Chapter 10
Sam decided to dress a little less wild as she returned to high school for her undercover assignment with Daniel. She did her own makeup and hair, wore jeans, a yellow blouse and the black leather jacket and carried a leather purse.
Daniel returned sporting jeans, leather jack and t-shirt. His disguise was a bit easier to pull off compared to Sam's as he didn't need the makeup and hair style. He rode the motorcycle and rolled the pack of cigarettes into a sleeve of his t-shirt upon seeing Tony do the same. Daniel essentially mimicked Tony as his cover. He copied him in walk and talk. Soon he gained the attention of the girls at the school. Daniel was now one of the cool kids much to his surprise.
Sitting in class, Mr. Hinkley started his lesson English. He suggested. "How about book reports for midterms." He hoped the get the class excited but deep down inside knew they would be complaining.
The class groaned in despair. Janet however was rather excited. "Can I do Hardy Boys?" she asked excited for it was her favorite book series.
"Lame." Tony wadded up a piece of paper and tossed it at her, hitting her in the head. Janet slunk into her seat.
Ralph gave Tony and very stern look. "Tony! What did I tell you about throwing paper balls at Janet?"
"Whatever." he shrugged it off.
Daniel stood up, gathered the paper and tossed it in a trash can. He then took a seat right between Tony and Janet, blocking him from seeing her. He turned and stated. "If you hit me with one of those stupid paper balls, I will kick your ass."
"Chill man." he told him sitting up straight. He knew Daniel was upset and would make good on the threat.
"Daniel." Ralph tried to diffuse the situation. "We don't need fighting."
"No one is fighting." he assured him. He looked to Janet. "I'm right here." he assured her. "And I will sit here every day if I have to."
Rhonda looked to Tony. "Would you do that for me? Take a different seat to protect me?"
"Come on." he winced as he then realized just how bad Daniel made him look.
Kyle stated. "Daniel is right. Leave Janet alone. All you do is pick on her man. You got some secret crush on her or something?"
"He could." Sam stated. "Sometimes boys will seek attention from a girl they like by being mean to her. Of course, that's also considered abuse, Tony."
"I'm not abusing her." he rebutted. "I was picking on her a little. I don't mean anything by it."
Sam asked. "How would you like it if someone constantly berated you and threw paper balls and spit wads at you?"
All eyes fell on Tony. He backed down. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean anything by it. I'm not abusing anyone."
"Yes you are." Sam insisted.
"I won't do it anymore." he declared.
Daniel added. "I think you owe Janet an apology too."
Janet winced "You don't have to force him to apologize."
Tony stated. "Sorry Janet. I didn't mean anything by it."
Ralph stated impressed by Sam and Daniel's action. "Thank you for sticking up for Janet. That's very adult of you two."
Daniel stated. "Don't mention it."
Sam stated loudly. "Janet is my friend and that's what friends do. They look out for one another." She assured Janet. "I got your six."
Tony asked. "What does that mean? I got your six?"
She told him. "It's a military term for I got your back."
"Why six?" he wondered.
"Imagine the face of a clock and you are standing in the middle. Twelve is dead ahead. Three is to your right. Six is behind you. Nine is to your left. Then break that down further. If a target is say just to your right but not directly beside you, then you can use the clock face to estimate where that target is. Say the target is at two o'clock. You tell your engineer to lock on at two o'clock."
"How do you know that, Sam?" he wondered.
"My father is air force." she told him. "He's a fighter pilot."
"Cool." he grinned.
Kyle agreed. "That is cool, Sam. Your old man sounds neat."
"I think he is." she agreed.
Kyle asked. "How about you, Daniel? What does your old man do?"
"My father is…" he then realized. "Still alive." he gulped upon realizing his parents were still alive.
"What?" Kyle asked.
"I mean…he's…an archeologist." he told him. He wondered if perhaps he could get a warning to his father and perhaps prevent the accident.
Sam realized. "My mom is still alive too."
"Say what, Sam?" Kyle asked confused.
Ralph looked upon Sam and Daniel rather curious. They were not normal students. They both came in at the same time and neither seemed to really be struggling.
Sam quickly changed the subject. "What do you want our book reports to be on, Mr. H.?" She adopted the class name for the teacher.
Jose asked, "Can't we choose our own, Mr. H.?"
"Careers!" Ralph stated. "You each get to choose a career and make a report on it."
Daniel smirked at Tony, "You might want to research the prison system then."
The class burst out laughing. Tony smirked back at him. "I would run the prison system." He then stated. "Come on, Mr. H. I ain't going to no college. I'm a mechanic. I already know what I will do."
"You can be a mechanic and still have a career, Tony." he countered.
"Like what?" he rolled his eyes.
Sam looked at him. "You good at math?"
"I can do math." he replied.
"How about Air Force then?" she smirked.
"Doing what?" he asked. He laughed. "Be a fighter pilot like your old man?"
She nodded. "You have the personality type."
Kyle kidded. "Or be like the man in the red suit and fly like Superman. Busting criminals. Pow!" he mimicked a comic book.
Jose rolled his head back. "That's stupid man."
Sam smirked. "I'm going to do my report on the man in the red suit."
Ralph looked at her. "How would you do a report on that, Sam?"
"I would propose a theory on what powers the suit and possible origins." she told him.
Curious he asked. "How do you think that suit works?"
"Nanites." she stated.
Kyle asked. "What are nan-ites?"
Sam explained. "Think robots but on a microscopic scale. So small that you would need a high powered microscope to see them. And millions of nanites. Not just one. Like a swarm of bees. They could be infused in the suit and even the wearer. The nanites would be quantum physics capable."
Ralph became intrigued. "Little robots. Like computers?"
"Exactly." she nodded. "They would be programmable and can even be genetically encoded to they would only respond to certain people."
"Really?" he asked. "Let's say the red suit has these nanites robot things. And let's say the man lost the instruction book. Could a computer be used to figure out what the suit can do?"
She nodded. "Yes."
He paused and pondered. "Huh."
Tony asked. "Is that it, Mr. H.? You lost the instructions?"
"Tony?" he looked at his student surprised by the remark.
He replied. "We all know it's you."
"Tony." he gave a heavy sigh. He looked over the class. "Do all of you think I'm the man in the red suit?"
The students all nodded.
"Yeah." Jose agreed. "We figured out it was you. Was the lights in the sky aliens?"
He sighed. "It was a ship. Bill's partner was killed that day. I don't know who they are. Bill's car went dead. The ship came down. His partner was beamed down and gave us the case. I was told it would only work for me. Walking back the instruction book fell out and I have not been able to find it. So, I've been winging it. I never though the papers would go this nuts with it." He then requested. "This information cannot leave this room." He looked to Sam. "I had no idea how it works but you are first person to suggest something scientific behind it."
Sam asked. "How would like to meet the aliens and find out why they gave it to you?"
He confessed. "I would like a few answers."
Tony asked. "Wait! Are you two feds or something?"
Daniel shook his head. "No! We're not feds."
"Then how do you know who the aliens are?" he wondered.
Daniel stated. "We don't. We are trying to figure that one out."
Ralph quickly figured. "You two were sent into my classroom to watch me."
He confessed. "Yes. We were. The C.I.A. is watching you."
His head rolled back, "Great."
Tony asked. "You two are spies?"
Daniel shook his head. "No! We're explorers from the future who accidentally got thrown back through time through a Star Gate by 20 years and in the future no one remembers anything about the red suit. And since we have made contact and we know there are a number of alien threats we are trying to figure who is behind it and who gave the entire planet amnesia."
Kyle stated. "Shit man. My class just got interesting. And a little crazy."
Janet asked. "You two keep saying we're friends. How are we friends? In this alien future?"
Sam nodded. "We work together."
"You are the base doctor." Daniel told her. "You saved my life and Sam's a number of times."
"That's how you know I wanted to be a doctor." she figured.
Sam assured. "You do become a doctor and you are my best friend." She looked at Tony. "I'm a Major in the Air Force. I can fly fighter jets but my specialty is space and physics." She then added. "Stop picking on Janet or I will kick your ass."
He held up his hands. "Okay."
Ralph asked. "What is a Star Gate?"