Welcome to Percotran -Part XXI

By Richard Davidson

Ted was beginning to wonder how long he could tread water. His hands and feet were already just a bit numb, and he didn’t dare just lie on his back and float. He would need to keep up his circulation.

He had just begun to give in to despair when he noticed a silhouette of something against the horizon. He decided to swim for it, whatever it might be.

As he got closer he could see it was an ancient buoy, from the times when ships came through here with great frequency. It had to be a thousand years old, but it’s tiny beacon light was still working, although too faint to see until he got within a hundred yards or so.

It bobbled in the water as he climbed atop, and he carefully centered himself, and sat with his arms around his knees, shivering in the night air. At least it was calm.

He dozed for awhile, and awoke to a soft rain. It was nearly dawn, and the faint glow on the horizon implied the promise of sunrise, even if hidden behind a veil of clouds.

He was shaking, and the chattering of his teeth echoed in his ears. He thought he could hear another sound. A faint sound. A sound that had been in his dreams, only moments before, or hours before; Ted wasn’t sure.

It was a mechanical sound; perhaps the engine of a small boat. Ted had never been on a boat, in fact he’d never seen the ocean before, either. He heard the sound off and on throughout a beautiful day, as the soft rain gave way to warm sunlight, drying him.

He was quite a long ways out. He could see the shores of Percotran International’s Records Department 232SW to what he was assuming was his East, and to what would be the Northeast, he could see a faint outline of what was most likely the Main Operations Center of the Southwestern Division.

Suddenly he realized two objects were coming towards him, and he heard the sound more clearly than he had before. It was definitely boat engines, and as they drew closer, he saw that they had the markings of Percotran International Navy.

“That’s odd,” he thought, “Percotran’s navy was disbanded hundreds of years ago.”

The boats closed, slowed, and came to rest next to the buoy. They were completely enclosed, since they traveled at such tremendous speed, and the top of one of them opened, and a uniformed soldier stood facing Ted.

“I thought I saw somebody out here,” he said, a look of amazement on his face.

“Where’s the boat?”

“What boat?” asked Ted.

“Surely you didn’t swim out here,” the soldier barked. “One of our boats was stolen last night, and now here you are clinging to an ancient buoy.”

“Well, if I stole your boat, where is it?” asked Ted, a tone of sarcasm evident.

“I’m asking the questions here,” said the soldier. “What have you done with the boat you stole?”

“I don’t know where your boat is, you idiot,” Ted answered testily. “Don’t you have some kind of proximity detector, or tracking device that would tell you where your boat is?”

The lid to the other boat opened, and another, older soldier emerged.

“Why haven’t you arrested this man yet?” he bellowed at the first soldier.

“I’m questioning him,” snapped the younger man. “Do you know what he just asked me?”

The second soldier asked him “what?” with his eyebrows.

“He wants to know why we don’t have ‘some kind of tracking device’ to find our boat with.”

Both soldiers laughed until they were nearly sick.

“OK, OK,” chortled the older soldier. “Ya got me there. That was really a good one. Now let’s get back to base.”

“Well,” said the first soldier to Ted, “we’d love to stand here and listen to your jokes all day, but things are just a bit busy right now.”

And with that, he fired his 499b-11 Restraint Pistol, and Ted’s hands were bound behind his back with a small, circular band of energy that was far too tight.

“Hey, these are too tight,” he complained.

“I’m pretty sure they make ‘em that way on purpose,” laughed the soldier, pushing Ted’s head down just a bit as he loaded him aboard his boat.

“I didn’t know Percotran had a Navy,” Ted said, making the soldier wonder if he was going to have to fire a speech restraint.

“It doesn’t. Now shut up.”

Officially, the Percotran Navy had been disbanded, because there was no need for one anymore. The planet’s oceans had pretty much been abandoned, due to electronic transport, and the fact that no one ever wanted to travel from one Company to another. Only Pirates were out there, and strange animals that science had long since stopped trying to keep track of.

The only base that wasn’t on the continent any more was the L-4 Complex at Haiihu Kuwana, which, as far as anybody knew was the only island left that didn’t move all the time, and thus the only one on the map.

But there were thousands of islands, of course. Several were actually in direct communication with Percotran International, but hadn’t been heard from since the L-4 Complex at Haiihu Kuwana went down. It was suspected they had fallen to Pirates.

“Might as well do a quick brain scan,” said the soldier, almost absent-mindedly, clicking a toggle switch above his head.

Ted was bathed in yellow light, and went into mild convulsions, due to the pain caused by the Cerebellum 2450 Brain Scanner, which was not made with comfort in mind.

A three dimensional image of Ted’s personnel file was displayed in the boat’s cramped cockpit.

“Worker 2567A; Level XXVII Security Clearance; Capricorn; Third Baseman for Recsec 99Q Baseball Team; Unmarried...” the robot voice did it’s best to make Ted’s entire life sound uninteresting, as it droned out his date of birth; height; weight; and other supposedly vital statistics.

When he was seven, he’d had Stomach Cancer; at twelve, Flesh-Eating Virus 7176H; -just the normal childhood diseases. Otherwise, Ted had always been pretty healthy.

The soldier was confused.

“You’re a model employee, or at least you were up until you let an intruder escape. Why would you want to steal a Navy Vessel, and commit High Treason?”

“I didn’t steal a boat, and I thought you just said there IS no Navy,” Ted responded, glad the convulsions had stopped.

“Well, I have to say there is no Navy, but since you’re going to be executed, I guess there isn’t much point anyway.”

“Well, if I’m about to be executed anyway, why wouldn’t I just admit to stealing your boat?”

“So you did steal it?”

“No!” Ted was growing frustrated. This human robot wasn’t going to listen to anything he said.

“I believe you,” said the soldier.

“You do?” Ted was amazed. Perhaps he had misjudged this man.

“Yeah, I do. You’re here in custody, and that’s our boat right there...”

And with that, the small boat lurched violently as several explosions rocked it. They were being fired upon.

“Oh that’s just great,” complained the soldier. “That’s just what I need.”

Ted thought that maybe it was just what the soldier needed, judging from his attitude thus far, and got just a bit cocky.

“I hope they kill us,” he laughed.

“Jerk,” said the soldier, as a panel exploded, burning the left side of his face pretty badly, and launching one of his teeth with such force, that it embedded in Ted’s shoulder.

“Ouch!” shouted Ted, and the soldier was about to explain that if Ted thought THAT was painful, he should try being the guy to whom the tooth belonged, but then water began rushing in, and it was obvious that they were sinking, and that Ted would more than likely get his wish.

“Well I hope you’re happy,” the soldier lamented, unable to even get a shot off, as pretty much all functions of the small boat were now inoperable.

Ted was happy that his captor wasn’t going to make it, but he wasn’t so sure he was happy about his own death.

“Isn’t there any way out of this thing?” he asked, wondering how good he could swim with his hands bound.

“Well, no, but, ah, well, yes,” the soldier said, as the indicator on the dash told him the engine had gone critical and was about to blow.

The explosion sent Ted, the soldier, and little pieces of the boat flying in all directions, and now Ted was frantically trying to float, but he was face down, and he could see a large piece of the hull spiraling towards the murky bottom.

The boat that had fired upon them was next to him, and a ladder had been tossed into the water.

Ted grunted as he pulled his bound arms under his ass, past his legs, and got them out in front of him. His hands were swelling from the force of his restraint. Summoning every bit of effort left in him, Ted clawed his way up the ladder, and flopped into the boat, breathing heavily.

“Boy am I glad to see you...”

“I wouldn’t be too sure of that,” said Thawala.

"Now let’s go find your friend."

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