by Ryk Brown
Cameron paused a moment, examining the faces of the volunteers before continuing. “Your training shall be broken into four modules, the first one being basic ship’s procedures, nomenclature, and safety protocols. This training will be conducted in the classrooms on this base. In module two, you will become acclimated with the areas of the ship in which you will serve, as well as the areas in which you will live while under way. As both the Aurora and the Celestia are no longer FTL ships, their accommodations and facilities are being converted from long-term into short-term support environments, as the majority of our missions will last hours or days, rather than weeks or months. This means that the usual amenities and distractions that one might find available to them during off-duty hours will no longer be available. Unfortunately, these sacrifices are necessary to enable us to install better, more effective weapons and defensive systems on board. The third module of your training shall consist of drills and simulations, of every type and situation conceivable. This will be the most difficult part of your training, and will last the longest. In order to be effective in battle, your actions must be automatic… accurate and without forethought. You must be able to follow orders without question. More importantly, you must be able to take the initiative and solve problems on your own, in the absence of command personnel.”
Cameron paused again. “The fourth and final module will be the most important module of all… damage control training. When the call goes out for damage control parties in your section, you have to know what to do, as not only will your lives depend on it, but so shall the lives of the rest of the crew.”
Cameron looked at them again to emphasize her point. “Make no mistake about it. The ships on which you have volunteered to serve will be going in harm’s way… repeatedly. Many of us will die. In war, that is a foregone conclusion, one that cannot be escaped. But living or dying is not what any of you should care about at this point. All you should care about is doing your jobs to the best of your ability. That is how you survive in combat. Do your jobs, and most of us will survive this conflict. Then you will go home to your loved ones and tell them stories about your adventures, and about the brave crewmates who did not survive.”
Cameron cleared her throat as she let her words sink in. “To my left is my executive officer, Commander Kovacic. He is second-in-command of the Celestia as well as the coordinator of your training program. To my right is Master Chief Montrose, the Celestia’s chief of the boat. You will answer to them, as if answering to me.”
Cameron paused again, taking one last look at the faces gathered before turning the podium over to her XO. She noticed Nathan standing in the doorway to the left of the podium, smiling. “And now I’ll turn you over to the XO and the COB to pass out your assignments and get your training under way.” Cameron turned to Commander Kovacic. “Commander?”
“Thank you, sir,” Commander Kovacic said, stepping up to the podium.
Cameron stepped down and moved off to the left, toward Nathan, who was still standing at the doorway with his usual goofy smile that, he thought, was charming.
“Nice speech,” Nathan said as she approached.
“Thanks, but I plagiarized a lot of it from the European EDF Academy’s CO… from my first day there.”
“I thought it had a familiar tone. Sounded a lot like the one I heard on my first day.”
“Where’s your shadow?” Cameron asked as they started down the corridor.
“He went with Naralena and Jess.”
“To the Tau Ceti System?”
“Yup.”
“I can see Weatherly, but Naralena?”
“I guess Jessica’s Jung just wasn’t cutting it,” Nathan explained. “Dumar decided they would have a better chance if Naralena went along and did the talking. The sergeant went along as a bodyguard.”
Cameron noticed he was still smiling as they headed down the corridor. “So, I gather by that goofy look on your face that Abby accepted the position?”
“Was there every any doubt?” Nathan asked.
“Actually, yes,” Cameron said. “I don’t know that I would be willing to come back. Not after all that happened, and not after being separated from her family for so long.”
“Exactly why I made sure that she wouldn’t be separated from them any more than she already is at her current job.”
* * *
Jessica stepped off the train and onto the platform. The underground station appeared much like the ones she had seen in many of the larger cities on Earth. Electronic signs displayed arrival and departure information. Hordes of travelers wound their way through crowds of people waiting for trains.
Being a core world, and the second one to be colonized by Earth back before the bio-digital plague, Kohara had once been a thriving, fully industrialized society. It had also been one of the few core worlds to rival the Earth in both its population and level of technological development. Based on what they had seen thus far, if the capital city was representative of the entire planet, then Kohara had recovered from the plague quite nicely. She had to wonder how much the Jung had to do with the Tau Ceti system’s recovery.
The purpose of her mission was to determine just that. For if the Jung had been the cause of the system’s impressive recovery, then its people might not approve of outsiders coming in and wiping their system clean of Jung influence. They needed to know how the Cetians truly felt about the Jung. Did they see them as enslavers, or saviors?
At this moment, the people of Kohara did not appear to be enslaved. Then again, many worlds quickly adapt to changes in political control. For the most part, their lives go on as usual, for the destruction of assets is usually of little benefit to the invading party. However, they had already seen that the Jung were often willing to sacrifice such assets in order to send a clear message.
If the people of Tau Ceti preferred to be part of the Jung Empire, then the Alliance might be better served to simply destroy the Jung’s space forces in the Tau Ceti system. After all, the primary goal of the Alliance was not to liberate the core, but to protect it, and the Jung’s ground forces were no threat to any members of the Alliance, as long as they had no way out of the system. If indeed these people did not want to be liberated from the Jung, the Alliance had neither the interest nor the resources to do so. They simply wanted the Jung ships removed from the system, for their proximity to Sol constituted a grave threat to the people of Earth.
Naralena stepped up next to Jessica and started reading the signs. “That way,” she said in Jung, pointing toward a wide escalator that led up to the next level. “That will take us to street level.”
Jessica had to take a moment to translate Naralena’s words. As much as they had practiced the Jung language over the past few weeks, she still was not very proficient. The Cetian language was a different story. It was a strange mix of Spanish and French, both of which Jessica had studied at the EDF Academy’s language institute. She’d even had an opportunity to study the Cetian language during her last year at the Academy, a full decade after the first real intelligence from Kohara had reached Earth. Fortunately, despite the fact that the Jung had controlled the Tau Ceti for nearly fifty years, and Jung was considered the official language of the planet, most people still spoke their native language on a daily basis. With any luck, Jessica would be seen as just another one of the millions of Cetians who couldn’t quite grasp all the subtle nuances of the Jung language.
After pressing their way through the crowd and riding the escalator up what felt like several floors, they found themselves following the crowd as they spilled out onto the streets of Cetia. As the crowd dispersed, they found themselves pushed out into a wide courtyard, surrounded on all sides by tall buildings of sparkling glass. They looked upward, marveling at the structures that surrounded them. Dozens of pedestrian and transit runs, both enclosed and open, spanned the open air between buildings. Utility vehicles of all shapes and sizes floated along overhead in orderly fashion, many of them appearing to be unman
ned. This world was at least a hundred years ahead of Earth… At least their civilization was.
“It’s rather overpowering the first time you see it, isn’t it?” a young man said in Jung.
“Indeed it is,” Naralena replied, her Cetian-Jung accent near perfect.
“First time in Cetia?”
“Yes. How did you know?” Naralena wondered.
The man smiled. “Your eyes. Everyone who comes here for the first time ends up standing here, eyes wide, staring at all that is above them.”
“We do not have this where we live,” Naralena replied.
Jessica wondered why Naralena was allowing herself to get sucked into a conversation with a local who could very well be Jung.
“And where is that?” the man asked politely.
“The far side of the lake. I am from Elsenor, and she is from Palidess.”
“I have been to Elsenor,” the man said. “With my parents, when I was but a child. The water is much warmer there.”
“We get more sunlight and less wind than you do here.”
“Indeed you do,” the man agreed, checking his watch. “The hour is late, and I have a train to catch. Enjoy your stay in Cetia.”
“Thank you, we shall,” Naralena replied as the man turned and departed.
Jessica watched the man until he disappeared into the entrance for the underground station they had just departed. “Why did you talk to that guy for so long?”
“I just wanted to see how my Jung would hold up,” Naralena explained, surprised by Jessica’s concern. “Why?”
“Just, don’t be all chatty with everyone, alright? We don’t want to draw attention to ourselves.”
“Well, we already did so by looking up all wide-eyed at the buildings, didn’t we? I was just playing the role that he already perceived for us. If anything, I think that would dissuade any suspicion on his part.”
“Right.” Jessica looked around. “I think that’s a cafe over there. Let’s go get something to eat while we get the lay of the land.”
“Should we be spending what few credits we have on food?” Naralena asked as they walked across the courtyard toward the cafe.
“Perhaps not, but the first thing people do after a long train ride is eat. So if we’re playing the part of tourists, that’s the way to do it. Besides, we can always order something on the cheap.”
“Makes sense.”
“So what do you feel like?” Jessica asked.
“What kind of food do they eat here?” Naralena wondered.
“I have no idea,” Jessica said, “but at least we can be reasonably certain they don’t serve molo.”
* * *
“I really don’t know why you’re complaining,” Loki said as he finished checking the jump shuttle’s flight computer. “It’s only a temporary assignment.”
“Look where we’re sitting, Loki,” Josh exclaimed, gesturing at the shuttle’s cockpit. “Yesterday, we were flying the toughest combat ship around. Today, we’re flying a taxicab.”
“A jump taxicab,” Loki emphasized.
“Oh, well, that makes all the difference in the world, doesn’t it,” Josh retorted.
“Come on, Josh. It’s not that bad. We’ve passed all the maneuvers Prechitt threw at us. Now all we have to do is pass the written and we’re done. At least this way, we’ll have time to study.”
“You mean, I’ll have time to study,” Josh reminded. “You already know all that crap.”
“I meant we as in I’ll help you study.” Loki glanced at the status screens on his side of the console. “Reactor is online, mains and maneuvering show ready, nav and jump computers are coming up now.”
“This is going to be so boring.”
“Would you rather be doing cold-coast recon again?” Loki wondered, “Because that’s what everyone else is going to be doing for the next week.”
“Actually?” Josh stopped to think about the question. “No, I guess not. At least this gig will allow me to use a toilet instead of a relief tube.”
“Exactly.” Loki keyed his comm-set. “Karuzara Flight, Jumper Two Four, ready for roll out.”
“Jumper Two Four, Karuzara Flight, rolling you out now.”
“At least on Tanna there won’t be any of this auto-flight crap,” Josh realized. “I hate auto-flight.”
Loki watched out the forward and starboard windows as the shuttle backed away from the inside wall of the terminal area in the Karuzara asteroid base’s number four flight operations hangar. On either side he could see personnel shuttles, lined up in a perfect row. Ground crews moved about with practiced precision as they processed ships coming and going from the busy terminal. This was the main hub for all passenger traffic traveling between the Karuzara and Earth, and it was busy around the clock.
Loki called up the departure checklist on the middle display screen and began tapping items with his finger to mark them as checked and ready as the shuttle began to rotate to starboard.
“What are we going to do for food while we are sitting around waiting for Abby to need us?” Josh wondered as he ran down his own checklist.
“I’m sure there will be someplace to eat. Besides, the mess gave us a cold box full of stuff.”
Josh glanced up as their shuttle rolled into the transition airlock, coming to a stop only a meter away from the outer door. “At least the food here is better than on the Aurora.”
“Worse comes to worse, we can always jump back here if need be,” Loki reminded him. “It’s not like it takes that long.”
“Jumper Two Four, you’re in the lock. Cycling now,” the controller’s voice announced over the comm-sets.
“Two Four, in the lock and cycling,” Loki acknowledged. He reached up to the center console and began flipping switches. “Maneuvering is active, mains are on standby, nav and jump computers are ready.”
The lights in the transition airlock dimmed to match the lighting in the main cavern, just as the outer airlock doors began to part, revealing the massive inner cavern at the center of the Karuzara asteroid. Before them, the Aurora sat motionless, moored to the main dock. The cavern itself had been made even bigger during the asteroid’s month-long transition back to Earth. However, the Aurora still occupied nearly a third of its volume.
On the other side of the dock, Scout ships One and Two were also moored. Work crews fluttered about the exterior of the two ships.
“What are they doing to the Scout ships?” Josh wondered.
“They’re getting shields,” Loki told him.
“The real ones, or the crappy hull-huggers like we have?”
“The real ones,” Loki replied. “I heard some techs in the mess talking. Three-meter separation from their hulls, and articulating.”
“Lucky bastards.”
“Jumper Two Four, ready for departure,” Loki reported over the comm-set as the outer airlock doors reached their fully opened position.
“Copy Two Four,” the controller replied. “Taking you out now.”
The shuttle’s maneuvering thrusters shot a brief spurt of accelerated propellant out of their thrust ports as the artificial gravity in the transition airlock faded. The shuttle lifted gently off the deck and then began to move slowly forward, their velocity increasing with each spurt of the aft thrusters.
The shuttle moved out of the airlock and out into the massive central cavern. All around, work sleds flittered about, traveling in every direction as they moved workers, equipment, materials, and crawlers between the hangars in which they were loaded and the work sites which they were supporting.
“Damn,” Josh exclaimed. “I can see why they have us on auto-flight.” He looked at Loki. “Is it always like this?”
“I don’t really know,” Loki admitted. “I guess it’s because they’re trying to get as much fixed on the Aurora as possible before the next mission.”
“I miss Porto Santo already,” Josh sighed. “Warm sunshine, ocean air, beaches…”
“Hey, at least they�
�ll be fitting our ship with an auto-polarizing canopy,” Loki reminded him.
“That’s true,” Josh agreed. “It will be nice not to lose sight of the console whenever we jump.”
The shuttle began to accelerate quickly, flying up and over the majority of the smaller traffic as it made its way around the outer perimeter of the main cavern. A minute later, the ship dove downward and then rolled to the right, turning into the main tunnel that led to open space.
Once inside the main tunnel and away from the dizzying array of traffic, the shuttle accelerated further, reaching the last section in only a few minutes.
“Mains are coming up,” Loki announced. “Thirty seconds to open space.”
“Jumper Two Four, Karuzara Flight. Threshold in twenty seconds. Prepare for auto-flight release.”
Loki looked over at Josh, who was placing his hands on the controls as a precaution. “Flight, Two Four, ready for release.”
“Two Four, release in five. Good flight.”
Josh watched the status light as it turned from blue to green. “I’ve got her,” he announced as the Karuzara asteroid’s flight operations control center released the shuttle from auto-flight control.
“Karuzara Flight, Two Four has control. Good day,” Loki replied over the comms. “Steer one five seven, up twelve relative. Make speed of one nine zero, for the jump point,” he instructed Josh.
“One five seven, up twelve, one nine zero,” Josh replied.
“Loading jump series to Tanna,” Loki announced.
“On course and speed for jump,” Josh reported.
“Jump series loaded and ready. Activating jump-nav sequencer,” Loki continued. “Jump sequence in three……two……one……jumping.”
The windows on the cockpit of the ship, and the portholes in the passenger compartment, all turned opaque as the shuttle executed the first of thirty-two sequential jumps.
“Jump one, complete,” Loki reported. “Jump two in one twenty…”
“Loki, we talked about this,” Josh scolded. “You don’t have to announce every jump. I can see the jump status screen as well, you know.”