Wolfhound

by Kindal Debenham

  “You’re dismissed, then.” Jacob levered himself out of his seat, trying to ignore the fact his legs felt like they were filled with lead. He moved towards the door, but as he reached for the handle, the commander spoke up again. “Ensign Hull.”

  Jacob turned to find Rodgers looking at him from the desk. “You’re a good pilot, and you’ll be a fine officer someday.” The commander’s eyes hardened again. “Don’t let your temper ruin it for you.”

  With another nod, Jacob opened the door and stepped out into the hall. Still feeling crushed, he made his way back to the bunk he had been assigned. He had a lot to get ready before the Wolfhound left the station in the morning.

  The moment Jacob set foot on the deck of the Wolfhound, he felt like he was coming home. The deck plates beneath his boots, the subtle change in artificial gravity, all of it felt so incredibly familiar that it stunned him. He almost expected to smell his mother’s cooking in the air, or hear his father humming to himself as he worked on some basic maintenance job. The memories triggered an ache in his heart he had not felt in a long, long time.

  Jacob shook off the memories and grabbed the rung of the ladder in front of him to pull himself up. At the top of the ladder, he found himself in a long corridor. It extended in both directions and was marked by handholds and blast doors meant to help the crew brace during harsh maneuvers or seal off areas depressurized in battle. Jacob ran through what he remembered of the ship's layout Marines' barracks to the right. Officers' quarters are supposed to be past those further down. After a moment of hesitation, Jacob set off down the dull gray corridor toward the aft, passing one of the entrances to the Marine barracks. A dozen meters down the corridor he found what he was looking for, an access door set into the left side of the corridor beside the elevators. It slid open and up to reveal a ladder that led to the other decks of the ship.

  Jacob pulled himself into the access shaft and closed the door. Then he climbed to the deck just above the main one. He knocked on the access door to make sure nobody would be taken by surprise by his appearance, and then slid the door open and stepped out into the new corridor. Jacob slid the door shut behind him, took stock of his new surroundings for a moment and then realized he’d overshot his destination. He walked back toward the bow of the Wolfhound, and soon he reached the section that would become his own personal sanctuary onboard the Wolfhound.

  The Ensigns’ Quarters were a bit different than the other berths on the ship. While the Marines had been set up near the hatchways and had barracks-style rooms with arms lockers, the Ensigns’ Quarters were much closer to the bridge. They looked like a series of missile bays lined up along the plain gray metal of the hallway, each square hatch isolated in its own alcove. Apparently, each ensign had been assigned to his or her own cabin.

  Jacob found his own cabin. He entered his personal code and stepped back as the door lifted up. He climbed down another ladder and found himself in a small cabin, with just enough space for a bunk, a small locker, and a cramped study desk he could only sit at if the locker was shut and the bunk was folded up into the wall. As he had guessed, dull gray was still the dominant color.

  He tried for a little optimism. It’s still much better than the Academy bunks. At least there’s some privacy here. He set his pack down on the bed and took out a photograph of his family. It had been taken when they gathered on the bridge of the family ship for the annually-enforced family picture. His parents smiled up at him, his father with that hint of annoyance he always had on picture days and his mother beaming at having the family together again. His sister was frowning as she always had once she had started going to the university in Corleigh, and his younger self waved excitedly as if to make up for her foul mood. Behind them was a view from the bridge of the Sprite, a field of stars in a system that Jacob didn’t even remember.

  A half smile twisted Jacob face for a moment, and he set the picture on the small desk. He arranged it in the corner, though it still managed to take up a good portion of the small space. With a sigh, Jacob let annoyance at the limits of the small cabin interrupt his nostalgic mood. Spacers just have to make do, right dad?

  A knocking sound caught his attention, and he took a couple of steps to look up the hatch. Isaac stared down at him, his face amused. “Permission to visit?”

  “Sure, come on in.” Jacob backed away from the ladder as the other ensign slid down. In the cramped space, he settled on leaning back against the locker to allow his guest to sit on the bunk.

  “So how are you holding up in your coffin? Mine barely has room for me to sneeze and keep from hitting my head on the wall.” Isaac plopped down on the cot and glanced at the picture on Jacob’s desk before quirking an eyebrow at his friend.

  “I just got here, but it seems like I’ll fit in well enough. Did Laurie arrive yet?”

  Isaac started chuckling. “Yep, she got here an hour or so after I did. She left a little while ago grumbling about how half her stuff is going to go into storage while we’re onboard. Guess she never had to live much in space before now.”

  “One good thing about being a frontier spacer; you have plenty of practice living in cramped conditions.” Jacob’s stomach growled and he blinked in surprise at how loud it was. “I guess I need to find the cafeteria next. You remember where it was?”

  “And I thought you were getting to know me! Of course I know where it is.” Isaac pretended to look offended before he pushed off of the bed and scrambled up the ladder. Jacob followed, taking a moment to grab his personal reader from his bag.

  When he reached the corridor and shut the hatch behind him, Isaac was waiting impatiently for him a little further toward the bow. Sighing at the Gunnery ensign’s insatiable appetite, Jacob jogged a little to catch up as Isaac started walking. “So how early did you get here, anyway?”

  “Early enough to wander around and get to know things. Haven’t been on a Defender before, so this new Hunter class is as new to me as it is to everyone else. You heard about the officer’s briefing?”

  Jacob nodded as they turned right, entering a short corridor that connected the two main corridors on the deck. “Yeah. We should finally find out what we’re going to be doing for the next month.”

  Isaac chuckled again. “I’m surprised you want to face Rodgers again with a full stomach. Have you recovered already from being chewed out?”

  Managing to restrain a bitter retort, Jacob shrugged. “I’m fine. Little angry still, but fine.”

  Isaac nodded. “I would think so. My grandpa always used to say, ‘you never get angrier than when it’s your own damn fault.’” He winked at Jacob slyly and nudged him as they reached the corridor’s end and turned left, back toward the bow.

  “It wasn’t my fault! I didn’t know the whole situation.” Jacob’s protests sounded hollow to his own ears, and Isaac’s knowing smile widened as a result.

  “Yeah, yeah, keep talking. Maybe next time you’ll listen to Laurie when she tries to talk you out of being stupid. Or failing that, you’ll listen to me when I say charging in ain’t the best idea.”

  The remark hit home, and it silenced Jacob's complaints more effectively than anything Rodgers had said. For a moment, he let that bitter medicine settle in. Then he spoke up again. “You’re right, Isaac.” He let a smile of his own fight through his disappointment and frustration. “I still don’t think pranking him would have worked out better, though.”

  “Maybe not, but it would have been so much more fun.” Isaac motioned to a doorway on the right side, gesturing with all the grandeur of a performing actor. “My fellow ensign, may I present to you, the officers' mess!”

  The mess was a small room with four booths set up alongside the left wall. The food was set up on a counter to the right, with a buffet of choices. Jacob felt his mouth water as he took in the collection of burritos, sandwiches, rolls and other foodstuffs waiting to be consumed. Behind the counter he could see a few members of the Support crew going about their own duties, preparing food a
nd dishes for their fellow crewmen.

  Eager to eat, Jacob grabbed one of the nearby plates and scooped a couple of fresh, warm rolls onto his plate. Next he served himself a large pile of potatoes, slathering gravy over them. Finally, he snagged a large slice of ham. For once I might out-eat Isaac! Turning partway to look back at his friend, he found the other ensign with one plate full and a second quickly growing cluttered. Shaking his head, he slid into one of the booths and waited for Isaac to join him.

  Before Isaac finished gathering his feast, Jacob heard the door to the mess slide open. He turned to see Laurie walk in. She shook her head in dismay as Isaac somehow balanced a third plate on one arm and reached for a fourth. Jacob waved to get her attention and smiled when she walked over to him.

  “I thought I would find the two of you here.” She sat down across from Jacob and snagged one of the rolls from his plate. “Don’t mind sharing, do you?”

  His mouth half full of potato, Jacob struggled to swallow and protest, but by the time he could she’d already taken a bite. Damn. “No, go right ahead. I’m sure Isaac might have left us a few.” Laurie chuckled, and Jacob scooped up another fork full of gravy and potatoes. “How are you holding up?”

  “Well enough. I’ve got drills already scheduled for right after the briefing today. I think Lieutenant Obermann is going to run us all ragged.” She shook her head ruefully.

  Isaac had managed to bring his wavering pile of plates over, and Jacob scooted further into the booth to give him room. “How about you, Isaac? Do you have drills already set up?”

  Isaac nodded as he distributed his food out across half of the table. “Yeah, Lieutenant Tuam wants to get started right away. We won’t be shooting anything, but he wants to go over the controls a few times as soon as we get out into space. What about you?” The question appeared to have popped out without Isaac realizing it; he instantly looked as if he wanted to take it back.

  Jacob shook his head, trying to keep the leaden weight of disappointment from his voice as he answered. “No drills. My lieutenant wants all of us to report to our stations, though. I guess they want everything checked out before the riftjump so nothing goes bad.”

  Laurie snagged another roll from a small stack on one of Isaac’s plates and chomped down on it, totally oblivious to the look of horror and indignation he gave her. “So what will you do after that?”

  Jacob shrugged. “Check it all out again, I guess. There’s not much exciting in Engineering. Not if we do everything right, anyway.”

  Isaac, still giving Laurie a baleful look, nodded. “True. Just hold on, Jacob. Schroder is bound to screw something up and get kicked off the bridge. Bide your time, and you’ll be in like flint.”

  Pausing to swallow another mouthful, Jacob gave Isaac a short glare. “Easy for you to say. It’s not like you’re going to be waiting on much.”

  The ensign chuckled to himself before answering. “Well, what did you expect? I’m a Gunnery officer. I aimed at something I could hit.”

  Laurie rolled her eyes. “Don’t listen to him, Hull. You’ll do fine in Engineering. I bet you’ll even come to like it.”

  Jacob grunted. “Yeah, I bet. Checking power connections and replacing wiring is always so interesting that I can hardly stand it.” He paused as Laurie looked down for a moment, then looked down at his half-eaten meal and sighed. “I’m sorry guys, I just can’t seem to get over this. You don’t have to put up with my whining any more if you don’t want to.”

  Isaac paused in his rampage of feasting to throw an arm around him, jerking him into an impromptu hug. “Aw, don’t worry about it. We’ll stick with ya, and you’ll get to where you need to be.”

  Still half crushed by the Gunnery ensign’s grasp, Jacob grimaced and looked over at Laurie. “Have you noticed he seems much happier and less destructive when he has food in front of him?”

  Laurie nodded and began to respond but a chirping sound cut her off. Jacob looked down to find his reader blinking with what seemed to be a new message alert. Glancing up at his friends, he found them both watching him expectantly, so he hit the button to open the message. Running his eyes over the words, he sighed and pushed the plate of food away from him. “Well, it looks like the commander is going to keep us busy during this trip. The briefing’s been pushed up. It starts in two minutes.”

  A short while later, the three ensigns entered the briefing room. It was a cramped area with four rows of chairs facing a blank wall and a podium, with each row of chairs set slightly above the one in front of it. Behind and to the side of the podium was a trio of chairs. The other seventeen ensigns had already taken up seats, mostly near the front of the room. Five officers wearing naval lieutenant’s eagles and bars were seated on the back row, facing the front. Lieutenant Commander Piebald was seated in the middle of the three chairs at the front. A reader was in his hands with. The lieutenant commander was busily clicking through what looked to be a report of some kind on the screen as he waited.

  Lieutenant Morris occupied the chair farther from the door, his eyes still dark and calculating as he swept his gaze across the room. Jacob suppressed a shiver, forcing himself to continue walking to the seats in front of the lieutenants. Unfortunately there were only a few seats left. Laurie and Isaac both made their way over to the only two empty seats next to each other, leaving Jacob to choose between the remainder. His options weren’t that appealing. In one spot he would be wedged between the—pungent—Ensign Caddamar and the distant Ensign Mensah, while another would land him between Ensign Al-shira, the Communications officer who had never given him the time of day, and Ensign Taylor, who barely seemed to know anyone outside his gun crew existed. He decided being ignored was better than dealing with the smell and sat next to Taylor.

  There was a subtle murmur of conversation throughout the room as the other ensigns chatted with each other. The lieutenant commander ran his eyes over the group, checking to make sure that they were all present before going back to reading the report. Morris seemed to have dismissed them after an initial study and was now staring off into space, his expression hard.

  A couple moments later, Commander Rodgers walked in. The murmur of conversation died off instantly, and the whole room rose to stand at attention.

  He paused long enough to give them a nod. “At ease.” The group took sat again, and he stepped up to the podium.

  For a moment he looked quickly around the room, as if reminding himself of everyone’s names. When the commander looked in Jacob’s direction, Jacob could have sworn he saw a flash of amusement in those eyes, but it vanished in the stern expression the commander wore. The quick surge of shame it left with Jacob took a while longer to fade. The commander cleared his throat and spoke, his voice filling the room.

  “You’ve all been called here to receive the necessary information on our current mission so you will be prepared to lead the rest of the crew in their duties. I won’t waste time proclaiming how grand a responsibility the Navy has given us; do your job and do it well. That’s all you need to be concerned about.

  “The mission is to last a total of three weeks. We will launch from Graveston Station in an hour, then proceed to a designated riftjump area. Transit will last about a day. We will have about that long to run through an initial inspection on our equipment.”

  As Rodgers described the route, a projection unit in the ceiling overhead burst to life, showing wireform images of Graveston Station, the planet Grannon where the Academy was located, and other landmarks. Graveston Station, Grannon, and the other stations in system glowed green, designating them as Celostian posts, while the other four planets in the system remained a dull gray. A glowing yellow line highlighted the course the Wolfhound was to follow, stretching from the station to a point beyond the orbit of Grannon and clear of any space debris. Jacob nodded in approval. It was important to avoid those kind of things when a ship riftjumped for the first time. Too much debris around and things could get ugly really quickly.

  The
images shifted suddenly to a new system, one with five inner planets, one of which glowed green, and four outer ones, all gray. A set of orbital facilities around the planet also glowed green. “The next leg of our mission will be in the Harel system…” Commander Rodgers continued to speak about the gunnery and maneuvering drills the crew would undertake, but his voice faded to the background as Ensign Taylor suddenly leaned in close to Jacob.

  “Ensign Hull, right? Are you the one who beat the Odurans in the Helm simulator?” At the very least Taylor had the sense to keep his voice low, but Jacob was surprised he was talking during the briefing at all. Unlike Isaac, Taylor did not have a reputation for anything short of iron discipline. Uncertain about how far his voice would carry, Jacob nodded in response.

  “My name is Ensign Leon Taylor. They’ve assigned me to the Gunnery section in Battery One.” Taylor continued to keep his voice low, but his eyes were fixed on Jacob. “That was an impressive series of maneuvers. May I ask who your personal instructor was at the Academy?”

  Jacob blinked in surprise. He darted a glance up at the front, where the commander was still gesturing to a projection of the Harel system. “Instructor? I never had a personal instructor at the Academy. Just took the basic courses like everybody else.”

  Taylor sat back. His expression had gone blank, except for one quizzically raised eyebrow. “You’re telling me you learned those combat maneuvers on your own? Without any instruction at all?”

  Ensign Al-shira snorted. He looked back to find her shaking her head. “Nobody’s that good. Especially nobody who winds up in the Engineering section. You probably cheated and got caught.”

  Jacob clenched his jaw as an icicle of rage stabbed through him. “I don’t cheat. And just because you couldn’t do something doesn’t mean I couldn’t either.” The Communications Ensign glared at him before turning sharply away. He heard a chuckle from behind him, and turned to see Ensign Carver, from Engineering, giving him a thumbs up. Ensign Gi, who was at his side, elbowed him and motioned for Carver to pay attention to the briefing.