Chapter 3
Chapter Three
Jeff reported to Captain Briskinn’s office promptly as ordered after he’d walked Melly and Tamsyn to the medical building. The other captain was cheerful as he sipped a cup of real coffee, not offering Jeff any. “The General has an open spot on his schedule this morning and he wants to meet you.”
“Does he do that with every new military member?” Jeff asked, surprised.
Briskinn shook his head. “Not one on one, not immediately after they arrive either. But your Special Forces background apparently intrigues him. We’d better get going, don’t want to be late.”
Briskinn led him through the corridor and up a flight of stairs, chatting the whole time, asking how Jeff and his wife were enjoying the camp so far as if it was a vacation retreat instead of an oasis of humanity literally in the middle of the infected.
Jeff made conversation with the man but his mind was racing over the possible ramifications of General Quantike’s summons.
He decided to use the persona he’d been assigned for his undercover mission, that of a disgruntled former military man who’d had it with the Sectors and sought life on the frontier.
Along with what Cody had learned about the general’s own background when he hacked the systems at the deserted military base in New Damarkal, it seemed like the safest approach.
Entering the general’s office after an aide opened the door, Jeff gave a crisp salute to the man behind the desk. “Captain Jeff Pearson, Special Forces Team 12, retired, sir, reporting as ordered.”
“At ease, captain, glad to have you aboard.” The General was an imposing figure in fatigues.
He was older than Jeff had expected, his face a bit jowly, his eyes tired but shrewd.
He was beefy, as if he worked out but also enjoyed his food and feelgoods.
The strange black bracelet was clipped to his wrist, flashing its subtle colors.
He rose from the desk and walked over to the conference table. “Have a seat and let’s chat.”
Said the spider to the fly, Jeff thought, recalling an old children’s tale. He allowed Briskinn to precede him and then took the indicated seat across the table from the general.
“I’m curious, what brought you to Randal Four in the first place?” the general asked.
Squaring his shoulders, Jeff prepared to launch into his cover spiel. “May I be frank, sir?”
The general nodded.
“I was a loyal soldier my entire career and then things went sideways on my last mission and the upper echelon pencil pushers hung me and my men out to dry. Blamed us for what was a failure of the elements supporting us. A senior admiral’s screwup son had to be protected.
I resigned in disgust and started hunting for a place where men like me were more appreciated than a rich kid Inner Sector no nothing who got good people killed.
Randal Four was appealing, seemed like there was room for a man to carve his own path as a rancher.
Good values, good people and the right approach to things.
Far enough away from the core of the Sectors to be free to live as I wanted.
” He put a rueful grin on his face. “Of course then the wife and I landed and found ourselves in the middle of the infected apocalypse and it became an obstacle course to survive.”
“I understand your wife’s a doctor? Where did the two of you meet?”
“On the last leg of my flight out here.” It wasn’t exactly a lie—they’d met after the robo shuttle dropped them off.
Jeff gave an artless shrug. “Never expected to fall in love at first glance but it is what it is. Got married on the ship.” He thanked the Lords of Space for the planet’s infrastructure being down and there being no communication offworld.
At least General Quantike couldn’t check any of the elements of his story.
“And is your wife expecting yet?” the general asked.
Not having anticipated this line of questioning, Jeff was taken aback. “I don’t believe so, sir. Having babies wasn’t exactly on our minds as we were running from the infected.”
“Well you’re here and safe now,” Captain Briskinn said in a soothing tone. “Children are the future.”
Having no idea why the conversation was going off on this tangent, Jeff muttered, “Yes, sir,” and waited to see what topic would be next.
“Why Glastine?” the general asked, leaning back and linking his fingers over his slight paunch.
“I heard from other refugees we met that it was run by the military. I figured it’d be squared away, run properly…a place I could be useful and have people I’d trust watching my six.”
The general made approving sounds as if he was accepting a personal accolade. “And what’s your opinion so far?”
“Absolutely delighted to be here, sir. Captain Briskinn got us set up with military housing and everything I’ve seen so far exceeds expectations.” He leaned a bit closer. “And the chow is excellent compared to what we could scavenge out there.”
All three men chuckled a bit.
“Did you go through Millersville?” was the next question.
“Yes, sir, but I didn’t see much of the place. They have a tight corridor they run refugees through.”
“You weren’t tempted to stay there?”
“No, sir, civilian chaos doesn’t appeal to me.” He flashed a grin. “They did ask.”
Now the general sat forward. “I’m sure they did.
You have a unique skill set, captain. I’ve been pondering bringing the good people of Millersville on board here actually.
We can do a much better job of protecting them and ensuring their survival than they can manage on their own.
My first offer was rejected out of hand by their mayor.
Man has an overly inflated opinion of himself and his ragtag militia. ”
Trying to absorb his shock at the general’s threat to kidnap the Millersville citizens, Jeff refrained from disputing the general’s caustic assessment of Mayor Wyler, although he personally had great admiration for the man and had in fact helped the town defeat a warlord who was attacking them.
Fortunately the general continued with his own train of thought.
“My responsibility is to look after the civilians in my charge,” he said.
“Up until now I’ve been prioritizing Glastine but since we’re up and running smoothly, I can direct my attention to outreach.
We’ve been passively accepting refugees such as yourself, but in the coming weeks the posture will change.
” He opened a drawer in the table and withdrew a tablet, which he pushed across the gleaming surface to Jeff.
“I need you to draw what you observed while you were there. A man like you, a keen observer, would naturally see details others would miss.”
“I’ll do my best, sir.” Detaching the stylus, Jeff began sketching a rough schematic of the gate through which refugees passed into and through the periphery of Millersville.
He subtly altered details here and there to make it appear more defensible than it actually was.
He’d given the mayor a set of detailed instructions about how to improve their defenses and he omitted all of those enhancements.
He wondered if the general had made this request of other refugees previously and whether his own sketch would be tested against theirs for accuracy.
When the drawing was complete, he docked the stylus and slid the pad to the waiting officer.
Quantike didn’t pick it up but examined it cursorily. “As I expected, crude and cobbled together. The average refugee wouldn’t be able to breach these walls but it’ll be no obstacle to our firepower.” He glanced at Jeff. “If the mayor remains stubborn and refuses to surrender peacefully of course.”
“Of course, sir.”
A probing interrogation about what else he might have observed at Millersville followed but Jeff stuck to his story of only being allowed through the edge of town.
“Very good, captain,” the general said at length. He looked at Briskinn, who’d been silent through most of the meeting. “Get our new recruit a proper uniform, rank of captain and assign him where you need him most.”
“I’ll have him shadow me for a day or two, get him up to speed on how we operate here,” his subordinate replied, “And then rotate him into the roster.”
“Dismissed.” Quantike rose and moved to his desk as the two captains saluted and made their exit.
“Next stop is the supply depot,” Briskinn said to Jeff as they descended the stairs.
“Get you kitted our and then we can do rounds. I have a zip cart assigned to me so we don’t have to walk—this place is about seventeen acres, you know.
You did a good job with the general by the way.
He was impressed—I could tell. I’ve served under him practically since he arrived on Randal Four and he’s a good man.
The people here are lucky he was in charge.
About the only thing the authorities did right when the infected outbreak hit. ”
The chatty captain rambled on as they stopped in his office for the initiator to his vehicle and then as they drove away from the building toward the huge supply warehouse.
Jeff kept up his end of the conversation easily but in his mind he was turning over the possible reasons Quantike would want to even attempt to bring hundreds more people into the camp, against their will.
What he ought to be doing is figuring out a way to thin out the infected swarming around this place. It’s a disaster waiting to happen.
“This place is odd,” Melly said as she and Tamsyn ate dinner with Jeff that night in a remote corner of the general commissary where they couldn’t be overheard.
“How so?” he asked.
“My first eight patients were pregnant. None of them were in relationships or married— they all said they’d enrolled in the camp’s maternity program to earn the extra rations and benefits.”
“Like I told the doc today, there’s a big push on to have babies,” Tamsyn chimed in. “The dormitory is plastered with colorful recruiting posters for all of us to participate and help repopulate the planet with uninfected. Three of the girls in my sleep pod are pregnant and one’s trying.”
Melly nodded. “Patient number nine was an artificial insemination. Dr. Sharpton handled it and I observed. It strikes me as a strange use of scarce resources to encourage women to opt out of work details and to receive extra rations and privileges at this point in the apocalypse. Not to mention the workload when all these babies are born. I was told there’s going to be a community nursery where the mothers can work.
” She stabbed her unoffending vegetable stalk with the fork.
“The whole thing is creepy. As if the purpose of the camp is really to breed humans.”
“I mean, the camp isn’t even stable, no matter what Quantike says,” Tamsyn said. “We’re ringed by thousands and thousands of infected. Shouldn’t the emphasis be on solving that problem before we bring a whole bunch of helpless babies into the situation?”
“I agree with you there,” Jeff said out loud, adding over the subaural com. And Quantike wants to bring in a whole lot more people. Keep this to yourselves but he’s thinking of invading Millersville with the goal of kidnapping the citizens.
Melly was rocked by the disclosure, barely keeping herself from exclaiming out loud. Why?
He thinks they’d be better off here. I disagree with his assessment of course but it does beg the question of what his motivation might be.
It’s early in the planning stages, thank goodness.
I sent Cody an order to warn the mayor trouble could be coming.
The town’s defenses can’t stand up to the military hardware I saw on my tour today.
Nothing that could take us out in the APC’s but the damage Ruger did with his relatively puny armaments is nothing compared to the destruction Quantike could dial up.
“My tenth patient?” Melly said after a moment of uneasy silence, “Feelgood overdose. Fatal. Nothing to be done. From what the nurses told us, it’s an increasingly serious problem here. People feel hopeless, not to mention the issue of the infected constantly pushing on the force fences.”
“Where do you suppose they’re getting the feelgoods?” Jeff asked.
“People always find a way,” Tamsyn replied. “Although the nurses also said there’s an order of immediate execution for anyone caught selling or distributing illicit feelgoods. She said we missed a public execution last week.”
This place is definitely off kilter, Melly said on the com.
Knowing what we know in just one day I’d never recommend anyone come here.
She reached over and squeezed Tamsyn’s hand as her friend was downcast. “You didn’t have any idea when you sent the school buses off to find this place. You did save their lives.”
But what we don’t know yet, Jeff commented, is whether there’s anything more behind the problems besides one man’s twisted views.
Or if the problems here have anything to do with how the outbreak began.
There are several mysteries I want to get to the bottom of, top amongst them being those strange black bracelets the general’s top men and women are wearing.
Definitely not any kind of tech I’ve ever seen before.