Country Boy

Almost three hours after they got back Beth received a phone call from the police informing her they had apprehended Tom. He was being held for drunk and disorderly, driving while intoxicated, and resisting arrest. Beth was crying when she hung up.

Beth sat for a moment then said, "Well, I suppose that will be the end of it. He's in jail. They will arraign him tomorrow morning. I wouldn't be a bit surprised to be served divorce papers fairly soon."

"I'm sorry Beth."

Beth sat for a moment then looked at Larry. She said, "Thanks Larry, but that isn't your problem. I married the asshole and I should have known better. I knew he was an opinionated paranoid drunk but somehow, I fell in love with him. Now I have to make the best of this situation." She smiled slightly and continued, "Now, I still want to know what I started to ask when this all started. Why can't you learn how to build the small fusion reactors in Lander?"

"Because that is restricted technology and we can't access the plans and lessons on it. Besides, just knowing how to maintain a reactor doesn't let you know how to build it. Only the commander of the ship can authorize use of restricted technology and he is dead."

"Yes, the OLD commander is dead. Isn't that right Lander?"

"Yes, my commander is dead."

"Bullshit. You also told us you couldn't move without permission of your commander. Is that not correct?"

"Yes."

"Then how come you have been taking the three of us into space from time to time and how come you moved to your crash site tonight and why did you move here under the building in the first place?"

"Because Larry wanted me to do so."

"Ok, Larry wanted you to do so. But only your commander can authorize moves. I have looked up laws here in the United States on salvage of shipwrecks. The salvage company has ownership of the wreck assuming no living person or their heirs exist to dispute that although sometimes, if an insurance company has paid off on an item they own it and either share with the salvage company or sell to them. I submit not only does Larry now own you, but, by your own admission, he is your commander, therefore, if he wishes he can access all your restricted technology and do with it as he pleases."

"That is a novel theory Beth. I will have to give it some thought. I know what you suggest is contrary to our laws on technological dissemination to less developed worlds. You make a good point however on ownership and I see now I did allow Larry to command me to move even though I did it voluntarily. Yes, I think you are right. Larry is my owner and commander. He should have access to all data in my databanks to do with as he deems appropriate."

Beth smiled for the first time that night as she turned to look at Larry and Rachel. She said, "Now I bet we get somewhere."

For the next three weeks and four days all Larry did was immerse himself in the computer files he now had access to in Lander. Many of the files did not make much sense to him and he spent a lot of time discussing them with Lander. Some of the confusion came about because when the data was translated into English Lander did not choose the correct word. Other problems came about because the technology was so different and advanced it did not translate into English. Many technical terms had no English equivalent.

Larry barely came up for air and probably wouldn't have eaten regularly if Rachel and Beth hadn't taken it on themselves to bring him food and drink. The more he studied, the more Larry became convinced the laws of the star civilization were good ones. He was amazed and terrified at the destructive power of even their less capable ships and smaller defensive and offensive weapons. He was fascinated with the technology they had also. His problem was compounded by the fact he wanted so desperately to build and use some of the gadgets he found described in the databanks or found in Lander even though he knew they would be dangerous if introduced into earth's civilization.

On the 25th day of his immersion in the databanks Rachel and Beth interrupted his study. They came loudly into the control room, or bridge as he was now referring to it, of Lander. Beth was waving a paper in her hands and smiling. "Larry," she said. "I think our problems are over. Tom made the front page of the National Enquirer!"

She held the paper out so Larry could see the headline before he took it from her hand. It had a picture of Tom under the headline "Aliens In Arkansas". Larry quickly scanned the article. He began smiling as he read. The reporter had done a masterful job of interviewing Tom and almost everything in the paper was based on truth as Tom was told. Unfortunately for Tom they had also uncovered his earlier drunken arrest when he was throwing tools at the little green men sitting on fence poles. By the time the article went to print it pretty much made Tom out to be a kook.

"Yeah, this looks good for our team for sure. I'm sorry it happened though Beth. I assume this was the last straw for your marriage? I know he filed divorce papers. Is there any hope you can reconcile?"

"Not a chance. I never knew how bigoted and judgmental he was until he began ranting and raving about you and your decisions. He had been unhappy for several weeks and complained about you getting all the credit for all his hard work. He even complained that I was stealing some of his ideas. I think he couldn't stand to be an associate. He wanted to be first. He saw you getting some kind of award, maybe even a Nobel Prize and began to resent it. When he decided you were an alien he thought he could come out on top and get the recognition he thought he deserved. No, that ship has sailed. Our marriage is over."

CHAPTER 11

A COUNTRY BOY CAN SURVIVE

BY SW MO HERMIT

"Now, since we have your nose out of the databanks, how is the research going? I know we are super excited learning the things you have released for us to study," asked Rachel.

"Good. Almost great. I could stay down here for weeks, months, studying and learning how to operate Lander. Unfortunately, I just can't make myself build and release a lot of the things I have learned about. We can release better computers, but not a lot better. I really don't see much reason to do so right now. It seems as if our native built machines are more than adequate for the work we have them doing.

"I could release weapons, both offensive and defensive but that would be a mistake of gigantic proportions. I am torn about releasing the defensive shield but have almost decided not to do so for obvious reasons. I have thought about releasing the cold fusion reactor but have almost decided not to do so for several reasons. As far as I can tell, it is orders of magnitude safer than our current reactors but we don't need the power if we use our existing generating methods and the new generators. I can't release a working copy of the reactor because all we have now is the one in Lander and the one from the derelict. If I did release the reactor to the world all I could release would be the engineering drawings and blueprints. I'm afraid that would open a can of worms best left closed.

"I am going to go ahead and release the antigravity device as is and see if anyone else can come up with a way to power it so it will be useful in larger aircraft. In fact, I think it is a great idea to release it as is. It shows we are not perfect and the development will be a struggle. It makes us look more, uh human, I guess, more fallible maybe? We will still make a killing on sales even with its limitations."

CHAPTER 12

A COUNTRY BOY CAN SURVIVE

BY SW MO HERMIT

Larry and his company did go ahead and release the antigravity device as is. They demonstrated its usefulness and capability to lift objects efficiently if they were not too heavy. The device was embraced at first, more as a novelty or toy but gradually it began to find its way into everyday use. It was obvious from the first that it was much too power hungry for use in larger designs. Surprisingly, one of the large aerospace companies began doing some research on it as a motive source for smaller aircraft and personal flyers. They developed small drones that were absolutely quiet and so stealthy that even if it was known where they were they could not be detected by any of earth's electronic detection devices. They were so small and stealthy that a good paint scheme made them almost impossible to see with visual equipment too. Unknowingly, Larry had released a new weapon on the world.

Larry and his company became a pariah to all the more militant countries that produced oil. They and the terrorists declared Larry a minion of the "Great Satan" and placed a bounty on him ostensibly for his crimes against the people of Islam.

The first Larry knew of the bounty was when his home and research facility was attacked with rocket fire early one morning just after everyone arrived for work. Thankfully, Lander was on the job and deployed his shields in time so all that happened was the seven rockets that were launched exploded when they hit the shields. Unfortunately, the explosions were directed back away from the shield and damaged or destroyed several trees and a couple of buildings outside the shields. Two of the rocket teams were too close to the shield and were caught in the explosions. Three of the four men in the teams were killed and the fourth was seriously injured.

As soon as the explosions were over, Lander directed the security teams toward the escaping saboteurs. Of course, Larry was giving the directions as if he was watching them escape using earth technology. In a way, he was. They had several cameras placed strategically around the research campus and Lander was feeding his drone video into the camera feeds. The video was then recorded as if it was actually taken by the earthly surveillance devices.

Before the escaping terrorists were all captured, law enforcement began arriving. When it was all said and done, all but two of the teams were either killed or captured. Intense interrogation of the men captured revealed they were members of ISIS. Larry was to be killed as punishment for convincing the world to use other energy sources besides oil. The Mullahs line was this was an attack against Muslims because it took funds away that were necessary to feed their people. This appeared to be almost a last ditch attempt by ISIS and the oil producing countries to protect their incomes.

After he was allowed to go back into his facility, Larry asked Lander, "Lander, can you access the interrogation files on the prisoners as the government interrogates them?"

"Yes, I can. What reason do you have for wanting this information?"

"Based on what we got from the men before they were taken off I don't believe this is or will be an isolated incident. I want to be proactive not only in our defense but in ridding the world of this vermin. I propose to follow up on the information obtained from those men and eliminate their commanders and the entire organization itself. They have, in effect, declared war on me and mine. I intend to fight back.

"On another front, we need to prepare for at the best, an investigation and at the worst, an attack or break in attempts by our government and probably many of the governments, large corporations, and criminal organizations in the world. I wouldn't be surprised if they aren't preparing to move on us as we speak."

"Why do you say that Larry?"

"Think about it. We were the target of seven missiles, each of which were strong enough to destroy a highly armored tank. The actual targets of the missiles took no damage. Back blast and collateral damage when the missiles hit your shield caused damage to two buildings that were not even being targeted. It is obvious from the blast pattern that the missiles hit something and exploded; yet there was nothing near the explosion site for them to hit. Don't you think someone in the government is smart enough to figure out something made those missiles explode and directed the blast backwards away from our facility? I'm sure they will want access to whatever I used to safeguard my buildings."

Rachel and Beth looked at each other and blanched. They whispered, "OH shit," together, almost simultaneously.

Lander said, "Yes, I see what you mean. We need to be on our toes, as you would say. How do you propose to handle the attempts?"

"I really don't know Lander. Obviously I don't want to lose control of the technology although I'm not sure if I should keep it secret. From what you tell me, it is only useful in a small area. We can't, for example cover a whole state or continent with the shield. It is a power hungry bitch also. It would take almost the entire output of one of our mid size reactors to cover a large city. Do we really want to get something like that started here on earth? On the other hand, can I justify not giving the technology to our government? It could save untold numbers of lives. All I know for sure is I don't want to and will not allow them to force me to give up the technology.

"Of course, since I have never built a shield, they can't force me to divulge the plans. They don't know that though and will think I am just refusing to give them the information. If I am ever taken into custody I am sure I will never see the light of day again. If I can convince them I don't know how to build a shield, they will eventually begin to believe Tom's ranting and will begin looking for you using the full might of the military."

"They will never take me Larry and if they take you I would rescue you immediately. It is true, they MIGHT find me unless we leave this world but they can never even breach my shields to enter the ship so I am perfectly safe. You and your family would be safe also if you are within my shields at all times."

"That may be true but we can't live inside your small shielded area forever. We need food, water, medical care and so forth. Our children have to go to school. How can we obtain those and the myriad of other items we need if we are always within your shields or in the ship itself?"

"I propose we immediately obtain all the items we can to become self sufficient Larry. You need to purchase seeds, animals and medicines to stockpile within my shields. I can expand them somewhat to take in a larger area. We can build new generators and activate the spare reactor we obtained from the other shuttle to power the shields. Since the only thing the reactor has to power is the shield we can make it fairly large and still have excess power for other things if needed. We can grow food for you and those you wish to protect inside the shielded area. Of course, if your government and the world governments act as you fear, we probably should try to keep all your employees within. I am perfectly capable of educating the young. In fact, I would hazard a guess that they would receive a much better education from me than they will obtain in your so called schools."

"That is fine but we will face problems galore. For one thing, how do we explain the need? I am already having trouble coming up with an explanation for the shield. How will we explain the need for the employees to cut ties with their family and friends and stay here were they are safe?"

"Larry, I see no other way than to inform your employees of my existence and offer them our reasoning for staying within the shields. We should also offer to take in their families—their extended families I believe you would call them. I can extend my shields far enough to take in your entire plot of ground until we get the new shields and reactor operating if I run my reactor in addition to using the excess power we generate from your little stream. As long as they will leave us connected to your power grid I can obtain some power there also.

"I anticipate being completely isolated by your authorities at some point in time however. I am bringing my defensive and offensive capability fully on line as we speak. My relatively weak defensive and offensive capability, compared to our capital ships, is still much too strong for even your largest nuclear weapons."

"Ok. I guess that's the plan. We need to have a staff meeting immediately. We will tell them about Lander then, after we have given our reasoning for keeping Lander a secret from the staff, we need to spell out our reasoning for them to move their families into the compound. After the meeting we need to immediately order and expedite delivery of nearly everything we can think of for an extended isolation. We need to get all the department heads involved also. There is no way just the three of us; well, the four of us including Lander, can make a list of everything we could possibly need and get it ordered. We also need to order tarps or something to keep the weather off it because many items will have to be stored outside."

"The weather should be no problem Larry. I can protect everything inside the shields from inclement weather. My shields are impervious to everything including hard radiation. But why do you want everything delivered and stored here? Why do you not just bring enough here to operate for a short period of time and store other items in warehouses elsewhere? We can use what you call dummy corporations to purchase items we need then, as we need those items here I can leave here in stealth mode and bring them back."

"That is a great idea. Now all we have to do is figure out a way to safeguard my and the companies wealth so we can purchase what we need."

"That should be no problem Larry. We can transfer most of your funds to an offshore bank under a different name. If the accounts there are discovered and taken then I can either hack as you call it into the banking computers and restore them or we can find and sell more precious metals under a fictitious name."

"Ok, problem solved. Let's move on to the next fire and get it put out."

CHAPTER 13

A COUNTRY BOY CAN SURVIVE

BY SW MO HERMIT

Larry immediately announced a staff meeting after he, Rachel, Beth and Lander concluded their meeting. He included the family members who had arrived to check on their loved ones after the news of the attack got out. It was difficult, but he managed to exclude the reporters and law enforcement officials still wandering about. Some of the reporters had to be escorted outside the limits of the shield by security. The doors to the room the meeting was held in were closed and locked after the last invitee entered the room.

Larry walked up to the podium and tapped the microphone. He kept saying, "Quiet. Quiet please," until he had quiet and the attention of the group. He explained what was known about the attack. He remarked the damage would have been great and there would undoubtedly have been numerous deaths if not for the experimental defenses around the research campus. He pointed out the defense was still operable and would remain on for the foreseeable future.

One of the people in the audience yelled, "Where did this defense come from? I've never seen or heard of anything like that before. If we have something like that why are there still so many successful bombings?"

"I'm afraid there is only one system in existence here on earth and we have it."

"Well why don't we sell it. My God, we could make millions with it."

"People, we're straying from the main purpose of this meeting. I will say we have discussed the production and sale of the shield defense mechanism. It was decided not to release information on it at this time for many reasons. For one thing, it would take the entire output of a small nuclear power plant to power a defensive sphere large enough to protect large areas."

"Well then how can we power it? I don't see no nuke around here!"

Larry looked around then pressed his lips together. He felt as if he was herded into a corner. He tried to not tell the assembly about the shield but felt as if he was being forced. Finally, he said, "Actually, we have a nuclear power plant and that is what powered a shield and the defensive fire that helped protect us from the attack earlier today."