by Lance Powers
“You are more than just a single-minded soldier after all, Colonel Evans.” Elkins snorted. “Such a possibility is on a sixty percent probability here.”
“What ever is responsible for this...” He ignored the pudgy woman. “The situation is now bigger than all of you, than all of us… I want everything we have on this relayed to High Command immediately, Doctor Scott.”
“If you say so, Colonel Evans.” Her indifferent manner irked him, but he ignored the impulse.
“This is a matter of global security,” He told everyone there. “…and as you can now deduce, Doctors, this is the reason why the mission had to be under my command. Please return to your private quarters for your own safety, this lab is as of now sealed.”
“But Colonel, we still have a lot of work…” Elkins looked aghast.
“You work here is on temporary hold, Doctor Elkins.” He relished that look of desperation on the conceited woman’s ashen face. “Until I get further instruction from High Command, you will remain in your quarters.”
“This is crazy.” Ronald Farley shook his bald head and slouched his wide shoulders.
“Colonel…” Regina looked at him with concern. “Do you really think aliens would have… it’s some kind of government conspiracy… a cover up.”
“Talk like that is not going to be tolerated, Doctor Scott.” He clenched his jaw and closed his eyes, exhaling deeply. She shouldn’t be making this harder on him. Not her.
“So now we are going to be caged like lab mice.” Her rising pitch made him wince. “After all this work we have done… all this…”
“Doctor Scott, I will speak to you in private.” He cut her off. “Everyone else, please exit the lab and retire to your quarters, now.”
The other’s left muttering and grumbling. Elkins complained about why Scott was being given preferential treatment over her. He ignored it all and closed the door, then locked it and reset the authorization levels. Only his and Danish’s codes would allow access to the lab now. Regina still had that look of disbelief on her lovely face as he walked back to her standing in the centre of the lab. He gestured her to sit down.
“What’s really going on, Colonel…?” She asked as she sat down.
“It’s classified.” He told her, maintaining his game face.
“You can’t just tell me that?” She threw up her arms. “Then why are we here, talking in private?”
“This creature that you saw…” He leaned in close to her. “Can you recognize it if you see it again?”
“Huh?” She looked at him, clearly taken aback. “But I don’t know where to look for it?”
“We captured something like what your report described near that cave late last night.”
“What?” She looked visibly shaken. “How did… but at night…the radiation.”
“We have specialized protection.” He told her in a matter-of-fact manner.
“Really?” She wasn’t convinced at all, he could tell. “Or is the claim of the radiation outside getting quadrupled at night another Earth Gov hoax?”
“Enough with the conspiracy theories, Regina.” He raised his voice for the first time and immediately regretted it.
“It is a hoax, isn’t it?” She gave him a sardonic smile. “That’s why your ice wall cracked there a little.”
“You’re a very hard woman to fool, Doctor Scott.” He sighed, leaning back.
“Oh, please. It’s Regina.” She seemed to be enjoying this. “I like the way you say my name.”
“Alright then, Regina.” He felt resigned to let her know at least something. “Yes, some of that part about night time radiation is exaggerated.”
“Since when? The beginning?”
“Yes.” He replied grimly. “Your father, Doctor Milton Scott, also knows this.”
“What?” Her lovely eyes went wide again. “That’s insane.”
“His name is on the classified archives, among those that approved this decision.”
“To fool the people.” She looked saddened, and it moved him somewhat. “My own father?”
“To protect the people.” He said. Every fiber in him wanted to reach out and console her, to take her in his arms and protect her, yet he resisted.
“So you would have us believe.” She turned to look away, more so to wipe a tear.
“I’m just a soldier, following orders.” He exhaled despondently.
“So you are.” She seemed to have composed herself again. “How did you manage to capture this creature?”
“Lured it into a trap, and tranqed it.” He almost grinned at the retelling of the nightly adventure. “If you could confirm it’s the one you saw…”
“What good would that do?” She shook her head, making her long dark hair shimmer and his heart skip another beat. “Is it an alien?”
“The bio-scans we ran on it don’t show anything different from the elemental composition and structure of everything else on this planet.” He tried hard to keep his focus on the job. “Come with me, it’s down in our deep containment area.”
“Can’t I see it via the comm. screens?”
“It’s off the record. No cameras.”
“Oh, okay.” She shrugged.
“Colonel Evans.” A deep voice crackled across the lab speakers. “This is Colonel Harkens. President Roberson requests you and the science team to join him for a meeting. Immediately.”
“Harkens? The President?” He felt a shiver go through him. “We are three hundred miles out from the Citadel…”
“Not a problem, Evans.” Harkens laughed. “We are here, landing just a yard away from you.”
“The President is with you?” Garth tried to hide his surprise.
“We are with the President, soldier.” His compatriot told him through the comm. link. “Now get your butt down here pronto.”
“Affirmative, Colonel.” He nodded and gestured at Regina to follow him out.
“The president is here?” She sounded incredulous. “This is really big.”
‘More than you will ever know.’ He thought sadly as he led her out of the lab and headed for the ship’s airlock.
Their exo suits on and primed, he stepped outside, leading Regina and the others. Four people were waiting for them, standing on the hard packed ground in their exo suits before a smaller air carrier bearing the markings of Earth Gov elite forces. One of them was President Leland Michel Roberson.
“President Roberson, may I present Colonel Garth Evans, the leader of this important mission.” Harkens waved at Garth as he stepped up to the waiting men.
The one in the widest exo suit extended his hand at him, and Garth shook it with his right and saluted with the other. “An honor, Mister President.” He said crisply.
“No, no, no, Colonel.” Roberson shook his large head. “It is you and your team that honor me.”
“Thank you, sir.” He nodded. “Let me introduce you to the people doing all the actual work on this expedition. This is lead scientist, Doctor Elkins. Chief engineer Kimberly Preston. Head of Tech Ronald Farley and...”
“Ah, of course…” Roberson stepped up beside him, his gaze fixed on Regina. “The brightest star among you all, Doctor Regina Scott.”
“Yes, Mister President.” He gestured at Regina. “Doctor Scott has been making all the important discoveries.”
“And that’s why I’m here, Colonel.” Roberson beamed all around though his wide angled visor.
“Mister President, as leader of this mission, please allow me to welcome you into the lab.” Elkins suddenly spoke up and stepped between him and the President. “I am Amanda Bethany Elkins and I have everything detailed in my report for your perusal.”
“Thank you, Amanda.” Roberson smiled at the eager woman and then looked past her. “But I would like to know about all of this from young Doctor Regina Scott directly… if you don’t mind.”
Garth suppressed a smile as Roberson walked past him toward Regina without waiting for Elkins’ response. The litt
le lead scientist was probably wishing she had never come on this mission. He turned his attention toward Regina as the President approached her.
“President Roberson, it’s an honor to meet you.” The young scientist told the large man. “My father often spoke of you.”
“Nothing bad, I pray.” Roberson laughed. “Milton and I have been colleagues for many years and though we haven’t often met eye to eye, he and I remain good friends.”
“Yes, he feels that way too.” Regina said in a tone that sounded less convincing.
“Marvelous.” Robeson had a wide grin on his face. Now, let me in on all these world-shattering discoveries that you have been making, young lady.”
“Of course, Mister President.” Regina nodded eagerly, and then glanced at Garth. “But the lab is off limits for us.”
“Not for the President.” He gave her a smile. “Please, follow me.”
“Hold on, Colonel.” Roberson held up a large hand. “Instead of reading reports and test results, why don’t we go see all this first hand. Take me to the spots where the discoveries were made.”
“That could be dangerous, Mister President.” Garth cautioned, taking a quick look at Regina.
“Sure it could, and that’s why I have my personal bodyguards here, and you with us as well, Colonel Evans.” The President grinned even wider behind his visor. “Boot jets on. Let’s go, let’s go, people. Lead on, Doctor Scott… we’re losing daylight.”
In less than two minutes they were at the cave site where Regina had recorded the most data concerning the discovery of intentional abuse of the planet’s environment. It was only the President, his two personal bodyguards, Harkens, Regina and himself. The others, much to Elkins’ chagrin, were instructed to remain behind. The readings his suit picked up from around them informed of the lack of toxicity in the area. That was quite the irony, considering that this was the core region from where the contamination was spreading around the entire globe, as it seemed.
“Everything is just the way it was the last two times I was here.” Regina told the President. Garth admired the way the young woman held her own before the most important man on New Earth One. She went on. “Hard to imagine why this place isn’t affected, and instead it is the control point for the toxic corruption of the planet.”
“Your analysis results have shown you that for the last forty years the ruination of New Earth One’s environment has been engineered intentionally by someone from here.” Roberson was saying. “…any information who and why?”
“Some of us think maybe it’s extra-terrestrial beings, some seem to imagine it could be anti Earth Gov factions.”
“What do you suppose, Doctor Scott?” The President gave the young scientist another smile.
“I’d prefer making factual statements based on evidence over conjecture, Sir.” She replied somewhat defiantly.
“Fair enough, my dear.” Roberson nodded his large head. “And what does the evidence, if any, suggest to you?”
“I don’t have a definitive conclusion.” Regina replied without a hitch. “But whatever I have gathered so far, logic dictates that the age old adage comes into play here of ‘who benefits’.”
“And who benefits?” Roberson raised a thick eyebrow.
“At this point it’s again only conjecture, sir.” The brunette seemed a little defensive, and yet completely sure of herself. “But it points quite strongly to the ruling government.”
“You mean, Earth Gov… and by association, the President. Me.”
“It’s only conjecture based on the most logical data so far.” Her reply impressed Garth.
“Quite remarkable, my dear.” Roberson clapped his hands. “You sure are living up to the title of the highest IQ recorded on New Earth One.”
“Just doing my job, sir.” Regina shrugged and took a few steps back.
“And a job well done.” Roberson followed her like a hunter after prey. “Yet let us pray that you are wrong, for the sake of everything we have here… and everyone who…”
“Get down.” One of Roberson’s bodyguards yelled as he drew his hand cannon. “Ambush.”
“Protect the President.” The other bodyguard shouted over the din of his twin barreled thermal blaster. “Stay down, Sir.”
Garth drew his plasma-fire handguns, his visor primed for target locking. A group of seven armed attackers in exo suits like theirs came rocketing down the face of the hill. Plasma fire and exploding bolts erupted all around them. He found himself more worried about Regina than the President. She had ducked behind a large tree, but the seven raiders had them surrounded. Damn. He should have had Danish or Parson there with him. But Harkens was there, and if he remembered correctly, the Colonel was the only one who broke his accuracy record more than once.
“Harkens.” He yelled at the other man. “Perimeter sweep, let’s take these guys out at their own game.”
“You called it, hotshot. Let’s make heads roll.”
“The President.” One of the guards was shouting. “At all cost, protect the president.”
Garth realized that the man had taken a hit and was gong down. Regina being there or not, he couldn’t let the President get killed on his watch. His jet boots screaming, he used the smooth trunk of a tall tree to gain some altitude and came down hard from behind the attackers, handguns hot. Three of them went down, and Harkens had taken out two more from the other side.
“We want one of them alive.” He yelled over the comm. link. “Disarm and contain one of them.”
“Not this one.” He heard the other bodyguard snarl. “He killed Eddie. He dies.”
One assailant was left and he was drawing a bead on the bodyguard. Harkens was out of bounds and Garth knew the bodyguard would not take the last one alive with the President’s life at stake. In a mad dash, he rocketed between the bodyguard and the last remaining attacker, hell bent to take him alive. Two precise shots took out the jets on the attacker’s boots, making the lithe man crash into a tree. “Hold fire.” He yelled at the bodyguard as the attacker collapsed to the ground. “All clear. Threats neutralized.”
“Great shooting, Colonel.” The bodyguard nodded and disengaged his heavy cannon.
A single blaster shot made Garth jump. The bodyguard too was startled. The last attacker’s helmet was a smoking ruin where he had fallen. Stunned, he turned to look for Harkens, but he wasn’t there. Instead he saw Roberson standing, a smoking thermo-blaster in his shaking hands. “He was… getting up again and going for his gun.” The President told them in a shaky voice.
“Nice shot, sir.” The bodyguard told the leader of New Earth One.
“Th-thank you, Jack.” Roberson dropped the weapon from his trembling hands. “I’m sorry about your brother Eddie.”
“Line of duty, Sir.” Jack nodded and touched his visor in salute. “We know what we signed up for.”
“And what of these assassins?” Garth raised the question. “Who are they?”
“Rebel scum, no doubt.” Roberson replied. “Orkney’s getting too big for his training boots, looks like.”
“Are we sure these guys are Orkney’s?” Harkens came zipping back to join them.
“They don’t usually do something this big.” The bodyguard, Jack, said with a shrug.
“Maybe they have a good reason for this daring attempt.” Regina walked up to them from her hiding place.
“And by what logic would you be coming to that conclusion, my dear.” Roberson rounded on her, sending a wave of panic through Garth. He hoped she would shut that pretty mouth of hers.
“It’s possible that others see the logic of ‘who benefits’ from a world like this as much as the evidence I found here does.” She disappointed Garth terribly with that answer.
“Really, Doctor Scott?” Roberson took exactly the tone Garth dreaded to hear. “And pray tell how would Orkney and his dogs come to know of this highly classified operation and its location?”
“Why would you suppose I should know that?”
She almost retorted. Wrong answer, Garth screamed inside his head. The girl was as much obstinate as she was intelligent. And that made her quite stupid when it mattered.
“If I didn’t know any better, and with my limited intellect, mind you.” Roberson was almost sneering. “That you, my dear Doctor Regina Lauren Scott, may have your own little agenda going on here.”
“That’s the most asinine thing…” Regina looked genuinely furious with the President.
“Enough. She is in cahoots with these rebels. Take her into custody immediately.” Roberson shouted her down, his imposing bulk quivered as he spoke. “And then I want everything here encrypted as classified information and logged into the Science Division database. Move, people.”
Garth watched the President storm off with his bodyguard in tow. Harkens looked at him and shrugged, then jerked his head at Regina. The young scientist was still standing with her mouth open, as if in shock. He didn’t have the heart to do what he had to next, but once again, his head ruled. He turned toward her, unfastening a pair of restraints from his utility pack. With a deep sigh, he looked into her lovely eyes sadly.
“Doctor Regina Lauren Scott.” He said somberly. “By order of the President of New Earth One, you are under arrest for the suspected crime of treason.”
Chapter Five
“NAR-SD-1013 Regina Lauren Scott. Her name and identification flashed boldly on the display of her containment cell monitor. It was a small cell made for solitary confinement, with a bed on one side and a chair in the centre. In the corner, away from the entrance, the little water-closet looked clean and sterilized. She was furious at first, after the incomprehension of it all had faded. Her demands on the way to the containment sector fell on deaf years. Colonel Garth Evans had escorted her there with robot-like indifference. Not a word did the handsome man say to her after letting her know that she was under arrest for treason. Treason! The very idea was so beyond preposterous that at any other time Regina would have had a right fit of laughter. Her rage had abated, giving in to apprehension and then regret. Maybe it wasn’t too clever of her to stand up in the manner she did to the President’s insane allegations, not for someone with a record Intelligence Quotient like hers.