by Dan Decker
At least I finally know why I didn’t see any vehicles here. They were just underground. I was surprised there were no land-based vehicles, but maybe there was another hangar where they were kept.
This was kept hidden to keep recruits like me from wanting to run at the first opportunity.
The transport ships were similar to the one that was still burning up on the surface. If I listened, I could hear the roar even down here.
“If we had these all along, why didn’t we use them against the grenlings?” I asked, the question slipping out before I had a chance to think better of it.
Roth looked at me and did not answer. She touched her ear.
“Anybody here?” Roth called out.
When she did not get a reply, she answered my question.
“These ships aren’t armed with the type of weapons that we need to take out a grenling. The weapons they have are not very useful. Though after the events of the last few days, I expect that will change in the future.” She shrugged. “Of course, it does not look like we’re going to be on this planet much longer, so perhaps it’s a moot point.” She walked over to a bank of computers. “Now be quiet, I need to figure out what’s going on.”
I gave her a curious look. When had she tried to communicate with somebody else?
She touched her ear a moment ago.
That was what the soldier outside of Roth’s office had done to create a protective bubble to communicate without being overheard. I assumed that Roth had done the same thing and that I had just not noticed.
I watched as she touched the computer screen and brought up a list of options, she moved so quick I did not have time to comprehend what she was doing. I was fascinated by the computer. When I took a step forward to get a better look, Roth looked over her shoulder and glared at me.
I stepped back and examined the underground bay instead. There was space for three transports and it looked like the only way out was to either climb up the ladder or take a transport.
Or use anti-grav boots.
I pressed the buttons on my watch, but they still did not engage. That was one thing I would talk to Roth about as soon as I thought she might listen.
A bank of computer screens drew my eye. I had taken several steps towards them but stopped when I saw what they were.
Security cameras.
The screens rotated through footage, coming from locations all over camp.
I had not seen a single camera up above.
I checked over my shoulder to make sure Roth was not looking at me, and then continued to watch as the screens rotated. There were not just dozens of cameras, there were hundreds, and all of them rotated every ten to fifteen seconds. There was at least half a dozen inside the brig.
Did somebody watch me get attacked by the crocks?
They did nothing.
I muttered a curse when I realized that somebody must also have seen the attack by that flying creature outside the ravine.
My hands clenched into fists.
When Roth had killed Jeffords, I had started to believe that perhaps my conspiracy fears were unfounded. But seeing this place, it set them stirring anew. It seemed like I was not so far off in some of my guesses after all.
They saw everything I had done at the brig, and did nothing. They saw everything I had done on the battlefield, and did nothing.
When Roth had called down here, she had expected people to be manning the station and had been surprised when they had abandoned their post. It was not much of a stretch to believe that during the entire battle with the grenlings, somebody had been sitting here monitoring the situation.
Perhaps, because this was a training environment, they were under orders to monitor but not intercede.
I shook my head, wondering who else had known about this place. Jeffords had known. He had told us to organize on the south side of camp, it had been his intention to get into the transport and leave. He had just waited until after he’d ordered me to do a lap.
He had wanted to save the others and let me die, but it had worked out in reverse.
It’s funny how things sometimes happen, I am glad now that he ordered me to run a lap.
I checked on Roth again, hoping to have control of my anger by the time she realized what I had figured out, but she was still focused on the computer consul and had not given me a second glance after warning me to step back.
I turned back to the security cameras, wondering just how many of my actions had been caught by them.
In the battle with the grenlings, had the security guards been so focused on the battle that they had not paid attention to me? Or was there something to my concern that it had been a test?
Another thought occurred to me.
Jeffords’ apparent disclosure of information about the camp which he had pretended to be against the rules had almost certainly been caught on camera too. If he had known about the transports, he would’ve known about the security guards watching these videos.
He had been playing with me, just as I had expected.
No big surprise there.
I let out a long breath and thought about how readily Roth had killed Jeffords, trying to calm my nerves.
In the end she had done what I had wanted to do but had not because I had been afraid of the consequences.
Another wave of relief flowed through me when I realized that if I had left Jeffords on the battlefield to fend for himself, they would have known about it.
I was glad again for the choice I had made.
It had been an instinct and the memory of my wife that had made me help Jeffords.
I had made my choice as if expecting somebody else to learn what I had done. That was something I had tried to do as an attorney and it appeared to be a good mindset here too.
Assume somebody is always watching because they probably are.
Even though that was a paranoid thought, it appeared well-founded for my present environment.
Knowing the level of monitoring that had been going on also helped me discard some of my wilder conspiracy theories.
This place was messed up, no doubt, but there had to be a rhyme and reason to the full organization; otherwise, it would fall apart.
Hopefully, my experience and situation were out of the ordinary.
Roth’s unequivocal execution of Jeffords had given me some faith in the circumstances in which I now found myself. It also helped that I was slowly coming to terms with the fact that there was no way out of this.
I was stuck here.
I had to deal with the situation as I found it.
A faint hope still burned deep inside me that I would find my family. As much as I wanted to always keep them top of mind, my passion to find them had got in the way of making sure I kept a level head.
It was time for that to change.
Roth’s words broke into my thoughts. “We have been attacked by two lurker carriers.”
“What does that mean for us?” I asked.
“It means this planet is finished. The lurkers don’t leave much behind.”
She must have seen the look on my face as I imagined the entire planet being destroyed because she continued. “With time, the resources will all be consumed by the lurkers. Everybody is going to abandon this world by tomorrow or risk being caught.”
“There is not a way to fight back?”
“Not with this many on hand. Our chief tactic—” she gave me an appraising look as if wondering if she were saying too much “—to this point has been guerrilla warfare. Most are not aware of what’s going on in the day-to-day of the war.”
“What happened to earth?”
Roth hesitated and then muttered something I didn’t catch. “Earth was consumed a long time ago. It is now a vast wasteland.” She held my gaze, unflinching and without blinking. I returned it even though I was starting to feel uncomfortable and could not help but remember how we’d had a similar exchange when we first met. In that meeting, I had been about to break the gaze wh
en she had given in first.
“I know you found that old bible,” she said at last. “I’m sorry you had to learn the truth about it that way, but it has been hundreds of years since earth was abandoned.”
“Why the deception?”
“We have learned to introduce things slowly. We tried at first to let people know that they were now hundreds of years in the future but it did not go over well. The people who initially thought that just a few years had passed fared better.”
“You lied out the gate.”
“For good reason. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have the stable system we have here.”
“I have to believe if you would have told me the truth upon awaking—”
“You would have gone crazy just like everybody else.” She gave me a searching look. “Do you mean to tell me that you have not thought earnestly about returning to your family this whole time? What if you had learned right upon awaking that they were dead, not just for a few years, but for centuries? That your whole life had passed you by and that everyone you ever knew was dead? That you had missed everything?” She shook her head. “How would you have responded? Trust me, we’ve been through this and have looked at this every which way. We hate the fact that we must engage in such deception, but so far, it’s been the only way forward.”
She came a step closer. “I’m sorry you had to find out the way you did, we generally introduce the topic a little bit better than somebody stumbling upon the truth, but to be frank, I don’t have time to coddle you. I don’t know if any of the lurkers are going to come back, their tactics and strategies at times appear quite erratic, so we have to get outta here if you’re done playing twenty questions.”
“Where do we go from here?”
“It is time for us to abandon the planet, I have reported in but haven’t—”
She touched a finger to her ear and went silent, turning her back to me so I couldn’t tell if she was speaking.
I was taken aback by her sudden willingness to answer questions, but at the same time, I was certain there was still vital information that she held back.
This is like an onion.
Every layer is going to bring something new.
18
To: Brigadier General Katrina Roth
From: Lieutenant General John Lincoln
Log date: 00429.211-10:49:13
Re: Package Request
General Roth,
I am not sure what you are talking about. Can you please provide me with further information?
Lieutenant General John Lincoln
19
Roth still had her back to me, so I wandered around the hangar, hoping to learn something useful. It was good to finally get some answers from Roth, but I now had more questions.
In the end, Roth had made it clear that she was done talking and even getting a little impatient.
My instincts told me that this information was what Jeffords had promised right as the invasion had commenced.
I had been further inducted into the organization by the disclosure of this information.
It must mean she trusts me now.
Or she just doesn’t care anymore.
When I came to a row of rifles, I could not help but feel chagrined that others had been trained on them right away while my outfit had not.
Jeffords was to blame for that and he was no longer alive. I needed to let it go.
There was a bathroom, complete with a shower, and a small kitchen. Beside the kitchen was a bunk room with six cots. This appeared to be a self-contained living environment for the people monitoring the soldiers.
The hangar answered some of my questions about the camp, but not all.
I looked for more answers as I made my way around the hangar, trying to act nonchalant. Roth had made it clear that we were going to leave, but I expected to find similar setups in other worlds. I wanted to make the most of understanding this one while I could.
My eyes kept going back to the bank of security monitors from wherever I was in the hangar, the questions about what these people had been doing down here coming to mind again and again.
Had they known exactly what was going on with Jeffords the whole time?
More importantly, had Roth known?
Round and round the questions went. I initially tried to set them aside, hoping that one day I might find answers, because Roth was not likely to answer anything else today. She had already given me far more than I thought I was going to get and it was best to be happy with that for the moment.
My breath froze in my chest when I came around the side of a transport ship.
Another alien creature.
It was metallic and fierce looking. It had done nothing when I appeared. I stepped forward to get a better view inside the room where it was located.
It suddenly dawned on me what this was. I glanced over at Roth, but she was not looking my direction.
After another look at her, I went inside.
The room was filled with suits.
These were not the spacesuits I had become accustomed to thinking of when NASA sent people into space.
These were a class all their own.
They were meant for battle.
If they had one big enough for me, it would add to my already considerable stature. The suit itself was about eight feet tall. My eyes narrowed when I wondered if I could fit inside one. The next suit was a different size.
Do they make one big enough for me?
The suits were positioned so a soldier could get inside quickly.
If the suit had not been open, I might have gone back to Roth and reported we were not alone in the cavern. I was glad I had gone towards the source of my concern, rather than turning away from it.
In fact, that was a metaphor for this place.
It was the approach I needed.
Immediate assumptions about this world can get a guy killed.
They wanted people that learned for themselves, that did things without having to be told, that understood because they had learned the hard way.
I had not seen anybody training in these suits, so I figured that this was something that we were trained on later, probably after they were certain we were not going to go crazy.
“I see you found the suits.”
I looked back at Roth. “When do I get trained on these?”
“Normally, it would not be for several months yet. Unfortunately for you, it is gonna start right now.”
She paused.
“Suit up.”
20
To: Lieutenant General John Lincoln
From: Brigadier General Katrina Roth
Log date: 00429.211-11:01:02
Re: Package Request
General Lincoln,
I am coming for it myself. Please make sure your men don’t abandon Camp Myers until I have it.
Brigadier General Katrina Roth
P.S. It is vital to you, me, and all of humanity that I get that package.
21
I looked at her face, expecting a smile or at least a dark chuckle to tell me she was joking, but there was nothing there. The piece of equipment in front of me looked like it was far more sophisticated than I was capable of handling on the spur of the moment. While it was true the anti-grav boots had been easy enough to learn, I doubted that the suit would work as well as that.
“Excuse me?” The question slipped out before I had a chance to stop myself, and I inwardly admonished myself for showing hesitation.
“You and I have been ordered to go to Camp Myers.”
“Why—” I cleared my throat. “What is our mission?”
Roth gave an approving nod as if she realized what I had done.
“That is classified and you should never speak about what we do today. Suffice it to say, I am going to need your help, and the only way you are going to survive is if you wear one of these.”
I looked at the rows of suits and then back at her.
“Which should I use?”
“The suit adjusts to fit the man, just like your hat.”
I hesitated and she smiled without mirth.
“Today you learn by fire.” She tilted her head to the side and gave me a weird look. “That is how you have been learning anyway, at least if I understand how Jeffords was training you.”
This finally seemed like the right opportunity to ask a couple questions about Jeffords.
I opened my mouth but saw that Roth looked as if she expected such questions and did not want to entertain them right now.
I hesitated but only for a moment. She was not going to give me any more answers.
“I would not have it any other way,” I said.
“Attaboy.”
The moment of tension passed.
Roth walked over to the first suit and put her watch up to the base of the neck. The suit spat out a question.
“Authorization code?”
Roth rattled off a number that was so quick I could not memorize all of it. I did catch the first six digits, though, so I committed them to memory.
“Who requests access?”
“Kathryn Roth.”
“Authorization granted.”
Roth pointed into the middle. “Step inside.”
I looked from the suit to Roth and then back to the suit again. It had been made for a man who was about five feet tall even though it was over eight feet itself.
I stepped up.
The suit adjusted and expanded until the space inside had grown so that it would fit me. The outer height and width of the suit expanded as well, making the suit more than nine feet tall. I tried to determine if the skin of the suit had stretched, but it looked the same to me.
I started to turn around, intending to step in backward, when Roth spoke up.
“Step into it, face forward.”