by Ben Winston
"You know I don't think you have a clue as to what's really going on here," Becka looking up said as Joe stepped up behind the woman.
"Who the fuck are you?" the woman said, turning to see what Becka was looking at.
"Major Joseph Anderson, United Terrain Marines. Who are you?" Joe asked seriously.
"You're the Anomaly!" The woman said and started reaching under her jacket.
Joe had the Glock pointed at her head so quickly she hadn't even seen him move. "That's rather rude," he said. "I introduced myself, you call me names and reach for a weapon. That's just not nice."
She slowly pulled her hand back away from her jacket. "Okay, so now what?" the woman asked.
"First, you're going to answer my questions. Depending on how you answer will determine how you are going to make this flight... or if you finish it," Joe said, reaching into her jacket and removing her weapon.
"Like I'm going to tell you anything! I'm not that stupid! There is nothing you could do to me that would even compare to what The Prime will do to me," she replied.
"You're not very bright are you?" Joe asked. "I really don’t think you have to worry about seeing your beloved 'prime' again; at least, not in this life." Joe said. "I want you to think about something."
"What?" the woman asked, hatefully.
"You're afraid of Jared, right?" Joe asked.
"Who isn't?" she said.
"Me," Joe replied. "Now, consider this; you're afraid of Jarad, but Jared is afraid of me." Joe smiled without any warmth. "Who do you honestly think you should be afraid of right now?"
"Jared isn't afraid of you," the woman replied without hesitation. "You are a nuisance and a threat to his control of the Citadel, but he's not afraid of you."
Joe turned to Becka. "Do you recognize her?"
"I've seen her of course, but I don't know her at all. I think her name is Connie, or Corinne or something," Becka replied.
"Well, Connie or something, you and your two friends are going to be joining us for the time being. It's entirely up to you if you will be actually staying with us or not. Have a seat, this won't take long," Joe replied and motioned her to a chair at the table with his weapon. He moved over and gently knocked on the bridge door.
When Shana opened the door, she smiled at him. "I knew you were up to something. So, where are we really going?"
Joe winked at her. "The Citadel, but we can't leave yet. There are a couple of things I need to take care of first. Dr. Symms and his team will also be joining us. Can you hang out here for a few?"
Shana nodded. "Sure, but what are you going to do with our passengers?"
"Try to get some information out of them, but mostly I'm just gonna make sure their comfortably contained in the hold. We'll take them to Darkwater when we're finished." Joe said.
"Okay, I did file the flight plan as instructed, but I left the departure time as 'indeterminate'. We can get away with that when we do research runs," Shana explained. "Oh! Before I forget, a runner from the operations office brought this by for you." She handed Joe a small plastic card case. He opened it, and saw several different identification cards. One of them listed him as a representative of the Council and gave him Council authority.
Joe nodded thanks to her and turned back to the now sitting woman.
"I am a Navigator. You can't do anything to me without council approval," she said confidently.
"Do you honestly think I would be doing any of this if they hadn't already approved it?" Joe asked reasonably. He got a very sharp looking knife from the replicator and took the woman back to the cargo hold. As he passed her, he asked Becka to stay in the cabin for a moment.
She looked troubled, but nodded her agreement.
When he got into the cargo compartment, he tied the woman's arms to the roof with her feet spread widely apart. She kept looking over at the now whimpering man tied up on the floor of the hold. When he was certain she was secure, he did the same thing to the two men. When he was finished, he took out the knife and cut all their clothes off.
When he was finished he stood back and made a show of looking the woman over.
"I suppose you're going to rape me now? Go ahead, it won't make me tell you anything, asshole!" she spat at him.
"I have no interest in that, I was just wondering how someone like you could think she was all that and a bag of chips. Honestly, I don't see Jarad's attraction… But then again, maybe he likes boys after all," Joe said, commenting on her lack of breasts and very boyish figure. He smiled at her. "Enjoy your stay."
"Wait, what are you going to do with us?" she asked.
Joe looked back at her with complete unconcern. "Nothing, where you're going, I don't need to do anything to you."
"Where is that?" the woman asked.
Joe just smiled and left the hold, got Becka, and left the shuttle.
"Joe, what… uh, where are we going?" Beckka asked.
He smiled at her. "The real question you wanted to ask is what I did to that woman, right?"
"Well, yeah, but I'm not sure I really want to know," Becka replied.
"All I did was tie her up in a provocative way and strip her clothes off. I want her to imagine all sorts of horrible and nasty things while we're gone," Joe explained. "I didn't actually do anything to her except put her in a position to use her imagination."
"What about the other two?" Becka asked.
"Pretty much the same thing, but I tied them all up so they could all see each other clearly. When I left, one of them was already getting aroused," Joe said. "Considering their mentality and mindset, that should help convince the woman to talk."
"Jarad will know something’s happened when those people don't report in," Becka replied.
"I know; that's where we're going. Those three are going to check out a dart to go looking for you, flight control can log the flight as departing. That should cover us for a couple of days," Joe explained. "I usually work solo and a handler would take care of all of this, but I don't have a handler this time, so I have to do all the leg work myself."
"Ahh," she grinned. "Yet another reason to get Sharon up here?"
"Well, she would have been a good choice to run interference for me, but I doubt there will be as much need once we get this current situation taken care of," Joe replied.
"I'm pretty sure Todd at dispatch will do what we ask, but Flight Operations are a pretty strict group. They like everything by the book and filed out in triplicate," Becka explained.
"Considering that the lives of people are in their hands, I can't really blame them for that attitude. Don't worry, they'll do what we need."
"Are we certain Jarad doesn't have a spy in there?" Becka asked.
Joe grinned. "If he did, they would have known exactly where we went to and wouldn't have had to even visit dispatch."
"This whole thing is just confusing to me. How do we know who we can trust? He had the constable in his pocket; the head of the local police! I have to wonder who else he has control of," Becka said. "I would think we can't trust anyone anymore."
"I don't think it's all that bad. Besides, he doesn't need to control everyone, just a few key people. The Constable was an important one; he could access just about everything here Jarad would need. The rest of them are probably like Thom; forced into actions they don't want to do by Jarad and his minions. It'll all get sorted out very soon."
The dispatch office and flight operations were both at the small spaceport, so the couple didn't really have far to go. Todd, the young man that handled the dispatch of the planetary craft was more than willing to falsify the records of a dispatch, but he had a problem.
"Look, I'd love to do this for you Becky, but Flight Ops keeps me on a short leash. They audit my records every week and since the dart wouldn't actually be leaving, they'd find the discrepancy pretty quickly."
"Todd, I know you don't know me from Adam, but if you can do this for us, I'll make sure Flight Operations is taken care of. You won't get into troub
le," Joe replied.
"Sir, I don't meant to argue with you, and I'm sure you think you can cover me on this, but those folks are real hard asses when it comes to regulations," Todd replied.
Joe took out his Council credentials and showed it to the man in a way that Becka couldn't see it. "Trust me Son, I'm pretty sure I can do it."
Todd's eyes got huge when he saw what the ID was for. "Is that real? I've never seen one before! Uh, I'll do what you need; how long do you need the dart to be gone?"
"Indeterminate, but no later than Sunday night, let's say a twenty-three hundred return. One of us will let you know when to check it back in, would that be okay?" Joe asked. "By the way," he cleared his throat and put a pair of dark sunglasses on. "You never saw this; I was never here."
Todd chuckled and nodded his understanding. "You know, my folks have always wanted to take a weekend and just go exploring. I could always just let them take the dart out, that way even a visual check would be real," Todd suggested. "Would that help?"
"That would be great, Todd. I hope they enjoy the trip," Joe replied, smiling and taking the sunglasses off.
When they left Todd's office, Becka cornered Joe. "Okay, what was that ID you showed Todd?"
Joe gave her a half grin and handed it to her. When she read it, she stopped. "Joe, do you understand what this is? It means you out rank the colony-fucking-governor!"
"No, it doesn't," Joe replied reasonably. "It only means that I have Council authority if I need it to do the job I've been asked to do, that's all. It's also a secret so just pretend you never saw it, okay?"
Becka handed it back to him. "At least now I know how you’re going to get Flight Operations to agree to this."
They did too, once Joe showed his credentials to the Chief, who had to be called in because of the late hour; it was done and Todd was well and truly covered.
Joe and Becka returned to the shuttle to wait for the rest of the people they would need.
When Joe and Becka got back to the shuttle, they found Shana talking to two men in the common area on the small ship. The two men stood and came to attention when Joe walked in.
"Relax guys, we're not actually in the military here. Shana, are we ready to roll?" Joe asked.
"Doctor Symms asked if we could move over to his lab so we can load his equipment," the blond replied smiling.
"That's fine with me, but can you wait until I talk to him first? I still need to take care of a couple of things before we get moving," Joe replied. "Not a problem Sir. Just let me know when to go and I'll get us moved."
Joe nodded his head. "Since he's still up, I'll give him a call. I'm gonna need some sleep pretty soon myself." He sighed and turned to the two men. "But, before that happens, let me fill you two in on what's going on," he said the last to the two men.
"You guys mind if I get something to eat? I missed breakfast and only got some stale pretzels for lunch," Joe asked.
"Not at all, Sir," the former Lance Corporal, whose name was Gary, replied.
When Joe returned to his seat with a plate of Chicken Alfredo and garlic bread, the other former Marine, Luke, shook his head. "Fuck, now I'm hungry again. That smells great Sir."
Joe grinned at them. "Tastes even better. Now, about the mission. Did the Admiral give you any toys before you got sent down to the ship?" Joe asked.
Luke nodded. "Yes Sir, we both got one of every weapon we've been qualified on, along with a standard kit of uniforms and the like."
Joe nodded as he chewed and swallowed his current bite. "This is going to be a 'wet' mission. Our objective is to kill Senior Navigator Jarad Smalls. I'll actually do the dirty work, but I asked for the two of you to help me with his 'minions'. Ideally, Jarad will be the only one to die, but I have no way of determining what might happen, if he has any guards, or what the afore mentioned 'minions' will do to stop me, either before or after he's dead. Keep in mind, there are 'friendlies' on station as well. Becka will get in touch with them and let them know what's going on.
"Now for the really scary part. We know that at least Jarad Smalls has an active mental ability other than that of Navigator. There may be others, but we have no idea what they are or how strong they might be," Joe said, but Gary stopped him.
"Excuse me Sir, but did you say mental ability? Like ESP or something?"
Joe nodded. "Exactly like ESP or something. So here's the drill; I'll only give you orders with hand signals. The rest of the time, I want both of you to sing the Marine Corp anthem in your minds over and over. If you have to shoot, shoot to wound. Kill only if absolutely necessary. Understood?"
"Does it have to be the Marine Corps anthem Sir? I really hate that song," Gary replied.
Joe grinned. "I do too, but that's why I picked it. It'll force you to concentrate on it. It'll keep your mind occupied and hopefully drown out anything else that might sneak in there."
They both nodded thoughtfully. "That actually does make sense," Luke replied.
"Okay, now we'll be going in disguised as part of an upgrade team led by Doctor Symms. Once we get his gear aboard, his real team will get to work since they really do have a job to do. The four of us will slip away at that time. Jarad has ordered his minions to bring Becka back to the Citadel, so if they see her, there could be an issue. Luke, you'll go with her and prevent that from happening."
Luke nodded and smiled at Becka.
"Gary, you and I will make our way to Jarad's office and take care of business. Once that's done, we'll round up Jarad's minions and get them ready to be taken back to Darkwater for trial. We do know that the facility Medical Officer, as well as Jarad's second, are under his control. Anyone else is a coin toss. Now, we know of at least two hostages Jarad has been holding. We're not sure where he's been holding them, but we will need to find them and anyone else he might have been holding. That's the general plan, any questions?"
"Yes Sir, can we get a layout of the facility?" Gary asked.
Becka handed them both smart sheets with maps and data files for known accomplices of Jarad's.
"This is a space facility gentlemen, so for this mission, you'll want silenced Glocks with ceramic rounds. A punctured bulkhead would totally ruin my day. No one will be going down to the planet after we make this assault. Jarad does still have agents on the planet. We'll be collecting them as we discover them. Please study the sheets and be ready to party," Joe said and took another bite of his dinner.
Luke got a plate of garlic bread and two sodas before sitting back down to study the smart sheet. Gary nodded his thanks, grabbed one of the sodas and got back to studying. Joe moved over to the comm terminal.
A smiling Doctor Symms' image appeared on the wall display. "G'morning everyone. How are you Major?"
"Alive and well thanks to you, Doctor," Joe replied, smiling.
Symms nodded in return but lost some of his smile. "I assume it's time to go to the Citadel?"
Joe nodded. "Yeah, I'd like to end that nightmare as quickly as possible so we can get back to business. I know it's the middle of the night, but how soon can you get your team together?"
"Well, I've had them set up and ready to go for a few days. I told them the delay was because I was waiting for final test results. I do that so much, no one even batted an eye over it," Symms explained. "I can have them ready in about two hours."
"Are they aware that we will be joining you?" Joe asked.
"Not you specifically, no. I told them that there would be a tech or two from the design team coming from Darkwater to assist us. They know we are getting helpers, but not a set number nor do they know who," Symms replied.
"That's perfect, Doctor, thank you," Joe replied. "Please get them ready; I'll have Shana move over to your lab so we can load your equipment and meet your people."
Symms nodded. "I'll call them in." He looked thoughtful for a moment. "Major, I specifically handpicked every member so I know and trust each one of them. I did have a few I wasn't absolutely sure about, and I will be leaving t
hem behind under the excuse of the extra help from Darkwater. I have not alluded to there being anymore to this than upgrading the shielding, so none of them have a clue anything else will be going on. But I would ask that you consider briefing them during the flight, so we can stay out of your way when the time comes."
Joe nodded. "I will consider it, Doctor. I do appreciate all you have done to assist us in this mission. Thank you."
Symms shook his head. "Major, I'm just glad you came along when you did. I doubt we could get rid of the crazy bastard any other way."
"Excuse me, Major," Gary said interrupting the conversation. "Doctor, may I ask how many of your team are medically trained?"
"Doctor, this is Lieutenant Finn. He's working for me," Joe explained.
Symms dipped his head in greeting. "Pleased to meet you Lieutenant. Yes, there will be two medical doctors; counting myself, and three medically trained nurse practitioners. May I ask way?"
Gary nodded. "We know that the current medical officer on the Citadel is working for our target and cannot be trusted. We may have need of medical assistance we can trust."
Joe nodded agreement. "Good idea, Gary." He looked at Symms again. "Think you can sneak a couple of emergency kits in with the other equipment?"
Symms nodded. "Not a problem. I'll handle that right now, then call in the team. Is there anything else I can help with, Major?"
"Not that I can think of. We're on approach to the complex now, so we should be seeing you shortly. Thanks again for your help, Doctor," Joe replied.
Symms smiled. "My duty to serve, my pleasure to help a friend. See you soon." He closed the connection.
Shana headed for the cockpit to get the ship moving while he spoke. The two men nodded their agreement and took seats with Becka and Joe.
"Sir, when did I become a Lieutenant?" Gary asked.
