Riding the Red Horse (51 page)

On the other hand, these were the Phase Two nanobots—suitable for field injection to stabilize a patient for transport and delays in getting to surgery. If John needed them for that reason, then the storm must have been much more severe than he thought. It was beginning to look like there was very wide-spread damage and casualties. He needed to find out what had happened.

Toby tried to log in before he even sat down at the desk, but mis-keyed the login and had to try again. He succeeded on the second attempt—once fully seated - but was challenged by an additional screen which demanded confirmation of his credentials. He figured that the additional authorization was prompted by his missed login or by the fact that he hadn't been logged in for several weeks, and promptly forgot about it.

Before checking the messages in the folder, he wanted to learn more about the storm. Unfortunately, the network appeared to only be partially active—with very few external sites active. The weather forecast application appeared current, but did not have any indications about the storm. The typical news sites were inaccessible and even the Current News block of the medical center page showed news from a week ago.

Just then he heard the sound of footsteps running through the office cluster. He looked out the door of the office and saw two individuals hurrying through the office. One was a red-faced young man in a hospital security uniform; the other appeared to be in a military uniform. The guard stopped at Toby's door and tried to catch his breath, the soldier didn't appear to be winded. The guard waved a hand in Toby's direction and gasped, "Doctor (pant) Tobias (pant) Greene?"

"Yes, I am Toby Greene."

"Sir, (pant) can I confirm (pant) your ID?" Toby showed him his medical center badge and pulled out his driver's license. After checking the name and picture, the security officer nodded to the soldier, who keyed his radio headset, "Lt. Greene, he's here." There was a pause as the officer listened to a voice in his earpiece. "Yes, sir. I'll ask, sir." Looking at Toby, he continued, "Dr. Greene, my Lieutenant asks 'do you have nanobots'?"

"Lieutenant… William C. Greene?" Toby asked. "My son?"

"Yes, sir, he did mention that," The soldier replied. "Sir, I have orders to get you to the helipad as soon as possible. The nanobots?"

Toby pointed at the two cases. The soldier looked at the still-panting guard, who shook his head. The soldier made a slight grimace and got back on the radio. "Lt. we have two large cases. I will need assistance." A pause, "Yes sir, at least three people."

The soldier wore medic's insignia. When he was off of the radio, Toby asked, "The helipad? Is it a trauma case? I'm not really on call, I've been on leave."

"Sorry sir, I think we need let the Lieutenant brief you. I was just told to bring you, the nanobots and to tell you it was a 'Phase Three Situation'."

Phase Three. That wasn't a hospital code;
Phase
didn't really mean anything in that context, unless it referred to the nanobot Phase Three…

Damn you, Max. What have you done?… and how did you get Billy involved?
Toby stood up from behind his desk and addressed the guard, Son, catch your breath, and open that other crate, there's a pry bar on the floor where my colleague left it." Toby eyed the name and rank on the soldier's uniform. "Sergeant… Wohlrab… it will take two people each per crate, and it will be slow and awkward. You have three more people coming?" Sergeant Wohlrab nodded. "Good, you can each carry two cylinders. Might as well get them out of the packing and ready to go."

As the two started unpacking the crates, Toby grabbed his white coat and the black 'doctor bag' that he always kept behind the door. The bag was actually a gym bag containing a change of clothes, toiletries and a set of clean scrubs, but it also held a basic set of few medical instruments and he kept it ready for emergency calls that involved heading out to accident and emergency sites.

Three more soldiers arrived at the office, one of them wearing officer insignia. "Billy?"

"Dad, are we glad to see you." Toby and his son exchanged a quick handshake and hug. "I'll brief you as we go, but we have to hurry." He spoke into his own radio. " 'Empress', this is 'Kermit', dust-off in ten minutes, one-zero minutes, keep it low and fast, there's still Grunts about."

"Billy, what's going on?"

"No time, Dad, we have to move." Each of the soldiers grabbed two cylinders, and the security guard opened doors as the six men hurried down the stairs and across the top of the parking deck to the helicopter landing pad. There was a small hanger for emergency maintenance or in case a medical transport had to outwait bad weather. They waited just inside the open hanger door as Billy continued to explain.

"It's a new war, Dad, and this time it is aliens, just like in your old sci-fi books you let me read."

"Aliens, what aliens?" Toby was confused—even as a boy, Billy had seldom lied and never made up stories, but this was a bit too much to believe.

"Remember the 'Comet', Dad? The one that wasn't really a comet? Didn't you see the news?" Toby thought. The Comet? That was what the headlines were about?" He looked quizzically at Billy, who nodded in return. "Well, they have a weapon --

Billy was interrupted by a voice on the radio, "Kermit, this is Empress, on approach. Make it quick, I've got Grunts on my tail." Toby raised an eyebrow and mouthed 'Kermit?' Billy gave a quick laugh and replied, "Well, Dad, you've always told me that it isn't easy being a Greene. Captain Sullivan… 'Empress'… gave me that call sign." The moment of shared humor was brief, and Billy turned to pick up his share of the cylinders and motioned for the other soldiers to do the same. "We have to be fast. The aliens have an energy beam that just kills people, the beam touches you; you die… except it doesn't work on everybody. Unfortunately, not enough of our troops are protected. We have to move quickly, Sullivan's got aliens chasing her."

The wind picked up, and a loud
beating
sound signaled the arrival of a large military helicopter. It touched onto the landing pad, but seemed to bounce slightly, and the speed of the turning rotors never lessened. A soldier leaned out, helped him aboard, and handed him a spare helmet. Toby had used them before and knew that trying to talk onboard without the built-in radio would be impossible. He put on the helmet as one crewmember took the cylinders of nanobots and handed them to a crewmember to secure in back of the compartment.

Before Billy and the others could board, he heard female voice over the helmet communicator, "Weapons hot, Grunts incoming. The crewman who had helped Toby into the helicopter moved to a mounted gun at the doorway as Billy climbed aboard. Sergeant Wohlrab and the other two soldiers shouldered their weapons and each took a knee, facing in the direction from which the helicopter arrived. "EMPRESS! Take us UP." Billy had just put on his own helmet, as he shoved his father into a seat and roughly secured him with a harness.

As Billy moved to the mounted gun on the opposite door, Toby could see several black spheres, each less than a meter diameter, floating in the air and moving rapidly toward them. The spheres surrounded the helicopter and began to shoot strange white energy bolts as the helicopter struggled to rise. Billy and the other gunner took aim, and managed to each destroy one sphere, one of the soldiers on the ground also managed to get a sphere, but as Toby watched, three of the bolts touched the soldiers, causing one to drop his rifle and fall over. As the helicopter slowly rose, the bottom of the door began to obscure the scene, but Toby could see the Sergeant take one last shot, reach into a bag at his waist and pull out a syringe. He moved to the injured man, checked him, raised the syringe and… Toby attention was taken by the sight of three energy bolts striking the chopper, two of them passing right through the pilot's seat, from front to back, and with one hitting Billy, and the other hitting Toby himself!

There was a strange sensation of heat, followed by an almost electric shock, but it passed quickly. Toby heard Billy shout "THERESA!" as the chopper started to pitch sideways. He could hear the same female voice from before, whisper "Dragon, take over." Then a cough and fading wheeze. Toby started to unbuckle to help the pilot, but Billy shouted "STAY THERE" and moved to assist her instead. Toby heard Billy mutter, "Wohlrab had all of the Phase Twos, it's too late." The chopper righted, and then bounced up and down rapidly. His son shook his head and crouched down to grab onto the floor of the chopper. The wind through the open cabin doors picked up as the chopper finally gained height and speed under the co-pilot's ministrations. Billy moved back to a seat and slumped down beside his father.

Toby waited a bit, and then put his hand on his son's shoulder. "I'm sorry, son. Is that the weapon? I don't understand what happened, why didn't it affect you or me?"

Instead of answering, Billy looked straight ahead, and then changed the subject without even looking at his father. "General Odle and Doctor Geuiszlerr have been worried about you. You didn't answer your phone or pager, and the satellites aren't working right, so we didn't know if you didn't—or couldn't—get the message. I went out to the cabin but you had already left."

"Is that what this is about? Max Odle needs me to patch up more boys and girls to send them out to get blown up again? And he drafted you to do it?" Toby had gone from curious, to alarmed, to pleased to see his son, to panicked, to afraid all in the course of a few minutes. A headache was starting, centered just behind his left eye and the jarring ride brought back all of the stress and strain he'd been experiencing before his relaxing interlude.

"No Dad, it's not like that. It's more like 'help us Obi-Wan, you're our only hope'." He finally turned toward his father. "That's the weapon, Dad, and
you
are our hope. The reason it didn't affect you and me is because we've both got your nanobots in us. Most people it hits, like Empress, suffer immediate hemorrhage and organ failure. Some just act like they're drugged, and if we're fast enough, medics like 'Doc' Wohlrab can save them with your Phase Two nanobots. We don't know how it works; only what it does."

"So you need me for what, exactly?"

"Well, General Odle and Dr. Geuiszlerr said you were working on a Phase Three nanobot, one that would be protective. We now know that the soldiers who survive are the ones that
you've
put back together, or least ones who have had treatments based on your nanobots. We've lost a quarter of our armed forces—hell, we've probably lost at least ten percent of the population—but we have between ten and fifteen percent of our troops who are totally immune, and EVERY ONE is because of you. We can survive, and we can fight back—and we
do
fight back. These aliens aren't omnipotent, they just have different weapons."

There was a sense of pride in Billy's voice. Toby thought of the implications of the hundreds of people he had operated upon using his surgical nanobots—just like Billy and Max. Most of them still had a residual amount of the devices remaining in their bodies; some had even received the nanobots for less traumatic reasons, such as the chest pains Toby himself had experienced. He had treated and saved hundreds, his colleagues, thousands. Around the world it might even add up to millions.

"I've got some Phase Three nanobots, Billy, in one of those cylinders back there." Toby motioned over his shoulder to wear the cylinders were secured against the up, down and sideways jarring as the helicopter flew as close to the ground as it could get. "But it's not enough. I suppose I can reprogram the Phase Two's; there are certainly enough of those."

Billy smiled, and took his father's hand. "That's exactly what we need. General Odle told me to get you; Dr. Geuiszlerr said to get the nanobots. With that, we have a chance. Anyone gets hit by this new weapon and the nanobots go to work healing the damage, blocking the effects, and we get on with our jobs. Healing is our weapon, and you are our armorer."

Max had once told him, "They also serve, who forge the armor and beat the swords." The helicopter was approaching the base, and Toby could see plenty of activity, unlike the cities and towns. From what Billy had said, every one of them was a person that Toby had directly or indirectly affected; that he had armed and armored to fight for their very lives and existence.

It had been a month since Toby had come back from vacation. The alarms sounded every day, and there was a constant stream of vehicles—both ground and air—in and out of the base. Toby hadn't had a nightmare in weeks. He was
part
of the war, now, and he finally understood.

We also serve.

Today was a different alarm. This time the base was under attack.

The troops were calm as each assumed a station somewhere on the base. Toby had since learned that the aliens appeared in a few different configurations, most were the orb-like 'Grunts' armed only with the killing beam, much more rare where the 'Officer' class devices armed with explosive weaponry, the source of the 'lightning' Toby had seen many weeks ago. Finally, there was the 'Command' unit that had appeared as a comet to Earthbound astronomers. They'd never learned whether there was a central, organic intelligence behind them, or if the machines
were
the aliens.

He watched the troops assemble—soldiers he'd treated, in one fashion or another. Now he understood why the kids he patched up would go back into combat—because it was their choice to
serve
. Today they held fast, calmly standing up to the Grunts, whose weapons were totally ineffective against the humans. Guns, tanks and aircraft zeroed on the few Officer units, and were holding their own against those heavier units…

. . . and for the first time, the aliens retreated from a field of battle.

I also serve
, thought Toby.
We all do
.

Being an honest and humble man, Tom asked me to take the controls for a moment concerning the introduction to his contribution to this, the first volume in what will be an annual series of military fact and science fiction.—Vox Day