A Long Way From Paradise
by Invisible Ranger (HBF), 2014
Disclaimer/Author's Notes: Elysium and related characters belong to N. Blomkamp/Sony. For the jazz and not for profit. Thanks to MauMauKa and leave your sanity for their collaboration and some great ideas on this one.
"Has anyone seen Lorelei?"
Blank stares. Secretary Delacourt sighed. Mankind could build a sustainable paradise in space, colonize Mars, and eradicate cancer, but apparently keeping tabs on a five-year-old girl was impossible.
"Who, Madame?" asked one of the defense council members.
"My niece," Delacourt said impatiently. "It was her birthday today, and no one seems to know where she's gone. My sister just messaged me in a panic. Do you think you could at least dispatch a security unit to look?" she asked the man to her left.
"Well, Madame, why don't you simply call her tracker up on the screen?" he suggested.
"She is my niece," said Delacourt haughtily, "and besides, she's only five. She doesn't have one yet; just her regular citizenship implant."
"I'll have a droid squad sent over to your sister's at once, Madame. We're a bit shorthanded today since we're running the tests on the shields, but I'm sure we can manage. Maybe she's just playing hide-and-seek? There was the time she got into the water purification system, don't you remember?"
Delacourt sighed again. She remembered, all right. "Fine. Just do it at once." She sipped at her water, collected herself. It wouldn't do for the council to see her get flustered. "Now, about the shield test. There will be a twenty-four hour window which will be rather tight…"
~~~s~~~
"I got a case of beer says 'e takes out at least two dozen today, boet."
"You're on."
Crowe and Drake were getting bored. The boss had been gone for about an hour. There was nothing good to drink up here, nothing to eat but frou-frou stuff, and they weren't allowed to mess with the local women. Last time they had, they'd been officially reprimanded by the CCB. More importantly, Kruger had threatened to cut off their balls.
"Where d'you think he's off to? We better hurry and get out before they test this shield, eh? Might get stuck here otherwise," said Drake, checking his weapon yet again. Still ready to go.
"No telling. Better not to ask questions with the boss," Crowe grumbled. "We wait."
The Raven hovered on one of the landing pads outside Elysium's armament factory. A trip up to the torus was normally a rare treat. Fresh air, pretty scenery, no one shooting at them. This time it was just a pain in the ass. They'd been woken up in the middle of the night at their apartments on Earth, told to get dressed and armed, and flown up without an idea as to what their mission was. They both knew anyway.
Any time it was a last-second situation, it meant a search and destroy. And it was usually personal. One of the CCB higher-ups on Elysium wanted someone, or more than one someone, dead. Kruger lived for stuff like that. He was currently inside the factory, getting fitted out for whatever he was being sent to do.
"I bet it's New Biafra. You know, all them insurgents?" Crowe suggested. "Poor bastards won't stand a chance once the boss gets down there."
"Dunno," Drake said absently. He'd started to get an itchy trigger finger but knew it was pointless to shoot at anything up here. "You figure the ice princess is behind this one? Or Patel, or someone else?" It didn't really matter who it was who'd ordered the mission. They got paid to follow orders, not think. That was Kruger's strong suit.
"Oi, look sharp. Here he comes," Crowe hissed.
Kruger exited the factory. He had been armed with one of the newer exo-suits, which had been drilled right into his body. To an outsider, it might have looked clumsy and heavy, but in reality it was light and maneuverable, constructed from titanium alloys. It would give him strength and speed beyond any normal human capacity. His weapons were strapped in place and he wore his favorite katana on his back. He was, uncharacteristically, smiling from ear to ear.
"We're going on a hunt, boys. Let's go play!" Kruger announced.
It didn't take them long at all. In a matter of minutes Crowe had fired up the Raven's engines and they were streaking out of Elysium's airspace, through the gap in the shield, and toward the glowing Earth below.
~~~s~~~
"I'm sorry, Madame Secretary. No sign of her," the squad leader said through the comlink.
Six droids and more than a few people had spent the last hour searching everywhere possible for Lorelei. Helene's Versailles-like house, where the party had been held, the neighboring homes, even the lake adjacent to the golf course. If Lorelei was still on Elysium, she was somewhere far away from home, and well hidden.
"Check the gardens. The zoo. I mean everywhere," Delacourt ordered. Normally this would have been something she left to her sister. But Helene was increasingly fragile and scatterbrained. She was normally too busy watching holo-dramas or getting a high from one of a number of synth drugs to care for herself, much less her daughter. Even if she wanted for nothing, she was depressed, unpredictable, and moody. She was the kind of person who gave Elysium a bad name.
The med-bays can cure anything, it seems, except diseases of the mind.
As for Lorelei, her aunt had already taken a personal interest in the girl. All children on Elysium were bright, but this one was exceptionally so, even if she was a mischievous prankster moreso than a proper lady. Lorelei had been sent to the finest school money could buy. She was trilingual and played the violin. And she was even a beautiful child, with corn-silk blonde hair and enchanting blue eyes. So why did she have to be such a handful? The girl had accidentally caused a Code 3 emergency the previous year just by sneaking into the command center. But she was one of Delacourt's only living relatives. That alone made her worth protecting.
"As soon as you find her, let me know. Now, back to the matter at hand. We'll be commencing the Aegis test in fifteen minutes. This will mean no entry in and out of our airspace for the time being, and communications may be somewhat limited. We're not entirely sure. Nevertheless, we will begin the countdown on my mark…"
~~~s~~~
"You hear something, okes?" Drake asked.
"Just your imagination. I don't hear anything," Crowe mumbled, keeping their trajectory straight. The instruments were green across the board, there was no space junk in sight, and no bogies like they got once in a while shuttling back and forth. Usually a flight to or from the Grootwiel was a routine one which took about twenty minutes. For the last five or so, since they'd taken off, there had been a strange sound in the cockpit, like a puppy or kitten whimpering.
Kruger noticed it, too, though he'd been deep in thought about the mission. Finally, he was just curious enough to get distracted. The noise was coming from one of the storage compartments. He decided he'd had enough of it. Silently he drew his katana.
"Boss, we're about to hit the rough patch," warned Crowe from the pilot's seat.
Ignoring him, Kruger lifted the metal lid as if it weighed nothing. Inside was the last thing he would have expected. Not a puppy or a kitten or even one of those damn gen-engineered pet monkeys that lived in the trees now. Instead, he found himself holding the blade inches away from the throat of a small girl, who yawned and looked up at him with wide, guileless eyes.
"Are you a vagrant?" she asked. Not the least bit afraid, just drowsy, like she'd been napping.
Kruger stared down at her. The accent was posh, and so were the tailored sailor-suit school blouse and skirt. This was clearly an Elysium child, but where had she come from? How'd she gotten aboard? "What've we got here, eh?" He kept the katana steady, but pulled back a few inches in spite of himself.
"You talk funny." The girl giggled. "You have to be a vagrant. Tante Jessica says all vagrants talk funny."
The Raven shook suddenly. They were now going through the hottest part of the atmosphere, which was always a rough ride. Kruger stayed where he was…it was too late to strap in now…and simply hung on to one of the straps. The girl laughed wildly, like she was at a fun fair.
"This is so much fun!" she shrieked.
A moment later, when they'd come through the worst of it and the ship leveled out, two things occurred to Kruger. If this girl, with her porcelain looks, had an Aunt Jessica, she was probably Secretary Delacourt's niece. He vaguely recalled seeing her from afar once. And if the girl thought re-entry was fun, it meant she'd never been away from home before. Earth was no place for her…especially where they were headed.
"Boss, what the fuck we gonna do with that, eh?" Drake pointed out. "We got orders. We don't have time for a little bakvissie like this."
"We turn around and take her the fuck back, I say," Crowe agreed, though he wasn't even sure they could with the shield up.
Kruger thought about this. To go back, he'd have to discreetly page the Defense Secretary on her emergency channel, which he'd been explicitly warned never to do except, well, for an emergency. It also meant blowing cover on what was supposed to be strictly a black op. He looked at the girl, then to Crowe and Drake. There was only one thing to be done.
"Patch me into that emergency channel, Drakey. It's Sierra-Juliet-four-two-niner…"
~~~s~~~
Delacourt had made a lame excuse to get out in the corridor alone. The comlink had been vibrating steadily for five minutes. She activated it and spoke softly. "Why are you calling me here?" she hissed.
There was only static and the sounds of a distant voice. When she tried to amplify it, nothing happened.
Damn this shield test. We're going to be in the dark, comm wise, for the next day.
She tried once more, and…
~~~s~~~
"…nothing. I'm not picking up kak, boss," Drake admitted after adjusting and re-adjusting the Raven's control panel. "Must be those defense tests, eh?"
"So why don't we just fly back? No harm done," said Crowe.
Kruger had been pacing back and forth like a big cat, the girl following behind him, mocking his body language. "Because," he growled, "the fucking shield is still up. No one's getting through that until they take it down, when the test is over. We can't just go back anyway without blowing cover. I'm sick of you both and your stupid ideas and…" He stopped. The girl, who was barely as tall as his midsection, had been gently tugging at a piece of his armor.
"What?" Kruger snapped. "What is it now, eh?"
"I have to go," the girl said.
Crowe and Drake exchanged a nervous look.
"And just where the fuck do you want to go?" Kruger shot back. The Raven was descending rapidly now, the curved horizon becoming straighter by the second. Then he noticed the girl's hands. They were between her legs and she was weaving back and forth. Even he knew what that meant.
"Drakey, take care of this meisie, right?" he snapped.
Drake looked confused. "Take care of her how, boss?"
"Look, unless you want her to piss all over this fucking ship, get something."
"Oh. Right." The gunner fumbled in one of the lockers for a moment and came out with a handful of dirty rags, which he threw at Lorelei's feet.
The girl stared up at him. "What am I supposed to do with these?"
Drake crouched down and handed the rags to her. "Change your nappie. Ain't that right? You need a change?"
"I'm five, not a baby. I'm trained already," she said, hopping up and down now. "But I really have to go."
"Idiot. Why do I have to fucking do everything?" Kruger snarled, pushing Drake out of the way. He spent a moment looking in the same locker, then pulled out a plastic bucket which had seen much better days. It was stained and smelled vaguely of stale beer, which made sense, being that he'd used it many times to vomit when nothing else was available. "'Ere you go. Piss all you want."
She wrinkled her nose. "Eew. I can't go in there. It's gross. Don't you have a proper toilet like on Tante Jessica's shuttle?"
Kruger glared. "This isn't the torus. Either you piss out the door like we do, meisie, or use that. But you're not making a fucking mess in my ship."
"Do I have to?" Lorelei whined.
Three Minutes Later…
"Turn around! TURN AROUND!"
"Honestly, boss, I thought she was done…"
"So did I. She stopped and all…"
Lorelei hadn't been able to hold it anymore. Since she'd never learned how to go standing up, she'd given up and squatted over the bucket. She had, however, insisted that all three of the men turn around and give her some privacy.
"That's so gross. There's not even any tissue. I'm telling Tante about you three when I get back home," she said, pulling up her skirt. She sounded just like a younger version of the Defense Secretary. "Where are we going, anyway?"
Now that she was finally done, Kruger had taken the seat next to her. He had to admit, she was sort of cute, even if in that bland, generic way all the kids from Elysium were. In fifteen years or so she might just be his type. On the other hand, she was spoiled and talked down to him like all the Elysians did. But she was also a precious commodity. She belonged to Delacourt…and if he played his hand right, there might just be some profit to be made from all this. Profit meant better weapons, better meat, and better beer.
That was worth putting up with a spoiled little nuisance like her for a few hours.
"Almost there, boss. Almost home," Crowe called from the pilot's seat. They were coming up fast on the southern coast of Africa over the Indian Ocean. "This one's for old times' sake, eh?"
"Ja, this one's gonna be fun," Drake said, shouldering his gun.
The Raven was in its final descent, which meant before long they'd be in a live fire zone. There was still the little problem of what to do with a girl while they were off hunting, but Kruger had been thinking of that. He'd find a way. He always did. Worst case, they simply left her locked aboard the ship. But before that, he was going to need to make her understand certain things.
"You know where we're going?" he asked, looking down at her.
"I bet it's the Fairy Kingdom. I always wanted to go there," she said, her blue eyes dreamy. "I hope I get my own unicorn."
Kruger blinked. This one had been sheltered all her life, but she was still innocent, which he could barely remember being. She had absolutely no idea. So, he decided to play along for the time being. Let her get a bit shell-shocked, and then see how much she wanted to tell her aunt.
"That's right. See that?" Kruger pointed to the white oryx logo painted on Drake's body armor. "Unicorns. Fuck me, that's good, Drakey." He laughed harshly.
His point man was taken aback, but picked up quickly. "Oh. Right. Unicorns that eat rainbows and shit gold, eh, boss?"
The ship was still descending. "Transvaal state war, boys. Get ready to come in hot," Crowe said, activating the landing sequence and arming the guns. "Not sure what we're getting into, so be prepared."
"Crowe's got that one right, meisie. The fairies don't always play nice, so you just stick with 'Uncle Kruger' and he'll take good care of you." He'll also be swimming in good food and good weapons come tomorrow.
"And then do I get a unicorn? If I'm real good?"
The first sounds of gunfire could be heard in the distance. This was definitely more hot than cold. "If you're good and you do everything I say, and stay out of trouble, you can have a fucking unicorn or whatever you want."
Lorelei did the very last thing he would have expected. She tried to hug his midsection around his exo-suit. "You're so nice. For a vagrant without a real toilet, you're okay."
Kruger winced. These Elysium kids sure were strange.
To Be Continued…