Chapter 6: Detached Duty

Jason nearly had a heart attack when they arrived in Grendel City. The Grendel Marine commander, General Sir Andrew Grundon wanted to hold a review parade for the Grendel Marine company that was joining with the Third Imperial Battalion onboard the Electra for the next three months. Jason and the rest of First Platoon got marched out of the hover craft and onto the parade ground. As they stood ready to form up to march onto the parade ground the major came up to Jason.

“Cosgrove, can you assume the role of platoon commander for the duration of the parade?” he asked/said. “I know it is on short notice but we are not going to do anything fancy. Get one of your corporals to take your place.

“I can only try, major” Jason said as he waved the two corporals closer.

It was as Jason and the other five lieutenants stood lined up with their platoons behind them that Jason suddenly realized what a mess he found himself in. On the review stand was his grandfather, Richard the Second, Duke of Grendel. With his grandfather was Duke Justin of Bova, as well as his uncle, Richard the Third, Viscount Moorefield, and right behind them stood Lady Sylvia, his mother, as well as Duchess Sarah of Bova. It didn’t take much searching to find Chloe and Clarissa standing behind the review stand, with Lady Penelope next to them. All three the girls were close enough that he could hear their giggling. To make matters worse, they were looking around so their eyes must have swept over Jason a few times before he realized they were there. Since he was already on parade there was nothing he could do.

Then things got worse as Duke Richard and Duke Justin both got off the review stand to do a ceremonial inspection of the company on parade. This involved the two dukes as well as the parade commander and the commander of the Third Imperial Marine Battalion to walk past each platoon, with the platoon commander of each platoon saluting the duke and then fall in behind the duke as he walked past the front of his platoon. Jason was going to have to salute his grandfather.

Jason have taken part in enough parades during boot camp as well as during specialist training to know the duties of the platoon leader, they even practiced that as future officers. When the review party was done walking slowly past Second Platoon, Jason turned to face the duke and his party.

“First Platoon, ready for inspection!” Jason announced in a typical parade ground voice as he saluted. He knew that his future now lay in the hands of the duke. He was sure the duke would have him booted out of the marines once he was recognized.

“I must say” his grandfather said to Duke Justin who was walking next to him. “They are an impressive bunch. I’m real proud of my marines.” While the duke said that, he came closer, to the point where Jason had to join the rear of the party. Jason was again facing forward as his grandfather walked past him, giving him an absentminded nod. With a subdued sigh of relief Jason took the place of the lieutenant of the Second Platoon, who in turn returned to his place. Jason couldn’t believe that his grandfather has not recognized him; they were less than a meter apart.

Jason was expecting to rejoin his squad but instead of dismissing the company after the parade, the major took his place at the head of the six platoons and under the fanfare of the marine marching band set off. Since they marched up onto the parade ground with First Platoon in the lead, Jason was also the first to march off, about five meters behind Major Macon, who was following the band.

It soon became evident that they were going to give the population of the city a treat as the whole company marched out of the marine base main gate and down the main thoroughfare through the center of the city, where Jason stood watching the festival parade the one time that he joined his extended family for the festival.

Jason was still in the position of platoon commander, with Dalton as the First Squad leader marching two meters behind him.

“Better not get too used to that position” Dalton said behind Jason. “I’m senior to you, I will get my commission before you do”.

“You can have it” Jason called back over his shoulder. Dalton just chuckled.

They ended up marching all the way to the deployment center, another hangar with all the facilities to house a large number of people, like marines about to deploy into space. The deployment center was also supposed to be used as an evacuation center in cases of emergency but has never been used for that yet. It was also used as an assembly base for imperial marines visiting the planet and was located at the base of the peninsula connecting the space port with the main land. When they arrived there they were dismissed, to go find their luggage in the large pile in the middle of the hangar floor.

“Don’t get too comfortable” Gunny Thom instructed them once the luggage has been sorted out. “We have to get issued with imperial marine BDUs.” True to his word they got called to the side of the hangar where the local imperial marine stores were kept. On advice from the major each of them only brought two sets of olive-green Grendel Marine BDUs of which they were wearing one. Now they got issued with two more sets of space-gray BDUs of the Imperial marines. One surprise was their rank insignia. The imperial marine PFCs had a different rank badge than Grendel Marines so the privates all got new badges. Jason, Dalton, Carmen, and Shelly each got two sets of sergeant stripes.

“The battalion commander offered to make you four temporary sergeants for the duration of your deployment with the Third Battalion.” The major explained when he noticed the puzzled looks on their faces. “Don’t get too attached to those chevrons.”

Half an hour later the light rail train that mostly move bulk cargo to the space port and heavy cargo from the port but also carried passengers, arrived loaded with two platoons of veteran imperial marines on shore leave off the Electra. They were unloaded at the deployment center after which Jason and lieutenant Dart were ordered to load up First and Second Platoons. Jason glanced at Dalton but he was flirting with Corporal Lewis. She was glaring at him with a very aggressive look on her face, giving Jason the idea that Dalton was not making any progress. Once they were all on the box cars the train left.

The shuttle was a typical heavy-lift cargo shuttle with exchangeable cargo/passenger pods. For that trip the IC Electra supplied her own troop transport pods. That meant their luggage went into the bottom and they had to stand against hard backboards, a platoon in each pod. They all have been taught the drill during specialist training so Jason knew as the acting platoon leader he had to ensure everybody was against a backboard before the restraining nets came down and secured them in place.

Jason’s place was the first backboard inside the wide airlock hatch, and he ended up being the last to take his position right next to Lewis, who looked mildly embarrassed. Jason still thought she was rather cute but at the same time he knew she could be a first-class bitch, as she demonstrated when Dalton tried to flirt with her. Jason didn’t say anything to her. She might be shy because of Major Macon who was also in that pod and was standing on Lewis’ far side.

The trip into orbit was identical to their first trip. The shuttle lifted off using only its anti-gravity generators, which took the shuttle up to about fifty thousand meters before the rocket boosters kicked in to accelerate the shuttle to escape velocity. Once the shuttle’s orbital speed was the same as that of the space station, the pilot shut down the rockets and coasted closer to the space station using only the anti-gravity generators. Jason was surprised at how many people, farmers and even teachers, had the idea that gravity stopped affecting object outside the planet’s atmosphere. Even for the thirty-six thousand km trip to the station, the planet’s gravity kept pulling on the shuttle.

The Grendel Spaceport was a typical space station, two counter-rotating wheels on a stationary hub orbiting the planet in a Geo-synchronous orbit. The wheels were fifty meters wide and had a diameter of a kilometer with a central shaft also of fifty-meter diameter. The wheels where connected to the central shaft via four spokes each the same diameter of thirty meters. The wheels consisted of three concentric rings providing simulated gravity of 30%, 60%, and 90% of Grendel normal.

Jason knew that the duke, and most of the industrialists, on Grendel could not wait for the day when Grendel could afford a space elevator but the cost involved was more than the planet produced in ten years and there was a waiting list.

Nobody in the marine troop pods could see anything as they approached the station. The first indication they had that they have arrived was some scrapes and bumps on the hull of the pod. After what felt like a very long time the hatch opened and a navy rating released the security webbing.

The two platoons exited the pods in free-fall condition inside a long narrow tube. There was sufficient cargo netting against the sides for all of them to pull themselves towards the end of the tube, right behind the major. From the sound of it, Gunny Thom was in the rear, ripping somebody from Second Platoon a new orifice.

Since they were transiting from planetary gravity to free-fall, or weightlessness, they took it slow. They were all barely off the shuttle when they were told to hug the wall, ‘and do it on the same side as the green stripe along the wall’. The reason became evident when two platoons of imperial marines came from the front, on their way to the surface. They obviously were going to use the same shuttle. Once the two platoons were out of the way, they continued.

Jason thought they would move straight from along the central shaft into the Electra but the navy had other ideas. As they arrived at the junction into the first ring, they were met by a navy lieutenant who intercepted Major Macon.

“Major, now that all the marines are off the ship, we are going to reconfigure the Electra.” the lieutenant said. “That means the ship has to move away from the station. They will dock again in about an hour’s time.”

“Cosgrove, grab another body and come with me” Major Macon ordered. Jason turned and saw Palmer nearest to him.

“Palmer, here!” he called. “Lewis, take charge of the squad while I am away.”

The major led the way down to the first of three levels inside the one wheel to the station management office where he arranged to have the two platoons occupy some available empty space with rest rooms and a view while they wait for the Electra. The station manager’s assistant led them to a curving passageway on the second level. Once Jason knew where they were to wait, he and Carmen went back to fetch the rest of the two platoons while the major claimed a comfortable spot in front of a window facing the Electra.

Lewis was in her element, chewing somebody’s ass for something or other when Jason and Carmen returned. She gave him a shy smile when he purposefully turned upside down from her point of view to look her in the face with a questioning look as Carmen explain to Gunny Thom to have the two platoons moving down the nearest shaft in orderly fashion.

There were huge windows along the curving passageway so they could have a look at the Electra as she slowly moved away from the station. Even the major and the gunny stared at the navy cruiser. The view was blocked every couple of seconds as the other wheel rotated, causing the huge spokes to move into their line of sight. There was not enough seating for all of them so Jason sat down on the floor across from the huge windows, with Carmen, Lewis, and Shelly promptly joining him. That resulted in the whole of First Platoon sitting on the floor and half of Second Platoon grabbing the couches along the walls. It also meant that those sitting across from Jason had their backs to the windows.

The first time Jason went into space for his specialist training phase they used a chartered freighter to practice shipboard activities with since none of the individual systems had dedicated navy ships. Even pirates used freighters to attack small asteroid colonies and other freighters. The freighter they used was a fairly general mid-sized model and consisted of the main body, a scaffolding frame a hundred meters long and twenty meters in diameter, with the various compartments and access tunnels built inside the tubular scaffolding structure.

The freighter’s main propulsion system was in the middle of the scaffolding frame with two static arms at right angles to the main body of the ship and at the center of gravity of the ship. The end of each arm was the propulsion chamber, capable of firing in both forward and rearward directions so the ship didn’t need to turn around to slow down.

Most of the internal compartments like engineering, and environmental control spaces were built inside standard space-bound shipping containers and connected together inside the scaffolding structure. The actual freight compartments consisted of more containers which was mounted on the outside of the scaffolding frame, for quick and easy detachment.

Crew quarters and passenger accommodation onboard space-going freighters made use of centrifugal spinning to imitate gravity. This was done by having a rotating collar as part of the ship’s frame. The rotating collar was actually an armature-type device with four arms at equal distanced around the circumference of the rotating hub. These arms terminated in swivel joints where the detachable containers connected to. Whenever the hub was spinning, all four arms had to have a container connected to them, to balance the mass. To ensure a perfect balance all containers had water sleeves built into the well-insulated skin of the container. The four arms were also telescopic, allowing the containers to be moved further or closer to the center of rotation. The ship’s engineer would pump water between the containers and the main storage tank to balance the spinning structure while they used the telescopic ability to adjust the gravity in the containers.

The swivel joints meant that the containers would move out perpendicular to the axis of the ship when the hub was rotating, like the spokes of a wheel. It also meant that if the ship was accelerating the containers would swivel back into a position parallel to the axis of the ship. Generally, the hub would not be spinning when the ship was under acceleration so the acceleration would be used to imitate gravity towards the ‘floor’ of the container. When acceleration stopped and the hub started spinning, the ‘floor’ of the container were still against the same internal surface as the containers swiveled outwards.

As the Grendel Marine Company attached to the IC Electra waited for the ship to dock again, they were given a great view of the ship. The first time Jason saw her, the Electra was about a kilometer from the space station axis and still lined up with the axis of the space station.

The Electra was huge in comparison to the freighter the trainees practiced on. It was much wider as well, having a scaffolding frame made from much heavier beams. Like the freighter, the scaffolding structure was tubular in shape but as wide as the freighter was long. The Electra was six hundred meters long with an average diameter of hundred meters. While the freighters used two propulsion pods on arms that fed both forward and backwards, the Electra had four propulsion pods on four perpendicular shafts mid-ships. There were ten rotation hubs evenly spaced along the length of the ship. The internal structure of the scaffolding was hidden behind numerous assault landing shuttles mounted on the outside of the ship’s frame.

While they watched, the containers on the rear hub were detached and pulled out of the frame. That was when Jason realized that the Electra was so huge that the rotating arms and containers rotated inside the scaffolding frame. Generally, the Electra looked like a metallic tube with its surface covered in blister-looking bumps all over the outer surface.

It took slightly longer than an hour before the Electra slowly moved up to reconnect to the space station. The Electra was big enough to look like a thicker extension to the space station’s axis. The major got a message a few seconds later and they formed up and set off to the Electra.

The marine company was snaking through the space station in a long line of marines with Major Macon in the lead. That meant Jason was right behind him. While Mars was still the acting squad leader, Jason was surprised to notice Lewis close on his heels with Mars a few meters behind her. She smiled back when he shot her a grin as they floated through the passageways.

They were met at the docking port by a bunch of navy people, three officers and half a dozen ratings. The major orientated himself to be facing the senior officer, a navy lieutenant commander, as they saluted it each other.

“Grendel Marines Expeditionary Company reporting” Major Macon said. “I’m Major Macon, company commander.”

“Welcome, Major” The lieutenant commander said as they shook hands. “I’m Lieutenant Commander Garrister, the executive officer of the IC Electra. Sorry we took so long but the Electra was rigged to house a reduced marine battalion. We quickly had to get more pods on the carousel to house your people.” As they talked, another officer, an imperial marine lieutenant commander came floating out of the ship, followed by a lieutenant and two sergeants.

“Sorry I’m late, what did I miss?” he asked as he orientated himself. “I’m Lieutenant Colonel Winterton, Battalion commander of the Third Battalion. You got my new company?” he asked as he glanced past the major at the row of marines snaking out of the open space.

“Yes sir. I have First and Second Platoons here. The other four platoons are ready to lift and will come up as the shuttles return.” He said after introducing himself again.

“The memo mentioned you have six platoons but only five platoon commanders, so including yourself you have six officers in total?” The BC said. “Then you have four candidate officers acting as squad leaders. We normally house the squad leaders with their men while the platoon leaders are housed with the officers. Do you have any objections about housing the candidate officers with their people?”

“It’s your call, sir” the major responded.

“The reason I’m asking is because we have been watching the parade down there. I noticed you using that candidate officer as acting platoon commander” he said as he nodded at Jason. “He did a good job on parade”

“That is why I used him in that capacity, sir.” Major Macon said. “But it was only for the parade. If you make him acting platoon commander than we have to find another squad leader. I was hoping to borrow a platoon commander from the battalion. We really don’t have anybody available down at the base who would do all of us proud.”

“I know you guys have six platoons to a company but we only have four platoons per company.” The BC said. “Don’t worry, we can use all of you. We are a bit light at the moment so I am thinking of placing two of your platoons with my people. We are supposed to have four platoons per company but we only have three platoons for both Alpha-Company and Charlie-Company. Bravo-Company is at full strength and you will be Delta-Company. Would that suit you if I place two of your platoons with Alpha and Charlie-Company?”

“They are here to learn and work, sir.” Major Macon said. “They are yours to use as you see fit”

“I think I might just have a platoon commander for your leaderless platoon, since that platoon already have three females. Sergeant Smith, take this platoon to Alpha-Company’s hub” the executive officer said. “There are two empty container pods. Once they know how to find their pods, get them fitted out with pressure suits. Make sure they can operate the helmets as quick as possible. Sergeant Barry, you take the other platoon to Charlie-Company’s territory. Show them where to bunk and give them the standard safety drills and general layout of the ship. We will worry about duty positions and battle stations later.” Sergeant Smith seemed friendly enough for a sergeant when he shook Jason’s hand.

“First Platoon, follow me” Sgt. Smith said. “The navy decided to dock the ship tail first so we have to travel the length of the ship to get to Alpha-Company territory.”

The sergeant set off into the ship with Jason and the rest of First Platoon following. From what Jason saw earlier and while examining the ship before it docked, he realized that all the compartments were manufactured from the same standard sized insulated shipping containers. That meant that they were making their way from compartment to compartment as they floated through the ship. There were no dedicated passageways. Once inside, Jason realized that the compartments were definitely not standard containers on the inside. The hatches were large circular motorized disks that slid sideways into place. None of the hatches were in the center of the wall, but offset to one side or another. At that moment they were all standing open, but because of the offset Jason could not look down the central shaft past the second set of hatches. Since each compartment had at least two such hatches, it meant where two compartments are joined together there was a small airlock between them.

“These are stores and engineering spaces” the sergeant explained as he led them through the first couple of compartments. He didn’t stop as he led them through what seemed to be a work space with hatches leading off into other compartments.

They came to a rotating hub with the hatch rims painted yellow. There were four hatches at equal distances from each other rotating around the hub. Jason noticed that they were rotating slow enough to get into them with no problems. Jason could see how that was necessary to have ample hand grips through the middle of the hub since the four rotating hatches in constant motion. They were not so fast that grabbing one of the hatch frames were difficult but there was no place to step in that hub. Luckily the hub was always in zero gravity. The sergeant led the way through the hub and into another compartment.

“Hub 10, Delta-Company territory, we continue.” Sgt. Smith said without even slowing down. Jason was glad about the vast number of push-ups he did, and forced his squad to do because moving down the center of the Electra while using only your arms was the only way to go.

“Hub 9, Charlie-Company hub, we continue.” Sgt. Smith said. That hub was painted a bright green. Jason noticed that hub 9 was rotating in the opposite direction from hub 10.

“Hub 8, officers country, second sickbay, mess hall and kitchens for Hub 9 and Hub 10. Gym, and a VIP pod” Sgt Smith said. “There is another ring like this up front for the other two companies so we don’t have to go far to get to the mess or sickbay.”

“Armory B, there are two of them as well.” Smith said as he pointed to a closed hatch inside the next compartment. The compartment was fairly large with not much in it except for two more closed hatches. Jason realized what looked like a weird organization of random equipment stuck to the walls was actually a typical zero-gravity office. No desk or chairs since some of the wall space acted as desk space. “This space also serves as a pre-deployment area for Charlie and Delta companies. There is another assembly point like this for Alpha and Bravo companies.”

“Hub 7, the navy mess hall, and the brig as well as the Master at Arms’ office is in there as well as the navy sick bay, the ship’s library and the navy gym.” Jason noticed that the navy territory was not painted any color so the hatch was a dull gray.

“Hub 6, navy stores, environmental, and workshops” Sgt Smith said. “No need to go there”

“Hub 5, the navy crew quarters.” The sergeant said as he passed through the fourth hub. “Generally, we stay out of there, and they stay out of our quarters. They have their own mess hall down there as well.”

“Hub 4, the bridge and navy officers’ territory is located in there” The sergeant explained. “Where we go for punishment detail.”

“This is your pre-deployment location along with Armory A” the sergeant said as he moved through another empty space with two closed hatches.

“Hub 3, marine mess hall for the two companies on this end, main marine sick bay, and another gym. More officers country, and another VIP pod.” The sergeant said.

“Hub 2, Bravo-Company.” The sergeant announced. The hub frame was painted sky blue.

Finally, the sergeant stopped inside hub 1 and waited for the four squad leaders to join him. Needless to say, the corporals crowded in as well. With the limited place to anchor everybody Jason was not surprised to find Lewis grabbing him by his shoulders to anchor herself.

“Sorry, Mister Cosgrove” she said in a casual voice. “You are big enough to take up more than your share of the space, so I will just anchor myself on you.”

“This is Hub 1, territory of Alpha-Company, and now also your new quarters.” The sergeant said. “The Company commander, Captain Samuel, is currently with the rest of the company down on the surface. Since there can only be one captain on a ship, as soon as Captain Samuel step onboard he gets addressed as Major Samuel.”

Alpha-Company’s hub was painted red. Looking through the four stationary hatches, Jason could only see a relatively small curved space rotating past the hatch. Then another numbered inner hatch rotated into view. Jason watched as the lower hatches 1 to 4 rotated past.

“The actual hub consists of a torus with four down shafts. Number 1 leads to Alpha-Company’s officers’ territory. Shafts 2, 3, and 4 leads to where you live but you can use any of the shafts to get to any of the containers. You guys will be Third Battalion, Alpha-Company, Fourth Platoon, while you are with us.” The sergeant said before he pushed himself down, feet first through one of the four hatches into the torus. Jason reacted more on instinct as he followed the sergeant. In the process Lewis, who had a firm grip on Jason’s one shoulder, gave a squeak of surprise as she got jerked along as Jason entered the torus.

Copying Sergeant Smith, Jason grabbed at a grab bar inside the torus just off the hatch opening. With his feet then pointing down while ‘hanging’ from the grab bar and fully inside the torus, he noticed that the entire upper part, the ceiling, of the torus was stationary, while the sides and bottom was rotating.

The grab bar was actually circling the entire torus and was parallel to another rotating grab bar. Again, copying their guide, he used one hand to ‘grab’ hold of the rotating bar but letting it slide through his hand. He slowly let himself speed up until he was stationary in relation to the torus and the hubs were rotating past overhead.

Sergeant Smith waited just long enough to watch as the four acting sergeants copied him in entering the rotating torus, and that each of the platoon were copying the person in front of him, before he jumped feet first down shaft no. 2 with Jason being first to follow, and Lewis being nearly on top of him.

Once Jason was inside the tube, which had a rope net attached around the inner surface with green stripes on one side and red stripes along the other side, he immediately got pushed, or fell against the one side of the tube. He now had to climb down, more like crawling, to the other end of the tube.

As he glanced back, he noticed that the green stripes now looked red when viewed from the opposite side. He was amused when Lewis decided to try and stand on the side wall of the tube. She was short enough to do it as well. Logic tod him the end of the tube where he entered was upwards and he was moving down, but the force pushing him against the side told him otherwise. Lweis was standing against a vertical wall.

About two thirds to the bottom, the tube opened up into a cross-junction with two side corridors. The tube continued downwards but the sergeant stopped and waited for Jason and Lewis to stand on the side tubular cross passage. The cross passage turned out to be a ring with the same diameter as the down tube. About 6 or 7 meters from the down shaft along the upwards curving tube was another opening.

Sgt. Smith was already heading towards that opening. Jason noticed there was a grab bar from the top of the tube down into the opening, in the center of the downwards opening. As Jason got to the opening, he noticed the pipe was mounted onto the floor of the container about 3 meters down. There were two sets of metal lattice frames connected between the floor of the container and the top of the shaft. It was obvious those lattice frames were the way out of the container. Sgt. Smith was already standing on the floor of the container looking up at Jason and Lewis. Jason again didn’t hesitate as he grabbed the pole and slid down into the container.

“This container is currently unoccupied so you can safely assume you guys will be bunking in here.” Sgt. Smith said as more and more of the marines followed the squad leaders down into the container. “I would suggest squads 1 and 2, settle in here while squads 3 and 4 follow me to the next empty container but maybe you lot should wait for your platoon leader to make the final bunking arrangements” he said as he glanced at the three female marines.