by M. Alan Marr
“I’m thinking the spaceship thing may not be that big of a deal here.”
“Probably not.”
“How the hell are we going to pull this off?”
Steve pauses. “And we thought the 767 was tough.”
Harrison rolls over and props his head up with his hand. “You know, the fate of the world is really in your hands. You convinced Dev to hire all of us, so if we screw up, it’s all your fault.”
“Thanks.”
Harrison laughs, then tries to be more reassuring. “I’m sure Dev knows what he’s doing.”
Steve rolls over. “Probably.”
“Out of all of us, who do you think is most worried?”
“The flight attendants. Definitely.”
Franz, Milo, and Annette are in their bedroom dancing to music streaming out of Franz’s TiPhone. Worried? Not so much.
chapter 16
STARS IN THE MAKING
☆ ☆
Since no one is familiar with Tertian food, Leftenant Bross sets up a predawn breakfast service for everyone in Dev’s dwelling. The morning is busy. First, urgent texts to Chaz concerning how to operate the showers begin coming in shortly after their wake-up calls. All hands are called to Dev’s for breakfast first. There, they will eat and begin a short tutorial on how to operate the showers. Everyone feels great today and, whether they know it or not, are in the best health any of them have ever been in before. The battery of inoculations and preventative care they received yesterday have all kicked in and cleaned up all the toxicities that had built up in their systems all those years living on Earth.
Everyone, minus Bross, is still wearing their bedclothes. Bross is wearing some kind of galley apron that covers his arms and front.
Matt stands before Dev’s large windows looking at the horizon. Unlike Earth’s pink and orange hues at dawn, the sky here is lit by the most beautiful blues and whites. The coloring casts the most unusual dawn he has ever seen.
“Guys, come look at this!” Matt calls to the group.
“Wow,” Jen says, taking in the pretty sight.
“Blue sunrise. Is it always like that?”
Chaz joins them and explains, “It’s blue because their sun fuses oxygen and hydrogen. Ours works on helium.”
While the group marvels at the sunrise, Bross approaches from the kitchen. “Pardon, Commander Ronaldi, breakfast is ready, sir.”
“Thank you, Bross.”
The group meanders into the dining area.
Dev hurries in, half dressed in just his uniform shirt and pants. “Good morning, I hope everyone slept well.”
There is a chorus of agreement and compliments on their sleep as everyone sits down at a large dining table. Chaz immediately notices that the dining table has been expanded and that extra chairs had been brought in at some point to accommodate everyone. Bross apparently had either been working late or got up exceptionally early.
Several pitchers of water and juice await, along with carafes of hot capulus.
“A few things we should talk about,” Dev says. “Today, we will cover a lot of details, and you’ll probably be writing things down at some point, so I want to go over some syntax and grammatical protocols. First, capital letters. We capitalize words a lot more than you do. It’s considered very bad form to use lower case when writing the word Human. Likewise, all species names are capitalized. Spaces on warships as well; Quarterdeck, Flight Deck, etc, and Officer ranks are always capitalized. We use ‘sir’ and ‘ma’am’ a lot. Chaz said that in the US, military officers don’t address subordinates as ‘sir,’ but here, we do. Doesn’t matter if they’re junior or senior.” Dev continues, “Commissioned Officers familiar with one another often just use rank and first name, as in Commander Chaz, Commander Dev.” He adds, “Enlisted personnel typically do not use an officer’s first name. Likewise for Midshipmen.”
“What’s a midshipman?” Jen asks.
“A Midshipman is a Fleet Officer candidate.”
“What’s it mean?”
“Goes back to the sailing days, Jen. Back then, the Midshipmen’s primary job was to command the cannons on the Gun Deck, which, due to their weight, were primarily located amidships. Midshipmen also commanded the divisions of enlisted crewmen.” Dev adds, “Oh, and as you already know, the rank of Lieutenant is often pronounced Leftenant.”
“Which one should we use?” Steve says.
“Either pronunciation and spelling works,” Dev replies. “Our military is generally broken down into fleet service and terrestrial service. You’ll hear Leftenant most often by those in fleet service, at the Admiralty, and aboard warships.”
Bross delivers several trays containing common breakfast items and breads, including a type of egg poached in what looks like open, hollow muffins.
“Are those eggs?” Matt asks, digging right in.
“They are,” Dev replies, “from an animal called a Teradon.”
Bross uses a pad on the counter to pull up a picture of a Teradon, and shows it to the group.
Steve raises his eyebrows. “It looks like a cross between a pig and a chicken.”
“So it’s a pickin?” Matt asks.
“Or a chig,” Harrison adds.
Dev laughs. “You guys don’t have Teradons. Closest thing on Earth I guess would be a Duck-Billed Platypus. Teradons root around and lay a lot of eggs, but the animals themselves are pretty delicate; they don’t survive space travel well.”
Jen puts down her fork. “We’re eating alien platypus eggs?”
“What’s the difference?” Franz says, trying the Teradon egg. “My God, these are delicious.”
“New world, Jen,” Dev says. “New experiences abound.”
Matt tries the juice. “This tastes like vanilla orange juice.”
“Citrum,” Dev says.
“That’s latin for orange,” Matt says.
“Stop translating!” Jen jokes. “Smartypants.”
The new arrivals carefully try each item. In no time at all, they are eating as normally, and plentifully, as they would back on Earth, and continue discussing the day ahead of them. Matt is voraciously hungry.
“Binge much?” Jen says, watching Matt devour even more food.
“Sorry, sister, I think my new immune system needs nourishment. I’m starving. I haven’t had an appetite like this in years.”
After breakfast, the group receives instruction on how to use their showers. They are curious why each of the showers all have viny, leafy plants behind the glass walls surrounding the shower. Dev’s shower, owing that it is in a much larger dwelling, is more elaborate, with even more foliage. He explains the plants are all varieties of what’s known as bathing flora; plants that release beneficial enzymes upon contact with hot water. It is a traditional setup found all over Trieste, from the most elaborate to even the most basic of showers. Even the worst, most rattiest, sleaziest, dirty motel (if there is one on Trieste) will have at least one plant, even it is a withered stick with a single plastic leaf. This is just a thing on Trieste.
“A touch of the control icon on the shower panel will open the interior glass partitions to the plant life and activate several showerheads to create a rain forest-like experience. Or, just tap the central shower icon for conventional water flow.” Dev goes on to explain the Tertian toothbrush, a device that looks similar to a mouth guard, but when activated, thoroughly cleans, disinfects, and polishes the teeth to beautiful pearly whiteness in just seconds. Tertian razors are likewise an east, high tech, supremely effective device.
Dev orders everyone to meet down in the lobby in one hour. Bross programs his interlink device, and a countdown timer appears on every crew member’s Ti-Phone.
***
The Oasis group is already assembled in the lobby when Leftenant Bross, Lieutenant Commander Chaz, and Commander Dev arrive wearing semi-formal Admiralty uniforms and bicorn hats. Admiralty semi-formal is a double-breasted dark blue tailcoat with two rows of gold buttons for Dev and Chaz; tw
o rows of silver buttons for Bross. Dev has a set of gold aviator wings on his uniform coat; Chaz has silver wings. The fronts of the tailcoats are buttoned halfway up, with the two upper lapels folded open. Under the coat is a white waistcoat worn over a white open straight-collar shirt with black neck floss. White pants, and tall black boots round out the image. The white pants will soon give way to dark blue as the seasons change.
Chaz can instantly tell everyone used the bathing flora because they all smell like they came from a spa. And actually, so do he and Dev. The group looks at the uniforms with a mix of intrigue and wonder. Here they are in a fantastically advanced world, yet these uniforms look like something out of the 19th-century Royal Navy.
Harrison leans toward Steve. “Check out Lord Nelson.”
“Easy, Harr,” Steve comments. “Keep it professional.”
“Everyone here?” Dev says, looking around. “Any questions before we depart?”
“Yeah,” Jen says. “What are you wearing?”
“Admiralty semi-formal,” Dev says. “You’ll see a variety of uniforms today, depending on who’s wearing it and what they’re doing. By virtue of this project, we are technically billeted at the Admiralty now, so semi-formal is what we’ll wear when we’re not in flight suits.”
“If this is semi-formal, is there something more formal than that?” Jen says with surprise.
“There is, in fact.”
“Lots of gold trim,” Chaz says. “They’re actually pretty cool.”
“These are very cool,” Matt says, looking them over. “Tails, I love it.”
“We adhere to a lot of tradition at the Admiralty. These uniforms are very similar to the ones officers wore a long, long time ago.”
The train ride back to the Admiralty is quick and efficient as always. More crowded this morning, since many Tertians are heading to work. Three ground vehicles, the kind Chaz nicknamed ‘Tertian Lambos’ (for their Lamborghini-like doors) deliver the group to the flight line of the military astroport not far from where they first arrived yesterday. Three different ships are sitting on the tarmac, arranged in a semicircle—two trainers and a fighter.
“Pilots,” Dev says, “these are all the ships you’ll be flying. The first is a basic atmospheric flight trainer; single fusion engine, no weapons. You’ll fly this in order to familiarize yourselves with our propulsion and flight control systems. You won’t be spending a lot of time in the basic trainer. Your primary focus will be in the operation of zero-g and vertical maneuvering systems. You must master those two systems in order to fly the other ships.” Dev walks the group to the next ship, a larger twin-engine ship. “Next is the advanced trainer. Two engines, TransAtmospheric, two single-barrel particle weapons.”
“TransAtmospheric, that just sounds cool,” Harrison says quietly to Matt.
Dev continues. “You will conduct both simulated and live operations in and out of the atmosphere and throughout the local planetary system in this ship. You’ll train in variable gravity environments and learn basic gunnery.” Dev moves to the next ship, a most impressive—and lethal looking—sight. “This is why you are here. Behold, the Class 1 TransAt Crown Fighter, the most powerful combat ship in our arsenal.”
“That’s what I’m talkin’ about.” Harrison smiles.
“You’ll learn air combat maneuvering, advanced gunnery, fleet operations. You’ll fly faster than you can even imagine possible. This is what you will use to protect your world.” Dev leads the group in walking around the large fighter. “Multi-mode weapons. Four powerful high-speed engines with photonic propulsion cores. High energy particle cannons. Graviton missiles. Transonic projectile guns. Positron regeneration system. Armor plating that can withstand the radiation of a quasar and the gravity of a black hole. Detection capabilities that rival anything in our fleet . . . This fighter can operate in the most extreme environments the cosmos has to offer . . . You could fly this ship into the corona of a star and not even break into a sweat. This is the most advanced, most lethal, and most versatile fighter we have ever had.”
The group is free to walk around, touch, and even sit in the various vehicles they will be operating. All have their internal power and avionics online, but, per Dev’s orders, all weapons and engine controls have been locked out. They all watch a nearby fighter power up and launch.
Dev allows the group to inspect the ships, and even climb inside them, with the warning not to touch any of the switches. They attention is diverted by a great shadow that blocks out the sun. They all look up and see an enormous ship descending over the water. It is an immense open-structure vessel that seems to be carrying another large ship.
Dev sees the ship and smiles. “Chaz, look who it is.”
“Is that Adonis?”
“It surely is.”
The group gathers around Dev, who then explains what it is they are seeing. “The larger ship is called a Fleet Tender. It’s sort of a rescue ship. It’s bringing in the Warship Adonis, which was damaged in battle in the Constellation Lyra.”
The slow descent over the water halts. The Tender then eases forward toward a large tarmac by the shoreline.
“Dev and I spent a couple of days aboard Adonis,” Chaz says.
The group can clearly see the damage to the warship, and the giant Tender slowly heads toward the tarmac.
“That’s battle damage?” Harrison asks.
“It is,” Chaz says. “We were aboard when she was attacked. We almost didn’t make it out of there.”
“That thing is as big as a couple of aircraft carriers.”
“Bigger, actually,” Chaz says from experience.
They watch for another ten minutes as the Tender slowly lands and undocks the damaged Adonis. The disconnect procedure is completed, and the Tender lifts off again and climbs away, leaving the damaged warship alone on the tarmac. Her boarding doors open, and personnel begin filtering out.
“There’s people still aboard?” Chaz asks Dev.
“Yes, of course.”
“Wow, that is amazing. I guess I thought they would be on the other ship.”
“They would have spent the time in transit conducting repairs.”
Matt watches the Tender gaining altitude. “Where’s the Tender going now?”
Dev explains, “Fleet Tenders are too large to keep on the ground. They’ll park in orbit and be resupplied for their next mission.”
Jen shakes her head slightly as she looks at Dev. “And you don’t have enough pilots that can fly these fighters?”
“Pilots are a special breed, Jen. Even here,” Dev replies. “Of all our service members, only about three percent are combat pilots.”
“That seems low to me,” Chaz says.
“One thing I realized from observing you guys, is that you all have very well-developed and intuitive piloting techniques. I believe that comes from the aerodynamic nature of your flying. Since our technology doesn’t rely on aerodynamics, those are skills we have to teach. You’ve used them from your very first flight and every day onward throughout your entire careers.”
Chaz adds, “He’s talking about seat of the pants. Anticipation. Reaction. Technique. Nuance. Basically, the hands-on stuff that built our flying experience. These ships are different. But believe me, your experience and innate ability as pilots are going to serve you well here.”
Another Tertian Lambo arrives. The doors open, and a crewman exits then stands at attention. Bross reminds Dev of his next scheduled meeting with the Commander of Fleet Constructs.
“Very well.” Dev turns to Chaz. “I have to go. I’ll catch up with you later.”
“Okay.”
Dev nods at the crewman and enters the vehicle. The Oasis group, still playing with their new toys, barely notices Dev leaving. Chaz and Bross will usher the Oasis candidates to the next item on the agenda.
Chaz is technically in command now. “What’s next, Bross?”
“A meeting with the Quartermaster at the flight training center, sir.”
“Okay, let’s not keep him waiting.”
FLEET CONTRUCTS DIVISION
ADMIRALTY WEST
Dev exits the vehicle at the main entrance of the Fleet Constructs Division, located in the western-most section of the Admiralty complex. Dev heads inside the building to meet with his old classmate and friend, Commander Tan Gartha. She is designing the base structure that will eventually be sent to Earth to house the Oasis Squadron.
A crewman enters the office of Fleet Constructs. “Ma’am, Commander Dev Caelestis.”
“Send him in.”
Tan smiles and rises from her desk as Dev enters. “Commander Dev.”
“Commander Tan.”
“I’m glad to see you back on Trieste.”
“It’s good to be home, Tan.”
“How are your candidates?”
“A little overwhelmed.”
“I would imagine. Chaz is well?”
Dev laughs, “He’s a little overwhelmed as well, but he’s glad to be back.”
“Chaz overwhelmed?”
“As my friends from Earth would say, this is the ‘real deal.’ They’re not overwhelmed by us, and the cosmos; they’re unconvinced they have the mettle to succeed. However, once they start training, I think they’ll shine and come into their own.”
“It should be interesting.”
Dev laughs. “Indeed so.”
Tan walks to a large engineering holographics table. “I’ve been working on your base design. The cliffside presented some challenges. But I have a solution.”
“I had a feeling you would.”
The meeting covers general status of the design, being built in orbit around Penthar. Tan covers a lot of engineering specifications as well as contingencies being considered in the event of difficulties once arriving at Earth. Despite all the repairs to fleet warships and equipment damaged during the attack that started this whole project, Tan’s engineering team is meeting their targets. Barring any unforeseen difficulties, everything is solidly on schedule. Dev also covers Chaz’s idea to have an underwater tunnel incorporated into the base. That will require Commander Tan to alter several levels of deck plating, to accommodate the lower shaft, but it should not present much of a problem.