Starting from Scratch (27 page)

Good thinking, Al.

He took one last check, to be sure his men were
properly spaced, and then commed,
Aim,
He paused then said,
Fire!

The plasma blasts had neither sounds nor telltale
visual signs of their presence. However, the results were amazing.
All resistance ceased, as troopers dropped where they stood or
knelt.

Mike, the old Sergeant’s instincts kicking in, loudly
commed,
Go, Go, Go.

The entire group charged the entrance, receiving no
resistance to their movement. Once they reached the open hole where
the entrance was located, they proceeded with more caution. Mike
was in the lead and found a solid thick metal door blocking the
way.

Without hesitation, he raised his plasma rifle,
changed the setting to maximum and announced,
I’m blasting the
door, everyone get back and stay down.

He dropped behind the stone entranceway, took aim and
fired. It was strange to him that there was practically no recoil.
Yet, the results were exactly what he wanted. The entire doorway
had been obliterated, leaving only melted metal dripping on the
edges of the frame.

Bambi sent him a graphic showing the layout inside
and where he should find Mike Hardesty and he forwarded it to all
of his warriors. He was up and running, as he warned,
Watch out
for the molten edges as you pass through.

The initial passageway was perfectly straight and
about fifty meters deep. When Mike reached the half waypoint, he
felt the ping, ping, ping of bullets bouncing off his armor.

If a normal human had been wearing the armor, he
would have been just fine, although the force of the impacts would
have knocked him down. Mike didn’t even slow down, as he aimed from
the hip, using his minds eye to sight and fire two stun shots at
the two guards shooting at him. They both went down.

At this point, the resistance was ridiculously light.
It was obvious that no one thought there would be a need for any
serious protection. After all, Mike should be dead by now.

Two more turns in the tunnel and four more guards
later he walked into the command center for this horribly designed
screw up. There were two more men inside, holding M16s aimed at
him, but they weren’t firing. Mike Hardesty was behind them,
holding a Beretta 9MM and he did fire, sending half a clip at Mike,
before Al dropped all three of them with a stun.

Bambi, put the president on, please and show him a
video of this place. I want him to see Hardesty and me.

Yes sir. You’re on, sir.

“Mr. President, my men have used minimal force and I
believe most of these men and the ones who assaulted us are going
to be all right. They will probably be knocked out for a few more
hours and we’ll retrieve them as best we can, providing aid as
needed.

“Mike Hardesty is also knocked out and from what we
can tell, he’s going to be fine physically. He’s your guy, sir, so
I won’t do anything to him, except turn him over to whatever
authority you designate. How you deal with him is up to you.”

“Mr. Hurst, I have been in contact with General Boltz
who was aware of the precautions that Mr. Hardesty had taken to
secure the area. But I believe he had no knowledge of the assault.
He has a company of Air Commandos on the way to your location and
he will take charge of Mr. Hardesty. I would appreciate it if your
men didn’t shoot him.

“Also, I suppose I need to apologize for this
unauthorized act on you and your men. I hope none of them were
harmed.”

Mike sighed and admitted, “We’ve had some casualties,
sir. I suspect once we clear this all up, we’ll find that your
troops may have a few as well.”

“Mr. President, I’ve brought everything I promised
and it is still my intention to see that, together, we can begin to
build an adequate defense force for the solar system. It’s
imperative that we keep the Saurans out of our gravitational globe.
If they get any sort of toe hold, anywhere in this solar area,
we’re all dead.”

“You don’t paint a very pretty picture, Mr.
Hurst.”

“I wish I had a prettier picture to paint, sir.”

There was a lull in the conversation, and then the
President said, “I’m afraid this isn’t going to look good to our
allies.”

Mike gave it some quick thought and suggested, “Then
why even mention it to them? As far as I’m concerned, this was a
combined arms exercise and my guys played the opposition force. It
went down as expected. The troops on the ground can be told that
they have just been part of the very first exercise with the Terran
Space Navy and that it is top secret.

“They will believe it when you send their commanders
a video from you, thanking them for their amazing effort. You can
promise them that soon they will be receiving training in the use
of the same weapons they saw used against them. As a former ground
pounder, I can assure you that will please the troops. They always
want the best and most powerful firepower they can get.”

The President nodded his head and said, “Being as you
seem to have a good grasp of how to handle a few things, do you
have any suggestions for how I might handle Mike Hardesty. If I
bring charges against him for treason, it would certainly throw a
lot of light on all of this.”

“Sir, I don’t want to get into politics. Believe it
or not, I prefer to remain a warrior for the planet Earth. However,
I might suggest that you accept his resignation, due to a pressing
family situation and let him know that my intel people will be
keeping a close eye on him.

“It also might be a good idea to give Harvey Grissom
a call and let him know that it’s possible that a few of his
defense contracts might be reviewed, if he doesn’t play nice and
keep his mouth shut. You could point out just how many years in a
federal prison a man could get for bribery, and other forms of
corruption, not to mention that treason thing.”

The President grinned, but only slightly, as he said,
“Mr. Hurst, you might want me to believe you have no talent for
politics, but you certainly seem to understand it quite well.”

“I think I do, sir. That’s why I choose to remain a
warrior.”

The most powerful man in the world sighed and told
him, “Well, it seems we are going to be working together and very
closely. So, you might as well call me Bob and if you don’t mind,
I’ll call you Mike.”

“That’s fine with me, sir.”

There was a ruckus in the hall and Lieutenant General
Ludwig Boltz came boiling into the room. Mike suspected that he
always came into a room that way. He was unaware that the President
could hear him, as he said, “Well, I see that you’ve been a very
busy boy, Hurst. This is probably the last you’ll ever see of me.
The President is going to roast my ass on a spit, when he finds out
I did nothing to stop this. That, ‘I was just following orders
thing’ isn’t going to save my handsome young ass.”

Mike smiled, held out his hand and said, “General, it
is truly a pleasure to meet you. How would you like to be a much
younger man? I can arrange that, if the President will allow it. As
a matter of fact, it would be a tremendous way to improve our
communication and you could run this base a hundred times
easier.”

Boltz gave him a puzzled look, as the Presidents
voice came over the speakers, “Mike, we’ve just made nice and
you’re already trying to steal another of my people.”

“Not so, Bob. General Boltz will still be under your
command, not mine. You’re going to need men like him and they will
all need to be in the loop, so to speak.”

General Boltz looked around and finally said, “I
suppose that really is the President?”

The President responded, “Yes it is, General. I have
no intention of firing the best man we ever had at Nellis. As for
being upgraded, I’ll leave that decision to you. Once Mike explains
it to you, you have my permission to try, if you wish.”

Boltz gave Mike an angry glare and asked, “Will I be
able to monitor everything like you do.”

Mike grinned and replied, “No, not without the
President’s authorization. As for viewing without being there, yes.
It can save you a lot of time and there’s no substitute for seeing
what there is to be seen. And you can ping my brain to call me a
son of a bitch any time you wish.”

General Boltz smiled and it looked painful for him.
“Hurst, you may have just sold me on it.”

Chapter
15

Four days later, in a small vacant strip mall miles
outside of Washington DC, a car pulled around to the edge of the
parking lot. Three people got out, Todd Pierpoint, his wife and
Marge Chalmers. Mary Hurst had come back down to the planet that
morning, specifically for this meeting. After a pleasant greeting,
she escorted them to a field behind the empty stores.

She told them, “Just give us a few seconds and we’ll
have a shuttle here to pick us up.”

No sooner had she spoken those words, than a rush of
air blew over them, and then from nowhere a wide hatch opened
before them, seemingly from out of nowhere.

“Quickly,” Mary said, as she ushered them up the ramp
and into the small shuttle. At first it was pitch black inside.
But, as soon as the hatch closed, a dim amber light came on and
they saw the broad grinning faces of Mike Hurst and Bet
Fulwiler.

Mike held out his hand and said, “Welcome aboard. We
should be in Nevada in twenty five minutes.”

As Todd shook his hand, Bet and Marge embraced and
giggled. When Bet backed away from her Goddaughter, Marge was
amazed at Bet’s youthful appearance.

“Wow, Bet, you look incredible. I vaguely remember
you from my days as a child; but I’ve never seen you looking so
young.”

Bet nodded and told her, “In a week, you and the
Pierpoints are going to look just as good and you’ll all be
healthier than you’ve ever been.”

Todd introduced his wife, Diane, to the group before
asking, “Is this thing safe and does it have seating for us.”

“Of course, Todd. If you folks will follow me, you’ll
see that I’ve had a flying lounge module installed for VIPs.”

Mary hooked the arm of Diane Pierpoint and told her,
“It’s wonderful to have more women join the upgrades. We’re slowly
building our own little kingdom, within the organization, just to
keep the men focused.”

Diane looked concerned, until Bet told her, “Don’t
worry, Mrs. Pierpoint, we know you’re still going to be a US
citizen and we’ll respect that. There won’t be any secret oaths to
utter and no secret handshakes.”

They settled into comfortable seats and drinks were
offered, as well as snacks. They all agreed on iced tea and cheese
with crackers. Marge seemed impressed, when Bet told her all of it
came from a food replicator.

Todd quickly got down to business. “I understand that
things are progressing rapidly. I know less than half of the seal
teams have agreed to be upgraded. If the results are as good as you
predict, I suspect those reluctant men will have a change of heart,
although the other guys will never let them live down their
hesitation.”

“That’s true, Todd. I think it’s significant that it
was almost all of the married men who refused. I can appreciate
their concern for their wives.

“We’ve given it a lot of thought and we decided that
it was wrong to upgrade one spouse, while leaving the other behind.
And that’s exactly what it would be. There will be such a distance
in abilities and behavior that the one not upgraded will quickly be
left out of the other’s thought process. I feel it would lead to
the ruin of the marriage, unless the one left behind was upgraded
later, which we could easily do.”

Diane asked, “How many women have agreed to be
upgraded?”

“Six and they’re all wives of men who are being
upgraded at the same time. As people go through the process, some
will take a little longer than others, due to existing health
reasons.”

Todd asked, “If there is a bad health problem, will
that prevent the process from being done?” He looked nervous, as he
asked, and Mike felt that there was more to his question than met
the eye.

Bet replied, “No. In fact, whatever health difficulty
there is, the med unit should fix it, although that would be the
sort of thing to extend the process. The end result seems to be
just as effective as it would be for a healthy person.”

Todd and Diane exchanged looks and she nodded to her
husband. Todd announced, “Three months ago, Diane was diagnosed
with breast cancer and there are indications it has metastasized to
other areas. She’s been given hope, but one doctor confided to me
that he didn’t think she would live for more than a year and the
last few months of that period would be very ugly.”

Diane seemed ashamed and afraid. She began to cry and
Todd hugged her tightly, saying, “We’re going to get you fixed,
baby.”

Mike felt his heart going out to them, as once again
he wished for the hundredth time that a med unit had been available
for his wife, before she passed away. Yet, he liked to see that a
man like Todd could be so loving and gentle with the woman he was
obviously devoted to.

Mary placed a hand on Diane’s shoulder and assured
her, “We’re going to fix you up better than ever, young lady. And
you will be a young lady.” She leaned in close to Diane and quietly
told her, “I can attest to the incredible sex you’re going to enjoy
with your husband, once this is done. It’s damn near worth it, for
that alone.”

Mike cautioned his daughter-in-law, D
amn it, Mary.
That was unnecessary.

She defended herself.
I was just giving her
something to look forward to. And of all people, you know damn good
and well it’s true. You and your concubine are the talk of the TSN.
I know it’s unthinkable right now, but you might want to consider
making an honest woman out of her. It would look good to rest of
the world, when they find out about us in general and you in
particular.