Chapter 06: Drs. Kim and Tsukishima fulfil their obligation to the ISAF in the civil war of the Jezebel system - part 6

7: Convalescence

Recovery

Lauren slowly opened her eyes. She could tell that she was in a soft bed in a dark room but couldn’t figure out much else. Lauren suddenly became aware that she didn’t know where her glasses were. She suddenly remembered the mission, being rescued, being shot, the searing pain, bleeding out on the floor of the dropship, and then being injected with some sort of foam. Lauren put her hand to her waist. Instead of skin, her fingertips met with a flexible soft material. It was strange, she knew she was touching her waist, her fingertips reported coming into contact with something but couldn’t feel any part of her getting touched by her fingertips, only a strange sensation of the skin around where her wound was getting pulled around by some invisible force which, at a high level, she knew was being caused by her, but her instincts told her that the experience was weird. Lauren then became aware of the sound of breathing that was not her own. Her body stiffened and she tried to get up, but couldn’t muster the strength. She made a small pinhole opening with her finger and looked through it to survey her room. The room was dimly lit by the rising sun. Lauren looked towards the source of the sound and found Ashley laying across three chairs, sleeping and clutching onto Lauren’s hard case and a large bag. Lauren relaxed upon seeing her friend.

“So I made it out,” she thought to herself, looking at the ceiling. She sighed, and with her outbreath fell back asleep.

Lauren heard people talking. She closed her eyes harder, trying to stay asleep. The talking continued. Then music started. Accepting that she wasn’t going to stay asleep, Lauren opened her eyes. The one window in the room had the blinds up to admit the gentle morning sunlight. To one side of Lauren was a night stand with a cup of water and a flower in a slender vase. To her other side was a large machine that monitored Lauren’s vitals and controlled the wielding blanket that was accelerating her healing. Ashley had her back to Lauren and was watching the news on the monitor in the room. Lauren’s hard case and the mysterious bag were on the floor under Ashley’s chair. Her friend’s short hair was tousled from a night spent sleeping on chairs.

“Ashley?” said Lauren in a quieter voice than she was expecting.

Ashley turned around, for a moment she had a look of surprise that was quickly replaced by elation. Then Ashley looked as if she was about to cry. She leapt up from her chair and towards Lauren. Before Lauren knew what was going on, Ashley’s arms were wrapped around Lauren in a tight embrace.

“Lauren!” cried Ashley, her voice muffled by the pillows behind Lauren.

“Ashley!” said Lauren, hugging her back and smiling just as wide as Ashley.

“I’m so glad you’re okay now,” said Ashley.

“I’m sorry for making you worry,” said Lauren, “I could have avoided all of this.”

“Don’t apologize,” cooed Ashley, “all that matters right now is that you’re okay.”

Despite Ashley’s intentions, Lauren wasn’t comforted by the statement. She thought about Cole and the other squad members and the young soldier she killed.

“Ashley,” said Lauren, “it’s getting kind of hard to breath.”

Ashley instantly sprung back horrified with herself, “I’m sorry, I hugged too hard! Are you okay? Do you need anything?”

“You’re fine,” said Lauren, “I need my glasses. Also I’m a little thirsty.”

“Oh right!” said Ashley fishing through her pockets, “here’s your glasses. And your glass. Oh, and I washed your phone off too.”

“Thanks,” said Lauren, her vision restored, she sipped some water through the straw, “washed it off?”

“Yeah, it was kind of… um, red, you know?” said Ashley uncomfortably.

“Oh, got it,” said Lauren. She checked her phone, it was unresponsive.

“It’s dead,” said Lauren, “I mean, it’s out of charge.”

“Here, I have a charger,” said Ashley, returning with a cable and Lauren’s laptop, “also, um, Susan told me to get the access keys from you as soon as you woke up. The brass wants me to present the map to them this evening.”

“Let me do it,” said Lauren, unlocking her computer, “when can I get discharged?”

“This afternoon,” replied Ashley from her chair, “are you sure? You’ve been through a lot.”

“Positive,” said Lauren, working on her computer, “it’s the least I can do.”

“O-okay,” said Ashley, puzzled, “I got the keys you sent, wow you got four of them? Sending them to Linas now. The current plan is for me to go back to defense HQ and help the research team use the map. Once you’ve been discharged, a car can take you back to defense HQ where you can join us. Oh, and here’s your badge and some clothing the team bought for you. You’ll just have to keep your badge in your pocket until you can get back to your hotel room. Now, I hate to leave, but Susan said I can’t take a break any longer.” They waved at each other as Ashley left.

Lauren was alone again. The TV was still on. She turned it off and snuggled under the wielding blanket. The blanket made her feel warm. Not in the usual way blankets do by trapping in heat but instead by causing the body to heat up on its own. She remembered when she had her tonsils removed, she had to wear a neck pillow with wielding machines in it that sped up her healing in her mouth. I was her hope that by snuggling in the blankets she could increase her chances of being dismissed on time.

“Dr. Kim?” said a voice. Lauren woke up from her nap and saw a woman standing next to her bed with a pair of crutches.

“I’m Dr. Denice Kardos, I was one of your surgeons,” said the woman.

“Oh, nice to meet you and thank you for saving me,” said Lauren, shaking her hand, “also call me Lauren.”

“It is nice to meet you too and I’ll pass on your thanks to the rest of the team,” said Denice, “I’m here to see how your recovery is coming along and discharge you if I see fit.” The doctor went to the machine next to Lauren and poked at its touchscreen for a while, reading the different graphs and summaries. Lauren waited with bated breath.

“Well,” said Denice, “I ordinarily wouldn’t discharge you with these stats but we need all of the beds we can get and, from what I’ve seen, you are on some important errand that can’t wait. You’ll have to consume exclusively prescription food and water however.”

Lauren hobbled through the hospital lobby on her crutches accompanied by a nurse with Lauren’s hard case slung over his shoulder.

“Thank you for carrying my hard case,” said Lauren sheepishly. She didn’t like it when other people carried things for her. Even as a child, she insisted on carrying her own suitcase, which as an adult, Lauren realized was too small to carry everything child Lauren needed on a trip and was in fact a clever trick by her parents.

“No problem,” said the nurse, switching the carrying strap to his other shoulder, “this thing is so heavy it would be impossible to carry with crutches.”

“Yeah,” said Lauren, looking at the floor. She looked up as they exited the hospital and saw two soldiers standing by an army van in the pickup area. One of the soldiers helped her into the tall van while the other took the hard case from the nurse. While on the way to the defense headquarters, Lauren checked her phone for the first time since the mission and saw the message from Neil.

“Oh no,” thought Lauren as she put her phone back into her pocket.

Discovery

“Lauren! You made it!” Hira spun around in his chair with his arms over his head.

“We’re glad you’re back,” said Atid.

The other historical and technical warrant officers were similarly jubilant. There were still leftover meat patties from lunch, the smell of which now made Lauren uncomfortable. Both projectors were displaying the Potesta system radar view of the primary and secondary continents. Ashley and Hira helped Lauren into an office chair, Temmie leaned Lauren’s crutches against the wall. Lauren looked around at the other officers. Being around so many people in uniform made Lauren feel underdressed in a sweater and jeans, and made her suddenly miss her Archival Officer uniform for the first time.

“We plugged the access keys in,” said Linas from behind the remote connection computer, “it’s insane, you zoom in enough and you can see the movements of individual people. We used it to follow your van as it drove here.” He looked to his side at the other historical officers. “Which we probably shouldn’t have been doing because we still haven’t found the Separatist’s nerve center. We’ve checked all of the population clusters detected on the primary continent with the census maps and can’t find anything that might be a base. Maybe you can try and mess around with the interface?”

“I —, it’s hard for me to get up,” said Lauren hesitantly.

“Oh, right, my bad,” said Linas, “well, here we can pass you the mouse and keyboard.

“Thanks,” said Lauren. She zoomed out and panned around the map. She paused over the secondary continent. She thought about reading Atid’s debriefing notes and his note in the margins calling the people of the secondary continent “the smart ones” and how that made her laugh. On a hunch, Lauren zoomed in on the secondary continent and started panning around. She did this for several minutes until she found a cluster of yellow points.

“What’s this?” said Giannis.

“I don’t know,” said Linas, “cross check this latitude and longitude with the census data. There should at least be a small city at that location.”

“The nearest town to that point is hundreds of kilometers away,” said Indah looking at her laptop.

“You guys ready?” Susan burst into the room trailed by Stoyan.

“Those resin farmers have been in cahoots with the separatists all along!” exclaimed Hira.

“Um, what?” said Susan, “also, you kids have to get out of here. The general is coming. Also take the leftover food with you. Thanks!”

“Yay, free food,” said Temmie.

“We should hang out before you go,” said Hira on his way out.

“So what were they saying?” asked Susan after the students left the room, “also, get to the side of the table opposite the door, Eric and the retinue will be taking up this side of the room.”

“We found a large population cluster that,” Lauren paused to get up from her chair after Ashley passed her crutches, “a cluster that doesn’t match any known population centers.” Lauren carefully made her way to the remote access station and started to hastily scribble some notes on a scrap of paper which she found more thought intensive than normal as she was used to only making notes for presentations over an hour.

“Have you checked for other such clusters?” asked Stoyan.

“Not yet,” said Giannis.

“But we could use the script we used to check for population clusters on the primary continent,” said Claire.

“Great, can you do that?” said Susan.

“You want me to code?” said Claire.

“You’re a technical officer aren’t you?” said Susan impatiently.

“Yes…,” said Claire, “hey Hatim.”

“I’m on it,” said Hatim.

“Excellent,” said Susan, “they should almost be here—”

“Ladies and gentlemen, the general of the 45th Intersyst Army.”

All of the warrant officers got up from their chairs, Atid snapped to attention and Ashley followed, Stoyan and Susan whirled around to face the open door. Lauren snatched her crutches and struggled to get up.

A large white dog entered the room, its perked ears and raised tail suggested that it considered itself to have at least the rank of captain. It surveyed the room, looking at each officer in turn and then started to growl at Ashley, Lauren, and Atid.

“Monte, come!” a middle aged woman of a demeanor more stern than even Morgan entered the room. The dog trotted to her side but kept its body angled so that it was always between the general and the Archival Officers.

“You there,” said General Albritton to Lauren, still struggling in her chair, “what is your name?”

“Oh, Lauren. I mean Dr. Lauren Kim, Archival Officer of the Historical Technologies Group.”

“Well Dr. Kim, please stay seated and at ease,“ said General Albritton. She extended her hand across the table, “I also ask that you shake my hand so that Monte may recognize you as a friend of mine.”

Lauren placed her hand in the general’s firm grip. The dog immediately turned its attention to the other two Archival Officers.

The general put her hand in front of Ashley, “I ask that you shake my hand as well, Dr. …”

“Tsukishima,” said Ashley, vigorously shaking the general’s hand, “Dr. Ashley Tsukishima. Also Archival Officer of the Historical Technologies Group.”

“General Erica Albritton,” said the general, “at ease.” The dog now only growled at Atid.

“Dr. Atid Bledsoe of the Delphi Group,” said Atid shaking General Albritton’s hand.

“It’s a pleasure to have one of you joining our research team,” said the general.

“I should also introduce Monte Albritton the fourth.” She placed a hand on the dog’s head, “he has been my guard dog for most of my time as general. Anything he can’t take down, I can shoot and vice versa. Together we are always safe.”

The general took a look around the room, “everyone else, at ease.”

Chairs scuffled and clanked as the eight members of the army research team all took their seats. Hatim began typing furiously at his laptop. Five senior officers filed into the conference room after the general. The general seated herself in Lauren’s previous chair, pushing away the keyboard and mouse that she found in front of her. Monte sat down next to the general and put its head on her lap.

“Chief Warrant Officer Gu,” said the general, “what is the status of our special project?”

“Promising, ma’am,” Susan stood at her spot at the table, “I’ll let one of the Archival Officers explain the details to you.”

Lauren exchanged a glance with Ashley then stood up, leaning on her crutches. She cleared her throat, “we now have full access to the functions of the Northern Monuments radar system, known as the Potesta System to its creators, and have established that it is capable of,” Lauren glanced down at her notes, “surveying nearly all of the planet’s landmasses and with a resolution that goes down to a single person as was predicted by the recovered documentation.”

“Impressive,” said the Sergeant Major of the Army, “that sort of resolution and scope should allow us to win almost any engagement.”

“True,” said the general, “but that’s not what we’re after. The best—and I’m sure Dr. Bledsoe will back me up on this—and the most lasting victory is an unconditional surrender by the leadership of the seperatist forces. Remember, some of the seperatist fighters are the people we are trying to protect.”

She turned to Lauren, “to that end, have you found anything that might suggest an otherwise well hidden command center?”

“Yes, ma’am,” said Lauren, “we found this population cluster on the secondary continent. There—”

“Excuse me,” said the general. The dog lifted its head from her lap. “You said the secondary continent?”

“Yes, ma’am,” said Lauren, she took a sip of water, “all population clusters on the primary continent matched the census data.”

“And all clusters on the secondary continent but that one match as well,” said Hatim, looking up.

The general let out a long sigh. She turned to one of her advisors, “have a stealthed reconnaissance team check that location without the ‘neutral’ leaders noticing.”

General Albritton made eye contact with another senior officer, “have the Temerity adjust its course so that it will be in position for an orbital drop assault at that location at 1300 hours local time tomorrow. The sun should be at the perfect angle to mask their reentry.”

She got up to address the room, “I’m going to press the planetary leadership and try and find out who knows what in this affair. Let us reconvene in the main war room at 1200 tomorrow, that includes the army research team and the Knowledge Corps Officers as well. Everyone, dismissed.”

The advisors got up and packed their notes. Claire and Stoyan whispered to each other. The general again leaned across the table in front of Lauren.

“Put out your hands, Dr. Kim,” said General Albritton. She placed two enamel and metal squares, a red one and a black one, into Lauren’s hands, “I apologize for the danger we put you through, but I also thank you for your bravery.”

“Oh, um thank you, ma’am,” said Lauren, “I feel like I should be the one apologizing, I know I made some serious mistakes.”

“That’s what they all say,” said the general, “the real mistake was made by me when I approved pairing up Knowledge Corps Officers with Army fighters. It’s a pairing I know doesn’t work well, but which I also know had the potential to lead us to the best type of victory. We’ll see tomorrow if I should be thanking you for that as well.”

The general and her advisors left the room. Susan leaned back into her chair and raised her fists over her head triumphantly. Ashley scooted closer to Lauren to see what the general gave her.

“What did you get?” asked Ashley.

“Let’s see,” said Lauren, turning the black square over first, “it’s a distinction badge with the outline of a Gladius pistol. And this one has the outline of a bandage and a bullet on it.”

“The Arbiter and the Survivor,” said Ashley, “that’s what they are called.”

“Arbiter and survivor, huh?” said Lauren, placing the distinction markers into her ID badge. She looked at her badge for a second, then removed the magenta badge that she bought at the Citadel bookstore. It didn’t feel like such an easily gained distinction badge belonged alongside her two new ones.

Lauren, Ashley, and Atid followed the army research team through a subterranean corridor of the defense headquarters. Susan stopped at one of the doors, waved her ID over the reader, then held the door open for everyone else, each person rendering a salute before entering. Lauren found herself in what had the appearance of a small lecture hall with three tiers of standing desks all facing a pair of projector screens.

“Archival Officers, your station is over there,” called Gen. Albritton from the right side of the second tier. She pointed to the left set of desks of the first tier which had the only stool in the entire room, “apologies for the arrangement, Intersyst Army war rooms traditionally are standing only.”

Ashley placed Lauren’s laptop case that she had been carrying on the desk and the three of them began setting up their computers. The army research team spread out across the tiers of the left side of the room. Ashley went to the desk behind Lauren’s to help Linas and Nia set up a secondary remote access station, or the ‘remote, remote access station’ as Ashley dubbed it.

“An update to those not in the loop,” said the general, “the reconnaissance team reported finding an active facility deep in one of the resin forests and picked up heavy radio traffic. I had some conversations with loyalist and neutral leaders. The leadership of the secondary continent has agreed to cooperate with us by letting us land a large part of our force at one of their airports as well as sending a small garrison force to help with the assault on the nerve center. Atid, I’m not sure if that makes them good or bad in the context of this planet so I leave their fate up to you.”

Atid nodded to the general and took some notes on his computer. He handed a Smart Sheet to Giannis who then placed it on the General’s desk.

“Yeah, everything is all set up now,” said Ashley, reading the messages on the monitor of the secondary remote access station.

“Great,” said Nia. She got up and went to the middle station of the second tier, “Colonel, plug this communication pin into your station. This will give the leaders of the assault pinpoint data on all troop positions with a delay of 3 plus or minus 1 seconds.”

“The land force has reported that they have successfully taken up their positions on the eastern side of the base,” said the Sergeant Major of the Army from the right station of the third tier, “all charges on their tunnels have been set as well.”

“The orbital force has finished taking up their positions as well,” said the Colonel, “they’re still setting their last two charges however.”

“The specialist teams report that they have finished setting up the firebreak around the base and are ready for firefighting,” said the Brigadier General.

“The plan,” said Gen. Albritton, ”is for the secondary continent garrison and main force that we landed this morning to approach the base from the northeast and southeast. At the same time, the orbital drop teams will approach the west side of the base. Together the two forces will establish a perimeter around the base. The Temerity will immediately maneuver itself into a geosynchronous orbit above the base. Using the Northern Monument Radar system, we have identified eight tunnels linking the base to concealed exits. Explosives will be set in those tunnels and detonated, leaving them with only the exits on the base itself. Aircraft will be on standby to chase down anyone escaping through tunnels we might not have identified. We will then request a communication session with them and let them know that we have a cruiser in orbit ready to rain fire on their base and that we are prepared to accept an unconditional surrender.”

“Possibly not a single shot fired,” said Atid, “the best kind of victory.”

“The best kind of victory,” echoed Gen. Albritton.

“Orbital force has reported that they finished setting up all of their charges, General,” said the Colonel.

“Alright, tell the land and orbital forces to ready themselves and detonate the charges simultaneously,” said the general, “then start pinging the base with communications hails.”

Lauren watched one of the views on the main monitors, an aerial shot of a resin forest taken by a circling drone. Eight pillars of smoke and debris erupted in a large circle around the base in close succession.

“The land forces report no movement from the base,” said the Sergeant Major of the Army, “also heavy armor from the land forces has just now made it around the base to reinforce the orbital forces.”

“No motion observed by the orbital forces either,” said the Colonel.

Susan tapped her pen on her desk rapidly.

“Have we been hailing them?” asked the General, studying the Potesta map.

“Yes, General, since you gave the order,” said the SMA.

“Could they be escaping by going deeper underground?” pondered the general.

“If they were, we would have seen the number of personnel within the perimeter drop,” said Susan.

“And when was that number last updated?” asked the General.

“Umm,” Susan studied her screen.

“Two minutes ago,” said Stoyan, peering over Susan’s shoulder.

“Pardon?” said the general, turning, “I thought this was a real time count.”

“It is,” said Linas, “usually.”

“It looks like it crashed,” said Nia.

“What has?” said the General, “the application we are using or the whole radar system?”

“After centuries of operation, the entire radar system crashes a day after we get a hold of it?” asked Claire incredulously.

“That’s not as far-fetched as it sounds smarty pants,” said the Colonel.

“If it’s just the application, I need it back up and running, stat.” said the General sharply, “we need to know if we are letting our quarry escape.”

“All forces, be advised,” said the Sergeant Major of the Army, “the personnel radar is currently not working. We are striving to restore it as quickly as possible.”

Lauren remembered the occasion where the radar feed froze on her. Her radar feed came from a different source: short range sensors, but the same Potesta radar application, therefore the problem had to be with the application. Which also meant that her fix should work.

“It’s a problem with the application,” said Lauren, hopping over to Linas and Nia’s station behind her own, “you need to reset the data feed but it’s buried under a lot of options — ah!”

Lauren tripped right before reaching the station. Before anyone could help her, she pulled herself up to the desk. Lauren grabbed the mouse and surveyed the submenus, she forgot what exactly the button was called but remembered their positions. After half a minute of clicking being the only sound coming from the room, the yellow dots on the radar feed began moving like bees trapped in a glass case. The personnel count status changed from being updated 3 minutes ago to one second ago.

“So they are not escaping,” said the General, she leaned back, “then we need merely wait. As long as it takes.”

Indah helped Lauren back to her stool at the front of the left column of stations.

“Ma’am, our hail has been answered,” said the Colonel.

The main display frame on the screens was replaced by a video call. On the other side of the screen were eight officers. The uniforms of the officers were each of very different styles: yellow and green; grey and white; brown and purple; grey, white, and orange; blue and brown; reflecting the diversity of the separatist forces which contrasted with the more consistent composition of the Intersyst forces: green; and black and white. The only thing that the separatist’s uniforms shared was the dignification they rendered to their wearers.

Three of the officers were presently looking at the screen while the other five were distracted by their screens and aides. The man in the middle of the group of three spoke up.

“To what end do you repeatedly hail us?” he said.

“To give you the opportunity to surrender to the 45th Intersyst Army acting on behalf of the Intersystem Coordination Authority and her member systems,” said Erica, “with whom do I have the honor of speaking?”

The man scoffed, “so you assert. On behalf of the people of the Jezebel system, we decline your offer. Although you have somehow found our headquarters and surrounded it, you will find it nigh impossible to capture.” The other officers one by one turned away from what they were doing and directed their attention to the monitor.

“I intend to do no such thing,” said the General, “you will leave your base on your own accord. We have a cruiser parked directly above your ‘headquarters’ ready for orbital bombardment.”

“You bluff, you cannot hit us without harming those in the perimeter you have set up,” said the man that Lauren had surmised to be the leader of the separatist forces.

The General turned to the Brigadier General, “have the Temerity perform a 20% power strike on their auxiliary building.”

On the overhead view of the base, Lauren saw a column of white light split the sky. The whole frame became black except for the column as the camera readjusted to the new brightness of the scene. When the image had returned smoke was rising from a flaming hole in the canopy. Meanwhile the video call with the separatists had gone black, reporting a lost signal.

“Oh dear, did we take out their communication capabilities?” asked the General, more amused than concerned.

A moment later the video call was reestablished, there was a lot more commotion in the background with calls to extinguish fires being heard.

“Hello, can you hear us?” said the leader.

“Loud and clear,” said the General, “as you can see, orbital targeting has come a long way in recent years, and you’d be a fool to think we can’t do a stronger strike with the same level of precision. Now with whom do I have the honor of speaking with?”

“Governor General Marj Chorieva, acting general of the Jezebel Independence Army,” said the leader.

“Well, General Chorieva, you are hemmed in from all sides, escape is out of the question,” Gen. Albritton glanced down at Atid’s Smart Sheet, “do you believe in your cause and the people of the various regions you represent and which follow you enough to die for the rebellion just as so many of your militia members already have? Or do you surrender on behalf of all members of the Jezebel Independence Army?”

“No,” said Chorieva, “we surrender.”

Atid scribbled on one of his Smart Sheets then turned to give a thumbs up to Gen. Albritton.

“Perfect,” he said to himself, “and very quick too.”

“As you wish,” said Erica, “please direct everyone to leave your base and present yourselves at the western side of the base so that we may take you into custody where you may formally surrender. Please note that if you do not evacuate all 1,092 people from your base, we will raze it from orbit.”

“Yes, ma’am,” said Chorieva, he paused, “if I may, how do you know how many people are in here?”

“The same way we found your base,” said the General, “now present yourselves outside.”

“All forces, the Separatists have surrendered and are now presenting themselves. Prepare to take their forces into custody, there are 1,092 enemy personnel total,” said the Sergeant Major of the Army. The video call ended and the main view was replaced by the overhead view of the base.

“This, my friends,” said Gen. Albritton, “is how wars will be won. Not through overpowering the opposing force, but by resisting their attacks with your fighters while your thinkers work on creating a critical advantage for your own forces, such that your enemy has no choice but to surrender. Or so I like to believe. Thank you army research team, Archival Officers, you are both dismissed.”

“I need to find reporters to release this video to,” said Atid, going over his notes.

“I know just such a person,” said Ashley.

“Great,” said Atid, “where are they?”

“Here, in our detention center I think,” said Ashley.

Lauren lay in bed and stared at her hotel room ceiling . After being dismissed from the war room, Susan encouraged her to “go back to the hotel and rest.” Lauren spent her time watching the news and filling out her injury report. Having finished the report, Lauren found that the initial appeal of listening to the news with the knowledge that it would soon change in tone drastically had worn off. Lauren checked her phone, saw the notification from Neil, and realized that she still wasn’t ready to talk to him. Lauren heard a knock at the door. She reached for her crutches and got to her feet. She then paused and looked at her regulator vest, which looked much smaller without the toughened ceramic plates, now compromised, in it to prop it up. The vest was plugged in and charging as was the pistol in its holster. While her first instinct had been to answer the door, Lauren now wondered if she should have her vest and gun when she answered the door. Her first thought was that she was safe in this hotel room. But her first thought has always been that she was safe. Lauren unplugged the weapon and vest, sat back down on the bed, and put on her vest. She got to her feet again and made her way to the door. She looked through the peephole. Ashley. Lauren sighed at her own overreaction. She realized that Neil probably would have checked the peephole before deciding whether to put on the vest. She unlocked and opened the door.

“Hi Lauren, they let us out early since there wasn’t—oh woah,” Ashley interrupted herself upon seeing Lauren in a T-shirt and regulator vest, complete with sidearm.

“Hey Ashley, sorry about the getup,” said Lauren, “I’ve… been a little extra cautious lately.”

A shadow passed over Ashley’s face. “It must be hard,” she said, suddenly sounding more exhausted.

“Are you okay?” asked Lauren.

“Oh, I’m fine,” said Ashley, her usual energy restored, “anyways, they let us out of work early and I was wondering if you’d like to hang out together tonight. Maybe we could even get room service with the Army’s credits.”

“I have to eat liquid foods only for the next few days,” said Lauren. She scratched the back of her head, “but I would still appreciate the company.”

Ashley looked down, “oh right, sorry about that.” She then brightened up, “but otherwise great! I have all my stuff with me already. Can I come in?”

“Please do,” said Lauren, stepping aside. Ashley took off her shoes.

“So before we left, Susan was telling us that the victory will become public tomorrow morning,” said Ashley, putting her hard case down, “Brett seems excited to be the first one to report it. But I don’t think they quite forgive us for detaining them.”

“Wait, what?” said Lauren.

“Oh right, you weren’t awake,” said Ashley, “for some reason, Brett was hanging around the hospital you were admitted to. Susan had them detained after they saw that you had a combat wound. I guess she figured that they would figure out where you had been and why you were brought here.”

“Susan isn’t the sort of person to do anything halfway,” said Lauren.

“Yeah,” said Ashley, “oh! Tomorrow will be a holiday starting at noon in celebration of reunification, you can thank Atid for that, and Hira and Temmie want to take us around town before we take off the day after.”

“Sounds like a good time,” said Lauren, temporarily forgetting her own worries by virtue of Ashley’s enthusiasm.

“Great! I’ll let them know,” said Ashley. She flopped down into the armchair. “Do you want to watch a movie or some shows or something?”

“How about some digital tourism?” Lauren held up some worn out brochures. “Visit some websites that you can’t view anywhere but on this planet?”

“Are we making a local account?” asked Ashley.

“We’re making a local account,” said Lauren.

“Alright,” said Ashley, “let’s sign up for everything.”

An hour later, Lauren and Ashley were sitting on the bed with their computers on their laps. An empty soup bowl and a cup of yogurt were on a tray on the nightstand next to Ashley; next to Lauren, an empty bottle of liquid prescription food.

“Hey, I got another follower,” said Ashley, “I’m going to try and trade it with this big account I’m following.”

“Good idea, I think.” Lauren looked at her brochure again, “I’m not really sure this brochure knows what it’s talking about. This is still the most entertaining site we’ve found yet.”

“Are you sure?” asked Ashley, “what about the totally serious conspiracy theories site?”

“What? Oh yeah.” Lauren laughed as she navigated to the tab with the conspiracy site, “still, it’s a little troubling what percentage of them were relatively true.” Lauren stared at the webpage and its picture of the radar system, lost in thought.

“How are you feeling?” asked Ashley, looking from Lauren’s screen to her face.

Lauren rested her forehead on her fingertips and sighed. “I don’t know, Ashley, I don’t know. I feel really guilty about the whole…”

“Bad things happen,” said Ashley, “it’s not necessarily your—”

“But I had so many opportunities to save them, to save at least one of them. When I first caught a glimpse of the map and saw that there were too many dots in the building, I could have said something. I could have checked the other cameras instead of the ones looking at our squad, but I didn’t. And I could have looked at those other cameras or the map to see that the squad was being flanked but I didn’t because I was too shocked to do anything but watch the one camera I already had open.”

Lauren took a deep breath, “while I was in there by myself, or rather with the soldier I later killed, I thought that I could make up for my mistakes by completing the mission, so that the squad would not have died pointlessly. But now that the war is over, I still don’t know if I’ve made up for it.”

“I just want to start with: you’re still a good person.” Ashley squeezed Lauren’s hand, “the fact that you feel this way proves that. Second, you experienced loss at a personal level and witnessed it first hand. To feel better, you probably need to realize the benefit you have brought through completing the mission at a personal level as well.”

“Maybe you’re right,” said Lauren.

“Maybe you can get that tomorrow when we’re out on the town,” said Ashley.

Celebration

Lauren woke up to a chorus of car horns. She turned on the news.

“The 45th Intersyst Army of the Intersyst Armed Forces has announced this morning that the leadership of the Separatist Coalition forces has formally surrendered and has been taken into custody. General Albritton of the 45th Intersyst Army said in an announcement that 90% of the separatist forces have laid down arms and only pockets of resistance remain. They report that the following regions will be safe to return to by the end of the week: Norban, Crithland, Suffield—”

Lauren turned off the television. She put on her archival officer uniform, carefully pulling her pants over her cast. She suddenly became aware of how much lighter her vest was without the armor plates. She put two bottles of liquid prescription food in her messenger bag and left her room to meet with Ashley in the hotel lobby.

Lauren found Ashley sitting in a large armchair reading a newspaper which read “SEPARATISTS SURRENDER” on the front page.

“Hey Ashley,” said Lauren.

“Oh hi Lauren.” Ashley put down her paper, “you ready for today?”

“I hope so. I don’t have the armor plates anymore and I kind of miss them.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll just stick together the whole day.”

“Thanks,” said Lauren, “what are you reading?”

Ashley looked down at her newspaper, “oh, just the article Brett wrote about the victory and all that. I wanted to make sure they didn’t misrepresent anything.”

“Do they mention you?”

Ashley frowned. “Unfortunately, got the name right too.”

“So where are we meeting Hira and Temmie?” asked Lauren.

“At Waverton University. Of course they’ll be working until the minute the holiday officially starts.”

Lauren laughed, “I guess grad student life is the same everywhere.”

“Come on, I figured out how to get to the university, our bus is going to leave in a few minutes.”

Waverton University proved to be a charming campus. Built towards the end of the Collaboration Era, its architecture contained a blend of Human, Youmen, and Purian influences. The newer buildings were easily identified by their more cohesive styles.

“I think all of the ads in that bus were educational ads about the civil war,” remarked Lauren as Ashley helped her off the bus.

“Atid’s been getting busy,” said Ashley, “I don’t think he has been off the phone for more than five minutes since the separatist surrender.”

“I guess it’s his turn to crunch now,” said Lauren.

“Hey over here!”

Ashley and Lauren turned to see Hira strolling across the quadrangle.

“Glad you were able to get to the university alright,” said Hira, “oh, Lauren, did you see that I followed you last night?”

“Followed me? Wait, what? How? I didn’t see you?” replied Lauren rapidly.

Hira held up his phone, “I meant on the app, Trade and Follow, you guys made an account last night, right?. No, I didn’t mean physically.”

“Oh,” said Lauren, embarrassed, “I don’t think I noticed your name, sorry.”

“That’s fine, I did follow you pretty late last night.” Hira put away his phone, “I should technically be working right now, so the plan is to take you back to my office where we can chill until noon at which point we can swing by Temmie’s office and the two of us can take you to our favorite places.”

“Sounds good,” said Ashley. Lauren nodded.

“What a nice view you have,” said Lauren, looking around Hira’s office, “hi guys.” The other grad students gave a short wave or nod.

“Yeah, it’s great,” said Hira. He quickly reshelved some books that were laying on his otherwise clean desk into the upper shelf. “You used to be able to see Waverton Square too until they started renovating the engineering building.” Only the slightest hint of resentment was in his voice.

“Where should we sit?” asked Ashley.

“Oh, the people who sit at the two desks next to me have been working from home,” said Hira, “you can sit at them as long as you don’t mess with their stuff.” He pushed a stack of papers one one of the desks to the back which toppled over. “Oops.” Hira grinned as he reassembled the stack, “I don’t think he ever ordered his papers in the first place. Anyways, instead of working, I put together a list of places we could take you. You can choose a place for sunsetter and for drinks while I finish up some things.”

“What’s sunsetter?” asked Lauren.

“It’s lunch and dinner combined,” said Hira, “it’s a heartier meal eaten at sunset and is often done on holidays to leave more time for drinks or on the last day of an intense weekend so that people can get to bed earlier. It originally came about in the Scism period when people just had brunch and sunsetter together to save money on meals and to help them work longer hours.”

“Oh wow,” said Lauren.

Ashley and Lauren looked at their phones at the list Hira sent them.

“Do all of these places serve real meat with everything?” Ashley whispered to Lauren.

“That’s the default, yeah,” said Lauren, “there exist speciality restaurants and fortunately many restaurants have meat free options.”

“Okay, then I’m fine with any of these places,” said Ashley, “what do the stars mean?”

“Those are places Temmie likes,” said Hira, “she’ll grumble or just not eat at the other places.”

“I guess that makes choosing lunch easier,” said Ashley, “Nanuet’s at the Square.”

“The Stronghold looks interesting for drinks,” said Lauren, “situated in a repurposed fortress.”

Hira took off his headphones, “you guys decided?”

“Yeah, Nanuet’s and the Stronghold,” said Lauren, “did you finish up your work?”

Hira laughed, “ no, but it’s noon now. It would be unbecoming to keep working on such an important holiday. Let’s go get Temmie.”

“Pardon us,” said Hira as he opened the door to the shared office space of the Literature and Linguistics Department. He turned to Lauren and Ashley, “it seems everyone has already left.”

They heard light snoring coming from one of the cubicles.

“Everyone except Temmie of course,” said Hira, walking towards the source of the snoring.

Temmie’s desk was strewn with papers and folders and demonstrably more disordered than even Jethro’s. There were no signs of any effort made to organize the surface of her desk; however, all of her books were safely tucked away in the hutch above which had three partitions labeled “fine,” “near due,” and “overdue.” Temmie’s laptop was sitting on top of a small mound of papers. A small region in the middle of the desk had been cleared of papers, instead occupied by a large pillow which Temmie rested her head on. The pillow was just large enough to comfortably support Temmie’s head while still allowing her to wear her Cosmitech Ω-1000 series headphones. Hira gently removed Temmie’s headphones.

“Ow,” said Temmie, lifting her head in response to some of her hairs getting pulled by the headphone joints. Her left cheek was red from being slept on.

“Ready to take our friends out?” said Hira.

Temmie rubbed her eyes, “now? But I’m still working on something.” Temmie stretched her arms.

“It doesn’t look like you’ve been working on much of anything for the past hour, Temmie,” said Hira unconvinced.

Temmie slouched in her chair, looked at her desk, and bit her lip, “yeah, you’re right. Let’s go.”

Lauren looked out of the window of the bus, “Atid did some work.”

As they rode into the city center, Ashley, Lauren, Hira, and Temmie saw side streets filled with people dancing, bands playing, and rows of vendor stalls. Especially popular were the streets with farmer’s markets selling fresh produce from the recently liberated agricultural regions.

“Oh man,” said Hira, “I can’t remember the last time I had a Norban Pomme.”

“You went out and bought one the day the Jezebel Independence Army announced its formation,” said Temmie.

“So what’s the plan?” asked Ashley.

“The plan is to get to the square early and secure a good set of seats to watch the parade and most of the main events,” said Hira, “then we leave early and get food to beat the crowds to the restaurants.”

“Less walking this way,” said Temmie.

“Thanks,” said Lauren, “I appreciate it.”

Nanuet’s was a historic eatery back from the days when Waverton Square was just a landing pad for colonization ships. Its cultural significance was such that any person seeking popular approval had to make a visit to Nanuet’s. Various screens around the dimly lit restaurant played picture slideshows and movies of various dignitaries, politicians, and celebrities visiting the establishment. After a long time standing in line, Lauren found relief in the fine Beauwap leather cushions of the bench seat despite the years having made them cracked and scaly. The rich smells of various cooking oils and spices taunted her.

“I’d say the best part of those speeches was when General Albritton’s dog went ‘awoo’ into the microphone,” said Ashley.

“Everyone really liked that,” said Lauren.

“No Temmie, you’re sitting in one of the chairs,” said Hira.

“But I want to sit next to Lauren,” said Temmie.

“Those seats are too soft,” said Hira, “you’ll fall asleep.” Ashley slid in next to Lauren.

“Also, we’re very sorry about the food situation,” said Hira, “I didn’t realize that you could only eat liquid prescription food.”

“I should have said something,” said Ashley.

“Does it have to be prescription?” asked Temmie, “their soup is to die for.”

“I think I saw something about soups being okay,” said Lauren, “but I’m not 100% on that so I’m going to stick with the food the hospital gave me. Don’t worry about it, this place is really interesting and I’ve always enjoyed the company more than the food when eating out.”

“That’s good. So how long have you been Archival Officers?” asked Hira.

“The better part of a year,” said Lauren.

“Wow and you’re already saving a world,” said Hira.

“I just pushed some buttons,” said Lauren, “and got very lucky.”

“Button pushing is hard,” said Temmie, “good button pushing that is.”

“I’ve been with the Knowledge Corps for almost two years,” said Ashley.

“Have you been on any crazy missions before this one?” asked Hira.

“This was actually our group’s first mission,” said Ashley, “although we have been contracted to visit some pretty interesting places.”

“Wait, I don’t think I’ve heard these stories,” said Lauren.

“Well the most interesting was when the Historical Technologies group visited Old Earth,” said Ashley.

“Wait what?” Hira and Lauren did a double take.

“Wait...” said Temmie, “did you say Old Earth?”

“What was it like? How did you get to go there?” asked Lauren.

“Yeah, I thought only the top ecologists get to go there,” said Hira.

“I didn’t go there myself,” said Ashley, “according to Morgan and Miguel, it’s very pretty and there are only faint traces of its over-industrialized past. That was one of the first projects the Historical Technologies group worked on.”

“Aren’t there plans to reopen Earth for habitation?” asked Temmie.

“Yeah, it’s probably going to happen in our lifetimes,” said Ashley.

A waiter came by their table, “may I take your orders?”

“I’ll have the Beuwap burger,” said Temmie.

“Same,” said Hira.

“I’ll have the fish soup,” said Ashley, checking her menu.

“I’m under a doctor’s regimented diet, so I can’t order anything here,” said Lauren, “sorry about that.”

“You’re alright,” said the waiter, “it doesn’t make a difference to the restaurant if a four person table has three people eating or three people eating and one just hanging out.”

“Wow, Old Earth,” said Temmie.

“So tell us more about yourselves,” said Lauren, “now that I think of it, I realize that we don’t know much about each other.”

“Yeah,” said Hira, “my research is about understanding the reasons for the existence of the Potesta radar system. Why was it built in the first place? My hypothesis is that it was made to allow the central authority that was located on the coast to control the rest of the people on the primary continent. This is supported by the fact that the radar array is located on the coast as opposed to a more central location where the radar wouldn’t have to be as powerful.”

“Oh,” said Lauren, intrigued.

“How did you get into that?” asked Ashley. “Is that a big topic here that you always knew about or was it a niche topic you stumbled upon?”

“I guess it’s a niche topic. One of the professors that I got close with in undergrad was big into studying the Northern Monuments as they are normally called,” said Hira. “I was trying to get research experience anywhere and she put me in charge of her pet project.”

“What about you Temmie?” said Lauren.

“Me?” said Temmie, “I’m studying the Veranto written language. My goal is to be able to identify its linguistic ancestors on Old Earth and to determine the meaning of character 49.”

“What’s character 49?” asked Ashley.

“Actually I also forgot what you told me about it,” confessed Hira.

Temmie sighed, “character 49 is the whole reason there is any interest at all in decoding the Veranto language. It appears to be a multi-functional character that modifies the meaning of other words when appended to them. We know its behavior in the more common use cases but we don’t have a universal set of rules for it.”

“Fascinating,” said Ashley. She turned to Lauren, “I wonder if Morgan would know anything about this character 49.”

“I feel like she would,” said Lauren. “Was doing research on character 49 what brought you and Hira together?”

“No,” said Hira, “Temmie and I met when I moved in from the countryside to go to secondary school here in Euban and I had no friends.”

“Oh, does your family still live in the countryside? Are they alright?” asked Ashley.

“They do live in the countryside,” said Hira, “but they are a hardy bunch not to be fazed by some civil war. I am excited to see them though. Do you remember how we became friends Temmie?”

“I think it’s my turn to forget now,” said Temmie.

Hira laughed, “on my first day at the school, I said that anyone who wanted to make friends with me should stay after class. And you were the only one that stayed behind because you were napping.”

“Well it seems to have worked out,” remarked Ashley.

“I assert that I intentionally stayed behind to nap and become your friend,” said Temmie, “anyways, I got to where I am now when I went for a double major in history and linguistics after hearing about the mystery of character 49.”

The waiter returned to their table. “Ladies and gentlemen, your food.”

While eating their meals, Lauren and Ashley filled the university students in on their background and motivations for joining the Knowledge Corps. Lauren periodically sipped from her liquid food bottle.

“I always imagined Kairexa to be covered in smog because of the industrial planet reputation,” said Temmie.

“Yeah, that’s the best part,” said Ashley, “it became the industrial planet because of an abundance of wind power.”

“I’ve been meaning to go to Plei,” said Hira, “supposedly it is very similar to the Jezebel system when it was a fledgeling developing system just starting out.”

“Really?” said Lauren, “I now feel like I understand the Jezebel system a little better.”

“I also didn’t know about the Youmen custom of having two to three academics in a family gathering,” said Hira, “I wish I was a designated scholar in my family.”

“What do you each want to do when you graduate?” asked Ashley.

Hira gestured towards Temmie.

“What? Oh, me first,” said Temmie, “what I want to do is to translate all of the Veranto that’s out there, and I’m pretty sure it’s all on this planet.” Temmie pointed down through the table.

“All of it?” asked Lauren, surprised.

“Yeah,” said Temmie in a tired, drawn out way, “the material we have to work with hasn’t been diverse enough to really tell us what character 49 is or what the ancestor language is.

“What kind of text do you get?” asked Ashley.

“Ah, that’s a fun question,” said Temmie, “at first glance it seems like a random subset of what was written back then, but then you realize that all the samples we have to work with are ones that the colonizers took great care to safeguard. Think private stuff.”

“Like diaries,” said Hira.

“Ohh,” said Lauren and Ashley.

“Yeah that’s the real reason she wants to translate everything,” said Hira, “to read everyone’s sappy—”

Without turning her head, Temmie put her hand over Hira’s face, silencing him. “Unless the documents I have access to radically change,” she said. “which might happen thanks to this partnership with ISAF, the best I can hope for is to make the most educated guess possible about the function of character 49 and the linguistic ancestor of Veranto.”

“Well let us know if you find anything that can shed light onto what happened to the first colony,” said Ashley, “that would help us out a lot, and you would surely be rewarded.”

“I’ll keep an eye out for that stuff,” said Temmie.

“What about you Hira?” said Lauren.

“Actually, I want to join the Knowledge Corps and be an Archival Officer like you guys,” he said.

“Oh,” said Lauren.

“That’s great,” said Ashley, “do you have a specific group in mind?”

“Yeah,” said Hira, “the Hondur Cluster Planetary Anthropology Group of the System Affairs Reporting Division.”

“You want to make reports for the Primary Parliament?” guessed Ashley.

“Yeah! I feel like certain issues we are having aren’t reaching their ears but our representatives don’t seem keen to bring up.”

“What kind of issues?” asked Lauren.

“Well, the whole decentralized military thing,” said Temmie. Hira nodded. “But I guess that’s going to get fixed now,” she continued.

“Yes, that and our chronic isolationism,” said Hira, “people here are barely aware of the greater world. I think our representatives don’t bring it up because they are worried people will leave the planet.”

“Know that if you want to join a Planetary Anthropology group, you have to be well read in the history of all the systems in that group,” said Ashley.

“And be careful on missions,” said Lauren.

“Thank you, this is all good advice,” said Hira.

“Not used to sunsetter meals, Ashley?” said Temmie, looking at her half empty bowl.

“Yes, they’re very rich. I am going to need a to go box or bottle or something,” said Ashley.

The waiter came around to their table with four small plates.

“A special treat from Altaria,” said the waiter, “in celebration of the reunification.”

Ashley’s eyes lit up, “faerie bean bahulus!”