"Stand by for docking. We are go for docking." I continued gaping at the incredible scene outside. I could no longer see Eugarat – just that lovely ship, as we glided closer and closer, in a silent glorious ballet of blinding starlight and inky shadows. Closer and closer, settling right into the docking port.
"Capture. Docking confirmed, all seals confirm secure. Stand by for ship grav." The shuttle shuddered briefly, then stilled. Several warning chimes dinged.
"Activating ship grav. Stand by and secure any loose gear." Gravity returned and we settled gently into our seats. My field cap fell lightly to the deck from wherever it had been floating. My balance center began to reorient itself. My stomach still felt kind of queasy. The Hot Drop's artificial gravity had just been switched on, to assist us in getting up and moving into the Dark Lady.
"Man. Why didn't they do that before?" Arie objected.
"All right, bodies. Listen up," our squad leader instructed us. He did not appear to be any older than we were. "Follow me into the ship. When we enter the personnel portal, we will lose the shuttle's artificial gravity just before we enter the field of the starship's grav. Just make sure you keep at least one hand on the guide rails or you may lose your balance and float away, or fall and break your head. I'd hate for anything like that to happen because it would look bad on my record. All right, release your restraints, step into the aisle and follow me in an orderly manner. If possible. Squad, stand! Heel!"
I remembered from science class they had once tried to explain to us how a ship's artificial gravity system worked, but I never understood the explanation. I do remember that they said if science could figure out how to use AG to propel a starship it would revolutionize galactic transportation and communications. But they hadn't been able to do it. Starships used antimat drive and artificially enlarged quantum wormholes and they worked just fine so I didn’t see why they would need another method of star travel. But what do I know?
We filed into the starship along the personnel portal and it wasn't so bad. I got a little dizzy near the center of the portal as we lost the grav but we regained it quickly. Our leader marched us under the open entry hatch topped by a heraldic shield that proclaimed CS DARK LADY * TS-86, depicting a sultry, captivating, scantily-clad female with long, flowing black hair. A couple of Fleetcom folks, clad in black, manned a com station at the entry gate but ignored us as we marched past. I was so ignorant at that point that I didn't know if they were officers or real people.
We marched along a wide, spotless corridor with a glowing ceiling. I was getting used to the ship grav. It seemed a little heavy to me, but what did I know? We soon found ourselves in a spacious entry hall that intersected with several other corridors. Our minders guided us past a counter manned by two more Fleetcom types, evidently clerks, monitoring some d-screens. As we approached the counter, the line slowed down. When I got there a low, musical tone pinged soothingly, a d-screen instantly filled with data and then glowed green. One of the clerks read the data, extracted a little ID card from a slot below the d-screen, and slid it over the counter to me.
"Rains?" he asked.
"That's me."
"Place this ID over your suit ID button and don't ever be without it. If you lose it, you will be instantly detained. See your super for further info. Next."
I moved on and examined the new ID. Under the heading TS86 Dark Lady, the little metal card identified me as Rains, Richard, classified me as PERS CARGO and provided a long Legion serial number. There was no pix. I placed it over the little gold ID button on my tunic and it affixed itself there.
"So we're cargo," Arie said, fooling with his new ID. "Is that good or bad?"
"I think it's good. If we're cargo, maybe we won't have any duties and we get to relax."
"I wonder if they feed pers cargo."
"All right, bodies. Heel! Second squad, follow me!" He still hadn't given us a name. We followed, shuffling along another corridor, then into a wide personnel elevator. It shot down abruptly and then snapped open in the midst of a row of other elevators lining a wall along a wide corridor. We followed our minder along to a grand foyer with a dizzying view of both upper and lower levels. Random crew members bustled past us as if they had something to do. We paused by a balustraded marble railing and I could see up several levels. Richly carpeted personnel staircases wound up and down. Fleetcom was not into luxury but the overall effect was satisfying – clean, functional, and Spartan. I don’t suppose it was real marble, but a damned good imitation.
"This is Deck 15A, Midships," our leader told us. "Your quarters are in Pers Cargo Hold 33. Remember it. Now pay attention and follow me. On a starship you walk on greensides." We followed along another corridor, evidently into the heart of the ship. Little green lights dotted the wall from time to time on our left side. An unmanned cargo pallet shot past on my right, almost hitting me. That wall had little red lights. Walk on greensides. Fine.
"All right, this is it. Cargo Hold 33." We entered a little alcove that led to a narrow corridor with closed bunk beds sealed into the wall, three high. Further down the corridor another squad was milling around.
"Time for introductions. I am Trooper Two One of Eugarat Temporary Training Squad Two. I am responsible for watching over you rejects until I can deliver you all to Providence, where you will become someone else's problem. On the table there, in the bin marked with the numeral two, you will see a pile of comsets. Take one. They are set to our squad freq and only our squad freq. I am Two One on the net. Do not bother me unless it is important. The comset has a map of the ship, shows where your mess hall is, and shows where you can go and where you cannot go. I would prefer that you sit on your bunks for the whole voyage, but you don't have to. Just keep your ID and comsets on, stay out of everybody's way, don't talk to officers, and stay out of trouble. You have no duties, but that can be changed if you prove troublesome. Any questions? Good!" He turned to leave.
"Sir! Sir! I have a question." One of our squadies was waving his hand urgently. Oh no, I thought. Trooper Two One paused, glaring at him.
"What." The word reeked with annoyance.
"Um, how long will the voyage last?"
"You will be notified when we arrive." And he turned on his heel and departed.
Δ
"It's nice to know our CO is so concerned with our welfare," Arie said. We were seated in one of the mess halls, stuffing our faces. It had been a long day, we were starved, and the food was absolutely delicious. They had separate tables there, the place was spotless, and we were very happy.
"Yeah, he's a gem, isn't he?" I replied. "Concerned, sensitive, eager to please, always upbeat and considerate. You know you can go to him with your personal problems, right?"
"Better keep your voice down, or you'll be cleaning toilets," Arie grinned. The mess hall was getting crowded as most of our ten squads had found their way here. What a day! I took another sip of dox. Hot and steamy, foaming, tingling. Heaven!
"I told you things were going to get better, didn't I?" I said. "Forget him. This food is amazing."
"Is he an officer, or what?"
"I don't think so. He's a new guy. Doesn't look like he even has a war name yet. He's been in awhile, been through all the initial training and now he's just waiting for a real assignment."
"How do you know that?" Arie asked.
"I think that's how it works. He's not from Eugarat, I can tell you that. He's assigned to the Dark Lady."
"Yeah, sounds like he used to work with dogs, not people."
"Well, he needs a name. Let's call him Doggie."
"Fine by me."
"STAND BY FOR VAC RUN RED," a metallic female voice advised calmly but loudly. "DUTY CREW TO STARDRIVE STATIONS. STARSEAL ALL PORTS AND HATCHES. PREP FOR ENTRY. COUNTDOWN UNDERWAY." A musical tone sounded once, twice, and continued.
"What in the world is that?" Arie asked in alarm. "What do we have to do?"
"Relax," I said. "The vacheads are continuing with their meals. It's o
nly our guys who are looking around uneasily."
"What's a vachead?"
"A vachead is a Fleetcom guy. I heard one of our squad leaders using the term. We're boots, they're vacheads." The musical tone continued beeping away.
"All right, but what's vac run red?" Arie asked.
"It means we're about to power into stardrive. Didn't you study any of this stuff in science class? Even I know that, and I'm no scientist."
"I hated science," Arie admitted.
"I didn't like it much either," I replied. "Maybe that's why we're boots and they're vacheads."
"GREEN FOR LAUNCH. LAUNCH UNDERWAY. LAUNCH SUCCESSFUL. CRUISING VAC RUN RED. DUTY CREW REPORT STATUS. SECURE FROM LAUNCH." An almost imperceptible shudder rippled through my body. A strange, faint pressure built inside my head. The musical tones sounded again, then stopped.
"Man, that was quick. Are we in stardrive yet?" Arie asked, his dox cup poised halfway to his mouth.
"Yeah, I think so. Feels kind of…funny."
"Feels all right to me," Arie replied, looking around in surprise. The vacheads had not paid any attention to the announcements. I knew extended stardrive was unpleasant for many individuals, and painful to some. I sure hoped it would not give me any nasty side effects. The artificial wormhole that cocooned around our ship generated tremendous forces, positive and negative pressure that could rip us to atoms if anything went wrong. The technology that formed and held open the wormhole also shielded the ship and everyone inside, but with all those cosmic forces rippling around our ship it was not surprising that some people got bad headaches or blurred vision.
It was a small price to pay for being able to travel around the galaxy like gods.
Δ
"I got the sked," Arie announced. We were in the cargo lounge, sitting at a small table, experimenting with our comsets. The lounge was crowded, mostly with cargo vacheads. Some of them were diligently studying plastic textbooks – maybe cramming for exams, I thought.
There was a whole lot of info in our comsets about the Bold Lady. "Here we are," Arie continued, peering into his little comset screen. "Current Jump. Destination System Veltros. A bunch of stats about the jump. It's 6.2 light years from Eugarat. Wow."
"Practically in our back yard," I said. "So when do we get there?"
"Let's see…ETA 379/06/11 at 1306 ship's time."
"That's…day eleven? That's tomorrow."
"Oh! I was expecting a longer trip."
"Well, it is just next door, still in the Crista Cluster," I said. "Of course, star jumps don't always work out that way. Sometimes a jump to a star hundreds of light years away turns out to be faster than to a closer star."
"You'd better shut down those comments or they may make you an officer, and I'll never see you again."
"I think your earlier prediction about me cleaning toilets is more likely."
"Well, in that case, I'll probably be right at your side. You must have been a good student. Did you do a major in middle school?"
"I majored in girls, and minored in being a wise-ass. It's why I'm here."
"That's funny, I majored in girls, too. And minored in contact. And the girl part is why I'm here."
"Fellow souls in Purgatory," I said, offering my fist. He tapped it with his. "What are we doing next?"
"Well, I'm not sure. I mostly wanted to see the view, but with all the viewports sealed for stardrive, that's out."
"They've got a neat chart of our route here on the com. Take a look." I slid my comset over to him. The full-color route chart depicted our star jump as a golden line slicing through an inky background dotted with glowing blue-white stars. The more prominent Crista Cluster stars and associated nebulae were labeled in red text, and a text box to one side contained the voyage stats.
"Sarana, Lotus and Marala are all closer than Veltros in space-time, according to this," I said. "You've never been off-planet before, right?"
"No. Never."
"I wonder what planets we'll see – assuming we make it as soldiers of the Legion."
"There you go again. Off into the future. What do you think?"
"I think it'll be wonderful," I said, softly. I was overwhelmed with strange visions. What would we see? Where would they send us? I remembered those eerie holos that lined the entry hall of the Legion Gate on Eugarat.
"Don't get too carried away, my friend," Arie said. "Remember we've got to get through training first. I heard there are a lot of drop-outs. What do you think will happen if we don't make it?"
"We're in the Legion for six years, no matter what. If we fail to make the grade as regular troopers, there's plenty of other work to do. The Legion has work for everyone. That's what they say."
"What kind of work?"
"Honest work. Cleaning latrines, maybe."
Arie laughed, and resumed scanning his comset. "This ship is like a small city," he said. "Command, Operations, Security, Engineering, Cargo, Supply…any place in particular you want to see?"
"Beats me. What else is there?"
"Communications, Medical, Science, Nav…galleys, gym, reactor…hmm. Here we go. Let's take a stroll. I've spotted something on the deck plans." He pocketed his comset, popped on his field cap, and headed for the doorway. I followed.
Δ
"Neat?" Arie asked. We were standing in a little alcove labeled SHIP'S STORE. It was full of all sorts of magical things we had never seen before. A young vachead sat silently behind a counter piled high with stardrive souvenirs, knick-knacks, candy and snacks, infodrives, newscans, toiletries and medication for stardrive symptom.
Arie held up a black silky shirt with the logo of the Dark Lady. It was spectacular. I found a black field hat, also with the Dark Lady logo. I had seen plenty of crew members wearing this hat. Oh no, I couldn't turn this one down.
"May I help you, gentlemen?" the vachead asked.
"How much for the hat?" I asked.
"It's beautiful, isn't it? It's free, but you have to sign up for six years in Fleetcom."
Arie burst out laughing. I just stood there like an idiot.
"Only kidding!" the vachead said, smiling. "It's five credits, and you don't have to sign up for Fleetcom. Unless you want to do it the hard way."
"I think I'll just pay the five credits," I said. Good one, I thought. He got me on that one.
"Are you gentlemen new Legion recruits?"
"That we are."
"Well, good luck to you. Everyone admires the Legion, you know. Even we vacheads. We're all on the same team, boots and vacheads. No matter what."
"Well, thank you," I said. He seems quite serious, I thought.
Δ
"What was that all about?" Arie asked me as we walked away from the Ship's Store. He had bought the Dark Lady shirt.
"I don't know. I guess he knows joining the Legion is serious business. Life and death stuff. That's what it sounded like."
"Wonderful. Well, we'll find out tomorrow, won't we?"
"Yeah. That's affirmative."
"Hold it," Arie said. "What's this?" Two lovely little honeys were approaching us along the corridor. They appeared to be in their mid-teens. One was a bit taller than the other, slim and sensual, honey-colored hair to her shoulders, dazzling naked legs, all sweet innocence. The other was a strawberry blonde, shorter hair, exquisite petite features, lightly freckled, long shapely legs, arm in arm with her companion. They were visions from heaven, clad only in two-piece swim suits that left little to the imagination. They were carrying towels and wore sandals and stylish sunglasses. Thank you, God!
And thanks for the greensides rule – they were almost on us now, peering curiously through their sunglasses.
"Hello!" I said, smiling. "Um, going swimming?"
"Yes," the taller one answered. "What was your first clue?" It was turning ugly fast.
The petite blonde lifted up her sunglasses to see us better. "What are those uniforms?" she asked.
"We're Legion soldiers," Arie said, brightly. "Do th
ey have a swimming pool on this ship?"
"No, we're using a bathtub," Honeyhair replied. She was not making it easy.
"Legion soldiers! Wow!" the little blonde exclaimed. "I've never seen uniforms like those before." She was still gently clinging to her lovely companion, holding onto one arm, her other arm draped around Honeyhair's waist. Somehow it seemed overwhelmingly erotic.
"We're volunteers," Arie said. "We're headed for Providence basic training on Veltros."
"You volunteered? Wow, that's crazy!" Blondie exclaimed. "Aren't you afraid of getting killed?"
"Sure we are," I said. "But we volunteered anyway."
"Why?" Honeyhair asked. It sounded like a challenge.
"We volunteered." I replied, "so that you two honeys can go to the pool in peace without being enslaved by Systies or eaten by Omnis. That's why." It shut her down for a few fracs.
"Can you show us where the pool is?" Arie cut in. "We want to go swimming, too."
"There's not enough room in the tub for four," Honeyhair said, trying to recover. She appeared to be exquisitely bored.
"Just follow us," Blondie said. "And don’t mind Sheila. She loves you already, I can tell. Do you have a pool pass?"
"A pool pass! Uh…no."
"They won't let you in without a pool pass. Just ask your Super, he'll give you one. See you there!" And they moved on. Damn it!
Arie was on his comset instantly. "Pool…pool…" he muttered. "Here it is! Off limits. Off limits! The whole area is off limits to us. Damn it!"
"Just ask your Super. Somehow I don't think that will work."
"Well, if we try to get in without a pass, they'll detain us and we'll spend the rest of the trip cleaning toilets. Right?"
"I'm afraid you're right."
"All right, all right. We wait until the pool closes and ambush them outside."
Prophet of ConFree (The Prophet of ConFree) Page 4
