by Dan Davis
“I’ll take over your training.”
18.
“Thanks for coming, everyone,” Ram said. “I think it’s important we get to work right away but I wanted to get everyone together so we all agree on what’s going to happen now.”
He looked around the room. Lt. Commander Xenakis lounged in her chair. Henry hunched over on his stool at the back of the room. R1 sat upright with her hands in her lap, her expression open and expectant. Doctor Monash sat folded on his chair, legs crossed and his hands jammed under his arms. Next to Ram sat Sergeant Stirling and on the other side of the room by the door, Red leaned his bizarre alien body on the wall, as if he was relaxing in a bar. Also in the room was the ship’s small medical team,
“I have asked Sergeant Stirling here and our nonhuman team member Red to join me so they can provide their expertise.”
Monash scoffed and muttered under his breath. “Expertise.”
“Yes, sir, that’s correct,” Ram said, smiling. “Stirling is subjectively youthful but in his short life he has amassed an enormous amount of experience in combat training and actual combat experience. I believe much of that generalized expertise will prove invaluable, especially in terms of the mindset necessary for achieving military excellence.”
Lt. Commander Xenakis raised her hand.
“Yes, Captain? Er, you don’t need to raise your hand you know, you’re in charge.”
“You’re not bringing in Private Fury for this? She’s been fighting the Hex since they first attacked, in boarding actions and in base defenses and God knows what else.”
Ram nodded. “And when I have specific questions I will be sure to ask for her insights but she doesn’t have the right temperament for this kind of program.”
Sergeant Stirling crossed his arms. “He means, Captain, that Fury’s a surly, short-tempered, misery guts and she’ll just make every one of us miserable before she quits or we dismiss her. You know, Private Fury is an interesting mixture. I don’t know if you know this but Fury worked in anti-terrorism in her youth and she was tasked with assassinating a terrorist, requiring her to lay without moving for—”
“Now’s not the time, Sergeant.”
“Yes sir.”
“We will use Fury as a resource, just as we will use anything and everything that we can between now and zero hour. And that’s why we have our good friend here.” Ram held out a hand, indicating the giant alien in the corner. “Red has extensive knowledge of the Hex because his, er, his people have been at war with them for a long time. And so Red will impart his wisdom especially with regards to the Hex mindset, if they have such a thing.”
Monash huffed. “You’re attempting to gain insight into an alien species through the filter of another alien species who we can barely understand. It is a fundamentally flawed approach even in theory, let alone in practice.”
“We’re going to do it anyway. And I think you’ll find you will understand me perfectly well, doctor. Just as I understand you.”
Monash uncrossed and re-crossed his arms. “No, you most certainly do not.”
“I am grateful for your insights and opinions, doctor. You are the most intelligent person on this ship and I value everything you say highly.”
Monash eyed Ram suspiciously. “Well… that’s good, Mr. Seti.”
“In taking over the senior position of the Omega Program, I am helping to free up Doctor Monash and his assistant R1 so that they can focus on the work that literally nobody else can do. I think it would make sense if Doctor Monash would continue to monitor Henry’s physical performance and work on the incremental improvements that will ensure we get every possible fraction of performance we can.”
Monash frowned. “I can do much more than just that.”
“You can and you will, of course. We will have plenty of challenges to overcome and your brilliance is key to so many of them.” Before the doctor could reply, Ram plowed on. “R1, you’ll continue to assess Henry’s mental health and provide psychological support which I know for certain Henry values highly.”
“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 t
o 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 beauties 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?”
