by Dan Oakley
He waved his hands to indicate I should leave his side, and I scanned the food hall wondering which station to use to choose my food.
As I was trying to make the decision, I spotted the red-headed mage from earlier. Even though she hadn’t exactly been friendly when she left me alone earlier, it was still nice to see a face I recognized.
She was sitting at a table with four other people, so I began to make my way towards them.
Then I felt a firm hand on my shoulder. “Where do you think you’re going?” Ensign Borrack snapped.
I pointed out the mage and her colleagues. “To sit with them.”
Ensign Borrack sighed and shook his head. “No, you’re not. Rookies associate with rookies. Rule one of Seven Kingdoms training. Really, why do I always get stuck with the stupid ones?”
I tensed and pulled away so his hand dropped from my shoulder. I was getting really sick of him. “Fine. Then where should I sit?”
He pointed to the far corner of the hall. The benches over there were the same grey as in the rookie’s quarters.
“Right, thanks,” I said through gritted teeth and then walked off, glad to leave the horrible man and his bulging eyes behind me.
I grabbed a tray and walked to the serving counter closest to the grey area.
The android behind the counter was slightly disconcerting. The droids were very humanlike except they had no hair. No eyebrows or eyelashes — nothing.
The android was fashioned in male form and gave me a broad smile as I stopped in front of him.
“Good afternoon, friend. What tickles your fancy today?”
I smiled and then realized how sad it was that the person who gave me the warmest welcome on the ship was not even human.
“Um, I’m not sure. What do you have?” I scanned the selection in front of me. The food was in metal tins, which hovered over hot plates. There was what looked like roasted mutton, and in the tin beside it, was some kind of mashed root vegetable.
“The special today is mutton replacement marinated in rosemary with a side of butternut squash, roasted potatoes and parsnips.”
“That sounds perfect,” I said.
I watched the android’s smooth movements as it selected a transparent plate from the warmer and began to pile it with food.
My mouth watered. It did smell good, but what was mutton replacement?
I wasn’t sure whether I should ask, but since the android had been perfectly pleasant so far, I decided to risk it.
“What exactly is mutton replacement?”
The android kept its wide smile plastered on its face as it reeled off the information from its memory banks. “Mutton replacement was introduced into the Kingdoms two years ago. It is expensive but has more protein and more vitamins and minerals than regular mutton, and as it is a genetically engineered, lab-grown meat source, no animals have been harmed to make this meal.”
“Oh, I see. Thanks.” I took the plate of food, thanked the android again and looked around for a place to sit.
I had a lot of options. There were plenty of empty tables, but shouldn’t I make an effort to socialize?
There was one occupied table in the grey area with an empty seat. The people sitting at the table had to be some of my fellow rookies.
I walked over to them, trying hard to smile rather than grimace. Making friends wasn’t one of my strong points. Having grown up in a village where everyone regarded me with suspicion and mistrust, it was easy to become a loner. So, I wasn’t quite sure how to interact with the people I’d be working with side-by-side.
When I reached the table, I nodded at them. “I’m Tomas. Is this seat taken?”
The man closest to me, with a fresh, child-like face looked up at me and smiled pleasantly. His face was speckled with freckles.
“No, help yourself. I’m Bobby. You’re new, aren’t you?”
I put my tray on the table and sat down. “Yes, very new. I’ve only just arrived today.”
“Well, I didn’t know we had a recruitment drive on at the moment. Are you replacing someone?” He waited for my answer, and the rest of the people at the table turned to watch me with interest.
“I am not sure. I haven’t been told much since I arrived.”
A tall man, with thick, dark hair, chuckled. “That sounds about right. They don’t like to make rookie’s lives easy on the K.S. Morellic. I’m Zarak. Bobby and I are training for the defense squad.”
I wondered what the defense squad was. Some kind of elite military unit? I found it odd that the rest of the crew wanted to make life hard for the rookies. Was it some kind of power play, a way to keep the rookies suppressed, easier to deal with and more malleable?
“So what are you?” the only woman in the group asked. She had long, dark hair tied back in a tight ponytail and dark, arched eyebrows.
“What am I?” I repeated, starting to wish I’d sat at a table on my own so at least I could get a mouthful of food before all these questions were thrown at me.
Be nice, Tomas, I reminded myself. This is how you make friends. Don’t get off on the wrong foot.
“Yes,” Zarak said impatiently. “You know, are you training to be an engineer, a navigator, a science officer…?”
“I am…I’m not sure,” I said.
My answer surprised them, and they sat in silence for a few moments, exchanging questioning looks, which meant I had some respite from the questions and managed a couple of mouthfuls of food.
I was surprised by how delicious the mutton tasted. If the droid hadn’t told me otherwise, I would have assumed it was regular mutton.
“But you must know. You must be in a training plan. All rookies are,” the woman said bluntly.
Maybe rookie mages weren’t as common as I’d assumed. I was here as a mage to use my magical ability or at least have my magical ability exploited by others, but I didn’t know what the ship’s officers would want me to do.
Would they want me to assist in engineering to help with the jumps? Or would there be some other use for my skills?
I decided it was best to be honest with my new shipmates. “I haven’t been given any assignments yet, but I’m a mage. I’m untrained, so I imagine they’ll put me in a program of some sort.”
During the next long silence, I managed to devour another couple of mouthfuls of food. The roasted potatoes were excellent, crispy and a little salty.
Bobby spluttered. “You’re a mage?”
I nodded and took another mouthful of mutton.
Then Zarak chuckled. “You guys are far too easy. He is having you on. He’s just joking.”
I set my fork down and raised my eyebrows. Why would I be joking? Had I said something wrong?
The others joined in with the laughter, but I shook my head and insisted, “No, really. I am a mage.”
The woman was the first to respond. “Wow, that’s so cool. I’ve never met a rookie mage before.”
“Neither have I,” Bobby said, looking at me with open curiosity.
“Really? I didn’t know we were so rare.” To be honest, I really didn’t know much about mages and how they were used on ships like this.
“Well, mages are usually trained on planet,” Bobby explained.
I’d believed what the inquisitor had told me back on Terrano, but now I was wondering if he hadn’t exactly been forthcoming with the whole truth.
But there was definitely at least one other mage on board. I’d seen the red-headed woman with the powerful magic sitting at a table a few feet away.
“Do some magic then.” Zarak’s eyes glittered, and I sensed this man was going to be trouble.
He was issuing a challenge, and how I reacted to it would affect how my new colleagues aboard the ship viewed me.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I said quietly.
I’d grown up believing magic was banned. Only the inquisitor had told me it wasn’t. I wasn’t about to start using magic in front of anyone. As well as the fact, I knew no spells
or party tricks I could impress them with, I could also get into serious trouble, and that was the last thing I wanted.
“See!” Zarak grinned widely. “I told you he was lying. He’s about as magical as my left foot.”
I shook my head. As tempting as it was, I wasn’t going to get into a debate with this man.
I’d intended to make friends, not enemies, but somehow I found myself the source of disagreement between the group. The girl with the arched eyebrows insisted they give me the benefit of the doubt, whereas Bobby and Zarak were skeptical.
Why did it matter if I was a mage or simply a rookie with a talent for physics or engineering?
As they argued amongst themselves, I polished off my food.
“So where do you come from?” Bobby asked, leaning his forearms on the table.
A silence fell over the group as they waited for me to answer.
“Terrano.”
The looks on their faces told me they didn’t think much of the place of my birth.
“Terrano?” Bobby said, screwing up his face. “But no one ever comes from Terrano.”
I suspected he was telling the truth. I’d never heard of anyone from Terrano serving aboard the Kingdoms’ ships before either. “Why is that?”
He gave me an embarrassed look. “Well, you know. It is full of lower classes.”
“Lower classes?” I repeated, my voice strained.
“Yes, no offense, but everyone knows they’re genetically inferior. Their intelligence is lower, and they’re weaker. I mean, we all learned about that in first-year biology.” He shrugged and looked around at his group of friends, who nodded in agreement.
The only one who didn’t was the woman with the ponytail. She ignored her friends and watched me intently.
“Right,” I said, standing up to take my dirty plate back to the android.
I knew when I was unwelcome. I had no great love for the people of Terrano after the way they’d treated me, but I couldn’t stand to hear these rookies talk about genetic superiority.
“Leave the tray,” Zarak said, smirking. “We have cleanup bots to take care of that. I guess things really are quite different on Terrano.”
He watched me through narrowed eyes as I set the tray down heavily on the table with a thump.
It didn’t matter, I told myself. My fellow rookies were snobs. I could never be friends with people like that, but so what?
I wasn’t about to make new friends after all. But I didn’t need them. I’d gotten this far without anyone but Maureena. I would make it through the training, and I’d show them exactly what someone from Terrano could do.
Chapter 8
I spent the rest of the day alone.
The crew’s hostility surprised me. Not that I’d expected to be welcomed with hugs or a parade when I arrived, but a smile and a few words of welcome wouldn’t have gone amiss.
Perhaps all ships were the same. I had no way of knowing. None of the old-timers wanted to associate with the rookies. I guess that could be the same all over the Seven Kingdoms' fleet, but even the other rookies didn’t want to associate with me once word spread I was from Terrano.
Their snobbery stank, but there wasn’t much I could do about it.
Wandering the ship, I started to think I couldn’t win no matter how hard I tried. I was destined to be alone. Sure, I was used to spending time on my own. Weeks could pass without me speaking to anyone, except Maureena in the evenings, but I’d grown used to that.
I felt dumb for holding out hope I’d be part of the team aboard the starship when the other rookies had made it clear they wanted nothing to do with me.
I’d been given no orders or instructions. I knew where I was supposed to sleep and eat but not much else. Training should start soon, though, and I was looking forward to it. By throwing myself into the regime, I’d prove myself. I planned to train hard and become the best damn spacemage they’d ever seen.
Except… I didn’t know anything about my magical abilities. Maureena told me she thought my magic was powerful, but the red-haired mage hadn’t been able to get a handle on my magic. And that worried me.
She said it was unusual. Not good. Unusual.
I refused to let myself mope, holed up in the rookie dorm, so an hour or so after I’d eaten, I set out to explore the ship.
Disappointment was quick to follow. I soon found that most of the sliding doors wouldn’t open with my palm print. They had scanners just below my chin level. That was probably because I was taller than average. For most of the crew, the scanners would be at eye level. From that, I deduced they were retinal scanners, but my eyes hadn’t been scanned, and my data wasn’t in the system. That limited how much of the ship I could investigate.
At first, I greeted the people I passed with a smile, but my cheerful greetings were met with a guarded look and whispers as soon as my back was turned.
So that was how it was going to be aboard the K.S. Morellic.
I could deal with that. Growing up as I had, taught me to thrive on my own.
An hour or two later the lights dimmed. It was still possible to see well enough to walk along corridors, but I guessed the change in light intensity signaled it was night time.
It was impossible to tell what time of day it was otherwise. My new uniform had no gadgetry to tell the time, and there were no digital clocks anywhere.
Since I suspected it was getting late, I decided to head back to the rookie dorm, hoping tomorrow would be more interesting. Surely someone would want to get me started on a training program soon. They’d gone to enough trouble to take me from Terrano. It seemed strange they’d forgotten about me now I was on board.
Back in the dorm room, I lowered my chosen bunk. I’d selected the one on the right, hoping it wasn’t already taken. But I was starting to suspect I might not have to share a room, after all. Although there was a bunk on the other side of the small, narrow room, there were no personal effects and no signs that anyone else was living in the room.
Although the mattress looked very thin, it was incredibly soft and comfortable. I poked and prodded it, wondering what material it was made from. At home, I’d had a mattress stuffed with duck feathers. It had the benefit of keeping me warm in the winter, but the downside was every time I turned over I’d be prickled with the feathers that poked through small holes in the fabric covering the mattress.
I lay awake, thinking of Maureena, the cabin and the hills and woods of Terrano.
We’d have finished our evening meal by now and be sitting in front of the fading fire, perhaps sipping hot milk and vanilla.
I lay back against the spongy pillow, interlinked my fingers behind my head and stared at the grey ceiling.
I marveled at my melancholy. How ridiculous! Who could have believed I’d be homesick for Terrano?
I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I knew I was woken by a loud male voice bellowing at me.
I sat up, blinking.
At the foot of my bed stood the blonde-haired man with bulging eyes I’d met yesterday, Ensign Borrack.
“Up and at ‘em, Rookie,” he shouted. “We don’t lie in bed all day around here.”
I ran a hand over my face, trying to wake up quickly. As I pushed back the sheet and planted my feet on the floor, Ensign Borrack looked at me in disgust. “You slept in your uniform?”
I looked down and saw he was right. I hadn’t intended to fall asleep fully clothed. I just lay down and figured I’d get ready for bed later, only I must have fallen asleep.
“Sorry,” I said.
“Luckily, you have a few spares.” He reached over and pulled out the laundry shoot. “Put your dirty uniform in there and get a clean one from the cupboard.”
I did as I was told and then got a towel from the sunken drawers he’d shown me yesterday.
“Washrooms are down the corridor on your right, room 3W. I’ll expect to see you in the mess hall in twenty minutes, is that understood, rookie?”
“Yes.
I was just wondering if…” I turned my head and saw he was gone.
I’d been about to ask him how I could tell the time aboard the ship. I didn’t like my chances of being on time for anything if I didn’t have access to a watch, clock or some kind of timer.
I grabbed my towel and clean clothes and headed down to the washrooms.
Each shower cubicle was separated by the same white shiny material which covered the walls in the main areas of the ship. The washroom reminded me of the baker’s bathroom. The baker’s wife had been extremely proud of the shower because most people in Terrano still used baths.
I stood beneath the showerhead, and the water came on automatically. There were some buttons on the wall. I managed to adjust the temperature by playing with the red and blue buttons. When I pressed the white button, I got a shock.
White foam came shooting out from little holes in the wall. I cried out in alarm and heard a voice from one of the other cubicles, ask, “Is everything all right?”
My cheeks reddened when I realized it was a female voice. Then I realized the white stuff was just soap, I felt like a fool.
“I’m fine, sorry,” I apologized as I rubbed the soap over my body.
After my shower, I dried myself and dressed in double quick time, not wanting the woman in the other shower to realize what a fool I’d been, shrieking over soap. The blue material of my new uniform fitted like a second skin, and I frowned, wondering if I’d ever get used to wearing it.
I found a drawer full of toothbrushes wrapped in cellophane and helped myself to one. The washbasins had a spout for water, one for soap and another for toothpaste. Unhelpfully, they weren’t labeled, and after my first attempt I ended up with a toothbrush full of soap.
Ensign Borrack had told me to meet him in the mess hall, and when I arrived in the vast room, the smell of sizzling bacon that greeted me made my stomach rumble. He hadn’t mentioned whether I should eat breakfast or not before he got here, but I couldn’t imagine him wanting to share breakfast with me, so I decided to go ahead and grab a meal.
Although I had no way to gauge the time accurately, I guessed I still had at least five minutes before I was due to meet Ensign Borrack.