by Wilson Harp
Loudon joked that they were a built-in control group, but it was more than just a joke. They were measured every day for their mosar levels. They were encouraged not to have close contact with other people for more than ten minutes at a time.
All three were single women in their early thirties. They were used to working on classified projects, so they were able to handle this quasi-quarantine. For the last four weeks they had tested the same every day. But this morning, Cerce’s levels had dropped. It wasn’t much, but enough that it was noticed by the scanner.
Williams had her tested three additional times. Each subsequent test confirmed the initial result. Cerce had somehow lost mosar over the weekend.
He was headed to her office when he saw her walk into the lab’s break room.
“Cerce,” he called to her.
She turned and looked at him. Her typical smile dropping into a scowl as she realized who called her name.
“Doctor Williams, I have asked you to call me Lina multiple times,” she said as she shook a plastic container at him.
“Sorry, force of habit,” he said as he caught up with her. “I need to ask you some questions.”
She grunted in frustration and walked into the break room. Williams followed her.
“What do you need to ask me? And it better not be about this weekend again,” she said as she sat at a table in the middle of the break room.
“Why don’t you ask me about the update to the statistical map?” she asked. “Actually, I’m not done with that yet, so don’t ask me.”
“I know I’ve peppered you with questions all morning, but something had to happen to get the results we did.”
“I don’t know. We didn’t do anything different. We listened to music, we watched some chick flicks, we drank wine.”
“Did you all drink the same wine?” he asked.
“Yes. Two bottles and we all drank about the same amount.”
“And you didn’t eat anything different?”
“No. We all had steak and spinach salad. Although Karen had a ribeye and me and Emma had filets.”
“You know the ribeye is a more flavorful cut, don’t you?”
Cerce glared at him. “You and Karen both. What? Was the cow created in Texas?”
“It’s just that the marbling through the muscle tissue—“
“I don’t care!” She threw her arms out to the side. When she did, the collar of her shirt pulled open and Williams noticed that there was an outline of a necklace where she had a mild sunburn.
“Did you get a sunburn?” he asked. He realized he was staring at her chest and pulled his eyes back to hers.
“Yeah. Was pretty stupid. I went out on the deck to read and didn’t think the sun would be that strong. Got a decent burn,” she said. “I’m surprised you didn’t notice when I was being tested this morning. Figured you would have sneaked a peek.”
“No, I never look at the subjects when they are being scanned,” Williams said.
He thought Cerce was offended by that somehow, but he continued his thought.
“Did the others lay out in the sun this weekend?”
Cerce shook her head. “No, they stayed in the shade when we were outside.”
“Do you normally get sun?”
“No,” Cerce shook her head. “I burn too easy. I was only out in the direct sun for maybe an hour.”
“Would you be willing to participate in an experiment?”
“You already have me spending most of my time with Karen and Emma.”
“We might be able to figure out what caused the aberration in your results this morning.”
She narrowed her eyes at Williams. “What would I have to do?”
“Sit out in the sun for an hour a day.”
“What? In my lab coat?”
“What were you wearing this weekend?”
“Shorts and a tank top.”
“Then wear that.”
“Do you mean that I get to go and suntan an hour a day during work and I will get paid for it?”
“Yes. I think we can arrange it up on the roof,” Williams said.
“Can I wear a bikini?”
“Sure, whatever you are comfortable in.”
“Would you help me pick one out?”
“I don’t know anything about fashion, maybe Doctor Loudon can help with that.”
Again, she had a disappointed look cross her face.
“I have to go. Do you think one of the others would want to use a tanning bed? I want one of you to stay out of the sun as a control, but if UV radiation is part of the answer, we might be able to get some results from a tanning bed.”
“I’ll ask them,” Cerce said as she practically ripped the top off of her lunch container. She was definitely upset about something.
“Thanks, Cerce. I need to go set up the perimeters of the experiment.”
“Don’t mention it Doctor Williams,” she said.
Williams left the break room and headed toward his lab when his phone buzzed in with a priority message. He checked his phone and saw that it was from Greenaway, the new computer analyst downstairs.
Williams was walking past the elevator and the door stood open. He slipped in and pushed the button for the second floor.
He was rather excited and wanted to tell Loudon about the nugget of information he had been able to pry out of Cerce. If there were signs that direct exposure to sunlight could not only inhibit but actually reverse mosar development in humans, this would change the way they could handle this infestation.
The elevator stopped and Williams stepped out onto the second floor. Greenaway was a new addition to the research facility. He had some sort of serious injury from one of the raids on the Otina bases, but Earth Forces wanted to keep him on as he was very good at deciphering and using Otina computer systems.
Williams was never down on this floor, so he didn’t know where the communications labs were. He saw a reception desk and got instructions from the young woman after several minutes as she kept answering one phone call after another.
The office where Greenaway was located was at the far end of the complex. Williams thought about heading back to his office and calling Greenaway, but he had already come this far, he figured he might as well go and meet this computer whiz-kid.
Williams did not expect to see a young man in a wheelchair with a cage around his head. Two monitors were set up high enough on the desk that the immobile man could easily see them. Williams saw a lot of activity on both screens including an online game that normally takes a lot of focus. Williams knew that because it was one of his vices.
“You must be Greenaway,” Williams said from the door of the office.
“Yes, and you are?” Greenaway said without turning.
“Doctor Carl Williams. You sent me a message and I figured I was close enough to just drop in and see what was so urgent.”
Greenaway’s chair rotated until he could face Williams.
“Thank you, Doctor. I would have sent you the files to look at, but this way I can show you exactly what we found.”
“Good, but you do realize that I’m not involved in any projects on this floor.”
“I know, but I think the message I intercepted might be for you. I sent it to my commander, but he didn’t know what to make of it.”
“What makes you think it might be a message for me?” Williams asked.
“Take a look,” Greenaway said. His chair turned until he was facing a large wall-mounted monitor. A series of squiggles and lines appeared and Williams realized he was looking at a string of Otina language.
“See, this is the message that is broadcasting over and over again.”
“Okay,” Williams said. “But I don’t read Otina.”
“Wouldn’t matter if you could, it’s all gibberish,” Greenaway said. “But this message is only made up of two letters. One is phonetically close to the English letter ‘M’ and the other is close to ‘O’.”
“So… variat
ions of ‘moo’?” Williams asked.
Greenaway chuckled. “That’s what went through my mind as well. I thought we finally may have an answer for all of those cattle mutilations in the past.”
Williams smiled. He had just met Greenaway, but he liked a man who didn’t let something like he had been through turn him bitter and dour.
“So what is it?”
“It’s a code. When I realized it was just two letters, I figured it must be sent by someone who didn’t know the Otina language.”
“Who would send a message in a language they didn’t know?” Williams wondered out loud.
“Someone who only had access to an Otina communications system and was under duress. Like a prisoner.”
“Yeah, I could see that.”
The screen shifted and the letters became a series of ones and zeros.
“I thought it might be binary and could give us a location,” Greenaway said.
Williams looked at it and shook his head. “No, there is no series breaks and even with the message repeating, it is too long to break apart effectively.”
“Right. And the Otina know binary,” Greenaway said.
“They do?” Williams asked.
“Sure, they use it in their computer systems, the same as we do. Binary really is universal. Well, at least galactic.”
“If it isn’t binary, what is it?”
“That was the key, and when I figured out who it was from, I found the answer.”
Williams turned from the screen to look at Greenaway. “Who is it from?”
“Gunnery Sergeant Alexander Ramirez.”
“Are you sure?”
“I made an assumption. I figured if anyone captured by the Otina could find a way to send a message, it would be him.”
“Okay, if it’s from Ramirez, what code is it?”
“Morse code,” Greenaway said.
The screen shifted again and the ones and zeros that had been binary shifted into dots and dashes.
“It says W-I-L-L-I-A-M-S-M-M-I,” Greenaway read from the line of code. “That is the best translation I can come up with.”
“He sent me a message. That clever son-of-a-gun,” Williams muttered.
“Do you know what it means?” Greenaway asked.
“It means that he is closer than we thought. He just gave us his location. And he gave it in a way that the Otina couldn’t figure it out.”
“I’m sorry, doctor. What do you mean? What is MMI?”
“Roman numerals. MMI is two thousand and one in Roman numerals.”
“So he is around Jupiter? That doesn’t make sense. The Otina could never have a base that close to Ellison. We would pick up the energy readings in days.”
“That is Ramirez. He better be lucky that I didn’t get hit by a car or something, because I am the only one who would have been able to figure it out.”
“Still confused.”
“When I retired, we spent a few weeks just hanging out. Alex never appreciated the classics, so we watched old movies every night. One of the first ones was the old “2001” based on the Clarke novel.”
“Right, and they go to Jupiter,” Greenaway said.
“The story takes place around Jupiter, but Alex kept saying Saturn every time we would discuss it. I think… I hope… it was just to irritate me,” Williams said.
He looked back at the monitor with the Morse code scrolling by.
“He sent a message that only I would understand. He is around Saturn.”
Williams looked at Greenaway. “Send this message to General Kitch and Admiral Salazar. We need to get a team over to Saturn immediately.”
“I’ll send it doc, but I know that they have pulled all available ships for a top priority operation.”
“You know about that? Were you the one who figured out where the target would be?” Williams asked. His respect for Greenaway seemed to be growing by the second. “Don’t say anything, you have your clearance to think about.”
Greenaway’s jaw seemed to fight being held closed. He didn’t seem the type to be silent unless he had to.
“Listen, Greenaway. I want to thank you. I don’t know how long it would have taken someone else to get my name from that message. This is a personal thanks.”
“Glad to help, doc,” Greenaway said with a smile.
Williams trotted out of Greenaway’s office and down the hall. He pulled out his phone and called a number. When it kicked over to the message service, Williams entered the priority code.
“Come on, pick up,” he said as he waited.
“Martin. Go,” came the voice on the other end.
“Ambassador, this is Williams. We found Ramirez,” he said.
There was a long pause. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, sir. It was a message that only he would send and it gave his approximate location.”
“That’s great news, but why are you calling me directly?”
“Because all capable Earth Force vessels are busy. You know why. I need your little transport and a small team for escort. I don’t know what kind of shape he will be in.”
“I can do you one better,” Martin said. “I have a Pelod vessel that I can force into service. Let me call Smith.”
“Sounds great, sir. Will be waiting for your call.”
Martin hung up the phone and Williams slipped onto the elevator when the doors opened. He knew he would miss lunch today. But that was okay. He had a good idea of how Cerce’s mosar levels had dropped and he had just figured out how to get Ramirez back home.
Chapter 19
“Two minutes out from drop,” Gagne said over the channel.
K-man’s visor was displaying his team’s ready status.
“Reynolds, what is status for Bravo and Charlie?” K-man asked.
“All green, sir,” the major responded.
K-man was impressed with Reynolds’ command of tactics using the simulator and had recommended that he be kicked into the command room rather than be on the ground. McKendree agreed to the position change and set Reynolds up as the runner for the mission.
“Delta is online and ready as well,” Golding said.
K-man had asked Captain Golding to lead Delta. If things got hot somewhere, he wanted someone who had proven himself a leader in the most stressful situations. Golding had personally led a charge against three heavy weapon positions on Epsilon75. K-man doubted he would have made it out alive if Golding had taken a more measured approach.
“We are dropping ion engines, scanners are showing a massive ship,” Gagne’s voice said. “Engineering, prepare cutters.”
K-man knew it was just a mental trick, but he could almost feel the Platte dropping straight down on the Otina ship. The concussion of weapons being fired vibrated through the vessel and the high pitch whine of the giant laser cutters coming online let K-man and his team know that they would soon be in combat.
The scooter landed on the Otina ship with a thud. The massive magnetic skids would hold the ships together until Captain Manning triggered the explosives that would allow the Platte to maneuver away from the giant ship.
The engineers were working their lasers frantically.
“Punch through,” one of them shouted. The massive cylinder in the middle of the debarkation room started rotating as the lasers embedded into its perimeter were sent deeper into the enemy’s outer hull. The one area where the Earth planners were taking a chance was hoping that the enemy’s hull would be less than four meters thick.
“We have air,” another of the engineers said. “You are good to go as soon as we get it up.”
K-man listened to the muffled explosions that came from the enemy ship. Once the cutter had cleared past the hull, a series of charges dropped into the breach. The outer walls of the cutter would create a passage way from the Earth vessels to the Otina vessel, but the charges would clear out any immediate enemies.
That was the plan, anyway.
An Engineer started taking out one of the panels o
n the cutter wall. That would be the chute K-man and his men would use to enter the enemy vessel.
“Five seconds until the cutter is clear,” one of the engineers said.
“This is bravo, we are green,” Captain Smithson reported.
The cutter pulled out of the column and the panel on the side dropped to the floor. K-man waited for his forward team to drop in before he went.
“This is alpha, we are green,” he said to command as the first of his troops disappeared from sight.
He hooked his safety line onto the hatch and stepped out into the dark, smoke filled shaft. He held on tight as he zipped down the tube and landed with a thud. He fell to his left and rolled onto his knees to clear the way for the next man down.
The smoke was thick, but the infrared filter on his visor said that there were no Otina in the room they had dropped into.
There were the reverberations of weapons firing from the Otina ship and shaking as weapons fired from the Earth ships found their mark. The section that alpha team had dropped into seemed vacant, but there was noise of movement and activity not far away.
K-man located two doors in the rather sizable room and found a quick defensive position where he could see each.
“Room is secure,” First Sergeant Watkins confirmed. He was alpha’s lead scout and the first man down the tube.
“Roger, Watkins. Burling, take down the heavy pack,” Reynolds said.
The door on K-man’s left slid open and three Otina ran into the room. Sentack opened up and dropped all three from his position. A scramble of action beyond the door was followed by the sounds of alarms and flashing blue lights in the room.
“They’re trying to gas us, sir,” said Watkins.
“Platte, seal the debarkation room. Have those Engineers make sure they have their masks secure. We’ll deal with decontamination after we finish.
“It’s not that type of gas, sir,” Lippor said. “We need to get out! Platte, block the pipe!”
Lippor jumped up and ran for the door on the right. Watkins was right behind him.
“Move, men!” K-man ordered. He looked around and saw Burling struggling with the heavy gun. “Burling, leave it!”
