The bridge itself was something of a disappointment. Stellar Star commanded from a bridge that had been designed by the finest artisans in known space, but Hawkins was commanded from a large compartment that had a handful of consoles, a command chair, a holographic display and very little else. Apparently, consoles didn't explode unless the ship was about to be blown apart – and when that happened, the crews generally had worse things to worry about. Lieutenant Royce had laughed when Gary had asked and told him, in great detail, just how many details the entertainment flick writers had managed to get wrong.
“He did, sir,” Lieutenant Royce said. He looked like a giant compared to the diminutive commander. “Still lacking on the practical work, but getting there.”
Gary sucked in a breath. Six weeks of hard work had let him convinced that his schooling had included almost nothing of practical value. None of the maths puzzles he'd solved in school had been any help when it came to plotting out navigational courses for starships, or even working out the correct ratios of gases in the life support. The only experience he had that was actually helpful came from playing with computers – and that hadn't been taught at school. If he’d relied on what he’d been taught in first grade, he would barely have been able to manipulate a reader and he certainly wouldn't have understood how it worked.
“Good enough for someone from Earth,” the Captain said. “And good enough to merit a reward.”
He turned and led the way towards the holographic display. Gary wondered, rather spitefully, just where the Captain came from if he was so dismissive of Earth. There were quite a few planets where people had been engineered to exceed standard human norms, although he had no idea why anyone would choose to remain physically a child. But surely the Captain’s homeworld would want women to have babies ... he made a mental note to look it up, then followed the Captain towards the display. At the moment, all it was showing was the starship itself.
Hawkins was crude and, if Gary was being honest, rather ugly. She was a blocky mass, studded with a handful of sensor blisters; there was nothing elegant about her at all. But that seemed to be true of most starships, apart from a handful of specialised designs. The really elegant designs, according to the computer database, were completely impractical for anything other than luxury liners and personal transports. And the people who owned them were so staggeringly wealthy that they could afford the inefficiency.
“We will hit the outermost edge of the Phase Limit in two minutes,” the Captain said, taking his seat. “Before then, we will drop out of Phase Space and head into the system in normal space. You will, I think, enjoy the experience.”
Gary frowned, but said nothing as the final seconds counted down to zero. A strange queasy feeling surged through him, then faded away into nothingness. From what he’d read, some people reacted quite badly to transits in and out of Phase Space; he was silently relieved that he wasn't one of them. Perhaps he did have a chance to get the Captain to write him a letter of recommendation after all. Yates had told him that such a letter would go a very long way.
“Transit complete, Captain,” the woman at the helm said. “Drive cycling down now.”
Gary studied her with genuine interest. Like her commander, she was another oddity; her face was pale, so pale that he could see blood vessels under her skin, while her hair was completely white. But she also seemed young enough to be in Gary’s class at school. From some of the snide comments dropped by Royce, spacers considered going to school on Earth a fate worse than death. Gary rather suspected that they had a point.
“Confirm local space clear of encroachments,” another officer said. “No starships detected; I say again, no starships detected.”
Good, Gary thought. He’d thought that space pirates were the stuff of legends until he'd discovered that they were actually real. It was apparently rare for pirates to pick on colonist-carriers, but it did happen; Royce had told him that the pirates would probably throw him and the rest of the males onboard ship into space if they were captured. The women would be taken prisoner and used as sex slaves, if they weren't sold to black colonies in desperate need of more breeding stock. A great deal happened on the Rim, apparently, that was never reported on Earth. Starships were hijacked, planets were raided ... there were even reports of contact with non-human life forms.
It was a fascinating thought. But such reports had never been verified.
“Take us in,” the Captain ordered. A faint hum echoed through the ship as the normal space drives came online. “ETA Meridian?”
“Seven hours,” the helmswoman said.
The Captain turned to face Gary. “I shall provide you with a contact code for a friend of mine on Orbit Station,” he said. “Should you wish to remain in space, merely contact him once your time on the planet is up. I dare say Mr. Yates will not stand in your way.”
Gary nodded. “Thank you, Captain,” he said. “And thank you for letting me see this.”
“Not much to see,” the Captain said. “Just you wait until you see a gas giant.”
***
“Make damn sure that you pack everything,” Janet said, shortly. “Anything you leave behind may be impossible to recover. And don’t steal anything from the ship.”
Kailee nodded as she slowly emptied her cabinet onto her bed, then started to pack her bag. Aunt Lillian had made it look easy; now, even with the lost clothing, it was still hard to stuff everything inside and secure the straps. Beside her, the other girls appeared to be having similar problems, apart from Li. She’d managed to fill her bag neatly then tie the zips without problems.
“You’ll be carrying the bags, so there shouldn't be any attempt at stealing them,” Janet said. “But make sure you keep them with you or ask a friend to guard them, should you need to leave them somewhere. There are people on the planet who might steal from you.”
“Just like Earth,” Kailee commented.
“But hotter, muddier and more civilised,” Janet countered. She smiled at Kailee, then moved to the next girl. “Clothes are probably fine, but readers and money – if you have money – should be watched carefully. If you were permanent settlers, I’d tell you to assign guards to your supplies. Quite a few people are desperate down there.”
Kailee finally managed to fill her bag, then – as an afterthought – she took the credit coin and concealed it in her pocket. As far as she knew, none of the other girls knew she had it and she had no intention of telling them. Nothing had been stolen, apart from pieces of underwear, but she didn't know how far she could trust them. Down on the surface, it would be a great deal easier to get away with stealing something.
Outside, she saw the boys with their own bags. They all seemed more excited than Kailee felt, but then they’d spent weeks learning about the planet. Some of them even viewed the whole affair as a great adventure. Kailee was much less sure; the more she learned about the planet, the more she wished that the whole trip was already over. She didn't want to spend the rest of her life working on a farm or churning out babies or whatever other jobs there were for women on the surface.
She started as another dull rumble echoed through the ship, followed by a thump that made two of the girls jump. Janet smiled at them, then condescended to explain; the giant starship had just docked at the orbital station. It was, rather unimaginatively, called Orbit Station.
“There’s at least one such station in orbit around every stage-one colony world,” Janet said. “Or at least there should be. Some planets have problems paying for the station or simply choose not to have one, for one reason or another. There should also be a complete network of satellites in orbit too, but Meridian is short on them. The planet’s budget wouldn't cover the satellites and additional heavy-lift shuttles.”
Abdul lifted a hand. He was a dark-skinned youth from Istanbul-Cit; Kailee didn't know him that well, apart from the few times they’d played board games in the cabin. In some ways, he reminded her of Gary, who seemed reluctant to ever look a girl in the eye. But
they were very different in other ways.
“What happened when someone is referring to several stations?” He asked. “Like the station here and the station in the next system over?”
Janet smiled. “They’d just call the station Meridian Station,” she said, simply. “It's actually quite simple.”
She clapped her hands together before anyone else could ask a silly question. “We’re booked into the first set of shuttles down to the surface,” she said. “The precise shuttle has yet to be determined, but we will be moving to the station as soon as the airlocks are mated and opened. Take a moment to make sure that you have everything with you. Once we’re on the station, we may have to wait again.”
Kailee sighed. The girls nipped back to their compartment and checked, one final time, for anything left behind, but saw nothing. Kailee inspected her bed – Aunt Lillian had thrown a fit every time she didn't make the bed in the morning before school – and then returned to the main compartment. She was just in time to see Darrin and Barry shoved into the compartment, both wearing the dingy overalls they’d been given after the second day of cleaning the decks. Both of them smelt thoroughly unpleasant.
She concealed her amusement with an effort. Barry had been in an increasingly foul mood as he’d learned, very slowly, that Yates hadn't been joking about forcing them to work. Kailee had heard, from a crewman who had tried to chat her up, that Yates had told them that they would also have to cover the wages of whatever crewman was assigned to watch them, if they couldn't be trusted to stay where they were and actually work. It was impossible to be sure, but she was fairly certain that they’d still be in debt by the time they reached the planet. Who knew what would happen then?
“We will be leaving in five minutes,” Yates said. “I would suggest” – he eyed Barry and Darrin coldly – “that you got changed, then packed. And that you hurried.”
***
Darrin flushed. His entire body was aching after weeks of scrubbing the decks, one after the other. He’d never really comprehended just how large the starship actually was, or just how many decks it actually had, not until he'd scrubbed most of them until they were clean and shining. Yates had left them alone for the first two days, then – after Barry had convinced Darrin to sneak off to the games room – told them that they would also have to pay the wages of the crewmen who supervised them. Darrin couldn't even begin to do the maths, but if Fitz’s grumbles about endless debt were accurate, they would still be in debt if they worked for years.
“There's no such thing as a free lunch,” Yates had said, when he’d protested. “Why should the Captain have to pay for the crewman’s wages?”
He scrambled into the compartment and tore off the overalls, dumping them into the laundry basket, then removed the shipsuit with a sigh of relief. His normal clothes were lying where he'd left them, so he pulled them on and then started to frantically pack his bag. At least the other boys hadn't messed around with his stuff, not after Barry had made it clear that anyone who did would be eating through a straw for the rest of the week. The girls might have tried to pressure them, but what was the possibility of sexual favours compared to the certainty of violence?
“Hurry up in there,” Yates bellowed. “You have two minutes left.”
Gary swore and finished packing, then moved past Barry and out into the main compartment. He felt dirty; he wanted – needed – a shower, but there was no time. Besides, he knew from bitter experience that the smell of cleaning fluid would remain with him for days to come, no matter what he did. He had no idea what had marred the starship’s decks, but it was awfully difficult to remove.
“Good,” Yates said, crossly. He’d watched them for the last few days, his eyes cold and disapproving. “All of you, follow me.”
Darrin and Barry lagged behind as they walked out the cabin and down towards the main airlocks. The whole compartment had been sealed while the ship was in transit, but now it was open and a pair of officers were guarding the hatch. They exchanged a few words with Yates, then permitted him to lead his charges through the airlock and out into the station. It was surprisingly simple, compared to Earth’s exaggerated security precautions. But anyone who managed to stow away on a colonist-carrier would simply be added to the indents and put to work at the far end.
The station seemed crude, yet fully functional. Great trolley-loads of goods and supplies moved through the passageways, supervised by crewmen and women wearing very light clothes. The station was cold, but they were sweating like animals. Darrin didn't understand it until he realised that they were working frantically to unload the ship. The longer it stayed in orbit, the more money its owners would be losing. They stepped through a set of airlocks, had a brief pause in front of another airlock, then stepped through into a stairwell that led down into the bowels of the station.
“Through the airlock,” Yates instructed. He waited at the hatch, counting heads. “Take a seat and strap yourself down.”
Darrin stopped and stared as he stepped into the shuttle. It was nothing like the aircar; it was larger, with nearly a hundred seats lined up in the passenger compartment. There seemed to be no way to step into the cockpit, at least as far as he could tell. He hastened towards a window seat and looked outside. There was nothing, but the inky darkness of space – and the glimmer of a thousand stars.
“All passengers are ordered to make sure that they are secured to their seats,” a voice said, coldly. “Meridian Development Consortium takes no responsibility for injury or death caused by stupidity. You have been warned.”
Yates moved from seat to seat, checking the straps and altering them where necessary. Darrin scowled inwardly as Yates corrected his straps, then ordered Barry to move to the other side of the shuttle. Janet sat down next to Darrin a moment later, without saying a word. Darrin wasn't sure if he should be relieved or fearful. There was something about Janet that bothered him, a coldness that suggested she would think nothing of doing him great harm, if she decided it had to be done. But she'd barely said anything to any of the boys.
A dull thump ran through the shuttle, then there was a faint sense of acceleration as the shuttle turned and headed towards the planet. Darrin caught a glimpse of a blue-green orb, hanging in the sky, then all he could see were moving stars. Moments later, the shuttle jerked violently as it entered the planet’s atmosphere and dropped down towards the ground. Darrin gritted his teeth as the shaking grew worse, but refused to take his eyes away from the viewport. His head spun as the planet moved from being an orb to something vast, then they were over the ocean and heading downwards. Gary let out a yelp as the shuttle shook again and again, then stabilised. Darrin tried his best to ignore the nerd.
Slowly, the main continent came into view. He’d seen holographic images of forests and rivers in presentations at school, but he’d never seen real trees, let alone a forest. Now ... it was strange to see something other than endless dark passageways, broken only by entertainment complexes and gang hideouts. He felt his head spin again as he caught sight of boats on the water’s surface. On Earth, no one in their right mind would sail on the oceans.
“That’s Sabre City to the north,” Yates said. In the distance, Darrin could see smoke rising up to the sky. “The river flowing down to the sea is the Jordan. It's actually how most people move around the continent, as it links into a natural network of rivers boats can navigate fairly easily. We will travel on one of those boats later.”
Darrin sucked in his breath as the shuttle rocked again, then headed towards the spaceport so it could land. The flight had been thoroughly unnerving. No wonder Earth had built the orbital towers as quickly as possible.
Five minutes later, they were down on the ground.
Chapter Sixteen
This was linked to the Empire’s huge level of intrusion into the private lives of its citizens. They were nagged constantly, all for their own good (and for the maintenance of the power structure). Children were not taught to think logically about the bure
aucratic intrusion because this would have raised uncomfortable questions about the sanity of the whole system. For example, why was baby food strictly rationed and yet there was no attempt to discourage couples from having more than one child?
- Professor Leo Caesius. Education and the Decline and Fall of the Galactic Empire.
Austin Livingston couldn't help a flicker of excitement as he watched the shuttle come to a hover over the spaceport, then slowly lower itself down to the tarmac. He’d been excited ever since he’d been told that he would be serving as native guide to twelve students from Earth. The chance to show people round Sabre City – and the entire settled region of the planet – wasn't one that came very often. Most immigrants tended to make their way to their settlements at once, then learn more about the planet later.
He grinned, nervously, as the shuttle came to a halt. These were teenagers from Earth, the legendary homeworld of the human race! What would they be like? He’d seen a handful of images of the planet while he’d been in the schoolroom, but nothing really important or detailed. His father had left Earth as a child and barely remembered it; Grandfather Rupert muttered curses and spat every time someone asked him about his past. But then, Grandfather had been an indent, exiled for a minor crime. It was understandable that he would be a little bitter about the world that had kicked him out.
“Relax, son,” the spaceport manager told him. “You don't want to seem too eager.”
Austin smiled. The spaceport was only fully staffed when a starship entered orbit; at all other times there was just a skeleton crew, including a pair of shuttle pilots. Austin had actually spent two months working at the spaceport, back when he’d been half-considering trying to sign up for a hitch in outer space, but he’d discovered that it wasn't as fun as working on the farm or patrolling in the bush. Indeed, he'd been told that if he did well with the newcomers from Earth, his application to become a Bush Ranger would be fast-tracked. He’d still have to complete his apprenticeship, but he knew he could do that.
The Empire's Corps: Book 07 - Reality Check Page 14