The pilot's voice sounded over the intercom: ‘Repressurization complete. Hatch opening in fifteen seconds.’
The men got up from their seats and made their way towards the ship's exit. There was a small scuffle as the hatch opened. Each man was just a little too eager to get out of the damp passenger bay and out of their suits. The sergeant bellowed out for the men to behave. Voss couldn't blame them though. The return flight had felt like it lasted forever. Their minds forced to mull over the significance of all the horrors they had witnessed. They had been forced to sit idle and ruminate for hours, pressed uncomfortably into their seats by the high gravitational force caused by the ship’s acceleration and deceleration.
The opening hatch revealed a small welcome committee awaiting them in an otherwise empty docking bay. On closer inspection it turned out to be lieutenant Ida accompanied by a cleaning crew. An underwhelming reception considering today’s significance and everything they had just gone through. Voss couldn’t say it surprised him though. If today had taught the recruits anything, it was that a life in the Fifth was one without glamor. An existence stuck in the shadows, doing the dirty work. The cleaning crew brushed past them as they exited. Tired, dirtied faces betrayed that life on board of the spaceport could be as unforgiving as a life in the void.
Ida seemed pleased though and unbothered by the negativity he was surrounded by. ‘Congratulations men. You’re agents of the Fifth now. I got your berets with me. Collect them as you pass. One per man please. I know how eager you are to get these’. He said with a wink. The men duly did as they were told. Voss took a look at his beret when he picked it up. It was black and it bore a silver insignia of a world with wings. It was the same as the one the lieutenant had worn when she had first interrogated him. He remembered staring at her beret when she proposed he'd join the Fifth. Now he finally had his own and the real work could start.
They continued to a small, narrow locker room where they were finally allow to take the suits off, shower, and put on their new black fatigues. The sergeant disappeared and re-entered the locker room shortly after. Most of the men hadn't even finished taking their showers yet, but the sergeant was already wearing his full black uniform. His pockmarked face was shaven and all cleaned up. Nothing gave away that he had been awake and stuck inside a sweaty suit inside a humid void ship for over a day.
‘Well I’ll be damned.’ Wago blurted out. Why did you never teach us how to do that, sarge? I wish I could go from sweaty pig to clean as a bristle in under a minute.’
‘You could give the sergeant a lifetime and he still couldn’t turn you in anything other than a sweaty pig.’ Jabs interjected.
The sergeant laughed loudly, but his face didn’t join in on the fun. It was the first time Voss realized that the sergeant’s pockmarks weren’t a remnant of a bad case of acne, they were the left overs from some poorly healed, horrible disfiguration that had left his face partially paralyzed. Voss felt like a fool for never noticing this before, it seemed so obvious now that he saw it. Whatever happened to the sergeant must have been horrendous, but after what Voss had witnessed today, he didn’t care ask what had occurred.
The sergeant addressed the room. ‘I’ve signalled the mess to arrange a little party for you sorry lot. There’s even some alcohol. I know you might not feel like partying, men, but try to enjoy it. This will be your final night as a group. Tomorrow you all go your separate ways. You’ll be assigned tomorrow and put to work.’
‘You hear that, lads?’ Wago hollered ‘Time to get sloppy drunk and become emotional about our final night together!’
It was situations like these when Wago was most in his element. That man had the ability to cheer up any man, no matter the circumstances. Even Voss felt his worries melt away, for now.
The men all cheered loudly and made their way towards the exit. Voss was the last to leave the room and when he walked past the sergeant, the sergeant grabbed him by the arm. ‘Not you, Voss. You stay with me.’ He whispered. The other recruits, nay agents, in all their rowdiness, were so fixated on the prospect of music and alcohol that none noticed that they were one man short. Voss heard their excited voices fade away in the distance. His jubilant mood was short lived as he realized there would be no farewell party for him. He reluctantly followed the sergeant into the other direction. Would he ever get to see any of his fellow recruits again? He doubted it.
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The sergeant led him to a large launch bay. Voss felt his jaw drop as they entered. Inside was a voidship unlike anything he had ever seen. Its hull was shiny silver and shaped like a droplet with a long, sharp tail. It was the smoothest hull he had ever seen on any ship. Nothing stuck out, no nooks or crevices were visible. It looked so sharp that it could make dirt feel embarrassed to even go near it. He guessed it to be around seventy meters long and around twenty meters in circumference at its widest point. Its engines were hidden within its hull, indicating that this wasn’t just a void vessel. It had land to space capabilities too. It was unlike anything he had ever seen used by the Fosfatian government or its corporations. In fact, it was the first time ever he had seen a ship that wasn’t a clunky and utilitarian mess. Fosfatian designs all looked like unwieldy containers, built to be cheap and durable. This ship was nothing like that. It looked sleek, sexy and most importantly: fast, very fast.
In front of the ship’s entrance stood four people. Two faceless guards in their drab uniforms; The captain, who looked as distinguished yet unremarkable as ever; and a short, slim woman in tight, outlandish, dark purple clothes with golden elements. It was an outfit as alien to him as the ship was. For a minute he thought she must have been some outer planet merchant, hired to transport him and the lieutenant towards some foreign destination, but as Voss got closer to the ship, he realized it was the lieutenant that had been dressed like that.
Rarely had he seen such a mismatch between an outfit and its wearer. Her suit was sultry. It accentuated her feminine forms by being tight in all her feminine places. It had carefully crafted holes on both her arms, legs, her stomach and her back, designed to show just enough skin to be enticing without appearing cheap or trashy. He could tell from a distance that it had been made from the most expensive of fabrics. It was the kind of garment you’d expect a high level courtesan to wear. One that was on a mission to seduce powerful men to do her bidding. The lieutenant on the other hand, looked like a defeated child that had been dragged into a dentist’s office to have her molars removed. She stood slouching forward with a pained, feeble look on her face. It was obvious she’d rather be anywhere else than here, and the outfit probably didn’t help either. Looking at her dressed in that costume caused a whole bag of mixed emotions to stir inside him. It definitely didn’t help either that he was still mad at her for the lies and trickery she had tried to pull off with him.
The captain spoke: ‘Welcome, private Voss.’ He placed extra emphasis on the word "private". ‘Heartily congratulations are in order here. We were all most pleased when we heard the news of your successful graduation, especially the lieutenant.’. The captain glimpsed over at the lieutenant as he mentioned her. Voss could see that there was no love lost between those two, the captain had a rather disdainful look on his face as his eyes gazed over her face and body. If it hadn’t been for the extraordinary ship they were being sent off in, Voss would have guessed they were being send away on a suicide mission. Something highly lethal at a far away location, ensuring they’d never come back. Just two expendable assets lost to the void. A ship like this though... such a ship was anything but expendable, and would never be wasted. He couldn’t even fathom why it had been given to them for this mission. It looked like something the highest imperial agents would travel around with.
The captain continued: ‘Alas, there is no time for celebrations. You have been assigned to a mission of utmost importance and utmost haste. I am afraid you are to hand in your new uniform as soon as you received it. Don’t worry though, the sergeant will keep it safe for you until your return. This is a covert mission that you will be sent on. There will be nothing allowed aboard this ship that could link you to Fosfat or our organization. Hence the, dare I say, exquisite manner in which our dear lieutenant is dressed.’
One of the faceless guards stepped forward holding a plastic bag. Voss undressed himself until he was in his underpants and took the bag. Inside were purple clothes similar to the ones the lieutenant was wearing.
The captain smirked. ‘Looks like it’s not just your face that is scarred, private. You must have had quite a rowdy past.’
‘I’d illuminate you about my past, captain, but I’ve already received plenty of scars on my back by your doing, so I’ll refrain.’
The captain let out a hearty laugh. ‘Ha, so it seems, very well. The lieutenant has all the details of your mission. She’ll take it from here. Good luck on your first mission, private. Please take care of our ship for me, she’s most valuable. Now, if you excuse me, I have a graduation party I need to attend, and I’d like to arrive there before the inevitable deterioration into disorderly and inappropriate conduct unfolds.
The captain signalled for the sergeant to follow him, and together with the faceless guards, they got on their way. Voss and the lieutenant gave each other a cold nod and she jerked her head, indicating for him to follow her aboard the ship. Walking behind the woman he most hated, wearing the sexiest outfit he had ever seen, he could feel a whole string of thoughts pop up inside his head, none of them were good.
He felt amused by the oddity of the situation. Here he was, about to go on his first mission. One that by all accounts seemed highly important and was likely to be hazardous. Yet here he was, stuck in his underpants with no clue as to what was going on. He chuckled to himself as he entered the ship via its carpeted gangway. In front of him was the woman he hated most, but who in her current dress, also looked like one of the most attractive women he had ever laid his eyes upon. He had never really thought of her as a woman before. Her uniform had done wonders in hiding her sensuality. Up till today, the thought of the lieutenant being a sexual being had been absurd to him, but now, with her hips swaying in that concubine garb of hers, that thought suddenly didn't feel odd anymore. A thought that did little to assuage his general state of bewilderment.
There was one thing he did know though. He was now finally alone with the lieutenant and freed from the Fifth’s watchful gaze. This was his reward for all the hardships he had endured in the past month. The goal that he had been working towards. The thing that had kept him going when he had been at his lowest. The time had now finally come for him to make his move and set things in motion...