Theogony 1: Janissaries (16 page)

“Yes sir, I do,” Calvin replied, “I’d like to take her with
us as an observer.”

Several people in the DUCC began shouting things like, “you
can’t be serious” and “have you lost your mind;” Night was much more succinct.
“No fucking way,” is all he said.

“
QUIET!
” shouted the president, regaining control.
Once everyone had calmed down he asked in a dangerous voice, “And why exactly
do you think that’s a good idea?”

“Well, first let me say that I agree with most of your
advisors,” said Calvin, “in that I think it is an incredibly dangerous idea. It
is, however, the one that has the biggest payoff. Let’s face it, who are our
two biggest adversaries at the moment? They’re the same ones we’ve had for nearly
the last 70 years; they’re Russia and China. When we go off with the Psiclopes
and come back, do you think that there is any way that either of them is going
to believe what we say or be interested in participating with us in forming a
single world government?” He paused and saw several heads shaking. “You all
know more about politics than I do, but I find it awfully unlikely that’s going
to happen. Having just fought a war with China, it’s going to be difficult for
either of us to trust the other. I think that there’s at least a chance with
Russia, though.”

The president shrugged, “I agree that it’s more likely that
Russia would play along than would China, but I don’t think that it’s very
likely that they will join us, either. They’re still mad about the war and,
like you said, we haven’t trusted each other in 70 years.”

“Yes sir, I agree,” said Calvin, “and yet we want to form a
single world government that includes them.” He was very careful not to say
that the Americans ‘needed’ to form a government, thereby letting the Russians
know that they were required for some reason, which would give them leverage. “This
is our one chance to at least get a fair hearing from the Russians. We can use
this agent as a conduit of information to them.”

Ignoring the comments from around the table that greeted
that statement, the president said simply, “I agree; do it,” ending all
discussion on the point.

“Yes sir,” said Calvin, signing off. The screens went blank.

He changed to his implant and called Top. “
Top, if I send
down a shuttle, can you bring Mr. Jones and meet me in the platoon’s ready room
on the
Gulf?”

“
Be right there sir,
” Top replied.

Calvin looked at the Russian. “Well, if nothing else, it
looks like you’re going to get a chance to live a little longer anyway.”

“That is only good if I am to be a hero of the Russian
Federation,” she replied. “I would rather die than be a traitor to it.”

Calvin smiled. “Well, then, we won’t have any problems,
because I’m not asking you to be a traitor to your country. If anything, I want
you to think bigger and look at the good of humanity in general. Let me ask you
a question. Where do you think you are right now?”

“There is no telling,” the spy replied, her Russian accent
growing stronger as she got more excited. “You drugged me. You could have taken
me anywhere. I may be dreaming whole thing. A lieutenant commander that can
call up president? Is not likely.”

“Let me show you something.” Calvin paused and then said,
“Solomon, show the view from outside the bridge on the screens, please.” The
screens flipped on to show the view of the lunar landscape.

“So, you have taken me to a valley in the desert?” Rozhkov
asked.

Calvin shook his head. “No, you’re a little further from
home than that. You are currently in the Tsiolkovsky Crater on the far side of
the moon. The hills that you see in the distance are actually the side of the
crater. You are onboard an alien spacecraft.” He indicated Arges, still
standing patiently nearby. “This is Arges, a member of the Psiclopes race. Three
of the Psiclopes have asked for our help in taking them back to their planet.
They had this ship, but no one to crew it; we are departing for their world in
about two months.”

“And you expect me to believe this?” asked Rozhkov.

Calvin shrugged. “I hope you will believe it, but I don’t
necessarily expect it. Come with me, and we’ll see what we can do about it.
Night, would you please join us too?” He led the two of them through the ship’s
corridors to the platoon’s ready room. Top and Mr. Jones were just arriving.
Judging by the quick intake of breaths from both Jones and Rozhkov, he realized
they knew each other. No surprise there.

He looked at Top. “Miss Rozhkov is going to be staying with
us for a little while until we determine what we want to do with her. She is
still not sure that she believes she is on the surface of the moon. I’d
appreciate it if you could dig her up a suit and take her for a walk outside.
You could also show her some of our new weapons to help her believe us.”

“Got it, sir,” replied Top. “What do you want us to do with
her after that?”

Calvin considered briefly and then said, “How about bringing
her to Master Chief’s house in about an hour? I should be ready for her by
then.” He looked back to the spy. “In case you have any ideas about trying to
take one of the weapons, they won’t work for you.” He showed her his palms and
the metal contacts on them. “The weapons are hardwired into us. If you don’t
have the right hardware in your body, they won’t work.” He smiled. “I just
didn’t want you to get any ideas.”

Top led Rozhkov and Mr. Jones from the room.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you,” said Calvin to Night, “but
never had the time. What’s the story with you and Wraith? I know that there’s
some history there but haven’t wanted to get into your private life.
Unfortunately, it’s now become part of the platoon’s business, and I’ve got to ask.”

“Yeah,” said Night, sighing, “I figured we’d have to have
this conversation.” He paused a moment. “Several years ago, there was a
classified joint U.S./Republic of Korea mission into North Korea. It doesn’t
matter what it was for. Wraith was on it. Her leader stepped on a land mine
that killed him and another one of her team, putting her in charge. The mine
also wounded the other person on the mission, who happened to be an American. She
refused to leave him, but bringing him along slowed her down, and she was
captured. The North Koreans brought in both Chinese and Russian interrogation
advisors to help break her and get everything they could from her.”

“I was picked to lead a squad to try and get her back.
Before I could get there, though, they had abused her badly.
Really
badly.” He shuddered. Calvin didn’t want to know what could make a man as hard
as Lieutenant Train shudder. Night continued, “I got her back, as well as the
body of our soldier who had died at the North Koreans’ hands, but they had her
for three days. Three long days. Wraith has scars beyond the ones you can see
and would cheerfully kill every North Korean and Chinese person on the planet
if she could, as well as most of the Russians. She’ll kill Rozhkov without
hesitation, and will enjoy doing it. Hell, I’d happily do it for her if I thought
it would do her any good...” He trailed off, lost in thought.

“What’s the deal with you and her personally?” Calvin asked
after a long period of silence, when he saw that Night wasn’t going to continue
on his own. “There seems to be more to it than that.”

Night sighed again and looked down at his hands. “She loves
me,” he said quietly.

“Beyond the whole officer/enlisted thing, why’s that a
problem?” Calvin asked.

“Honestly sir, I’m a bad man,” said Night. “I’ve done an
awful lot of things for my country that I’m not proud of. They needed doing,
and I know I’d do them all again if I was asked. Still, they were not things
that one Christian man does to another human being without being called to
account for it later. When I die, I know I’m going to hell, and I’m never going
to leave it. I’m good at what I do, and I know that the country and the world
are better places for what I’ve done. Still, that doesn’t reconcile what I’ve
done with my beliefs and, most days, I don’t like myself very much. If you
don’t like yourself, it’s awfully hard to like someone else, much less plan a
life with them. And me as a father? No way,” he said vehemently.

He shook his head. “Maybe someday I’ll come to grips with
it, but today isn’t that day. The more I talk to the Psiclopes, the more I hope
that there’s a reason that I’m here. Maybe something to positively affect my
karma somehow.” He stood up and walked toward the door. “Maybe my destiny is to
do something that makes up for everything I’ve done to this point.” He sighed
as he walked out the door. Without looking back he stopped and said, “It’s all
I can hope for at this point.”

Ryan handed Calvin a beer as he sat down with him at the
kitchen table. “So,” Ryan asked, “how do you want to play this?” They had been discussing
how to treat the Russian spy, but hadn’t made a lot of progress. “Several of us
could take a long walk with her through the woods and maybe help her to
understand...”

“I’m sure you could,” Calvin interrupted, “but I don’t see
how threatening or beating her is going to win either her support or her trust.
She’s pretty fanatical, and I’m betting that she would rather die for her
country than do anything that she thinks is going to betray it.”

“Sir, she’s a spy,” said Ryan. “You can’t trust her,
regardless of what she says. She’s a trained liar who is going to do her best
to hurt our country, especially now that she knows about everything that’s
going on.” He paused and then grumbled, “I still don’t think that taking her to
the moon was a good idea...”

“Maybe it wasn’t,” agreed Calvin, “but it was better than
just killing her out of hand. We’re a lot better off if we can get her to see
how Russia wins if they come in on our side and help us.”

There was a long pause as both men thought about their
dilemma. “I’ve got it!” Ryan finally exclaimed. “I’ll put on a pot of Mrs.
Sommers’ elk stew.”

“What?” asked Calvin. “How is that going to help?”

“As the saying goes, the way to a man’s heart is through his
stomach,” replied Ryan, getting up from the table and going to the refrigerator.
“Maybe it will work on women too.”

“Hmmm,” said Calvin, pondering the idea. “I know you’re always
looking for a reason to have a bowl of Mrs. Sommers’ stew, but in this case, it
might just
be
the right answer. Maybe the friendly approach would work
best after all.”

 Ryan had the stew simmering on the stove when a knock was
heard on the door. Ryan yelled, “Come in!” and Top, Mr. Jones and Irina Rozhkov
walked in.

Top sniffed as he walked in. “Hey, umm...is that Mrs.
Sommers’ elk stew?” he asked. “It sure smells good...”

“Yeah, she made some for me to bring up to the cabin, me
being all alone up here,” Ryan said with a grin.

Calvin interjected, “What do you mean? You begged her for
three days to make it for you! You even said you’d pay her for it.”

“Well, she said she felt sorry for me after you left,” said
Ryan with a sniff. Turning back to Top, he said, “Anyway, I didn’t know how
long you’d be and didn’t want to miss dinner, so I put a big pot on. There’s
enough for everyone.” He handed each of them a bowl of stew, and they sat down
at the table to eat.

“So, Ms. Rozhkov,” began Calvin, “what do you think now?”

“Please, call me Irina. I haven’t used Rozhkov in so long,
it no longer fits me. As to what they have shown me, if this is a hoax, it is
the best one I have ever seen. If this is drug-induced, you have better drugs than
any we have been able to come up with in Russia...and we’ve spent many rubles to
make better drugs. I would have to guess that there is at least a 90% chance
that what you have shown me is the truth.”

“Good,” said Calvin, “I...”

“What you have shown me, I believe,” interrupted Rozhkov,
“but I do not know if I believe what you have told me. This is all very, how
you say, far-fetched? I am sure that you are trying to gain an edge over
Russia, but I am not sure what it is or how you intend to do it. You have given
away so much, it is hard to know what is still hidden.”

“There isn’t much that we haven’t already told or shown you,”
said Calvin. “The bottom line is that we were contacted by aliens. They warned
us that there are creatures coming that want to eat us. The aliens are pretty
sure that the only way we’ll be able to stop the creatures is by uniting
against them and pooling our resources. We had a saying during our revolution
that is pretty appropriate right now, ‘we need to hang together, or we will
most assuredly hang separately.’ Personally, I don’t want to get eaten, nor do
I want any of my friends and family to get eaten, either. If that means playing
nice and working with Russia, or even China for that matter, then I am all for
it.”

“Assuming that I believe you, which I still am not sure that
I do, what are your plans, and what do you plan to do with me?” asked Rozhkov.

“We have one spaceship with six fighters,” said Calvin.
“That isn’t going to beat off an alien invasion. We’re going to take that ship
and go look for help. If nothing else, we’d like to bring back some of the
aliens’ technology, so we can start arming ourselves. As for you, I plan to
take you with us so that you can see that we’re telling you the truth. That’s
the only way that we will ever get your nation to believe it.”

“How do I know that you won’t kill me or use me to feed my
country false information?” asked Rozhkov.

“You don’t, I guess,” answered Calvin. Before he could say
anything else, Mr. Jones, who had been standing against the wall, cleared his
throat and said, “You have my word.”

There was obviously past history between them, Calvin
thought, because that seemed to satisfy the Russian. She nodded her head once
and said only, “OK.”

“I don’t want too much to get out before we leave,” said
Calvin, “so we’re going to keep you with us. Before we go, you’ll have an
opportunity to leave a message with your superiors, so that they don’t get
worried when you’re gone for a couple of months.”

The Russian nodded her head again. “That will
be...sufficient.”

* * * * *