By Charles Kincaid

As told by Captain Lili Marquette USMC

[The following is based on characters from Gene Roddenberry's Earth: Final Conflict]

"It’s a dirty job and somebody has to do it." In the military, you hear that phrase often. All too often, you hear it just as somebody is giving you your assignment. This was no exception.

The assignment was to sweep through an abandoned Jaridian station and the surrounding area. A "mopping up" exercise to locate anything that the Volunteers missed when they over ran the station a week ago. This was after a series of defeats handed to the Jaridians by the newly equipped forces.

The Taelons had finally devised a weapon powerful enough for our troops to overcome the Jaridians in close combat on the ground. Our troops were so excited by the victories that they did not slow down to gather any intelligence data. With a taste for blood, they swept across planet SRS-44 like locusts in autumn. The only way that any of the Jaridians survived was that they boarded what ships they could and blasted into space, retreating to the still invincible fleet.

The three of us, Major Liam Kincaid, Agent Ronald Sandoval, and myself made up an intell team that was hastily assembled and dispatched to this graveyard of a planet. A strange assignment made even stranger by the way the members of the team had been acting. Especially Ron Sandoval.

Sandoval had recently had his CVI replaced. An "enhanced" model with some "improvements". The new CVI had a miniature transceiver that allowed the user to tap into the Global communications network and access online databases. The access was two-way and allowed Ron to file his reports instantly. It also magnified his senses of touch, hearing, and vision to an extreme degree.

It was almost as if Liam was jealous of Ron’s newfound powers. There was never any love loss between those two. Now Liam was even more combative and argumentative then ever before. When he was not baiting Ron, he was sullen and sour. "Lili, I can’t stand this much longer.", he said to me just before we left Earth. "That new bee in his bonnet makes Ron seem almost psychic." I almost laughed at Liam's turn of phrase. It seems as though the "bee" in Ron’s "bonnet" had given Liam a bug up his… Well, let’s just say that Liam was in a doozy of a snit and leave it at that.

We had finished with the interior of the station and were scanning the grounds outside. "Nothing.", I said. "At least nothing new. This is a waste of time. We aren’t going to learn anything new this way." "Not entirely true, Captain.", Ron replied. "If we uncover no unexpected physical evidence here, we will have learned that our established assessment of Jaridian technology is, in fact, correct."

It was Liam that spotted the artifact first. "What’s that?" Just outside the rear door of the station was a stone table. The table had a bench to either side of it. The whole set looked, for all the world, like a large picnic table but it was rough hewn out of stone. The artifact was sitting atop the table.

It was a small, finely sculpted, figurine. It was in the shape of a Jaridian soldier and stood about 5 centimeters tall. It might have been a chess piece, or a toy soldier, or a religious object. There was no way to tell. "I wonder what it is made of.", I said. Ron got that blank stare on his face the way he did when he was looking something up in that new head of his. We were a very long way from the databases of Earth and so it took me a second to figure out how his CVI could be working at this distance. Then I remembered that we were in range of the data store onboard our shuttle. "It appears to be carved from Bassamite.", Ron said. "A material native to the Jaridian home world and used exclusively in statuary."

"Well at least the entire trip won’t be wasted.", Liam said. "Not only a Jaridian artifact, but a piece of Jaridian art." He dropped the figurine into his pocket and started walking towards the shuttle. "Let’s go this way. It will be shorter to go directly to the shuttle over this rise than to retrace our steps."

"Give me that figurine, Major. I need to photograph it for my report." Ron started to follow Liam. "You can’t just pick up a Jaridian artifact and pocket it for yourself. It has to be cataloged and studied. It could reveal evidence of the nature of Jaridian culture. It could be a clue to the weaknesses of our enemy."

"Gee, Ron.", Liam said over his shoulder without looking back, or slowing down. "We can study it back on Earth. You should learn to relax more. Besides, I need something to brighten up my desk." Boy, I hope that these two aren’t going to fight all the way home. I started to follow them. We were in a line. Liam out front by a meter or so, followed by Ron Sandoval, and I brought up the rear.

"I must insist that you hand it over, Major. As leader of this expedition, all discoveries are my responsibility. They are in my purview, and must remain under my direct control."

I could almost see Liam smiling as he lengthened his stride. Being taller than Sandoval, Liam could easily outdistance him walking. He was going to try to force Ron to break into a run, or a trot, at least. "Ron, you don’t trust me. Or could it be that you are just jealous. With your enhanced CVI, you should have seen it long be fore me. ‘I spy with my little eye…’ The human beats the machine again. Ain’t technology grand?"

Surprisingly, Ron pulled up short. Could Liam’s words have stung him that badly? These two were even more childish than I had thought. Sandoval stood as still as a statue himself. Liam just kept on walking. Loudly, Sandoval spoke a single word. "Mine!"

Liam kept walking and said, "Your obsessing, Ron. I said that we will put it in the catalog when we get home. You can take all the photographs that you want You should get out more." Sandoval repeated himself, "Mine!"

That tore it! I was going to put a stop to this bickering once and for all. I had walked a pace, or two, beyond where Ron was standing. I stopped and turned to face him. Before I could say a word, he did the most incredible thing. He balled up his fists and raised his forearms so that the fists nearly touched in the center of his chest. His face contorted into a crying expression, almost hysterical.

"Mine! Mine! Mine!"

"Get a life, Ron.", Liam said.

Click!

I whirled around towards the sound. What I saw was Liam standing on his left foot. His right foot was coming forward to complete the step. Liam was trying to prevent that from happening. He desperately tried to maintain his balance and stop his forward momentum. He teetered on that one foot battling the force of gravity. In this case, it was a battle of life or death consequence.

The teetering was increasing in violence. There was no way that he was going to be able to remain standing like that. Liam's "balancing act" was going to end badly. I knew that he was going to fall. It was only a matter of when and in which direction. When Liam glanced over his shoulder in our direction, I could see in his eyes that he knew that he was going to fall.

Behind me, Agent Ronald Sandoval lowered his hands and resumed his statue like stance. Quietly, he said, "Perhaps I should have said ‘Land Mine’".