The sky slowly changed from blue to black as we ascended. The pilot was nice enough to turn on a screen giving a view of what was behind the ship. Slowly the farm went from a view of the house to seeing the fields and from there slowly into little dots in the ground until even that became indistinguishable from the mix of greens and browns of the world. Minutes with nothing but emptiness visible outside the window, slowly a dot appeared in front of us. Gradually it started growing from a view that looked like a metal arrowhead, getting closer it just kept getting bigger and looking less and less like a smooth arrowhead but more like boxlike sections welded together with spiky protrusions irregularly dotted on the surface. When it looked as big as a house the pilot pointed at that the shiny blue dot on the side apparently it was where we were heading towards. Approaching closer the perspective slowly started making sense as the tiny dot expanded into a giant forcefield well over a hundred meters from side to side. As we flew into it and the pilot landed the now tiny feeling ship into the docking bay in the kilometers long giant monstrosity of a spaceship. There were people milling around everywhere in the docking bay, one thing that instantly stood out was everyone having a helmet hanging from their belt on the side. “Why does everyone have a helmet in here?” The pilot chuckled at my question apparently finding it amusing. “Kid, it's there because if anything happens to the force field keeping the air in the docs you only have a few seconds to get it on before you are unconscious. Anyway follow me, your welcoming party is already here and keeping lieutenant Olivia waiting is not something you want to do.”
Slowly i was lead towards a woman in full uniform standing there with a surprisingly serious expression on her face. She was rather short with a overall small build. As i got closer after i got my eyes off her vividly bright pink hair i saw her grey eyes, and a expression on her face that made me feel like i was a bug she was not being allowed to squish crawling around her floor.
“Greetings, You are mister Evan Thomas i assume. I am lieutenant Olivia Byrne, Follow me.” with a voice that sounded like she would prefer doing anything except dealing with me she walked off. Dutifully i followed, on a good note she did lead me through the gym pointing out i would need to go there daily and that exercise equipment is to be shared, also there's showers on the side room. The Mess hall was a field of tables and consoles with lidded sections next to them. She quickly mentioned that black on the list means standard food and its free, and anything in red with a price on it will be deducted from next month's pay. Finally having gone through corridor after corridor with a whole pile of stairs added to the mix all off them looking sameish i was lead to a door she told was going to be mine for the trip. With a quick swipe of her hand on the wall next to the door, it opened. “There is info and assignments on the console for you, Goodbye” and with that she walked away. I could not shake the feeling she really really did not want to have anything to do with me. And i definitely don't remember doing anything to piss her off.
Swift exploration of the tiny room revealed a closet and a tiny shower room at the back behind two separate doors, and a table with an orb that was probably the computer console bolted onto it. A quick tap on it unfolded the holographic screen, not quite as good as my old holochair was but it still gave a full frontal holographic view. First things first reading the popup in the middle of the screen. It pointed out that i would be led to the medical doctor onboard in the morning and i was not to leave the room till then. Also dinner would be delivered through the delivery chute. A brief glance around revealed there was a hatch without any handles on it on the side wall. The rest of the list was a long list of holographic classes to go through and selection of books and guides to read. Not having much else to do besides snoop around in the system for anything else interesting i got started on the classwork. Finding it to be very boring as it was classes on military behaviour and protocol. Luckily the next one on the list was tactics class that talked about old interesting battles and what worked and why, but to my dismay after finishing it was math. Looking through the list, it was interesting mixed with boring, with protocol coming up again soon. To finish the evening off was the mandatory reading list, it started off with the Art of War by Sun Tzu.
Waking up in the morning to the annoying beeping of the alarm i slowly forced myself up. Looking at the clock i still had another hour, so enough time for a quick shower.
Going to the door i discovered that yes i was locked in as no amount of silly looking waving next to the door opened it and there was no handle to grab. After a few minutes of just standing there and feeling silly the door suddenly opened with Lieutenant Olivia looking as cheerful as yesterday, that is not at all with surprisingly yet another new hair color this time bright green. Half remembering the study from yesterday, i tried to salute her.“Good you're awake follow me. Also your not directly in military line of command so there is no need to salute.” And she was off again at a surprisingly fast pace. Taking me up and down the stairs and i'm pretty certain we doubled back on ourselves at least twice. We finally got to a section of the ship where everything went from grey to white with medical symbols and names on the doors. I was lead to a room that based on the sign on the door belonged to Doctor James Palmer.
The room had named and labeled sections all over the walls. “Good your here, I'm doctor Palmer just have a seat over here for me.” said the doctor. He looked unlike everyone else i had seen in the military this far by being surprisingly out of shape. He lifted and ran a scanner over me then spent moments looking around at something only he could see, as i could see his eyes looking around except for me there was nothing there. After a moment he quickly nodded “Good everything is fine mister Thomas. Just stand still so i can give you the Tacnet implant” so i was about to get something i had never even heard about. “Tacnet?”
“A yea you are new. Tacnec is an implant allowing you to get visual data and access the ship's computer. Dont worry its powered by the ship remotely and if you go out of range for over a month it will simply safely be removed by your body itself and no, unlike what some people think it can't in any way control you.” a quick injection later that was taken care of and apparently it would install itself over the next few hours, hours that i would ideally need to sleep through or i might be seeing weird visual artifacts for the duration. I was given a handful of different pills and told that one of them was for me to be able to take a nap this early in the morning and the rest i would need to take daily and after that, it would be delivered each day to my room.
Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.
The trip back was surprisingly very short as it consisted of one elevator trip and less than five minutes of walking. Now i was sure she took the trip that left me out of breath before on purpose. Wondering for a moment why i had to take so many pills but was not able to dwell on it as the world slowly got fuzzy and bed was looking mighty inviting.
A quick nap later i was woken by a alarm ringing. An alarm that was ringing inside my head, that was disorientating. Quick focusing on what i wanted brought a user interface to the forefront showing me that in a few minutes i would be picked up to be brought for mandatory physical training in the gym. And i could with just a thought go through menus and explore the new computer connection that i had inside my head. After a bit of practice i had a painting on the wall that was not there in reality but i could still see. The interface was a bit confusing at the start as i could bring up something that covered my whole view and still see clearly behind it.
My exploration of my new shiny computer connection was interrupted by the door opening. Behind it again stood Olivia Byrne looking as stern as each time this far, and with a quick statement for me to follow her she was off again. This time walking through the ship was very different. Each door had notes on them about what they are. From my room it was five rooms of living quarters then a weapon section with strict notes that opening it without good cause was an punishable offense. Without the implant they had all looked the same and confusing now everything was clear. “Why is it that it's only marked with the implant?” If Olivia was annoyed at my question she did not let it stop her from answering me “It is to cause confusion and make it difficult for anyone that is not supposed to be onboard to navigate. The layout of each ship is unique and without it you would not be able to find most of the things onboard. Also if you see a section in front of you that says do not enter then please use your head and don't enter.” As she finished we walked past a section just like that. A corridor to the side but in front of it was floating in bright red overlay “Restricted. Do not enter” so i assume a lot of the ship is probably blocked off for me as i was not really part of the crew.
Arriving at the gym. “This is Private Wesley, He will be training you today and everyday after it for the duration of the trip. Make sure to be here on time.” Wesley was a giant of a man. Brown hair blue eyes and he towered over me. And i'm not exactly short myself. After a quick greeting he lead me to one of the mats. “Good, for today i just want to see what you know, so just come at me.” Thinking for a moment i just tried to tackle him, he just sidestepped and i found myself on the floor with barely any clue what happened. Moments after i got up there was a fist coming my way managing to get my hands up to block it, surprisingly it barely tapped on my arm but the kick that arrived to my side just a moment later was not that gentle. What followed was a hours worth of humiliation as everything i tried got promptly countered. “Good work kid. At Least you don't have any bad habits for me to have to fix.” then he showed me exercises to do weightlifting and running, they were made all the worse for the bruises that were already forming. “Everything already hurts, are you not supposed to take a break after something like that” My complaint got promptly ignored and he pointed out that i was supposedly on drugs to help me build muscle and fitness fast and while i was on them downtime was optional. Apparently i would not be getting that option. After a quick shower in the gym room i got back into my now rather smelly clothes and managed to navigate my way to the mess hall. When i approached the terminal it listed a lot shorter list of food than the other terminals, apparently its what im supposed to eat, the system did not allow me to finish till i had selected at least three different main meals. I managed to finish about half of it, putting the rest into a section that was apparently for dishes and leftovers, where it promptly got lifted by robotic arms to behind the wall.
Making it back to my room now managing to open it with a literal closed/open button floating next to it. In the time i was gone i found my closet was now full of clothes in exactly my size and to my horror they were all drab gray and uniform. I guess some color was too much to wish for. Clean clothes, finally feeling a bit more human i got down to more classwork and reading.
The next morning to my surprise instead of the expected aches and pains i felt fine. After a quick trip to the mess hall where the system forced me again to take far too much food. Yet this time i felt hungry enough to actually eat it all. After that my schedule listed exercise. I did as much of the routine as i could before going for lunch then a few hours of study. Followed by another trip to the gym to get myself beat black and blue by ‘Combat training’ courtesy of Wesley. This time i managed to hit Wesley once. I will have to take the small victories that i can for now.
A week later my daily get beaten session was joined by Olivia. “Today i want to see how much you have improved. So you are sparring me.” Her face still very serious but her hair was literally a rainbow today. Someday i will find the courage to ask why, but today is not the day. Feeling a bit hesitant about attacking her seeing as she only just reached up to my chest. I just stood there unsure, something that seemed to irritate her greatly. So moments later she moved in, A quick punch towards my face that i managed to redirect but in the process i took my eyes off the rest of her for just a moment and in that moment she moved, sweeping my legs out from underneath me, landing on my face as my arm was quickly rotated to behind my back to a painful hold. After a painful and humiliating loss i was a lot less hesitant to try and attack yet i failed to tag her even once, just repeatedly getting my ass handed to me in the most humiliating manner possible. “Good your not completely hopeless.” After saying that she walked off towards the women's showers with me starting to head towards the mens showers. “Don't let the lieutenants wins get you down too much, even i only win one match in five against her.” Wesleys statement did not help as much as he probably hoped as i still felt strongly humiliated and resolved that i don't want to lose that badly again. Half the evening was spent on finding anything i could about how to fight on the system.
The next few months were spent in a mix of study and pain but i did improve at the end of it, i could sometimes win a match against Wesley now. My routine got interrupted by my schedule showing that the next day i am to head to the hangar bay for transport to the planet Banton.
Once again finding myself in the hangar bay following the signs written into air for me, pointing me towards one of the fighters where lieutenant Olivia Byrne was already waiting for me this time with her hair a surprisingly standard looking black color.
“You did surprisingly well kid. I expected lots of whining and trying to skimp on your schedule. So i guess you might not be completely hopeless.” And for the first time i saw a actual smile on her face. As i was led to the shuttle that would take me planetside for whatever awaited me there.