by Scott Rhine
“You make it sound so glamorous.”
“Don’t get me wrong. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. There is nothing like the feeling of stepping onto a new planet, even one as simple as yours. We’re even welcome on some of them. Not everyone fears us like your people do. And then there are aliens like Pulan and the rest. Before I joined up I’d never met an alien before. Now I’ve spent almost too much time with Pulan and quite a lot with a dozen other species. Some of the ships in the fleet are uninhabitable to humans. The same for some of the worlds we visit. I’ve stared out at mercury lakes and mountains of sulfur. We’ve fought creatures that live and fight long after their primary heads are severed and traded with beings that resemble little more than plastic bags filled with water. It’s a rare and wonderful galaxy out there.” Bella laughed for a moment and then frowned. She looked at Sasha as if seeing her for the first time.
“Listen to me, rambling on like an old woman. I hope I’ve distracted you from your troubles enough to enjoy your adventure, however long or short it turns out to be.”
“Thanks for talking to me. It really did help.” Bella patted Sasha’s arm and floated to the doorway.
“I’ll keep the others from bothering you for a while. Come out whenever you’re ready.”
Traveling the stars! Sasha could barely imagine herself doing it. Little Sasha Fion-Wae standing guard with a big rifle, muscles bulging from gene therapy. She had never really wanted to be a city guard. It had always looked pretty boring. Somehow the same thing in front of a space ship on an alien world seemed more glamorous. She wondered if there could really be a place for her.
She let her thoughts run in circles for a while before returning to the cockpit. Omar had left the wall open to the stars and Sasha could now see the ships as three bright blobs in the darkness. Each was perhaps half the size of her pinky nail. Omar turned to her with a frown on his face. Her hopes wilted and died in that frown.
“Sasha Fion-Wae, the actions of my crew have put me in a difficult position.” He said.
“What do you mean?”
“First, your Domer thinks we are kidnapping you and is considering halting the shipments of supplies.”
“How can you know that?”
“I had him tagged on our first meeting, using microscopic machines that record and transmit information to me.” Omar motioned toward the screens and several of the pictures changed to the home of the Domer. Sasha could hear his voice clearly and he was indeed pretty mad. Not at the thought of losing her but that it might mean that Omar was going to renege on their deal. He also worried that she had been taken so that she could be pumped for information about the city’s defenses. Omar snorted at that and Sasha was inclined to agree. She could think of no way the people of Lanis could withstand an attack if the Fleet had wanted to do so. It did leave her with a question though.
“Omar, why have me ferry messages for you? If you have had this access from the beginning you could have given the Domer some kind of receiver and I wouldn’t have had to run back and forth every day. What was the point?”
“At first, because I wanted to negotiate with your boss in a way that made him feel comfortable. It is never a good idea to let your trading partner know how much access you really have. I meant to do as you suggest eventually but Zane convinced me to continue to use your services. He sees something special in you.” Sasha began to blush but Omar continued. “Zane believes you’re smart enough to be an asset despite your disadvantages.” He did? Had they been plotting this from the beginning?
“In convincing you to ask me for a ride he acted in opposition to my wishes though not explicitly against my orders. My dear friend Anabella, however, has now compounded this error with one of her own, enticing you to ask me directly for a spot on the crew. That was in fact a direct violation but I understand her reasons for doing so. Both seem to think they can make such an important decision for you. I told them that if they interfered directly I would refuse you outright.” Sasha heard the restrained anger in his words but also a hint of hope.
“But you’ve changed your mind.” She guessed.
“Yes and no. As they have acted inappropriately, I have determined that the only recourse available for me is to be honest with you. Zane’s assessment of your potential is sound. The final decision is mine though and I have some reservations. Some relate to the use I have for such an unformed block as yourself, others to your relatively high moral character. I’ve been reviewing the past few weeks of your life in detail.”
“”What? You’ve been spying on me as well?”
“That’s one thing you’ll have to get used to. There is no real expectation of privacy in an advanced culture. Every corridor of every ship in the Fleet is lined with surveillance equipment. Most of the data isn’t reviewed unless there is a need to do so. In this case there was. I needed to know what kind of person you were when you thought we weren’t watching. I will not apologize for making a detailed examination of a prospective crewmember.”
“So what kind of person am I?” Sasha knew she sounded defensive but the idea of him spying on her made her angry. She was also upset at the thought of him judging her and finding her unworthy. She tried to recall if she had done anything stupid in the last few weeks but nothing really came to mind.
“The man who accepted me into the Fleet said he believed the Fleet would change me. It has. You’re a good person and that’s the problem. You aren’t a soldier. You aren’t ruthless. You’ve never had to make the difficult decisions we have to make every time we make landfall on a new world.”
“You think I’m too weak for the job?”
“Not weak, gentle. It’s not a fault in a scholar but I need someone who can agree with and act on a tough decision that might save our lives even if it goes against their moral code. For example, you disagree with my decision to have Zane kill that man on the first day we landed.”
“Yes, and I still do. It was wrong to kill him just for not wanting to trade with you. Someone else would have.”
“Maybe. Perhaps I can put my decision into a better context for you. The Fleet has visited many worlds over the years. This is footage from a landfall about seven years ago.” He turned to the screen and Sasha saw a scene like the one that took place a few weeks before. The world was different; the clouds had a funny orange color to them and there was a big moon visible even though it was day. The people were human though. There was a crowd much like that which had come to gawk at the ships when they landed on Lanis and they were angry. A rock was thrown by the locals. Though it hit no one the soldiers of the Fleet began to fire indiscriminately on the crowd. Dozens fell in the first few moments. The scene advanced and showed the ships of the Fleet firing on the city from above.
“This is the record of one of my last missions as a pilot aboard the Damascus. I was one of those firing down on that civilian population. I hated myself for what I did that day but I followed orders because I had sworn to do so. I resolved that day that if I was ever in a position to lead a supply mission I would limit the lives lost as best as I could.”
“So you think that would have happened here if you hadn’t ordered that man shot? We are a peaceful people. We wouldn’t have attacked you.”
“Maybe so, but I couldn’t afford to take any chances. Primitive worlds tend to be the most distrustful of us and the most likely to resort to violence. If there had been any attempt at violence on your part the other captains would have burned your city from orbit and enslaved your populace until they had the supplies they needed. It has happened before. Let me try another example. What would you do if your only choice was between accepting a contract to kill a group of rebels ill equipped to defend themselves or get the Fleet into a war with a well armed and thoroughly corrupt regime in place already?”
“Why get involved at all?”
“The Fleet can only travel for so long before we must resupply. The alternative is that we starve and die in the void of space. My point is that some
times there are no good choices, no right answers only wrong ones. Assume you are involved and that it is up to you to fulfill the contract assigned to you by the Fleet captains. The lives of your crew depend on making the right decision. What do you do?”
“That’s an unfair question. You’re trying to bait me.”
“Life is unfair. I faced this situation and chose to protect the lives of my crew by betraying the location of the rebel base. Afterward we dined in the palace of the regime. I smiled at the monsters who ruled that world until I thought my face might crack but I did it and the Fleet got what it needed to survive.”
“So you want me to agree with that decision, is that it?”
“No, I want to know if you can understand it, if you can accept that the orders I give must be obeyed. I won’t blame you if you can’t. In truth, I might think better of you, but if you join this crew I need you to be able to accept my decisions and act on them. You can argue policy after the fact but when I tell you to shoot I expect you to do so. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“Yeah, I guess so. A militia can’t function if the soldiers don’t follow orders. I don’t know if I can blindly obey like that. I don’t know that I trust your judgment enough to do that.”
“I don’t expect you to blindly follow me. You can disagree with me all you want during the weeks and months when nothing is happening. I do need you to accept my orders even if you disagree with them when it matters. Our lives will depend on that certainty.
“If you get tired of my bad decisions you always have the right to leave. I won’t be able to guarantee the state of the stellar system in which you find yourself but I won’t make you stay. It’s better to cut our losses than to keep you around if you become a liability.”
“So I can leave whenever I want.”
“Yes, but be aware that you will be light-years from your homeworld. We aren’t going to be coming back this way for a long time, if ever. It was a fluke that we came here at all. It is unlikely that any other ships will be heading this way either so even if you end up on an advanced world you likely won’t be able to go home unless you mange to buy your own ship and learn how to fly it. This is a one way ticket you’re thinking about buying.”
“I still don’t get why you’re even willing to offer me a ticket in the first place. Why bother, if I’m so backward and ignorant? What are you getting out of it?”
“There is a technology which I have acquired that could be of great use to the Fleet. However we have discovered the hard way that the technology requires a brain plastic enough to adapt to it. It integrates with the brain in ways that only a young mind can adapt to successfully. If you want to join us, that is the price of admission.”
“Whoah! I don’t know if I want to go with you in the first place, much less have you plugging things into my brain.”
“I don’t expect that to be an easy decision for you to make. It is not without risk. The benefits if it is successful will be enormous. You’ll be able to learn faster than you ever thought possible. When connected to the networks you can utilize remote processing power to think bigger thoughts than any other being in the Fleet. You’ll have access to abilities an average human can only dream about.”
“Is that what you have, with those things in your head?”
“These?” He twirled a few strands of his hair with a finger. “These are like a stone axe compared to the nanocytes. These were designed for interfacing as a pilot. I can use the networks but only marginally better than using a terminal. It’s faster than working without them but the technology I’m talking about comes from a world far more advanced than the one that designed these implants. In truth I envy you. You’d be capable of things I can’t conceive of doing. I would trade places with you in a moment if I could.”
“So I get all this fancy headgear and you’ll still let me leave whenever I want. That sounds a bit too good to be true. What’s the catch?”
“I have a mystery that needs solving and I think the only one that can solve it is someone with abilities like the ones you’ll gain. The fate of worlds might hang in the balance, billions of lives. If Zane is right about you, your curiosity will keep you around, at least until we get an answer. After that you’ll be a free agent and can do what you please. Chances are you can make a good living on nearly any advanced world we come to with the abilities you’ll have.”
“This is a lot to take in. I just wanted to see some big spaceships.”
“I know. As I said, I wanted to wait and not spring all this on you so soon but my crew has forced my hand. I felt that you should know what you’ll be signing up for. You may decide that life in the Fleet isn’t all you thought it might be.”
“You’re putting a lot on my shoulders.”
“Perhaps I am, but I have little choice.”
Chapter 4
Sasha was worried that she would start hyperventilating as she looked up at the hatch in the ceiling. The Moving Finger had slid alongside the revolving core of the Sikorsky and seamlessly docked as the two moving ships came into contact. There had been a gut wrenching twist as the ship began to spin along the big ship’s core. Now she stared at the hatch, waiting for it to open, fearing what she would find behind it. The rest of Omar’s crew stood idly waiting. A light beside the door changed from red to green and she felt her ears pop. The stench in the air as the hatch opened hit her like a physical blow. She started to retch, fighting to hold back the nausea. Bella slapped her on the back as she coughed.
“Easy girl.” She said. “It’ll pass. This air has been recycled a hundred thousand times. That delightful scent is the blood, sweat and tears of a thousand men, women and whatever else you can think of. Your nose will adjust in a minute or so. Just breathe through your mouth for a bit.”
Sasha did as Bella advised and while it was more bearable she felt she could taste the air. It was equally disgusting but more muted and tolerable. The sense that she was about to throw up faded. She looked around through teary eyes and floated into her new home, the Sikorsky, wondering if she was making a huge mistake.
She was still reeling inside from her talk with Omar. He had warned her that once she stepped onto the Sikorsky she would be subject to the rules in effect there. The laws on each ship differed significantly. In addition, the crews of five ships docked with the Sikorsky lived on the big ship, each having its own captain and rules of conduct. The crew of the Moving Finger was one such crew.
What this meant to Sasha was that there were six different crews living on the ship, each with differing views on social propriety. On the Moving Finger, Omar was the final authority, but once they stepped onto the Sikorsky Captain Kharzin had the final say. Apparently the Sikorsky’s commander didn’t get involved unless there was a problem between those who worked under different captains which those captains could not resolve between themselves. It left the social fabric of the big ship in a state of quasi anarchy, tempered by a desire to avoid the wrath of the Sikorsky’s captain, whose version of justice involved an airlock for both parties in most cases.
Complicating things even further was the fact that the three big ships and several of the smaller, cruiser sized ships were temporarily linked by long elastic corridors which extended from ship to ship, forming a network of tunnels. This meant that anyone she met could be from one of dozens of different ships and hundreds of different worlds, each with their own take on morality and legality. It made her head spin to think of the possibilities. Add to that a dozen alien species like Pulan and it was enough to leave her paralyzed with fear of saying or doing the wrong thing.
Once they were aboard the big ship the crew of the Finger went their separate ways. Before they left though, each made sure that Sasha had their communication code input on the little device Omar had strapped onto her wrist. Omar took some time to explain how it worked after the others left.
“It’s called a cell and it is the most ubiquitous piece of technology in the whole of human space. There are a lot
of different kinds but they all have much the same function. They keep you connected to the world at large.”
“Why doesn’t the rest of the crew have them?”
“They do, after a fashion.” He replied, shaking his head in a way that caused his metal hair to fly around him. “The others have a minor implant here,” He gestured to his cheek in a downward swipe from ear to chin. “which gives the same kind of access this device does. Your implants will do much the same for you, only magnified exponentially.” Sasha cringed inwardly at the mention of the implants. It was still the scariest part about deciding to join the Fleet, far scarier than any aliens. If Omar noticed her reaction he gave no sign.
“Back to the point. The cell is also a data source. Alone, it contains massive amounts of data, much more than we are giving to your people. This is the true birthright of mankind, access to information. Once linked to a ship like the Sikorsky, its data and researching capacity is magnified a thousand fold. You can ask it a question and if the information is anywhere in the Fleet you’ll have your answer in moments. Give it a try. You can activate this cell by pressing on the right side.”
“Ok.” She pressed the side of the device. It lit from within, the screen showing a bunch of numbers. “What do all these numbers mean?”
Before Omar could answer the device interpreted her question as directed at it. The screen seemed to pull away from the device and it reappeared on a nearby wall. A voice came from the cell, a woman’s voice. It was soft and clear as though a woman were standing next to her.
“The numbers are the local standard metric time, drawn from the collected average of the Fleet.” The numbers arranged themselves on the wall, each giving details next to it. After looking at it for a moment Sasha started to get a feel for it. She had seen records of several old time systems used on Lanis before the end of star travel. One was based on the original Sol system and the birthplace of mankind, Earth. It was mostly used to date events from before man had expanded into space. The second was known as Metric Time and had the uniformity her people used for their measurements. Lanis had adapted the time system to correlate with their own solar cycle and rotation. According to this time, the ship was nearing the end of its ‘day’. Each day was separated into ten ‘hours’, which were further separated into a hundred minutes of a hundred seconds each. After some quick math in her head she realized that the Fleet day was quite a bit longer than the one she was used to.