On Distant Shores (Exiles Triology Book 1) (11 page)

Mike wasn’t sympathetic.  “You could have warned us.”

Dickenson looked at him, “Not with the Airmen around I couldn’t.  We have the luxury now of being in a room with a closed door, and Mr. Landberg is the only person in the other room.  And he’s very good at keeping secrets.  Jamison is touch and go.  Some days he is okay.  Some days, not.”

Mike looked at Dickenson and Pang.  “How the hell does somebody that idiotic get put in charge of a program this big?”

Dickenson sat down, and spread his hands, “We have no idea.  He’s a smart guy, like science smart, but he has problems with people that aren’t on his team.  I think he is high functioning Autistic.  He speaks geek speak with the team, and he does well with his boss, but he has problems when he thinks somebody isn’t giving him respect.”

Mike looked at Pang, hoping for more information.  She looked back at him, “I just work here.”

Mike just shook his head. “Captain Dickenson, is there anything else we should be aware of while we work in this facility?”

Dickenson shook his head, “No, the rest of the team is okay, and you should have no more problems with anybody.  Just try to stay away from LTC Mitchem and Director Jamison.”

              Dickenson thought for a moment, “Ah, well, there is one more thing.”

              Everett spread his hands, “Yes?”

              Dickenson looked uncomfortable, “Ah, Dr. Randall, you may want to stay on her good side.  She’s very in tune with the command philosophy around here.  She has direct, ah, . . . contact with LTC Mitchem.”

              That comment seemed to be loaded with hidden meaning.  Mike wondered what other interesting personality traits people had around this operation, “Okay, anything else?”

              Dickenson looked at Pang, and she shook her head.  He looked back at the team.

Dickensonstood, “No, I don’t think so.  Lieutenant Pang and Dr. Humphreys will take you and get you started.”

Mike nodded.  He and the team stood up and followed Lieutenant Pang.  Captain Dickenson stood by the door and motioned for Mike to stop and talk.

“Chief, I’m very sorry about that.  My command is touchy.”

Mike replied, “No, your command are dickheads.”

A small smile came to Captain Dickenson’s lips.  “Your words, not mine.”

Mike relaxed, “No problem, I have nothing against you guys, but those two need an attitude adjustment.  Jamison should be in an institution somewhere.”  A snort down the hall indicated that Landberg heard Mike’s pronouncement. Landberg’s disembodied voice carried down the hall, “Yep, you got that one right.”

Dickensonlooked over his shoulder towards the cubical that Landberg was sitting in.

Dickenson seemed like a decent guy.  Mike gave him some slack, “Okay, no problems.  We’re just here to work.” 

Dickenson had a wry smile on his face, and held his hand out.  Mike reached over and shook his hand.  With that, he turned and Mike followed him.

Mike hoped that the unpleasantness was over.  With luck, he and the team wouldn’t have to interact with Mitchem or Jamison.“
Well, at least I don’t have to spend more than three weeks here
,” he thought.

Mike followed Captain Dickenson out of the secure area.  His team was outside with Lieutenant Pang, Dr. Humphreys and a female Major that they hadn’t met previously.  The Major introduced herself, “Gentlemen, it is a pleasure to have you here.  My name is Major Joan Nosstrand.  I’m the director of the medical detachment here.”

She was pretty, with light brown hair cut short, blue eyes.  The team shook hands and introduced themselves.

“We received your medical records from your unit, and everything looks great.  Dr. Humphreys and I need to do some other tests so that we can prepare you for tomorrow’s activities.”

Mike elbowed Everett in the ribs.  Everett jumped, “What?”

Mike replied, “If I can see it on your face, then I’m pretty sure everybody else can.”

Everett’s expression turned sheepish.  Evidently, Everett was contemplating his next ex-wife.  They caught the last of the Major’s speech, “And if everybody will please follow me, we’ll go to medical and take care of the tests.”

They walked around the cubicles and followed Major Nosstrand through the hallway back towards a smaller elevator.  She stopped and asked, “Does anybody have electronics on them?”

The team replied no.  The Major opened the door and stepped into the elevator.  They followed her, Lieutenant Pang and Dr. Humphreys into the elevator.  They all had to swipe badges to get the elevator moving.  There was only one button on the elevator.

              The elevator stopped, and they walked out to another security station.  After complying with security, they were allowed through and then they were walking through a vestibule that had a double door, and an elevator with stairs next to it on the right.  This elevator had none of the security that the other one had, so Mike assumed they had cleared the last of security.  He asked Pang if that was the last security checkpoint.

              Pang nodded.  “Yes, but the main office for our security is through the double doors.”

              Everybody stepped into the elevator.  This one was smaller, so they were crowded.  Mike noticed that there were five buttons on the elevator.  Dr. Humphreys pushed the button, and they went to the second floor, one below the level they were currently at.  They walked down a long hall, and as they walked, Mike fell in alongside Lieutenant Pang. 

“How did you end up working here?” he asked.

“Well, I have an undergraduate degree in biology and one in mechanical engineering.   I was working on my masters in bio mechanical engineering, and to the Air Force, it seemed like a natural fit.”

Mike did a double take, “How old are you?

She replied, “Twenty-six.”

Mike frowned, “No offence, but you look like a teenager.”

“None taken.  I get that from everybody I meet.  When I’m out with friends, I sometimes get offered the kids menu.”

Major Nosstrand led the group to an office just off the hall.  The room was sixteen by twenty feet.  There was not much in the room.  There were five helmets lined up along one of the benches, and a single computer.  The helmets were primer gray, had no faceplate but had a strap for the chin.  Humphreys walked over to the computer and logged in.  Doctor Humphreys took over, “Gentlemen, We’re going to be doing some tests to measure your neuro-motor functions.  If you would please, pick up a helmet, and bring it over to me.  I’ll scan the bar code on the helmet and then assign it to your profile on the computer.”

The team grabbed the helmets, and stood in line.  The doctor scanned the helmet with a bar code scanner, and as its number came up on the screen, the doctor matched it with the individual holding it.  When he finished, he slid a small switch on the helmet to the on position.  The process went quickly.

“Gentlemen . . .” Doctor Humphreys started.

Everett spoke, “Doc, if you keep talking about gentlemen, we won’t know who the hell you’re talking to.  If you keep talking to the team that way, their egos are just going to keep growing.  My team already has to walk sideways through the door to get all of the ego inside.”

Rob piped up, “Hey, I only need a small wheelbarrow for my ego, speak for yourself.”

The doctor looked slightly confused at this exchange.

Major Nosstrand interjected, “Gentlemen, if we could just focus on the task at hand, please.”  There was an undercurrent of ice in the pronouncement.

“Yes ma’am,” chorused from the team.

Dr. Humphreys confusion cleared, and he started again, “Gentlemen, would you please place your helmets on.  Get a little space around you, and I’ll ask you to perform certain movements.  The helmets will track brain activity as we go through the movements.  Now, please move your arms directly in front of you, like this.”

Dr. Humphreys started demonstrating motions for the team to perform.  They ran through the motions, and Lieutenant Pang worked at the computer while Major Nosstrand looked over her shoulder, pointing out different things on the screen.  The team did motions with their hands and legs then moved onto different exercises.  They jumped up and down, did pushups, sit ups and ran in place.  They did a series of stretches.

Mike couldn’t stand it anymore.  The smartass just bubbled up out of him, “What if the hokey pokey
is
what it’s all about?”  Mickey guffawed.  Even Major Nosstrand had a smile on her face.

Dr. Humphreys sat down and looked at the profiles.  He was apparently happy with the data that he received, “Gentlemen, most of you are finished.  If I could please have Mr. Torres and Mr. D’Inazio stay, I need to rerun some of the movements for the profile.”

Hoots sounded from the other three members of the team.  The words “Fail,” and “La-hoo-ser” were said and repeated as they left the office.   The phrase, “Hokey Pokey Fail,” was also thrown about.

Lieutenant Pang showed them where the lounge was and they waited, drinking sodas and eating potato chips.  They were joined by Mickey when he finished with profile testing.  The chorus of “Loser,” and “Hokey Pokey fail,” started up again. 

Finally, Rob was finished, and Lieutenant Pang brought him to the break room.  The day was finished, and it was approaching five pm.

“So, I guess you guys need to go to housing and get your rental vehicles?” she inquired.

Mike and the team didn’t see Humpreys or Nosstrand again.  They were checking the data set.  Lieutenant Pang escorted them out of the secure area, and soon they were standing in the hallway at Captain Dickenson’s office.  Captain Dickenson came forward and started talking to them.  Lieutenant Pang stood immediately behind him.

“Gentlemen,” he started.

“There’s that word again,” Everett muttered.

“We have security badges for you.”  He started passing out the badges to the members of the team.  As they took a badge, they had to write down their names, the number on the badge, and then sign next to the number, signifying that they had taken possession of the badge. He handed their military ID cards back to them.

“Those badges will have to be worn at all times in this building.  Security won’t let you in if you don’t have them.  Staff Sergeant Drapier will drive you to the car rental, and then you can follow him over to the Malmstrom Inn.”

“What about tomorrow morning?” Everett asked.

“What?” Captain Dickenson asked.

Mike spoke up, “Well, we don’t really know this area.  If we could get someone over at the Inn tomorrow, we could follow them back over here, for work.”

Captain Dickenson nodded, “Not a problem, I can stop by there tomorrow morning.   How about 7:30?  That will get us here at around 8 o’clock.”

“That will work fine, thanks.” Mike replied.

              Lieutenant Pang escorted them out to security, where they secured their weapons.  The van was still there.  They piled into the vehicle.  Lieutenant Pang told them goodnight, and went back into the building.  All eyes were on her as she walked away.  She turned back before she walked into security, and caught them all watching.  She smiled and went inside. 

              “I think I’m in love,” Rob said.

              Tom spoke, “Don’t tell my wife, but I think I’m in love, too.”

              Mike punched him in the arm, and the team started talking about Lieutenant Pang.

Shortly afterward, Staff Sergeant Drapier came out and got into the driver’s seat.

“Where do you need to go?” he asked.

--------------------------------------

The van took them to pick up the rental cars.  Then they followed the van back to the BOQ.  They had all of their bags out of the cars and into the rooms pretty quick.  Before dinner, Mike called back to the unit and checked in with Sergeant Major Galloway and let him know about the interaction with the command team, especially Jamison, the Director.  They talked back and forth about how to approach things, but the main part was to ensure that Major Salk knew what was happening, and more importantly, that it would be passed on to Colonel Bretscif.  It was always good that your command heard about a potentially volatile situation from you than from somebody else.  That way the command could get all of their political ducks in a row.  Forewarned is forearmed. 

The team got together and went to Burger King on the base.  Afterwards, they retired to their rooms and spent the night in.  Mike called Jo to tell her that he made it safely.  They talked for a while, then Mike got ready and went to sleep.  Like always, he woke early.  Normally, he would go for a run, but, since he didn’t know the area, he decided not to.  He met the team downstairs, they had breakfast, and made it back to the BOQ as Lieutenant Pang showed up.  Something came up and Captain Dickenson couldn’t make it.

Lieutenant Pang drove carefully to make sure that she didn’t lose her charges.  She signaled with plenty of time before she did a lane change, and made sure that she signaled turns well in advance.  Soon they were turning into the Area 19 parking lot.  They got out and started chatting with Lieutenant Pang as they walked through security.  All of the team had lanyards for their security badges, and fished them out to show them to security.  They left their cell phones in the rental cars so that they didn’t have to mess with them at security.  Pistols still had to be checked.

Lieutenant Pang asked if they had a good dinner, good night in the BOQ.  She talked about some of the other restaurants that they could visit in the area.  They went through security, then through administration, and stepped onto the elevator.

The elevator stopped and the doors opened.  Security was waiting for them.  The Guards stood at the ready until the cards they were wearing were interrogated with hand held scanners.  Once the card was interrogated and a positive came back, they had their iris scanned to ensure that they were the person on the card.  Once they passed this check, one of the security personnel pressed a button, and the access door slid back.  They stepped to the second elevator, and stepped inside.  This time Lieutenant Pang pressed the button that had a four on it.

“What’s on the other floors,” Rob asked?

Pang answered, “First floor is Security and Administration.  Some of the big wigs have offices there.”

Mike asked, “Jamison and Mitchem?”  He was still pissed from yesterday.

Pang nodded, “Yes, they have offices there as well.”

She continued, “The second floor has offices for the scientists, medical staff, and techs.  The third floor has labs, and fabrication facilities.  Fourth floor is the play room . . .,”

Tom didn’t let her finish, “Play room?”

The elevator moved through the second floor then on to the Fourth.  Pang turned and smiled at Tom.  “Don’t worry, you’ll see.  I don’t want to spoil the surprise.”

“And we’re here for?” Mike inquired.

“To see if the prototypes actually work as designed.”

“By prototype you mean . . . ?”

“You’ll see.  I think you’ll enjoy what’s in store for you.”  Lieutenant Pang had a smile on her face as she talked, “Besides, I don’t want to spoil the surprise.”

Everett spoke, “What about our gear that we brought.  I only had a few change of clothes in my backpack, and we’re going to need to get into our pallet so that we can pull out some clothes.”

“Don’t worry, everything is on the fourth floor.  We haven’t touched a thing.  We just sat it close to the mech armor so that you could access your equipment as needed.”

“The mech armor?” Mike asked.

“Yeah, from the video yesterday,” she replied.

The tension in the elevator went up.  “You mean that we get to see those suits that we saw in the video yesterday?” this was from Mickey.

She turned around, “Yeah, that’s why you guys are here.  We need somebody to test the mechs.”

Tom leaned against the side of the elevator and whistled.

“What did you think you were here for?” she asked as the door opened.

They stepped out and found themselves in an area that was three hundred meters by three hundred meters.  The room was huge.  The roof was a good ten and a half meters tall, or about forty five feet.  The room was a light gray around the walls and ceiling, the floor a darker gray.  The lights were bright and there was not much in the room.  That was not the main thing about the room though.

“Wicked.  Mech Freaking Warrior!” The curse was out of Mike’s mouth before he even realized it.  He looked over at Lieutenant Pang to see if he had transgressed. 

There was a big smile on her face, “Don’t worry, that’s the usual response.”

Strangely, there were no pillars to hold up the roof.  Rob, a structural engineer, knew that was impossible, with four rooms directly above.  It made him very nervous.  He was worried, “Ah, why are there no supports, no columns in a room this size?”

She smiled again, “We have our secrets.  We have material scientists that have produced some pretty cool materials for building.  And for the mech suits.  We use a lot of graphene and other unusual materials here.”

There wasn’t much in the room.  They could see their pallet, sitting close to five large hulking figures, the mech armor.  Along one wall was an area that held what looked like personal body armor and flight suits.  Next to that area was a few desks with computers on them.  There was a group of engineers and techies.

“Why are the walls and the floor gray?  White might lighten things up down here,” Everett asked.

Pang pointed at the mech armor, “Those things leave some wicked skid marks.  Gray just makes things easier.  If it was white, Colonel Mitchem would have some poor Airman down here scrubbing the floor every day.”

Everett thought about it, then nodded, “Gray, good choice I think.”

The mech armor sat there like offensive linemen in a football game.  They were huge, but they needed to be so a person could climb inside and drive them.  They were charcoal gray.  The suits were set like sumo wrestlers standing on line, fists on the ground.

Both arms were straight down, resting on the floor.  The butt of the suit sat down on the haunches of the back legs.  They were arrayed in a straight line, one next to the other.  A hatch on the back of each suit of mech armor was open andpointing towards the ceiling.  There was a platform on wheels next to one of the suits.  Two engineers were checking the inside of the suit, and going over readings to ensure that it was working.  Nine engineers were standing in a group close to the mechs, waiting for the team to come to them.  Lieutenant led them over to the group.  In the background, behind these engineers, there were other techs and engineers moving around the mech armor.  Evidently these nine were the brain trust.

There were 7 men and two women in the group.  Dr. Humphreys was there, and he introduced the rest of the group.  Dr. Ed Nachman was fiftyish, short and overweight.  His expertise was materials science. Dr. Jessica Randall was one of the two women.  She was in her forties, long blond hair pinned up, tall for a woman.  She was a computer scientist, also an electrical engineer.  Mike noted her face, and silently thought about the statement that Captain Dickenson made.  Bob Leitz was one of the mechanical engineers, late thirties, average height, balding.  There were two electrical engineers, Luis Garcia and John Smith.  Luis had light skin and blond hair and John was black, dark skin, built like a linebacker.   Tracy Sheffield was another mechanical engineer.  She was average height, brown hair, skinny and shy.  Mike Crandall, who waved down from the back of the suit that was being checked, was mid-thirties, big smile on his face.  The other guy, who had a computer tablet in hand which was plugged into the back of the suit, was Josh Weitz.  Josh was a small guy, about five foot six, skinny, looked like he couldn’t weigh more than one hundred and thirty pounds.  He nodded when introduced, pushed a shock of black hair out of his eyes, and then went back to checking the screen on the tablet in his hand.  Every few seconds he would touch the screen and move his finger to make an adjustment tothe program on the screen.