A Scare for Command:
Twenty minutes after the X5s had been sent out after the convict, I was
walking down one of the outer hallways, heading away from Sector 7. I heard
the bark of a TAC leader.
"Stand aside!" In laymen's terms, that meant 'move now or you will be marched
over flat as a pancake!' The closest safe spot was one of the huge old
windowsills. With some difficulty, I hoisted myself up to sit while they
passed.
What I witnessed will be etched into my memory forever. I cannot even begin
to describe the horror one feels when you see eight- and nine-year-old kids
marching past with blood around their mouths, on their hands, and covering
their clothes. It is even harder to describe the savage, killer-instinct,
almost joyful gleam that rested in the eyes of those X5s.
I sat in that windowsill for a while, even after the last X5 had disappeared
into the Psych Unit. For the second time in their lives, the X5s would spend
the rest of the day in Psych -- going through who knows what..
A sudden burst of activity snapped me out of my shock. Nurses and technicians
were bringing water basins, towels, and clean government-issued gowns to the
kids. You could hear Lydecker's voice the moment he stepped onto that floor
-- yelling orders and causing the general frenzied activity that he amazingly
kept control over. This electric atmosphere reminded me of back when the X2s
had imploded. 'God, I hope that doesn't happen to this group,' I thought as I
slipped carefully out of the window to find Lydecker.
"They killed him, didn't they, sir?" I asked, just to confirm.
"They didn't just kill him, Jones, they ripped him apart." He growled the low
reply and marched off. Those kids had even scared Lydecker that day. It hit
me then, square in the forehead, that the real mission of Manticore -- which I
had been avoiding 'till now -- was not to make an advanced soldier, it was to
breed killing machines. A human form to which killing was a natural as
breathing.
As it turned out, the X5s were not reprimanded for killing the convict. After
all, how can you punish a behavior that is second nature? For not following
orders and bringing him back alive, yes, they were reprimanded, but not for
killing him. Those kids had been analyzed and tested in the Psych Unit for two
whole days -- checking to make sure that none of them had the psychosis of the
X2s. What a nightmare that would've been . . .
Twenty minutes after the X5s had been sent out after the convict, I was
walking down one of the outer hallways, heading away from Sector 7. I heard
the bark of a TAC leader.
"Stand aside!" In laymen's terms, that meant 'move now or you will be marched
over flat as a pancake!' The closest safe spot was one of the huge old
windowsills. With some difficulty, I hoisted myself up to sit while they
passed.
What I witnessed will be etched into my memory forever. I cannot even begin
to describe the horror one feels when you see eight- and nine-year-old kids
marching past with blood around their mouths, on their hands, and covering
their clothes. It is even harder to describe the savage, killer-instinct,
almost joyful gleam that rested in the eyes of those X5s.
I sat in that windowsill for a while, even after the last X5 had disappeared
into the Psych Unit. For the second time in their lives, the X5s would spend
the rest of the day in Psych -- going through who knows what..
A sudden burst of activity snapped me out of my shock. Nurses and technicians
were bringing water basins, towels, and clean government-issued gowns to the
kids. You could hear Lydecker's voice the moment he stepped onto that floor
-- yelling orders and causing the general frenzied activity that he amazingly
kept control over. This electric atmosphere reminded me of back when the X2s
had imploded. 'God, I hope that doesn't happen to this group,' I thought as I
slipped carefully out of the window to find Lydecker.
"They killed him, didn't they, sir?" I asked, just to confirm.
"They didn't just kill him, Jones, they ripped him apart." He growled the low
reply and marched off. Those kids had even scared Lydecker that day. It hit
me then, square in the forehead, that the real mission of Manticore -- which I
had been avoiding 'till now -- was not to make an advanced soldier, it was to
breed killing machines. A human form to which killing was a natural as
breathing.
As it turned out, the X5s were not reprimanded for killing the convict. After
all, how can you punish a behavior that is second nature? For not following
orders and bringing him back alive, yes, they were reprimanded, but not for
killing him. Those kids had been analyzed and tested in the Psych Unit for two
whole days -- checking to make sure that none of them had the psychosis of the
X2s. What a nightmare that would've been . . .