Chapter 4
Subject: Maddy
Maddy spent the two days since arriving in New Carthage entirely within the confines of the security headquarters getting acquainted with the team, the equipment, and the paperwork. Worst was the paperwork. This was a federal operation being conducted on a corporate world where everything, every person, building, tree, rock, and mote of dust belonged to a company that didn’t care to know it existed until you broke it and owed them money. Granted, federal law is such that Maddy could use the corporate-owned rock to beat the corporate-owned worker to death and it would be perfectly legal with the right combination of words, but those words would belong on at least three reports.
The headquarters, as it turned out, actually was an old fire station. One of the first assignments the original group of settlers on Oasis III had was to build out a set of required permanent structures for the rest of the colony to develop around. A spaceport, a hospital, some administrative buildings, a police station, and a handful of fire stations were built using imported materials and concrete printers. The printers had been bought by a startup that wanted to do some biological research and two labs were built, one way out past the barrier, and the other in the downtown core by the hospital. The startup had gone under and the fire station was abandoned back when everyone started getting sick and the colonization effort was abandoned, but the Scientific Advancement Section stepped in to carry on the research and elected to keep one of the buildings.
The feelings of being out of place were profound. Maddy wasn’t anti-social, but typically had few close friends and wasn’t a party going type. She wasn’t really shy so much as she was introverted. It took her a while to open up, so, of course, meeting the dozen new other people at the headquarters was awkward and uncomfortable and Maddy tried to find things to focus on to keep herself occupied and out of the spotlight. She was supposed to be a team sergeant, third in command of security overall, and in charge of five other people. She hated that her impulse was to turn away from them and try to not engage, but it was always tough coming into a group that’s clearly very tight knit, and you aren’t one of them. Even worse, you’re their boss.
Felix had been assigned to be her tour guide. Apparently, he’d volunteered to be the staff “educator”, a dubious position that he took extremely seriously.
“Look at this shit here,” he’d said, smiling proudly as he held up a battered clipboard with a ream of paperwork clipped to it. The first page was apparently his own handmade qualifications checklist for a new security officer. He had tasks such as, ‘rites reports good enough for now’, ‘is on sight on time’, and ‘understands manual’. The next several dozen pages were the manufacturer’s user manual for the service pistol they’d all been issued. “This kinda shit’s how we level up and become for real,” he’d said.
Maddy silenced her inner critic and let him have the win. Felix was a good kid, and probably one of the few people in the security team that was actually happy to be a part of it. Everyone else seemed like they were there as some sort of punishment; and knowing how Maddy had gotten there, that was probably true to some extent. Dad, in particular, seemed like he was about to snap at any minute.
Oh, and that was another thing. Everyone had some stupid-ass nickname. ‘Dad’ was called Dad because he was older than everyone by probably at least two decades; but despite his age he seemed to be in fantastic physical shape. One of those guys that had internalized PT during his service and never let it slip. He was also quiet, keeping to himself under almost all circumstances. Maddy could tell she’d probably get along with him if he ever decided to open up, but if he didn’t, that’d be just fine too.
Then there was Peanut, shorter than almost everyone but just as wide and all muscle. Maddy hadn’t seem him use the station’s gym at all; it had to be synthetic. He seemed nice enough, but got frustrated quickly and was constantly sighing. Everything he said sounded like he’d just woken up from a nap to say it.
Two-feet was a dopey looking bastard. Not dopey like malformed, but dopey like he stopped caring. His hair was too long for regulations and he had a lame, whispy beard and always seemed to be dirty. When Maddy asked why his name was ‘two-feet’, Dad started laughing uncontrollably and Peanut yelled out, “because he has two fucking feet!” And joined Dad in his reverie.
Felix whispered conspiratorially in her ear, “it’s because he ain’t pay attention for shit. Doesn’t look more than two-feet in front of him. I dunno exactly what ‘feet’ has to do with anything, but that’s what Chief said when picked his new callsign. He’s in the shit right now.” Two-feet didn’t say anything to his defense.
Last on her new team of five was Gremlin. The only other woman, or at least, Maddy thought ‘woman’ was a mostly safe guess. Gremlin was apparently called Gremlin because of her short stature and generally haphazard nature. She “runs around like a fuckin’ gremlin,” Peanut had explained. Gremlin always wore a sneer and said weird shit at weird times. It was hard to explain, you just had to see it.
Everyone seemed like a bunch of fuckups, as far as Maddy could tell. Dad looked military and should have retired from it long ago by now, Peanut abused the hell out of the juice, Felix was trying too hard, Two-feet didn’t try at all, and Gremlin was, well… a fucking Gremlin. Maddy tried to press on what brought each of them to New Carthage, but it turned around on her and got weird quick.
“It’s a way better job than working the fucking docks,” Felix said, then turned and asked, “what brought you from the Marines?”
“I got sick, needed the implant,” Maddy had been about to explain how she’d had to extend her enlistment contract another ten standard years subjective, and de-rated her salary to cover the initial surgery, but the silence and guilty eye contact from the entire team at once made her stop at the short version.
It didn’t escape Maddy’s notice that the other half of the security team, Team 1, looked mostly squared away. Not like, Fleet Marine squared away, but definitely pretty good for a security outfit on a bad post. Team 1’s sergeant, Blitz, was competent and wistful. He didn’t have much to say except the usual, standard ‘welcome to the team’. When Maddy paid attention to the overall dynamic, she could definitely tell that the two teams didn’t cross pollinate as much as it might initially appear. Only Felix really seemed comfortable going back and forth.
Chief was the security lead for the whole group. Not ‘the chief’, just 'Chief’. His name was actually Roseburg, and he wasn’t a chief. The Scientific Advancement Section, or SAS, Security Force didn’t have chiefs; his actual title was something closer to liaison. As in, he was supposed to talk to the science team and locals and make sure the security team was doing it’s job properly and not making the SAS look bad. He was the scariest bastard in the whole bunch. His face was gaunt and he had these weird concave depressions around his temples. His head was bald and shined and his face was anchored with a huge, wild mustache. The bald head and gaunt cheeks and the big, snake smile he always wore made him look like a skeleton with a cartoon mustache, or like a mascot for some starving bands of space pirates.
Aside from he security team, there were also a half dozen scientists. They mostly hung out upstairs, Felix had explained, where they had a lab set up and were doing ‘mad scientist shit’ all day. Maddy hadn’t seen them once.
One thing that really stood out was the fact that after two full days of work, no one had really done any work or talked to her about work. They were a security team, but apparently only did any security anything when the science team needed to get field work done beyond the barrier. It wasn’t until the third day that Chief pulled her into his office and started making the new assignment seem like a job.
“Tuuuurner,” Chief drawled, he had a strange way of talking that made everything he said sound slightly unreal, like he was talking through a dream filter, “SEARGENT Turner. How very for-tuit-tous that we have the whole team here now finally. I’ll bet you’ve wondered why we need two teams of battle-hardened killers to protect six skinny, soft, precious little brainiacs from their own bad decisions?”
He paused, apparently expecting her to say something. Maddy started to respond when he suddenly interjected, cutting her off, “WELL it’s because the real plan hasn’t been revealed to you yet. No, not yet. This planet is my own personal hell, you understand?” His eyes grew wide as he spoke, and his skeletal features grew even more pronounced. “We have a Fortress of Solitude right here in our very own station! But, twice a week, sometimes more, we have to trek into the darkness of the wilds outside the barrier and earn our paychecks in blood. And do you think the brave patriots back here in town see that? Do you think they love the Dominion as much as I do? Do they SEE how we fight to keep them FREE? FREEDOM. ISN’T. FREE.”
Maddy was starting to get actually concerned that Chief was having some sort of bizarre breakdown right here in front of her. That would be an absolute nightmare.
“Here’s the deal Turner, these goddamn animals have got to go. I’ve thought about just rounding them all up or taking ol’ Mamba out for a spin and clearing the whole fucking town out in one go, but we have ‘rules’ about killing corpo employees. Everyone in this fucking town is on an employment contract and ISD ain’t letting any of them get out of it. They HAVE to be a piece of shit and infect everything with their filth by CONTRACT and there’s nothing they’ll LET,” he emphasized ‘let’, winked, and kept going, “us do about it. And the local cops are all apparently on the fucking board of ISD and think the animals are all a bunch of precious do-gooders who’ve just fallen on hard times.” Chief frowned in mock sadness.
“But, I have a PLAN.” Chief smacked the table hard enough to make Maddy jump, but just slightly. “YOU,” he pointed at Maddy, “You are the answer to all of my problems. You take your new team, hand picked killers. Picked by me. And you get out there and protect our precious science team and keep them safe and happy. Fulfill the contract, Turner. Set me free, Turner. I’ll take the rest of the gang; Blitz and his boy gang, and we are going to fix this broken world.” His eyes made contact with Maddy’s and burned a hole in her soul. This guy is a fucking lunatic.
“Sir, are local issues within our scope?” Maddy didn’t know what else to say, she didn’t actually care what his plan was. In fact, Maddy felt that the less she knew what kind of madness Chief was going through, the better plausible deniability she’d have at the inevitable war crimes trial.
“Don’t bother yourself with the details! But you’re quite smart, I can tell. I see it already. You’re gonna do one hell-of-a-job keeping those eggheads happy. That’s your assignment, Turner. I brought you out here, the best the Fleet Marines had to offer, specifically because I believe in you, and your ability to lead. I need you to talk to the scientists, talk to the locals, make sure everyone is happy and getting what they need. You have the A-Team, believe me! Use them how you will. Don’t fucking touch Mamba without asking me,” Chief grew silent, the light in his eyes fading out, “I’m going to forward you some emails, answer them all. Get out.” Chief’s demeanor flipped instantly from maniacally happy, or whatever the fuck that was, to dark and foreboding. Like the mention of Mamba being touched was enough to make him believe it had already happened. Maddy stood, nodded, and walked out.
