5 minutes...... oldwrench tries story telling

[Zeratul2k]

Awesome! Been waiting for a new chapter for a while. Keep it up!

[oldwrench]

I'm trying to. I have the next chapter started. Things will be getting hotter again, soon.

[oldwrench]

Found time for another chapter......... This one's kind of filler. I wrote this mostly for Kira, but some parts of it will come back later, maybe in the second book. Yes, I've been thinking about book two. We started the second series of the RPG, but to many people dropped out, I'd like to finish the story some time. I wouldn't have a guide like I have for this story though. It would mostly be all new.

Well, here's the episode, Mostly about Kira's character, John Crichton, and mine, Chad. Hope you enjoy it, Kira.

Chapter 58

Dominic finished talking to Chad on the com. Chad was already back at the hangar
working on the mechs. Chad told him that Rose’s mech was coming along fine and would be
ready in a few hours. Dominic wished it were ready now. Louis was a veteran, with plenty of
experience, but Rose had always been with him, they made a good team, Dominic just wasn’t
sure he and Louis would work that well together. He stepped into the ready room, Ben and Louis
were already there, suited up. If anything happened, they could get to their mechs in seconds.

Chad leaned into Arisa’s Lancer and turned the systems back to standby. He’d checked
the power unit for her like he promised. Chad had been surprised to find it needed very little
adjustment. The mech was almost new, it had almost no hours of use. That was strange, rookies
were assigned older, rebuilt units, and put plenty of hours on them in training. They never had
new mechs. As Chad stood back and looked at the Lancer, his thoughts wandered back, to
Arisa’s thank you, and his face got a bit red. Without trying, his thoughts wandered a bit farther
back, to when Arisa climbed into the big machine. Her smooth slender legs, and those shorts, that
didn’t fit very tightly. Chad’s face got a lot redder. He shook his head, if she knew what he was
thinking, she’d probably never talk to him again.

“Got it bad for her, don’t ya.” John said as he came up behind Chad.

Chad spun around, “Ah.... no, I mean.....well..... She asked me to check her power unit,
and....”

John laughed, “yup.... bad. Just remember, in the real world, when the princess kisses a
frog, he doesn’t turn into a prince, he just stays a frog.”

Chad blinked, “Huh?”

“So, she kissed you, don’t get your hopes to high,” John advised him. “To her, we’re just
frogs. She’ll get her kicks for a while, then she’ll get tired of you and move on to her next toy.
That’s just the way kids from her society play the game.”

Chad felt like hitting John, but he didn’t. Chad didn’t want to admit it, but deep down, he
felt John was right. He wasn’t good enough to fit in her world. “She isn’t like that....... I mean......
we aren’t........... We’re just friends, so she wouldn’t be like that.”

“Sure, if you say so,” John replied. “But that’s the way they are. It’s just like her having
this new mech. She probably didn’t like having an older model so she just bought her way into a
new one.......... Hey, the reason I came looking for you, I heard that you really hopped up
Georgianna’s Thunderbird, do you think you could get some extra out of my mech? I know
Epyon is the fastest Firefly in the EDF, but I’m always willing to find a bit more performance.”
John laughed, “I feel a need for speed.”

Chad gave John an odd look, “you too? Well, I guess I have enough time. Greg told me
he wants me to talk to someone in about an hour. I don’t know who, he was kind of secretive
about it.”

The two men packed up the test gear and moved it over to John’s mech. Chad hooked up
the test gear and John started up the power unit.
“Ah, I see someone has already run the power limit up on this one,” Chad told John. “So
that’s where Epyon gets the extra speed.”

“Ya, I figured there was a pretty generous safety margin,” John confessed, “so I bumped
it up a ways.” John noticed Chad’s surprised look. “I use to work with experimental power units
when I was with NASA Before I got booted out and wound up here.”

“Oh,” Chad said, as he turned back to the instruments, “I didn’t know. So you must know
a lot about these things then.”

“Knowing how they work, and getting them to work are different things.” John admitted.
“I just don’t seem to get as much power out of it as I should be.”

Chad chuckled. “I’ve found it, sir! The dilithium crystals are out of phase and the warp
core is overheating. She canna’ take much more of this, captain!” Chad said in his best imitation
of an ancient Scottish accent.”

It was John’s turn to look shocked, “Where......... where did you get that from?”

Chad looked up at John, “it’s from some old series of movies called Star Trek. They were
before the consolidation. Since you used that line from that fighter plane movie from back then, I
thought you might have heard of it.”

“Heard of it!!” John answered, incredulously, “I have a copy of every episode that has
been found.”

“Wow, that’s an awful lot,” Chad blinked, “There’s hundreds of them.”

“Hundreds? What do you mean, hundreds?” John had Chad by the shirt collar. “There are
only sixty eight known episodes, and three movies. What makes you think there are hundreds?”
John was getting excited, he’d been collecting the remnants of pre-consolidation entertainment
for years. If Chad had, somehow, picked up some that he didn’t have.............”

Chad grabbed John’s wrists, he didn’t know what he’d said wrong, but he didn’t expect
this. “Hey, let go.......... What the heck did I do?”

John let go and backed up, “Ya, sorry. I got a bit excited there. But, I’ve been collecting
old movies for years. Have you been collecting too? What makes you think there are so many
episodes to Star Trek? How do you know about Top Gun?”

“Oh, is that all,” Chad said as he turned back to his instruments. “I don’t collect the stuff,
I’ve just watched a lot of it. Years ago, when my sister was chasing me, trying to beat me for
something or other, I slid down a gap in a wall. I found a buried building, it must have been a
store at one time. One room had lots of discs, in plastic boxes. There were machines to play the
discs too. I had to figure out how to rig a power supply to run the right voltage to them, but I got
some to work. I use to spend a lot of time in there watching the movies, it was great. There were
a bunch of different Star Trek series, and hundreds of episodes.”

John felt a bit weak, “a store full of movies.............. Did you watch them all? What titles
were there? Were there really that many Star Trek episodes?........... Damn! Could you take me
there?”

Chad sighed, “No, I didn’t watch them all, and I don’t remember a lot of the titles. There
were thousands of them.” John leaned against Epyon, he couldn’t believe this. “I said I’d never
go back there.” Chad told John, then watched John visibly sag. Chad felt bad about it. “I guess,
if we get back to earth, I could show you where it is. Right now we should get your power unit back
in sync, then you’ll have the power you should have.”

John felt elated, thousands of the old discs! He could make copies, he’d have the greatest
library of ancient entertainment on the planet! He’d be famous! And rich.............. If....... John
brought his thoughts back to the present and looked over Chad’s shoulder. He looked at the wave
traces on the instrument screen. “I don’t see anything wrong. It looks perfectly in sync to me.”

“I know, but it isn’t, I can feel it.” Chad told him. “It’s fighting against itself.”

John watched Chad slide a long tool into the power unit and slowly turn it. He would
have sworn he saw the wave forms shift, but when he looked, they hadn’t changed at all. Chad
moved the tool then turned it again. This time John was sure the wave patterns had moved, but
again, he could not see any difference in the image on the screen.

“There, that should give you a noticeable increase in power,” Chad told John as he
unhooked the test equipment.

John shook his head, “I know you adjusted it, but I didn’t see any change in the
waveform.”

“I know,” Chad told him, “it never seems to look any different, unless it’s really far off.
That’s why most people shouldn’t mess with these things.”

“How the hell do you do it then?” John asked. “Some kind of magic or something.”

“I don’t know, it’s just something I feel,” Chad admitted. “It just feels right. Maybe it’s
some special sense or something, but I know you can’t learn it, you just have to have it.”

A few minutes later, John was smiling as he headed to his room for some rest. Seems this
mission was going to be good for old Johnny after all. First he’d gotten a break with Georgianna. She
agreed to talk with him again. He’d finally find out why she’d run off, and be able to straighten
things out. And now, he’d learned of a possible amazing cache of ancient movies. Yup, things
were definitely looking up.

[oldwrench]

Meanwhile, back at the ranch........... or earth anyway........ Time to catch up on the action on our favorite planet. Seems investigator, Tom, has his hands full with a tearful girl, the general is about to leave, and a clandestine communication system is operating, right under their noses. On to the story.

Chapter 59


Chad sat in front of the screen of Greg’s rigged up subspace com unit. When Greg told
him there was someone he had to talk to, he didn’t expect the guy who developed the Ghost.
Chad was getting a bit frustrated, the guy had a million questions. He wanted to know every
detail of how Chad had gotten to operate the mech. He wanted to know everything about Chad,
down to the smallest detail........... This was going to take hours. Chad sighed as he typed in the
answer to a question, one that the researcher had asked a half dozen times already. It didn’t help
that Greg was watching, and almost laughing at Chad’s frustration.

Tom arrived at Victorville base, after several delays along the way. His paperwork had
been misplaced and it took a direct call from command for him to get a car. Finally, after visiting
several departments, and checking base records, he was directed to a small building, a long drive
away, across the base. Tom got out and looked at the building, he was tired and it was hot as
hades here, he was sure this was going to end up being a wild goose chase. Tom entered the
building and found a mess of parts and wires filling most of the space. Following sounds of
activity, Tom approached a young woman who was using some type of test equipment to adjust
one component among the mass of wires. When he spoke up to announce his presence the young
woman jumped, she stood up and turned so fast she got tangled in some of the wiring and fell
over backward, knocking over a cart with several pieces of equipment. He stepped forward to
offer a hand, and carefully extricated the girl from the mass of wiring. Tom introduced himself to
the researcher as General Parker’s head of investigations, “I’m looking for Dr. Tod Moeller,” he
informed her.

The girl backed away a bit, her face pale. She’d been afraid this day would come, when
their research would be canceled......... or worse. Why did it have to be now? They were so close
to a breakthrough. If they could just get that pilot back here. “Tod isn’t here,” she squeaked out.
She tried to get control of herself, “I......I’m his assistant, Janice.......... Janice Hale.”

Tom smiled at the young woman, trying to put her more at ease. He had to be careful
dealing with these scientists, they were civilians, not military. She looked like a frightened
mouse. In fact, she was a mousy looking girl, small, dressed in baggy fitting cloths, she had
shoulder length straight hair, mousy brown, her oversize glasses, perched on her small nose,
made her eyes look to large for her round face. “Do you know where I can find doctor Moeller?”
Tom asked her. “I’d like to talk to him about his prototype.”

“Yes, I know where he is,” Janice almost sobbed, “but we were so close. Tod went to
question the pilot right now. If we can just find out why he’s different, how he learned to use the
Dragonfly, it could be such a leap forward....... We just need a little time, we need to get that pilot
back here. You just have to let us have a little more time.”

Tom felt sorry for the girl, she was really sobbing now, tears running down her cheeks.
He didn’t really understand why she was reacting this way, he just wanted to talk to Dr, Moeller.
He certainly hadn’t expected this. Of all people, Tom was not qualified to deal with an emotional
girl, especially one in tears. But wait! She said the doctor was questioning the pilot......... if that
pilot was on the Krikav!! Tom tried very hard to act calmly. “Janice, you said he’s questioning
the pilot of your Dragonfly project. Do you know where your mech and that pilot are?”

Janice sniffed and wiped her tears on her sleeve, “He’s on a mission, some place called
Mar Sara. He got our mech by mistake, but he can pilot it, he’s been using the full sensor system,
that’s why you can’t cancel the project now, not when we’re so close. We just have to get the
general to order that ship back here.”

“Wait...... the doctor’s in contact with a pilot at Mar Sara?” Tom broke in. “How can he
do that? Where is he?” Tom noticed the confused look on the girl’s face and the reason for her
tears dawned on him. “Look, Janice, I’m not here to judge your research, or cancel your project.
I’m here because it sounded like Dr. Moeller knew something about where your lost mech was.
That it might be on board the Krikav. We haven’t been able to contact the Krikav, the ship we
sent to Mar Sara, since it went into warp drive. If Dr. Moeller can contact that ship we have to
know, we have to get in contact with that ship.”

Janice blinked, “Jack, our tech, he has a subspace com system, he’s been talking with a
tech friend of his on the Krikav. He was going to get the pilot of our mech on the com today.
They should be on right now.”

“Where are they?” Tom asked. “I have to get there, I have find out why the main com
system can’t reach them.”

“I...... could take you there,” Janice offered, a bit of hope in her voice.

“Good,” Tom replied as he guided her toward the door, “I have a car, we should hurry.”
As he drove across the base, Tom asked Janice about their project, he found she was much more
willing to talk, now that she knew he wasn’t a threat to the project.......... very much more willing
it seemed. Finally, Tom called general Parker.

“I was hoping I’d hear from you, Tom,” The general told Tom when he received the call.
“We’ll be ready to move out in a few hours. BAE sent us some extra techs, they just got here.
With the shortage, it’ll be good to have them along, even if they are civilians.”

“That sounds good sir,” Tom replied. “I’ve made contact with one of the researchers on
the Dragonfly project, sir, a tech they have worked with here has been in contact with a tech
aboard the Krikav. They may be in contact right now. We’re on the way to check right now.”

“What?..........” There was a pause as General Parker absorbed that information. “How?
Command hasn’t been able to get through to them, how can a tech reach them?”

Tom tried to chose his words carefully, he didn’t want to get the tech in trouble,
“apparently, the Tech has some sort of subspace com unit set up, sir. I know that subspace
communication is strictly regulated, sir, but this may not actually be against regulations. The
Tech’s are required to test and verify the operation of communication equipment.........”

General Parker sighed, “I’m not worried about that right now, Tom. Let’s just hope they
are in contact with the Krikav. We need to find out why they haven’t been communicating with
us.

[Sakura]

Can you please send the last documents, so I can update the pdf please? Thank mew, err you.

[oldwrench]

Yes mistress...... Err, I;m trying to get chapter 60 finished first, then send them all, hope that's ok. I know how I want the chapter to turn out, I just am having a bit of a time figuring out how to put it in words.

[oldwrench]

Once more, back to the action, and........

Oh no!.......


Chapter 60


Colonel Hellwind stood on the bridge of the Krikav with Captain Aidan Pryde. They
didn’t need the view screens to see the surface of the planet, they were close enough to see
through the thin area in the asteroid defense belts to the surface.

“We have arrived at the ordered co-ordinates, sir,” Yuki called out from her pilot’s chair.

“Thank you, Yuki,” Dan told the controller, “Check the communications grid, see if
there’s anything online.”

“I don’t like this,” Aidan told the colonel, “we’re to close. What if they decided to attack?
We wouldn’t have much time to react. I don’t understand why command would move us this
close.”

Dan continued to watch the screen, “The weapons Johana told us they have down there
couldn’t reach this far. If they converted some packet launcher into another rail gun, Yuki would
detect the launch in time, anything launched at high enough speed to do damage would burn up in
the atmosphere.”

“I guess you’re right,” Aidan admitted. “And we’re shielded against lasers and particle
beams.”

“None of the communications satellites are operating, sir,” Yuki informed him.
“Communicating with the government center will be difficult or impossible with the shielding of
asteroids.”

The colonel sighed, “It’s not likely that there will be anyone to contact out here over the
Eos mountain range. Well, give it a try, Yuki, maybe there’s a miner camped out here.”

Rydia set up Atropos outside it’s mountain hiding place. She made sure the weapon was
well braced as she corrected it’s aim on the small dot that was the enemy ship on her display.
Rydia increased the magnification of the viewing system till she could see the details of the ship.
It looked so small compared with the bulk of a planet. How could that one ship destroy everyone
on the colony? It just didn’t seem possible, but Edward had told her they would destroy everyone,
and he knew about these things. It had to be true........... But, did she really have to destroy the
ship? She didn’t want to be a killer, like those men. Couldn’t she just frighten them into leaving?
Rydia signed, she would have to trust Edward, she had to do what he told her.

“We are receiving a reply, sir, voice only, no video,” Yuki informed the colonel.

“Good,” Dan answered.”Let’s hear it. This is a break, Aidan, maybe we can get them to
relay a message to the regent for us.”

Yuki opened the com channel and the colonel was about to say something when they got
the first message. “It’s about time you got here,” the voice on the com told them, “we’ve been
waiting.”

Dan hesitated, he hadn’t expected this. But then, with the greeting they’d already gotten,
maybe he should have. “Ah.... sorry about that, we had a bit of unexpected trouble. Is the regent
available, or could you relay a message to him?” Something about that voice....... it seemed
familiar, but Dan couldn’t place it.

“I’m afraid the regent is no longer available.” The voice replied. “Anything you have to
say, you can say to me. I am now the government of this planet.”

“What do you mean?” Dan questioned the man. “The planet wasn’t supposed to hold
elections till next year. In any case, if you were elected, the regent sent by the empire should still
be there to..........”

The voice broke in with a laugh, “Ah, Daniel, you just don’t get it, do you. There is no
regent, there is no government. ‘They’ sent me to take over this planet.”

That voice, Dan suspected who it was, but it couldn’t be. Who is this?” The colonel
demanded.

“Why Dan, you don’t remember me? And you were my captain.” The voice laughed
again, “I see they finally promoted you to a colonel. Lucky you.”

“Lieutenant Geraldine!” Daniel spat out. “deserter! What makes you think you can take
over one of the empire’s colonies?”

“No! COLONEL,” Edward barked with a derisive sneer. “You may address me as
GENERAL Edward Geraldine of the Red Faction. We HAVE taken over this planet, at least until
the EDF forces arrive and bomb it into oblivion.”

“He’s a madman,” Daniel told Aidan after Yuki muted the transmitter. “He couldn’t have
taken over the whole colony.......... Could he?”

“He couldn’t alone,” Aidan replied, “but what about this Red Faction? Could that be
some offshoot of the pirates? Somehow, they got a hold of a lot of high powered weaponry, and
got it transported here. There’s a lot of high tech in this asteroid shield too. I think we better get
all the info we can from him.”

Dan turned back to the com unit, “alright Geraldine, who’s this Red Faction, and what do
you want?”

“The Red Faction are the people who decided they don’t like the empire running their
lives.” Edward told them. “We are the ones who should be controlling the outer worlds. The
empire is decadent, old. They’re afraid to let anyone be free, to think for themselves. They won’t
let anyone but their own advance in the system. You should know that, Dan. It’s time to get rid of
them. That’s what we want, Dan...... War. And we’ll have it, after the EDF destroys another
innocent planet. Oh..... They’ll be here, Dan, they have a task group ready to move out right now.
They’ll come and follow orders. They’ll destroy this world, just like they did Tarsonis.” Edward
laughed. “They’re such good soldiers. Then we’ll have our war, and this time we’ll win. This
time, ‘They’ promised to help us. To bad you won’t be here to see it, Daniel. You can feel proud
though, you’ll be the first to be destroyed by our new weapon. Goodbye Daniel.”

Rydia waited nervously, she jumped when Edward’s voice came over the communicator.
“They won’t negotiate, Rydia. I tried, I warned them we could destroy them. They just laughed.
They said they had orders to destroy the planet, and they would start with us.” Rydia turned to her
targeting screen. There were tears in her eyes as she charged the Atropos weapon.

Chad waited, he hadn’t had another question on the com screen for several minutes.
Maybe the researcher had given up. That would be a relief. Darn, he thought as the screen started
showing text again. Chad stiffened as he read it. It was from a different person, an investigator
from general Parker’s office. Damn, he thought, what kind of trouble am I in this time.
There was a second message. “It is imperative that I contact colonel Hellwind
immediately. The mission could be in great danger.”
Right, Chad thought, it’s a bit late to tell us that, we already found out. Strange that this
guy is trying to get the colonel on this link. Why wouldn’t the general just use the main com
system. Something’s fishy.”

“There is a build up of energy at the source of the radio transmission.” Yuki calmly
informed the colonel.

Daniel snapped around, “shields up, take evasive action.”

Rydia’s hands shook as she placed them on the controls. She made her decision, she
pressed the firing button.
The enormous energy stored in the Atropos cannon’s super capacitor was unleashed, the
barrel size plastic ammunition cartridge evaporated as it’s copper atom matrix flashed into a
plasma. Superconductor magnets squeezed and held the plasma for micro seconds as it built
energy. As the energy overpowered the magnetic containment, the plasma burst out and
accelerated out of the one hundred centimeter diameter iridium barrel at almost the speed of light.
The mountains were lit by a bright cyan flash as the plasma exploded from the barrel with a sharp
crack. No ship in the path of that charge could survive.

In an office in the maintenance sector of the Victorville EDF base, investigator Tom
watched as the return message formed on the screen. So, the young pilot was a bit suspicious of
him. He couldn’t blame the guy. He read the message. “The colonel has been busy on the bridge
since we arrived at the orbit point above Mar Sara, as per the general’s orders. I could see if he’s
free to come, but why don’t you contact him through the main comm...........”

Tom turned an looked at the tech, Jack, “Hey, it quit, right in the middle of his reply. Can
you get it back on line?”

Jack quickly looked over the system, typing in several commands. Tod looked over his
shoulder. “Maybe they were attacked again, like last time,”Tod offered. “Maybe he’ll be back if
we wait a bit.”

Jack frowned, “No, it’s different, last time the system was still on line. I could get a ping
back.” Jack looked from Tod and Janice to Tom, “This time, it’s not there, there’s nothing.
They’re just........ gone.”

[Sakura]

Meow your story is slowly growing as large as Dinky's book. And there's no song lyrics yay!

[oldwrench]

I've kept away from song lyrics, for you, my dear girl. Also, I may pass Dinky yet, in length, not in quality. There's a ways to go yet before the climax of the series.

[Sakura]

I must have missed the email with the documents you sent.
Due to the bad net participation in our Cutest Anime Girl contest I have plenty of time for updating of PDF documents.