The Geniuses

The Geniuses
By Walter Edminster

There were 16 impatient people in the waiting room when Roy walked in. He grinned and said, “Hi!” Everyone looked at him as if he were a leper. Only one responded; a very attractive lady in her late thirties named Ann.

The people in that room had two things in common; they were very intelligent and they were well educated. There wasn’t anyone there who had anything less than a master’s degree. That is, except Roy. Roy didn’t have a degree in anything. He was wearing work clothes and a hard hat. He’d come in response to an ad in the help wanted section of the newspaper. The others in the room had come for the same reason. They had come to the right room. Roy had come to the wrong room but didn’t know it. He should have gone next door.

He looked out of place in this room full of sophisticated highbrows but he didn’t feel out of place. Roy felt at home everywhere he went. With the big grin he wore 80% of the time people usually accepted him immediately.

He walked over and sat in a chair by the lamp table in the corner. He looked over at the fellow next to him and read his name tag. It read, John Webster. Roy put out his hand and said, “Hi John, my name is Roy. We might as well get acquainted. We may be working together.” Most of the people in the room snickered John ignored his hand and said, “My name is Mr. Webster and I doubt very seriously if we’ll ever be working together.” Everyone laughed.

Roy said,” Glad to meet you Mr. Webster.” Mr. Webster turned away. Roy looked across at the lady sitting in front of him. Her name tag said, “Ann Jordan.” Roy offered his hand and said, “Hi, Miss Jordan, my name is Roy. Nice meeting you.” She accepted his hand warmly and smiled. “Nice meeting you Roy. My name is Ann.” She looked around the room daring any one to laugh. Nobody did.

The door to the office opened and an attractive middle aged woman stepped into the room. The tag she wore said Margaret. She walked directly to Roy and said, “Are you here about the job?”

“Yes Mam, I sure am.”

“All right, fill out these papers and take the three page quiz. Be sure you answer all the questions. Press the buzzer by the door when you’ve finished and I’ll come back and pick up your papers. Tell me your first and last name so I can make you a name tag.”

“My name is Roy Evens. That would be nice, having a name tag. I won’t have to be introducing my self to my new friends here all the time.”

Roy started filling out the papers. Fifteen minutes later he got up and pressed the buzzer. Margaret came out and Roy handed her the papers. She said, “Did you answer all the questions?”

“Yes Mam.”

“That was the fastest anyone has ever completed the quiz.”

“Oh, the questions were easy. It didn’t very take long.”

“All right. Here’s your name tag.”

“Thank you.” He grinned and pinned it on.

Roy Had the feeling someone was staring at him and looked around the room to see who it was. A woman wearing dark rimmed glasses, was sitting stiff backed in her chair with a book in her hand. She looked like the typical Hollywood version of a librarian. She was staring at Roy. Roy grinned and gave her a quick wave. She went back to her book.

Roy looked around for a magazine to read. He found a ball about five inches in diameter on the lamp table next to him. It was made of about 25 pieces of wood carved into all different shapes. Each piece had it’s own place and wouldn’t fit any where else in the ball. He was fascinated. He rolled it around looking at it from every angle. Then he dropped it. Pieces flew everywhere. Mr. Webster said, “Now you have to put it back together again.” Everyone laughed. It seemed Mr. Webster was the comedian of the group. Roy picked up the pieces and started trying to put them back like they were before.

About 15 minutes later Margaret came back into the room and announced that everyone was to come into the interview area and take a seat. As they got up to leave, only two people noticed that the ball was sitting back on the lamp table just as it had been before Roy dropped it. The two people who noticed it were Ann and the librarian.

When they were all seated in the interview area Margaret walked up to the podium and said, “As you all know, you are all here to see whether or not you qualify for the job we are offering. We need six people. Actually we only need three but we want three more for backup. That means ten of you sitting here will not be selected. Those of you who are not selected will receive $2000 dollars for your time. All of you have passed the first round of tests by filling out the papers we gave you. If any of you had not passed the quiz you wouldn’t be sitting here now.” Several people looked over at Roy with a bit more respect. “This is an exceptional group intellectually. Now we want to find out how you rate physically. First we want to test your reflexes. Both your physical reflexes and your mental reflexes. You will now participate in several tests which will provide us with more data. The six people we select will receive $25,000 for a few weeks work. The three we select for the top jobs will receive $50,000. Does that suit everybody?” Of course it did. Roy, who managed to end up sitting beside Ann, leaned over and said, “This sure is a surprise. The ad said $19 an hour. Ann laughed out loud. “Roy, I think you came into the wrong room by mistake. We’ll talk about it later.” She laughed again. “This is really going to come as a shock to Webster and his followers.” She reached over and squeezed his hand. Do the best you can on these tests. I want to see the looks on those faces when you end up in the top six.”

“OK, I’ll do my best. What job are we testing for anyhow?”

“Nobody knows.”

Mr. Webster raised his hand. Margaret said, “Do you have a question?”

“Yes.” He pointed at Roy. “Did he pass the quiz?”

Margaret smiled. “He sure did.” Mr. Webster looked like he’d just swallowed a bug.

Margaret said, “If there are no more questions I will continue. You will each go into separate rooms where we have some testing equipment set up. We will not explain how it works. All we will tell you is that there is an on/off button on the front of the machine. When you press it on, it will start running and you will have to figure out how it works yourself. You will have 10 minutes to experiment then it will go into scoring mode. You will have exactly 15 minutes to run up the highest score possible. After 15 minutes the machine will shut off and the results of your tests will be sent to our main computer for evaluation. If you feel that you understand how the machine works in less than the allotted 10 minutes, you may press the continue button and the test will begin. Any questions?” There were none. “All right, I’ll call off your names and tell you the room number you’ll be assigned to. Wait until I’ve finished before you go to your assigned rooms. That will keep the noise down while I’m reading off the room numbers and also allow you to all start at the same time.”

Roy was assigned room 13. He wondered if that was done on purpose or if it was just a random selection. He went in and closed the door. He walked up to a large console. “Boy what a pin ball machine. This shouldn’t be too hard. I’ve always been good at pinball. “ But this was no ordinary pinball machine. This one was almost the size of a pool table. At the players end of the table were several knobs and switches. There were no labels on any of the controls. Roy decided it must be part of the test to figure out what they were for. In the center were four objects. Roy hit the start switch. The four objects started moving about. Then the action began. Balls started shooting out of the edges of the tables at the moving targets. Every time a ball hit a target, a minus 10 would appear on the scoring indicator. Roy decided these knobs and switches were used to defend the targets so he rotated one of the knobs and flicked the switch next to it with his thumb. A ball shot out from Roy’s end of the table. A few more practice shots and he was hitting the balls before they hit the targets. There one was a catch to it. Roy’s balls all shot out at the same speed every time they fired but the enemy’s balls were fired at random speeds ranging from slow to fast. Also the enemy fired so fast sometimes there would be as many as four balls moving at the same time, from different angles. This meant that Roy had to calculate the amount of lead to give each target. He had to calculate and fire in rapid succession three to four times in less than two seconds.

He had it all worked out in about four minutes so he hit the continue button and started the test. He was intercepting almost every ball the enemy fired and was piling up quite a score when he noticed the faint smell of perfume. He glanced over his shoulder and saw the librarian standing behind him. Her name tag said Gail. He continued with the game. “Shouldn’t you be taking a test or something?”

“Don’t worry about it, just keep playing.”

“Well at least it’s now confirmed that you’re able to speak. Can you smile too?”

“When it’s necessary. Stop talking and play!”

“Bossy little bitch aren’t you?” Roy turned and walked toward the door.

“Where are you going? Get back here and play!”

“I don’t like rude people ordering me around. He slammed the door on his way out. She came out of the room steaming. She started into one of the offices then quickly changed her mind and sat down. Roy was sitting in his chair when Margaret came out of her office. She looked a little bit angry. “Why did you quit?”

“I was interrupted.”

She looked over at Gail. “You should have ignored it and kept playing.”

“Why?”

“You want the money don’t you?”

“It all depends on what I have to do to earn it. ” Roy got up and headed for the door. Margaret said, “No! Come back. Gail and I will both apologize for our rudeness and promise to be more tactful in the future. OK?”

Roy stopped but didn’t come back. “I accept what you just said as an apology but I haven’t heard anything from Gail yet.” He looked at Gail. Finally she said, “OK, OK, I’m sorry.”

“That’s not much of an apology but I’ll accept it. Let’s forget it ever happened.”

“Margaret said, Thank you.. Very much.” She went back to her office and Gail picked up her book.

Thirty minutes later there were only six of the sixteen people still sitting in the room. One of them was Roy. Ann was sitting on one side of him and the sulking Mr. Webster on the other. Webster was mad because his friend had been booted and Roy was still there.

Margaret was talking to them again. “There are now six of you left. If you wish to remain with us and collect your $25,000 raise your hand. This will be you’re last chance to drop out because we will now be moving to our remote location outside the city. If you do not wish to stay with us, now is the time to tell us. Otherwise be ready to load into the bus in one hour. Webster said, “What about our clothes and things?”

“You will be provided with everything you’ll need when we get there. You won’t need to take a thing with you.” An hour later all six were on the bus.”

They left the city and drove down the interstate for about 45 miles then turned off onto a double lane road. They traveled through the countryside for nearly an hour. Everyone was beginning to wonder where they were being taken. Then, out in the middle of nowhere, there stood a building. A large round building. Actually it wasn’t round. It just looked that way because it had 12 equal sides.

A door opened and the bus went inside. They pulled up to a platform. They left the bus and climbed into a vehicle resembling a 10 place golf cart which took them down a corridor to a room with large double doors. Margaret took them into the room.

Two walls of the room had doors leading into small three room apartments. Each had a bedroom, a living room, and a kitchenette. They looked like comfortable living quarters. Each door had a name on it. Roy’s name was on one of them.

Margaret said, “This is where you’ll be working and living for the next couple weeks. This large room will be your lounge area where you can all get together and talk. The small apartments are where you will live and where you can have some privacy. Your rooms have your names on the doors and inside those rooms you’ll find clothes that fit you perfectly. Your clothes will be in the form of jump suits. That’s what we all wear around here. The kitchenette is well stocked with food and drink but no hard liqueur. We want you to be at you’re best while you’re here. We want your minds clear at all times. Your bathrooms have plenty of towels, soap and tooth brushes. If you want anything additional to make things more comfortable, let us know and we’ll see what we can do. You have the rest of the day off. You will be served three meals a day in the dinning room. In between times you can snack on what you find in your kitchenettes. Relax now and start making a list of those little extras you would like to have to make life comfortable for the next two weeks. Get into one of your jump suits and do as you please until 1800 hours . Then we will come get you and escort you to the dinning room. I guarantee, you will enjoy the meals here.

Roy said, “This looks like a nice place to live. I may not want to go back home.” Webster said, “I’ll tolerate it until I get back to my own place.” Ann said, “It’s not bad.” Gail didn’t say anything. She just went to her room.

Roy said, “I don’t know about you guys but I’m going to take a shower and put on some clean clothes. He said to Ann in a lower voice, “Come out here to the lounge after you’ve powdered your nose. I want to talk to you about a few things.” She nodded.

Roy was the first one to come back to the lounge. His jumpsuit fit perfectly and was quite comfortable. Ann came out shortly after he did. “So what do you have on your mind?”

“Did you notice anything different about Margaret and Gail?”

“Yes their name tags.”

“Right, you have a sharp eye. Neither of them have last names on their tags. The rest of us do. When I was racking up a score on my pinball machine Gail came in and started watching over my shoulder. Why did she do that and why wasn’t she playing her own pinball machine like the rest of us? Makes one wonder if there isn’t a spy in our midst, doesn’t it? OK eagle eye, what did you notice about the building?”

“It’s too round and it looks totally out of place out here in no man’s land.”

“Right, you get another gold star.”

“What do you think it’s all about?”

“I have a few ideas but I don’t want to present them yet. “

”Let me know when you do. I want to see if they match mine.”

“If I’m right, Webster won’t like it. But I don’t think he likes anything. There’s Gail. I’m going to call her over here. Do you notice anything different about her jump suit?”

“Yeah, hers has been worn before, ours haven’t.”

“Damn, you see everything don’t you?”

“I saw you put that ball back together in three and a half minutes.”

“You saw that too, huh. Hey Gail, would you come over her for a minute.” She acted like she didn’t want to but she came anyway.

“Gail you made two mistakes.”

“What mistakes?”

“You should have added a last name to your name tag like we have on ours. Only you and Margaret have no last names.” That got a momentary reaction out her. She said, “What’s the second mistake?”

You shouldn’t have worn your old jump suit. Ours are all brand new, yours is not. By the way, you look darned cute in that suit. Your other clothes hid some of your best features. If you’d let your hair down and take off those useless glasses, I might even ask you to dinner.” She almost grinned there for a second. She said, “I don’t think Ann would like that.”

“We won’t tell her.” This time she did grin. “OK, you blew my cover. Are you going to tell the rest of the group?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“It’s none of their business. You must have a good reason for spying on us and I don’t think you mean us any harm. I think you have a problem and you need some help.”

“Now I see why Margaret wants you to be one of the top three. I would appreciate it if you’d keep it to yourself for a while. I’m not really spying on you. I’m just trying to find out more about you. I’ll tell you more later but now isn’t the time.” She started walking back to her room.

“One more question Gail.”

She stopped and looked back, “Yes.”

“When do we leave for outer space.”

She didn’t answer. Just started walking away. Then with a grin she looked over her shoulder and said, “We already have.”

At 1800 Margaret came to pick up the group and escort them to the dinning room. And escort was just what she did. She didn’t want anyone running loose around the area. She explained that she or someone else would escort them to and from the dinning room and they were to go nowhere else. Webster started complaining about being a captive but Roy cut him short. “With the money they’re paying you, why should you care?”

“Money isn’t everything you know.”

“True, but it must rate pretty high with you. You’re here.”

Margaret said, “All right now. We have to work together. Save your squabbles until after the job is finished.”

They were sitting around the table drinking coffee following an outstanding meal. Every one was relaxed and beginning to get friendlier now. It was the first time they’d had time to relax together. There were six people: Roy, Ann, Gail, Webster, Ron Goldberg, and Cindy Sherman. They were all giving brief summarys of their backgrounds. It turned out that all of them except Roy held the title of Doctor. None of these titles were written on their name tags. Wearing jump suits and displaying names only, they were all equal, which was what Margaret had intended. Ron and Cindy were physicists. John Webster was a computer expert. Ann was an analyst. When Roy’s turn came, everybody was extremely interested in what he had to say.

“Well, I don’t have a degree in anything. I walked into the waiting room where you were all sitting by mistake. I should have been in the room next door. I was applying for a job as heavy equipment operator. I drive a bull dozer for a living.” You could have heard a pin drop. Looking at Margaret angrily, Webster broke the silence. “Why was he allowed to stay? You let good people go and kept a bull dozer operator.” John was still mad about his friend being turned down. Margaret said, “John, what was your score on the giant pinball machine, as Roy calls it?”

“I don’t know, 20,000 or somewhere around that.”

“It was 21,350 to be exact. Roy only stayed in the room 10 minutes, not 15 as the rest of you did. His score was 62,345. More than twice as high as anyone else in this room and he only played for ten minutes. That’s why he’s here.” It was quiet again. John Webster looked at Roy with respect now. “Roy, I believe I owe you an apology. Call me John.” He extended his hand. Roy shook hands with him and said, “John, it took a lot of guts to say what you just said. I think I may like you after all.” The rest of the evening was enjoyable. Margaret was well satisfied with her little group. They were going to work well together. At least she hoped they would. A lot of lives depended on it.

The next morning everyone was ready to go to work. They didn’t know what type of work they’d be doing but they were eager to get started. Margaret came into the lounge promptly at 0700. She was also ready to go to work. With a grin she said, “Now the fun is over. It’s time you started earning your pay. You notice that this room has four walls. Two of those walls have doors leading into your living quarters. The other two walls have panels. Behind those panels are some very interesting toys.” She pressed a button on the remote control she held in her hand and the panels opened up. Large consoles rolled out of the wall. The room now looked like a video game arcade. Margaret said, ”We have several important jobs that need immediate attention. The idea now is to place you in the jobs you will be best suited for. We are going to run you through a few more tests, then when we know what you do best, we’ll let you start doing some serious work. All of you will trade off working with all the consoles. All except Roy. We already know what Roy does best and he will concentrate his efforts on that console over in the corner and that one only.”

Roy walked over and studied the console. This one made the one he’d been tested on look like a kid’s toy. Where the other was 80% mechanical this one was 100% electronic. Roy was eager to start.“ Where do you insert the quarter?” Margaret walked over and pressed a button on the side and a very complicated display lit up. So did Roy’s eyes. This was a vertical display covering an area 10 by 20 feet. This was a war simulator. There were red objects and there were green objects. All of them were moving rapidly across the screen. In the center was one large round yellow object.

Margaret said, “During WW2 the Navy had aircraft carriers, battleships, cruisers, and destroyers fighting in the Pacific. The battleships, cruisers, and destroyers main line of defense was their guns. Although the carriers had some guns to defend themselves with, their main line of defense was their aircraft. While the others battled it out with their enemy by lobbing explosive projectiles at each other, the carriers sent their aircraft out to attack the enemy before they could bring their ships close enough to the carriers to reach them with their big guns. That was WW2. Now let’s look at a future world where we have space ships instead of seagoing ships. On your display you see a large yellow object in the center of the screen. Think of that as your aircraft carrier. The red objects milling around on the outer edge of the screen represent the enemy aircraft. The green objects represent the aircraft from your carrier. The red objects plan to blow up the yellow object. The green objects plan to blow up the red objects before they have a chance to blow up the yellow object. The yellow object has a few guns of it’s own just in case one of the red ones get past the green ones. The yellow object has very effective weapons that can reach out all the way to the battle zone and zap the red ones into dust but each shot fired takes a lot of energy and there’s a limit to how many shots can be fired before the batteries have to be charged again, so to speak. They must be used sparingly and then only when absolutely necessary. Of course somebody has to be in charge while all this is going on. Someone who sees the whole battlefield. Someone who can direct the green objects. Someone who can make split second decisions and make the right decisions every time. Someone who can calculate angles, speeds, and vectors in his head in a fraction of a second.” Roy was beginning to see why they were here. He looked at Ann and could see that she knew also. He looked at Gail. She grinned faintly and nodded her head once. The others still thought it was just a game.

Margaret said, “Different levels of battle are programmed into the computer that runs this machine. Roy, we will start you out on the lowest level and let you progress upward as you become more competent. John you will watch every move he makes then later you will take over the controls. You have two jobs. You will act as backup operator for Roy and you will write programs for this machine in order to make it faster and more efficient. Ron and Cindy will be working on those two consoles over there. They are completely different than the one Roy is on. As physicists, your job will be to design a better weapon. One that can be fired repeatedly without draining energy from the home base facility. Ann, you will watch and analyze everything you see. You have that unique ability to observe everything around you and analyze it. You’re console is tied into all the others. You will be able to look in on everyone right from your console. You will write daily reports on everyone’s progress and make suggestions bases on your daily analysis. OK, any questions?”

John said, “You left out Gail. What does she do?”

“Gail has some very unique qualities. She will be the backup for everyone else.” John said, “It seems like you’re not telling us everything you know. Like what is this all about? Are we working for a company that creates video games?”

Margaret said, “You’re right, I’m not telling you everything I know. If you will start working on your consoles. I’ll come back at 1500 hours and take you on a tour of the facility. Then you’ll know why you’re all here and why we’re feeding you so well and paying you such a large salary. No more questions for now. I’ll be back at 1500.” She turned and walked out of the room.

Roy said, “I think we should look at our consoles now. We may be able to learn a little more about what’s going on around here from them.” They grunted in agreement and moved to their consoles without questioning his remark. Roy was already taking over leadership of the group. Gail hoped that would happen. Roy, the bull dozer operator, had experience in leadership. None of the others did. They were mostly loners who grumbled a lot but would follow a leader they respected. They all respected him enough to follow him now but weren’t aware of it yet. Ann would have been second choice as leader but she would rather see Roy in the slot. Gail was mad about their little spat a few days ago but was also thankful it had happened. Up until then he had appeared to be a friendly, happy go lucky sort of guy who never got mad. Now she knew he was a friendly, happy go lucky sort of guy but one who wasn’t going to let anybody push him around. Gail knew they’d have several heated arguments before this was all over. She smiled and thought, “He’ll probably win them all, too”

When Margaret came back at 1500 everybody was gathered around Roy’s console. They hadn’t heard her come in. Roy was up to level six and zapping red objects into space dust. Margaret looked over at Gail who had an ear to ear grin on her face. She gave Margaret two thumbs up. Margaret gave a sigh of relief. John was excited. “Get that one over there!” Zap, he was gone. The game ended three minutes later due to lack of enemies. Roy got up and stretched. The others went back and sat at their consoles, exhausted. John said, “Boy that really wears a person out. If that was for real, you’d kill an operator every two days.”

Margaret said, “John, it is real and it only takes two days to destroy an operator. That’s why you’re here. To design equipment that will relieve some of the stress. Come with me. I’m going to take you on a tour of the facility and you’re going to be more excited than Carter was when he open King Tut’s tomb.”

Gail came up to Roy and put her hand on his shoulder. You and I are going to get to know each other much better in the next couple weeks.” Roy looked at her with a gleam in his eye. Gail looked a bit angry. “No, No! Not like that! We don’t have time for that now.” Margaret interrupted before Roy had time to answer. She opened a door and said, “How many of you have ever seen the inside of a spaceship before?” She looked at their faces. Margaret had been right; Carter looked bored in comparison.

Margaret said, “I’m going to take you on a walking tour of the most interesting places then last, I’ll show you the control room. The 12 sided building you entered back on earth is a module that became a part of a larger unit shortly after we left earth.”

They walked from place to place looking like kids at an amusement park. When they approached the next to last stop on the tour, Margaret said, “What you are about to see, are the green objects on Roy’s console display. These are the real objects. Hopefully you will not have an occasion to see the real red objects that appear on Roy’s screen. ” When the door to the fighter bay opened they stepped on to a platform overlooking what could be described as the flight deck of an aircraft carrier. There were ten fighters lined up on tracks ready for launch at a second’s notice. Margaret was describing the capabilities of the fighters when an alarm sounded. Suddenly people were running everywhere. Margaret said, “We’re under attack again. This is the third time in seven days. Let’s go up to the control room and watch. You’re about to find out why you’re all here.”

Margaret had everyone lined up behind a railing ten feet in back of the young operator on the console. They had a good view of the display. The operator was talking to the pilots of the fighters. There were three green objects on the screen with numbers identifying them superimposed on the images. Their numbers were F1, F2 and F3. Far off on the edge of the screen were five red objects coming directly at them. The computer had assigned them the numbers E1 through E5. Roy was quite familiar with this display having spent most of the day on the simulator. Roy had already gone as high as the 6^th level in less than 12 hours. This was remarkable since there were only two higher levels in the simulator. In the past, the trainees had never reached level 6 in less than eight days. Roy didn’t know this and Margaret hadn’t told him, afraid that it might go to his head and ruin him. Roy commented to Margaret on the similarity between the simulator and the real thing. After the two groups engaged Roy watched with great interest. Then he frowned and leaned forward as if to get closer to the screen. Roy asked Margaret why they had only sent three fighters out against five of the enemy. Margaret said, “There’s a shortage of pilots and fighters right at the moment. We lost three in the last seven days.”

“Well you’re about to lose three more. I don’t believe your operator sees what’s going on. I’ve got to stop this!” Roy jumped the railing and ran over to the console. “Move, let me take over. Quick, move!” The operator didn’t move. Roy grabbed him by the arm and threw him out of the seat. He sat down at the console and placed his hands on the controls. The operator got up off the floor and went after Roy but when Margaret shouted “Stop!” he backed off. She told the operator, “Just watch, I think you’re about to learn something.” She didn’t know what Roy saw but after what she’d seen him accomplish in the last few days, she trusted his judgement. He saw something the rest of them hadn’t seen.

The three fighters were hot on the tail of two of the enemy fighters and just about to catch up. Roy shouted, “F1, F2, F3, call off the attack, now!” F2 and F3 responded immediately but F1 continued on. “F1 back off immediately or you’re going to fry!” F1 slowed but continued on. Roy shouted, “Now damn it. Get you’re ass back with the others.” There was a tone to his voice that commanded respect, F1 backed off but not without comment “Who the hell are you anyway?”

“I’m the guy who just saved your butt. F3, you seem to know how to obey orders. Follow those two but don’t get too close. When I say Now, you get the hell out of there.”

A female voice said, “ Yes sir.” Gail said to Margaret, “That’s my sister. I wish I was out there with her.”

“You can’t take care of her for ever. Besides, she’s in good hands.”

“I guess so. Do you know what he’s up to?”

“No, but I think he does.”

F3 was following just far enough back to let the enemy think the attack was still on. On the left and right side of the display, two very faint objects started moving on a collision course with F3. These objects, unlike the other objects on the display, were barely visible. When they‘d reached a constant speed Roy punched in some numbers on the console key pads and waited. Then he said, “Now!” and flicked two switches. F3 backed off and did a 180 within seconds of the command. Two lines streaked out from the yellow home base object and took out the two faintly visible objects . Roy adjusted the two knobs located next to the keypads. The two that had been leading them into the trap were not about to get away from him. They didn’t. Ten seconds later it was all over. The three remaining enemy fighters decided it was time to go home. Roy said, “F3 take E3, F2 take E2, F1 take E1.” It was all over in less than two minutes. It was obvious that the good guys were better pilots and had better fighters than the bad guys. “OK guys and gals, come on home. You did a great job. F1 I want to see you as soon as you get back. We need to have a long talk about you’re lack of discipline. Frankly I don’t think you should even be out there. You’re going to get people killed.”

“You’re damned right we’re going to have a long talk. Nobody talks to me like that.” Roy got up and turned to the young operator he’d been so rude to. “I’m sorry I was so nasty there a few minutes ago. I’m always ashamed of myself when I fly off the handle like that. Go back to work and I’ll get out of here.”

“Never mind the apology sir. I just learned something.” Roy slapped him on the shoulder and walked back to where Gail, Margaret, and the rest of the group were standing. Everybody in the area started clapping. Roy was a little embarrassed. He waved and gave everyone a shy grin. He said to Gail, “Let’s get out of here. What was that all that about?”

“For one thing, you just saved the lives of some of their friends. But best of all, you just chewed the ass off of the squadron commander, something nobody has ever had the guts to do before.”

“Oh boy. I really stuck my foot in my mouth this time, didn’t I?”

“No he needed it. Don’t worry. When we show him a rerun of the tape, he’ll come in and thank you. He’s not a bad guy. He’s just a bit conceited.”

They were relaxing in their lounge having coffee, discussing the battle. Roy said, “Well I think you all saw the limitations of our defenses. I think the reason we’re here is to improve the situation. So why are we doing it instead of them? Why couldn’t they do it themselves? I think I know why but let’s hear what Ann thinks. She’s the analyst in the group.” Gail and Margaret were listening carefully to everything that was said.

Ann smiled. “I’m not the only analyst in this group but, yes, I think I know why we were brought in. It’s not that they couldn’t do it themselves, it’s because they’ve lost heart. They feel it’s hopeless and they’re going through the motions until the end finally comes. We’re new blood. We haven’t had time to get that feeling of hopelessness yet. I saw it in their faces out there today. I also saw a glimmer of hope in their faces after we won that battle. What about it Margaret?”

“You said it better than I could have.”

“John said, “I don’t think I like being tricked into a situation that could get us killed. We were lured under false pretenses. I think we should all go home.” Roy heard what he said but he knew his heart wasn’t really in it. John, because it was his nature, had to lodge a complaint.

Gail started to speak. Roy held up his hand for quiet. “John, what have you ever done on earth that was really important. You’re a genius but you’ve never had an opportunity to put it to good use. I believe that’s why you have that grumpy attitude. Here is a chance to really do something important. Nobody will ever know about it, but you will. Let me ask you a question. Could you really leave now knowing that Gail and Margaret will soon die a horrible death just because you decided not to stay? Could you live with that the rest of your life?”

“No, I couldn’t.”

“How about the rest of you?”

“Cindy said, “ shouldn’t we be getting some work done?” Ron said, “Yeah, let’s get started. What do you want us to do, Roy? Roy was now officially in charge.

“Ok, Cindy, you and Ron get on that project they’ve been working on to design a gun with more firepower and less energy consumption. Those four shots I fired just about drained all the energy. If I’d had to fire one more time it probably wouldn’t have been effective. See what they’ve done on it so far then see if you should modify it or just start over from scratch. John, see if you can brighten up those mystery targets so they can be identified easily then get hot on a program to make it easier to calculate the amount of lead on a target. It takes precious time to work that out in your head and punch it in on the keypad. If we can fire faster and more often without having to recharge, we can take a lot of the load off of the pilots. We’re losing pilots and fighters every mission. Soon there won’t be enough left to go meet the enemy. We have to destroy their fighters without losing any more of ours. Eventually they’ll run out of fighters and the war will be over. I don’t even know who we’re fighting or why but I know we’ll soon all be dead if we don’t do something quick.

That’s enough projects for now. Ann will be watching over you’re shoulders. She may see things you overlook. She also my come up with new ideas none of us have thought of. Listen to her. She’s an analyst and like all of you, she’s good at what she does. With a team like ours we can’t loose.”

John said, “You said we wouldn’t get any recognition. Just what do we get out of all this?”

“Your lives, a lot of self satisfaction, and $50,000. Let’s get to work or we won’t get any of the three.”

Roy put John on the console for two days straight. He couldn’t get past level three. In his frustration he blew up at Roy. “OK, so I don’t have the reflexes you do and I can’t figure vectors in my head as fast as you can. So what are you trying to do, make a fool of me?”

“No, that’s the last thing I want to do. You did quite well, in fact. God wired me in such a way that I can do vectors in my head without even trying. Those other operators out there can’t do any better than you can. I’m trying to make you aware of what the average console operator goes through every time he sits down at the console. When you make an error you get a low score. When he makes an error, someone dies. Maybe his best friend. Now that you fully understand the problem, I want you to come up with a solution. I want you to write a program that will do all the required mathematics. The stuff I do in my head. But I want the program to do it ten times faster than I can. Then I want you to play that updated pinball machine and go at least one level higher than my highest. OK?”

“Yeah, you’ve made your point.”

“Let’s find out how these other guys are doing with the big gun. They look pretty excited about something.”

They had reason to be excited. They’d made a breakthrough. They’d come up with a design that was similar to John Wayne’s six shooter. They could fire it 30 times before they had to reload. They didn’t have to come up with a new design from scratch. They just modified the old design, with a few subtle hints from Ann to keep them on the right track. They could have a working model ready within ten days.

Ten days later they had one gun modified and one operational console reprogrammed. They tested the system on what we might refer to on earth as clay pigeons. Drones that were used for practice exercises. John had the practice console reprogrammed and was now at level eight burning enemy fighters by the dozens. The kids were having so much fun with their new toys they’d almost forgotten Ann and Roy. That was fine with them. They were staying in the background as much as possible now.

Roy said, “Look at them. Three weeks ago they were a group of arrogant, pompous asses. They’d hardly speak to each other much less work together. Now they’re an inseparable team. Geniuses who had nothing worthwhile to apply their genius to. I don’t think we’re needed anymore. Gail seems to be in charge now and doing a heck of a good job. I think it’s time for us to go home. Or do you want to stay?”

“Not really. I’d like to stay a little while longer though. At least until they’ve had their next attack. If they come through that without our help I can’t see any reason for us to stay.”

“I’m in total agreement. Let’s see how they function under fire.”

They didn’t have to wait long. Three days later the alert was sounded. Gail and her group came over to Roy. Gail said, “Are you ready to try out the new system? “

”Me? No way I’m still a novice on the new system. John never would let me try it out. Put John on the console. You won’t be sorry.”

“John said, “Are you sure? I don’t know if I can...”

“The hell you can’t. Get your butt out there get to work. You’ve got to get first hand experience so you can teach the others. Do you think your students are going to listen to an instructor who hasn’t been on the firing line himself? Get going.”

“You’re right. Let’s go. We’ve got a war to win.”

As they were on the way out Gail turned, winked at Roy and blew him a kiss. Roy gave her a thumbs up.

John was a sensation. There were only four friendly fighters operational. The enemy had 17. It was an all out attack . John told the fighter pilots to create a diversion but try to stay out of the line of fire. Ten minutes later there were six enemy fighters remaining and the good guys were picking them off like fish in a barrel. It was a total wipe out. It would be a while before they’d be able to mount another attack.

There was a party in the lounge that night. John was talking about some modifications to the program and the gun crew was talking about some design changes that would improve the efficiency of the main guns as well as those on the fighters. Ann, Roy, Margaret and Gail were sitting back watching them.

Margaret said, “Roy, I get the feeling you and Ann are planning to leave soon.”

“Yeah, I guess we’ll move on. We were thinking how nice it would be to sun bathe on a beach in Hawaii for a few weeks.”

Ann said, “We were? You know, that does sound kind of nice.”

Gail said, “Were going to miss all of you.”

Roy said, “All of us? Does that bunch over there look like they’re planning on going anywhere soon?”

“No they don’t. We really hoped they’d stay with us.”

“Let me put your mind at ease.” Roy got up and walked over to the group. “Well, guys and gals, I believe we’ve finished our job here. Are you all ready to go home now?”

“Go home? We can’t go. We have to modify the...”

“I haven’t finished updating the console program...”

“We don’t have to go yet do we?”

“No, I believe you can stay here as long as you want to. Do you really want to stay?

“Yes!!!.”

“Ok, Ok. I’ll go tell them you won’t be going back with us.”

Roy walked back over to the couch with a grin on his face. “I guess they want to stay.”

Gail jumped up and threw her arms around him. She saw Ann over his shoulder and suddenly felt embarrassed. She said,”Oh I’m sorry Ann.” She gave her a hug too.

“No need to apologize. If you need us, we’ll be on a beach in Hawaii for the next three weeks. We’ll send you a post card.

Email: greatstoriesonline@yahoo.com