Hammer's War 1: Forging the Hammer (9 page)

The next morning Thad was up early and for the first time in months he was nightmare free. He entered the kitchen and found it empty.  That was strange because he never beat the Doctor to the kitchen in the morning, “Eve, you awake yet?”

“I’
m always awake silly,” she replied.  “What would you like for breakfast this morning?”

“Nothing
, just some coffee please,” Thad said.  “Hey have you seen Doctor Hammer?”

“Not today
.  He was up late in his study last night. I had to beg him to get some sleep, so I don’t think we will see the good Doctor until at least noon or so.”

Thad took his cup of coffee, thanked
Eve, and went to the garage to keep his promise to Rhonda.  She was waiting for him when he came through the door.  She appeared all covered in dirt and grime, towel in hand.  “Good morning sweetie, I’m ready for my bath baby!” she said as her dirty clothes slipped from her body leaving nothing, but a slender beautiful naked hologram.

Thad Laughed, “You’re such a bad girl Rhonda
.”

She pulled her hands together in front of her
, while pulling her legs together, to do her best Jessica Rabbit impression.  She pushed her butt out, and leaned forward, “Don’t blame me I was programmed this way!” 

Eve’s voice came over the speakers in the garage, “
Well don’t blame me I programmed you to be a good girl.”

“But I am a good girl
, a really good girl,” Rhonda said with an evil grin.

Thad thought it was strange as well as comical that he was in the middle of this discussion at all
.  It was clear Eve didn’t understand the context in which he was using the word bad, but it seemed Rhonda did.  There was a pause then everyone laughed.  Thad went about washing the bike down while Rhonda sat in a holographic bathtub, on the handlebars, singing and every now and then, pointing out a spot Thad had missed.  He was almost done when he noticed Doctor Hammer in the doorway watching him.  Without stopping what he was doing he asked, “Something on your mind Doc?” 

Doctor Hammer took a second before he answered,
“Yes I think there are a few things you need to know about your past.”

That got Thad’s attention
.  He put down the polishing rag, and turned to Rhonda, and she waved him off, “Oh go ahead I can get the maid bots to finish up.”

“Thank you,”
he said following Doctor Hammer back into the main house.  Doctor Hammer led him into his study. Thad had been in his study many times, but this was the first he felt like a kid going to see the principal when he had done something wrong.  He sat down and waited.

“Thad
, I’m sorry that I have not been totally forthcoming about you or more to the point what I found out about you,” Doctor Hammer said, sliding a small envelope across the desk to him.

Thad
looked at it, but not touch it, “Don’t tell me you found out who I was or did you?”  Doctor Hammer did not answer, “I’m monster aren’t I?”

Doctor Hammer
was a bit taken back by the question, “What makes you think that?”

“It’s the nightmares I
have been having. I have been seeing people being killed in different ways, and I think I was the one doing the killing.  It really bothers me. However, last night I took those three guys out without a thought, and it didn’t bother me at all.  It was if I was…,” he paused.

“Trained to do it
,” Doctor Hammer finished for him.

“Yeah, I’
m not sure why, but I seem to have very advanced fighting skills and when I grabbed the gun from the guy, it felt normal to me, like I have done this kind of thing many times before.”

Doctor Hammer
pointed to the envelope on the desk, “You have, and you see last night wasn’t the first time I have seen you fight.  The first time I laid eyes on you I watched you take out a man at Bob’s”

“The man at the
bar, the one I smashed out his teeth,” he said as he picked up the envelope.

“Yes, I was there that day
.  After you left the bar, I followed them out into the desert.  That is how I found you.”

Thad opened
the envelope and poured out the contents onto the desk.  He picked up a burned out microchip, turning it slowly over and over in his hand.  “What is it?”

“I
found the chip in your head and removed it because it was damaged.  I first thought that it was damaged by the trauma you suffered, but later looking at it more closely, it turns out that it was burned out long before that.  It seems you must have exposed it to a large amount of electromagnetic energy to disable it, which could not have felt very good.”

Still looking at the chip Thad asked, “So
, what is it?”

“It is three things really
. It didn’t take me long to figure it out; nasty piece of work that little thing is.  It had been wired into all your senses, and by the looks of it, transmitted all the info wirelessly to someone or something.  The second part also sent out a location signal.”

“A tracker
,” Thad said as he stared at the chip in his hand.

“
Yes, with this baby they could track you anywhere you went.”

“Whoever they are,” Thad said.

“Yes, but this last bit is the really nasty bit. It is a kill chip.”

Thad looked up from the chip, “a what?”

“A kill chip,” Doctor Hammer said, pointing to a small area of the chip “See this part?  When the command is issued, it delivers enough voltage to stop your nervous system.  Once that is off-line everything else shuts down and you die.” 

Thad set it down on the desk and looked Doctor Hammer in the eyes, “
Why did you hide this from me?”

“I’
m sorry I did, but at the time I didn’t think you would want to know about it,” Doctor Hammer said as he rocked back in his chair.

“What made you think that?”

Doctor Hammer placed his hands behind his head, “The evidence really, the fact you disabled the chip told me you wanted nothing to do with your former masters, coupled with the fact that no one comes here unless they are looking for a place to fall off the grid.  You see, when I first found you, I tried to find out your identity and I sent off a sample of your DNA to see if you were missing or if you had any family.”

“And
that is when you found nothing right?”  Thad asked.

“
Yes, nothing, zip, zilch, not a damn thing, you did not exist anywhere.  Which is damn near impossible to do now days.  It meant only one thing.”

Thad finished this time, “Secret military black
ops…”

“Yes,
they are the only ones who have the power to make a person vanish from the records, but the question is which military?”  Doctor Hammer added.

“That is just one
of many questions this raises,” Thad said, his voice trailing off as he was thinking about all the questions racing through his mind.

“You don’t look Fabian, so I don’t think it was them and beside they don’t have the tech to do this anyway.  Could be the Rep Com, or the Terrain Empire, but my money is on the Federation
. They have the money, tech, and more black projects than the rest of the militaries combined,” Doctor Hammer stated.

“So you think odds are pretty good I used to be part of some
super-secret military group, and for some reason, I took off and deserted?”  Thad said more as a statement then a question.

Doctor Hammer
frowned, “I’m not sure what the truth is, but what I do know is the universe is giving you a second chance at life and you seem to be making better choices.  Personally, I would not worry about being a deserter. I have the feeling you had a very good reason for leaving that life.”

Thad understood
that Doctor Hammer was trying to make him feel better, but it was not working.  “So now what do I do, stay here, and hope my past does not come looking for me, or should I run?  What should I do?”

“Well you can do what you like, but I feel if they wanted you back they would have come looking for you
already.  I mean it has been over a year now.”

Thad nodded.

“
And besides, you have a good life here, and personally I really have grown attached to you.”

Thad smiled at that, “Doc
, you’re not getting all sentimental on me are you?”

Doctor Hammer laughed, “No, it is just
that you are a very good assistant, better than Archie, but don’t let him hear that or he will be moping for a week.”

“So you were up late last night worrying about all of this then?
”  Thad asked.

“Yes and
no.  I was building a program for the holo-room.”  Doctor Hammer said as he pushed back from the desk and stood up.

“Holo-room
?  I didn’t know we had one,” Thad said as he also stood up.

Doctor Hammer walked around the desk and towards the door, “
Come this way.”  He motioned for Thad to follow him.  “The reason you didn’t know is we did not have one until last night, when I wrote the program and had the fabrication bots build it for me.  They just finished.”

Doctor
Hammer led Thad down the hallway to a new door that had not been there just a few hours before.  He opened the door to a room with black walls and a tiny white grid that covered the whole room.  At the intersections of the grid were tiny white lights.  Doctor Hammer walked to the center of the room and said, “Doesn’t look like much now, but give it a minute to warm up.  Eve can you be a dear and run program Hammer one please.”

Eve appeared next to Doctor
Hammer, in full 3-D, not just a hologram. “I would be glad to honey.”  She patted him on the backside, which made Doctor Hammer jump a little.

Leaning close to Thad he whispered, “Now you know why I
never built one of these before.  In here she is hard light and has a physical presence.”

Thad could not
help, but chuckle.

There was a flash of white light
.  The black walls disappeared, replaced by what looked like a classroom.  On the walls was writing from every known written language. Eve draped her arms around Doctor Hammer’s neck and said dramatically, “Oh my darling you should have built one of these ages ago.  Just think of all the fun we could have had together.  I love having a physical presence.  I think I will have to spend a lot of down time in here.”

Doctor Hammer looked annoyed, “You know Thad I never had a wife
, not because I didn’t like women, I just never wanted the distraction, and a wife means family, family means children, which equals no work gets done.  So what do I do instead?  I have to go and create a computer wife that will not leave me alone to work. I wonder if I should have just gone ahead and gotten a real one.  Oh well, I will never know.”

Eve looked hurt
.  Thad patted him on the shoulder and said, “Hey Doc, you are only human and we humans need to have something to love.  I think you should spend some time in here with Eve.
I mean after all she can be anything you want in here, and I’m sure she would be better to you than any real woman could be.”

“You do have a point there
.  Maybe I have been denying myself too much, besides where else is a wrinkled up old fart like me going to find a real woman that is this elegant, sexy, and smart.”  Eve smiled and then hugged him tight.  “However we are not in here for me.”  Doctor Hammer said as he tried to struggle for air as Eve was hugging a little too tightly.  “I wanted you to have a place to explore your skills and find out what you know and don’t know.  I’m hoping by remembering what your skills are, we can get one step closer to the truth; that is if you want it?”

“I do,” replied Thad
.  “Where do we start?

Doctor Hammer had to kiss Eve to get her to let him go, “Damn
it, that girl can hug.  I think I will have to tweak the safety protocols before I try anything with her or she might just kill me trying to love me.”  That got a good laugh out of Thad as well as Eve.  “You will start here,” he pointed to the desk and chair, “Eve will you run the program please.” 

“Sure thing lover boy,” she smiled wickedly at him.

“My God I think I have created a monster!  I will leave you two alone for now before she gets any ideas to drag me off to a closet somewhere,” Doctor Hammer said.

As soon as Doctor Hammer left the room Eve who had been dressed in shorts and a tee shirt
was now sporting a long grey skirt, white blouse, and her hair was pulled up into a bun, complete with a pencil stuck through it.  She was also wearing square glasses, which made her the picture-perfect        stereotype conservative teacher.  “Welcome to Miss’s Eve’s language class.  I am Miss Eve and I will be evaluating your ability to understand, speak, read, and write other languages.”

She started out
by speaking in Mandarin Chinese, which Thad understood and replied back to her in prefect Mandarin.  Next she tried French, same again, then German, and so on.  As time went on it turned out Thad could speak, read, and write almost every known human language and a few alien ones as well.  The first part of the program took the whole morning and Thad was hungry, due to only having had a cup of coffee for breakfast.  He asked Eve to pause and he left to find some food.