Theogony 1: Janissaries

by Chris Kennedy

  “I’d like to try these weapons out,” said Ryan, indicating the rack of tridents.

  “Well, they are space weapons, so you really should be in space to use them; they are probably more powerful than anything that you want to use on a planet, especially your own,” warned Steropes.

  “Well what do you suggest then?” asked Ryan, obviously annoyed at the answer.

  “Go to the moon and shoot them?” offered Steropes.

  Ryan laughed. “As easy as that? Just ‘go to the moon?’”

  Steropes nodded. “As easy as that. We just shuttle up to the back side of the moon where the space agencies can’t see us, and you can use the weapons all you want. It’s actually in the light right now. There are targets on the Vella Gulf we can set up. None of the national moon-mapping satellites will be overhead for several hours, either.”

  “OK, Master Chief, you can take the troops up to the moon to work on weapons familiarization,” Calvin commed, wondering if that sounded as bizarre to everyone else as it did to him. “Unfortunately, Lieutenant Train and I have a couple of meetings to attend and loads of paperwork to catch up on, so we can’t join you. Be safe!”

  “Roger that, sir,” commed Ryan, happy to have the officers stay behind. “At the command of ‘ready, move,’ troops will move forward and take the weapons that they’re supposed to have. Ready, move!”

  The troops broke ranks and moved to the weapons racks. After a great deal of discussion, it had been decided that each of the squads would be broken down into three fire teams, each with four lasermen. The fire team leaders carried both a laser and a trident, as did the squad leader. The third fire team of the ground force was the only one that was different, as it had the unit’s specialists. In addition to the sniper team of Corporal Steve ‘Tiny’ Johnson and Corporal Mike ‘BTO’ Bachmann, it also had the platoon’s medic, Sergeant Kawika ‘Hacksaw’ Liu, and its ninja, Sergeant Hattori ‘Yokaze’ Hanzo. Hanzo was a wild card that didn’t fit into any of the ‘traditional’ positions. Rather than try to put him into a slot that didn’t fit him, Calvin had decided to make up a new position that would allow Yokaze to use his skills to the fullest. Although the ninja took a laser, he had a variety of other weapons that he favored.

  KIRO-TV, Channel 7, Seattle, WA, November 25, 2018

  “In national news this evening, NASA has reported that an asteroid hit the back side of the moon today, confirming video taken by amateur astronomers,” read KIRO’s anchorwoman, Anna St. Cloud. The camera showed a view of the moon with a big cloud of dust rising from the opposite side. “None of the major observatories noticed the asteroid that hit the moon prior to impact; however, all of them agree that the dust cloud that can be seen on the moon had to have come from something like an asteroid impact.”

  “NASA’s scientist, Dr. Andy Eastwood, said today, ‘Asteroids hit the surface of the moon all the time, as the moon doesn’t have an atmosphere like Earth does to burn them up prior to impact. Based on the cloud of dust, the object that hit the moon was probably about a meter in diameter, weighing about 300 pounds. The important thing to remember about these types of impacts is that the asteroids are traveling at velocities that often exceed 15 miles per second. They have a tremendous amount of kinetic energy, which gets explosively converted to light and heat at impact. This collision probably liberated the equivalent of about ten tons of TNT exploding.’”

  “In other news...”

  Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Tacoma, WA, November 26, 2018

  Calvin looked back at Top and Ryan, standing at attention in front of his desk as he stopped the online replay of the nightly news. “Let’s try to remember that this is a secret program that we are trying not to tell the public about. Making big explosions that focus attention on the moon is not what we want to do. I’ve already gotten phone calls from NASA and the air force on whether we had something to do with this, and I would really like it if we didn’t have it happen again.” It was hard for Calvin to maintain his straight face with Night bouncing up and down behind the enlisted men, trying hard not to laugh.

  “Yes sir!” the men said simultaneously. “Sorry sir,” continued Ryan, “I thought it was set on microgram, not milligram.” He didn’t look particularly sorry, Calvin noted.

  “OK, I get it that you wanted to see what the grenade thrower could do, but let’s try and dial it back a little, please. We’ll stop on the way out, and you can blow up an asteroid of your own if you’d like.”

  “Can we really?” asked Top. “That would be cool.”

  Calvin sighed. “Yes, we can,” he said as his phone began ringing. He looked at it and sighed again. “Now get out of here and try to remember that we’re a secret program.”

  “Yes sir!” both men said as they saluted and exited. As they closed the door, Top winced as he heard Calvin take the blame, “Yes Mr. President, that was us...”

  Snoqualmie National Forest, Washington State, November 27, 2018

  “I see someone coming,” Top told his squad over the internal radio. “Everyone be ready.” Calvin, as an observer, was able to hear the radio transmissions of both squads. He was listening to Top’s squad with his left ear and Master Chief’s with his right. He had learned the trick as an aviator when he had to listen to two radios while flying.

  Half of Top’s squad was lined up in cover along the banks of a small stream. It was only 4-5 feet deep in most places and about ten feet across. It was right at the edge of the area that they were defending. Top had decided to place half of his troops there, because it would be difficult for anyone to cross the stream without being seen. They ought to be able to stop the attack before it even started.

  While Calvin had been watching, a reed had moved down the river in front of Top’s squad. No one had noticed it, as it seemed to be floating with the current. As it reached the end of the squad, it tilted down until it pointed at Staff Sergeant Jose ‘Boom Boom’ Morales. A dart sped from it, hitting him in the right cheek as he lay propped up on a fallen tree. His muscles locked, holding him in that position.

  The reed vanished into the water, and Sergeant Park ‘Wraith’ Ji-woo, ROK Army, slithered from out of the stream and up onto the bank. Naked but for the knife she held in her teeth, she did not make a sound as she approached Boom Boom’s position. Like a phantom, she flowed around the end of the tree and placed the knife against Boom Boom’s throat. He was ‘dead.’ “One down,” she transmitted. She raised her head just enough to see over his body and saw that the next in line was Top.

  As she began working her way behind him, a bird whistle was heard from across the stream. “That’s them moving up,” announced Top. “Stay focused.” All eyes were focused across the river as Wraith crept up on Top. Although he never heard her coming, he instinctively felt something as she moved in for the kill. He turned to look back, just in time for the back of her knife blade to run across his throat. He lay back down. “Top’s down,” she sent.

  Drawing in a deep breath, she screamed the most blood curdling scream that Top had ever heard. All of the eyes of his squad were involuntarily drawn to where Top lay, and then held there at the sight of a naked woman laying on top of him. They looked back to see that Ryan, Sergeant Tagliabue, Sergeant Pesik, and Sergeant Andrews had all risen up from the water with grenade throwers. Having swum up undetected in their combat suits, they fired smoke rounds down the line of defense ‘eliminating’ the rest of the defenders.

  Master Chief called the rest of his squad forward, and they began stripping off their suits. The other members of the squad arrived, carrying the assault team’s gear and clothes. They dressed quickly and continued the assault.

  “What did you think of that?” commed Master Chief to Calvin.

  “Much better,” replied Calvin. “I’m guessing that was Wraith’s idea?”

  “Yeah,” answered Ryan, “it was her idea. I’ve gotta say, it worked pretty well.”

  “It sure did,” said Calvin.

  Ryan shrugged as he jogge
d by with the squad, “I still think she’s crazy, but she’s my kind of crazy.”

  It looked like Master Chief’s squad was finally going to win one.

  * * * * *

  Chapter Eight

  TSS Vella Gulf, ‘Dark Side’ of the Moon, December 4, 2018

  Calvin arrived early to the newly rechristened ‘Terran Space Ship’ (TSS) Vella Gulf for his first space fighter simulator flight. The decision had been made to call it a “TSS,” in recognition of the fact that more than just the United States was involved.

  Similarly, someone had made the decision to change the name of the Zeebat space fighters to ‘Vipers.’ Calvin didn’t know why that was, nor did he particularly care. He expected that it had something to do with give and take between the Secretary of the Air Force and the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO). He had heard the Secretary of the Air Force say one time that he didn’t think that ‘Zeebat’ sounded ‘cool.’ Calvin idly wondered what the CNO had received in return.

  Realizing that he hadn’t been able to view the moonscape from the bridge previously, he decided to go up and take a look, as the bridge should currently be empty. The rest of the Vella Gulf’s crew wasn’t due to start working on it until after the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. As the doors to the bridge opened, he realized that it wasn’t empty, as he caught Arges and Brontes holding hands and looking into each other’s eyes.

  Feeling uncomfortable and deciding that he didn’t want to interrupt, he turned to leave, but Brontes caught the motion out of the corner of her eye. “It is OK,” she said. “You can come in.”

  Calvin turned back around. “Sorry to interrupt,” he said. “I just wanted to take a look at the surface of the moon. It still is hard to believe sometimes that I’m actually on the moon.” He looked at the two Psiclopes, who were still holding hands. “Are you two ‘a thing?’”

  “Yes,” said Brontes. “We have been together for nearly 4,000 of your years. We just don’t like to make too much of a display around Steropes, as it is still hard on him.”

  “What is hard?” asked Calvin.

  “You have heard us say that our outpost here should have four members,” said Arges. “Correct?”

  “Yes,” Calvin answered. “You said one time that your decision making process was flawed because you only had three people and should have had four.”

  “When we were first assigned here,” Arges continued, “we came as two couples. I was married to Brontes and Steropes was married to Brontes’ sister Parvati. She was lost leading the attack on the Drakuls, which is why Brontes is so affected by telling the story of that time.” Calvin could see tears in Brontes’ eyes, and as he watched, one brimmed over and ran down her cheek.

  “It has always been the way of our kind to watch over developing planets as a group of four,” continued Arges. “This is for a couple of reasons. First, you have to understand our religion. We believe that life is a constant series of dying and being reborn, until a being ultimately achieves liberation from the life/death cycle. We believe that someone’s actions, words and deeds have an effect on their re-creation; if you do good deeds, your soul will be rewarded in your next life. If you commit evil during your life, that will also be carried over.

  Our society recognizes four paths that can be used to achieve ultimate enlightenment. Brontes follows the Bhakti, or path of love and devotion. I follow the Jnana, or path of wisdom. Steropes follows the Raja, or path of meditation. His wife followed Karma, or path of right action. We do not know if any of these is better than the others, but we all believe that following your chosen path closely will lead you to purity in the next life. The interplay of the four paths is important too, so it is necessary to have a follower of each of the Ways when making a decision.”

  “Wait, that sounds familiar,” said Calvin. “Isn’t that like the Buddhist or Hindu philosophy on life?”

  Arges nodded. “It is very much like the Hindu philosophy,” he agreed, “and I am afraid that we are somewhat to blame for that. When we first came to your planet, we found that you had already been invaded by another alien species near the area of your Himalayan Mountains. We were forced to interact with some of the local tribesmen in order to eradicate the Rakshasa infestation; during that period, some of our beliefs were adopted by the indigenous tribes of the area. These beliefs spread, ultimately becoming what you refer to as Hinduism. Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism, and several smaller religions are all descended from this.”

  “So, you’re telling me that you started Hinduism?” asked Calvin in disbelief.

  “No,” said Arges, “we didn’t start anything. Unfortunately, some of the local tribesman came to understand enough of our ways that they adopted them as their own. It wasn’t wise to interact with them, but I was convinced by Parvati at the time that it was the right thing to do. Steropes and his wife were the two warriors of our group; Brontes and I are quite pacifist in nature. When dealing with issues of policy, it is traditional that three of us must agree. That way, our decisions are not swayed to either extreme. When we lost Parvati, our decision making process became flawed. We are too focused now on trying to find a peaceful, non-violent approach to matters. We realize this, but we cannot be other than who we were born to be. Without a fourth, our decisions are flawed.”

  Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Tacoma, WA, December 5, 2018

  “That is why the Psiclopes have said that their decisions are flawed, and why they do things the way that they do,” said Calvin. He had asked his two XOs and his two senior enlisted leaders to come to his office to pass on what he had learned about the Psiclopes. “They don’t want us to say anything about their influence on Hinduism, as they kind of screwed up on that.”

  “So basically, they have their own version of the ‘Prime Directive?’” asked Bullseye.

  Top looked confused. “What is the Prime Directive?” he inquired.

  “The Prime Directive is a concept that is common throughout a lot of the science fiction TV shows and movies,” replied Bullseye. “It forbids space-traveling races from interfering with developing civilizations. Until a society develops space travel on its own, the societies that already have it have to stay ‘hands off’ of them.”

  “To answer your original question,” said Calvin, “yes, they have their own version of the Prime Directive. And yeah, they ended up violating it.”

  “No kidding,” commented Top. “Hmmm...It would seem to me that the Indian member of my squad, Rajesh Patel, might be able to use that to get closer to the Psiclopes. Maybe he can learn something more about them. He is a Hindu and would probably have at least a little more in common with them than the rest of us. We wouldn’t have to tell him that the Psiclopes started Hinduism, just that they seem to have beliefs that are similar in nature to his.”

  “Good idea,” said Calvin. “I’m sure the philosophies have diverged a little in the intervening millennia, but they should at least share a common perspective.”

  “Sir, we really need to limit how much time you spend with Arges,” said Ryan. “You’re starting to sound like him with your ‘intervening millennia’ and ‘common perspectives.’”

  TSS Vella Gulf, ‘Dark Side’ of the Moon, December 12, 2018

  Captain James Deutch, formerly the commanding officer of the United States’ cruiser USS Vella Gulf, walked onto the bridge of his new command, the spaceship TSS Vella Gulf. He stopped to look at the picture of the last Eldive commanding officer that still hung on the back wall. The previous commanding officer looked vaguely like an archaeopteryx, the first bird on Earth, and had three-fingered ‘hands’ on the leading edges of his wings. The previous commander had a proud look, similar to an eagle, and Deutch wondered if they had all looked that way. He would never know, as the race had decided to commit suicide at the end of the last Drakul war. It was Deutch’s duty to see that this mission came off flawlessly, so that same sacrifice wouldn’t be required of humanity.

  No pressure there. Much.

  He had set
the screens to show the lunar landscape around the ship and watched as two of the Vipers launched on a training mission. Although the Russians, and the Soviets before them, had developed cruiser-class ships that carried aircraft, his ship was the first U.S. cruiser to carry more than a couple of aircraft. While the ship’s name proclaimed it to be Terran, in his heart it was still a U.S. ship, at least for the first time out. There may be foreign nationals in its squadron and platoon, but the crew of the TSS Vella Gulf was all American, and he was proud of them. Almost all of his men and women had received their implants, and most of them were studiously going over the new TSS Vella Gulf’s systems back in Norfolk onboard the USS Vella Gulf. On a rotating basis, some of the sailors still continued to do the ‘normal’ things topside, like scraping and painting, to give the impression that the ship was still preparing to go on cruise. In just three more weeks, though, they would be working on the TSS Vella Gulf full time. His sailors would come to work as normal, but would then shuttle up to the ship from a secluded place on base like Deutch and the Viper pilots had just done. A few of his crewmembers would stay in Norfolk, so that it would still look like the ship was manned, but most of the crew would be spending their days on the moon.

  He laughed to himself, remembering a day in early 2013 when the head of NASA had said that America wouldn’t be returning to the moon within their lifetimes. And yet, here Deutch stood, on the moon. It wasn’t as if the view was so great, as it was only dust and craters (including the really impressive crater that the platoon had made on the horizon), but he was on the friggin’ moon!

  Solomon spoke, startling him. “I don’t mean to intrude, but is there something I can help you with?”