“You mentioned a Captain Hozenbur,” the interviewer asked, “Isn’t she the EBio officer who is gunning for you?”
“She is.” Lisa replied. Jill was curious how her step mother was going to answer that question. Her mother didn’t avoid talking about Hozenbur; she just didn’t like talking about her.
“Why?” Doug asked.
“I escaped from a company containment and alignment team she ran. These teams were supposed to work inside the company to prevent company officials from doing harm to the company. Things like selling company secrets. Back room deals for selling clones. Or anything else a company executive might do that he didn’t want the board to know about. At first there were two types of containment teams. One was a deep cover team that went into a troubled Ebio operation and ferreted out the things the company execs at the operation were doing. Sometimes they took aggressive operations. Such as terminating employees violently. Sometimes just a quiet conversation with the offending employee, other times an employee’s spouse disappeared. It was always done low key; but the company employee knew what had happened. Then there was the company police type of containment team. These people came in very publicly. They were the arm of the CEO. When they came in they could do anything they wanted. Well Hozenbur is a crossbreed. She worked both undercover and in public. Later when more and more of us were escaping from Ebio, or the people who had purchased our contracts, she headed a third type of team called a Runner Team. Her job was to capture the runners, like me, and then in a very public way, show my fellow biopeople who had not escaped, what happens when you tried to escape.
“Well a few years back I had helped a couple hundred or so developmentals, as we call children, who were being sent to Pleasure escape. They were destined to be prostitutes. None of them were over the age of twelve standard years old. They were sending children as young as nine to be sexual toys.” There was venom in her voice, “I couldn’t let that happen so I got aboard as a helper. What I didn’t know was that Hozenbur had set me up. You see I had been on the run ten years at that time and Hozenbur still wanted me. She was still very angry that I had killed one of her team members and ad escaped from her team. The company security apparatus wanted me back for a couple of reasons. Mostly though because to date I was not the only the most successful runner they had ever come up against; but one to thwart some of their operations.
“I didn’t know this.” Lisa continued, “All I knew was that I wasn’t going to let these young children be sold into sexual slavery. So mid-way to Pleasure I made my move. When I did Hozenbur, who had been shadowing the ship, boarded. There was a pitched fire fight. She was so intent on getting me, that she killed other company personnel, including a couple of people on her team. She killed several of the children. I finally got her cornered in a life pod. The transport’s captain was going to let her stay in there until we made port. But I said hell no and ejected the pod when we came out of hyper. I truly hoped I had killed her. Anyone who would kill children is not a human being. I thought I was exterminating vermin!” Lisa said with passion, “I don’t know who rescued her or how? I don’t really care. I hope that the authorities arrest her soon. She is a menace to peaceful people.”
“You’re full name is Lisa, 1984 OAP,” Doug asked. “What do the letters mean?”
Lisa frowned for a second as if she didn’t want to discuss it. You could tell by watching that she didn’t like it; but in the end that she didn’t have any choice in the matter.
“I was the one thousand, nine hundred and eighty-fourth product, to be produced from the last genome group of the alpha lot. The sierra means surrogate. I was specifically designed to bring to full term human babies. It was thought that our contracts would be sold to such families that couldn’t have children the old fashion way and wanted someone to surrogate for them. As part of the design, we were given the best genes for health, longevity, intelligence. Everything a genetic designer thought would help sell the product. We were considered perfect beings. We are based on the Delta Clones, who were designed to be perfect beings. Unfortunately when we were created the company bioengineers messed up. They couldn’t sterilize us like Terran Imperial law demanded as then we couldn’t carry children. So we were literally born almost pregnant. Thankfully, though we can only be made pregnant by a male clone of our same genome, or by artificial insemination.” Jill caught Lisa looking away from the camera catching her lie. Jill knew better. Lisa had told her more than even she had her father. Lisa was concerned that her very public pregnancy might cause problems for biopeople who had escaped from production worlds. They were anything but sterile.
“You are pregnant now.” The interviewer stated.
“Yes,” Lisa said and saw a way to help her fellow biopeople in the future, “This is mine and Michael’s second and third child.”
“Is your husband a bioengineered human being,” The interviewer asked.
“Not in the sense he is bio engineered.” Lisa said, “His mother, one of the heirs of the original founders of EBio did do some genetic engineering to ensure her son had a certain look, things that parents have been doing for centuries. Now when you consider that the human population is now over several trillion galaxy wide it isn’t much of a stretch that one of those trillions might have the ability to get us pregnant.”
“I see,” Mr. Least said. Mitch commented to herself, that she didn’t think Least knew where to go from where he was. “So he is that one in a trillion?”
“Oh yes!” Lisa said with a dreamy expression on her face, continuing with softness in her voice, “He is definitely one in a trillion.”
The girls who were sitting with Jill saw the look on her step mother’s face and knew without a doubt what their commander’s mother thought of her husband.
“Lord Wilson,” Least said, “actually retired from the Imperial Marine Corps to be with you. This is almost straight out of romance novels.”
“Yes,” Lisa blushed, “it would seem so.”
“Huh, huh,” someone murmured. Jill couldn’t tell who said it.
“He found you in his brig?” Least asked, “How did you wind up there?”
“It’s kind of funny,” Lisa smiled, “seven years ago, maybe not that long ago, I needed to be gone. I needed to be underground, and out of sight. Some place Hozenbur wouldn’t think to look and I could do something meaningful. So I signed on with the Imperil Space Navy Medical Corps. Not the IRS. I got through basic, then the Navy decided with my history, that I didn’t need to go through medic school, and assigned me to a small patrol boat as a corpsmen. That suited me. It was a small boat. It had a crew of thirty. I kept them healthy, and bound their wounds for about a year until my competency caught up to me. My C.O. and the Surgeon General for the area both recommended me for O school.
“Well I tried to refuse but one of the chiefs sat me down and read my beads like only a good chief can and convinced me to accept the offer.” Lisa continued, “So I packed my space bag and started toward Earth where I was going to attend a ninety day wonder school. It was while I was on the transport, I heard that Michael had just been made a Knight Commander of the Empire. I had never tried to find him, or let him know I was alive.”
“Why was that,” Least asked.
“I didn’t want Hozenbur to kill him.” Lisa answered, “That animal would do just that, will do that if she thinks she can get away with it. Besides he had married years before and I wasn’t going to mess with that. So I learned that Michael was now a Knight Commander and that more or less closed the door on us. A Knight Commander could not be involved with a biowoman. It would bring too much scandal to the Court of Columbus.
I knew Michael or thought I did. So I made up my mind we couldn’t be.
“While I was on my way to the Maverick Academy, the Naval Investigative Service did a back ground check on me. They took my application and vetted it. They found out that I was a bioengineered person.”
“But didn’t they know?” Least asked, “I would have thought a simple DNA test would reveal that!”
“Well it would have if I hadn’t messed with my original enlistment physical. I also had died my hair and changed my appearance to not look like a Delta bioperson. I had to do this, as biopeople are not allowed to serve in the imperial military.” Lisa replied with some venom, “I didn’t get a chance to mess with the results of the physical they gave me prior to my departure to Earth. The physical happened literally moments before I had to leave to get to the transport taking me to Earth. I was booked on civilian transport all the way to Earth. A doctor on Shortfall, where I was sworn in and processed for the Maverick Academy, processed the physical results had no choice but to tell the MPs. The warrant reached Earth several days before I arrived, and was waiting for me when I signed in at the
Maverick Academy.”
She took a sip of water. Gathered her thoughts for a second then continued. “So when I reported to the Academy, the in processing clerk saw that my name was flagged for the MPs. He called the provost who sent an MP to pick me up. Sergeant Bren, who was the MP who arrested me, knew who I was immediately. She escorted me to the brig. Apologizing all the way! Sergeant Bren was one the MPs that my husband had trained over the years, and knew of me. I hadn’t realized that he kept a photo of me on his desk in his office. Bren escorted me to the Capital Marine Corps Brigade’s brig. It was where Michael found me.”
“You didn’t try to escape in route.” The reported asked.
“Why?” Lisa replied, “If I escaped from Sergeant Bren she would be given a reprimand for letting a prisoner escape and besides I knew that within a short period of time I would get a bad papers discharge and be out of the military. It didn’t make sense to cause any trouble. Besides I knew how the sergeant’s network works. I knew that even if I could not be with Michael, he would make sure he saw me.”
“So he found you in his brig,” Least asked. “What was that like?” She smiled and asked, “Before or after he read my beads?” “Kind of angry at you huh?” the interviewer asked.
“You might say that,” Lisa chuckled, “Everyone has a picture of a marine NCO being loud, noisy and profane. That his profanity could blister paint. Michael didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t use one piece of profanity. Yet he let me know how stupid I was. How incredibly lucky I was to be in his brig. Etc etc. Then he yelled at the guard to see that no one disturbed him for a while. Opened the cell door and well he let me know how much he missed me. Over the next few days we filled in each other of what we had been doing for the past few years. I didn’t know he had lost his wife in child birth, and that he had a daughter who lived with Admiral Wilson. I also learned that he was retiring from the marines because of his heritage being a Hazelton.”
“So you weren’t the reason he left the marines?” Least asked.
“No,” Lisa answered, “He had just started the process when I was arrested! It was nearly perfect timing on my part. Or so I thought!
“One day he and the JAG assigned to me came into my cell to inform me that the company in the person of Captain Hozenbur requested that I be released to her. The JAG said he had no other recourse; but to do that. I had been allowed access to both counsel and a legal library, both Military Law and Civil Law. The young officer was correct Imperial Law required that as I was the property of EBio that I had to be returned to the company forthwith. No one liked it; but there was nothing we could do about it.”
“Is that when the Marshall broke you out of the brig and came to Trena,” Least asked.
“Yes,” Lisa replied, “He had already turned in his papers. His mother had died and left him her entire estate. When he found Hozenbur was coming to collect me, he turned
his fortune over to his daughter Jill, and left the Empire with me.” “So the Marshal is a wanted felon on Earth,” Least asked.
“Technically no,” Lisa responded knowing she had just messed with the reporter’s hate campaign against her husband, “As a major stock holder of EBio, he had just recovered a piece of missing property. He was legally entitled to take me out of that brig on Earth, to return me to EBio.”
“But you said you escaped?” Least said, “That implies that you were running away. That maybe someone wasn’t too happy with that?”
“Well Hozenbur wasn’t,” The biowoman remarked, “She and Ebio Security’s chief were much unhappy about this. If it hadn’t been for some very special friends we wouldn’t have made it to Trena.”
“Anyone in particular,” Least asked hoping he could find some dirt.
“Yes,” Lisa said and looked directly at the man. “General Carroll Alphine of the Imperial Marine Corps, Sergeant Nancy Bren, Lieutenant Andy Toliver, and the crew of the Mists of Empire. We couldn’t have escaped from the company without them. To all of you I say thank you.”
Least looked at Lisa wondering where to go from here. He had suspected that he could rattle her and make her say something inflammatory; but she had been rock steady and cool. So he started on his next questions, “Some say that you have encouraged your husband to promote clones ahead of other people with more experience.”
Lisa flashed over right then and there. Her step mother was not known to have a temper. Even her father had reflected that it took a lot to anger her. Now, Least had touched a raw nerve and her temper came to the surface, “Mr. Least, it is true that a good portion of the evacuation command staff is made up of bioengineered human beings, but so is our society. My husband’s staff is made up of Thonians, Earth Humans, and people from The People’s Republic of the Stars, defected Theocracy citizens and native born Trenans. All of them have two things in common, they are first and foremost citizens of this kingdom of which you are not, and secondly they have a strong desire to help the people of Trena escape the devastating destruction about to befall on our home. You on the other hand are not more than a pip squeak, who for some reason unknown to the Crown, the evacuation command, and the people of Trena, have been working against them since the evacuation was first announced. Your actions have almost; but not quite reach the level of treason. It is only through the good common sense of people like my husband, Queen Agatha and the other souls in positions of authority that you have not been asked to leave Trena. My husband among others may not like you; but he has said time and time again that freedom of press means just that. We have to let you say and do what you do so as to keep people like him in check. Now we don’t like you, and I almost said no to this interview. I didn’t want to wind up on your trophy wall.”
“Get him mom!” Jill said softly. Mitch and Lamile heard her as some of the cadets yelled, “Get him Lady W. You go girl! “
Lamile who had been slowly acclimating to her duties as the deputy cadet commander spoke quietly to Mitch. “Think we can put a parade together for Lady Wilson?”
“I don’t know major,” Mitch said. “We haven’t done that before. Shouldn’t our first parade be for the Queen or the Marshal?”
“Let me think about it Mitch.” Lamile said. “I wonder what Sergeant Millie would say?”
Lisa began to speak again getting both girls attention after she had collected her thoughts, “If you have a problem with the way that the evacuation is being run? Then say so in plain English. But don’t make snide remarks and back stabbing comments.”
There was shocked silence in the small garden. Then Mr. Least said, “It is true then that your husband has been allowing the press onto the evacuation flights, and has let them go anywhere beside his personal spaces.”
“That’s right he feels that his personal life is his own, and that his public life is public. The management of the evacuation is fair game. His personal life is not. He feels that all of us are entitled to some privacy. A privacy some of you in the press think we are not entitled to.”
“Why are you here then Lady Wilson,” The man asked.
“Mostly because I felt it was time and
so did my family that the people of Trena know about me from me.” Lisa said, “We wanted to end some rumors that were going on.”
“I see.” The man said then saw his floor director was telling him to wrap it up. “I am afraid that is all we have time for this evening Lady Wilson. Thank you, for talking with me this evening.” He turned to the camera and said, “That ends Day One, for this week. Good evening.”
###
“Sergeant Green may I speak with you,” Mitch came into the office that the Sergeant was working out of the next evening. She was packing up to get over to General Alphine’s office at Fletcher Militia Base, where she would be the night Duty NCO for the Imperial Marines.
“Sure Mitch,” Millie Green said, “but you have to walk with me.”
“The cadets want to have a parade in honor for Lady Wilson.” Mitch said, “A couple of them have come up to me and asked if they could.”
“A parade,” Millie asked, then she got it, “You mean a pass in review with Lady
Wilson as the reviewer?” “Yes,” Mitch said.
“Why didn’t Colonel Wilson or Major Atomi ask?” Sergeant Green said getting into her jeep.
“Major Atomi wanted to do it; but wasn’t certain if she should make the request.” Mitch said. “She was afraid of the proprieties of her asking, and we haven’t discussed it with Jill.”