by Ben Winston
“John hasn’t killed anyone yet!” Mary said. “I know for a fact that he doesn’t want to kill any humans! His mission here is to stop the agents of the Tammerain! Not to kill the people in the town!”
“You know as well as I do, that Daddy is involved in this!” Gloria countered. “John will have to kill him!”
“He won’t if he can keep from it! Don’t you trust him at all?” Mary asked.
“When Daddy tries to kill him tonight, he won’t have a choice!” Gloria said. “His programming will force him to kill him!”
“What? You think that enhanced soldiers don’t have a choice?” Mary asked.
“Everyone knows that if you try to kill a marine, they will kill you because of their self-preservation programming!” Gloria said. “I heard the stories of the Marine that was hit by a hover car! He beat the driver into a blood smear!”
“What are you talking about? Marines aren’t allowed out in public, how could one get hit by a hover car?” Mary said. “Sweetheart, the only time that might happen is during the adjustment period after enhancement, and the Marines are not allowed to go anywhere except on a mission during that time, and never on a world with people on it!”
“What do you mean? They aren’t programmed to kill?” Gloria asked. “Isn’t that was enhancement does to them?”
“No, it isn’t.” Mary explained. “The only ‘programming’ they receive are obedience protocols to ensure they will follow orders and their directives. Self-preservation isn’t one of them.”
“So why are they so dangerous after enhancement? Why aren’t they allowed in public?” Gloria asked. “There has to be a reason for that fear.”
Mary nodded. “Mostly the fear people have of Marines is unjustified. However, for a few years after enhancement, until the soldier gets used to their bodies again, they are insane from pain and sensory overload. In a way, that is desirable, since they would take the horrendous risks that kill a lot of them. However, it also makes them too dangerous for the public at large. Usually other marines ‘foster’ them until they regain their humanity.”
“John did exactly that for me, when it was my turn,” a new voice said. “In fact if it wasn’t for him, I would not have survived enhancement.” The hologram of Mark walked in and took a seat next to Gloria. “Hello Gloria, I’m John’s ‘Uncle Mark’. Mary asked me to speak to you on his behalf.”
Gloria blinked at him, and thought she recognized him. Since Mary acted like she knew him as well, Gloria just reacted normally.
“So you’re an enhanced marine as well?” Gloria asked.
Mark nodded. “I’m still enhanced, yes.” He paused. “However, I would be dead if John hadn’t spoken out for me. He adopted me on the promise that he would kill me himself if he couldn’t get me to straighten out. It took longer than he made the agreement for, but it did work, and I’m still alive. All of that is thanks to him, alone.
“John has had to do a lot of horrible things during his long career as a marine, but he has never enjoyed it. For him, as well as the rest of the Temporal Guards, it has always been about duty. He will never go out of his way to cause harm if there is another way.”
Gloria’s eyes got really big, and she dropped to the floor, kneeling. “Majesty!”
“Damn,” Mark sighed. “She figured it out. Please Gloria, get up? I’m not your king at the moment, I’m just your friend, I hope.”
“Sire, why would you want to be my friend, I’m nobody?” Gloria asked.
“Simply because of that. Being who you are, you don’t have an agenda or anything to gain by being my friend. Mary has agreed to be my friend after John introduced her to me. I’d be honored to call you friend as well, if you could see your way to granting me such an honor.”
“Of course, Sire!” Gloria said, immediately.
Mary rolled her eyes. “Gloria, this man is not the King! He’s just a normal man that is in need of friends. Trust me here, I’ve met them both and the King is a completely different person! Think of this man as Mark, think of the other man as King Marcus. It helps to keep them separate in the mind.”
“I really appreciate that, too, Mary. Thank you,” Mark said, smiling at her.
“No problem, Mark. It might be easier for me to separate the office from the man because of how I met you. I’ll try to help Gloria with it if she needs it,” Mary said.
Gloria sat there staring at her friend. “You want me to call our Supreme Ruler by his first name?”
Mary shook her head. “No, I want you to call my friend Mark, by his first name.” She gestured at Mark. “This man is my friend, not my King. He is your friend too, if you’d give him that chance.”
Gloria was thoughtful. “Like John, He’s not a Marine, he’s my friend?”
“Well, in John’s case, they are the same man. But essentially, yes. John is your friend. He would never do anything to hurt you if he could help it,” Mark said. “Gloria, very shortly, you are going to meet all of the Temporal Guard, they are going to be entering the atmosphere in less than two hours. You have to get used to meeting celebrities.”
Gloria nodded. “I heard John talking to Major Diamond before I came down here. So if you are sending marines here, to an inhabited planet, then...”
“It’s a covert mission, made by seasoned and experienced Marines that have long since passed through acceptance trials,” Mark said.
“That’s something I never understood about enhanced soldiers. All the posters and pictures I’ve seen show them to be these big, huge, heavily muscled hulks, yet neither John, Major Diamond, nor you look anything like that,” Gloria said.
“Because we aren’t. The posters, and images are intentionally misleading for a number of reasons. Mary could probably explain some of them better than I could. Uh, I’m sorry, but there is something I need to go take care of, would you mind if I called to talk again, Gloria?” Mark said.
“I think I’d like that, Mark,” Gloria replied smiling shyly.
Mark smiled back at her as he quickly faded out. “I look forward to that.”
The looks between the two were not lost on Mary, and she smiled to herself. Perhaps something good for her two friends would come out of this after all. Only time would tell.
“Right after I came down here, we changed course, may I ask where we’re going?” Gloria asked.
“I thought you heard that part. We’re going back to John’s place. The rest of the guard will be landing there in a couple of hours,” Mary replied. “Gloria, they won’t kill anyone they don’t need to. In fact, I’m sure they want to keep at least all the humans alive for questioning. They need to know how this happened to begin with.”
“I know, but it’s my family, and I worry about them. I can’t help it,” Gloria replied.
“I certainly understand that. We’ve been friends long enough that I feel like they are my family too. If my folks hadn’t inherited that business in Ascension, they’d probably still be living here too,” Mary replied.
“Mary, what is it the Lizards are holding over everyone?” Gloria asked.
“What do you mean, Glow-Bug?”
“I mean that none of the people I know are anti-kingdom. Everybody in this town, and you know I know just about everyone, is happy to be a part of the Kingdom. No one would willingly help the Tammerain to retake this planet, or even help them attack the kingdom.” Gloria explained. “There has to be something they are using to force obedience out of the townsfolk.”
“I think John and Mark are thinking it’s a form of mental programming.”
“It can’t be, you told me that Grandfather Gustav was the one that went missing. I know for a fact that Daddy was born here, after they arrived. Momma has shown me pictures of both of their families. She can trace her roots all the way back to the original colonists. But she had nothing past Grandpa and Grandma’s arrival on planet for Daddy. I’ve seen Daddy’s birth certificate, and it was in Threshold. So when would they have been programmed?”
“Come on, we need to have John in on this conversation. This is important,” Mary said, motioning her friend to come back to the top deck with her.
Gloria nodded, and rose to follow her friend. “Thank you for taking the time to help me get through this. I still don’t feel comfortable about this situation, but I’ll accept it.”
When the two girls arrived on the top deck, they found John lost in thought and looking out to over the water.
“John, Gloria brought up a good point I think you might need to consider,” Mary said by way of letting him know they were there.
John nodded. “You would like to know why?”
“Were you listening?” Mary asked surprised he would eavesdrop on them like that.
He shook his head. “No, but it has been bugging me since I killed the Lizard. It doesn’t make sense on the surface. Yes, the first generation of colonists could have been programmed for obedience, but that wouldn’t hold for their children. Also, we have no idea how long the Saurians have been here. Since we don’t have any solid proof, we need to look at what would cause the people to unwillingly help the Saurians. Gloria, are there any missing persons in the area?”
Gloria took a seat near him, and shook her head. “No, nothing strange at all is going on. Until recently, I thought it was a normal little village.”
John nodded. “Okay, so we can rule out hostages. That leaves blackmail and bribes. I think we can rule out bribes because the people here don’t seem like the type, and there are no unusually ‘blessed’ people. That leaves blackmail of some type. We need to figure out what they are holding over these people and remove that threat. What is the one thing that is the most important to the people here?”
“Family. Not only our own, but each other’s. This community is very close, I would say they are almost clannish, even though they accepted you very quickly; that is not the norm here,” Mary said. “It usually takes a couple of years for people to accept a new person or family into the community.”
Gloria nodded her agreement. “She’s right, you are definitely the exception here. It actually surprised me at how quickly people accepted you. Even being Axel’s kin, they still should have taken more time to get comfortable with you.”
“So let’s think about that angle then. Could the Lizards be threatening the townspeople in order to ensure their cooperation? It couldn’t be widely known, or someone would be talking about it, somewhere, and everyone would know about it. Since neither of you do, we have to assume that only a few people are aware of the threat. Now the questions become who are those people? Who would need to be in on the secret in order to assure assistance without the general population finding out about it,” John asked. “The only answer I have so far is that the local Constable would have to know, so he could handle situational security. But he wouldn’t be able to handle ordering supplies, or getting messages to and from the base.”
“So, Daddy has to know, there’s no way around it?” Gloria asked.
“I don’t see how he could not know, are there any other constables in the area?” John asked.
“Even though it’s only a small hamlet, Midway has a Constable, more to help Daddy cover his territory, than anything else, though,” Gloria replied. “David George is his name.”
John nodded. “Okay, we still need to figure out who is handling supplies, and messages. Since Johnstown doesn’t have a hyperpulse transmitter, we have to assume that some of what you bring from Threshold are actually messages for the Lizards.” John held up his hand to forestall her protests. “Gloria, you pick-up a sealed unit and deliver it to the postmaster, still sealed. There is no way to know if you are carrying those messages or not.”
Gloria looked thoughtful for a moment. “You know, I got back early once, so I volunteered to help with the sorting, but Mr. Grimes said I couldn’t because I wasn’t certified for that. I’ve never heard of needing a separate certification for sorting mail. I’m already certified for handling mail.”
“Is Grimes the Postmaster?” John asked.
Again she nodded. “Willard Grimes. He’s held the office since Grandpa passed.”
“Okay, so that’s two, possibly three people to look into. Any ideas about how the lizards are getting their supplies?” John asked.
“Robertson’s grocery has a delivery service for this side of the lake, and the Diamond Isles area. They could be doing it, I doubt the load they take out every other week would even notice supplies for a small base,” Mary suggested.
“Remember, Mary, they also supply two other grocery stores in Diamond Isles. I don’t know how many other remote places they deliver to, but I don’t think their loads are that out of line,” Gloria said.
“Hmm, for that matter, the wholesale truck that delivers to Robertson’s could simply drop off the supplies as well. The less people that are in on this, the easier it would be to maintain the cover of the base,” John said. “I don’t think we’re going to get the time to check out all these leads before the shit hits the hyperdrive anyway. If I don’t show up tonight, Bailey will know something’s up.”
“So what are you going to do?” Gloria asked.
“Show up for dinner, but I don’t think it’ll go the way he has planned,” John said. “I’m going to kidnap your parents and take them to the Flyer for questioning. What we do from there will depend on what we learn from your parents.”
“How long until we reach your place, John?” Mary asked. “I’m getting hungry, and I was going to make us lunch.”
“About twenty minutes, could you grab another ration bar for me, too?” John asked.
“Sure, but didn’t you just have one?”
“An hour ago. But we had a light breakfast, so I have to make up for it,” John replied. “Besides, I’m going to have to move the floating raft, and Bob only knows how long that anchor has been set.”
“Who’s Bob?” Gloria asked.
Half an hour later, the two women stood on the mid-deck to watch John move the raft. They had pulled the Barge close to the raft in the case they would need to drag the raft and anchor out of the way. John had told them that he was going to follow the cable down to see how set the anchor was. So when he dove off the bow, they didn’t expect him to surface for a minute or two.
“How long will his enhancements allow him to stay underwater? The story about his finding the base, said he was under water for almost an hour,” Gloria said.
“He was wearing battle armor at the time, and it was probably closer to an hour and a half,” Mary said. “Without the armor, he can stay under for about ten minutes, but it’ll cost him, since the oxygen in his system is recycled. There is always a price for using the enhancements.”
“I’ve never heard that!” Gloria said.
“Most people don’t know that. Whenever you force the human body to do something it was never designed to do, there’s a price. At the heart of it all, they are still human,” Mary explained.
“What would it cost him to stay under for the full ten minutes?” Gloria asked.
“He would have to re-oxygenate his system, so he would most likely just have to relax and breathe deeply for a couple of minutes. In a combat area, that could be fatal,” Mary said. “He doesn’t have a choice either, when he comes back up, he will have to do it, or the controller will shut him down in order to prevent a terminal failure... which means death.”
“So if their controller won’t allow them to damage themselves, how do... uhm, we know that some of the soldiers will commit suicide instead of opting for retirement. If their control prevents that, how do they do it?” Gloria asked, glancing at her watch.
“The soldier can override the controller, or they simply put themselves in a position that no matter what the controller does, they will die,” Mary said. “I should warn you, especially since one of the soldiers coming here has chosen that path, that they don’t consider it committing suicide. Nor do they think of it as evil or wrong. They call it simply ‘retirement’. Dead or
alive, the soldier is gone.”
“But John is still alive, and he’s still a soldier, right?” Gloria asked.
“Yes, John is still both alive and a Marine. However, he isn’t officially ‘retired’. Because of who he is, he can never actually retire, unless he dies.” Mary said sadly.
Gloria glanced at her watch again. “Six minutes. What’s he doing down there?”
“Actually, I had to come back up and get a wrench,” John said from behind them, making both women jump.
He chuckled, “Sorry, I thought you heard me get out of the water.”
“Dammit John! Don’t scare us like that!” Mary said, then chuckled herself.
“Bastard!” Gloria said grinning.
“Axel was a smart one, the raft is bolted to a rod that goes into the bottom. All I have to do is unbolt it, and we can take it back to the dock.” John explained. “Shouldn’t take long at all.”
He dove back in, and the girls watched him swim down and away. “I wonder how deep it is.” Gloria said.
“Deep enough to hide a ship, I’ve never seen the ship in question, but it’s big enough for Marines to live on, so it has to be somewhat large,” Mary said.
“The area is big enough, I think, but it would depend on the depth, I guess. John must know how deep it is if he told them to land here,” Gloria replied.
“I suppose he does,” Mary said.
“What’s John going to do once this is over?” Gloria asked. “Is he going to leave?”
“No, there is a new Bio-Molecular Medical and Research facility that is going to be built here. I’m going to be working at it. John really does own this farm, and he does plan on staying here and working it,” Mary said.
About then, John resurfaced, smiling. “Done! I hooked the cable to the barge, so we can move the raft over to the dock. Chloe told me they are on final approach and should be down in about fifteen minutes.”
Nodding, Mary got up and went to the controls to move the barge. John, through his implants, made sure she could.
“Report.”
“My Lord, as you ordered, we set a watcher on the human’s den. There are more humans there. Humans we do not know,” the kneeling Lizard replied.
