Within The Darkness
By TMS
Copyright 2013 TMS
Cover design copyright TMS 2013 all rights reserved
TMS
https://thisistms.wordpress.com
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INDEX
Subdivision 1
Subdivision 2
Subdivision 3
Subdivision 4
Subdivision 5
Subdivision 6
Subdivision 7
Subdivision 8
About
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Subdivision1
Within The Darkness
The first time I heard, I balked it off as just fringe talk, later on, rumours or gossip, journalistic boredom, lack of interesting news. Nothing official was ever said, so how could I, as an agent of the constellation, an educated man from the inner systems, believe that such existed?
My reality was of reports, and feeds from the fringe systems that spoke of the lost tribes increased savagery in their efforts to steal ships for parts and cargo. At times killing whole crews and leaving everything behind, the madness.
This is what I believed, and being a man of the military, when the notice came out across the constellation that a campaign into outer galactical space against the lost tribes was being raised, I eagerly signed up.
Who knew, who knew, who knew? Not me, now here we are. Moments before death, starring at this, this being, staring at me coughing up blood. I think, all of our deaths where play, some sort of curious amusement for this creature. It could finish easily me off, but chooses not to; instead, it watches, carelessly touching my wounds, showing its true face because it knows I’m the last.
“What are you?”
I ask.
I know it can speak, and understand, because all the time when it was fooling us, it spoke just fine. It stops touching, and moves closer to my face, as if to hear my whisper,
“What are you?” I say again.
The creature searches my face with its hand, and looks into my eyes. The arm until the elbow has turned into a man’s’, the rest of the body is still alien. The feelings that emanate from this searching hand make me feel so insignificant it hurts.
It leans towards my ear, whispering in its own voice, the first alien voice that I’ve ever heard, and the last voice that I will hear,
“What, are, you?”
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Subdivision2
“What are you reading?”
Asked Acor, as he took a seat across from Jbo and put his tray down
“Just catching up on the news”
Replied Jbo.
Acor touched on the table where the display was, and flicked it up. The display now floated between them.
“Fringe news my friend, and from these people?”
“There’re things out there Acor, scary things, that the Constellation is keeping from the people.”
“You’re the captain of a carrier back on your home moon, 500 men report to you, yet you talk like aren’t in the military, you don’t get the reports, haven’t read the papers on the lost tribes, don’t see the feeds.
“They say it’s not the work of the lost tribes”
“And these people who say so, have they gone beyond the fringe systems, into outer galactical space, and asked the lost tribes men if it was them.”
“Nobody knows where the lost tribes are.”
“Exactly. Now since you have this page already running, you won’t mind if I check last night’s scores”
Acor didn’t wait for an answer, and in moments had the page switched to sports.
“What do you think our chances are?
Asked Jbo
Acor continued flipping through the pages, and navigating figures as he answered,
“The quadrant group that we’re in is tough, Bele, Monagoova, Jku, Swasea, biggest threats. Next week I don’t know how we are going to deal with constellations’ MVP A01 from the star system Tpua. We beat Bele yesterday, it was hard fought, but we took the victory 673-640. The top ten are all interchangeable, and only four are going to make it through, it’s going to be tough, and if the season goes on like this, then I don’t know who’s going to make it to the Sectors, but I’m always hopeful that we’ll make it to the Sectors.”
“Banoo played well yesterday,”
Added Jbo
“I don’t know how many people I keep telling, Banoo is no saviour. We can’t bank our whole campaign on Banoo”
“But he plays well, and gets points.”
“For now, but look at his end games...”
Acor bought up on the screen, Banoo’s near season end metrics, from previous season, and superimposed the graphs.
“You see, all glory in the beginning but in the end, when the season has been bad, and we need him, he always disappoints.”
“I see”
Replied Jbo as he paged through the data
“Why does he play them?”
Asked Jbo as he paused on a page.
“You, I don’t think you go to the same strategy classes, as me, isn’t it obvious? He’s a good season starter. Speaking of class, there’s class now, are you going?”
“Yes, let’s go.”
The two got up, recycled their trays and walked out of the canteen.
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Subdivision3
“You are all men of war, trained killers and commanders of warriors, and I am not. I am a man of philosophy and logic, yet I am the one lecturing the class. Why is that, anyone knows the answer?”
Asked the old man, who was sitting on the edge of his desk
“Psych war!”
Somebody in the back shouted out.
Acorn and Bjo sat in the fourth row from the front quietly listening.
“Correct this class is psych war, but what is psych war?... yes you”
“Psychological warfare.” Answered the lady
“I don’t know why they keep titling this class psych war, it should actually be called developing individual logic for warfare scenarios’. Now being in the military it is assumed that all your decisions are logical because of extensive training and conditioning, and for military decisions, this should be true. But what about the non military part of you, captains have developed psychosis due to lack of sleep in a standoff. I don’t want that to happen to you, so what I’m going to teach you, you are all grown men and women, but there is still space to learn. What I want to teach you is that no matter what you do people always die, whether you are asleep or awake, they die, angry or sad, they die, and as a leader you have to separate yourself from that, and make your decisions from a logical standpoint.
I’ve said a lot for a first day, haven’t I? I think that is enough for class today. Download the assignment, and have it done for tomorrow s class. Good day”
Acor looked and Bjo as they both stood up and proceed to leave the class,
“A bit lose,” said Acor as he shook his hand sideways.
“I don’t know... some of what he said made sense,” replied Bjo
“This is exactly why I ducked it the last cycle that I was here.”
As they walked out of the door, and into the transit way, Masier approached;
“Hydro?”
“Last class of the day.” Replied Acor as he led the way.
“It only starts in ninety, I need to go get my kit, I’ll meet you there” Said Bjo
“Me too, let’s just meet up there”
Replied
Acor as he turned left and got on the Arteric walkway. A moving path near the sides of the major passageways, that heads in opposite directions, depending on whether you’re on the left or on the right one. It ended at the corner of T5, and continued after the street, Acor turned into T5 and got onto one of the five lane escalators down. It dropped for 500 metres, Acor walked into the station, angry at himself for not packing all his kit in the morning.
He saw the Masoon line and got on the transport. Within a few minutes, it started humming, and just like that, they were in Masoon. He got out, took the elevators up, got to his room, got his kit, was down, transport to the Hydro training facility. Walked into Hydro, changing rooms changed, and was in their classes training arena with time to spare. The lecturers hadn’t arrived yet, so people just milled around, skin completely covered in their body suites, head displays on clear, in groups talking. Bjo saw Acor and Masier standing together, and walked up to them; they were talking about Hydro;
“I’m a fan of Hydro, I think it’s good to have your body and mind broken, every now and then” said Acor
“I do it, but I don’t like it” replied Masier
“What are you talking about?” asked Bjo
Before they could answer, the five lecturers dressed in body suites walked in, two went to the consoles by the sides of the pool. The one carved out of stone, walking in front of the three that stood spoke;
“Ladies and gentlemen, tag in if you haven’t, this is not an introductory class, so you’ve all been through hydro before, get into the water..”
He led the way as the rest of his team jumped in, followed by the students
“Today’s lesson is density depth psychosis; we’ll get into the details under water. Ah, what else, oh yes, welcome to hell.”
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Subdivision4
Three weeks later, Acor arrived back from M9. He walked out of the elevators from port DC5, and was greeted by his assistant, who was a captain in training, and also served as a deckhand on Acors ship The Night meridian.
“Welcome back Sir”
“Jt”
“How was your cycle on M9?”
“M9, what can I say, but it’s good to be back home”
Replied Acor, as he got on the moving path, followed by Jt who moved forward, and stood next to him
“How’s my crew?” asked Acor
“They’re good.”
“You’re part of my crew also”
“Yes, we’re all good, it’s good to have you back sir.”
“I trust that the chief is expecting me.”
“For today? I thought today you’d want to see you family, and rest a bit, I made it for tomorrow sir.”
“Call her office, and see what time, she can see me today.”
“Okay sir”
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Subdivision5
Two hours later Acor was walking into the chiefs’ office.
She was dressed as always in her full regalia, except for her hat, that she had placed on the side of the desk that she sat typing on. The walls where blank, but Acor knew that if there was no military information to display, she liked to look at the flower gardens, and fountains of the south of Noot.
“Acor, welcome back, please sit.”
Acor approached the table, pulled up the chair on the left and sat
“Your Honour, it’s good to be back,”
“So what is this I hear, about you wanting to join the campaign against the lost tribes, in outer galactical space?”
Whatever had been displaying on the table was gone, and was replaced by a clear seawater effect.
“Your honour, I am a servant of the constellation, and a military man. The actions of the lost tribes have been increasing in violence and disrespect, I take this disrespect personally, and as such I feel that I must add my forces to this campaign that is being planned.”
“This has nothing to do with the fact that it is a lord Axas’ campaign?”
“I respect him like any of the other great heroes of the constellation, but this is not about fighting alongside him, it’s about the cause, and I believe in it.”
“Don’t do any planning yet, I know you, and I’ll be watching you, don’t do any planning. Take this month, spend it with your family, and next month we’ll talk.”
“The date of the main forces take off from Aro is...”
“I know, there is still a lot to be done before this campaign starts, you won’t miss anything, now go home.”
“Okay Chief.”
Acor bowed and walked out the office.
Jt was there waiting, seated on the chair closest to the door.
“How did the meeting go?”
He asked, as he got up and started walking out with Acor
“The chief basically put me on ice for a month, damn.”
“Well this year so far you’ve been away 210 days”
“Okay, let’s go home then.”
“Yes sir.”
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Subdivision6
Two hours later Acor walked out the escalator, and into his commune.
Space practicalities practiced by the first settlers, were now a normal part of life,
Nobody lived alone, communal living was the social norm, each residence strove for self-reliance, having dietary specialists, technical maintenance specialists, child specialists, income specialists, and many others.
Acors’ commune had four income specialists, he was one of them, a standard dietary specialist, who even over saw his meals when Acor was off planet. An all round maintenance specialist, a medical specialist, and an assistant, who liaised with Acors’ military assigned assistant and specialized in assisting everybody in the commune. This was Acors’ family.
A child was raised in a child-bearing commune, or in a commune that has child bearing capabilities, and the right specialists. As the child grows, they move to a youth commune, school, then institute. until they now go looking for a commune family of their own that will meet their needs, or needs their skills.
To a person whose people have never lived in space, this way of living would seem very protective and paranoid.
But this how life on a spaceship is, it was discovered long ago in space, that there is emotional and psychological safety in living in numbers.
Every individual on the ship is a specialist at something that is needed, and even though that individual might not practice that speciality every day, when the time comes and that speciality is needed, he is there.
The same with communal living, people only practice their communal duties when required, the rest of the time, they are going on about their lives.
Acor looked around, nobody seemed to be home. He vaguely remembered reading a report from the commune assistant, about the other three income specialists being off planet, Kayla off system, Exo of planet, moon colony, Ina he couldn’t remember where she was.
Acor went up stairs and into his room, looked at his family clips playing in mute. His bags and clothing had already been unpacked and stored, because the assistants had sorted them out earlier.
He took a shower, got dressed and went back downstairs to the communal spaces.
The dietary specialist Sua, and the assistant Myj where back, sitting on the couch watching something.
Acor grabbed a drink from the wooden box that was on the table and set down.
“It’s been a bit, welcome back,” said Sua as she lifted her drink to him
“Thanks” replied Acor as he lifted his drink to meet hers.
“It’s good to be talking to you on planet” Said Myj
“It’s good.”
“Let us intoxicate and celebrate Bjo and Pia, should be joining us later.”
Said Sua as she took out three more drinks from the box, and passed the
m around
“It is good to have you back”
She lifted her drink up,
“it’s good to be back” replied Acor as he lifted his up to meet hers
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Subdivision7
The next morning Acor was woken up by an unexpected call on the door
“Yes?”
“Acor, you sound horrible, Jt just contacted me, there’s a fleet wide meeting for all captains in three hours at division, he’ll be here in thirty.”
“They said that they want me home for a month, now they wake me up, okay I’m up.
Acor rolled out of bed, touched the side table, wall to the left started broadcasting sports news and highlights. He walked to the right corner, and the wall slid open revealing a bathroom, with shower water already running.
Twenty minutes later Acor walked downstairs dressed in his regimentals, and was met by Jt waiting.
“Here.”
Said JT as he passed him the drink that the dietary specialist had prepared
“Thanks”
He took the drink, and started gulping it down
“Let’s get going” Said Jt
“I thought I was out for a month.”