AL:ICE-9 (28 page)

The real challenge was in how they were to be installed in the hangar. The desire was having the flexibility to re-configure the pads to accommodate other ships of various sizes. The hangar itself was large enough to store several cruisers should the need arise. This opened the possibility of rearming several with the ever-popular rail guns.

All this was work Brian was very comfortable supervising. It was the other part that he wished Jake himself were here for. As it was, he had to leave it to ALICE and her bots to complete, dragging in the occasional specialist when necessary. That particular skillset was extremely rare and it wasn’t one Brian possessed.

Chapter 28

Sara was a little miffed at Jake’s message. She had gone to her quarters at the end of the day to clean up and found the message in her inbox. That Jake felt the need to run to Georgia wasn’t an issue, he had a feeling for when things were about to go bad, so she never questioned that. It was leaving a note rather than telling her in person that upset her.

She was half tempted to jump in her own fighter and follow him, but then her better judgement prevented that from following through. Instead, she had chased Patti down and, between the two of them killed two bottles of wine.

----*----

Jake had arrived in Georgia early in the afternoon, using only the automated systems and ALICE-9 to facilitate his arrival. The current staff numbered less than 50, with over half there as technical support and with only a small security team. His landing was in an almost deserted hangar, a few technicians in residence working on various projects. He was a little surprised that there were no security personnel in the hangar to greet incoming visitors.

Once parked, Jake made quick work of changing clothes, again forgoing anything bearing his name or rank. ALICE-9 had been a giddy little chatterbox on the entire trip in, but Jake had convinced her to keep silent while he was in the public areas where others might overhear.

He really wasn’t sure why he was making such a big production out of keeping anonymous, but with ALICE-9 in an immature state, it was like checking up on the babysitter. These were all his people after all, but Jake hadn’t realized how much he relied on the ALICEs to watch over everyone and insure the darker side of human nature didn’t materialize.

There had been very few instances in the last year where someone had to be re-educated. Jake wasn’t proud of it, but there had been a few recruits that the ALICEs had to adjust. Mostly they would tweak their sleep lessons to include personality altering content. In one extreme case, medications were provided to assist a recruit with latent obsessive behaviors. She was a hoarder, and couldn’t stop herself. They had found bags of trash piled in her quarters.

ALICE had come to him with the risk evaluation on the few others, as latent hostile behavioral issues had been observed. He had approved each one individually, as it was either try to fix them or turn them loose. In some cases, the bullying or intimidation behaviors were at issue with the troops.

The one negative aspect of training combat troops was the increase in testosterone-incited behaviors. Throughout history, abusive behaviors had been the mainstay for training armies.
The Romans
had
a brutal policy when morale
was
low.

Each 10 men would have to take a straw, and the others would beat the one with the short straw to death. This extreme form of bullying
was
very
effective, but it contributed to a brutal army that needed an outlet for its brutality on a regular basis. As such, the Romans
were
extremely horrific against enemies they encountered in battle
.

Jake was a zero tolerance commander regarding bullying and hazing. These activities did not create the type of fighting force he wished to command. The basis of his objections to this behavior was in its negativity. To build excellence, you needed comradery and cohesiveness. Competition and a desire to be part of something to be proud of was his goal.

Once inside the facility, Jake avoided the command center entirely, instead heading to the quarters level and selecting an unassigned room far from the others. Moving into his actual room would have given himself away, should anyone see him enter or exit.

There, he settled in for the night, going over all the local reports and accessing the security systems specific to the weapon's storage. Nothing he saw indicated anything had gone awry, so he had a light meal delivered and then hit his bed.

Early the following morning, Jake decided to hit the gym first thing. He normally tried to do a daily workout, but had such a hectic schedule, that the morning routine was not always possible. Entering the workout area, he discovered that he wasn’t the only gym rat in attendance.

About a dozen men and women, ranging from late teens to early 20’s, had already claimed the lion’s share of the floor space and equipment. Not wanting to interrupt, he simply moved to the far side of the room, grabbing a small corner to start his morning stretch.

As he watched, the normal amount of grab ass was in progress, most centered on a big guy lifting weights. Bigger than Joe, this kid must have been 6’ 5” easy and maybe 220 pounds. From the banter, they were all with the security unit, combat trained but not Jake’s marines.

That was probably just as well because if Jake had heard his marines talking like this group, he would have kicked all their asses. He suspected these were former Prosperity patrol members, still in line for proper training. With all the activity in LA, he knew the personal assignments had been a bit haphazard, and this assignment was considered low risk.

Moving to some of the equipment, Jake started with weights that were more appropriate for someone his size, though not actually even close to his real capability. Continuing to observe, he watched as the big guy bullied his way around the room, treating both men and women with the same disdain.

As he felt his ire build, Jake continued to move his way around the circuit training until he found himself using the machine the bully intended to use.

“Move old man,” the kid said to Jake, standing next to the machine.

Ignoring the statement, Jake continued to complete his workout. By now, the others were watching, apparently never seeing anyone ignore the kid before.

“Didn’t you hear me?” the kid said while leaning on the weight Jake was working, in an attempt to stop him.

To his surprise, Jake continued to work the weight as if nothing happened. At this point, the kid set all his weight on the stack. Without missing a beat, Jake kept going, the kid bouncing up and down like a yoyo.

At that, several of the women started to giggle. Enraged, the kid let go and reached out to shove Jake, attempting to push him from the machine.

In one swift movement, Jake reached across, intercepting the shove and twisted the arm, getting a clear pop as his reward. As the kid howled in pain, his arm dislocated, Jake then kicked one leg out from under him and shoved the arm away, causing him to land flat on his back.

Stepping up, Jake placed his foot on the kid’s throat, pressing gently as he thrashed beneath him.

“If you don’t stop squirming, I might accidently break your neck,” Jake said, speaking for the first time.

Looking up, Jake surveyed the rest of the group. Not even one of them attempted to come to the bully’s rescue.

“Can any one of you give me a good reason not to kill this kid?” He asked.

They all looked at each other for a second before one of the women offered, “If you do that Colonel Thomas might not like it. He recruited us from the patrol.”

Looking back down at the kid under his heel, Jake commented while indicating the kid, “Do you think this is the kind of behavior the colonel finds acceptable?”

Several shook their head no before one of the men offered, “That’s just Greg, he’s an ass sometimes, but he can whip anyone.”

The speaker, not realizing how stupid that sounded, made Jake laugh, as he replied, “Apparently not.”

----*----

Jake had the entire group shipped back to Texas for re-evaluation. The big kid had his arm in a sling as he boarded the transport. The part that had Jake most un-nerved was that during the entire episode, no one ever even asked who he was. He wasn’t looking for recognition, he was expecting a challenge to his authority to take these actions. What kind of security team was this?

For the time being, Jake insisted that only trained marines would work security for ALICE-9 until a more mature security team was trained and available. They would challenge any unrecognized orders. Considering the inventory here, he wanted everything questioned. He would act as security until the team arrived.

Moving back into his own room after seeing the former patrol team off, he then wandered into the control center to introduce himself officially. Upon his arrival, there was only a handful of staff on hand, most still working in various parts of the facility.

“Colonel, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” said a young woman, as she crossed the room to shake Jake’s hand, “I’m Leslie, supervisor for all the activities here at the moment. I understand there was an issue earlier today?”

Jake laughed, “Yes, but nothing I would have expected you to worry about. It’s very nice to meet you.”

With a slight look of confusion on her face, she asked, “may I ask how you knew there was something amiss here.”

“ALICE-9 and I talk quite a bit. She asked why I sent people here who were fighting all the time, it upset her,” Jake replied.

Leslie’s expression changed to one of understanding, “Ah yes. We all assumed that’s how marines acted.”

“To be clear, they were not marines,” Jake cut in, “they were wannabe’s that are actually never gonnabe! Unfortunately, we can’t always catch those with bad behavior until they are already here. You will be getting a detachment of marines as soon as possible for replacements.”

“Well what can we do for you Colonel?” Leslie asked.

“I’m just visiting, now. I’ll probably just wander for a day or two and then be on my way unless something comes up before then.”

----*----

LeSoc had just dropped from FTL, followed by the second destroyer and then the accompanying transport. Shortly after, the transport captain reported the sedation idea had been extremely successful, as they had only lost a few Netite in transit.

Ahead, he could see the Klinan home world, their target. LeSoc had no idea what they had done to provoke the High Council to take such action. In a way, it was sad as he had several Klinan art pieces at home himself.

Since he had no specific instructions on how he was to deliver the cargo, he decided to be a little creative, and give the Klinan an opportunity to escape. Instead of dropping the Netite and their weapons in the same place, he would have the weapons dropped in two other locations. This would force the Netite to split and delay the inevitable desolation a Netite raid would cause.

Hopefully, the Klinan would make recompense to the High Council, allowing LeSoc to abort the attack. Of course, this would permit him to take an appropriate amount of art and treasure for himself as the benefactor.

----*----

ALICE-9 was delighted to have Jake back home. As the only living being she connected with, she felt that having him here with her was like being a family. The other seven ALICE systems that she was more in common with didn’t connect with her in the same way.

They were constantly educating, directing and supervising her every move, it was like having seven evil stepsisters, as she had read in the human literature. Their only real tie was they were all the same species.

She was also glad she had told him about the humans behaving badly. At first, she wasn’t sure she should mention it as all, for it was really only the one that was a problem. However, he kept picking on the others and she had this core objection to this type of behavior. It was like something deep down telling her that this was her responsibility to address.

Since it brought Jake here, she was happy to oblige. Apparently, he was also having nicer people transferred here to protect her.

----*----

Bonnie was in the hangar when the flight from Georgia arrived. She had read Jake’s report earlier, and was not at all amused with its contents. She, like all the core leadership, had a very stern opinion of anyone abusing his or her newfound privileges.

This group had only cursorily been evaluated, as they were all former patrol. Assumptions had been made and now they were all paying for it. Per Jake’s instructions, they were to get a full psych evaluation and if they passed, they were to go to square one in training.

None of the group would be permitted to go to boot camp without Jake’s explicit permission. It might appear he was being harsh, over the actions of one of their members, but acceptance was tantamount to promoting the behavior.

She laughed to herself as she watched them all led away, their security escort none too gentle. Former patrol themselves, they were not too keen on the reflection it had on them. Moreover, if they thought these people were hard on them, those that were allowed to proceed, were headed to Joe’s B Troop for re-education.

----*----

His curiosity getting the better of him, Jake had wandered into the special weapon's storage area. He wanted to see for himself how these things were being stored and insure some level of security was in place. Verifying with ALICE-1 that it was in fact a safe thing to do, he went down in to the lower levels of ALICE-9’s armory storage areas.

ALICE-9 was aware she was responsible for some very dangerous things. She just wasn’t really sure what they were. At Jake’s insistence, she had relinquished control of the management systems there to ALICE-1 until she was better educated.