The Genetic Imperative

by P. Joseph Cherubino

  The dome of light followed the group as they walked. The soldiers caught an occasional twinkling on the floor from the corners of their eyes the lightcasters created the dome. They all walked into the echoless, directionless void until a series of shapes suddenly appeared at the dome’s rim. Those shapes revealed themselves to be Commander Olthan and two other soldiers. The numbness faded, and Nina’s sheath almost activated. Her hand moved towards the staff concealed in her robe. One of the giant moving statues fell back two paces from the formation and turned her head and looked directly at Nina. The giant one shook her head “no.” A deeper chill came to the already cold cavern. The Guard seemed to see everything.

  The dome moved forward until it revealed a set of chairs formed from the chamber floor. They were arranged in a semicircle around a raised throne. The Queen climbed the single stair with Talin’s beaten body and sat slowly and carefully. She arranged Talin’s body to rest comfortably on the soft black cushion. She used the mutilated right arm to set the left carefully on the stone armrest. One of her Guard brought a stool and gently placed the wounded leg on it. Nina saw a massive hand give a gentle stroke to Talin’s calf.

  The entire assembly filed down the aisles between the seats. There were fifty Warriors from the egg chamber, twenty-four from Azin’s troop, Olthan and the two others with her. The four soldiers wounded in the brief skirmish sat uncomfortably in the back rows or lay on the floor behind the seats.

  The queen motioned for Nina to sit in the last seat of the front row to the Queen’s right. To Olthan the Queen motioned the opposite. Azin sat in the middle, and the two with Olthan sat beside her. The rest of the row was filled with a mix of Azin’s troop and the dissidents, who seemed not troubled at all by the arrangement The two groups mixed freely during their walk. The Queen waited for the rustling and shifting to end before she spoke.

  The Queen began abruptly.

  “My Daughters disobey me. Now they fight one another. Some of them choose to live apart.

  Should I believe these things are somehow related?

  This trouble between General Olthan and Captain Nina represents these things, and it has gone too far.

  Today I will resolve this. We will hear from the accuser and the accused.

  General Olthan, we will begin with you. Stand, face your sisters and make your claim.”

  Olthan rose eagerly to her feet. She tossed her long, sandy hair over one shoulder and pursed her pale lips. She took three paces from her chair, then turned to the crowd with drilled precision.

  “My claim is simple. Captain Nina of Gaav Generation disobeyed the orders of Orbital Command. Because of her negligence and disobedience on the Third Arm Alpha Warsphere, she compromised a major deployment.

  Her refusal to engage and destroy an Alpha Spore allowed the infection to bloom. Her cowardice is causing needless deaths as we speak. Brave Advocates are now on the Third Arm doing the work Nina Gaav refused to do.”

  Olthan stood for a moment and inspected the crowd before returning to her seat.

  Nina sat patiently awaiting her turn. The Queen allowed the murmuring crowd to settle before calling on Nina, who turned to stand on her chair. Nina scanned the crowd, reading faces. Some looked at her with naked hatred, others looked to her hopefully. Many simply looked on passively. The numbness she felt before became a baseline from which she called certain simple truths.

  “I did refuse to engage the Spore,” Nina said, “Orbital Command abandoned us on Warsphere with no contact, no orders, no support and intelligence I now believe to be lies.”

  Olthan began to object, but one look from the Queen silenced her. A wave of whispering passed through the crowd, and it sounded to Nina like a single question.

  Nina spoke on. “Our pods were compromised before impact. We were scattered. Without Orbital, we were mostly blind, but we regrouped to meet the threat.

  The spore laid a trap for us and sprung that trap. It showed signs of planning, not instinct, but tactics.”

  The questioning murmurs of the crowd became a riotous surf. Shocked voices blurted out expressions of shock. It took some time for the soldiers to “grow quiet again even after the Queen raised her hand.

  “As the ranking officer of that engagement,” Nina continued. “I ordered my army to survive. The original mission no longer existed.

  I ordered my engineers to improvise a transmitter to send an emergency message requesting egress.

  Orbital ordered us to die. When you leave here, ask your sisters who were on the third arm to confirm this.

  I refused the order to die. For that, I am guilty of disobedience.

  The Warsphere army of The Third arm was guilty of nothing but survival. They followed my orders in the complete absence of Orbital command.

  They are guilty of nothing and deserving of everything.”

  Nina stared out across that small sea of faces. None were impassive then. She recognized expressions of disbelief, anger and judgment. Whether or not those expressions favored her, she could not know. They would believe what they wanted to believe. Nina would accept the Queen’s judgment not for lack of choice, but because she no longer cared.

  Nina saw the futility of her life in that moment. She saw that she would die by the hand of the Queen, whether she followed orders or not. If ordered to fight, she would fight. There could be no true choice for her in that. But she discovered on the third arm that fighting to live was the only true choice she could make. Survival became her duty then. She sat back down and folded her arms across her chest.

  The crowd murmured to itself in the echoless chamber. The sound cascaded, then rose and fell back and forth from one end of the audience to the other as the testimony was discussed and argued. The Queen sat listening. It was apparent she saw them all without eyes. Olthan sat staring straight ahead, obviously seething. Azin and Nina cast wary looks at each other across the row of soldiers. When the Queen finally spoke, it shocked them all into silence.

  “Daughters, it is true. The Enemy has changed,” the Queen said, “The Battle of the Third Arm confirms this.”

  The crowd did not murmur or rustle. They all sat in complete silence. To a Warrior, they were shocked beyond words.

  “General Olthan broke contact with the Warsphere Army on my order.

  She did not order that army to die, but the results would have been the same. General Olthan had a difficult order to obey, and Captain Nina had a difficult situation to survive.

  When faced with impossible choices, both soldiers behaved with honor. Nina is guilty of insubordination only in her approach to this problem, and not in its result.

  The difficulties we now face on the Third Arm are not the result of individual action. Nina is not to blame for the situation there. General Olthan and Captain Nina are fine soldiers who honor us all with their service.

  General Olthan will continue to serve in my Orbital Fleet, and Captain Nina Gaav will remain in my custody, as will Commander Azin and the soldiers Nayar and Osae.”

  The queen gestured to the two soldiers by Olthan’s side, said, “Know also that I will not accept conflict between my daughters.

  You are granted the privilege to live as you choose while on Homesphere, as long as it remains in keeping with our purpose.

  But you will obey me.

  The reasons I give for my orders are my own. I will reveal to you that our Enemy has changed, and you will believe me when I tell you that I will find out why. This will happen through your obedience. There is no other way.

  We will go on. We are the protectors of Sentient Life. This is our purpose. To deny that is to deny life itself.

  There were none like us before, and there shall be none like us after our ultimate victory against the Silicoid threat.

  General Olthan, you will remain for an audience with me. The rest of you will return to our purpose. Go.”

  And with a wave of Talin’s right arm, the Queen dismissed them. The crowd rose to its feet and cheered, all except Nina. She
sat and stared at the ruined face of her dear friend and wondered if Talin was still alive. This thing calling itself her Queen used Talin’s body like a puppet. The guard fanned out around the throne platform. Two moved forward. One by Nina and the other by Olthan. Two more guard walked down the sides of the crowd and lead it away back into the void towards the train. The Queen pointed Talin’s face directly at Nina as the crowd dissolved. General Zebrak took a long look at Nina with a deeply furrowed brow, then turned away with the others. Another dome of light followed the crowd, and then faded away into the darkness. Five soldiers and the Guard remained.

  Chapter 15: Earth, Maryland, The Dignitary

  Lieutenant Arnold Triska was silent as he and Sergeant Skeates climbed into the black Chevy Suburban and rolled back down the long driveway through the woods. Almost twenty-four hours had gone by since Arnold arrived at that place, but the time seemed so much greater. The world looked different today as the farm fields passed by the passenger window. The sky was growing cloudy and seemed to promise rain. There were no animals in the fields this time. Mike drove out of the Agricultural Center and onto a two-lane state road.

  “There’s a wholesale club down the road a bit,” Mike said, “What we usually do is get a bunch of food for the early onslaught—lots of pre-made hamburgers, chicken, bagged salad, some fruit, bread and chips and drinks—that kind of thing.

  Sergeant Nichols is probably dragging out the grills as we speak. We usually set some Corporals up on grill duty while security sets up perimeters. Everybody eats when they can.

  The bulk of the Unit will come with their supplies. This is a pretty major event, so I’m guessing we’ll have close to a hundred on hand.

  They’ll probably bring in tents and trailers and camp out in the field around the house. Our supply run will hold us for the first day; then it's C-rations all around.”

  Mike paused in his monolog and looked over at Arnold. He had seen the look on the Lieutenant’s face quite a few times before. The man beside him was struggling with reality. Right about now, Mike thought, the Lieutenant would be mulling over what he should believe and how he should do so.

  Lieutenant Triska turned to Mike with a wry smile, said, “I could eat,” with a wry smile.

  “That’s a good thing,” Mike replied. He was grateful to see signs of life from the Lieutenant.

  “And it’s good to know how to prepare a cookout for space aliens,” the Lieutenant Triska added. “What do these little green men eat anyway? Do their antennae get in the potato salad?”

  For once, Mike tried not to laugh. He decided to play it straight in case the Lieutenant was about to become hysterical. He had seen it play out that way before. Sometimes new Unit members would start making jokes, then run off the rails to incoherence.

  “Not usually, Lieutenant Triska, but then again, I’ve never met any with antennas.

  The ones I’ve met are gray or colored more in, like, Earth tones,” Mike replied

  The wholesale club was moderately crowded on this weekday early afternoon. The store was set back from a long main drag of strip malls on the edge of an industrial center. They passed a paint manufacturer with tanker trucks idling outside and row after row of warehouse-style businesses ranging from caterers to plumbing contractors. All of this was just five kilometers or less away from their little station in the woods. As they got out of the SUV, Arnold thought to himself that all these people going about their business had no idea about the true nature of their planet. Mike looked at him as if he could read his mind.

  “Yeah. Surreal, isn’t it? LT, it will take a while, but you will adjust,” Sergeant Skeates said. The two went shopping.

  They filled two carts with nearly two thousand dollars’ worth of food and beverages. As they packed the SUV full, Arnold silently questioned the amounts.

  “Don’t worry, LT, it will go fast,” Mike said, picking up on the look.

  “Sergeant Skeates, does this Unit provide you with some kind of psychic ability or am I just transparent?” Arnold said, slamming the tailgate a bit harder than he intended.

  “Sorry LT, I’m just good reading people.”

  “Yes, you are,” Arnold agreed. They finished packing and headed back to the station. It was just past two.

  “I guess there could be worse people crawling around in my head,” the Lieutenant added as he climbed into the passenger seat again.

  When the two returned, everyone pitched in to lay in the supplies. The refrigerator was packed, and the cabinets were crammed with food. It was after three when they finished.

  Lieutenant Conteh said, “Looks like we have another hour or so. The first Unit elements are delayed until around five thirty.

  I will still go meet the local authorities and make sure the road is closed properly, but you three are free to rest up until then.”

  Lieutenant Conteh left through the front door. An engine started outside as they wandered back out into the living room. Mike and Andre took their respective couches and Arnold kicked back into the easy chair. They were all snoring lightly within minutes.

  Arnold woke to the sound to the sound of the front door opening. They all stirred from their cat naps. A quick check of his watch told Arnold it was just after five. They found Lieutenant Conteh in the foyer with a large laptop bag in her hand.

  “Things look good. Both ends of the road leading up to our driveway are sealed. Traffic is light through the Center.” Otemah said, and moved into the living room to unpack her bag.

  On the table, she set up a large laptop and powered it on. Beside it, she set some other equipment Arnold didn’t recognize and attached it to the computer with USB cables. The other two Sergeants stood for a moment before the Lieutenant spoke.

  “Sergeants, let’s get the rest of our monitoring equipment set up here. I want to stake our claim on the living room,” she said, with a slightly wry smile.

  “Understood,” Mike replied, and the two Sergeants set to their task.

  “Lieutenant, have a look at this please,” Conteh said.

  “This is a heavily encrypted laptop. I have connected to it this box here.”

  Conteh indicated the instrument plugged into the laptop. It was a generic-looking brushed aluminum cube of about thirty centimeters.

  “This is a receiver for the many sensors we have out in the woods. There is a fairly complex network out there, including pressure sensors, infrared, sound and a few that are a bit more exotic—supplied to us by our friends. The technology is all integrated.”

  Arnold looked at the screen and saw several black console windows open and displaying long streams of numbers and log messages. Two program windows were open and displayed a colorful histogram and a line graph respectively.

  “This station is just for the sensors themselves. It will give us a baseline for sensor readings and flag any triggers that might get tripped. The Sergeants will set up the actual monitors, two other laptops like this that can display actual sensor images and results.

  All the stations have interchangeable roles. I can monitor from this one as well, but this station I have set up as the master for now. It’s redundant, of course. If it goes down, the other can quickly take its place.”

  Arnold took it all in as Sergeants Skeates, and Nichols set up their stations and linked them to the main Unit through network cables plugged into the central monitor. They conferred with one another efficiently as they checked their instruments.

  “I’ll take a pass through the inner perimeter so you can check the sensors. Does that sound good, Lieutenant Conteh?” Mike said.

  “Took the words right out of my mouth,” Lieutenant Conteh said, without looking up from her screen. Mike left for his task and Arnold stepped out on the front porch.

  A sudden breeze caught him off guard. He turned in its direction towards the sound of rustling leaves that suddenly turned to a wild shifting of branches and a powerful wind. He looked up and saw his very first silent, black helicopter. It came in fast just abov
e the tree line and swooped down into the field just thirty meters from the house.

  It was a Blackhawk, like many he had flown in before, only this one was only announced by the wind it produced. Several unfamiliar structures bulged from the craft that Arnold assumed must be the sound-canceling devices. Two long cylinders were attached to helicopter's belly and from his perspective, he could see two additional bulging housings on the side facing him. One was mounted near the front of the craft on the engine cowling and the other near the rear where the body began to narrow into its tail. The two structures on top had slots on either end and resembled loudspeakers of some kind.

  The helicopter hovered half a meter from the ground for a moment, and its door flew open. Two fully armed and equipped soldiers in helmets with black visors and black fatigues jumped out and fell to one knee, scanning the area with their rifles. One of them spotted Arnold on the porch and held his rifle on him while the other soldier continued to scan. Two more soldiers jumped down and ran a few paces out and also took a knee facing outward with their rifles. He could see that both doors were open and an equal number of soldiers deployed on the opposite side.

  A moment later, two other soldiers hopped down carrying a long crate between them. They ran forward, dropped the green plastic crate, then turned back to retrieve two more. They closed both doors, made a gesture to the pilot and the helicopter shot nearly straight up into the low cloud cover and disappeared. There was only the sound of rushing wind as it few. That left a circle of eight fully armed soldiers arranged in a deadly circle with two soldiers standing in the center.

  “There’s the other section of our team,” Lieutenant Conteh said over Arnold’s shoulder. She waved at the arriving soldiers and one of those standing waved back.

  “It’s overkill,” Lieutenant Conteh said, “but this is procedure. Looks awfully dramatic. That will be the rest of our security gear.”

  “Should I help with the crates?” Arnold asked.

  “I wouldn’t. They haven’t confirmed who you are yet.”