by J. J. Snow
Tiny looked down, steeled herself, and then looked around fiercely as she spoke her next words. “I am one of the few original Gaiden left, one of the ones Commander Zain recruited. I was still too young to fight at the time of the war. The government hid us at the end, ensuring my survival and that of the others who were with me.”
Her words echoed off the metal walls of the gunship as her audience tried to take in this information, but Tiny pressed on, needing to get as much of it out as she could, preparing for the inevitable.
“Today we face a new threat. Razam Welch has been running a shadow government for five years now. At first we ignored it, thought it was just a criminal enterprise. Over time, it became apparent that Welch was not a common criminal by any means. He established ties with our alien enemies and forged new relationships, possibly even trans-galactic relationships for the first time in history. By the time the full extent of his network was realized, it was already too late. War was on the horizon. Commander Zain realized that the Gaiden would be needed again to help counter this new evil. We have had to rush our plans even as Welch has begun nipping at our heels with his covert forces. In order to get enough Gaiden for the ISU wing, Commander Zain was forced to create an aggressive new training program, designed to rapidly prepare recruits for the war. Even so, we will not have the necessary numbers before the war begins.”
“How many are there, if you can tell us?” Chang asked, his face stern as he contemplated the coming battles. Of those in the room, he knew better than any of them the impact that the Gaiden had on the battlefield. To have one or two Gaiden in a battle was like having an entire extra squad with heavy weapons. Without them, against Welch and his alien weapon systems, they would die very quickly.
“Of those experienced fighters, we have only eleven left. We will be hard pressed, as you have already figured out, to effectively combat Welch and his military. This is why Commander Zain has begun recruitment again and has been trying to accelerate the program.” Tiny paused, wishing she could soften the blow of her next words. “There are seven in training right now. Seth Jackson is one of the youngest to ever go operational.”
Trace Callum swore quietly. The others either stared at Tiny in shock or fear or looked away. Reilly and Chang focused on Duv, who had stood and was now turning between the wall and Tiny, blindly raking his hand through his hair, trying to understand. Reilly felt the familiar ache swell up in her chest watching him. He looked like a trapped animal, desperate for a way out but knowing there wasn’t one. This would not go well.
“One of the youngest what? My son is what?” Duv asked, his face taunt, his eyes angry.
“Your son is a Gaiden, recruited by Commander Zain. And I am his trainer,” Tiny said.
With a roar, Duv lunged across the room as Reilly and Chang grabbed him to keep him from going after Tiny. Marek joined in as Duv threw himself against their arms, cursing the air, cursing Zain and Tiny, pushing to break free. Reilly grabbed his arm as he tried to level his blaster at Tiny, stripping the weapon away as the others pulled him back. He fought through the sea of arms, charging again for Tiny. At the last minute, Reilly stepped in his path, catching the blow he had aimed for the Gaiden’s head.
She gripped his hand forcefully, pushing back, and stepped in as Duv glared at her. “Get out of my way, Captain. I’m going to kill her, right now.”
“Duv, you need to sit down and listen to what she has to say—”
“Damn her and you to hell! Ain’t none of you in my place right now! None of you! I’m supposed to just sit and listen to how she and fraggin’ Zain turned my boy into some kind of monster?” Duv wrested his arm back from Reilly, his eyes smoldering with rage. “What do you know, anyway? Isn’t like you’d understand, you got no family to worry about; anyone you ever loved is dead! There’s no one for them to take away from you! So since you’ve got nothing to lose, I guess it doesn’t matter about the rest of us! Is that it, then? We just have to suck it up? Well, I can’t be like you and just forget about them all! He’s my son! I can’t just put that behind me! You’re all fraggin’ bastards!”
Reilly felt Duv’s words as they belted her in the gut. She knew he was speaking out of turn. He was hurt, he was afraid, he was angry, and again he was blaming himself for something beyond his control. And he was drunk. She could smell the White Lightening on him. Still, it caught her breath as she reeled from the verbal blow. Instantly, Jeremy’s face flashed before her eyes, followed by others, too many others to count, yet she did. He was wrong. She remembered them all.
Duv used that moment of unbalance to strike. Before Reilly could react, he pulled a knife and drove it deep into Tiny’s shoulder. Blood poured out around the guard as she stood, staring at Duv, unmoving, unflinching. Reilly took all this in as she connected a solid palm strike to Duv’s head then followed up with a knee to the chest and a combo that knocked a tooth out and sent him to the floor. She realized as she looked down at Duv that the Gaiden had made no effort to defend herself.
Duv looked up at her, shaking his head. His lip was bleeding as he coughed and scrabbled around on the floor for the missing tooth. He stayed down. Reilly hoped he wouldn’t get back up. She looked around the room, angry at the situation, angry at Zain and what he had done, angry at herself for losing it.
“Anyone else have a problem with Tiny? She’s here because I asked for her to be. I didn’t say it was going to be easy to hear, I just said it had to be heard. Anyone else want to have a go at the Gaiden?”
Duv staggered back to his feet as Reilly turned to face him again. He looked past her at Tiny, but before he could move or say another word, Reilly knocked him out. Marek stood to go to Duv, but Reilly stopped him.
“He’s drunk as shit. Leave him there until we’re done. We’ve had enough interruptions, let’s just get through this.” She turned to Tiny, who was staunching the blood with a rag from the kitchen as Chang slowly pulled the knife back out. “Can you go on, or do you want someone else to speak until you get that taken care of?”
Tiny looked around the room. At least there would be no more hiding, they knew what she was. She could see the fear on some of their faces. Good. They should be afraid. Then she looked at Duv’s limp body lying on the floor. The Captain had stood for her, even though she was on the wrong side of this mess. And Chang was still standing nearby. He casually watched the others, but she could see that he too had palmed a knife and was ready to respond if anyone else decided to strike. For that alone, she owed them the truth. And the telling wouldn’t get any easier with time.
“I’ll continue now,” she said, wiping a bloody hand on her tac-pants then brushing a strand of hair from her eyes.
Tiny began to explain how Zain had identified Seth from his test scores by accessing the main education center systems owned by the government. His scores had been off the charts. When the crew landed on Roen, it was just a matter of time until one of Zain’s men had found an opportunity to get a specialized edu-system into Seth’s hands. Typically, candidates would be taken to a training center, but Zain chose to keep Seth with the crew and train him remotely. The crews listened attentively while Reilly, Chang, and Trace asked a few questions. Tiny answered as best she could. She continued her story, talking about the problems Seth had started to have, how Zain had sent her forward to be his trainer but to also keep an eye on his mental health.
“I thought he was following the protocol,” Tiny said, shame creeping into her voice. “But he changed it. No one knew what he was doing.”
“What do you mean?” Reilly asked suspiciously, her skin crawling at a thought that had just begun to occur to her.
“Gaiden are subliminally trained using loyalty to the government and its members. The idea is implanted when we are young. People think it’s mind control, but the true goal is to give us such a strong loyalty that we will hold up in even the worst situations, even under torture. This training has saved many lives and protected galactic security for
many years now.” Tiny paused again, uncomfortable with what she had to share next.
“One of the main things our trainers know not to do is to tie emotions to that loyalty, especially emotions such as love, hate, fear, or anger. The use of an emotional bond creates an unstable relationship in the code which can make the operators uncontrollable and subject to dangerous whims. It can leave back doors in the programming that can be exploited, manipulated over time by anyone who knows they are there. That emotional bond can also lead to conflicts within the brain that can cause it to shut down. Captain, you saw this firsthand when Seth was confronted with the situation of having to protect the edu-system from you. It caused a conflict in his programming, caused him to lock up at a critical moment.”
“Tiny, are you saying…” Reilly began.
Tiny turned her dark eyes on the Captain. “Commander Zain modified the code to use emotions with Seth, specifically love of family. If I had to guess, that’s why Seth showed up at the space station. Somehow he found out we were in danger, and his programming compelled him to come save us…or, to be more specific, it compelled him to come save his father.”
Reilly looked at Chang, the implications of this action dawning on both of them. Seth had been programmed to defend them, his family, from danger. Zain had created their own Gaiden to protect them by using Duv’s son. But why?
“Did you know Zain was doing this?” Reilly demanded, her eyes flashing dangerously as she came off the wall.
Tiny looked away, mortified. “No. When I became part of the crew and learned Seth’s story, I realized he should have never been chosen for such a role. Commander Zain restricted the information I had access to. He was supposed to brief me on the boy’s training and operations when we took Seth to Raptor Base. Instead, he lied to me about how he planned to use the boy. He told me that he would fill me in when we returned from the rescue mission. I don’t think he was expecting us to make it back, or if we did, he already had a plan in place to cover up what he was doing. But I don’t think he expected Seth to leave in order to rescue us, either.”
Reilly nodded and crossed her arms, thinking. “So anything or anyone that is a threat to Duv or to the crew, Seth would be forced to respond to it?”
“Yes,” Tiny replied soberly. “That’s the problem with using emotion as a linkage in the programming. It adds an impulsive element that is very dangerous. The operative tends to be more reactive than proactive in various situations, relies on emotion instead of logic, which can cause them to instinctively follow the drive to protect the ones they love, even if it costs them their life. Any threat to him”—Tiny gestured to the still-unconscious Duv on the floor—“and Seth will react, even if the threat isn’t real. If Seth believes it to be real, then he will attempt to intervene and stop that threat. The program compels him to action.”
“And Razam Welch and Crazy Ray—they both fit that threat criteria, don’t they?” Reilly asked.
Tiny nodded. “Yes, ma’am. But only one of them is a primary target on Commander Zain’s list right now.”
Reilly and Chang stared back at the Gaiden, finally understanding what she was telling them. Zain had made an assassin out of Seth. He was planning to use him to kill Razam Welch.
Chapter 17
Reilly found herself walking the ship in a daze. The rest of the meeting had been a blur as she and Chang shared information on the ledgers and how they had cracked Welch’s code. Reilly described Welch’s xenophobic campaign targeting Zain. Tiny filled them in on Welch’s efforts to implant the military and his alliance with the aliens, while Trace updated them on the strength of the ISU forces that remained free. When she looked up, she realized she was outside the door to the officer’s quarters again. Jeremy’s door. Her door was across the hall. She hadn’t been back to her room since boarding the ship, except to get some clean clothes. The rest of the time she had been either healing up or watching over Ty.
She shook her head with a small smile. Even now, she still came by his room to talk things over. Jeremy would’ve known she was coming, too. She would’ve pushed the door in like she always did, grabbed a cup of coffee and sat at the small table while they discussed what had happened, the next strategy, the next battle. Today was a bad day. He would’ve known it before she said a word. Today she would’ve been cussing up a storm. They would’ve talked or not, depending on how she felt. He would have made light of the situation and she would have gotten mad at him for not being serious enough, and then he would have shot her that stupid crooked grin of his and stolen a kiss. Instead of walking the halls with her ghosts right now, she’d be asleep by his side, lying warm in his arms, the best place in the whole galaxy to be. She leaned her head against the door, the pain of his loss washing over her.
Someone cleared their throat, and Reilly jumped, half-drawing her blaster as she turned. There stood a slightly damp Trace Callum on his way back from the showers. He eyed her quizzically, a towel draped over one bare shoulder while his shaving kit bulged out of his cargo pocket. His blaster was loosely slung on his right hip.
“Don’t shoot!” he joked, half-raising his hands as she sighed and pushed her blaster back in place.
“Sorry, you just startled me. Didn’t think anyone else was up.” Reilly felt a flush run up her face, embarrassed that a stranger had caught her in a private moment. She turned to go.
“So, do you always roam the hallways at night listening at your guest’s doors?” Trace looked amused as he pushed open the door.
“What?” Reilly looked flustered. “No, I just thought I heard something…odd. Mechanical problem or something…” She trailed off. She hadn’t realized he had been staying on board, but it made sense, since he had been working shifts with Duv. She mentally kicked herself. She should’ve known he’d have been in the spare officer’s quarters.
Trace seemed unfazed as he waved her in. Reilly stood in the doorway, not wanting to cross the threshold. She hadn’t gone into the room at all, not since she had come aboard. She shook her head as he glanced back at her, setting his gear in his locker. He shot her a calculating look as he pulled on a tac-shirt.
“I was having a hard time sleeping myself. Figured I’d get a shower and some coffee. Care to join me?”
Reilly just stared at him.
“For the coffee, I mean. Already got the shower done—but I could’ve used an extra hand,” he mused as he grabbed a lightweight tac-jacket and pulled it on. “Always this one spot in the middle of my back I can never reach.” He looked up and shot her a grin.
Reilly stepped back, off balance. For a moment, she was looking at Jeremy. She felt out of sorts, almost lightheaded. She shook her head and turned to go.
“Hey!” Trace stepped quickly across the room and grabbed her elbow. “Are you all right?” His eyes were once again concerned.
Reilly summoned up a smile. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just been a crazy day, that’s all. I need to get back down to the medical bay. Shifts with Tiny, looking after Sergeant Ty.” She pointed down the hall as she started to walk away.
Trace looked at her doubtfully. “All right, well, if you change your mind, I’ll be in the common room.”
Reilly managed an “okay, thanks,” as she started down the catwalk. She made it to the second deck and slid down the ladder into Ty’s empty bunkroom, closing the hatch behind her. The tears had started almost as soon as she had turned around. She leaned against the wall as the sobs silently wracked her body.
—————
Duv felt like a freighter was revving its engines inside his head. He groaned and opened his eyes to see Chang sitting nearby, staring at him in the dimly lit room.
“I feel like I just got spit out of a garbage hauler. My head is killing me!” Duv sat up slowly, realizing something else felt strange. “Am I missing a tooth?”
“Yup,” said Chang, holding the missing tooth up for Duv to see.
“Damn! My back, my jaw, my gut – everything hurts!
What the hell happened?”
“Think,” Chang said, setting the tooth down on a small wooden table by the bed.
Duv went back through his foggy memory. Confusing pieces came back to him. He decided that perhaps White Lightening was not for him after all. He shook his head at Chang.
“So you have no memory of trying to kill a Gaiden and the Captain knocking you out?”
And just like that, it all came rushing back. Seth was a Gaiden. Tiny was a Gaiden. Commander Zain was the enemy. Captain Campbell had tried to stop him, but he was so angry. He had said things, awful things to her. The look on her face came screaming across his memory, and he ducked his head in shame. He had used her pain to take advantage of the moment and he had knifed one of her crew.
“Shit,” was all he could say.
“Yes. That is a good place to start for now,” Chang agreed as he handed Duv a damp cloth so he could wipe the blood that had begun to trickle from his nose again. “You should’ve heard her out. Tiny is not the one responsible for your pain. She has been trying to help Seth.”
Chang filled Duv in on what he had missed after Reilly had knocked him out. Duv’s anger flared as he learned of Commander Zain’s plan to use Seth as an assassin. He stood too quickly, and Chang had to help him sit back down again.
“How is the Gaiden?” Duv asked.
“Tiny will recover,” Chang said, using her name and watching Duv wince. “You put a nice hole in her shoulder, though, and I had a time stitching it back up. Just because she is a Gaiden doesn’t mean she isn’t human. She didn’t choose to be what she is; she was chosen, like your son.”
Duv nodded, grimacing at the notion of having to face her again. Just the thought of her was painful, because it reminded him of Seth. Duv felt broken inside, in a place that he thought had been healing. It was as if he was reliving the massacre all over again, finding the bodies of his wife and his son, and not knowing where Seth was or if he was alive. The anger was there too, cold and fierce; anger at Zain, anger at what he had done, and then shame for his words to the Captain, for his attack on Tiny. Duv reached around for the bottle to dull the pain, then dropped his hand, recalling all the damage that had already been done.