Chapter 17 – Epilogue

I didn’t recognise the place. I mean they’d had a chance to clean up, sure, but what they’d achieved was close to miraculous.

Someone had carried me to a bed after Stuart had delivered us back to the barracks. Someone had done the same for all of slayer squad and Laurel, and we’d all slept through the next twenty-four hours.

Which meant when we woke it was to a very different world.

Dark clouds covered the sky. The remains of the giant hellmaw which had disintegrated into the stuff, blocking out most of the day’s natural sunlight. Against all laws of meteorology, it refused to shift so we’d probably have to think of a new name for our town.

The dome was back, twice as big as before. Occasional bursts of rapid fire came from within as target practice with the other side continued. The camp itself had grown to more than ten times its former size, with what looked like a whole neighbourhood of houses having been assimilated.

My first stop was the hospital. I was most worried about Finn, obviously, but the original medical unit had been extended to take on a whole lot of additional buildings around it, and when I saw the sheer number of injured soldiers, I couldn’t just walk past them all.

I plastered a brave smile onto my face and paused by each ward. These men had been, at least to some degree, under my command, the danger they’d faced and the injuries they’d sustained a direct consequence of my orders.

Disfiguring burns, missing limbs, all the horrifying aftermath of war, and here was me unscathed in all of it. I couldn’t have kept the tears back if I’d wanted.

There wasn’t anything to say, just a self-imposed torture of reading the names and the recent medical histories, taking on-board details of every life ruined by my inadequacy to respond better to the threat we’d faced.

The wards contained a mixture of bitterness and, incongruously, gratitude. A lot of the harsher expressions softened when they caught sight of me. I don’t know, maybe they weren’t used to laying eyes on a commanding officer who so evidently cared. Maybe it was the aches in my own body causing me to limp slightly.

I was halfway through all the wards and wondering how much further I’d be able continue when a familiar face in a white coat intercepted me.

“Hello doctor,” I said to the man who’d treated me on my visits to his facility. “I didn’t know you made house calls.”

“Exceptional circumstances, Captain Geller. I hope you’ll excuse the liberty, but I checked you and yours out last night – all above board, female nurses present and everything. There wasn’t a great deal to do. I mean injuries sustained – how could there not be – but healing so rapidly. You yourself, cuts and abrasions, a couple of broken bones...”

“Really?”

“Yes. You may remember, I took some blood last time. I couldn’t find anything unusual about it, even though there has to be something. Something I don’t know how to look for. I wondered if you’d be up for an experiment.”

“I was hoping to see Lieutenant Finn.”

“Of course. This won’t take long though, no more than half an hour. I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important.”

No real way to say no to that. I owed these guys more than I could ever repay, so thirty minutes seemed less than the least I could do.

What the doctor had in mind involved sticking needles in my arm and connecting me to something like a dialysis machine. I wasn’t so keen, but less than the least and all that.

They wheeled in a horribly disfigured soldier sitting in one of those awkward positions that suggested he’d been paralysed. He also was plugged into the machine, and everything switched on. It wasn’t pleasant so I distracted myself by asking the doctor about Finn.

His face turned a shade graver, but he fought the change with a forced smile. “He’s alive and stable,” he said. “I’m waiting on a few tests before I can say anything definitive about his prognosis.”

So much for distractions. “So, what are you trying to do here?”

“Well, like I said, we don’t know what helps you heal so quickly, but the best chances are that it’s carried in the bloodstream. You share a blood type with Sergeant Miller here, so we figured we’d try him out on what’s so evidently good for you.”

“Sergeant Miller. He was...”

“As I understand it, he was ordered to deliver some missiles to this base back when the first threat appeared. He was then ordered to remain with his men.”

I hadn’t even recognised him.

“Tell me about what happened here.”

“I wasn’t here at the time. You’ll do better to talk to some of the survivors.” A gurgling sound from the chair beside me. “Like Sergeant Miller here.” The sergeant straightened in his wheelchair, lifted his ravaged hands to look at them. “It’s alright sergeant. I know it looks bad right now, but I have a good feeling about how things are going to turn out. Can you try speaking?”

“Water?” he croaked.

“Not just now, if you can hold on for another fifteen minutes.” The doctor turned to me. “As I understand it, Sergeant Miller was operating the, what is it you call it? Portal key?” The sergeant’s horribly scarred head nodded slowly. “The sergeant was doing something to the portal key when a surge of something very much like lightning shot out from it in all directions. That’s when most of the burns were sustained. The sergeant here took the brunt of it due to his proximity and has been unable to move much more than his eyelids since. As you can see, he’s improving quite nicely right now.”

The rawness of his burnt skin seemed to be visibly improving as I watched, and he was moving more freely.

“I never heal that fast,” I said.

“You’ve never had injuries this extensive, so how would you know.”

The half hour was nearly done. The doctor counted down the last few seconds then shut down the machine and expertly removed the tubes.

“He has a pint and a half of your blood in him, Miss Geller. It’s about as much as I think we can afford to take, and I don’t really want to replace it with anything other than saline in case somebody else’s blood interferes with your natural healing process. You’re going to feel a little lightheaded for a while, and if you’re up for it, I’d like to check your haemoglobin levels in a couple of hours. May I suggest you eat a very hearty, protein rich breakfast, and soon.”

Sergeant Miller was making efforts to climb out of his wheelchair. He still didn’t have any hair, but he was recognisably the same man I’d encountered back at the beginning of all this.

“Would it be possible to see Lieutenant Finn now, please?” I asked.

“I’ll have a nurse bring you some breakfast. Eat first, then when you feel strong enough, she can take you. Let Sergeant Miller’s condition prepare you for what you’re going to find though.”

“Original or present?”

“Both. The lieutenant hasn’t had the benefit of this treatment, but he will soon enough. I believe all of slayer squad – that is your term for them, yes? I believe their blood will be just as effective and, while your blood type doesn’t match Finn’s, there are others in your team who do.

“Wouldn’t you prefer to wait until after he’s been treated before seeing him?”

“No. I’d rather see him at his worst before seeing how much better he gets.”

“I understand. You should also know he’s currently being kept in a medically induced coma for his own wellbeing.”

“Thank you doctor. Perhaps I can call on Sergeant Miller later too.”

“Give it a couple of hours. When you drop by for me to check your blood levels, we’ll see.”

Bacon, sausage, black pudding, eggs, mushrooms, beans, tomatoes, even fried bread. The plateful had to be twice the size of anything I’d tackled since changing gender, but I wolfed it down without any sense of discomfort. I could feel my strength flooding back as I did so. If this was a bonus, I could expect from giving blood, maybe I wouldn’t mind the needles so much.

Finn wasn’t as badly burnt as Miller, but he was missing both his legs and his right arm. Not something I expected my rejuvenating powers to mend. He also had a fair chunk gouged out of the right side of his face, including his eye and his ear. The induced coma made more sense now. Tears flooded my eyes once more. I didn’t stay long.

My haemoglobin level was completely back to normal when the doctor checked me. This time he took the blood in the normal blood donor way.

“Experiments, you understand. It’ll be easier to distribute the treatment if you don’t have to be present every time. I think the nurse has a steak for you, then come back and see how Sergeant Miller’s doing.”

No arguments. I was ravenous and steak and chips, complete with peas, more mushrooms and a pile of fried onion, was just what I was craving.

When I came back to find Sergeant Miller standing, holding onto an IV pole with a nearly empty blood bag connected to his arm. Apart from the lack of hair he looked normal.

“The buzz cut suits you, Sergeant,” I said in greeting.

“The doctor thinks that’ll grow back. I owe you a debt of thanks as well as an apology. I kind of blamed you for what happened.”

“So, did I. And as for debts, consider this a repayment of what I owe you.”

“No. I’ve sat in on the full debrief. What you achieved was not much short of a miracle.”

“Miracles take a little longer.”

“Yes, but you did it in time. I hear a few made it through, but as I understand it, we got them all. This could have been so much worse. I had serious doubts about you, Captain, but not anymore.”

“That’s kind of you to say, Sergeant. I guess we’ll see what the future brings.”

Further tests showed that the slayer squad and I could give a pint of blood every hour as long as we ate a sizeable chunk of cow or something similar immediately afterwards. A little experimentation from Laurel showed that our own recovery was coming from the mini-portals, especially when they were kept in the dark, so we set up a mini medical camp near the one that opened out on the hill. For some weeks all we did was eat and bleed, to the extent that we each skipped a period. More bonuses.

Eventually the doctor declared treatment to be as complete as he could make it.

I got to see Finn again, and this time in a very different state. He had legs again and both arms as well as the missing side of his face, albeit made from a dull grey metal.

“Hey,” he said. “I get to be as strong and fast as you now.”

“Wanna bet?”

Maybe not the thing to say in the presence of most of his squad, many similarly equipped with mechanical prostheses. A table was cleared and set up for an arm-wrestling match.

There was no doubt he was stronger, and he had more leverage, but having thrown down the challenge, I wasn’t about to back off. The contest lasted ten minutes with a whole room of soldiers cheering us on. In the end I powered through and put his wrist on the table. He was probably going to have to have a few components replaced.

“Wow,” one private spoke up. “You are so buff.” The surfer accent wasn’t totally put on and the guy was walking about on tin legs, so I hardly felt able to reprimand him. Before long I had a new nickname which I absolutely hated.

“So, Captain Bufster,” Finn teased, “what happens now?”

“Well, from what Jen says,” it had been her who’d designed the prosthetics, “Your new limbs only work near a portal open from our side, so if you’re restricted to this site, I guess I’m going to have to hang about.”

“She and Laurel are experimenting on the other side.” Now possible since the remains of the army has been wiped out and the sixty-foot behemoth subdued. “She’s hopeful she’ll be able to grow living tissue and graft it on. It’ll be UV sensitive, so we’ll be more use on the other side. Can you imagine, a whole new world to explore?”

“Most likely filled with more, bigger and nastier things.”

“Hey, join the army, visit far off lands, shoot shit when you get there. It’s all in the job description.”

“Sounds like you’ll need someone to keep you in line.”

“Sounds like you’re offering.”

“Maybe. I’m still not so keen on all the killing stuff.”

“You never know. If we search far enough, maybe we’ll find someone who’s prepared to talk.”

Maybe. We’d need someone around to make sure we didn’t start putting up flags everywhere. After all colonialism was in our blood.

I promised to drop by later. I’d been invited – along with my friends, including slayer squad – to meet the higher ups in the army. General Teal met me at the door and led me into a room filled with aging soldiers whose bulging middles suggested their last press-up had been so far in the past it had likely not existed at all. In most cases it was hard to see the uniform for the mess of medal ribbons covering their chests, just as it was hard to see the faces for all the hair covering mouths and chins – or possibly lack of. Certainly, this was another class of soldier with a totally different interpretation on the term regulation.

“And you must be Miss Jennifer Merris,” one of them said to Jen. There was something in his manner that put me in mind of one of our worst prime ministers in recent history. No, not her, him.

“It’s Jen,” she said. “My name is Jen, nothing more. My surname is Ephemeris.”

“Jennifer Merris, Jen Ephemeris. My deepest apologies. An honest mistake. And I understand you refer to yourself as a, er, a technomage?”

“That’s one of the terms. Cyber-witch is another. We try to combine modern technology with what is generally referred to as magic. The unexplainable coming from the other side.”

“Yes, yes. This other side. What exactly is it?”

I didn’t get to hear Jen’s reply because I was led away to be presented to a different face full of whiskers hovering over a different array of pretty coloured ribbons spread across a very similar barrel chest.

The afternoon was an exercise in tedium, but one that had been described to me as essential owing to these gentlefolk – actually, gentlemen. Let’s face it, there wasn’t a skirt among them – controlling the purse strings. I curbed any temptation to ask which of the ribbons was for helping old ladies across the road and swallowed all the immediate remarks that leapt up my throat at being described as so young, “And a filly, too.” I wondered about explaining how I’d been born male, but the Palaeolithic thought processes I was encountering here would have possibly been less able to deal with my gender change than the alien concept of a girl in a position of authority

We were begrudgingly approved of, except for Stuart who was welcomed as a kindred soul, and suffered it all until it came time for the demonstrations.

We’d thought long and hard about this. I started off with team slayer lining up and giving an exemplary display of Irish dance, then just when the generals were beginning to look their most bemused, we set the entire visiting battalion loose. They’d been primed with the promise of a free drink for every blow they landed on us, which was enough to get past their reticence to fight girls.

We were outnumbered twenty to one, but they weren’t vampires, so they fell like skittles – strikes all round. Five minutes and every man was lying on his back and groaning, and we didn’t owe a single drink.

I walked up to the arsehole who’d made the filly comment and raised an eyebrow.

“I’d like to present Slayer Squad, general.” I went through the names one by one, delighting in the cute little curtsey each one gave. So much better than a salute. I added my own at the end of the line. “I believe we can make a fairly strong argument for women in the army, sir.”

“And perhaps I can show you why we need them,” General Teal took over before the unhealthy shade in the visiting general’s pallor led to an unhealthy outcome in his capacity to breathe. He beckoned for the visitors to follow him up to the dome.

We didn’t see many unfriendlies near to the portal these days, apparently, but those that had survived the culling remained nearby, so a drone flight was enough to show the sorts of threat there was.

“I’m given to understand you dispatched a quarter of a million of these things,” General HuffnBluster said.

“Captain Geller did, sir.” He waved at me indicating I should continue.

“We laid a minefield across the plain. A hell of a lot of ordinance, but it was effective. Not these things though. Vampires. A lot smaller generally. Fast and strong but susceptible to wooden shards through the heart. We used modified bounding mines. Didn’t touch any of the bigger things, but there was enough shrapnel to take out almost all the vampires present.”

“Impressive.”

“More stupidity and arrogance on the other guy’s part. The rest of his forces proved more of a challenge.”

“Yes, I’ve read the report. And now you want to...”

“Explore the planet on the other side of the rift. Many of our survivors from the battle have prostheses that will only work near this portal or on the other side.”

“Yes. The Tin Man Squad.”

“Company, sir, and they’re a little sensitive about that name.”

“Like you and Captain Bufster, I believe.”

“Exactly like that, sir, except they’re less inclined to stand there and take it.”

“Gentler female character, eh?”

“Not how I’d put it, sir, but I won’t argue the point.”

“And now you’re asking for how much?”

“General Teal worked out the budget, sir. I’m just standing by ready to do my part if you approve it.”

“And you have to admit, Brigadier General, that two billion is cheap for the exploration of another planet, especially one that presents a potential threat not only to our country but to our world as a whole.”

“Two billion.”

“Each mission to Mars is estimated to cost between one hundred and five hundred billion.”

“Dollars, man. Dollars.”

“Still seventy-six billion pounds at the cheapest by current exchange rates.”

Could he really be that stupid?

“Yes, well, can’t we invite other countries to invest?”

“If we offer them a cut in the profits.”

“Profits?”

“New technologies, new manufacturing processes based on a completely new set of physical laws, new discoveries, new materials, new insights into the nature of the universe. This could well put us back as the world leader in technology.”

“Or it could bankrupt us if we end up facing a war we cannot win.”

“I’d prefer my role to be more diplomatic than combative,” I said. “It depends what we meet out there as to whether we’ll even have to fight. If it comes to that, we’ll invite a few allies to shoulder the burden.”

“I’d want you and your team to be fully enlisted before I agree. I can’t go authorising those sums of money to civilians.”

“I agree sir, and with Buffy – sorry, Sarah – here carrying the rank of lieutenant colonel...”

“What? Preposterous!”

“I’d have gone higher, but she needs to be a field officer. Jen and Stuart to enlist as majors.”

“Laurel too.”

“No, Laurel remains as a civilian with acting rank of captain. It’s what she prefers.”

“You’re asking a hell of a lot, general.”

“I’ve not finished. Each member of Slayer squad elevated to captain with new slayer recruits under their command.”

“Slayers to be deployed against non-human threats only,” I said, “that’s non-negotiable.”

General Teal hadn’t anticipated that but supported it.

“I’ll want regular monthly reports on what you’re finding.”

“Alright. I’ll want six monthly budget reviews with a view to increasing your investment each time.”

“Damn, woman, will you let me at least look like I’ve won something.”

“You have. This is potentially the best deal you’re likely to see in a lifetime, and I won’t offer it to you for less than it’s worth.

“Bear in mind you get me with my negotiating skills as part of the deal.”

“By crikey you’re annoying. Alright, you have your deal. In principle. I’ll want to see it all written out before I sign anything. On my desk by the end of the day.”

#

That was easy enough. Just needed to add the clause about slayers not being deployed against humans. Ever.

The dome became our permanent base. I took one of the nearer houses as both quarters and office, and I took Nick as my Aide de Camp when he finally made it back from both basic and officer training.

Finn became a major in charge of Tin Man Company, a name that stuck even after they had freshly grown flesh limbs grafted on in place of their mechanicals. Equally strong, capable of regeneration and returning the ability to feel to them. Many of them elected to have healthy limbs removed and replaced so they were balanced. Finn kept his original left arm there’d always be the option to replace it later if he was careless enough to lose it. There wasn’t much could be done to replace the terminator look on the side of his face, but I kind of liked the overall effect. Besides, it was still Finn inside, and that’s what counted.

About the same time the Tin Men turned flesh again, I moved across to the new world. Jen had figured out how to split the portal to give us permanent two-way traffic, and our defences on the other side were pretty robust. Thanks to Jen, Stuart and Laurel – especially Laurel – our options on the other side were expanding and I was sending home the kind of reports that should hopefully double our budget sometime soon.

We had drones mapping in all directions. Promising outcroppings of rock suggested the possibility of the new ores we’d been hoping for. New laws of physics raised the possibility of new elements or at the very least, new mechanisms for combining the ones we had. Various taints in the atmosphere hinted at technology and the possibility of civilisation somewhere nearby. Whether that meant more warfare or the potential for alliances remained to be seen.

After all, we hadn’t yet explained the Chernobyl Worm or the Krakatoan Dragon. It was possible that some technology had been involved and whether or not the intent had been aggressive remained to be seen.

We had enough slayer wannabes now to give each member of the original slayer squad a squad of her own. That gave me my full unit to command which would make a bloody impressive dance troop to demonstrate our peaceful intent if it came to that, then an equally impressive battlefront if they decided not to accept it.

I finished scribbling on the report in front of me and dropped it in the out tray. The rest I neatened up and put back in the in. I was overdue some leave, and Mum and Dad had insisting I come home and celebrate my eighteenth birthday, since I’d missed the actual date in the middle of all the fighting. It didn’t matter much to me. I’d passed the watershed big time. Fighting in a battle for the future of your world does more to help you grow up than candles on a cake, and I really didn’t need the party.

I headed for the portal structure and stepped into the homeward bound section, saluting the duty guard as I went. If I knew Dad, we’d have a large contingent from church. I couldn’t really talk much about my job, but dress uniform complete with the gongs I’d earned – they were significant, including several eminently recognisable ribbons for valour and actions above and beyond the call of duty. Anyone who knew anything about medals would want know how I’d come by them and I’d probably have to tell them, “I could say, but then I’d have to kill you.”

Actually, I was looking forward to doing that with some of them. Sanctimonious arseholes that they were.

If it achieved nothing else, the event would hopefully put Mum and Dad back in the clear with their friends. They’d probably still fail to understand anything about my transition – let’s face it, I was still a little confused over it – but they couldn’t deny that I’d done good, and despite starting out as a man (on the outside at least), I’d done good as a girl in what was still, under the surface, a man’s army.

Finn would be coming – Jen had developed a compound that blocked out enough UV that he could come back to our world without risking his new appendages. His cybernetic eye and ear would probably help divert some of the questions from me, which reprieve I expected to need. He was planning on making his own way there. I had the pleasure of driving myself home in my little pink Mini.

Laurel and Oz had also said they’d come, so had Nick along with his new boyfriend. Whether he convinced the poor guy to put on a female uniform remained to be seen. Either way, he’d draw most of the holy haters. Like flies gravitating towards the greatest stink, the gay soldier with a potentially cross-dressing partner would definitely attract a sizeable buzz.

There’s a sense of relaxation that comes from going home. A feeling that all those responsibilities of life slip from your shoulders if only for a short while. I pulled my suitcase from the back of the car and let myself in.

“I’m home,” I called.

Dad stuck his head out of his office, and we exchanged pecks in the cheek. He’d pretty much completely accepted me as his daughter now, which was just as well because I wasn’t going back to the way things were.

Mum stuck her head out of the kitchen. I gave her a quick hug and a kiss too.

“Cup of tea?”

“I’d love one.” Nothing quite like Mum’s tea. “I’m just heading upstairs to change.”

“Oh, er darling?”

I wasn’t listening. I was looking forward to the rest and even the party. Maybe by the time I got back to work, I’d have an alien civilisation to investigate. I opened my door to find a thin girl with long dark hair laying on my bed.

“Er, who are you?” I asked.

Mum appeared behind me. “Your father and I have been talking. Since you’re away from home so much these days, we thought it made more sense for your sister to have your room. We’ve put you in the guest room down the end of the hall.”

Wait, what? Sister?

“Mum!”

Footnote
This ending won’t make a lot of sense to those of you who don’t know much about Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In the original series, Buffy is an only child (much like Mitchel) then series five starts with an encounter with the real Dracula and the development of a whole bunch of ongoing plot you wouldn’t be able to follow without watching the previous series. It then ends with Buffy at home walking in on a slender girl with dark hair who she doesn’t recognise. Buffy’s mum then suggests, since she’s going out, why doesn’t she take her sister, at which point both girls turn and say, “Mum!” in the most teenage objectionable way possible.

Most of series five then focuses on a fallen goddess, referred to by her followers as Glorificus, and over time we’re shown that Buffy’s new sister, Dawn, is in fact an artefact called the key, being sought by Glorificus and transformed into human form and inserted into Buffy’s life for her (its) protection, with everyone except Buffy having their memories altered to accept Dawn as having always been there.

It just felt like a fun way to end things... maybe just for now?