I was looking at some Golden Age comic books from the 1950s. The stories were fun though dated. I’m trying my hand at updating one. It’s fun writing in the over-the-top style of the 1950s comics.
I’ll put up new episodes as I write them. Enjoy.
(PS. This hasn’t gone through an editor.)
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In the year 2103, when people die, their minds are put into android bodies, a process called Encasing. The cost for this immortality is being indebted to the government and breaking all ties with their former life. Is the price worth it? Four Encased trusted with America’s new Cold Fusion submarine will risk real death to save America and the world.
Encased for Duty
Episode 002
Commander Willa Ford watched the three faces, that looked exactly like hers, contort with surprise and disbelief, when she said, “Let me start by asking, has any one of you seen a flying saucer?”
The three Encased, Willa chose to join her in this mission, were in for more surprises. Willa gave a quiet, amused chuckle then continued. “I don’t blame you for being shocked that I would say something like that in front of the president of the United States. Flying saucers and aliens have been called hoaxes and mass hallucinations.” Willa paused to meet one by one the gaze of each of the three women in front of her. “But they exist. And they may be the greatest danger we’ve ever encountered.”
Dharma Ruggles, a trained combat soldier, almost immediately had her features under control and was displaying a look of mere interest. With Dr. Edie Hernandez, Willa could almost see the scientist’s mind leaping at the possibilities. Antonia Cooper, the young wild card in the mix, was leaning forward with her mouth agape and her eyes wide. The young circus performer looked ready to believe anything. Willa gave a mental nod. Their responses were what she expected. This was good.
Willa turned to the single man in the room, the president of the United States, who was entrusting her with the nation’s newest and greatest weapon, the Cold Fusion submarine. “Mr. President, would you care to sit down while I talk?”
“I think I may, Commander,” he said as he eased his weary body into a chair. “It’s been a long day.”
It was a sign of how ingrained the idea of the Encased not being people was embedded in the culture that a man who was known for not sitting in the presence of a standing woman, would sit in the presence of four standing Encased.
She did not offer her teammates the option to sit. The women’s minds were contained within android bodies which did not require the same level of rest.
Willa made a throat clearing noise. Once assured she had everyone’s attention again, she continued. “As I said, flying saucers may be the greatest danger we have ever encountered. Let me tell you what I know of them. Three months ago, I was assigned to run down the rumors. I was patrolling an area where they’d been reported…”
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Three months earlier…
Willa scanned the sky out the front window of her high-altitude jet. The coaxial cable between the aircraft computer and the port in the side of her chest kept Willa aware of the aircraft’s movement. Since Encased didn’t continuously require oxygen, she could take her jet higher into the upper atmosphere than a Living pilot.
“This is frustrating, Benny,” Willa said to her copilot. “One set of stories has those saucers whizzing the skies in this area, and another has them shooting out over the Atlantic, where they dive into the deepest part.”
Private Judy Benjamin, a skeptic of all alien theories, banked the jet south as she said, “You can forget both yarns. Those things just don’t exist.”
They were the only ones in the sky, according to what Willa could see and what the aircraft equipment was telling her. Then, out of the nearby cloud bank, a flying saucer came rushing out in front of them. Too close to dodge, they crashed into it.
Strident warning bells clanged, lights on the control panel flashed bright red, and messages bombarded Willa’s brain through her link to the aircraft. They were going down.
Heavy g-forces pressed Willa into the seat. If she had had a human body, she would not have been able to move. As it was, even her android strength had difficulty overcoming the g-forces fighting against her. She yanked the umbilical connector out of her side port with a grunt.
“Willa. Can’t. Pull. Cord,” Benny said with a strained effort. Benny learned to fly in an era when the pilot had to pull a wire cord to blow the canopy off. Though it was no longer a cord, Willa knew what Benny meant.
With Herculean resolve, Willa trained all her mental control into moving her straining mechanical limbs. Clouds rushed past her vision at dizzying speeds. The jet was in a nosedive. They were seconds from splattering onto the surface of the ocean. Despite the sounds of the metal structure around her groaning under duress, Willa swore she could hear the micro-servos in her limbs doing the same thing.
Slowly, her arms inched towards the lever at shoulder height. The one that would jettison them from the aircraft. So close, her fingertips mere inches away, she pushed with her legs trying to leverage herself just a little higher in the seat. Her fingers touched the edge of the bar, just a little further and she could wrap her hand around it and pull. She gave a hard kick with her leg, her hand wrapped around the handle, and she pulled.
The canopy whipped away. Willa felt the vibration rattle her whole body as an engine on the underside of her seat ignited and pushed her out into the rushing air. “Benny,” she screamed. Had her copilot gotten out? As the speed of her chair slowed, and the g-forces lessened, Willa whipped her head around looking for the other woman.
The flying saucer had also been damaged in the midair collision and floated on the waves not far from where Willa was about to land. Willa hit the harness release and pushed off from the chair. That’s when she realized she had broken a leg.
Willa landed in the water not far from Benny. Benny was already out of the water crawling up onto the damaged flying saucer. Willa smiled briefly with pleasure. Those aliens didn’t stand a chance with a fighting demon like Benny coming at them.
Benny got to the hatch at the top center and looked down. Willa saw a look on Benny’s face that sent a chill down Willa’s spine. Even though Living doctors and training manuals over the years had told her that such feelings were not possible in an android body, Willa knew better.
“Benny, what’s wrong?” Willa called out as she dodged waves and crawled through the water toward the craft.
Benny didn’t answer, she didn’t move. Benny stiffened as if a sudden paralyzing hand gripped her. Her android body was in perfect condition, but she couldn’t fight whatever invisible force was attacking her. Benny fell forward, still board-stiff, into the open hatch. Willa struggled faster to get to the flying saucer and help her friend, but her damaged leg slowed her down.
Then, suddenly, miraculously, the damage flying saucer was intact again, and a second later the flying saucer took off and disappeared. With Benny as a prisoner.
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Willa had been staring at an empty spot on the wall as she told her tale. She blinked and pulled her attention back to the others in the room. She noted that Dharma had her fists bunched up in front of her chest and a determined look on her face. Edie had pulled out an electronic tablet and was punching notes into it. And Toni was staring at her with a look of awe and wonder on her face. Willa was satisfied with their reactions.
“So, that’s it. That’s what I personally know about flying saucers.” She glanced at the president, he nodded at her. Willa continued. “We suspect that they may be Russian or Chinese secret weapons. Our first step must be to capture one and investigate. But they are known to dive into the deepest part of the Atlantic, where nothing can get at them.” She let a smile of anticipation creep across her face. “Nothing can go that deep but America’s new Cold Fusion submarine.”
Willa was antsy to get started. That edginess came out in the need to pace across the room. “That’s it, ladies. You’ve been chosen as members of the Atomic Command Core. Secretly commissioned to serve under me and man the Cold Fusion submarine.” She stopped and turned to face the three Encased in front of her. “There is the possibility your body will be severly damaged on this mission and we will be far from help. If so, your brain will not be transferred in time to a new body, and you will completely die.”
Toni gasped. Edie looked up from her tablet, startled. But Dharma had a look on her face that told Willa she had enough experience being Encased that like Willa she didn’t see a possible end to her conscription as a bad thing.
The president stood up. “Commander Ford has full authority to do anything she sees fit in the pursuit of these flying saucers, without requiring approval from anyone. You will also have all of America standing behind you.”
There wasn’t any question of stepping back from the mission for any of them. Even as Encased, they were still Americans. A secret group of patriots, swearing a secret oath.
Willa saw determination and pride mark their faces as the women unconsciously seem to take a step closer together as a group.
The president nodded. “Good. Repeat after me… I swear to give my all to America, to protect her and this new great weapon.”
Each woman took that solemn oath without hesitation.
And so the desperate campaign opened. The Atomic Commandos would board the mighty Cold Fusion submarine, and embark on a mission of life and death in a society where death was almost nonexistent.