Mosa, Page 2

  Chapter 2

  Nina Polchinski

  Bright yellow light bulb hung from the ceiling, the moth flapped its dusty wings forming a large shadow on the wall. The huge metal cabinets stood in the corner of the old rusty locker room. Only one of the cabinet was open; it was occupied by the signed baseballs, along with the black rifle and the ammunition box. A little spider slowly entered the cabinet, building its house.

  In the middle of the room, there was a long table which took most of the space. There were one woman and the guy sitting at the table. The guy was snoring, tilting his head back; his mouth opened widely, dripping his saliva from his cheek to the collar.

  The woman with uncombed hair, wearing a salmon colored shirt, was sitting next to him. She drank the coffee already gone cold. A big headphone around her neck screeched out some radio transmission. She clicked the computer screen, yawning, her eyes being stiffened and red. Her head got lightened which left her in a blank state. She shook her head violently and tapped on her cheek, struggling to stay awake. She grabbed her headphone and put it on. She heard an angry squeaky voice coming out from the headphone.

  “What is this? You pathetic scumbags, you are now afraid of one little girl! Double check the figures! This is too much! Too much!!” she changed the frequencies few times, listening to them closely, making some notes but she couldn’t focus anymore. She took out her headphone and just collapsed on the table, groaning. The moth was flying around the light bulb.

  “Well that’s it for today,” she murmured, yawning. The girl pulled out the USB drive from the computer and she stretched her muscles. She glimpsed at the snoring guy and shook her head lightly. She pinched his cheek and expands it. It was slimy and gooey. His saliva poured out from his mouth; she let it go and it flowed on her hand like a rubber band. She groaned with disgust, and rubbed her hand on her pants. She stood up and went out the room.

  “Damn it… already?” complained the girl, seeing the bright sunlight coming down from the stairs above. Scratching her head, she walked up the stairs.

  There was a thick metal door which was widely opened and there was a guard standing in front of it. His face was thick and fatty, looked like he had a good night sleep. She looked at the guard and threw the USB drive she was holding, hitting his helmet. The guard startled, tried to catch it, but it fell on the floor.

  “Sergeant Johnson? I was informed from the officers that you have to attend the briefing this morning!” the guard shouted with a loud wringing voice as if she is at the end of the hallway.

  “Screw it, I’m going to bed,” she said, with a dying voice. Her eyes were sore. She put her hands inside her pockets, passed by him with tottering steps.

  “But… Sergeant Johnson,” the guard murmured, little concerned. The girl looked at him with a half opened eyes, yawning.

  “And call me Sarah, dumbass. Sounds like I’m a guy,” she grumbled and walked up the stair. When she was at the hallway, she heard a loud sound of the generator running from outside.

  “Not again…” said Sarah, weakly.

  Not far from where Sarah was, a little girl opened her eyes, frustrated, covering her head with a pink pillow, eager to go back to her dream world. The room had somewhat peculiar look. On the floor, it had toys and puzzles, and closet nearby had various board games and grand chess stones. There was a large book shelves holding various literatures. On the wall, like some lunatic asylum, there were various notes and figures with no particular pattern. It was all over each other that it looked like some giant cocoon.

  The girl had that skinny book-wormish look. Pretty, but had ghastly arms and corpse-like legs. There loud motor was bellowing outside, the men were shouting.

  “It’s only six…” the girl groaned. She tried to ignore the sound but didn’t work; her anger built up as the machine sound become louder and louder, along with the men yelling. She suddenly leapt out of bed, grabbed the glass with a stain of orange juice and ran toward the window. She opened up the window and threw the glass with her full swing. The glass shattered, hitting the generator, the men startled and looked at the window.

  “SHUT UP!” she screamed.

  “P… Pardon me, admiral! Hey! You… you there! Stop the engine now!” started the man. The girl rolled her eyes and slammed her window.

  She is living in a tyrannical country called Cassandra, ruled by a dictator named Veron Komer whom he calls himself the Emperor. Her name is Nina Polchinski, the head of the military group called Machina. It is the independent military group which manages the seditious activities in a rural community. The whole country was filled with blood and despair. Majority of the people living there were either hysterically frightened or had a murderous look.

  Last month, there were some youth movements moved by a pure youthful passion in this country; they left the daily work in the labor camp and sang and danced on the street. Soon they were pursued by the angry soldiers, got beaten on the spot and sent to the reeducation camps.

  Nina worked under Veron as some mercenaries group. As Nina took a good care of the rural region and also generated a good profit. She was approved by Veron’s officers to have the military units and the base, although it was a considerate force, it was absurdly small compared to what Veron had.

  Nina herself became involved with this chaotic mess after the tragic event that took place eight years ago, when the dictator slaughtered her whole family. But Veron’s officers didn’t know as she fabricated the document.

  Nina yawned and went to the bathroom and turned the water on. She splashed the cold water on her face and started brushing her teeth. There were bunch of puzzles on the floor which one of them attached on the bottom of her feet. Nina shook her legs to take it off, rubbing against the wall. She spat out the bubbles and stared at the mirror. She washed her mouth, and spat it out.

  Nina is in her twenties. Sometimes wore big goofy glasses except when she was commanding her army. Nobody believed that she would last this long in Cassandra. Everyone thought she was just a little fly in the midst of toads, but strangely she survived and her power grew significantly. She is keeping peace with Veron for now, collecting all the data she needs.

  Nina entered the shower and calmed herself down. It was sunny outside; the men were cheerfully doing their daily work. She hummed and touched her hair in front of the mirror. She put her uniform, which her grandfather gave it to her. She stretched it so it doesn’t look too shabby, and went out the door.

  In the cafeteria, she had pancakes with melted butter on its top and the hardboiled eggs. She poured the maple syrup on the pancakes and put the piece of the pancakes inside her mouth. Nina was in an extra good mood today because she heard that the exoskeleton suit in her research department was almost complete. It would definitely boost the battle capacity of her infantry. She loved to try it on too! Later she’s planning to go there after the daily report held in a tower.

  She visited the lab and talked to the bald scientist named Dr Potts. Last week he gave a boring lecture to Nina and to her primary advisor, Captain Stein, explaining that they are headed in the right direction and making progress on the project. He was excited that very soon they will have the machine suit for the infantry. Although most idea came from the young scientists, Krieg Parker and Jessica Rottman, Dr Potts always liked to brag about the technology. Captain Stein tried to be awake at the presentation Dr Potts held, which went on for three hours, but Dr. Potts talked on and on. So she just remembers by parts and parts during dozing, like a censored tape.

  “… In order to manage the complex dynamics, one has to weight the probability rather than layering hierarchy… exponentially increase the amount of computation… filtering, modifying, and manipulating the external data and… after amplification is exhaustively complex...” and he went on, gabbled like a parrot, right next to the dumb piece of metal hanging with the thick electric wires.

  Dr. Potts seemed to have a lot more to say after he filled three hours, had some sort of childlike
pleading look toward Nina, as if he is saying “one more minutes.” However, she and Stein were looking at the clock and were shaking his leg intensely. So he ended the presentation.

  Nina entered the briefing room, passed the heavy iron gates, stepping on the green floor, to be updated for the events happened in the last night. She was never intended to serve the military. Her grandfather, Simard Polchinski, one of the high ranked officers in Cassandra in the past, didn’t want her to become a soldier.

  The cause of the raid in Polchinski’s household was still in veil, no one knows the full history except Veron and few of his officers. Captain Stein, who was a close friend with Simard, put a lot of work to take care of Nina, although he didn’t expect her to become the head of Simard’s army. Nina had a very peculiar mindset which others view it as delusional or crazy. Nonetheless, she was a gifted strategist, led her men to the position which no one anticipated.

  One of the officers briefed about the usual checking of the number of units, logistics, and various topological positions and basically said all things are fine. Nina dialed some number in the briefing room. She wanted to talk to the units in the field. One guy picked it up,

  “Agent Duffie, reporting from the lair,” said the man.

  “Hello Michel. How is it over there?” said Nina with her chirpy voice.

  “Yes admiral, the information we retrieved from the soldiers, regarding us, are exaggerated and mixed with much fear. They are being paranoid about our army is trying to engulf them,” Michel made a snorting sound. “They are constantly reassuring themselves that they have a lot more artilleries than us. Well, so far that is happening only among the soldiers, Veron doesn’t seem to suspect anything wrong with us. According to the rumor, he is infatuated with some mute girl in some town we have raided and brought her into his chamber. So far, things look pretty good, admiral.”

  “It is nice to hear, Michel, hopefully we will get you back in the base soon,” said Nina with an upbeat tone.

  “Yes admiral, I surely miss Madam Wanda’s coffee, here is quite different,” said Michel.

  “I’ve been thinking about transferring Sergeant Johnson to work with you guys,” said Nina.

  “Oh,” said Michel, excitingly. “That is very good news, admiral.”

  “Now, don’t get too excited, I’ll consult with Captain Stein and let you know, so, bye for now,” said Nina.

  “My best regard to Captain Stein. Thank you admiral, out.”

  Nina put down the phone, took out the candy from her pocket and melted it in her mouth. She looked into the reports, skimmed through, not reading much, and stared at the topological chart indicating the movement of the army.

  The door suddenly opened and Captain Stein entered the briefing room. He was the middle aged man with a baked skin due to the field work came in, leaving the whitish spots from his sunglasses.

  “Oh hello Captain,” said Nina, smiling. Captain Stein saluted to her.

  “Good day admiral,” said Stein, with his cemented face.

  “How’s the infantry?” inquired Nina, playing with the candy inside her mouth.

  “The 5th battalion moved its position to the beach area in the south. Veron will use the route frequently for now as he built the factories trying to make Jets,” replied Stein.

  “He is trying to make Stealth planes, but nowhere near. Most of the parts were imported from the foreign merchants but assembly lines are quite defected,” said Nina. “No need to worry about that junk he is wasting time at. Our job is to stay low for now.”

  “Should we make our forces return to the base?” asked Stein.

  “No, make them join the marines.” said Nina, smiling. “So, I’ll leave you in charge, now; if anything comes up, I’ll be in the lab, they say the machine suit is ready.”