Karen said, “You’re all invited to the Director’s welcoming luncheon.”
Sevin said, “I’ll be there.”
Galen said, “As much as I know it pains you, I’m glad to hear that. So Tad, how’re operations going?”
“During the past two months we have cycled through two classes of police cadets and they have relieved our troops of their duties as they came on line. By the end of next month, all the police duties will be handled completely by them. As for crater defense, this process will take longer. First comes twelve weeks of basic military training, then as much as twelve more weeks of additional specialized training. After they are all trained and certified, we’ll hand the entire defense mission off to them on the same day. At that time, we’ll step back into an advisory role. The only unit inside the crater that will remain under our control is the heavy tank company.”
Galen said, “Okay. That’s good stuff. Some of out troops are already getting bored, so I’m thinking about making arrangements to ship some of them out as their duties are taken over by the police.”
Sevin said, “No. We all leave together, at the end of the contract. If they need something to do, I’ll work them into the rotation up top.”
Galen said, “And what about after the units up top are relived by EugeneX troops?”
“We’ll stay, and patrol up top as dismounts. Or whatever. We all stay until the end of the contract, and we all leave together.”
Galen leaned forward. “Master Sergeant Sevin, please let me know why you feel so strongly about this.”
“Two reasons, Smaj. Tradition and the advantage of the troops who leave early, it’s not fair and that unfairness will eat away at unit cohesion. That won’t seem bad now, but I’m thinking of the next contract, and the one after that.”
“I still don’t read you.”
Sevin said, “The troops who leave here first will get first crack at the best training slots on Mandarin. They’ll get a career boost ahead of the troops left here, and that will cause resentment within the ranks. We all have to stay together. Anything else is unacceptable in a professional unit.”
Galen looked around the room. “Okay, Sevin. You win this one. We’ll all stay here until the contract is complete.”
Sevin winked and said, “Choose your battles wisely and you’ll never lose.”
Galen said, “Tad, anything else?”
“Sure. Direct your attention to the full-D screen. Nine days ago we detected a ship heading this way from a distant jump point, burning in at half light speed. I expect them to be here in about three or four days, depending on how strongly they intend to decelerate. We sent a message asking who they were and this is the response we received.”
The screen showed a man in full body armor, grey, with a row of short spikes spaced about two centimeters apart running from one elbow to the next across the upper arms and shoulders. The man’s face had a tattoo that looked like some sort of predatory arthropod, his left eye the eye of the tattooed creature. From the outer corner of his right eye were three black teardrop tattoos. He peeled back his lips before he spoke to reveal his teeth, which had been sharpened into points, top and bottom, to look like opposed rows of fangs.
He spoke, “People of the Panzy Brigade, know this: the people of Seventh City are now under the protection of the Twelfth Legion of Doom. Any farther action by you against them will be met with retribution by me and the soldiers I command. Take heed, lest you lose everything through defeat at my hands. And make no mistake, dare to interfere with Seventh City again and I will relieve you of the burden of your failed and useless lives.” The screen went dark.
“That’s it,” said Tad.
Galen said, “Have we sent a response yet?”
“No, I thought you’d like to have some input.”
Galen said, “My initial gut response is to scorch Seventh City off the map before they get here, and knock the Legion ship out of space as soon as it’s in range. But there’s nothing in our unit contract about killing fools just because they insult us.”
“Well,” said Spike, “When Seventh City was trying to get a bid on the contract, the terms were to protect their city from incursion and attack. It seems to me like as long as we stay more than ten klicks away from them, they won’t bother us.”
Tad said, “As long as they stay the hell away from my crater, I’m good with that.”
Galen said, “How long does it take for a message to reach them?”
Tad said, “Almost a day, roughly. Less as they get closer.”
“Okay, let me think about it and we’ll put together a response.”
Sevin said, “Whatever it is, make sure you say something about his teeth.”
Karen said, “And make fun of his unit name, a legion of dummies or something.”
Galen stood and walked toward the exit. “All right, we’ll have some fun with that later. Now it’s time to go to the luncheon. Follow me out.”
The senior staff members followed Galen down the steps and around the buildings and into the office building of EugeneX, straight back to the restaurant. They were seated together at a round dining table and served chicken cordon bleu and iced tea. At the far end of the dining room, Mr. Pedimore turned on the comms, checked the podium and brought the full-D screen out of standby mode, then began to speak.
“Welcome all to EugeneX’s newest research facility. We’ll get started with a presentation from our senior researcher, Dr. Forestall Wythecombs.”
Pedimore stepped aside and Dr. Wythecombs took his place. He wore his lab coat, the white material draped over his thin shoulders. His narrow face made his eyes look too big, and his bald head looked a little too pink on top. “I’m very excited about our latest project. It provides great hope for all humankind. I can truly say, if it works the way I expect it will, what we accomplish here will literally be remembered, for ever. I’m talking about, of course, our work on immortality and eternal youth.” Dr. Wythecombs sat in a chair behind the podium and the lights dimmed and the full-D screen showed the EugeneX corporate logo approaching from a great distance, closer and closer, until it filled the screen.
Spike said, in a low voice, “Bunch of nerds.”
Sevin said, “This is bad. That crap never works.”
Galen said, “Hey, watch the table talk. I don’t care what they do as long as we get paid.”
The presentation showed people working in a lab. There were lab rats and monkeys and views of things squiggling under a microscope. Galen understood most of it and understood that they intended to not only halt the aging process by preventing the ends of DNA molecules from becoming frayed over time, but to also repair the damage and reverse the process. In the scenes of animals, the old animals of various sorts were returned to early adulthood, and retained the ability to still perform whatever tricks they had been taught. Rats made record time running through mazes, monkeys communicated faster with sign language, faster than a group of deaf humans. There were also amazing regenerative effects; a dog was stabbed in the side and then was completely healed in just three days. Finally there was a field of sheep and the viewers were challenge to tell the difference between the ones that were three years old and the ones that were fifteen years old. They all looked the same to Galen, but of course, he knew nothing about sheep anyway.
The presentation ended with the corporate logo and some upbeat music. When the full-D screen faded to black the lights came back up. Mike the Director stood behind the podium. “A big round of applause for Dr. Wythecombs and all the researchers here on Juventud. You deserve it.”
Applause rose and fell. Mike continued, “Okay, now let’s talk about work. The time for settling in is over; the time for work is now. It is my goal to have a batch of test serum large enough to inoculate thirty thousand people ready by the end of next week. I’ve seen the reports and I know we can do this.”