Chapter 7: Interstellar Boredom

Alpha-Company, First Platoon went on duty at 00h00 hours, midnight, ship time, before the Electra departed. At 12h00 hours, noon, Fourth Platoon went on standby. That meant the platoon got issued with carbines and again with no ammo. The eight corporals got the same type of weapon as well as sealed containers with ammo for their sections. The squad leaders received hand guns with ammo but kept the handguns unloaded. The platoon then returned to their pods and relaxed on their bunks, fully dressed in pressure suits. At 10 minutes before 16h00 hours, Jason posted his squad. Dalton and his squad were on duty at the front airlock while Shelly’s squad was at the rear airlock. Jason and his squad were stationed inside Hub-4, the bridge, while Carmen’s squad was posted along the central passageway, while concentrating on the two armories and one squad near the ducal pods.

Jason posted his squad in pairs, outside the captain’s quarters, outside the bridge, outside the communications pod and the operations pod. The rest as well as the two corporals were officially in roaming mode but they were warned that each ship’s captain had a different idea on how to safeguard his ship so the battalion commander usually adapted the duty marines based on what the captain wanted. The captain wanted two marines inside the bridge, and one of them with ammo, so Mars ended up there with another marine while Jason and Lewis roamed the rest of the pod, checking up on each pair.

Jason also got to spend time on the bridge, unintentionally. Fifteen minutes into their shift Jason stepped into the bridge, intending to check up on Corporal Mars and his side-kick, when the captain announced that the ship was starting high acceleration towards the jump gate. That required all crew and passengers to stay put and hold on as the rotating rings slowed while the ship accelerated.

The rings would stop altogether while the individual pods would swivel towards the rear of the ship, keeping the floor in place. During this stage the central passageway suddenly became a half-kilometer deep shaft so all the hatches between segments got closed to stop anybody from accidentally falling to his death against the rear cabin wall.

“You are proving to be quite the quandary onboard the Electra, Sergeant” the captain commented as the ship started to accelerate. Jason and the rest of the marines were secured at special points with lattice harnesses keeping them in place but still the feeling of the ring slowing and the bridge pod swiveling felt weird. “Everybody keeps asking about you, your origin and future as well as your skills. If it was just the marine command team who kept talking about you, I would understand but then the duchess also asked about you, saying you looked vaguely familiar. Nobody has anything specific against or for you but still, it is weird.” Jason had nothing to say so he kept quiet.

“I understand that you are quite the swordsman” the executive officer said as he studied Jason from his post. “In the past Major Samuel was the master swordsman on board the Electra but he admitted that he might have met his match. Maybe we can convince your battalion commander to allow you to train with us?” Again, Jason said nothing other than nod his head. He suddenly realized that a number of the naval officers and maybe even the marine command were actually of noble decent, second or third sons of titled nobility, and thus trained in the use of sabers and rapiers. It was their main form of exercise. For them to invite a supposedly commoner marine NCO to train with them meant that they suspected something about his past. Jason could also not refuse to join them, or even fake lack of training since he already gave away his game when he fought against Major Samuel.

The initial acceleration lasted about three hours. Other than the danger of people falling down the main passageway there was also the discomfort of continued acceleration at 3Gs. For short periods of time it was manageable but it became tiring after a few hours. Doing anything physical during 3G acceleration was also limited to the absolute necessary stuff, like running the ship. Just before Jason’s first duty time was due to end, the captain ordered acceleration to stop and to spin up the wheels again. Once the world stopped moving in a weird way Jason was able to go inspect his squad.

Once the Electra moved away from the space station, using maneuvering thrusters, they used the anti-gravity generator to move the ship out of orbit and towards the destination jump gate. The Grendel system had two jump gates, both leading to empty systems with more jump gates. The anti-gravity generators worked fine for smaller objects but an object like a 600-meter space ship didn’t move very fast under anti-gravity alone. For that they used the high-acceleration cold-fusion impulse engines. Once the Electra reached the optimum velocity, they shut down the impulse engines and coasted towards the jump gate until it was time to slow down again. After another bout of 3G deceleration, they usually have reached the jump gate and could use the anti-gravity generator and maneuvering jets for final alignment.

Jason and all the other Grendel marines soon discovered that space flight was very boring. None of the living quarter pods had any port holes in them and the only actual ‘windows’ on the Electra were small portholes built into the airlock hatches. That was meant as a sort of a safety feature since one of the issues that has been drilled into them was to always check the other side before trying to open an airlock hatch. It was a theoretical issue since none of them had the necessary permission to touch an airlock. The only way for them to see what was outside the ship was to select one of the external views on any of the display and communication panels in any of the pods.

As the Electra moved away from the space station and the planet, there was something to see but once the planet was just a small white dot it soon became boring. Except for being on duty for four hours out of every sixty-four hours, the only other activities were fitness drills, kit maintenance, sleep, eat, and reading.

Jason and the other squad leaders soon realized that bored marines were trouble so they extended the fitness sessions to be longer and more competitive. At least the outer rings were wide enough, and with a long enough circumference to be of good use to the marines.

“Would you guys mind if I join in?” Lieutenant Gomes asked as she joined Jason and the other squad leaders. The four squads were all mingled together as they got ready to start their stretches before the main event. Once the marines have traversed the entire circumference of the outer ring, Jason start giving spike sparring lessons to them. It was usually not long before all the marines of the four Grendel squads joined in.

By the time the Electra started decelerating, Alpha-Company, Fourth Platoon, ‘The Lady’s Fighters’ as the marines started referring to themselves has progressed in both upper body strength as well as general endurance and team spirit to the point where Lady Lisa could just about do anything with them. It helped that Lady Lisa closely followed any of her squad leaders’ suggestions, which boiled down to everybody following Jason.

“She is totally transparent” Shelly muttered as she, Carmen, and Jason sat with their heads together after dinner. The Electra was done decelerating and was close to the jump gate, except the gate was still too far away to be resolved on the screens.

“Who are you talking about?” Jason asked. He had just returned from the serving hatch with a fresh cup of coffee when he overheard Shelly’s comment.

“She is referring to the lady herself” Carmen muttered after she made sure nobody was within hearing range.

“What are you guys saying?” Jason asked.

“Everybody worships her” Carmen said. “Even the major thinks she is becoming a great leader. Meantime she just does what we suggest, and we do what you suggest. You are the real leader of this platoon.”

“Hey, it’s just good leadership to do what the more experienced NCOs suggest you do” Jason said. “It has been good advice for centuries of warfare.”

“You know what I think?” Shelly asked Carmen as she gave Jason a warning look. “I think he does it on purpose”

“Do what on purpose?” Jason asked.

“You make suggestions about strengthening our upper bodies, and when the major asked who came up with the arm swing competition you told him in front of everybody that it was the lieutenant’s suggestion. She obviously decided to just bask in the glory when the major heaped praise on her. You gave your idea to her and she grabbed it.” Shelly said.

“So, what’s wrong with that?” Jason asked. “I can guarantee you the whole platoon will benefit from a popular and confident leader. I didn’t do that to butter her up, I did it to boost her ego. She seems to have a lot of self-doubt. We all know she has never been leading any troop body because of her being female and a noble. You two benefit just as much from all this as she is.”

“Well, the other squad leaders certainly treat us like equals” Carmen said. “I was a bit worried that the regular imperial marine squad leaders would look down on us but they seem to think we are just regular squad leaders”

“Good, everybody in one spot” Dalton called out as he walked into the mess pod. “Don’t go anywhere, the Lieutenant wants to talk to us” He got himself a cup of coffee and sat down next to Jason while facing the two girls.

“Did she say what about?” Shelly asked. Just then Lieutenant Gomes, Major Samuel, and Major Macon walked in and joined them.

“We are about to go through the jump gate” Major Samuel said. “According to Major Macon’s records, none of the Grendel marines have ever been through a jump gate. The reason I want to talk to you about it is because the first time anybody goes through a jump gate can be a bit traumatic.”

“In which way, Major?” Shelly asked. Jason suddenly had the idea that she had pitched her voice just a shade higher than normal. Over time Jason concluded that people would talk with a higher tone if they want to indicate a liking of the other person. Jason sort of match that behavior to a dog wagging his tail to indicate he is friendly and not a threat. He was sure Shelly did it without thinking, as her way to flirt with the handsome imperial marine officer, who also happened to be the son of a nobleman even if he was not the heir.

“Nobody knows except the general reaction is to have a sudden and intense feeling of nausea.” Major Samuel responded. “We also know that the more one travels through a jump gate the less severe the feeling becomes. Even for a first time the response can vary from person to person. It can be anything from a sudden mild dizzy feeling to actually vomiting and needing to lie down for a while. Prepare your platoon for the effects.” He said to Major Macon “I want you guys to monitor your squads as we go through. Be specifically on the lookout for anybody having a rather severe reaction.”

“Anything specific we have to do if somebody gets sick, Major?” Dalton asked. Jason again listened as Dalton pitched his voice slightly higher at the end of his question.

“It will depend on how severe the reaction is” Major Samuel replied. “The worst case is where somebody needs to be taken to the sick bay for continuous vomiting. In such cases we usually end up having to drug the person going through the next jump gate. If anybody have such a reaction it usually means the only way to go through is by being drugged. That usually excludes that person from joining the Imperial Marines.”

“Wow” Carmen said as she and Shelly gave each other worried looks.

“Mister Cosgrove” Major Samuel said as he turned to face Jason. “I guess I did you a mild disfavor, or a favor, depending on how you look at it. Everybody in the officers’ ring knows about the navy officers wanting to challenge you to a friendly competition of fencing. They did that because they heard reports from the battalion commander about your sword skills. They asked me for some more tips as to your ability and I gave them an honest answer. I got the idea they all decided to conveniently forget about the challenge.”

“Why would they do that?” Lady Lisa asked in confusion.

“They are all second or third son nobility” Major Samuel replied. “If a commoner, an acting sergeant, beats them at their own game, they will lose face in front of the navy ratings.” Jason noticed as Lady Lisa’s head jerked around as she looked at him. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed as Shelly winked sat him while Carmen gave him a smirk.

“Jason is a holy terror with the short sword in cramped quarters” Dalton added. “I’m even thinking of naming the twin-sword style he has been teaching us after him, the Cosgrove Discipline or something like that” Jason felt his face getting warm as the other males laugh. Then he noticed the females giving him a funny look.

“Maybe I should also join your classes” Major Samuel said as he smirked at Jason.

Eighteen hours later, after sufficient warnings over the intercom, the Electra gently drifted through the jump gate out of the Grendel system. Instantaneously the ship and her contents relocated to another solar system two light years from the Grendel system. None of his squad got violently sick but there were a few who had to use the mops and buckets they had handy for that transit. Jason had a mild headache and a short dizzy spell before everything returned back to normal.

The new system they found themselves in had no name, just a number, and three jump gates. One of them lead to another system which had a gate to Pleiades Prime, the system that contained the planet Secundus. The second jump gate lead to the Bova system. The third jump gate let to another intermediate system with no habitable planets and a number of jump gates leading to various spots in the near Pleiades Empire.

The Electra just passed courtesy greetings to the Imperial Navy frigate stationed at the Grendel gate. The same frigate, a ship half the size of the Electra, patrolled both sides of the Grendel gate, by moving through the gate at irregular intervals. The main function of that frigate was to ensure that some pirate group does not capture the gate and thus hold the Grendel system at ransom. While pirates awere a real concern, in reality it was much more likely that a pirate ship would chase down and board an unarmed freighter. Since all space ships were always moving from jump gate to jump gate, their trajectories were no secret and intercepting one was not difficult.

Jason had found and read some science fiction novels, from before humans left their original home world to come to the Pleiades, in which space flight seemed vastly different. Space ships had powerful lasers and missiles to fight each other with. It was obvious that the authors had no idea what space travel were really like. They referred to sensor systems that could detect a ship at solar distances, and then instantly determine the size and type of ship.

The reality Jason grew up with was that lasers in space worked great, for relatively short distances only, distanced measured in light-seconds. Since all objects in space are always in motion, aiming a laser at an object that is more than a light second or about 300,000 kilometers, away will miss the target, unless you aim at where the target will be a second later. The old concept of rail guns was even worse since they had such low velocities as compared to lasers. The only weapon that might work as described in the old novels was missiles but they were subject to the same gravitational fields as a ship and couldn’t be fired straight at an enemy ship. Even a missile with auto-tracking capability will end up approaching its target in concentric circles, like a comet orbiting a sun and getting closer with each orbit. Warfare scholars have compared missiles in space to another terrible weapon, the land mine. A missile might run out of fuel before get near its target and end up drifting through space until an unsuspecting ship ends up triggering it years later. In the Pleiades Empire the only weapons allowed on space ships were meant for hand to hand combat inside the ships to repel boarders or to take over a ship. None of the navy ships or civilian ships had any sort of armament. More accurately, the only real armament onboard a space ship are the armed crew, the marines.

The trip to the Bova jump gate had the same pattern of accelerating and then decelerating with a long period of boredom in between. Since the Electra was taking the duke and duchess of Bova home, nothing exciting was expected to happen, until something happened.

As the Electra slowed to line up with the next jump gate, the captain of the Electra received a message from a drone floating near the gate. The frigate that was guarding the gate was apparently on the far side of the gate, observing a developing crisis in the Bova system. Since Jason’s squad was on standby, he was tasked to escort the duke to the bridge when the captain found out what was happening. Jason was thus in the right place to hear the news first hand.

With Jason ordered to escort the duke of Bova to the bridge, he ended up standing in the rear of the bridge next to an Imperial marine sergeant, the squad leader of the current duty platoon as the captain and the imperial marine battalion commander briefed the duke. The bridge was not huge and nobody even tried to keep their voices down.

“It seemed a freighter that has been reported as being stolen by some unknown pirate band, has docked with mining asteroid KM199 which is in the Bova system’s asteroid belt.” The captain informed the duke as the duke joined him and the battalion commander. “Currently the asteroid is relatively close to the jump gate, meaning a week’s travel. The navy frigate guarding the jump gate was the first to receive the emergency signal and dispatched a shuttle. The shuttle got close enough to get the freighter ID signal. The signal belongs to a bulk cargo freighter that has been reported stolen by one of the large mining houses in the Tycho system. They suspect the crew of the ship went rogue.”

“They didn’t try to block the freighter’s ID signal?” the duke asked in surprise.

“Apparently not” the captain said. “The frigate has to stay close to the jump gate and will prevent that freighter from trying to use the gate. My orders are to convey you and your family to Bova prime but since we are now in your jurisdiction, I will consider any alternative orders you give me, Your Grace” The duke thought about it for a while.

“I’m concerned that the freighter will not try to use any of jump gates but might either set up a secret pirate base in that asteroid or go hide elsewhere in the asteroid belt, from where they might very well try to grab more resources from other mining operations.” The duke said. “Do you have sufficient resources at this time to take care of this matter?” He asked Lieutenant Commander Winterton.

“My lord, thanks to Major Macon and the Duke of Grendel we have a full complement of marines on board” the battalion commander responded.

“In that case, captain, I would like to postpone our trip to Bova prime and let you take care of this matter first” the duke said. “We need to nip any form of piracy in the bud, we do not need to have this group get a foot hold here.”

That order resulted in the battalion commander ordering the entire battalion to Readiness State One, and ordered Jason and his squad to return to their duties since the duty platoon was still in place and the duke was going to stay on the bridge. From what he heard on the bridge, Jason didn’t wait to be told to get ready and got his platoon issued with weapons and ammo as well as short swords. Since the close combat swords were a regular ship-based marine weapon there were not enough of them to arm his platoon with two swords each. Then Lieutenant Gomes called all her squad leaders together.

“I have just been briefed by Major Samuel.” she said. She did not look very happy as she came storming into the outer ring where Jason and the other squad leaders were doing final pre-deployment inspections on their marines. “The major wanted to put us in first but the battalion commander countered that.” she said. “Something to do with me being a woman and this being my first combat experience.”

“Does the BC have issued with us as well?” Shelly asked.

“If he does, he didn’t say so” Lt. Gomes said. “Alpha-Company is going, with platoons one through three storming the asteroid. We will stay on board our shuttle as primary reserves. Are your squads all ready?”

One by one the squad leaders reported the readiness state of their squads. Then they set off to the shuttles assigned to them. Jason noticed that all the marines in the platoon seemed eager but also nervous. Lt. Gomes was quite jittery as they moved into the marine shuttle.

The shuttle had the same design as the ones Jason and his marines qualified on back on the Grendel space station. The platoon all settled in while the squad leaders did a final check. The small emergency oxygen cartridges they usually carried on the back of their helmets were sufficient for about half an hour each but not for combat conditions. Now each marine had a full combat backpack with a day’s worth of air as well as all the communications equipment they needed. Each backpack also had an emergency suit patch kit. They were trained to always operate in pairs since the patch kit was supposed to be used by somebody else on your suit if your suit got a puncture. Finally, Jason and the other three squad leaders inspected each other before the two female squad leaders did the same to Lt. Gomes. She seemed a bit surprised when Jason nodded to Shelly and Carmen to do the inspection. Jason suspected she was expecting him to do it.

“Electra bridge reports that the freighter still responds with her original ID request” Lt. Gomes’s voice came over the command channel. The whole platoon was strapped inside the shuttle but the shuttle was still connected to the Electra. The four squads making up Fourth Platoon were all inside four individual collapsible pods. They would be living off the shuttle power and air until just before they were deployed into vacuum. The shuttle had four rows of bucket seats along its length, two against the outer bulkhead and two back to back in the middle. All four racks of seats could slide out the back cargo hatch. It meant the entire platoon could be outside the shuttle, attached to the frame and using air and power from the shuttle, until they were told to disconnect and float away.

Each squad leader stays with his squad while the platoon leader usually picks one of the squads and joined that squad. Since the platoon leader should never be one of the first marines into battle, the platoon leader usually picks the second or fourth squad. Jason was thus not totally surprised to find Lt Gomes next to him.

“Are they dumb or is it a trap?” Dalton asked over the network.

“The Electra is going to try and sneak up in the freighter’s blind spot” Lt Gomes said. “We will stay in our shuttle close to the freighter while the others go into the asteroid.”

The only way they could find out what was happening outside the shuttle was whenever the ops commander, which was the battalion commander, told the company commander who then either inform the platoon commanders or broadcast it on the company wide network. After what felt like hours Jason suddenly heard comments on the company net as other squad leaders reported making progress as they started infiltrating the hollowed-out asteroid. Things seemed to be going well until they started getting reports of civilians, believed to be miners, being held at gun point by other civilians, believed to be pirates.

“The freighter shows signs of life” somebody said in a relaxed and casual tone. Seconds later Jason could hear Major Samuel’s voice over the company net.

“Fourth Platoon, try and clamp onto that freighter” the captain said. “Stop it from leaving” He sounded mildly excited. Jason suddenly noticed as Lt Gomes’ eyes grew huge inside her helmet. Then she ordered the shuttle crew to put the platoon in hard vacuum. That order resulted in the shuttle’s cargo bay being opened to vacuum and the four rails of seating to be sliding out the back.

That order came over the squad net. Jason waited until the seat racks stopped moving before giving his squad the order to check disconnection of their backpacks from the shuttle while staying attached to their seats, followed by the other squads being told to check the same. The four seat rails each flipped in a specific direction, causing the marines on that rail to suddenly face outwards and the two center rails to face up and down, relative to the shuttle.

From being inside a windowless shuttle to suddenly finding himself outside the shuttle was a bit disconcerting. Jason could see stars as well as the much brighter light of the primary star of the Bova system. He looked around and finally made out a small bright dot towards the front of the shuttle. It took a while before he could make out that they were approaching the bright dot at a mean speed.

Only when Jason could make out the freighter as a separate reflective dot nearly touching the slowly rotating mountain did he feel any sense of acceleration as the shuttle slowed. They had a grand view of the freighter as they moved closer to the asteroid, which seemed to be large enough to fit all of Grendel city inside it, if it was just a shell.

Then Jason noticed what looked like a string of pearls connecting the asteroid to the free-floating freighter, a string of moving pearls. Jason pushed his helmet against Lt Gomes’s helmet to communicate with her directly.

“Look, they are abandoning the asteroid” he said as he pointed to the string of pearls, which on close inspection turned out to be people in pressure suits moving along a cable to the freighter.

“Pilot, move the shuttle so the freighter is between us and the asteroid” Lt Gomes ordered. “We need to stop the freighter from leaving. First and Second squads, block those pirates from entering the living quarters. Third and fourth, on me to the bridge.”

It looked as if the shuttle was going to crash into the side of the freighter, which had a similar construction as the Electra, just smaller but with larger cargo pods attached to the freighter frame. The freighter only had one rotating ring wider than normal and no pods attached to the ring. The pilot knew his job and stopped meters from the freighter before slowly drifting up to the metal struts and clamping onto them. They heard the ‘Clear!’ from the pilot and then all the marines swarmed into the freighter’s frame.

Jason found himself next to Dalton as they led the way through the frame of the freighter to there the cable was connected to hatch with a mid-sized airlock roughly midway along the length of the freighter and right next to the rotating ring. As they got closer, Jason could see that the pearls he saw from a distance were indeed people in white civilian pressure suits except they were organized in groups of four, and were tied together with their hands locked onto a towing line. There were only a few commercial pressure suit figures around, and they were hard busy herding the tied-up groups into the airlock, one group at a time. Jason assumed the ones doing the herding were the pirates. What was surprising was that these pirates seemed to be either ignoring the marines or was still totally unaware of them.

“They are civilians, prisoners” Dalton said over the tactical net, having come to the same conclusion as Jason.

“Take out the external pirates first” Lt Gomes’s voice came over the tactical net. “Electra is jamming their comms.” As if to confirm Lt Gomes’s comment, the two pirates nearest them suddenly started patting at their helmets while behaving confused. They looked around, and found themselves surrounded by a dozen space marines pointing lasers at them. Two other pirates were still busy pulling in the line with prisoners until they also realized what was going. They also stopped moving with their arms held wide.

“They might try and use the civilians already in the ship as shields” Jason said. “Dalton, take three marines and enter the airlock, as if you are the next group of prisoners. I will send four more marines in to assist you as soon as the airlock cycles” Too late Jason realized that he was not really in any position to give Dalton a direct order but then Dalton pointed to the nearest three marines and entered the airlock as it opened. “Let’s continue pulling the prisoners in” Jason instructed.

“The prisoners are females, some of them young girls” Dalton grunted from inside the ship. Over the tactical net Jason could hear as Dalton physically exerted himself. “Shit, Jason, where are you and your swords when I need you.”

“Jason, get inside” a half panicky Lt Gomes suddenly said. “These characters know how to fight and the guns are too bulky. They already have the interior of the ship full of smoke so the lasers are useless as well.” Another marine, Mars according to his rank and size, pulled two of the next four marines out of the airlock and joined Jason in the airlock. All four of them had their short swords drawn, except Jason had two of them.