RoustWriter: Blog

This week with Arlene and Jeff:

...Jeff stared at his young wives. "Okay, it doesn't take a genius to tell that both of you are stressed. What gives? Maybe I should have been there for the meeting…"

Arlene broke in to say, "If I'm to lead the unit officially, then I'm going to have to do it on my own, or they'll never respect me."

"So, what happened?"

"Oh, nothing, really. Bill was just being courteous, but Worthington seems to think that Ann and I have won in our interceptor because we're enhanced. Since he was so obnoxious, I chose to have the enhancement done in alphabetical order - which means that he will be last. It's trivial because he will be only one day later than the first four people."

She went on to describe how she had set the enhancements up.

"Do you ever use alphabetical order while training?"

"Not always. It depends on what's going on, but I have several times."

"Then I don't see how he has a gripe. At worst, he will be one day later than some of the others, and there will be another person that will be enhanced at the same time. Even then, he and the other person will only be done after training instead of before. Somebody has to be last. He might as well learn that pissing off the boss will have repercussions. Hell, you would think that as long as he has been a fighter pilot, he would know that."

"He probably got away with it in his fighter group because he is so darn good, but he isn't a team player, and what we're doing takes teamwork. Without Ann, I would suck at this. And unless I miss my guess, he's going to be a glory hound when we meet the Aliens," Arlene finished with a frown...

Have a goodun;

Roust

This week with Arlene and Jeff:

...Butchering the meat and moving most of it into the ice cave still took time, though, but the electric cart saved Morales multiple trips trudging through the cave with a heavy slab of meat slung over his shoulder.

Afterward, Morales wiped the cart clean and managed to get the rolled-up hide into it, which made moving the heavy hide inside the cave much easier. As he struggled to move the hide off the cart, Damn, this thing is heavy, and it's going to take forever to process, but Jasmine and I didn't have to strain our guts out to get the hide inside this time. A short distance past their living area, he put the hide against the wall out of the way. I'll work on that before bedtime. A moment later, he pressed a button to check the level of the small, almost tiny, battery that was nestled beneath the handlebars on the cart. There were four bars on the indicator and two of them were lit. "I can't believe a battery this small has done all that work and still has a half charge left."

Jasmine, who was walking by, smiled at her husband. "Wow, that is amazing." A thought struck, and a grin washed over her face. "Of course. I suspect that you just used a prototype that will hit the market on Earth soon. We might well have been chosen as product testers. Without a doubt, that battery is alien technology that the General's people have adapted to become an Earth product. You can bet that he'll make a few million or even more with this new technology," she finished with a chuckle.

"My guess is that a few billion would be closer," Morales said as he popped the battery out before taking it over to plug it into the charger. "Unless there are bugs that we haven't experienced yet, that thing will sell like crazy."...

Have a goodun;

Roust

This week with Arlene and Jeff:

..."Hit, hit, hit," the AI said as Kathy and Ann in the other craft chortled over the radio as the "enemy" craft went red on everyone's screens.

Arlene was laughing as she teased the other pilot. "Let a newbie take you out. Boy, will that take a while to live down."

There were several undignified comments from the other interceptor. "I thought you said they were rookies," Worthington accused.

"That's a mistake we can all make. We don't want to be overconfident when we tangle with the aliens," Arlene returned over the radio. "All right. This time, we hide, and you guys come looking."...

Have a goodun;

Roust

This week with Arlene and Jeff:

..."I know, Baby. We've talked about this many times…"

"But I have to act now. I can't put it off any longer. The pilots and gunners need to be comfortable with their enhanced bodies before they go into combat. And dammit, I'll be sitting on Ship's bridge safe while two of my wives and the other crews fight it out with those dam Paladins."

"While you go toe-to-toe with the monster alien ship, you mean," Diana growled.

"Ship says she can take the alien ship."

"Yes, but we both know that's just supposition. Ship might well be fighting for her life during that battle."

Jeff motioned for his wife to stand so he could. When she did, he came to his feet. "Should you hear from Joe and Olivia, please ask if they're nearby. I need to get them enhanced ASAP."...

Have a goodun;

Roust

This week with Arlene and Jeff:

...After a few minutes, Morales stopped the vehicle, moved out of the driver's seat and motioned to Jasmine. "Your turn."

"I can't…"

"Bullshit. Push the stick in the direction you want to go. The farther you push it, the faster the crawler goes. You can set a constant speed with the little thumbwheel on the side of the joystick, but we're not going to use that today. The crawler will actually turn on its axis, but that will leave one hell of a divot when you do. Bringing the stick back to center stops the crawler. The pedal down by your feet locks the machine down. Just think emergency brake. Under normal circumstances, you don't need to press that unless you are stopped and want to lock the crawler down before getting off, or if for some reason you want to do an emergency stop."

Jasmine, tense, to put it mildly, started off at a "blinding" one-half mile per hour, but it wasn't long until she had gained confidence, although she did shake them up a couple of times by bringing the joystick back past the center before the machine had time to stop. The result was a very abrupt halt and an instant reversal of direction. "Oops," she said as the girls laughed.

A few minutes later, Jasmine brought the machine to a stop, released her belts, stood and turned to Ashley. "Your turn."

"What? No way," she exclaimed. "I wouldn't know what to do."

"Neither did I, but it's easy. Just stay away from trees. If you want to stop, bring the joystick back to center, or even turn it loose. The stick will come back to center automatically and stop the crawler."...

Have a goodun;

Roust