by Chloe Garner
“They’re singing,” she said, trying to get her feet under her again. Jesse straightened, helping her and casting a closer eye over the water at the same time. Heads started to come up out of the water, wild hair forming a sort of web around them, connecting one to another; he’d never noticed it before. Beautiful bodies that should have shone were dim, now, almost matte in the disinterested light, but they rose from the water the way he remembered, their song blinding in its beauty.
It was sad.
So cold and so sad. Palta weren’t given to fits of passion, but it broke his heart, to hear it.
Cassie took a step forward, and Jesse let her go on her own, Song reaching out flesh and bone toward her sisters. He wondered if it was her own self she saw there, or just one of her kind.
As the song began to end, some period of time later that Jesse had a hard time marking, the sirens began to slip back down into the water.
“Wait,” he said. “I’m here to help you. I need you to talk to me.”
Song turned to look at him, blinking. Her eyes shone, but she looked as frail as ever.
“They… cannot,” she said. “That’s why…” She frowned, struggling. “Why…”
“That’s why you came,” Jesse said. “They can’t talk to me as an individual because… why? Because they don’t have the ability to communicate person-to-person. They have to experience things as a collective, and the only way to bring back knowledge… Is from someone like you, who separates herself from the collective like this, and engages with outsiders as an individual.”
She staggered and he caught her, looking back at the mountain. She wouldn’t survive more time there.
“The problem is that it’s killing you,” he said. She blinked at him, then sighed and went limp.
*********
Conrad sat on a folding chair he had brought, himself. It had made Troy smile when the big man had come in with it, but it meant he was sitting while two lawyers, Major Albero, and Major Vann - the portal floor coordinator - all stood. Troy only had two guest chairs, and his couch hadn’t arrived yet.
Olivia had come. She’d brought take-out from one of their favorite on-base restaurants and she’d sat with him for almost forty minutes.
“If you see Celeste, she’s going to pretend to be mad at you,” she said at one moment after about ten minutes’ silence. “Don’t believe her. She’s having the time of her life.”
Troy had smiled, and she’d looked down at the styrofoam on her lap again.
“How bad is it?” she asked. “They say that you’re shutting down the base.”
“Just for now,” he said. “Security.”
“Someone died?”
He’d nodded.
“I was there.”
She’d shivered, but she hadn’t said anything else about it. She’d come around his desk to hug him before she left, but it just wasn’t time yet. They needed more space to breathe before they could work though everything and figure out if she’d forgive him or not.
As she’d left, Conrad had let himself in with the folding chair, giving her a little salute and a wink, and Troy had gone to finish his lunch and throw everything away. The office, big as it was, came to feel crowded with everyone standing around his desk like they were. Troy’s phone beeped and he answered Bridgette.
“Senator Greene for you on line two,” she said, and he nodded, hoping he didn’t disconnect the call out of his lack of familiarity with the system. He looked around the room as pads of paper and electronic devices came out to take notes. He sighed and picked up the phone, setting it to the side and engaging the speaker as Bridgette slipped in through the doors and squatted against the wall next to Conrad. The big man slid out of his chair and onto the ground without looking at her, and she took his seat gracefully.
“Senator Greene,” he said.
“I’m here with Malcolm,” the senator answered. Troy went around the room feeding her names, ranks, and roles for everyone in the room.
“Hey, Malcolm,” Conrad said as Troy got to him.
“Hey, man, good to hear you,” Malcolm answered. Troy nodded.
“So we’ve got some updates, some of which are a lot more urgent than others.”
“Start with the incident today,” Senator Greene said. “I suspect that’s at the forefront of everyone’s minds. Is the news there?”
Troy lifted his head and got a nod from Bridgette.
“Yes.”
“You’ll have to make a statement,” Senator Greene said. “Have you thought about it yet?”
“Truth? No,” Troy said.
“You have a PR agent?”
Troy looked at the lawyers, then Bridgette.
“Looks like that’s probably a no,” he said. “Otherwise, I suspect they’d have beat down my door by now.”
“We’ll hold a conference here,” Senator Greene said. “I’ll contact one of the PR people at the pentagon and make sure that we own the story.”
“And what story is that going to be?” the tall lawyer asked.
“That there was a security breech at the base unrelated to portal operations, that two personnel tried to intercept the suspects as they fled, and that there was an exchange of gunfire that led to the tragic death of one person and the injury of another,” Malcolm said.
Troy paused.
It was a decent account, really.
“You aren’t going to mention that they were cadets?” Troy asked.
“Not until later,” Malcolm said. “We don’t want to make it look like we’re insensitive about the families’ losses, so we keep the fact that they were kids a private fact until we’re ready, or we need an emotional appeal to keep ourselves moving forward.”
“Didn’t know you were such a cold, calculating bastard,” Troy said conversationally.
“My assistant is very multi-faceted,” Senator Greene said in the same tone. Troy shook his head.
“How is the boy doing?” Greene asked. Troy lifted his head again. Bridgette shook her head. No news.
“I haven’t heard,” he said. “I’ll check in after this.”
“I assume we haven’t gotten lucky and snatched them off the street on their way out of town,” Senator Greene said.
“I handed the case over to OSI,” he said. “I’ve got enough going on that I didn’t demand they report to me with updates, but I suspect I’d have found out about that one, by now. Speaking of OSI, though, how did two men with Secret Service badges know exactly when OSI was coming to pick up Major White, closely enough that they actually beat OSI here?”
“I’m reviewing my chain of communication between here and the air force commanders,” Malcolm said.
“We have interest from the Secretary of Defense and numerous others from the White House,” Senator Greene said. “I’m going to have a hard time withholding information unless I have firm proof that they have a leak.”
“They have a leak,” Troy said. “I was the only one on base expecting anyone here, and I can’t imagine Malcolm had a lot of people in between him and the two officers who showed up here. There’s no gain to planting someone in the Washington OSI, compared to planting them in the White House somewhere.”
“I don’t disagree,” Senator Greene said, “but we can’t just cut them off because we have a very plausible suspicion.”
“So how many more of my officers are going to die or go missing before we consider it proof?” Troy asked. Major Albero nodded.
“It’s not up for discussion,” Senator Greene said. “Tell me what else is going on.”
“I’m interviewing everyone who worked at the secondary portal,” Troy said, “and I’m setting up interviews with all of the foreign terrestrials we’re housing. But we have to disclose this. We’re outside of our charter and established law by a lot.”
“You don’t,” Senator Greene said, “and you’re not going to.”
There was a very long pause in the room and two of the lawyers stepped forward.
�
�You’re talking about a coverup,” the tall one said.
“I’m talking about much more than that,” Senator Greene said.
“You’re talking about sending every one of the foreign terrestrials back, without consideration for their circumstances at all,” Troy said, sitting down in his chair.
“I’m talking about avoiding an international panic out of the fear that we’ve got foreign terrestrials running our government,” Senator Greene said. “It undermines our democracy and our security.”
Troy looked around the room, sensing that this moment was yet more important than he’d guessed.
“I’m not agreeing to it, but what is it that you’re hoping will happen?” he asked.
“You shut down the second portal. We never acknowledge that it existed. Hold a grand opening there in a few months for a big new facility that expands the portal program’s capability and capacity. I’ll get the permissions passed, tagged onto a bill in the meantime. So long as we don’t ask for more budget, I’ve got enough people who owe me favors to let our grip loosen on your program throughput a little.”
Peterson sat forward.
“You’re going to need more jumpers,” he said.
“Yes, Colonel, you’ll get approval for more students,” she said, and Peterson smiled, sitting back in his chair again.
“We announce to the world that the portal program has been such a smashing success that we could find no reason not to expand it, and that, while Donovan stood in the way of progress, the new General will be appointed to oversee a brand new era. He’ll be on hand for the ribbon-cutting ceremony, if it kills me.”
“You have any idea who, Ma’am?” Troy asked.
“If you’re asking if it’s going to be you, no,” she said. “I have a few candidates in mind, but you don’t rush into this, or the media smells it early and squashes it just to prove they’ve still got the power to.”
Troy frowned, then shook his head.
“All right. What about the illegal shipments, the foreign terrestrials, and all of the unauthorized operators?”
“You deal with the workers,” she said. “Your law department ought to be able to draw up something convincing enough to keep them quiet. They have enough models to work off of. Give them a good blanket referral, a nice severance package, and I’ll make sure every one of their names is on a list for the FBI to track.”
Troy frowned.
“But there are security staff who worked directly with foreign terrestrials, and the actual portal operators who know the secrets on how it works.”
“You know the retirement program for the operators,” Senator Greene said. “Of course they aren’t exempt from it.”
Troy looked away and nodded.
It wasn’t as bad as it sounded. They were kept in a complex on base where they had all of their physical needs met for the rest of their lives. It wasn’t a bad place to live; Troy had seen it once or twice, while he was in jump school.
“And the security personnel, Ma’am?” Albero asked.
“Identify any who appear they might make problems and flag them,” she said. “Otherwise, release them to the private sector with all of the usual warnings. You act like this is the first time we’ve had people with secrets walking around in plain sight.”
“The shipments and the foreign terrestrials?” Troy asked.
“You have the list of shipments,” Senator Greene said. “Get them all back.”
“Presumably most of them have already been opened,” Troy said. She laughed without humor.
“And presumably they all know just how illegal it was,” she said. “Threaten them with prosecution if we can prosecute, threaten them with the CIA if we can’t.”
“Ma’am, I can’t do that,” Troy said.
“No, of course you can’t,” she said. “That’s why we have foreign operatives. They actually do that kind of thing. You thought that you were doing this? The shipments will all come back to you and you can keep, destroy, or return them as you see fit. All I need is the list of where to find them.”
Troy shook his head.
He’d liked this woman.
“I’ll get it.”
She sighed.
“I know you think it’s not fair, just sending people back, but we do it every day, in this country,” she said. “You send back a lot of good people to make sure that the bad ones go back, too.”
“But we’re not talking about millions of people,” Troy said. “We’re talking about dozens.”
“Dozens of foreign terrestrials, who have uncharted abilities to hide things from us and inconceivably complex motives.”
“What if Cassie interviewed them all?” he asked. “Jalnians have a known ability to read and adapt to cultural affectations. She would be able to tell us who is just here for safety.”
“And then what?” Senator Greene asked.
“We keep all of the operators in their own complex,” he said, hating that he was, once again, volunteering Wink for a life without ever seeing sunlight directly again, but at least he would be better taken care of.
“Everyone knows they exist,” Senator Greene said. “We don’t have to keep them secret. We just have to keep them contained.”
“So why even interview them?” Troy asked.
“That’s entirely up to you,” Senator Greene said. “I won’t interfere with how you run your base as an interim commanding officer, so long as you’re doing it a way I approve of.”
Troy gave the phone a grimace.
“Gee.”
She laughed.
“I’m sorry you’re having to see me on one of my dragon days,” she said. “I do this to protect the base, but normally I’m one hundred percent the good guy. I don’t like it when we have to do unpleasant things, but if I didn’t do them, important things would fail.”
“We’re going to slow down portal shipments - put everything civilian on hold and only do critical political jumps, no economic ones - until everything is wound down at the secondary portal,” he said.
“That’s fine,” she said. “We’ll say that it’s an internal systems review, and all I need is an estimate of when we’ll get back to normal operation from you.”
He nodded.
“I can do that.”
“Is that all you need from the Senator?” Malcolm asked. Troy looked around the room, then nodded.
“I need boots,” he said. “Security, investigations, and interview.”
“I’ll look into it,” Senator Greene said. “Is that all?”
“I think so, yes.”
“You’re doing excellent work, Major,” Senator Greene said. “I’m sorry about the incident this morning. We’ll look into it, of course, and I want updates on when we know what happened to Major White.”
“Yes, Ma’am,” Troy said, listening as the phone line went dead. He hung up the phone and shut off the speaker, then threw himself back into his chair.
“I assume no one else here likes those results any better than I do,” he said.
“They’re doing what’s necessary,” Albero said. “Don’t have to like it.”
Troy glowered again.
“We’ll draw up severance papers for the portal staff,” the female lawyer said, and Troy nodded.
“I still want to process all of the interviews and understand what was happening over there before we let anyone go.”
“We have a limited time during which we can consider their freedom to be a security risk,” the woman said. “After that, they have legitimate complaints that we’re holding them without cause.”
“Problem with staffing anything with civilians,” Albero muttered. Troy shot him a look.
“We’re going as fast as we can,” he said. “We’re going to have people we arrest, before this is over.”
“I didn’t hear her say that,” Albero said, and Troy looked from him to the legal team.
“They knowingly broke the law, supporting an illegal portal and transporting unauthorize
d foreign terrestrial goods and persons.”
Albero shrugged.
“I heard her say shut ‘em up and get rid of ‘em,” he said. “What are you going to do, take ‘em to court?”
“I…” Troy started, but Bridgette shook her head. Troy shut his mouth, angry. “I’ll consider the options,” he finally said, standing. “Are we ready to go through the secondary portal and mark off unsafe regions?” he asked.
“I have a map of everywhere we took someone out of,” Albero said. “We can go through and block off everything else.”
Troy nodded.
“Do you have what you need to start cataloging everything over there, then?” he asked Conrad.
“Everyone’s chomping at the bit,” Conrad answered.
“Do you want to do debrief interviews with the unauthorized jumpers as I bring them home?” Troy asked Peterson.
“I assume you’ll be spectating those,” Peterson said, and Troy nodded.
“I’m moving my office to the interrogation facility at the portal, for the time being.”
“Good man,” Peterson said. “I’ll do ‘em.”
Troy nodded again.
“We bring everyone home, shut it down,” he said. “Get everything back, sort it out. I’ll worry about the staff when I figure out what… restrictions we have on our options. After all of that is done, I’ll look into the foreign terrestrials and what happens to them.”
“She wasn’t unclear, there, either,” Albero said. The lawyers all shook their heads, and Troy dropped his head to acknowledge them.
“I understand,” he said. “But they’re going to be the last in line, because that’s the action I disagree with, most. I’m not disobeying orders; I’m choosing which order to obey them in, and that’s an order to all of you.”
He looked around the room, gathering nods.
“Is there anything else?” he asked.
He paused, then he nodded.
“All right. Get on it. If you find anyone who isn’t busy, figure out what they ought to be doing, or send them to me. I need every set of hands I can get.”
The room began to empty, but Conrad and Bridgette stayed. Troy drew a deep breath and stretched, waiting until everyone had left.
“Well, that could have gone better.”