by Dan Davis
“I do,” Henry said from across the room, smiling.
R1 smiled and lowered her head. Her cheeks flushed which was not something APs did, as far as Ram knew.
“And we’re drawing up changes to the program at this moment which we will begin implementing right away. Soon we’ll look at all aspects of Henry’s training with fresh eyes and with an open mind. We’ll be looking at Henry’s nutrition, his body mass and energy expenditure and consider changes to his diet.”
Monash huffed. “Everything has been precisely calibrated after literally decades of—”
“Yes indeed, it has, and perhaps we will change nothing. Certainly, we will change nothing that needs changing. We are not here to tinker with things unnecessarily and we have no ulterior motives and nothing to prove. We have no ego at all, do we Sergeant Stirling?”
“Not me, sir. I am the very essence of humility.”
“And you, Red?”
“What is an ego, sir? I am afraid that you will have to explain the concept to me.”
“We do however expect to be using your services more often,” Ram said, pointing at the medical staff.
That made most of the people in the room sit up straighter.
“You’re going to injure Henry?” Monash said, his voice rising in volume and pitch. “You can’t risk putting him out of action, he’s our last hope, our only hope! We can’t get him to the arena on Orb Station Alpha only to have him too injured to fight to his fullest potential.”
“What’s the difference?” Ram said, staring down at Monash.
The room was quiet.
The doctor scowled. “What’s the difference? What’s the difference if Henry is too injured to fight in the arena? What in the world do you mean, what’s the difference?”
Ram shrugged. “Well, Doctor, he’s not at his fullest potential now, is he.” He let the accusation hang in the air. His line of attack was a risk as far as Henry’s mental health was concerned but he wanted everyone to understand the reasons for the changes, most of all Doctor Monash and Henry himself. “I’ve seen the numbers. We all have. Let’s not deny reality, shall we. Let’s get it out in the open. Let’s all understand where we are at this moment. We need to all understand that with his current performance trajectory, Henry’s chance of success is close to zero. So, as I say, if we push him so hard that he gets injured then what’s the difference?”
“They said that about you, if you’ll recall,” the doctor snapped. “When you were about to step onto Orb Station Zero, you were averaging below a one percent chance of success in some reports by your team. What if you had also been badly injured by a desperate and unprofessional team? One percent chance of victory!”
“And they had worked like crazy to get my chances up that high. Now,” Ram paused and pointed across the room. “Henry has everything he needs to win. The Omega Project has been a stunning success. They have engineered the perfect weapon for defeating whatever hex champion that comes scuttling across that arena. Perfect. Look at him. I want everyone to turn around and look at Henry. Go on, look at him.”
All the heads swiveled and faced Henry. He looked back at Ram with eyes full of apprehension but with a determined expression on the rest of his face. “He’s perfection itself. It’s we who are failing. It’s we who are failing him. So, yes, there will be some changes necessary. We might have to patch up a few wounds and clean up some blood. Some of it will probably be mine.” A few nervous chuckles bubbled up and Ram moved his pointing finger around the room, smiling just a little. “Some it may well be yours.” The laughing died away into nothing. “But all our blood and broken bones and our hurt feelings and wounded pride mean nothing. Nothing at all. We’re going to do whatever it takes to make sure we are all as perfect as Henry. And when we do that… which we will… I know we’re going to win. I know it.” He grinned. “After all, I’ve been here before.”
Ram winked at Henry, clapped his hands and told everybody to get on with their duties.
“And if you have any questions, any issues, concerns, or any ideas, whether you think they’re crazy or not, then you come to me or Sergeant Stirling. One of us will always be on watch. Thank you very much.”
While they filed out, Stirling muttered in Ram’s ear. “So, I’m an administrator now. That’s just great.”
“You’re an Assistant Project Manager, Stirling, and it’s a very important position. Now, go get me a cup of coffee.”
Stirling nodded at the approaching captain before sidling away. “I’m just going to finish the new training schedule, sir.”
“I think that went quite well,” the Lt. Commander said before lowering her voice. “I like how you handled our doctor friend. Butter him up like crazy and then put him in his place. Seems to have worked, though.”
“Doubt it’s anything I said or did. He wouldn’t have achieved everything he has if he couldn’t see the big picture. No matter how big his ego, no matter how delicate his mental health, he’s already given everything to the project. He’ll be okay with sacrificing this, too.”
Some sort of emotion played over her face before she clamped it down. “Well, we’ll see.”
“Is there something wrong, Kat?”
“No, nothing that can’t wait. I look forward to seeing how you get on in the next few weeks. Do not neglect your medical appointments.”
“I won’t.”
“We need you in optimum condition as well, you know. It’s important.”
“I understand, Lieutenant Commander Xenakis.”
She smiled as she left but Ram was in no doubt that she was hiding something from him. Of course, a commanding officer might keep all kinds of operational secrets from her personnel but Ram could not imagine what would elicit that kind of emotional response.
***
“I’ve been lied to before,” Ram said to Stirling as they stuffed their plates of rice and beans in their mouths in the empty mess hall. They had worked late finalizing their proposed schedule which would begin in earnest in just a few hours.
“You were lied to on the way to the Orb Station Zero,” Stirling said. “And then we lied to you when your memory was wiped before Arcadia. I can see why you’d be paranoid.”
“I was lied to all my life. My parents were paid to raise me, a clone of a constructed genome, born in some lab. When I was living my life, they were secretly watching every moment of it. Recording it. They never saw me as human. To such an extent that they cut off my head. Just cut it off. Not even any warning.”
“Imagine that,” Stirling said. “Cutting off someone’s head without asking them nicely first.”
“You know what I mean. And even after the victory on the orb, when they pretended they saw me as human, finally, then they just did it again. They just wiped my memories of joining the Marines and everything that happened and they could do it because they still did not consider me human. Or if they did, they didn’t care.”
Stirling shrugged. “Not exactly the same thing but yeah, okay, I see what you’re saying. Maybe you should be paranoid. I’m sick of this rice, you know. So much rice. What is it, four times a week? Five? How about a few more potatoes, eh?”
“The rice is perfectly fine.”
“Yeah, well you would say that, wouldn’t you. Me, I’m a Scot. And Scots need potatoes to thrive, everyone knows that. It’s in our blood.”
“Potatoes are in your blood?”
He pointed his fork at Ram. “They most certainly are, sir.”
“Potatoes aren’t even native to Scotland, you know. They came from the Americas.”
“Oh, for God’s sake, man. The potato has been in Scotland for, what, seven hundred years, is it? I think that bloody well counts, don’t you? And besides, we didn’t really thrive until we got the potato, did we?”
“You didn’t?”
“Scotland, a beautiful but harsh land on the edge on an island, on the edge of a continent. For hundreds of years, we had the brains and we had the brawn and we had the b
eauties but we never had the potato. And then we get it. Some brave Scot goes to Mexico or whatever and he brings back a sack of them and then what happens?”
“They ate the potatoes?”
“Potato crops yield far more energy per acre than any cereal crop in our climate, did you know that? Ah, that’s something you didn’t know, well, it’s true. And what happens then when we get the potato? Population booms and then… the Scots colonize England.”
Ram frowned. “Did that really happen?”
Stirling scoffed. “We put our king on their throne, what else do you call it? Then we start colonizing the world, sending explorers and soldiers and merchants to the four corners of the globe. Then we get the Enlightenment in Europe, fueled by the Scots people. All the best thinkers of the Enlightenment were Scots, did you know that?”
“I don’t think that’s true.”
“Bloody well is. Look it up. And then the Industrial Revolution was created by Scotland, all the best inventors were ours, and we founded Canada and the United States, that was us, too.”
“I think you might have a biased view of history.”
“Makes you think, doesn’t it. The genetic potential of the Scots people was there for centuries. Thousands of years, really. But it took the humble potato to make the Scottish people reach greatness. And when the Scots reached greatness, we made the modern world.”
“I feel like you have some deeper point,” Ram said. “What is it you’re trying to say?”
“I’m really sick of this rice.”
“Well, I like it. I just wish there were more of it.”
“You’re Indian, of course you like it. And you’re paranoid because you’re hungry and you’re not getting enough sleep. So eat up and get to your bunk, sir.”
“It might be the brain damage,” Ram said. “It might be making me confused.”
Stirling looked at him while chewing. “Speak to the medics, sir. They giving you brain scans? In that room off to the side? Well, there you are then. They’ll spot anything wrong.”
“You’ve had brain scans too?”
“Few times.”
“On the Hereward?”
“Every couple of days, sir.”
“Do you have a medical condition?”
Stirling shrugged. “Just standard procedure for a checkup, they said. I reckon it’s that rocket launch. Man alive, that was rough. Shook my brains around up there, probably scrambled them a bit.”
“How do you feel?”
Stirling wouldn’t meet his eye. “I feel fine.”
“Tell me the truth, Stirling.”
“It’s nothing, nothing at all. Just as I said, I feel a bit slow, that’s all. Hard to remember stuff. And just a few aches and pains.”
“Pains where?”
He shrugged. “Joints, mainly. Joints and muscles. And headaches. But you know that’s from spending so much time in Henry’s atmosphere. It’s not good for you. All that humidity. All that heat. Not natural, is it.”
“Have you discussed your theory with the medics?”
“They said it’s nothing. They said I’m fine.”
Ram watched Stirling, who still wouldn’t look up. “Has Fury been having brain scans?”
“Haven’t asked. No idea. Probably, right?”
Ram put down his fork and stood. “I’m going to speak to Fury.”
“You should get to your rack, sir. Got to look after yourself first and foremost.”
“I will, soon. And you should take your own advice.”
“I’m feeling fine, sir. I’m completely fine.”
The Marine quarters were noticeably empty. Quiet. The tiny compartment had only two bunks, one above the other, and Fury had left Flores’ belongings exactly where they had been. It was almost as though Flores might come in at any moment and lay down in her old bunk.
When he came in, he found Fury lying on her bunk with her face hidden by a small screen she held in her hands.
“How you doing, Fury?”
She answered without looking at him. “Fine, sir.”
“What are you reading?”
“Autobiography.”
“Yours?”
“A woman who was evacuated off Earth. Later she got transferred to a station called the Helsinki but the Hex destroyed it. She got away in time, kept getting moved around. Lost her family along the way. The book’s called Unwearied.”
“I’ll have to read it sometime. Fury, just a quick question. When you have your regular medicals, do they give you brain scans?”
Fury put down her pad and sat up on the edge of her bunk. “No, sir.”
She was staring at him, her lined face implacable.
“You know something, Fury?”
“I’m under orders not to speak of it, sir.”
Ram’s heart started racing. “You’re under orders not to speak of a secret that you know? Well, I won’t ask you to disobey your orders. But can you tell me, is it something to do with me?”
Fury’s eyes did not waver. “Yes, sir. With you and Sergeant Stirling.”
“I know I said I would not ask you to disobey your orders. And I won’t. But I don’t suppose you would want to voluntarily tell me and I’ll pretend I found out elsewhere?”
“You should speak to the captain, sir.”
“I will, I certainly will. But is there anything else you can…?”
Fury sighed. “You ever ask why they woke you up two weeks before the mission? We were on our way for months before then, why didn’t they wake you earlier so you could train properly?”
Ram’s heart skipped a beat and sweat broke out on his brow. “They wiped our memories?”
“No, sir. Well, not as far as I know. You were unconscious and in life support capsules when they brought you on board, as far as I know. We never saw you or the sergeant until they brought you around. Which was two weeks before we started our descent. And I never saw you or heard about you or the sergeant fighting anywhere in the system in all the years in between.”
Ram nodded, trying to control his anger. “I haven’t stopped to think about it but you’re right, it makes no sense to wake us up so close to the mission, does it. They did it again.” Ram almost laughed. “The bastards did it again. But what did they do?”
For a moment, he thought Fury was about to tell him. “You should talk to Lieutenant Commander Xenakis, sir.”
Ram found himself breathing heavily as he fought to control himself. “I will. I will.”
She looked up at him warily and he realized he had approached her bunk and stood over her with his fists clenched at his sides.
He limped backward. “Well, thank you, Fury. I’ll let you get back to your book.”
She nodded once, still wary.
Ram walked away, burning with anger. Not only that they had done it to him again but he had fallen for it. He stopped for a moment, pacing back and forth in the corridor, fighting to restrain his anger. If he lashed out physically, he would be restrained, arrested. He did not feel fully in control of himself but he had to have answers.
What did they do to me? What did they do?
When he reached the Bridge, the door remained closed. When he pulled the handle, he realized it was locked. He hammered a fist on the door.
The voice of one of the officers came from the intercom. “Lieutenant Seti, please step away from the door.”
“What is this?” Ram said. “You know why I’m here?”
“You seem very angry, “Lieutenant,” the officer said. “Please calm yourself.”
Ram gritted his teeth. “I am calm.”
“Lieutenant, we can see that you’re not.”
“You’re monitoring me? Of course you are. You can see my heart rate, my hormone levels, all that?”
“Precisely so, Lieutenant. This is merely a precautionary procedure devised for our own safety.”
“I’m not dangerous.”
A voice behind him in the corridor caused him to whip around. “You’re pos
sibly the most dangerous man who ever lived, Ram.”
She stood in the center of the corridor a few meters away. He knew instinctively he could reach her in four paces, even with his limp.
Instead, he simply spoke, though it was with gritted teeth. “Kat. We need to talk.”
“I’m afraid we do. Come to my quarters.” She stepped to the side and indicated that he should join her.
He limped a step closer. “You’re not afraid?”
She shrugged. “You’re dangerous but you’re not crazy, are you, Ram.”
He limped another step nearer to her. “They tell me I’m angry. Maybe you should watch out.”
“You have every right to be angry. Come with me and I will explain everything.”
With that she turned and walked to her quarters. He strode after her. She offered him a seat on her sofa in her office but it was too small and too low for him so he stood while she sat behind her desk.
“It didn’t even occur to me that you would be off duty. My mind… my mind isn’t what it was.”
She smiled, sadly. “No.”
“I assumed it was the blood loss. The brain damage I suffered in the launch from Earth. I wonder if that’s true at all or if that’s just another lie.”
Kat nodded. “You really did experience prolonged blood loss. It damaged your body and brain. But it only exacerbated a problem you already had.”
“You wiped my mind, did you? I have been conscious all this time, probably fighting in secret in the system somewhere but for some reason you wiped my memories before the mission. Or this is a new body and I was killed in the fighting, is that it? Tell me, what was it this time? I’m such an idiot, such a trusting idiot. That’s why they had you on this mission. You are a friendly face. Someone I remembered to be of a rebellious nature. A rule breaker like me, right? So I wouldn’t suspect you of betraying my trust like the great military machine had done before. But you’re just a part of that machine, aren’t you? Of course you are, you wouldn’t have been given command of a ship like this if not. I’m such an idiot for trusting you, for trusting my instincts.”
