Chapter 10

Liu Yuan had no particular feeling one way or the other about the fate of the war started by the Koreans and their American masters. Korea in the winter time in the mountains was no fit place to be, no matter what your politics might happen to be. He just wanted to go home; the politicians could shove this war down the shit hole, and he would be happy to shovel the dirt back on top of it. Ah, but he had no choice. He was conscripted 3 years ago from his home in Yanan, Shaanxi Province, and loved his time in the Army because he was assured of warm food and a secure place to sleep. Yuan was a child of the streets, though the government would never admit that such people existed.

He had managed to survive by stealing food and sleeping in a refuse bin, but life was miserable in wet weather. He was picked up on the street by a detachment of soldiers at a time when he was concentrating on finding his next meal and was not paying enough attention to what was going on around him. That's what happens when you haven't eaten for 4 days! He went passively along with the soldiers, looking for a way to escape, but he was surely trapped beyond all recall when they fed him all of the soup and rice he could hold. Yuan decided to hang around for awhile, since he had no better prospects for food. Over the next few weeks, he found that he liked the life of a soldier, so he decided to stay around for a while.

The life of a peace time soldier was soft and relaxing, except for the hard physical training and those damnable political lectures he had to sit through. Though he was able to tune out the drone of the political officer's voice, enough of the lecture stuck with him for him to do well on the examinations that happened once in a while. In fact, he did so well, that he was promoted to the exalted position of assistant squad leader and given the rank of corporal. He managed to hold his rank and position by doing his job efficiently and correctly and always saying, "Yes, comrade, sir," at all the right times. Furthermore, he was well liked by the other squad members. Overall, Yuan was in an enviable position, and then along came that damned war!

Cpl. Yuan was sent across the Yalu River with the rest of his company of regular infantry in the dead of winter. Now, what damned fool thought up that exercise, particularly when they had not yet been issued enough warm clothes? They stumbled along in the ice and snow and managed to reach their assigned position on the mountain without getting lost more than twice, the officers actually congratulated the sergeant on his map reading skill. Anyway, they were in position to start shooting when the whistles and bugles blew.

The Americans were caught completely by surprise, and many were killed. However, they did mount an effective counter fire, which included mortars. The bastards were walking the mortars along the ridge where Yuan's squad was posted and all the Chinese could do was hunker down and try to live until the explosions had passed them by. Unfortunately, Yuan was not so lucky—he heard the mortar explode right over his head, and the next thing he knew, he was waking up in a bed in a warm room with an exquisite looking gigantic female standing beside him.

She was standing too close for him to see her face clearly, but the part of her body he could see was something out of a dream. Apparently, she noticed that he was now conscious, since she said, "Please lie still until the last measurements are finished." He had no intention of going anywhere until he learned more about his situation. He knew that he had to be dead, but nobody had ever suggested that the afterlife would be like this. Judging from her looks, at least the dead people here ate well!

Yuan suddenly realized that he had understood what she had said, but she had spoken in a language he had never heard before. He knew that he was not stupid, but he also knew that he was no intellectual giant, so, how did he know what she had said?

The strange female giant said, "Liu Yuan, you are alive and well. You were saved from certain death in an explosion to serve with a new band of warriors we want to create. You are no longer on Earth. Your body has been altered to make you stronger and smarter than you ever were before. The fact that you can understand me is proof of your increased knowledge. Now, I am going to say some key words that will trigger memories we have planted in your brain which will tell you everything that has happened to you and why we need you to help us." The female repeated a mnemonic sequence which caused full understanding to burst over Yuan and gave him all of the details of his future with the GPD if he were willing to undertake the obligations.

He was stupefied with the rush of knowledge that overwhelmed him. Yuan had been poorly educated and very provincial, even for a street urchin, so he was hit with concepts he had no idea existed. He asked, "Is all of this really true?"

"Yes, you have been filled with nothing but the truth. We realize that it will take you some time to assimilate it all, but you should grasp enough now to answer a basic question. Are you willing to join with us to make a better world, and, eventually, a better galaxy for everybody?"

Yuan thought for a moment, and said, "I think that you are trying to do what that pompous ass of a political officer talked about for those long boring hours. Yes, I would like to join in such an undertaking. What do I have to do to join you?"

"You have just done it. By the way, my name is Seven." She spoke another few words and more knowledge flowed through Yuan's brain. She said, "You are going to need some time to come to terms with what you are now thinking, so we have arranged for you to stay in an apartment complex in this building with some other people in your same condition. Come with me and I will introduce you.

Nurse Helena Grunwald was making her last pass through the ward before the end of her shift. She really found it hard to go home and leave these wounded soldiers, even though she knew that the nurse who was relieving her cared just as much about their welfare as she did. Of course, going home meant walking 3 blocks through the devastated city and hoping that the bombers would pick another time to visit more destruction on their heads. Helena couldn't help muttering a curse on Herr Reichsmarschall Goering's head for promising to protect them from the British and American bombers and then failing so miserably to do so.

She carefully checked that each man was sleeping as comfortably as possible as she made her rounds and paused where appropriate to make any necessary adjustments in medication or bed position. She always took longer on her last round because it would be another 12 hours before she was back again, and she wanted to do as much as she could for the men before she left.

Helena spent some time at the nurse's station filling out her paperwork. She also wanted to make absolutely sure that her relief was in place before she left her ward. Ah, there she was. "Hello, Astrid. You're here a few minutes early, tonight. I suppose that means that the weather is warm and not raining."

"Yes, Helena. The weather is fine. Warm and clear. Perfect for those damned bombers!"

"Yes, I know! Well, since you are here and ready to start your shift, I'll leave now and try to beat the bombs home. Good night."

Helena went out of the hospital past the blackout curtains and into the warm night air. Now that she was out of the hospital, she could hear the drone of airplane engines overhead. Long experience told her that these were the engines of the Messerschmidt Me110 night fighters. Helena hoped that they had more success than usual in stopping the bombers this time.

Oh, shit! There was the characteristic scream of the engines of a British Mosquito pathfinder as it streaked overhead. She could tell that the bombs would be falling soon because she could see the marker flares released from the pathfinder. Yes, there were the explosions from the first bombs, and they were headed her way. She began to run, but there was no way she could outrun a falling bomb. She got just far enough away from the hospital to see the string of bombs fall on it. The damned British didn't seem to care that their random drop of bombs on a city meant that they were bound to hit hospitals and convalescent homes. She was sure that the Luftwaffe bombers had been much more careful when they had bombed England.

The burning hospital was too much for her nerves. She froze in place as the watched her wounded men burning in the flaming wreckage of the hospital. She was completely oblivious to the next string of bombs that fell where she was standing. All she saw was a flash of bright light, and then nothing!