Peggy Sue (The T'aafhal Inheritance) (23 page)

The door to the office slid open and two young women entered. They both wore the tan jumpsuits of civilian personnel, though one had a pastel multicolored scarf around her neck and the other’s lapel sported a silver pin that looked like leaping dolphins. “Good afternoon, Ladies,” the Captain said, stepping around his desk to shake their hands. “Please come in and take a seat.”

“Good afternoon, Captain,” said the older of the two, the one with the scarf. “I am Margret Hinkle, and this is Corazon Muñoz, our kindergarten teacher.”

“And what can I do for you today?” Jack asked, retaking his seat behind the expansive desk. He already knew what the women were here about, but the dance must be performed according to custom.

“Captain, we are here today because a number of us mothers with young children are concerned about the presence of dangerous wild animals on the base,” Margret Hinkle said, after settling into her chair. “On a number of occasions polar bears have been seen wandering the halls, unfettered and unaccompanied by handlers.”

“I see,” was Jack’s neutral reply, “and do you wish to add anything Ms. Muñoz?”

“Yes, Captain,” said the kindergarten teacher, a slender young woman of perhaps 25. “Some of my students have expressed fear about the presence of bears. I’m afraid that this is causing anxiety and distracting them from their studies.”

“Are all of your students fearful of the bears, Ms. Muñoz?”

“No,” she replied, “some are excited by the presence of bears.”

“I see.”

“That is not the point, Cora,” interjected Mrs. Hinkle. “These animals pose a threat to our children and something must be done about it!”

Jack sat quietly for a few moments, his hands raised in front of him, steepled fingers pointing upward resting on his chin. Those on his staff would have recognized this posture as an indication of deep thought, one the Captain assumed just prior to deciding on a course of action. The women sat, watching him expectantly. Jack dropped his hands and cleared his throat.

“Tell me, Mrs. Hinkle. Are you accompanied by handlers when you move about the base?”

“Of course not. Why should I have handlers?”

“Yet you are suggesting that our polar bears should have handlers. Why?”

“Why!” exclaimed the shocked mother. “Because they are dangerous wild animals!”

“No, Mrs. Hinkle,” the Captain replied in a calm, level voice. “They are dangerous intelligent animals. Just as we humans are dangerous intelligent animals.”

Mrs. Hinkle opened her mouth to speak but no words came.
I believe I have taken her by surprise,
Jack thought to himself. “Mrs. Hinkle, have you ever spoken to one of the polar bears?”

“Certainly not!” came the indignant reply.

“Or you Ms. Muñoz?”

“No Captain, I’ve never really had an occasion to speak with one of the bears.”

“Are you aware of our mission, the mission of this base and the people on it?” Jack said in his captain’s voice. “We are venturing out into the galaxy to find alien life, intelligent creatures that may be as different from us as coal is from diamond.”

“But coal and diamonds are both made from carbon,” responded the teacher.

“Yes, very good Ms. Muñoz, and that is my point precisely. The form, the physical characteristics are very different, but inside they are made of the same atoms. When we encounter alien life it may also be very different from ourselves, but inside we hope to find similarities—in intellect, thought, common interests and shared values. In short we are looking to find friends among the stars, friends who will undoubtedly be shockingly different from ourselves.”

“What does this have to do with wild bears roaming the halls with our children?” asked the exasperated Mrs. Hinkle.

“Mrs. Hinkle, how are we going to make friends with truly alien lifeforms out among the stars when you harbor prejudice against fellow Earth creatures?”

“But they’re animals!”

“As are we, Mrs. Hinkle,” the Captain replied, leaning back in his chair. “
Ursus maritimus
and
Homo sapiens
are both mammals, obviously fruit from the same evolutionary tree. Our DNA is so similar that without detailed examination an alien might think we were different variants of the same species. Madam, what does it say about humans if we cannot even make friends with creatures we share our planet with?”

The question was rhetorical. Jack was in full lecture mode and gave the stunned women no chance to reply. “Polar bears are brave, honorable creatures. They are inquisitive, playful and, if treated with respect, open and friendly. Bears are honest, I’ve never been lied to by an ursine. And there is no more faithful friend than a bear, they will come to your aid without questioning the cost and fight to the death to protect you. I have worked and fought beside them and I can tell you that I would rather be in the company of bears than many of the people I have met.”

“But, but they are so big, and they have claws,” Mrs. Hinkle said, groping for a counter argument.

“Our kind has hunted polar bears for more than 10,000 years and yet they are willing to be our partners in this enterprise, they are willing to be our friends. It is obvious to me that this type of species prejudice cannot be allowed to poison the minds of our young children. Remember, someday they will be the ones working, perhaps fighting alongside creatures much stranger than polar bears.”

“What do you intend to do?” asked Ms. Muñoz in a rather meek voice.

“It is time to break down the barriers between species. Ms. Muñoz, I want you to talk to my aid about scheduling a field trip for your kindergarten class. I want all of your students, and their mothers, to accompany me on a visit to the polar bear habitat.”

Mrs. Hinkle and Ms. Muñoz both stared at the Captain. This was not the outcome they had envisioned. “How soon should this happen, Captain?” asked Ms. Muñoz.

“It will take a few days to produce Arctic clothing for everyone, but I want this to happen as soon as possible. Thank you for bringing this to my attention, together we will nip this nascent speciesism in the bud.” Jack touched a control on the surface of his desk and spoke, “Jimmy, please come in and escort these two ladies out. They need to talk with you about scheduling a field trip to visit the polar bear habitat.”

“Was there anything else?” Jack asked, looking up at the two women. “In that case, have a nice day.”

Training Gym, Farside Base

Gretchen and JT took positions on top of a tall crate near midfield, with a good view of the entire game space. The Gunny stood across the floor on the territory dividing line. “It looks like Bear’s team is standing in a tight formation around their flag,” JT commented to his companion.

“Yeah, and it looks like the females have divided their force into two columns, one moving up each side of the battlefield. They are using the obstacles for cover and have sent Sanchez and Jones forward to scout the ground ahead,” Gretchen observed. “Not a bad plan, let’s see what happens when they make contact with the enemy.”

The two human scouts reported back to their comrades, and after a brief conference the female led squad started to move again. They surrounded the opposing team by blocking the open paths leading to the clump of bears sitting on their own flag. Suddenly Tornassuk stood up and charged.

“Looks like Tornassuk is doing the alpha predator thing and just charging the enemy,” said Gretchen, a bit disappointed.

“I don’t think so,” said JT. “Notice how the orange humans are hidden, positioned a couple of strides back from that low barrier. And the adolescents are clustered on the side opposite Tornassuk’s charge.”

As they watched, Inuksuk stood and charged to meet the onrushing Tornassuk. This left a hole in the semicircle around the green flag that Bear moved to fill. But that left only adolescents and the humans on the side away from the altercation. Then the other team’s adolescents charged from cover. Naturally, their counterparts ran to meet them, uncovering the flag.

“Oh, that was well played,” said Gretchen. “They used Tornassuk as a diversion, drawing off the other adult males.”

“And they sent their youngsters in to draw off the other side’s adolescents,” add JT, “the equivalent of attacking the other side’s least experienced troops and luring them out of position. Somebody down there is doing some thinking.”

On the field of battle it was chaos. Hitch tried to get his team’s adolescents to return to position and got tangled between Umky and Snowflake. This left only Bear and Kowalski guarding the flag when Sanchez and Jones ran forward and jumped up to the top of the crate they were hiding behind. Without breaking stride they launched themselves off the top of the barrier and through the air above Bear’s head. Sanchez, experienced in combat wearing armor, did a controlled bounce off the far wall and bowled Kowalski over from behind, allowing Jones to grab the flag.

Meanwhile, Bear spun around to counter the threat from the aerial human attack. Before he could advance, Isbjørn, running at full tilt, knocked him over from behind. Aurora ran past them and, acting as a blocker for Jones, they headed back toward the midfield line and victory.

“Not too shabby,” said Gretchen approvingly. Jones crossed into his own territory right behind Aurora and the Gunny sounded the game over tone. It took half a minute to separate the other combatants and inform them that the game was over.

* * * * *

After a short debriefing, the two teams were sent back to their respective corners, to plan new strategies. “Let’s see what happens this time,” said Gretchen to her fellow referees. While this exercise was ostensibly to check out the new armor, it was also the first step in the military training of the bears. Capture the flag was their introduction to working with humans.

At the green team huddle Bear spoke for the first time. “OK, you chuckle-heads. I figured the only way to make you realize that brute force wouldn’t work was to let you try it. So now that the females have frosted our asses, let’s do some real planning this time.”

“It was the humans that stole the flag,” grumped Umky.

“Because human hands are better suited to grabbing the damn thing. That’s a lesson to remember, humans and bears have different strengths and different weaknesses. When we work together to maximize the strengths and minimize the weaknesses a mixed squad of men and bears is stronger than either on their own.”

“You know, that actually makes sense,” grumbled Inuksuk, whose one-on-one battle with Tornassuk had been a tie that took both of them out of the action.

“And did anyone notice that they came with all of their troops when their scouts discovered that we were all simply guarding the green flag? Did anyone realize that the best our strategy could do was keep us from losing? If one of us could have snuck by them, he could have snatched their unguarded flag before they knew what hit them.”

“You point that out now,” Imik said.

“You wouldn’t have listened before,” Bear said. “Now let’s get us a plan. What do you humans think?”

Dr. Li’s Quarters, Farside Base

Wie-chang sat before the computer display on the desk in her private quarters, a two room apartment with its own private bathroom. She was talking to her department head at Wuhan University. Wuhan University, located in China’s eastern lake district, is one of the country’s top ten universities. As such it is under direct government control. Part of the deal that permitted her to join the “space pirates” included frequent reports back to the University.

“Dr. Wu, things are progressing rapidly,” she said to the video image on the computer display in front of her. “The star systems to be visited have been selected. I will send these to you in an email.”

“Very good, Dr. Li. Are they treating you properly?” The question was just a formality. Dr. Wu was more a government official than an academic or colleague. And the innocuous pleasantries were really just a cover. Dr. Li’s real report was being delivered by non-verbal means.

On her lapel she wore a pin, purportedly a representation of the university seal. Contained in the pin an infrared LED, whose frequency was picked up and transmitted by the CCD camera but would not be visible on a receiver’s screen, blinked out a coded message. Sally hoped that the information would satisfy her handlers back in China. So far, she was only able to report some general observations and a few details about the environmental systems.

She really did despise the government bureaucrats and party hacks that ran her country—the time she spent in the west had opened her eyes to their repressive ways. But she had family in Nanking, and the government had made it clear that their safety and prosperity depended on her spying on her new comrades. She hoped they understood that, once the ship departed, she would be out of contact for many months. She hoped she could trust them to keep their word, but in her head a voice whispered,
you fool!
 

Day Room, Enlisted Quarters, Farside Base

A number of Marines and crew were playing Foosball or just sitting around in the dayroom when the four human capture the flag players returned. “Damn, look what the cat drug in,” said Ronnie Reagan, one of the original Marine detachment.

“Bite me, Ronnie,” Sanchez replied. “Coño, I hurt all over, even my cojones.”

“Hey,” said Steve Hitch, “you didn’t get to play the human filling in a polar bear sandwich. If we weren’t all wearing armor I’d look like that damned walrus.”

“Don’t mention the fuckin’ walrus, that’s what started this,” added Bud Jones. “whose idea was that anyway, Joey?”

“You thought it sounded like a good idea at the time, pendejo,” Sanchez retorted.

“What walrus?” Asked Jolene Betts, one of the crew. A stowaway on the first mission, she worked her way up from tending bar and waiting tables in the lounge to being on one of the X-ray laser gun crews.

“Oh, Steve and Joey and the other two geniuses here decided it would be a nice gesture to bring the polar bears some fresh food,” replied Matt Jacobs. “You know, Stevie, it’s usually me standing in splatter range when one of your schemes goes south and the shit hits the fan. How did you rope these other clowns into this?”