Broken Soldier (Book One) (19 page)

Jo laughed in his high pitched way and told him, “I
shall never forget that moment, although the Sauran was badly
injured and much slower than normal. With Bambi’s brains, my
pessimism and your optimism, we will be unbeatable.”

“Thank you, Jo. You’ve made my point.”

Bambi suggested,
We need back up plans. In Earth
movies, they always have back up plans. What are ours going to
be?

“Bambi, for now, I’m assigning that to you.”

OK. Plan A will be to hide.

“I think we’re already hiding.”

Not very well. It sounds to me as though you’re
going to look for trouble; you know, pick a fight with the
Saurans.

“We are. But, it will be on our terms. If it doesn’t
look safe, we’ll stay hidden.”

Captain, is that going to be plan A, or plan B?

Chapter
11

The radio transmission to Earth was sent and the
information for Mike’s research was retrieved and sent back. He had
his list of men and their current locations. Sadly, some of them
had already passed away.

He also had a list of scientists to consider, most
of whom were very old. There had been so many new discoveries,
since the Internet had spread info all over the planet, that he
felt someone younger and more in tune with current scientific
realities would offer a better chance of making progress. So, there
were a few names of men and women in their forties and fifties to
go along with the elderly geniuses.

Perhaps his most valued list was that of items to be
duplicated by the food replicator. It included everything from
prime rib to sushi. He had included a long list of beverages as
well. That included alcoholic libations of every nature, dozens of
different coffees and teas, fruit drinks and sodas. Bambi had
assured him that the machine would need but a small dose of the
real item, in order to replicate it.

Where coffee was concerned, he wasn’t going to take
any chances. When they returned, if he had his way, he would have
at least a hundred pounds of his favorite brand brought back with
them.

They loaded the small shuttle into the storage area
of the large one. It was his intention to remain with the smaller
one on Earth, while the large shuttle took their victims back to
the Mother Ship and began the process of culling them out.

Jo disagreed. “Mike that might be a good idea for
the next trip, when we have several people to leave on board the
Mother Ship. For the first trip, you need to be the face of our
lead warrior. Do you really think your people would accept the face
of a Thorian or the voice of a computer?

Hey, I can be very sexy, when I want to be. They’ll
love me.

Then she changed her tone and cautioned,
In all
seriousness, Jo is right. Captain, you need to be here to make that
presentation to the people you recruit for the warrior program. Jo
can’t recruit on Earth by himself and I sure can’t do it.

We’ll make a video of your speech. We can show it to
the next groups of recruits, as they are being prepared. By then,
we’ll have humans on board whom those men can more easily relate
to. Jo and I can be brought into the process once they are
committed to the idea of leaving Earth and fighting some big bad
aliens that they have never seen.

When they see Jo in the flesh it will help them
adjust to the concept of working with aliens. We will need them to
accept the idea, because, if we can pull it off, we will have alien
allies such as the Januki. I’ll be sure to include that in the
warrior’s minds, when I download the information to them, so our
men won’t find the idea repulsive.

Mike was surprised at the amount of thought she had
put into the program.

“Bambi, you’re becoming quite a sales person. You’ve
obviously given a lot of consideration about human behavior.”

Yes I have, sir. I’ve been studying human
psychology. There doesn’t seem to be one line of thought that
agrees with another. It’s as though all of the shrinks have their
own ideas about human behavior and are reluctant to embrace someone
else’s concepts. I’ve come to the conclusion the reason for that is
every human is so independent, it is impossible to categorize him
or her into a single type of program, which is my term for the
human brain.

I’ve never been allowed to read a Sauran mind, but I
have had to do some peripheral analysis whenever a crewman had been
injured. I can tell you that Saurans think differently than humans
or Thorians. Their thought process is quite linear in its approach
to solving problems. It always involves moving straight ahead, in
order to create a solution for a problem. I suspect that’s due to
their disciplined nature and their reluctance to change.

If their thoughts are all driven along the same
lines, they can anticipate that a fellow Sauran will behave in
exactly the same way as any other Sauran. I would imagine that
provides their military with great strength in battle.

Mike agreed. “Yes it would. I would love to see a
video of their movements in battle. We could build a database of
actions and reactions that we could count on. Such information
would be extremely valuable intelligence for our side.”

As the shuttle wound its way around the solar
system, avoiding a route that could possibly reveal its existence,
he considered what Bambi had told them. It was an amazing
observation, on her part.

“Bambi, I’m more pleased than I can say. You’ve
demonstrated a remarkable ability to provide insight into the
Sauran capability and mindset. You are growing at a phenomenal
rate. It’s almost frightening. I’m glad you’re on our side.”

Mike continued to refine his search, as they
approached Earth. The large shuttle was maneuvered into position
behind the defunct satellite, and then he and Jo boarded the small
shuttle.

As they eased down to the planet, he was surprised
to hear Bambi. “Damn, it sure feels tight in here.”

Bambi, quit kidding around. How much of you did you
download to the small shuttle?

Everything you and Jo asked for, plus some stuff I
wanted to have, just in case.

Mike gave Jo a worried look, as he asked her, “Like
what.”

Well, if you guys get into trouble, I’m screwed. I
have no one else to look to for help or for company. I wanted to be
ready for action, in case the shit hits the fan. So, I wrote a
program for building a weapon like the larger ones in the SAV. I
had two installed on the bow of the small shuttle and one in the
rear

If we are fired on, I want to be able to shoot back.
Don’t worry. I can set the devices for various power settings, just
like the smaller weapons. These things are super accurate. I’ll be
able to disable most opposition, without killing anyone. If it gets
really ugly, I’ll have to up the power and eliminate the other guy.
But I won’t do that without your permission. OK?

“As long as you don’t go gunning for trouble, that’s
all right with me. Just be sure to ask first.”

Yes sir. There’s something else you need to
know.

Jo coughed and said, “Oh dear.”

It’s nothing bad, I promise. I’ve been watching some
sci-fi movies. Most of them are ridiculous and have really lousy
plots. Some aren’t too bad and a few are closer to reality than
humans might think. I got some ideas from those.

I had two different personal weapons constructed,
based loosely on existing designs. Both of them are simply small
weapons of limited power that are easily usable by upgraded humans
or Thorians. Again, they are based on the weapons we found in the
SAV. The power has four settings, going from issuing a painful stun
to blowing a hole clean through a human body, even if he’s wearing
armor.

In order to keep them small, I had to drastically
reduce the amount of ammo and, of course the size of the battery.
The hand held ones can only carry one hundred rounds in a magazine
and the battery is only good for two mags. Sorry about that. I’ll
see if I can come up with a better design, once we get back to the
Mother Ship.

The other one is even smaller and weaker. It sits on
your shoulder. It’s less than an inch tall and three inches wide.
It has fifteen rounds available, but you better not over do it,
because, in order to reload, you have to remove it from your
shoulder. Of course, you’ll have one on each shoulder, giving you a
total of thirty rounds each. It has two settings. The lowest one
will stun; the highest setting can kill and blow holes in
things.

I just needed to know that my friends had a fighting
chance to return to me. If you’re really in the soup, I’ll come in
with the shuttle and blast everything that looks like a threat to
you.

Mike was stunned. He appreciated her concern and
foresight. But he was worried about her attitude and willingness to
commit mayhem.

“Bambi, you’ve come up with some great stuff here
and I thank you. But, I want you to keep in mind that we’re here to
recruit humans to our cause, not fry them.

I know that boss. I’m really not as bloodthirsty as
you might think. I’m just watching out for you guys. I’ve also been
going over some of the info I have about Sauran behavior and
applied it to my own way of thinking and mixed that with the human
way. They always prepare for the worst case scenario. As far as
they’re concerned, every place they go is a potential battle zone.
I believe we should have the same mindset, just in case.

And please, please promise me you guys will take
those weapons with you. You don’t really know what you going to run
into. I’m downloading the operations manual for each weapon
now.

Before Mike could respond, Jo announced, “This will
be the very first time I’ve carried a real weapon. I already like
the idea of being able to strike back. Bambi, you’ve done a fine
job of supporting us. Don’t stop.”

Don’t intend to. But, if you want to keep me from
going crazy, while you guys are in danger, you’ve got to keep the
comm open and allow me to hear what’s going on. I promise to stay
quiet. I just want to know what’s being said and how things are
going. If I don’t known what’s what, I might do something that
makes things worse.

Lately, it seemed to Mike that Bambi was talking so
human-like that it was easy to forget that she was not. He didn’t
know if that was good or bad.

She wanted to fit in so badly and she was basing her
speech and action on what she had learned from the Internet, movies
and novels. That’s not a bad way to learn about another culture, if
you’re a human. But, being an artificial intelligence and lacking
the experience of growing up on Earth, she was absorbing human
culture through a broken prism. She was forming a persona through
the misrepresentation of TV shows.

“Bambi, we’re going to leave the comm wide open.
Besides, listening, is there any way for you to be able to see what
is going on? I think it could help you to get a real taste of human
life, instead of the artificial stories you’ve been exposed
to.”

I’m glad you said that. I just happen to have
brought along a few micro-camera drones. Also, I mounted
micro-cameras on each of your torsos, in the buttons. I got that
idea from a TV show. You won’t even know they’re on you. I hope you
aren’t mad.

“I’m not mad, Bambi. All you’ve done is to be
prepared. You’d make a good girl scout. You haven’t done anything
overt, so I’m good with all of this. But if you ever do something
that threatens a human or a Thorian, I’ll be extremely angry. Do
you understand?”

Yes sir. As you said earlier, I’m maturing rapidly.
Bambi is a quick study.

***

Mike’s first choice for a recruit was one from the
heart. It was Alphonso Benson. He had been one of the survivors of
the suicide attack in Iraq that had nearly killed Mike. He wanted
to help out the other survivor, Denerious Jackson, but he had
passed away several years ago. Benson was only a few years younger
than Mike and was now living in the veteran’s hospital, in Atlanta,
Georgia.

According to the records, he had had a history of
drug abuse for several years. That piece of information had sealed
Mike’s decision to recruit him first. He felt guilty that he had
never made an effort to follow up with him and see how he was
doing. This would be his chance to make amends.

The shuttle had no trouble entering America’s
airspace. The camouflage of the small craft was amazing. It had the
ability to bend radio and light waves around it, something that the
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) had been working
on for years. But the difference in their work and what Mike now
had was literally light years apart. The shuttle truly was
invisible.

They had chosen to land in the parking lot at two in
the morning. Atlanta was a busy town at all times, but not so much
at that hour. Bambi held the landing, just long enough to let Mike
get out, and then she took off and hovered at five hundred feet
over a park.

Before they left the Mother Ship, Mike had a uniform
made for him, which was that of an Army Sergeant First Class. He
felt comfortable wearing it, as that was his legitimate enlisted
rank, when he had been wounded. He walked into the hospital and
went straight to the main desk and asked for Al Benson’s room
number.

“Sergeant, we discourage visitors at this hour. Can
it wait for a few hours.”

He shook his head. “No ma’am. You see, I’m his
grandson’s squad leader and I have some news for him about the kid.
I’m being shipped out, so I don’t have any more time. I’m sorry. I
just want to see him for a minute to tell him his grandson is
OK.”

She smiled, checked her computer, and told him,
“He’s in room 340. The elevators are right over there.”

“Thank You Ma’am.”

His military politeness came back to him, as though
he was still on active duty. When a man is in the service as long
as he was, he just didn’t shed the routines of half a life time
that easily.