"Sami?" Nell said opening the door to Sami's 'office'.
The truth was that it was simply Sami's bedroom and not an office but Sami did her best to keep it looking like one. Sami had always wanted an office but they had never been given the opportunity to add onto the base and give the higher up CO's their own office, Nell was the only one. So instead Sami kept her room extremely clean and had a desk moved in along with a filing cabinet. There was not much space in her room to begin with and with the added furniture it had become very cramped. There was only about two feet of space between her desk, which was in a corner and the wall behind it. The cabinet was about a foot away from the desk and against her bed, which spread the width across the room and was against the wall. She then had a dresser, which stood against the wall next to her bed and across from the desk. There were no windows in the room and a fan on the roof and the desk lamp at her desk gave off the only light. Sami had been wondering about when she would actually get the office she had been promised when Nell had walked in.
"Yes Ma'am?" Sami said standing up.
"You need to relax a little more Sami," Nell said with a smile. "You're the only one who ever acts like that all the time."
"Sorry." Sami said sitting back down.
"Don't worry about it. What are you working on?" Nell asked as she walked over to the desk where Sami had a stack of papers spread out.
"I was just going over the reports and the pictures some more. I would like to try and figure out what exactly to be looking for tomorrow."
"What's with the big red circle and question mark?"
"That's where the factory should be, but I can't seem to find anything that would suggest that it was ever there. Perhaps it's just the photograph though."
Nell pondered over that fact for a few seconds then returned to the reason she had come to Sami's 'office'. "Sami, do you remember the CO that was standing in my office when you came in?"
"Yeah, he looked kind of familiar. I think I might have been in the same regiment as him before."
"That's right. He's from CO Vip's regiment."
Sami cringed. CO Vip, or Whip as his men called him when he was in the army, had been one of the meanest CO's Sami had ever encountered. He was always demanding more respect than could be given. If you didn't get close to what he expected then he would put you on his notorious 'Whip death challenge' which he had some of his senior soldiers run.
It would begin after roll call with a five-mile hike. After the hike you had to run the obstacle course 5 times. If you made it through both you were then forced to run 1 mile for every word you spoke that was disrespectful, so just for saying 'But sir-' when he told you that you were going to do the challenge you had to run two miles. If you didn't finish one of the three things by twenty-four hundred hours he would have you do it all over again the next day and that thing twice. On top of all that you received a duty you had to fulfill. These ranged from the Mess duty (helping the cook and cleaning everything after each mess), to Camp duty (cleaning up all the trash around the camp that Vip seemed to have 'accidentally' dropped and packing and unpacking all of the extra equipment at every new location), to the dreaded Vip duty (getting him whatever he wanted when he wanted, doing whatever he wanted when he wanted and cleaning his boots and other equipment till they were clean enough to read the reflection of a ten font book). Which ever it was you had to do it for 2 weeks times the number of times you ran the course.
If you had been in his regiment for a month you wouldn't think this too strict. He would always boss his soldiers around and worked them till they were too tired to make it back to their tents. He had worked Sami and the other girl in his regiment the hardest. It was his philosophy that women shouldn't be involved in war and he succeeded in running some of the other girls that had been in his ranks during previous years out of the army. Sami didn't think that this was right and she voiced her opinion one night during the evening mess. It had out-raged him. Sami did manage to get the other girl a little less harsh treatment, but that was only because Vip forgot that the girl even existed and began to focus completely on running Sami out of the Army. Sami was forced to run the challenge for the next month because the amount of words she had tried to use to defend her position equaled too many miles to run the next day and the miles just began to multiply because she could never finish them. She was assigned all the duties that Vip could think up. Here days soon fell into a pattern, she would do the challenge for 2 days in a row then to a duty the next. Sami tried to keep her spirits up and got a little help from the other girl in the regiment but soon Vip had the girl transferred out of the regiment.
During one of the days of the last week of the first month Sami had been undergoing the torture assigned to her Vip asked her to run an errand for him. Turns out he had been in a bad mood the day before and had the rest of the regiment running the challenge. He couldn't ask anyone else because it would seem that he was letting someone off the hook but he could ask Sami because the truth was that she hadn't done anything in the past three weeks to be disrespectful. She had done everything she was asked to do to the letter and had been as polite as she could possible be. This was like a vacation for Sami even though she still had to do a lot of things. She had gone down to head quarters and was waiting to have some papers returned to her when Nell saw her. At this point, between all the times she spent running the challenge and the meager meals she ate, Sami wasn't exactly looking too good.
Nell was a rising CO at the time and had the respect of many of the other CO's. Sami jumped out of her seat and stood at attention when she saw Nell approaching her.
"At ease," Nell had said in a pleasant voice, something Sami had not heard in a while. Sami was thrown off a bit and stood there uneasily not sure of what to do. After a moment Nell said, "Go ahead, sit back down." Sami obeyed but didn't say anything. She new from a couple of bad experiences with Whip that if she spoke without being asked to she would regret it. "So, what's your name?"
"Private Sami, Ma'am."
Nell was a little humored by that fact that someone would still act like they were at attention when they were told to be at ease. She found out why when she asked, "What regiment are you with?"
"CO Vip's regiment, Ma'am."
Hmm,
that explains a lot. CO Vip is known for his well-behaved troops, Nell
thought to herself. Of coarse I have heard that he works them rather hard
but it looks like I underestimated just how much by the looks of this girl.
She then said aloud, "So, how does he treat you all?"
Sami weighed her choices in
her mind. She could tell this well known and respected CO that she admired the
truth: that Whip was one of the worst CO's she had ever met and that he treated
the girls in his regiment a lot worse than the boy, not that he didn't treat
the boys very badly either. Or she could tell Nell that everything was great
and that it was a little harder than she expected. If Nell did something about
it or if Whip ever found out that she told Nell then Sami could say good-bye to
those third day duties that she used to store up some energy for the next two
days of the death challenge.
"Well?" Nell pressed.
"Your not supposed to talk about your CO when he's not in the room." Sami said trying to stall for more time to make up her mind.
"You don't have to worry about anything. This is just between you and me, Ok?"
Sami wasn't sure if she could trust Nell with the secret.
Seeing that Sami was beside herself on what to say Nell decided to change the subject, "Hey, how about I take you over to the Cafeteria and grab some food for us? You look like you haven't eaten in days."
Sami knew this was another thing that Whip would dislike if he ever found out about it. "I don't think I should. CO Whip, I mean Vip wanted me to head right back with the papers and I'll probably be getting them back anytime now. I should be here when they get done them."
"Anything that gets done in here usually take at least an hour to do. We can go grab something to eat and be back here with plenty of time to spare," Nell reassured her.
"I don't know."
"Come on, the worst that could happen is that your not here when they hand them back, then all that would happen is that they would hold onto them till you get back. That's what they do for me all the time."
Sami could think of several other things that could happen but she didn't want Nell to become any more suspicious than she already was. Besides, its not every day that you get to eat with a top ranking CO Sami reasoned. "Alright, but I can't take a lot of time. CO Vip wanted me back right away."
Sami sat down at one of the back tables of the cafeteria and Nell went to get the food. Sami looked around very carefully to make sure that there was no one who would know her and be good friends with Whip. Nell came back a few minutes later with two full trays of food. Sami's eyes got as big as watermelons as Nell put one tray in front of her.
"Is that for me, Ma'am?" Sami asked and hoped that it was.
"Yes it is." Nell said with a smile.
"Thank you, Ma'am!" Sami exclaimed picking up a fork and knife.
"I wasn't sure of what you liked so I—" Nell began but was cut short as Sami dove into the food and began eating ravenously. Nell could only look on in a mixture of astonishment and humor.
Sami caught herself halfway through the burger Nell had bought her and blushed. "Sorry," Sami said through her embarrassment as she straightened herself in the chair to a more formal position.
They continued on through their meal peacefully. Nell asked a couple generic question here and there and Sami answered them in between bites. As Sami was finishing the last of her meal Nell finally decided to ask the question again.
"So, um, how does Vip treat all of you?"
Sami looked up and the tug of war started up in her mind again. The only difference this time was that Sami actually knew Nell know and that's what made all the difference.
"He doesn't treat us well at all, especially not me." Sami said glumly knowing that she would soon regret telling Nell.
"Really?" Nell asked.
Sami proceeded to tell Nell everything. Nell was shocked at the way Vip treated his troops and how he discriminated against Sami. In the end Nell sent Sami back to her regiment and promised to stop by with some other CO's the following day.
Sami was forced to run the death challenge again the next day. She was making her way out of the woods when she saw Nell and a couple other CO's talking to Vip. Vips troops were standing off to one side and looked like they were about to jump out of their skins with excitement. Nell saw Sami looking out from behind one of the trees and called her over. After a short questioning which, to Sami felt like forever, Vip command over the regiment was removed and he was asked to pack up his stuff and head home. The rest of the regiment let out a burst of joy that was cut short by a glance from Vip. Sami hadn't cheered but she received a stare from Vip that she knew meant death.
***
"Sami?"
Nell's voice shook Sami out of her daydream. She was in her 'Office' and Nell was sitting on the bed.
"I'm sorry what was that?" Sami asked.
"I said, 'I have decided to relieve Kannon of his command over his troops.' It seems to me that he had inherited some traits from Vip."
"Oh, really?"
"Yes. In fact I have reassigned him to your regiment."
"What? Why?"
"I decided to do it because I think he needs to be reminded of what it's like to be under another persons command. Listen, I just want you to take him along with you to Macro Land. I also want you to be rough on him."
"But Nell, you know I don't like to do that. Sure I always make sure that I'm strict with my troops, after all this is life and death, but I never go out of my way to 'beat up' on someone."
"I know that Sami. It's just that he was a great soldier when he first came out of Vip's regiment, I just think he needs to be reminded of what it's like to be pushed around by your superior."
"Why couldn't you get Andy or Max to do it?"
"Well, because I don't think that Max would know when to stop pushing Kannon around and I don't think that it's possible for Andy to be anymore than happy and free-hearted."
Sami stared at the maps on her desk for a moment and then look up at Nell. "Alright, I'll do it," she said with a little bit of sadness in her voice.
"Great!" Nell said getting up and heading to the door. "Thanks, I owe you one."
"Hey, Nell." Sami said as Nell grabbed the door handle.
"Yeah
Sami?" Nell turned to Sami.
"I was just wondering, have
you heard anything about those offices yet? I mean it has been quite a while
since we requested them."
"No Sami, I haven't. We really shouldn't be bugging the higher ups about it, they've had a lot to deal with lately."
"I know, it's just that we did go and win two wars for them. I just figured that we've earned them by now."
"I promise I'll ask them for you tomorrow, Ok?"
"Thanks Nell."
"No problem."