Operation Center

by H N Bezdek

  "I see," nodded the General. "Why don't the three of you accompany me on my way to my next meeting? I know I must know Ms. Rodriguez from somewhere. Perhaps we can piece it together while we walk."

  That was the absolute last thing Christina want to do. Unfortunately, she couldn't think of a way to get out of it. She hoped to at least get the other two free, if she could. They knew where the General’s room was now, and Blazer was the one that had the card reader.

  "I'd be happy to come with you, General," said Christina. "However, these two have been a pain in my side the whole journey here. I need a break from them."

  "Ouch," laughed Oscar. “Is that in character or are you speaking from the heart?”

  General Trent also laughed. "Very well. The two of them may continue familiarizing themselves with our ship while you come with me."

  Blazer and Viper gave Christina nervous looks, but she nodded at them to keep walking. "Don't worry, I'll be sure you get some rations back on the ship."

  “Make sure you salute before you leave!” cautioned Oscar. “And use this time to get the cards through that copier!”

  "Much appreciated, ma'am," said Blazer, saluting Christina.

  "Very, uh, kind of you," said Viper, saluting as well.

  Christina watched as the two of them marched down the hallway, pausing slightly as they made a mental note of General Trent’s room. General Trent placed an arm on her shoulder and gently guided her in the other direction.

  "Now then," said the General. "Where shall we begin down memory lane?".

  Chapter 7

  “Have you ever been aboard the Juggernaut?” asked General Trent several minutes later.

  “No, sir,” said Christina, shaking her head carefully. She felt like the masks were very convincing, but if she moved too much, would it fall off? “I can’t say I’ve had the pleasure.”

  “That’s a pity,” said Trent, ignoring the soldiers saluting them as they walked by. Christina wished she and the others had been given the same treatment earlier. “Hmm, were you ever stationed at Galblax, perhaps two or three years ago?”

  “Unfortunately no, sir,” said Christina, wondering how long she’d be able to keep this up.

  “What about Ethulom?” he guessed again. “I was there for a month last year.”

  Christina was running out of ways to tell the General no. She could see he was deeply thinking about this and was beginning to worry he’d grow frustrated with her.

  “He’s only going to keep guessing,” advised Oscar. “You need to come up with a way to make him feel like he knows you without letting him know the truth.”

  “You know what?” said Christina, snapping her fingers. “I actually did stop by Galblax for a few days while I was transporting some blasters to Yquant. Perhaps we met then?”

  “Ah, that must be it,” nodded Trent. The door beside them opened up, and Christina could see a dozen high ranking members of the Galactic Empire sitting around a long table. “Well, Ms. Rodriguez, this is my stop. I’m glad we were able to figure out where it was that we first met. I hope you enjoy the rest of your time on our ship.”

  Christina nodded and smiled weakly, then remembered where she was and saluted the man. He saluted back and entered the room.

  “Now, gentlemen,” he said loudly. “What are the updates with Ethulom?”

  The door closed before Christina could hear anymore. She let out a relieved sigh and turned back the way she came.

  “I’m finally free of the General,” whispered Christina. “Have Blazer and Viper gotten into his office yet?”

  “They did, but there’s a couple of problems,” said Oscar. “They’ve searched the room over and can’t find the cards anywhere accessible. There’s a small safe that they’re currently working on, but truth be told, I don’t think they’ll be able to break into it.”

  “That’s not good,” mumbled Christina, saluting halfheartedly at a nearby officer. “What’s the other problem?”

  “Minotaur is having a panic attack after shooting someone,” said Oscar. “It’s really getting on my nerves. I’ve told him to keep it down but-”

  “He shot someone?!” hissed Christina, spinning on her heels and heading back for Port 7. “What happened?!”

  “No idea,” said Oscar. “I’m too busy trying to talk through the others on how to break into the safe to deal with him right now. Ghost isn’t being particularly helpful, either. He said he’s only going to get involved if we start getting shot at.”

  “I’ll take care of it,” mumbled Christina, storming off.

  After a few minutes, she entered back into Port 7. She didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, and thankfully no dead body. She walked up to their Fighter and knocked on the door.

  “It’s Null,” she said loud enough for whoever was in the ship to hear her.

  The door opened, revealing Minotaur with his blaster out, standing over the body of an Imperial soldier.

  “What did you do?!” exclaimed Christina, checking on the motionless man.

  “H-He was going to come onto the ship!” stuttered Minotaur. “I had to do something!”

  Christina found the man’s pulse and was relieved for a second, before realizing their cover was now blown. Whether or not the man lived, the Galactic Empire would know something happened today.

  “I guess this has been a bust,” mumbled Christina.

  “I-I’m sorry…” said Minotaur, the alien on the verge of tears. He dropped his blaster and buried his face in his hands. “I screwed it all up!”

  Christina glanced at the blaster, noting it was the same one that Minotaur had been practicing with. “Isn’t that Tundra’s? Does that mean you just put this guard to sleep instead of stunning him?”

  Minotaur removed his hands and gasped. “Y-You’re right! He’s just asleep!”

  The Durgak picked Christina up and hugged her, laughing as he did. Christina didn’t see why he was so excited again.

  “Not to kill the mood,” said Christina, struggling to talk with Minotaur squeezing the breath out of her. “I don’t think whether he’s stunned or asleep particularly matters. He’s still going to wake up and talk.”

  “No he won’t!” exclaimed Minotaur, letting her go. He picked up the blaster again. “Tundra said this Z model gives the victim a kind of amnesia, too!”

  “Really?” asked Christina, taking the blaster from Minotaur and inspecting it closer. “But won’t that also alert them that something happened?”

  “Not necessarily,” said Minotaur, shaking his head. “They’ll only forget what happened to them in roughly the past hour. If we put this guard in a chair, maybe he’ll think he just fell asleep from a boring shift.”

  “And then he wouldn’t say anything,” reasoned Christina. “He wouldn’t want to admit that he fell asleep on the job!”

  “I’m glad to hear you two figured out how to fix Minotaur’s mistake,” came Oscar’s voice. “We’re going to need you back in General Trent’s office to help the other two, Null.”

  “How am I supposed to help?” asked Christina, motioning for Minotaur to pick up the body and find a natural place to put it. She put the blaster in her pocket, figuring it was safer with her than the trigger-happy Minotaur. “You know I don’t have experience cracking safes.”

  “I’m sending Ghost with something to help you guys,” said Oscar.

  As if on cue, Ghost appeared in the doorway and handed her a small drill. “Oscar said you might need this. We probably should’ve assumed the cards would be locked up somewhere.”

  “And we’re sure this will be enough to break in?” asked Christina, hiding the drill in the small of her back.

  “I guess we’re about to find out,” Ghost shrugged, closing the ship’s door.

  Chapter 8

  It took Christina a bit to find General Trent’s room again. She walked by Port 1 several times before finally asking Oscar for help. The robot got Blazer to poke his head out of the right room and waved her
in.

  Trent’s room was fairly large, housing several comfortable seats, couches, and a big bed. There were hardly any decorations up, which didn’t surprise Christina. She knew the generals were constantly having to move from one base or ship to another, so they didn’t waste much time setting up personal items.

  “About time you get here,” said Viper, popping up from underneath a wooden desk in the side room. “Oscar’s been failing at telling us how to break into this thing.”

  “It’s not my fault the two of you can’t follow simple directions,” came Oscar’s voice in all of their ears.

  “We’ve been following your instructions,” argued Blazer. “The safe just isn’t cracking!”

  Christina walked around to the side of the desk, where a work tablet sat next to a framed picture of General Trent and a pretty woman. Below the desk was a small, black safe.

  “What’s the plan?” asked Christina.

  “You’ve got a drill,” said Oscar. “Use it.”

  “Won’t General Trent notice a hole in his safe?” asked Viper. “I thought we weren’t supposed to damage any of this stuff?”

  “The drill absorbs the material it digs into,” explained the robot. “When you’re done, you select the other option and it will fill the hole back in.”

  “Woah, it’ll perfectly fix it?” asked Blazer.

  “Of course not,” laughed Oscar. “But it’ll be able to trick him for at least a few days, if not weeks or months. By the time he notices it, he’ll have no idea when someone broke into it.”

  Blazer and Viper tilted the safe up at an angle for Christina to drill into. They hoped by picking a part of the box that General Trent wouldn’t see would buy them some more time.

  “This is heavy,” complained Viper. “How long is this gonna take?”

  “It’s not looking good,” said Christina, pushing as hard into the safe as she could with the drill. It was making a lot of noise, but it was hardly making a dent in it.

  “It might take an hour or two,” said Oscar.

  “Are you serious?!” groaned Viper.

  “What, do you think safes are easy to just drill into?” scoffed Oscar. “Their whole purpose is to not let you get what’s inside!”

  For the next half hour, Christina and Viper took turns drilling and helping Blazer hold the safe up. The cyborg wasn’t having much of a problem with the weight, but he grew more and more anxious as time ticked away. Christina couldn’t blame him. She was worried that the General’s meeting could end any minute.

  When they were about halfway into the safe, they heard a shifting noise from the front of the room.

  “The door just opened!” whispered Viper, her turn holding the safe. “Should we kill whoever’s coming?”

  “That’ll cause us to fail!” whispered Blazer, frantically shaking his head.

  “Hide!” ordered Oscar.

  Blazer ran for a closet door on the other side of the room while Viper dove underneath the bed. Christina hesitated, unsure if she should follow one of them or find a hiding place of her own.

  “What are you doing in my office?!” demanded General Trent, pulling out his blaster with incredible speed and holding it towards Christina.

  “Um…” said Christina, quickly putting the drill in the small of her back and looking around the room for inspiration.

  “Maybe flirt with him?” offered Oscar.

  Christina really didn’t want to, but she also really didn’t want to get shot. She lowered her arms and smiled at the General. “I, uh, I thought you wanted to spend some more time with me?”

  “What gave you that impression?” demanded Trent.

  “Well, you seemed very eager to remember how you knew me,” giggled Christina. “I was very flattered that a general would spend so much effort on me.”

  “So you thought you’d sneak into my room?” asked General Trent.

  “It… it seemed like a good idea, at the time,” shrugged Christina.

  General Trent let out an annoyed sigh but holstered his blaster. “I should bring up charges against you for breaking into my room. However, I’d rather not have it on the record that a subordinate believed I was trying to seduce them. The wife would be furious with me if she heard such a rumor.”

  “I-I understand,” said Christina, inching toward the front. “I’ll get out of your hair.”

  The General nodded and walked toward his bed. The man suddenly stood up straight and paused.

  “Wait… I know your voice now…” he said slowly. “Of course! You’re the Emp-”

  Christina fired Tundra’s blaster as quickly as she could, hitting the General in the back before he could finish his sentence. The man collapsed where he stood, and quickly started snoring.

  “Not fair!” shouted Viper, scurrying out from under the bed. “Christina got to shoot a general!”

  “It just put him to sleep,” explained Christina, quickly searching General Trent. “He’ll forget what happened in the last hour. We can move him to his bed in a minute.”

  “What are you looking for, Null?” asked Blazer.

  “Hopefully he has a key for the safe,” said Christina, coming up empty on his left side.

  “There isn’t a keyhole,” he said, shaking his head. “We’ll still have to-”

  “Wait a minute,” said Christina, pulling out several data cards from the General’s pocket. “I think this is what we’re looking for!”

  “What?!” cried Viper. “So we’ve been working on this stupid safe for nothing!”

  Blazer grabbed the cards from Christina and started putting them through the copier handheld. “All that matters is we got what we came here for.”

  “You’ve got the cards?” asked Oscar. “Great job!”

  “Get the ship ready to leave,” said Christina. “We should be back in a few minutes.”

  “Um, I’m afraid it’ll be a bit longer than that,” said Oscar.

  “Why?”

  “You need to fill in the hole you made, remember?”

  “Ugh!” growled Viper, dragging her fingers down her face. “This mission is the worst!”

  Chapter 9

  The five of them waited for Ghost and Wisp to bring them in for debriefing. As far as they knew, everything had gone well. They had the cards, they weren’t chased by any Imperial ships, and they hadn’t been yelled at by anyone. Minotaur had met up with Tundra and gave him his blaster back, thanking him for its use and promising to pay for the ammo they used. Tundra was happy to hear that he had helped them. Valkyrie was not, and most of the other units could hear her yelling at him from all over the Training Academy.

  Everyone was quiet as they waited to hear from Wisp and Ghost. The waiting room was surprisingly large, with a water station and one side and a screen showing reruns of old sitcoms in the middle. The five of them sat relatively close together, no one saying anything or really paying attention to the show. Christina was just as curious as the others to hear if their mission had been as successful as she hoped it was.

  After a half hour of waiting, Christina walked across the room to get some water.

  “Good job taking care of General Trent,” mumbled Oscar, appearing next to her. “That could’ve gone south in a hurry.”

  “I can’t believe he almost recognized my voice,” she nodded, glancing back to make sure the other three weren’t listening in.

  “I can’t believe he bothers to learn everyone’s name that he works with,” scoffed Oscar. “As if that personal touch really makes people work harder.”

  “I mean… it does,” said Christina.

  Oscar ignored her. “I hope they’ll be able to tell us what’s on those cards we copied. The Emperor will be really happy to hear what we got ahold of.”

  Before Christina could figure out a way to change the robot’s mind about talking to her father, Viper called out to them.

  “What are you two gossiping about?!” she asked.

  “Nothing!” said Christina.


  “You!” said Oscar at the same time.

  “Me?” asked Viper, tilting her head to the side. “What about me?”

  Christina shot Oscar a glare, but the robot floated ahead of her as they joined the others again.

  “Just that I’ve got to stop showing you all of Null’s embarrassing toddler videos,” sighed Oscar. “She argued that since she did all that work getting the cards and occupying General Trent’s time, we owe her as much.”

  “It’s not my fault I didn’t get to do any of the fighting!” pouted Viper, looking away from the others.

  “There wasn’t really fighting per se,” said Oscar, trying to lift her spirits. “All they did was put a few people to sleep.”

  “I’m surprised it worked so well,” admitted Blazer. “I figured we’d screw it up at some point.”

  “We did almost run out of rounds in that Z model,” said Minotaur.

  “We… We did?” asked Christina, embarrassed that she hadn’t noticed.

  “Yeah,” nodded the Durgak. “You used the last round.”

  Christina blanched. If she had somehow missed General Trent, this all would’ve gone much worse. Her worst fears of him recognizing her would’ve come true and everything would’ve been a bust. She had no idea everything hinged on her making that shot, and was glad she didn’t have to think about the added pressure.

  “Excuse me,” said the robotic receptionist. “Wisp will see you now.”

  The five of them went into the back and found Wisp and Ghost standing over the hologram table. The cards had been plugged into the top of the table, and several letters and numbers were cycling through above them.

  “Well?” asked Blazer as they finished entering. “Any news?”

  “I’m happy to report that we’ve not picked up any signs that we were spotted on the mission,” smiled Ghost. “Their ship is still out there and no hostile moves have been made toward Fruna or anywhere else.”

  Minotaur breathed a big sigh of relief.

  “What were you so nervous about?” Christina asked him.

  “I thought they might’ve remembered us when they woke up,” he said, his face turning dark purple.