UFO FanFic - Chapter 1

[Zager]

"Now while my speciality is not in lasers," Zager said to Photon, a short while later. "I have been doing work on bioelectric cells. I shall finish the research and achieve a practical result. This will allow me to furnish a battery that should provide enough energy to power a hand held laser weapon for enough shots to last a fair while without needing to be recharged. Give me the weapon blueprints once it's been developed, and then I'll fit the battery to the gun."

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile

Gaston Duchante entered the firing range, put on a pair of ear protectors, and walked up to a booth. He entered, drew a large pistol holstered at his side, a Calico M950, and proceeded to empty the 50 round magazine at the target.

[The Veteran]

Elsewhere in the base the three tactical squads were all busy with their training and the base personnel wereundergoing training of their own in the less hazardous environments provided by offices and laptops. Above ground Corporal Rheinhauser's sqaud was training in the grenade pits and squad three was still negotiating the obstacle course situated in the main surface compound of Pine Gap. Even further above ground, the sleek lines of a Huricane interceptor were visible but the craft was moving extremely quickly.

*Hurricane One you are requested to land immediately,* said a voice over the interceptor's comm.

"Why what's going on down there?" asked a rather startled pilot.

*Lunch,* replied the voice closing the link.

Anyone watching the aircraft now would have been made witness to the sharpest turn and fastest landing ever achieved in such an advanced aircraft as the Hurricane. As it touched down the comm link spluttered to life once more and said *In the hangar hotshot, TC's taking you out of the air for the rest of the day.*

"They're what" Trigger yelled down the comm. But it once again ceased transmition, terminated from tactical command. "Right, fine," Trigger said to himself lifting off the ground with less than impressive ease. "Let's go and see what they have planned for my afternoon then..."

As the blast doors slid shut in Hangar two and the APC carrying squad one from the grenade pits arrived at the main access lift the sound of a Klaxon alarm filled the base with noise and echoed away through the massive subterranean corridors of the base. The firing range became almost completely silent as one last armour piercing thud resounded from the back wall of the room. Weapons were dropped to the ground and the soldiers of Corporal Saiko's squad returned their ammunition clips and belts to their proper places.

As Corporal Rheinhauser's squad stepped out of the APC that had brought them back from the grenade pits, Corporal Wales squad appeared from Pine Gap's primary training compound. Keller, Wexford, Green and the younger of the brothers Chung appeared a long way ahead of the rest of the squad covered in dirt and with uniforms battered and torn.

Hilliard, Thomas and O'Chez stepped out of the APC and were watching the four approach when a voice spoke behind them. "Hey that's my baby bro, looks like he can't even keep his hands from getting dirty when he's out training"

It was Ki-tat Chung, the elder of the two brothers. "So are we going to eat now or what?" asked Tammy looking to the three men behind her.

"Do you ever think of anything but food?" asked Warlord.

"Hey you haven't seen TJ eat! Seriously I don't know where it all goes" said Rick laughing.

"Yeah well I sure could do with some food," said Ki-tat. "Lets see if Trigger can beat me to the sludge"

"Count me in," said another voice emerging from the APC. "Two hours of throwing things at people sure gives me an appetite." Tim Day slapped Ki-tat Chung on the shoulder and headed for the access lift with Jennings.

 

"Isn't it amazing?" said Corporal Wales who had now reached the access lift himself and stood beside Corporal Rheinhauser.

"How do you mean?" he asked.

"In almost every single base I've ever been in, the soldiers always bond at lunchtime..."

"I suppose you're right," laughed Rheinhauser turning to Corporal Wales. "So how about it then..."

"How about what?" asked Wales inquisitively.

"Lunch" replied Rheinhauser smiling.

[Ki-tat Chung]

*1205 Hours, Mess Hall, Pine Gap, WA, Australia, Australia, Earth*

 

"Yo, any one interested in Okonomiyaki?" Ki-tat asked as he swipped his access card at the door of the mess hall and entered.

"Oko-nay what?" Warlord asked as he followed in suit into the hall.

"Okonomiyaki. Jap pancake thing. Also known as Jap pizza because you can have basicly anything you want in it." Ki-tat responded. He entered the kitchen and tried to grab some ingredients. As he entered, a bulkyish man in white chef's clothing came up and tried to block his way.

"Hey! What are you doing here"

"What? it this a restricted area or something?"

The chef squinted at his for a moment and let him through. He washed his hands and gathered what he needed.

"What's that pancake made of made of?" Tammy asked as she tried to break the awkward silence.

"Yam, flour, eggs and a big lot of everything." Ki-tat answered.

The chef gazed intensly at Ki-tat before going back to work while keeping an eye on the asian. Everyone went over to a nearby table, sat down and engaged in a little chit chat.

"So whats it called again?" Rheinhauser asked Ki-tat.

"Oh-koe-no-mee-yah-kee. Ok, amost done. Who wants some ramen?"

[The Veteran]

"Yo! If 'ou guys wanna be any more an'ithocial dere's a table across the woom" called a food filled voice a little way down from where much of squad one had sat.

"Did he say womb?" asked Ki-tat turning to the rest of the table.

"I said room! Now get over here and give me some company" called the voice.

"Hey" said O'Chez leaning back to see past Warlord's bulk "I told you he'd be here before we were"

"That's TJ?" said Ki-tat looking past Tammy. "I thought he'd be a lot bigger..."

"Why? He's only a pilot?" replied Rick.

"No I meant fatter." said Ki-tat.

"He eats whatever he wants," said Warlord without looking at anyone in particular. "I've never seen him gain a pound..."

"'oo comi'g or dot?" asked another mouthful of something recently slaughtered.

"Well it's probably easier for us to move than let him try to mobilise his banquet," said Rick standing with his tray.

"Finally," said Trigger as Rick sat down opposite him and the others slowly appeared beside him.

"So what are they having the pilots do today?" asked Rheinhauser still looking suspiciously at Ki-tat's okonomiyaki or whatever it was...

"Well France and Davies are probably in Europe about now and Gia still isn't airborne because of her leg."

"And who's fault is that?" said Rick quietly earning a glare from the pilot.

"How is Gia anyway?" said Tammy, speaking for the first time all meal time.

"Ah she's fine, I'm amazed to be quite honest. If that'd have been me in there I'd probably never fly again."

"Why you're by far the better pilot," said Rick.

"Well thanks but Gia seems to have some kind of terminator thing going on..." replied Trigger.

"What," said Ki-tat, "you mean she's from the future?"

"I guess it's possible but I was kind of referring to the fact that she's virtually indestructable."

"So more like the bionic woman then?" replied Ki-tat.

"Or that black guy in Unbreakable." said Tim Day who seemed to have appeared by Rick.

"No," said the Corporal. "That was Samuel Jackson. You mean Bruce Willis. He was the strong one."

"Wasn't that Die Hard?" said Jennings from behind Tim.

"Do you think maybe he made more than one film?" said Warlord.

"Well sure there were three Die hard movies weren't there?" he replied.

"Gia" said Trigger loud enough to quieten down the rest of the table. "We were just talking about you."

"Oh really?" she said taking a seat beside Corporal Rheinhauser.

"Yeah, he was comparing you to Arnold Schwarzanegger." said the corporal.

"Is that so," said Gia uncertainly. "So TJ, did they tell you what you're doing this afternoon yet?"

"No do you know?"

"Know?" she replied. "I've already done it. I'm spending this afternoon in your Hurricane using the flight simulator."

"Oh really? I don't remember giving permission for that..." said Trigger jokingly.

"I don't remember it being your plane." said Gia sarcastically.

"I guess not! So what does this afternoon have in store for me then?" he asked.

"Target practice. It turns out we have to double as base defence and security forces should the need arise."

"Really? Damn... And here was me thinking I'd have nothing to do but fly around shooting people" he said rising.

"You wish, that's all you ever do anyway" said Gia.

"Where are you going now?" asked Rick.

"Seconds probably," said Warlord knowingly.

"Thirds actually." replied Trigger smiling.

[Zager]

"Photon, I need to talk with you about something," Dr Zager said, entering his office. Zager didn't praticularly like using nicknames, he prefered a more dignified atmosphere, though he used them to maintain a good working relationship.

 

"What is it?"

 

Zager placed a folder on Photon's desk and opened it up. He pointed at a schemantic, hand drawn. "My research has hit a slight snag, that I believe we can clear up. This part here," he touched his pencil where he was indicating, "does not interact well with the biological portion of the cell."

 

"And?"

 

"My studies indicate that Vandlin Labs, located in Germany, have developed a pseudo-biological wire, composing of both metallic and organic parts. It was supposed to be developed as a superconductor, but that failed. . Since the objective failed, they're abandoning the project. However, it should solve my problem. I need you to talk to the commander and convince him to buy the rights to the research I will be unable to continue my work without it."

[JellyfishGreen]

"Not a problem," said Photon, "I'll take this to the commander today. But it's interesting you stopped by now, because if you can wait a minute, there's someone I'd like you to meet. He's been here about a week longer than both of us."

 

Sanjay entered the Science Director's office. He hadn't heard there was a Science Director until he was summoned by Mr. Gomez. It looked relatively unused, but the desk was already crowded with folders and paperwork, with a laptop struggling to peek above the surface. There was an older, stern looking scientist standing to the side.

 

Photon saw the nervousness on the small man's face and smiled to put him at ease. "Sanjay, hi, I'm Mr. Gomez, but you can call me Photon. This is Zager. We were talking earlier about some of his bioelectric cells which aren't suitable for our portable weapons program yet, but I heard you are working on a remote controlled miniature tank or something, so I thought they might be useful batteries for that. Could you give us a brief description of your project?"

 

"The Mobile Heavy Weapons Platform? It's for carrying weaponry that normally wouldn't be man-portable. I haven't done much work on it, but I placed a few parts orders this morning. I was sketching out something like a Honda ATV, only tracked, to be more stable when firing. I thought maybe it could carry an autocannon, like the Bushmaster, the MK242." He looked tenatively at Photon.

"You've already got the weapon picked out?"

"Well, I looked into it, and the MK242 ammunition is already electrically fed, so single-shot isn't a problem. All you'd need to add would be servomotors for elevation and rotation and braces for recoil."

"What about something that does more damage, like a rocket version?"

His brow furrowed. "Well, you mean like a man-portable rocket launcher? I guess you'd want a multishot launcher, like the M202, otherwise you'd have to have a human running around behind the HWP to reload it after every shot." Sanjay was waving his hands to illustrate reloading a SMAW tube.

 

"What about controls and interface?"

"Well, I could outfit an office here with video screens, to take the video feed from the robot, and maybe a joystick controller. We could transmit the controls and even the video through our base network and a satellite link. On second thought, we could even control it from a laptop hooked into the Firewire network if we wanted, we'd just need more software."

"Sounds great. How soon can you have one ready?"

Sanjay got a funny expression on his face, like an ice cube had just been dropped on his neck and any slight movement would slip it down his back. He looked at Photon with skepticism. "Wha - I beg your pardon, sir?"

 

"Commander Genega wants the base to be operations-ready by Friday, and I know one piece of equipment he'd like would be a recon vehicle to accompany the squad."

Friday. "That's two days away."

"Are you saying you can't do it?"

Sanjay thought for a moment. "If we don't have a lot of time, we will need a lot of money."

"Well, I can authorize half a million right now for two tanks. See what you can do with that."

"And manpower?"

"Take ten of the other engineers and as many techs as you need, grab Worm or Slice to work on the software. You'll be the project leader on this one. Come to me if you need equipment requisitions. Go for one of each weapons model, if you can."

Sanjay's face broke into a wide grin, his white teeth contrasting sharply with his black hair and dark complexion. "Forty-eight hours. I'll see what I can do."

 

***

 

The Skyranger was accelerating high above the commercial flight corridors. Grizzly and Doc were trying to hold a conversation in their headsets over the noise from the roaring engines as the speed crept up to Mach 1.

 

"TJ and I have both flown this only a few times since its arrival. We were waiting for this other Russian guy who was supposed to know how to fly it, but I guess you replaced him. It's pretty heavily armored, doesn't have the nimbleness of the fighters of course. Landing's easy but instead of getting pushed by sidewinds, you rock and roll with them."

Doc said, "It was handling pretty well earlier, a lot more fun than the Galaxy, but I can feel the sound barrier buffeting now."

Grizzly replied, "The armor's helping you there, too. It takes more to push this crate around than it did those first test aircraft, so the ride's smoother."

"What about fully loaded?"

"We've never had it full of soldiers, but we have flown with 500kg in the bins."

"Bins?"

Grizzly waved at the cargo compartments behind their cockpit bulkhead. "Equipment lockers with 80 cubic feet of capacity." He was shouting now.

"That sounds like a lot," shouted Doc, with half his attention.

"Well, the General doesn't think so. He reckons we want to bring a lot of equipment - unknown enemy and all that - which means 80 might not be enough for all the items he'd like."

 

Doc concentrated on his instruments for a while as the buffeting grew in intensity. Then suddenly there was a flash cloud of white mist around the nose of the plane and the ride became smoother - and the engines seemed to go silent. All that could be felt was a vibration in the hull.

 

After a moment, Grizzly said, "And that's supercruise. We're ahead of our own engine noise, now."

 

After another moment, "I take it you don't fly supersonic that often?"

 

Doc was in rapture. He spoke to the instrument panel, "Baby, where have you been all my life?"

[The Veteran]

"Commander" called Photon as he saw Knight about to disappear into the mess hall.

"Yeah?" he replied turning around.

"I have some good news and some bad news. Then I have a bit of terrible news."

"Well start with the bad and we'll establish a middle ground."

"Zager's photoelectric cells won't fit the laser pistols..."

"But? Please say there's a but."

"That would be the good news," started Photon.

"No, not the good news. I want a but. Otherwise I have two bits of bad news for only one bit of good." interupted General Genega.

"Um... We've come up with a design for a larger laser prototype." said Photon hopefully.

"Brilliant!, push on with the worst stuff then and lets get it over with."

"The tanks aren't going to be ready on time."

"What! I need those tanks! I thought I told someone to do them last week?"

"Apparently there have been other things to work on since then. I've given the project to Sanjay to lead and assigned him with the best guys I can think of for the job."

"So what's the problem then? It won't take longer than two days with a workforce on it."

"Maybe not but I wanted to give an extra day or so for testing on the range and for perfecting the interface."

"War is never perfect Photon. No matter how far away you keep the soldiers there will always be problems. Now I want you to keep an eye on those guys and make sure that project is completed on schedule ok? And lend as much of a hand as you can to the laser cell too. Got that?"

"Yes sir, do you want the good news now?" he asked.

"Save it for a rainy day Photon. I'm happy enough knowing that my tanks will be ready on Friday."

With this the Commander dissapeared into the mess hall. Photon sighed and started back to the labs. It seemed that recently he'd been too busy for pretty much everything he wanted to do. Now sleep had just been added to the list.

 

"Ok everybody! Lunch is over! It's time you all got back to work and earned the food you just ate"

"Shouldn't take long," said a hushed voice from a corner of the hall.

"Squad 1 is now in the indoor firing range. Squad 2, you have the obstacle course. Anyone in Squad 3 who can't figure out where they are supposed to be will be shot... If the Corporal knows then it can't be difficult"

Ther was muffled laughter from squad 3 and the Commander continued.

"This time, you're all out there for three hours so sorry to Squad 1 but you're welcome to an extra hour in the grenade pits whenever you like! For some reason that's always a favourite... Ok, you all know where you should be so get moving. Just remember we do operate a self clear system here. We can't go around hiring just anyone to work in a top secret facility. Even if it is just to clear tables! I expect you all to be at your posts by the time the next alarm sounds, and bear in mind that's where I'm going now. That is all," he said leaving the hall.

Suddenly the hall was filled with moving chairs. This made the stillness of one chair all the more noticeable to Ki-tat Chung.

"Hey did you hear any of that?" he asked Trigger who still remained seated and happily devouring a fourth bowl of the white stuff which was apparently once poultry.

"I heard it. I'm just not finished yet."

"What so you're just going to sit there?" asked Gia.

"Why not?" asked a convincingly puzzled Trigger.

"He said to be at our posts by the next alarm." said Ki-tat.

"I know... I'm not finished yet."

"Hey don't worry about him," said Rick picking up his tray. "He's been doing this ever since we figured out that the commander eats his lunch in the command ceter. He's never been caught yet and I think he's been doing it for so long he's pretty much forgotten that he shouldn't be doing it."

"Oh. Right. Well this is my first week. I think I'd rather get to training. I'll see you guys later."

The rest of the table grunted replies, one swallowed a reply... Within five minutes the room was almost completely empty. Half an hour later it was.

[Alitorious]

Daniel Morlone akwardly scooped some lunch onto his plate - a bit of everything served. Glancing around to see where he could sit, he spotted Dana's table. Dana Farber waved him over, and he cautiously moved through the sea of tables and chairs.

 

"I can see you've lost some of your nervousness," Dana commented, grinning wryly at him.

 

"Huh? What? Oh... uh.. yeah. I guess," Dan smiled back. He was heavily engrossed in his own thoughts. How could you actually get an electromagnetic stream to hold enough energy to actually do conceivable damage?

 

"You know, I think our plane crashed on the way here."

 

"Uh huh. Why?"

 

"This must be heaven. Have you seen the fab lab?"

 

"The what lab? Oh.... fabrication. Uh, no I haven't. Not yet anyway."

 

"It's amazing. If we had half the things they have here in uni..."

 

"Yeah, I know." Dana was used to Dan's passive responses. It made him seem like either a cold person, or an apathetic person, but she knew him better than that. He wasn't cold or insensitive, and he wasn't normally this absent minded. Dan was just quiet, in his own thoughts most of the time. And obviously he was thinking very deeply right now.

 

"Uh, Dane? Exactly what kind of tools are in these, uh, labs?"

 

"I couldn't tell you. I'll just show you sometime."

 

"Okay."

 

Another akward silence ensued, in which Dan stuffed another forkful into his mouth."

 

Daniel started again. "What do they have you working on right now?"

 

"I thought you'd never ask." Her bubbling smile started to show itself again. "Basically, the boss, Photon was it?" (an affirmative nod from Daniel) "Photon asked me to work on developing a Heavy Weapons Platform. It's basically a mini-tank. Sanjay wants to plop down a hand carried cannon onto a Honda ATV chassis. I told him that's good for testing AI or something like that, but it would be similar to waving a pistol around from an oversized bicycle in battle. Creating a new chassis, body, and turret gun from scratch might be a bit harder, but the end result would be much better. The gun could be made more powerful too, because we wouldn't have to mess around with it to attach to electronic firing systems and that. And guess what?"

 

"I dunno, what?"

 

"He looked at me like I was crazy. Then he simply stated that the commander wants it by Friday."

 

"Friday? That's just in a couple of days."

 

"I know. We reached an agreement, though. We'll work on his Honda chassis with his porta-cannon for a prototype by Friday, and I'll show him my blueprints for a true Tank Cannon." Daniel could almost hear the capitals in her voice."

 

"You sure you're not going a overboard with that HWP thing? I mean, uh... putting a cannon on an ATV chassis should work fine."

 

"Yes, it would work fine, but that isn't good enough. Those soldiers," she gestured vaguely around her, "are fighting aliens. They need perfect weapons on their side. A plop-together job just won't cut it."

 

A second later, Daniel started to hold in a laugh. He couldn't stop the smile.

 

"What?" Dana asked.

 

"Oh, nothing. It's, uh... just what happened in... university. We never could finish... a project because you were a bit too, uh, perfectionist."

 

"Oh, yeah, that."

 

"Heh. I'd say a pop can was good enough, but you'd, er, have the can melted down and... reshaped to the perfect size."

 

She laughed at that.

 

"Well, see you later, Dan." Dana started to pick up her stuff.

 

"See ya."

 

As Dana started to turn, Dan suddenly said, "Oh! Dane?"

 

"Yeah?"

 

"Why didn't you ask what my project was about?"

 

"Because I'm busy. I don't want to hear about pseudo-dielectric gibbershnapper black hole fields right now"

 

"Fine. Catch you later." As Dana left out door, Daniel turned back to his food, smiling. If she realy was busy, she wouldn't have spent all that time talking. Oh well. It only took a couple minutes before Daniel had tuned out the outside world again, thinking about electromagnetic wavelengths. Maybe we're assuming visible light... what about...

[Ki-tat Chung]

*1549 Hours, Science Laboratory 3, Pine Gap, WA, Australia, Australia, Earth*

 

As Ki-tat finished his Quiet Time, he popped into the Sci-Labs to take a peek at all the R&D facilities. Ki-tat had taken advanced courses in Computer Sciences and and a basic course in Engineering so he knew the simple stuff. As he was looking around, a big gun-mounted chassis caught his eye.

 

"What is that?" he asked more to himself than to anyone else.

 

"It's our preliminary designs for the Heavy Weapons Systems." A responce came from behind, catching Ki-tat off guard.

 

"Huh?" Ki-tat turned around to see a female with a white lab coat on, taking notes in a clip board.

 

"Heavy Weapons Systems. It's going to accampany you guys into the battlefield as backup and support" Dana looked up from her work. "Hey, you arn't authorised to come here"

 

"Now I am," Ki-tat grined as he gestured to his laptop, which he almost always carries with him a now kevlar case, and his keycard.

 

"You know as clear as crystal that altering your keycard's security rating is strictly forbidden and that I could repost you now and get you into alot of trouble."

 

"Go ahead."

 

"Well.....um......" That comment caught her off gaurd. She expected him to apologise and exit the Labs.

 

As Dana tried to collect her thoughts, Ki-tat poked around even more and caught sight of the bioelectric cells.

 

"Heh...not bad. Now why don't we just do this..."Ki-tat said while he picked up one of the cells and fiddled with it with a tool set he picked up of the bench.

 

"HEY! STOP THAT NOW OR I WILL CALL THE COMMANDER AND GET YOU INTO A BIG MESS" Dana shouted at the Chinese fellow. She was enfuriated. The man just refused to leave. As she was just about to reach for the intercom, she heard a loud *ZZZZZZAAAAAP!* and was blinded by a bright flash of red light.

[The Veteran]

"How could you be so careless?" said Photon as he marched into Pine Gap's fabrication laboratory.

"I'm sorry sir there were, unforseen events..." said Dana hesitantly. "They were completely out of my control."

"You shortcircuited a bioelectric cell! That has never even been done before! Dana... I put you on this project because your drive and determination impressed me. Now I'm not going to ask exactly what happened here today as I know how hard it can be to adjust to new surroundings. This isn't the first time I've had to do it myself... But what I am going to do is give you one rule to work on... Never do anything unless you are told to do it first! Don't get me wrong, initiative is good to have on a workforce like this but with such a large element of risk this is not the place for it. We are working for the most part with the unknown, it must be treated as such. Now just be careful in the future and we'll hear no more said about it ok?"

"Yes sir, thankyou," replied Dana quietly.

"No problem. Keep up the good work. Safely" he said turning to leave. "And Dana," he called back.

"Yes sir?"

"Call me Photon."

"Yes sir." she said smiling.

 

Photon stepped out into the corridor smiling to himself. "Mr Chung..." he said noticing the soldier leant against the wall outside the labs. "I was told that all military personnel were training today. What's your squad?"

"I'm squad One. I was just taking a little time off to explore the base while it's relatively empty."

"I can't tell you what to do but I highly recomend you return to your training. You may rely on it to save your life one day..."

"I'll get back to it soon, I just wanted to see the labs."

"Can't be done. I have a list of all personnel with access to the labs. You I believe are not on it. Furthermore I have access to another list of all personnel who have accessed the labs in the last twentyfour hours. I will check it this evening, be sure I don't see your name on it..." Photon turned away from Ki-tat and disappeared into a personnel lift a little way down the hall.

"Hey Dana" Ki-tat called into the fabrication laboratory as soon as Photon disappeared.

"What..." she said flatly appearing in the doorway.

"Hey I'm really sorry about that. I've never seen a laser coupling cel before... I didn't know what I was poking..."

"It's not so bad as it could have been. At least the bliding was only temporary." she replied leaning against the wall with her arms folded.

"Yeah I like my eyes..."

"Look just get back to your training and forget about it ok? But if I see you in my lab again I will report it."

"Yeah I know... Oh damn" said Ki-tat looking sharply up from the ground.

"What?" asked Dana.

"I need to purge the recorded personnel access codes from the lab or you won't need to tell anyone"

As Dana watched Ki-tat run off down the corridor she felt her face overtaken by a broad grin. Laughing to herself she turned back to the lab and returned to her work, the door sliding shut behind her.

[Alitorious]

Daniel emerged from the lift access and almost plowed straight into fellow clutching a briefcase.

"Oh, sorry."

"Nevermind, It's nothing," said the chinese man hurriedly, still clutching his briefcase like his life depended on it. He jammed at the controls furiously.

Daniel was about to reply "Okay then," but the door shut close, leaving one confused and bewildered scientist.

Daniel just shrugged and moved on to the fabrication lab door.

 

Just after opening the door, an acrid burning smell hit him. Upon entering, Daniel glanced around the lab. He didn't know what most of the equipment was, but he could tell that it was better than almost anywhere else in the world. One thing that stuck out at him was a large, bulkish object with a cannon on top. Obviously that was the HWP. The source of the odor was a gently smoking device, next to others of it's kind, on a shelf at the far side of the room.

 

Dana's smile faltered at the sound of another opening door, it was resumed when she noted it was only Daniel. Although, it was slightly more nervous than before he came in. He might be another distraction, and that's the last thing she needed right now. The day used to be progressing well (as could be expected for a new job), but now things were getting just a little too tense.

"Could you please tell me what you're doing here?" She asked. The harshness surprised even herself.

"What?" Daniel asked surprisedly. Until now, he never noticed anyone else in the room. "Oh, sorry Dana."

"That's okay," she said, forcing her voice to return to normal. "Still, what are you doing here? Aren't you working on... what are you working on?"

"Besides gibberschnapper black holes?"

"Yes, besides those," she laughed. Then, remembering the red light, "Oh, probably lasers, right?"

Daniel nodded. "Yes. Uh... where are they?"

Turning back to her work, "The bioelectric cell prototype power source is over there," she said, pointing to the shelf with the smoking device. "And I'm sure there's a laser pointer around here somewhere," she added with a smile.

Daniel nodded again, making his way to the shelf with the bioelectric cells. "Oh, also," he added, "you were going to give me a tour of the place sometime."

"Another time! I'm really busy right now."

Daniel finally noticed the exasperation in her voice, and looked at the power pack. They definitely looked like an unrefined prototype of something, but he wouldn't have been able to guess they were battery packs if he didn't already know. No, he could spot the terminals on the side there. Daniel longed to pick one up and look at it, but instinct and wisdom told him not to.

He was about to ask how they work when another scientist burst in through the doors.

 

Photon was not at all in the best of spirits when he entered the fabrication room again. The apparantly recent development of an acrid stench (most likely the shorted cell) did not help his moods much. When he noticed another figure stooped over the bioelectric cells, he almost lost it.

"Dammit, how many more distractions am I going to have today?"

The figure immediately stood up, looking embarassed. He started to mutter an apology, then it finally clicked in for Photon that this labcoat probably was authorized to be here, and at least his hands were in his pockets.

"Nevermind that, I apologize. What was your name again?"

"Daniel Morlone, sir."

Photon almost yelled out "Why does everyone call me sir?", but instead replied "Gomez. Daniel Gomez. I can see using first names might be a problem for us."

Daniel nodded an affirmative. "Yes, Mr. Gomez."

Rolling his eyes, Photon said "I'd rather you call me by my first name. And over that, I'd rather we just use nicknames, especially since we have the same first name." Daniel nodded. "Just call me Photon."

"Okay, Photon." he replied. "If we use nicknames, I'm... Sawn."

"Sawn?"

"Yes. P-s-a-w-h-n. Psawhn."

"Okay, Psawhn, now I'd like to ask you what you were doing here. I thought you were on the laser project, not HWP construction."

"I am, but I was... having difficulties. I thought maybe looking at whatever we have so far would help. Uh.. especially the... bioelectric power supply. I'm not sure how it works"

"The information should be in the UFOPaedia, which you can access from the terminal in your own quarters."

"Okay. I'll go do that now."

As Daniel turned to the doors, he also made a mental note to try to find out what the callsigns of everybody were.

As he opened the door, Dana called out, "See you tonight."

"Yeah, you too Dane."

[Ki-tat Chung]

*1554 Hours, Living Quarters (Room 36), Pine Gap, WA, Australia, Australia, Earth*

 

As Ki-tat sat down on his bunk, he retreived his laptop and a large rolled up sheet of fax paper.

 

"Good," Ki-tat thought, "no one noticed me making a copy of the scematics of the bioelectronic cells and the power supply."

 

Ki-tat started typing and making comments as he tried to make simulations and changes in the circuitary.

[Tammy]

At that very moment, there was a signal at his door, and Ki-tat jumped involuntarily and called out, "Wait a minute" He began hurriedly to shove everything out of sight as the buzzer sounded again, followed by Tammy's impatient voice, "Look, kid, I'm a doctor. You don't have anything I haven't seen before, and I don't have all day."

 

Finally, Ki-tat opened the door. "I have been pulled out of training to check your eyes for any damage thanks to your foolishness. You know, I have a lot of compassion and patience, but people who go poking around sensitive equipment get less of it than other people. Sit down."

 

Ki-tat backed quickly to the bed and sat obediently.

 

"Well, there doesn't appear to be any permanent damage," she said after examining his eyes. "Lucky you."

 

She repacked her bag with calm efficiency and gave him another look. "Keep your hands to yourself, and don't go doing something stupid like that when there are aliens around, will you?"

 

Ki-tat just nodded solemnly and watched as she swept out of the room to return to her training. He slumped onto the pillow as soon as the door closed behind her.

[Alitorious]

Two hours ago, Grizzly would have given anything for a pair of earplugs. Right now, he would do the same for at least some ambient noise. Sure, there was a bit of vibration from conduction along the hull from the engines, but white noise gives a human mind something to hold onto subconciously. He glanced out the window out of sheer boredom.

 

"Look, there's Indonesia," he said, more to himself than anybody.

 

"Huh? We're already over Indonesia?" blurted DocFrance, recently broken out of his stupor. "It would've taken the Galaxy at least another hour to travel this far."

 

"Well, that's an advantage to travelling supersonic, I guess. Jeez this feels slow. I coulda been here in an hour in my Lightning. If it wasn't splattered all over the tarmac," he added with a hint of anger.

 

DocFrance merely nodded, then turned back to his controls. He habitually looked at the fuel gauge."

"Holy crap," he exclaimed. "That thing says we still have 90% of our fuel left"

"And I think that should be the main continent just up ahead," Grizzly continued.

"90% for 3 hours flight, that should be," Doc did the math in his head, "enough to let this plane fly for 2 days straight! Jesus..." he trailed off.

 

Grizzly watched solemnly as DocFrance sank back into his stupor. This was going to be a long flight.

[Ki-tat Chung]

*1556 Hours, Living Quarters (Room 36), Pine Gap, WA, Australia, Australia, Earth*

 

As Ki-tat raised his head, he reached for his gear.

 

Boy that was close, Ki-tat thought as he took his laptop off suspension, connected to the wireless network setup within the base, and checked his timetable. Huh, training, training, and more training. Just what I wanted for Christmas...

 

Ki-tat powered down his computer, changed into his PT gear, and headed off towards the training area, and being too caught up in his thoughts, left the laptop and scematics for the cells on his bunktop.

[The Veteran]

"Good afternoon Mr Chung. I have no idea where you've been but you've wasted a great deal of time already. You're taking point with O'Chez out on the field so I want you to take a rifle and get to your shooting." said Corporal Rheinhauser as Ki-tat finally appeared in the firing range.

"I'm sorry sir," replied Ki-tat making his way to the weapons stacked against the front wall of the range. "I had..." He paused trying to finish his sentence. "A medical."

The Corporal followed Ki-tat's gaze over to where Tammy had returned to her own shooting almost fifteen minutes ago. "I don't care where you were boy. I just want you to know that if this is the kind of dedication you have to your post here then I'll be damned if I'm going to recommend you for a tactical squad. Next time, be here early..."

The corporal turned away and Ki-tat made his way over to the last remaining empty stall.

"As far as I'm concerned they can stick their point right up their damn arse," said the soldier in the stall next to Ki-tat. "He was fine all morning... Better than fine... I thought he did pretty well in the grenade pits and he seemed like a decent guy when I spoke to him at lunch too, but where the hell is he now?"

"You heard Tammy. She said he'd done something stupid to his eyes. I guess he can't see right yet. I'd hate to be without my eyes... Can you even imagine it?"

Ki-tat recognised the two voices from the British accents. They were muddy but British all the same. The first voice was Rick, the other point... The second was TJ. Ki-tat had noticed most of the hangar crew and pilots called him Trigger.

"Tammy, the medic? Well at least she's doing the right job out there. Girls and guns do not go together, yet still they're training her up in the firing range. What sense does that make! She is definitely one to keep my eye on..." said Rick still oblivious to Ki-tat behind him.

"You like her?" said Trigger.

"No! I just don't want the medic to get shot! And sure as hell I don't want her defending herself... She's more likely to take us down than one of them."

"So you don't like her... Fair enough. She's an oddball but at least you don't have that poison bird in your squad. She's a complete head case"

"You guys really should be careful who's standing behind you when you're talking..."

A female voice... She sounded short... Please not Poison... Trigger turned around slowly.

"Tammy, thank God for that..."

"Scared of a girl are we? And what's all this about women as soldiers?"

"Hey I just said you were an oddball," said Trigger sitting to reload his rifle, "and I meant it in the nicest possible way."

"Well you have to admit he is right," said Rick appearing from inside the adjacent stall.

"What you think I'm an oddball too?" asked Tammy.

"No I think you're a menace to the team. I was referring to the headcase you have to share a room with every night you're here." replied Rick with a slightly twisted grin.

"She's not so bad. All she needs is to be told where she stands. Although I don't think she'd respond very well if she was told that by a man. She's kind of like an inverse you."

"Really? So do you think I should warn my roommate that I may randomly attack them in the middle of the night because I'm a skitzo?"

"Look we've had words since she arrives. She won't mess with me and I won't talk to her unless it's completely unavoidable. Anyway that's not what I care about. What I want to know is why you have such a big thing against me fighting."

"I don't," said Rick sincerely. "I have a problem with women in general fighting. War is a mans game and I don't want to see girls get hurt unnecessarily. I'm grateful to have you as a medic but I think that's all you should do on the field. I'm not oing to apologise for it, it's just what I believe. Now if you'll excuse me," Rick turned back to his shooting and pummelled 20 armour piercing bullets through the wooden target and into the back wall of the range.

"What's his story?" Tammy asked turning to Trigger just as the wooden head of a five foot male splintered on the floor a good forty meters away.

"I'm not entirely sure myself but he does get a bit touchy over certain things. This is one of them. I have one word of advice if you want it."

"Shoot."

"No don't. Knowing Rick as well as I do I'm pretty sure he'll do whatever he can to keep you safe from enemy fire. If he is actively trying to defend you then leave him to do it. Protect yourself when you need to obviously... But there's a whole history there that noone in this base can even come close to understanding.

As another clip clicked into Rick's rifle just meters away Tammy looked over to where he was standing. She watched him shoot with what seemed like a tremendous amount of anger. But... Was that a tear in the corner of his eye?

[JellyfishGreen]

***

About 50 meters up and two kilometers away, Poison was throwing M69T practice grenades enthusiastically and surprisingly accurately. Each one had to be prepared by turning a timing fuze before pulling the pin on the release lever. Cpl. Saiko was next to her in the throwing pit, making sure she followed the steps perfectly. She lobbed her third up and over the protection wall - this time from a crouching position - which exploded precisely at the foot of the metal target post five seconds later. Cpl Saiko was impressed.

"Very good, Private Andrews. We know Hiroshi used to play baseball, but where did you learn to throw like that?"

"Umm, I dunno." Hitting old windows and security cameras with rocks, she remembered.

 

The other soldiers milled about the observation area. Keller was remembering her practice with the smoke grenades. The targets reappearing dreamlike from their wreath of smoke felt like a memory trying to resurface - or a vision.

 

Ki-lam and Green, on the other hand, were staring at a cluster of activity on the artillery range a few hundred meters away. A tracked vehicle about two meters long had trundled onto the dusty tarmac, attached to a laptop by a serial cable of equal length. Five more techs walked alongside. The tank followed the tech carrying the laptop like a big dog on a lead.

 

Green recognized two obscure M202 quad rocket launchers, one bolted to each side of the tank's turret. "I wonder where they dug those up from?" The miniature tank stopped and spun on its tracks to face the targets on the artillery range. The techs clustered around it for a few minutes and then backed off, removing moisture covers from the firing tubes. The range warning light and siren went on, attracting the attention of the rest of Squad Two. A few seconds later, the crouching tech with the laptop gave a thumbs up and typed something, and a rocket flared up and shot from the tank and impacted near the artillery target. "Awesome" shouted Green.

 

Sanjay lowered the binoculars. "OK, raise azimuth by 20 degrees and rotate by positive 30, then correct aim with coaxial camera." Slice held down the arrow keys and the turret mechanism raised and rotated to bear on the next target. The crosshairs on his little laptop screen stopped precisely on the centre of the bullseye. He let out an exuberant "Fire Two" and slammed the enter key. The robot at the other end of the cable clicked its firing relay and with a burst of flame, the rocket leapt from the firing tube and left a long trail of smoke to the target, which obliged by erupting in a fireball. "Yeah" shouted Slice. Sanjay grinned - the enthusiasm was infectious. "Nice one, Slice. Right, take a dump of the self-calibration routine, and you two record the shock absorber strain data." He pulled out his phone. "Dana, we're ready to upload the data from the live fire test."

One of the techs opened an access panel. "Sanjay, looks like the transverse rotation motor relay is running pretty hot."

"Hmm. Okay, lets upspec it." He dialled another extension to where Worm was running up a large online shopping bill. "Worm, hey, any news on those parts in Sydney? Yeah? See if they can throw a 50-watt motor MFET and freestanding heatsink on the order and still make tonight's evening courier run."

 

From his vantage point in the observation post, Green thought aloud. "Definitely some sort of robot."

Kilam leaned over to Green. "What do you think? If you screw up, they replace you with one of those?"

"Sounds good to me - better them shot up than me," answered Green.

"Naww, they'll always need humans, or sergeants wouldn't have anyone to yell at and clean latrines."

 

"Squad 2 - fall in! Now it's back to the air-conditioned theatre for some Tactics lectures, you lucky dogs"

 

***

 

Dana confirmed Sanjay's download, then turned back to her workstation and moved a bit of shielding under the microscope. Presently she dialed Zager's extension. "Hi, Dr. Zager? Dana here. Something still funny about our little accident - The target ablation confirms the laser backscatter readings. The battery drain is only a tenth of what we would expect for that energy release."

 

*****

It was midday local time as Doc brought the Skyranger out of supersonic and slipped into the air traffic corridor for Ramstein Air Force Base, the American air base in Germany. At 300 miles out they broke radio silence. "Ramstein Control, this is flight MPS115. Checking in as per our submitted flight plan." Doc France read off the code from the flight plan in his "TOP SECRET" folder.

The voice that came back was American. "Roger, MPS115. You are cleared for Runway 6. Enter confirmation code for NAVINT and follow the beacons."

"Roger, Control." Doc punched in the digits on his console (which, in the wrong combination, would trigger a self-destruct) and sat back. A few processing cycles later, the HUD showed a line of virtual beacons curving left and away towards the artificial horizon. Doc raised his eyebrows - the path led away from the airfield, towards the forest and a bank of clouds. Grizzly grinned wolfishly. After checking that the comm was off, he stage-whispered to Doc, "There is no Runway 6."

 

Doc had to trust the HUD and his instruments as the plane nosed its way down through the clouds to what had to be a runway hidden amongst the trees. When they broke free from the bottom of the cloud bank, he was surprised to see there was still no runway - the beacons were leading him straight down onto the forest. Grizzly noticed his unease, but when Doc looked at him, he said nothing.

 

At 20 meters above the virtual runway, Doc suddenly realized the trees in front of him looked wrong - and when his wheels bounced off the painted concrete, it all became clear. The control surfaces flared and the transport taxied to where a uniformed major was waiting beside a golf cart. He waved them on and followed the plane into the hangar concealed in the hillside.

 

Doc and Grizzly shut down the systems and exited through the back ramp. They saluted the major.

"Gutendag, Lt. France, Lt. Davies. I am Major Mummer, XINV Europe. Welcome to Wolmerspur Base."

"Nice trick with the runway."

"Yes. It always surprises the first timers. The hard part was making it look like forest even in infrared."

"Do you worry about discovery by hikers and campers?"

"Well, not too much. Just another runway doesn't give anything away on its own. But we do benefit from a lot of cloud cover, and this part of the black forest is rumoured to be haunted."

"You mean like ghosts?"

"Like ghosts. The Mummelsee, for instance, has a tourism industry around a green lake ghost. Not that we want that much attention."

"How extensive is this operation? I've only been to Pine Gap."

"This is presently a storage base and local HQ for XINV, but we might end up as an interception base for XCOM. There's only about 30 of us. Some of us are American, some are German - GSG-9 formed a Section 4 - and we have one Australian reporting for XINV HQ."

Grizzly put his hand on the Major's shoulder. "That's all well and good. But it's been nearly a week since Christmas. Where's my new toy?"

[Zager]

Dr. Zager was about to leave his office when his phone rang. He grabbed it, and listened to Dana. "Intriguing," he replied. "Run some lab tests and get us some actual experimental data. Let's not draw any conclusion, it could be a fluke. But first, tell me who the hell touched it without my permission? Only a complete idiot would touch a bioelectric cell without knowing anything about it. Which member of the science team was it?"

"Well, I really can't-" Dana started to reply.

"WHO?" Zager bellowed. "I will not have people like that in my laboratory.

"Private Chung, he's a soldier."

"What was a soldier doing there? Those ham-fisted grunts aren't allowed anywhere near delicate scientific equipment"

"He altered his keycard."

"Right. Run some tests, while I take care of some other business."

He stepped out of his office, found a map, oriented himself, and headed to the training area.

 

In the firing range, Zager stepped inside, and called out. "Which one of you is a Mr. Chung?"

The corporal turned to face Zager, then pointed at Ki-Tat. Zager nodded, then briskly walked over behind Ki-Tat, and tapped him on the shoulder.

"What-" Ki-Tat started to say before Zager interrupted him.

"If you ever, come within twenty meters of one of my experiments ever again," Zager growled. "I will shoot you. You nearly destroyed a two million dollar prototype."

"What's going on?" Rick asked, turning.

"I'm explaining to this idiot that only scientific personnel are allowed anywhere near the labs," Zager snapped back, then turned back to face Ki-Tat. "Now, are we clear? Only intelligent people are allowed near my experiments, and I will check out an assault shotgun from the armory, and blow your idiot head off if you touch my research again."

[The Veteran]

"Do we even have assault shotguns here?" Trigger asked Rick as Zager left the range steaming.

"I didn't think you were here," Rick said to Ki-tat not hearing Trigger.

"I was a little late. I stopped by the labs on the way here..." said Ki-tat in an almost unconscious daze.

"Yeah that was a good idea," said Rick turning back to Trigger and smiling to himself.

"We don't though do we?" asked Trigger.

"What?"

"Have assault shotguns in the armoury..."

"Oh come on! He's a scientist! He probably had to use a map to get here let alone to the armoury! In fact it was probably just a lucky guess that we have an armoury"

"So we don't then?" repeated Trigger.

"Uh, yeah I think we do but we aren't allowed to take them out of the base. They're reserved for the security teams." replied Rick nonchalantly.

"What? We do! How the hell do you know that?"

"I do more here than just shoot stuff you know. I've been in the armoury loads of times. The assualt shotguns are by the proximity mines and high explosives. They keep them with the assault rifles."

"Assault rifles? We have them too"

"Yeah they're all just for scurity forces."

"Then why are they both assault weapons? Surely that makes very little sense..."

Rick lowered his gun and stood silently for a while. Trigger's rifle continued to empty the contents of a twenty round clip into the wall. "I see your point. But I guess if the tool does the job then what does a name matter?"

"What so you mean next time I'm putting up shelves I could bang in the nails with a screwdriver? It works just as well."

"Hey your shelves are your business," said Rick turning back to his shooting. "Personally I'd use a hammer... Obviously if you don't have a hammer though, a screwdriver would be fine."

Trigger watched a smile appear and then he turned back to his own shooting, smiling to himself.

"Whoa" said Trigger after a few minutes.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" asked Rick.

"I'm training for base security"

"So?"

"I get to use the screwdriver instead of a hammer"

Rick shook his head and turned back to the range once again. 'Two more hours,' he thought. "Can I get a new target over here" he shouted to the Corporal as the last limb fell off his wooden man. 'It's going to be a long day'

[Alitorious]

Grizzly put his hand on the Major's shoulder. "That's all well and good. But it's been nearly a week since Christmas. Where's my new toy?"

 

Mummer looked at Davies. "I presume you're the fighter pilot. The Interceptor is over in the primary hanger." He waved his arm towards a position near the end of the runway.

 

Doc and Grizzly looked, and could just barely see a second opening in the hillside. "We can eat while the flight crew finishes preparing the Interceptor for launch," the Major continued.

 

Davies started to object, but a growling stomach stopped him. It was a 10 hour flight from Australia, and flight rations could hardly be considered a gourmet meal. Besides, his plane wasn't going anywhere for a while, he thought as he was led off to the golf cart.

 

***

 

When Zager burst into the lab, the first thing he noticed was an acrid stench lingering in the air. Most of the smell had been swept away from the ventilation system and time, but an echo of it remained. Zager recognized the smell as a burnt out Biocell. He muttered something inaudible. Then he noticed that one of the prototype Heavy Weapons Platforms was missing.

"Dana, why aren't you out there with the tank?"

"Oh," she looked up, "I was running a few tests when Sanjay and his team took it out for field testing."

"Why don't you go out with the rest of the team? I'll take over here. I'll also work it out with Photon," he added.

"Thanks a lot Zager," she replied. "Everything should all be in the notes."

"Nothing left out? Not even the... incident?"

"Oh," she hesitated, "Well, there isn't much to explain. Chung was sticking a tool into the prototype," Zager grimaced at this, who could possibly be so stupid as to stick metal objects into advanced prototypes? "when it released a large amount of red light," Dana finished.

"Okay. Thanks, Dana."

Dana turned around and exited for the surface, as Zager looked down at her notes. Laser backscatter ablation 1/10th of expected....,"Hmm..."

[Tammy]

Tammy followed Trigger out of the shooting range for a break and admittedly to see if she could squeeze a bit more information out of him. She liked Trigger and enjoyed his company, but right now her curiosity about Rick was at the forefront of her mind.

 

"You know, Trigger, what I said about Poison wasn't entirely accurate now that I think about it. I think I'm probably the closest thing to a friend that she has. We argue still, but I honestly think that she is developing some loyalty to me, and I have to admit that I was really tempted to defend her more than I did. Who knows? Maybe we'll be real friends--kind of like having a loyal pit bull," Tammy grinned.

 

"Take care that pit bull doesn't bite your hand off, Tammy. They don't call that girl Poison for nothing," Trigger warned.

 

"Well, your buddy Rick is kind of a strange case, too, don't you think?" Oh, very subtle, Tammy.....why didn't you just come right out and demand the guy's life story?

 

Trigger glanced back toward the door of the shooting range and then back at Tammy. He opened his mouth to speak and closed it again. "I'm not sure how much to tell you, you know."

 

Tammy could tell he was tempted to confide in her--she often had that effect on people. Luckily for those people, she was also good at keeping those things confidential. Her curiosity about Rick wasn't professional, really, but there was a part of her that wondered if he was entirely safe with a gun in the field. Mostly, she just wanted to know.

 

"Let's go find something to eat and we can talk some," suggested Trigger.

 

"You always want something to eat," she grinned at him.

 

Together they headed in the direction of Tammy's quarters and some serious snack food. As they walked, Trigger glanced at Tammy out of the corner of his eye and asked a little too casually, "So, Poison's not going to be there, I guess?"

 

Tammy laughed and said, "No, she won't be, but if she comes back unexpectedly, I won't let her bite you." She winked at him and laughed again. Trigger muttered something under his breath that she didn't ask him to repeat, and they continued quickly down the hall, knowing that they'd have to be back into training very soon.

 

*********

 

Meanwhile, Poison continued her accurate grenade tosses. Cpl Saiko mused aloud, "We've got to make sure that you're well equipped with these things in the field. You're a pretty good shot, but this is clearly your best talent."

 

Warlord walked in behind Saiko about that time and for a second, Poison nearly dropped her grenade. He was the one person besides Tammy who made her the least bit nervous, but for altogether different reasons. He looked at her and said, "You might want to toss that thing before it blows, darlin'."

 

She looked at her hand and immediately threw it without thinking, hitting the target perfectly again. Some things just came naturally, even under pressure, thankfully. She wiped her hands on her jumpsuit and muttered something, and reached for another grenade. Warlord raised an eyebrow at the accuracy and the commentary, but he passed her without saying any more for the moment.

[The Veteran]

As Tammy and Trigger walked to her quarters Trigger realised that he knew little more about Rick's history than what he had already told Tammy in the firing range.

Turning to her he asked "Exactly what do you want to know about Rick?"

"I want to know why he seems so angry about women fighting... angry in general, in fact." replied Tammy. "Did something happen?" she asked.

"I have no more of an idea about that than you do..." replied Trigger. "He didn't have a problem with them when we parted in Britain. But when we met up again here, he did..."

"Do you talk to him often? Perhaps you could ask some questions. I'm pretty good at that sort of thing myself, but something tells me that he wouldn't talk to me."

"I expect not. He used to be the real ladies man," said Trigger smiling, "but since he arrived here he's been completely removed from them. I talk to him whenever we meet. I've known him since university after all..."

"What are the chances that he's angry enough to be a danger in the field?" Tammy asked with concern in her voice.

"He's not angry. I've never seen him angry in all the time we've known each other. As for the field he's possibly the best soldier I know... With one exception at least..."

"Oh? Who's that?" she asked.

"Warlord." replied Trigger "I doubt you know him. He's the big guy in Rick's squad."

"Oh, we've met..." she replied grinning. "Though it wasn't as tense as his meeting with Poison."

"Oh wait. Of course you know him. You're the medic for Rick's squad aren't you?"

"That's right. We've talked a bit, but I don't suppose I could say I know him well yet. We worked together on the squad assignments. The suggestions we presented to the higher-ups, that is."

"So why aren't you and Poison in the same squad?" he asked. "If you picked the assignments I would've thought you'd be together."

"Well, I figured we could either live together or work together, but not both. She's not the easiest person to get along with if you haven't noticed."

"Please call me TJ. Trigger is my callsign, not my name... I see your point though... I couldn't live OR work with her"

"TJ it is. And you're probably right about you and Poison..."

"Thanks! That does wonders for my self esteem" said Trigger laughing.

"Sorry, but she generally has men for breakfast and sometimes two for an afternoon snack"

"And you said you were the closest thing she had to a friend"

"Exactly, which is why I know her so well." replied Tammy smiling.

"Well, here we are," she said arriving at her quarters. "Shall I check inside for Poison first?"

"Don't worry I can handle myself." said Trigger. "Your room has corners right?"

Tammy laughed and opened the electronically sealed door. "Come on in and make yourself at home," she said sitting. "Food's over there. I know what you're here for"

"Nice place," he said sarcastically, looking around the room which was identical to his own. "Nice food"

"You have to be the only guy I know who comes to a woman's quarter's with only food on your mind." said Tammy grinning. "Anyway, help yourself."

"That's not the only thing I have on my mind... I was also hoping that Poison would be training"

"Grab some of that food and hand it to me," said Tammy laughing. "All that training has me starved"

"What do you want?" asked Trigger.

"Umm....give me some of those chocolate chip cookies and a bottle of water. The no-calorie water cancels out the cookies."

"Here," he said passing Tammy the food. "Now could you tell me what the point is?"

"Of the cookies or this conversation?"

"The cookies. I eat for pleasure yet all of the women I know eat because it keeps them alive... Not that I disapprove of them staying alive I just don't see the point of eating to a rota"

"Well, we must keep our lovely figures, you know... Now, about that friend of yours. What do you think? Should we pursue finding out more? He worries me a little if I'm going to be out in the field with him." said Tammy.

"I really don't think it'll be a problem. He's been on advanced training ever since he arrived here and he's been out into combat twice just in the last month."

"With women present?" replied Tammy. "That's what concerns me. I don't want him neglecting his job to protect me, you know. I know how to shoot for myself."

"I'm sure you do but he can quite easily look after two people. With both him and Warlord I shouldn't think there's need for anyone else at all! No offence to you..." he added.

"Oh, I'm not that easily offended. You think I could be friends with Poison if I were? I don't mind if he wants to shoot aliens and let me patch up soldiers before they die, believe me. I just don't want him to be stupid about it. If I am in a better position to take the shot, he's going to have to let me do it." said Tammy forcefully.

"Look, I understand that at some point you'll have to shoot for yourself," said Trigger. "This is war! I just think you need to be a bit reserved when Rick's about."

"Okay, I won't throw myself in front of Rick and shoot his aliens for him. How's that?"

"Do I detect a hint of sarcasm?" asked Trigger.

"I never hint at sarcasm. What you heard was undiluted sarcasm." replied Tammy smiling.

"I have no idea what that is but we're straying from the matter... I don't think you'll help yourself any by just talking to Rick but you may be able to earn his respect somehow..."

"I know....you shoot him, and I'll patch him up"

"Now you're just being childish..." replied Trigger, suppressing a smile.

"Hey, it might work! Do you have a better idea?"

"I don't know... There must be some way though... We have to get back to training soon anyway. I suggest than when we get there you come and shoot with me and Rick. Get to know him a bit."

"You know, that might not be a bad idea. Let's go! Want to invite Poison?" she said smiling innocently.

"How about we go. And Poison, may God have mercy on her soul, stays wherever she is..."

"Don't want to spend some time with Poison when she has a gun in her hands?" she asked.

"No that's not it at all... I just don't want to spend time with Poison..." replied Trigger smiling.

"Fair enough. Let's go find Rick, so I can charm him and win his undying devotion and trust...or at least persuade him not to hate me."

Tammy stood and moved over to the door.

"Ok, lets go. I'm getting bored of cookies anyway... They're not even real cookies... Stupid American biscuits..."

"British snob" said Tammy grinning.

"That's harsh! Even when you grin to say it"

"I'm evil and vicious... and I'll bet I can outshoot you, too" said Tammy darting through the open door and running to the firing range.

Trigger quickly followed her out and called after her "They don't call me Trigger for nothing you know"

[Tammy]

Tammy made it into the shooting range about three seconds ahead of TJ, still laughing breathlessly. Rick glanced up at her wordlessly with an unreadable expression on his face. As his gaze lingered on her face, Tammy's eyes met his and she sobered quickly. TJ, not realizing that Tammy had stopped suddenly, burst through the doors behind her and collided with her back. He caught her quickly before she fell to the floor and looked questioningly from her to Rick. Tammy shook her head almost imperceptibly, and TJ took his hands from her shoulders. He walked across the room and retrieved guns for the two of them. While he was occupied, Tammy-direct as always-spoke to Rick.

 

"What was that all about?"

"What was what all about?" he countered.

"You know what I mean," she replied exasperated. "That look."

"Nothing...for a second there, you reminded me of ...someone."

 

Realizing that further prodding would result in annoyance rather than more information, she simply nodded and accepted the gun that TJ placed in her hand. Pausing for only a second to shift mental gears, she grinned at Rick and said, "We've come to challenge you're shooting ability. Let's see what you can do."

 

Rick raised his eyebrows and gestured to the mutilated target before him, but Tammy shook her head. "Nope, we're starting over. We'll even let you go first."

 

Rick stared at Tammy for a moment, then shrugged. Without another word, he turned back to the target and fired twenty shots that impacted the target within two inches of each other. "Next," he said.

 

Tammy gestured to TJ to take his turn next, and he fired at his own target. While not as good as Rick's shooting, it was good enough that Tammy whistled. "They don't call you Trigger for nothing, do they?" She grinned at TJ, and he turned to her and swaggered over to where she stood.

 

"Your turn," he smiled. She turned, the grin sliding away from her face as she concentrated on the target before her. One, two, three, four...twenty shots, none more than four inches from any other.

 

"Looks like I lose," she grinned. "Rick is obviously the best of the three of us, with TJ a very close second, and Tammy makes a poor showing at third," she added with a comic sigh.

 

The two men were still alternately staring at the target and at her. "You're a medic, right, Tammy?" TJ asked. "Where'd you learn to shoot like that?" Rick said nothing at all.

 

"Oh, I'm nowhere near as good as the two of you, but let's say I've had a variety of experiences in the course of my career," she said vaguely, looking away from them. "I know...let's head over to the rec room later for some pool. Meet me there after training is over if you're not afraid of being beaten." With a wink, she tossed the gun to TJ and slipped out the door to head back to the medical facilities for her last bit of training for the day. TJ turned to Rick, who was still staring thoughtfully at the door. He started to say something, but thought better of it, and reloading his firearm, returned to his stall.

[The Veteran]

Placing Tammy's gun on the shelf to one side of his stall Trigger rose his own weapon totake aim at the target before him. He risked a sideways glance at Rick and turned back quickly when he met his eyes.

"You know what I'm going to say," said Rick standing at ease.

"But why?" replied Trigger turning back to face Rick and lowering his gun.

"I had a very dear friend once." said Rick intensely. "She was good with a gun too... The fact is TJ, I'm better with a gun than most everyone I know! But that doesn't mean a thing when it comes to combat! Not when It comes to war..."

"Rick, what are you talking about?" asked Trigger thoughtfully.

"Men are built for war TJ. It's always been that way. Even for animals it's the males that do the hunting! Do you know why that is?" he asked. Trigger shook his head blankly. "It's because women don't have the perception it takes to deal with a combat situation... They don't understand that an enemy is twice as likely to be hiding in a bush behind them then walking out of a house in front of them. They don't understand that they'll use rocks to confuse you. That they'll move silently in any terrain... In all my days as a soldier I've never seen a team mate killed in action. Never! But every time I get back from a mission I'm told that one of my best friends is dead... And I'm never there to help them..."

"What's that got to do with women fighting? Most of the casualties I've seen since we've been stationed here were men." said Trigger.

"I know that. I'm fine at dealing with death. I'm a born soldier! I just don't like seeing women throw their lives away for a job that they shouldn't be doing in the first place"

"Rick, times are changing. Fast. A lot of the new things that are being brought into play in the world aren't my favourites either but we have to live with it! I don't even approve of women's votes! You know that! The way I see it, if you give them an inch they will take a mile..."

"Votes do not get people killed Trigger! War does! That is what war is all about"

Trigger was taken aback. He'd never been called by his callsign when he was talking to Rick... "Rick, people die! It's the way of life. It doesn't make a difference if they're male or female, black or white, German or normal. Everyone dies eventually"

"Ye..." began Rick.

"I know," interrupted Trigger, "it's not the same as casualties of war. But they all end up the same. You say you're a born soldier, so why does it bother you so much?"

"Because love does that to a man" Rick shouted. "Even a soldier..."

Trigger stood in silence and watched Rick leave the range. When he was out of the door he leant back against the side of his stall and sighed...

[Tammy]

Tammy stumbled into the rec room, rubbing her aching back muscles, thinking that someone should really come up with a way to spend a couple of hours looking into a microscope without getting a backache. She headed straight for an empty spot on the sagging couch, curled up, and closed her eyes. She was debating calling off her challenge to Rick and TJ when she felt the couch shift dramatically and some rather large hands replace her own in rubbing her back. She sighed happily and said, "That has to be Warlord."

 

"What gave me away?" he asked, chuckling.

 

"Never mind. I'll give you exactly three hours to get your hands off my back."

 

"Well, looks like Tammy's in no condition to beat me at pool after all," smirked TJ.

 

Tammy sighed again, not so happily, and said, "There goes my backrub. Don't be silly, TJ. We're on...where's Rick?"

 

"Um...I'm not sure, and I don't know if he'll be..." he trailed off as Rick entered the rec room looking quite composed. "Well, never mind."

 

Rick walked over to where Warlord had continued rubbing Tammy's aching back and said, "I hate to interrupt, but I believe the little lady has challenged us. Perhaps she's too tired?"

 

Tammy's eyes narrowed, but she said nothing for a few seconds. She turned her head and spoke to Warlord, "It seems that I have a prior engagement. Would you care to join us?"

 

"I think I'll just watch, if it's all the same to you. This promises to be too entertaining to miss," he grinned. His eyes trailed across the room to where Poison's snake tattoo tensed as she blasted her way through yet another FPS video game. He couldn't help thinking that introducing her to this Rick person would be incredibly amusing, too, but he decided to save it for later. Tammy caught his eye and his thought at the same time and chuckled. She shook her head imperceptibly and mouthed, "Not tonight." She also made a mental note to introduce Poison to some strategy games in her continuing efforts to educate her on strategy.

 

Tammy stood and stretched luxuriantly. "Wow, thanks, Warlord...I feel great" Then she felt various pairs of eyes resting on her and decided she had stretched quite enough. She laughed and wandered over to the pool table and lifted a cue stick. She balanced it carefully in her hands and shook her head and reached for another. TJ glanced at Rick and raised an eyebrow. He and Rick each grabbed a stick. They decided to flip a coin to see who would play first. The lot fell on Tammy and TJ, so Tammy walked over to the table. TJ had offered to break, but Tammy said she thought she could manage. She bent down and eyed the balls along the cue stick. Silently, she pulled back on the cue stick and suddenly the balls were scattered all over the table in what even Rick had to admit were strategic locations. The shot elicited a low whistle from Sandy and Gardener who had wandered over to watch. As the game progressed, TJ had to admit that, while he might've outshot Tammy at the shooting range, it wasn't going to happen here. He held up both hands and said, "Okay, I surrender" and went over to try out a new flight simulator game. Loud shouts came from the pinball machine where Chris Black and Christel Keller were pounding away at side-by-side pinball machines.

 

A hush fell around the table as Rick and Tammy faced off. She smiled and gestured for Rick to break since she didn't want to show off too much. It became immediately apparent that Rick wasn't going down easily. Tammy stepped back to examine the table and found herself tripping over a pair of feet. Warlord caught her arms and steadied her and they both looked down to see Daniel Gomez sitting in the floor, legs outstretched and head hidden behind a game console. He appeared not to have even noticed Tammy, so she didn't disturb him. He appeared to be repairing a favorite game of hers and she wasn't about to distract him. Ironic really that her favorite games had always included fighting aliens... Her mind snapped back to the task at hand and she turned back to the table. She took a deep breath and sank a nearly impossible shot. She caught the flicker of surprise on Rick's face before he quickly schooled his features into an impassive gaze. She hid her own grin of relief by strolling over to the antiquated jukebox and playing "Hotel California" by the Eagles. Funny how a song could bring back so many memories... She sauntered casually back to the table and sank shot after shot before she missed one, giving Rick an opportunity to catch up. As it became obvious that they were pretty evenly matched, a crowd began to gather, and Tammy could hear whispered commentary and speculation. As she sank the eight ball, she heard cheers and groans, letting her know that there'd been some side wagers going. "Okay boys and girls, show's over," she grinned.

 

Warlord sidled up to her and said, "Show indeed! Nothing like watching a beautiful woman bending over a pool table." He winked and ducked as she aimed a playful punch in his direction. She turned and walked over to Rick and stuck out her hand.

 

"That was an excellent game, Rick. Let's do this again sometime," she said.

 

To his credit, Rick didn't hesitate to take her hand. He looked her in the eye and said, "Oh, I think we will. You're very good."

 

"Thank you, Rick. I am also very tired, so I am going right back to that couch and I'm not getting up for the next half hour unless the aliens come right to the base," she grinned, handed the pool cue to Ki-tat, and walked away.