Star Force: Ambrosia (SF6) Read online

  1

  April 7, 2045

  Paul kicked his door open with the heel of his foot as he carried the last box inside his new quarters on the far side of Atlantis, backing through the doorway into the easily double-sized accommodations compared to his ‘trainee’ quarters, which would eventually be recycled to hold another class. He and the other 99 trailblazers had been promoted to ‘Adept’ level, but what that actually meant Paul didn’t know yet. Aside from their normal workouts, moving quarters is all they’d been assigned to do the past few days since the Final Challenge.

  Putting the box down on his bed next to four others, Paul left the light amount of unpacking for later and walked out into the hallway where several cargo sleds were parked with uniform boxes stacked up on top. None of the trainees had many belongings to move and the quarters were fully furnished, so it didn’t take long for them to clear the sleds, but some of the adepts had to walk further than others so Paul grabbed one of Emily’s boxes and walked with her down to her quarters at the end of the hall.

  “Thanks,” she said as he put the box on her bed. “Looks like we got a decent upgrade.”

  “The porch is new,” Paul said, referring to the balcony that looked out into a central courtyard filled with vegetation. They were several stories above it, but the open air environment within the city gave their quarters something of a view, whereas their trainee quarters didn’t have so much as a window.

  “Almost reminds me of a flat,” she said, looking around. There were three rooms in total. A bathroom, bedroom, and large living area that connected to the porch and contained a couch, two chairs, and a very large video screen…and by large Emily meant in excess of 2 meters wide. Say what you want about Star Force’s spartan design aesthetics, but they certainly didn’t scrimp when it came to technology.

  “I’m just glad they didn’t split us up,” Paul said, testing the cushions on the couch. “I don’t really want anyone else as neighbors.”

  “We’re still a secret, so I wouldn’t worry about that,” she said, watching him bounce up and down twice. “Meet with your approval?”

  “Yep…do we have a lounge?”

  “Uh…I think someone said so, but I’m not sure where. Hope there’s a cafeteria nearby,” she said, sitting down next to him and examining the video screen remote built into the couch’s armrest. A palm-size portable remote was also plugged into the panel and popped out at the touch of a button.

  “We’re supposed to have dedicated training areas too,” Paul noted, looking around the quarters that matched the dimensions of his own exactly. “Wonder how far away they are.”

  “We’re going to have to share the courses with the trainees, right?” Emily said, turning the screen on and flipping through the channels…they appeared to be the same ones they had access to before.

  “Wilson said something about that…I wasn’t sure if he meant just the parks or everything else, but I know we get a track of our own.”

  “And pool,” she added with a smirk.

  Paul glared at her for a microsecond. “Have they told you what else we’re doing today?”

  “Nope,” she said, turning off the screen and returning the remote to its holster as she got up. “But there’s bound to be something. We’ve never had this much downtime before.”

  Paul followed her out into the hall where the rest of the newly minted adepts were finishing the unload.

  “Down there,” Paul guessed, looking to their right.

  “Lead on.”

  Weaving their way between the beehive of activity, Paul and Emily reached the end of the hall where it cut right, running around the perimeter of the courtyard in a massive rectangle. At the turn was a stairway that led both up and down, but on the other side of it was another room that caught their eye. When they worked their way around the extra wide staircase and pulled open the door their faces were hit with a warm mist from the three hot tubs inside.

  “Now there’s an upgrade,” Emily noted.

  “Oh, I’m liking this arrangement better already,” Paul said, closing the door and heading downstairs where another group was unpacking as well. They’d been assigned quarters on five consecutive levels, with Paul and Emily’s being on level 2 of their subsection. Where the stairs should have continued on down was a sealed hatch, cutting off access to the other residential levels to give the adepts some additional privacy.

  “Hey,” Sara greeted them from the hallway as they came down the stairs.

  “Have you seen a lounge anywhere?” Paul asked.

  “Down there…door is just around the corner on the outside wall.”

  “Thanks,” Emily said as they walked past. When they got down to the corner of the level 1 square they saw a row of interior doors that marked the apartments on the courtyard side, but only one door on the opposite wall, with the entrance situated in center and made of double-wide glass panels.

  “Whoa,” Emily commented as they walked inside. “This is huge.”

  “You have no idea,” Greg commented across the wide gap to the far wall where he and several others were setting up the gaming equipment for their Halo tournaments and other non-sanctioned games. “Look up there.”

  Paul followed Greg’s finger across the theatre-like commons area centered on a massive screen rising twice Greg’s height until he saw a small, tight circling staircase leading up to the next level.

  Intrigued, Paul and Emily quickly walked across the plush carpet and climbed up the stairs, which they found continued up more than one level. They stopped on level two and poked their heads inside what looked like a command center, with rows of standing terminals arrayed on table-like workstations with comfortable chairs and stools sprinkled throughout the rectangular room, equal in size to the lounge beneath.

  “What’s this?” Emily asked.

  “Information and design center,” Paul said with confidence as he walked over to the nearest flat-topped table. “And I think this is a touch screen.”

  “Cool,” Emily said as she got a database prompt at her location when her hand touched the white tabletop. “This definitely beats a data pad.”

  “Looks like they’re going to be giving us a bit of homework,” Paul said, looking at the size of the room, obviously designed to accommodate dozens of people simultaneously.

  “Wonder what they’ve got upstairs,” Emily said, walking back to the staircase. Paul followed, noticing the access door that opened onto their level.

  “They really didn’t hold back anything,” Emily commented as she walked into the third level ‘lounge’ which appeared to be a giant snack room. “At least we won’t have to be running down to the cafeteria in the middle of the night anymore.”

  “No kidding,” Paul said, his jaw slightly agape at the amount of foodstuffs lining the walls and racks that surrounded the central ‘pit’ that contained chairs, tables, and a few viewscreens, reminding him of a breakfast nook Star Force style. “That is an awful lot of calories, even for us.”

  “And that’s saying something,” Emily agreed. “Now I’m really starting to wonder what they’ve got in store for us.”

  “Me too,” he said as they backtracked to the stairs and walked up to the next level.

  “That’s new,” Paul said as they walked into what looked like a train station. There were several pod-like cars sitting on a half-pipe railway track that looked vaguely reminiscent of a roller coaster. The long line of cars ran the length of the track, nestled into niches just off the side to keep the main way clear. On either end the track curved and disappeared into the wall, with one side being the entrance and the other an exit.

  “Secure transit system,” Rafa guessed aloud from further down the way.

  �
�To where?” Emily asked as they walked up.

  “Been trying to figure that out. The carts have a navigation board that lists 36 locations within the city, all untagged. I’m tempted to hop in and do some exploring, but I figured we should wait to give them a chance to tell us what’s going on.”

  “I’m all ears,” Emily said, ducking her head inside one of the cars.

  “What’s above us?” Paul asked.

  “Equipment room, along with our new uniforms. It seems Adept rates a red stripe as opposed to the Trainee blue. They’ve also got some new stuff up there that we haven’t seen before.”

  “Changing rooms?”

  “Yes, it’s fully loaded…more so than the ones we’ve been using to prep for challenges.”

  “I get the feeling someone wants us off the grid,” Emily surmised. “All this screams ‘secret’ to me…even more than normal.”

  “Yeah, something is definitely up,” Paul agreed as Ivan walked in from the main entrance, looked around at the half dozen adepts milling about until his eyes landed on Paul.

  “There you are,” he said, walking over. “Wilson wants you, Jason, and Morgan. He didn’t say why.”

  “Where is he?”

  “Third level near the elevators.”

  “Maybe it’s time for some answers,” Emily guessed aloud.

  Rafa nodded. “Take notes.”

  “I will,” Paul said, walking back towards the staircase and leaving the others to continue exploring their new digs. He hopped down the stairs one level and walked around the block until he got to the elevator foyer, where Jason and Wilson were waiting.

  “024,” Wilson greeted him. “Davis wants to speak with you, 025,” he said, motioning with his head towards Jason, “and 063. As soon as she arrives…ah, there she is now,” he amended as Morgan came around the corner at the end of the hallway, walking quickly with her typically precise gait undisturbed by her haste. Apparently she was eager to get some answers as well.

  “063,” Wilson said as she arrived. “Davis wants to speak with you three,” he said, thumbing the call button behind him.

  “Is this about our next mission?” she asked as the elevator doors opened and they walked inside.

  “Yes,” Wilson admitted, “but save your questions. We have a lot to discuss and I don’t want to begin this conversation without Davis. I hate having to repeat myself.”

  Morgan nodded once in agreement, then remained silent for the rest of the long trip through the city and up to Davis’s office. Likewise both Paul and Jason kept quiet, never being in a chatty mood around the head trainer anyway, as they both sensed that something big was about to go down. Rarely did they ever get to meet with Davis, and when they did he always came down to them. None of them had ever been summoned before.

  Paul exchanged eye contact with Morgan, and with a brief glance confirmed that she was thinking the same. Out of view of Wilson they exchanged a few hand signals before leaving the elevator and walking through the undercity until they came to the tower where Davis’s office resided. After a quick pass through security they took a traditional elevator up to the top level, then walked up the simple staircase that led into his office, ready to get some answers about what they were going to be doing next.

  2

  When they got to the top of the stairs Davis was standing with his back to them looking out the window at the sunlit cityscape, with his desk and four auxiliary chairs waiting for them.

  “Ah, good,” he said, turning around. “Please…have a seat. We have a lot to discuss.”

  Morgan, Paul, and Jason took the rightmost three chairs while Wilson pulled the fourth off to the side, sitting at the far edge of Davis’s desk and separate from the adepts.

  “Let’s start out with your questions,” Davis prompted. “I assume you have several.”

  “That we do,” Jason confirmed. “First of which is what are we going to be doing now that our training is over?”

  “Second is what’s with the new accommodations,” Paul added.

  Davis glanced at Wilson. “I take it they’ve just moved in?”

  “Just,” the head trainer confirmed.

  “As you have probably surmised,” Davis began, “the two questions are linked. Your accommodations have been designed to give you the resources necessary to accomplish two separate, but vital tasks I am giving you. As I have referenced before, your class will be the trailblazers in Star Force’s militarization, and to date I have been holding back production of weapon systems until you were ready to take on that burden. Now that you’ve finished with your basic training, that time has come.”

  “The design room,” Paul noted.

  Davis nodded. “Understand that I need more from you than ship designs and tactics. I need you to design the entire military from scratch. You are the leaders, as will be those classes that follow you, but the training program you have gone through will not train the rest of the military. It is too hard, and there are too few viable candidates. You will have to design the training programs for the others and we will offer you any assistance we can provide,” he said, glancing at Wilson who nodded in agreement, “but if we wanted a copy of current military structure, we would already have it.”

  “You want something new,” Morgan finished for him. “Something more functional and mission specific to defending the planet.”

  “Indeed…but there’s another aspect to consider. As of now Star Force is independent of any nation’s control or influence due to the fact that we are valuable enough to be left alone. Our technological advantage has bought us time to build but eventually our independence will be tested. In order to secure our immediate future we have to control space militarily. Right now no one has any warships or viable means of space combat, but in the coming years that is going to change…and when it does we have to be ready to defend ourselves.”

  “Furthermore, we need to be in a position of dominance in order to suppress fighting between other parties. We cannot afford to let Earth orbit become a war zone, and while I can accomplish a significant amount of that goal through diplomacy, I need the means for Star Force to seize control of everything in orbit on a whim. If that option is on the table, I can forestall most conflicts.”

  Paul considered that for a moment, then when Davis remained silent he finally spoke.

  “What exactly do you want the fleet to do?”

  “Rescue operations, non lethal interdiction and intercepts, boarding and seizure, static and active defense of Star Force and allied installations, and the ability to make all out war if need be,” Davis said as if reciting a list.

  Paul didn’t so much as blink in surprise at the tall order. “War solely in space, or on Earth as well?”

  “Space only…save for the defense of our surface facilities and Atlantis.”

  “How long do we have?”

  “As long as it takes,” Davis said forcefully. “What you begin building now will set the groundwork for the future, so don’t rush. I don’t know how to advise you more than that, but based on how you handled the naval challenges, I’ve come to trust in your collective ingenuity.”

  “How many people have you assembled for this?” Jason asked.

  “None…other than you. We’ll start recruiting when you tell me what you need.”

  “We have free reign then?” Morgan asked.

  “Completely,” Davis said without hesitation. “Organize yourselves as you like.”

  “Is this a secret military buildup, or will the public know?” Jason asked, suspecting the former.

  “If we reveal our aim before we’re equipped, we’ll be inviting a takeover,” Davis said. “We have to do this off the radar for now.”

  “So we need a low personnel option to begin with?” Morgan surmised. “You won’t be able to recruit large numbers until it goes public, I assume.”

  “We can manage a decent amount, but yes, large scale recruitment won’t be an immediate option.”

  “Until we get trai
ning programs established numbers will be pointless anyway,” Paul pointed out, then looked over at Wilson. “If we design the training programs, will you be able to run them?”

  “In the long term yes, but you need to understand that it also takes time to assemble and train the staff before you can send the first recruit through.”

  “Do we even have facilities for training a military?” Jason asked.

  “No,” Davis answered, “but then again, we didn’t know what to build for, and won’t until you tell us.”

  Jason raised an eyebrow. “This really is all from scratch then?”

  Davis raised his hands in a shrugging motion. “We’re entering new territory and I didn’t want to limit your creativity by making prior decisions. Tell me what you need and you’ll have it.”

  “What’s the command structure?” Morgan asked.

  “That’s up to you too…and by ‘you’ I mean all 100 of you. I thought about having this conversation in the lecture hall, but that doesn’t really afford a good opportunity to discuss the matter at length, so I chose you three as my emissaries.”

  “I think what she means is, do we answer to you or your subordinates?” Jason explained.

  Davis chewed on his lower lip slightly as he thought. “I don’t have a good answer to that. As far as for my subordinates, no, they don’t outrank out. As for me being in charge…let’s just say we’re equals. My expertise lies in the non-military side of Star Force, though once established the two halves will necessarily have to cooperate so a certain amount of power sharing will be required. For the time being do whatever you want, just keep me in the loop.”

  “Generous of you,” Paul commented.

  Davis smirked. “If we can’t trust each other, then we’re already doomed to failure.”

  “Symbolic of Earth,” Jason quipped.

  “Quite right,” he said as his mood turned more dire. “We can’t rely on any other nation or corporation…they’re rife with corruption, greed, and stupidity. Not only is Star Force to be a shield for Earth, it’s to be an example of the right way to do things. I want that first and foremost on your minds when you’re designing the military.”