Athena Lee Chronicles 0: The Lost Pilot

by T S Paul

  A trio of sergeants marched up to our groups. "Attention! Each group will be split into quarters and will room in mixed dormitories. This is to help integrate the groups. Never fear, each group will be receiving the same training. Now count off one to four."

  All four of our groups began to call out numbers. I was a four. My brother Anthony was a two. We were separated in to four new groups and led off into the bowels of the station. Each group had it's own section on deck one of the space wheels. The station had three movable wheels that spun in sync with Earth. These wheels provided internal gravity to the station. Our dorm was on wheel three, deck five, subsection four. The other groups were on the same deck, but different subsections. Upon arriving at our section Sergeant Smith told us to pick a room and a bunk. There were fifty rooms. My new bunkmate said that his name was Miguel 009. According to him he was from "The Program' base in Argentina. That meant the the other two groups had to be from somewhere else too. This was going to be fun!

  "Attention! Get unpacked, get your new rooms shipshape, then report to the cafeteria for shipboard lessons!" Sergeant Smith pointed to a door at the rear of the hallway. "Go through that door and turn left. Your cafeteria is at the end. You have fifteen minutes to report." He then left the room.

  Miguel and I smiled and got to work unpacking. He and I had the exact same items to put away. His Program and mine had to be the same one. Rushing a bit, we both finished early and left the room to go meet our new family. We soon learned that the other two groups were from Norway and Great Britain. All had similar training to ours. As a group we filed out of the room. Following the sergeant's instructions we found the cafeteria and sat in the chairs we found there. Computer terminals built into the tables lit up and our lessons began. This was now our new classroom with our new classmates.

  Chapter 5

  Flying the Starfury Mark 1 has got to be the best ride in the galaxy! The single seat fighter was easily the most recognizable fighter in the galaxy. Each of us were assigned one as part of our training package. The UN trainers had set up an obstacle course of sorts in the space surrounding the station. The objective was to do as many laps as possible in the time allotted. The sneaky part was that, starting on the second lap there were simulated pirates and meteors to deal with. On the fifth lap, the ships systems were programmed to produce random failures. The goal was to teach us to expect the unexpected and how to quickly and correctly react to it. Upon completing the course, each fighter was stripped down and checked for damage and wear. The ships were then rebuilt and reprogrammed. All of this was done by us, the cadets. This lesson was all about self-sufficiency. Everything that we did contained a lesson. Some good some bad. Some of these lessons had casualties.

  My brother Anthony was one of those that had suffered. Now that 'The Program' was in its fifth year, genetically programmed growth spurts had kicked in. We went from being the size of normal-five-year-olds to that of 18-year-olds in a matter of months. The Doctors that were part of the system informed us that we would have one more growth spurt at age eight, which would 'set' our basic shape permanently. To me this made a whole lot of sense. Space suits pretty much came in one or two basic sizes. How would we find new suits if we grew older normally? It dawned on us that the Program administrators had been waiting on us to finish our training. We all needed to be bigger to fly the ships.

  The first thing we had to learn was how to properly wear a space suit. Each piece of the suit served a specific purpose. Leave one off, even by accident, and there could be a tragedy. Poor Anthony was one such loss. Underneath the suit, each person was supposed to wear three specific layers of jumpsuit. A basic gauze-like body suit that allowed the body to breathe and keep us cool. The second layer was similar to a sensor suit that a VR participant might wear; it read your bodies responses to heat, cold, and other external stimuli. The third layer was a cross between nomex and neoprene. This layer protected from fire and cold. The layers needed to be worn in that specific order. Over them was the newest state-of-the-art space suit. These were made from a new lightweight metallic compound that had been discovered in the asteroid belt. Not found on Earth, Rigveda was easily mined and the UN used it to build practically everything. Putting on these suits in regular gravity they were no heavier than that of a old fashioned rubber diving suit. As one complete unit the suit kept you at an even temperature at all times. One of the things that had been stressed to all of us was to follow procedure when putting on all the layers. Anthony taught us all to remember that lesson.

  'Attention. Attention. This is not a drill! This is not a drill!'

  'There is a pressure leak on Level Three. There is a pressure leak on Level Three.'

  At the first words over the speaker we all sprang into action as we had drilled for years. Counting in my head, I put the layers on in numerical order. All of our hard suits were racked in power ports along the walls. As we climbed into the suits we could see and hear the leak as it became a torrent. With a loud whistling and roar the bulkhead gave way sucking us all into space. Using our training we began linking our suits together making chains using the built in secure cables on our belts. As we linked up I looked over at Anthony to check his cable connection. I could see sweat beading up on his face, his faceplate fogging up. I pulled myself along the cable and grabbed hold of his arm. I put my helmet next to his to better communicate.

  "Anthony! Are you OK?" His eyes were wide and his face was growing red. He shook his head at me and tried to speak. For some reason his communication system wasn't functioning. I checked his suit, front and back as quickly as I could. Not seeing anything wrong, I pulled out a communication line and connected it directly to his suit.

  "Anthony can you hear me now?" Silence. There was a faint scratching noise and lots of static. I looked up at my brother. His eyes were now very wide almost wild. His face was bright red and he was starting to gasp as if he was out of breath. I checked his readouts. Everything appeared to be normal with his suit. He had plenty of air. But his body started to shake uncontrollably as he started to convulse. Several of the others were now helping as we tried to hold him still. I was looking into his wide eyes when they grew pale as the 'light' went out of them. My brother was dead. We floated in space holding the body of our brother and teammate for the next two hours.

  The medico's that examined Anthony later concluded that his death was a tragic accident brought on by the haste of the emergency. Anthony had not followed the set procedure for putting on this suit. He had put the under layers on wrong. He must have gotten confused and put the sensor suit on first, followed by the cool suit. The cool suit registered as cold air to the sensor suit. So the sensors had kept increasing the internal temperature inside the suit to compensate. Anthony died of heat stroke in the icy depths of space.

  Anthony's death gave all of us perspective and we all vowed to do better and to learn everything that the Program wanted to teach us. From that point on, our team would forever strive to be the best in honor of our brother Anthony 0257. But our challenges only grew harder and in time we lost more of our brothers to accidents.

  Chapter 6

  I deliberately took the shuttle in past the shipyard, taking a long look at the five shells floating shells floated in the work bays. These five would be the last colony ships is what we'd been told. Earth was not completely under the authority of the United Nations Assembly. Over the last year, military forces led by many of my 'cadet,' brothers had swept the battlefields free of rebel forces. Much of what had once been the United States and the Russian Federation was in ruins. My squadron, the 186th, had spearheaded the assault on Washington, DC. In our X-50 fighters we had easily taken out the American resistance starfighters. I was an 'ace' several times over by the old standards of battle. We shot down three squadrons of US Air force Starfuries to prevent the American President from escaping by air. We also destroyed the Washington DC Spaceport. My performance on the battlefield led to my being given a choice of future assignments: Colony ship d
uty or combat patrol leader.

  With America's air power destroyed all that was left was mopping up. The rebel forces, led by a variety of American officers, resisted fiercely with the limited resources they had available. Our forces had better intelligence, or so we had been told. Many of the American military's secret hidden reserves were captured or confiscated by our ground forces. There were a few holdouts high up in the mountains or hidden in swamps. They would soon be found and eliminated. Control and order were our main goals.

  I considered my choices carefully. Since taking control of Earth's nations, the UN has been shipping out any undesirable people or groups to the colony worlds. Using population control as an excuse, whole neighborhoods were swept up and shipped out. As I looked out at the floating ships I knew that the rumors were true. Five more ships and the colony program would be put on hold indefinitely. If I wanted to go into outer space those five ships were my last chance.

  Staying on Earth would have its perks too. Combat patrol leader would allow me to fly the best that Earth had to offer in terms of fighters and other ships. I knew that there were plans on the books for bigger, faster, and stronger spacecraft. The UN was preparing to build several more space stations and defensive platforms. They would need protection and combat space patrols to defend the planet. Flying a colony ship though, that would be a real challenge. I think I knew my answer.

  Several hours later I stood in General Gerard's office. The General was in charge of the Air wing and was my direct supervisor in the military.

  "General Gerard, Sir. I've made my choice."

  "Captain, sit please." I sat down in the chair in front of his desk. While I had been in his many times over the past few years, I had never really looked around, much less sat. The walls in the office were covered in awards and pictures of the General with various dignitaries or politicians. The bookcases on either side of his desk were filled with fancy leather bound editions of great works of military strategy and history. I could tell that they were only for show by the line of dust surrounding them. His desk was made of teak wood and rare Italian marble. It was a surprise to find such rare items on a space station.

  "So, Captain, what's your choice?" He gazed into my eyes.

  I stared back at him. I began to wonder about the General. His eyes, something about his eyes.

  "Captain? Did your hear me?"

  I shook my head to clear it. "Sorry sir. My choice sir is Colony ship duty. I wish to go to space, Sir."

  The General nodded his head. "The lure of space. I can see that. I once had that myself, back in the old days. Are you absolutely sure of your choice? There'll be no coming back."

  Old eyes are what the General had. Old eyes that have seen all the world's wonders... and all its horrors. "Yes, Sir. I understand my choice."

  'Good, report to Major Stanley in the morning. Now your training really starts!"

  I thanked the General and returned to the hangar bay. As I thought about it, I wondered if General Gerard had been one of the earlier program's successes. His young body and old eyes could prove that.

  The training I received over the next two years only hardened my resolve to go out into space. The colony ships controls were very complicated and the simulators were extremely effective. The UN simulators covered many of the situations that we could encounter. So much to learn about these ships! I would not be alone. I would have a co-pilot, crew, and a small marine force on board the ship as well. We worked as a team with the trainers to get a feel for what shipboard life would be like. Outer space was still something of a mystery though.

  At least several dozen colony ships had just vanished over the past century since ships had began leaving Earth. Current theories were that they had been destroyed or malfunctioned in some way. Other than the Mars colony, the UN council was in contact with only two other colonies. They knew the location of over fifty others, but had no contact with them. Many of the early ships contained Government representatives who were tasked with setting up colonies under Earth's control. What little information the Earth had learned about the other colony planets was that once they were out of Earths influence they intended to stay that way.

  This was something that we hoped to change. Our leaders were sending administrators along with military forces to help found a colony. A last gasp chance at expanding Earth's influence among the far-flung colony worlds. As the ship's Captain I was the ultimate authority over everyone once we left Earth. I received special training in hand to hand combat and ship board warfare. Weapon caches had been secreted throughout the ship with access limited to only the crew. Earth gov was taking no chances.

  The ships were almost finished. They were five of the largest ever constructed in space. By comparison the largest earth ships ever built were supertankers used for oil production. The longest of those was just over 1500 feet long. My ship, the Precious Jewel, was over 3,000 feet long and would carry over 20,000 colonists. It was a generational ship. Cryogenics was still in its infancy, getting the science of how that works right was a lot harder then science fiction writers had envisioned. It would take about twenty years for the ship to reach our destination. Many of the colonists might die before reaching their new homes. This was one of the reasons that my brothers and I had been created. We would survive the trip and be the leaders of the new colony.

  As a future world leader, I was to be let in on certain secrets and would learn all about the power behind the throne.

  Chapter 7

  The English Catholic Historian Lord Acton wrote that 'Power corrupts.' That would be a true statement when considering the real powers behind the UN. Since achieving total control of the Earth the UN's Secretary General dissolved the general assembly and appointed the Council of Ten. The Secretary General's position was that of a figurehead. The real power lay with the Council of Ten. As a future Colony leader, I was inducted into the inner workings of the Government. They called themselves the Illuminati, I found out later the name came from an actual secret society that existed in the past. Several thousand of the planet's elite were members. Military leaders, politicians, celebrities, and journalists came together a century ago to build the Empire that I helped to defend. My brothers and I owed our very existence to them. Our entire program had been their Idea from the start.

  "You are the future. You and those who you call your 'brothers' are to be our future leaders if you survive."

  The leaders before me were some of the same people that had visited our group when we were still children. In some ways I felt the interview would be like this. "Thank you for considering me for the position."

  "We have been watching you Sam. We have been watching all of those in your group. The Superhero program was a partial success for what we wanted. We needed a new breed of warrior."

  "The history that we learned in school said that leaders are made not born. How is that possible?" This was really interesting to me.

  "Leaders can be shaped and molded into anything that we need. The colony program was successful in removing certain ...elements from Earth. What failed was retaining control of those elements once they left the planet. We sent out several groups of Government representatives on many of the ships. They either joined the rebels or were killed fighting them. We hope that was the case. You and your people will be different. Your very lives have been ours to mold. You owe us everything."

  Those last few words shocked me to my core. Owe them? My brothers and I don't owe them anything.

  "Did all of the groups you sent fail?"

  "Not entirely. We still control two of the early colonies. We have influence on many of the rest where an organization such as this one exists." He spread his arms, encompassing the room. "They exist in the very fabric of the outer colonies. They run the military and control the flow of credits to and from the government. They influence everything, right under the noses of the colonists. We will give you access codes and recognition signals that will allow you to contact and connect with those groups. The
military forces that we are sending with you should be able to handle whatever you throw at them. We wish you luck and when we see you again we hope you will join us, here at this table." He patted the empty chair beside him.

  As I bowed to the Council of Ten, a thousand thoughts ran through my brain. Where did I stand? Did I really want to rule over other people?

  Those questions continued to plague me through the next few weeks. I met with the other four ship captains as we began to plan our roles in the societies we would create on board the ships. Twenty years was a long time to be surrounded by strangers. The council's plan was for us to educate the rebellion out of the colonists. Teach the next generation to respect us and we could rule in peace. When we arrived at the planet we should be able to just take over.

  I still was not sure if I wanted to rule over everyone. Maybe on the journey I could decide.