Charlies planet, p.1
Charlie's Planet, page 1
part #5 of Bob and Nikki Series
Charlie’s Planet
by Jerry Boyd
This book is a work of fiction. All the people, events, and organizations in this book are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to anything in the real world is purely coincidental
Copyright©2019 Jerry Boyd
All rights reserved.
This book may not be reproduced, stored, or transmitted, whole or in part, by any means whatsoever without prior written consent of the author and publisher.
Dedicated to my long suffering wife, Donna, and my beta readers, Mary, Bernard, Karen, and James.
We walked up to the house. John said, “Where have you two been? I thought you had a house for that kind of thing?”
I called out, “Gather round, everyone. Nikki has news.”
There were some surprised looks, and a general tone of ‘What’s this about?’, but they all gathered up.
Nikki started, “Some of you know, and some of you don’t, that I was stunned with a high power stunner the other day, and was out for a couple of hours. I’m fine, but I didn’t think to check my implants. My contraceptive implant was fried. We’re going to have twins!”
The adults all cheered. Greg looked a little confused, but his Mom seemed to have things under control. They all came up to congratulate us. Dee and Dingus held back, and came up last. Dee said, “I’m proud of you two. Twins you say?”
Nikki replied, “One of each, according to the health app in my watch.”
Dingus asked, “Name them yet?”
I said, “How about Augustus Reginald for the boy. Hadn’t thought what to name a girl.”
Nikki said, “Augustus Reginald, where’d you come up with that?”
“Augustus, call him Gus, like Dingus, Reginald, because Regimax is gonna look funny on Earth paperwork.”
Dingus said, “Damn pollen is thick today.”
Dee hugged him. He reached out to shake my hand. “Congratulations, Bob. That’s great news.”
“You two better get to work.” I pointed at Nikki’s belly. “These two scamps are gonna need some playmates.”
Dingus grinned. Dee turned beet red and sputtered, “Bob Wilson, you know good and well I’m too old for such as that!”
“Couple hours in the box, fix you right up.”
She looked flustered, and then her face cleared. “We could, couldn’t we? My own babies, after all this?”
She turned to Dingus. “What do you say, Space Ranger?”
“Hot Damn!”
The resulting kiss, and dip, caught the attention of the whole crowd. Steve said, “Forget a room. You two need a house.”
Everyone laughed, and started drifting off to their vehicles. John came up and said, “Come to the basement, Bob. Your friend the wino is ready to wake up.”
“I thought you said three days, It hasn’t even been two. What gives?”
“I told you, those time estimates are about as reliable as Windows progress bars. It got him done quicker than it thought.”
“What are we gonna do for clothes? He was pretty skinny.”
“The box put a little weight back on him. I asked Dee and Jane to hit some of the resale shops and get us a selection of sizes, for cases like this. I found some that should work.”
“What was his name again?”
“Allen Blaylock.”
“Does he have a title, like doctor or anything?”
“Not that we found.”
“You have a truth cap handy?”
“Already took it down.”
Nikki said, “I’m coming with you. Somebody needs to cover you two while you interrogate him.”
“Your call. I wouldn’t think you’d be all that psyched about seeing a wino’s junk. I know I’m not. Do we need Steve to read him?”
John said, “Might be best. He could tell us things the cap can’t.”
He found Steve, and we all went to the basement.
John woke him, saying, “Mr. Blaylock, we’d rather you didn’t make any sudden moves. If you understand, please nod.”
Blaylock nodded.
John said, “Please sit up now. We have some clothes we think will fit. Please dress yourself.”
He sat up and got dressed. He was looking around, trying to understand where he was. He asked, “Am I a prisoner?”
John replied, “We’ll be asking the questions, at least at first. We need answers before we can determine what we want to do with you.”
“How do you expect to know if I’m truthful?”
“Easy enough.” John put the truth cap on him, and then he asked, “Are you Allen Blaylock?”
“No. That was a cover name I used. I am George Randall.”
The truth machine liked all that. John asked, “Why did you get in my partner’s truck?’
“I recognized off world tech, and I didn’t want to spend another winter on the street in New Jersey.”
Still good.
“How did you recognize the tech?”
“It was just obvious it wasn’t from here.”
Red light.
I spoke up. “We already said we can tell if you lie to us. Did you think that was just bullshit?”
“Yes, because I don’t have a headache.”
“Are you a cat person?”
“I don’t like animals.”
“You should learn to like dogs. My dog is why you don’t have a headache. Who taught you to use the truth machine?”
“We read the directions.”
Red light.
“You read Galactic, huh?”
“Yes.”
Red light.
“Have you ever used a training machine?
“Of course.”
Red light.
John said, “Now that we have all that out of the way, do you want to try again? Who taught you to use the truth machine?”
“I wasn’t told his name.”
“What else did he teach you?”
“Nothing.”
“Why not?”
“The guards tried to get him to tell us more, but he refused.”
“Was this at Wright-Patterson, or Scott?”
“Wright-Patterson.”
Red light.
“Now, George, you know that isn’t going to work. Try again.”
“I honestly don’t know. I was working at Wright-Patterson at the time. They blindfolded us, and loaded us on a plane. We were in the air a long time, and were taken into the facility where this man was still blindfolded. Same drill when we went back.”
I asked, “What do you remember about temperature and humidity where this person was being held?”
“It was hot and dry.”
“What part of the alien technology did you work on?”
“I was on a team trying to get the drives to work.”
“Were you still there when they succeeded?”
“Yes. But we never accomplished our goal of running a drive module from one of our power sources.”
“Why not?”
“We couldn’t build a light enough power source to run the modules. Their power sources are very compact.”
“So you were limited by the number of power cores you had recovered?”
“Yes.”
“We encountered several at Scott, and one flying from Wright-Patterson. Is that the limit of the inventory?”
“There are two at Wright-Patterson. They are the only flyable units that have been recovered, so they are only allowed in the air one at a time. All the craft at Scott are recovered drives, flying in airframes we built.”
“Those airframes, how capable are they, compared to saucers?”
“We couldn’t use the boom canceling technology, so they’re limited to subsonic speed at low altitude. We didn’t have the artificial gravity, so they can’t maneuver as well. Those are the big limitations, there are other smaller ones.”
“No visual stealth is a small limitation?”
“We didn’t realize they had visual stealth. Your ship was the first time I had seen it.”
John said, “Now, the important bit. How did you come to leave the employ of the Government?”
“I was drunk on duty and missed a security protocol. No information was endangered, but I was deemed too big a risk to keep on.”
“They just let you go?”
“It was explained to me that I would be sent to a place that makes Gitmo seem like Club Med, if I ever breathed a word of what I had seen and done. I suppose that’s my next stop, since I gave up information under questioning?”
“There are a few problems with that scenario. We don’t know where that place is, and we don’t have the authority to send you there if we did.”
“You fellows don’t look Korean. Moscow University?”
“Nope. We don’t work for any government.”
“That doesn’t seem likely.”
“You’re telling us. The last couple of months have been a roller coaster ride, let me tell you.”
“So where do we go from here?”
“Well, that’s an issue. You used to work for people who would have us in that prison you mentioned picking our brains till we died of old age, not to mention dissecting some of our good friends for the crime of not being born here. We’d rather those things not happen, so we need to be able to believe that you’re not going to run back to them and tell them about us to get your job back.”
“You needn’t worry about that. There’s an order to shoot me on sight if I even get near one of their facilities.”
St
I said, “There’s a chance we could put you to work, if we trust you. So far, you haven’t given us much to go on.”
“But I’m a drunk. I’ll let you down just like I did them.”
“About that. Would you like a drink?”
He looked puzzled. He pondered a moment, and said, “That’s odd, I could take it or leave it. It’s not a big thing to me. That never happened to me before.”
John looked at me. “Dangit, Bob, this is supposed to be my department. Go fix things, and leave the people to me.”
George looked confused. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand?”
John said, “Bob, here, has a family history of alcoholism. He noticed after he got shot, and had to be in the autodoc, that he didn’t have to fight the need for drink anymore. He decided to try his theory on you, on the spur of the moment, and bingo! It worked.”
George looked at me. “Thank you, Bob.”
“It was quicker than throwing you back in the alley after I stunned you.”
He looked at John. “He always this way?”
“Pretty much. Wait till you get to know him, you’ll be calling him asshole, just like the rest of us.”
“I doubt that. He saved me from another winter on the street.”
I spoke up. “We have some more annoying questions, if you don’t mind?’
George replied, “Go ahead.”
“How close were you able to get to duplicating drive emitters and power cores with Earth technology?”
“Not close at all. Most of the components are impossible to figure out without destructive testing, and that’s not allowed.”
“If we were to hire you, what assurances could you give us of your loyalty?”
“I don’t know that I could give you any. I failed my former employers, looking at it rationally, I don’t see how I could recommend hiring me for any sensitive work.”
“Are you saying you don’t want to work for us, or that you fear you will betray us?”
“I fear I will wind up betraying you. Working for you sounds wonderful.”
Steve said, “He believes what he’s saying. I have no way to know if he can back it up.”
“What would you do if we let you go?”
“I don’t know what I could do. I’ve been on the streets long enough I would have a hard time finding any sort of employment. I would appreciate it if you dropped me off somewhere warmer, though.”
“Exactly what sort of work did you do at Wright-Patterson?
“I was on the team trying to figure out how drive emitters turn electricity into force.”
“Did you make progress?”
“We were able to record power input versus force output, and look at all the forms of radiation generated, but practical knowledge of how it works, no, not a bit.”
Nikki spoke up. “We were chased by one of the saucers from Wright-Patterson. The sensors were badly out of calibration. How did they come to be so maladjusted?””
“We had no idea what we were doing. Any one of us could be the guilty party. It’s not like the movies, you can’t just look at something and see how it works.”
Nikki said, “I just don’t know what to think.”
Steve said, “I think he honestly wants to help us out, but I’m not sure why. Do you mind if I question him for a bit?”
I replied, “Not at all. You’ve got to be better at this than me.”
He started in. “This person you could get in contact with where you used to work. Your old boss?”
“A friend?”
“A close friend?”
“I see. Did she break up with you because you were fired?”
“Yes, she did. How are you doing this?”
I said, “Don’t worry about that. This is the important part of your job interview.”
Steve continued. “You think you could get her back by ratting out Bob and John?”
“No, of course not.”
Even the box caught that one. Red light.
Steve said, “George, it seems no one ever told you the parable of the little dog in the railroad yard. The little dog was crossing the tracks, when a train came through and nipped off the end of his tail. He turned his head to see what bit him, and the train cut it off. Do you know the moral of this story, George? Never lose your head over a piece of tail.”
“I’m not sure I understand.”
Steve said, “Do you really think she would take you back? She was the one who turned you in, wasn’t she?”
“Yes, how did you know?”
“Don’t worry about that now. Is there any other reason you would want to turn us in?”
“I’m sure there would be a sizable reward involved.”
“I know these fellows, George. Chances are, the Government doesn’t know enough about them to offer a reward. Don’t you think it’s more likely they would get all your information, and leave you frozen to death in the New Jersey winter?”
“I guess I would be a loose end. They don’t like those.”
“Why did you join up with them in the first place, George?”
“They told me I could learn about alien technology.”
“How did that work out for you?”
“Very frustrating. We couldn’t do the experiments we needed to, in order to learn what they wanted us to learn.”
“So your main motive was curiosity?”
“The money wasn’t bad, either.”
“If we were able to feed that curiosity of yours, and give you a decent paycheck, how would you feel about working for this outfit?”
“If I don’t?”
I said,“You’ll find yourself back where you were, with nothing to prove your story.”
“What about my medical condition? I’m in much better shape than I was when you picked me up.”
“You’ve been getting regular checkups while you were living on the street, so you have a baseline to compare against?”
“Well, no.”
“So all anyone would have to go on is the word of a wino, living on the street?”
“Ouch. You’re an asshole, you know?”
“Everybody tells me so. You in or out?”
“In, I suppose.”
“Steve, what do you think?”
“He needs to be kept from tripping over any telephones. He’s not sold.”
I nodded to John. He gave him the nighty-night. I said, “Dangit! He could’ve been helpful, if we could have convinced him to help.”
John asked, “Will it be safe to let him go?”
“He got first names and a good look at your basement. Unless he was sharp enough to get the plate number off the truck, he hasn’t got much to go on.”
Nikki said, “The state he was in, I would think he would have had to have written it down to be able to remember it.”
“We’ll check his stuff. Wouldn’t hurt to check his nest, between the dumpsters. He might have scratched it into something with his knife.”
John asked, “What could we do about that?”
“I’ve got a cordless angle grinder. We’ll take it with us.”
I looked at Nikki. “Sweetheart, could you run over to the house and get Ozzie’s ride? Take Topper with you. He knows where the grinder is.”
“Ooh, I don’t know, in my delicate condition and all, should I be flying?”
“The day you can’t fly, Space Cadet, I just can’t imagine that. You could fly a barn door with an electric fan.”
“Nice words Caveman. You really think I’m that easy?”
“Nope, but I thought it might be a good start.”
“You’re hopeless. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
I commed Topper. “Meet Nikki at her truck. I need you to grab my cordless angle grinder and the spare battery, and give it to her.”
“Sure, Boss. What’s up?”
“We’ve got to throw back the catch of the day.”
“Could I go? I’ve worked up a really nice ‘alien in a shiny suit’ camo.”
“You mean you could carry him off the saucer in camo, and if anybody saw you, they’d think he was abducted by aliens?”
“Yes, Boss. Would that be helpful?”
“Yes it would. Come along, then.”
John asked, “What the heck?”
“Topper says he’s got alien camo now. He wants to come along and try it out.”
Steve said, “What I get for wanting a little more excitement in my life. Mind if I ride along?”
I replied, “Nope. Another pair of eyes is pretty much always a good thing.”
