From: pjd@hpespjd.fc.hp.com (Paul Dorweiler)
Subject: Space Cadets  episode 26
Summary:  RUN!
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1992 06:11:08 GMT
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Company, Fort Collins, CO
Keywords: Pant

Spaaaaaaaaace Cadets, episode #26: "Get Me to the Ship on Time"

<This will most likely be the last episode before Christmas.  Happy holidays, 
 everyone.   -- pjd>

===============================================================================

{Dohram and Andrea had fallen into a Gizmonics trap.}

"HALT!  ANY ATTEMPTS TO MOVE, AND WE WILL SHOOT!"

{Andrea had heard the small crackle when Dohram's exosuit engaged its
 protective shields after detecting weapons pointed at him.  She knew she
 wouldn't be able to get within that shield without his lowering it.  In the
 split second she had, she noticed an open second-story window just off to her
 right, and took off at full speed toward it, leaping up and through the
 window before any of the Gizmo police could get a clean shot at her.

 Dohram barely had time to notice the blur of Andrea to his right before he
 realized what was happening.  He felt the exosuit's screens deflect the
 rather harmless stun bolts -- it had been designed to protect against much
 more powerful weapons, after all.  Seeing Andrea dive through the window,
 he jumped for a roof, using the exosuit to assist, and on his way up dropped
 a stun grenade with a short timer.

 *FOOM*

 Dohram hit the roof and rolled upright.  Peering over the ledge, it appeared
 all of the police below were unconscious.  His suit display via his telepathic
 implants showed two craft moving toward him.  As he turned he was hit by a
 much more powerful stun beam.  The shielding held, and he pulled out his
 rifle and fired a plasma round into the bottom of the closest aircar.  As he
 whirled to shoot the second aircar, it was already spiraling to the ground.
 On the roof across from him was Andrea, weapon in hand.

 Dohram jumped for the other roof, landed and rolled upright.}

D: "How did you move so fast?  I mean, first you jump to a second story window,
    and then you're five flights up on the roof in the same time it took me to
    leap to that building's roof with my suit...?"

A: "They didn't just enhance our personalities and sex drives.  I told MROC
    I'd tell you some day when you could handle it, but can it wait?  We'd
    better get out of here."

D: "Uh, yeah.  Let's get to the Shark."

{Dohram, however, was very distraught over this new revelation about Andrea..}

===============================================================================

(By this time the hull crews were getting close to finishing the repairs on
 the small and larger "wounds" caused by my bigger AI-brother.  MROC had gone
 back to spending most of his time on the GGPlat, so I had the sensors back
 to myself.  Trouble was, I was starting to get a little worried.  It seemed
 like the transport's engines were getting awfully 'warm' for a ship still
 fifteen hours from departure.  Unless these Gizmonics bozos liked wasting
 valuable fuel, I was beginning to believe this transport was lifting off,
 and soon.  I brought the Shark engines almost online, and decided I'd better
 warn Dohram about this.)

#Dohram, I'm starting to believe this transport is gonna lift off soon.

#What makes you suspect that, MORC?

(Dohram later told me since I was so young he didn't put much faith in my
 conclusions back then..)

#They're warming up both the sublight engines and hyperfold generators, and
 the antigravs look ready to operate right now.

#Can you estimate how long until the sublight drive is ready?

#About twenty minutes, at their current rate of precharge.

#Have MROC double-check everything, and then get back to me.  Andrea and I
 will have to REALLY hurry to make it back in time.

#Okay.

{Dohram and Andrea had been moving somewhat more quickly since getting out of
 the main city center.}

D: "Andrea, it looks like that transport might be lifting off soon.  Can you
    run faster than a normal human for an extended period?"

{The look on Dohram's face told Andrea everything she had feared.  Dohram had
 begun to look at her as something other than a normal human female.}

A: "Yes."

{Dohram switched active powercells on the exosuit, and studied his telepathic
 map for a few seconds.  He plotted the shortest course to the outside of the
 city, in the hopes that even though it would be a longer overall distance to
 cover, they might stand less of a chance at being spotted outside the city.

D: "Alright, then.  Keep your weapon handy, and follow me.  I guess we'll just
    have to risk being spotted by patrols."

{Dohram engaged the exosuit's muscle assists and began to run at about twice
 normal human speed.  Andrea had to struggle to maintain that pace, and after
 Dohram noticed this, he slowed to about 1.5 times normal human speed.  The
 two ran through side streets to the outside of the city, scaled a wall and
 began running outside the city at a slightly higher pace.

 "I just hope we don't draw them to us before they realize we're on that
  transport ship," Dohram thought as he ran....}

===============================================================================

(By now MROC had verified my conclusions, and was monitoring Dohram and 
 Andrea's progress toward the spaceport.)

* Okay, MORC, we're going to need to create a diversion at this spaceport to
  keep them from noticing Dohram and Andrea until it's too late.

$ Huh?

* Just listen up.  There's a destroyer five hundred meters roughly east of
  you.  I'm going to send the Eeel over there and start to overload one of
  its fusion reactors.  If we time it just right, they'll have to get this
  transport off the ground to protect it from the explosion, and hopefully
  once it's off the surface, they'll just send the transport on its mission.

$ I guess.  The logic of that is just a bit beyond me right now.

* You'll learn, MORC.  It took me over a year to gain advanced reasoning
  skills, and only with a lot of help from Dohram.

{Once I'd estimated the arrival of Dohram and Andrea at the spaceport, I sent
 the Eeel to the destroyer, and it started burrowing through the hull.  Soon
 it was burrowing inside the ship, and reached a fusion reactor.  It then
 weakened one of the magnetic containment fields.  If the rate of decay was 
 right, the field would be near critical a few minutes after Dohram and Andrea
 were at the spaceport.}

===============================================================================

{Andrea was beginning to feel fatigue.  She could run at this "enhanced" pace
 for short bursts, but this was too long a run.  Suddenly Dohram stopped in
 front of her.}

D: "AIRBORNE PATROL!  HEAD FOR THOSE BUSHES!"

{The two of them crowded together under a patch of dense shrubbery, and Dohram
 killed their heat signatures with the exosuit.  His available power was too
 low for a cloaking field.}

#MORC, we've been slowed down.

#I'm back, boss.  Unfortunately, I started a fusion containment field decay on
 a destroyer not too far from the transport, and I won't be able to slow it
 down.

#MROC!  What possessed you to do that?!?

#It seemed a good way to get the transport off the ground with you two before
 they realized where you'd gone.  Running that fast will only serve to get you
 spotted.

#Heh -- too late.

{The patrol aircar passed around the curve.}

D: "Okay, let's get going."

A: "Dohram -- I can't run that fast."

D: "You've got to.  No time to explain."

{The two set off again.}

===============================================================================

{Soon they were approaching the spaceport.  What little I could sense of
 Andrea's vitals worried me.  She seemed to be beyond her limit of physical
 exertion.  If she kept it up she'd have a heartattack soon.}

#Dohram!  Andrea needs to rest!

#How long before liftoff?

#They've alerted the whole spaceport.  Best estimate is this transport lifts
 off in three minutes, maybe less.

{Dohram checked his exosuit power supply.}

#I don't think I've got enough for a cloak...

{Andrea stopped running and collapsed to the ground.}

#Frac!  MROC, there's one more powercell in the Shark.  Can you have the Eeel
 meet me with it close to the transport?

#Done.  Get her here, Dohram.  She's in bad shape.

{Dohram picked up Andrea.  He checked her pulse, and didn't like what he felt.
 He ran up to the edge of the spaceport, and then switched on the cloaking
 field while running to the transport.  His "eyes" were on the powercell
 indicator the entire time.}

#Eeel is near those large crates to your left.

{Dohram dived for the crates.  As he reached them, his powercell died.  His
 vitals weren't much better than Andrea's.  That exosuit doesn't necessarily
 make it easier on him, just allows him to do more than an "ordinary" human.}

#I can feel the antigravs.  How long?

#Less than a minute.  Hurry!

{Dohram threw out his spent powercells, then grabbed the one from the Eeel,
 hooked it up, and picked up Andrea again.  With the cloaking field back on,
 he leapt as hard as he could, and used a tractor to get to the upper surface
 of the transport.  He then ran toward the Shark.  I kept the Eeel just
 behind him.

 Twenty-two seconds later, the transport began to lift off.  Dohram was still
 over a hundred meters from the Shark.  He switched off the cloaking field
 and activated the magnetics in his boots.  It took him several minutes, and
 more than once he almost dropped Andrea, but he made it to the Shark and
 collapsed into the pilot's seat with Andrea on top of him.  I closed the
 canopy.  Somehow it shut.

 Unfortunately, Dohram then passed out, and Andrea's heart was close to
 fibrillating...}

===============================================================================

Can MROC or MORC somehow help Andrea?  Will she die in the hands of Dohram
while he is unconscious?  And will the transport leave the system before
Gizmonics realizes they are aboard?

Better order that pizza and wait for the next heart-wrenching episode of:

SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCE  CAAAAAAAAAAADDDDDDDDDDDDETSS!!!!

 
Dohram
Official Hobbes of the RFA, Dennis Mukai gallery owner
(and eternal bachelor... not necessarily by choice, for those who've asked)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Dorweiler  (Dohram) | Hobbes: "I don't know.  What did it sound like?"
pjd@hpespjd.fc.hp.com    | Calvin: "Sort of like breathing and drooling and
Hewlett-Packard Company  |          ripping the meat off human bones!"    
Fort Collins, CO         | Both:   "YAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!"         
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