Princess Rescue Inc (3 page)

“Opening
night jitters does get to everyone,” he admitted. He nodded after a moment.
Okay, so the sprout had some potential. “Very well, carry on,” the Colonel
ordered. He walked off, pointing to a tech and engineer strapping equipment to
the hood of a LAV. He waved to his own people and nodded. Lieutenant Perry
nodded in return and then waved to the Gunny who got his people into motion.

“We've
got trailers too, and everyone's vehicles are going to be overloaded as it is,”
Lieutenant Perry said eying the suspension of his hummer. It looked like it was
buckling a little as it was. “Are you sure this is necessary?” he asked.

The
Colonel snorted and glanced back the way he came. “Ryans is right, keeping
everyone busy is a good idea. Besides, if this is a one way trip, I want
everything we can get our hands on.” Armies ran on their stomach. If they were
cut off for a long period... or longer he wanted everything they could get
their hands on.

The
Lieutenant nodded grimly. “Good point... ah with your permission?” he asked
looking away.

“By
all means. And grab me more cigars!” the Colonel called as the lieutenant
hastily retreated at a jog. He turned and gave a brief salute acknowledging the
order.

“Here,
take mine,” the general said, coming up behind him. He handed over a package
from his breast pocket, then a lighter and cigar clip. “Havana's best. I get
them from a buddy stationed in Cuba. You deserve it, where you’re going there
aren’t going to be anymore.”

<==={}------------>

“So
how do you know the, what do you call it, Malp worked? If your vehicles and
electronics can't be powered, how did you get it to work?” a reporter asked.
Ryans turned to see Max nearby.

The
giant machinist was waving his hands as he talked to a tech. “Well, Max
here...” He pulled a surprised Max over by wrapping an arm around the big man's
shoulders. Max blinked at the camera and straightened, hiding a scowl. “Max
figured it out. I'll let him explain. I've got to take the batteries out of my
electronics before we go or they'll be fried. Remind people of that Max, when
you're done here,” he ordered Max and then waved as he retreated at a trot.

“Don't
forget the CMOS!” Max called to his boss. Ryans waved back in acknowledgment.
Max nodded and returned his attention to the reporter and camera guy. “Okay, um
ah... what was the question again?”

“The
Malps, how did you get them to work?” the reporter replied.

“Oh
ah, well, see when they first tried them they were all electric. The first one
drove up the ramp, but when it got close to the vortex a fat bolt of lightning
came out and fried it like Sunday chicken at granny's.” He licked his lips and
grinned. Some of the reporters nearby chuckled at that.

“You
should have seen the engineers and scientists; they were dumbstruck, just...
Ah.” He dropped his mouth open and bugged his eyes out. Several more of the
reporters chuckled louder at that. “I saw it; I mean who on the floor didn't?
Damned expensive, fried the entire robot. Five mil down the toilet.” He shook
his head and made a flushing sound.

“So
what did you do? Or they do?” a woman asked, indicating the control room.

“Well,
actually, that's where I came into this story. See they got it in their heads
to try simple things, even tried tossing a camera through. Didn't work,” he
said shaking his head mournfully at the waste. “Nothing did. The batteries
exploded the moment the lightning hit.” He shook his head once more. “So I was
tinkering around and saw this thing on Discovery channel about that guy da
Vinci. He created these mechanical things with springs and such. Even made a
robot cart with springs and gears.”

Some
of the reporters nodded, catching on. “So I roughed out a concept and put it
together in my spare time. The others didn't think it would work. The brass was
foaming at the mouth and then he...” he indicated Ryans sitting at a table
pulling his laptop apart. “He came by and saw what I was doing. I was almost
ready for a test. He took it and ran with it,” he said clearly amused and still
surprised and pleased by his boss's actions. “Not bad for a GED and trade
school guy I think,” He smiled, hooking his thumbs in his belt proudly.

He
waited until the flashbulbs stopped before continuing. “Needless to say it
worked. Wind up the spring; toss the thing through the vortex and when the
spring wound down it engaged a gear...” He moved his fingers together
simulating the contacts. “Which moved the contacts together and the circuits
were restored. Voilà! All fixed. Sometimes it's the simple fixes that matter,
not no multi-million dollar boondoggle with more bells and whistles and places
to go wrong and break...” He threw his hands up in the air in disgust. Some of
the reporters smiled at that.

He
faced the cameras dead on for a moment. “Remember that kiddies, KISS. Keep It
Simple Stupid.”

He
looked over to a pair of techs nearby waving urgently. He sighed. “I got to get
back to work folks, see ya.” He waved again. They shut down and moved off to
the next location. Everyone was jockeying for a good shooting position. The
producer had one staked out but they had to hurry.

<==={}------------>

Ryans
frowned, thinking of the team. It was too late to add anyone but he seriously
wished he could drop a few. Oh not the civilians, they were characters but all
right. He'd handpicked them with the help of their dossiers and psych profiles.

He
had a lot of doctors, for instance Doctor Sue Carter, the team's primary medic
and surgeon. Carter was brilliant, a multiple MD with hands-on experience in
Africa as well as in Loma Linda. She might be short but she was a firecracker
and knew her job inside and out, just like her patients.

Doctor
Fred Roshenko, a Canadian, like Doctor Carter. He had multiple PhDs. He was a
brilliant metallurgist, geologist, and amateur paleontologist/botanist. 
If they were trapped on the alien world it would be Roshenko who would find the
metals and materials they would need to survive and thrive.

Doctor
Nate Billings, Nate to his friends. He was a bit of an oddball, tall, lime
green dyed hair and goatee he'd picked up from watching MythBusters. He was a
brilliant zoologist, biologist, and naturalist. Unlike Roshenko or Carter he
came from Great Britain.

Doctor
Mary Delouses, a quiet small woman who was a brilliant botanist and
agriculturalist. She would be vital in identifying what was edible or dangerous
of the plant kingdom.

Doctor
Ben Jarvic, a French linguist who was rather excitably bothering everyone
within arm’s reach. He like many of the other people on the team was
polylingual, but he could also pick up just about any language after hearing it
for only a day or so. Right now he was trying to teach an amused Wanda Smith
how to do a glottal stop.

Wanda
Smith unlike the others was not a doctor; she had multiple Masters in chemistry
though and was also an assistant nurse and paramedic. Her partner Charlie
Thurman was nearby, she was a quiet reserved woman who had a sunny disposition.
Wanda was a talker, and she tended to gossip. The curly haired blond Charlie
tended to listen while packing or doing their work. Charlie did the biological
side of chemistry; she'd be an asset and assistant to Nate.

Then
there was Xu Yung, another chemist and lab assistant. He was from the Chinese
homeland and was rather reserved despite being unusually tall. Wanda had teased
him about trying out for basketball but he didn't even smile. He was a good
paramedic though.

Masayuki
Watanabe the Japanese electronic tech would double for Ryans and some of the military
in taking care of their various electronic devices. Masayuki was a good kid,
quiet though like Xu. Both of the Asians would be riding with the colonel in
the last vehicle.

Ryans
turned, and snorted at the sight of Sydney Heart holding a camera up and
getting video. It wasn't like they didn't have enough already, Ryans thought,
looking at the media all around. Sydney was another UK groupie; he was the
team's video-photographer, historian and physics minor and general gopher. He
was a likeable chap even if he was an Aussie and had a thing for Fosters.

There
were four other civilians to round out the civilian side, Polish Gregory
Yvetskov, their tall not quite fat cook and nutritionist, he would also serve
as the team's barber and a first aide tech in a pinch. The tall Russian Sergio
Valenkov would double as another lab tech, physicist, and amateur astronomer.
Ryans had just overheard him talking to Sergeant Ginger Lewis, they were both
pilots. That was good to know; at least they had another pilot.

The
last two civilians were the quiet, unassuming Jessie Adams, their
communication's tech and computer whiz, and a last minute addition, Max the
bear Howlett. Max was one reason they were going. He didn't have any fancy
degrees but he had a wealth of practical hands-on knowledge and a steady hand
and keen mind in a crisis. Besides, he was an out of the box thinker and a
blacksmith and mechanic to boot. He was an all-around engineering Joat and
Ryans was glad to have him onboard.

On
the military side things were a bit different. He didn't know the team as well
as he would've liked, they had kept to themselves. Still he had picked up some
of their various ranks and specialties. All were clean cut; some were almost
cookie cutter military characters. Others stood out a little.

There
were three officers, Colonel Richards was an abrasive, quiet, no nonsense
character that had an “I've got a stick up my ass and don’t you dare touch it”
look on his face. Didn't anyone tell him that if his face soured like that all
the time it'd stick that way? Ryans mused. Most likely he wanted that.

He
had two squad leaders, first Lieutenant Marcus Perry and second lieutenant Ed
Galloway. Perry was a little old for his rank, possibly a late addition to the
ranks after 9/11 or a mustang up from the ranks of the enlisted. He had an easy
manner about him that belied his superior's no nonsense look. For an intel
officer he didn't look like staff puke. He was built, strong and had field
experience.

Galloway
was a last minute addition; he'd flown in on the last chopper in. He was also a
bootstrap from enlisted, a combat engineering grad; he'd be an asset in any
sort of base they set up.

Master
Sergeant Wayne Waters didn't look at all happy about being here but he was dead
set on getting it right. This was his last tour and he looked like he was
ready. Something about him and Gunny Paris reminded Ryans of Gunny Highway from
Heartbreak Ridge. They had that mean Gunny grizzled look. Clint would be proud.
Both men were old soldiers, somewhere close to their sixties and had some
stories to go with their various battle scars.

Gunny
Alex Paris was a rarity, one of only three Marines on the joint team. He was a
close quarters arms expert, a hostage rescue expert, gunner, qualified medic,
and Marine recon who'd seen it and done it all in his twenty-nine years with
the service. He looked bored to tears amid the chaos around him.

The
broad Hispanic near Max was Mateo Scooter Alverez, sergeant in the marines and
a damn good mechanic and driver according to Max. Ryans wasn't sure about the
driver qualification but he'd take it on faith. Near them the aforementioned
Sergeant Ginger Lewis, a red headed gunner and pilot. She was good, she could
turn her feminine charms on and off, be one of the boys one moment and then
kicking it with the girls a second later.

Corporal
Lisa Patterson was also a driver and gunner, she brushed her brown hair with
her long fingertips as she handed her fellow, corporal Harris some rigger's
tape. Patterson was also one of their communication's techs.

Lance
Corporal Kes Newman was a character. He tried to affect a no nonsense attitude
but he looked a little too chipper to pull it off. From what Ryans had picked
up from the grapevine Newman was a character, Marine recon and survival expert
who'd been up and down the ranks more time than he'd care to admit. Like the
Gunny and master sergeant he was a Joat, having filled all sorts of positions
in his checkered career.

There
were a couple of PFCs as well.  Audrey Shiller, a brunette spotter and
sniper, her partner Zack Edsfield, a supposed genius with a Barrett and Wes
Fairfax, another back up medic and heavy weapons grunt.

Lone
stocky Private Larry Schneider was fresh out of boot but he had driver’s quals,
to go along with his gunnery and rope climbing skills. It seemed like there was
a case of too many chiefs and not enough Indians to go around. But to make sure
that everyone had more than one skill set they had to have experience... and of
course rank went with that experience.  Ryans wasn't worried about the
rankers, it was the Colonel that had him worried. There was something there, a
not quite mobster look on him. No, not mobster... shark, yes, dark doll like
eyes. He knew the Colonel was sizing him up; he just wasn't sure for a coffin
or what. They'd all find out soon enough.

<==={}------------>

“Boss,
this is nuts,” the blue haired tech said shaking his head. Max tried hard to
keep a straight face. The kid looked like he belonged at a punk rock band fest
rather than here. The big boss didn't care about appearances when it came to
some stuff. As long as they kept it clean and neat and didn't have anything
distracting or dangerous he shrugged it off.