Masters made a minor course adjustment. “Ten thousand people, an entirely self-sufficient community. We grow our own food, manufacture our own parts and supplies.”
“And that’s allowed?”
“We’re the Scouts,” said Masters. “Those rules don’t apply to us. No mandated trade routes, no manufacturing prohibitions. This way, we never have Merchant ships docking at the headquarters. No Merchants, no Pirates; no Pirates, no Fleet. We’re part of the galaxy, but apart from it. They need us more than we need them, and we like it that way.”
Growing up, the Scouts had been agents of mystery, ghostly ships that would appear, hang mysteriously in the sky for a day or so transmitting and receiving data, and then vanish again. This revelation served only to enhance their cachet. Separate from the Merchants? Separate from the Fleet?
“So your kids don’t get recruited by the Fleet or the Merchants.”
“That’s right.”
The metal walls of a small docking bay enveloped us, close around the ship. I heard and felt lock-downs clunk into place on the hull. Green indicator lights on the console flipped over to yellow, and Masters stood up and nodded to us. “Cadets, welcome to Scout headquarters.”
The belly hatch connected to a short access tube, which in turn came out into the center of a circular gallery. A woman met us there, dressed in a sarong of red and blue. She smiled broadly as we filed out and arranged ourselves.
Shirley provided introductions. “Cadets, this is Academy Director Anna Kal. We’ll be reporting to her during your academy training.”
“We? You mean, you’re staying with us?”
The director nodded. “The Scouts operate on a close apprenticeship system. Since Shirley and Masters are the ones who located and recruited you, they have the first opportunity to be your teachers. If that doesn’t work out for some reason, we’ll find you someone else to learn from until you earn your full status.”
Valka was bouncing on her toes. “What are we waiting for?”
Director Kal gave Valka a nod of appreciation. “Indeed. If you’ll follow me, we’ll start with a tour of the academy.”
The academy consisted of a few docking bays on the outer rim of the station and a couple of levels on the side of the main ring. There were classrooms, a dormitory, a gymnasium, a few simulator tanks, and a large data processing center. Here and there we came across groups of people, just two Scouts and two cadets, or sometimes just one of each.
The five of us had a meal in the cafeteria. I’m not sure whether it was breakfast or lunch, but I hadn’t eaten since leaving Stakroya and I was starved. I couldn’t believe the variety of foods available there. There were the usual hydroponics, of course, but in addition, there was bread, cheese, milk, butter, and eggs cooked any way we liked.
I heaped my tray until Shirley laughed and stopped me from taking a second piece of cake. “Okay, hold on, cadet. We’re not fattening you up for the slaughter here.”
“Do you always eat this well?”
“On the ship, things are more controlled, but here at headquarters we like to enjoy our luxuries. You’ll probably gain some weight in basic training, but we’ll make sure it’s mostly muscle, in your case.”
At the end of the buffet line, she put a couple of foil-wrapped squares on my tray.
“What are these?”
“You’ll see. Have them after you’ve eaten everything else.”
It was something called chocolate. It was wonderful, smooth and just sweet enough, with an aftertaste that was bitter rather than metallic or chemical.
Valka liked it too. She liked it a lot, judging from the noises she made.
After seeing the facilities, we entered a large display hall showing some of the accomplishments of the Scout Service in its long history. Images of star systems mapped by the Scouts hung from the walls. There were hundreds of them. In the center of the room, display cases held artifacts and other memorabilia from notable Scout missions. Each one had a holographic display where the Scouts involved described the circumstances and details of their discovery. In every case, the couple was a man and a woman, dressed in simple white uniforms, and always with affection and respect for each other in their eyes. I followed Valka from display to display as she listened to every single one.
The tour wound up at the entrance to an auditorium big enough for maybe three hundred people. Shirley took me aside. “This is the big moment. Challers, I want to know if you have any second thoughts, any reason you might not want to join us. If you think that this life isn’t for you, then you need to speak up now. If there’s a problem, we’ll fly you right back home to Stakroya Station. This is a big step; if you decide to stay, we’ll be asking you to pledge yourself—heart, mind, and body—to the Service.”
I struggled with my misgivings. I felt vulnerable and scared, sitting there in underwear that wasn’t even mine. How long would it be before Valka and I would be allowed to have a ship together? I didn’t want to seem impatient, but that was what we had come all this way for, wasn’t it? It wasn’t just to escape the Merchants and the Fleet, but to be together. With all their hopeful faces turned in my direction, I just couldn’t say it. How ungrateful would that be? They had saved me from the Fleet, saved me from being carried off bodily to become one of those huge, muscle-bound monsters. I felt a black pit opening in my stomach. I couldn’t go back. It would be too humiliating. People would think I couldn’t take it. People would think I had failed.
“I’m worried,” I said. “I want to be with Valka. Are we going to be able to stay together?”
Shirley smiled and nodded. “Your relationship with Valka is one of the reasons we chose you. Of course you want to be with her. Your capacity for love is one of the things that will make you a capable Scout. The Service respects that. You’ll be training here together. Once you’ve become full Scouts, though, you’ll need to be strong. Your first cruise will be on a different ship than hers. Most of the time, you’ll be apart. But there’s a lot of play in the schedules for those cruises, and there will be opportunities for you to be together. After that, things will get better.”
I took a deep breath. I knew Valka wanted this. Her reactions to the museum confirmed it, and if she wanted it, then I wanted it. Going home would mean leaving her here.
“Yes. Okay, I’ll do it.”
The pit in my stomach yawned wider. I swallowed it back down, and tried to pretend that I knew I had made the right decision. Shirley brought me into the auditorium. All together, everyone I had seen on the tour would fit in it with room to spare. It felt empty with just the five of us.
The director stood us up. We repeated an oath that sounded as old as the ages, and she congratulated us.
We were Scouts.
The rest of the day we spent getting settled in. First, there was a medical workup. It was much more thorough than anything I had experienced at Stakroya Station. In addition to taking blood, a cheek scrape, and poking and prodding just about every part of my body, there were measurements of every sort. Bicep circumference, thigh circumference, chest, abdomen, and waist measurements. They reviewed the medical records from the station hospital and we filled in a few gaps from my own memory. When that was all done, they put an implant in my palm that would activate the academy facilities for me. It would allow me to use the mess hall, information terminals, everything.
After that, we got our personal supplies and uniforms, and were shown to our rooms.
They were bigger than the dormitory cubes back on Stakroya Station. The space was about five meters square, with a big round pad in the center about three meters in diameter. I knelt down and touched it.
“This is just like the chamber in the ship,” I said.
Shirley smiled and stepped inside. “You’re observant. I can see already that we made the right choice in picking you.” She put her hand on my shoulder. “Go ahead, lie down. It’s for sleeping, too.”
I did. It felt soft without being bouncy or yielding. “Comfortable,” I said.
She lay down next to me, folding her arms behind her head. “If you want a pillow or a prop under your knees, you can program it to provide that.”
“Eh. We never had that kind of thing on Stakroya. A pillow is just another thing to wash.” I rolled onto my side, facing her. “Where’s, ah, your room?”
“Right here.” She shook her head in amusement. “You really are sharp, you know that? Catching onto these things so fast and with the tact to phrase them without making accusations.” She rolled up to a kneeling position and took my hand. “Challers, you’re going to learn a lot of things while you’re here at the academy, but one of the most important is going to be sexual discipline. Ultimately, sex is what we do, what we are here for, and we need to make it work for us, not the other way around. You’re young, and you have a powerful sex drive. It’s going to take some effort on your part to learn to control it. I’m here to help you with that.”
I sat up. “And who says I need your help? I grew up on a station where an evening’s privacy has to be requested a month in advance and paid for with a week’s wages. I know how to control my urges.”
“You know how to suppress them,” she said. “I’m going to show you how to harness them, how to hold back without suffocating them, and then let loose without restraint.” She put her hand on my cheek. “Don’t be afraid. I’m not going to traumatize you. I went through this once myself; I know how scary it all can be.” She leaned back onto her arms. “I remember when I was in your place. I was rescued, like you were, from a station that was overpop, and not just by two. We were up by eleven. Our life support really was overburdened. The captain was calling for passing Merchant ships to come take his excess.
“Who did you get picked with?”
She smiled and looked up at the ceiling. “His name is Robert. He had silky blond hair that felt amazing to touch.” Her tongue briefly licked the corner of her mouth.
“Do you still see him?”
“Oh, sure, whenever our paths cross. I have a flag set to tell me when there’s a possibility of a meeting. We leave mail for each other all the time. In fact, chances are good that he’ll be on-station two or three times while we’re in training. Would you like to meet him?”
“Yes, I would.” I wanted to see what the separation of the Service had done to their relationship. To see what separation might do to Valka and me.
Shirley got up and went to the little dressing-table by the door, fished around in her little duffel of belongings, and produced a personal holo. It clicked on, producing an animated face glowing in the air over her hand, and a soft tenor voice. He sang in a language I didn’t understand.
I stood up to get a better look. He was older too, with a few wrinkles around his eyes. I could see something very human, very loving in those blue eyes. He knew he was singing for Shirley.
“Does it make you sad that he’s so far away?”
“I’m never lonely,” she said. “I love him, and I miss him, but I’ve had Masters close by.”
“Do you love Masters?”
“You can’t have sex as many times as we have and not develop feelings, Challers. He’s been my friend and my confidante, as well as my partner, for a long time now. Yes, yes, I love him too, but in a different way than Robert.” She turned off the holo and put it back in its place.
“I’m going to replace Masters, aren’t I.”
“You’ll take his position, if you do well here at the academy, but you won’t replace him. I’ll always have feelings for Masters, just as I’ll have feelings for you, and as I hope you’ll have feelings for me.”
I shook my head. This was all going so fast I could hardly absorb it all. I was confused and angry. It seemed like I would never have the kind of life with Valka that I wanted to have. I ran my fingers through my hair. Why couldn’t we just be together? I felt the walls closing around me, and there was nothing I could do about it.
Shirley took my hand between hers. I yanked it away.
“Challers,” she said quietly, “talk to me. You’ve asked a lot of questions, and I’ve given you honest answers. Tell me what’s on your mind.”
“I want to see Valka.” I sounded petulant and immature and I wanted to kick myself for it.
“Are you sure you want to see her in the state you’re in? You’re likely to upset her.”
She was right. I didn’t want to see Valka in that kind of state. I tried to calm myself down.
“Now tell me what’s on your mind.”
I forced myself to stay calm. “I’ve made a terrible mistake. The whole reason I left Stakroya was to be with Valka, and you’re not going to let us be together.”