Free Deep Space Endeavor by Ron Francis Page B

know someone else had been there and would intensify their search. There was no way they could chance heading back to the ship now, even if that had been their plan. Collin revved the Mag-Lev speeder’s engine and took off towards Kaldor’s main continent. He drove as fast as the speeder could carry them thankful that he had modified the engine to reach far greater speeds than a factory model could.
    After driving through the night, the sun was just beginning to rise, causing the sky to turn a slightly brighter shade of pale pink than it had been the previous day. They had finally made it to the city. As a precaution, they left the speeder about a kilometer and a half outside of Kaldor City.
    They took off at a jog towards the city, leaving most of their gear, including Kimi’s sword, safely locked away in the speeder. Each of them carried only their blaster. It had taken them far longer to get to the city tha n Josiah had anticipated. He knew that Jesse and Suzy would be worried and Jesse would probably begin searching soon, but there was nothing he could do about that. The main priority at this point was to bring help to the settlement as soon as possible.
     
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    Jesse woke up with the sun. He had been asleep almost twelve hours, but for the first time since arriving in the Kalephi Galaxy he felt like himself. He had learned a lot about the Kalephi galaxy while reading Josiah's intel including the helpful fact that the entire galaxy, although not united, did use the same monetary system to make interstellar trade easier. Their money was called dudichrons, or chrons for short. “SAMMI, has Josiah checked in yet?” He doubted as he asked, but he did hope.
    “Negative, Colonel.” The expected reply only intensified his commitment to go find his friends. SAMMI continued, “Lieutenant Jackson has not checked in, and I have not been able to raise him on comms.”
    H e knew he shouldn’t be disappointed. At least now he would be heading out there to start looking for them. He took a ninety second military shower, dressed in a minute and brought Commando his breakfast with a fresh bowl of water. Less than four minutes after waking, he was ready to go find his crew. He just had to take care of one slightly painful detail first.
    “What is this?” Suzy asked, a look of bewilderment in her eyes. “And why would you want me to put it in your body?” He had boosted the signal in a tiny transmitter, and while it couldn’t communicate, it was a powerful enough signal for SAMMI to track him wherever he was.
    “It’s a signal transmitter; you will be able to find me wherever I am. This way, if the others come back while I’m out looking for them, th ey can find me right away.” He reasoned. “It’s a good idea, Suzy.”
    She understood that it was a good idea to have a device like this, but she asked again; “Yes, I agree, but why does it have to be inside your body?”
    H e smiled as he replied, “It goes inside my body in case I get captured and they search my clothes. It should be undetectable if they scan me because it will only transmit when you ask SAMMI to locate me. By the way,” He added. “Don’t ask SAMMI to locate me unless I’m gone for over twenty-four hours, or if the others come back and I’m not with them.” With that, Suzy made a small incision in his arm, inserted the device and quickly closed him up with medi-glue. He flexed his arm a couple times to make sure the glue would hold as he prepared to leave.
    H e put on the jacket of his sand-colored battle suit and he was just about ready to go. He loved the battle suit. It was probably the greatest invention of Sea Side Enterprises not invented by Serge or himself. The battle suit looked and felt like a smoother version of a regular space navy uniform. It was actually made of a particlized fabric, woven so tightly together that it would stop blaster fire. It also stopped pellets, slugs and even bladed weapons. The suit could take