I simply pulled him in and embraced him. “Will that suffice as an answer? I am so glad to see you here as well!”
“I have orders of a permanent transfer to the Olafson Gang, I am deeply pleased to say.”
Harris finally stopped the greeting orgy and said, “If we let them, we going to be here until next week, so please everyone, attention!”
It took us a little longer than usual, but we managed to get in attention. Once more, shoulder to shoulder with my friends. I knew then I was the richest man in the universe.
The captain said, “There is unfinished business, and first and foremost, I hereby close the chapter on the Reagan Trophy.”
A lieutenant next to him held up the large metal cup.
Harris pointed at it. “The Olafson Gang has won the competition officially for the Devastator. They were instrumental in uncovering a great conspiracy. Even after they witnessed the apparent demise of their leader and friend, the team performed far and beyond any expectations and brought great honor upon the ship and themselves and made me proud to have such individuals serving with me in this Fleet of ours.”
I whispered to Har-Hi next to me, “You won the Challenge?”
He nodded and said from the side of his mouth, “I thought you would have wanted it!”
I doubt I could have felt more blessed and proud of my friends then at that moment. “Yes, Har-Hi, I would have wanted it.”
The captain added the Reagan Trophy ribbon to our displays and stepped back.
Now the admiral said, “There are still eight weeks till you graduate, but the testing and the school education ends today. There is plenty of education and learning ahead of you, of course, but school is out! You are hereby dismissed from Midshipman Country and allowed to move to the Officers’ Deck and you are as of today acting ensigns until your ranks are confirmed at Graduation Day!”
That caused the cheer that went through the crowd, and I felt a big worry dissolve. I had made it; I wasn’t a midshipman anymore. I had a real rank and was an officer.
The admiral motioned everyone to settle down. “There is more official business before I will dismiss you on three days of R&R.”
He nodded to the captain, who called us into attention again and said with a solemn tone, “Some of you might find it strange or undue what I am about to do. Some of you might think I do this so often it loses meaning, but I am here as directly requested by the President of the United Stars of the Galaxies and the assembly, who were direct witnesses of the events in Hermann’s System after the de-facto declaration of war of a group of pirates. The Assembly saw the actions of Ensign Eric, and I was asked to decorate this young man on their behalf, for showing great courage beyond the call of duty, to represent and stand true to the values of Union and Fleet, even in the face of great adversity. To preserve and protect many lives through his direct action and indirect through his commands, he is hereby presented with the Great Medal of Merit of the Union Assembly.”
He pinned a physical medal to my uniform and then motioned me to say something, and I said, “I am deeply honored by this, but it should go to all the defenders of Checkpoint 98. To the fallen Wolfcraft pilots, to the dead and wounded civilians and to the Holdian Commander, whose name I actually never knew.”
Stahl’s face did not change as he said, “I give you my word, not one will be forgotten.”
The move from Midshipman Country to the Officers’ Deck was both a milestone in all our careers and a bittersweet moment. We no longer would stay in a shared dorm but had our own rooms. In most ships, the junior officers would still share accommodations with one or two others, but the Devi had plenty of room and everyone got their own.
We all went to the Village, as the central recreation area of the Devastator was called. There we crowded one of the street cafes and I had to tell my friends everything that happened to me and I did, except for the part I could not.
In turn, they told me about everything that happened to them. They told me about the events on Newport, and that Wintsun was a traitor, and now a wanted criminal, who somehow managed to escape Newport and that it was him who shot Narth in the Crawler Cat while I was unconscious.
Narth told me that he teleported an Antimatter bomb past the outer orbit of Newport and that this had serious consequences to his Psionic powers and health. He was still recuperating and that it would take a long time before he would return to his old levels. He could have been restored right away, but that would have meant integrating his essence into the body of Narth and he would have lost his individuality, and that was a price he was not willing to pay.
Of course, the recent events at Checkpoint 96 were the main topic everyone around us was talking about. Someone in the café turned on a field screen, and the most popular news show on GalNet came on Union Clarion. Images and footage of the attack were shown once again. I could not help but turn and watch.
The newscaster’s voice was heard over a visual of the Assembly in session, and it said, “In a follow-up session to Assembly resolution 59 of the fifth October 5016 regarding the events in Union System Herman’s Star and the Battle of Outpost 96. A proposal to disregard the Free Space treaty and risk war with the signees of said treaty was narrowly defeated in a Union Citizen vote this morning. A surprising forty-eight percent of the citizens voted for decisive military action, while fifty-two percent voted for a tempered approach. This high percentage should send a clear message to the assembly and our representatives that the citizens of the Union are fed up with the ongoing pirate problems.”
The image changed, and a reporter stood before SII Needle One at Omni Planet, which was the Corporate Center of SII and interviewed a high-level executive of the Giga Corporation. All this information came across the screen in a ticker band.
The executive said, “On behalf of SII GalNet, and as the provider of the Military GalCom network, we would like to send this message to the individual Red Dragon and the Sinister Alliance. We have sent destruct codes to your terminal. Furthermore, since you have chosen to use GalNet services without paying for the call, SII Communications will take steps to collect the forty-five credits owed.”
An environmental specialist at the next table commented on that, saying, “Now his goose is cooked. The Red Dragon pissed off the wrong folks.”
Somehow, I didn’t like that. I wanted the Union Fleet to catch the criminal, and I wanted him to be brought to justice. Dragged in chains before a Union court and hanged and not killed by freelancing corporate assassins.
Captain Harris and the admiral came and pulled chairs up; both were out of uniform, and I had to repeat the story of my involuntary journey again. It wasn’t easy for me to lie to my friends and Captain Harris, but I could not tell them about the involvement of the Sojonites, of course, and made up a story how I escaped. Of course, Stahl knew the entire story, and I was certain I noticed a blinked approval from his eyes.
Much later that day, we found ourselves at the same spot underneath a big tree close to the lake that was in the center of the village.
Once again, we wore bathing suits, except of course for Narth, Krabbel, and Har-Hi. We had talked a lot and now we simply enjoyed being reunited and pushed the events of the past behind us.
I looked to Narth and said, “Why is it I can’t really hear you talk inside my head as we used to? I can still feel your presence and know how you feel no matter where I am, but I can’t actually hear your words inside anymore.”
He had folded his legs, just like Wetmouth often did, and floated a few inches of the surface of the grass. His hooded head turned, and his glowing eyes had lost much of their intensity. “You are blocked in the most efficient way from all external thoughts, even from me, your Hugavh sharer.”
“I don’t want to be blocked from you!”
“Then we must start your psionic training. Only you can allow access through that shield and to allow only one and not all access is quite difficult to learn, but I am confident you will learn this in five to
six of your decades. You are, after all, quite intelligent for a human.”
I boxed him in the side. “Only you can insult me and make me feel I just got a compliment. There is no faster way? I mean, in fifty years, I might be retired from the Fleet.”
Narth boxed me back and said, “No, Eric, my friend. If I wanted to insult you, I would say thickheaded Neo-Viking. This would be a proper insult if I understood the instructions of the Narth who spends much time with Neo-Vikings now, correctly. I personally do not understand, as I have not observed that you have a thicker head than other comparable humans.”
Har-Hi chuckled. “Human metaphors can be a tricky thing to understand indeed.”
The three days of rest and recreation were over. While I would not have complained about more, I was ready to go back on regular duty on the Devi without any particular huge responsibilities or associated problems.
However, we were called to the captain’s ready room, instead of receiving new duty assignments and shifts.
He was waiting for us, the Reagan Trophy prominently displayed on his desk. He asked us to forgo any formal behavior and to sit down. Ten Vari-From chairs had already been placed in a semi-circle.
He began right after we all found a seat. “Three days may not be enough but this is the Navy, and the Devi isn’t a cruise ship. There are still close to eight weeks before your final year is over and you officially graduate and get your commissions and a well-deserved leave of absence before you are dispersed to you new assignments and duty posts. As you know, we are at the fringes of Union space and recent events have made it clear that we must pay more attention to this area.”
A three-dimensional projection of a tactical sector map appeared between him and us. Checkpoint 96 was flashing, and a tiny symbol depicted the Devastator. He then reached inside the projection and pointed at a distant, separate star system, and the projection focused on it. “This is Richter System; it has a relative new Class B Fleet base on planet Richter 4. There is an automated long-range sensor station on Richter 8 and the latest survey reports that there are possible ruins of a tech level one civilization on Richter 5. As you can see, Richter Base lies at the outer fringes of the Sagittarius arm and the 2500 light year void to the Orion arm. Technically, the extension of the Sagittarius Arm in that area is Free Space as well, but due to the sparse star population in this area, there is virtually no space traffic and the three closest star systems on Free Space side, as you can see here, are almost eighty light years away and contain no habitable planets.”
He pointed out the stars he was talking about.
“The reason Free Space extends into this area in the first place is this planetary system, inhabited by a Tec level three civilization, the Bitllors. They are signers of the treaty and simply declared all this empty space and those three systems their empire, and no one objected. As you can see, their main world is 120 light years from Richter.”
Har-Hi said, “Aren’t they still using laser push sails and Ion motors? It takes them almost a month to accelerate to Threshold speed.”
Harris nodded. “Yes, and it takes them the same time to decelerate at the destination.” He looked up at Har-Hi. “I know what you want to ask. Why put a Class B Starbase there if an outpost would have been more than enough to keep an eye on things there?”
Now it was Har-Hi who nodded. “That was what I was wondering about, sir. A Class B is usually home to an entire battlegroup or even a fleet.”
The captain acknowledged Har-Hi with a smile. “Back when the decision was made to build a base there, it was to have been a supply station at the edge of the big gap. Also, to provide us with a back door into the Nosirrah Conglomerate, as a war with them was at that time very likely. If fleets could be moved across the gap at this point, we would have been able to attack from two sides and through the proverbial back door, reaching Nosirrah main worlds without having to fight through a large number of well-defended systems at the other end, where their territory reached Union Space.”
Now it was Mao who scratched his head. “Sir, that was quite a while ago, was it not, and the Nosirrah joined the Union, and so did the Shail, who were the original reason for those initial hostilities.”
Harris sighed. “This is true, but our wonderful big Navy is also a big bureaucracy. The construction of two large Class B stations was planned almost 750 years ago. One here at Richter and one across the gap at Lyon Star. As the war didn’t come, the project importance was reduced from high to very low, but it was not canceled. Construction orders were given by the Fleet Asset Bureau twelve years ago, and now we got two new big bases that are more or less obsolete. However, since they are there, regulations also require them to be staffed and maintained by a crew of six hundred enlisted and twenty-five officers. Richter Station is ten officers short of that required compliment. The Personnel Allocation Office at Fleet Command will dispatch ten officers in six to eight weeks. Since you are officers and dismissed from school, we thought it would be a nice quiet duty assignment for you before your actual career starts.”
After the briefing, Harris held me back and handed me a sealed order chip. “Ensign Olafson, keep this order chip sealed and do not open it unless you feel or observe anything unusual.”
I took the chip and said, “Sir, would there be a chance that I observe something unusual?”
“You will be very close to Free Space and the station sees little traffic, so keep your eyes open.”
I knew this was all I would get as an answer.
Six hours later, we found ourselves on a long-range shuttle flight to Richter Base.
Chapter 2: Richter Base
“Duty on a Class B Fleet Base sounds like a nice posting for a few weeks!” said Hans, leaning back as we sat in the Long Range Shuttle on our way to Richter System and he added, “Class B is huge and designed to be home to serve an entire Battlegroup. There will be shops, first class recreation and lots of restaurants and they will have attractions too!”
Wetmouth, who sat to my left and much closer than she had ever done before, looked up from her ever-present Archimedes III science scan enabled PDD and said, “As the captain said, it is a new base, it has an attached base personnel housing complex called Richter Village and, according to the Fisher Index, rated 9.9.”
Cirruit, who appeared to be napping, raised his shiny chrome metal head and asked with a sleepy voice, “What is the Fisher Index?”
She answered, “A fleet approved publication listing every fleet installation with detailed information like what businesses are available, recreation facilities, housing quality and prices and so forth. It is intended for civilians who decide to move to such facilities or are sent there by their companies.”
Cirruit leaned over and looked at the PDD. “I never heard of the Fischer Index. Does it list the shops and souvenir dealers and all that?”
She smiled as I saw by her eyes and said, “You are more addicted to shopping than a bunch of teenage girls, and yes, it does.”
He spread his arms. “What can I do? This is how Mother Machine made me.”
Elfi, who was watching something on GalNet said, “What kind of planet is Richter 4?”
Narth and Wetty almost answered simultaneously, Narth was a little faster, as he didn’t have to consult a PDD but he then said, “My memorized data might not be as accurate or current as your PDD, Ensign Wetmouth, so please continue.”
“You can call me Wetty, like all the others do, Narth.”
He cocked his shrouded head as he always did when he contemplated something and it made me think that he was starting to have individual habits. “Ah yes, the practice to address friends with nicknames is a common one among humans. I am, however, still not certain when such a nickname is used as a sign of affection among friends or when it is used as an insult to those one dislikes. Furthermore, one needs explicit permission from a fellow officer to be addressed in such fashion since we all advanced to this state. Finally, I have yet to understand how a nickname is gen
erated. Some nicknames appear to be a short version of a name, and then there are those that have no bearing on the name. Is there a formula or an equation you use?”
I almost laughed out loud as Wetmouth cocked her head. “What an interesting question! No, we do not use an equation to come to a nickname. Nicknames are generated by the combination of many factors. I will attempt to make a list of factors by analyzing nicknames and see if it could be expressed in a socio-humanistic formula of some kind.”
Narth slightly bowed. “Such an endeavor would be very much appreciated. My previous attempts in addressing others with nicknames were not successful.”
Har-Hi turned his head and actually had a smile on his usually grim face, as it was imperative for a Dai warrior to always look that way. “I should not ask, but I am actually dying, to use a human phrase, to hear of one such incident. Who did you address with a nickname and what happened?”
I actually felt something like a feeling of embarrassment from Narth as he said, “I wanted to express my respect to Admiral Stahl, as I heard others call him the Eternal Soldier, but since nothing is eternal, especially not in the mono-directional linear time model you humans use, I called him, Temporal Wrong Designated Person Who Isn’t Actually a Soldier but an Admiral.”
I could barely contain my laughter. “That’s sure a mouthful for a nickname. What did he say?”
Narth answered, “He sternly insisted that I would address him properly by name and rank.”
It was Mao’s fault. He started to giggle first, and then we all laughed.
Elfi actually hugged Narth and said, “No worries, I am sure he understood the sentiment and to make sure you know, you can call me Elfi.”
Finally, Wetmouth managed to answer the original question and said, “Richter 4 is a Type Nine Rock core planet with a thin Carbon dioxide atmosphere and temperatures in the range of minus fifty and plus ten on the C scale. The planet experiences strong sand and dust storms that can last for a month. There is no open surface water and no reported native life.”
Eric Olafson Series Boxed Set: Books 1 - 7 Page 73