Chapter 17

Day 8

John knew that Penny was right, but at the moment was berating himself. Once again he had looked at something in a shortsighted way. He tried to think back when he had told Sam to build the drones with the over sized replicators. He decided that it wasn’t important right now and was going to continue on ... When his mind supplied that it had been discussed during the first part of the fourth day.

Okay he decided if I’m responsible what can I do to improve the situation short of bringing those people up here. John set all the areas of his mind to work and started sorting through the possibilities. When had a somewhat viable solution, he looked at Penny and with a wink, started giving orders, well as close to orders as John ever gave.

“Penny, we have ten shuttles, would you please see if you can organize ten pilots for me. If we have enough trained pilots, I would also like to see some of the Wraiths flown as escorts.”

She snapped to attention with a small smile on her face and said, “Yes, Sir!” Before John had a chance to say anything she was running out the door.

He looked to Mora, whom seemed a bit surprised by his sudden attention

“Mora, I would like for you to go speak with your fellow countrymen. They will understand these people and their needs far better than the rest of us. Try to get at least ten, thirty would be better. Just get back with me once you have things arranged.”

“Where do you want them to gather?”

“A good point, have them gather in the docking bay, we may even have to have help loading and unloading shuttles so if you can find extra volunteers bring them.”

She came to crisp attention gave a salute and said, “Yes, Sir!” Then she too ran out giggling, before John could say any thing. He shook his head at their antics before returning to the task at hand.

He looked to Adam and said, “I want the replicators turning out emergency medical supplies, rigid tents, cots, blankets, and pillows. I want food rations, fresh water and lots of it (even if it is the sterile stuff), camping stoves, and anything else you can think of to make these peoples life more comfortable until we can relocate them.”

Adam nodded and closed his eyes.

“Sam,” John said turning his attention to her. “Using the Corporate name and our ‘mad money’ Start renting warehouse spaces at airports. Concentrate on the airports that have chartered cargo plane services, air drop capabilities would be a plus. If you can’t get what we need in the local area, start working your way north. Even if we have to hire every chartered cargo plane in the United States, I want these people to have some help. Have our shuttles cloaked and start stuffing the rented warehouse spaces full and make this look like a legit operation. We will be making drops in the zones with the shuttles as well to speed up aid. I want you contacting medical personnel, construction and engineering firms. I want to start putting these refugee camps together as soon as the supplies hit the ground. Much can be assembled with unskilled labor, so see what you can do on that end.”

She nodded and got to work.

John turned his attention to Ray.

“I need you to gather everyone to provide protection for our people.”

“John, there is a problem with that. None of the men have had a chance to train with anything other than the weapons they used to use on Earth.”

John looked thoughtful for a moment

“If I provide you with Earth-based weapons, can you give me your guarantee that your men will use less lethal force if that option is available? We’re not going to war here, we just want to keep our people safe.

“After your demonstration last night I don’t see that as a problem. You instantly gained the men’s respect when you put them down with the least amount of force necessary to do the job. If there is a non-lethal option, the men will follow your orders to a T. I will notify the men and tell them that this operation will be closely monitored. That additional threat should make them think more than twice before pulling a trigger.”

John nodded and turned back to Adam.

“Adam, voice recognition unlock for Earth-based weapons, nothing bigger than a 50 caliber, and accompanying incidentals for Ray, docking bay replicator only. Full accountability protocol.”

“Do you want the flack vest, body armor, etc made out of Earth based materials or out of the new material?” Adam inquired.

“Make then out of the new material,” John said without hesitation.

Adam turned to Ray and said, “I need you to state your full name so I can get a voice print. I could take it from data files, but I’m occupied with other things at the moment.”

Ray smiled before saying, “Raymond Andrew Jansen.” Then turned his attention back to John, “Now what is this full accountability about?”

“It means,” John said seriously, “that a record will be kept of what is issued. If any ammunition is used that will be recorded and subtracted. You will be accountable to see that all items issued, and not used, are returned to the replicators.”

“You’re completely serious about keeping any kind of weapon off the base aren’t you?”

“As serious as a heart attack,” John said sincerely. “Initially, I considered letting your men keep the body armor or flak jackets, and other defensive incidentals. Then I realized there was no need. Your men will be supplied what they need while they are in the training facility. There is no need for them to try and hold onto something from this mission. If the attempt is made the man doing so will be held in a force shield until he heads back to the replicator to deposit any secreted item. The same will be true for the training facility.”

Ray nodded his acceptance, but John could see that he didn’t like it. John was certain that Ray believed that his men were trained well enough to be allowed weapons. Then he heard Sifu speak to him again.

‘Young one, although I believe you are right, this man has no knowledge base by which to understand your decision. Offer him the knowledge I gave my people and invite him to the kwoon in the morning. After everyone, this includes Kirkuria, has finished their three katas. Allow them to face of against one another in hand to hand, taking turns in offensive and defensive postures. Men against women would work best. These men need to discover that women are their equals, and not a precious item they need to protect. Oh, and young one, I have arranged for gifts for you in the morning.’

John was curious what Sifu meant about gifts, but let it go, too much demanded his attention at the moment. However, he did allow himself a smile at the thought of the men facing his ladies.

“Ray, I can tell by the look on your face that this whole situation rubs against your grain. Why don’t you give me a chance to prove that this will work? If you agree, tonight you will get some special knowledge, and tomorrow morning you can come to the kwoon near my quarters for practice.”

Ray looked thoughtful. This was a little different than what he expected. He was so used to being told that ‘this’ was the way it was going to be done, so live with it. Instead, John was giving him the opportunity to see that it could work and wasn’t discarding his views outright. Ray was certain that John didn’t realize just how far he had just moved up in Ray’s estimation.

Ray agreed and then repeated what his mission parameters were. When John nodded, he too snapped to attention and gave a salute, before briskly leaving John’s office.

Kirkuria made to approach John she was full of questions, but mostly she wanted to know what was going on, and why they had found that video report so distressing. Her heart yearned to give him comfort, because for some reason he saw this as his fault. She was so focused she didn’t notice the input of knowledge from before unknown areas of her brain.

Before she had a chance to ask one of the thousands of questions in her mind, Sam began speaking.

“John, I made some assumptions. The first being that you will be taking an active part in today’s events. The second was that you would keep Kirkuria by your side. Based on those to things a drone will be delivering something for Kirkuria shortly. It will enable her to accompany you without tiring herself.”

John smiled and thanked her and then turned to Kirkuria.

“I’m certain you have a lot of questions, but if you could hold them for a bit more, I am still operating on just one cup of coffee. So be patient with me, and I will explain as much as I can.”

Not knowing what drinks Kirkuria would like he got a tray with coffee, tea, and juices. So while John sipped on his coffee and Kirkuria experimented with this and that on the tray, John explained what was going on. Kirkuria would interrupt occasionally with a question, but for the most part let John explain everything. When he was finished, she had a clearer picture of not only the situation, but of the man she had bonded with. It was wonderful to know that he had enough love not only for her and her sisters, but for humanity as a whole.

After John finished his third cup, the chime to his door sounded, he instinctively said, “Come.”

A drone entered with something that was loosely based on his desk chair. It had a seat arms and a back, but when the drone released it and left it stayed hovering in air. John and Kirkuria examined it more closely. Kiri seemed fascinated with the plushness that went beyond functionality. John was fascinated with the operating systems.

John figured that this would be as good a time as any to head to the docking bay and see how things were shaping up.

“I wonder how many camps will have to be set up?” John wondered out loud.

“One hundred and nine,” was Adam’s concise reply. “John, I have been crunching some numbers, and I don’t think the South American countries realize what they have. They have something in limitless supply that everyone wants.”

This got John full attention because he was focused on the negative, if there was some good that could come of this he wanted to know. So he told Adam to start at the top and explain the situation to him.

“The drones replacing sections of the Rain Forest each night, are actually guaranteeing a limitless supply of a product that would be in demand all around the world. Although other materials are used, lumber has become a staple in the housing market. This would ease the burden being carried by other forested areas. The housing market would benefit by lower costs. The countries of South America would have a product that is always in demand. One that wasn’t an illegal substance. In addition if outside lumber companies were allowed in and guaranteed that locals would be hired, trained, and that their work force would always be seventy percent local, everyone would benefit. All they would have to do is make the base camps mobile and move them well away from the area each and every night so they were well clear of the regrowth area.”

John allowed his mind to take in all of these facts and began to form and idea. He asked Adam to begin negotiations not only with the government of the countries they were dealing with, but with lumber companies. Starting with the South American ones and then spreading northward. After just a brief period of question and answer they had a workable plan hammered out.

John helped Kirkuria into the hover chair and he, Sam, and Kirkuria headed toward the Docking bay. Kiri adapted to the chair controls very quickly. When they reached the docking bay it wasn’t what he expected. He had anticipated chaos. That isn’t to say that it wasn’t chaotic but it was and organized chaos. John approached Penny, who was wearing the lightweight version of the battle suit, first. He saw that Paul, Martha, and Helen were with her.

Penny greeted him with a smile, a hug, and a kiss. John looked over her shoulder and all he saw was acceptance from her three parents. John was now including Helen in the group because Penny had told him many stories of how aunt Helen had helped her deal with normal teenaged crises that cropped up in her life. If that isn’t a parent then he didn’t know what was.

“John, I had a lot of volunteers and all were qualified in the shuttles. However, I chose the ones with the most experience, except Mora and me, since we are both qualified in the Wraiths. I’m sorry to say, John, that other than myself and Mora, there are only two others qualified. Since there are only four Wraith pilots the shuttles will be fly in two group of three and two groups of two. Since Mora and I are the most experienced, we will be escorting the groups of three. Sam has tweaked the drives on the shuttles with the new tech and flying time has been cut down to fifteen minutes, but only because they were allowing for a slow down as they entered the atmosphere so they wouldn’t leave a plasma trail. With the tractor beam system, we can unload the entire ship in less than sixty seconds. This means that each shuttle can make two round trips every hour.”

John kissed Penny on the forehead and said she had done a wonderful job. The praise did wonders for her smile as it suddenly became brilliant. He looked over the group and was able to pick out the other two pilots easily. They too were wearing the fighter suits. He recognized Manuel right away, but even though the woman with him looked familiar, he couldn’t put a name to the face. When Manuel noticed John looking in his direction, he stepped forward pulling the woman with him.

“Hola, John, you remember my mother Margarita. She has become much younger since we have been here. She is beautiful, no?”

John’s smile broadened. The reason he couldn’t recall her name is he hadn’t known it before. It was good to see that Margarita was getting what she asked for. They would make excellent wing men. You never fight more fiercely than you do when you are protecting someone you love.

“Hola, Manuel. She is beautiful, yes. It is good to see that the two of you have chosen something that would allow the two of you to stay close.”

John saw the look that passed between the two of them. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that they had become much closer since he last talked to them. He was glad that they had found some happiness.

He turned his attention to Mora. Out of the corner of his eye he saw that Kiri had abandoned her hover chair, but that it was following her like a lost pup. John had to stifle the laugh that wanted to surge forward. Mora also gave him a smile, a hug, and a kiss. It was a shame that she too was wearing the lightweight armor because it certainly ruined the effect of the hug. Then she did the same thing to Kiri.

Penny must have saw this and not to be outdone was right there when Mora released her to sweep Kirkuria into her own arms. After Penny was finish, poor Kiri was nearly panting. Then with a mutual mischievous look. Penny and Mora wrapped their arms around each other and shared a kiss that was so searing that the temperature in the room would have raised several degrees had it not been climate-controlled. As it was, he saw a couple of the men trying to unobtrusively readjust their pants. John resisted the urge to do the same.

There was some good natured chuckling over the girls antics and they finally broke their kiss. The look they shared didn’t get past John. It was a promise of more to come. Kirkuria in the mean time had slipped closer and wrapped her arm around him and whispered so only he could hear.

“Sam says I can seek sexual release tonight. Since you are my only partner until the others join us. I hope that you don’t have any big plans for tomorrow, because you aren’t going to get much rest tonight.”

She laughed at the expression that crossed John’s face and moved away from him. After seeing the bulge in his trousers she made a mental note to clear her schedule tomorrow as well. She might be walking funny for a while. She grinned inwardly and thought, ‘But, boy is it going to be worth it.’

John was able to get enough blood flowing to the proper head to refocus on what Mora was telling him. There were six men below securing parachutes to palates of food, tents, medical supplies, and all the other supplies John wanted. Five shuttles per site and a few cloaked construction drones they would deliver enough to get each site started. They were supposed to accompany them to the warehouse spaces and help get them loaded onto trucks. All of them have experience with forklifts.

Jon did some rough math in his head. It didn’t look good. Roughly twenty-five hours and there was no way to speed up a shuttle. Then an Idea hit him and he called Penny over and had Mora and Kirkuria listen in as well.

“Penny, how many extra pilots did you have that were willing to help?”

She looked thoughtful and then seemed to give up.

“I really don’t know John, maybe eight or ten. What do you have in mind.”

John held up a finger indicating her wanted her to give him a moment.

“Sam, aren’t the flight controls for the Chimera class the same as the shuttle controls?”

“Sam nodded then said, “Except for the weapons controls they are exact.”

The plan finalized in his mind.

“Penny, send two people up to gather more pilots. If we can get ten great. If we can only get eight, well that is fine, too. I just learned from Mora that it will take five shuttles at each site just to start the base camp before the air drops start to occur. I figure that it will take eight of the Chimeras to carry about the same load. I want you to select the best pilots to be in control of the Chimera, because the turn around time for them is going to be much shorter. About eight minutes each way. You and Mora will be protecting the groups of five shuttles and M&M will be ghosting the eight Chimeras. If Adam can handle it, see if he can get some pilots up to speed on the Wraith. They are more physically exhausting than the other craft because of the lack of amenities.”

“M&M?” asked Mora, “who is that?”

John gave a laugh before saying, “Manuel and Margarita.”

Penny rushed off to get things going so John turned to Sam, “Disable the weapons systems on the Chimera class ships, and let’s get at least eight of them prepacked. Start loading the drones on the Valkyrie and we will stop and drop them off where they are needed.”

John could tell that she was busy with that and other things, but she accompanied him over to the group gathered by Mora. There were a lot more than thirty people here which received a raised eyebrow from John.

“John, I had a hard time keeping more people from coming.”

Since Mora had an implant as well as telepathy, John shared what he thought was a good plan of action. Mora shared her ideas and together they created a plan of action including ten person teams and choosing a leader among the ten. They would only need thirty to begin with but there were going to need relief teams until they could train locals to take over the relief sites or get the Red Cross involved.

John wished he could share Seal training with untrained men the same way he could train people with Iokavkipae. Twelve Seals are not going to be enough to keep these people safe and they are going to have to sleep sometime.

‘What is it you desire Young one?’

To everyone around him John looked like he was being introspective so they left him alone. I reality he was explaining to Sifu that he needed to train people how to use Earth-based weapons and combat training in the same way that the Iokavkipae teaching worked. Iokee suggested that the pure one or the calm one could create the program. He was sure that he could enhance it in the same way the other program had been. After questioning Sifu and finding out that he referred to Adam as the calm one, John nodded and headed to talk with Ray.

“Ray, I know that the twelve of you are going to be hard pressed to protect our people in these camps. If I could get some highly trained and reliable personnel. How many would you want to help you out until we can get something else in place?”

“I heard that you are going to set up one hundred and nine of these camps. I would need at least five hundred to be able to keep the camps reasonably safe and that would be stretching it.”

That was more like a small army and more than John wanted to invest. He talked with Sam and then turned back to Ray.

“What if you didn’t have to keep the base safe for more than four hours before you were relieved by local security.”

“John, I have never questioned about your decisions about things like this, but are you sure you want to trust things to the local militia?”

John smiled because he knew that strategic bribes had been made. He had been told that normally once they were bought they tended to stay that way, at least for a while. Maybe by then the lumber companies would be back and there wouldn’t be any need for the relief camps. As it was there were drones nearby that were monitoring the base. They would only act if it were absolutely necessary, but they could act.

John took the time to explain all of this to Ray, whose entire attitude changed.

“You know, I constantly underestimate you. Granted it might not be the method I might have chosen, but in this case I would bet that it was the most effective.”

From there, things just seemed to fall into place. Which is why John found himself at his desk four hours later recording all of this. Things were far from over, but a pattern had been set and the edges ironed out. When Bill discovered that John was wanting volunteers to take combat training, he had contacted John about the ones interested in the peacekeeping jobs. John simply went one further, and had the twelve Bill thought were good candidates and another twenty-eight hand picked by Bill to go to sleep and get their training.

John looked at the small black box before him. After remembering what Sam had told him, he sighed and decided that since it was for his use and no one could access it until after death, he could add the personal stuff.

He had finally had the set down with Paul, Martha, and Helen. Though some interesting things did come about in the conversation. It turns out that the problems with the Hruth built AIs included both programming and design flaws. Paul and Dennis had been working closely with Adam and believed they had a way to repair them. Though Paul was curious as to why they were being denied access to one of them.

John laid the entire thing out and Paul offered an alternative. He suggested that the ship go back to the end of the last ice age. Coming forward in time at random intervals taking water, air and ozone samples along the way. He also suggested topographical mapping for each era the samples came from. When he received a raised eyebrow, Paul smiled. He then explained that it was simply intellectual curiosity. John agreed but he was still curious why the random trips back through time, when they would have what they needed after the first stop.

Paul asked to use John’s computer. He was impressed when the screen lowered from the ceiling and John pulled out the middle drawer of his desk to reveal the keyboard. Paul took the seat that John vacated and began rapid keying. A series of windows appeared then disappeared, until finally an image of one of the more famous painting in the world was on the screen.

John had to admit his curiosity was piqued. Paul went back to work and isolated an area of the background and enlarged it. John was glad he hadn’t been taking a drink at that moment, because he probably would have sprayed it out. There in the sky of the background, was a ship that was easily a representation of one of the scout ships.

“After you brought us up, and I saw what the ship looked like uncloaked, I knew that I had seen it before. It nagged at me until I was surfing the web last night and stumbled across some weird code theory. That was one of the related images on that sight, and I wondered if the planet had been scouted by the Rhylertians. Then you mentioned sending a ship back in time, and I knew where the image had come from. I would have been prepared to argue fiercely because it might have altered things if the ship wasn’t seen.”

Damn, trying to wrap your mind around that concept could make your head swim fast. Plus this conversation reminded him of the Rhylertian ships Sam said were buried in Antarctica. How and why did they get there? A mystery for another time perhaps, but he felt this was something he needed to pursue.

Talking with Paul, Martha, and Helen about Penny was somewhat of an anticlimax. They told me that Brian had already set up housekeeping with Julie. They did, however, want to sit down with her and have a long talk before they agreed to anything. Helen mentioned that if they verified what they all already believed to be true then there wouldn’t be a problem. They all three thought John was a good and honorable man.

Sam chose this time to drop a nuclear warhead in the room, metaphorically speaking. She explained that after the unexplained appearance of the weapons in Penny and Mora’s room she had verified that they came from the replicator in the main residence. She had then done in-depth scans trying to find some clue as to who might have cause it, since the replicator didn’t have an audio recording of the request for manufacture.

She further related that she came come up with some medical knowledge in the process and wanted to know if they wanted the results of her findings. All three nodded their head, though they looked a little nervous.

Sam turned to Martha and said, “My results show that you are pregnant.”

Martha’s eye became huge before a squeal of glee left her lips. Then she was being hugged, first by Helen, then by Paul and then it was a group hug. John could tell that Sam hadn’t finished before the outpouring of emotions had begun so he cleared his throat and said.

“Sam, was there something more you wanted to add?”

This had the right affect as Paul, Martha, and Helen turned their attention on Sam.

“Yes. Actually, John, I wanted to tell Helen that she too is pregnant.”

Helen’s eye grew wide as she blurted out, “That impossible. Five years ago after some medical problems I had to have a hysterectomy. I simply cannot become pregnant.”

Sam smiled patiently and said, “Helen, do you remember when you first came up, how you were altered and over the next couple of days you became younger and healthier?”

Helen nodded her head, but didn’t reply.

“More was done then I guess you realized. Not only were you genetically enhanced, but you were healed as well. In your case, your uterus and fallopian tubes were regrown.”

“That explains the minor abdominal cramping I had the first day.”

“That also explains the absence of the scar from having my appendix removed,” Paul said to no one in particular.

It was Martha who reacted first as the reality of the situation dawned on her and wrapped Helen in her arms and gave her a very passionate kiss. Then she looked around the room guiltily as she realized where she was. Paul who had been standing with his shirt up still looking for signs of the missing scar, suddenly looked up with dawning understanding. He to wrapped Helen into his arms, kissing her passionately. When the kiss didn’t break immediately and continued to grow in passion, John cleared his throat again.

The two broke apart quickly, and reddened considerably. Martha simply stood near by shaking her head tolerantly. John understood their excitement and wondered if he would feel the same way if he were a father. He hoped that he would make a good one, because the three women in his life seemed determined he was going to father some children.

As John finished recording that bit Sam appeared the amused look on her face made him curious.

“This was just broadcast a few moments ago and I thought you might like to see it,” Sam said as the screen lowered out of the ceiling.

John took note that it was the same woman who had been doing the broadcast earlier in the day.

“Our investigative office has been keep busy today verifying many of the strange reports we have been receiving concerning our South American brethren. It has been confirmed that a North American based company, the Phoenix Corporation has begun an independent relief operation for those people who have been displaced by the strange occurrences involving the Rain Forest.”

Footage of the people leaving the area while she continued to make comment.

“As you can see by this footage shot by a field reporter earlier, this was the scene just hours ago. We have been told that relief stations and temporary housing are being provided at strategic locations in six different countries. Further investigation showed a massive financial effort on the part of the Phoenix Corporation in that nearly every cargo plane in the area has been chartered by them. As well as renting thousands of square footage in warehouses for the relief supplies.”

The scene switched to one of the airports where a cargo plane with the large ramp type rear door was being loaded with palates that clearly had parachutes attached to them.