Star Force: Axius (SF47) Read online

  Haley had been told to expect this, and that it was common. Back in the old days most people didn’t even have 99 siblings. They had one or two biological ones, at most, which she couldn’t comprehend. The other 99 in her orisect had been her closest confidants and friends, with them, more often than not, helping each other out with the tasks the trainers demanded of them, working towards this day when they would finally graduate and be free to chart their own life.

  But now that she was here, she realized that freedom sucked. Some of the others remaining in the Ceres colony, which was actually a conglomeration of 19 huge cities wrapped around the low grav world, had requested quarters transfers so they could be next to one another, with those occurring as spaces were available, but Haley hadn’t gone in for that, knowing that it was going to be clinging onto something that was now lost. She’d graduated, she’d completed the quest that they’d been working so hard on since they were born. Now it was time to move on, for there was no going back.

  Some of her brothers and sisters were moving on to advanced maturia training, meaning they were still housed in the maturia. Haley hadn’t considered that, because just getting through the primary training had taken all the effort and skill she had…and the thought about voluntarily going into even harder challenges was downright stupid. She’d done what was required of her, and was better for it, but the loss of camaraderie was more than she’d guessed it could be, leaving her feeling hollow inside and adrift.

  But now she had a new purpose, which was what she was packing for and saying her goodbyes. Haley wanted to get the easy ones over with first, which were her biological parents. They’d chosen to remain in contact with her in the maturia, meaning they were able to monitor her progression, review her scores and achievements…and not all parents did. Being raised in a maturia, as they both knew for they had also been raised in one, as virtually everyone was nowadays, though some regions on Earth still operated under hybrid systems, meant no contact with her biological parents up until she had achieved a certain benchmark in her training, which Haley had attained at age 7.

  When that occurred she was given the option of learning who her parents were, or not. Haley had wanted to know and had been given information on them. After another benchmark had been attained two years later she had been allowed to communicate with them if they also agreed, and they had. Since then they’d kept in touch irregularly, for the amount of contact was limited so as not to interfere with her training. She’d met them several years later and had liked them both, but her father more so. A lot more, but he was still a stranger compared to her brothers and sisters, and saying goodbye was really just a ‘hey, I’m leaving’ FYI, while talking to her family that was still around had got her choked up on more than one occasion.

  She still had 17 more of them to meet with over the next few days, but after that it was time for her to start the next chapter in her life. There were many options for pure citizens, and even more for those who had scores gaining them access to the Star Force network…but those required the advanced training in the maturia. She could always go back and do it later, but she knew she wouldn’t. She’d had her fill of training.

  Which meant she wasn’t going to work for Star Force, on any level, but there were a huge number of other jobs out there if she was interested in earning credits, but in truth she wasn’t. She had a small set of quarters to herself, a clothing and small item allowance that amounted to as much stuff as she wanted, within reason. It was said that some people tried to hoard items or use them for raw materials to construct others, which was why there were limits, but so far she hadn’t hit any of them.

  She’d gone to one of the Star Force clothing stores the day after she graduated, wanting to see what new varieties she could incorporate into her wardrobe…now that she could have one. Maturia uniforms were all pretty much the same, but the civilian line of clothing was much more diverse.

  She’d come back to her quarters with several boxes full, each of which deducted from her allowance account that would refill gradually, but that was really not an issue so long as she wasn’t going nuts grabbing everything off the shelves that she saw…and right now it looked like she was going to have a hard time fitting it all into the four bags she was packing, meaning she might have to throw out some of it.

  Haley knew she’d get more where she was going, so she mentally prepared herself for a trip over to the recycling station tomorrow, but was still adamant about squeezing every bit into her bags that she could, along with a host of personal items that she’d never had access to in the maturia, her favorite of which was hair color. She’d been changing it up each morning, washing the gel into her hair and letting it set for a few minutes in the shower, then rinsing it out and…poof, new color. Today she had gone with a faded green, and figured she’d settle on one eventually, but right now she was a kid in a candy store trying every little thing she saw, including all 283 different color/tint varieties.

  So those bottles were a must pack, along with the makeup that she was trying out. Right now she had a claw-like pattern on her left cheek, which she’d noticed was popular amongst the Ceres crowd. Maturia rules didn’t allow for such luxuries, so it was a learning experience for her, and she was dabbling in it even if she didn’t like most of the looks she was seeing in public.

  One thing she hadn’t gone in for was the dating scene, which had also become instantly available upon graduation. Apparently newly graduated individuals like herself were highly sought after, and despite not having logged into the network she’d received over 100 messages from guys in the colony who’d located her somehow. A few of them she’d met as neighbors, but she wasn’t interested in getting into a romantic relationship, on any level, especially when she knew she’d be leaving soon.

  Her parents weren’t together anymore either, having completed a 5-year residential coupling then deciding not to renew. That was longer than most chose to hook up, she’d learned, but after a while they’d just grown tired of each other. They’d both fulfilled the agreement and stayed together until the coupling period ended, then they went back to living in individual quarters and leading mostly separate lives, though they’d said they still interacted with each other occasionally, given that they both lived in the same city and were close friends.

  Her father had chosen to stay solo, but her mother was currently in a 6 month exclusivity coupling, meaning that she and her boyfriend agreed not to screw anyone else until it expired. Most people held to the agreements, though there were some ‘cheaters’ that did not, as her mother had explained to her in one of their chats. All the ‘coupling’ protocols were voluntary, with the relationship network set up to facilitate the interactions with a measure of organization and clarity, but without enforcing anything.

  Her current boyfriend wasn’t to the ‘live with’ stage yet, and she admitted he probably never would be, but she expected them to renew another 6 month stint when this one expired in three weeks. She had talked long on the subject of dating, too much so for Haley’s liking after getting her initial perspective, for while the maturia training had informed them of such things, there was no relationship network inside for them to utilize.

  Some of them had hooked up unofficially, but that had always been an extra thing. Their training took priority and left them with little free time. They all had individual quarters and lockdowns in place when they were younger, so their sexual explorations couldn’t occur until later…until the official training began. If they chose, they’d been assigned their pick of volunteer trainers to mate with in order to ‘show them the ropes’ and Haley had nervously agreed. After that she’d hooked up with a few of her brothers and sisters, but that got old quick, and to be honest none of them were as good at it as the trainer had been…but then again he probably had a lot more practice.

  Haley hadn’t been with anybody in years and wasn’t planning to anytime soon. Nor was she looking for any of the other bonding protocols that Star Force organized. The couplin
gs were all sexual oriented, ranging from casual kissing to full-on baby making, depending on the level you chose, while the ‘companions’ ranged from hangout buddies to roommates of either gender. Usually co-habitation companions were older individuals who had obtained larger quarters than what Haley and the others had starting out, either by purchasing them with credits or earning them through Star Force or colony service, because the standard quarters were quite the crunch when you tried to squeeze two inside.

  More often than not you’d have two, three, four or more people that were working jobs and earning credits pool their funds and rent a huge set of quarters, both for the extra living space and to have someone to go through daily life with, much as they’d had in the maturia. Companions also had different levels with varying timespans, none of which exceeded five years, which was the maximum for all relationship programs.

  There were four divisions in the relationship network. Coupling, companions, partners, and adversaries. Partners was strictly for workouts, usually with someone on a similar ability level that would agree to meet up at a certain time of day and act as both motivation and workout checker as the two or more partners would, again, go through their workouts like they once had in the maturia. Solo workouts were common throughout the Ceres colony, but more often than not you’d see pairs and quartets out running because it was easier to get the work in if someone else was expecting you…whereas if you were going it alone it was all that much easier just to sleep in and forget about it.

  Adversaries were the funnest relationship, by far, but also the fewest. They’d had some experience with these in the maturia as well, where one person was paired with each other for a week, during which they had to point out every flaw and mistake the other made in ridiculing fashion. Exaggerations were allowed, but there always had to be a kernel of truth to what you were saying or there was no point…for adversaries were meant to make you better by meanly pointing out things that polite people would never say.

  During her experience in the maturia it had gotten particularly nasty the first day, but by the end of the second it had turned into a competition to see who could come up with the best insults, with no holds barred. The dose of harsh honesty it provided had been cathartic, and apparently Star Force had felt it important enough to incorporate into the colonial relationship network.

  Haley didn’t hear it much, but every now and then she’d walk by two people strolling through the colony calmly chewing each other out in what was usually hilarious fashion. She tried not to laugh when she passed them, but sometimes she couldn’t contain at least a smirk. Adversaries were simply too much fun, though not something you’d want to last forever. Also, she’d noticed quite a few in the training areas, railing on each other as they pressed their limits, though those exchanges tended to be more yelling and aggressive than calm and humorous.

  But none of that mattered now, because where she was going there wouldn’t be any relationship network. All such things were local, with Ceres having its own network, Mars its own, etc. The colony that Haley was leaving for wasn’t even finished, barely 5 years into construction and containing only one city…one populated by numerous races, with very few Humans not in Star Force’s employ.

  Haley had figured that if she was going to leave the maturia life behind, she might as well go for one as distant from it as possible, and living with a bunch of non-Humans seemed to qualify in that regard. The colony was part of the new Alliance Xeno Interstellar Unified Sanctuary thingamabob that Star Force had recently created, known better by the acronym AXIUS to Haley and the others that had responded to calls for Human colonists.

  She’d been surprised when the requirements were so low, or in this case nonexistent as far as skill benchmarks were concerned. The main thing the recruitment office wanted was people willing to live side by side with nonhumans in a communal colony that would be created from the ground up, meaning that she’d be one of the first ones there and would have to do absolutely nothing. She wasn’t required to work, or train, or nada. It was a Star Force colony like Ceres, except there wouldn’t be very many Humans there.

  That interested her, and gave her something exciting to look forward to as she made her final round of goodbyes in the days to come, with many tears shed as she put the finishing touches on her previous life before heading to the spaceport with four heavy bags in tow, ready to set out on an adventure, being one of the first Axius colonists…and in Star Force, with so much history and protocol firmly established, being the first to do anything was exceedingly rare, and for someone like her nearly impossible, given her lack of skills.

  Once her bags were loaded onto a dropship and her into the passenger section she left the thin atmosphere of Ceres for the first time, looking down on the tiny planet and feeling a mix of loneliness and the thrill of exploration as she made her way up to the waiting jumpship. Once onboard she felt very much at home, for the interior of the massive vessel looked and felt like a Star Force colony, only given entirely new faces.

  A few days later and the jumpship left the system headed for Sirius, and from there Haley would make several changeovers as she worked her way through the Star Force transportation network out to Zeta Region and arrive at the planet Zastdan, which would shortly become her new home.

  4

  June 4, 2521

  Leil System (Zeta Region)

  Zastdan

  As soon as Haley stepped off the dropship she felt as if she were in a truly alien place. The spaceport was built with telltale Star Force infrastructure, but the sizing and decoration was different. The first doorway she walked through along with the other Humans coming off the dropship was way over her head, making her feel like a midget. And unlike the normal whites and greys that predominated Star Force infrastructure, these hallways were a mix of grey and red.

  She knew Clan colonies had different color schemes, but it still shocked her to see it, after living her entire life with one motif, so she walked through the security checkpoint far more nervous than she had anticipated, passing under the scanning arch and having it confirm her identity and credentials, allowing her access to the colony. From there she was shunted off into a smaller, yet still oversized hallway that took her away from the main traffic flow, all of which were Humans in Star Force uniforms.

  Haley and a few others were escorted into a briefing room, whereupon they sat for the next 3 hours going through indoctrination lessons familiarizing them with the colony layout and protocols, after which she was given her quarters’ access code and her luggage…leaving her a full and free Axius citizen without any further fuss.

  When she walked out of the processing area dragging her stack of luggage she gulped, both at the nearly empty promenade as well as the fact that the few people roaming about were not Human. This was her first time ever seeing any in person, and it was quite overwhelming…but she tried not to stare and walked out into the open, dragging her belongings on nearly silent wheels and heading through the nearly deserted city.

  They’d told her it was a startup colony and that she would be one of the first citizens, but she hadn’t thought it would be this empty. Haley was used to crowded streets, making these feel ghastly huge since they were extra wide. The ceiling top was normal, given that it stood several stories and gave the potted trees plenty of room to expand upwards, but seeing all manner of creatures roaming around immediately gave her the creeps.

  She saw a cat, a glowing man, a no-armed tripod, lots of quadrupeds that she couldn’t describe if she’d wanted to, and a host of bipeds that made her feel like she was in a costume party and very underdressed. It took her seven minutes of walking before she even spotted another Human not in a Star Force uniform, with him seeing her as well and waving her down as he crossed over the median to her side of the street that was bracketed by numerous kiosks, most of which were still without vendors.

  “Hello,” he said, smiling beneath a mat of thin, brown hair. “My name is Arron. You look new here.”

 
“How could you tell?” Haley asked, gesturing to her luggage with a sigh of relief.

  “Need a guide?”

  “Sure, if you’re not busy?”

  Arron waved her off. “Nothing that can’t wait. Where you headed?”

  “EC203.”

  “You’re heading in the wrong direction for that.”

  “I wanted to stick to the main routes until I got used to the layout. Name’s Haley.”

  “Well no need for that with me here, Haley. We can cut through up ahead on the right.”

  “Lead on,” she said, with the slightly shorter man smiling as they fell into step beside one another…something that was usually hard to do in crowds, but was remarkably easy here, given the lack of people.

  “What time of day is it?”

  “Everything here is internal, so there’s no cycle to worry about. It’s 14:03 and everyone seems to be on their own unique sleep patterns, so there isn’t a morning or evening that I’ve found yet. Here, take this turn.”

  “How long have you been here?” Haley asked, rounding a corner and coming into a narrower walkway, but one that still had a high ceiling that a Calavari would have had trouble jumping up and touching.

  “A little over a year now.”

  “Wow. And I thought things looked deserted now.”

  “No, no…there are plenty of people here. Star Force just builds fast, and instead of cramming us all into one little section they’re spreading us out and letting the gaps fill in over time. You probably won’t have too many neighbors in your quarters block for a while.”