by Ben Winston
“Oly, I know I’ll learn it eventually in my studies, but I’m curious. I understand about Ian and Jenny being almost exact duplicates of Zeus and Hera, but what about the rest of us? How can you tell how much Talosian blood, for a lack of a better term, we have in us?” Beth asked.
“For the most part, Earth-born DNA, and Talosian DNA are the same. They are not exactly the same, but very close. I am considering a number of variables as being ‘Talosian’ as compared to ‘Terran’; certain markers in certain sequences, the existence of the extra nucleotides that were uniquely Talosian, and so on. For example; in order for a human to safely use the sleep teaching, they have to have certain markers in certain places or they could be damaged,” Oly explained.
“That doesn’t seem to make sense to me. Maybe it will once I understand it better, but it seems to me it should work for everyone,” Beth said. “I guess that’s something I can look into later.”
“Speaking of what you’re going to learn,” Ian said, biting his lip softly. “Beth, I need you to make a promise; however, keep in mind that promises have the weight of law in Talosian Society.”
“You can ask me anything, you know that,” she replied leaning her head on his shoulder opposite Jenny.
“Well, this is official. I need you to promise not to use any of the advanced medical knowledge you’re going to be learning on anyone here on Earth,” Ian said.
“Ian, that’s a lot to ask. You know I took an oath and as you just pointed out; I’m bound by it,” she said.
“I know, but if someone finds out that you’re curing cancer or AIDS, there'll be questions that we simply can’t answer. I’ll need you to have that knowledge next weekend when we go aboard so we can get Talena out of the freezer, but I can’t let you use it down here. If the person was part of the crew, I’d consider it, but any other way would threaten our security,” Ian explained.
“I can understand that, Ian. But...”
“Beth, please, a lot of the technology, especially the medical technology, can very easily be turned into a weapon. I’ve learned there are a lot of answers for a lot of questions, but the cures, with just a little tweaking, or the understanding of how they work can create terrible biological and viral weaponry. Trust me, you’ll be fulfilling your oath by not letting this technology fall into the hands of the planetary officials,” Ian said.
Beth sat in thought for a while, and leaned her head back against his shoulder. “I never really considered that angle. Oly will this promise compromise the Hippocratic Oath?”
“Yes, it does. However, I should point out that there are several errors in that oath, any of which would invalidate it. The basic premise of the oath is to help insure that new medical practitioners do their best for their patients. If we follow that reasoning, this promise will actually fit perfectly in upholding the principle,” Oly replied.
Beth was silent a moment, then nodded in understanding, and agreement. “I, Beth Williams, do so swear not to use Talosian Medical knowledge on those not of our group, without leave from my commanding officer until such time as situational security, and information control is no longer an issue.”
“Wow, you’re good at this!” Cindy said, impressed but giggling.
“Thank you, Major,” Ian said officially ignoring Cindy.
“Hey, how come she gets to be a Major, and I’m just a lowly Cadet?” Cindy asked teasingly. “For that matter, why are you only a Commander, and not a Captain? What rank is Jenny?”
“She’s a Colonel,” Ian replied, chuckling. “The Talosian rank structure is different than that of our military. You, as a Cadet, are basically an officer candidate. Once you pass ground school, you’ll become an Ensign. Actually, your rank is real, while ours is only honorary until we are qualified to hold it.
“But to answer your real question, Beth will be a Major because she is the head of the medical department and will need it. She will have to have certain knowledge of command procedures and protocols though.
“After Ensign, the progression is Lieutenant; (Junior and Senior grade), Captain, Major, Colonel and Lieutenant Commander, Commander and Commodore, Rear Admiral, Admiral, Vice Admiral, and Fleet Admiral,” Ian explained. “...and that’s only the officer ranks, of course in our structure, Colonel and Commander have ranks in both the marines and navy. Basically a special rank that works both military branches.”
“So in addition to all the command stuff, what do you need to learn?” Cindy asked.
“Well, that 'command stuff' is actually quite a bit. There is everything from fleet battle tactics to weapons theory. But besides all of that, I'll have to get certified on the Hornets and Centurions, as well as piloting and navigating Olympus. I'll also have to have marine officer training, as well as diplomacy and first contact protocols.”
“You forgot to mention engineering, sir,” Oly injected.
“Ah, sorry, Engineering too,” Ian said. “Jenny will get the same training I get, so she can take over if anything were to ever happen to me, or I was needed elsewhere.”
“Wow, I didn't realize there was so much involved to being a Commander. How long will it take you to learn all of that?” Cindy asked.
Ian shrugged. “I'll be at it as long as it takes. I just shudder to think of how long it would take me to learn it the old fashioned way!”
Beth cocked her head to one side. “Is it really that much faster? I just don't understand how the brain can absorb knowledge when it's in a sleep state.”
“Well, last night, I learned a slightly compressed version of the history of the Talosian people, as well as, how to use some of this technology. Honestly, it feels kinda strange. There is so much information in there, it feels like it takes a while to actually come to the surface, so to speak. When you first wake up, you're really confused for a second until your brain gets back into its normal mode,” Ian shrugged. “It's hard to describe, but you'll know exactly what I mean in the morning.”
“I had a question about that,” Jenny asked. “When we start recruiting people, what's to disprove the folks that will claimed we are brainwashing them into accepting us?”
“Nothing really. This is a form of brainwashing, although it isn't to make people want to be a part of this. Which is why folks have to agree before we give them contacts and the communicators.”
“But won't people freak out once they learn that is what's really going on? I mean, we've been conditioned to believe that any form of brainwashing is a very bad thing,” Cindy replied.
“Have you heard of those relaxation or self-help CDs and tapes?” Beth asked.
“Yeah, who hasn't?” Cindy said.
Beth smiled at her. “What do you think those are? Most of them use a form of subliminal programming to work. Granted, those aren't exactly the same what I understand this to be, but the principle is the same.”
“Those things use brainwashing?” Cindy asked.
Both Ian and Beth nodded. “Although what Olympus does with this teaching method is far more powerful, and lasts a lot longer, it is a form of hypnotism,” Ian replied.
“Excuse me, sir?” Oly said, materializing on the other side of the fire.
Ian smiled, and said, “What’s up, Oly?”
“Sir, I thought you might like to know, the shuttle has returned from the ship.”
“Thank you, Oly.” He turned to the ladies, “Would any of you lovely ladies like to see a real space shuttle?”
Chapter Six
After a tour of the shuttle, and the ladies getting new communicators, Oly dropped off two domestic drones before Ian had him send the shuttle back into orbit. After Jenny and Cindy left, Ian promised Beth he would clean up before turning in.
She smiled softly and came into his arms. “You know, I think I’m going to like the new relationship between us, I had a wonderful day.”
Ian held her and returned her smile. “I still don’t understand how the three of you are going to do this, but I’m very glad you’re willing to try.”
She rested her head against his chest. “I think we will have a few awkward times, but all in all, we’ll work through it.” She turned her face up to him for a kiss, which he gave her. “I’ll see you inside,” she said before letting go of him to walk into the house.
He watched her go, watching the extra sway in her walk. He sighed, and turned back to the task at hand.
Ian began carrying the dishes into the kitchen. He set the stuff by the sink and went back to get another load. When he returned, to the kitchen, the plates he’d carried in before were sparkling clean, and stacked up on the counter. That’s when he noticed the domestic drone hovering nearby waiting for him to set his new burden down.
Ian chuckled. “Sorry, I forgot about you, here you go,” he said as he slid a plate into the open door on the drone. The dirty plate disappeared, and a clean one replaced it. “So that’s how you do it. Would it be easier if you just followed me outside do them all at once?” Ian asked as he took the plate out and stacked it with the rest.
The drone made a weird beeping noise and bobbed up and down.
“Okay, let’s go then. I bet this is a lot easier aboard ship, huh?”
The drone bleeped a couple times and followed. They moved around and Ian handed the drone all the dirty dishes, until finally, only the left-overs remained. “Oly, I’m still getting used to how the drones work, if I understand correctly, I can have it decompose the left-overs, but remember the composition so it can be replicated later? I really like Beth’s potato salad, and would like to have it on file.”
“You are correct, Commander. If you tell it to, the drone will store the pattern for any object, or in this case, the composition of the Doctor’s potato salad.
“I should mention that I have been scanning the patterns of most goods on the planet in preparation for your arrival. Of course, I can, and usually do, remove harmful substances. For example, I have four-hundred ninety-six different types of beer scanned. I can reproduce them either with, or without, alcohol and they will still taste the same.
“If you ask any replicator for one of them; you will get the non-alcoholic version by default. The same goes for soft-drinks, all caffeine and other addictive substances have been removed unless specifically requested. In some cases, medical authorization would be required to replace them.”
Ian sat down in one of the chairs. “We’ve really been screwing up, haven’t we Oly?”
“I am afraid I do not understand the question, sir. Please clarify.”
“Us. The human race, we’ve let greed overcome common sense and we’ve been screwing up. We’re killing the planet, and poisoning each other just to make money,” Ian explained.
“Yes, it would seem that way. Your society is driven by selfish, rather than selfless concerns. However, it is human nature to do so. I always thought it odd that a greater benefit could be gained, even to the individual, if the prime motivation were for the greater good.”
“You’ll have to give me a course in Talosian economics when we have enough time, I think I might enjoy it. Can you have the drone service the pool? I should’ve done that today, but I forgot,” Ian asked.
“That should not be a problem, sir.”
“Well, I’ll let you and this nice drone finish up for me, It’s been an eventful day, and I’m kind of tired,” Ian replied.
“Switching communications to privacy mode. Good night, Commander.”
“Good night, Olympus. Please wake me at six-thirty in the morning.”
“As you wish, sir,” Oly replied.
The beeping in his ear reminded Ian that he’d asked to be woken up this early. “I’m awake, Oly, thanks,” he said quietly as he sat up and rubbed his face. He pulled on a pair of shorts and headed for the bathroom to start his day.
“Good morning, Olympus. What’s our status?”
“Good morning, Commander. Ship’s status is unchanged. Beta flight deck is offline, and all fighters are powered down. Alpha flight deck is online but functioning at minimum power. Main reactor is at idle, and no enemy vessels are within sensor range. Ship’s crew currently stands at five, with three more possible recruits,” Oly replied automatically. Ian realized his mind stored all that information quickly, and came to some conclusions.
“Please bring the main reactor up to ten percent, and power up Beta deck. I want a level three diagnostic on all flight systems. Do the same for Alpha bay, and include the flight operations control center. Once those are finished, I’ll want you to run a level three check on each of the ship’s other systems. At no time do I want the main reactor to go above ten percent. Once the tests are finished, return the reactor to idle,” Ian ordered. “Have a drone or two get the command quarters ready for us, as well as two or three more apartments. Give special attention to the medical facilities; we’ll probably need them for Talena.”
“Yes sir,” Oly replied.
“How is the girls’ training coming along?” Ian said as he started the shower.
“The Doctor and Cadet started on their unique specialized training last night, while the Colonel got history and started on command functions. All of them have gotten the Talosian language and computer operation. I included an introduction to each of their chosen fields, In the case of the First Officer, I started her on Diplomacy in order to compliment your own instruction schedule.”
Ian thought about that while he got in the shower and started washing himself. “Good. Today is going to be finals at school, I feel pretty confident about them, but Jenny always stresses over tests. Let us try to answer the questions on the tests, but if we get a wrong answer, let us know, but don’t give us the correct answer. If we don’t know the answer, then we don’t know. That’s the point of the tests.
“Tomorrow, all we have to do is turn our books in, and graduation rehearsal. We have only a half day tomorrow, so we should be home around noon. I’d like to invite the Laskars over for dinner tomorrow night, to discuss what they would like to do aboard ship, and how to cover their disappearance.
“Graduation will be Friday night, and we’ll be leaving for the ship the next morning. We’re going to need a lot more crew, so I’m not going to plan on staying aboard ship yet.” Ian paused. “I noticed you didn’t report on my training.”
“No sir, I did not. I am sure you may have noticed that you are acting a little differently today. Last night I gave you more of the command training as well as ethics and ship’s functions. I started you on basic combat training as well. You are doing remarkably well, you are absorbing the knowledge almost like you already know it,” Oly said.
Ian paused while washing his hair. “You know, that’s really weird; when you were talking about Talena the other day, I could almost remember talking to her about going into cryo. Was getting Zeus’ memories part of this training?”
“No sir, they are not. I do not understand how that could even be possible. Teaching material is input manually by special programmers. However, the closest thing would be that I gave you a copy of Commander Zeus’ log, but that is standard procedure when a change of command is imminent. No such incidents like this have ever been reported,” Oly replied, looking a little worried.
“Well, it doesn’t seem to be effecting me too badly yet, but I think it’s something I’ll want to keep an eye on. I’ll talk to Beth about it. For now, I think you should probably wake the ladies so we can get ready for the day,” Ian said as he finished rinsing his hair.
“Beth, I got to thinking about something last night that you might not have thought of. Please don’t think I don’t want you with us, because I very much do, but have you considered that what we are starting here may end up killing us all. Olympus is a warship. She has only one purpose. Granted she is capable of carrying colonists to a new planet, but that only started after the war did.
“Oly seems to think that the enemy that destroyed Talos is here. He has no proof, but I’ve seen all the recordings, and examined Commander Zeus’ logs. I tend to agree with him. Why
they haven’t invaded or openly taken over I couldn’t even venture to guess.
“Perhaps they aren’t here, and I’m just letting Oly’s paranoia infect me, but if they are here, and we make one little mistake, it could very well kill all of us,” Ian said as she sat down to her meal.
“So why are we doing this? As far as I can see, there isn’t that much wrong with our world now, other than greed, and war, and... but the point is, those are all human issues, what do we do if we get up there, get Oly ready to fight, and there is no enemy?”
“I know all those are human issues, but with Olympus’ help, we could work behind the scenes to make this a better world. As far as the enemy is concerned, there is one, and it is out there. Whether or not we actually have an enemy to fight once we get Oly up to strength, is irrelevant. The enemy will be here eventually. The more time we have to prepare, the better off we’ll be,” Ian said. “I just can’t see a reason not to do this.”
While they were talking Cindy and Jenny both arrived, dressed for school. Jenny was carrying her books, and already looking worried. They sat down and the drone produced food for them without being asked.
Ian chuckled at the expression on Jenny’s face. “Are you already starting to worry about the tests?”
“Yeah, I didn’t get to study as much as I’d planned to. These are finals, Ian,” she said.
“Jenny relax, you’ve always worried about every test we ever took in school. Yet you’ve always gotten ‘A’s on every single one of them. Trust yourself, you know the answers. Relax and just answer them,” Ian said kindly.
Jenny played with her food a little. “I know, Ian. You’ve told me that over and over again, but I still worry about them. I guess they had me in mind when they created the term ‘test anxiety’.”
“Well, you guys better eat up and get going, or you’ll be late. I need to be getting to my office as well, and start calling the other doctors. It’s going to be a long day,” Beth said.