Maintenance Men Can Dream, Too

Bobby woke with a start. The alarm klaxons were going off, and over the loudspeaker he heard 'Red Alert! Red Alert! The Insectiborgs are on their way. 20,000 KM out. Scramble all ships. This is not a drill. Repeat, this is not a drill!' Bobby hear thundering footsteps down the hall. “Get to your ship!” one of the other pilots yelled.

Bobby looked over and picked up the picture of his wife and daughter. Thought how this spaceship, the Artemis, was the last line of defense between the Insectiborgs and Earth, and how, against all odds, they'd need to fight them off. Again. He closed his eyes and kissed the picture before folding it back up and putting it in the pocket of his jumpsuit, and then started sprinting down the corridor toward the fighter bay.

He got to the hangar to see the missile techs hurriedly arming the fighters. He took a second to look around, saw how harried everyone was. It was bad. He could tell by the frightened looks on everyone's faces. But, he knew that they would do the job, and do it well.

He found the crew chief, and got the rundown on his fighter. The starboard engine was a little weak but they hadn't had time to repair it, so it would pull a little. Also, they could only load three missiles, instead of the usual four. “So make them count”, the chief said with a hollow laugh.

Bobby clambered aboard the fighter. You could still see the scorch marks on the wing of his fighter from where he'd nearly bought it last time the 'borgs had attacked. You couldn't say he wasn't a lucky man. The fighter squadron was fortunate they only lost two fighters during the last attack, Bobby thought to himself. He always wondered where those bugs had come from. But there was nothing for it. Just go out there and fight the bastards off.

So he did. He boarded his fighter, the 'Ace of Hearts'. And as soon as he dropped into the fray, he knew they were in trouble. He immediately charged forward, and blasted the first handful of the 'borgs to smithereens. There were a lot of them, sure, but their fighters weren't very tough, and they didn't hit that hard, either. Those scorch marks were from a cruiser that they smoked last time.

So, he bobbed and weaved through their fighters, destroying every one he faced. He didn't use the missiles, though. Those were for something special. Every now and again he'd spin around and see Earth below, and remember his wife and daughter, and what he was fighting for. He also knew by now that they would be headed to the bunkers underground, where the marines would try to keep everyone safe if they, if he, failed. So he charged back into battle. The Artemis was giving it everything she had; her main guns were firing away and blasting everything in sight. He knew enough to stay out of their main firing arc.

He did notice something strange, this time, though. There was something new. And it was big. Bigger than anything he'd seen so far. He didn't know if anyone else had seen it. So he tried to radio the Artemis, but got nothing. They must be jamming. That was also new. They'd never done that before. Explained why the radio had been so quiet. In fact, he was kind of surprised he hadn't noticed it before. He tried radioing some of the other fighters, and he managed to get Pete. He was in the “King of Spades”.

“Hey, Pete. You notice anything odd about this fight? Other than there seem to be more of them?”

“Yeah Bobby. You're the first voice I've heard since we launched. They jamming us or something?”

“Must be. They ain't never done that before. Do you see that huge yellow cruiser-looking thing back there? It's just sitting there, not doing anything.”

“Hell, Bobby. I don't know. It's bigger than anything we've shot at before. I'm not sure I wanna go near it, but let me guess, you got an idea.”

“You know me too well Pete. I say we go see if we can figure out just what the hell it is. And see if we can't take it out.”

So, that's what Pete and Bobby did. They cut through the enemy line like butter. Those fighters really were made of paper. As they got closer, they noticed it was larger than they had originally thought. Much larger. It was a sort of yellow color, which was different than the fighters, which were orange.

When they closed on the enemy ship, and really got a look at it, it defied description. Pete and Bobby each fired two of their missiles, holding one back each just in case. It was a good thing they did, since the missiles exploded on the surface of the ship, and didn't appear to do much good. The only evidence the explosions left was a little black scorch mark.

That was when Bobby noticed something else.

“Hey Pete, you see that thing on the bottom of the ship? What's that look like to you?”

“I don't know Bobby, but it looks like where the fighters are coming out of it. And for some reason it's red, not the yellow color the rest of it is. What do you think? Should we check it out?”

“Yeah, let's go.”

Pete and Bobby flew below the ship, and saw that it was, in fact, an opening. They fired their remaining missiles at it, and sure enough, it caused the ship to explode in a mighty fireball. Then something weird happened. All of a sudden the radios crackled to life, and there was cheering and laughing and crying and all sorts of, just, noise coming through the radio. At first, they didn't know what was going on. Then Bobby got the bright idea to just ask.

“This is Bobby of the Ace of Hearts, here with Pete and the King of Spades. What's going on? I mean, okay, that thing was obviously jamming us, but what's up? The battle can't be over with. There were way to many of them for that.”

“Bobby, Pete, you guys just saved Earth! That thing must have been some kind of queen or something, because as soon as it exploded, they all just... stopped. How'd you figure out what that was, anyway?”

“We didn't. We just noticed that it was big, and ugly, so we shot it. And then it blew up.”

“I'd keep that one to yourself if I was you.”

So, a few days later, back on Earth, they had a parade. For him and Pete. They marched down Main Street of Washington, and of his hometown, and everywhere they went, it was like a dream.

“Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!” Ugh. That stupid alarm clock. Not again.

Bobby woke up. Dang. Just when it was getting good. He looked in the mirror. Stuck in maintenance. At least his knee didn't hurt today. Ugh. He had wanted to be an astronaut when he grew up, and he loved every minute of Star Trek, and Star Wars, and all those sci-fi shows. And he finally did get to go to space. But those thick glasses meant that he would never get to fly the ship or go outside in a spacesuit. But, it was all worth it. Just so he could look down at that big blue marble. He looked over at the picture of his wife and daughter and smiled. He was also doing this for them, so that maybe she could become that hero he always dreamed of.

Over the intercom, he heard a familiar voice say, “Hey, Bobby, get over here to the lab. One of Dr. Lorgan's roaches escaped again. I keep telling him not to attach the chips to their brains, but do you think he listens? No. And he made this one 'smart'. So have fun. Thanks.” Bobby thought to himself that this was not the first time one of Dr. Lorgan's roaches 'escaped'. Sometimes he wondered if Lorigan was doing it on purpose. The last time it took two days to trap and kill the thing. “Oh, well,” he said to no one in particular, “I guess that's what I get paid to do.” So Bobby grabbed his trusty Artemis Model laser torch, tucked the picture into his jumpsuit, and said to himself, “Let's go hunt some bugs,” and started down the hallway, humming to himself. Yes, today was gonna be an alright kind of day.