Once inside the house he quickly became painfully aware of how sparse the place was. Getting a pot of tea together they sat down and Annie pointed at the TV which was still freeze framed on Joannes interview. Annie frowned “Why are you watching that? It got worse you know. Much worse”
Morgan stared at the screen deep in thought for a second “No I don’t know. Trying to find out and that’s why I’m watching. While I slept through it the entire world turned to shit, watching it bit by bit might help me understand. As for this? I don’t have a picture of her. I don’t have a picture of you. Is it so wrong that when I see her I keep the image on the TV? I am told things got bad with you and her. Well I want my memories. Sorry but I do. Turn it off it bothers you though”.
Without a word she walked over and turned off the TV then sat back down. “There are pictures. In storage at the convent in my personal effects. I’ll get them sent here and we can go through them. Think Dr Scott has some as part of her files as well. So anyway Jesus. I had intended to start light, what’s this with my dad the heartbreaker, who is this Carly lady and what have you done to her”
“I have done nothing to “this Carly Lady” young lady. This is not how I expected a trainee nun to talk you know. Ok Carly is the name of the lady who runs the officers wives cooking classes. I attended my first session and got in a fight with your Doctor Scott over my going on a date with a friend of hers. It escalated and we both got thrown out of the class. If you weren’t here then going and grovelling to her was on my to do list” Morgan confessed.
Annie squinted and said “how do you know Dr Scott?” which led to a discussion about waking in a hospital bed and annoying people by being basically ok. He stopped at his abrupt departure which had her half laughing and half gasping and switched back to her.
Her story was not so entertaining. Some of the details he already had an idea of while doubting that the surprises and sudden events that had shocked a fourteen year old girl would have been excruciatingly obvious and inevitable to an adult. He had not realised that Joanne had also been hospitalised for some weeks after the bridge incident leaving her in the care of family friends. The financial difficulties were a slow rolling disaster with only one income coming in and that being sporadic due to Joanne’s recuperation bills piled up. Stuff was sold, luxuries forgone. Then the legal battle with the insurance started. Annie’s voice started to break up and tears threatened to escape watery eyes.
Morgan interrupted her with more tea deciding it would be a good time to recount to her his time getting to and dealings in Conwy. As this was his daughter for the first time he held nothing back including a discussion about voice and its brief enigmatic discussion with him. He initially glossed over his difficulties but halfway through realised that without explaining how he got into the fights the story made no sense. He backtracked and included Skender this time. When he discussed finding none but the dead for his family and how he ended up crying in the graveyard at his parents church much to Father Emmett’s alarm they both cried for a bit.
Annie recovering first declared it was her turn and started to talk about the legal battles. Whether it was fair or not Morgan had no idea but she blamed a lawyer who had moved into there life and into Joannes bed. Apparently he could sort out all the legal woes and get all the money sorted with a brilliant legal manoeuvre. It failed, he went and now after his fees they were truly broke whilst Joanne was truly bitter. Eventually latching onto some activists who promised to pay her legal fees if she would do media the scheme around some sort of fanciful feminist legal theory about his living being used to block her right to be an independent woman was born. Apparently Joanne had got drunk one night and explained in detail to Annie just how stupid a theory this was but she needed someone to pay the legal bills. In the morning she had refused to acknowledge the conversation so that was that. Somehow this farce just went on and on and on leading to the court day in the Bailey. When she mentioned the Bailey she just stopped and shrunk in on herself. After a few moments Morgan decided to intervene.
He talked about meeting Patel, Getting recruited to SCAR being revealed as build zero, being recruited into training and getting to know his squad. This got him to the hospital visit of her where he discovered his ability to interact and in some cases command alien tech. He used that newfound ability to save her arm thereby revealing it to all around. When she apologised he told her that was a fathers role, to help his family even at cost to himself. Then he mentioned the implications of his talk to voice specifically the absurd lifespan and the million core problem. To save time he made the observation that these were nice problems to have but even with that caveat they were problems.
Annie at this point apologised, she had no more life shattering dilemmas to discuss. She was recovering though she was not getting any function in her right arm, a doctor was helping her to deal with trauma which apart from ruining her dads dating life was going fine and since taking vows was not on the cards maybe get a job as well. However none of this told her what the gossip was? Morgan after asserting there being no gossip immediately plunged into a description of the excruciating shopping trip with Marie and Helen as an escort. Somehow while asking about Corporal Patel the gym session was mentioned and Annies eyes lit up with a subject she could get her teeth into.
Despite her obvious glee at having some gossip at last to chew over her first reaction was surprisingly thoughtful “You know Dad you have the same problem as me. No goals, Wait hear me out. I was the sick girl who couldn’t do anything drifting into religious orders because that’s where gravity took me and maybe a life of service to others would help when I had no idea what to do for me. At least that’s what I told myself and then you come along and suddenly its my job to run my life again. And I don’t know what I’m doing”
Morgan leaned over and patted her on the hand “Nobody ever does.” She continued “Yeah ok Wendy says the same but the thing is I know that’s my problem and I don’t think you do. Dad what are you doing. Really what are you doing? Let me guess, drifting. Just drifting along with everyone telling you what to do and then being surprised that nothing you want has happened”
“Love you too my dear. I mean I woke up and my world had changed. Working towards a pension and hopefully grandkids with a wife and a house was my plan. Still trying to find my feet after frelling aliens turned up and turned my plans upside down!” Morgan started reasonably but ending with genuine frustration to which Annie looked exceptionally unsympathetic. “So that is why your plans crashed and burned. Ok. What’s your current plan. I mean if you are trying to imitate a leaf in the wind good job but otherwise get a grip. I need my Dad.”
He stared at her with an expressionless face for ten seconds then sighed “What do you suggest. What do you need. What do you expect?” came out in a clipped flat monotone. Annie breathed a sigh of relief tension leaving her body “Thanks Dad, I was worried you would lose your temper at that. Ok its like Wendy said, you need short and long term goals. Set your long term goals and make your short term actions move towards them.” Her hand made waving motions as if trying to animate the sentence and Morgan watched it quietly.
“Still time to lose my temper Ann, ok couple of things. How long term? I mean when you have died of old age and the grains of dust that make you have all been lost I will still have spent a small fraction of my life. Watching you, no watching everyone I know die of old age is a short term goal for me. What should I plan for in the long term dearest?”.
More wary Annie shifted in her seat but ploughed on anyway “Geez dad, grim much? I mean in the really long term pick a big project. Work out the steps for it. Implement them. In the short term though its possible that buying me a house is a good short term project, especially as you seem to be defining it. Good plan for you? Get a job, I mean a real one not playing soldiers. Wendy says jobs provide structure”
He was starting to get more and more irritated by “Wendy says” but not knowing anything about therapy he kept a lid on it. With a mental effort he forced his thoughts back to a calm place and changed the subject to what Annie was going to do.
Apparently she was considering nursing but had been advised a one armed nurse would find it hard to get employment. Since she had the grades dietician had been recommended but she was truly unimpressed by the thought. There was about another four weeks before she had to leave the hospital especially since she had no intention of doing a Dad and running away. The long and the short of it was that she needed to find a job and a home that would keep her whilst she trained up at whatever she ended up doing. Kids, she wanted to settle and have kids this being the main reason religious orders were out of consideration so being around men would be good as well. Penny dropping Morgan groaned and asked “so do you want me to check the regs on family members in this housing?”. Annie beamed pulling out a sheaf of papers “No need. Here let me show you the relevant regs and the personal information about me needed. Can we have a look round now? How big are the bedrooms?”
Suppressing a laugh he showed her round and discussed practicalities about washing and tidying all the while wondering whether he should resent the manipulation. At the end of the day his daughter needed help and he could provide it, not much else was needed to be said so he dropped it.
The rest of the discussion was cut short when an alarm on her phone beeped and they piled back into the issued jeep and drove her back to the gate for pickup by a very similar ambulance to the one that had dropped her off. Morgan was given instructions about where to return the jeep and having done so he jogged back to his house. Despite having plans about explaining to some and meeting others the conversation had hit a chord with him. Sitting down he thought about what she had said, the future and what he would se . They were dark and troubling thoughts that stayed with him the rest of the day and into the night.
The next day he woke up and realised he had come to a few conclusions. Annie was right about short and long term goals first of all. Secondly whatever goal he set he would need others to work for it as well, his ability to make others better whilst not improving himself limited him in some ways but if he worked through others the sky was the limit. While he may not have found a good long term goal he noted that the third prospectus for an Open University course had come through so he resolved to read and decide that night. That at least was a short term goal. Maybe medium term?
Ignoring the prompt about the days training the core was trying to foist on him he got breakfast and wandered round to Carly’s house. He was surprised to see Michael leaving and he stopped to say hello to him. Morgan approached him “Hi sorry didn’t know you would be here. I need to grovel a bit to the lady of the house Carly, is she your partner?”
Michael smiled, an odd expression on his face “Yes she is my better half. I heard about the farrago at the class didn’t realise it was you though. Good luck.” Morgan waved thanks and Michael continued “See you later at the labs, do you know what time the power up session is starting?”.
Confused he replied “ I thought we were giving the guys time to read the recommendations and doing the upgrades tomorrow?”. Michael nodded agreement “Ah I see the confusion. Yes the choice team are being given a day to reconsider. The assigned team are being done today. Don’t worry they have been told to be on the best of behaviours so you won’t need to knock them out this time.” With a somewhat wistful air he continued “yes no need to knock them out at all.” With that he waved and left leaving Morgan to quietly fume about people just assuming that they could organise him. Pulling himself together he knocked on the door and waited for it to be answered.
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Carly was wearing an apron bearing the slogan “the soufflé don’t care” and she huffed a greeting. “Mr Oxbridge if you’ve come to apologise don’t bother it wasn’t your fault anyway. What I do need to know is if you and Wendy can be civil to each other or must I keep you apart”.
With a laugh he responded “well there goes half my script for grovelling apologies. I hope so. Look if you see it like that I’ll go and chat to her and see where we stand. I mean maybe I should have done that first I suppose”.
A scornfully raised eyebrow was her only reaction then “Yes. Come back when you have and we’ll make arrangements for whatever case transpires” and the door was gently closed.
After some thought he decided to go to the SPS offices and see what he could do to get Annie on base. On his way he saw Poppy who noticed him a few seconds later and then tried desperately to find a way to change direction and get away. Deliberately oblivious Morgan smiled and nodded at her which she nervously returned. “Mr Oxbridge, Morgan, I feel I must apologise for the misunderstanding yesterday with your daughter”
A raised hand cut her off “Think no more of it. I am busy now but if you are curious pop round later and I will explain the strange saga of me. To you. Again. For now I appear to be busier than even I knew so I must bid you adieu”. With a grateful nod she left and he carried on to the offices. Much as he might have enjoyed being vindictive she was in charge of the women’s social activities and it was probably not wise to give her a grudge to hold.
The SPS office despite being incredulous at Annies age got the ball rolling straight away. Shockingly the data was entered on the screens and submitted within 15 minutes of his entry all the while listening to Irish country music. Leaving and at a loose end he thought about what he could do and realising that everybody he knew would be busy at something checked todays torture/training program. Ignoring the more stupid requirements (why would he apply electric shocks to himself over at least 60% of his body?) he found a space and started to stretch.
Two hours later sweating with a mixture of exertion and sunshine he returned home and had a shower. There was an Email waiting instructing him to attend the science building at eleven am and wear smart uniform as the MOD civil servants would be there again. Assuming that this was due to the assigned team power ups that he had only just found out about it he got changed and headed out. When he got to the building he was admitted quickly and led to the same room as yesterdays interviews had been held in. The same people were present in the room but there were six cots laid out and no chair was available for Morgan behind the desk.
James stood and addressed the room “We would like to thank Mr Morgan for agreeing to continue upgrading the control group of special branch specials. We do keep saying that we need a better name for that” Pausing for a laugh the silence lasted until he continued “Mr Morgan you will assign each member of the squad the following abilities to complement the Special traits they already enjoy. Each squad member will get a spatial awareness function, a ballistic accuracy function, a storage space and a fast movement function. Is that clear”
Getting annoyed he nodded and asked “Am I safe to assume that they all have four cores free? Will any need further upgrades to complete allocation?”. James paused, clearly he had not actually been expecting a question, the fact it was pertinent made it worse. Robert interjected “As I understand you will be able to ascertain that yourself. Assign the described abilities and discuss later what else gets added” Morgan nodded and forbore speculating about if anyone had less than four.
Another few minutes of droning on and then the squad were led in, whilst by no means a fully committed army man to Morgan there posture and bearing seemed sloppy somehow. Despite having been briefed before Morgan stood at ease while essentially the same speech was given again this time to the squad members. He did note that despite his being an arse to them earlier none of them were giving him dirty looks and he decided to give them a fair shot rather than being awkward. Eventually the talking stopped and they all laid down on the cots presumably laid out for just that purpose.
Walking up to the first he shook him by the hand and asked him did he consent to the procedure. Giving an amused look the leader replied “Really? Ok yeah I give consent” and then immediately sagged back into the bed as the affects were applied. Standing up he noted “further two spare cores before levelling becomes available” and moved to the next. All of them seemed amused that he asked for consent prior to applying the changes but that just made him more dogmatic that this was needed. Since nobody challenged it the procedure presumably just gained a new item. Nobody had a shortage of spaces but only two of them had no spares afterwards.
All the high ranking bods left the room leaving him with the still silent squad. They quickly and predictably woke in the order he had administered to them. The implication that none had levelled up was not lost on Morgan at least but the implications needed more thought. These people may have done a lot but it clearly was not the sort of thing that caused the accumulation of experience. There were probably further implications but he instead assisted them to recover. Looking at the squad leader he asked what had been explained to them about the new cores.
The answer it seemed was very little. Nothing about levelling. Nothing about core function or core assignment. The blasé acceptance of whatever was done to them offended Morgan even while he accepted what they were ok with was a choice only they could make. Deciding that just out of common humanity they needed help anyway despite their obvious indifference. He told each how many unassigned cores they had and then left reflecting about how you help someone who does not seem to care about what was being done to them.
Once outside the room they were gathered in he felt deeply unsatisfied and worried about whether he had done the right thing. On the basis that you can’t solve every problem at once he sent a text to Marie outlining the problem with cooking and asking if Wendy would be ok with him coming round to discuss if not a truce at least a cease fire then headed back to his house to review the course prospectus. Feeling like he was drifting and reluctant to invite voice to torture him he instead went to the commissars and bought a notebook. He sat down and taking a black marker pen wrote GOALS on the outside. Staring at the blank page for a while he picked up a biro and wrote
1) Get Annie Set up
2) Get rid of the aliens
3) Go on a date without a chaperone.
Looking at them he wondered whether number three might not be the hardest to organise. Obviously he needed to organise his thoughts better but it had clarified his thinking. None of those had included ‘get my superpowers on line’ or ‘make the army filled with unstoppable super soldiers’ yet those were what everyone else including voice was pushing on him. Status he asked himself.
Current Status
Maximum capacity
Health
97%
99%
Senses assistance
18%
100%
Physical assistance
22%
100%
Build systems
Not Implemented
Not implemented
Power bleed
16.5%
2%
Recovery systems
81%
100%
Status - other
98.2% pending
One million forty eight thousand two hundred and seven functional clusters installed of which one million twenty five thousand eight hundred and seventy three functional clusters are currently unassigned. Would you like me to list all clusters Y/N
Looking at it he decide that it was pretty much unchanged with a slow and steady improvement in both sense and physical assistance whilst everything else was similar. Pulling out his notebook again he flipped to the back page and wrote DAILY SCHEDULE.
2 Hours voice inspired PT
1 Hour Power growth
3 Hours study time
This seemed reasonable. Include cooking sleeping and ablutions and that left him roughly 9 hours a day free for personal time and/or work. Turning to the front he added a new goal
4) check current shipping market, find a job in shipping again.
The army was never going to be his life, his future was not going to be endless war, fighting and preparing to fight. His phone buzzed with an unknown number and answering it Dr Scott started to talk “I understand you want to talk, thrash things out Marie says?”
Changing mental gears Morgan answered “Yeah, we left it badly yesterday and I wanted to you know see if we could at least be civil. In addition I really do want to learn how to cook better and presumably Carly won’t tolerate us battling. So we either learn to get along or arrange a rota for lessons. Either way we need to talk”
After a pause Wendy agreed “Yes that’s all true. When and where? You suggested at my place presumably so Marie could police us. No, just no. I would suggest public and neutral.” Wondering at her vehemence about keeping Marie out of it “Ok let’s make it simple, Allan’s snack bar at the gym and whenever you are free today sound good?”
Wendy ummed for a second and then said “I have an hour’s consultation starting in thirty minutes. Shall we say in two hours?”.After quickly agreeing he ended the call and went back to his house to kill time waiting. Two hours later he was drinking a coffee as Wendy walked into Allan’s snack bar. Seeing him she nodded then getting a pot of tea and some biscuits walked to his table. She sat down and tried to look anywhere but at him.
After an awkward few seconds waiting for her to stop obviously looking elsewhere Morgan decided to be the bigger man and started talking “I want to continue our talk. I asked could you think of what I had done to you. Not what you had done because of me that turned out to be foolish or things that coincidentally happened at the same time as I was around. What have I, me, personally done to you”
Finally she looked at him. “Things I did that were foolish?” she snapped .Morgan sighed and then gently said “The form. I haven’t seen it but are you really Dr Married with a stick up her bum?”. A bitter laugh escaped her and she replied ‘Well at the moment I suppose I am. The divorce request arrived yesterday so not for long. Okay Mr Morgan yes I thought about what you said and I concede your point. My travails though not helped by you are certainly not attributable to you.”
Morgan sat back and while his mouth said thank you he noted that when she was upset her choice of words got really irritating. He decided that was good enough though to continue “We are at loggerheads, can we at least not fight? Either by being civil or avoiding one another can we stop fighting. Is that an acceptable short term goal for this meeting?”
Her eyes focused on him and she nodded adding with a wry note “Talking to Annie I see. You know counselling really does not work well in a game of telephone.” She sat back and after a moment continued “ok we can be civil. Lets be honest, I can be civil. You always have been. Okay some free advice as an apology as it were. Don’t take both your girlfriends on the same date. Marie told me about Patel and the pouch.”
Morgan stared at her then said “I had thought she was going to deny it ever happened, Ok with that to be honest. For the record Corporal Patel is not my girlfriend. Also her coming along was not my idea”
Wendy sat back and grimaced “let me guess, it was hers? Actually don’t bother answering that - of course it was. Ok, ok. Let me think” she sipped at her tea and frowned at him. Suddenly she started to talk “There are worse things than rudeness you know. I had a lecturer in criminal behaviour who would always point out that it was easier to deal with clarity than courtesy. But it’s not courtesy with you is it. I would have loved to talk to your wife, find out how she got you down the aisle. How did she force you Mr Oxbridge? I am sure you loved her but the thought that you might have actually converted that to action beggars belief”
Morgan sourly replied “can I check, is this what you mean by civil?” which led to a laugh from Wendy.
“Oh no Mr Oxbridge. This is not civil, this is insight. You drifted into marriage work and life. You further drifted to a confrontation that should have killed you and if you ever want to tell me why it didn’t please go ahead and explain, then you fled people trying to help you. You seriously hurt and injured others according to your arrest report by the Major because you refused to take a stand until a situation had got out of control. Now here you sit in an army uniform not enlisted waiting for induction and drifting. The only power you need Mr Oxbridge is the ability to see what’s happening and make your mind up what to do about it. I know you apparently have super powers coming out of your ass but really I do not fear you as an enemy, you will never be that decisive”
That whole speech had been delivered in a fast and vicious tone which Morgan had to pay attention to or miss what was said. When she had finished he sipped at the dregs of his coffee and got up to go. Looking at Wendy he shook his head then said “cant help wondering if you couldn’t just go back to insulting me. It’s quicker”
She took another sip of tea and remaining seated she stared into the cup avoiding eye contact “Mr Oxbridge. I deal with poor unfortunates whose minds have shattered through stress, tragedy and poor life choices. Those I can help and empathise with, when I meet someone with no particular problems who is screwing things up due to general ineptness I am afraid that I cannot empathise with. Grow a spine Mr Oxbridge, grow a spine”