Seed

by Michael Edelson

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  Subject: Alex Meyer, SPC, E-4, United States Army, 11B1P-rifle infantryman, airborne

  Current Assignment: NTF103-B

  No actions available at this time. Please review general orders.

  GENERAL ORDERS

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  1) Do not tamper with the barrier. It is for your own protection. You will be given control of the barrier shortly.

  2) Do not tamper with the facility or any part thereof. Do not permit others to do so.

  3) You are to support the governor so long as he or she does not endanger the welfare of the colony. The governor can be identified by a larger domicile and a universal access terminal.

  4) Maintain order among the residents.

  5) Use of deadly force is hereby authorized.

  6) Do not distribute the weapons in the arms room except to those you enlist to aid you in performing your duties. Use your best judgment. Always maintain control of the inventory.

  7) These orders are subject to change. Check them frequently.

  MISCELLANEOUS INSTRUCTIONS

  --------------------------

  Your situation will be explained to you shortly. Until that time, follow your general orders.

  You are hereby promoted to Captain, 0-3, effective immediately. Rank insignia can be located in computer desk. Your residence in this facility is permanent, conduct yourself accordingly.

  Alex stared at the monitor for a long time. His heart raced, his hands shook and a feeling of absolute dread momentarily overcame him. He did not understand why, but the words on the screen scared him. They scared him a lot.

  Hands still shaking, he pulled open a drawer. It contained paper and several boxes of pens. He took one of each, then opened another drawer. As promised, there was an assortment of rank insignia, both Velcro for his current uniform and metal insignia for his greens and dress blues, which as far he knew he no longer had. They were not all O-3 insignia. He identified several officer’s ranks, up to and including colonel. The drawer also contained an assortment of medals, few of which he had any right to wear. He took out the appropriate cloth patch with a Velcro back and stared at it. Two thick vertical bars, parallel, connected at two points. A captain’s rank. His rank.

  Your residence in this facility is permanent.

  Without thinking, he placed the velcro backed insignia in position on his chest and patted it down.

  “Still following orders, huh?” he asked himself, his voice shaky.

  Use of deadly force is hereby authorized.

  “Holy shit,” he whispered, then shut down the program. His mind was racing, and he found it difficult to pin down a concrete thought. Standing up, he grabbed the pen and paper and went back out into the hallway.

  “You took your time—” Yael started to say. “Hey, what’s the matter? You look like you’ve seen a ghost!”

  “I have pen and paper,” he muttered without making eye contact. “Here.” He held them out to her, but she didn’t take them.

  “Alex, what is it?” She stood up and faced him. She reached out to him, but held back at the last moment.

  “We’re not going anywhere,” he said stiffly. “Ever. This is it for us.”

  She blinked. “What are you saying? What did you see? What’s in there?”

  “Just general orders.”

  “What the hell is that?”

  He shook his head. “It’s my orders, from whoever put us here. I’m a captain now, for whatever the hell that’s worth.”

  “Alex,” she said firmly. “Slow down. I don’t understand what you’re saying.”

  “Your residence in this facility,” he repeated the words from the program, trying to make it obvious that he was quoting something. “Is permanent. Conduct yourself accordingly.”

  She stared at him for a moment without saying anything.

  “I’m sorry, Yael,” he said, his voice on the verge of cracking. “Something must have happened…something terrible. I might not be able to keep that promise after all.”

  “No…” she whispered. “Please, god, no.”

  He realized what he had just done to her and cringed. “No, wait,” he said, trying to fix it, his own pain momentarily forgotten. “I’m an idiot…it could just be part of the game. You know, like a psychological experiment.”

  She turned away and started walking down the hall.

  “Yael!”

  “Leave me alone!” she snapped, then turned back briefly and said, in a much softer tone, “I just need to be alone for a while, okay?”

  He nodded, then watched her walk out of the warehouse. The dog perked up, saw her leaving and followed her out after a long look at Alex.

  “Nice going,” he muttered to himself.

  *

  He had tried to look for Tom, but everyone he ran into was on their way to Max’s meeting. He eventually decided to follow some of them to the gathering, which was taking place by the clearing near the beach. Tom was there as well, hanging towards the back, watching as Max stood talking quietly to Reynard and Bob while the crowd gathered around him.

  “Probably ratting me out,” Alex muttered, looking at Bob. “The bastard.”

  “Hi Alex,” Tom said when he spotted him. “Here for the show?”

  “Yeah, I guess. I hate to sound like a broken record, but have you seen Yael?”

  “Nope,” Tom said, smiling. “But at least this time I can be sure.”

  Alex nodded. “Can you do me a quick favor while we wait for this circus?”

  “Sure can,” Tom said jovially. “Whatcha need?”

  Alex held out the piece of paper he had copied the canister’s ingredients onto. “I have this list of ingredients from a nutrient powder keg. It’s marked kosher, but Yael wants to be sure. Can you identify these for me? Being a chemist and all?”

  Tom nodded. “After the meeting, okay?”

  “Can you do it now? She hasn’t eaten since she got here. It’s kinda urgent.”

  He frowned, but took the list and looked at it.

  “Well?” Alex said.

  “They’re kosher.”

  “Are you sure?”

  Tom nodded. “Positive. My aunt married a Jewish dude, so I learned which was which.”

  “So what is Pantothenic Acid, anyway?”

  Tom shrugged. “It’s a kosher preservative.”

  “Really?” Yael wasn’t a chemist, but she had seemed pretty certain.

  “Yep.” Tom smiled, but his eyes were cautious, which told Alex what he needed to know.

  “It’s a vitamin, Tom,” Alex said, deciding to play his hunch. He grabbed the paper out of Tom’s hands. “What’s going on?”

  Tom looked around. There was no one near to them, most people were trying to get closer to Max, who looked like he was about to start speaking.

  Tom sighed and raised his hands. “You got me.”

  “What the hell do you mean, I got you?” Alex was confused, and more than a little annoyed. This was serious, Yael needed to eat. In the background, he heard Max talking.

  “I’m not a biochemist,” Tom explained, and smiled. “Please don’t tell anyone.”

  Alex frowned. “What the fuck do you mean you’re not a biochemist? Why would you lie about being a biochemist?”

  Before Tom had a chance to say anything, Alex heard Barbara calling his name from the other side of the gathering. She was waving at him as she made her way through the crowd, holding the dog collar in front of her.

  “Okay, look,” Alex said, pointing a stern finger at Tom. “I’ll keep your secret for now, but you’re going to tell me what you’re up to later.”

  “Yes, I will. It’s nothing sinister, and I don’t think I’m in the wrong here. I was kidnapped and brought here against my will, remember?”

  Alex nodded reluctantly. “You have a point. But as far as the others and especially Yael is concerned, you’re a biochemist and these are
kosher ingredients, got it?”

  “Got it, Chief.”

  “Actually, it’s ‘captain.’” Alex muttered. He sort of liked that. It would be great fun to lord his new rank over Medlock, and to have some fun teasing Campbell. But he wished he’d never found that terminal. Permanent? No, that part he didn’t like. Not one bit.

  “Right,” Tom said. “Captain.”

  “Alex,” Barbara said, finally coming into ear shot. “I examined this collar…oh, hello Tom. Nice to see you again.” She was wearing khaki shorts and a blue tank top with the straps of a white bra showing on her shoulders. She had very nice tanned legs with healthy muscle definition. A runner’s legs.

  “Hi Barbara,” Tom said, grinning sheepishly. In the background, Max started droning on about how they had to work together to make the most of their situation.

  “So,” Barbara said. “I examined this collar, and it’s not what you thought.”

  “How so?” Alex asked.

  “For starters, it wasn’t broken off, or sanded off.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I examined them under a microscope earlier this morning. They were dissolved.”

  Alex raised an eyebrow. What she was saying didn’t make much sense. “Dissolved? You mean like with acid? Why would someone partially dissolve dog tags?”

  “Yes,” she said, nodding. “Like with acid, only the patterns don’t match any acid I’ve ever seen.”

  “That’s odd,” Tom said.

  Barbara turned to him and pointed. “Say, you’re a chemist! Maybe you can take a look!”

  Tom swallowed. “Um, yeah, sure, I’d be happy to.” He gave Alex a pleading look, and he couldn’t help but smile in return. For whatever reason, Tom had made his bed.

  “So it is decided then,” Alex heard Max say. “We shall vote to see if you will accept me as the temporary leader of the group, until we figure out a way out of here.” The noises from the crowd did not sound positive, and Alex knew things would probably not go Max’s way. The man thought he was being clever by legitimizing his position with a vote, but his plan would backfire. Most of these people just wanted to go home and likely considered the notion of a leader as ridiculous as Alex himself did.

  “Fuck,” Alex swore. He was conflicted, but he knew what he had to do. He didn’t like Max, but whoever had sent him his orders had made the situation quite clear, leaving him little choice. He was a soldier, and soldiers followed orders. At least for now.

  “What is it?” Barbara said, but he ignored her and made his way to where Max and a few of his flunkies were standing.

  “Hold on,” he said, in as loud and authoritative voice as he could muster. “There isn’t going to be a vote.”

  Max glared at him. “Alex, I don’t know what you’re up to, but—”

  “In the arms room,” Alex continued, turning to the crowd. “There is a terminal. On that terminal, I found a copy of my general orders.” He turned to Max. “Are you telling the truth about your larger cabin and access terminal?”

  “Of course, but—”

  “Then you are the governor, as soon as I verify it with my own eyes. I have my orders, and I will obey them. There will be no voting.” He turned to the crowd. “Whoever put us here is firmly in control of our destiny, at least until we figure out where we are and how to get the hell out. And until that happens, we do things their way.”

  There were murmurs from the crowd, but no one looked overly displeased. People generally didn’t think they wanted to be bossed around, but most did, at least subconsciously. It was the nature of the human animal.

  “Have you found anything else out?” a woman in the crowd asked. “About why we’re here?”

  Alex turned to Max with a questioning look. The older man stared at him a moment, then nodded. Alex wondered if he received the same information on his terminal, and decided that he must have.

  “I don’t know how much we can trust what those assholes tell us,” Alex said. “But according to them, the barrier is here for our own protection, and it will be turned off shortly. Or rather, we will be given control over it, and will be able to turn it off.”

  Alex spotted Yael towards the back of the crowd. She was standing near one of the cabins, arms crossed in front of her chest, face red from crying.

  “What else?” someone asked. Alex didn’t notice who it was, nor did he care to.

  “Well,” Alex said, looking at her, wishing she wasn’t there to hear him say it again. “According to our captors, we’re going to be here…permanently. It was just text on a screen, I don’t know anything more.”

  The crowd erupted, screaming in outrage. Alex nodded to Max, as if to say “this is your problem now, not mine,” and headed over to Yael. She saw him and turned away, disappearing behind the cluster of cabins.

  He stared at the place where she had been and wished, once again, that he’d never set foot in the arms room.

  Chapter 9

  Alex was sure he had the right cabin when he noticed the small pile of dog droppings at the base of a nearby tree. When he got close, he heard the little animal yip and scratch at the door, announcing his presence. He knocked anyway, and waited for the door to pop open. Yael stood in the doorway, blocking his access as the dog ran out and jumped up on his legs.

  “Good dog,” he said, and reached down to pat its head.

  “What do you want?” she asked. Her eyes were still red, but then not much time had passed since the gathering. “I want to be alone.”

  “If you really want to be alone,” he said. “I’ll leave. But I came here to tell you what Tom said about the powder, and to make sure you got something to eat. And…maybe you could use some company. I know I can.”

  She looked at him, about to say something, then rolled her eyes, stood aside and let him enter.

  Her cabin was just like his own, except that it had a smaller wall mounted monitor and no DNA pad under the bed. She had taken some time to decorate. There were flowers in a plastic cup, some sea shells on the computer desk and colorful dresses hanging off of the plexiglass divider.

  “Nice place,” Alex said. “Is it rent controlled?”

  She frowned. “I’m not in the mood for jokes, Alex. I shouldn’t even be letting you in here.”

  “If it helps,” he suggested. “You can think of it as an official visit from the town brass.” Seeing her like this—defeated, sullen—bothered him. He wanted to help her.

  “But it’s not, and pretending doesn’t make it right.”

  “Oh but it is,” he insisted. “It seems I’m the law in these parts, and I say it’s my duty to make sure you’re feeling okay. If it helps I’ll write it down and make it official. I’ll even get Max to publicly proclaim it.”

  She smiled briefly. “Why are you so nice to me? If it’s because you think I’ll…sleep with you or something, think again.”

  “I do not wish to discuss my intentions at this time, but suffice it to say they are honorable.”

  “You’re strange, you know that?” she said, still smiling. This was good, at least he had cheered her up a bit.

  “How so?”

  “Sometimes you talk like a puerile teenager, other times like an educated adult. I don’t get you.”

  “I almost graduated college,” he said, grinning.

  “Why almost?”

  He shrugged. “I got fed up with the basic requirements. You know, music, philosophy, the crap they make you take. I decided to put it off and join the army.” Which had turned out to be a big mistake, but he didn’t feel like dredging that up right now. Besides, if he hadn’t joined the army, he wouldn’t have ended up in the compound and he wouldn’t have met her.

  She sat down on her bed and pushed the chair towards him. Nodding appreciatively, he rolled it behind him and sat down. The dog jumped up on the bed and lay down next to her, its head on her lap.

  “You’re still an oddball,” she said. “But I guess that’s okay.”

  “How ab
out you?” he asked. “High school senior?”

  She frowned. “Um, no. What makes you think I’m that young? Is it how I look, or how I act?” She was sitting with her legs crossed, hands on her knees. Her back was straight and she looked as stiff as a board. He laughed.

  “Yael, if I had to go by how you acted I’d ask you where the fountain of youth was. It’s how you look.”

  “That’s good, I guess.”

  “So you’re in college?” he asked. “I mean…were you?”

  She nodded. “Stern College. It’s part of Yeshiva University in New York City.”

  “You’re from the city, huh? I’ve been there a few times. Crazy place.”

  “I lived in Queens, we couldn’t afford Manhattan.”

  “So your father doesn’t really have any lawyers, does he?”

  “No,” she said, smiling. “He’s never needed any. It’s just something I say because I know it gets people’s attention.”

  “Good. It’s such a bad Jewish stereotype.”

  “I’ll be sure to bring it up at the next Zionist world domination meeting, right after the media control seminar and the baby tasting.” Her expression was blank, but her eyes were smiling.

  He laughed and shook his head. “Another joke. This could start to be a habit.”

  “I’m glad you think it’s funny, not everyone would. What about you? Where are you from?”

  “What you would call ‘Upstate New York.’ Though I’ve lived in California for more than a year now, near Death Valley. It’s where I was stationed.”

  “Wait,” she said, looking at his rank insignia. “You’re an officer. I thought you had to finish college to be an officer.”

  He frowned. “I was a specialist, an enlisted man. I just got promoted, remember?”

  “I wasn’t clear on that,” she said. “That’s a big promotion then.”

  “Yea, and if I’m going to be honest, it scares the shit out of me. The fact that they would make me a captain just like that…and why even bother? What difference does it make what rank I am?”