I woke up early the next morning. The men in green had all gathered outside downstairs beneath our windows and done some exercises together before all running off as an organized group. Looking out the door I saw that there was one of the remaining Men in Green at the end of the hall by the stairs. He had some kind of armor on with a helmet, and was carrying his weapons.
“Good morning, Man in Green.” I said as I walked to him down the hall.
“Marine, ma’am. We are Marines.” He was trying not to look at me when he spoke. Was he uncomfortable about people in sleeping clothes? I looked down at myself. Not much more than several layers of folded and wrapped cloth. I would research that.
“I apologize Marine. I will go and dress and come back.”
A few minutes later I approached him again. He made eye contact this time.
“What is the plan for the morning?” I asked.
“The company will be back from PT in about twenty minutes. Then it will be about an hour until breakfast. They are putting together a duty roster for an on duty team to cover you if you call for backup. Special Agent Robins will have to attend some meetings with the brass. We will cover for her while she is busy.”
I went back to the rooms to wake up Ashley.
“Ashley, the Marine down the hall says it will be time for food soon. Also they will cover for you while you have meetings.
“Oh wow. I usually get up at 4, I must be seriously jet lagged. No issues?”
“No. The Marine outside looks ready for whatever you call battle here.”
“Good. Let’s get cleaned up and ready for breakfast. Can you magic up anything that you would call ah, town clothes?”
I have ah, words… auxiliary militia uniform from Kingdom of… well, Kingdom next to Forest.”
“Are you authorized to wear that uniform when you are at home?”
“Yes. Not a lot of respect, but Kingdom uses Auxiliary to get dangerous work done and keep track of… free… sword… people. I don’t know what you would call them.”
“OK, get cleaned up and dressed and we will see how you look.”
I got ready to go. My own people tend to use ties for closures, but the Kingdom of Togon really did love their buttons. Buttons up both sides of the shirt and coat, halfway up all the sleeves, and all the way down the pants. They even had extra buttons sewn on the insides in case you lost a few. Even the boots had a few buttons in prominent places even though they still used laces like civilized people.
I put my silver badge on the hat in the proper position (between more buttons) and the white shoulder cape that proclaimed me a mage of a healing specialty and called it good. Ashley whistled when she saw it.
“I know, terrible. Regulars wear red, Auxiliary gets brown. Ugly yet still fancy. No respect.”
“Yet somehow, it really looks good on you. More magic?”
“No, I just know a really good clothes-maker.”
We followed some of the Marines to another building where they had food. Seeing my confusion, Ashley talked to the people serving the food behind the counter and picked things for me. I had to refuse bread, because Ashley didn’t know, and when we reached the end of the line the person handling transactions waved us through.
“We got notified last night.” She said, “Until they get something official set up, your meals are on the Corps.”. The eyes got even heavier as we left the line. By the time we sat down everyone was staring.
“Listen up, Marines!” bellowed a very experienced looking Man in Green on one side of the building. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at him.
“That brown lady over there that has all of your attention is the VIP that Uncle Sam, in his infinite wisdom, has entrusted into our care. The bosses at the DoD got together and said to each other, “There is no one I would want more than the boys and girls in our finest branch of service to make sure that all stays right with the world, and not a hair on her tail gets bent wrong by those without even the good sense God gave unto a Coastie.””
He had circled halfway around the room at this point.
“Your Commanders are setting up duty rotations, so you all may get the chance to talk to her soon, but until then, eyes forward and let them enjoy the world-class cuisine that the Corps has seen fit to bestow upon us unworthy Marines. Oorah?”
“OORAH!” answered the entire room.
“Carry on.” He finished and left the room. After breakfast, Ashley conscripted the Staff-Duty people to take me to a place to get some clothes of the style that the humans wore. Most styles of underwear didn't fit because of my tail, but what I had in storage would fit under human clothes fine. We also had a problem with pants but after Ashley looked up a costume designer on her phone we were able to find solutions for that too. Amanda Miranda’s voice was very energetic from the phone in Ashley’s hand, and I put her phone’s number into mine for later.
About lunch time I got a text from Mia who said that a form I-140 had been submitted for me. Whatever that was.
In the early afternoon Ashley had to go meet with some of the Marines in charge, so I spent the afternoon with more Marines in the Day Room. Some of them were playing a game with cards and some others were yelling at the television. Yes. I learned things in the hospital in Guam, although the nurses kept the televisions tuned to scrying a place called “Sesame Street” with their pretend friendly monsters.
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“Who are we scrying?” I asked the nearest Marine.
“Who are we what?”
“No, it’s OK, I speak D&D nerd.” said another man.
“You are Corporal Givens?” I asked.
“Yeah, shit. Was someone talking about me?”
“Staff-duty man said your name and pointed at you.”
“Don’t let Major Marks hear you call him that.” snickered another man who was still watching the television.
“Yeah, I am kinda an enthusiast of a more niche entertainment medium.” Givens confirmed.
“So do you know how this works?” I asked, pointing at the television. “I know it isn’t real, like stage performance. No one ever told me how it works.”
“Well, let’s start at the beginning. You know how light works, and how to create light, yes?” Givens asked me.
“Yes. I am very learned, just new to English language.”
“Good. And you know how the eye functions, and how the eye sends information to the brain?”
“Yes. I know how to rebuild if eye is broken.”
“Good to know.”
Givens proceeded to tell me how a camera differs from the organic eye, the optical illusion of the moving picture, and a rough idea of how a television program is put together. By this time Ashley had finished several meetings and met us in the food building.
“So if the director does not like how the actors performed he can just stop them and make them do it again?”
“Yup.”
“How does that differ from what you all were watching in the day-room today?”
“Well for live events you can’t just start over. In that case, the director, who goes by a different title for things like that, uses many cameras at once and just shows the audience what they think is the best angles to get the most entertaining show.”
“Talking about basketball?” Ashley asked as she sat down with her food.
“We hadn’t actually gotten that far yet.” answered Givens. “We were just talking about how they show programs on television.”
“They position the cameras so you can’t see the actors who are moving the fake monster puppets!” I told Ashley.
“And when you see The Dark Crystal it is really going to blow your mind.” she enthused back.
“A fellow Nerd?” asked Givens.
“I don’t live there, but I have vacationed a few times.” she answered obliquely.
“Nerd?”
“I like to define a Nerd as a person who has a very technically oriented job. Differentiated from a Geek who has technically oriented hobbies.” informed Ashley. I committed the words to memory so I could look them up later.
“Monday there is a meeting you need to attend.” Ashley told me. “Today’s meetings were just about security. Speaking of, take this." She handed me a small box.
“What does this do?”
“If I am incapacitated this will summon the Marines, and they tell me that if you hit that switch they are leaving the manners at home.”
“We get to bring Hell and the Furies with us? Sweet.” exclaimed Givens.
“I do not know these people.” I remarked.
“Just as well. That is an explanation that would take all day.” Ashley retorted.
“How does it work?”
“Move the protective cover and hit the switch. Right now you can remove the cover to see the switch, but do not activate it. We tested it and we know it works, and there is an armed team on standby. They will rotate in a new team periodically. The schedule is complicated, and we don’t need to go into it.”
I put it away into storage and after a moment Ashley’s telephone started playing a tune.
“Robins.” she answered it.
“Really? OK, I’ll see what happened. Give me a minute. If it doesn’t appear within two minutes send a search party. We are in the D-Fac right now.” She put the telephone away.
“Kos-Api, did you make that device go away with magic?”
“Yes?”
“Wicked.” declared Givens.
“The Marines can track its location. When you put it wherever things go when you magic them, the Marines can’t see it any more, and that makes them anxious.”
I brought it back out.
“I don’t have any pockets.”
Givens pulled some cord from his pocket and tied a loop so I could wear the thing around my neck.
We finished the evening by watching The Dark Crystal like Ashley recommended, and Givens convinced the others in the barracks to let us watch it in the Day room. Amazing that that was all puppets and people wearing costumes.
The next morning I woke Ashley up early.
“We need to find a place to run, Ashley.”. I informed her solemnly. “If we don’t, the planet will continue to slow down until it stops.”
“You can’t possibly believe stuff like that.”. She said as she started digging out clothes. I had already dressed in the exercise clothes we had purchased yesterday but since we couldn't find shoes that fit me I was wearing a laced up sandal with a woven sole made of a durable plant fiber. It had thick leather atop the wicker for comfort.
“Maybe, maybe not. But now you always wonder how much of a backwards brain I am.”
“Oh, so you are a brat too.”
“Poor behavior to balance out the sharp mind, good looks and high… uh, words .. high… “Be Here”. Um… “Fill Room”. I don’t know the word.”
We walked down to the room next to the Day room, where many Marines were exercising. One was running slowly on a machine that kept him in one place.
“Can Kos-Api jump on that when you are done?” Asked Ashley.
“Go ahead, I was just winding down.”
Ashley turned to me.
“For humans, best results for cardio should include five 30 minute sessions a week with elevated heart rate.”
“Since body augmented, need go fast for longer. How fast good fast run?”
“Most of the people in this room could sustain a 6 to 6 and one half minute mile for a few miles, but they don't train to sustain fast paces over long distances. Let's set the machine for a 5-minute mile and see how well you do over time. Do you need to build up to that speed?”
She started pushing colored spots on the machine.
“Oh, this treadmill only goes to 12 mph.” The floor of the machine started moving again.
“I can do this!” I cried and jumped on. The Marines immediately started making bets.
