by Ernest Filak
“Love doll spare parts – one level up,” Sunshine suggested warmly.
“Really? And wouldn’t you happen to know where they have the diapers section? I would like to purchase the starter set for you if they do,” I responded in an equally innocent tone.
“Are you leaking at night?” she continued. Theodore began to get soft. He knew it wasn’t worth stepping between the two of us. But our squabbles finished as abruptly as they began. It was enough to just wait them through.
“Thank you for caring about me so much, but no. I would like to buy a present for both of you.”
The bride got tired of the game.
“What on earth are you talking about?”
Was it possible that they didn’t know? My Ingrid worked in the field I had only a very vague idea about. It was she who passed the intriguing message to me. I was even a bit angry for a while that Theodore and Sunshine would keep secrets from me but I decided it was their private matter after all. They both looked very surprised now.
“I would like to congratulate you on your pregnancy. My friend thinks you’re having twins.”
Chapter XIX
Private cabin of Paola and Theodore Schmitt. Aircraft carrier HES United. Planetary System - Earth.
“Has Sunshine recovered yet?” I asked Theodore who was bustling about behind my back.
He mumbled something under his breath. Well, that meant she hasn’t. I looked through the heavy duty glass window at the Earth planetary system. I never thought in my life that I would ever find myself here.
“And what are you looking for out there?” I heard some spitefulness in his question.
“Earth,” I said. “It must be somewhere here I guess.”
“Come on. We’re too far away.”
“Why too far? We’ve just passed the frontier marker. It must be somewhere close.”
“Pavel, you get on my nerves with this talk.”
I shut up then and kept searching for the blue sphere in the sea of darkness spotted with stars. I was bored. Since I finished the course I didn’t get assigned to any squad. My platoon H2 was slowly getting smaller and smaller. People got their postings and disappeared. We exchanged post numbers and said goodbye, with some more kindly than with others. But always with respect. We all got through the course. And even I managed.
Theodore took a huge pair of binoculars out of the drawer. He handed them to me, pointing at spots of light moving in the distance.
“Take a look there.”
“Thank you, Major.”
He still seemed in a bad mood. Something didn’t quite add up here. Wasn’t he happy about the pregnancy? It’s true that nowadays unplanned pregnancy was quite unusual. I don’t think that Sunshine just wanted to get his butt. But if this is not the reason for his worry than what? Somewhere deep inside I wondered if Ingrid had anything to do with that. But taking the blockade off was not an easy thing. It required a high class specialist.
In the one hundred times magnification I saw a string of civilian cargo ships flying in one direction. Much farther a similar looking line of civilian ships was moving in the opposite direction. They all flew within a buoy-marked corridor. All around them whizzed small customs and flight control ships.
“Heavy traffic, like on a highway,” I remarked.
“Because it is a highway, only on a cosmic scale,” Theodore began explaining in his normal tone of voice. “The exit sector in this system is about two-weeks flight away.”
“Really? Why didn’t I see it before?”
“You were busy retaking your exams.”
“You’re right,” I’d had enough of listening to all the mean comments. “And now what?”
“You can only get to the Earth solar system through twelve routes like this one, of course after going through a detailed check of your whole cargo.”
“Sure.”
“A week’s flight from the border of the system is a closed zone that is under Fleet supervision.”
“I believe we’re already in it?” I asked.
“Bingo.”
“And what will we find further?”
“I must say my knowledge is very limited.”
That was something new.
“You don’t want to or you can’t say?”
I was looking in the direction where the ships were going, but except for nozzle flames I wasn’t able to see anything else. Increasing the magnification in the binoculars didn’t help much either.
“I simply don’t have the knowledge. I’m an agent working the field. I don’t deal with the systems of the Core.”
“Bullshit.” I moved my eyes to see the other units of the Sixth Fleet. At least these were hanging immobile in space.
“This curiosity will take you down one day,” he said.
“It probably will,” I agreed with him benevolently. “Tell me what you can. A week’s flight is a lot of space. You can hide lots of interesting things in there.”
“Very much so,” he confirmed. “This is the best protected system in the whole galaxy. No power is able to force it. The Fleet is the first line of defense. Then there are zones taken care of by special units, Star Troopers, Shock Troopers, mine fields, fixed barriers. Between them are training grounds and research centers. All these sectors change their positions in time and space. Of course, the Earth Defense Staff supervises everything.”
“And where is it stationed?”
“Well, this is the best guarded secret. Officers who work there can never leave it after they terminate their service. They stay there until their death.”
“And what about their families?” I asked.
“I don’t know.”
Even if he had some ideas he didn’t say it out loud. Earlier he had already let me know that it would be better if I kept my mouth shut. He also had a lot of questions for me which I knew he harbored deep inside. I knew he was intrigued by the Artificial Intelligence living inside of me. In some dexterous way he had been able to put the small pieces of this puzzle together. After all, I wasn’t really able to hold myself in check twenty-four seven. Once or twice I let slip a bit of information that I had no way of possessing. And an intelligence agent was especially sensitive to remarks like that. Still, it was his wife who had figured it out first.
“A week’s flight is a huge fragment of space. Even if it was all just mine fields, exorbitant amounts of resources are required to maintain it. I guess you must be pulling my leg.” I didn’t really believe everything he was saying.
“They might not teach it in history lessons at school but it’s true. This is the cradle of humanity. Once the first research space mission took off, they began building a protection system. To finance it they decided to take one per cent of income tax and ever since everybody who has citizen rights has had to pay it.”
Thinking about the consequences of this decision made my head spin. I had to sit down. Theodore gave me a beer.
“Can you drink? Aren’t you on duty today?” he asked.
“One beer won’t hurt. My return flight is in three hours. Unless Sunshine kicks me out.”
“She’s going through a thorough check up today. She shouldn’t be back anytime soon,” he calmed me down. “She still hasn’t come to terms with the new situation.”
We rinsed our throats.
“Don’t you know when I might get my posting?” I asked the question that brought me to visit him in the first place. My training platoon was in bits and pieces.
“The system works very slowly. You have to be more patient.” I should be feeling better after hearing this but I sensed his insecurity. “We’ve received permission for the course, and I applied to have you assigned to my unit. There’s nothing else I can do. My supervisor confirmed that he has nothing against it and sent the application further.”
“Doing nothing is beginning to drive me nuts,” I said.
“Don’t worry. They have run a thorough check of your background. If something had been wrong you wouldn’t have
been given permission to work on the Mech project in Bio&Sonic. I guess the reasons for the delay must lie somewhere else,” he suggested.
Of course I couldn’t stop myself from asking.
“Where?”
“The intervention of the Sixth Fleet and the information it was able to gather shook the Government. There was an upheaval on the markets. Uroboros was an active and very strong player. Removing it from the market was a political decision that shook the whole economy. Many influential people lost their jobs. After that the road roller went downhill. The farther it went, the more people were fired. It all ended in the collapse of the Government. At the moment they are all fighting for their seats. The military people know very well that this is the best time to make profitable acquaintances. Nobody is now thinking about one fucking recruit and his nomination.”
“How long is that supposed to last?”
“The last cabinet crisis took three months.”
I moaned.
“The situation now is much more serious,” he continued unrelentingly. “Many systems have had enough of the Earth protection tax. Remember that the building of the protection system was initiated over two thousand years ago. In all this time plans have changed and modified many times. Many technological advances have been made. We still have mines hanging in space that were left there hundreds of years ago.”
“Nobody ever tried minesweeping them?” I asked astonished.
“Oh, they have tried repeatedly,” he said. “On average every twenty years or so.”
“Why such long breaks?”
“Because this is how long the officers who remembered the previous attempt lived.”
“I’m guessing that the effects were not very visible,” I risked a theory.
“Quite the opposite, on condition that you are a crazy pyrotechnic. Every single time a unit was lost.”
“Now I don’t find it surprising that other systems don’t feel like paying,” I conceded.
The conversation was broken by a vigorous knocking on the door. Theodore went to greet the guest. I looked around hoping to find another can of beer. The only thing I saw was Cider Space Storm. I don’t like weak stuff but since there was nothing else I decided this will have to do. I guessed it was Sunshine’s drink that she kept for her girlfriends. I never really managed to soil my mouth with the pseudo-alcoholic drink. I was surprised to see my buddy’s behavior. He stood there like a pillar of salt. I didn’t see the newly-arrived guest because the metal door obstructed the view. I opened the can with the hiss that always accompanies the releasing of the gas. I leaned my head back to pour the contents of the can into my throat.
In the corner of my eye I saw a mighty smack that sent Major Theodore Schmitt onto the opposite wall. A moment later the attacker rolled over the carpet and the can I was holding above my head spilled, pouring the stinging contents into my eyes. So much for the legendary safety measures and timeless vigilance that the Corps is famous for. They should fire me from the course for that act alone.
“Don’t you even budge,” I heard Ingrid’s voice inside my head.
Oh, is this my beloved remembering my existence? Are we done with the silent days?
“Not now,” she warned. “You’re in grave danger.”
I knew this much myself. Through the tears in my eyes I saw a dark shape. My left eye had been hit by less liquid so I opened it wider. I saw combat armor of the type I had never seen before.
“Get up,” I heard a command.
I obediently followed and extended my hands in front. I had a thousand questions in my head and not even one answer. Theodore was raising himself up from the ground clumsily. Another person in a black full armor entered from the hall. The man quickly searched him and then handcuffed his wrists.
Mine were treated in exactly the same way.
“Couldn’t you have been a few minutes faster?” I was angry with Ingrid. “If you had known about the attack you could have warned me.”
“I’m not talking about them, only about the Devourers,” she hissed.
As if I didn’t have other problems to deal with. I really regretted ever taking up meditation. Thanks to it the bonds between us grew stronger. I didn’t have to mutter anything under my breath for her to read the micro trembling of my voice chords. She read my mind immediately. Sometimes I wasn’t even able to articulate my thoughts before she gave the answers to unasked questions. Though recently she was busy with some research that she didn’t want to talk about. She explained that my grasp of physics was not good enough. It’s true that I almost failed the subject at school twice but I knew more or less what it was all about. She only passed some dry facts to me. I figured it had something to do with the abilities that Uncle Kola suggested, extrasensory contact over large distances.
“Hello, honey. We left the Hadesian System a few weeks ago. If these creeps want to go back there, I don’t really care.”
“Moron,” now she was seriously angry. “I’m talking about Earth. The Devourers are coming here!”
“Ah, we’re beginning to use epithets, aren’t we?”
“Pavel, I’m scared. I can feel them more and more closely.”
During all these revelations I let them stand me next to Theodore. There were two assailants. They had equipment and armaments that I had never seen before in my life. A green laser scanned my face. They verified Theodore’s identity in a similar way. Both checks must have brought satisfying results because we were not released, only pushed towards the cabin exit.
“What is going on here?” in the open door I saw the commander of the Sixth Fleet accompanied by a Marine man on duty.
I felt better instantly.
“It’s the orders,” one of the guys in black handed a reader to the commander.
Admiral Gerald Williams took his time to familiarize himself with the details.
“I don’t see the signature of anybody from the Admiralty.”
“It has been signed by the Director of the Department of Protection of Earth in the Ministry and the Chief of the Internal Affairs,” one of the attackers said in a metallic voice. “This should suffice.”
“And this is supposed to explain an unregistered forced entry onto my flag ship?”
The Admiral remained calm although there was steel in his voice.
“Section Z-3 is not obliged to follow the regulations of any other formations,” the man replied.
“Praetorians!” the Admiral snorted with derision. “Arrogant assholes.”
The black armor didn’t reply. The Admiral took a step into the cabin and the armored giant let him in after a moment of hesitation. Theodore was all right and fortunately didn’t sustain any damage. We both stood at attention in front of the commander.
“I’m fucking mad with this situation but my hands are tied,” the Admiral conceded. He turned to Theodore. “In your case, Major, the document had been signed by your immediate supervisor, which makes me helpless.”
“I am aware of this, Sir.”
“I will try to get you out of the hands of the Praetorians by different means,” he promised.
“Thank you, Sir.”
“This man here has not been assigned yet and hasn’t taken his oath, so he is not within the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Defense,” the Admiral spoke to the attacker standing close to the exit. He was clearly talking about me.
“He has sent a formal application to be accepted but before the application is looked into…”
“I understand,” the Admiral interrupted further explanations.
“Do something,” Ingrid urged me on.
But what could I do? I wasn’t going to talk about the danger in the presence of so many witnesses. I would come out a fool and nobody would believe me.
The commander of the fleet took an arm band saying “HES UNITED” and handed it to me.
“Welcome under my orders, son.”
He took me completely by surprise. Fortunately, I quickly composed myself.
“
Thank you, Sir.”
“You can’t do that,” the Praetorian said.
Admiral Gerald Williams turned in his spot hearing this.
“Don’t tell me what I can or can’t do, soldier. And address me with due respect. I have earned it through all the years of my service. And mind your words.”
When the figure remained silent, he asked.
“Is this understood?”
The atmosphere was really tense. The Marines raised their needles a bit. The Praetorians didn’t move even a bit.
“Yes, Sir,” we finally heard the formally appropriate answer.
“Within the next twenty-four hours I request information about the legal status of this soldier,” the commander wouldn’t let go. Like a good hunter he caught his prey and wouldn’t let it out easily. “And I won’t wait a minute longer.”
“Pavel,” Ingrid pleaded. “Tell him! If we don’t do anything, billions of innocent beings will die.”
Being aware of possible consequences paralyzed me. Not being able to provide any proof would make me look like a fool and may even lead to losing an influential mentor.
“You won’t be able to go on living with such a burden.”
If the threat is true and real, she was right.
“Admiral, would you do me the honor of speaking with me in private, Sir,” I plucked up the courage to ask.
“This is not possible,” one of the Praetorians spoke automatically.
This way he got the opposite effect to what he wanted. The commander of the fleet might not have seen the need to talk to me, but it was an excellent opportunity for him to show the upper hand.
“Everybody out.”
I expected resistance from the black armors but nothing like this happened. Theodore was snatched and dragged outside. I felt we would have to pay soon for this moment of triumph. But that would come later. Now I had more important things to do. The commander of the Marines closed the door behind him.
“You have a minute. Don’t ask me for any private business.”
I didn’t know what to say to make him see it in such a short time.
