Talosian Chronicles 2: Star Dancer Read online

  “Just my pride, SAR,” Tinker replied. “This is only the second time I’ve had to bail out of a test bed. Although, I think I can honestly say the landing is going to be a hell of a lot softer than last time.”

  “Athena, please release your tractor so we can lock on to her,” SAR said. “Yeah, this’ll be a lot softer. Standard procedure is a trip to Med Bay to make sure you’re not hurt.”

  When Tinker groaned, Cindy spoke up. “When you get there, just ask for Beth. She’ll get you checked out in no time. While you’re there, stop and say hi our kids!”

  “Thanks for the save, Athena and Valkyrie. I owe you both a drink,” Tinker said.

  “Valkyrie flight, SAR has the pilot, you are relieved,” the SAR captain said.

  “Understood, SAR, We’ll follow you home,” Talena replied. “Control, Valkyrie is inbound, we are escorting the SAR recovery craft.”

  “Affirmative, Valkyrie One, good work.”

  Moon Base

  Selene, (Earth’s Moon)

  “Did all the holographic generators get mounted?” Kyle asked.

  Serin Vax was reticent by nature, but he was slowly becoming friendlier towards the people around him. Growing up in a slum of old Detroit in Michigan, he had taken a lot of flak for his odd name. When it was discovered he liked computers and other machines more than people, well, he got beat up a lot.

  Serin was incredibly smart. Gifted would be the term used to describe him, if he had been born into a wealthier life. Of course, he didn’t excel at everything in academia, in fact, in most of the classes taught at his public school, Serin was barely above failing. However, in Math or anything else dealing with engineering, he always got the highest grades.

  All this got young Serin labeled as an outcast. He never had any real friends because he had no social skills to speak of, he had never had a date, and in fact, with the exception of his mother, never actually spoke to a female.

  The final straw for Serin was when he applied for college, his applications were all rejected because they said his grades had not been high enough. His parents had kicked him out because he was over eighteen, and they could no longer collect a welfare check for him.

  He was standing on a bridge overlooking one of the rivers in Detroit when one of Janet Laskar’s recruiters walked up to him and started talking. Serin thought the man had been totally off his rocker, but since he was going to kill himself anyway, he decided to follow the travelling fool to see how far the delusion went.

  Well, here he was, standing on the moon, preparing the base from an upcoming alien attack. He often wondered if perhaps he hadn’t actually jumped that day, and this was just something random his mind had locked onto while dying. Well, regardless, his friend had asked him a question.

  “Yeah, we had some trouble getting the power out to a couple of them, but we finally got that worked out too. When the time comes, the bad guys won’t see anything but the wreck that was here before, no matter what mode they look in,” Serin replied.

  “What do you mean?” Kyle asked.

  “You didn’t think they would only come over here and take a visual look at the site did you? What would be the point in that? No, when they scan this area, the readings will match what the visual tells them. We’ll even have a shield that’ll be able to come up instantly, at full strength, in a couple of more days,” Serin said, proud of his team’s work.

  “Wow! You guys have been really busy. What about the weapons systems?” Kyle asked checking something off his pad and making note of something else.

  “Actually, most of those had already been scheduled to be built. All I needed to do was change the priorities and add a few more to the list. The weapons systems are being built as we speak. It’ll take two or two and a half more days for them all to be completed though,” Serin replied.

  “Good, I’ll get all of this back to Dr. Punjab and Chief Borhiem. Do you need anything from the rest of us? More hands, or possibly a better design for something?” Kyle asked.

  Serin chuckled. “Naw, we got this. If you could call and ask the Caldarians to delay another week, we should be set to give them a really nice welcome.”

  “Yeah, that would be nice, but have you read the documents on one of those ships? I honestly think that nothing we could do will be able to keep one of those out forever. The damn thing has the ability to annihilate the entire solar system,” Kyle said.

  “No, I honestly didn’t get the time to read up on that. I’m just trusting to everyone else’s evaluation and doing the best that I can think of doing to defend us from it. Personally, I don’t think the assholes will ever be able to find us here on the moon. I just wish I had the time to see what I could do for the town and the ship.

  “No monster, I don’t care how big the bastard is, is indestructible or undefeatable. That big bastard has to have a weakness, and I promise you, that I’ll be going over every scrap of information on it I can get my hands on as soon as it enters scanner range. If there is a way to beat that pig, I’ll find it,” Serin said confidently.

  “I’ll see what I can do to help you with that, Serin. We’re going to need all the help we can get with this,” Kyle said and offered the slightly older man his hand. “In the meantime, I suggest you look over the information we do have on it. Maybe you can get an idea or two from that.”

  “I will, thank you, Lieutenant,” Serin said and smiled.

  Kyle grinned back and left the man’s office. He was looking forward to finishing this favor for the Chief and Dr. Punjab so he could get back to work on his own projects.

  The failure with the Wasp had greatly shaken his confidence and he needed to get back at it in order to regain the ground he had lost. The design flaw that had led to the small craft’s destruction had been his mistake. He had been the one to redesign the engine for the fighter. He was just thankful the pilot had been able to eject before the craft blew itself up.

  The issue had underscored a glaring flaw in the design of their main project, the Shadow fighter craft. With the amount of power that craft could generate, it was a good thing the flaw in the system had been discovered now, Kyle doubted a pilot would have been able to get out of a Shadow in time.

  Time. It was the one commodity they didn’t have any of. The Caldarian’s could drop out of hyperspace any day, yet Kyle was still trying to work out issues that should have been obvious from the beginning.

  Thoughts of the fighter and the failed experiment occupied him all the way up to the Director’s office. When he entered the outer office, he met Alma Punjab sitting at her desk working on her own projects.

  “Good evening, Mrs. Punjab,” Kyle said and bowed with his hands together.

  Alma grinned, stood, and returned the gesture. “A good evening to you as well, Lieutenant Johnson. They are expecting you. How many times do I need to tell you to call me Alma?” Her Indian accent always made Kyle grin.

  “You know I only do it just so I can hear you speak,” Kyle admitted.

  “I will tell Amal and he will punch you in the nose for being fresh with me!” she replied grinning.

  Kyle nodded acceptance. “It would be worth it, Alma. Do I go straight in?”

  “Yes you can, but I will let them know you are here,” the woman replied as Kyle headed for the door to the inner office.

  Kyle made his report and, as he was leaving the office, Alma stopped him. “Kyle, may I have a moment of your valuable time?”

  “Certainly Alma, what can I do for you?” he asked.

  “Actually, I am thinking it might be that I can help you. I have heard of the problems with the Wasp program. May I discuss this with you now?” Alma asked.

  “If you have an idea about how to fix it, I’m all ears!” Kyle said.

  She smiled. “I do not know if my idea will fix it or not, but have you given any thought to perhaps using another form of propulsion for the craft?”

  “There really isn’t anything small enough to use for the small craft. Ships the siz
e of Star Dancer use a form of gravity drive, but those are huge, far too large to use in this application. There are small antigrav units, but in order to give the craft the speed and maneuverability needed it would end up being almost as large as a shuttle craft and still be only a one person fighter. Ducted plasma is the only game in town for the time being,” Kyle explained.

  “What if you used a zero point energy module instead of a reactor to generate your thrust? In this way, the plasma ejected from the engine would be a form of cool plasma that should not cause the same reaction to the Enigma armor. Yes, it will still have an effect, however, cool plasma lacks the heat energy. You could use a turbine to compress it for greater thrust, and if you tune the module correctly, you could greatly diminish the electro-magnetic reaction which pulled the hot plasma back into the craft,” Alma suggested.

  Kyle closed his eyes in thought. “That is a whole new engine design!”

  “I couldn’t design such a thing, but perhaps you could. It was actually something I heard Amal mumbling about, that got my mind spinning on it,” Alma said. “Would it be possible to design such a unit?”

  “I have no idea, but I’m damn sure going to find out! Thank you, Alma!” Kyle said excitedly, and almost ran for the door.

  When Kyle got back to the design lab he shared with his team, he immediately found Brittney and grabbed her by the shoulders. “Zero point energy!”

  “What on Earth are you talking about, Kyle?” Brittney asked looking at him like he’d lost his mind. He let her go and moved back over to the big holographic design table. He activated it and asked for it to bring up the design for the Shadow fighter’s now useless engines.

  He moved them over to the side, and began a new design as he explained Alma Punjab’s suggestion.

  “That’s the base principle of the Enigma armor!” Brittney said, getting excited too and moving to the other side of the table.

  Very shortly, they have a functional diagram of a zero point energy powered, cool plasma generator. However, it was very apparent that there was not enough thrust generated by the existing compressors. At this point he and Brittney began a heated discussion on the best way to fix the issue.

  Stephanie and Tara stood back and watched the two completely forget the outside world and start to work.

  “Do we even dare tell them it’s time to go home?” Stephanie asked.

  Tara shook her head. “No, this is important and needs to get handled as soon as they can get it worked out. I think we should get dinner from the replicator here and make sure it’s within reach for them when they realize they’re hungry. If it gets late, we can go home and just leave them here. They have couches to sleep on if they need to.”

  “Are we going to get another wife out of this?” Steph asked jokingly.

  Tara shrugged. “Maybe, she’s certainly a sweet enough girl. I think she is having issues about leaving her mother down at Talos though.”

  “They were together?” Stephanie asked looking at Tara.

  “Jees! You have sex on the brain tonight! No, they weren’t, but there were other things going on between them, I don’t know what they were though.”

  “Well, we should get some food then. Did Wade already head out?” Stephanie asked.

  Tara nodded. “He said something about going out to help with the weapons installations.”

  Stephanie nodded. “I like him. Would you mind if I asked him out?”

  “No, I wouldn’t, but he might. I don’t think you have the right equipment for him,” Tara replied

  “Damn! Really?” Steph asked. “It figures, I find a boy I like, and he’s gay!”

  “Don’t worry, Sweetheart, if you want to find a boyfriend, I’m sure you will!” Tara said and her eyes twinkled.

  Chapter 8

  Talos, New Mexico

  “ID please?” Tommy, the gate guard at Talos, asked.

  He had stopped a black SUV with four men inside that had pulled up to the gate.

  “I’m Supervisory Special Agent Harvey Snow, Federal Bureau of Investigations. These three are agents here to assist me with my investigation,” the driver said.

  “Yes Sir, and what investigation would that be?” Tommy asked. He had already notified the security center of the approach of the vehicle, and he knew they were watching closely.

  ”One of your security teams fired on a military exercise taking place on a military reservation. The unjustified attack resulted in the deaths of several United States servicemen and several million dollars in damages and destroyed equipment. In addition to arresting the responsible parties, we are to investigate the use of advanced military equipment in the prosecution of this attack,” the agent said forcefully and with a lot of attitude.

  “Sir, May I see all of your IDs so I can verify them? In the meantime, I have notified my supervisor, and he is on the way down here to assist you,” Tommy asked.

  “Look, I know you’re trying to be a good company flunky, but we both know I’m coming in there and I’m going to get to the bottom of what happened out there. So, be a good boy, and open the god-damned gate,” the agent said not even trying to hide his annoyance anymore.

  “Special Agent, I don’t know who you are from David, and until I do, or my supervisor tells me differently, you are not going anywhere past this gate. You are, however, free to leave if you wish,” Tommy said. “But I do need to see all of your identifications.”

  “Look, I just said who we are, so you don’t need to do anything but open that fucking gate! It was a long ass drive out here, and I am very quickly losing my patience with you. Open. The. Gate,” the agent behind the wheel said.

  “No Sir, I will not open the gate until I see all of your identifications, and can verify them. We have had several attempts by unauthorized people trying to get on the property. I’m sure you can understand the reasons we have tightened security. So please, just let me verify your identification, and you can go about your business as soon as your escort arrives,” Tommy replied, still trying to be professional.

  “You are coming dangerously close to getting arrested for obstruction, young man. We do not need an escort, we need for you to open the gate. Do you want me to arrest you?” the ass asked. “Because, we will do that, then we will open the gate and go on about our business with you in handcuffs.”

  “Arresting me, of course, is entirely up to you, Sir. However, I feel I should tell you that the gate is controlled remotely. All you gain by arresting me, is more frustration,” Tommy said calmly. “I think perhaps you should get a warrant and return or make an appointment. Your entry will be expedited in that event. Until then, I have to follow procedure.”

  “I carry the authority of the Federal Government, Your only procedure is to do what I tell you. Now open the fucking gate!” the man snarled.

  On the other side of that gate, a four-wheeler came to a stop, and Ty Anders got off in time to hear the last comment of the agent.

  “It’s okay, Tommy, I’ll take it from here. Good work,” Ty said as he walked up to Tommy. Tommy nodded gratefully, handed Ty the man’s credentials, and took a step back, but he did not leave Ty out there alone to face these assholes.

  Ty glanced at the credentials and turned to the men in the truck, “What can I do for you, Gentlemen?”

  “It’s Supervisory Special Agent, or at the least, Special Agent, and you can open the damn gate so we can conduct our investigation!” the man snarled.

  “Forged Federal credentials do not make you an agent, Sir. In fact, it’s a felony to do so.” He turned to Tommy. “Tommy would please call the Sheriff and tell him we have trespassers trying to gain entrance to our property using forged FBI credentials? Be sure to ask him if he wants us to take them into custody, please?”

  “Okay, I’ve had about enough of this shit!” the man said and pulled a gun to point at Ty’s head.

  Ty grinned at the man and slowly backed up so he could get out of his vehicle, his men had already gotten out. As soon as the loud m
outh ‘agent’ was clear of his door, all of Ty’s main security team let themselves be seen and heard as all twenty four of them cocked their weapons.

  Showing that they weren’t complete idiots, the ‘agents’ froze.

  Ty recognized this man from one of the first attempts to get onto the property months ago, only then, he was riding an ATV, and acting like he was simply innocently lost.

  “Did you lose your ATV, Mr. Albrecht?” Ty asked.

  “My name is Carlson, Andrew Carlson. I have no idea what you’re talking about. I’m a Supervisory Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation based out of the Phoenix office. You people are in a world of shit,” Albrecht replied.

  “Maybe, maybe not. We’ll find out in about an hour when the sheriff gets here. Until then, you and your men are going to be our guests, we have a few questions for you as well,” Ty said. “Now, if all of you would be so kind as to drop your weapons, and stand by your vehicle for a moment...”

  Ty waved two of his troopers forward who quickly set up a containment field around the men and their vehicle. The last trooper gave Ty a thumbs up and he backed away, and shielded his eyes.

  “What the fuck are you doing now asshole?” Albrecht asked.

  “Just making sure you don’t have any surprises we should know about, this’ll only take a moment,” Ty said and nodded to another of the troopers who started a full scan on the occupants of the containment field.

  “Sir?” Tommy asked Ty, privately.

  “Yeah?”

  “Do you really want me to call the Sheriff, and what do I do if real FBI agents ever show up?” Tommy asked.

  “If they pass the scan, we’ll call the sheriff. We can question them while we wait for her,” Ty replied. “So, how did you know they weren’t real FBI agents?”

  “I’ve never seen real FBI credentials, but those just didn’t seem right to me. Besides, once I talked to him, I knew he was lying,” Tommy replied.