Buck Rogers
by AJ Marks
Part 15
Buck exited the simulator and headed to the debriefing room along with several other recruits, most of whom already knew his name.
“Where’d you learn to fly like that Buck?” someone asked from behind him. He turned to see one of the recruits making his way down the hallway and Buck noticed the name on his uniform, ‘Smith, Allen’.
“Would you believe the air force, and computer games,” Buck replied.
“Must be something from your time,” Allen replied.
“Yeah, computer games were big back in my day,” Buck said, feeling like some old man discussing the past. He felt a sudden urge to say young whippersnapper for some reason but felt the man beside him wouldn’t get the joke. “What do you do for entertainment?”
“Oh, we have our games, usually some interactive games, and every couple floors where I lived there was a place we could gather to play,” Allen replied.
Buck nodded, having seen some of those in the building he was in the past couple of days. The interviews had slowed down as most had talked to him and he was able to settle a bit more into learning the Thunderfighter.
“What did you do?” Allen asked.
“We’d hop on our bikes and ride down the pathways, of course my mom would get mad because I was out of earshot, but as long as I had my phone she didn’t mind as much,” Buck said recalling those days so long ago.
“Bikes?”
“Two wheeled vehicles which were human powered,” Buck said unsure how to explain a bike.
“Really, thought everything in your time was gas powered?”
“Nope, myth and rumor,” Buck replied having had that question several times. It seemed only the most extreme rumors and such made it making him wonder how much of the history he learned was correct or based on speculation.
“Was there really so much smog you couldn’t breathe?”
“Well, that one, it was all based on where you lived,” Buck replied recalling some news reports coming from China about bad air. “For the most part when I grew up the US was much cleaner than in the twentieth century. The worst areas were actually in China.”
“Probably like the Middle East area today,” Allen said as they turned to enter the debriefing room and sat down. A few more entered the room to total ten recruits as Wilma stood in the front.
Buck gave her a quick smile watching her eye him before turning to the rest. He enjoyed trying to rile her up, and took every opportunity to try.
“All right, you all did very well,” Wilma said. “Individual scores will be handed out in a few minutes, but we’ll go over the overall mission.”
Buck sat listening as Wilma broke down the dogfighting they had done. He took a few notes, having found a pad of paper and pens after a bit of searching. Everyone first stared at him for doing it, but he had his system, one he learned so long ago and he wasn’t about to change it due to some technology that was now around. He felt this way he learned better.
He also realized he had to mix his fighter pilot experience with his experience in flying space simulators in computer games, especially those old Star Wars games. He felt it was a bit ironic that an iconic game would help him out so much.
“All right, get some rest before we have our next test,” Wilma said as everyone filed out except him. He made his way on over to where she stood. “You know this is against the rules?”
“What, talking to a friend?” Buck asked sitting on the corner of the desk watching as she stopped her packing and looked at him.
“Is that what you call it, we call it flirting,” Wilma replied back to him.
“Well,” he replied, taking a moment to look her over. “You are very beautiful.”
“See, right there, that’s not being a friend, that’s I want to take you to bed,” Wilma said.
“So, how about it?” Buck asked watching as she stopped, blushed slightly before continuing to pack her stuff.
“I’d have to say no,” she said back to him.
“Do I even have a chance?”
He watched as she paused in what she was doing before giving him a reply. “No.”
“You hesitated,” he said with a smile, then realized she didn’t know the movie.
“What’s that mean?” she asked frowning.
“Ah, an old movie from when I was growing up, called Frozen, you see a snowman which comes to life say it,” Buck said.
“Frosty?”
“Frosty?” Buck said confused for a second. “No, his name was Olaf, you see, well, ah forget it, it would take too long to explain.”
“Another twenty-first century mystery,” Wilma replied back to hm.
“Yeah, something like that,” Buck said back to her. He found himself doing such things, quoting movies which no one got, or even replied back with. In a way it was very frustrating. “So, what are you doing later?” he asked finally.
“Why?” Wilma asked, turning to look at him again, this time with a bit more interest.
“I was thinking of maybe getting some supper, perhaps you’d like to join me?” Buck asked her trying for the direct route.
“I think we can fit that in, I’ll come by and pick you up, six,” she said to him.
“I look forward to it.”
*****
Buck looked in the mirror one last time, straightening his shirt out as the doorbell rang. This time he looked at the screen, seeing Wilma standing there, not in her normal uniform, but a lovely black dress and her hair was brushed back and appeared slightly nervous.
Walking over to the door he opened it, even knowing he could have done so in the bedroom, but he still had that old fashioned manners in him.
“Come on in,” he said to her, moving aside to allow her inside.
“Thanks,” she replied.
“So, where are we going?” he asked, wondering where she was going to take them.
“I think you’ll like it,” she replied. “Are you about ready?”
“Yeah,” he replied. “You look great y the way, never seen you outside of that uniform.”
“I don’t have many days to actually wear such cloths,” Wilma replied.
“I suppose we should get going then,” Buck said to her.
They moved to the transportation deck, Buck walking beside Wilma had a good feeling about tonight as they moved into a transport.
“So, you have any family?” Buck asked her.
“Mother, my dad was killed in battle when I was five,” Wilma answered, and wasn’t the answer Buck was expecting at all. He expected the normal and was at a loss for words when she continued. “No brothers or sisters, though I have a large extended family, lots of aunts, uncles and cousins.”
“I see,” Buck said, then wondered if he had any family still around, or more precisely any great-great, or however many greats it was, kids or nephews or nieces. “Must have been a blast during the holidays.”
“We had fun,” Wilma said.
“The holidays are still around?” Buck said, fully having expected the PC groups to have destroyed the holidays he knew.
“Christmas and New Year’s, yeah,” Wilma said. “I am a practicing Christian you know.”
That really surprised Buck, something he never expected to hear from a race which was now space faring.
“You know most races in the universe do believe in some being,” Wilma said. “Actually I‘m a Trans-Christian.”
“Not sure I’m familiar with that one,” Buck said.
“Was a result of the fractures in the twenty-second century, and then our first meeting with an alien race,” Wilma said as the transport raced through a building and continued on, heading to another building, this one was smaller and one Buck was not familiar with.
“So, where are we going?” Buck asked, hoping to change the conversation to something he felt a bit more comfortable with.
“A steakhouse, it’s on the ground floor of the centennial building,” Wilma said. “It’s a building which houses larger entertainment, like sports and has quite a few restaurants and a nice mall.”
“Sounds nice,” Buck replied, looking forward to a steak and then wondered if they would have chicken fried steak and figured probably not. It was something from the South it seemed, and it had been four hundred years.
The transport slowed down at another building allowing them to enter and maintain space between transports. Buck was impressed with the interior, nicely done and looked to be more upscale than most places with a lot of activity. He spotted groups of people walking all over as they walked in and down a corridor.
Inside the restaurant they were given a window seat allowing them to look out over the tree tops and into the distance and a nice view of the sitting sun.
“Going to start getting cold,” Wilma said.
Buck looked out seeing a long high speed transport approaching but this one looked different than the others. “So, what’s up with that transport?”
“Cargo transport,” Wilma said, which made sense, even though they were self-sufficient some resources needed to be brought in from further away.
“Of course,” Buck replied, he also knew the NAA took up almost the entire North American continent, along with the upper part of what used to be Mexico. “Nice sunset.”
They both looked out as the waiter came up to take their orders. Buck quickly ordered something to drink as did Wilma before the waiter took off to fill their order. Buck quickly scanned the menu to see what he wanted, before selecting a nice steak. There were a few items he didn’t recognize and realized those were items from off-planet.
“You seem to be adjusting nicely,” Wilma said.
“Well, it’s not quite Star Trek, but the future had a lot of nice ideas,” Buck replied. “Still getting used to all the politics of everything.”
“I would have thought it was more difficult back in your time?”
“Ah, yeah, probably was, but I knew society better and the policies of the nation a bit more and where I stood in all of it,” Buck replied. “Now, I’m like a boat drifting in an endless sea.”
“Poetic,” Wilma replied back to him as the waiter came over with their drinks, took their order and left.
“Not much of a poet, never learned how to do that,” Buck replied.
“You are sure of yourself, I see that whenever you sit down in the simulator,” Wilma said.
“Part of being a fighter pilot,” Buck said. “We had some interesting days, ever gone on alert drunk?”
“Um no.”
Buck smiled, giving a laugh, “yeah, those were the days. I was stationed in Alaska for a short tour, and boy would we get smashed.”
“Smashed?”
“Drunk,” Buck said. “There were times we could barely walk and the alarm would sound, the drivers would come, pick us up, we’d be on oxygen and coffee on the way over, hop into the fighter and take off.”
“Um, isn’t that dangerous?” Wilma asked.
“To an outsider, probably, we did what was needed, though most times it was nothing,” Buck said. “Many times it was a practice alert by the commander, only a few times was it for real. We had a lot of fun, going into town, drinking it up at the local bar.”
“Meeting the women?” Wilma asked.
“Of course,” Buck replied. “We were young, cocky, and damn lucky sometimes, unless you met up with some of those navy pilots, cockiest S.O.Bs out there.”
He looked up to see Wilma looking back at him confused.
“They figured that because they could land on a carrier it made them superior,” Buck said. “Though, didn’t run into them very often, mostly when I went into NASA training, went up against a few of them for the mission.”
“So you volunteered for that mission?” Wilma asked.
“Yeah, who wouldn’t, exciting stuff, be the first man to fly faster than light, right up there with Buzz Aldrin,” Buck said.
“Who?”
“Buzz Aldrin, first person on the moon.”
“You mean Neil Armstrong,” Wilma said.
Buck paused with the realization she was right. “Yeah, him,” he said. “Probably thinking of Toy Story and Buzz Lightyear, Aldrin, Lightyear.”
“Another movie you saw when you were young?” Wilma asked.
“Yeah, ‘to infinity and beyond’ was something he would always say,” Buck said.
“Interesting phrase,” Wilma said.
“It’s the one that got me interested in space exploration, heading out to see the unknown,” Buck said thinking back to those days. “And what I did was cutting edge, even if the risk was never making it back. The test was to go to Mars and back, take up half the fuel, but it didn’t quite work out that way.”
“Don’t think I could volunteer for something like that,” Wilma finally said.
“Why, you do it more than I do, I’ve already gone faster than I ever expected, of course never expected to find myself so far into the future. “There was some thought it might take a year to complete the journey. If that was the case my return would be very difficult.”
“Must have been a shock to see something you were not expecting,” Wilma said.
“Yeah, another world which was green and not the red I expected to see, then a huge spaceship. Not sure what shocked me more, that or the fact whoever spoke to me spoke English,” Buck said recalling that flight.
Their meal arrived and Buck dug in, tasting a steak as good as what he had back in his time.
End part 15