Chapter 22

The main room of the Jenkins' home opened onto the backyard and pool area. Outside the windows, a neighborhood party gained momentum. Salome listened intently to the presentation from Team Ninja Raiders, the last practice before tomorrow's Mind Meld Competition. Initially she sat down out of motherly guilt. Once the kids started talking, the amount of research and testing they had done became obvious. They looked so darling in their black Ninja Gis.

"It sounds crazy enough to work," Ted whispered into her ear.

Salome flinched, discovering the boy next to her. She almost squeaked out of surprise. "Oh-eck," the hiccup caught her by surprise. Closing her eyes, she lightly tapped her breastbone with two fingers. "I got so int-eck," her whole body lurched. "Caught up-eck," Salome forced an inaudible burp. "Damn nanites could fix anything life-threatening, hiccups weren't in that catagor-eck."

"Try holding your breath," Ted offered, trying to help Salome not have to speak.

Salome hiccupped, and farted at the same time. Ted froze. Salome looked at the boy. He was biting his lip. Salome stuck her tongue out at Ted. He turned a heavy pink in the cheeks. "I'm cured."

Ted responded, "Grea-eck."

Joyce's five-year-old daughter, Dena redirected their attention. "Out by the pool, we have our demonstration on how Team Ninja Raiders tackled the 'Slow the Swarm' problem." The little group led Salome and Ted outside. As they hurried to set up the demonstration, the crowd grew.

The pool area opened to a large shared green space. Dena could smell the hot dogs and burgers that Daddy and Papa were cooking. Other men stood by the grill. She knew the neighbors. The Reys, all blacksmiths, and Daddy's fellow officer, whose new last name was Polanski. The two Marines worked with Papa at the school. The boss-lady Marine stood with mothers and wives. Who some of the neighbors were escaped her. She knew the names of their kids though. That was much more important.

They set about the tasks to prepare the demonstration. Karl and Ben stood next to the launcher; Dena and Kurt walked a good distance away. Each member gave thumbs up. "Hobson," Dena whispered, "we're ready."

Hobson muted the background music. "May I have your attention? Team Ninja Raiders is prepared to give their demonstration." The crowd began forming in a semicircle.

"Welcome to the Team Ninja Raiders demonstration." Karl followed the script. Tomorrow, Hobson would not be there. "This is our idea to slow down Sa'arm Troopers." He paused while counting to ten. "We are using medieval technology."

All six of the team's parents stood together. Kurt and Dena unfolded a thick mat. "These blue dots represent Swarm Troopers." Kurt spoke pointing at the spread out target area. "It represents a typical Pha-Phalanx, of the Sa'arm ground forces. The pad randomly uses one of the five identified dist-dist-dispersal patterns."

Dena pulled a range finder from her pocket. Kneeling, she read the display aloud. "We are fifteen meters from the target. In our scale, that is one point five kilometers."

"Our target," Ben took over on cue, "is this area colored red." He looked up, trying to recall his part. He nodded, remembering. "In reality, it is an area of two-hundred square meters." He turned to look at the spectators. The firing team knelt by the trebuchet.

Karl punched the numbers into a study pad. "Ben, the counter weight needs to be..." Karl shook the pad, "one hundred seventeen grams."

"Gotcha, Karl." Ben pulled a blue, a green, and seven white rings from the container. He dropped the rings into the counter weight box on the miniature trebuchet.

Kurt and Dena stepped away from the target. Dots on the target represented moving Swarm Troopers. They would begin moving using one of the five identified dispersal patterns.

"Ready everybody?" Karl called as Kurt and Dena rushed to his side. Ben stepped over to join the group.

Ben raised his hand. Then he held up three fingers. "Three," shouted the group. One finger turned down, "Two." In the steady cadence "One," rang out. He held his fist aloft, followed by the cry of "Fire!"

The tiny nineteen-centimeter tall weapon cycled through a release. A minuscule ball of mesh climbed five meters into the air. Expanding with each second, the net slowed, falling almost vertically landing with amazing precision. Karl held his pad up to survey the result. "Our device deployed over the area ensuring eighty-one percent coverage of the target area."

Dena leaned in, looking at the pad. Ben smiled. Karl handed the pad to Kurt. Reading the result, he shared it with the audience. "Two hundred and twelve members of a force of two hundred and fifty six are impeded."

A cheer erupted from the gathered throng. "We need to thank our parents for helping us with the research." He and his team led a quick cheer. "And Mr. Rey's smithy for creating the pieces and parts of our trebuchet," another quick cheer rose. "Finally, we need to thank Hobson, our house AI, who helped with the math, target, and net." A last hurray circled the area. "Thank you again." The team bowed and a final cheer ran through the crowd.

After it settled down, the eating began. ROTC Commander Holloman drew Salome aside. "Excuse me." A pregnant nude girl walked over to Salome leading a toddler by the hand. "Katie's hungry," the girl stated.

The toddler thrust her hands up to Salome. She bent down, picking up the tot. Sitting on a love seat behind her, she slipped a breast free. Positioning the little one to feed, she invited the commander to sit.

Rose Holloman took the invitation. She pointed at Ben and Kurt. "According to their scale factor the trebuchet is nineteen meters tall." An air of sorrow swam through the words.

"We've known," Salome winked trying to change the mood. "Once you've started working with them," Salome gestured to the main group of kids in the pool, "sharing your military experience and knowledge, then we'll see what their devious little minds can do." The surety of her voice empowered her statement.

Holloman became speechless. This little woman wanted the Sa'arm threat eradicated. Not just wanted it gone but also expected it to be eliminated in her lifetime. Holloman decided she wanted to have a recording of the statement as a video. It would be good to send up the chain of command.

"I didn't think you would take such an interest in military matters." It was the first thing Holloman could say.

Salome rocked slowly. "Once you hold one of these," she looked at the feeding child in her embrace, "and you know what the Swarm wants to do, it's just a normal motherly reaction."

Holloman placed a hand over her own occupied womb. Suddenly the sentiment of the concubine began to make sense.

In the morning, the Mind Meld Competition took center stage in the colony. Governor Danvers had declared a holiday. Two months after Day One on the colony, everyone needed a break. More than just the competition was taking place today. Mr. Greenjeans, the agricultural AI, was monitoring the colony ranches, freeing those hands to be here. Once she broke the news, one of their first reactions was to ask where the nearest portals were in case of an emergency.

One of the teams, The Lookers, won by default. No other group in their age range chose to remain in the competition. Their Oorah Bar had left Wayward with Lieutenant Spencer. A second home had been found with working men and women in the colony.

"The Lookers are introducing a new set of flavors today," Mary Nez stated to the crowd. "To go along with our fruit flavors we want to introduce caramel, milk chocolate, and dark chocolate." The resulting cheer was overwhelmingly female. Brave men moved to the side as the girls distributed samples to the audience.

"At least we had a break after the Lookers upstaged the universe." Gino complained whenever he was nervous.

Louis changed the focus of the team. "Calm down, Gino. Let's get set up."

"Go suck dick, Louis," Gino countered in anger. "I'm team leader."

Louis fired right back. "I'm scheduled for to do that tonight at the ranch."