Published: 27 Apr 2023

Explaining the Unexplainable

⚫Corporal Diffuso: Explorer Corps – Trainer/Tester
⚫Dakota: Cadet Sergeant Explorer Corps Academy – Leader of Rescue Team One
⚫Mario: Cadet Corporal Explorer Corps Academy – Member of Rescue Team One
⚫Fairfax: – Senior Private Explorer Corps Member Mountain ISTAZ Team 5
⚫Ajax: – Senior Private Explorer Corps Member Mountain ISTAZ Team 5
⚫Diane: – Specialist Explorer Corps Forest Mountain Team 19
⚫Sean: – Specialist Explorer Corps Forest Mountain Team 19
⚫Alex: – San-San Forest Mountain Team 2 Leader
⚫Andre: – San-San Forest Mountain Team 2 Psionic
⚫Zach: – San-San Forest Mountain Team 2 Mauled right leg
⚫Jordan: – San-San Forest Mountain Team 2
⚫Hoyt: – San-San Forest Mountain Team 2 Sick from Slime Salamander poisoning

Many looked to Andre waiting for him to talk, but no one pushed. Andre chewed on the hunk of lynx on the end of his skewer for a few seconds. Most had eyes full of anticipation and questions while Fairfax, Ajax, and Dakota sent him messages saying he didn’t have to tell the others.

Andre responded without focusing on any of them, ‘Yeah, I do. In many ways, it will be a relief to get this out. I have been slowly sinking into thinking I am going crazy for a while. Thanks to you all, I know better and can explain a few things to the others without dragging the rest of you fully in.’

Andre took a deep breath and gave a sheepish grin. “First off, I… There are no words for the thanks I give to those of you who risked getting to us with supplies.”

This got a series of loud claps from those from his team. At the same time, those from the transport nodded or smiled, but said nothing. Both Diane and Mario tried to be more dismissive but found it impossible since Jordan once again moved to sit on Diane’s lap while Alex draped his arm over Mario’s shoulder.

Andre took another bite, put the skewer down, and took a deep breath. “Those from my team already know some of this, but I want to… well start from scratch. Those from San-San know it is the largest CHZ in the U.S., however, it is not the only CHZ in California. I come from one of the other two, Stock-Desto.”

Diane cocked her head to the side, “Never heard of it.”

“Flown over it,” Mario stated, “Way over it. When I asked why we angled up to almost sub-orbital only to come right back down, my aeronautics instructor said it was considered a hazard, so all academy flights have to go around or high to stay out of restricted airspace. She wouldn’t tell us more even though several asked.”

“Because it’s dangerous,” Andre confirmed. “It was one of the first two CHZs to try to secede during the CHZ succession wars. Most only talk about Pine-Rock, because it was the first. But everything that happened to Pine-Rock also happened to Stock-Desto.”

Sean’s right eyebrow went up, “Pine-Rock was decimated by US federal forces and what was left was turned into a prison, The entire CHZ is a permanent internment detention facility. It is where those who can’t stay out of trouble are shipped… and don’t get to leave.” As others looked at him, he shrugged. “My uncle’s whole family was sent there after he got out of prison and within weeks tried to take a Federal Reserve currency transport with the help of a couple of buddies and their entire families, including my cousin. He was twelve, if he’s still alive, he’d be fourteen by now. But there is no communication in or out without government permission, and my parents will not let me even request one for fear it would get us put on a watch list by CHZ or Federal law enforcement.”

“It would,” Andre stated with certainty. “It would also get your family blacklisted from many promotions. It could even mean a transfer to a lesser position.”

Sean frowned, “How would you know?”

“Because Stock-Desto is also a permanent detention CHZ. Contacting those inside is not looked on favorably by CHZ and federal governments.”

“If it’s permanent, how are you here?” Ajax asked.

“Pure luck.”

Before more could be said, Alex snickered, “Come on, Andre, I picked you as one of my design teammates because you were only one of six hundred who were willing to do a joint final science project and comprehensive report on the collapse of an aquifer. Out of the fifty-nine I really considered, you were the best artist and only you and Meagan had the brains to really co-author it without me doing all the hard work.”

Fairfax glanced over to Alex, “So you are from Stock-Desto too?”

“Technically no, I live in a section attached to the southwest section of Stock-Desto, but officially I am from San-San.” He shrugged after a few uncomfortable moments, “I guess there is no harm in telling you since I am sure my parents will demand to meet and thank you all. My dad is the military engineer garrison commander for the Western quarter of the U.S., Senior General Jules Radosevich. My mom is the federally appointed Administrator. Her title is Governor, but it isn’t an elected position like most CHZ governors.”

As those from the transport all stared, Alex, grinned and snickered, “I bet both my folks are giving the Explorer Corps fits because they lost me. I’m equally certain the Corps will be forced to find a way to thank you all. Mom will make them.” He chuckled again. “Unless she got stuck behind the walls of Stock-Desto because she killed my dad for signing the forms for me to attend ISTAZ without bodyguards and extra supply drops.”

Andre laughed, “She tried to get both. I was there.”

“The Corps wasn’t willing to budge, though.” Alex continued to smile, “Which is what I wanted, and my dad finally caved and gave his reluctant blessing. But everyone on this team was carefully vetted, well, except Andre. There is very little to vet for those inside Stock-Desto because no one is ever supposed to leave. I begged mom into letting him come see me in person. But Andre’s work on our project did most of the talking for me.”

Andre took over again, “So yeah, there you have it. I was never supposed to leave Stock-Desto, ever… But a couple of times a year we get a chance to communicate with the outside world through school. I didn’t know till I met Alex face to face, but the program is something Alex’s mom established.

“The idea is simple enough. We are put on a complicated joint science project with a kid or kids from outside the CHZ. From what I found out later, all our interactions are monitored closely. Many are cut off because they complain, talk too much about the CHZ, or try to get messages out to others through project mates. However, if a kid seems to stand out, well, we get a chance at being sponsored for a single stint on Adventure Quest. If the kid does well, they get an offer to be put in an orphanage outside of Stock-Desto. Normally San-San.

“While it wasn’t the first time, we got a chance to do this, I had one of my ‘weird Andre moments’. I feel it in my gut. It is normally a warning. But this was different. It was more like a calling. My holo-teacher told us about the joint project. As with all of these joint projects, he warned us we were not supposed to talk about being from a prison CHZ. But he also made it clear everyone was supposed to put their names on six possible projects to cooperate with some from the outside. I put my name on those I thought would be the hardest. I don’t know why, but trusting my gut had kept me alive in the CHZ up to then, so… Well I spent extra time on every potential project. But one stood out. It was, well it looked like it was a ‘what if’, but again, I stared at it and knew, I just knew this was not a ‘what if’. It was real, and it was terrifying. I put my heart into it. Pissed off my mom, and dad, and almost got me fired from my after-school part-time job as a food processor repair apprentice. I didn’t care. Well, I did, but the more I dug in, the more I was sure this was not imaginary. Lives were at stake.”

“What was it?” Diane demanded to know.

Andre glanced over to Alex, “Am I allowed?”

“Yeah, but make sure you continue to say you are sure because your gut said so, not because it really is.”

“Which means Andre is right, and you can’t say it,” Fairfax fired back.

Alex smirked, “Never said he was wrong, not once. But neither did I say his gut is right. I will let him do that. You can all decide.”

“OK, so what did your gut tell you, Andre?” Mario pleaded.

“I’ll get there in a second.”

“We gave him the floor,” Ajax all but snarled, “let him tell it his way.”

“Chill, Ajax,” Fairfax barked, “I’m as curious as Mario.” He then glanced over to Mario, “But let me give you a heads up, we are both touchy when it comes to others who want to talk about who they are. We don’t get many chances. It frustrates the crap out of me when someone brushes off who I am to find out something about what I might know.”

“I’d put it a lot stronger,” Ajax grumbled.

Mario cringed, “Sorry.”

Andre glanced back and forth between the Double Xs before glancing over at Mario. “It’s OK.”

“No it’s not,” Fairfax retorted. “And believe it or not, Ajax and me understand what it’s like to be a nobody, and how… not sure what the word or words are, but just feels real good to be able to talk about who we are and have people listen. So take this at your pace.”

Alex also eyed the Double Xs. “I look forward to getting to find out more about you. But I see your points. Take this at your speed, Andre.”

“Sure, but before I say more I’ll make sure we’ll give you all the chances you want to let us get to know you guys,” Andre stated with a genuine smile, “And thanks. Just being allowed to talk about this in my own way, is like a weight being pulled off me.”

He rolled his neck and continued. “So there I was looking at the background information on this project and I knew I had to give it my all. I bet I only got a few hours of sleep the entire week. I drew up basic ideas and plans for the other five projects, but this one… It grabbed me. There were a couple of nights I literally couldn’t sleep as I put my initial presentation together.

“I’m pretty sure my hands were shaking from both fear and exhaustion when I hit submit only a couple of hours before the deadline. A week later I got my first ever communication from outside Stock-Desto. It was Alex, but because of who his parents are, his hologram was blurred.

“I don’t know why. Part of me said they probably blurred the hologram of every kid from outside the CHZ, but… well my gut did its flip thing. It wasn’t the normal gut twitch warning, like telling me to watch out. It was like my insides twisted in a knot. Somehow I knew, I just knew this was my chance to… well I didn’t know what exactly… But it was beyond important I got linked up with Alex on with this project.”

At this point he smiled, “Alex made it easy. Normally we only have thirty minutes of holographic chat a day inside the CHZ. When the time limit came up, he blurred out, but much to my astonishment, he reappeared moments later, with a new clock. This one was zeroed out. He assured me we had all the time I needed or wanted. By the time we finished going over what we thought our best ideas were, it was like I had my first real friend…”

Alex smiled warmly, “I started out terrified about talking to someone inside the CHZ, but as the first clock ran out, I knew… I just knew I had to get to really know Andre. So I yelled at my dad. He gave me an unlimited communication code. I think he was watching the whole time, cause there was no hesitation from him at all. In fact, I don’t think Andre faded all the way out before I had him back.”

“No, your fuzzy form was collapsing like normal then popped back up. It actually scared me for a minute because I thought there was a glitch and I’d get into trouble.” Andre snickered. “But we continued to talk. Food was delivered. We normally only rated one special food delivery per month, but it showed up and it was enough for all of us. Dad tried to refuse, but… the guy shook his head and pushed the whole package into my dad’s arms saying it was military-ordered. There was no way the guy was taking it back!”

“Mom.” Alex snickered. “She came in about two hours in and listened for several minutes. She asked what I thought we could do for you. I said you were talking about getting hungry.”

“I’ll be sure to thank her because I’m pretty sure she bumped our food allotment. We didn’t go hungry again from that night, to when I left to meet you in person.”

“That was Dad. When I showed him what we worked up, he was impressed. He overrode your family rations to four kids, so you all could get three meals a day. But he said he sent a warning. It would only stay active as long as your folks keep to your new family allotment.”

“Oh, he did. But it was from CHZ central government, not him. It said that Dad and Mom could have two more once two of us moved out and they would keep the four kid and two adult food allocation.”

“My dad’s pretty cool that way. And once we really got going, mom kicked in a few extra deliveries too.”

“Again, I will have to thank them both. So, since I now can finally feel free to talk about this, which one sent in the crew with the nicer doors, locks, new note-puters for me and my sisters, and installed the advanced sonic pest repeller units?”

“Me. I saw a rat run across your bed the second time we chatted and asked you about the black eye the third time. When you said your house got hit because of extra food and rats were a nuisance, I called a buddy of mine whose dad works for CHZ emergency maintenance.” A malicious twist of his lips followed, “And had a couple of other parents of friends of mine deal with the five bullies you told me about… They won’t be back to bother your sisters… nor will the gangs they belonged to… ever.”

“Geesh, thanks Alex, but I don’t think you get it no matter what I tried to tell you. Those gangs…”

“Became live fire practice missions for elite federal special forces anti-terrorism insertion teams.”

As eyes went wide all around the campfire, Alex’s eyes glinted and his grin turned purely evil, “I told a certain someone about the problem and hinted two of those who had beaten on you had overheard our conversation and may screw up our project. Because of this, they took no chances of harm coming to you or your family. They went in with EWEPs.”

Mario gulped, but managed to wheeze out, “Do I want to know what an EWEP is?”

If a look could terrify a demon, Alex had it as he stated, “Elimination With Extreme Prejudice orders.”

“Oh, crap!” Ajax gasped out. “I could really get to like you, Alex!”

Diane found herself having to force herself to breathe, “Yeah, but… Dammmmn!”

Alex continued to grin, but shrugged, “Son of a four-star general and cadet officer in Junior Rangers with more than a few friends with parents in special forces… high up in special forces. So, yeah, problem solved… Sorry, Andre didn’t mean to steal your thunder.”

It took a few seconds and deep breaths before Andre managed to find his voice, “Wow… um… just wow…. So um, anyway, after that, anything I say is going to be real boring…”

“No, it won’t,” Diane assured Andre. “Hopefully not as… deadly… but certainly not boring!”

“EWEP… Geesh… are we even supposed to know what that means…” Andre held up his hand, “Don’t answer. I don’t think I want to know…. So yeah, we got a new ultrafast pico-bit resolution hologram projector and a huge holoviewer so I could collaborate fully with Alex and Wynter, a girl from Stock-Desto. Unlimited communication time let us develop an extensive backdrop of the project all done over vids. The third time through we ended up with scientific advisors asking us questions to see if we really understood what we submitted. Meagan didn’t do so well, so she was dropped to a consultant role. Then it happened… I got a message to report to tower transport. It was the middle of the day. I was in class… all hundred and ninety-six kids stared as the holo-teacher told me to go to maglift 9 for priority transport. I got there and saw Alex’s unblurred hologram for the first time. He asked me and Meagan to help draw up a full development project along with graphs and charts of a… rescue project of sorts…”

Andre took a deep breath then eyed the others including those on his team, “Remember, this is my gut talking, not facts, OK?”

After getting nods from everyone, he let out another uneasy breath. “I got on a military transport. We picked up Meagan at another tower and… I about pissed myself as I saw the transport take us up and over the west wall of Stock-Desto. Both Meagan and I cried as we wondered if we were in serious trouble. But nope. We were taken to a special intake where we were given a full medical, and dental got a whole battery of shots, and were scanned at least three times for weapons. New clothing was made for us, high quality right off the machines and we even got to pick colors. It was like a dream come true… We then flew into the most heavily armed and gorgeous compounds I have ever seen… Well until we got to check out the forest floor of Dal-Houston…”

“Forest floor of Dal-Houston had to be one of the best places on Earth,” Sean stated.

The others all nodded in full agreement.

“Pup!” Andre agreed with no hesitation. “But not as heavily guarded as where Alex lives! Anyway, we were taken to meet face-to-face with Alex. The meeting was like… wow… I can’t even tell you. We hugged… His mom and dad smiled, asked us some questions and we were given guest billeting. Over the next three weeks, we were able to finalize the first rendition of the science project. It was… is… how to prevent the total collapse of dozens of CHZs.”

“What!?!” Mario shouted while everyone else let out gasps.

“Our original project was to come up with ideas for stabilizing several towers on the ground that were becoming unpredictable. Pylons that go down to bedrock were not enough, the hypothetical was the ground was being turned into something akin to quicksand. The more we dug in, asked questions and got feedback, I realized… well, my gut warned me this was not so hypothetical. The questions we asked came back with way too much detail. Like hundreds of actual scientific and geological reports. The only things missing were the headers and who had actually written them, but most came with fully documented footnote pages.

“As I dug into some of the footnotes, I was initially stopped from accessing the documents. A conversation with Alex’s mom fixed that. Then I found it… It was a partially redacted report from Singapore of how two of their CHZs literally crumbled because they had sucked all the water out of the aquifers. They tried to replace the water with seawater, but it didn’t work. It created something akin to quicksand. The bedrock support pylons and the shock absorption plates had not been enough. The towers came down. Many smashed into others… entire CHZs fell into rubble.” He shuddered, “The worst part was I found another paper. I had to do a translation from Mandarin, but if the translation was correct, the towers had not been evacuated.”

“What? No!” Diane gasped.

Alex let out an uneasy breath, “According to what our project research showed, the first CHZ had one tower that failed. As it crumbled other towers were hit. At the same time, the shockwaves caused a cascade. Over the course of hours, the whole CHZ was reduced to thousands of square kilometers of wreckage: Thousands of fully occupied towers. The shockwaves caused the next closest CHZ, which was having a similar aquafer issue to follow suit over the next couple of days. The way it was noted, suggested to me the report was changed to sound like if it was ever to happen essential personal might have time to evacuate. But to me, it really said only some critical people got out before the collapse of the second CHZ.”

As the other kids stared with open jaws, Andre shivered, but not from the storm raging beyond the natural shelter. “Pretty sure we pieced enough together to identify the location of the hypothetical. The Ogallala Aquafer is the largest in North America. If my gut is correct, it’s all but dry, and pumping in seawater is either not helping, hurting, like it did in Singapore, or is too little too late. There are dozens of CHZs over it. Even worse, most of the food for North America comes from those CHZs.

“If my gut is right, the Ogallala aquifer is in imminent danger of total collapse. While the reports we requested were mostly rewritten to make it sound like this was a theory-based project, I think we started asking enough hard-to-answer questions to where some of the answers we were given were not rewritten. My gut says we’ve seen what must have been secret, very secret information showing entire CHZs are in danger of total failure because the ground under the towers is sinking. Our report, our entire project was to come up with, and I quote, ‘Three outlandish ideas to slow or stop the failure of towers above a sinking aquifer.

“So anyway, to go back to day one of first hearing about this… On my first night of looking over the projects there, It was… Possibly my one chance to hold a conversation with a kid outside Stock-Desto. Yet even as I looked at what was wanted, and needed, I guessed there were probably hundreds, maybe thousands of this exact same project being done throughout Stock-Desto. Somehow, I realized because the information was so thorough it was something more. I also just knew they must have thousands of kids of all grade levels, maybe hundreds of thousands, all giving ideas.

“So now you all know how I came to be here, I think it’s time to fill in the rest. I have talked about my gut twinges. I always knew it was something more, but once I got here… on Zong, it become more. The twinges… they changed to me not guessing, not just being able to know I needed to watch my back. I started to know why. I also realized after week three or four, I knew what the weather was going to do.”

Zach suddenly spoke up, “for the last couple of weeks at the training camp everyone on the team tried to see how he was getting the information. But once we got out in the field, he was right, like always. It was kind of… creepy.”

“And then it got even weirder,” Jordan stated. “There were times when I was hunting with him that we hadn’t seen game signs at all, but suddenly he would kneel. The others wouldn’t believe me but I swear I felt something. When I turned, I saw it; a deer, elk, rabbit, whatever. Game that just seemed to appear. I only had a stun rifle cause I totally botched laser testing, but I was able to bag several rabbits, birds, and squirrels because I suddenly knew where they were. None of the others seemed to feel it, and I only do when close to Andre…”

“The lynx,” Sean stated with astonishment. “I felt nothing, everyone else in the group turned like they knew where it was, but Andre, who… there was no way he could have seen it… But he shot it out of the tree with an amazingly accurate burst shot.”

“Hang around us, Sean,” Alex stated. “It will become commonplace. During testing, he never called for a grade when I was with him even when others were certain they were ready. Nope. He would cringe, walk around in circles and stare at everything. Suddenly he would point one or two things out. He never failed and because of him, how he talked about what he had almost missed, everyone on this team got at least one Outstanding. Even Meagan and Kimberly… But they jumped over to help a team that had failed too many tests. Hope they aren’t stuck like us…”

Dakota pulled up his note-puter. “What team?”

“Forest Mountain 6,” Zach responded. “They would have had to ship out to general Adventure Quest intake without Meagan and Kim…”

Dakota cringed, “Sorry guys, They’re still listed as missing. No one from San-San Forest Mountain 6 has been recovered according to what I got from Colonel McKnight.”

“We have to find them!” Jordan shouted.

Andre patted Jordan on the shoulder, “we can’t do anything right now. But once we’re out maybe they will let us join a search team.”

“Oh, they will. Even if I have to talk to my dad,” Alex assured his teammates. “But there is still more to tell, Cause except for the occasional strange non-spoken exchange between Andre and Jordon, Andre has never talked to anyone.”

“I never talked to Jordan without actually talking to him,” Andre corrected Alex.

“OK, I’ll give you that.” He turned to look at those from the transport. “Up till now Jordan only seemed to feel when Andre noticed game animals and only sometimes. But when your transport first came overhead and the sounds disappeared into the snow, we were devastated. Yet minutes later it came back… You came back. We couldn’t understand why, but Andre insisted he started talking to someone up on the ship once it started circling above us.

Fairfax let out a long breath and sent out a thought, ‘OK, we need to give him an out. Let me be the weirdo.’

‘We’ll need Ajax too.” Dakota warned. ‘Both of you reacted at the same time.’

‘Take the lead, Fairfax,’ Ajax thought back. ‘I’ll join once I see where you are going.’

Fairfax started to say something only to have Diane jump in before he could. “We were in the transport. Fairfax and Ajax said they saw something and made it turn around!”

“Don’t know,” Alex admitted. “But it was pretty wild down here, Andre kept saying he was talking to someone and suddenly yelled at us to throw burning seedpods.”

“Pretty sure it was me.” Fairfax suddenly cut into the conversation. “I don’t know about talk. I felt something. We needed to come back. It was too strong, so I said I saw something. But it was more something I felt. I just knew we had to turn around.”

“I got the same feeling, but I think Fairfax’s was stronger. But as soon as he said we had to turn around, I knew… I just knew we had flown over someone below us. As the pilot backtracked on the path I felt it again, but this time… well there was something more.”

‘Say desperate,’ Andre thought.

“Desperate,” Fairfax proclaimed as he nodded. “It was a feeling of being frantic and desperate.”

“I think I felt the same,” Dakota admitted as all the kids from San-San Forest Mountain 2 nodded.

“Desperate isn’t strong enough, but a good word,” Alex admitted. “We were so far beyond, I’m not sure the word has been invented yet.”

“While this is really hard to believe…” Sean glanced around, “It all makes sense.”

“Almost,” Diane countered, “but there is still more. Just look around. On our first trip, while you were taking care of the corporal, we brought five packs. Five. And that doesn’t scratch the surface. Look at the clothing. I watched the Double Xs. They grab almost everything we brought up here. Everything is the proper size. Everything including shoe sizes!”

“It’s what I felt Diane,” Fairfax said with a long purposefully uneasy-sounding sigh. “We were grabbing gear and it… it hit me. I knew what was needed. I thought I was going crazy!”

Jordan giggled, “The longer we have been out here the more right Andre has been about… well just about everything. And he’s never wrong about the weather. We have asked him how he does it and he either says he’s weird, or he is going crazy.”

“Yeah,” Andre grumbled, “I felt for weeks like have been going more and more nuts!”

“I wish I could have felt the same thing…” Diane frowned. “It was crazy, ’cause I knew there was no way the Double Xs could have seen anything. All I could see was white. We couldn’t even see treetops!”

“Until you started throwing burning seedpods,“ Sean added.

“And you were the first to spot those,” Dakota praised. “So maybe you felt something too because you knew where to look.”

“Just lucky. Others saw them as soon as I pointed it out.”

“But you were the one who pointed for the rest to look,” Daine stated with frustration. “I haven’t seen or felt anything like what you all are talking about.”

“With the exception of Jordan, none of us have felt anything from Andre and we’ve been living with him for months, but if there was ever a time for his weirdness to kick into overdrive, it found the right moment. Even then, you all risked your lives to come to us, including you, Diane, so we owe you. All of you… But this still makes no sense. There is no way any of this could be true!”

“But here we are, and I’m telling you I felt something,” Dakota countered. “Not as fast as the Double Xs but I felt something. I also felt something moments before Andre shot the lynx, and it was strong!”

“Not possible… But it happened.” Alex shrugged and smiled, “And damned glad it did.”

Andre started to take another bite of lynx but suddenly stopped. “Stand by for more Andre weirdness. Dakota, channel 9 on your T&R…”

Even as his voice faded, Dakota heard a crackle from his T&R. he turned, stared at Andre, and blinked. Yet even as he did so, he tapped it to sync with his note-puter and set the note puter on the ground.

Moments later a fuzzy image of Colonel McKnight’s image flickered a few times. The man’s voice could be heard in between bursts of static, “Barely getting visual! Get me a stronger retrains or so help me…”

A few seconds later the hologram stabilized a great deal, “Cadet Sergeant Dakota? Where is Corporal Diffuso?

Dakota stood and snapped to attention, “Corporal Diffuso is real messed up, sir!”

“How bad?”

“Bad. Class four concussion, facial fractures, nose fracture, missing teeth and I managed to get an electrostatic cast on his arm, but it wasn’t able to fully set it without a link to a full med bay, sir!”

“Lieutenant Peterson, I don’t care how bad the storm is, get close so we can get a fully stable med link!”

“Sir, I…”

“You have two choices, Lieutenant! The first gets you bumped to a senior lieutenant. The second gets you a stint in long-term command of the worst recruiting center I can find. Make your choice, but do it quickly!”

Everyone around the campfire visibly cringed. Less than a minute later the hologram fully cleared up.

Colonel McKnight’s voice took on a praising tone, “Keep it like this until I tell you, Lieutenant and you’ll have a new rank on your bunk when you get back! Dakota, use someone else’s note-puter to link with Diffuso’s transponder and the med gear you have on him…” His voice suddenly changed, “HOLY SHIT! Alexander? Alexander Radosevich, is that you?”

Alex jumped up, “Yes sir!”

“You have any idea how good it is to see you, boy?”

“Pretty sure, yeah… But sir, the corporal is a mess and Hoyt Mcgilberry, my youngest teammate, got poisoned… Dakota and his team have his shivering stopped, but he’s still not doing well.”

“Dakota, get me us med reading on both!”

“Fairfax,” Dakota barked, as he moved toward the tent with Diffuso, “Do you remember how to do the uplink to a transponder?”

Farifax jumped up, “Yeah!”

“Then link Hoyt for me! It should do it automatically. If it doesn’t, T&R the relay ship. Tell them to send a new link signal to his transponder number!”

“On it!” Fairfax shouted even as he bolted to the E-dome.

The hologram of McKnight turned as he examined those around the campfire. “Looks like I have a visual on for from your team Alexander. I gather with Hoyt in one of the domes we have your entire team?”

“Yes sir. All five of Forest Mountian 2 are here. And thanks to those with us we are safe… for the first time in months!”

McKnight let a huge breath, “Alexander, we can’t get to you, but I can be damned sure to get you a supply drop. What do you need?”

“Thanks to some amazing communication between Andre and the Double Xs, we really don’t need anything, but if you have some more insta-heat meals… Stir fry, preferably pork, Chilli, again pork, but I’ll take whatever you send, Spaghetti with meat, two of my team loves them, and Andre and his disgusting chicken goulash.”

“Not sure what your rescue team wants, but they deserve first dibs on whatever you send. But It was the Double Xs who somehow found us as they flew over, so tailor the drop to what they want. Otherwise, we are good right here. This is like a home. Our home on Zong.”

“I will be certain to come to check it out with a detachment of marines as soon as it is feasible to do so. But what or who in the hell are the Double Xs?”

“Ajax and Fairfax, sir!” Mario called out. He tried not to snicker but failed. “It’s our nickname for the two of them because they are a pair…”

“And Fairfax, Ajax, you two OK with the nickname?”

“It’s actually kind of awesome, sir,” Fairfax responded with a wide grin.

“Yeah!” Ajax agreed with a huge smile. “Way better than what we got called at the orphanage!”

“Double Xs it is… OK… Alexander, don’t you move until we get a retrieval team to you. I am not going to tell your folks I lost you a second time! As far as food, supplies, or whatever you can dream up… Get me a list kids! I’ll fly it and drop it myself if I have to!”

“Will do, sir…” Fairfax let out a deep breath, “Sir, what about the rest of our team? How is Robin and did they get to the camps?”

“Yeah, they got there…” The voice lost most of its joy but stayed strong. “Robin and the rest of your teams are fine… But the second we can pull you out you will be joining them… Might as just tell you all… We lost the space station to a meteor. It broke up but it did massive damage in and around the camps including taking out all forms of comm. The back surge sent a feedback surge into the transponders. We got hundreds more kids unaccounted for, and an equal number injured. We are mobilizing all resources, but it is a… devastating catastrophe. I need the rest of team five and seventeen on the ground out there as soon as we can get you there.”

“Not without us!” Alex stated.

“You need to get home…”

“Sir, I’ll send my mom and dad whatever message I have to, but I’ve been told the other two from my team, Meagan and Kim, are still lost out here somewhere. I am not leaving till we find them. But my whole team, even Zach with his bad leg, can help and it sounds like you need all the assistance you can get!”

“Boy… You realize the second I even hint about you staying, one, if not both, of your parents will be here on the next transport.”

“So I get my ass beat, sir. But I ain’t leaving! You know my dad will back me on not leaving when there are so many that need help and there is no way he would let me abandon a teammate… and… sir, Meagan is part of my science team. We need her.”

“Aw, shit!… Fine, I’ll send the message and let one or both of them talk some sense into you. But you get hurt before they clear you doing anything other than going home, I’ll beat your ass the second you recover… And I am bigger, meaner, and tougher than your dad, and you know it!”

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