Punishment

by Guerin Zand

  “No. Stella likes to have these little talks with me. I guess she sees her job as my counselor or something. It’s like listening to a lecture from my mother. I figured the booze would make it easier to deal with. Has anything happened?”

  “No. Everybody is just killing time and waiting.”

  I sipped my coffee. I was going to need more than just this one cup. “Stella said you’re blaming yourself for what happened to your mother?”

  “I shouldn’t have talked her out of changing her reservations. If she would have…” Maria stopped talking and just broke down.

  I left my seat and knelt down in front of Maria. She put her arms around me, her head buried in my shoulder, and she just cried. I held her for a while and let her get it out of her system. I was crying as well. I dried my tears and tried to find the right words to say.

  “You can’t blame yourself. You didn’t do anything wrong. We can’t make decisions in life based on what the future may hold because we can’t know the future. And you can’t change the past. If I was never born this wouldn’t have happened either, so should we blame my parents for this?”

  Anna lifted her head off my shoulder and tried to wipe away her tears. “But…”

  “There’s no buts. There’s nothing we can do to change what happened. There’s nothing we did at the time to knowingly cause this. We need to deal with it and move on. It’s hard, but we have no other choice. It’s the choices we make now that are important.”

  “What do we do now, Dad?”

  “What do you think your mother would want us to do?” Maria just shrugged her shoulders. “We continue on. I have a job to do and you’re going to have to start to think about your future. For now, I want you to stay here on the shuttle where you’re safe. When, and if, things settle down we can talk more about your future, ok?” Maria nodded, still trying to clear the tears from her eyes.

  “What do you say we go grab some breakfast? The steak and eggs are always pretty good.”

  For a moment she smiled at me. Then she sighed, you know the sigh you get from your daughter when she doesn’t want your advice.

  “Ok, ok. You can have a salad or a fruit bowl if that makes you happy. But it’s all made up of the same alien goo. There’s no difference between the steak and the lettuce. It just looks and tastes different.”

  “It’s the principle of the thing, Dad.”

  “Oh, don’t give me that. That’s my line. I’m the one who’s being forced to eat only vegan goo. If anyone should be complaining, it’s me.”

  We entered the cafeteria and the team was already there, as well as Sly and Stella. Bart and Gladys had returned to their shuttle the night before. I rustled up a plate of steak and eggs and Maria conjured up a fruit plate. I looked at it and shook my head in disapproval. Stella offered me a detox beverage and I slammed it down. It tasted as shitty as I remembered. I think I preferred the hangover. I made me another cup of Joe to wash it all down.

  I sat down next to Roger, and Maria sat next to me on the other side. Roger started to fill me in on the current status.

  “The ambassadors met and hammered out an agreement. The Americans did offer the concession on the IOET we discussed in the end. Right now we are just waiting for the official response from the Chinese government.”

  I nodded and then asked, “What about North Korea?”

  “During the time we allowed them to communicate with China we overheard them discussing an attack on the south. China told them to stand down. The North Koreans weren’t very happy about that after learning what had been done to their nuclear arsenal. The Chinese were pretty firm with them, so, for now, they are standing down as they were told. There are no troop movements being observed on either side. The Chinese have about 32 hours left before the deadline. What do we do now, Guerin?”

  “We twiddle our thumbs and wait I guess. What’s happening with the American and Chinese military?”

  “The American and Chinese warships are holding their positions. The Americans have recalled their bombers, but they have not yet lowered the alert status. The rest of the world seems to know what’s happening. Everybody is sitting back for now waiting to see what happens next just like us.”

  I finished my breakfast and I was feeling better. Sly looked over at me.

  “You got my wife drunk last night, Guerin. Is there anything else I should know about?”

  “Not that I can remember, Sly.” I winked at Stella.

  The room erupted in laughter. It was like everyone needed the release. When the laughter ended the normal small talk started. Katie and Maria went off to talk and Steve excused himself. He was going to the control center to talk to Sammy, at least that is what he said. I knew he was actually going to see Jackie. They had become close over the years.

  “So, Guerin, are you writing another book?” Sly asked to break the silence.

  “I started on a second book, but I stopped writing after I got married. Life got pretty routine and so there wasn’t really much interesting to write about.”

  “Well, I think that may have changed. You should perhaps start writing again. It would help occupy your time and it’s probably a good release for you. Besides, your first book is really popular among the Collective worlds. A bestseller, I think you’d call it.”

  “Really, Stella? I mean a bestseller implies it is being sold and that means I should be making money from it. Have you guys paid the proper royalties, or did you just pirate the book as usual?”

  “You know we don’t use money, Guerin. Nancy got a copy of it and distributed it to the members of the revolution.”

  “Really? How’s the revolution going these days?”

  “You’ll have to come visit if you want to find out.”

  “Guerin.”

  “Yes, Roger?”

  “The Chinese have sent a question to the Americans that they need you to answer.”

  “Ok.”

  “They want to know if they agree to the terms will North Korea be restored to its previous status?”

  “Were they any more specific as to what status they were referring to?”

  “No.”

  “Ok. Well, we’ll restore their communications, but the nuclear arsenal will not be restored. Not sure it could be restored if we wanted to, but I’m not even going to ask.”

  Roger sent the response over the comm network back to one of our offices that then relayed the response to Washington. Diane entered the room. I hadn’t seen Diane since she was rescued and to be honest I had forgotten about her in all the confusion. Wang was still in a room off the medical center and I asked that she, as well as Maria, not be informed of his presence. I was going to have to deal with him at some point but I was in no hurry.

  “Diane, it’s good to see you up and about. How are you feeling?”

  “I’m fine, Guerin, or I guess as fine as I can be. Physically I feel great but…”

  “I know. I’m sorry I got you involved in all of this. I never thought they would go after you.” I looked at Roger. “Did we ever figure out why they did?”

  “From the information we gathered from Wang, and other sources, the Chinese had built some crude form of a memory device that could retrieve information from a human mind. It was from plans they had from the Trogans. Apparently, since they couldn’t break into our servers, their plan was to kidnap her and extract what they could from her mind. They thought Diane would have the most knowledge, so that’s why they targeted her.”

  “The Trogan technology is very crude and more a device of torture. Diane would not have survived,” Stella informed the group.

  “I wished I had known this before I talked with the Chinese. I would have demanded they turn all those devices over along with the plans.”

  Roger was on top of the situation and explained, “Bart has already taken care of that quietly. The Chinese didn’t come clean about that, so if they object, too bad. Neither we or the Americans made turning over any remaining Trogan tech a stipulatio
n to the agreement. I don’t think we should try to modify that agreement at this time. I’d suggest we have the IOET security council add this as a condition for Chinese reinstatement to the council.”

  I nodded at Roger, “I agree.”

  “Diane, I want you to stay here on the shuttle where we can keep you safe. For now, you can make yourself busy investigating this shuttle and how it works. I think you’ll find the crew a little more helpful than usual. Take some time and figure out what you want to do when this is all settled. I’d understand if you want to quit your job. Let me know what you decide and I’ll make whatever arrangements.”

  “Thanks, Guerin, but I’m not quitting. This job has been my dream since I was a little girl. I’m not going to give that up for anybody. Tim wouldn’t have wanted me to either. We both believed in what we were doing. Maybe though, I should get a bonus for my troubles.”

  “What kind of bonus are we talking about?”

  “I want to see more. I mean, I want to see one of these main ships and maybe one of their stations, those Dyson spheres Cindy mentioned.”

  “You want to earn your space explorer merit badge?”

  Everyone laughed.

  “Yes.”

  “Well, you probably should have mentioned that to me before I told the Council to kiss my ass. But I don’t see a problem with you being on the next shuttle out of here. I mean, if I don’t know you’re doing it they can’t really blame me for it, can they?”

  We all laughed and Stella seemed to be approving of my more playful mood.

  “Once you get to the main ship you can figure out where you want to go from there. Then put your thumb out and hitch a ride. Just like backpacking through Europe on spring break. Stella can probably help you arrange things.”

  “It would be my pleasure. If you can find a time when you’d like to get together I’d love to show you some of my favorite places to visit. The rest of your team should think about taking a vacation when all of this settles down, including you, Guerin.”

  Sounded like Stella was taking my advice. It was obvious to me she was arranging a little private chat with Diane, but she was trying to not be so obvious per our earlier discussion. I wondered if I should warn Diane.

  “YES, MOM!” I said with a sick grin. Stella scowled back at me. The rest of the crowd looked puzzled. It wasn’t worth explaining.

  “I have time now I guess.” Diane had perked up at the thought of actually traveling the universe. I didn’t want to burst her bubble telling her she’d probably be indoors essentially, most of the time. Traveling from one giant IKEA showroom to the next. “We can go to my quarters now and we can start planning my itinerary.”

  “Whoa, Whoa, Whoa. God help me, I’m surrounded by amateurs. You don’t ever, ever, ever plan, schedule, or make up a fucking itinerary for a vacation. Those are things you do for work. You let a vacation happen. You go with the flow. Let the river of time sweep you away and leave your worries on the river bank.”

  “Wow, Guerin, kind of deep for you, isn’t it?” Katie commented as she and Maria returned to the room.

  “Well, take a seat and we’ll see if I can enlighten you as well.”

  “Oh God no, Dad! Not the three golden rules of vacation.”

  “Yes. They’re clueless. Since I have them all here I figured I could get it out of the way and not have to repeat myself.”

  “What are you two talking about?” Stella asked.

  “My father says there are three golden rules when it comes to a vacation. If you break any of them, it’s not a vacation. I think it’s bullshit, and his rules seem a bit fuzzy to everyone except himself.”

  “So what are they?” Stella looked over at me and I started to open my mouth when Maria spoke first.

  “Please. Let me. I know them by heart by now.” I waived to her to continue.

  “Number 1. You don’t plan or schedule anything in advance except for when you leave. Your return date should be considered as simply a possibility. You can make reservations for dinners, or activities. Unless some special activity requires more advance notice, each day’s activity should never be planned before the night prior. Even this amount of planning should be avoided. You should just figure out what you are going to be doing when you are doing it.”

  “Number 2. If it involves family, it’s not a vacation. Involving anyone outside your immediate family, is not a vacation. In this case, my father defines immediate family as just your spouse and children, and then only because he had to after getting married. Visiting Grandma, or an in-law, is not a vacation, and is more likely to turn out to be torture. Even if you like these family members they are going to have plans for your visit in clear violation of rule number 1. You should try and get out of this and stay home and work instead.”

  Eyebrows raised, people were laughing, and Stella encouraged her to continue.

  “Number 3. Never, ever, ever plan a vacation with a friend. They will screw it up. This can be seen as an extension of rule number 2, and if you notice the use of the word plan in this rule, it is almost certainly a violation of rule 1. Your friend will have a change of mind leaving you hanging, or they will try to get you to do things they have planned, violating rule number 1 over and over again. Not only that, you probably won’t get to do the things you want to do, when you want to do them.”

  “Number 1 seems to be the primary rule, is that correct, Guerin?”

  “Yes, Diane. Rules 2 and 3 could be considered corollaries to rule number 1 and even clarifications to the actual definition of what a vacation is. If you just pay attention to the first rule you should be ok.”

  “What if family comes to visit you? Can you consider that a vacation?” Katie asked with her smartass tone.

  “Only if you’re not there when they visit, and you’re somewhere else on an actual vacation.”

  Everyone laughed.

  “Please, don’t get him started. There is no winning an argument with him on this subject. We’ve tried.” Maria hesitated as the memories of her and her mother trying to argue this with me came to her. You could see a tear forming. Stella noticed and jumped in.

  “So, Maria, tell us, do your father’s vacation rules work?”

  Maria laughed. “I would never admit it if they did, but I will admit we never had a bad vacation. One of my favorites was this one time he came home and told us to grab our go bags. Don’t get me started with his obsession with the whole bugout bag nonsense. We grabbed our bags and the next thing you know we were in Italy for an Italian dinner. We spent the next month just picking trains to ride at random. We toured all these little towns in Europe based on what we felt like eating that day. It really was a lot of fun.”

  Roger interrupted, “Sorry, Guerin, but Sammy says the Chinese and American fleets are returning back to their home waters. I think this is just a sign that an agreement has been reached and possibly a show of good faith on both sides. I’d assume they’ll return to their normally scheduled deployments after a while. I’m still waiting for official confirmation that the two nations have an agreement.”

  “Well, we’ll just continue to wait then. Even if an agreement has been reached, we have some loose ends to take care of, right Katie?”

  “I’d like a chance to talk to you and Katie first if you don’t mind, Guerin?”

  “Ok. I’m heading down to talk to Sammy about a few issues, so if you two want to join me we can talk on the way.”

  The three of us left the cafeteria and headed down the main hallway to the nearest elevator. We took the elevator to the lower level where the control center and Sammy were located. When we got out of the elevator, Stella took us into a small supply room for a talk.

  “Guerin, I know what I said earlier, but I cannot in good conscience continue to keep your prisoner, my patient, in the current state we left him.” Katie started to object and Stella shut her down. “Let me finish. I understand you are both angry, and you have a right to be, but what purpose does torturing this man serve
? I know you, Guerin, and you’re better than that.”

  Katie wanted to vent but this time I stopped her. “Let’s hear her out, Katie. Tell us what you want to do, Stella?”

  “First, I want to treat his injury.”

  “No fucking way! You leave that shit as he is. He deserves a lot worse.”

  “Katie,” Stella tried to calm her. “Guerin has asked for a lot from us and we’ve complied without any argument. On this one issue, I will not. I’m going to treat my patient regardless of what either of you says.”

  Katie was frustrated but she knew we couldn’t argue with Stella on this. “So, tell me what your plan is then, Stella? We treat him and then what? We can’t have him loose on this ship. Are you going to guarantee us you’ll keep him secure? You know we will still turn him over to the authorities on Earth, and that most likely will mean his death anyways.”

  “I’ll keep him in stasis during the procedure and until you hand him over to Earth authorities. I am not going to interfere with your system of justice, but at least he’ll have the benefit of your justice and not simple revenge.”

  “Then do what you have to. I won’t stand in your way.”

  Katie started to object once more and I shut her down with a wave of my hand and a stern look. She kept quiet, but I could tell she was fuming with rage inside.

  “Thank you, Guerin.”

  Stella left the room and started back to the elevator. I held Katie back in the room to talk to her privately.

  “I can’t believe you agreed to that, Guerin. I would think if anybody would want that man to suffer it would be you. I’m sure Maria and Diane would agree with me.”

  “Well, they’re never going to know about this, Katie, understand?” Katie simply nodded. “If we come across as bloodthirsty monsters now, they’ll be watching us to see what we do next, and I don’t want that.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I’m talking about getting revenge on the one that matters. Wang is just a stooge. I don’t see any way he and his friends live much longer if they’re brought to justice. If the Chinese and Americans reach an agreement, the high-level Chinese involved in this won’t be around much longer either. Sure there will be a scapegoat sacrificed and the top leaders will survive a little longer, but the party won’t be happy with this embarrassment. The leaders who supported this will be out at the next party elections, and after that they’ll probably disappear quietly.”