by Mark Wandrey
Chapter 8
Octember 22nd, 521 AE
Training Room, Chosen Headquarters, Steven's Pass
Minu breathed hard and tried to keep the pain from her mind as she slid through the forms, trying desperately to keep her attacker at bay. She only just managed to turn blow after blow aside before it made contact, but as a result the blocks hurt almost as bad as a full on hit would. A properly executed defensive block was nearly painless, a simple redirection of force that provided the possibility of counter attack. In her desperate defense, countering was not an option.
Finally a fist scored through her defenses, a solid blow against her chest that sent her sprawling. Minu tried to roll away but her attacker was on her in a second, a knee landing on the side of her neck with enough force to make her see stars. "Okay!" Minu cried out and the pressure fell away immediately. "Damn it, you trying to kill me?"
"You're going to kill yourself," Cherise said as she got to her feet. There was a thin sheen of sweat on her light black skin as she stood, breathing easily and offering a hand to Minu who took it and was pulled to her feet. It was her fourth fall of the sparing session and she was getting mad, losing her concentration. "You are not practicing between our bouts, and you are not working out regularly. Look at yourself; you are almost completely spent after a half hour."
Minu stooped over, hands on knees and tried to catch her breath. She was beaten, bruised, and pissed at the other girl’s comments. But they hurt because they were true. "I'm just so damned busy with the soldiers," she admitted.
"I heard the first drills went...less than optimally?"
"You can say that again." Cherise gave her a sideways look and Minu chuckled. "We're making progress, just slowly.”
"Are they bonding as a unit?"
Minu smiled and nodded. "Better than I hoped. You should see their uniforms. We went with those camouflage jump suits, the same design as our Chosen jumpsuits, but with the grey and blue multi-environment camo I found from Earth history. It looks really cool."
"Sounds like it."
"They are finally meshing as a fighting force, I'm very proud. I've seen groups in Dodge City during liberty, all partying together."
"Then why are you still putting in twenty hour days?"
Minu sighed and finally stood back up, bending over backwards to stretch her back and twisting her head to see how her neck was. There would be a good bruise but there seemed to be no lasting damage. The punch had landed almost dead center on her left breast through, and it was very tender. Good thing no one was interested in them anyway. "It takes some work to make an army"
"That much is obvious. You should have seen the panic you created on the finance board." Minu knew what her friend was talking about. She'd been informed a year ago that she needed to cease-and-desist with her weekly war games; they were costing a fortune in materials and scaring the hell out of the timid local farmers. She decreased them to twice monthly but still got regular grumbles from the bean counters. "I hear Christian is busy."
"He was put in charge of the scouts. Along with overseeing their training of joint operations with the soldiers, he's been using some of our techniques with a couple of scout teams. He says it's to make them all better able to deal with combat situations, but I think he's spoiling to prove that his Chosen scouts can do in small numbers what the soldiers require large units to accomplish."
"Sounds like he's more trouble than he's worth. Sorry you guys haven't worked out."
"Yeah, me too."
"Let's do some knife drills," Cherise said, “since you can't keep up hand to hand.” They practiced with rubber knives for a few minutes, but the effects of the beatings Cherise had administered over the first half of the workout left her too tired to give it one hundred percent so they broke off early. Later in the showers Cherise saw the growing bruise on Minu's breast and frowned. "I'm sorry; I didn't mean to hit you that hard."
"More my fault than yours," Minu said and tried not to look at the ugly red and brown spot. Very sexy. She saw how Cherise' eyes lingered on her body and felt a little thrill.
"You want to get together this weekend?"
"That would be fun," Minu said, surprised at her own answer. After she'd said it she realized she meant it. Why should she deny herself some pleasure just because of taboos from ages past?
"We could go from here to some lunch, the cafeteria has beans!"
Minu laughed and shook her head. "Much as I miss the gourmet fare of the Steven's Pass cafeteria, I have a meeting with Ted." She grabbed a towel and headed for the lockers.
"Oh, hey!"
"Yeah?"
"Happy birthday!"
Minu laughed. "It was yesterday."
"Yeah, well, you didn't answer my call, I tried. A girl doesn't turn eighteen every day, you know."
"It's just another year."
"You’re legally an adult now, can do anything you want!"
"We were legally adults three years ago."
"Good point." One tangible benefit of being Chosen is you were legally emancipated adults as soon as they pinned on the stars; since you could be as young as fourteen that was a big deal to many. Only adults could drink or own a vehicle. She'd bought her aerocar when only sixteen and had her first drink that same year. "Regardless, happy birthday, old girl."
"Who you calling old, you turn nineteen in a few weeks!"
Showered and in a clean uniform, Minu left the gym behind and took a jump tube up to the main floor. The mezzanine never failed to bring back painful memories of that day two years ago when she'd taken her science team and fought their desperate defense against the Rasa. The vendetta was a test none of them were ready to take, and the cost in blood was enormous. A crowd of young newly minted Chosen moved out of her way as she left the tube, a variety of different colored five star clusters on their sleeves. They instantly noted her three golden stars, then that she was a woman. She could hear them whispering between them wondering if she was who they thought she was. Minu's excitement by the number of women who'd made it through the second round of soldier trials (one hundred twenty-two) was sobered by the fact that the full Chosen trials only yielded two girls, even less than the three that made it through her own trials three years ago.
She left the group of fourteen and fifteen year old 'kids' behind and headed for the science branch hall. The repair work was long finished. All the weapons damage from the vendetta cleaned up, making it look like nothing had happened. The only evidence remaining was the central column in the mezzanine. The ceramic concrete column was scared by weapons fire, burns from beamcasters and even a few Rasa flechette darts embedded in it. The entire column had been encased in moliplas and a plaque embedded in the material. It read;
To all those, Chosen and civilians, who made the ultimate sacrifice to defend our world, our people, and our oath to our Concordia masters. On Julast 21st, 546 AE, in this hall, six Chosen held for six hours against overwhelming Rasa forces. In our darkest hour, the Chosen shall always shine.
Below the dedication were the names of all two hundred thirteen Chosen who died in the fighting. She'd stood here more than once, her fingers tracing the names one by one. Missing was Pipson Leaten. Though a casualty of the fighting, he was technically still alive. A flechette dart had ruined part of his brain and he would never regain consciousness. She made a note to visit him again soon in Tranquility. "We take care of our own," she said as she walked by the monument. The part with her being mentioned by name annoyed her the most. She'd argued against it and was ultimately overridden by the council.
The Steven's Pass facility had six wings, each housing a different branch of the service with one empty. Above the arch leading to each branch was inscribed Science, Command, Logistics, Training or Scout. No one had yet changed the later to Soldier. She wondered if it ever would. Turning down the science hall she passed the director’s office. As usual, there were a group of people sitting waiting to speak to the science branch director, Jasmine Osgood. Minu wa
s working for science when Jasmine had taken over from Bjorn Ganose. The very old, but brilliant scientist was forced into semi-retirement as revenge for his faithful defense of Minu's tactics and decisions. That was not a good time. Jasmine was the highest ranking female Chosen, two stars, and very ambitious. A good friend of First Jacob, Minu still believed she got the assignment because of that friendship. Unlike Bjorn, she was no scientist.
Near the end of the hall she paused at the door to her old lab. She'd spent a lot of happy hours there working with her team. Alijah Richards and Terry Drake, two young Chosen working in her team during that time, died in the vendetta. Mandi Bishop, a civilian who no longer worked for the Chosen, survived by fleeing the facility before the fighting started. Pip was of course no longer working. She sighed and moved on to the suite of labs at the end of the hall, tapping on the door before opening it.
Inside a dozen scientists and technicians were all bent over apparatus doing various tasks. A female civilian looked up and made a face. "We don't allow visitors in these labs..." She stepped in further and the three gold stars on her sleeve came into view. In a now time honored tradition she glanced at Minu's breasts, red hair, and the three stars once more before awareness dawned in her eyes. "Chosen Alma, I'm sorry ma'am."
"No problem," Minu said congenially, "you must be new. Can you tell Chosen Hurt that I am here?"
"You mean Dr. Hurt?"
"Of course." She nodded and left to get him. After decades of service Ted Hurt was elevated to honorary Chosen. Many didn't refer to him as Chosen, feeling it nothing more than a bone tossed to an old dog. During Minu's time in the science department she knew it was real work, dangerous and valuable work. He'd earned his status and she used his title every chance she got. She figured it was nothing more than his due. As Ted's distinguished frame came around the corner, his sharp eyes scanning the progress of a dozen projects. Minu smiled at the knowing way he appraised each project. He stopped and made a suggestion to one man then looked up and spotted Minu. Instantly he burst into a big leer. "Good grief," she moaned as he put on his lady killer grin. He never gave up, and probably never would. The old lech put the moves on her the first day he met her, and she'd only been sixteen.
"Minu darling," he said and leaned in to give her a peck on the cheek. She was always careful to remember and turn her head; his intent was a direct frontal assault. Unlike a lot of old men that played at flirting, she knew he meant it. Though in his seventies, Ted was still a vibrantly charismatic man with a strong build, square jaw, and a head of dark black hair shot with silver. He not only hinted at his lust for every attractive woman he met, he'd happily sleep with them all. If only half the stories she'd heard were true, he'd probably slept with every woman in Steven's Pass except herself and Cherise. And it wasn't for a lack of trying. "When are you going to go out to dinner with me?"
"When you become fifty years younger," she said without missing a beat.
He looked her up and down with a critical eye. "If I wasn't an atheist, I'd sell my soul to do just that." Minu smiled despite herself as his dimples came out. He really was a smooth one. "I'm thrilled you could make it, come back to the patio." He led her through the maze of desks, benches and cabinet apparatus to a doorway. What had once been a solid wall on the other side was converted to a large sliding moliplas doorway that opened like a garage door. Minu was the one that made the original opening when she blew out the wall to lead the Rasa soldiers attacking Steven's Pass into a trap. On the other side of the transparent door, extended a platform like a large balcony. Jasmine called the modification the Vehicle Research Platform, or VRP, Ted and his team just called it The Patio, and true to the title they often barbecued there on long nights. They'd gone so far as to string garden lights around the edge and add a few lawn chairs. Jasmine wasn't amused but Minu loved it. As the patio came into view, she saw something she loved even more. The problem was the state it was in.
"What have you done to my prototype?" she screamed
"Your prototype?" Ted demanded. "Funny, but I thought I'd been the one spending the last six months working on that beast."
"That beast is one of the biggest parts of what can bring my vision together."
"Your vision has been giving me nightmares." They stopped just inside the Patio where the fighter prototype was in a dozen pieces scattered all over the place. It didn't look burned or damaged, unlike the last time when Bjorn had gotten an idea and blown the prototype into junk, thereby setting the program back by months.
"So what did you do? Some of the parts aren't even here! It wasn't Bjorn again, was it?"
"Well, actually, yes." Minu put her hands on her narrow hips and rounded on him, but just then the whine of gravitic impellers came screaming through the Patio. Minu looked over her shoulder in time to see a flier come hovering into view on approach to landing. For a second she got excited, maybe somehow they had made a leap ahead. But as she turned she recognized one of the cargo transports of the type she'd used in her war games, down to the paint job and numbering.
The pilot brought it to a hover just off the end of the patio and lowered the side door. Aaron sat with his big frame wedged into the pilots’ seat, a huge grin on his square jawed face. "What are you doing?" she asked, having to yell to be heard over the scream of the impellers.
"Let’s go for a ride," Ted said into her ear, his lips almost touching hers, his voice rich and sultry.
The transport door closed and it climbed away from the buildings of Stevens Pass under smooth acceleration, much more powerful than she'd expected. "What's going on?" she asked Ted who shared the second seat line with her just behind Aaron.
"We gave up on the prototype and went another direction. Back to our roots, you could say."
"You retrofitted the transports?" Ted nodded his head. "Damn it Ted, I said I didn't want to go that way. The fighter needs to be uniquely ours."
"Sure, it's a good idea, but making it happen is just impossible right now. Unless you can magically pull a dozen more of those configurable factory modules out of your ass, the kind you used to make the targeting computers for the Shock Rifles?"
"No, I told you, I only scammed the one."
"Well, there you go. We end up using components forced into service for purposes they were not intended for, or spending millions on custom made stuff from aliens."
"And then the higher order species will figure out what we're up to." Ted shrugged and she sighed. "But why these clunky old transports?"
"Because they are clunky old transports." Minu gave him a dirty look and Ted held up his hands to hold off her wrath. "Who would look twice at these things? They have to be thousands of years old."
"Right, and falling apart."
"Not when we're done with them they won't be."
"Come up here," Aaron invited her and patted the copilot seat. Ted gestured for her and smiled. Minu grumbled but unbuckled to take the seat. She could tell right away the controls were different.
"This is a gunners station," she said and examined the controls. Even inactive she could recognize humanized targeting systems of Concordian design. Hand controls, viewfinders, weapon control computer and power management systems were all there.
"Right," Aaron agreed. He started to reach over to show her how it worked but Ted cut him off.
"Let’s stick to the plan," he said and Aaron nodded. "Take it through the modes, if you please."
"Okay," he agreed. "So, you wanted three craft rolled into one. First was the transport."
"Combat transport," she clarified, "and these things don't come close."
"Didn't come close," Ted corrected, "now be quiet and let him explain."
"Excuse me," she said and affected a hurt tone.
"So, combat transport," Aaron said. While they talked he'd been flying at high speed. She looked outside and realized they were skimming the canyon valley below Steven's Pass at near the speed of sound. The gravitic systems inside the craft held them smoothly in place, removi
ng all sensations of motion. "We beefed up the gravitic impellers inside and out. It can pull eleven Gs in any orientation."
"Including acceleration?" she asked.
"Yep," Aaron said. He pulled up slightly and his hand slid forward on the throttle. She felt the first sensation since they took off, a sudden shudder announced their passing through the sound barrier. Her mouth dropped open. "Yeah, we managed to make it supersonic."
"Wasn't very bloody easy, either," Ted admitted. “We couldn't rebuild the damn thing to the superstructure, so we realigned the aerodynamics with field generators.
“Force fields to create a new aerodynamic profile? I didn't know that was possible.” He just grinned when she looked at him over her shoulder.
Aaron spent a few moments concentrating on the controls, carefully threading their way down the snaking canyon. Minu got a few brief images of surprised fisherman and hikers along the river as they shot by at more than a thousand kilometers per hour. "We couldn't make it hypersonic, obviously, without reshaping the entire hull. It will manage mach six without overheating the fields."
"Damn," she hissed. “What happens if you’re supersonic and the fields fail?” Aaron and Ted just looked at each other than at her. She got the idea. It would be...bad.
A few moments later and he was throttling back. A tight bank around a bend in the canyon and the river was split by the hand of man, two concrete viaducts created an artificial island. Leavenworth came into view full of skyscrapers and neon signs. Sin City, to many Chosen. It was early afternoon and the city bustled with life, both on the ground and in the air. In the years since Minu had become Chosen, flying vehicles had gone from rare to commonplace and on to ubiquitous. Cheap and plentiful Concordia made imports, like most everything else in their lives.
Aaron worked the controls and Minu watched it all. He used a map to designate a set of coordinates then set it on automatic. The transport banked and came around, dropping below the speed of sound as it looped the long narrow artificial island, the river flowing by on either side. When they had come one hundred-eighty degrees from where they'd started, the transport dove towards the city and all its traffic.