I spent the whole night reading about Technomancy. Well, i say night but i have no idea of the time cycle here, considering it’s a space station is probably just a fake night simulating the earth. I just rely on a function on my Tracer that cronometrates whatever I do. According to it, I have been reading for eight hours.

There’s a knock on the door and almost immediately it slides open. Can’t a girl have privacy? You have my freedom at least give me some respect, fuck.

It’s general Hyrvin again, accompanied by Anne and a couple of uniformed soldiers.

- Did you read the briefing? - Ask the general, looking at my general direction but avoiding looking at my eyes.

First, shit. Second, stop being such a pussy, big guy.

- Just briefly, I still wanted to hear that from you - I say, trying to bluff. I really forgot to, got too immersed with Technomancy, and i didn’t actually expect them to come so soon for that. Are they gonna ship me off already?

- We are shipping you off in three hours, hope you have everything clear.

…

Jinxed it, damn.

- We’ll escort you to the warp gate, and these two will follow you to Nemea-05, a planet between the border of the Stellar Union and the Valdari Regime. Further details are on the briefing - Added the general, still obviously angry about my earlier remark.

I just nod and walk out with them. On the way I took some glances at the two soldiers. One is a woman in her early thirties, a bit older than me, excluding particular reasons; her jet black hair and distinctive features are obvious marks of an Asian Confederation descendant. The other one, an older man carrying a full trimmed beard with streaks of white and short cut brunette hair, with this one i don’t see a clear sign of origin but i feel that this one is quite a veteran of the battlefield, once you’ve seen that look in the eyes you recognize it everywhere.

After twenty minutes we arrive at a teleporter, which transports us to a landing dock. At least these ones haven’t changed as much, several metal platforms of hundred of kilometers long, humongous and small ships everywhere, and the smell of grease and smoke permeating every single place. Just like home it feels.

- What are your names? - I break the silence while we continue walking. I guess after yesterday’s event the general doesn’t like me but hey, we are about to travel together, at least tell me how to refer to you guys.

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- Corporal Lai Lian, ma’am - The first to answer is the woman, who just briefly looks at me and then chooses to just see ahead. The other dude is not even bothering, just has a grumbled look in his face as if he’s constantly smelling shit.

- What about you soldier? - I insist.

He first looks at me, although his eyes seem like they are just looking at nothing. I maintain constant eye contact, I'm really good at that, now that I have an artificial eye that doesn’t have eyelids, I guess the effect is even better - Lieutenant Novak Griffin - He answers after a while, and nods his head. He might seem rude, but I get the feeling it’s just that he has a thick shell. I had several soldiers like that serve with me on the Charon.

We stop at the front of a small sized grey painted ship, its form similar to a frisbee, and both Novak and Lai continue and get on board through a glowing door. That’s a laser sealer? Nice, those were only usable to lock canned food before, now they use it as a pseudo-door for spaceships, talk about improvement.

Both Anne and general Hyrvin turn around to face me at the same time.

- Miss Lilith, you’ve been assigned an Alliance set of uniforms and identifications, you’ll find them in your quarters, the biggest room in the ship, as well as the specific instructions on arrival… your crew has been already informed of your ETA and will be waiting for you on the orbit of Jalvania - Anne said as she gestured for me to move on to the ship.

- We expect a report as soon as you arrive and another report when your team touches ground, your VA has a module installed for inter-galaxy comms so use it - Of course, the general wouldn’t leave without trying to look bossy. I stare at him for a few seconds and he already flinches in fear.

- Yeah yeah, whatever… - I just dismiss them with a wave as I also walk to enter the ship. I have little idea of most of the stuff i’m supposed to do, i’m omitting a lot on purpose to see what are my limits but i have no idea so far.

As I pass through the laser sealer, I enter a small room which I guess is the decontamination bay. I hear some whistling of air and gas, and after a couple of seconds the metal door in front of me lifts and I see the cargo bay section, which is surprisingly big. I guess the hull of the ship is pretty slim, judging from the looks from outside, so this ship is probably just a light and fast transport.

There’s some small corridors with doors that I guess are the living quarters and bathrooms, but everything else is open to view. There’s some tables on the middle part of the cargo bay, and the flight deck is open to view from here. I see Lai sitting in one of the chairs in front of the navigation panel, which by the way is incredibly simple compared to the mess of buttons it was before.

- Just let me know when you wish to depart, commander - She said without even turning back.

I’m not even gonna bother with procedures here, probably the ones i remember are not in place so fuck it. Good to know I'm a “commander” now, that’s a plus.

- Get us there - I say while i continue my tour - How much time will it take us?

- Probably around a couple of days, we are somewhat close but warp travel is limited on the border region.

Good thing i already read about warp travel with Hallie, if i haven’t i would have no idea what she just meant. Warp travel creates warp points to travel between systems and even galaxies, so time spent travelling at light speed gets shortened by a lot. A trip like this one might have taken like 6 months before.

I glance at her and she’s already touching buttons on the panel, and I feel movement from inside the ship so I guess we are starting to leave port. The feeling is quite nice though, there’s almost no friction and I could probably even stay on my feet.

Novak is laying down on a couch, with a cigar on his mouth, with his eyes closed. I walk past him and start inspecting the rooms. I found the biggest one, which is supposed to be mine. Looking at the drawers and cabinets, I see the clothes that Anne mentioned.

The uniform is a dark blue jumpsuit, with white and gold stripes. A good change from the dull white oversized clothes I have on me right now. I can’t help but to smile at this, i know the situation is far from optimal, but damn it feels good to look like a soldier again.