Six Months in the Life of a Sergeant
Chapter One
"They're healing nicely, Sergeant," the doctor said. "Won't have so much as a shiny spot in a few more days."
Helen Geary pulled on her tunic. "Thanks. Can I go back to work?"
"Bored?"
"Loafing around while my lord works makes me feel inadequate."
"There's no danger of distorting the graft matrix, now. Just don't get into a fight again too soon."
"That's never on the agenda." Back to work. Back to her lord.
***** ***** *****
A tiny smile crooked Berg Katse's mouth as she sailed into their quarters. He'd missed her presence at his side. The Aegean base was now as safe as Cross Karakoram, but he had felt her absence. "Now that you've finished goofing off, Sergeant, get back to work."
"And it's great to be back, sir." She took the handheld from him.
"We have a great deal of information, yet I still can't deduce why those fools tried to kill me. I never met either one until that day."
She shook her head. "Was it really only a week ago? Big difference between Galactor and the rest of the world: we have all this in a week." Two flash drives of data filled the device. "You know, it might turn out to be some stupid personal reason that never made it into a report. They're still not talking?"
"Only insults. Time for chemical persuasion."
"That still might not work. I had a cousin who had surgery. While was still groggy, he apologized to his wife for cheating on her. He was eleven. Too many movies."
"We have better drugs than anesthetics and sedatives. The proper mix could get a straight answer out of me."
"I doubt that." She resumed reading.
His eyes narrowed. At the phrase 'chemical persuasion', she'd reacted unconsciously, and perhaps never noticed.
What had happened during their years apart? She had a child, a daughter, which she gave over when she joined Galactor. No father listed. No attempts to find or see the child.
I'll not ask. If she wants to tell me, she will.
"Won't have to play with mixing and matching if we ask the proper questions during the first interviews," she said.
"Do you see anything?" He'd been looking at the damn reports so much that nothing new registered.
"Not yet. Why did you order the Tritan base captain to isolate and question Fish-face's fellow clones? Says here that D'Arman and his followers forged the orders to transfer him. They wouldn't know anything."
"That creature is part of the clone-stock of that trainee I killed."
An incredulous snort. "Are you joking, sir?"
"It's true."
"That is so --- fictional --- it's ridiculous. It's the sort of thing someone writes. You tell me about a man you killed in training, and barely a day or two later, you kill his clone. You killed his brother, so he wanted revenge? How would he know?"
"It's not a secret. It's in my file. Anyone can find it out."
"If they knew to look. An experimental subject was a leadership trainee?"
"We don't know what shape Earth will be in when we take over. Part of our work is to produce the new generation that will survive and carry on." We could end up fitted out with prosthetics and artificial organs. He wasn't certain he wanted that, even for the fools. "They, and other variations, are fully sentient and self-aware." And supposedly loyal to Galactor, including Leader X and himself.
"He was hung like a porn star."
"That was not planned."
"The human genitals, or their size?"
"The size."
"The Deep Ones as porn stars," she muttered.
She reads Lovecraft? "Not part of the plan, either."
"I bet. Ah. D'Arman was at Tritan. Maybe he and the finned wonder were involved." She winced. "Oh, I should not have thought that."
"He should die just for what I'm imagining."
"Back on topic back on topic." She headed back to her train of thought. "The new versions of homo sapiens are sentient. And the one you had to kill impressed everyone with his leadership abilities. He may have decided to whittle down the competition."
"I think that was his main motive. He was also the least human in the class, although none of us knew it." He also learned I was female that day. What is it about human(oid) males?
"How could you not? He had scales and that head --- Oh. That's why Galactor captains wear costumes. It's not just for disguise. There are other experiments out there."
"Think I'd have these, otherwise?" He tapped the 'ears' on his mask. "You may be onto something."
"On to what?"
"The other clones would have known that he was in training. One of their own, born in a laboratory, was on his way up."
"His success was their success. They were, through him, the equals of humans. Then you broke his nose and killed him. Another cull, another proof that they were human property." The sad world of the marginalized, whether human or otherwise.
"And D'Arman, with his own reasons to dislike me, found a clone who wanted revenge." The various experimental beings were not always kept locked away. A casual 'The boss is an asshole' conversation could have ended with the two finding something in common. "What did those fools think would happen, if they succeeded?"
Geary shrugged. "Maybe they didn't have time to plan that far ahead. We did surprise them. They had the opportunity, and they took it. Or perhaps they wanted revenge so badly they didn't think past killing you."
How lucky was I? The fact that Geary regarded him as Lord of Galactor, not her childhood friend, had saved her life on the way to this base. Without her, he would have had only Private Eminescu (young and unskilled) to protect him. I could be dead, now. Dead, or their prisoner.
He looked back at the reports. "One piece of information can lead to others. I don't know D'Arman, but did I know someone else that he might have known? Another command trainee, perhaps?"
"Or someone he came to know? It's only been a few years since you were put in charge. The ones who didn't make it are still upset, I'm sure. This could be in the name of someone close enough for him to be angry on their account, but not so close the name is in here."
"Even if it were, it might not be the same one used during training. After Leader X chose me, some of them changed their aliases. They were able leaders, and were assigned to lesser positions. They felt their subordinates would not have confidence in them if word got out." Most of his classmates had been pleased at his elevation. Besides it taking the heat off them, several had also thought him the one who should lead Galactor for Leader X.
"Those aliases are classified?"
"Yes." He called Chidambaram. "Ranjit? Investigate D'Arman and Moran's families friends, lovers, and acquaintances. I want everything, even if it was a drunken boink at an office party."
Geary continued reading. "I really hope there's a much better reason, if only because you deserve so much better for a motive."
