A Vulcan Colony story in the Swarm Cycle Universe

The Swarm Cycle Universe Copyright© 2007 The Thinking Horndog

3:00 AM
Midtown Plaza Tower

Nate slotted his radio into the charger as he sat down at the security desk. “Ok, all the floors are still there. Can you slide me the log book please, Sally.” Sally Renquist was closely watching the cameras and slid the book over to him by feel as much as anything. Nate was glad she worked with him three nights a week. Pete, the last guard, who Sally had replaced, was an idiot who had been caught sleeping way too many times before the security contractor finally fired and replaced him. And Rudy, the relief guard, had the foulest mouth that Nate had ever heard. Sally had a great personality and could carry on an intelligent conversation while competently doing her job. He expected her to last about six months here, before they gave her a shift to run, or maybe even make her the lead on a smaller site someplace else.

“Nate. Look at cameras six and seven. Something’s going on.”

Nate looked at the main lobby doors to the downtown tower. “Yeah, looks like a bunch of people gathering for something. Lobby doors are locked but they might be getting ready for a smash and grab. I’ll call the guys. See if you can swing camera thirteen around to cover them from another angle.” He grabbed the base station microphone. “ Rover 3 and Rover 4 from Base. Something’s going on outside the second floor lobby entrance on King Street. Head down to the mezzanine. Come down from the tower but hold on three until I see how serious it is.”

“Rover 3.”

“Rover 4.”

“Nate, they are going after the door locks!”

“Call 911!” He keyed the mike. “Rovers, they are trying for the doors! There are way too many to confront. Get into a concealed location. There’s a bunch of them. Observe and report, but don’t get hurt.” Nate took out his special key and opened up the gun safe. “Dang, I hate this set up. Supervisor is the only authorized armed person. Lock the door behind me.” He slapped the radio back into his holster.

“Nate. The phones are down. And our cells can’t connect in here.”

“Call the Rovers, see if one of them has a cell and can call it in. Try the Internet, even. I have to go.”

One year on site patrolling a high rise on the late shift and you learn your way around. Nate turned down the radio’s volume to the minimum he could hear as he ran up the side service stairs. There were three floors of commercial shops in the Galleria, then seven floors of offices. He was supposed to protect that. What he was really going to do was try to keep the ... uhh, what were they anyway? They didn’t look like gang-bangers. Anyway, the next forty floors were condos. The elevators and stairs needed keycards for access. Nate had the fire keys for the elevators. He was going to shut them down if he could and make people do things the slow way. They were pass-card locked, but this would keep residents from coming down into the mess. All of the shops were alarmed. And just taking the phones out ... wonder how they did that ... Ok, yeah, he had heard of call phone neutralizers. Well, the alarms were on separate circuits.

“Lead, this is Base. Lead, if can you hear me, come in please!” Sally was sounding a bit panicky. Well, he was getting a bit panicky, also. He could hear a BUNCH of people in the lobby now.

“Go ahead, Base.” He was keeping his voice down and he was happy at how steady he sounded.

“Rovers both have their cell phones. Neither one works. Internet connection is down. I tried to lock down all interior doors to cardkey access only. They are just walking thru them like they have valid master cardkeys.”

“OK, lock the office. Check the cameras first to see if the hall is clear. Take your phone and a radio and get out the back way. Then call from outside.”

“Nathan Becker. Stop! Those actions will not be necessary.” What the ... That’s OUR radio channel!

“Security Lead to intruders. Leave now and don’t come back. I am armed and the police are en route.” Yeah, right! They’ll believe that!

“Nathan, this is the Confederacy Marines. We can read your CAP Card and have located you with it. You are on the third floor, by that big plant on the South end. Just take a look at us.” Nate thought a second. Well, if they already know where I am ... He poked his head up and looked through the plant. Well ... danged if they don’t look like real Space Marines! It looked like they were setting up some of those portals and the distortion fields were coming online at the lobby doors.

“Base, zoom a camera in on them. If you are still there.”

“Nate. Looks like twenty Marines and three civvies. Well, they look like soldiers too, but not huge like the Space Marines. And yeah, those look like the transporters I have seen on TV. And there are more Marines coming in through the back doors, now, anyway.”

“Nathan, I can meet you up there and show my ID.”

“No. No, I’ll come down. Sally, Rovers, meet us in the lobby.”

“Nathan, I am Commander Pierson. I’ll need your weapon as first thing. Sorry that we spooked you. We’re going to make a pickup and it’s easier if people from outside don’t know what’s going on.”

Nate unbuckled his equipment belt and handed the entire thing to a Marine standing next to the commander. “Yeah, I get that. Umm, how strict are you going to be with that? My wife, she works cleaning offices in the building across the street. She gets done in half an hour. She comes over here and eats lunch with me, then she heads home to be with the kids. I got permission from the company. Her mom stays with us and watches them at night. I want her with me. I have a 7.2.” Nate pulled out his card.

“Yes, we know. We read that card from range. Remember?” Commander Pierson waved Nate over to one of the Galleria mall benches. “ OK, if you want her, we can arrange a pickup at your home. We would be making a trip there for your kids anyway. Now we have some special limits tonight. You get one extra pick. She has to be a mother of a five-year-old or older, have a CAP of 3.0 and a parenting sub-score of 5.0. Does your wife meet that?”

“No, We have twin two-year-old boys.”

“Two? Or have they reached two and a half? We add the ages together. If they total five years...”

“Two years, one month. So that’s four years two months, total.”

“OK, anyone else you want from home? Mother-in-law? She might make the minimums.”

“I’m not sure. I mean, yeah, I’d take her and my sister-in-law as well. It’s the same apartment. She has a four-year-old. I don’t know the details of their CAP scores. But I need to contact Sheila or she’ll freak if she can’t get a hold of me and can’t get in.”

“We’ll let you call in a couple minutes. Can I ask? You have good CAP scores and I pulled up your record and see that you have a college degree. Why security work?”

“Usual story. I got married and the kids came too fast. Twins. Sheila’s mom lost her job for a few months. I took a job to keep the cash flowing and then it gets tough digging out to a real job. Sheila is trained as a school-teacher, but she hasn’t had even a bite on her resume.”

“Ok. A teacher, that’s good. Well, things are changing for you now. If you get your wife and both the other ladies to come with you, you can have two more. Any preferences? We are going to be bringing all the condo people down here if they are interested. We will wake them and bring them down, one floor at a time.”

“That’s a lot of people. Forty residential floors, with seventy condos per floor, about two and a half people per condo. Not that many kids, though. That’s going to be over seven thousand people with most of them being adults. I’ve met a lot of them. No. I wouldn’t want most of them and most of the rest would probably look down on me. They are generally upper middle class and such. Lawyers, doctors, financial guys ... I may just end up with my three from home and...” Nate broke off because Bert, Steve and Sally had just walked up to the Commander and him.

“Hey, Boss. I take it we don’t have to have a suicidal stand-off with thirty plus bad guys.” Bert was younger than the rest of the crew. He was like a lot of Security guards, a college student making ends meet at night while taking classes all day. He was also very fit. He was pre-med but with a lot of phys-ed. His plan was to get into sports medicine. Steve was also a college student, but he was in a math program and looked pretty nerdy-dumpy.

“No, not tonight. Guys, can you give me a couple of minutes with the commander and Sally.”

After Steve and Bert walked over to the tables outside the coffee shop, Nate turned to Sally. “Sally, could you show your CAP card to the commander please?”

Sally looked surprised, then blushed. “Sure.” She pulled her card out of her belt pouch, handed it to the Marine and watched as he put it into a small card reader.

The commander nodded. “Do you have any kids Ms. Renquist? And could you tell me their ages if you do?”

“Just one. Darla is six.” Now she was back to surprised and puzzled.

“Ok, for tonight’s pick-up, we have a special rule. All qualified Volunteers get one additional pick, IF at least one member of their Harem is a qualified Mother. In your case, you qualify. Remember that it you want to get picked by someone. Oh, and to get the special, they have to take your daughter also.”

“Sally.” Nate was pretty nervous. He didn’t want to insult Sally. He wanted to keep her as a friend if possible. “I have four picks. My family has all talked this over, so we have an agreement. I take my wife, my sister-in-law and my mother-in-law if I can get them picked up. The Commander here says we can do that. That means I have one pick left over, two with this special mother thing. Wou ... Would you like to come with us? And Darla, too?”

“Sure, Nate. I was kind of hoping that was what you were leading up to. Do you need me to strip and show you what I can do?” Sally was already unbuttoning her uniform blouse.

“No, uhh, not right yet. But we can probably leave your uniform here. You won’t need that any more. Pants too. Keep the undies on. For now.” He realized that he must be showing a big grin, because his face was starting to hurt.

The commander broke in. “Nate, we have your wife calling in, The AI has intercepted the call. Let me forward it to your cell.”

“Hello, Sheila?”

“Yes, what’s going on. The lobby looks packed.”

“Sheila, listen up. Don’t interrupt and don’t argue. We don’t have the time. Go home. Go home right now. Pack the twins for two days. Get out of your clothes and pack all your sexy undies and high heels. Wear the pumps that match your pink teddy. Pack the teddy. Get your mom and sister to do the same thing. And grab the family scrapbook on the flash drive. Don’t call anyone else. Ok, did you get all of that?”

“Yes. This isn’t another drill, is it? Uhh, I have Tonya with me. She was going to come talk to Bert while I ate lunch with you. I could take her home with me...”

“No. I made other arrangements and uhh, Tonya is great looking and all, but I just can’t stand her. Hang on.” He hit the mute. “Commander, were you listening?”

“Yeah, leave her at the entrance and we can put her into the mix. No guarantees, though.”

Nate hit the mute key again. “Sheila, ask Tonya to stay by the door, a Marine will let her in and she can take her chances. There will probably be a big shortage of available women anyway. I gotta go, Hon. Get home now. I love you.” Nate hung up and turned to watch the first of the condo tenants spilling out of the elevators. “Bert. Steve. Do you want some lady to pick you up? If so, I suggest that you get rid of your uniforms and go stand right over there.” Then he sat down and gently pulled Sally into his lap. “Sally, you know the situation, but I hope we can stay friends through all of this. And I really hope that you and Sheila get along.”