Armstrong Division Chapter 2

He hadn’t told Damien at the cafe, but Jake had already met with a member of the underground the day before yesterday about joining. The recruiter had given him a disposable tablet with instructions loaded onto an encrypted file. He gave Jake the password and showed him how to destroy the file after he memorized the instructions.

The first instruction was to go to the spaceport…

On the way to the spaceport, he downloaded a newspaper to read. He had to hole up tonight in a quiet corner in a hangar somewhere in the spaceport and he didn’t how many hours or days it would take before he would be smuggled out to Triusdz space. He knew he’d want something to kill time.

He walked to the spaceport instead of taking a taxi or bus to avoid having anyone who might possibly remember him. No one remembers a random guy walking down the street, but cabbies remember a lot of their fares and someone might try to strike up a conversation on the bus and remember his face.

As he walked up the stairs on the overpass to get to the spaceport, he rehearsed his instructions over the sound of the busy street below. He quietly muttered, “Go into the Wild Geese Bar and Grill. Find the bar and look for a bartender with a green button on his lapel. Say a sentence including the word water. If he replies with a sentence that includes smoke, wait a few minutes and go into the office in the back. If he doesn’t say smoke, walk away and continue with my life until I receive new instructions.”

Jake was trying his best to stay cool and not show his anxiety. He didn’t want to attract any attention as he looked around the spaceport for the Wild Geese Bar and Grill, but despite his best efforts he was worried about being spotted and picked up. As he came in, he happened to notice right away a display panel showing the layout of the spaceport. He walked over and typed in “Wild Ge…” and selected the name of the place from the drop-down menu that appeared. It was around the corner and on the left about 100 meters.

The security seemed stifling, even more so than normal. There were cameras everywhere. Several sensor drones rolled around on the floor looking for something or someone. He knew that every person he saw was likely to be an informer or an undercover security officer. He noticed the uniformed guards with their particle weapons posted every few feet. He tried not to pay too much attention to them, after all he was just here because he’d heard about an amazing bar. At least that’s what he would tell them. Its amazing how much more nervousness increases as you get closer to execution time.

It didn’t take him long to walk over the Wild Geese Bar and Grill. He walked in. It was dimly lit and cloudy from all the smoke. Smoking had recently become fashionable again when the restrictions were lifted from tobacco and that Triusdz weed, columi. He saw the bar to the left and sat himself away from the three people already there.

There was only one bartender, but he had his back to Jake serving drinks to one of the others at first and he couldn’t see if he was wearing a green button on his lapel. When he was done with that other customer, he promptly turned around to serve Jake. As he came closer, Jake saw a green button that said, “Kiss me! I’m Irish!”

“Can I get a glass of water while I look on this display panel for what I want to order?”

“Would you care to order something to smoke? Or just a drink? Or still deciding?”

“Still deciding. Can you give me a little bit?”

The barkeep was back three minutes later, “What’ll it be?”

“Actually, I think I need to take a leak first.”

“Sure. It’s right over there next to the office.”

“Thanks.”

Jake got up out of his seat and walked over to the office like he worked there. He turned the handle, opened the door and walked in. There was no one inside. There were two chairs, a desk, a computing station, and a few papers. Whoever worked here had to be one of the few people left who still used paper for anything. “Do they still make it anymore?” Jake wondered.

He sat in one of the chairs and waited. After about thirty seconds, the wall opposite the door rose up and a man stood there emerging from the dark frantically motioning him to join him behind the wall.

Armstrong Division Chapter 1

 “C’mon! Don’t you have any sense of adventure?” Jake said as he flashed the most charming smile he could muster.

            “Is that what you had to ask me about in person? Jake, I like adventure as much as the next guy, but you know the penalty if we get caught!”  Damien said in hushed outrage. He dared not let the other people at the cafe or those walking by on the sidewalk know that his friend Jake was trying to recruit him into joining the Neil Armstrong Division. The penalty he spoke of was a public lashing every day for a year and after the last day of lashings there was a public execution to send a message that humanity was staying out of alien wars.

        “That just makes it even more exciting! And you know it’s the right thing to do!” he retorted and calmly added; “Besides they’ve only caught just a small handful.”

            “By ‘small handful’ you mean over 5,000 since they passed the law against it last year? You go if you want to but I’ll have nothing to do with it.” Damien said in another hushed voice of outrage.

            “Fine! I’m about to go on the adventure of a lifetime and if my best friend is too afraid to join me then so be it.”

            Jake shot of his seat almost knocking over his chair. He reached in his pocket and threw down a few coins to pay for his coffee that he didn’t even drink. Despite taking offense at Damien’s rejection, he did his best after getting out of his chair to not show his emotions and draw undue attention. These days everyone seemed to be an informer or worse.

          He hurried off down the sidewalk never once looking back at Damien. He was sure Damien would join him. Jake had always been reckless, impulsive, thrill-seeking and Damien had always enjoyed going along on his adventures, until now. He felt as though he had left half of himself sitting there at that table.

           Why didn’t Damien come along? He knew the outrage Damien felt at the Klosx for their constant raids on Earth for supplies and slaves. Why won’t he take up arms with the Triusdz in the Armstrong Division? Why wouldn’t he strike back? What good is all that outrage if you won’t do anything about it? How is anything going to change with so many people unwilling to take action?

           He was sure about one thing though, no matter how Damien felt about joining, he’d rather die than give Jake up to the security forces. Earth had become a security state and Big Brother was omnipresent. The Klosx raids had made everyone afraid and like so many times before in history, fear caused many to demand a more powerful state and many in power were quite willing to accept that power. Everyone seemed to have become a part of the state’s security network in some way. Many sought out their role as spy or security officer to power and gain. Others were coerced and subsumed. Trustworthy friends like Damien were worth their weight in platinum.

         “What has become of people these days that they rather remained as sheep with an impotent shepherd waiting for the wolf to pick them off?” Jake thought as he stormed off.