Red tinted Stan’s boyish face. “I should have expected that from you. I can make it on my own. I don’t need to sleep around to get work! You never believed in me.”
“After all the times I sat through your gigs? All we’ve been through? I thought we were going to be together forever. You said you loved me. You asked me to marry you.” Ashley pulled the battered stuffed panda she’d had since infancy from the top of her bed and hugged it. The small room seemed to close in around her, and it was all she could do to not throw herself down on the double bed and sob.
“Wendle believes in me in a way you never have. You sat through my gigs; you never tried to get what my music was about. Wendle does.”
“Oh, Goddess, what kind of woman am I if my boyfriend needs to sleep with men to get satisfaction? What did I do that turned you off women? What did I do that was so awful?” An icy claw seemed to clutch Ashley’s guts.
“It’s not like that. I just need a man. Wendle and I like the same things. I don’t have to listen to him yack about some boring experiment and pretend to care.”
“We’re developing a cure for cancer!”
“So, any scientist could do that.”
“Stan, you have no idea what you’re talking about.” Ashley felt herself trembling all over.
“Look, I’m sorry. I can’t keep lying to you, myself, or Wendle.” Stan refused to look at her.
“Fine, you told me. You should have had the balls to tell me what was going on before you slept with that tramp. Of course you don’t need balls anymore, do you? Mister Fairy Prince.” A wave of anger swept the icy feeling away.
“I’m sorry, Ash. I’m gay, if I’d known sooner I wouldn’t have proposed.”
“Just goes to show what a fool I was to ever care about you!”
“Ash?”
“Only my friends call me Ash!” She clawed the engagement ring off her finger and threw it at him. “You wear it, since you’re Wendle’s wife now!”
Stan closed his eyes and took several deep breaths before speaking. “Look, Wendle and me, it just happened. I’m sorry, but isn’t it better to find out now than ten years from now?”
“Fine, apology accepted. Now get out of my room. I need to have a good cry and I don’t want you to see me do it.”
“I’m sorry.” Stan left the room.
Ashley collapsed onto her double bed and hugged her panda. “Oh, Goddess, I’m so awful, I turned him off women completely. What am I gonna’ do?” she asked the toy.
A long time later there was a knock on the door.
“What?” she called.
“Ash,” replied a distinguished British voice.
Ashley got up and opened her door. “Richard, I was just…”
“Stanley dropped by my office. He seemed rather upset and said you needed a friend.”
“We broke up.” Ashley stared at the floor. “He…He’s been dating Wendle behind my back.”
“Oh my! Stan is…I’m so sorry. I’ll clean my brother’s clock for this.” Richard gently lifted her chin with his finger until she gazed into his eyes. “Don’t think less of yourself. Stanley is a fool!”
Ashley stepped back from the doorway and Richard entered.
“Maybe you should leave the door open. The deans are still pissed at you because of those students.”
“If they can’t accept that I am spending time with a dear friend that is their problem, not mine.” Richard closed the door.
Ashley sat on the corner of her bed and Richard pulled the office chair from its place in front of her desk and sat facing her. He took her small hands in his. “You aren’t alone. I’ll always be here for you.”
Ashley hugged him and let him hold her. She felt safe and secure; something Stanley’s arms had never done for her. She knew she should pull away, but couldn’t bring herself to do it.
‘He’s big brother, he’s big brother. Just keep telling yourself that, Ashley, and maybe someday you’ll believe it. He’s too old. You’re just a kid. Oh shut up brain!’
“Richard?”
“Yes?”
“Don’t let go.”
“Hush. You aren’t alone. This is what friends are for.”
Chapter Seven
We Who Are About To Die
“George signed up,” said Richard.
“George, my brother, you’re kidding? When did he make parole?” Janis looked surprised.
“He didn’t. He joined a prisoner company.”
“A what?” asked Janis. They sat around her coffee-table sipping tea heated on a small camp burner.
“A desperate measure. They allow convicts to form special companies in exchange for having their sentences mitigated. After the Darmuks took a few prisons and slaughtered all the inmates most criminals saw the writing on the wall. They are equipped with a surgical implant that will be detonated, if they desert, and sent to the front. There they at least have a fighting chance.
“Frankly, they are a reprehensible bunch, but with things as they are, one does what one must,” explained Richard.
“George signed up for one of these.”
“Yes. He’s doing extremely well. He earned a battlefield commission and is now a second lieutenant.”
“At least he finally made something of himself. I know it’s extreme, but why haven’t they tried using nuclear missiles?”
“They did, hon.” Zane set his chipped mug down on the coffee table. “They nuked Phoenix. Slowed them down for a couple of weeks. Then they brought in… Richard, what was the name they finally settled on for those damned bugs?”
“Neo-roaches.”
“Got your way again. Anyway, they don’t care about gamma rad. End result, killed all the humans; left the bad guys standing.”
“Gods!”
“That is another problem we face. Every time we come up with a bio-agent that turns the tide of battle, the Darmuks engineer a form that is resistant to it and we are forced back,” added Richard.
“So closing the production and research facilities really is the only hope,” said Janis.
“Yes. We must reach the bio-mind and Ashley.” Richard took a sip of his tea, but before he did both Janis and Zane saw pain cross his face.
“A frontal assault is out. We’ve looked at that possibility. The old embassy is Darmuk headquarters. It’s guarded like Fort Knox,” said Janis.
“We have no choice, perhaps the sewers?”
“Closed up tight and packed with things I don’t even have names for, but they are deadly.”
“Bloody hell!” Richard stood and began pacing the floor. “If a direct assault is out, is infiltration a possibility? That was always my favored plan of attack.”
“The mayor?” said Zane.
“Beloved, he’s nothing but a collaborator. He won’t help us,” said Janis.
“Mayor?” Richard paused, mentally accessing the reports he’d read about Goleta.
“He’s a puppet. Keep the humans in line; report to the Darmuks; see to the day-to-day running of the town. A useless, collaborating coward.”
“Edwin,” growled Richard, his mental review having brought forward the desired information.
“Got her in one, Doc,” said Zane.
A cold smile touched Richard’s lips at the use of the old nickname. He knew Zane was defusing him, distracting the cold rage that boiled up inside when he thought of his old boss.
“Does he have access to the bio-mind?” Richard’s voice was ice and steel.
“He sends in work crews and protean for the Darmuk bio-production facilities.”
“Protean? Oh, Gods, you mean?”
“Victims to be ground up and digested by that thing they use to create their troops.” Janis’s jaw clenched.
“Gods and goddesses all! Work crews though. That is a possibility. That could get us past the perimeter defenses.”
“Richard, Edwin is a collaborator. He won’t do anything without a fight.” Zane picked up the kettle with his left hand and poured hot water into his cup.
“Honey, you have the kettle by the metal part,” warned Janis.
Zane finished pouring and set the kettle back on the burner. A blacked line ran across the palm of his left hand. Small wisps of smoke curled off it.
“Do be more careful, Zane. You may not feel it, but we must keep your cybernetics hidden for this mission,” admonished Richard.
“What he said, be careful. I need you,” added Janis.
Zane stared into her face then kissed her.
“Harrummm.” Richard cleared his throat as the couple on the couch proceeded as if they’d forgotten his presence.
“Sorry, Doc,” said Zane coming up for air.
“Um…Yes. Sorry, Richard.”
“Quite all right. Janis, can you get us in to see the mayor quickly? The assault must be on the night of the eighth. You see the Mother ship’s orbit around the moon will line up for it to do a commutations link at oh one hundred hours on the ninth. That will supply the maximum probability of the virus infecting the mother ship before it destroys the Earth bound Darmuk systems.”
“I think that can be arranged. We have an inside man in his office. Bit of a weasel, will do anything for the right price.”
“What do you suspect his price will be?”
“For something like this. Three tins of beans, maybe four.”
“Whatever happened to gold watches?” said Zane.
“Times change.” Janis took his good hand in both of hers.
“Beans we have,” said Richard disparagingly, as he thought of the stock army supplies in their mess kits. “Arrange the appointment for us. Just Zane and I. If this goes badly I want you clear of it.”
“Now wait just a minute,” she objected.
“He’s right, honey. I won’t be able to think straight with you there. For me, stay clear of this. Please?” asked Zane.
“Oh…All right. For you, but this is my resistance cell, either of you do anything to endanger it, and I’ll kill you myself.”
“Understood. Make the arrangements,” agreed Richard.
Janis moved to the front hall, opened the closet door and pulled on a tattered overcoat. She checked a series of pockets sewn into the lining, pulling out a revolver, two semi-automatic pistols, a Bowie knife, a garrote and a hand-grenade. She returned each to its hiding place after it passed inspection. The men looked on in silence. A smile played across Zane’s face and Richard wore a mask of disbelief. Inspection passed Janis slipped out the back door.
“She is…impressive,” remarked Richard.
“That’s my Janis,” agreed Zane.
“That she is. I cannot regret the past, it led me to Ashley, but I can remember with fondness when Janis was mine. I hope that doesn’t bother you. I would never intrude.”
“Bother me? Doc, I’ve learned you don’t stop loving, you just move on. Hell, in a way I still love Betty. There was a lot of Janis in her. I think that was the part of her I loved. Janis is one hell of a woman.”
“Too true.”
Zane picked up his tea and sipped it as he tried to decide on how to open an old discussion. Finally the direct approach seemed the only way. “We should tell her.”
“We have been over this, Zane. We need her support, if we tell her she may withdraw it.”
“If the underground knows they can at least evacuate some of the humans before the assault.”
“They could tip our hand. Gods and goddesses man, this mission is next to impossible as it stands. If the Darmuks know something is coming, we have no chance at all.
“She should know. Even if she does nothing.”
“What good would that do? It would only include her in the devil’s bargain we face. Let the blood end on our hands, old friend. If you love her, leave her clear of it.”
“I still say she could mitigate the loss of life. Maybe have people prepared to evac at the start of the assault.”
“To what end? If we succeed, a few minutes warning will make no difference.”
“I still say—”
“Major. No! I order you not to tell her.”
“You’re pulling rank on me?”
“Zane, I owe you that much. Enjoy the days and nights you two have left. Don’t ruin them for her with knowledge of what is to be.”
“You would tell, Ashley!”
“I wish I had that decision to make.” Richard hung his head and stared at the floor.
Zane watched him, his anger fading in the face of the man’s loneliness and grief.
“You really love her.”
“With all my heart. I have touched her mind on occasion since the war began. My soul is only complete when I am with her. Do you know what that is like? Of course, if none of this had happened, I would have been worried about the faculty making our ages an issue. Silly that. You know the years pass but inside—”
“Inside you’re still the same. At least deep down. Richard, you know I thought you and Ash were a good thing. The way the two of you looked at each other. She was happier those last few months than I’d ever seen her. Ash is my sister; I wanted what was best for her. She found that in you.”
“Thank you. Perhaps there is a small mercy in this madness. At least we didn’t have to face the facility.”
“Take it from me, Doc, if they said thing one to piss her off, Ash would have eaten them for breakfast. Colonel, let’s end this!”
“For better or worse!”
* * * *
Janis lay in a hollow dug by her basement wall. A piece of heating vent had been shifted so it carried sound from the living room to an old dryer port. She listened to her husbands, current and past, discuss the assault. She had learned through hard experience to trust no one.
She’s gonna’ blow when they kill the bio-mind, thought Janis. Oh, Zane, it’s a suicide mission. I won’t stop you, my love. We have five days. I’ll make them last a lifetime.
Crawling to the ditch’s edge she checked her surroundings then raced to the street. She dropped her gaze to the ground and shuffled along. Just another weary, down-trodden human, tolerated so long as she made a useful slave then protean for the bio-production facility.
Chapter Eight
Revelations
“General, I wish to be transferred,” said Major Joans. He stood by the interface couch. The nurse waited in the corner of the room.”
“What? Why?” General Flanders began pacing the room.
“Sir. I feel like a voyeur. Colonel Green was…Well sir, I happened on an episode during my monitoring. It involved the Colonel with two young women.”
“Lucky bugger!”
“Sir, I was raised to wait until after marriage. It well…Sir, it was difficult enough when it was his wife, but now!”
“Permission denied.”
“Sir?”
“Son, we all have pasts. Treat this as a way of seeing a different style of life.”
“Sir?”
“No! I need this research to go smoothly. I will not jeopardize that because of your prudishness. Now, learn to enjoy it, and get back to work.”
“Yes sir.” The major settled onto the interface couch and gazed at the calendar. “March, sixth twenty-thirty-seven,” he muttered.
* * * *
Upload monitoring/ Richard Green /Index 12:04/ 16/6/2031
* * * *
Richard hid in the tall grass, his heat signature covered by cool mud. His foe moved closer. He bided his time then fired. Red exploded against the general’s camouflage.
Richard stood. “Thanks. I hope this all proves unnecessary. What did you think of their last transmission?”
“Seemed friendly enough.”
“Yes. It would seem friendlier if they’d share some pictures of their home world, or tell us how to tune into their planet’s EM transmissions.”
“I can understand why they might not want to. Let’s face it; we humans aren’t the gentlest of creatures.”
Richard and the general walked towards a shack on the edge of the field.
“Too true. How go the preparations?” asked Richard.
“That’s need-to-know. I’ll only say the admiral seems pleased.”
Richard opened the shack’s door and the two men stepped into its confines. It was dirty and disused. An old tackle box sat on a bench in the corner. The general opened its lid and placed his palm against a screen at its bottom. There was a beep and a section of floor opened revealing a staircase.
“This always amazes me.”
“You’re easily impressed.” The general led the way into the facility.
* * * *
Upload monitoring/ Richard Green /Index 10:04/ 17/6/2031
* * * *
Richard stood at the conference table dressed in a tweed suit, addressing the committee. “The cure works. Senator Williamson has completely recovered.”
“Any side-effects?” demanded the admiral.
“None that I can see.”
“Y’all see. It’s a gift. We should thank them right proper for it too,” said Nancy.
“Richard, could this be used as a weapon?” asked Malcome.
“I think…Frankly, I don’t know. It took me a year to build the thing. If it were reprogrammed, it could produce viruses, but that’s not likely with my model.”
“Why?” demanded the admiral.
“I updated the chip design. That part was easy, it was a lot less trouble than building a custom chip. In short, I don’t know if it could be used as a weapon. I do know we have a cure for cancer. I’d like to start clinical trials and go for FDA approval.”
War of the Worlds 2030 Page 6
