Chapter 24

Shortly after lunch Doc stopped by my quarters. I hadn't gone to lunch, I was too busy working on the sketches of the tanks. I was making different sketches showing different features of the tanks. He picked them up and started to look through them. "My God, Mick. I can see why you'd have nightmares. These things could ruin your whole day. I've never seen anything like these and I hope I never do. You say 5s just bounced off?"

"Doc, AC-5s bounced, LRMs didn't appear to bother them a bit and my Peeps acted more like mediums against that armor. Another thing. Look at the tracks. Doc, I don't know of any tracked vehicle that splits up the tracks like that. Both of the two smaller ones have split tracks. The largest one has three per side. Doc, you need to do a lot of damage to something like that just to stop its movement. They're not something that I've seen anywhere. Maybe they are something that Karuska told me about but that's the only place they could have come from."

"Mick, tonight I want you to come over to the hospital. I'm going to check you in and when you go to sleep you're going to be hooked up to a monitor. If something strange is going on possibly we can find out what."

"The reason I stopped by was to tell you that there is a shuttle going to HellHole later this week. Karuska needs some things and a jumper should be in with some more personnel for him. You have space on it to go also. So the next two nights you'll be hooked up to monitors to see what we can find out."

"Thanks Doc. I was beginning to think I was going bonkers."

"Hell Mick, with what we've been through the last couple of years you could be but I don't think so. See you tonight."

Doc left and I went back to work. I organized my thought and then placed new chips in the recorder and holding up each sketch to the pick up I started to describe them, how they had maneuvered, fired and reacted under fire. When I finished I made a copy of the chip and placed them in the carrier where I placed the sketches.

By the time I finished the report I was exhausted and hungry. It was time for supper so I washed my face and hands and went over to the mess hall. I don't know what they had, I just ate. It didn't matter what it tasted like my body needed food even if I didn't.

After chow I went back, took a shower and got ready for bed. I then went across the quad to Doc's hospital and had Jasmine show me to the room where I would be spending the night. The only thing other than a toothbrush I took with me was the sketch pad. She had me put on some elastic strips with numerous pick ups on them. One went around my chest and another around my head. There was also a cuff of some kind that picked up blood pressure and heart rate. All kinds of stuff. The nice thing was it didn't interfere with me. It wasn't obvious and was reasonably comfortable. She then said good night and turned off the light and shut the door. It's a good thing it was her and not Jade. Jasmine is pretty but Jade does something to me. There's no way I would have been thinking about sleeping if Jade had tucked me in like that.

As tired as I was I was asleep before the light had gone out good.

The sun was shining across the meadow and there were birds flitting about pecking at seeds, bugs and other bits of food. There was a slight breeze blowing as the grass was waving slightly over to the side. We were skirting a small set of trees when out of them roared five tanks.

"Mick, wake up! Mick! Wake up damnit!" I opened my eyes to see Doc shaking me. I was wet and so was the bed. It wasn't as bad as usual but then I hadn't been killed this time.

"Mick, you were dreaming. Your monitors spiked to the top of the scale and stayed there. Your blood pressure was way up and so was your heart rate."

"Doc, stop. Give me my portfolio, please." From it I took the sketches I had made the day before. I went over them carefully. I added details that I had forgotten or had left out until I had seen them again just now. Sketch by sketch I went over them. When I had finished I turned back to him. "I had to get this down while it was still fresh. I had forgotten some of the details. Now do you have any idea what's going on?"

"Mick, you had brain waves going that we are just now beginning to study. Do you know what a Zeta wave is? What about an Epsilon wave?" I shook my head and he kept going. "The Zeta wave is where we think the Psi factor is located. You know what that is?" I nodded. "The thing is the wave doesn't look anything like a normal Zeta wave. Not like any Psi wave that we have ever studied. I kind of make this a hobby as I have a bit of Psi ability as you know."

"Your REM waves bottomed out. They disappeared which isn't surprising with all the other activity going on in your brain. Rapid Eye Movement is the twilight sleep we go into when we're resting. They produce a very distinct wave pattern all their own. In its place you produced an Epsilon wave. This is a new one that researchers have just found or just found how to track. Boy, do you have an Epsilon wave."

"Doc, just one problem with that. I don't have any Psi ability. I was tested years ago and I don't have anything in the Zeta range as you call it. A bunch of us volunteered to help with an experiment while I was in the Academy. The recruiter was very attractive. We were hooked up to monitors for several weeks while we went through our normal day to day activities. I wore them during classes, during tests, during both simulator combat and training combat. I even wore them on several dates. Nothing. They thanked me for participating in the experiment and let me go. They did do further studies with a couple of the guys but they said they wouldn't need me any more."

"Mick, I said it didn't look normal. It could be someone feeding this stuff to you using Psi ability. You could be a receiver. That wouldn't have shown up on the experiment you took part in. From what you said they were testing for the ability to send not receive. We haven't gotten to the point that we have produced a receiver that will pick up Psi waves AND interpret them other than what I've shown you. We know when someone is using Psi ability because it produces waves on the brain scan but we don't have a 'radio' that we can tune in and pick up what someone else is sending, sorry."

"Well, if someone is sending me this stuff, I wish he'd quit. It's tiring."

"That's not all. It's dangerous. It's a good thing you're young and healthy. An older person could've popped a vessel with the blood pressure you had."

"Let's change the sheets and see if you can get back to sleep."

They did and I did. I woke up that morning feeling rested and rearing to go. I showered, dressed and left the room. I waved at Doc and continued on out the door and over to the mess hall. I had just finished a nice large breakfast when Doc and Zeke both joined me. With all the growth we had done Zeke was now a General.

"Why do I get the feeling this isn't a social call? What are you doing in Stirling?" I asked.

"Doc's concerned about you. He told me about yesterday and last night. Woke me up so I caught a shuttle over. You want to show me those drawings you made?"

I handed him the portfolio and let him leaf through the drawing of my nightmare tanks. He looked at them for quite a while and then looked over at Doc.

"I can see why you'd have nightmares. These things look formidable, even if they are just dreams. If they're real with the details you've noted and the things you told Doc they could be a hand full."

Taking the case I reached in and removed one of the chips that I had made. "Here, this is not only shots of the sketches but a report of all the details that I could remember about the fight, their tactics, their attack, my impressions and how our weapons affected their armor. If it's all a dream then fine we can forget it. I'm eating something that disagreed with me and produced these monsters. If it's not, if it's someone sending to me like Doc was saying last night then here's a look at what he's been sending."

"Well that's the thing, Mick. If Doc's right and someone is sending you this stuff we want to know why. Who is he? Why is he sending this stuff? Who has stuff like this and where are they?"

"I'm really sorry, Zeke but my nightmare didn't include an address and a comm line designation. He thought it was enough to send me this crap and disrupt my sleep for the last five nights. Is there anything else you want? Like the weight of the malfing tanks, what the armor is made of and what the guns are? Next time he interrupts me in the middle of the night I'll be sure to ask him." By this time we were attracting attention from others in the mess hall. It's not unusual for the Brigade commander, a Regimental commander and his Executive officer to have breakfast together. It is unusual when one of them is yelling at the other two like I was now doing.

"Get control of yourself and come with me, Colonel," said General Jones. "It's obvious we can't talk here."

He led the way out of the chow hall and back to the hospital. I thought he would have gone to the Headquarters Building. We returned to the room I had used last night.

"Mick, calm down. Get control. You've been with Shadow nearly as long as I have. You've been an officer for over four years. Company Commander, Battalion Commander and now Regimental Commander. We're concerned. About you, about your dreams and about these tanks if they're not dreams. If Doc's findings are right then these 'dreams' of yours aren't natural. Someone or something is causing them. We want to try to find out who or what. You're going to be checking in here for a while. Go to your quarters, pack a small bag with things you're going to need and some of the things you want to help you pass the time and report back over here. That's an order, Mick. Forget about going to HellHole to see Karuska, you're hospitalized until further notice."

I ignored Zeke. I knew where he got his information and who had made this decision. I turned to Doc. "Doc, it's not that bad. I feel great today. I went back to sleep and I feel fine. Don't do this to me."