******
Julius jumped up from his bunk, trying to blink away the dream. But as he rubbed his eyes, the stark images surfaced like fossils dug up from an ancient past. It had been over a hundred years since his days in CSOW—since the days of the war. Had it all really happened the way it did in the dream?
He got out of bed and walked to his desk. From inside a drawer, he pulled out a digital pad—old technology, yes, but still serving the purpose of storage for old photos. Julius thumbed through the images, finding old ones from his days back at CSOW. Pictures of the hangars, the spacecraft, the aftermath of the attack… long-lost details that matched his dream all too well.
Why dream about it now? he wondered.
He had no reason to think about those days—a forgotten past that nobody cared about, especially him.
Knowing he’d never fall back asleep, Julius put the pad away and got dressed. He needed to get out and clear his mind, which meant a walk to the observation lounge, the best place for his own personal escape into solitude and reflection.
He left his quarters and began walking down the corridor when he felt a vibration in his earlobe. He finger-tapped the skull earring that served as a communication device. A small holographic projection appeared in front of him. The face that materialized was a woman with short-cropped hair. Her lively green eyes seemed to contradict her plain-faced features, something that Julius always appreciated about her looks.
“Yes, Laina?” Julius said, recognizing a hint of irritation in his own voice.
“Did I interrupt anything?” Laina said.
“I was headed to the observation lounge. Why?”
“Oh, nothing. When you have a chance, come by my quarters. We need to talk about some personnel issues.”
“Personnel?” Julius snorted. “Maybe you should be talking to the personnel director. Though, I hear he is quite busy these days filling out exit paperwork, so you may need to schedule an appointment with his stalwart assistant.”
“Sarcasm noted,” Laina said, rolling her eyes. “Seriously, though, we need to talk about these unruly pirates that you call a crew.”
“Careful, Laina. You might hurt someone’s feelings talking about our employees like that.”
“Hurt feelings? On this rusty old barge? I doubt it. The only hurt feelings you’ll find are the ones at the pleasure ports we leave behind.”
Julius frowned at that comment and the memory it dredged up. On their last shore leave near a pleasure station around Mars, one of his crew had raped a woman. The bridge crew had intercepted the complaint from the station to patrolling UEP Enforcement in time to recall the crew and manage a hasty escape. Julius never found out who the guilty party was, but if he did, he would bring back the time-honored tradition of keelhauling.
“Fine. I’ll be by later,” Julius said, cutting the connection with a tap of the ear-link.
Julius continued his way to the observation lounge. As he walked the once heavily traveled corridors, he was reminded how much his ship now showed its age. The previously polished walls had deteriorated into stained and scratched surfaces. Without sufficient crew to assign to the arduous task of cleaning her up, the Sea Wolf had been neglected. The United Earth Parliament would have scuttled the ship in a space junkyard if it had still been a part of their navy.
The Sea Wolf was older than Julius himself was, he mused—long past her prime, when she did battle against the Martian Confederacy Navy in the first post-A.I. war. Now, the ship was probably the last of its kind… just like her captain, he thought as he continued down a curving corridor. Nevertheless, it was his ship—well, his and Laina’s anyway.
Slowing his pace, Julius shook his head. Crew morale was another problem. Due to their last failed engagement, they’d lost a good portion of their crew because of attrition and desertion. They were also without dedicated pilots for their Z-40 fighters; crewmembers would be doubling as fighter pilots along with fulfilling their other vital roles, leaving the Sea Wolf terribly inefficient during a prolonged engagement. Perhaps he and Laina could bounce some ideas off each other to help with these problems. Maybe that’s what she wanted to talk about, he thought as he picked up his pace again.
Julius, though, came to a sudden stop at a corridor junction when he noticed a pungent, sulfuric odor in the air. He looked down the corridor and noticed a crew member working on a section of wall.
“What are you working on, spacer?” Julius said.
Startled, the crewman looked up and dropped something. He made a sloppy salute, coinciding with the reverberation of his tools clattering against the floor.
“Yes, sir! I… umm,” he stammered. “I’m working on the irrigation system, sir!”
Julius saluted back and deliberately looked at the man’s rank insignia: Junior Repair Technician, Spaceman Recruit.
“Where’s the rest of your outfit, spacer?” Julius asked.
“I lost the last hand, sir—so, well, I have to clean this up alone. I think the rest are still playing cards in the recreation lounge.”
Julius frowned. He wasn’t sure whether he should reprimand the others for leaving this recruit to do their job, or commend them for working a new recruit to the bone; it did build character in them, after all.
“Very well, carry on,” he said. Julius moved down the hall and sniffed the air again. “I want this fixed and the smell gone by tomorrow, spacer.”
Julius entered the observation lounge at the end of the corridor. As usual, he had the room to himself. The rear bulkhead had a set of tables and a drink dispenser alongside it. Transparent metal walls wrapped around the lounge, giving a breathtaking view of the stars and asteroids. Julius touched a panel on the wall that activated the image magnification.
A holographic projection appeared, covering the walls with a collage of images showing cosmic objects of interest. He moved to the side of the lounge that seemed to give the best view, letting his gaze fall on the sight of his quiet companions on other side of the metal walls.
In one of the images, he could see colorful gases painting the canvas of space with their hazy strokes of bright red and blue swirls. The stars along the edges of the nebula, drowned in its luminescence, faded into tiny speckles within its colorful fabric.
To Julius, the nebula’s beauty paled in comparison to another spectacle the display focused on: two asteroids projected to be on a collision course. According to the display data, the meeting of the asteroids would be imminent. Like billiards set in motion on a galactic pool table, the two boulders hurtled through space at each other with fierce conviction.
Julius admired the two great behemoths—both determined to destroy the other, both unwilling to back away from their inevitable collision. The stubbornness within the two rocks mirrored something in himself.
The crew of the Sea Wolf lived in the shadows, the fringes of modern civilization: a place few dared to visit and even fewer dared to live. He saw a bit of himself in everything around him here, from the beauty of the distant nebula to the cold stone within the asteroids. Space was his ocean and the cold dark of infinity suited him. It was a place he could live and share with the quiet companions of asteroids and debris.
These companions did not speak, but he could hear them nonetheless; they had stories to tell. Stories of the millions of years they witnessed as they drifted in the void. They witnessed the expansion of humanity into the universe, the countless wars that ensued, and the one big war that nearly ended it all. He was not there for all of that, but he did witness and partake in some of the pivotal events in human history—the last 150 years of it.
He looked down at himself with satisfaction; he certainly did not look that old. The marvels of anti-aging technology gave him the body of someone in his thirties; a final parting gift from Majesty before its ultimate demise at the hands of the United Earth Parliament.
A beep sounded from the astronomical display. Julius returned his attention to the show taking place in fro
nt of him. The two asteroids met head on, their impact sending fragments of themselves hurling in every direction. The anticipation of the explosion was overshadowed by its disappointing conclusion.
Julius frowned. The silence of the collision was always unsatisfying. Although he had seen the spectacle many times before, he always hoped to hear a great boom that would somehow defy the fundamental laws of space. He watched the fragments dissipate, spreading out to join the smaller crowds of rock that floated in the dense field of space junk.
Disappointed, Julius left the observation lounge behind and headed to the nearest elevator. Once inside he spoke a command to the elevator panel.
“Deck Nine.”
He waited to hear the sound of the magnetic clamps releasing and the elevator moving, but nothing happened.
“Deck Niiinnne,” he enunciated.
Nothing happened. Aggravated, he opened up the panel and punched in the deck number. He could hear the clamps release and the elevator moved. He was glad Laina was not there to chastise him about the condition of the ship.
The elevator doors soon parted and he stepped out. The senior officers’ quarters, including his own were located on Deck 9. He walked to the end of the corridor where Laina’s quarters were and entered.
Laina, a creature of comfort, had the most luxurious suite in the ship. In order to provide her the necessary space she was accustomed to, several crew quarters had been merged together.
“What took you so long? Trouble with the elevators, huh?” Laina sat in a couch surrounded by other plush couches, chairs, and a small but ornate table.
“No, I just took my time so that I could irritate you more.”
Julius gazed around the suite. Extravagance was certainly an integral part of Laina’s makeup. Artwork carpeted every wall, while more artwork lined the halls waiting to be hung. At this point, she probably would need to start hanging them from the ceiling.
“Fascinating,” Laina said. “I could almost interpret that as you joking with me. The years of working together finally got through that emotionless, military exterior of yours.”
“I wouldn’t count on that; there does have to be some semblance of discipline and order on this ship. And it is certainly not going to be taken seriously if it comes from you. No offense.”
Laina shrugged indifferently. “You be the brawn, Julius. I’ll continue to be the beauty and the brains.”
Not in the mood for verbal fencing, Julius found a couch opposite Laina’s and plowed himself into it. He looked around at the paintings that hung from the wall; one caught his eye. It was a portrait of a heavy cruiser, looking very much like the Sea Wolf.
The ship in it had the same saucer-like construction and tube-shaped secondary hull perched on top. A pair of large accelerated proton cannons were visible, along with other weapon emplacements along its cylindrical bow. The thing that stood out the most from the portrait was a colorful band of gas that appeared to be slicing through the ship’s hull; the source of the gas could not be seen.
“Is that one new?” he said.
Laina followed his gaze. “Oh, yes, and that’s a real picture not a drawing. Something I picked up from an associate of mine who deals in war memorabilia. It is an old and very rare piece actually. The ship is the UES California. The picture was taken from one of its accompanying ships before it slipped away. The swirls of gas are nanobot clouds ripping through the hull; remarkable scene that must have been. I thought the colorful explosions were pretty.”
“Pretty huh?” Julius said. “I bet it wasn’t pretty for them.”
Laina looked like she was going to say something, but bit her lip instead.
Julius stood up to make a closer inspection of it. He studied the image intently, tracing the swirls of nanobots in his mind. They reminded him of the beautiful nebula he had witnessed earlier in the observation lounge.
“They were taken by surprise,” Julius said. “The nanobots had morphed into the form of a large, adrift asteroid. The California had no idea how close the threat was until it was on top of them. The ship was sunk with all hands. The rest of the task force barely managed to get away. They had to unleash an EMP burst. It was a full rout.”
“Oh,” Laina said. “I guess you know the story then.”
“It was a historic defeat,” Julius said matter-of-factly.
“Well,” Laina said. “The truth is that it looked so much like the Sea Wolf that I just had to have it.”
Julius frowned and returned to the couch.
“You mentioned a personnel problem, Laina?” he said as he dropped himself onto the couch again. The impact caused a noticeable creak to be heard. Julius could see Laina wince.
“Yes,” Laina said. “I put the word out that we’re looking for more spacers to crew this flying hubcap of yours. Naturally, no one was interested. However, I did receive intel from an associate on Mars. Apparently, a joint UEP and Martian Enforcement task force has apprehended one of our competitors… Stromond—you remember him right? His compound was raided and assets seized. Of course, many of his former employees got away. Word has it they’re hiding out somewhere on Deimos-1. I’m thinking it would be a good idea to recruit them before an ambitious bug crawls up their ass and they decide to go into business for themselves.”
“So they finally got Stromond, huh? Can’t say I’m all that surprised. He was taking too many chances with that drug operation. The UEP seems to be really focusing on taking out Elation dealers. You know that’s the third major Elation operation they shutdown this year?”
She nodded. “Yes, so I’ve heard. Good thing we don’t deal in it—and we never will. You’ll be surprised to hear, though, that it wasn’t any brilliant work from UEP Enforcement that got him in the end. Apparently, he was turned in by one of his own. What a shocker—pirates are usually such an honorable and trustworthy bunch.”
“Really?” Julius said. “And why would we want to recruit a bunch of potential traitors?”
“Oh, don’t worry yourself. I know who was behind the tipoff, and he’s not associated with this particular group. These ruffians we’re meeting are desperate for a new home. I’ve already had some dialog with them. They’re ready to join our motley crew.”
Julius raised an eyebrow.
“Really?” he said. “Well, it sounds like you’ve already made up your mind about recruiting them. Perhaps I should just leave all those decisions to you.”
“Don’t get all sore on me,” Laina said. “You know how hard it is to get people willing to even admit to pirate experience? Not something you find on a resume, Julius.”
“Oh, so we’re pirates again now. I thought we were a company with happy, paid employees.”
“Yes,” Laina said. “Highly overpaid employees. But whatever—it’s not easy to get people who know the drill. Especially after that last bout we had against the UEP. Reputation is everything in this game. Word does spread, you know?”
Julius leaned forward.
“Look Laina,” he said. “If you bothered to keep score, you would notice that the UEP is way behind in the game. Mistakes will happen, but we survive.”
“Oh, calm down,” she said. “What we lost is a drop in the bucket; both in profits and lives. If you ask me, we lost the worst half of the crew anyway—we’re better off without them.”
“A loss in any men is loss,” Julius said, “We’re also running on a skeleton crew and now we have no dedicated pilots.”
“Both of which will be soon corrected,” she said. “Once we hire this bunch on Deimos-1. They are pilots after all.”
“Pilots?” he said. “You didn’t mention that.”
“Well, I just did. And we need them.”
“What we also need,” Julius began, “is a morale boost. After we pick up these recruits, we should put in at New Las Vegas. It’s far enough from UEP influence that no one would be looking for us there. We could park the Sea Wolf near it and send shuttles to Deimos-1. From there, if all
checks out, they could take the public shuttles off that rock to the Martian resort.”
“They?” she said. “You’re not going?”
“No. Who could I trust to make sure the remaining crew doesn’t just run off with the ship?”
Laina looked stunned. “You don’t really think they’d do that, do you?”
“Don’t think so, but you want to chance it? I think the shore leave will help our morale problem. If for nothing else, then by the time they’re done gambling away their credits, they’ll have no choice but to stick it out with us for lack of money.”
Laina smiled. “Now that’s smart thinking.”
She leaned back in her chair and looked up at the ceiling with a dreamy look. “New Las Vegas. I haven’t been there in a long, long time. You know, last time I was there, I met this wonderful man from Europa while playing poker. He was tall and handsome and…” Her voice trailed off.
Julius stood up and began to leave the room.
“Hey, where you going?” she asked.
“I’m going to take my shuttle and do a flyby of Deimos-1. I’m not taking the Sea Wolf near it for nothing.”
“I see. I’ll send their files over to your shuttle. I guess you don’t trust my contacts, huh?”
“You know the answer to that,” Julius said as he headed out the door.
Chapter 2: Fresh Blood
“The medals they pinned on my flesh were strategically placed to hide all the war wounds.”
Julius Verndock, Captain, UEP Covert Space Operations Wing (CSOW), December 2073