Part 4: ARSENAL II

It was just as easy as the Load handler said and a shuttle transport took me to Arsenal II without any problems. After it landed and I got out I wondered what I should do next. I was a few weeks late and no clear instructions as where to report. I double checked my PDD and contacted Fleet Personnel if there were any specific orders for me, there weren’t any new ones. The only active orders on file were to report to Arsenal II for my second year instructions. Those orders were almost two month overdue, but there was a properly filed extension by Fleet command.

Maybe someone at Academy HQ would be able to give me advice. So I took a maglev train from the Shuttle port to Academy Head Quarters.

There on the Duro-Crete before the Academy tower was a long line of orange jump suit wearing applicants. Only a year ago I had stood in that line. Now I walked unhindered, wearing navy black. Even though I choose to approach the building from another walkway I could almost feel the eyes of the applicants on me and I was glad I didn’t have to that again.

Right behind the entrance door I had chosen was a desk with a humanoid Lieutenant. He looked at me with light surprise in his face.” What can I do for you, Midshipman?”

“Sir I am to start the 2nd year, but I don’t really have a place to report so, so I thought I come here and see if I can get information and perhaps advice what I have to do.”

He scanned my ID chip and looked over his screen tapped a few times on it.” I assigned you to Bachelor housing complex 345A. There you will have a room to stay and study.”

He handed me a print out.” Here are the directions how to get there from here.”

“Thank you Sir, very kind.”

He waved his hand and grinned.” Since I could not find any active orders for you. You just volunteered to work right here, you can take the IST behind me to Level 8 and report to Lt Archer. We got lots of applicants today and we are short handed as usual.”

I recognized level 8 as soon as the IST let me out. It was the place where Applicants got their green uniforms. There was a long line and a bald headed Lieutenant directed each applicant to the Auto-dressers.

He saw me and waved me over.

“First time a Midshipman is volunteering for this, but I am not complaining. Get over there and take the four auto-dressers over there. Check the applicant’s status to make sure he or she got accepted, double scan them to make sure there are no civilian items on them and put him in one of the auto-dressers. Don’t answer many questions or you never get done.”

The task was easy but after sending over two hundred applicants through, I lost count and caught myself snapping at an applicant who asked a stupid question. A question similar to what 179 applicants before him asked.

Then I realized what I had done. Only short time ago I was that applicant and quite angry at the indifferent or unfriendly officers. I was about to turn and apologize, but a voice stopped me.

“Don’t apologize.” It was the silver haired woman I had seen in Webb’s office a year ago. Now I knew of course, her name was Alycia Lichfangh. Ialso learned that she was not the NAVINT commandant, but the leading officer of the equally elusive PSI corps. Because the PSI corps was a special forces division of the Union Army, she had an Army rank and not a Naval one. I knew she was not really a Saresii, but part of the Coven.”

She smiled ever so lightly at me.

“It is quite a different experience to have the shoe on the other foot is it not?”I nodded.” Yes Ma’am. I came to that conclusion just now myself.”

“Commander Webb wants to see you.”

I followed the woman. Just before I left the room, Archer called my name and gave me a thumb up. “Thank you Midshipman Olafson, good job and the help was appreciated.”

I smiled back and went after the PSI Corps General and I wondered why she would run errands for the Admiral. In the corridor before the IST she said.

“Never apologize to a subordinate, at least not in public. A good officer stands by his actions and reactions even as small as these. If it was a wrong you might in rare cases take that subordinate to a private place and apologize. On a regular duty station there are other ways for a superior officer to make up for a slip like that without apologizing.”

“Yes Ma’am”

She was tall and with her heeled boots taller than me. She leaned closer. “Just to let you know Gwen your friend has made the official request and it all went smoothly. Most of the Union Assembly hardly took notice at the request of a single planet species membership request, but the Saresii and the Narth Representatives did and welcomed us.”

“If the Nartn and the Saresii welcomed you, I am certain the application was just a formality?”

“As you know, I am Alyicia Lichfang and I am the oldest sister of the Coven. I j decided to fetch you myself as I learned Webb wanted to talk to you and let you know that everything went as planned.”

“That is good to know. Not that I really understood why you needed me to make a decision you had basically made already.”

“I think you just been at the right place to the right time and Gwen does like you.” She pointed at the Admirals door.” Well he is waiting for you and it is never a good thing to make an Admiral wait too long.”

I had to agree with her on that and she opened the door for me and almost pushed me in.

Admiral Stokes was behind his desk, so I snapped in attention.” Cadet Olafson reporting as ordered Sir.”

He nodded.” At ease Midshipman. I am surprised to see you here so early.”

“I thought I am two month behind schedule Sir. Admiral McElligott ordered me to report here, Sir.”

“Well technically you are now six month to early as we placed your second year into the next turn. I recall that Asmiral McElligott also ordered you to take a vacation after all your shenanigans on Wichita and in the Igras Nebula. I don’t know details of course, no one tells the old Academy horse anything these days, but I would have to send you to the stockades if you even so much as open your mouth.”

He crossed his short arms across his chest in a very human gesture.” Be as it may you too late for your classes and to early for the next ones to start now that you are here.”

He glanced at a read out on his desk.”I see you have been assigned with a room at the Bachelor housing complex 345A. That is clear across the planet and keeps you out of my hair, not that I have any but using a figure of speech of course.”

He paced away from his desk, looked across the Academy Gardens.” Down the street from your Bachelors Home is a large old fashioned library with all the material you need to study.”

“Thank you Sir. I will”

“Have you decided already what you want to specialize in?”

“No not exactly, it was suggested I might study helm.”

“Do you know what books are?”

“Yes Sir.”

“Most study material you will find on GalNet in form of Holos, Hyno courses, direct cortex upload and so forth but some material to this day is best studied in printed form and in books.”

“Yes Sir, my old teacher in Basic School made a point of this as well.”

“Maybe he was a graduate my Academy then or perhaps simply a wise man.” He took a sheet of paper from his desk. “Here is a list of books I want you to study while you’re here. Consider it as my personal study assignment.”

“I will read them all, Sir.”

“Well get started. It’s a long list of books and I expect you to know them all by heart.”

“Aye Sir.”

“See me in three month from now. That is all Midshipmen.”

The bachelor’s home was like most buildings and facilities on this hostile environment planet deep underground and part of a sub surface building and tunnel complex ... I found the building and the door to my apartment easily enough following the instruction I had been given ... It had a bed, a desk a GalNet terminal and a small hygiene cell, that was all but I found it adequate and better than a dorm in any case.

I freshened up and changed Uniforms. A slot in the wall outside on the corridor was labeled Laundry and I disposed my worn uniform there.

Not tired enough for bed I went over the list, it was handwritten on a note paper with the Academy Logo. The list was thirteen titles long:

* The late profession of arms.

* Armed Forces and society: problems of non human alien integration.

* Critical incidents of leadership

A Firsthand Account of How a graviton storm, More Powerful than the Nul-Nul Fleet, Dealt Death and Destruction to Admiral Brigleys’s third Fleet.

* The Greek and Macedonian Art of War.

* Introduction to the Concepts of United Stars Navy Leadership.

* Sun Tzu’s Art of War

* Ult Fighting Doctrine

* Basic Command guidelines of the United Stars Navy

* The Seven Voyages of Captain Harvey

* The Captain’s Table: Ten humorous stories

* Translocators Curse or Blessing

* Fifty One Rules of Klack and War

None of the books had anything to do with helm. It turned out all 13 books were ancient and not available on GalNet. The library down the street had them, just as Admiral Stokes had said. Old tomes, real books made of paper. Why he wanted me to read these old books I could not say, but he wanted me to read them and read them I would.

Loaded with a stack of musky smelling paper books that looked as if no one had checked them out in decades and I wondered why they were around and not scanned and I returned and almost collided with someone as I turned to enter the Bachelors Home.

It was a Shiss.

I dropped the books and went instinctive in a fighting stance.

The Shiss, a lizard- like species belonged to the enemies of the United Stars. We had fought a series of wars against them and while there was no open war at the moment, there wasn’t any peace agreement either.

To see a Shiss on a military installation was quite unusual, even more so because this being wore a black navy uniform.

His voice sounded like high pressured air escaping a small hole.” You are surprised to see a Shiss, but it is not necessary to go into fighting stance, Midshipman.”

Now I saw the Captain striped on his uniform and immediately snapped into attention. “I am sorry Sir.”

“No problem. I get that a lot and I am used to it.”

He stepped a little closer and even helped me gather my books. While he did he looked at the titles. “You picked quite unusual reading material for a Midshipman. From the looks of it you are in your sophomore year at the Academy, right?”

“Technically I am still a freshman, Sir. The second year hasn’t started for me yet.”

“What did they teach you about the Shiss so far?

I straightened my stance and began to recite what I knew.” The Shiss a lizaroid species indigenous to the Balford Strand of the Orion arm in the Upward sector of our galaxy. These four armed, bipedal lizards have wings attached to the primary arm pair but are not capable of flight. They are strictly ruled by a caste system dominated by the White throat caste and ruled by the caste system is based on the color the throat skin of a Shiss male. He female of the species has no such coloration. The Colors are White, Beige, Yellow, Green, Red, Blue and the lowest caste is Purple” I took a deep breath and continued:” The Shiss attained Tech level 7 and are mortal enemies of the Nul-Nul. The Shiss and Nul-Nul fight wars for over 2000 years. First Contact with the United Stars was made by...”

He raised one of his upper hands. “Well you do know the text book version so it seems.”

He made a sound that sounded surprisingly like a human sigh.” I am a purple Shiss, member of the lowest Caste, but I was born far away from Shiss-shaa the home world on a distant colony planet. Shiss colonize new worlds by first dumping a few loads of Purple throat Shiss on any marginally suitable is no survey, no one checks if the conditions are survivable, they dump a few thousand with marginal tools and supplies and check periodically if the Colony takes hold or if more Purples need to be sent.

Those distant colonies are much more interest in survival than keeping the caste system alive.

Once a colony thrives Upper Caste Shiss move in. Expect to be given all the fruits of purple Shiss labor. Purples are then allowed to serve their masters as slaves on a world they made livable.”

He pointed at a knee high wall surrounding a flower bed next to entrance.”Sit down so I can tell you the rest.”

I simply did and he piled my books onto my lap while he continued.” The Purples did not want to lose what we gained and had no interest to give up all their freedoms and possessions just because a higher caste prince decided to take it. The outer colonies rebelled and the All-White-Nestling dispatched a punishment fleet to eradicate the 33 colonies. The first colony was orbital bombed and every single colonist died.

The elected leaders of the other colonies approached the United Stars for membership and got full protection from the fleet.

A navy fleet fought hard and valiant for us and won. To us Purple Throats that 33th Colony became a symbol of defiance. My mother told me this story when I was a little nestling and I swore I would repay my debt to these aliens who fought so gallantly for our freedom because we could not. Now you know why there is a Shiss in Union Uniform.”

“I am truly sorry, Sir, it was more a reaction than a conscious thought.”

“No apologies necessary. I almost sneaked up on you and must have startled you.”

“Yes Sir a little.”

“So what are you doing here if you still a freshman?”

“I don’t really have any other place to go, Sir.”

I told him a very rough short version why I did not know if I was too late or to early for my next year.

He pointed at the books.” What exactly are you studying?”

“Those books where recommended to me by Admiral Stokes, Sir. He wanted me to read them.”

“Old Webb himself recommended them, I see. I must tell you I read each of them as well. Did you know that those books are called the Captains Treasure and that every Captain in this Fleet has read and often memorized each one?”

“No Sir. I did not know that.” But I did remember what I had told Webb while still standing in line before the Academy and now I knew he had not forgotten either.

He clasped all four hands behind his back. “Why don’t you give me your name and service number. I think I might have something for you to do.”

“Midshipman Eric Olafson. Service Number 1082320-O-5434, Sir.”

“Take your books to your apartment and wait there for me.”

“Yes Sir.”

He left the hallway and went down the street and I went to my room. I promised myself, never to tell any Superior officer again, that I had time on my hands. The worst part was that this was something a Cadet learned in his first week. I needed to learn to keep my mouth shut.

It didn’t take long, I estimated no more than 30 minutes had passed as the visitor chime sounded and the Shiss Captain stood before my door.” Leave those books here and follow me, Midshipman.”

I had a hard time keeping up with him. He walked briskly on his long muscular legs keeping balance with a long spiked tail. I wondered what this was all about.

Finally our march stopped at a Trans Planet Mover Station and entered a car heading for Southern Hemisphere, Adams Port. At least so read the vari-sign above the door.

The high speed grav car whisked us away after beeping a confirm signal.

He lowered his head and pulled something out of his right pocket.” Midshipman Olafson you are hereby acting Ensign and assigned until further notice to me.” He fixed a real Ensign bar on my collar.

I was speechless as he explained: “My Ship the Hyperion is in dock and receives a series of upgrades and that is already going on for a few months, my crew is on leave or temporarily assigned elsewhere.”

I simply listened while the Trans Planet mover carried us through vacuum pipes.

He sat down at one of the vari-seats provided. “A friend of mine in Small Craft Development asked me to take a new Shuttle type for a test flight and I thought you might enjoy that too.”

I could not hide my excitement.” Yes Sir indeed I would.”

The TPM- Capsule came to a smooth stop and we emerged at a typical military star port terminal. Again the Shiss walked purposeful and fast on his large legs and I was almost running to keep up. Through corridors and over Slide ways, concourses and sky bridges we finally reached were he wanted to go, a sign next to it read: Auxiliary Space Craft Development Department.

It was an elegant building, reminding me of a giant amphitheater built into a meteor impact crater. Like giant steps the upper levels retracted further back. There on the top floor, with golden glazed windows, one had a spectacular sight across the stark landscape, the terrace like tiers of the huge building. The floor of the Crater was smooth Duro Crete and a few dozen small craft of all kinds and types all over the place. While I stared past the floor to ceiling windows, the Shiss captain talked to a pretty mostly humanoid female with cobalt blue hair and light blue skin. She smiled at us from behind a floating kidney shaped desk and pointed at a door to her left.” Nice to see you again Captain Zezzazzzzz. Commander Larson is in his office.”

Commander Larson turned out to be a standard human and he grinned and shook one of the Shiss clawed hands.” It’s good to see you old Lizard.”

“It is good to see you too, Smooth face.”

Zezzazzzzz pointed at me. “I found myself a midshipman and we’re ready to take that new toy of yours for a spin.”

“A Midshipman, uh?” The Commander looked at me.” It’s your lucky day, Son. That Lizard is probably the best pilot this fleet has, but he decided to float around in his slow steel mountain instead.”

The Shiss made strange labored sounds and I realized he was laughing.” The Hyperion isn’t slow old friend and they don’t offer you the Captains seat to a Battle ship every day.”