TSN: The Best Laid Plans (Terran Space Navy)

by Paul Phipps

  There was a code phrase that put the three of them into a trance and they were given new instructions and then told to resume acting like normal humans. And that’s just what they did! This thing is so potentially devastating…” He paused for a breath, “I mean… Think about it! Anyone who is under the influence of the drug can be told to act normal and they will, when given a code phrase they immediately lose all self-will again and will do exactly as they are ordered too with absolutely no qualms.

  Its total control on a scale that Stalin and Mao would have sacrificed half of their population for.” He finished up soberly.

  “I see… You know Ansel and I have been visiting his parents several times a week using Telefactors and I’ve seen that they are no closer to being free of the Zombie drug than when they were first taken there. Maude and the Med-center there are mystified about it. They originally thought that the drug’s effects would only last a few weeks and then taper off.

  But to my eye it doesn’t seem any better now than it did back in November.”

  “You’re right Sarah,” Ansel said beside her as he continued his own internal conversation with Maude.

  “Since they are the only two people we know for a fact that are under the influence of the Zombie drug, I have had to give Maude and the Medical team at the M1 base permission to work with them.

  The first thing we are going to try is to tell them to act normal and not obey anyone unless they give them the command phrase.” He then smiled wryly and finished, “Also we need to use them to test out techniques and tests that will determine if a person has the drug in their system.

  So Mom and Dad are going to find their selves very busy for some time to come.” He finished with a steely glint to his eye.

  “Commander Webster, all participants for your conference are available now.” Helen’s announced.

  “Excellent Helen, thank you for rounding them up. Sarah, Albert please join me.” And with that the three of them were in a virtual reality auditorium. The participants spread out into the distance and his internal display showed that the entire Marine force and associated Navy personnel of the Terran Space Navy were in attendance.

  “Ladies and Gentlemen thank you for attending this conference.” Ansel started out, “By now you are more than aware that the TSN does its best to keep all of the Men and women of our force appraised of everything that might affect it and them personally. We also know that doing so can bring about information overload. You know that it’s up to you to keep that from happening to you.

  Within the next three weeks we are going to go to war, you have been briefed about the Quarn, you should be receiving daily briefing packets about anything new we find out about them and their capabilities. The reason you are gathered here now is to be briefed about some new information.” At that point he began to tell them of the fate of Scout-Fighter SF-003 and its crew. He then continued on with the newly discovered capability of the Zombie drug.

  “This is not just a competent enemy that we are fighting, this is an inhumanly competent enemy that has lost battles before but has NEVER lost a war of conquest. Fine, but the Quarn has never faced an opponent like the Terran Space Navy and its Marines.” Ansel paused and looked out over the throng of people he smiled and continued.

  “You were told in basic training that the TSN will always listen to you and your ideas, no matter how odd you might think they are. You are all intelligent individuals of vastly different backgrounds and experiences; you are also members of a team. For the sake of your team mates and yourselves please start thinking of ideas that may give us an even bigger edge over the Quarn and their minions, both the enslaved and voluntary ones.

  Everything that is brought up will be examined, even the crazy and far-out ideas. If you come up with a new weapon or a ship design or anything else we will attempt to make it become a real thing so that we can test and evaluate it. Nothing is to be overlooked ladies and gentlemen. That crazy idea in the back of your mind may just be the thing that saves all of humanity from the Quarn.”

  The VR conference ended shortly after that and Ansel had Captain Johansson and Colonel Cottrell stay behind so as to discuss some of the generalities of Operation Seaweed.

  “Congratulations Colonel on your command of the Chesty Puller.” Ansel told him.

  “Thank you sir.”

  “Soooo… How does it feel to be both the commanding officer of your regiment and the Commanding Officer of a naval vessel?” Captain Johansson asked curiously.

  “It’s different, very different.” The Colonel said reflectively, “It does give me some new insights on what the other side has to put up with.”

  “Yes, I can imagine so.” Ansel told him, “Now, how is the training for Operation Seaweed coming along?”

  “Not too bad, I’m pleased with the training facilities on the Chesty Puller. The shoot houses and the virtual reality training is really something else. Also it’s an interesting thing to have only professionals, experienced professionals I mean, for my troops. And as of tomorrow we begin real-world drop training on Titan. It’ll be good training for us all with our new equipment.

  As for Operation Seaweed we now have all of the teams assigned their targets based on the information that Commander Fuller and his Intel weenies have developed for us. We still have some reserves in case new targets are found so we have that covered.”

  “Well, yes that…” Lt. Commander Fuller said, “My intelligence people now believe that by the time that we need to act most if not all of our targets are going to be in Indonesia. We now know that the Mother is drawing them all back to her home. Why we don’t know, but I don’t think it’s going to be a good thing for the Human Race.”

  “Hmmm, a concentration of targets, you’ll keep us informed won’t you?” The Colonel asked.

  “Of course, it’ll be in your daily briefing package.”

  “Did you examine the SF-003 yourself?” Ansel asked the Colonel.

  “Yes I did, it was very eerie I’ll have you know. I’ve seen men lose their heads in combat before; it’s messy and affects their squad mates morale more intensely than other wounds. This though… they were in their seats inside their ship and they still got wiped and by an unknown weapon. That’s enough to spook anyone you know.”

  “Since you bring it up, how are your men taking it?” Ansel asked.

  “So far they are doing fine, but I expect that your calls for ideas are going to find a plethora of ideas for protecting them against that weapon, whatever it is.” The Colonel said grimly.

  “We don’t know what it is either.” Lt. Commander Fuller told the Colonel, “It does appear to be a mental ability of the Mother Quarn and we think it has to do with her ‘feeding’ method.”

  “Feeding? How do you figure that?” The Colonel asked in confusion and warily and the same time.

  “Because the bodies of the crew were turning into dust, we saw that happen to a child she apparently was feeding off of through our monitoring instruments the SF-003 had planted shortly before it was attacked.”

  “Are you still monitoring her?” Ansel asked.

  “Yes we are,” Fuller said in satisfaction, “she apparently doesn’t ‘see’ our Earth designed instrumentation in the same way they see our sentient A.I.’s and Human personnel.”

  “Hmmm, that’s a good thing to let the troops know about I think.” The Colonel said musingly. “Maybe we can use more remote controlled weaponry against the Quarn instead of doing it up front and personal?”

  * * *

  Lt Tufuga was conferring with his 2nd Lieutenant and his top Sergeants on board the Johnny Reb. His Company’s primary target was the ‘Master’ and his people that were trapped behind the Shield wall surrounding the IUR.

  “Sergeant Evans, as our designated Intelligence Weenie you are supposed to be in the ‘know’, so tell us; does the ‘Master’ demonstrate any of the capabilities that were seen on the SF-003?” Senior Lieutenant Tufuga asked.

  “Well
LT, I would have to say yes and no. Yes he is currently demonstrating that he is able to ‘feed’ off of young children. But he hasn’t killed any yet through his feeding, so that’s a good thing. Through our own analysis on the ‘take’ from the IGD’s and the bugs we have spread throughout the complex, we know that he only has two Quarn-slaves in residence. We know he has three at the Missile base in the Pakistan and two in Tehran.

  None of the others has shown any evidence of mental powers other than the ability to convince people to do as they ask. But that could be said about a lot of politicians worldwide.”

  “Yeah, you’ve got a point there Sergeant.” Lt. Tufuga admitted. “As of right now the plan is still the same. We let the Redhawk remove the ‘Master’ and anyone else he wants to take with him. After he is over the Shield we take out his base of operations and capture or kill all of the Quarn-Slaves in the IUR that we know about.

  When it comes to the Ayatollah Al-Quds we are to be totally blatant in our actions. While our approach will be under full stealth, his apprehension will be made as public as possible.”

  “Good! That bastard needs to be taken out. He needed it before he became parasitized and that fact hasn’t changed since that happened to him.” The Gunny said as a pronouncement of intent.

  Saturday, March 13, 2027

  Jakarta, Indonesia

  The Helen of Troy was in the traffic pattern for the Jakarta International Airport, her sudden request for permission to land and debark passengers at the International arrivals and Customs facility had sent the various bureaucrats scurrying and the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister had both been notified of her arrival and that she was bearing an investigative team from the U.N. Children’s Welfare Bureau.

  The VIP Observation Lounge was once again being used by Dame Meredith and her colleagues; Sarah was standing near the front of the room with Dame Meredith as they watched the landing proceed from Orbit to their current position nearly seventy five miles from Jakarta.

  “This vessel is amazing Sarah,” Dame Meredith Fowler told her quietly, “I’ve felt no indication of motion the entire time I’ve been aboard yet the view shows us differently. Why?”

  “It has to do with the propulsion method Dame Meredith,” Sarah told her, “How it works is something that I am not at liberty to discuss. But it does make these little trips quite enjoyable, especially for those with motion sickness or stomach troubles.”

  “I see..” and then with a quick change of subject, “How come you never call me ‘Merry’ anymore Sarah?”

  “Training probably,” Sarah said in reflection, “once you became knighted for your good deeds, the rest of us commoners rejoiced in your good fortune and you became Dame Meredith instead of the Merry we all knew.”

  “Oh! Well then… that does make sense I suppose. I just didn’t notice it very much until I came back to Mousehole to check up on you after you were injured in that riot.”

  “And I do appreciate you keeping an eye out on me.” Sarah said gratefully, “I don’t think that I would have survived as long as I did without your intercession and that of the Royal Navy on my behalf. The Council really had it in for me it seemed like. I often though that they had someone else in mind for that cottage I had.”

  “I believe that they did, I and others convinced them to look elsewhere while you were still alive and living in your cottage.” The Dame said matter-of-factly.

  “Well Merry, we are on final approach now, let’s enjoy this and then you are off to do your job.” Sarah told her, “Remember if you need to contact me just use the information on that card I gave you. If for some reason I am not immediately available someone will take your message or if there is something that needs immediate assistance from the TSN, they or I will provide what we can.”

  Shortly after that, the three civilians were off of the Helen of Troy and heading for the customs area. The tower staff was surprised when clearance was requested for immediate departure from the Airport. It was only a short time later when it was granted and the Helen of Troy moved sedately to the Airstrip. With no sound other than the wind of her passage she went vertical and was gone from view in mere seconds.

  Sarah decided to visit the Intelligence ‘shop’ one more time before parking her Telefactor and going back to Asimov City. As she came through the Trans-Portal she heard:

  “Ahhh! There you are Chief Cavendish; I have something here that I’m a bit concerned about.” Chief Polansky called to her softly.

  “What is it, Chief Polansky?”

  “Here let me show you. Then you tell me what you see.”

  For the next few minutes Sarah endured watching ten or so children being ‘eaten’ by the Mother Quarn and dissolving into piles of dust. She tried to see what had gotten Chief Polansky so concerned. Then it hit her on the last one, who happened to be a young girl of around nine or ten years old.

  “Wait! Replay that last one and focus on the face!” She said authoritatively.

  She watched intently and then halted the playback and froze an image of the child’s face. She examined it carefully and then sat back meditatively.

  “She’s not Indonesian is she?”

  “No she isn’t, our facial and body recognition software indicates she is from South America, most probably Brazil. She isn’t the first one either, so far of the forty three ‘feedings’ we have recorded there have been six from South America.

  “The question I now have is this: How did they get here to Indonesia?” Sarah said.

  “That’s a very good question and we probably won’t know for sure for some time to come. I’ve put in a tasking request to assign more IGD’s to those countries to see if we can determine that.” Chief Polansky told her.

  “Set some scouts and additional IGD’s to start scanning commercial ship traffic. Who knows, maybe they are being shipped to Indonesia via Container Vessels.” Sarah directed.

  Tuesday, March 16, 2027

  Admiral Webster’s weekly Staff Meeting

  “Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen,” Fleet Admiral Webster said as he opened his staff meeting, “I have several items of note this morning. First Lt. Commander Fuller has sent a replacement to represent him as he is currently on an ‘extremely important mission’. Please welcome Major Vasquez of the TSN Marines, she will be presenting the intelligence briefing today.” He paused for the officers present at the meeting to acknowledge Major Vasquez’s presence.

  “Next, I and Commander Webster have decided to bow to the request, comments, etc. from the various Governments we deal with to assign Commander Webster with a higher title. Therefore he and I have agreed to use Commodore instead of Commander. We figure that if it will smooth over misunderstandings with those outside of the Navy then we will accommodate them. It’s not like the pay or the perks are any better.” He said with a chuckle followed by a ripple of soft laughter from around the room.

  In addition we are instituting a civilian ‘Advisory Board’, membership on the board is limited to the head of state of those nations that have signed or instituted ‘Working Agreements’ with the Terran Space Navy. The current members of the board are the United States, Israel and Great Britain. King William is considered a non-voting member as his nation has not currently agreed to a working agreement with us, although that will probably occur very soon.

  The purpose of this board is to provide a two way conduit of views and information that affects both the nations and populace of the Earth and the Terran Space Navy. It will be interesting to see how this works out; I just hope that they don’t come to any incorrect conclusion that they control the Terran Space Navy. It would be shame to dash their beliefs, as misguided as they might become.” To which comment a couple of barks of laughter were heard.

  “Very well then, Commodore Webster if you will begin?”

  “Thank you sir. First off, recruitment is down once again this last week for the full enlistment package. We accepted three thousand new members into that program. On the other hand rec
ruitment into the four year program has increased by an additional five thousand or so over last weeks’ numbers. This means that we are now graduating between one hundred and ten and one hundred and forty thousand recruits each week. I expect these numbers to start decreasing also. We have just about tapped out the well for individuals and couples that would be interested in joining a Space Navy.”

  “Would increased positive press help?” Captain Thomas enquired.