The alarm went off at 0400. Already wide-eyed, Casey hit the switch. Across the room, her roomie Sarah raised her head.

“Caboose, we just started Leave. What in bloody hell are you doing up at oh dark thirty?”. Casey frowned at her nickname, but decided to give it right back. What were friends for, after all.

“I don’t know how much I am allowed to say, Chuckles. My orders have been changed and my leave canceled.”

“Fuck, subs are hard enough to get into. They bounced you out to the surface fleet already?”

“Even worse, Sarah. Pentagon.”

“What do Ensigns even do in the Pentagon, get coffee for the first year and burn trash for the second?”

“Sounds about right. My ride will be here in an hour, try to get back to sleep.”

Casey was showered and dressed with about fifteen minutes to go. Throwing the last of her gear in her bag, she moved everything out into the hall. At ten to five, a runner came up from the duty desk.

“Good timing pleb. Help me get this stuff down to the car.”

On the way to the curb, they were met by a Lieutenant by the name of Anderson. After making sure everything was secure, Casey got in the SUV, only to have a cup of coffee shoved at her.

“So I work for Lt. Commander MacNeal.” Anderson informed her. “We are going to drop your bags off at a hotel and then go see some folks about your safety.”

It was close to seven when they managed to stop for food. They were joined at their table by a senior chief Petty officer.

“I have to get to work now, Ensign, but I leave you in the capable hands of Senior Chief Brown here. He will get you as squared away as he can in the next five days”. With that she took the bill to the front counter.

Casey turned her attention to the Senior Chief

“Five days isn’t much to work with, but your file shows your qualifications levels, and I think we’ll not get much improvement there. Our best bet is going to be to go over some water survival and self rescue techniques. I know a place we can go to practice.

And holy crap did they practice. But despite the seeming intentions of the Senior Chief and five days straight of practice, Casey failed to drown even once. As she sat in the shower in the hotel room she hadn’t seen all week, she heard a knock on the door.

“Ensign Trainor, if you fall asleep in that shower I am coming in there to fish you out.” She heard Lt. Anderson say. “You have time to take a nap in the car on the way up to New York, and we have a hotel up there waiting for you.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Casey mumbled as she fished herself out and began to towel off. The door cracked open enough for a hand to hold a clean uniform through.

“We’ll food-coma you through the car ride and get dinner at the hotel when we arrive. You probably need the calories at this point.”

Casey didn’t remember much after that. There was eating and sleeping in no specific order and before she knew it she was being shaken awake by a bright-eyed Lt. Anderson.

“We took all your uniforms to get laundered while you were out, so everything is clean now. Get up, get dressed, clock’s ticking.”

Another meal seemed to be what the doctor ordered. The next four hours were a whirlwind of people asking questions, updated briefings that could have been emails, and a more in depth physical than she ever had before, complete with an MRI.

By eleven o'clock she had been ushered through the security cordons around the big sphere floating silently in the air. It was centered in a field within all the taxiways to the East side of the airport. Waiting for her were several others in uniform, including Lt. Commander MacNeal. As she waited and watched dozens of people in uniforms she didn’t recognize arrived to wait with them all.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Before too long, the ship dipped again, enough for the lowering lift to reach the ground. Once again the robot stepped out. It was all smooth arms and legs, standing not quite six feet seven.

“Please remain in your groups so I can speak to you all in your own languages.” It broadcast loudly from concealed speakers on the ship above. Several more times it spoke, presumably repeating itself in as many different tongues.

As the voice continued to speak from above, the robot moved smoothly to speak with Casey’s group.

“Cathasaigh Ciara Saoirse Trainor. An arrangement of names not common in this geographical region.” It stated.

“My father was so Irish it was nearly awkwardly painful, but I prefer Casey. Less people here at home trip over their tongues trying to say it.”

“Well then, if you all…” it waved its arm to indicate the whole group “would follow me over to there…” it pointed to a distance down the field and started walking. Casey walked alongside, and MacNeal and Anderson followed neatly behind.

“You were told of the technology requirements?” It confirmed as it proceeded in its smooth gait.

“Yes.”

“And you understand that while you may as of now serve in your nation’s naval organization, once your people have the new multinational organization operational you would be expected to transfer to its service.”

“I understand that.”

“Then please wait here. Some of my daughters are waiting at your Kármán line, and will join us shortly.”

The robot walked off and back down to the next group. While they waited, Lt. Anderson brought the SUV over and unloaded Casey’s bags and a cooler with some bottles of water.

“See, this is why you still work for me, Anderson.” MacNeal joked. “Efficient anticipation of operational requirements”.

“That and my scathing sarcasm, sir.”

Casey, not being invited to participate, kept her mouth shut. After about 40 minutes everyone was in place. It wasn’t long after that before Casey noticed that all the planes in the airport had stopped moving. People started looking Southeast, and Anderson handed MacNeal a pair of binoculars.

“Yeah, that’s them.”

It took another two minutes, but 10 smaller ships smoothly hovered to a stop, one in front of each group. They were a mix of bulbous and geometric shapes, and the one that stopped in front of Casey was a squat and fat lifting body that reminded Casey of a B2 that had its wings cut off. The largest of the ships was another spherical shape about 20 meters in diameter.

Like the larger ship, none of them had visible engines. All of them had several visible hatches here and there, but since they all remained closed Casey could only guess at their purpose.

“It looks like you are the Americans?” A voice came out over a loudspeaker. Similar questions rang out down the line, and it looked like all ten guessed correctly. The voice was pitched higher than Casey’s.

“Yes. Requesting permission to come aboard?” Asked MacNeal. In response, a hatch on the bottom of the ship dropped. It was a lift that was more than big enough to comfortably accommodate the three of them and the SUV with them. Casey stepped on to it, and when MacNeal and Anderson joined them it rose again into the body of the craft.

As they reached the cargo bay above them, the railing on the sides of the lift retracted into the floor. The bay was large, with enough room on either side of the lift to store several pallets. Despite that, the room was empty. One of two doors in the forward corners of the room opened, indicating that they were expected to go that way.

A small room on the other side of the door and another door after that led to a hallway. Beyond that was a larger room that held a shiney table with six chairs around it on the starboard and on the port side was a comfortable looking couch with a large flat section on the bulkhead that was probably a screen. Down the centerline was a path that led from one door to another, both closed. Directly across from them was an identical door to the one they exited, and Casey guessed that it led back to the matching door in the cargo bay.

“Please have a seat.” The voice came from everywhere and nowhere. It was a pleasant effect, and Casey wondered where the speakers were hidden.

“Introductions are in order. I am composed of what you might call an artificial Intelligence. Since my original name” here Casey heard a screechy hissey noise “is not pronounceable with your vocal apparatus, we should decide on a compromise.”

Anderson looked at MacNeal, and MacNeal looked at Casey. Casey looked right back.

“Since you two will be spending all the time together, this negotiation is in your hands.” He informed her.

“Do you have any preferences, in that regard?” Casey asked aloud.

“I had originally thought to pick a name after an explorer in your fictional stories, but I don’t want to set unrealistic expectations with regards to my personality or behavior. If it helps, my name in Galactic Standard is” and here the audio system ran through a two octave scale before pausing and playing a long series of notes.

“Are those musical notes? How about Arpeggio, AKA Peggy?”

“They are musical notes only as a matter of perspective, but that is an understandable conclusion to draw from it, and an acceptable name. I do like it better with a soft g sound though. ‘Pejie’. It is good to meet you.”

“Likewise. I am Ensign Trainor. This is Lieutenant Commander MacNeal and Lieutenant Anderson. Due to the haste of setting all this up, they are my supervisors for now. Whatever reports or logs I end up needing to write should properly be submitted to them.

“That introduces a minor complication.” Peggy informed them. “Full education in Galactic Standard is on the timeline projections, but the specifics of when will be up to the people who will form your new educational systems. If you want reports, we will have to implement the technology augmentations for you two as well.

“I’ll do it.”. Anderson volunteered. She looked at MacNeal. “I am aware of the repercussions.”

“I won’t go over them then.” MacNeal nodded. “As much as I would love to participate, the consequences of going cowboy on this would be guaranteed to not go well for me so I have to sit it out.”

“So how do we do this?” asked Casey.

“I will need to introduce a nano machine colony past your epidermal layers. This colony will map your physiology and nervous system before building factories in some inert spaces. Then the factories will build out sufficient nano to complete the fabrication of the computational and user interface neurological augmentation you will require.”

A panel on the nearest wall outlined itself in green lights.

“In the fabricator you will find two tablets. Each of you please put one of them under your tongue. It will take ten to fifteen minutes to absorb into your soft tissues, and the experience is almost universally described as unpleasant.”

“Is this the kind of unpleasant that a doctor describes a procedure before doing the most painful thing you have ever had happen to you?”

“Ninety eight percent of biologicals that accept a nano machine colony in a manner that can be construed as physiologically similar describe the sensation as foul but exhibit no adverse reactions. One percent shows signs of heightened anxiety and or stress reactions. One percent shows signs of physiological distresses which sometimes engages that entity’s version of a fight or flight reflex, but that is treatable with full recovery.”

Casey retrieved the tablets from the compartment on the wall. Handing one to Anderson, she stuck the other in her mouth.

“Bottoms up!” Announced Anderson as she did the same.