sir,” he said.

“The President of the United States has given us this training module for a SPECIAL soldier to take, and report back to us. We are ordered to negotiate this situation. We were told this module will require about four hours, and cause a great deal of pain during use. We think you are the man for the job. Here you go Captain. Have a nice night, and we’ll expect your report in the morning.”

“Might I ask what is supposed to be on it?”

“No,” replied the Colonel. “It was supplied to the President of the United States in his office privately by Mister Richard Patterson himself. Wasn’t he the one you were supposed to subdue? We wonder how he got to see the president… We are expecting a thorough report from you in the morning. Dismissed Captain.”

Captain Pates came to attention, saluted the Colonel, did an about face, and marched out of the command post with the module.

Twenty hours without sleep, and now this. Better get some fluids in me, then go some place that is quiet, and horizontal. He shaved, brushed teeth, had an energy bar, and thoroughly used the sanitation kit at the Portolets they had brought up – Portolets –damn.

He read the instructions, put on the headpiece attachments, and started the play. He gritted his teeth, and tears ran down the side of his face before he just screamed because of the pain. The screams were a release, and it became bearable. He had ordered his people to let him finish, but he was a good officer, and they didn’t like seeing him in pain.

Captain Pates was astonished at the quality of the training. He felt he could converse in any of those alien languages he had learned, and he knew…he knew that they were authentic because of pictures, the context, because of the minute detail. He was a voracious science fiction reader, and this wasn’t fiction. He saw why Richard Patterson was doing what he was doing, and thought he was on the right track. He wondered where he was now. The SF Captain decided he must report back to his ‘superiors.’

“Captain Pates reporting, as ordered, sir.”

“Let me get the Admiral, Captain. I can’t wait to hear this report.”

Admiral Simpkins came into the command trailer a few minutes later looking a little worse for wear. “Proceed – Captain,” the Admiral said with no fanfare.

Captain Pates was sure they would put him in the same category as the Patterson guy if he said he agreed with him so he wasn’t sure exactly how to play it.

“Go ahead Captain,” the Colonel said impatiently.

“Sirs. That training module is painful as hell, but it covers technologies that he hasn’t even shown us yet. It does cover some languages with the damndest video sequences I’ve ever seen. I have almost a PhD in physics, and I can understand a lot of the math it covers. It is beyond quantum physics, and shows how he creates a lot of those fields. The language training is perfect for encryption purposes.”

“How so Captain?” asked the colonel.

“We can use it over open radio sources, and our foreign adversaries won’t have a clue – like the Indians during World War II. I think we ought to feign some acceptance of this threat, and get more people to use this module. I recommend some scientists to see what our own people can come up with, and some more of my people. It provided some training in combat tactics that I’ve never seen – anywhere sirs. It is not for the faint of heart…damn painful.”

“Is it brainwashing? What about this threat Patterson talked about?”

“Sir. The evidence is really old on that, and thin. One of the reasons I’d like some of our scientists to check on is the gamma ray bursts from novae, and supernovae that are advancing toward our area of the galaxy. He did have an obscene picture of a snakelike being with tentacles…no shit…pardon sir.”

“Do you believe any of what he said?” asked the Admiral.

“Sir. I think HE believes it, and he put a lot of new tech into that module – tech we can appropriate.”

“So what do you think we should do?” asked the colonel.

“Give him more rope. We can’t get to him right now. Act like we’re convinced, but only back off if he allows a military observer, or two at every site. PsyOps training says the current videos on the Net would damage the military appropriations in the end. He has resources we haven’t seen, so we put a military officer in every facility.”

“That is interesting, because we look incompetent right now, and I don’t like that,” said the colonel. “How can we get more of these modules? How long does it take for a use?”

“It took almost four hours for me. I got the impression his people would make them available whenever we wanted.”

“Get a few hours of rest Captain, and then go negotiate with these people for more modules. I’ll talk over the on-site personnel with the Admiral. Dismissed.”

Captain Pates came to attention, and saluted – which he was loath to do during deployments. Too bad no one would notice, and take out the highest ranked person with a sniper shot. Best way to get rid of brass back in the day was salute them on the battlefield …too bad.

IMPRESSED

Linville Lodge – Linville, North Carolina