Close to the Marx

Entry 10

20 Krishna

So, to be honest I did not know what to think about this whole thing. I mean who in the hell wrote that s**t that could have known about all of that stuff? I tried dismissing these drawings, but I had to talk to someone about them. I thought about asking Heather again but I had second thoughts about it because she might think I was going nuts.

“Marxus,” the Colonel’s voice said suddenly.

“Ma’am,” I said tapping on an intercom that was at my desk.

 “I want to have a Captain’s consul today, please come to my office at 0900.” She said I looked at my watch, it was about 20 minutes to 0900.

“Yes ma’am,” I said.

I grabbed my stuff before looking at the screen again. Could I ask the Colonel about this maybe one of the other captains? I had to think it through.

The captain’s consul is something that a Colonel can order their captains to have with them present. It was often done to discuss future motions with the platoon or other platoons or things of that sort.

I wondered what the Colonel wanted to talk about. I reached the Colonels office and cursed. There were about 5 other captains 3 of them were extremely gorgeous women.

“Vinnie would have a field day…” I sighed.

“Captain Marxus Browne,” one of the two other male captains in the room said.

I recognized him almost instantly.

“Captain Blue, I didn’t know you were in this group,” I said.

Captain Steven Blue was a very old friend of my old man’s, many people wondered why he would not accept the commission of a Colonel. He was about the same age as my old man and he might have been just as decorated but unlike the old man he rose to Captain and stayed there. He had thinning hair and obvious signs of old age.

 We shook hands.

“I thought you would have been up with my Old man.” I said

“Are you kidding I am too dangerous for the Empire to be put in a position like that.” Captain Blue said as he laughed. “It is good to see you here now Marxus. While we wait for the Colonel let me introduce you to the other Captains.”

“Of course, you may know Captain Alexander Silver,” Captain Blue said pointing at another familiar face. I was shocked that he was in this group too. Alexander Silver was another of the legendary Captains of the Golordian Army, to have two legendary captains under her the Colonel must have some reputation.

“Of course, I know him.” I said shaking Alexander’s hand.

“Marxus,” Alexander said clasping his hands on mine.

“This is Captain Olivia Greene,” Captain Blue said.

Olivia was downright gorgeous. She looked like she must have had some lineage to the Teals or the Turquoise because of her olive shaped eyes and. Olivia looked like she was the youngest of the Captains except for maybe me. I was wondering if like me she had some relation to one of the Battalion Generals like I was.

“I’ve heard stories about you, did you really disable a missile?” Olivia asked.

“That he did I was there,” Captain Blue said. “How old were you 10?”

“I was 12, okay,” I said feeling a bit embarrassed.

“This is Captain Selena Bronze,” Captain Blue said.

“Did you really throw a knife through a keyhole once?” She asked.

“Oh yeah forgot about that,” I said just remembering that when she mentioned it. “It wasn’t really a key-hole it was where a lock and key should have been.”

“An impressive feat no less.” Captain Blue said then pointing at the next person.

“And this is…”

“Captain Adrien Maroon,” she said.

“Adrien Maroon?” I c****d my eyebrow. “I thought Adrien Maroon was a male.”

“You’re thinking of my father,” She said.

“Oh, I see your Adrien and he’s Adrian huh?” I asked and she nodded.

“Yeah that’s right.” She said.

“Hello ladies and gentlemen,” The Colonel said walking in and Heather was right behind her. I wondered why Heather was so close to the Colonel, but the red hair they both had was kind of sounding bells in my head. Heather must be related to the Colonel somehow.

“Hello Ma’am!” we said.

“I am sure you all are wondering why I have decided to call this consul.” The Colonel said and she sighed heavily and sounded like she was holding back tears. “I am sorry to be the one to inform you, but my Father General Reynold Redd was found dead a couple of days ago.”

Everyone gasped. I didn’t know how to react to that as I already knew that. But I did look surprised because I didn’t expect the Colonel to be the one who would have told us.

“What do you mean found dead?” Captain Blue asked.

“It was an apparent suicide.” The Colonel said.

“That is bull s**t,” Captain Blue said. “I’ve known your father for years, there was no way that he would have done that.”

“Believe me Captain, I know he would not have done that.” The Colonel said.

“What do you want us to do?” Alexander Silver asked.

“For now, we have a ceremony for his life in three days,” The Colonel said. “It took a lot of convincing of my mother to do it so soon, but I do not want my father’s legacy to get tarnished by potential news of his suicide to come to light.”

“I know my father was good friends with a lot of you or your parents.” The Colonel said. “So if you wish to say something about him at his funeral you may do so.”

“Yes Ma’am,” we all said.

“Otherwise, Marxus stay behind, everyone else dismissed.” The Colonel said.

Soon everyone left leaving the Colonel, Heather and myself in the room.

“Any progress?” The Colonel asked.

“I am not sure actually,” I said honestly.

“What do you mean?” The Colonel asked.

“Well I have a lead but…I just don’t know what to make of it.” I said.

“Well what is it?” The Colonel asked.

“This is going to sound crazy, but have you heard of the Bearserker book series?” I asked. Heather c****d her head when I said that, and it made me look at her.

“The kids’ story?” The Colonel asked.

“The one that no one knows who wrote it or how old it is?” Heather asked.

“Yeah that one,” I said. “If I may be frank…

“I don’t see why not,” the Colonel shrugged.

“Have you ever seen the s**t?” I said.

“The book you mean?” The Colonel asked and I nodded. “Probably not since I was a little girl on Golordia Sigma.”

“I suggest you look at it for a moment,” I shrugged.

The Colonel looked at Heather who shrugged.

“Very well.” The Colonel said and she tapped on her desk and a projection popped up. She typed in the book’s name and came up with the same scans I had seen. She started looking at them.

The Brown Bear with the bow tie meeting the fox, the brown bear meeting the pink bear, the fox clearly jerking it and the brown bear finding out.

“Well…this is cuter than I remember,” The Colonel said.

“Please continue,” I said.

The Colonel did and she stopped and looked shocked when it got to the point where the brown bear and the pink bear meeting the butterfly woman. She looked at Heather.

“Who wrote this?!” Heather said looking at the drawing.

“You are a bit more shocked then I thought you’d be.” I said.

“I am sure Heather told you of my affliction,” The Colonel said.

“Your Sigmosis?” I asked and she nodded. “Yeah…”

The Colonel nodded at Heather who tapped on a button behind her on the wall and curtains started dropping to cover the windows. The Colonel got up and surprisingly that sweater I thought she had been wearing all this time started to move. I c****d my eyebrows and watched in amazement as the thing that I thought had been a black sweater started to stretch out and reveal long beautiful butterfly wings! The most amazing wings I had ever seen. Colors I had never even dreamed of were on her wings. I was more amazed by her wings to notice the rumors of her having 4 breasts because of the Sigmosis was true.

“You see Marxus, whoever wrote that story clearly knows what is going on.” The Colonel said after stretching her wings out as much as she could.

Man, just when it was getting juicy this damn thing started beeping again. Catch you on the next track.