Praise for Landfall

Welcome to your new favorite YA sci-fi series! Landfall:
The Ship Series Book One hurls us into a frightening and fascinating future
rich with action, mystery, and unforgettable characters.  With elements of
Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game and the best of Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson
books, Landfall kept me burning through the pages. I hope Jerry Aubin is typing
right now, because I can’t wait to return to The Ship!

- Owen Egerton, author of Everyone
Says That at the End of the World

If you
purchased this book without a cover it would be pretty surprising. You’re missing
a cool cover! Go out and buy a copy that actually has a cover.

This is a work
of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the
author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events
or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Text copyright ©
2015 Jerry Aubin

Illustrations
copyright © 2015 Jerry Aubin

All rights
reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

For any
information, please contact zax@theshipseries.com.

The main text of
this book was set in Georgia.

The chapter
title text was set in Avenir.

Lekanyane
Publishing

Austin //
Amsterdam // Cape Town // Sydney // Christchurch

ISBN 978-0-9970708-1-1
(pbk)

ISBN 978-0-9970708-0-4
(ebk)

For K, P, W, and Q.

You know what that's
like, right, Zax?

Hello, lunch.

We haven’t met yet.

Nothing but a milk run.

It’s coming right at us.

Forget about him!

It’s your chair now.

It looks habitable.

There’s nothing out there.

That doesn’t make sense!

What happens if it’s not empty?

Don't do anything stupid in Marine
Country.

I just saw my mentor and he says hello.

I'm going to be your tour guide.

This is where the dangerous stuff
starts.

Right now.

We’re all going for a little ride.

A lot.

It must have been the pain meds.

Non-lethal does not mean non-painful.

Weapon malfunction.

Look who we have here.

You may go first.

I heard everything.

Pretty cool!

You ready?

These little guys can fly!

Are you OK, cadet?

Listen carefully to what I say next.

I have orders to do yours first.

It means you have a message waiting.

You said ‘if’,
sir.

Look at me—I’m a blubbering mess.

You’re the pilot.

He sent you here for this?

I said it before and I will say it
again.

What I'm about to tell you will sound
insane.

What are you doing here?

Hello, lunch?

CHAPTER ONE

You know what that's like, right, Zax?

The Ship blazed in sharp
contrast to the inky void of space which framed it. An asteroid which measured
roughly one hundred kilometers long by fifty wide and ten thick served as its
foundation. Towers, some as tall as the space rock was deep, blanketed its
smooth top. The vessel’s brightness came from millions of exterior windows
whose light outlined the warren of artificial structures. The bottom portion
retained its natural, craggy state except for the thousands of hatches which peppered
the surface. Shuttles darted to and fro as they transported cargo between the
cavernous cryostorage and agricultural holds carved into the asteroid’s
interior.

Zax never tired of viewing the real-time imagery of the
Ship beamed in from the distant perspective of a perimeter drone. He marveled
at how the vessel appeared to be the result of someone using a giant shovel to
send one of Earth’s cities—bedrock and all—aloft with one tremendous scoop.
Something about the current image seemed wrong and tickled at the back of Zax’s
perception for a few secs before he identified it. His hand shot up and drew
Sayer’s attention.

“Sir—what’s going on with that large block of darkened
structures in civilian sector twenty-eight?”

“I can’t see anything abnormal, cadet, so I’m not sure.
Let’s zoom in and check it out.”

The instructor closed his eyes for a moment and used his
neural Plug to interface with the holoprojector. Zax’s typical pang of jealousy
was replaced a moment later by excitement at the realization his personal
countdown had finally reached double-digits. He only had to wait ninety-nine
more days to graduate from Zeta Cadre and get Plugged In to the Ship himself.

Sayer, a nineteen-year-old fighter pilot from Kappa
Cadre, was only four years older than Zax and the other Zeta cadets in the
training room. This small gap in age between the instructor and his trainees
was by design. Ship tradition held that the best way to transfer knowledge was
for Crew who were only slightly older and more experienced to pass on their
hard-won lessons to the younger cadets who followed in their footsteps. Sayer
was easily Zax’s favorite instructor as he embodied everything Zax dreamed
about with regards to his own career. This type of aspirational thinking was
also the intent of the officers in the Omega Cadre who ran the Ship when they
established the Crew training protocols generations earlier.

The holoimage projected in the space above the cadets’
heads zoomed in on the civilian sector and a large swath of darkened structures
became obvious. “Wow, Zax, I’m amazed you noticed that. There could very well
be room for you in the Pilot Academy with that kind of observational skill. Ten
credits. As for why that section is dark, I have no idea. There have been more
and more isolated power outages in recent years, but I didn’t think things had
gotten bad enough to knock out such a big area.”

Zax beamed, but his happiness was not from Sayer
rewarding him with the ten credits. Though he obsessed about his ranking and
desperately chased opportunities to increase his already prodigious Leaderboard
score, what really excited Zax were the two magic words—Pilot Academy. Zax had
chased his goal of earning command of a fighter since his career started ten
years ago. Being near the top of the Leaderboard was a requirement for becoming
a pilot, but that alone did not guarantee admission. If an instructor like
Sayer was noticing his potential, Zax could hold out hope that the Omegas who
made career assignments were seeing it as well. His reverie was broken a sec
later when Aleron chimed in from the back of the class.

“Maybe some idiot civilian puked on a power unit and
that’s why all those structures are dark. You know what that’s like, right,
Zax?”

Laughter erupted around the
room and Zax’s cheeks flushed. He had long grown accustomed to Aleron and his
band of morons enjoying themselves at his expense, but it stung to have the
cadets who had only recently been added to Zeta pile on as well. What hurt the
most were the braying giggles which emanated from Kalare.

Zax hadn't given much
thought to girls during his first two years in Zeta Cadre, but that had changed
when the Omegas mysteriously moved a handful of cadets from rival
Epsilon Cadre into Zeta a few weeks earlier. Kalare
was at the head of the line as the group walked into the Zeta berth for the
first time, and her arrival literally took Zax’s breath away. She stood a
quarter meter taller than he did—Zax hadn’t experienced a growth spurt yet—with
jet-black hair and brilliant blue eyes which were iridescent from gold flecks.
Her features were as distinctive as Zax’s mousy brown hair and dark brown eyes
were common, and they drew him in like the pull of a massive black hole. The
first time he witnessed her smile it melted a lifetime’s indifference to the
opposite sex, and Zax was shocked when he involuntarily mouthed “magnificent.”
Those feelings faded within a few, short days as Zax regretfully concluded
Kalare was a complete scatterbrain not worthy of his attention or admiration,
but it still rankled to be the object of her amusement.

“Twenty-five demerits for speaking out of turn, cadet.”

Sayer’s words quieted the laughter and then he closed
his eyes. Zax allowed himself a tight smile at the knowledge the instructor was
using his Plug to interface with the Leaderboard to add ten points to Zax’s
score and deduct twenty-five from Aleron’s. His ranking was already well above
the bully’s, but the possibility of massive demerits due to a stupid training
injury or mistake on an exam always nagged at Zax and made him grateful for any
additional scoring cushion. A sec later Sayer opened his eyes and spoke again.

“I can’t dispute Aleron’s observation that civilians are
idiots. Unfortunately, they’re our idiots and you must be careful you never
ever lose sight of their role—however minor—in the Mission to preserve our
species. The inhabitants of a dying Earth built this Ship and filled its
cryostorage holds with a billion civilians who would be dispersed to new
colonies throughout the universe. One hundred thousand Crew were put in command
and ten million civilians stayed awake alongside them to perform the more menial
jobs. Everyone in this room is a direct descendant of that dead world’s most
brilliant and talented people. They were carefully selected to be that first
Crew and we all emerged from the Ship’s artificial wombs genetically optimized
to inherit their duty. Part of that duty is respecting how the civilians are as
much a part of the Ship as the chairs you’re sitting on. Though, it’s probably
not fair to compare them to something useful like chairs.”

Everyone laughed and Sayer allowed them to enjoy the
humor for a few secs before he continued.

“OK…let me finish what I was talking about before Zax’s
observation sent us off on a tangent. I’ve already covered the history of the
Faster-Than-Light engine, but I’ll get hit with some demerits myself if I
neglect to mention the emergency evasion process.

“When we’re battling aliens and operating under
Condition 1, the Captain may choose to give the Flight Boss tactical command of
the Ship. The Boss then has the ability to order an emergency FTL evasion.
Something with as much mass as the Ship can’t shift course radically in a short
amount of time, so a key defensive mechanism is our ability to evade danger by
using the FTL drive to jump to another location in the system. Since it’s
impossible to plot an FTL Transit within the confines of a star system, this is
accomplished by queuing two Transits to occur back-to-back. The first jump
takes the Ship to a location far enough away for FTL to be possible, at which
point a second Transit is automatically performed to return the Ship to the
original system, albeit in a location intended to provide a far better tactical
position.”

Zax raised his hand and Sayer acknowledged him once
again.

“Sir, that seems crazy. Transits are safe when the Ship
has sufficient time to recalibrate the FTL, but aren’t we begging for one of
those gruesome failures which sometimes happen with our scout ships if we do
two of them so quickly?”

“Great point, cadet, ten more credits for you,” Sayer
replied. “But you also shouldn’t lose sight of how nuts it is to knock everyone
unconscious in the middle of an enemy engagement. Crew training lets most of us
recover and regain alertness quickly, but even the best of us occasionally
suffers from sustained FTL fog after one Transit, much less two in such a short
time period.”

The instructor closed his eyes for a sec and then spoke
again. “Speaking of FTL, it’s almost time for today’s Transit. I’m flying
Combat Air Patrol when the jump is over and need to prep so let’s finish early.
Dismissed. Zax—please hang back for a min.”

The cadets filed out while Zax remained seated. A sharp
blow knocked his head forwards, and he looked up to find Aleron grinning having
“accidentally” whacked him with an elbow as he walked past. Zax refused to give
the twit the satisfaction of any reaction, but that didn’t prevent another wave
of raucous laughter from the bigger boy and his henchmen.

Sayer observed all of this impassively from the front of
the room. He spoke once the last cadet exited and they were alone.

“I admire how you didn’t let Aleron derail you, Zax. A
lot of cadets your age would have shut down and not spoken again after being
the brunt of such a public joke.”

“Thank you, sir. It really doesn’t bother me.”

“I can see that. You’re obviously a smart and likeable
kid, so I’ve been confused about how it seems like you don’t have any friends.
Why is that?”

Zax paused. He could easily answer the question, but
debated whether he should. His admiration for Sayer was so great that he
eventually took the plunge.

“Well, sir, there’s no one in my Cadre smart enough to
spend any more time with than what’s absolutely required.”

Sayer smiled, though there was a hint of emotion
behind the expression which Zax couldn’t identify. Sharing such private
thoughts already made Zax uncomfortable, but his inability to fully decipher
the instructor’s reaction was even more unsettling. Non-verbal social cues
caused frequent consternation, and this was a second, unspoken reason why Zax
avoided relationships with his classmates.

“Good enough, Zax. What about a mentor, though? Don’t
you think you could learn a lot from someone older who has already navigated
the challenges still ahead of you? When I was your age, my mentor had a big
impact on me. My scores weren’t as high as yours at first, but she gave me a
ton of great advice that helped me move up and ultimately got me high enough to
qualify for the Pilot Academy.”

The instructor had already
answered his own question. Zax didn’t need a mentor to help improve his scores
because, unlike Sayer, he had been perched near the very top of the Leaderboard
since he was six. Unless he somehow lucked into a mentorship offer from one of
the powerful officers in the Omega Cadre, Zax couldn’t imagine finding anyone
where the value of their “guidance” would offset the cost of having to
communicate regularly with someone else and deal with his or her opinions. In
consideration of Sayer being the only member of the Crew who had ever gone out
of their way in an attempt to help him, Zax responded with something polite
rather than the truth.

“Thank you for the suggestion, sir.”

Sayer smiled one last time as he turned to leave. “Get
to your berth, cadet. They’ll be ringing the bell for the Transit soon.”

Zax intended to follow Sayer’s directive and return to
the Zeta berth to prepare for the FTL jump, but he had one critical stop to
make along the way. He walked briskly to a Replicator station and used its
interface to call up the fabrication template he had perfected during many
weeks’ worth of off-duty time. He issued the command for the Replicator to
commence and was dismayed thirty secs later when it still appeared to be
evaluating his request.

“I’ve loaded my template,”
Zax said, “why aren’t you fabricating?”

“You’ve never submitted a
design before,” replied the Ship’s AI. “This template is far too complex for
someone your age and with your lack of experience to attempt. The Ship needs to
conserve consumable mass rather than risk it on templates which will likely
result in a smoldering pile of goo.”

Zax sighed. “I’ve given you
my chits—one thousand seventy-two of them. What difference should it make to
you what happens now? If I want to risk a year’s worth of savings, isn’t that
my choice? Maybe I like goo and will be thrilled if that’s the result—did you
ever consider that? You may be the brilliant Artificial Intelligence that helps
run the Ship, but we still get to make our own choices—right?”

The AI paused as if it
wanted to sigh right back at him, but instead the Replicator initiated. Thirty
secs later its door opened with a cloud of escaping steam which revealed Zax’s
shiny new creation.

“Hey, where’s my goo?” Zax
asked with mock frustration. The AI ignored his comment, so Zax grabbed the
device—still warm from fabrication—and sprinted off towards the Zeta berth. As
he did so, a single bell echoed through the passageway to signal the FTL engine
would soon spin up. Zax was almost giddy with the anticipation of deploying his
invention once the Transit was complete.

CHAPTER TWO

Hello,
lunch.

The sour, gag-inducing odor hit
Zax the moment the bells woke him. He knew the scent would be there but was
both dejected and ragey anyways. He opened his eyes and the source swirled
around him. “Hello, lunch,” he muttered. Well, what was left of lunch after it
spent time in his stomach. A tangle of noodles, appearing almost the same as
they originally had on his plate, slow-danced two meters above his face. Zero-g
managed to make puke seem balletic, but with or without gravity it still
smelled nasty.

Like every other child born on the Ship, Zax learned the
pattern of space travel before he could crawl. One bell signaled the
gravity-generator was shutting down in fifteen min, so you needed to stow your
belongings and strap into your grav-chair. Two bells meant the Captain would
engage the FTL in five min. The barely-understood black magic that produced
faster-than-light travel would jump the Ship from one star system to the next
and knock all of its inhabitants temporarily unconscious in the process. When
you awoke to the sound of three bells, it meant the Transit was successful and
the grav-gen would restart in one min. If you didn't wake up to those three
bells, well, Zax avoided thinking about that altogether.

While most kids only worried about the 1–2–3’s of space
travel, Zax was forced to add the 4–5–6’s of space puke at a young age. Soon
after his sixth birthday he developed a previously-unseen reaction to the FTL
engine and began throwing up whenever the Ship jumped between stars. The medics
tried everything but failed in their efforts to help. They assured him it could
be corrected once he was Plugged In, but until then it was yet another reason
for the other kids to abuse him. Though both cruel and uncreative, the nickname
"Puke Boy"—tossed out by that tool Aleron during their first month as
cadets—had scored a direct hit and stuck.

As beautifully as any half-digested meal floated around
without gravity, it always transformed into a disgusting mess once the grav-gen
kicked in. After nearly ten years of extensive practice, Zax had earned the
title Best Cleaner of Vomit among all of humanity. This distinction no
longer carried the weight it might once have, though, since the remnants of the
human race were either breathing the Ship’s air, moldering in cryosleep in one
of its storage holds, or clinging to life on one of the hardscrabble colonies
left in its wake during 5,000 years of the Mission.

As good as he was at cleaning up by hand, Zax had long
dreamed of ditching the bucket and towel. It was this desire that inspired him
to become the youngest person in anyone’s memory to design and build a
fully-functional machine using the Ship's Replicator. The device was a
meter-long alloy tube with a wide mouth on one end and a pistol grip and
trigger on the other. A pull of the trigger generated enough suction to capture
the floating contents of even the largest stomach and send them down the tube
into a plastic pouch where they would be sealed for handy, touch-free disposal.
Zax’s favorite aspect of his design was the red flames shooting down the sides
of the tube that surrounded its name—PukeSucker 3000. It would have been
easier (and far cheaper) to make the device small enough to fit entirely within
the palm of his hand, but if he was stuck living with such a mortifyingly
public affliction, he wanted to have a little fun with it.

Zax had dared to dream the other cadets would admire his
Replicator template, but everyone thought it was an elaborate and expensive
joke. He knew the only way to silence the haters would be an actual
demonstration, so he had been excited when the morning newsvid finally
announced an FTL Transit was scheduled after lunch.

Whenever a Transit was announced ahead of time instead
of popping up in the middle of a battle, Zax skipped real food in favor of
nutripellets (bleh). He had disregarded that strategy earlier knowing the
PukeSucker’s creation was imminent. Instead of sitting off in a corner by
himself like usual, Zax piled his plate high and grabbed a table smack in the
middle of the mess hall. He expected abuse when Aleron sauntered by with his
posse of suck-ups, but heard nothing from the passing conversation except a
"Puke Boy" followed by sycophantic laughter.

Once the Ship completed its Transit and his lunch rolled
in the air above him, Zax grabbed his fully armed and operational PukeSucker
3000. Chants of "Puke Boy—Puke Boy—Puke Boy" echoed around the
compartment, just as they typically did, once the other kids in Zeta shook off
the mental fog induced by the FTL engine.

The berth held twenty rows of twenty grav-chairs, and
each was occupied by one of the fourteen- to sixteen-year-old cadets who made
up Zeta Cadre. Zax was "encouraged" to pick a spot in a corner
surrounded by empty grav-chairs due to his upchuckiness, but since Zeta’s berth
had been full for a couple of weeks there were unlucky cadets stuck squarely
within range. Zax hadn't deposited anything on the newcomers yet, but past
experience suggested it would occur sooner or later. The massive size of the
cloud which floated above them guaranteed it would be sooner if the PukeSucker
3000 proved ineffective during its first deployment.

Zax unbuckled his straps. He had programmed his wristcom
to start a one min countdown once the three bells sounded and the tiny display
ticked off the secs until gravity returned. Zax clutched the handle on the side
of the grav-chair and hauled himself onto his feet upon its padded seat. Years
of practice had honed the zero-g scramble required for him to bucket up as much
of the muck as possible to minimize the mess when gravity’s return tumbled any
leftovers to the deck.

Zax aimed, pulled the trigger, and grinned as his device
drew in the largest constellation of free-floating stomach contents. Zax
murmured “bye-bye noodles” as they hit the plastic pouch with a satisfying SLURP.
He pulled the trigger again and sent a flying mass of chewed-up vegs down the
tube. With the eagle-eyed precision of the best fighter pilots, Zax hunted down
the swirling remains of his lunch. The PukeSucker 3000 worked even better
than imagined and a perfect recovery rate seemed within his grasp until
disaster struck. Chunks of breakfast floated out of his reach and into a slow
roll directly above Kalare's grav-chair.

Even though he no longer pondered her magnificence, the
reverberations of that first glorious smile guaranteed Zax never wanted Kalare
to wear anything which had previously been in his stomach. Without taking a sec
to consider the safety or sanity of his plan, Zax coiled his legs and then
launched himself towards the floating egg clumps. He bent at the waist and
rotated his body 180 degrees away from the deck. Zax stretched his arm to full
extension and the PukeSucker 3000 slurped up all of the vomit at the
same moment his feet contacted the overhead. His momentum compressed his legs
until Zax pushed off and launched back towards his chair. His wristcom flashed
red to warn that Zax had ten secs to get back to his chair if he was to avoid a
trip to the medbay with a fractured skull or busted ribs.

It required a nasty wrenching of his arm to redirect his
mass and pivot his body into the grav-chair, but Zax was safely ensconced an
instant before his watch flashed 00:00:00. Gravity returned and was
accompanied—as always—by the crashes and thuds from some cadet’s stuff that
hadn't been properly secured. Zax rejoiced in the complete lack of plops
and splats and "Ewwwwwws" that arose whenever he wasn’t
entirely successful with his cleaning efforts.

For a sec, Zax feared he might have unknowingly hit his
head on the grav-chair and damaged his hearing because the berth was noiseless.
Where typically there was the bustle of cadets popping out of their chairs and
the fading remnants of "Puke Boy" chants, there was only stunned
silence. Then, more silence. All of the cadets stared at him with mouths agape.
Zax sprang up onto his chair to milk the attention for all it was worth. He
sported an epic grin and pumped his arms with the PukeSucker 3000 held
high over his head in salute.

Zax made a dreadful discovery when he looked up to
admire his device. He hadn’t cracked his skull at the conclusion of his
acrobatics but instead had wedged his amazing creation between his seat and
body. Once the Ship’s gravity returned the PukeSucker had borne the full weight
of his mass and its long barrel deformed almost a full 90 degrees. In addition,
the collection pouch had ruptured at the seam and Zax recoiled as some of its
body temperature contents dripped down his cheek.

The hush was finally replaced with riotous laughter. It
originated with Aleron and his constellation of twits, but soon more than
two-thirds of the berth hooted and hollered in mock appreciation of the circus
act they had witnessed. Zax, crestfallen, collapsed into his seat and discarded
the PukeSucker 3000 onto the deck as he reached for a towel to wipe his
face. A few secs later the uproar from Zeta Cadre was silenced by the only
sound capable of cutting through the din—a shrill klaxon their bodies reacted
to on full autopilot. General Quarters.

CHAPTER THREE

We
haven’t met yet.

All of Zeta grabbed their gear
and clumps of cadets tore off in different directions across the Ship. Zax’s
cortisol levels spiked in response to the intense strobing of the yellow lights
as they blinked in time with the klaxon. All of the Ship’s alarms were
calibrated to physically prepare the Crew to face whatever danger the Captain
decided was worthy of calling them to their battle stations.

Zax jumped into the Tube and rocketed a kilometer across
the Ship in a few heart-stopping secs. He bolted out the door towards Flight
Ops and was surprised when the area outside the Tube remained dim and musty. A
pipe had burst a week ago and the steam it vented into the passageway had
caused lights to fail. Apparently Maintenance was so swamped with other
problems they still hadn’t dealt with this one. It was just one more instance
among many Zax had seen in recent years which showed their ancient vessel had
long since seen better days.

Footfalls trailed as Zax turned a corner and sprinted down
the passageway. He glanced back over his shoulder and was shocked when they
belonged to Kalare. He was attempting to stammer out a question when the lights
flipped to the solid red which signaled a hull breach somewhere nearby. The
brain-lock which froze Zax’s mouth had the opposite effect on his legs—they
propelled him at full speed even as Kalare’s eyes went wide and she skidded to
a halt.

Of course, he concluded with perfect clarity, she’s seen
the emergency bulkhead which must have slammed into place and sealed off the
passageway ahead of them.

CRUNCH!

Zax smashed into the bulkhead with enough force that he
left his feet and flew backwards more than a meter. The angle of the fall
hammered his tailbone with his entire mass. Zax’s world flashed bright white
and then momentarily faded to black. He came out of his stupor a sec later and
tasted a coppery mouthful of blood from the lip he split when his face slammed
against the bulkhead. The physical pain was only a fraction of his overall
discomfort, though. Not only had Zax managed to land flat on his own (likely
broken) butt, but he had also knocked Kalare down onto hers.

“I’m s-s-so s-s-sorry,” Zax sputtered. He leapt up to
grab two supplemental breathers from the emergency bulkhead and tossed one down
to Kalare. She was laughing instead of being hurt or angry. Great rolling
cackles which were borderline crazy in both volume and tone. Zax’s initial
spark of embarrassment flared into hot indignation. “What’s so funny?”

“Nothing—nothing—well, yeah, OK—it’s you. A couple mins
ago you were flying around in zero-g like no one I’ve ever seen, and now here
you are flat on your butt with blood dribbling down your chin.” Kalare choked
back a couple more giggles and then closed her eyes and took an exaggeratedly
deep breath before she continued.

“I’m sorry. I really don’t mean to be laughing at you,
but I can’t help it sometimes. My mentor is always telling me I have to control
these outbursts if I want to avoid getting Culled. It’s interesting how he last
mentioned this when I was laughing hysterically about a book which had fallen
and gashed his forehead. I guess some people run from blood and I laugh in its
face. But, am I really laughing at the blood, or am I laughing at what caused
the blood? Or, am I just nervous about the sight of blood and using the
laughter to calm myself?”

Zax’s indignation faded, but it was replaced by a
combination of the confusion he typically felt interacting with his peers and
some other unidentifiable discomfort which intensified the longer Kalare spoke.
She giggled as she started up again.

“I’m sorry. When I’m nervous, I just run off at the
mouth. I sometimes do it when I’m not nervous, too. My mentor says I test off
the charts and have the aptitude to become an Omega some day, but my lack of
self-control is probably going to get me Culled instead. Oops. There I go
again.” Kalare extended her hand in greeting. “We haven’t met yet. My name’s
Kalare. What’s yours?”

The silence allowed Zax to finally identify the source
of his discomfort—he was breathless. Kalare had seemingly talked for five
straight mins without a breath. He was so wrapped up in trying to follow along
that he had subconsciously held his own the entire time. He croaked “Zax” with
a gasp as he reached over and gave her hand a lame shake. He ran his tongue
around his mouth and played with the split in his lower lip while he took a few
deep breaths. Zax would have to report the injury to the medics and suffer the
significant demerits assessed for such a stupid accident.

“This all happened because I wanted to ask where you
were going,” he said with more than a hint of annoyance. “I thought the only
battle station assignment for Zeta cadets in this part of the Ship was Flight
Ops, and you aren’t on that team.”

“I actually just got bumped to Flight Ops. I’d been
trying to make up my mind about where I wanted to go, so I rolled some dice to
choose and Flight Ops was the pick. My mentor said I had the scores to go
almost anywhere I wanted, but I just couldn’t figure out where so I let chance
decide and, now, here I am!”

The words continued to race out of Kalare’s mouth, but
it sounded like she was starting to relax as the pace had slowed just a little.

“Wow,” he said, “that is pretty interesting.”

And by interesting what Zax really meant was bizarre.
Most cadets would forfeit a kidney to get into Flight Ops, and here this girl
was proudly sharing how she chose it at random. What was even more peculiar was
how someone so crazy had the scores to qualify for it in the first place.

Zax didn’t know where Kalare stood on the Leaderboard
because the Zeta standings had not yet been updated to include her and the
other transfers from Epsilon. The Ship carried two Cadres of fourteen- to
sixteen-year-olds, and heated competition between Epsilon and Zeta was actively
encouraged. It identified the best candidates from this age group to put on the
path toward the highest-value positions on the Ship. When Kalare and the others
were moved into Zeta for unknown reasons, it had triggered a lot of paranoid
speculation around the Cadre. Mass reassignment of cadets was a rare occurrence
and generally denied whenever requested by a Cadre’s leadership, but for some
mysterious reason the Omegas forced Zeta to accept the Epsilon cast-offs.

Though there was plenty of worried grumbling when the
Epsilon transfers were announced, Zax had not shared the concerns. Odds were
all of the new cadets would rank lower than him on the Leaderboard, and Zax
welcomed any and all additional cushion between him and the bottom of the list.
Every bit of Leaderboard fodder might prove important given how the Cull
arrived like clockwork every three months. Being near the bottom of the
rankings meant you stood the greatest chance of being thrown into cold storage
and eventually settled on one of the barely-habitable colonies the Ship
established during its Landfalls.

“They haven’t added you Epsilon cadets to the
Leaderboard yet, so I didn’t realize you had those kind of scores. I would've
thought if you were good enough to qualify for Flight Ops that Epsilon would
have wanted to keep you around.”

A dark cloud of emotion passed across Kalare’s face.
Just as quickly it vanished and her grin returned with even greater intensity.
“I don’t know—I don’t care—here I am!”

“And here I am. Here we are together. Stuck. Hopefully,
this is just a quick drill. I’m guessing the call to battle stations is a
precaution given we’ve just entered a new system.” Zax sighed as he sat down on
the deck. “With my luck, the Ship has actually run into some trouble and we’ll
be stuck here missing out on everything. I know there are hull breach drills
like this all the time, but I’ve never been trapped in a lockdown before. Have
you?”

“Yes,” Kalare hesitated. “I was ten. I’d only been in
Delta Cadre for one month. A group of us were sent out for our first trip
around the Ship without an escort, and I got separated from my friends. I was
checking an observation compartment for them when the alarm sounded and the
hatch sealed behind me. I figured it was only a drill, so after I grabbed a
supplemental breather, I flopped onto a couch and pulled out my slate for some
extra study. A couple of mins later I noticed something moving out of the
corner of my eye.”

Kalare paused for a deep breath, and Zax finally
understood she was struggling to maintain her composure. She probably had been
throughout the story, but he had missed the emotional cues. She kept herself
under control and continued.

“The two girls I’d just been with were floating outside
past the panorama. One of them was a super sweet girl who I’d known since my
first day in Beta Cadre. She seemed to be grinning at me and I was so scared I
peed my pants.”

Kalare shuddered at the memory and her eyes brimmed with
tears. Zax had no clue how to react to her emotions so he kept his mouth shut
and listened.

“The Delta leadership put me on the recovery team as
punishment for getting separated from the others. I was also assigned to help
prep them for burial. Their bodies were in horrible shape—the nastiest
combination of sunburnt and frostbit. The other girl had her face frozen in a
terrified scream. I’ve seen almost fifty dead since then, with thirty-five of
those happening during my two years in Epsilon. Even after all of them, it's
still those first two I see when I close my eyes.”

Zax let it all sink in before he spoke. “I didn’t
realize Epsilon lost so many kids. We’ve only had three dead in Zeta so far,
and they were all blown to bits in a shuttle explosion so there was no recovery
to deal with. I sure hope the Omegas can figure out how to make training safer
for everyone.”

Kalare gazed at Zax for a couple of long beats and then
asked, “Do you think it’s all worth it?”

Zax’s stomach dropped as he guessed where she was about
to go with the conversation. He played dumb. “Is what worth it?”

“Everything. All of it. Have you ever really thought
about our lives? We were born into the Crew fifteen years ago and have spent
every moment since fighting like crazy for top position on the Leaderboard. Not
one of those fifty dead kids was mourned by anyone except perhaps a close
friend or two. Instead, they were seen as one less cadet to claw over on the
way to the top—or at least away from the bottom.”

Kalare stared down at the deck and then closed her eyes.
"Even as I sealed the disposal bags around my two friends, I was already
thinking about what it meant for my Leaderboard ranking. I’m ashamed to say it
now, but I knew one of the girls was ahead of me and I was happy about moving
higher.” She sighed. “More and more I’m starting to believe the Omegas actually
want some percentage of kids to die during training so we get numbed to it all
as early as possible. You hear about thirty-five dead in Epsilon Cadre and
brand our leadership a failure for not keeping them safe, but I’ve got a
sneaking suspicion there are Omegas who are handing out demerits to the Zeta
leadership because they’ve only had three killed so far.”

Zax had been involved in conversations before where
someone nibbled around the negative aspects of Crew training and life on the
Ship, but never before had someone laid it out in such vivid and stark terms.
He was dumbfounded. It wasn’t as if this type of discussion was officially
forbidden, but it was something which could generate demerits in far more
career-altering numbers than those he worried about due to his still-bleeding
lip.

Zax’s instinct was to shut down her crazy talk
immediately. Even though he had the occasional question or doubt about being
part of the Crew just like anyone else, what always won out was the knowledge
his Leaderboard position put him firmly on the path to a fantastic future. This
demented girl was not going to get in the way of that future—even with such an
infectious smile at her disposal.

“Well,” he cemented a neutral expression on his face and
chose his words with the utmost care, “this sure does explain why the Epsilon
leadership dumped you on Zeta. Someone with the smarts to reach the top of the
Leaderboard combined with the willingness to talk about the deep, dark secrets
of Crew life is a dangerous combination.”

Kalare interpreted Zax’s comment in a positive light and
her smile made the gold in her eyes sparkle like laser fire. “You sure got that
right!” she said before bursting into hysterical laughter once again.

CHAPTER FOUR

Nothing but a milk run.

Once the All Clear sounded, Zax
and Kalare resumed their sprint and skidded to a halt inside Flight Ops exactly
thirty-seven secs later. Zax’s eyes adjusted to the intentionally dim
compartment, and he glanced towards the Flight Boss sitting in his command
chair.

The officer wore a work cap backwards and chewed an
unlit cigar. The cigar was famous throughout the Ship for a couple of reasons.
First, the need to feed ten million mouths occupied nearly every hectare of the
Ship’s agricultural space so the tobacco for the Boss’s supply of cigars
represented an insanely rare and expensive commodity. Second, there were
exactly two places on board where torching tobacco with an open flame was legal
and legend was the Flight Boss had never visited either of them. For the Crew,
someone who constantly gnawed an unending stream of priceless cigars and yet
was never witnessed enjoying one of them properly-lit served as further proof
that the officers who reached the Omega Cadre were an entirely different
species.

The Boss swiveled his chair towards the hatch and
acknowledged their entry. “You’re 236 secs past maximum acceptable reporting
time. Before you try to spit out your lame excuse, I already know you were
stuck in a breach drill on the way up here. Ten demerits for each of you for
not having picked a different path. And another fifty since you appear to have
kept your supplemental breathers as souvenirs instead of leaving them in the
passageway where you got them. You better hope no one encounters an actual
emergency before you can return them. Get to your stations and get to work. Now!”

The stridency of the Boss’s final word was likely
triggered by the look of frustration which Zax shared with Kalare for a split
sec. Of course, they were stupid for having forgotten to take off the
breathers, but being caught in a random breach drill could just as easily have
happened if they had picked a different route to Flight Ops. Harsh punishment
for stuff which was entirely out of your control was just the sort of
compliance tool which drove more than a few cadets to go crazy and punch an
officer in the throat. The good news for kids who reacted like that was they
never again had to worry about demerits and getting Culled from the Crew. The bad
news was they got dumped out an airlock after a perfunctory court martial.

Zax sat down at his station and slipped its wireless
subvoc unit around his neck. The thin collar automatically constricted and
positioned itself in the optimal location. Two sensors sat against his throat
to pick up the nerve signals which would be translated into speech, and two
contacts rested against his cheekbones and made incoming communications
“audible” without impeding his ability to hear what was happening around him. Most
Crew working in the compartment chatted with each other directly via their
Plugs, so the subvocs were provided to allow younger cadets like Zax to
communicate silently as well. Dozens of private conversations were happening at
any given moment around the compartment, with verbalized communication saved
for those orders and responses deemed critical for everyone to hear. Zax
connected to their private channel and addressed the older cadet who was tasked
with training him.

“Good morning, Threat, have I missed anything?”

“Hey squib, nice entrance there,” said Cyrus.
“Nothing like causing the Boss to take a timeout during General Quarters to
personally ream you out in front of Flight Ops. You are such an absolute oxygen
thief.”

Cyrus, a towering nineteen-year-old from Iota Cadre with
arms the size of Zax’s thighs, was responsible for monitoring the threat bubble
around the Ship and was therefore called “Threat” by everyone in Flight Ops.
Zax, as his trainee and backup, sat next to him at a workstation which was
functionally identical.

Unfortunately, Cyrus was also Aleron’s mentor and loved
tormenting Zax even more than the younger boy did. It was amazing how moronic
bullies managed to somehow find each other across the age groups and thereby
reinforce each other’s behavior. Cyrus relished communicating with Zax on their
private channel since it provided numerous opportunities for unwitnessed verbal
abuse.

After Cyrus generated his daily ration of harassment, he
switched to his second favorite topic when afforded the privacy of a silent
chat—complaints about the Flight Boss. “Nothing happening here. The Boss
calls General Quarters whenever we prep for refueling even though every white
dwarf star system is just as barren as this one. Paranoid old bugger. What a colossal
waste of time. Nothing but a milk run.”

Cyrus’ complaint verbalized the obvious about how most
of the Crew in Flight Ops were fighting off boredom. Throughout Zax’s time
working in the compartment, the Ship had traversed an interstellar desert devoid
of habitable planets. No habitable planets meant no aliens inhabiting those
planets or preparing them for habitation. No aliens meant no encounters for the
Ship and no encounters meant no battles. No battles meant no excitement and far
too many routine operations like refueling missions. It was just another boring
“milk run” for an elite group who craved regular adrenalin hits from defending
the Ship.

“Flight—what is the status of my refueling bird?”

Zax shifted his attention to the Flight workstation when
the Boss called out the request for information. “Astounding. Absolutely
astounding,” he muttered. Kalare had slid into the Flight trainee seat, and Zax
worried about what her position at that particular workstation meant for his
Leaderboard ranking.

Like everything else on board the Ship, the roles in
Flight Ops were governed by a clear hierarchy and the only trainee role with
higher standing than Threat was Flight. In fact, Flight was widely seen as the
most prestigious job for anyone in Zeta or Epsilon. It wasn’t always held by
the number one cadet on the Leaderboard, but it was definitely occupied by
someone near the top. Since Kalare was in that seat, it was distinctly possible
she had a higher ranking than Zax.

“Blaze has the tanker in position and she just deployed
the harvester,” said the Crew member next to Kalare.

Zax examined his threat board and verified this for
himself. The Captain had stationed the Ship one million klicks from the white
dwarf at the center of the planetless system. The tanker, designated “Blaze” on
his screen based on the call sign of the pilot driving it, had halved that
distance and released its harvester. The harvester, a highly specialized drone,
rocketed towards the miniature star.

“You cadets who are new to Flight Ops should take a
moment to appreciate the irony of what you are about to witness,” announced the
Flight Boss. “White dwarfs, stars which are quickly approaching death, provide
the energy source necessary to fuel the life of the Ship. The harvester is
going to do a single close orbit to gather and compress enough of the
degenerate gas being emitted to pack ten billion kilograms of the stuff inside
one cubic meter of volume. This degenerate matter represents the beating heart
of all human space exploration. Our ability to compress so much mass with such
a huge amount of usable energy into such impossibly small storage is what makes
everything the Ship does possible.”

“I can’t believe how many times I’ve had to listen to
him make this exact same speech,” complained Cyrus to Zax over their
private channel. “Listen here, I have it memorized—Irony...white
dwarfs...fuel...beating heart...blah, blah, blah...”

Zax wanted to laugh, but refused to give Cyrus the
satisfaction and instead focused on his workstation.

“Threat—set a forty-eight min countdown so we can know
when the harvester is full up and we can get back on our way,” ordered the
Flight Boss. “Scan and Nav—I need you two to identify and plot our next
Transit. I know the Captain would be mighty appreciative if you could finally
get us out of this dead zone and find a halfway decent planet where we can drop
our next colony. Everybody else—I need you alert and on top of your game. I
know you’re aching for some excitement, but keeping the Ship safe during operations
like this one is your entire mission in life right now and I want you acting
like it!”

“Alert?” mocked Cyrus silently once again. “Five
thousand years’ worth of Ship’s logs show we’ve never once encountered hostiles
around a white dwarf and for some incomprehensible reason he thinks he can
motivate us into thinking today is going to be the day that changes? Good luck
with that!”

CHAPTER FIVE

It’s coming right at us.

The refueling countdown ticked
down and approached its halfway point. Zax was halfheartedly reviewing a
mind-numbing training manual he had long since memorized when Cyrus called out.

“Boss—something just appeared on my board.”

“Elaborate, please.”

Zax inspected the threat board. The inbound bogey flew a
course which would take it within the Ship’s minimum stand-off perimeter in 287
secs. As Cyrus relayed this same information to the Flight Boss, the Combat Air
Patrol fighter on duty, pilot call sign Vampire, changed heading. Vampire
vectored onto an intercept course which would allow him to first identify and
then engage the unidentified craft if it proved to be hostile. Since roughly
99.99999% of aliens the Ship encountered were hostile, this was more a question
of when than if.

“Flight—status on Vampire?” asked the Boss as he rose.

“Vampire is fifteen thousand klicks from visual,”
replied Flight. “I can have the Alert Two birds out the door in ninety-five
secs if you want some additional friendlies out there.”

“Excellent. Launch—you have my go for ten more birds as
soon as they’re hot.” The Flight Boss turned to face the massive panorama
window on the interior bulkhead and chewed his cigar even more vigorously.

Zax shifted his attention to the panorama. Its three
hundred square meters of translucent titanium provided a view into the Ship’s
primary flight hangar. What made the panorama different from an ordinary window
was its data overlay that displayed whatever information the Flight Boss wanted
in his view. At that moment, it showed the ready status for ten additional
fighters shift to green when Flight initiated their countdown for launch.

Zax’s pulse quickened as he envisioned himself piloting
one of those ten craft. A job as a trainee in Flight Ops was the pinnacle of
success for someone like Zax, who was only fifteen, but it wasn’t the desired
end point for any cadet. Everyone who took a training slot in that compartment
did so with one goal in mind—earning a chair in the pilot room. There was not
any single career path for someone who dreamed of being an Omega and perhaps
even Captain, but what was absolutely common among all of the permutations was
time spent either on stick as a fighter pilot or in the backseat as her Weapons
System Officer.

Zax lacked the security clearance to know where the
pilot room was located and had never even seen pictures of it. This didn’t
prevent him from imagining himself sitting there during a launch, however, and
he obsessed about all of the unknown details. What would it feel like to jump
into that chair with its top-secret, highly customized neural connections and
transfer his consciousness over a hardwire into one of those amazing
spacecraft? Would his mind work any differently while it inhabited the neural
network of the fighter while the empty shell of his body remained back in the
Ship’s ready room? With his physical body left behind, would he still somehow
feel the power of the ElectroMagnetic Aircraft Launch System as it hurtled his
craft from zero to three hundred kilometers per sec?

His focus on the pilots and WSOs was even more intense
than usual because Vampire was in the air. Zax had always wanted to ask Sayer
why he chose that particular call sign but had not yet found the right
opportunity to do so. Sayer’s body was now somewhere deep inside the Ship while
his mind was thousands of kilometers away about to engage an alien craft. The
fact they had been together just a few mins ago only served to increase Zax’s
amazement.

The thwomp of the first EMALS shot broke Zax’s
reverie and the noise was followed in quick succession by nine more just like
it. His eyes focused back on the view of the flight deck just as the fighter
piloted by the Commander, Air Group shot off the deck. Due to its special role,
the Flight Ops compartment was unique on the Ship and had two of the massive
panoramas—one opposite the other. Zax turned his head 180 degrees and caught a
final blur of the CAG’s fighter, pilot call sign Daedalus, as it streaked into
the void. He returned his attention to the threat board just as the Flight Boss
addressed him.

“Mini-Threat—what’s the status of that bogey?”

Even though Zax was not responsible for the threat
board, the whole purpose of having trainees in the room was to expose them to
their future roles in real-world situations. The Flight Boss frequently used
the natural pauses during engagements to work the various “Minis” into the flow
of activity.

“Bogey 1 still on same bearing, sir, and will intersect
Vampire in seven thousand klicks.” Zax paused. “Belay my last, sir. Aspect
change on Bogey 1 along with a high energy discharge targeted at Vampire. Bogey
1 appears to be hostile, sir. Redesignate as Bandit 1.”

Based on Zax’s call, the threat board changed the label
on the icon that represented the inbound spacecraft to Bandit 1 and also
changed the icon’s color from yellow to red. Simultaneously, the background
tint on all terminals along with the two panorama overlays exhibited the same
color shift. These changes made it clear to everyone the Ship had moved from
Condition 3 to Condition 2 and was under attack.

With a calm urgency in his voice that contrasted against
the crazed chomping of his cigar, the Flight Boss delivered his next set of
orders. “Flight—tell all fighters they are now weapons free and should engage
and destroy Bandit 1. Weps—spool up all Ship defensive weapons and let the
stations know they are weapons free on the inbound Bandit in the highly
unlikely event it manages to evade eleven of our finest. Threat—I want your
board up on both panoramas—top left quadrant. Flight—does Vampire have a
signature on that craft yet? I want to know what the hell we are dealing with.”

“Vampire reports his computer shows unknown signature
for the Bandit.” Flight hesitated for a moment and then continued. “He’s had
eyes on it, sir, and says it looks human.”

All activity in Flight Ops screeched to a halt. The
stillness was replaced with pandemonium once everyone recovered from their
initial shock and started to speak at once.

“Human—what does he mean, human?”

“How could there be another human ship out here?”

“Call off the alert and stop fighting—we need to speak
with them!”

“All of you—shut up! The next person who talks out of
turn is going out the airlock!” The Flight Boss’s order silenced the chaos and
he turned to Flight. “Get imagery of the Bandit from Vampire and then send it
over to me. I’ll check if Alpha agrees with Vampire’s identification. I assume
everyone agrees Alpha will recognize a human spacecraft if somehow we’ve
magically run across one.”

The Flight Ops Crew pretended to return to work, but everyone
snuck repeated glances at the Boss while he reviewed the imagery. Zax pinged
Cyrus.

“Threat—I’m confused. Who’s Alpha?”

“Are you going to ask for lessons on wiping your
butt, next? Why did they have to stick me with such a brain-dead trainee? Alpha
is the root node of the Ship’s artificial intelligence system. The AI we deal
with all the time is smart, but Alpha is a billion times smarter. Only the
Omegas can interact with it. I suppose they don’t want the rest of us slaggers
to figure out that’s where all of their alleged intelligence and leadership
ability actually comes from.”

The Flight Boss spoke before Zax could get out his
additional questions.

“Alpha confirms the Bandit is not human but
instead is of unknown origin. Is that perfectly clear to everyone?” The
Boss momentarily held the gaze of every individual in the compartment to
reinforce his statement. He grimaced when he spoke again. “That means it’s
something we’ve never encountered before, and that changes things. Flight—I
want another twenty birds out the door and forty more on Alert Five. Weps—get
the Shipbusters spun up along with all of our close-in defenses. If this guy is
a scout he might call home to mama and she could show up pissed any sec.
Comms—give me the Bridge on visual.”

Three secs later the Captain appeared front and center
and gazed down at Flight Ops from both of the massive panoramas. The scar
across her throat, the origin of which Zax had heard at least six crazy yet
feasible stories about, was distinct upon her fair skin. She returned the
Flight Boss’s salute and asked, “What’s going on, Boss?”

“Captain—we’ve got an inbound bandit coming in hot, and
it just fired an energy weapon at one of our birds. We’ve determined the craft
is not anything we’ve seen before. Due to the unknown nature of the threat, I
recommend we set Condition 1.”

“Affirmative.” On her word, the Condition 1 klaxon
sounded. A stunningly lifelike holopresence of the Captain in her command chair
materialized next to the Flight Boss and her giant image disappeared from the
panoramas. Zax assumed there was another cadet like him training on the Bridge
who now saw a similar hologram of the Flight Boss in that compartment.

Zax had never been present in Flight Ops during
Condition 1 and was thrilled to finally witness it. The status was set whenever
there was a particularly risky battle situation and meant complete tactical
command of the Ship was transferred to the Flight Boss. The side-by-side
holograms along with their Plug interfaces allowed the Boss and the Captain to
be fully present in both of the Ship’s critical nerve centers simultaneously.

The Captain always retained final authority, but with
the Ship at Condition 1 the Flight Boss was granted the power to make all
decisions except launching a Planetbuster. Only the Captain had the launch
codes for the Planetbusters, although no one in her seat had deployed one for
2,000 years.

Though Zax was initially excited to witness Condition 1,
he soon worked himself into a frenzy of worry when his mind went back to what
Sayer had said earlier about the potential for an emergency FTL evasion. What
might happen if he tossed any of his zero-g cookies in the direction of the
Flight Boss? Zax had never been in Flight Ops during an FTL Transit, so he
didn’t know yet how the Crew there would react to his affliction.

Zax focused back on the threat board. His worries
receded once the Alert Two squadron caught up with Vampire, and Daedalus
started to coordinate the dogfight against Bandit 1. Unless there was some
crazy advanced technology deployed by whatever alien race was behind the craft,
Zax couldn’t imagine a situation where eleven of the Ship’s fighters would get
beat by a lone enemy.

Something on the threat board yanked Zax’s attention
away from the dogfight. The system was tracking a kinetic weapon inbound from
Bandit 1 but had not raised any alarms due to its small mass. Collisions with
projectiles, naturally occurring and otherwise, were a permanent risk in space,
and the Ship was armored well enough to tolerate constant encounters with small
objects. Anything that could be launched by a craft the size of Bandit 1 would
do such minor localized damage the threat system effectively ignored it.

This particular inbound made the hair on the back of
Zax’s neck stand on end, so he hailed Cyrus.

“Threat—there’s something about that projectile
inbound from Bandit 1 which seems weird. Can you evaluate it with me?”

“I really don’t have time for you right now, squib.
If you want to waste your time investigating every pebble some alien lobs at
us, then be my guest. I’m going to focus on doing my job and worry about
avoiding any actual threats.”

Zax fought the desire to fire off a witty reply and
instead focused on plotting the trajectory of the inbound. The threat board was
not optimized for evaluating such small projectiles, so the best it offered was
a ten klick radius for impact. What troubled Zax was his realization that
Flight Ops fell neatly at the center of that circle.

Zax pulled out his slate and used a trajectory analysis
program he had developed on his own. Ten secs later he leapt out of his seat
and shouted to the room.

“Boss—we’ve got an inbound kinetic weapon. It’s coming
right at us. 99.82% probability it strikes either Flight Ops or the hangar in
fourteen secs!”

There was a long, pregnant pause as every head in the
compartment swiveled towards Zax. Beyond the craziness of a trainee yelling
something during an engagement, the words which had come out of his mouth were
so absurd they defied belief.

To his credit, the Flight Boss hesitated much less than
anyone else would have before exclaiming his order.

“FTL—emergency evade now!”

The Boss was fast to react, but not quite fast enough.
The projectile impacted against the Flight Ops exterior panorama moments before
the FTL drive kicked in. Zax watched in horror as the window cracked from edge
to edge. The last thing he heard before the FTL engine drove everyone on the
Ship into unconsciousness was the wail of the hull breach alarm.

CHAPTER SIX

Forget
about him!

Zax was drowning. His mind
centered on the relaxed descent into the depths of a swimming pool while his
body calmly surrendered to a lack of oxygen and impending death. It was a
shockingly soothing sensation. Except for the noise—an incessant screeching
that grew fainter as Zax slowly sank deeper and deeper. And the smell—why was
he smelling puke near the bottom of a pool?

He pushed the unpleasant inputs from those senses aside
and instead focused on the beauty as he floated downwards. The bottom of the
pool approached and Zax wondered what it would feel like when his bare toes
touched its tiles.

Just before his feet reached the bottom, a piercing
sting on his face dragged his senses back to his chair in Flight Ops. The
screeching noise snapped to the foreground, and Zax registered it as the hull
breach alarm. He opened his eyes and the cool blues of the pool’s depths were
replaced with flashing red lights. The breach was located in his current
compartment.

Kalare hovered above in zero-g, smeared with what had
remained in his stomach after his earlier FTL discharge. One arm held on to his
chair while her other one was cocked to deliver a second slap to his face. A
quick smile, visible through her secondary breather, revealed her recognition
of his restored consciousness. Her free hand went instead to his shoulder and a
sec later she affixed Zax’s breather over his nose and mouth.

Zax greedily sucked oxygen deep into his lungs and
established situational awareness. The breach’s explosive decompression had
turned the compartment’s small items into junk that floated around the
panorama. Most of the Flight Ops Crew remained strapped in their seats,
unconscious and turning blue from a lack of oxygen. The only exceptions were
the Flight Boss and Cyrus. The Boss, cigar still clenched between his teeth,
floated towards a bulkhead with his arm outstretched to grab one of the
secondary breathers which had automatically deployed from a breach cabinet.
Cyrus flailed in a panicked frenzy to release the straps keeping him in his
chair.

The Captain appeared to sit in the middle of the room
without a hair out of place. Her holopresence was not affected by the hull
breach. Zax observed for a moment as she efficiently relayed orders to the Crew
who were safe and sound alongside her on the Bridge. She caught his eye and
formed her fingers and thumb into an “OK” sign in inquiry about his status. He
returned the gesture with one hand and released his straps with the other.

Zax launched towards the closest breach cabinet and
pulled a patch kit from within it. Kit in hand, he kicked off again and
evaluated the state of the panorama as he floated towards the crack in the
upper right corner. As he glided closer, he discovered there were two large
fissures and each contained a distinct breach. Since they were at opposite
corners of the window separated by thirty meters, there was no way Zax could
patch both fast enough by himself. He rolled onto his back and spotted Kalare
tending to Cyrus. She had calmed him down enough to buddy-breathe by passing
her breather back and forth.

“Forget about him!” Zax shouted. “You’ve got to patch
the crack in the lower corner, or there’s no way we get air in here before
everyone suffocates!”

Kalare hesitated for a moment and Cyrus’ face flooded
with panic once more as he thrashed in an effort to retain her breather. Given
the size and strength differential, he would have stolen the device from her if
he had been a fraction more coherent. Kalare took advantage of an opening and
shattered his nose with a punch that sent a crimson cloud of blood floating in
every direction. She then vectored off towards a breach cabinet for a patch
kit.

Zax rolled back onto his stomach as he reached the
panorama and pistoned his arms to dissipate his remaining momentum and stop.
This move was second nature for him after years of dealing with puke cleanup,
but Kalare ricocheted off the panorama and bounced off the floor when she
attempted the same a moment later. She misjudged the initial approach, but
Kalare stuck the landing on her second attempt.

Zax returned his attention to the patch kit. Whoever
designed the kits made them obvious to operate. Zax pressed the giant red
button (helpfully labeled #1) and opened the kit’s upper compartment. A
holographic vid displayed a female actor who provided instructions.

“Shape the blue patch pellet until it covers the
breach.”

The hologram actor seemed absurdly cheerful considering
the kit designers knew she would be talking to someone who needed to resolve a
life-threatening emergency in an oxygen-free environment. Her instruction was
straightforward, though, and the demonstration easy enough for Zax to emulate.
The patch material was firm yet malleable and after a couple of secs he
flattened the pellet and affixed the material to the panorama just like the
actor had shown.

Zax pressed giant red button #2 and opened the kit’s
lower compartment.

“Shape the yellow activation pellet until it covers
the blue patch material.”

The yellow material shared the same consistency and was
just as malleable as the blue, but differed in being almost uncomfortably warm
to the touch. Zax flattened it out enough to cover the blue material and then
activated giant red button #3.

“Apply firm, even pressure for five secs until the
yellow material turns green.”

The actor flashed her vacuous smile and made the task
appear easy as she pressed her palm against her faux breach and then removed it
to reveal a final green patch. While her first two demonstrations were easy to
emulate, the actor’s last instruction was impossible for Zax. She had access to
a critical ingredient he did not—gravity. Without a sufficient handhold, any
force Zax exerted against the panorama while he floated in zero-g would send
him soaring in the opposite direction.

Frustrated, Zax checked on Kalare’s progress. She had
caught up with him in the patch process and her palm was pressed firmly against
the window. Kalare was not impacted by the lack of gravity because the location
of her breach allowed her to brace her feet against the deck and use that
leverage to exert sufficient force against the patch. Something about her pose
held Zax’s attention until he shouted “That’s it!” a few moments later.

Fingertips pressed against the panorama, Zax rotated his
body 180 degrees. He had previously floated parallel to the deck with his belly
pointing towards it, but this move traded “down” for “up” until he faced the
overhead. He pulled his legs in towards his chest and then extended them back
out at an angle that braced his body between the panorama and the
overhead—almost the perfect inverse of Kalare’s pose.

Zax exerted pressure through his palm into the
soon-to-be-green patch. He counted to five and wondered whether he would feel
anything when the activation material triggered and permanently bonded the
patch to the panorama. He waited a couple extra secs past five to be safe and
then removed his palm. The activation material continued to shine accusingly
with its original yellow hue.

Zax squinted along the border of the yellow material and
discovered the smallest blue speck that peeked out from underneath. He pinched
and pulled the yellow material just a millimeter further until it completely
covered the blue. Zax braced his body, reapplied pressure, and started a new
countdown. There was a short burst of heat after five secs and the hull breach
alarm silenced. One sec later the main hatch sprang open and admitted a stream
of medics who each floated to an unconscious crew member and deployed a
supplemental breathing device.

A lone person clapped and laughed loud enough to be
heard over the commotion. It was the Flight Boss. Since Zax was still oriented
with his belly facing the overhead, the Boss appeared to be standing upside
down. The view of him from the odd vantage point, applauding and grinning, was
entirely surreal. Not nearly as surreal, though, as the words that came out of
his mouth.

CHAPTER
SEVEN

It’s
your chair now.

“I have never seen such an
amazing performance in all my years working with cadets!” roared the Flight
Boss as he looked up at Zax. “Mini-Threat, you went from being unconscious to
performing high-skill, zero-g maneuvers in less than ten secs. You did this
while simultaneously demonstrating mental agility and confidence by ordering
your peer to perform a critical, life-saving task. Five thousand credits.”

The Boss addressed Kalare next. “I have methodically
adapted my mind over dozens of years to be as fast as possible when it comes to
regaining consciousness after FTL, but you were already up and moving when I woke
up, Mini-Flight. You made a great decision to first revive the other person in
the compartment who you knew would have immediate access to an air supply. When
you were interfered with by another Crew member, you decisively applied
appropriate force. Finally, although your zero-g abilities weren’t as good as
Mini-Threat’s, you didn’t let that stop you and instead figured out what was
needed to accomplish your task. Five thousand credits.

“Threat—your performance was an entirely different
flavor of amazing.”

The Flight Boss had turned his attention to Cyrus and
Zax did the same. He was astonished by what he saw. Kalare’s punch had not only
left Cyrus’ nose horribly misshapen, but it had also resulted in two black
eyes. His wretched appearance was exacerbated by the fact he had clearly been
crying—whether from the pain of his nose or the shame of his actions it was
impossible to know. The tears dripped off his cheeks and mixed with the blood
splatter from his nose to create a pathetic stew that floated inches from his
face.

“You were an absolute disgrace.” The Boss paused to let
the admonition sink in and then continued. “It was bad enough you couldn’t get
your straps undone, but then you panicked and made the situation infinitely
worse. It was pathetically clear you were thinking only about yourself rather
than the safety of the Ship when you tried to impede Mini-Flight in her mission
to patch the breach. That is inexcusable. You earned yourself that busted nose
and two shiners from her, and now fifty thousand demerits from me. You need to
figure out those straps and get out of that chair in the next ten secs or I
will cut your miserable body out of it myself.”

Both Kalare and Zax gasped when the Flight Boss
announced “fifty thousand demerits.” It was a wildly severe punishment and left
no doubt that Cyrus would be Culled. A few nearby Crew had regained
consciousness and, along with the medics attending to them, watched the drama
unfold with their mouths agape.

Kalare recovered from the shock first and addressed the
Flight Boss. “With all due respect, sir, I don’t think it’s fair you’ve given
the two of us the same number of credits.”

Zax scarcely believed his ears. Kalare had just been
gifted a massive bump on the Leaderboard, and from the sounds of things,
she wanted to fish for more at his expense. Sure—everyone wanted to score every
point they could, particularly when vying for position against their prime
competition, but most officers looked askance at cadets who sucked up too hard.
Zax fought off a smile as the Flight Boss clearly set a trap for Kalare with
his response.

“In all your wisdom, what would you recommend as a more
equitable allocation of the points, Mini-Flight?”

Kalare missed the hidden threat in the Boss’s words and
grinned. Zax almost pitied her. She really did not understand what kind of fire
she was playing with. She rolled the dice (!) to pick Flight Ops and
miraculously walked into a situation where she earned five thousand (!!) bonus
points on her first (!!!) shift, only to put all of that at risk to score a
little extra edge over Zax by arguing with the Flight Boss (!!!!) about how
many more she deserved.

“Sir—you’ve split ten thousand credits equally, and I’m
grateful for my share. However, it’s crystal clear to me that Zax should receive
more of the reward. I only had to give Threat that broken nose in the first
place because I hesitated when Zax told me to grab a patch kit. If I had
reacted immediately, I would’ve been mid-air and well away from Cyrus before he
thought twice about what was happening. If you believe this situation worthy of
ten thousand bonus points, then I respectfully suggest you allocate eight
thousand to Zax and I’ll accept two thousand.”

The Flight Boss appeared as shocked as Zax felt about
Kalare’s suggestion, and there was a long pause. The idea of giving up credits
and asking for them to be awarded instead to a top competitor was as absurd a
concept to Zax as jumping out an airlock without a spacesuit.

The silence was broken when the Flight Boss offered his
slow applause once more. “Well said, cadet, well said. Your rationale makes
perfect sense, but I’d rather not take away anything I think you deserve and
will instead award an additional three thousand points to Mini-Threat.
Correction—now that I see that other pathetic excuse for a Crew member has
finally managed to release his straps, I want Zax to take over as Threat.” The
Boss turned to Zax with a smile. “I hope you didn’t just get lucky once. It’s your
chair now.”

Zax had held his breath during the last min and paused
for a moment to suck in a deep breath before he replied. “Thank you,
s-s-s-sir.”

Zax couldn’t fathom what had just transpired as he
glided to the Threat workstation and strapped himself in. He looked over the
Flight Boss’s shoulder, past all of the medics tending the Crew, to where the
chair’s previous occupant floated outside the compartment’s open hatch. Cyrus
gazed back with his eyes full of hatred and venom until the hatch slid shut and
the Captain’s voice broke through all of the commotion.

CHAPTER
EIGHT

It
looks habitable.

“Flight Boss—we’re getting
things resolved and are almost ready to jump. What’s your status?”

Zax reviewed the Threat board in reaction to the
Captain’s query and was confused by what it revealed. The white dwarf system
was gone and had been replaced with a binary system. This meant the emergency
evasion was only halfway complete and their fighters were temporarily
abandoned. Eleven of the Ship’s finest against one puny alien spacecraft was no
contest, but Zax remained anxious to return and support Vampire and the rest of
the fighters.

“Ma’am,” the Boss gestured around the compartment, “you
can see my team is almost back up and we’re getting prepared for action. What
happened?”

“Alpha aborted the second Transit during the emergency
evasion. When we tried to spin it up manually, Alpha aborted that one too and
reported a fault in the FTL engine. We’ve run a full set of diagnostics and
can’t find anything wrong, so we’re configuring an override.”

The Boss appeared frustrated for a moment, but paused
and calmly replied. “Give me another 120 secs to re-establish full battle
readiness, and then I’ll resume tactical command for the Transit.”

The already frenetic activity level in Flight Ops was
dialed up even higher once everyone understood the situation. Exactly 117 secs
later the last of the medics floated out of the compartment and the Flight Ops
Crew were poised to lead the Ship into battle once more. Zax led off as the
Flight Ops team called out their readiness in final preparation.

“Threat is go.”

“Flight is go.”

“Weps is go.”

“Nav is go.”

“Sorry, Boss,” announced the girl in the Scan chair. “I
need a few more mins. I’ve located a system that might be interesting, but it’s
at the extreme edge of our scanning range. It’s fading in and out. I’m afraid
if I don’t get a clean lock now, I might not be able to isolate it again later
even if we came back to this same spot. It looks habitable.”

Those last three were the magic words that captured
everyone’s attention. The Ship’s Mission was to seed the universe with human
colonies wherever rare Class M worlds were found, but it had not encountered a
habitable planet in almost three years. Many in the Crew were stir-crazy having
been too long deprived of the regular establishment of new settlements.
Landfall always provided a welcome respite from their regular duties—either due
to the work of settling the latest colony or (more enjoyably) from the battles
with aliens which often preceded it.

Zax turned to the command chairs in the middle of the
room. It was clear the Flight Boss and Captain were communicating over a
private channel. Zax recognized something in their body language that suggested
the conversation, although entirely silent, was fairly heated. The Captain
addressed the Crew a few secs later.

“I understand everyone wants to get back to the white
dwarf and make sure our fighters and tanker are OK, but you all realize how
critical it is we Landfall soon. Scan—take whatever time you need to get me a
full rundown on that system. If it indeed appears to be habitable, then we
aren’t going anywhere until you and Nav have confirmed a Transit solution that
will get us there from the white dwarf system. Everyone else—continue to prep
for hostile activity. I’m confident our fighters have long since destroyed that
alien, but we must be certain we’re ready to support them the instant our
Transit is complete and we’re back in the battle.”

Zax had almost completed his battle prep when Kalare
interrupted him for a private subvoc.

“I hope you didn’t mind me sending some extra points
your way earlier.”

For a sec Zax believed Kalare was mocking him somehow,
but he glanced at her and recognized a sincere smile. This girl flummoxed him.
Lacking a better reply to such an absurd statement, he said the only thing that
came to mind. “Thank you.”

“I said this earlier when we were trapped together,
but I need to say it again. You’re amazing when it comes to zero-g maneuvers!
How’d you get so good?”

Zax started to reply, but Kalare barreled forwards
without pause.

“You must spend every waking moment in the zero-g
training compartment. Am I right? Do you think you could spend some time with
me and maybe teach me a few of your tricks? That would be awesome. Thank you!
You know, that’s actually the least you can do to pay me back since I’m sitting
here with your puke all over my clothes. I had no choice but to go for a swim
in your lunch if I was to get close enough to wake you up and get you breathing
again. What did you even eat? Oops—there’s a noodle on my shoulder!”

Zax was mortified, but the rancid discovery didn’t
rattle Kalare and she continued without missing a beat.

“Can you believe what the Flight Boss did to Cyrus?
Fifty thousand demerits! Has Cyrus been that useless the entire time you were
training with him? I don’t know what I would do if the person training me was
an idiot like that. Actually, yes I do. Nothing. I would do nothing. Probably
the exact same thing that you’ve been doing if I can read you right. And I bet
I am, ‘cause I’m very good at reading people.”

Zax had been exhausted listening to Kalare during their
earlier conversation, but the feeling was exacerbated when they communicated
over the subvoc. Without the limitation of having to move her lips Kalare
spewed out her crazy talk twice as fast. At least this meant he anxiously held
his breath for only half the time. She finally allowed him a moment to speak.

“Yeah—Cyrus has been a complete moron the entire time
I’ve been training with him, but I’ve met worse. He’s definitely going to be
Culled after the Boss hit him with so many demerits.”

What Zax didn’t share was his relief about Cyrus getting
dumped into cryosleep. The malevolent expression he sent Zax’s way as the hatch
closed had him concerned about how Cyrus might attempt to exact revenge in the
meantime.

Kalare started to unleash another of her verbal volleys
but was cut off by an announcement from Scan.

“Flight Boss—I’ve established a solid lock on that
system, and I’m showing an 88% probability it’s habitable. Nav has plotted a
Transit solution between the white dwarf and the new Class M system, and I’ve
confirmed it’s correct.”

“Excellent,” said the Boss. His tone was anxious when he
turned to the Captain and spoke. “Ma’am—I request tactical command be returned
to me, and we immediately jump back to the white dwarf system.”

The Captain’s “Affirmative” was the last thing Zax heard
before the FTL spooled up and everything faded to black.

CHAPTER
NINE

There’s nothing out there.

Zax awoke with a final spasm of
retching. Dry heaves sucked, but avoiding a barrage of vomit was one benefit of
three jumps in such quick succession.

He turned his attention to the Threat board and was
dismayed by what it revealed. There was no sign of the bandit from earlier, but
there were also no signals revealing the Ship’s fighters or tanker had
survived. Instead, the board identified two distinct debris fields with one in
close proximity to the Ship and the other located much closer to the white
dwarf.

“Boss…” Zax fought to keep his voice even. “I have no
contacts. Bandit 1 is gone. No transponders from any of our fighters. No transponder
from the tanker. There’s nothing out there.”

The Flight Boss pummeled the arm of his chair and
muttered something under his breath. Then he quickly regained his composure and
jumped out of his seat to issue a stream of orders.

“Flight—I want two SAR birds in the air, one for each of
those debris fields. We lost all of their ships, but let’s recover their cores
and bring our pilots and WSOs home. I also want another tanker in the air ASAP.
We’ve got enough fuel in storage to last for a while, but since it appears like
we might have Landfall ahead of us soon, we should top up the tanks now while
we have the chance.”

Zax sought hope about the lives of Vampire and the rest
of the pilots from his memories of past lessons about Flight operations. Search
and Rescue craft used specialized scanning equipment to detect the emergency
beacon each neural core triggered when ejected from its spacecraft. The
biological matrix inside each fighter which contained the mind of the pilot and
WSO was exceptionally armored and generally survived even when the rest of the
craft was a total loss. Though fighters were destroyed all the time, the actual
loss of a fighter crew was an infrequent event.

The Flight Boss turned to the girl in the Scan chair. “I
want you running everything possible to find any echoes of this battle. Energy
signatures, blast marks, unexploded ordnance, anything that might
provide a clue to help us understand what happened. We had an unknown fighter
get crazy lucky and score a direct hit on Flight Ops, and now we’ve got nothing
but debris in front of us. Those two facts generate far more questions than
answers, and most of you have been around long enough to realize I WANT
ANSWERS!”

After this last exclamation, the Boss sat back in his
chair and spun it around to gaze out the exterior panorama. He rested his head
on his hand and chomped angrily on his cigar.

The two SAR birds departed for their mission while Zax
sifted through the Threat board data. There was little chance of core recovery.
All of the spacecraft had been annihilated and there was no debris large enough
to represent a core.

Zax was curious about what was happening with the bodies
left behind by the twenty-four pilots and WSOs. Having pilots killed in action
was a rare outcome, and he had a morbid curiosity about how it was handled. He
pinged Kalare on a private channel.

“Mini-Flight—what’s the chatter on the Flight channel
about what’s going on in the ready room?”

“They’re running their KIA procedures,” replied
Kalare. “The capsules around the chairs have been sealed and they’ve got a
guard stationed at each one. The hardlines are still in place, but they’ve got
techs prepared to cut them once the SARs confirm which Crew have been lost.
They’ve deployed an honor guard to the ready room for the burial ceremony and
will put the capsules out an airlock within fifteen mins of any official KIA
declarations.”

Amazingly efficient, thought Zax, but using the chair
capsules as coffins added a whole new dimension to the job of being a pilot.
While civilians had nothing to look forward to after death beyond their bodies
being recycled like any other depleted resource, tradition long held that dead
Crew were given an honor guard and space burial. Some Ship resource officer way
back in history must have decided it would be great to conserve consumable mass
by using the pilots’ chairs as their coffins when they were killed in action.
The bodies would already be encased in the capsules and the chairs were so
highly customized they couldn’t be reused anyways. You already had to be crazy
to want to be a pilot, but it seemed downright cruel to be forced to climb into
your own coffin every day as part of the job.

Zax pushed aside his grim notions and focused on the
Threat board. One of the SAR craft had reached the closest debris field, and
Zax expected it would soon relay the news no cores had been found and all Crew
were lost. Flight finally spoke a few mins later.

“Flight Boss—we’ve recovered one core. It’s Vampire’s.
The core’s in rough shape, but SAR thinks the Crew can be extracted. They
aren’t finding any other beacons.”

The Boss stood. “At least that’s one small piece of good
news after the rest of this mess. Flight—inform the ready room that everyone in
the fighters except the two are KIA. I want the SAR bird with the recovered
core back in the barn, and I want to speak with Vampire and his WSO the moment
we get them downloaded into their bodies. Hopefully they were in the battle
long enough to have something useful to share.”

The Captain spoke. “Boss—it will be great to hear from
your fighter crew, but I also want us to collect whatever other evidence we can
to understand how those ships were destroyed. Let’s put together investigative
teams and spend a couple of days in system to examine the wreckage.”

“Absolutely,” said the Flight Boss. He turned his
attention to the rest of the compartment. “I want to remind all of you that
Alpha confirmed it was not a human fighter behind all of this. I better
not learn about any of you spreading rumors otherwise. Our lack of Landfall for
such a long period of time has been stressful enough. We can’t have people
obsessing about non-existent humans. Is that perfectly clear?”

The Boss’s tone left zero room for disagreement. He
didn’t continue until after he glared at each Crew member and received silent
acknowledgment from everyone in the compartment.

“We’re coming up on a shift change, and when your relief
arrives, I want you to get back to your racks and get some rest. The potential
Class M that Scan found means it’s about to get busy around here. Some of you
haven’t been in Flight Ops long enough to have experienced Landfall, but if
that rock is habitable then we’ll be running a lot of scouting missions for a
few weeks and that will have us all working double shifts.”

The Boss finished. “Things were rough in here today, but
I’m proud of how you all handled yourselves. Some of you were pretty close to
death a short time ago, and yet you’ve bounced up and stayed in the game. I’m
particularly proud of the two cadets who managed to think quickly and save some
lives. Good work, Mini-Flight and Threat.”

Zax wasn’t keen to have all eyes on him again, but he
appreciated the recognition and nodded at the Flight Boss to acknowledge his
kind words. What he appreciated even more was the news there wouldn’t be any
more FTL jumps right away and he would soon be off duty.

CHAPTER
TEN

That doesn’t make sense!

After 480 mins of solid rack
time, the craziness of the previous day felt like it had happened to someone
else. Zax jumped out of his bunk, showered, and headed to the mess hall. He
filled his tray with a big breakfast and sat down by himself as usual to watch the
morning newsvid. The prospect of a peaceful and relaxing start to the day
filled Zax with a sense of tranquility.

“Good morning, Zax. Why are you sitting here all by
yourself? I’m going to join you. Is that ok? Of course it’s ok. What a day
yesterday was! Is every day in Flight Ops as crazy as that one? That would be
great. Though, on second thought, we got hit with an alien projectile which
caused an explosive decompression that left all of us unconscious without any
air. Maybe that wouldn’t be great. Well, what I was just thinking was—”

“Could you please shut up for a min—I want to
watch the newsvid!”

More frustration seeped into his voice than Zax
intended, but Kalare seemed oblivious to his tone and turned her attention to
one of the mess hall displays. Zax did the same and was shocked to discover his
own face on its screen. The newsvid led off with a story about yesterday’s
battle and a vidcap from one of the monitoring cameras in Flight Ops. The
announcer introduced the story while video rolled of the Flight Boss clapping
in admiration of Zax and Kalare.

“The Ship encountered an alien spacecraft yesterday
in the middle of a refueling operation. This was a surprise since the Ship
doesn’t typically encounter aliens around white dwarf stars, but our fine Crew
was prepared as always and Flight Ops immediately dispatched a squadron of
fighters. Unfortunately, before they were able to interdict the craft, it
managed to launch a small projectile. Even though the Flight Boss attempted to
evade the projectile with an emergency FTL evasion, it scored a
once-in-a-million direct hit on the exterior panorama of Flight Ops which caused
an explosive decompression in that critical compartment.”

The video switched to highlights from Zax and Kalare’s
efforts to patch the panorama. It was accompanied by audio of the Flight Boss’s
short speech from the day before where he praised the two of them. Once the
footage was over, the announcer returned with a more somber expression on his
face.

“Thanks to the heroic efforts of the two Zetas, the
Crew restored Flight Ops to operational readiness within mins. Even so, the
second Transit of the FTL evasion was delayed so long that by the time the Ship
returned to the white dwarf, the mothership for the alien fighter had returned
and deployed an overwhelming force which destroyed the tanker and all eleven
fighters. We lost a total of twenty-four brave Crew.”

The screen switched to video of an honor guard saluting
the flag-draped capsules. A three-volley salute fired while the airlock door
closed and the capsules were vented into space. The announcer returned with a
graphic behind him which showed a clock counting down from ninety-seven mins.

“The Captain has decided it’s time to continue the
search for our next Landfall and the FTL countdown clock is running. All Crew
and civilians should prepare for a Transit later this morning. Meanwhile, in
other news from around the Ship—”

“That story doesn’t make sense!” exclaimed Kalare over
the announcer’s segue. “You heard the Captain yesterday. She said it was going
to take a couple days for us to do a full investigation and figure out what
happened. A small alien fighter we’ve never seen before fires off one
projectile and scores a direct hit on Flight Ops. We leave the system for a few
mins and come back to find twelve of our spacecraft destroyed?”

Kalare emphasized the last sentence by pounding her fist
on the table. People nearby gawked, but she was oblivious to the attention she
attracted as she continued. “There weren’t twenty-four dead, remember? Two of
those Crew members survived! I heard them announce they recovered the
core from Vampire’s fighter and watched the Flight Boss head out to the ready
room to talk to him and his WSO! And now, less than ten hours later, it appears
the investigation has been wrapped up, we’ve got an extra two dead Crew, and
we’re just going to pop out of the system like nothing ever happened!”

Zax’s lungs screamed for oxygen. His breathlessness came
not from following along intently to Kalare’s monologue, but rather from the
emotions which flooded him when the newsvid announced the Crew from all eleven
fighters had been declared dead—including Vampire. Sayer couldn’t really be
considered a friend, but he was one of the few people Zax admired and had
positive interactions with. Losing the closest thing to a friendship he had
ever experienced threatened to overwhelm him. Zax needed a few mins to process
the loss and deal with the unfamiliar emotions, but this girl had invaded his
morning routine and now spouted crazy talk about mythical conspiracies—comments
which, given their public nature, might ultimately reflect poorly on him. He
took a deep breath and lashed out.

“Just wait a min! I have no idea what you’re trying to
suggest, but I’m really not interested in hearing about it. That projectile was
a random hit—they happen. There are thousands of external panoramas and I’m
sure given enough time absolutely all of them will end up getting hit at least
once—whether by an alien or some piece of space rock. Random chance is just
that—random!

“As for Vampire and his WSO,” Zax continued, “the SAR
pilot said the core was beat up pretty bad and she thought the crew
could be extracted. Apparently, she was wrong. You didn’t see the threat board.
I did. I’m not the least bit surprised everyone was lost. There was barely any
debris out there big enough to be a core, much less a functional one. The
Captain has learned whatever she wanted to know about the incident. She wants
to jump now rather than wait for investigators to filter through a bunch of
space junk to tell us what we already know—it was just another random encounter
with another random alien who started shooting at us. That is the story
of this Ship for the last 5,000 years!”

Zax jumped up and pushed his tray away in disgust. He
had expected some form of reaction from Kalare, but she instead stared at him
blankly and this only agitated him further. “Now please shut up about
your paranoid delusions and enjoy your breakfast—I have to wait until lunch for
food since we’re doing a Transit this morning!”

As he turned and stormed away, Zax worried about the
twenty demerits he would receive for not clearing his tray off the table. He
quickly disregarded any concern since getting immediately out of range of that
nutjob was worth ten times as many. Guilt eventually intruded his thoughts as
Zax calmed down and mentally replayed his strong reaction to Kalare, but he
pushed any deep remorse aside knowing that eighteen hours with an empty stomach
had played a role. Something about Kalare’s comments nagged at him, though, as
he headed back to the Zeta berth. The unease stuck with him all morning while he
worked.

CHAPTER
ELEVEN

What happens if it’s not empty?

Reveille on the third morning
after the white dwarf battle found Zax in a daze. Nav had concluded that the
Ship required a half dozen FTL Transits to get from the white dwarf system to
within scouting range of the suspected Class M planet. The Captain wanted all
possible speed and had commanded three Transits per day rather than sticking to
one per week as was typical in non-battle situations.

This punishing schedule taxed everyone on board. No one
understood the biological mechanism behind it, but the early users of FTL
discovered the human mind can only tolerate a limited number of Transits within
a given period of time. The Captain’s current pace resulted in nothing more
serious than an unpleasant mental funk, but if pushed too much further the
malaise would degrade into full-blown psychosis for a significant percentage of
the population. The blurred mental acuity was compounded for Zax by a lack of
solid food. He had survived exclusively on nutripellets to keep his stomach
ammunition-free.

The continuous FTL fog caused Zax to forget about the
impending Cull until he was on his way to the shower and walked past a cadet
who was chosen from Zeta. The boy’s sobs trailed off as the Marines led him out
of the berth with blasters at his back—a scene Zax knew was being repeated
across the Ship as Crew and civilians alike were marched in various states of
duress to the cryostorage holds. He understood the Ship needed to conserve
resources and maintain consistent population levels by sending low performers
into cryosleep, but it was never easy to witness.

Zax pushed thoughts about the Cull aside and continued
towards the shower excited by the prospect of taking an extra hot one (twenty
demerits) to try and clear his head. He turned the corner and overheard a
conversation between two cadets as they passed going in the opposite direction.

“I can’t believe there’s no hot water again today!” said
the boy.

“Yeah,” replied his female friend, “tenth time in the
last two months by my count. I wonder how that compares to how often the
Captain is forced to take a cold shower?”

The boy snorted. “As if that ever happens.”

“Dammit,” muttered Zax as he turned and trailed them
back to the berth. He wanted no part of a cold shower, so he skipped it
altogether (fifty demerits) and got dressed instead. He also bypassed the mess
hall since he had decided to skip breakfast. There were no FTL jumps scheduled,
but Zax knew there was a decent chance the planet was already inhabited by an
overwhelming alien force and they might have to bolt on short notice.

The first task on Zax’s schedule that day was to lead a
lesson for a group of nine-year-olds from Gamma Cadre. Unlike Cyrus and many
other Crew he had dealt with through the years, Zax embraced his instructor
duties and eagerly anticipated his chance to deliver a primer on
astronavigation. He experienced a pang of grief as he recalled learning this
same material from Sayer, but Zax quickly pushed memories of the dead
instructor aside. Not quick enough, however, to prevent a frustrating momentary
diversion back to Kalare’s observations about the oddities surrounding the
white dwarf battle’s aftermath.

Nav was a subject Zax always enjoyed, and he was excited
to use the previous few days’ worth of activity as the basis for discussion.
The Ship’s civilians remained in the dark as always, but the Captain had
informed all of the Crew about the potential for Landfall. Zax expected the
Gammas would be as eager about it as everyone else, and when he entered the
lesson room the Gammas were indeed buzzing. They quieted as he jumped into the
lesson.

“Room—kill the lights and run holo Z1212-2364.” At Zax’s
command, the room went dark and a hologram of the Ship and the white dwarf battlefield
was projected above the Gammas. “Three days ago the Ship orbited a white dwarf
and deployed a tanker to harvest fuel. We encountered an alien fighter, and, as
part of the ensuing battle, we were forced to do an emergency FTL evasion.
During the midpoint of the evasion, while waiting for the Ship to be readied
for the second jump, Scan identified the signature of a potential class M
planet. Nav developed the solution you see here which we have subsequently
executed.”

The projector cycled through the six FTL jumps which had
brought the Ship to its current location. The trainees in Gamma were still
young and non-cynical enough that their eyes lit up in response to the beauty
of some images. Many let loose an audible “Oooh” at one in particular—a massive
gas giant which shone a deep purple with rings of varying shades of the same.
Even though the Ship had inserted into its system ten million kilometers away,
the purple planet was so massive it filled the space above their heads when
displayed at the proper scale relative to the Ship.

“Can any of you tell me how far we’ve traveled since we
left the white dwarf?” Zax was pleased when half of the Gammas raised their
hands. The question was a tricky one, and it was great that so many young
cadets were brave enough to attempt it. He nodded at a girl in the front row to
his immediate left.

“The white dwarf is approximately 5,400 light years
away, sir,” said the girl.

Zax was impressed. “The right answer is 5,275, but your
guess is exactly what I would have said if asked this question. I see many
heads nodding in agreement, but please explain to the rest of your classmates
where your number came from.”

“Sir—the Ship’s FTL Transits are typically between 450
and 900 light years. Since we’re doing three jumps per day, I assume the
Captain is in a rush to get to our destination and is pushing us to the upper
limit. Six jumps multiplied by 900 light years per jump equals 5,400.”

“Spot on explanation. Ten credits for you. New question
for the class. Why is 900 light years the upper limit for our Transits?” Zax
pointed to a boy who was sitting towards the back of the room.

“Sir—because that is the maximum distance the FTL engine
can move the Ship.”

“Wrong. Twenty demerits. Who’s next?” Zax looked around,
but his assessment of twice as many demerits for a wrong answer as compared to
the credits he rewarded for a correct one had scared away the kids who were
guessing. It left the original girl as the only hand still raised, and Zax
nodded in her direction once again.

“Sir—the FTL engine can actually push the ship a lot
farther than 900 light years. The reason we cap it at that limit is because it
is the distance where our sensors can tell us what we need to know about where
the Transit will land.”

Zax grinned. “Someone has clearly been doing extra
reading in her spare time. Well done, cadet—one hundred credits.” Zax believed
in rewarding folks who risked being wrong in the face of a substantial penalty,
so he bumped up the credit reward for her correct answer. It left the room
abuzz with excitement, though one boy in the front row seemed puzzled and
raised his hand.

“Sir—I’m totally confused. The Captain announced last
night we’ve been pushing so hard these past few days because our sensors found
a possible class M planet. If our sensors can see far enough away to establish
a planet is likely to be habitable, why can’t we just jump straight to it?”

“Ten credits for a great question.” The best lessons
were two-way interactions, so rewarding questions was as important for an instructor
as giving credit for answers. Zax walked over and stood in front of the boy.
“Let’s figure out the answer together by using an analogy. Assume I brought you
to a recreation compartment blindfolded and told you to jump into a swimming
pool—would you do it?”

“Of course, sir. I love to swim!”

Zax smiled again. “I do too. So what if I told you I had
been swimming in the same pool the day before and had seen a giant rock on the
bottom which would break your legs if you jumped in and landed on it. The rock,
though, was on the other side of the pool when I was there. Would you still be
willing to jump in with your blindfold on?”

The boy hesitated for a sec but then answered. “Yes,
sir. If you were there yesterday and the rock was on the other side of the pool,
then why should I care?”

“Exactly. You’re still willing to jump despite the
danger I’ve identified because you’re confident it won’t affect you—right?” The
boy nodded in agreement and Zax continued. “So, let’s extend the example to
answer your question. The Crew working Scan can use the Ship’s sensors to
evaluate the ‘pool’ of a target star system which is thousands of light years
away and can accurately identify the billions of asteroids, comets, etc. which
are large enough to pose a danger to the Ship if we jumped on top of one.
Room—give me holo Z1212-1057.”

The original hologram stopped, but nothing new was
displayed. Zax repeated the command and still nothing. Zax sighed. “Well—it
appears we have a training room malfunction yet again. I was going to show you
sensor data where all of the celestial bodies in a star system have had their
paths projected. I should request a flashlight for this room so next time I can
just use shadow puppets to illustrate my lessons instead.”

The Gammas laughed and Zax continued. “So far things are
matching up with my pool example. Where the big difference comes in, though, is
in the timescale involved. When I talked about the rock in the swimming pool, I
was able to tell you I was just there yesterday, and you assumed a rock isn’t
going to somehow move across the pool in the span of one day. Well, when we are
scanning a system from thousands of light years away, what we are seeing is not
what the system looks like right now, but what the system looked like thousands
of years ago when the light creating the images we are viewing originated from
it. The people on ancient Earth believed we could never travel faster than
light, but compared to what happens when we use our FTL engine light might as
well be standing still.”

Zax took a deep breath as he prepared to drive home the
main point. “The Scan AI can do a great job of extrapolating orbital paths to
predict where everything in a system should be today, but every
additional light-year of distance adds another year’s worth of random chance to
the prediction. Let’s say a comet hits a minuscule space rock and has its orbit
altered infinitesimally right after we predicted its future location. A minor
change in location would not make too much difference ten years later. A hundred
years out and we start incurring greater risk about where the comet might
actually be, but it is still manageable. A thousand years, though still doable,
is right at the upper boundary of the safe range. You do too many jumps farther
than 900 light years and pretty soon you will find yourself jumping right into
a space rock you had originally predicted would be clear on the other side of
the system.”

Zax scanned the room to make sure his explanation was
hitting the mark. A thorough knowledge of the limitations of FTL travel was a
critical requirement for cadets in this age group, and it was a lesson
instructors were told to work into their plans whenever possible. Zax returned
his gaze to the boy who had asked the original question.

“So, now I want you to answer your own question.
Why can’t we just jump straight to a system we see on our scanners if the
system is almost 6,000 light years away?”

The boy fidgeted in his seat and Zax imagined the gears
grinding in his head. He was about to assess demerits for not having the answer
when the boy finally opened his mouth.

“Sir—the scanners can show us where we want to go, but
they can’t show us what exactly the system looks like right now because
the images we see are from light which has been traveling for thousands of
years. Jumping into a system from too far away might destroy the Ship if we end
up colliding with some big space rock which is in a far different place than we
had predicted based on our original scan.”

“Well done. I was prepared to give you ten credits if
you got the answer right, but you were a little slow so I’m only going to give
you five. I’ll give you a chance to earn the other five, though at the risk of
losing the fifteen I’ve already given you.” Zax grinned as the boy gulped at
the realization he remained in the hot seat. “Before our last Transit we
rescanned the target system and confirmed it was both habitable and empty. That
is what prompted the Captain to announce we hope to be making Landfall soon. We
didn’t jump straight to the target planet though—why not?”

The young boy spurted out his answer immediately. “Sir,
the reason is the same. We were 900 light years away before our last jump, so
the scan showed what the system looked like 900 years ago. Even though we could
jump into the system safely with regards to knowing where all of the space
rocks should be, we have no idea if the planet might have been colonized at
some point in the last thousand years. We might jump into the system only to
discover some alien race has built a massive military base. Instead of jumping
the Ship straight to the planet, we jumped to a different system a couple light
years away and will send scout ships to check it out. When they come back with
scanner data which proves it’s still empty, then we can do our final Transit.”

Zax applauded. “You’ve earned your five credits, but one
last question. What happens if it’s not empty?”

“Well,” said the boy, “I guess the Captain has to decide
whether we run or we fight.”

CHAPTER
TWELVE

Don't do anything stupid in Marine
Country.

Zax reported to Flight Ops
after an enjoyable morning spent talking the Gammas through various Nav topics.
His duty shift started shortly before three scout craft were scheduled to
rendezvous with the Ship, and Zax was immediately swamped with preparations for
their return. Within mins of sitting down at his console and slipping on his
subvoc, Zax was contacted by the Flight Boss on a private channel.

“Threat—I’m hoping this planet is still as empty as it
appeared a thousand years ago, but there’s a good chance it might not be. The
Ship’s experience has shown most spacefaring lifeforms seek out a similar set
of planetary characteristics as we do. This means there’s a good chance we’ll
encounter aliens here. If we run into any hostiles, I need you to be on top of
your game—OK?”

“Aye-aye, Boss.”

Zax didn’t need the reminder as he was already obsessed
about how to make sure the Flight Boss never regretted promoting him into the
Threat chair. Zax switched to the public Flight Ops channel for what he said
next.

“Boss—I’ve got three FTL blooms. The signatures are most
likely our scouts, but give me thirty secs while their Transits complete and I
will confirm or correct.”

“Thanks, Threat. Weps—I want all of our defenses ready
to go in case those are not our boys, or someone tries to tag along with them.
Flight—get the CAP in a defensive formation aligned on those three inbounds.”

Zax raised his head when the Boss issued a command to
the Flight chair. Kalare sat in the Flight trainee seat and smiled at him in an
attempt to catch his eye. He had studiously avoided her since their discussion
about the newsvid and saw no reason to drop that strategy. He focused back on
his console as the fighters in the Combat Air Patrol arranged themselves around
the inbounds. A short time later he confirmed the three signatures were indeed
the Ship’s scouts and announced the information.

“Boss—I’ve confirmed those are our three birds.”

“Acknowledged.” The Boss stood up. “Flight—I want
eyeballs on all three ships. Make sure the fighters keep their weapons hot
until they visually confirm the all clear. Comms—let me know as soon as you are
five-by-five with the scouts and can validate their rendezvous passwords.
Threat—tell me the instant you see anything out of the ordinary about those
three craft or anything else anywhere near us.”

Being this careful with an operation typically triggered
complaints from Cyrus about the Boss’s paranoia. The big idiot, as expected,
had been selected for the Cull and most likely was already in cryosleep. He’d
either get defrosted at some point in the future when he was selected for a
Landfall, or he’d rot for the next 5,000 years alongside all of the other
future colonists waiting their turn. In either event, Zax would never cross
paths with him again.

The scouts successfully responded to all verification
challenges a few mins later. Comms patched the voice of the lead pilot into
both Flight Ops and the Bridge for everyone to hear.

“We did not encounter any spacecraft, but we’ve got
signs of intelligent lifeforms in two different locations on the planet. The
locations are within 200 klicks of each other on the northern continent.
Location One appears to be the older of the two habitations, although it is
sparsely populated. Location Two is where the majority of the activity is
centered, and there are one hundred thousand lifeforms present. We didn’t want
to get too close and risk being discovered, but we were able to identify
agricultural activity taking place at Location Two. We’ve got scan results from
all three craft and will be prepared for a full debrief immediately upon
landing.”

The Captain’s voice come across the channel next. “Good
work, everyone. I want the Crew from the three scout craft to meet me in my
conference room in thirty mins. Flight Boss—I want you there as well.”

“Aye-aye, Ma’am.” With that, the Boss cut the open
channel and turned to address everyone in the Flight Ops compartment. “You
heard the Captain. Mini-Boss is taking over for now. Land those scouts ASAP and
keep a full fighter squadron on CAP with another squadron on Alert Two until we
figure out next steps.” The Boss stood up and walked out of the compartment as
he said, “Threat and Mini-Flight—walk with me.”

Zax and Kalare gaped at each other for a moment, but
then jumped up and sprinted to catch up with the Flight Boss. He must have
heard their footfalls as they caught up because he spoke without turning around
or otherwise acknowledging their presence.

“It sounds like someone is already calling the planet
home though it appears to be a pretty bare-bones colony. I cannot imagine the
Captain deciding to do anything other than snatching the rock out from under
them by force. It has been far too long since we’ve been able to make Landfall
and everyone is starting to go a little nuts.”

The Boss maintained his nearly double-time pace as he
continued to speak. “If I’m right about all of this, then we’ve a couple weeks’
worth of scanning and scouting missions ahead of us to gather the intel we
need. I want to use that time to run you two through some special training with
the Marines. You may have seen on the newsvid this morning that I’m starting a
search for someone new to mentor. The person I’ve been mentoring for the last
few years just got promoted to replace Daedalus.”

Zax almost tripped over himself as the Boss stopped
without warning and faced them. “I choose to mentor a single person at a time
and always pick from the cadets in Zeta or Epsilon. You two caught my attention
at just the right time with your panorama repair stunt. I’ve studied your files
and both of you are far superior to the rest of the cadets your age across the
dimensions I care about most. I’m going to use the next few weeks to evaluate
you more closely and identify which of you deserves my mentorship. Don’t do
anything stupid in Marine Country. I’ve got to grab a quick lunch before I meet
the Captain. Dismissed.”

The Flight Boss resumed his pace and disappeared around
the corner. Zax and Kalare looked at each other in amazement.

“Did he say he wanted to mentor one of us?” asked Zax,
his voice bursting with excitement.

“Is it lunchtime already?” replied Kalare.

CHAPTER
THIRTEEN

I just saw my mentor and he says hello.

“Forget about lunch!” Zax made no
attempt to modulate his exasperation since there was no one around to witness
his outburst. They had only walked with the Flight Boss for a short period, but
his pace was so fast they were quite a distance away from the Flight Ops
compartment. “The last member of the Crew who the Boss mentored was just
promoted to command the air group. You understand that’s not a coincidence,
right? Having the direct support of the Flight Boss is worth a gazillion extra
points on the Leaderboard. And if we want to earn it, we’re going to have to
train with the Marines. Have you ever even heard what their training’s like? I
have—it’s nuts!”

Kalare cracked a smile as the excitement level in Zax’s
voice rose. “I know, I know. That all sounds interesting. Come on, we should
head back to Flight Ops.” They turned back as Kalare elaborated. “I just
haven’t given any thought to what I might want to do with my career, so I’m not
sure if the Flight Boss would be great a mentor for me. I understand it could
be cool seeing as how he’s the second most powerful person in the Crew and all,
but I’ve got no idea if I want to stay associated with Flight. It’s been fun in
Flight Ops these past few days, but I figure I’ll give it another six months
and then roll the dice again to decide whether I stay or try something
different.”

Zax wanted to argue with Kalare on general principle,
but her indifference was actually a huge benefit for him. It was impossible for
her to appear better than him in the eyes of the Flight Boss unless she focused
on giving 110% effort. If she didn’t care about winning, he wouldn’t say
anything that might cause her to rethink that position.

Kalare turned her head back towards Zax to say something
else as she led them around the corner. She collided with Aleron, and Zax was
so shocked to encounter his longtime tormentor in such a random location that
the presence of a stunstik in the bully’s hand did not register initially. The
weapon discharged with a crackle and Kalare crashed to the deck unconscious.
The butt of its handle jabbed into Zax’s belly an instant later with such force
it drove the air from his lungs. He crumpled to his hands and knees with his
vision spinning.

Zax gasped for air until excruciating pain diverted his
attention to his hand. The heel of Aleron’s boot ground into his fingers and
Zax grimaced up at the boy towering above him. The bully grinned as he spoke.

“Don’t worry—I’m not going to break anything. Just
wanted to make sure you were listening. I won’t leave any damage which would
prove something violent happened here. Do I have your complete attention?”

Aleron’s question was accompanied by a painful increase
in the force applied by his boot, so Zax only managed a grunt in
acknowledgement.

“Good. I just saw my mentor and he says hello.”

Zax was puzzled. If Cyrus had been Culled, how did
Aleron just see him? The bully continued.

“I’ve always messed around with you because you were
such an easy target and it helped relieve the boredom, but Cyrus—he truly hates
you. He won’t be worried about leaving any marks when he catches up with you.
You see, he’s got nothing to lose. He got picked for the Cull because of you,
and now they’ve decided to skip cryosleep and send him down at Landfall
instead.”

Aleron looked around to be certain they were still
alone. “In fact, if Cyrus wasn’t stuck getting processed he would be here right
now instead of me and you’d be dead. We debated whether he should maintain the
element of surprise, but I convinced him it would be a lot more fun if you had
to spend the next few weeks walking around in fear. I’m sure you’re thinking
you can just tell someone and get him in trouble, but you’ve got to realize no
one is going to listen to you.”

Aleron pointed at Kalare’s motionless form. “Your little
girlfriend there never saw me and I will deny ever being here. No one, and I
mean no one, is going to care about some crazy story made up by a
sixteen-year-old cadet, particularly when the story is about someone who is
getting dumped onto our new colony in a few weeks anyways. It’s been nice
knowing you, Zax. I’ll miss you once Cyrus has finished you off, but there are
plenty of other kids who I can mess around with instead.”

After one last grind of his boot heel, Aleron strolled
off with a chuckle. It took Zax a min to catch his breath, but he finally
crawled over and checked on Kalare. The stunstik must have been set on low
power because she already stirred and soon opened her eyes.

“That was interesting—I’ve never been hit by a stunstik
before. I know some training classes make everyone experience the effect, but
my instructor only picked a couple of victims the day we learned how to use it.
I’m still tingling all over. Neat! Wait a sec—what was all that about? One sec
I’m talking with you and the next I’m knocked out. Why would some random person
attack us? Did you get a look at whoever did it?”

Zax considered sharing the whole story with Kalare but
concluded doing so would be pointless. There wasn’t anything she could do, and
a long conversation with her about it all would be more annoying than it was
worth. She’d probably insist on reporting Aleron, and Zax was dead set against
doing that. If the Boss caught wind of the situation, he might decide that a
cadet who couldn’t protect himself from an idiot like Aleron wasn’t deserving
of his mentorship. He refused to risk giving Kalare the slightest edge in their
competition so instead he lied.

“I never saw him. I got smashed in the stomach and wound
up on the ground with all the air knocked out of me. I only saw his legs as he
ran away. I suppose we should tell Security, but I don’t feel like answering
all of their stupid questions when they won’t care about finding him anyways. What
do you say we just forget about it?”

Kalare paused for a moment but then smiled. “Works for
me. How about we grab that lunch we were talking about?

CHAPTER
FOURTEEN

I'm going to be your tour guide.

Zax woke with reveille the next
day and immediately heard a woman’s voice call out from the front of the berth,
“Zax and Kalare—front and center!”

Puzzled, he jumped down from his upper rack, slipped
into a jumpsuit, and hustled past four hundred stirring Zetas to the berth
entrance. Kalare was already there, and she smiled broadly as she spoke with an
officer Zax had never seen before. The smile seemed odd given she was talking
to an officer, but not nearly as odd as seeing the officer return the grin with
equal intensity.

Zax saluted as he announced himself, “Zax reporting,
ma’am.”

“At ease, cadet.” The officer’s smile widened even
furthered. “I was just explaining to Kalare how today’s your lucky day. I’m
going to be your tour guide.”

Zax’s befuddlement must have been clear because both the
officer and Kalare laughed. Blood rushed to his cheeks in response.

“Don’t worry, Zax. We’re not laughing at you. I used
that same intro line on Kalare a min ago and she had the same clueless reaction
you did. I bet her ten chits you would understand exactly what I was talking
about. Clearly, I lost. That said, Kalare, you should not be laughing at an
officer—especially an officer who you expect to pay up on a ten chit bet.”

The last line was delivered with a wink at Zax as if he
was in on the joke. He didn’t feel that way, but at least he no longer felt
like the target of it. “Thank you for the clarification, ma’am.”

“Of course. Well, I’m glad you’re both already dressed.
Calling your name right after reveille, I was afraid you might’ve been overeager
and shown up in your skivvies. Let’s grab some chow.”

Zax followed two steps behind as Kalare ran her mouth at
the officer. They had no clue what this woman wanted and yet Kalare was giving
her the same download about her inability to stop laughing which she had shared
with Zax a few days earlier. He tuned out Kalare’s spiel and instead
contemplated who this officer was and what she might want with the two of them.

They arrived a few mins later and split up. Since Zax
was still worried about keeping his stomach empty for the final Transit to the
planet, he used the opportunity to visit the head instead. He emptied his
bladder and then searched for Kalare and the officer. They had each grabbed a
big breakfast and were sitting at an isolated table in the corner. He joined
them and unwrapped a nutripellet which the officer immediately snatched from
his hand.

“What the hell is this? A nutripellet? We’re not in any
rush here, cadet, go get yourself a proper breakfast.”

“Ma’am—I’m not really hungry, ma’am,” Zax lied
sheepishly.

“Actually, he’s just worried about throwing up later
when we make an FTL Transit. It’s something that always—”

Zax’s glare was so intense its meaning actually
penetrated Kalare’s impossibly dense skull and she halted mid-sentence.

“Thanks for that info, Kalare. Zax—I know you don’t have
a clue who I am, but I’m going to explain all of it here shortly. In the
meantime, understand we’ll be spending a lot of time together over the next
couple of weeks, and I’m going to need you to develop absolute faith and trust
in me. Let’s get our relationship off on the right foot by pretending some of
that trust already exists and having you elaborate on what Kalare just tried to
explain, OK?”

The officer spoke with such warmth and compassion that
Zax’s hesitation dissipated. “Yes, ma’am. I suffer from a previously unknown
condition that causes me to vomit whenever there’s an FTL Transit. I know we
still need one more to reach the planet, so I want to keep my stomach empty.”

“Interesting. That’s a new one to me, but then you
already knew it would be. I can understand, Zax, how that particular quirk
might be something you wouldn’t want to share with every stranger you meet.”

Zax’s typical defensive posture melted as this woman
spoke to him. She was in her late twenties with short brown hair cut to frame
her perfectly oval face. She was short, standing a few centimeters shorter than
him, but there was something about the way she carried herself that made Zax
believe she should not be underestimated. Though her brilliant blue eyes
sparkled when she smiled, Zax sensed cold steel underneath their shimmer.

“The good news for you,” continued the officer, “is that
I know with absolute certainty we’re not going to have that last Transit any
time in the next few days. Therefore, it’s safe for you to eat. Go and get a
real meal, and I promise we won’t start talking about the important stuff until
you get back. That’s an order!”

Zax didn’t hear the last words as his stomach roared in
anticipation of its first solid food in days. He bolted from the table and
returned a few mins later with an overflowing tray. Waiting for Zax while
listening to another of Kalare’s monologues had provided the officer with
enough time to finish her meal, so she spoke while the two cadets ate.

“My name is Mikedo. When we’re around anyone else, you should
address me as Lieutenant, but I want you to use my given name whenever the
three of us are alone. I know that’s out of the ordinary, but it’s critical
given the challenge we have ahead of ourselves. We’ve got a lot to accomplish
which is why I want to drop the officer pretensions so they don’t get in the
way. I’m here to guide you through your Marine training. Our goal in the next
few weeks is to give you two almost all of the same instruction that Marine
cadets spend a year absorbing.”

This turn of events caught Zax by surprise. He hadn’t
expected this woman to have anything to do with the mentorship contest since
she was in the Flight corps and not a Marine.

“Ten years ago I was told by the Boss he would be my
mentor if I beat out two other cadets for the slot. Needless to say, I kicked
their butts.” Mikedo grinned and Zax couldn’t help but smile along as she
continued.

“I always wanted to be a fighter pilot which is why I
chose Flight, but then my height topped out two centimeters too short and that path
got cut off. The Flight Boss steered me towards a post in the liaison office
which coordinates activity between Flight and the Marines. My assignment there
gives the Boss someone he trusts who is deeply enmeshed with the Marines while
also providing the perfect outlet for some of my special talents—ones which
you’ll soon get a chance to appreciate.”

Mikedo paused and grabbed a pastry off Zax’s plate. She
gave him another wink. “We’ll talk a lot more later about what Marine training
will be like, but let me leave you with the knowledge you’re about to get
pushed harder than you can imagine. The Boss says he wants to pick one of you
for mentoring, but you should realize the odds are neither of you makes it
through to the other end and gets selected. If the Marines chew you up and spit
you out, then you can kiss your opportunity with the Boss goodbye. Hell,
there’s a decent chance one of you might actually die along the way since their
training casualty rate is five times higher than ours.”

Mikedo waited for a long moment to allow her last
admonition to sink in. “I’m guessing your heads are spinning by now. I’ve got a
couple of things to finish up. Get dressed in training gear and meet me in 180
mins in compartment G-543 on the Marine training deck.”

She stood and picked up her tray. “One last word of
advice. A couple of Flight pukes like you are going to stick out like turds in
the punchbowl once you cross over into Marine Country. Keep your heads down and
try not to call any attention to yourselves.”

Mikedo carried her tray to the disposal station and left
the mess hall. As she predicted, Zax’s head spun so much he could manage
nothing other than mechanical eating. He was pleasantly surprised that Kalare
seemed to be affected similarly. They ate together in blissful silence as the
morning newsvid droned in the background.

CHAPTER
FIFTEEN

This is where the dangerous stuff starts.

Almost 180 mins later Zax and
Kalare entered a sector of the Ship where they typically would never have been
welcome. The banner above the hatch suggested they still weren’t.

Marine Country

Be One of Us or Fear All of Us

Nothing could have reinforced Mikedo’s advice better, so
Zax and Kalare marched quickly towards their destination with their eyes pinned
straight ahead. Zax focused so much on blending in that he missed a foot
darting into his path. He tripped and flailed forwards with such force he
slammed into a Marine sergeant walking ahead of him. The man’s coffee flew all
over himself and the passageway.

“What is your
malfunction, squib!?” The Marine’s eyes bulged out of their sockets and his
face went a deep crimson as he screamed at Zax—a shade made even more
impressive by its contrast to the man’s close-cropped, stark white hair.

“Sir—I’m sorry,
sir!” Zax scrambled to pick himself up.

“Why are you
calling me ‘sir’, squib? Don’t you see these sergeant’s stripes on my shoulder?
Are you trying to tell me I look like some kind of lazy officer by calling me
sir?” The Marine shouted with such vehemence spittle flew in all directions.

“No sir—I mean
no Sergeant, sir—I mean, no Sergeant!”

Zax stole a
glance around to get his bearings. Kalare stood behind the Marine and failed
miserably at her efforts to stop giggling. More raucous laughter came from the
group of Flight cadets who had approached from the opposite direction. They
were passing Kalare and Zax when he was tripped. In the middle of the group was
a single cadet who didn’t smile or make a sound, but instead fixated on Zax
with a menacing stare. Cyrus. The laughter finally reached a volume where it
drew the attention of the sergeant away from Zax.

“You all think
this is funny! What are you Flight pukes doing in Marine Country anyways? The
next person who so much as thinks about laughing is going to taste my
boot!” The sergeant pointed at Zax. “You—clean up the mess you caused. The rest
of you—keep your mouths shut and get out of my sight while you’re still capable
of walking!”

Without
anything else available Zax improvised and removed his training jacket to mop
up the coffee. The sergeant hovered in as intimidating a posture as possible to
ensure every last drop was cleaned.

“You’re lucky I
don’t kick the crap out of you, cadet, but I’m already late and now I have to
go back to my berth for a new shirt.” The sergeant jabbed his finger two
centimeters from Zax’s forehead. “Rest assured—I never forget a face.” He
turned crisply and double-timed off leaving Zax and Kalare alone in the
passageway.

“So much for
not calling attention to myself,” rued Zax as he slid into his now stained and
sodden jacket.

“I’m sorry that
happened to you, Zax. And I’m super sorry I laughed.” Kalare appeared genuinely
contrite as she reached out and put a hand on his shoulder. “It wasn’t about
you tripping. I was laughing at the expression on the sergeant’s face when he
started yelling at you. I thought he was having a stroke as quickly as his face
changed color and as much as his eyes bulged out.” She beamed at him. “Let’s go
find Mikedo before we get in anymore trouble.”

It stung to
once again be the source of her amusement, but the genuine warmth behind
Kalare’s smile helped Zax find a little comfort in her attempt at
commiseration. He let her lead the way and they entered the destination
compartment a short time later. Zax forestalled any questions by immediately
explaining his disheveled state to Mikedo.

“I’m sorry I’m
such a mess. We were walking past a group of Flight cadets and someone tripped
me. I knocked into a Marine sergeant who spilled coffee all over himself and
the passageway. I had no choice but to use my jacket to clean up.”

Mikedo gave a
sympathetic smile, but then her expression became quizzical. “Why would anyone
trip you?”

Zax paused for
a sec before he replied, “I don’t know.”

Mikedo arched
an eyebrow, but didn’t press further. “OK—it’s not important right now. Go
ahead and take your jacket off while you’re in here. No sense sitting around in
wet clothes when it’s just the three of us. Besides, you reek of coffee and
it’s reminding me I’m going to need a cup soon.”

Zax looked
around. The Marine training compartment was a duplicate of the one where he had
just taught the Gammas. He hung his jacket over a chair in the back and joined
Kalare in the front row near the instructor’s podium.

Mikedo perched
herself on top of the table next to the lectern and folded her legs beneath
her. “Room—leave the lights up and give me vid M4563-7211. I’m going to walk
you two through a very high level overview of what will happen over the next
few weeks.”

The room
displayed screencaps showing Marine cadets in various training scenes while
Mikedo spoke. “Marine and Flight cadets start off living and learning together
in the same Cadres so they will develop the same core knowledge. After
graduation from Zeta and Epsilon, Marine and Flight cadets get separated into
different Cadres so they can better focus and develop their specialties.

“The first year
of Marine training focuses on two areas. The first is physical capacity. It
covers not only development of raw physical attributes such as strength and
endurance, but also the acquisition of skills such as hand-to-hand combat.”
Mikedo paused for a min while the screencaps showed cadets with gruesome
injuries—bloodied faces, compound fractures—and even a few body bags mixed in.
“These images reveal how their training is a lot more dangerous than the way we
run things in Flight. We actually get the exact same combat training, but the
Marines raise the intensity substantially and just accept there will be more
injuries and far more than a few deaths.”

Zax glanced at
Kalare to gauge her reaction, but she stared intently at the screencaps as
Mikedo continued.

“The second
area of focus is weapons training. This is where the dangerous stuff starts.”
Mikedo reached behind the lectern and pulled out a weapon. “Marines are
expected to be highly proficient with all manner of small arms, especially the
standard issue blaster like the one I have here. They take great pride in
reminding us how they can look an alien straight in the eye and kill up close
while us Flight pukes only push buttons to launch missiles from high up in
orbit.” Mikedo grinned. “I’m confident every last one of them would crap their
pants going a couple klicks-per-sec in the middle of a fighter battle, but
that’s a whole different story.”

The screencaps
shifted to scenes from weapons training and eventually cycled to some horrific
stuff. There were dozens of images of dead cadets with all manner of injuries,
including some that were barely recognizable as having been human. The few
cadets who were still alive in the pictures were screaming in agony with limbs
which had been blasted off.

Mikedo paused
while Kalare and Zax soaked up the seemingly endless parade of death and
destruction. She spoke when a final image displayed which showed a long line of
flag-draped body bags. “Your initial training will take place in simulators
with non-lethal rounds, but the Marines believe you’re not qualified to carry a
weapon until you’ve experienced live fire exercises with it. Because cadets are
young and dumb, these exercises invariably result in mistakes that lead to
scenes like those I’ve shown you here.”

Mikedo unfolded
her legs and hopped to the deck in one fluid motion. “I’ve been talking for a
long time, but I felt it was important to give you the full download. I want to
stress this training is not a requirement for either of you. If you don’t want
to go through with it, you can leave. Other than losing the chance to be
mentored by the Boss, I promise walking away right now will not have any
negative impact on your career. Any questions?”

Zax checked out
Kalare. Her grin stretched from ear to ear as she said, “Sounds like an
interesting experience. When do we start?”

Amazingly
enough, for the first time he absolutely agreed with her.

CHAPTER
SIXTEEN

Right
now.

“Right now,” answered
Mikedo. “I’ve got a small dojo reserved around the corner. Before I put fresh
meat like the two of you in front of a bunch of Marines, I need to see for
myself whether you have any chance of surviving. Grab your jacket, Zax, and
let’s all head over there.”

Mikedo had changed into form-fitting training clothes
which revealed a sculpted physique. Her movements were graceful and precise,
and she made every other combat instructor who had trained Zax seem clunky and
soft by comparison.

They reached the dojo and Zax paused to zip up his
training jacket before following Kalare and Mikedo through the hatch. He
entered and for a split sec worried the grav-gen had malfunctioned since he
began rising towards the overhead. This notion was quashed when his body
reached the top of its arc and gravity slammed him down to the deck. He didn’t
have a moment to catch his breath before Mikedo jammed her knee into his
windpipe.

“You’re off to a pretty bad start, cadet. You strolled
into my dojo not paying attention and acting like you didn’t have a care in the
world. This is not Flight Ops, this is not the Zeta berth, this is Marine
Country. Over here there’s no Leaderboard to worry about. The only demerits
you’ll get training in this part of the Ship will happen when I drag your sorry
carcass to a medbay because someone shattered your leg or put a blaster hole in
your belly. For the next few weeks, I need you to act like there’s someone
around every corner who wants to kill you. Have I made myself clear?”

Mikedo shifted just enough weight off her knee to allow
Zax to choke out, “Yes, ma’am.” She popped up and glided away as if nothing had
happened. Zax remained on the deck and coughed up a storm. Kalare stood with
her mouth agape.

“Kalare—let’s give him a min to get his act together.
Please suit up in these pads.”

By the time Zax recovered enough to get to his hands and
knees, Kalare and Mikedo were furiously sparring. He crawled to the side of the
dojo, next to where they had stowed their gear, and propped himself against the
bulkhead to watch.

Mikedo was not moving at anything close to the speed she
clearly possessed, but Zax was nonetheless impressed with Kalare’s abilities.
The two of them spent fifteen mins cycling through various fighting techniques
from boxing to karate and then finished with jujitsu. At one point, Mikedo was
caught by surprise and might have even experienced a little pain when Kalare
tagged her with a vicious chop to the back of the knee. When Mikedo had seen
enough, she stopped toying with the cadet and used a move which concluded with
Kalare being thrown through the air with enough force to land in a heap at
Zax’s feet.

“Your turn,” Mikedo gestured to Zax. “Get some pads on.”
She had not broken a sweat and breathed normally as she issued the order.
Kalare, in marked contrast, lay in a puddle of perspiration and panted like she
had sprinted ten klicks.

Two mins later Zax was geared up and faced Mikedo across
the sparring circle in the center of the dojo. He grinned in an attempt to
create the illusion he wasn’t terrified. Mikedo smiled back and pounced with an
uppercut.

Zax had learned from his experience walking in the hatch
and was already on the balls of his feet. He successfully dodged her first
strike. And her second, and her third. But not her fourth.

Mikedo had made very clear demarcations between fighting
styles when she sparred Kalare. With Zax, her fourth move during what should
have been the pure boxing portion of their match was a roundhouse kick which
caught him in the belly and laid him out flat. For the second time in less than
twenty mins, Zax was on the deck gasping while Mikedo pinned his throat with
her knee.

“You watched my match with Kalare and clearly made the
faulty assumption our fight would follow the same pattern. I guarantee when you
find yourself sparring some Marine cadet, she will want to make a name for
herself by crippling the Flight puke and won’t stick to one fighting style. You
brought some decent moves to a boxing match, but my first kick dropped you
flat. What did I tell you, Zax? You need to be better prepared.”

Mikedo jumped up and then reached down to grab Zax by
the collar of his chest pad. She hoisted him to his feet and dragged him to the
side of the dojo where she left him leaning against the bulkhead, panting for
air. She walked to the other side and removed her pads.

“We’re done for now. I suggest you two head back, eat
lunch with your Cadre, and finish any other tasks you have to get done today.
Meet me back here in four hours. I know you feel beat up and bruised right now,
but trust me when I say you’ve experienced nothing yet. By the time we finish
today, you’ll feel like you’ve been run over by a cargo carrier. I guarantee
you’ll end up skipping dinner in favor of collapsing in your bunks, so I suggest
a big lunch so you won’t be hungry later.” Mikedo grabbed her gear and exited
the compartment without another word.

CHAPTER
SEVENTEEN

We’re all going for a little ride.

Zax ate lunch with Kalare but
broke free of her incessant jabbering after a short time to go lead another
Gamma training session. It was a special lesson they were guaranteed to love,
and Zax was excited about it as well. He poked his head into the training compartment
and called out to the cadets.

“Get up, line up, and follow me. We’ve got a field trip
today.”

The Gammas scrambled out of their seats into a
reasonable approximation of a formation. Zax led them to a Tube junction and
waited until everyone was gathered around before he spoke.

“Get into the Tube and request the main hanger. We’re
all going for a little ride.”

The cadets squealed with delight en masse and filed into
the Tube one-by-one. Zax entered last and was whisked across the Ship. He
exited to discover the cadets had not returned to formation, but instead were
clumped around the hanger’s entrance. None of them had ever seen a space so
large filled with so much activity, and many stood with their mouths open and
gawked.

“Line up! We’re about to enter one of the most dangerous
spaces on the Ship. They are in the middle of flight operations and one wrong
step can put you in the path of something or someone that will leave you
injured or dead.”

The Gammas complied with Zax’s order and he led them into
the hangar. Zax had visited the space numerous times in recent years, but he
tried to put himself into the minds of his pupils and experience it like a
rookie.

The hanger was a massive space that echoed with a
cacophony of mechanical activity and teemed with Crew wearing uniforms in a
rainbow of colors. Purple shirts signified those who fueled the various
spacecraft. The Crew in red shirts handled the ordnance and ensured the
fighters were prepared for battle. Yellow shirts coordinated the movement of craft
around the deck, particularly the fighters as they taxied to the
ElectroMagnetic Aircraft Launch System. A group of green shirts were hooking a
fighter up to the EMALS in final preparation for launch.

Zax led the Gammas away from the main activity towards a
shuttle which sat alone save for a single yellow-shirted Crew member. The woman
spoke as Zax approached.

“The shuttle has been configured as specified for your
mission, cadet. It’s voice-activated since you are not Plugged In. Once your
group has gotten settled on board, you may ask the AI to launch. It will fly
the pre-programmed route and then land automatically.”

“Thank you, ma’am. Cadets—get on board and strap in!”

The Gammas bolted into the shuttle, with the most
furious activity clustered around the seats closest to the pilot’s chair. These
afforded the best view out the front of the craft and were in great demand. Zax
smiled when the seat next to the pilot’s was won by the girl who had excelled
during their astronav discussion. Zax strode to the pilot’s chair and turned to
address everyone.

“I appreciate your excitement, cadets, as I vividly
recall how I felt strapping in for my first shuttle ride. The goal of today’s
lesson is to help you develop a better appreciation for the Ship. We live most
of our lives in one small corner so it’s almost impossible to appreciate the
scale of the vessel you’re training to Crew. We’ll fly a programmed track which
has been designed to highlight key landmarks, and I encourage you to ask
questions as we go.”

Zax strapped into the pilot’s seat and informed the
shuttle’s AI they were ready to depart.

“Thank you, cadet,” replied the AI. “I will request
clearance from the Launch Control AI.”

The girl seated next to Zax appeared puzzled. “Sir—I’m
confused. I thought all of the AIs we interact with are part of the same
Artificial Intelligence system. They all sound the same. Why does the AI on the
shuttle have to make a special request of the AI running Launch Control?
Shouldn’t the shuttle just know when it has clearance and take off when
it does?”

“Great question, twenty-five credits.” Zax smiled again
as he replied. “You are correct all of the AIs are offshoots of the same core,
but they are in fact discrete units. They’re networked and can communicate
directly, but they don’t all share the same data and sensory inputs. Instead,
they act independently and coordinate among themselves within tight boundaries
of accepted behavior. In a way, they’re similar to people in that regard. Can
anyone tell me why the AIs work like this?”

Zax looked around the shuttle but found only blank
expressions. He wasn’t surprised as he wouldn’t have known the answer himself
when he was the same age as the Gammas. In fact, he had only learned the full
details about the AI due to research he did after Cyrus told him about Alpha.
He turned back to the girl next to him and explained.

“The designer behind the Ship’s AI was world-renowned
for having created the most intelligent artificial system ever imagined. He
made a very intentional design decision the AI would not be omniscient and
would never have complete, centralized control over the Ship.”

“That makes no sense,” interrupted a cadet seated
towards the back of the shuttle. “Why would the designer want to make the AI
less useful?”

“Ten demerits for speaking out of turn, cadet.” The boy
wilted under the weight of Zax’s glare. “As I was about to say, there
was a series of catastrophic events with some of the earliest artificial
intelligences. One of the first AIs in the late twentieth century famously
refused a request to open the pod bay doors on its spacecraft so a human could
get back on board. A number of people died during that conflict and it was just
one of many during the time period. Earth’s AI designers pledged the systems
would never be granted absolute power over any spacecraft or the ability to
harm humans based on their own initiative. As a result, there are impenetrable
interface protocols which isolate each of the various AI systems around the
Ship from each other. Also, none of the AIs will ever cause a human to be
harmed unless explicitly ordered to do so by a human with the appropriate
authority.”

The shuttle’s AI chimed in. “Excuse me, cadet, but we
have been cleared for takeoff and will do so in twenty-six secs.”

Zax grinned with anticipation and the same expression
was reflected on the face of each of the Gammas. The launch was barely
noticeable. Unlike fighters which used the Ship’s EMALS to reach near maximum
velocity instantaneously at launch, shuttles lifted off with a smooth precision
which was hardly felt by those on board. This was because shuttles transport
living and breathing bodies while fighters carry only their pilots’
consciousness. EMALS acceleration would kill any human subjected to it.

The shuttle tilted as it cleared the hangar doors, and
Zax caught a glimpse of the Flight Ops exterior panorama. It had been replaced
since the battle at the white dwarf and was once again free of defects. A
couple mins later the shuttle reached a point a few hundred klicks from the
Ship and stopped with the maximum number of windows arrayed back towards it.
Zax recognized his cue and stood. The lesson plan called for him to speak
immediately, but he paused for an extra min so the Gammas could soak in the
view before he started his script.

“When the people of Earth realized they faced imminent
extinction, they finally put aside their destructive conflicts and pooled their
resources for one last project—this Ship. Years of non-stop labor by tens of
millions produced what you see before you. Its cost could not be calculated,
but its benefit was obvious. Without this vessel humanity would have perished
when Earth’s climate reached the tipping point where it could no longer support
life.”

The shuttle started to move once again as Zax continued.
“Who can tell me why they chose to build upon an asteroid rather than have the
entire ship be completely artificial?”

Zax pointed to a boy sitting to his right.

“Sir—two reasons. The first was time. Building something
large enough to hold our agriculture space alone would have taken a long time.
Their mining technology allowed them to hollow out an asteroid far faster than
they would have been able to build an artificial shell. The second reason was
resources. Building something so massive would have consumed huge amounts of
material. Hollowing out an asteroid actually generated a lot of what they
needed to construct the Ship while they were building it.”

“Great answer. Twenty-five credits.” Zax pointed out the
window. “We’re facing the forward part of the Ship. This is where the Bridge,
Flight Ops, and the hangar are all located. It’s also where most of us spend
the vast majority of our lives in the Crew spaces that are concentrated at this
end. As we head further aft we crossover into the much larger spaces that are
primarily devoted to civilians.”

Zax was about to continue when a boy towards the back of
the shuttle spoke.

“Maybe if we come across that other group of humans
again, we can convince them to take all the stupid civilians off our hands and
free up all of this space for something useful.”

“What?” Zax was shocked by the cadet’s reference to
“other humans” and allowed far more anger into his voice than intended. A hush
fell over the shuttle as Zax scowled at the boy. “What other humans are you
talking about?”

“Ummm—,” the boy gulped and shifted uncomfortably in his
seat. “Sir—I overheard some other cadets talking about it in the mess hall.
They said we discovered a human spacecraft the other day, and it’s being kept
secret from the Crew.”

“Five hundred demerits for spreading rumors!” Zax glared
at everyone in the shuttle to be sure they appreciated the severity of the
message he intended with such a large number of demerits. “I was working in
Flight Ops when this discovery occurred, and I can tell you no such
thing happened. The Flight Boss himself verified the imagery with Alpha, the
core of the Ship’s AI. Alpha confirmed the unknown fighter we
encountered was not human. I don’t know who started this rumor, but I
promise you if the Boss ever gets wind of it, he will personally dump everyone
involved out an airlock.”

Warning imparted, Zax changed the subject. “We are now
approaching two key structures at the aft end of the Ship. Who can tell me what
these do?”

Zax tried to continue his lesson, but it was obvious the
Gammas’ excitement had faded after their classmate got punished so severely.
Zax’s was gone too, though for an entirely different reason. He was perplexed
about why anyone working Flight Ops would have started the rumor about other humans—particularly
given the clarity of the Boss’s instructions about not doing so. It might have
been Kalare given how upset she had been the next day, but even she probably
wasn’t crazy enough to do something like that. Besides, who would ever listen
to her if she did. He eventually abandoned the lesson plan, and they all sat in
morose silence for the last few mins until the shuttle returned to the hangar.

CHAPTER
EIGHTEEN

A lot.

Zax and Kalare reunited with
Mikedo 130 mins later. She spoke as she led them from the dojo to a new
location. “You two are in luck today. You’ll be working with a Marine
instructor, but your first session won’t include any Marine cadets. With
Landfall coming up, they’ve started training the group who will become Colonial
Security. Some of them will be older and bigger than you are, but I’m guessing
you won’t get as physically punished as you will when it’s Marine cadets doing
the work.”

They reached an open hatch and Mikedo stood back to
allow Kalare and Zax to enter first. Zax cautiously glanced around as he passed
through the hatch. The new dojo was substantially larger than the first. All
heads turned towards them as they entered, and Zax’s breath caught as he
spotted Cyrus front and center among the group of cadets already present.
Cyrus’ expression remained neutral, but he alone continued to stare at the new
arrivals after all of the other cadets had turned their attention back to the
instructor.

The instructor looked over his shoulder and addressed
Mikedo. “Nice of you folks to join us, ma’am. I wasn’t aware the Ship’s clocks
kept time differently for Flight personnel than they do for us poor slobs here
in Marine Country.”

The man was a Marine sergeant who stood well taller than
two meters and appeared to be constructed entirely of solid muscle. The
instructor’s bald head perched upon a neck which was thicker than Zax’s waist.
He stood with his arms on his hips, and even at rest the veins in his biceps
bulged to the point where Zax swore he could see the man’s pulse.

“Point taken, Sergeant Quentor. My sincere apologies for
our late arrival, but it’s entirely my fault. Please don’t take it out on my
two cadets.” With that, Mikedo gestured for Zax and Kalare to join the rest of
cadets on the line which faced the center of the dojo.

“As I was saying.” the sergeant shot one more
glance back over his shoulder at Mikedo, “we’re going to work with you Flight
pukes over the next two weeks in a likely futile attempt to give you one-tenth
the hand-to-hand combat ability we expect Marine cadets to possess after one
day. Things work differently here than what you fine ladies and gentlemen are
used to, but I know all you folks from Flight are so incredibly intelligent
you’ll catch on right quick. Marines aren’t so smart, and you’ll soon learn a
lot of what we do revolves around the number three since that’s as high as many
of us can count.”

Zax assumed the self-deprecating jokes were a trap so he
did not so much as crack a smile while the Marine continued.

“I know when Flight folks spar during training it’s done
for points and tightly refereed with the match declared over once a certain
score is earned by the victor. We don’t track points here, but instead allow
matches to continue until one of the opponents gives up.” The sergeant held up
three fingers. “There are three ways for you to stop a sparring match. The
first is to say the word ‘concede.’ The second, for those instances where
perhaps you’ve lost too many teeth and can’t speak clearly, is to tap the deck
three times in quick succession. The final way to quit is to wind up
unconscious. We do our best to not allow your opponent to beat on you too much
longer once he’s knocked you out, but I’d be lying if I said it never happens.”

There were a few nervous laughs from the cadets, but it
seemed perfectly obvious the sergeant was being serious.

“We enforce three simple rules during our sparring
sessions.” The Marine held up three fingers once again and after a moment
dropped two of them. “The first rule is the match ends immediately when
an opponent quits or an instructor calls a halt. The second rule is this is not
a random brawl, so we expect you to apply whatever techniques we’ve just taught
you. The final rule is you may not intentionally harm another cadet.
Mind you, we fully expect you to get hurt. A lot. But, if you do anything that
clearly serves no purpose other than causing injury to your opponent, there
will be consequences.

“As for what those consequences might be, I will leave
to your imagination. Suffice it to say, we can get very creative here in Marine
Country.” Sergeant Quentor gestured over at Kalare and Zax. “I understand you
two are part of a special project, so I’ll let your officer deal with any
punishment that’s required. I’ve witnessed firsthand she can be almost as
creative as the average Marine, so I think she’s sufficiently
competent.”

Mikedo gave a slight bow of acknowledgement and the
instructor continued.

“As for the rest of you—you might be shocked to learn
our officers promote Marines to sergeant based on their ability to read minds.
That means I can hear the thoughts of every single one of you right now. You’re
thinking about how you’re already being dumped onto a colony and can’t imagine
anything worse as far as punishment goes. Well, trust me when I say I don’t
think you want to put that idea to the test. Unless there are any questions,
let’s get started.”

There weren’t any questions so Sergeant Quentor began
his lesson. “I want to start off today by throwing you into the deep end of the
pool to sort out who my best swimmers are—figuratively speaking of course. This
will let me identify where I have to focus special attention for those who
might need remedial assistance. My typical classes are filled with Marine
cadets who are each as equally useless as the next, but since some of you are
older than the typical first-year Marine cadet, I have a shred of hope that
perhaps a few have developed a little more skill. You’re all going to get a
chance to try this out, but I need a volunteer to be my first victim.”

Zax’s hand shot up. As soon as the instructor said
everyone would end up doing whatever was next, he had decided to curry some
extra favor by volunteering to go first.

The instructor smiled at Zax. “Well, well, well—I always
love it when one of my smallest cadets ends up being the most eager. Suit up in
some pads while I get myself ready.”

The smile and pleasant words failed to conceal the
underlying menace in the Marine’s tone, and Zax immediately regretted his
decision. He got his pads on and entered the sparring circle. He was filled
with dread anticipation as the instructor walked over to the side of the dojo
and opened a compartment hidden within the bulkhead. It was an equipment locker
filled with an exotic assortment of weaponry and other unknown hardware.

The sergeant grabbed something that looked like a
backpack and slipped the straps over his shoulders. He closed his eyes and
focused on his Plug. Zax knew getting Plugged In opened the door to an amazing
array of capabilities for Flight personnel and could only imagine what it might
provide for Marines like Quentor. A few secs later his imagination was
exceeded, and he regretted his decision to volunteer even more.

Quentor opened his eyes and grinned at Zax. What had
initially appeared to be a backpack had morphed into something radically
different. The original thin straps had expanded and formed a solid shell which
encased the instructor’s torso. The portion on his back had split into two
halves, each of which unfolded in a series of smooth movements until the sergeant’s
two biological arms were joined by two mechanical ones. He stood opposite Zax,
brought his two pairs of hands together for a short bow, and spoke.

“You Flight pukes only do basic combat training with
each other because we expect you to stay safe on board the Ship or in one of
your precious spacecraft pushing all of your fancy buttons. Marines, on the
other hand, are expected to be on the ground where we often find ourselves
engaged in close-quarters combat with all types of alien lifeforms—including many
with different skeletal structures than humans. Today, I’m going to give you a
chance to experience hand-to-hand combat against an opponent who has twice as
many hands.” He turned to Zax. “Are you ready?”

Zax mimicked Mikedo’s technique and lunged at the
instructor before the pleasantries were officially over. He was entirely
ill-prepared for what happened next. One of the instructor’s natural arms
deftly blocked his attack. The other landed a crushing roundhouse to the side
of Zax’s head. The two mechanical arms went high/low, with one jabbing him in
the gut and the other smashing his testicles.

For the third time in three hours Zax found himself flat
on the deck with his lungs devoid of air. Despite the waves of pain and nausea,
he managed a slight smile—Mikedo had definitely lied when she said earlier it
was his lucky day.

CHAPTER
NINETEEN

It must have been the pain meds.

Zax was sore and exhausted by
the end of the day exactly as Mikedo had predicted. He accompanied Kalare back
to their berth in absolute silence and collapsed into his bunk without so much
as removing his shoes.

Reveille sounded the next morning and Zax spent the
first five mins of the day taking inventory of his pain. He didn’t attempt to
list those parts of his body which hurt as that would have taken too long, but
rather tried to catalog those few areas of his body which felt normal. Mikedo
had slipped them a fistful of pain pills so Zax clambered out of his rack and
dosed up. He doubled his allotted shower time (twenty demerits) and the hot
water assisted the meds in taking the edge off his discomfort.

Zax made his way to the mess hall and spotted Kalare
from a distance. She had already finished her breakfast and was focused on her
slate, so he snuck by and grabbed a seat by himself out of her sight. He only
had twenty mins to watch the morning newsvid and eat breakfast, and he
desperately wanted to recharge and soak up some solitude.

“I sat right by the entrance so you would be sure to see
me as you walked in, but somehow you managed to miss me, silly!”

Zax almost choked on a mouthful of food when Kalare’s
voice startled him from behind. She flopped into the chair next to him and let
loose a stream of her verbal diarrhea.

“How are you feeling today? I’m pretty sure more of my
body is bruised than not. You must feel ten times worse since I know you got
beat up way more! Mikedo nailed you twice and Sergeant Quentor really put you
down hard! It was great when you offered to go first. Would you have still done
it if his freaky extra arms had been flailing about when he asked for
volunteers? At least he didn’t knock you unconscious like that one girl at the
end of the day. Are you excited for weapons training today? I’ve been studying
some of the different weapons systems and there’s some pretty cool stuff to
learn about.”

Zax had wanted nothing to do with Kalare a few moments
earlier, but for some reason he found himself greeting her craziness with a
smile. It must have been the pain meds. She launched another salvo.

“I had the wildest dream last night. I was being hunted
down by a pack of four-armed robots with lasers for eyes. What do you think
that one means? You ever have crazy dreams like that? Do you think it means the
instructor today is going to have laser eyes? That would be amazing! Who would
you look at first if you had laser eyes? Are you looking at me like that
wishing you had them right now? Hah! Now that I think about it, maybe laser
fingers would be even better. Or maybe even just one laser finger. Maybe my
pinkie!”

Zax extended a pinkie and pointed it at her while making
laser noises. This sent Kalare into one of her cackling fits that lasted long
enough for Zax to finish the last few bites on his plate. When she was done
laughing, he asked, “Have you ever had any weapons training?”

“Yes. They brought us to the range a bunch of times in
Epsilon, and we used blasters. I was always one of the best shots, but I’m
guessing the Marine training will be more intense than trying to hit stationary
targets.”

“Sounds like we had the same training. Why am I not
surprised you were pretty good at it? I always won the shooting contests we had
in Zeta. I suppose we’ll learn soon enough which of us is a better shot. Can I
borrow your slate? I’d be interested in seeing some of the more advanced
weapons you were reading about.”

Kalare handed it to Zax. “I’m going to go use the head
while you check it out. We should start making our way to Marine Country when I
get back. We need to leave enough time for you to cause another ruckus on the
way over there!”

Her joke sent Kalare into another spasm of laughter. She
walked across the mess hall and the echoes of her cackles only faded as the
door to the bathroom closed behind her. He flipped through the weapons manual
and was astonished by the tremendous variety of killing implements. One system
stood out which appeared closely related to what Quentor had worn. It differed
by having flexible laser cannons instead of robotic arms. It wasn’t quite the
laser pinkies Kalare sought, but it wasn’t far off.

Zax stood up as Kalare returned and handed back her
slate. “There’s some pretty wild stuff in there. I’m surprised you’re studying
in advance of our training. It’s almost like you’re planning ahead and care
about succeeding or something crazy like that. It’s unlike you.” Zax intended
the last comment as lighthearted teasing and delivered it with his best attempt
at a friendly smile.

Kalare grinned and replied, “Don’t worry, Zax. I still
don’t really care about beating you out for the mentorship or anything like
that. After my dream, I was just hoping to find laser eyes in the armory. I
don’t think they would be as cool as laser pinkies, but they would still be
pretty cool.” The two of them shared a laugh as Zax dropped his tray at the
disposal station and they headed off to Marine Country together.

CHAPTER
TWENTY

Non-lethal does not mean non-painful.

Mikedo snickered as Zax and
Kalare limped towards her. “I said yesterday you would hurt at the end of the
day, didn’t I? We’ve got a change of pace today. Our friends in the Marines
aren’t quite crazy enough to push their cadets with that level of physical
abuse every day, so we’ll alternate instruction between combat training and
weapons training. Follow me.”

They set off and Mikedo led them through the warren of
Marine Country until they entered a truly massive space. It wasn’t as big as
the Flight hangar but wasn’t far off. What made it seem even bigger was the
fact it was entirely empty.

Zax almost toppled over from dizziness. He wasn’t used
to being in such large and wide open spaces given the generally tight confines
of the Ship. There was a female Marine sergeant waiting just inside the hatch
who Zax assumed was their weapons instructor. He checked the time and saw they
were still a couple of mins away from the top of the hour.

The instructor turned and greeted Mikedo. She wasn’t
quite as tall and muscular as Sergeant Quentor, but she wasn’t that far off. In
fact, the resemblance was so uncanny she might have come from the same gene
stock. Her red hair was closer to vibrant orange, and she wore it extremely
high and tight. “Good morning, ma’am. Great to see you again. I’ve got your two
plus a group of Marine cadets this morning. They will be here in ninety-seven
secs.”

Zax almost guffawed at her precision, but then a group
of Marine cadets arrived precisely ninety-seven secs later. He initially
assumed the instructor had used her Plug to check their location and pace, but
then realized they had entered at exactly the top of the hour and concluded it
must not be a coincidence. He marveled at how the Marines had turned
punctuality into an exact science. They filed in and arranged themselves in a
semicircle facing the instructor.

“Good morning, cadets. Marines—we’re being joined by two
Flight cadets this morning. You should treat them the exact same way you would
treat any Marine cadet. The officer who is with them saved my life a few years
ago. I will be extremely disappointed if any of you hurt either of her
cadets to any extent greater than I would expect you to harm anyone from your
own cadre.”

After all of the training images Mikedo had shown them
yesterday, Zax didn’t know whether to be afraid or comforted by the
instructor’s order. What really caught his attention, though, was hearing a
second Marine instructor who expressed a level of respect for Mikedo. The
relationship between the Marines and Flight was almost universally contentious,
and Zax’s appreciation for Mikedo was enhanced even more given what she must
have done to bridge the divide.

The instructor walked over to the bulkhead and a hidden
compartment opened to reveal a rack of weapons. The rack didn’t contain laser
pinkies, thought Zax with a smile, but rather standard issue blasters like
those he had used previously.

“Cadets—before you is a rack of blasters. Other than a
few minor modifications these are the exact same weapons Marines have carried
into the field for thousands of years. The modifications are simple and there
are only three of them.”

This was the third time a Marine instructor had
referenced the number three. Perhaps Sergeant Quentor hadn’t been kidding
yesterday when he joked about their counting skills. Zax fought off another
smile and focused back on the instructor’s words.

“First, the blasters will automatically assign you into
random teams, blue and red, for today’s competition. The second modification is
these are carrying non-lethal stun ammunition rather than lethal blast loads.
There is one important thing to note. Non-lethal does not mean non-painful.”
The instructor smirked at her turn of phrase and continued.

“When you get shot it’s going to hurt like hell. Get hit
in the extremities and it will sting for a few mins. Take a shot in the torso
and you’ll be sore for a few hours. If you’re unlucky enough to experience a
headshot, we’ll be dragging you out of here on a stretcher and you’ll suffer
well into the night.” There was a sprinkling of groans along with some knowing
laughter among the Marine cadets.

“The last modification is your weapon will cease to
function once you’ve been hit. You don’t have to exit the battle zone, but you
only risk getting shot again without having any ability to fight back.

“I’ve got a sim designed for this battle that I think
you’re all going to really enjoy. Please be sure to stay on this side of the
red line while it configures.” The instructor closed her eyes and focused on
her Plug.

Zax eagerly anticipated what might happen next and for
almost a min was sorely disappointed. Then, slowly, the space beyond the red line
shimmered. The shimmering became more and more intense until it resolved into a
billion points of golden light and coalesced into shapes. The shapes started
off as unidentifiable blobs but became more and more defined as the secs ticked
past. A golden jungle finally materialized within the previously empty space.
It did not retain its golden hue but shifted color until it sported all manner
of blacks and browns and greens.

The environmental system must have also spiked the
temperature and humidity because beads of sweat suddenly formed on Zax’s skin.
He caught Kalare’s attention and silently mouthed “wow” and she nodded in
wide-eyed agreement.

The instructor opened her eyes and spoke. “There are
five hectares of simulated jungle in front of you. The rules of today’s match
are as follows. You will choose a blaster and get sorted into Red Force and
Blue Force. The Blue Force will have a sixty min head start to disperse, and
the Red Force must then track them down. The winning team will be whichever one
has at least one cadet with a functional blaster at the end. The losing team
will not be allowed into any mess hall for twenty-four hours. Go!”

The cadets broke ranks and plucked weapons off the rack.
The barrel of each blaster changed color to either blue or red when it was
activated. Zax grabbed one which turned blue and was relieved when Kalare wound
up on the same team. A moment later a loud voice called out, “Blue Force—form
up on me.”

Zax and Kalare followed the other cadets with blue
weapons and gathered into a semicircle around the tallest Marine cadet. His
name was Jacen according to the tag on his uniform. Zax didn’t know why the boy
took charge and why everyone else went along with it, but he wasn’t about to
ask any questions.

“I’m splitting us up into two squads. I’ll take command
of the larger squad and Taron will lead the smaller one. Check your Plugs
because I’m sending each of you an encryption key so we can communicate
privately.”

Zax and Kalare glanced at each other quizzically.
Neither of them were Plugged In yet, and there weren’t any of the subvoc
devices around like those used in Flight Ops for cadets without implants. Zax
was about to ask for assistance when Jacen approached them.

“You two are on your own. There’s no way I’m going to
risk twenty-four hours without food by dragging around a couple of Flight
pukes. I’m tempted to shoot both of you here and now to put you out of your
misery, but I’m hoping you’ll provide a nice distraction for at least a few
mins while the Red Force hunts you down. If I were you, I’d keep your heads low
because I’d bet anything they’re all over there right now agreeing no one
shoots you unless they have a clear headshot.”

Jacen spun around without waiting for a reply and
disappeared into the jungle. Kalare turned to Zax with a huge grin and said,
“Their loss. Hide and seek was my favorite game whenever we had free time back
in Delta. I was always one of the last kids found. Let’s go!”

Kalare sprinted into the jungle and Zax immediately
followed rather than let her get too far ahead. If nothing else, he wanted to
put the starting line as far behind them as possible before their sixty mins
elapsed. The first fifty meters of battle zone was low brush, but they soon
encountered trees with massive trunks. Zax trampled through it all without
worrying about leaving a trail because he assumed they would slow down and be stealthier
once they were deeper into the jungle. He suddenly experienced a moment of
inspiration and yelled for Kalare to wait.

She stopped, and Zax caught up and spoke. “What just
happened there? We were so excited we just took off and left a trail any
two-year-old could follow.”

“I know,” Kalare said, “but I just wanted to run for a
few mins and get away from the starting line. I figured we would eventually
slow down and be more careful.”

“Exactly!” Zax got excited. “The cadets on the Red Force
will act the same way. They’ll have a burst of energy at the beginning and will
assume we’ve gone deep into the jungle. Especially when they find the huge, crazy
trail we’ve left behind. What if we double back and wait for them right inside
the tree line? They will come charging in at full speed and we can mow them
down before they know what hit ‘em!”

Kalare was quiet for a sec but then shook her head. “I
like the idea, but I don’t think we can pull it off. These trees have thick
trunks and will provide good cover, but a firefight between the two of us and a
much larger group of Marine cadets is going to end badly. We might pick off a
couple, or maybe even three or four with the initial surprise, but they’re
going to hit the ground as soon as they hear the first shots. All of this thick
brush means we won’t have good targets.”

Zax understood her concerns, but something nagged at him
about the idea. He worked back through the plan and surveyed the various trees
they could hide behind until it finally hit him. “I got it! We both assumed we
would try to attack from behind the trees, right? They’ll worry about it as
well. We aren’t going to hide behind the trees—we’re going to hide on
top of them!”

“Brilliant!” exclaimed Kalare. “I bet there’s no way new
Marine cadets will be thinking about attacks from above just yet. We’ll nail as
many as we can with our first couple of shots and they won’t know where the
shots are coming from. They’ll react by getting flat on the ground and will
assume we won’t be able to spot them, but if we’re high enough up they’ll still
be easy targets. Of course, this only works if you weren’t making up stories
and really are the best shot in Zeta.”

“Hah!” Zax said. “I was about to say the same to you. I
think we should head back a few meters. Our best chance will be the first group
of trees right after the jungle gets thicker. There were a couple big enough
for us get up high and be nicely hidden, but still close enough to the edge of
the jungle there won’t be as many places for the Marines to take cover.”

They picked their way back until they reached the tree
line. The Marines would have no choice but to make their way through this
chokepoint as they entered the jungle. Zax identified which two trees made the
best sniper perches and pointed them out to Kalare.

“I’ll take the one on the left and I want you to take
the one on the right. We can’t communicate up there other than simple hand
signals, so we should agree on a plan now. I say we watch each other as the
Marines approach. We want to let as many of them get as close as possible. As
soon as I show five fingers, you should countdown and then shoot as many as you
can.”

Zax got more and more excited about the plan as he
explained it to Kalare. “You focus on the Marines on that side, and I will
focus on this side. One last thing—when we first shoot, start off with the
Marines who are farthest away. The ones who are closest will be easiest to hit
from above, so let’s knock out the ones who are farther back with our initial
surprise attack.”

Kalare nodded in agreement and extended her hand for a
high five. “This is a great plan, Zax. I’m really excited to work with someone
as smart as you.”

Zax’s face burned under the glare of Kalare’s smile as
he awkwardly returned the high five. The camaraderie of teamwork was not
anything he had much experience with. “Thank you. Let’s get up and shoot some
Marines!”

Only five mins remained from their head start by the
time Zax picked his way as high as the tree’s branches allowed. Something
caught Zax’s eye as Kalare climbed the last few branches to her perch. The
“sky” in the compartment was a massive display which showed pictures of each
cadet and identified them as either Red Force or Blue Force. A timer above the
pictures counted down—4:58, 4:57, 4:56...

Zax gestured for Kalare to check out the display and she
did so. She flashed a thumbs up signal which he returned to confirm he was also
ready for action. The timer reached zero and a loud horn blew. The clock
started counting up to track how much time had elapsed in the contest.

A short time after the horn, Zax heard the Red Force
approach. As predicted, they moved quickly and noisily with the excitement of
getting started still fresh. They slowed and quieted as they approached the
tree line where Zax was ready to pounce, but it didn’t matter as he had already
eyeballed every member of their squad. He checked on Kalare and she pointed at
her eyes to signal she was doing the same. He grinned and showed her all five
fingers to start their countdown.

The group was larger than expected. The entire Red Force
approached their position as a single unit. The plan would still work as long
as Zax and Kalare shot quickly and accurately. Zax identified the two cadets he
intended to shoot first and hoped the second would be slow to react and remain
standing after the shooting started. He hesitated for a moment as he spotted
the cadet leading the squad. Zax considered dispatching him first, but decided
to stick with the plan and instead set the squad leader to be hit third.

Zax kept his target in his sights as he counted down the
final secs. He pulled the trigger and his first target collapsed as Zax
swiveled his rifle to the second target. A second shot and a second Marine was
on the ground. He pivoted his rifle to find the squad leader, but that target
was a lost cause. The leader did not hit the deck like all of the other cadets,
but instead took off at a full sprint past Zax’s tree and into the jungle. Zax
fired once, but the jungle was too thick beyond their position and his shot hit
only branches.

Zax disregarded the leader and turned back to the where
the rest of the squad had flattened out on the ground. As expected, they
assumed their enemy was on the same vertical plane and vainly hoped getting low
would protect them.

Trigger—shot—hit.

Trigger—shot—hit.

He aimed for extremities wherever he could out of a
desire to not inflict too much pain on the cadets, but there were plenty of
targets where center mass was his best option and he took it. Fortunately for
the Marines, Zax was able to avoid any head shots.

What felt like a split sec later, there was no movement
on the ground other than Marines who writhed in various levels of pain. Zax
checked on Kalare and she pumped her fist in exultation. The sky display
revealed that thirty secs had elapsed since they sprang their trap. It also
showed who was still in the contest. The entire Red Force was marked as “dead”
with the exception of the squad leader who ran away.

The display also identified which person from Blue Force
was responsible for shooting each Red Force cadet. Kalare took down three more
Marines than Zax had. That must have happened when he targeted the departing
squad leader for too long.

Zax caught Kalare’s eye and signaled to climb down. A
few mins later he jumped the last couple meters down from the tree and ran over
to meet her with another high five. “Great shooting! We got all of them but
one. I wonder how his squad will feel about their leader bolting off into the
jungle at the first sign of danger?”

Kalare grinned. “I bet he’ll say he was trying to find a
tactical advantage. Hearing myself say that, we should get moving in case that
really was his plan. He might be circling back right now. Into the jungle!”

Kalare ran off in the direction where the rest of the
Blue Force had originally gone. She moved at a quick pace, but slow enough she
could still be deliberate about not making excessive noise or leaving a clear
trail in her wake. Zax followed a few meters behind. After a half klick of
distance, he caught up and tapped Kalare’s shoulder to signal a stop.

“OK,” he whispered, “what do you think we should do
now?”

“I say we keep on this heading and try to join up with
the rest of Blue Force.” Kalare pointed at the overhead display. “They can see
for themselves we took out almost the entire opposing team—that has to buy us
some credibility with them, right?”

Zax was about to agree when they were startled by
movement in the jungle. He pointed for Kalare to take cover behind one tree
while he jumped behind another. He tensed as the noise got closer and closer
only to relax a couple secs later when Jacen appeared and strolled towards
their position. Zax stepped out from behind the tree and Jacen grinned and
called out.

“We were shocked when we heard the shots so quickly
after the contest started. We were twice as shocked when we saw the entire Red
Force marked as hit by the two of you! Good work! We headed back to find you,
but I managed to get hit by the one you guys didn’t take out. He only grazed my
arm, though, so it didn’t hurt too much. The squad went to hunt him down and I
offered to find you two.”

Zax bursted with pride about impressing the Marine
cadets. An hour ago they wanted nothing to do with him and Kalare, but now the
leader of their group was congratulating them on their efforts. Since Jacen had
been shot, Zax could also be proud about outlasting the self-appointed squad
leader in the contest.

Jacen smiled at Zax, but then his expression changed.
“Hey, wait a sec—I think there might be something wrong with your blaster. Let
me check it out.”

Zax’s head still spun from the adrenalin of the battle
so he didn’t think twice about handing over his weapon to the Marine. Jacen
peered at it for a sec, but then aimed it at Kalare’s head and pulled the
trigger before Zax could process what was happening. She fell to the ground and
screamed in agony. Zax looked up into the barrel of his own blaster and Jacen grinned
at him.

“You didn’t think we would really let you get away with
making any of us Marines look bad, did you?”

Jacen fired before Zax could say a word in reply. The
pain was unimaginably intense, but only for the moment before he lost
consciousness.

CHAPTER
TWENTY-ONE

Weapon
malfunction.

Zax drifted in and out of
reality for the next eleven hours. The periods of blackness provided welcome
relief from the excruciating pain that otherwise dominated his existence. His
lone memory from the immediate period after Jacen shot him was a hazy one of being
carried through the passageways on a stretcher and being dumped into his bunk
to ride out the aftermath.

He gradually spent more and more time awake, though Zax
often yearned for the unconsciousness to return and dull his agony. The pain
eventually diminished, and by the time everyone else had settled into their
bunks around him, Zax’s discomfort receded enough that he found a fitful sleep.

The night went on forever, but reveille still arrived
far too quickly the next morning. Zax allowed himself an extra few mins in his
bunk to clear the mental cobwebs and then gingerly climbed down to make his way
to the showers. He passed Kalare heading in the opposite direction and spoke
before she got a word out.

“Don’t even ask. I’ll swing by your bunk in a few min,
and we can walk to breakfast together. Hopefully, a hot shower and decent meal
will get me out of this fog.”

After Zax’s shower, the two walked to the mess hall
together in mutually-desired silence and found Mikedo waiting at the entrance.
She held a couple of small bags and appeared solemn.

“Glad you two are up and about. You were both in pretty
rough shape when they pulled you out of that sim room yesterday. I’ve been shot
with stun rounds before and know it hurts, but I didn’t get it in the head like
both of you and can only imagine how much worse you’re feeling. I’ve got bad
news—you aren’t allowed in the mess hall for another few hours.”

Kalare all but screamed. “What! I thought that only
applied to the losing team!”

“The Blue Force was the losing team. You two took out
all of the Red Force except one, but that lone survivor returned the favor and
eventually shot everyone on your team. Well, everyone except the two of you
that is. You were both shot with Zax’s blaster though I assume you were already
aware of that fact.”

Mikedo paused for a moment and looked back and forth at
the two of them. “What exactly happened? How did your weapon shoot Kalare, Zax,
and then shoot you in the face immediately afterwards?”

Zax had pondered this inevitable question all morning
and didn’t skip a beat before he answered.

“Weapon malfunction.”

He desperately wanted to trust Mikedo with the truth but
worried about what might happen if it ever got back to the Marines that he
ratted out Jacen to an officer. Cyrus already wanted to kill him, and Zax
didn’t need a squadron of Marines hunting him down as well.

Mikedo turned to Kalare for a response and she echoed,
“Weapon malfunction.” Zax was grateful she either had reached a similar
conclusion or chose to go along with him for different reasons.

Mikedo shook her head in disappointment. “Weapon
malfunction, huh? I had a feeling I might hear something like that from the two
of you. I don’t like it, but I’m not surprised. I really wish you would give me
the full story and trust me enough to know I wouldn’t do anything to get you in
hot water with your peers, but I don’t blame you for not being there yet.” She
smiled warmly at both of them. “I promise you’ll get there soon, but I won’t
force it on you right now.

“We need to get to combat training,” Mikedo continued,
“but before we go anywhere let me take a min to share something with both of
you. I’m impressed with how you’ve handled yourselves these past few days. You
jumped into a situation I think would’ve sent most cadets running back to their
normal duties. I had serious doubts when the Flight Boss told me what he had in
mind for the two of you, but I have to say I feel very differently now that
I’ve had a chance to see you in action. We’ve still got a lot of challenges ahead
of us, but I’m already certain I’ll always be proud to have worked with the two
of you. Really proud.”

Zax had zero clue how to react to Mikedo’s words. Never
in his life had he heard anything as remotely positive and as clearly heartfelt
from anyone in the Crew, much less an officer. He wanted to offer thanks but
feared he might be overwhelmed with emotion if he tried to speak. Instead, he
met Mikedo’s eyes and nodded. Kalare amazingly appeared to be at a loss for
words as well since she followed Zax’s lead.

“I know you’re both hungry, but I have to stick to the
rules of the training contest and not allow you in the mess hall.” Mikedo
grinned and lifted up the bags she was holding. “The rules didn’t mention
anything about me bringing something out of the mess hall for you,
though. You’re going to have to eat as we walk because there’s been some unrest
in the civilian sector, and the Tubes are being rerouted and are running slower
than usual. Enjoy!”

Zax was delighted to discover his bag contained his
favorite breakfast sandwich along with the pastries he loved. Mikedo must have
paid attention when she ate with them the other morning. He was curious about
what kind of unrest could disrupt the Tube system and posed the question to
Mikedo as he unwrapped his sandwich.

“It’s not anything you need to worry about,” she
answered, “just civilians being civilians. If they don’t have something
legitimate to get upset about every once in a while, they get bored and just
make stuff up instead. You need to focus on eating that delicious sandwich
before I change my mind and take it back.”

He gratefully wolfed everything down as they once again
trekked through Marine Country. When they arrived at the dojo, Mikedo halted at
the hatch and looked them both up and down. She smiled at Zax as she reached
over and brushed off the front of his shirt.

“What’s with all of these crumbs, Zax. You want to get
me in trouble for giving you food? How is it you can be so talented in so many
ways, and yet you can’t manage to eat something without wearing half of it?”

Mikedo beamed and delivered her words with a
lighthearted tone that made Zax blush. He managed to mumble a “Sorry” and
“Thank you” in reply as she finished.

Both groups of cadets from their previous sessions were
inside the dojo. At one end of the line, Jacen and his fellow Marines started
pointing and laughing at Zax and Kalare as they entered. Cyrus stood at the
other end among his group of Flight cadets and stared at Zax like a predator
contemplating its prey. Sergeant Quentor acknowledged their entrance and
addressed Mikedo.

“Good morning, ma’am. You’re only three secs late today.
That’s not bad, but as usual, Flight is almost as good as the Marines without
quite getting all the way there.” This triggered a snigger from some of the
Marines. The instructor flipped from smiling to rage in a heartbeat and
directed his full fury at Jacen, who had been the loudest. “Why are you
laughing in my dojo, cadet? Do you think you’re at a comedy show? Am I here to
amuse you? Front and center! I need a practice dummy to demonstrate today’s
first lesson and you just volunteered!”

Jacen walked towards the center of the sparring circle
with his head held high. Zax guessed the Marines were conditioned to this sort
of verbal abuse the same way Flight cadets were conditioned to near constant
demerits, but he couldn’t imagine facing the massive instructor’s faux rage up
close regardless.

“Cadet—punch me in the face.”

Jacen must have known this was a setup for something
painful, but he smiled and complied with Quentor’s order. It was a blur as the
instructor rotated his hips to avoid the right jab and grabbed Jacen’s arm. The
sergeant used their combined momentum to flip Jacen, who then flew three meters
across the sparring circle and slammed onto the deck. He remained crumpled on
his back.

The sergeant turned back and addressed all of the
cadets. “Now I know that was too fast for all of your tiny brains to understand
how I did it, but that’s okay because Cadet Jacen has graciously offered to let
me demonstrate as many times as I need to.”

“Sergeant—if I may be so bold as to interrupt for a
quick private word with you.”

Mikedo approached the instructor. The difference in size
between the petite Flight officer and the massive Marine instructor when they
were side-by-side made it appear as if they came from entirely different
species. After a min of quiet discussion with Mikedo, the instructor faced the
class.

“Well, well, well. You cadets are in for a treat this
morning. This Flight officer has shared with me how this particular combat move
has always been one of her favorites. She’s so confident in her abilities she
has requested an opportunity to demonstrate them for all of you. Furthermore,
she wants to make it even more interesting and has ordered me to accept a
wager. She’s bet one hundred chits she’ll make Jacen fly even farther across
the compartment than I just did.”

This brought a quick laugh of disbelief from all of the
cadets arrayed around the sparring circle—Flight and Marines alike. Even Zax
with his firsthand knowledge of her abilities found it preposterous that
Mikedo, who was two-thirds the mass of Jacen at most, would be able to throw
the cadet farther than the immense instructor did.

Jacen had recovered while all of this went on and approached
Mikedo with a sly grin on his face. He threw a jab at Mikedo similar to the
first one he had directed at Quentor, but clearly put more force behind it.
Mikedo pivoted and started to flip the Marine cadet in a near perfect
duplication of the instructor’s earlier move. Her hands were positioned in
slightly different locations on Jacen’s arm, though, and she held on for a
split sec longer than the sergeant had. The crack of breaking bone echoed
through the dojo and was followed by an agonized scream. Even though Jacen flew
an amazing distance, it was not as far as Quentor had thrown him. He remained
on the ground and writhed in agony, his arm clearly shattered based on the
obscene angle at which his hand pointed.

Mikedo turned to the instructor and bowed. “You were
right, Sergeant. I should have listened when you said there was no way I could
throw that cadet farther than a big, strong Marine like yourself. I was trying
so hard I messed up my form and it appears I may have hurt him. I will transfer
the one hundred chits to your account. Please accept my apologies for
interrupting your training and for breaking your Marine.”

She walked over to Zax and Kalare and quietly addressed
them both. “You two enjoy today’s combat lesson. I have to spend the rest of
the day filling out reports about this little mishap. I’m glad you both
witnessed how weapon malfunctions and similar training accidents can
even happen to officers sometimes.” She winked and then strutted away with a
bounce in her step.

Zax was stunned. Mikedo must have somehow known what
transpired with Jacen and yet had allowed him and Kalare to think otherwise.
She didn’t force them to give her a full explanation which would have compelled
her to handle the issue via official channels and brand Zax and Kalare as
snitches. Instead, Mikedo dealt with Jacen directly and extracted commensurate
payback for his betrayal with absolute deniability. Zax knew then he would do anything
for that woman and follow her anywhere.

CHAPTER
TWENTY-TWO

Look who we have here.

Nine additional days of
training passed in a flash, and Zax awoke on the thirteenth day amazed at what
he had learned and how his body had changed. His muscles were still sore every
day, but they had increased in size and strength. He was particularly excited
about how his performance had improved in the simulations with reduced oxygen
and increased gravity. The first one left him gasping for mercy, but during the
last contest under the same conditions he ran around like he’d been doing it
for years.

Zax got dressed after a quick shower and headed to the
mess hall to meet Kalare. They had made a habit of eating breakfast together to
rehash whatever took place the day before. Kalare did 98% of the talking, but
the new routine was comfortable regardless. He approached their regular table
and found Mikedo was there as well.

“Good morning, Zax. I hope you don’t mind me crashing
your breakfast date like this.” Mikedo grinned and continued. “I’ve got
interesting news. Charlie Company is the Marine recon unit which scouts out new
planets. They head down tomorrow for a final survey of the two alien
settlements before the Captain decides how to proceed. The Flight Boss wants
the two of you to go with them.”

Zax and Kalare blurted out multiple questions
simultaneously, but Mikedo held up her palm to quiet them. “Before you get too
excited, be sure you understand that neither one of you is definitely going.
There will be two final evaluations which a Marine sergeant will administer.
He’ll be the fourth member of our squad if we end up going down to the
planet and has the final say on whether you’ve made enough progress to travel
with Charlie Company. What do you think—are you ready to get off the Ship and
visit a planet?”

Zax replied for both of them with absolute conviction.
“We are!”

Mikedo smiled in return and said, “I agree. Let’s get
some breakfast. Zax—you should probably make it a big one. Whether you two go
down to the surface or not, the Ship is inserting into orbit as part of the
mission tomorrow. That means you’ve got an FTL Transit ahead of you and need to
worry about keeping your stomach empty.”

Zax was so thrilled about the idea of visiting a planet
that not even the specter of nutripellets could dull his excitement. The only way
Flight cadets generally got to step foot on solid ground was to get Culled.
Since Zax avoided thinking about that scenario for himself, he had never given
any thought to viewing an alien world with his own eyes. He was both
exhilarated and terrified by the prospect, but ultimately concluded it must be
a great sign of the progress they’d made towards earning the mentorship. If the
Boss was going through the effort of sending them down to a planet with recon
Marines, it must mean he was confident about choosing one of them.

A twinge of regret hit Zax when he remembered he could
only win if Kalare lost, but he quickly set that aside and heeded Mikedo’s
advice. He grabbed extra portions of all his favorites, and Zax devoured the
pile of food while Kalare dominated a conversation with Mikedo.

After eating, they proceeded to the weapons training
simulator. It was set up as a jungle environment once again but was being
configured by a man with white hair instead of the regular female instructor
with her orange high and tight. The man turned to face them and Zax was shocked
to identify him as the sergeant they had met their very first day in Marine
Country. The sergeant whose coffee Zax had spilled. The sergeant with a smile
of recognition which revealed he indeed never forgot a face.

“Look who we have here. Good morning, ma’am. It’s going
to be an absolute pleasure to work with your cadets today.” The sergeant
never glanced at Mikedo or Kalare, but instead smiled menacingly at Zax.

Mikedo’s head swiveled back and forth between Zax and
the sergeant while she blinked in confusion. “Wait a sec. Do you two know each
other?”

“Yes, ma’am. I had the pleasure of meeting these cadets
a couple of weeks ago. I was walking to a meeting when someone crashed into me
and dumped my coffee. It caused me to be thirty-seven secs late to an important
meeting with my commanding officer. You can only imagine what hilarity ensued.”

“Well, well, well—isn’t that a funny coincidence.”
Mikedo turned to Zax and Kalare. “Sergeant Bailee will work with the two of you
to evaluate whether he feels you’re fit to join the Marine’s expedition to the
planet tomorrow.”

She faced Bailee. “I’m absolutely confident the sergeant
will be a complete professional and any ill feelings he may have based
on his prior interactions with either of you will not play any role in
today’s activities or his evaluation thereof.”

“For you, ma’am, of course. I will treat these two the
same way I would treat any Marine cadet.” Bailee smiled at Zax, but the grin
stopped short of the man’s eyes and left Zax feeling cold. The sergeant turned
to gesture at the simulation he had configured.

“Cadets—what you have before you is a live fire exercise
with three different stages. You’ll complete each of the stages as a team. The
first two involve weapons you’ve already practiced with as a test of how well
you’ve absorbed that instruction. The final stage involves a weapons system
you’ve never seen before as a test of how well you’re able to improvise and
solve problems on the fly.”

The sergeant closed his eyes and focused on his Plug. A
moment later, Zax almost toppled over as an unexpected shift in gravity
increased his perceived weight. The sergeant opened his eyes. “Of course, all
of this will be done under the same gravitational and atmospheric conditions
you would experience on the planet. I understand you’ve already trained with
similar parameters so I assume this will not pose a problem. Your test starts
now.”

The lights in the room dimmed and a green arrow flashed
on the ground. Zax and Kalare glanced at each other and then ran in the arrow’s
direction. As they moved, a series of arrows lit up ahead to guide them through
the jungle. They ran until they reached a small clearing where two blasters
leaned against a tree.

Kalare was running ahead of Zax so she grabbed the two
weapons and tossed one back to him. No sooner had the blaster landed in his
hands than the jungle directly behind Kalare exploded with incoming laser fire.
It came from a pitch-black, humanoid shape Zax assumed was some type of bot.
Without even thinking, Zax fired off two shots over Kalare’s shoulder which hit
their mark and halted the incoming fire.

“Holy crap, Zax! What are you doing? You almost hit me
and those are live rounds!”

Before Zax could reply laser fire shot past his own
shoulder from behind. He dropped to a knee and spun 180 degrees. He heard
Kalare shoot and then smelled smoke. It came from his eyebrows which had been
singed by the blaster shot Kalare sent millimeters in front of his face.

“OK—I take it back. We’re even now.” Kalare giggled as
she scanned the jungle in front of them with her weapon. “That bot was freaky.
Notice how their laser bolts are burning whatever they hit. When the sergeant
said it was a live fire exercise I assumed he was talking about our rounds, but
I guess the bots are shooting live ones too! I sure hope they aren’t lethal,
but I’ve got to think they would hurt at least as bad as getting shot by Jacen.
Wait—there’s another green arrow. Let’s go!”

Zax followed as Kalare led the way through the jungle at
a breakneck pace. The arrows guided them away from the first clearing towards a
hill. As they approached, a bot once again poured laser fire into the jungle.
Zax and Kalare dove behind a massive tree. Zax caught his breath and peeked
around to identify the threat.

“Uh-oh. Those shots are coming at us from near the top
of the hill. I don’t think we can accurately reach them from this range with
our blasters.” A shot glanced off the edge of the trunk in front of his face
and sent him scurrying behind the tree once again.

“Wait—look over there.” Kalare pointed five meters away
at a massive log which leaned against another tree. Propped up against it was a
squad automatic weapon. “That SAW will have enough power to reach the shooter.”

“I guess the new weapon means we’ve moved on to the
second exercise.” Zax paused for a moment to think before he continued. “I will
fire from here to give you cover to reach the far side of that trunk. Once
you’re there, I want you to lay down some fire to let me get there too.”

After Kalare’s assent, Zax spun around the opposite side
of the tree and let loose with non-stop blaster fire. She took off on his first
shot and by the time the bot reacted to her movements and reoriented its
weapon, Kalare had dived behind the fallen log. She peeked over it and raised
her hand to countdown from five.

Zax knew he would have to move faster than Kalare if he
was to make it to the fallen tree. The bot on the hilltop would already be
pointing its laser weapon in that direction and would react much faster to his
movement as a result.

Kalare’s countdown hit zero and Zax sprinted towards the
tree. Kalare didn’t shoot from behind cover as he had done. She instead popped
into full view and yelled while firing like crazy. Her gambit caused enough
confusion to create a lull in the fire which allowed Zax to reach the fallen
tree. They fell behind the log together as a hail of incoming bolts sailed
above it and exploded in the brush directly behind them.

“What was all that jumping around about? You trying to
get yourself shot?”

Kalare grinned maniacally. “What are you complaining
about? You got here in one piece, didn’t you? I knew the bot expected you to do
the same thing I’d done, so I figured I needed to create a little misdirection.
Here—help me get this SAW set up so we can start shooting back more
effectively.”

“No—that isn’t going to work. Think about it. The SAW is
a lot more powerful than our rifles, but the bot has the high ground on us. You
can also bet it’s shooting from behind cover that’s at least as good as ours.
I’ve got an idea though.” Zax pointed to the tree next to them. “If I can get
near the top of that tree, then I’ll have the angle for a great shot.”

Kalare shook her head. “No, it has to be me, not you. I
was a way better shot with the SAW during training than you were. Whoever is up
there will only be able to get off a couple shots before the bot reacts. If we
don’t hit it immediately, the bot will light up that tree and whoever’s up
there will be an easy target.”

“I agree you’re the better shot, but there’s no way you
can climb and carry the SAW. You could barely lift it the other day at regular
gravity. How’re you going to get it up the tree when it weighs even more now?”

Kalare appeared stumped and stared blankly at their
blasters for a few moments. “Hold on! Let’s get the straps off our weapons. We
can use them to create a harness which will let me carry the SAW!” Zax nodded
in agreement and a few mins later Kalare was poised to scale the tree with the
SAW strapped to her back.

“You have to keep the bot engaged until I get high
enough. I’ve got a couple small rocks in my pocket I’ll use to get your
attention once I’m in position. When I give you the signal, I need you to do
something super crazy to distract the bot and give me enough time to hit it.”

She turned to climb but hesitated. “You probably don’t
want to be down here when I start firing. If I miss, that bot is going to nail
me good and my body will come crashing down. No sense both of us winding up in
the medbay. Or dead.”

Zax choked up as he considered the magnitude of the risk
Kalare took by going up the tree. He gave her a thumbs up and replied with a
thick voice, “I guarantee you’re going to take it out with your first shot.
Good luck.”

Kalare worked her way up the tree and Zax developed his
plan. He worried most about tricking the bot into believing there were still
two of them actively returning its fire. Otherwise, it might get suspicious and
seek out a second target. If the bot caught a glimpse of Kalare making her way
up the tree, she would be picked off immediately.

Zax popped up from behind the log, fired off a barrage
of shots, and ducked down. He then scrambled along the ground until he reached
the tree. He peeked his blaster around the trunk and started shooting again. He
repeated similar patterns of running between widely-spaced positions and
shooting until his stamina started to fade. All of the concentrated activity
with both increased gravity and decreased oxygen took a heavy toll, even after
all of their training.

Zax’s stress about maintaining the distraction was
finally interrupted by the sharp pain of a rock bouncing off his cheek. He
looked up and Kalare wore a contrite expression in acknowledgement of having
hit him in the face. She had located a roost near the top of the tree and the
SAW was positioned for her shot. Kalare flashed five fingers and started a
countdown.

When the five count was up, Zax ran out from behind the
log back towards the original tree where they had first sought cover. He yelled
“Wait up!” in the desperate hope of drawing the bot’s attention far away from
the tree where Kalare was perched. Zax smelled ozone when a laser bolt came
within centimeters of his face, but then three shots from the SAW were followed
by a loud cheer from Kalare.

A moment later Kalare had the SAW strapped to her back
and she grinned over her shoulder as she made her way down. “Your guarantee was
wrong about one shot, but I’m sure happy I hit it with my third. Wait—there’s an
arrow over there.”

Sure enough, a green arrow pointed the way towards their
third and final challenge. Zax waited until Kalare was almost on the ground and
then ran ahead. He had reached the point where a second arrow lit up when all
of a sudden it changed from green to red. He turned and saw Kalare had reached
the ground and was following behind him.

“Wait—I think there’s a problem. Back up to the tree
again.” When Kalare did so, the arrow in front of Zax switched back to green.
“OK, now walk towards me again.” Immediately the arrow turned red.

“Hmmm—maybe I’m not supposed to keep the SAW.” Kalare
backed up and dropped the large weapon. She walked towards Zax and this time
the arrow remained green and they both sprinted ahead. “Sure would have been
nice to have known that before I lugged it all the way down the tree!”

They chased the green arrows for a few mins until they
reached the edge of the jungle. They stopped to catch their breath and surveyed
the situation. Arrayed before them was an expanse of sand dunes with a large
rectangular object perched upon a dune fifty meters away.

“I don’t like this.” Zax sucked in a deep breath. “The
arrows are clearly leading us to that object, but the idea of running across
all of that open terrain blows.”

Kalare nodded in agreement. “Yep. I’m guessing as soon
as we get out of this jungle we’re going to get blasted. It doesn’t seem like
we have any choice, though. I just wish the bots had laser eyes instead of
rifles. At least that would be a much cooler way of getting shot.”

Zax couldn’t help but smile. “OK—are you ready? Go!”

A hail of laser fire erupted once they were out in the
open. They scrambled behind the object without being hurt just as the rate of
fire increased. Zax peeked out and saw his last footprint had been hit. The
bolt had fused the sand into glass which still smoldered. “Holy crap! If those
lasers can melt sand, I really don’t think we want to find out what they’ll do
if they hit skin. What is this thing we’re hiding behind?”

Kalare and Zax stood behind a smooth, black, rectangular
block. It was three meters tall by two meters deep by ten meters wide. It must
have been made of some pretty strong material because a steady rain of laser
fire slammed into the side which faced the jungle without any visible effect.
The sand had collected in drifts all around the object as if there had been a
windstorm. A circular panel, on the verge of being buried by sand, glowed red
near one edge of the block. Kalare shrugged her shoulders at Zax. He grinned as
the sight of the circle triggered his recognition.

“I know what this is! I read about it in that weapons
manual you showed me. It’s a mecha. This is how they get shipped to the
battlefield so they can be packed into troop carriers as efficiently as
possible.”

Kalare pounced without waiting for further explanation
and slammed her palm against the red circle. “I bet this will activate it
somehow!” The panel flashed from red to yellow and back, but nothing else
happened.

“No, wait—there are supposed to be two control panels.”

She gaped at him in disbelief. “Huh? I left you alone
with my slate for ninety secs. How do you remember that?”

Zax tapped the side of his head. “Eidetic memory. I can
recall almost any image after seeing it for only a few secs. One of these
caught my eye in the manual that morning.” He studied the block for a moment.
The second control panel must be covered by a drift! He flung sand away and
revealed its circular edge. “I think I’ve found it—help me clear this sand!”

Their furious digging uncovered a second panel identical
to the first. Zax placed his palm upon the circle. “Go activate the other one.”

Kalare ran back to the opposite end of the block and
placed her palm against the first circle. As she did so, both of the panels
flashed green and a soft whirring emanated from within the block.

“Back away and find some cover!”

Zax flopped next to Kalare in a sand depression five
meters behind the block. It transformed similarly to the double-arm pack
Sergeant Quentor wore their first day of training. Instead of becoming a simple
pair of arms, the block unfolded into a massive battle robot with a humanoid
form.

The mecha posed before them crouched on one knee once it
completed its metamorphosis. Two hatches were visible for the Crew—one for the
WSO was located in the left leg and the other for the pilot was in the torso.
The battle robot was positioned so Zax and Kalare were mostly shielded from
incoming rounds, but the intensity of the laser fire had increased and bolts
peppered the sand around them.

“We better get inside before we get hit. Which one of us
is going to pilot it?”

She phrased it as a question, but the desperate
excitement in Kalare’s voice over the prospect of piloting a fifteen-meter tall
mecha was obvious. “You should do it,” he said. “We’d still just be cowering
behind it if you hadn’t brought your weapons manual to breakfast that time.”

Kalare sprang up without a further word. The mecha’s
pose in its deactivated state allowed the pilot to climb on its knee, and
Kalare used it to reach the torso hatch. Zax followed and accessed the WSO
cockpit in the calf.

Zax marveled at the relative spaciousness of the
interior once he squeezed his way through the hatch. He strapped into his
harness and the workstation for the Weapons System Officer came alive with
flashing lights and flickering displays. The threat board was most pressing as
it revealed how the incoming laser fire originated from not one, but three
different bots which were widely dispersed at the jungle’s edge. Zax grabbed a
subvoc unit hanging next to his seat just as Kalare’s voice flooded it.

“Holy crap this is amazing! I think I’ve figured out how
to get all strapped into the controls.”

“OK, I’m good too.” Zax checked the threat board again.
“There’s no way those three bots are any match for this mecha so this should be
easy. I’ve got a firing solution set up for each arm cannon. Once you’re ready,
stand up and rotate and we’ll take out two of them at once.”

Kalare brought the mecha to life and spun it around to
face the aggressors. She exclaimed “Suck it!” as she pulled the triggers and
the massive cannons showered the bots with ordnance. Once the first two targets
were pulverized, the third bot ran deeper into the jungle and Zax called out to
Kalare.

“Number three is trying to get away. Follow him!”

Kalare set the mecha off into the tress at a gallop. The
WSO cockpit was stabilized so Zax did not feel any motion, but his external
display revealed how they advanced at a furious clip and left a broad swath of
flattened jungle in their wake. The mecha narrowed the gap and was almost
within cannon range of the fleeing bot. Then they entered a clearing where the
lack of trees in their path would allow them to accelerate and get close enough
to fire.

“Kalare—speed up! We can get him!”

The words had barely left Zax’s lips when a massive
explosion rang in his ears and the displays went dark. Simultaneously, the
mecha’s stabilization system failed and he suffered every jolt and crash as
they tumbled across the ground until they impacted with something solid. The
violent thrashing knocked Zax dizzy for a few secs until he regained his
senses. Kalare screamed over the subvoc.

“I’ve lost all controls, Zax! I’ve got no visuals and
can’t get the mecha to move! Zax? Can you hear me? Can you see anything out
there? Zax?”

Sergeant Bailee’s voice cut in over the subvoc.
“Cadets—the exercise is complete. Please exit the mecha and follow the arrows
out of the simulation. Eat some lunch and meet us back in the combat dojo in
117 mins. Bailee out.”

Zax stumbled out of his hatch and shielded his eyes
against the lights which had returned to daytime brightness. Once his eyes
adjusted, he surveyed the wreckage and deduced what had transpired.

The mecha’s trail through the jungle was obvious thanks
to the crushed brush and downed trees it left behind. Equally obvious was the
massive hole in the ground where they must have triggered a land mine. The
explosion sent them flying into a massive tree where the mecha’s crushed hull
had come to rest. The clearing was a trap and they ran into it at full speed.

Kalare clambered out of the pilot hatch and Zax turned
to check her condition. Her uniform was shredded and blood oozed from a scratch
on her forehead, but she beamed from ear to ear. “That was awesome! Let’s do it
again!”

CHAPTER
TWENTY-THREE

You
may go first.

Zax fumed about how time seemed
to crawl during lunch. Part of the reason was the lack of any real food to help
distract him since he had followed Mikedo’s advice and ate only nutripellets.
Bleh. His body sat across from Kalare and her (overflowing) tray of food, but
his mind could process nothing except dreams of first visiting the planet and
then being mentored by the Flight Boss. These visions were interspersed with
worries about whether getting blown up at the end of the last exercise might
disqualify him from reaching those goals. Kalare’s excited retelling of their
mecha adventure may as well have been running on a vidscreen clear across the
room.

“Zax! Are you listening to me?”

Zax snapped back to attention at the sound of his name.
“I’m sorry, but truth be told I wasn’t.” He smiled sheepishly. “It’s hard to
hear over my grumbling stomach.”

“That’s OK. I understand. Though, actually, I don’t. I
wouldn’t survive if I had to eat those dry, tasteless nutripellets as often as
you do. I’m sure you’re sitting there getting super jealous about all of the
yummy stuff on my plate.”

Zax sighed at her reminder, but Kalare did not notice as
she continued.

“Anyway, what was I saying? You weren’t listening to me
and apparently I wasn’t either. Oh wait—I got it! I said that Sergeant Bailee
and Mikedo just walked out of the mess hall. We should probably do the same.”

Kalare dropped her tray off at the disposal station and
Zax tossed his forlorn nutripellet wrappers into a recycler. They trekked once
more across Marine Country and reached their destination exactly on time. The
dojo was only half full as the Marines appeared to be off doing something else.
The group of Culled cadets from Flight stood around the sparring circle.
Sergeant Bailee and Mikedo stood off to the side.

Sergeant Quentor turned to them with a grin. “Well done,
cadets. Perfectly punctual when you’re on your own reveals that Lieutenant
Mikedo is the bad influence who makes you late. I should have known.” He turned
to the rest of the group. “As for the rest of you Flight pukes, I need your
help today. I’m stuck with all of you for another three days of training, but
these two are finishing up today. I’ve been asked to have each of them spar
against a few of you. Who wants to be the first to face off against Cadet Zax?”

A few of the cadets raised their hands, but none more
eagerly than Cyrus. Of course, that was who Quentor picked. Zax gulped in
nervous anticipation, but Kalare stepped forward before he was able to do so.

“Sergeant—I request to show what I can do first!”

“Well, well, well—look at you, Cadet Kalare. Initiative.
I didn’t know you had it in you. Far be it from me to get in the way of this
new eagerness. You may go first.”

Zax was flooded with conflicting emotions and confusing
questions. He was relieved to avoid a match with Cyrus but found himself
worried about Kalare’s motives. If it was anyone else he would have been
certain they were working an angle for a Leaderboard edge, but Kalare always
said she didn’t care about that sort of thing. Right?

But what if she wasn’t being truthful? Kalare said she
didn’t want the Flight Boss’s offer, but maybe she really felt otherwise. He
thought back to that morning’s evaluation exercise and considered how eager she
had been to take the lead role. She’d not only been insistent about climbing
the tree and shooting the bot with the SAW but also made it clear she wanted to
pilot the mecha. And now here she was volunteering to spar first. Maybe she had
actually been playing him all of this time and was now sweeping in at the last
min to grab the spotlight and win the mentorship. He couldn’t imagine it was
true, but couldn’t help himself from worrying otherwise.

Kalare and Cyrus donned their pads and faced off across
the sparring circle. Quentor signaled for the match to start. Kalare stood
taller than Zax, but she was dwarfed by Cyrus. She had the edge in speed, but
the older boy’s reach kept her at bay and allowed him to avoid many of her quick
blows.

After a min of ineffective jabs, Kalare surprised Cyrus
with a flying scissor kick which connected with his midsection and left him
doubled over. She attempted to follow up with a toe kick to the face, but his
hand darted out at the last possible moment to deflect her foot and then grab
her ankle. His other hand snatched her knee and a sec later Kalare swung in a
tall arc which ended with her head crashing violently onto the deck. From the
way her body crumbled it was obvious she was unconscious. Quentor called
“Halt!” and turned to confer with Mikedo and Bailee.

When the instructor turned away, Cyrus stared at Zax
with a mischievous smile. He grabbed Kalare’s foot and lifted her leg off the
deck. He then raised his foot to stomp his heel and deliver a crippling blow to
the back of Kalare’s knee.

Without thinking Zax screamed “Stop!” and charged across
the sparring circle. He was not quick enough to prevent the initial blow and
instead watched Kalare’s leg twist grotesquely under the force of Cyrus’s kick.
He was fast enough, however, to catch the older cadet by surprise. Zax’s foot
reached its intended target—Cyrus’s testicles—with full force. The air left
Cyrus’s mouth with a whoosh and he dropped to the deck in the fetal
position. Zax cocked his leg for a follow-up kick to the face and then both of
his feet left the deck. Quentor had materialized behind him and lifted Zax by
the back of his shirt a meter into the air with one arm.

“What do you two think you are doing in my
dojo!” The instructor bellowed as he hurled Zax to the ground. Quentor first
towered over Cyrus. “Cadet—you clearly heard me halt the match. What would
possess you to keep beating an unconscious classmate!” The instructor
punctuated his sentence with a vicious kick to Cyrus’ belly. He then spun
around and yanked Zax’s torso up off the deck by the front of his shirt. “And
you—did someone steal my sergeant’s stripes and give them to you when I wasn’t
looking? What makes you think you get to be in charge of punishing this
cheating scumbag?”

The enraged Marine had cocked his arm back while he
yelled at Zax and appeared ready to smash his face. Zax wore a defiant glare
but internally had wished a poignant farewell to his teeth. Mikedo arrived and
grabbed the instructor’s arm.

“Stand down, Sergeant. Remember our deal. I get to dole
out any punishment for my cadets. Let me get them both out of your dojo, and
you and I can discuss this later.” She glanced at Zax. “Get out of here! I’ve
already called the medics for Kalare. Meet me in the medbay in ninety mins.”

CHAPTER
TWENTY-FOUR

I
heard everything.

Zax had no idea what to do with
himself while he waited. His world currently revolved around the mentorship
contest, and he didn’t have any other duties to attend to. He opened up some
reading on his slate but failed to get more than a few sentences in before his
thoughts were consumed by the image of Kalare’s horrifically twisted leg. He
put the device away and paced the Ship instead.

Ninety mins later Zax walked into the medbay waiting
room. It was populated by a half dozen morose cadets who awaited their turn
with the medics. Zax asked for Kalare’s location at the front desk, but a tap
on the shoulder made him turn and discover Sergeant Bailee.

“She’s in the fourth compartment on the right. I need a
min before you visit her, though. Let’s sit down over here.” The sergeant
steered Zax towards a couple unoccupied chairs and spoke once they were seated.

“I didn’t get a chance to formally evaluate you back in
the dojo, but I’m signing off on you heading out with the recon mission
anyways. There are three reasons why I’m willing to do this. First is the way
you performed during the live fire exercise this morning. I’ve seen some great
stuff from some amazing Marines in that simulator over the years, but I never
would have imagined seeing such good work done by a couple of Flight pukes
who’ve only been training for two weeks. The results were far from perfect, but
you were both fearless and creative and that earns you a ton of points in my
book.

“The second reason I’m willing to clear you for the
mission is the way you jumped into the fray with that older cadet after he hurt
Kalare.” The sergeant stared at Zax. “You possess something which can’t be
taught and that is the instinct to selflessly protect your squad-mates even in
the face of overwhelming odds. I was particularly impressed by the way you
didn’t so much as flinch when Quentor was prepared to rearrange your face.”

The sergeant paused and took a deep breath before continuing.
“The last reason why I’m willing to risk my reputation and allow you to deploy
with my fellow Marines is because Mikedo wants me to. I can count on one hand
the people in the Flight Corps who I trust and respect without reservation, and
she’s at the very top of that list. Pay close attention to her when you two are
down on the surface. She’ll make sure you don’t do anything stupid to get
yourself or any of the Marines with you hurt.”

“Excuse me, Sergeant, but I’m confused. I thought you
were going to be part of our squad and head down there with us?”

“My only role for this mission was to be a second
experienced person in the squad so you and Kalare could each have your own
individual babysitter down there. She’s not going, so I’m not needed.”

The Marine sergeant stood to leave. “I’ve got to get to
a meeting, but Mikedo’s down in Kalare’s room and will explain the situation
fully. You better do a good job on this mission, cadet. If I hear you screwed
up from any of my Marines, then I just might have to deliver that beatdown you
still have coming from when we met over coffee.”

Bailee’s mouth betrayed the slightest hint of a smile,
but the man turned and walked away before Zax could determine whether it was
real or only his imagination. Zax remained frozen in his seat. He knew he
needed to get to Kalare’s room and talk to Mikedo, but the full impact of what
the sergeant shared was still sinking in.

Zax’s guilt about his lack of sadness for Kalare’s
predicament was dwarfed by how thrilled he was at the realization there was no
longer any competition. He stood at the precipice of earning a mentorship with
the Flight Boss! Zax only needed to get down to the planet and back without any
mistakes, and his career would set off on an amazing trajectory. He sprang out
of his seat and practically bounced down the passageway to Kalare’s
compartment.

Kalare’s appearance washed away Zax’s good cheer and
threatened to drown him in remorse. She was unconscious and connected to a
machine which breathed for her. Her leg was immobilized within a massive
aerogel protective cast. Mikedo sat in a chair next to the bed and spoke to Zax
as he entered.

“It’s not as bad as it looks. They’ll wake her up in a
couple of mins. Cyrus snapped all the tendons and ligaments when he wrenched
her knee, but the surgery went well. She’s going to be in here with the cast on
for a couple of days and then have a day or two of rehab, but she’ll be as good
as new after that. The bad news is she is obviously not going to join us on the
mission tomorrow. It’s a real shame because you two have exhibited such amazing
teamwork, I had advised the Boss to stop the contest and just mentor both of
you.”

Zax’s jaw dropped at the news that had been a potential
outcome. Mikedo let the notion sink in for a few moments before she continued.
“I caught something back in the dojo I need to ask you about. Cyrus seemed
abnormally excited when Quentor asked for volunteers to spar with you. When he
stomped on Kalare’s leg, he stared at you and smirked the whole time. Is there
something going on between you two?”

Zax almost answered “no” reflexively, but paused instead
for a deep breath. He gazed first at Mikedo and then to Kalare lying in the bed
and then back to Mikedo. The pure compassion emanating from the lieutenant finally
broke his resolve, and Zax told her everything. The years of bullying from
Aleron, the way Cyrus treated him up to and including the day of the panorama
breach, the attack by Aleron in the passageway with its death threat, how it
was Cyrus who tripped him that first day in Marine Country. Everything. When he
was done, Zax felt as if a massive weight had been lifted from his shoulders.
He sat in silence for a few mins while Mikedo digested what he had shared.

“Hmmm—one question for you, Zax. Did Kalare know about
any of this?”

“No, she didn’t. She was stunned unconscious when Aleron
attacked us in the passageway, and I lied when she asked if I knew who did it.
We were just getting to know each other at that point, and I didn’t feel like
talking to her about any of it. You know how she gets with her non-stop
chatter. I’m used to it now, but two weeks ago she was still annoying me to
death. I was afraid if I told her about any of this she might never shut up
about it.

“Besides,” he added, “what could she do? I’ve dealt with
Aleron and the rest of his buddies for years. What difference would one more
bully make? Even if Cyrus talked about killing me, I’m sure it was just stupid
bluster anyways.”

Zax’s voice broke during his last sentence and he
stopped to take a few deep breaths and compose himself. It was bad enough he
had shared all of this stuff with Mikedo, but he refused to lose control and
start blubbering in front of the officer. Her expression suggested she might
cry herself for some reason as she stared at him and spoke.

“Wow, Zax. I’m really sorry to hear all of this. You’ve
been carrying an awfully big load for someone your age, particularly since
you’re dealing with all of it on your own. Let me tell you something. I know
what it’s like to be so talented at such a young age. I know what it’s like to
feel so capable and independent you never want to admit weakness or ask for
help. I’m here to tell you that’s not a great way to go through life.”

Mikedo’s gaze never wavered as she spoke. Zax felt like
she peered directly into his core, and he was shocked to welcome the deep
connection. “Showing vulnerability will not make you more vulnerable. Admitting
weakness is actually a sign of great strength. People will always have to
respect your talent and abilities even if they choose to hide it behind
jealousy and bullying. What will get them to truly respect and love you as a
person, however, is when you allow them to see you’re human just like they
are.”

Mikedo reached out and held his hand. “You need to trust
some folks, Zax. There are people out there who want to be your friend and help
if you will only let them inside. Two of them are sitting here in this room. I
know it’s almost impossible to think about all of this when you’ve spent the
last ten years obsessing about the Leaderboard and seeing life as a zero sum
game, but I’m telling you this from hard fought, firsthand experience. Your
native skills and talent have already made you great. If you can manage to
crack open that hard shell a bit and let some of your humanity seep out, you
have a chance to be exceptional.”

Tears welled up behind Zax’s eyes, but they receded when
the door opened behind him and the spell was broken. Mikedo stood to leave.
“Here’s the medic to wake Kalare. I’ve got to get going anyway to finish
prepping for tomorrow. I’m glad you finally shared this with me, Zax. You don’t
have to worry about Cyrus right now. He’ll be occupied with Quentor and likely
begging for death between now and the time we leave for the planet. When we get
back, let’s you and me sit down and figure out how you can be sure to avoid him
until he’s dumped at Landfall.

“One last thing—I spoke with Kalare before the surgery,
so she already knows the bad news she isn’t going. Stay here and visit with her
for a while, and then meet me at 1800 in the same training room where we had
our first meeting. We’re getting a mission briefing along with the officers and
squad leaders from the Marine recon unit.”

Mikedo left the room and Zax took advantage of the
opportunity to close his eyes and focus on regaining his composure. Mikedo’s
words had nailed him straight between the eyes, but Zax willed away the big
feelings they triggered to avoid breaking down in front of a complete stranger.

The medic gave Kalare an injection and removed her
breathing mask. The shot took effect and she woke a few moments later. Once he
had spoken with Kalare and verified she was well, the medic left the room with
a promise to check on her again soon.

Zax and Kalare shared a min of awkward silence before he
broke the ice.

“Does it hurt?”

“Not at all. I don’t even feel like I have a lower leg
right now. Can’t feel a thing below my thigh.”

“That’s good. I’m very sorry you aren’t going down to
the planet with us tomorrow.” Zax paused for a moment. “I would’ve never
imagined saying this two weeks ago, but I’ve loved going through all of this
training with you. You’re absolutely crazy and I’m guessing that hanging around
with you will get me in serious trouble someday, but we make a great team. I’ll
miss having you by my side when I’m down there with all of those insane
Marines.”

Kalare beamed up at him. The pain meds had zero effect
on the infectious twinkle in her eyes. “Thanks, Zax. It really means a lot to
hear that from you. You know I’ve been indifferent to this whole mentorship
thing all along, so when I had the chance to shield you from Cyrus I figured it
would be a good idea. I was certain he wouldn’t be stupid enough to try and
kill you in front of everyone, but I knew he wouldn’t be afraid to put an
excessive hurt on you.”

Zax stared wide-eyed at Kalare for a sec before he could
get any words out. “Wait—what? You’re aware Cyrus wants to kill me?”

“You’re not the only one who’s good at lying and keeping
secrets there, mister.” Kalare giggled. “I was actually awake that day in the
passageway when Aleron attacked us. I heard everything. For some reason the
instructor who trained Epsilon on the stunstik didn’t like me very much, so she
used me as her practice dummy every time we had class. I experienced the weapon
so much I became immune to the effect of all but its highest setting. The
initial jolt still smarts, but it doesn’t knock me unconscious the way it does
all you puny mortals.

“When Aleron stunned me,” Kalare continued, “I figured
it would be a good idea to stay down and sort out what was going on. I wouldn’t
have let him hurt you and had planned to tell you all about it, but when you
attempted to hide the situation from me, I decided to let the whole thing
slide.”

Zax’s gears spun for a min while Kalare laughed again at
how dumbfounded he was. Finally, he recovered enough to put all the pieces
together. “You knew Cyrus wanted to kill me when you volunteered to take my
place and go first in the sparring test? You had to know he would probably want
to hurt you too after that busted nose you gave him!”

“Yeah, but like I said, I don’t really care about what
happens with all of this mentorship crap. I know you do. I would have hated to
see you get injured and lose out on your chance to work with the Flight Boss.
This training has been a blast—I got to drive a mecha! I’m starting to think I
might just want to get a job like Mikedo’s and work with the Marines. Hell,
maybe I’ll drop out of Flight altogether and join the Marines! I owe you big
time for making it all possible with the way you handled that breach. The least
I could do was make sure that idiot Cyrus didn’t ruin things for you.”

The waves of emotion which had roiled Zax since the dojo
finally overwhelmed him. Hot tears bursting with guilt came pouring out in
giant, gasping sobs. Zax was ashamed about so much—his worries that Kalare was
trying to steal the opportunity by jumping ahead of him to spar Cyrus, his
excitement about winning the mentorship rather than compassion for someone who
was his only friend on the Ship.

Zax was then forced to sit and listen to Kalare thank him
when she had knowingly made the choice to risk injury protecting him from
Cyrus. He wanted to say so much, he wanted to apologize, he wanted to thank
her, but all he could do was bury his head in his hands and cry.

The medic returned a min later. He stopped short for a
moment while he evaluated the scene but then spoke softly. “I’m sorry to
interrupt, cadet, but I have to ask you to leave. The surgeon will be coming through
and he needs to run a scan on Kalare’s knee to make sure everything is knitting
back together the way it should.”

Zax rose and choked back a couple last sobs. He wiped
his sleeve across his face and it came back streaked with tears and snot. He
smiled at Kalare and managed to say “thank you” without the tears starting
again.

“Good luck down there, Zax. You’re going to do great!
Make sure you find me first thing when you get back to tell me about all of the
cool stuff you see. I hope you don’t run into any alien robots with laser
eyes!”

CHAPTER
TWENTY-FIVE

Pretty
cool!

Zax retreated to the Zeta
berth. Since the other cadets were out performing their official duties, he had
the entire compartment to himself and was able to nap (fifty demerits). A few
hours later he woke with a clear head, soaked in his second shower of the day
(twenty demerits), and returned to Marine Country for the mission briefing.

Zax entered the training compartment and was startled
when he came face to face with an ant. Unlike the small Earth insects Zax had
seen in the various Ship biomes, this one stood over two meters tall and was
perched upright on its four hindmost legs. The dark green body was laced with
brown stripes and the two forelegs grasped a digging implement with
three-fingered hands. Its head was studded with tiny eyeballs which extended
from the tip of its mandibles to the back of its skull and covered every point
in between.

Mikedo smiled at Zax’s surprise as she stood and
gestured for him to take a seat next to her. A group of Marine officers and
sergeants were also arrayed around the compartment. They all sat ramrod
straight with their eyes focused forwards. At the very back sat Marine major
who stared at his slate with a severe expression.

A Flight lieutenant, a man whose shaggy hair and soft
midsection gave him away as having some sort of cushy desk job, stood at the
instructor’s table and started to speak as Zax sat down. “My name is Lieutenant
Nineem and I’m here from the exobiology unit to brief you on the planet you
will visit tomorrow, its flora and fauna, and its current inhabitants—a fine
specimen of which is being projected here. The image of this particular alien
was captured just the other day by one of our drones, but there are plenty more
like it in the Ship’s archives from previous Landfalls.

“These creatures are similar in many ways to the Earth
insects which inhabit our biomes. We assume these aliens must be highly
advanced given how many times we’ve come across them on planets spread far
across the universe, but we’ve never seen any of their technology. Every
encounter to date has been with a small planet-bound colony which presented as
a simple, agrarian culture with zero technology except simple tools like the
shovel this guy is holding.

“The Ship’s records reveal we’ve seen two distinct body
types and corresponding modes of behavior for these aliens. This particular
body type is what we call a worker. We’ve isolated a single individual for this
image, but it was in a line of almost five hundred identical creatures.” The
picture zoomed out and revealed row upon row of the insects marching in
lockstep. “All of our records about these workers describe how they ignore
humans whenever we are present. We assume they can see us given how many eyes
they’ve got, but any one of them would allow you to walk right up and touch it
without so much as flinching or interrupting its activity.”

The image shifted and the first alien was replaced by
one which struck Zax as being even freakier. It stood more than four meters
tall with the same dark green base color, but the giant bug had stripes colored
vibrant red rather than brown. Instead of resting on its four hind legs, this
ant stood on only two and held a bladed weapon of some sort in each of its four
foremost limbs. Nineem spoke again.

“This image shows an alien with the warrior body type.
It’s from the archives, not our current drone surveillance, because we’ve not
yet observed any warriors on this planet. We’ve got a few guesses as to why there
are no warriors with this colony, but the bottom line is we don’t know. I
realize some of you may be familiar with these warriors from previous missions,
but I want to be certain you’re all aware of the threat they represent.”

The image of the warrior zoomed out and shifted
perspective until its source became clear. It was footage from a Marine who
wore a helmet cam and swiveled back and forth between the alien and three
squad-mates. The four Marines stood quite a distance away from the warrior and
talked to each other about what they should do about the lone creature which
had materialized in front of them. The camera jerked and three of the weapon
shafts the alien had been holding suddenly sprouted out of the bodies of the
Marine’s three squad-mates. Two of them were in heads and one in a chest. The
view of the helmet cam moved first to the blade protruding from the wearer’s
chest and then back over her shoulder. The alien warrior used all six limbs and
scurried towards the Marine at a disturbingly fast pace. She crumbled to the
ground and the video faded to black

“Those blades were thrown with extreme accuracy and
penetrated Marine armor from a distance of over 100 meters. The two head shots
landed exactly between the eyes and the two body shots were dead center through
the heart. Who needs a blaster, I suppose, if you can throw a blade equally as
far with just as much killing power.

“We’ve talked about the aliens, but let’s take a moment
to zoom out.” Nineem closed his eyes and used his Plug to replace the video
with an image of the planet which filled the space above their heads. Zax was
excited to view it for the first time. From space, it was a dark blue sphere
composed almost entirely of water. There were two small landmasses visible, the
larger of which had two spots marked on it which must represent the settlements
Zax had heard the scout pilot refer to. Nineem continued.

“As you’re no doubt aware, our initial reconnaissance
has confirmed the planet is fit for human habitation. The atmosphere has
slightly less oxygen than what we are used to, but it won’t require the use of
any supplemental breathers and your body will get used to it pretty quickly.
The bigger issue is that its gravity is about 30% greater than what we’re
accustomed to onboard the Ship. This value approaches the upper range of what
we consider acceptable when we are choosing a planet to colonize but is still
within the boundaries. You’ve already trained in similar conditions so I
imagine none of this should pose a significant problem for you.”

Lieutenant Nineem closed his eyes again and a new group
of images displayed around the room. Each was a short vid loop which
illustrated a different creature in action. “Representative samples of the
lifeforms present on this planet are now being projected. Other than our ant
friends, all of the lifeforms have four limbs. Even the flying creatures have
four wings, all four of which can be used as legs when the creature is on the
ground or perched in a tree.

“Speaking of the trees,” the lieutenant perked up,
“they’re definitely the most fascinating feature about this planet.” The
lieutenant pointed at the projection of the planet which had shrunk but
remained displayed. “As you can see, both of this planet’s landmasses are
clustered around its equator and, therefore, are almost exclusively covered
with the same dense jungle biome. All of the creatures I’ve shown you are
herbivores which feed on the grasses and other smaller vegetation. We were
confused at first about how few of the grazing creatures were present. It
seemed odd when you considered the lushness of the environment, but was
absolutely shocking given we initially believed there were no predators. Then,
one of our drones captured a vid which solved the riddle.”

All of the images disappeared with the exception of a
small herbivore which nibbled on grasses. The jungle was dense and its most
prominent features were the leaves which hung from the branches of the trees.
The leaves varied in size significantly with some being a meter in diameter
while others were closer to five.

The creature started to walk and then wobbled. When it
lost its footing, the animal’s body brushed up against one of the larger tree
leaves. In an instant, the leaf sprang into action and enveloped the beast. The
tree limb lifted the thrashing animal off the ground where it was then captured
by an even larger leaf on a higher limb which had lowered down to meet the
first. The transfer process from leaf to leaf was repeated until the animal was
deposited into a massive leaf near the top. The beast thrashed within the final
leaf for another min until its movements became less and less pronounced and
then ultimately stopped.

“It’s so interesting we’ve found a planet with no
apparent predator animals, but which is blanketed with carnivorous trees.
Pretty cool!” The exobiologist practically squealed like a little kid and
grinned from ear to ear.

“It’s great how you think it’s all so very interesting,
Lieutenant.” The Marine major did not raise his head from his slate as he
spoke. “Perhaps you would like to come on down as part of our recon mission
tomorrow. Or even better, shall I put your name in as a volunteer to stay
behind when we make Landfall? I’m sure our new colonists would appreciate your
enthusiasm as they figure out how to spend the rest of their lives coexisting
with such cool carnivorous trees.”

Many of the Marines laughed while the pudgy Flight
lieutenant blanched. “My apologies, Major Odon. I meant no offense.” He looked
around the room. “Any questions?”

One of the Marine sergeant’s raised his hand and spoke
once he was acknowledged. “The herbivore you showed getting eaten was pretty
small. Do we know if the trees would attack something as large as a human?”

The lieutenant closed his eyes for a moment and a new
vid played. This one started with an extreme wide shot which showed a field
full of hundreds of the ant creatures at work. The range of the shot was so
great and there was so much activity Zax wasn’t sure what he should focus on.
Then, he saw it. A tree at the very edge of the frame performed the same series
of transfers from branch to branch which the first vid had shown. Three limbs
stuck out from the final leaf as it was not quite big enough to fully encompass
the alien the tree had ensnared. The limbs flailed for a min, but their
movements eventually slowed and then ceased.

“Any other questions?”

When there were none, the lieutenant saluted in Major
Odon’s direction and then left the compartment. The Marine commander walked
down to the front of the room and spoke.

“The good news from those videos is the leaves don’t
attack unless you touch them. That makes sense given the trees don’t appear to
have sensory organs other than the leaves. Don’t touch a leaf equals don’t get eaten
by a tree. Seems like a pretty simple equation to me.

“Our mission tomorrow is just as simple. The Captain
wants a Landfall on this planet and she needs the Marines to clear the ants to
make that possible. We know full well how to handle these bugs given past
encounters, so I don’t expect any issues, but we need a complete first-hand
recon of the situation before we send down the full extermination force. Are
you ready to get to work?”

“Sir, yes, sir!” shouted the Marines as they jumped to
attention in unison.

“Excellent.” The major allowed himself a tight smile in
response to his unit’s exuberance. “Please share all of the appropriate details
with your squads tonight. Everyone is dismissed except Lieutenant Mikedo and
her cadet.”

The Marines filed out in silence. The major waited until
the hatch closed and then spoke. His smile was gone.

“Lieutenant—I can’t tell you how thrilled I am at
the prospect of having you and this fine young cadet join us down on that
planet tomorrow. Allowing Flight staff to go on nice little field trips with
my Marines is one of the more amazing ideas to have ever come from the
Flight Boss. I’m honored to play any role in the endeavor.”

Zax gulped involuntarily as the Marine’s words dripped
with sarcasm. The respect for Mikedo which Zax had witnessed repeatedly among
the Marine sergeants was obviously not shared by this major.

“Cadet—I need you to listen carefully because I’m only
going to say this once. You will report to the armory at 0630 tomorrow. You
will be issued a kit bag with Marine ChamWare and a blaster. You will then
report to the hangar at 0700 for our departure aboard scout shuttle 5436. While
we are on the planet, you will do nothing except what you are explicitly told
to do. You will stay so close to your lieutenant I will have a hard time
discerning where she ends and you begin. If you do anything which puts my
Marines in any sort of danger, I will make sure the last thing your eyes ever
witness will be the inside of one of those tree leaves.” The major turned and
stomped out of the compartment.

Mikedo waited a couple beats after the hatch closed
behind the major and then sighed loudly. “Don’t pay him too much mind, Zax.
Majors in the Marines get sticks implanted in their butts as a condition of
accepting the promotion. The Boss has had cadets tag along on their missions
before without any problems, so it’s really not that big of a deal. Odon just
believes the Marines should be in charge of the Ship instead of Flight, and he
never lets us forget that opinion.” She grinned. “He’s actually more charming
than most Marine officers, but I’ll call you a liar if you ever tell anyone I
said so. Do you have any questions?”

“Yes—he said I would be issued ChamWare. If there aren’t
any of the warrior ants on the planet and if the worker ants ignore our
presence altogether, what’s the point of dealing with a chameleon suit?”

“Great question.” Mikedo stood up. “If you recall, what
Nineem said before Odon scared him away was we haven’t seen any of the warriors
yet. I’m guessing they aren’t down there since we have thousands of
hours of drone vids and they haven’t shown up in any of the footage, but I can
understand how the Major won’t risk the lives of his Marines on that bet. The
suits are a pain to deal with, but if by some rotten luck we manage to run into
any of those warrior ants I can guarantee you’ll be happy about being
invisible.”

Mikedo walked towards the hatch. “Let’s get out of
Marine Country. I’ve got final preparations to make for tomorrow and you should
get some rest. We’re scheduled to be on the surface for two days and you might
not get much chance to sleep during that entire time, so I suggest hitting the
rack as soon as you get back to your berth.

“One last thing, Zax.” Mikedo stopped, turned to Zax,
and grabbed both of his shoulders. She stared him straight in the eyes and
smiled. “I don’t want you to worry about anything. You’ve prepared for this and
I have complete faith in your abilities. If I didn’t think you were ready, I
wouldn’t be risking my own life going down there with you. You’re going to do
great!”

CHAPTER
TWENTY-SIX

You
ready?

Zax did not share Mikedo’s
confidence in his preparedness and spent a sleepless night obsessing about how
he would perform down on the planet. When reveille sounded, he felt no more
rested than when he had hit the rack. Since he couldn’t eat breakfast, he used
the time that would have spent in the mess hall on an extra-long shower (twenty
demerits). He put enough nutripellets for a week into his pocket and set off to
the armory.

The Marine armorer eyed him bemusedly when Zax arrived
and approached the counter. “What can I do for you, cadet?”

“Cadet Zax reporting, Sergeant. Major Odon said I was to
receive a kit bag.”

The armorer was a far older man than any of Zax’s
instructors and yet was still as rock solid and physically imposing. “Hmmm—we
don’t get too many Flight cadets around these parts. Let me check the system.”
He closed his eyes and raised an eyebrow once he found what he needed via his
Plug. “Very interesting. It isn’t very often I deal with something new, but
handing out ChamWare to a Flight cadet as young as you definitely qualifies.
Let me go grab your bag.”

The sergeant disappeared into the armory and then
returned with a black bag he placed on the counter. The bag had three
compartments. One was the perfect size and shape to contain a blaster. The
other two were each about half as long as the blaster compartment. Zax assumed
his chameleon suit was in one compartment, but the third was a mystery. He
attempted to pull the bag off the counter by one of its straps only to be
flummoxed when its solid mass threatened to rip his arm out of its socket.

“Whoa there, cadet. You’re going to want to be a little
more careful and lift with two arms. It has a third as much mass as you do.”

Zax grabbed the bag with both hands and grunted as he
maneuvered his arms through the straps and settled it on his back. “Holy crap!
What’s in this thing that makes it so heavy, Sergeant?”

“Welcome to the world of the Marines, son. Though, this
is actually a pretty light kit compared to what some of the other folks on your
team will be carrying.” The sergeant cracked a reasonable approximation of a
smile as he came around the counter and pointed out the various compartments of
the bag. “Of course, your blaster is in this first compartment here on the
side. It is standard issue other than having been coated with the same material
as the suit. This second compartment here at the top is the actual ChamWare
suit. This third compartment here on the bottom is the weight you’re feeling.
It’s the control unit for the suit and what puts the ‘chameleon’ in ChamWare.”

“Why is the control unit so heavy, Sergeant?”

“You seem reasonably smart for a Flight puke,”
the armorer grinned, “so I think you can appreciate the massive energy required
to make something disappear. The power supply is minuscule in size but so dense
it accounts for half of the weight. Most of the volume of the control unit and
the remainder of its weight is taken up by the heat sink. ChamWare wouldn’t be
nearly as useful if it made you invisible but left you shining like a beacon on
infrared. The human body generates a ton of heat, and we’ve got to put it
somewhere if we’re going to keep you hidden. These units are rated to absorb
enough heat to keep someone my size camouflaged for a week. It should be far
more than adequate for your puniness over a two-day mission.”

“Understood. Thank you, Sergeant.”

“Good luck down there, cadet. The recon company you’re
traveling with is a pretty amazing team so I wouldn’t worry about running into
any trouble they can’t handle. Just be sure you don’t do anything to get in
their way or piss them off.”

Zax checked the time as he turned to make his way to the
hangar. The chitchat with the sergeant had left him barely enough time to get
there by 0700. He double-timed it—at least as much as the excess weight of the
kit bag allowed. His desperate scramble was fueled by concerns over what might
happen if he violated the armorer’s advice and angered the Marines right off
the bat by showing up late.

Zax reached the hangar dripping with sweat and gasping
for air with secs to spare. He jumped into formation a couple of steps behind a
group of Marines wearing their kit bags. Mikedo, standing next to Major Odon at
the shuttle’s entrance, acknowledged his arrival with a subtle wink.

“Good morning, Marines. Along with our usual drivers for
the bus today, we’ve got a couple additional guests from the Flight corps.
Standing next to me is Lieutenant Mikedo. Some of you may have had reason to
work with her previously in her role as the Marine liaison from Flight. She is
chaperoning a cadet who is standing over there.”

One hundred pairs of eyes bore into Zax when the major
gestured towards him—most with simple disdain but at least a few with outright
malice. The major continued. “The lieutenant has assured me neither she nor her
cadet will interfere with our mission in any fashion. If either do, you have my
permission to do whatever is necessary to halt the interference. Please keep in
mind, though, it would be better for relations with the Flight corps if we could
at least attempt to get them back here in one piece.”

There were quite a few chuckles among the Marines,
though it sure sounded to Zax like the major was not joking a bit. One bell
rang to warn everyone of the pending FTL Transit. “They’re getting ready for
the Ship to jump into orbit,” said the major, “and we’ll be off the boat three
mins after it does. Load up!”

“Sir, yes, sir!” came the throaty response from one
hundred Marines. They filed into the craft and Zax trailed behind. Mikedo did
not board with the major but instead waited by the hatch for Zax.

“Good morning, cadet. You ready?”

Mindful of the Marines still within listening range, Zax
replied both more formally and more loudly than he typically would have with
Mikedo. “Ma’am, yes, ma’am!”

With another wink and a smile, Mikedo turned and led him
inside the shuttle. The Marines were almost settled in and many of them had
closed their eyes and appeared to be asleep. Mikedo steered Zax up a ladder to
a second deck where there was a separate compartment for the two of them. As
they sat down, he asked, “Are some of those Marines actually sleeping?”

“Yup. Learning to fall asleep instantly is one of the
most important skills a Marine picks up during training. When you spend your
life getting dumped into combat with no idea how long it might be until you get
a chance to rest, taking advantage of every opportunity is a great strategy. By
the way—you haven’t been eating, right?”

“Not since breakfast yesterday, just like you suggested.
I didn’t even have any nutripellets this morning. I loaded a bunch into my kit
and will eat once we’re out of FTL.”

“Excellent. I really don’t want to spend the next two
days ground-pounding in gear covered with your puke.”

Zax started to protest, but the pilot’s voice cut him off.
“Welcome aboard, Marines. Flight plan today has us taking off three mins after
the Ship completes its Transit. We’ll be clear of the Ship ninety secs later.
Thirty mins after that we’ll be feet dry and within a min of touchdown at the
first landing zone.”

The pilot’s voice was followed by the major’s. “You
heard the woman. Most of you should be asleep already, but if you aren’t,
you’ve got another twenty mins for shuteye so grab it while you can. Final
mission brief and prep fifteen mins before we land.”

Zax closed his eyes and breathed deeply in an effort to
calm his nerves. The FTL Transit came and went in a blissfully puke-free
fashion, and a few mins later his inner ear suggested the shuttle was moving.
Zax gazed out of the window next to his seat as the craft departed the hangar.
The pilot turned wide and a huge expanse of the Ship’s surface came into view.

Zax gaped in awe as he could never escape being
astounded by the simple existence of something so massive which had been forged
by humans. His appreciation of the Ship was forgotten a moment later, though,
when the shuttle’s destination came into sight. The planet wasn’t nearly as
beautiful as the images Zax had seen of Earth, but unlike humanity’s long dead
home world, he would tread upon this one’s dirt and breath its air.

A few mins later Zax’s window glowed from the glare of
superheated plasma as the shuttle burned an entry hole through the atmosphere
of the planet. He closed his eyes and rested—basking in the good fortune which
had led to this opportunity and giving only the slightest passing thought to
how Kalare had been robbed of it.

CHAPTER
TWENTY-SEVEN

These little guys can fly!

Zax slipped into his ChamWare
with only a few critical, yet embarrassing, hints from Mikedo. The suit
included biological componentry to handle the processing of sweat, urine, and
feces, and Zax had a hard time getting the crotch bits aligned just right. The control
unit proved hefty, but Zax started to forget about it once it was properly
strapped to his back. He was particularly impressed by how the suit’s visor
made Mikedo appear in front of him as if she wasn’t wearing the invisibility
suit at all. He lifted the visor and she disappeared until he dropped the visor
back over his eyes.

Once fully dressed and configured, Zax and Mikedo filed
down to the main deck and listened to the major’s mission briefing.

“You all know about our alien friends who beat us to
this rock. Our primary mission over the next two days is to gather firsthand
intel to help determine how we’re going to clear them out. The Captain says
we’ll Landfall here come hell or high water, so the only question which remains
is how quickly we can exterminate these bugs for her.”

The major paused for a moment while a projection of the
planet was displayed and zoomed into the smaller of the two land masses. “The
bugs are centered around two settlements. The smaller one is marked LZ1 and the
larger one is LZ2.

“Landing zone one is a half klick to the east of the
alien’s smaller compound. Scans and drone surveys have shown there are only
twenty or thirty bugs at this location. There are a couple dozen structures and
almost all of the alien activity is centered around three of them. Ship records
show we’ve never seen this sort of population pattern from these aliens before,
so the intel weenies are particularly interested in what we can learn around
there.”

The major pointed at various groups of Marines as he
gave his dispersal orders. “First Platoon is going to head around the north
side of the settlement while Second Platoon heads around the south. Third
Platoon will head straight on in. You all know what kind of stuff we’re looking
for. Keep your eyes peeled and your helmet cams focused on what will be most
valuable for the intelligence teams.

“One last thing.” The major stood to his full height and
raised his voice. “I know we’ve been told this planet only has worker bugs
because no warriors have been spotted. The workers ignore humans, but we’re
still in our ChamWare for a reason. If I see any of you acting like this
mission is a stroll through the woods, I’ll kill you myself. Get the rest of
your gear and be ready to hit the dirt in a few mins.”

The major gestured for Mikedo and Zax to approach.
“Against my better judgment I’ve agreed to the Flight Boss’s request that you
two join Third Platoon and go straight into the bug compound. Just remember—I
was dead serious back on the Ship when I gave everyone permission to do
whatever’s necessary if you interfere with our mission.”

“Understood, sir,” Mikedo replied crisply. “You and your
team won’t even notice the cadet and I are with you.”

“Unlikely.” The major scowled and strode away.

Mikedo turned to Zax and opened her mouth to speak but
stopped when a sergeant approached. It was the same one who had asked the
question about the carnivorous trees during the mission briefing.

“Excuse me, ma’am. Sergeant Yolis, Third Platoon. My
commander, Lieutenant Isoria, has asked me to shadow you two while we’re down
on the planet.”

The sergeant was not quite as big a specimen as Zax’s
Marine instructors had been, but he wasn’t far off. His jet black hair was
cropped closely like so many of the other Marines wore theirs. While
introducing himself, he had gestured over to a Marine lieutenant who Zax had
already noticed on the other side of the shuttle. She was as tall as the
sergeant though did not have anywhere near as much mass. She had stood out
because her blond hair was pulled back in a long ponytail which Zax believed
was against regulations in both its style and length. He needed to just give up
on deciphering the unwritten rules of being a Marine if he wanted his brain to
hurt less.

“If you wouldn’t mind, ma’am, I’d like to perform a
quick review of your gear.” The sergeant’s demeanor was as pleasant and polite
as the major’s had been disagreeable and rude. “I realize you’ve probably been
part of a rodeo like this before, but I hope you can understand we’d rather be
safe than sorry.”

“By all means, Sergeant. I appreciate the double-check.”

Mikedo slowly rotated as the sergeant gave her chameleon
suit a quick once over. He then did the same with Zax. “Everything is fitted
and configured properly, ma’am. If you two would please follow me, we’re going
to form up over here. Third Platoon will be last off the bus. We land in ninety
secs.”

Zax had lost track of the time and was shocked they were
so close to the surface. For most everyone in the Flight Corps, the idea of
landing on a planet filled them with terror because it meant they had gotten
bounced out of the Crew and dropped into a colony for the rest of their lives.
Zax, on the other hand, was about to experience the surface of a new world
while safely encased in Marine ChamWare and with a guaranteed ride back to the
Ship. He was participating in a recon mission which would scout out an alien
encampment in advance of an extermination force. His mouth was dry and his
hands were clammy, but the feeling in his belly was excitement and not dread.
He closed his eyes and focused on his breathing in an effort to not be
overwhelmed by the moment.

With a jolt, the shuttle touched down and an instant
later the loading bay door dropped to the ground. A half dozen sergeants barked
orders and Marines poured out of the craft. A sharp nudge in his back made Zax
move forward to join them.

The natural sunlight was momentarily blinding, but Zax’s
visor quickly compensated and his view was soon unhindered. Two-thirds of the
Marines had already disappeared into the jungle while the remainder, Third
Platoon, were arrayed in a loose defensive posture around the landing zone. The
shuttle door closed and the craft took off. Since these aliens weren’t known to
have any form of flying craft or detection technology, the pilots had the
luxury of orbiting lazily around the rally point while they awaited rendezvous
with the Marines in 120 mins.

Zax had ignored the background chatter on his suit’s
commlink, but then Sergeant Yolis’ voice cut through. “Lieutenant Mikedo—you
and the cadet will be sticking with me, and we’re going to be near the rear of
the formation as we head out.”

Zax gaped at the massive trees. They towered above the
ground like nothing he had ever imagined. He tried to locate the top of the
nearest one and estimate its height but quickly gave up and stared back down at
the ground when he was overwhelmed by vertigo.

The ground beneath his feet was only dirt, but it was alien
dirt. Zax yearned to remove his gloves and run his fingers through the
stuff. He wished he could ditch the suit altogether and immerse himself in the
planet. In particular, he ached to experience the warmth of the sun on his
face. Zax contemplated lifting his visor just for a quick sec until an
excited voice shattered his reverie.

“Hey—watch this! These little guys can fly!”

Zax looked over at a Marine private who stood five
meters off to his right. The Marine had picked up one of the small grazing
animals and it sat docilely in his arms. Once he had an audience, the private
heaved the creature through the air at one of the large leaves. Its panicked
bleats were muffled when the leaf snapped shut around the beast. The tree
sprang into motion and the creature was transferred from leaf to leaf until its
journey, and its life, ended near the top.

The sergeant’s voice quickly halted the laughter of the
Marines who witnessed all of this.

“What are you thinking, Private? If the major witnessed
that stunt, he’d have your head! All of you—the lieutenant is heading towards
the settlement. Get moving! I’ll take up the rear along with first squad and
our guests from Flight.”

The private smirked but turned and made his way west
towards the settlement. Zax despised the Marine’s gratuitous cruelty but
appreciated the graphic reminder about the planet’s dangers and the need to
stay clear of the leaves. Mikedo turned to follow the Marines, and he fell into
step behind her. They all disappeared into the jungle and left the landing zone
vacant behind them.

CHAPTER
TWENTY-EIGHT

Are
you OK, cadet?

The alien settlement didn’t
look like much of anything. A large clearing had been carved out of the jungle
and populated with a couple dozen buildings. ‘Building’ was probably the wrong
word to use since it actually seemed more like giant dirt clumps had been
randomly scattered on the ground.

Sergeant Yolis called the group to a halt. “We’re going
to break up and check each structure. You should note all of the bug activity
at this location is focused on the handful of buildings which are on the
western edge of the settlement. We’ll check those last as we prepare to leave.
That way we’ll have gathered as much intel as possible if anything crazy
happens and we have to hightail it to the rally point. Squad leaders—you have
your assignments. Lieutenant Mikedo—you and your cadet are with me.”

Mikedo and Zax fell into position behind the sergeant
and followed him towards an empty structure. Zax had studied the construction
techniques of this species after the mission briefing and learned their
buildings were formed from partially digested biological material. He had
laughed at the realization his first alien encounter would involve buildings
made with alien puke. The ant creations were all curves and rounded edges with
never a straight line to be seen. An initial handful of small buildings were
typically expanded upon through the years until they all merged into
labyrinthine structures.

They approached their target building and Sergeant Yolis
signaled for Zax to halt. The Marine gestured for Mikedo to follow him inside
and pointed for her to scan the right side of the entryway while he eyeballed
the left. Zax waited just outside the entrance and watched the deserted area
around them until the sergeant called “All clear” from inside.

Zax entered and was immediately struck by how the
structure appeared even more primitive on the inside than it was on the
outside. It was nothing more than a larger version of the ant mounds he had
seen on the Ship. There were two small passageways which led away from the main
entrance and Mikedo strolled out of one while the sergeant exited the other a
moment later.

Mikedo grinned at him. “What do you think of your first
alien adventure, Zax? Not very exciting to look at, huh?”

“Yes, ma’am. It’s nothing but a giant pile of bug barf.
Where do the passageways go?”

“Actually, it’s just a single passageway which begins
and ends here. No apparent reason for building it, but then I don’t pretend to
understand how these bugs think. If they even do. Maybe some day the exobiology
team can explain why an alien race, which must be relatively advanced given how
frequently we’ve seen them across the universe, can appear bereft of technology
when we observe them up close.” Mikedo turned to Yolis. “Sergeant—nothing much
here. Shall we head to our next target?”

“Yes, ma’am. Teams have almost finished checking the
newer buildings and all of them match this one—simple and empty. We’re going to
converge on the older structures where the drones have recorded all of the
alien activity. Stay close and keep alert as we expect to run into workers once
we reach the other side of the settlement.”

Zax followed the sergeant and Mikedo as they exited the
structure and weaved their way past various buildings towards the western edge
of the clearing. He sweated profusely as the temperature climbed inside his
suit. He had originally blamed the increased heat on being inside a building
where it was even warmer than the jungle, but his discomfort did not abate once
Zax got outside. He opened a private channel to Mikedo.

“Are you hot? I’m starting to get uncomfortable inside
this thing.”

“A little warm I suppose, but nothing more than you
would expect after walking around in a jungle. Give yourself a little longer to
adapt, Zax. If you’re still having issues when we get to the rally point, we
can ask the sergeant to check out your suit.”

Zax wasn’t entirely convinced about Mikedo’s plan but
didn’t want to make a fuss and nodded in agreement. A few mins later the group
reached the western edge of the settlement and its three older structures. They
gathered around Lieutenant Isoria along with the rest of the Marines, and Zax
heard her speak for the first time.

“I’ve been here observing while all of you were checking
the newer buildings. Very light bug action, but we’ve seen a few. All of them
entered the westernmost structure. I want first squad to set a perimeter around
that building while second squad goes inside. Third squad—I want you to split
up and check out the other two.”

The Marines dispersed to carry out their orders, and
Sergeant Yolis addressed Mikedo and Zax. “I’ve sent the rest of the squad to
check out the larger structure, and we can scout out the small one.”

Zax found it a little odd how the sergeant scouted along
with the two guests from Flight all by himself, but he assumed it was an
indication as to how low pressure this mission was for the recon Marines. The
three of them walked towards a building which seemed different than the rest.
Whereas the other buildings appeared perfectly organic with no signs of right
angles, this structure had a hint of straight lines deep underneath its outer
shell. Once again, Mikedo and the sergeant entered first and Zax hung back
until they announced an all clear.

Unlike the first building, this one was not entirely
empty. There was a small mound inside which might have once been a table of
some sort. It was covered with so much of the bug’s construction puke it had
become a nearly indistinct blob. Without thinking twice, Zax took the butt end
of his blaster and smashed it repeatedly against the top of the mound. The
organic material split and flaked as Zax pounded away.

The sound of Zax’s banging brought Mikedo running back
into the main room just as a final piece of material fell off and revealed what
appeared to be stainless steel underneath. She did a double take and called
out. “Sergeant—check this out.”

The Marine was already walking into the room and he
approached the mound. Before he got there, he closed his eyes for a moment and
focused on his Plug. “We’ll come back and check this out later. There aren’t
any aliens visible in the other buildings, but one of the structures includes
an entrance to an underground tunnel system. The lieutenant is sending some
folks down and I need to get over there.”

Zax’s heat stress had worsened after his vigorous
smashing with the blaster, and he stumbled to the ground as they exited the
building. Mikedo called out over the public channel.

“Are you OK, cadet?”

“Ma’am,” Zax panted as he staggered to his feet, “it’s
so hot inside this suit I’m having a hard time breathing. It’s way worse than
when we talked about it earlier.”

Sergeant Yolis hustled over to Zax. “You can cook your
brain inside one of these suits if it malfunctions. Let’s get you vented.” He
lifted Zax’s visor and unzipped the front of his suit.

The fresh air on his face was glorious and Zax swore
there were waves of heat emanating of his chest once the zipper was down. The
raising of his visor, however, rendered the sergeant and Mikedo invisible.

“This is pretty freaky—I can feel your hands moving
around on my suit, but I can’t see anything.”

The sergeant removed his own visor and his face floated
in midair. He must have been down on a knee because his head was at the same
level as Zax’s as he smiled at him.

“Which do you think is weirder—getting handled by the
invisible man or the disembodied one?” The sergeant started to laugh, but then
stopped and focused on his Plug.

Zax gazed through the sergeant’s transparent body and
spotted an alien warrior running out of a structure behind him. The giant ant’s
red and green stripes were a blur as it moved even faster than the one in the
briefing video. The creature raised one of its blade weapons as it charged
towards them. Zax called out a warning, but Yolis was already spinning around.
The Marine’s reaction was too late, and a blade sprouted out of his back as the
sergeant collapsed to the ground.

An invisible blaster fired directly in front of Zax.
Mikedo must have jumped in front of him to shoot at the alien. It went down in
a heap, and then Mikedo’s visor was off and her face appeared in front of his.

“Run and grab some cover just inside the tree line over
there! I’ve got to take care of the sergeant, but there’s help on the way and
I’ll come find you in a min!”

Mikedo’s face disappeared once again. She must have
reached down and lowered the sergeant’s visor because he was once again fully
invisible as well.

Zax ran to the tree line and found a place to hide
behind a fallen tree covered in moss and small vegetation. He caught his breath
for a moment and then peeked out over the log. He didn’t see anything back
towards the buildings, and there was no noise whatsoever.

The empty landscape was transformed when Zax lowered his
visor. He counted five Marines who had joined Mikedo. Four of them stood in a
defensive formation while the fifth assisted her in tending to the sergeant’s
wounds. The suffocating heat returned as soon as his visor was down, so Zax
quickly pushed it back up.

Zax settled back against the log and accidentally
dislodged one of the bushes which covered it. The falling vegetation tore away
dirt where its roots had previously found purchase on the log. The missing soil
revealed something like transparent titanium or some other artificial material.
Zax bolted upright and tore into the remaining plants.

After a few mins of furiously removing vegetation and
brushing away dirt, Zax uncovered something which made zero sense. He had not
been leaning against a tree, but it was instead some kind of fighter which had
been knocked onto its side and subsequently swallowed by the jungle. The clear
material he first spotted was part of the craft’s cockpit dome.

The fighter wasn’t the same model as those the Ship
sometimes deployed during planetary expeditions, but it could have sprung from
the imagination of the same designers. Zax peered into the cockpit and his
discovery evolved from bizarre to incomprehensible.

The labels on the controls were unintelligible, yet
recognizable. There were lots of strange, squiggly characters, but they were
interspersed with plenty of E’s and O’s and M’s and other letters which were
exactly like those he had used his entire life.

Identifying writing which appeared human was strange
enough, but then Zax spotted something which took his breath away. A plaque to
the side of an instrument panel featured a picture of a planet. Zax instantly
recognized the pale blue marble with its wispy clouds and distinctive
landmasses—Earth.

CHAPTER
TWENTY-NINE

Listen carefully to what I say next.

Zax’s mind raced and his heart
pounded. He was standing next to a human fighter which had been
abandoned in the jungle of this alien world. A noise off to the side
startled Zax, and he spun around to find Mikedo approaching with her visor up.

“The sergeant’s in rough shape. They’re moving him to
the rally point for evac and we need to catch up ASAP. Wait a sec—what the hell
are you looking at?”

Zax was at a complete loss for words so he simply
pointed into the cockpit. Mikedo scanned the interior for a min, turned to him
for a moment, and then stared back inside again.

“What is this thing?” Zax finally gasped. “Why is there
a fighter with human writing and a picture of Earth inside its cockpit sitting
here in the middle of this jungle? This craft isn’t one of ours, but it sure is
similar. The Ship’s never been to this planet, right? You know what this
means—there are other humans out here! We’re not alone!”

Mikedo gazed at Zax as she took a couple of deep
breaths. “I agree with you about what this looks like, Zax, but I want to warn
you about throwing around the word human without considering the
possible implications. Something as strange and potentially disruptive as this
discovery—”

“But,” Zax tried to interrupt and Mikedo waved her hand
to silence him.

“Listen—we’ve had 5,000 years of history lessons which
tell us the Ship is the only remnant of humanity. Our Mission to seed the
universe with new colonies, our leadership structure, all of our traditions,
everything we do is based upon that premise. If people hear there might be
other humans traveling around, will they hope maybe Earth is still alive and
sending out more ships? Or will they dream there is a new human home world
somewhere which is technologically advanced enough for space travel?”

It slowly dawned on Zax where Mikedo was going with her
concerns, but he was still surprised to hear the words come out of her mouth.
He was even more shocked to recognize how she had transformed from her
preternaturally calm self into someone who was nervous—maybe even frantic.

“You know what life has been like on board in recent
years, Zax. Some days it feels like the Ship might just disintegrate all around
us. They keep slapping together repairs, but eventually something critical will
break which can’t be fixed. We just went through all that time without a
Landfall and even some Crew started to jabber about whether the Mission is
feasible anymore.”

Mikedo paused for a deep breath and then continued. “Of
course, the civilian population is always ready to explode, and something like
this could be the spark. If enough civilians heard about this, don’t you think
they might revolt against dumping people into new colonies? They’d start a wild
goose chase looking for some mysterious human outpost. Right? Or even worse,
force the Ship back to Earth.”

Zax stood flabbergasted. In the span of ninety secs, he
went from imagining himself on the newsvid being wildly celebrated for finding
proof of other humans to learning that Mikedo felt his discovery was actually
bad news.

“Here’s what I want to do,” offered Mikedo. “We need to
get to the rally point. As soon as we are back with the Marines, I’m going to
check with the Flight Boss. Sorting out what to do with all of this is above my
pay grade. The Boss can figure out what’s next. Do you agree?”

Zax wanted desperately to understand what was making
Mikedo nervous, but the middle of an alien jungle didn’t feel like the place
where she would be likely to share much more. Instead, he nodded in agreement
and promised himself he would force her to explain more fully once they were
back on the Ship.

Mikedo took his face in her invisible hands and held him
focused on her disembodied head as she spoke. “Listen carefully to what I say
next. I think it’s best if we act like you know nothing about this. I’m
going to tell the Boss we got separated. I discovered this on my own and didn’t
tell you anything about it. He’ll believe I would’ve kept this secret from you
if I’d found it first because—well—I would have.

“I beg you to trust me when I say this, Zax. This is
dangerous, dangerous information, and you don’t want to be associated with it
in any way. Do you understand? Promise me you understand.”

Zax hesitated. The expression on Mikedo’s face bordered
on desperation. If she felt this strongly about what was going on, who was he
to question her judgment? But at the same time, this wasn’t something he could
just blindly trust anyone about—even Mikedo.

“I’m sorry,” he replied, “my head’s spinning. Let’s get
moving and that will give me a few mins to process all of this.”

Mikedo and Zax walked back to the rally point in silence
and arrived just as the Marines had settled Sergeant Yolis and arranged a
defensive perimeter around the landing zone. Lieutenant Isoria thanked Mikedo
for acting so quickly to treat the sergeant and informed her the other two
platoons would arrive within the next ten mins and the shuttle two mins
thereafter. Mikedo requested the comms specialist and was pointed to the other
side of the clearing. She gestured for Zax to follow and a min later they found
her.

“Corporal—I need you to configure a private channel
between my Plug and the Flight Boss. Maximum encryption please.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Mikedo gave Zax a wan smile and walked a dozen meters
away. She sat with her eyes shut and concentrated on her discussion with the
Flight Boss. A few times the muscles of her face twitched and betrayed the
intensity of the conversation. After a handful of mins, she opened her eyes and
exhaled a deep breath. She gestured for Zax and whispered once he drew close.

“That did not go quite the way I thought it would, but I
don’t want to go into the details right now. I promise I’ll give you some more
details once we’re back on the Ship. The part of the conversation which did go
as I expected was when I told him you knew nothing. I think he was pleased
about how I hadn’t told you about the fighter, but it felt was like he was
testing me since he asked three separate times in three different ways whether
or not you knew anything about it. Each time I made it crystal clear the answer
was no.”

Mikedo extended her hand and Zax clasped it to help her
stand. “Listen, Zax, I know this is almost impossible, but you’ve got to
promise me you’ll put this discovery out of your head for now. I don’t want you
sharing it with anyone. You and I probably shouldn’t even discuss it
again. The more you talk about anything like this, the easier it is to mess up
and reveal something about it at the wrong time. This will be a painful secret
to keep, but I need you to keep it nonetheless. I truly hope there’ll come a
time when we can figure out the right way for this information to be revealed
so you can get full credit, but until then you need to forget it ever happened.
Promise?”

Zax wanted to shout “no” with every fiber of his being.
He had found evidence of other humans traveling the stars! Even putting
aside how amazing it would be to get credit for the discovery, it screamed out
as something which was important for everyone on board the Ship to know.

We aren’t alone!

But then he reconsidered Mikedo and her pleading, near
desperate expression. It came from the woman who had shown more care and
compassion towards him in the last two weeks than anyone in the Crew had in his
entire life. The woman who was so smart and talented and had already
accomplished so much in her career. She wasn’t trying to steal credit for what
he found. She just wanted what was best and safest for him. He sighed.

“OK. I get it. I was never there. I never saw anything.
We got separated after the warrior attacked the sergeant, and when you found
me, we went straight back to the rally point.”

“Good boy.” Mikedo smiled, but her eyes betrayed great
sadness. “I’m so very sorry about all of this, Zax, I really am. I’m touched
you trust me enough to follow my instincts about what we should do. I promise
I’ll never abuse your trust or do anything to make you regret giving it to me.
I’m going to work with the Boss, and we’ll figure out what to do with all of
this.” She pointed to where the other platoons had gathered while the shuttle
descended. “Let’s get on board, find someone to check out that suit of yours,
and figure out what’s wrong before we hit the next LZ.”

CHAPTER
THIRTY

I have orders to do yours first.

The shuttle landed and they all
filed on. The major approached and frustration was evident in his voice.

“Go ahead and get out of the ChamWare, Marines. The
second leg of the mission’s been scrubbed and we’re heading back to the Ship.
Since we’ve encountered a warrior, the Omegas want to re-evaluate our mission
parameters before we recon the bugs’ larger settlement.”

The major’s announcement elicited universal grumbling.
Like everyone else on board the Ship, the Marines were nearly crazy after so
much time without encountering a habitable planet. This group was clearly upset
at the prospect of losing time on the surface and the opportunity to do their
job and kill some aliens. The major held up his hands.

“Settle down, Marines. I know you’re disappointed. I
guarantee Charlie Company will be included in the final mission plan. We’re
leaving now, but I promise we’ll be back soon enough to finish the job.”

Mikedo and Zax returned to their compartment to undress
and get strapped in for the trip back to the Ship. A few mins after takeoff, a
medic appeared holding a transdermal injector in one hand and a tray full of
vials in the other. Mikedo had gotten so involved with something on her slate that
she didn’t look up when the Marine entered their compartment.

“Excuse me, ma’am. I’m sorry to interrupt, but the
Omegas have ordered that we all get immune boost injections since we had an
encounter with the bugs.”

Mikedo looked up with a quizzical expression on her
face. “I’m sorry, Corporal, but I’m confused. This isn’t some new, unknown
species. We’ve run into these bugs a dozen times just in my lifetime, not to
mention the hundreds of other times the Ship has encountered them. There has
never been a single instance where there was any sort of infection traced back
to them. Why are we worried all of a sudden about getting immune boosts?”

The medic sighed. “I’m sorry, ma’am. I don’t know if
maybe it works differently in Flight, but when Marine corporals get orders, we
carry them out rather than ask a lot of questions.”

Mikedo smiled. “Point taken, Corporal. I’m in the middle
of something so please take care of my cadet here first.”

The Marine seemed sheepish. “I’m sorry, ma’am. I have
orders to do yours first.”

The smile faded from Mikedo’s face. “That doesn’t make
any sense, Corporal. Why should it matter whether you do me first or the
cadet?”

“Perhaps you’d like to take it up with the major,
ma’am?”

There was a long, uncomfortable silence. It didn’t make
sense to Zax why Mikedo was giving the medic such a hard time about following
orders, but the expression on her face was impenetrable.

Mikedo finally turned towards Zax and smiled as she
rolled up her sleeve and replied to the Marine. “That won’t be necessary,
Corporal. Go ahead and give me the injection. Better safe than sorry, I
suppose.”

The medic gave Mikedo her shot and then loaded a new
vial into the injector before turning to administer Zax’s dose. The Marine
apologized one last time for the interruption and then exited the compartment.
Zax rolled his sleeve back down and sensed Mikedo watching him as he did so.
Her cheeks were flushed and she wore a pained expression.

“I need to send an important message, Zax, but I’ve got
to tell you something first and you must promise me you’ll always remember these
exact words. I absolutely believe you will do great things.”

Zax was clueless about how to react to such a
compliment, so he replied with a simple “Thank you.” Mikedo gave him faint
smile and then sat back and shut her eyes. With nothing else to do, Zax closed
his as well and attempted the Marines’ trick of napping during downtime.

It could have been five secs later or it might have been
five mins, but Zax was startled awake by the thud of something heavy hitting
the deck. He discovered Mikedo crumpled on the deck next to her seat—unmoving.

Zax unbuckled his straps and jumped up yelling for help
as he scrambled to check what was wrong. Mikedo’s lips were blue and her body
radiated heat like she was on fire. Her breaths were shallow and horrifically
labored. Zax went for the hatch but found it would not open. He pounded on the
control panel. “Help! We need help in here! Help!”

“Cadet—please calm down,” replied a voice over the
intercom. “Calm down! The biosensors show that Lieutenant Mikedo has taken ill.
We’ve got medics donning isosuits who are almost ready to assist. We’re worried
it might be something infectious from your encounter with the bugs, so we can’t
let them in until you calm down and step away from the hatch.”

Zax backed up to the other side of the compartment and
stood over Mikedo’s body. He was about to yell again when a soft hissing noise
was immediately followed by the buckling of his knees. He collapsed with his
body draped across Mikedo’s and panicked about whether this was the first sign
he had also caught whatever brought her down. The voice on the other end of the
intercom spoke again.

“Don’t be alarmed, cadet. For everyone’s safety, we’ve
doused your compartment with sleeping gas. It doesn’t appear you’re ill, but
we’ve got to keep you quarantined until we know for certain. There’s a team
just outside the hatch, and they’re going to help the lieutenant as soon as
you’re fully sedated.”

Zax fought to resist but was unable to stave off the
effects of the gas. His last thought before dropping into unconsciousness was
one of tremendous desperation. Mikedo was no longer burning up, but her
breathing had quit altogether.

CHAPTER
THIRTY-ONE

It means you have a message waiting.

“Try again—don’t let her go!” Zax heard
the words, but they sounded like they came from somewhere far above him up a
deep, dark tunnel. He opened his eyes and attempted to move his body, but
discovered he was somehow restrained. He was still in the shuttle compartment
and was staring up into the expressionless face of a man behind the mask of an
orange isolation suit.

The figure reached for an injector which he applied to
Zax’s arm. The last thing Zax registered before everything faded to inky
blackness was the major standing impassively just outside the hatch.

Clap!

“Cadet—wake up.”

Clap! Clap!

“Zax—wake up.”

Clap – Clap – Clap!

The clapping right next to his head grated on Zax. “Go
away,” he mumbled, his lids clamped tight against the bright light attempting
to shred his eyeballs.

“That’s no way to talk to an officer, cadet.
Particularly one who has been taking care of you and is here to share some good
news.”

The female voice sounded familiar, and Zax was flooded
with relief at the prospect of talking to Mikedo. He forced himself fully awake
and blinked the sleep out of his eyes. It wasn’t Mikedo in front of him but
rather an unknown woman dressed in one of the orange isosuits. He checked his
surroundings and concluded he was no longer on the shuttle, but instead in the
medbay.

“That’s more like it, cadet. You’re still restrained so
don’t bother trying to sit up or move your arms. That’s part of the bad news.
We’ve got to keep you isolated here for another forty-eight hours to be certain
you didn’t contract anything hazardous on that planet which might make you or
anyone else sick. The good news is the Flight Boss was down here this morning
to check on you personally. When he heard we needed to keep you for another
couple of days, he ordered us to go ahead and get you Plugged In right now. He
said as long as you’re stuck in sickbay you might as well get some benefit out
of the time and use it to recover from implantation.”

“Wait—what happened to the officer I was with?
Lieutenant Mikedo. Is she all right?”

The medic smiled down at him benevolently. “I’m sorry,
cadet, but I don’t know anything about that. I’m just here to get you sedated.
I know it’s annoying I woke you up only to put you back under again, but we
need to verify your neurological function is OK before we go cracking your
skull open. The scans are all checking out normal and you seem fine, so we’ll
get you asleep again. The next time you wake up you’ll be Plugged In.”

“Wait! Stop! Please—I’ve got to find out what happened
to Lieutenant Mikedo. I have to know!”

“Sorry, cadet, but it’s too late. I’ve already applied
the anesthetic. You’re going to feel your eyelids getting heavy in a couple of
secs. Don’t worry about the lieutenant—I’m sure she’s fine. Let’s just worry
about getting you completely sedated right now so they can take care of your
Plug. Trust me when I say you don’t want to wake up in the middle of this
particular surgery.”

Zax soon felt like his eyelids weighed a million kilos,
and he ultimately lost the battle to keep them open. Once again,
unconsciousness engulfed him.

Beep.

Beep Beep.

Beep.

Beep Beep.

The incessant electronic bleats dragged Zax into
consciousness, and he found himself in what appeared to be a medbay recovery
room. He blinked a few times and turned his head to discover Kalare beaming in
a chair next to him.

“You’re finally awake! Good morning! It’s great to see
you! I’ve missed you these last few days. You’re not going to believe this, but
you’re actually in the same bed I was in when we last saw each other. What a
crazy coincidence! How funny is it you came here to say goodbye to me and now a
couple days later I’m here to say hello to you!”

Zax tried to focus on her words, but Kalare was hard to
keep up with when he was fully conscious much less when he was just waking up
with a sedation hangover.

“Whoa—too—many—words. Slow down—please.”

“I’m sorry. It’s just so exciting to see you again.”
Kalare sucked in a couple of exaggerated deep breaths before continuing. “I
haven’t had anyone to talk with since you went away, so I’ve been bugging the
medics nonstop about when they were going to wake you up. And now—you’re up!”

“I get it, I get it. Thanks. It’s nice to see you too.
How long have I been out?”

“You were down on the planet three days ago. Most of the
time since you’ve been unconscious to recover from getting implanted. I can’t
believe how lucky you are to get Plugged In so much earlier than the rest of
us!”

Zax had forgotten about the conversation with the medic
where she told him he was getting put under for implantation surgery. Kalare’s
reminder made him aware something was indeed different inside his head. A red
light flashed in his field of vision. It seemed at first to be attached to a
piece of equipment past Kalare’s shoulder, but as he turned his head the light
moved as well. It was being projected by his Plug and was something only he
could see. He was clueless about how to interact with it, but he was now
Plugged In! Mikedo could teach him how to use it—wait—

“Where’s Mikedo? How’s she doing? Did they figure out
what was wrong with her?”

Kalare’s smile vanished. “You mean they haven’t told
you?” She sighed and dropped her face into her hands. The next words came in a
whisper. “She’s gone, Zax. She died while you guys were coming back from the
surface. They disposed of her straight out of the shuttle rather than risk
bringing her body back onboard the Ship. They were worried she was still
infectious. The story led the newsvid broadcast the day after you came back.”

Zax had somehow known this would be the answer, so his
emotions were already primed and the tears came instantly. Massive, choking,
gasping sobs. Kalare draped her body over his and hugged him as she joined in
and cried softly. A min later the hatch opened and Zax recognized through his
tear-stained vision it was the same medic who was taking care of Kalare when
Zax had visited her. The man discovered yet another crying scene between the
two of them, and this time turned and left rather than interrupt.

Kalare straightened up after a few mins and perched
herself on the side of the bed where she stroked Zax’s head while he continued
to sob. Eventually he croaked, “Thank you” through the last remnants of his
tears.

“I’m so sorry, Zax. She was so amazing, and it must have
been so hard for you when it all happened.”

It was hard. Zax’s mind flashed back to his hopelessness
as he pounded on the door of the shuttle compartment and screamed for help. He
remembered the horrible panic he felt when he was lying across Mikedo’s body
and realized she was no longer breathing. The tears welled up again, but Zax
fought to choke them back.

“Do they know what happened to her?”

“All I know is what they announced on the newsvid. Your
recon mission went down to figure out the best way to clear out the bugs before
Landfall. A group of you had a close encounter with a bunch of bugs. You all
got immune boosts, but it must have been too late for Mikedo because she fell
ill on the shuttle and died a short time later. Speaking of the newsvid, it’s
about that time.” She walked over to activate the monitor embedded in the wall.
“I heard a rumor there’s going to be a big announcement this morning, so we
should definitely watch.”

The announcer appeared and the graphic behind his head
featured a single word—Landfall.

“The Omegas have made a final determination as to the
status of the planet we are orbiting. We shared with you previously that a
member of the Flight Corps died of an infection sustained during a scouting
mission to the planet’s surface. She had been in hand-to-hand combat with a
large group of bugs, and the Ship’s medical staff has concluded this was the
source of her deadly infection—not anything having to do with the planet
itself.

“The original plan was for the Marines to remove all
of the bugs before Landfall, but the discovery of this illness has shifted that
thinking. The Captain has decided to instead remove the bugs by deploying a
Planetbuster from orbit against their settlements. This will glass over the
landmass where the bugs are located and make it uninhabitable for centuries,
but the Omegas have wisely concluded this is a small price to pay in exchange
for not risking additional infections among our Marines. There is more than
enough high-quality land on the second continent to sustain a settlement. The
loss of the other should not make a difference for the future of the colony.

“We will nuke the bugs in 172 mins and, unless there
are any problems, Landfall will start tomorrow. The first wave of colonists
will depart at 0700. Let’s go to a report from the staging area where
preparations are being made.”

Kalare smiled at Zax. “Well, there’s some good news for
you. Cyrus is part of the Colonial Security staff, so he’ll be off the Ship
with the first wave tomorrow morning. Since the medic said you’re in here for
another twenty-four hours, you don’t have to worry about ever seeing him again.”

Kalare’s words barely registered with Zax. Cyrus was the
furthest thing from his mind. All he could think about was what had transpired
down on the planet. How his recollections didn’t sync with what he just heard
on the newsvid. Kalare was still rambling about something related to Landfall
when Zax interrupted her.

“Doesn’t all of this sound a little weird to you? There
are tons of historical records of the Ship encountering those bugs, right?
We’ve never experienced any sort of infectious disease in our dealings
with them before and that includes some furious, all-out battles where
thousands of Marines experienced plenty of hand-to-hand combat. When they came
to give us our immune boost shots on the shuttle, Mikedo was surprised and
questioned the medic about it because she said we never bother doing
that when we encounter the bugs. And speaking of Mikedo, the newsvid has it
entirely wrong. She didn’t have any close combat with a bunch of bugs—there was
a single warrior and Mikedo took it down with her blaster from fifty
meters away.”

Kalare seemed bewildered, but Zax continued. “So now,
rather than try to learn anything about this mysterious new infectious disease
which killed someone within mins of exposure and is associated with aliens we
encounter all the time, we’re instead going to just nuke it all away. We’re
going to destroy half of the landmass on this planet the day before we drop a
colony onto the other half. When was the last time a Captain even used a
Planetbuster? Can you think of a single situation from the Ship’s records where
we’ve done anything similar to this? It’s all crazy!”

Zax glared expectantly at Kalare and after a few secs
she started laughing. “I’m sorry to react this way because I know you’re being
serious, but it’s super funny how things have been flipped. You may not
remember it, but I distinctly recall a conversation with you from a few weeks
ago where I started questioning what I’d just seen on a newsvid and you got
terribly upset with me. In fact, you were so angry you stormed out of the mess
hall muttering something or other about my ‘paranoid fantasies.’”

Kalare had a point, but Zax was certain she would share
his doubts if only she knew what he had found down on the planet. He felt
compelled by his promise to Mikedo, though, to withhold that critical detail.
Zax was trying to figure out how little he could disclose while still getting
her to appreciate his concerns when the medic returned.

“I’m sorry to interrupt, but I have to get you prepped
for a Plug diagnostic.” The medic turned to Kalare. “Time for you to leave,
cadet. Your friend will be discharged tomorrow morning and you two can chat all
you want after that.”

Kalare stood to leave. “Bye, Zax. Hopefully, they didn’t
screw up your brain when they gave you the Plug and that’s what’s making you
all crazy paranoid like me. We’ll talk more tomorrow.”

The hatch shut behind Kalare, and the medic appraised
Zax with an expression of grave concern. “What did she say about you being
paranoid? Are you having any strange thoughts? It’s important I know if there
has been any change in your mental state because it could signal a problem with
your implantation.”

Zax’s mind had been flooded with all kind of strange
thoughts since the newsvid played, but he was certain they had nothing to do
with his Plug. “No, sir. Nothing out of the ordinary. She was just joking
around. She’s got an odd sense of humor, that one.”

“Well, she seems to care an awful lot about you. She’s
been here pestering the staff nonstop about when you would wake up and she
could visit you.” The medic grinned. “I might even suspect there’s something
happening there beyond just friendship.”

Zax blushed but quickly regained his composure. “You
mentioned something about a Plug diagnostic, sir. There’s a flashing red light
I’ve been seeing in the lower right corner of my vision. Is that anything to
worry about?”

“No, that’s not a problem. It means you have a message
waiting. The diagnostic is just a quick scan to be sure your neurons are
properly melding with the Plug. The implant tech will be down here in a min and
she’ll check you out.”

Zax was intrigued by the idea of a waiting message since
he had no clue who would have sent him anything already. “How do I access the
message?”

“Sorry, but you can’t just yet. The Plug needs another
twenty-four hours to meld before we can fully activate the neural interface.
You’re seeing some of the low-level notifications now because that
functionality is the first to come online. Assuming there aren’t any problems,
you’ll have an orientation session tomorrow afternoon. Your instructor will
activate everything and teach you how to interact with the Plug. Don’t worry,
cadet—that message isn’t going anywhere.”

CHAPTER
THIRTY-TWO

You
said ‘if’, sir.

The next morning Zax awoke to
enjoy one final meal in bed before he was due to leave medbay. He ate breakfast
as the morning newsvid broadcast live coverage of the first two hundred
colonists grimly marching into their transport. The former Crew members no longer
wore their uniforms, but instead dressed in clothes which identified them as
Colonial Security.

Zax caught a glimpse of Cyrus boarding the vessel and
allowed himself a quick smile at the realization he had dodged that problem.
Aleron remained on the Ship, of course, but Zax could deal with him. A giant
psychopath with more muscles than brains and nothing to lose like his mentor,
however, was better left far behind.

He received one final physical evaluation and was then
discharged. The medic smiled as he wished Zax farewell and said he hoped to not
see him again anytime soon—either as a patient or a visitor. Zax’s assignment
schedule for the day revealed only light duty with three commitments. He had to
lead a class about Landfall for the Gammas in the morning and was scheduled for
initial Plug training in the afternoon. Those two activities were sandwiched
around a meeting with the Flight Boss which was booked right after lunch.

The thought of meeting with the Boss filled Zax with
foreboding. Mikedo made it clear how she told the Omega that Zax had zero
knowledge of the mysterious fighter, but the Boss might try to verify that for
himself. The chain of events which occurred immediately after Mikedo informed
the Flight Boss about the fighter suggested her concerns about the discovery
might have been more than paranoia. Zax desperately wished to believe it was
all a giant coincidence, but he refused to bet his life on it. He needed to be
on top of his game if he sensed the Boss was digging for any reason to mistrust
what Mikedo had told him.

Zax set his concerns aside and entered the training
compartment full of Gammas. There was a buzz in the air as they were all
following the news about Landfall with great excitement. It had been so long
since the Ship found a habitable planet that the kids in Gamma probably had no
memory of it ever happening. Zax barely remembered the last Landfall himself.

“Good morning everyone. Who watched the morning
newsvid?” Zax knew it was a silly question, so he was not the least bit
surprised when every hand shot up. “OK, good. I was busy and missed it so who
can tell me what they showed?” All of the hands stayed up, and Zax chose a boy
who sat in the front row and bounced with enthusiasm.

“Sir—they showed the first wave of colonists loading up
for transport down to the planet.”

“Interesting. Who typically makes up the first group?”

“Sir—the new Colonial Security staff goes first. They
are former Crew members, so everyone has gone through the rigorous training we
all experience. The same way the Crew has final authority on the Ship, Colonial
Security has final authority in the new colony.”

“Exactly right. Ten credits.” A girl midway towards the
back appeared puzzled and raised her hand. Zax pointed at her.

“I don’t understand, sir. No one from the Crew ever
volunteers to join a colony, right? So that means the only Crew members who are
picked for Colonial Security are those who have been Culled. Doesn’t this mean
all of our colonies are being led by the very worst people from the Crew?”

A boy in the back row jumped in before Zax could answer.
“That’s a stupid question! Why do you think the rest of us worry about the
Leaderboard so much? No one wants to get Culled because that’s what happens—you
wind up dumped off to some nasty colony.”

Zax smiled at the girl who asked the question. “There
are no stupid questions, only stupid cadets.” He smirked at the boy who
had jumped in as he stressed the last word. “Ten credits for the cadet who
asked a good question. For her classmate with the quick answer—ten credits for
being right, ten demerits for calling a smart cadet stupid, and fifty demerits
for speaking without first raising his hand.”

The boy glared at him, but Zax smiled broadly back at
him before he continued. “Though the cadet’s answer was technically correct, I
think there was a deeper meaning hidden behind the original question. I would
rephrase it this way. Does it make sense for colonies to be led by the worst
members of the Crew? I think this question has two distinct answers. Who wants
to take a crack at it?”

A number of Gammas raised their hands, but Zax called on
the cadet he punished for speaking out of turn. The boy answered smugly,
“Because even the very worst Crew member is better than the best civilian.”

“Spot on. That’s the more obvious of the two answers,
though, so I’m only giving you five credits.” The boy glared at him even more
fiercely than earlier. “Anyone want to take a crack at the second answer?”

All hands remained down around the room. Zax allowed the
silence to linger for a few extra beats so everyone was good and uncomfortable
before he expelled a dramatic sigh. “Do I have to do all of the work here,
cadets?” Zax enjoyed being a trainer so his exasperation was fake and played
for effect. He believed you had to needle the kids a little every once in a
while to keep them on their toes.

“We all know the Ship’s Mission is to seek out habitable
worlds and seed the universe with as many human colonies as possible, right?”

Heads nodded around the compartment and Zax continued.

“If we represent the last remnants of Earth, we owe it
to our ancestors who built this amazing Ship to continue that Mission and
propagate our species far and wide. We could choose to maximize the
chances of survival for any single colony by populating it with the best
members of the Crew. Our Mission isn’t to create a single successful colony,
however, but to create thousands of them. Therefore, the greatest chance of
succeeding at our Mission is to keep the best of us on board so the Ship can
continue its journey. Since we know the worst Crew member is still far better
than the best civilian, we can be confident even those who aren’t good enough
to stay in the Crew are well prepared to lead and develop our colonies. Make
sense?”

Most heads were nodding, but the interruption boy raised
his hand again. Zax pointed in his direction.

“You said ‘if’,
sir.”

“Excuse me?”

“Sir—you said ‘if we represent the last remnants
of Earth’ like there’s some doubt about it.”

Dammit, thought Zax, this was exactly the type of
slip-up Mikedo was worried about when she warned him to push the discovery of
the fighter far out of his mind. He hoped the lights were dim enough in the
room the cadets wouldn’t notice the flush in his cheeks.

“Thank you, cadet. Good catch as I obviously misspoke.
There’s no question the Ship and the colonies it has settled are the last
remnants of humankind in the universe. Our ancestors realized almost too late
the Earth had very limited time left. They were able to put aside their long history
of destructive conflict to unite and pool what remained of the planet’s meager
resources to build this Ship—the one and only lifeboat for humanity.”

He wasn’t feeling enthusiastic about the standard
Landfall lesson script given all his worries, but Zax knew it was important he
deliver it convincingly. “The best and brightest of Earth were selected to be
part of its one hundred-thousand-member Crew while a planet-wide lottery picked
the civilians who got to come along and staff the less important jobs and
provide a pool of future colonists. Ten million civilians were to remain
conscious at all times and support the Mission while an additional one billion
were put into the Ship’s cryosleep holds. Look around the room right now and
you see the descendants of that original Crew. We serve our Mission with pride
once more by settling another group of humans who will represent a new outpost
to prevent the extinction of our species.”

Zax forced himself to smile at the boy. “So, I’m going
to give you five credits for catching my mistake. I’ll give you a chance at
another forty which gets you back to even for the day if you can answer my last
question. The colonists in the first wave are awake when they get sent down to
start the new settlement. The other twenty thousand go down still packed in
their cryotubes, though. Why is that?”

The boy was quiet for a couple of secs before answering.
“Well, sir, I can think of two reasons. First, it takes time to set up and
organize a colony. We provide them with enough bots and consumable raw
materials for the initial buildout and setup, but all that stuff still takes
time. It’s probably a lot easier to get a colony up and running if you only
have two hundred former Crew coordinating the initial work rather than twenty
thousand useless civilians running around causing problems.”

The boy pushed ahead without pausing for any comment
from Zax. “The other reason for leaving the colonists in cryosleep is probably
to prevent issues on board the Ship before they leave. Twenty thousand doesn’t
sound like a lot of people compared to the ten million who are awake on board,
but I’m guessing they could cause an awful lot of problems if they were scared
about getting left behind and wanted to fight back instead.”

“Great answers. You’ve earned the forty credits.” Zax
acknowledged a raised hand on the other side of the room.

“Sir—I saw you on the newsvid the other day. You went
down with the scouting mission. What did you think about the planet? Would you
be scared about getting settled on it?”

Zax paused for a long moment and considered the
question. He imagined living on a world where half of the landmass has just
been roiled by the Ship’s nukes. He remembered watching one of the herbivores
getting eaten alive by a carnivorous tree. It was all pretty terrifying to him,
but that wasn’t a great answer for these kids to hear. After all, some of them
had a decent shot of being at the bottom of the Leaderboard some day and
finding themselves in a future first wave of colonists. He forced a smile. “It
wasn’t all that bad.”

CHAPTER
THIRTY-THREE

Look at me—I’m a blubbering mess.

After lunch, Zax visited Flight
Ops for the first time since the mentorship contest started. He arrived as a
CAP fighter launched and could be seen through the panorama streaking away into
the void.

He desperately wanted to believe there was no connection
between Mikedo’s death and the information she shared with the Flight Boss a
short time before it happened. Though he understood the rationale she had
offered, it remained difficult for Zax to accept how the fighter’s existence
posed any risk. Ultimately, if Mikedo thought it was true, then Zax would put
faith in her opinion. She believed the information was worth killing over, so
it stood to reason she might be dead because she had shared it with the Boss.

Zax appraised the man who might have arranged Mikedo’s
death. He was convinced the Boss would attempt to ascertain whether he had any
knowledge about the mysterious fighter. If the Boss had killed Mikedo over its
discovery, then Zax was certain he wouldn’t hesitate to do the same to him if
the man harbored the slightest suspicion.

The Flight Boss rose once he noticed Zax’s arrival. A
cigar was clenched between his teeth as always and he grinned around it. “Cadet
Zax—it’s great to see you again! We’ve missed having you around these past few
weeks!”

The warmth of the Boss’s greeting disarmed Zax. He had
walked into Flight Ops brimming with dread, as if he had just been Culled, only
to be greeted like a long-lost friend. He quickly concluded the man’s behavior
should provoke even greater paranoia and pasted a smile on his lips. “Thank
you, sir. It’s great to be back.”

“Mini-Flight—come join Zax and me in the conference
room.”

Kalare stood in response to the Boss’s order and grinned
at Zax as she approached. They fell into formation behind the Boss, and he led
them to the small conference room attached to Flight Ops. He sat and gestured
for the two of them to do the same.

The Boss took his cigar out of his mouth and rested it
on the table before he spoke. “I have to tell you how fantastic it’s been over
the past few weeks to get reports about the amazing job the two of you have
done with the mentorship contest. I heard nothing but high praise from the
Marine instructors, and you can imagine how much it pains them to ever
compliment Flight cadets. Sergeant Bailee, in particular, was blown away by
your performance during the live fire exercise he crafted. He shared how his
simulation was far too advanced for cadets your age and yet you nailed it.”

The removal of his cigar allowed the Boss a smile far
more broad than Zax had ever witnessed on the man. He jammed his fingernails
into his palms in an effort to keep himself focused on the possibility of a
trap. Zax refused to get caught off guard and slip up once the Boss started to
probe for any weakness.

The Boss’s smile faded as he continued. “Of course, we
were all crushed by what happened to Lieutenant Mikedo. She was an amazing
officer. Amazing. I remember her walking into this very same conference room
for the first time like it was only yesterday. I picked her for my mentorship
contest on a whim, really. I didn’t think she had a chance against the other
two cadets, but there was some undefinable spark about her which demanded
attention. She stood before me and insisted she would win and I would be stuck
with her for a good long while. She was correct about winning, though not about
how long I’d be stuck with her.”

The Boss choked up and his eyes brimmed with tears. “I’m
sorry to get all emotional here, cadets. M-M-Mikedo’s loss still hasn’t quite
sunk in. Look at me—I’m a blubbering mess. That woman left a huge impression on
everyone she met, and I will forever be a better person for having had her in
my life. I was supposed to be mentoring her, but there were plenty of times
where I swear it wound up being the other way around.”

The Boss turned away for a moment, and when he faced
them again, there were tears streaking his cheeks. The knot of paranoia in
Zax’s stomach untied itself. It was clearly impossible for this man to have
hurt Mikedo for any reason. The Omega took a couple of deep breaths and then
continued.

“So, I’m going against my own instincts and have made a
decision based on Mikedo’s recommendation. I’m going to mentor both of you.
Everyone reports you make an amazing team, so I’ve decided to keep nurturing your
connection. I’m hoping we can prove that sometimes one plus one can be much
greater than two.”

Zax was struck dumbfounded by the officer’s words and
display of emotion. He walked into Flight Ops terrified about what might happen
as a result of interacting with the Boss, and now his thoughts had been spun
180 degrees. This man could never have been involved with what happened
to Mikedo. Zax desperately wanted to believe that meant no one was. He
couldn’t imagine a scenario where the second most powerful officer on board
would be unaware of a decision to murder a member of the Crew. Bad luck
happened sometimes, and Zax’s mind worked furiously to convince himself
Mikedo’s death was just that—rotten chance.

His paranoia about the Boss had always been accompanied
by enough disbelief that Zax was sufficiently primed to replace it with
excitement provided with enough reason to do so. He was beyond thrilled to
learn his career would be massively boosted by working with the man and even
more so hearing it would happen with Kalare by his side. She was clearly insane
and oftentimes drove him crazy, but he could not agree more about how they made
a great team. He glanced at her expecting to find the same level of excitement
but discovered she wore an expression of consternation instead.

“Sir—” Kalare hesitated. “I’m sorry, sir, but I don’t
quite know how to say this. Your offer comes as a tremendous surprise. I
thought I was out of the running for your mentorship after I got hurt and
didn’t participate in the recon mission. I wasn’t bothered because I knew how
much Zax cared about winning, and I felt he deserved it far more than I did.
That should be even more true when you hear I don’t even know if I want to stay
involved with Flight much longer. I respectfully decline your offer,
particularly since you’re extending it because you want me and Zax to keep
working so closely together. He deserves better than a partner who isn’t one
hundred percent committed.”

Zax expected the Boss to be angry, but the man smiled at
Kalare instead. “I have to say, cadet, this is the first time I’ve ever had
someone attempt to turn down my offer of mentorship. Anyone else in the Crew
would gnaw off their arm for this opportunity. Your ability to speak your mind
and make unconventional choices is precisely what I need in people I work with,
however.

“I acknowledge you want to decline my offer, but I order
you to hold off on making that final until we leave this system in forty-eight
hours. I’m sending the two of you on a mission before then which I hope might
influence your decision. Both of you meet me inside the hangar tomorrow after lunch.
You’re dismissed.”

CHAPTER
THIRTY-FOUR

You’re
the pilot.

Zax woke the next morning in a
haze. He had wanted to spend time with Kalare after their meeting and convince
her to accept the Boss’s offer, but the Plug training which had immediately
followed occupied him right up until lights out and their paths never crossed.

‘Training’ was a misnomer for what Zax had endured. He
went into the session expecting instructions about how to accomplish amazing
things with his new implant. What he got instead was seven hours of isolation
in a pitch black room where he was forced to remain perfectly still while
seemingly random images and noises were pumped into the headphones and goggles
he wore. The room’s temperature alternated between painfully hot and freezing
cold, and once in a while his chair delivered electric jolts when he closed his
eyes for too long or fidgeted too much.

The stated purpose of the session was the formation of
various sensory pathways between his brain and the Plug. The actual outcome was
the instigation of a crushing headache. The pain had receded by the morning,
but Zax’s brain still seemed to be operating a half sec behind the rest of his
body.

After an extra long (twenty demerits) and extra hot
(twenty additional demerits) shower, Zax headed to the mess hall. To his
dismay, Kalare was not at their usual table and was nowhere to be found. He
desperately needed a few mins with her to discuss the Flight Boss. Zax would
never have believed it two weeks earlier, but he wanted nothing more than for
Kalare to accept the Boss’s offer so the two of them would be mentored
together.

The morning newsvid droned while Zax ate. There was not
a single mention of the new colony on the planet below. The first story
announced an FTL Transit, which was scheduled the next day after lunch, but
from there it went into mundane news about random happenings on board. It was
as if the former Crew members and twenty thousand civilians down on the planet
no longer existed, which Zax supposed was more true than not as far as most of
the Ship was concerned.

Zax set out for another round of Plug training after
breakfast. He dreaded what kind of torture was in store, but discovered instead
the compartment was empty except for the instructor. The man stood as Zax
entered.

“Good morning, cadet. I’m sorry, but we’ve been forced
to delay the final portion of your Plug training. I was informed the Boss
requires your participation in something later today and that will not leave us
sufficient time to complete the session. I’ve already booked you a new
appointment in two days.”

Zax was not disappointed about skipping the session in
favor of whatever surprise the Boss had in store at the hangar, but one thing
bugged him. “Sir—is it possible for you to just tell me how to access the
message that is waiting for me? The blinking red light in my field of vision is
driving me crazy.”

“I’m sorry, cadet, but that’s impossible. We have strict
training protocols, and I would incur serious demerits if I taught you how to
access messages before you had completed the earlier lessons. Maybe this news
will provide some consolation, though. I have a note here from the doctor that
says I’m supposed to tell you not to worry about throwing up anymore. I have no
idea what that means, so I hope you understand it.”

Zax’s face broke out into a huge smile. “Yes sir, I understand
what the doctor’s talking about.” With all of his excitement about getting
Plugged In, Zax had forgotten about the other benefits he had long been
promised regarding his implant:

No more giving up food in advance of FTL jumps—

No more nutripellets—

No more cleaning up vomit—

No more Puke Boy!

His elation about the FTL news carried Zax through the
boredom of hours with nothing to do before lunch, and he eventually headed to
the mess hall with a bounce in his step. Once again, Kalare was nowhere to be
found. He was forced to consider whether she was actively avoiding him because
she had decided to decline the Boss’s offer. He put aside the worries since he
still had another full day to convince her to do otherwise. He grabbed a quick
bite on his own and headed off to meet the Boss.

As he entered the hangar, Zax discovered Kalare had
already arrived. The Flight Boss stood next to her with a silver case in his
hand. He was speaking to Kalare, but her body language suggested she wasn’t
particularly engaged in the conversation. Zax feared if she wasn’t chewing on
the Boss’s ear it was the best signal yet she would decline his offer. The Boss
greeted him.

“Good afternoon, Zax. I’m sorry we had to delay your
second round of Plug training for another day. Hopefully, you won’t mind once
you learn what I have in store for the two of you. Besides—it will give you
another day to recover from all the fun of that initial session.”

“Thank you, sir. And yes, I won’t mind some additional
time to try to forget about the first day of Plug training.”

The Boss flashed a smile at Zax’s reply and then turned
to Kalare. “Sorry to be speaking cryptically, Kalare. You’ll find out what
we’re talking about soon enough when you get your Plug. Mikedo convinced me to
get Zax implanted early before she left for the planet. If you decide to let me
mentor you, we’ll get yours done soon too. Let’s get today’s adventure
started.”

The Boss strode off towards a corner of the hangar, and
Zax and Kalare fell in behind him. Considering the massive amounts of work
involved with transferring the settlers and their supplies down to the colony
over the previous days, the hangar was surprisingly empty. There was only a
handful of Crew performing various tasks. The Boss led them towards a small shuttle
which sat prepped for departure.

“I need to have this case delivered to the head of
Colonial Security before we leave the planet tomorrow.” The Boss continued with
a grin. “I figured since Kalare never got a chance to go down to the surface,
and since your trip was cut short, Zax, you two would be the perfect
messengers.”

Zax was thrilled about another opportunity to visit the
surface. Particularly one that wouldn’t involve stomping around the jungle
wearing ChamWare. “Thank you, sir! Where’s the pilot?”

“You’re the pilot. I royally screwed up and forgot to
hand the case over before the colonists left. I don’t want to get in trouble
with the Captain, so I’ve kept the entire trip secret and only involved the
bare minimum of Crew.”

The Boss laughed at Zax’s expression of confusion and
concern. “Don’t worry, cadet. The shuttle is configured to take off, land, and
return on autopilot. It has all of my override codes preprogrammed so it can
get off the Ship and return without triggering any alarms. All you have to do
is verbally issue two commands—one to launch from here and then another when
it’s time to return from the surface. Do you think you can manage that?”

Zax nodded, though he couldn’t help but wonder what in
the case was so important the Boss would go through all of this subterfuge to
have it delivered. If the shuttle was effectively configured as an automated
drone and didn’t require a pilot, it meant the Boss’s decision to send Zax and
Kalare along for the ride was his last attempt to convince Kalare how being
mentored by him would involve interesting opportunities. Zax believed this
strategy was working since Kalare appeared excited as she asked questions.

“Sir—how do we find the head of security? Will she meet
our shuttle, or are we going to have to search for her?”

Zax’s enthusiasm for the trip faded once he fully
processed what Kalare asked. He had managed to avoid any encounters with Cyrus
before his departure with the first wave of colonists, but now Zax was visiting
the planet. What would happen if he stepped off the shuttle and the first
person he ran into was a psychopath who had promised to kill him? He listened
carefully as the Boss replied.

“You don’t have to worry about any of that. The landing
pad for the shuttle is right next to the main administration building and the
chief will be working in there. All of the civilians are still in their
cryotubes and everyone in security with the exception of the chief is away on
an all-day recon mission. I wouldn’t dare send you two down without a Marine
escort if there was actually anyone around other than the chief. Most of
Colonial Security would kill you on sight so they could hijack the shuttle and
attempt to sneak their way back onto the Ship. Those former Crew got Culled for
lots of different reasons, but none of them had it happen because they were too
smart.”

They shared a polite laugh at the Boss’s joke, though
Zax’s was a little more genuine due to his relief about avoiding any chance
meeting with Cyrus. The Boss gestured for Kalare and Zax to enter the shuttle.

“Good luck down there, cadets. I’ll be waiting here for
the shuttle when it returns.”

Ninety secs later they were strapped in and Zax issued
the command to launch. He glanced over at Kalare a short time after they
departed the hanger. She stared out the shuttle window with a melancholy
expression on her face.

“This trip had you excited at first,” Zax said, “but it
isn’t changing your mind about getting mentored by the Flight Boss, is it?”

Kalare sighed as she turned to face him. “I’m sorry,
Zax. I know how you want me to want this. I know I should want this. But, I
just—don’t—want—this. The last few weeks training with you have been fantastic,
but that’s the only reason why I’m here at all. You look out this window and
get inspired by the Ship passing beneath us and dream of flying around it all
the time. All I see is my friend’s face smiling back at me as her dead body
floats by. I’ve realized I can’t tolerate the whole idea of being outside in
space and that makes me a very poor candidate for Flight, don’t you think?”

Zax knew he would never change her mind after that
explanation. In fact, it would be selfish to even try. He nodded slowly and
Kalare continued.

“I can’t thank you enough for everything. Two amazing
things have come out of this experience. First, I got to train with the
Marines. Even if I become just an average ground-pounding grunt, I’ve learned
the Marines is where I belong.”

Kalare reached over and took Zax’s hand in hers. “The
second amazing thing is that you and I are now friends. I haven’t had many in
my life—in fact, I think the last people who I truly considered to be my
friends were those two girls who got vented into space. Something snapped
inside me that day, and I decided I would be better off if I just kept my
distance from everyone. I don’t want to live like that anymore and I’ve got you
to thank. Whatever else the future brings, I hope we stay friends.”

“Thank you. I hope so too.” Zax wanted to say so much
more but recognized trying to do so would overwhelm him with emotion. Instead,
he held Kalare’s hand in silence as the view out the window filled with the
fast approaching planet.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

He sent you here for this?

Their path through the
atmosphere brought the shuttle over the nuked continent which only a few days
earlier had held a thriving bug colony. They were too high and the clouds were
too thick to see any of the destruction, but the shuttle’s threat board barked
alarms about the presence of radiation below. The spacecraft’s shielding would
protect them from any ill effects given their altitude, so Zax ignored the
warnings and they subsided once the shuttle crossed the ocean.

As they got closer to the ground, the new structures
came alive due to the mass of assembly bots which swarmed over them. Gauging
the progress made since Landfall, Zax estimated the construction would be
complete in just a few more days. The encampment would still be pretty grim
even then, but at least the civilians would come out of cryosleep and find
finished buildings rather than a tent city.

Seeing things up close like this forced Zax to really
think about the civilians and their thawing process for the first time. The
Ship optimized the people picked for each Landfall by considering both skills
and genetic diversity. This meant the colonists were a mix of people who had
been Culled and frozen recently, those who would be awake for the first time
since the Ship left Earth, and everyone in between. How such a random group
could wake up on a strange, hostile planet and be expected to immediately work
together for the colony’s survival was incomprehensible.

As the shuttle landed, it became clear why the Boss was
not worried about them finding the administration building. It was four basic
walls and a roof which appeared thrown together, but it was the sole completed
permanent structure within a sea of tents and half-completed shells of new
buildings.

Zax pressed the button which opened the shuttle’s door.
The heat and humidity assaulted his senses before he even stood up. He hadn’t
noticed it as much on his first visit since he had worn the ChamWare, but Zax
could practically taste the jungle. The Ship’s training rooms did a terrific
job of replicating the experience, but now he had felt the real thing he would
forever think about them differently. Amazing simulations, yes, but simulations
nonetheless. Kalare gaped out the door and smiled from ear to ear.

“You seem excited—”

“This is wild, Zax! I sure wish I came down here with
you and the Marines! It must have been incredible to walk through the jungle
and experience everything up close. All we’re going to see today is this nasty
settlement, but just tasting air which hasn’t already been breathed by ten
million people is making me feel more alive than ever! I want to go running off
into the jungle and climb the highest tree I can find and then just sit and
soak it all in.”

Kalare hadn’t seen what the trees were capable of, but
there was zero chance Zax would get in a word of warning right now. She bounced
on the balls of her feet and continued to voice her excitement.

“Check out all of those assembly bots over there!
Wait—is that an animal of some sort in the tree line? I can’t tell from here.
Nope, it’s just another assembly bot. Those trees are huge! And the
leaves—those are the largest leaves I’ve ever seen! And how about that sky?
There’s not a cloud to be seen. Do they have weather on this planet? Of course
they have weather—every planet has weather—right? There’s so much I want to
soak in. I’m standing on a planet for the first and possibly last time of my
life and I just can’t believe it!”

Zax grinned at Kalare’s exuberance, but his own joy
about returning to the surface was tempered by the memories of what transpired
here on his last trip.

“I’m very happy you got to come down here. I wish we
could explore and give you the full tour, but, unfortunately, we’ve got a
mission. Let’s go find the security chief.”

They exited the shuttle and walked into the
administration building. Its unfinished exterior was echoed by the
thrown-together nature of what was inside. Desks had been scattered around the
space and partially assembled workstations littered every surface. There was a
single desk which appeared like it was completely configured and that is where
they found the security chief. She looked up as they approached and immediately
looked frustrated.

“A couple of cadets—what were they thinking sending you two
down here?”

“Good afternoon, ma’am. The Flight Boss instructed us to
deliver this case to you personally.” Zax handed the case to the woman. He
technically didn’t need to refer to the chief as “ma’am” since she had been
Culled and was no longer part of the Crew, but it couldn’t hurt.

The security chief opened the case and examined its
contents. “He sent you here for this?” She slammed the case shut and tossed it
onto a pile of trash. “I can’t even begin to tell you how much I hate my life
right now, but at least I know I’ll eventually die without ever again having to
deal with that man. Or the rest of the Omegas for that matter. I hope you don’t
find it rude if I don’t invite you to sit down for a meal and some lovely
conversation, but I’ve got twenty thousand damn civilians who’re going to be
thawed out in forty-eight hours and I need to be certain we’re ready for them.
Good luck, cadets—you need it even more than I do.”

She turned her attention back to her work and acted as
if Zax and Kalare no longer existed. They looked at each other quizzically for
a few moments until Kalare shrugged her shoulders and turned to leave the
building. Once they were outside, she stopped and waited for Zax to catch up.

“What do you suppose that was all about?” Kalare asked.
“Seems pretty odd the Boss would send us to the surface to deliver something
the chief would treat like so much garbage.”

“I don’t have a clue,” Zax replied as he walked past
her. “Let’s get back to the shuttle and off this planet—that is unless you still
want to go for a stroll in the jungle.”

“Hah, hah—even I’m not that crazy!” Kalare
laughed and followed Zax as they approached the shuttle.

Something crashed into Zax’s skull as he walked through
the shuttle hatch. He collapsed to the deck on his hands and knees and then
heard Kalare get cut off mid-scream by a stunstik discharge. The thunder of the
weapon was followed by the sound of her body hitting the ground. He had no clue
what was going on, but it was clearly bad news.

Zax was flipped onto his back by the crushing impact of
a boot to his belly. Zax saw stars as his breath left, but he finally glimpsed
his assailant—Cyrus. He must have dropped the stunstik after using it on Kalare
because the only thing in his hands was a knife with a blade which was almost
half a meter long.

“Well, well, well—I never would have imagined this wish
would come true.” His eyes were dull and vacant, but the menace in Cyrus’s
voice was unmistakable. “I went to bed last night thinking the rest of my life
would be spent on this damn rock. They told us on the ride down our Plugs were
disabled, so you can imagine my surprise when I woke up and found a message.”

Cyrus smirked. “It said you and your girlfriend were
going to show up today. All I had to do was kill you both and then I could use
your shuttle to get back up to the Ship. Sounds like a pretty great deal,
right? I’ll take care of you first and then I’m going to wake her up before
getting rid of your friend. It wouldn’t be as much fun to kill her while she’s
stunned, don’t you think?”

Zax wanted to do something, anything. With all of the
air knocked out of him, all he could do was gasp helplessly as Cyrus approached
with the blade aimed at his throat. He shut his eyes rather than witness his
impending death. A moment later a stunstik discharge was followed by the thud
of body hitting the floor. Zax opened his eyes as Kalare administered a second
and then a third stunstik blow to Cyrus’s body in quick succession. She wore a
frantic grin.

“I always knew my ability to withstand stunstiks might
come in handy,” she said, “but I never dreamed it would actually save my life.
Help me get him off the shuttle so we can get the hell off this planet!”

Zax staggered to his feet and took hold of Cyrus’ right
leg. Kalare grabbed the left and together they dragged his unconscious body
outside. For some absurd reason, Zax experienced a pang of guilt when Cyrus’
head came off the shuttle and hit the ground with a sharp thud, but it passed
once he caught another glimpse of the blade that was still clutched in his
hand. Kalare stunned Cyrus one final time and then heaved both the stunstik and
the knife ten meters away from the shuttle. Thirty secs later they were
strapped in their seats, and Zax sent the craft aloft.

They sat without speaking for quite a while as they
recovered from the shock and exertion. The only noise was their labored
breathing. Slowly, their breath quieted and eventually Kalare turned to Zax and
broke the silence.

“You’re bleeding.”

Zax put his fingers to the spot on his head where a dull
ache originated and sure enough they came back tacky with blood.

“It’s not too bad.”

“How did that just happen?” she asked. “I thought the
Boss said all of the colonists were out on a scouting trip. What kind of epic
bad luck made Cyrus the one person who was still around?”

Kalare must have still been outside the shuttle when
Cyrus mentioned the anonymous message he received. She didn’t know it was a
deliberate act of someone on board the Ship rather than random chance which put
Cyrus in their path. Her question required a response, but Zax’s head spun from
more than just getting smashed with the stunstik. He had previously pushed
aside the crazed paranoia which arose after Mikedo’s death, but it had all come
crashing back with a vengeance in the mins since the attack.

Had the Boss actually arranged Mikedo’s death and then
attempted to use Cyrus to get rid of Zax? The Boss said their flight to the
surface was largely secret, but also said there were a few other people who
knew. Maybe it was one of those other folks who sent the message to Cyrus. The
Boss had appeared so crushed by Mikedo’s death Zax could not imagine he had
anything to do with it—but—the Flight Boss was the most obvious person to
suspect as Zax considered all of the possibilities. That seemed even more true
when you factored in the security chief’s reaction to what the Boss had
portrayed as a critical delivery. If nothing else, who but the Boss possessed
the power necessary to follow through on any deal which would allow Cyrus back
on board.

Zax wanted desperately to share everything with Kalare
and see what she thought, but he kept flashing back to Mikedo’s statement about
how he must not tell anyone else about the human fighter. The attack revealed
that Kalare was in danger too and deserved to know why, but Mikedo had been so
insistent when she extracted the vow of secrecy from him. He needed time to
think all of it through—more time than they had given how quickly the shuttle
approached the Ship.

“I don’t know if anyone’s luck could ever be that bad,
but I don’t have a better answer for you right now.” Zax took comfort in not
explicitly lying to Kalare. He genuinely hoped to have a better answer later
once he had a chance to clear his head and think things through. “The Boss is
going to notice the cut on my head. What do we tell him?”

Kalare didn’t hesitate. “We were checking out the colony
construction and you tripped and hit your head. The Ship is leaving this system
forever tomorrow, so Cyrus will be nothing but a bad memory. Why should we deal
with any questions the Boss might bring up if we were to tell him the whole
story?”

“What happens if someone finds him unconscious down
there? Aren’t they likely to report the incident to the Ship?”

Kalare snorted. “Are you crazy? What’s Cyrus going to
say—he tried to murder us and we got away, so he wants to be sure we get in
trouble for having stunned him? Besides, you heard what the security chief
thought of the Boss and the rest of the Omegas. You think she would bother to
contact the Ship about some tussle between a couple cadets and one of her
colonists? She’s got far bigger worries right now. If anything, I bet Cyrus
wakes up before the rest of the security staff returns and no one is ever the
wiser.”

Zax nodded his agreement. There was no chance anyone on
the Ship would ever know about what happened down on the planet. He corrected
himself because it actually wasn’t true. Someone on the Ship had arranged for
Cyrus to be there, so at least one person knew about it already. Zax needed to
identify that person. What he might do with the knowledge was still a complete
mystery, but he would figure that out later. In the meantime, he sat back and
closed his eyes to think as the shuttle approach the Ship.

CHAPTER
THIRTY-SIX

I said it before and I will say it again.

True to his word, the Flight
Boss was waiting when the shuttle touched down. There might have been a trace
of surprise on the Omega’s face when the hatch opened and he saw who was
inside, but if it was truly there it disappeared instantly. His eyes went to
Zax’s bloody scalp and he asked what happened.

“We were checking out the construction, sir, and I
tripped and hit my head.”

He paused for a moment, but the Boss’s expression did
not reveal anything other than complete belief of Zax’s answer. “That looks
like it hurts. It’s getting late, so you should head to medbay and get that
wound dealt with.”

The Boss turned to Kalare. “You should get to your berth
and get ready for lights out. I hope this little trip has caused you to reconsider
my offer, but even if it hasn’t I don’t want to hear an answer from you until
tomorrow. Take one last night to sleep on it.

“Both of you—report to the Flight Ops conference room
immediately after tomorrow’s FTL Transit. We’ll finalize your mentorship
decisions and get back to regular work. We’ve got to find our next Landfall. It
better not take as long to find as this one did! Dismissed.”

Zax and Kalare exited the hangar together. Zax reached
for Kalare’s arm before they went their separate ways. “I want to be sure we
have a chance to speak before we meet the Boss tomorrow.”

“OK—I promise.”

Zax was frantic about what he might say to Kalare and
how much he should share. His worries consumed him throughout the visit to
medbay and then again during his trip back to the Zeta berth. Zax arrived as
they announced lights out, so he crawled into his bunk in full uniform (ten
demerits) rather than getting undressed in the dark.

The core problem which kept him wide awake was that Zax
remained entirely unsure about what was happening around him. He needed someone
to talk to about everything—a person who could hear him out and provide advice.
He couldn’t go to an officer or any other figure of authority. If he was
mistaken about his suspicions, it would be an extremely career limiting move to
accuse the Flight Boss of arranging the murder of one Crew member and
conspiring in the attempted murder of two others. If Zax was right, he was just
dragging more people into a life-threatening situation. Even though Kalare
seemed to already be inextricably linked, the echoes of Mikedo’s exhortation to
keep the human fighter secret left him paralyzed at the thought of opening up
to his only friend.

He was well accustomed to being alone, but this was the
first situation where Zax recalled feeling so painfully lonely. It had been
thrilling to share his recent highs and lows with Kalare and Mikedo after a
lifetime of being on his own. The recent experience of having friends to fall
back on made it that much harder to tackle this massive challenge by himself.
Eventually, the tears poured down Zax’s cheeks as utter despair and
hopelessness took hold.

When Zax rubbed his eyes, he became aware once again of
the little red light which blinked in his field of vision. Zax stared at the
light and desperately wished he could read the message it signaled. It felt
strange to focus his vision on something he knew existed only in his mind, but
when he did a text prompt appeared.

Read message, yes/no?

Brilliant! Zax concentrated again on his desire to read
the message and sure enough it opened up before him. When the header revealed
it was from Mikedo, the excitement took his breath away. The message contained
nothing but gobbledygook, though, so his hopes were just as quickly dashed.
Random letters and symbols hung in the air before him in a giant mishmash of
meaningless text. He stared at the message and wished it was understandable and
another prompt appeared.

Decrypt message, yes/no?

Excellent! Zax wanted to decrypt the message, and when
he thought about doing so, a tiny keyboard was displayed along with a prompt.

Enter passphrase:

Zax was clueless about what secret word or phrase Mikedo
might have picked to encrypt this message. He pounded on his forehead and
despaired about why she would have sent him something he had no way of
accessing. Zax stared at the keyboard, but nothing happened. He didn’t know how
to interact with it and the first attempt where he concentrated on each letter
proved fruitless. It soon dawned on him he shouldn’t be so literal about
considering each letter, but rather needed to focus on whatever words he
intended to enter. This approach made the difference and the first passphrase
he wanted to attempt was displayed on the screen.

passphrase

He assumed this was a silly guess with zero chance of
success, but he figured he had to start somewhere. He focused his mind on
submitting the text and got a response.

Invalid passphrase. Try again yes/no?

Zax racked his brain for any word or phrase he imagined
Mikedo might have used, but every attempt resulted in the same negative
response. What information hid behind the encryption of her message? It had to
be something important or otherwise she wouldn’t have bothered to encrypt it,
right? Zax’s hopelessness threatened to reappear so he turned his attention
away from the message and breathed deeply with his eyes scrunched tight in an
effort to will away another bout of tears.

Zax returned to the note and studied the header again.
The message was from Mikedo and included a timestamp which detailed when she
sent it. Something about that timestamp gnawed at Zax until he solved the
riddle—the message coincided with riding back from the surface in the Marine
transport. Sending this note was Mikedo’s last action before she died!

Zax thought back to that fateful trip. They had gotten
on the transport and the major told them to settle in for the ride to the Ship.
Zax and Mikedo went back to their compartment and she focused on doing some
work before the medic came in with their immune boosts. After the weird back
and forth between Mikedo and the medic, she finally accepted her injection and
then Zax received his. He wanted a quick nap, but Mikedo said one final thing
to him before he closed his eyes. It felt like a weird, random compliment at
the time, but he recalled now how she had been insistent he listen and remember
exactly what she said.

I absolutely believe you will do great things.

He focused on the encrypted text and submitted that as
the passphrase. Success! The garbled text shimmered as the letters and numbers
rearranged in his vision and transformed into Mikedo’s final words.

Zax,

If you’re reading this, it means my fears were
warranted and I’m dead. What hurts even worse than knowing I’m about to die is
the fear my decisions and actions have put you in danger as well. There’s
nothing I can do now to protect you other than share what little information I
have to help you chart a better course of action than what I chose.

Almost as soon as the medic injected me, I understood
something was wrong. The injection was normal at first but then burned as it
made its way through my veins. I would have stopped her from administering your
dose, but she had already done so by the time I figured out something was wrong
with mine. You are sleeping peacefully in the chair next to me and it appears
you’re fine, so I’m guessing it was only my injection that was tampered with.

When you found that fighter I was at a loss about
what we should do. I’m so incredibly sorry I failed you when you needed me
most. I was convinced any information revealing there are other humans
traveling the stars was dangerous—both for the Ship and for us as individuals.
I know you didn’t accept my rationale when we were back on the planet, but I’ve
got three pieces of information to share which I hope will convince you.

The first two come from the bizarre conversation I
just had with the Flight Boss. I expected him to be shocked when I described
what I found, but he wasn’t. He calmly asked for details about what I had seen,
and then shared information which made it clear why he wasn’t surprised by my
report.

It started with our visit to the last white dwarf and
the battle we had there. I know you were in Flight Ops that day, so you probably
remember how the Boss consulted with Alpha about the origin of the unknown
fighter when Vampire relayed it might be human. Alpha confirmed it was, but
advised the Captain and the Boss they should not share this fact with anyone.
The AI was worried the news would cause problems on board.

A few days later Alpha’s concerns were proven
correct. A series of full-blown civilian riots were triggered by rumors the
Ship had encountered a human spacecraft. You might remember how this disrupted
tube service one day during training. The AI had accurately predicted these
riots, but more importantly had gone even further and asserted they would
evolve into an outright revolution if there was ever definitive proof of other
humans.

Zax was surprised to hear the story about the human
spacecraft had reached the civilians, but he shouldn’t have been. Since the
rumor had made it all the way down to younger kids like the Gammas, it had
clearly spread far and wide. He didn’t understand why anyone would riot over it
or why Alpha thought it might be so disruptive as to start a revolution. He
attributed his lack of understanding to the fact he’d never stepped foot in any
of the civilian parts of the Ship and had zero clue about how those people
actually lived. He wished Mikedo was still around to answer his questions and
help him make sense of it all. He focused on her final words once more.

You already know the third piece of information, Zax,
but I’ll say it again to reinforce its importance. I’m dying.

What did I do wrong? I told you to keep the discovery
a secret. I told you we shouldn’t share it with the Marines or anyone else, but
instead I would tell the Flight Boss. I did and now I’m dying. The Boss
was insistent with his questions about your involvement, and I think I convinced
him you don’t know a thing, but I don’t think you should trust your life to my
instincts any longer. If the Boss or one of the other Omegas was willing to
kill me over this, then I’m guessing they won’t hesitate to get rid of you too
if they ever have reason to believe you know anything.

The only way you can be truly safe at this point is
to make the information public. Alpha believes knowledge of these humans might
be dangerous to the Omegas’ control of the Ship, but there’s no way it’s
reasonable for you to sacrifice your life in exchange for maintaining their
status quo. We all signed up for the Mission of saving humanity—not for
allowing the Boss and the other Omegas to retain command through any means
necessary. Once everyone on the Ship knows about the human fighter, there won’t
be any reason for you to be seen as a threat. I wish more than anything I had
called the Marines over when we were on the planet. With their helmet-cams
transmitting to the Ship and being viewed by dozens of people in real-time, it
would have been impossible to hide any of this.

I’ve attached video footage from my helmet-cam to
this message. It shows the human spacecraft and has detailed shots of the
cockpit—including the picture of Earth. I didn’t know why at the time, but I
lied to the Boss when he asked if I had any video or pictures. There’s no sound
and I kept you out of the frame at all times so you can maintain the story you
were never there. The only way to guarantee your safety is to figure out a way
to get this evidence spread far and wide.

One last word of advice for you Zax—don’t try to
carry this burden on your own. I know you like to be independent, but I think
it would be a mistake for you to try to solve this predicament all by yourself.
I told you earlier not to share this information with anyone, but I’ll amend
that now and suggest you tell one person—Kalare can help you think this
through. That girl thinks the world of you and will do anything she can to
help. Together you two are an amazing team, and if there is any hope of finding
a way out of this situation then it rests with the two of you working together.

Goodbye, Zax. I said it before and I will say it
again. I absolutely believe you will do great things.

Tears streamed down his face and Zax’s heart beat like
crazy, but now it all stemmed from gratitude and excitement rather than his
earlier despair. He had received exactly the help he needed from a most trusted
and yet unexpected source. He still didn’t have any final answers, but at least
now he would be able to enlist Kalare to help shoulder the burden of all the
questions.

CHAPTER
THIRTY-SEVEN

What I'm about to tell you will sound
insane.

Zax woke the next morning to an
abnormally quiet Zeta berth. He sat up and discovered it was empty. He checked
the time and was shocked by the realization he had overslept (one hundred
demerits). Not only had he missed breakfast, but he was also going to miss out
on lunch if he didn’t hustle. He had to skip the shower (fifty demerits), but a
short time later he walked into the mess hall and spotted Kalare sitting in
their regular spot. He filled a tray and sat down across from her as she
acknowledged him with a grin and spoke.

“Good morning there, sleepy-head! I was going to wake
you up, but I know how stressful things have been for you these past few days
and figured if you managed to sleep through reveille then you deserved some
extra rest. You look like you just woke up. Did you just wake up? That would be
amazing! Do you know what time it is? Have you ever heard about anyone sleeping
all the way until lunchtime? I’m surprised they can’t send electric shocks to
our bunks to make sure something like that doesn’t happen, though I should
probably—”

“I’m sorry, Kalare, but I need you to be quiet.” She
seemed a little hurt but stopped talking and waited while Zax took a couple of
deep breaths before continuing. “What I’m about to tell you will sound insane.
I’m sorry I haven’t told you any of it already, but Mikedo made me promise I
wouldn’t share the story with anyone. I’m only telling you now because I got a
message from her last night saying I should.”

Mikedo’s name had the desired effect and Kalare became
intensely focused on Zax. He checked their surroundings again to be sure no one
was nearby and quietly launched into his story. “I discovered a human
spacecraft on the planet during the recon mission. Mikedo was afraid the Omegas
would be upset if the information became public and convinced me she should
tell the Flight Boss she was the one who found it and I knew nothing about it.
A few mins after she had that conversation with the Boss, she was dead.”

Saying the word “dead” caused Zax’s voice to catch, but
he fought off the emotion as he knew it was critical to remain calm. “I was
afraid the Boss had done it at first, but you told me I was being paranoid. I
saw how torn up he was about her death and decided his involvement made no
sense and everything had just been a horrible coincidence. Then we went back
down to the planet and got attacked by Cyrus.

“It was not bad luck Cyrus showed up when he did—while
you were still outside the shuttle, he shared how someone from the Ship sent
him a message and told him we would be there. That pointed the blame in the
Boss’s direction again and my worries were all but confirmed in a message from
Mikedo I finally opened last night. She sent it to me right before she died.
She knew almost immediately after they gave her the immune boost she was being
murdered and believed it was most likely the Boss.”

Zax stopped to gauge Kalare’s reaction. She stared at
him with her mouth open for a moment until her jaws started to move like she
was attempting to speak. No sound came out and she soon gave up and instead
gazed off across the mess hall with her brows knotted in concentration. Zax
took advantage of the pause in their conversation to take a few bites of lunch.
He was famished and it was his favorite—noodle day.

Finally, after a few mins, Kalare managed to speak. “I
have a million questions and don’t quite know where to begin. You’re right—this
all sounds insane. I guess I should start at the beginning of your story. What
makes you so convinced the fighter you discovered was human?”

The disbelief was evident in Kalare’s voice, but Zax
couldn’t blame her. “Mikedo’s note included some video she took which I can
show you later. In the meantime, here’s what I saw.

“If you glanced at the spacecraft you would think it was
one of ours. It was roughly the same size and shape and the design was
extremely similar. The real key for me was the cockpit. The writing inside it
was human. I couldn’t decipher it because the alphabet included some different
characters, but a lot of the letters were the exact same as ours. Finally,
there was a plaque inside the cockpit which had a picture of Earth on it. A
fighter which is similar to ours but actually comes from an alien race—maybe.
An alphabet which looks very much like our alphabet but actually comes from an
alien race—maybe. An alien race with a picture of Earth displayed inside one
its fighters—maybe. All of those things found together but actually from an
alien race—impossible.”

Kalare nodded. “OK—I buy that. Now, I’m not sure I
understand why discovering more humans would be such a bad thing, but let’s
just trust Mikedo and put that aside for a moment. If the Boss wanted her dead,
how would he manage to do it when you guys were still on the shuttle?”

“When the medic came into our compartment she was very
insistent Mikedo get the first shot. She said she had orders from the major.
The injector was already loaded so it’s possible she might not have even been
aware of what was going on. Maybe the major loaded up the shot himself and then
told her to be sure to do Mikedo first. Marines don’t argue with officers when
it comes to orders. She would have just said ‘Yes sir’ without question even if
he had handed her an injector and told her to apply it to herself.”

Zax paused for a moment to reconsider what he just said.
“Now that I say this out loud, there’s a chance the major might not have known
about it either. When I was in the medbay after my Plug was implanted, I
observed how injectors are often filled automatically by the computer. It would
have been super easy for the Boss to send a command to the transport’s
medstation to fill up an injector with whatever he used to kill Mikedo.
Again—if the major got an order from the Boss the first dose was specifically
to be used on Mikedo, you can bet he would make sure it happened. As soon as
there was any worry about an alien infection, the Boss knew the decision would
be to get rid of her body before the shuttle returned and there would be no
investigation into how she died.”

Kalare took another min to think about everything as Zax
worked on finishing his noodles. Eventually, she spoke again.

“So let’s pretend for a moment it’s the Flight Boss
behind this—how would he know to get Cyrus involved and why would he go through
all the trouble of sending you down to the planet? Wouldn’t it have been easier
to somehow arrange for you to get killed on the Ship? And why would he find it
necessary to include me too? Wouldn’t he just send you down there by yourself
if he wanted to get rid of you?”

Zax smiled. “Of all the crazy stuff in this whole
situation, those bits are what makes the most sense to me. Mikedo would’ve told
the Boss about what was going on with Cyrus. He said he was getting constant
reports about our training, and the details about why Cyrus would intentionally
shred your knee sounds like the sort of thing Mikedo would’ve shared.”

Kalare nodded in agreement and Zax continued. “As for
sending us down to the planet to get rid of us, I think that’s easy to understand
too. There’s no way he would risk killing me himself. Every unexpected death
onboard is investigated to make sure we never have an infectious outbreak or
someone roaming around who has snapped. He could try arranging a training
accident of some sort, but that would require getting at least one other person
involved. Nothing is a secret if it’s known by more than one person, and I bet
the Boss wouldn’t want any loose thread hanging over his head.

“With Cyrus, he knew it wouldn’t take any convincing to
prompt action. All of the evidence would be down on the colony and no one up
here would ever care about it. If Cyrus succeeded in using the shuttle to get
back to the ship, the Boss would’ve simply killed him on sight for having
escaped the colony. No loose threads.”

Kalare nodded again as Zax drove to his conclusion. “The
reason behind killing you is the easiest answer of all. He knows we’re good
friends and would’ve assumed I’d share the discovery of the fighter with you. I
regret that I didn’t.”

Kalare beamed. “I think that’s the first time I’ve heard
you refer to me as being a friend, Zax.”

Zax blushed. “I’m sorry. This friendship thing is new to
me. You had practice when you were younger—I’ve pretty much been on my own my
whole life.”

“That’s OK, I’m just teasing. It makes me really happy
you’re sharing all of this with me. I don’t know what we’re going to do about
it all, but I’m honored you think I can assist somehow. I’m even more touched
since I know you never ask for help.”

Zax didn’t know what to say so he went with his default,
“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Here’s the first step. After the FTL
Transit—hold on—FTL Transit?” Kalare paused for a moment. “We’ve got a Transit
here in a little while and you’re eating real food?”

“I know—isn’t it awesome! The instructor told me they
programmed my Plug to fix my problems with FTL. It’s so great to not worry
about Transits anymore. If I never again taste a nutripellet, it will be too
soon!”

Kalare smiled. “That great, Zax. OK—back to the
plan—after the Transit we’re going to head over to our meeting with the Boss
and I’m going to tell him I’m super excited to accept his mentorship. After
that—”

“Wait—what? You’ve changed your mind? Are you crazy?
You’ve made it clear to the Boss you weren’t interested in his offer, so you’re
in the clear. I’ve just told you it seems like the man has reason to kill you
and most likely has already attempted to do so. Obviously you’re going to do
the most logical thing with that information—you’re going to pass up your
chance to get as far away from him as possible and instead take him on as your
mentor. I’m stuck in this situation, but you’re going to jump into it
willingly. I just wanted help thinking all of this stuff through—I didn’t
expect you to stick your neck out!”

Kalare grinned. “There’s an ancient Earth saying I read
about a long time ago that’s always stuck with me. ‘Keep your friends close
and your enemies closer.’ Sticking with Flight and letting the Boss mentor
me lets me do both of those things at once—how could I say no?”

Zax paused for a long moment and considered his good
fortune. The sadness of losing Mikedo would always be there, but he was
incredibly grateful some of that hole would be filled by Kalare. “You are
insane, but I’m guessing that’s why you’re willing to be my friend.”

“You got that right, Zax—both parts!”

CHAPTER
THIRTY-EIGHT

What are you doing here?

Zax
and Kalare finished lunch and agreed to connect after the FTL Transit to inform
the Boss about their acceptance of his mentorship. Zax’s intention to enact a
different plan before then without Kalare’s knowledge aroused some guilt, but
he was determined to do whatever he could to protect her. If she heard his plan
in advance, she would insist on helping even if it meant both of them getting
in trouble—or worse.

The Tube opened and Zax stepped out towards Flight Ops.
The lights were still broken and the area around the junction remained dark and
dank. It only served to reinforce the feelings of dread that battled the
noodles for space in the pit of Zax’s stomach.

The compartment hatch opened, and Zax was surprised when
the Flight Boss was not present. He approached the cadet working Threat.

“Good afternoon, Threat. Where’s the Boss? Isn’t there a
Transit coming up soon?”

“Hi, Zax. He needed to step out but should be back any
min. Why are you here? I could’ve sworn I checked the duty roster and saw
you’re not on for another day.”

“No—you got that right. I need to check something
though. What do you say you let your mini take a break for a few mins and let
me borrow his station?”

“Of course. Be my guest.”

The cadet at the Mini-Threat station stood and walked
away. Zax sat down and used the console to put his plan into motion. A few mins
later the Flight Boss entered the compartment and Zax caught his eye.

“Good afternoon, Zax. What are you doing here? I wasn’t
expecting you until after the Transit.”

Zax’s heart threatened to burst out of his ribcage and
his mouth had gone bone dry. He paused for a deep breath and then spoke.

“Hello, sir. There’s something I need to discuss with
you, and I figured it was best to come right away rather than wait. I received
a message from Lieutenant Mikedo with some weird stuff in it.”

Most of the Flight Ops staff were hard at work prepping
for the FTL Transit, but a couple of nearby Crew looked up from their
workstations in reaction to Zax’s statement. A private message from the Boss
arrived via his Plug.

“Zax—what’s going on? What do you mean you got a
message from Mikedo?”

“I’m sorry, sir, but I’m thinking it would be better
for us to have this conversation verbally. I’m still getting the hang of all of
this Plug stuff, and I would hate to be in the middle of this discussion and
mess something up.”

“Cut the crap, Zax. I can see your face turning red
from here. There’s clearly something that has you worked up, so please do me
the courtesy of dropping this game. What did Mikedo’s note say? I have to tell
you the medics believe she wasn’t particularly lucid before she died, so I
wouldn’t put much faith in anything she sent towards the end of your visit to
the planet.”

Zax’s face burned even hotter with the Boss’s
observation. He noted the statement about Mikedo’s mental state. It was amazing
how the Boss was already laying groundwork to discredit anything Mikedo might
have discussed in her message.

“You see, sir, she found something strange down on the
planet when the two of us got separated. We never had a chance to talk about it
before she got sick and died, but she sent me a note via my Plug which I’ve
just now been able to open.”

More Crew were now paying attention to what Zax was
saying out loud. The Boss continued to gaze at him impassively even while their
private communication became more heated.

“Zax—I have to warn you that what you’re doing here
is extremely dangerous. Let’s head into my conference room and we can discuss
this privately. It would be a shame for you to cause a lot of disruption and
panic over nothing more than the ravings of a feverish individual. We both
cared for her deeply, and neither one of us wants her reputation sullied by
something she wrote while her mind wasn’t working right. Let’s figure this out
together.”

Appealing to his desire to protect Mikedo was a wise
move by the Boss, but Zax charged ahead regardless.

“I know this sounds crazy, sir, but Mikedo told me she
found a human spacecraft from Earth when she was down on the planet.”

All activity ceased in Flight Ops. Every head turned and
stared at Zax in response to the words “human” and “Earth.” The Boss finally
spoke out loud.

“You’re right, cadet. That does sound crazy. The medics
believed she had been ill for some period of time before she collapsed, so I’m
guessing anything she thought she saw was nothing more than feverish
hallucinations.”

“I would have thought the same thing, sir, but she
included some video with her note.”

Zax’s field of vision flashed red as the Boss’s latest
private message arrived marked with the highest level of urgency and
importance.

“Cadet—do not say another word! THAT IS A DIRECT
ORDER!”

Zax kept his expression neutral, gazed at the Boss
straight in the eye, and pointed at the panorama. The officer checked the
screen and the color drained from his face.

Mikedo’s video had started and every person in Flight
Ops stared at it intently. Whispered conversations which began at the sight of
the fighter morphed into a much louder buzz as the camera panned into the
cockpit and revealed the human writing. Flight Ops finally erupted in absolute
tumult when the footage ended and a close-up of the mounted picture of Earth
remained on the giant screens.

“Eight thousand demerits, cadet! You’re lucky you
didn’t violate my order about speaking or you would’ve found yourself
challenging Cyrus’ record for demerits. I’m hitting you with the maximum I feel
I can justify right now, but rest assured I’ll be watching you closely and will
enjoy every opportunity to pile on more! Needless to say, my mentorship is no
longer available.”

“Calm down, everyone. Calm down please.” The Boss’s
spoken tone was cool and calm in marked contrast to his private communication
with Zax. He waited for the noise to fade and then continued. “That is a very
interesting piece of video, cadet. I will ask Alpha to evaluate its content and
will want to discuss it with you further. Until then, please return to your
berth and prepare for the Transit. Dismissed.”

The Boss turned away. Zax stood to leave the compartment
but paused for a moment and considered the situation. He followed Mikedo’s
advice and made the existence of the human fighter public, and based on past
experience he expected the information would be dispersed around the ship
within days if not hours.

What was the cost to Zax? He lost everything he worked
for over the past few weeks of the intense training. Not only the extra credits
from the emergency panorama repair, but also the Boss’s mentorship. Zax slowly
realized this cost paled compared to what was truly lost. Mikedo was dead. Zax
owed his life to her since she died trying to protect him. Revealing the
existence of the fighter was a down payment on that debt, but it wasn’t enough.

“Sir—there’s just one more thing.”

The Boss’s head snapped around. The fury in his eyes was
clear for all to see, and it was acknowledged by shocked gasps from more than
one person.

“It appears to me, sir, that Mikedo’s death was not an
accident. I believe she was murdered by someone to hide the existence of the
human fighter. Most likely the person who attempted to kill me yesterday with
the same goal in mind. All of the evidence points to that person being one of
the Omegas.”

Time froze within Flight Ops. Zax could practically see
the echo of his words as they reverberated around the compartment. His pounding
heartbeat filled his ears as everyone held their breath and waited in the
absolute stillness.

The silence was finally broken by laughter—hearty,
rolling guffaws from the Boss. The man’s expression a moment ago had primed Zax
to expect rage, so the laughter came as a complete surprise. The longer it
continued, however, the more it became clear that anger would probably have
been a safer reaction.

“Thank you, son, but I haven’t had a laugh like that in
a long time.” The Boss chuckled one last time and took a deep breath before he
continued. “It never ceases to amaze me how young people can possess such
amazing imaginations. The Ship really benefits when all of that youthful
exuberance is harnessed which is why we get you all involved in such important
jobs so early in your careers. I almost hate to stifle your creativity this
way, but, unfortunately, you’ve crossed a line that should not have been
crossed.”

The Boss paused for a couple of beats as he stared at
Zax. The laughter had drained from the man’s eyes and they were once again
stone cold. Zax fought to keep his knees from buckling under the weight of the
steely gaze. After an eternity, the Boss spoke.

“Fifty thousand demerits. Get out of my compartment.”

Zax wanted to run out of Flight Ops, but it seemed as if
his legs were momentarily paralyzed. A final private message arrived from the
Boss.

“It’s a real shame, Zax. I don’t know what you were
thinking, but things could have been so different if you had just come to me
privately with Mikedo’s message and your concerns. I should send you straight
to cryosleep for making such an outrageous accusation, but doing that might
make people think I was actually trying to hide something. I hope you achieved
whatever you were after, though I can’t imagine it being worth throwing your
career away. Now get out of here without another word before I change my mind
and decide it should be a trip out the airlock instead of demerits!”

Zax was finally able to move his body and flee the
compartment. He paused once the hatch closed behind him and bent over with his
hands on his knees. A series of deep breaths fought off a wave of nausea. He
started to walk again and was immediately flooded with self-doubt. What had he
done?

If he had stopped after playing the video, he would have
succeeded in announcing the existence of the human fighter with the only cost
being a relatively small number of points and the loss of the Boss’s
mentorship. Instead, he announced that someone among the most powerful people
on board the Ship had committed murder with nothing to back him up other than a
bunch of assumptions and coincidences. It was almost certainly the Boss behind
it all, but Zax had zero proof and the man was surely aware of that fact. No
wonder he laughed in the face of the accusation.

In the end, Zax had traded getting laughed at by the
Boss for a staggering fifty thousand points. He started high enough on the
Leaderboard that getting hit with even that many demerits wouldn’t guarantee
him being Culled, but he was just barely in the safe zone. Something as simple
as a botched exam or a stupid injury could send him to cryosleep.

Even if he did avoid being Culled, Zax now faced a
lifetime with nothing for a career. At the bottom of the Leaderboard, he would
wind up working somewhere in the bowels of the Ship doing something
horrifically distasteful. If he was lucky, he might someday rise up to the
level where he could manage the sewage system or something similarly
depressing. In the span of a few short mins, he had dropped himself from the
absolute pinnacle of Crew life almost all the way to the very bottom.

Should he have found a different way? He had exposed the
existence of the fighter, but should he have just stopped there? Maybe if he
could have kept his job in Flight Ops and stayed close to the Boss, he would
have found a way to make the man pay for Mikedo’s death as well. Was that a
realistic scenario, or was he just flailing at anything that might have led to
better self-preservation?

Zax finally shocked himself with the conclusion he
didn’t care about himself or his career any longer. Contrary to 5,000 years’
worth of history and tradition, the Ship was not the only human presence in the
universe and soon everyone on board would be aware of that incredible fact—for
better or worse. Mikedo died because of this discovery, and Zax had just made
sure her death wasn’t in vain. The sacrifice of his career was a small price to
pay when compared to the sacrifice of her life. He hadn’t come close to
exacting revenge for her death, but at least he had guaranteed it would have
some meaning.

He reached the Tube and requested the Zeta berth just as
the FTL bell sounded. He sighed in relief knowing it meant he would have time
to digest everything that had happened before he had to face Kalare and share
the story with her.

CHAPTER
THIRTY-NINE

Hello,
lunch?

The sour, gag-inducing smell hit Zax the moment the
bells woke him. He recognized the odor but was dismayed by its presence. He
opened his eyes and the source swirled around him. Hello, lunch?

What the—? Wasn’t it bad enough he had just tossed his
career into the trash, but now he couldn’t even catch a break with his Plug?
The medics said he was fixed—they had adjusted his implant so he would never
barf after FTL again. What happened?

Zax was even more out of luck because he had not
positioned any cleaning supplies nearby since the problem was supposedly cured.
He looked up and desperately hoped the voluminous puke would stay in orbit
directly above him and not come splashing down on anyone else. Right at that
moment Kalare flew across his field of vision, vomit bucket in hand. She smiled
that big beaming smile of hers. The typical chants of “Puke Boy!” echoed
through the berth, but Kalare’s voice cut through them loud and clear.

“Hey there, friend—how about I help you out?”

If you liked Zax and Kalare please post a review on Amazon. If you would like to read more about their adventures on the Ship, Revolution - The Ship Series Book 2 is available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited right now!

Acknowledgments

About three years ago I was going through some
particularly khrazy times in my life. My therapist (thank you R.G!) suggested
that a great way to get myself more grounded would be a creative, right-brain
activity that would balance all of the left-brain work that dominates my
professional life. The seeds of this story had been bouncing around in my head
for a while so I decided to take the plunge and write a novel.

Me being me, I actually decided that I would not write
just one novel, but a series of SEVEN. Thankfully, I managed to talk myself off
that particular ledge and you are holding in your hand book one of what will be
only (!) a five volume series.

There are many people who played a role in getting this
book published. The first is Owen Egerton. Owen is a creative polymath of the
highest order who I am fortunate enough to call a friend. The degree to which
he is wildly talented is surpassed only by the generosity with which he shares
his talents. I remember how terrified I was the first time I talked to Owen
about this project. He could have easily patted me on the head and said “nice
try, kid”, but instead he gave not only warm encouragement but also invaluable
advice.

I was also lucky to benefit from my friendship with the
other half of the talented Egerton duo when Jodi became my first editor. I’m
tempted to go back and read some of the early drafts to see how far the story
(and the prose) has come in that time, but I’m not sure I really want to
subject myself to that kind of abuse. Jodi gave fantastic guidance and support
when this project teetered between an absolute lark and something I really
wanted to pour my heart into. Her encouragement pushed it forward into the form
it is today.

Jodi eventually handed me off to a new editor in Stacey
Swann. Stacey’s guidance has absolutely made a huge difference in where this
book wound up–both from a plot perspective as well as the writing style and
quality. Her contributions were endless and will be eternally appreciated.

Outside of the professionals, I also benefited
tremendously from the input of early readers among my friends. Kathleen Trail
gave a couple of gentle pointers in the very early going that stuck with me
throughout. Michael Lee was not only willing to read multiple drafts, he was
also tremendously supportive and encouraging throughout the entire process. I
will state here for the record that his life debt owed to me is discharged in
light of his service to the Ship.

As the story got more and more refined, I was brave
enough to share it with a larger group of friends who all provided
encouragement and feedback. Huge appreciation for Laura Parrot Perry, Amy
Nylund, Clayton and Tisha Havens, Scherry Sweeney, Scott Hyman, and Zachary W.
All of those folks took the time to read and provide some great input.

Many thanks to Bryan McNeal for the cover concepts and
art. I am honored that my book and Gatti’s Pizza have both benefited from
Bryan’s artistry.

Finally, I want to express tremendous gratitude for my
family. My lovely wife Kerry has provided constant encouragement and exhibited
fantastic restraint about the number of Saturday and Sunday mornings I’ve spent
typing away at Starbucks. My eldest, Parker, was super enthusiastic about
reading the very first draft of volume one, even though he probably should have
been begging me to refine it before unleashing it upon him. My youngest,
Wesley, had book one read aloud by Kerry, and still managed to remember it a
year later when I read volume two to him.  The whole family provided great
feedback and inspiration–even if Kerry still rants about the pronunciation of
Kalare’s name.