Quantum Troopers Episode 8: Doc Frost

By Philip Bosshardt

Episode 8, Quantum Troopers. Johnny Winger and 1st Nano have returned from a close call in Kolkata, India. Winger lost an entire Detachment there when one his troopers turned out to be an angel. Now Major Kraft has summoned Doc Frost to Table Top to help re-generate ANAD and give the tiny bot a thorough checkout...only it isn’t the real Doc Frost who shows up. Meanwhile, Quantum Corps has managed to turn a Red Hammer operative who works at a small complex on an island in the south Pacific, the same island that Intel suggests the real Doc Frost has been taken to. The operative is extracted from Red Hammer’s clutches and memory scans show Doc Frost is likely at the same compound or nearby. He may even be working now for Red Hammer, probably under duress. Newly minted nanotrooper Dana Tallant commands a rescue mission, and looks on this as an opportunity to show up wonderboy atomgrabber Johnny Winger. But the op goes south and only Tallant and her second-in-command survive. Now they’re captives of Red Hammer. Winger is assigned a mission to rescue any survivors of Tallant’s force because nanotroopers don’t leave their buddies behind. He’s also tasked to find and rescue Doc Frost and find out what Red Hammer’s up to on this flyspeck of an island. The rescue mission will be risky but it has to be done. And, in the end, 1st Nano will encounter far more than they ever trained for.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Philip Bosshardt
• Release date: Jun 10, 2016
• ISBN: 9781310048708

Philip Bosshardt

Philip Bosshardt is a native of Atlanta, Georgia. He works for a large company that makes products everyone uses...just check out the drinks aisle at your grocery store. He’s been happily married for over 20 years. He’s also a Georgia Tech graduate in Industrial Engineering. He loves water sports in any form and swims 3-4 miles a week in anything resembling water. He and his wife have no children. They do, however, have one terribly spoiled Keeshond dog named Kelsey.For details on his series Tales of the Quantum Corps, visit his blog at qcorpstimes.blogspot.com or his website at http://philbosshardt.wix.com/philip-bosshardt.

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Quantum Troopers

Episode 8: Doc Frost

Published by Philip Bosshardt at Smashwords

Copyright 2016 Philip Bosshardt

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

A few words about this series….

*** Quantum Troopers is a series of 15,000- 20,000 word episodes detailing the adventures of Johnny Winger and his experiences with the United Nations Quantum Corps.

*** Each episode will be about 40-50 pages, approximately 20,000 words in length.

*** A new episode will be available and uploaded every 3 weeks.

*** There will be 22 episodes. The story will be completely serialized in about 14 months.

*** Each episode is a stand-alone story but will advance the greater theme and plot of the story arc.

*** The main plotline: U.N. Quantum Corps must defeat the criminal cartel Red Hammer’s efforts to steal or disable their new nanorobotic ANAD systems.

*** Uploads will be made to www.smashwords.com on approximately the schedule below:

Episode # Title Approximate Upload Date

1 ‘Atomgrabbers’ 1-14-16

2 ‘Nog School’ 2-8-16

3 ‘Deeno and Mighty Mite’ 2-29-16

4 ‘ANAD’ 3-21-16

5 ‘Table Top Mountain’ 4-11-16

6 ‘I, Lieutenant John Winger…’ 5-2-16

7 ‘Hong Chui’ 5-23-16

8 ‘Doc Frost’ 6-13-16

9 ‘Demonios of Via Verde’ 7-5-16

10 ‘The Big Bang’ 7-25-16

11 ‘Engebbe’ 8-15-16

12 ‘The Symbiosis Project’ 9-5-16

13 ‘Small is All!’ 9-26-16

14 ‘’The HNRIV Factor’ 10-17-16

15 ‘A Black Hole’ 11-7-16

16 ‘ANAD on Ice’ 11-29-16

17 ‘Lions Rock’ 12-19-16

18 ‘Geoplanes’ 1-9-17

19 ‘Mount Kipwezi’ 1-30-17

20 ‘Doc II’ 2-20-17

21 ‘Paryang Monastery’ 3-13-17

22 ‘Epilogue’ 4-3-17

Chapter 1

Post Mortem

Boise, Idaho

November 20, 2048

1950 hours

For Dr. Irwin Frost and Dr. Mary Duncan, travel was a necessary evil. They had boarded the TransAmerica jet at Philadelphia for the four- hour flight to Boise International Airport earlier that afternoon. Several Quantum Corps officers would be on hand at the Boise airport to greet them and take them up to Table Top Mountain. There, Frost and Duncan would examine the current ANAD master bot; word from 1st Nano was that there were suspicions ANAD had been severely compromised after encounters with powerful swarms and bots in Kenya, India and Nepal. Frost tended to discount some of the more lurid speculation he’d encountered…that 1st Nano had a mission to take down the world’s newest celebrity Symborg, that they’d run into strange quantum devices in Kolkata, that swarms of unknown origin and incredible capability had surged out of Tibet and nearly destroyed the platoon.

More likely, ANAD just needs a little tweaking, he told Duncan, over peanuts and wine on the long flight across the Midwest. If half of what we’re hearing is true, the boys will need more than ANAD to accomplish their missions.

Duncan tended to agree. I hope Johnny’s embed is behaving itself. That’s the ANAD version we had so much trouble with in the beginning. The one with the code from Engebbe.

I’m sure that’s behind us, Frost was certain. I borrowed some genome sequences from an ancient virus, that’s all. We tested it thoroughly in the Lab…put it through all its paces. I don’t think ANAD can spring anything on us we haven’t seen before.

But we haven’t been exactly forthcoming with the Corps on what you did, Irwin. Not all of it, at least.

Frost shrugged, polished off his wine. I did what I had to do…you remember how it was. We had a contract with Quantum Corps. We were behind schedule. That virus had a genome that had solved some of the same programming problems we had, and had done it a billion years ago. I took what Nature did and just altered it slightly.

You’re not bothered we’ve married a quantum processor to a virus…made Nature’s most resilient survivor programmable, with the smarts of a five-year old child?

Mary, don’t be so dramatic. I’m only bothered if we can’t deliver to the Corps what our contract calls for. This whole Man-Machine Symbiosis Project’s been a godsend for the Lab…and the University, you know that. If ANAD can be properly controlled and can help the Corps accomplish its mission, I think everyone will be satisfied. And we’ll get our money.

The airliner touched down at Boise International a little after seven p.m. local time. Deplaning, Frost and Duncan spied the two Quantum Corps liaison officers in their black and gold uniforms straight away.

The taller one was Lieutenant Chambers. Chambers was angular, sharp-edges to his cheeks, with a shock of black hair that spilled out from under his cap. The second officer was female, a Lieutenant Robles. She was shorter, muscular, with a buzzcut that would have done any nog school cadet proud. A hint of a pony tail bob stuck out the back of her cap.

Greetings and handshakes were made. Chambers said, Drs. Frost and Duncan, we’ve got people getting your luggage now. They’ll take it straight to the lifters.

We’re not driving up? Frost asked, disappointed. This time of year, I was hoping to show Mary the Buffalo Range from close up, all the snow and the aspens should make for quite a show.

Chambers was apologetic. Sorry, sir, my orders are to get the both of you to the Mountain as fast as possible. We’ll go by lifter.

They left the concourse, took a small Corps sedan out to the far end of the ramp. Two black lifters squatted like supersized spiders on their articulating legs, jets and rotors already turning. The two scientists were quickly hustled on board one of the lifters.

Why two ships? Frost asked, over the whine of the turbines as they spooled up for liftoff.

Robles smiled, somewhat mechanically Duncan thought. A well-rehearsed reflex, perhaps. PR types did that.

Just backup, ma’am. Just in case.

The two lifters sprang into the air and turned about onto a northwesterly heading. They scooted up to five-thousand meters altitude, flitted through a few wispy late night clouds, then began the hour-long cruise up to Table Top. A crescent moon shone hard and bright over a snowy landscape below, crumped hills and valleys dotted with lights on the lower slopes of the mountains.

Frost watched thoughtfully. He had been to Table Top before. He knew most of the lights were vast lodges and mansions plastered all over the slopes of the hills, playgrounds for the rich and famous who came to this part of Idaho for the skiing and the scenery, and mostly to show off.

He didn’t at first notice it when the second lifer began drifting off into the clouds. It was Mary Duncan who felt a measurable turn underway and tapped Frost on the shoulder.

We seem to be turning away from the other plane, she observed.

Frost watched the darkened hillscape sliding by below. The mountains were still there, but there were fewer lights. The longer he watched, the more certain he was that they were leaving the mountains behind and the land was becoming flatter.

Presently, he looked up at Chambers. The Lieutenant seemed lost in thought as well, staring out the porthole on his side. When the lights they had been studying ended abruptly in a well-defined straight line, Frost realized they had turned off to the west and had been flying a westerly course for quite some time. He stirred a bit uneasily.

Is that the coastline below, Lieutenant?

Chambers at first said nothing. Frost looked more closely, Duncan peering out the porthole alongside. No question about it: they had crossed the Pacific coast, either Oregon or Washington, and were headed out over the ocean. Lieutenant Robles abruptly got up and came over to sit next to Frost. The hairs on the back of Frost’s neck suddenly stood up.

We’re not going to Table Top, are we, Lieutenant?

Robles seemed very real, but her expression also seemed a programmed reflex. Frost resisted trying to pinch the woman to see if she were an angel. He didn’t think she was, but you couldn’t always tell.

Robles forced a tight smile. Not directly, Dr. Frost. We’re just making a little detour. Relax…enjoy the ride.

Frost knew he would do anything but that.

The lifter bearing Frost and Duncan, with their Quantum Corps liaison officer escort, sped out over the Pacific, cruising along at a steady four hundred knots. Before long, the lights of the coastline dropped below the horizon. Now, only the black of the Pacific Ocean at night was left.

Frost looked over at Duncan. There was nothing they could do but sit back…and wonder.

UN Quantum Corps Base

Table Top Mountain

Idaho, USA

November 20, 2048

2200 hours

The crew’s mess at Table Top was just outside the Commissary, attached by tunnel to the PX and within a short walk of A Barracks, known as ‘Small Hall." The bar was done up in a South Pacific theme, with tiki birds everywhere, thatch roofs over the counter, the robo-bartender sporting a Panama hat at a jaunty angle and drinks that sometimes tasted like hog piss.

It was called The Lagoon.

Johnny Winger was glum and reflective when he came in. Straight away, he spotted Deeno D’Nunzio, Mighty Mite Barnes and Moby M’Bela, all at one table. D’Nunzio had some kind of drink with a tiny pink parasol sticking out the top. The other two had beers. They waved the Lieutenant over and he ordered a beer from the slate menu. Moments later, the servbot was setting the frosty mug down on a table scarred with too many stains and cigarette burns.

Why the long face, Skipper? asked D’Nunzio. "You’re back in one piece, you’re in The Lagoon and you’ve got a beer…what more could you want?"

I could want my Detachment back whole and hearty, he said, between chugs. "Just came from the after-action review on what happened in Kolkata…Helms was an angel and nobody saw that coming. He even passed the PSV. Somebody should have known. I should have known—"

How do you figure that, Lieutenant, asked Barnes. Helms was just out of nog school, a rookie, just passed the PSV and we all know Red Hammer’s got some damn good bots now, damn good configs. You can’t tell angels from Normals anymore. I mean, what could you have done?

Winger shrugged. "Got my guys out of there faster. Noticed that Helms wasn’t quite kosher when he reported to the Detachment. And the worst thing is ANAD…the little bugger may have been corrupted at Kipwezi…he was making