by Nobilis Reed
I felt tears coming to my eyes. I didn’t want to cry, but I missed the familiar sounds of the station, the sounds and smells of people moving in the chambers around me. The academy felt empty and cold, no matter the air temperature. I swallowed hard, clamped my jaw shut, and lay down, wrapping myself in the sheet.
Shirley put a hand on my shoulder. “Feeling a little homesick?” She got up, retrieved a container from a cabinet near the bed, and pulled a tab on it as she handed it to me. Fragrant steam wafted from the open top. It smelled of milk and chocolate.
“More than a little. Am I ever going to see them again?”
“It’s possible. It happens. You might have an assignment that takes you back there, but I can’t make any promises.”
I sipped from the bottle and set it aside. “Have you ever gone back home?”
“Once. Things had changed. It wasn’t home anymore.” She patted my shoulder, then went back to her side of the circle.
“Will you just hold my hand? I feel alone.”
“Of course, Challers. I’m always here for you.”
I stretched out my hand and she took it gently in hers. She didn’t speak, didn’t touch more than just that. She wasn’t my mother, she’d never be my mother, but it did feel better just having her there. She threw the sheet over the both of us, and I closed my eyes.
After a time, I slept.
The melancholy stayed with me through the night, and into the morning. Shirley climbed to her feet and leaned down to offer me her hand. She pulled me up with surprising grace.
“You’re strong,” I said.
“It’s part of our regimen,” she said. “You’ll gain a lot of strength in the academy, too. Come on, we have Physicality before breakfast.”
For the morning routine, we met Masters and Valka in the gymnasium. We each had a workout routine created for us—a combination of stretching, resistance training, and something they called “partner movement.” This last part was something like a couple’s dance performed in slow motion with an emphasis on grace, fluidity, and harmony. After Masters and Shirley demonstrated, Valka and I tried it. It would have been easier with music. It also would have been easier if Valka could have kept a straight face. We kept breaking up giggling.
The whole time, I couldn’t help admiring her body. It was there, right in front of me, flexing and moving. Up close, her nipples stood out against her pale skin, clearly visible through the sheer black fabric of her uniform. Her stiff, curly pubic hair was similarly apparent. I tried to maintain my concentration and avoid an erection, but I could only manage somewhat.
After a while, we caught the gist of it and, at Masters’s instruction, we gradually sped up our movements. With sweat starting to soak into our uniforms, Shirley called a halt and told us to cool down with a walk around the gym.
Once we were a few steps away from our tutors, Valka turned to me. “How was your night?”
“It was rough,” I said. “Missed my bed back home.”
She nodded and made a small sound.
“You?” I asked.
“I slept pretty well, actually. That bed is a marvel, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. What do you think of Masters?” I tried not to let the feelings that still lurked in the pit of my stomach color my voice.
She shrugged, made a noncommittal sound, and leaned in and kissed my cheek. “Looking forward to Astronavigation class?”
I pulled her close and shuddered in anticipation. “I can’t tell you. I want to know everything. I want to know how the ships work, how those drives work, how far they can go and why. I want to crawl inside a ship and just look at the engines. I want to open the panels and see how the computers are wired up.”
Too soon, Shirley’s voice cut our moment short. “Hey, lovers! Come clean up. Breakfast in ten minutes.”
The showers off the gym were a collective system, a set of nozzles pointing into one waterproofed space. I expected the exercise to leave my libido at something of a lull. After all, back on the station, that was always the best way to work out my frustrations. Seeing Shirley and Valka stripped down, however, started getting me excited again. Valka noticed and smiled, blushing as I watched her wash her body. Too soon, she rinsed off and stepped into the warm air vent to blow herself dry.
“Are you going to be all right?” asked Shirley, coming up behind me as I had my turn under the vent.
“No, I’ll be fine,” I said. I was a little hard, but not enough to be painful. I stepped into the dressing area beyond and walked up behind Valka as she dressed. I put an arm around her belly and nuzzled her neck.
She laid a hand on my cheek, and then patted it gently. “Come on, I’m hungry.”
Chapter Six
Breakfast wasn’t quite the feast that the previous night’s dinner had been, but there was plenty of food available: eggs, yogurt, breads, and fruit. The four of us ate together, again, in a mostly empty mess hall.
Valka found a moment between bites to ask whether Shirley and Masters would be teaching the academic classes as well as Physicality.
“Yes and no,” she said. “There will be prepared material, like lectures and readings, but we’ll be there to answer questions and make sure you’re absorbing the information. It will be just the four of us in most of your classes.”
“Most?” I asked.
“You’re not the only cadets in the academy, as you’ve seen. Some of your classes may have other cadets, and their mentors. If another ship comes in with recruits, you could have more classmates for your entire run here.”
We finished breakfast and headed to the classrooms. Each one had desk space for eight students, arranged in an arc around a lectern. Above and behind the desks was an observation area where our mentors could keep track of our work. Waiting for us, at each desk, was a slab of dark gray plastic with our names glowing on the surface in orange letters above an orange outline of a hand. Each sat on a black pouch, clearly fitted to allow it to be carried over the shoulder.
I placed my hand where it was indicated. The handprint flared and disappeared, replaced by a standard tablet operations screen. A hologram flared up in the center of the room as we took our places behind our desks. The image portrayed an old woman, my grandmother’s age, dressed in a Scout’s white uniform.
“Welcome to Technology class, cadets,” said a recorded voice, synchronized with the hologram’s movements. “These are your new tablets. They contain all of your reference materials for your classes, basic simulators, and a link to the academy datastores. These will be your primary information tools throughout your careers as Scouts.”
I poked tentatively at the interface. It used the same basic protocols as the machines back on the station, but far more advanced and responsive.
Valka shook her head in open-mouthed wonder. She had the technical specifications readout for her machine displayed on the screen.
“Challers, do you see this? This thing has more processing power in it than all the machines on Stakroya combined!”
“Now if you’ll settle down,” said the hologram, “we’ll get down to today’s lessons concerning the efficient use and proper care of your new equipment.”
An hour and a half wasn’t enough to even scratch the surface of what our new toys could do. They had their own holographic projectors, as well as holographic and audio recording functions, and could interface with any piece of Scout equipment via line-of-sight infrared beacon.
That class ended, and after a short fresher break, the next one started. History hadn’t been taught on Stakroya Station, so this was entirely new material for me. The closest we had gotten were tales some of the older folks told around the banquet table during celebrations.
Here, we started with the founding of the Scout Service at the end of a time known as the “Planetary Era,” when all of humanity’s settlements were located in one system. The discovery of orgone drives scattered them to the stars. We saw how the basic geography of the known galaxy traced all the way back t
o that event.
No one was exactly sure where the first system was, though various experts had their theories on the subject. It had to have been in the high-density region between the Sagittarius Arm and the Perseus Arm of the galaxy, but there were dozens of stars in that area that could have been the origin star. Within fifty years, every star system in the area had been visited, if not colonized.
The area between this high-density region and the Perseus Arm came to be known as the Rimward Reach, and the area towards the Sagittarius Arm came to be known as the Coreward Reach. Between them was known as Old Stars. Each of these three bands of stars had an “upstream” and “downstream” section.
The main things most stations needed for long-term habitation in a colony were volatiles like water and hydrocarbons, and metals like iron and aluminum. Most star systems have at least some of these resources, but the stations that found them in fairly dense, easily harvested asteroid fields did better than those that had to scavenge over wider areas of space, so that became the standard practice.
After History, we returned to the gym for another hour of Physicality. This hour was quieter than the first hour had been. We spent the hour in stillness, learning more of the meditation techniques Shirley had introduced me to the night before. There were a few minutes of meditation, followed by a discussion of situations where this kind of control would be useful, and then a few more minutes of meditation.
I had never really paid that much attention to my body. It was always just there, often just taking care of itself while I engaged in some kind of activity. After just an hour of focusing my attention on, for example, the sensations in my resting hands, I felt things I had never felt before. Even with something as simple as my body, the Scouts were going to show me amazing things.
By the end, I was more than ready for lunch. We ate, chatting about the morning’s studies, and how they fit into the life and work of a Scout.
After lunch, we had a free hour before our next class.
I gave Shirley a hopeful smile as soon as I finished eating. “Could Valka and I just take a walk together? We haven’t had any time alone since we got here, and . . .”
“Certainly,” said Shirley. “You know where the main entrance is. Through there is a promenade that leads out to the oxygen deck. Don’t wander too far, but I doubt you’ll get lost. Your tablet has your schedule; it’ll signal you if you’re in danger of being late. And remember—no orgasms.”
“Why not?” I asked.
“Discipline, Challers. Discipline.”
I loved walking with Valka. She took my left hand in hers, wrapped my arm around her back, and held me close. I shortened my stride a little for her as we walked. When we started, I felt some slight worry that the intimacies I had shared with Shirley would get in the way, but we fell into our accustomed places with ease. It felt good to do something so familiar, even if the place we were doing it was not.
The promenade was lined with little bars and eateries, but having just finished lunch, neither of us was interested. We looked them over, sampling the music that wafted from open doors, drawing a few interested looks from passersby. Having spent the whole morning in our cadet uniforms, I’d forgotten how revealing they were. I felt suddenly self-conscious.
“Maybe we should go back,” I said. “I don’t see any other cadets out here.”
“How many other opportunities like this are we going to get? If there aren’t many other cadets out here, that must mean they don’t get away often. Let’s just walk.”
We continued down the promenade. It wasn’t crowded, but the wide corridor had plenty of traffic, both white-clad Scouts and those in more colorful garb. We figured out soon enough that only active-duty Scouts wore the white outfits. Everyone else was either a native of the station who had never served, or retired. Even off-duty Scouts seemed to dress in white.
At the end of the promenade, a wide gate led out onto the oxygen deck. It was like nothing I had seen before. Wonder upon wonder had been presented to me that day, but they all paled in comparison.
This wasn’t just an oxygen garden. We were in the main ring of the station, standing on the edge of that ribbon of blue and green we had glimpsed when we docked. The blue was water, an impossible amount of it, flowing in a wide stream. The green was grass and trees and plants, artfully arranged and jubilantly healthy. Just from where we stood, we could see dozens of robots working in the fields and orchards, tending to the marvelous greenery.
Still, I hesitated. It didn’t feel safe to be out in the open like that. The enclosure above us, holding in the air, seemed impossibly far away, and too transparent. My skin felt itchy, my breath tight. I wanted a spacesuit.
“Is this safe?”
“Come on,” said Valka. “It has to be.”
Slowly, the promenade shrank behind us and we made our way down to the water. There were voices, shouting and laughing. As we got closer, we could see that there were people in the water. Valka and I stared.
“Are they supposed to be there?” I asked. Valka just shrugged.
As we got closer still, the figures bobbing about in the water saw us and shouted, “Look! Cadets!”
They waved and smiled, inviting us down to the water’s edge in musical, gentle voices. There were four of them, paddling about in the clear water. When we finally reached the shore, I couldn’t help but stare. They seemed to be women, but there was something odd about their faces.
“Hi, I’m Challers,” I said.
They introduced themselves as Trey, Shar, Jo, and Hom. They climbed out of the water, and my eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. Their bodies were slim and mostly hairless, and while each one had a modestly feminine pair of breasts, each also had a set of male genitalia.
They noticed my amazement and laughed. As they picked up their towels and began drying off, Trey asked, “Have you never seen our kind before, then?”
“We only arrived yesterday,” said Valka, recovering quicker than I did.
“Where are you from?”
“Stakroya Station,” I said.
Shar nodded. “I’ve heard of it. It’s a trade hub, out in the Rimward Reach. They’re mostly puregens out that way.”
“Puregens?” I hoped it wasn’t an insult. It didn’t seem that way, but one could never tell.
“Yes, you’ve still got the same basic body shape from the Original Seed.” Shar finished drying off and wrapped up in the towel. “You’re puregens, and we’re newgens. Chevalier newgens, specifically. I’m sure you’ll learn all about it in the academy.”
“I’ll be sure to ask about it if we don’t.” My tablet bipped. I checked it, and gave the foursome a bow. “We need to be getting back now. Class will be starting soon.”
On the way back, after we were well out of earshot of the hermaphrodites, I leaned in close to Valka. “I’m glad it wasn’t those kind that picked us up.”
She squeezed my arm and gave me a disapproving look. “Challers, don’t be like that. They’re just people.”
“Okay, but where would I, you know, put it?”
“You didn’t see Jo bending over? There’s a vulva there too.”
I tried to imagine how that would work. That piece of information made things a little better, but the image still disturbed me more than it intrigued me.
“I’m still glad it was Shirley and Masters that found us.”
“She is beautiful,” said Valka.
“Not as beautiful as you,” I said and kissed her cheek. I paused. It seemed the right time to ask a question that had been on my mind whenever I had an idle moment to think. “Have you, uh, done anything, with Masters yet?”
She nodded. “Yeah. And you?”
“Before bed last night. With her hand.”
“Masters used his hand too.”
I swallowed hard, trying not to let the queasy feeling in my stomach show. I was beginning to think that the Scouts were the lesser of three evils, but saying that to Valka would only create a rift b
etween us. I just squeezed her tighter and kept my doubts to myself. She was far happier than she had ever been on Stakroya Station. I wouldn’t spoil it for her.
Any pain was worth it, to make her happy.
Chapter Seven
As we got closer to the academy, I remembered that our next class would be Astronavigation. I broke into a jog, and the two of us ran the rest of the way back. We sat down at our places in the lecture hall and I eagerly activated my tablet.
To my horror, we wouldn’t be starting with any of the stuff I wanted to learn. Before we would get to the stars and engines and computers, there was a lot of basic, foundation information to go through that hadn’t been covered back on Stakroya Station. Galactic coordinate systems. Stellar coordinate systems. Time-shift vectors. Synchronization schema. The first forty days, at least, would be mathematics.
Vacking math.
My headache started just a few minutes in, bad enough to make me groan and rub my temples. We hadn’t gotten any further than skimming the syllabus. The holo paused mid-sentence.
“Are you all right, Challers?” It was Shirley, above and behind me.
“Headache,” I said. “It’ll pass.”
Valka ran her hand over my shoulder. Her sympathy helped, some.
I heard Shirley come down and stand behind me. She put her hands on my head, working on the knots in my temples. “Breathe deep,” she said. “Relax. Use what you learned in Physicality today. Let the tension go.”
“Math always gets him like this,” said Valka. “I helped him through it, back on Stakroya Station.”
The truth was she had practically taken my tests for me. Even with her coaching me every step of the way, I had barely passed. Crippling headaches are no way to go through a class. Math was the only blemish on my academic career, and the thought that it might get me sent back to Stakroya Station, never to see Valka again, gave my stomach fits.