ShipCore

USD: 38 Days after arrival at Fort Glisson

Location: Van Biesbroeck’s star, Meltisar, Fort Glisson, Company S, 1st Cadre

Alex followed Second Lieutenant Richardson out of the admin building and to a waiting jeep. The driver waved at them, and Alex noted that while it had a frame most of the top had been replaced with lightly shimmering I-fields. Richardson hopped in first, and they both got settled in the back two seats.

Surprisingly, the I-field on the vehicle didn’t really block the view, but it did stop the cold air from biting into them as they sped down the paved road. It was daylight and Alex got a much better view of the ride than on the bus.

“I’m surprised the car has an I-field. Is that normal?”

The driver, who had the insignia of a corporal on his shoulder, looked in the rearview mirror at her. “Sure? Never been ground side much? Civvie versions have them to. Must have in the winter.”

“Just seems like it would make more sense to have a fully covered cabin.” Alex replied.

Richardson shook his head, “Never been off-roading? Half the fun is the wind going by. And getting covered in mud.”

Alex raised an eyebrow, “I’ve been covered in mud enough already for a lifetime…”

“Everyone in the service goes through that, even officers. What’s your MOS supposed to be after boot?” Richardson asked.

“I’m supposed to go back to MIL-1A and attend the Naval Academy.” Alex answered.

“Ah, officer track. Yeah, I’m not surprised. Specials usually tend that way.” Richardson answered.

“Really? I thought that they’d be used for more hands on things… we are stronger than normal.” Alex said.

“There is an infantry MOS that operators go through for enhancement, but it’s much more standardized for special forces. They also only accept normal since the process needs to be the same for all of them. I’m sure that your group has a wide variety of strengths and weaknesses since you all were different before signing up?”

Alex nodded. “Yeah, there is a pretty wide range in my cadre. Most tend toward normal, but there are a few that stand out.”

The driver snorted, “Like yourself? Never heard of a recruit getting an airlift to orbit for a visit before.”

Richardson looked at her as well, a curious look on his face. “It is pretty strange. I did drop off a cargo to the base, so it’s not that out of line, but nepotism isn’t usually that blatant. Who is your patron?”

Alex blinked; a bit surprised, even though she realized she shouldn’t be. “Admiral Darren Westlake.”

Both men became quiet. A frown crept over her face. “Why is that bad?”

“Ah. No, just surprised. Westlake is an important Admiral. He’s Director of Naval Intelligence and Integration.” Richardson answered.

Conversation turned more boring after that, with Alex mostly asking about the seasons on Meltisar and about the weather. She was happy to learn that it wasn’t just a winter wasteland, although they mostly had two long seasons based on temperature.

Those seasons lasted for half of the 6-month long year, and they were right in the middle of the height of winter. Which explained to her why it was so cold when they really weren’t that far from the equator.

The vehicle emerged from the forest, a massive landscaped plain opened up. Giant hangars stood around a concrete tower. She realized they had reached the ground service terminal.

After negotiating with a gate guard, the three of them drove up to the smallest shuttle present. It was a light flitter, capable of carrying a few hundred tons to orbit. It also was just piloted by Richardson himself. A crew wasn’t even needed; a cargobot handled the unloading and loading.

Apparently that had already been done, because as they entered via the ramp on the back, it was packed with uniform service crates that were locked down by straps.

“You can fly up front with me in the co-pilot seat, or try to take a nap back here. Flight time is two hours to MIL-1A.”

“That seems like longer than I expected for a shuttle. It has a Linear Drive?”

“Yeah, but there are strict, regulated speed limits. If you light off the drive too hard, you could do a lot of damage to the area when you lift off, and shockwaves on the ground aren’t that fun to experience either.”

“I read they are regulated by AI lockouts? Do you even get to fly the thing?” Alex asked.

Richardson laughed, “You’re right, mostly it’s just the autopilot working, but there is a lot of stuff you need to monitor and deal with. It’s not just pushing a button.”

Alex nodded. She had come to appreciate just how much Nameless had done for her.

“I’m going to take a nap. If I wake up early, can I join you?” Alex asked.

Richardson nodded, “Sure. Just us onboard, and the main cabin is unlocked. Sorry if there’s nothing to sleep on, though, but at least you can stretch out?”

Alex smiled. “I’m getting pretty good at sleeping wherever whenever.”

Alex fell asleep almost as soon as she had made what little nest she could in the cargo bay. Her outerwear made a thin pillow balled up in the crook of an arm. She had tried to use her ShipCore, but the thing was way too hard to be useful.

She set an alarm for ninety minutes, because she wanted to see the docking procedures in the cockpit cabin. The blaring beep shook her awake, and she had to check the time twice to make sure she hadn’t been cheated.

Letting out a groan, Alex stretched and collected herself before knocking on the cabin door and then entering.

Richardson looked back over his shoulder from the pilot’s seat at her. “Thought you were going to sleep through the entire trip.”

“That was the longest continuous chunk of sleep I’ve had in days.”

Richardson nodded, “Putting you through the ringer. Surprised you didn’t sleep the entire time, then.”

Alex looked at the empty co-pilot seat. “I wanted to see how the operations work. I was just too tired to think without a nap.”

“Strap in. I’ll go over thing with you.” Richardson waved her forward.

Alex strapped in, and he started giving her a rundown on where all the controls and displays were. It was far different from the Shrike’s set up, but the flitter differed from a starship, so that wasn’t too odd.

There were a lot of instruments to get the hang of, and she was flabbergasted at just how many knobs and controls there were.

“Why is all this needed? I am not sure how many hours of studying it would take to memorize all this.” Alex commented.

“Flitter is full manual capable, but you’re right. We don’t really train as much as we should, takes a lot of time. AI does most of it, and even if it has hiccups, there are only a dozen or so systems you need to really know to pilot it. Are you planning on aiming for flight school?”

Alex looked at him as she answered. “I enjoy flying, but no. I’m aiming for TACS after OCS. If I get that far, I’m not sure how long I’ll be in for.”

TACS stood for ‘Tactics, Advanced Command, Starship’ and was the most difficult branch of the service to get pulled into while OCS was ‘Officer Candidate School’ where all potential officers went through a twelve-week course to teach them the skills and knowledge they needed to lead.

They were also graded and although they could put in requests for what branch they wanted; the military determined where they would end up. TACS only took the top few percent.

Richardson whistled. “TACS, eh? Starship command is pretty competitive, even more than flight school. And it’s a four years, not three if you get it.”

He had obviously misunderstood about how the duration. She knew it was four years, but she planned to leave when she could, especially with Elis getting better.

“Say… could I try to fly the ship for a bit?” Alex asked hesitantly.

Richardson grinned at her. “Sure, why not? AI safe locks are on, so it won’t let you do anything dangerous.”

As if to demonstrate he took the flight yoke and yawed them hard left, the main screen was set to physical and as the craft yawed rapidly, it suddenly snapped back to its original position. A red flashing bar announced a flight error warning. Richardson had to input a series of commands to clear it.

“If you put an input that is considered dangerous to anything or the craft, it’ll take control from you and fix it according to our flight plan. Kinda puts the rails on flying compared to atmospheric sports craft or deep space, but yeah, it’s for safety. High altitude and low orbit are really regulated.” Richardson explained.

“I’m surprised they let you have any control at all, actually.” Alex said.

“Yeah, that’s because we are military.” Richardson said as he flipped the controls over to her. Some displays that had been off came alive and others changed their readings. She hesitantly put her hand on the flight yoke.

“You won’t get in trouble, will you?” Alex asked.

“Nah. Standard stuff. Call it on-the-spot training.” Richardson responded.

He started to give her a checklist of things that would normally be confirmed on flight transfer, but Alex jumped right into putting them into an ‘aileron’ spin using the RCS thrusters. Then she started wobbling the nose in a spiral while maintaining their orbital insertion course.

That was the reason the flight took so long. Rather than a straight Linear Burn directly up, which was totally possible, the ship was flying like a space plane, and they’d actually already glided out of the atmosphere. The Linear Drive was set at such a low level it was barely a percentage of its maximum output.

That seemed extreme to her, but she wasn’t the one that had to deal with managing billions of people and tens of thousands of surface-to-orbit flights that happened every day.

Expanding the maneuvers, Alex felt more and more confident and started playing with the RCS translation thrust to nudge their course sideways slightly, then up and down.

Richardson was about to congratulate her on figuring things out so quickly when she took both hands and set them into a barrel roll. It was a much more complicated maneuver than if done in atmosphere, and required firing the RCS at multiple angles constantly.

Alex furrowed her brow in concentration, watching the nav display show their course, adjusting her controls to keep them barreling in a tightly controlled fashion that stayed within the AI safety lock parameters showed in red. Several times she slipped into a yellow warning zone as the controls for the RCS were a slight pain in the ass, but she adjusted.

She kept it up for a few minutes before bringing them back into level flight with the planet towards their belly with a smile.

“Are you a recreational flyer? That was an advanced maneuver.” Richardson said. His expression said more though, and she could hear he was impressed by the tone in his voice.

Alex smiled, “Haha… umm. I have some experience, I guess? Not with shuttles, but I’m pretty good in a flight suit.”

“I see, that makes sense, same concept. Although piloting is less exciting,” Richardson said as he raised up a datapad that had a list of items on the screen, “Are you ready to do the flying part?”

Alex nodded.

He took her through a checklist of things that had to be checked, making sure their flight parameters were still correct. The trajectory was lined up with what the flight director had authorized, and a pre-check for docking procedures with the station.

The station had multiple hangars for flitters like the shuttle and they carefully made their way through the tangle of traffic lines to reach their destination. Each opening was heralded by the familiar blue tinge of an I-field keeping the atmosphere from escaping while allowing the small craft to enter and leave as needed.

She grinned as he gave her the thumbs up to go for landing and pilot the shuttle in to its bay. A sense of satisfaction filled her as she kept the shuttle on course and on the rails the AI had programmed for them the entire time without either Richardson or the AI taking over.

As the craft sat down on its four underbelly landing gear, Richardson gave her a little clap. “Well done. Are you sure you don’t want to go for flight school? You’re a natural stick.”

Alex shook her head. “I like the flying part. The checklists and the long flights of letting the AI do everything aren’t as exciting.”

Richardson nodded, “Yep. That’s not uncommon, it’s why rec flying is a big sport.”

He handed her another checklist, causing her to raise an eyebrow at him.

“Another one?” She said, hesitation filling her voice.

“Might as well take it to 100% completion.” He said as he grinned at her.

The post-flight checklist didn’t take that long, and after about ten minutes, they opened the rear ramp. Alex was surprised to see who was waiting for her.

“Lieutenant Harmon?” Alex said.

“Ms. Myers, welcome back. I’m your escort for your leave on station.” Lieutenant Harmon said, answering her next question before she could ask.

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