ALICE, page 23
“You’re in luck,” Bonnie said as she seated herself, Robert again having risen as she entered the room, “we happen to be recruiting.”
Bonnie could see the relief in his face, and then a concerned look reappeared.
“How limited is that recruiting?” he asked, “I have 12 others sitting in a canyon waiting on me.”
“All from the same raiding party?” Bonnie asked flatly.
“Some, the others are from the settlement on the far side of the pass. Eight men and four women total, all like me, tired of livin a lie just to survive.”
Bonnie considered the information. She really needed them to evaluate the group in some fashion before they just brought them all in.
After a minute, she said, “OK, here’s the deal, I’m going to drop you off with a communicator. You lay out this offer. Anyone who comes here gets a fresh start. They obey the rules, period. If not, they will find themselves dropped right back in that canyon or dead, no ifs, ands, or buts! We will come get you tomorrow morning. Anyone not interested can go on their merry way from there, sound good?”
“Speaking of dead, that canyon is right between the town patrols and the raider hideout,” Robert said.
“Once we know the location, we will make sure no one bothers you,” Bonnie finished.
Bonnie called for Joe and Abby to collect Robert. After they left with him, she updated them via helmet audio, on her plans so Robert couldn’t hear. She also asked them to provide enough food and water for his group for the night. She intended for Dallas to launch an over watch helicopter and open the communication box for one way audio/video, this way they could get a feel for the group in the canyon.
That issue solved for the moment, Bonnie headed back to the control center to re-evaluate her personnel transfer deal with Linda. This development would likely require a shift in that plan as well. She was again debating if that call from Jake was a good thing or not!
Chapter 15
After the call with Linda, Sara, and Bonnie, effectively promoting them to leadership and establishing rank, Jake headed back to the flight simulator. He felt a burning need to get this thing mastered as quickly as possible. Most likely, he was just being paranoid, he knew, but he felt like he was naked.
The thought that someone could just mosey into earth’s orbit and start dropping bombs, unopposed, gave him the creeps. Even if no one else was up to speed, his one ship could surprise the hell outta someone. That would only work once though, and the next time they would come, in force. He really needed pilots!
As for the firepower required, he was feeling better about some of the weapon upgrades he and Seven discussed for the fighters. He agreed with her that just being equal to the Alien firepower wasn’t enough. I hope that the new additions to the fighters would tip the scales.
Jake also caved on a personal battle and asked Seven, ALICE and Dallas re-paint the existing fighters. They originally been designated USAF and been marked as such. He was a Marine damn it! He had them all redone in paint and emblems of the squadrons he knew from his time. He took the VMFA-314 Black Knights as his own squadron of four fighters and assigned VMFA-112 Cowboys to Dallas and VMFA-232 Red Devils to ALICE.
He also asked Seven to paint his personal fighter in a non-standard paint scheme he dreamt up. When the aliens did come to attack earth, he wanted to be sure that they knew who was coming up after them.
He spent the next several hours going through combat drills in the simulator, flying against both Alien ships and his own fighters. He wasn’t sure if it was his imagination or not, but it seemed the aliens were not nearly as maneuverable as the fighters, nor were they as rugged. The simulator said the new weapons were a literal hit. He hoped reality proved it right.
Seven explained, when asked, that the basis of the simulations were on data derived from flight tests of the craft and materials testing. As no actual combat had taken place between the two races, this was their best guess. He did note, his fighters contained many more control surfaces than the alien ships, indicating the aliens didn’t typically maneuver a lot.
In fact, because of the speed and maneuverability of the earth fighters, the designers found it necessary to incorporate some alien technology to inhibit inertial forces on the pilot. Called inertial dampeners, the aliens used them in a general sense to reduce stresses on their entire ships in heavy acceleration and deceleration.
Terrestrial designers had taken it a step farther, and concentrated the effect around the pilot. This gave the pilot the ability to tolerate huge stresses that would normally cause blackouts or worse. It also meant Jake could make the fighter do things no earthly craft was ever capable of doing.
He took some pages out of the Marine Corps undocumented flight manual and performed vertical lifts in level flight, vectored thrust type maneuvers and even flat and axial spins, cutting the main drive long enough to rotate a full 360 degrees hitting targets directly behind him in the process. It took some getting used to, as the inertial dampers dampened the sensations of movement, the visual effects could make you dizzy.
After another four hours of training, Jake decided to stop for the day. He headed back to the main facility and on the way, asked Seven where Sara and the others were.
“Sara, Sharon and Jessie are located in the central control room.”
Jake headed off in that direction, and upon arriving, discovered the three huddled over a display. Sharon seated in front with Sara and Jessie looking over her shoulders.
“What’s on TV tonight?” he asked as he walked up behind them and looked at the display.
It was one of their fighters, in a heated battle blasting aggressor ships out of space at a freakishly fevered rate. All three women were watching with a look of disbelief.
“What is this, are you fast forwarding through one of Seven’s training scenarios?” he asked.
“No,” Sara said, turning to him in awe, “it’s your practice session in real time!”
Jake watched, recalling this particular session now. He told Seven to up the number and abilities of the aggressor ships in an attempt to find the limits of his own craft. He almost puked at the end as he had been spinning in 2 axes at one point to avoid a concentrated attack.
He had to admit, watching it from this perspective, it did look impossible. It ended with Jake emerging, not unscathed, but victorious nonetheless.
All three turned to face him, speechless. Finally, Sara asked, “what’s the point of that anyway, are you trying to see what it takes to make you barf?”
“OK, just between us, I am very concerned about getting hit again before we have a proper defense force in place. It turns out ALICE had me fully trained on these things while I was in stasis. If necessary I can go up alone to stave off an attack until we have more pilots,” He finished.
“That’s why the big push for more recruits?” Sharon asked.
“Yeah, I figure if they come back they will repeat the last attack, one ship with a direct attack. If I can blow that one out of the sky, the next time will be a full court press but we will have more pilots. I have Seven manufacturing 20 more fighters to add to the 20 we have.”
“With only one pilot, that’s a problem,” Jessie said.
“Exactly,” Jake replied, “and I’m thinking a buncha rowdy Texans would make a great pool to draw from, which is why I asked Bonnie to take a hard look there for recruits.”
“Some of us have started lessons too,” Sara stated flatly.
“Yes, but you won’t be ready for at least a week to start simulator training and as I said before that makes eight of us. We need three times that if hit hard. Seven says a full attack would be at least three to five bombers and probably some form of fighter escort,” Jake said.
“We also need to train on squadron tactics. I am thinking you will learn to fly in pairs to start with, but we’ll see.”
Sara just nodded and looked back at the frozen image of Jake’s fighter on the display.
“I’m thinking we just need to stay out of your way,” she said quietly.
----*----
Bonnie asked Sandy to stay up with her as they, plus Dallas, monitored Robert’s return and activities throughout the evening. Joe and Abby dropped him off in full view of the group, but far enough out as to not seem threatening. They dropped him with the supplies and a reminder they would be back tomorrow and left, Dallas having already placed a helicopter in high hover. That one was to observe the group and monitor the surrounding area as Bonnie had promised, and it was a gun ship.
With the communication unit in one-way mode, it was as if they were sitting right in the middle of the group, like ghosts.
Robert distributed the supplies amid a flurry of questions. Bonnie appreciated the candid nature of the group and noted the deference they accorded Robert. She also noted he never sat until everyone had food and water. There was definitely a story here.
Once everyone settled in, Robert relayed his entire experience to the group, from Paint Rock, to his interview with Bonnie to now. No one interrupted until he was finished. As Bonnie guessed, his reception in Paint Rock was less than hospitable, but then again, far better than it would have been a month ago before Bonnie and her team arrived in the area. While taking hands off approaches to local politics, they had relayed minimum tolerable standards. Noncompliance meant a total loss of all future support.
Once the questions started, both Bonnie and Sandy agreed the group seemed reasonably educated and articulate. Their concerns were more around relinquishing their autonomy, rather than fear of persecution for their past sins, though they asked about that as well.
Robert confirmed they would be getting a fresh start, but relayed Bonnie’s message, about minding the rules, or rather disregarding any at one’s own peril.
The consensus was having once caved to a lesser, more criminal authority, being back on the side of the angels was a much more desirable option.
Bonnie remembered Robert used that term before, and while she was generally familiar with the concept, it apparently contained a special meaning with this group.
Bonnie and Sandy studied the group as a whole. They ranged in age from the very late teens to maybe the very early 30’s as in Robert’s case. Life outside of towns seemed to reduce one’s life expectancy dramatically, Bonnie noted. The women all looked to be in their mid to late 20’s. They were lean and hard looking, as one might expect, living in a raider camp, but not unattractive. This was the same for the male members.
The conversations indicated they were far softer on the inside than they looked. Again, it was probably a defense mechanism. None of the women seemed attached to any of the men romantically, they were more like family or equals than lovers.
Bonnie laughed to herself privately. Jake didn’t need to worry about any of these women asking to get in on the rotation.
Speaking of the rotation, Bonnie was starting to feel a little neglected. Either Jake needed to get his ass down here or she was going to hop the next flight north for some booty call. It was funny how quickly she was now accustomed to his attention.
After everyone settled in for the night in Robert’s camp, Bonnie noted, with guards posted, she conferred with Sandy and Dallas. All agreed they didn’t see anyone in the group that appeared at risk. Dallas even offered the general quality of the entire camp would meet Jake’s needs quite nicely.
Bonnie was starting to become irritated at the obvious agenda that she wasn’t up to speed on, but she chalked it up to hormones and being tired.
She scheduled a heavy lift helicopter, for the morning, to retrieve the entire group and headed to bed.
----*----
They ended up spending an additional week in Alaska and Jake spent every available moment hitting the simulator. He’d gotten word that Bonnie acquired 13 more recruits for him, and Dallas indicated they had fighter pilots written all over them. How Bonnie pulled that one off without knowing what Jake was looking for stumped him.
He scheduled a trip for Texas the following day to look the new recruits over and give Bonnie some much-needed attention. He was discovering he missed time with each of the women. With them spread out at the various locations, a host of traveling salesman jokes kept coming to mind.
His one worry was finding himself in mid trip, and having an alien ship appear. Even though it wasn’t officially opened yet, he requested four more fighters transferred to ALICE-4, in Washington. This was to reduce his time to a ship, by several hours, but it would still cut it close. He designated that squadron VMFA-323 Death Rattlers, having been to eastern Washington, and killed a snake or two there.
He could just use a fighter to travel in, but that would likely incite the anticipated attack. No, it was better to spread the assets and fly in helicopters.
The Alaska recruits were proving apt students as they progressed and were all well into their secondary studies. Jake took no part in their combat training, leaving that to Sara. She’d been assigned as their primary hand to hand instructor, however Jake’s training hologram with Sara was liberally distributed as reason enough not to question why.
Joe and Abby transferred back to Nevada to train some new recruits there and Becky headed to Texas to lead the medical unit and watch over her sister’s health.
Overall, Jake was quite satisfied with how everything was shaking out with one exception. The thought of leaving Sara in Alaska was bugging him. He’d become quite attached to having her at his side, both personally and as his XO.
She was absolutely the best qualified to command, here or at any of the facilities. She was also the only one of the original six left that really could as Sandy wasn’t right for the job and Becky and Kathy were already committed to their medical duties. He figured he just needed to buck up and deal with it.
Sara also insisted she start flight simulator training immediately. She was jumping in a bit early, but Jake had agreed that experience was the best teacher and hey, she couldn’t really crash it.
Barfing however, was an option. Her first few flights left her reeling. Jake asked Seven to dampen out her control movements until she was able to get down her hand eye coordination.
----*----
They were all sitting in the dining area having dinner, Jake and the three women plus the Alaska nine that stayed behind. While the actual headcount numbers stayed the same, the 20 from Alaska that left for Nevada didn’t fall precisely along family lines. One each of Bill’s sons and daughters as well as a son from the other family chose the trip south, while others initially destined south, chose to stay.
Jake was noticing that Jessie really wasn’t eating.
“Are you OK?” he asked her.
“Yeah,” she replied, looking a little green, “I think I might be coming down with something though.”
“Seven, can you detect anything wrong with Jessie?” Sara asked.
“Wrong is an inappropriate term,” she replied, “I believe a more proper description is knocked up.”
Jake was both surprised at her use of words and at the significance of them.
“Where did you get that from?” Jake asked.
“I am endeavoring to incorporate more slang in my conversation,” Seven replied.
Jessie seemed even greener after the revelation she was pregnant.
“Be careful what you wish for,” Sharon said quietly to Jessie with a wink.
Jake kissed her cheek and Sara congratulated her with what Jake thought was genuine excitement. He got to thinking she really shouldn’t travel for a while, then was hit with an inspiration!
“Sara, how would you feel about me assigning Jessie to oversee the northwest region from here and making you my official executive officer? Guess I’ll bump myself to Major, you to captain, and Jessie is now a 1st Lieutenant.”
He could see Sara running it through her mind and then lit up as she realized the relevance, they could travel independently or more importantly together.
“SURE!” she replied, “I think that’s a great idea, Congratulations Jessie!”
Jake was sure Jessie was happier than she looked at the moment. He knew Sara certainly was.
“Looks like you have to sleep with the boss to make rank around here,” was all Sharon had to say.
----*----
Sara and Jake left very early the next morning on the same Falcon aircraft they rode up in. Both their uniforms bore their new rank. Jake asked all the ALICE facilities to check in before they left, insuring no one had indicators of an alien craft in near space.
The flight was close to 10 hours, and he fretted the entire trip, only managing to be distracted when Sara came out of the on board head, naked, demanding the same membership in the mile high club as Jessie claimed, whatever that was.
As they hovered over the hangar doors of the Texas facility, Jake was relieved. Once they set down, they found Bonnie, Sandy, Becky, April, and Barb, waiting for them in the hangar.
“Hey Sis!” Bonnie said as Sara and Jake came out the side door of the aircraft.
“Wow, are you pregnant!” she said, running up to hug her sister, and then doing the same with Becky.
“OK Jake, What’s the big secret?” Bonnie asked.
Jake looked around and saw people he didn’t recognize in training.
“Let’s go inside and I’ll explain,” he said.
Bonnie turned to see some of the new recruits and thought it was odd he wouldn’t talk in the hangar, but they headed in straight away, not even stopping to drop their sidearms off at the armory.
Once in the control center, Jake asked the six of them to seat themselves and started explaining what they found in Alaska. Everyone listened intently, and Bonnie began to understand why her recruits were so important.
Finishing his explanation, Jake said, “So that’s why I want to keep this under wraps for now, I don’t want to scare anybody. In addition, we don’t know if they are monitoring our communications so it’s not for open broadcast either. Any questions?”
