by Jay Korza
Bruce’s first mistake was to attack the twins today. His second was to allow Jenarah to get up off the ground. “C’mon, you stupid bitch. Stand up!” Bruce taunted.
Jenarah stood, closed her eyes and looked up towards the top of her eye sockets. Even blind, this exercise had the same effect on her as it did most humanoids: it put her mind into a delta wave pattern and helped to relax her. Almost instantly, the emotional images she received from her brother expanded and became even clearer to her.
Jenarah heard Bruce cock his arm back and simultaneously saw his emotional form perform the same action. The swing came but Jenarah dodged it and snuck a jab into Bruce’s nose. The jab rewarded Jenarah with a satisfying crunch and a sticky wet feeling of blood on her fist.
Jenarah didn’t wait for the other bullies to attack. She waded into their encircling mob and lashed out at the closest target. A well-placed roundhouse kick took out the next kid, followed by two punches in rapid succession to another bully.
Jenarah felt a punch to her back and she flowed with it as much as she could to absorb some of its kinetic energy. Through her brother’s eyes she had seen it coming, but she was too busy throwing her second punch at the other kid to block or dodge the incoming attack. But at least with the foreknowledge that the punch was coming, she was able to mitigate some of its impacting force; it still hurt quite a bit but it was much less than what it would have been if she had taken it straight on.
Jenarah was about to turn around and face her attacker when she suddenly became dizzy and nauseous. Her new emotional vision blurred and moved; she lost balance and fell to the ground.
It took her a second to figure out what happened. Her brother was free from his subduers and ran towards the kid who had just punched Jenarah in the back.
As Kuruk ran, his vision moved with him and that movement was relayed to Jenarah. The jarring images were too much for her brain to deal with, and it decided it had had enough. Jenarah collapsed and vomited her lunch and whatever breakfast was leftover in her stomach.
Kuruk tackled the kid who had punched his sister in the back; the two boys went down with a flurry of obscenities between them, along with a few elbow strikes. Kuruk reared back to strike the kid he now straddled when he felt a strong hand grasp his biceps.
“Let go of me!” Kuruk whirled around to face the bully’s savior. It was one of the Marines he had seen earlier talking to the teacher.
“You won, kid.” The Marine let go of Kuruk’s arm and stepped back.
“This is not any of your business.” Kuruk stood up to face the adult. “Did you see what they did to my sister? My blind sister!”
The three marines looked at each other with thinly veiled amazement. “Your sister is blind?” the gunnery sergeant asked.
“Yes, I am.” Jenarah had finished retching and worked to stand up, with some help from Nightingale.
Kuruk walked over to his sister and fussed over her wounds. He had his back to the marines when the sergeant next spoke. “Have you two ever thought about joining the Coalition Marines?”
“Fuck you.” Kuruk spat blood on the ground to emphasize his statement.
“You heard that?” Jenarah grabbed her brother’s face in her hands. She still caught glimpses of her emotional vision through her brother and was able to see herself as a warm, dazzling, and almost overpowering loving emotion.
“I, I…” He stammered. “I don’t know. It’s more like I felt what he said. I could sense that you hated the words that he spoke and it had something to do with the Coalition. I just said what felt right to the emotion.”
“Don’t tell me your brother is deaf,” the sergeant said unbelievingly.
“Yes, I am.” Kuruk wasn’t sure how this new sense worked, or if he even responded appropriately, but it felt right to him.
“Well, if you two change your mind, we’re always hiring.” The sergeant motioned to his cadre and they all walked off together. The sergeant paused a few meters away and added over his shoulder, “I should’ve let you hit that kid a few more times. I’m sorry.”
Jenarah, Kuruk, and Nightingale walked off the field and left school early that day. They went back to the twins’ home and were promptly doted on by the multitude of servants the family had at their disposal.
Among the hired help was one of the twins’ best friends, the chief of security for the household.
“What does the other guy look like?” Musha asked as he tended to Kuruk’s knuckles.
“Guy-S, plural.” Jenarah slurred as the nanny fussed with her to keep still so she could apply the tissue sealant. “And they look a lot worse, thanks to your training.”
“Guys, huh? I hope you at least broke something on one of them.”
“I’m pretty sure sis broke the main dude’s nose. Maybe even a rib on another one.”
“You let your sister take them all on by herself?” Musha teased.
“They were holding me down, two of them.” Kuruk defended himself.
“Hey, buddy, I was just joking. I know you wouldn’t let anything happen to your sister on purpose.”
Even though Jenarah was blind, she often looked at her brother, not just the direction he was in, but right at him as though she could see him. He was the only person she did this with; it was as though she could always sense exactly where he was in the room. And now the twins looked at each other in a way that Musha had not seen before.
“What are you two hiding? What happened?” Musha eyed them both suspiciously.
The twins proceeded to tell their friend everything. Or at least everything they knew. There were still plenty of things they didn’t understand themselves.
“I’ve never heard of anything like this.” Musha rubbed his hand across his crest. “But I think we should put some time into exploring it further to see just what you two can do.”
The twins smiled, and not for the first time wished Musha was their dad instead of their chief of security.
The next morning started earlier than normal. Musha wanted to get the twins into the gym before school so they could work on this new thing they had between them.
Kuruk was up first. He went to his sister’s room and gently shook her awake. “Hey, sis.”
“What’s on your mind?” Jenarah wasn’t even fully awake yet but she felt her brother had something to say.
Kuruk chewed his lip a little. “I’m in.”
“Huh?”
“Whatever you want to do after we graduate. I’m in. Science classes, geek things—anything is fine with me.”
Jenarah laughed. “I was going to tell you the same thing about joining the Grethnar militia.” She rubbed her crest back and forth across his. “But I don’t think we have to choose one or the other. After what happened yesterday, I think we can do anything we put our minds to.”
Chapter 7
Three days of fighting and Wilks could only claim twenty percent of the station belonged to his team. He wasn’t sure how many warriors were left on the station or how much territory they actually occupied, but he had hoped to have had better results than this by now.
“Yes, ma’am. We’ll meet up in the mechanics’ barracks in section EE24 as planned.” Wilks had just finished his tactical update to Emily. “As long as we don’t run into any more setbacks,” he amended.
Emily laughed at his all too true comment. “I hear that, Gunny. We’ve both had our fair share of surprises this mission. Our rendezvous may be three days late, but at least we’re almost there. Be safe, Wilks. Riley out.”
Emily looked to Daria. “Are we still receiving vital signs from Schneps?”
“Yes. Also, his position hasn’t moved since after his capture.” Daria sent her visor’s map view to Emily’s.
Emily viewed the map and saw Schneps’ locator beacon blink inside the confines of the station’s secondary command module, directly adjacent to the mechanics’ barracks in section EE24. “I just hope they don’t put him in a torture tube before we can rescue him.”
“Actually,” Daria began, “we would be lucky if they did. The tubes stabilize their victims before beginning the torture. If they put him in one, it would give him the surgery he needs and let him recuperate. He might get tortured a little before we rescue him, but at least he’d be alive and fixed.”
“I guess. I just don’t like the idea of my people getting tortured.”
“Understood.”
“Okay, let’s finish up with this terminal and get moving again.” Emily dove back into going through the internal security feeds that were still up and running.
Stroth tapped a few commands on the terminal next to Emily and then inserted a portable data storage device. Emily gave him a quizzical look. “I have been given instructions from the Detrill emperor to retrieve sensitive data files and then upload a worm virus that will eat the data cores after they receive the activation codes. A last-resort option if we fail to secure the station.”
“The warriors have had plenty of time to mine your data cores for every byte of data they contain.”
“True, they have had plenty of time.” Stroth then pulled up a security menu system that had a firewall schematic. “You can see that although they have had time, they haven’t had the skill. They are only forty percent through our security protocols. As long as they have not penetrated our security, we would rather not destroy the data cores if we do not have to. That would set back this station’s progress by several years.”
“Why wouldn’t you be able to just reload the data?” Bloom joined the conversation.
“Our off-site data backup would be intact, but the virus I’m implanting doesn’t just destroy the data; it causes physical destruction to the cores themselves. It would take years to replace every single core and data node on this station. But if it comes to that, we can’t risk them being able to retrieve data from the cores even if we think that data is destroyed.”
“That makes sense. You never know what ghost traces of data can be left in a system even after a thorough wipe. Especially a system of this size.” Bloom wanted a copy of the Detrill worm just out of professional curiosity, but he didn’t bother to ask. He didn’t want to put Stroth in an awkward position to have to say no.
“How long is that going to take you?” Stroth wasn’t a Coalition soldier, so he didn’t need her permission to carry out his government’s orders. But he was a member of her team and she didn’t like that he hadn’t asked whether he could take the time to complete his side-mission.
Stroth must have sensed that Emily was perturbed. “I apologize, Captain. I should have asked if you felt we had time for this process. But I will be done in less than three minutes.”
“Thank you, Lieutenant. Let me know if anything with that timeline changes.” Emily motioned for Bloom to join her as she walked towards Jeeves.
“Captain.” Jeeves acknowledged his commanding officer without pausing his repair efforts. “I assume you are checking up on my status.”
“You are correct. How are you feeling?”
This caused Jeeves to stop and look to Emily. “Feel? I find that an odd question. You are not usually prone to such grammatical errors. That is one of the traits I like most about you.”
Emily smiled. “Thank you for the compliment, Jeeves. But I did not speak in error. I want to know how you are feeling. Then I was going to ask how your repairs are coming along. They are two very different things.”
Bloom felt an odd sense of pride as Emily validated Jeeves’ as more than just an automaton. “Now she’s paying you a compliment, buddy.”
Jeeves had a habit of cocking his head sideways when he tried to mimic the human gesture for being quizzical. It never came out correctly and looked more like he had a mechanical head seizure of sorts.
“I appreciate your gesture, Captain.” Jeeves went back to work on himself. “I am fine. Mechanically, I am having trouble repairing my latest injuries from our last encounter with the warriors.”
Emily raised her eyebrow at Bloom when Jeeves used the word injuries as opposed to damage. “Is there anything we can do to help?”
“I’ve tried to help him,” Bloom started, “but he’s at a point now that there just isn’t room for both of us to work on the affected system. His shield regeneration unit and supplemental power plant are in a confined space within the chassis.”
“Bloom is correct. If I determine that I require his assistance, I will not hesitate to ask.”
“Okay. We will be moving out in less than two minutes. Finish what you can but be ready to move out with the rest of us.”
“Yes, Captain.” Jeeves moved with a little more sense of urgency, but being the epitome of a perfectionist only allowed him to move so fast before his quality assurance subroutine kicked in and forced him to stop increasing the speed of his repair efforts. “Damn software,” he muttered to himself.
Bloom shrugged his shoulders to Emily. I have no idea where that came from. The two just turned and walked away to check on the rest of the team.
~
Wilks disengaged his commlink with Captain Riley and turned to his team. “The plan is finally holding up.” He waited for his team to stop snickering at the comment. “So far, almost nothing has gone as planned since we landed here, but we’ve been winning at every turn so we can’t complain too much.
“We should reach the mechanics’ barracks in twenty minutes, barring any further resistance. Scan has been going over the station maps so I’ll let him finish up.”
Scan stood. “If we were just walking to the barracks, we could be there in a few minutes. But with the warriors present, we obviously can’t just stroll down the hallway. I’ve picked a route that isn’t the most direct but it will give us better cover and fewer areas to clear as we move. Even if it takes us an hour to get there, we’ll still beat the other team so there’s no rush. Look for traps and choke points along the way. Any questions?”
When there weren’t any, Major Telfer stepped forward. “As Gunnery Sergeant Wilks said, we’ve been winning at every turn. But we need to acknowledge that the warriors have been a formidable enemy, an enemy’s whose abilities are to be respected. We learn less from victory than we do from defeat, and it can also make us complacent when fighting those we have defeated before.”
Wilks waited a moment, thinking Telfer was going to add something uplifting or encouraging to her pre-battle speech. When she didn’t, he added, “The major is correct. Don’t forget their strengths; exploit their weaknesses. Start thinking of new engagement strategies, because they are learning from their failures. We can’t keep doing the same things to win. I’ll give a week of leave to the soldier who comes up with the most creative engagement strategy during this mission.”
A round of hoots and hollers sounded before Wilks put his hands up to silence everyone. “I shouldn’t have to add this but I will: it also has to work.” A few playful groans were given but he could tell that his team was already working in their own heads to come up with something new and creative.
Wilks looked to Major Telfer and for the first time since the start of the mission, her face showed emotion. Unfortunately, it didn’t look like a positive emotion. The major was just an observer from the Nortes government and Wilks was in command of the team, so he hadn’t usurped her authority in any way. But she still wasn’t happy and Wilks really couldn’t think of a reason she would be upset. He started to think that his chance of a post-mission drink with Telfer was never going to happen.
“Scan, you’re on point. Move us out.” Wilks fell in to the middle of the squad as they headed out.
~
It took Wilks’ team forty minutes to arrive at and secure the mechanics’ barracks. Emily’s team arrived a short time later and professional rejoicing abounded. For combat shooters, that meant the slapping of backs and good-natured verbal abuse among friends.
Emily didn’t waste time before she got into her planned briefing. “With the battles that both teams have had so far, the warriors have landed a
t least ten times the amount of soldiers we initially projected they would have for a target this size. Keeping that conservative number in mind, we probably have two or three hundred more warriors on this station.”
“Bloom, what can you get from the station’s security system?” Wilks was glad to have his team whole again.
“Not much,” he admitted. “Stroth can give you a better accounting than I can since it’s a Detrill system.”
Stroth took his cue. “I can access the system with the override codes I was given, but that has not helped much. They have damaged security sensors in a lot of the station’s areas. Based on the damage and subsequent blind spots in the system, we can make logical assumptions as to where the bulk of their forces are.”
“What’s on your mind, Doc?” Wilks could tell Daria mulled something over.
“What? Oh, yeah, okay.” Daria hadn’t realized she was that zoned out as she thought of her own solution to the problem. “Let’s look at this from a point of view other than security. Stroth, can you access the environmental controls for the station?”
“Yes, I suppose I can.”
“Then let’s just look for the areas that are performing more environmental tasks such as air recycling, lighting, and water use.”
Stroth walked over to a nearby terminal and entered his override code. “I can also check the maintenance power logs to see which hatches are drawing more power because they are opening and closing more.”
Stroth worked on the terminal but he updated the team as the information scrolled by. “The secondary command module has been recycling air without pausing since the overtaking of the station. We assumed they would be there because the command module would give them access to the information they are interested in. With this information and knowing that Schneps was taken there, I think it is safe to assume that would be a good place to start our next offensive.”
