King's County (4 page)

"No record, sure. I don't want to leave
a name or approve the card for anything. I'm really just looking
for a friend. Can you see if he’s here?"

"Sir, our guest’s activities are
strictly confidential. If..."

"I know. I just want to know if he’s
here. He’s a little out of his element. Kind of a rube. Can you
check?"

Her face was a mask but she gave in,
"What's his name?"

"Geake, starting with G.E. Sergeant,
what is it, Graham, I think."

"Nobody's here with that name,
Lieutenant. Sorry."

I plopped down on their plush white
sofa to figure out the next move. The hostess put up with having me
here but I knew I’d be booted before long.

"Ma’am, can you try the name Waller or
Lt. Waller."

She brightened, "Yes, we do have a Lt.
Waller. Would you like to send him a message?"

"So he’s back down that hallway? Yes,
tell him that Geake, G.E.A.K.E., wants to see him
immediately."

She took down the message on a folded
piece of thick, off-white stationary and summoned an
assistant.

"Take this to Lt. Waller in cloud suite
number 3." She said. The assistant, a short, pink haired girl in
spotless white overalls, scurried away. I watched her
leave.

"Hi, I think I'd like to get a room
now." I said. The mask reappeared.

"You want...a room?"

"Yeah, can I get one with a
kitchenette?"

"I'm not sure what that is, sir, and I
think you’re not being completely honest with me." Her mask
tightened, but then cracked, and she gave in again.

*

EXO 2066

We wore our space suits to the formal
media party. They asked us preselected questions and we read our
answers to them. Right afterward, we were shuffled off to a banquet
in an old air traffic control tower that overlooked the launch pad.
We stood near the buffet and ate crab claws and the writers and
reporters kept their distance from us.

There was one final debriefing and then
we took our suits off for the final medical. We re-suited and
walked a long hallway to a reception area where Ed said goodbye to
his parents and little sister. His mom cried a little. From there,
we stepped out into a clear plastic tunnel to walk to the ship.
Some lab coats were around to wave to us.

The next part was pretty bad, depending
on your perspective, uncomfortable to say the least. We were fitted
into our seats in the module. It wasn’t at all painful, just sort
of terrifying.

We were to be in our seats for the
entire trip. 26 years it ended up being; but they prepared for it
to be up to 50 years, in case of any contingencies.

We sat upright, legs bent from the hips
at 45 degrees; knees bent slightly, our entire lower body locked
into place. Our shoulders, arms and heads were free.

The suits regulated the surface of our
skin, the temperature and moisture. The white formula pills kept us
from aging. The chip did the rest to keep us healthy. Waste came
out through tubes and was recycled into all kinds of food and
beverages. One tube went up the ass, another tube your cock fit
into.

The Exosphere Lifter was a short, squat
black cylinder. Our module, a truck-sized misshapen gray egg, was
perched on top. The whole thing looked more like a giant kitchen
appliance than a space craft.

The lifter was ingenious, but very
simple in execution and purpose. Anything you could attach, it
would carry up 800 to 1000 km away from the Earth. The lifter
worked off of rapid magnetic inversion, which I can't explain but
it was a huge improvement over the enormous, loud chemical rockets
it replaced.

Ed and I sat waiting for the liftoff
with nothing to talk about. He reached into a vertical zipper
pocket and withdrew a purple pill. They were another new
technology. We both had dozens of them for the long
voyage.

"Too soon?" He said.

"Don’t you want to see the
liftoff?"

"I'll see it, just... Ah, you're
right." He put the pill back in his pocket. "Hey, let’s get this
show on the road!"

Control beeped on and spoke into our
ears:

"Artemis 1. Prepare for launch in
approximately one minute."

"We’re prepared, baby! Just chillin’
out in here." Ed said and drummed his palms on the pliant
armrest.

"Artemis 1. Prepare for
launch."

A minute passed.

"Artemis 1, prepare to launch in ten,
nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one - launching,
launching, launching."

We shot upward, slowed and dropped. For
a couple seconds it felt like we were floating. Then the heaviness
returned. The indicator passed 400kph, 500, 600, 700 and it stopped
there. Through the huge front window all we saw was blue. After
what felt like a few minutes, the sky began to darken. At the
bottom of the window, I saw the curve of the Earth. I looked over
at Ed. He winked – very slowly - and I knew he had taken the
pill.

*

Ruth 2092

"Lt. Waller! How nice to see
you!"

I found his room easily enough. As I
searched the halls, one of the Colombian women Geake had left the
bar with poked her head out of a doorway and looked at me kind of
funnily before popping back inside. I got there quickly and stuck
my boot in the threshold. She pushed back against the door pinching
my foot. I roared, braced my hands on the sides and kicked it open,
knocking her down on the thick white carpet.

Geake was in bed lying on his back. The
whole room, the walls and furniture were a pristine, pearly white.
The ceiling was a hologram of fluffy white clouds.

The bartender chick from earlier
cradled Geake's head in her lap. Her legs wrapped around his chest
and the snakes in her reddish brown braids curled around his and
her neck flicking their little tongues. She stared venom at me and
stroked Geake’s buzz cut hair.

"Hey, Lieutenant, sir. Are you mad?"
Geake said. But he wasn't getting up.

"I'm not...mad? What are you five? I'm
trying to keep you out of trouble." The Colombian chick on the
floor dog-crawled across the carpet, brushing past my legs on her
way out.

"What did I do, sir? I'm sorry. This is
all new to me." Snake lady stifled a laugh.

"Fucking around with these people,
you're gonna get us both in serious trouble, especially
you!"

"You already in trouble, boy!" It was
Alberto and his friend. They barged in the room and surrounded me.
In the light, I saw their thick arms and wrists. It occurred to me
that I might need some help.

"Sergeant, how about some
reinforcements here." I said while backing against the wall behind
me.

"Sorry. I'm so sorry..." Geake said and
started crying.

"You fucked up, man. You picked the
wrong room." Alberto’s companion spoke finally. He reached into his
jacket pocket searching around for something.

"Geake get up and help me
now!"

He cried louder and shook his
head.

Only one idea came to me. I rushed,
trying to escape in the space between them. Their arms were on me
but couldn't get a grip. I was free, almost at the door, and my
legs froze and went out from beneath me.

Alberto's friend held a plastic
gun-type thing. He quickly put it back in his pocket. Neither of
them were smiling.

*

Anderson Base

"I want to hear it in your words,
Lieutenant Waller. Please try to remember. It’s
important."

Colonel Jackson sat at his desk in
camouflage pajamas. He was fit and alert with closely cropped salt
and pepper hair. He leaned in at the waist awaiting my
response.

Geake and I had awoke together on the
bed in his room. We were both still paralyzed. The girls were gone.
Alberto and his piece of shit accomplice were gone.

A few meters away was a button built
into the wall. The pictogram seemed to indicate that pressing it
would summon an attendant. I had to think if that was what we
actually wanted to do.

It was wishful thinking at this point.
My legs weren't numb. I could feel them but I couldn't move them at
all. My arms were the same way but I could slightly shrug my
shoulders and move my head around.

"Anything to say for yourself,
Sergeant? Got any ideas?"

"I think she had a penis. I could feel
it on my neck." Geake said.

"You've got bigger problems right now.
We’ve obviously been drugged."

"It’ll wear off. Don't worry. Here, let
me try."

Geake grunted and twisted his body off
the bed but crashed onto the carpet with a soft thump.

"Nice. What about that button? Try and
crawl to the button."

"No! Don’t push it. Don't ever push it.
We’ll be fine," he said.

“To hell with that, I can't stand this.
I'm going for it.”

By concentrating, I could now move my
arms a little but they were loose, like the bones had been
removed.

I was going to throw something at the
button, hopefully to bring an attendant who could maybe administer
a shot or something that would counteract the paralytic. They might
have that sort of thing at a place like this. Then we’d make a
quick exit out of the club and cab it over to the airport,
concocting a cover story along the way. No problem, we'd probably
be late returning to base but we hadn't really done anything that
bad as far as I knew.

I threw one of the pillows at it.
Stupid. Not even close.

Geake's arm came up and snatched the
other pillow down to the floor,

“Don't do it, sir. I'm begging
you.”

There was nothing left on the bed to
throw. My legs were still useless. I checked my watch; we had been
unconscious for a few hours. Or was it six hours? I couldn't think
straight. It was three or six. My head started to spin in trying to
comprehend the dial – however long, it was too long....an idea,
definitely could work. The watch came off. I slid one finger along
the side of the steel case and focused on the circle of white
plastic.

A hit! The watch ruptured. The insides
flew out onto the floor like tiny metallic leaves. The button
blinked red.

"AH HA! Shit, goddamnit!"

Geake pulled his upper body onto the
bed and gawked at me.

"What did you do?" He said.

"That was my grandfather’s watch. I'm
such an idiot. Jesus, what was I thinking?"

I wiggled off the bed and tried
scrapping up the watch parts from the carpet. Geake saw the
blinking button and started moaning. He stood up, panicking, and
began pacing around the room talking to himself.

"Help me get the watch! That's an
order!" The little gears were everywhere. My drugged-out pawing at
them only pushed them further into the carpet.

Then the door blew open at the hinges
and a dozen MP’s in full combat armor flooded into the
room.

"What were the drugs you were trying to
recover off the floor?" the Colonel asked me. He had a strictly
formal but friendly sort of way about him. He projected intensity
from across the desk.

"There were no drugs, sir. It was a
watch, my watch. I was trying to recover pieces of the
mechanism."

He nodded his head slowly after my
answer like he had expected to hear it. I hadn't told him any real
details at all about what had happened. I suspected he knew quite a
bit anyway.

The Colonel picked up a figure on his
desk and quietly studied it. It was a rider on horseback
brandishing a saber. Civil War, I think.

"Well, you’re a bad influence." He said
finally. "And your military career is now over." He looked directly
at me as he said this and I saw the deep wrinkles hiding in his
face.

"This is a critical time for us,
Waller. It's not 2060 anymore. You don't fit in here. Do you
understand?"

"Yes, and you’re right." I said to
him.

"Your military access card is now
revoked. You’ll hand it in to the departure secretary and be
assigned a placement officer. They’ll put you somewhere and then
your access will be reevaluated. You will still retain privileges
from your participation in the Artemis project but you’ll need your
new card to be issued first. OK? That’s all. Now get out of
here."

**

King’s County Ch.2, Seattle

Earth, Moon 2066

It seemed like there wasn't
nothing else to do, and going military was as good or better than
whatever might be coming down the pike later. That's everybody's
reason. But this ain't living out here, sitting in this thing.
There’s no fight in it. No fight in either of us. We ain't living
or dying. If in your mind you can handle that then maybe it's
better than just doing nothing and staying home. I’ve made my own
peace already.

- Major Edward Hart