Day 4
Kara slowly woke up as her watch vibrated on her left wrist – 0500 HRS. Day four on Planet Hell, and it was living up to its reputation. She felt sluggish, brain fogged, hungry and full at the same time.
The first three days were spent trying to get as acclimated to the harsh gravity and training facilities as possible, with a few classroom courses peppered throughout. They spent a considerable amount of time walking inside, and a fair amount walking around outside in pressurized exosuits. It was miserable outside, even with the exosuit’s cooling systems. The team was given an hour of gym-time both morning and night. Today was going to be mostly instructional classes inside, thank goodness, with gym-time in the morning and personal time after 1900 hours. This was all a part of phase one.
She rolled over the edge of her bed and knelt down beside it to pray. She always prayed, every morning and every night. It was more than routine; it was a part of her being. She didn’t feel compelled to outwardly promote her religious beliefs, but she felt them as passionately as anyone. It was something instilled in her by her father.
Her father. A hathair.
Too much time had passed. She wanted him back. He was her life, especially after her mother had abandoned them. Army wife indeed! She needed better, pff! GenMods didn’t help with morality.
“M’Athair atá ar Neamh, déan mo athair a chosaint, le do thoil. Compord dó. Seol grá agus grásta dó. Cuir in iúl dó go bhfuil mé ag teacht. Is seirbhíseach mé go deo in ainm mo Shlánaitheoir. Amen.”
After her prayer, Kara moved into a plank position and sluggishly pushed out 17 pushups, then did four more with bended knees touching the ground.
Planet Hell, she thought to herself as she shook her head while rolling over to do a set of crunches and then a set of bodyweight squats.
The Jack Crew, for which she and Ben were temporarily a part of, had been overwhelmingly good to them. What was better is that the commander of Planet Hell had worked out a deal with Colonel Stoddard for them to train in the Special Operations Forces section, away from the other Army units, so as to avoid wandering eyes. There wasn’t currently a SOF team going through training, so it worked out well. But the best part was that the SOF quarters were individual rooms, not the wide-open bay style quarters that other units had to use, and not like the quarters at COTA where four cadets were assigned to a room and a shared bathroom. The SOF quarters were small, for sure, but they at least had a private shower and loo, and a wall desk to complete written assignments.
Kara finished her morning necessities and put on her PT gear. She touched her watch and called Ben.
“Hey battle-buddy,” she said in her Irish accent to the small holographic image of Ben’s face. “Are you up?”
“Meh,” was his reply. His hair looked wet and disheveled. “That’s about all I am. I’m more sluggish here than I was on Stoddard’s ship. It’s brutal.”
“Do you want to get breakfast first, or hit the gym?”
“I’m not hungry.”
“You weren’t hungry last night either. You have to eat, Ben. You know what they told us.”
“Yeah, I know. Let’s hit the gym then get chow. Maybe that’ll work up an appetite. Give me five?”
“Aye, I’ll be in the hall.”
Their workout lasted about an hour. The gym was amazing – two-stories tall with a climbing rock, a life-like terrain ruck route using an inset floor treadmill and 3D imaging from a circular VisiMonitor, and a slew of weightlifting and aerobic equipment. Ben, who’d never worked out a day in his life prior to going to Planet Hell, had a tough time keeping up with Kara. He was naturally stronger than she was, surprisingly strong in fact, even according to Rangi who could bench press over 415 pounds in this high gravity environment. The crew said he could bench more than 500 pounds in normal gravity. That was impressive, especially since he was said to be basic born.
Ben managed to get twenty minutes on a treadmill averaging five miles per-hour, while Kara did thirty minutes while averaging six. He was ashamed.
“Ben, you’re surprisingly fit for someone who’s never worked out,” Kara complimented him as she wiped her hair and neck down with a small towel. She’d approached Ben who was now sitting on an uncomfortable wall bench behind the cardio equipment. Clearly the bench was a bench of shame, meant to keep people working out.
“I’m terrible,” he chided. “It’s embarrassing. How am I ever gonna get into CODA if I can’t even do twenty minutes on a treadmill? Doesn’t the PT test require seven miles in under an hour?”
“Aye, ya have to work up to it. You can’t just run it. Not even people with athletic GenMods can. That’s why it’s call ‘working out.’ You have to work to get the laziness out. Besides, you have the first quarter of school to pass. You do PT every day. No one expects a new recruit to pass the first test.”
“Well…I don’t know what I’m even complaining about. I have to get into COTA first, I guess,” he said as he grabbed Kara’s outstretched hand and pulled himself up to his feet. They began walking back to their quarters.
“My hunch is that if everything goes well with this mission, you won’t have a problem getting in. Colonel Stoddard has a lot of pull.”
“How does he have so much pull if he’s only a colonel?”
“Well, he could be a two or three star general if he wanted it. But he hates white coats, and he loves black ops, and he’s very, very good at it. He doesn’t want to let it go because he thinks, rightly so, that he’s too valuable to the Federation doing this.
“My dad has worked with him my whole life.”
“Really? Your dad’s been doing black ops this whole time?”
“Only about ten years. He started off in a combat unit and worked his way to special forces. That’s where he met Stoddard. He did a few missions with him, and then Stoddard recruited him. I was too young to remember all of that. All I really remember is he was always gone. For most of my life it was just me and my mam.”
“But they’re divorced now?” Ben asked, remembering their conversation when they’d first met.
“Right,” she replied but let it hang.
“I’m sorry, Kara, it’s not my place,” Ben said with sincerity, but in a common tone. He was quite accustomed to older kids at the orphanage not wanting to share their stories when they arrived. It took time, but they eventually came around. They needed to if they didn’t want to break.
“Oh, no, it’s not that. I used to have a really good relationship with her. But she couldn’t handle my dad being gone so much. She wanted more. She doesn’t care about cold war politics or patriotism or any of that.
“It’s really strange when I think about it. My dad has always been a man of faith, very patriotic. My mam seemed like it at first, at least according to my dad. I don’t know if it was his time away, or her constantly worrying about him that changed her mind. Something triggered it. She came from a well-off family, and her parents always pressured her for more. They didn’t really like my dad.”
“Kara, that…that doesn’t sound good at all,” Ben told her. He had experience dealing with kids whose parents had died or had abandoned them because they couldn’t afford to keep them. This was new territory for him, a new kind of story. One he’d never really thought about. Two parents who couldn’t get along, and so they divorced, and their kid is left to hold the baggage.
“Aye, it was bad,” Kara nodded her head. She wasn’t emotional about it. It was clear she’d worked through these emotions a long time ago.
They reached their rooms and Kara stopped in front of her door, which was right next to Ben’s.
“My mam’s family is quite rich,” she said. “She had all the best GenMods money could buy. I think she married my dad out of rebellion to my grans. But her rebellion met reality real fast once she got a good taste of Army life.”
“She met someone else, a rich bloke who knew my grands, and that was that. I was twelve when it happened – it was hard. The barristers managed to get her full custody of me, which was, frankly, odd. My grans are quite prejudiced. But I didn’t want to go with her anyway. Colonel Stoddard worked with my dad, and they came up with an arrangement. I lived on the Zues since, and I was accepted to COTA early.”
Ben’s mind raced to the ‘accepted early’ statement, again recalling their conversation from the week prior, but he dismissed the idea of telling her why she was accepted early. He looked down at her with caring eyes.
“You said your grandparents are prejudiced,” he said. “What do you mean by that?”
“I’m basic,” she replied with a shrug of her shoulders. Ben quirked his head. “Well, I’m considered basic. My dad has GenMods, but my dad was insistent that his children not have them. My mam agreed, just to agitate my grans. They didn’t like that. To them I’m lower born.”
“Wait, what…why didn’t your dad want you to have GenMods? And your own grandparents don’t want you?”
Ben’s look was one of shock. Why would anyone not want their children to be genetically blessed if they could afford it? And what kind of people where her grandparents?
“My dad’s not a radical,” Kara replied as if anticipating the next question. “It’s also not a religious thing for him either. Like I said, he has them himself. For one, they’re really expensive. My grans could’ve paid for them. But my dad is also very smart, and cunning – and one could say a very good liar. He’s a spook after all. He won’t say this out loud, but I suspect that if he allowed me to get GenMods, and he and my mam ever divorced, I would never have seen him again. He was going to love and cherish me no matter what. My grans wouldn’t, and my mam…well… she is who she is.”
Ben looked at her, stunned by the revelations. He realized just how small his personal universe was. He thought he’d learned a lot after having spent six months on LG4. But in reality, he’d spent most of his time working, and he hadn’t really gotten to know anyone very well. Especially not someone his age. Most of the kids his age were in a trade school or getting ready for advanced studies. He was unique because he’d come from an orphanage.
“Ya look like you’re processing, Ben,” Kara said with a grin. “You do that a lot.”
“I, yeah, I don’t know what to say. These…things…are somewhat new to me.”
“Don’t say anything. There’s nothing here to fix,” she said before shaking her head and following up with, “besides helping me find him.”
“We’re going to get him back. I know we will.”
“Can I tell you something else?”
“You can tell me anything,” he replied, and he meant it.
“Colonel Stoddard is also basic.”
“No way!”
“I swear on my grave. Everyone knows it, but his IQ is off the charts. Could you imagine if he did have GenMods?”
“That’s crazy!” Ben exclaimed before bending his head down a little. He didn’t mean to say it so loudly.
“I think that’s another reason why he doesn’t want to become a white coat. Everyone pretends that there isn’t a conflict between GenMods and basics, but it does exist to some extent. I’m not saying it’s rampant, and this is a big universe where anyone can make it big. But there are segments of society where the GenMod snobbery is excessive, especially in the political world, and that includes the officer corps. I know its influence firsthand.
“Hey, we need to get to chow before our class. And you,” she poked a finger in Ben’s chest, “are going to eat a lot of protein this morning – you got me battle buddy?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Ben replied as he sarcastically snapped to attention.
*********************
Ben and Kara both found themselves trying to stay awake during the morning brief. That workout and large breakfast had taken something out of them. Kara got up, walked to the back of the room and stood next to the wall, SimPad in hand, hoping this would force her to keep her eyes open. It was expected at COTA, and it usually worked.
“Kara, Ben,” the instructor said. He was a shorter, muscular NCO named Seargent Patell. “We’re going to start the next training phase in two standard days. While you’re still expected to be battle buddies while you’re here, we’re going to split you up during the next two phases of our exercises. We’re going to run a variety of scenarios, to include some where one or the other of you will be stranded and the team needs to rescue you. We’ll throw in a few hostage scenarios, too.
“In phase four you’ll both go on rescue missions together while the rest of the team does counter espionage missions.”
“Counter espionage?” Cadance asked.
“Those were our orders, ma’am. Just came in this morning from General Hyatt.”
“You’ll be the first victim, Ben, during the first few exercises.” Sergeant Patell continued. “Kara, you’ll be matched up with Rangi as his spotter.”
“You got this, girl,” Rangi said out loud while partially turning his head back.
“You know it!” Kara returned eagerly. She loved shooting, and Rangi was a sniper in a previous life.
“These scenarios,” Gedeon started, “are they going to be rescue missions that we plan, or are they preplanned by you?”
“Due to the terrain and environmental conditions outside, we’re going to preplan them to start with, in phase one. In phase two you’ll be given scenarios, and you’ll have to plan the responses.”
“Fair enough,” Gedeon responded. He was always professional when he spoke.
The next few hours were filled with more of the same – classroom briefings on tactics, visuals of the terrain outside, learning about Army weapons systems, and a promise to go to the range the next day.
Kara and Ben, being battle buddies, were required to go everywhere together on and off duty. It was an Army tradition for young recruits that went back hundreds of years. Kara was used to it because of her time in COTA. Ben wasn’t, but he didn’t mind it at all. Kara was nice, and he felt like she was becoming a genuine friend. Something he hadn’t really had since he left Naroon.
It was now creeping on 2000 hours and they found themselves in the dayroom, exhausted. They were sitting next to each other on a small hover couch watching a dumb show, on a large VisiMonitor in front of a white wall, about a medium psychic who claimed to speak to the ghosts of aliens on different planets throughout the Federation. It was a big hit, stupidly so.
“I can’t believe people believe this garbage,” Kara said, rolling her eyes.
“I’ve never even heard of this before. Ghost aliens?”
“Aye, sooo dumb!”
“What exactly are these aliens he’s talking to? Are they bugs, reptiles? Makes no sense.”
“He probably thinks they’re human.”
“Well, if that planet your dad’s on is any indication…” Ben chortled.
“Don’t even start,” she elbowed him in the side. Just as she did, Jedrek came walking around the corner and into the room. He stopped and pulled his head back, bearing a faux grin.
Kara picked up on it and scooted a little further away from Ben.
“No, no! It’s too late, Kara,” he said. Ben looked a little confused. “You know how this goes. Boy meets girl. Big adventure. Hostile environment. Boy falls in love. Girl rejects him.”
“I promise you that’s not how this story goes, you joker,” Kara pushed back.
“Yahuh,” Jedrek laughed. “I don’t see Ron Weasley here, so he’s not falling in love with Ginny.”
Ben didn’t know what to say or do. His face was turning pink – it didn’t go unnoticed.
“What are you talking about?” Kara deviously replied, taking advantage of the moment. “Maybe he is Ron Weasley.”
Without missing a beat, Jedrek exclaimed, “If you say so, Hermione!” They both laughed, and Ben’s face turned beet red.
“Don’t get all blushful now, Ben. We’re just fun’n with you,” Jedrek said as he made a mock salute and went into his room.
“You’re not used to this, are ya?” Kara asked, a laugh still lingering in her voice.
“Not even a little bit,” Ben responded.
“You gotta tough’n up if you want to be here. This is a taste of Army life.”
“I thought it was just people yelling at you.”
“Well, there’s that, and there’s this. It’s a soft form of hazing. We’re just teasing you. That’s all.”
“No, I…get it. It’s just different.”
Kara stood up and looked back at him while stretching her arms out in a yawn. “Well, I’m done with this dumb show, and I’m tired. I think I’m going to hit it early tonight. Are you good, or is there anywhere you wanted to go before I do, battle buddy?”
“No, no, I’m good. I’m probably going to go to my room, too. Read some more. I like that book you gave me. It’s good.”
“Aye, I like it, too. See you bright and early tomorrow. Should be fun, gonna shoot the big guns. You’re first time, right?”
“Yeah, first time. I can’t wait. Good night, Kara.”
Kara turned and walked to her room. She spent the next hour doing her evening necessities and then knelt down beside her bed.
“Athair ar Neamh, go raibh maith agat as an lá seo. Go raibh maith agat as an bhfoireann seo, agus go raibh maith agat as Ben. Is duine maith é. Coinnigh slán sinn agus muid ag leanúint orainn ag traenáil. Agus cabhraigh linn m’athair a aimsiú go sábháilte. Le mo ghrá agus mo dhiadhacht go léir, in ainm Íosa, Amen.”