Angelika Queen Of Mars

Chapter 35

Chapter 35 Those pesky Saucers again, and Other Stories

While Dori was involved with the coffee shipment I went to meet with Branak and his people. I also had to show Kevin around who had become totally awed by his surroundings, I was a little afraid my guys wouldn't like him, but that didn't seem to be the case, he was eager to get started, so our first order of business was to go out to the newly built training village near Yedor-Rus. Kevin was struck by the similarities this place had with Afghanistan, but began in earnest to determine where his skills could best be used.

Branak and his marine buddies were quite pleased with the village, as well as the initial practice runs, he told us another three marine units were scheduled to run the course come the following week (or relfa) and that I would probably be needed here as well. When I inquired about lodging for my team, Jeff told me,

"They've go these things that are completely self-contained, totally climate controlled, even have those sonic shower things, even the troops coming to train will be staying in them." I knew something wasn't right; this was no way to train properly, so I went to Branak and laid it all out.

"In order for your units to become totally immersed in this training exercise they need to become one with the environment, no cushy quarters to shower in or get a good night's sleep, we need to run this thing at all shons of the day, all weather conditions, they need to be hot dirty and worn out, I don't expect any less from my men, we'll be sleeping in one of the buildings we "occupy" to effectively conduct this training exercise, it's the only right thing to do." Branak was skeptical and some of the marines were downright hostile to the idea, and my guys weren't very eager to live like rats either, but all knew it was just something that had to be done, so we hauled out our shemagh's and sand goggles, knuckled down and got the job done. The Falthian marines, as well as soldiers in their regular army all wore a type of light armor, that had a sort of built-in air conditioning that kept their bodies cool, unfortunately, each suit was custom tailored to the individual, programmed to their own metabolism, so we didn't get any, which n a way was just as well, wearing our "marpat's" we were easily recognizable even in a dust storm.

We claimed one of the smaller buildings which in our original plan was a garage, but now just a two room structure with a door. The smaller rear room we put a portable toilet the marines gave us, the other room we used as an impromptu "barracks" with cots and storage containers for our gear. I also "acquired" a table, a portable field desk, a computer, and three or four chairs for my "office," we were now "officially" in business.

The Falthian rations we ate was rather unique in that twice a day, they would drop off a large canister made of a metal like plastic, when we were ready to eat you just pushed a button on the side and roughly twenty taq's later a light came on, inside was enough food for all of us, heated (or chilled) depending on what it was, fully prepared, ready to eat.

For all the shortcomings of living like this, the food was incredible. The Falthians ate more vegetables and pasta type dishes not quite Chinese, but not quite Italian style either. Any meat was incorporated into whatever menu item called for it; none of what we ate in the field was available in any restaurant but according to Branak was specially created just for these military rations. In the end, all we cared about was that it taste good, and fill you up, the food got an A+ on both counts. On top of that, you could eat all you wanted, and never feel bloated or stuffed, none of it made you sleepy either. Ethan set himself a personal goal to find out more about these rations, but for some reason he never had much luck at it.

At the start of things, a couple of marines showed up with orders to "borrow" Kevin, they wouldn't say what for, just ordered him to grab his gear and go with them. We were assured that he was in no trouble, but that he was needed for something. For the next month, we worked our asses off, putting in some damn long days, which on Falth are five hours longer than on earth. At the end of the day we would come dragging our butt's back to our barracks where we would eat, then fall into our cots and crash until morning. We ran four cycles through "Altair" giving each unit a couple walk-thru's, then in full combat mode. Jeff, Gerry, Ethan and I were like madmen, constantly moving around watching the marines as they struggled through the training village. We yelled, screamed and called them all sorts of names, just like DI's, all with full agreement from the marine command.

At the end of the alyt, we switched gears, I had been alerted to it, so my men and I were ready, all the units that had gone through were divided into two groups, one would hold Altair, while the other would assault it, then we would switch roles. Well the first time we really "dropped the ball," as the attacking force came through us like crap through a goose. I felt like it was my fault, so the second time, I was determined not to let it happen again. The Falthian weapons fired small but intense bursts of what they termed "proto phason bolts." Since they obviously couldn't use blanks, all their weapons had what they called "slapper mode," which caused a small panel on the weapon to glow a dull yellow. When the weapon was in full killing mode, no light appeared. This feature had to be set with a special key so there wasn't any danger of accidents, even so, getting hit by a weapon in slapper mode felt like someone just punched you as hard as they could, I was hit twice, and believe me, I was left with black and blue marks.

Those bolts could also break things, and kick up a lot of dust, although their automatic weapons had slower cyclic rates than did ours, getting hit could really tear you up. The group we were with now had previously been our attackers, while the defenders were now on the offensive. They didn't like being overrun the first time, attacking with stealth and cunning. My team was there to instruct and referee; we could play no favorites, but in the end found ourselves bottled up in a multi story building. We had eight marines the last of the many with us, so it came down to a bitter fight. We made the attacking force pay dearly, even springing a brilliant ambush on them with some of our guys hanging in the rafters like bats. When you were hit, you turned off your weapon and lay down with the weapon out of reach. When the attackers halted over the loss of too many marines we were declared the winners with Jeff and Gerry, along with three Falthians were all that was left. I didn't know it at the time, but our ingenuity and sacrifice were duly noted.

After the training exercise was over Kevin showed up wearing a big smile, and when questioned, told us his tale.

"We were watching you guys all the time," he reported, "They put me with their recon team and basically all I did was show 'em how we do things, but they have these drones that look kinda like boomerangs maybe a little smaller than that flying saucer of yours. Man! We heard every word you guys were saying." I had forgotten that these Neulians were all telepathic, I thought at the time my troops were awful quiet, you'd yell something at them, they would just look at you grin, and nod their heads, well that was certainly a mistake I was going to have to correct. Kevin told us he made a lot of friends and has been invited back,

"These guys have equipment you just wouldn't believe," he added, "They showed me how some of it works, but most of it I didn't have a clue." He then lowered his voice directing his comments to me.

"Sir, if we had near the stuff these guys have we could roll up the "Stan in less than two weeks, we could wipe out every camp the Taliban has and they wouldn't even know what hit 'em."

Kevin was right, I hadn't seen near the things Kevin had and had already come to that conclusion, however having the equipment and actually using it are two different things.

There was a two relfa break while the exercise was evaluated, and we sat down with the marine brass going over every detail. All were very pleased at the results, as we purposed changes, and different procedures. We were also given a little time to come home, allowing me to check in with Moreck, and spend time with Dori. I apologized to Moreck for being gone, but he simply dismissed it,

"Think nothing of it, you're more valuable to me back on Kagor, there is however a meeting with my clients I want you and Dori to attend, but that won't be until later, right now you've got a meeting with a Mr. Dulan Kormas, the director of the space agency, I told you my father knew a lot of important figures." I hadn't expected this so soon if at all, but I was going to have to thank Moreck's father personally for his effort.

In the meantime, Dori and I spent considerable time together going to Akdor to check in on my saucer, and enjoy ourselves at the beach. She told me that she now knew what each client preferred in the way of coffee blends, but that as more and more people heard about our business, the orders began to increase. Moreck's friend who ran a provisioning company was also increasing our business, Dori had met him but I hadn't as yet. With the increase in business, I began to worry that at some point we would attract too much attention back on earth. After explaining my concerns to Moreck he agreed as well, his first suggestion involved the possibility of splitting the business into two, perhaps opening another operation elsewhere.

"If that's the case," I replied, let's keep it in the "family," maybe we could convince a couple of the Bickford descendants, thinking of Conner or his brother Martin. I promised Moreck I talk to them when I returned to earth. It was then he dropped a big surprise on me,

"Uh Jake, you've been gone, so I didn't have time to tell you, but uh, my parents will be going with us, my father has been pushing himself rather hard lately, and wants to just go somewhere and just relax. He pulled a few strings, which wasn't hard to do, getting permission to travel to Kagor, I hope you don't mind?"

I laughed, and put my hand on his shoulder,

"Moreck, I'll be more than happy to host your parents, the Black Hills is the heart of tourist country, just remind them to brush up on their English, and bring along their contact lens, they'll have a great time." This seemed to take a load off his mind as he thanked me.

My meeting with Mr. Kormas was in the government quarter on the north side of Cluria, traveling by monorail took close to a shon even though I took the express. At this point it might be worth mentioning that these monorail bore absolutely no resemblance to anything Disney might have envisioned or any subway or light rail back on earth. This was incredibly fast and clean, well lit. There were no bums or homeless types aboard. Cluria was divided into six districts, the "stations" if you could call them that were located all over the city, as well as in every hotel large business, and retail store. Drolugi's had one which I took to the closest hub, then I boarded a high-speed express straight to the government center, then hopping aboard a local which took me right to the space agency. I was a few taq's early, so I took in the small museum they had. The artifacts displayed were fascinating, apparently the Nuelians built and traveled into space roughly the same time our Declaration of Independence was being signed. Their "close encounter" with the Amulians took place around the time of the Alamo, and hyper-space travel came shortly after. As I studied the exhibit's a wave of anger came over me,

"What's our problem? Why couldn't the United States, or anybody back on earth for that matter, have gotten off the "pot" and done all this."

The steward found me, and escorted me to Mr. Kormas's office, I was a little surprised at how small his office was as we shook hands.

"It's certainly large enough for my needs," he explained, "Most of the time I'm elsewhere, meeting with departments or someone down at Andara, or navy representatives, you're very fortunate to catch me." He offered me a chair as we sat down to talk.

"I hope you don't mind Mr. Gandrigg," he began, "When I was contacted by Mr. Gormeth's office concerning a requested meeting, with a Kagorian, I became very curious, what was it you wished to speak with me about?" I reached over and showed him a picture of my flying saucer on my iphone. He studied the device for a moment, looked at me, then at the picture.

"Ah yes," he replied, the Ekros project, that was before my time here, I hear you and your friends were involved with some sort of trouble with the Amulians." I shrugged and grimaced, then explained what had happened.

"Right now it's sitting down on the landing field at Akdor, while it's an interesting conversation piece, it's costing my employer and I credits. I can't fly, and couldn't fly it even if I could, for one; the harmonic computer has been removed, as well as the fusion cell. The cockpit is too small, I can't even sit in it, so I had a couple ideas on what to do with it, but they might violate the prime directive so I thought I'd run them by you first."

Mr. Korma looked at me for a moment then replied,

"Go ahead, I'm listening."

"My first thought was to donate it to our national air and space museum back on…Kagor, but put it in Angelika's name, you know, the Queen of Mars, and all that."

Mr. Kormas said nothing as I forged ahead,

"The other idea would be to just park the saucer someplace where it wouldn't be discovered right away then leave the authorities guessing when it was found." Mr. Kormas still said nothing, so I quickly added,

"All the essential equipment has been removed, with that harmonic balancer removed; they'd never guess how the thing flew. I'm well aware of the prime directive, sir, my great great grandfather found out the hard way about it, I've given this thing a lot of thought, and maybe it just might turn NASA away from rockets, all my Falthian friends shake their heads and tell me rocket propulsion is a dead end. Personally, I like the idea of donating it to the air and space museum in Angelika's name, I know her, so I don't think she'd object." The director gave me a funny look, then said,

"You do realize this craft represents advanced technology so technically cannot be shared with your race." I kept on,

"Yes sir, I'm fully aware of that, but look, it's very obsolete tech, not even capable of hyper-space flight, there isn't even a guarantee anything would come of it, supposedly the people the Amulians sold these things to, crashed in my country, and who knows where else, it's been almost seventy dorns since that happened, and we're still plugging along with rockets. Everybody thinks the wreckage is still sitting in some secret warehouse in Nevada somewhere. If commander Aelfric made a general announcement to the press on earth about her "donation" Falth would not even be in the picture, this would be coming straight from the "Queen of Mars," herself. Also, if we could get some pictures of my saucer actually sitting on the planet, no one would ever suspect any other race was involved. The more people that know about this craft the less temptation to hide it by the American government, and just maybe, they'll have to ante up a lot of things that have been covered up all these dorns."

'Are you accusing your government of concealing the truth?" asked Mr. Kormas,

"Damn straight!" I quickly replied, "Because of my great great grandfather, I and most of my family have always known about Falth, but since I've been coming here, and certainly since that little run-in with the Amulians, I've started to believe a lot of things, they are guilty of a lot of things, that's why I'm really getting a kick out of tweaking NASA.

Now that I was on a roll, I went for broke,

"Sometimes I have this wild dream of someone from your agency sitting down with the director of NASA and telling him,

"You think there's intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, well…Here we are, and boy do we ever have the tech. We can come and go on your world without you knowing, travel at hyper-light speeds, but look at you, what do you have?" Mr. Kormas chuckled,

"Well I doubt that will ever happen, but here's the thing, the prime directive wasn't set up to punish, but to prevent irresponsible use of superior technology without the proper safeguards, as well as indicators of social maturity. There is a very complicated protocol we follow as far as your planet goes, but getting back to your original request. I find it rather intriguing, let me run it by some of my colleagues, I promise you I'll be getting back to you in the near future." The meeting was over, Kormas shook my hand again as I got up to leave, all the way back to Drolugi's I couldn't help but wonder what was next.