Almost simultaneously, the black powered defense suit wearing troops surrounding them powered down their weapons, throwing the crater into silence.
"What?" Junior was certain he had misheard the man. Maybe people from Earth Prime used different words, words that sounded just like EcoHope 11 words, words that sounded nice but meant something like "You will be executed painfully and slowly."
"You can look over the books yourself, Sir, but in short, rank in the Earth Prime Protection Force is determined by birth or by combat. A day ago Stevens here," he gestured to the pile of debris that had been, at one time, a very expensive piece of military equipment, "Killed our former Fleet Colonel, usurping his rank. This right extends to all Faithful citizens of the Benevolent States United."
"But I'm not . . . "
"Sir, the regulations specify that the rank challenger must not be a registered Un-Faithful, which you are not, and that he or she be a citizen of an Earth Prime city or protectorate, which EcoHope 11 is, following its recent designation as a mineral holding."
Junior sat back down and cradled his head in his hands.
"What do you mean,'commanding officer'?" Dank stepped up.
McComb turned to him and said, "Your friend here is in charge," he was still smiling, "as long as he continues to fulfill the mission requirements."
"Junior is in charge of all these people?" Trixie May gestured around the circle of troops, all obediently standing at attention."
"No," McComb clarified, "We are from the Carrier Ship designated BSU G5493, which," he glanced down at his screen, "you'd be able to see as a fleck of light across the sky right about now if the atmosphere would be a little clearer. Is it always so dingy?"
"Some nights we can see stars," Trixie May answered.
"That's good," McComb continued, "'Junior', as you called him is in charge of that ship, as befits his rank of Fleet Colonel, which contains over two thousand officers and crew in addition to these men. Additionally, he controls another three similarly staffed and equipped vessels which await us along our return path to Earth Prime."
"Can I just order you to leave?" Junior asked.
"We can't just leave," McComb's voice dropped to just above a whisper, "That wouldn't meet your mission goals, which would enable any of these men to challenge and kill you for your rank. Stevens jeopardized the mission by personally fighting you, and you see where that got him."
"I thought Earth Prime was 'Enlightened' and 'Peaceful'?" Trixie May asked.
"The Benevolent States United maintains that peace very, um, aggressively." McComb smiled apologetically before continuing, "Now, I've already relayed the information about Stevens tactical error and lawful replacement back to the people upstairs," he glanced up, "You need to gather that mineral and get these men to the pick up site as soon as possible."
Junior stared.
"We await your orders, Sir," McComb prompted.
Junior looked out over the crowd of heavily armed troopers. Again, he evaluated his chances of making it were he to make a dash for Firebird. Again, muscles tensed for the sprint, he decided against it.
He turned to Dank, "How many of these rocks you got left over?" he asked.
Dank made a big show of rubbing his chin before answering, "I been pickin' 'em 'bout every day since I found the first and it lit my pants on fire. I reckin' I got about fifty pounds of 'em." He finished with an exaggerated salute and a crooked grin.
"What is the best way to get more?" Junior asked, not bothering to return the salute.
"You mean besides diggin'? I figger' draggin' a plow or somethin' would turn up a lot more and faster," Dank offered. To demonstrate, he picked a rock out of the dirt wake created by the sliding black mechanized defense suit. "Here is one!" He smiled and held it up.
Junior walked over to where Bessy's remains lay scattered in a pile. Enlisting Dank's aid, he pulled off a steel shin plate and some carbon wrapped-coolant tubing.
Using the tubing, he tied the shin plate at an angle behind Firebird.
Before restarting the engine, Junior leaned out of the cockpit and advised McComb to have the men follow him, picking up the stones as they were uncovered.
Chapter Twenty Five Interlude
File: Datanet Core Server Delta Kappa Ninety Six, Galactic Natural History, Era: Ancient -0, Human Agriculture, Index Obsolete Practices, Data source Museum of Ineffective Procedures
When agriculture was first developed, simple hand held digging sticks or hoes would have been used in highly fertile areas, such as the banks of the Nile where the annual flood rejuvenates the soil, to create furrows wherein seeds could be sown. In order to regularly grow crops in less fertile areas, the soil must be turned to bring nutrients to the surface.
The domestication of oxen in Mesopotamia, perhaps as early as the 6th millennium BC, provided mankind with the pulling power necessary to develop the plough. The very earliest ploughs were simple scratch-ploughs and consisted of a frame holding a vertical wooden stick that was dragged through the topsoil.
The advent of the steam tractor allowed steam engines to pull ploughs. In the ancient European states, counterbalanced wheeled units were drawn by cables across the fields by pairs of Fowler engines. In ancient America the firm soil of the Plains allowed direct pulling with big Case, Reeves or Sawyer Massey breaking engines. Gang plows of up to 14 bottoms were used. Often these big ploughs were used in regiments of engines, so that there would be ten steamers each drawing a plough. In this way hundreds of acres could get turned over in a day. Only steam engines had the power to draw the big units. When gas engines appeared, they had neither the strength nor the ruggedness compared to the big steamers. Only by reducing the number of shares did the work get done.
Over the next few hours, two things happened.
First, Junior uncovered well over the required amount of Be-Esunium, all of it having been efficiently gathered and stowed in insulated containers aboard the mechanized defense suits.
Also, the people of Impact and the surrounding areas (some of whom had been at the match earlier) started to trickle back into the crater to watch.
A small group had even started clearing the wreckage from Bessy and the fallen EPPF machine.
Junior slowly stopped Firebird's forward motion and hopped down.
"I guess that about does it," he said, extending a hand to Specialist McComb who had, as ordered, been managing the mineral recovery in Firebird's wake.
"Yes, Sir," he replied, firmly grasping and shaking the offered hand.
"Alright," Junior said, waiting as the word hung in a painfully uncomfortable silence.
Eventually, he broke down and continued, "Now what?"
McComb answered, "Now we need to get the ore back to the carrier."
"That sounds good, McComb," Junior smiled, "It's been real nice working with you fellas."
"No, Sir," McComb shook his head, "As our C.O., it is your responsibility to see to the delivery of the Be-Esunium."
"Oh," Junior said, "How do we do that? Do these Beaters fly or somethin'?"
"Nothing like that, Sir," McComb explained, "I just need to call down a support shuttle."
"You do that," Junior nodded assertively.
As McComb climbed into his defense suit to access the long range communications equipment, Junior walked over to where Dank and Trixie May were gathered near the wall of the crater.
"Junior," Trixie May looked concerned, "What are you gonna do?"
"About what? Them?" He tossed a thumb over his shoulder to take in the crowd of troops, "They're harmless. But more importantly that McComb fella is callin' for their pick up shuttle right now so they'll be gone directly."
"I don't know how to break this to you," Dank interjected, "but I don't think they plan to go anywhere without you, boss." He turned the last word into a joke by wrapping a smirk around it.
"Don't you worry about it," Junior tried to make his smile seem confident and self-assured. He was less successful than he would have liked, "Either way this'll all be over before you know it."
He tossed Trixie May a wink and walked back over to discuss with McComb just how quickly these Earth Primers could get themselves out of Impact and out of Junior's life.
You could say Junior had gotten better news before at some point in his life.
