“I know you’re enjoying this new found peace, but it would be foolish and short sighted to forget what dangers still loom over us.”
Jones turned and sat back against the bar. He panned across the room and took in the atmosphere. There was a level of excitement and comfort amongst all there he had not seen before. Surviving the war had given them all a new perspective on their lives. And yet, here he was, having his hopes and dreams shot down by the Colonel.
“You’re going to volunteer for this investigative mission, aren’t you?” he asked.
She didn’t answer, but he knew what it meant.
“This why you’re pushing the troops so hard?”
“I’m keeping them in shape and ready to fight because that is what is needed of them. If we go on this mission, it should come as no surprise.”
“Can’t we let someone else do the dirty work for once? Seems no matter where we are, we always get the shit.”
“Plenty of soldiers had it hard in the war, just as hard as we did.”
“I doubt that,” he muttered.
She said nothing, and they both knew the world had suffered during the war, but it was hard to think of anything worse than their own experiences.
“After all that they did to you, don’t you want to take it to them?” she asked.
Jones twitched at the reminder of his experiences but peered into her eyes in surprise.
“Where does this bitterness come from?”
She didn’t respond, as they both knew no good could come of it.
“We’re going to Mars, the only question is when? Few will volunteer for it, so I can guarantee we’ll be involved.”
Jones stared at her for a moment. He wondered what she even wanted in life anymore. She seemed to live to fight.
Is this what we have become? He asked himself.
Taylor stepped into the holding cells where his two friends were being kept. Despite the General’s speech about them assisting the allies in questioning, it still looked as much as a prison as it always had. Every time he saw the bars of a cell, or the guards around them, it left a foul taste in his mouth. He forever linked his incarceration with the far more horrific and mortifying ordeal Jones had endured. He could tell that most of the guards knew of his reputation and were watching him with both a careful and untrustworthy eye.
Good, let them fear me.
He was led to the cell at the end of the corridor, but there were no bars, they had been covered over with a one-way thick glass. He could see the two of them talking to each other, but the sound was completely deadened by the walls of the cell. Then the silence was broken by footsteps approaching; the walk of a confident and arrogant man. He already knew it would be their interrogator.
“Major Taylor, I presume?”
Mitch turned to see that the man was clearly well aware of who he was, but didn’t want to admit it and risk stroking Taylor’s ego. Mitch nodded. He saw no need to open his mouth just yet.
“I am Major Weller, Corps of Offworld Intelligence and Research.”
“That’s a mouthful,” Taylor said quietly.
Weller smiled and tapped Taylor on the shoulder in a gesture of friendship.
“So you’re not with this lot?” Taylor gestured towards the MPs.
“No, formally Naval Intelligence.”
“Then we may just get along swell.”
Taylor’s teeth were gritted, and he had not let his guard down, but he already felt more comfortable.
“You are to be present for all contact I make with these two Krycenaeans, is that correct?”
“Yep, and they are members of 2 ^nd Inter-Allied and should be treated as such. Think of them as marines, and we’ll all be just fine.”
Weller looked into the cell and carefully studied the two of them. It was clear he had never seen one of the aliens alive before. Mitch could see he was a little unnerved by being so close to them and was unable to hide it.
“Have you really never had contact with a live one?”
“No, there’s talk of a few prisoners around the world.”
“Wounded? Were there really so few left behind?”
Weller nodded.
“They took everything they could with them. Most who were left fought to the bitter end. There have been plenty of reports of wounded creatures taking their own lives. Quite honestly, we have little information to go on.”
“So this must a big deal? Why did you get chosen?”
Weller glanced over to Taylor and had a dismissive look.
“Yeah, right, classified information.”
“Let’s just say they wanted someone with combat experience, as well as the other tools of my trade.”
Taylor lifted his eyebrows in surprise.
“Not just a desk jockey, then?”
“Come on, let’s get this started. I’m more than happy for you to be in the room, but please do not interfere with my investigation.”
The two of them stepped through into the room, and the soundproofed door sealed behind them. Taylor looked back to see as he expected. He couldn’t see out beyond the walls of the cell. He knew the guards on the outside were watching in, but it pleased him to know that they couldn’t hear what went on. Taylor’s beach attire was incongruous in the sterile and serious cell, but both were glad to see him.
“I am Major Weller. I am here to try and answer the many questions we have about your… well, race.”
They nodded in agreement. Both were sitting on the bench that ran the length of the wall. They were too tall to comfortably sit on the chairs nestled around the table in the centre of the room.
“Right, well we should get started.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Taylor said. “Any information you can give could help, and once this is all over, you’ll return to our unit.”
“Worried? Why would we be?” asked Jafar.
Taylor crooked his head in surprise.
“Incarceration is never pleasant,” he replied.
“There are many unpleasant things in life. Being locked in a room and asked questions is not one of them,” replied the alien.
At every turn the Major got more an insight into how brutal an existence they had lived among their people.
“We have these things called human rights. Whilst you are not yet covered by such core principles, I hope you soon will be. They will protect you from any harm while you make no offence,” Weller stated.
Taylor turned in surprise.
A moral man, already looking to protect them. Not what I expected at all. I like this officer, thought Taylor. He quickly realised that Weller could be a valuable asset to him in the future.
“Now, the first thing we’d all like to know is where you come from? Where is your homeworld?”
Taylor’s ear pricked up at the word ‘we’, and he looked around to see tiny cameras in every corner of the room. It made him a little uncomfortable to know they could be watched by any number of people. He calmed his nerves and quickly thought he was foolish to think they would be alone. Their investigation would likely answer more questions about the enemy than they got answered during the entire war.
“Outside of our ruling classes, few of our people know much beyond the roles given to them, and explaining much of it in your language will be…challenging,” Tsengal answered.
“Please try,” replied Weller.
Jafar continued on from his associate.
“As protectors to Lord Demiran, we have seen and learned more than most. Do you have a star map?”
Weller tapped a few buttons, and the tabletop lit up. Within twenty seconds, the Major had a map before them. Jafar slowly stood up, and Weller looked up in amazement at the towering figure standing over him. Taylor could see a hint of fear at the realisation that the alien could crush and kill him in seconds. Mitch’s trust of the two made him smile at Weller’s discomfort.
The alien studied the map for a minute, carefully scanning and zooming throughout the display. He appeared to show little r
ecognition or understanding at what he was looking at, but it was difficult to read some of his emotions. Sometimes the two of them appeared utterly deadpan. They waited with baited breath. It was one of life’s great questions.
“All the years humanity has asked is their alien life out there, and if so, where? We might just be the first to hear the real answer to the latter,” whispered Weller.
Taylor looked back to Jafar with a new sense of interest. The alien finally looked up.
“I have never seen your maps before, but comparing them to what I have seen, I would say our homeworld is here. In the system you call… Tau Ceti.”
Weller turned to Mitch in surprise. His eyes were wide. It obviously meant something to him. To Taylor it might as well have been a made up name, for he had little care for anything offworld.
“We have long speculated that life could exist there. Although the living conditions must be unbelievably harsh.”
He said it as he turned to the two aliens, looking at their rock hard faces and strong stature.
“I think that much is true,” replied Taylor.
“From memory, it is around twelve light years away. Even with the best technology we have seen yet, it would take them generations to reach us.”
“Then maybe we haven’t seen it all yet.”
“That much is true. I just wonder if any of us truly want to see any more of them.”
Tau Ceti, thought Taylor. I’m sure that will not be the last time I hear that name.
The questioning continued for several hours as Weller tried to delve into what knowledge they had of their homeworld and its surrounding colonies. It became quite clear to them both that the aliens knew surprisingly little about their own society. What little snippets of information had been gathered mostly as an aside to being the protection detail to an important Lord.
Taylor began to see how the two of them had so quickly taken a liking to him. He had treated them as he would a human being, something of which they seemed to have never seen in their previous lives.
Jafar and Tsengal painted a grim picture of their homeworld; a bleak rocky terrain with constant bombardments by meteor showers, and extreme conditions of which only the fittest would survive. Other worlds they knew of featured lethal gas atmospheres and temperatures that would kill you within minutes without the appropriate protection.
After this eye-opening discussion, Mitch could begin to understand why being held in that cell meant little to them. It was a life of luxury compared to all that they knew. Finally, as he felt his eyes sagging and his body sore, the other Major turned to him.
“I think this will do for today.”
Taylor was surprised. He expected the interrogation to push for many more hours until all were exhausted.
Why did they send such a decent man for the job? He asked himself.
Mitch had never met any interrogator he liked one bit, but this man seemed different. He appeared far more human than he could have expected. Weller looked back to the two aliens.
“Thank you for your work today. Any and all information you can provide us will be vital in the future defence of us all.”
“Then this can be our home?” asked Jafar.
“Most certainly. Any soldier who fights to defend our society deserves a place within it. You may rest easy for the rest of the day. I have arranged for you to have a few hours outside, but you must stay within two hundred metres of this complex. You will have a security detail with you at all times. I will return tomorrow.”
He quickly stood up and nodded in appreciation to the two of them before making his way to the door. Taylor quickly followed after he had thanked his two friends. He stepped out of the cell to see Weller was waiting for him.
“I thought that went very well, and I look forward to working further with them.”
“This is not what I had expected at all,” replied Taylor.
“I know about your previous history, Major, and I can understand your feelings towards authority figures and the Military Police in general. What was done to you was very wrong, but do not assume for one minute that I am part of that crowd.”
Taylor smiled, and they both turned and left the cells.
“Would you join me for a drink this evening?” asked Mitch.
“It would be a great honour.”
A warm shower was a welcome end to the day’s work. He stepped out and stood in front of the mirror. His wounds were all but gone from his body. He was still for a moment as he enjoyed the sensation of being both clean and unhurt. After a year in a state of pain and squalor, he had found a new appreciation for a peaceful life. He stepped out to his bedroom, reaching for his clothes when he realised someone else was in the room. Mitch’s heart rate shot up. He knew a weapon was not to hand.
“A chance of a day of peace, and you’re still working.”
He turned to see Eli sat in the corner of the room. She looked far from amused, yet still glad to see him.
“Leave no man behind,” he replied.
She shook her head in disapproval.
“How many times do we have to go through this? They are not humans, and they sure aren’t marines. They are not your responsibility. Only a few months ago, they were probably killing our allies.”
“After all they have done for us, they are my responsibility. We have been at war with many nations in the past, and yet we stood beside them in the last war. Anyway, I will have no more discussion about it. Jafar and Tsengal are members of our unit. We each rely on one another. If you cannot, I suggest you request a transfer.”
Eli sighed in disgust and leapt up from the chair. She charged across the room and ripped the door open, leaving in a furious rage. He shook his head in response. Her overly dramatic response didn’t impress him one bit.
“And to think I looked forward to this shit,” he muttered.
He turned his mind back to the day’s events and remembered he had agreed to meet Major Weller shortly. Mitch walked barefoot across the smooth floor, enjoying the relaxing sensation that was easing his mood. He tapped the button on his wardrobe, and the doors slid apart. Inside was a line of uniforms that were immaculately clean and had been untouched in a long time.
Mitch reached in for his dress uniform and realized quite how long it had been since he had last seen it, let alone worn it. A few minutes later, he was strutting across the base and looking a far cry from his bedraggled appearance from earlier in the day. Meeting Weller had given him a glimmer of hope for his future on the base. Despite being loved by so many of the serving marines, he was ever more hated by so many of his superiors and others in the service.
As he stepped into the mess, he could see Weller had identified him immediately and turned to the barman to order him a beer. He stepped up to the bar and thanked his new acquaintance.
“You sure know how to win friends,” said Mitch.
“I didn’t think I needed to.”
Taylor threw back his beer and took a long relaxed sigh as he slumped down against the bar.
“Just when you thought it was all over, eh?” asked Weller.
“I never thought for a minute that this was over,” he whispered. “We’ve humiliated an enemy which consider themselves infinitely superior to ourselves. Do you think for a minute that they would let it slide? They are down but not out.”
“I have to say, you’re not as I expected at all, Taylor. Your reputation made you appear as a glory seeker.”
“Don’t hold back now,” he replied with a smirk.
Weller held out his arm in friendship.
“The name’s Bryan.”
Taylor accepted his gesture.
“Mitch, and for the record, you’re not the pencil pushing stuck up bastard I would have expected, either. You are no stranger to this war, where were you?”
“New York, from the very beginning. I was liaising with the National Guard there when the invasion of the east coast began. I lost communication with my CO and jumped on the first truck I
could find to take me to the front. We thought we could hold them there and then. We were wrong.”
“You saw all of that, and yet you treat Jafar and Tsengal with such respect?”
“You do, don’t you?”
“I have my reasons. You have none.”
Weller raised his eyebrows and turned back to his drink, thinking about Taylor’s observance. Bryan finally looked back to Mitch who was awaiting some answer.
“I guess it’s my job to give these things a little more consideration. The automatic response of a human being now is to want to kill the aliens upon first sight, but isn’t that what human beings have done to each other for thousands of years? We need to be a little more progressive. Somehow, you have managed to find allies among them. If two defected, maybe more could follow?”
Taylor shook his head. Bryan could tell that he was not at all convinced.
“No? So what made those two so special?”
He remained silent for a moment. The moment they became his allies was still something he had not fully explained or shared with anyone, but he knew the time would come when he would have to do so.
“When we captured Lord Demiran on L2, those two lay down their weapons and surrendered to us. During the chaos of the attack on the station, they managed to escape, just as all soldiers have a duty to attempt.”
Weller leaned in closer to hear Taylor’s low voice.
“Go on.”
“During their re-capture, an officer subordinate to me tried to execute them, despite not presenting any threat. Having saved their lives, that same officer attempted to take mine, and very nearly did. Those aliens saved my life. They did the right thing, but I can never go on the record with such information. We saved one another’s lives, and in doing so have eternally earned each other’s trust.”
Weller took in a deep breath and sat up straight on his stool.
“Most interesting,” he replied. “And you have told this to no one else?”
“Not the whole truth, no.”
“And now those around you doubt your belief in our alien friends, and you cannot explain to them why you place your trust?”
Taylor nodded in agreement. He was impressed that the Major was so quick to understand the situation.
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