by M. D. Cooper
Faleena said privately to Cary.
Faleena nodded soberly in the mental space the pair shared.
Cary laughed.
“Don’t worry,” Jill said, replying to Cary’s prior statement. “If you get beat up in the dark corners of The Palisades, I’ll come to your rescue.”
Faleena said.
The girls reached the main sweep that ran around Ring Three, where first year cadets were housed, and made a bee-line for the maglev station that would take them to Ring Nine.
A train pulled up onto the platform, and they rushed toward it. Before the pair made it halfway, the train filled with cadets and whisked away.
“Oh, crap,” Jill muttered. “I hope the next one gets here soon; this dumb maglev line has to make four stops before it gets to Ring Nine.”
Cary and Jill joined a dozen other students that were all standing on the platform, nervously checking the holodisplay that showed the next train’s arrival time.
Faleena gave a soft laugh on the channel the three were sharing.
Cary was certain he would. Odin, the AI who ran The Palisades, managed the station with a steely calm and brooked no nonsense. Even if something did slip past his notice, Major Delma, the AI who oversaw her father’s Battalion HQ, would spot it.
Cary gave a good-natured laugh.
As they spoke, the train pulled up at the platform, and Jill peered at Cary.
Jill made a noise of surprise as they boarded the maglev, and Cary frowned,
The train pulled away from the platform, and Cary saw that the maglev was going straight to Ring Nine. She shook her head in disbelief.
Cary folded her arms.
Cary couldn’t help a grin.
Faleena giggled.
Saanvi gave a throaty laugh.
The maglev flew off Ring Three and through the transparent tube that drew it down the stack of rings toward Ring Nine.
Cary stared out the window at the world of Troy below, wondering when they’d start doing planet-side exercises.
When The Palisades was first announced, Cary knew that Troy was the perfect place for the ISF Academy. The planet was a world of extremes: vast oceans, a wide variety of continents, towering mountains, deserts, plains, deep canyon systems…. Troy had it all.
On top of that, there were three moons—one nearly Lunar in size—which would give them plenty of hazardous environments to train on. Though she was less excited about working in vacuum after spending so long trapped in wreckage a few months before.
The maglev banked around The Palisades station, and the planet was lost from view. A minute later, it pulled into the station on Ring Nine, and the two women disembarked, rushing across the platform and down the sweep to the corridor that would lead them to their class.
They made it to the lecture hall with two minutes to spare, and Saanvi delivered a withering scowl at them as they sat.
“Always cutting it close,” Saanvi admonished. “Good thing Faleena has your back.”
“Even if she has to throw me under the bus with Odin to save my butt.”
“That sure summons a convoluted visual,” Jill said with a laugh. “If Odin drives the bus over your ass, is it still saved?”
“Ask me at the end of term,” Cary replied with a mock groan.
The three women brought up their holodisplays and prepared for Light Attack Craft Space to Surface Strategies and Tactics 101, or LACS as Cary had already taken to calling it after hearing some of the older cadets refer to it as such.
Saanvi hadn’t agreed with the shortened acronym, but after trying to pronounce LACSSST a few times, she had succumbed.
Major Kara entered the room and surveyed the class as the students rose and stood at attention. She nodded at them, and they returned to their seats, ready to absorb the day’s lesson.
The major launched into a lecture about the history of orbital drop craft, major battles in which they had turned the tide, and contrasted them against other engagements where they hadn’t been a factor at all.
It was a lesson everyone paid rapt attention to. Many of the students knew people who had been killed in the Trisilieds assault on Carthage just four months earlier, and had even been involved in the defense against the craft.
Cary looked forward to the day they would rain drop ships on a Trisilieds world and exact retribution.
Major Kara must have been reading her mind, because forty-five minutes into the class, she stopped her lecture and leaned on her podium.
“I know you all want to take the fight to the enemy. You want to
give them what for. Let me tell you: going down in a tin can, praying you hit the surface in one piece, is pretty much the opposite of fun. It’s not about retribution or payback. It’s about protecting New Canaan and the men, women, and AIs in your unit. I want that in your minds whenever you think about dropping, and when you do your first drops.”
She activated a holodisplay, bringing up a view of the newly constructed jump gate near Athens. The display showed both the gate and the I2 on its approach. She gave a heavy sigh and looked around the room.
“Many of you have friends and family going out into the stars on that ship, and no small number of them are Marines. And no small number of those Marines are going to drop onto a world and take it by storm. When you think about the tactics we discuss here over this semester, remember that they extend, or end, the lives of real people.
“Someday, some of you here will go through that gate and drop onto distant planets. Some of you will pilot the ships; some will be the boots that hit the ground. Some of you will make the call on who to send, and where they go.” Major Kara’s eyes swept across the cadets, pausing on Cary and Saanvi. “So remember. Everything we talk about in class is serious business. Lives will depend on it someday.”
Cary swallowed a lump down her throat. That was the difference between what she and Saanvi had done above Carthage, and what they would do in the future. Their last-ditch attack run had only risked themselves. Chances were that next time they had to get in harm’s way, many other lives would be on the line, too.
Major Kara nodded with satisfaction at the serious expressions on the cadets’ faces. “Good, now let’s listen in on the Gate Control’s feed.”
She waved her hand, and the room was filled with the sound of Gate Control’s public feed of the I2’s departure.
“Activating antimatter systems,” the voice form Gate Control announced. “Negative energy emitters are online, field is live.”
On the holodisplay, a roiling ball of not-space appeared in the middle of the jump gate’s ring, hinting at a path to everywhere in space-time.
“Targeting the I2’s mirror. Mirror lock successful, focal line shifting, I2 is advancing and in the pocket. One thousand meters to contact…seven hundred meters…four fifty…one hundred meters…contact!”
Tears formed in the corners of Cary’s eyes as the I2 was enveloped for a moment in the roiling non-space of the gate…and then it was gone.
“We have transition!” the voice from Gate Control cried out. “The I2 has successfully made the jump!”
Cheers erupted from the cadets, but Cary didn’t join in. She bit her lip and glanced nervously at Jill and Saanvi. A feeling of uncertainty came from Faleena, as well.
Cary clasped Saanvi’s hand on her left and Jill’s on her right as they waited for the confirmation probe to jump back into New Canaan and report the I2’s safe arrival.
It should take roughly thirty seconds, but Cary watched the counter as it slid past thirty-five, then forty.
The room had quieted, as had the feed from the GC. Then, at the sixty-two second mark, with a whoop of joy, the GC announcer called out, “We have confirmation! The I2 is at Khardine. Say again, the I2 is at Khardine. Transition was safe and successful!”
Cheers erupted from the cadets once more, some standing on their seats and pumping their fists in the air. This time, the three young women joined in, rising from their seats and embracing one another in fierce hugs.
Saanvi blew a kiss toward the projection of the ring. “Be safe, moms, and do what’s right.”
“And kick some ass,” Cary added.
“Lots of ass, mom,” Jill joined in.
The three nodded vigorously, but Cary wasn’t worried. One of their mothers was Tanis Richards, and she could do anything.
Still…be careful out there, moms.
PRISONER
STELLAR DATE: 08.06.8948 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: ISS I2
REGION: Khardine System, Transcend Interstellar Alliance
“I feel like I’m your pet,” Elena said, folding her arms across her chest. “You come down here when you feel bad, see me in a cage, talk to me, and then leave.”
Sera shook her head as she took in Elena—her prison uniform, sour expression, and disheveled hair. “Life on the inside really isn’t what you’re cut out for, is it?”
It wasn’t the first time in the last four months that Sera had come down to see Elena. It wasn’t the second, or third, or even the tenth. She had lost count, to be honest.
Sometimes Elena was happy to see her, and they would chat like it was old times. Sera would be very careful not to share details about the current situation, though Elena tried her best to ferret them out.
Elena had correctly surmised that Tanis and her fleet had successfully defended New Canaan from the attackers—though she had no idea of the scope of the battle. She also guessed that Sera had indeed taken on the role of President, though Sera had never confirmed it.
“You tell me, President Seraphina. How do I look?”
“Honestly, Elena? You look like shit.”
“Yeah, the mirror says the same thing. I tried to smash it, but it won’t break.”
Sera shook her head. “Yes, they do endeavor to make sure the inmates can’t kill themselves.”
Elena only grunted. “So, what brings you down here today? If it’s not to torture me, that is.”
“Tanis and I talked it over, and we’ve decided to share something with you.”
“Oh, did you now? And how is the Ice Queen doing these days?”
“Don’t give me that act, Elena,” Sera said. “You liked Tanis and her daughters. And I know you didn’t really think that all their tech should be destroyed. Orion is hypocritical, too; they don’t eschew advanced nano and other tech like they say they do.”
“Oh, yeah? How do you know that?”
“Well, we have Kent—the guy who tried to kill Tanis—plus about half his team.”
“They were military,” Elena said. “They used higher levels of tech to fight the Transcend.”
“And then there’s Jessica’s team,” Sera added.
“Jessica…I never met her, but I remember her from a briefing. She’s the purple one, right?”
“Yeah,” Sera nodded. “The purple one.”
“So what does she know about Orion?”
Sera shrugged. “Oh, not much. She just spent nine years there. Saw a few things.”
Elena’s eyes widened. “Nine years? Where?”
“Perseus Arm,” Sera replied. “There was a jump gate mishap. She saw some pretty advanced tech out there; some of it was Orion’s, some of it was stuff they were trying to steal.”
“Steal? From who?”
“Turns out that parts of the Perseus arm were settled before Kirkland’s people showed up. There is some impressive stuff out there, and the OG was trying to take it, not to destroy it. Same as what they tried to do at New Canaan.”
“I have just your word for that,” Elena said.
“Dammit, Elena. When have I ever lied to you? You thought I was deluded, becoming evil, or whatever. And, yeah, close proximity to my father all those years was starting to mess with my head. But lying to you was never a manifestation of that.”
“How would I know?” Elena asked.
“C’mon, you have to have some evidence to make an accusation like that. Did I lie about where t
he toothbrush was? Did I lie about who left the light on in the kitchen one night? If I’m such a big liar, there’s gotta be something.”
Elena shook her head. “You’re very adept. I don’t know how I could tell.”
“Stars, Elena! You’re so fucking deluded! You and I have known each other for over fifty years; we were lovers for almost twenty. Who put in your head that I’m so evil?”
“You’re not evil, Sera, you’re just twisted by your upbringing. When Gar—”
Elena stopped herself, pursing her lips, but Sera knew what she was about to say.
“You met with General Garza? The guy who runs BOGA?”
“Seriously, Sera? You’re the president now, you can’t run around calling them ‘Bad Orion Guard Agents’.”
“If memory serves, their real name is as dumb as The Hand’s. I’ll stick to ‘BOGA’, thanks. But that’s beside the point; you met with Garza, and he turned you. How long did it take? What technique did he use?”
“None. Nothing. I wasn’t turned by a technique, I already had my doubts.”
Sera turned away from Elena and pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes. “Fine. Whatever, Elena. I’m the devil incarnate—except I’m not the one trying to take over everything. I just want to put the Transcend back together and keep Orion from forcing their views on us at gunpoint.”
“Sera, listen—”
“No. I’m done listening. I’ll arrange for you to get some time in one of the parks—maybe in one of the cylinders. Perhaps the fresh air will clear your mind and give you a reason to run a brush through your hair.”
Sera walked away and didn’t look back. She did, however, hear Elena say, “Thanks, Sera.”
CAPITOL
STELLAR DATE: 08.07.8948 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Keren Station
REGION: Khardine System, Transcend Interstellar Alliance
“Dad!” Krissy called out as her father stepped off the I2’s pinnace.
“My girl!” Finaeus shouted in response as he rushed down the ramp toward her.
Krissy felt like a young girl as her dad crashed into her and spun her around. She wondered what the soldiers coming down the ramp after him would think, but decided that she didn’t care. Not even a little bit. Not one iota.