Only War Lasts Forever

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 3

 

 

Three days had passed since Andi came home that night with his news. Since then Jaan had signed on as well and was given a uniform of his own. The two of them had spent all of their remaining free time helping out around the house and the store doing everything they could to fix things up, or rearrange this, or move that. Jaan had taken only a short break to go see his friend Jeb and to let him know what happened. In some ways, telling Jeb was even harder than breaking the news to his parents in the heat of the moment, especially since Jeb had seen Jaan refuse the first and second time they had tried to recruit him. However, Jeb only responded with a short sigh and a slight smile on his face.

“You’re doing this for Andi,” he had said, “and as long as you keep your word about coming back quickly, then I can live with that.”

But when that final moment came to say good-bye, Jaan was immediately regretting having done everything. He should have just let Andi go. It is, after all, what he wanted, and it’s not like he would be able to actually save him if anything serious happened to him.

Jaan cleared his mind. For better or worse, he had made this decision, and he was going stick with it. He felt that he shouldn’t regret anything, and instead should just plan for the future.

So when he said his good-byes to his parents and went to the landing dock, he didn’t turn around. He just kept walking, right next to Andi, and got in line to board one of the ships. However, when Jaan stopped, Andi kept walking. Apparently they had been given different orders to report to different ships. Jaan assumed that since they had the same last name, that could explain the need to place them in different units.

When the line started to board the ship, the new recruits walked on board like a herd of livestock. There was no order to it, and those that tried to be orderly pretty much failed because they were being orderly by themselves and no one was following them.

One of the soldiers standing nearby mentioned rather loudly how the new recruits would learn the meaning of discipline during training. That is, if they didn’t chicken out or die before they were finished. When Jaan heard that, he became seriously concerned, because the soldier who said that had tried to keep a straight face while he looked at the group. However, the soldiers around couldn’t help but grin and hit each other in the shoulder after he had spoken, and finally one of them just burst out laughing for a few moments until he quickly righted himself. It was at that point that Jaan knew that the soldier who spoke must have only been kidding. Or at least, he hoped he was.

Once aboard, an immaculately dressed officer followed by a few other soldiers began speaking loudly over the subtle murmur of the small crowd.

“Attention! I am Lieutenant Abrams. I am in charge of keeping you lot in line until we arrive at the nearest HDGA training center on planet 65JFS2, or as the training officers stationed there prefer to call it, Hell.”

One man in the group spoke up, albeit sheepishly. “Hell, sir? You don’t mean the Hell, do you?”

“Oh yes, I mean that Hell. There, you’ll meet the devil and his demons. There, you’ll learn the dance of death and fire. There, you’ll understand what it means to be a soldier.”

The lieutenant looked at the group in front of him. Clearly, the joke had been lost on them. Most of them seemed to be on the verge of passing out. He sighed quietly to himself. They never understood the joke.

“The name is a joke, idiots. It’s one that we use to keep you lot in line before we can really get our hands on you.” Some in the group made some nervous, unsure laughter, while others simply had the color return to their faces. “Make no mistake though, it will be tough, and some of you may quit, but when it’s finally over you all will thank yourselves for going through it.”

The lieutenant began giving orders for the group to divide itself into smaller groups. He then signaled for some of the soldiers behind him to escort the different groups to their temporary living quarters.

Jaan was in the third group, and he followed one of the soldiers to where they were to be staying. The soldier looked familiar, and when they arrived, the soldier began speaking and Jaan instantly recognized him.

“Alright, squealers, listen here. We have four more planets to stop by and visit before we make our return trip to Hell.” The soldier grinned. “So until then, you all will be confined to your rooms. Two men per room. The woman will be separate from the men, for reasons I probably do not need to explain to you.”

There was some booing by a few men in the back, but overall everyone agreed with the rules. As the group began to disperse, Jaan approached the soldier.

“Greg? Is that you? Do you remember me? I’m Jaan Reeth. We met at that bar?”

“Yeah, I remember ya. I saw ya in the crowd but didn’t say anything. Honestly, I shouldn’t be talking to you right now. Friendship between enlisted men and pre-trainees is discouraged, mostly because it implies favoritism. But, once you’re done and if you see me again, we’ll for certain be able to keep talking. In fact, I’d really like to know what changed your mind. But, until then,” Greg raised his voice, “get in your room, maggot!”

Greg gave Jaan a quick wink as he pointed at an empty room and began yelling at Jaan to get in there. Jaan, even though he was still confused about the politics of the HDGA, played the part of the scared recruit and ran into the room.

Once inside, Jaan noticed that there was already one other person in there. He was a man of slight build and did not seem to be at all older than Jaan himself. He waved and the other person waved in return, and was sporting a bizarre grin.

“My name is Helix Trunt. I am a romantic and a self-fancied knight. How do you do?”

“I am alright, I suppose. I’m Jaan Reeth. I’m a skeptic and a shopkeeper’s son. I’m not too thrilled about this, but I think I’ll make it. And, a knight? Of what?”

Helix had been sitting on a chair, but once Jaan asked his question, he immediately jumped up and stood on the chair, fists against his sides and a triumphant grin on his face, “Of adventure, my friend! What else is there?”

Jaan had been taken aback by the sudden burst of energy, but he collected himself before speaking again, “That is a rather broad term, ‘adventure’.” Jaan said.

Helix sat down and suddenly seemed to have no energy or zeal, unlike just a moment before, “Do you think so?” he said, placing a fist on his chin, “I had hoped that ‘adventure’ would have been fine, but I guess it’s not.”

Jaan was utterly confused. The man in front of him did not appear to be of sound mind at all. So Jaan decided he would play along with him, if only to maintain his mental stability. After all, he would be spending the next couple of weeks in the same room with him, and Jaan did not want to make it any more unpleasant than it had to be.

“No, no. I like it, I really do.” Jaan tried to sound sincere as best as he could.

“You’re lying. I can tell. The way you repeated yourself twice. ‘No, no’ and ‘I like it, I really do’. If you had really meant it, you would have said it once and been done.”

Jaan gave up. He plopped down on the bed closest to him and rubbed his face.

“You think I’m crazy, don’t you? Well, let me assure you, I am not. I try as best I can to see the heroism in everything, but when I fail to convey what I see to others, I become discouraged.”

Jaan nodded, thinking that perhaps his initial impression of Helix was wrong, but he began to think again when Helix once again jumped up and bounded towards the bed and started doing flips off of it.

“But fear not!” Helix said, with the same initial energy that he had before, “For evil never tires! I, the valiant Helix Trunt, will not rest until all are filled with the spirit of adventure!” He promptly did one last jump off of the bed, and landed with his feet apart, and his fists again on his hips, grinning like a mad, merry man.

Jaan chuckled as he decided for himself that Helix was indeed somehow playing with half of his cards missing. Helix seemed to Jaan be a good person, if eccentric. For some reason, Jaan felt compelled to make friends with this man, and decided to play along for a moment.

“Well, Sir Trunt, I for one feel full of adventure now that I’ve met you. Please, do tell me more of yourself! I must know the details of your life.”

Helix plopped down on the bed, crossed his legs and arms, and started nodding emphatically, “Yes, yes, comrades need to know about each other if they are to support each other in times of distress. I myself am from the planet Thoritt, otherwise known as 13THT1. My parents… well, my parents do not factor in at this point. Before coming here, to this ship, I was all set to spend the rest of my life ruining another person’s life. But! I did them a favor by coming here, now all involved can be happy.”

Suddenly going silent, Helix hung his head. Jaan was a little confused, but before he could speak Helix started speaking again, “But that is another story that I will perhaps one day tell you in full if the time is right and if it matters. Tell a snippet of yourself, friend Jaan.”

“Er, well, I’m from Fondain IV, otherwise known as 29GGA3. It’s the planet which we are on now, but I’m sure you already knew—“

“Nope! I didn’t know!”

“What? You mean, you’ve been in this room for 4 days and you didn’t know?”

“Not a bit! As I’m sure the man outside told you, we’re not allowed to leave. Besides, we have everything we need in here, so it’s not like we need to. Still, they don’t give you things you want. For example, I requested a chance to practice my juntre, and they just laughed. This makes for a sad Helix, to be sure.”

“Well, I guess I can see why. It’s not as if we have a reason to know where we are. All that should matter to us is that we are going to a training center. But, now I have another question, what in the world is juntre?”

“An excellent question! Juntre is a type of acrobatics practiced on my home of Thoritt. It’s quite popular! Unfortunately, there isn’t much room to practice in this infernal box.” Helix punctuated his statement with a raised, shaking fist and a glare towards a ceiling as if he were cursing the god that put him inside the room.

Jaan suddenly found himself alarmed. All he could imagine was a planet full of people randomly doing flips in the middle of conversations or suddenly scampering up a tree and reciting poetry while walking down the street.

“Wait, don’t tell me there is an entire planet of people who act as you do!”

Cringing at his own words, Jaan apologized for blurting out something so rude, but all Helix did was laugh hysterically.

“Jaan! Good heavens above, no! Oh dear, if there were a planet full of people exactly like me that would be horrible! No, most people on Thoritt are as sane and plain like everyone else you know. I take after my father in this respect, but in all my days I’ve never met anyone who is similar to he or I.”

Wiping a tear from his eye, Helix steadied his breathing, “Jaan, that was magnificent. I will admit that I had never tried to imagine a world full of clones of me. Believe me, I recognize that I am not normal. However, I make no effort to change for I am happy the way I am. But even I would be sick of my own antics if they were the only thing I ever dealt with! Not even my own mother could find it in her heart to love a billion of me. Hell, she can barely stand just the one!”

His last statement caused Helix to fall over in another fit of laughter. Jaan wasn’t quite sure what was so funny, but at the very least seeing someone else be so happy and full of good cheer he couldn’t help but smile and chuckle softly. If nothing else, Jaan knew he was going to have a colorful trip with Helix.