Week 14
Day 1
The morning went off well with the usual crackle and bustle of a new colony. It was the late morning when the people of New Pangaea voted their decision.
Melody Susan Mannheim is guilty of manslaughter. But her act was to protect her child and also uncovered a man’s devious act; therefore her sentence is reduced to five years in imprisonment in the village. She will not be allowed to leave the village except to the farm which her father owns. She will be bring up her child in the village. Mrs Martha Winters will be her guardian during her sentence period.
Peter Mannheim is sentenced to one year in penal camp for abetting in a criminal plan to plant illegal plants. As he has shown remorse, the sentence is commuted to farm works on his portion of the farm and he is to take care of Melody and her coming baby.
Simon Bone will be buried in Boot Hill and his records erased of his trial. The children will grow under their eldest care and he will inherited the portion of his father’s farm.
I was relieved at the voting and walked away. I saw the Bone’s kids looking at me with their stares. They may hate me for saving Melody’s life but she is too young to bear her weight of the crime. It was to me a delf defense act as like in combat, we killed to defend ourselves.
‘Commander, I give you credit to your victory, but you just opened up the Pandora’s box in this paradise.’ I watched the Warden walked back to his LTV for the trip back to the Holding.
‘Commander, Major Feeley just called you. I think you are needed in BASE.’ I board the LTV for the trip to BASE. Maybe the Warden is right; I have opened up a new chapter in the New Pangaea but its Pandora Box of hope and good wishes for these people want to leave together in harmony.
After all, I am the devil incarnate and I will burn those who join me.
‘Commander, Earth Council just called in to say that they are pushing ahead the colonisation schedule. Earth is dying and they need to move fast. The next ship is arrived in one week; re-routed from another destination. Here is the list of people on board.’
Another load of souls but this one is bigger at five hundred and five people or one hundred and twenty families, including forty one children. But no inmates; only good people with all kinds of behaviour. No mention of additional military personnels. The list of names looked more impressive.
Admiral ( Retired ) Bradford Stoke; ex services now choosing New Pangaea as his new home. He is accompanied by his grandson, Vincent Shaw Stokes, whose mother is here on Pangaea. The boy is only aged eight years.
Doctor Rashis Alim; previous Earth Council Member, now retired. He is here to look up his son, Ben Rashis Alim. Doctor Rashis is also a expert in electromagnetic fields and co-related fields.
Margaret Welch; political activist and defeated contender for Earth Council posting on three occassions. She is here on her own choice. She is outstanding person in rallying trouble. She is also Micheal Bent’s previous confidante after mum died. Susan hates her guts and may kill her if I turn my back or give her permission.
‘And Doctor Bashir wants to see you in his Medical Area.’ I like the last minute request of my staff to my time. No mention of subject matters but just come now.
‘Doctor Bashir, tell me why am I here.’ I liked being sarcastic nowadays; it helps me to de-stressed. ‘so who is dying?’
‘Sargeant Luker, Commander. He is diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma. We are treating it but till now we still do have the real cure. And his has just spread out. He is dying, Sir.’ I disliked that tone when he saids it.
‘Okay, put him to East Ends and briong Corporal Saidin back.’
I need to called Earth for more personnels if they keep dropping off colonists.
‘Excuse me, Sir. There is a Code One call for you from Earth Council.’ About time that kind of call comes through. Its a high level call and I get to speak to the big brass.
‘Commander Scott, I will be brief. We just got intel that the Federation is sending out their own colonist too. They are shipping them en bloc and some could be headed your way. So prepare for them; we are technically still at war with them. Admiral Bates out.’ And he never heard my request.
Fragging Code One comms. They talked and you listen.
If the Feds are coming, then we will kill New Pangaea even before we started. The wars between the Federation and Empire has been going on for over thirty years on Earth. Although we have colonised other planets but we still fight on old Earth. The Federation occupied one third of Earth while we covered the rest, but we fought for the whole planet. As a result, we are escallating our colonisation program now. We did not conflict on the colonies as we choose different planets until recently. Federations decided that why searched and explore when they can just piggy back on our search. They done it on two planets and we kicked them out.
Now they are coming here.
I looked at the calendar; fourteen weeks and we are about to start war again. And there is only option not like the one on Earth where they hit the impasse on negotiation. As one past leader put it better; Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival.( Winston Churchill.)
I send in a Code One request for reinforcement. I do not give a darned if they demote me.
‘Commander, you have a moment.’ Its was Doctor Leong on comms for me. If he sounds like that, it means more issues to contend with.
Day 2
We stake out on the platform, both Doctor Leong and myself, while Pedro is somewhere in the jungle watching out back. We are back on the same platform Doctor Leong built with Nixon when they were observing the apes. He gave me a very interesting finding to his observations. He thinks that these apes are more evolved than the past ones on Earth; he thinks that they can think like humans.
But all I seen this morning was them frolicking around the pond and acting as most apes do in those vidviews; sleep and eat. But Doctor Leong was trying to tell me that they do communicate in sounds like language and they used tools like us. I am getting agitated at these observations which to me is fruitless and time wasting. But it was not altogether wasted.
An adult Thylacoleo; early species of the Lion breed pounced out from the undergrowth and grabbed a young baby chimp. The ‘lion’ jaw locked onto the right arm of the chimp and was ready to snatch it away. Suddenly a nearby ape knocked into the lion and caused it to dropped the chimp. The lion then snarled at the ape and crouch to attack. The other apes on seeing the commotion then started running to a nearby bush and extracted long pieces of bones and wooden clubs. They then lined up against the lion. Its like a human defense line. The lion on seeing the new threat, decided to withdraw into the bushes.
The mother ape tended to its injured chimp which has now a bleeding arm. The prime ape came to the mother who was tending the young. On seeing the prime approaching, she jumps to the side with her offspring, and ventured off into the jungle. The prime sniffs the air and roared out. A black back slipped out to followed the female ape. It was coming towards us and by coincidence, it left the young chimp at our base tree and went back to the group. We stared at the young chimp in pain by the wounds on its forearm, looking for its mother. It was then the black back arrived out of the bushes. He was standing at about ten feet away when Pedro came in with the bike from across the clearing, zzom in and grabbed the chimp. He then rode off into the opposite side of the clearing. It happened so fast that I was taken aback. The black back on seeing his loss of the chimp turned back and started growling and chattering to the others. The prime ape got up and walked away, followed by the troop.
According to Doctor Leong, they never come back again. We have invaded their sanctum of peace.
But we gain a new inmate; ‘LeongJr’, our new young resident chimp gorrila. We managed to sutured back her arm and she is recovering. Its a female and she sleeps with Doctor Leong in the unit. For now anyway.
Day 3
If you recall the T-Rex which went on a rampage in the farm, and was subsequently shot dead. Well, Doctor Leong had the skull cleaned and he set it up at the farm’s edge with a vocal synthetizer to emit the sound of the T-Rex growls. It worked for a while scaring off a number of herbivore who were keen on the vegetable patches.
And then the trouble came.
Its adversary came; the spinosaurus’ are back at the farm. They are the nasty pair that hit the T-Rex earlier. It may be a coincidence that the dead one is their old rival or they just loved to hunt T-Rex. But they are here now and they looked nasty, with their fins make them larger than the T-Rex.
‘Bring out the cannons and PH900. I want to blast them this time.’ Pedro and mysefl grabbed the PH9-00 and left on the ATV. We reached there in time to see the section of the wall built for the farm has collapsed under the hammering of the creature. I dropped off the ATV and raised the PH900 to shoulder level. I took aim and fired at the head of the creature while the cannons went blasting. My projectile hit it under the jaw and it went in with a explosion. Pedro did the same for the other pair. I followed up with anothr shot at the eye socket as these are the soft areas in the creatures to my reckoning. It staggered on that shot, which mean its effective. By then the cannons has ripped through the thick hide and the creature fell on the side.
Pedro’s pair is still standing despite two shots in the jaws and right shoulder, as it moved at the last moment. I assisted with a shot in the left eye socket from my side and reloaded for a second shot but its going down. It fell down on its front and stayed there with the blood out eyes. I looked at it and for the first time I felt sad. These are fine creatures in their own mode, and we just told them its wrong to be one. I wondered when we will be put down one day like them.
I could hear the roars from the jungle. Its time to move back to the village. The scavengers will be here soon. And true to my words, the first to appear is the T-Rex, followed by the others. We drove back in the ATV silence in thoughts.
It was late evening when Peter Thomas Bone came to see me at the unit in the village. He was holding Melody Mannheim in his hands.
‘Just want to say we appreciate what you did. I will take care of Melody and our baby.’
‘Peter, do me a favour. Pass the word around; I need new recruits for the local village guards. We will provide training and they will be armed. And given some credits. You can be their leader.’
He agreed and I watched them walked back to their unit. I hate sentimentals thank you’s.
‘I wondered when I will get to see that in you. But I dare not dream of it.’ That was Micheal Bent who knows how to appear in the dark when you least expect. I ignored him and picked up my gear.
‘Susan will be back tomorrow. So I am off.’ More I hate people who see me being nice.
I rode off back to BASE.
Day 3
Vicente Pizo claims to be represent the colonist came to see me that morning when I rode in. He said the colonist wants to explore the surrounding land to select lands for themselves as their own. Its like the old days when settlers get to stake out their own land. He claims that its in the agreement they signed with the Earth Council; the right to own their own land. But I am not ready to support them in this scheme as I have limited resources. I told him to give me time to think, but he told me I am given a day to consider or they will walk out themselves.
I looked at the lanky man who whose body frame may not filled up a raptor’s daily needs, and I was tempted to knock his brains out. But the last time I did that, they suspect me of murder later. But if I let the people go out, it will be a massarce in two days.
I agreed to his terms and I rode off to the see Doctor Bashir.
‘How is Sargeant Luker?’
‘I was up there yesterday. He is doing fine, but he is not responding to medication. There been reports of hallucinations and he is scaring his peers.’
I do not want to lose a good man not in times like this but I had little choice. ‘Bring him back. Let him rest here.’
I send out the Bubble to check on our neighbours, the nine condemned inmates. I suggested a drop of supplies for them including ammo.
I also requested the Furies ladies to join me in a scout misson to the far west. We will scan and confirmed the terrain and creatures. I took the bike and they drove their modified LTV; it has a twin gun similar to the Penal’s one. Its a relief to be out here among the wild and dangerous. We skirted thick undergrowth and obstacles but we made inroads into the land. We got T-Rex chasing us and even some others’ who cannot resist doing a run with us. But we won most of the races.
Then the worse came. Its started raining.
We moved up a small hill and parked the vehicles. The ladies had a thermal tent put up; it actally a large dome shaped tent that can accomodate ten persons. Specialist Melon staked out our perimeter defense which will give us early warning of any predators. We stripped off our wet uniforms and huddled together around in our inner wears over a thermal lamp. If anyone think of fun with one man and three ladies in a tent, then think again. These are officers who are trained to kill and they will not hesitate to do me in on any misconduct. And I am a gentleman and an officer, so I know my boundaries. Moreover the rain is getting heavy and so is the mood over the lamp.
The perimeter alarm went off a few times, but the loud piercing sound scared them off. We did had to shoot a ten foot long Sanajeh; Madtsoiidae, an extinct family of snakes. It must come seeking the thermal environment, but we shot it. Despite the rain and thunder, we are still able to comm with BASE. Bubble has returned to BASE before the rain and did not complete the mission. It did not stopp raining for two days.
But while during the rain, I conducted operation training under the wet conditions. I had the personnel do mock up response in the rain condition. It drew some snide remarks but we are better prepared. The ladies and myself went hunting for predators on a training session. We tried our stealth modes in these wet conditions. It almost ended up in disaster when one of the Jessie’s fell into a small ravine, and we had to haul her up.
Day 5
Vicente Pizo threaten to walked off the village if I do not return. I did not comply and went on further west turning north later.
We came on a dry acrid land saddled with tar pits and gas vents from the ground. It stretches over a mile and across, with some carcass of animals seen in the pits. These are caused by the unstable plates of the core planet which is moving to adjust to new forces which is constantly pressing on it. As this a warm climate area, the reptiles being cold blooded can be found here. They may come to seek some temporary refuge and move on back to the jungle.
We stopped the LTV and walked the grounds ahead on foot, avoiding the pits and vents. For safety reasons, I had the team put on life support packs with oxygen masks. We collected some samples which the scientist will love to have. Across the dry land is more jungle but we decided to stop here.
We went up north to hit the river before we reach some thick jungles. After having cut through some jungles paths, we came to the swamp area; cluster of island with some vegetation and teeming with reptiles and marine creatures. We can see in the distance, the brontosaurus, and near to us in the murky water are the Karaurus; salamader insect eating creature. We saw the bad boys too but they kept their distance. They do grow them big there too like the Sarcosuchus which can grow up to forty feet. We think they are also named as ‘super croc’ in the past.
We skirted the swamp and went east to see if we can meet up with any more bad boys. It was dark when we reached the spot which the inmates took to flight across. We camped there in the LTV and kept watch over the night.
It was Specialist Melon who gave me a good thought for these few days of stress and anxiety; As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world -- that is the myth of the atomic age -- as in being able to remake ourselves. - Mohandas K. Gandhi
Day 6
Vicente Pizo was still in the village when I rode in. But his arguement still retained in his head, and its time to sit down. I agreed to the re-settlement on one condition. They will stay in clusters of fifteen families per area, and its within our patrolling grounds. We will provide them the needed supplies including weapons but they are to stay in contact on a daily basis.
Fifteen families consisting forty eight people volunteered to be the first re-settlers. They will move out in a week’s time. We will help them to settle down and built the defense perimeter. Plus they needed weapons to survive there.
Its their right to live as colonists.
No comments:
Post a Comment