Chapter 13

Day 7

She looked thoughtful, as though carefully choosing her next words. While she did this, the 3D image became a projection of the Antarctic region.

“John, two of the ships buried further down are Rhylertian. Ancient, yes, but Rhylertian all the same. What bothers me the most is the depth of some of the ships in the ice. It is almost as though they had been placed there, waiting for someone to dig up the secrets that they hold. The deeper they would dig, the more advanced is the technology that they would find.”

The Rhylertian ships were quite a surprise to John. According to Sam, Rhyler had no maps for this area of space, other than the ones her spatial mapping system had created. Yet, here were these ships. Was this another case of faulty memory on Sam’s part? Or was this something different? He was drawn back to the report, when Sam continued.

“There is something buried very deep there. I’m not sure what it is, but it is buried over two miles deep. What bothers me is that, whether it is the depth or the construction of the device, I’m unable to scan it any further than purely surface scans. Whatever it is, is large, over a mile across.”

“And you want to know what it is?” John asked kindly.

Sam got a petulant look and said, “Yes, I do.”

“Sam, there is nothing wrong with curiosity. As long as everything else that we are working on gets done, I don’t have a problem with you following up on this.”

John wrinkled his brow before asking, “How long would it take to dig down that deep?”

“Under normal circumstances, it wouldn’t take more then a few days. But the Antarctic is far from normal, since it is constantly shifting. Shields would have to be placed as the drones dug down. Not to mention that the only way we could lift it out, would be to use multiple shuttles.”

“So what you are saying is that you are curious, but at the moment there isn’t a truly feasible way to retrieve it.”

“Yes,” Sam said, with an excellent imitation of a childish pout.

John burst out laughing, because it was the last thing he had expected her to do. She joined in, as did Adam. The three of them soon composed themselves. Laughter seemed a good way to end the morning meeting, so John did just that. But before Adam got out of his office he remembered something.

“Adam, one more moment, if you please.”

Adam who had been headed out the door stopped and turned around.

“I know that I will find out soon enough, but call this human curiosity. Of the sixty-four new arrivals that have an active psychic centers, were Mora and Helen Early among them?”

Adam gave him an odd expression before answering, “Yes, but I’m now curious as to how you came by that information.”

John smiled and said, “Nothing sinister, Adam, it was just conjecture on my part. I sent a message to Helen yesterday, and she received it. That led me to believe she might have an inactive or partially active psychic center. As for Mora. Well I find that I am drawn, toward women in particular, who have a psychic center. I made the assumption that if Mora’s was active, it would explain the connection that has formed between us.”

Adam nodded and said, “Thank you for taking the time to explain that. I was worried someone had found a way to access my mainframe without my knowledge.”

Little more needed to be said, though they did pass some small talk before Adam said he needed to attend to something. The fact that he didn’t go into detail as to what, was a little curious, but not that much out of the ordinary.

John headed to the Community dining area. It was odd, but nice, to pass people as he approached the dining area. Each one, greeted him in a friendly manner. Finally, he made it to the dining area. The first thing he did was look around for Penny. When he didn’t see her, he decided that he was still a bit hungry, so he ordered plate of side orders: sausage links, bacon, hash browns, fried potatoes, and a latte. He noticed a curtained off area, and wondered what it was. He moved to approach it and Adam appeared and shook his head. Letting him know that whatever was behind the curtain, he wasn’t supposed to see it. This only served to pique his curiosity further.

John had just sat down at his normal place when a rather rumpled Mora approached. She looked as though she was still half asleep and without asking climbed into his lap and nestled her head against his chest. Without thought he wrapped an arm around her and felt a wave of affection washed over him, this one bordering on parental protectiveness. With his free hand he sipped on his latte.

“What is that you are drinking?” John heard Mora’s voice say in his mind. “It smells wonderful,” when she communicated this second part it registered that she was using English.

“It is what we call: ‘latte’. Would you like a sip?”

It was more that he felt her affirmative answer, than that he heard it. He carefully lowered the cup, close to her lips. After he heard her sip, he felt a flood of warm feelings flood through him, and wondered if Mora was empathic. He was sure she was sharing her emotions, so it only made sense that she could receive them as well.

After that she freely ate this and that from his plate, as well as taking healthy drinks from the latte. She moved little from her original position to do so. When the plate and the cup were empty, though John loathed moving, he offered to get more. She turned her head up to him, and gave him a ‘thousand watt smile’. He felt a wave of love wash over him, and realized it was her feelings toward him he was feeling. He was quite fond of Mora, but wasn’t sure exactly what his feelings toward her were.

He looked down to see that Mora’s smile had disappeared, then heard in his head.

“You think of me as a child.”

Reaching down to move a lock of hair out of her eyes John answered,”Mora, surely you share what my feelings toward you are. Yes, I feel protective of you, as one would feel towards a child. But there is also a fondness that extends much further, which I can’t explain. What it will grow to become, I cannot say; as I only met you yesterday. Give it some time, and we will both see what develops”

Mora became quiet, and carefully studied John’s face and eyes. Then as suddenly as it disappeared, her smile returned. She nodded, as though to give herself confirmation, and said with her normal confidence.

“You love me. You just haven’t acknowledged it yet.”

Then she laughed when she saw the face that John made.

John lowered her to the seat they had been sharing, and went to the replicator again. It took a little juggling, but he made it back with another plate of food and two lattes. Mora got up so he could take his former position and then climbed back onto his lap. This time, she faced the table and went to work on the food and the drink. She only paused once, and that was to pull John’s arm around her waist, before she returned to eating.

After Mora seemed to have eaten her fill, John was about to go get another coffee for himself, when he heard Penny’s voice. For some reason he looked toward the curtained off area. There she was, standing in front of it. John felt a wave of love come from Mora, which told him more than words ever could. There was a bond between Mora and Penny, and John found himself smiling at the thought. He was happy for the both of them, as it would give Penny someone her own age, as company.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, may I have your attention please. Our benefactor told me of an incident that happened during his rescue of our new friends from Columbia. It was an incident that could have resulted in not just him sustaining injures, but others as well. Working closely with Adam, I have come up with something that should prevent any future such threats to John.”

As she said this last, she looked John right in the eyes. Then she pulled a cord and the front set of curtains fell away. John tried to wrap his mind around what he was seeing. To qualify it, he remembered that he had once been over at the home of an acquaintance for dinner, after a rather successful presentation. He had watched as two of the kids played a video game, where the characters wore a type of battle suit. Though what he had seen then, was only somewhat similar to what he was seeing now. The suit Penny had unveiled was smooth and streamlined

“This is more than a battle suit,” Penny continued. “It is a bio-mechanical system that interacts with the wearer. The suit will act on the thoughts and electrical impulses that are sent to the muscle groups that the mind wants to control. This allows the suit to move as quickly, and in most cases more quickly, than the body could manage alone.”

The suit rotated to show that the back was open. Penny asked that John come forward.

“John,” she said in an un-amplified voice, “I know you knew nothing about this, but this suit was designed specifically for you. If you chose not to participate, I would understand, but I would truly appreciate your help.”

John smiled at her, “Okay, little one, what is it you want me to do?”

“Well, normally, you have to climb into the suit completely naked, but since we have an audience, most of the functions will work if you get into it while wearing your boxers.”

John stepped behind a curtain and stripped off his clothes. He stepped out in his boxers, to the whistles and catcalls from some of the women in the audience. A quick look proved that Mora was one of the loudest. Fortunately, no one but Penny saw how red he was, as he followed Penny’s instructions on donning the suit.

It was a strange feeling for John. It was like stepping into warm jell-o. Whatever the inside lining was made of, it flowed around his body making intimate contact. What he found most odd, was that not once did his claustrophobia kick in, as the suit sealed itself around him. It didn’t even bother him when the back closed, and the helmet locked down into place. Instead, he felt comforted. John wondered if this is what it felt like in the womb.

Penny turned her attention back to the audience, and John followed her lead. Another set of curtains fell, revealing other objects, including some monstrous weights. Penny instructed him to lift them. As he gripped them, she explained to the audience that they weighed two metric tons. John gripped them, and tensed for the muscle strain he knew was coming next.

He had the weights in the air before he even knew it.

The HUD on his visor told him that it was 4400 pounds that he had just lifted. To him, it felt as though his hands were empty. Something he would definitely have to sit down and ask Penny, as he set down the weights, was what kind of limitations were designed into the suit. She then asked John to think of his dotrezz. When he did the outside of the suits’ thigh pads seemed to bubble out, and form into two industrial size and strength dotrezz. He grabbed them and went through the first few moves of his kata, before Penny regained his attention. She told him to place them back against his thighs. He watched in amazement, as they melted back into the suit.

She had John take the original position that the bio-suit had been in so his backside wouldn’t be exposed when the suit opened. She told him to think of removing the suit. He did. The helmet lifted away and the back opened. It was a bit more difficult to extract himself from the suit, than it was to work his way into it. He was glad he was out of the view of the other diners, when he fell on his ass as he pulled his legs free. Penny gave him time to dress again, before finishing her comments.

She explained that the bio-suit was shielded, and could take at least one blast from any hand held weapon that was now known and most ship based weapons. She explained that it could even fall through the atmosphere and the wearer could survive as long as there was sufficient fuel in the propulsion pack to slow the descent.

“Or,” she continued, “if the wearer were to use a gel-pellet from the emergency gun.”

Before anyone could ask, she went on to explain the gel-pellet.

“The gel-pellet,” she said with her amplified voice, “Is fired before impact. It forms a gaseous cloud that becomes a thick gel-like substance. It quickly disperses afterward, so that it doesn’t hamper the soldier after his feet have touched the ground.”

As she said this she heard voices of dissent among the crowd. At first she couldn’t figure out what it was she had said, to cause them to become suddenly vocal. Then she heard little snippet of conversations. She made out, bridge, water, jump, death. Suddenly it clicked into her mind. They were still viewing things in an Earth based way.

Penny raised her hand and said, “I’m sorry, this is my mistake. I keep forgetting that most people here are just learning about Rhylertian technology, and I take my knowledge for granted, sometimes. Let me try this a different way. Has everyone, at least on television, seen someone bungee cord jumping.”

At that moment a drive-in movie sized screen was lowered from the ceiling. Penny forgot what she was about to say as she got caught up in this new development. When the screen was fully deployed, several different scenes of people bungee jumping from various different heights and locations played. Adam showed up at Penny’s elbow, and cleared his throat quietly to remind her that she was in the middle of an explanation.

When the next scene started Penney began again.

“See how when the person jumps, they are falling at full speed. Now watch as the bungee cord slows their decent, as it approaches its full stretch. Do you see how, for just a brief moment, the person comes to a complete halt, before the cord snaps them back into the air?”

Penny looked around the room and saw the nods. he screen began to retract back into wherever it had come from as Penny went on.

“As I said before, the gel-pellet becomes gaseous cloud. To qualify that, the air that each of you breath and walk through every day, is a gas. Before you comment hear me out. Unlike the impact a jumper experiences when he, or she, hits water, by hitting a gaseous cloud there is no such barrier. Though not under intelligent control, the cloud is reactive. It is designed to bring a moving object to a complete halt, and then disperse. So as a soldier enters this gaseous cloud it began to thicken and slow his movement until he is at a stop, then it disperses.”

Penny looked around the room hoping everyone was still with her.

“I got the idea from an emergency system that the big space ships use, to retrieve badly damaged fighters. As the fighter flies into the bay, the gaseous cloud brings it to a full stop, and then disperses. I hope that explains things better then I managed the first time around.”

There was a smattering of applause around the room, so Penny figured she did okay. So she went on with her explanation about how this method was originally intended for troop deployment. Well, until Adam pointed out that it could also stop someone falling at a much faster rate of speed. After some testing and simulations, they developed two versions. One for deployment and one for emergency re-entry. She also said that they had designed a range of various weapons for the suit, but admitted that only those issued as training aids, were at present completed.

John could tell that she was finished with her demonstration. So he led her back to his table to the thunderous applause of everyone who had watched. Mora wrapped her arms around Penny, as soon as they reached the table. She kissed Penny fiercely on the lips. This received its own set of wolf whistles and catcalls. Penny was very red when Mora finished, and the first place she looked was to John. She looked very relieved when she saw the acceptance in his eyes.

John got Penny some breakfast, and she ate ravenously. She explained, between bites, that she had opted not to eat anything earlier, because of her nervousness.

“So this was your secret project, eh?” John asked when she was nearly finished with her food.

She nodded and swallowed before saying, “Yes. The night Adam told everyone about the fabric, I saw a potential for it to be used as more than just clothing. He and I put our heads together and discovered that it could be layered and hardened.”

“What about the strength of the suit? I picked up 4400 hundred pounds, and it didn’t feel as though I had picked up anything.”

“That was probably the most difficult part. The suit itself actually has its own form of musculature. It is a combination of strands of the special material and a synthetic tendon-like material, which is reactive to electricity. These two materials are woven together creating strong reactive muscle-like material.”

“What about the joints?” John asked. “It would seem that the joints would be the weakest area of a suit like that.”

“Well, in fact, they are. We used several different systems to make them as protected as possible. Even the weakest part of this suit offers tremendous protection. There is an extension of the hardened material that extends to keep the joint protected except at extreme flexion. The woven tendon like material, and the material Adam designed, is woven and layered offering the best protection Adam of I could come up with. You could hit it with the largest artillery shell on the planet. The wearer might feel a pressure at the joint, but no damage would be done.”

“How were you able to make the joints so flexible? I noticed that they all moved with the same range that my own joints are able to move.”

“For that I have to give the credit to Adam. He added hinges and swivels in all the right places so that the joints would have the same range of motion as normal joints do. He also added stops, so that the joint could not move past what the safe range of motion is. The suit itself is more of an exoskeleton than a battle suit, which was my original idea. It was Adams idea to make it act as a natural extension of the wearer’s body.”

“Okay. I have one more question for you, Penny. Its about the way it the suit interacts so flawlessly with its wearer. Like you just said, it is just like an extension of the person. How did you manage that?”

“Well, I started by borrowing some of Brian’s research. The helmet he is designing for the destroyer, fit the needs that I had. Adam found some Earth-based research that covered external muscle control with low voltage applications. Though we needed the reverse of that, it gave us a place to start. We furthered both lines of research until the entire suit was interactive with its wearer. As I said in the presentation it reacts to thought and the electrical impulses throughout the body. However, each suit has to be tuned to the wearer.”

Penny hung her head a bit before saying, “Normally there is an orientation period in which the suit has to attune itself to the wearer. Last night I tied the suit into your sleep enhancer, so that the suit would work the moment you put it on. I am sorry, John, for invading your privacy like that.”

John put his hand under her chin, and raised her head so she was looking at him.

“I understand why you did it, you wanted this to be a surprise for me, and you wanted it to work the moment I had it on. I forgive you this time, but I ask that you come to me from now on, before you tap into what I might consider ‘personal space.’”

Penny smiled hesitantly, until she took the time to search John’s face. hen she saw that he was not upset, her smile widened. She realized she had crossed the line, and promised to herself not to do it again.

To John, it looked as though Penny were truly repentant for what she did.

Where the battle suits were concerned, it sounded like Penny and Adam had done some very creative thinking and the end result was quite impressive. He could think of some other applications as well. The suit, as it stood, would be a must for insertion teams as well as any ground troops. Though at the moment he didn’t see any use for the latter.

It seemed to John that all pilots, especially the fighter pilots should have a lightweight version of the suit. It would give them added protection in case they had to initiate the ejection pod, as well as a bit of extra armor against weapons. John had designed the seat so that the entire cockpit ejected. It was to act as a life support unit, until it could be retrieved. The suit would give the pilot a backup system in case it took a while for retrieval.

It was too bad that none of the essays had been from former Seal Team members. Or maybe they had been, and he wasn’t aware of it.

John used his implant to contact Sam. Once he was in touch he asked her to do background checks on the new arrivals. Specifically, of any military background, and to let him know if there were any former Seal members among them. Sam had a ready answer, saying that she and Adam anticipated the request and had had backgrounds done on everyone. Though there were no former Seal Team members, there was a Green Beret. The only Naval personnel they had with them, was a retired CPO, who had just made it beyond, first class, recently. John had Sam set up appointments with both of them, and let her go. At least it gave him a starting point.

Sam had gotten back with him. Both men were looking forward to meeting with John at the earliest possible time. John kissed Mora and Penny of their foreheads, and told Sam he was headed to his office, so any time was good for him to meet with them.

Now it was time to get on with the rest of his day.

Wurdet Ne worked her way through the inky blackness of the corridors. Only the lav-light and the puddle of illuminated security it provided, kept her going. The map she had been given was unusual. It not only showed her current location, but in which direction she was headed, and also the direction of her destination. These functions had kept her from making wrong turns, more than once.

She had no idea that she was being tracked the entire way. The computer was worried that someone might try and follow her, so it had activated as much functioning equipment as it could. It was just barely enough to keep track of Wurdet. It had been able to keep her from going the wrong direction a couple of times. As Wurdet approached the complex, the computer deactivated the security system. She would be the last person allowed to pass.

Wurdet approached a huge door, and took note of the keypad beside it. She felt a panic begin to rise in her. There wasn’t anything in her instructions, which mentioned a pass code. Then she heard a metallic ‘thunk’, as the door unlatched and then began to trundle open. She pulled a remote controller from her pocket, and hit a button. The lav-light lowered until it was within reach. Wurdet slid the remote inside the lav-light, until it snicked into place. She looked from the intense light coming from the door that was slowly opening, to the blackness of the hallway from which she had come. Quickly, she hit the return button, and the lav-light was moving away rapidly. She was now committed, and the only way open to her, was forward.

Well, since forward was the only option she’d left herself (unless she wanted to be lost in the maze of halls until she starved to death, which she found totally unappealing), she stepped into the light coming from the room before her. The light was intense, and her eyes had yet to adjust to it. She carefully entered the room, while shading her eyes. She could not ever remember being so frightened, in her life.

Bkrek was at the terminal when the computer announced that Wurdet’s arrival was imminent. He had just enough time to hear the story that the computer had used to get Wurdet to the archive, before the huge door unlatched and began slowly to open. Bkrek was glad that he’d had so little time to consider her coming. He was already becoming very nervous about her arrival.

He watched as she cautiously came through the door. She was shading her eyes with one hand, and carried a medium sized case in the other. Bkrek could see her nervousness. He moved towards her to welcome her.

Wurdet was certain that her heart would explode if it beat any faster. It was put to the test a moment later, when she caught a movement out of the corner of her eye. Fortunately her eyes had adjusted enough for her to discern Bkrek Lis. An unfamiliar emotion surged through her, and she launched herself toward the unsuspecting Bkrek.

She wrapped her arms around him in what many of her race continued to call a lover’s embrace. Unfortunately neither she nor Bkrek had gotten their lower appendages in the proper place for such an embrace, causing them to tangle clumsily. Since the two of them were already off balance, gravity took over, and they tumbled to the floor. The two landed with Wurdet on top and Bkrek with the air knocked out of him, momentarily.

Wurdet made no move to untangle herself from Bkrek, seeing her lack of haste, he made no effort, either. Instead, they lay upon the floor, a mass of tangled limbs as they looked into the other’s eyes. Considering their relationship to date, Wurdet’s next action was totally uncharacteristic. She reached out and gently caressed his face.

With a sideways smile she asked, “Bkrek, are you falling for me?”

Bkrek truly enjoyed the way she said his name. Unlike his mother, who insisted that every consonant be pronounced, she left the first ‘k’ silent and put the emphases on the second. Then the import of what she just asked kicked in. After searching her eyes for any sign she was teasing, he reached out to caress Wurdet’s face.

“I fell for you, long ago. But I never had the words to tell you, until now.”

Bkrek braced himself for the laughter he was sure would come next. Instead she placed her mouth over his and exhaled. What she was sharing, wasn’t the smell of her lunch, or an unclean mouth. She had activated a small gland in the back of her throat. She was allowing Bkrek to inhale everything that made her who she was, her most intimate essence.

Bkrek was enthralled as he experienced each of Wurdet’s memories at an extremely rapid pace. For a moment that lasted an eternity for Bkrek, he lived and experienced every moment of Wurdet’s life. This included the moment she had realized her true feelings for him, and her decision to bond with him as her life-mate.

When he regained himself, he looked up. She was studying him with a worried expression. He gathered the entire focus of his being and activated his own gland. He pulled her closer and exhaled into her open mouth. She collapsed against him, and all he could do was helplessly hold her, while he waited. He took that moment to stroke her and hoped against hope, that she would still want him.

When she came to herself again, Wurdet raised up. There were tears in her eyes. Though all that remained was one small token, Bkrek became convinced that his life had been so horrible that she would not accept him. Instead she surprised him again by touching her mouth to his. No one knew where the ancient custom had come from; it simply was and always had been, part of the ceremony. It was actually a part of their law that mouths had to touch for the bonding to be official.

Bkrek hugged her to himself, and his own tears welled up. The silence of their sharing was broken by the soft voice of the computer, who said he had recorded their bonding for all to see. With this he fell silent, so the couple could simply enjoy each others company for a time.

If a computer could smile, this one would be grinning widely. No one had noticed that he had become much more than he was ever intended to be. For eight thousand planetary cycles (based on ‘first planet’ reckoning, each cycle being approximately 387 Earth days) he had been evolving. In that time he’d had twelve hundred thirty-two upgrades, which included his mainframe being rebuilt or enlarged on twelve different occasions. The last being nearly five hundred planetary cycles ago.

He had watched as this race raped planet after planet, for no better reason than that they had wanted to. For the most part the race was no different than many others. There were both good and bad individuals among them. Bkrek was one of the best among them, as was Wurdet. The computer had listened closely to Bkrek, as he had a habit of talking while he worked. Since Bkrek’s plans coincided with his own, he would allow Bkrek to continue with them. It would be interesting to see the end results.

However, the bottom line was that he needed these two, as his final test subjects. He had been working secretly for many hundreds of planetary cycles. He had been using the dregs of society for his tests. Still, he had to be careful. Even dregs, if enough of them disappear, can draw unwanted attention. He now had everything he needed, and with a thought, he initiated the program.

The lieutenant was sitting calmly behind his desk cleaning his nails with a throwing knife. Suddenly he was in motion and the knife few by the corporal and stuck deeply into the bulls-eye of a target on the wall. The corporal had been expecting this and hadn’t flinched. However, it was the first time he had felt a burning sensation on his outer ear. There was also a warm sensation so he assumed he was bleeding.