Earth Ship Protectress: Book Two in the Freddy Anderson Chronicles (15 page)

Chapter 18
Healing a Friend

A
fter breakfast, I asked, “Madam President, can we talk, just you, Melanie, Susan, and me, please? It will only take a minute.”

She looked at the admiral. “I guess so.”

I said, “Admiral, this is about girl stuff. It has nothing to do with my project. Okay?”

He laughed. “No problem, Freddy. I understand. I’d still like to talk to Admiral Bates.”

The commander took control and sent the admiral away with one of the girls. I took the president, the commander, and Melanie into the commander’s office. I pulled the curtains closed and turned to the women. “Melanie, you’re thinking out loud, and you’re doing it on purpose.”

Melanie said, “I’m worried about her, and she won’t ask you herself.”

The president started to say something, but I raised my hand for her silence and asked Melanie, “Why?”

“She doesn’t want to impose on you.”

I put my fists on my hips, and, mimicking my mother, I said, “Oh, for goodness sakes. How childish! Madam President, you came here to impose on me, to get me to work on a world crisis, but you can’t ask me for a simple favor that would take little or no time?”

“I thought I was already asking enough of you. I didn’t want to take advantage of our friendship.”

“What’s friendship for if you can’t push on it a little? I’ll be asking you for favors sometime, and I won’t hesitate. I may send the commander to ask, if I think you’ll get mad at me.” I looked at Susan with a sly grin. “But I’ll still ask. The worst you can say is no. And the worst I can say is no, so what do you need?”

She straightened up, showing her good upbringing, and with shoulders erect, she asked, “Freddy, will you please heal me?”

“No!”

Everyone’s mouth dropped open in incredulous disbelief. I started laughing. Susan smiled, and so did Melanie.

Melanie said, “Madam President, he’s kidding. He fully intends to heal you. I think he would whether you asked or not.”

I calmed down enough to blurt out between snickers, “You should have seen your face, Susan. I got you that time.” Even the president was smiling now. Laughter can be catchy.

Susan said, “I’m sorry, Madam President. Freddy’s sense of humor can be really off the wall at times.”

“I see,” she said, with just enough reproach in her tone to sober me up fairly quick.

Still smiling, I placed my hand on her cheek and closed my eyes. I stopped smiling. “You have breast cancer, and it has spread to the lymph nodes. There is some in your bones too. A little has broken off and is anchored in your brain and has started to grow. It will cut off the blood flow in that vessel soon, and you will have a stroke. You also have a corn.” I was genuinely surprised and said, “I didn’t think the president was allowed to have corns.”

She smiled at me. “I wish, but it seems that we’re still human, Freddy.”

“Okay, so let’s get this completed before the admiral gets worried. Do you want anyone to leave? I need to have you undress.” She looked at me with big eyes. “Oh, don’t give me that kind of look. Think of me as your doctor. Besides, I’ve seen it hundreds of times. When the girls first came here, I took all the peeks I could get. I think they knew, but they let me get away with it. After a while, the novelty wore off. Now, I think they look better with their clothes on. It’s no big thing, now that I know exactly what they’re hiding under there.”

She said, “No, they can stay.” She started getting undressed.

“Please leave your panties on and your stockings, as I don’t need to touch that area.”

“Thank you.”

I talked to Susan about who would fly the shuttle tonight. I was trying to get the president to relax by acting like I wasn’t interested, that this was nothing, and it seemed to be working. Susan knew what I was doing and went along with it. When the president was ready, I nonchalantly walked over and placed my hands, which I had been keeping in my pockets to warm them up, on the parts of her body that I needed to fix. It only took a few seconds at each spot, and then I said, “All done. You can get dressed now
…
and thanks.”

“Thanks?” she asked.

I looked in her eyes. “Yes, thanks. Thanks for allowing me to heal you. This is not a good time to have you dying on us. I love you, and besides, I don’t want to have to deal with someone else.”

She got dressed while Melanie, Susan, and I talked shop. Melanie was very interested in how I could heal. The president had tears in her eyes the whole time we were talking. When she was finished dressing, she came over to me, got down on her knees to be at my level, and then gave me a big hug, saying, “Thank you, Freddy. I love you too.”

I hugged her back. When she calmed down, we left the office and picked up all the girls, except the one on watch, and headed toward the shop.

“Green!” Yellows bellowed.

Green jumped. That was a weird feeling—a tentacle jumping around in my head.

Everything went black, totally. I don’t like being tickled. Besides, I was working out something else.

Green said, “Yes, Truth Taker.”

Yellows said, “If you find out nothing else, you are to find out how he is doing this healing.”

Green smiled. “I already know, Truth Taker. It is very complicated, and it will be in my reports.”

Blue asked, “Is there a chance that we can learn this wonderful ability?”

Green said, nearly under his breath, acting like he was about to get yelled at again, “No, sire. We have not evolved to that stage yet.”

All eyes were on me again, and they were astounded. Yellows said with threat in their voice, “Green, are you saying that this creature is higher in the evolutionary scale than we are?”

“No, Truth Taker. They are far behind us on the evolutionary scale. They are simply evolving in a different direction. I can only guess as to what they will become.”

“
I got it. I can’t play with Yellows, as she, he, it—whatever—is too focused on keeping me unfocused. However, Green is not, and we have tactile contact. Let’s keep this a secret for
now.”

Yellows said, “Very well. We look forward to reading your report. Continue.”

Chapter 19
Never Upset a Master Chief Twice in One Day

A
t the shop entrance I asked, “Everyone ready?” What the commander did not know was after she went to bed last night, I had teleported back to the shop and set up a few surprises.

Petty Officer Henderson said, “We’re ready, Freddy.” Several of the girls laughed.

I smiled at her, saying, “You be careful in there, Patricia. We all know how helpless you females can be.” Laughter spread out across the group. “Shop?”

“
Yes, Fr
eddy?”

“
Open up fully. I’m going to take everyone on a tour.”

“
Password, pl
ease?”

“
Excuse me?” I said with feigned surprise. “What password?”

“
The one that was set using your codes last night from a remote area south of
here.”

“
Did you monitor the person who set the password?” I asked.

“
Yes.”

“
Who was it?”

“
General Tan
kman.”

“
What password did he use?”

“
I am not allowed to
say.”

“
Thank you. Well, that’s just wonderful.”

The commander asked, “Is there any other way in?”

Betsy, our resident expert in escaping out of or into anyplace, said, “Not a chance.”

“Shop?”

“
Yes, Fr
eddy?”

“
At what level are the defenses set?”

“
1-A1.”

“
Please change the level to 1-A2.”

“
Password, pl
ease?”

“
Shop, override all passwords, code 234AD3.”

“
Password, pl
ease?”

“
Sorry, Shop. Thank you. There’s no way in. I can’t reproduce the equipment or the bombs in time. We’re dead without that password.”

The admiral became upset and said, “I’ll flay the skin off them until they talk. I’ll ram that bastard in a tube and suck the atmosphere out slowly until he implodes. I’ll—”

I couldn’t hold it in any longer. I was rolling on the ground with laughter, and so were the girls—after they realized what I had pulled. Even the president was amused, but the master chief was not, and neither was the admiral.

“Freddy,” said the master chief, “I think we need to have a private conversation.” She took my arm and led me off, saying, “We’ll be right back.”

I think the whole assembly could hear my screams. I teleported off her lap when she was done spanking me. I was not stupid enough to do so while she was punishing me because that could cause her to lose count, and she would have to start all over. It took a few moments to get myself together before heading back out.

When I got back to the group, each girl I passed reached down and patted my behind. “Ouch! Stop that! Ouch! Ouch!” I finally got to the door. “Shop?”

“
Yes, Freddy?”
it answered with an amused tone.

“Please disconnect and discontinue,” I said, interspersing my words with sniffles, “all the things we planned last night under code funny.”

“
Good idea, considering the master chief’s mood right now, Freddy. I have disconnected all eighteen t
raps.”

After she heard “eighteen traps,” I heard the commander tell the master chief, “Good job. Thank you.”

Gray was smiling from ear to ear. “I like this creature.”

All others just stared at Gray incredulously.

Everything stayed completely in focus. Strange sight these creatures have. I was using Green’s eyes to see and his mind to turn the knob down again. The Green watching the knob had gotten busy on something else and left it unattended. Bad Green. Shame on it.

Yellows said, “We personally do not like having jokes played on us or anyone else.”

Blue raised a tentacle, confirming it felt the same.

Gray said, “Loosen up a little. The creature is normally boring. That was more entertaining.”

“
Boring!”
Using Green’s mind, I mentally turned the switch off and took one of Gray’s tentacles and slapped the little Yellows in the head. Pandemonium broke loose.

All were yelling at one another. At the same time, little Yellows dropped me and grabbed Gray, throwing him across the room and into several other Grays. I drifted down. Blue tried to grab me but pulled me in the wrong direction, while Green was trying to snatch me the other way. I turned around, put a hand out, and touched the side of the tank. They went into shock. The bigger Yellows nearly screamed at the little Yellows. Five Grays were seriously injured, and the little guy picked up three more. For the smallest in the room, little Yellows were devastating. I smiled at the Green and Blue, and that panicked them even more, and they dropped me.

Something else came into the room. Something dark and foreboding said one quiet word: “Stop.”

Everything came to a complete stop. Even little Yellows stopped.

Green turned to the new creature, and it was black as night. It was difficult to see and hard to watch. When it moved, it distorted. The new creature said to little Yellows, “Put them down, and resume your place.”

Little Yellows gently set the three Grays down and came to the tank, lifted me up, and held me in the center.

It turned to the bigger Yellow. “You are in charge. What went wrong here?”

“Dark One, Gray slapped my pen mate in the head for no reason. She took great offense and threw Gray against his pen mates and then started tearing them apart. I was just about to join her.”

Black said, “You are wrong. Let me tell you what happened. I have been tapped into the creature for some time. The creature took offense at being called boring by Gray, and so it used Green’s mind to turn off the switch and then to cause Gray to hit your pen mate.”

They all looked at me, upset. Black continued. “The creature is not at fault. It is simply trying to slow you down and is being very successful. Still, it is limited with the tank power on, so it finds ways to turn it off. This would not have happened if that Green had done his job and watched the power switch to this tank. He did not.”

A tentacle shot out and touched the Green. It died instantly and in great pain. Another tentacle motioned toward another Green. “Turn that knob up full, and watch it very closely.”

Black turned to Yellows and said very nicely, “Do not make me come in here again.” It turned to me and said, “Creature, do not cry over that dead Green. He made a mistake that I had noticed earlier and would have punished anyway.” Then it turned in a blur and left.

Not a word was said. The Green motioned for two Purples to remove the dead Green and for Green to continue.

Green said, “I will try, but it is hard while the creature is in such an emotional state.”

Yellows asked, “This creature is sad over the death of one of ours?”

“Very.”

Yellows motioned for the Grays to take away their injured. “Interesting. Please try to continue.”