Chuck vs. the Unknown Soldier
Honduras, 1989
Tell me Lieutenant…Are you ready to die today?
Sometimes things go wrong, horribly wrong…
It all started with Colonel James Keller; and it would end with him as well…
Lieutenant Alexander Coburn supposed he was ready to die; to shed the chrysalis of Alex Coburn and become the kind of man Keller said he could become; an NSA agent.
But his decision didn't come without a cost. Alexander Coburn would have to die, which meant-among other things-giving up his beloved Kathleen.
I can do this, Coburn told himself. If it means I can protect my country from whatever threatens her, then whatever sacrifice I make will be worth it…
For now, Lieutenant Coburn was waiting at a specifically designated spot. It was far enough from the fighting for whatever it was Colonel Keller needed him to do without unseemly interruptions from the enemy, but close enough that enemy action could be used to account for Coburn's disappearance, and subsequent…death.
Keller had left him there with orders to stay there until he came back. Then the Colonel had disappeared into the dark night, no doubt with another mission to accomplish this night…
With nothing to do, feeling bored and edgy at the same time-a very unpleasant mix there-Coburn could only stand there, listening to the noises in the dark moonless night.
There were sounds that didn't belong; leaves rustling up ahead and to the left, and Coburn knew nothing had been planned near the spot where he was right now.
Is it the enemy, doing something unexpected?
M16 out and ready, his senses at their highest pitch, he followed the rustling noises, ears translating the rustling sound into cautious footsteps. And now, he could hear voices carrying softly over the night air…
"Now that we're all here," that was Colonel Keller's voice. "We might as well get down to business."
"Agreed," another man spoke.
Coburn had what his CO had called Snipers' Eyes; the God-given ability to see long distances, and since some of the men with Keller and this stranger were holding flashlights, it was now light enough for Coburn to make out some very important details…
The man speaking to Keller was Martin Santirez, one of the most highly wanted terrorists in the entire Latin American world; and Keller was glad-handing him like he was the Colonel's best friend.
The Colonel picked up this briefcase lying at his feet, held it out to Santirez.
"The Ring is grateful for your actions these last few months," he opened the briefcase, and Coburn's sharp eagle eyes picked out the fact that the briefcase was stuffed with stacks of crisp one hundred dollar bills.
Santirez smiled wide, teeth flashing in the fitful light from the flashlights.
"If the Ring is always this grateful," he replied. "You may count on our continued assistance."
Coburn felt as if all the air had been punched right out of his lungs. Keller was giving money to a known terrorist. Keller was committing treason…
I need to get back to my CO…
Coburn slowly began to back away, heart hammering in his chest; and it was a twig snapping underfoot-the cracking sound unnaturally sharp in the still night air-that gave his position away.
"Someone's here," Santirez hissed as they all drew weapons.
Oh…shit.
Bullets tore the air around Coburn, shredding the leaves around him, pocking the nearby rocks.
Coburn returned fire, was gratified to see two of the men go down under the hail of bullets. But, as he moved to flee, his legs folded under him as bullets shattered his right kneecap…
Gritting his teeth against the pain, he rolled over to retrieve his M16. He wasn't going to go down without a fight…
But a booted foot came down, kicking the assault rifle away; and it was Colonel Keller staring down at him impassively, handgun in his hand.
"I thought I told you to stay at Point," the older man rasped.
"I saw what you did Colonel!"
"Yes, you did…"
There was an audible click as Keller released to safety, and Coburn's breath caught.
"You could've been something," Keller finally said. "The best goddam sniper I've ever seen and you just had to do this…"
He shrugged slightly as he aimed the gun.
"A pity…" he murmured.
So, was Lieutenant Alexander Coburn ready to die today?
Not really…
The sound of a single gunshot rent the air…
Dr. Cosmo Vance was the Senior Medic in charge of the Station; and he was bone-tired. There'd been an enemy surge last night, and he and his fellow surgeons had been up to their necks in blood, bullets and shrapnel. But now, in the wee hours of the morning, the sun just beginning to make its presence known, the last of the casualties had been dealt with, and Vance could look forward to some rest.
But, just as visions of slumber were beginning to dance in his head, the PA crackled into life…
Incoming wounded arriving in five minutes…
Oh…Surgeons didn't really need sleep anyway, did they?
There was only the one casualty, an American Marine, young and hanging on to life by the merest of threads.
The shattered kneecap would require delicate reconstructive surgery back in the States, but that would have to wait. The gunshot wound to the head was a far more serious matter, and Vance just couldn't figure out how the young man had managed to stay alive with such a grievous head wound.
His dog tags had identified him as Lieutenant Alexander Coburn, Blood Type AB Negative; and the emergency surgery to remove the bullet, and relieve the swelling that brain injuries always brought, took several hours.
The operation left the Lieutenant in a coma, and it left Vance with some unsettling questions.
The bullet had been an American bullet, fired from an American gun; and at too close quarters for it to be a Friendly Fire Incident.
He had been shot by another American; and deliberately, at that.
Vance had put all his findings in his report, hoping the MPs would investigate it and find the shooter, but the investigation got stalled somehow…
Coburn, of course, knew nothing about it. He remained in that coma, one he was now never expected to awaken from; which was why he was considered an ideal subject for Project Neurostim…
Project Neurostim was a controversial medical study that had just entered the Human Trials Phase; one that was focused on the treatment of traumatic brain injury.
It involved the use of Human stem Cells, and mild doses of electricity; both to be applied to the damaged areas of the brain.
Of course, all of this was done without the knowledge or consent of the patient; or the patient's Next of Kin, who happened to be Kathleen McHugh…
Indeed, Kathleen was left in complete ignorance of her Beloved's fate until after the project had been deemed a failure.
Then, a Marine Counselor had been sent to inform her that Lieutenant Alexander Coburn had been critically wounded in Honduras.
The official diagnosis was Persistent Vegetative State due to traumatic brain injury.
Kathleen had been doubly devastated by the news.
When she first saw him in the VA Hospital, she talked to him, and touched him. But there was no response to her voice or her hands as she stroked his strong jaw line.
He wasn't dead. But he wasn't alive either…not really.
So he couldn't know about the beautiful thing he and Kathleen had created the last time they had been together.
Oh…Alex…she bent and took one of his motionless hands.
I'm pregnant. We're going to have a baby…
Alex had been an only child, and both of his parents were dead, so-among all her other responsibilities-she took on the role of Alex's Legal Guardian; and she visited him at the Long-Term Coma Care facility as often as she could.
She talked to him, read to him from some of his favorite books, sang to him, and as her pregnancy progressed, she would take his hand, and place it upon her growing womb, so he could feel the baby kick.
Then, finally, the baby was born, a little girl who had inherited her Father's good looks and his beautiful blue eyes.
So Kathleen named her little girl Alexandra.
As soon as she could, she brought the little baby to visit her Father and laid the wriggling infant gently upon the comatose man's chest, placing his motionless hands upon the infant, hoping that somewhere deep inside, there was an Alexander Coburn who could feel his daughter in his hands, and hear the little squeaks and mews she made.
There was no way to tell if anything registered with Coburn. He was breathing on his own now and his body-so magnificently strong and…beautiful-continued in living. There was a steady pulse, and his chest rose and fell regularly as he breathed.
But Alex wasn't here, and it didn't look like he would be coming back any time soon…
As it turned out, he remained in that coma until Nineteen Ninety-four, when he was kissed awake by a Fairy Princess…