Galactic Axia Adventure 1: Escape to Destiny

by Jim Laughter

  Mike brought up the subject of a caretaker for the Eagleman farm. He described the young couple he and the liaison lieutenant had interviewed and their reaction to the place as it now looked. He suggested that Delmar meet them tomorrow at the office and the boy said it would be fine. Agnes interjected that she thought it would be better to have the meeting here at the farm so she could meet them too. Mike excused himself for a moment to make a call. Returning a few minutes later, he announced that the couple would come for dinner and Agnes’ reaction was all the confirmation Delmar needed.

  Delmar found himself reviewing the physical exam again. Tomorrow he would find out for sure if he had passed and when he could finish the enlistment procedure. With blurry-eyed visions of his future, he excused himself from the rest of the group and drifted off to sleep in his room.

  Delmar waited anxiously all day for the comm-link to ring. In the meantime, Jake had him over at his old farm cleaning. The trash in the house alone was enough to discourage anyone. One of the neighbors lent them his large truck, and Jake and Delmar made good use of it. They had already made three runs to the trash center and had not yet started on the barn.

  Delmar was surprised to find that he had very few happy memories of the place. He’d expected his earliest memories of when his parents had been alive would come flooding back to him, but they hadn’t. Instead, he saw his brother at every turn.

  Anything of value was long gone to support his brother’s drinking habit and parties. The boxes Delmar brought for mementos remained pitifully empty. His old room had been used as a dumpsite after he’d run away, and all of his personal affects either trashed, stolen or sold.

  Jake made a point of staying near the boy while they dragged the debris out to the truck. The project was daunting but Delmar dug in and made amazing progress. The fourth load finished off the trash in the house and the two men broke for a quick lunch. The house was now empty, and Agnes, Sherry, and some of the neighbor ladies were coming later to give it a good scrub.

  Although a disaster of its own, the barn showed less of the affect of Dorn’s neglect. Among the few broken-down pieces of farm equipment were bundles of tangled fence wire and shattered furniture. Delmar and Jake dragged it all out into the open and separated what might be salvageable from the hopeless. Three more trips to the trash center took care of the wreckage of furniture and other debris.

  The old tractor looked repairable and the bailer available for parts. Rooting around in the shop area, Delmar found that his father’s old tools had actually survived in fair shape. Apparently, the mountain of trash prevented his brother from getting to them. Jake helped set them in order again for the new caretakers.

  Up on the shelves above the bench were old partial bottles and cans of paints and solvents. A few were still good but most had long since dried up. Jake backed the truck directly into the barn so loading was easier and they made short work of the mess.

  On the top shelf behind and assortment of cans, Delmar found an old metal ammo box that Jake recognized as predating the boy by many years. Delmar found a collection of old family photographs inside and mementos that his mother had saved. He pulled out an early picture of his long-dead parents.

  Delmar found himself choking up for the first time in years. He let the grief he had buried explode from his tortured chest. Silent sobs racked the boy for a long moment while Jake comforted him, his arm around the boy’s shoulders.

  When there were no more tears, Delmar carefully replaced the precious portrait of his parents into the box. Digging deeper, he found another picture of his father taken before Delmar had been born. There he stood, tall and lean wearing the uniform of Axia black. Scribbled below the image was a tiny, tight scrawl that simply read T1 John Eagleman. Delmar was surprised and looked up at Jake who looked at the picture of Delmar’s father but said nothing. He noticed that both father and son exhibited the same strong lines and determined expression.

  They called it quits for the day and the difference in the Eagleman farm was astonishing. They got back to the Hassel farm and found preparations were well under way for their guests that night. Jake and Delmar went in and washed. Sherry chased them upstairs to change into better clothes. Mike arrived from town and the table was set when Daren and RoseMary Sabeti arrived.

  Seated around the table, Delmar was able to learn a little about these prospective caretakers. They’d been married only five years when he’d been injured while on combat duty with fleet. The doctors repaired what they could. Now it was up to Daren. A long convalescence, preferably outdoors, would serve better to heal the injury than any amount of medicine. Daren, frustrated by inactivity, had jumped at the opportunity to combine his recuperation with doing something useful but this was more than he had hoped.

  Agnes and Sherry took to the young wife almost immediately and were likewise impressed with her husband. Delmar was concerned with the young trooper’s ability to take care of the farm in light of his injuries. But as he got to know Daren, he saw the challenge would be a blessing. Sometimes a person needs a challenge to help them overcome a setback.

  After they’d finished dinner and some of Agnes’ delicious apple pie, they retired to the living room. The Sabetis told Delmar what they hoped to do with the farm. Their plans were ambitious but realistic, and Delmar felt good about leaving the farm in this couple’s care. Delmar saw that Agnes was also in favor of the couple. He looked them in the eye and told them he would be pleased if they would accept the challenge of being the caretakers.

  Mike stood up and called for everyone’s attention. “While everybody is in such good spirits, I have an announcement to make,” he said. The group grew quiet and all eyes were on him. Mike saw that Delmar’s eyes were wide with apprehension. Pulling an envelope from his breast pocket, he opened it and removed several sheets.

  “I picked this up on my way over,” he announced. He then read the letter aloud.

  Mr. Delmar Eagleman, this notice is to inform you that you have passed all entrance requirements for enlistment into the Galactic Axia Trooper Service. You may report to the enlistment center at ten o’clock any weekday morning within the next thirty calendar days to accept the oath of office.

  Mike finished. Attached to the letter was a sheet listing personal articles to bring, as well as prohibited items. The group remained silent for a moment and then exploded into cheers and congratulations.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The day was still showing some early morning clouds from the storm the night before when the ground car pulled out of the driveway and headed toward town from the Hassel farm. Delmar had been unusually quiet that morning and only managed to eat lightly. Although he was oblivious to the fact, he had considerable sympathy from the adults. Agnes tried to get the boy to smile but nothing would cause his gray mask to slip. Jake thought that he only saw that expression on a man’s face twice in life—when he enlisted and when he got married.

  Speeding toward town, Delmar carefully examined his old home when they passed the Eagleman farm. The Sabetis had only moved in a couple of weeks ago but already the changes were beginning to show. Besides curtains, there were signs that someone had started attacking the well-developed weeds in the flowerbeds. Satisfied with the changes, he returned his gaze to the front for the rest of the trip.

  Delmar expressed his desire to see Mr. Hassel before reporting at the enlistment center but Agnes convinced him that it would be impractical. Unknown to the boy, two troopers were picking Robert up from the hospital and taking him to the enlistment center. The doctor signed the release for Robert to go home the night before but they had managed to keep Delmar from finding out about it. They would meet Robert there for the ceremony and then take him home.

  Arriving at the enlistment center, Delmar saw several of the young men he had taken the physical exam with three weeks earlier. When he checked in at the counter, the trooper behind the desk told him to listen for the announcement calling the enlistees to the ceremony. Delmar returned to si
t by Agnes and the Senders and tried not to fidget.

  The small bag of personal items the notice advised him to bring lay at his feet. He considered taking inventory again just to pass the time. He could mentally picture everything in the bag. He had packed and repacked it several times the night before.

  A voice on the loudspeaker cut through his musings calling all enlistees to assemble. As per the instruction on the sheet, Delmar handed his bag to Agnes and joined the other young men in front of a double door.

  They found themselves in a small auditorium with a curtained stage. Standing together on the small open floor in front of the stage, a trooper-third called them to form up in front of the stage. There were several familiar blue lines on the floor. A dozen tiers of seats also rose behind them. Out of the corner of his eye, Delmar could see people filing into the upper seats, Agnes and the Senders among them. The trooper-third gave the enlistees a brief rundown of what to expect and then stepped to the side of the stage.

  The lights dimmed and the curtain opened revealing a large Galactic Axia flag and a small lectern. A spotlight highlighted each. A figure approached the lectern through the shadows. The trooper-third called the young men to attention as the figure stepped into the light.

  The spotlight reflected off the silver in the hair of the speaker. Rank insignia denoting a major glistened in the light against the black of his Axia uniform. As he stepped fully into the light, Delmar caught his breath. He had hoped to see Mr. Hassel before the ceremony but had never expected this.

  Major Hassel addressed the enlistees. “Today you take the first official step into the brotherhood of the troopers. You have all passed the stringent entry tests and the demanding physical requirements to qualify for enlistment.

  I want you to be proud of making the cut thus far. The road ahead of you through a full year of basic and advanced training will test each of you individually and as a team. You will come to exceed your own expectations and discover strengths and weaknesses you never knew you had.

  Right now is your last opportunity to withdraw from the arduous task ahead of you. Any who withdraw now may still enlist within the allotted calendar year without recrimination. We do not want you to enlist without carefully considering the consequences of your actions. We highly value honesty and faithfulness, and if you can’t be honest and faithful to yourself first, you have no place among the troopers. We will now dim the lights and any who wish to wait on their enlistment until they are confident in their heart of the rightness of their action may anonymously move out the exit and join the spectators in the gallery.”

  The auditorium darkened except for a few dim aisle lights. Delmar heard one or two men move out of ranks. After a couple of minutes, the spotlights came on and the ranks adjusted to fill in the vacant gaps.

  Major Hassel gazed out at them intently for a few moments. “I will now administer your first oath as a trooper trainee,” he said, breaking the silence. “Raise your right hand and repeat after me. Speak your full legal name at the appropriate place.”

  The spotlight on Major Hassel dimmed and the light on the Axia flag brightened. With the others, Delmar raised his right hand and together they repeated the oath of trooper trainees. As soon as they were finished, Major Hassel turned toward the flag and rendered the Axia salute as the anthem played, his right arm across his chest, palm down.

  Delmar and the rest of the trainees could not salute at this time. Saluting is an earned privilege of every trooper or Lady of the Fleet. He could hear people in the gallery rising, and he could see several, including Agnes and the Senders, salute the flag. They all held this position until the last notes of the anthem faded away.

  When the music faded away, Major Hassel turned again toward the trainees and addressed them.

  “You are now officially trooper trainees,” he said. “I now release you to visit with your families and sponsors. You will reform ranks in ten minutes with your personal luggage and will be under direction of the trooper-third.”

  Major Hassel surveyed them one more time. “Dismissed.”

  The ranks of trainees dispersed and searched the gallery for their families, or stayed on the floor to say their goodbyes. Agnes and the Senders surrounded Delmar. When he pulled back from hugging Agnes, he opened his eyes and found himself staring into the face of Major Robert Hassel.

  Robert clasped his hand and Delmar finally found his voice. “Why didn’t you tell me you were an active trooper?” he asked. “And when did you get out of the hospital?”

  “I’ll answer your questions one at a time,” Major Hassel replied with a smile. “Any retired trooper is forever on inactive status as a reservist. You saw Jake resume his rank and status to help in the court proceedings. I asked to be reactivated for today so I might give you the best send-off I could.”

  “And the hospital?”

  “I was released this morning to go home and finish recuperation under the command of Agnes.”

  Delmar was still a little dumbfounded at the surprise of seeing Mr. Hassel in uniform.

  “Before you go, I want you to take this,” Mr. Hassel said as he offered Delmar the familiar old pocket watch.

  “I was afraid to take it for fear of it being stolen or damaged,” Delmar said.

  “That’s understandable,” Agnes replied for the two of them. “However, it’s safe to take with you.

  “You’ll have the opportunity at induction to have your valuables secured by your drill instructor. Turn it in then and no harm will come to it.”

  “We’d better let this young man go,” said Jake, looking at his watch. The trainees were already reforming their ranks on the familiar blue line. Hugging all of them again, Delmar rejoined his group. The trooper-third called them to attention and marched them out through the exit and into the waiting transportation behind the building.

  Later that evening, the two couples gathered around the table at the Hassel farm.

  “Boy, it sure feels good to be home,” Robert said with a sigh. “I was getting tired of that hospital food.”

  “I thought you came home to get away from Bulldozer Betty,” Agnes remarked with a grin. “I heard from the nurses that you were rather reluctant to go to therapy.”

  “You know why they make hospital food so bad, don’t you?” asked Sherry. “It’s their way of encouraging the patients to hurry up and get better and leave.”

  “Well, I heard about Bulldozer Betty from the girls, and I’m sure glad I didn’t have her for basic,” Jake commented.

  “I don’t think you had to worry about that,” his wife said. “You wouldn’t have met the physical qualifications to be a Lady of the Fleet.”

  Agnes laughed at Sherry’s joke. Robert wisely kept his mouth shut.

  ∞∞∞

  The next morning the Hassels and Senders sat at the breakfast table drinking coffee. “I wonder how our boy is doing?” Robert asked.

  “He’s in good hands,” Jake said. “I found out he’s going to the Freewater Training Center.”

  “Then he won’t have far to go,” Sherry said.

  “Still, leaving one’s home planet always makes the journey seem longer,” Agnes added.

  “If I read the schedule right, he should be arriving there about nightfall three days from now,” Jake said.

  “Arriving at night always makes it more interesting,” Robert said. “I arrived at night, and seeing my drill instructor for the first time on a dimly lit drill pad certainly added to the fear.”

  “You were afraid?” Sherry asked.

  “You bet I was,” Robert answered. “I came from a pretty sheltered existence, and the shock was pretty hard. I’d heard that drill instructors were special Red-tail agents, and seeing mine that night seemed to confirm it.”

  The conversation lapsed while they contemplated their own experiences. Agnes finally broke the silence.

  “So, how much longer can you folks stay?”

  “If you’ll have us, we’re going to wait until Robert is u
p and around,” Jake answered.

  “Hey!” said Robert indignantly. “I can get around fine now.”

  “Sure you can,” Jake said. “Shall I tell the girls what happened when you tried to swing down that bale of hay last evening?”

  “Just because my leg is a little stiff…”

  “We’ll be glad to have you stay for as long as you like,” Agnes said.

  “Won’t staying cause problems for your congregation?” Robert asked in an effort to direct the conversation away from himself.

  “Sure it will. And that’s exactly what my assistant needs.” Sherry stifled a laugh at the thought.

  “He needs a challenge to strengthen him. When the pastor is gone, trouble comes out of the woodwork. I’m not too worried.”

  “Then it’s settled,” Agnes said. “I wasn’t quite ready to let Sherry go home yet anyway.”

  ∞∞∞

  The thought that he had dropped into a different universe crossed Delmar’s mind. After leaving the enlistment center, a transport bus delivered the new recruits directly to the space field where they were loaded onto an Axia transport ship and blasted into space.

  The trooper-third remained with them and was already disabusing them of the notion that this was a pleasure flight. He ordered them to stow their bags in a set of lockers, and before the ship broke orbit, they were getting their first lesson on the intricacies of a mop and pail. Delmar was glad for his “training” aboard the Malibu and realized that Cargo Master Preston had certainly been a trooper at one time. The mopping technique that the trooper-third showed them and Preston’s were identical.

  The hours passed and Delmar was surprised when the trooper-third called them to stow their equipment and form ranks. After everyone was in line, he marched them to the lower mess for a hasty midday meal. The food was better than on the freighter but they had less time in which to enjoy it. “Eat now and taste it later,” the trooper-third ordered.