Unlike the Lab tech it seemed that the Major and the Corporal had been given time to get a kit bag together. Whilst the two of them came in Graham demanded “look date and time as precise as you can manage. Date and time of this incident. To the second if possible” Guessing at a few minutes past seven he gave the date. Only the data entry guy with a lost expression on his face was reacting in any sort of understandable way. Well it was time to be more assertive –”Graham, sorry but I think we have plenty of time for this later. Where do we sleep?” Graham cut off and the residential part of the building was explored after some organising.
Somehow inevitably Channing ended up deciding who went where once Graham and Michael refused to move from the rooms they used. Morgan ended up in a room he guessed at four metres by six metres if you included the attached washroom. Thinking about the tent he had just left he agreed that this was good enough. The room was unused and needed airing out so he started to tidy up and dust. After half an hour Corporal Patel turned up “ok FYI I am three doors down and .. dear god what are you doing?” Morgan turned blanket in hand that he had been shaking to get rid of dust and looked at the mess he had made around him. “Its a work in progress” he replied. She looked round and then with a sigh “you haven’t even been through basic have you? You don’t know how to stow kit or tidy. Ok watch me, do what I do. Learn because I aint doing this again”. Twenty minutes later the place looked tidy edging towards pleasant. Morgan looked round and then said “thank you Helen that would have taken me ages” and she huffed at him “Thats Corporal Patel to you. Until you get through basic you do as I say and then shut up. Look basic training its basic ok? Its not about making you badass, its about making you not a liability. We teach you marching, shooting, drill tactics Etc but we also teach you how to look after yourself so nobody has to look after you. You at the moment are a SMACK, soldier minus ability coordination kit. I don’t have the patience for training SMACKs so don’t expect me to do that. However the Major asked me to make sure you were settled and that probably means you are my problem. Dont be my problem.” She strode out slamming the door shut then a few seconds later it opened again and she popped her head round the door “yes three doors down. Shower and bath facilities are mine first and don’t dare use them without checking.” The doors was again slammed. After a few seconds of watching dust settle from the door frame he shouted “OK”.
The next couple of days a routine of sorts was established. In the morning the science team would do there allotted routine tasks of testing and report writing. Major Channing would disappear for an hour reporting and presumably been given orders every morning making it clear that keeping Morgan out of trouble was the corporals problem. This was interpreted as make him do housework and physical exercise. As boring as that was he got a few notifications of core formation out of it so he assumed progress was being made even though extreme ironing confused him as a core.
Michael and Graham took turns quizzing him for the first two days. An extremely detailed life story was established on day one and then it was gone over in detail the next day. On the third day they were both there waiting for him when it was time for the grilling to start. They indicated he should wait and after a few minutes Channing joined them. Sitting down he said “So you gentlemen have some sort of preliminary conclusions for me?”. Graham nodded “thats correct” and looked at Michael. Michael pointed at Morgan “He’s lying. I don’t know how much but he is lying”. Morgan seemed to be the only one shocked by that because Channing just made a go on gesture with his hand. “We have three major discrepancies. Firstly his memory is too good. His story has not changed at all, he has not forgotten any detail and everything checks out. Without going into the unreliability of eye witnesses that’s just not possible. Secondly his recovery. I agree with those two doctors you arrested for defacing public records, even with physical augmentation he should not have recovered that fast. Caveat – no physical augmentation yet measured. I’ll get to the reason for that caveat later. Ignoring physical recovery his psychological stability is well better than you would expect. Lastly his story. He has just done much more than he should be able to. If he was telling us everything then he could not have dealt with those thugs so easily. Vince Crabson in particular was a semi pro boxer, welterweight and when questioned gave a terrifying account of someone moving with inhuman speed punching with inhuman power and ignoring his best blows. The attractive corporal is something special but frankly not sure even she could have done what was described. I confess to some confusion about why the late Skenders firearm was even noticed.”
After that speech all heads turned to look at Morgan who was sitting deeper in his chair trying not to panic. The fact that he wasn’t gibbering lent credence to the comment about psychological stability and he started to speak “Its outrageous, what do you mean lying. You said yourself everything checked out”. Channing was cold both in demeanour and tone “Everyone keeps stuff back. Your abilities however derived are part of you and it feels personal. We understand. Once. Let me be clear, omission is lying. If there is anything you would like to add to your account now is the time”
The silence hung heavy in the air. Morgan swallowed once, twice and then said “nobody has mentioned the status window”. Graham shuffled in his seat “Explain what you mean by a status window”. The next six minutes were filled with various misunderstandings until Michael interjected. “I think I am going to show you something. It might save time.” And then he led them down a wooden panelled corridor to a incongruous steel barrier with two armed guards. He signed them in and Channing muttered something about it being amazing what these old house had hidden inside.
Doors opened they were led into the first busy lab room Morgan had seen here. One side of the room was dominated by medical sample cases some labelled with foreign flags. Staff were taking samples out and placing them in a device attached to a metal disc with wires attached. When Channing tried to look at it Graham pushed him back, “sorry but that’s irreplaceable and you’re not. Nobody touches that without authority”. Two people in lab coats were both staring at a screen. Every time a sample was placed in the tray they would say “no” and the next sample would be placed. After about forty samples the screen flickered to life and a display appeared filled with bizarre alien symbols.
The sample was placed to one side and the routine recommenced. Michael ushered them out and once the guards had recorded them as absent he looked at Morgan – “so is that a status window?” Morgan considered then nodded “well mine is in English but yeh it looks like its in the same format”. Graham said “well gibberish is all we get. Could you at least tell us the column headings?”
Current Status
Maximum capacity
Health
91%
99%
Senses assistance
8%
100%
Physical assistance
11%
100%
Build systems
Not Implemented
Not implemented
Power bleed
27%
2%
Recovery systems
68%
100%
Status - other
99.63% pending
One million forty eight thousand two hundred and seven functional clusters installed of which one million forty eight thousand one hundred and seventy five functional clusters are currently unassigned. Would you like me to list all clusters Y/N
Pulling up his menu Morgan responded ”on mine the top two are current capacity middle row right most is maximum. The extreme left is describing what the numbers are assigned to. First is health, second is assistance sensory, third assistance physical, fourth build systems, fifth power bleed, sixth recovery systems, seventh is status other. I assume that is just miscellaneous junk. The writing underneath tells you how many functions are available and how many of those functions are currently working”. Graham nodded and pulled a sheet of paper from his pocket, looking at it he agreed “Peru get the headings in Swahili and they translate pretty much as described. They don’t get any data though do you? About yourself?” Morgan shuffled his feet before replying “those numbers seem kind of personal to me” Channings red face and incipient tirade was halted with a raised hand from Graham “we can talk through them and discuss what they mean for you. You know to help you improve” Aware it was bullshit he agreed with a nod. It was probably the best he was going to get.
They went back to the lab he was used to and Channing turned to the two researchers “does that satisfy you?”. Michael was silent for a few moments then “No. It explains his speed of progress being able to direct his training. His memory is still too detailed. There are details as well about how and when he has trained his abilities that he could share to make his account more rounded”. They all stared at him again. This was rubbish. It was too much, was this rehearsed? Suddenly he closed his eyes and mentally asked is any core actively functioning right now?
Resist interrogation core active, Bluff core active
Bluff core? Well he was trying to look like he wasn’t panicking so ok maybe that made sense. This may have looked like a conversation but this was an interrogation. Thinking for a second an answer came to him. “I have no explanation for my memory except that its always been good. As for training that occurred as and when possible. Look I have cooperated and I am starting to feel pretty under appreciated here. You have a job, ok but accept my good faith or go jump off a bridge” .
They all looked at each other and some sort of debate was occurring. Eventually Channing stood up “thank you for showing me the read device – do what you will, my way is always open later” and left. Watching him leave Morgan spoke to nobody in particular “For clarity, that was a threat right?”
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Michael ignored that and showed him a photograph “This picture was taken of the front room of a hoarders bungalow” when Morgan looked at it to see why it was being shown Michael replaced it in the envelope it had come from. “See you tomorrow Mr Oxbridge. It seems today you have escaped incarceration”
Waiting outside was Corporal Patel in Army PT uniform. Looking up at him she grinned “PT for you today. Been told to see what it takes to make you sweat.” With a cackle she pointed to a pile of clothing “thats your PT kit. Good luck keeping it clean soldier because it better be cleanly folded every morning as part of your kit inspection.” Morgan picked it up and whilst looking for a place to change idly asked “What kit inspection?”
Clearly that had been an ambush because as soon as he asked that she shouted at him to get changed and kept up a verbal barrage inches from his face whilst he got into his PT kit. As soon as he was vaguely halfway into the kit she shouted at him to keep up and ran. Fast, freakishly fast. Taking a few moments to realise what was happening she was out of sight before he started after her. Using his stronger senses he realised he could smell her soap (coal tar?) and hear her feet pounding and set off after her. Running out of the building for the first time in days he saw her lithe form racing across the grass into the pear trees. The game appeared to be catch me if you can. For the first ten minutes she just outpaced him but that was sorted as soon as he decided to take it seriously. As soon as he started outpacing her on the flats her tactics changed and she started to throw things at him whenever he got close. The juggling core made short work of that tactic and he tagged her by grabbing her shoulder easily. Bad mistake as he flew through the air, bereft of traction unable to be sure if it was judo or raw power that had thrown him. Landing he looked up and saw her furious face. It was pushed straight into his “NEVER TOUCH A SUPERIOR WITHOUT PERMISSION. NEVER TOUCH A MEMBER OF THE OPPOSITE SEX WITHOUT PERMISSION. IS THAT CLEAR SOLDIER?”. Lying there he just said yes. He got up and she immediately started haranguing him about getting grass stains on him. Realising that this was all to keep him off balance mentally he closed his eyes and tensed his legs to relax. He went flying and he just assumed it was her fist that bounced off his head. “AM I KEEPING YOU AWAKE” roared in the distance.
During the next couple of hours he found he could be worked into the ground and this small young woman was sadistically gleeful at the sight. As she announced chow time he dropped the rucksack he had been issued with and it dropped with a definite thud into the wet soil. Periodically weights had been placed in it in addition to the basic 20 kilos of kit. Every time new weights had been added the routine was the same, chase the corporal, fight the corporal, take a beating, return to the house and recover whilst more weights were added. He assumed it was some kind of testing regime but other than getting cores of Hunting, pursuit, brawling sub category dodging it just didn’t seem to be doing anything at all.
Patel came and sat down next to him her skin glistening with sweat in a way that made her glow. Morgan was too tired to care, he could barely listen. “Well I’ve got bad news for both of us. The estimate of your physical is somewhere about 10%. That’s an issue for training. People need to be trained for combat by near peers otherwise they rely on power rather than skill. Round here the only one who fits that bill is me. So I’m stuck with a SMACK. Lovely. For the record every time you screw up I will be there to tell you about it so at least some of it is going to be fun.” Standing up she said “I am currently considered an active asset – that means if a special needs to be smacked down theres a good chance me and the major will be doing it. If you’re assigned to me you’re coming along. That Ruck was holding 167 kilos and you were doing cross country runs fighting and obstacle courses whilst wearing it. Until told otherwise your job is pack mule. No more testing today-if nothing else none of even our augmented rucks could hold more. Tomorrow report to the grounds at 06:00 for basic induction. You will see me twice a week for PT. Dismissed”. It was lucky she walked away because there was no chance he could have.
Despite the ungodly hour the basic induction seemed almost babyishly gentle compared to the corporals treatment of him. His fellow inductees were not so blasé. Finding it difficult to line up and some vomiting after the first press up. The drill Sergeants yelled pushed and bullied and until everyone was responding, not always correctly but responding. Once that was achieved they were herded to get uniforms and kit assigned and then split into squads. Morgan’s was assigned to wood squad which had eight people in it including him. Wood squad was assigned to a draftey wooden building with a dozen bunks in it. The four last bunks had a full kit laid out on them already so the remaining bunks were selected on a first come first served basis. Miraculously they were given a whole ten minutes to pick bunks and stow kit before bellows outside drew them outside. They were then made to stand while a new sergeant shouted at them about military law and how they would be treated. The speech was long, boring and contained a lot nobody could be expected to remember and could go to jail for forgetting.
After some time standing and being shouted at they were all trotted into a building and sat down. A video was played “You are easy to kill” which basically told them even with training and special abilities they still needed to be cautious. After that another video was played “The OODA loop” and then they were told to return to barracks. Once there two corporals basically told them how to do everything. Wash shave dress tidy everything. Then they were told to be on the parade ground for 06:00 tomorrow and left alone.
Three of the squad wouldn’t talk. The remaining four were all male from early teens to mid thirties and of varying sociability. The main introduction was every time “so what can you do?”. When he just claimed enhanced physicality the conversation slid past him. Isaac was the youngest and he demonstrated levitation though only a few inches. Arthur and Ronnie both produced fire though in varying ways. Arthur could project streams from his hand whilst Ronnie could make object in his line of sight catch fire. Harvey whilst initially reluctant confessed to enhanced physicality plus heat vision. They all discussed what they would be used for and eventually even the other three joined in revealing one lightning thrower (James) one fast mover (Brody) and the last guy (Harold) who claimed to be immune to poison.
The next day he learned that he had an extra task squeezed into his training routine, every day for 15 minutes he was interviewed by Graham the first 5 minutes of which every time were a memory test of the hoarders picture. In addition arithmetic tests and co-ordination were carried out by Graham. This was in addition to the battery of tests both academic and physical each squad was assigned to do .The squad were encouraged to do everything together and they were praised or punished by officers together. NCO’s would provide individual critiques but the officers would punish or praise as a group and by the end of the third day everyone was starting to pull together. At the end of the first 5 days a sergeant got them together and told them that the tests would not be discussed until week 13 prior to first leave. At that time each would have individual test results discussed for specific roles, ie mechanic, medic paratrooper etc. They would be given a weeks leave to think about it and then return pick a military operations speciality (MOS) so the next ten weeks would be aimed at whatever was chosen. Then came the bad news, as specials the choice they made was irrelevant. They would only be allowed into SCAR and could only choose MOS relevant to that unit. By choose he added think more told outright.
Brody and Harold were the only ones who complained, everyone else just went to sleep. Even Morgan despite his superior physical abilities was ground down by the exercises. What should have been an advantage soon had his whole squad resenting him as instead of being told to move a log up a hill they were given 23 and told not to let them touch the ground. When they managed that on the third try the instructors seemed to take it as a personal insult and got really creative.
The next two weeks blurred into each other it all getting rather easy for Morgan despite the instructors though he picked up an enormous amount of skills related to cleaning and maintaining he was more excited by the military skills he was learning both as cores and as a result of the training. He did like the drill sergeants explanation about why they were spending so much time learning to clean “You are all training to be big rough tough heroes, well It’s a sad truth that nobody is a hero to the person who cleans their underwear. If you are going to be a hero wash your own ruddy stuff”. The only time he was stretched was by Corporal Patels twice weekly visits. Every time he thought he was getting better she would grind him down again. He hoped it was cathartic for her.
One change Morgan did make was to his display notifications, he found the arrival of the prompt in his field of vision was distracting to say the least. After some experimentation he decided to keep the prompts showing but turn them to invisible by default and only becoming visible when he gave the command to change display properties. This let him carry on through the day and review his progress when he had free time.
On day 25 there was an incident that told Morgan a lot that everyone else just took to be common knowledge. They had been getting ready to close quarters battle drill when they were told to return to barracks and make ready for impending attack. The chit chat in the barracks immediately turned to what was happening and a consensus of an overfly was reached. Apparently the claim that nobody could predict alien attacks whilst not wrong was incomplete. The alien craft was trackable and SCAR units were put on alert when it had been detected in an orbit which would pass over the British isles. This was because SCAR had an actual objective of controlling specials to maintain public order but an officially stated objective of either preventing hard landings or more realistically getting some revenge in. They were being put on alert ready to respond following any assault on civilian population centres. A few hours later sombrely watching footage of the carnage in Bandol they were quietly stood down and training was rescheduled.
His routine changed again on day thirty one when Channing arrived. After a quick conversation the drill instructor told him to accompany the major who wordlessly walked to a jeep and indicated the passenger seat to him. Once they set off Channing said “off to meet your daughter. She has an important decision to make and seems to think you will help her make it. Her therapist has refused to help us persuade her so you are ordered to persuade her that the operation is required.” Morgan did not know what to say to the arrogance so he just gawped and then said “What operation?”. Channing frowned “Does it matter?” and Morgan unable to take the conversation seriously anymore just laughed at Channing. “Ok guessing you and Isobelle are still having trouble finding the G?”. Channing failed to respond for a few seconds and then said “I hope for your sake there’s a reason for that insubordination soldier”. Uncaring and speech still interrupted by laughter he said “Yes- I mean with a statement like that its clear you don’t have children.” He stopped laughing. “I will act in my daughters interest and orders be damned. Just accept that and tell me whats going on”
Channing drove in silence for a while until he pulled up outside an office building off base. “Two children, boy and a girl, 3 years and 1 year old. Your daughter has a potentially valuable alien tech implant in her right arm. It is causing severe medical difficulties including septicaemia. The proposed medical treatment is amputation since there appears to be no safe method of removal. Your daughter has refused consent for that operation. The therapist assigned has refused to declare her incompetent so we are left with persuasion. As her father know that this operation though brutal and life altering will save her life. Is that good enough an explanation for you?” As they got out of the jeep Morgan asked “this implant – its the one the eggheads are after?” .Channing nodded. “She seemed stable when I saw her if not healthy, why has that changed?” Channing nodded again “five days ago another piece of alien tech – a power system of some kind was applied to the device to see if it facilitated removal. It did not. The device however reacted intermittently glowing. Purpose of that glow, if any, unknown. Your daughters condition has since then worsened.” Pointing to the building Morgan asked “is she in there?” another nod. “Well lets go see her then”.
On the way in he asked “I presume the doctors who applied the device were not medical ones?” to which Channing replied “That’s a fair assumption though they had told the doctors what they were going to do”. Carefully sorting questions in his head “has this device been used in the past on one of these devices?” Following a shaken head he asked the next question “how and from whom was consent obtained?”. Channing opened the doors ushering him inside just pulled a face and then said “No idea, never occurred to ask”. Not satisfied but accepting a dead end when he saw it he went into the building.
The office building turned out to be a very upmarket private hospital. Channing was ushered in and Morgan followed. A series of corridors and he came to a room with two squaddies outside. Channing just breezed past them and Morgan followed in his wake.The room led to a well appointed private room. Annie was inside, face pale clinging onto the hand of a tall thin lady. Dr Scott looked at Morgan and visibly ground her teeth “what’s he doing here?”. Dr Scott, Annie, Morgan and Major Channing all started to talk at once.
The next couple of minutes were hectic. Eventually a couple of things were established. Dr Scott had been sentenced to ‘community service’ with SCAR for frivolous use of resources. Assigned to help Annie adjust to the need for amputation she had instead blocked attempts to declare her incompetent. Annie was doting on Dr Scott though she occasionally referred to her as mother superior. Channing wanted the tech and was inches away from pulling out a kukri and doing it himself. Morgan somehow eventually managed to kick everyone out of the room by leaning heavily on the whole next of kin thing so he could talk to Annie.
“Hello, how are you looks like a stupid question so..whats your thinking honey?” he waved at the arm. It was the first time he had seen it not slung up or encased in some sort of dressing and it was frankly disturbing to look at. The tech itself was visible as a metal disc half embedded in the arm. Morgan thought of it as a 2 inch washer somewhere between half and three quarters buried in her arm. It was a dull grey colour except for a black band round the outside edge. The wound it created though was the stuff of nightmares. The flesh had somehow gone into a semi liquid state oozing puss, blood and by the looks of the dressings around it lumps of intact muscle tissue. The disc had metal filaments that seemed to be slowly moving through her arm. Looking carefully at her he reached out and prodded the disc with a pencil. Nothing happened except for Annie looking at him and saying “well done, most people are terrified to touch it. I think some of them are surprised when I touch it”. He sat down taking her infirm hand in his. “Look honey a lot of people want that thing. It seems like it cant be pleasant to have” “Its not” she interrupted. Pausing for a second he continued “cant be pleasant to have in you. I get why an amputation seems extreme. Is there any other reason before we talk?” Annie stared at him for a few seconds “I cant even believe you are alive. This isn’t going to be sorted by calming me down dad.” He stayed holding her hand and eventually she started to talk “It was bad dad, in the bunker it was bad. People were just being slaughtered. We fought, we tried. They barely noticed. Everyone just got kind of fatalistic after a while. We were going to die and we spent time just adjusting to that. It shocked me that nobody committed suicide. Well I don’t think anyone did anyway.
When they released the first it was almost worse than just watching another die. We had gotten used to death but hope was the worst cruelty. I’ve not even told Wendy this bit” she was silent for a moment tears in her eyes. “She was nice. The lady who was supposed to help us. Gail I think her name was. Not sure when mum noticed that she had the escape colours but she put us all in a cubby hole. To hide she said. Then she murdered her to get the chip. She beat me, she beat me as I said no but she beat me and put the escape chip in me then pushed me out the door.” Annie sobbed covering her face with her one good hand. Morgan hugged her wordless. After a few seconds his voice hoarse he said “thats what parents do. They keep children safe. It sounds horrible but Annie in the same place I would have done it too. I would have helped her had I been there. You are here, alive. Its all that matters”. Grown men don’t cry so we will gloss over the next few minutes.
The protruding disc broke up the emotional babble both of them were indulging in by choosing to glow. Annie winced in obvious pain then wiped her eyes “oh its been doing that every few minutes for days now. Everytime the tendrils move causing more damage. Thats why amputation has become more urgent”
Morgan ignored her. He was staring at the wall his tear filled eyes riveted to a point in space. He heard her. He understood the point. It was just that when he had hugged her he had inadvertently directly touched the disc and now his vision was filled with text.
K11 monitoring System – Error report.
This unit has been placed in a subject that displayed autoimmune response to system intrusion. After marking subject unsuitable for dissection status changed to Test subject type Far Recon. Anomaly needs resolution.