Frank Grayson's ENTERPRISE--Map of Conversion
FRANK GRAYSON
USS ENTERPRISE
#02
Map of Conversion
(three days after Shatner/Hawking were on the Enterprise)
THE HOME OF COLONEL HANK MORTON; Colorado Springs
Hank Morton sat at his desk in his private study. His cell phone was resting on the desk, and he was waiting for a text-message. Meanwhile, his wife had gone grocery shopping, as she did each Tuesday at 130pm. Hank had married his wife, not only because she had big breasts, but because she was very organized, and stuck to routines. She had been a drill instructor for the marines, and could be one mean ass bitch.
Anyone who knew them, friends and family, would know that Mondays were spent pruning the flowers, and caring for the garden in the front yard. Tuesdays were for grocery shopping. Wednesdays were spent doing 3M maintenance on the house. The rest of the days of the week had their own precise schedules as well. But even though this day, Tuesday, was shopping day, Frank knew his wife was actually on a covert mission for him. And while she was out executing it, Frank finalized his plans.
It was also good to spend some time alone, especially on this day. Today was his second day of retirement, having been asked to retire by the higher ups. He had done thirty-seven years, and “they” felt it was his time to go, and so he put in for an early out, spent the past two months on leave, and then he retired.
This was also sad day for another reason; a reason that angered him. As he sat at his desk, he stared at the photo of woman he only knew for a day, but he had enjoyed their time, flirting with each other. It was harmless and would have led to nothing in a sexual nature. It was how Hank lived his life. His wife, Nancy, knew her husband like to flirt with the younger women, but also trusted him to never go over the line. The young woman in the photo was special, and now she was dead;
local TV-reporter Angela Hanes.
During the whole incident with the USS ENTERPRISE, two months ago, she had covered the happenings at Norad. A couple days later after that event, after things calmed down when the Enterprise vanished, Hank was saddened to hear that she, and her child, a six month infant, had been killed in a car crash not more than two hours after she had left Norad. Her cameraman, who was also with her at the time, had also died in the crash. Hank later found out that all the footage the two reporters, and their notes, had been destroyed in the crash. Hank had been around the block enough to know that it had black-ops written all over it. And his being asked to retire was surely connected, he thought.
It was clear that someone, or some agency, was busy keeping it all, the USS ENTEPRISE incident, a secret. At least “they” had decided to let Hank live; for now at least.
Major Irv Wilson had been transferred to Edwards AFB, and Hank talked to him now and then. But through their own special code words, which they had devised after years of serving together, Irv, too, was suspicious of the government’s actions.
Lt. Leonard Jackson left the service after his daughter, Shawana, had died of a rare brain condition. The child showed signs of a miracle recovery, but eventually died. Not long after his daughter died Leonard contacted Hank, his former CO. Jackson had an outlandish theory, and wanted to share it him. At first Hank scoffed at the incredible story, but when he looked into the death of Angela Hanes, Hank started connecting the dots. Hank flashed back in his mind to the fateful first meeting with Leonard Jackson. It was over a month ago, but it was still fresh in Hank’s mind.
FLASH BACK BEGINS: SIX WEEKS AGO
Hank Morton agreed to meet Leonard Jackson at
a seedy bar on the south side of Denver Colorado. Jackson urged Hank not to bring his own car, but to rent one on a spur of the moment. Hank did as directed, and drove the crappy ass Ford Probe to the seedy Denver Bar.
Once there, he found Jackson sitting in the back of the Bar, along with his beautiful wife Rayana. Their daughter had only been dead for three days. What could they possibly be doing in a bar after a tragedy like that? Hank lit up a cigar, and sat down in the cozy little booth, directly below the NO SMOKING sign that was on the wall above it. Luckily, he wasn’t the only one who didn’t care for that law either, as many others were smoking as well.
“I’m sorry about your little girl,” Hank said to them both as he puffed on his stogy. “If there’s anything I can do, let me know.” Hank said.
“Colonel, did you rent a car or did you drive your own car?” Leonard asked.
Hank was about to explode, but held it back in respect to the Rayana. “I did what you told me to do. So instead of driving down here in my
67 Mustang, I had to drive here in a shitty Ford Probe.” He looked to Rayana. “Sorry about that, Rayana. I just hate Ford Probes.”
She smiled. “I understand.” She said softly.
“So,” Hank said to Leonard, “what is with all this cloak-and-dagger stuff?” Hank asked.
Two men entered the Bar from the only entrance. Jackson eyed them, and deduced they were just two truckers stopping in for a beer. Then he answered the Colonel’s question.
“Colonel…” Jackson began to say.
“Just call me Hank. I’d rather keep the fact we’re in the military to ourselves.” Hank said.
Leonard nodded. “Good idea.” He agreed. “I know what I’m about to tell you may sound outlandish, but I swear to you all of it is true.”
Hank nodded. “Go on.”
Leonard look to Rayana, then back to Hank, and continued. “Three weeks ago, during that stuff with the Enterprise, an oriental man made contact with my wife. He had promised to give our daughter a cure if I, through my wife, provide him information on what the military was doing, and more specifically, information on the Enterprise.”
“He bribed you then. I should have you arrested, right here on the spot, Mr. Jackson.” Hank said, sternly.
Rayana cut in. “Not a bribery, Mr. Horton. It was extortion. Mr. Fong made that quite clear to me.” Rayana said, her hands were trembling slightly.
“This man,” Leonard continued, “injected our daughter with some serum, some antidote, hell, we’re not doctors, so we’re not sure what it was. But for one week our daughter started to show signs of recovery. The man never came back, and our daughter started to lose ground, and…” Leonard bowed his head for a moment. “Now she’s dead. The only reason I know this is because my wife finally told me the truth after Shawana had died.”
Hank looked to Rayana. “So you’re telling me,” Hank said, “that this oriental man came to you with this cure. Gave her a small dose to prove to you it worked, and had planned to come back for more information on what we, the military, were doing about that ship in space. And once it all ended, he never came back, and your girl died.”
Rayana nodded. “I know it sounds crazy. But this man promised me he would return with a complete cure, if I got the information he wanted from Leonard.”
Leonard interjected. “Then I remembered how Angela had died, right after the whole incident with the Enterprise, and well, I started to believe it was all connected.”
Hank thought for a moment. “It’s possible.” He told them. He was still hurting over the news of Angela’s death.
“Colonel, I mean Hank,” Leonard said, “I think, in fact I know, my wife and I are being watched. I don’t know if its our guys, or the Chinese, but I know it. And I am sure they are watching you. This whole effort to push you out in a month or so is so transparent.” Leonard said, practically pleading as he did.
“We have to do something.” Rayana added. “Leonard and I have decided to sell everything and move to Hobart Australia.”
Hank nodded, and smiled at them. “Hobart’s real nice.” He said, his smile becoming fiendish. “I once got a massage there from these two girls, twins in fact…” he stopped when Leonard cleared his throat. “Oh, excuse me Rayana.” Hank said.
“Don’t worry, Leonard warned me about you.” She said with a smile.
“Before we left, we just wanted to warn you.” Leonard said. “I tried to contact Maj. Wilson, but I couldn’t find him.”
Hank’s mind was spinning with ideas. In his gut he knew Leonard was right. But he had another idea.
“Son, I learned along ago to always have an exit strategy. Why our
idiot Presidents keep forgeting this, I'll never know.” Hank said. “If what you are saying is true, and part of me thinks it is, then going to another country is only going to delay the inevitable.”
“That doesn’t sound hopeful.” Rayana said, as she gripped her husband’s hand tighter.
“Then which way do we go.” Leonard asked.
Hank smiled. “Up.”
Leonard looked confused.
“You said you’re a fan of that show, Star Search.” Hank said.
“Star Trek.” Leonard reminded him.
“Whatever,” Hank said, “what if we can get aboard that ship. My wife and I have no connections down here, ever since our son was killed in combat in Iraq. And from what I know of you two? You are estranged from your parents,” he said to Leonard, “and your parents are both dead as well.”
“What makes you think we could expect help from the ship we tried to destroy?” Leonard asked.
“Because, Leonard, you are going to make contact with them. I am sure you know of some special way they did it on that show. Well, if what you’re saying is true, you better find a way to do it now. Our lives may depend on it.”
“Our lives?” Rayana asked.
Hank blew out a large cloud of smoke into the air, then he smiled at Rayana. “My wife and I are coming with you.”
--
END OF FLASHBACK
HANK IS STILL SITTING AT HIS DECK IN HIS PRIVATE STUDY
Hank Morton stared around his study. Ever since that night he met with Leonard and his wife, Hank had a feeling that his own actions were being monitored. The hairs on the back of his neck were never wrong. And he had the strangest feeling that, at any moment, he could be taken out. Was he paranoid? Hank knew it was possible. But you don’t get as far in the military as he had gotten without seeing strange things happen. You learn to just put them out of your mind, and go on. But they happened.
So he put his mind at ease, in the closing months of his military career, buy spending more time on his two gems. Nearly ten years earlier he had bought his dream;
two Grumman F6F Hellcats. His father had flown that kind of fighter plane in WW2. So, naturally, Hank had been raised to believe they were the greatest fighter planes of all time; and he agreed with his late father; they were!
He had tooled around on them for years, piece by piece, restoring them, repainting them, and flying them. Who would have known that both planes would be his ticket to a whole new life. He could only hope that they would be, God willing!
Suddenly a text-message was received by his cell phone. He accepted it, and the message read; IVY-01. Hank smiled, it was the coded message he had been waiting for. And it had come from none other than Leonard Jackson. If all went as according to plan, four hours later, Hank, his wife Nancy, Leonard, and his wife Rayana, would all be aboard the USS ENTERPRISE.
Not only did Hank Morton work on his planes for two months, he had also read every single
STAR TREK tech manual that had been published over the decades. He secretly bought them from time to time, and only read them in quiet, outside on abandoned roads, in the comfort of his 67’stang. From the
Constitution Class Starship, all the way up to space station
Deep Space Nine, he dived into the fictional technology of the shows of Star Trek. Sometimes he thought he was foolish doing so.
But when Jackson sent Hank a coded message, to weeks earlier, he no longer felt foolish. Jackson had done it. He had sent a signal to the Enterprise, and it was received. Who ever was up on that ship did not agree to help. Jackson sent their escape plan to the invisible ship anyway. Whether or not the Enterprise would help at all was not known. Hank, Nancy, Leonard and Rayana only had hope to cling to.
But would it be as easy as they had planned? Hank didn’t think so. He would like to have been wrong. But most plans didn’t follow projections one hundred percent. And this plan was no different. Something was bound to go wrong.
Hank was right.
CONTINUED
(Word from Robert; I have gotten some interesting EMAILS to speed up the pace of the story. But I like going at this kind of pace. It is hard, as I'm sure some of the other BBS writers would admit, to create new characters. If its all just phasers and battles then I lose interest because I've seen that before. As a writer I have to 'care' about the people in the story, or I lose interest. I have followed one suggestion and jumped ahead a little in time to show progression. I will continue to do that when there is a point of time to do it.
I was going to kill off Hank Morton as someone suggested, Gene Hackman's character, but I just like this guy a lot. He's is a crusty old fart and I couldn't just kill him..well...yet. I also like to pretend that what I write will be a movie, or TV show someday (yes i have a big head) So I try to write with some kind of 'budget' in mind. So far I think this story is being driven by character content, and only one FX driven scene; the space station-missile. But I am going to ramp it up with the Hellcats and a dog fight with F-22s. Yes, how could world war 2 planes stand a chance with F-22s? This is STAR TREK!!! And any thing can happen!!
And oh yes, I haven't forgotten about the Romulan in the brig or the Bird of Prey out there somewhere.)
