Mind Games

POV: Marshal

I had a nightmare. In this nightmare, the base in Alaska where I am stationed is attacked by Torterra. He had blue eyes and he burned the entire base with blue fire. Blue fire... Blue color is not popular today. It is associated with Kaiju.

This is not the first strange dream. I've been having these dreams ever since Torterra defeated those black Jaegers.

These days were very difficult for me. Torterra disappeared into the ocean, and I had to wage a political struggle in which I understood nothing. Interrogating the captured pilots was easy enough, but the rest of the business was not so simple.

Capturing a new plant for the Jaegers will improve the planet's defenses, but that needs to be managed and I don't have time for that. I could entrust this work only to those people whom I trust. Fortunately, I had such.

I appointed Yancy Becket to head the new plant. He didn't want to pilot any more Jaegers, but he showed the same professionalism in other matters. And most importantly, he knew all about our plan, as did his brother Raleigh.

This plant was on the other side of the planet, so I decided that Mr. Yancy would work there until he could find a replacement.

Fighting the World Council was exhausting. I had the opportunity to communicate with almost all the presidents and prime ministers in the world. By promising them to figure out how to close the portal and end this war, I won their support, and now every decision of the World Council will be discussed at UN meetings and only then passed to me. So the World Council is now more like a Kaiju Invasion Commission.

Funding recovery wasn't bad either. Although it will not fundamentally change anything. All the projects received their funding thanks to the efforts of Torterra and the new money will only speed up the process.

'I have such a headache...' I have had a headache almost every day for the past week. And these nightmares do not let me sleep. I only manage to sleep 4 hours a night so nightmares are a big problem.

"Sir! The Prime Minister of Great Britain is calling you," secretary told me by the base's internal communications.

"Thank you. I will answer in my office," saying so, I got out of bed and put myself in order.

I left my room and headed to my office. A security guard was standing by the office, as usual. I nodded my head to him.

"Have a pleasant death. Sir!" the guard told me.

"What did you say?" I think I didn't hear him well.

"Have a pleasant day. Sir!" the guard repeated to me.

"Yes, thank you."

Entering the office, I closed the door behind me. Recent events have forced me to increase the security of all bases and hire more people to do so. This guard has been with me for many years.

I switched on the connection and a picture of the Prime Minister of Great Britain appeared on one of the monitors on the wall.

"Good morning Mr. Pentecost. Did you get enough sleep?"

"Sir," I nodded my head in greeting. "Would you like to discuss our space program?"

"Yes. There is a lot to do, so let's not waste time. I understand that until Torterra returns, our space flight is delayed?"

"Yes, Sir. The jetpack was built just for that use. We can't retrofit it, unfortunately. And I have to admit it would be very long and difficult to modify. Torterra controlling the jetpack greatly simplifies its mechanism."

"It's a pity..." The Prime Minister thought for a second. "I didn't tell you before, but we want to add another satellite to the payload."

"No problem. We have capacity for additional cargo."

"Great! It's a secret development and not many people know about it. It's a satellite that can track Kaiju toxin. It can even detect if the soil is contaminated at a depth of 100 meters. This will allow us to make an accurate map of the pollution of our planet."

"We really need it! As soon as Torterra comes back, we'll be the first to launch it right away."

"Thank you, Mr. Pentecost! This satellite is very big and heavy. You can't get it into orbit with ordinary rockets. By the way, I'm worried about the situation in the ocean near Antarctica. They say that there are fewer fish and ships are disappearing... We sent people to investigate , but no results yet. Could it be something to do with the Titans or the Kaiju?"

"I can't say, I'm hearing about it for the first time. If the situation escalates, I will send Jaeger there to explore the ocean floor."

"Thank you Mr. Pentecost! As always, you can be counted on. Good day!"

"Goodbye, Sir!"

After I finished talking, I sat down in the chair to take my medicine.

'What a headache...' It felt like someone was drilling my head with a perforator.

PIP

"… PIP… Tomorrow… The End." The communicator on the table beeped and an eerie female voice began to speak from it. I clicked the feedback button.

"Elizabeth! Repeat the message, I didn't understand anything." I asked the secretary to clarify what she said.

"Sir? I didn't say anything."

'I should probably go to the doctor. My health seems to be deteriorating. But first I'll go and get something to eat in the canteen.' Usually food is brought to my office, but there were still 3 hours until breakfast and I couldn't wait. I had to eat something now.

The dining room was huge and all the people from the base ate here. It is always crowded. Everyone has their own schedule for eating. It was like that now. Since the very morning, people have been looking for ways to satisfy their hunger.

But when I went inside, I was struck by many anomalies in this room. People were not scattered throughout the room, but all sat in a corner! There was no free space at the tables in the corner of the room. And people had some unusual dishes. Someone drank only water. Someone ate only salad, and someone was full of food, but there was no fork.

But the strangest thing was a woman who sat in the opposite corner from the rest of the people. She was sitting alone and she was wearing black clothes and the skin of her face was pale.

'Who is this?' I asked myself and turned around to see if there was anything else strange in the room. But when I turned my head back, the woman was gone and not even her food was on the table. People from the corner of the room where they were sitting started to get up and leave.

'Am I hallucinating?' I've heard of people who have had bad drifts hallucinating, but I haven't drifted in a long time. Moreover, my brain is damaged by single drift and the doctors said that I would just suffer from headaches, but they said nothing about hallucinations.

I should have gone to the doctor sooner and had another examination. I ate some food and drank some coffee before heading to the medical department.

  "Good morning Mr. Pentecost. Did you get enough sleep?" As soon as I entered the room, I was greeted by the head doctor on the base.

"No. I need you to examine me. I think my condition has worsened." I immediately got down to business. The sooner I finish here, the sooner I can get back to work.

"What's the problem?"

"I have nightmares and headaches more and more often."

"This is a problem! It's always like that before death!"

"What?"

"I say that you work too much. Work will lead the bull to the grave. HA-HA-HA!" It seems the doctor was just joking...

It took the doctor half an hour to examine me. All this time, all I could think about was that I was tired. I usually didn't let those thoughts cross my mind. I have a job to do and I have to do it - that's all that matters.

"I want to please you! You are all right, so you will die tomorrow!" Said the doctor with a smile on his face.

"What do you mean I will die tomorrow? What are you saying? Don't joke with me!" This made me very angry. 'What's going on here?!'

"Calm down! I didn't mean that. You probably didn't hear me. I'm saying you won't live to be 100 considering you ran the Jaeger alone without a partner, but you'll definitely live to retire! It's a miracle you didn't have a full Kaiju fight, if it wasn't for that we wouldn't be talking to you right now. You would be a vegetable, at best, and would not be able to speak! HA-HA"

"Stop joking! I look like someone to joke with! I have a headache and I need answers!" I had a bad mood, so I had to put this doctor in his place.

"I'm sorry, Sir… You really have increased brain activity caused by overtiredness. I will give you medicine to make you die faster."

After these words my heart stopped. This doctor spoke seriously with a slight smile on his face.

"What is wrong with you? You seem pale."

"Come on! Give me something for a headache and I'll go!" This doctor was always joking, but today I couldn't tell the difference between his jokes and his serious words. I quickly took the medicine and was about to leave the room when the doctor told me: "Rest. Do not overload. Maybe you need to leave the base for a change of scenery."

"Okay, doctor..."

And so I went to my office. On the way, people were staring at me for some reason, and I was really scared. Something changed. I had some problems with my head, because what was happening could not be real.

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