Fear and Aggression (5 page)

Caryell came and gave his father a hug. “I
do, Father, I love you. Thank you for everything.”

Seryen finished a few remaining morsels in
the meantime. Then he thanked and apologized to Aspiria again,
while getting up in preparation to return again to the
Lodophins.

Mark Jenners’ room was a disaster area.
After shuffling his junk around for about fifteen minutes, he found
the object of his search, the latest issue of the ‘Space Patrol’
comic book, under a pile of dirty clothes. The thirteen-year-old
boy then hopped onto his bed, grabbed a handful of Doritos from a
half-filled bag on the floor, and began to scan the pages.

Space Patrol comic books came out soon after
the announcement of the Space Force. Essentially, the Space Patrol
was the comic book version of the Space Force. Their mission was to
protect the earth from all of the evil aliens. Each issue featured
a grotesque alien race that the Space Patrol had to annihilate, and
of course each time they did just that. The Space Patrol consisted
of young, powerful, energetic men and women in tight-fitting black
uniforms. The men were good-looking, muscular, and fearless. The
women were beautiful, full-figured, and aggressive, wearing
uniforms that covered little more than a bikini would. All were
equipped with powerful laser guns. Their ships, too, were loaded
with laser guns, missiles, and nuclear weapons. The use of nuclear
weapons was, of course, acceptable when destroying aliens and their
worlds. This issue was about the Zoracks, a hideous group of aliens
that came to the earth’s moon and stole the remnant of ‘the ball,’
from the experiment several years earlier. The shattered pieces of
the ball were practically sacred relics, at least according to this
comic, and therefore those aliens needed to be obliterated. These
particular creatures were so revolting that they looked like they
had it coming, whether they stole anything or not. This was
entertainment at its finest, at least according to Mark and his
generation.

Mark closed the book over
his thumb, holding his place, grabbed another handful of chips, and
sat up a little.
I can’t believe school
starts already tomorrow. This summer was so boring, I didn’t get to
do anything fun,
Mark thought as he
munched on his Doritos. MTV, now actually music television, was
blaring from the living room; an upbeat song that Mark enjoyed had
just begun. He tried to settle back into his story as he tapped his
feet to the beat. Soon the comic book was sitting on his chest, and
Mark was jamming to the beat with both hands, and nodding his head
as much as he could with it lying on the pillow.

As the song ended and the
commercials began Mark felt a wave of boredom coming over him. He
chucked the comic book across the room, having already reread it
twice this week, and got up and went to the window. Several boys
were riding bikes around the apartment complex parking lot. It did
look fun riding bikes around, but the boys were younger, and Mark
thought,
I feel like I’d get a headache
out there in that bright sun.

Mark had slept in until after 10:30 AM, and
now that it was nearly 1:00 PM, he had still not had anything
decent to eat. After kicking around the junk in his room for a few
moments, he headed into the kitchen and filled himself a bowl of
mint chocolate chip ice cream. He moseyed into the living room and
plopped on the couch.

“
Ah, I hate that song!” he
squawked out loud as soon as the next video came on, and he fumbled
for the remote. He settled on a talk show while flipping around the
channels. Some dude was describing his being abducted by aliens.
They tortured him, experimented on him, and then explained to him
that they were going to destroy the earth. It was not clear whether
he learned to speak their alien tongue, or whether they just told
him this in English. Then they let him go so that he could warn
everyone. As fascinated as Mark was in aliens, somehow this story
just wasn’t jiving. Besides, Steve, Marks older brother who
happened to be a Captain in the Space Force, had told him that the
Space Force was watching earth so closely that there was no chance
any alien ships had come to earth.
Gramps
says these people are a bunch of idiots,
Mark thought as he began flipping the channels
again.

“
Is it true that credible
evidence has been found that there is intelligent life out there?”
asked a reporter to some government official on a news channel Mark
had paused on. The channel had been showing a video clip of
Stardust 20, the space station where Steve Jenners, Mark’s older
brother, was awaiting his next voyage.

“
No, there has not been
any evidence of intelligent life discovered.”

“
But isn’t it true that
the ZX-120’s, the Space Force’s newest vessels, are equipped with
full laboratories that could make a detailed analysis of any life
forms?”

“
Like most of our
missions, the new ZX-120’s will be headed into completely unknown
areas. Some of these areas we believe have planetary systems; we
want to be prepared for anything. These ships are by far the most
impressive ships in the Space Force.”

Back to the anchor: “The new ZX-120’s are
all stationed on Stardust 20 awaiting their maiden voyages. Many
are questioning the cost of these new ships, when the government
claims that there has been no evidence of life…”

I hate the news!
They spend half their time reporting rumors about
aliens, and the other half of the time saying what a waste of money
the Space Force is.
Mark picked up the
remote again and switched the channel, although this time more
deliberately back to MTV. The video on was much more palatable to
him, so he took a couple more bites of his ice cream, and settled
himself comfortably for an afternoon in front of the
tube.

“
So they’ve given you your
own ship, huh? What’s this place coming to, anyway?” said Mike
West, one of the top-notch mechanics on Stardust 20.

“
They’re letting the
Captain and pilot each handpicks one crew member,” replied Steve
Jenners, the recently-promoted Captain of the ‘Galaxy Charger,’ one
of the new ZX-120’s.

“
So how did you and
Spearman get hooked up?”

“
I don’ know; assigned, I
guess. You know him, don’t you?”

“
A little; he’s a good
pilot, takes his job real seriously. He’s well-liked for an older
guy. Probably not a bad idea putting a young punk like you with
older, experienced, and more mature guys,” Mike remarked, only
halfway joking.

Mike West was a little older than Steve,
thirty-four, while Steve was twenty-seven. Mike was of average
looks, with brown, straight hair and light brown eyes. He was about
six feet tall and very slender. He did not look very strong, though
that was deceiving. He was by far one of the best mechanics, or
engine specialists, in the Space Force; indispensable in that
capacity. He was very much a perfectionist in everything he did.
But he also had a very witty and dry sense of humor, and he was a
very loyal friend once his trust was gained.

Steve Jenners, on the other hand, was more
reckless and ambitious. He was a natural-born leader. Steve was
good-looking, tall, and well-built. He had blond hair, with a light
wave, and bright blue eyes.

“
I seem to detect a bit of
jealousy here.”

“
I did think that I was up
for a Captain promotion. I don't think it was so much a lack of
qualification, as them not wanting to lose their best mechanic,”
Mike commented as he put his tools down and faced Steve. Mike had
been playing with a full scale model of the ZX-120 engine. The
engines were new, and he didn’t want to leave anything to
chance.

“
I can't disagree with you
there; you don't think I picked you because you are such a pleasant
person to be around, do you?” They both chuckled and Steve put his
right hand on Mike’s shoulder. In reality, Steve would have picked
Mike even if his technical skills were not so extraordinary. They
had both been on the same crew for their last mission. Mike was the
engine specialist, and Steve was the pilot. They had developed a
deep friendship and respect for one another. Although Steve was
thrilled to be a Captain, he did feel somewhat intimidated. He knew
that he was one of the youngest Captains ever promoted, and that
his performance would be watched closely. He wanted nothing more
than to be surrounded by those he was familiar with and trusted;
skill and technical prowess were also greatly appreciated. Although
a little nervous, his ambition was no less intense, and he wanted
to do well.

“
So who’s Kenny picking,
his navigator?”

“
I suppose so; we'll find
out soon enough,” Steve replied, not thinking much of the question.
Kenny Spearman was a forty-one-year-old pilot. He’d had a late
start on his career, but was one of the best on the force. He, too,
was up for a Captain promotion, and was likely to get it next time.
But the powers that be thought that he would be the perfect
counterpart to their new, less experienced Captain. Kenny was very
much a team player, and was more than happy to serve wherever
requested. He was serious and level-headed, but good-natured and
approachable.

“
The four of us are having
dinner in Captains dining, in an hour. We'll find out who else is
assigned on the crew tomorrow.” This would be Steve’s first
official meeting with crew members as the Captain. He was excited,
a little giddy, and he was anxious to get a few things done before
dinner. “See you in a bit.”

“
Aye, Aye, Cap’n,” Mike
replied with a wink and a smile.

Steve headed down the corridor towards his
living quarters. The main corridor ran in a complete circle around
the middle of the spherical main body of the space station. Rooms
were to his left towards center, and the living quarters were to
his right on the surface of the main body, so that each room had
one window looking out into space. The station rotated around about
every two hours, and the sights were marvelous to behold. The
station was in orbit around the moon of a large gas giant planet in
a galaxy far from the Milky Way. The planet had a large
horizontally situated ring from the perspective of Stardust 20, and
another smaller, vertical ring whose orbit was much closer to the
surface of the planet. The moon had no atmosphere, and was about
sixty percent of the size of earth’s moon, dark brown in color. It
did not have any craters, but rather lines of mountain ranges. They
looked like the swirls on the top of a large piece of a boxed
chocolate. Though officially it, like its planet, had a large
technical name with letters and numbers like all of the heavenly
bodies discovered, it was lovingly referred to as the dark
chocolate moon by everyone on the space station. The planet had a
pale green appearance with white cloud like whorls. However,
depending on its orientation relative to the distant star it was
orbiting, it sometimes had a lighter yellow or darker blue hue. So,
throughout the station’s two-hour rotation, the scene through one’s
window would change from views of the moon, to views of the planet
with a glimpse of its star, to a full, spellbinding star-scape
against a pitch black sky. It was breathtaking, to say the
least.

Coming around the
corridor, one of the civilian girls was walking in the direction
towards Steve. He had noticed her around a couple of times before,
as she was very beautiful. She had long, curly, red hair, and
strikingly blue eyes. Her head was slightly down, and she was
looking away from him, so he looked directly at her nametag—Tammy
Rogers, Medical and Research. She looked up and over at Steve, and
smiled as they passed. She was even prettier than he
thought.
I wonder if it’s too late to
change my mind about Mike; Tammy Rogers would make a perfect
handpicked member of my crew
,
he joked to himself as he headed to his
quarters.

Captain’s quarters were tiny, but single
occupancy, rather than dual occupancy like the lower-ranked
quarters. It consisted of a fold-down bed that doubled as a desk, a
couple of drawers, and a tiny closet. With the bed up, it was
conceivable to change one’s clothes, but not comfortably. With the
bed up, the desk revealed a small built-in computer. Steve sat on
his small stool and turned his computer on. He wrote an email, and
filed a couple of reports. The Internet was not complete to the
space station yet. It would still be a while before a
fully-functional, nearly instantaneous Internet would be available
in space; the technology was incomplete. Sending electrical signals
at the speed of light through fourth-dimensional space was
possible, effectively making communications from anywhere for all
intents and purposes without delay. But the ability to do this was
new, and at the moment expensive, so it was fairly limited in
capacity. The space station sent and received signals constantly,
but sometimes it would be hours before something, like an email,
got to the front of the queue. They would receive portions of the
Internet daily, and then make those pages immediately accessible on
space station computers. It was even possible to have telephone
conversations with earth, but because of bandwidth limitations, it
was not ordinarily done. The Captains were told earlier that day
that they would each be permitted one fifteen-minute phone call,
and were given a schedule for their call. As the bandwidth
increased, it was expected that every room would have a useable
phone, and instantaneous Internet, email, and television.