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Chapter Two
Somewhere on planet 2063-Yankee
Darkness .... darkness all around me and the pain, the pain is unbearable. Pain soaring through every vein and fibre of my body.
Where am I? I can't see ... The pain ... it's tearing me apart. I can't see, I can't breathe ...
Where am I? WHO am I? Can't think, can't remember ... Sleep ... I want to sleep. I grope around in the darkness and all I can feel with my hands is cold metal. I can feel some nooks and crannies beneath my fingertips and I know that these are steel-plated boards.
I'm so cold and I want to sleep, but I can't. I have to know what happened. Deep down I know that I wasn't alone ...
The Elroy-L model watched as the dark figure slumped back against the wall of the small cell and he grinned.
It always made his CPU skip a beat so to speak, when he saw humans like that. But this little human wasn't much fun as the other four. The others were stronger and tried to resist him during interrogation, accelerating his processors every time they screamed the hell out of themselves.
But this one didn't even know what IT was. He had taunted the officer, telling outrageous tales about cruel humans who wanted to have this officer' head served on a platter. For all that dumb eggbrain knew or thought to know he could easily persuade it to believe it was a Chig!
The AI sighed dramatically and turned. Yesterday one of the Chigs even barged into one of his little games and ended it abruptly. Those Chigs! They were afraid of humans and yet thought them a formidable adversary. He had been considering to 'take a chance' when the Chiggy officer had demanded that he would end the brutal interrogation but he had re-considered. It wouldn't do him, Elroy-L, any good to pick a fight with a Chig. NOT YET! He thought and strolled along the corridor to the interrogation room.
When he entered Felicity-OHL bent over another human, slowly inserting a syringe into the man's stomach. Elroy smirked, he knew that 'Sewel-fuel' hurt like hell in the man's intestines.
"OHMYGOD!" the scream echoed through the empty corridors. The young pilot forced his legs upward in a protective motion but his legs only strained against the metal clasps which bound him to the stretcher.
"Oh, honey, did that hurt you?" Felicity asked in a cooing tone, caressing the man's brow.
"I don't want to hurt you, Captain Patterson. Just give me the information I require ..."
The man on the stretcher forced his eyes to open and stared at the silicate.
"I don't know what you're talking about," he hissed and stifled another scream as the liquid raged through his guts. Felicity grabbed him hard by his throat.
"Tell me, honey. Tell me what you we're doing on Anvil?"
There was a momentary silence before Patterson opened his mouth.
"Patterson, Geoffrey. Captain of the 35th Airborne Wing of the USAF. Tag number 905-334-21 ..." he murmured as he passed out.
The silicate backhanded him across the face but the young pilot did not wake up again.
"Relax, Fel-babe," Elroy had come over to her and caught her wrist. "You know how delicate those Carbonites are ..."
Felicity-OHL turned and smirked at him.
"You had any luck?" she asked but Elroy shook his head. The crosses of his eyes deleting somewhat by a trick of the light.
"A Chig barged in before the fun was really starting ..."
He went back to the other interrogation room where the Justin EB-unit had put another of his little 'play-things' onto the stretcher.
No fun anymore, Elroy thought as he stepped over to the still figure lying on the stretcher. With a sigh he unscrewed the cap of his index-finger and the processors underneath it gave off a static sound as the isolation was removed from them.
"I don't want to hurt you, Marine. It's so much easier if you just ... talk. Why don't you tell me what you were doing here?" he whispered as the officer opened the eyes.
"What ... ?" a faint voice inquired, barely audible and just barely human.
"Why do you resist? Just tell me what I want to know and you're free. Free to leave this camp ..." Elroy coaxed.
I can't stand this any longer. I just ... CAN'T. Why are they doing this? WHY? Anvil ... Planet 2063-Yankee ... Why was this important? Why?
Semper Fi, my friend ... Nathan ...? Why is this name important to me? Why do I dream about a planet, shrouded in fog? A voice ... a face ... NO ... two faces ...
"Coop ...?" the pilot whispered.
"Yes, tell me what happened to Coop? Was he the one who left you abandoned on this planet? Tell me. You don't owe him anything ... He has left you ..."
Why do I have to think about baseball? It's important I have to remember!! But I can't. I CAN'T!!! The pain ... the smell of burning flesh ... MY FLESH ... I don't feel anything.
I can't ... feel ... anything ...
"C'mon, you don't need to go through all this again, Marine," Elroy whispered into the officer's ear. "Tell me what you did tell the Chig in the cave? Then you'll be free and we will give you everything you want ..." He edged the electrical surge closer into the flesh.
NO!!! STOP THOSE SCREAMS!!! MAKE THEM STOP!!! I can't stand it anymore, just make them stop! OHMYGOD, it's ME! I'm screaming ...
Elroy let go of the pilot's arm which fell back against the metal railing.
It was no good. The pilot was too far away for him now to give him any information. A Chig stepped forward and got the pilot out of the interrogation-room, Elroy watched in disgust and turned his back, replacing the cap onto his finger again.
HMS Wellington, Groombridge Sector
The call had just come in after the debriefing had finished. Squadron Leader Megan Louise Chambers wearily trotted off to Air-Commodore Coulthard's office, leaving her squadron to their well-deserved showers. For a moment Meg hesitated in front of the Commodore's hatch then she knocked on the door.
"Who's at my door?" a loud voice inquired from the inside and Megan cleared her throat.
"Sir, Sqdr. Ldr. Chambers, Sir," she answered tiredly and she was surprised that the door opened so quickly.
"Come in, Sqdr. Ldr., and have a seat!" Coulthard demanded after he had dismissed her salute with a wave of his hand. Meg sat down in front of his desk and looked at her CO expectantly.
"Chambers, is it true you have been on constant duty for what ... ten months now?" he asked her and Megan moved uneasily in her chair.
"Yes, Sir. I was due to go on liberty just before Ixion but with Roundhammer under way it never happened, Sir!" Meg replied and caught herself short before yawning in font of her CO.
"Well, with the help of those Marines we don't have to worry about that anymore, do we?" Coulthard replied sarcastically and opened a folder. "You have been granted about nine weeks leave, Chambers. Someone must have finally realised that you have at least three months leave on your record and with the VC and your promotion they thought it would be a nice gesture ..."
Megan was surprised by this. Nine weeks? Lord, what would she do with it?
"Well, you really surprise me with your silence. At least I'd had expected that you would be overcome with joy ..."
"I am, Sir. It's just that I didn't expect it, that's all. Nine weeks? I've never been grounded for so long except after the battle in the Procyon Sector, " the young woman gnawed at her lower lip and wearily rubbed her temples. "Sir, with all due respect may I speak candidly?" she inquired and when the Commodore nodded, she commenced: "Sir, do you have anything to do with it? I know you weren't satisfied with my performance lately but that was due to the constant battle stress ..."
"Meg, you sound as if I have grounded you for the rest of your life," Coulthard said and shook his head. "And no, to speak candidly, I was very happy with your performance. Given the chance I would order you to split up the leave and take two days at a time over the next couple of years but this is an order from top brass! All you can do is relax, enjoy your ride home and do whatever young girls like you do when they are on leave ..." he smiled at that. It would be nice to see Chambers in a dress for a change.
"Sir, you're serious, aren't you?" Megan asked and she looked as if she was to be taken to the brigs indefinitely.
"Yes, Squadron Leader! Firth will stand in as the honcho of your pack that will keep his mind off from thinking up new stupid jokes in the tavern."
Megan grimaced, then nodded slowly. The last time her second in command had free time on his hands he had 'redecorated' the ship's tavern with tissue paper. Her squad had needed two days to clean up the mess so to speak.
"Well, I've taken the liberty to board a seat on the HMS Canterbury for you. She is a fast vessel and is due to reach Earth in ten days ..." Coulthard eyed the woman closely when she groaned. "Yes, Chambers. An all-Navy ship! No Spitties or Skyhawks anywhere ..."
After Megan had been dismissed she slowly walked back to her quarters. Coulthard had given her a small envelope before she had walked out of his office and now she stared at it, uncertain what to do.
With a sigh she opened it and as she started reading, all colour drained from her face. The message was clear, even to her exhausted and confused state of mind: the 'Cards have lost Joker, Queen and Ace, they are MIA ... McQueen needs your help. Megan swallowed and read the message again. That had been the reason why she had been given liberty. Quickly, Megan stashed the letter in one of the pockets of her flightsuit and walked back to her quarters with a determined step. If her father thought it was important to have her on Earth than he and McQueen were planning something.
Earth
Tyrus Cassius McQueen looked in disgust at the artificial leg that had replaced his own. Ever since they had told him that an AI leg would be the only chance to bring him back to the Saratoga as a serving officer again, he had had mixed feelings. As much as he wanted to be able to get back to the 'Toga, he hated this THING! When he had first come out of ER after that fateful peace talk, the only thing he could think of was dying. How could he live when three of his kids were missing and supposedly dead? But when he returned to Earth, his friend Ray Chambers had taken care of him, yelling at him that he had no reason to feel pity for himself, that he was behaving like all those other stupid sulking tanks. In fact, giving him a brushing down like he was some kind of schoolchild. It had made him so angry at first but soon it had dawned on him why Chambers had done it and he had been grateful. He had given his ok. to the surgery and as the physiotherapy had started he cursed his friend over and over again. But Chambers had laughed at that, even teasing him more.
This morning Chambers had informed him that his daughter Megan was on her way back to Earth and if he kept behaving like a dweeb she would give him a brushing down even Chambers wouldn't have the courage to dare. McQueen had smiled at that. His friend couldn't know that she had done the very thing not a long while ago, when she had been under his command. He knew what Megan Chambers was capable of, even going AWOL to look for missing Marines. Something she had done in the past, something he was about to ask her in a few days time when she arrived here.
The Colonel inhaled deeply and watched a bee as it flew from one flower to the other. Chambers had put him into his family's summer house in Maine where he had spent innumerous R&Rs with his friend's family.
Beside the Corps this house had been a home for him. He stood up from the wicker chair and went to the end of the porch and into the garden. The leg still felt strange but it reacted just like his old one as he strolled the overgrown garden.
Even better,he thought with a smirk on his face.
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