Can't? Why not? I was a good soldier before I met Linda.
Good? Yes. But she made me a human one. Before I met her? I was near to being a monster.
So be a monster. This is the time for monsters again; monsters have already arisen.
Hennessey's frown cleared. He remembered how very damned good it had felt to shoot men who'd cheered the murder of his family. He wondered, How good might it feel to kill the men actually behind killing my family? Might the nightmares stop then?
His heart began thumping and stomach churning with the excitement of the possibilities. With his left hand he reached over and poured his drink onto the ground outside the porch. Then he walked into the house, hugged his mother-in-law, shook his father-in-law's hand and left.
"I need to do something at the house," he announced as he walked out the door.
Hennessey Residence,
Cochea, 2/8/459 AC
The sound of Jinfeng squawking miserably at Linda's statue came through the window. Hennessey heard it only dimly.
Instead, there was music, Old Earth music, playing in the background.
"I see a red door and I want it painted black…"
At the casa 's front door, Hennessey met Parilla and shook his hand warmly before leading him to his library. Parilla had an electronic slate tucked under one arm.
Hennessey began, "It was good of you, sir…"
"Please, Patricio; 'Raul.'"
"Raul. I thought since this was a formal mission… oh, never mind. 'Raul.' It was good of you to return to see me. I think, maybe, I can help you now." Yes, I can help you… and I can help me… now.
Parilla positively beamed. "Ah! Wonderful. How?"
Hennessey had already thought about it enough. He had spent days thinking about it. "I will collect a small staff, house them somewhere out of the way, and put them to work on some of the things I mentioned before. While I am doing that, you need to be setting up the government to knuckle under for rearmament. You can do this?"
Parilla thought about it for a moment. "I can do some of it."
"Well… that's a start. Perhaps some propaganda can do the rest. In any case, soon the Federated States will need an ally; an ally that doesn't blanch when the body bags start coming home. If a way can be found to hasten that day, so much the better."
Parilla pointed a finger at Hennessey. "Could you do that kind of preparation for rebuilding a Balboa Defense Corps that really mattered outside of Balboa? Really?"
Hennessey didn't hesitate at all. "Yes. Really. Only… let's not call it the BDC. Too politically correct for my tastes. Also too much of an image marred by defeat. As a matter of fact, I think we should partially detach the force from Balboa. Your government is very sensitive to world opinion and very fond of the Tauran Union, the World League, and the UEPF."
" La Armada," Parilla suggested.
"Maybe that. But maybe not, either. The people who legislated away the name while leaving a shadow of the reality are plainly people more interested in image than facts. Call it an army openly and they'll be more likely to resist."
Parilla pushed Hennessey's objections aside for the time being. "Patricio tell me, what would you do specifically? Wait. Let me fire up my slate to write with."
"No," Hennessey said. "If it's electronic it can be tapped. At this point let's stick to old fashioned."
Terra Nova's levels of technology were approximately those of very early twenty-first century Earth. Like that place and that time, too, the levels were very unevenly distributed across the planet. Uhuru, outside of the Republic of Northern Uhuru, for example, was little advanced in some places above the neolithic level.
Even in those areas-the Federated States and Secordia, Yamato, the Tauran Union-which enjoyed the highest levels of technology available, there were some differences from the world of Man's birth in its twenty-first century after the birth of Christ.
Terra Nova had no truly and completely peaceful use of space. The Global Locating System put up by the Federated States had some peaceful uses, true, and it had been permitted by the UEPF because of those presumptive peaceful uses. But it was there, the Feds had paid for it, for its use in war. As much could be said for the communications satellites that circled the planet.
The major use of space, however, was manifest in the extensive system of systems set up by the Federated States of Columbia to engage and destroy the UEPF if the latter ever again had the temerity to try to dictate terms to the former. And that sat unused but threatening.
Medical technology was somewhat less, in particular with regards to epidemiology and infectious diseases, generally. They had their diseases there, of course, but most of those Man had brought with him to the new world he already had considerable resistance to. The planet itself had none of importance.
Given its sad history of war and massacre, however, the planet's medicos were quite capable of dealing with trauma.
Militarily, the planet was on a rough par with twenty-first century Old Earth, as well, much to the delight of medical interns who wanted the practice.
In electronics Terra Nova was perhaps a bit further behind, being at the level of Old Earth just before the close of its twentieth entury. For example, small personal computers were common, but somewhat slower, larger and heavier than might have been expected based on the level of military technology. Personal computers and mobile communication devices-cell phones-small enough to surgically insert were still the stuff of dreams and fantasies there.
One area where Terra Nova was far ahead of where one might have expected was in hacking. This, perhaps driven by the endemic warfare, was very advanced. Indeed, it was so advanced that no one was safe, ever. It was so advanced that the Globalnet, the equivalent of Old Earth's Internet, was far less well developed. Hacking on Terra Nova could be said to have retarded every other aspect of information technology.
It was suspected, in some circles, that the UEPF was responsible for much of the hacking.
Hennessey swiveled in his office chair and took from the top of his cluttered desk a pen and notebook, which he handed to Parilla. The older man considered this, considered the subject matter, considered the effects of what they were about to discuss on those who might object, and decided that using his electronic slate might be a bad idea after all. He took the pen and notebook.
Moments later, notebook in hand, a beaming Parilla prepared to take down Hennessey's thoughts.
Hennessey pulled a pack of cigarettes from a breast pocket. He took one paper tube out and stroked a match to light it. With smoke curling about his head in an infernal halo, he began, "I have friends who were once good soldiers in the Federated States Army… some other armies, too, but who despite being good soldiers-very good, actually-never made any great success of things. In some cases this was precisely because they were superior soldiers. They have left the service early or have retired. I would hire some of them to come here to do the staff work."
Half turning his head away, Parilla focused one eye on Hennessey. "Could you trust them to be discreet?"
"They are my friends. Yes, I would trust them." The ones I will pick? Oh, yes.
Parilla asked, "How much would this cost?"
Hennessey didn't need quick calculations. Those were long since made. "For the first year a fair figure might be about one point eight million FSD"-Federated States Drachma, also legal tender in Balboa and much of the rest of the planet-"not more than two point two million; plus perhaps a lump sum of about four million to start up. The annual figure could go as high as three million or even four but I really don't think it will cost that much, not before we start to recruit and expand."
Parilla took a deep breath before telling Hennessey, "Patricio, I would like you to take charge of this project, to make all possible preparations for Balboa to have its own armed force again, in truth as well as in name. Will you do it?"