Chapter 10

After a little experimenting, I learned how to teleport several people and items along with me when I made jumps up to 100 miles. As we laughingly called ourselves, we Four Musketeers jumped out to where the spaceship had been to see where the alien paved highways led. I was unhappy with that kind of loose end, so I jumped the four of us and the original flier that Replicator had produced for us out to follow the highways to see where they led.

For no good reason we decided to follow the highway that had been used by that box we saw when we first discovered the spaceship. Lucia was the pilot, Juan sat beside her at the left gun, and Sue and I took the rear positions. I didn’t want to do anything special, so I just rode along as if I had never joined the brotherhood. This flier had a power supply and a replicator avatar, so it was kind of like old-home week.

Lucia had us up at about 6,000 feet, so we had a good view of the ground. I had conjured up some binoculars in case we wanted a close look at some spot on the ground, so we could see anything we might be interested in. We had flown past a rectangular, nondescript building near the alien highway when we were suddenly awakened by an explosion a few feet off to our right. The flier was shaken vigorously, but that was the limit of what happened. Our polycarbonate armor did a good job of protecting us from the fragments thrown out by the exploding shell.

I said into the comm unit, “Lucia, increase our speed and bring us around in a circle over that rectangular building that we just passed. I think that was where the shooting was coming from.”

Lucia followed orders and swooped around so that I might have a chance at pinpointing the source of the fire aimed at us. I used the heightened senses that I had learned from the brotherhood and found the site of the gun that was shooting at us. One look through the binoculars showed that the gunners were human. Now, why in the hell were they shooting at us and, for that matter, why were they using antiaircraft weapons?

“Okay, Lucia, I have them pinpointed, so let’s get out of here before they get lucky.” I had her fly west for about five miles and drop to 500 feet in altitude. “I am going back by myself to see what prompted those shots at us. Please wait for me here. I shouldn’t be long.”

I stepped over the side of the flier and dropped to about 100 feet altitude before I stopped falling and began flying. I put on maximum speed and headed back. I continued until I came to the alien road. I slowed to 40 MPH and followed the road until I came close to the rectangular building. At that point, I dropped to almost treetop height and flew toward the gun site. I now wore a special outfit that was a skintight body suit that would change color at my command. Only my eyes, mouth and ears had access to the outside world.

The material the body suit was made from came from the brotherhood’s memory banks and had originated on a planet over 1,200 lightyears away and 200,000 years in the past. It was impervious to any sort of puncture and resisted a blow from a blunt instrument by becoming rigid for the duration of the blow. I was completely confident of my safety when I was wearing the outfit.

I did not carry any weapons because I could conjure up something perfectly lethal in microseconds, so I didn’t want to bother with items that would be mostly decoration. At the moment, my body suit was the color of the tree leaves, so I was functionally invisible. I should remain that way unless I happened to bump into something, and I was trying not to be clumsy.

I quickly found the antiaircraft gun (AA) and moved in as quietly as possible in an effort to hear what was going on. One voice said, “By God, did you see that sucker run? Do you suppose that it really was one of them greenies?”

Another voice said, “I don’t know, but the boss said for us to shoot at anything that got too nosy.”

That was when I said, “Your boss was badly mistaken if he was trying to stay undercover. Please tell me where I can find him for a little discussion.”

“Oh, shit, where did you come from?” The speaker pulled a pistol and pointed it in my general direction. For the moment, I just held up my hands and let him lead me to the rectangular building. We went inside and walked along a hallway for about 50 feet. We went through a side door and there was a desk with a man sitting at it. “Boss, Jim and I just caught this guy wandering around. He wants to talk to you.”

The boss pointed to a chair for me and sent the man with the gun back to his AA. “Who the hell are you, and where did you come from?”

“My name is Hannibal Lee, and I could either be your best friend or your worst enemy. My friends were flying over your building looking for some of the green alien creatures when they took a shot at us. We were on a peaceful mission as far as humans are concerned, so we ran before our flier could be damaged. I heard the men comment that you did not want to be noticed, but shooting at passing fliers like that is certainly no way to remain unnoticed. Please tell me why you shot at us.”

“Those green aliens have been harassing us, including flying over us and occasionally dropping a small bomb. None of my people have been killed yet, but we don’t know how much longer that will last.”

“You probably will not be bothered much longer. My friends and I destroyed the home of the aliens about a week ago, and the green things are nothing but robots. They will run down soon from lack of renewed programming, so just leave them alone, and they will probably leave you alone pretty soon.”

“Yeah, we saw the big explosion from that direction. Thanks for getting rid of the bastards. What are you doing here?”

“We just wanted to make sure that we had done a complete job, and we must have, judging from that monster hole in the ground. We are from Worcester, and are just scouting the general situation. What are you doing?”

“We are trying to set up a little town here. We have 17 men and 13 women, so things get a little testy at times, if you will pardon the pun. However, we have talked some more women into joining us, so things should ease off before long. The replicators are doing a great job for us, so we should get along fine if people will leave us alone.”

“Our people in Worcester are trying to encourage groups like yours, so you might give them a call if you need some support. Currently, there are over 2,000 people in their little community, and you could probably join them if you wanted to. If not, they would certainly be willing to provide you with moral support if you want it. I seemed to pull a radio out of my fanny pack, which I had also just conjured up, and handed it to him. You can call them with that radio in the daytime on 14.0 Mhz and at night on 3.85 Mhz. Use my name if you like—my father mostly runs the place.”

“Hey, thanks, Man. I’ll call tonight. Would you like to see what we have done so far. We are proud of it.”

“Sure, let me call in my flier to pick me up, and I can tour the place while I wait on them. Just please tell your people not to shoot at them.”

I got Sue on my radio and told her what I had found out. I asked to be picked up at the rectangular building and assured her that nobody was going to shoot at them this time. I took the quick tour and was impressed at what they had accomplished. They would be an asset to Double Os.

We flew over the place where the green robots were stationed and found a lot of them just lying on the ground, not making a move. Apparently, they had run out of programming. We headed home, and I used the time to send a message about the people we had just visited and about the robots.

We did this sort of adventuring while I waited for Sue to deliver the baby. Finally, she could take it no longer and had an ultrasound done to determine the baby’s sex. It was a boy, and Sue’s facial expression was that of “un-hu, that’s what I expected.” She immediately went into name picking mode, but she kept coming back to Hannibal, Jr. I was pleased, and she could tell, so that was the name she settled on.