by PN Burrows
CHAPTER NINE
They walked back to the village centre, Red carrying a small plastic looking brief case which Emliton had waiting ready behind the bar. ‘I don’t drink very often but you do need to try his ales. Hus went out of his way to entice Emliton here, despite his disorder. I don’t believe his bluster about increased efficiency in fuel production for one second,’ he laughed. ‘Doc has a crate of pure distillate every week. You haven’t met him yet. We thought for years that he had this huge alien-enabled drinking ability.’ Holding up the case he said, ‘This would kill you or I. It’s 198% proof or 99% pure ethyl alcohol. Turns out he cleans himself with it. The station safety officer went ballistic when he found out, but he was overruled, bar a few precautions.’
Reb took them to the Toyota that they had used earlier. Sam rode shotgun with the case of volatile liquid on his lap. ‘Is this stuff safe?’ Sam enquired nervously.
‘As long as you don’t drink, inhale or drop it, you’ll be ok,’ Reb replied.
Reb gunned the engine into life with a mighty and overdramatic roar. As he was about to drive off, the HQ door opened. Two guards in dress uniform stepped out, taking position on either side as more stepped through. ‘Sphericals, I was hoping we’d miss this,’ he said, as a beautiful and nude woman stepped through, flanked by a guard on either side. Two males were similarly escorted. All three were clearly healthy and of a muscular build, no fat or cellulite could be seen. Not that Sam looked at the men, his eyes were drawn to the brunette as she walked past. She turned her head and looked directly into his eye.
‘Isn’t that…’ He left the question hanging as Reb replied.
‘Yeah. Living up to her name again, don’t let her appearance deceive you. Apate has a wild rebellious streak that hasn’t been broken yet, but she is fiercely loyal and a good one to have covering your back. That’s why she’s here at the moment,’ gesturing with his arms to mean Minera. ‘As I said we haven’t long been back from an off-world mission and you re-appeared. If you join us she will be a member of your team. Most of the people you have interacted with so far are here to evaluate you. They have dissected your life and put obstacles in your way to see how you react. They have been taking the measure of you to decide if they want to work with you.’
Sam watched as they were paraded under guard to a series of posts near a flat blank wall. Each prisoner took up a position in front of a post and stared calmly forward.
‘I heard she struck a superior, putting him into the infirmary this morning with a broken nose and fractured cheek bone. The other two I’ve no idea.’
Sam grabbed for the door handle, the hand other crashing through the breakout zip on his jacket pocket, fingers clasping around the pistol grip.
‘Hold on Sam! She doesn’t need you to rescue her, she’ll be ok. Just watch.’
Twelve guards raised their rifles in unison, a firing line facing three unarmed and oddly compliant prey. It took a firm hold from Reb to convince Sam to sit still. ‘I can’t sit here and watch you murder them in cold blood. If you wanted me on your side, then this just screwed up your plans.’ He spat the words out in realisation that he could not break free from the immensely strong arm holding him to the seat. Jesus, this guy is strong, rang through Sam’s mind and he tried to formulate a plan.
‘We are a quasi-military police outpost, but we, like every other civilised authority, do not send minor offenders to prison. But unlike you, we still believe in corporal punishment.’
Sam could hear the officer reading out a list of offences to the first of the three and asking if he agreed. The man nodded and the officer moved on to the second.
‘They are standing there proud unshackled because no one ties down a Mineran and lives. Pat and the others will take their punishment as soldiers. It’ll hurt, but this is mostly symbolic, they are tough SOB’s, she more so. They will also be fined and certain privileges will be withdrawn. Just stay calm.’ He removed his arm from Sam’s torso, no longer pinning it, Sam’s arm and the pistol, down.
Sam looked at Apate, thin, strong and lithe at the same time. Small breasts with nipples standing proud in the spring chill. She nodded to the officer and he walked behind the firing line.
Sam heard the order barked out, ‘Take aim!’
The rifle barrels moved a fraction as the sights were lined up with their targets.
‘Fire!’
Sam was looking at Apate as the order was given. She never wavered, her eyes looking forward towards the firing line. She made no attempt to flee, the weapons made no sound, her body shook as it was battered by multiple projectiles. Four red circles appeared on her chest above her petite breasts. Thin red lines trailed downwards hardly slowing as they traversed her bosom, but petering out before they reached her shaved pubic region. The men had also been shot in the chest; their pectoral muscles showed similar damage. Sam could see the tissue around the wounds visibly changing colour and bruising.
He turned and looked across the vehicle to Reb, ‘I don’t understand, they should be dead.’
‘I said we believe in corporal punishment, not murder Sam. They are firing tactical training rounds, simulation, er, similar to your paintball guns. These are incredibly overpowered to what you are used to and they hurt like hell. That’s the point, a real bullet hurts a hell of a lot more.’ He started the engine as the second silent volley was fired, both thighs on Apate now showed aggressive welts and pseudo blood trickled down to her knees. ‘They are stripped to remove rank, to remind them we are all Minerans under the uniform. We are fallible, we are mortal and we make mistakes. As soldiers, if we lack discipline or make mistakes it can cost lives.’ Reb pulled the vehicle from the centre and drove down one of the straight roads towards the mountain.
In fact the carbines being used were not, as Sam thought, just training weapons. The Multi-Payload Assault Rifle (MPAR) utilised a propelling force that is so small, so minute that people forgot that it existed. The force that bound all nuclei together in the atom, essentially binding the whole universe together, could be replicated and reversed. That fundamental property was first weaponised by the N’eiauc in the form of an atom disruptive ray. It literally allowed the victim’s atoms to break apart. The protons, electrons and neutrons, having no cohesive force, simply dissolved. On a living entity that was not as serene as it sounded. The weapon had limited range due the ray’s dispersal rate. It was only truly effective within a few feet of the target. The forces involved were eventually fine-tuned to repel atoms with a minimal power requirement, thus allowing for the creation of Ultimate Multiple Payload Personal Railgun.
The Universe Police used a 25mm bore, automatic rifle with a half a metre length barrel, horizontal top mounted magazine and recoil stabilisers which were tuned to the payload and its velocity. Velocity and distance were automatically calculated by the computer. That could be overridden via a thumb-activated slide on the left-hand side of the non-metallic polymer based weapon. Fine-tuning for species density or armour could be via adjusted via voice control. There was no muzzle flash as there was no explosion of propellants – and the payload delivery was virtually silent if used sub-sonically.
In a typical non-combative policing scenario, the round would be a 10mm metal concussive slug. It mushroomed on impact to prevent pass-through in a civilian area and then detonated within the torso.
The perfect shot was one which entered the target’s chest cavity, exploded internally and liquefied the subject’s internal organs with no pass-through to endanger nearby non-combatants. If the Universe Police had been called into action, circumstances had gone beyond simple policing and the objective was shoot to kill.
In a purely military scenario, a smaller, tougher armour piercing munition was used with similar explosive potential. Fifty rounds per magazine were allowed, plus five easily selectable bunker buster rounds which, if fired into a room, would take the whole building down.
Today the payload was an innocuous 20mm gelatine sphere with red marker dye, with the velocity set to hurt but not break the skin.
Sam put the case in the foot well and wedged it firmly with his right foot to prevent it from sliding around. ‘Who did she hit?’
‘One of the few people you have met so far, Timon. He’s the guy you threw into the cell. He hasn’t been the same since his wife died.’ Seeing Sam’s quizzical look he continued, ‘The burnt out house that we met at, he built it. His wife and unborn child were in there when it happened. She should have returned to the home planet but she wanted to finish her study on non-indigenous oceanic bacteria before she left. She must have been asleep at the time of the fire otherwise she’d have gotten out. They never figured out what caused it or why it burnt so fast.’
‘It was bit heartless sending me there, Reb. I’m not sure I’d be happy about it either.’
‘It was a long time ago. Seventy-three years ago, in fact, Sam, and the building should have been pulled down.’ He looked towards Sam to see what effect this snippet of information had on him. ‘Don’t look at me like that, we don’t live long compared to some species. You’re the ones who have a brief existence.’
They drove in silence for a few minutes as Sam tried to examine the surrounding countryside and the mountain that loomed up ahead of them. A million stupid questions filled his head as another part of his brain processed the important information.
‘Why are we in a Toyota? Don’t you have hover or flying cars and such things?’
‘You have hovercraft Sam. They make dreadful cars as they can be blown sideways. You are right though, we do have much better transportation than this. However, as I mentioned earlier, when on a planet we try to utilise the local tech and practices as much as possible. Even in secure enclaves such as this. This isn’t a Toyota, not really. We bought a second-hand cruiser and then built our own improved version. It’ll never rust, the metal is much stronger and it will run for a month on a tank of Emliton’s biofuel.’ Reb looked across to Sam as he changed gear and gunned the engine around the country lane. ‘Before you ask, we bought the original for the registration plates. We can take this improved clone out into the world and drive around without worrying.’
‘Ok, why projectile weapons? If I had previously believed in your existence, I would have expected more from you.’ Sam gave a questioning look, whilst preventing the case from slipping from between his leg and the drive shaft hump.
‘As you well know, they’re simple, cheap and effective. When you begin training you will discover a plethora of weapons from all over the universe. Each species has its favourite method of killing one another. From weapons using various wavelengths from the light spectrum, lasers, microwaves, sound disruptors to chemical weapons, plasma, energy and projectiles. Generally we use projectiles planet side and lasers in space. Even a military laser will eventually dissipate in space where a projectile will only stop once it hits something. If you miss the target in space, someone somewhere, maybe even a thousand years later, could get wiped out and never know what hit them.’
Reb slowed down as they drew closer to a junction. Sam found it strange that he was in a car with an alien, in a hidden secret enclave, being driven round in an alien replica of a Land Cruiser and yet they still pulled up at a give way sign. It had all turned upside down for him and yet it was all exactly the same. He’d stumbled upon a massive life changing secret and yet nothing had actually changed. Life carried on around him as it always had.
CHAPTER TEN
The rest of the drive took less than twenty minutes, for most of which Sam sat quietly as he tried to digest everything that he had seen in the last twenty-four hours. He was deep in thought as he felt the car pull to a stop and heard the ratchet as Reb applied the hand brake. He looked ahead and saw a large concrete entrance reminiscent to the entrance at Cheyenne Mountain, not that he had been there but he’d seen it on Stargate. He chuckled to himself as he disembarked, grabbing the case as he did so.
‘The road goes further in, but we might as well walk from here as you will get a better look at our operation.’ Reb didn’t wait for a reply and proceeded to walk towards the dark, impending opening. He bent down and picked up a small rock from the verge. Shouting over his shoulder, ‘I know you have had a lot to take in Sam, but you are the one who broke into our warehouse. You were never in any danger from us, though. We have had you under surveillance for weeks and we could have wiped your short-term memory with a simple drop in your food. You have been led to this point, nearly everything that has happened was planned, a gradual path of enlightenment to recruit you. Well, everything except for Urser, of course.’ He stopped and looked back as Sam caught up.
‘Why did Urser target me? Have you figured out how he knew I was going to be there?’
‘I don’t know is the answer to both. Nik’s findings are worrisome to say the least. We have no idea who, why or when it was instigated. The perpetrator could even be an ally at this moment in time with no intention or inclination of future betrayal. In time the mystery will unfold. Time being the operative word here.’
Turning, they both walked through the tunnel’s opening, Sam’s eyes slowly adjusting to the dark unlit interior. He knew it would take about half an hour for his eyes to fully adjust to night vision and he could only hope he didn’t fall over something in the meantime. It was all down to the cones and rods in his eyes; the outer cones being the ones responsible for his low light vision, an evolutionary masterpiece even if it was strongest on the periphery.
They had only walked a dozen or so feet into the entrance when a long dotted line of automated lights blinked into existence. The tunnel had a gradual downward slope. Sam approximated it to be a gradient of one in twenty, losing one foot for every twenty travelled. The walls and ceiling were clean and dry, painted light green to head height and bright white from then on. The tunnel was big enough for two double decker buses to travel side by side and gradually curved to the left and down, leaving a visible length of half a mile. Road and walkways were clearly marked with a gantry system high up for light and ventilation maintenance. There were a handful of electric carts along the side walls, their charging bays distinguished by bright yellow boxes.
‘It doesn’t seem very busy,’ Sam commented as he subconsciously orientated towards a predefined pathway, even though there was no traffic.
‘The barrels you are so concerned about will appear ahead of us in about ten minutes. From there we will follow them for fifteen minutes till the end point. You have my guarantee that you will not be displeased with the outcome.’
‘So what did you want to talk about, Reb? The scenery isn’t much to look at, you must have something you need to say.’
‘Sam, I have already told you that we are a quasi-military police force tasked with protecting certain areas and re-enforcing local police forces. Primarily we need a native born, someone from earth to help us investigate off-world incursions on your planet. Someone who knows how your planet and cultures work, someone who will be ignored by off-worlders. Their security will show you rightly as human and they will assume that you are ignorant to their presence. You can go where we can’t. As I told you, your authorities know of the alien presence and many are aligned to different factions. They turn a blind eye, thinking they are gaining something, never realising the nefarious nature of such alliances.’ Reb carried on walking and talking as if this conversation was an everyday occurrence.
‘Across the universe, normal police are good at enforcing the law-abiding citizens, but they are not trained or equipped to deal with hardcore armed criminals. We also get called into these situations. When No Go zones appear in towns and cities we clean them out. If, when you have seen what we are doing here, and…’ He paused. ‘Well, you will not be able to deny my origin and what I have said.’ He stopped and looked at Sam. In the silence, Sam could hear a faint rumble of machinery and conveyor
s. ‘I have been honest with you and we do want to recruit you, but it’s your choice. Sign up and you will have an adventure of a lifetime; everything your sci-fi writers have ever thought up has happened somewhere out there. You can be part of it or you can go back to your old life. Oh, we looked into your friend’s business by the way. Besides fronting for MI5, he seems legitimate enough and he pays the normal employees well, files his tax returns on time and he’s faithful to his wife. You could do worse, but you have the opportunity to do so much better.’
‘Tell me more about your judicial system. So far, all I have seen is you torturing your own people. They’re so afraid they stand there waiting to be punished.’
‘Sam, stop being childish. You know as well as I do that your system does not work. Your prisons are overcrowded, most criminals get away with a verbal telling-off by the courts and sent on their merry way to continue. People have lost faith. Your society is one step away from snapping and then you will have vigilantes roaming the streets. In fact it’s happening now only it’s hushed over to prevent further take up by the populace. Our system categorises criminal acts in five levels. Levels one to two can be anything from spitting in the streets to minor assault. These are all dealt with locally and corporal punishment and fines administered accordingly. All proceeds from any fines go to local projects or charities. The governing body of the areas are not allowed to use or keep said proceeds. This maintains the courts’ impartiality and prevents accusations of stealth taxation via fines.’
‘What type of corporal punishment is used? I can’t imagine shooting someone is acceptable elsewhere.’
‘It’s species dependant of course, but nothing that leaves a permanent injury can be used. Lashing of miscreants is common throughout as it is quick, cheap and effective. It is always public, as to visually deter others.’
‘Ok, go on.’