2.22.
Eodar liked earth, he had decided. While not as technologically advanced as Command had been, they were mostly good people. He particularly liked Doctor Olivia Nunes, and he was sorry that he had been moved out of the institution where he had been under her care.
He was still coming to terms with the fact that he had been effectively made welcome with open arms. He had been worried that his infiltration by posing as an abandoned child would face far more scrutiny than it had. Especially with his early difficulty in communicating.
He thought back to the day of the meteors, when the scouts from High-Command had rained down from the stars onto planet Totola, and he remembered the welcome that they received. Despite the nervousness of the elders, the forward scouts that had come to the Yonohoan people had also been made welcome. But Eodar had learned in training that this was not often the case.
His decision to submit himself to their government had turned out to be the correct one, but he had been extremely concerned over the course of his medical treatment that they would uncover the evidence of his extraterrestrial origins.
Fortunately they didn’t seem to have the technology to really scan him beyond basic biometrics. While he had several additional organs that contained his nanite generators and other functions, those were deliberately designed to be hidden from most scanners, and it would take a military grade medical scanner to detect the physical differences between Eodar and a normal child.
And so he had hidden himself in plain sight, which he new from training was often the best solution. He was still a child, for all of his training, and it was established human nature to believe that children are innocent.
The fact that Eodar was not the enemy of Earth was reassuring as he came to get to know these people. While he questioned the purpose of his mission, he knew that it was not his place to see the big picture. To quote an earth saying he had heard, “ours is not to reason why, ours is but to do and die.”
He had seen surprisingly little evidence of alien interference on the planet. Aside from the supposed ‘yonohoans’ in orbit who were offering to share their ‘technology’ with the people of Earth. Eodar found that no end of amusing. He was pretty sure the Earthlings didn’t need any help hunting roe bison with flint spears. They had firearms for that purpose, a technology which the elders of his tribe would think the very definition of divinity.
He knew how much danger he was in. He wondered what the governments of Earth would do if they discovered his infiltration of their planet, and neither his training nor his imagination gave him very many scenarios which were particularly pleasant. So he simply avoided thinking about it, throwing himself entirely into his life on Earth as though he truly had been born to it.
He continued making his reports with Rocktalas on a six month delay. He hadn’t made any in the hospital due to the constant supervision that he was under at that time, but he had begun once more upon his discharge. Conveniently this world was filled with ‘batteries’ which contained enough potential energy inside them to both be transformed into a basic Rocktala device and also broadcast his reports without the need for an external power source.
And they were cheap enough to buy dozens of them at a time with the small allowance he was given by his foster-family.
A common theme to his reports was just how good the people of Earth were and how much they needed to be protected from the threat of aliens and invasions which would destroy their society. They had made him feel welcome, and the least that he could do in return was advocate for their fair treatment by High-Command.
Undoubtedly once the fleet arrived there would be some recruitment efforts. Command was always looking to expand its ranks. Eodar himself had been caught up in the war machine despite the primitive nature of his people and his world. A moderately advanced world like Earth should provide a swath of suitable candidates for securing and ensuring the freedom of the human race among the stars.
But again, that was not John’s place to plan or question. Command would decide upon the integration of Earth into its forces in its own time. His job was simply to provide them with the information they required to make their decisions.
Still, there was no rule in his training that said that he couldn’t enjoy himself during a mission. Fitting in was more important than maintaining discipline, and the children of Earth were expected to play and have fun. In fact, he had noticed immediately that the adults who were monitoring him seemed to relax considerably once he had begun accepting the invitations of other children to engage in play.
Slowly, he was beginning to relax.
Which made it all the more devastating when it happened.
He had let his guard down. It was normal to be called to the counselor's office once a day. The young man had a perpetual smile and was eager to help Eodar in adjusting to his new life as John Doe, so Eodar wasn’t alarmed when the teacher sent him from the classroom. He was distracted, thinking about the girls of Earth.
He had to admit that they were pretty. He’d never really had time to think of his fellow female trainees that way, but they were also his sisters by oath. He had sworn all of the children in his training class to the sacred oaths of brotherhood, making the girls his family. The girls of earth, however … perhaps once his mission was over, he could convince one of them to join his clan, and maybe if he returned to Planet Totola with one the Topoka would sanctify their union …
He paused, frowning. What was he doing thinking of that stupid tradition? The idea that the humans needed an alien to monitor or guide the breeding of humans was reprehensible. His trainers had all agreed that while the Topoka were not particularly heinous in their actions, they were still aliens and monsters.
No, there was no reason to involve the Topoka. Which, he realized, meant that there was no reason to wait. He was thinking of the prettiest girl in his class when he opened the door to the counselor’s office and was surprised to find Doctor Olivia Nunes in his place.
Surprised, but very pleased. He had not expected to see her again, and the friendly face dampened his suspicions, especially when she explained that she often followed up on many of her more complex patients once they had left the hospital.
She offered him an orange soda, the kind that he had enjoyed most during his hospitalization, and they spoke for a while as he drank. She asked him how things were going with his new foster family and the children of school, and he talked about what was on his mind.
“I’d say that your interest in girls is completely normal for your age, John,” Olivia informed him when he confessed that some of the girls in his class were a distraction. They had spoken for close to thirty minutes and John was both enjoying himself and letting his guard down. “Just be careful. You can get yourself a girlfriend if you want, but you don’t want to get anyone pregnant, do you?”
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Eodar frowned as he considered the implications of her words. She was right, having a child on Earth would have extreme complications. He’d have to see to their upbringing in both the Yonohoan traditions and the Earth customs, and it would interfere with his duty to High-Command. And possibly his duty to all of humanity.
“John, I want you to listen and not be alarmed,” Olivia said, suddenly shifting the conversation as he finished his drink. “We found your family.”
Eodar froze. “That’s not possible.”
“They came looking for you, John. They say that your real name is Eodar. They didn’t know you were alive until just recently. They love you and want you to come home. I know you think that it is your duty to be here, to protect Earth. But--”
“You don’t know anything,” John said, his voice flat and unemotional. “Whatever you think you know is lies.”
“I know that your Yonohoan, John. I don’t care, it doesn’t change my duty to you as one of my patients or the way that I feel about you personally,” she argued.
“Who told you this lie?” John asked.
“A member of the Earth Space Force. They’ve confirmed it with genetics, John. I’m very sorry to tell you this, but you are not the original Eodar. You have his body and his memories, but the original Eodar died thousands of years ago. This war you think you’re fighting in, it’s over. It’s been over for millennia. Nobody in this galaxy uses child soldiers anymore, John. The Yonohans, and the people of the Earth, they want to help you heal from the trauma of your training and…”
Eodar abruptly got up and ran from the guidance counselor’s office. Straight into a wall of SWAT.
“Don’t hurt him!” Olivia called out. “I’m sorry John, but we have to take this situation seriously. Please don’t try to run away again!”
Eodar paused as he considered his options. He cursed his foolishness for not seeing this coming. He had made preparations for the possibility that he would be discovered by the government, but most of those preparations had assumed that they would come at him while he was at home, or possibly on the way between his faster parents’ house and the school.
Not at his guidance counselor’s office. Not that one of his few adult friends would betray him.
He’d been caught flatfooted, and to resist now would only result in defeat. He quickly calculated his options and came to the one that had the highest chances of success.
He began to cry.
The men of the SWAT team seemed to relax as he displayed his emotions, and Olivia stepped into the doorway to embrace Eodar in a reassuring hug. “Let’s start talking about what happens next, John. Or would you prefer that I call you Eodar?”
“My name is John Doe,” Eodar said. “I was born on Earth. I don’t know who told you these lies, but I am not an alien!”
“Okay, John, okay. Let’s go back in the office and talk about what you believe. School is out for the day. All of the other children have been sent home. It’s just us. Is it okay if I bring some other people in on this conversation?” Olivia asked.
“I do not care what you do,” Eodar said. He returned with her into the office and returned to his seat.
He was unsurprised when she pulled out a PHDA and placed it on the table between them. Promptly, a hologram of a middle-aged woman appeared.
“Hello Eodar. I am glad that you are cooperating in the efforts to bring you in peacefully. I am Major Mary Phillips of the Earth Space Force,” she said.
“My name is John Doe,” Eodar said with a little bit of force in his voice.
“He’s still denying his identity, Major,” Olivia said. “We’re going nice and slow, just like we planned, and so far he’s responding as well as I’d hoped he would.”
“That’s good, I’m glad to hear it. You are pretty calm after seeing a technology that isn’t native to earth, John,” Mary pointed out. “I’m guessing that when you grew up holograms were common place.”
Eodar cursed to himself as he realized that he had made another miscalculation. “I saw them on television. They’re no big deal.”
“Well, I was surprised the first time I saw one,” Mary said. “But back on to the topic. The American government is willing to forgive and overlook the incident in which you engaged in a dogfight with its Air Force, John. We are willing to return you to your people without pressing any charges of espionage. We must, however, know who it was who sent you on your mission.”
“I have no mission. I am a twelve year old boy from Earth, not a Yonohoan,” John said mechanically. “If I have any mission at all, it is to grow and to learn.”
“I don’t think that’s the response a normal boy from Earth would give to this situation,” Mary pointed out.
“Yes. I am strange. I am sorry that my strangeness has confused your government, but I am not Eodar.”
“We have genetic tests that prove that you are. Perhaps we’re wrong about what sort of technology was used to create you and you were a ‘natural’ clone without implanted memories. We don’t know, but we’re willing to keep all options on the table at this point,” Mary said. “However, the prevailing theory is that you are a clone of the version of Eodar whose replication imprint was harvested along with his entire class of Forward Scout Troop Trainees circa ninety thousand years ago.”
Eodar looked up in horror. “What did you say?”
“I’ve seen the evidence, John. The men who did that to you were tried for war crimes,” Mary said. “But it was a very long time ago. I know that it may not seem that way to you, but--”
“My brothers! My sisters! You are lying! High-Command would never betray us like that!” Eodar protested. “They swore that if we earned the honor, we would be allowed to step into the light we would be allowed to do so with eyes open in the service of humanity! They would not take that honor from us!”
“I have seen the evidence,” Mary repeated. “I’m sorry, John. Your commanders decided that your class of Trainees was too valuable. They wished to replicate all of you to expose you to different training methods and roles in the war that they were fighting. If it brings you any solace, I am told that the other men whom you became grew up to be great heroes. I am told that your name is known throughout the universe, and that it brings both respect and fear.”
Eodar shook his head. He would hear no more of this. He could not argue with him if they were convinced of these lies, and to continue to do so would only convince them further.
He fell on another strategy. One that had served him once already, when he had realized that his repetition of the words spoken to him was creating suspicion.
He went mute.