The Vladivostok Incident

Chapter 5

Quick Recovery

Bright white seeped into Shelton's eyes as he slowly slid his eyelids open. His memory was fuzzy and his senses were just barely starting to return. Two steady beeps pierced his ears, and he gave a quick look around. Medical equipment was near his head, and with all of the wires and tubes attached to his body he assumed he was in a hospital of some kind. Something moved to the right of him. With a heavy head, he strained to see who was near. He managed to catch the backside of a female in jeans as she left his side. He also spotted Petras straddling a chair looking rather bored and Antanas seated further way reading a newspaper. He rolled his head to the left and saw an IV stuck into his left arm. His eyes trailed further and he saw Antoine in a cot beside him, asleep. Memories returned, but he was too weak to fully register the ramifications of the previous events. Besides…

"Where am I?" Shelton asked, his voice cracking slightly.

"Zeyskoye Hospital," Petras answered.

Shelton used much of his strength in order to sit up. He looked down at his right arm and saw it was gone below the elbow. He was about to curse his luck when the door opened. A doctor entered with a nurse. From outside in the hallway the voices of Rex and Andrei snuck in before the door was closed. The old man doctor had within his hands a wrapped package, which made Shelton both worried and excited. The doctor took a chair right next to Shelton's bed and said, "Unfortunately you started to wake up earlier than I wanted, so I want you to listen carefully." He removed the brown paper from the package to reveal an artificial limb. "Normally we put these on when the patient is sedated, in order to avoid any pain the patient might feel during the linking process. Do you want to risk the possibility of pain?"

It took a moment to think about it; he remembered that he suffered pain when his arm was being demolished, but he couldn't remember what it felt like. Unable to speak, Shelton merely nodded. The nurse slowly began to remove the bandage that covered his stub of an arm. Once it was gone, he was met with a surprise. The wound was already covered with the socket necessary to attach the arm. Black, with a bit of metal color, went from the wound up about five inches. It was neatly fitted onto his stub, although not perfectly because it was hastily acquired – "second generation" like Antoine's, meaning it was removed from a previously expired patient of similar size.

"When it's first connected," the doctor explained, "you may or may not have a high sense of touch. This means that simply placing your hand on a surface could result in an ache similar to a crushing sensation. Please bear that for a moment as we try to decide whether any adjustments will be needed."

Again, Shelton nodded. There was no hesitation from the doctor as he took the artificial arm and clicked it into the socket. Surprisingly, Shelton felt nothing resembling actual pain. Instead, there was just a tingle in his muscles as the nerves responded to the electrolytes. "This is awesome!" he exclaimed as he closed his new hand without any problems.

"Ah, that went well," the doctor sighed in relief. He picked up a glass near the table and asked, "Why don't you see how your grip is?" Shelton eagerly grabbed the glass from the doctor only to crush it completely. The doctor laughed and patted Shelton on his shoulder as the nurse started picking up the glass shards. "They take a while to get used to. This is an older model and one that was in use for quite some time on a previous patient, so maybe it isn't as sensitive as a newer model. We have an order for a personalized newer model, which should be ready in about six months."

"I can't afford this," Shelton admitted.

The door opened again and before Shelton could see who it was the doctor said, "Luckily for you, Mr. Fedorov has already covered the costs and arranged for it to be installed in Vladivostok." Antanas looked up from his current read, which was now a magazine. He had no idea what they were talking about, just that his name had been mentioned.

"Thank you," Shelton said earnestly.

"Oh," Antanas said, now that he realized what they were discussing. "It's really no big deal."

"It is for me," Rex's voice roared. He had entered earlier but remained quiet. He had removed his military outfit and replaced it with a respectable shirt and slacks. It only made sense as they weren't about to enter a town or hospital dressed as mercenaries. "One of my men has given you two blood transfusions in as many days," he lectured and pointed to the sleeping Antoine. "How the hell anyone can even give up that much is beyond me, but you do damn well to realize I have men to look after."

"So do I," Andrei called from the doorway. He strode inside. The doctor and nurse silently exited and snapped the door shut behind them.

"Who was the i***t that set off the trap?" Rex demanded. Shelton pointed to Antoine. "I'll give him a piece of my mind after that one. Those damned Chinese are turning to biological warfare." Silenced for only a moment, he let out a sigh and said, "I apologize about what I'm sure was a terrible experience."

"To be honest I don't remember much of it," Shelton said with a small laugh.

"What I want to know is what the hell got you," Petras said. "Your entire arm was eaten away before we even left."

"It was probably a group of those insects from Ganymede," Antanas mentioned offhand. When he felt the odd stares, he looked up from the magazine. "What?"

"What do you mean, 'what?'" Petras snapped. "Nobody's ever heard of whatever the heck you're talking about."

Antanas raised a brow and slowly lowered the magazine until it was lying in his lap. "About two decade ago a group of pioneers were exploring Ganymede and never came back. When a rescue group was sent out to get them, they found they had been partially eaten by a group of insects indigenous to the satellite. There was a lot of talk about using them in warfare. Didn't you hear about this?"

"Twenty years ago I was seven years old and playing dice in the alley behind my parents' house," Shelton claimed. "I couldn't even read."

"Oh," Antanas said, defeated. "Well it was recently mentioned again. I know the BWD was in serious discussions about adapting them for Earth's environment, at least since I've been in charge."

"As cute as these discussions are, we have to prepare ourselves to move out," Rex interrupted. "This is the last stop until we reach occupied territory. After this is a whole heck of a lot of destroyed towns and uninhabited regions, which means a heck of a lot of fighting. Next time you get hurt don't expect us to go through so much trouble."

"I don't think we ever got the chance to decide whether we were actually going or not," Andrei argued.

Rex just sneered at the man, "I don't know what you plan on doing if you don't go."

"I don't have a problem with it," Shelton said with a shrug. "But why are you attacking the Chinese? You're not part of the NAU anymore, so what's your goal?"

"We're not freedom fighters if that's what you're thinking," Rex explained. "Each one of us has been personally affected by the Chinese and their imperialistic, self-righteous ways, so we've decided to stop them. How would you feel if those damned insects were used against a city?"

Silence washed over the room, broken only by the beeping monitors. Shelton looked to Andrei. Etched on the older man's face was clear dislike for the situation. Rex had managed to hit him right where he was the most sensitive. Andrei came off as a hard ass in the factory, but he was perhaps the most docile and compassionate man in all of Tynda.

"I want the Chinese out of Tynda," Petras announced. "If that means I have to travel a thousand miles to cut their throat, I'd do it."

Once again the door was opened and this time the woman who was near Shelton when he woke up entered. It was the female soldier from earlier. The only way he could tell was her face. To begin with, she was tanner than the rest of the group so just a glimpse of her arm gave away who it was. Rex turned to greet her, which made her figure hidden to the rest of the room. This was the first time Shelton heard what her name was, when Rex said, "What can I help you with, Lena?"

As Rex listened to Lena, Antanas snickered and said, "A woman soldier?" He was about to make another quick comment, but stopped when Rex turned around to face him.

"Speaking of women," he said, "a report just came through the wire. The Stars are looking for you."

"The who?" Petras asked.

"Stars," Andrei repeated. "That's the nickname for the Eurasian military force. Don't ask why, no one knows where it came from."

"Either the Chinese asked them to find you, or they feel like you're important to the investigation. Since your body wasn't found at the factory they're assuming you were kidnapped," Rex said.

"Because I was kidnapped."

"The Chinese are holding your wife captive," Lena announced from behind Rex. Antanas looked up at her, apparently disinterested in the news. He grunted and adjusted his swooping bangs.

"Give her my regards," he joked.

"We can rescue her," Rex offered. "For a price, of course."

Antanas waved him off, "Don't bother." The grin that Shelton hated so much grew until it stretched all the way across Antanas's face. He stood, shoved his hands in his pockets and said as he swaggered out of the room, "Tell the Chinese to use her as they see fit. I'm sure her many talents will be useful to boosting morale for the ground troops."

The door shut behind him. Andrei didn't wait for the silence to settle before he spoke. "With all due respect, Commandant, have you ever thought of the political ramifications of what you want to do? Destroying the Chinese would completely disrupt the world scale. The civil wars in the European provinces would be miniscule compared to the power grab that would result."

"I'm shocked a factory manager has good grasp on such things," Rex taunted. When Andrei didn't flinch, and only allowed his glare to deepen, Rex returned the gesture. The green eyes of Andrei tried to battle with the deeper, darker eyes of Rex; the younger of the two knew he was fighting an unpopular battle. Rex was the one to break off when he reached his hand under his jacket. "Let me make this clear, Mr. Tsarev." From a hidden holster he removed a small pistol and aimed it between Andrei's eyes. "I don't have time to joke around. Either you help us, or you die."

Andrei didn't respond at first. Like most others, he considered himself fearless. That all changed with a gun pointed to his head. The delay angered Rex, so he pressed the gun against Andrei's head in order to give him an idea of what he was facing. The cool metal only angered him more.

Stumbling out of bed, Shelton went to help his friend. The monitors were torn away as he tried to get up. Yet it wasn't he who saved Andrei, it was Antoine, who had been lying awake for several minutes. He hopped straight over Shelton's bed and grabbed Rex's arm. The short man lowered the weapon with the silent request.

"You have to go to Vladivostok," Antoine told the green eyed worker.

"Why?" he argued. "So I can help you kill a bunch of soldiers? No doubt a bunch of civilians, too?"

"Earlier, when we first started the blood transfusion, you asked about Caesar," he reminded Andrei. "You said you didn't like that he was fighting. Have you ever thought about why he was with us? I don't have ties with Earth. I don't have ties with places, just people. You're the same way, right? Some of us here aren't fighting for a country or some abstract idea like justice. But there are people we know, there are people like Caesar, and all I want for him is to be safe. If the Chinese keep up this brutality – if they keep instilling this fear through their harsh tactics – then Caesar will never know peace."

Andrei's eyes did not betray his inner emotions. Instead, they stayed still and calm as he observed Antoine. It was a rambling declaration that was difficult to comprehend to most people, but Andrei understood. His mind was unraveling what it meant to be in Antoine's shoes. When Andrei was Caesar's age, it was people like him that he fought against. He passed a glance to Petras, who was seated straight up, anxious; then to Shelton, who was half out of bed, eyes wide and waiting for a response. Next, his eyes found Rex and he said, "I'll travel to Vladivostok with you, if you'll allow. But I haven't made a permanent decision."

Rex smiled, "I can live with that. By the time we get there, you'll have made up your mind, believe me."