The Time Travel memoirs: Lost And So Alone

He had a voice that echoed around the room, “George Carter, a pleasure to meet you at last.”
The high combat pumped my hand as if I were a celebrity.
I smiled, so, they weren’t all ass holes. “Word has spread that you are forming an army Mr. Carter.” My eyes widened, If he knew about the plan, Beelzebub would know it too. “That takes the element of surprise away I suppose.” The high combat laughed. Sachar smiled, “there never was an element of surprise, because Beelzebub knows all.”
The high combat raised an eyebrow, he smoothed his long brown beard, it wasn’t as long as Blackbeard, his beard reached his waist, the high combat’s beard only reached to his chest, but it was a good beard, I always trust people with beards.
“My troops are at your disposal” he said. Sachar looked shocked; I saw his hand go to where his sword would have been. The high combat looked slightly offended, “your friend is a little jumpy Carter, should I know something?”

I felt uncomfortable, the story of the mad Spartans wasn’t going to be an easy one to tell, but I had to. I straightened and looked into the high combat’s eyes. “Sir, when I began to live the life I was destined to live, I came across a group of three Spartans, led by a Spartan who gave his name as Dan. The Spartans tried to kill me and revealed their plans to destroy the human colonies, their overall goal would have been genocide of the human race, and they believed us to be the bane of the universe, the filth.”
The high combat sagged, his head dipped towards the floor and he tried to disguise a tear, I noticed it fall from beneath his golden helmet. “I know the type, they are a bunch of racists, they fled from this outpost many years ago, we haven’t seen them in a while, I can’t remember Danxiel’s crew but if your story is correct, he must have lost a man, he took three with him”

“Danxiel, I always thought of him as Dan.” The high combat nodded, “like the human name Daniel, that bunch of racist scum wouldn’t take the name of a human being.” The high combat looked genuinely upset; I felt a rush of admiration for the man. The entire universe was afraid of the power that the Spartans possessed, I always thought the fear was due to the kind of monsters I had encountered on Massidonia, but the truth was, the Spartans were feared because nobody had encountered a force like them, and the super soldiers would triumph over any species.
The high combat turned to Sachar, “I’m so sorry about the losses on Marzon, the battle was tragic sir and it wasn’t necessary.” I could see the admiration flood into Sachar’s eyes too, this man didn’t need to apologise, but he simply felt the need to. “No need sir, that was well before your time.”

“Can I borrow a thousand of your troops; I’ve got to fulfil my duty sir.” The high combat chuckled merrily, “don’t worry, I’ll loan you a thousand, our army is full enough as it is, we get many men and women applying to join the Spartans, but most have to be turned away, we are too full.” I looked at Sachar and we smiled. “We can make the suicide voyage sir!” I snickered, “if we all work as a team, it should come off a dream.”
The high combat opened his mouth to speak but a slender female soldier burst through the door, a guard was holding her back, it was a different guard to earlier, the guards must have changed whilst we were talking. The high combat stood up, he didn’t look angry, he looked deeply shocked. The Spartans weren’t known to show emotion but this girl was in tears and she looked terrified.

“Erica, Erica, calm down girl” the high combat held her and took her in his arms and hugged her, I liked the fact that the soldiers were brothers and sisters and they knew one another by name, the closeness they all shared would be useful in combat. I watched as the leader calmed her down and sat her down on a sofa in the corner of the room.
The high combat had sat and talked to her for ten minutes before he returned back to us. “We have to get over to the bathrooms, there has been a murder and she’s one of our own.” Sachar put a hand over his mouth and I sighed deeply. “We’ll head over now, I remember the tent.” The high combat nodded, “I’ll join you soon, I need to call the coroner.”
We left the tent and were able to have our weapons back; I slotted the captain’s pistol back into the holster under my armpit and the magnums into the holsters on my legs. I looked over to Sachar in silence and saw with some amusement, the relief on Sachar’s face as he slid the jewel encrusted sword back into its sheath. He didn’t care much about the gun I had given him; he knew what he was good with.

We walked over to the toilet tent, I noticed a drainage system, and clearly these were here to stay. The toilets were usually kept clean, I saw no difference between human toilets and that of the Spartan, apart from the different flush system, and I couldn’t seem to work out how one would flush a Spartan toilet. I’m not plumber, sue me.
The toilets looked clean, the whole room would probably be kept clean most of the time, at the moment there lay a body of a small woman, and she couldn’t have been more than five feet. “Damn.” Sachar looked shocked. I nodded and bent down, “she wasn’t wearing her amour, so she was off duty.” The woman was clothed in casual clothing, a white t-shirt and jeans, for some reason I was expecting medieval clothing. “I often forget which year I’m choosing.” I told Sachar. Sachar smiled, “I know we’re in the 31st century.”
I turned her face gently with my hand, her eyes were still open, her look was one of shock, she looked upset too, pretty much the kind of upset you may look if you have been betrayed. A bruise was forming on her forehead where she had been hit with force with an object, I couldn’t work out what object would match the shape of the bruise.

There wasn’t much blood; she had a nosebleed that was it, had she been killed by the hit on the head? I highly doubted it, that blow could knock you out for sure, definitely not kill you. I looked around the room and began to piece it all together; I thought I had it when the coroner came in, the high combat in his wake. “I think I have a theory about this young woman’s death, I’ll tell you if I’m correct after the coroner examines her.”
I hadn’t noticed the lost look on the high combat’s face, but it was there, “good, because three other Spartans have been found dead too.” My jaw dropped, this was unbelievable. “This is mayhem, the coroner began, and they’ve all died in the last hour and all within ten minutes of each other, this woman died first.”

I nodded, I was at loss of things to say, the high combat took off his helmet, placed it on the sink and ran his fingers through his greying hair, the vital sign that someone is stressed. “You and Sachar are immediately ruled out then, you’ve been with me for over an hour now.” I nodded and put my hand on the high combat’s shoulder, “I’ll find out who did this sir, I promise.” He smiled, and looked into my eyes as if seeing me for the first time. “Can you?” I hoped I could, I had been told when I was at the orphanage that my father was a forensic scientist, when I was a young boy I read up on the subject for weeks, and it was fascinating. I went on to study forensics and English at university, but then of course my life went downhill.

“I hope so sir, we need to find this maniac, you’re fairly certain it’s a soldier?” He thought about it and nodded, “you two are the only visitors and you’ve been with me, we’ve been watching your ship, the majestic and that has been fairly quiet, plus, nobody could have gotten in and out without us noticing, I promise.”
Two or three minutes later, the coroner finished his inspection; the high combat watched me the whole time. “She died from drowning, not the wound to the head.” I smiled, my theory was correct. The high command grinned, “You knew, didn’t you?” I nodded, “I knew alright, do you want to hear my theory?” Sachar nodded, “popcorn anyone?” I smiled and patted the tired Marzon on the back.

My explanation took a simple minute to explain. “Alright, she enters the bathroom, it’s her day off, perhaps she needs to pee, perhaps she just came to wash up, that’s not important. Okay, she’s washing her hands in the sink and a fellow soldier comes into the bathroom, I think the soldier was male.” I pointed to some large footprints by the body; everyone seemed to have missed them. “The boot size is a male size, so let’s assume we have a male to deal with, we can’t learn anything from the boot as all Spartan’s wear the same boot, so there would be no point.”

Sachar nodded slowly, the high combat smiled, “continue son.” I hated to say it but I loved this, the excitement and thrill of trying to solve a mystery through evidence. “The soldier grabbed her by the neck, she put up a struggle, as any soldier would in that situation, but she is in a bad position, she can’t fight, he has the upper hand. He knocks her on the head with a heavy object, hence the bruise on her forehead and whilst she is unconscious on the floor begins to fill the sink.”

The coroner smiled, teeth showing, “go on young human.” I nodded, “the Spartan lifts his ally up into his arms and grabs her by the hair, I pointed out a fair amount of the victim’s loose hairs on the sink, he then thrusts her head into the ice cold water and she regains consciousness because of the temperature of the water. She struggles but again, our man has the upper hand, this woman is dizzy because of the beating, so struggling against the murderer became harder, eventually, she just had to give up, her oxygen gave out and she fell to the floor, the killer then walked out unnoticed.”
Sachar clapped, “that was pretty good actually.” I bowed and turned to the coroner, “what do you think?” He nodded slowly, “I think you have a future in forensics son.” I smiled, “I’m not that into it really.” I heard the high command chuckle.
Sachar opened the door and went out for air, looking at the body was beginning to make me a little woozy too. “Shall we move on to the next?” asked the coroner. The high combat answered for us, “we need to do this quickly, or the murderer may escape, away we go.”
They all went on ahead, I stayed with the girl for another minute, she was small, and the high combat had named her as Kanto Brinke. I stroked her forehead, “I’ll find who did this to you girl and I’ll find out why.” I kissed her forehead and walked out into the sunlight.