My first assignment was to the Earth Ship Relentless. I took the mid-morning shuttle from Luna City to the Armstrong Transfer Station, the main hub of passenger distribution for all traffic entering and leaving Earth orbit. I was the only marine, and as such, entitled to one of the first class seats near the front of the shuttle. The other passengers nodded to me respectfully as I took my seat just aft of the control cabin. I stored my carryon bag underneath my acceleration couch and sank gratefully into the deeply padded cushions. Acceleration shouldn’t be a problem with artificial gravity controls, but the law required all ships to have the proper safeguards for travel should the internal gravity fail while in transit. Either way, it made for a very comfortable chair, especially when I was hung over.
A stewardess walked by, pretty in a professional sort of way, retrieving a tray stocked with glasses of ice from a miniature galley just in front of me. She smiled at me as she began to load various drinks on the tray. “Where are you headed, soldier?” she asked.
I shrugged. “The Relentless.” I made a vague gesture away from the moon. “My unit will be tasked with internal security on the ship as well as forming the core of any boarding parties…if it gets to that.”
She pursed her lips. “You look a little peaked this morning. Party too hard last night?”
I nodded. “I guess so, ma’am.” I looked at her again. She really was pretty. Short, blonde hair that wouldn’t get in the way if the ship was in free fall, a nice, trim figure accentuated by a form-fitting navy blue coverall, clear blue eyes. I placed my head back in the cushion and closed my eyes, trying to think of Shannon.
“Take this,” she said, forcing a plastic cup into my hand. It was filled with what looked like tomato juice. She reached behind her into the galley and pulled out a stalk of celery and a tiny vial. She put two drops from the vial in my glass before stirring it with the celery stalk. “A little vitamin b12 and some tomato juice and you’ll be feeling good as new.” She smiled. “Drink up, soldier. I’ll be back to check on you once we’re slotted in our orbit.” She moved down the aisle behind me, distributing more drinks on request.
I sipped the concoction, appreciating the tangy, salty taste as I relaxed. I had stayed in the NCO bar until I was thrown out, sharing anecdotes back and forth with Sergeant Abrams. I decided that I liked him, despite the living hell he had made of our lives while we were in NCO school. Toward the end of the night, after we were well into our second bottle of tequila, I had learned more of what I would face in my coming assignment.
Earth forces had essentially retaken the entire inner solar system. We also had several ships of the line occupying the Jovian system. Private businesses were already beginning to ship materials sunward—ice mined from Europa, sulfur and phosphorous from Io, iron, nickel, and cobalt from Ganymede, trans-uranics from a tiny moon called Himalia. Packaged in cheap containers assembled with materials made in the Jovian system, the minerals were pushed into calculated orbits that would intercept Earth as it traveled around the sun. It was slow, but cheap and economical, freeing up our ships for the much more important jobs of interdicting space and ferrying people to and from hot spots.
The rumor mill said that Relentless, along with three other ships of the line, were heading for Saturn. We were to secure the system of moons and provide the infrastructure for mining operations on Titan in order to provide us with simple organics and nitrogenous compounds for outer-system industries. No human had yet ventured that far into the outer system. At least, no human had ventured that far officially. Some of the fighter jocks claimed to have gone outside the orbit of Neptune in pursuit of a damaged Rak’Lan cruiser. Certainly no humans had ever been to Saturn or its system of moons and asteroids. I was going where no one had gone before. I chuckled to myself at the old television show reference.
“Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. This is your Captain. We will be cruising at a leisurely six tenths of a gee for our first two hours. After that, we’ll make an insertion into Armstrong Transfer Station’s traffic pattern and be in free orbit until we make hard seal. We have turned our internal gravity field to Earth normal for the duration of the flight. Our total transit time is four hours, sixteen minutes. On behalf of the shuttle crew, we hope you enjoy your flight.”
I wondered when Shannon was going to report for duty. We had the option of taking any of the shuttles over the next two days, but I wanted to arrive early and start seeing to the needs of my section before I started having my men show up. I suspected that Dunkel was also already aboard, familiarizing herself with the ship systems, the squad bays, and running checks on inventory and stores.
Perhaps a change of venue would allow Shannon to at least talk to me. I wasn’t sure if our relationship could ever be what it was before, but I wanted her to know why I had treated her the way that I did. I wanted her to know that I still loved her, even if I had been tough on her. I wanted to tell her that I was a selfish prick.
I looked out of the window beside my couch and saw Earth looming steadily larger. A storm was brewing off of the northern coast of Australia. New Guinea and Southeast Asia were obscured by fluffy, white clouds. Somewhere, over on the night side of the globe laid the USA, and my home town. What were my parents doing? I hadn’t received any mail from my mother since I had come home from Jupiter, and I hadn’t talked to my father since I had left home. I suppose I had just been too busy with training and coursework to make the call. The speed of light lag in real-time transmissions also bugged me a little bit, making it inconvenient and awkward to have a conversation.
Who was I kidding? I didn’t belong on Earth anymore. I belonged out in the empty vastness of space. I realized that I loved what I was doing. Despite the questions I had asked Sergeant Abrams the night before; I wouldn’t choose to be anywhere else. I didn’t belong in a university, playing games in a fraternity. This was where I belonged. All the other stuff was just an excuse. I didn’t want to be in contact with home because it reminded me of who I was, not what I had become.
I closed my eyes and drifted into slumber, content with my destination.
