Episode 41

Chapter 165

General Smith

12:10 am, November 4th, 2006

6:10 pm November 4th, 2006 (local time)

I was just thinking how I was so lucky it was Jacob's father who was assigned to run things. He was a Marine who had been under my command. He knew me and I knew him. Furthermore he respected me. All that and he was a Marine too.

Then my luck changed. I saw a woman walk in. She started whispering to Major Stone.

Then Major Stone handed her the school jacket he was wearing.

She put it on.

Another student offered him his jacket.

Oh dear.

Over forty years of living on this planet has taught me that there is something worse than a woman scorned. And I'm not taking about a woman with PMS. I'm talking about a mother whose child was hurt on purpose.

I'm not sure why, but suddenly I'm thinking it would have been safer to deal with Jacob at his worst.

Major Stone raised his voice. "Ladies and gentleman, may I please have your attention?"

The room slowly fell silent.

"Thank you. I have an announcement. This is Captain Amy Stone, United States Navy. She is my wife and will take the next shift. As far as the Density Force is concerned, she also speaks on behalf of Jacob." The Major then turned to the kid in charge of communications. "Send a notice to all ships and areas under our command. Captain Amy Stone's orders are to be followed as if they were mine, or in the case of the teens, as if they were Jacob's."

I watched as the kid at the communications console complied.

Major Daniel Stone turned to me. "General Smith, this is Captain Amy Stone and my wife. She will be acting for me while I check on Jacob."

This could be trouble.

"Does she know about our agreement?"

"Yes, I told her about how the Marines surrendered to the Density Force and the agreement we made that allowed you to save face. She has agreed to send all commands to the Marines through you."

"Thank you.

The Major nodded to his wife and then he left the room.

Now came the time for me to ask the dangerous question. "Pardon me, Captain Stone?"

She turned to face me directly. She looked haggard and worn out. "Yes, General?"

What I saw worried me. I thought I could see evidence of crying on her face. Maybe. But I was not going to mention it. One thing I have learned about the Stone family during this mess is that you don't mention something that would invoke their pride. With all that she went through recently, I would not put it past her to have me taken out and shot.

I took a deep breath and asked. "How is Jacob doing?"

Her face paled then blanked over. Her breathing became a little less regular. "Jacob is out of initial surgery. The medics think that he will recover back to the condition he was when he first arrived here."

"Thank god."

"Yes, thank him. Jacob lives, and so we are not forced to make an example of those involved."

I'm not sure I liked the sound of that. "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean that the Stone family can only be pushed so far. Would you honestly like to find out what happens when the gloves come off? And believe me, during everything so far, the gloves were still on."

"What do you mean? The base was pretty messed up. Lots of my Marines are in the hospital!"

"I mean that if they wanted to make an example of this place, nothing, and I mean nothing would be standing. Anybody not related to a member of the Density Force would be exterminated like so many bugs. There is a reason the Stone temper is kept in check."

I had to protest. "But Jacob was not in command!"

"No. His friends were. Ones chosen because they did not mind being violent when they needed to. Think about that."

I did not want to think about that. I knew the pictures such thoughts conjured up would make sleep impossible.

"May I ask what Jacob's mood is now? How did he react when he learned what happened yesterday?"

"We don't know. He has not awoken yet. As for the rest, we haven't told him and we've ordered nobody else tell him. We want him calm and coherent before we have him getting involved."

"I'm confused. I thought we needed him back quickly."

"No." she corrected me. "We need him back ready to handle things according to the correct way of handling things. We don't want him back quickly if it means he's going to just go off on the first person to upset him."

Chapter 166

Amy Stone

12:27 am, November 4th, 2006

6:27 pm November 4th, 2006 (local time)

I know that was not the best answer I could have given the General. The truth was that I was trying to figure out my next move. On one hand, I had a force of near unstoppable power. On the other hand I was engaged in a limited war with the United States. The question was how to keep things from getting worse without making things worse for those that helped Jacob?

"Incoming call." one of the students announced.

And so it begins. As my son has been known to say, let the games commence. "Who is it?"

"General Hambright, of NORAD."

I don't know that name. That means he's likely an enemy. Nobody told me they had more allies besides who came with the ships. "Has the Density Force dealt with him yet during this crisis?"

"No, not yet."

"Very well. Put him through."

The high school student hit a few buttons.

The screen in front of me lit up. I took a deep breath and tried to radiate the inherent power that Jacob tended too when he tried. "This is Amy Stone, Acting Supreme Commander of the Density Force. How can I be of assistance?"

"This is General Hambright of NORAD. And it's more along the lines of how can I help you."

Presumptuous. How does he know I haven't decided to raise Cheyenne mountain to its subbasements just to make a point to the Pentagon? "Please explain."

"First, I need to know if the Density Force plans to prosecute this war to the fullest."

Now that is a good question. Maybe a bit of honesty. I'll just put enough into my tone to make him understand that if I must, the order will be given. "We hope we don't have to. I doubt my son wants to wake up to a full scale war with our home country."

"How's he doing?"

"He's been better."

"First, I want to apologize. Abusing a teenager is not the way I thought we operated."

I managed to hold in my parental rage at the situation. Reminding me of what happened was not the wisest move he could have made. Even if it was an unintended result of his apology. The fact he apologized was a good move. Whether he meant it or not, the fact he at least tried to seem regretful did help his case. "I understand. We intend to try to hold Jacob from overreacting."

"I'm grateful for that."

"As well you should be. I'm still not sure how we are going to contain Jacob's temper if he learns even one third of what we did about the last two days. However, I must caution you that what may seem like an overreaction now may only be a common sense defense later. It all depends on what the Pentagon chooses to do."

"The Pentagon is trying to contain the war in preparation for disengaging forces. The President on the other hand, is not cooperating. He is fully behind Colt."

Now that was a surprise. Not the part about Colt, but the part about disengaging the forces. Based on precedent, I figured war was all but assured. I'm going to have to think on this. "Do you know what his plan is?"

"No, I have no idea what Colt is up to now. But I do know that the President tried to order a nuclear strike on the base you are at."

Oh dear. That would be bad. Very, excessively, gee I'd rather be in hell than witness the probable reaction bad. "Remember about the definition of an 'overreaction' changing? There is a perfect example. As long as the war stays conventional, we can contain things. But the moment the first nuke goes off, I doubt we'll be able to stop Jacob's temper."

Nor will we want to.

"We stopped the President. This time. I felt you should be warned just in case."

"Thank you."

"That favor wasn't free though. I do need something from you."

I should have known.

"What?"

"I need you to start limiting the war from your end."

"Acceptable enough request. The question is where certain people truly stand."

"That's a fair request. But I also do not know if the Pentagon is neutral, against the orders that started this, or are they just waiting to go public supporting the President. So I can make no guarantees until they choose a side publicly. I can however promise not to bring the war to the continental United States."

"That's enough for now."

Then I remembered something. There was a group based in America that my son would seriously want exterminated. Even with both Dan and I working on him, I don't think he was going to let them be. I just hope this doesn't bring back the certainty of war.

"I'm sorry. I forgot that the Association is based there. Let me rephrase it. I will not attack any base that does not attack or provide physical support of any attack on the Density Force. Those bases that stay out of it, we will not go after. We'll give any bases that do so a chance to surrender to our control first. I promise absolutely that the Density Force will not start shooting indiscriminately at anything in uniform."

"Understandable. Meanwhile, I will talk to the Pentagon. Hopefully, you will have no targets."

"Trust me, I would be glad of that." Capt. Stone thought for a moment. "Okay. As of this point, you are declared the recognized go-between. You will check with the Pentagon as much as possible. Initially, we will work for an agreement concerning non-belligerents in the continental United States. Later, we can expand that."

"I'd be glad to. But I cannot stop higher ranked people there from interfering."

"We'll face that if we must." My tone left those listening in no doubt who I felt sorry for more if that eventuality came to pass.

General Hambright's last response did not exactly build up my confidence for an optimum solution.

"It may come down to the teenagers and the Pentagon. I'm not sure which is more unpredictable."

Chapter 167

Valerie Dash, Captain of the Mary Celeste

12:38 am, November 4th, 2006

6:38 pm November 4th, 2006 (local time)

"Arriving at the rescue point." Bob announced.

"Red alert. Maintain cloak. Descend to one thousand feet."

"Descending."

I watched the holographic scanners as we descended. Something seemed wrong somehow.

"Sean, what is the current situation?"

Sean looked at the various scanners. "I see an overturned jeep. Several human readings in the hills to the west of the crash site. No bodies visible."

"Hmm. First things first. Scotty?"

"Yes?"

"Drop cloak, raise shields, arm weapons."

"Done."

"Bob, prepare to move behind the largest group. Megan, as soon as you can tell if they are Americans or not, you are cleared to fire. We are now at battle-stations."

"Excuse me." Lt. Frost spoke up. "What about me and my group?"

"I hope to have picked off some of the enemy before we drop you down."

"Uh, Valerie? We have a problem here." Megan said.

"Explain."

"Everybody down there is wearing an American uniform."

Valerie looked at Megan. "Everybody? And they are still shooting at each other?"

"I'm afraid so."

"Oh dear. This is either a tragic case of friendly fire, or big trouble, as we can't tell who in this mess the real Americans are."

"But we can." Frost announced.

"Oh you can, can you? We have the most advanced scanners this part of the globe has ever seen and we're having trouble. How can you do it?"

"Simple. The American military has started putting little signaling devices in our dog tags. Sort of like an IFF for ground troops."