Chapter Ten: Heavy Matters — Part 5
“Honor.” Her eyes had strength in them, strength where the day before they held none.
“Honor.” The Enforcer repeated. It was the last word that he ever expected to hear from such a brat. “And you realize that you’ll lose everything you are to this training.”
“I was nothing before. I am nothing now.” Seva said, her voice calm. “Make something out of me.”
“Seva.” Charles said, writing her service number onto his notepad.
“Sir?”
“Can you read?”
Seva looked cornered, like he had just asked a trick question.
Charles handed her a notepad with a paragraph of instructions on the top. “Read it. There will be no judgment brought against you, or those who taught you.”
Seva nodded. “The primary purpose of the Priority Screening is to identify and separate all Combatants lacking intelligence, strength, or moral deficiency BEFORE they become a problem during training. This lessens casualties during training, and thus helps to retain a higher number of soldiers for the field.”
Charles snagged the document back from her. “I see you can read, and quite well.” Charles didn’t smile, didn’t betray the amusement he felt at being in the position to crush her spirit. “It’s not often I see this level of devotion or intelligence in what usually passes for a third class citizen.” He paused. “You’re among the first commission, but you’ll have to pull harder duties than anybody else, and you’ll be under double the scrutiny of your peers.”
Seva was careful, wisely so, not to show any emotion. Enforcer Alpha marched one hundred troops into the castle walls, and yelling and screaming, started to discipline them, even as they lined up to go into the showers. Through a process as ancient as humanity itself, he got the groups to stand still as he slowly demeaned them and crushed their wills. His eyes searched for discipline problems. Finding them was easy; they were the ones who couldn’t keep their eyes forward, their mouths shut, their bodies still. They were the ones who sized him up, wondering if they could take him, or looked sneakily around, looking for opportunities in the people around them. Charles found somebody to make an example of. Enforcer Alpha would have to watch his back with these creatures. They were, for the most part, beaten down already, and the Enforcer knew first hand what happened when such people decided to snap back. He made his first target the biggest target causing trouble, and tore into the man with a relish bordering on prejudice.
“Hey, shit for brains, why are you looking at her ass? Do you think you have the right to look at her ass? YOU HAVE NO RIGHTS! I OWN YOU, I OWN YOUR PENIS, AND I OWN THE AIR YOU BREATH. You had best learn what attention is and keep it.” Charles yelled bitterly, loathing in his voice, only to turn and find a woman checking out the woman in front of her with the same heartfelt lust, thinking, apparently, that he would not notice her. “It looks like we have ourselves another woman lover here. I’ll be damned if you flaming hormonal dikes are going to get away with expressing your desires while on service.”
It didn’t take long for people to stop looking at each other and start standing at attention. Seva, however, was already the center of attention. Enforcer Alpha brushed some dust from his uniform, his eyes locking with a man who had had the nerve to look over his shoulder just to get a peak at the young girl. Charles noticed his semi-erect state, letting no small amount of loathing enter his voice. He could not let the situation go for anybody.
“Does the little girl get you up? Are you a frigging pedophile?”
“I can’t control it Sir.” The man said smartly.
Enforcer Alpha slammed his knee into the man’s groin, his erection diminishing almost instantly.
“Keep your eyes, your hands and your thoughts to yourself.” He paused long enough to see if the man would charge him, then moved quickly to the front of the ranks as the man proved intent on returning to a standing position. The young man slowly returned to attention, eyes forward, tears streaking his face. Charles chose to ignore them for the moment.
“For the next three months you’ll be known as Commissions. As troops, you’ll be sexless, mindless servants whose only intent will be to accomplish every task given to you with discipline and integrity. You will do whatever you’re told. If you fail to advance, you’ll die. There is a good chance that more than one of you will die in training. If you try to desert your duties, you’ll be killed. Those of you who survive will live, sleep, and eat in the same place. You’ll work, shower, and act as one entity. Any breach of ethics will result in prompt termination by Satrap Johnson or myself. The ethics expected from you will be explained in excruciating detail, and you will be expected to recite them word for word, on demand, any time you are asked.”
“Ethics sir?” Somebody in the mass started to ask.
Enforcer Alpha broke through ranks to get at the man’s throat. He took him by the skin of his chest and tossed him to the ground.
“Did I ask you to speak?”
“No sir.” The man gasped, his chest already forming a hand-shaped purple bruise.
Enforcer Alpha kicked him in the ribs. “That is what I mean by ethics. Do what you’re told, do nothing more. Do you understand me soldier?”
The man stood quickly, “Yes, Enforcer.”
He turned his back on the man to continue speaking. “In the weeks to come you’ll meet Satrap Johnson, your first in the chain of command. In three months, after I’ve trained you, you’ll each get one hundred troops to train in the same fashion.
“You’ll continue to train fresh troops until every capable citizen on this world are combatant trained and ready for war. To begin with, you’ll shave each other’s heads. Nobody will have more than one eighth of an inch of fuzz on his or her skulls. I want to see that golden speck of light you call a sun shining on every bald head in the unit until you get your hats. I assume that all of you had the sense to pack razors among your supplies, so get to it.”
Enforcer Alpha watched the raw troops shave each other’s heads bald. Men and women began to look more alike. Except Seva, even bald she was too cute for her own good. She would have to be watched closely, but indirectly, until the troops settled into their routines. The situation, tense because of the raw strength and undeniable rage of the citizens who had until recently been under Satrap Johnson’s mind-numbing oppression, would get worse before the training was accomplished.
“Every morning I’ll wake you up. You’ll fall out for roll call. You will be known by your last name and number only. Nicknames will not be tolerated. Remember your number, and remember the rules. Ignorance can and will get you killed.”
“Showers are public, and any display of or attempt at sexual contact, forceful or willing, brought on by any member or members in regards to any member or members, be they of the same or opposite sex, will result in termination. For those of you uneducated fucks too stupid to recognize the word, it means you will be killed. You will always be under surveillance, your actions monitored, and you will have no protection from the masses. You’ll work from one hour before sunrise to one hour after sunset on any tasks you’re given, and you will follow all orders given to you without question. You will be awakened randomly and without warning. Do you understand?”
“Yes Sir.” Came a more or less unanimous reply.
Enforcer Alpha had to admire their character. None of them, for instance, were vain enough to break down crying from the loss of their hair. They were showered clean of the hard life beyond the Temple walls and promptly put to bed. While most of them pretended to try to sleep, the new Satrap Johnson and Enforcer Alpha raided their closets, took all their clothes and impertinent possessions and threw them in the incinerator. Then, after they were certain that none of them had anything tying them to their old life, the two of them sealed the room and went to an observation chamber set to the opposite side. Originally, the one-way wall was a viewpoint from which the old Satraps had let their guards watch them in their various sexual conquests. Now it served a more noble purpose. At about four hours before sunrise, the door to the barracks swung open, and the new Satrap Johnson brought them all awake, neither degrading nor torturing them. His voice was loud, his eyes as savage as Charles’ had been.
“Get dressed and fall out.”
