Contest Round 3

Arlo looked at his companions with a frown. He was thinking hard about their predicament but no obvious solution presented itself. There were only three of them. It would take one to man the computer of the ship and watch for any enemies approaching and one to work the computer of the complex. That left Arlo alone to find their target. It was a recipe for failure, worse, it would be a total disaster!

"We need a bigger team."

"How do you propose we expand our members?"

"Academy is out."

Arlo looked at his mentors and partners with a slowly widening grin. "Since we can't return home until this mission is complete and we can't complete it without help, guess we will have to recruit our own cadets."

"And how are we going to test them? The Academy is the only place I know of with the proper equipment."

"So we don't have the simulator equipment, we will just have to come up with an old fashioned way to test whoever we choose."

"There were two candidates in Birch Hill Wisconsin on Earth. If the academy didn't get to them first, we should be able to test and recruit them in the summer of 1990."

Arlo's grin grew wider, this was going to be fun. It would be nice to have at least a couple more people on their team. They bent their heads together to plan what the best method of testing the candidates would be. It would have to be something that wouldn't be easy, but also not impossible. It would have to involve some kind of research and detective skills as well. An element of danger and the threat of physical harm, even though Arlo would make sure nothing would happen to them in this case he couldn't always guarantee their missions would be free from physical danger. It would be a good idea to figure out a way to test their mental health as well. There were some races out there that could take one small mental flaw and use it to take out an operative in less time then it took to blink. He had seen that happen to a different team. Shaking his head he had to force himself to stop thinking about what was going on back at the Academy and his home planet because if he couldn't recruit these team members he would never be able to make his own world safe.

"According to the database I just hacked into, it looks like the Academy didn't recruit them yet. They are kind of young, twelve, but we have recruited younger. One girl, named Ellie Turner, and one male named Nicholas Radewin. Residents of Birch Hill Wisconsin."

"Let's go. We can finish planning on the trip to Earth."