Outcast

by Guerin Zand

“Because, she would do anything to be with you.”

  “Why didn’t you say something to me about this before now, Milly?”

  “I didn’t think you were that stupid, that’s why.”

  “So, what am I supposed to do?”

  “Figure it out, Guerin. I know you care about her, so you need to be careful. You have pretty much accepted her as part of your family now. Try not to break her heart.”

  “I’m not that stupid.”

  “Who says?”

  “Ha, ha. Very funny. Why do I get the feeling I’ve been set up here by you and Maria?”

  “Because you’re paranoid!”

  Milly smiled and then kissed me on the cheek. The girls were getting out of the lake so we both stood up. We waited for them to catch up to us and Gamma jumped up into my arms with her wet towel wrapped around her. I gave her a little peck and we all started to walk back up to the cabin. I glanced over at Prima. She returned the glance with one of her smiles. She really needed to learn how to control that superpower of hers. I couldn’t help but smile back. She was soaking wet and looked so sexy in that bathing suit. I was so screwed. I looked at Maria and Milly. They both had a smile that told me I was right. This whole conversation with Milly had been planned. I looked at Gamma and she had a big smile on her face as well. Dear GOD! Was she in on it too?

  Chapter 27

  The Rangers

  It had been a few months since our visit to Earth. Steve and I had been working hard on the framework for the explorers and it was time to start building up the group. We argued for a long time on what to call this new organization. I liked Pilgrims. What can I say? I was a big John Wayne fan. We tossed around several other names, Wanderers, Explorers, Pathfinders, Pioneers. Finally, we decided on Rangers. It was a bit cliché for me, but I finally agreed. The fact that there was an organization behind this group of humans and their alien allies was going to remain a secret. The government back on Earth would have problems with any organized group associated with humans they did not control. They would have problems with the individuals doing this as well, but they couldn’t control every human.

  Members of the Rangers would be on their own for the most part. We’d only have each other for support. With us all scattered around, even that support would be limited. It would also be hard for members to identify each other out in the field. I came up with the idea that we would create a special comms network for the group. When meeting another human you could instruct your comms to send out a query. If their comms replied to the query you’d both be notified that the other person was also a Ranger. The comms were keyed to the individuals and could not be used by anyone but the person they were assigned to.

  The comm device only had to be close to your person, as I discovered a long time ago. They didn’t have to be worn as earbuds. I decided we’d give the members a choice. They could just use a standard earbud or choose a piece of jewelry such as a ring, necklace, bracelet, a multifunction wrist pad, or whatever they came up with. Maria liked the idea of a ring and she designed what could best be described as a class ring. There was a round translucent stone with the old NASA seal insignia behind it. There was no writing of any type that would identify it as referring to Earth. A person would have to be familiar with Earth history to recognize the insignia since it hadn’t been used in over a century. Steve and I, as well as several others, chose Maria’s ring.

  We had gathered the 1000 plus humans on the Earth ship into an auditorium we reserved on the ground level of the day side. It was time for Steve and me to address the group and start the process of whittling down the number prospects to form the core of the Rangers. The first thing we had to do, deal with the marines that Steve had been in charge of, so Steve started things off.

  “First, let me say thank you all for attending this meeting on such short notice. We appreciate that you have given up a lot, including your lives back on Earth, to volunteer to help mankind take its next steps into the unknown. It’s now time to prepare for the official day of first contact. On that day, the marine force we have created will be disbanded.”

  The marines in the audience started talking amongst themselves while a few yelled out questions to Steve. Most of them were not very happy with this news. They had never been told that this might happen. Hell, at the time they were all recruited, Steve didn’t know. It was only after recent events that we realized that a military organization outside of the Earth government’s control would be a problem. Steve raised his hand to signal the marines to quiet down.

  “I know that this is unexpected, but when the governments back in the Earth system decide on a unified defense force, we will no longer have any authority to continue. The governments back home are still in negotiations, and what that defense force will be has still not been decided. What I can say for sure is that any of you marines who wish to participate in that force will be welcomed. You will retain an equivalent rank in this new force to the one which you currently hold. Promotions are very likely based on your experience compared to the fledgling force that will be formed. We will be developing a private security force where you may decide to serve as well. If you are interested, you will have to apply for selection to enter this private security enterprise. Your squad leaders can explain in more detail what sort of work you might be assigned if you decide to choose that option. You all have one month to make your decision.”

  One of the marines in the audience yelled out. “What if we’re not interested in either option or fail the selection process for the private security jobs? Will we be allowed to remain here, or will we be forced to return to Earth?”

  “The simple answer is, maybe. I’ll let Guerin address the other options that are available to the civilian members of this group. You can decline both offers, to join the Earth forces or private security, and that would leave you with the same options available to the civilians. Guerin?”

  I walked up to the podium to take my turn.

  “Thanks, Steve. Let me start by saying that any of you are free to make any arrangements that you would like on your own. This applies to all of you, not just the marines. If you want to run a business or find a job here, or anywhere outside of Earth, feel free to do so if you can make such arrangements. We won’t stand in anyone’s way. Many of you may have friends on other worlds and you may want to try your luck on one of their home planets. As long as you get permission from the controlling authorities to reside elsewhere, feel free to take that option. If you do, you need to remember that you will be on your own. If you get in trouble, there won’t be an embassy to run to. I don’t think that will really be an issue for most of you, but you need to be aware of this.”

  “There are a lot of options open to all of you, and we suggest you explore them over the next month. It would be impossible to list all the options that are available. If you want to travel the cosmos, perhaps you might consider applying for a crew position on one of the many ships that frequent this station. We have a list of contacts we’ll provide you if you’re interested. There are educational opportunities available as well. I know Steve just addressed some options open to the marines, but I want to make sure you also know any of the options I am discussing are available to you marines as well. If you have an interest in some sort of academical pursuit, then you can fill out an application stating your interests and background. We will circulate those applications among the Collective representatives. If you are accepted, we will notify you.”

  “Many of the civilians among you have had extensive training here on the station that will be required back on Earth after first contact. For a lot of the civilians, that was the purpose of your coming to this station. I assume that most of you already have jobs waiting for you back home. For any of you wanting to return home, transportation will be available only after first contact. That you have to wait until then should be no surprise to any of you.”

  The crowd noise started to rise. I paused to let them blow off steam. Several were yelling out questions
to the podium. There was no way I could hear them all as they were just shouting them out on top of one another. I raised my hand.

  “QUIET! Please. I know you all have questions, but we can’t possibly answer them all in this meeting. You can contact me, Steve, Jackie, or Maria with your questions after this meeting. We can also arrange smaller meetings for groups that are interested in the options we are discussing here. In those meetings we can go into those options in more detail. If, in the end, you have no other option, you will be returned to Earth and very well compensated for your time as was guaranteed in your original contracts.”

  All of the volunteers had come to the Earth ship under a contract that guaranteed they could all return home after a specified term and live the rest of their lives in comfort. Reminding them all of this seemed to quiet down the crowd.

  “BUT! Should any of you want more than what we have already discussed we do have some special opportunities available. We won’t discuss what those opportunities are here in this meeting. I will tell you that they will be long-term, most probably lifetime assignments, if you qualify. You are all invited to apply for one of these positions, but only a few of you will pass the selection process.”

  “It will require commitment first and foremost. As I said, most likely a lifetime commitment. Your commitment will be tested as part of the selection process. It won’t be fun. Skill set is equally important. If you decide to apply, the first cuts will be made based on our needs. You may think you don’t have any special skills, but you might be wrong. We can’t tell you what we’re looking for, so apply if you’re interested. We can tell you this. Out of all of those that apply, we only expect a maximum of 40% of you to make it through the selection, if that many. If you’re wondering what sort of pay you can expect, then you probably shouldn’t apply. The rewards you can expect will not be the kind that can be measured in terms of money. We’re looking for people who want to make a difference, not a fortune.”

  “Applications for this service have been sent to each of your nodes. If you’re not selected, you still have all the other options available to you as we have already discussed. That is all we have to say for now. The four of us will hang around for a bit if you want to ask questions. We only ask you keep in mind that we can’t take the time to address all the questions you may have at this time. We also will not answer any questions about these special opportunities. It’s time for you all to start thinking about what you want to do next. We’ll help you in any way we can.”

  More than a few stayed to ask the four of us questions. Most of the marines went to talk to Steve. Maria, Jackie, and I handled most of the questions from the civilians who stayed behind. In the cases of many of the questions, we simply took down the person’s name and promised to forward them additional contact information. These were mostly regarding education and jobs available on other worlds. One of my questioners had a question about the level of commitment we were talking about.

  “What’s your name?” I asked. That was how we usually started since we were jotting down notes as we went along.

  “Gary Wise.”

  “Ok, Gary. What’s your question?”

  “You talked about a long-term commitment for these special positions. I was wondering if we should be selected, does this mean we can’t have a family or life outside of this job?”

  I signaled to the rest of my team to stop answering questions for a second. “Please everyone. I don’t want to have to answer this question or any more questions about what we mean by commitment. Gary here has asked what about family and a life outside of the job. The answer is quite simple, Gary. You shouldn’t bother to apply since you’ve basically already failed the test of your commitment.”

  “Gary could have asked any question about these opportunities. Even though I said I wouldn’t give any details, at least he would have shown his interest. The question he asked tells me that he thinks what he is applying for is just another job. No, it will be your life. If you have a family, it will be their life as well.”

  That shortened the lines of questioners quite a bit. I don’t know if they left because they had similar questions and didn’t want to be disqualified on the spot, or if they realized what we were talking about wasn’t for them. It didn’t matter I guess. The selection process had already started. We expected a large number of applicants to drop out as they started learning more about what was ahead of them. Once we weeded out the applicants based on skill sets, Steve would have to run thorough security checks on those that made it that far. Once they made it past the security checks, we could start to tell them a little more about what they might be doing.

  For the civilians, there would be an intense few weeks of boot camp. We didn’t want them to be soldiers, but they would have to be able to protect themselves when they were on their own. All the final applicants would also have to have knowledge of basic intelligence gathering methods. Again, we weren’t looking for spies. We would need information on how the different governments operated, local customs, and other information that would be useful when Earth made official contact with a new world. Finally, they would go through any necessary job-specific training. Still, not until the final selection would any of them have any knowledge of the bigger picture of what we were trying to accomplish. I’m sure a few might figure out some of it based on their job training, but that would still only be a small piece of the puzzle.

  Over the next few weeks, the four of us stayed quite busy. We decided to book the same small auditorium for three hours a day in the morning for the remainder of the month that the candidates had to make their decision. It was just too much for us to try and handle each person individually. There was so much interest in the educational and employment options available that I contacted representatives from each Collective embassy. I put together mini-job fairs and career days where the candidates could speak directly to members of the Collective. The response from the Collective worlds surprised me. They all were very interested in having humans learn more about their societies, and some needed the help in areas where they had labor shortages. The committee in charge of human development, the one that had originally recruited me, saw this as the perfect way to continue to aid humanity as they joined the interstellar community. After all, it was that committee that has recruited all of the human volunteers in the first place. I hadn’t had that much contact with the committee since I returned. They thought it was best for the Bree Council to deal with my issues.

  The fact that so many of the humans were showing interest in these other options worried me a bit. A lot of the job and educational training they were showing interest in would be exactly what we’d want for the Rangers. There were quite a few looking to hire in as apprentice crew members on various types of Collective ships in the hopes of learning piloting, navigation, and engineering skills. Several were looking at attending the Collective learning centers to learn about inter-world economics, trade, and agriculture. Steve pointed out that a lot of them were also applying for the Ranger selection as well. Those that were selected for the Rangers would need to have crash courses in a lot of these fields. Those who weren’t selected would one day make good candidates as a result of the more extensive training they’d receive. At the very least, they would make good connections to have in the future. Steve suggested that we keep track of them all regardless.

  While all of this was going on, the four of us had started the selection process for the Rangers. The first problem was defining the actual requirements. We knew what skill sets we were interested in, but how we were going to organize the Rangers was a question we had to solve. With Senri and Sestan’s help, we were already able to procure four cargo ships from the ASTN. The typical crew compliment used to man these ships was ten to twenty.

  We needed pilots, navigators, comm officers, sensor operators, ship engineers, and cargo crew. These ships were not capable of portal transits, so travel time between spaceports could be days, weeks, or months. We’d need multiple people t
o man the essential stations over three shifts. This required 9 crew members to handle piloting, navigation and comms just to start with. We decided that piloting and navigation didn’t require the full attention of a crew member for each shift. We also decided that the pilots and navigators could share the comm and sensor duties as required. This reduced the crew required to 6 for these key positions.

  We figured we needed one ships engineer and 2 assistants. They would have to perform basic maintenance and monitor the ships vital systems. They’d learn how to handle the ships fabricator, basically an advanced version of what we once called 3D printers, to manufacture replacement parts as needed.

  We’d need a cargo master. This person’s job would be defining how cargo was loaded, secured, and the amount of cargo that we could handle for a given ship. We couldn’t justify having laborers for just assisting the cargo master during loading and unloading operations. At this point, we were already up to 10 crew members.

  We thought we’d simply leave ship security up to Steve to figure out. He said that we all needed to agree on ship security. If it were up to him, he’d want a full squad on each ship. This would exceed the recommended crew capacity of most of our ships and he simply didn’t have a lot of marines left to choose from. Almost 40% had elected to return to Earth. Some were leaving to join some of the civilians in other pursuits. Then there were those who were interested in the private security positions. Of the 500 plus marines we currently had, only 275 had applied for the Ranger selection. I thought the number would have been higher. Steve pointed out that they were more likely to know what we meant by commitment than the civilians and decided against it. He suggested that we consider that the ship security did not necessarily have to be Rangers, but temporary private security. We agreed, but that made us start to rethink exactly who needed to be a Ranger.

  Each ship would require a Ranger as captain. This person would have to be trained in multiple disciplines. At least one pilot and navigator should also belong to the Rangers, as well as the head of security. All the other crew could be temporary assignments we could pick from some of the other candidates. Once all of that was decided, Steve took it upon himself to create the crew position organizational structure as well as the titles for each of the various crew members.