Chronicles of the Stellar Corps: Sassy

by Bernard Paul Glover

  “I’m still concerned. I heard Nanny Rita calling her ‘Sassy Sarah’ the other day. She said it in an endearing manner, but it’s the idea that she sees her that way. You know how much Rita loves Sarah, if she sees this in her…” Mary let the thought trail off.

  “Love, I still think that you are worrying for nothing. Our ‘Sassy Sarah’ is a very good little girl, of that I’m positive! I am also positive that this streak in her nature will not change that. Eventually it may even help her to stand up for herself out in the world. We are citizens of the galaxy now. Anyone who can stand up for themselves will do well.” The discussion went on for only a short time. The result saw “Sassy Sarah” officially join her brother in martial arts classes.

  That fall she also started school at St. Anthony’s Academy. Her intake interview and assessment saw her jump past the usual pre-school and start first grade. Sarah excelled in her academics. She devoured the material and looked for more. By Christmas break the school was talking about having her skip second grade in the fall and go directly to the third. To that end, she was given extra material to ensure that she would be ready. Sarah gave many hours of her summer vacation to that endeavour.

  Another area in which she continued to excel was her proclivity to be outspoken. Very soon her nickname of “Sassy Sarah” devolved simply to “Sassy”, only her mother still called her “Sarah”. Sassy didn’t mind her new name at all. She thought it was great.

  Her new name notwithstanding, Sarah continued to thrive in all environments. To her mother’s relief and pleasure, her new name and reputation didn’t affect the girl that she really was.

  As well as becoming the youngest martial arts champion in her weight and age class, she was given permission to compete with the older children, where she was also successful. By her tenth birthday Sensei Hikaro was calling her the youngest ninja in history.

  Academically she dove into her schoolwork with an ever greater passion. If it wasn’t for her ability to make friends so readily, Francis and Mary would have been worried by the amount of time Sarah spent with her books. The school had no choice but to allow her to advance as quickly as she was able. By the age of ten she was already beginning grade ten – as far as Sarah was concerned, she thought that it was only natural. She was also an altar server at the friary church of Saint Francis of Assisi on 31st Avenue, and an active member of their youth outreach project, and in the drama club at St. Anthony’s High School. Contrary to Mary Maloney’s earlier concerns, Sassy was indeed a very good girl.

  Then, when Sarah turned eleven, Mary felt that her children were both old enough that she was now able to do more in the community. She accepted an invitation to work with the group that brought front-line medical care to the enclaves and the scavengers in the zone. It was one of the few outreach initiatives provided by the populations of Manhattan and Queens to try and reduce the violence in the lives of the zoners, by beginning to re-establish some basic social services in areas where they were most needed. They hoped that this would be a first step in re-establishing a normal community in the borough of Brooklyn.

  One day and one evening a week a medical unit would drive into Queens accompanied by a brigade from the National Guard group that oversaw the security along the Queens border wall. The MMC along with their escort would pass through one of the gates that went from Queens into Brooklyn, visiting the enclaves and picking up zoners in need of medical aid who waited at designated stops.

  Apart from the entrances to the enclaves, these stops were usually in open fields or areas where the buildings had been leveled by the blast, so that there was no place for the gangs to hide in ambush. That didn’t totally prevent the more aggressive zoner gangs, like the Eaters, from attempting long range attacks.

  It was more common, though, that one or the other of the gangs would get creative; dreaming up mobile barriers. These were devices that could be pushed into the path of the MMC as it wended its way through narrower routes in the zone, making their way from one enclave to another.

  The MMCs always varied their route to avoid getting ambushed for their drugs and any equipment that could be sold on the underground market.

  As one might expect MMCs were understandably large, articulated vehicles, and couldn’t go just anywhere. If the gangs got creative enough they were able to set up an effective roadblock. That was when the Guard went into action. Most often they could repel the assaults, but that usually aborted the MMCs mission for that day.

  Sometimes the gangs won. In those cases the medical staff simply gave their assailants whatever they wanted, and they were usually released. If they were lucky, they might make it to the nearest enclave without further harm. The more aggressive gangs, like the Eaters, tended to be a great deal bloodier.

  Dr. Mary Maloney was preparing for her regular evening tour on the MMC when the eleven-year-old Sarah came into her room. She was dressed in her black ninja gi and carrying her nunchaku. On her belt was a pouch in which she stored her shuriken, the ninja’s throwing stars. “Mom, I don’t want you going out by yourself tonight,” she announced. “So I’m going with you. I’ll protect you if the gangs try anything!” She had that look on her face that she got when saying “no” was not an acceptable response. Despite that, her mother said just that.

  “Sorry, Sassy…” Even Mary had finally fallen into the habit of calling her daughter that. “…I appreciate that you’re worried, but I have a squad of Guardsmen, and all the other doctors, nurses and medics with me. I’ll be fine.”

  “Yes you will, if I’m there to protect you.” Sarah insisted. She was not going to let it go. “They say that the gangs have been really bad in the past two weeks. Mom, I’m afraid, I don’t want you getting hurt. I gotta come with you, I gotta!”

  “I’ll be fine, honest, sweetheart,” her mother insisted, as she strapped on her protective gear, but Sarah was not mollified. She left the room muttering to herself “I gotta go. I gotta protect you!” She was not at all happy. She returned to her own room and closed the door. She almost never did that.

  Dr. Maloney didn’t like leaving things like that, but she had to hurry if she was going to make the connection with her team. The MMCs needed to keep strict schedules in their departures if they were going to have the flexibility that was needed once they crossed the Brooklyn Bridge.

  Once ready, Mary headed for the family’s private elevator to the garage, where their driver awaited her. As she passed, she knocked on Sarah’s door. Sarah didn’t answer. Mary knew how stubborn her daughter could be. She knocked again, and called through the door. “Sassy, honey, please come say good-bye…” Again, there was no response.

  Mary could have just walked in, but she wanted to protect her daughter’s idea that the closed door imparted to her some sort of sanctuary. Also, another confrontation with Sarah would take more time than she really had. Her team was waiting. “Okay, Sassy, suit yourself,” she called through the door, “I’ll see you in the morning.” She rushed off to the elevator.

  Sarah was uppermost in her thoughts as she pressed the call button. As the doors opened she turned back towards her daughter’s room. She didn’t have the time. She had to tear herself away. She promised herself that she would call Sarah before the MMC crossed the bridge. Walter, the family chauffer, was waiting with the travelpod door open when she arrived in the garage.

  “All set to go, Doctor.” Mary entered the pod, almost without acknowledging him. As he was closing the door he added, “Oh and my apologies, ma’am, I think that I forgot to send the lift back up as you requested.”

  Absentmindedly Mary responded, “No, you didn’t. It was waiting there.” Walter simply nodded and closed the door. He slipped into his seat behind the wheel and they were off. As the pod slipped out of its cradle Mary had the impression that something was amiss with what she was seeing in the garage. She just couldn’t focus on it enough to realize that she had missed seeing Sarah’s bicycle in its rack.

  The MMC stood waiting as Mary Ma
loney’s pod slipped into her assigned cradle at New Belleview. Her team had just finished loading the last of the supplies as she approached. “Good thing that you’re on time,” Dr. Glazer commented. “The vehicle was held up at munitions. They were installing some new anti-barrier/anti-personnel devices; a projectile device of some sort, combined with a shock mechanism. It’s so new that they don’t even guarantee that it will work. I just hope that we don’t have to be the testers tonight. “

  “You know Bill,” Mary said, “I wonder sometimes if the powers-that-be aren’t providing the vehicle and the Guardsmen like bait for the more violent gangs; to draw them out so that they can be captured or killed.”

  Bill Glazer shrugged. “All I know is that we get to do some good work, and save a number of lives. We are needed in the zone, Mary. I certainly hope that you’re wrong, but just so long as I can do what I do, I’m in for the duration.”

  “Bill, you are a modern-day hero. You know that, don’t you?” Mary told her colleague.

  The team had just finished verifying their medical equipment as they reached the Brooklyn Bridge. Mary remembered that she promised herself that she would call Sarah. She reached for her phone as the MMC cleared the approach to the bridge. She rang the house and Peter answered.

  “She won’t answer me when I call her,” he told his mother. “Should I go into her room and get her?”

  Again, Mary rejected that option. If Sarah was going to be stubborn, having her brother violate her privacy would have only made the situation worse. Mary could wait until the morning to address the issue with her daughter. This promised to be just another routine night. She’d be home before 1:00 AM, and Mary was sure that Sarah would be waiting for her. She was certain that her daughter would want to know that she was alright.

  Around 7:00 PM they arrived at their first appointment in the Owls Head Park enclave. Mrs. Gutiérrez was in her final trimester, and was expecting twins. There was every possibility that they could come early. The team’s obstetrician wanted to check on her. It was a good thing, too, as what started as a false labour suddenly turned real. By 9:00 PM there were two beautiful little boys in the Gutierez household. Fortunately, they were developed enough not to require incubators. The MMC was back on its route by 9:20.

  They were heading north east on 4th Avenue passing through one of the wasteland areas, when the attack came. Near the old Basilica of Our Mother of Perpetual Help, local volunteer workers had begun a new reclamation project on the road to the Sunset Park enclave. In their enthusiasm, the reclamation crews had ignored the security protocols. Large piles of debris had been created by the clean-up crew along both sides of the street.

  As the convoy reached the corner of 60th there was an explosion on either side of the street that caused an avalanche of bricks to rain down between the MMC and its forward personnel carrier. The cascade of debris in front was immediately followed by an assault from behind on the rear guard. From the noise outside, the medical team deduced that the forces in front were also being attacked. A brick was thrown at the front window of the MMC. It didn’t even crack the translux steel.

  Three things then happened almost simultaneously. The first was the sound of someone trying to pry his or her way in through the main door using some sort of industrial grade device like the famous “Jaws of Life”. Concurrently a gang member attached a small explosive charge to the front window. As the blast cracked the translux steel pane, the door of the rearward storage cupboard burst open. A tiny figure clothed completely in black bounded out. As her feet hit the floor the tiny ninja drew the nunchaku from the back of her belt. At that moment Sarah Maloney was not an eleven-year-old child, but a trained ninja warrior ready to fight for her mother.

  Mary Maloney was horrified, almost paralyzed with fear for her daughter. It was then that the hinges on the door gave way and the attackers were able to open a space wide enough to allow one person at a time to squeeze through. Bill Glazer had already started on countermeasures. He opened the drug locker and was loading the hypo-sprays with strong, fast acting sedatives, but he was not the first person to respond to the threat as a large Eater warrior pushed his way through the opening.

  Everyone in the MMC recognized the gang colours. Eaters were one of the most feared gangs in the zone. Bill rushed forward with the hypo, hoping to dodge his attack long enough to hit him with a near-lethal dose of the drug. He didn’t reach him first.

  From behind him a steak of black vaulted through the air, nunchaku flying. Sarah’s first blow struck the attacker on the side of the head with a deafening crack. This positioned his head for her second blow behind his left ear. The intruder crumpled, hanging in the door with half of his body still on the outside of the opening. The unconscious Eater effectively blocked entry for anyone else.

  Sarah’s assault jarred everyone else out of their fear-induced paralysis. Everyone grabbed for something, anything, that could be used as a weapon until Mary could open the weapons locker.

  Next, the front window was breached. As the first two Eaters forced their way in, Sarah’s hand dropped to the pouch on her belt. Shuriken flew from her fingers and hit their marks. With perfect accuracy, her throwing stars found their targets, catching both assailants in the carotid artery. Foolishly extracting the blades from their wounds, they caused the blood to fountain out from their necks. Their hearts already racing from the adrenalin rush, the blood loss was accelerated far beyond normal. The pair collapsed from hypovolemic shock just as they broke through to the treatment area.

  A third Eater aimed a gun through the opening. She fell to Mary’s bullet before she got the shot off. All the medical staff were now armed with guns as the Eaters forced the door open farther. A second charge exploded, shattering the front window. That blast sent shards of the glass-like steel through the MMCs cab back into the treatment area. Most of the staff were injured to a greater or lesser degree. A piece grazed Sarah’s side, but it struck Mary, who was trying to cover her daughter, square in the chest. The force of the blow was enough to knock her off of her feet and pierce her body armour. Seeing her fall, Bill Glazer rushed to her side just as Eaters started pouring in from the cab.

  Assured that her mother was being cared for, Sarah flew into action. Despite the flesh wound, the child-ninja launched into an all-out assault on the intruders. Fueled by adrenalin and rage, she attacked with a ferocity unmatched even by the Eaters themselves.

  Her nunchaku moved with a speed and force that the would-be attackers could not defend against. When she threw a shuriken she always hit her mark. When the throwing stars ran out she threw scalpels from the surgical cabinet.

  Behind her the doctors and nurses who were still able to function were also engaging the Easters. Whether it was their natural aversion to violence, the wounds they already suffered, or the minimal training they had received with their weapons, is not known. What was obvious was that the medical team was much less effective at defending the MMC. Although they inflicted many injuries, most were not adequate to stop the attackers.

  Then, one of the Eaters threw a concussion grenade, taken from one of the Guardsmen, into the treatment area. As Sarah succumbed to the effect of the charge, she heard a strange war cry outside the MMC.

  The entire medical team in the treatment room was knocked unconscious, so there was no one to help Sarah when one of the large Eaters grabbed the girl and hauled her through the cab and out the front window. He had just cleared the vehicle and bounded out of the conflict zone as two Guardsmen successfully scaled the barrier that was blocking the vehicle’s forward path and jumped into the front cab through the broken windscreen. One opened fire on the Eaters in the treatment room. His accuracy was much greater than the doctors’ had been. Eaters fell.

  The second Guardsman located the activator for the new device just installed that evening. He flipped open the protective cover and slammed his hand down on the large red button. From the front of the vehicle two small rockets fired, greatly reducing the rubble bl
ocking their forward path. At the same time as the projectiles launched, the other component of the new system sent a thousand-volt charge into the hull of the MMC; the Eaters fighting to gain entry were thrown back by the force of the shock.

  The first Guardsman jumped into the driver’s seat and gunned the engine. He threw the shift into low gear and the MMC slowly crawled over what was left of the debris-barrier. Once clear, the driver shifted into high and turned left onto 60th Street and then left again heading back to the Belt Parkway and the Brooklyn Bridge back to Manhattan.

  The lack of a windscreen was no impediment to the driver. The combat shield of his helmet allowed him to ignore the wind while traveling at top speed all the way to the hospital base at New Belleview. In the treatment room the medical team was beginning to revive. Those who could were tending to their wounded. No one had yet noticed that Sarah was not with them.

  It was in a dark room that Sarah awoke early the next morning. Her head hurt, so did her side. She remembered the battle of the night before. She felt her side, there was a bandage where the shard of translux steel had sliced into her. From what she felt, she knew that surgical butterflies had been applied and her wound bandaged, but it didn’t feel quite perfect.

  “Lights to full,” she commanded. Nothing happened. “Lights to FULL” she repeated. Still there was no response.

  “We don’t have any fancy systems like that here,” came a voice from outside of the room. The room brightened a little as light flowed in from the opening door. The young woman flipped a switch on the wall and the ceiling light came on. The girl, she couldn’t have been more than nineteen or twenty, came over to Sarah’s bed.

  “I’m Amanda Running Deer, but folks just call me ‘Mandy’. I saved you from that Eater last night. What’s your name?”

  “My name is Sarah, but everyone calls me Sassy. Thanks for saving me,” Sarah answered. Amanda just smiled. “She has a nice smile,” Sarah thought. It made her feel safe. “How long was I asleep?”