“Oh.”
Vlak snapped his fingers. “What about Ava and Steve for Earth? Nice enough couple.”
“She’s a bit adventurous, don’t you think?”
“True, and he was always rather flighty. Can’t keep his mind on anything for more than a few minutes.” Grog chewed his lip for a moment. “Still, Steve is pretty clever, and an adventurous mind like Ava’s would be a good thing for this, wouldn’t it?”
“I suppose that’s true.”
The two cavemen moved over to one of the video panels and started entering in values. Pretty soon there was a map of two distinct camps. They were only about a mile apart from each other, if you were able to walk straight across, but they were separated by a sharp mountain that was taller than it was wide.
“Over here is our old stomping grounds,” said Grog as he hovered his finger over the image, “and on this side of the mountain is a tribe that we would… uh… visit from time to time.”
“Visit?”
“Well, we studied them,” Vlak said. “Especially the chicks.”
“Right.” Harr was sorry he’d asked. “Now, you know these people far better than I do. Can you convince them to be a part of this?”
“Greta and Herb might be a bit of a challenge,” explained Grog while Vlak nodded his agreement, “but Greta’s always wanted to be a queen.”
“Like Lieutenant Moon, sir,” Sandoo said.
“I think they mean something different, Commander.”
“Oh.”
“Anyway,” Grog continued, “if she learns she’s going to be the mother of an entire civilization, she’ll jump at the chance.”
“True, and Herb will do it because he’s always wanted to have power, not to mention he’s dying to bang Greta.”
“Sorry?” Harr said to Vlak.
“Well, you see, Greta has been saving herself for the man who can make her important. So if Herb becomes the father of Segnal, Greta will find him instantly suitable for her purposes.”
Harr sighed. It seemed it was the same with people no matter what era or spot in their evolution. Power was power, whether you were still throwing rocks or… he gulped… asteroids.
“How should we handle this, then?” Harr asked. “When I came down to your planet last time, the sight of the ship scared the hell out of your people.”
“Honestly,” Grog suggested, “I would recommend we just transport them aboard and talk to them here.”
“Seriously?”
“I agree, Grog,” said Vlak. “Put them directly into that shower thing, too, because they’re going to stink.”
“Don’t you two think that will give them all heart attacks?” Harr said while frowning at the two men.
Grog said with his hands up, “Just put them in that room with me and Vlak. We’ll talk to them, put them through the shower, and then bring them to your conference room. Cool?”
Harr studied the two men for a moment. They did seem to be trying to help here, and they were certainly aware of how serious Harr was taking this circumstance.
“Fine.”
FULLY ENGAGED
Over the course of that day, Lord Overseer Pillbox thought through everything.
She was skirting the edge between morality and power, feeling annoyed the two rarely combined. Being at the top of the ladder had always daunted her, but she was now getting the full taste of it and the allure was rather intoxicating. The guards, the ability to go where she wanted when she wanted, the power to make policy—though this still made her stomach turn slightly, the trysts with a man like Jord, and having the ear of a man like Corlair.
How could she give all that up?
But she also had to face the fact that by letting the HadItWithTheHadItWithTheKillings group call the shots, she could be ousted by them in a heartbeat. To be fair, they could have her removed even if she made the decisions herself, but she had a better chance of retaining power if she took control outright.
The fact was there were only two ways to keep the Lord Overseer position: bow to Corlair and his lackeys, or adopt the ruthless nature that comprised the being known as Veli. In other words, play the game or become a vicious predator.
A tingle went down her spine at the thought.
She walked over to the full-length ThoughtMirror in her office and imagined herself in the role of villain. The mirror, of course, began to reflect each change that came to mind.
Her new look would require a powerful hairstyle, certainly. Something menacing, slick, and dark. She’d need a makeup artist to line the areas around her eyes, and minor surgery to lift her cheekbones. It might even be wise to put permanent anger-lines between her eyebrows.
She smiled at the thought, which made her look kind and motherly again. It was her teeth. They were too smooth. She’d have her canines sharpened to fix it and she’d learn to grin evilly.
The flowery wardrobe would have to go. Black would become the new base color, with wide shoulders and a high-back rounded neck area. The outfits would taper at her waist and she’d have tall boots to give her some height while solidifying her position as Lord Overseer.
Pillbox studied herself from the points of her boots to the top of her head. She relished in seeing evilness in her own eyes.
“I believe you have learned what’s required for you to be fully engaged,” she said darkly to her reflection.
That’s when a laugh welled up inside her that she’d never felt before. It was a laugh of nefarious intentions. It was a laugh that spelled doom.
THE SEEDS
Harr and Sandoo had agreed to wait outside the shower chamber while Grog and Vlak explained the situation to the new cavemen. But they were watching through the video panel outside the room.
“You don’t suppose they’ll try to overpower Grog and Vlak, do you, sir?”
“If they try, we’re only a couple steps away,” answered Harr, assuming the new arrivals would be too busy freaking out to even consider fighting. Then again, it may be their default reaction. “Let’s be at the ready, just in case.”
“We’re ready in here,” Grog said aloud.
“Got it,” Harr replied. “Geezer, transport up the two sets of cave… uh… EEHs, please.”
“On it, Kahuna.”
Moments later, four people faded into view. They were all covered with matted hair, grime, and barely anything else. Compared to what Grog and Vlak had looked like when Harr had originally brought them aboard, these people were a downright mess. It was so bad that Harr was finding it challenging to tell the males and females apart.
“Nice knockers on that one,” Jezden said through the comm.
“Cut the chatter, Jezden,” Harr commanded, noting Jezden had no difficulties separating out the sexes of their new arrivals.
After a few moments of looking around in wonder, the four cavemen started grunting and pointing at Grog and Vlak. They soon moved from grunts to outright yells, and that was accompanied with jumps straight up and down.
“Grog?” Harr said.
“We’re fine,” Grog said. “Just stay out.”
“Yep,” Vlak agreed. “They’re just doing their standard power display. Once they see we aren’t afraid, they’ll calm down and become more submissive.”
“If you say so.”
Sure enough, after a minute or so of the bravado, the cavemen began to settle down.
“Oook, agg, ugg, eek?” Grog said.
Harr flipped on his Universal Translator.
“Agg, oog, urg,” replied one of the larger males. Harr had finally caught sight of the aforementioned “knockers” Jezden had noted, so he was now able to tell them apart. Not the knockers—the people.
“Is your translator working, Commander?”
“No, sir.”
“Mine neither.” Harr cut off the communication to and from the shower room and addressed the rest of the crew. “Is anyone else able to understand what they’re saying?”
The responses were all negative.
&nb
sp; He flipped the channel to the room back online. “Grog, we can’t understand anything you’re saying.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Vlak replied as Grog continued conversing with the cavemen. “We’re just letting them know about the power they’ll be getting and all that. Nothing fancy.”
“But why can’t we understand you?”
“How the hell am I supposed to know?” Vlak said, putting his hands up.
“Ogawa aaag!” yelled one of the cavemen while pointing irritably at Vlak.
“Now look what you made me do,” Vlak said with a shake of his head.
“Sorry,” Harr replied. “Look, just get them calmed down and washed up, please.”
“What do you think we’re doing, asking them to play a game of bridge?”
“Right.” Harr shut off his comm and the video panel and gave Sandoo a shrug. “Wouldn’t it be nice to have a mission with no speed bumps?”
“I believe that would be boring, sir.”
“I could stand a little boring now and then, Commander.”
“Yes, sir.”
Harr tapped his comm and said, “Lieutenant Moon, can you please come down here and create some outfits for these people?”
“Thir?”
“Clothing. They’re going to need something to cover up their nakedness, especially with you-know-who on board.”
“You mean Veli?”
“No,” Harr replied. “I mean Jezden.”
§ § §
An hour passed before Harr was called down to the conference room. He left Sandoo in charge of the bridge and then took the ladder like a fireman during a fire drill.
When he reached the bottom, Moon was just about to go up.
“How’d it go?” Harr asked.
“Thuper,” Moon replied as he waved his hand in a cooling-himself-off fashion. “Never been with cavemen before.”
“What?”
“Oh, nothing, thir,” Moon said with wide eyes. “I, uh… better get back to the bridge!”
“Right.” Harr watched Hank climb back up the ladder, shaking his head in amazement at the parting lieutenant.
“Nothing better to do than watch Lieutenant Moon climb the ladder, Honcho?”
“Huh?” Harr said, spinning to see Geezer and Frexle looking at him from the engineering room. “No, I was just… Uh, you see, Hank apparently had, well…”
“I’m sure you had your reasons, Prime,” Geezer said.
Harr merely grimaced in response. There was no talking his way out of it, so why bother to try? The people on this ship were odd, at best, and he feared one day he’d be no different than they were.
So without another word to his Chief Engineer, Harr strode to the conference room and walked inside.
Grog was sitting at the main chair, but he quickly jumped up and moved to the one next to it. Vlak was seated across from him.
There were two males who were completely hairless, and seemed to appreciate that fact about as much as Grog and Vlak had when they’d been put through the shower on their first day aboard. Both were wearing white shirts that had ruffles in the front and were only buttoned up halfway. Those were neatly tucked into chocolate-brown pants that sported pinstripes. Glancing down, Harr also noticed a pair of boots on the fellow seated on this side of the room. He assumed the other caveman had a similar getup.
Taking a look at the females, he noted they were not hairless. This was concerning considering the bugs that had originally been found on Grog and Vlak.
“Hair?” said Harr to his two recruits.
“Can’t have chicks walking around bald, idiot,” said Vlak. “Sorry—Captain Idiot.”
“Why not?” Harr said tightly.
“Because they’re chicks,” Grog stated as if that were enough of an explanation.
Harr had met many beautiful women over his years who had long hair, short hair, green hair, blue hair, red hair, white hair, and no hair. Clearly beauty was a subjective thing.
To that end, he had to admit they were both rather attractive, though they did appear to belong on a shampoo commercial. Their skin was lightly tanned and they were wearing halter tops and miniskirts. Another glance down showed they had on tennis shoes and bobby socks.
“Do they know what’s going on?”
“Ask them yourself,” Grog said, motioning to the cavemen.
Harr held up his translator. “I can’t understand them, remember?”
“Oh, right,” Vlak chimed in. “I figured out what was causing that.”
“You did?”
“Yeah.” He leaned forward. “There are two forms of dialect that we use. One is full of grunts and such and the other is more formulated for words. Whenever people are scared, it’s natural to use the base language. Doesn’t require as much thinking.”
“Seriously?”
“As far as—”
“As far as I know,” Harr interrupted. “Right.” He gave the new arrivals another once-over and noted Moon had outfitted them with Universal Translators as well. “Can you understand me?” he said slowly.
They all nodded.
“Good.” Harr pointed at himself. “My name is Don Harr and I am the captain of this vessel.” He’d kept the speed of his speech slow and he moved his hands around a lot.
“This guy a moron or something?” said one of the men.
“You get used to it, Herb,” Grog said.
Harr closed his eyes and rubbed his temples.
“Okay, fine, so you can all understand me perfectly, then?”
“Yep.”
“Introduce yourselves, please,” Harr said, taking the chair at the head of the table.
“Just names or do you want to know a little about each of us?” asked the one called Herb.
“Whatever you feel comfortable with.”
“Okay,” he said, sitting up straight. “My name is Herb and I’m a botanist.”
Harr raised his eyebrows. “Sorry, did you say you were a botanist?”
“Yes.”
“As in you study plants?”
“Unless you have another definition for it,” Herb replied before giving a what-the-shit-is-with-this-guy look to Grog and Vlak. They just shrugged in return. “Okay, well, my job is to find plants that don’t make us get all itchy, don’t poison us, and don’t taste like shit.”
“Ahhh, right.” Harr cracked his neck. “Okay, next.”
“My full name is Gretchen,” said the blond-haired beauty next to Herb, “but most people call me Greta. As for my job with the tribe, I’m a spotter.”
“A spotter?”
“Yes, I spot trouble and notify the tribe.”
“Oh, I see,” Harr said, nodding. “You mean like a sentry?”
“I’m not that old,” she said, looking offended.
“No, I didn’t say century… I said…” He blew out a long breath. “Never mind. Next?”
“The name’s Steve,” said caveman number two, who had brown hair and sparkly blue eyes. “I started out as a hunter in the tribe, but pretty soon I turned to my true passion: spear-making… and drawing… and writing… oh, and… hey, what’s that funny thing on the wall for?”
“Pardon?”
“The square thing with the light…” Steve said and then looked away. “Is that chair like these chairs? That chair looks different than these chairs.”
Harr squinted at him and then at the chair. “I think they’re the—”
“You’re holding some kind of device,” Steve said, pointing at Harr’s datapad. “It’s like that screen on the wall, but smaller. Is it—”
“Shut up already,” Greta said, silencing him. “Can’t you just pay attention to one thing at a time?”
“Of course I can,” Steve replied defiantly, “and I don’t appreciate you… Hey, your hair looks nice, you know?”
Greta looked about ready to lash out again, but she stopped and patted her head. “Does it?”
“Does what?”
“Okay, okay,” Harr sai
d, holding up his hands to silence them both. He then turned to Grog and Vlak and said, “Really?”
“It’ll work out,” Grog said with confidence.
“Yep,” agreed Vlak. “We know what it takes to survive.”
Harr took a deep breath and relaxed. He turned to the woman next to Steve. She had black hair, green eyes, and a mouth that curved in such a way it made Harr sense that she was trouble. He couldn’t quite place what it was about her exactly, but there was something definitely naughty going on behind those eyes.
“Your name, please?”
“Ava,” she replied in a sultry voice that threatened to make little Harr awaken from his slumber. Harr adjusted in his chair and blinked a couple of times. “I was in charge of helping the men… relax.”
“Sorry?”
“She’s adventurous,” Grog said. “Oh, and she was the camp slut.”
“To everyone but us, obviously,” Vlak grunted.
“True.”
“Wait a second here,” Harr said. “Are you telling me that you thought it best to bring forth someone who was promiscuous as the mother of an entire world?”
“You need someone who is going to drop out babies pretty quick, right?” Vlak replied with equal ferocity.
“First off, that’s a disgusting way to put it,” said Harr, “and secondly, are you honestly telling me there wasn’t some more wholesome choice for this?” He caught himself and glanced over at Ava. “No offense meant, ma’am.”
“None taken,” she replied mischievously. “And you look like a man who could use a little relaxation, if I may say so.”
Harr adjusted again. Damn it!
“I’m fine, thank you.”
“Dude… I mean Captain Dude,” Vlak said, “these are the people you need. Everyone else is too timid or too violent. We know these people.”
“He’s right,” Grog said. “We selected those we did because they need to be resourceful, powerful, smart, cunning and, frankly, willing to do the bang-bang without much fuss.”
“But you said Greta was a virgin.”
“You told him that?” Greta said with a look of grief. “How embarrassing.”
Platoon F: Quadology: Missions 6, 7, 8, and 9 (Platoon F eBook Bundle 2) Page 68