Coming Soon in Operation Hammerhead

 

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Scorpius Sector

Evergreen, Agricultural Colony

Evergreen University Campus

Student Union

 

Jeff Mason looked across the chess board at his opponent. It was rare that anyone could give him a good game. This kid wasn’t it. Mason's genetically engineered intellect could see twenty moves ahead.

 

His bishops and knights slashed into his opponent’s flanks, his rooks smashed straight ahead, and his queen powered her way deep into enemy territory. Checkmate.

 

The freshman sighed and said, “I like to play against strong players. It makes me better but every time I play against you, I seem to get worse.”

 

Jeff said, “That’s because you do.”

 

The kid said, “What am I doing wrong?”

 

Jeff said, “Most people fall into patterns of play. It’s perfectly natural to use the strategy and tactics that you’ve had success with. The problem is that pattern fails you when you play the pattern and not your opponent.”

 

“How do I learn to do that?”

 

Jeff replied, “You’ve got to play a lot and with many different players.”

 

The freshman nodded and took his leave.

 

Jeff remembered the only person that could consistently beat him and wondered what had happened to his old nemesis. So much had happened in just a few years. He picked up his tablet computer and headed back to his apartment.

 

As he was walking across the quad, his computer chimed that he had an incoming message. He looked to see an unfamiliar email address with the subject line “heads up”.

 

He stopped and read the message:

 

Jeff-

 

You will have two visitors late tonight. They are OK. Listen to what they have to say.

 

The New People live!

 

-Marion

 

He stood looking at the message like he had seen a ghost. As far as he knew, when the Ministry of Justice thugs had arrested him and his friends, Marion was the only one that had gotten away free and clear.

 

The New People was Jeff’s creation. A group of illegally genetically engineered kids, for a few short months they had made headlines all over the Alliance as they fought for their rights. They had used non-violent pranks and tricks to make a horrible nuisance of themselves to local system authorities on Mars that oppressed genetically engineered persons. The authorities hadn’t seen the humor in their pranks. Their group had been labeled terrorists and hunted down ruthlessly by the Ministry of Justice. Of the original six, only Marion had gotten away. They had all been split up and sent to the far corners of the Alliance forbidden ever contact each other as a condition of their parole.

 

The authorities had sentenced him to probation, given him a fine he might be able to pay off before retirement and sent him away to a cow college on Evergreen to study Environmental Engineering. He would be sent further into the frontier to terraform new worlds. They wanted to safely stash him away from the core worlds to keep him and his cause out of sight and out of mind.

 

Many illegals suffered no discrimination at all while others were hunted and murdered by religious fanatics. His native Mars had been a hell hole. On a horrible night almost a decade before, Jeff and his friends parents had been murdered protecting their children from an angry mob. They had never forgotten it.

 

He continued walking to his apartment with his head spinning from the abrupt reminder of the life that he thought that he had left light years behind.

 

* * * *

 

 

Jeff was almost dozing when the knock came at his apartment door at a little before one in the morning. He knew that he was under surveillance by the Ministry of Justice. Why had Marion been so reckless to try to contact him this way?

 

He opened the door to his apartment and found a set of identical twins waiting. They appeared to be about twenty and were tall, muscular and exceptionally fit. Their faces were tan and they had long straight jet black hair. Both were dressed and carrying backpacks like students but their bearing was completely different. Their eyes said something else that gave him pause.

 

One was carrying a pizza box and the other had a six pack. The one with a six pack said, "I'm Sean and this is my brother Seth. Marion told you to expect us."

 

Jeff said, "Come in and pull up a chair. How is she?"

 

The two brothers entered the apartment and closed the door. Seth produced some kind of electronic device from his backpack and swept the room. He looked at his brother and shook his head. He then took out another gadget and turned it on. A red LED indicator light started pulsing on the device and he placed it on the coffee table. He said, "The jammer is active. We can talk."

 

Sean said, "You've been out of touch for a long time. You got shipped off of Mars as soon as you got arrested. Marion sent us to fill you in."

 

There had to be some way to authenticate these people. They made Jeff nervous. They looked like Ministry or maybe the military. He asked, "What is Marion's cats name?"

 

Sean answered, "Pouncer." He opened the pizza box and handed Jeff a beer.

 

Seth opened up a data crystal reader and a holographic image of Marion appeared:

 

Jeff, you've been out of touch for a long time. The Alliance hid you away very well and we've only just been able to find you. You started something with the New People that shook the Alliance to its core. When I got away from Mars, I thought it was all over but nothing could be further from the truth. Illegals exist in vast numbers all over the Alliance. They live in fear and hiding. My two messengers were originally genetically engineered to be soldiers for a corporation in the Succession Wars of a little more than a decade ago.

 

Things really have changed. We are no longer a group of kids playing pranks. There are thousands of us now with cells all over the core worlds and many of the colonies.

 

We need you back. No one has the moral authority to lead us like you do. Sean and Seth can get you on a starship that we have waiting and off planet.

 

Now is our time. We need you to lead us to freedom.

 

As the message ended, Jeff realized that he had been holding his breath. His heart was racing. He stuttered, "Me? Why me?"

 

Sean said, "It's your writings. They've been put together in a pamphlet. It has been banned by the Alliance but that only makes more people want to read it. When they do, they feel the same outrage that we do for being branded like cattle and tracked like criminals just because of the way we were born."

 

As Seth put the data crystal reader back in its case, Jeff asked, "When do we leave?"

 

Sean said, "After we eat. We are going to be busy and might not get another chance for a while."