by Z Gottlieb
“Thanks.” He looked back at the sergeant. “Out of our way, Sergeant Mountain, we are on our way to our stateroom.”
Sperzs groaned. “Brad, this isn’t worth taking a stand.”
Leevaal held back laughter as he relaxed his threatening stance. “Who are you, Trainee? Do you have a reason to obstruct a sanctioned exercise?”
“Someone who cares, and as far as I’m concerned, your major can ‘Eat shit and die,’ he challenged in English with as much bravado as possible.
“What is ‘Eat shit and die’ in standard CIG?” Leevaal asked.
“Look it up.” Hearing another groan in the background, he turned to Sperzs. “Don’t worry, I have everything under control.” Okay, Sperzs might see that as a lie, but he wasn’t going to back down.
Leevaal pulled out his tablet and began swiping. “I will. No one is leaving here until I find out what it means.”
“I’m fine with that.” Brad wondered whether it would be interpreted before the end of the shift.
Leevaal looked directly at Brad’s face, “Little man, the phrase did not belong to any of the CIG or Aneplé language databases. I asked my sister, who had recently been detailed to one of the observed planets and is now on the Zuonopy. It looks like we might agree on something. You have more backbone than most people on the ship ” Leevaal stepped to the right closer to the railing and moved forward.
Brad matched the Sergeant’s moves, stepping to the left closer to the wall and walked forward passing the troops on his left.
Sperzs ran to catch up to Brad. “What did you say to him?”
Brad, relieved he could walk away with a minor bruise on his shoulder, wondered if the sergeant might do more if word got around about what he said. “Some things are better left unsaid. How much further to our stateroom?”
“Not far, the room is located near the next exit.” Sperzs sped around Brad, leading him through a doorway and down a passageway. He stopped in front of a door and turned to Brad. “It should be keyed to your signal. Go ahead and test it.”
Brad gestured his hand as he had learned on Earth and the door opened. He stepped into the room pulling his bag behind him and saw his twenty-two inch carry-on bag standing in the middle of the room. Leaning the bigger bag against a wall, he turned to Sperzs. “Looks like I had another bag. No wonder I was confused.”
Sperzs looked at the two bags and the tiny stateroom. “It looks like it’s going to be tight. You might be able to put some of it in storage.”
“Don’t worry, I have it under control. It’ll all fit. Let’s get moving to the squadron,” Brad bluffed as he walked toward the door.
“I’ve seen your ‘under control’ and I’m not sure I’m ready for a repeat. I’m not sure how I got so lucky to be your sponsor and roommate,” Sperzs mumbled as he followed Brad out of the room.
Chapter 14
Plinoa glared in anger at the transport vehicle housing Major N’Klaftin’s signal. She would not fail to capture N’Klaftin this time. Plinoa glanced across the Transportation Room looking for Sergeant Stapernoin’s team knowing it would take a little longer for them to arrive since they were coming from the opposite direction. Her instincts told her not to wait any longer and to board the vehicle now, since she had almost her full squadron complement surrounding the vehicle. Plinoa was ready to strike. She was convinced little would be gained from waiting for Stapernoin and his team. She stared at her tablet depicting N’Klaftin’s signal flashing its position moving within the vehicle weighing the pros and cons one more time in her head. “Sergeant Bestrick, have you noticed any unusual activity?”
“No ma’am, nothing unusual. Pilot Sperzs Drosey from Swarm Defender Squadron 262 came by earlier to pick up a trainee. The tracer shows they went to their quarters, probably to stow the trainee’s personal belongings.”
“Anyone else note anything different?” Plinoa demanded.
“No ma’am, we have been maintaining the watch since you left with Stapernoin and his squadron and have not noticed anything else.”
Plinoa nodded, taking in everything. She didn’t see any reason to wait any longer. She reassured herself N’Klaftin would not escape this time. “Bestrick, we’re moving in now. I’m going in with you and three others. The remainder of your squadron will stay out here to cover the vehicle’s two exit doors with the other two squadrons posting a circle around the vehicle.”
Sergeant Bestrick sent the order out to Squadrons 2 and 4. “Ready when you are, ma’am.”
Laco tapped a ready signal to Divazz regarding the movement outside the vehicle and crossed to the valet trundling around the bay. Hearing footsteps rushing up the ramp, he picked up the tiny wafer on the moving robot. Laco snapped the chip and dropped it into a sleeve pocket. He grabbed the valet to stow in the rear of the vehicle.
Although Divazz thought she was prepared for the troops boarding her vehicle, she jumped in her seat when the troops bore down on her with full armor and riot weapons. She had seen armored Special Combat troops before, but never this close. She trembled as she reminded herself to remain calm and tell the truth. She stood up to face the major, who looked like she enjoyed intimidating others. “Can I help you with anything?”
“We are running an Evasion Exercise. Our instruments located Major N’Klaftin on this vehicle. The signal disappeared as we boarded. We will ask you questions on her status. If you are aiding her evasion, you are voluntarily participating in the exercise and will be taken into custody for aiding and abetting her evasion. Do you understand?” Major Ukpres asked while Sergeant Bestrick walked around with her tracer and other instruments noting every detail.
Divazz eyes widened in bewilderment to hear they had tracked Shinny to this vehicle. “What? I personally saw Major N’Klaftin leave. Why would she return here?” Divazz asked, dumbfounded.
“We will ask the questions. You will answer them. Again, if you speak out of turn, you will be apprehended and treated as a participant. Do you understand?” Plinoa threatened. Plinoa gritted her teeth in anger with the realization N’Klaftin’s signal was another false lead.
“I, I understand,” Divazz stuttered, wiping her sweaty hands on her pants.
“Do you confirm your name is Divazz Benoggi?” Plinoa asked. At the pilot’s nod she asked, “Is Major N’Klaftin on this vehicle?”
“No, she is not,” Divazz responded, swallowing nervously while trembling.
“When was the last time you saw her?”
“Shortly after we landed, before she left the ship,” Divazz responded meekly.
Plinoa looked at the readings. The pilot was being truthful, but it looked like she was hiding something. She watched as some of the troops swiped their tablets checking to see what they may have missed. She turned toward the pilot. “We picked up her signal on this vehicle a few moments ago. What do you know about it?”
“I didn’t see her. I don’t know why she would return,” Divazz answered fearfully.
The readings still showed truthfulness on her part but also an increase in her stress hormones. “Maybe she has friends here. Who else is on this vehicle?” Plinoa sent a private message to Sergeant Bestrick to help the pilot become more verbal.
Divazz became increasingly more nervous. “I honestly don’t know why Major N’Klaftin would return unless something terrible happened. My copilot, Laco Voodel, may still be on the vehicle. He may know something more. He was here a moment ago.” She looked ready to say more but was interrupted by two loud voices arguing with each other.
“Major, I caught this pilot sneaking off the vehicle.” The corporal’s voice boomed over everyone else’s as he shoved the pilot forward.
Responding sarcastically, Laco disputed the accusation, “If I was sneaking off, I would have left the vehicle as cargo. I was leaving the vehicle from the main off ramp when one of your primitives accosted me and dragged me back on. That action violates the rules of engagement.”
Pilot Benoggi paled at something Voodel had said. Pli
noa needed Voodel to talk more to reach Benoggi. Facing Voodel, her eyes hardened. “I don’t care what language you use when you refer to your fellow pilots, but if I hear you refer to any of my troops as primitives, you will answer to me personally. Do you understand?”
Laco pressed his lips together in anger. “Your reputation around the battle cruiser is well known. You don’t give a damn for anyone but yourself.”
Plinoa stared back, irritated that Laco wasn’t rattled. He continued to stare back at her, answering her with a hard silence that equaled her posturing measure for measure. It seemed he could keep this up as long as she could. There would be another time to take him on. “What do you mean the corporal violated rules of engagement?”
“I just started my long overdue rest period and am not allowed to participate in the exercise.” Laco smirked.
“Did you notify the corporal?” she snapped back.
“It wasn’t possible, he was intent on dragging me back into the vehicle.” Laco twisted his mouth in scorn. The exercises included personnel who simulated things such as injuries, deaths, evacuations, new arrivals, and births to provide a sense of reality. Some were planned, and occasionally others fell into designated categories, such as him. Essentially, his rest period meant he had died and could not participate any further. Had he been apprehended before he began his rest period it would be a different story for him.
“Corporal, release Pilot Voodel. He is dead,” she snarled, emphasizing the word dead.
Laco smiled a broad grin at the major’s realization of his status and stepped toward Divazz. “Divazz, have they hurt you?”
Divazz, still trembling, shook her head no. “They’ve only asked me questions.”
Laco observed Divazz trembling and regretted including her in the Evasion Exercise. As he reached toward Divazz to give her a reassuring hug, the major shoved Laco’s arm away, to remind him he was dead. Laco struggled unsuccessfully as the major physically pulled him to the hatch.
Plinoa’s hands were full from moving the pilot off the vehicle when a chorus of chimes went off. “Where is N’Klaftin now?”
A sergeant quickly volunteered that her signature was showing up on a Swarm Defender platform.
Plinoa, still clutching the pilot’s arm, was clearly frustrated N’Klaftin was not on the vehicle. “Sergeant Bestrick, leave your interrogation team on this vehicle and have them continue questioning Pilot Benoggi. I’ll assign someone to guard the vehicle’s entrance ramp. The remainder will combine with the forces outside and split into two groups to approach the Swarm Defender’s platform from the two sides.” Pulling Voodel with her, she scowled, “Pilot Dead, you’re leaving the vehicle with us, now.”
Laco looked behind him at tears streaking down Divazz’s cheeks. They must have released something in close proximity of her to distress her further. There wasn’t any reason for their cruelty and he wouldn’t soon forget it, he thought, as he was dragged off his vehicle.
Leevaal approached the major as she strode off the ramp pulling the pilot behind her. “Ma’am, I recommend you consider leaving half of your platoon on this platform until N’Klaftin’s position is confirmed.”
Major Ukpres, who had never failed before in capturing an evasion target, had become too obsessed to consider Leevaal’s recommendation. In fact, she looked furious he was questioning her competency. She lashed out at him. “Sergeant, send your team to join us. You will remain on station guarding this vehicle ensuring this dead pilot does not reenter the vehicle.” She shoved the pilot in her hand toward the platform’s edge. “You will remain on post until you receive further orders from me or hear the signal to end the exercise and return to your assigned duties.”
Leevaal was risking her explosive wrath when he approached the major with the suggestion, but did not expect to be fired in front of his troops. “Ma’am, what am I supposedly guarding?”
“Bestrick’s people are questioning another pilot on the vehicle. You are to ensure the interrogation is not interrupted.” Major Ukpres ordered, glaring at the pilot on the platform.
He was familiar with Bestrick and her troop’s methods. As far as he was concerned, the major and Bestrick were a matched pair. There probably wasn’t a good reason to continue questioning the pilot in the vehicle, but they weren’t ones to let a small detail like that restrain their perverse tendencies. “Message received,” he acknowledged as he walked to the ramp to stand guard. He watched the platoon split into two sections and jog toward the front of the cruiser from both sides. He had never met Major N’Klaftin and had only heard stories about her, but he decided he definitely respected her just from her ability to avoid capture without a confrontation.
Shinny sat in the cubby she customized to fit her. The last signal chimed, marking time for her to report to her new unit. She unzipped the Samsonite bag from inside and dropped the front panel, allowing her long legs to stretch forward so she could stand up. Not only did she print the bag on the transportation vehicle to fit her, but she also used a material she had developed on Earth to shield transmission of her chip’s signal and counter traditional electronic jamming. It was probably overkill since she was also wearing a cap made of the same material blocking the transmission of the chip’s signal from inside her head. She hadn’t been able to operationally test the capability on Earth, but was able to determine its effectiveness from tracking Kiraine’s use of the cap.
Her only concern had been when Brad opened the bag, but he had caught on quickly. She smiled to herself; she’d have to ask him what the hell he was thinking, confronting one of the teams. Following the activity on her tablet, even she could tell the sergeant leading the team was a giant even among the taller CIG personnel.
Stretching her body, she decided that she wanted to leave a thank you message before she left Brad’s stateroom. She opened Brad’s smaller bag and pulled out his framed family photos and his blanket, Lucky. She arranged the photos on the table beside his bed similar to the way he kept them on his desk at home. She folded Lucky to lie on the bed near the foot. She smiled and assured herself he would understand the message she left. Shinny grabbed the handle of the oversized suitcase to throw in to a recycling bin and left the room.
Shinny stood outside Colonel T’Lentic’s office, noting the location of Major Ukpres’ troops, reassuring herself she was still safe. She planned to keep her cap on longer to avoid detection until the last minute. This had been fun, she told herself, but she was ready to return to Earth and Dane.
Shinny walked up to the colonel’s aide, who was swiping his own tablet. “I’d like to see the colonel.”
The aide continued to swipe and didn’t bother to look up. “The colonel is busy and can’t be disturbed.”
Shinny bent over slightly and looked at the aide’s tablet. He was following the exercise. She chuckled quietly at the irony and pulled out her discharged praser. “Exercise, exercise you are dead.”
The aide looked up. “I can’t believe it. Major N’Klaftin, how did you do it?”
Smiling, Shinny responded, “State secret. Excuse me, while I report to duty and end the exercise.” She holstered her praser in a hidden pocket at her waist.
The corporal stood and nodded a salute. “Yes, ma’am.”
Shinny pulled the cap off of her head and quickly stuffed it in a sleeve pocket. She pulled her hair back and retied her ponytail. Shinny walked in and stopped directly in front of Colonel T’Lentic, who was staring at his tablet.
Colonel T’Lentic furrowed his eyebrows together. “Major N’Klaftin? There have been so many false-positives, I thought the one in my suite was another, since the one on the Swarm Defender platform just disappeared.”
Shinny ignoring the Colonel’s observation, “Sir, Major N’Klaftin reporting for duty. Request end of exercise signal be sent.”
Colonel tapped a few commands on his tablet. “Exercise termination signal sent. I expect a full report on your tactics in evading capture no later than third shift. Your sponsor
, Major Ukpres, will be here shortly to escort you to your stateroom.”
The exercise had left a bad taste in her mouth when it came to Major Ukpres. She would rather struggle the next few weeks than wonder if there were a knife sticking in her back. “Sir, I decline your offer of a sponsor. Send me my stateroom number and names of the troops in my squadron and I will be set.”
“It’s your right to refuse your sponsor. I did not assign anyone to your squadron because you’re here for only a short time period. I’ll ask for volunteers and send their names to you.”
“Thank you. Sir, request permission to leave?” Shinny turned away when Colonel T’Lentic waved her away. She looked at her tablet and noted they had assigned her a stateroom on the foreward side of Zuonopy. They may have thought they were sending her to no man’s land and maybe they were, for most Special Combat Officers, but for her it was a different story. Her stateroom was close to Brad’s platform.
As soon as Leevaal heard the exercise termination signal, he ran up the ramp and headed toward the vehicle’s cockpit. The two sergeants who were left behind spitting questions into the face of the pilot, who was curled in a fetal position on the floor whimpering with tears streaking down her face. Enraged, he grabbed the two inquisitors by the backs of their shirts and pulled them back from her. “Didn’t you hear the exercise termination signal? You two are no better than the junk thrown into the recycle bin. Get out of here before I throw you out.” He growled at them as he dropped them to the floor. They scrambled up and ran out of the cabin. He was sure they were going to run back to their mama to turn him in. Not caring what they did, he turned to the shaking pilot on the floor and bent down to pick her up. Holding her gently, Leevaal lifted the distressed pilot, who continued shivering in his arms. The pain in her face caused him to wince inside. Leevaal turned around to see the pilot who had waited at the edge facing him with a praser in his hand pointed toward him.