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| SEASON 1: EPISODE 4: "OPERATION MINCEMEAT." |
Eve helped the Captain slip from his survival suit and whispered quietly: “There’s a real problem with our friend Stanners, the Mediscan reveals that he died of pneumonia!” Jones eased from the suit and Troy pushed it back into its storage cupboard, hooking it up for replacement of air and to recharge the batteries.
“I’m not surprised Eve.” Jones pushed his fingers through his damp hair and saw the look of amazement on her face. “Our friend had been prepared at an Undertakers for his Resurrection Ceremony. Hair washed, teeth cleaned and make-up applied, I bet his body still smells of the antiseptic that hospital’s wash the corpse down with after death. What else can you tell me?”
Eve shook her head and smiled:” Yes it does, the Chief said you would be on top form out there!” Jones laughed and took her by the shoulder: “Let’s go and take another look at John Doe.” The pair made their way to the Medical Bay, followed by the Chief and Tom.
Lilly was waiting for them with some printouts clutched in her hands. “The Human Archive Service cannot identify his DNA, which is quite incredible. They have no record of him as an individual, but say he’s closely related to a family called ‘Dunning’ who reside at a farmstead near New London.”
“Thanks Lilly, now how long has he been dead?” Jones directed his question to Eve, she looked down at the body, then back at the Captain: “Approximately 96 years.”
“Christ, I hope I look that good after being dead for nearly a century!” The Chief muttered and everyone smiled;” He was nearly 15 [27 in Earth years] when he died.” Eve added. The Captain rubbed his chin and instructed Lilly to get hold of someone in the ‘Dunning’ family who may have information about an ancestor who died young and of pneumonia around the time of the attempted invasion.
Jones noticed a strange faraway look on Eve's face as she adjusted the sheet around the body. "What is it Eve?" He asked, she sighed; "According to Military Control, because the body has no near relatives to object and it's in such good condition, they want to hand it over to Project Cenotaph."
Jones folded his arms and said; "I thought that was just rumours. I mean bringing dead people back to life - years after they died, that's just nuts!" The Chief agreed and Tom added; "I heard they have tried about three times and nearly succeeded, except for one small problem."
"What was the small problem?" The Chief asked and Tom laughed; "It was like Frankenstein's monster, they had to resurrect the bodies really quickly!" He looked down at the body and said quietly; "Sorry John Doe, we can't help you."
"Well, that's High Command's call, hopefully the other two have descendants who may care, if we manage to find them." Jones spoke with a little anger in voice; he had heard lots of 'skuttlebug' about 'Operation Cenotaph' when he was on an Officer's course at Fort Benjamin, and it was all about the Military's near-mythical research station called appropriately 'RS13'. Even its location was classified, but the general rumour circulating is that RS13 is hidden up on the Ice-Shelf.
"For those who like conspiracy theories, they're nearly all centered around 'RS13', including stories about aliens, fossils, ancient buildings and other strange relic's and artefacts supposedly found on Mars over the centuries of human occupation."
W.A.S.
“Well, I’m going to grab some scoff and plenty of cold water before I go back out there.” The Captain said and headed for the galley; “I hope Frank has knocked up something good.” Eve covered the body with the clean white sheet and slid the tray back into the refrigeration unit, that’s when she noticed Dallas sitting on her chair; “Sorry old friend, your bed is needed by someone else.” She said softly as she stroked his neck and Dallas laid down on the chair and cat-napped.
Eve joined the Captain in the Galley, where he was enjoying a vegetable casserole with mash and a couple of large cups of cold water. “Message from Military Control at Fort Benjamin Captain.” Bella appeared in the Galley doorway and handed Jones a piece of paper. He read it with growing interest.
Everyone in the Galley fell silent and Jones looked up to see everyone looking at him. “It appears Colonel La Strade is going to visit us with a Military search team – weather permitting.” Jones placed the paper quietly down on the table and continued eating. “When will he arrive Skipper?” Peter asked, sipping water from his cup. Tom answered that; “It would be a twelve-hour flight just to get to Rossington and that’s with clear weather all the way.”
“So don’t expect to see him quite yet.” Jones spoke to Eve and finished his meal, he turned to Kazza and slid a small black object across the table; “Do you think you could get that back on line?”
Kazza picked up the slim plastic rectangle and studied it. “Captain, the last time I saw one of these, it was in the Telecommunications Museum at Taylor.” He turned it in his hand and with a soft click the device opened. “The battery is totally dead; I need to find a way to recharge it once I’ve cleaned the crap out.”
“That was in the sand near those two opened crates.” The Captain informed Kazza and Tom, who was now studying the old phone. “Yes, I think we can get this museum piece up and running Captain, but you won’t be able to call anybody, the satellite that serviced these phones is long gone.” Tom chuckled to himself.
“I don’t plan to make any calls, but I would love to see the videos on it.” Jones smiled at Tom and they both nodded. “Where better to store any last messages.” Tom commented and he and Kazza left for the Thor’s workshop. Peter sat back in his chair and pushed his plate away; “So, if that’s not Stanner on the morgue tray, then what the hell happened to him?” The captain held up his hands: “No idea, but someone dumped that body on the sand in Stanner’s surface suit, not forgetting to take his weapon and spare oxygen, and if I had to guess, I would say that Stanner did that.”
“I think the skippers on the money. It was an ‘Operation Mincemeat’.” Frankie the Chef sat down and started to eat his casserole with a spoon, taking time out to dip slices of bread in the juice.
There was silence for a few seconds until Peter asked: “What the fuck is an ‘Operation Mincemeat’ when it’s at home?” The Chef looked up from his plate and waved his spoon about: “It happened during one of those bloody big wars that the Earth enjoyed so much. One side dumped a dead body on the enemy with false battle plans and the dumb fuckers fell for it and got a good kicking.” Frankie explained between mouthfuls, “That was the code name of the operation: ’Mincemeat’. I remembered it because, being a Chef, I make mince. Simple really.” Frankie gave a big grin and started to slurp his coffee. The Captain and Eve laughed, but Peter just sat looking quite bemused.
“So the body was a decoy, to make the enemy believe they could land here safely and carry out their mission?” Peter placed hands upon his head and then smiled; “Stanner, you’re a clever fuck!” Jones nodded, sipping his coffee; “What better way to convince the enemy that they’re safe in this area, than the battle squad send to stop them, turning up dead in the sand.”
Peter took a deep breath and said:” Yeah, but we still have two Mars Military Cyborg’s missing out there, and if the Classified Records are right, two more bodies.” Jones nodded in agreement “Finding the bodies should not be a problem, if the storm has uncovered them too, but I really don’t want an encounter with any undamaged Cyborg’s – even if they are ours.”
“Amen to that.” The Chef grunted and started to clear the table.
“Are there really a couple of more bodies out there then?” Eve looked quite sad at the prospect of hauling two more long dead corpses onto the Thor. “We don’t have room in the Medical Bay for more than one body.” She added, rolling her coffee cup about in her hands. “We’ll store them in the cargo hold, keep it unpressurised and no heating. They’ll be fine.” Jones stood up and nodded towards the door; “Time for another trip to Valley La Mort.”
11. RETURN TO THE VALLEY.
Leon fastened the Captain into his surface suit and carefully examined the seals. “You’re checked and ready skipper.” Jones nodded and picked up his helmet, he noticed Lilly had appeared in the door of the suit room with a piece of paper. Tom, already suited, was checking Leon's suit with great care and slapped him on the shoulder; “You’re ready to go.” The search team was to consist of the Captain, Tom, Leon and Bella.
“What is it Lilly?” The Captain adjusted the padding in his helmet and was satisfied that all was good.
“Just heard back from New London, the Dunning family can’t help. They tell us that there’s nothing in the family history that anyone can recall, of a lost ancestor around the time of the invasion.” Lilly held up the paper and added; "But this may be of interest Captain.” She handed Jones the paper and he did read it with some real interest. “It appears that J E Stanners spent some time on Earth just before the invasion and upon his return had suddenly come into a lot of money. He arrived back at Taylor spaceport with a small fortune in gold – and rather strangely, the authorities didn’t investigate how he got it.” Jones said quietly and handed the paper to Tom who half smiled and said simply; ”A double agent?”
“Yeah, but which side was he really loyal too?” Jones took a deep breath and pressed the intercom button; “Bridge, is Bella on her way down, we’re already suited up here.” The Chief answered that Eve was on her way down to speak to the Captain. On cue, Eve squeezed into the suit room and taking Jones by the arm, pulled him into the outside corridor and spoke quickly and quietly.
“Sorry skipper, I can’t allow Bella on the surface.” She smiled and leaning forward, whispered in his ear; “Bella is nine weeks pregnant, no way does she do surface work now.” The look of surprise on the Captain’s face made Eve laugh out loud. “It’s quite common with young women you know!”
“Well, you can knock me down with a feather.” Jones smiled broadly, and then added; “If it’s not breaking a confidence, who’s the father?” He rubbed his chin, looking quite bemused and Eve whispered in his ear again. “Holy fucking shit!” Jones exclaimed, and then offered apologies for his language. Eve waved his apology away; “I said something similar when she told me.”
Jones said nothing for a few seconds, then he chuckled; “I want ring-side seats when she tells him!”
Both he and Eve laughed together and shaking his head, he headed back into the suit room to tell Lilly she was going back on the surface. Eve returned to the bridge to oversee the medical station, with Bella back on communications. “Suit up Lilly, Bella will handle communications again.” Jones told Lilly and waited while she slipped quickly into her sand-suit and both Tom and he checked her over. When satisfied Jones patted her shoulder and issued the search team with Pulsar’s.
“Let’s go team.” Jones said and with an O.K. from Eve on the bridge, the team entered the External Pressure Lift. The Captain was still laughing to himself as the lift descended to the surface, the rest of the team looked quite bewildered by the skipper’s demeanour, and Lilly was wondering why she had replaced Bella at real short notice, but she didn’t ask Jones why.
“Leon can drive the ‘sand-cat’, we’ll start the new search from the cave entrance and I want to have another look in there.” Jones spoke to Tom and patted his Pulsar; “Keep that handy Tom, they may be our Cyborg’s, but we won’t take any chances.” Leon pulled himself into the ‘sand-cat’ and fired up the engine, again she wasn’t pressurised, and the search team climbed in. Jones looked about him and gave the thumbs up: the crew responded with the same signal and Leon headed the ‘little Thor’ towards the Valley.
Twenty minutes later ‘little Thor’ arrived back at the cave entrance and the search team decanted onto the surface, splitting into two groups, The Captain and Lilly made their way into the cave whilst Leon and Tom started to sweep the Valley with an Anomaly Rod [an instrument used for finding ‘out of place’ objects on the surface]. Jones and Lilly switched on their helmet lights as they entered the darkness of the cave, past the now defunct Cyborg sitting near the entrance, and into the inner recess of the cavern. “Let’s have another look at those crates.” Jones indicated towards the rear, where two grey cases lay open, their lids broken open and thrown to one side. “There’s no writing or symbols or anything, they’re quite blank.” Lilly leaned into the nearest one and ran her hands around the inside; “Nothing here Captain.” She added with some disappointment in her voice.
But the Captain’s attention had been drawn elsewhere; he walked past Lilly and the abandoned crates to the very rear of the cave. Lilly watched in amazement as he disappeared into the darkness.
“Captain! Captain!” She called anxiously and then quickly followed him. It was another much smaller cave entrance, slopping downwards, winding away into the darkness. Lilly’s and the Captain’s helmet lights simply could not penetrate the blackness to any great distance, but Jones pointed to the soft dirt of the small caves floor.
"!Human footprints.” The Captain then spotted more sinister marks in the sand. “Cyborgs.” He said and kneeling down, inspected the clear indications that a couple of Cyborg’s, accompanied by a single human, had passed through here and into the depths of the cave system.
“There are no return prints.” Lilly said, looking about and then yelled; “Captain, the wall over there has a claw hammer driven into it and looks like a tag attached!” Jones could now see the hammer embedded in the rock face and hanging from it: a yellow tag. “It was probably used to open the crates.” Jones muttered, but he gently lifted the tag and read out aloud, the simple sentence written on it; “Suicide is painless for those you love. J E Stanner.”
Lilly and the Captain exchanged glances and after a few seconds Jones said simply; “Let’s go.” The pair returned to the cave entrance and emerged back into the sunlight. “Captain, can you read me?” It was Tom’s voice; “We’ve found the woman’s body – It’s badly shot up, looks like a laser weapon. She’s a real mess.” Jones acknowledged the call and they made their way to a small rocky knoll some distance from the cave. Then Leon’s voice came on line, quite calm and steady; "The other one is here too. But it looks like he was shot in the back.”
Jones and Lilly joined up with their companions at the little group of rocks which formed a horse-shoe shape in the dirt and viewed the bodies. The woman was indeed in a bad state, it looked like she had been killed at close range with one of the old fashioned Laser handguns that were common military issue a Century ago. Tom lifted her right arm and everyone could see a gun still clutched in her dead fingers. “Died fighting, I suppose.” He said sadly.
Lilly had turned away from the dreadful sight and Jones gripped her arm;”Go fetch the ‘sand-cat’ - we’ll get the bodies onto the flatbed.” Lilly managed to smile and said; “Thank you Captain.” Then she made her way back to the ‘little Thor’. Jones inspected the young man’s body and could see he had been shot through the small of the back and the exit wound was the size of a football, there was bits of bone and intestines around his hands, which were still clutching his stomach. But it was the look on his face that drew everyone’s attention, not the agony of a terrible wound, but something else.
“Surprise.” Tom spoke quietly and he reached down and pulled the dead man’s Laser pistol from its holster. “He was killed from behind in total surprise, didn’t even have his gun at the ready.” All three turned and looked at the woman’s body, the arm holding her weapon was pointed directly at where the young man lay.
“What the fuck went on here?” Leon asked no-one specifically. He shook his head and added; "This is some fucked up situation, our own military turning on each other in the middle of a fucking war, an unknown corpse dressed up to be someone else and no sign’s anywhere of the enemy.”
The three stood in silence for about a minute, then Lilly pulled the ‘sand-cat’ up, a couple of meters from the knoll, she jumped from the cab with a canvas ground sheet in her arms. "This will help move her body.” Jones and Tom wrapped the girl’s body in the sheet and Tom noticed something glint in the lip of her helmet. He reached in and pulled the fragile little object out. He held it up and the Captain sighed; “A golden Crescent, the sign of the North American Caliphate, she must have had it hidden around her neck.” They finished wrapping her badly damaged body and placed it upon the flat bed.
Leon had also found something on the man’s body: a small brown wallet. He held it open for the others to see. A simple picture of a very pretty young woman cradling an infant in her arms, written on the bottom was: ’My Julie and our son David.’ Each looked at it in turn; Leon muttered something and pushed it back into the dead man’s pocket.
They gently lifted his body onto the flatbed and covered it with a ground sheet, fastening the pair down for their journey back to the Thor. Bella then called the Captain to say that she had heard from Military Control, they were closed down with bad weather and Colonel La Strade wanted the Captain to make a full report, over the secure channel, when he returned to the Thor.
“Affirmative Bella, tell them I will when I return.” Jones climbed into the ‘sand-cat’ and stared out the windscreen, various thoughts flooded his mind, especially the note Stanner left. Bella called up the Captain again to say that Kazza had the relic working and there was a video on it that he should see.
Jones smiled as the crew settled in, Tom turned to him; “I told you that little shit was a wizard with anything electrical.” Jones nodded; “Let’s get back to the Thor and get Eve to have a look at these two.” Leon pulled away from the knoll and Jones looked back at the cave entrance with mixed emotions, he hoped that the old phone could shed some light onto what happened here, all those years ago, and was the outcome worth three young lives.
He leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes, Stanners last written words hung heavy on his mind: “Suicide is painless for those you love. J E Stanner.”
12. THE DEAD TELL TALES.
The bodies were examined by Eve insitu; there was no more room in the medical bay. The hand held Mediscan revealed that the woman had died from multiple injuries caused by laser fire; “Someone really wanted her dead, they lasered her about three times. One would have been enough.” Eve stated, the girl’s surface suit had been removed and everyone could see the real extent of her injuries. But it was the tattoo’s that caught the crew’s attention: on both arms, her legs and back were covered with Arabic symbols.
“That’s verse from the Koran.” The Chief said as he rummaged through her discarded surface suit and pulled a small plastic card from the outer lining, he held it up and Jones read it carefully: “AB2341JHN7568XX”
“That looks like some kind of launch code.” Tom offered his opinion; “Or to arm a weapon.”
“Wrap them in sheets and we’ll take a look at that old phone.” Jones said and he with the Chief and Tom, made their way to the Thor’s small workshop, where a very self-satisfied Kazza awaited them. Eve and Frankie set about wrapping up the bodies for their journey to Rossington, whilst Peter and the remaining bridge crew already had the Thor underway.
Kazza handed the Captain the old phone and explained how he managed to charge it and break the entry code that protected the contents. “The videos are something else.” He said, tapping the screen; "The first one’s a bit dark, he must have made it in that cave.”
Jones held the phone up for the others to view and a fuzzy picture appeared upon the small screen: A man in a surface suit, the name tag read M A KHAN; he looked around 16/17 years old with a dark beard and brown eyes. He was speaking into the camera, but of course, there was no sound as voices cannot penetrate the suit helmet and the crew watched as he pointed to the first open crate, where a Cyborg was pulling the contents out.
It shocked the crew, they couldn’t believe it as a naked and obviously dead young male, was laid upon the floor of the cave. “That’s our John Doe!” Tom gasped; “No wonder our Human Archives had no record of him, they must have brought it from Earth!”
Khan then pointed the phone to the second crate, revealing a strange metallic object that had several small red and green lights illuminated. Khan touched the object and with the same hand made a cutting movement across his neck. He held the phone close to his helmet’s face plate and mouthed very slowly: “Everyone.”
He held the phone to his name tag and shook his head, as if saying “NO.” Khan held up a surface suit with his other hand and showed the name tag to the camera;’ J E STANNER’, he then tapped his chest and smiled, then placing the phone against the crate, the crew watched as he dressed the corpse, removing the pistol from its holster and then pulling the oxygen cylinders from the rear.
The first video then ended. Jones looked at their amazed faces; “Stanner’s must have filmed that before the body was placed on the sand, and before the other two arrived.” The Chief grunted; “The woman was a physicist, she would know how to arm that bloody thing and she was carrying the firing code.”
The Captain rubbed his chin and smiled; “I think we could put together a story that fits what we have, but let’s get to the Galley, I need coffee.” The four made their way to the Mess where Bella was filling cups with coffee and handing out biscuits. They were joined by Frankie and Eve who had secured the bodies in the cargo hold; Troy took a tray to the bridge for Peter and Leon who were driving the rig.
With everyone seated in the Galley, Jones (with Kazza’s assistance) switched on the next video; "Again, there’s very little light, just some coming through a back window.” He added, then grinning; “This is most interesting, they get four out of five for artistic merit!”
The little screen came to life and everyone chuckled, Lilly looked a little embarrassed and sipped her coffee without comment – that made the Chief and Tom smile; “It’s amazing what people film in the privacy of a hotel room.” Tom laughed as they watched two people having sex on a large bed.
“That’s our dead girl, those tattoos are quite distinctive, and she looks a lot better there than she does now.” The Chief commented; “Now who’s the lucky fella?”
Tom answered that one; “It’s Stanner – and this was filmed on Earth, you can see blue sky through the window and a tree.” Everyone nodded in agreement and the short film ended abruptly.
“Right, let’s put together what we have.” Jones leaned back in his seat and sipped his coffee; “A team from Earth slip our radar and deliver two crates to Valley La Mort just before the invasion starts – now this is important, they don’t activate the weapon because they think the invasion will be successful – it’s a back-up plan. They have two agents in the Mars Military or so they think.”
Jones placed his cup on the table and folded his arms; “In reality, Stanners is a double agent and his plan is almost copied from an incident that happened centuries ago on Earth, during one of their many bloody wars. He knows that if Petra Dreyfuss gets near the thing, she’ll detonate. So he dumps the body to make her believe he’s dead, maybe she’ll cancel the mission. But it goes wrong; she thinks her lover and fellow agent has been killed and their plan has been compromised. Petra kills young Kobi Samurri to cover any loose ends and maybe Stanner witness’s the killing and knows she will finish the mission, so he has to make sure she’s dead and kills her.”
“He certainly did that.” Eve said; “And then some.” The crew laughed and the Captain continued; "I think Stanners had a last minute change of mind. The enemy had paid him, he would be a hero had the invasion succeeded, living with his lover in a new religious paradise. But it was a total failure, Mars Military lost a lot of good people – but they won. Stanner’s was now trapped on Mars with a girlfriend who wished to be a martyr and take an entire planet with her, including him.”
“They [Mars Military] would have charged him with treason and his life would be over. So the only option open to him is to hide the device where no-one would ever find it, in a cave system that stretches for thousands of Kilometres below the surface.” Jones sipped more coffee and continued; "He has no choice, he uses the two remaining Cyborgs to carry the device underground – they could carry it far into the cave system before their power ran out – and he went with them. The note on the tag points to that.”
“He didn’t want anyone else to have such a terrible device and he paid with his life.” Lilly sounded quite sad and nibbled at a biscuit. “Our John Doe will never be identified now, what DNA records remain on Earth?” She sipped her coffee and replaced the cup upon the table.
“What anything remains on Earth?” Tom replied with some sarcasm in his voice.
There was a murmur of agreement from the crew and Jones raised an arm to signal the end of discussions; “Right people, let’s get to Rossington and La Strade can take care of our cargo. I best call Fort Benjamin and give them some sort of explanation.”
Kazza held up a hand with a puzzled look on his face; “Skipper, can I ask something?” Jones nodded and he said simply; “Who the fuck was M A KHAN then?” Everyone laughed when Jones replied; “I have no bloody idea!”
“Maybe M A KHAN is our ‘John Doe’, he could have died on the trip to Mars and kept stored by Stanner, who then swapped surface suits with him and used him as the decoy. That makes sense I think.” Tom offered the explanation to the crew who nodded with agreement.
“I like that Tom, I like that a lot.” Jones was impressed with that idea, it tied up a very loose end and the ‘John Doe’ certainly was not Martian in origin – everyone on Mars had their DNA record stored from the very early days of colonisation. Maybe the ‘Dunnings’ of New London were relatives who had arrived before the Invasion attempt.
Everyone started to leave the table, but Bella asked Kazza to help clear the crockery away as Frankie needed to prep for the evening meal. Eve and the Captain exchanged smiles; “I think someone is about to find out that he’s going to be a dad.” Eve whispered and Jones agreed; “Have the smelling salts on standby!”
Dallas jumped onto the table and found a shiny new toy to play with; the old phone - Everyone watched as he pushed it about with his paws. “Maybe he’s going to call one of his ancestors!” Kazza chuckled, adding; "Is it me or is that cat bigger than yesterday? "and reached to pick the phone up before Dallas dropped it on the floor.
That’s when it started to ring and vibrate. Someone was calling? There was absolute silence and amazement in the Galley. Then Eve said quietly; "Who's going to answer it?”
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| FOLLOW THE ROVER TO EPISODE 5: "THE ICE SHELF." |
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"William Alexander Stephens."
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W.A.S.
Copyright © 2011-2021 Stephen Williams. No reproduction of any part without permission.
