Noah - 14. Chapter 14

Date: 3^rd April 2395 (Presumed)
Location: Northeast Sector Medical Facility (Presumed)

I awoke lying on a bed in a darkened room. Looking around, it quickly became apparent that it was a medical facility recovery room, from the ‘comforting’ furniture. I felt fine, better, in fact, than I had ever felt, but something was different. Looking around, everything seemed sharper, more in focus. I could hear sounds from in the corridor of people going about their business, faintly but clearly. I could even smell the food being served to someone in another room, through at least one door.

My senses were obviously more acute, but there was something else there too. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but there was a certain electrical buzz underneath my skin, almost like I was in a cleanser but much more discrete.

“Little Thor’s gotten his first taste of success, has he?” A familiar voice commented from the doorway.

“Dover? What are you doing here?” I asked. Since he had been carried off when we landed at Orbital Three I hadn’t heard or seen anything of him.

“Intel finally let me go, but not before grilling me on every second aboard the Tallinn since we left dock. Guess I have you to thank for that. Couldn’t just let me die on the hulk could you? Had to go be the hero and bring me back in one piece.” He was trying to disguise his gratitude with sarcasm but it still came out in his eyes.

“Well maybe next time I will leave you,” I said honestly. “I wouldn’t want to inconvenience you with life again.”

“Well, you just remember that, next time I’m freezing to death surrounded by corpses. Wouldn’t want to be saved by some handsome knight and his steed again.” He came up to me, hugged me and whispered into my ear, “Thank you.”

“No problem,” I whispered back, returning the hug.

“What’s your next stop, then?” he asked, sitting on the edge of the bed.

“I gotta go to New Moscow by the fourth; then I guess I’ll be starting training. At least things’ll calm down a little then,” I replied. I may be going there weeks early, but how hectic could the Academy be?

“Hate to break it to you, it’s the fifth now.” Dover apologised, “You’ve been unconscious for nearly two days; the Doctor thinks you had some sort of reaction to the augs.”

“WHAT?” I cried, trying to synchronise my neural link with the colony’s chronometre and realising it was indeed the fifth.

“Don’t worry; medical issues like this happen all the time. Your orders will have been changed to have you report simply ASAP.” He replied calmly. “Griff and your friends have already gone ahead and will be waiting for you when you arrive.”

I felt a little better but still badly for missing my orders.

“I’ve gotta go check up on a few patients; this is home for me now,” Dover said, standing from the bed. “I’ll see you again soon, and don’t you dare get out of bed before the Doctor’s come to look you over. I wouldn’t want to have to knock out my saviour.” He closed the door on his way out and I was left alone.

I spent some time exploring what all my senses were now telling me; the extra acuity was incredible. If I concentrated, I could actually understand a conversation between a Doctor and patient in the next room; then his discussion with a nurse outside.

“Good day, Cadet.” He cheerfully greeted me as he walked in. “How are we feeling today?”

He was scanning me with his mechanical arm before I could reply, answering his own question in data.

“You appear to be in perfect shape. I’m not sure what happened with the augmentation. It seems you had some sort of reaction to it, the likes I’ve never seen before. It would appear you are none the worse for wear, though. I’m confident enough to discharge you immediately, unless you have any reason to stay?”

“No, Doctor, I feel fine.” I replied. I wasn’t entirely sure what had happened; the last I remembered was being examined right after my augmentations had been installed.

“Good, then you may return home. I would still like you to remain off duty, however, for one more day, just to be certain. Consider any orders rescinded until that time.” He turned to leave just as a nurse entered the room. Giving the nurse some instructions, he continued on his rounds.

“There’s a cleanser just around the corner, in the staff changing room. You can use that one; then get a fresh uniform,” the nurse said in a tone indicating she would much prefer it if I were to go now, so she could get the room ready for the next patient.

“Um, OK,” I replied, ignoring the perturbed expression on her face when I paused to pick up something apparently left by Dover. I hadn’t noticed him put it on the drawers to the side of the bed, so I imagined he must have left it there on a previous occasion.

I followed my instincts to the changing room, and after a quick cleansing cycle, pulled on a uniform. There was something different about how the material felt against my skin. It was indescribable. I just seemed to feel it more than I remembered.

I saw that it was night outside when I got to the entrance; a trace of sunlight was just appearing on the horizon but the frost patterns on the door indicated it was well below freezing out still. Choosing the safer option, I decided to take the subterranean route. Leaving via an alternate door, I made my way down a couple of flights of stairs before emerging on the subterranean level.

Since the climate of Europa was often quite hostile for most, The City had been constructed with a subterranean transport infrastructure. Around each sector of the city ran a labyrinth of tunnels for pedestrian usage, and a single hyperway heading to the Central Core sector. I usually tried to avoid using the sub terrene as much as possible as it was always more crowded than the surface, and you couldn’t take short cuts through solid rock like you could by cutting across the open areas up above.

Eventually I found myself ascending the stairs into the residential tower I had lived in as long as I could remember. I felt a profound feeling of sadness when the door to my room slid open and I realised that shortly I would be living at the Academy, and then I would be assigned to duty aboard a ship or at a facility on one of the colonies. This was never going to be ‘home’ again.

“What’re you thinking?” My father’s voice came from behind me in the corridor.

“This isn’t going to be home for much longer.” I said sadly.

Answering my soul’s cry he put his arm around my shoulder and led me to the sofa.

“I was so excited about going to the Academy and becoming a pilot I never thought that it would mean leaving home.” I said, snuggling into him.

“You’ve definitely grown up a lot in a very short time.” He said in a vaguely nostalgic tone as he thought back over the years we’d lived here. “Space does that to people, you may only have been gone a few days but I can see it in your eyes even now.”

“I don’t want to grow up,” I said sorrowfully. “I want to stay young, I want to spend my weekends with you working on old fighters. I want to stay with you.”

“I want you to stay with me too, but it’s your duty to grow up. You’ve got to do your part just like everyone else. Part of that duty is moving away and going where your orders take you.”

“I know,” I sighed. “It’s just that everything’s fallen on me at once. I was going to have ten weeks of freedom before the Academy; now I’ll be starting there before school has even finished for most of my classmates and I’ve even been out there seeing sights I shouldn’t have seen for years yet.”

“When do you have to leave?” He asked softly.

“Tomorrow. The doctor rescinded my orders temporarily.”

“Then let’s make the most of the time we’ve got left. Someone dropped an old junker of a Dagger Mk. I in my port yesterday. What say you we go see what we can do with it?”

“OK, Thor, just remember what I said, watch for eddies and keep it smooth.” The Wing Commander told me as we approached the wormhole to the Rossiya system. I had never flown through a wormhole before, and the pre-flight briefing had detailed everything I would encounter as I passed through, but my stomach was still tying itself in knots.

The wormholes were small tunnels through space, sometimes just a few metres wide and notoriously difficult to navigate. If a ship strayed even slightly outside its confines it would be instantly torn back into space and destroyed. Even in the unlikely event the ship survived, it would be stranded millions of light years from anywhere and unable to re-enter the wormhole. The tunnels twisted and turned relentlessly and if that weren’t bad enough gravitational eddies would spring up seemingly at random, last a few minutes, then disperse; just long enough to throw a ship off course and into oblivion.

I took a deep breath before confirming my approach with the wing leader and approaching the buoy marking the wormhole’s entrance.

A yellow light surrounded me for a moment; then I found myself flying at top speed through the confines of the wormhole. All around me, yellow light danced as the wormhole intersected normal space, causing an odd, cloud-like landscape all around.

I spotted the hourglass formation of a gravitational eddy long before it became a threat and easily flew past it. Even giving it a wide berth, I could feel the effects trying to pull me towards it. The twisting tunnel was getting consistently narrower as I approached the halfway point. If I dropped into normal space now, it would take decades for my ship to return to Europa.

I realised too late that at the narrowest part of the tunnel, not one but two eddies had formed. I was far too close now to slow down and hope they died out, and there wasn’t enough room to go around them.

Biting down on my lower lip, I pushed the throttle past the maximum and into the emergency thrust zone. Once again, red lights lit up all over the cockpit as the engine temperature spiked. As I approached the eddies, I aimed for a region dead in the centre of the two, hoping that their gravity fields would somehow cancel each other out.

The ship felt as if it was going to shake itself apart as the gravity fields both tried to pull me towards their centre. The speed I had gained on the entry was dropping away rapidly and more and more lights were blinking around me. Suddenly the shaking ceased and my fighter was released. With alerts going off all around me, I lowered the throttle to around 30% and did my best to avoid any more stress along the now widening tunnel.

I breathed a huge sigh of relief when I exited the end of the wormhole and the bright light of Rossiya’s ancient green sun filled the cockpit.

A few moments later, the Wing Commander’s ship appeared, accompanied by a great holler of enjoyment over the radio. As it was my first time, one of the Wing Commanders from the nearby Waypoint station had travelled to Sol to brief and escort me back.

“How was that for a ride? It just never gets old!” He called over to me.

“It was definitely...an experience.” I replied breathlessly. My heart was still working in overdrive and my knuckles were white from gripping the throttle and control stick.

“You better believe it!” he said joyously, “This is my stop. New Moscow’s in your navigational database. Have a good one, Thor.”

With that he broke formation and headed towards the station. Bringing up the navigational database, I quickly located the planet and set course. I knew it was several hours away at normal speeds, so I allowed my mind to drift somewhat along the way.

My mind was snapped back to reality when a few million kilometres from the planet, a host of alarms started screaming, indicating multiple targeting locks on my ship.

Scrambling to initiate evasive manoeuvres, arm weapons and find my attackers all at the same time, I didn’t notice the laughter coming over the radio.

“See? He isn’t so great!” Larenko shouted, “I could have taken him out without him even knowing I was there!”

“Yeah, sure you could, Fireball.” Lark chimed in, “But he would’ve gotten you too.”

The tone emanating from my targeting computer confirmed that I had acquired a lock on one of the ‘attackers’ and weapons were hot.

“I could have evaded!” Larenko objected, but was abruptly cut off by Griff.

“Welcome to Rossiya, Thor.” He greeted me, though I was still unsure of what had just happened. “Sorry about the scare, it’s kind of a local tradition around here to lock up the new guys when they fly in. Now as tempting as it is to blow him out of the sky, if you’d like to break lock on Fireball we’ll take you to your new home.”

Realising finally that I wasn’t actually under attack, I deactivated the targeting computer and disarmed my weapons.

Falling into formation I got my first look at New Moscow.

I could see from even this distance that it was nothing like Europa; it was green and lush. The database described the planet as a rainforest world, with an average temperature of twenty-nine degrees Celsius and a constantly high humidity. With a rotational period of fifteen hours and an orbit lasting a little under five Earth months it couldn’t be much more different to where I had spent my whole life.

The atmosphere was far thicker than Europa’s, and flying in it was like nothing I had experienced. Even with the ship’s aerodynamic design, the hot, wet air generated large amounts of drag, slowing me and making the gravity more noticeable. As we dropped below the thick clouds, I was amazed by the sight that lay before me.

As far as I could see in every direction were billions of trees, forming a great green carpet below and preventing me from seeing the ground. Water from the heavy rain was obscuring my vision and occasional flashes of lightning disoriented me slightly.

The Academy itself was a large collection of structures that had been built in a nondescript area of the forest. It seemed to me that there were no discerning features of the landscape around and that it had been placed totally at random.

A number of clear lines marked the landing strips, simply strips where the trees had been cut down and a runway placed.

A little awkwardly I made my approach, finding it much harder than usual to glide in on low power with the extra drag and gravity. Several times along the approach, I nearly overshot or bottomed out onto the runway, but finally I made it inside the hangar Griff had directed me to and set down on a pad designated by the HUD.

Unclipping and recycling my helmet, I hesitated before opening the canopy. Immediately, the hot, wet air hit me, taking my breath and nearly choking me. Every breath I took felt like there was someone sitting on my chest as I forcefully dragged it in.

“Welcome to your new home!” Griff greeted me with a hug as I jumped down to the ground, my legs and arms feeling very heavy. I could feel sweat running down my forehead by the time he had released me, and the heat was making me feel a little sick.

“Is it always like this?” I asked, hoping that the database was wrong and that it got a bit more comfortable.

“Every day I was here as a Cadet,” He replied with a big grin. “Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it in a few days. Those two are just about acclimatised now.” He pointed over to Lark and Larenko who were walking over to us.

“It’s a bit different to back home, isn’t it?” Larenko commented to me.

“Just a bit,” I replied, wiping my forehead on my suit sleeve.

“You two take him to get registered at the admin block then show him to his quarters. You’re free for the next few days. You’ll be sent an order when the powers that be are ready to start your training,” Griff instructed them before walking away.

Following Lark and Larenko out of the hangar, I noticed how many empty pads there were. Since we were here several months before the rest of the cadets arrived, there were only a few Cutthroats and shuttles scattered around. From the approach, I knew there were at least two other hangars the same size as this one and I imagined they were just as empty.

“This place is pretty cool,” Larenko said while we walked along a path through the jungle towards the main complex. Wiping the combination of sweat and rain off my face again, I failed to see what he liked about it. “This is just nothing like Europa, I haven’t seen trees since I was really little on Earth.”

Acting on a whim, he ran off the path and jumped onto the trunk of the nearest tree, climbing expertly into the branches, causing a shower of heavy droplets to fall onto Lark and myself.

“You’re going to break your neck.” Lark called up to him before dodging another downpour of droplets.

“No, I’m not.” He replied confidently before sitting halfway along the branch. “I can remember doing this when I was younger, before we moved to Europa.”

Pushing forward he allowed himself to fall, grabbing another branch on the way down before letting go and landing easily on the path.

“Piece of cake.” He grinned.

“We’ve met your roommate.” Lark said, changing the topic before Larenko could try to drag us into a tree.

“Yeah, Aiden, he’s alright. He’s a bit hyperactive though, for my liking,” Larenko added, earning a shocked look from me.

“More hyperactive than you?” I asked disbelievingly, causing a chuckle from Lark.

“Hey! I’m not hyperactive!” He complained, “I just don’t like to be bored.”

“Same thing.”

“Well maybe I am a bit, but Aiden is something else. The first day he was here, we saw him running the Marines’ assault course. He was even beating most of their instructors.”

“Yeah, and he’s been either on the firing range or up in the big black most other times,” Lark added.

“Sounds like a fun guy,” I said with an air of dread. I’d known a few overachievers before and they had always come across as arrogant and superior.

“We only managed to talk to him for a few minutes between when he had landed and when he was going for a run through the jungle. Didn’t get much more than his name.” Larenko shrugged.

“Oh, joy,” I sighed again, rolling my eyes. “You two paired up?”

“Yup,” Lark replied in an exaggerated depressed tone. “I’m stuck living with this for the next few years.” He nodded over to Larenko, who had run off and started climbing another tree.

“I’m sure you’ll get on like a house on fire,” I teased.

“That’s if he doesn’t SET the house on fire. We’ve hardly been here a day and it looks like a bomb has hit the room.”

We watched from the safety of the path as Larenko slipped and fell from the tree he was attempting to climb, falling to the sodden ground with a squelch.

“This body is messed up,” he muttered as he slid back to the path. “It’s all wrong. I miss my own body.”

“You’ll grow into it,” I replied with an evil chuckle. “Unless you go get yourself killed again. Then you’ll have to start again.”

“Yeah, laugh it up. One day you’ll get killed and wake up in one of these, and then you’ll see what a pain in the arse it is.” Looking down, he noticed that his uniform was now clad in a layer of thick, red mud. “I’d better get this changed before one of the instructors sees it, c’mon, I’ll show you to your room; it’s just over the hall from ours.”

The accommodation block took up the entirety of the three bottom floors of the main complex; a tall structure that was the only landmark in the carpet of green for miles in any direction, if not on the whole planet. It was arranged in a similar manner inside to that of the building I called home on Europa; a ring of apartments running around the outer edge of the building with a corridor separating them from what was here a series of communal areas, but back home was more apartments. The architecture was exactly the same as back on Europa, down to the regulated gravity which adjusted the planet’s gravity the 1.1G that was standard on all M Military craft. If it weren’t for the heavy, hot and humid atmosphere it would be difficult to tell the difference between the colonies.

Walking past several doors, Larenko stopped outside one which was indistinguishable from any other, except for the two slide-in name plates to its left;

C^2C Sven ‘Thor’ Jones
C^2C Aiden ‘Energy’ Marshall

“Welcome home.” He commented as the door slid open, revealing a room containing two beds about three meters apart, two desks with shelves hanging above them and a sequencer. At the head of each bed was a window currently spewing slightly green-tinted light into the room, giving the silver highlights an odd appearance.

The door was located right at the centre of the room, which was obviously symmetrical when unoccupied. As it was, the bed to the left had a flight suit strewn over it along with a helmet and several holopads left running. The desk had several more holopads and a dismantled Marine rifle covering it, a guitar propped against its side. Virtually every inch of the shelving was covered in photographs and awards. It was obvious that Aiden’s call sign was quite apt. On the right side, everything was empty; the bed was made and the shelving clear. The only thing in the area was a deactivated holopad on the desk.

“I’ll leave you to get all settled in; gotta get out of this crap.” Larenko called from the door before dashing away. I just saw him disappear into another room a few doors down on the opposite side of the corridor, before the door closed behind him.

“He’ll be back soon enough,” Lark commented as he walked into the room while I was exploring. “The room he went into is the changing room. It’s got plenty of cleansers and sequencers so you don’t have to wait, yet anyway; I don’t know how busy they’ll get once all the regular cadets arrive.”

“How many people are here?” I asked, though Larenko had done his best to try to avoid people while bringing me here, the only people I had seen so far had been a couple of ground crew in the hangar.

“About thirty second classes, a few dozen instructors and some support crews. Most of the planet’s population heads back to Europa or the stations while the Academy’s out of session. Apparently it’s packed here when everybody’s back.”

From checking the database, I knew that there could be up to a thousand cadets here plus all the instructors and support crews. With everyone crowding this small area, I could imagine how cramped it would get.

“So what are we here for so early?” I asked. Until a few days ago, we weren’t due to start for several weeks.

“Don’t know; so far nobody’s told us anything. The pad there tells you the basics about what’s going on for the next day or so; mainly tours around the system to familiarise you with the local landmarks, nothing really important. I don’t think even Griff knows what’s going on yet.”

“Well, I hope we’re not just out here to be here; I was looking forward to having some time off.” I hadn’t made any plans, but I was still looking forward to relaxing with my father and maybe fixing up a last couple of ships with him before I came here.

“Yeah, me too. Oh hey, I’ve been playing around with mine and Alexi’s fighters, I’ve gotten the missile lock time down by a second and increased the rate of fire on the cannons. I’ll go do the same to yours now, it should have cooled down before I forget what I did, catch ya later!”

Before I could say anything he had already vanished from the door. By the end of the year I could easily see our fighters in no way resembling the original blueprints if he kept ‘upgrading’ them.

After the door had closed and I had been left alone, I set about setting up my personal possessions. Having synchronised with the local ‘Net node, I now had full access to my personal database, including the sequences of the personal possessions I had scanned at home. I slowly populated the shelves with the various awards I had earned over the years for both piloting and the ship restoration, and the desk with a kit for a miniature Estonia class frigate.

Deciding that I obviously had plenty of time from how Lark and Larenko were acting, I thought I could grab my kit bag from the Cutthroat’s pitiful cargo hold later. Sitting at the desk, I pushed the single button on the holopad, causing a small square blue screen to appear from it, displaying a welcome message;

Dear Cadet,

Congratulations on passing your basic education with honours and earning the honour of the Cadet 2^nd Class rank. Here at the Academy you will experience a tough training regimen to further train your piloting, combat and command skills.

We apologise for the change of academic timetable at such short notice. This is due to our new, more in depth syllabus to which you will be introduced over the coming days.

Whether you are from a colony or station, New Moscow will undoubtedly be a large change from the environmental conditions you are used to. To that end, all arriving Cadets have been granted acclimatisation leave until the 7^th April to get used to the local environment. To aid in this, daily guided system tours are being given to the Rossiya landmarks and training grounds you will be using over the coming months, departing from Orbital Four at 25:00.

Though New Moscow is clear of sentient life, there are several species of predators which may prove dangerous. To that end, it is highly recommended for all Cadets venturing into the jungle to carry and be proficient in the use of a sidearm whenever leaving the Academy’s protective field, which extends five kilometres from the Academy complex.

For sidearm training, contact Sergeant Elena Spezlava during the first segment, Sergeant Sang Li in the second segment or Corporal Harry Redfern in the third segment.

You will be contacted on the 6^th April regarding your instructor assignments and timetable.

We hope your time at the Academy is stimulating, challenging and enjoyable.

Academy Commander,
New Moscow
Fleet Commander Ivan Topolev

As I reached the end of the message, I pushed the button again, causing the screen to vanish. Thinking back, I hadn’t noticed at first, but both Lark and Larenko were indeed wearing a sidearm from the moment they stepped out of their fighters. I had very little small arms experience. Though the school module on small arms meant I knew how to use a sidearm, it was one of my lowest scoring modules and it had been a struggle to pass. I quickly sent off a message to the Marine listed as being on duty, and at his quick response, sequenced a sidearm and headed to the firing range.

It was quite obvious when I passed into the Marine campus. Though the architecture was identical, the people were not. I saw more people on the way to the range in the Marine campus than I had through the rest of the Academy on the way here; every one of them dressed in the green and brown patterned planet side uniform, as opposed to the grey worn aboard vessels.

“Cadet.” The Corporal greeted me with a sharp attention and salute when I stepped into the firing ranges. Though I knew Marines were very formal, it still took me a moment to return the posture and salute, which was admittedly sloppy and earned a disapproving look. I could imagine that if I were a Marine cadet right about now, I would be running around the range for the next three hours for it. “I’m Corporal Redfern and this is my range. While you are here, you will do what you are told, when you are told, how you are told. Understood?”

“Yes, corporal.” I replied crisply. I hadn’t made the best impression and had to make up some ground.

“Good. Now, your record shows that you barely passed small arms training at school. I don’t know who your teacher was, but by the time you leave here I’ll have you shooting the wings off of a gnat at a hundred metres.” I cringed inside. I had barely been able to hit the target in school, and honestly all I wanted to be able to do was to defend myself if need be; I had no interest in becoming a crack shot. “Step up to the range,” he ordered, pointing to one of the firing points.

Obediently, I stepped up to the point as a man-sized target appeared about fifty metres down range.

“Let me see what you can do. Put five rounds onto that target.”

Hesitantly I withdrew the sidearm from its holster on my left hip and fired five shots at the target, three missing, one grazing the edge of the target and one hitting the target’s left arm.

Tutting, the corporal repositioned me and told me to try again. This time I managed to get two shots into the target’s body mass, one into the leg and missed two.

After two more hours of shooting and then being repositioned and advised, I was finally landing all five shots consistently into the target’s body mass and occasionally attempting a headshot at the corporal’s insistence. Knowing how much I had hated this module at school, I was surprising myself with my improvement and how much I was enjoying it.

“That’s somewhat better,” the corporal commented, unimpressed. “Let’s see how you do at longer ranges.”

The target which had started to look really quite large suddenly vanished, reappearing a hundred metres away and looking much, much smaller.

“Five rounds, go.” He ordered. Trying to replicate how I had just been shooting, I fired and watched as every shot sailed past the target, earning a sigh from behind me. I always hated shooting....