Jethro: First to Fight (27 page)

He used his experience with the shield
and flight pack projects and turned the problem questions on their head. “If
you can't go through, go around, there is always an answer, always a
compromise. We may not like the fix, but if it works...” the Tauren said,
tapping his chin with a screwdriver.

“If it's stupid and it works it's not
stupid. Gotcha. Like that shit Jethro tossed to the XO,” Riley said. By now
everyone had heard about how the panther had casually come up with the idea of
using a solar farm to solve the energy crisis.... which come to think of it,
Riley thought, now rubbing his chin... “That may be the answer staring us in
the face,” he said softly.

“What?” Ox asked.

“The farms. Solar farms.”

The Tauren's massive nostrils flared in
amusement. “Too far out.”

Riley shook his head stubbornly. “Beamed
power. Look, the conventional approach is to find a way to rig a poor man's
fusion reactor right? Or a fission reactor. Or fuel cells, I've heard a few of the
ideas are just plain nutty. But what about beamed power?”

“And if it's interrupted in combat?” Ox
asked.

Riley shrugged. “Superconductor
batteries. Stuff the fort with them. Enough to say, power the place for a day
or a week or hell! Even a year!.”

“Interesting. You are referring to a
siege.”

“In peace time the power wouldn't be
needed anyway. Just enough to keep the batteries topped off and to run life
support, sensors, communications, and stuff right?”

The Tauren nodded slowly. “True.”

“Okay, so...”

“Now what?” Ox asked. He jotted the idea
out in an e-mail made certain he made it clear Riley had come up with it, then
shot it off.

“Weapons,” Riley said. “I've had that
problem too. We can't make missiles or missile launchers. We can't make energy
weapons either. So, we've got a fort, stuffed with sensors and stuff, but it's
just one big target.”

“A target without shields.”

“Yeah well, I thought about that
already,” Riley said dismissively. Ox cocked his massive Tauren head. “Sure,
remember the shields we've made? For armor? Why not do the same for a fort?
Plate shields over the vitals.”

“Um...”

“Course we'd have a hell of a time with
power... and getting hit with ship weapons...”

“Not to mention if you only shield
vitals it draws a map for the enemy, gives them a target,” Ox rumbled.

“Yeah,” Riley sighed. “That too. But we
can, I dunno, set up dummies and decoys,” he said.

“True,” Ox said, eyes wide. He dumped
these ideas into an e-mail and sent it as well.

Firefly caught the e-mails and having an
idle moment tuned in to the conversation. Ox finished repairing the pauldron
he'd been working on and then set it on the worn counter. “Any more ideas on
weapons?”

“Huh?” Riley grunted. “Um, no, old
school maybe. Chemical rockets and shit like that I guess.”

“It's possible,” Ox said. “We can make
parts for missiles. We don't have to use a replicator to make things after all.
Not for everything,” he mused thoughtfully.

“True,” Riley said. “Hey, what about
kinetic weapons?”

“Bullets?”

“Sure? Why the hell not? They used
bullets in point defense for a while right?”

“Um...”

“Yes,” Firefly replied, entering the
conversation. “Are you referring to linear weapons Sergeant Riley?” the AI
asked.

“Yeah,” Riley said nodding. “Them
things. I was thinking about making man portable ones a while back but well,
everything and all,” he waved his hands to indicate how busy he was.

“I see. A linear actuator is a good
idea. Scaled up we could apply it.”

“We could?” the stunned Sergeant asked,
now wide eyed.

“Yes.”

“And then of course you could just stuff
the asteroid with fighters and bomber craft,” Ox said casually. The AI's avatar
turned to the Tauren. “I mean, you could fit what? An entire carrier group in a
rock over a kilometer in diameter? They could then be on alert to an invasion.”

“That is a very good idea,” the AI
responded, nodding.

“I actually am guilty of remembering
that and not making it up sir,” Ox replied. “I remembered a story from my youth
of a member of my family who served briefly in an asteroid fort as ground crew
before being reassigned to the Nimitz.”

“Fascinating,” Riley said. “But not what
we're doing,” he said, waving to the armor pieces around them. Ox looked at the
human and then nodded.

“I believe you have solved quite a few
of our concept issues Sergeant. Good work, both of you. Let me know of
anymore,” the AI responded. When Riley just stared in surprise the AI cut the
signal.

“How did he um...”

“I sent an e-mail,” Ox admitted. “And
put in that you were the one thinking this stuff up.”

Riley stared at him for a long moment.
“Tattletale,” he finally grumbled, looking away. “I was just brainstorming.
Bullshitting,” he said, eying the Tauren.

“Yeah, well, it was good bullshitting,”
Ox rumbled, chuckling. “And it might get some people moving again.”

“Yeah well, next thing you know they'll
want to promote me or some stupid thing. I'm where I want to be, they'd better
not,” Riley growled.

This time the Tauren did laugh out loud,
even when Riley turned to glower at him and then threw a rag over the Tauren's
massive face.

...*...*...*...*...

During his next 3 day pass, Jethro had
trouble sleeping. He was now constantly dreaming of being in the suit. He
started to have chronic lower back pain the second night. At first he'd
considered it to be a product of his sleep position or muscle strain from
working out, but when he checked his implant feed he realized the pain wasn't
muscle related. It throbbed, a warm uncomfortable feeling, almost like a long
term tooth ache.

Rubbing his back he looked up the pain
on the web. He found it could be kidney stones from drinking too little water
and too much of the beer and other human drinks. He vowed to cut back. If he
didn't feel better soon he'd have to see the doc, something Marines weren't at
all thrilled with after the last rounds of poking and prodding.

...*...*...*...*...

Near the end of their leave, Jethro
hooked up with some of his squad mates. It was too early to hit the bar, so
they hit the park and gravitated to the basketball court. They sat on the
picnic tables in the shade, eating a light lunch as they contemplated what to
do next with their dwindling free time.

Hurranna nodded her chin and flicked her
ears to the humans on the basketball court. “Think they'd let us play?” she
asked, looking over to Fonz.

“Dunno,” Fonz replied, nonchalantly
leaning back on his elbows. “I'm not sure it's worth the effort.”

“Lazy,” Hurranna teased.

“Nah, I know the Gunny will have us
doing drills when we get back. But I also meant we'd cream them,” he said,
turning to grab his beer. He took s a swig. “Right?” he said.

“Of course,” Hurranna said. “Even
without implants I can leap higher than you can.”

“True,” Fonz replied, amused.

A new group arrived, they set up on the
empty court. They tossed towels on the ground. Two had bags, they set them up
near the perimeter, away from their friends gear. One fussed over his bag, not
over its contents but over its placement before his partners hissed at him to stop.

Jethro flicked his ears in amusement and
casually looked away. Hurranna was right, it would be nice to have fun and get
the kinks out, but then again, Fonz was right too, the Gunny would be on them
with PT or some crap duty as soon as they reported for duty.

He heard the new humans talking and
tuned it out, lazing back. It would be nice to get some sun, even though the
'sun' was artificial. He could go for a walk or run, but seeing a Neocat
prowling might get some of the humans upset. He sighed.

“Deep thoughts?”

“Something like that.” He killed his
beer with a final swig and then crushed the plastic. With a nonchalant toss
over his shoulder he shrugged. The crushed can arched into the recycling bin
behind him perfectly.

“Three points,” Hurranna teased, flicking
her ears. She knew he'd used his implants to see the can. “Show off.”

“Just having fun,” the panther replied,
stretching.

The humans had seen the casual toss and
turned. They nudged each other, muttering darkly at the casual toss.

Jethro laid even odds that they'd either
get an invite to play, or they'd be ignored. These were human males, all
between the ages of 20 and 40. Some were in good shape, a few were body
builders. Two were overweight though, and one looked so fat he jiggled when he
walked. His red sweat band was as soaked as his hair and white jersey. The
humans stank a bit. Fortunately there was an air intake nearby to suck most of
the fragrance of sweat away.

 Jethro's eyes narrowed. Apparently
the players were going for option three. The human males were uppity,
increasingly belligerent, with snide remarks. The three Marines winced slightly
at the soft taunts, but otherwise didn't react. “Should we leave?” Hurranna
texted to the other two.

“No, just ignore them,” Jethro replied.
He pulled up their last sim and fed it to the others. Both Marines smirked, the
civilians didn't stand a chance in something like that.

After a few minutes their occasional
raunchy taunts amused Fonz and Hurranna... right up until they overheard them
making cracks about the 3 having a threesome and how Fonz would love it up the
ass. That wiped the amusement off of Fonz's face. He rose to retaliate but
Jethro stopped him with a restraining hand on his shoulder.

One of the hecklers paused to tie a shoe
lace on the bench opposite them and called the panther a moreau peckerhead. The
panther turned, eyes now slitted and glittering with annoyance. His ears were
flat, fur bristling, tail thrashing. “What did you call me?” Jethro asked
softly, growling slightly.

“You heard me,” the civilian said
smugly, standing up to the Neo. “What are you going to do about it?”

“Is this guy for real?” Hurranna asked,
clearly amused. “Or is he suicidal?” A fence was around the court, chain link
fence that wouldn't stand up to the panther, even if he didn't go through the
nearby door.

“Apparently so. Come on, he's just
showing off to his buddies. Showing how he can get the big bad Neo Marine to
back down.”

Jethro studied the human. There was
something there, in the guy's eyes, not just the promise of a little action.
His anger was there, but slowly ebbing as his mind ticked over. His instincts
itched, something told him there was more to this than it seemed. He felt like
he was being watched. He could see the self satisfied smirk there, lingering...
the feeling grew stronger. His awareness of the problem was like a splash of
cold water on his anger, cooling it down to acceptable levels. “Come on,” the
guy said, flapping his arms and then pushing the ball between him and the
panther. “You a neuter?”

“Neuter?” Jethro asked, completely calm,
despite his ears flat on his head and his claws out.

“Yeah,” the guy said mockingly. “You got
a set on you or what? You chicken?” he demanded, looking around. People around
them, fellow picnickers and people out walking or playing had stopped to watch
the taboo.

Jethro was tempted to lash out and pop
the guy's basketball but held off. He started to say something and then he
caught sight of that gym bag. His sensors picked out electronics there, and his
eyes narrowed as he focused. He caught the tell tale glitter of a camera
filming the scene. They had carefully placed it there he realized, placed it to
record them. That realization cooled him off instantly. “No,” he said, backing
off. He didn't need to lose a stripe over some pissing contest.

“Come on, big wussy pussy,” the guy
mocked. Suddenly Jethro turned and got right up to the male. The male froze,
then stood as tall as he could. Jethro recognized the act, a dominance display,
he was chesting up, trying to make himself look big and bad. The panther
however just took a long whiff. “What the frack man!” the guy said, backing
off. “He just smelled me!” he said, turning to his friends.

“Maybe he wants to get it on with you!
Likes your cologne!” another mocked, laughing.

“No, I'm just saving it for later. Be
seeing you,” Jethro said, eyes slitting. “Seeing you real soon,” he growled,
letting some subsonics enter his voice as the growl intensified. He saw his
victim quiver and pale, he could smell the small amount of ammonia as the guy's
dick leaked. “Real soon,” he said almost crooning and then turned away with
Hurranna.

“You could have really screwed him up.”

“Yeah, and screwed myself. It was what
he wanted,” Jethro replied, not looking back. “See the camera's in the crowd?
In that gym bag? It was a set up. Someone set us up. Pick a fight, put it on
the news. I'm not that gullible,” he growled.