A Place on the Team by TransmuteJun
[Reviews - 10] - Table of Contents - [Report This]

Printer Chapter or Story
- Text Size +

A few days later, I receive another transmission. Apparently Lord Zoltar is pleased with my performance, because I have been given another task. The message says:

Amanda… …Gregg…

and gives a set of co-ordinates.

I have to access my databanks for a few seconds to figure out who Amanda Gregg is. It appears that she is the daughter of Dr. Gregg, one of the Federation’s foremost scientists. Apparently I am supposed to deliver the girl to this location. I return the message with the word:

tomorrow…

Quickly, I access Amanda’s schedule. It turns out that she attends a Federation school, so it is not too difficult to send an order to her instructor to deliver her to a specific location, to ‘meet her father’. Of course, I alter the message to make it appear that the school principal is giving this command.

No one will be able to trace the true source of the message, unless of course they were monitoring my communications array at the exact moment I sent it. But that is highly unlikely.

Not wanting to appear too close to the situation, I am forced to sit back and wait. I have no idea if my tactic has been successful or not.

A number of days later, Chief Anderson contacts me.

“Zark,” he says, “we have discovered that our top research scientist, Dr. Gregg, has copied our master code. We suspect that he intends on giving it to agents from the Planet Spectra.”

“Are you saying that Dr. Gregg has defected from the Federation?” I exclaim. “This is terrible news!”

“It would appear so.” the Chief confirms. “I am sending Mark, undercover, to track down Dr. Gregg’s connections. Hopefully we can recover our code before Zoltar gets his hands on it.”

“And what about the other members of the team?” I ask.

“I am sending them to tail Mark, as backup.” Anderson reveals. “In the meantime, I want you to investigate Dr. Gregg and see if there have been any other security leaks.”

“Yes, Sir!” I cry, saluting the Chief.

“Over and out.” says Anderson.

This is good news. It would appear that whatever Spectra’s plans are, they have been able to turn Dr. Gregg to their side. I am pretty certain that this has something to do with his daughter, so I begin my search looking at her records.

It would appear that she hasn’t been seen since the day I had her instructor deliver her to the pre-arranged co-ordinates. In fact, the instructor hasn’t been seen either. Dr. Gregg apparently sent a message to the school, saying that his daughter was very ill, and staying at home for foreseeable future.

I also discover that Dr. Gregg has recently accessed Center Neptune blueprints. This is not the kind of information a high-level scientist would probably need for his research. He covered his tracks very well, erasing all records that he had ever even looked at this file. I only uncovered this information by looking at the secondary backup records. Most entities don’t even know that we have secondary backups, much less how to access them. Carefully, I erase the secondary backup, completing Dr. Gregg’s deception.

After I have completed my analysis, I contact Chief Anderson.

“This is 7-Zark-7. Come in, Chief Anderson.” I call.

“Yes, Zark, what information do you have?” asks the Chief anxiously.

“I have discovered that Dr. Gregg has a daughter, Amanda.” I report, “And apparently she has been absent from school for a few days. The timing seems suspicious. At the very least, if she is ill, someone should be sent to check on her while Dr. Gregg is being tracked.”

“Good idea, Zark.” the Chief says, “I’ll get someone right on it. Have you discovered anything else?”

“Nothing else out of the ordinary.” I state.

“Keep looking.” the Chief orders.

“You can count on it!” I reply, as my viewscreen goes blank.

I continue to comb through security files, and Dr. Gregg’s personal records, but don’t find anything else unusual. I would love to know what is going on with G-Force, but as usual, they don’t bother to contact me unless they need something.

And right now, they don’t appear to need anything.

Without thinking about it, I let out a frustrated sigh.

1-Rover-1 yips in response.

“I’m sorry, 1-Rover-1.” I apologize. “I’m just so worried about everyone. Mark is completely on his own, and he might be in trouble, without the rest of G-Force to back him up. I know they are five incredible young people, but still, they work best as a team…”

Rover barks sympathetically.

Almost on cue, my communications array beeps. It is an incoming transmission from Mark!

“This is Mark, calling 7-Zark-7. Come in Zark!” says the Commander.

“What is it, Commander?” I ask, “Is everything all right?”

“Yes, Zark!” Mark laughs, “Everything’s just fine. Dr. Gregg’s daughter was being held captive by Zoltar, to force him to steal information for Spectra. Fortunately, I was able to rescue Amanda…” his voice drifts off.

“Amanda?” I ask curiously, my antennae popping. Mark is a very formal individual. His idea of ‘loosening up’ is playing ping pong in the G-Force Ready Room. He calls everyone by their proper title, and last names. Except for the other G-Force members, of course.

By calling this girl ‘Amanda’, and not ‘Miss Gregg’, he’s given away something.

He has feelings for her.

Oh, no… Princess won’t be happy to hear this.

“What about the tapes, Commander?” I ask, pulling myself out of this train of thought.

“Well, it turns out that Dr. Gregg rigged the tape to erase the moment it was played.” Mark revealed, “So it’s of no use to Spectra. Our secrets are safe.”

That’s depressing news. Still, no one else knows about the Center Neptune blueprints Dr. Gregg stole. I can only hope that that information found its way into Zoltar’s hands.

I am so distracted with this thought, that I forget to ask Mark more about Amanda, before he ends the transmission.

88888

I do remember the Commander’s comment the next day. I need to investigate this further. I order 1-Rover-1 to keep watch over my controls, while I head up my glass tube for a ten second oil break.

Once there, I turn on my monitoring device, and tune it to the G-Force Ready Room. As I suspected, Princess is there.

She is playing her guitar, but she looks as if her heart isn’t in it. She stops, and sits, alone on the couch, her face in her hands.

I feel sorry for her. She’s a nice person, and shouldn’t have to hurt this way. I feel almost guilty for intruding on her privacy like this.

Almost. My curiosity wins out. I watch her for awhile longer.

After a few minutes, the door opens, and Mark enters. He practically ignores Princess, and goes over to the fridge.

“What are you doing here?” Princess asks angrily.

“What do you think?” Mark replies, seemingly unaware of Princess’ mood. “I’m waiting to be called to duty. That’s why they call this a Ready Room you know… so we can be ready to go into action.”

“I don’t need a lecture on etymology from you!” Princess retorts, her face growing bright red. “What I mean is, why aren’t you with Amanda?”

“Amanda?” Mark looks surprised, and yet… I see his face soften.

“Amanda Gregg!” growls Princess. “Have you forgotten already? She’s telling every girl at school about how the glorious Commander rescued her. Her best friend Jennifer works with me at Jill’s, and I heard all about it!”

I can tell that Princess is furious. Her mood even seems to have gotten through to Mark.

“I heard all about how you held her in your arms… and how you kissed her!” Princess cries. Then she collapses onto the couch and buries her face in her hands again.

“Kissed her?” Mark exclaims in surprise. “I never kissed her, Princess.”

“You… you didn’t?” Princess looks up, hope lighting up her tear-stained face.

“No… I was wearing my helmet the entire time!” Mark laughs. “I couldn’t have kissed her with my visor in the way.”

“But… did you want to?” Princess asks quietly.

Mark looks taken aback by her question, as if it were the last thing he expected.

“Well…” he thinks for a moment, “I guess, part of me did, yeah.”

Princess’ mouth falls open. She looks like her entire world has come crashing down. She turns away from Mark, and her shoulders heave with her silent sobs.

Oh, this is terrible! How can Mark treat her like this?

“Princess, what’s wrong?” Mark asks, reaching out to her. He looks like he’s going to put his hand on her shoulder, but pulls it back at the last minute.

“You can’t guess, Commander?” Princess turns around and growls angrily. “I thought we… you and I…” She sighs in frustration.

“I guess… I was wrong about you.” she finishes, glaring at Mark.

“Oh, Princess…” Mark looks immediately contrite. I think it’s just dawned on him exactly why she is so angry. “Princess… you know… we can’t… What would the Chief say?”

“I guess I’m just not as concerned about the Chief, as I am about you.” Princess cries. “How stupid am I?”

Princess gets up, and starts to run out of the room, but Mark grabs her by the arm.

For a second, it is as if everything is frozen in place: Princess turning to go, Mark holding her arm, both of them looking in amazement at the physical contact that he has made so impulsively.

But to his credit, Mark doesn’t let go of her.

“I… I care about you, Princess.” Mark admits. “But… I’m your Commander… it wouldn’t be right…”

“Damn what’s right!” Princess exclaims. Mark looks shocked. I am too. To my knowledge, Princess has never used this kind of language. That’s usually Jason’s approach.

“If you want me, Mark, you want me.” she says simply. “But if a few antiquated regulations are more important to you…”

Mark looks torn, but after a moment he hangs his head, and lets go of Princess’ arm.

I can tell by her face that Princess is devastated, but she manages to keep her voice steady as she says, “So be it.”

And then she walks out, leaving him standing there. Alone.

“What does she expect me to do?” Mark asks himself, running his hands through his hair. Angrily, he bangs open the door to the fridge, pulls out a bottle of water, and drinks it all in the space of a few seconds. Then he slams the empty bottle into the recycling canister, before exiting the room.

This is terrible. I have to get these two back together.

My motives are not entirely altruistic. If Mark and Princess stop concentrating on each other, they might start concentrating on me. They are the most intelligent members of G-Force, and they might start putting two and two together. I need to have them distracted by their illicit romance… such as it is.

Perhaps… their implant adjustments are not scheduled for another week. Maybe, I can make some modifications.

I am distracted from this train of thought when the door to the Ready Room opens again. I had forgotten to turn off my monitoring device.

Tiny enters the room and heads straight for the fridge, opening the freezer door. Surprisingly quickly for a man of his size, he loads up an armful of ice cream snacks for his illicit Phoenix mini-fridge, and runs back out of the room.

Hmmm… that gives me an idea.

~ Table of Contents ~
[Report This]
You must login (register) to review.