Lost in transit, p.7
Lost in Transit, page 7
part #6 of Bob and Nikki Series
Jane spoke up. “It’s okay, Greg. He left me the keys to Dot. We can ride.”
Greg lit up. “You know how to ride a motorsickle, Mom?”
“I do. And it’s motorcycle, young man. All these hillbillies are a bad influence on you.”
I said, “Well, we try. You’ve raised him so good, it don’t much work.”
It took her a minute to decide whether to slap me or laugh at me. In the end, she managed to hide a little chuckle behind her hand. “Come on, young man.”
She looked back and said, “Thanks, Bob.”
When I got back to the Yukon, Nikki said, “Can we go now?”
“I think so. It isn’t like I planned to get ambushed.”
“You fought back so bravely, too. I didn’t think he was going to get you to read to him, until he looked up at you with those puppy eyes.”
“Okay, I was an easy mark. Greg needs some friends, right now.”
“I was just imagining the same thing happening a few years from now with Gus and Becky.”
“Becky?”
“Bucky would look funny on Earth paperwork. Rebecca Remington Wilson, you like it?”
Bucky was turning a shade of red I hadn’t seen on her before. “I like it, but I don’t know if Bucky is good with it, she looks like she might blow.”
Bucky looked at Nikki. “You’re going to name your daughter after me?”
“Yep. Get used to it, Aunt Bucky.”
Bucky was trying to get her head around that. I asked, “Remington, for Rimmi?”
“You catch on quick, for a Caveman.”
Bucky said, “Wait, you’re naming your daughter after me, and Rimmi? Really?”
“Yes, really. It’s not that big a deal, is it?”
“I don’t know. I just wasn’t expecting that, not at all.”
We all climbed in the truck. I said, “I expected John to have a project that would eat the afternoon. It’s not three yet, and we’ve finished up. I wonder if we could get something else taken care of today.”
Nikki said, “You guys smell that? It smells like Bob plan.”
Steve replied, “Screwed, we are, young Jedi.”
I commed Topper. “Hi, Boss.”
“Hi, Topper. Is everything ready for that flight in the morning?”
“It is. I even printed up one of those sensor platforms you had Taz make, so we don’t have to be line-of-sight to see what happens.”
“You have a dummy load, so we can see what it does with a load on?”
“I’ve got two drive emitters bolted back-to-back. They’ll take all the power it can put out, with no net thrust.”
“So, truthfully, we could fly this mission at any time?”
“Yes, Boss. We don’t even need Mr. Johnson, but he’ll be upset if we don’t take him.”
“I’ll see if he’s available.”
“He’s out here, working on FTL physics, trying to get a handle on it.”
“So we can just snatch him up at the last minute, and go?”
“Sneaky, Boss. I like it.”
“Be there soon.”
“Bye, Boss.”
Nikki said, “So you want to get that power core test over with today?”
“Might as well, don’t you think?”
“I suppose.”
Bucky asked, “Do you mind if we tag along?”
“No, I don’t suppose. It should be boring, unless somebody’s calculations are way off.”
“I’m supposed to be supervising this circus, I should be there for something this important.”
“You’re right. I hadn’t thought about that.”
We pulled in the driveway. I headed down to the shop, everyone else went to load up and get ready to leave. Snitz tagged along with me. We went in the regular door, and Topper said, “Hi, Boss. Should I get Mr. Johnson now?”
“I’ll do it, Topper. He’s going to be upset, no need of you having to deal with that.”
“Thanks, Boss.”
I went back to the little office the bots had built for Frank. I knocked, but he was deep in the middle of something. I grabbed him by the collar and stood him up. “Some time opened up in my schedule. We’re testing today. Come along.”
“But, but, but.”
“A fine imitation of a motorboat. I’m sure you were the star of your kindergarten class.”
Topper had the big door up, he and Ozzie were taking the test rig aboard. I followed with Frank. Frank said, “You could have warned me.”
“No, I couldn’t. I only realized I had time to take care of this today about fifteen minutes ago. Do you really think you would have paid any more attention to your comm ringing than you did to me knocking on the door?”
“I suppose not.”
“Good. Topper will help you get dressed.”
I went to my locker and started to do likewise. I hit the intercom. “Steve, do you mind suiting up?”
“Nope. Be right there.”
I asked, “You did give Nikki the coordinates for your test rock, didn’t you, Topper?”
“Yes, Boss. What’s the plan, when we get there?”
“You and Ozzie take it out, and mount it to the rock. If Frank has any last-minute adjustments, he can make them. We put out the sensor package, and retreat out of harm’s way. Then we fire it up, and watch it run peacefully for hours on end, with absolutely nominal telemetry.”
“I like that plan, Boss. Especially the running peacefully part.”
Frank said, “Oh, ye of little faith.”
I replied, “I’m from Missouri. You’re going to have to show me.”
Shortly, we arrived. Topper and Ozzie picked up the test rig, and carried it out on to the asteroid. They didn’t seem to be struggling with low gravity at all. They stuck everything down with mounting putty, and came back in. I asked, “How do you move so easy without gravity to speak of?”
“Grav plates in our feet. Your boots have the same thing, if you turn it on.”
I thought I had trained on the uniforms, but apparently, some things are just too basic to put in the training course. I asked Frank, “Do you need to check anything, before we test?”
“I’d like to have a look at all the indicators, since it was moved.”
I checked his suit seals, and showed him how to turn on the grav boots. We went out, and he checked everything over. It was all correct, as I knew it would be. Topper would accept no less. We went back aboard, and Nikki took us to where we needed to place the sensor pod. Steve helped me carry it to the ramp and push it out. Once we were done, we came back in and ran the ramp up. A little time passed, and Nikki came over the intercom. “We’re in position. Clear to begin test.” I nodded to Frank, and he pushed a button on his control box. Topper put the feed from the test and the sensors on a wall display. It took a second to understand what I was seeing, but so far, the results were in the green. Topper said, “Mr. Johnson, you are clear to increase power.”
Frank moved a couple of controls. The results on the display stayed green. “You are clear for ten percent.”
The power level hit ten percent, and held steady. Still in the green. I was beginning to feel silly for being so paranoid. “Twenty percent, please.” The display wobbled, but came back to the green. Topper said, “Let’s bring it up more gradually. Some of those fluctuations didn’t look good. Twenty three percent, please.” Less wobble, but still not as steady as we might have liked. “Twenty five.” One of the indicators went yellow and stayed there. Topper said, “Shut down gradually, please.”
Frank said, “But it’s only in the yellow. Surely it will steady out.”
I said, “Frank, please do as Topper asks.” I was surprised that my hand was full of stunner. Frank saw it, and said, “Yes, Mr. Wilson.”
“Gently, please. No sudden jerks, we don’t want to annoy it.”
Once he brought it back below twenty percent, the yellow indicator went back to green. I let out a breath I didn’t know I had been holding. Once he had it completely shut down, Nikki took us to pick up the sensor pod, and then to recover the test rig. Topper and Ozzie went out, and brought it aboard. Topper said, “No residual radiation, Boss. It’s clean.”
“Stow it, and we’ll head home. Did you get enough data to find the problem with the setup?”
“We got plenty of data, but I’ll have to run analysis on it, before I know if we got the piece that tells us what isn’t quite right.”
“I’m guessing you did all your simulations steady state, right?”
“Dangit, Boss. How do you do that?”
“Intuition. Great stuff. You ought to design yourself a chip for it.”
Topper froze up for a little bit. Then Ozzie froze, too. They came out of it, and Topper said, “Yes, Boss. You’re right. It’s the dynamic load that’s messing things up. We can redesign and print out some different circuits. Should be ready for a second test tomorrow afternoon.”
“Sounds good.” I turned to Frank. “Now do you see why we wanted to run the test somewhere off the planet, with a careful protocol?”
“I did get overexcited, didn’t I?”
“You did. Just part of being human. NASA used to call it ‘go fever’. None of us want to join Grissom, White, and Chaffey on their rocket ride to Heaven. That’s why we’re careful.”
“I understand. You will keep an eye on me so it doesn’t happen again, won’t you?”
“Oh yeah. We all watch one another. If you see me about to do something stupid, please speak up.”
“I’ll try to remember that.”
We got back, and let Frank and the bots off at the shop. Nikki parked us in the barn, and we all went up to the house. Snitz had some patrolling to do, so I was lagging behind. I heard Nikki say, “Hello, can I help you?”
A scared, tired man’s voice replied, “I’ve heard you have a miracle cure. My wife is dying. You need to help her.”
“We’ll do what we can, but you need to put that shotgun down first.”
I ran the other way around the house. My time in the autodoc had done more for me than I realized. I made good time, and I wasn’t winded when I got around the house. Nikki was still trying to talk him down. I pulled my Ruger and got a good bead on his center of mass. “If you don’t lay that shotgun down, you’re gonna be the one needs healing up.” He started to turn. “Don’t you do it. Just lay your gun down, and we’ll talk about it.” He stopped, thinking about it. I switched the Ruger to my left hand, and drew my stunner. Just like I figured, he moved like he was about to lay the shotgun down, and then started to twirl. I must have had one of those defective stunners, ‘cause my power pack was drained when I looked down at it. Nikki said, “He’s down, Caveman, I’m safe. The babies are safe.” I put my weapons away, and gave her a hug. Bucky said, “I’ve got him secured, Bob, but his wife looks to be in a bad way.” I let go of Nikki, and went up on the porch. I picked up the fella’s wife, and started toward the barn. I said, “Somebody open the door, please. And get John on the phone, I’ll need help setting the ‘doc.”
Bucky ran ahead, and opened a saucer for me. I put the lady down in the autodoc, and Nikki helped Bucky get her clothes off. Steve handed me his comm. “What’s up, Robert?”
“Need some advice about setting an autodoc. Can I shoot you video of the readout?”
I heard steps, and a door closing. “Go ahead.”
He walked me through what needed to be done, and I managed to follow his directions. He asked, “Where did you find somebody in such lousy shape?”
“My front porch.”
“Say what?”
“Her and her husband were waiting for us when we got back. He said he had heard we had a miracle cure, and offered to shoot us if we didn’t use it on his dying wife. Luckily, Snitz had me hanging back far enough he didn’t see me. I went around the house and stunned him.”
“He had a shotgun on Nikki, and you only stunned him? You feeling alright, Bob?”
“I thought about doing it differently, had my gun out, even. Not sure what possessed me to change my mind.”
“You have an ID on this fine specimen, so I can get started figuring out where we leaked?”
“Hang on one.”
I went to the porch, and found the guy’s billfold. I read the name off his driver’s license to John. He said, “I was afraid of that. He’s the janitor at Rhonda’s school. Her Mom told me he had been poking around, asking questions about how she got better.”
“So he finally pieced together enough to get my name, and decided to go straight to gunplay, without even asking nice first?”
“So it would seem. Is he awake?”
“No. I had one of those defective stunners that drains its whole power pack when you pull the trigger.”
“Someday, folks are gonna learn not to threaten Nikki.”
“I hope. I think I scared her this time. She was talking me down like I had PTSD or something.”
“I wouldn’t doubt you do, as much crap as we’ve had to deal with in the last month or so.”
“I tried to take a vacation. I honestly tried. There were things that needed to be taken care of.”
“I know, Bob. Nikki does too. You’ve been pushing hard, Bob.”
“We’ve got to get things steadied out, so we can make a plan. I don’t want to raise the twins to know where the go bag is all the time, and run bugout drills twice a month. I want them to have a more normal life.”
“Charlie came out okay, didn’t he?”
“Better than okay. I just want the twins to have a childhood, not bootcamp for short people.”
“That’s understandable. It’s what I want for Greg, and any brothers or sisters he might wind up with. But you’re not the only one who’s working on this, you know? We’re all trying to figure out how we’re going to make all this work.”
“I know. You know how hard it is for me to depend on anyone else, right?”
“Almost as hard as it is for me. Jane’s been working on that. I wonder why she didn’t stay in, and try for Drill Sergeant School.”
“Hardcore, is she?”
“Diamond.”
“What should we do about our janitor friend?”
“Not a clue. I’ll get with Rhonda, and her Mom, see if they have any thoughts.”
“Call me when you have something. I was looking forward to a quiet evening at home, you know?”
“Believe me, I understand. Talk to you later.”
“Bye.”
I put the janitor’s billfold away, and made sure he didn’t have any other nasty surprises hidden out. Didn’t find anything. Steve came up on the porch. “What are we gonna do with these two?”
I handed Steve his comm and said, “I’m stumped. I can’t imagine they wouldn’t leak, if we turn them loose. We don’t have any cause to keep them here, either. Seems like his curiosity has killed our cat.”
“I take it you don’t think his satisfaction will bring it back?”
“He’s going to be so dang happy, he’ll have to brag to somebody about how he got his wife fixed up.”
“Do you know anybody who might know more about him?”
“I might, at that.”
I commed Jack. “Officer Conway, how can I help you?”
“Jack, it’s Bob. Do you have a minute to talk?”
“Just a moment, please.”
I heard him talking to someone, and then he came back. “Yes, Bob?”
“Do you know Richard Collins? He’s a janitor over at the school.”
“I did his background check when he applied. What do you need to know?”
“Can he keep his mouth shut? For that matter, what about his wife? Can she?”
“What happened, Bob? Why do you need to know?”
“He was waiting for us on the porch when we got home. With a shotgun. Wanted us to fix up his dying wife.”
“What happened?”
“She’s in the box, he’s having a nap.”
“Let me guess. He had his shotgun pointed at Nikki, and your stunner malfunctioned and drained its power pack.”
“Something like that, yeah.”
“Now you’ve got to figure a way to maintain security, once those two are ready to leave?”
“Right on the first guess. Any ideas?”
“I’ll be out and talk to him. I know him a little. No promises, though.”
“I’ll take all the help I can get, at this point.”
“See you in a while.”
“See you then.”
I broke open the shotgun. Out popped a couple of shells that looked like they had been in the gun many years. From the corrosion, I wondered if they would even go off. Steve said, “Those were in it when his Grandpa gave it to him, I bet.”
“I have to wonder if the mud daubers have built a nest up in it.”
I eased the shells the rest of the way out, and handed them to Steve. Then I held it up to look down the barrels. “Good thing he didn’t touch one off. No light either side.” I closed it and pointed it at the sky, empty. When I tried to pull the trigger, nothing happened. I found the safety, and tried to take it off. It was rusted solid. “At least now we know its name. Harvey Wallhanger.”
“Even Dingus would have a time getting that one going again.”
“Boy, I’m glad I didn’t shoot him. He was an unarmed man.”
Richard began to stir about then. Steve rolled him over, and sat him against the wall of the house. I said, “Morning Richard. Just a word to the wise, don’t point weapons at my wife. I don’t take it well.”
He looked himself over. “You didn’t shoot me.”
“You know how hard it is to get blood out of concrete? I’d have been scrubbing all night.”
“What did you use, then?”
“Lot like a Taser. What were you thinking, coming out here like that, with this piece of junk?” I shook his shotgun at him.
“It’s all I got. I needed to get you to listen to me. She’s in a bad way.”
“That’s took care of, settle down. How’d you figger us out, anyhow?”
“Rhonda was able to come back to school all of a sudden, and she didn’t really talk about how she got healed up. That made me wonder, so I eavesdropped some when she was talking. I finally heard your name, and when I took to asking about you, I heard you came into a bunch of money all of a sudden. I figured you were charging people loads of money to get healed up. I don’t have any money, so I got out Grandpa’s gun. Thought maybe I could make you help Susie.”
