The TGS Freefalling arrived in Makemake’s orbit with retro thrusters firing at half throttle, the reddish white of the planetoid half cast in waning shadow behind the ship. In the darkness of space, it was a luminous torch, inching closer and closer to the planetoid’s dock, which extended like three great arms off of the side of the surface. Here the larger TGS ships would make port so that they did not have to make planetfall, while smaller ships could dock directly on the surface. The Freefalling rotated gently, a massive, bulky tower in space, before carefully maneuvering into the grip of the arms. Huge gravity clamps locked it in place without even needing to touch the side – the word ‘gravity’ was doing a lot of lifting there, as the clamps were magnetic in nature and lined up with designated, standard magnetic ports on the sides and front of the ship like spider legs.

The surface of Makemake, which Cpl. Shishone could see through the viewport of the Freefalling, was half ringed with a large, trapezoidal metal structure of steel and titanium, and surely there were massive substructures beneath its surface. He’d been briefed on his way to Makemake, and learned that this was one of the two Armory Loaded Kuiper Objects, or ALKOs, the other being the oblong, ringed Haumea. The structures on Makemake were black and blocky, much like the ship he rode in on. Angled surface buildings with massive cannons popping up out of towers at designated intervals gave the base a strange look, like a large spinal column running down the side of the planetoid with outcroppings every hundred meters or so for the tower cannons. It was impressive to see, in the light of the pale Sol, and truly the Kuiper Belt Project was one of humanity’s greatest undertakings, and greatest successes.

As the Freefalling docked, the ship chimed and the captain came over the intercom. “Ladies, gentlemen, and those in between and without, we have arrived at Makemake. If this is your stop in the Kuiper Belt, please gather your belongings and disembark a Loading Dock B. Your platoon will gather in the disembarkment zone, and you will be given further orders there.”

He chewed on his lip for a moment, before standing from his cot in his small cabin. Duffle bag in hand, suitcase trailing behind him, he stepped out of the temporary quarters and into the hallway, where there were a few others doing the same. With them, he wormed his way through the ship like he was a parasite in the belly of a great beast, all the way to Loading Dock B, which was on the third logistics level of the ship.

Once there in the massive chamber, standing on the catwalk that would lead down to the crates of supplies and munitions that sat in massive green containers, stacked neatly throughout the bay and locked down with magnets, he took a moment to brace himself. This would be his home for the next four years. Here, in the reaches of touchable space, far away from comfort and consolation, he would make bunk.

Down the catwalk he went, to the pedestrian doors next to the massive cargo doors of the bay, and disembarked the ship. Through a long octagonal corridor he floated, suddenly weightless, along with about a dozen or so more soldiers and guards who had also signed up for such a remote, isolated position. There were ladder rungs on the walls, and using these, he crawled through the tube and into the elevators and their sub-floor mass plates that provided them, as well as all low-gravity structures, their artificial gravity. There, he descended with the others, and finally came to a stop planetside on Makemake.

“Form up!” called someone as they stepped off the elevators. Quickly, the dozen or so new blood stepped off and formed a rectangular formation, four by three, Cpl. Shishone in the back. The room was vaulted, and tape lined the floors where formations were supposed to be, and beside their cluster, people began to board the Freefalling, finally heading home.

Cpl. Shishone cocked his head to see who was speaking, and caught sight of a man roughly in his forties, stocky and buff, short and bald, with a chiseled chin and nose. He wore the same green and black jumpsuit as the rest of them, but his rank was a golden maple leaf, which he wore on his shoulders, and there was a decently stacked rack of ribbons on his chest.

“I am Major Jamison Thobias,” the man said in a gruff voice, “and you are now on Makemake, one of the most important armories in the entire Solar System. While you are here, you will be responsible for different duties depending on your orders. Some of you will be maintainers, some of you will be munitions experts, and some of you will stand firewatch at midnight wishing you hadn’t come here. But all of you have an important role to play in Makemake’s upkeep.

“Outside of this very moment, do not ask irresponsible questions if you don’t already know the answer. Do not try to use your accesses to ascertain further information. Do not talk about what you discover here with others. Each of you have had your clearances approved, or else you would not be here. Don’t make that be the greatest mistake of your life. Makemake has a vital role to play in the defense of Earth and her empire, and you all will be the ones making sure that that defense stays active.

“I know you will miss your family here. I know you will want to go home. Four years, each of you have been selected for, and you will be under my command. There are counseling services available, should you need them. Use them. They’re offered to you for a reason. It’s lonely out here, and the better shape your mind is in, the better shape you’ll be in if the time comes. To that end, each of you will have a battle partner, someone who is assigned to be your guide to Makemake and, hopefully, your first friend here. This is based on an algorithm that has looked at each of your psychological profiles and matched you with a psychological profile that is compatible.

“From here, you’ll be introduced to them. If you need anything, I am your superior officer, come to me. I have an open door policy. Are there any questions so far?”

The man finished speaking, and folded his hands behind his back, inspecting the crowd. There was silence for a moment, before a hand shot up. It was a man in the front row. Major Thobias nodded to him, and the man spoke.

“Sir, Corporal Alexis speaking. Sir, what does Makemake protect against? The entire Solar System works together at this point, what’s the purpose of these weapons? As far as we know, we’re alone in the universe, at least so far.”

Major Thobias grunted. “Yes, but. The Kuiper Belt is a treasure trove of information and is a potential launching point for interstellar travel and sciences. Makes it a high priority target for any would-be rebels from the Asteroid Belt or Saturn’s moons. You all are here to make sure that the only people who step foot into the Kuiper Belt are permitted TerraGov individuals. That’s why Makemake is armed. Any other questions?”

After a moment of silence and understanding, he said, “Good. You’re all dismissed. Find your battle partner and they’ll take this from there. The PDA’s you were given on the ride in should already have their location marked on your map. Corporal Shishone, where are you?”

He stiffened up and swallowed; this was unexpected. “Here, sir.”

“Come over here, I’d like a word with you.”

As the group dispersed deeper into the halls of Makemake, Shishone and Major Thobias stepped off to the side, where Thobias stroked his chin and seemed to inspect Cpl. Shishone. “I’ve heard about you,” he said, his hard gray eyes staring deep into Shishone’s soul. “I heard about your service in the Battle of Ceres. A disaster, by all accounts.”

Shishone’s jaw locked, and he said nothing.

Major Thobias gave him a stern look. “A skilled pilot, and a trained marksman. You have a lot of potential. But we do not take insubordination lightly on Makemake. I want to be very, very clear about that. I’ve got my eye on you, for better or for worse, so make it for better. Understood?”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Nodding, Cpl. Shishone swallowed dryly and said, “Understood, sir.”

“Good.” Major Thobias stared into him for a moment longer, before clapping him on the back and saying, “Good. Your BP – that’s what we call battle partners around here – your BP is Corporal Yarns. Like I said, have a look at your PDA and it’ll tell you where he is. I have high hopes for you Shishone. Don’t let me down.”

“I won’t, sir.”

With that, Major Thobias folded his hands behind his back and, with a nod and a grunt, walked away. Cpl. Shishone watched him go, before reaching into his cargo pocket and pulling out the small, rectangular frame of the PDA he’d been given. It was a frame of metal surrounding blue tempered glass, and when he pressed his thumb on the button, the glass lit up. He thumbed over to his map, which had a small ping on it deep within the belly of the base, and above it read: Cpl. Yarns.

Through the wide doors of the bay he walked and stepped deeper into Makemake’s belly, heading for Cpl. Yarns, who appeared to be in the mess hall. He made good time getting there, using the underground train system that rocketed people from one end of the base to the other, the mess hall being in the center.

The mess hall - or DFAC as it was labeled on the signage - was a large, open room full of mess benches and tables. It was full and teeming with feeding life, though it likely always was, as they were on rotational shifts, there being a potential four shifts total that one could have. Cpl. Shishone entered and looked around, searching for Cpl. Yarns amongst the sea of soldiers. His PDA said that Yarns was somewhere in the middle of the crowd, so he started working his way through the benches and tables.

Eventually, he came across a young man with short, close-cut brown hair, brown eyes, a youthful look to him, if effeminate somewhat, who was eating what appeared to be some kind of meat surrounded by vegetables, likely from the farms on Eris.

“Are you Corporal Yarns?” Shishone asked as he walked up to the boy.

The young man paused mid bite and turned to face Shishone, and then smiled, saying, “Yep, that’s me. You must be Corporal Shishone! I’ve heard a lot about you. Sit, c’mon.”

Cpl. Shishone sat beside Cpl. Yarns on the bench, and leaned forward on his elbows, watching as the young man took another bite. As soon as he swallowed it, he said, “You’re a little infamous. At least from the reports they gave me.”

Shishone felt a small heat rise in his cheeks, but he tried to push it down. “Yeah well, I’d rather not talk about it.”

“Oh of course!” Yarns said, now blushing himself. “Sorry about that.”

“It’s alright. You’re my BP apparently.”

“I am! And as such, I’m gonna give you a tour around Makemake today, point out all the cool sights. We have a rec center, three gyms, a pool, and a hell of a lot more. It’ll be cool.”

“Cool,” Shishone said, looking around. “So tell me, how long have you been on Makemake?”

Through another bite of food, Yarns said, “Two years. Really, I can’t wait to be home, truth be told.”

“Where is home for you?”

“Earth,” he said.

Shishone blinked in surprise. “Earth huh? You come from money?”

Shaking his head, Yarns said, “No, not really. My family is part of the labor aristocracy, so we were treated better, but we’re not rich by any means. It’s partly why I’m out here, for the pay.”

“Ah, yeah, that’s the same reason I’m out here.”

Yarns nodded sagely. “I see. It’s really good. You got family?”

“On Mars,” Shishone said, careful. “A wife and daughter.”

Yarns mouthed an “oh” and hummed. “Here, let me finish and we can get going.”

Then, he scarfed down the rest of his food in a few minutes, so fast that it reminded Shishone of his time at boot camp. Afterwards, Yarns stood, and said, “C’mon, I’ll show you around. We’re gonna get to know each other fairly well through your time here, and then you’ll be someone else’s BP when I leave, but for now, let’s go!”

Shishone chuckled softly. “I like your spunk kid. Alright, let’s go.”

The day was a long one, but at least he’d gotten a tour of the place. Yarns had taken him to several places: the gun towers, the pool, the spacious rec center, the gym, the weapons control platform for the accelerator-gun that Makemake apparently had, the loaded armory, the faux grass stadium that was the parade grounds, and finally, to his bunk, which was in a long corridor of residential chambers that had dayrooms segmenting them off, each dayroom containing a door that led back into the corridors and train stations of Makemake.

Finally, he thought, he could unwind. His bunk was small – just a bed, a desk, a wardrobe, and a fake window that pretended to look out into the void of space. That was nice, at least. The twinkling stars on his wall were oddly comforting, as cold as space could be. He knew home was out there somewhere.

Speaking of home, he set his stuff down, resolving to unpack later, and hopped on his personal terminal at his desk. He booted up the client, and requested a datalink to Mars, using his personal data number, or PDN. The link took a minute to be approved – likely it was running through the proper channels first – but it was eventually approved, and the screen began to echo out a soft ringing sound as a screen appeared on the terminal.

Within moments, his wife’s face appeared on the screen. She looked tired, and the room around her was dark. Still, there was her signature smile plastered on her face, and that made him grin. God, how he’d missed that, how he would miss that.

“Hey baby.”

She wiped the sleep from her eyes, brushed down her hair with her fingers, and said, “Hey baby. Are you there? Are you all settled in? We were waiting all day to hear from you, they said you’d be arriving today.”

He nodded. “Yeah, we got in a while ago. I had to meet my cohort. They’re called battle partners out here. Showed me around the place. I just got into my bunk.”

“Oh, I see,” she said. “I’m so happy to see you, baby.”

“I’m happy to see you. How’s Tay?”

“She misses you a lot, but she’s pretty excited to hear your stories when you get back.” Penelopi laughed softly. “You know how she is. She loves her stories. Had to read her one tonight to get her to fall asleep.”

“That does seem like her,” he said, chuckling. “Hey listen, things are going to be a little busy for me soon, so I likely won’t be able to call for a while, but I’ll try and get as many in as I can without waking you up.”

She waved her hand. “Don’t even worry about that. I’m always happy to hear from you. How was the ride over?”

He paused, and thought back to it, before sighing and saying, “It was okay. Had a weird moment, but it was mostly okay.”

“Weird moment?”

“Yeah,” Cpl. Shishone said, shrugging and rocking a bit. “Had a guy lose his mind. Full on mental breakdown as we got closer to the Kuiper Belt. He was screaming about the color red and he bit someone. When they got him subdued and finally got to interview him, apparently he said he could see the death of stars, or something. That’s hearsay from hearsay though, so who knows what he actually said.”

Penelopi’s eyes widened as she listened. “Wow, that’s disturbing.”

He simply shrugged and gave a sideways smile. “Some people aren’t cut out for the reaches of deep space. It’s claustrophobic on those ships sometimes too, and it all just, connects, and I assume drove him a little mad. Hope the guy is doing okay.”

“Me too. I’m glad you’re okay.”

“I’m doing great, baby,” he said, offering her a reassuring grin. “I just can’t wait to see you already. It’s gonna be a long four years.”

“It is,” she concurred. “But thank you, Josh. For doing this for us. I love you.”

“I love you too baby. I’m pretty tired so I’m going to get some rest now, but I’ll call you tomorrow ok? Take care of Tay for me, I’ll be back before you know it.”

She gave a tired, gentle smile and there was a twinkle of sad acceptance in her eyes. “Okay. I love you too. Get some rest, talk tomorrow. Stay safe out there okay?”

“I will, and you too. Bye.”

“Bye baby.”

Then, the line went silent, and he was alone in his room. He sat back, staring at the ceiling, thinking about it all, before deciding that it was best for him to hit the hay. He had another long day of briefings and such ahead of him tomorrow, and he needed rest desperately. So, heading to his bed, he slipped out of his jumpsuit, down to his boxers, and slipped under the thick wool blanket, before disquietly drifting away.