Chapter 1

The following characters return from the first story:

Cleveland Jensen (Cleve)

Captain, Team Leader of Tiger Team, 6’-5’’ tall, 240 pounds, 35 years old, blue eyes, sandy blond hair and a number of enhancements

Patrisha Ferguson (Trish)

Lieutenant Colonel, former Special Operations Representative to Addison III, 6’-1’’ tall, around 180 pounds, 38D-25-38, 33 or 34 years old, flaming red hair, emerald eyes and a number of enhancements

Joel Luther

Master Sergeant, second in command, 6’-0’’ tall, 195 pounds, 32 years of age, black hair and brown eyes, also a number of enhancements

Lucy Miranda

Master Sergeant, handles the Magic for the Team, 5’-6’’ tall, 140 pounds, 36D-24-36, 30 years old, long black hair, gray eyes, Asian descent and also a number of enhancements

Bob

Male Siberian Tiger, 140 inches long with a 40 inch tail, 44 inches tall at the shoulder, 700 pounds, Cleve’s Partner

Susie

Female Siberian Tiger, 113 inches long with a 36 inch tail, 39 inches tall at the shoulder, 400pounds, Cleve’s Partner

Samson

Male Bald Eagle, 40 inches body length, wing span over 7’-6’’ and weighs 14 pounds, Luther’s Partner

Sara

Female Bald Eagle, 42 inches long, wing span 8’-0’’ and weighs 15 pounds, Trish’s Partner

Colonel Royal

Special Operations S-3, Full Colonel, 6’-0’’ tall, 190 pounds, 45 years old, brown hair, gray eyes, fully enhanced

Sergeant Major Richmond

Trish’s replacement, 6’-0’’ tall, 200 pounds, late 40’s, graying hair, hazel eyes, a number of enhancements

Ralph

Mountain Lion, SGM Richmond’s Partner, Seen only a few times in the first chapter

Despite Colonel Royal’s desire to depart immediately, there were still a number of things to be accomplished before we could depart from Addison III. The most notable of them, following the Change of Command ceremony, was the inventory of all of the items on the property book to ensure that all of the things the Sergeant Major was signing for were in fact present and in good condition. It was conducted with the help of Sergeant Cornplanter and Sergeant Hickory. Nearly everything was accounted for, but there were a few exceptions.

“We are short several stretchers,” Sergeant Cornplanter noted at one point.

“Yes, several were used to remove the dead and injured after the attack on the warehouse the day that Tiger Team arrived,” Colonel Ferguson explained.

“They are an expendable item,” SGM Richmond noted before turning to Sgt. Cornplanter.

“Requisition additional stretchers to bring us up to the allotted number,” he instructed her, and she made a note on her PDU.

The final items in question were the chain guns. Their location was not apparent, and they were not expendable.

“Why do you have two chain guns to begin with?” SGM Richmond asked, before adding, “and where are they?” The Colonel blushed at his remarks.

“It’s not like we use them every day,” she stated, recovering. “The new people really never saw them, as we only used them once. Come with me, and I’ll show them to you,” she finished leading the way to the second floor.

“They’re up here?” the SGM asked, looking around.

“Yes, the height provided the best fields of fire,” the Colonel told him. Sgt. Cornplanter had followed, as she had never seen them either. Luther and I had cleaned, lubed, and reloaded them from the ammunition on hand in the arms room while waiting to receive our orders. The SGM was shaking his head when they returned from the second floor a while later.

“Are they operational?” he was asking the Colonel.

“Come into the office, and I’ll show you the controls, but I don’t think that we want to test fire them with live ammunition,” she told him with a smile.

“But why do you have them in the first place?” he asked, as they entered the office.

“During the rebellion, there were a number of attacks here in the city. As a matter of fact, we used them the first day Tiger Team arrived,” she told him again, as she demonstrated the controls for the two chain guns. The SGM then took over the controls and checked their operation while she was still here to answer any questions that he might have.

“Very impressive, sir, but are you sure that they work?” he asked.

“Yes, I recorded the one time that we used them. It was right after one of the Navy’s destroyers in orbit knocked down a missile on its way here,” she told him, and the rest of us who had gathered in the office, as she changed the settings on the display to show the recording of the two trucks attacking the warehouse. The recording was somewhat brief, just as the original attack had been, and she replayed it in slow motion the second time.

“Very impressive, sir,” the SGM said after viewing the video both times.

On the third day after he had arrived, the Colonel took the Sergeant Major to meet the various leaders of the organizations that he would be dealing with, having finished the inventory late on the second day since he arrived. There was General Miller at Army Headquarters along with a number of his operations and supply people. Next was Chief Investigator Henderson, the people running the space port, and finally there were the people in charge of the first responders, plus a few others in the Addison government.

Ralph’s mobile home and the SGM’s gear and baggage had been delivered two hours after they arrived. Ralph had been a bit uncomfortable on arriving because of the presence of Bob and Susie. I had them remain in their home until after Ralph’s home had arrived, and he was settled in it. They then went to visit him for a short time, but remained outside of his home. Following that, the three of them were allowed out at separate times but never together.

We also needed to meet again with the Eagles, Samson and Sara, to remind them of the plans to move their nest plus them and the two chicks to the shuttle and then to the ship taking us to Ainalhai III. The Eagles were still upset about the nest being covered by a wire top while being moved, and not being able to fly during that time, but refused to leave the chicks in the nest alone.

On the morning of the third day, before taking the SGM to meet the people he would be interacting with, the Colonel made the arrangements to move the Partners’ cage and the nest plus our equipment to the shuttle on the fourth day. She also arranged for the crane to lift the nest off of the roof. We had decided that we wouldn’t cover it until it was loaded onto the trailer moving it to the space port.

The morning of the fourth day since Colonel Royal had arrived, we were all up early to take care of the final details before leaving. The night before Sergeant Hickory had outdone herself with a fantastic meal for all of us. She even made a huge batch of local deer organs and meat in a stew for the three Partners. Even Ralph had enjoyed his share. The Eagles got several sections of a large fish to share with the chicks. It had been a fine farewell party, and we had all enjoyed the local beer and ale, but had needed to head to bed early for the move in the morning.

The crane arrived at 0930, a half hour before the low-bed trailers that would be moving the Partners’ cage and the nest were scheduled to arrive. All of our gear went into the Partners’ cage, and they remained free for a time to eat and get some exercise. Our luggage went onto the general-purpose truck that Sergeant Cornplanter would be driving. We would all be moving in our original truck that Luther would be driving to the spaceport, and SGM Richmond would be driving back. Sergeant Hickory would remain to guard the warehouse with Ralph.

It required some time for the crane to get set up and move into position to lift the nest off the roof. Luther was lifted up to the roof to attach the cable harness to the nest so it could be lifted. He remained up there to attach the harness to the hook when it was time to lift it. He also soothed the Eagles while up there.

The first low-bed trailer arrived just after 1000, and easily pulled the Partners’ cage out of Bay 2 and onto itself. It waited outside the parking area while the second low-bed entered and was positioned so the crane could lower the nest onto it. It was a good thing that Luther had remained with the Eagles and the nest, because as it was picked up and slowly lowered to the waiting trailer, both Eagles and the chicks were very upset and unhappy despite our assurances that everything was okay.

The Colonel and I helped Luther position the wire cover over the nest once the cables had been removed and stored in a pocket on the outside of the nest, as we would need them again on the ship. Both Luther and the Colonel spent time soothing the Eagles mentally before the tractor trailer pulling the low-bed was allowed to proceed out of the compound. They had both decided to ride on the low-bed trailer to the space port with the Eagles. The rest of us and the remaining Partners rode in our original truck, which I now drove.

We followed the two low-bed tractor trailers to the space port, but didn’t need the crane, which had returned to its traveling mode while the Eagles were quieted down, and then it returned to the company that we had rented it from.

At the spaceport, the low-beds were backed up to the shuttle that would carry the cage and the nest. The cage was loaded first, being pulled into the shuttle on its retractable wheels. The nest was next to be loaded, but the Eagles were so upset that we needed to stop the loading to figure out what to do to calm them down.

“Samson has always traveled with me,” Luther reminded us after we had stopped the loading process. “He hates cages and being cooped up,” he added, turning to look at the Colonel.

“I would imagine that Sara is the same,” he added.

“Yes, she has always traveled with me also, but it’s the Eaglets that they are worried about also,” she told him.

“What can we do?” I asked. “They won’t leave the chicks ... Eaglets,” I added.

“Perhaps if we remove the wire top, they would be less anxious and upset,” Luther suggested.

“What would keep them in the nest then?” the Colonel asked.

“They both understand about traveling in aircraft, shuttles, and spaceships, so they should be all right in the shuttle,” Luther told her.

“But not by themselves,” the Colonel replied. “They have never traveled by themselves,” she pointed out.

“NO, they haven’t,” Luther replied in a resigned voice.

“We should both travel with them,” the Colonel suggested.

“You would do that?” he asked in surprise.

“Certainly, Sara is MY Partner after all,” she replied with a smile.

“We’ll need to talk to the pilot and the crew chief about that,” I reminded them. The Crew Chief had been standing by impatiently waiting to finish loading the nest. The Colonel went over to talk to him.

“We don’t have any seats, sir. This is a cargo flight, and all of the seats were removed. I’ll be sitting in the cockpit,” he told her after several seconds in a loud voice.

“I’ll transfer two seats from the other shuttle,” I volunteered to speed things up.

“Well ... well, I’ll speak to the pilot and see what he thinks of the idea,” he finally agreed, leaving to do that.

“Let’s go get those seats before he gets back,” Luther suggested, and both of us left for the other shuttle. The seats weren’t light, but Luther and I are both big strong guys, and we easily managed to move both seats between the shuttles. When we returned to the second shuttle, the pilot, a Navy Lieutenant, was talking to the Colonel.

“Okay, sir, if you’re willing to do it, I’ll go along with you. We’ll be going straight to the ship and not stopping at the space station, so it shouldn’t be a problem,” he agreed. Luther and I fitted the seats into the slots on the deck near the nest before removing the wire cover and stowing it. The Eagles had calmed down some already on learning that their Human Partners would be traveling with them.