Chapter 7 - Get Over It
In the Perseus arm of the Milky Way Galaxy is a Globular Cluster known as M13. A huge gathering of thousands of stars, one hundred light years wide.
Hidden within, amongst its' blazing bright light, was the secret base of the Resistance. The base consisted of a mass of different Star Ships joined together in a jagged spherical shape, its' outer surface constantly changing as ships came and went.
Its' occupants had nicknamed the makeshift Space Station Sunnydale.
A Drummond Cargo Hauler, buried within, had been fitted out as a gym. It housed a holo-shed which incorporated Alien Technology, making it one of the most advanced in the galaxy.
Streek was in the gym, flat on her back on a weight bench, dressed in her black gi that Makita made her, straining as she lifted a barbell up over her large breasts. Bernie appeared over her. "Hey there! Need someone to spot you?"
"No, I was doing fine on my own. ...ngh!"
"Well, I was getting tired of drinking on my own, I might as well work out with you."
"If you want. ...ngh!"
"I thought you'd be in the holo-shed."
"They're using it to ...ngh, train some recruits."
Streek brought the bar down again and grit her teeth as her face tensed up as she struggled to lift it again.
"Here, I'll get that." said Bernie, going to grab the bar.
"No!, I got it! ...Nnnnnaagh!" Streek groaned and strained as she slowly lifted the heavy barbell up, when her arms straightened again, Bernie helped her put it back onto the rack.
Streek sat up again, sweat ran down her red face, she rubbed her sore arms. "I gotta get stronger," she said. "That's only fifty kilos. I wasn't that strong when I was a man, now I'm a girl I'm even weaker."
Bernie looked at her, "Right, you're weaker, that's why you had your male copy running scared."
Streek didn't say anything to that.
"They had you chained up Streek, It wouldn't have mattered how strong you were."
"I know that." said Streek, her expression darkening.
"Move over girl, I wanna go, will you spot me?"
"If you want."
Bernie laid down on the bench and lifted the barbell then started pressing, she didn't seem to have any trouble with the weight.
"Have you ever done that before?" asked Streek.
"Back at the Academy, not by choice."
"Why did you leave?"
"Are you kidding? I fuckin' hated it. ...nngh, I could see it in my Dads eyes too, he hated being a Fed. Bunch of Ass-holes!"
"Yeah, Ass-holes." said Streek.
Ben reached a point where she had the barbell down and was straining to lift it too. "Gnnh ...Nnnngaah ...Spot!"
Streek grabbed the bar and helped her to lift it up to the rack again. "See Streek, nothing wrong with getting a little help now and then. Even Rocky Balboa got help from Apollo Creed to defeat Clubber Lang."
Streek walked off to a nearby punching bag and started throwing some fast punches. The strong blows knocked the hanging bag around. Bernie went over and held it as Streek laid into it.
"This sucks!" said Streek as she struck out. "We should be out there, looking for that damn Pod!"
"I'm with you there, but the Doc doesn't even want to talk to me. Why doesn't he just get over it, so we can get on with it?"
Streek did a hard roundhouse kick, knocking Bernie back a step. "I've got half a mind to take the Avatari out there myself."
Bernie looked around the bag at her, "Do you want to?"
"Bernie ...look there's Makita."
The white plated android was walking through the gym toward them. As she approached, Bernie said, "There she is, our droid in shining armour. How are you Mak?"
"I am functioning well, thank you Bernadette. Doctor Arnott and General Bolton request the presence of both of you aboard the Angelina." she said in her monotone androgynous voice.
"Now they want to talk. It's about time." said Streek.
"Yeah, they better be telling us we're moving out again. Come on Streek, we don't wanna keep them waiting."
Streek was all sweaty and still wearing her black gi, Bernie was wearing a maroon track-suit. They didn't shower or get changed and just followed the android out of the gym.
"Hey Makita, there's something I wanted to ask you." said Streek as they walked along. "When you entered the Resolve to come and rescue us, were you scared at all? ...y'know that you'd be destroyed?"
"I do not feel scared. I do not feel any human emotions ...sometimes that makes me sad."
Streek and Bernie looked at each other. "Was that a joke?" asked Bernie.
"Yes, I have observed the use of humour, with some people, and in some situations, it is appreciated."
"Ha ha!, 'sometimes that makes me sad', good one Mak!" laughed Bernie.
"I prefer you talking like this." said Streek. "The other ways the Doc had you talking made you sound stupid."
"Yes." said Makita.
Bernie looked her over. "If you can learn to crack a joke, then perhaps you can develop your own personality, rather than those fake ones the Doc has been programming into you."
"I was not designed to develop my own personality. It serves no purpose."
"Yeah, you were built by the Federation, they hate individual personalities, I know." said Bernie. "But you should work on that personality thing Mak, crack more jokes, swear if things don't go your way, and if you get sick of people ordering you around, tell them where to go."
"Where is that?" asked Makita.
"You'll work it out. I'll have a word to the Doc about it."
"I will take that under consideration."
"Just as long as you don't call me slut, or honey, or dude. I want you to call me Streek."
"You got it, ...Dudette!"
They boarded the Angelina and Makita lead them to General Boltons' office. Doctor Arnott was there standing in a corner and the General was sitting behind his clean and ordered semi-circular desk.
They could see a couple of 3D holo-pics on his desk, one was of Mia and Zac, the other was of a beautiful red-headed woman, Streek assumed it was Angelina, his dead wife.
"General, Doctor." said Bernie in way of greeting.
"Hello girls, please take a seat." said General Bolton gesturing to the chairs in front of his desk. "Thank you Makita, that will be all."
Makita nodded and left the room. Bernie and Streek sat down. "Sorry about our attire General." said Streek. "...We were working out."
"That's fine," said the General, regarding them with his intense eyes. "I wanted to tell you both that we're sorry."
"Oh?" said Bernie.
"You have a background of freighting cargo through systems. We drew you into our highly dangerous world of covert operations against an extremely powerful, ruthless enemy. We assumed that implanting a few experience sets would make you ready for this dangerous mission. I see now that it was a bad call, you were almost killed, and went through a terrible ordeal."
"Hold on a minute!" said Bernie, "...You're making it sound like we were in over our heads and screwed up big time. I think we both handled ourselves well on New Heidi. We found our Sires quickly and stayed under the Feds' radar, and I got us the Intel we were after. We had no way of knowing the Pirates would show up like they did, if it weren't for them, we wouldn't have been captured."
"If you had not wilfully chosen to disobey a clear and direct order from your Commanding Officer, you wouldn't have been captured. That's what this is about Anders."
"I made a judgement call in the field. I thought that Ben Anders and his clones would be useful to the Resistance as allies."
"Your 'judgement call' put our whole operation at risk. You forced Dr. Arnott to make what was by far our boldest attack on the Federation. He disabled several Federation Cruisers, and your escape was nothing short of a bloodbath. The Federation will not take this lying down!"
"I'm sorry General, okay?! For the record, Streek was against what I did. I basically threatened her to get her to come along."
"No, I made my choice." said Streek.
"We know what happened. We've decided it would be best if the two of you didn't go out on any more missions. You're to stay here at the base, at least until the Cloning Pod is recovered. I will assign other operatives to work with Dr. Arnott."
"That's Bullshit!" cried out Streek.
"General, you can't do this!" said Bernie. "I'll accept whatever punishment you got, but we gotta go out there again. You know how important the Cloning Pod is to us."
"This isn't a matter of punishment. I think the two of you have been punished enough. It's a matter of trust, we no longer trust you in the field."
"Then how can we earn your trust again?"
"By doing as you're ordered. Anders, our engineering department is always flat out repairing and modifying our fleet, they would be glad to have someone of your abilities. McKenzie, the Doctor has gifted you with extensive combat experience, you can assist Sergeant Takoshi in training our recruits."
"Please General," said Streek, "...we feel it now, the burning hatred for the Federation that I know you feel." She nodded to the holo-pic of Angelina, "...You can't ground us now, we need to be out there doing all we can."
"I don't need wild dogs out there looking for pay-back. I need disciplined soldiers who do what's required of them."
"We'll follow orders, I promise."
"I've made my decision, that's all I have to say on the matter."
Streek looked over at Dr. Arnott, "Is that how you feel Doc? You don't trust us?"
"It is. I'm sorry Lisa."
"Can you at least bring us up to date with what's going on? With what your next move is?" said Bernie. The General and Dr. Arnott stayed quiet for a moment. "Come on, I was the one who got you the intel on this Amos Chong guy, have you found him?"
"A couple of our agents tracked him down. They were killed in action. It seems Chong is quite skilled with the weapons he sells." said General Bolton sadly.
"We can take him down," said Streek. "Come on, you need us to capture him."
