by Ben Winston
"I know, I know. That doesn't mean I have to like it!" Mary said in frustration. "Well, I have your new controllers ready. They have the new protocols in them, so neither of you are leaving here before we can test them, got it?"
Three hours later, when the new controller woke John, he found he was lying next to Chloe in the recovery room. On the other side of the curtain, a new IFF Icon told him that Carl and Alice were also waking up. Will hadn't been required to receive the upgrade. However, he was sitting in the room guarding his team mates.
John took a few moments to get used to the new controller and some of its improved functions. He found that he liked the suit style 'heads-up-display' option, and opted for that as his default mode. He set the icons dim unless in combat mode. He played with and set a few other options and decided that this might actually be an improvement.
"Squad, report." John ordered and got both a verbal reply, as well as an update in his vision. Lastly, Will sounded off.
"Curran, I'm still here, Boss."
"Will, His Majesty has approved your final mission request. We're scheduled to depart this evening. Is that okay with you?" John asked.
"Yeah, that'll be good, John. It's really getting more difficult to keep going," the depressed man replied. "Every time I close my eyes Holly's there, waiting for me."
"You'll see her soon, Will," Alice said. "You'll tell her how much we love and miss her, right?"
"You know I will, Alice," Will replied. "Mary wanted me to let her know when you all regained function; I'll be right back."
"He's really hurting, maybe we should have stopped on our way here," Carl said after Will left the room.
"No, Mark wanted to see him before he retired," John replied. "Remember, as far as Will knows there really is no other mission, got it?"
Everyone replied affirmative just as the door opened for Will, Mary, and two meditechs. Mary and the techs came up to John first and tilted his bed up to an almost standing position.
"Lord General John Jacob Aster of the Temporal Guard, do you know where you are?" one of the meditechs asked. John was fully restrained and locked down by the medical computer. Even if his arms and legs would answer his commands right now, there were battle-steel bands covering them to prevent movement.
"Yes, I am at The Center, a bio-molecular research and enhancement facility outside of the capitol city on the world of Centauri," John replied as protocol directed. No joking was allowed here, the precautions were in place to make sure the upgrade hadn't malfunctioned, leaving John basically an insane killing machine.
"Correct, do you know what has been done to you?" the same tech asked.
"I underwent a primary controller upgrade and a basic enhancement functional evaluation. Status green, no anomalies to report." John recited.
"In what year was the war of 4012 fought?"
"4012."
"What color is a blue house?"
"Blue."
"What is four squared?"
"Sixteen."
Twenty more questions were asked and answered as rapidly as possible and the inevitable last question;
"What is the meaning of Life?"
"An existential question with no commonly definable answer."
The tech turned to the other meditech, "He's good, turn him loose. I'll move on to Commander Diamond next."
"Oh Goody!" Chloe said, sarcastically. The questions for each of them were different, but each had to be answered before the techs would let them loose. They were designed to evaluate the mental functions of the soldier prior to release. Obviously, a newly enhanced soldier couldn't answer them, but then again, there were a hell of a lot more restraints used, and the soldier was in an armored room, with the Techs in another room operating the equipment remotely.
Once the techs released them, Mary took each of the couples into a private room to test the viability of the new protocols. For the women, it was an abbreviated pelvic exam. For the males, well, there was a plastic cup, which surprisingly didn't burst into flames once the sample had been deposited in it.
Obviously, Manny and Mary were both working on this because once the samples had been analyzed, both doctors joined the four in a waiting room.
"So far, the new protocols are functioning perfectly, and there is really only one test left. We'll need each of you, as couples, to have sexual intercourse so we can monitor all the force vectors and your enhancements. Please, remember that as in the last tests, you will need to disable combat mode." Mary explained.
"And if this works, Doctor?" Alice asked grinning.
"None of your damn business, slut!" Chloe replied blushing.
"Lady Commander Diamond, this is Lieutenant Carmichael. We just finished the shakedown. I have to dock with the command module for a classified data upload, but then we'll be able to transit back."
"Very good, Lieutenant, I'll get you clearance to set down at the Palace landing field. By order of His Highness, you are to go dark and stay that way until instructed otherwise. After landing, you will keep the ship sealed. No one is to be allowed on board until we arrive. If someone asks, they will need permission from John or myself to board. After going dark, use enhancement comms only, do not link through the ship. No radiated signals and none received. ATC has been directed to call you directly. The ship is under a level alpha data lockout," Chloe finished.
"Understood Ma'am. I'm docking with the main facility right now, so I'll see you when we get there," Carmichael replied.
"Excellent, Lieutenant, see ya in a few," Chloe said and closed the channel. It had been on her internal comm so no one had overheard it.
"John, the Flyer will be arriving in a couple of hours," Chloe said to him. "I put Carmichael on internal comms only, and she knows where to land."
"Okay, but we better take care of this issue, or we'll have a bigger fight on our hands when we get back," John replied.
"You got that right!" Mary said, and turned to face Alice, who was about to make a smart-assed comment. "Remember Alice, I have your index code, I can make it so you can't have sex at all!"
Manny looked scandalized until Mary winked at him to let him know she was bluffing. However, Alice had no idea she was bluffing and sputtered. "You wouldn't! That would be punishing Carl too!"
"No it wouldn't, there are other female marines on the ship, and he won't be restricted!" Mary shot back.
Alice sat back, and finally grinned. "Okay, now I'm starting to see it. You win Doc."
Carl roared with laughter, "She did get you pretty good! Come on, let's check this new protocol out," he held out his hand to her.
When they left, Mary looked at Chloe, "What did she mean by, 'now I'm starting to see it'?"
"We never fall in love with normals, Mary. It's too painful for us and damn hard on you," Chloe replied. "When we fell for you, she hadn't gotten to know you like I had, so she couldn't see what had made us love you. Now she's beginning to understand. That was an Alice-style compliment."
Mary nodded her understanding. "Just so you know, I'm prohibited from doing anything even remotely like what I just threatened her with. We all are."
Chloe nodded. "I know, John and I helped write that section of the protocols." She turned to John, "Come on handsome, if we want to spend any time with her at all before we boost, we need to get busy."
John smiled, winked at Chloe, and held his hand out to Mary. Catching on, Chloe also held out her hand. Manny grinned when he figured it out, and nodded. As he left the room to begin monitoring. Mary was surprised and took the hands of her friends.
Chapter 40 Turen Day (Ninth day)
"Lieutenant, set course for Onaris 9. We need to be invisible the whole trip, full stealth," John ordered.
"Yes Sir, if I may, Sir, wait to go stealth until we make orbit. Everyone saw us land, they should see us take off." Carmichael replied.
"Good thinking, do it," John said, and nodded to her.
The lieutenant dealt with flying the craft, since the ship comms wer
e locked down and John trusted her to handle it. Chloe had sat down at the navigator's station and plugged in a course for Carmichael to follow until the jump. Once they jumped, then the waiting would begin. Onaris 9 was technically in Tammerain space, but was one of the contested border worlds that was in one of the systems that defined the border.
On his own terminal, John had brought up a map of the planet they were going to. Using his own memories of the fighting here, he located the place where Holly died, and marked it. John would make damn sure his friend's ashes were as close to that spot as he could get them.
John looked up at the viewer and watched as they left the atmosphere. He still didn't know what the secondary mission was, since those orders would not become available to them until they departed Onaris 9. He did know that Mark considered them to be suicidal. Well, he and Chloe had something important to come back to, so he knew he would do everything in his power to make damn sure they got back.
"John?" Chloe asked, interrupting his daydreaming.
"Yeah, sorry, I was dreaming there for a minute," John grinned.
"I said we're on course and we'll be jumping in an hour. I set our course through the Badlands, so transit should only take a week," Chloe reported. The Badlands were a non-system cluster of asteroids that were just floating in space. That is if you consider a 'cluster' to be a something measured in light weeks and months. Astronomers believed it to be the remains of a small nova or perhaps it had been ejecta from a stellar nursery, the bottom line was, no one knew how to explain it, but none the less it was still there.
John nodded. Jumping 'over' the Badlands would save time, but there was more risk, there were too many moving objects of mass in the area to accurately track and plot them all, so normally a ship would bypass the whole area. Chloe knew what the computers on the Flyer could do, and jumping the Badlands had worked for them the last time that they had come this way.
"Sounds like a plan," John replied. "There's some stuff I want to work on. If you don't mind, I think I'm gonna stay here for a while."
Chloe kissed his check. "Okay hon, I'll see ya in the morning,"
"Ah, then I take it you haven't found the little surprise Gabby and Minister Gadfries left for you?" John asked.
"Uh, no, what did they leave me?" Chloe asked grinning.
"Log in under your personal account, and you should see the messages from them. I got a few things to occupy my time during the trip, and a request from the Minister to file a report on my findings once we return," John explained. "I'm sure they left something similar for you. Oh, and by the way, they had to move our quarters to make room for a power something or other."
"A power sync. The Flyer uses them to shed excess energy," Chloe said. "So where did they move them too?"
John hiked a thumb over his shoulder. "Just tell the lift 'Command Quarters', and it'll take you there. One of the kids had to get my permission to take our gear to it."
"They built the 'sky box' didn't they?" Chloe asked excitedly.
"The what?" John asked. "I have no idea, I haven't been there myself yet."
"When I helped draft some changes to the ship, one of the suggestions I made was to move the command quarters to the top of the ship - basically above the mess hall, but aft of the forward missile magazine," Chloe explained and headed for the lift.
Once the lift doors closed, John muttered to himself. "Great, like sleeping next to one nuclear firecracker isn't enough!"
At the helm, Lieutenant Carmichael had a sudden coughing fit.
Chapter 41 Turen Day (Fifteenth day, a week later)
"Orbital insertion in twenty minutes, John," Carmichael said via her comm. "Other than a couple of Tammerain freighters, the screens are clear."
Once John got a look at his and Chloe's new quarters, he was amazed. For a starship as small as Flyer was, these were huge. They were almost the same as a standard, single-bedroom apartment you would find on almost any planet in the Kingdom. It had a big bedroom with a king-plus sized bed. A private bath complete with an actual bathtub! A small private kitchen, a small dining area, and an office/living room that the lift opened onto. Living here made him feel guilty considering the size of the rest of the quarters on the ship - some of which were shared.
John had been working on translating the ancient Promethean files Minister Gadfries had sent, when Lieutenant Carmichael called to let him know they were in orbit.
"Understood, Tami. Have you located the spot I wanted?" John asked.
"I think so, Sir, it looks like it's on the edge of a farm of some kind. There is a snow-covered field we can set down in practically on top of it," the navigator replied.
"Okay, we'll be down in a few minutes," John said, and closed the channel. Chloe was enjoying a long soak in their bathtub, so he thought he should go warn her they were going to land.
Tami Carmichael was just about to call her commanders again when they arrived on the bridge dressed in their formal dress uniforms. "I'll take over, Tami. You can go change," Chloe said sadly.
"Yes, Ma'am," Tami replied. "How's he doing?"
"An hour ago, he reported to the medical unit, and pulled his controller out of the network," John replied. "When I checked on him, he was smiling. He said Holly had told him he should go to medical and get ready. I told the medical computer to sedate him and disable his combat systems."
Chloe looked back at John. "He wasn't offended?"
John shook his head. "No, he had already disabled them on his own when he began hallucinating. He told me it was really strange because it was like he was getting a comm from her. He said he thought perhaps his controller was having difficulties dealing with his grief. He said he had the computer do a complete work up on him, and he'd recorded his observations for Mary."
"Once we're down, the locals are going to know we're there," Chloe said. "There is a small village less than a kilometer away."
"That shouldn't be a problem, if they want to know what's going on, I'll tell them we are only here to say good bye to a friend," John replied. "Just set us down, Chloe."
Tami ran from the bridge to change and felt the ship maneuver for landing. John input his command code on his terminal and felt the Flyer's far more powerful comm system open to him. "Mark, it's time."
"Okay, John. Leave the channel open for now, I'll join you shortly," Mark replied.
John didn't need to reply, he just left the channel connected to Mark and made sure there was a holographic drone available so Mark could leave the ship with them. Seeing that they had landed, John nodded to Chloe. "I'll get Will; we'll meet you at the rear hatch."
Chloe nodded as she stood and got out of the pilot's station.
John walked back through the ship to the medical section to find his longtime friend dressed in simple coveralls and waiting for him. "I really appreciate all of you doing this for me. You know, we could have done this from orbit."
John shook his head. "No, Holly is down here. I promised I would bring you back to her, and I have."
Will handed John the remote diagnostic panel for the terminal that was now acting as Will's controller. "Shall we?"
John and Will walked calmly back to the rear equipment ramp and saw that it was lined with the Marines that had accompanied them. All were dressed in formal uniforms and at attention. When Will and John arrived, Chloe ordered them to salute. Will smiled, nodded, and walked down the ramp. When they got to the bottom, Chloe ordered most of them to fall in behind John and Will, and the troop followed them.
At the very edge of the field a bank led down to a stream that had not yet frozen over. "This is the place my friend,"
"I almost don't recognize it," Will said. "But I think you're right, this is the place."
Dressed in the full regalia of the King, Mark joined them as a hologram. "I'm really sorry I couldn't be there in person, Will. But there is no way the guards would have allowed it."
"The fact that you are here at all honors us, Marcus. Just remember, charging in b
lindly isn't always the right thing to do," Will said.
"I'll remember my friend," Mark said.
Will turned to face the gathered Marines, came to attention, and saluted them. "Guard our people well!"
As the Marines returned the salute, Will nodded to John. "Now, John. Set me free."
John touched the appropriate controls and Will Curran simply fell to the ground. In moments, his body burst into flame and cremated his remains.
"Ashes to Ashes and Dust to Dust, may you always walk in the light. Good-bye my friend," John said softly.
"He asked me not to do the whole day of mourning as is the norm, but instead, he asked for a day of celebration. So I will grant his request. From this day forward, let it be known as Holly Curran day. A day of celebration and remembrance of all those that have given everything for our freedom," Mark declared. He turned to John, "Your mission files are now unlocked. Please don't make this day one of remembrance for all of you."
"We won't, Sire, we'll be back." John replied.
"I wish I could believe you, my friend. I really do," Mark said as he faded out, and John felt the channel close and the comm system lock back up.
"Take as long as each of you need, but keep in mind that we need to get going, and this is a hostile planet," John said, as he took position at the foot of the rear ramp. He would not board himself until everyone else had gotten aboard; he was the commander, he would be the last to say good-bye to yet another friend.
Chapter 42
After everyone had said their own good-byes to Will, and they were all back on board, John closed the ramp and returned to the bridge. "Get us out of here, Tami. Just head out for Tammerain space. Maintain stealth profile and comms lock. I'll give you a destination once I get a look at our orders."
"Will do, Boss." Tami replied, and began lift-off procedures. She had already changed back into her duty coveralls and had been waiting on the bridge.
