Chapter 1


The only thing that Norman could say about it was that Jake was not running down the road and making a fool out of himself. If there was anything that this guy excelled at, it was finding new ways to get soaked in sweat. Norm had to wonder what was wrong with the good old fashioned way of just standing around in the heat and letting it do the job for you. Apparently, Jake Barton was just impatient. The way he handled his tools was proof enough of that.

Norm figured he was getting sweaty enough just sitting on a fallen tree and watching the guy. The grove of trees around the station did provide shade but, that canopy of huge leaves also trapped the humidity and turned the shade into a sweat box. Norm was getting tired of just sitting in it but, Jake had to go that one step further. He had to get down and roll around in the grayish sand. Even that was not enough, eventually he had to crawl in the rusted out pump house and add a little grease to the grunge.
Norm had little choice in the matter. He wanted to talk with this man and, Jake would not leave. Norm just sighed and said, “I hope you planning on cleaning yourself up.”

“That’s the point of the exercise Norm,” Jake replied as he began trying to get a bolt back on it’s nut, in what was a very restricted space. “I’m tired of them weak ass showers in the barracks.”

Norm clasped his hands together and leaned over, “Jake, just a helpful piece of advice here but, did you ever think about calling a plumber? We do have them out here you know?”

“For this?” Jake’s voice had a strange hint of reverb to it while he was in the cheap and flimsy sheet metal structure. “I’m not working on a starship here Norm. It’s a simple suction pump. It squirts water, not Solanum.” When Norm did not reply Jake actually looked out. Norm was digging in an ear with his finger and obviously unconvinced. Jake just shrugged, “what? It’s plumbing. The hot water goes on the left and shit doesn’t run up hill.”

Norm mumbled, “yeah and I know a lot of people that can’t even get that much right.”

Jake rolled his eyes and replied as he crawled back in, “and you could help some, while you’re sitting around here bitching. You do know that, right?”

“A brave man might like the feel of rain on his face,” Norm told him and then continued, “but a wise man has sense enough to open an umbrella. He also knows when to call a plumber.”
Still half inside the building, on his back, Jake asked, “was there something that you specifically wanted or did you just come out here to insult me?”
“I’m still deciding,” Norm replied in a very flat tone. After a few minutes of listening to Jake grunt and swear at the pump, Norm finally asked, “so exactly what is this I hear about some damn crusade we’re supposed to be on?”

Jake did not miss a blink when he replied, “sounds like you been talking to Barbara.”

“That’s not an answer Jake,” replied Norm just as quickly.

The ex green beret crawled back out and decided to take a break for a second. After a long deep breath, while still on his back, he looked up at Norm and said, “I think it’s a good idea. She’s talking about turning the Ranger’s into a real organization again. If we got any hope of surviving, all this, we’re going to need that.”

“Bad idea Jake,” Norm said with conviction but civil enough.

Now Jake decided he had to sit up. He had to dust off some of the sticky coarse sand but, finally he was ready to carry on his part of this conversation, “we’ve been lucky so far Norm. The fact that nobody has been killed is either damn lucky or, just blind luck, and I haven’t figured out which yet.”

“Jake,” Norm already had a speech rehearsed, “something they taught me in cop school, many years ago. In order to have an effective group you need three things. You need money, communications, and organization.”

Jake snorted a sarcastic laugh, “when I learned that, it was leadership and not organization.” Then it occurred to Jake, “or are you just trying to keep from insulting me?”

“I would be,” Norm told him bluntly, “if you was really running anything around here but, you ain’t.”

“Thanks,” Jake replied flatly. Then he thought about it and added, “I think.”
Norm continued, “we don’t have any of that Jake. We also don’t have a prayer of getting any of that any time soon. Now, right now, with me and you poking around quietly, we can accomplish a hell of a lot more. I’ve seen you work and, most of the time, you know what you’re doing.”

Jake winced and blurted out, “what do you mean most of the time?”

Norm ignored the last statement, “but, if we, as a group, start poking our noses in everybody’s business around here, waving those cheap metal badges around like we really somebody, we’re going to have a war on our hands.”

It was obvious Jake was going to reply to that and, Norman knew exactly what the guy was going to say. That’s why Norman qualified his statement long before Jake could raise his voice, “and I don’t just mean with these guys that have been complicating my life lately. I mean with every other organized and armed group in the Arch. In case you ain’t noticed Jake, of every group like that on this planet, we’re the most out numbered and under gunned.”

Jake seriously replied, “that’s where training and organization come into play Norm.”

Norm grunted in frustration, “you ain’t talking to a rookie here Jake. Them kids,” he pointed back in the direction of the station, “ain’t the Fifth Special Forces. There’s no way you could ever train them to be.”

Jake let loose a short and polite laugh before saying, “you so sure about that Norm?”

Norm was very serious and passionate when he gestured at Jake and said, “don’t let your ego overload your ass here, Jake. Maybe with time you might but, how many of them are you going to get killed in the process?”

Jake took a good look at Norm and said, “now you’re starting to sound like Barbara. I didn’t really expect that coming from you.”

“I used too not have too Jake,” Norm replied, “back when Barbara actually had some goddamn common sense. These guys we’re dealing with here Jake, they’re mass murderers, psychopaths, professionals, and worst of all they seem to like it that way. You know that and you’re willing to put guns in the hands of people like Amy, Tony, hell even Bob, and send them out there to bring these guys in?”

“They already got guns Norm,” Jake told him. Usually, Norm would have thought the guy was being his usual smart ass self but, this time, Jake sounded quite sincere. He then went on equally as serious by saying, “what they don’t know is how to use them right.”

Norm was getting ready to really argue now but, Jake stopped him and said, “we’re law enforcement Norm. We’re cops. We got all this stuff and we’re supposed to be using it, hopefully for the better. These kids did not sign on here to play it safe. They know the risks. Hell, Danni’s already been shot and still, she’s coming back.”

Norm injected, “and she ain’t been right since.”

“Can you blame her?” Jake burst out with. “That’s the risk we all take and you know that. Norm, we’re not here to hide from danger. We’re here to get rid of it. We’re here to be effective.”

Norm pointed to the pump house, “kind of like that old ass pump. Jake, do you know why Barbara hasn’t had that old thing fixed in years, even replaced?”

Jake mumbled, “all it needs is new seals.”

Norm ignored him as he went on, “cause she don’t got the money, man. We don’t have the budget to do anything substantial here. You say you learned what I did but, you don’t seem to be applying it.”

Jake just shrugged and had now gone back to his usual attitude of sarcasm, “well at least we got phones.”

That was not saying a lot since people, everybody, usually got their first phone around the age of three or four. They were more than just for making calls and required for everything in life. That made Jake’s comment sound about like the tone he had used before, sarcastic.
Norm ignored the shift in attitude and pointed out a serious flaw in the point that Jake had made, “and have you noticed something about our communications lately? Every time something has happened, the first thing that has gone, has been our communications. We don’t even have that.”

Jake was well aware of that. He also knew why that was a problem. It was not some enemy jamming their signals. It was not some breakdown of the equipment and no fault of the technology at all. A phone was worthless if nobody used it. That was exactly what had happened in every single incident that involved communications issues. Norm was just as guilty of that little breech of protocol himself. Jake could not say anything about it though, because, he was too.

Jake shrugged and sarcastically commented, “well at least we still got leadership, of course, as you have so wisely pointed out, what we really need, at the moment, is a plumber.”