Runs In The Family

by Kevin Ikenberry

  Mairin blinked a few times to hold the tears in. A memory? The images came like waves, crashing into her and tearing at her emotions as they bubbled from the imprint to her. Is this going to take me over? Erase me? How can I live with this?

  One breath at a time, she told herself, but the voice wasn’t quite her own. Settle down. Focus. Be constantly aware of your position and the tactical situation. Fail to do so and good soldiers die. She felt her breathing return to normal and she leaned over the rifle, taking in every sound, every movement.

  Mairin looked at her wristwatch, another anachronism of this training environment. They’d have integrated combat helmets with time displays eventually, but for now they worked with simple green plastic watches Mairin believed were almost as old as her imprinted ancestor would have been. Three hours passed. Cox lightly snored, his mouth open against the stock of his rifle. A rustling in the brush down the hill to her right brought Mairin to reality. She nudged Cox with a sharp elbow and gestured down the hill towards what had to be the approaching patrol. Or a herd of elephants.

  Cox leaned over. “They’ll come in by Geary’s position.”

  Geary would have to take this seriously, Mairin thought. No, he can’t take anything serious. The rustling sounds came closer and her hands tightened on the rifle. They were too loud. In combat they’d already be dead if the enemy weren’t asleep. The rustling stopped. A few seconds later a voice stage whispered from the patrol.

  “Silk.”

  The perimeter did not respond. Not gonna get us that easily, Mairin thought with a smile. She’d wondered if the instructors were going to mess with them or test them somehow. Even on the first night of the exercise, she thought. Of course they’d do just that.

  “Silk.” The whisper was louder, more of a screech. It sounded like McDaniel.

  Mairin exhaled slowly, remembering to breathe as tension rippled around the perimeter. What is Captain McDaniel doing? Is he seriously testing us like this? No one responded for at least thirty seconds, and the voice got louder, more insistent. Almost shrill.

  “Silk!”

  Shifting her elbows to better see down the hill, Mairin froze as she heard Geary’s deep southern drawl. “It’s pink, dumbass!”

  #

  Mairin woke laughing surrounded by sweat soaked sheets. Disoriented, she blinked away the vestiges of the incredibly lucid dream. His memory. It was his memory in my dream, but I was there in his place. New pieces of information flitted just outside her brain’s reach, like a word on her tongue that she could not remember. The memories were there, like ghosts of dreams past. They would be there, for her use, when she needed them.

  They were her dreams now. Most of them were serious and disconcerting. Few of them were funny or memorable. They intermixed from familiar images to ones from far away and long ago. There was no panic, no anxiety as she lay there exploring the void. A shrill beep pierced the stillness and the images disappeared. Calm and relaxed, she heard the beep again, much closer and insistent, and pulled a deep breath through her nose. The tinge of antiseptic and a whiff of ozone purifier triggered her mind into action and began the process of awakening. Slowly, more sounds began to pour in. The hushed voices of matronly nurses, the mumble of a doctor speaking the jargon of his trade, and the scuff of boots on the deck of the medical ward confirmed her first coherent thought. Hospital. She blinked slowly, willing her eyes to adjust, and moved to sit up. A hammering ache split her head from ear to ear. She winced and slumped back into the pillows.

  “Just relax, Captain.”

  Mairin blinked dumbstruck. What did she say? “What?”

  “There’s not much time to explain. We’ll dock at Libretto in an hour.” The red-headed lieutenant raised the bed so Mairin sat upright and saw a plasticene bottle of water and a large envelope on the bedside table. “You’ll feel like moving around in a few minutes. When you do, your uniforms are in the locker.” She tossed her head to indicate the gray cabinet built into the room. “You’ll want to pack and be ready to disembark quickly. We’re not staying at Libretto long.”

  Did she call me Captain? Mairin shook her head. “I’m not going to Earth?”

  The lieutenant started to turn away, but stopped. “Ma’am, I’m not aware of what your orders are. All I can tell you is that we’re prepping to jump to Rayu Four, about a hundred lyes away, for combat operations. We’re disembarking you at Libretto; it’s a Styrahi colony planet.”

  It didn’t make sense, but it was the military. There was no surprise, and past the initial confusion Mairin understood. Things change. Be flexible, dammit. She almost smiled. The thought actually felt...right. “That will be all, Lieutenant. Thank you.”

  The nurse’s eyes widened slightly at the quick change in tone and manner as she stood a little straighter. “Yes, ma’am. Good luck to you.”

  Mairin smiled, “You, too.”

  Alone, she sipped from the bottle of water, felt the numbness of hypnosleep fading gently, and life returning to her body. The envelope contained identification tags, a regulation TDF identification card, and five thousand credits. She counted it twice, marveling at the sum of money she held. More than the annual Eden Academy tuition, and yet in her hands it seemed so small.

  She activated her bracelet in safe mode and let her cognitive interface warm up slowly. Five weeks, three days, sixteen hours, thirty-two minutes and twenty seconds since she’d gone to sleep. There were fifteen personal messages, fourteen million news articles and another two million breaking alerts. She deleted the news and alerts before blinking the messages away. She opened a search window and queried Rayu-4.

  No information available.

  Stupid, she thought. Maintain the element of surprise. Retain the initiative. The phrases rolled easily through her mind, though she partially understood them. Her headache began to fade slowly as her metabolism boosted and adjusted her biochemical levels appropriate to her genetic map. Mairin instinctively looked for her eyeglasses, then realized she could see clearly across the room. No more glasses, she thought with a smile, as she swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood on the cold metal deck. The locker held two sets of combat uniforms—combat vehicle crewman suits, she corrected herself. Attached to them were the sewn-on badges for Combat Action, Parachutist, and Pathfinder. She traced a finger over the captain’s bars and wondered how in the world she’d already made captain.

  Assimilation wasn’t supposed to happen until she finished training, she thought with a smirk. There’d be no extra training. Whatever was happening at Rayu-4 upset that apple cart in a hurry. On the floor of the locker was a green duffle bag open at the top. Inside was her denim bag from Eden. Next to the bag sat a pair of the strangest boots she’d ever laid eyes on.

  Mairin chuckled. Tanker boots, her mind whispered. The all leather boots had no laces, only two leather straps. Laces got caught in machinery and couldn’t be worked out of a boot if they were wet and muddy. The straps were better, at least George Patton thought so. Whoever he was. Her neurals immediately flashed the information for her study, and she blinked it away. The hospital garment came off and she dressed quickly, tugging the leather strapped boots around her feet and ankles last. The spurs weren’t there. She’d have to find a set on Libretto. Surely there is a clothing sales store on the planet? All the crazy lingo running through her head! She stood up, looked at her reflection, and felt something very different. She felt solidly in control, confident, and while nervous at her core she knew she could be ready for anything. She smiled at her reflection and pulled her shoulders back a little.

  “Gotta do something about this hair.” She frowned and laughed out loud. No shaving my head, she thought at the imprint in her mind and laughed. Nothing wrong with looking like a lady and fighting like a demon. She collected her belongings and strode from the room. A sailor told her where the quarterdeck was to depart. She found it quickly, and sat to wait as a message flashed in her neurals.

  Captain Shields: Your training cycl
e has been interrupted. Cannot be helped because of operational needs. You are to remain at Libretto and wait for the Fleet Battle Platform Ticonderoga and no other vessel. There is no timetable for the Ticonderoga’s arrival. Check in with the LNO at Libretto daily for updates.

  Munsen

  Mairin read the message three times. “Sonuvabitch,” she said to herself. What am I going to do on Libretto? Hadn’t Munsen said they needed her at the front? Disbelief turned to a small measure of anger at having her plans changed. Being flexible was necessary and impossible at the same time. Her thoughts turned slowly, coalescing into one distinct, unnerving question.

  What in the hell is going on?

  The shuttle arrived ten minutes later. Boarding, she sat at a window seat and looked over the smaller horizon of Libretto. Swirling continents of dark green tropical vegetation interspersed the large oceans. Deserts stretched to the polar region, covered a mile or more deep in ice. The shuttle passed within a stone’s throw of an immense column curving out of sight in both directions. A space elevator, Mairin thought with an impressed grin. She’d suspected that Styrahi engineers long ago managed to crack the code on developing structures that could literally stretch from the surface to geostationary orbit. The space elevator remained an engineering rarity on Earth colonies, but as the Earth strengthened their alliance with the Legion of Planets, such technologies and materials slowly made their way into everyday life. While not life changing, the new technologies paled in comparison to the simple effect that intelligent extra-terrestrial life existed.

  The forms it came in, however, caused more of a shock to Earth than the technologies and the war they brought with them. Granted, the Greys were an anti-climax, proving every story, sighting, or interaction reported with tall, gray-limbed aliens with big black eyes actually happened. Many Earth governments nearly folded under the outrage of hidden information. The tabloid-crazed population of Earth collectively clamored for the heads of governments to roll. The insectoid Vemeh by comparison readily assimilated into Earth culture because they were alien enough.

  The first day of peaceful contact, when the Vemeh essentially arrived with a universe spanning “wanted” list with the Greys blamed for unwarranted visitations, meddling in galactic affairs and planeticide, Earth jumped on the bandwagon and embraced the Vemeh and their quest for justice. But the two races would be joined by one of the oldest civilizations in the known galaxy, the ones who had given the Vemeh the keys to interstellar travel with the promise of alliance against the evil Greys. When they arrived shortly thereafter, the Styrahi came upon a planet ready to welcome them with open arms.

  And to promptly have everything turned on its ear.

  Mairin exhaled just before the shuttle’s door opened and, as it did, the cramped cabin filled with moist air. She stepped down from the hatchway and smiled at successfully touching down on three planets in her young life. She looked around at the dense vegetation lying off to one side of the landing pad and was reminded of South America. She’d only been a toddler when they left Earth, so the memory clearly wasn’t hers and that was just okay. But not really. She caught her reflection on a window and relaxed that it was still her face and her body, even if the thoughts and memories were not. It’s not going to control me. I can handle this. The strange echoes grew easier to listen to and harder to question at the same time. She wondered if he’d ever been to South America. There was no more to the whisper and it faded from her mind as she walked to Reception.

  Maybe I can look him up? She queried her neurals for a complete genealogical chart and left the search running. After her retinal scan identified and cleared her into the Libretto City Reception Center, Mairin knew to report to the TDF Liaison Officer. This far towards the core, a planetary garrison wasn’t necessary. The only troops to speak of on the planet would be those on rest and relaxation leave. Mairin consulted a terminal in the Reception area. She quickly found the correct office and rapped the doorframe twice. A muffled voice came from inside. “Enter.”

  Opening the door, the sweet smell of the planet’s atmosphere vanished in a funk of sweat and alcohol. A large, heavy set man sat at the desk, his uniform jacket unbuttoned and a tall glass of amber liquid in his pudgy hand. He looked at Mairin’s uniform quickly and met her eyes. “It’s after duty hours, Captain. What’s the purpose of your visit?”

  The man’s tunic sat askew enough that Mairin could not see the man’s rank. The office walls were bare, without a trace of personalization or even an I’m-so-proud-of-me wall. She looked at the no name officer and checked the local time in her net, 1400 hours. “What are the duty hours of this office then?”

  The man sat forward.

  Mairin saw the silver oak leaf clusters of a lieutenant colonel on his shoulders and felt her mouth dry quickly. “You report to a senior officer in that tone, Captain?”

  She snapped to the position of attention, looked over the fat man’s head and saluted crisply. “Sir, Captain Mairin Shields reporting. I’m in transit with instructions to wait for the Ticonderoga.”

  The man returned her salute with a wave nowhere close to his head and spoke. “The Ticonderoga isn’t even on the schedule for the next two months. We can’t have you sitting around doing nothing on this planet for that amount of time.” He smiled only with his lips. “You will report to this office as your place of duty every morning at six hundred hours with the coffee made. You will do exactly what I tell you to do,” he looked her up and down, “when I tell you to do it. Is that clear?”

  Mairin was sure the words wouldn’t come. She took a deep breath and felt her mouth open. “With all possible due respect, sir,” she emphasized the last word by dropping her eyes from the back wall of the office and looking him in the eye. “You can take that set of orders, and your leering at my body with obvious sexual intent, and shove them where the sun doesn’t shine.”

  The colonel’s mouth dropped open as he tried to stand. “How...how dare you!”

  “How dare you!” she roared at him. “I will not be objectified and harassed by a rear echelon motherfucker like you!”

  The colonel wobbled to his feet, stabbing the air between them with a pudgy finger. “Now see here, you little—” He blinked and paused, his face growing more gaunt with every passing second as his eyes shifted from left to right rapidly. He blinked twice and looked at Mairin for a long moment. “Captain, you are to contact this office every day by twelve hundred hours to see if the Ticonderoga appears on the incoming ship log. There are...” he paused, “no billets available for you in our barracks area. You will live on the economy. I am instructed to ask you if you need anything.”

  What the fuck did he just read?

  Mairin thought about that for a moment, wondering how she would pay for anything, and chastised herself in the same breath. The Styrahi invented the economy without currency. She’d be well taken care of and there were credits in her bags. She felt her breathing instantly return to normal, the genetic re-map at work. “No, Colonel. I will not need anything from this office or from you.”

  The fat colonel slumped to his chair and waved her away with barely a second glance. “Get out.”

  Outside the office, Mairin leaned against the wall for a moment reeling. Her face flushed, heart thumping away in her chest. She’d never done anything like that before. What just happened? She’d torn into a higher-ranking officer and he’d taken it. What did he read?

  After a long moment, she leaned forward and stood up straight. What is a rear echelon motherfucker?

  She chuckled and pushed away from the wall. More importantly, what exactly do they expect from me?

  She walked down the corridor marked City Centre and found herself in a train station. The maglev train silently accelerated into the underground tube. The flashing lights of the tunnel pulsated at enough of an interval that Mairin closed her eyes to avoid it. Twelve minutes after boarding the train, Mairin opened her eyes as the maglev slowed and stopped. Disembarking into an impossibly cle
an terminal, Mairin stepped onto a moving sidewalk. Striding quickly and lightly, she noticed the gentle incline of the walkway. How far was the landing pad from the city? Ahead, the thick forest parted, and the walkway rose into daylight surrounded by impressive structures standing thousands of meters high stretching in all directions. She turned around and saw, in the distance, the gently curving edge to the city. A dome—an immense dome—covered the city. Its edges appeared to vibrate, like waves of heat rising from hot sand, and explained why she’s seen nothing from orbit except something she kept calling a spacedock and the shuttles arriving and departing the ships in orbit.

  That’s how they hide the city from orbit. A real life cloaking device. Mairin gaped. Amazing.

  The walkway came to an end. Mairin stood for a long moment and realized she was staring. She’d seen a Vemeh before, and she could easily pick out the humans amongst the crowd, though it was tougher to discern the females at a distance. The Styrahi were everywhere, as it was their city after all, and every being that looked like a woman above six feet in height was likely no woman at all but a Styrahi.

  Sure she knew what they were and what they looked like, but she still gaped. The imprint quiet, Mairin wondered if the shock was too much. Things were much different in his time. The Styrahi were exquisite. Some statuesque, some athletic, some simply gorgeous, though all of them were beautiful, with perfect smiles, bright eyes, and shining healthy hair. Planet of the goddamn Barbies, she thought with a laugh.

  When the Vemeh made first contact with Earth, humanity panicked, even after hostilities ended. Tensions elevated as every horrifically awful media play of alien attack featuring giant insects caused most of humanity to resist the Vemeh presence.