I mechanically lowered a side ladder and she walked up the stairs and onto the deck with her weapons belt in one outstretched hand and the silly flag in the other hand.
“We must talk.” She handed me the weapons belt and the flag.
I laid them on a nearby chest.
She was a striking woman who stood about two meters as opposed to my one meter seventy. She was thin, but shapely and wore a severely cut black dress uniform with low-heeled boots. I’d never seen the uniform before and could only guess at the function of some of the weapons, on the belt she’d handed to me. She had a thin face and her nose was a bit too long, bushy cut dark brown hair hid the tops of her ears. Her eyes were black/black. Everything about her screamed aristocrat but her demeanor said friendly. The result was confusion.
I stuck out my hand, “I’m Jill. Would you like to talk here, or below deck?” She didn’t crush my hand, just gave an indication she could.
“Marion Prinz. Let’s sit on deck. Do you have more chairs?”
“Of course. How unthinking of me. They’re just inside.”
I walked to the fore cabin and got another chair and placed it beside mine. We settled ourselves on the deck with the lasers left and right behind us, all the while pretending they weren’t there.
“It's not every day one meets a Ranger. You’ll understand my nervousness.”
“Most people never meet a Ranger.” She said, “I expect the stories which are told are frightening.”
“Yes, they are.”
“But you need not be concerned. I’m simply asked to contact you and make sure of your good health, and bring you to a spaceship waiting in orbit. What’s to be concerned about?”
“That part about bringing. You need to do that?”
“Why of course. I need to do what I'm contracted to do.”
We sat in silence, watching each other. I tried to place the feeling that came over me. I couldn’t place it. Finally I realized she was surreal, too much of what she was, too certain, too precise. Maybe I could use her certainty against her.
“Isn’t it necessary to call your ship to tell them you’re alright?’
“No. No one expects me to report.”
“If I was the Captain, I sure would want to know what is transpiring.”
“Actually I’m the only person on board. Simpler don’t you think?”
“For sure.”
I only need kill or capture this person in front of me and thereby buy some more time. Capturing her probably wasn’t possible, but I’d try first. For a moment this Marine wasn’t sure it would be possible to kill her. But I reminded myself; I was the best of the best. Fleetingly, I thought this woman might have the same distinction.
Breaking the silence, I said,” I have someone else. A Brenesi.”
“It was told to me you might. I’ve never met a Brenesi. Could you allow me to meet this one? We will talk later. There’s no rush.”
I didn’t gloat. Might it be that simple, get her in with Junior and gas the pair of them.
I said, Certainly he’s in a specially constructed room for his safety. I’ll let you in to talk to him. He has learned basic language."
“Oh, would you? That is so cooperative of you.”
I stood and motioned her to follow. She did, but not too close. I realized the dreams hadn’t been dreams after all from the way she said, ‘cooperative’. More was going on than I knew about. No matter.
At the habitat I told Junior to “Step away from the door,” through the PA system and then opened it. I motioned her in and said, I’ll observe from the control room.”
To Junior, I said, “You’re to do what she asks and not hurt her.”
He said,” Not hurt.” in the biting way I’d grown accustomed to and I left shutting and locking the Habitat door.
I made it to the control room in time to hear,”--- want to touch you.” Said to Junior by Marion.
I watched as Marion reached with both her hands to touch him. He grabbed her right arm and tried to pull her toward him. My fingers rushed to the belt controls to give him 100,000 volts at least, but stopped short as Marion took his right arm in her left and freed herself. She then forced Junior towards the floor. He resisted with all his strength, trembling at the effort, before he said,” Not grab. You may touch.”
Marion released him, and he stood upright and shook himself several times before he let his hands hang. She started to touch him, going from his head downwards. She ran her fingers through his short fur leisurely. When she got to his loincloth, it fell away. She continued her examination and I noticed Junior’s arousal. I turned away, thinking she’s on her own from here out. Taking the opportunity, I went on deck to examine her weapons belt. None of the weapons would come out of the holsters, but I surmised two large automatics, ammo, who knew what kind, expandable club, shock rod, optical burner and four way body restrainers. The other two I had no idea about.
Well, so much for that. Time to return and gas both of them. Then put Marion safely in variable gravity boots and a control belt. In a max/grav field she would be a safer person to deal with.
When I opened the control room door, she was sitting in the operator’s chair. ”How nice off you to give is us privacy. Now we finally must talk.”
My jaw muscle didn’t twitch at the sight of Marion sitting in the control room, but it took some effort. I countered her request, no, scratch that, demand, that we come to an understanding with, “Yes, we must talk, but there’s something more important than you and your contract. There’s a planet at stake. Take a few hours to see what I’ve seen. You’ll get a different view of events.”
“No one would be stupid enough to lie to Rangers about the basic contract’s facts but I’ll do as you say, two hours.”
I led her to the laboratory and showed her the drawer that the file designations were taped to. She knew how to operate this particular computer. Then, I went to the Mess and waited.
About two hours later, Marion strode into the room, went to the drinks locker, and snagged the first bottle she laid her hand on. She grabbed two glasses and stalked to my table. Pouring for both of us, she said, “Those files change everything. In addition, there’s the result of my exam. Do you realize the Brenesi have two sets of organs?”
“No, I’ve been too busy to get close to Junior. Before this, I never heard anything special about them. Not at our briefings, or scuttlebutt.”
“It came to our attention recently. I’m the first here. We took the contract as an opportunity to visit the planet.”
I thought, ‘probably created that opportunity‘ but held my tongue.
“I’ve commed the files to my superiors. They will inform the people who hired us that the contract is void because we always insist on full disclosure, up front. Who knows what the response will be, but it will be radical, I think. The notification will take a few days.”
“Damn, you’re going to bring an Armada down on both of us. They’ll have to destroy both our vessels, and us, to cover up.”
“Probably. What can we do?”
“You’re asking me? You’re supposed to be the great Ranger going far and wide with invincible powers.”
I grabbed at the bottle Marion had set on the table after pouring but she was quicker.
“No more escaping. I know what I can do. What about you?”
I thought of the buttons, “Come along, you’ll see.”
I led her to the maintenance room, removed the locker and the plate, and said, “That’s what I can do.”
“Delightful.” She reached out and pushed the ‘Space ‘ button.
I tried to stop her but was too slow. I felt the energies around us, surrounding me, almost like constant static.
“You idiot, you’ve done it now. Can’t you keep your fingers under control?”
She laughed, “Relax, I’ve personally taken apart vessels such as these. Few of the Lordship’s Intelligence Force ships are multi use, but I’m familiar with all the ones whic
h are.”
This women’s, ‘ mightier than thou’ grated on me, but I just said, “Fine, I don’t know from dung piles. Let’s share information.”
“Of course, you’re going to become the best space pilot in the shortest time ever.”
She didn’t explain I’d have to become a robot to achieve pilot status. Well not exactly a robot, but close. I’d excelled at chess from an early age, starting the three dimensional version at thirteen. In the Station Rec Room, I kept two games set up and would play two opponents at a time, winning more often than not. Some smart ass ‘ brain’ had brought his fancy set in and bet I couldn’t play three at a time. His fancy set is now in my locker, which I’ll probably never see. I felt a twinge of regret for the person I’d never be again.
Marion sent her automated skiff to bring an interface from her ship, which hooked up to the different control stations, and a helmet. (It was then she discovered my wired around booby trap and went on a rampant successful quest for all of the traps.) When I wore this helmet, I interfaced with the ship, bringing feeds from weapons, navigation, engines (six more cold fusion reactors had came on line), and ships condition. Though I only had to think my commands. It wasn’t an easy thing to do, at first. Marion prodded and pushed and somewhere inside a dam broke making my mental energy flow into unused, Hell, unheard of, pathways. She was a relentless bitch with a grating superior attitude. By trainings end though, I could move the yacht around my lake just by thought.
In between it all, I bolted, and then welded my lasers to the decking and ran interfaces from them to my ‘helmet’. Who knew when they would be useful?
Rest periods were spent listening to the ‘News’ broadcast from above. It mentioned confusion in high circles and much finger pointing. They also mentioned the newscaster might suddenly go off the air and do a double zero. Double zero was an escape capsule in which Harkness and I had wired a loop to fool the Security cameras. We had sex there and no one was the wiser. Thinking back, we had taken risks for no good reason, rebellion, and boredom, to prove an unknown point, because we were Marines and inherently mentally short circuited, who knew?
Now, I involved Marion. She reviewed all the broadcasts with a high-speed interface and said, “He must be quite a friend. They’ll catch him eventually. What do you want me to do?”
“You’re outside. Keep an eye on the station. See if any escape capsule is activated.”
“They do a daily garbage dump over the ocean. A lot of debris comes down.”
“Don’t joke with me. It’s important, personally, and because they could use an escape capsule release as a pretext to send a cruiser down.”
“I see. I’ll monitor everything ejected.”
Two weeks after Marion’s arrival, a broadcast came about a Landing Ship Transport being en-route to the system. Officially that was because a renegade Ranger had captured a Marine and was enslaving her. Security was tightening. The broadcast ended with a request to be picked up.
When I heard that last information, I thought, that tears it. Finally someone would get all of the section heads together and realize that no one had authorized the ‘news-hour’. Then the shit would hit the fan.
I brought Marion up on a screen. She was walking Junior around the ship again. He didn’t like it, but that was her problem. I said over the PA, “If Harkness can get out, it will be during the next pass over, or never. I have to go pick him up. He’ll send a signal.”
“My ship will do it. I’m not finished working on the masking screens on yours. Don’t worry.”
I never 'not worried ' but she was right. The station would pin point me in a second.
I went back to practicing with the helmet. The thirty six force fields around the ship were layered in opposing directions, by ten degree variances, to one another. I stretched my mind to focus on one layer after another and magnify by collection, their repulsion capability to counter an incoming laser or a projectile weapon. Hard to focus properly, and quick enough, but practice was making me more proficient. I had a special treat for the laser gunners who stood on their triggers too long. I’d managed to work out how to reflect their beams back to them. Many hours of 3-D zero gravity racquetball helped me with the computations.
I practiced and practiced, falling asleep in the Captains chair, which during an emergency became an all-embracing womb. Marion’s entrance to the Bridge wakened me and I could tell Harkness’s descent hadn’t gone well.
She said, “He got away from the station with no problem, or was let go. Problem was that the laser gunners were under orders to practice their aim during garbage release. Some containers were hit, including his capsule. He was wounded badly but managed to make a controlled splash-down.”
“I have to go see him!”
“You don’t understand. He was badly, badly wounded. He’s on full life support aboard my ship. It’s a sterile environment. He’s unconsciousness. You can’t see him for some time.”
“He’s going to die, isn’t he?”
“Maybe, but he’s being cared for. Far beyond any care level he’d receive on this ship.”
“I’ll laser the whole gunnery section, the bastards.”
“You may have to before we make it off this planet. Harkness talked some. The LST is to take up an orbit, which will result in this ocean being under constant observation. The moment movement is spotted they're to launch a ‘Swarm’ of Marines to kill the renegade Ranger and her ex-Marine zombie. That last is from official orders.”
“We’ve waited too long. We’ll never make it to United Worlds HQ. Or, if we do, no one will believe our tale.”
“Maybe on both counts, but if we don’t my people will take action. In you’re wildest dreams, you can’t imagine how much of a mess that would create.”
“What are we waiting for?”
“I must install the equipment to allow your ship to pause, or redirect during jumps.”
“Well, do it.”
“The circuitry must be grown, not manufactured. That takes time, which I can’t alter, so relax. I saw the results of your last practice session. You’re as good as you possibly can be. Have a steak, or a drink, or take Junior for a walk. Do something off of this Bridge.”
“I’ll do something, but walking Junior is your bag.”
“As you wish, but I do need your help for an experiment some time. I need to find out whether his embryonic part reports to his main brain, or whether it is a self-contained part of him, which gradually takes over at some point in time. The scientists didn’t make those tests. Their tests were primarily to show how best to kill the whole population and not be caught at it.”
“If it’s for science, I’ll do it providing, he’s not harmed. What do the tests entail?"
“Stimulation of certain systems under diagnostic hookup.”
I lost interest when she turned to clinical details and just told her to catch me later. I went to the gym to do my usual routine, 2.5 muscles went flabby quick on a 1.35 world when they weren’t taxed to their limit each day.
After three hours, I showered and napped on the weight lifting bench. Upon awakening, I went to the Rec room and put on an 'all around' ocean scene. I lay in the sand while waves came to my toes and the sound they made on nearby rocks brought back many pleasant memories. I drifted in and out, eventually waking with a stiff back. That told me I had been out for a stretch. Time for food.
Marion and Junior were in the Mess. She said, “I’m showing him more detail of how others live. Your masking capability and control circuitry will be installed within one day. Then we can go. Are you ready to help me with the experiment? If so, I’d eat lightly.”
I wondered what eating had to do with it, but I followed her suggestion. When I was finished I followed her and Junior to a cushioned room about seven meters square. She went to a control room off of it and came back with a box of small different colored discs.
She said, “I must put these on Junior. Relax, it will take a while.”
&nb
sp; I relaxed on soft wide benches, which ran all around the walls wondering all the while which role the cushioned three-square meter table in the middle of the room played. Finally, Marion was finished with her different colored patches. Idly I thought, ‘he’s going to play hell getting those off his fur’,
She shut the door to the control room behind her after adjusting some dials. Then she joined Junior who was standing by the table. I still relaxed on the bench’s cushiony surface.
She said, “We’re ready.”
I said, “You never mentioned which nerve system we’re to test?”
“The sexual one.”
I was torn between bolting out the door and curiosity.
Curiosity won.
A significant time later, we concluded, after repeated tests by both of us, that both of his male and female sexual systems were functional, and they reported to one brain, and he had a choice of which input to accept and respond to.
The next day I sat, relaxed, in the Mess sipping tea and wondering whether I should be ashamed of the research on Junior, or not. Eventually I concluded he’d not complained, so blaming me for the actions of others wasn’t logical.
Marion stormed into the room; damn didn’t this woman do anything low keyed.
She queried, “You realize, don’t you, how dangerous this has become since last night?”
I started to list the scenarios, which could result in me dying, but she interrupted.
“No, not this present problem. That someone didn’t make sure your geneticists were in agreement with stated policy.”
Puzzled, I wondered what went on six to eight hundred years, or longer, in the past had to do with me here and now. I opened my mouth to say as much, but not fast enough.
“You realize, don’t you, that the team working on the Bren population problem might have had fellow conspirators, and not just on this planet. All sorts of odd and unexplainable mutations might be about to occur on various planets.”
I nodded, giving up any chance of providing input before she wound down.
“Junior tells me the evolvement first happened seven generations ago, about two hundred and fifty years back. It was sporadic at first but now everyone has their next body of the opposite sex growing inside them.”
Greener Green I: Where Does the Circle Begin Page 18