Paragon

by Rob RodenParker

  "Sir, you okay?"

  "Course I'm okay," he snapped. "This bird needs its wings clipped!"

  He propped the launcher on his shoulder and knelt, but Ian could see he was swaying all over the place, probably concussed.

  "Sir, let me do it, you're not stable."

  "Shut up soldier, I'm fine!"

  The AIC had stopped firing now. It was flying around the complex, like it was looking for something.

  "Eat shit!" shouted Wallam as he fired the rocket. Unfortunately, his aim was woefully off; the missile sailed over the top of the craft and exploded in the desert behind it, throwing up plumes of sand.

  The AIC turned, having followed the rocket's trail back to its source.

  Ian's heart sank.

  The AIC let loose two missiles.

  The sniper tower exploded into fragments of metal, rock and dust.

  "This is big bird, you are all clear for pickup. Personally, I think we've outstayed our welcome."

  Kepp and Haur dragged a semi-conscious Tenzen between them towards the craft. Waiting arms helped to pull him aboard. They jumped on after him. One or two automatic rifles sounded across the complex, plinking off the AIC's armor harmlessly.

  The craft lifted off, flying into the rising sun, leaving the smoking ruins of the Alpha Cybernetics research facility behind them.

  Chapter 6 – Reasons

  Astropedia Entry: Stimulant Pens (also known as Stimulant Packs, Stim Pens, Pain Pens)

  Stimulant Pens as used by the Paragons come in two different flavors. Both use an auto-injecting syringe, which allows a pre-determined dosage to be quickly delivered. Three doses are loaded in each syringe. Paragons generally carry one of each type with them for missions.

  Pain Pens contain a complex cocktail of both natural and synthetic compounds designed to act as an analgesic. Even after years of research in pain management, the majority of the effect is still due to morphine. However, the molecular structure has been subtly altered to reduce interaction with the mu-opioid receptor, and to increase binding response with the kappa and delta opioid receptors in the central nervous system. This has the effect of reducing the propensity to become dependent, whilst still allowing for the same effectiveness at pain relief. Pain Pens contain 5 mg of active ingredients per dose.

  Stim Pens contain a simple cocktail of a small amount of Epinephrine (aka Adrenalin) and two synthetic compounds. One is known as Q-amp, an enhanced version of amphetamine with greatly reduced side effects. The other one is a classified substance known as 5C, it binds to synapses, greatly increasing the efficiency of impulse transfer between neurons and thus the efficiency and overall effectiveness of the Paragon implant's sensory boosting functions. The effects of a Stim Pen generally only last for about ten minutes, and the user then has a withdraw period of a few hours, leaving the user feeling dizzy, nauseous and weak, thus Paragons are advised to use Stim Pens only as a last resort.

  Jess bit at the tip of her stylus, her brows furrowed in concentration. This test was a killer.

  The AIC flew towards the Arizona base at maximum speed with its airframe juddering and vibrating. It was a ten minute trip at full pelt. The engine noise dominated the interior, making it hard to hear or think.

  Jess stared at the question paper, her mind swimming as she was stuck yet again. Come on Jess, you're good under pressure.

  "Hands out the way. He needs more Celox!" shouted the co-pilot, who was a trained paramedic. At least one of the two pilots aboard every AIC was. He tore open another bag of pro-coagulates and emptied it around the exit wound, which was still oozing blood. The Celox had already worked its magic on the entry wound, speeding up the clotting to stop the bleeding. "Kepp! Get a blood pack out of the cabinet and the transfusion kit."

  Jess put stylus to terminal screen and wrote out another line of working, hoping this time she had gone in the right direction.

  Tenzen lay on the floor, which by now was covered in his blood. He was moaning incoherently, in a state of trauma-induced delirium, and seemed to be growing weaker. Kepp fished out his dog tag and read the details. Then, he yanked open the small cabinet and grabbed a pack of type AB blood and a small red box labeled "Transfusions".

  Jess glanced at the clock. There was only one minute left, and she wasn't anywhere near the end of the paper.

  "Haur, get your hands on this exit wound, keep the pressure on. Kepp, hold the blood pack up." said Harmen, the co-pilot. He then turned to Kepp, and took the kit off him.

  Kepp did as he was told, as Harmen connected up the transfusion kit. Finally, blood began to flow into Tenzen.

  The terminal screen went black. The test was over. Jess laid down the stylus, and cradled her head in her hands, shoulders slumped. It was the hardest test she had taken in her life. Judging by the reactions of the three other candidates in the room, it hadn't gone all that well for them either.

  Kepp leaned against the wall outside the intensive care unit in the Arizona base, tapping his fingers on each other repeatedly. Haur waited nearby, leant against the opposite wall of the corridor. The silence was palpable.

  Harmen approached them.

  "You guys want anything? We got a good coffee brew going here."

  Both Paragons declined.

  As Harmen turned to leave, the door opened, and the attending doctor greeted them.

  "He's stable for now. It was touch and go for a bit. Thank whichever gods you believe in that you had the Celox and the blood packs. I think the best thing to do is to get him shuttled to the hospital at the HQ. The bullet went through his liver. He'll need surgery ASAP, but I don't have the expertise to operate on him."

  "I've arranged a shuttle transfer already," Kepp said. "It's waiting outside for us."

  "I'll prep him for transfer then. It's probably best if someone with medical knowledge goes with him though. But not me, I have to stay here."

  "I'll go with them," Harmen offered.

  "You were the one who did the transfusion?" asked the doctor.

  Harmen nodded.

  "Good job, son. He would've died without it."

  "Just doing my job, sir."

  "No need to sir me. Right, you three go ahead and clear some space in that shuttle, I'll be out shortly," said the doctor, before disappearing back into the room.

  Haur breathed a sigh of relief, one that he had apparently been holding in for some time. Kepp patted Harmen on the back. No words needed to be said.

  Why was the marking taking so damn long? Jess sat in her chair, the terminal screen still displaying the words "Marking in progress."

  She curled her long hair around her fingers, winding it round and round. Her stomach was full of butterflies. The pass mark for this test was fifty percent.

  The screen changed; "Loading results."

  Her mark breakdown appeared on the screen. In the top right corner, the overall percentage was displayed. Fifty three. A smile crept over her face as the realization dawned on her that she had passed.

  The shuttle flight from Arizona to Nevada was a short one. The three men were quiet as they each reflected on the mission outcome. As they touched down in the military HQ, medics were on hand to receive the gurney upon which Tenzen lay. As Kepp disembarked amongst the activity taking place, he noticed President Saro standing off to one side with Jess, who was beaming with happiness. Despite his somber mood, Kepp felt a little uplifted as he saw her face; it had been a long time since he'd seen her smile like that.

  "I'm IN!" shouted Jess, waving at Kepp as he walked towards them. She wasn't sure whether he would be happy about it, but she didn't care - she was ecstatic.

  Kepp gave her a nod and a small, tired smile.

  Jess tilted her head to one side. "What? You're not even going to congratulate me?"

  "She scored exceptionally," said Saro. "She'll be the youngest analyst we've ever taken on, that's for sure."

  "Well done," said Kepp, mustering up as much enthusiasm as he could. He then turned to Saro.

&
nbsp; "Could I talk to you sir?" he asked. Hoping Saro would get the hint.

  Saro turned to Jess.

  "Right," he said, "Jess, the head analyst should be ready for you any time now, so my driver will take you to the labs, if that's okay with you?"

  "That'd be great!" enthused Jess.

  Kepp stood in silence, his face a mask.

  Jess gave Kepp a wave and a smile, before jumping in the car which was parked behind them.

  As the car drove off, Kepp strode up the Saro.

  "You said you wouldn't let her in!"

  "I'm sorry, Kepp. She is too valuable an asset, she has such a bright mind, and a bright future here ahead of her."

  "An asset? She's my sister, and only a child at that! ...sir."

  It probably wasn't a good idea getting angry at Saro, he thought, but he was too tired to care.

  "She's only your sister because we let you keep her. Don't forget that," reprimanded Saro. "But I see your concerns. I can assure you, however, that we'll take good care of her here. Now, I didn't want to talk to you about her. So let's change the subject."

  Kepp sighed.

  "Let's walk, Kepp."

  The two men walked along the flat expanse of the landing terminal, between rows and rows of parked shuttles towards the entrance of the medical center, a few hundred meters away.

  "It's a shame you had to be so heavy handed in escaping," he began, "but congratulations on a job well done. We got all the information we needed."

  Kepp chafed at the criticism.

  "With all due respect, sir, were Haur and Tenzen really the right choice for this mission? None of them had any history of doing anything this high profile. And thanks to them, we nearly blew it."

  "That's what I like about you, Kepp. You aren't afraid to say what you think."

  Hiro's death played out in Kepp's mind again. Good thing he doesn't know what I'm really thinking, thought Kepp. They carried on walking, the president was quiet.

  "So?" Kepp prodded,

  "So what?"

  "You didn't answer my question."

  "It's neither here nor there anymore is it? The mission is done, and we got the results we wanted."

  "I'd hardly call the destruction of half the research facility a result."

  "Well, that is neither here nor there either. What's done is done."

  "Alpha is probably going to be pissed."

  Saro laughed.

  "Taking care of flak? That's my business. Don't worry yourself about it."

  Kepp couldn't stop thinking about Hiro's final words, and decided to ask.

  "Sir, before Hiro died, he said that his death was for a reason. This seems stupid, but he seemed to want to die..."

  Saro looked at Kepp for a second, and Kepp caught a fleeting moment of surprise in the older man's face, but then it was replaced by a chuckle.

  "The Japanese believe upon death, they will become Ujiko, a family spirit, as it were. He will be welcomed in the afterlife. As for a reason, who knows? The thoughts of old men like myself are often incomprehensible," said Saro with a twinkle in his eye.

  Yet those thoughts were clear enough to build a sentient AI, thought Kepp. He couldn't shake the feeling that there was something deeper in what Hiro said. Saro appeared dismissive however, so Kepp dropped the subject.

  Presently, they reached the medical center. Saro turned to Kepp, laying a hand on his shoulder.

  "You did well, Kepp. I'm going to leave you for now, once we've sorted out all the data gathered from this mission, we'll convene for a debrief and go from there. Get some rest for now."

  "You're not going to take a look at Tenzen?"

  "We have good doctors looking after him. I don't need to look."

  A car pulled up behind them. Saro got in, wordlessly, and it drove off.

  Kepp entered the medical center. He was greeted by the receptionist, who pointed him towards a waiting area further inside the center.

  It was a rather spartan room, chairs were placed around the outside edge, facing in towards a 3D holographic TV set situated in the middle. The walls were a beige color, and the carpet a deep maroon. Haur was the only other person in the room. Kepp took a seat opposite him.

  "Never seen someone hurt like that before," began Haur. "Could have been any of us."

  "Never? You've been in Paradigm for a long time."

  "Twenty years. But let's just say this - I want to do my bit for humanity, but, not by throwing myself into death's jaws, unlike yourself."

  "So why'd you take this mission?" Kepp ignored the banter.

  "Well, you don't refuse a direct request from Saro do you?"

  "Yeah, I guess so. Guess this was an important one."

  "No shit! You an idiot or something?" Haur seemed genuinely surprised, "With the political climate as fragile as it is, this could be the start of something big."

  "Ah, I don't usually give a shit about those things; I just do what I'm told."

  "That's going to get you into trouble at some point, mark my words."

  Kepp just shrugged. He cupped his chin in his hands, staring blankly ahead.

  "So, what's your story, huh? How'd you end up doing this?" asked Haur.

  "I used to work for the special investigations squad on Mars, and then they recruited me into Paradigm after the Angel Cartel bust."

  "I read about that; the reports said you went in alone, and single-handedly killed off over fifty of their men, and then took down their leader. All without a scratch."

  Kepp couldn't hold back a chuckle.

  "That's funny. It's not really what happened though, I wasn't alone for starters," Kepp then pointed at his left arm. "Broken in two places," he then pointed at his stomach, "shot."

  "How many did you actually kill then?"

  "I wasn't counting now, was I?"

  "So it could have been true."

  Kepp shrugged.

  "So what's your motivation then? You don't really seem like the idealist type."

  "I guess I was once. Now I just want revenge," he murmured.

  Haur leant forward.

  "Revenge eh? Sounds interesting. Want to spill?"

  "No," replied Kepp, throwing a look of disdain at Haur.

  Haur let out a bark of laughter. "Fine."

  They sat in silence for a while. Kepp mulled over what Haur had said. He knew he didn't know much about politics or societal issues as a whole, but he didn't particularly much care either. Hiro's words came to his mind again. He rubbed his weary face.

  "I killed Hiro," he began.

  "Okay?"

  "Before he died, he said there might be a reason for his death. Maybe that's related to some of this political stuff?"

  "Now you want to know?" Haur raised an eyebrow, "Okay, well. I'll tell you what I think is going to happen. Well, you know there's been significant friction between the government and a lot of major academic institutions and the scientific community at large?"

  Kepp shook his head.

  "I spend most of my downtime on Mars, I don't know."

  "Right, 'cos that's the reason," Haur rolled his eyes at Kepp's excuse. "Anyway, there is. The root of it all began a long time ago, the social zeitgeist changed. I guess you could say it began after the global unification, when the life enjoyment centers began popping up. It was a different way to live, and people didn't see the need to chase those university degrees and what was the phrase..."run the rat race"...I think. Anyway, since society began wanting different things, less people wanted to pursue an education right through to the end, the number of people in research roles and academia began dropping. They loved it at first, but then realized their numbers were vastly diminishing. They called to the government to increase incentives for education, but the government went the opposite way. Their rationale? The majority of society appeared to be perfectly content with living their lives centered around these life enjoyment centers. It was a fractious time after the unification, and the government was looking for any way they could find
to make the general populace content, and so bit by bit, the academics got side-lined. R&D companies began closing, as the government began to limit funding to only those areas it had an interest in. Investors moved away from these tech companies as they steadily went into decline. There's hardly any left now, and those that are live on the government's blessing. Of course, you've got your exceptions, like Alpha Cybernetics, but they just happened to be in the right place at the right time with their implant technology. I guess it's why they have the power and money to conduct research into anything they want."