And So It Begins
by Jonty
Chapter 24
The old man looked up at him. He had stopped tapping his cane, which should have been a good sign, but Alec really didn’t take it that way. There was something truly strange about the entire room, and he had to fight down an urge to get as far away from the place as possible.
“Talk to you about what?” the old man said quietly, his gaze intent on the fire in front of him. “Since when is it Manticore training to just get up and leave without permission?”
Alec stared back at him. He had no real answer to that, so it was probably best to keep silent for the time being.
>>>>>
Max walked into the command centre. With no Logan-Live TV broadcast to keep them entertained, Biggs and Mole had resorted to playing chess. Only, the chess pieces weren’t standard issue. She moved over to the table and picked up one of the pieces that had been removed from the game. A bishop, with a barcode carved onto the back of its neck. She turned it over and noted with surprise that the shield it carried had a lightening bolt engraved on it. The same lightening bolt that Alec had used to interrupt the Eyes Only broadcast. Had it only been three days ago? It felt like so much longer than that.
Mole moved his queen to slaughter a pawn that had been left unguarded.
“That was a mistake” Max commented, pulling up a chair to get a closer look at the game.
“Why?” Biggs shrugged. “It’s just a clone. It’s not like The Powers That Be can’t make more in a second or two.” His tone was light, but there was an undercurrent to his words. Max looked at the ground, not knowing what to say.
“So, what’s going on?” he asked as he moved another piece.
“Do you know where Alec might have gone?”
Mole snickered. “It’s been, what, 20 minutes? How can you have had a fight already?”
“It’s been 20 minutes.” Biggs commented, kicking Mole’s queen off the board. “How can they not have had a fight?”
“Hmm” Mole conceded, rescuing his queen from the floor and dusting her off before placing her gently on the table.
Biggs picked up the pawn that had been lost a few moves ago, and replaced it on the board in its original position. “See?” he looked at Max, shrugging. “They can always breed more of us.”
Max stared at him, then at the pawn. “Alec took off. He was acting really weird. Where would he have gone?”
“Don’t know.”
“You’re not worried?” Max was surprised by this. She had expected Biggs to order out the cavalry by now, not move that resurrected pawn two squares forward.
“Not really.”
“Me neither.” Mole offered, as his bishop took the same pawn out of the game.
“Damnit.” Biggs commented. “Why can’t we create a soldier that isn’t completely stupid and naïve?”
Laughter came from Mole’s direction. Laughter that was very quickly cut off.
>>>>>
“Since when does Manticore abandon its soldiers?” Alec asked after 5 minutes of complete silence.
“We abandoned no-one.”
“Nah, you just locked us in our barracks and set fire to the place.”
“As I recall,” the old man stood and began to pace, leaning heavily on his cane, “You weren’t there. And anyway, soldiers were tested all the time. What made that fire any less of a test?”
The fact that you executed the ones that did follow their orders? Wisely, Alec kept his mouth shut.
“We saw your little display the other night. That was you, wasn’t it? Interrupting Eyes Only?”
Alec said nothing.
“Stop playing with him and finish it, 494.”
A sound came from behind him. Alec was out of his chair in an instant, turning to face the door and the soldier standing in the door holding a gun. He had been amongst humans too long. Out of training for too long. His instincts had directed him to worry about the guy with the gun, when what he should have been doing was worrying about the old man with the cane. He only remembered about him when he felt a sharp metallic object stab into his side.
“Getting slow, 494. stop trying to forget what you are, and accept it. Finish the job.”
>>>>>
The chess game was still going when Alec returned to TC. Biggs was probably winning, but with the Manticore rules, no pieces were really staying dead for long enough to allow any one side to get the advantage.
He leant in the doorway for a moment, out of view of Max, and gestured to Biggs to follow him.
“Back in a minute” Biggs commented casually as he moved another resurrected pawn, then stood up. “Don’t cheat while I’m gone”
Mole glared at him, then casually moved one of Biggs’ pieces, the queen, instead of his own.
Biggs headed out into the office, watching Alec carefully lean against a desk. As he walked towards his leader, Biggs quickly scanned Alec, looking for any obvious sign of damage. There was none, but that didn’t mean a lot. He had seen how well Alec’s casual, bored expression could mask several quite serious injuries.
“You and Max have a disagreement, huh?” he asked slowly.
“What?” Alec’s bored expression was replaced by one of confusion.
“She’s pissed off, you’re limping.”
Okay, that was a complete exaggeration. Whatever injury Alec had picked up, it wasn’t in the leg. But, the comment fulfilled its purpose. It let Alec know that his second-in-command was alert enough to notice an injury he was trying to conceal, and it also provided an opening for Alec to reveal whatever the hell was going on with him.
“Max is always pissed off. There’s nothing new there. Where are you with that video tape?”
Biggs shrugged. Fine, Alec didn’t want to talk. Nothing new there. Back to business. “Nowhere. We have tech guys working on it, trying to figure out anything we can about it, when it was, who else was there, that kind of thing. We’re at a dead end.”
“That’s not good enough.” Alec ran a hand through his hair, and winced slightly. “Figure it out.”
Biggs nodded, accepting the reprimand for what it was. “I have one option. Torture Logan and find out his source.”
“I don’t care how you do it” Alec growled. “Get me the information I need.”
“Yes, sir.”
Alec pushed himself slowly off the desk, and headed for the door. After a few paces, he stopped and turned back. “Change that. Logan doesn’t get hurt.”
“Okay” Biggs said slowly, scanning Alec’s head for signs of a massive head wound.
“In fact, let him go.”
Biggs’ jaw dropped. “Uh, Alec? You want me to just open up the cell and let that idiot go free?”
It couldn’t be. Images of manticore flashed through his head. The one lesson they never got- how to tell when your leader had gone completely insane and should be removed from command.
“Yes” Alec nodded slowly, looking at something on the ground. “I want you to escort him out of TC and back to his apartment. Can you handle that?”
“Do you want me to escort him with Force?”
“Listen to me.” Alec moved back towards Biggs, shoving him against the wall, his forearm against Biggs’ throat. “No force. In fact, if he gets so much as a scratch on him, I’m gonna blame you.”
“No problem” Biggs gasped, shoving Alec away and trying to remember how to breathe. He watched Alec walk slowly towards the entrance, then turned and headed back into the command room.
Biggs dropped into his seat, and examined the chess board. With a glance at Mole, he picked up his queen and restored it to its proper position. “Shit!” he yelled, flipping over the table and sending chess pieces flying.
He turned and glared at Max. “What the hell did you do to our Alec?”
Chapter 25
Max felt herself go onto the defensive. “What do you mean, what have I done to Alec? I haven’t done anything to him.”
“Uhh, okay.” Biggs nodded. “Anything you say”
>>>>>
Alec needed someone to talk to. Badly. Someone that had the slightest hope of understanding what was going on. That meant, someone who was not a transgenic.
He needed someone who actually understood human relationships and all the kind of crap he wanted to pretend never existed. However, the quality of human friends he had was not particularly promising. Sketchy, and Normal, neither of which were particularly onto it when it came to relationships. Cindy, who would tell Max anything he had to say, which was not good. He really needed to consider fostering some real friendships with some real humans.
Yeah, right.
Alec laughed out loud, getting a few cautious looks from the transgenics within earshot. “I was just considering making a few human friends” he explained to Raven, who was sitting at a nearby table.
Raven laughed, appreciating the joke.
Alec shrugged and walked away. If only Raven knew how serious he was.
>>>>>
Logan had jerked to his feet when the three soldiers had come into the room. He backed quickly against the wall, trying to get himself ready for whatever was going to happen.
“Come with me.” Biggs spoke in a monotone.
“What, where?” Logan stammered, shaking his head in fear. One of them was not human. He had seen non-human transgenics before, but most of them had at least looked kind of human in shape. Like, with two arms and two legs. This one? Not good.
“Max won’t be too pleased if you try anything.”
Biggs glanced at the other human looking transgenic and smiled. “Yeah, well, let’s just say, I take my orders off Alec, not Max. And Alec and Max aren’t exactly on the same wavelength.” Biggs smiled. So far, he could justify his actions. There were no scratches on Logan, and if the pathetic little human wanted to cower in the corner like something out of Watership Down, then so much the better.
Hell, it wasn’t his fault that they hadn’t managed to get cable hooked up in TC just yet. Had to have entertainment.
And, he was telling the truth. Max was the one that currently wanted Logan to die in some painful fashion, and Alec was the one who was suddenly going all Mother Teresa.
“Please move towards the door” Biggs spoke in his politest voice. The non-human shaped transgenic gestured with an appendage to the door, and Logan shuddered again.
“If you need help or anything, we’re a full service unit here, you know.”
That got him moving. Logan managed to stagger towards the door.
Biggs sighed, but cheered up almost immediately. There was still time. It would take about half an hour to get back to Logan’s apartment. Plenty of time to play.
If he took the back streets? It might even take an hour. And if there were sector police?
Logan saw the huge grin that broke out over Biggs’ face and shuddered.
>>>>>
Alec entered his apartment and shut the door firmly. There was a kind of deadbolt, and he slid that across too, not really holding out much hope that it would hold if your average transgenic wanted entry, but he held out hope that it would perhaps indicate his need for privacy.
He needed to think to plan his next move. The only problem was, he was way out of his depth here.
He started to pace, a remarkably human trait he had picked up somewhere. He also drank often from a bottle of scotch he held loosely in one hand. Also human-like.
His thoughts, however, were pure Manticore.
Logistics of Command 3- or, what to do when things go completely wrong.
So, his situation was basically this. He wanted Logan dead. That was a given, had been since the first second he had laid eyes on the guy. Actually, from the first moment Max had mentioned the guy he had been having these really nice fantasies about ways to kill the idiot. But, killing Logan was what They wanted. The Manticore officers. And he would be damned if he did anything they wanted anymore. Not now that he had a choice in the matter. But then, they had saved his life, so didn’t he owe them something for that? He wouldn’t want to be indebted to them for any reason if things came to a head.
Was there a solution? There didn’t seem to be one.
He took another drink and allowed himself a quick fantasy about killing Logan and the Old Man at the same time.
>>>>>
Four hours later, and Alec was starting to realise how truly pathetic he was. How could he not have a solution besides Kill Everyone? And it’s not like that one was in his ‘serious options’ basket.
He needed advice from someone. Anyone. Except Max, because although she might be on his side right now, that might change if he told her his big plan was to kill a lot of people for no reason he could articulate.
The command centre was empty. That was just typical. He finally managed to admit to himself that he needed help, and there was noone around to get that help off.
Although, there was someone in the back room.
Alec swore softly, then moved to the doorway. Once you have a plan, no matter how stupid, you see it through.
“Mole, can I talk to you?” he asked slowly
“Uhh…” Mole glanced up and saw Alec standing in the doorway, an intensely serious look on his face. Although he knew there were no escape routes available to him, he looked around anyway, praying for a way out of this. Alec giving orders was fine, Alec joking around was good. Alec serious? Not so much. “Sure. What do you need?”
“Advice.”
“Okay.” Mole sounded really convinced as he grabbed a seat. “So, what could I possibly help you with? Oh, wait. It’s about that thing with the…”
“No. God, no.” Alec looked like he couldn’t decide whether to laugh or throw something. “Okay, look. Here it is. What do you do when you feel that something is right, you know that if you did this thing, everyone would be happy, but there’s a downside too. If you do it, then everything changes, and things have the potential to get really bad again. And I mean, really bad.”
“How bad?” Mole asked, stalling for time to figure out what the hell Alec was talking about.
“You would end up becoming something you hated, something you swore you would never allow yourself to be, now that I have the choice.”
“What would I do?”
“Yeah.”
“I’d sleep with Max. Right now.”
Chapter 26
“Excuse me?” Alec stared at Mole, momentarily speechless for about the second time in his life.
“I would go somewhere far away, and sleep with Max.” Mole spoke very slowly, anticipating getting his ass kicked at any moment. He saw Alec’s eyes light up, and took a step backwards, wondering if he had gone too far, and at the same time, wondering how he could take it further.
“That sounds like a plan.” Alec nodded, then grinned. “Thanks, buddy.”
“Yeah, name your first kid after me.” Mole shook his head. Since when did he have to tell Alec that sleeping with Max, hell, sleeping with any girl, was a bad idea?
Alec strode out of the command post, intending to go find Max. Mole had had the right idea. Get out of the city for a while, let things settle down. Let the cops forget about him, and let him forget how much he hated Logan and wanted him to die painfully.
“Alec!” He turned to see Biggs jogging up to him. “We got it.”
Alec just looked at him, waiting. He was not going to ask.
“The video. We identified it. See,” he spoke in a rush, grinning, “the thing was, it wasn’t Afghanistan. We were looking in the wrong place. One of the new guys figured it out. He remembered it. You didn’t even kill anyone. It was a training mission.”
“But the kid…” Alec wanted it to be true, he really did. But he saw the kid die on the video. And in his head, over and over again.
Then, it clicked.
“The kid.” He glanced at Biggs, then took off running.
“Alec, what the hell?” he yelled after him. He looked around desperately. Mole and a couple of others were standing in the door. “Get backup, now!” he ordered, before sprinting after Alec.
If his friend was planning on losing his mind, well, he could probably use the company.
Alec slowed down as he left TC, but it took a few blocks for Biggs to catch up. “Where are we going?” he asked
Alec looked over at him, still walking fast. “That damn kid never died.”
“Uh, yeah. Buddy? I just told you that.” Biggs tried to make his voice calm, the way they used to try to talk the younger kids down after a mission.
“He never died, he grew up.”
He reached the apartment block that housed the old man and the remains of Manticore, and headed up the stairs. Biggs followed, two steps behind Alec, watching his friend’s back.
The kid was there, throwing his ball as usual.
Of course. It was so obvious. Add about 3 years to the kid in the video, and it was this kid.
The boy looked over at Alec, and smiled, tossing the ball to him.
“I should have killed you.” Alec said, his voice as expressionless as it was possible to be.
Biggs took a step back..
The kid ran for the door. He was about 3 metres away when Alec hit him in the back with the ball. He hit the ground, then scrambled to his feet and disappeared inside.
“Sir? Tell me what’s going on?” Biggs asked quietly.
“I’m not playing anymore.”
“Okay, no problem.” He had no idea what was going on, but he was going to agree with Alec no matter what.
Alec kicked the door in, and glared at the soldier manning their posts. “I’m not playing this game anymore.”
The leader stood up. “You think you have a choice?”
“Oh, I have a choice.” Alec took two steps forward, and Biggs moved into the room behind him. “Ever since we blew up that damn place, I’ve had a choice. Kill me if you want, but I won’t kill for you again.”
“Oh, you will.”
“No.” Alec turned and walked out the door, Biggs close behind him. They walked about 6 blocks before Biggs spoke.
”Manticore?”
“Yeah. My saviours from the police, the ones who gave Logan that video, probably.”
“And they wanted you to…?”
Alec just looked at him.
“Oh, okay. Kill Logan. Got it.”
“Good.”
“So, now what?” They reached the entrance to TC, and Alec stopped walking.
“I take Mole’s advice.”
Up until this point Biggs had thought he had heard everything. He thought that nothing else Alec could say could possibly surprise him. Then, he heard that. He shook his head. Life was weird these days.
“Alec? Right now, I really need you to say something I’m gonna understand. Can we go get a beer or something, talk about girls and plan world domination?”
“I kind of have something to take care of.”
“Something normal?”
“I’ll buy you a beer later.”
>>>>>
“Max, wait up.”
Alec walked down the street, trying to catch up with her without making it look like he was trying to catch up with her.
“I seem to remember you walking away from me before, not the other way around.”
Fine. So he had left the apartment first.
He jogged a few paces and caught up with her, grabbing her arm. “Come away with me.”
“What?” Max stopped walking and turned to stare at him. He looked, well, different to normal. Worried about something. “Alec, what’s going on?”
“Nothing. Let’s just grab the bikes, fill them with gas, and take off.” He moved his hand down her arm and took her hand in his. Lifting it up to his mouth, he kissed her hand gently.
“We have stuff to do here. Responsibilities.” She had thought he understood that.
“Just for a week. Come on, please.” He smiled sweetly at her, trying to convince her. “One week.” He pulled her arm towards him, bringing her against him. He slowly reached his other hand up to touch her face. “One.” He kissed her gently, his lips barely brushing hers. “Week” He kissed her again, slightly harder.
Max sighed, pulling him closer to her, leaning back against a wall or something. Alec laughed slightly as he moved closer to her.
”Does this mean you’ll come with me?”
“One condition.” Max moved slightly away from him so she could see his face.
“Name it.” He kissed her neck, biting gently at the skin there.
“Tell me about that stupid lightening bolt symbol.”
Alec laughed, leaning his head against the wall behind Max.
“You want me to tell you a story?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay.” He pulled her down to sit on the ground with him, and stared into space for a minute. “So, once upon a time, there was a command post in some foreign country miles from anywhere. Good start?”
“Has potential” she commented, hitting him lightly on the shoulder. “Going to finish it anytime soon?”
“Well, there was this command post, and a team of poor innocent transgenics.”
Max laughed.
“And one night, there was a storm. A real bad one. Thunder, lightening, the works. And while the poor innocent transgenics watched- stop laughing- a lightening bolt hit the command post. Knocked it out. So the poor little transgenics had noone left to tell them what to do, and no contact with home. So what were they to do?”
“Party no doubt.”
“Nah. We sat around like idiots, waiting to be told what to do. Then, we realised. We were free. We could do whatever we wanted.”
“So then you partied.”
“Nah, we sat around some more.” Alec shook his head. “I know. Pathetic. But the thing is, we got a taste of freedom. And the lightening bolt that gave us that freedom became a kind of symbol for any sort of resistance against doing what Manticore wanted.”
“So, putting it on Logan’s broadcast?”
“Just a message that Logan was not to be trusted. My squad would have understood it.”
“Not a message to kill him?”
“You really think I’d do that?” Alec turned to look at her.
“No.”
“Good. Can we go now?”
Alec stood up and offered his hand to Max, pulling her to her feet. As they walked down the road, Max noticed that he was still lost in thought.
Alec grinned slightly. Screw everyone who wanted to mess with his life. They could do their best. He didn’t care anymore about fighting with Logan. That idiot could do what he wanted. It didn’t matter. It was more important not to do what Manticore wanted. He was never going to do that again.
Although, that didn’t mean he couldn’t continue to play with Logan, as long as Max never found out.
The end.