The Intervention

By Mark T. Skarstedt

In this short story, military software had optimized a classic ground campaign, except for a twist in the assumptions that was completely useless.
Or was it?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mark T. Skarstedt
• Release date: Jul 30, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476203942

Mark T. Skarstedt

Mark T. Skarstedt spent his childhood and undergraduate years in California. After graduation from UCLA with a B.Sc. in chemistry, he joined the army as an infantry lieutenant, and while serving as a platoon leader in the 101st Airborne Division in Viet Nam, was twice decorated for valor, once by the U.S. Army, and once by the South Vietnamese government (which insisted on using the word 'gallantry' rather than 'valor' in its citation). He also received the purple heart, having unfortunately been trapped by a booby-trap, which would seem to make him a booby. Sorry about that. Upon returning home, he earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry (cellular and molecular biology) and, as an unrepentant Viet Nam veteran and fan of the hard-fighting South Vietnamese people, was probably the most unpopular graduate student in the Western Hemisphere. He followed up with a pair of two-year post-doctoral fellowships, one at Imperial College in London (H.G. Wells's old alma mater), and one at the State University of New York in Brooklyn. He then took up a research career in the medical diagnostics industry, managing to develop some products and bring his paper trail in the scientific literature up to 23 patents and publications. In his sparse spare time he worked on honing skills in a lifelong love: the crafting of hard science fiction. Mark and his gorgeous wife Decia, married now for some 43 years, have brought up three magnificent boys, all of whom have established independent households with children of their own. He now teaches college chemistry, an occasional class in securities licensing, and continues to pound away at science fiction. He will soon have more of his books and stories available on Smashwords.

Book preview

The Intervention

By Mark T. Skarstedt

Copyright 2012 Mark T. Skarstedt

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The Intervention

. . .they may be - they usually are - fools, void of subtlety, revilers of holy institutions, brutal speakers, and mischievous knaves, but they lie with difficulty.

- H. G. Wells

Boormin's Brighties

Dvenitch was not looking forward to his next appointment. He had been selected to be one of the army's hosts of Boormin's Brighties. He resisted the inclination to think of them as mere punks; they had protection - one lieutenant who had spoken over-sharply to them now had a reprimand in his file. And whatever one's opinion of them might be, they were taken very seriously by an important legislative committee and freely given clearances not granted to many high-level line officers. He glanced at his door plaque on his way by:

Laboratory 5: Lieutenant D. G. Dvenitch

Military Intelligence: Ground Contingency Planning

Bloo Cluster Ground Forces

He flicked some imaginary dust from it and entered his laboratory. Ten minutes until the Brighties arrived. He powered up his Data Handler, took it off-line, and called up a plan he was safely finished with. A few seconds' work assured him that the intersections were working and all reports were addressable. After a moment's hesitation, he made an illegal copy of it on his Personal Filer, which he physically locked in his desk. Presently there was a stir at his office door, and Sergeant Arkeno stuck his head in. Visitors are here, sir.

Dvenitch stood up. Thank you, Sergeant. Please bring them in.

Bring 'em in, Sergeant, said a voice in the hall. Yessir, yessir, yessir, said another. Arkeno stepped back and was preceded into the room by five males and three females, all in their early twenties, all in unkempt civilian attire, all 'brilliant' students at various elite universities, invited in to . . . Dvenitch wasn't sure what they had been invited in to do. The obvious dominant male in the group, large and muscular, glanced around appreciatively at the room's size. Cheez, it must be nice.

Careful, said one of the females. "We're in