Chapter 6

“I was told it was a Kathleen Malone. Rank, I am not sure; it wasn’t mentioned and I neglected to ask.”

“Ah,” John said knowledgeably. “Kathleen? She is a disabled lady, so let’s not be too harsh on her, Elizabeth.”

“What? You know her?”

“Not really. Colonel Kempe asked me to sort out a different fitness test for her, because of her disability. I got that task transferred to you, my love.”

“Eh? You passed a job to me, did you? And you still expect to make love with me tonight, do you? Are you sure?”

John put his arms round her and gave her a passionate kiss. “I expect to make love to you EVERY night, my darling Liz. This job was passed on because I know you will do a better job of making a fair test of it, instead of ham-fisted me.”

“You do? Well, let me try it out and see what I can come up with.”

“Excellent. I knew I could count on you, you wonderful girl.”

“John, can you have a quiet word with this Kathleen Malone, to see what she is like; and consider what we should do about the situation?”

“All right, my love. If it will make you happy. Where will you be later?”

“I am not sure. I am trying to make head or tail of the department that I am now part of, so that I have some background knowledge to start with.”

“Okay. I’ll just phone you, then.”

After they parted, John sought out the office of the supplies unit. The unit was housed in a large shed about the size of three portacabins. The ‘office’ was not much more than a cubbyhole inside the door, with a small desk as the furniture. Sitting behind it was a good-looking woman, aged about twenty, with well-maintained hair and a pretty face. John addressed her.

“Madam, my name is Major John Freeman. I am new to this department and would like to know what exactly it does and how.”

The woman said, without rising, “Sir, my name is Corporal Kathleen Malone. I have dispensation from rising to greet you sir, due to a disability.”

“That is acceptable, Corporal. For your information, my post is that of Training Officer, and I have laid out certain tasks for all members of staff to do, so that we can measure their fitness level. Colonel Kempe has asked for you to be an exception, thus it will be so.”

“Am I not to be measured, then, sir?”

“Oh, you most certainly will be. However, we have to devise a method of which you will be capable of participation. I have asked my fiancée, Sergeant Elizabeth Frobisher, to work with you on an acceptable compromise that you will both agree on.”

“That sounds reasonable, Major. Your fiancée? You intend to marry her soon?”

“Both of them, Corporal. Catherine is my other fiancée. She is not part of the department, as she is embarking on astronomy for the Colony.”

Kathleen smiled ruefully. “I like a nice wedding. Any chance of an invite, sir?”

“We can do that, Corporal. Now, may we get down to business, and you can show me something about your unit?”

“Of course, Major. Give me a moment to get vertical.”

She pushed her chair back and lever herself up, revealing a quadruped walking stick to enable her to get about. Noticing John’s concern, she explained, “I have a damaged pelvis, Major. The stick helps me move around somewhat. The unit is not large, and I spend much of my time at the desk, where I can work with my phone to deal with supply requests. We are not busy at all at present.”

“So you don’t have much chance for exercise?”

“I expect you are right. I certainly don’t go for long walks or even a short run!”

“How are your arms?”

“Oh, they are quite strong. My accident was four years ago, so I have developed a fair bit of power in my arms.”

“Have you tried firing a rifle?”

“Sorry, sir, I haven’t thought about that yet. Ought I to be doing that?”

“Certainly. Firing a rifle, including a sniper rifle, doesn’t need leg power, but some of the guns, such as the Barrett sniper rifle, are quite heavy. The AWM is a lot lighter, but the Barrett has the extra distance factor.”

“Yes, sir, but these facts mean nothing to me. No-one has given me much military training up to now. I was shown how to fire a standard rifle, but that is all.”

“I see. Well, in my opinion you have a possible option there. We will get you tested. How did you do with the rifle?”

“I quite liked it, sir. No-one told me how well I did, just said my shots were up to standard.”

“We shall explore your capabilities in that line later. Meantime, what sort of supplies do you have here?”

“Mostly medical, and basic tools, at present. Loads of bandages, splints, antiseptics, and painkillers; neck braces and several gurneys – hospital trolleys to you Brits; almost a full pharmacy of medicines: that sort of thing.

Other supplies we have are more equipment-orientated; binoculars, small arms ammunition, knives of various kinds; radios and small radar units; parabolic aerials for radio, and parabolic receivers for surreptitious sound reception; spades and shovels, pick-axes; that sort of thing, and of course the identification arm bands for Security personnel.”

“Nothing like a motorbike?”

“No sir. No transport items.”

“I see. To get back to your pelvis, Corporal, why did you not get it sorted properly? Was it not possible?”

“In America, sir? With the cost of surgery there? No, sir. My family couldn’t afford it.”

“hmm ... As I recall, Corporal, the US Army provided free medical care for their forces. Am I right?”

“Yes, sir. I believe so, but we are not the USA, sir, and I wasn’t in the US Army.”

“True, but ... leave it with me, Corporal. O.K.?”

“Yes, sir. Is there anything else I can do for you sir?”

“Please tell me how you were appointed to this post, Corporal.”

“Oh. When I got to the Colony, I asked to join the Security Department. I thought they could find me a desk job, but be a bit more exciting than admin, finance, etcetra. Colonel Kempe intervened and got me this job. That surprised me, I can tell you. I had never met her before. So why should she ask for me to go into a specific job?”

“Interesting. Did the unit already exist? I ask because of the limited stock you hold.”

“I see, sir. No, I was told to start up the unit, was given the premises to make use of, and was told the annual budget allocated. We are slowly building up our supplies. I could do with some mission profiles, to let me assess future supplies requirements.”

John looked her over with a practised eye. “You seem to have been thrown in at the deep end, young lady; but you show signs of adapting to the water conditions, to take the analogy further.”

“Thank you, sir. I am trying to do my best without sufficient guidance. Do you think you could make enquiries along these lines, sir?”

John by now was becoming suspicious of Colonel Kempe’s motives. She appeared to have pushed for this girl to get this job, then left her to make what she could of it. But to what end? That was the puzzle.

“Thank you for your tour, Corporal Malone. I will look into it for you. I must be off now. Farewell.”

“Farewell, sir. Come back any time.”

She saluted, and John returned the salute before leaving her to her work.

He went off to find a quiet spot where he could think. He spent a while on that task, but failed to solve the conundrum. The whole affair looked engineered, but John could not for the life of him work out what was going on; what the point of it was.

He ended up with a plan of action. He marched back to the Security department’s offices, and asked to speak privately with Colonel Kempe. He was asked to wait until she was free.

Eventually he was invited in, and drew himself to attention in front of his boss.

“Colonel, permission to ask a question?”

“On what subject, Major?”

“Corporal Kathleen Malone, Colonel.”

“Ah. That did not take you long.”

“Pardon, ma’am, sir?”

“I was wondering how long it would be before you turned up with this query. Very well, permission granted.”

“Colonel, Corporal Malone was pushed into her present job as soon as she joined this service, and then she was left to set up the unit all by herself. She has done a good job so far, but she is perturbed at the lack of direction from her superiors.

I understand that most, if not all of the above was at your express orders, yet I have no idea why you did so.”

Colonel Kempe looked him up and down, then replied.

“Major, before Corporal Malone arrived, The Personalia had observed her disability, and asked me why the girl was in that condition. They did not understand why her pelvis had not been repaired.”

John commented, “Well, that makes two of us, at the very least.”

Diane went on, “I asked them to check her background, and found she was a U.S. citizen like me, but her family was poor, and could not afford to have her get the essential repair surgery that her condition deserved. I know that in England she would have got the surgery automatically, but the USA does not have socialised medicine.

Now, I wanted her to get the repair surgery she needs, but there is no way the Colony could afford to send her to Earth for expensive surgery without an adequate and justifiable reason. If she could establish herself in the Security Department as one of our essential personnel, I could perhaps persuade the Admin Department that an investment in her surgery would produce a more efficient member of staff. However, she had to be shown to be essential, so I steered her into a job that needed doing, yet had been ignored so far.

You have reported that she is doing an excellent job without help of any kind. That proves she is a capable and efficient asset to our workforce.”

John could now see the reasoning. “I can vouch for her ability, Colonel. I also want to discover whether she can shoot well with a rifle. I had an idea of her being trained as a sniper, with her good upper body muscles. By the way, Elizabeth – Sergeant Frobisher – is going to develop a fitness test for Corporal Malone.”

“Fine, Major. Keep me posted on progress.”

John’s next task was to organise the measurement team for his fitness tests. He believed that he could start with Catherine and Elizabeth as observers at the digging, and spotters at the marksmanship test, but needed more people to time the digging test. If it was just himself, it could take days to check out each candidate individually.

He thought for a bit, then proceeded to the Colony Admin department, and sought out the official who dealt with new immigrant arrivals. His name was Terry Holt.

“Mr Holt, would it be possible for me to borrow a bunch of new immigrants for a job that will give you an idea of their thoroughness?”

“Sorry, sir, ah, Major, I would need more data to be able to decide.”

“I have to run a fitness test for all the Security personnel, and I need a number of people to measure and note how long each person takes to dig until too tired to go on. The observer, after noting which candidate he is watching, then has to watch carefully to make sure the candidate is working hard, and to be exact in time measurement. Each digger has to deposit their dug soil into a wheelbarrow, which will be removed and replaced by another person.”

“Curious. What do we get from this work?”

“You can do your own observation of the observers, and that will give you a good estimate of their capabilities. From that, you can steer people towards Colony jobs that should suit their capacities. If they do well, I might suggest them for my own department.”

“How long do you need them, Major?

“One day, possibly two days, depending on how many of the staff are involved and can be there for the tests.”

“Very well. Can I select the people to do the job?”

“Certainly. All I require is competence.”

With that accomplished, John set to work on the requirements for building the house on their land. He found an expert on the Colony staff who produced a standard plan that could be amended as required, and told John that they had Colony software that would adapt the list of construction supplies to fit any adaptions he made to the standard plan.

John had a question, and asked the expert.

“How do we get all the materials we will need? I haven’t seen any sign of a storage area for such supplies.”

The other laughed. “That is because the supplies come from Earth. The Colony makes up a daily list of new houses to be built, and the supplies list for each. We pass the list to Earth at the end of each working day, and The Personalia collect the materials the next day. Apparently they have a complete squad of Landerships devoted to transporting these supplies.