The Commander

by Kevin Groh

  »Banes seems to have been in action on other worlds. There are certainly some who have experienced this by now.«

  She shrugged her shoulders. »I just think it’s exaggerated. We’ll be here in the base for two years. The physical strain could also be slowly increased.«

  They spent the rest of the day with Kelly, Tim, Tom and Gina on the drill ground. They sat there for a long time talking about this and that. When they returned to the room in the evening, Carter closed the door and took off his jacket. He looked at his bracelet and played with a few settings, seeing in the corner of his eye how Leena first took off her boots, then her socks, jacket, and undershirt. She dug around in her closet and dropped her pants. In her underwear, she stood there and refolded a messy top. Carter couldn’t help but stare at her. He had never had a girlfriend before and had never really come close to a woman. His aunt Abby always had a ridiculously deep neckline and had been the leading actress in many irritating dreams, but that was something else. Leena turned around and sat down on her bed. He quickly stared back at the bracelet. »You don’t have to be ashamed, Carter. Looking is a perfectly normal thing. When you chose a woman as your roommate, you must have realized that we live together in a very small space. You will see me and I will see you. With Kelly, you had probably hoped for this, but with me you’re embarrassed, aren’t you?«, she smiled.

  »Well, I’m not sure how to behave right now. I find it rude to stare at you.«

  She stood up and turned slowly. »Look as long and as much as you like. I am satisfied with my appearance. I am happy if you like it. It was too cold in the dormitory, but now that I’m sleeping here, I can sleep naked again. I find it much more comfortable. I hope you can handle it ...«

  »I’ll get used to it. I think ...«, he replied with an uncomfortable giggle.

  She shrugged her shoulders and took off her underwear. Carter simply had to look at her body. She was slim but had neither big breasts nor a full butt. Her face and hair were pretty, but otherwise, she seemed unremarkable. Carter had to ask: »You said you wouldn’t rule out sex with me if I asked. Were you serious?«

  She came and sat down next to him on the bed. »I was. If you asked me now, I would say yes immediately. I just consider it fun. But I think you shouldn’t ask. I don’t think you want to ask. You are not like that. If I asked you, you would always cover your eyes when I’m naked. For people like you, sex is something extraordinary that you only share with someone special. I think you should save it for a woman you really want.«

  He looked at her: »You are a sensitive person. Even if you’re always playing tough, you have a connection to people. And even though I have to keep my cool when you run around naked, I’m glad you live here with me. I think we can become really good friends.«

  She smiled and then went over to her bed and under the blanket.

  The following week went just like the one before, except that they were less tired as the weekend approached. Carter and Leena became more and more close friends and it wasn’t long before he didn’t even pay attention to her undressing in the evening. He could look her in the face when he talked to her while she was naked. The whole situation seemed weird to him, but he didn’t mind.

  Kelly had gotten sick this week and was prescribed bed rest. Since the classes took place anyway, they could only visit her in the evening. Instead, Jane spent more time with them, while Roderick permanently stared at him darkly after hearing about Leena’s move in. Her rubbing him in the face, that she liked to sleep naked wasn’t exactly helpful to Carter. He, Leena and Jane sat with Nambur at lunch and talked. Jane said: »I think it’s useless for us to go through the history of Earth with Commander Dalton. We already had that stuff often enough at school ...«

  Leena commented: »Well, we haven’t all been so regular and successful in school.«

  »I didn’t know your story yet. I find it all very interesting because I can see parallels to my homeworld.«, it came from Nambur.

  »That’s right, I always forget that you’re not a human being.«, Carter realized.

  »That speaks very much for you. If you can actually ignore the purely visible fact that I’m not a human being, you’re a really unprejudiced man.«

  Jane said: »Unlike my father. He was a driver for a transport company and smuggled a little something with his tiny shuttle. To outposts and stuff like that. He was quite a racist, although he had almost daily contact with other species. My mother is completely different. She’s a programmer and hardly comes out of her office, but she has no problems with foreign peoples.«

  Leena asked: »How did they react to your recruitment?«

  Jane briefly lowered her gaze: »My father didn’t come back from a smuggling tour about three years ago. They found the wreck of the shuttle destroyed and floating in space. My mother was completely devastated. After what happened to him, she didn’t want me to ever leave Utopia. Well, and now it’s only a matter of time.«

  The others didn’t really know what to say.

  Jane smiled: »My father was an idiot. He often told me to go to hell. He just did not expect that he would wait for me there.«

  She laughed about it, while the rest of them seemed more shocked. She was hiding her negative memories behind her humor.

  The week after that, they attended computer classes for the first time. They found themselves in the computer room and looked for seats. Kelly was fit again and sat down next to Carter. He occasionally looked over at her from the corner of his eye and admired her reddish hair as it fell on her shoulders in gentle waves. He also noticed, of course, how her breasts floated just above the tabletop as she slipped close. Her pleasant scent waved over to him. Leena pushed her elbow into his side and whispered: »Hey! Stop staring like that!«

  He flinched and concentrated on the lessons again. The teacher in this subject was not physically present but could be seen on a screen via a conference call. It was a military programmer on some other base. His voice was annoying and he held tons of monologues for them and bored them at a slow pace. They had to learn basic computer skills. This included writing texts and reports, calculation, image editing, simple programming, and basic hardware knowledge. This should enable them to repair a computer in the field if necessary. Carter had neither the patience nor the talent to do this, so it was very difficult for him to follow the lessons.

  At the same time, Major Dunn taught them how to disassemble and reassemble pistols and install various upgrades. With these existing subjects, they spent the following months.

  Old and New

  Another weekend was approaching. After the group had been drilled to their limits for weeks by Banes and trained by Jazzir in various further areas of martial arts, the first day off was in sight. They had survived three months and became second-rate recruits with the most basic skills.

  Leena had had to sleep outside for one night because she had yelled at Banes after he had criticized her performance. Billy had also been caught again in underwear and was allowed to clean the latrines. But he was not less bold.

  The group sat in the dormitory that evening and Roderick lounged on his bed and shouted: »Hey Leena! What are you doing on the first free weekend?«

  »Keeping a big distance to you, that’s for sure.«, she replied dryly.

  »Hey, I’m sorry if I treated you a little rough in the beginning. I didn’t feel comfortable here and left it out on you. That wasn’t cool of me. But I would really like to make peace and sometimes chat a bit with you. You know, get to know each other.«

  Leena seemed surprised. »I expected more of a grunt from you, but you really seem to be trying. Why is my story so important to you? Why do you want to make peace with me, but not with Carter?«

  Roderick made a face. »Sanders? I admit he’s not as much of an easygoing boy, as I thought at first. But he is still an idiot. He’s too nice to defend himself against me and just ignores everything I say. And then he hides away with you in his room to avoid meeting me. A special status for
a special ass.«

  She replied: »You’re doing him wrong.«

  »I don’t want to talk about Sanders, that gets me in a bad mood.«

  Carter watched as Leena talked to Roderick and he wondered if she didn’t like him a little bit. He himself sat on Kelly’s bed. In computer class, she was more talented than him and she liked to help him, so she always sat next to him. He had had programming problems for a long time and was glad he had help.

  She said: »I am so happy to see my parents again this weekend! My mother has no appointments and my father is very excited. He has a very macabre sense of humor, I hope he won’t bring me a toilet again ...«

  Carter snorted: »A toilet? Why is that?«

  She smiled at the memory. »Surely you remember that he is the CEO of Dimcod? He loves to have toilets made that have a theme. To movies, to music, to places or whatever. For my 18th birthday, he had made me a pink toilet with a blond wig to remind me how much I loved to play with dolls when I was a little girl.«

  Carter couldn’t imagine it. »Anyway, it sounds like you two have a very intimate relationship.«

  »Yes, we do. I mean sure, as CEO he has little time, but he was always there when it was really important. And we laugh a lot together. He helped me with my homework, put me to bed and read to me. I love him very much. And for him, I’ve always been his little princess.«

  »That sounds wonderful. My father and I also have a very good relationship. He used to work a lot and my sister and I were alone with my mother. When she was killed, everything changed.«

  After he had told her what had happened to his mother, Kelly was horrified. She hugged him and he enjoyed the moment very much. Billy strolled by and said: »Nice, Sanders!« She ignored him, which relieved Carter enormously.

  As the weekend began after breakfast on Saturday morning, a white shuttle came to the landing site to pick him up. Carter had known the driver for a long time. His name was Michael and he had been employed by them for many years. In the air, the base looked small, especially when you compared it to the nearby city. Behind New Denver were the rough outlines of the local synthium mine.

  The shuttle took him back to the family estate so that he could once again enter his apartment. Nothing had changed there, but after three months with only the most basic things to live with, he realized the true luxury of his past. He saw his bookshelf, grabbed some of the unread books and put them in his bag. The next time he didn’t want to sleep in the evening, he had at least one more activity to enjoy. He could have done that just before he left, but that was something he did not want to forget.

  His father wasn’t home, so Carter sat down on his terrace and looked at the picture. New Denver was well visible, but much further away and the unsightly details were not noticeable. He could have watched TV, played video games or shot arrows, but he just wanted to sit there and enjoy the sight. Just a few months ago, he was always up to date on the latest games and movies. He planned his life around such moments and wasted the rest of his time. Now it all didn’t seem so important to him anymore. The effort to get back into these topics and catch up was too much for him. He didn’t have a chance to enjoy it anyway. He used to spend weeks without contact with other people and he didn’t even notice it. Now he was used to the people around him and one could not do much more in the base than chat with them. For this reason, he missed them now.

  Carter smiled in relief as he saw his father’s shuttle land. He hurried up and Magnus hugged him warmly. »I am glad to see you, son! It’s unbelievable that I haven’t seen you for three months ... The video chats were barely enough. Come on! We’ll eat your favorite food. I asked Jeremy to get pizza and hot dogs from Earth. There’s a new shop near the office where you can get everything made with original ingredients.«

  Carter could hardly hide his joy. After weeks of nothing but protein-loaded food and boring stews, finally eating something delicious again was a dream come true. Together with his father, he filled his stomach with great pleasure. Magnus chewed on a piece of fat-soaked pizza: »You told me a little bit about how things were going, but now I want to know more. Tell me!«

  »Hm, there’s not so much to tell. I told you that so far we have computer technology, pistol training, close combat, and sports. In addition, there is some general history and knowledge about Earth and Utopia. Actually, the variety wasn’t that big.«

  Magnus said: »Well, that’s because these basic things are the alpha and omega for soldiers. You need to really own them. But I don’t want to talk about your training. You already have enough of that during the week. No, I want to hear more about how you are doing there. How do they treat you? What are the trainers like, the other recruits?«

  Carter told him about the teachers and his father replied: »I have heard of this Banes. He seems to be a pretty tough guy, even though he’s known to be a little big-headed. But nobody dares to say that to his face.«

  Carter immediately believed that. »So they irritate you occasionally, but you have yourself under control, right? That’s great because otherwise, it would certainly get you into a lot of trouble. You inherited this strength of character from me.« his father said proudly.

  Carter looked at him skeptically and Magnus threw his arms into the air: »You were never easy to fool! I know I am not necessarily the man with the strongest will. That’s why I ate more pizza than I should have ...«, he laughed and rubbed his full stomach. »In fact, you have your inner strength from your grandfather. I never told you much about him, because he died before you were born.«

  Magnus leaned back and looked to the ceiling as he remembered: »My father ... the famous Richard Sanders. He was also in the military. I remember how he always came home proudly in his old uniform when I was little. He emphasized order and discipline at home. Your aunt Abigail and I often got into trouble when we came home covered in mud ...«, he reminisced with a smile. »He was a good soldier, I heard. But the price was that he could rarely be at home. He wasn’t a bad father, but he didn’t know us very well. He gave his best and I always knew that. Abby found it harder to live with that than I did. Well, and one day he just didn’t come home anymore. Years later I inherited the box he had left for mother. In it, I found many answers to my questions. He was part of a special group that was sent on secret missions. The kind of missions nobody talks about. And on one of them, he was killed. The details had been kept a secret from us and in retrospect, I think that was a good thing. We received a very high survivor’s pension and many well-known officials personally expressed their condolences. Apparently, my father was a very good agent and highly respected.«

  Carter listened eagerly as he learned about his grandfather and his story. »Why haven’t you told me this before?«

  »Why haven’t you told me this before?«

  Magnus sighed: »I know about your enthusiasm for weapons and martial arts. I thought if you heard about it, you might try to be like your grandfather. Now this worry has probably become futile.«

  Carter wanted to look at the things Magnus had mentioned, and the two of them went into the storeroom after dinner. There his father pulled the old box from a shelf. It contained a few blurred photos, blackened documents, two medals, a uniform jacket, and a small yellow note. Carter unfolded it and on it, there were some numbers and the words ›tomb‹ and ›God‹ with a question mark. In response to his question, Magnus explained: »I have no idea what he might have meant. He was not a religious man and I don’t think he was interested in archaeology either. Maybe it’s a kind of cipher that you can only understand if you know the code? But I don’t think we both will ever find the solution. All this stuff is thirty years old and no one ever asked for it.«

  Next to the note was another photo of Richard Sanders. He had been a handsome soldier with a smart face. Magnus looked over Carter’s shoulder: »I can understand why he was respected.«

  They spent the rest of the weekend just at home. They cooked together, watched movies, talked about Magnus‹ work or
the latest weird creations of his aunt Abigail, who was a mediocre known artist and specialized in painting. Carter also spent a little time alone and gamed a little. On Sunday evening he had to return to the base.

  The others had been back for a while and they told each other what they had done. In fact, Kelly’s father had gotten a toilet in camouflage colors and almost laughed himself to death, while her mother had just smiled. Leena hadn’t been away. She hadn’t told anyone, but she hadn’t left her family without a reason. She did not want to talk about it and had not let it be known that she had no friends or other relatives outside the base.

  As soon as they were in the room, she said to Carter: »I don’t want pity or stupid questions. This is a part of my life that I would like to forget. I like to be alone and I don’t mind staying here in the base.«

  Carter shrugged his shoulders: » Suit yourself. I don’t go home every weekend. Next week I wanted to meet my father in town. Maybe I’ll visit his workplace. If you feel like it, you can accompany me. I have sometimes felt alone in the last few days and would have liked to chat with you.«

  Leena seemed pleased. »That sounds great! But I hope you’re not offering me that out of pity.«

  Carter shook his head: »I ask you that because you are my friend. I like you and like spending time with you. It’s that simple.«

  »In that case, I like to come with you!«, Leena replied joyfully.

  Drill Sergeant Clemm opened the new week with the usual yelling. This time he had Banes with him, which was very strange. The grin on his face could only mean disaster. »Watch out recruits! Your first three months are over now and that means that you have more or less successfully completed your basic basic basic training. This is your first little promotion, so to speak. From now on it won’t be as hard as it used to be.«, Clemm shouted.

  Gina seemed relieved, but then Banes took the floor.