by Will Crudge
“The mutual respect was noticeable.” Darius nodded. “He seems like a good man.”
“He is. We’ve met on a handful of joint exercises and conferences over the years.”
The conversation fizzled out after she spoke. Darius thought it was just as well since the train was coming to a slow stop. They walked out and into a huge corridor. Tens of thousands of people from all over the human sphere walked in every direction. The dock corridor was massive, and the transparent roof stretched hundreds of meters above them. Freight hauling robots moved silently back and forth from the cargo doors of large ships and the warehouse niches that were laid out against the dome side of the planet. Directly in front of them was the Hailstorm. It dwarfed every other vessel docked within their vantage point.
“Here we go.” Darius said as he started walking towards the air lock tunnel that led to the bowels of the mighty craft. Kara almost tripped as she was focusing on the gigantic ship and not her footing.
Two Soldiers stood on either side of the air lock door and turned their attention to the pair as they approached. “Good evening, Gunny.” The Soldier on the left spoke. Darius instinctively looked at the Soldier’s status display nestled on his right arm. He could see he the man’s rank was Lance Corporal.
“Lance Corporal.” Darius gave him an acknowledging nod.
“We’ve been expecting you, Gunny.” The other Soldier spoke up. Kara seemed noticeably taken back by the Soldier’s female voice and gave her a curious stare.
“Very well, PFC.” Darius turned to acknowledge the younger female. Female or not, she looked imposing. She was tall and slightly muscular, but it was hard to tell behind over 300 kilos of battle armor. Her auburn hair and light completion was all that anchored her to her gender.
“This is Major Eld…” Darius was cutoff
“Call me Kara!” Kara stepped out in front of Darius and offered an enthusiastic hand shake. “I know you folks don’t have officers, so Kara will do just fine.”
Neither Soldier quite knew how to react. The PFC took one hand off of her immense battle rifle and grasped Kara’s hand – with a crunching sound.
“Owww! Whoa, that’s some grip!” Kara retracted her hand and blew on it as if it would help stave off the pain.
“I should have warned you not to do that. Physical contact is rare for a Soldier on duty unless we’re training.” Darius smirked.
“Well, let’s see this puppy before the fractures start to heal, shall we?” Kara’s words were intermingled with heavy breathing as she tried to recover from the pain.
Darius didn’t say a word as he gestured for Kara to follow him. They made their way through the translucent air lock tunnel that extended to the side of the battle cruiser’s hull. On the other end of the tunnel they were greeted by another pair of heavily armed Soldiers that wordlessly nodded respectfully as the two walked past and into the ship itself.
The main entrance to the ship wasn’t at all what Kara was expecting. There was nothing military about it – at all, she thought. Glimmering white tile floors covered the entire deck. Where the tiles met the bulk heads, there were highly ornate foot boards that rested below a grey painted wall that had just a hint of orange to give it some flare. There were potted plants, elaborate couches, and highly polished mahogany tables. Everything was lit by an array of warm lighting that came from recessed fixtures that were partially concealed by the raised ceilings. The crown molding closely matched the footboards and brought it all together.
“Surely this is just the main entrance designed to impress visitors.” Kara said while her eyes darted around in every direction. “The entire ship couldn’t possibly be this nice!”
“It is.” Darius spoke with a confident tone.
“You’re shitting me! No way!” Kara’s eyes shot at him like daggers.
“I’m not shitting you, as you so eloquently put it.” Darius replied then turned his head back in the direction of the adjacent passage way they were heading for. “Soldiers live a long time, and spend most of their lives in space. These ships are our homes. Our refuge. They’re designed to make us feel at home to better cope with that way of life.”
“Makes sense.” Kara said. “Do you guys have nice cabins and stuff?”
“And stuff, ha!” Darius couldn’t help bet giggle. “Yes, but… Maybe not by your standards. It’s still a military vessel and space is limited. Every crew member has a small birth. Nice, but small.”
“Well I guess that depends on your rank of course.” Kara said casually.
“No. Not in the least bit.” Darius didn’t hesitate to get words out quickly. “Unlike other militaries, rank does not have its privileges. From Private to Acting Admiral, no Soldier is allotted anything different.”
“Whoa, what? ACTING Admiral?” Kara’s words revealed she was authentically dumbfounded.
“Who else would fulfil the role in an armed force that has no officers?”
“The more I learn about the Fleet, the more confused I get.” Kara shook her head.
“Here we are,” Darius stopped at a door with a sign that read
Deep Pockets
Location: Tangine Station, Interstellar Port, Open Space
Date Time: Post Interstellar 07/26/4201 0936HRS Local
System: Sol System, Mid Region
Kara methodically went through her pre-flight checks in the cockpit of the Skull-Crusher. She realized she really didn’t need to do it again, but she liked to feel like she was useful whenever her bird’s NAV system was interfaced with STC. It was protocol for the STC AI’s to remotely pilot vessels that were queued up for a hyper gate jump.
She finished her checks and looked up to look at the magnificent view beyond her heavy ballistic shield canopy. The vast blueish hue of the shielding that formed the cylindrical rout to the gate changed the ambient color of everything around her. There was a mid-sized commercial freighter directly ahead of her in the departure sequence that blocked most of her view of the gate itself. She realized it wouldn’t matter if her view was unobstructed since the gate was just a massive dark circle devoid of light. It was a surreal experience to do a hyper gate jump, even though she had done it hundreds of times.
“Secure data burst, dear.” Steve’s audible tone was calm so as not to take away from Kara’s viewing pleasure.
“Slap it on the HUD, Steve.” She wanted to be able to retain her forward view of the jump gate while she read.
“Shit!” Steve chimed in. “Sorry to read your mail, but you need to read this carefully.”
“Always do, buddy. Always do.” She stuck her tongue out as if he had a face.
The icon for the data burst populated on the cockpit HUD, and she tapped it to open the file.
“Well, what else is new?” Kara spoke with no shortage of sarcasm.
“Maybe someone at the Unum Dispatch Duty Office was none too pleased we stayed 13.5 hours longer at Tangine then we were supposed to.” Steve’s words were an example of his sense of realism.
“Hey! I couldn’t be helped! STC puts privately owned small craft on a low departure priority unless it’s someone important.” Kara’s retort was part fact, and part rationalization.
“Dearest, you didn’t file your requested flight plan until well after you and the human rhinoceros threatened to drink the bar dry!”
“Human rhinoceros,” Kara had to laugh at that one. “Yeah, yeah. Whatever, dude.”
“Hey, you two!” Sam’s voice came over the net. “Just curious… Are we going to finally be told just what in the hell this job is?”
“Yes, Ma’am!” Kara snapped a salute and send the image back over the net so Samantha would see it. Kara had learned a lot about Sam during her drunk-fest with Darius. She had been curious about why a Fleet AI was ha
nging around with an inactive Soldier. She had always known that AI’s needed their own down time between long missions, but she never realized Fleet AI’s could be rendered inactive as well. But in Sam’s case, she actually requested going inactive when she found out Darius was removed from active status. She had been too drunk to remember all of the stories specifically, but it was apparent that she and Darius had a long history together. They had bonded on one of his first training cycles decades back. That bond started when Darius saved the patrol frigate she was embedded with.
Not long after Darius received his inheritance, he had reached out to her for advice on how to operate it. At that time she was embedded with a heavy destroyer that was near the end of their patrol duty in the contested region of space, and she was eager for a change of pace. She put in a request to transfer to Darius’ next duty assignment, where they would meet up. Darius’ was promoted to Sergeant shortly thereafter, and then laterally promoted to the naval equivalent rank of Petty Officer.
The fact that Soldiers could even be Petty Officers was another new one for Kara to digest. Darius had explained that when Soldiers inevitably were trained as fighter pilots, their rank may change depending on the squadron they were assigned to. Close support squadrons that were assigned to reinforce ground troops kept the standard Fleet rank structure. However, squadrons that were in direct support of protecting ships held naval ranks, and fell under the direct acting command of the ship they were assigned.
Samantha was assigned to be the AI for Squadron Flight Ops on Darius’ carrier that he was training on. After he achieved his certification to fly a fighter, he was assigned to the active squadron that protected the carrier. She and Darius became more than just best friends. They were more like brother and sister. When she achieved the AI rank of Chief Warrant Officer, she had enough pull to match their assignments throughout the decades. They couldn’t always manage to be on the same ship, but they did always end up under the same flag.
“Earth to Kara!” Sam’s words broke Kara’s chain of thought.
“Sorry, I was just thinking about how you and Darius were so close!” Kara smiled.
“Close enough for me to remotely dial down his sex drive while he drinks, my dear!” Sam sent an image of a scowling pair of eyes to Kara’s HUD.
“You do what?” Kara was shocked. “How? Why?”
“I have my reasons, sweetheart.”
Kara blushed because she knew she was a little friendly with the big guy after a few drinks. She realized he was not too receptive to her overt advances, and she had figured that maybe he wasn’t into the ladies. Mystery solved. “Ok, Sam. I just got an update on our mission. Make this channel secure, please. The hyper gates energy shields will make any long-range sniffing nearly impossible.”
“Done, Kara. Give us the low down.” Sam seemed eager to hear what she had to say.
“Yes, Kara… Give us the low down.” Darius’ words revealed he had been on the coms during the previous exchange.
“You heard all that, didn’t you…” Kara meant it as a rhetorical question. “Ok, bottom line up front. You’ve been hired to escort an Unum VIP. For security reasons his/her IDENT was redacted, even from me. However, he/she will meet us at the Forge. This means our link up will be almost a week ahead of schedule. I’m sending the details of the link up to your HUD.”
Darius suspected she really knew more than what she was telling them, but he was always suspicious of deceit so he put it out of his mind. The way she kept emphasizing he/she keyed him into the possibility that Kara at least knew the gender of their client.
“So, any clue on where we go from there?” Sam noticed Darius was deep in thought, so she decided to spur the conversation further.
“None. Like I said earlier, it’s odd that an inactive Soldier would be hired for a mission like this. It’s even odder that I was dispatched with a near-unlimited budget for provisions, AND I was ordered to take my own bird.” Kara’s words seemed genuine to Darius. At least this time.
“Lead the way, Kara. If I end up in jail, I pray Unum’s deep pockets can afford one hell of a legal defense!” Darius wasn’t known for sarcastic words, but these were a master stroke.
Geeky Old Monk
Location: Forge Station, Interstellar Port, Open Space
Date Time: Post Interstellar 07/26/4201 1133HRS Local
System: Creole System, 89 Light Minutes from Heliopause Inner Edge
“Were alive!” Steve came over the audio net.
“Never had a doubt!” Kara sent a digital high-five over the net.
“What’s our ETA to our docking assignment?” Darius asked.
“About 5 minutes according to ye-ole grumpy NAV system.” Kara replied. She was always amazed by how fast a hyper gate launched ships and data bursts through space. The physics were astoundingly complex, but it would be she supposed. It used to be just a theory to hold a folded chunk of space open and just casually fly through it. She remembered the ancient theories of how much energy it took to hold such a gate open was believed to be unrealistic. But then again, there was a time when artificial light seemed like magic.
Forge STC didn’t have to match their voice authentication to their transponder codes, as was required when the two fighters flew into Tangine Stations inbound lanes. Hyper gate jumps involved a pre-authenticated flight plan sent directly from station to station via data burst prior to approval. The two ‘90’s NAV systems relinquished flight controls to Forge STC and were smoothly guided to their designated docking assignments.
Kara let out a whistle as she finally could see the extent of the massive station before her. “Now that we’re out of the gate shielding, I can see how effing gigantic this thing is!”
“First time here?” Darius asked.
“No. Not even the first dozen times, but never in my own fighter. I’ve always been in a security patrol cutter, or long range hardened shuttle. I’ve never had the chance to see this think through a window before.” Kara’s eyes remained transfixed on the station as she spoke. Although it had the same general shape of Tangine Station, it was at a much larger scale. Forge Station boasted four different hyper gates, and at least a half dozen Hyper Accelerator Launchers. HAL’s weren’t like hyper gates that hurled you through a giant black nothing and instantly out into a whole new system. Hyper gates were point to point, and could only function with a corresponding gate on the other end. HAL’s on the other hand, were simply a cost effective way for a ship to rapidly accelerate to a full range of sub light speeds, the limitations of which were entirely dependent on the ship’s capabilities. HAL’s also didn’t have any fixed destination. It was expensive for large ships to consume enough fuel to reach their max cruising efficiency without using astral bodies to sling shot around. Since Stations with hyper gates couldn’t function properly near planets, or anything with a significant gravitational field, ships would have to rely only on their own thrusters to get up to speed.
Each HAL was evenly positioned around the station at even intervals. Since the launchers had a limited number of potential launch vectors from station-oriented east to west, they would be able to send any craft out in nearly 360 degrees. They weren’t exactly cheap to book a launch, so small craft were seldom seen be hurled into all corners of the system. However, for a freighter or large warship, it the cost was negligibly when you factor in the cost of acceleration millions of tons of weight. But the technology had its limits, so the energy expenditure the station had to muster was the same regardless of tonnage.
Eventually the fighter
s made a soft landing in their cozy bay. Darius had enough experience with docking births from his military service, and quickly realized the dock was designed for small freighters or smaller vessels. The smooth cream colored edges of the ornate birth surrendered to the polished metallic walls. The dock was cleaner and obviously better maintained than most commercial births.
“Pressure equalized. Inertial dampening and grave fields disengaged.” Sam updated Darius, although he could feel the pressure in his ears settle, and he could feel the change from his preferred 1.2g’s to the stations 0.99g. He always preferred slightly heavier gravity whenever he took the Doom-Raptor into space. He always felt the extra pull kept him stronger since it would make him labor more with simple movements. Not to mention, it felt like a warm hug… Which, he always felt, was because he grew up with very little affection when he needed it most.
“Ok, dear. Off to meet our mystery client.” Darius unstrapped himself from his harness, and awkwardly cleared the straps from around his bulky armor.
“You bet! Good luck.” Sam gave him a heart icon in his optics. Darius figured she was reading his mind somehow. After all, she knew him better than any being - artificial or biological.
The hatch opened smoothly as the station atmosphere mingled with that of his fighter. Sam had already lowered the step ladder down to the deck. After all, this time Darius didn’t have a soft pirate rib cage to step off on.
“Hey, rhino!” Kara’s choice of words never failed to contain humor.
“Yeah, yeah. Big guy coming through. I’m surprised you still think I’m that big after seeing dozens of other Soldiers on the Hailstorm.” Darius retorted.
“True. You seemed maybe slightly above average I suppose, but we’re not on the cruiser any more, and all I see is…”
“A sex toy covered in muscle?” Steve’s timing was flawless. Both Darius and the pair of cheeky AI’s erupted in laughter, and the Kara was left blushing. “Boom! I love you, Kara!”
“Remind me later to embed you in a sex bot! Maybe that will knock you down a few levels!” Kara’s threat wasn’t enough to turn the tide of chuckles that surrounded her.