The Recruitment: Rise of the Free Fleet (19 page)

Shrift and I spent a few days working. We dug into his stash of ration bars when we relaxed, napping every so often. After everyone had become acquainted with their Mechas a few started coming in randomly seeing what me and Shrift were up to. During our building Henry came by. I was going to wait another day before finding him and seeing what he thought about training, it seemed he had beaten me to it.

“Sir.” He said in a gruff tone as I was behind a Mecha. I glanced from behind the mecha.

“Henry! One second.” I said as I put the compressed synthetic oil back into its housing. Damned thing had felt like giving me a shower. I got out from behind the mecha.

“How are the others?”

“They’re okay; most are trying to see if they can find anyone that they know.” He looked as if he was not sure if he should be at attention or at ease. We had looked at logs from previous fights. The Personal crew gave orders at the last minute, unless there was a big undertaking, which was rare. The rest of the time the Mecha’s were on their own time. Officers didn’t care to make their troops do anything as they would have to do something. Which was why no one cared that we were training, most of them put it down to some weird human trait.

“Will you relax?” I admonished as I wiped my hand on my suit, grabbing my pad from my back as I got to the table.

“Sir.”

“You’re not going to stop that are you?” I quirked an eyebrow.

“No sir.” I swear I could see a glimpse of a smile on his face as I saw his eyes dart to my mecha in question.

“An automated injector system for the hell fire.” Henry winced.

“Ouch.”

“Yeah, but it’ll keep you alive. We wanted to put it in the battle suits but for now that’s beyond us.” He nodded simply.

I studied Henry closer.

“You said you were in the Marines?” He stiffened before answering.

“Yes?”

“I was talking to Shrift and he says he can get us weapons with empty mags and no capacitors. I was thinking of starting some training.”

“Fire arms training.” He glanced upwards in thought.

“Yeah, I agree it bothers me how little we know about these weapons even when they’re so deadly. One wrong move and we’re going to have a blue on blue very easily.”

“Need more practice.” He nodded as I made a change on my data pad.

“I couldn’t agree more.”

“How many years in the Marines?”

“Three years.”

“Position.”

“Rifleman.”

“What did you do?”

“Two tours, Iraq and Afghanistan.”

“Why do you listen to what I say? I’m a year younger than you and a video game player.” I asked as I looked straight at him, I could see his mind twisting.

“Straight up.” I said as he seemed to deflate slightly.

“You did what no one else did, you stuck up for your squad even though they were strangers, you helped to keep us human and not become animals. I had no hope before I saw you. I had just got back from tour and now I’m being trained to go fight for the rest of my life for a group I don’t even care about. Then you stood up and all you wanted was a fair fight. I saw you standing there, small skinny and with people you didn’t trust behind you, and I saw your drive. Plus what does age matter here anyway? I’m married to a twelve year old and there are nine year olds that could kick my ass! I saw in that fight that you were not a person to fight unless you had to. You didn’t throw your weight around, you acted in a calculated manner. I doubt you saw many of my squad as you were looking over your own. I’ve talked to Rick and Marleen, both of them would follow you into the gates of hell. That takes a lot.”

“Uhh, well thank you.” I said, feeling quite awkward. He said nothing as I cleared my throat.

“What do you think would be best for us to learn now? Honest opinion I need it.”

“We need time with weapons. Myself included, we need training in EVA. We’ve been taught the bare basics, we need to learn how to not only act as soldiers but be them. We need discipline, not fear being what drives us. We’ve all been beaten down, now it’s time to build troops, if we can do it right we can build them into confident soldiers. Which means they’re going to need more than what their sleeping training showed them.”

“What would we teach them in this program?”

“They need to understand they are part of a team, one fault is a fault on all of them. We need them to want to advance themselves, we make them want to improve themselves
 
 
and their team. While your squad has that, not many others do have to such a degree. Only when we get that groundwork laid can we go onto the really advanced stuff.”

“Damn, I’m just realizing how much our training officers just left us in the wind. Sure we know how to fight and use a Mecha, but we don’t even know how to use a data pad, provide first aid…” I looked away my face a mixture of anger and annoyance as I added something to the table of organization.

“Get a plan together and we’ll start training everyone, for now no one has the option to not train, if we’re going into battle I want everyone ready for it. You’re now the training officer for the human Mechas. Get with Rick, he can help you locate other previous military members, I want a plan ready before tomorrow’s sleep cycle.”

“Sir, I’m a Marine Corporal. I’m not a sergeant or someone that should be in charge of something this big.” He said.

“Henry, you are a man with my confidence and with the abilities I need. I know you need to figure out what is going on yourself, but I have the confidence in you that you will be able to complete the tasks I give to you.” I let my tone soften.

“Henry, these people need you to have a fighting chance, and you’re it.”

“Sir there are people more qualified than me!”

“I bet there are, but so far I haven’t seen one in this fleet, and when you do find someone that you think that could do your position better than you, come to me and I will take the responsibility from you.” My tone level, not harsh nor soft as he nodded.

“Yes sir.”

“But until then, I’m going to need some sort of plan. Stop that siring business would you. I’m covered in grease and mecha innards.” I said as he grinned slightly.

“Habit sir, and until you get me out of this position you can expect it from me and all those that I train. Grease is nothing sir.”He said, looking like a statue.

“Not getting out of it that easy Henry. Also I don’t want one man one weapon people, I want one person any job kind of people.”

“Sir.”

“I’ll let you get to it then.” I said as he gave a quick two finger tap to his forehead before leaving. I grinned.

That was at least one position filled. What is with this two finger thing?
 
I thought thinking that it was much more than just an off-handed gesture now I’d seen it so frequently.

Shrift and I were looking at our work as sirens blared and the intercom across the ship came to life.

“Prepare for worm jump!”

“I wasn’t sure if that was them charging the wormhole generators. I’ve been off ship for too long. I would have thought they were using the capacitors.” Shrift growled.

“Hmm?” I half asked/hummed as I fitted the last panel on my mecha.

Shrift looked like he was about to explain something before backing up.

“Since you don’t know much about wormholes I’ll start from the beginning. So the navigator has to do calculations to figure out how we get from the point we’re currently at to the destined point. The generators charge the wormhole drives which use massive amounts of power to create a wormhole from our point to the point the navigator has calculated. Then the helmsman pilots us through. In a few seconds we transfer to the emergence point and the helm and shields crew have to work together to accommodate for the new area of space we enter and the gravitational pulls on the ship, or we can be pulled apart.”

“Lovely where do the capacitors come into it?”

“They’re only on military vessels really. They’re used if we jump into an area where it’s not too nice shall we say and allow us to jump out to another point without having to charge our wormhole generators again.”

“So you can peek inside another system, if you don’t like it you can jump out again.”

“Exactly.”

“You sound like you know a lot about the ship.”

“Of course I do I was an engineer before I became an armourer. My teacher forced me to.” Shrift said in an annoyed tone, obviously there was some history there.

“Wormhole drive engaged.” I felt a moment of weightlessness and then nothing.

“So are we in a wormhole.” I said as I felt as if I weighed three times as much as the ship groaned.

“Transiting into real space again.” Shrift grunted as the ship bucked and turned before it shot forward.

“Damn, must be someone new at the helm and shield stations.” Shrift said, releasing the wall gingerly.

“We’re now three solar systems away from your own.” He said with a grin. “Welcome to wormhole travelling!” He spread his arms out before bringing them back.
 
I’m not in Sol system anymore.
 
I thought I would feel different, but I didn’t. My situation had only changed in the fact Earth was just a bit further away now.

“Oh and more than a few seconds of being in a wormhole would rip any ship apart.” He said following his previous line of thought.

“Wormhole Jumps are limited by their distance because of the period of time that the ship can sustain not being in reality which is less than a few seconds. Also they’re less rough once outside of the jump limit.” I looked at him in askance.

“Debris float in an encapsulating sphere around solar systems, encountering them make massive gravitational fields that affect the wormholes the ships travel through.”

Shrift cocked his head to the side waiting for a few seconds. “Now they’re turning us toward the hyper limit in the direction we want to go,” He flicked a finger. “And that would be the main engines firing.” He said listening to a sound I couldn’t differentiate from the rest of the ship.

“It’s good to be back on a ship.” Shrift said with a pleased smile. His pad light up with a new message as he grabbed it.

“Could you help me with some parts? They’re in storage still.”

“Slave driver.” I groaned halfheartedly as Shrift chattered to himself, the Kuruvian equivalent of a chuckle as he went through an opening between the racks which appeared to be a door which opened to a secondary hallway just big enough for a Mecha.

“Shrift do you have any frozen nitrogen?” I asked as I followed him.

“He asks me if I have any liquid nitrogen! This Human! Of course I do! What do you think this is? A Sarenmenti run armoury?” He admonished me for the very thought of his armoury being under stocked.

“I was just wondering if the previous Kuruvian left it under stocked.”

“What a terrible thought, as you will see the real Kuruvian engineers would never let such a catastrophe ever happen.”

We continued as I pondered his words.

“See how?”

“I’m taking you to my mentor, though he is a little.” He looked to search for the word. “Strange.” He finished as we walked into a maintenance bay, a door shutting and sealing behind me as I felt my guard come up. Another Kuruvian with a darker carapace and a large grin on his face came forward grabbing my hand and pumping it as I felt like a rag doll.

“Howdy James.” He said with a southern drawl as I felt my eyes go wide as I looked up at him.

“You’ve been listening to the human country again haven’t you?” Shrift said shaking his head in his hand.

“So what if I have? It’s damned fine music!” I looked at the new Kuruvian, noticing that he was wearing reinforced cowboy boots.

“We’re not here to talk about your music tastes Eddie.”

“Your work in the armoury has made you snippy!”

“Well whose fault is it that I’m in there!” The other one grumbled before looking back to me. I couldn’t help but grin.

“What?” Eddie demanded.

“You look exactly like father and son.” Eddie threw up his six arms in exasperation.

“I’ve got enough problems dealing with him as my protege to think of him as my son!” I could clearly see that Eddie, as much as he tried to hide it was actually proud of Shrift. Probably thinking of him as a son.

“Now that’s done.” He said squinting at me and Shrift as if we were small boys to be stopped from our nefarious doings.

“My name is Eddie, Chief engineer of the Imperial Dreadnought Resilient. I know who you are already Salchar.” He said with a grin as I felt a little uncomfortable.

“You might be how we can be free of the syndicate.” He continued.

“Huh?”
 
Wow, really inspiring words there James. Great way to make an impression.
 
I chided myself.

“What is the Resilient or the Syndicate?” I followed up.

“Remember he doesn’t know anything.” Shrift said sitting down on a chair and looking to Eddie whose features clouded.

“Dang, under educated unknowing…” He sounded as if he was going to continue with the insults as I crossed my arms and spoke up.

“Are you gonna complain or tell me? I just need an explanation.” I saw a gleam in Eddie’s eyes as he smiled.

“I have a feeling he’s the one.” His voice was devoid of any accent now as he studied me.

I quirked my eyebrow in question as sirens went off.

“Prepare for Worm jump.” An announcement followed.

“Those goddamn pirates! Keep running the capacitors instead of charging just because they’re impatient. “Eddie growled as I remembered my crash course on wormhole jumping.

If they use the capacitors we can’t generate a wormhole until we charge the generators.

“Do you want me to check on the systems?” Shrift asked breaking me out of my thoughts, as Eddie looked ready to strangle someone. Something that I had never seen on a Kuruvian.

“Yes, see that my engineering department hasn’t gone to sleep.” Eddie said, waving Shrift out.

“Wish I could be there, been a chief for forty years, first generation which is a rare thing and I’ve only told this secret to Shrift, and now you.” He seemed to gather himself before looking straight at my eyes.

“The Planetary defence force is a lie.” He deadpanned, as he stared into my eyes.

Either he’s an amazing liar or its the truth.
 
I thought as I remembered my classes on body language eye contact and such, as well as my familiarity with Shrift and the other Kuruvians I’d seen.

“How?”

And so Eddie told me the story of how the Syndicate had siphoned off PDF ships while the Kalu/Union war had raged for near a century only to have the Syndicate finish of the Unions veterans with their fresh crews and fleets under the pirate Lady Fairgate.

The PDF in its dying breath destroyed everything that could help the pirates and was vulnerable. The pirates annoyed with having to still work their ships while they should be living as planetary rulers started using slaves to crew their ships. It didn’t work until Lady Fairgate came up with the idea of using the PDF as a front and having slaves who thought they were soldiers, engineers and such.

It worked and the Syndicate used people from the outer systems who had less interactions with the PDF. Though someone with information on the previous system realized what was going on. There were massive revolts but the pirates won and started using kill switches and went in search for planets that hadn’t been discovered yet, or were being observed.

They found the Sarenmenti and used their simple warrior code to make great shock troops, then with the Kuruvians they had engineers and thus the system had worked.

“So the Planetary defence force is in reality a massive band of pirates that have trained us to die for their greed.” I surmised as I leaned against a bulkhead, just simply understanding the information as the ramifications started pouring in after it.

“Yes.”

“What proof do you have?” I asked skeptically, dread building in my gut as I realized I wasn’t that stunned. The PDF, or the syndicate treated those under them that had been ‘recruited’ as practically slaves. Human history showed how slaves and free men fought, and that men that were free were more effective.

Yet the Syndicate were smart, they had people who believed that they were working to better those that they had left at home. Making them do anything to keep those they had trained with alive making them obedient and effective slaves. It was ingenious, cruel and effective. As much as I hated to admit it, it was an elegant solution.

“With the end of the Kalu and Union war the Union turned to those that they had dismissed from society, the AI league. The league in return for citizenry as well as having a space accepted as their own territory fought for the Union and broke the stalemate of the war and removed the Kalu threat. Now an AI is…”

“Artificial intelligence?” I asked, cutting him off as he tilted his head, the Kuruvian equivalent of a quirk of one’s eyebrow.

“Yes, how did you know?” He said looking at me quizzically

“We have lots of thoughts on AI’s on my planet. We haven’t created one, or are near to doing so, but we think about the ramifications of if they existed.”

“That will make things easier. Follow me.” He moved to a corner of the small room opening a hatch, quickly he went up the ladder.

“Cowards wait for fate.” I repeated my mantra as I followed him up into a maintenance shaft.

“You were talking about an alliance.” I questioned.

“Ah yes, well it was rumoured that the Union and defence force would stop their persecution of the AI’s if they assisted in helping stopping the Kalu-Union war.”

“Well did this alliance happen.” A buzzing had become louder as they still continued in to the ship.

“Well the Syndicate didn’t build this ship.” The buzzing increased, making any talking useless, even my shouted questions were unheard as we continued on.

After a short period we dropped down another maintenance hatch. I turned finding what looked to be solid silver blocks running in two rows from deck to ceiling.