Chapter 4
When I was younger, and remembered the asshole god who called me lucky and sent me on my way, I often wondered why I was lucky. Was I luckier than most? Had I somehow obtained an amazing new life? Would I be powerful? I was somewhat disappointed at first. I could not stop time. I could not throw hovers at my mental command. I was a species that still faced some measure of bias on a nearly daily basis. How was I lucky? But now I saw things differently, I appreciated the world more. I was healthy. My parents were fairly well-to-do and my physical attributes were nothing to scoff at. Sure, Lior wasn’t as nice a place as Earth, but there was always a way out. And I was standing in front of it.
The Altar of Dawn was huge. Half of the local docking bay was taken up by the massive space-faring vessel, which looked like a skyscraper on its side with 8 square thrusters the size of houses mounted on its rear in a round arrangement. It had to be huge, since it served as a voyaging academy for the Frontier Mission. A way to adapt to space, all the while going through drills and training on how to behave on a Frontier vessel. I had been accepted to my first choice, namely the martial branch of the Frontier Mission. Musclebrains who would learn how to deal with both known and unknown threats that the average Frontier vessel might encounter. The information on the LinkWeb told me that learning how to manually aim the gunports was one of my main objectives, in case the AI shorted for some reason. However, terrestrial explorations were also part of some Frontier Missions, and someone capable of protecting the scientists on the ground might prove essential. I thought I would especially enjoy that part of my future.
My parting with my parents that morning was short but sweet. They worried, of course, but were also very excited for me. Though my mother had had a stern discussion with my dad about recommending the Frontier to me. Last night, we had said all that needed to be said. The day before we had gone out for dinner, accompanied by Tonk, Rond and Lian. In part it was my going-away party, but it was also an early birthday party. I would turn eighteen in three days after all, very soon after my departure. I could just have the mark be placed on board. The LinkWeb page had said as much.
I would return from this particular ‘mission’ relatively soon anyhow. Around three years until my training was done, and I could return to Lior to board a real explorer.
I heaved up my backpack to adjust the strap on my right shoulder, and made my way to the boarding station on the right side of the ship -starboard actually, though theoretically any side of a spaceship was starboard in my opinion-. There was a fairly large crowd, cadets who were still saying goodbye to their parents. Some people were crying, others more composed or sometimes, downright cold. I was not the only hybrid there, to my relief. Also not the only hybrid who was there unaccompanied. I got in line behind a pair of human men, who seemed friends. Their nervous talking to each other was somewhat infectious, as I felt my future career growing all too real. Space, I thought. I’m actually going into fucking space. Holy motherfuc-, a tap on my shoulder interrupted my internal profanity, and I turned around. A fellow hybrid, slightly shorter than me, smiled at me. “Ola friend, nice to see some other hybrids around for a change huh?”. His head was square, with dirty blond hair. His skin was a darker red than mine, and I noticed that his chitinous armor was partly growing on his neck as well. Beneath his dark left eye, there was a stripe tattooed, starting slightly lower and to the side of his eye, and crossing down to stop near the corner of his mouth. He must be slightly older than I am.
I smiled back, trying to hide the creeping nervousness in my voice, “Yeah, sure is nice for a change to not be able to look all the way over a crowd. I’m Vorn,” I said, extending my hand.
He firmly grasped my hand with his. “Sapona’s the name, Sap if you’re verbally challenged”. Sapona looked ahead at the checking station. “Kinda gets to you now doesn’t it? That we’re leaving home?”
I felt some relief at not being alone in that and grinned “If I’d managed to eat anything, I might’ve crapped diamonds around now.”
Sapona laughed, a deep and comforting sound. “You’d be rich, friend! If I’d possessed that gift I would’ve taken the money and run straight home!” We shared a laugh at that. “Where in Lior are you from, Vorn?”
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“Sector Beta, my mom and dad were pretty quick to settle on Lior, so fortunately the trip here didn’t take very long.” I’d taken a supersonic train to sector Alpha, the time zone directly west of my sector. Cheap and ridiculously fast. No earthly public transit could compare with that. On the old Earth anyways.
The line moved very quickly, and we were already close to the checking station. Sapona said, “Heard it’s pretty nice in Beta. I’m from Mu myself, nearly halfway around the planet. It’s cold, power lines are unstable, can’t connect to the Linkweb whenever I want. But Beta! It’s perfect skiing weather year-round, occasionally you can run a generator to create your own electricity, and the LinkWeb even encourages one to go outside! Heaven, really.”
With a grin I stepped forward and approached the counter of the checking station. A screen with a friendly-looking man greeted me and asked for my identification. Once it cleared, I was given a ticket with instructions to head to gate eight and report myself to one of the instructors wearing a grey uniform. I waited a little longer for Sapona, and asked him where he would be going. Not too surprisingly, he was accepted into the martial branch as well, and directed to gate eight, so we wandered off together.
Once we arrived there, a human woman with short hair and a stern demeanor gave us a pair of grey uniforms and pointed us to barrack 518. It seemed those were not predetermined, and since we were somewhat early we had one of the first few picks of the bunks in our barrack. The barrack could be described as a large rectangular room on the fifth level of the Altar, with a window at the far end looking out over sector Alpha from the right side of the ship -no, starboard-. There were twenty beds in total, one bed over another set into the walls with their sides against the wall. There was a small compartment at the feet for our belongings, and we quickly picked two bunks next to each other on the left side of the room close to the door, near the ground. Sapona turned to me and said, “I think this is the first time I’ve seen a public bed that takes hybrids into account. No cold feet at least for the coming years!”
I stuffed my bag and new uniform into my compartment -my compartment- and sat down. It was a pretty decent bed, not too soft with a firm pillow and thick blankets. I had worried we would be given shabbier accommodations, but I could see myself sleeping in here for the next few years. I already started to like it here.
As Sapona and I talked and made ourselves comfortable, there was a slow trickle of other cadets streaming into our barracks. Sapona took it upon himself, as the one occupying the bunk closest to the door, to greet every new entrant as cheerfully as he possibly could, going so far as to make me bust out laughing when he hugged a new human cadet and nearly made the poor lad shit himself.
While Sapona was apologizing to the young man, someone beautiful walked in.
“Well I’ll be”, Sapona exclaimed. “Do we happen to be in the ladies’ barracks, maybe?”, he turned to me with mock confusion.
“I’ve never been in a better barrack” I said, my ass seated on my bed but my mind somewhere else. I was taking in the sights. Hybrid women were fairly few and far between on Lior. There were even fewer that still had a feminine charm to them underneath the fighter’s physique. Sure, you could find them on the LinkWeb, but that was different than seeing the real thing. Tall legs, ending in strong thighs, with a seamless transition to a full and taut behind clad in red jeans. The black t-shirt she wore did nothing to hide her slender waist and perky bosom. I even found myself appreciating her tail, which was a somewhat foreign sensation. But the face was what truly distinguished her. Perched between a long neck and flowing red curls to below her shoulder, were a set of piercing icey blues, with a freckled nose that would seem too long on any other face, but only seemed to accent hers, and full lips smiling underneath it.
I was just wondering whether this was were my luck really came into play, when she held up her left hand and flashed the shiny golden ring on her fourth finger. “Sorry boys, off-limits.” Aaah shitfuckdammit. To a human no less.
Sapona approached me with a pitying expression and clapped a hand onto my shoulder. “Your losses will be remembered, brother. Still,” he rested his hand on the bunk above me and turned to the young woman, “I didn’t know the barracks were mixed.”
“They usually aren’t, but I was notified last week that due to the lack of female applicants it would be better from a logistical and fairness perspective not to give a whole barrack to only a handful of women. So here I am.” She said matter-of-factly. “And since I was delayed, it seems like the bunk above yours is the only one that hasn’t been claimed yet.” She looked straight to me, and the small circle where the higher end of her mark would be on the woman’s side of her face -the right- now stood out more clearly to me. For a fraction of a second, she seemed to hesitate, then pushed on. “Do you mind?”
“N-no, of course not”, I stammered. This would be hell.