Joel nodded. Maya looked down at her notes. Molly couldn’t see her face, but she needed to wrap up the meeting. “Okay,” Molly announced, “the rest of you can go get ready for physical training.”
The room became a hub of activity as the team stood up and started chatting.
Molly called over to Maya. “Maya, can I have a word?”
Maya got up and tucked her chair out of the way as the rest of the team emptied out of the meeting room.
She ambled round to Molly’s side of the table. “Hey…”
Molly smiled, and perched on the table’s edge. “Hey. You okay? You seemed… well… something, about having to go down to surface.”
Molly waited for Maya to speak.
Maya nodded her head quickly and smiled weakly. “Yeah, I’m fine. I just… I know we agreed that I’d stay up here. And this is truly what I want. I’m just… I didn’t think I’d have to say goodbye to my friends so soon.”
Molly looked down at her feet as she processed. She looked up. “Ah, I see. I can understand that. Your boss?”
Maya had a hint of sadness in her eye. “Yes. He’s been like a father to me.”
Molly felt her sadness. She tried to contain her emotions, though. “I get it,” she said sympathetically. Molly hesitated, trying to figure out how to handle the situation. She imagined what Joel would say, and then just repeated it as she heard it in her head. “Just know that you’ve found a new family now. We’ll take care of you…” She hesitated, and then made an effort to pat Maya’s upper arm, awkwardly. Then she smiled. Equally awkwardly.
Maya wasn’t quite sure what was happening. She shuffled a tiny step backwards. “Er… Thanks,” she said.
Molly suddenly looked more rigid. “Erm. So. Why did you decide to come to Gaitune to work with us in the first place?” she asked stiffly.
Fuck, this social crap is hard.
You’re doing great. Remember Joel says practice, practice, practice…
Maya looked at Molly a little stunned. “Er. Well, Sean brought me up here, and you offered me a job.”
Molly felt flustered. “Yes, yes, I get that. But what gets you excited about it? I mean, is it your teammates? Or a certain teammate…?”
Dudette, you are so crashing and burning on this.
Thanks, Oz. Now fuck off.
“Erm,” Maya took another half step backwards. “Yes…? I guess? The opportunity to work in a team…”
Maya had started blushing uncomfortably. “So. I. I should probably go and get ready for training…” she said gesturing towards the door.
Molly nodded in relief. “Yes, of course!” she said as brightly, with as much manufactured team spirit as she could artificially muster. “See you down there!”
She watched as Maya scuttled out of the room, like a mouse freed from a trap.
Yep. Yep. That could have gone worse.
Molly ignored him and slumped back into her chair, her head falling straight into her hands.
Nevermind, Sport. Just practice, practice-
Oz, if you don’t shut up, I’m going to take a flamethrower to my fucking holo.
Oz fell immediately silent. The way her circuits felt, he wouldn’t put it past her.
* * *
Sean poked his head around the door. “So, reveling in the ups and downs of leadership, I see?” He grinned at her without mocking her.
Molly lifted her head from her hands, her hair falling in her face again.
He stepped more fully into the room. “Ready for an induction into some real toys?” he prompted.
Molly slapped her forehead. “Oh, right,” she remembered. “Hangar deck playtime.”
“Yes! Unless…” he had a glint in his eye. “You’d rather just hang here and wallow in self-pity about how hard it is to talk to team members when you’re not giving them orders?”
She smiled.
“In case you were wondering,” he said, venturing further into the room, “that was a joke. Sarcasm. I’m not actually suggesting you-”
She nodded. “I appreciate the clarity,” she said. “Actually. I really do,” she sighed. “People are so fucking complex. And then trying to be nuanced and shit back… Ugh.”
She shook her head vigorously messing her hair up even more.
Sean grinned again. “Toys?”
She stood up and started heading out of the room with him. “Yes. Toys. And ships. And guns,” she agreed, looking somewhat consoled.
He waved his hand in the direction of the door for her to lead the way. “Coming right up,” he told her, following her out.
The pair strode down the corridor and out into the main hangar deck, now walking side-by-side. “You ready to see the big fuck-off ship in the middle, now?”
Molly’s eyes lit up. “Oh, yes indeedy,” she confirmed excitedly.
Sean couldn’t help but brighten up around her enthusiasm. It was like a natural reaction, like a cup of hot cocoa or hot shower warms one’s body.
They passed through the whooshing double doors onto the hangar deck.
Sean’s pace quickened a little. “Okay, so this bad girl,” he said gesturing at the ship as they approached her from the rear, “can easily carry about a hundred troops, plus their gear. It has incredible warp capabilities, maneuverability and…” He leaned in closer to whisper to her.
Molly fell quiet and stood still, wondering what he was going to tell her that was so important.
“Gate capabilities,” he finished, his eyes wide and excited.
Molly stared at him blankly.
Sean moved his hands and head again, as if “ta-da”-ing the statement again would help her understand how profound his revelation was.
Molly blinked.
Sean stood back a little and frowned at her lack of reaction.
“Huh?” she asked.
“Gate capabilities,” he repeated more loudly. “The ability to create and travel through gates.”
Molly shook her head, not understanding.
Sean spoke more slowly. “You know what a gate is?” he checked, hardly believing he was having this conversation with her.
She shook her head again.
Then she paused.
Then… “Ohhhhhhhh. You mean like the Annex Gate in settler history?”
Sean rolled his eyes. “Holy fuck. Seriously? That’s your only reference?”
He waved his arms, exasperated, and kept walking closer to the ship. “How do you think anyone in the Etheric Empire gets around these days? Certainly not on piddly warp drive. Mother of my ancestors!” he cursed in exaggerated disbelief.
He turned back to her, compelled by genuine curiosity. “Did you think the rest of the world uses warp speed?” he pressed.
Molly’s eyes looked up as she processed the information. From what he was saying, the Sark system is probably a few hundred years behind in technology. At least.
She nodded, feeling like a little girl that had just been told that fries are grown in the ground. She still wasn’t sure if this new information fitted in her universe.
She needed answers.
Molly frowned back at him. “How is the wormhole created, then? And sustained? And then why doesn’t the ship spaghettify as it goes through?” she asked him, intensely.
Not waiting for an answer, she continued. “And where the fuck does all that energy come from? Are you telling me you can just create them whenever you like?”
She fired her torrent of questions at the cocky marine, who seemed to be visibly knocked backwards by them.
He held up his hands in surrender, wearing a grin a mile wide. “Hey, hell if I know!” he protested. “I just fly the damn things. But it’s something I’m sure ADAM and the General will be pleased to share with you in a geeky mind-meld some time,” he chuckled.
Molly seemed unsatisfied.
“Come on,” he told her, indicating to follow him. “Lemme show you something.”
“You know what that is, right?” he asked pointing up at it.
She nodded.
“Good,” he said. “So then you know what it means to have one of these ships?” he queried, now unsure that she knew anything of the world beyond Sark.
A slight smile crept across Molly’s face as she lit up. “Yeah, I’m starting to.”
“Good,” he told her, breathing and relaxing a little. “At least this isn’t totally wasted on you,” he muttered cynically under his breath. He started walking underneath the nose to the other side, signaling with his head for her to keep following.
They came out on the other side, and he moved a little further back towards the wing. Then he stepped back a little more. He waved his hand, and a laser beam appeared to spot his position. A second later, a holo access point appeared right next to where they were standing.
“Shit!” exclaimed Molly excitedly. “What is-? I’ve never seen anything like that!”
Sean winked. “You ain’t seen nothing yet, sweetheart,” he told her. A moment later he had keyed something into the pad, and the device scanned his retina.
Immediately, the ship started to come to life. No engines; just a quiet activity of internal systems coming online.
Molly noticed the hum. A moment later, Sean started walking forward and lifted his leg as if to step. Molly watched him, confused.
“What are you-” she started to ask.
Sean stepped up and then stepped again, walking up what could only be an invisible staircase.
Molly moved to the side of it. She couldn’t see anything. She waved her hand. She connected with… air. “Fuck!” she whispered under her breath.
Sean called down to her. “It’s okay. Just come around to the front where I stepped up, and you’ll see a slight field distortion.”
Molly moved back around to where Sean had started his ascent, and sure enough she could just make out ripples of light distortion creating the stairway.
She stepped; the stairway reacted a little, but held her weight. As she pulled herself up and took the next step, its consistency reminded her of the adapting sofas and chairs in the ops room. She reached her hand out and placed it down, and the stairway reacted to her movement and gave her an invisible handrail.
She looked down at the space beneath her feet, and then at her hand grasping onto something that wasn’t there. “This is cool as shit!” she giggled.
Sean was several steps ahead of her, now. He turned back to her, also grinning. “I know! Right?” he said, beaming.
She followed him up the stairs, wondering how this would let them into the ship. As soon as Sean was a couple of steps from the body of the ship, though, the side became – well, she didn’t know quite how to describe it. The side of the ship was still there, and visible, but it had become somewhat translucent. By the time she got close to it, the ship’s side had completely evaporated a doorway-sized section, allowing them passage into some kind of main entrance.
Molly looked inside, and then took a few steps backward to look at the outside. The translucence disappeared at what looked like the edges of the doorway, and turned back into a normal-looking ship. But she couldn’t see the boundary.
There was no edge.
She reached out her fingers, and there was nothing to touch - as if she were putting her fingers through a hologram.
Sean watched her like a parent watching a child examine a strange looking cobble in the street. “You done?” he asked, smirking arrogantly again.
Molly raised one eyebrow. “Not yet,” she replied, oblivious to his tone.
She ran down a few of the stairs and looked back, noticing how the outside of the ship seemed to change on the approach as a result of her perspective. She stomped back up the stairs again and back into the foyer area, which was lit like something out of a science fiction movie.
Sean mimicked her previous raised eyebrow. “And now?” he asked.
Molly nodded simply. “Yep.”
Sean shook his head in amusement. “You going to explain what your little examination yielded?”
Molly shook her head. “No,” she smiled, teasing him.
“But you’re now satisfied with how it works?” he pressed.
“Yup,” she nodded.
Sean looked a little deflated that she was able to figure things out without him dropping her tiny bits of information.
Molly looked around the foyer and cabin area. There were seats that looked like they were hovering. That meant anti-grav.
Sean didn’t give her a chance to take it all in. Probably because he takes it for granted, she assumed. He led her straight through a field-like door that was there, but also not, into a narrow passageway. It was much darker, and there were doors off it.
“Restrooms,” he pointed. “elevator down to the infirmary,” he pointed at another access door.
“Infirmary?” she asked.
“Yeah. This is a transport battle ship. I know your boy Joel is a sharp shooter, but, out there, normal soldiers get hit now and again. That’s where we patch them up,” he explained.
Molly grinned. She clocked how he talked about Joel. His words were competitive, but his tone was affectionate.
I wonder if those two are developing a bromance, she mused. Oz and ADAM, and now Sean and Joel… Like they’re marrying into the Etheric Empire.
She shook her head at her weird thought processes.
“They’re developing something that will help in the field, medically,” he told her.
Molly cocked her head as she continued to follow him. “Oh, what do you know?”
Sean glanced back, serious again. “Nothing I can share.”
Molly scowled, running her hand against the wall of the passage as she walked. “So why say anything at all?” she asked, a hint of annoyance in her voice.
Sean turned back. “Good point,” he conceded.
Molly shook her head at his ego slipping through.
Sean continued with the tour. “That one is your armory,” he said, pressing a finger against a door panel. “And then through here,” he kept moving forward and signaled ahead of them, “this is where the magic happens.” His voice lifted, and they were back into playtime.
They stepped through another doorway, or field, or whatever it was that separated the compartments out, and into a fairly large cockpit.
There were six consoles, complete with the anti-grav full body control chairs. The window out onto the hangar deck was clear, but with various heads-up display screens patterned all over it… different things clearly being controlled at different consoles.
Sean turned to face her, holding his arms outward by his side. “So, what do you think?” he asked her.
Molly looked around, completely in awe. “This is one hell of a ride!” she confessed. She looked at the different stations. “Does that mean you need six people to fly it, though?”
Sean shook his head, and turned the front right seat to perch down into it. “Nah. One person can fly this baby pretty easily. They’re each enabled with intelligent systems. ‘EIs,’ we call them.”
Molly frowned. “So why six chairs?”
Sean shrugged. “The techs joke that it’s something to do with government regs and wanting to keep pilots employed,” he smirked. “But, honestly, in the heat of battle, sometimes you just need the human element.” He nodded over to the chair nearest Molly. “That one allows a person to take control of the weapons system, leaving the pilot to focus solely on the flying.”
He indicated to the one opposite, on the other side of the floor space where Molly had stopped. “That one is the Nav chair. You can scout and plot a course, and pull up maps before you gate to it.”
Molly’s eyes flickered in recognition. “Gate…” she repeated. “Tell me more
about that.”
“Well,” Sean grinned, “as you know, this baby is what we call gate-enabled, which means she can create her own gates whenever she wants.”
Molly was still looking at the nav chair. Without being aware of what she was doing, she gravitated over to it and swiveled it around to get closer to the console it sat in front of.
“How does it know where a gate is going to end up?” she asked.
Sean got up and stepped over. “Go on,” he said, helping her into the chair.
She held his hand as she climbed up into it. As soon as her weight was on it properly, it recalibrated for her mass and tipped her back into it properly. A harness released three quarters of the way down, and she figured she could just pull it and strap herself in, if she were staying.
At the same time, controls appeared under each hand, and something fuzzed in her brain.
Molly. You still there?
Yeah. What was that, Oz?
I dunno. Something is trying to access my security.
Molly was frowning. “Sean - what’s it doing? It feels fuzzy in my head…”
Sean’s voice was calm. “It’s okay. It’s just communicating with you,” he explained.
Molly relaxed a little. “Well, Oz says it’s trying to hack his security protocols.”
“Oh, shit!” Sean slapped his thigh and laughed out loud. “No way?”
Molly tried to sit up a little. The buzzing in her head was distracting and over-stimulating.
Sean held onto the arm of her control chair as he laughed.
Molly frowned as she fought the chair’s recline. “Damn it, Sean, not funny.”
Still laughing, he stepped closer to see the console. He swiped at a screen and flicked a setting. The buzzing stopped.
Molly’s face relaxed. “What did you do?” she asked.
“Well,” he explained, composing himself. “These babies aren’t designed to be flown by people with their own onboard security that hasn’t been put there by the Empire.”
“I,” he tapped his head, “am of course fully integratabtle, as it were. Your AI, however, is alien tech; and therefore, not able… or perhaps willing,” he said emphatically, “to interface.”
I am willing. I just don’t like being violated like that.
The Ascension Myth Box Set Page 71