I felt it necessary to reiterate the importance of following orders and how things could go horrible wrong if you thought you knew better than your mission leader. I decided to tell her the story of Ned, who had learned the hard way. It was rare for a Sensorian to disobey orders, especially for those who have been in the community all their life. But it did happen occasionally, usually with no immediate harm done. However, in Ned's case it probably could not have gone any more wrong with consequences he's still having to deal with now.
It happened when Ned was barely sixteen years old, which in our community is the age of becoming operational. It meant you were expected to help in missions. Ned was raring to be involved, and one day he was asked to be part of a mission, though not in the way he hoped for. He was tasked to keep safe a couple of the children, including his own sister whilst their parents were involved in a risky mission involving some serious criminals. There had been a breach of security and the children were deemed to be at risk, as one of the identities of the parents had been inadvertently exposed to one of the targets. Ned, however, failed to see the importance of his role and thought it was a bit naff. Our community was incredibly well secured, there would be no way the children were at risk. He thought the leaders were over reacting and he ignored their orders. He left the children, having put a film on for them, and went to catch up with me and a couple of others for a bit. We all told him to get back to his duty, but he just laughed it off.
Then, all hell broke loose, as two of the children, including Ned's eleven year old sister, managed to sneak out of our compound, completely unaware of the danger they had put themselves in. Everyone was called to start the search for them, including me. Ned was frantic, but managed to get himself together to join in the search, but it was in vain.
The perpetrators we were after sent us a message to call off the pursuit or else we wouldn't see the children again. They were held for 24 hours in a secret location, which gave the offenders time to disappear. Then the children's location was revealed. We found them safe but traumatised, and the whole operation failed. We never caught them and we had to move to a different location and erase all our traces. It was a logistical nightmare.
Ned was severely punished and spent 3 months in isolation, and then spent about a year just doing menial tasks, but the worst thing for him was that his parents would not forgive him and never have as yet. In their eyes he had brought shame to the family by compromising the mission and had put the lives of his sister and the other kids in danger.
Ned worked incredibly hard to prove he could be trusted again. Markus eventually started giving him some responsibilities, and slowly but surely he was able to work where his abilities were most needed. Now he's back on track again, but he's had to endure the isolation of his family which was still ongoing. It's been a harsh lesson to learn.
I thought the story had the desired effect on Eliza. She looked at me with dark eyes, digesting what I had just told her.
“Poor Ned." she eventually said.
“Three months in isolation? Wouldn't that send anyone over the edge? He was so young still! His parents were harsh on him. Do you think they'll ever welcome him back in their family?” she asked with so much compassion for his plight, I wondered if she had actually gotten the point of the story.
“Don't know. Ned's accepted it. It was his responsibility and rather than being bitter about the consequences, he's put in practice what we're taught; to move forward and accept our lot. He has approached it the only way we know how to; with a determination to do better next time and not to blame anyone. We're responsible for our own actions. That's just how it is.”
I wasn't sure if the moral of the story had sunk in, but then she reassured me by her next comment, probably having picked up on my doubts.
“Don't get me wrong, I understand why you told me this story. We must follow orders otherwise there could be disastrous consequences. I get it. It was pretty stupid of him.”
“It fucking was. I don't think we'll ever forget it. Not to mention the two weeks of isolation I got for not marching Ned back to his duties." I remembered grumpily.
Markus had been particularly hard on me. I'm slightly younger than Ned and hadn't been given the responsibility for him, but somehow I was meant to have assumed that responsibility. That had been my lesson to learn. My other mates seemed to have gotten away with just a lecture, but I had learned early on in life that having Markus as my carer may have given me some advantages, but there were definitely disadvantages. Harsh punishments always seemed to come my way, and Zaphire didn't fare much better with that either. But we learned to just take it and not gripe about it.
“By the way, when we spend time in isolation, it doesn't mean we're put in some sort of dungeon with no contact whatsoever. It just means prison with a strict regime of exercise, limited outside time and minimal contact with people. It's not going to send anyone 'over the edge', as you called it.”
I had to smile a bit thinking of the pictures I had evoked in Eliza's mind as I noticed
