Hammer's War 1: Forging the Hammer (7 page)

“Well
Hello there Rhonda,” Thad said to his new A.I. 

“Doc you should have told me he was so handsome,” Rhonda said looking Thad up and down
as if he was a piece of shiny new hardware.

“Rhonda
is here to help run all your systems and she will also help you control the bike at high speeds so I don’t have to worry about you wrecking all my hard work.”  He said, as he pointed to Thad’s face.

“I
don’t know what to stay,” Thad was completely overwhelmed by Doctor Hammer’s kindness and generosity, and found himself at a loss for words. 

Rhonda
, on the other hand was not, “Well you could start with a thank you to Doctor Hammer here and Mom,” she paused and turned to face Doctor Hammer, “Honestly Doc didn’t you teach him any manners?”

“Ah,
Mom?”  Queried Thad, looking puzzled.

“Eve, she programmed Rhonda here for
you,” said Doctor Hammer with a cough, “She is not as powerful as Eve, but she has everything she needs to run your bike’s systems.”

“Oh yeah
, the antiquated computer   you were trying to use would have blown up the first time you tried to ride it, but with me you can push it to limit and still get back in once piece,” Rhonda said as she winked at Thad.

“Okay,
what is it with the biker chick look?”  Thad asked Doctor Hammer.  Before the good-natured Doctor could get a word in edge wise, Rhonda cut in.

“As you know I can appear anyway I want
, and I thought if I was going to be an A.I. for a bike I should look the part,” she said with hands to her hips.  “Would you rather I appeared naked?”  In a flash, she was standing there completely nude.

“Ah, no
, what you were wearing before was just fine,” Thad stammered as he felt himself blush from embarrassment. “I can definitely see Eve’s personality in you.  If an A.I. can have a daughter, there’s no doubt in my mind that you’re hers.”

“
Before I go, I had the fabrication bots put together a paint booth for you.  I will leave you two to get better acquainted as you pick out your new paint scheme.

“Oh yes
.  I have to look as good on the outside as I do on the inside.” Rhonda grinned.

Back in the main
house, Eve found Doctor Hammer in the kitchen getting a snack, “So did he like Rhonda?”

“I think so.  They were picking out colors for the bike when I left them.”

Eve giggled, “I am so glad. He seemed to need someone to talk to besides us. I tried to program her to be a companion to him when he is out riding so he doesn’t feel alone.”

Doctor Hammer laughed, “Are you sure that was such a good idea, I mean I think the whole idea of the bike is so that he can get out and get some alone time.”

“Oh I had not thought of that.”  Eve said, with a bit of a pout to her lips.

“
Oh, and one more thing, do you think maybe you made her a little too sexy?”  Hammer asked.

“Hey
, is it my fault that someone didn’t program me with anything to do with human sexuality.  I had to learn everything I know from the media,” Eve said with hands on her hips.

“Point taken,”
Hammer admitted in defeat.

Thaddeus was looking forward to getting out and doing some riding, but the night’s events, the new A.I. Rhonda,
and the secret power source, was a lot to take in.  The excitement of it all was making it hard to sleep, “Eve could you be a dear and whip up something to help me sleep?” A moment later a hot chocolate and a sleeping pill appeared in the replicator near his bed.  He took the pill, enjoyed the drink and a few minutes later he was fast asleep.  

He had been a sleep for some time when
he started dreaming of Rhonda.  She was dressed like a stripper giving him a lap dance then she faded away to be replaced by a chamber where he was sitting as a small boy reviewing scenes of war, violence and death.  “Stop this!”  He screamed, but no one listened.  Then he saw himself standing over bodies of both men and woman, every one of their faces twisted with fear and pain.  He put his hands to his head and screamed again, “Why me, why are you doing this to me?”

He looked up to see a man, a man in a fine grey suit
.  There was something about this man, something that was just out of reach.  Thorne came to mind.  The man was standing there looking at him, “You’re Thorne, aren’t you?”

The man smiled, “G
et in there, and kill him.” 

The man and the room faded away
, to be replaced by a young man with a knife on the floor between them.  There was something very familiar about this young man, but he could not place it.  The other man rushed for the knife same as he did. They reached the knife at the same time.  They locked up with one another.  Punches and kicks where thrown.  His opponent grabbed him by the neck and tossed him across the room.  Thad hit the wall and the blow temporally stunned him.  In his momentary daze, the young man grabbed the knife and came straight for him. 

The floor of the room was made of loose dirt
. Rolling on the ground, Thad grabbed a handful of dirt, and flung it into the eyes of his opponent.  Thad bounced onto to his feet and grabbed for the knife, but he missed and grabbed his opponent’s wrist instead. He twisted the wrist with so much force that he could hear as well as feel the bones break.  His opponent screamed out as his bones snapped like twigs.  He dropped the knife and Thad went for it.  He got it, but the young man had recovered enough to lash out with a kick that got Thad in the face, his lip split and blood flew. 

S
tunned from the hit, Thad rolled backwards to avoid the next kick.  The man failed to connect and he overstepped, which left him open.  Thad attacked plunging the knife in deep.  He could feel warm blood flow over his hand.  The young man looked stunned, pain filling his eyes.  Thad pulled the knife free, and with one quick motion cut the man’s throat, letting lose a fine spray of blood, as the man fell to the ground with a gurgling sound.

Thad dropped the knife and started to yell, “Se
ven I’m sorry, I’m so sorry Seven.”

“Very good,” the sound of hands clapping broke his gaze
. He looked up to see a man, the one he had called Thorne.

“You made me kill my best friend!
”  Thad screamed, bloody knife still in hand.

“You are here to kill
, not make friends, and if you didn’t kill him it would be your body lying there, number six.”

“I will kill you!” he screamed.

“Wake up Thad, it is just a dream, you are having a nightmare.
Wake up!”  Doctor Hammer was shaking him, trying to wake him.

When Thad became aware of where he was and what he was
doing, he had Doctor Hammer by the throat and was choking him.  He let go right away, “Oh my god, Doc I’m so sorry.”

Rubbing his sore
neck, he croaked out the words, “Don’t worry about it.” 

A few minutes later Doctor Hammer was fine and Thad was sitting up in his bed with a cup of tea.  Doctor Hammer
sat down with a cup of his own, “So who is Seven?”

Thad had no idea, “I
don’t know, but I think it may have something to do with my past,” he paused and looked up at Doctor Hammer, “it was so real.”

“H
ow long have you been having these nightmares?”  Doctor Hammer asked as he set his cup down on the bedside table.

Thad took a sip of
his tea, “For a few weeks now, but this was the worst so far.”

“Well from now on I think I will have
Archie wake you up from your nightmares.  You can throttle him all you like” Doctor Hammer said rubbing his sore neck.

“
I’m so sorry about that, I don’t know why that happened,” Thad said eye balling the rapidly forming bruises on the Doctor’s neck.

“Don’t thi
nk on it again,” Doctor Hammer smiled as he got up and left the room.

Thad was not able to go back to sleep so he
got out of bed. After wondering the house for a while, he found himself in the garage polishing up the new paint job on the bike. Rhonda popped up on top of the bike, the whole twelve inches of her hologram, “You are here early, just couldn’t stay away from me?”

“
That’s it, I just couldn’t go another minute without polishing something,” he paused as she gave him a sour face, “No just couldn’t sleep,” he said.

“Anything you want to talk about?”

“Not really, but if you wanted to play some music that would be nice,” he said as he sprayed a generous amount of liquid polish on her.

“DJ Rhonda at your service
Sir,” she took a bow and then disappeared.  Music filled the room as he worked making the bike shine.

He
continued to work on the bike for hours not really working on it, but more going through the motions while he thought about the dream.  At some point in the morning, Archie came in and got the sand crawler.  Thad watched as he drove off with Doctor Hammer.

“I wonder where he’
s off to.” Thad said as he stopped polishing long enough to see them disappear in a cloud of dust.

Rhonda appeared on the handlebars, “I have no
idea, and mom keeps saying that it is a secret.”

“
Hum, what is he up to now?”  Thad pondered.

“I don’t know, but I want to know when you are going to take
me out for a good ride big boy,” Rhonda said as she bent over the handlebars in a very sexual manner.

“Just need a seat baby
.  Once I have something soft to sit on then I’ll take you out and ride you hard and put you away dirty, so don’t you worry your pretty little holo-projector off.”

Rhonda smiled, “I l
ove it when you talk to me like that!”

It was later that evening when Doctor Hammer
returned to the compound, the back of the crawler filled with mostly supply boxes.  Doctor Hammer had a crate of Jack Daniels back there as well.  He loved the stuff.  When he saw Thad looking at the crate he said, “Well if you have to have a vice you should make it a good one.  It’s the water that makes it so great.  You see back on Earth in Tennessee the Jack Daniel Company has been making whisky the same way for hundreds of years.  Their protected water supply is the key.  You see it has just the right balance of minerals.”     

Now it made sense to Thad wh
y Doctor Hammer took off so fast, and without telling him. He must have been waiting on that case for months.

“Thad come here
I want to show you something,” Doctor Hammer motioned for him to come to the back of the crawler.

Thad walked to the back and looked at what Doctor Hammer was pointing at
. He stopped cold, and his jaw dropped open. It was a crate with a new seat for the grav-bike.  “Well son are you going say anything or are you going to just stand there, like a fool, and drool on my boots?”

“I don’t know what to do say,” Thad said as he carefully removed the seat from
its crate.  He inspected every inch of it.  The custom-made leather seat had been hand made on Earth.  The craftsmanship was stunning!

Doctor Hammer place
d his arm around Thad’s shoulders and said, “How about you don’t say anything.”  Thad didn’t say a word just stood and turned the seat over in his hands.  “Don’t just stand there looking like a slack jawed idiot go put it on Rhonda so we can take her out for ride.”

“Yes
Sir,” Thad, seat in hand, ran back to the bike.  A few minutes later, he had the new seat installed.  He slipped his leg over the bike and sat down.  It was incredible to have a seat that was made precisely for him, “Oh Rhonda, you should feel this thing, it is like a soft hand cradling my backside. I have to wonder though, where did he get a mold of my butt?  This thing is perfect.”

Rhonda
appeared on the handlebars in her leather biker outfit, “You know, he did have you on his operating table for months.  I’m sure he took a few body scans that included that perfect ass of yours.”

Thad rolled his ey
es, “Okay smart-ass fire up the engine.  Let’s hear this baby roar.”

The engine came
on line, purring like a happy kitty.  For the first time the bike lifted off the work stands.  He carefully floated it off the table, down the ramp, and out of the garage.  Sitting there, hands on the controls, and Rhonda setting on the handlebars in front of him.

“Okay Sweetie let’s see what you can do
, shall we.”

Outside Doctor Hammer was standing with a leather helmet
on and goggles over his eyes.  He looked like a World War I pilot.  “Well son, let’s go.” He climbed aboard and sat on the back seat pointing, “That away!”

Doctor Hammer’s compound sat at the end of a box
canyon, which protected it from the worst sandstorms that came through the area on a regular basis.  However, it also provided some great twists and turns which made the ride that much more fun.  The bike flew through the canyon in a few seconds. It opened up in the desert as Thad pushed the throttle as far as he felt comfortable.
 
Riding a meter off the ground, the speed was close to three hundred miles an hour.  Doctor Hammer said over the com channel, “Let Rhonda take over, and let her open it up.”

Having no objections he let Rho
nda take over, “Run her up baby,” Thad said.  Rhonda used all of the bike’s sensors to see far beyond its speed so it was easy for her to avoid hitting anything, but this was her first ride.  She did not take into consideration the effect of the acceleration on her passengers.  She kicked up the speed, hitting the speed of sound, which caused a sonic boom.  The increase in speed started to tear Doctor Hammer from the back seat.  “Aaa!” he screamed.

Thad reacted in a flash
pulling him back onto the bike.  Doctor Hammer yelled over the com, “Maybe you should add some seatbelts!”  Thad laughed at the idea of seat belts on a grav-bike, but considering what this one could do, it might not be a bad idea.  After riding over half of the moon’s surface, Thad noticed the sun was starting to set.

“Hey I’m hungry and we are close to town
.  Let’s go see Carl for dinner,” Doctor Hammer suggested.

“Sounds like a great idea to me
.  Rhonda to the diner please and make it quick, the Doc is hungry,” Thad said with hint of sarcasm in his voice.

“Hold on tight then
.”  At least this time she gave them warning before she opened up the throttle.

From a
distance, the approach of Thad and Doctor Hammer looked like a giant dust devil moving right for town.  The bike was kicking up a huge rooster tail of dust, and the spectacle drew a bit of a crowd.  Thad parked the bike right next to Bob’s and the two of them dismounted.  They looked like men made of dust, as they were covered from head to toe in a layer of the fine desert sand.  Thad was
patting the dust off himself when Rhonda’s little hologram popped up on the handlebars.

“Oh look what you two did to my paint job
!” She had her hands planted squarely on her hips and her face was wrinkled up with full-on electronic fury.

Thad spoke first, “Ah, I think it looks good on you, gives you that ridden look.”

Rhonda did not look amused. She said, with a pouty lip, “But I was so much prettier before you got me all dirty.”

Thad leaned close so he was nose to nose with the little hologram, “Rhonda,
I thought you liked to get dirty.”

Rhonda frowned,
“Not that kind of dirty. I liked how shinny I looked.”

Thad
smiled, he knew he was getting the best of her. “Don’t fret, the best thing about getting dirty is the getting clean part.  I promise that I’ll hand wax,” he paused for effect, “and shine all your shiny parts when we get back.”

She giggled and smiled, “Oh you, how can
I stay mad at you when you talk to me like that.”

Thad threw his head back and roared with laughter.  While Doctor Hammer stood there confused about the whole conversation.  “What did you say to get her to giggle like that?  I was beginning to think we would have to walk
home.”

“I just told her that I would
give her a full rub down and hand wax later.”