The Commander

by Kevin Groh

  »Fuck! That’s Gargan. A dirty son of a bitch who’s gathered the most violent guys around him and formed a kind of gang to take protection money from local residents. My workshop has always annoyed him because I paid him shit. He can’t compete with the quality of my gates and locks with his methods. Nevertheless, he likes to look for trouble to frighten people.«

  Carter stood in front of the guy and said: »I don’t know what your problem is, but I suggest you use words. If you know something like that ...«

  The man grinned with his lazy teeth.

  »Insults! Hahaha! Your dress doesn’t fool me, kid. Your choice of words, your fine skin and your tender girlfriend there ... you are one of the rich fucks from up there!«, he said and pointed to the sky. »Oh oh Roderick, I thought you knew where you came from. For years you pinned slogans against the rich on lanterns and now you surround yourself with them. Where is your loyalty?«

  Roderick turned to the man. »Loyalty? To whom? You? Your impudent protection money, which you cut from the ribs of the people here, who are already starving anyway? Don’t play the moralizer here, Gargan!«

  The guy who was addressed hissed with his teeth and then said out loud: » Guys, I think good old Roderick forgot where he came from. We should probably remind him. Kill them, but keep that pretty thing alive ... I still have a use for her.«

  He tried to hit Carter on the head, but he dodged and punched him in the armpit. Then he shoved his knee into his stomach and threw him to the ground. About ten guys approached and launched an attack. Urma got a baseball bat against the back of the head and immediately passed out. Two guys grabbed her and carried her away. They tried the same thing with Kelly, but she blocked it and with precise punches and kicks she beat her two attackers. Roderick took on three of them and threw one into an iron dustbin. Carter disarmed a guy with an iron pipe and then used the pipe to knock him unconscious. The other had a metal bat and attacked him, but Carter could keep the wild bully in check and defeat him. Two more guys harassed Kelly and one hit her in the side. She bent briefly and one used this to hold her arms in place. Carter threw the sharp-edged pipe and it drilled into the shoulder of one of them, who cried out painfully and the other let her go. Kelly kicked him against the head and sent him to the land of dreams. Meanwhile, Roderick had also overwhelmed the other two. They followed the two guys who had carried Urma away into an alleyway and saw them walking around a corner. They hurried after them and caught up with them. The boys threw her into a garbage heap and attacked, but they quickly fell to the ground. Roderick threw the unconscious woman over his shoulder and carried her to his apartment. He went in and laid her on his bed.

  The dwelling consisted of a room with a bed, a stove, a sink and a small table with a single chair. Next to it was a tiny bathroom with a toilet, shower and washing machine. »It’s not much, but I’ve earned it. I was almost never up here anyway.«, he explained, while he was using a cloth to treat Urma’s slightly bleeding head wound.

  Then he looked at Kelly and said: »Damn Kelly, you’ve got some hard kicks in you! I’ve never seen anything like it. At least not with a woman.«

  She smiled proudly and Carter asked: »Where did he hit you?«

  She pulled up her top a bit and you could see a big blue spot on her hip. It was positioned in such a way that the belly-free top concealed it. »Looks like a bruise to me, but if you can breathe without stinging pain, the ribs should still be intact.«, Roderick estimated.

  »Now I realize why you always hit Jazzir so hard.«, Carter said.

  He just puffed: »Urma will sleep for a while. We’d better stay here until she wakes up.«

  They went down the stairs to the workshop. There they saw Roderick’s beloved car. A 2112 Mustang in black with red stripes. There was a workbench, a bucket with a cloth, a broom, a perforated wall with tools, electronic measuring devices, a rolling board, lift jacks, old oil drums, and a few tires.

  »Rubber tires and engine oil are no longer state of the art, but I know someone. I made some money by repairing old cars for rich collectors. They pay outrageously little because I’m just a worker, yet it’s more than many others have here.«

  He stroked his hand over the door of the car.

  »This is my baby. I restored it from the ground up and got it in shape. For months I had to search scrap yards and ask collectors for parts. Well, and now the good piece is here and I pray every day that guys like Gargan won’t steal it or beat it up in their stupidity ...«

  Carter was looking at the car. »That’s a pretty cool car. I know you have a problem with me and you don’t trust me. But if you’re really afraid for the car, I can make sure it’s picked up here and taken to a safer place.«

  Roderick just laughed out loud: »I should trust you with it? You must be joking! In the end, it ends up in some museum or something. No, thank you.«

  Carter shrugged his shoulders: »My offer stands. Do what you want with it.«

  Roderick grumbled while Kelly looked at pictures of other classic cars hanging on the walls. »Most of these models are very old. Many muscle cars. A few sports cars and a few SUVs. You seem to know a lot about old cars from the time before the expansion.«

  Roderick was astonished: »But so do you if you recognize them. I’ve already repaired every one of them. The pictures come from the garages of the collectors here on Utopia. About half of the cars can hardly be repaired or kept in good condition by anyone else because combustion engines are forbidden here. Converting such an old car to current energy drives is expensive even for rich people. That’s why they stand around in halls and collect dust. Well, and I get paid to maintain them. It always gives me a great deal of satisfaction to take money from the noble bastards because they have to come to me.

  Most people despise workers and their facial expressions when they have to hire me for a job is priceless. Do you know anything about cars?«

  Kelly replied: »Knowing is too much to say. My father is one of those rich collectors you talk about. He has three halls full of such cars, but they’re all re-equipped. He has three employees who take care of the cars. When I was younger, I was often in there and sat down in the cars to read or hide. When I was sad or had problems, my father always knew quickly which one I preferred to hide in«.

  She smiled at the thought of that, which Carter thought was beautiful.

  »Did he often have to look for you there?«

  »Of course. I was a teenager and almost every day there was something in my head that was the end of the world. And often my parents were to blame. At least it seemed that way to me. But my father ... he was always patient. Although he worked so much, he was often there for me. He took the time whenever he could and occasionally he got loud, but never so that I had to be afraid of him.

  Sometimes I just pretended to be sad so that we could sit in one of the cars and talk. I loved these conversations.«

  Carter sat down on a stool, while Roderick went up with a strange expression to check on Urma.

  »You like to talk about your father. What about your mother?

  »My mother is ... special. I had already told you that she was a model on Earth for many years and then came here with her father. There is no need for models here and since she had already aspired to this career at a young age, she didn’t learn anything else. My father was already rich when they came here and so she could save herself the search for a job. She tried everything but never found a suitable hobby. Now she spends her days doing sports, spending money and posting lifestyle videos on the ComNet.

  Alcohol and occasional weak drugs are also included, but it’s still within bounds. I don’t know how she can live like this, but she seems to have accepted it.«

  Carter felt her gaze on him, but before he could say or do anything, Roderick’s voice echoed down to them.

  »Hey, she woke up! Get up here!«

  They climbed up the steps with a final sideways glance at the car and saw Urma sitting upright on the bed. She rubbed her head.
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  »Shit! Why did we do all those melee exercises! The very first blow knocked me over ...«

  »You couldn’t have seen it coming. With Jazzir, we learned to fight individual opponents, not groups. I don’t know if it’s even going to happen in basic training.«, Kelly cheered her up.

  »Did you learn something like that? I mean in kickboxing.«, Roderick asked.

  She replied: »We fought a maximum of three opponents at once, but only one time. Sometimes two against one. I think the fight with several enemies is very difficult to learn and there is hardly anyone who teaches such a thing.«

  They helped Urma on her feet and then made their way back to the others at the Skymarket.

  Since none of them had said a word about what had happened and the whole group had flown back to the base, the rest of the weekend seemed rather boring. On Monday morning they went straight back to the hell trail, where they were chased through the obstacles by Banes. Carter and Leena tried to climb the bars over the ditch without pausing or letting go.

  They suddenly heard Banes scream. Billy had practiced climbing the ropes and unbuttoned his uniform jacket. Underneath he wore a brightly colored shirt with the inscription ›Colonel Soldier‹ and a wild boar in military uniform. It was a rock band that ridiculed the military in their lyrics. Banes didn’t seem to respond very well.

  Billy was really pulled apart during a fifteen-minute lecture. Then he was supposed to strip completely and run naked to the barracks to put on other clothes. He also had to spend another three hours doing sports with Banes himself, while the rest went to dinner and the next lesson.

  »Holy shit, I’ve never seen Banes freak out like that before. Your friend must have really pissed him off. This has even made the rounds with the instructors. The guy is probably an asshole on purpose, isn’t he,« it came from Major Dunn when they were at the shooting range in the afternoon.

  Shortly thereafter Billy came along completely sweaty and slowly shuffling. He just stood there next to the group, staring apathetically straight ahead as they looked at him partly anxiously, partly curiously.

  »Is everything okay, Billy?«, Tom asked, but he didn’t react.

  »The boy has just learned what disobedience can lead to. Leave him alone. As long as he knows what we’re doing, he can stand there.«, said the major.

  At first, they practiced a bit with pistols and MPs, but then it was time for another type of weapon. Dunn spat on the floor and asked:

  »Does any of you know any old movies? Western? Where hobby shooters want to defend their properties and almost always get killed?«

  A murmur went through the group, but nobody said anything.

  Dunn raised her eyebrows. »You are a bunch of pussies. Nobody gets their mouth open. My point is that these morons always have the most classic of all firearms. The good old double-barreled shotgun. Wide impact area, only two bullets in the barrel, massive volume and a recoil where you almost shit your pants in shock if you’re not used to it. An absolutely inefficient gun.

  But the concept is ingenious. Any beginner who can’t aim can at least hit something with it and all in all these things cause fucking devastating damage. However, the target must be close to you.«

  She showed a modern military shotgun that was not as long or slim as one would expect from a shotgun. It looked more like an elongated broad pistol with an intermediate handle. The muzzle was bigger and the magazine thicker than they had known before.

  »This is the Hummingbird. The most masculine weapon you will see here. This gem works with an energetic variant of the traditional shot charge. A so-called splinter divides the energy projectile into small fragments and increases the target radius. There is still a strong recoil, only dampened. Shotguns are usually carried by front soldiers when things get really tight. If you have to hold a position and many enemies move in, targeting is a waste of time. In these moments such a weapon is used. You have to cuddle your opponent and then slam it in front of his face. With a little practice, you can kill several enemies at once. Against wild animals on other worlds, a shotgun is usually the weapon of choice.«

  They all got a shotgun and were supposed to line up. »Don’t even try to aim at any targets. The range is lousy and only an experienced shooter can hit targets with a shotgun. The first task is not to fall over when firing or to hit the shaft against yourself somewhere. Let’s go!«

  Carter quickly realized that such a rough weapon was not his thing. He liked to work with precision and not with blunt power. They thought it was a joke to fall over, but when Jimbo pulled the trigger, it actually lifted him off his feet. Urma dislocated her back because she had held the gun too sideways and made a much too strong jerking movement to the side with the shot.

  Here, those with more body mass had an advantage. Gina, Henry, and Roderick had the least problems shooting. Tim banged his gun against his own arm and Tom laughed at him. Dunn just shook her head amused as she watched the foolish attempts.

  She stood up and demonstrated to them the correct posture so as not to hurt herself. Kelly stood with her shotgun in her arms next to Carter and pressed the gun to her chest, making it look firmer and bigger than it already did. She looked at him insidiously as he noticed and he had to smile as well.

  After the lesson was finished, Roderick gave Carter a shoulder bump as he walked past, and Leena looked sinister. Kelly asked what his problem was, but he didn’t respond. »He is still himself. A trip to his car didn’t change that.«

  Leena had followed the stories of her escapade with interest. She wasn’t particularly disappointed not to have been there. Urma contacted the doctor for the second time in a week. She would not be able to participate in sports for a short while. The days flew by very quickly at this time, only the discipline training sessions felt endless. Dunn held some lessons in the simulation chamber so they could shoot at moving targets. That was completely different from the previous exercises. None of them hit anything. It was not until the third time that they had slowly gotten the hang of it.

  The theory lessons with Annie also progressed rapidly, and after they had dealt enough with the Pintans, they took on the Salvani in the coming hours.

  Getting Serious

  Carter woke up in the morning and his calendar showed him that he had been in training for five months. It was hard every day, but he had also learned a lot. Leena grumbled when the alarm clock rang. She rolled out of bed, put on her underwear and shuffled out to the toilet. Carter was not tired, but excited. From today on new tasks were waiting for the recruits. After breakfast, they gathered in front of the main building, as their bracelets told them. Since that day an additional category was to be seen there, the performance records of their group in comparison with each other. Carter saw that he was one of the best in shooting and sport, while he was only medium in HUD training and martial arts. Leena was one of the best in class with Annie Dalton and in computer classes. There would be no hell trail or other sport on that day, but Banes stepped in front of them.

  »So, five months survived. Are you happy with yourselves? I am not! I know hamsters with more self-discipline! But at least you’re not acting like total losers anymore. You are probably wondering why we are here.«

  He started walking up and down in front of them.

  »We are here because the time of loitering and lying on your lazy skins is over. Soon you’ll be making yourselves useful. After all, the government is putting a lot of money into your training, even if it doesn’t do much good.«, he remarked with a disapproving sparkle towards Billy.

  »From now on there is no more discipline training. In my opinion, this is a stupid idea, but the eggheads upstairs decided so. In exchange, marches will be added as of today. In the real world out there, soldiers often have to cover long distances on unexplored planets with combat gear and weapons. Since Major Dunn told me how lousy you shoot, we’ll leave it at baggage for now.«

  He pointed at a bunch of big backpacks behind them and each one of them grabbed
one. Leena moaned immediately because her slender build was not designed for heavy loads.

  »It’s too heavy ... I can hardly stand with it.«, she said loudly.

  Banes crossed his trained arms as usual.

  »Female soldiers need the same equipment as male soldiers. That means you have to be able to carry the same weight.«

  Above his arm appeared a large hologram of the map around Osilon.

  »Marches are always planned in the area around the base. There are several routes, but your bracelets have them in memory, so you don’t have to remember them. But since you never know when technology will fail, you should still have a few junctions in your head. The first times I will go with you and make sure that you don’t waste time. Later you go alone and have a time limit. The bracelets measure where you’ve been, so don’t even think about taking shortcuts.«

  After Banes had inspected everyone’s equipment and order, they started running. It was the first time they were allowed to leave the premises during the week. The major had no weight and jogged casually in front of them to demonstrate what speed they had to keep. Sometimes he marched slower when it was uphill. At first, you could still hear Billy trying to talk to Roderick, but stitches and exhaustion quickly silenced him. While Leena tortured herself very much and Kelly gasped loudly, Carter only had trouble with the load. The gear was heavy, yet he didn’t find it as annoying as initially feared. When Roderick noticed that Carter seemed to be doing fine, he overtook him to demonstrate that he had even fewer problems with it. The only thing he gained with that that was earlier fatigue. Jimbo and Jane fought bravely and Nambur also had difficulties. Henry and Gina gasped endlessly, even Tim and Tom were exhausted. Only Urma stomped tirelessly.

  Carter noticed the idyllic woodland they were walking through. Green spaces, many healthy trees and a pile of chirping kamaka birds in the branches. They were reddish animals with amazingly deep singing voices, which sounded very strange to people from Earth. Their feet hurt quickly on the well-trodden trail, especially because there were always places with coarse stones that tortured the soles of their feet.