“I’m not going to, in any case. I will not hand him to a special tribunal, even though he would deserve it. But I have to send him away from the team.”
IX
Marcus’ face was concentrated, his fingers playing with a pen he was jostling between his long fingers.
“During the last two weeks I have gathered several samples, as required. The last ten days have been particularly fruitful.”
Julia’s tone was set on ministerial professionalism, but the days spent in the front lines in the Forest had left their mark. She had two scratches on her cheek, a completely bruised elbow and the rigid posture of sore shoulders.
“I have recordings of Terrorists fleeing, Terrorists raising some kind of alarm, or deciding to engage. I picked up the samples in different territories, in order to test what should be different groups.”
Marcus nodded, smiling at her.
“Good. I had no doubt.”
Julia shifted her shoulders.
“I ask for permission to return to the Base. Two of my fighters are wounded, even though not dangerously. And I had to send soldier Eorg back to his department.”
The Secretary leaned forward on the chair, dropping the pen and crossing his arms on the desk.
“Is he one of the wounded?”
“No.”
Julia sighed and once again Marcus encouraged her.
“The unofficial report will do for the moment.”
On the other side of the videophone the girl closed her eyes for a brief moment, but opened them soon after, an intense gray gaze.
“He fired without waiting for my order, with very grave consequences. He killed one of the Terrorist women, unarmed, not aggressive and very pregnant.”
Marcus’s eyes opened with surprise, then he sadly shook his head.
“What an idiot! We have lost a great occasion… if only we could have had the chance of raising one of their children…”
Julia nodded, crestfallen.
“I know.”
“What was such an element doing in your team, anyway?”
There was no accusation in the tone, yet Captain Mayne tensed all the same and bowed her head.
“I would never have chosen him. But he is, or perhaps was, the pupil of his director’s eye, who basically pushed him on me. To refuse him could have created a diplomatic incident with Nah.”
Julia pressed her lips in an expression of contained frustration.
“That day he was at my side exactly because I wanted to keep him under control.”
The Secretary let out a sigh.
“You did all you could. And the official report?”
“Soldier Eorg has manifested muscular tremors, concentrated at the height of the wrist and the hand, which caused accidental fire. He therefore should undergo immediate medical analysis. Before that, he is absolutely not fit to carry a gun.”
Marcus raised his eyebrows with a half smile.
“Diplomatic and wise choice.”
“I was taught how to lie with style at the Ministry.”
Julia almost rushed her hand to her lips, immediately regretting the thought that had slipped out, with the help of her fatigue – but Marcus burst out laughing.
“Right.”
The Secretary observed her again, his eyes shining with something similar to affection.
“Return to the base Julia, and rest. We will reconvene soon.”
Captain Mayne’s team crossed the gates of OB07 two days later. Faces were calm, but the group was silent. They were leaving behind them a front that was still open, with constant skirmishes. Besides Eorg, officially dismissed for medical visits, Julia’s team had not suffered losses, but it was well known in the base that some scouts from the main contingent had never returned.
A small curious crowd had formed near the electrocart hangar. Commander Nah was striding towards them, sweeping her blond hair behind her ears with a brush of her hand.
Julia jumped down from the electrocart even before it stopped, impatiently but gracefully. She looked at her team with bright eyes.
“You are free to return to your departments. Our mission is over.”
She allowed herself a smile, before turning her back to them and attend to her formal duties with the Commander.
“Excellent job, all of you.”
She had no time to listen to their replies, which were left hanging unsaid in the air, like dust in a ray of light. Nah had reached her side.
“Captain.”
Julia read a silent question and a sense of urgency in the intelligent eyes of the woman standing in front of her.
“Please, follow me. Secretary Marcus was waiting for your arrival.”
Julia found it hard not to smile when knocking at the door of the module assigned to Marcus. The corners of her mouth fell when she suddenly felt like a pang the absence of Cleo, in the familiarity of the context, but the warmth in Marcus’s voice restored her good mood.
“Come in.”
She opened the door with a renewed smile on her face.
“Secretary.”
She addressed him with a formal bow, but he answered her smile, gesturing her to take a seat and cutting formalities short.
“Julia! It’s good to see you smiling.”
“I admit I am happy to see you, Secretary.”
“Have you forgiven me?”
She suddenly returned serious and pressed her lips together, thinking.
“Yes, I suppose I have.”
A pause, then she started talking in a lighter tone.
“I didn’t expect to find you here.”
Marcus relaxed, falling back against the chair. The entrance to his module was furnished as a study, with two chairs and a small table.
“I’m here for several reasons. First of all, I wanted to check on your health status.”
Julia raised her eyebrows.
“I found you dangerously tired when we spoke and wanted to check your condition in person. I’m pleased to find you are already better.”
He raised index and middle finger to form a 2.
“Secondly, I wanted Nah to see me and remember that the Empire has not forgotten this base and follows the situation carefully. This has given me a chance to form an opinion for myself.”
Julia tilted her head, waiting for the conclusion.
“Finally, I’m here for your next mission.”
Marcus allowed himself a small sigh.
“Finish what you started. Help the Commander and Sub-Commander Arl secure their territory. The recordings you have should suffice.”
He studied the girl’s blank face.
“Two weeks, that’s all. Rest tomorrow and yet another day if you feel you need it.”
Captain Mayne nodded in silence.
“Julia, I know you don’t like to kill. That’s another reason why you’re the right person for this. I need this to be surgical and controlled, the Terrorists so near and unpredictable are a danger, as you have seen. You can save the lives of some of Nah’s people.”
She sighed, shaking her head slightly.
“No need to convince me, Secretary. You know I don’t have much of a choice, and that I would obey anyway.”
His dark eyes were almost sad when they set on Julia’s face, already directed towards the door to leave.
“I know, but I believe convincing you adds value to the result. We’ll have the opportunity to talk about freedom of choice some day, perhaps.”
Julia turned around and smiled at him, now curious.
“Gladly.”
And left, closing the door with a light rustle.
Long ringing, and finally Cleo, ruffled hair and red eyes. A male leg moves out of the quadrant of the videophone.
“Hi Cleo! Did I interrupt something?”
“No, don’t worry. Dreas and I were talking and it took me a while to answer. It’s late at night here.”
Captain Mayne frowns,
kissed by the golden morning light.
“How is it possible? It’s morning here…”
A quick overseas smile.
“It’s because of the Earth’s rotation, of which face is turned to the Sun – if you move parallel to the equator, the Sun will rise in a different moment.”
“Oh. I am sorry I disturbed you.”
“Don’t worry. When are you coming back?”
Hope lights a spark in the eyes, brightens the tone of voice.
“In two weeks or so. Will you introduce me to Dreas then?”
Cleo nods absentmindedly, peers in her sister’s tired eyes.
“Where are they sending you for these days?”
“To do a less dangerous and dirtier job.”
A determined answer, a multicolored voice of warmth and sadness.
“I’ll be waiting.”
Ten days later the name of Captain Julia Mayne echoed in all the Departments of the base, anticipating her return. It rang in the orders written and countersigned with the special protocol she had sent from the front, emerged in whispers from mess hall and dorms, in conversations from strategic meetings.
Initially in the first village she had carried out a traditional, daylight strike – later she had decided to attack during the night, tearing away from the enemy’s control even their best hours. She had set to deforest and immediately create paths in the conquered territories. Rumors had it she had pushed an entire village in a zone covered by a major alert from the Landmines Department.
Pushing beyond the official line of conquest, many camps had already been abandoned. It was said that in this case the Captain would order to carefully take down all the Terrorist tents, gathering all abandoned effects in numbered bags. In the wake of her path, it was as if those villages had never existed.
X
The column of electrocarts was raising a conspicuous amount of dust.
The world is now eyes squinting in the sunlight, wind in her hair, red and thin earth in her nostrils. Julia is standing on the vehicle at the center of the column, crossing kilometers of enemy territory with blaring music in her ears, and hears no one.
“Captain.”
Reading lips, she unplugged her earphones, holding in a sigh.
“Captain, the head vehicle is communicating that we are in sight of the base.”
Julia pinched her mouth in something like a smile.
“Good.”
The officer that had spoken looked at her curiously.
“Shall I stop the convoy, Captain? Don’t you wish to take the leading vehicle?”
Pause – then Captain Mayne did a gesture which looked a lot like a shrug, her face expressionless.
“I guess I should.”
So that was how Julia made her entrance in OB07, standing on a jump seat of the front vehicle and welcomed upon her arrival by a small crowd of colleagues and curious. She recognized Eorg and Ary Lee’s smile nearby in the front row – and only then did she realize that the base had been afraid, and her attack on the Terrorists was experienced like a liberation.
She had no time for surprise, being met by Nah and Arl who were striding towards the electrocart hangar. Julia jumped down to greet them, slightly shaking because of the absence of the now familiar vibration of the vehicle. Nah ignored her fatigue.
“On time as usual, Captain. Excellent job. An airship is waiting for you.”
Julia opened her mouth but had no time to speak.
“I have taken the liberty to board all your baggage and equipment. You will be able to change comfortably on board.”
The Captain followed the two out of the hangar, forcing away a chill of a dark and hidden fear. She suddenly looked extremely tired.
Arl sent an apologetic smile in her direction.
“The airship has orders to depart as soon as possible.”
The wings of the gigantic aerovehicle shone like the feathers of a fire bird, the solar micropanels covering them already oriented and whirring. Forests, lakes, oceans swept past the vast double window. Secretary Marcus and Captain Mayne sat at a small table, sipping orange juice from elegant chalices. Julia looked like a kid, dressed in civilian garb and flopped down on the soft seat in an asymmetric pose, disorderly and not at all martial. Marcus was smiling.
“They decided to get you out of the base as soon as possible because your fame was growing too much. Nah must have considered that your skills on the field could undermine her authority, especially with the new contingent I brought in with the airship.”
The Secretary’s eyes lit up as he grinned.
“She would have kept me from coming out of the ship if she could. I opted to stay on board because I didn’t want to unnerve her.”
Julia eyes flashed, her lips clenched - Marcus was quick to grasp the unexpressed comparison.
“I know. We have demanded a lot from you. But now you will have a chance to rest.”
“Do you know anything of my next assignment?”
The Secretary shook his head.
“I don’t know anything about it. I know that your results have attracted the attention of my colleagues at the Ministry, but we all agree you need at least 10 days of rest.”
Julia raised her eyebrows, but Marcus kept on with a stern voice.
“You need them, Julia. Even if you weren’t seriously wounded, you have gone through prolonged stress. And you have a fever.”
“What?”
“You are obviously feverish. Skintilla must have done an excellent job in ingraining combat as a second nature, if you didn’t even notice. Nonetheless, you shouldn’t ignore the signals your body sends you.”
Captain Mayne remained silent, straightening up on the seat and checking her sore spots through that simple movement. She noted the alteration in her pulse, the lightheaded feeling, the concentration she needed for the simplest gestures – symptoms she had downplayed as simple fatigue.
She forced herself to relax as much as possible.
Two days of rest, which end with the shrill ringing of duty’s call.
Marcus’ face is tense, his voice blank.
“My regards, Captain. The Ministry has decided on your next assignment.”
Hands behind her back in a courteous stance, Julia digs the nails of her fingers in her palms, acknowledging the formal tone. Monitored conversation.
“At your orders, Secretary.”
“An inspection in OB26. More details will be provided during your journey to destination.”
Julia shakes. A vibration which starts from the abdomen, embraces the hips, discharges through the arms. The Captain hides her wrath with a deep bow, and Marcus rapidly closes the communication.
“What happened?”
“Nothing.”
“Don’t bullshit me.”
Julia averted her eyes from her sister’s concerned face.
“They are asking me to perform an inspection. In OB26.”
Cleo narrowed her eyes, which flashed almost metallically, and for a moment all the resemblance and the blood bond with Captain Mayne shone through her sweet features as they were suddenly hardened by rage.
When she spoke her voice was dripping a deep and unimaginable hatred.
“Bastards.”
Bastards. Offspring of wretches without honor and marred by shame. Julia agreed with the definition, and yet only extremely high ranking personalities of the Empire could override Marcus like that.
The Captain’s stare crossed the window without even seeing the beautiful scenery of the dawn on the sea, the same scenery that had moved her to tears the first time she had gazed upon it. But now Julia’s eyes were dry with insomnia. Thoughts fleeted on her forehead like parakeets flying in the American Forest.
Her mind was on the viciousness of the test they were proposing to her this time, and yet she felt a pang of affection for Marcus – it was clear he had
nothing to do with this. She thought of Cleo and her strange relationship with Dreas, a tall fellow with darting eyes that had been obviously scared by Captain Mayne. And then she thought of OB26.
Only fire and flames behind her closed eyes, flashes never seen but very often imagined, in the belly of buried dreams and illicit divagations of the mind.
She placed her right hand on her stomach, as if it could somehow calm the heartburn. She had decided not to report the problem, knowing that the doctors were bound to convey to central control information on the health of the officers.
And she knew the origin of her sickness very well. Of all the Operational Bases of the Empire, they had sent her to inspect the one where her parents had died.
In high uniform, Captain Mayne paraded the moons of her rank and let her loose hair fall back at the sides of her face, almost to her shoulders. She had underlined the ice in her eyes with black make-up.
She descended from the aerovehicle’s stairs keeping her back straight and grasping a pen and a notebook her hand, immediately noticing the absence of the Commander of the base and the nervous shuffling of the underling who represented him in a clumsy welcoming party.
The errand boy graced her with an attempt to start a conversation and a nervous smile.
“It’s an honor for us to welcome you in OB26, Captain. Did you know this base has been attested here for ten years?”
“9 years and 4 months, to be precise. I’ve read the papers.”
The smile on the bureaucrat’s face froze for a moment, while Julia grinned showing her white teeth and pointy canines.
“I have also read of the fire.”
“Na-Naturally. May I show you to your rooms, to see if they are pleasing to you, Captain?”
“No. I want to see the Commander.”
“The Commander is currently bu…”
“I will wait.”
Julia waited at the entrance door of Commander Rossis’s rooms for 20 minutes, standing perfectly still, exactly at the center of the recording field of the camera placed above the doorpost. The device would transmit to the Commander her impassable demeanor and the rising anxiety of her escort.
Julia Dream Page 11