Calico winced, giving a forced grin. “I’ll bet that was embarrassing.”
Nathen chuckled, mirthlessly. “Not as embarrassing as when the one guy accidentally fired his dummy rifle grenade into the CO’s windshield. Guess who got to clean the latrines all year?”
Calico shuddered. “I get the point, sir. So that’s the target?” She motioned with her free hand at the sponge pad. Nathen nodded.
“Yeah, but hold on just one second.”
Nathen reached over to the control panel next to the archway leading to the gear chamber and hit a red switch. The door slid down, sealing the archway just as the hatch leading to the hangar did the same. When all doors were sealed, the lights dimmed. A floor panel lifted up on the end closest to Nathen and Calico, creating a table for them to shoot over. Nathen reached underneath the table to the hidden bin and pulled out two sets of ear protection, handing one to Calico and taking the other for himself. Nathen pulled out his comm. unit and thumbed it on.
“Exercise now in progress,” he said, speaking into the mic. “All personnel stay clear of the weapons room. Live fire training in progress.”
Nathen clicked the comm. off and put it away. As Calico fixed the two cylindrical ear covers to her ears, Nathen did the same. Lastly, he hit another switch on the control panel, as several hidden projectors beamed to life, setting up a perfect hologram of a bullseye target against the sponge pad. Nathen stepped back and motioned with his hand.
“As you please,” he said.
Calico glanced at Nathen, then stepped up to the table and worked the slide, chambering a round. She lifted the pistol, squinted down the sights, targeted the bullseye downrange, inhaled, held her breath, and pulled the trigger.
The Denchura bucked in her hands and a neat little hole appeared in the sponge pad, inside the fourth circle on the top right. Nathen grunted silently to himself. Any further out and she’d have hit the boundary guard. But, being the first shot, he could excuse the inaccuracy. Calico blinked and set up for another shot, repeating the process until she pulled the trigger again. The Denchura bucked, and this time the hole was just inside the third ring, almost right above the center. Calico exhaled and was preparing to take a third shot when Nathen stopped her.
“Whoa,” he said, putting a steadying hand on her shoulder. “Slow down.”
Calico looked distraughtly up at Nathen. “Sorry sir, I’m trying. What am I doing wrong?”
Nathen ran a hand through his hair, as he did when he was thinking, then jerked his thumb sideways.
“First things first, we gotta lose that bag. That’s throwing your balance off.”
Calico placed the Denchura down on the table panel and unhooked the straps on her backpack. She shrugged it off and was about to put it on the ground, but Nathen took it for her and slid it over next to the door, under the control panel.
“You don’t need that right now,” he explained, having to raise his voice just a little to be heard through the ear protection. “You won’t need that again until you settle into your bunk.”
“Yes sir.” Calico picked the pistol up again.
Nathen adjusted Calico’s stance so her legs were spread shoulder width apart and got her to clasp her hands on each side of the handle. “Look at your arms. Don’t over-extend them to the point of hyper-extending your elbows. Keep them just a little relaxed, but straight down your center. Draw an imaginary line down the center of your forehead, and synchronize your sights exactly with that mental line. Now, keep both eyes open and look down the sights.”
Calico followed all the directions, and as she had her weapon lined up, she tilted her head forward just a little to squint down the sights.
“Stop,” Nathen said. “Don’t bow your head toward the sights. Bring the weapon up to eye level, but never change your head angle. That throws things off.”
Calico looked a little flustered, but Nathen got her to re-focus, slashing his hand at the target down-range.
“If you’re going to hit something, you’ve got to look at it. That’s the first step. Keep your head fixed straight, and once you get your pistol lined up, you can hit anything you look at.”
Calico’s green eyes flashed, fixing on the target with razor-sharp focus. “Got it.”
Nathen pointed at the target, focusing with Calico, and stood back. “Take a deep breath, relax, and as you exhale, squeeze the trigger.”
Calico, completely focused on the target, took a deep breath, breathed out slowly…
Then just before she fired, her shoulders tensed up. Calico flinched just as the gun muzzle lit up, pistol bucking in her hands. The bullet hit just barely inside the second circle, still a hand's width away from the bull’s-eye. Nathen sighed, hitting the red switch with his elbow. The lights came back up to full power and the doors leading to the gear chamber and hangar groaned open. The table stayed, as Nathen specified on the control panel, along with the firing corridor and target. Calico looked at the target, sighed, and put the pistol down on the table. Nathen ran a hand through his hair as he walked up beside her.
“To your credit,” he said, waving at the sponge pad. “You hit the target every time.”
Calico huffed. “Yeah, but that grouping is hardly elite material.”
“You’ve had your basic Infantry level rifle assessment, right?”
“My fire manager listed my performance as ‘room-for-improvement’.”
“And you will,” assured Nathen, patting her on the shoulder. “The good news right now is I know what we need to work on to tighten your grouping.”
“What’s that?”
Nathen picked up the Denchura IV and flicked on the safety. “Confidence. You’re over thinking it. That’s natural, at first. You’re anticipating the discharge and trying to prepare yourself for it, and when you do your muscles tense, and you flinch. That flinch will throw your aim off until you get in enough practice that you can fire without anticipating the bang.”
Nathen held out the pistol to Calico. “Knowing it is half the battle. You’re already on the road to improvement.”
Calico blinked, and took the pistol from his hand. She seemed lost in thought, but after staying silent for a moment she raised her eyes to Nathen with an enthusiastic glimmer.
“What’s next, sir?”
Nathen nodded in approval. “Let's take a tour around Haven Alpha.”
Chapter 10
They bypassed the gear chamber, opting instead for the lift on the other side. When asked why, Nathen responded dismissively.
“There’s way too much equipment to get into right now. We’ll introduce you to the rest of the goods when the time comes.”
The two ESCs stepped inside the lift and Nathen stabbed the up command with his finger. The double lift doors converged on each other, sealing them in. Then, following the shaft upwards, the lift smoothly rose on gentle gravitational jets. It didn’t take more than a few seconds to reach the next level, at which point the lift stopped and opened its other set of doors, opposite from the ones the ESCs had entered.
“This way,” said Nathen, leading his newest member deeper into the mobile headquarters. As they went, Nathen pointed out various rooms of interest, but didn’t spend any time in them like he had in the hangar and the weapons room. After briefly viewing the mess hall, the rec room, the crew quarters, and the food locker, Calico raised her hand in question.
“Why aren’t you showing me everything there is? A brief glimpse is hardly what you gave me earlier.”
Nathen put his hands in his jacket pockets. She was eager to learn, but she wasn’t yet following his lead. He was trying to focus on combat-critical skills. Calico didn’t yet know how soon she’d be entering combat, and she was far from ready.
“What you’re seeing now is the basic necessities of living on a starship. It’s nothing you shouldn’t have experienced at some point in the past. The only way it’s specifically related to the ESCs is the way that we utilize them. Unless you want me to describe, in det
ail, the function of a starship waste disposal unit, the standard jet shower chamber, the Plater refrigerated food dispenser…”
“Alright, I get it,” insisted Calico, holding a hand up. “I don’t need to hear everything.”
With that explained, Nathen turned and continued the tour. Despite Nathen referring to the environment as ordinary, Haven Alpha’s accommodations were really quite pleasant in comparison to a common starship’s usual Spartan décor. Not to say that it was elegant or extravagant; it was a warship after all. But it was something else, too. It was a home. Large fleet transports were accommodating only to the point of housing temporary occupants, transporting ground-based soldiers from one planet to another. Haven Alpha was built with long-term occupation in mind. In a sense, Haven Alpha was built completely and uniquely around the needs of the Elite Stellar Commandos.
As they moved down the corridor, toward the back of the ship, the corridor widened until it supported yet another lift, and a heavy shield door on each side. Nathen pointed to the two doors flanking the lift.
“Those both lead to the engines, gravity generator, and singularity reactor, along with any number of subsystems. Right now we’re about mid-ship. So this is the point where the living quarters turn into the engineering section.”
Calico stared at the doors with a childlike wonder. “With all you’ve told me about this ship, I’ll bet there’s some amazing stuff in there.”
Nathen waved a hand dismissively as he walked up and rang for the lift. “There is, but you shouldn’t have to worry about that too much. We’ve got top engineers and starship operators who handle that sort of thing.” The lift announced its arrival with a quiet tone, and the doors parted. “Shall we?”
The two again boarded the lift, which served its purpose just as admirably as the previous lift had. When the doors opened, this time on the same side they had entered, Nathen strode out into the hallway, which was not quite as long as the previous one had been.
“Welcome to the main deck,” announced Nathen. “Everything here relates to you as an ESC or our missions. This is where you’ll sleep, train, and prepare for missions.” Just several paces outside the lift, Nathen motioned to his right. “Trash chamber. Don’t go in there. We haven’t emptied that yet this week. There’s another one just off the main hangar. Between us and the crew, it piles up pretty quickly.”
Nathen motioned to his left, breaking stride just long enough to point out the room directly across from the trash chamber.
“Laundry room. We store spare outfits in here so we’ve always got something comfortable to wear. When I’m done showing you around, make a stop here and pick out some clothes for yourself. Don’t worry, we’ll have something that fits you, I’m sure.”
Nathen moved down the hall with Calico at his side. When they reached the next set of doors, Nathen motioned first to his left.
“This is the briefing room. You’ll be familiar with its purpose, I assume. Basically it's where we, as a team, sit down and take shots at the layout of the plan, discuss details and work on smoothing out the hard points.”
Nathen turned to his right.
“This is a room you should frequent often. Our training room.”
Nathen slapped the switch and the door slid aside with a hiss, permitting the two commandos to enter. When he stepped inside, Nathen instantly spotted Kyler Jeston and Lucas “Doc” Donique engaged in two exercise routines. Doc was in the ring in the middle of the room, having a one-sided boxing match with a full-sized floating target. Kyler was sitting in the gravity booth against the wall, tugging on a set of steel cables hooked to weights. The weight amount didn’t look like much at first glance, but Nathen knew that if Kyler had the gravity turned up, as he preferred, it would be like dragging his arms through heavy mud. The equipment in the training room was both intense and unusual, somewhere fulfilling both the roles of exercise and torture. As Kyler pulled the cables down and Doc pummeled the punching bag, Nathen stepped further into the training room, watching them with keen interest.
It took his comrades another handful of heartbeats to notice him, but when they did, they stopped the exercises mid-rep and shut their activities down. Doc vaulted the railing at the same time as Kyler stepped out of the gravity booth, both angling toward their leader.
“ ‘Aye sir,” Kyler greeted, reaching Nathen first. “Did we get the…”
He broke off mid-sentence when he saw Nathen wasn’t alone. Calico was standing behind Nathen, staring wide-eyed at the seven foot-tall giant. If Kyler noticed her wide-eyed stare, he didn’t show it.
“Crikey! You must be the new girl! ‘Bout time we got anotha speakah!”
Calico couldn’t seem to find her tongue. She stayed behind Nathen, actually shrinking back a bit. Kyler arched a questioning eyebrow, lifting his hands in question.
“Whassa matter? No need to hide. I don’t bite.”
At being called out, Calico stepped from behind Nathen and nervously approached the giant. He seemed nearly twice her size. Nathen didn’t blame her for being a little uncomfortable. After all, she just measured up to his chest. When she was fully out of the shadows, a nervous cough helped her find her tongue.
“Hi,” she said. “Calico Trast.”
“Kylah Jeston!” boomed Kyler, throwing out his hand for her to shake. “Hunter elite, expert tracker, kickass commando. Pleshah to meet you.”
Calico stared at the hand presented to her and was wrestling with the idea of putting her hand in that massive paw when Doc came up, wrapping a sweatband across his forehead under his sweaty bangs.
“Better back off, Kyler,” he said, adjusting the sweatband to his liking. “She’s got the look in her eye of someone about to shake hands with a grizzly bear.”
Kyler reluctantly lowered his arm. “Ah, well, didn’t mean eny hahm. Just wanted to say hello.”
Nathen looked down at Calico’s red-colored locks and thumbed toward the dirty-blond-haired giant.
“Pop quiz. Name that accent.”
Calico screwed her face into an expression of concentration, chewing her lower lip.
“Aaaussssie?” she said, dragging the word out, clearly uncertain. “I think…”
“You nailed et,” said Kyler, proudly announcing his heritage. “Paxton, born end raised. Parents were Paxtons, grandparents were Paxtons. Greatest grandparents were Aussie colonists.”
Calico’s nervousness momentarily vanished, giving way to curiosity. “And yet you’ve still got an identifiable accent. How’d that happen?”
Kyler tossed his head in a shrug. “Paxton’s got a lahge Aussie population, or did et some point en ets history.”
Nathen waved Kyler off, calmly. “Alright, alright. Let’s not get into your family tree right now.”
Doc regarded Kyler a second longer, then planted his hands on his hips and turned to Calico.
“Calico Trast, was it?” Calico nodded, and Doc extended a slightly less intimidating hand. “Lucas Donique, team medic. Everyone just calls me Doc.”
Calico had less of a problem shaking Doc’s hand and showed an unspoken appreciation for saving her from having to shake Kyler’s massive paw.
“Nice to meet you. This, isn’t how I normally greet people. Handshaking, that is. So, ah, if there’s any…”
“Nah, its fine,” said Kyler, shrugging. “Admittedly, while I haven’t dislocated anyone’s ahm with a hendshake yet, et’s on my to-do list.”
Calico regarded Kyler with a horrified look, but Doc squeezed her hand in assurance.
“He’s joking,” he said. “I think.”
Calico, unsure of how to react, gave a nervous half-grin as she retracted her hand. Doc planted his hands on his hips and gave her the quick once-over.
“So, you’re the new speaker, huh?”
Calico nodded. “That’s right. But I hope you don’t see me like I’m some textbook clutcher.”
It was Kyler who raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”
Calico tried to clarify. “We
ll, I understand why I’m here, but I really want to show what else I can do. I want to fight.”
Doc, still regaining his breath from the boxing match, sniffed and flicked away a drop of sweat that was trickling down toward his eye.
“Alright. How familiar are you with martial arts, hand-to-hand, and overall unarmed fighting?”
Calico shot Doc a look that was surprisingly smug for her previous shyness. “I grew up with two big brothers who loved to rough house and brawl. You don’t think I caught some of that action?”
Doc viewed Calico for a moment, and turned to Nathen.
“She’s got spirit. Can she back that up?”
“We’ll see,” said Nathen, reassuringly. “We can help her along a little. Later, why don’t the two of you run through some sparring? Get a feel for her hand-to-hand skills. You up for that?”
Doc nodded, and Calico followed his example. Nathen raised a closed hand and fist-bumped Doc, then Kyler. Sticking his hands back into his jacket pockets, Nathen breathed out.
“Well, I still need to show her the rest of the ship. Either of you coming?”
Kyler turned his back and waved over his shoulder, using his other hand to massage his neck.
“Naw. I’ve still got a few moh sets to do. I wanna showah befoh we take off. I’ll ketch you lateh.”
Doc, on the other hand, nodded. “Sure, Commander. I’m done here, and I need a change in company.”
“You cut me deep, Doc,” Kyler muttered, jovially.
Doc inclined his head toward the door. “I’ll tag along for a bit.”
Nathen opened the door and stepped out into the hallway. “Alright. Hey, do you know if we cracked those transmission files Chronos gave us?”
Doc shrugged once he got through the door, respectfully letting Calico precede him.
“No, I don’t. Someone’s been in the comms room since we landed, though.”
Nathen uttered a small ‘hmm’ as they walked to the next set of doors. “Well, that probably means the analysis isn’t going well. Tell you what. When you get the chance, go and see how it’s going. I’ll swing by in a couple minutes when I’m done with Calico.”
Prime Alpha (Planetary Powers Book 1) Page 11