by J. M. Hagan
Cane chuckled. “Siena and I will await your arrival at the other side.”
“Gee. Thanks so much. You guys are super…”
With a smile, Cane turned away. Siena devoted a second to giving them each a look. “You’ll be fine. These people are new to the Galaxies, just like you,” she assured them. “Cane and I will arrange to have our fighting gear transported from Europa to HQ.”
*
Location: Maji-Onda Station, Screening Area
All citizens must submit to security protocol before entering the station. All applicants will be directed to the screening area.
The message was on a loop as they approached the end of the line sometime later. Jack saw shit he'd never forget while waiting in that line. Barely a second seemed to pass at all.
He'd even plucked up the courage to say hello to one in rovian. The creature, a blue skinned humanoid with three eyes, garbed in white robes, had bowed his way humbly. Its eyes were peaceful, its demeanour utterly devoid of ill-intent.
When it came time for them to depart from the main line, they were directed to a flight of stairs that led to the screening area below. The blue skinned alien he spoke to earlier was in the line on the stairway just ahead of him. Jack walked with his eyes fixed on him, and Claudia clutched his wrist.
"Where are you going?" she begged, in an urgent whisper.
"Relax," he said, gently removing her hand. "I just wanna talk to him. He seems friendly."
She didn't plead further. He walked next to the alien and he turned his head slightly, his three dark brown eyes beheld Jack.
"Hello," he greeted in rovian. "I am Jack. What is your name?"
"Blisthará."
Jack smiled, Blisthará's soft voice pronounced his name splendidly. His vocal cords didn't seem to produce sounds the same as a human. The name was pushed through purple lips soothingly.
"I am from Earth. It is far away. You are the first alien I have spoken to in the Galaxies.”
For the first time, he fully appreciated all those hours spent learning rovian.
"Blisthará is humbled," he said, seeming like he was getting used to the language himself. He pronounced some form of thanks by rising a straight forearm Jack's way. He grinned happily, tried to mimic his friendly action in reply.
"Thank you, Blisthará," said Jack. "Good voyage, my friend."
Blisthará bowed once again. Jack reciprocated, and then he went back to his friends. They were smiling at him proudly.
"I did good, right? That was awesome," he whispered, feeling electric despite the brevity of the exchange.
"Yeah, Jack, you did great," said Claudia.
"See? Nothing to be afraid of. They're just like us. This is all new to them, too."
Roughly fifteen minutes later they made it down the stairway and to the booth where the secretary was hurrying to pass people along to the next stage of the application process.
"Here's your pads, and here are your stylus'," said the secretary, from behind a protective glass case when they approached. She slid them into the security panel and when it opened up Jack retrieved them all and handed them out to his friends.
"Thank you," he said.
"Can you read and write in rovian?" she asked, her green eyes like emeralds, her skin like ivory. Ember coloured hair was set in a tight, tall knot which stood an inch off her otherwise bald head.
Jack nodded. "Yes. We can."
She waved them along at his answer, “Move along,” then proceeded to call the next group of applicants from over his shoulder.
They were hustled along to a seating area down a small corridor from the reception. When the door shut behind him, the following quiet was disorientating. Everything had been a constant racket for so long until then that Jack's ears rang.
"Phew," he said lowly, as they weren't the only ones in the small room. Another dozen applicants were present, Blisthará included. He was at a table and busy filling out his forms. "Being a foreigner is scary."
"Yeah," said Anderson. "But I can't wait to see what's ahead...especially Starman HQ."
The application form offered several questions, and Jack understood that it was required for people to know how to read rovian in order for them to become citizens of the galaxies. It was a good thing, he guessed, as there would be no illiterate citizens.
One of the aliens caught Jack’s eye. He was a seven-foot-tall squid-like creature that didn’t have a discernible pair of eyes. He was positioned in a booth with some wires attached to his cranium, and he answered the questions given by pressing on coloured nodes with his tentacles. That dude makes me queasy.
“How about that for equal opportunities – they even cater to people with tentacles instead of hands.”
14
Location: Maji-Onda Station, Habitat A
They reunited with Cane and Siena and took the express route to Starman HQ that was located in the back of the station, avoiding the main thoroughfare for now.
Claudia looked up in awe at a tower of saucer plates that soared high above them. Each of the hundred rings had billboards lit up 360 degrees around them, advertising many of the corporate logos that were rampant throughout the station.
Just taking in all the colours made her step back dizzily.
“Is that an apartment block?” she questioned.
“Habitat-ring,” Cane corrected. He pointed ahead to another tower that was overflowing with plant life. “That’s an Agriculture-ring. It’s one of the many ways that they produce the food needed to sustain the millions of lives on-board Maji-Onda.”
“Incredible,” she gasped.
The Bright-Star Mining corporation logo flashed up in her face as she passed a man-sized cylindrical tower with a digital interface beneath the habitat-ring.
“Greetings visitor. Make sure that you apply for a position with the Bright-Star corporation now that you have completed your application for citizenship,” it prompted her in a friendly, practiced tone. “Bright-Star, making lives bright for a thousand years.”
“No, thank you,” said Claudia, as she passed. A holographic projection persisted after her as she stepped away, morphing into a different logo.
“Holo-com – connecting citizens with their loved ones is our goal. Customer satisfaction is our duty. Holo-com – the only choice in FTL hologram communications.”
“Piss off,” she shrieked, stepping away sharply. Cane was chuckling at her. “Jesus. How do you people deal with this?”
“In my case – by ignoring it. Open hostility works just as well, though,” he joked.
“In that case,” Claudia turned and gave the floating projection the finger. “Suck on that, bozo.”
“Unable to comply,” the hologram answered robotically. Then it reverted to a friendly tone as it ran another sale’s pitch. Claudia was sure to ignore it this time, as it harried after her.
“Maybe your way is better,” she said red-faced, catching up with Cane.
They proceeded through the quiet backstreets, passing by some humans who looked at Siena oddly as she passed. When Claudia noticed her agitation, Siena gave a shrug.
“They probably don’t see a lot of Plysarians here. My home is very far away.”
“Does it bother you? Their staring, I mean.”
“A little. Then again, on my world, humans are an irregularity.”
Cane chuckled. “I can attest to that.”
“So, what’s the next step?” asked Jack, as Cane led them toward an elevator.
“Well, you’re now citizens of the Galaxies. That means you can proceed to apply for a position with Starman HQ.”
“Ah, man. Don’t tell me we’ve gotta wait in another line?” he moaned.
“Jack, you’ve gotta wait in another line.”
“Damn.”
“That was a joke.”
“Oh.”
“To be honest, I’m not sure what lays ahead. I’ve never been to Starman HQ. And this is where we shall parts ways for now,” he told the
m, entering the elevator.
“Wait. Where are you going?”
Cane went into his pocket and removed a data chip. “I’m taking this directly to Media-1, the news station.”
“What is it?”
“The footage from our encounter with the Dok’ra.”
Claudia felt tense just remembering it, and felt an itch from her bullet-wound that was scar tissue now thanks to the medical pod.
“We need to let people know the Overseers are still out there. If the Federation sees this footage, they might be persuaded to hunt them down in the uncharted regions.”
“What if that leads them to Earth?” Claudia asked.
The last thing she wanted was to document the location of their home world. That would open the door to a realm of possibilities that were, frankly, over their collective heads. First contact, being among them.
Claudia wondered how Earth – a world full of people that were so wrapped up in themselves – would take the news that they weren’t alone in the Universe.
The political and social ramifications for Earth would be inconceivable. In the beginning, it might come as a pleasant discovery that there are other civilisations in the universe. But if it wasn’t handled correctly, fear itself could tear apart society.
There could be mass suicides, killing sprees, terrorism, and then the inevitable counter-terrorism that would lead to a society bound by strict laws, constantly under surveillance and eventually oppressed.
Was it really worth any of that?
She considered that, perhaps, the reason why worlds are separated by such vast distances was because it was meant to be that way. Maybe there had been a divine creator with a plan. Perhaps, conscious beings were only meant to discover new races when they had evolved enough to handle such relations responsibly.
“The Dok’ra are far from Earth, if they followed us here,” said Cane. “The rovian response will be swift, if they want to catch them. I believe it may be the solution to our Dok’ra problem. A ship like that could enslave Earth from orbit. If the Federation learns of the dreadnought’s existence, they may take measures to deal with them once and for all.”
“Why not take that footage directly to the military?” asked Jack.
Cane shrugged. “After it runs on the news, they can’t ignore it, or cover it up.”
*
They came to a black tower in the southernmost section of the station that had the Starmen logo blazoned across the front with chromes letters and a neon pink glow. Jack craned his neck to see just how big it was and saw that it reached as high as the habitat-rings they encountered earlier.
Jack led them through the automatic glass doors that pulled away as he approached, granting them entry. At the front was the reception desk with a very busy looking secretary who was typing while she talked on the phone.
Over to their right was an elevator, and next to that an office space with a half dozen equally busy looking individuals separated into work cubicles.
Jack took point and approached the reception while his friends waited at his back.
“How may I be of assistance, citizen?” asked the human receptionist, after finishing her call. The few seconds he had to wait were enough to make him uncomfortable.
Jack smiled wide. “Hey. How are ya?”
She glared impatiently.
Jack gave an audible cough to clear his throat. “I’m Jack Murphy. My friends and I would like to apply for the entrance exam.”
The receptionist frowned. “You are aware that the final assessment for this term will occur in three days?”
“Yeah.”
She sighed. “Very well. Which entry tier do you wish to apply for?”
“Tier-1.”
Her eyes lifted from the screen in disbelief. “I’m gonna need you to show me your assessment scores,” she requested, with a speculative frown.
Jack handed over the data chip with all of their training information and she popped it into her computer. As she read over their test scores and personal profiles, the secretary’s smile gradually grew.
“Excellent. I’m impressed.”
“Thanks.”
“Please take a seat with your friends while I handle your application and arrange for someone upstairs to meet you, Cadet Murphy.”
Cadet? …Excellent.
*
When they stepped out of the lift to the secure floor, they were greeted by a young blonde woman carrying a briefcase. She had dark blue eyes that reflected light.
“Hello,” said the girl with chin length hair, and bangs that perfectly accentuated the shape of her face. “I’m Cadet Malora. I’m here to welcome you to HQ.”
Androgynous as she appeared in her military uniform and short hair, there was something undeniably alluring about Malora, and Jack was grinning at her as he stepped out.
Ahead was a wide open space that led to a steep stairway. To the left was an impressive water feature. A tall statue of a strongly made alien had been erected in the water with fountains spraying gloriously beneath it. The polished metal shone in the glow of the lights dotting the wall.
They introduced themselves and then she began leading them toward the stairway. Jack stared in awe at the statue. The feeling he got when he viewed it was akin to how Anderson’s most epic drawing made him feel back home.
“What species is that?” he asked Malora.
She squinted at him when she stopped. “You’ve never seen a fernode before?”
“Nope.”
Malora’s eyes swept across them.
“I have,” said Siena, while they were clueless.
“What rock did you all crawl out from?” Malora muttered, and Jack frowned deeply. Damn. We’re the hicks of the galaxies. To her credit, she continued with a professional air. “The fernode, as you can see, are a physically powerful species. This is Almak the Brave.”
Jack’s gaze became captured by the details. Almak looked fierce, and had deep scars etched into his cheek.
“Almak – born 4029 – was the son of General Alfar. He received two shinning stars for his service with the FMC with 209 confirmed kills in the Great War.”
“That’s a lot of bodies for one guy,” Jack commented.
“Almak died in 4051. When his fighter squadron were ambushed on D-249 – a critical resource extraction site for the Federal fleet – his final stand stopped the Dok’ra invasion by inflicting substantial casualties on the enemy.”
“You know your facts,” Jack commented.
“I studied the Great War when I was a child. It’s standard education – but I excelled at history when I realised I had a passion for it. Fernodes are strong – but they’re smart too. The reason why this one is heralded as a hero isn’t a mistake. The Federation wants to inspire bravery, and above all, loyalty, from the fernode. They’re the only race known that could stand up to the now-extinct Dok’ra. In fact, their genes are what made the Dok’ra so tough. The Overseers used their DNA. We have a fernode here – aside from myself, and all of you, he’s the only other tier-1 candidate to have arrived so far. With the final assessment commencing three days from now, I think it’s safe to assume no-one else will be arriving.”
They entered into another office and the chattering and ringing coms broke the silence they had been enjoying. There were two dozen administrators taking calls and typing on touchboards. The dark room was lit up only by the many consoles, and the neon colours left them entranced as they followed Malora to a corridor that broke off left and right.
She stopped and faced them. “Okay. From here on out, you obey protocol. I could give you a long boring list, but I’d rather sum it up bluntly if you all don’t mind?”
They nodded their affirmation. Malora smirked.
“No fighting outside of training. No stealing. No photography – and definitely no unauthorised communication with the outside. Am I clear?”
“Yes,” said Jack. The others nodded.
She opened her briefcase then. “These ar
e your new PDPs. They’re encrypted, and any suspicious activity is monitored by Starman HQ. You signed the agreement. This is the only PDP you are authorised to access, on penalty of ex-communication from the guild. Understood?”
They nodded, and Malora handed them out.
“Okay. Next – your rooms.”
As she went right they followed, Malora took out her PDP and a stylus. She pointed the writing tool at the door on her left. “Claudia and Siena – in here.” They broke away as Jack and Anderson followed her brusque pace. “Anderson – you’re bunking with me.” Jack threw a jealous look to his friend who was already smiling wide. Then came the last door. “Jack, you’re bunking with Jeriko. You want some advice? Wear headphones. The guy snores so loud I can hear him from my room.”
“…Excellent.” Anderson…you lucky bastard! FML. He gave a full, unfettered grin. “Thank you so much, Malora.” Jack offered his hand. The way he was smiling, the appreciation he’d shown, even if it wasn’t entirely genuine, made her give a speculative grin in return. Malora took his hand and shook.
“My pleasure,” she said coyly.
When they were gone, Jack took a second at the door to collect himself before he stepped inside. He expected there to be a big alien on the other side waiting for him.
Jeriko didn’t let him down. He was tall as Cane, and heavy with muscle. Jack first studied his hairless, elongated head. Then his brown-skinned body which had a tremendous V-shape, slim abdomen, and broad, thick shoulders. He dressed in a tight yellow tank top and maroon leather pants. A large bowie knife was on his belt.
He was shuffling a deck of cards in his large hands.
“Murphy?” Jeriko grunted.
“That’s me. You must be Jeriko?”
He brought hands out at his sides. “The one and only,” he said, before bringing them together to shuffle the cards again. “You can have top bunk.”
Makes sense. If it gave way during the night he’d crush me in my sleep. “Thanks, man,” said Jack, tossing his bag up there. Then he eyed the cards. “What game are you playing?”
Jeriko took a seat in the corner where there was a round white table with two chairs. He kicked the other chair out for Jack to occupy it. “Flent.”