“We will take my cellular copter to the demo site, so grab a grip and climb on.” Cliff added.
“A cellular copter, I had heard of them but I didn’t expect to see one in the near future.” Colby said. “Not only do I get to see one, I get to climb on for a jaunt around the island or perhaps across the world.” Colby knew that where the little two person craft would go would now be up to Cliff, the pilot. All the pilot has to do is think about where he wanted to go and the little craft would take them there.
It was called a copter, not a helicopter, because those large rotating wings had been replaced by four short stubby rotating shafts holding four small ion motors. The motors were angled down and out from the small cocoon that held the passengers. These ion motors were quite but their power was off the chart. There was no violent downward wind produced by the little copter that was present with a helicopter. The pilot and passenger’s seating area was still a bubble design with a tail. The digital displays, circuit breakers and switches were present in the vehicle and were similar to a normal helicopter. So were the controls, it still took two hands to fly the little craft. One hand on the collective control stick, down by the side of the pilot, and the other one on the cyclic control stick, located in front and between the pilot’s feet.
Cliff threw a few switches and slightly moved both controls. One moment they are secure in the small craft sitting outside the lab then a few moments later they are miles from the start point. The little vehicle slowed as they approached an open area that was surrounded by a seemingly impenetrable jungle. Cliff set the vehicle down near the edge of the small meadow facing away from the dark surrounding jungle.
They stepped out and down from the small craft facing a curved path that led into the underbrush. All of a sudden, a vicious biped charged down this path straight at them. It charged like a railed vehicle loaded with cargo and it had its fanged filled jaws sat at maximum width.
Colby quickly drew his phasers and fired three times. The distance to the oncoming menace was insignificant and should have been dispatched immediately. This was not the case. His phasers failed to fire. Cliff quickly drew his phasers and also attempted to fire at the anomaly. Nothing happened, no sound and no response from the weapon. Cliff’s phasers was also mute and useless.
Colby turned to the side and threw up his hands to protect his face. Before impact the beast dissolved as the hologram display ended.
“Exciting, right?” Cliff asked as he bent down and retrieved a small square unit from the grass.
“Terrifying is more like it.” Colby said.
“This,” Cliff said as he held up the small square object. “is a weapon depleter, the one I had told you about. I placed it here last week and it still has enough power to zap both of our weapons and make them completely useless.”
Cliff rotated the small unit and switched it off. “Try your phasers now.” He said.
Colby picked out a small pebble in the distance, adjusted the setting on his phasers from max to minimum and fired. The sizzle and light beam were present and the small pebble disintegrated leaving a small divot in the soil.
“If the other defensive weapons work as well as this one, we will have a heads up on protecting ourselves.” Colby accepted the small unit from Cliff and took a good look at it.
Colby handed the item back to Cliff and then turned back nervously. He had the feeling that someone had invaded his private space, someone was way too close to him. He turned both ways, there was no one. He was in the open, Cliff had gone over to the copter to store the depleter. He was alone but he had that itch, that certain feeling, he was being watched and the watcher was too close. He could almost feel someone’s breath on his face.
Colby took an involuntary step backward as a fully dressed combat ready individual became visible losing its camouflage protection. He had a bayonet drawn and ready to plunge into Colby’s mid section. Colby, without thinking, drew his phasers again and fired point blank. The phasers setting had been set back to maximum before he had holstered the weapon. The discharge this close to a target had some blow back that heated up the air surrounding Colby.
The phasers blast caused a clear globular encasement around the combatant’s body. The combatant replaced his weapon and smiled at Colby. He then bowed and not suffering any effect from the weapon’s firing, he turned to Cliff.
“Is that what you needed, boss?” He asked.
“That was great, thanks Jim. You can return to your work.” Cliff told him.
“Not another weapon depleter?” Colby asked.
“No, he has a personnel body shield on and, as you can plainly see, it will definitely absorb a full phasers blast at close range.” Cliff explained.
“Now Tom, if you would put this typical Coordinator helmet on.” Cliff said as he fished the helmet out of the sack he was carrying. Colby took it and looked it over with the eye of a CSI detective. The only difference he could surmise was that it might have been a little heavier, otherwise it was just regular issue.
He placed it on his head and adjusted the fit until it was comfortable and turned his attention back to Cliff. He then grabbed Cliff’s fist as Cliff had, without warning, thrown a punch that meant to hit him in the face. “What are you doing?” Colby shouted as he easily blocked two additional punches with reflexes that he didn’t know he had.
Cliff stopped and backed up a step. “Now you know what the next item does even if you don’t know how it works.” Cliff said as he began to explain the item. “The addition to this helmet is totally internal. We call it an anticipator. It allows the wearer to know how another person is going to attack as soon as the attacker does.
“It’s no wonder I was able to block your punches even though they were not expected.” Colby said as he looked over the now removed helmet.
“There are two other devices but I can’t show them to you here. They are too large and they are to be installed directly into a coordinator’s ship.” Cliff explained. “The other two defensive weapons will work in conjunction with the cloaking device.”
They climbed back aboard the copter and headed back to the control center. Cliff promised to show the other two items within the week.
Colby, back at his desk, had received no reply from the UGGB. It had to mean that they were going to leave any actions up to him and his people. He had shouldered problems like this before and saw no reason why he couldn't recover from this one. It would almost be like starting over but this time he had some prior history to go on.