Chapter 1

“It seemed a good idea at the time, but when I thought about it later, I realised that a new colony is not going to have openings for butlers, at any level of society. You don’t normally find butlers in a colonial setting.” John was feeling downhearted as he spoke to his two loves about the prospect of emigrating to the new human colony.

Catherine Dawes, the eighteen-year-old, was as always very practical in her outlook. She suggested, “Can’t you get a job as a military man, my love? Every society needs an army to defend it.”

John grimaced at the thought, despite Catherine’s intended encouragement. “Nice thought, but you forget that I have a damaged leg, Catherine dear. I can do most things, but nothing really strenuous. I couldn’t pass an army medical, for instance.”

Elizabeth Frobisher (the former Felicity Frobisher and undercover policewoman), contributed, “We could manage on my salary, darling. The colony is bound to need police, one way or another, and I am fully trained. I am sure they will be desperate to get trained personnel for all sorts of jobs. Perhaps they might need a military policeman?”

John agreed. “I am sure you are right, Elizabeth, but I doubt they have reached that stage of development. I would certainly feel uncomfortable with an arrangement such as you suggest. I would feel like a fraud, having to depend on my wife to be the breadwinner of the family.”

Catherine was not to be put off. “You don’t have to be macho, darling. We can at least ask, can’t we? Let’s find out the facts first, before we make any decisions.”

John was dubious, but willing to explore his options. “All right. That is a good idea, Catherine. I am being too pessimistic. Who do we ask? Is there any suitable website we could look at?”

Elizabeth disabused them of that notion. “There is no public acknowledgment of the new colony and its needs as yet, though knowledge is spreading. The police and army have been briefed, but in strict confidence. There is an unwarranted fear of letting the public know about alien spacecraft helping to set up a human colony. There might be a backlash about dealing with aliens of any kind, we were told, so we can’t talk about it in public for now, so no website either.”

John saw no sense in that. “If they want people to go to the colony, how are folk to know anything about what colonists they want, and how to get there?”

Elizabeth replied, “The colonists are being pre-selected as volunteers for a new ‘colony’, after being asked and told as little as possible, then shipped out to the new planet. The core group in the colony is an administration unit set up to guide the progress of the colony, led by an appointed Governor and some top people. The word is that these leaders were part of the team that first met the alien spaceships and so both groups the employees and the appointees, are known to each other.”

“Well, at least that bit makes sense,” commented John. “Do we have any idea of the size of the colony to date, and details of its location?”

“Not really,” said Elizabeth. “They don’t feed us news reports. The military are running the show at the moment, and you know what the military are like with information.” She put her hand to her mouth, “Ooops, sorry, John. For a moment, I forgot you were in the army! – but you will know what I mean.”

“True enough. The army doesn’t tell anyone anything, if they can avoid it. The disastrous battles in the First World War were failures due in no small part to not letting the left hand know what the right hand is doing. The troops on the ground knew nothing of the bigger picture, in case they were captured and spilled the beans; so instead they went out in ignorance and were slaughtered in their thousands.

Can you believe that the Generals were unaware of the inevitable devastation that would be caused by machine guns, until the Germans mowed down great swathes of Allied troops? That is despite the effect of machine guns being evident 50 years before, in the American Civil War?

The British Army ignored the American Civil War regarding learning about developments in warfare, because, in their minds, ‘that was a colonial internecine affair, so not relevant to the British Army’s operations.’ It was a stupid military myopia that led to hundreds of thousands of deaths in Europe,” John raged at the generals. “They made no preparation for facing machine guns; none at all. The men were even told to walk forward from their positions; not to run! As if they were facing inaccurate rifle fire. The machine guns sprayed massive and indiscriminate fire that killed everything in front of them.”

He went on, “These idiots in charge were still in a mindset of cavalry charges and foot soldiers marching forward in blocks, side by side, as had been done for hundreds of years. They never thought of changing the way they operated. The Victorian period with all its upheaval by advancements in invention and technology seems to have passed the generals by, entirely.” He paused for breath.

Elizabeth intervened, “John, you need to calm down, and stop fighting yesterday’s wars, just like the generals did!”

He let his breath out slowly, to calm himself. “Yeah, you are right. I and my colleagues were taught self-reliance and looking after your buddy; and we trained for ALL eventualities in war.”

“All eventualities?” Elizabeth queried.

“I am afraid so. Everything from nuclear weapons to biological and chemical warfare; jungle warfare; mountain warfare; you name it, we trained for it. We were trained also in what we could do to ameliorate the effects of each of these. We got training in how to resist questioning if captured. Curiously, one of the toughest things about being able to resist was sleep deprivation. If you are shaken awake every time you drop off into sleep, you end up confused as to the time, and what is happening to you. The only way to resist is to have your spiel prepared – the story you want to hand them – and stick to it, saying the same thing over and over again, to the point where you almost believe it yourself.

At the end of one of these training sessions, where we were tested on our resilience, I was asked how long I had been held for and questioned. I thought it had been around 36 hours, and to my surprise the trainers told me it had been about eight hours. I had lost all sense of time.

That shows how difficult it can be. We were not intended to be completely reticent about answering questions, but just to resist for as long as possible, so that any data we revealed would be useless by the time the enemy gets hold of it. Modern warfare changes so rapidly that intelligence quickly goes out of date.”

Catherine was sympathetic, “Oh, that sounds terrible, John. It must have been a frightening experience.”

“Not completely frightening, as we knew it wasn’t real; or we thought so, but they spring it on you without warning, just like the real thing. Masked men with guns grab you, throw you into a land rover or some such vehicle, and then don’t answer your questions. It is not so much them actually refusing; mostly your questions are ignored, as if you weren’t there.

They keep you blindfolded and tied up for most of the time, and are very reluctant to let you go to the loo. That is a part of the pressure on you: the need for the toilet. They insist THEY are the only ones asking the questions, accusing us of being spies and threatening to kill us for that. It was amazingly realistic at the time.”

“You are probably better off being out of the army, darling.”

“Not at all, my love. I loved being a soldier, especially in the SAS. It is such an elite unit that you know you are working with the best soldiers in the world. We took great pride in that. All the other countries that have special forces units have modelled themselves on the SAS ethos. The Australians are a good example.

In the SAS, when you are in the field, it is all first names or nicknames, including your officer or NCO, for operational efficiency. You all work closely on the same level, and will support each other, and every man has specialist training to fit in with the squadron requirements, with some overlaps such as communications knowledge. Each 4-man Patrol is led by a corporal; the patrol in turn is part of a 16-man troop, which are then part of an SAS squadron.”

“Well, you are out of it now, John, so put it all behind you, just like the butler position you held at our house.” Catherine demanded. “This is all new for us, especially me, and we should look at our future in that light.”

John stared at the teenager. “Christ, you are on the ball, Catherine. You are a clever lass, despite your youth.”

Catherine stared back at him fiercely, declaring, “John, I am a grown woman now, not a youngster, so don’t patronise me, and don’t use the Lord’s name as a swear word. I know what life is about – at least the basics – and I am prepared to adjust to whatever we have to do to be together.”

John came back with, “I was not trying to patronise you, Catherine. It was meant to be a compliment, so don’t get on your high horse about it. I apologise for my language; I accept that it was uncalled for.”

Elizabeth was fishing out her phone, ignoring their chattering. She keyed in her departmental boss’s number, and got through quickly. Identifying herself, she asked him, “Sir, I am thinking of emigrating to the Earth colony in space. Do you know how one goes about it?”

He exhibited surprise at the question.

“Constable, I am surprised that you would be thinking of abandoning us. What have we done to chase you off?”

“Nothing, sir. I have a serious boyfriend now – he wants to marry me – and we are looking for something that allows us to be together. Undercover work doesn’t do it for us, so I would be leaving that side of my career for the moment. I think this colony has things going for it that we might like to explore.”