by Randal Sloan
“Good,” the officer said. “I see that you have arrived at the facility. You are hereby promoted to leader of your team, Major Gonzalez. Your promotion will be made official in another day or so as soon as we work out all the details. Your official assignment will probably be worded a lot more carefully, but basically your team will be providing assistance as needed to Space Tech in their struggles against the Organization. The team will officially take orders from the liaison to Space Tech, but pretty much you will be expected to do whatever the CEO of Space Tech needs in support of their actions. You will be expected to work with any mercenary teams or internal teams they have. Your liaison will be there to be sure any concerns of safety or resources needed are addressed.”
“You should not consider your assignment as punishment for your last mission, as I believe your task will be a highly important one. To some extent, I and my superiors are being held accountable, because we are ultimately responsible for what happened to your team. Your betrayal has sent shock waves that are still propagating, and a number of very high ranking men are expected to face potential criminal charges. It appears that it was all a plot by sympathizers to the Organization. The President himself has been involved in getting our house cleaned up, so to speak. He is also demanding that we take strong measures to insure this never happens again.”
The man paused a minute and then went on. “Apparently you know someone in the right place, because the CEO of Space Tech herself very specifically requested you and your team. More like demanded, since she pretty well uncovered the whole mess, and I was told, led the rescue of your team herself. She went straight to the Presidential Chief of Staff, which is probably why the President himself is involved. But Space Tech is a very powerful friend of our country, and we have been instructed to do whatever they ask.”
“Anyway, I expect your team to remain in place there until your orders arrive. Within a day or so, we should have the details of the assignment of your liaison, who will then provide your day to day orders. Your team is cleared to make any VR calls you wish, with the understanding that they will not disclose anything in those calls regarding your current or previous mission. You may later be called up for testimony in the prosecution of those involved in this fiasco, although at this point I’m not sure it will be necessary. Before I leave you, do you have any questions?”
Hernando was still struck almost speechless. He managed to gasp out, “No sir. I will instruct my team as you have indicated, and we will await further orders. If we do have questions later, who do we contact?”
“I think they are still working that out, but if you do need anything for now, contact Space Tech unless you specifically need to talk to me. Ok, if there’s nothing further, good luck with your new assignment.” He saluted him, an honorary salute to honor him in his new position.
Absentmindedly returning the salute, Hernando replied, “Thank you, sir.” He sat there staring into empty space for a couple of moments. Finally, he called his team over to explain their orders. “You’re not going to believe this…” he told them. He was right. No one believed him until he repeated it, swearing it was the truth. It was a little more believable when the insignia for a major arrived, specifically addressed to him.
#
Carla was still reeling from shock. Just a couple of hours ago she had been resigned to a fate that probably included physical assault, torture and death. Then Miranda had showed up, only she wasn’t Miranda any more, and they were rescued again, this time from the very threshold of death. So Miranda was actually Julie Randolph, CEO of the largest company in the world, and her skills were even more intense than she before. Julie had thrown that knife with her left hand, and she had moved so fast that all Carla saw was a blur. That was the last thing that warlord would ever see, not that she was sorry about that. She knew all about the deaths the man had been responsible for.
Carla had been surprised to discover when she was cleared by Space Tech medical, a young man from Space Tech Security had come to lead her up to the penthouse of the Space Tech office complex. She had been given clean clothes and a chance to wipe the dust off in the medical area, so she hadn’t felt totally out of place. That was until they got off the highly secure elevator, and she saw the very classy office space of the Space Tech upper management.
Once again nervous, she was met by a girl she recognized as one of the students from the now seemingly long ago Kinza mission where she had first met Miranda. “Hey, I’m Caitlyn, and you may remember me from Kinza a few weeks ago. Even though I didn’t deserve it after the way I treated her, Julie has given me this job which is the most wonderful job in the world. Right now, she asked me to take care of you, and to tell you she is bringing dinner in for you.” She handed Carla a garment bag and another small bag with personal amenities in it.
“Julie has been on the VR with your superiors and she is not at all happy. She wants you to be ready for photographs to send out to the media, and she thought it would be appropriate for you to be able to ‘shine in your moment of glory.’ Her words, not mine. But if you will follow me, I will show you to the executive apartment they maintain for just such a circumstance, which has among other things, a full bath. Sometimes it’s good to work for the richest company in the world.”
So Caitlyn led her to a beautifully decorated suite and showed her the bathroom, which was the most luxurious she had ever seen. Caitlyn then asked her the strangest question. “The doctor. Your long lost love. What was his name?”
Carla stared in shock. “Ted. Why do you want to know?” She was going to have a question or two for Julie.
Caitlyn just shook her head. “You’ll have to save that for Julie. You have an hour to be ready so take your time.” Caitlyn turned and left, locking her in the suite so she could not be disturbed. Only when she was outside the door did she let her big smile show. Julie was right! Julie had told Caitlyn the two stories of lost loves that she was convinced were her Uncle Ted and Carla. Carla had pretty much confirmed it.
Carla did what she was told and enjoyed her bath. Including a bath oil she had found that was just out of this world. When she pulled the dress out of the garment bag, it was the most beautiful dress she had ever seen. Gorgeous. It fit her perfectly, clinging to all the right places. They had to have taken her measurements when they scanned her in medical, and custom produced this dress in moments, with a dress designer specialist to consult! When she finished drying and brushing her red hair, she stood in front of the full length mirror, almost not recognizing the stranger staring out at her.
“Wow! You clean up nice girl,” she said to herself, totally amazed. She wasn’t surprised when Caitlyn called at the door exactly one hour from when she left her.
Caitlyn led her down to a private dining room in the executive penthouse. Carla saw that it had been decorated for a dinner, but the table only had service for two. Julie was standing there when she entered. She rushed over to hug Carla, and then stood back to look at her. “Wow, you are absolutely gorgeous. You are going to wow the world when they see you,” she told Carla and turning away for a moment, “And one other,” she whispered to herself, just below the threshold of Carla’s hearing.
Julie tapped something on her VR and then turned back to Carla. “I’ve got to stop having to rescue you girl. And Kinza of all places. When you check in for duty tomorrow morning, you are going to have new orders. You are now assigned as the permanent liaison for the Air Force to Space Tech.” She paused a minute to let that sink in.
“By the way, you helped us uncover a plot by a splinter group of the Organization that included several high ranking members of our armed services. They are now in secure facilities being questioned very intensely about their involvement in the betrayal of your team.” Julie was still angry about that and it showed.
Finally she gave Carla a smile. “In good news, both the other two members of your team have been rescued. You will also appreciate the other news, we have had some very interesting discussions wit
h the new government of Kinza and have reached a new zechronium agreement.”
Julie’s VR beeped. “Give me one more moment and then send him in,” she replied to the message, turning so Carla couldn’t see who she was talking with. She motioned with her arm to Carla. “Please have a seat at the table.”
Carla sat in the chair indicated, a questioning look in her eyes. The table was decorated beautifully, with a single red rose as the centerpiece and two real candles flickering in the slight movement of the air. She inhaled the sweet scent of the rose, looking back up at Julie, who had a big smile on her face.
Ted had received a VR from his niece an hour earlier, telling him she needed him in the private dining room in an hour. ”Dress up,” the message said. “We will need to take pics.” He had no idea what she was up to, but he did what she said. He always kept a set of his best clothes in the office for just such a circumstance. He arrived at the company’s private dining room at the appointed time where he was met outside by Caitlyn, who it looked like had been assigned as a doorkeeper. “Just a sec,” she told him and she paged Julie inside. She had the oddest smile on her face.
A moment later, Julie came to the door and stepped out to see him. “You are needed inside. I will talk to you later.” She also had one of those smiles on her face.
Completely puzzled by the two girls’ behavior, Ted decided the only way to get to the bottom of it was to do what she said. He went into the dining room and stopped, totally taken aback by what he saw. All he saw was a beautifully decorated table with dinner, candles, a rose, and Carla, an unbelievable sight. His heart stopped beating for an instant.
“Is it you?” they both asked at the same time. “Julie!” they both said again in near unison.
Ted walked over to the empty chair and grasping the chair, he said. “We’ve got this dinner, candles, might as well use them.”
At Carla’s gasped, “Yes!” he sat down. It was a good thing they were long burning candles.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
A Little Space Jaunt
Julie and Caitlyn were all smiles when Ted came into work the next morning. “I’m surprised you didn’t call in today, Uncle,” Julie smirked as he walked with her to her office.
“Funny,” her uncle told her. “Yes, we have agreed to date, but no we’ve agreed to take it slow enough to let Carla catch her breath. Especially since she is still dealing with the emotions from her second ordeal in Kinza. She still has to debrief from that mission and settle in to a new job that someone finagled for her. But, you two. I’m going to remember this. Some day there will be payback. Just when you least expect it.”
Laughing, Caitlyn went back out to her office. Apparently she wasn’t afraid.
Julie showed her uncle the VR pictures they had taken the evening before. She had indeed done separate pictures of Carla to use for display to the media, but she had also taken pictures of the two of them together. “I just sent you the pictures we took last night of the two of you. You make a gorgeous couple.” She smiled at her uncle. “I hope it works out for the two of you. Everyone deserves a little happiness.”
Ted glanced at his VR. “Thank you for that. I can tell you that no matter what, we will both treasure those pictures.” He quickly grabbed the icon for the pictures, sending them to his personal VR space and then sending a copy on to Carla. When he looked at his other VR messages, he saw the other one from Julie. “I guess I have a space trip to make tomorrow. What’s up with that?”
“I have an idea I want to try that might help me find Dad. I want to keep it quiet, so I was thinking of traveling as Miranda. Think you could show Miranda and possibly Emily around the space station?”
“Sure, whatever you need to pull this off. I could introduce you as a younger cousin or something. I see you already have a shuttle reserved to travel out to the research ship. I assume you want to fly out to where their ship disappeared?”
“Yes, I think I can detect the residual effect they should have left behind when the drives were operating. It’s the only lead I have been able to come up with, but I think it will work.”
“Ok. Make sure Emily can go. You’ll have to get her in early enough to get her an ID. Good thing I’ve already got one for Miranda.” He headed out to his office. He would have some work to do before they left the next morning. He also thought about giving Carla a call. He knew she would love the chance to fly in space. Might as well get a few bonus points early in the game.
Julie gave Emily a VR call. “Em, I got a proposal for you. You remember when I promised you a visit to the space station? How does tomorrow sound?”
“Yes, perfect. I’m off school for a couple more days, and it’s just not the same without Zeke or my old roomie around.”
“Great! And I’m traveling as Miranda, so we can do stuff Julie wouldn’t be able to do. I will make sure we are back in time before Zeke will be awakened by his nanites.”
Julie went on. “I will talk to you some more tonight when I see you at the hospital. Hey, you should spend the night again with me, so that will make things easier tomorrow.”
“You got it. See you soon.”
Julie then made another VR call. Andrea answered quickly. “I had heard you were back from your last little trip. I also heard you led that group of mercenaries to Kinza. Are you all right?”
“I’m fine, but I think today might be a good day to reinstitute our lunches. Would that work for you?” Julie really needed her friend to talk to, one who might understand a little of what she was going through.
“Yes, absolutely. You going as Julie or as Miranda?”
“To keep it simpler, for sure as Miranda. Although I think Julie is really the one that needs to talk to you.”
“Now I’m really intrigued. I definitely want that lunch. Why don’t you come down to get me when you are ready?”
“You’ve got it. See you in a little while.” Julie disconnected the call. She tried really hard to get some of her work done. She certainly had enough to do.
After about the third attempt at doing work, but again getting distracted with her thoughts instead of concentrating on the task at hand, she gave up and shut down her VR. Concentrating on her nanites, she made the change. When she stood up, it was as Miranda. She even remembered to pull Miranda’s ID out of her desk drawer.
Miranda quietly exited the office, telling a surprised Caitlyn, “I am going to lunch with Andrea. Don’t send any calls through to Julie unless they are important.”
As she started down the hall, she heard Caitlyn mumbling, “I’m never going to get used to that…” That brought a smile to Miranda’s face. Sometimes it didn’t hurt to get a little payback.
Lunch with Andrea went smoothly at first, the two mostly exchanging small talk. Finally, as they were finishing up their meal, Andrea had enough. “Ok, the suspense is killing me. What does Julie want to talk about?”
“In your special forces days, did you have to kill anyone? How did you deal with it?” When Andrea nodded, she went on. “I had to kill a soldier yesterday. It was long distance as a sniper, so he never even knew what hit him. But he would have put my team at risk. Then I had to kill the warlord, as he had my friend Carla at knife point.”
“I understand. I did have to do that on missions, more than once, and I had to learn to deal with it. It gets down to a couple of things. First, it is you and your team or them. You have to do your part, and it is war. Secondly, the fact that you are talking about it means you realize how significant it is. It should never be something you do without thought. I sense you have already been working through all that.”
“I have been. I was able to talk about it with the Master monk last night, and he helped me in a lot of ways. I do understand it intellectually, but I’m still struggling with it inside, and I felt I needed to talk it over with my friend. Especially if she had been through it herself.”
“It is good that you are talking about it. It does forever change you. I had years of training and a ver
y understanding team to help me. You have had none of those. A few weeks ago you were just a student in school. It will be very important for you to talk it out, either with me or with others. I also suggest you go visit the little chapel that Space Tech keeps open. Talk with the chaplain there. They always have one on staff here and also on the space station — one of the things I have always admired about this company. You may be surprised at how understanding he is and I believe he will be able to help you.
Andrea sat there a moment, looking at her friend, who had already been through so much. She wished she could tell her it was all over. But she knew it wasn’t. “I suspect in your case, with the fight against the Organization in the forefront, you will have to do it again. More than once. As long as you are able to know it should not be taken lightly, and you do it for a just cause, you will be ok. I know you will always do that.”
Miranda nodded. “I fear as Julie, I will have to do it on a massive scale. I have a file from my father that includes plans on how to build a terrible weapon. I know that before it is done, I probably will build it and use it.”
“It will be important that you do it for the right reasons in the fight for right and not from hate. You must do it as a last resort and only from necessity. Just know, I will always be available if you need to talk about it with me.”
“Thank you. I think going to the chaplain is a good idea, and I know I can come to you whenever I need someone to talk to.”
Miranda sat looking at her friend for a moment before she went on, “Sometimes it’s hard. As Julie, I have to put up a strong appearance to my uncle and to others. I’m having to do things that I would never have dreamed of, but inside I’m still the teenage girl who just wanted to fly in space and do research. But these things have to be done, and apparently I am the one who has to do them.”
“Yes, and we both know you will do what it takes. And that you will continue to struggle with the results as you should. But I will be available any time if you need to talk.”
