Chapter Two: Cavor

On Tuesday morning, Terry started interviewing the patients in Bedford wing. He went round the wards, accompanied by Vince and Sally, talking to both the wounded and the cured. As he worked, Terry built a clearer picture of the way the hospital functioned. The patients in the pre-op wards split in two groups. Some went to the med-tubes in Bedford, while others went to the tubes in Cavor. As far as he could tell, all those tubed in Bedford stayed in Bedford for their recovery. It wasn't as simple as the ones going to Cavor not reappearing. There were some patients in the Bedford recovery ward who had been through the tubes in Cavor. However he had the distinct impression that the Bedford recovery wards did not have as many in the Cavor group as there were in the pre-op wards. It certainly looked as if a proportion of the patients sent to Cavor were not coming back to Bedford. Was that where they were disappearing? He couldn't be certain of course; it might just be that there were recovery wards in Cavor wing as well.

When Terry asked one of the doctors, that was the answer that he got. Some of the patients sent to the tubes in Cavor stayed in Cavor for their recovery period, and so didn't reappear in Bedford. Perhaps the doctor was correct, but Terry knew that people were disappearing from somewhere, and Cavor looked like the most obvious place. Clearly, getting a look inside Cavor would be crucial. He checked with Sally to see what progress there was about arranging access. She said that they would probably be able to visit on Thursday or Friday. At least she wasn't just refusing point-blank to allow entry.

Terry spent that evening working in his hotel room. For all his outstanding qualities as a cameraman, Vince was not the most interesting buddy for an after-work session in the bar. Terry was also mindful of his growing waist. A week of reduced alcohol intake would at least let him feel virtuous, even if it didn't actually reduce his weight by much.

The time alone allowed him to review what he had so far. Not solving the mystery, just the ordinary program about the hospital. He roughed it out, fitting in the interviews he was likely to use. There were gaps he still needed to fill, and places where some of the weaker interviewees might need replacing with better. Resolving the mystery would have to wait until later in the week, when he could see inside Cavor wing.

On Wednesday morning, to his delight, he was able to fill one of his gaps. He hadn't been satisfied with the Afghanistan veteran the researchers had turned up; she hadn't interviewed at all well. Instead, he found Harry Stevens in a recovery ward. Harry was pleased as punch with his new leg and was willing to talk, at great length, to anybody and everybody about things. Terry could have made a complete program just from Harry's story.

Harry and two of his mates, Fred Campbell and Gavin Parsons, were all injured in Afghanistan. Harry and Fred got caught in the same IED explosion, where Harry had lost his right leg, while Fred had lost an arm. A week later Gavin lost an arm, just as Fred had. The three of them had stayed in contact after their discharge, doing various jobs and living on their Army pensions. All three of them were married, and Gavin's wife wanted to move to Morecambe so she could be near her parents. She'd loved the countryside, and the bay, when she was growing up in the town. Because they were still in contact, Harry and Fred both went there sometimes to visit Gavin. They both liked the area, as did their wives. Both families looked forward their visits. To cut a long story short, which Harry didn't, the two of them enjoyed the place so much they had both moved there with their families. The three men had stayed even after Gavin's wife had died; they liked the town and had settled into life there.

With some guidance from Terry, Harry managed, eventually, to bring the story up to date. The Army had discreetly approached the three veterans and asked if they wanted repairing and rejuvenating, at the price of rejoining.

Harry had jumped at the chance, while Gavin had initially been more reluctant. It was easier for him to manage with one arm than it was for Harry with one leg. Fred had definitely turned down the offer. Harry quoted his words, "I'll not rejoin. I've already done my share of soldiering and I don't want to go back. The aliens can come to me, and I'll fight them when they get here. No point in going looking for trouble." Sally was sitting to one side of Harry, where he couldn't see her. Terry could see her shake her head slightly as Harry was talking. She needn't have bothered, he already knew that those words wouldn't be allowed in the program.

After accepting the Army's offer, both Harry and Gavin came to Camp Mercury for repair. "We were together at first," Harry said, "but then they split us up. They did Gavin in Cavor and me in Bedford. It doesn't seem like any time at all in those medical tube things. You just close your eyes and everything gets done in an instant."

Terry stopped listening for the moment, it wasn't as if Harry really needed an audience to encourage him to talk, and Vince would have it all on camera anyway. He took the time to think about the mystery. Here was a good example of someone treated in Cavor, and whose family could be contacted. Gavin Parsons from the Morecambe area, wife deceased. Something for his researchers to work on. They could start with the wife's death certificate and local news reports. Maybe some of the three men's children would still be traceable as well. Fred Campbell, the one who had rejected the Army's offer, was another potential point of contact in the area. This could be a good lead, assuming that Gavin did indeed disappear. Here was a chance to detect an extractee almost at the moment of extraction.

A quick question to Harry confirmed that Gavin wasn't in this ward. Harry thought he was probably in Cavor, "He'd have come to visit me here if he were anywhere in Bedford. I'm just getting used to my new leg so I can't get around very well yet. Have to use a wheelchair or crutches if I'm going more than a few steps, so it's a bit of a bother for me. Gavin's still got his original pair of legs so he can get about a lot easier. If he were here in Bedford wing, he'd definitely have been in to see me by now."

As he was talking about Gavin, Harry mentioned something else that piqued Terry's interest. "When that 'Average Joes' program came on, we all got tested for a laugh. I got a 5.8, Fred got 6.1 and Gavin got 6.6. We used to josh him about being a brainbox for that. Getting tested was legal them, not like it was later." So Gavin had a sponsor level score. Terry became even more sure that the Confederacy had extracted Harry's mate. All the evidence was pointing that way.

There was some even better news later on Wednesday. Sally told Terry and Vince, "The clearance has come back. You can both see Cavor wing tomorrow at 10:30." Terry managed to suppress his urge to jump for joy at the news. He would get to see what was inside Cavor! And Vince would be with him as well, Sally had said, "both". That meant there would be evidence on film to back up his report.

He did want to clear up one point with Sally, "Why the special clearance for Cavor? We didn't seem to need it for Bedford."

"There are some Confederacy people in Cavor," Sally explained. "It takes longer because there are two bureaucracies to go through to get access."

The Confederacy was in Cavor! Terry managed to keep the surprise from his face. He had expected med-tubes, of course, but that didn't always mean that any Confederacy people would be around. There weren't any Confederacy staff in Bedford, Army medics ran the med-tubes there. It was certainly looking more and more as if Cavor was the key to this whole mystery. He would need to keep his eyes open for any clues tomorrow.

In his hotel room that night, once again alcohol-free, Terry reviewed what he had so far. Overall, he felt that things were coming together nicely. He had enough material to complete the ordinary report on the work of the hospital. Rather too much material actually, Harry had certainly liked the sound of his own voice. A few interviews could still be improved, so it would be nice, but not essential, to find some better subjects tomorrow and Friday.

There was also the basis of the second potential program, the big splash. A lot of Harry's contribution was relevant there too, and the story of his mate Gavin was an excellent framework to hang the story on. It would start with the background from Afghanistan to Morecambe, move on to what happened in the hospital, and finish with the big revelation of Gavin's extraction. He had phoned his researchers, and they were starting work on the Morecambe end of the piece. He already had plenty of material on the work done at the hospital. All he needed now was to fill in the last part and it would be complete. He eagerly anticipated tomorrow's visit to Cavor wing.

Sally briefed the pair of them as they walked, "You'll see Commander Romanescu first. He's one of the senior Confederacy medics in Cavor wing, pretty much their equivalent of Doctor Turner. There's some Confederacy kit in there as well, so you will only be able to film what the commander allows. That means you'll have to keep your camera off until after you've seen him, Vince."

"OK, no problem, Sally." Vince patted the waist pouch that held his camera. With Confederacy enhanced electronics, it was much smaller than it would have been otherwise. "It'll stay packed away until I get permission."

Sally continued, "All the buildings above ground are either the Administration block or Bedford wing, which you've already seen. They put this place on top of an old nuclear defense bunker, so it made sense to reuse the bunker itself for Cavor wing. Being underground, it helps keep the Confederacy people out of sight. Having too many of them around is still a bit politically sensitive, even after the change of government."

"Out of sight, out of mind," Terry commented. It also solved the mystery of why he hadn't been able to see any obvious buildings to house Cavor wing. Putting it underground was a good way to conceal it.

"Just so," Sally confirmed. "The bunker was already there and wasn't being used for anything important, a mushroom farmer was renting part of it. It made sense to rehabilitate the place, given that it was available. Once the Swarm get close we'll have the option to close the hospital and use it for something else. I'm sure the Confederacy won't want to leave any of their technology lying around for the Sa'arm to find."

Terry and Vince both understood that. As the Swarm advanced, med-tubes, transporters, replicators and such-like disappeared ahead of them. Vince thought his camera might be safe, but if required he could always revert to one of the older, larger, models. That was if he hadn't been conscripted into the Army before then.

They came to a wide path sloping down into a tunnel. A short way down, they passed two orderlies pushing a gurney the other way, taking an unconscious patient back out to Bedford wing.

Seeing them triggered a question from Terry, "Shouldn’t there be more traffic through here, Sally? If the tubes in Cavor are working as hard as the tubes in Bedford, then I'd expect a stream of patients both ways."

"There's another entrance into Cavor from Bedford's basement," Sally explained. "That takes most of the patient traffic. We're using this one because we won't disrupt things as much coming in this way."

Terry wondered if that was also because at the busier entrance it would be obvious that more patients were going into Cavor than were coming out. Yesterday had confirmed that it wasn't just Harry who knew people tubed in Cavor and who hadn't reappeared in Bedford. There were more men telling the same story of missing friends.

Further down the tunnel there were two large doors blocking the way. The right hand door had a large permanent 'No Entry' sign, while the left hand door was currently showing "Please Wait".

Sally explained, "This is a left-over from the nuclear bunker. All the entrances have air-locks to prevent contamination entering. We'll have to wait for it to cycle."

"Why twin air-locks?" Terry asked.

"I don't know, you'd have to ask the people who originally designed it," Sally replied. "We just use one in each direction, one to go in and one to come out. It lets traffic run faster. Maybe that was the original intention as well?"

"What if there's a medical emergency?" Terry asked. "The air-locks will delay access."

"There's a small emergency section in each wing..." The door rumbled open interrupting Sally. The sign had changed to "Enter now", and they walked forward into a long narrow room, painted plain white. An identical door, currently closed, stood at the far end, displaying the same "Please Wait" message as the first door had. Sally continued with her answer, "This isn't a front line hospital, so it doesn't have much need for emergency cover. Each wing has its own small emergency unit, so there's no need to take emergency cases through the air-locks."

She was suddenly interrupted by a flashing light and a siren, causing both Terry and Vince to jump in surprise. The sign changed to "Enter now", and the alarm abruptly cut off. "Ah, here we go again," Sally said, apparently unperturbed by the siren and light. The second door opened to allow them out into Cavor wing.

Terry saw a typical hospital corridor, with medical staff, nurses and a few patients moving around. One man was waggling his fingers in front of his eyes, his face a mask of utter amazement. A new hand, or maybe even a whole new arm, he thought.

Apart from the three of them, Terry saw that all the staff were Confederacy. Cavor wing was far larger than he had assumed. He had thought that there would just be a small Confederacy contingent operating a few med-tubes, with the rest of the staff being Army. What he could see in front of him was not at all like that. This was entirely Confederacy, and it was massive. Terry glanced at Vince, who had obviously noticed the same thing. There was potential for a really sensational story here, and both the veteran media men could see it. Everyone knew that the Confederacy was strictly limiting the help it gave directly to Earth because it didn't want to let its advanced technology fall into the hands of the Swarm. The size of this operation seemed to go wholly against that. This was yet a third potential story appearing, unexpectedly, before Terry's eyes.

Sally had waited while the two of them were taking in the sight. She smiled at them, "Impressive, isn't it?" she asked. Having worked in the media herself, she knew exactly what they were both thinking.

"Bigger than I expected." Terry replied.

Still smiling, Sally told him, "I thought you'd say something like that. I'll take you to see the commander now. Remember Vince, no filming until he says you can."

Vince nodded in confirmation, and set off after Sally as she led the way. They passed a door on their left marked, 'Mess #3'. "I'll meet you in there after you've seen the commander," Sally told them.

"You won't sit in on the interview?" Terry asked.

"No need to, Terry. The commander won't want to appear on film, and I have some administration I need to catch up on."

"Do I need to see him then?" Vince asked.

"If you want to get you permission to film in here, then yes you do." Sally told him.

Vince just shrugged.

Sally led them two doors beyond the mess to a small, anonymous, windowless, meeting room. There was a spare, dark-haired man, looking about thirty, seated at the table. He stood up as the trio entered and Sally introduced him as Commander Mircea Romanescu of the Confederacy Navy Medical Service. She left, with a reminder to Terry and Vince that she would see them in the mess afterwards.

"Welcome, Mr. Goddard, Mr. Cook," the Commander said. He indicated a small replicator set in the wall of the room, "Can I offer you something to drink?" As the three of them settled round the conference table, Terry wondered how old Mircea really was. Given that he was a Confederacy Naval Officer, as indicated by his black uniform, he could easily be a rejuvenated fifty year old, or even a twenty year old who wanted to look older.

The Commander opened the discussion, addressing Terry, "I'm sure you have some theories about what is happening here, Mr. Goddard. I will enlighten you, but only on the understanding that what I tell you is embargoed. It needs to stay secret."

"Why tell me if I can't use it in my program?" Terry asked, puzzled.

"You wouldn't be able to use it anyway," the Commander pointed out. "Second Lieutenant Erlam would remove anything that got too near to the truth. What I want to do is to avoid you speculating, both in private and in public. Your speculations might get too close to the mark. If you know the truth, then you will also know what to avoid. We need to keep what we are doing here discreet for as long as possible. You will understand why when I tell you. Are you ready to accept those terms?"

Terry thought about it. Obviously, if he didn't accept he would be shown straight out again, without learning anything further. If he agreed, then at least he would know, even if he couldn't directly tell anyone else. Of course, there were ways of sliding things past the censors so they wouldn't catch them in time. "OK, I will agree, reluctantly. As you say, if I try to publish anything beyond what's allowed, it'll be censored anyway. Vince?"

"I'm fine with it, boss. I just take the pictures, you're the one who does the words and assembles the program."

The Commander smiled, "Good. Please, both of you have a look at these." He picked up a couple of small devices, obviously of Confederacy manufacture, from the table in front of him, and passed them to his two guests. Mircea watched as the hypnotic screen displays caught the two newsmen, and their slight flinch at the nanite injection.

Terry recovered first. Slightly dazed, he asked, "What does it do?"

Mircea held up his hand for Terry to wait until Vince came out of his trance. On his emergence, Vince asked exactly the same question. "They've already done it," the Commander answered the two of them. "You have both been hypnotically conditioned not to reveal anything you have learned here, including what I'm going to tell you."

"Is that legal?" Terry asked. He was angry, but he kept it suppressed. A good interviewer didn't annoy his subject by showing his anger. You got a lot more out of people if you didn't antagonize them.

"Yes. It's legal here, which is part of what I'm going to explain." Mircea paused, "How much have you worked out so far, Mr. Goddard?"

Terry took a few seconds to gather his thoughts. "Wounded soldiers come here to get fixed. Some of them reappear, as you would expect. Others don't. The Confederacy is obviously involved, given your own presence, and that amputees are regrowing whole limbs. I suspect that you're extracting the ones who don't reappear."

Terry saw Mircea smile and nod at that. Obviously his suspicions were on target. Expanding on to his summary, Terry told him, "We did some digging, and the families of the ones who don't come back have mostly disappeared as well. We did trace one wife, extracted to the concubine pool in one of your moon bases. The only case where we could find any close family left on Earth was where he'd been going through a very messy divorce. Him, his new woman and the kids have gone, but his ex-wife is still around. Since he disappeared she's been trying to sue for visitation rights, but hasn't got very far." Terry paused, "My main question is why you're extracting soldiers? Right from the start you haven't done that, and now, suddenly, you are."

"Excellent work, Mr. Goddard," Mircea congratulated him. "We do indeed extract the patients who don't reappear on Earth, together with their pre-packs and dependents. Sometimes they don't want to take their wife or partner. In those cases we can usually persuade her to agree to a separate extraction, such as to the general concubine pool, so she is not left behind. We try to minimize the number of those like the ex-wife you found."

Terry smiled. It was nice to have been proved correct.

The commander continued, "Your final question, Mr. Goddard, is easily answered. The Army discharges their people shortly before we extract them. By the time we transport the new sponsors, they are civilians, and hence eligible."

That answer disappointed Terry. His big splash about a change of Confederacy policy was turning into a smaller splash about what the Army was doing. Still a splash, but not having the same impact. "Why would the Army do that?" he asked, puzzled. "They want everyone they can get their hands on, to fight the Swarm. They've started conscripting people, and the Army needs all those experienced soldiers here."

"How much do they need an experienced soldier with no legs?" the commander asked, rhetorically. "Thanks to your previous Earth First government, there are very few medical tubes in the UK. Those you do have are already working flat-out on your casualties, and are too few to keep up."

Terry could appreciate Mircea's point. He had seen the way that the two tubes in Bedford wing were kept operating round the clock.

"The Confederacy has med-tubes available," the commander continued, "and we too have a need for military experience. There is also the issue that, as you pointed out, we have a long-standing agreement with the UN not to extract serving military personnel. With the increase in conscription, many potential sponsors are now ineligible for extraction."

Terry could see the commander's point there. It wasn't something he had considered up to now, but it obviously directly affected the Confederacy. If the Army conscripted all the prospective sponsors, then there wouldn't be anyone available for them to extract.

The commander went on, "In order to help both sides solve their problems, we managed to come to an agreement with your armed services. If they send us two wounded servicemen, at least one of whom is extractable, then we will send one back, completely cured, while keeping the other for ourselves. The one we extract has to have the required CAP score and be a volunteer, while the second man is their free choice. Instead of two useless, or aged, soldiers your forces get one serviceable veteran, and more of your countrymen extracted from Earth. The Confederacy gets the experienced military people we need, along with their concubines. Both sides gain from the exchange."

"You said 'aged'?" Terry asked. Mircea confirmed with a nod. "That explains those Afghanistan veterans in Bedford wing, and retired Generals suddenly reappearing looking young again."

"Indeed it does," Mircea confirmed. "Your army can give up a relatively inexperienced wheelchair-bound private in exchange for a rejuvenated veteran with many more years experience. A lot of the retired veterans have older wives, so they often refuse extraction because they don't want to leave her behind. We do take a few, divorced or widowed usually, but many of the older ones choose to stay on Earth."

Mircea's mention of extracting widowed veterans triggered Terry's memory of Harry and his two mates. The likely extractee, Gavin, had been a widower and so didn't have a post-menopausal wife tying him to Earth. Terry felt disappointed that he wouldn't be able to use Gavin's story now. It would probably have made a good programme.

Mircea was still speaking, "The UK forces people are getting pretty good at setting up pairs where the one they really want to keep isn't suitable for us; either not willing to volunteer, or with too low a CAP score. I suspect that they are doing a preliminary selection to decide who gets processed in their own med-tubes, which guarantees they stay on Earth, and who gets processed here."

"Which leads us to the question of where 'here' is?", Terry pointed out. "When we talked about your hypnotizing us, you said it was, 'legal here'. From that, I presume we aren't in England any more."

"Most perceptive of you, Mr. Goddard," the Commander congratulated Terry. "You aren't in the UK any more. We are in a Confederacy base in the moon."

"The moon!" That set Terry back on his heels for a moment. Even Vince looked surprised, and it took a lot to surprise Vince. "But we didn't go through a transporter... did we?"

"Do you remember the large airlock leading to the underground wing of the hospital?"

"Ah." Enlightenment struck Terry. "While we were waiting for the second door to open, we were transported to an identical chamber here."

"Correct. The whole airlock is one large transporter. Two transporters, actually, one coming and one going."

Terry took few seconds to absorb the idea that he was on the moon. And all so seamlessly casual as well. He thought of Clarke's Third Law: 'Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.' Confederacy technology was obviously 'sufficiently advanced'. Unfortunately it also meant that the third possible story, about a big Confederacy base on Earth, had just been a mirage. Everybody already knew there were Confederacy bases on the moon; that was old news.

He had another thought. "This place is too large to be taking just the people from Bedford wing. You're treating people from other Military Hospitals as well."

"Very well observed, Mr. Goddard," the Commander confirmed. "We've centralized the Confederacy side of this operation here in the moon. This facility also links to transporter termini in other UK Military Hospitals."

"Just the UK?" Terry asked. He could see a similar deal appealing to other countries as well, especially now that the Confederacy was withdrawing its medical equipment from mainland Europe in the face of the Swarm's advance. They would be having the same problem as the UK, with insufficient med-tubes to handle all their casualties.

The Commander responded with a stone-faced, "No comment."

That as good as told Terry the answer. Unfortunately it would be covered by the blanket embargo, so he couldn't actually use the information. Remembering his job here, he returned to the subject at hand, "I can see why you don't want this becoming public too soon. Some politicians would make a big thing of the Confederacy 'stealing' soldiers just when they are most needed."

"Precisely," the Commander confirmed. "No doubt it will get out, eventually. That divorced wife you found is not the only one we weren't able to extract. Other media people are going to find her, or her equivalent, at some point. No doubt they will be able to make the same deductions that you have. The news getting out won't stop the arrangement, I hope, but it will likely make things more awkward for your Forces and the government."

"I'm not happy about keeping secrets, but I can see why you're doing it," Terry told him. "As you said, the Army can't have a great deal of use for a legless soldier, and it does get more people away from the Swarm. Though, I would ask that you release us from our vows of silence once the news does get out, and the embargo ends. It will look strange if we can't discuss it at all after it goes public."

"A reasonable request, and one I hadn't considered before," Mircea acknowledged. He paused, a distant look on his face. After a while, his eyes refocused on the pair in front of him, "When the time comes, contact any Confederacy office and we will remove your conditioning."

"Can I ask, did you just talk to a Confederacy AI?"

"To an AI and to Major Jones, my superior officer. She assures me that we will include a similar escape clause for other journalists in future. Do either of you have any further questions?"

"Pictures?" Vince asked, but without much hope.

"I'm afraid not, Mr Cook. All we could allow you to film here would be some med-tubes, and you can do that planet side. Alternatively, Second Lieutenant Erlam can probably supply you with some stock shots."

Vince nodded glumly. Taking their leave of the Commander, the pair of them went to find Sally in the nearby mess.

When they joined her, carrying their mugs of tea, Vince asked her, "All that stuff about the nuclear bunker and the mushroom farmer was just so much horseshit then?"

"No, Vince," she told him. "There really is an old bunker beyond the airlocks, and there really was a mushroom farm down there. The sergeants used it as a punishment detail when they were first clearing it out. I did my basic training here, so I found out the hard way. Horseshit and all"

"What's in there now?" Terry asked.

"I don't know, so I can't tell you," Sally replied. "I assume they're getting something ready for when the Swarm arrive, but I don't need to know what it is, so they haven't told me."

Terry nodded. 'Need to know' was one of the basic maxims of security. Changing the subject, he asked, "You've had the Confederacy conditioning as well then, Sally?"

"Yes I have. This is a Confederacy base, so I'm as much a foreigner here as you are. Every non-Confederacy person who returns to Earth gets the conditioning, patients included."

"They even do the patients?" Terry asked.

"Most of them. Maybe they don't bother with the ones that are unconscious all the time, but the conscious ones certainly get the conditioning when they're in the med-tubes. They're very thorough."

"They do seem to be, yes," Terry agreed.

"Frustrating, isn't it?" Sally said. "Knowing what you know, and not being able to use it. Seeing such a big story get away from you."

"Bloody frustrating," Terry agreed. "I can see why they want to keep this quiet for as long as possible, but it's so disappointing having to drop it. There's still a program here, but it will be just another run of the mill report: 'Hospital cures patients'. Right up there with 'Dog bites man' and 'Politician is economical with the truth'. Not the big splash it could have been. Down the line, some other reporter is going to get my story, and I won't get any credit for it."

"There is a war on, you know," Sally joked. "Can't let the Sa'arm have all our secrets."

"The Swarm has bugger all to do with it, Sally," Terry told her. "They can't understand a thing we say. This isn't about keeping stuff secret from them. This is all about keeping our own people's morale up for as long as possible."

"I'm not stupid Terry, I knew that before I joined the Media Relations Unit. We need to keep fighting a losing battle for as long as we possibly can. That means morale. If we don't have victories to show, and we don't, then we have to try to keep morale up in other ways. We can't keep spinning a long series of Dunkirks into great triumphs. The public aren't that stupid."

"I know, I know, Sally, but like you said, it's still frustrating."

The three of them sat quietly, contemplating their mugs of tea. Waiting.