The Wild Ba’Neesh Chapter Twenty-Six ©2019 Fay Thompson All Rights Reserved

IT WAS A FORTY-MINUTE HIGH-SPEED TRAM RIDE FROM THE SECURITY HEADQUARTERS IN MUNICH TO THE NON-DESCRIPT SMALL TOWN OF SCHELKLINGEN CENTERED IN THE NATIONAL RESERVES AND ACCESSIBLE ONLY BY TRAM WITH PRIVATE PASS APPROVAL. THE TOWN’S SOLE INDUSTRY WAS TULE SOC, ALTHOUGH ITS MAJOR MANUFACTURING WAS IN MUNICH. SCHELKLINGEN HELD THE TULE SOC RESEARCH CENTER, A SMALL CLUSTER OF BUILDINGS THAT WERE MODERN, BUT NOT FANCY. TO THE WORLD TULE SOC WAS THE PREEMINENT MANUFACTURER OF CUSTOMIZED PHARMACEUTICALS. THEIR PUBLIC BUILDING’S IN MUNICH PROMINENTLY DISPLAYED THEIR MANY HUMANITARIAN AWARDS. THEY WERE FAMOUS FOR SPENDING VAST SUMS TO HEAL A SINGLE PERSON WHOSE CASE HAD BAFFLED OTHER MEDICAL CENTERS. WHAT THEY SOLD BEHIND CLOSED DOORS WERE BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL WEAPONS, MOST WITH LIMITED DISPERSAL FOR TARGETED HARM.

ERIC KNEW THAT THE MOMENT HE ENTERED THE TRAM, SECURITY WAS WATCHING. NOTHING HAPPENED NEAR TULE SOC, IT WAS HIS JOB TO MAKE SECURITY INVISIBLE AND HE WAS GOOD AT HIS JOB. WHILE THE SMALL TOWN HAD ITS APPEAL, IT WASN’T PRETTY ENOUGH TO ATTRACT VACATIONERS, INTENTIONALLY SO. IT’S SINGLE SMALL HOSTEL WAS NEVER FULL. THERE WERE NO ACCIDENTAL VISITORS. VISITING FAMILY WERE THE ONLY EXCEPTIONS, THE TOWN’S ONLY GUESTS.

If you were an actual guest of Tule Soc, you stayed inside Tule Soc and likely never entered the town at all, there were less public entry points disguised and hidden. The townspeople believed the privacy of the researchers was carefully guarded. Mostly the town housed Soek mules living mundane human lives. They were employed by Tule Soc and every aspect of their lives were closely monitored and sometimes adjusted to keep them ready for use. If the town had a peculiar statistic, it was the commonality of its male population leaving suddenly. But, slight memory adjustments erased anyone noticing.

Eric was well known in town and several people waved at him when they saw him exiting the tram. They thought he was a researcher or did some kind of technical work at the labs. He commuted, living elsewhere, not a local. Nice enough though, if a bit dour. Didn’t smile enough. Was smiling today.

He entered the lab and routed himself past security. He’d let them know he was coming in. The man in charge of Security when Arjan and Eric were absent was named Henreich Ulff. He was in his mid-forties with just the hint of a paunch, lighter hair trimmed tight till it was almost too short. He snapped to attention and hurriedly paced the boss. He couldn’t understand why Eric Felsen was at Tule Soc when the battle for Citadel was surely only hours away.

“Update me.” Eric ignored the man’s obvious questions. He intended to send Heinreich off toward the battle within hours. First, he needed to immerse himself in the routine of Fels Security.

“Shipments of all requested compounds are in the final stages of preparation.” Heinreich said, wondering why Eric wanted a personal update, everything was in his reports. “I have cancelled all vacation time and off days for the duration. We have a deadline for incoming personnel in three hours.” Heinreich struggled to keep up with Eric who was already riding the Security lift down eight floors. Ba’Neesh Level. Ba’Neesh. Damn. “We are, of course, mid-process on the Termination Sequence for this quarter’s Ba’Neesh. Security down here is reduced to three men on rotation. Everything else is locked down, the creatures are fully tranked. Well, except for those drying out for Termination.”

Eric flinched. Days ago the word would have gone in and out of his head with a tag of disposable monster. Today, the word termination so casually stated nearly brought up his stomach. He could see the Ba’Neesh in the graveyard, looking into him. Tule Soc were fools, himself included.

“Fine. Order is maintained. I will be moving more personnel to join the shipment. I also want to see which mules are being selected. We may not need them after all. Assemble the relevant files at the Security Station and inform me that you and everyone else is ready to fly. We are short on time.”

“There’s a change in the plan?” Heinreich stumbled. His participation included.

“We are flexible to rapidly changing situations.” Eric answered obliquely. “Being prepared is the minimum we should do. I wish to personally see what state the Ba’Neesh are in. You do the files. I will join you again in a moment.”

“Sir, yes Sir.” Heinreich jogged back to the Security Station fuming under his breath. He didn’t want to fly out. He had dinner plans.

Eric continued down the long hall. When a set of Ba’Neesh were timed out, Tule Soc moved them into separate quarters from the rest. They were allowed off the tranks, an essential step to amping them up for fighting. Their bones would only generate good Vrill if they died in battle, a lesson hard learned by Tule Soc before his time. There was a passageway transparent aluminum wall that allowed him to look into their new quarters in safety.

He’d forgotten the date in all of the excitement over Mick Huxley. He stared through the window at twenty-eight ragged looking Ba’Neesh stumbling around in a relatively small space. They looked like animals, so very different from the ones in the graveyard. Would these blurry broken things be of any use to him? His hopes faded. He would have to try.

They noticed that he wasn’t the guard and they charged the glass. Awake enough to express fury. He noted their blunted horns, kept that way for easy handling. They would be shown how to sharpen their stumps before the battle. The routine was to amp them up and turn them loose on each other where they would go into blood rage and gore each other to death. Those that survived would be killed by knife. All for Vrill harvesting. His stomach revolted.

Each of the Ba’Neesh was twenty-five years old, the age where true memory wakened, where they became too dangerous to keep contained.

Several slammed into the window a second time. He jerked back. How could he ask anything of these furious creatures? They knew this was the death room. They always knew.

The viewing room had the gauges that indicated how much trank they were receiving. Policy was to ease them off slowly, over a couple days. He didn’t have that. He adjusted the mixture to zero and then he hurried away, sealing the viewing room under his palm only.

Heinreich was ready for him when he arrived. He started off by telling Eric that he had medical appointments the following day and could not be reasonably excused. Eric pulled up the man’s files in front of him and deleted the hastily added appointments. “You are a top agent. There is nothing to be handled here in the next few days that a mule can’t stand in on.”

“A mule?” Heinreich was stunned. Mules were kept out of the labs.

“Yes, we have several on our lower level security team. They are expendable later, my skilled men are not.” Eric made a show of flipping through the personnel files. “I will be putting you in charge of the lab transports, along with the extra men.” He leaned forward, checking the cargo lists. “What’s this? You have Activation Materials on the same aircraft with the Inert Compounds.”

“Sir?” Heinreich pressed forward to stare at the holo. Everything looked correct to him. He frowned.

“There was a memo.” Eric knew the best way to get a man off his stride was by bringing up the memo. No one ever knew if they received and read all of them, it was something of a joke. “When more than one transport craft are going to a single location, Activation Materials are to be flown separate from Inert Compounds. Prevents accidental mixing if there is a failure of the craft.”

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Heinreich nodded. Put that way it made sense. He fumed over missing that memo and hoped it wouldn’t appear as a dock mark on his permanent file.

“I will redirect the cargo.” Eric said, his fingers flying. “You hustle toward the debarkation point, check every name and make sure everyone is present. It’s your command.”

Heinreich nodded and saluted again. The gaff might pass then.

Eric altered the coding on the Activation Materials to one intended for a different mixture. Together they would do nothing. Someone would catch the error, but not in the last few minutes of loading. A review, tomorrow or next week maybe. The mission on Citadel would not have lethal biologicals to use on the Soek. “Hustle, man. Make sure all of our agents are out of this level. I’m going to pull in those mules. I don’t want them seeing each other.”

Heinreich felt like he was privy to a secret. Such sharing almost guaranteed advancement points. He turned and raced away, his mind flooded with unexpected rushed orders. He checked every room, including the bathroom to make sure all of his new command men were exiting with him. He adopted a stern face telling them to check their orders. Most had similar feelings to his, they had intended other activities with most of the staff unexpectedly off campus. Now foiled.

Eric overrode all previous orders and shipped out every operative he could locate. Misery loved company. A few might want the adventure; most were slackards which was why they weren’t chosen earlier.

He sat down to pull up the mule list. With two-thousand, five hundred Ba’Neesh at the facility, the list included almost five thousand names. He knew he wouldn’t find Norris by name, like his own, it would be a different name. He set the search for red hair and date of acquisition. Almost immediately he pulled three names, two were deceased. He studied their features first before going to the remaining Soek, a gardener. In fact, he recognized the man’s name the instant it came up. Simon the Gardener. He had a gift for making things grow. Eric blinked, he’d passed the Soek on his way into the building less than an hour earlier. There was a note in the file that his services were not to be moved from gardening. Someone upstairs liked gardens.

He sent a summons to Simon Parkerson and he sent clearances through all of the various Security check points.

He sent a summons to four other Soek who were indeed working low level security. They were true mules. He could do nothing about the mules already shipping out. He checked the time.

He overrode the system to order in a large transport with restraints. With all of the vehicle traffic, one additional craft was mostly ignored. Clearly Tule Soc was going to transport more mules. The craft was designed for weapons deployment transport.

Eric coded in to look at the Ba’Neesh in termination. They were yelling and honking and banging on the walls, far more active than when they were slowly brought off the trank. He activated a low-level inhibitor drug which would pass in and out of their systems in four hours.

The five mules arrived at his secure station breathless and alarmed. All of them knew any summons likely meant something bad. He turned to face them, trying not to focus on the gardener who looked entirely out of place with green overalls covered in old stains. The other four were in their blacks and looked reasonable. They might be security.

“I’m Eric Felsen, Head of Security. We will be transferring Ba’Neesh from an enclosure to a transport craft. The area is secure and the loading ramp is blind meaning what we are loading will not be visible to other persons in the area. You are here to insure that is what happens. They are slowed down and all are wearing magnetized cuffs so they will automatically form a chain. Your job will be to watch and tell me of any issues.”

“What is a Ba’Neesh?” The gardener asked. His voice was Norris, rich and full.

“A Ba’Neesh is a non-human humanoid. They are female and have been kept poorly. We are moving them for their safety and health.”

“A non-human?” Simon repeated the startling statement.

“Yes, they have fur, horns, breasts, cloven hooves and more.” Eric answered, trying not to be impatient. “Yet, they are very like humans. Be careful. You are not expendable to this operation.”

“Animals?” Simon continued.

“No. They are Ba’Neesh.” Eric gestured them toward the long hallway. “I will explain more once we are in the air. Move out.”

They hurried, except for the gardener who kept staring at Eric, a slight frown on his forehead. He kept pace but only just.

The transfer from holding into the transport craft went surprisingly well, considering the shock on all of the mule’s faces. Eric showed them how to secure each Ba’Neesh in a seat usually used to restrain mules. They secured all of the Ba’Neesh and took their own seats. They were flying without a pilot. Eric had entered a false destination that he intended to alter once they were safely away.

Their craft got in line to launch and waited. The wall transparencies allowed them to watch the craft heading out to battle launching immediately before them. The Ba’Neesh stared in silence, this was the first time any of them had ever seen topside, trees, mountains, green.

“Your designation and code?” A voice came over the intercom. Eric used Arjan’s code and a typical mule designation. There was a pause and then the same voice said, “Cleared. Good luck on your mission.”

Eric leaned back in his seat only then noticing the acute tension in his back muscles.

After fifteen minutes following out the fleet, he altered the auto plan and his craft shifted position.

The same voice as before asked why their destination was coding. Eric replied. “Our mission is above your pay grade.” He deactivated the sensors and removed all of the tailing tags. That left the mule locators and all of their molcoms.

The temporary drugs were already wearing off on the Ba’Neesh, much earlier than expected. He could hear their outrage at discovering they were restrained.

He brought out a knife and thought back on that moment when Mick Huxley had cut the locator out of his shoulder. He started with his own. The pain elicited a heavy grunt. He breathed through it and popped the locator out. When he was sure he could stand, he walked over to the hanging medical kit and pulled out sterile wipes. He cleaned the blade, letting his shoulder bleed. He heard a change in tone with the Ba’Neesh. When he looked, they were staring at him, licking their lips. Blood. He stared back.

He handed the knife to the next mule. “Cut yours out now.” He ordered, using an edge of Vrill in his speech. He wasn’t well trained but it was enough to cause the Ba’Neesh to grunt and stomp. They did better, calling out, “Cut it out, cut it out.” Their voices individually weak but collectively powerful. Each of the mules repeated what Eric and done, except most cleaned away their own blood, probably not liking the greed now nakedly visible on the faces of the Ba’Neesh.

Simon was last. He had to remove layers of clothing and he delayed so he could clean the area well. He did this while looking directly at the Ba’Neesh, almost like he was egging them on. He placed Eric’s knife aside and found a scalpel in the med kit. Much sharper. With more care and restraint than the other Soek, he cut himself open with almost medical precision. Then he laughed. He let his shoulder bleed while he reached down to pick up the locator. He sniffed it to the rapt attention of the young Ba’Neesh. Then he placed it in the onboard incinerator disposal unit and hit the button. In a flash, his locator was gone.

The other Soek hurried to find theirs and do the same.

“Still got to deal with the molcom, Eric Felsen.” Simon said.

Then he walked over to the nearest Ba’Neesh. “Could you heal this for me, please?” He asked.

She lunged in the restraints. He didn’t pull back, just avoided her blunted horns. He shoved his shoulder forward. The Ba’Neesh all around him were jerking and howling. The one he’d approached stuck out her tongue and licked and then the most extraordinary sound came out of her.

“Me. Me. Me too.” The other Ba’Neesh yelled out, Vrill running up and down the words.

The mules crept forward, clearly afraid, and offered their wounds to one after the other, Eric included. He made sure every Ba’Neesh had a taste although by the time they reached the last, there wasn’t much blood left to be licked. He stared at his wound in amazement, it was already sealing closed.

(I hope you enjoyed this taste of the Ba’Neesh. I did! Onward we go. A little blood for everyone today!)