“What happened to you? I was worried sick when the Quartermaster pulled you to the side and sent you running off.” Emily said as I placed my tray across from her in the general mess hall before collapsing onto the bench.

“Actually scratch that, you look like shit! How bad was it?”

My fingers had not stopped trembling since the meeting with the Commodore and when I had glanced in the mirror in the Quartermasters hall my skin had lost what little colour it had. So, it was no surprise that Emily took notice.

I tried to take a sip of water, then decided against it as I nearly spilled half of it on my lap.

“Believe it or not. It actually went really well!” I replied, trying to clean up the mess I had made on the table with a napkin.

“What went well? Dude, you just ran off in a panic!”

Instead of answering I gave my friend a wide smile. She frowned and looked me over, trying to see if something was wrong with me. It took a moment for her eyes to zero in on my shoulder.

Hey eyes went wide as saucers and she choked on a bite of lasagna.

"What? What! No fucking way! H-how did you manage that?” She hissed, trying to keep her voice down and avoid annoying the other soldiers in the mess hall.

“Oh… you know, its just how things go…” I said with a grin, attempting to appear nonchalant.

Emily did not buy it for a second. She glared at me.

“Cut that out Aly. I can see you shaking! Now tell me everything!”

I quickly summarized the events of my afternoon as I ate, starting from when I had noticed the missing insignia on my sleeves. Emily listened raptly or maybe she was still in shock; I know I was. When I finished she frowned and glanced up from where she had been pushing her leftovers around with a fork as she listened.

“That doesn’t make any sense, there’s no way we never would have heard something about this happening before. Half the cadets I know would be crowing it from the rooftops if this happened to them. I don’t buy her explanation, something would have leaked by now.”

“Might just be more of an open secret and some people do know and aren’t allowed to say” I said with a shrug. “But in the end, does it really matter? She made me an [Imperial Captain] and I don’t see anyone doing that as some sort of cruel joke.”

My friend bit her lip in thought for a moment.

“I guess… I just don’t like not knowing why. I think a lot of people would have worked a lot harder in class if they knew a captaincy was on the line.”

I shrugged again, thinking that might very well be the reason for the subterfuge. The navy would probably prefer the individuals who worked hard even when there was nothing valuable on the line. In the academy we had known the rankings carried some value, higher ranks would get better assignments on graduation, but it was not something to fight over.

“Anyway,” Emily said with excitement bleeding into her voice. “What sorta ship did you get? Anything fun?”

I leaned forward, my own sense of excitement rushing back at her words.

“I don’t know which ship exactly yet. Commodore Chione is going to send me the details later tonight, but its gonna be an SR-17 Raptor Gunship. So nothing too big yet. But they’re supposed to be fast as hell and for armaments I think there’s a spell array and… four weapon mounts? So could have lasers, coilguns— oh! Maybe even plasma cyclers!”

“Sounds like you’ll be having a good time!” Emily laughed, long used to my rambles on ships. “Actually get this. I’m on a Raptor too! The Icarus.”

Suddenly I felt like a bad friend. I had been so caught up in my own excitement I’d forgotten that Emily was going through the same.

“Oh snap! Have you met any of your crewmates yet?”

“Only the First Officer, bit of a stuck up prick, but seems alright overall. Said I’ll be able to meet the crew and tour the ship tomorrow.” She said animatedly. “Think he said there's a couple other new crew, a gunner and the captain too I—”

Emily froze mid-sentence and stared over with wide eyes. She pointed at me, then back at herself rapidly.

“Wait… You don’t think…”

I was not sure how I felt about that possibility. One the one hand, it would be awesome to have a friend on the ship for the beginning. But, I was also uncomfortable with the idea of ordering her around as a superior officer.

“That.. Would be weird.” I said with a grimace. “But it’s not too likely I don’t think. There’s probably a lot of restructuring going on right now with the influx of new cadets.”

She nodded in agreement and we chatted some more about ships and what we thought life in the navy would be like now that we knew our assignments. We also decided to turn in early in order to be well rested for our first full day in the navy.

“I’ll see you in the evening tomorrow. Or maybe earlier… Captain Fox,” Emily said as we parted way with a mischievous grin, knowing I found the idea weird.

We headed our separate ways, Emily to the general quarters where she shared a room with seven others. Not that she would ever see some of them due to how shifts worked on a cruiser. There always had to be personnel active to operate the ship and respond to emergencies. So, some of her bunkmates would be on another shift and they would not come across each other all that often.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

On the other hand, I was a captain and captains get their own personal quarters. Unfortunately, the senior officer quarters are on the other side of the Avalanche, a kilometer long cruiser. There was also the slight problem of not knowing where exactly my room was.

Luckily, there were solutions to both those problems. Larger void faring vessels are outfitted with trams to ferry goods and personnel around. It was to one of these that I slowly made my way to.

As I walked through the narrow hallways of the Avalanche I worked on the second problem by putting my helmet on for the very first time.

I lowered the MK 6 Kyronus officer’s helmet over my face, accompanied by a slight hiss as it connected and sealed with the neckline of my flight suit. For a brief moment everything was tinted red by the coloured visor and then my sight flickered as the Kyronus’ colour correction came online and my sight returned to normal.

My breathing was now accompanied by hiss as all my air now had to come to me through the filter. In the event of an emergency and I was left in an environment with no oxygen, air purifying enchantments laid into the helm would activate. Without a canister this would only give me a few extra minutes of life before the recycled air was unsalvageable, but that could mean the difference between life and death. Besides, protocol meant there were oxygen canisters placed at every intersection, ensuring everyone had access in case of emergency.

“Welcome Captain Fox,” a robotic voice said in my ear and I jumped, colliding with the wall.

“What the— Ow! Who is this?” I exclaimed, before groaning as I remembered what it was.

“Good evening Captain Fox. I am your personal assistant program. Would you like to name me?”

A couple officers passing the other way gave me concerned looks as I recovered from my fright and I embarrassedly waved them off.

“No, no I don’t need you. Connect me to the mental interface and then disable yourself.”

I do not know how others can stand to have one of these things blaring in their ears all day long. I had tried it at the academy before giving up after a couple days, it was simply too distracting. The PAPs, as they were shortened to, would pipe up at the worst times or constantly tell you all the information that was on the interface visually already. Basically, really annoying.

“Are you sure? If it is due to my nature, I must inform that I am not an AI. For I am incapable of learning beyond my parameters.”

“Yes, I am sure,” I said.

“Very well. Goodbye Captain Fox.”

And like that it was gone, never to be heard from again as I was certainly not enabling the program again. It was however replaced by a series of icons along the side of the viosr and a prickling sensation across my scalp. I could only grimace and endure it for the few seconds it lasted.

After a moment the unsettling sensation abated and I was fully connected to my helmet’s interface. With a flicker of thought a mini-map appeared in the top left corner of my vision and I willed it to direct me to my assigned room. Then cursed as I realized I had missed a turn while I had been distracted by the PAP.

I turned around and took the correct turn to the tram line, muttering curses at PAPs all the way. Then realized others could hear me still and were giving me odd looks as I passed by and self-consciously muted the external mic.

The entrance to the tram was a wide room, meant to offload cargo and mechanized infantry. There was a small line of naval personnel waiting to load onto the tram and I sighed, expecting to have to wait a few minutes. Except an officer who seemed to be in charge of things around here noticed the insignia on my shoulder.

“Captain on deck!” He roared.

The quiet chatter instantly silenced itself and everyone snapped to attention. I did so too, instinctively following my training and then realized they were all looking at me.

I was glad my face was concealed by the visor, for I was blushing scarlet beneath it. Unsure what exactly I was supposed to do I gave a salute to the waiting soldiers and strode past them to the officer who had started beckoning me to the front of the line.

Whispers followed me as I marched past and gave the officer a curt nod, attempting to appear more confident than I was.

“I don’t recognize her.”

“New captain? Wonder if they’ve got a good class?”

“Probably a transfer.”

“I heard there was some prodigy among the cadets.”

“No way they’d promote a cadet straight to captain.”

I stood silently at the head of the line in parade rest, trying to ignore the curious whispers. It was only just now occurring to me that people might not be pleased to learn the truth, who wanted a fresh graduate with no experience or Skills to lead them?

I knew I was good, but no one here knew that and they probably would not trust good grades over experience. Would my own crew even respect me? And would they be wrong not to? I had done nothing to earn my class other than being very, very good at battle simulations and tactics. Which was not the same as running a ship.

Suddenly wrought with impostor syndrome I could not have been more grateful for the tram to arrive, allowing me to escape the gossip.

The tram ride was short, less than thirty seconds, but it still saved me almost ten minutes of walking through the cramped hallways of the cruiser. It was also nice that the senior officer quarters were close by the stop, probably placed there for that very reason, and I quickly followed my map to my room.

My room was not large, a small cot, a desk and accompanying chair and a small holo-projector. But I was going to cherish it, because very few people got this level of privacy in the navy. There simply was not enough room in a vessel for it, every inch of space had to be used wisely.

I quickly unloaded my bag and stashed my few possessions in the drawers beneath the bed. As I was about to take my helmet off a flashing notification appeared in the corner of my vision.

Commodore Chione had finally sent my assignment specifications. My eyes widened as I saw the message and I hurriedly accessed the documents on holo-projector so I could remove the helmet and breathe freely.

The sense of excitement came racing back, banishing the sour feeling I’d had since getting on the tram. I decided there was no point in dwelling on it, I had already been given the class, it was now up to me to prove I deserved the honour.

There were several documents, the first of which were the details on my ship. There were notes on its history, maintenance reports, list of supplies and its armament loadout. But one thing in particular caught my attention, the name: IMS Icarus.

That sounded familiar.

I swapped to the document listing my crew and their classes and Skills. And sure enough, next to Communications Specialist was the name Emily Zehr.

A thrill of happiness shot through me, I would have at least one friend I could rely on. I would just have to be careful not to treat Emily any different from the rest of the crew. I did not want to get a reputation of having favourites, even if it was my friend. It might be awkward to be her superior, but we had worked together on projects and field assignments in the past without issue.

I also wondered how this had happened, it was highly unlikely to be pure coincidence. Maybe whoever had been in charge of filling the roster had seen we worked well together in the past? Or maybe the Commodore had decided I would need someone I could rely on to back me up, seeing as I was untested. Whatever the case, I decided to count my lucky stars and just go with it.

After an hour or so of reviewing and memorizing what I would need for tomorrow I decided to try and get some sleep, difficult as it might be with my nerves.

But first, there was something I needed to do. As I lay there in the darkness of my room I whispered a word. Just to prove to myself that this was all real and not some dream.

“Status.”

Alyssa Fox

Class(es): [Imperial Officer]

Imperial Officer Skills:

Mark Target

Split Focus

Battlefield Awareness

There was a smile on my lips as I drifted off to sleep. A sense that I was finally on my way to achieving my dreams.