FTL-27... Faster Than Life.

*Before…

“I’ll be in the office Stone in heavy link you run the floor while I’m out.”
“Yessir.”

He heads into the office for the duty officer it’s just a glassed in sort of cubicle that they use to do other work and to do other things when things are running smoothly and when things need to be private.
I sit into his on deck chair and I link into the command computer link and I send two off to break and call two of my other co-cadets in that have been doing the same thing to spot us and then I’m getting orders for a recall of all of our ships personnel and to help direct them with the docking and then there’s orders for us to send out more drones out to our best operational limits and to pass on any oddities on scan to the bridge and to the weapons crews and the flight decks.
There are possible stragglers out there and we’re to keep all “eyes” peeled looking for any that might show up.
I have a bad feeling about all of this and we’re looking like we’re very possibly heading out of the system.
Which that might mean there might be more fighting headed this way.
I look out at space in the direction our combat ships are heading in from and I take a breath.
Those beetle tekker things are short range, no FTL and they took that freighter cluster which just really adds up to me that they have a ship out there.

Or more and that they might be headed this way.

*And Now…

There’s times to be right and there’s times to really hate being right.

My stint in the temporary command chair actually left me there all the way into the next duty shift when Lt. Wilson showed up and she was not on the schedule for duty it was the actual commander’s turn but he wasn’t showing.

And there was still heavy link going on with the other Lt. which said there’s a lot of other stuff going on and I look to Lt. Wilson. “Should I stay here and pull my shift ma’am?’

“Ordinarily I’d say yes as a means of pushing you Stone but you’re a good hand with things I’d rather have you rested.’

I give up the chair and my status goes back to normal and I give her a salute and she dismisses us after each of us have our replacements going and I head first to the showers to get cleaned up before I hit the quarters.

It’s one of those times when my brain is not shutting off only its sort if still in Operations mode. I’m sort of thinking about the stuff that I’ve been seeing and what might be going on and what might be coming and then it just wondering what will be going on and what the situation is for The Zodes and what our fleet will be doing if anything or what The Zodes can do if anything and then there’s The Tekker’s and even The Abby’s and all of those things and the most frustrating thing there is to it that I have no clue what’s going on really.

And I shouldn’t obsess over things that are way beyond me.

But I guess this is what Sense-nav people are like we’re fast brained and multi-tracked and we crave information.

I smile at the whole parallel in my head with the fact that I crave information and therefore I’m kind of nosy and yet for most of my life I’ve been very much the introvert.

That has sort of changed too and sort of not.

You never really stop being an introverted person but there’s a big difference between being outgoing and everything and doing things that you have to do.

I am wondering if there’s some research link between people like myself and being transgendered and withdrawing away from the world and other things.

I wonder how much was me not being myself all of my life and how that shaped my everyday because Erin’s life is more open and different than it used to be before all of this.

I get changed into just another variation of what I was wearing before I was called up and I stow my emergency gear in my bag and I head for the mess lines and there’s the usual crowds of people and I see my friends or rather my roommates and I wave and do a fist nod to them and I get into line and I get some chow.

I’m not even feeling fussy enough to splurge on the credits from the basic stuff offered so I get synth-meat cutlets with roasty soy gravy sauce and then there’s the potatoes that are sort of semi-solid amalgam and then there’s the veggies of the day and I have no idea what they are but I get some of those and put pepper on the food and some sim-onion flake that are sort of a protein flake that has onion flavor in it like a cooked onion and I get a large bottle of water and a soy-choco-shake in a can.

I head over and I sit with the others and smile and look at Carrington who makes room for me.

“How’s things in your divisions?”

Carrington looks at me and swallows some pasta strands. “Busy, we’re in orbit and there’s so much going on we’ve sent out drones to boost the colony’s sat traffic com abilities so the network doesn’t collapse in on itself.”

I nod and start eating some of mine. “There’s a lot going on and things might get heavy out further in the systems and people are panicking.”

There’s some nods all around the table with that.

Jesika says. “I caught some bits of the com traffic and we’re going to be seeing some more warships for certain.”

Nelle asks. “We’re not going inta battle are we?”

Anna shakes her head. “No, The Apollo’s a cadet training ship we’re able but really we’re pretty damned close to being a decommissioned flagship.”

Now Jesika is actually training in communications and Nelle’s switched her focus from being in astrometrics like me and Sense-nav sense we did the escape pod trial to going over to medical training and Anna’s still in her ships arms classes.

Anna’s going to be one of those people that works with ships weapons and shields and the like so she is really up on some of the things for our ship.

I look at her. “We’re really that bad?”

She plays with some synth potato on her fork. “We’re not bad it’s just we’re old and we’re slow The Apollo’s a big bunch of mass and we’re good for armor and the like but really when you compare us to the current in like ships we’re a fossil, we’re a fossil with a bare minimum of fighters and we are carrying no heavy escorts with us because we’re all shuttles and cargo instead.”

Sunshine comes to join us and she sits and she’s sort of smiling and sort of not. I mean she’s usually pleasant in the extreme being one of the lovelies on the companion track MOs but she’s actually kind of serious too.

“We’re going to be holding back lines and supporting some of the other fleet ships and we might just be getting some heavy orders to help with the evacuation of some of the places if things get really bad.”

Jesika says. “But we’re a training ship we’re not ready for stuff like this.”

I shake my head. “We’re two kilometers long and we have lots of excess space here and even if we’re a training ship we have room and the biggest factor of us being right here already.”

Sunshine smiles. “Well then I think it might turn out all good anyways I mean we have you here Erin so that’s a serious bonus.’

I blush and shake my head. “I’m just keeping things in mind.”

Sunshine beams at me. “And you’re the girl that was giving Sergeant Svenko all those questions and stuff when we were all like pre-converted and things and you’re well thought of.”

I eat some of the soy-meat shoving it my mouth.

Anna looks at me and she makes that sort of a micro-pout. “Actually yeah Erin you’re kind of a mini celebrity even where I’m at people are like talking about the stuff you do especially that latest thing with you doing that whole like nine drone dance.”

The girls ask Anna what she’s talking about and she starts telling her what I figured out and the things that I did in like detail with the whole fight and everything with the Tekker-bugs.

She actually says it like she’s read my reports or a copy of it or something.

I swallow and look at her. “You read that?”

She says. “I read it after I kept hearing about it then things’ making the rounds in some of the tactical sim-theory rooms.”

I take a drink.

“I didn’t mean to step on any toes or anything.”

She stares at me like I just crashed a shuttle trying to park it. “Don’t be stupid Erin, it’s a good thing without you doing what you do in Sense-nav we don’t stand a chance of fighting y’know that right? If we can’t see things then we can’t hit things and that’s kind of important when you’re running a Strayser.”

A Strayser is a strobe laser or what some call a pulse weapon and it’s a multi lensed laser turret, I’m not too sure how they work but I am surprised that Anna was firing one.

“You were on guns?”

She nods and she almost smiles. “It made a difference; seriously we had a great kill-ratio.”

“Oh okay, well good.”

And Sunshine looks at her and me and then she says. “What Erin means is frikking cool you were on Strayser. And what she meant before all of that Anna is that you’re like so uptight and closed off that people don’t know if you’re like pissed off or offended by something or not.”

Anna rolls her eyes in one of the most expressive gestures I’ve ever seen her do and says. “Look, I didn’t get converted to be all about the girl-drama and stuff I did it to be myself.”

Jesika says. “Really? I mean you’re well moded into being incredibly beautiful that’s being yourself? I mean like no judgements I did it too and I really, really wanted to look like this and everything.”

Carrington actually says sipping her coffee. “Pretty much all of us except for Erin who went for like minimum conversion.”

Anna just sort of glares at us. “And do you see me flaunt it? Do you see me fraternize? No I’m just me.”

And she takes a breath and she opens a share file to our OBC’s and it’s a picture of the prettiest guy that I have ever seen. I mean he’s a he but at the same time he’s almost not and he’s pretty but in that Japanese-sim-boy on boy pretty fetish way.

“Erin’s not the only straight over conversion.”

There’s a bunch of “Oh wows.”

I look at her. “Ouch.”

She raises her eyebrows. “Ouch?”

“You were really close but still really light years away.”

She nods. “Exactly…and no one ever got that and people still don’t get it and I get constant shit for being moded when I’m not.”

Some of the girls started nodding too and quieted down until Sunshine perks up some more. “I’m getting moded again. I’m getting my breasts done.”

I stare at her and she already has really big breasts.

“You want bigger?”

“Naw they’re good that way I’m getting a nerve tweak so they’re more sexually sensitive.”

I stare at her. “Why?”

“Because I’m going full companion once we get to Grail and I’m actually nowhere near as sensitive as some of the other girls and I want to be. Getting off is an important part of moral.”

Anna snorts.

Okay her doing that made me smile some.

But Sunshine just grins and takes it. “No seriously if we can get off with a partner better and they can bring us to a big happy O then that makes them feel better too. It’s got lots of papers backing it all.”

Jesika shakes her head. “I like sex but that’s just too far for me.”

Sunshine shakes her head. “Sex is like just, just a really small part of it. I mean there’s a whole bunch of skills we learn plus psyche and counselling and some medical stuff and we even do like a nursing rotation to help out and learn how to be supporting staff there too, everywhere actually.”

I nod. “I think that you’ll be great at it.”

She smiles and perks up where she’s sitting enough and on purpose too to make her breasts bounce in that almost cliché way and in that way too perky way and that actually works, we all sort of laugh a little and smile a little.

And thinking on it the whole mood of the table’s pretty well diffused from everything.

I look at her and she looks at me and she knows that I know and she smiles and eats some of her food then she says.

“I hear you want to throw a party?”

The girls are looking at me.

I look at them. “I want to throw a dinner, like a feast kind of thing like ancient soldiers used to throw for their units and I kind of wanted to do it before we’re off the ship and on Grail. Sort of a last ships meal.”

Nelle grins. “I think that that’d be lovely, what are we having?”

I shrug. “I have some things in my stores and such and with the staff here I was just going to try and go for a meal without anything synth made.”

Carrington says. “Maybe we should have this sooner, I mean with everything that might happen and all we might be too busy to get together.”

I nod.

Honestly Care’s the closest thing to a close friend that I have and it does make sense really before we’re swamped with work or refugees or anything else.

“Okay, as soon as I can get things together I’ll post to our private message space and let you all know okay?’

We break after that and I go to the gun range and I go through a few of the different handgun types we use and then the carbine and a heavier rifle used by the infantry forces. It’s a lot bigger and it’s what they call an eleven long and that’s an eleven millimetre long shell with a liquid to gas compression cylinder inside the rifle for caseless firing and it kicks really hard with the recoil it has and it takes time to get used to it.

It has really thick wide slugs and it’s really bad at it but I keep going until I can at least get my rating percentage up with it. I even switch out shoulders when one gets tired and I’m getting looks.

The Gunny comes over and that’s slang for Gunnery Sergeant and he’s fairly young looking with a bit of a scruff going and sandy blonde hair and he’s watching me and he’s linked in and I can feel him rating me.

“Who taught you that Ensign?”

“No one Gunny.” I’m not siring him it’s not allowed either and Gunny is acceptable usually in these kinds of situations.

He doesn’t seem to mind me saying it either.

“You’re doing this on your own?”

“My shoulder was getting sore Gunny.”

“Well that’s a good reason seeing as you’re not a combat MOS…oh…well you have an interesting file here Stone.”

“If you say so Gunny.” I’m getting red faced though. My file is one thing but to get interesting tagged to it and to me is another.

He looks at me. “You’ve actually logged a good number of range hours here Ensign in your off time, why’s that?”

I reload and switch out shoulders again. “After the tekker thing I needed to know more and be better of at least better enough to survive.”

“That was a Hunter killer drone Stone even this eleven would barely piss it off.”

I stop and I look at him my mouth dry.

“What would then.”

“Hand held?”

I swallow and nod.

“Explosives, a shape charge or a directional explosive disk. Maybe an eleven with high explosive rounds but you’ll never be cleared for those off of a ship.”

“So, I’m screwed.”

He laughs and shakes his head. “No…well yeah. Now those bugs on the other hand we’ve had tactical look them over and they’re flying bombs with guns and a drive their armored really light and those, those you can take down so keep practicing Stone.”

“Yes Gunny.”

“And Stone?”

“Yes Gunny?”

“Keep up the switching but just be sure to get your primary up first and foremost you’ll rely on that the most and spend more time on your side arm you’re ship crew if you’re going to be shooting then most of the time it’ll be in close quarters.”

“Yes Gunny.’

He leaves to actually go and yell at someone to “Get your damned ear protection on!”

Part of it is being on edge me doing this but part of me just wants to do something before going to bunk out. I did PT and I ate so I kind of wanted to just do something that wasn’t in my bunk or sitting down.

I switch down to the carbine and try a submachine gun and that’s hard to use it’s nothing like I’m used to and not enough like a handgun or and assault weapon and I work my way back to the sidearms doing about a clip each and then I take them back to the cage and head for bed.

My ratings are up, and those are hit to effective hit ratios and their small numbers but I did improve a little at least.

The Gunny added note to my file about my shoulder switching. I didn’t know that, it was like a thing but I guess being able to be flexible in situations helps right?

(Mental Shrug.)

I head to my bunk and do a little light OBC reading of stuff here in Zode space and for New Ithaca.

Morning comes fairly fast and it’s all the same with PT and then the range again and then Tae Budo and then food and shower and I’m into the seat for more Sense-nav training. Not a duty shift but just the course work and it’s a lot of big full sky stuff and traffic and controlling said traffic and computing vectors and then times and keeping track of those and then there some drill of us talking down some of our own cadets that are in the flight simulators and they have problems.

You know what got me today?

It was that no one else in class even bothered to use a remote. We have drones, other ships have drones and even some of the stuff the other cadets are flying have drones as part of their compliment.

I link to the closet one and slave it to my system and I fly it with these cadets and I visually guide them or I do that while I run a positional graphic adjustment for them and link the probe’s coms to their system so they can see.

I got looks some for that too.

That’s uncomfortable and I’m not used to having a bunch of people in my class group that are asking me how I came up with these things.

There might be some of this with the age difference, I’m not the only older person to sign up and start over but like in most cadet situations we’re looking at mostly the younger people being here.

Thankfully I had downtime after that and I hit the PT rooms and tried out some of the machines for different things and ended up on the cycle and going for a bike ride in sim.

And I had a decent bowl of plankton chowder/soup too while I was looking at some things for the supper meal and I even spent some credits ordering some things from the surface in the next supply run.

Cucumbers and something called red courgettes and some varied but good sounding greens and some sort of bug/sea thing called prawns.

Tap-link and zip….there was a whole mess of credits gone.

It’s sort of the same thing then next day too but instead of free time I am slotted for an actual duty shift and I get dressed into gear and head for Sense-Nav and start my shift and end my shift working civilian traffic and using the drones for a com-net still and it’d actually be boring as far as actual work and experience would go but the girls were right.

As much as we’re seeing all these civilian ships pulling in here from trade routes and other close by things and places like some of the mining belt mines just out system and then there’s other’s from like refueling stations and even some of the farther out lunar established places as people are fleeing.

Or getting evacced just in case.

But my sky has many more Colonial Union ships here in the in system directory and I have gotten to see some of them including The Colonial Ranger.

It’s a flagship too like The Apollo but it really isn’t.

Long but with top and bottom sleek beveled armor and it looks sleek and then there’s the grand tower of the bridge and then there’s these huge arms/bridging sections that come off of it and extend out to these pods and each of these pods is like casing and FTL protections for smaller combat warships that it’s carrying.

Like sixteen of them in the two kilometer length ready to detach and disengage at will and that’s not even coming close to the hundred plus meter middle strip of the ship between the plate that is literally turrets and weapons and landing and fighter bays.

You know you’re really becoming part of the military culture when you see something like that and you smile.

I smiled because we were so close we could amplify to visual and see it in detail.

Heck I didn’t know what I was seeing with everything until I heard the watch commander talking about it with definite reverence.

The sound of someone who served on something like that.

I want to serve maybe on something like that.