Freddy Anderson’s Home: Book 1 (21 page)

Chapter 35
Attacked Again

T
he lieutenant asked, “You’ve seen the possibilities in this and its capabilities. Do you think he can run the base on this fuel?”

“Yes, he could,” answered Petty Officer Smith. “The base, his planes, helicopters, cars, trucks—anything that requires energy to make it run. It would cost a good penny to convert things over, but I’m sure Freddy would split the cost for a written understanding of ownership.”

“You’re saying we could run an F-18 off these disks?”

“Faster and with a much greater range.”

“We need …” That was the last thing she said before blacking out.

I was lying in my bed when my body started acting strange. I checked it and realized that I was being gassed. I used my mind to touch the shield button and replace all the oxygen in the house with some from two miles away, and then I staggered to the office. Lt. James and Marian were out, just like the rest I had passed on the way. I checked the status of the house, and it was still flying straight. I checked the shield status, and it was operational. I checked the scanners while laying a hand on the lieutenant. As she started to cough and wake up, I noticed that there was a helicopter coming up out of the mountain behind us.

“What happened?” Lt. James asked.

“We’re under attack, Lieutenant.”

She became fully awake and totally alert and took over flying. “Freddy, can you wake the others?” I already had a hand on Marian, and she was coming around.

“No, Lieutenant. I don’t have enough energy left. I had to use it to clear the air. We were hit with a knockout gas, probably from that helicopter coming up behind us.”

“Okay, so it’s just the three of us. I see the shields are up. Good job. Can they see them?”

“No, ma’am.”

“If they try to land on us, what will happen?”

“The shield won’t give, but the rotors on the helicopter will.”

Marian was now awake and standing, ready to protect me.

“That’s an option,” said Lt. James, “but that leaves us with them thinking that the gas may have worked and the house is on automatic pilot.”

“Lieutenant, how far can that radio of yours be heard?” I asked.

“At this altitude, about three hundred miles.”

“Far enough for any friendly bases to pick us up? And where did the F-18s go?”

“They left about thirty minutes ago, Freddy. This is army airspace.”

“Would the navy hear the radio call?”

“Yes, it would, but they’re too far away to respond in time.”

I smiled and said, “We don’t need them to respond. I have this.” I showed her the disintegration toy. “I took it back from the master chief.” I explained my plan to the lieutenant, and she smiled really big. “Marian, are you a good shot?” I asked.

“Very good.”

I handed her the toy, with the setting on “max.”

The lieutenant pressed the talk button on the radio. “Unknown army helicopter, this is the commander of Flight F127. We have an important civilian passenger on board. Back off and do not try to land. Our sensors show that we were attacked with an unknown gas, and we are in a full defensive posture. Please do not try to land, as we will consider it a hostile act and destroy you.”

“I don’t believe you have anything on board that could possibly harm us. Lieutenant, this is Captain Craftman, and I have twenty fully armed and armored Black Berets on board. We’re coming in, Lieutenant. Prepare to be boarded.”

Lt. James looked at Marian, who motioned that she was ready.

“Captain Craftman, please look at the hill off to your right. See that rock on the top?”

“Yes, I see it.”

She pointed to me, and I dropped the shield. She pointed to Marian, who fired my gun, sending a blue beam of energy so hot that it removed the entire top of the mountain. The lieutenant’s eyebrows shot up, and she looked at me accusingly. I turned the shields back on. The lieutenant turned back to the radio and said, “Now you don’t see the rock or the mountain top it was on, do you, Captain? I strongly suggest you back off now. You have ten seconds to start moving away and one minute to get out of range before I let my gunner loose. She really doesn’t like people trying to gas her.”

The helicopter changed directions and beat it out of there. Not another transmission was sent to or received from them.

“Lieutenant Commander James, this is General Swetser. Are you in need of assistance?”

“Not at this time, General, but I would like you to please forward a message to the president of the United States that the army has attacked us three times now.”

“I’ll send the message. You are about to get an escort. I don’t care if it is over army property. Expect it to show up in less than five.”

“Thank you, General.”

I watched my expanded screen and saw two aircraft lift off from a base only ninety miles away. The scanners identified them as Air Force F-14s.

“That air force general is a friend of Admiral Bates. They play chess over the Internet,” Lt. James said.

I watched the F-14s coming up fast. When they were close, I could see they were fully armed. They looked impressive.

“Commander of Flight F127, this is Captain Robert Curran. We will be your escort for the next several hours, and then others will take our place. You won’t be left alone again.”

“Welcome along, Captain—and thanks.”

I readjusted my sensors for detecting gasses and any other change in the area that could affect our health. I turned off the shield and let the lieutenant know. Then I went back to see what I could do to help the others. I thought that the master chief was going to be really mad.

“Why did they give warning? I would have fired directly on them.”

Everything went black.

Blue’s eyes turned around in its head, sort of like we roll our eyes, except sideways. “Gray, attack is not always the answer.”

“A lot of issues would be resolved much quicker if attack first was the answer,” Gray said.

Green looked sick for a second, “Like the removal of the Gigipods. A completely peaceful species that had technology we needed but now don’t exist for us to ask them. And how about the Mortrans. Asking us for help fighting the Armetts, and Grays went in and wiped out the wrong side.
And to fix things, wiped out the other species also! Is that what you
mean
?”

I was falling, and Blue looked shocked, saying, “Don’t let it touch the sides!”

Green turned back to me and gently lifted me back up. Then it said, “I am sorry, but war for no reason is a sore point with us Greens.”

“It is with us Blues also. Gray, you will refrain from any further shows of stupidity while Green is trying to work. Green, please continue.”

Chapter 36
All Cons

O
n the second day, I was just coming out of the kitchen, where I’d had a wonderful breakfast, when I ran into the lieutenant, and she asked if I was ready.

“Ready for what, Susan?”

“That pro-and con discussion you promised me.”

“Sure, do you have someone to take notes?”

“Colleen will be in here in just a minute.”

“Who’s flying the house?” I asked.

“Petty Officer Smith. She has a pilot’s license.”

Colleen entered with a note pad and said in a sing-song way, “I’m ready, Freddy.”

I smiled at her and saw she was grinning from ear to ear. “Let’s get started, then. Colleen, please make a list of the pros and cons. I will assign them a number between one and ten to show what I believe is the level of impact, ten being the worst.”

Colleen said, “Fire away.”

“Let’s start with my professional concerns for not wanting the government at my home. Now, this is off the top of my head, so please forgive me if our talks bring out other reasons that I simply have not considered.”

The lieutenant smiled and said, “Leaving any doors open, Freddy?”

“Lieutenant, I’ve thought about this for a long time, and I’m keeping an open mind. If, after hearing my reasons, you can persuade me, then I will gladly go with the best option available. I do not toss out ideas just because I may not like them. If I closed my mind that much, I’d never invent anything. First, in the con section, the government would have increased knowledge and influence regarding my projects. Rate that a five. Second—”

“Wait,” said the lieutenant. “May I interject in between each of your concerns?”

“Susan, you can ask anything you want to get clarification, but please hold your arguments until I’m done. It may be to your advantage if you do so.”

“Agreed, but I don’t see how this could be an issue, as we’ve already seen your inventions. We know all about the energy bars, the tractor beam, power disks, lasers, sensors, shields—”

“No, Lieutenant, you don’t. You’ve seen them, but you don’t have any knowledge about how to make them. If you were living with me, you would gain that information too, but that’s not the reason I’m saying this. I don’t mean to be to blunt, but those are just toys and small tools to help me with my real projects.”

“Amazing. These are just toys to him?”

Everything went black.

Two blue tentacles shot out and slammed into the Gray. “Don’t interrupt!”

The lieutenant’s eyes widened, and Colleen sat up much straighter.

“Second, under cons—security risks. Since I can develop and secure my own home, as I’m sure the ensign has told you by now, I don’t want the human factor of possible security risks. The military changes personnel every two to three years. Even if I allowed your team, whom I do trust, to start guarding me, in three years, it would be a completely new team. People are transferred and reassigned, and that includes SEAL teams. The army is trying to prove that they can do a better job, so that they can force a replacement. I cannot allow that type of political mess to screw up my home security and waste my time. Not only that, but when people transfer out, they may talk about what they have seen. I stand to lose a lot if other companies patent my inventions before I do. If this happens, then I won’t be able to afford to build the bigger projects. Rate that an eight.”

“Eight, Freddy?” Lt. James questioned. “I would have thought it would be a ten.”

“It would hamper me from doing what I came out here to do—invent and build—so it’s a high priority but not that high. Third, also con—human interference. Every person, every mind, every emotion is a possible distraction to me. Noise, both on the audible level and mind noise, can prevent me from thinking. Also, taking care of people, their entertainment, food, cooking, laundry, housing, cleaning, storage—the list goes on, Lieutenant. Taking care of one is bad enough and takes too much time out of my day. Taking care of a dozen people is unacceptable. Rate it eight. Fourth, con—lack of control. I would have no control over people and guests who live at or visit my home. This is partly a big security risk but also could be somewhat of an irritation. Give that a five.

“Okay, now let’s go to a more personal level. Fifth, con—teasing, laughing, and disgust. These are things that can really bother me. Your team members are very good and understanding. I really think that they would not care if I decided to run around in my birthday suit. They’d just report when and for how long, and that’s that, but as I’ve said, people transfer out and replacements come in. Even if something is not said aloud, I still hear it. Emotions cannot be so easily stopped. If I want to try different things, like swimming in the nude, I could not help but feel the emotions of everyone who saw me. Rate that three.”

“Not too high a grade on that one,” said Colleen.

“Not that important what others think,” said the lieutenant.

“Very good, Susan. That’s exactly right,” I said.

“Sixth, con—my abilities. I would have no privacy. I don’t want the president to know just what my mental abilities can achieve. That’s no one’s business but mine. That’s a nine.”

“They already know, Freddy.”

I slowly shook my head and said sadly, “No, Lieutenant, they don’t know. They only know what I’ve allowed them to see. I need to practice my abilities so that I can extend and control them. I can’t hide them all the time, as I might lose them.”

“I understand, Freddy.”

I smiled before telling this next one. “Seventh, still con—there would be witnesses to my little pranks. Rank that as two.”

Colleen and the lieutenant smiled at that. Colleen said, “There would also be people to let you know if you’re taking them too far.”

“Yes, well … good argument. Eighth—and this is pro—the only way to keep the media and their freedom of the press, or as I like to put it, ‘freedom to depress,’ off my back is for my projects to become national security issues. Give that one a ten. As much as I hate the idea of government involvement, the pressures are mounting, and I don’t need out-for-profit, snoopy people causing problems. Last, but not least, nine is another con—getting attached to people. I can’t help getting attached to people, especially the girls on your team. Lieutenant, I can’t stop thinking about losing one if she died. It’s causing me no end of trouble. I’m so worried that one will die that I can’t sleep, and it messes up my thinking. Ten.”

“We’ll all die, Freddy,” said Susan.

“I know, I know. I’ve lost everyone I have ever loved, Lieutenant. I told myself that I would never love anyone again, and here I am with a big crush on Becky, love for her mother and family, and you. I’m developing love for all your team, and if one of you dies, especially because of me, I don’t think I could stand it. It’s part of being empathic; I can’t help but love.”

Colleen put a motherly arm around my shoulders. “We understand, sweetheart, but you must understand that this is God’s way. We all die. If we didn’t, then the world would sure be crowded. I’ve lost several friends and a brother, and I don’t want anyone else to die either, but it’s going to happen. Where are we most likely to die, Freddy? Out there, where we can get into accidents, and there’s no one with your abilities to heal us; where there’s cancer and AIDS and every other kind of disease; or right here with you? I think our chances are better guarding you than driving in traffic, where a drunk driver could run us over, and we would never even know why we died. We love doing what we do. Sure, it’s dangerous, but we’re the best, and chances are, we won’t die any time soon. If we do, then we did it doing what we love. I want you to think about that for a while. The lieutenant and I are going to talk, and we’ll get back with you.”

“Okay.” I gave her a hug and left for my bedroom. What they didn’t know was that time was getting short, and I needed help, or all this would be for nothing. They were going to find it very easy to talk me into letting them sign on—but not too easy, or they’d get suspicious. Fact is, the world emergency was forcing me to need them.

The lieutenant took the list and said, “Let everyone know we’re going to have a meeting this afternoon, and get the president on the line.”

The Gray said, “I don’t understand. What emergency? We never detected any emergency.”

Everything went black. I was getting tired of that and wished the Gray would shut up.

The Blue answered, “And we will never find out if you don’t keep quiet! Green, continue.”