The Assignment

At the age of twenty, Jayce Richardson was having sex for the second time.

As he made love to the beautifully pale blue-skinned Ruluvia, he couldn't help remembering his first time having sex with the beautifully pink-skinned, Private Janice Whitcomb. Of course, that had been under rather different circumstances. The High Command had insisted that that they do the full deed in order that Janice's rape accusations be provable in a court of law. Still, Jayce had enjoyed carrying out that order rather more than most, and he liked to think that Janice had enjoyed it too.

Now, however, his relationship with Ruluvia was purely consensual. In the case of Ruluvia, very consenusal.

"Is it true," asked Ruluvia, "that you can do other things with Gyango?"

"Other things?"

"Well, we all know that you use Gyango to fight in different gravity fields, but I've heard that you Gyango masters study the art of making love in various gravity fields."

Jayce smiled. "Sorry, I wouldn't know."

The two might have gone on like that in Jayce's bed if there had not been a knock on the door. Ruluvia swore and pulled the covers up to her chin. "You should probably get that."

Jayce put on shorts and opened the door to see his brother, Michael, no less.

"Jayce?" asked Micheal peering into the room and realizing what was going on. "The Grand Overlord has requested your presence immediately."

"Let me get my clothes on."

"Sorry," he said to Ruluvia as he put on his clothes. "Duty calls." He kissed her on the forehead.

"Of course," said Ruluvia. "I envy you. I wish The Grand Overlord would summon me as often as he does you. I would be so proud."

Jayce couldn't help sighing at that. Just about everyone on this planet whether human like his brother, or Gringan like Ruluvia thought that the Grand Overlord was the most wonderful being in the known universe. In a twisted way, Jayce couldn't help envying them.

As Micheal led him through the building which doubled as the Temple and the base, Jayce sensed his hostility. "You seem to be pretty happy here," said Micheal.

"I've experienced worse," said Jayce with a smile.

But Micheal didn't smile back. "If you had known it was going to be this good, you probably would have joined up much sooner."

That made Jayce stop smiling. "For the last time, little brother, I do not regret joining the Federation Marines. The values they represent are what I longed for all my life." He tried to ignore Micheal's eye roll and went on bitterly. "I'd probably still be there if they hadn't accused me of that ugly crime. That's when I realized that what they represent and what they practice are two very different things."

"Really?" said Micheal. "That's what alerted you to it? Not all the other things on the Interstellar news? Like when they tortured that Yarnian to gain information? Or when they used nerve gas to annilhate that entire population of Arlingians? Or when-"

Jayce decided not to listen to the rest of that. He knew his brother. He also knew that every one of the "atrocities" his brother was now enumerating had saved millions of lives, but he saw no point in arguing. Besides, another corner of his mind reminded him, to be too pro-marine would hurt his cover.

When they arrived at the Grand Overlord's chamber, Micheal tried to stay for the meeting, but the Grand Overlord dismissed him.

"An excellent man," said the Grand Overlord as Micheal left the room. "Unquestionably loyal."

Jayce looked into the eyes of the Grand Overlord. The Grand Overlord was a Gringan like Ruluvia, but instead of pale blue skin like most Gringans, he had skin so dark it almost looked purple. Whether this was because of his age or his temperment, Jayce could never be sure. "If my brother is so loyal," he asked, "why don't you give him more responsibility around here?" What he really meant was "why do you always want to talk to me and not to him?"

The Grand Overlord frowned. "I have learned that loyalty is a somewhat overrated virtue. Especially when placed on the scale against competence."

Jayce decided to smile and take that as a compliment.

"Have you," asked the Grand Overlord, "watched the holovision at all in the past twenty-four hours?"

"Holovision? Of course not, Your Emminence. Holovision is a tool of the destructive death merchants. I thought nobody here watched Holovision in order to keep themselves spiritually pure."

If the Grand Overlord detected the irony in Jayce's tone, he didn't comment on it. "Then you have not heard about this." He touched a button on his remote control, and a perfectly good Holovision came to life in the room. Jayce watched as it played a recording.

"Wow!" he said when it was over.

"Wow, indeed. What do you think of that race which has been proposed around the planet, Toby? If you entered it, do you think that you could win it?"

Jayce shrugged. "As my computer would say, 'Insufficient Data'. I don't know enough about the race itself."

"Understood," said the Grand Overlord. "Still, I think it's fair to say that given your. . .competencies. . .you have a greater chance of winning, than any other member of our order."

Now Jayce got serious. "I see. You may be right about that. But. . .why do you want anyone from our order to enter the race? Surely, our order has no use for a laser space drill."

"Of course not," said the Grand Overlord in an unconvincing tone, "but the drill needs to be kept out of the hands of the military industrial complex. Will you do this service to our order?"

Jayce thought about it. He actually had a few different emotions at the moment partly because he had a few different roles each with their own emotions. As a member of the order, he couldn't help feeling flattered that the Grand Overlord would choose him for such a mission. As a loyal marine, he felt worried about the possibility that the Grand Overlord would get the laser and the havoc that would cause. Beyond that, there was another person--namely the boy, Jayce Richardson, who had wanted to be a Space Marine in the first place. That boy was burning with curiosity about the race.

Finally he smiled and said, "Sure. When do I leave?"

That evening, as he was packing his bag to leave, he took a minute to make sure that he was completely alone in his room and pulled out a small device which might have been an ordinary flashlight, but when he turned it on, he spoke into it. "Agent Richardson reporting."

A tinny voice from within the device responded. "Krylon online. Proceed with your report Agent Richardson."

For one moment, Jayce lost control of himself. "Krylon, ever since I started this mission, my reports have been to you, a freakin' computer. Just once, couldn't I report to a human being? Or any other kind of being for that matter?"

"Negative," responded Krylon. "An organic lifeform would lack the ability to analyze the data in your report and would not be able to use the data to maximum advantage. This would be an unsatisfactory outcome. Now, please proceed with your report."

Jayce sighed and recounted the afternoon's conversation with the Grand Overlord.

When he was finished, Krylon said, "One moment please. Processing data." After a few minutes of silence, Krylon spoke again. "Analysis. Should you enter the 'race' and win it, the Laser Drill would fall into the hands of the Exorgian order. This would be an unsatisfactory outcome."

"I agree with you on that," said Jayce. "So maybe I should just throw the race."

"Negative. For a few reasons. The first being that such a ruse would cause the Grand Overlord to become personally displeased with you. Your value to us as an asset would decrease. This is an unsatisfactory outcome."

"So what do you want me to do?"

"You will participate in the 'race'. However, on the way to the planet designated as 'Toby' you will report to X7519, where you will be supplied with a detonator."

"A detonator!"

"You will endeavor to win the 'race'. If you do, you will deliver the laser drill into the hands of the Grand Overlord, but not before attaching the detonator to the drill. The detonator will be strong enough to annilhate the drill, and if it goes off at the appropriate time, it will also annilhate the Grand Overlord and most of the Exorgian Order. This is a satisfacrory outcome."

"Good God!" thought Jayce to himself. Out loud, he said. "Orders Acknowledged, but can I ask one favor?"

When Krylon didn't respond, he said. "I know I can't speak with any humans back home until this is over, but could you send a message to one? Specifically, a Private Janice Whitcomb. Tell her that I know she was only doing her duty when she lied under oath about me being a rapist. And I miss her and want to see her again soon."

"Negative," said Krylon.

"Negative?"

"Such a transmission risks the possibility that the true purpose of this operation will be compromised. That would be--"

"an unsatisfactory outcome," said Jayce.

He switched Krylon off and cursed to himself.