Buck Rogers
by AJ Marks
Part 3
Buck followed Twiki and Wilma down the corridors marveling at the speed which the small robot had. It maneuvered down the hallway with ease, moving past people with the moves of a human, whoever had programmed the robot did a great job.
“I take it you know where we’re going?” Buck finally asked as they turned another corner inside some building, the shuttle had no windows so he had no idea where on Earth he was aside from their say so.
“Of course,” Wilma replied, looking back at him.
“Just asking, hate to get lost in a place I have no idea where I am,” Buck replied back to her.
“Here we are,” Wilma said as they arrived at a door. She opened it with touch and motioned for Buck to enter.
He motioned for her to enter first trying to be civil with her.
“This is the council room, they asked for you, not me,” Wilma replied back to him holding the door.
“Oh,” Buck replied as the nerves increased even as Twiki entered leaving them both outside. He understood that this next step was all his, and she wouldn’t be in the room. “I hope we meet again,” he said to her, looking her over again, nice hair, and gorgeous eyes. He would like to get to know her a bit better for sure before walking into the room.
He entered the room which had black tiles, white walls, the far wall having a coat of arms upon it and several tables, most were scattered along the wall, but one large curved table in front of the logo which had five people sitting down at it. In front of the table was another brown table, smaller with one chair and he noticed several more canteens placed on the tables along the wall and several more robots like Twiki standing in the back of the room.
“Well, this should be fun,” Buck said as one of the men motioned for Buck to have a seat. He walked over feeling more like an interrogation was about to happen than anything else.
“Welcome Captain Rogers,” one of the seated men said, Buck noticed he sat in the center and was probably the leader of the group.
“Um, thanks,” Buck murmured back unsure what the protocols were, if there were any.
“I’m Chancellor Elias Heur, to my right are Senators Iris Smyth and Dennis Mayer, on my left are Senators Betty Pappas and Mark Gonzalez,” the man said introducing them all.
“Captain William Rogers, but everyone calls me Buck,” Buck replied back automatically before even realizing they all probably knew his name.
“Yes, welcome, captain, let’s be honest, your arrival has given us all quite a scare,” Elias said. “Our relationship with the Rizonian Empire has been peaceful for a while, at least until your arrival.”
“To be fair Chancellor, he didn’t know who they were, or that it would even happen when he started his test,” Betty said speaking up and defending Buck, for which he felt slightly grateful. Perhaps he had some allies among the council.
“Regardless, his actions have endangered us all,” Elias stated. “Do you have anything to say on the matter captain?”
“Not quite how I imagined I’d come back to Earth,” Buck said after a few seconds of thought. “I really expected to be doing news tours, celebrated and a local hero type thing, not accused of almost starting a war considering I never even heard of the Rizonians until today,” he paused realizing it all had happened in a single day for him.
“I believe there was a phrase used back in your time, its times change,” Elias stated. “And instead of what you expected you created mess which we have to solve and clean up.”
“Chancellor, things were smoothed over during talks with the Rizonian ambassador earlier,” Doctor Theopolis said, Buck noticed his canteen lighting up and the name under it. “There was no indication of any other hostile actions by the Rizonians over this subject, if anything they are as curious about the FTL drive on the Enterprise as our scientists are.”
Buck watched the council members think that one over for several seconds before anyone spoke again.
“And the people will be excited over this, someone from the past coming to the future, we could really have a joyous occasion,” another council member said and Buck had to look at the nameplate to see it was Mark.
“What do you mean?” Elias asked back, turning to look at Mark.
“Celebrating the first real trial of a warp drive, no matter its success, the person who undertook it survived when we all thought he died in the attempt,” Mark stated back.
Buck thought about it for a few seconds wondering how successful he really was, especially considering everyone was taught he died in a failed attempt to reach the speed of light. He did have some things to look forward to, being almost five hundred years old and the first human to attempt warp drive and survive.
“What do you think advisers of the council?” Elias asked looking at the group of robots.
“It is unwise to make any further dealings over this with the Rizonian Empire if they have considered the matter closed. Continuing to worry about it could be considered an admission of guilt to them,” another one of the canteen said and Buck watched as it light up as it spoke as well.
“I concur, treat Captain Rogers as he is, someone from the past, and the first successful human to fly a warp driven spaceship,” another canteen said as the council sat in silence for several more seconds.
“By celebrating his successful FTL attempt it might also show to the Rizonians that he was telling the truth even more,” Theopolis said.
“Very well, I’ll have my secretary make some press conferences for it,” Elias said looking down at Buck. “What do you say captain, are you up to meeting the press?”
“Well, it was something I was expecting to do anyways,” Buck replied, and it was true, he did expect all of this and maybe even a parade to celebrate. He would take this over being interrogated over something he had no knowledge over.
“Yes, I imagine you expected even more than what you came back to,” Elias said. “I think we can make it a cause for a celebration.”
Buck sat in the room as several began talking at once making plans feeling overwhelmed by it all. Things were still out of his control as one rose leaving the room before returning with Wilma Deering once more. He wondered why she was back in the room and had expected her to have left, heading back to whatever duty she had.
“Colonel Deering, would you mind escorting Captain Rogers around for a while as he gets comfortable with modern society?” Elias asked causing Buck to look over. He had no problem with Wilma being his escort.
“Me, well if things are quiet then I guess I can do so,” Wilma replied.
“You have no objections Captain Rogers?”
“No,” Buck said, almost a bit too enthusiastically looking back over at Wilma who seemed resigned with the idea.
“Very well, well send you the information regarding where Captain Rogers is staying shortly,” Elias said before departing the room, along with the other council members.
Buck watched as the robots gathered the advisor robots and walked out except one who approached him, and he thought he saw this one pick up Doctor Theopolis and assumed the other robot was Twiki.
“Biggy biggy that was fun.”
“Now Twiki, the council members are only doing their job which is to protect the citizens of the NAA,” Theopolis replied. “It actually went better than I expected.”
“You expected worse?” Buck asked, wondering what he thought might happen.
“Yes, its actually a good thing councilman Rahal wasn’t here, he would have made a large outcry about all of this, and probably still will once he heard what the outcome was. He, of everyone on the council, is most susceptible to emotions clouding his judgement,” Theopolis stated.
“And when he gets too emotional, no amount of logic will get through to him, I’ve seen the advisors argue with him for hours,” Wilma said. “I guess you were lucky.”
“Yeah,” Buck said not liking the idea of meeting councilman at all. He wondered what type of person he was outside the council, friendly or dour. Another person walked in handing Wilma a pad which she quickly looked over.
“Well it appears they’ve found a place for you,” Wilma said.
“Then I take my leave of both of you, good day Buck,” Theopolis said.
“Thanks, see you two later,” Buck said.
“Biggy biggy, see you later Buck,” Twiki said.
Buck following Wilma out the door and back through a series of confusing hallways.
“The Chancellor scheduled a press meeting for a bit later, in two hours, plenty of time for us to stop by your place, and get dressed,” Wilma said.
“How about something to eat as well,” Buck said, realizing he was getting hungry and recalled the last time he actually ate was this morning before climbing into the Enterprise.
“Yeah, I guess not having eaten for 400 years will make you hungry,” Wilma said, giving him a slight smile.
“Oh, a joke, funny,” Buck said. “A dry sense of humor.”
“I suppose, not sure what a dry sense of humor is though,” Wilma replied.
Buck opened his mouth to explain when he realized he wasn’t exactly sure what it meant either. He looked over to see Wilma waiting for an explanation. “Ah, forget it, it’s hard to explain.”
“Okay, come on cave man,” Wilma said leading him down a few more corridors before exiting out the building and through a transparent tunnel giving him the first real look at the city before him. Towering building all in front of him and they all looked to be interconnected.
“Welcome to New DC,” Wilma said continuing on towards one of the buildings.
“Wow, impressive, how tall are the buildings?” he asked looking up and almost running into someone. “Sorry.”
“Yeah, keep your eyes where you are going, what are you, from the UAC?” the man said heading off in a hurry.
“I see some things haven’t changed,” Buck said as they continued on towards one of the buildings.
Entering it he noticed that the first floor had high ceilings, many of the walls were decorated in rich colors and paintings to look at, and he wondered how many people actually noticed them. He knew back in his day people walked by and most never even paid attention.
He was led to a bank of elevators, and took a moment to look at the others around them. He spotted a few looking at Wilma, most seemed to take in her uniform, white pants and shirt with some red strips and an insignia on the shoulder. Then they would look over at him and stare for a few seconds, he was still in his pressure suit he wore under the flight suit.
“Come on, we’ll go up to the transportation level,” Wilma said entering an elevator with Buck and a few others.
The ride was actually a bit uncomfortable and he had the impression people were silent due to both he and Wilma before they reached the floor and exited allowing him to look around Buck felt slightly impressed. Several monorail track were all around as Wilma walked up to one. He noticed one transport, which looked like a sideways egg with a door and room for several passengers in it and got in with Wilma.
“Grey eleven,” Wilma said.
It sped off towards another building and quickly went through it.
“So, what do people who are afraid of heights do?” Buck asked, looking around.
“They can dim the windows,” Wilma replied and with the press of a button the windows became opaque to the point he couldn’t see out of them. “Are you afraid of heights, it would surprise me.”
“No, but I know, knew, some people who were,” Buck replied back. “It actually was a very nice view.”
Wilma pressed the button again and the windows went back to normal allowing him to see about a dozen tall buildings, several smaller building all around and beyond that what appeared to be farmland all over and even what he thought was a port nearby.
“So, how many live in these buildings?” Buck asked.
“Grey building houses ten thousand people,” Wilma replied to him. “Each building is slightly different, but they are all self-sufficient and eco-friendly.”
“I see, and what do you do?” Buck asked turning the conversation to her.
“I’m the commander of the flight wing which is tasked with maintaining the defense of Earth,” she replied.
“Tough job?” Buck asked, unsure how often they had to defend Earth.
“Not really, been peaceful for a while now, at least it was until you showed up,” Wilma replied.
Buck was about to answer that when they entered another building and the transport stopped allowing the doors to open.
“We’re here,” Wilma said, exiting the transport and waiting for Buck to follow. He admired her figure as she exited, and knew he kept herself in shape. “Problem?” she asked at Buck’s slowness.
“No, just thinking,” Buck replied, not sure how she’d take to the admission he was admiring her ass.
“Well, keep up,” she replied back to him as they headed towards the elevators. “Grey building is divided into different regions, there are several banks of elevators in the middle which provide transportation between floors. The main junction between banks of elevators are every twenty floors. There are six high speed transports only going to every twentieth floor. Floor twenty is the transportation floor which has transports to every other building and other important buildings. You’re apparent is on floor 85, West side number Z.”
Buck said nothing trying to memorize it all as they got onto what appeared to be a high speed transport elevator and she pushed the eightieth floor. Buck felt his ears pop as they went up and got off. This floor seemed less crowded than the other floors.
“Every twentieth floor also has shops and such,” Wilma said as Buck looked down the corridor to see people walking around and seemed to be several shops before entering another elevator and heading to the final floor.
Reaching the apartment he walked in and realized it was larger than he expected it to be. It was a corner apartment which had a lot of space, something he didn’t expect inside a building. He walked around seeing the kitchen and living room, already furnished, not quite to his taste but functional.
The kitchen had a few gadgets he failed to recognize but it did seem to have something which appeared to be an oven, or microwave and a refrigerator, something that probably hadn’t changed much over the years.
“I’ll let you get settled, and be back in a thirty minutes, we’ll get you something tow wear and eat,” Wilma said.
“Sounds good,” Buck said.
First thing after Wilma left was to find the bathroom.
End part 3