by Rob Buckman
"And if I can't turn this device off, or destroy it?”
"The planet is similar to your own. Oxygen, nitrogen atmosphere, animal life, jungle. If you can't turn it off, you would be no worse off there, than if you were in prison here.” If the General thought that was a telling point, he was wrong.
“Captain. Ask the Sub-Major to come in.”
“Yes, Sir.” Captain Carras answered.
While they waited, Penn thought about Tandy’s words. Here, he had a chance to escape, and escape meant he could do more damage to the Empire before they killed him. If the General was telling the truth, which he doubted. Once on the planet surface there would be no escape. But, how did he know that was true? The one constant in all this was, the Empire would lie, steal, cheat, kill, and do anything in its power to get what it wanted. It still left the question of why him, unanswered. Penn brought his attention back to the door, hearing footsteps, light ones, and his nose detected something… Whatever it was it compelled him to turn, feeling as if his system was going into combat mode. Penn sucked in a breath of air as a human female in her early twenties walked into the room. One look at the uniform was enough to bring a savage snarl from Penn. For a moment, he clenched his fist before forcing himself to relax. General Tandy's eyes narrowed, seeing Penn's reaction to the woman as she walked across the carpet toward him and came to attention.
"Sub Major Ellis reporting as ordered, Sir!” The Sub Major snapped a smart salute to the General, who returned it with a dismissive wave, feeling even more uneasy with two humans in the room.
"At easy Sub-Major.”
* * * * * *
Sub Major Ellis took the at ease position, still ramrod straight, her eye fixed on the wall. Not that she was unaware of the other two people in the room. The moment she walked in, she identified the odd scent that bothered her while standing outside waiting for the General's call. Another human, and two males. She dismissed the Oxian Captain, both as a threat, or a friend. Her acute senses of smell locked onto the human. Pheromones can be a bitch, and the one thing she didn't need in her life right now, was some stiff prick macho male asshole sniffing around her like she was a bitch in heat. The fact her body responded to the siren call of the pheromones was something she was fully aware off, promising herself a heavy workout in the base gym as soon as possible. Some poor soul was going to get the crap beaten out of him just so she could work off the surge of energy she felt.
It was bad enough having to put up with non-human asshole's like General Tandy eyeing her up as if she were a piece of meat for them to use. General Tandy's appraisal of her body didn't go unnoticed. Knowing Var and senior officers as she did, she suspected the thoughts behind it.
* * * * * *
“Penn, this is Sub-Major Ellis, the ground Commander for this mission. Sub-Major Ellis, this is Penn, the man you will be… escorting.” He added as if unsure how to phrase it.
Penn's overly keen senses detected her before she entered the room, and it accounted for his unconscious reaction as she walked in. Even with his instant dislike, Penn assessed her quickly with a soldier's eye. An inch over six feet tall, neat, trim figure, small feet, short reddish gold hair, cut short in a military fashion peeking out from under her side hat. Her Imperial undress grays were immaculate tailored to fit her trim body to perfection. The decoration on her ample breast told him that she had a lot of combat experience, more than he would have expected for someone so young. That spoke to a lot of combat experience.
Obviously, Sub-Major Ellis was a hardass who'd worked her way up through the Imperial Military ranks to her present position on talent. It told him a lot about her, and he felt an odd sense of pride that a human, and a woman to boot, could survive in the harsh reality of the Imperial Military establishment, and do as well as she'd obviously had. Unless of course she'd worked her way up on her back, with her legs spread. Looking at her again he decided no, she'd done it the hard way, doubting many men got into her panties. Penn pulling his mind back from the intriguing thought. Her face smooth, clear, olive skin pulled tight over angular bone, square jaw and a small pug nose. All in all, an uncommonly strong face from Penn's point of view. The one thing detracting from her beauty was the harsh stress lines around her mouth, and the almost permanent frown lines between her light gray eyes. She was definitely pissed off about something, and had been for a very long time by the look of it. Combat stress could do that, but Penn felt there was a deep anger, barely suppressed, not unlike himself in some ways.
“And what is Mr. Penn's function, General?” Sub-Major Ellis asked in a crisp tone. General Tandy looked at her a moment, deciding how much to tell her.
“You are the Ground Commander for the mission, and Penn will act as… your scout… your guide and point man.”
“And his expertise in this area?” She asked. The subtext was that he wasn't military, and therefore suspect. She also made it sound as if she were addressing a subordinate, instead of an Imperial General.
“Mr. Penn has... shall we say, a lot of experience in the type of terrain you will encounter.” Ellis cocked a questioning eyebrow at the General.
General Tandy gritted his teeth. What was it about these damn human's that they needed an explanation for everything? Why couldn't they be like other good little indig soldiers and just do what they were ordered, without a lot of questions? Even so, her attitude, and tone of voice intimidate him. Humans called it 'command voice', and it was something he noted before. He wondered for a moment if it was something humans were born with. Penn wasn’t the one eyeing the Sub-Major’s breasts, and even as the General’s eye dropped from her face, they slid sideways to the ribbons. Like any soldier he could read them like an open book, and the story they told, brought home to him again just how dangerous these damn humans were. As young and sexually appealing as she looked, forcibly trying to seduce her would probably be a painful, if not deadly experience. Getting a grip on himself, he brought his attention back to the mission, expelling his vagrant sexual fantasy, back to the depth where it belonged.
“Mr. Penn has, had military experience, and can get the job done.” He growled at last, not wanting to get into an explanation right now. He'd fill her in on the details later, or as much as she needed to know.
“What he means is. I'm a survivor,” Penn interjected, “he's probably thinking you, and whoever else goes on this mission, will be dead real quick, and that I'm the one that can get to the objective.” From the expression on Major Ellis's face, that didn't sit well with her as it called her competence into question.
She gave Penn a dark look as the frown between her eyes deepened. Pheromones work both ways, and Penn cursed his overly acute senses. If she thought her perfume was subtle enough to pass military protocol, she was wrong. He drew in her scent, spicy, lilac… Penn cursed himself, letting his anger take over instead.
"You have a problem with this arrangement, Mr. Penn?”
"Yes! I don't work with traitors for one, and certainly not some stiff necked, cast iron bitch, with a broom handle shoved up her ass, who sells out her own people!” For a moment Penn let the mask of calm slip, and the Tandy saw the raw hatred behind it.
"This is not open for discussion Penn, nor is it a take it or leave it deal.” He growled, red-faced as his anger got the better of him.
Penn saw the muscles of the woman's jaw working, her face coloring slightly as he spoke, seeing General Tandy getting red around the ears, but he didn't care. The more he pissed them off, the better he liked it. He quickly regained his composure, the mask slipping back into place.
“If you are so all fired up to turn this effect off, why don't you just drop a low yield nuke, or a large rock on the building? You people are good at doing that.” The thought of Nairobi, Moscow, and Peking vanishing in a blinding flash of light as the KEW struck came to mind. Only one of them was his fault, but the ghost of 1 million people still haunted him.
“We can't… We don't know for sure if whatever is controlling this gra
vitational effect is controlled from inside the building or not.” Penn heard the words, but the Tandy was hiding something, something vital that he didn't want to tell him.
“So, what is so damn important about this planet? Why go to all this trouble just to find out about some gravitational effect.” General Tandy gritted his teeth, his face going slightly gray. Here it was again, human's asking questions about their orders all the time.
“Christ on a crutch!" Penn continued. "With sufficient contra gravity material you could probably do the same thing…” His voice trailed seeing the expression on Tandy's face.
“That's it, isn't it? This has something to do with contra gravity material… Oh my lord, you've found another source!” All the pieces fell into place, and an intriguing thought struck him. The one thing Earth didn't have was Cg material. Without it, they were forever stuck on Earth. With it, they could build starships, and if they could…
“Damn you Penn!” The General swore bitterly, “yes we have, and you are going to get it for us, or so help me, I'll…” He bit off whatever he was about to add.
Penn nodded. No matter which way you sliced it, or how much he pissed and moaned, that motherless whore running IMPSEC was going to force him to go on the mission. Markoff knew exactly which string to pull. With a slight sigh he half turned to look out the office window composing himself before he asked the question.
"What resources would I have?” He asked as calmly as he possible.
"Anything you want... once you land.” Penn made a sound, half way between a snort and a laugh hearing that. They weren't about to let him near anything lethal until he was out of harm's way, that was a given. At last, Penn shook his head.
"I think I'm better off in my cell.” At least there he knew where he stood, and there was always the possibility of escape.
"What about a pardon? It means you'd go free, anywhere in the Empire, even back to your home world if you want.” Penn dismissed the offer of a pardon as so much bullshit. Once he'd completed this mission, Markoff would drag him back here, unless he could escape again. The intriguing thought struck him again.
If there was an on-off switch to this gravitational effect, whoever controlled it would be in a perfect bargaining position. That answered the question of why he was sending the Sub Major with him. The obvious answer was to make sure he turned this over to the Empire. That brought him back to his present situation, and the possibility of getting out of this room. With armed guards outside, and located as it was inside an Imperial Military base, it did present some difficulty. Not impossible, as several different methods occurred to him, one being fire, and escaping in the smoke and confusion, but the odds weren't in his favor. He'd have to kill, or disable the General, Major Ellis and the Captain, but that shouldn't present too much difficulty. For a moment he thought about killing Tandy. It did have its appeal, but the cost benefit ratio wasn't worth it. He also got the impression of a time element to all this. Something was pressuring Markoff to move, and move on it now. He looked at the situation from every angle, and it all came back to one question, why him?
"How many people have you lost so far, General?” The question caught General Tandy by surprise as he didn't think the animal smart enough to figure it out.
"Three thou…” He said before he could stop himself.
"I see.” Penn did.
It was as if someone had turned a light on in a dark room. Survivability, that’s why they needed him. He was a survivor, as he'd proved time and again. Markoff's thinking was, that out of all the people he knew, he had a better chance of getting in there and figuring out what this thing was than most. If Markoff had lost three thousand people, probably very good people and a lot of ships, this place must be as dangerous as hell. It all made sense now, but there still had to be a catch. Where was the hook? It wasn't the pardon, which was about as real as the tooth fairy.
"I go in with just the Sub Major?” He asked.
"No, I'm sending a team with you. The Captain here for one.” Penn looked at the Captain.
"Tell me, you weren't stupid enough to volunteer for this!” Penn asked. The deepening blush on the Captain's face gave him the answer.
”Christ on a crutch!” Penn muttered. ”Lord protect me from fucking gung-ho volunteers.” Penn squeezing his eye shut, and pinching the bridge of his nose as if he suddenly had a headache. The Captain's brow pulled into a frown, irritated by the young human's words, obviously puzzled by the reference to 'gung-ho'.
"Send me back to my cell. I don't really give a shit!” That was the one thing General Tandy didn't want to hear.
"You don't have an option Penn, you do it, or...” He was going to say something about the hostages but thought better of it with the Major standing there.
"…I'll drop a rock on you!”
The covert threat registered on Penn as he read the sub text. Markoff wanted him alive to do his dirty work, but that wasn't to say there wouldn't be a lot of pain in his future if he didn't go on the mission and the possibility of another city on Earth vanishing in a blinding flash.
"So go ahead,” he said, with all the calmness of someone ordering lunch, yet his insides churned at the thought of more people dying because of him.
“You don't have a choice Penn, you go or else!” General Tandy snapped as his anger got the better of him.
“Yeah right, fuck you, and the Director.” Even as he spoke, Penn knew it was futile, not with Earth held hostage. Sometimes he wished he'd died in the attack on his home along with his mother and father, but he hadn't.
Duty and responsibility is such a bitch, remembering the old adage about mountains and feathers. If he was someone else, someone who didn't give a shit about the people back on Earth, it might be different. He'd scream and yell, but eventually he knew they'd force him to go. He took a step toward Tandy intending to collect a little on the debt the Empire owed, but never got the chance. He made the unforgivable error of not sizing up the situation before he moved.
It was as if Sub-Major Ellis anticipated his action and knew his intent before he’d even started to move, moving even faster before anyone could react. Penn saw her hand blur and almost managed to get out of the path of the stun bolt, but too many days spent sitting in a cell without a chance to exercise properly cut his reaction time down. Part of the stun pulse grazed his leg, slowing him down enough for her to get a second shot into him as he crashed to the floor. He saw a smile on her lips as she pulled the trigger a third time, and just had enough time to say 'bitch!' before the lights went out.
"I believe that ends the discussion, General.” She snapped, replacing her side arm and returning to parade rest.
For a moment no one moved. The Captain looked at her, then Penn, and the General with his side arm half out. He never would have gotten it out before Penn took his head off. Her reaction time was so fast he hadn’t even seen her move, but what amazed him even more was the fact that Penn had almost got out of the way of the stun bolt, and that was blatantly impossible.
"Yes, I would say that puts an end to any more discussions very nicely. Thank you Sub-Major.” General Tandy swallowed carefully, thankful the woman was on his side.
"I'll order the men to cart this piece of trash out of here and we can get on with the mission, with your permission.” Sub-Major Elise hid whatever she thought behind her steel gray eyes.
She'd reacted out of pure instinct, the moment she saw Penn start to move, knowing his intent, even as he did, and did her duty in protecting the General. Her afterthought was that maybe she should have been a little slower. She didn't like the General any better than Penn.
"By all means, Sub-Major. Carry on.” She came to attention, saluting smartly before turning to get the guards outside.
"I begin to see what makes these humans so dangerous, General.” The Captain murmured nervously, his eye flicking between the prone form of Penn, and the retreating back of Sub Major Ellis.
"You don't know the half of it, Captain. Never trust
a hu-man… or wo-man.”
Visibly shuddering as he looked at Penn's prone and Sub-Major Ellis's retreating form. "Don't ever under estimate them, Captain, not even her.” He said softly, nodding toward the retreating female.
CHAPTER - FIVE: Afternoon Tea - Telluria Prime
“What is the status of our operation to secure this mystery planet?” Emperor Cytec II asked softly, eyeing the Director Markoff with a certain degree of distaste. That distaste didn't affect their working relationship. Director Markoff was the perfect person for the job, even if he was a Surl, and the son of a garbage collector. He was soulless and he didn't let inconvenient emotions get in the way of protecting him, or the Empire.
“Very well, your Majesty. The planet is designated Sigma Alpha Prime.” He added, well aware of the Emperor's feeling toward him.
“I do think using humans on this mission is very dangerous however.”
“He is under complete control your Majesty, and knows the consequences should he refuse to follow orders.”