Homeward: The Ship Series // Book Three

by Jerry Aubin

  “The other reason for having the two of them work side-by-side is to force them to put aside their history in service to the bigger picture. Their peers know what has transpired between them. What better way to prove that we can all come back together and succeed than seeing two people who have so much enmity put aside their differences for the sake of the Ship.”

  Imair didn’t want to admit publicly how Rege was causing her concern, so she had a hard time arguing the first of the Boss’s points. He was absolutely right about his second reason, so she found herself in the same resigned position about the pairing as when she first raised her concerns. One thing still gnawed at her, though.

  “OK, Boss, I’ll support you keeping this in place. For now. If it escalates any further, we’ll need to make adjustments so we don’t trigger open warfare in Flight Ops. One thing is bothering me about Cadet Zax, though. From what I understand, he’s clashed with you repeatedly. He’s the one who ignored your orders and revealed the video about the human fighter. Hell—he tried to kill you rather than allow you to create a peaceful ending to the Revolution. Why are you continuing to support the boy and keep him around?”

  The Boss stared at her for a few extra beats. Some unknown emotion flickered in his expression, but it disappeared before Imair pinned it down. He smiled instead, though one that was not the least bit genuine.

  “The boy is extremely useful, ma’am.”

  Imair didn’t understand the answer, but the Boss’s tone suggested there wouldn’t be anything further forthcoming.

  “If you say so, Boss. Thanks for coming by. Dismissed.”

  The man stood and started to walk out but then stopped and turned back to Imair.

  “One last thing, ma’am. Did I hear correctly there was some violence in one of the civilian sectors?”

  Imair sighed. “Yes, it’s incredibly frustrating. One of my key staff was down visiting family and was attacked on his way back to the Tube. It was originally only one crazy person, but something happened to get a larger crowd engaged and tearing things up. He got away without serious injury, but it was close.”

  “That’s troubling, ma’am. And pretty surprising. Do you have any idea what’s behind it?”

  “I’ve been told we’ve got a group of agitators pushing us to move faster on the changes and improvements we’re making. They’re having a hard time understanding that things can’t happen overnight. We’ve already increased civilian calorie allocation by 10 percent, and nutripellets are being distributed on a weekly basis to further augment rations. That’s not good enough apparently. We’ve got a small group advocating that everyone should be allowed in Crew mess halls the same way critical civilian staff have been granted access. Can you imagine the chaos that would create? I feel really good about the progress we’ve made so far and I keep pushing the teams to get more done, but you know as well as anyone how much work we have to do to keep us moving toward finding those other humans.”

  The Boss smiled once again. “Yes, ma’am. You’ve got your mission identified and feel like you’re making the tough leadership decisions necessary to support that mission. I understand your predicament. That sounds hard. Let me know if you would like any assistance. I’ve had some experience dealing with situations like that.”

  17

  I'll think about it.

  When the evening newsvid ended, Zax turned to Kalare and sighed.

  “I really don’t like this announcer. I’ve given it three months, but I still can’t get used to her. I wish the other guy was still around. I wonder why they got rid of him.”

  Kalare nodded. “I totally agree with you. She’s not very likable, and I always feel like she’s trying to convince me about something rather than just providing information. Well—at least she didn’t have anything to say about me. It was a pretty boring news day given what they covered, so I kept worrying that a story about a couple of destroyed fighters might be newsworthy.”

  Pangs of jealousy left Zax conflicted when Kalare referenced her maiden flight. Even knowing it had almost been a disaster, he still found himself tipping toward upset about how she flew first. Yes—it had been Zax’s choices and not Kalare’s that put her on the path to beating him to the Academy by a year, but being a pilot had been his lifelong dream and for her was something she fell into. He fought to push his emotions aside and instead be a supportive friend.

  “I can’t believe that happened your very first time out there. What happened when they brought you back? What did Major Eryn have to say?”

  It was Kalare’s turn to sigh. “I’m so upset about the way she treated me. They had already completed the investigation by the time I was back on board and concluded there was nothing I could have done differently. It was entirely that idiot’s fault. And yet, she starts screaming at me for making her look bad and hits me with a huge chunk of demerits.”

  “Wow—that sucks.” Zax wasn’t quite sure how to deal with Kalare’s brewing emotions, so he changed the topic instead. “What was it like when you first saw your chair? Were you excited?”

  Kalare paused for a moment. Zax worried he had somehow asked a bad question, but then her face brightened.

  “I was thrilled to get in it! You can’t believe what it’s like, Zax. You spend all kinds of time getting tested and fitted. You finally get the flight suit on, and it’s like you’re going to be choked by the damn thing. But then you sit down in your chair and transfer into the fighter. And…wow. All I can say is wow. The power of the EMALS. Did you know you can actually feel it in your stomach? Then…finally…you’re in space. Nothing between you and death except a few nanometers of reinforced titanium. You know your body really isn’t there, but somehow you still feel like it totally is. At one point I swear I scratched an itch on my knee! I thought it would be more scary when my fighter got destroyed and my core got ejected, but it happened so many times when I was flying with you in your simulator that I was totally prepared for it. Sorry if that comes across as an insult in any way, but it’s not meant to.”

  Kalare acted even more manic than usual during her retelling, but Zax smiled regardless. Someone walked up behind her and his grin faded when he lifted his gaze to discover it was Mase. The boy had a tray of food in his hand and pointed at one of the two empty seats at their table.

  “Can I sit down?”

  Zax wanted to say no, but curiosity about what the young cadet was after got the better of him and he nodded instead. The boy sat with his back to Kalare and spoke to Zax.

  “I’ve got to know how you beat me in the simulator. You have no business being that good your first day.”

  Zax should have expected it given what he already knew about the boy, but the complete lack of social grace was surprising nonetheless. He was far from perfect when it came to human interaction, but Mase took Zax’s quirks and amplified them by a factor of ten. Zax replied.

  “I could ask you the same question. You were a little too smooth out there.”

  “It wasn’t my first time. The Major gave me introductory sessions last week. I will deny it if you ever tell anyone.”

  The boy smiled with great self-satisfaction in sharing his news. Zax was incensed. He turned to Kalare, who shared his look of disbelief, and then back to the boy.

  “What? That’s against regulations! All Pilot Academy cadets are supposed to be kept on equal footing at all times and be provided with the same opportunities for simulator time, training sessions, etc.”

  “Don’t blame me. Was I supposed to say no when she offered? I answered your question. You haven’t answered mine. What’s your story? How are you cheating?”

  Zax wanted to tell the boy to slag off but instead sought to take him down a notch.

  “I built my own simulator so I’ve been practicing for almost a year.”

  Mase shook his head.

  “That doesn’t make sense. I’ve seen flight games other people created. They can’t provide what it takes to become a pilot. Only Academy simulators prepare
you.”

  Zax was sorting out how best to disprove Mase’s assertion when Kalare jumped into the conversation.

  “Yes—lots of kids have built lots of stupid simulators. Zax built an amazing one. I’m a year ahead of you two, and his simulator is absolutely as good as the ones in the Academy. And almost as realistic as flying. Except the EMALS. I told you about the EMALS, right, Zax? About how you can feel it in your belly? But anyway, Zax’s simulator is definitely as amazing and useful as the ones at the Academy. Before you walked up, in fact, we were talking about how I wasn’t afraid when I crashed today and my core got ejected because it happened so many times when Zax and I were using his simulator. If I were you, I would—”

  Mase put his palm in front of Kalare’s face to cut her off. “Do you have an off switch?”

  Kalare reacted as if she was genuinely confused and hurt by the boy’s question and his tone. Something fierce welled up within Zax and he glared at Mase.

  “Leave her alone!”

  The cadet put both of his hands palm out toward Zax in a non-threatening, conciliatory fashion.

  “No harm intended. It made me tired trying to keep up with her.”

  “Hey, Puke Boy. Hey, Kalare.”

  Aleron had appeared and sat down in the fourth chair while Zax was focused on Mase. Kalare had mentioned the Engineering cadet with alarming regularity in the months since the Revolution, but Zax had thankfully avoided any interactions with him. Aleron’s tone was friendly when he used the dreaded nickname, but Zax was already primed for upset and his adrenalin surged. Aleron looked at Mase for a moment without any recognition before turning back to Kalare and putting his hand on her arm.

  “I heard about what happened to you. That’s crazy! Are you OK? Can you tell me about it?”

  Zax went to stand and pushed his chair backward with a little more force than he intended. It toppled over and crashed to the floor. He ignored it and balled up his nutripellet wrappers.

  “I’ve got to go. I’ve got work to do. Goodbye.”

  Kalare called after him. “Zax—wait. Don’t go.”

  Zax kept his head down and charged toward the waste bins. Footsteps raced up from behind him, and he debated what he would say to Kalare when she caught up.

  “Puke Boy—that’s you?”

  It was Mase, not Kalare. Zax sped up, but the young Zeta kept pace despite being a half-meter shorter than Zax.

  “I wondered why you were eating nutripellets. You’re a legend. There are permanent stains in the Zeta berth that people say are yours. I can’t believe it’s you.”

  Leave it to a fourteen-year-old to think someone would be excited at being recognized for their vomiting prowess. Zax stopped short and spun to face the boy.

  “What do you want? Why are you following me?”

  “I want you to show me your simulator. If it’s any good, I want to practice in it with you. You’ve got a big head start on flying. You’ll probably always be better than me. In exchange, I’ll share special tricks for succeeding on the Leaderboard.”

  Zax was dumbfounded. This kid had just admitted his mentor was cheating to give him an advantage, and now he was asking Zax to help make him even better yet. His initial instinct was to scream no and run in the other direction, but he forced himself to consider the situation for a moment. Clearly this kid was smart and knew a thing or two about how to succeed. Maybe it was a good idea to take advantage of the boy’s skill and boost himself even higher on the Leaderboard in the process. Zax was confident that, unless he allowed Mase to spend every waking moment in the simulator, the boy would never catch up to his flight skills. What, then, was the risk in trading off to support each other? There had to be something he wasn’t taking into account, so Zax left the door open without committing.

  “I’ll think about it. Now seriously—I’ve got work to do, so leave me alone.”

  18

  Well played, Adan.

  “Markev—get off him! You’re killing him!”

  Adan clawed at his bodyguard’s massive shoulders in a vain attempt to stop the man’s pummeling of the hangar attendant. Markev reached back and gave his boss a casual shove that sent Adan tumbling away end over end in the microgravity environment. Markev delivered one last vicious kick to the attendant’s skull, and then the giant oriented himself toward their temporary quarters and kicked off against the bulkhead to glide in that direction. The attendant’s eyes were already swollen nearly shut and globules of blood oozed from a cut on his face, but the man retained enough of his senses to push off and float on a wobbly path toward the medic station.

  It had happened in an instant. They landed their FTL test craft and were in the process of disembarking when the attendant said something under his breath. Markev jumped at him and sent them both flying toward a bulkhead. As they came to rest against it, Markev had grabbed a handhold and used it to keep his body positioned such that he kept the defenseless man pinned against the wall with a cascade of punishing kicks and punches.

  What had caused Markev to snap and rage? He was a fierce operator which is why Adan had hired him in the first place, but in their decades together the man had never lost his cool even in the face of some challenging situations. Their current pace of work was arduous, but it wasn’t anything worse than projects they had been involved in previously. Adan was out of sorts and short-tempered, but he expected exhaustion from himself. Not from the indefatigable Markev.

  The good news was that after two dozen test flights over three days, Adan was finally convinced they had created a reliable FTL engine capable of powering a craft big enough for dozens of people. He still had significant worries about whether the design would scale up to the level necessary to instantly transport his asteroid across the universe, but that was a challenge to deal with down the road.

  The challenge that sat right in front of him was his regular status call with Earth. He usually delivered his updates to the Chancellor’s technical staff who understood and appreciated what he had to share with them. His next call would be with the Chancellor herself, however, along with her Chief of Staff. Adan appreciated that he needed to keep playing the political game for a few more years while the project moved forward. This was particularly true given the value of the Chancellor dedicating the West’s resources to the cause. That understanding didn’t prevent the process from feeling quite annoying. He had so many crucial projects reaching critical stages of development that every moment taken away from them risked delaying the mission.

  Adan glided across the hangar toward the temporary command facility. The massive space had been one of the first projects completed, and it had been a hive of activity throughout the two years since. They were within weeks of the first groundbreaking for a surface tower, so the level of bustle had only amped up even further. Everything was tracking more or less according to plan, but the mining was always going to be the easiest part of the project.

  Adan arrived at the conference room and settled in just as an image from the Chancellor’s office materialized on the screen. A minute later, the woman and her Chief of Staff sat down in front of the camera. The Chancellor appeared serene and content, while Jania emanated her usual agitation. The leader of the West spoke first.

  “Good afternoon, Adan. How are you doing today?”

  “I’m doing fine, Madam Chancellor. Thank you for asking. How are things down there?”

  “Well, to be honest, they’ve been better. We’ll get to that a little later, though. I’d like to hear from you first. I’ve been getting regular updates, but I’d love to get an unfiltered summary from you.”

  “My pleasure, ma’am. An awful lot has happened up here since that first time I visited your office, but I’ll try to cover what I think are the high points.

  “The mining operation has gone tremendously well, as expected. We’ve extracted sufficient titanium for all of the construction within the interior of the asteroid as well as enough for a much larger number of surface structures than we had
originally envisioned. There have been astounding improvements made in our ability to extract titanium from the ore, and we’ve even managed to adapt the techniques for transparent aluminum to create transparent titanium which is orders of magnitude stronger. We’ll start putting all of that titanium to use and breaking ground on our first surface structure within the next two weeks.

  “We’ve also made great progress thanks to the white dwarf’s degenerate gas that you provided. I’m pleased to report that just a few minutes ago I returned from my twenty-fourth test flight of the new faster-than-light engine. We’ve actually used our test flights to source more of the gas from Sirius B, so we now have sufficient fuel to complete all of our development work. The final step will be to scale the FTL technology up to an engine than can move something as massive as the completed spaceship.”

  Adan didn’t feel it was prudent to inform the Chancellor about his worries on that front, so he jumped ahead.

  “The last major area of development encompasses some of the new systems that are critical to maximize the success of the mission. Once again, we have your extreme generosity with regards to the degenerate gas to thank for our progress.”

  Adan found it distasteful to stroke the Chancellor’s ego quite so vigorously, but he had been told by many that it worked. He continued.

  “Artificial gravity and inertial dampening are two technologies that go hand in hand from an engineering perspective. Our recent breakthroughs have come thanks to the energy characteristics of the degenerate gas. I expect to have some groundbreaking developments in these areas within the next year based on the pace of results so far.”