From Freighter to FighterWritten by Ray B. May IVCopyright © 2017, all r...
From Freighter to Fighter
Written by Ray B. May IV
Copyright © 2017, all rights reserved
Part 1 – Cargo Master
3034.0219 Imperial Calendar – New London System
I sat looking at my display. My name was Joseph Boxwell and I was the Cargo Chief of the Imperial Transport Ship Nathan Lowell. The Deck-Chief walked up behind me, making me feel nervous and annoyed at the same time. The display showed two missing containers from what was on the manifest. I sighed to myself.
“Sir,” I said, even though I knew he was there behind me. “We seem to have a problem.”
He looked more closely at my display from over my shoulder. The Deck-Chief for this watch was First Mate Ivan Iliad and his presence exuded over my duty station. “What’s the problem, Mr. Boxwell?” he asked.
I sighed inwardly again and pointed at the screen. “Sir, there are two missing containers. The manifest says eighty-nine containers with six empties and we have nine empties showing up not six.”
He looked over my shoulder then walked to his station. He was sitting at his station for fourteen seconds before he got on the COM and called the Captain. I knew there was going to be hell to pay somewhere if this went as it looked like it would. The Captain came strolling onto the bridge.
“Mr. Boxwell get the manifest to my screen,” he said.
“Yes, Captain,” I replied instantly. I was young for my rank. Everyone knew it but the Captain was the only one who thought me competent at my job. He was the only one who gave me a fair chance. It was weird, I admit it, to see someone who was in charge of anything on a ship, any ship, at the age of twenty-two. I had studied while I was in secondary school and had taken the test for Cargo Chief (Specialist 1, Cargo) as soon as I graduated.
Captain Maru looked at me. “Is this correct,” he asked.
I nodded, “Yes, Captain, that’s what IE sent to us right after we dropped out of H-space. I turned to Third Mate Joshua Morgenstern. “This is what the Third Mate put into my inbox.”
Captain Maru turned from me to the Third Mate. Morgenstern flinched at the Captain’s gaze. “Mr. Morgenstern if you would please get me the local Imperial Enterprises branch and rout them to my screen,” he said calmly.
“Aye, aye Captain,” Mr. Morgenstern said.
I turned my attention to the front window. Outside the window the only thing visible was Cortendro Station. I knew we were orbiting New London but it didn’t occur to me there would be anything important for me to do until pullout. Pullout was planned at 2300 this evening and I was on duty until 2400. I needed to get through the next few hours while this little problem was fixed.
“Well then why weren’t we notified as soon as the manifest changed?” I heard Captain Maru say. I drifted off into a kind of fog as the Captain negotiated what our cargo was going to be. He was a very nice man and I admired him.
---
I placed my hand in my pocket and looked across the small quarters I shared with the Chief Engineer – a Ms. Jacqueline “Jacky” Miller. We weren’t technically officers but we were the closest things this ship had after the first, second, and third mates. The Captain had made us honorary officers as he had personal discretion on how to treat his chiefs on his own ship. The Cargo Master was usually made an Honorary Officer on most ships but it was up to the Captain on who else would be an Honorary Officer. The door opened and in came the Chief Engineer as my thoughts turned more inward.
“Hey, Jo, how is the bridge?” she asked without looking at me. She went into the head and started changing.
“I’m tired of this whole thing,” I said. She came out of the head with only her panties on and stared at me.
“What do you mean?” she burst out.
I turned around quickly. She grabbed me and spun me back to face her. I looked at the wall over her head and tried to think through my own thoughts.
“She grabbed my chin and forced me to look at her. “What do you mean?” she asked.
“I’m tired of cargos and moving from system to system with a home,” I said.
“What else would you do?” she asked.
I don’t know,” I said. “I don’t have any other plans, I’m just feeling very restless and frustrated.”
She pulled me close and hugged me. “I’m sorry you’re frustrated,” she said. “Just make sure you talk to me before you do anything.”
I nodded and we went about the rest of our business. I went and took a long cold shower before racking out for the night.
~*~
3034.0220 IC – New London System
I was back in the cargo section going through each of the holds to make sure we weren’t missing any of the rest of our cargos. Specialist 2 (Spec. 2) Cargo Jessica “Jess” Irota walked up to me. I turned to look at her.
“What Jess?” I asked.
“Here is the manifest for holds one through five. They were all correct,” she said holding out a plexi. “Josh should be here soon, when I walked by he was just finishing up with hold fifteen.”
Just as she finished speaking Spec. 2 Joshua “Josh” Jewelson walked into the hold – hold eight. I took the plexi from Jess and held my hand out for the plexi Josh was holding. “All items on the ship’s manifest are present and accounted for,” Josh said.
“So all of the cargo in the holds is present and accounted for?” I asked.
Both of the Cargo hands nodded.
“Then the only thing missing is those two containers,” I said. I brought up a holo-display from my PDA and put it in the air in front of me, calling the Captain as I did. His face appeared in the holo a few moments later.
“Yes Mr. Boxwell?” he said.
“All of the cargo in the holds is present and accounted for, so the only missing cargo is those two containers.”
“Noted, Mr. Boxwell,” his face disappeared leaving the holo with its controls sitting there in midair.
I scrunched my hand in the holo-display and it minimized into my palm, then I dropped my hand to my side. “Alright,” I said getting everyone’s attention. “Ladies and gentlemen, lunch is going to be starting in fifteen minutes. Those of you who do not have to report to your stations are free.”
“Aye, aye,” came from almost everyone.
I walked out of the cargo hold to my office. I sat down at my desk and brought up a display. I transferred the reports from the plexis to the logs. As soon as the Captain heard back about those two containers we’d be pulling out. I was done with work and was free, but I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do.
A knock on the door brought me out of my reverie and I looked up to see Jacky standing in the hatchway. “You free?” she asked.
I nodded. “Yeah, what’s up?” I asked.
“Let me take you out to lunch,” she said.
I nodded, “OK.” I got up and followed her to our quarters. We chatted about the little things which came from running whole divisions on a freighter.
---
My PDA vibrated in my pocket during lunch. We were seated in a booth which actually had a window. The view of New London was spectacular. I pulled my PDA out and brought up a holo-display.
“IE is giving us three other cans to replace the missing two,” I said after reading through the message. “The Captain has set pull out for 1745 this evening.”
Jacky nodded her mind already flying away to figure out what engineering needed to do to be ready. 1745 didn’t give us very much time to get ready but the Captain wanted to be gone from here. Our two day journey to Crondoria was already delayed by a day. The check came and Jacky dropped a credit wafer on it then stood and we left.
---
“Mr. Iliad are we ready for pull back?” the Captain asked.
“All ship’s boards are green Captain, we are ready for pull back,” Mr. Iliad responded. When I had first come aboard the restatement of the things previously said had confused me. Later I had realized it was a check and balance on the part of the crew to make sure no one had heard wrong.
“Mr. Morgenstern please notify the tugs we are ready for pull back,” the Captain said turning to the Third Mate as he spoke.
The inertial dampeners always took a tick to catch up when we started moving. As the tugs hefted to on the energy fields they were using to tow us away from the station a weird feeling in the inner ear happened and it was doubled by the station appearing to move. Then the inertial dampeners caught up and the feeling in the ear went away but sometimes the vertigo did not depending on how fast the tugs pulled us away from the station – how fast the station appeared to move away from us.
The tugs pulled us back for a whole minute giving the front of the ship plenty of clearance as not to hit the station or any other docked ship. There wasn’t supposed to be any other ship flying in the local radius of one kilometer but nothing was ever one hundred percent.
“Alright Mr. Iliad bring us about,” the Captain said.
“Aye Captain,” the First said. “Mr. Par give us hundred and eighty degrees to port with a sixty degree up angle on the bow if you will?”
“Aye sir,” Spec. 1 Pilot Edward Par answered, “one hundred eighty degrees to port with sixty degree up angle.”
The tugs could be seen now out of the front view port. Then the station and everything in front of the ship started to slide out of the right side of the port. I was on the bridge for the reason it was my station. I didn’t really need to be there. Everything which was in the ship was secured down and if one of the cans wasn’t secured we would already know about it.
The ship stopped turning and the Captain ordered the First Mate to start the ship moving at half an AU (one half an Astronomical Unit (74,798,935.5 km) per hour). The First relayed this message to Par and Par followed through and the ship started to moving forward at quite a good rate. We would travel at this speed for fifteen minutes then we would accelerate to an AU and we would travel at this rate for the next forty-five minutes. After we had finally hit the one hundred thirty million, or so, kilometers from New London we would prepare to jump to hyperspace.
I watched minutes tick by on my screen. I finally brought up a status display on the cans. I knew nothing was wrong because back in the cargo section there were two Spec. 3s watching this very status display to make sure nothing was budging in any of the Lowell’s cargo containers. The ITS Nathan Lowell was a little older than some of the ships in the fleet but it was a work horse. It pulled its weight in the Imperial Enterprises’ fleet and sometimes more than its own weight.
“Make the announcement Mr. Par,” the First was saying.
The announcement we would be exiting from normal space and entering into the infinite unknown dimension of hyperspace was made and repeated.
“Take us into h-space Mr. Iliad,” the Captain said.
Mr. Iliad relayed it to Mr. Par and a black on black tear appeared in front of the ship.
“Highlight the tear on the holo-display,” the Captain said. A white outline came up around the tear showing its jagged edges. The Lowell piloted by one of the best crews I knew entered the tear and was whipped off moving faster than the very speed of light. We had two days of normal watches before we dropped out of hyperspace and piloted in to the very seat of government in this great Empire.
~*~
3034.0222 IC – Capital System
I was bored with freighter life it was true, but the thing I was trying to figure out was what to do for a change of scenery. This nebulas thing was decidedly not a war. Sometime before we dropped out of hyperspace a little backwater unknown system calling itself the Aldra System declared war on the Imonoran Empire. We were stuck out on the rim of the Capital system for a few days while the Empire assessed the situation.
Finally when we were allowed to dock I had decided to leave the ship and enlist in the navy – and told Jacky so. I wasn’t sure why but it felt right when I did. Jacky surprised me and did the same.
Part 2 – Cadet
0200 HOURS, 3034.0410 (IMPERIAL CALENDAR),
ALDRI SYSTEM, PLANET, ALDRI 3,
FORT IRONSIDES, BASE OUTLYING AREAS,
The rules at Fort Ironsides were pretty easy for me to follow. I was already an officer of a space craft. Granted it was a civilian craft but the navy decided to overlook that one small detail and I was given an accelerated program. With the threat of war looming over their heads the Navy wanted to prepare as many men and women as they could.
So I was getting ready to actually leave the Pilots Academy here and ship out on the ISS Dubot with the rank of Ensign. I had a few more days of following the rules of the Fort. I held a hand gun in my hand right now. I had been on a “camp out” according to my training officer. Camp out was code for survival training. It meant we had been force marched thirteen klicks out and told to hold the position.
There were plenty of noises all around our encampment. This made many of the men nervous. They would complain they weren’t signing up for the Mobile Infantry so they shouldn’t be made to train this way. The retort by the trainers was always what if their ship went down and they had to try to survive in hostile territory. I had gotten several of the squad and put them under a tree with blankets to keep warm but heavily armed. They weren’t allowed to go into the tents we had erected earlier in the afternoon. The rest of the squad was with me about a half klick away hiding in the dark. We knew a squad of training officers was on their way to attack our encampment.
I felt a nudge on my left knee. I rolled to my back and brought the gun to bear on what had nudged me. It was a training officer. He looked down at me a grimace on his face. How had they snuck up on us? They had made no noise coming up. I am doomed to never know for they still haven’t told me. He had his gun pointing at me. We were at a standoff; problem was he had the better position. I heard six loud pops in the night, surely the rest of squad mates being taken out by his squad.
I wasn’t going down without a fight I decided. I pulled the trigger on my handgun. The training RF-3 popped in my hand and my stun round hit the training officer straight in the forehead. The Man fell to the ground as I rolled to my left side pulled the GC-8 battle rifle from my back. I surveyed the area and started shooting the enemy. I had taken out three quarters of their squad when they finally figured out where I was. I got up and started running.
A few moments of running and shooting and pain exploded in my knee. It almost dropped me to the ground. I must have taken a stun round there. I continued to run and run. I finally fell, turning as I did. Stun rounds whizzed past my head. I surveyed the area and saw the men coming at me. I took aim, took a breath and took all of them out. I laughed to myself. The pain hurt so good. I hated it. I stayed right there all night.
~*~
I awoke to a Master Chief Petty Officer staring down at me. He grabbed the front of my uniform and yanked me to my feet. I knew I had a big grin on my face but couldn’t do anything about it.
“Nice shooting, son,” he said.
“Thank you sir,” I responded.
“You saved five men from being killed.” He motioned me to follow him. “They and the rest of your squad have already started their march back to the Fort.” He walked over to a Tactical All Terrain Transport (a TATT) and opened the door. He was apparently waiting for me to enter the vehicle. “Get in son.”
I nodded, “Aye, aye.”
The driver took off. I looked out the window.
“I know you were in the Pilots Academy for a reason, but the Navy wants to offer you a different posting son,” the Master Chief said.
I waited. I wasn’t technically an officer yet but I wasn’t sure I wanted to listen to him either.
“They want to offer you cross divisional training. The Navy is putting together a Special Forces team they are calling UNITAC. You are being offered to be part of the team. You are the second person to show aptitude and ability to be part of this team.” The Master Chief paused. He touched his ear, made a sound of assent and then continued. “What do you say son?”
I took some time to think about it, I really did. I knew when I started considering it I wasn’t going to take the post but it didn’t stop me from considering it.
“I respectfully decline, sir,” I said finally. “There is no way this UNITAC is going to pan out. Not with the SAPAWs already being available for any and all needs above and beyond any Special Forces.”
The Master Chief grimaced at me but didn’t speak. We didn’t speak all the way back to the Fort. The Navy had been trying to catch the Mobile Infantry for over a decade ever since the Mobile Infantry had started the Speed and Power Adjusted Warrior Program (the results of which were known as SAPAWs). They were the ultimate in Special Forces and black ops in the Federation of Arms (the Imperial Military).
A few days later I was a commissioned officer of the Imperial Navy and a trained fighter pilot. It was a good thing I only had few days left at the fort because a day after Captain Ickla Revro picked me up from Aldri 3 the aliens attacked Corgot.
Part 3 – Fighter
0200 HOURS, 3035.0225 (IMPERIAL CALENDAR),
CAPITAL SYSTEM, ABOVE CRONDORIA,
SPACE,
I punched my engines as hard as I could. The battle was fierce. We were back above Crondoria. Once I had made it aboard the Imperial Space Ship Dubot I had been reconnected with Jacky. She was now Lt. Jacqueline Miller an engineering officer. She had apparently been a Naval Officer before but had retired and gotten in the transport business. She had joined the navy this second time of freewill but they had reinstated her previous rank. The luck of us both being on the same ship still had me a little giddy.
“Box,” came Commander of the Air Group, Captain Sean Williams’ voice over my COM. The CAG was a good guy and very thorough with his planning.
“Yes sir?” I responded.
“You’re veering off too far come back and form up,” he ordered.
I pulled back on my controls, cutting my engines but allowing myself to coast on momentum. I flipped my ship end over end and fired at the two enemies who were following me.
“Chalk!” I yelled at my wingman, Ensign Jean “Chalk” Jacques. “I need your help!”
“Here!” he exclaimed strafing passed and taking out two pursuers I hadn’t seen.
A hyperspace tear appeared at what was now behind me and I pushed my engines changing which way my ship was moving in an instant. The ISS Burnside came out of the tear right behind me. I pushed my ship and formed up with the CAG as ordered. I had received a promotion during the last year and was now a lieutenant junior grade. Our focus right now was to make sure no one made it planet-side apart from our ships.
The rotation was up. I knew the CAG was talking to the coordinator on the ship getting permission to land.
The next rotation usually came out early in order to keep the ship safe while the current rotation entered the ship. As we came up on the ISS Dubot, I saw there were no fighters outside her and there were two engines which seemed to not be working.
It didn’t look good for the Dubot. I pushed the throttles as hard I could. The CAG’s voice came over the COM announcing we would be doing tactical landings. He told us to lockdown and stay in our ships while the Dubot jumped to H-space. My bird hit the deck and I sent the command to lockdown. The “neck” of the ship – as it was called –started to close. We all felt the ship rock as it took a hit.
“The Dubot has successfully jumped to H-space,” Captain Williams said. “We are getting some rack time, so take advantage of it people. We probably won’t see rack time until the end of the war.”
I got out of my bird taking off my helmet as I did so. With my helmet under my arm I started to walk toward the hangar’s exit.
“Box!” yelled Captain Williams across the hangar.
“Yes Captain,” I responded and came to a stop. I turned to look at him.
“Captain Revro wants to see you,” Captain Williams said walking up to me. “He’s in his office.”
“Yes sir,” I answered. I started to walk away from him.
“Wait, Box,” he said quietly.
I turned to look at him again.
“Good flying out there,” he said. “I’m happy to have you on my rotation. Stop walking around like a beaten dog though.” He turned and walked away after patting me on the shoulder.
I walked toward the nose of the ship. The Captain’s Officer was just in front of the bridge. The cruiser class was effectively a rocket. At least it was designed to look like one. It didn’t have the smooth majestic lines civilian ships had. The thought of civilian ships always brought my mind to what I would do at the end of this war. My reverie was interrupted as I came to the door to the Captain’s Office. I knocked and waited.
After a second a heavily accented musical tenor voice came through the door. “Come,” it said.
I opened the door and was shocked to see the CAG. I realized it wasn’t really the CAG but a hologram of him. The Captain waved his hand over his desk and the CAG disappeared. The Captain was Malanian. He rose from his chair and walked around his desk. Malanians were roughly human height but with light-green skin and completely black eyes. They had no trace of hair on their bodies anywhere.
Those attributes were all easy to deal with. It was a little more difficult to deal with the backwards legs and the hands. Their legs were backwards of humans. They came out of the back of their pelvis and their thighs extended backward to the knee then down. Their feet were “forwards” I guess you could say. Their hands were different from ours as well. They had two thumbs and two fingers. Instead of only one opposable thumb as we have they had two, one on either side of their hand.
“Lt. Boxwell?” he asked.
I nodded, “Yes, Captain, I am Lt. Joseph Boxwell.”
He held out his hand to shake. “Good son, let’s dispense with the formalities for right now.”
I took his hand and shook it. “Son, we need more pilots who can take charge. You have the second highest rating on the entire ship. I need you to take command of a squadron.”
“Why, Captain? If I may ask.”
“Because one of the things which happened during the third rotation was Lt. Commander Wallace bought it,” he said. He brought up a holo-display behind him as he spoke. It showed the rosters of pilots aboard the Dubot and I saw there were a few holes in the roster. “Son, as I said before you are the second highest rated pilot on this ship. If I could get you to take over the helm I would. In order to do this I am giving you a promotion to Lt. Commander.”
I was floored. “I’m skipping a rank?” I asked.
The Captain nodded. He grabbed a plexi off his desk behind him. “If you accept thumb this,” he said handing the plexi to me.
I read through it. It was a form for promotion endorsed by the Captain, XO, and CAG and it shocked me even more. I thumbed it and handed it back.
He nodded. “Alright Lt. Commander go get some rack time,” he said.
~*~
2300 HOURS, 3039.0313 (IMPERIAL CALENDAR),
RAZON SYSTEM, ABOVE RAZON 3,
SPACE
We sat in our cockpits. It was only a few day after my promotion the ISS Venmar II was destroyed by the robots. There was a new Venmar now the ISS Venmar III. I had been promoted again in 3036.0322 to Commander and from there I was transferred to the ISS Hofstad one of the new Destroyer Mark IIs. I was promoted on board that ship to Captain on 3037.0421 and was moved to the position of CAG of the ship. Now it was a stalemate here in the Razon system. We had obliterated the presence of the robot leaders here and it seemed the rest of the robot ships didn’t know what to do without their leaders.
“First rotation,” I said into the COM. “It is time to change rotation.”
I received green acknowledge lights. There were only two ships left in this system and they had stood down just ten days ago. I looked about, took a few snapshots with my ships nose-camera. I had a feeling the ships were actually hulks with nothing in them. If they had been destroyed then there would be no reason for such heavy security protocols.
It was an hour later we received the notification. I was sitting in my office and trying to figure out new patterns for flight protocols when it was announced across the ship’s intercom.
“The war is over! I repeat the war is over,” said the Captain’s voice. “We have been ordered to stand down and return to our port of call for debriefing.”
Cheering could be heard throughout the entire ship. I came out of my office and cheered, myself. I couldn’t wait to see Jacky. After the destruction of the Dubot she had been transferred to the ISS Jilquí as Chief Engineer. The Jilquí was somewhere in the Aldra system. We had made a promise to each other after the war we would meet on Crondoria at the Imperial Enterprises building. I couldn’t wait!
Part 4 – Veteran
3039.0809 IC – Capital System
I stood in the waiting room of the sales section of Imperial Enterprises’ Ship Works. Jacky hadn’t shown up yet. I had gotten on the first transport here from Terra – the port of call of the ISS Hofstad. I had taken my Captaincy from the Navy to the Imperial Ministry of Trade and Transport and had received a Master’s License so I could buy and command a ship of my own. I had picked out my ship signed the loan documents and was just waiting for everything to go through.
I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to see Jacky standing behind me. I opened my arms and gathered her for a hug. She drew back from me and we looked at each other. She had a civilian undress uniform on with her Chief Engineer insignia in the collar tabs. Finally I noticed her right arm. It was missing from the elbow down and she had a robotic monstrosity of a prosthetic.
“I lost it in an accident during the battle at Aldra,” she said looking down at the prosthesis. “This isn’t the office I had expected you to be at,” she said returning her eyes to my face.
They wheeled my ship up to the window then. I got down on one knee and took both of her hands in mine. “Jacqueline Meredith Miller will you marry me?” I asked.
She was speechless. Tears came to her eyes and spilled out onto her cheeks. She couldn’t bring herself to speak. After what felt like forever, but was actually only thirty seconds, she nodded. I turned her then to see the ship I had bought. It was a small two person transport ship which could carry boxed cargo. It was the smallest ship Imperial Enterprises made. It had three engines attached to the cargo hold in the back of the ship. Just in front of the cargo hold was the bridge and sleeper cabin. In front of this was the engineering hold (not really a hold as it wasn’t accessible from the inside of the ship).
In the engineering space was a miniature version of the Engineering Section of every other ship out there. This ship really wasn’t much bigger than the fighter I had flown during the war. It was painted royal blue and her name and registry numbers were painted on her already. I had been busy with paperwork all day.
“Is the name okay?” I asked.
She nodded still crying.
Her name was Marie, the same as Jacky’s mom. Jacky’s mom had passed away this year back in January. We talked about what we would do and where we would go. I found out she was waiting for her actual prosthesis, which was still being made.
~*~
3039.1121 IC – Capital System
Our wedding was on Sunday the eleventh of September then we booked a cargo. After getting our cargo we started getting ready to fly. We were just getting our tanks topped off for water, fuel and air. Jacky had everything up to snuff and I was looking forward to launching.
I had looked through the entire ship several times. We had it in its most open floor plan with the chairs folded down into the deck. A door set into the back of the cabin led to a small head including shower and toilet. A door through the other side of the head led to our cargo hold.
“We’re ready, babe,” Jacky said. I pushed a button on the command console to bring the chairs out of the deck. She got into her chair and pushed a button on her console as she secured her safety harness. Her door lifted up off the ground where it had been a ramp and sealed closed.
I sat down in my chair secured my own harness and pushed the twin to the button Jacky had pushed. My door swung up from its ramp position and sealed closed. Our cargo wasn’t due until 3039.1202, leaving now we would’ve been a week ahead of schedule.
I called Imperial Enterprises’ Control Tower to get permission to lift off. “Tower this is the SS Marie we’re scheduled to lift off at 3039.1121 IC 1200hrs. Permission to take off?” My call was really just pro forma. With our schedule submitted we could take off at any time between 12:00 and 12:30. But safety or unexpected entities was always on the bureaucratic mind so old practices and traditions died hard.
“SS Maries? Tower. Permission granted, safe voyage and Godspeed Captain,” said a very businesslike voice over the COM.
Jacky punched a button on her console and we heard the ship come alive. Holo-displays came up in front of Jacky. I brought up my own holo-displays and the control yoke. I lifted the ship off the ground and pushed her forward. Jacky tapped an icon and on my display I saw the landing gear had been secured. I twitched my wrists and the nose of the ship started to come upward.
The pressure escalated to three Gs as our escape from Crondoria’s atmosphere had commenced. It was only a few ticks and we were in vacuum. I released my safety harness and set the autopilot to direct us straight “up” according to the plain of the ecliptic. I looked about at the twin systems of the Capital System. The Capital System was a binary system with two stars. I believe in the old days it had been called Alpha Centauri.
“Verily?” I said aloud.
“Yes Captain?” said the third member of our crew. Verily was an Artificial Intelligence – or AI – I had purchased along with the ship.
“Make the appropriate calculations for a jump to the Sol system,” I said. “The priority is Venus.”
“Yes Captain,” Verily replied.
I brought up Verily on the console between Jacky and I. “One more thing, Verily,” I said.
“Yes sir?” it said.
“Call me Box, OK?” I asked.
“Yes Ca... Box,” Verily said.
We flew on in silence until Verily told me the calculations for our hyperspace jump were complete. It was 12:23 at the time and we had about fifteen minutes of more flying before we could jump. I was so excited I could barely even stand it. At 12:35 we started getting ready to jump. I brought up the holo-display for our hyperspace jump. At exactly 12:38 we jumped.
I brought up another screen and logged the jump at 3039.1121 IC 1240hrs. That was it. We were officially out of the Capital System. We weren’t pushing the ship very hard on this trip. The trip from Crondoria to Terra only took forty-two hours on a normal ship, but we were taking our time letting the brand new systems break in without breaking them altogether. We were traveling at a rate of 100 lc (Melchans).
In hyperspace there was no ability to measure distance because the otherly dimensional place was outside of the normal parameters of physics. So Doctor Robert Melchan Ph. D devised a unit which was one one-hundredth of the time it took to travel in hyperspace between Terra and Crondoria (i.e. 1 lc = 1.001897 hours). Melchans work backwards from every other ratio of speed in science where a larger number equals faster. In Melchans a smaller number equals faster.
As we flew through the total blackness of hyperspace I reached over and took Jacky’s hand. The autopilot was engaged and there was nothing for me to do other than relax.
~*~
3039.1121 IC – Sol System
Jacky’s chair folded back into the deck and she turned to go back for another short nap before we landed in Venus’ orbital station. We were excited! Five days aboard ship and now we were getting ready to go walking around the orbital. Our shipboard chronometer read 17:25 and I brought up a holo-display to show me Venus Standard Time. All the orbital stations in the Empire ran off the time of the “Prime Meridian” (or time at zero degrees).
It was 12:35 on the orbital meaning we were coming in at about lunch time. I added a little power to the thrusters and brought up my COM display. I called the station’s “Tower”.
“Dredazi this is the SS Marie out of Crondoria. Requesting permission to land?” My call again was not really needed. They had us on the books as inward bound since we filed our flight plan at Crondoria.
“Marie this is Dredazi Control. You have permission to land in Hangar Bay Three. I have sent you coordinates.” The voice was congenial and welcoming, and made me wonder if this guy had been hired simply because of his voice.
Jacky came forward we strapped in and went around the station to Hangar 3. Landing in the station was exactly like landing my fighter: Easy. A green light came on showing it was safe to go outside. We opened the doors and I took care of the forms while she took care of the systems. We had just delivered out first cargo as an independent transport vessel. Our excitement ran through our veins.
~*~
3084.0510 IC – Capital System
The Imperial Patri’s health had been going downhill for the past couple years. He was a year younger than I was but he had had a more stressful life from what they said. I was Captain Isaiah Boxwell and I had seen a lot in my life. Really though I hadn’t seen someone who didn’t live past the century mark. I was seventy-three making the Imperial Patri seventy-two. He looked like someone who was closer to twice his age.
There was a rumor the Emperors did not use age therapies and lived for only half as long as any other citizen because of it. Imperial Patri Jucal had abdicated his throne over a decade ago and his son, Emperor Jethro, had made a political office for him. It was known as Imperial Patri. I had been flying freight on my own personal transport for forty-five years now.
I started a company and hired someone to run it and the other ships. I had a fleet of thirty-five ships under me. In some ways you could say my veteran status helped me. It allowed me to get lower prices on ships and an easier time moving those ships about. This part of my business, moving ships about, was very much like being a CAG again.
It’s weird for me to think back to those years of the war. It didn’t feel like it had actually been forty-five years, but instead it was just yesterday. We paid off the loan on the Marie in the first year and from there hauled enough freight in the next two years to buy our second (and current) ship: the Eisler. Every ship in the Boxwell Shipping’s Fleet was bought the same way: saved up for without a loan.
We still have the Marie, too. She is in the small hangar bay in the back of the Eisler. I’ve taken her out a few times when I’m especially reminiscent.
“Captain, we’re ready to jump to H-space,” said my First Mate Sandra Watkins, pulling me from my reverie.
I blinked and looked around the bridge. “How far out from Vlor are we?” I asked still surfacing from my own thoughts.
“About 130 million kilometers, Captain,” Helmsman Spec.2 Pilot Jack Kane said.
“Take us to H-space Ms. Watkins,” I said. We were heading to Corgot for a few days then would take cargo from there farther in system to Crondoria.
The Eisler jumped to hyperspace but we were not getting out of our seats.
~*~
3084.0521 IC – Capital System
We had just docked with Crondoria’s orbital station in the morning of the fourteenth when we got the news of Emperor Jucal passing. The news was using headlines like “The Passing of a Titan” and “The End of a Legend”. But for most of my crew on the Eisler it was just the passing of another Emperor and might as well just say another man. For me it wasn’t just the passing of another Emperor or just another man. This man had come out into battle with us and personally led the attack against the robot fleet in Razon. This man was every bit the War Hero they had named (back in 3079 the News had nicknamed him the War Hero Emperor because the first outright war had raged during his reign and two others followed). To me he was a leader, a hero and a man for whom I would give my life.
We didn’t have any cargo planned yet and with the passing of Emperor Jucal everything seemed to be shut down. Cargo Chief Jesse Banta came to me and apologized for not having a cargo yet, but I shrugged it off. Told him it was okay.
We were docked for a few days when my PDA vibed and it was a call from the brow. I headed down to the airlock and found to my awe and wonder Emperor Jethro standing on the deck of my ship! I immediately dropped to one knee head down.
“Your majesty it is an honor to meet you,” I said. “I had the good fortune of meeting your father back in the Aldran War.” He had given me the honor of the Imperial Star of Valor which was just one step below the Imperial Shield of Honor. There were two of us there receiving the Star. The other was a man named Hoban Imonora and myself. Emperor Jucal had been arrayed in his most formal and official clothing. He had presented us each with the Star, shaken our hands and kissed our foreheads. Then we were sent on our way. Hoban shook my hand and I found out he was the Emperor’s cousin. Strange times when you meet two Imonora’s on the same day.
“Stand up Captain,” the Emperor said.
I complied. What else are you supposed to do when the most powerful man in the universe gives you an order? “Yes, your majesty,” I said.
“Captain I am here about my father. He was adamant about a few things which would happen after his death. One of them was on the list of men and women who would attend his memorial. You are one of these men, Captain.” Emperor Jethro paused to take a breath. “Captain you are here by ordered by your Emperor to appear in your Senior Captain’s Dress Blues on the tenth day of June at the Imperial Palace.”
“Your Majesty?” I asked and waited.
He nodded for me to continue.
“I think you may have the wrong man, my lord. I am not a Senior Captain, just a Captain.” I tried not to squeak while I spoke. Standing in front of so much power filled ones soul with awe and wonder.
“I’m sorry Captain,” the Emperor said. “You are not Senior Captain Isaiah Boxwell?”
I was stunned. I didn’t know what to say. “No your majesty,” I finally got out passed my tongue which was doing its best to stop me from speaking at all.
He held his hand out to one of the two men standing behind him in full combat gear. He came forward and put a package in the Emperor’s hand. He opened it. “Captain Isaiah Boxwell, I, Emperor Jethro Imonora, on this date of 3084.0521 bestow upon you the distinguished rank of Senior Captain. Hereby,” he waived his hand at one of the men behind him, “giving you the silver Stars of said rank and awarding you all privileges and benefits arising with said rank. Thank you for your service to the Empire and myself Captain.” As he had spoken the part about silver stars the man on the left had stepped forward and removed my gold Captain’s Stars and replaced them with silver Senior Captain’s Stars.
“This was a gift from my father, Captain,” the Emperor said then holding out the Certificate. “You should know he did not give out anything which was undeserved.”
“Thank you, my lord,” I said.
He reached out his hand to shake. I took his hand and we shook. He reached up and grabbed me securely by either side of the head pulled me forward and kissed my forehead, the mark of excellence in the Imonoran Empire. I had read it was supposed to be like what a proud father would do to their child, the same reason why the Emperor could be called “sire”.
“I will see you on the tenth of June then, Senior Captain?” he asked letting my head go.
“Yes sire,” I had only ever used the title once before and it was when his father had kissed my forehead. The moment something happens as the feeling of immense power brushes the top of your head and then moves away again. You feel as though maybe this man is the progenitor of the entire Empire.
We all bowed then as he turned and left my ship.
---
I spent the next several days getting fitted for my new dress blues and buying several more pairs of silver stars so I had a pair for each uniform. Then on the appointed day I showed up at the Imperial Palace and was placed in a limousine and taken to the largest cathedral I have ever seen.
The Memorial was a somber time full of reflection and introspection.
Afterward I returned to the Eisler and we got running. I couldn’t stand to be in this system anymore. We left and yes I was probably running away from the idea of my own mortality but that was that.
Part 5 – Retired
3161.0419 IC – Razon System
“I’m going to die soon. I know it. As you listened to my story I hope you get a picture of my life. I’ve seen so much in my one hundred fifty years. I have outlived four Emperors and have seen the reign of the first ruling Empress. I have hauled millions of metric tons of cargo and even had the Emperor on my ship. I outlived my wife, one of my children and my company.
“Jacky – who was ten years older than me – passed away six years ago. I think she couldn’t get over the grief she carried from Billy’s passing, two years before her. Billy was our youngest son. He was born in 3097 and his death was an accident and the cause of my retirement from the bridge. He was working with some engineering crew when a new helmsman pushed the wrong button on accident. I was told it wasn’t my fault, Billy had been a hero at the end. None of those words mean anything, though, when you are cradling the dead body of your baby boy in your arms.
“I retired to picking cargos as the Cargo Chief – again. Jacky retired altogether. She couldn’t bring herself to go back into the Engineering Space. She couldn’t get passed the grief. I feel this was my fault too, because if I could have let go of the Eisler and stayed on an orbital or even groundside she may have been able to work through it. She may still be alive today.
“Dearest daughter, Marie, I want you to know I am so completely proud of you. Don’t ever forget it or let anyone else tell you different. You are an awe-inspiring Captain and I was proud you were my last CO. Marie sail the stars and go wherever they will take you.
“My beloved son, John, know it was not your fault Billy passed away. I’m so proud of the man you have become. There are no words to express to you the depth of feeling you inspire in my heart. Your dry-dock is the best in the Empire.
“I’m sorry to the both of you this is the way I must say good bye to you. I know if you had known my plans to take the Marie out and sail her to my oblivion you would have stopped me. I would have too in your shoes. The only thing you need to know is I am at peace and with your mother.
“I love you my children. Good bye,” the hologram of Isaiah Boxwell closed its mouth and just stared out for a moment. Then as tears rolled down his children’s faces the image of Isaiah Boxwell slowly faded.
~*~
Isaiah Boxwell once a multibillionaire in his own right, once a Senior Captain of the highest esteem in the Empire, once a proud tall man who carried himself without showing the weight of command. Now Isaiah was a little hunched from the same command and the years he carried it. He had made a quick jump to hyperspace and was out in the blackness of space. Only empty space and stars were visible to him. He cried then for the first time in more than one hundred thirty years. The Marie drifted. He brought up a holo-display and tapped an icon. The doors on either side of the Marie slowly started to open. Red warning lights flashed and a klaxon rang out. Soon all sound was eaten by the vacuum.
The light in his eyes faded as one final thought raced through his mind: Box had flown again!