by RJ
“You may heal your skin in a repair center. It is going to be clean as new,” the woman suggested, continuing to study the man’s body.
“That ain’t necessary,” JB replied. “I like it better this way.”
The next moment Nea turned back to come to the table where her bag was. JB put on the new t-shirt, he also tried to distract himself from her. He walked to the kitchen corner in search of a real fix of caffeine that he needed since the morning.
“Get ready, we have a lot of things to do,” Nea said opening the bag.
While JB stood before the magic kitchen cabinet that treated him with beverages, trying to ask it for a real cup of coffee, Nea took out a silver pack from the bag. There was a device inside, which looked similar to a hand mixer. The girl turned it on and got to programming it via the side panel.
“Have you brought my gun?” JB asked. He walked back to her carrying another black drink in his hand.
“We’ve talked about it. You can’t have a weapon here, yet,” she insisted on the previous conclusion. “Did you study the documents I had left for you?”
“Yeah,” he responded. “I went through some history records too. Still, I don’t get what’s ya beef with those ‘frolls guys.’”
JB took a sip.
“Um-m… That one is not coffee eith…” Nea paid attention to his drink.
But just as she tried to tell JB about that one, he stopped her with a hand gesture, not willing to know what was inside. The mutant just put down the cup, next to the previous one. Nea continued.
“There was no beef, as far as we know. They just attacked us. Still, that isn’t the issue here.”
“Oh, yeah? What is?”
“That the Galaxy Union had never had such an intense enemy before. We’re losing the war. That’s the main problem.” Nea finished tuning the device. “Give me your left hand.”
“Why? Didn’t you take enough of my blood the last time? What do you need my hand for?”
“This is a DNA marker injector. You’ve already been given an ID of a citizen. An ID tag gets to be implanted into the left wrist.”
Not lingering too long, JB moved his hand forward towards the girl. She squeezed his forearm firmly with her one hand and put the end of the device to his wrist with another. When the button was pushed in the spot of contact, the skin got burned. Nea expected a strong kickback from JB’s side, because of the pain, so she held him strongly. But he never flinched a muscle. He was just standing there calmly, looking straight into her eyes. The girl was amazed by that manly grit of his once again. The blue shade of his eyes was bringing peace to her, and yet they had some alertness in it, along with wonder. Her track of time was lost, Nea forgot about the marker processing for a moment. Now she was just burning his skin. When snapped back, the woman rushed to take away the device. There was an illustration left on the skin. It consisted of random dots inside a circle. Looked like stars in the sky.
“A new tat. Cool!” JB said.
“It’s all done. Now you are a sterling citizen of the GU. All roads are open for you now,” Nea narrated while putting the device back in the bag.
“How can I test it?”
“At the terminal, for example.”
JB came to the already well-known device to stand on its surface. The projection showed him his profile. It was way different from the temporary user, which he registered at night. There was everything: a 3D model of him, the name, age, weight, citizenship, et cetera. No ‘Jerry Bridgers’ there, in the name field, just good old ‘JB.’
“I’ve noticed one of your tattoos on the left hand,” Nea addressed him while they were getting ready. “A pentagram with the writing ‘Say Hello to the Devil.’”
“Yeah, what about it?”
“If I recall correctly, from the history of your planet, during the era you lived in, there was a massive theological movement. Two characters: God and the Devil. The first one was good, the second one – evil. Doesn’t a pentagram symbolize belonging to the satanic movement?”
JB stalled for a second in thinking.
“Well, first of all, there were no ‘good’ or ‘evil’ ones. They all were just a bunch of hypocrites and liars,” JB started breaking down his point of view. “Secondly, these words aren’t related to the religion whatsoever. It’s from a song.”
“And the pentagram?”
“I don’t know, it was kinda spontaneous,” JB shrugged. “It looked cool, I had room on the skin, plus, the Winchester brothers recommended it… So…”
When all of the stuff was gathered (the hybrid iPhone, the fake iPod and stolen earphones) JB made sure that he turned off everything inside the apartment and they went out.
“So what’s the plan?” he asked, walking through the hallway.
“I’m going to take you to the local rangers association, where your recruitment program will start.”
The mutant felt somewhat upset when he found out that she wouldn’t be with him for the rest of the day.
“What about you?”
“I have work to do, remember? You’re not my exclusive concern.”
“But ain’t I your primary concern?” JB’s brows went up along with the smile.
“Let’s move. You’re going to be late for registration,” she smiled back.
On his way to the Atlantis’s local ranger center, JB didn’t think about the curriculum yet. His mind was occupied with the bigger picture. What did he sign his life for and why?
Chilling in that gliding sports car JB suddenly remembered his old group. The people whom he dragged out of that island. At some point, he caught himself on a thought that he had almost forgot about them during the last day. Perhaps new priorities were gradually pushing out from his head the old ones.
JB turned to Nea.
“What’s up with my people?”
“They were released; the charges were dropped. Now they are at the rehabilitation center. Going through the adaptation procedure.”
“So quickly…” the mutant muttered suspiciously. “You really aren’t used to wasting time here, huh? What’s gonna happen to them next?”
“The mayor has taken care of everything. After taking a profession suitability test, they will go through the training program. Then each of them will have their own place in the society,” Nea looked at JB, who at that point didn’t look like he cared much for that anymore.
“M-m… That’s cool,” he said indifferently, relaxing on the seat.
A ranger center might have a variety of forms, from a purposely built space station to a small hovel on a distant desert planet. There were lots and lots of ranger centers in the Galaxy Union. The Sun system had one of the largest ones, Sparrow. Its location took place right between the orbits of Earth and Venus. And the headquarters of the Order of Rangers was on Venus itself.
The human’s ranger schools were considered the best among the allies. JB had read a fair share of information about the training during the night.
The basis of the training program was an engineering class on spaceship structure and piloting lessons. Each pilot had to be able to repair the ship as well as operate it. Rangers weren't bound to the army, it opened lots of opportunities for them, but it also increased the risks. If they crashed out there, in open space, most likely there wouldn’t be better help for a ranger than himself.
The second part of the training was a tactical space combat craft. Most of the ships were armed, and, since most of the rangers worked alone, they had to be the ones who operated those weapons. That part excited JB the most.
The yellow gravimobile flew to the city square. It was the first time for JB to be dropped near the building’s entrance on the lower level. The square was surrounded by a few characteristic structures. The rangers’ center was a cylindrical building with many landing spots coming out of its top. The next house looked like a plant and had a large stylistic sign on it, “Ranger Juice” was written on the logo. The purpose of that one remained a mystery for the mutant.
Nea parked her car not far from the entrance, in the parking lot. They both left the vehicle. JB looked around. The square was crowded. Lots of beings of various races were there, along with the robots added in the mix. Most of the locals wore space suits, combat uniforms, and other sorts of non-urban outfits. These were rangers, JB thought. And they didn’t look very friendly.
“How can they be armed here?” JB asked Nea after he had noticed a few blasters in the crowd.
“Rangers are allowed to carry one ranged weapon and two blades within the city,” Nea moved closer and reached up to his ear to speak quietly, almost whispering. “Be careful, many of them are savages.”
“You’re sending me into a gathering of armed maniacs. How sweet of you…”
“I’m sure you’ll be fine.”
When coming to the front door, the agents noticed some fuss from not far. A crowd of people had circled something. Upon seeing that, JB and Nea changed their direction as well. They came closer towards the people. It wasn’t hard for the mutant to get them in, pushing others aside.
A couple of clomtueens were the center of attention. Both seemed enormously massive for that race. One of them was lying on the ground shaking in cramps. Its blue skin gained a pale green shade with red spots scattering all over it. The second one stayed right over the first one, trying to help. He held his ill comrade with his upper hands and used the lower pair feeling its back as if he was searching for a particular spot.
The moment Nea saw that she rushed to help them. The woman went down with her mobile diseaster, which looked like a thin flashlight. She pointed the device at the ill alien to measure core indicators: body temperature, heartbeat, blood pressure and more. If the creature had a known illness, the diseaster had to diagnosis it.
“What are you doing?” the second clomtueen asked irritatingly.
“Don’t worry, I have a degree of field medical training,” Nea replied.
“Please, stop. We don’t need you here!” the alien insisted.
He tried to take his sick comrade away from Nea, but there was no room to move because of the crowd. The woman agent was a bit surprised by such a reply, especially from a representative of that particular race. But it didn’t stop her. Moreover, Nea found the voice of that creature to be rather odd, and she could tell since she communicated with other kinds on a daily basis. Clomtueens’ voices usually were steeply divided into short sounds; they weren’t able to pronounce long words because of their throats’ inner structure. Yet, that one’s speech sounded smooth, almost like a human’s.
The diseaster rendered the result. Nea looked at the side panel to check it. There was no diagnosis of any kind, just a red blinking warning: “UNKNOWN ORGANISM”.
“That’s impossible…” she mumbled staring at the screen.
“Look out!” JB’s shout came from aside.
The mutant ran towards her, leaped ahead and, still being in the air, pulled the girl aside. The next moment a couple of energy blasts flashed through the spot where she had been. Both agents fell on the ground a few meters away from the aliens. Being frustrated by such an action, Nea didn’t see the full picture, so her first instinct was to scream at JB for what he had done. But as soon as she raised her head, she saw both clomtueens standing in front of her. Now they looked strong and healthy and the second one held a random woman as a hostage. He kept a phaser pointed at her head. As for the first, the ill one, his sick skin was falling off piece by piece.
JB stood closer than anyone else, keeping Nea behind him in cover.
The first alien turned a switch on his neck for his camouflage suit to fall off. The two lower hands were disconnected, and the top ones changed their shape. That clomtueen appearance was just a cover. And when the alien removed its fake face, there was a head of a violet-skinned creature, of a kind that was unfamiliar to anyone there. Besides the purple skin, he had long pointy ears, big blue eyes and a broad pushed-in nose. When the metamorphosis was finished, the alien used the switch on his partner’s neck for him to change too.
Even Nea had never met such creatures, but she recognized them after all, they were frolls. It had to be the first time in history when the frolls spies were spotted on the GU’s planet. It seemed unusual too. In every known case before, they just raided the solar systems with a fully armed fleet.
Frolls were much stronger than humans, and their combat skills were way more advanced. Those two were armed, they had a hostage, and among dozens of seasoned men around no one knew for sure what to do.
The hostiles didn’t say anything anymore, just stood still, preparing for the next move. They seemed to be evaluating something. The second froll kept hardening his grip over hostage’s throat more and more. The first one got armed with a blaster as well and pointed it at the crowd. The first reaction of the people was to run away. Most of the civilians were gone by then. JB and Nea stood their ground. Now the weapons aimed at them. A few rangers sneaked closer to that spot. They tried to stay unspotted for the time being, using various architecture pieces as a cover.
When the distance closed, one of the rangers stood up and pointed his phaser at the enemy. He fired. A bright blue energy blast flashed into the alien’s head. But, surprisingly for everyone, it was dispersed by an invisible force field. The protection screen lightened briefly around the froll with a transparent red shining. The alien reacted instantly, he changed his aim to shoot at the ranger, who was hiding behind the bench. A red blast went through the armor, leaving a big burning hole in the man’s chest.
The aggressors looked much meaner by that time. Suddenly JB got a feeling that Nea and himself were to be next. Just as the froll put them under gunpoint once more, the mutant pushed Nea aside and threw himself towards the enemy. The froll fired twice, but JB’s agility let him dodge the charges. When closing the distance JB put all his strength into the hit. He punched the froll upwards on the bottom of the chin. The purple enemy got thrown several meters back. The second one tried to shoot JB, but he had changed his position already to finish the first one. Through a far leap, JB planned to kill the enemy from above with a kick in the head. But, suddenly, the froll got up and intercepted the mutant with a punch in the chest while he was flying towards him.
That powerful hit laid JB on the ground. Then another punch followed much stronger one. It was painful, even for that mutant. His phaser was lost, the froll took out a blade to swing that over JB’s face. Bridgers rolled aside and swept the alien off his feet.
That froll seemed to JB the strongest opponent that he had encountered in his life. His strength didn’t give in to the island monsters, and he was way more intelligent than them. After the fall, the creature tried to hit the mutant with the blade again. JB dodged that one too. He managed to capture the enemy’s hand in process with both of his hands. With the next agile move of his, Bridgers went up on his feet. He kept the opponent on the ground with one leg and then turned to break his arm.
“Not so jumpy now, bitch?” JB said when hitting the froll in the face.
With following punches with the alien’s head pressed against the ground, his skull cracked. A dark blue blood was all over JB’s hands.
When the first one was done, JB remembered about the second one, which most likely had to have him at gunpoint by that time. The brute instinctively picked up the alien’s dead body to use it as a shield. He turned back then to face the enemy. A blast fired. The charge came straight at JB but was dispersed by the force field of the froll’s dead comrade. The mutant looked into the creature’s eyes. That blue spark of evil inside didn’t promise any good. Then JB noticed the dead body of the hostage woman that he used to hold. Yet, the creature still had a hostage. Now it was Nea. She looked scared but not harmed yet.
Seeing her in such danger was the most painful hit, which those frolls couldn’t possibly cause him physically. But it didn’t make JB back down. On the contrary, it just made him angrier. The mutant pulled up the dead alien’s body and charged the enemy. The fr
oll changed his phaser for a blade and braced himself for a hit. JB launched his first victim in a throw. That unexpected situation change made the froll react spontaneously. He pushed Nea aside, getting ready to receive the pass. The alien dodged the upcoming body and stood on his feet. But just as the view cleared up he saw as JB already got to him. The mutant hit him on the knee with his foot. The joint crunched when breaking. Then the big guy grabbed the enemy with both hands to redirect its weight over his knee for the next hit. And the final one followed after, on the froll’s head. The creature got knocked unconscious.
It still was alive and had to be disarmed. JB leaned down to take away the blaster, then he pushed aside the blade. It looked like there were no more weapons on his suit. Other people were coming closer. Nea went down on a knee near JB. She looked unharmed but still frightened.
Siren sounds approached. Two large wheeled SUVs entered the area. It was special police forces. They got to clearing the crime scene from unwanted spectators to keep them at a distance.
A few small service droids flew out of the trunks of the SUVs. They were equipped with a bunch of sensors and cameras for recording the crime scene.
Soon the perimeter was surrounded by a hologram coming out of a small projector. It generated a projected yellow dome, which had to isolate the area from civilians.
The policemen took JB and Nea away, towards their vehicles. One of the officers was going to put them in the car for a further testimonials reading, but Nea showed her governmental ID, and they both were left alone.
“How are you?” JB asked the girl.
“I’m fine,” she replied. Her voice sounded shaky.