Dizzy slipped back into the barracks before anyone realized she was
gone. She stretched out on her bed, but her thoughts where still
whirling, and a deep frown covered her features. Carl noticed her
after a few minutes and came over to talk with her. He stopped short
in his friendly greeting when he saw her face.
"Diz, what's wrong?"
Dizzy looked at him, an incredulous look on her face. "What's
wrong?" she asked sarcastically.
Carl blushed. "Well, I mean, why are you thinking so hard. Not that
I was reading your thoughts," he amended quickly, "It's written all
over your face."
"Yeah, I know," Dizzy sighed. "Something just isn't right about all
this, Carl. I just can't figure it out."
"I know how you feel." Carl told her. "I got the same feeling when
we picked up Carmen..." his voice trailed off and his eyes stared
out into space.
"Carl?" Dizzy asked him softly.
"Yes?"
"Is it really Carmen?"
Carl sighed. "I don't know, Dizzy, I just don't know."

Marlowe watched from the window of the command deck as they finished
preparations to pull out of orbit. He was not looking forward to the
job ahead of him. Rico was a good man-- and he would have to send
him to his death with a straight face. Not an easy task. He was
somewhat disturbed by the fact that Ibanez did not seem worried
about her friend's fate. He had heard that they had gone to school
together. Ibanez seemed fine with the fact that Rico was about to be
condemned to death. It wasn't normal. He frowned out the window. It
wasn't even sane.
"Private!" Marlowe spun to face his aid. "Get me Carl Jenkins in
here, pronto!" The private rushed off, and Marlowe turned back to
the window. "If I can say I forced retrieval," he muttered under his
breath, "maybe Rico will have an excuse. If Jenkins calls Ibanez
mentally unstable...." his voice trailed off. Ibanez would be
drummed out of the fleet. He sighed again. This was a no win
situation. But at least Ibanez and Rico would both be alive this
way.

"You called for me, Sir?" Carl stood at attention in the command
deck.
"Yes, private. I want your input on Ibanez's mental condition. Could
the crash have knocked some wires loose?"
Carl thought for a moment, carefully forming his reply. "It is
possible, Sir. Carmen-- I mean, Lt. Ibanez, has been acting
strangely. She seems prone to bouts of forgetfulness, and on the
planet, she seemed very distant, often acting as if she was
listening--"
"To a voice no one else could hear." Carl looked up, shocked that
Marlowe had finished his statement for him. Marlowe smiled at his
shocked look. "It's in the reports, private."
"Not Carmen's report." Carl said boldly.
"You are right. It is in the reports of the few survivors of four
squads that have recently suffered great losses. Symptoms include
forgetfulness, voices in the head, strange headaches, and
unreasonable action. Once it hits, it's to late-- The squad is
doomed. At least, that is what we have gathered so far. Sounds like
mind control bugs, doesn't it, private?" Marlowe continued without
waiting for an answer. "But it's not. Ibanez has been checked
throughly, and not a trace of a control bug. But here on the ship,
all the symptoms persist-- minus the voices, right private?"
"Yes, Sir." Carl was doing some fast thinking of his own. "It's not
a mind control bug-- in the way you would think. I think it is a
different type of mind control-- remote mind control." Even as he
formulated the idea, Carl knew that he had struck the truth. "A
brain bug. Let me see the doctor's reports on those squads, Sir."
Marlowe smiled at the absent mindedly take charge way he had
'requested' the forms. He handed the records to Carl, and the
younger man poured over them for a few minutes in silence.
Finally, Carl looked up. "Here, sir," he waved five of the forms in
the air. "One from each squad, and Carmen's. These received head
wounds prior to the death of their squads. It's simple! One member
of a squad wanders off, the bugs inflict a blow to the head that
results in a type of amnesia, then 'replace' the old memories with a
new identity-- one from their side. The squad member goes back to
his squad and follows the directives of his superior, a brain bug,
and kills his squad. If he survives, the bugs cut him off, and there
is no trace of control. The trooper is tried for treason-- but it
looks like that hasn't come up, yet. None of the pawns have survived
the massacre of their squad."
"It makes sense, private," Marlowe agreed. "But Carmen is not a part
of a squad."
"She's a part of the fleet. She's a part of the Valley Forge." Carl
reminded him.
Understanding hit Marlowe like a fist. "Her target is the Valley
Forge!" He spun and pressed a button on the intercom. "Send Ibanez
in, now!" he shouted over the intercom. A shaky voice answered with
a weak 'yes, sir', and Marlowe sat down. "Stay here, Jenkins. When
she gets here, I want you to check her. See what she knows."
"Yes, Sir," Carl replied. Inside, he was torn in two. Rico would
live-- but what about Carmen?

Carmen was completely at ease as she walked in the Command Deck-- at
least outwardly. Inwardly, she was shaking. Would there be another
examination? Why had her master not told her about this? She knew
far to little about her mission-- or did she? Maybe he had told her,
and she had forgotten. Well, it would all be over soon. Master would
retreive her, and the ship would be destroyed, and she could go
home. Maybe, after all this stress was gone, she could remember
more.
"You called for me, sir?" Carmen ignored the presence of Carl. Her
master had insisted that she stay away from him.
"Yes, Ibanez. I want Jenkins here to run one more test on you."
Carmen's mind flew. What kind of test? Master had said nothing about
this. She was supposed to avoid this man. What should she do?
"Sure," Carmen said slowly. Her head started that familiar ache. Her
thoughts seemed to fly away from her, and the floor twirled
dizzingly below her. She closed her eyes, braced her hands against
her head, and fell to the floor in agony.
Carl and Marlowe watched, open mouthed, as Carmen collapsed and
started moaning in pain. Carl was the first to act. He gripped
Carmen's hands, still pressed against her temples, and consentrated.
Agony. Fire. Carl had never experianced anything like it before.
Like an explosion in his brain-- her brain. He tried to draw out the
pain, find the source of it, but to no avail. Finally, the pain
passed, and Carl and Carmen both sank into a sitting position in
releif.
Carmen came out of it first. She saw Carl, still hunched over in
pain, and her mind started to put two and two together. He was a
psycic! Was he the one giving her this pain? It had to be him. There
was no other explaination. Then her Master had been trying to
protect her by keeping her away from him. Anger burned in her,
leaving her seeing red. Almost with out knowing it, her hand found a
pile of spare gears and wires, and she selected a short pipe from
them. With a bellow that resembled a charging rhino, she raised the
pipe over her head and aimed for Carl's unsuspecting form.
Marlowe grabbed the pipe as it decended toward Jenkins. He held
tightly to his end, staring at Ibenez. She was gripping her end,
staring back like a defiant three year old. She attempted to jerk
the pipe free, but Marlowe held tight.
Carmen felt anger building in her to huge proportions. With an
enraged screech, she jerked the pipe again-- and Marlowe calmly let
go. She fell backwards under her own force, and the pipe clanked to
the floor as she tried to catch her self. Her head banged of f the
corner of a metal desk, and she sank into unconciousness.

Carmen woke to find herself laying in a hospital bed. Her hands had
been secured to the railings, and she could not move. What was going
on? The last thing she remembered was-- crash landing on the planet.
How had the mission gone? Was it a failure? It must have been, if
she was in the hospital. Why was she tied down, though? Had they
found a control bug on her? Carmen focused on the door, where
someone was entering.
"Ibanez," Marlowe stated briskly, "Will you talk?"
Carmen was confused. "Yes, Sir, about what? The mission? What
happened? The last thing I remember was crash landing. What
happened? Why am I here? And where is here?"
Marlowe's mouth fell open before he could regain his composure. She
really didn't know what had happened! "You are in the medical hold
of the Valley Forge. The mission was a complete failure. Can you
remember anything that happened? Anything at all?"
Carmen shook her head saddly. "No, Sir."
"Will you let Jenkins examine you?"
"Yes, Sir. That mission was too important to let go of."
Marlowe smiled and called for Jenkins. Carmen Ibanez was back!

Deep in the belly of the ship, a timer slowly turned over. The
flashing red numbers on it's face spoke wordlessly-- 20:00, 19:59,
19:58.....

Carl carfully positioned his hands on Carmen's head, steeling
himself against the pain that had been there before. To his
surprise, there was not even a trace of it now. He slowly followed
Carmen's thoughts over the last few days-- he saw her writting a
letter to Dizzy, eating in the mess hall, going and receiving orders
from Marlowe, piloting the plane to the planet, crash landing-- then
it all went black. He worked harder, searching for the memories he
knew where hidden somewhere in her mind. There! He felt her pain,
confusion, abandonment, fear. She was walking across a vast desert-
like plain, drinking tepid water, walking on. He saw the mound--
heard-- no, felt, her get her orders from the hidden master. He saw
the Roughnecks through her eyes, coming to the rescue. His blood ran
cold as she lifted her gun to her sholder in mockery. He saw her
talking with Marlowe on the command deck, felt the pain of the exam
she suffered, then, finally, saw her plant the tiny, powerful, bomb
in a hold under the ship. He tried to see exactly where it was-- and
caught sight of the flashing numbers.
Carl ripped himself free of Carmen, ignoring the pain. He turned to
Marlowe. Carmen still had a lost look on her face-- she had
evidently not seen what he had. Carl ignored her for the moment, and
spoke to Marlowe in a hurried tone. "Admiral! There's a bomb on 'C'
deck-- and it will blow in less than a minute!"
It was the fastest minute of Carl's life-- and the slowest. It took
an impossibly long time to reach 'C' deck-- forty-five seconds. Five
more seconds, and he was facing the bomb. He reached out to detatch
it from it's resting place, two more seconds. The bomb beeped loudly
as it reached the five second mark, and each second was intoned with
another beep after that. Carl had the wires in his hands-- and three
seconds left. He carefully gripped one wire, pulling it gently-- no
result. One second. He jerked the wire free, and the bomb flashed
down to zero.

That next second, waiting, was the longest one Carl had ever known.
He held his breath for the duration, then slowly released it as he
relized that the bomb wouldn't blow. He turned and saw Marlow and
Carmen behind him. Funny, he didn't remember them following him.
The look on Marlowe's face was one of relief. The look on Carmen's,
was one of complete horror.

"I almost killed us all," Carmen was in the command deck, yet again.
Marlowe patted her on the sholder.
"But you didn't, we are all fine. It wasn't your fault-- you had
all the loyalty you have ever had, it was just focused the wrong
way."
Carmen nodded, but didn't look convinced. "What happens now?" she
asked.
Marlowe looked rather satisfied. "Now, we fill out the report and
send it in."
"With me?" Carmen's voice broke. If she did excape charges of
terrorism, she would still be drummed out of the fleet.
Marlowe shook his head. "No, alone. The report will say that you
went out on a mission, the mission was successful, the Roughnecks
retrived you, and enemy plans to kill us all where discovered and
defeated as a result. I wouldn't be surprised if you and Jenkins
both got commendations over this."
"Wow," was all Carmen could say. In a few minutes, she left the deck
and walked down to where the Roughnecks bunked.
"Dizzy?" Carmen took Dizzy by the arm and forced her out into the
hall. "We have to talk."

A few minutes later, Carmen returned to her quarters and Dizzy
returned to to the barracks. The other Roughnecks had heard Carmen's
words, and Rico asked the question that was on everyone's mind.
"What was that all about?"
Dizzy flashed him a huge smile. "That," she said, "Is another
story."