Tales Of The Rocket Patrol 2

Chapter 7

     It took Sergeant Star less than twenty minutes to fly back to headquarters. With her suspect's blood all over her, it was against regulations for her to resume patrol until she cleaned up. Since her day was almost done, she didn't think Anders would gripe about her calling it a day a little bit early. He probably preferred it rather than risk her finding more trouble than she already had. Once back at the station, she immediately went to the lockers and removed the filthy uniform as soon as she possibly could. Once it was removed could Amanda tell how much blood was really on, and she was just thankful it wasn't hers. She had been in an intense firefight, and was able to walk away without so much as a single shot taken. It was an event she didn't want to repeat, and she thought about it the entire time she was in the shower cleaning up. Once she was cleaned up and back in a fresh uniform, Star walked very quickly to the lab which was surprisingly open for anyone to walk in. If the tech room was no longer in lock down, it could only mean one thing: they solved the problem. She had a big smile on her face as she walked in.

     "Give me the good news," she quickly asked, "I could really use some."

     "We found out that the blaster was using an algorithm that allowed it to go unrecognized by our sensors." the tech answered, we've made a configuration recommendation to the top brass and if implemented, it should disable all guns like it."

     "So no more shoot outs?" Star asked, smiling at the thought.

     "For now," the tech answered, "That is until they can make a new code that can bypass us. We're going to have to do further studies of our own system to make sure there are no other holes in our code that can be exploited. This could take some time so I'd recommend being careful out there."

     "Duly noted," Star said, giving the tech a half assed salute, "Seriously, thanks for taking care of that. I have a feeling someone was planning to use this for something bigger."

     "That is pure speculation, Sergeant." a voice called out.

     Commander Anders had entered the tech lab, and all eyes were on him as he strolled over to where Amanda and the head tech were speaking. He didn't seem impressed, but to be honest there wasn't many times either of them could remember when he had any other look on his face.

     "I'm sorry, Sir." Star replied, "Just a gut feeling. The guy who attacked me this afternoon seemed desperate to get it back."

     "Why is that?" the commander asked.

     "He was afraid," Amanda replied.

     "Of what?" the tech then inquired.

     "Probably of his boss," Star answered, "If he didn't die at the shootout, I am sure his boss would have ended him for losing his gun, especially now that none of them will work after we reversed engineered it."

     "Good work, Sergeant Star." the commander said, "We will be implementing the changes recommended by the tech lab as soon as possible. The blasters should be ineffective very soon. We have you to thank for that."

     "Just doing my job, Sir." She modestly told him.

     "Keep it up," Anders said, "But I'd recommend not bumping heads with upper management again anytime soon. It's unhealthy for both of our careers and I would hate to lose a good member of my patrol."

     "Affirmative, Sir!" Star said, giving a more serious salute to her boss. It was obvious to her that he had taken some heat on her behalf.

     "You've earned the rest of the day off," Anders said as he was well aware of the time. "Have a good weekend."

     Star and the rest of the techs watched in stunned silence as the Commander left the lab. It's the first time any of them had heard the Commander speak to anyone with such respect, let alone let any member of the patrol check out before their shift was early.

     "First time for everything," The tech said with a smile.

     "Hopefully not the last," Amanda said, as she also left the lab she quickly texted something to Captain Rogers, hoping he was still on world.

     Meet me at the pub, first round is on me.

     As she was walking back to the hanger to grab her speeder, a message from Rogers came back in and she quickly checked it. 

     No can do, sport. We've been given a last minute assignment. Rain check?

     Star was disappointed to see the message but was still going to get a drink before heading home. The events of the day warranted at least one brew before heading back home. The capital city was safe again, at least for the time being, but it wasn't every day someone was shot at while one duty and it happened to her twice. If that wasn't a good reason to grab a few pints at the pub, Amanda didn't know what was.