Chapter 21: Uneasy Introductions.

I was a bit worried about being late so I immediately started jogging. I was passing the next door when I heard Morgan shout. “Hey! Mark, what’s the hurry?”

I turned back to see Morgan jogging down the corridor. I choked back a laugh as I shook my head and slowed down until he caught up. “I figure being late sets a bad example,” I replied.

“And this matters to you,” Morgan said with a nod. “Do you want to wait for Jason and Jessica?”

“They know to get to a meeting on time,” I said. “I shouldn’t have to watch out for them.”

“You don’t have to,” Jason said as he ran up to join us. “I just wish I had been ready. I had to finish eating a bit quickly.”

I nodded. “Tatyana had gotten out of bed and I went to comfort her. The AI warned me that this briefing was going to be called. I was already getting dressed when the general announcement was made.”

“Hey wait up!” Jessica shouted. We looked back up the hall to see our young friend running up. She had pulled the uniform up her legs, but left her torso uncovered and her braless breasts bounced as she rushed up to join us.

“In a hurry?” Morgan asked.

“See anyone else in the halls?” Jessica asked with a bite to her voice. “And I don’t mind if you see. Heck, if you’re willing I’ll drag you back to my home for an orgy later.”

“Jessica?” I asked.

“I’m mostly joking,” she said. “Although I do wonder what it would be like to have three men take me at once. However, aren’t we supposed to go to a briefing?”

“Navy for me,” Jason said.

“I’m guessing we are all in the navy,” I said. I resumed walking and started chanting. “We want you, we want you, we want you for a new recruit.”

Morgan started laughing. He quickly caught up to me and was walking just to my right. “Trust you to be a bit silly.”

“Keeps me from worrying about the assignment,” I replied as Jason and Jessica caught up to us. “I don’t even know much about the ship we’ll be assigned to.”

“We’ll probably get split up,” Jessica said.

“I don’t know,” Morgan said. “We already work together as a team. I could see that it might make sense to keep us as a unit that gets assigned together. We’d require less time together before we figure out the leadership dynamic.”

“But if we do that Mark is in charge,” Jason said in mock distress. “I mean, can we all follow his orders? Can he give orders? Will he worry about our safety? He might lead us all to our deaths!”

“Dying is easy, Life is the greatest adventure,” I said as we reached an intersection of passages.

“Which way do we go?” Jessica asked.

“If your assignment is to the Navy, please enter the room with the blue light above the door. Marines go to the green light. Again Navy is blue light, Marines are green light,” the AI announced.

I looked and could see a blue light over a door to our left. “This way,” I said firmly as I walked over to the door. It opened as we approached.

Jason dodged around me and rushed the doorway. He vanished inside only to immediately reappear. “We’re first,” he said.

“Not a surprise,” Morgan said.

I nodded as I reached the doorway and looked inside. The room was set up with theater seating and wide rows. Each chair had a desktop hovering in front of it. I moved towards the first row.

“Mark?” Jessica asked.

“Why not, we can take the seats in the front row middle. That way we get a good view and no one will be in front of us to distract us,” I replied.

I started walking to the front row. I heard no movement behind me until I reached the front row and turned to start walking to the middle.

“Mark?” Jason asked. “What do we do?”

“Well, this is a training session and most likely mostly a familiarization course. We’ll hopefully get to see pictures of the ships we’ll be serving on,” I replied

“Ships? Won’t we all be on the same ship?” Jessica asked.

“I hope we are,” I said. “But I’m not in control when it comes to those decisions.”

I had found a seat near the middle. The desk portion rose out of the way as I moved to sit down. Once I was seated it lowered in front of me to provide a work area. There was a touch screen on the desk. I pressed on the glowing button indicating “on”.

The whole top of the desk lit up. I could see the surface divide into six sections. The one in the upper left had “Intro to Corvettes” clearly printed across the top. The other sections were all gray.

“Only one section?” I said asking the rhetorical question.

“The other sections will become available once the first section is completed,” the AI said.

“Makes my choice easy then,” I said quietly as I pressed my finger to the one illuminated section.

The section spread out to cover the entire screen. At that point the picture froze and a new message started scrolling across the top of the screen. “The presentation will start when the training session begins.”

“Typical,” I thought as Jessica slipped into the seat to my left.

“We’re the only ones here,” she said worriedly. “Are you sure we are at the correct place?”

There was a loud gong sound. The booming AI voice immediately began speaking. “The training for all new citizens is about to begin. Military discipline is in place and there will be penalties for late arrivals. If you are not already on your way leave your pods immediately.”

I pointed at the desk. “Based on what I’m seeing and the AI’s instructions, I’d say we are in the right place. Everyone else just forgot that this is now a military operation.”

“And who cares if it is?” I heard someone said sneeringly. I looked to my right to see Austin slipping into the seat.

“It might sound silly now, but there is a reason why the military does things. It might be even more important to us,” I replied. “From what little I have found out the plan is for the fifty-six people going to the navy to end up as the crews for two ships. And I’d bet that in space combat there is little room for error.”

“You don’t have to worry about that,” another sneering voice said. I looked over to see the man with the long and pretentious name I had seen at the initial briefing when the front half of the ship had been loaded. He was sitting in the second row, but had put his feet up on one of the seats in the front row as he lounged in his chair.

“Expecting to be in charge?” I asked.

“Of course,” the man said. “I was a CEO on Earth. I can run a ship. In fact they should probably put me in charge of both ships.”

“Dude,” Jason said. “Why don’t we first see what the ships are like? And we do need training. Do you know anything about how the ships work?”

“Who needs to know that?” the arrogant man said.

“You think you can lead a ship to victory without knowing how it runs? I really doubt you ran your company without at least knowing the basics of how products were produced and sold.”

“We won’t be producing or selling anything,” the man replied.

“We are here to bring pain and despair upon our enemies. We are here to make their children wail out long lamentations that their futures are darker than the deepest pits of Gehenna,” I replied.

“Where?” the man replied.

“Hell,” I said as more people began to flow into the room. I looked at the entrance and tried to remember names for the few people I had seen before.

To my surprise Walter appeared in the doorway. He scanned the room and then immediately began moving to the front row. He was looking directly at me as he made his way into the room.

“This isn’t the marine briefing,” I said.

“I know,” Walter said. He sounded almost apologetic. “I just came to say you were right.”

“About?’ I asked

“I tried to think about how a potential concubine might feel about the huge uncertainty they were facing. I had not thought much about how much they might be leaving behind or about the fact that they would only have a moment to get to know the person they were linking their lives to,” Walter said.

I nodded. “It makes a difference doesn’t it?”

Walter blushed. “I never thought about it before, but yes, it does. Suddenly I’m a bit ashamed of what I did to girls like Aine.”

“Aine had her own demons to slay,” I replied. “But I guess you found a couple of concubines when you were allowed to go on a pickup.”

Walter nodded. “I’m still trying to get to know them. Monique and Katerina are their names. Nice girls, but I get a feeling they don’t really trust me yet.”

“Well if you get punished for being late to the marine briefing, I’m sure you won’t gain their trust when you are punished. You should rush over there,” I replied.

Walter nodded. “We’ll talk later. And Mark ... I’m sorry about how I acted. I know I can’t apologize to the people I hurt, but I might do better. I’m going to try.”

Walter dashed back out nearly running over a couple of people who were entering. I watched him go and shook my head.

“He came around fast,” Jessica said disbelievingly.

“I get a feeling that a lot of that was for show. He probably is still struggling with his ladies,” I replied. “But I have to admit that I’ll be very happy if he does turn it around. He wasn’t a bad friend.”