by J W Murison
‘No sir.’
‘Your remarks were racist to say the least, and you turned the air blue. That kind of language will not be tolerated outside your own private quarter’s sergeant, nor will any form of racism, neither here nor when you return home.’
‘I ain't racist sir.’
‘Really you’re not!’
‘Hell no sir, white, black, yellar I've killed them all sir.’
Howe burst out laughing and Steven went red in the face. ‘I don’t find that funny colonel.’
‘I am sorry sir it’s an old soldiers joke.’
‘Still not laughing colonel,’ he turned his attention back to the sergeant who seemed a little amused at his own wit, even if he was trying to hide it. ‘Back home remarks like the ones you have made here will land you with six months in jail sergeant, but here I have only one punishment and it involves an airlock and no space suit.’
‘Holy shit!’
‘Language, there is a lady present.’
He snapped to attention again, ‘sorry sir,’ he nodded towards Komoru, ‘sorry Ma’am.’
Steven leaned forward, ‘an old spaceships captain’s joke sergeant.’
Kelly took a deep breath, ‘I am sorry sir, it’s just been very hard. Yesterday I was fighting for my life on a hill in Korea and today.’ He shrugged, ‘I don’t have the words, I'm sorry sir.’
Steven relented a little, ‘I am not unsympathetic to your situation sergeant, despite what you might think. All of the military men on board these two ships are Special Forces and all have seen combat. I am sure you have probably clocked up more time in battle than most of them put together, but they too have faced the same dangers, lost friends and live with their own personal demons on a daily basis. The gulf between your world, your time, and this is immense. You won’t fully understand that until you reach home.’
He flicked up a screen, ‘the pentagon sent me your file sergeant. Your combat record is beyond reproach. The part that covers your personal conduct however reads like a herd of goats stumbling through a minefield. It reads to me like you have seen too much combat sergeant and you can no longer cope with what comes with a normal life. I do have one piece of good news for you, two in fact. You have living relatives, although your brother passed away a long time ago. They knew about you and are delighted to hear that you are alive and can’t wait to meet you. The pentagon has also told me that you will receive full pay at today’s present rates for all the time you have been here; from your day of abduction to the day you return home. Congratulations sergeant, you are a very wealthy man, even by today’s standards. You will also receive a full pension at today’s rates when you reach home.’
He looked shocked, ‘they gonna retire me?’
‘You were due to retire anyway weren’t you?’
His eyes turned shifty, ‘in a couple of year’s sir.’
‘In that case sergeant it would seem you have only one battle left to fight and that’s the one with your own foul mouth. I may not toss you out of the airlock but I will shove you in one of those pods until we reach Earth if your bad behaviour persists. Now get out of my sight.’
‘One thing more sir.’
‘What is it?’
‘I hear you are packing up the bodies you have found so far.’
‘Yes we are, why?’
‘I did my part with the graves registration sir, I can help with those people, probably cope with it a lot better than some of yours. It will also get me out of this light.’
‘OK sergeant, if you want to work I won’t stop you.’ Stevens eyes flicked across the room, ‘Colonel Howe he can join the doctor.’
‘Yes sir.’
Kelly took a step back and saluted. Steven shook his head, ‘I'm not military sergeant, no need to salute me.’
‘I know sir.’
The men filed out and Steven joined Komoru on the couch; Buzz followed. Steven sat down with a sigh, ‘that wasn’t pleasant.’
Buzz grinned, ‘you gave it to him straight and I think he respected that.’
‘What is the latest tally Buzz?’
‘One thousand three hundred and twenty seven living. Nine hundred chambers with body parts.’
‘When are we going to start reviving them Steven?’ Komoru asked.
‘We aren’t.’
‘Why not, we should be doing it right now.’
‘We are months away from Earth at top speed Komoru; how the hell are we going to feed them all?’
She blinked, ‘oh how stupid of me. Then what are we going to do?’
‘I have no idea, there was a large freighter in the graveyard. It would hold every one of them. I am going to get Matt to investigate it with one of the pilots. Maybe if it will fly we can convert it to haul those canisters. After Sergeant Kelly’s reaction I think I would far rather have them revived at home. We will have to revive those from the pod though. Babe’s assures me it would be easy to transfer the other canisters to the freighter, she would just beam them across. We could set up an independent power source to keep them powered up. Each cylinder has emergency backup power for about three weeks, so there is no danger of them quitting on us before we can connect them back up.’
‘Sounds like a plan to me,’ Buzz agreed.
‘We also need to check out that Battle Cruiser. If we can, we will get it back to Earth.’
‘Then what!’ Buzz asked.
‘We give it to the Space Corps for the defence of the Earth.’
‘I thought you didn’t want to do anything like that?’
‘No I didn’t, but we have little choice now. Earth is going to have to grow up fast. Whether it likes it or not; or we like it or not.’
Buzz stood, ‘I will get some of the ladies to grab some clothes and revive the women from that transport pod. Rather they did it that some hairy arsed leering scientist.’
They all laughed knowing he meant the soldiers, ‘great idea Buzz.’
‘I will get to it.’
Komoru sat and stared at him for a moment then she launched herself into his arms and held him tight. The contact barely lasted thirty seconds and then she stood up and almost ran from the room. ‘What was that for,’ he asked silently aware that his body was tingling from head to toe.
‘Oh nothing, I just needed a cuddle.’ Her words whispered in his inner ear.
Steven found himself grinning stupidly at his reflection. ‘Glad to be of service.’ He burst out laughing.
Babes decided she needed to have a word with him. ‘You need to rest my heart; you have been up for 48 hours.’
‘I am OK Babes. No time to rest just now, too much to do.’
‘You are becoming dehydrated.’
He sighed, ‘OK I will have a quick coffee before I get going again.’
He sat down on his couch with the coffee and barely had a sip from the hot mug before his eyes began to close, ‘what are you doing Babes?’ Was all he was able to say before she knocked him out. Then she locked all his doors and warned both crews to leave him be.
Chapter 10
Amanda was feeling the pressure when Colonel Howe arrived with the big sergeant. ‘How’s it going Doc?’
She smiled grimly, ‘very slow colonel; what can I do for you?’
‘Sergeant Kelly here is looking for work; he is going snow blind on board ship.’
She sighed, ‘this isn’t pleasant work sergeant; do you think you are up to it?’
Kelly looked round at all of her helpers; most were pale and here and there some were puking into bags; ‘with respect ma’am, I am a lot more up to it than you or any of your people. I came through the Second World War and Korea and have done my time with the graves registration.’
‘Wow!’ Was all Amanda could think of to say for a moment then she had an idea. ‘In that case sergeant I am going to put you in charge of this operation. I am up to my ears in work at the moment, nor have I slept in thirty hours or eaten much of anything. I will tell the people you are in charge. Come with me I
will show you what we are doing. I am sure some of it will be beyond your comprehension, basically instead of paper we use electronic devices to record on. We have no idea of who these people are or were, so they will be given a number and tagged. Once we get them to Earth it will be up to the authorities to try and identify them.’
‘I understand ma’am.’
‘Once as much details of the person as we have has been recorded, i.e. weight, height sex, approximate age etc. Has been recorded, a label will go onto the bag and then the ship will take care of the body, don’t worry about that. Your job will be to organise the people and get this done as quickly as possible.’
The sergeant quickly took over and under his direction things began to speed up. There was a lot of discussion about what the captain was going to do with the bodies. No one liked the idea of carrying them to Earth and the sergeant had DNA explained to him. A sample was taken from every body and filed with the appropriate number. He was amazed the first time he saw a body bag disappear and the process was explained to him. He didn’t understand the science behind it, but he could believe what his eyes told him. They spoke a lot about their job and what they had found. They also talked a lot about the crews of the ships and the captains. Kelly absorbed it all like a sponge.
After about ten hours of packing bodies away they were told to stop. Few were inclined to eat but the sergeant insisted that they did so. After the crew disappeared to their bunks for a well-earned rest Kelly decided to do a little exploration of his own. With no one to tell him differently he began to search the top tier of the alien structure. He knew exactly what he was looking for and found it at the far end of the complex. The room was just as he remembered it with lines of metal tables. They were covered in a fine black dust now, but when he ran a finger over one the metal beneath shone bright.
Large screens cluttered the walls and below sat square tall metal units. The sergeant opened one to find weird instruments, one of which he recognised. Beside each metal table there was a bin and the sergeant quickly guessed what they were for. He gave one a push and to his amazement it moved freely; not only that it never stopped until it hit the wall, then the damnedest thing happened. The wall opened and the bin tipped into a hole. It paused for a few seconds then popped upright again before returning to the table. The sergeant went over to the wall and gave it a kick; the wall swung inwards and a strange smell reached his nostrils.
‘Bingo.’ He retrieved one of the long metal units and managed to balance it so that the wall stayed open. It was then that Lewis found him.
‘Hey what you doing Sarge? You supposed to be resting.’
‘Doing a little exploring Lewis; don’t happen to have a rope and a flashlight handy do you?’
‘Can git them ifin you want Sarge; what kind of rope?’
‘Good strong climbing rope.’
Lewis peered down the dark hole and sniffed, ‘dat stinks, what's down there?’
‘What I want to find out.’
Lewis shrugged, ‘why man?’
‘Some of the crew says the captains been thinking of reviving some of those folks but he is short of clothes and stuff.’
‘Yup, I suppose so.’
‘That there Lewis is the smell of dirty laundry.’
‘Oh yeah I git you Sarge. I will go get some rope and a torch.’
He wasn’t gone long and they tied off the rope to a leg on one of the tables. ‘Want me to come Sarge?’
‘Later Lewis, I need you to make sure that unit don’t shift and cut my rope.’
‘Yeah I git you Sarge.’ Lewis tossed in a few round cylinders; they floated in the air and spread out. They revealed a long and broad hole that spread right along the wall. Lewis had to show him how to use the modern equipment with the thin rope but he soon got the hang of it and disappeared into the darkness below. It didn’t take him long to reach the pile and he stood upon it as the lights descended above him and revealed it all to him. He found himself standing on a mountain of clothing and equipment and he began to rummage. It only took a few minutes to discover what he was looking for. He had never seen a gas filled lighter before but it didn’t take a genius to work out what it was for. He carefully took a cigarette from a packet and lit one up. The nicotine rush went straight to his head and he had to sit down.
‘Oh wow that is good.’
‘Did you say something Sarge?’
‘No Lewis I’m fine.’
‘Wot u found?’
‘A mountain of clothing Lewis and by the looks of it I would say there were more than two thousand people here at one time.’
‘Yeah u sure Sarge?’
‘Very sure Lewis,’ then he added quietly to himself, ’very sure.’
Once he was able to stand again he began to rummage through the piles. He noticed there were distinct layers by the type of clothing in the mountain. He picked up a floral shirt and held it up in disgust. ‘Jezz, hope they still ain't wearing these.’
Lewis pondered Kelly's words for a few moments. He knew Steven was up now and sent a message to him. It wasn’t long before he and Buzz appeared. ‘What have you found Lewis?’
‘Taint me suh, it was the Sarge. He has found all those folks clothing and says there's much more than we think there is.’ Steven and Buzz took a sniff and both reeled back.
‘Please don’t tell me you want to go down there Stevie.’
‘I'm going.’
‘Do I have to?’
‘Nope.’
Buzz sighed, ‘do you have a descender for me Lewis?’
‘Yeah sure Buzz got half a dozen.’
The two men let themselves down. They found Kelly sitting smoking with a strange look on his face; he contemplated the pair of them as they looked round in astonishment. He also had a recognisable weapon in his hands and was wearing full combat gear.
Steven suddenly grinned, ‘I see you found those smokes you were after Sarge; you enjoying that?’
‘You have no idea sir.’
‘Watch you don’t set this lot up.’
‘I'm being careful. May I ask you a question sir?’
Steven shrugged, ‘fire away.’
‘Heard say you were thinking of leaving some of those bodies here, burying them somewhere and returning them home later.’
‘To hold all these bodies we are going to have to considerably increase the size of the ship. So it’s certainly an option.’
‘You can’t do it sir, you can’t leave anyone here.’
‘I understand you may have friends here Sarge but really that’s a choice I may well have to make.’
‘Ain't because of my friend’s sir it’s because of the enemy.’
Steven frowned and crossed his arms, ‘OK Sarge, run me through your reasoning.’
‘Why do you think the enemy have left so many cadavers and body pieces sir?’
‘A couple of reasons come to mind Sarge, the first is to provide serum, but from what I can find out I think they need a full body.’
‘Maybe they haven’t a way of disposing of the bodies,’ Buzz suggested.
Kelly shook his head, ‘ain't that sir, they certainly have a way of disposing of the bodies.’
‘How the hell do you know that?’ Buzz snapped. Kelly's eyes went cold and he simply took a long drag of his cigarette. Even Steven was surprised. Buzz immediately regretted his outburst; he ran a hand through his hair, ‘I'm sorry Sarge. It has been a long day.’
Kelly nodded and reached behind him. He tossed a small bundle at Buzz. Buzz unwrapped a garment from the bundle. ‘This is a kid’s jacket.’
‘And the rest of it, I heard tell you ain't found no kids at all.’
‘Oh shit!’ Buzz tossed the bundle away from himself. The Sarge laughed.
‘What was it?’ Steven asked.
‘Shit!’
‘Uh!’
‘Shit, a kid’s diaper.’
‘Oh right,’ Steven laughed.
‘Here’s something else.’ Kelly tossed anoth
er larger bundle.
Steven caught it and unwrapped it and frowned, ‘don’t get it this time Sarge.’
‘Look in the jacket pocket sir, there is an Id.’
Steven fished it out and frowned. ‘It’s an Id right enough; still don’t get what you are at Sarge.’
‘Doc told me every body they have found deceased or alive is in the prime of their life. That Id belongs to an old guy.’ The two men were struggling to come to terms with what Kelly was saying. ‘I've seen this kind of thing before.’
Buzz was beginning to get fed up, ‘seen what before man?’
‘This,’ he gestured, ‘this mountain of clothing and personal items from people.’
Buzz still didn’t get it, ’where?’
‘Auschwitz.’
The two men stood frozen in horror, Buzz looked at Steven then back to Kelly, ‘you were there?’
‘Yup, and I seen this kind of thing before. Separate the men from the women, the young and the old. You dispose of the young and the old. Of course they could take a few tips from the Nazis, their piles were far better ordered. On the subject of Nazis, you had better see this as well.’ He tossed a tunic at Steven, ‘check out the collar dog’s sir.’
‘Oh shit!’ He showed them to Buzz.
‘Is that what I think it is?’
They both looked at Kelly, ‘Waffen SS, they were the fighting branch of the SS. I also found some Japanese uniforms as well.’
Steven suddenly saw it all, ‘they have been disposing of those they don’t need, so you are saying every one of those bodies they can use to make serum.’
‘Yup, that’s the way I see it captain. You can’t make a gift of even one corpse to those things.’
‘You’re right Sarge, we can’t make a gift of a single body. Somehow we will get them to Earth with us. We could also use some of these clothes. Babe’s has very little material to make clothes from. If we need to waken up some of those people then they will need something to wear.’
‘What I want to know is where the hell did you get a Thompson sub machinegun from Sarge? Buzz inquired.
Kelly grinned, ‘This here is Mary Beth, the first and second love of my life. Both have a fearsome bark and can bring any man to his knees.’