Chapter 19: Friends in low places

Caleb was smiling as he waved at Bill in a casual salute before driving away. Bill had been right. Caleb had found a replacement for his truck in the impound lot. Some would argue that it was better than his old truck because it was a newer model and had more 'stuff' on it. Caleb agreed that the royal blue, three year old, F-250, Super Duty crew cab, was a lot more truck than the one destroyed in the desert. It looked nice, too, but Caleb didn't know how anything worked! The winning argument had been that the four-door 'Crew Cab' had room for the family that he would soon need to transport.

So deposits were made. In less than twenty-four hours, after two reams of government paperwork was completed, Caleb would have a new (old) truck. He had sent his insurance broker a copy of the paperwork from the base, and was assured that he would have a check within twenty-four hours, and the new vehicle would be covered.

"I hope the damn thing's clean," Caleb told Al.

"If it isn't, run it through a car wash," Al replied guilelessly.

"You know what I'm thinking," Caleb growled in his mind. "Why do you find it necessary to be so obtuse? Am I just some kind of animal that you like to poke with a stick?" Caleb asked in frustration."

There was blessed silence in Caleb's mind for a moment, before a chastened Al replied, "Sorry, Caleb. I guess I have been a bit of a jerk."

"So now you're going for British, and trying to be a master of understatement?" Caleb asked, with a quirk of humor in his thoughts.

"Yeah? Well, if you don't want me to start thinking in that funny accent, you had better start eating healthy, so I can work a little faster on this wreck of a body," Al responded with humor of his own.

Caleb smiled at a memory of a bar fight he had gotten into when he was much younger. He had gotten into a fight with a British Marine over which one had an accent. The British Marine had wiped the floor with him. Caleb had blamed the loss on the amount of 'Uncle Jack' he had consumed, but they'd bought each other drinks after the fight. They had kept in touch until he was discharged from the Army. He still had the Marine's contact information in his memory, Caleb discovered with surprise. 'My memory is getting better, ' the thought.

"That memory was amusing to me, too," Al replied. "Humans are strange creatures, but they're funny, too."

Caleb didn't even blink at his unspoken thought being replied to. He realized that he was getting used to his passenger, and shrugged the thought off.

"Getting back to 'clean truck', I meant, I hope they cleaned it well after the drug bust. I sure don't want to get busted for drugs," Caleb said, bringing the conversation back to what he was thinking about.

"I knew what you meant. I was shooting for funny, but only reached irritating. Bill assured you that the truck was sanitized, and no trace of drugs remained," Al reminded him.

"I know," Caleb brooded. "I still need an old truck," he continued. "I can't go to some of the places that I go in that F-250. It would be stripped the first time I stopped for a pit stop."

"Well, you have the bank account to buy an old vehicle. You should see what you can find," Al advised.

"I think I will," Caleb mused, driving aimlessly. "Maybe I can find an old wreck, like my last truck when I first started working on her. I can fix it up the way I want it to be fixed. There's something satisfying about knowing where every nut and bolt in a vehicle is, and what it's supposed to do."

Caleb's driving became more focused as he headed for a section of town with block after block of low-end car lots.

"What did you think about this morning?" Caleb asked, switching subjects back to an earlier conversation.

"I thought it went well," Al replied. "The integration was nearly flawless."

"I almost feel sorry for their Companions," Caleb said with a chuckle. "I think Collette's Aria is afraid of her," he added.

"She has a right to be afraid of that woman," Al said with a shiver in Caleb's mind. "JJ scares me, but Collette is a force of nature. I don't envy Aria at all."

"Bill worries me, a little," Caleb admitted. "Naming his Companion 'Hunter' is a pretty good indication of what he expects his Companion's role to be."

"You told me that Bill is a good cop, and a smart cop," Al reminded Caleb. "I did give Hunter many memories related to security, and investigations, from previous hosts. I also warned Hunter to err on the side of caution where Bill's safety was concerned."

"Thanks, Al," Caleb thought sincerely. Then he chuckled and said, "Bran's Noah has his work cut out for him," Caleb observed. "Bran is sure the two of them will change the history of nanotechnology."

"I know," Al replied with a sigh. "I gave Noah a few memories concerning nanotechnology from previous hosts, but I also cautioned him to not let Bran progress too fast. I explained what the consequences could be. Maybe I was a little too graphic with my explanation. Noah was asking if he should try to go back through the veil, the next time we open it."

Caleb chuckled at the thought of a frightened Companion keeping an exuberant scientist in check, but he cringed at the reference to opening the 'veil' again, as Al phrased it.

"I know nanotechnology plays a big role with material sciences, but why is it a big deal beyond lighter and stronger materials?" Caleb asked.

Al snorted in Caleb's mind, before saying, "Nanotechnology is a foundation technology," as if that meant anything to Caleb. He sighed before continuing his explanation with, "Every field of technology will benefit from nano-materials. Lighter and stronger materials is only the beginning. How about targeted drug delivery for difficult to treat diseases? Functional limb replacements can be designed because electrical conduits can be built into the device, and the electrical connections can be made fine enough to attach directly to the human nervous system. Treatments can be designed to bind carbon fiber to bone structures, creating bones as tough and flexible as spring steel. Those examples are only a few medical applications that I was thinking about, when you were thinking about JJ. There are thousands of other applications, in other fields."

"Wow," Caleb thought, stunned by the scope of the possibilities that Al had laid out for him.

"Speaking of JJ," Caleb said after a moment. "Did I really talk to her last night when I went to bed, or was that my imagination."

"You have a very powerful imagination," Al replied, the humor and temptation to jab Caleb again, bleeding through the statement. "But, last night was not your imagination," Al continued, obviously resisting the urge to be a jerk.

"So I can really talk to her over a long distance?" Caleb asked, amazed at the possibility.

"Sort of," Al agreed. "Actually, it is more like a relay. I can communicate with Amy. You and JJ can communicate, long distance, through us."

"Cool," Caleb said in wonder. "Can I do it now?"

"Um ... ye-ah," Al replied, sounding like a petulant teenager.

Caleb ignored the attitude and thought, "JJ, I love you."

He felt the startled response as much as he heard, "I love you too, and you just startled me so bad I jumped. I was trying to set some idiot's broken arm. He thought he could drive a motorcycle up a canyon wall." There was a pause before she continued, her thoughts laced with mirth, "He's glaring at me because I can't quit smiling while I'm talking to you. He thinks I'm smiling at his stupid stunt, which is embarrassing to him. Talk to you this afternoon."

"Later, babe," Caleb replied, and felt the loss of his connection to JJ's consciousness, but still felt her warm presence as if she were standing right behind him.

"I can't wait until I marry that woman," Caleb said aloud, as he pulled into a used car lot.

"Brace yourself, Al," Caleb warned as he got out of his rental car. "You haven't been exposed to used car salesmen before. The only things worse are politicians and bureaucrats. You can think of used car salesmen as pond scum. Politicians are the scum that couldn't float any longer, because of their corruption, and sank to the bottom."

"So where do bureaucrats fit in this pantheon of yours?" Al asked, with only a little sarcasm encrusting his words.

"Well, the higher the bureaucrat rises in power, the more they have to associate with politicians, so the lower they sink in the pond. They get corrupted, and eventually sink to the bottom of the pond, just like politicians," Caleb replied, disgust dripping from this thoughts.

"Has anyone told you that you are cynical?" Al asked curiously. "Excuse me, I have your memories. Of course they have. Many, many times!"

"Like I said. Brace yourself," Caleb warned as a fat man, with eyes like a pig, waddled towards him. "You can apologize for your sarcasm later."

"Welcome to Quality Used Cars," the fat man boomed.

Three car lots later, Al commented, "I think we need to put human sentience, and intelligence, back under advisement. Are you sure these people are the same species?"

Depraved was the mildest description Al had attributed to the last three 'salesmen' they had encountered.

"I think I agree with you," Caleb said grimly. "What did you do to that last guy? I couldn't follow what you did, but the guy turned white as a sheet."

"He was cruel, and he liked beating his wife and children," Al replied defensively. "It was justice."

"I thought you said that you didn't have any abilities of your own?" Caleb commented, not bothering to chastise his Companion for taking action on his own.

"I'm not sure if I have abilities of my own now, or not," Al replied with what felt like a shrug in Caleb's mind. "Since we melded, I can use your abilities as if they were my own, but I think I have some that are independent of you."

"Ok-ay," Caleb said slowly, startled by the revelation. "What did you do to him?"

"I just tweaked some connections in his mind," Al said defensively.

"Al," Caleb said warningly.

"Okay ... okay," Al replied in surrender. "I kind of made a new connection between the ... um ... circuits in his mind. The area of his brain associated with violence, now has a direct connection to his vertigo circuits."

"And what, exactly, will that connection do?" Caleb pressed.

"Any time he gets violent, or thinks violent thoughts, he will get violently ill," Al admitted. "He will also get very dizzy because his vertigo circuits won't be able to figure out which way is up," the alien added, chagrined.

"Now, that is cool," Caleb said in honest appreciation. "Good job, Al. In the future, would you tell me if you're going to do something like that? I may not have a lot of control, anymore, but I would at least like to know what's going on."

"Yes, Caleb," the Companion replied, relieved that his host was not unhappy with him.

Maybe they could make this pairing work after all. Al sure hoped so, since it was permanent.

JJ was making notes on her last patient's chart when her office door opened. She was startled, because anyone coming to her office knocked first if the door was closed. She often did consultations with her patients in her office, rather than in the cold, impersonal exam rooms.

She was surprised to see General Branch in the doorway. His rock-hard face seemed to be grimmer than she remembered it.

"General Branch," JJ blurted. "What are you doing here?"

He entered the room, and sat in one of the two chairs without asking, or answering her question.

The General looked over his shoulder and ordered, "Close the door please, Master Sergeant Denison."

The Master Sergeant who seemed to shadow the General every place he went, leaned through the door, grabbed the knob, and closed it. When he leaned in, his eyes had raked over JJ's body, and JJ shivered. She had only met the General and his sidekick a few days earlier, but every time that man looked at her JJ felt like something cold and slimy had touched her.

"May I ask the meaning of this?" JJ demanded, beginning to get angry. "You can't just walk into a public hospital and take control like you do on a base."

"Oh, but I can, when it is necessary," the General replied in a silky, calming voice.

"I received some additional information on our civilian subject," he continued after a slight pause, and taking in JJ's office with a condescending glance. "It seems that he isn't as reliable as we had believed. Apparently, he is also an expert at doctoring records. I was able to get a copy of his original, hard copy personnel record. Our 'hero'," he continued dismissively, "didn't even receive an honorable discharge. He manipulated the public access to his records so inquires would show that he did. He made a plea agreement for a general discharge under less than honorable conditions. Caleb Connor was involved with the murder and rape of some villagers in Iraq. Three men, four women and a girl were killed. The Army didn't have enough evidence to prosecute him. The plea agreement was as much for the Army's benefit as Connor's. The court trial would have been very public, and embarrassing for the Army."

JJ could only stare at the General in shock and surprise. She had been in Caleb's mind. There had been no indication of something like this.

"I suppose you have proof of this?" JJ demanded.

"Of course I do," the General said with a smile.

He reached into the satchel he carried, and extracted two pieces of paper, stapled together. He had prepared them the night before. Robert considered them very credible fabrications.

"These are my only certified copies," the General said. "I can get more, but the process is not easy."

"Are you going to let me read it?" JJ demanded, the General's information shaking her to her core.

"JJ," Amy said urgently. "Something is wrong. Caleb is not the kind of man that would do what this man is claiming. You asked me to gather everything you know about General Branch. There isn't a lot, but a common theme is your lack of trust of him. That was before I joined you, but your quantum connection, as Al calls it, existed before Al crashed. Listen to your intuition. I can't read him from this distance, but touch his hand if you can. I'll get what I can. Once you touch him, I can read him from a short distance, too."

"You're right, Amy," JJ said in her mind as she straightened her shoulders. "I'll try to touch his hand when he gives me the papers."

General Branch noticed JJ's moment of panic. He had expected it: looked for it. He also noticed how quickly she pulled herself together, and it troubled him. No one felt the abject terror, that he had glimpsed on her face and in her eyes, and got control of themselves so quickly. He was an expert in creating terror, so he knew the look well.

'This truly would be a woman to walk the halls of power with, ' General Branch thought to himself, much more impressed than he was willing to show. He was more cautious, too, thinking, 'This woman's no fool. I need to slow this down a little. Adding twenty-four hours to the schedule shouldn't hurt, and a little patience now could pay dividends later.'

"Not right now, I'm afraid, Captain," General Branch answered, still holding the papers.

JJ stiffened in her seat, and the General held up his other hand in a placating gesture, saying, "Captain," the General began in the same silky, quiet voice. "I was able to procure these via a back door in the Pentagon's records section. I do not have them officially. Therefore, I cannot legally react to them. I should have the official originals within twenty-four to thirty-six hours. I have found that friends in low places have made a difference, in the life and death battles that I have experienced during my career. I cannot act on these papers, but I can take certain precautions until I receive the original copies."

"What kind of precautions?" JJ asked warily.

General Branch had to suppress a smile when he heard the guarded tone of her voice, and said, "First, let me remind you that this is not proven. He may actually have been innocent of the original offense. I'm not saying that he is actually guilty of anything, right now. I'm not dealing with an item of guilt, with this event. I'm dealing with an item of trust. I released him, based on his character. If the documents that I receive mirror what I have here, I may need to rethink the parole that I granted Connor. There is also the issue of the documents reporting system reporting false initial information. Whoever changed that is guilty of a crime. Until I receive the official copy, my men will be armed and authorized to use deadly force, if the need arises."

JJ's eyes widened for a moment, before they narrowed, and she leaned back in her chair, frowning at the General. After a moment, she nodded absently to herself.

"You know that I went out on a date with Caleb," JJ stated flatly. "Why are you here, General Branch," JJ asked, her voice going from flat to grimly dangerous in the next heartbeat.

'What a woman, ' General Branch marveled to himself.

"Actually, I have two reasons, Captain Janus," the General replied aloud. "The first reason was to let you know that I have this document, so you know what the allegation is. I gave you an assignment, Captain," the General spoke a little sharper, when JJ began to interrupt. "I just told you of the instructions that I have already given to my security force, and we will watch him a little closer. I cannot, in good conscience, put you in danger, without you being aware of it."

"Amy, does he really believe what he's saying?" JJ asked. "I mean, I know it's not true, and he almost has me believing what he's saying."

"No!" Amy said emphatically. "He is lying."

"But I haven't touched him," JJ replied. "How do you know? How do you know that he's lying?" JJ asked, almost desperately.

"I don't, from touching him," Amy admitted. "But I know he's lying. Al kept talking about that quantum connection thing that humans have with each other. Remember, at your parents, Al included what was happening at the quantum connection. Everyone was talking about it as a good thing, but I've been watching yours since the General started talking. He's sending energy through that connection, trying to force you to believe him. Remember when Caleb was in church, and all those extra emotional feeds through his connection lifted him?"

"I remember," JJ said in her mind.

"The same thing is happening now, except it isn't the good energy that Caleb felt. Be careful," Amy warned.

JJ nodded absently to herself, as if assimilating the information the General had just given her, and asked in a cold, professional voice, "What was the second reason, General?"

General Branch sighed, and looked at his hands a moment before answering. It was completely out of character for the persona JJ had seen.