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"But Here's some Two Cent Maneuvers" -- Week 0 Rankings: The Draft

Welcome back to another year of projections for D/ST and Kicker (and QB...and soon others too). This is an introductory post to explain what's new, what to expect-- and to give draft suggestions at the bottom.
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TL;DR - Models are updated for reliability. I expect Kicker to be a difference maker, perhaps QB too in smaller leagues. D/ST accuracy should be safely up there with our #1 ranker, Reddit pal Seabruh. I will also release points-allowed for new positions: WR, TE, and RB1. I'll be trying out Patreon. Unless you get a top-6 option, don't necessarily draft a D/ST or kicker for another couple weeks. Expect a lot of surprises as always.
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Contents

Scope of what I do / What's new / Recap of last year / Review of what's in the model / What to expect / Draft Suggestions
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What I do

If you're new to my posts, what I do is try to generate fantasy point projections (1) with improved accuracy (2) for future week planning, (3) based on crunching hard numbers without opinion ("machine learning" if we're trying to sound sexy). I give special focus to fantasy positions which I think commonly have sub-optimal rankings: But Here's the Kicker, Defensive Maneuvers, and recently Two Cents for a Quarterback. From the countless hours invested developing content, here's what you see in the end:
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What's new 2020

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Re-cap of last year

Last year was defined by demonstrating that my week 6 updates could boost predictive value: Capability to reach #1 for weekly kicker and QB, and top 3 for D/ST. I'll refer to you to my week 15 accuracy post, since the final ordering didn't change in week 16. (It was just a surprise crappy week for all rankers). Some extra notes:
But Here's the Kicker: Kickers ended up being tougher in 2019 because many high scoring kickers had an unusually worse second half. Part of this was because good kickers started missing field goals; see here. I think that was fluky, so I'm still expecting my updated model to differentiate itself in 2020.
Defensive Maneuvers: Only 4 of us in my accuracy analysis could surpass plain/stupid streaming (the strategy of using just Vegas betting lines alone). u/Seabruh repeated as top accuracy source, and all of Reddit should be grateful to have this guy around. No matter what accuracy metric I look at, he had another great year:
Measuring the 95% confidence interval of predictable fantasy points: How much each source let you control the score from its bottom-ranked team to the top.
Two Cents for a Quarterback: QB rankings were intended to be in "test-mode"/ beta-release last year, and the model surprised by producing top accuracy after my week 6 revision. Since it seemed helpful, I'll launch it again. Probably this is where I'll also put projections for the other flex points-against positions.

Review of what's in the model

Although I heavily guide the process, I don't choose what ends up into each model. I test >100 variables for significance, and cross-validate, add/remove/iterate, cross-validate. The method is multiple linear regression with a couple interaction terms, and the data is all in weekly time-series (no in-sample data, all foreknowledge). Additionally, I have a data-processing engine to: especially account for past opponent strength, to treat outliers, and to include the right ramp-down of previous season data. The rest is small print:
Factors analyzed include things like: game scores, betting lines, total yards, rushing yards, passing yards, TDs, home/away, dome/outdoors, turf, weather -wind, temp, precipitation-, day of the week, post-bye, win-loss record, sacks/FINT, positional fantasy points --QB/RB/Wetc. and RB2/WR1/etc.--, division, and some sensible products or ratios of these. Data from both teams is tested. Also all "factors-allowed" to opposing teams --for example "points-allowed". Of course, most data gets excluded; usually only 10 variables survive to the final model. I have tested regularizing with modern Lasso regression, but the best lambda value is 0, which just means OLS is already optimal -- there are plenty more samples than variables; bias is low. I deal with team changes --like when entering a new season-- by adjusting "+/- 1 standard deviation" to the given factor, based on reports of the positive/negative expectations. I also account for secondary effects based on historical correlations. What do my models overlook? Mostly the weekly details that can affect lineups and usage. E.g. I might miss changes in the OL/DL for example, or all the effects of coaching changes. Also, my database could be more complete-- I only have 1440 games of data, and I miss factors like three-and-outs, yards-after-catch, time-of-possession, etc.

What to expect

It's gonna suck. I mean it. So let's set expectations from the start. Blame yourself though, since you're the one choosing to play fantasy, and every fantasy football model will always sucks. Correlation coefficients are all under 0.5, and my accuracy improvements can't change that. We just hope my models will suck significantly less than the other sources suck. But... among the other sucky models, I do expect my KickeDST/QB to perform near the top (meaning non-sucky). For a review of how predictable each fantasy position is, here's the chart (more information in this post).
Expectations for predictability levels of each position, based on the past 3 years of correlations
Some reminders about expectations at Kicker: (1) My recent post about kicker streaming supports that, on average, my model should get you 9 points-- about the same as holding a top kicker in hindsight. (2) But, using the 95% confidence interval for season kicker streaming: There will be some 2.5% of you who unfortunately average fewer than 7 kicker points per game. (Sorry in advance....) Then again, another 2.5% of you may manage to get double digit kicker scoring all season. (3) To demonstrate how there will always be surprises, I thought this graph I showed last year did a good job at showing how the top-ranked guy can easily end up 8 points lower than projected. Week 7 happened to demonstrate nicely:
https://preview.redd.it/8qude1p6djj51.jpg?width=1253&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=49f0386d38dbd38ef7fc37d634626df477614649

Rankings and Draft Suggestions

I know it was cruel, I made you scroll all the way down here to find what you really wanted. These suggestions are based on: (1) Modeling all 16 weeks of scores, (2) weighting them towards the near-term, to find the most likely "hold" candidates, and then (3) assuming that you'll plan to stream, if you don't get one of these top hold-candidates.
EDIT 30Aug: Matt Gay might not remain the TB kicker. Stay tuned.
Draft options in tiered categories. For now, if your league doesn't hog these positions..., then you could count on streaming a kicker and D/ST later-- meaning you don't need to draft one now (instead, take a gamble drafting another flex). But if you can grab a top-6 option here, then you might as well do so. I know the QB information may not be so useful for week 1, but if you need a QB outside the top-12 (or your main QB has a tough week-- I'm thinking of Kyler Murray), then these should be decent streaming options.
Good luck! And I'll see you again soon with Week 1 projections, when we get there. (EDIT: just launched Patreon here for anyone who finds this stuff useful and feels like buying me a virtual beer.)
submitted by subvertadown to fantasyfootball [link] [comments]

My best friend is “That Guy”!

In the 20 years I’ve been playing, I’m fortunate to have very few horror experiences. I guess thats because for the majority of that time, I’ve been lucky to have had gm’d for the same group. As time goes by people get married, get jobs, move, schedule conflicts, and basically life arises and this group eventually moved to gaming from twice a week to once to once a month and eventually not at all.
I mentioned in my previous story a sorcerer. The player of the sorcerer and i are still best friends, despite it being close to 15 years since that story happened. A about two years ago i moved in with him and one day he told me he wanted to run a mutants and masterminds adventure based on the SCP stories. I thought that sounded awesome. For those of you who don’t know, SCP is an online collection of stories about a fictional organization that tracks down and contains monsters and artifacts, locking them away and studying them and Mutants and masterminds is a superhero rpg. So in my head I’m picturing a cross between the company from heroes meets Cthulhu meets Spider-Man! He invites one of his friends from college who we will call “mark, and i invite one of my old players who we will call Kevin. Then of course there’s the GM, who I’ll call Steven and myself. On game day, Kevin can’t make it, but we forge ahead anyway. After making characters the three of us play through about half a session before Steven wraps it up for the night saying he needs time to “think about what will happen next.” We had only been playing for 2 1/2 hours, counting character creation. He told me later he hadn’t even come up with the monster yet despite it being his idea and he set up the date for playing, and wasn’t working at the time. A week later he calls the campaign because he just can’t figure out anything to do with it and its cutting into his time playing video games.
This could have been the end. This should have been the end, but it wasn’t. I had played again and I liked it. We had 4 people who were committing to a regular game, whose schedules all lined up, and I wanted to run. I talk with Steven and let him know that i want to run a campaign. Ive already spoken with Kevin and mark and even got a hold of one of my other players who i will call Vince to join in a Star Wars group, and invited Steven to join. I told him the idea was that it would be fireflyesq. An episodic adventure of a crew who were an ensemble cast, sort of speak, just trying to get along. Doing missions to keep their ship up and running and get some money on the side. Those who were on the outskirts of the law and society, who could be a. Bounty hunter one week and a smuggler the next. Making friends and enemies in every port along the way.
“I want to be the pilot.” Were his first words. I’m cool with that. No one else had chosen any roles on the ship yet, he was the first person who I spoke to about what the plot would be, and we’re typically first come first serve when it comes to characters. Besides, it would all be figured out in session zero. If anyone had any problems with a that they could talk it out then. I nodded and gave the ok. “And I want to own the ship.” well, i thought. The ship has to belong to someone.
But still. “I don’t know....” I began. Him cutting me off
“If I’m piloting it might as well be my ship.”
“Fair enough.” I shrugged, not really seeing the harm that could do. Its not as if everyone wouldn’t have a stake in the ship and missions based around each character anyway.
“And i want to be a member of the rebellion.”
“You did catch that I wasn’t going to make the rebellion and empire a big thing. I mean, they would give you an occasional mission or sometimes you may have to outrun one of their ships, but that was about it.”
“I wan’t to be in the rebellion or I’m not going to play.” That wasn’t the full threat and I knew it. From his tone he wouldn’t just not play, but he would whine and be as obnoxious as he could during game time to make it hard for the players.
I sigh. I could make this work. Sure, he could be an undercover operative. That could be pretty fun. I’ve done that myself. Occasionally he would get jobs that would secretly help the rebellion cause. And then the group could start to figure it out, making it a mystery. What is in the thing they are smuggling, or whose the person they are hunting for a bounty, until they eventually figure out they are working for the rebellion. Yeah, that could be a fun thing behind the scenes. “Okay,” I begin. “But just a warning not everyone on the ship will be working for the rebellion.” About to lay out this idea for him, when he cuts me off.
“If they aren’t rebellion I wouldn’t let them on my ship.”
I blink. I had told him point blank that I didn’t want to run a rebellion/empire war campaign. That I didn’t want it to be a central point besides for background. “What?” I asked disbelieving. “You did catch what i said, right?”
“Yeah, but if I’m the pilot AND its my ship, then I wouldn’t let anyone onboard who wasn’t a member of the rebellion. We would be doing rebellion work and jobs.”
I sighed again. For the sake of my friendship and the peace in my home, I agreed. Making a retreat to my room before he could dictate the game to me further. In my room I start thinking. ‘Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad. I hadn’t told anyone else what i was planning on with the story besides for a Star Wars campaign. I didn’t have a lot of time to dedicate as a gm, so I was planning on using published adventures and adventure hooks from the fantasy flight games twitter, and I could still do that. I would just have to use some age of rebellion books instead of edge of the empire. Really, its not what i was planning on running, but i could still make it work. If this was the last of it, I wouldn’t be writing this story.
Skip forward a few days to character creation/first session. I had picked up an introductory module for age of rebellion and familiarized myself with it. Steve, just as he had promised had made a pilot. It was a very well rounded character, having a little of every ability but only real focus is piloting. A good support character and honestly i was pretty happy with it. Mark had made a sniper specializing in heavy two handed ranged weaponry. Kevin made an infiltrator talker character, and Vince made an engineer droid who could only talk in imperial propaganda as he had originally been a rebel spy. Anytime anyone starts talking about their character, Steve chimes in. Someone has electronics. So does Steve. Someone has mechanics? So does Steve. Someone had medicine? Steve doesn’t, but thats okay cuz Steve is “da biggest and bestest pilot in the galaxy.” Something we heard several times during creation.
The module begins with the group going to a rebel base under assault! Steve refuses to allow anyone to help him pilot despite the fact his ship was made for 2 pilots, because “I’m the pilot, so I’m the only one who should. Besides, I’m da biggest and bestest pilot in the rebellion, so i don’t need your help!” They’re being pursued by tie fighters AND have to fly through a cavern with long hanging stalactites and stalagmites while under fire, plus at a penalty with out a copilot. One of the players says they can at least use the turret and Steve tries to shoot it down, saying “this is my ship and no one will do anything in it but me!” I step in and bring up that Mark had gunnery skill, and kevin could help pilot the ship, and Vince could be repairing the ship during this. “No! This is my ship and the only thing I’m good at!” We all roll our eyes.
By some miracle he brings the ship in close enough to the base for its guns to shoot off the tie fighters, but the ship is messed up, and Steven is mad. Muttering angrily under his breath mad.
In the next phase of the adventure there is an ATAT making its way down a canyon right to the base, its supported with 4 at-st’s and something like 50-100 storm troopers. In the canyon there is a walkway carved that has explosives planted on it and an electronics check is needed to cause them to go boom. The droid has the bet electronics so he volunteers, playing a clip of “for the empire!” There are blaster canons along the cliff edge that can be used with a gunnery check to slow down the walkers. Marks character who had gunnery volunteers to use one. There are hidden entry ways allowing for combat with the troops in the canyon, the Kevin volunteers thinking he can use his cloaking shield and claws to take down troopers quietly, and speeders that can be piloted to help slow the walkers and provide cover for the cannons. Everyone turns to Steve is again, the ‘biggest and bestest pilot in the galaxy!’ Steve says “what’s the point? The OP will just try to screw me over like he did on the way in here! He obviously has it out for me!”
I wanted to explode, but thankfully the rest of the group had my back. They reminded him how he refused to let them do anything. He didn’t let the gunner shoot, he dind’t let the copilot copilot, he didn’t let the mechanic fix, and instead they had to watch him do everything. He sighed and dropped the point, still shooting daggers at me and tried to figure out where best to go. He was reminded once again about the speeders, but just shook his head and muttered something about me. “I could do the explosives. I have one rank in computer.” The droid had 3. “I could use the turret. I have one rank in gunnery.” The Gunnar had 3. He began to argue with everyone that because he had a 1 rank in something, he obviously was the best choice for everything. I can shoot! I can use computers! I can do this, so i should do this and you should do something else. The rest of the group had had enough at this point and were arguing back. Finally, after some test roles were done and they compared the size of their cocks, i mean dice pools, he agreed to fire a blaster pistol from the canyon face.
The battle itself isn’t important. The droid made the booms go boom, the group slowed down the enemies enough for him to reach the explosives, and the party won. The only noteworthy point was that that gunners canon took a hit which gave him a critical injury when it exploded. In the ffg games a critical you roll a D% and the higher you roll the worse it is. If you roll a 140 you’re dead. Each critical compounding adding +10 to the check until it’s healed. He rolled and his arm was paralyzed. That was where i called that session.
Afterward, i spoke with Steve and let him know that it wasn’t just his story. This was a group campaign, and that everyone can do something, and even if it isn’t him, he can still cheer them on or offer his help. He said yeah, he knew and he would do better next session. I let it slide. He and I had spoke, he seemed to know what he had done was wrong. The party had stood up for themselves as well, and he apologized. I thought it would get better. Then the next session happened.
In between sessions i had made a new character for Mark to take over since his was badly injured. I had made another heavy weapons expert, so the party didn’t lose that damage, with some medical capability, that being something the party was missing. When we begin, and people are taking out their character sheets, I inform everyone that the good part about being in an army like they were is that when someone is injured or killed, there can be someone new assigned to the unit. I take out the character i had made Mark and said if he wanted to he could play this, or he could make up a new character and bring that one in instead until his gunner was healed. Steven has a fit.
“You can’t just bring in a new character!”
“Why not?” I ask in a calm voice. I am very proud that i stayed in a calm, reasonable voice for this entire fight.
“Because you just can’t!”
“Yes, yes Mark can if he chooses to.”
“How are you gonna explain it in game? It doesn’t make any sense?”
“I’m pretty sure i just did. They are someone new assigned to your unit.”
“But where are they gonna come from?”
“The rebellion, of course.”
“But what about party cohesion?”
“You’re in the army. Your cohesion is whoever youre ordered to be with. Besides, its not permenant. And this character fills a void your were missing. He’s not only a heavy weapon specialist like Marks old character, but also a medic.” I say with a smile handing the sheet over to Mark. “Again that is if you choose to use him. Like i said, you can build a new..”
“The rebellion won’t fix him up! He’s just some random soldier!” I can almost hear him saying “he’s not my awesome, bestest pilot in the galaxy.”
Looking back at Steven, “why not. The rebellion has an entire medical frigate. And he’ll get a baseline prosthetic arms, not anything special that will give him bonuses, that is if the bacta doesn’t take care of it.”
This fight went on for nearly 5 minutes with poor Mark caught in the middle. Finally Steven plays his trump card.
“If i was injured, i wouldn’t want to bring in a new character or be healed. I’d want to play through it!”
Mark sighed. “Its okay, I’ll stick with my Gunner.” Looking dejected he handed me back the sheet. He had actually been excited about the medic, eyes lighting up looking over, pointing out interesting things it could do. Steve looked triumphant.
“Are you sure? You don’t need to let Steven dictate your character. You are a two handed specialist who lost a hand. The weapons you could use you don’t have any ranks in, plus you have a penalty from the injury, and if you take a crit it’s guaranteed to be worse. On top of that, your armor is ruined from the explosion so you’re defenseless. This isn’t Stevens decision to make, its not his character, its yours.”
“Yeah, i guess I’m sure.” With Mark having made his decision there was nothing else i could do.
“Okay.” Sigh. “I guess you can go to the quartermaster and get a new set of armor and a blaster pistol so you can have a weapon.”
“No he can’t! We don’t have time!” Again Steve butts in.
“I guess i won’t.” Mark says, giving in. I let Mark know he could but he shakes his head no and asks to move on.
In the next section of the adventure its revealed there is a traitor and its up to the party to figure out who it is. The group narrows down its list of suspects, and split. Half the group goes to do background research and half go to interrogate the first suspect. Steve decides to take mark with him and talk to the suspect because he has a rank in intimidation so he can do it.
“But i have more ranks in intimidate and persuasion and a higher presence...” Kevin began, being a talking specialist at that.
“Its okay, i have 1 rank, and I want to do it and ill do it better.”
“Okay,” said Kevin, just done with it.
“I’d rather go with and help with research. I’m pretty hurt...” Mark began
“I’m about to confront a traitor. You’re the only other fighter here and i want some protection.” Kevin and i scoffed, remembering that close quarters combat was a speciality of Kevin’s.
I stuck with the droid and kevins character, letting them know what they found could be fed to the interrogators and help them with their checks. A few checks in and i hear
“I want to interrogate the suspect!” Steven announces loudly, speaking over me while i was in the middle of letting them know what they found.
“Okay, hold on just one second, let me finish with them.”
“No! I want to interrogate him.”
“I got that, but I’m with the other party and...”
“They can wait until after i talk to him. what they’re doing doesn’t matter anyway.”
Vince says “just do it. You can come back to us.” Giving me a long suffering look that only a big brother can (note, hes not my big brother, but he is Kevin’s).
“Okay” i say, turning my attention to Steven. “What’s the plan.”
“Me and kevin are going to interrogate the first suspect. I want to do it!”
Steven starts questioning, and rolls a success, but a despair. A despair is a crit bad thing in the ffg games. The man realizing that he had been found pulls out his blaster and shoots Steven in the face with a stun bolt, knocking him out. “But thats not fair! I have one rank in intimidation!”
“Yes,” responded Vince. “And hes a trained imperial spy who realized his cover was blown and protected himself. Maybe next time let the person who specialized in talking do the talking, or let the researchers finish the research because we had just found that out and could have warned you!”
Mark goes down next, the guy who didn’t want to be there, and was forced to by Steve, goes down. Since he already had a critical injury, he takes another one. This time he loses his entire arm, and the spy escapes. I ask Mark if he wants to bring in a new character, because this is the time i could. “Someone could have seen what happened and come along,” i reason, pulling out the backup character i had made.
“No he doesn’t!”
Mark rolled his eyes and shook his head. The group tracks down the villain, and the guy who is a two handed ranged weapon specialist is forced to fight the martial artist with one arm, no armor, and no weapon already injured. He goes down in the first round, and get a new critical injury, now permenantly paralyzed from the waist down. And before the villain is taken out, the Steve, who was so proud of his 1 rank in ranged light crit misses, hitting mark and giving him one last injury, causing permanent brain damage. After they won the fight, Steve said he needed a break. I stayed behind and spoke with Steve while everyone left.
“I really messed up tonight.”
“Yeah.”
“I’m ashamed of how i behaved in this game so far.”
“Your should be.”
“It’s because of me Mark needs a new character, isn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m gonna stay out the rest of the night.”
“That’s probably a good idea. I’ll tell the guys youre not feeling well.”
“Thanks.”
We finished that nights session without Steven, and in the next week he texted a personal apology to every player. Despite all of us agreeing to give him another chance, he didn’t play the next week either. That was the last session as life once again reared its ugly head. To me he didn’t just apologize for the railroading, for pushing around the other players, but also for forcing me to run a game that i didn’t want to run. That surprised me, i thought he had forgotten that.
Though we’re no longer roommates, Steven is still one of my best friends. We speak at least once a week. He is one of the most generous and caring people i know. He is the kind of man who will give you the shirt off of his back and ask if you’re okay while doing it. He loves to tell stories and wants to help make the world a better place, even if he doesn’t know how to. He will talk about video games and anime and cars for hours, and will help you move, even if you moved the weekend before. And i mean lifting the heavy stuff too. I put this here because its easy to judge someone based on their worse times, but with him those moments are fleeting. This is who is normally is.
TLDR: player railroads the gm into playing a game he didn’t want to play, forces himself into every role, and then browbeats the other players until it kills their character.
submitted by Miichl80 to rpghorrorstories [link] [comments]

Remember "Chad" and the Drones? One of the all-time great UFO stories. Incredibly Creative

In June 2007 the "Chad Drone" story broke and boy was it a doozy. The photos and graphic design work involved in this UFO story is just mind-boggling. Still way better than anything that has come along since. Check out the link as all the elements of this incredible story are still on this particular site. If nothing else, the folks who designed the PACL Linguistic Primer deserve some kind of award for creativity, detail and just plain weirdness.
http://droneteam.com/isaaccaret.fortunecity.com/index.html
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My Experience with the CARET Program and Extra-terrestrial Technology Isaac, June 2007
This letter is part of a package I've assembled for Coast to Coast AM to distribute to its audience. It is a companion to numerous document and photo scans and should not be separated from them.
You can call me Isaac, an alias I've chosen as a simple measure of protection while I release what would be called tremendously sensitive information even by todays standards. “Sensitive” is not necessarily synonymous with “dangerous”, though, which is why my conscience is clear as I offer this material up for the public. My government has its reasons for its continual secrecy, and I sympathize with many of them, but the truth is that I'm getting old and I'm not interested in meeting my maker one day with any more baggage than necessary! Furthermore, I put a little more faith in humanity than my former bosses do, and I think that a release of at least some of this info could help a lot more than it could hurt, especially in today's world.
I should be clear before I begin, as a final note: I am not interested in making myself vulnerable to the consequences of betraying the trust of my superiors and will not divulge any personal information that could determine my identity. However my intent is not to deceive, so information that I think is too risky to share will be simply left out rather than obfuscated in some way (aside from my alias, which I freely admit is not my real name). I would estimate that with the information contained in this letter, I could be narrowed down to one of maybe 30-50 people at best, so I feel reasonably secure.
Some Explanation for the Recent Sightings
For many years I've occasionally considered the release of at least some of the material I possess, but the recent wave of photos and sightings has prompted me to cut to the chase and do so now.
I should first be clear that I'm not directly familiar with any of the crafts seen in the photos in their entirety. I've never seen them in a hangar or worked on them myself or seen aliens zipping around in them. However, I have worked with and seen many of the parts visible in these crafts, some of which can be seen in the Q3-85 Inventory Review scan found at the top of this page. More importantly though, I'm very familiar with the “language” on their undersides seen clearly in photos by Chad and Rajman, and in another form in the Big Basin photos.
One question I can answer for sure is why they're suddenly here. These crafts have probably existed in their current form for decades, and I can say for sure that the technology behind them has existed for decades before that. The “language”, in fact, (I'll explain shortly why I keep putting that in quotes) was the subject of my work in years past. I'll cover that as well.
The reason they're suddenly visible, however, is another matter entirely. These crafts, assuming they're anything like the hardware I worked with in the 80's (assuming they're better, in fact), are equipped with technology that enables invisibility. That ability can be controlled both on board the craft, and remotely. However, what's important in this case is that this invisibility can also be disrupted by other technology. Think of it like radar jamming. I would bet my life savings (since I know this has happened before) that these craft are becoming visible and then returning to invisibility arbitrarily, probably unintentionally, and undoubtedly for only short periods, due to the activity of a kind of disrupting technology being set off elsewhere, but nearby. I'm especially sure of this in the case of the Big Basin sightings, were the witnesses themselves reported seeing the craft just appear and disappear. This is especially likely because of the way the witness described one of the appearances being only a momentary flicker, which is consistent with the unintentional, intermittent triggering of such a device.
It's no surprise that these sightings are all taking place in California, and especially the Saratoga/South Bay area. Not far from Saratoga is Mountain View/Sunnyvale, home to Moffett Field and the NASA Ames Research center. Again, I'd be willing to bet just about anything that the device capable of hijacking the cloaking of these nearby craft was inadvertently triggered, probably during some kind of experiment, at the exact moment they were being seen. Miles away, in Big Basin, the witnesses were in the right place at the right time and saw the results of this disruption with their own eyes. God knows what else was suddenly appearing in the skies at that moment, and who else may have seen it. I've had some direct contact with this device, or at least a device capable of the same thing, and this kind of mistake is not unprecedented. I am personally aware of at least one other incident in which this kind of technology was accidentally set off, resulting in the sudden visibility of normally invisible things. The only difference is that these days, cameras are a lot more common!
The technology itself isn't ours, or at least it wasn't in the 80's. Much like the technology in these crafts themselves, the device capable of remotely hijacking a vehicle's clacking comes from a non-human source too. Why we were given this technology has never been clear to me, but it's responsible for a lot. Our having access to this kind of device, along with our occasionally haphazard experimentation on them, has lead to everything from cloaking malfunctions like this to full-blown crashes. I can assure you that most (and in my opinion all) incidents of UFO crashes or that kind of thing had more to do with our meddling with extremely powerful technology at an inopportune time than it did mechanical failure on their part. Trust me, those things don't fail unless something even more powerful than them makes them fail (intentionally or not). Think of it like a stray bullet. You can be hit by one at any time, without warning, and even the shooter didn't intent to hit you. I can assure you heads are rolling over this as well. If anyone notices a brilliant but sloppy physicist patrolling the streets of Baghdad in the next couple weeks, I'd be willing to guess how he got there. (I kid, of course, as I certainly hope that hasn't actually happened in this case)
I'd now like to explain how it is that I know this.
The CARET Program
My story begins the same as it did for many of my co workers, with graduate and post-graduate work at university in electrical engineering. And I had always been interested in computer science, which was a very new field at the time, and my interest piqued with my first exposure to a Tixo during grad school. In the years following school I took a scenic route through the tech industry and worked for the kinds of companies you would expect, until I was offered a job at the Department of Defense and things took a very different turn.
My time at the DoD was mostly uneventful but I was there for quite a while. I apparently proved myself to be reasonably intelligent and loyal. By 1984 these qualities along with my technical background made me a likely candidate for a new program they were recruiting for called “CARET”.
Before I explain what CARET was I should back up a little. By 1984, Silicon Valley had been a juggernaut of technology for decades. In the less than 40 years since the appearance of Shockley’s transistor this part of the world had already produced a multi billion dollar computer industry and made technological strides that were unprecedented in other fields, from hypertext and online collaboration in '68 to the Alto in '73.
Private industry in Silicon Valley was responsible for some of the most incredible technological leaps in history and this fact did not go unnoticed by the US government and military. I don’t claim to have any special knowledge about Roswell or any of the other alleged early UFO events, but I do know that whatever the exact origin, the military was hard at work trying to understand and use the extra-terrestrial artifacts it had in its possession. While there had been a great deal of progress overall, things were not moving as quickly as some would have liked. So, in 1984, the CARET program was created with the aim of harnessing the abilities of private industry in silicon valley and applying it to the ongoing task of understanding extra-terrestrial technology.
One of the best examples of the power of the tech sector was Xerox PARC, a research center in Palo Alto, CA. XPARC was responsible for some of the major milestones in the history of computing. While I never had the privilege of working there myself I did know many of the people who did and I can say that they were among the brightest engineers I ever knew.
XPARC served as one of the models for the CARET program’s first incarnation, a facility called the Palo Alto CARET Laboratory (PACL, lovingly pronounced “packle” during my time there). This was where I worked, along with numerous other civilians, under the auspices of military brass who were eager to find out how the tech sector made so much progress so quickly. My time at the DoD was a major factor behind why I was chosen, and in fact about 30+ others who were hired around the same time had also been at the Department about as long, but this was not the case for everyone. A couple of my co-workers were plucked right from places like IBM and, at least two of them came from XPARC itself. My DoD experience did make me more eligable for positions of management, however, which is how I have so much of this material in my possession to begin with.
So in other words, civilians like myself who had at--at most--some decent experience working for the DoD but no actual military training or involvement, were suddenly finding ourselves in the same room as highly classified extra-terrestrial technology. Of course they spent about 2 months briefing us all before we saw or did anything, and did their best to convince us that if we ever leaked a single detail about what we were being told, they’d do everything short of digging up our ancestors and putting a few slugs in them too just for good measure. It seemed like there was an armed guard in every corner of every room. I’d worked under some pretty hefty NDAs in my time but this was so far out of my depth I didn’t think I was going to last 2 weeks in an environment like that. But amazingly things got off to a good start. They wanted us, plain and simple, and our industry had shown itself to be so good at what it did that they were just about ready to give us carte blanche.
Of course, nothing with the military is ever that simple, and as is often the case they wanted to have their cake and eat it too. What I mean by this is that despite their interest in picking our brains and learning whatever they could from our way of doing things, they still wanted to do it their way often enough to frustrate us.
At this point I'm going to gloss over the emotional side of this experience, because this letter isn't intended to be a memoir, but I will say that there's almost no way to describe the impact this kind of revelation has on your mind. There are very few moments in life in which your entire world view is turned forever upside down, but this was one of them. I still remember that turning point during the briefing when I realized what he'd just told us, and that I hadn't heard him wrong, and that it wasn't some kind of joke. In retrospect the whole thing feels like it was in slow motion, from that slight pause he took just before the term “extra-terrestrial” came out for the first time, to the way the room itself seemed to go off kilter as we collectively tried to grasp what was being said. My reflex kept jumping back and forth between trying to look at the speaker, to understand him better, and looking at everyone else around me, to make sure I wasn't the only one that was hearing this. At the risk of sounding melodramatic, it's a lot like a child learning his parents are divorcing. I never experienced that myself, but a very close friend of mine did when were boys, and he confided in me a great deal about what the experience felt like. A lot of what he said would aptly describe what I was feeling in that room. Here was a trusted authority figure telling you something that you just don't feel ready for, and putting a burden on your mind that you don't necessarily want to carry. The moment that first word comes out, all you can think about it is what it was like only seconds ago, and knowing that life is never going to be as simple as it was then. After all that time at the DoD, I thought I at least had some idea of what was going on in the world, but I'd never heard so much as a peep about this. Maybe one day I'll write more on this aspect, because it's the kind of thing I really would like to get off my chest, but for now I'll digress.
Unlike traditional research in this area, we weren’t working on new toys for the air force. For numerous reasons, the CARET people decided to aim its efforts at commercial applications rather than military ones. They basically wanted us to turn these artifacts into something they could patent and sell. One of CARET’s most appealing promises was the revenue generated by these product-ready technologies, which could be funneled right back into black projects. Working with a commercial application in mind was also yet another way to keep us in a familiar mind state. Developing technology for the military is very different than doing so for the commercial sector, and not having to worry about the difference was another way that CARET was very much like private industry.
CARET shined in the way it let us work the way we were used to working. They wanted to recreate as much of the environment we were used to as they could without compromising issues like security. That meant we got free reign to set up our own workflow, internal management structure, style manuals, documentation, and the like. They wanted this to look and feel like private industry, not the military. They knew that was how to get the best work out of us, and they were right.
But things didn’t go as smoothly when it came to matters like access to classified information. They were exposing what is probably their single biggest secret to a group of people who had never even been through basic training and it was obvious that the gravity of this decision was never far from their minds. We started the program with a small set of extra-terrestrial artifacts along with fairly elaborate briefings on each as well as access to a modest amount of what research had already been completed. It wasn’t long before we realized we needed more though, and getting them to provide even the smallest amount of new material was like pulling teeth. CARET stood for “Commercial Applications Research for Extra-terrestrial Technology”, but we often joked that it should have stood for “Civilians Are Rarely Ever Trusted.”
PACL was located in Palo Alto, but unlike XPARC, it wasn’t at the end of a long road in the middle of a big complex surrounded by rolling hills and trees. PACL was hidden in an office complex owned entirely by the military but made to look like an unassuming tech company. From the street, all you could see was what appeared to be a normal parking lot with a gate and a guard booth, and a 1-story building inside with a fictitious name and logo. What wasn’t visible from the street was that behind the very first set of doors was enough armed guards to invade Poland, and 5 additional underground stories. They wanted to be as close as possible to the kinds of people they were looking to hire and be able to bring them in with a minimum of fuss.
Inside, we had everything we needed. State of the art hardware and a staff of over 200 computer scientists, electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, physicists and mathematicians. Most of us were civilians, as I’ve said, but some were military, and a few of them had been working on this technology already. Of course, you were never far from the barrel of a machine gun, even inside the labs themselves (something many of us never got used to), and bi-weekly tours were made by military brass to ensure that not a single detail was out of line. Most of us underwent extensive searches on our way into and out of the building. There it was, probably the biggest secret in the world, in a bunch of parts spread out on laboratory tables in the middle of Palo Alto so you can imagine their concern.
One downside to CARET was that it wasn't as well-connected as other operations undoubtedly were. I never got to see any actual extra-terrestrials (not even photos), and in fact never even saw one of their compete vehicles. 99% of what I saw was related to the work at hand, all of which was conducted within a very narrow context on individual artifacts only. The remaining 1% came from people I met through the program, many of which working more closely with “the good stuff” or had in the past.
In fact, what was especially amusing about the whole affair was the way that our military management almost tried to act as if the technology we were essentially reverse engineering wasn't extra-terrestrial at all. Aside from the word “extra-terrestrial” itself, we rarely heard any other terms like “alien” or “UFO” or “outer space” or anything. Those aspects were only mentioned briefly when absolutely necessary to explain something. In many cases it was necessary to differentiate between the different races and their respective technology, and they didn't even use the word “races”. They were referred to simply as different “sources”.
The Technology
A lot of the technology we worked on was what you would expect, namely antigravity. Most of the researchers on the staff with backgrounds in propulsion and rocketry were military men, but the technology we were dealing with was so out of this world that it didn’t really matter all that much what your background was because none of it applied. All we could hope to do was use the vocabulary of our respective fields as a way to model the extremely bizarre new concepts we were very slowly beginning to understand as best we could. A rocket engineer doesn’t usually rub elbows much with a computer scientist, but inside PACL, we were all equally mystified and were ready to entertain any and all ideas.
The physicists made the most headway initially because out of all of our skills, theirs overlapped the most with the concepts behind this technology (although that isn’t saying much!) Once they got the ball rolling though, we began to find that many of the concepts found in computer science were applicable as well, albeit in very vague ways. While I didn’t do a lot of work with the antigrav hardware myself, I was occasionally involved in the assessment of how that technology was meant to interface with its user.
The antigrav was amazing, of course, as were the advances we were making with materials engineering and so on. But what interested me most then, and still amazes me most to this day, was something completely unrelated. In fact, it was this technology that immediately jumped out at me when I saw the Chad and Rajman photos, and even moreso in the Big Basin photos.
The “Language”
I put the word Language in quotes because calling what I am about to describe a “language” is a misnomer, although it is an easy mistake to make.
Their hardware wasn’t operated in quite the same way as ours. In our technology, even today, we have a combination of hardware and software running almost everything on the planet. Software is more abstract than hardware, but ultimately it needs hardware to run it. In other words, there’s no way to write a computer program on a piece of paper, set that piece of paper on a table or something, and expect it to actually do something. The most powerful code in the world still doesn’t actually do anything until a piece of hardware interprets it and translates its commands into actions.
But their technology is different. It really did operate like the magical piece of paper sitting on a table, in a manner of speaking. They had something akin to a language, that could quite literally execute itself, at least in the presence of a very specific type of field. The language, a term I am still using very loosely, is a system of symbols (which does admittedly very much resemble a written language) along with geometric forms and patterns that fit together to form diagrams that are themselves functional. Once they are drawn, so to speak, on a suitable surface made of a suitable material and in the presence of a certain type of field, they immediately begin performing the desired tasks. It really did seem like magic to us, even after we began to understand the principles behind it.
I worked with these symbols more than anything during my time at PACL, and recognized them the moment I saw them in the photos. They appear in a very simple form on Chad’s craft, but appear in the more complex diagram form on the underside of the Big Basin craft as well. Both are unmistakable, even at the small size of the Big Basin photos. An example of a diagram in the style of the Big Basin craft is included with this in a series of scanned pages from the [mistitled] "Linguistic Analysis Primer". We needed a copy of that diagram to be utterly precise, and it took about a month for a team of six to copy that diagram into our drafting program!
Explaining everything I learned about this technology would fill up several volumes, but I will do my best to explain at least some of the concepts as long as I am taking the time to write all this down.
First of all, you wouldn't open up their hardware to find a CPU here, and a data bus there, and some kind of memory over there. Their hardware appeared to be perfectly solid and consistent in terms of material from one side to the other. Like a rock or a hunk of metal. But upon [much] closer inspection, we began to learn that it was actually one big holographic computational substrate - each "computational element" (essentially individual particles) can function independently, but are designed to function together in tremendously large clusters. I say its holographic because you can divide it up into the smallest chunks you want and still find a scaled-down but complete representation of the whole system. They produce a nonlinear computational output when grouped. So 4 elements working together is actually more than 4 times more powerful than 1. Most of the internal "matter" in their crafts (usually everything but the outermost housing) is actually this substrate and can contribute to computation at any time and in any state. The shape of these "chunks" of substrate also had a profound effect on its functionality, and often served as a "shortcut" to achieve a goal that might otherwise be more complex.
So back to the language. The language is actually a "functional blueprint". The forms of the shapes, symbols and arrangements thereof is itself functional. What makes it all especially difficult to grasp is that every element of each "diagram" is dependant on and related to every other element, which means no single detail can be created, removed or modified independently. Humans like written language because each element of the language can be understood on its own, and from this, complex expressions can be built. However, their "language" is entirely context-sensitive, which means that a given symbol could mean as little as a 1-bit flag in one context, or, quite literally, contain the entire human genome or a galaxy star map in another. The ability for a single, small symbol to contain, not just represent, tremendous amounts of data is another counter-intuitive aspect of this concept. We quickly realized that even working in groups of 10 or more on the simplest of diagrams, we found it virtually impossible to get anything done. As each new feature was added, the complexity of the diagram exponentially grew to unmanageable proportions. For this reason we began to develop computer-based systems to manage these details and achieved some success, although again we found that a threshold was quickly reached beyond which even the supercomputers of the day were unable to keep up. Word was that the extra-terrestrials could design these diagrams as quickly and easily as a human programmer could write a Fortran program. It's humbling to think that even a network of supercomputers wasn't able to duplicate what they could do in their own heads. Our entire system of language is based on the idea of assigning meaning to symbols. Their technology, however, somehow merges the symbol and the meaning, so a subjective audience is not needed. You can put whatever meaning you want on the symbols, but their behavior and functionality will not change, any more than a transistor will function differently if you give it another name.
Here's an example of how complex the process is. Imagine I ask you to incrementally add random words to a list such that no two words use any of the same letters, and you must perform this exercise entirely in your head, so you can't rely on a computer or even a pen and paper. If the first in the list was, say, "fox", the second item excludes all words with the letters F, O and X. If the next word you choose is "tree", then the third word in the list can't have the letters F, O, X, T, R, or E in it. As you can imagine, coming up with even a third word might start to get just a bit tricky, especially since you can't easily visualize the excluded letters by writing down the words. By the time you get to the fourth, fifth and sixth words, the problem has spiraled out of control. Now imagine trying to add the billionth word to the list (imagine also that we're working with an infinite alphabet so you don't run out of letters) and you can imagine how difficult it is for even a computer to keep up. Needless to say, writing this kind of thing "by hand" is orders of magnitude beyond the capabilities of the brain.
My background lent itself well to this kind of work though. I'd spent years writing code and designing both analog and digital circuits, a process that at least visually resembled these diagrams in some way. I also had a personal affinity for combinatorics, which served me well as I helped with the design of software running on supercomputers that could juggle the often trillions of rules necessary to create a valid diagram of any reasonable complexity. This overlapped quite a bit with compiler theory as well, a subject I always found fascinating, and in particular compiler optimization, a field that wasn't half of what it is today back then. A running joke among the linguistics team was that Big-O notation couldn't adequately describe the scale of the task, so we'd substitute other words for "big". By the time I left I remember the consensus was "Astronomical-O" finally did it justice.
Like I said, I could go on for hours about this subject, and would love to write at least an introductory book on the subject if it wasn't still completely classified, but that's not the point of this letter so I'll try to get back on track.
The last thing I'd like to discuss is how I got copies of this material, what else I have in my possession, and what I plan to do with it in the future.
My Collection
I worked at PACL from 1984 to 1987, by which time I was utterly burned out. The sheer volume of details to keep in mind while working with the diagrams was enough to challenge anyone's sanity, and I was really at the end of my rope with the military's attitude towards our “need to know”. Our ability to get work done was constantly hampered by their reluctance to provide us with the necessary information, and I was tired of bureaucracy getting in the way of research and development. I left somewhere in the middle of a 3-month bell curve in which about a quarter of the entire PACL staff left for similar reasons.
I was also starting to disagree with the direction the leadership wanted to take as far as the subject of extra-terrestrials went. I always felt that at least some form of disclosure would be beneficial, but as a lowly CARET engineer I wasn't exactly in the position to call shots. The truth is, our management didn't even want us discussing non-technical aspects of this subject (such as ethical or philosophical issues), even among ourselves, as they felt it was enough of a breach of security to let civilians like us anywhere near this kind of thing in the first place.
So, about 3 months before I resigned (which was about 8 months before I was really out, since you don't just walk out of a job like that with a 2 week notice). I decided to start taking advantage of my position. As I mentioned earlier, my DoD experience got me into an internal management role sooner than some of my colleagues, and after about a year of that kind of status, the outgoing searches each night became slightly less rigorous. Normally, we were to empty out any containers, bags or briefcases, then remove our shirt and shoes and submit to a kind of frisking. Work was never allowed to go home with you, no matter who you were. For me, though, the briefcase search was eventually enough.
Even before I actually decided to do it, I was sure that I would be able to sneak certain materials out with me. I wanted to do this because I knew the day would come when I would want to write something like this, and I knew I'd regret it until the day I died if I didn't at least leave the possibility open to do so. So I started photocopying documents and reports by the dozen. I'd then put the papers under my shirt around my lower back, tucked enough into my belt to ensure they wouldn't fall out. I could do this in any one of a few short, windowless hallways on some of the lower floors, which were among the few places that didn't have an armged guard watching my every move. I'd walk in one end with a stack of papers large enough that when I came out the other end with some of them in my shirt, there wouldn't be a visible difference in what I was holding. You absolutely cannot be too careful if you're going to pull a stunt like this. As long as I walked carefully they wouldn't make a crinkling noise. In fact, the more papers I took, the less noise they made, since they weren't as flimsy that way. I'd often take upwards of 10-20 pages at once. By the time I was done, I'd made out with hundreds of photocopies, as well as a few originals and a large collection of original photographs.
With this initial letter I have attached high resolution scans of the following:
  1. A page from an inventory review with a photo that appears to depict one of the parts found in the Rajman sighting and parts very similar to the Big Basin craft
  2. The first 9 pages of one of our quarterly research reports
  3. Scans of the original photographs used in that report, since the photocopies obscure most of the details
  4. 5 pages from a report on our ongoing analysis of the “language” (inappropriately titled “linguistic analysis”), depicting the kind of diagram just barely visible on the underside of the Big Basin craft
This material is the most relevant and explanatory I could find on short notice. Now that these are up, IF I decide to release more in the future, I'll be able to take my time and better search this rather large collection of mine that I've sadly never organized. I'm not sure what I'll be doing with the rest of the collection in the future. I suppose I'll wait and see how this all plays out, and then play it by ear. There are certainly risks involved in what I'm doing, and if I were to actually be identified and caught, there could be rather serious consequences. However, I've taken the proper steps to ensure a reasonable level of anonymity and am quite secure in the fact that the information I've so far provided is by no means unique among many of the CARET participants.
Besides, part of me has always suspected that the government relies on the occasional leak like this, and actually wants them to happen, because it contributes to a steady, slow-paced path towards revealing the truth of this matter.
Since Leaving CARET
Like I said, I left PACL in '87, but have kept in touch with a great many of my friends and coworkers from those days. Most of us are retired by now, except of course for those of us that went on to get teaching jobs, but a few of us still hear things through the grapevine.
As for CARET itself, I'm not sure what's become of it. Whether it's still known by the same name, I'm quite sure it's still active in some capacity, although who knows where. I heard from a number of people that PACL closed up shop a few years after I left, but I've still yet to get a clear answer on why exactly that happened. But I'm sure the kind of work we did there is still going strong. I've heard from a lot of friends that there are multiple sites like PACL in Sunnyvale and Mountain View, also disguised to look like unremarkable office space. But this is all second-hand information so you can make of it what you will.
Around 2002 or so I came across Coast to Coast AM and have been hooked ever since. I admit, I don't take most of the show's content as anything more than entertainment, but there have been occasions when I could be sure a guest was clearly speaking from experience or a well-informed source. For me, there's just something very surreal about hearing all this speculation and so-called inside information about UFOs and the like, but being personally able to verify at least some of it as being true or false. It's also a nightly reminder of how hectic things were in those days, which helps me enjoy my retirement all the more. Knowing I'm not part of that crazy world anymore really is something I enjoy on a daily basis, as much as I miss some of it.
Conclusion
What I've shared so far is only a very small portion of what I have, and what I know. Despite the very sheltered and insulated atmosphere within CARET, I did ultimately learn a great deal from various colleagues, and some of what I learned is truly incredible. I'd also like to say that for what it's worth, during my time there I never heard anything about invasions, or abductions, or many of the more frightening topics that often pop up on Coast to Coast AM. That's not to say that none of it is true, but in my time working alongside some of the most well-connected people in this field, it never came up. So at the very least I can say my intent is not to scare anyone. My view on the extra-terrestrial situation is very much a positive, albiet still highly secretive one.
One thing I can definitely say is that if they wanted us gone, we would have been gone a very, very long time ago, and we wouldn't even have seen it coming. Throw out your ideas about a space war or anything silly like that. We'd be capable of fighting back against them about as much as ants could fight back against a stampede of buffalo. But that's OK. We're the primitive race, they're the advanced races, and that's just the way it is. The other advanced races let them live through their primitive years back in their day, and there's no reason to think it will be any different for us. They aren't in the market for a new planet, and even if they were, there are way too many planets out there for them to care about ours enough to take it by force.
To reiterate my take on the recent sightings, I'd guess that experimentation done in the last couple months on a device that, among other things, is capable of interfering with various crafts onboard invisibility has resulted in a sudden wave of sightings. It may not explain all of the recent events, but like I said, I'd bet my life that's exactly what happened at Big Basin at least, and it's probably related in some way to the Chad, Rajman and Tahoe sightings. So, despite all the recent fanfare over this, I'd say this doesn't mean much. Most importantly, they aren't suddenly “here”. They've been here for a long time, but just happened to turn unintentionally visible for brief periods recently.
Lastly, there are so many people selling books, and DVDs, and doing lectures, and all that, that I would like to reiterate the fact that I am not here to sell anything. The material I'm sharing is free to distribute provided it's all kept intact and unmodified, and this letter is included. I tend to question the motives of anyone charging money for their information, and will assure you that I will never do such a thing. And in the future, just to cover all the bases, anyone claiming to be me who's selling a DVD or book is most certainly not going to be me.
Any future releases from me will come from the email address I've used to contact Coast to Coast AM, and will be sent to them only. I'd like to make this clear as well to ensure that people can be sure that any future information comes from the same source, although I must be clear: at this time I do not have any future plans for additional information. Time will tell how long I will maintain this policy, but do not expect anything soon. I'd really like to let this information “settle” for a while and see how it goes. If I find out I'm getting an IRS audit tomorrow, then maybe this wasn't too smart. Until then, I'm going to take it slow. I hope this information has been helpful.
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The HEL Jumper [Chapter 3.11]

Book 1 of The HEL Jumper
Book 2 of The HEL Jumper
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‘Good morning, Admiral Kaczynski. To what do I owe the pleasure?’ Io greeted him, clad in an emerald silk bathrobe. Her hair hung loosely around her head, the rest partially tied up behind her in an approximation of a ponytail while a toothbrush hung from her mouth. It was all Natori could do to not leap from his seat on the bridge and proclaim her magnificence to the gods. He nodded politely at her instead while taking a sip of his morning coffee.
“I apologize for waking you.”
‘Oh that’s not a concern for me, but unless you are only here to speak with me I shall have to rouse the Lieutenant and Veera,’ she explained, finishing her dental hygiene and tossing the toothbrush behind her as it evaporated into digital nothingness.
“If you would?” Kaczynski requested, taking another swig of his beverage. The manufactured variety was passable, but it was nothing compared to the fruits of his homeland. He missed it dearly.
‘Of course. A moment please,’ Io requested, her screen immediately changing to a relic from long before Natori’s time. An old television ‘please stand by’ advisement. He took a bite of a ration bar and chuckled as he accepted a report from one of his watchstanders. Engineer Prakash had begun an analysis of various Maran soil samples sent up by Alice with one of the prior evening’s shuttles. Even preliminary results showed an absolute bevy of microorganisms and it was becoming clear that they would need to adapt their genetics laboratories to handle organisms with x-nucleotides. Natori made a note to speak with Gerard Dupuis as well as the science teams at the Forge about the issue while he waited for Io to re-establish connection. On the other side of the line the AI decided to have a bit of fun, activating the B-MASS to project herself dressed as a classical butler. She held a silver tray with an old rotary phone that began ringing softly, rousing her roommates from sleep.
“Hmm?” Veera groaned, shifting groggily under their furs and pulling her knees closer to her chest. “You’re damp, darling,” she whispered, faintly aware of a slightly sweaty human beneath her.
“That’s because I have a living blanket and it’s not winter,” Russell replied quietly, kissing her on the forehead and slowly working his way out from under her. “Io? What’s the deal with the Jeeves getup?”
‘You have a call from the Event Horizon, sir. One Natori Kaczynski.’
At Io’s word Russell quickly hopped out of bed and dressed himself. Her brain still muddled by sleep, Veera reached out for him and waved her hand about, as if swiping at a ball of yarn or waving him off. He caught her hand and brushed his lips over her knuckles before tucking her back in. “It’s the Admiral,” he explained. “You go back to sleep, Veera. We’ll make breakfast when I’m done.”
“Alright. It’s mmm…my chesko,” she muttered before closing her eyes again as Io stifled a giggle.
‘Or perhaps a lay in is called for?’ Io suggested. ‘I wonder if Cauthan get dream zoomies…’
“I blame Alice,” Russell replied offhandedly, collecting his gauntlet and slipping it over his left arm as he walked out into the street and left his wife to sleep. He took a second to compose himself and rub the sleep from his eyes before accepting the call. “Admiral?”
“Lieutenant Winters, good morning! I do apologize if I’ve interrupted anything?” Kaczynski began. Russell demurred politely.
“Not a problem, sir. Veera’s quite good at sleeping.”
“I see. A good skill to possess if you ask me. Our excitable xenobiologist kept you up last night?”
“I’m used to it, sir. That and I’m still just happy to see her,” the Jumper explained.
“Yes, I suppose we are still within that two week window she mentioned. I’m not sure this will come as any sort of surprise to you, but I was hoping to speak with you about your sister and her plans for the Cauthan. Is this where you’ve lived for the last year?” Natori made a bit of small talk as his avatar looked around, taking in the wooden houses and dirt streets of Winters’ neighborhood. “It is quaint.”
“It’s seen some improvement, for sure,” Russell acknowledged his own impact, nodding and waving to the Cauthan who shared his district as they headed off to begin another day of labor. After a year he knew most of them by name, and none seemed particularly surprised that he was talking to a disembodied human head made of light. One greeting in particular had Natori scrutinizing Winters. Between Io’s shenanigans in his manufactories, the nascent research station at Kel’s Forge, and the baseline duties of running an HEL dreadnaught, he’d had little time to review the introductory materials that Io had loaded into the Event Horizon’s databases about Cauthan life.
“Ursae slayer? Is that the name of the tribe that attacked this village last year?” He asked tactfully. There was no need for either man to bring up the fact that Winters had killed them to the last man. Russell shook his head.
“No, sir. That’s a different story,” he said simply. When the dead air between them had lasted for a good ten seconds, Io interjected.
‘Since my operator is apparently not in a sharing mood this morning, it will suffice to say that from the Cauthan perspective…oh what’s a good one?’ Io wondered, shouldering in to share the limited projection space of the B-MASS. ‘Cerberus! Yes, Cerberus was also big, fluffy, and likely voracious. Admiral, imagine that this mythical beast was real and we killed it. There was food in every pot, a cloak of the finest fur on every Cauthan! I’m more than willing to admit that in the moment I was terrified to the point I couldn’t think straight; but Ursae Slayer has a wonderful ring to it, don’t you think?’
Natori raised his brows, nodding silently as he processed Io’s fantastical analogy. Winters waited patiently, leaning against the doorframe of his home and looking up at a cloudy sky. It looked as though Felen would be gracing them with nurturing rains that day. He tried not to remember the grating scrape of those claws against his chest. “Well, let’s talk about your sister then, shall we? Happier subject?”
Winters grunted in agreement. “Yes, let’s. She didn’t do anything dangerous yet, did she?”
“I will admit I don’t enjoy the fact that you included the word ‘yet’ in that sentence but no, Lieutenant. I do not believe she has done anything dangerous. Oh, on the subject of danger, please inform your wife that we have completed the metallurgical analysis of her cookware. I’m not sure it would hold up to modern safety standards by nature of whatever crude process was used to refine the alloys, but there should be no risk acute to your or her health. And please extend my thanks to her for her cooperation in this matter.”
“I will, sir.” Winters nodded, leaving the issue of cookware aside. “Now what exactly did Alice do?”
Natori chuckled briefly, more than capable of picking up the skepticism in his tone. It was not unwarranted. “Nothing yet, I assure you. However she has made some curious inquiries around town from the sound of things. I received a written report from her last night, requesting authorization for Mrs. Yvonne Dupuis to travel to the village, pending the approval of Antoth.”
Russell remained silent for a moment, recalling the woman he’d been introduced to briefly a couple days prior at Alice’s behest. She and her husband had been polite and were clearly good friends with his sister. He didn’t remember much else. “Why does she want her to come down?” He asked. At his question, Natori launched into a brief explanation of Alice’s proposal, which boiled down to an establishment of the medical field of Cauthan obstetrics. Io whistled quietly.
‘This could end…rather poorly depending on a variety of factors,’ the AI declared.
“And she said Asha consented to this?” Russell demanded. Natori took a moment to reference his notes.
“Asha is one of your acquaintances in the village, yes? Light gray fur and green eyes, married to an apprentice smith?”
“He’s no longer an apprentice,” Russell clarified with some measure of pride. Natori gave him another nod of acknowledgement and updated his personal records accordingly.
“I see. Yes, it appears that Alice secured conditional medical consent from Asha for at least a meeting with Madame Dupuis as well as the recording of certain elements of Cauthan prenatal care. A Gentia is also involved?”
‘Oh, well then in that case everything should be fine!’ Io declared happily. ‘Gentia is a delightful old woman, but she has no patience for shenanigans when it comes to her duties around pregnancy and childbirth.’
“I’ll talk with Alice,” Russell cut them both off. “If I may ask, sir, why come to me with this? She was here last evening and said little to nothing of this plan.”
“Is that right? Well the cat is out of the bag now, or perhaps the Cauthan?” Natori proposed, taking a moment to chuckle at his own joke and stroke his chin in thought. “I cannot say why she would have glossed over this with you and I will not put words in her mouth. However, I came to you because you are the foremost Cauthan expert in the entirety of the HEL, a title your sister no doubt covets. I wanted your opinion on this proposal. The will and resources are absolutely there from my side and my crew, but this is a great deal beyond something like giving them the knowledge to build an aqueduct or water wheel. I thank you for your discretion on that matter as well.”
“Told you,” Russell jabbed at Io with a smile. She rolled her eyes.
‘How was I supposed to know they were bringing a Ghaelen along? I will win this bet yet, sir,’ Io insisted, referring to her own opinions regarding the potential for rapid Cauthan uplift. Russell glanced skyward as a drop of rain or two landed on his recently trimmed hair.
“I hope you do too, Io. Admiral, there’s a part of me that doesn’t want to get in Alice’s way on this but I think you’re right. This is a risky move by her. If it works…and by work I suppose I mean we save the life of a Cauthan cub or mother, it will likely solidify a bond between them and us. If the alternative happens, even after what I assume will eventually be invasive medical examinations, blood draws, and genetic sequencing…it might be the end of this entire relationship for good.”
Russell’s evaluation took Natori aback momentarily. “I am only left to wonder if humans felt the same way many millennia ago about their children. Might I ask what you intend to do with your sister?”
“I’m going to talk with my wife first,” Russell replied easily. As if summoned, a golden furred paw reached from the doorway to rest on his shoulder, soon joined by the rest of Veera. The Admiral inclined his head politely her way.
“Veera, good morning. I apologize for borrowing your husband so early.”
“Come inside, dear,” Veera commanded softly before glancing at Natori. “Is anything the matter, Admiral?”
“No, not at all, Veera,” he reassured her. “I believe your husband will be filling you in quite shortly. Lieutenant?”
“Yes sir?” Winters replied formally.
“You should know that my Jumper team made contact with the Forge and is establishing a research camp there as we speak. As of yet nothing has emerged from the facility other than local wildlife. I will be ordering your psychological evaluation within the next couple of days so that we may discuss fully the things you have seen and done on Mara. I will not make any promises, but given what I understand of the circumstances I do not think you have much to worry about.”
Winters pulled one side of his mouth into a grimace but remained composed, setting about the business of a cooking fire. He missed Natori’s surprised look. “Understood, sir. Any advanced notice you can give us would be appreciated.” Kaczynski did not miss his meaning.
“Of course. I would also like an informal report on your discussion with Alice, including your personal thoughts on how we as a group should proceed on this sensitive matter. That is all, Lieutenant.”
“Understood, sir. We’ll have that for you by the end of the day at latest,” Russell agreed, putting flint to tinder before any significant amount of moisture snuck through the opening in the roof to ruin their prospects for a hot breakfast.
“Thank you. Kaczynski out.”
When the B-MASS went silent and Io regained full use of the projector, Veera knelt by his side and helped fan the tiny flames. “Are there many humans like him that you need to behave that way around?” She wondered, understanding that Natori was something like Antoth for him. “It’s just…not natural.”
To her surprise and then relief, Io and Russell began laughing long and loudly as the sprinkling of rain turned to a light, drumming melody on the roofs and streets outside, heralding a day of rest for many of the farmers in the village. “Don’t worry. Unless there’s a Marine commander aboard it’s probably just Natori. Io looked it up and I already outrank all the Jumpers on board. So a handful at most. Now if we get back to Earth, that number goes up quite a bit and includes my father. Hey, what’s up?” Winters asked as Veera draped herself over his back and started purring into his ear.
“That’s good. I prefer you when you’re a little wild and only obey me,” Veera whispered. Russell’s response was to kiss her soundly on the lips as Io shook her head.
‘I knew I should have increased the coolant factor of my processors,’ she lamented as her partners parted and began the task of preparing breakfast, with Russell explaining to Veera what he’d heard from Kaczynski. He asked her opinion on the matter as he began cooking some chesko for the two of them as well as Alice. Veera turned the question over in her head for a few moments as dry logs popped and snapped in the flames.
“I am not sure Alice should be the one to do this,” she eventually replied. “We trust you, Russell, not anyone else.”
“Alright. Just wanted to run it by you first. Let’s eat together and I’ll bring her something after. If I know her she’s probably enjoying a bit of a lay in given how late we were up last night.”
“She is very excited about us,” Veera said approvingly, moving her feathers subtly as she tried to lay out her honest opinions without insulting her sister-in-law. “I think that one day she will hold the same level of trust you do, but she must be patient.”
“Then we’re on the same page. Here, first bite!” Winters offered, slicing a rare piece of chesko from the steak and tossing it Veera’s way. She caught it easily in her mouth and chewed, savoring the succulent juices from the fresh cut.
“Mmm, delicious! I think I’ll come with you today,” she offered. Russell saw no reason she shouldn’t.
“Fine by me. Let’s finish up here then and fish out our leather cloaks. Looks like Felen woke up on the wrong side of the bed today.”
“You only say that because you aren’t a farmer, my love,” Veera opined, throwing him a winning smile. She couldn’t help but do so when he made mention of her gods and culture as though they were his own. After finishing their meal and leaving a low fire to burn through the rain, they headed out in search of Alice.
-----
“Oh hey, Rusty! Great timing. I was just about to head out and speak with Antoth if I can. Oh, breakfast? You two are the best! Hello there, Veera! Come in, please,” Alice offered as her brother and sister-in-law stepped into her sparsely furnished home which, to her credit, was now lit by a portable lamp that she’d requested from the Event Horizon. Its LED’s mimicked the properties of an outdoor halogen lamp one might find zapping insects on a warm summer’s night. Veera was immediately drawn to it as a moth to a flame, captivated by the eerie blue light that reminded her of Auril.
“You’re not going to speak to Antoth, Alice,” Russell informed her in no uncertain terms, handing her a breakfast of charred chesko and kina slices. Like him, she’d taken to the spicy vegetables quickly. “And before you get all steamed at me, this is straight from Natori.”
“I…what?” Alice stammered, looking dumbfounded and crestfallen at the same time. She accepted his hug nevertheless as her brother tried to comfort her with the arm that wasn’t holding her food.
“I’m just trying to protect you,” he promised. “And if things go well when I speak to Antoth, Asha and your friend can still meet and we’ll see where things go from there.”
“Wait, wait! Why…why are you suddenly getting to do this?” She demanded as Veera kept quiet in the background. Russell remained patient, understanding his sister’s frustrations.
“Because they trust me, Alice. They do not trust you. I know they’ve been kind to you, and they’re giving you a chance on account of me. It’s a great beginning but you need to earn it, hopefully a lot less violently than I did.”
“That’s not...that’s not fair, Rusty,” Alice replied sadly. “How should I do that if not like this?”
“No, it’s not fair. But you were the one who went straight for the heart, so to speak,” Russell said, sitting down on the floor and encouraging Alice to eat. “Alice, I’ll be honest with you here. If I didn’t know Asha and Ratha so well I would tell you to abandon this whole idea and stick with something mundane like growing crops on the Event Horizon or showing them how pulleys work. But if something happened to Zolta’s cub, or to Asha…”
“Rusty, we want the same thing here. I’m sure I can explain it to Antoth and-”
“It’s not about that, Alice,” Russell cut her off, earning himself a harsh glance as she popped a piece of meat into her mouth. “If anything goes wrong with this and you’re associated with it I don’t know what would happen to you. I’ve seen it happen. If Ratha were to lose her cub, let’s say, she would blame you or kill you. Maybe both. This is about protecting you long enough for them all to understand that you aren’t here to exploit them or take advantage of them.”
“But how do you expect me to earn that trust if you don’t let me!” Alice protested.
“Did you become an ob-gyn when I wasn’t looking?” Russell quipped. “Are you going to be giving Asha ultrasounds or taking her blood samples or doing whatever it is that lady doctors do?”
“Lady doctors?” Alice snickered at her brother’s tiptoeing around vaginal health.
“You know what I mean,” he groaned. “And the fact that you’re joking with me means the answer is no. You won’t be. You trust this Yvonne woman, right?”
“Of course I do!” Alice insisted. Her brother nodded.
“Good. Then let me speak to Antoth and if he gives the ok I want you to make the introductions, and then step back. Let her and Gentia and the pregnant females in this village sort things out for themselves. Trust her to do the work she was trained to do.”
“And what am I supposed to do then?” Alice wondered dejectedly as Io appeared at his brother’s wrist just to say hi and attempt to bring a smile to her face. It worked for a moment. “Hello there, Io.”
‘Good morning, Alice. How is your arm feeling.’
“Much better, thanks to you!” She affirmed before throwing Russell an annoyed glare. “But it looks like I’ll have plenty of time to rest now?”
“Oh come off it, what can’t you do?” Russell demanded. “There is a whole village of Cauthan that could use your help and your guidance in matters that don’t involve the life, or Kel forbid the death, of the next generation. Xan needs your help, Alice.”
“I think if you asked him, Xan would say he doesn’t need anyone,” Alice pouted, still a bit annoyed at how that particular Cauthan had dismissed the Event Horizon to Thantis the prior afternoon, referring to it as a ‘floating metal cave in the sky’.
“That’s because Xan is an idiot boy!” Russell snapped, looking over Alice’s shoulder at Veera. Her eyes were already waiting for his as she cocked her head at him. “Just like I was.” Russell heaved a sigh and shook his head as if to clear it. “Look Alice, I’m not asking for a miracle or anything. But he is their apprentice death priest. I think you should be spending the majority of your time with him instead of wandering around offering your services to whomever strikes your fancy.”
“I can only do so much, Rusty,” Alice protested softly.
“I know, I know. Just…look, I want Xan to realize that he isn’t destined to live a shell of his former life. Everyone around him who cares for him has told him that, but he’s a young man and I’m sure you remember what teenage boys are like back on Earth. He doesn’t care for comforting words or pity. You’re one of the few people who can show him that there is a full life waiting for those who follow the path of knowledge instead of fighting.”
Alice wiped her hands gently on the rough leather that Russell had delivered her meal in, contemplating the things he’d said. She hated to admit it, but he was right on both counts. “I suppose I wouldn’t be too happy in his position either,” she agreed. “Thantis is a charming and wonderful individual, but that doesn’t change the fact that I wouldn’t want to be him at my age, certainly not if I were even younger. Just…tell me how it goes with Antoth, alright?”
“You know I will. Come here,” Russell offered, standing and helping his sister up and into another hug, one that Veera joined in, adding an extra element of fluff and compassion to the embrace. “I’m on your side here, Alice. I want Asha delivering her cub in safety on that ship just as much as you do.”
“Thanks Rusty. I’ll do what I can with Xan, alright?”
“Can you explain to me how you’ve trapped cold, blue fire in this marvelous contraption first? And how is it so clear?! Did you sneak off to Auril when we weren’t looking?” Veera demanded of Alice’s lamp. The three of them broke apart and Alice winked her brother’s way.
“Looks like I’ve got something to do, Rusty. Get going then.”
“Already acting like this was your idea? Never change, sis. I’m going. Veera?” He called after his wife as he stood by the doorway, rain splattering lightly against his boots.
“Yes dear, I’ll find my way back home or to the barracks. Alice, this is so light and powerful! How does it work? Is it portable? Does it work at night? Could I carry one?”
‘It would appear a new era of the town watch may be upon us, sir. Let us be off. By my calculations the shuttle window is already open if Madame Dupuis is to arrive this morning.’
“Understood. See you later, girls!”
“Bye Rusty!” Alice waved as he departed, content with a full stomach and a curious Cauthan who wanted to understand the finer points of LED’s.
-----
“Winters, each time I speak with you and your sister the demands become more and more steep,” Antoth complained, his voice deep and contemplative as the two of them walked through the sodden streets. Hoods and a good downpour made for excellent auditory concealment.
“That’s why I came to you and left her with Veera. Her heart is in the right place, but I know you’d only consider this if it came from me directly.”
“You are not wrong about that,” Antoth agreed as they wandered through the narrow avenues that made up the southeast quadrant of the village.
“You know I helped Zolta and Asha get together. That cub isn’t mine but it’s special to me, Antoth. Same with yours. We fought together. I want Ratha and your cub to be healthy.”
“Now that I am less inclined to believe,” Antoth chuckled as they walked past the Temple of the Twin Moons.
“Like I said, Antoth, it’s your cub too,” Winters repeated, coming to a halt as Antoth paused his pace and sought shelter under the eaves of the side of the temple. “Antoth, what is it?” The human demanded. The Cauthan’s scars were pulled taut across his face as he grimaced.
“I have already lost one cub and mate to Kel. I cannot lose another…I cannot trust your people.”
Io had appeared in Winters’ visor, which he sported in lieu of the Aegis on that day. Her hands were clasped over her mouth and she was trying to hold back tears. They had never known. How could they have? Winters felt much the same, a leaden weight filling the pit of his stomach as they learned something new about the former Guardian even after a year of kinship. “I’m sorry, Antoth.”
“And were you that Admiral I would tell you that I do not need your pity, human. But you are my brother in arms, and to you alone I will say that my heart still aches for them; even as I know the love of another female and feel the cub grow within her belly. I assume you are listening, Spirit Io? Do not worry, I count you among that order to which I, perhaps unwisely, am choosing to show weakness.”
‘Oh you big, furry, idiot! Du flauschiger barbar!’ Io gasped tearfully. ‘Anytime you need to talk we are here for you! Right, sir?!’
“Yeah, what she said,'' Winters agreed, resting a hand on Antoth’s shoulder. “And you should know that the only reason I’m speaking with you of this is because I truly believe that if the worst happens we together have a better chance of saving Asha, Ratha, or any of your cubs and mothers than Gentia and her acolytes do alone.”
Antoth exhaled heavily, resting a hand on the pommel of his sword and looking up past the overhang of the wooden roof at the turbulent gray skies above. He found it an apt analogy. “Your people are as Felen,” he eventually spoke. “When does rain and the promise of a bountiful harvest turn to flood? When does a gentle breeze turn to the gale that fells the trees of the forest and rips our crops from the ground? Where is the line between savior and oppressor?”
“I don’t know, Antoth,” Russell admitted freely. “But my people have been asking questions like that for centuries. You and your people will fit right in. That and it’s not an exaggeration to say that Alice’s literal job is to protect your culture. It’s a fine line where to help and where to step back,” the soldier admitted. “But that doesn’t change the fact that she’ll do everything she can. And it doesn’t change my answer either.”
“And you have met this female? I find her name difficult to pronounce,” Antoth said, pressing off the wall and continuing their walk around the village. Russell fell in quickly at his side.
“I have, though only briefly. It was when Xan and the rest of us went up to the ship,” he explained.
“Mmm, I see. And your impression of her?”
“Let’s just say if she can handle my sister she’s got a fighting chance with Gentia.”
“Ha!” Antoth’s laughter boomed through the drenched and sparsely populated streets. “Your words are wise, human. I should have faith in my own people as well.”
‘Do not be so hard on yourself, Antoth,’ Io encouraged him. ‘I don’t think it’s an understatement to say your reign will be the most important in the entire history of this little village. And while we are not unbiased, the Lieutenant and I are always around to lend an ear.’
“Biased as in we are on your side,” Russell added as the two men recalled the words exchanged on the night he was married to Veera.
“Spirit Io?”
‘Yes, Antoth? How may I help?’
“Tell your Admiral that we will permit this human entry to our village, and that her continued presence will be subject to the discretion of Gentia and her acolytes. As for your sister…”
“Let me stop you there for a second,” Russell offered as Io pinged the communication satellites and passed a written message to Natori that Yvonne should prepare her affairs for an introductory visit to Mara. “I’ve already spoken with Alice about this. She agreed that for now things should be kept between Gentia, her acolytes, Asha, and Yvonne, as well as any other expectant mothers who might wish to participate,” he added.
“I do not sense that she came to this conclusion of her own accord,” Antoth proposed keenly.
“No, she didn’t. But she saw reason. She’s excited, Antoth, but she is not a healer by training. As such she’s agreed to remain on the sidelines and receive information indirectly from Yvonne. What I do know is that this woman is a doctor. It’s her trade and that means she’s held to a set of various moral codes including the secrecy of patient information. Alice will not learn anything that Asha or Gentia don’t want her to.”
‘This duty of patient care is referred to as the Hippocratic Oath,’ Io clarified. ‘On the subject of, well, subjects...where is Ratha, Antoth?’
“She is hunting,” the sun priest replied shortly, sudden agitation in his voice. “She says the rain makes stalking easier. Perhaps she simply enjoys the sound of rain in the trees.”
“She’s not going after hyrven still, is she?” Russell wondered nervously. Antoth shook his head.
“No, just chesko. But that does not mean the hyrven have stopped hunting her. I am hesitant to keep her here, from what she loves. But I worry for my mate and my cub endlessly,” he admitted freely. Io and Russell shared a glance via his visor. Such matters were certainly outside of their wheelhouse. Eventually Russell hit upon an idea, smiling as he grabbed Antoth by the shoulder.
“What was the last time you sparred, Antoth?”
“Too long ago. Serving Seil is more burdensome than I imagined,” Antoth replied sadly. “Besides, it is Staroth’s purpose to train our guards now, Veera included. I would only be infringing on his responsibilities.”
“Well I don’t ever recall signing up to be a guard,” Winters observed casually, turning around and heading back towards the roads that would lead to the barracks. He continued to playfully goad Antoth. “And I think your troops could use a lesson or two in human combat styles, a show match maybe? I’m sure they’re slacking and sitting inside on their asses during this rain.”
Behind them Antoth calmly shook his head, chuckling and baring his teeth. “You are a good friend, Winters. Do not blame me when your ass is in the mud.”
“Now that is what I like to hear! You’ll be the one drinking dirt by the way,” the Jumper cried happily. “Io, status?”
‘The Admiral acknowledged our message, sir. Yvonne Dupuis will be arriving with the next shuttle.’
-----
“Ma chatounette, are you sure that this is wise?” Gerard worried, stroking his moustache more forcefully than usual as Yvonne packed an overnight bag as well as a larger duffel full of what portable medical equipment she had been able to put together over the course of an hour. It included an ultrasound machine the size of a vintage typewriter as well as standard PPE and the tools of a general practitioner. “No matter our intentions they will not understand what you are doing, and there is no greater threat than to their young. They have claws and talons, Yvonne!”
“And I will have a pistol as well as a Marine, mon loup. Shouldn’t you be figuring out how to produce a viable method to map xDNA genomes?” Yvonne suggested, zipping up her medical bag and sashaying over to her husband, dressed in clothing much more reasonable for a trip to the surface than a one piece jumpsuit. His nervous face softened as she pressed her body against his. “You have been given the chance of a lifetime, Gerard. We even have a field camp set up next to a thermal hot spot. I am sure your heat-resistant x-polymerase is just waiting for you!”
“And until I have the means of extracting an appropriate polymerase from our new furry allies or the microbes of the planet I will continue to worry for you, Yvonne. You know as well as I do that x-nucleotides fluoresce. A simple recalibration of our sequencing hardware should suffice, which leaves me even more time to worry. Though I suppose new anchor sequences will be needed as well. Perhaps there is a way to shorten the length given the increased information density of xDNA itself…”
“And this is why I love you,” Yvonne laughed delightfully, leaving a feathery kiss just below his facial hair. “But you know how difficult this journey has been for me, Gerard.”
“And that is precisely why I intend to burden you with the guilt born of my worry before stepping aside and allowing you to depart for the shuttle bay,” he assured her with a sly smile. “Do you know who your first patient will be?”
“Her name is Asha. All Natori would say is that she is a friend of Alice’s brother. And you know better than to ask!” She insisted, swatting him lightly on the chest and collecting her bags. Gerard moved swiftly to cut her off.
“Ah ah ah, ma chatounette. I will be taking those,” he insisted, taking up her things and making to escort her to the shuttle bay. “Should I expect you for dinner?”
“In all likelihood, oh husband of mine,” she cooed, taking satisfaction in the sight of him lifting heavy things for her. “While I will not miss those jumpsuits, I do not expect I will simply be welcomed with open arms. I may not even conduct an examination today. I am to meet with the village’s midwife, or perhaps chief midwife. I am unsure. That tale, at least, you will hear upon my return.”
“I look forward to it with rapturous anticipation,” Gerard declared as they reached the tube station nearest to their berth. He set her effects down gently and embraced her once more. “I love you, Yvonne. Go make history, my dear. It is what we came here for.”
“I will go and care for my new patients,” the French matron corrected him, a glint of excitement in her eyes. “The papers will take care of themselves.”
“I suppose this is why our children ended up so well adjusted,” Gerard laughed. Yvonne ran a finger over the wrinkles that marked the creases of his face. There were far more in the places he laughed than frowned.
“And you are the reason they are humble.”
“Tell Alice I wish her well when you see her,” he requested.
“Of course Gerard. Do not get too lonely now.”
“Perish the thought my dear. I have one blood sample left from the young Cauthan lad. Perhaps I will take a gander at his red blood cells, assuming he has any!” With a final peck on the lips, Gerard assisted his wife into the waiting transportation pod, handing her the bags next. When she was ready the door closed shut and the two waved goodbye as Cassia’s voice announced the departure of the pod. The interaction had Gerard scratching his head as he turned and headed for the mess hall, a light lunch on his mind before returning to the laboratories. “I really must get to the bottom of that rumor. She does sound a bit more…Germanic of late.”
-----
“Yvonne Dupuis, I assume?” Pilot Cromwell asked politely as a buxom, black-haired woman floated gracefully from the entrance of the hangar to just beside her shuttle.
“I am indeed. This is the shuttle to the village?” Yvonne requested, the distinction made necessary thanks to the handful of sorties that now headed to the nascent research facility at Kel’s Forge.
“The one and only Mara Express,” Cromwell affirmed proudly. “I think the locals have started to recognize me now, so I’m the one to keep going down there. That's all you’re bringing?”
“I anticipate returning this evening,” Yvonne clarified. Cromwell nodded, gesturing to the open hatch.
“Understood. Hop on in and feel free to set your things with the rest of the supplies. Alice always seems to need something or other.”
“Brilliant and eccentric,” Yvonne confirmed, stepping into the shuttle and securing her baggage before strapping herself into her seat. Cromwell walked past her and took her position in the cockpit, closing the exterior doors and spinning up the engines.
“This is Pilot Cromwell to the bridge. Passenger secured. Requesting clearance for take off.”
“Granted,” came the voice of a watch-stander. “Loading your entry telemetry now.”
“Thanks. Cromwell out,” the pilot replied, cutting the feed and pushing brick off the floor of the hangar. As she eased the shuttle out past the force field, she struck up conversation with her solitary passenger. “So what’s your story, madam?”
“I was brought aboard to offer care to children and infants. With none left following the change in mission, I find myself in the position of possibly tending to the Cauthan. A great deal remains to be seen.”
Cromwell whistled long and loud as the main thrusters engaged and began pushing them towards the surface. “You’re going to have your hands full. Those feathered teddy bears are full of energy, and their parents watch you like a hawk the moment they get close to you. But MacGregor has one hanging off him almost every time I see him now, couldn’t be that bad. Best of luck to you.”
“Thank you very much, Pilot. What else can you tell me about this village?” Yvonne inquired, her tablet open and active in her lap.
“You’re asking the wrong person. I’ve never been on the inside. I’m sure Alice and Lachlan will be there when we touch down; they can fill you in. I’m just the chauffeur,” Cromwell said, making light of her own role in the exploration of Mara.
“We all play our part,” Yvonne agreed.
“Who knows, maybe I’ll chat up one of those guards before the window closes later today?” Cromwell suggested. “Hang on to your things, it looks like clouds and rain below. Turbulence might last a bit longer than normal.”
Yvonne did as instructed, clasping her tablet tightly and shutting her eyes. She breathed deeply as the jostling of re-entry gave way to the turbulence of the clouds that were blanketing the forests and plains below with a summer rainstorm. “Is it always like this?”
“Nope, first day of rain I’ve flown through down here. You sure picked it.”
“I did not pick it,” Yvonne insisted. “But it will be good to get the bad luck out of the way before touching down.”
If Cromwell had any thoughts on luck when it came to the Cauthan, she kept them to herself. After only a couple more minutes they had a visual on the village, and soon after Yvonne was embraced by a rather soggy Alice Winters, who had come to greet her under the protection of the open shuttle door. Behind her stood Lachlan MacGregor the Marine escort, and a female Cauthan unknown. It was clear enough that the young Cauthan in the Marine’s hands belonged to her. The ‘feathered teddy bear’ in question was sheltering under a leather cloak far too large for him, but he paid it no mind as he gazed at the shuttle, his curiosity not dampened by the weather.
“Uttle!” Ursol clamored as Cromwell emerged from the cockpit and waved playfully at him. He pawed back at the vehicle, excited by the sounds and moving parts.
“That’s ‘shuttle’, young fluffy lad. Just because yer mum is off work doesn’t mean you get to slack around on yer words. Aren’t ye gonna be five soon?”
Alice watched Yvonne with a smile a mile wide. “Aren’t they precious?” The matronly Frenchwoman did her best to remain reserved and composed as a handful of Cauthan assembled at the gates, looking on with curiosity and skepticism.
“He is the most delightful bundle of fluff I have ever seen.”
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Trump’s war on the intelligence community: 10 days under an authoritarian administration

Introduction

Over the past 10 days, we've seen Trump fully indulge his authoritarian impulses in an attempt to stamp out any inkling of facts that he dislikes - whether that be for personal, egocentric reasons or to shore up political strength. One could argue the true "start" of this no-holds-barred dictatorial spree actually stretches back to the Republican acquittal in the impeachment trial. I'd agree with that, too. But 10 days ago Congress was given its first formal warning of the dangers facing our democracy in the next nine months. That Trump launched a war on the intelligence community in response to Americans trying to protect their country from foreign influence speaks volumes to me.
Trump and the Republican party are actively abetting an attack on our nation. "To abet" is to encourage or assist (someone) to do something wrong, in particular, to commit a crime or other offense. Using the immense power given to him by willing Republicans in Congress, Trump is using his authority to hobble the ability of anyone - even America's national security leaders - to stop him and his regime from carrying out Trump's desires, however corrupt, self-serving, or insane.

10 days ago...

The briefing

Ten days ago, on Feb. 13, the intelligence community warned House Intelligence Committee members that Russia is interfering in the 2020 election to try to get Donald Trump re-elected. The briefing, provided by top election security official Shelby Pierson, informed House lawmakers that Russia had “developed a preference” for Trump and would also interfere in Democratic primaries.
Trump - who learned of the briefing from the committee’s Ranking Member Devin Nunes - grew angry at acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Joseph Maguire for providing the information to Congress. The following day, Trump “berated” Maguire for allowing it to take place. According to The New York Times, “Trump was particularly irritated that Representative Adam B. Schiff” was present because the president worried that Schiff would “weaponize” the intelligence about Russia’s support for him.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff responded to Trump’s anger at the briefing: "We count on the intelligence community to inform Congress of any threat of foreign interference in our elections. If reports are true and the President is interfering with that, he is again jeopardizing our efforts to stop foreign meddling. Exactly as we warned he would do."
Side note: A Pardon for Assange
Trump is so desperate to keep Russia’s interference on his behalf a secret, that he may have supported then-Rep. Dana Rohrabacher’s offer of a pardon to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in exchange for denying Russian involvement in the Democratic National Committee email leak.
Lawyer Edward Fitzgerald told a court on Wednesday that a witness statement application claimed that then-California representative Dana Rohrabacher went to visit Assange at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London on the instruction of the "President." According to the statement described by Fitzgerald, Rohrabacher's mission was to offer Assange a US pardon, if he would "play ball" by saying the Russians had nothing to do with the leak -- an assertion Assange had previously made.
The White House has denied the claim and distanced itself from Rohrabacher.
The former congressman admits to making the offer to Assange - but does not state that President Trump directed him to do so.
“I spoke to Julian Assange and told him if he would provide evidence about who gave WikiLeaks the emails, I would petition the president to give him a pardon,” Rohrabacher told Yahoo News. “He knew I could get to the president.”

The purge

In retaliation for the briefing, Trump ditched considerations to nominate Maguire to be permanent DNI and quickly replaced him with loyalist Richard Grenell.
  • Ominous warning: William H. McRaven, a retired Navy admiral who oversaw the 2011 Navy SEAL raid in Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden, wrote in The Washington Post that “if good men like Joe Maguire can’t speak the truth, we should be deeply afraid.” McRaven continues: “in this administration, good men and women don’t last long. Joe was dismissed for doing his job: overseeing the dissemination of intelligence to elected officials who needed that information to do their jobs...when presidential ego and self-preservation are more important than national security — then there is nothing left to stop the triumph of evil.”
In the days that followed, two other top Intelligence officials announced their departures: (1) Grenell fired the second-highest-ranking official at the ODNI, Andrew Hallman, who had over three decades of intelligence experience; (2) the top lawyer for the ODNI, Jason Klitenic, submitted his resignation, to go into effect in early March. It is unlikely that Klitenic was pushed out, because he played a role in helping prevent the Ukraine whistleblower’s complaint from reaching Congress last year.
Within his first 48 hours, Grenell proceeded to name Kash Patel, former adviser to Rep. Devin Nunes, as a senior adviser in the office of the DNI. As Nunes’ top staffer, Patel authored a memo used to argue that the FBI and DOJ’s probe of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election was actually a deep state plot to take down Trump. Patel also assisted Trump in his pressure campaign against Ukraine: Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and Fiona Hill testified to Congress that Patel “misrepresented” as the NSC expert on Ukraine, which was actually Vindman’s position.
Vindman also testified that he was told Patel had been circumventing normal NSC process to get negative material about Ukraine in front of the president, feeding Trump’s belief that Ukraine was brimming with corruption and had interfered in the 2016 election on behalf of Democrats.
That upset Vindman, along with Hill and Bolton, he testified, because they were constantly having to counter that narrative with the president.
Furthermore, there is evidence that Patel may have coordinated the hold on aid to Ukraine to begin with:
...the 300-page impeachment report released by House Intelligence Committee Democrats Tuesday said that Patel spoke with Rudy Giuliani, the president's personal attorney, in the spring, before nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine was suspended.
According to the call records revealed in the report, Patel had a 25-minute phone conversation with Giuliani on May 10. Five minutes after their call, Giuliani spoke with an unidentified number for 17 minutes and then with associate Lev Parnas, a Ukrainian-American who has been accused of illegally funneling foreign money to U.S. political candidates and of aiding Giuliani in his Ukraine investigations.

Acting officials

Richard Grenell, Trump’s newest acting-DNI, has served as U.S. ambassador to Germany since 2018. By taking advantage of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, Trump has been able to maintain a cabinet full of acting officials with little Congressional oversight. If a vacancy occurs in a position that requires Senate confirmation, Trump can appoint someone from any agency who is serving in a different Senate-confirmed position, Grenell, as an ambassador, has already been confirmed by the Senate - though for an entirely different job with entirely different qualifications.
Acting officials can serve in the vacant position for 210 days. If the president submits a nomination to the Senate during that time, the acting officer can continue to perform the office’s duties while the nomination is pending, however long it takes. If the nominee is returned, the officer can work as acting for another 210 days, and then through a second entire nomination process, and a final 210 days if that second nominee is returned. Then, if time runs out, the office must remain vacant until someone is confirmed by the Senate for the job.
  • Note: Enforcement of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act is problematic. It is up to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to track time of acting service for each position. If the GAO finds a violation, the office must send a letter to the agency involved, to the president, and to Congress. At this point, the person’s actions have no force or effect - but someone with legal standing needs to bring a lawsuit in order to enforce the provision.
Therefore, because Maguire was serving as an acting official as well, Grenell cannot remain in the acting DNI position past March 11 unless the president formally nominates someone else for the job. The White House and Grenell have acknowledged that a search for a formal nominee is underway. The administration was reportedly considering Rep. Doug Collins for the post… until Collins turned down the job on national television.
  • Jan. 2019, Trump said: "I sort of like acting. It gives me more flexibility. Do you understand that? I like acting. So we have a few that are acting. We have a great, great Cabinet." A recent analysis found that acting officials in the Trump administration have held down 22 cabinet and cabinet-level jobs for a combined 2,700 days -- about 1 out of every 9 days across those jobs.
  • Hypothetical: Let’s say Trump wants to keep Grenell in the position for as long as possible, without nominating him because it is unlikely Grenell would be confirmed, even by the Republican-controlled Senate (see below). As long as Trump nominates someone for the position by March 11, Grenell can serve for however long as the Senate confirmation process takes - typically, around 2 months if the nominee is uncontroversial. That puts Grenell’s end date in mid-May. But Trump could intentionally nominate someone controversial to slow the process, or possibly even instruct his Senate allies to slow-walk the process. That would push out Grenell’s end date into the summer. If the nominee is not confirmed, the 210 day clock resets, giving Grenell an additional six months to serve in his acting capacity. As the end of that six months nears, Trump could put forward a second nominee, during whose confirmation process Grenell can continue to serve in the position. If that nominee fails as well, Grenell has a final six months to be acting-DNI before the position must remain vacant.

Sunday update: A Lawfare analysis

The term of art for this process is “manipulation-by-appointment.” Rather than trying to force intelligence analysts to change their views in ways that are politically convenient, this kind of politicization works by making sure their bosses are politically pliable. Manipulation-by-appointment reduces the risk of a public scandal because politicians are less likely to come into conflict with intelligence chiefs. There is no need to strong-arm intelligence agencies to fall in line with policy if the chiefs are already on board. source

Who is Richard Grenell?

Grenell has no experience as an intelligence officer and has only served in government as a communications director for the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. during the George W. Bush administration. After that, Grenell ran a public affairs consultancy and appeared on Fox News. In May 2018 he was confirmed as the ambassador to Germany, where he quickly made enemies:
Grenell’s tenure as ambassador to Germany has been rocky, at least from Berlin’s perspective. He has palled around with far-right groups, spoken openly of a desire to change Angela Merkel’s government, and made statements about U.S. views that sounded like direct orders to sensitive German ears. Last spring, leaders of two German political parties called him a “brat” and a “failure” and urged his ouster.
Additionally, Grenell is an associate of none-other-than Rudy Giuliani. According to Lev Parnas, Victoria Toensing asked Grenell “for advance notice if the Department of Justice were to move to extradite an indicted Ukrainian oligarch, Dmytro Firtash, from whom Giuliani hoped to get compromising information. Parnas also claims Grenell said he would comply.” Firtash is a powerful ally of Vladimir Putin and has assisted the Russian president’s attempt to gain control over Ukraine’s political system and economy. In 2017, the U.S. Justice Department said Firtash was among the “upper echelon associates of Russian organized crime.”
Aside from being remarkably unqualified, it is unclear whether Grenell even has a top-level security clearance or could qualify for one. A report by ProPublica revealed that Grenell used to do consulting work for Moldovan politician Vladimir Plahotniuc, “who is now a fugitive and was recently barred from entering the U.S. under anti-corruption sanctions imposed last month by the State Department.” Grenell failed to disclose this work and did not register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Undisclosed work for a foreign politician would ordinarily pose a problem for anyone applying for a security clearance or a job in a U.S. intelligence agency because it could make the person susceptible to foreign influence or blackmail, according to the official policy from the office that Trump tapped Grenell to lead.
“That’s really easy, he should not have a clearance,” said Kel McClanahan, a Washington-area lawyer specializing in security clearances. “If he were one of my clients and just a normal [federal employee], he would almost assuredly not have a clearance.”
McClanahan said it’s unclear how Grenell could have already gotten a clearance as an ambassador. The House Oversight Committee is investigating whether the Trump administration has overruled career officials in granting security clearances to political appointees.
Aside from his appearances on Fox News, Grenell may have come to Trump’s attention through the patronage of Trump properties. The Washington Post found that the Trump International Hotel in D.C. listed Grenell as a “Gold” level member of the Trump Organization’s “Trump Card” loyalty program in 2018. Kelly Craft, the ambassador to the U.N., was also listed as a gold level member.

Russia’s bet keeps paying off

Moving back to the source of Trump’s fury: The nation knows that Russia prefers Trump to win re-election. When told this, Trump’s Republican allies on the House Intelligence Committee challenged the ODNI’s conclusion. But, as Russia expert Julia Davis points out, Russian state media has never stopped declaring the multitude of ways that Trump’s election has proven “exceedingly beneficial for the Kremlin.”
Russian state media openly gloats about the Kremlin’s influence over Trump, believing that he can endure the exposure without repercussions, and by flaunting the Kremlin’s sway with the White House, Russia further weakens U.S. democracy, which has always been one of its main pursuits.
...Every denial of Russian election interference coming out of the White House brings Putin one step closer to the fulfillment of his goals. Every election-security bill that is blocked by the GOP in the Senate gives advantage to our foreign adversaries—and they are not sick of winning.
We don’t need to rely on Russian state media to tell us that Putin prefers Trump: The Russian president has told us so himself. In 2018, at a joint press conference with Trump in Helsinki, Putin told the press that he wanted Trump to win in 2016 because he believed Trump’s policies would be more beneficial to the Kremlin. "Yes, I did. Yes, I did. Because he talked about bringing the U.S.-Russia relationship back to normal,” Putin said.
Washington Post columnist Max Boot lays out the global benefits Russia enjoys:
Putin doesn’t care about Trump’s sanctions on Iran, which indirectly help Russia by boosting the price of oil. But he does care that Trump has strengthened Russia’s longtime ally in Syria, Bashar al-Assad.
...Trump has facilitated Russian designs not only in Syria but also in Libya, where the Russian-backed strongman Khalifa Hifter is trying to overthrow a United Nations-backed government in Tripoli. The U.S. government ostensibly supports the regime in Tripoli, but Trump called Hifter and gave him a green light for his offensive. Trump is making Russia great again in the Middle East for the first time since Egypt expelled Russian advisers in 1972.
...Far from strengthening NATO, as he now boasts, Trump has weakened it by relentlessly criticizing the alliance and portraying it as a bunch of deadbeats.

Addendum

The purge, act 2

While Trump purges officials he sees as disloyal from the intelligence community, newly-returned staffer John McEntee is busy searching out “Never Trumpers” to punish. According to Axios, “McEntee called in White House liaisons from cabinet agencies for an introductory meeting Thursday, in which he asked them to identify political appointees across the U.S. government who are believed to be anti-Trump.” Those officials “will no longer get promotions by shifting them around agencies.”
  • Reminder: McEntee was Trump’s personal aide throughout much of 2017 and into 2018, but was pushed out by then-Chief of Staff John Kelly over gambling debts that threatened his security clearance. Trump reportedly sees McEntee as “the ultimate loyalist” and brought him back at a time when the president “feels he’s surrounded by snakes and wants to clear out all the disloyal people.”
SUNDAY update: The Trump White House and its allies, over the past 18 months, assembled detailed lists of disloyal government officials to oust — and trusted pro-Trump people to replace them — according to more than a dozen sources familiar with the effort. Included in this network of conservative activists assembling purge lists is Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
Meanwhile, Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Peter Navarro is on a quest to identify and remove the author known as “Anonymous,” responsible for many anti-Trump op-eds and the book “A Warning.” Last week, it appears that Navarro has zeroed in on a potential suspect: Deputy National Security Adviser Victoria Coates, who is being transferred to the Department of Energy. Though the official White House line doesn’t acknowledge it, The New York Times reported that Coates has been “targeted by a whisper campaign among some pro-Trump conservatives that she was Anonymous.” Allies of Coates deny the allegation.
Several officials who heard Navarro push this said they do not believe Coates is the author and several described her as loyal to the President's agenda. However, the workplace became untenable given these dynamics, so Coates began looking for an exit, officials said, which led to her move to the Energy Department on Thursday. CNN

A weakened National Security apparatus

After last year’s exodus of National Security officials, the entire system is weakened by a lack of expertise and will to stand up for the truth. The NSC has gone from 174 policy positions in October, to fewer than 115 this month. Under Trump’s National Security Adviser, Robert O’Brien, the NSC has been co-opted to building support for Trump’s craziest whims. The New York Times reports:
When President Trump’s national security adviser, Robert C. O’Brien, convenes meetings with top National Security Council officials at the White House, he sometimes opens by distributing printouts of Mr. Trump’s latest tweets on the subject at hand.
The gesture amounts to an implicit challenge for those present. Their job is to find ways of justifying, enacting or explaining Mr. Trump’s policy, not to advise the president on what it should be.
That is the reverse of what the National Security Council was created to do at the Cold War’s dawn — to inform and advise the president on national security decisions.
Most recently, O’Brien proved his willingness to do Trump’s dirty work and weaponize intelligence for political gain. In an interview with Face the Nation, O’Brien states that he hasn’t seen any evidence of Russia seeking to help Trump. But, O’Brien says, it is plausible that Russia is seeking to help the Democrats instead.
O’Brien seized gleefully on reports about Russia and Sanders but rejected reports about Russia and Trump. Russian backing for Sanders, he said, would be “no surprise. He honeymooned in Moscow.”

New: Sunday night updates

On Sunday, Trump made a veiled threat toward House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff while claiming without evidence that the Democrat had leaked information from the Russia briefing on Feb. 13: “Somebody please tell incompetent (thanks for my high poll numbers) & corrupt politician Adam ‘Shifty’ Schiff to stop leaking Classified information or, even worse, made up information, to the Fake News Media. Someday he will be caught, & that will be a very unpleasant experience!” tweet
Later, while speaking to reporters, Trump called for an investigation into the leak - more concerned about the public learning of the briefing than he is about Russia’s repeated interference in U.S. elections. “They leaked it, Adam Schiff and his group. They leaked it to the papers and - as usual - they ought to investigate Adam Schiff for leaking that information,” Trump said.
Schiff responded: “Nice deflection, Mr. President. But your false claims fool no one. You welcomed Russian help in 2016, tried to coerce Ukraine’s help in 2019, and won’t protect our elections in 2020.”
 
Originally written for tomorrow's Lost in the Sauce. As such, I tried to keep it as brief as possible... didn't turn out very brief, however, which is why I posted it separately. The scary part is that it could be much longer! It's not exhaustive. For instance, I'll be covering Trump's pardons in the Sauce newsletter tomorrow even though it would fit in this post, too. As The New Yorker summed up: "The point of authoritarianism is to concentrate power in the ruler, so the world knows that all actions, good and bad, harsh and generous, come from a single source."
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The HEL Jumper [Chapter 3.6]

Book 1 of The HEL Jumper
Book 2 of The HEL Jumper
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“Thank you for joining us this evening. I appreciate it,” Antoth spoke to Alice as the two of them sat around Ratha’s small table with bowls of stew.
“Oh don’t act like it’s such a sacrifice. Her brother’s the one I want to knife,” Ratha snarked, sitting between them.
“And yet your knives and arrows never find him unless he’s armored,” Antoth murmured pointedly as Alice coughed. “Please forgive my mate for her empty threats, Alice. Being with cub has changed her.”
“You’re damn right it has! Sometimes you seem to forget that it’s your seed that grows in my belly,” Ratha leered.
“Enough!” Antoth raised his voice to head off what was, in Alice’s opinion, a partially justified tirade on Ratha’s part. “We are here so that she can explain to us what will happen tonight when the shuttle arrives. Alice, please.”
“Thank you for your hospitality, Ratha,” Alice began politely. The Huntress’ stern facial expression did not shift an iota, but she did flare her feathers curtly. “Antoth, I believe that my people can aid yours through an understanding of the Cauthan body and the development of a standardized practice of healing and medicine for your people. I hope to introduce two of my colleagues to you soon. With your permission I believe they can assist greatly in this matter. And I can assure you that Io and Russell will be present at all times while aboard the Event Horizon to oversee our interactions with your people.”
“And why do you need Veera and Xan?” Antoth pressed, a patient frown on his face. Alice nodded as she swallowed a spoonful of stew.
“I cannot learn about what I cannot observe.”
“You can gut the mutt for all I care, but if you touch a feather on Xan’s head I’ll skin you alive,” Ratha hissed.
“Ratha!” Antoth roared, pounding his fist into the table. “You were not there aboard that ship. You did not see what I saw. You do not understand the power that spirit Io possesses and the respect afforded to Winters. You did not see how terrifyingly incredible humanity is; and if you value our own lives or the life of our cub you will cease your needless provocations! Alice,” Antoth transitioned back to the human who looked truly uncomfortable. Ratha remained silent. “You will not be harmed so long as I am High Priest. You trusted us in leaving Private MacGregor at his post to meet with us tonight, and I will afford you whatever trust I think is prudent in turn. So please help me understand better why I should allow two of my own to be swallowed up by that metallic beast.”
Alice nodded quietly, deciding that the ‘smallpox method’ would likely be far less effective on Antoth. She opted for a broader picture instead. “You saved my brother’s life, Antoth. My people dragged ourselves from subsistence to the stars over hundreds and thousands of years. To the extent possible I wish to confer those gifts to your people within a single lifetime, starting with better care of your bodies.”
“What’s in it for you?” Ratha demanded, narrowing her eyes in search of deception. “And hold your tongue, oh mate of mine. I deserve this answer.”
“Of course, Ratha. Pure benevolence is quite rare among humans too. You seemed to have snared the exception to the rule in Antoth,” Alice ventured, her chest tightening as she prepared for the very real possibility of having her abdominal cavity torn open by a hormonal Cauthan mother. To her immense relief, a smirk developed on Ratha’s muzzle.
“Snared is the right word, human. Now answer me,” she insisted. Alice composed herself, sat straight, and replied.
“I seek to gain reputation and notoriety among my people, to be recognized as one of humanity’s leading scholars. I want to repay a debt on behalf of my family to your village. Finally my brother, spirit Io, and I all have an interest in seeing your people raised up as humanity’s partner so we can prove that symbiotic uplift is possible; and to rub it in the face of every Ghaelen we see,” Alice finished aggressively. Ratha cocked her head at the mention of Ghaelen, but Antoth chuckled deeply.
“Satisfied, Ratha? She, her family, and her species all have something to gain.”
“Just make sure the trade is equal,” Ratha insisted as her cooking fire popped and sparked in the enclosed space.
“You are welcome to come aboard whenever you like,” Alice extended the invitation. “And I would be happy to report my progress to you directly.”
“I will…do so if necessary,” Antoth replied, a hint of uneasiness creeping into his voice as his stomach recalled the shuttle ride to the Event Horizon. “Thantis should receive your direct reports. Now my understanding is that you do not have an indefinite time before you must depart. Let us finish our meal in the spirit of cooperation. Would your friend like to join us?” Antoth offered. Alice shook her head, tucking her hair over her shoulder as she leaned in for another bite of some of the freshest stew she’d ever tasted.
“He insisted he’d be fine tonight.”
Ratha purred threateningly at his mention. “And I’ll make sure of that.”
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“Are you certain, Lachlan?” Sentaura asked, busying herself around the cooking fire as Ursol did his level best to touch everything of Lachlan’s he could. Fortunately for the adults in the room, any ammunition or explosives not on the Marine’s person were locked away tightly. He checked the eyepiece on his helmet, tracking Pilot Cromwell’s descent.
“If yer cookin’ is half as good as Veera’s I’ll sorely miss it, Sentaura,” he offered. “But my shuttle’s already on its way. We’ve got food aboard the ship and I wouldn’t want to impose on ya. Ye can probably tell I pack it away somethin’ fierce.”
“It is still my duty to host you, human,” she insisted, her eyes sharp and focused. “You will not eat with us nor sleep under our roof tonight? If there is something not to your liking then-”
“I beg yer pardon, fluffy lass. It’s nothin’ like that,” MacGregor said earnestly, his eyes widening as he realized he’s let slip such a colloquialism.
“Excuse me? What is a ‘lass’?” Sentaura requested.
“Ah, it's a common word in my native tongue for a young woman, such as yerself,” Lachlan hesitantly explained. “I meant no disrespect and I certainly meant none in leaving tonight. But Alice and her brother are stayin’ aboard tonight, so that’s where I should be too. I’ll leave that here for ya both,” he pointed to his bedroll. “Is there…something I can get for ya when I’m up there? We can make most anythin’.”
The Marine felt something akin to ice water drip down his ribs and pool around his diaphragm. Sentaura’s feathers were shaking and her eyes had hardened. “I do not need your charity,” she hissed quietly, her ears turning slightly as a far-off rumbling could be heard in the sky above. “I believe that is your people, Lachlan. You should go.”
Unwilling to protest or attempt to explain anything when there was a decent possibility of digging a deeper hole for himself, Lachlan nodded silently instead. The Marine gathered up his effects and weapons, patting the ever excitable Ursol on the head and letting the little one know that the new bed would be his for the night if he so wished. When the young Cauthan finally realized that Lachlan was leaving, he tottered after him and threw himself about the human’s leg.
“You can’t go!” He insisted with urgency. “You no come back!”
Sentaura looked miserably ready to scold her boy but Lachlan knelt on the floor, rubbing the cub’s head. “I’m not goin’ into that spooky forest, young laddie. I’m going back up to the sky, where my people are. It’s safe there, and I’ll be back to pick ya up from school on the morrow. But I want you ta have this when I’m gone,” the Marine insisted, reaching for his throat and grabbing the narrow, metal chain that rested there. He removed his helmet and then his tags, handing the latter to Ursol.
“What’s this?” Ursol asked curiously.
“That’s a very important thing, you’ve got there. So long as ye keep that safe, I have ta come back to ya. It’s against the rules for me ta leave without ‘em. Alright?” Lachlan tried to explain, not having the faintest idea whether or not Ursol would understand. The cub looked up at him before wearing the tags for himself. They came down to his waist.
“I keep forever!”
“Well, I’ll be needing them at some point-”
“Forever!” Ursol insisted. Lachlan took a moment to collect himself before smiling down at the cub. He nodded once to him and then to his mother.
“As you say, wee laddie. I’ll be back tomorrow. Selah, Sentaura.”
“Selah,” she whispered only when she could no longer hear the sound of his boots.
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“Mac, you alright?” Alice demanded as he approached the western gate. Xan, Veera, and Winters were already there, the latter armed and armored for the trip. She was thankful he'd procured a leash and harness for Fenrir, who also seemed to be coming along.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just thinkin’ I might need a bit of a crash course in xenoanthropology. Managed ta upset both the boy and his mum in the span of a minute.”
“What did you do?!” Alice hissed quietly as the sound of the shuttle touching down afforded them a moment of privacy.
“Nothin’!” He insisted. “Well at least it didn’t seem like anythin’! I just said I had ta go back up to the ship with the lot of ye and then she’s all terse about how I’m rejectin’ her hospitality. Then of course the little guy thought I wouldn’t be comin’ back.”
“Nothing else?” Alice wondered, her tone making it clear there had to be something.
“I asked if Sentaura needed anything from the Event Horizon?”
“Well there’s your problem!” Alice chuckled, throwing an arm around his broad shoulders and walking him over to Brick. Cromwell was in the process of opening the main doors for them. “You insulted her pride. Don’t need to be a xenophile like me to understand that, just good with women!”
“Do I look like a man who’s good with the lasses, much less fluffy lasses who also happen ta be mums?” Lachlan demanded, nodding to Russell as he hauled himself aboard the shuttle. Alice seated herself next to him as Cromwell began conversing with the Jumper, Veera, and Xan. Fenrir was a point of some contention.
“I don’t see why you shouldn’t be, Lachlan.”
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“Good to see you again Lieutenant. You as well, Veera. Are you coming aboard too, young man? What about the wolf cat thing?” Cromwell asked, guessing at Xan’s sex given her introductory conversations with both Antoth and Veera. “Pilot Elizabeth Cromwell at your service.”
“My name’s Xan…just Xan,” the Cauthan replied. “That's a hyrven. What’s a pilot?”
“I get to fly that thing,” Cromwell boasted, throwing a thumb over her shoulder. “I don’t mean to intrude, but the Admiral wants a report on who or what is coming up with each trip. Do you have anything interesting in the basket there, Veera? Doubt it would be more interesting than a wild animal in any case.”
“He's quite well behaved, thank you. Otherwise it’s just food for myself, Fenrir, and Xan, some dried meat and vegetables,” she explained.
“I’ll let him know. Need any help there, Xan?” Cromwell asked.
“I’m fine,” he said tersely. “So how do you get that much metal to fly?”
“Do you want the short answer or the long answer?”
“How should I know?” Xan retorted, placing his cane on the floor of the shuttle and lifting his injured leg. Anyone watching him would be able to conclude the effort was painful, but he managed unassisted. “Damn that feels real great. How about the short answer?” He decided, taking a seat next to Alice who looked more than eager to show him around the system of straps and buckles. Upon seeing Xan enter the shuttle, Fenrir did the same. He protested noisily at first thanks to the feeling of metal against his paws, but Xan soon had him calm again and the pilot feeling safe enough to re-enter her own shuttle.
“Looks like a zoo in here now. Short answer, Xan? You push, real hard,” Cromwell told him, smirking behind her helmet’s visor. He chuckled.
“I guess you’d better push something fierce if we’re going to Kel’s domain.”
“Oh don’t worry Xan, I do,” Cromwell assured him before heading for the cockpit. Alice called after her.
“No flirting with my patients, Pilot!”
“No need to project, Alice!” Cromwell sniped back, her British accent thick with humor.
“I’ve done nothing of the sort!” The xenobiologist insisted adamantly as Xan suddenly found himself caught between two human females. It was a relief when Winters sat next to him and took a firm hold of Fenrir's harness.
“Before you say anything, I’m fine,” Xan told him. Russell removed his helmet and cocked a brow at him.
“There are three women in here who clearly have the whole doting on you thing covered. I want to know if you’re ready to rumble,” the Jumper replied.
“Of course I- woah!” Xan yelped, gripping his own restraints tightly as Cromwell began the process of ‘pushing’ them back to the Event Horizon.
“Haha! Welcome to the twenty-first century, Xan!” Russell exclaimed, earning a roll of his sister’s eyes. As soon as they began their ascent, Cromwell hailed them from the cockpit.
“Alice? The Admiral’s on the line.”
“Sure thing,” she acknowledged as Cromwell patched the call through. Natori’s beaming face could be seen on the screen in the main cabin.
“Hello? Alice? There seems to be quite a bit of fur, armor, and feathers in the way. Perhaps we should redesign the grizzly class’ interior? Who figured putting the communications panel on the same side as all of the seats was a good idea? And is that some sort of twin tailed leopard?”
“Uh…we designed the shuttle?” Alice suggested, leaning forward, turning to her left, and waving at the screen. Natori was stroking his chin thoughtfully.
“Yes, I suppose we did. Excellent design if you plan to shoot at something outside. I digress. How are you, Alice? Based on your messages it sounds like we’re about to embark on quite the journey of discovery! I've set aside one of the basic spectroscopy machines for you.”
“I’m well, Natori. And thank you.”
“Ah, hello to you as well Veera, Lieutenant, Private. And I don’t believe we’ve been introduced yet. You must be Xan,” Kaczynski deduced, glancing quickly at the missive Alice had sent earlier in the day detailing who would be returning on the evening shuttle.
“Try not to be a little punk? That guy’s our equivalent of Antoth,” Russell advised out of the corner of his mouth.
“Yeah, they’re even the same color,” Xan agreed before addressing the Admiral. “I’m Xan, apprentice priest of Kel.”
“And I am Admiral Natori Kaczynski of Beta Division. It’s a pleasure,” he said politely as the shuttle climbed into the upper atmosphere. “Now before we engage in too many pleasantries I would like to inform you all of some changes aboard the Event Horizon in anticipation of your arrival. Lieutenant, if you please?”
Russell saw that his armor had received a message via the shuttle’s communications network, prompting Io to activate the B-MASS’ projector. A model of the Event Horizon spun slowly before them, captivating Xan’s gaze as it zoomed in on the bow portion of the ship.
"In preparation for an ongoing Cauthan presence aboard the vessel, a handful of crew and passengers were relocated away from hull divisions one and two. With the help of whatever computational capacity Io left behind-”
‘Oh do not sound so much like a lost puppy, Admiral. I’m on my way back now,’ the AI assured him with a confident smile.
“And I look forward to spending some time with you,” the Admiral declared unabashedly before redirecting their attention to the Event Horizon. A thin corridor of crew berths, labs, and hallways were glowing brighter than the rest. On one side they connected to hangar A-1 with its specialized sterilization equipment. On the other, to a hangar in section C-2. “As you can see, we have managed to create a partially isolated environment within the Event Horizon. Lieutenant Winters, while you appear to be in fine health and there were no adverse consequences from our brief diplomatic meeting a couple days ago, I have deemed it necessary to more thoroughly examine whether Mara holds any dangers for humanity by way of pathogens, foodborne toxins, etc. The same is equally true in the reverse. I appreciate your bravery, Xan and Veera, and I have taken every possible step to ensure that you are protected while on my ship. As you can all see, should you wish to access the rest of the ship you will simply have to proceed through the facilities adjacent to hangar A-1 for decontamination. Alice, please make this process’ suitability for Cauthan anatomy a priority of your research.”
“I will, sir. Thank you for all of this effort. I’m sorry to have inconvenienced some of the crew,” Alice responded graciously.
“You know well enough that we’re far from capacity. It was no problem,” Kaczynski insisted with a wave. “If anything, the crew was upset they wouldn’t be able to see Cauthan in person! But I believe that with all threat of conflict abated; we must proceed with caution and deliberacy. Is he potty trained?” The Admiral pointed at Fenrir.
“Man, he enjoys his big words,” Xan muttered. "And no, Fenrir pretty much does his business wherever he wants near as I can tell."
“And I would be happy to continue to confuse you if it so pleases,” Natori didn’t miss a beat. "Why did you decide to bring a pet aboard, Alice? I doubt he's for study?"
"Without Xan, myself, or Veera around we aren't sure about his behavior, sir. He is a wild animal, but has been raised within the village since infancy. I'll take full responsibility," Russell cut in. Natori nodded.
"I would be more comfortable with a muzzle, but I cannot deny the thrill. How old is he? Nevermind, I'm getting distracted. Alice, you and Private MacGregor have been given single cabins within the…" Natori paused and briefly licked his upper lip. "Cauthan zone. Quarantine sounds so…diseased. Lieutenant, given your rather unprecedented change in marital status, I have allocated a double cabin for you and Veera."
Russell looked at his wife briefly and back to Kaczynski. "Thank you, sir."
"Thank you very much," Veera followed suit, picking up on the fact that perhaps she and he had been given something special. Natori waved it off.
"But of course! It seemed prudent given the fact that we are effectively stuck here until we determine the exact nature of whatever is affecting the warp point of this system. Xan, if you are to be a regular guest on my ship there are a handful of empty berths you may choose from."
"Oh…thanks," Xan replied, far too focused on the odd weightlessness affecting his body than on anything the human on screen was saying. Cromwell had just killed the main thrusters for their approach and Fenrir was getting agitated.
"Easy now boy, easy," Winters encouraged, taking the oversized 'dog' into his arms with ease thanks to the lack of gravity. The hyrven growled and whined but didn't try to escape.
"I can see it might be best to leave anything further for once you're safely aboard," Natori said. "I shall be by tomorrow morning before the shuttle launch at a minimum. Lieutenant?"
"Yes sir?" Winters replied cautiously, running his gloved hand over Fenrir's fur.
"While I'm sure that Io will insist on being your personal caretaker given the nature of our facilities, I would like you to introduce yourself to the ship's chief physician and psychologist. Nothing serious, just to put faces to names before your official examinations and debrief. As I said previously, we are on a flexible timetable but protocol is protocol."
"Understood," Winters nodded, knowing he didn't have a choice. Natori's brows rose at his complacent attitude, but he said nothing further on the subject.
"Very well. Should there be any concerns don't hesitate to hail the bridge via the ship's VI system. To our guests, welcome."
Alice could have sworn Natori was timing it, as he delivered his parting words precisely as the shuttle slipped past the forcefield separating hangar C-2 from the vacuum of space. Cromwell advised them all to remain seated, and with a gentle bump the craft finally landed.
"Don't push it too hard, Xan," Russell advised.
"Oh come on, not you too," the Cauthan groaned, making every effort to hide the vortex of excitement and dread that swirled in his chest. His danger sense was alight. To his surprise, Russell burst into laughter as Alice and MacGregor unbuckled their restraints and secured what little gear they'd brought with them.
"No I mean literally don't push too hard. Gravity is still pretty low in this part of the ship. You'll hit your head."
"I don't know what you're talking abou- whoa whoa whoa!" Xan yelped, finding that even in a crippled state the typical force he'd use to stand from a chair was enough to propel him out of the seat and towards the roof of the shuttle. Both Winters children were ready for that eventuality, taking him softly by the arm or hand and ensuring he landed safely. "What in Kel's name did you do to me?"
"We did nothing, Xan. When we get to the core of the ship it will feel just like being back on Mara. I'll do my best to explain gravity to you but now's probably not the best time," Alice advised as Russell did his best to keep Fenrir calm and aid Veera in adapting to the low gravity environment.
"Your feathers look great," he told her quietly, taking her hand and using gentle force to convey a sense of the strength necessary to move her body towards the hangar door and the corridors beyond. She smiled nervously, but was happy to take an opportunity to snuggle up to him in public. At the base of the shuttle he took a couple hops with her. "Think you can make it the rest of the way? Cromwell probably isn't coming out until Fenrir's at a safe distance."
"I can't blame her," Veera agreed, knowing how most any Cauthan would regard a maturing hyrven. "I think I'm getting a hang of this now."
"Knew you would," he responded with pride. "Wait for me at those doors over there, the ones with the green light above them. I'll just be a moment."
"I'm glad you're feeling better," Veera whispered, just for him. He kissed her quickly.
"You're not in danger."
"I know it wasn't just that, darling."
"That was a lot of it," the Jumper insisted before motioning back to the shuttle. "But look…that's a lot of change in a day."
As Russell bounded gracefully back to the craft for Fenrir, his armor light and unobtrusive thanks to the hangar's distance from the ship's core, Veera watched as MacGregor and Cromwell disembarked with ease. Fenrir tried to scamper off and propelled himself into an awkward tumble instead, leading her husband on a merry chase through the expansive, metal chamber. Veera's focus lingered on Xan and Alice, however, with the female human taking over escorting the Cauthan apprentice as her brother found himself occupied.
"I thought there would be more humans," Xan spoke, looking around and finding plenty of metal and odd lights, piping and cables, but no other humans. Another shuttle could be seen off to his left, but it was immobile. "Where is the one we were speaking to?"
"Here," Alice offered, bidding him to relax while she fiddled with the device on her wrist. The same projection they'd seen on the way up appeared, and Alice managed to highlight the hangar. "We're in this space here. Admiral Kaczynski governs the ship from here," she pointed to the bridge back in the belly of the ship's other half. Xan's expression tightened.
"You mean…all this metal is…that little thing?" He demanded quietly.
"Yes," Alice affirmed simply, stepping aside as Xan developed a long stare in his eyes and began to wander off towards the forcefield. She caught her brother's gaze and made a silent hand gesture.
I'll handle it, she mouthed, shooing him and Veera away so that they could settle in and hopefully begin the long process of reintegration into modern living. Cromwell had already departed for the long walk to hangar A-1 and Lachlan had followed, explaining briefly to Veera that he intended to make a report to the Admiral and asking her to pass the message along. That left Alice to comfortably stroll along at a safe distance behind Xan as the Cauthan inexorably approached the window into the vacuum of space.
"By Kel's name and all that's sacred," Xan muttered with barely concealed dread, unable to tear his eyes away from the growing maw of darkness. The bright lights of the hangar overwhelmed most of the natural starlight, rendering the scene in quite dire terms from the young Cauthan's perspective. The sounds of bone cane and talons clicking on metal were the only thing he could hear over some unearthly, mechanical humming. His head felt light.
"Hey, I gotcha," Alice assured him quietly as he stumbled. To Xan, all that registered was that a relatively soft body had stabilized him. Kel was calling out, and the unnatural urge to jump was setting every primitive portion of his mind on fear-based overdrive. He was floating in the black. To do so while still alive was nothing short of sacrilege.
"Xan? Hey, you alright?"
"What's…what in Kel's name is…" Xan wasn't sure if Alice's touch would have prompted him to turn around and head back towards the interior of the well-lit ship, but something else now demanded his attention. The smallest hint of white and blue could be seen peeking up from the lip of the hangar bay, and with every step he could see more. He pushed off his cane and moved forward, seeing the ice caps and oceans of Mara's northern hemisphere. Another step revealed the beginnings of greenery, shrouded by dusk. There were browns too, and maybe a bit of red. The little orb was just hanging there, suspended in Kel's domain.
"Xan? Xan!" Alice whispered, watching with increasing concern as his feathers and scales began to shake violently. She could hear his breathing, ragged and forced. His pupils were wide and fearful. "Xan, it's ok!"
The young death priest felt like he was drowning, swimming slowly through the black outside. He didn't want to believe, but what else could he conclude? Thantis would surely arrive at the same answer. He was looking down at his home, his entire world, small enough to frame between his hands. Fear gripped his heart, the kind of fear he'd only ever felt once before, the night he'd faced Kel.
"Xan. Xan, you're hurting-"
A high pitched cry of pain suddenly jerked Xan back to the then and there. His chest was heaving and he felt as though he'd run a lap around the village with his bad leg. To his right he saw Alice's visage wincing and contorted in pain. Looking down, it became clear that he was to blame. "I-I'm so sorry, Alice!"
"I always knew these jumpsuits were crap!" She gasped, reaching down and removing his paw gently from her left forearm. In his panic he had deployed his claws, piercing her clothing and flesh as the nature of his world had been dumped upon him. Crimson blood dripped slowly to the floor of the hangar.
"Alice! You're bleeding!" He yelped, terrified of what might happen to him; and her to a lesser extent.
"I know just, be quiet a moment please," she commanded, activating the comm link between the A-MACS on her wrist and the ship. "Io, are you there? We've had a bit of a contamination incident in the hangar. Also I might need a tourniquet; he got in there pretty deep."
"I didn't mean-"
"I know, but please! I'd rather not bleed out right now, or ever. Io, Xan had a bit of a moment and his claws punctured the skin of my forearm. I'm applying pressure now but I need to know where the nearest medical bay is."
'I suppose the why can come later?' Io sighed dramatically. 'This way, please. Move swiftly but not rapidly enough to elevate your heart rate. The Admiral did ensure that one of the clinics would be available to the quarantine zone. Oh, and apply pressure and elevation.'
"Yeah, I've got it," Alice replied, holding up her left arm up and tilting her head to review the map on her wrist. She made haste to the corridors beyond the hangar. With the low gravity lessening the burden she was soon at the doors as Xan hobbled after her faster than he'd ever pushed his body to move since his injury. "Xan just take your time. You can't do anything anyway!" She called behind her. "Io, make sure he gets somewhere safe?"
'Of course, Alice. I can see the panic on your face, but I would advise you to remain calm. Veera has clawed your brother a handful of times and there have never been adverse reactions after routine sterilization and treatment. Maran life is based on xDNA, as I’m sure you reviewed last evening. Any viruses will be unable to infect you.'
"I know, I know and I can't wait for Gerard to take a crack at it but there could still be macrophages or parasites, or my artery could be nicked!" Fortunately for Alice, the sections of the ship available to her were more or less linear. The only way to go was deeper into the ship. That and Io had apparently found a new toy. "Are you allowed to be using the motorized gurneys?"
'You ask a lot of questions for a woman concerned about bleeding out. And it's not my fault every device on this ship is networked. Now hop on, Alice. I've always wanted to be a valiant steed. Probably best to avoid the tubes. To the elevators, away!' Io declared, garbed fully in medieval armor as Alice sat herself on the four-wheeled, motorized hospital bed and was whisked away into the belly of the ship. Behind her, Xan was left despondent and alone until Io's disembodied voice called out to him from somewhere above.
'Xan, please follow the blinking green lights. I will take you to where Alice is going. Thank you.'
-----
By the time Xan arrived at the clinic, having already passed dozens of innovations, contraptions, and sights that should have made his head spin, Alice was already being bandaged up by a mechanical arm hanging from the ceiling of the room. It was a small area, intended for wellness visits and minor, lab-related injuries that did not merit transit to either the main civilian medical center in section 4, or the military one in section 9. The space was well lit, had almost full gravity, and was an assault on Xan’s senses; from the unnaturally smooth floor, to the blinking lights and panels, to the shelves and drawers stacked full of tools and objects whose purpose he could only begin to guess at.
Alice gave the Cauthan a quick wave, one that was immediately mimicked by the hinged arm. Io's face could be seen on a control terminal adjacent to the multi-tool that formed the ‘operating end’ of the mechanical doctor. It was constantly moving back and forth between Alice and a small, standardized set of shelves full of medical implements packaged in such a way that the arm could make use of them if no human professionals were in the immediate area. Xan remained silent as the two women talked.
"So no major damage?" Alice requested with concern.
'The wound was deep considering the location and your thin frame, but it missed the arteries and major ligaments,' Io reported professionally, having changed yet again and styled her hair up in her customary bun. 'Do your best to avoid heavily lifting or stress for a few weeks. If you do experience any numbness, pain, or tingling please notify your primary care AI immediately…that would be me.’
"But of course!" Alice laughed, flexing her fingers and resting her right hand atop the large bandage Io had wrapped around her left arm. "So you said my brother also got on the wrong end of Cauthan claws?"
'And teeth if I recall correctly. It was quite the…passionate experience for both of them,' Io remarked slyly.
"Not taking that bait...yet," Alice insisted. "But before my bullheaded brother comes charging in here, get him to the military med bay and make sure a full antibody panel is run in addition to whatever else they do. Check for everything, and if something new or unique shows up, get it synthesized. Even if I'm fine after this you never know if we might need something like that later for one of the Cauthan or other crew. Ah…we can do that right?" Alice paused, considering that even aboard the Event Horizon some things might not be possible.
'Yes, Alice. That should be a minor inconvenience at worst given the tools available,' Io assured her, placing a hand on her temple. 'Oh my, yes what a wonderful blood lab. Thank you, Admiral.'
"I was wondering when you'd let me join in. Alice, status?" He demanded.
"I'm fine now, Admiral. Will the two of you please ensure that Veera and Fenrir are alright and that my brother knows I'm in no danger? He'd probably do something stupid and or kill Xan. I would at least like to study him first…that was a joke by the way," Alice clarified, seeing the distressed look on the Cauthan’s face. "Oh, Lachlan should be by soon with a report and Pilot Cromwell handled the hyrven situation splendidly. I’m sure he’ll be on the next shuttle down. Veera didn’t bring enough food for all three of them."
Natori's deep laughter came over the speakers in the room, and he squeezed in next to Io on the arm's monitor. Alice was sure the two of them were already hamming it up on the bridge. "You are certainly your father's daughter, Miss Winters. It will be done as you…dare I say command? I suspect you'll need some time to get settled, but once you and your guest have come to an arrangement regarding ongoing relations and accommodations I would like to be made aware. I shall have to inform Qul'Roth as well. Best not to keep Ghaelen guessing, you know?"
"Of course, Admiral. Xan and I need to have a discussion first though. I think he probably has a few questions for me regarding the Overview effect."
"Hmm, I suppose hangar C-2 was oriented correctly for a view of the planet…"
"Admiral, he's here now. I should go."
"Oh yes yes, of course!" Natori replied cheerfully in his seemingly scatterbrained but ever astute manner. "Io, will you be remaining with me?"
'Only if you're willing to take the risk that my Jumper does something stupid on his way to your medical facilities. He's doing much better today but you never know what might set him off. Running through the crew rosters I can think of four individuals who might actively try that at some point. My money's not on Lipper and I am very much a betting woman,' Io assured them all with a sultry lilt. Alice hoped it was on account of betting and not the idea of her brother getting into an honor match against Lipper's squad. She liked them on the whole, but blood was thicker than water. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that Beta Jumpers might feel the need to prove themselves to an original from Omega.
"Admiral, you can play with Io later. Io, take care of my brother and get yourself up to speed with the molecular synthesis equipment and the various labs aboard, if you please. We will need you to assist us with all sorts of examinations and experiments going forward should I acquire the necessary consent from our lovely partners."
'I await with anticipation. Goodbye Alice. It was my pleasure to take an intimate scan of your forearm.' Io promptly disappeared, leaving Natori’s image looking at Alice with a bemused expression.
"Isn't she wonderful?" He gushed.
"Don't you have a ship to run?" Alice countered lightly as she hopped off the gurney.
"Well yes, I suppose I do. Feel better Alice, and do not hesitate to call for any of us. I hope to announce your progress to the rest of the crew sometime soon. Farewell."
Xan was left standing in the doorway of the strange room, having been forced to reevaluate his opinion of Alice given that she'd just commanded Io, her brother, and even Natori as though she were a soldier herself.
"Guess it's a good thing I wore a tank top under this thing instead of anything with sleeves. I'd never have forgiven you if you'd ripped the clothes I brought from Sol," she ‘warned’ him with a smile. Xan opened his mouth but no words came out. What could he even say? Alice frowned with concern. "Hey, it's fine, alright? Io took a peek in there, ultrasound, tiny cameras, everything. You didn't kill me, and I still have full use of my hand and arm. We'll just have to see if I'm infected by anything later."
"Like the smallpox?!" Xan blurted, looking ready to descend into another panic attack. Alice couldn't help herself, striding forward and taking the completely inundated Cauthan into a hug, the type that she and her brother often shared when the burdens of life became onerous.
"No Xan, not like the smallpox. If my brother has been with your people, eaten your food, gotten wounded, and survived for a year I'm sure I'll be fine. This is just an abundance of caution paired with an experiment. You're overwhelmed, aren't you?"
"I'm not!" He insisted, standing stiffly as his chin rested just above her shoulder. They were almost the same height.
"You don't have to be like this around me," Alice whispered. "I just want us both to learn, and I'm so sorry for just dropping you into this without any explanation. I should have waited a few days, explained about Mara and space. Forgive me?" She requested, pulling back and giving him the courtesy of looking into his eyes.
"Why are you asking me? I'm the one who hurt you," he muttered.
"Because I forced you to confront the fact that the nature of existence is so different from what you understand that you had a panic attack."
Xan turned his head away. "Stop treating me like a cub."
"Oh please, if you were a cub I'd be hugging and kissing and snuggling your incredibly cute fluffiness," Alice informed him with express sincerity. "So how about we stick to learning and knowledge, Xan?"
"What in Seil's name could I possibly hope to teach you? Your people are demigods, even if you bleed. Last thing I need is another tutor, even a divine one."
"You're going to make me blush, Xan. But I'll tell you what. Why don't you focus on what's important for you and your people, and let me worry about what's important for me and my people, alright?"
The Cauthan sighed, remembering the colorful orb hanging in the darkness. "Yeah…yeah alright. I have a lot of questions."
"And I hope to have all the answers, but how about we go find you a place to sit down and settle in. A clinic is no place for this kind of talk." Alice was just about to lead Xan out of the room when a pair of hurried footfalls reached their ears and an unmistakable voice called out in the corridors.
"Alice? Ma chère, is that you?"
Alice slipped past Xan into the hallway, her face lighting up. "Yvonne!"
-----
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