Aaen Winter has wanted a starship command of his own since he was young, despite being dismissed by his peers as being a merely ambitious cadet in a hollow attempt to impress Highlight Space Education School's instructors. A distress call from a largely unknown region of space challenges the status quo. For some, responding will mean early retirement—for others, so much more.
May 30th, 2178 -
May 30th, 2178 -
Cadet Aaen sat upright at his desk situated in the third column, the second row of the Highlight Space Education School Core Classroom of 28 space cadets. The Cadets dressed in snug black cotton turtleneck jackets and matching cotton-polyester pants. Each Cadet had an angled rectangular rank insignia on their right collar to indicate how many years they had spent at Highlight. Only Highlight Graduates received a new uniform with a color based on their field of specialty and shoulder board rank insignia. Cadets could graduate as early as year five, or on time at the end of year six. Aaen had five pips on his collar. Today was the last day of the current school year. In a school of nearly ten thousand, the last five or six years meant rigorous training in the fields of leadership, science, math, engineering, security, and tactical weapon systems. Today is the revered day that had the entire class facing the front of the room in eager anticipation of their first starship orders, and their individual station assignments for the long-since planned response to gloomy events predicted for a distant solar system.
Mr. Shelco, the class's core teacher, sat in the far corner of the room to the left at his desk. He locked his computer with a short series of commands into its touchscreen monitor, and then proceeded to pick up a stack of pocket-sized pamphlets, and then walked to the front of the room to the podium. He set the pamphlets down with a dull thump next to the podium microphone base. The stylized Spacefleet Command seal on the cover of the top of the stack immediately caught Aaen's eye—he donned a light grin in eager, determined excitement. Mr. Shelco placed his fist in front of his mouth long enough to clear his throat, then lifted his head to face the class.
"Cadets, listen carefully," he said, picking up a red marker from the podium, and then turned around to face the whiteboard behind him, drawing a large circle, adding a dot on the circle, and then two smaller circles inside the first, each with a larger dot. He finished the drawing with an angled line just to the right of the largest circle, followed by some randomly placed dots.
Mr. Shelco faced the class, "Cadets, a few weeks ago, Spacefleet Command received a faint radio signal from deep space." A Cry from the Dark, Aaen silently and determinedly declared. "The Solar System designated Golf-Tango-One-Seven-Four-Zero is about to enter the asteroid debris field. Long-range probes indicate the rogue black hole near that solar system has caused an increasing number of larger asteroids to bombard the surface of the third planet, causing moderate damage to the surface, including the population's industrial infrastructure. The number of life signs since the last orbit has declined by fifty thousand—this is due to the inhabitants of the third planet moving of some of the population into the underground bunkers, but the worst is expected unless a rescue mission is carried out. Cadets, you are all going to be a part of that mission. You have all been selected and assigned to the crew of one of three ships that will be a part of this mission as escorts, namely the Voyager, Odyssey or Galileo." The air suddenly felt electrified. The Galileo is involved in this mission? Aaen thought in shock. "The escort ships will lead the passenger convoy to the solar system to carry out the rescue mission. The planet can survive only one more pass through the asteroid debris field before the surface becomes uninhabitable. Due to the increase in the size of the rogue black hole near that solar system, there is a seventy-two percent probability that the second and third planets will collide with each other. If the second and third planets collide, the force of the collision will be enough to produce an explosive shock wave that could wipe out both the escort ships and the passenger convoy. Cadets, your mission objective is to lead the convoy to the solar system with all haste and then assist in the rescue of the planet's population. When you arrive at the planet, you are to transport as many of the planet's population onto your respective assigned ships as possible, and then protect the planet and the rest of the convoy from the debris field while the convoy beams up the rest of the planet's population. The Voyager will lead this mission. The Odyssey will fly in formation while the Galileo will remain on standby for launch in the Voyager's shuttle bay." Mr. Shelco picked up the stack of pamphlets. "Spacefleet Command has issued each of you your individual ship and position assignments in these pamphlets. When I call your name, come up and get your pamphlet."
Mr. Shelco called the class forward in alphabetical order. The stylized pamphlets were distributed in ten minutes. Aaen was the first to receive his pamphlet. He anxiously hurried back to his desk and then sat down. Hearing his pounding heartbeat in the back of his head, he held his pamphlet with both hands. His heart skipped a beat.
Having been trained for command, Aaen was hopeful for the Voyager or the Odyssey. The Voyager was the flagship of the fleet assigned to this mission and the largest of the three escorts. The Voyager featured a grand, majestic hull design and an extensive list of technology and hull design attributes popular among her command hopefuls. The Odyssey was between the Voyager and the Galileo in size and technological features, but had a longer, sleeker, more aerodynamic teardrop hull design than the Galileo, and maneuvered more fluidly than the Voyager. The only common knowledge among the majority of the military about the Galileo is it's a shuttlecraft, but whose current location, assignment, technology, and purpose were always "classified," as was always the response to an internal inquiry by anyone who didn't need to know. There were always vague rumors of variable credibility. To even be treated to that shuttle's name for official reasons was considered lucky—to say nothing about its part of a mission. Despite the tempting prestige associated with commanding the Voyager, Aaen more zealously eyed the Odyssey since year-two for personal reasons.
Aaen took a deep breath, and then eagerly drove the bottom of his thumb—quivering with excitement—through the seal binding the pamphlet's two sides together, and then opened the pamphlet—
*****
Steve Hale of Portland, OR told Jordan Foutin,
"You are the next Tom Clancy. You really are a gifted writer."
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