Chamberlain's Folly (The Terra Nova Chronicles)

by Robert Dean Hall

  Sierra was leaning against the front of the cell when the guard pressed the button and he received a nasty jolt as an electric current passed through his arm and chest down through his legs and sent him halfway across the cell. He landed on his back on the floor and lay there dazed and unable to move for a few seconds.

  The leader of the guard walked to the front of the cell and looked in from a safe distance. He sneered at Sierra and waved the device around. He repeated the command out loud he gave before pressing the button.

  “D’ruka tsu uhna ka. D’ruka tsu uhna ka.”

  Alpha helped Sierra up from the floor.

  “I guess that is our first language lesson,” he said.

  He shot an intense look at Kilo.

  “You could have warned us,” he grumbled.

  Kilo looked back apologetically and said, “Sorry. There wasn’t time.”

  “J’ha u’ru,” the guard yelled at Kilo. He then turned to Alpha and yelled the same phrase.

  Alpha was almost certain the pair was being given a command to keep silent. Kilo looked at him and started to speak again. He gestured for her to remain silent.

  “Now I know why the guards took up single file,” Alpha thought to himself.

  He looked around and saw the native prisoners were all standing next to their bunks with their hands behind their heads, eyes to the front. He looked around at his team members and gestured to them they should follow his lead. He then stepped next to the bunks and one at a time put each hand behind his own head and stared toward the front of the cell as the native prisoners were doing. Without hesitation, his team fell into place beside their bunks.

  Once the guard who had the device in his hand saw the felines fall into inspection posture, he walked back to the other guards and resumed his position in front. He held the device up once more.

  “Tsen babukh. B’hetu,” he yelled, and pressed another button on the device.

  The cell doors farthest away from the guards opened.

  The guard barked another order and the four natives in those two cells walked out through the cell doors, turned toward the guards and walked single file toward them. Once they reached the line of guards, they stopped and one guard each turned and led a single prisoner out the door.

  As soon as the last guard and prisoner were through the door, another group of four guards filed in.

  The guard with the device barked out orders to open two more cell doors and four more prisoners emerged and walked out the door. This spectacle repeated itself until the cell block was emptied of native prisoners.

  Alpha looked across at Kilo with an expression that asked if this was how things went yesterday morning. She looked back at him and shrugged as if to say, she had never witnessed this behavior before. Alpha became uneasy at the thought they might be clearing out the cell block for some sinister reason.

  The cell block door opened once more and the guard with the device held it up again and pressed a button. He then lowered it and reached over and grabbed a cell bar to prove to the felines the electricity was removed. He motioned for them to gather at the front of their cells.

  He stood by an empty cell and sent the other guard inside. He then held the device up in plain sight and motioned for the guard in the cell to reach through the bars and grab him. He held the device up and made exaggerated movements with his thumb as if he were pressing a button on the device.

  The guard that was inside the cell let him go and fell to the cell floor as Sierra had done when he received his shock. The guard then pointed at Sierra and nodded his head as if to say, “Yes. Just like before.”

  Alpha indicated the group understood and the guard in the cell got up and walked to the cell block door and opened it.

  Ten guards came in through the open door. Two of the guards were pushing a rolling table with various kinds of food and drink on it. Another pair pushed a table with what looked like a video screen connected to some sort of playback device.

  The feline captives could see the food and drink were in marked containers. One of the guards was holding some flexible plastic sheets with printing on them. He handed one to Kilo, one to Alpha, and a third to Charlie, who had found both the floor and the toilet in his cell and was feeling much better.

  The leader of the guards held up a fourth plastic sheet and rubbed his finger over some of the writing. He then went to the table and rubbed the writing on one of the containers. He held the sheet up again in front of Alpha and pointed out the writing again to show him it matched the writing on the container.

  Once Alpha indicated he and his team understood the concept of the menu, another guard handed each team member a small bowl with a handle that was about the right size for the mittened hands of the felines to hold without too much difficulty.

  For the next few minutes the leader would point to an item on the menu and say the name. Another guard would then take a container around and scoop out a small amount of the food or beverage and put it in the felines’ bowls for them to sample.

  The leader would repeat the name of the item while the felines tried it. He would wait for a positive or negative reaction to the food item from each team member before taking a pencil and either circling an item the felines enjoyed or striking through those they reacted to with distaste.

  After all the food had been sampled, the leader ordered the other guards to remove the table. Two of them pushed it out the door and after a short time, returned with another table that had six trays with full meals apparently selected for the felines from their reactions to the taste-testing.

  A guard motioned for each of the felines to return the bowl that was handed to them earlier and in exchange was given a tray through a slot in the cell door. The leader motioned for the felines to sit on their bunks and eat while the video screen was set up for use.

  While the felines ate, the leader of the guard indicated by snapping his fingers and whistling they should watch the screen. Strange music came from the speakers on the video unit and some strange writing scrolled across the screen. The music faded and a deep male voice boomed from the speakers in the Terra Novan native tongue.

  Alpha thought to himself as a scene came up on the screen that showed native prisoners sitting a cell, wearing similar yellow-green jumpsuits, “I hope they realize this is being wasted on us. We can’t speak or read this damned language.”

  His concerns were answered as he saw the video on the screen was apparently some sort of dramatization that was being used to illustrate the points the booming voice was making. The actors playing the part of prisoners tried to make an escape and were stunned by the electrified bars when a guard on the screen pressed a button on a similar device to the one the leader of the guard was holding.

  In another scene, the prisoners made good an escape and were outside their cell block in what looked like an indoor shopping center. An alarm sounded and the lights went down in the shopping center and were replaced by special colored lighting that caused the fabric in the prisoners’ jumpsuits to glow brightly. The presentation demonstrated what would happen if a prisoner tried to hide. If even the slightest portion of the fabric was illuminated by the light, it glowed enough to be seen from quite a distance.

  “That’s damned ingenious,” Alpha thought as the video orientation came to a close and the screen went blank.

  The leader of the guards turned off the screen and waited for the felines to finish their breakfast. He looked at Alpha as if to ask, “Do you understand?”

  Alpha nodded as an indication he did.

  Once the felines were finished with their meal and the trays and eating utensils had been collected and inventoried, the leader motioned for the felines to once again congregate at the front of the cells. The leader switched the screen back on and pressed a button on the playback device. The screen burst forth with what looked like a language arts tutorial aimed at a child just starting grammar school.

  Alpha grinned. Kilo and Foxtrot giggled. Charlie, Tango and Sierra loo
ked insulted and not amused.

  Alpha looked at the leader of the guards and gave him a gesture of appreciation for his efforts.

  He then said to his team, “Looks like these folks are planning on us hanging around a while. I think we should learn how to communicate.”

  He then nodded at the leader of the guard once more to indicate he had ordered his team to cooperate.

  The leader smiled and patted himself on the chest.

  “Buzami,” he told Alpha. “Azir Buzami.”

  Alpha then pointed to himself and said, “Alpha.”

  The leader indicated he understood and turned to leave. He pulled the rest of the guards out with him and left the video screen with the language tutorial playing.

  Sierra patted Alpha on the back.

  “Damn it, Cap,” he said. “Looks like you have a new buddy.”

  Alpha shrugged and smiled quizzically. “You’d probably make some new friends if you brushed your teeth more than once a week,” he replied.

  Sierra laughed and climbed into the top bunk.

  Alpha looked around at his team. “How am I going to get us out of this place,” he asked himself.

  There was a song emanating from the speakers of the video screen. It seemed to be a mnemonic device for learning the sounds of some of the characters in the native alphabet.

  Kilo, Foxtrot and Tango were silently watching with amused expressions.

  Charlie had succumbed to the allure of the jingle and was quietly singing along.

  Chapter 31

  17-April-2210

  “Little did Azir and I know that day we’d end up on the same side, fighting against the creators,” Calf Stealer said to Gupta. He looked over at the portly Zunnuki who had fallen out of the conversation just long enough to motion to the waiter to bring a round of ales. “I guess Sierra was correct,” he mused. “Azir has been a good friend and my closest political ally among the Zunnuki.”

  “How long did Azir have you in captivity,” Gupta asked.

  “My team and I were in the city for about six weeks,” Calf Stealer replied. “We only stayed in the cells about two of those. We were given nice quarters after that, up until the time we returned to New Phoenix and attempted to convince Yuen to accept a truce and to enter into treaty negotiations.”

  Gupta collected the empty tankards as a courtesy to the waiter while the sharply dressed young man put down three fresh ones. Once the waiter’s tray was free of the full tankards, Gupta stood and placed the empties on it. The waiter nodded in a show of appreciation and walked away with the tray held overhead, nimbly dodging patrons, tables and other waiters in his path.

  Buzami took a large gulp from his ale and then excused himself to go to the lavatory.

  Gupta leaned back in his chair and stretched. He was tired, but not sleepy. The three had talked all day and most of the evening. Gupta was starting to get a strong appreciation for the situation he found himself in.

  He had suspected that his superiors were hiding things from him for reasons other than security, but he wasn’t ready to completely throw his objectivity out the window and swallow Buzami’s and Calf Stealer’s account in full, just yet.

  “Please tell me,” he asked Calf Stealer. “What was it that changed your attitude toward those you call the creators?”

  “Many things,” Calf Stealer answered, candidly. “I can tell you that my time in the Zunnuki jail was a growing experience.”

  Gupta looked at Calf Stealer and asked, “How so?”

  “I stopped taking for granted, that everything my superiors told me was the truth,” the feline said.

  Gupta smiled. He had long since stopped raising his hackles when Calf Stealer or Buzami goaded him with their insinuations he was too willing to accept the Earth government’s account of Chamberlain and the saga of his departure from the troubled planet. He listened intently as Calf Stealer continued the account of his incarceration by Buzami and the Zunnuki.

  ****

  7-December-2192

  On the morning of their seventh day of captivity by the Terra Novan natives, the captain of the guard, whom Alpha and his team had learned was named Azir, came into the cell block alone. He motioned for the felines to gather around. Azir didn’t seem to fear being close enough that one of them could grab him anymore, but he still held the remote that energized the bars of the cell tightly.

  As the felines had been learning Azir’s language, he had been trying to learn English. Apparently, he was having a bit easier time with English than they were having with Zunnuki, but they were coming along.

  “For me to do now,” Azir said. “I will bring you out to doctor and make you him look.”

  The rest of the team smiled and chuckled a bit, but Alpha indicated to Azir that his English was good enough for them to understand.

  Azir looked as if he was disappointed in his failure to verbalize his intentions absolutely correctly in English, but he was happy to see that Alpha understood.

  “I bring back guards with me,” he said. “Please go to stand… there.” Azir pointed to the bunks.

  Alpha went to his bunk and told the rest of the team to fall in. They conformed immediately, putting their hands behind their heads and looking straight at the front of the cells.

  Azir smiled and turned to walk out the door. When he returned he had a dozen other guards with him. The guards were carrying shackles with heavy chains attached. They lined up single file as always and Azir held up the remote, shouted a command and energized the bars of the cells. He then barked another command and Alpha’s cell door opened.

  Kilo looked at Alpha as if to ask if he and Sierra were going to try and overpower the guards. Alpha indicated to her non-verbally he was not.

  Four of the guards entered the cell and shackled Alpha’s right wrist to Sierra’s right wrist and his left ankle to Sierra’s left ankle. The guards led the pair out of the cell and halted at the door.

  Azir then repeated the commands, opened the door of Kilo and Foxtrot’s cell. Kilo and Foxtrot were shackled left wrist to left wrist and right ankle to right ankle. Four guards led them out of the cell and to just behind Alpha and Sierra. A guard then shackled Kilo’s right wrist and ankle to Sierra’s.

  As the guards attached Tango and Charlie to the rest of the group, Alpha thought to himself, “They’re hobbling us. There is no way we can coordinate our motions with each other to attack the guards or run. I guess we will get to see more of the facility they have us in, though.”

  The guards led the felines out of the cell block and into the hallway beyond the cell block door. The hallway was long and narrow and had other cell block doors lined up along it. At the end of the hallway was an entrance way with a heavy metal door that swung open when the group approached.

  The group walked through into a large antechamber with benches and a desk that had monitoring screens to either side. The screens gave the guard sitting at the desk a view of the hallways leading to the cell blocks, but none of Alpha’s team noticed any views from inside any of the cell blocks coming up on the screens as they were led out of the antechamber to another hallway.

  The hallway opened up into an infirmary. It was empty, except for the felines, the guards and a group of medical personnel who quickly went about the task of examining the felines.

  “You let doctors,” Azir told Alpha’s team. “They help you need something.”

  ****

  Gupta looked at Buzami and Calf Stealer.

  “So,” he asked, chuckling. “Was Azir’s English really that bad or was he just playing the part?”

  Calf Stealer grinned as Buzami picked up his ever-present tankard of Zunnuki ale and took a large drink.

  “The son of a bitch’s English was excellent,” he remarked. “Much better than my commandos’ Zunnuki.”

  Azir almost choked on his ale as he laughed.

  “I couldn’t come right out and start speaking perfect English the moment you arrived,” Buzami admitted. “That would have
given everything away. I still laugh when I think of how we put the children’s program on to get you started on Zunnuki.”

  “Azir wasn’t even a prison guard,” Calf Stealer added. “He was a colonel in the Zunnuki army. I have to admit that his police uniform was better tailored to his athletic physique.”

  “So how did you learn, English, Governor Buzami,” Gupta asked.

  “I’d prefer to allow Alphie to continue and let it be a surprise,” Azir replied. “It is worth the wait. I promise you.”

  ****

  The guards left the infirmary after Azir indicated he would not tolerate any disruptions and Alpha agreed there would be none.

  The team of doctors and nurses did full physical exams on the felines, who were chained together straddling a large wooden bench in the center of the infirmary. The exams were thorough right down to checking their teeth for cavities and their feet for ingrown toenails.

  Before the team left, the doctors took blood and hair samples, and then swabbed the insides of their mouths and dropped each swab in a separate vial of liquid.

  Azir came back in with his guards and motioned for the felines to stand and fall in. They did as they were commanded and the guards walked them back to the cells. On the way, all of the commandos made mental notes about doorways, hallways, staffing numbers and anything that looked as if it might be a viewing or listening device. They didn’t see anything obvious except in the hallways. Alpha studied the light fixtures of the cell block as the felines were marched in and unshackled to be put back in their cells.

  As the felines were being sorted out and placed in their cells, a human male suddenly rose from the bottom bunk of the cell that was beside Kilo and Foxtrot. He stood and walked to the front of his cell, but didn’t touch the bars. He shouted what sounded like curses at the guards and Azir shouted something back.

  Alpha’s Zunnuki was just good enough to understand the man was unhappy about being placed in with the felines. Azir argued with him for less than a minute before ordering him to be quiet.