Star Brigade: Odysseys - An Anthology (23 page)

“I’m home! By the Maker, I’M HOME!” He jumped high above the quillgrass, not caring if he was seen. He was about to clap his hands in delight when his eye caught actual cloth on his wrist. In a stunned silence, Habraum held up his wrist and then looked at his body.

No longer was he wearing the odd techno-organic mesh. The formal suit he now wore had a white color with navy blue bands around his neck and wrist collars, topped off by obsidian shoulder pads and intricate gold buttoning. Completing the suit were the long white slacks and navy shoes precisely of an AeroFleet Lieutenant Commander uniform—fitted for his current, scrawny build.

“Thanks, Marguliese,” Habraum murmured at the night sky, thoroughly moved. He then looked at the complex before him, noticing the small holosign above the entrance in a royal-looking Cercidalean font.

ORODON APARTMENT COMPLEX #12

Habraum was beside himself with joy. “This is too good to be true.” Both his pant pockets jostled as he sprang onto the walkway. Upon closer inspection, he discovered that his right pocket held the small communication disk that Marguliese created for him. He had completely forgotten the latter item wasn’t in his hands. The abrupt halt of the automated walkway caught him off guard, nearly tumbling him forward. He gazed at the Complex #12 foyer. His “home” would have looked foreign to him even if he hadn’t been a captive for five months. This war had kept him away from Cercidale for far too long.

He stood under the small archway that extended well past the foyer. The double-door entrance was platinum-white like the rest of the building and constructed of sturdy ferroment. Next to it was a black comm console that allowed a guest to tell a resident of their arrival. Buzzing the console to see if Jennica was home had crossed his mind, but after five months, Habraum doubted that she would even be here.

“ID scan complete. Welcome home, Habraum Nwosu.”

The automated voice startled Habraum from his thoughts. He had completely forgotten how the security systems would briefly bioscan a resident and let them in upon verification. He strode inside, still not over the shock of being free. The ornately designed lobby was empty. It boasted smooth, flat walls with mini-viewscreens running constant visuals of the numerous Cercidalean landscapes.

Habraum paused to take in the scenery. “
Rogguts
, I’ve missed this,” he whispered. The viewscreen showing the ice-covered Corde Vedriis Mountains held his attention longer than the others. That was near his parents’ ranch. Then a chronometer reading at the bottom of the screen caught his eye.

“It’s almost one in the morning?” Habraum gaped. “Fekt, will anyone still be awake?” He moved toward the three translifters straight ahead and strode briskly to the middle one.

“Floor six,” Habraum said while entering the spherical translifter. Responding to his command, it shot up to his floor in less than ten nanoclics. But in Habraum’s impatient mind it felt far longer.

Habraum stepped off the translifter to Apartment 6B, second door to the right in the well-lit hallway. He placed a hand on the handprint ID panel next to his apartment’s entrance, and it slid open with a soft hiss.

As he entered, the hallway’s halolights cast a long, golden lozenge straight through the living room. The entrance hissed shut behind him, and an open square viewport was now the room’s only light source.

The Cercidalean moon chain’s multicolor glow filtered into the viewport, jogging Habraum’s memory of the surroundings. The common room was more spacious than he remembered, light blue walls, with a plush kurokoos-hide couch against the wall opposite him. Just in front of that was a translucent plasteel table littered with holozine charts and unopened ANCOR packages. The table faced a wide holoview viewscreen at least two metrids wide, the “gogglebox” as he called it. A few metrids to the left was a kitchenette. Beyond that, a short corridor, pitch-black, led to his bedroom.

In the past he relished the chances to come here and wind down for a few days of leave. That would last all of a day before the craving to soar across the stars seized him again.

Habraum knew it was probably better that Jennica wasn’t here anyway. As much as he wanted to see her and his family, the euphoria had worn off, and Habraum realized how sapped he was. Just standing upright was a chore. He would contact them first thing tomorrow after a good night’s sleep. He started to call for the room’s lighting, but the words died in his throat.

Someone was in his bedroom, evident from a faint voice down the hall. Sucking in a nervous breath, Habraum focused as the biokinetic energy that was his maximum power surged through him and his fists began to crackle bright red. After what he’d gone through, one could never be too cautious.

He stalked down the corridor without a sound, getting closer, his powers casting an eerie red glow along the walls. Presently he tried recalling any combat training learned in AeroFleet while struggling to stay calm, which only made his head ache. But he had to. The door was half-open, splashing dim blue light onto the corridor walls. Habraum stopped just in front of the opening and the voice from the room became a bit clearer. The remaining hair on the back of his neck stood on end.

The voice from the room was him, sounding happy and carefree, so full of himself. He peered in the room to see a bluish, full-sized holo of himself in his pilot suit, bragging and joking around, facing the left side of the room. There was the unruly shock of curly black hair. It must have been at least a year old.

Habraum relaxed. He powered down the red energy immersing his hands, which faded to nothing. He chuckled as the holo went on and on about flight accomplishments. “
Rogguts
, that hair,” he muttered.

A wretched sob broke Habraum from his reverie. He peered past the half-open door and saw who the holo was facing. Sitting on the bed and bathed in the holo’s bluish light was his girlfriend, Jennica Hoang.

At the sight of her, Habraum felt a jolt run through his body, like the rush of a sudden free-fall. Five months were too long to have been denied such beauty. But she was crying, her body shaking. Habraum didn’t have to guess why. She thought he was dead, as did everyone else in the whole Union.

The petite human female was dressed in a loose grey sweatshirt, staring at the holo. She quivered with such raw grief, it hurt to watch. The holo’s light sparkled off the tears streaming down her face.

“H…Habraum. I miss you,” she just kept on weeping, running a shaky hand through her long hair.

Seeing Jennica so broken and saddened cut through Habraum’s heart like razors. He shut his eyes tightly and turned away. But he could still hear Jennica’s sobs. And she was not done.

“It’s been hard without you, so hard. The little things around Cercidale…all remind me of you...”

Habraum felt violently sick, his knees nearly buckling. How could he think about himself when his loved ones were suffering because of his alleged death?

“I’ve finally accepted that you’re gone,” Jennica said quietly. “But I…I will never stop loving you.”

This was just too much. “Computer, end holo and illuminate room,” Habraum ordered, bursting in. Instantly, the holo fizzled out of existence just as the room’s lights came back on. Sporting bare white walls, the room’s only furnishings were an unmade bed, a large viewport and a rectangular closet door on the right-hand wall. Everything he owned had been cleared out, obviously due to his alleged demise.

None of that mattered now.  Jennica’s almond-shaped eyes widened with fright at Habraum’s sudden appearance in the bedroom. A lump in his throat constricted his speech. Rogguts, he had waited for this moment for five months and now he couldn’t think of a thing to say!

“Wh—who?” Jennica, already deathly pale from grief, turned even whiter at the sight of Habraum. She slid off the side of the bed, keeping her disbelieving stare on him.

“Jennica,” Habraum forced the name out of his mouth. “Jennica, it’s me, Habraum.”

For a long macrom Jennica stood there and stared at him. “No, no,” she whispered, starting to quiver again. No, not quivering. Shaking her head in denial, and it became more and more furious by the nanoclic. “No, No, NO!” she shouted, as if yelling the word would make it so.

“No, Jennica,” Habraum just about choked on his own grief. “It is me. I’m back!” He started toward her. All he wanted to do was hold her tightly, kiss away her suffering.

“GET BACK!” The terror in her voice froze Habraum in his tracks. “You’re dead!” she stabbed an accusing finger at him. “You died five months ago. And I’m seeing things…I’ve finally lost my mind!”

“No, Jennica! I’m real…and I’ll prove it! Computer, confirm the two occupants in this apartment.”

“The two current occupants of Apartment 6B are Jennica Hoang and Habraum Nwosu.”

“You see, Jennica,” Habraum reached his hand out to her, forcing a smile on his face. “It’s me.”

His eyes began welling up. Habraum wiped the tears away with the cuff of his sleeves. When he attempted to speak again, his voice failed him. This had sapped more of his energy than he realized. For several nanoclics Jennica stood there like a statue, turning paler still. Then, slowly at first, Jennica rounded the bed and came towards him. Her face was unreadable when she stopped about a metrid in front of Habraum. Warily, Jennica raised her arm, pointing her fingers in Habraum’s direction.

Habraum stared down at her arm in confusion—just a moment—before he understood. He raised his arm as well, extending his fingers until they touched the tips of hers. On the slightest contact he felt her tremble, heard her gasp. Jennica squeezed her eyes shut and a fresh wave of tears streamed down her cheeks. When she finally opened her eyes, she beamed with the purest joy. Habraum’s heart sang. He took a guarded step toward her. But she ran to him without pause, sweeping her arms around him in an amorous embrace. Habraum held onto her petite frame, almost afraid that if he let go, she would disappear again. “I’ve missed you so much, Jen!” he gushed.

Jennica snuggled fiercely into his chest, her tears soaking his uniform. “Thought I’d lost you.”

“You’ll never lose me
. Ever
.” Habraum dotingly tucked her hair behind her ears before leaning in and kissing her passionately.

Ever since Habraum was little and tagged along with his dad on freighter  runs, zoning out on the shimmering blue of luminal space always helped him sort out his thoughts. Luminal space—or L-space as it is called—set him straight even on a bad day. That much hadn’t changed since returning to the Galactic Union. He enjoyed the stillness within his SR-23 V-wing fighter, traversing from Cercidale to Terra Sollus at faster-than-light speed. The only sound serenading his ears was the rhythmic hum of the L-Drive as it pushed the limits of its 8.1-speed multiplier. He rubbed the back of his bald head as he scanned the naviconsole readings. Much to his own surprise, he still didn’t miss his curly Afro. It was for a different Habraum Nwosu, one who lacked humility; not for the man he was nowadays.

Moreover, once Habraum regained all of his muscle weight, Jennica simply loved the clean-shaven look—definitely an incentive to keep it. After scanning over the ship’s readings, Habraum hugged his bare arms around the blue cut-off hoody he wore, staring off at his viewport. The privacy of piloting a single-being vessel was refreshing, privacy he truly enjoyed for the first time in weeks. As he began to zone out on the glowing lines making up L-space, Habraum couldn’t help but notice how the speed of those lines was parallel to the speed his life had moved at the past few months.

So much had happened during his first few days back. Jennica had all his belongings stored up in his bedroom closet and was actually going to send them to his parents. But with Habraum back in her life, the couple unpacked the boxes together and put all his belongings back to where they originally were in their apartment before his alleged demise. After that, he got himself reacquainted with the taste of real non-synthetic food, enjoyed the sound of music, and went through holos of his friends and family. He basically overdosed on every material thing he had been denied while in the Cybernarr’s captivity. Cybernarr had no furniture or other amenities, so after five months, even a toothpick looked amazing. Jennica was visibly amused by his candid curiosity for everything that was commonplace to her.

From there Habraum threw on some real clothes and the young couple traveled to the Parallel Mesas, a vast expanse of grasslands and flattened mesa formations in Northern Cercidale. The skies couldn’t have been more perfect, cloudless and dazzling with the golden noonlight of Kyshrielle, Cercidale’s sun. For the next few orvs, he and Jennica walked hand in hand through the Mesas’ plains, relishing in the aromatic crush of baby quillgrass under their bare feet. They talked about everything that happened during the last five months: the war, Habraum’s captivity, even Marguliese. The whole time Habraum couldn’t keep his eyes off Jennica. How much he had missed the way that stunning smile lit up her face. His heart skipped a beat when Kyshrielle’s noonlight caught the full luster of her black hair and the way her azure lace summer dress hugged her trim figure like skin.

By late afternoon, Habraum felt ready to go see his parents. But Jennica smartly suggested contacting them via TransNet first before stopping by their ranch. As he expected, the call was emotional and tearful, ending with both his mother and father demanding that he come over immediately.

In the early evening, he and Jennica arrived at his parents’ sizeable kurokoos ranch near the base of the Corde Vedriis Mountains. The snowy peaks painted quite a picture behind the ranch as they jutted into the billowing clouds. His father Samuel, an Earth human who was as tall as Habraum and twice as hefty, didn’t even wait for him to get off the transport. He howled with joy as he ran to meet his second eldest son, picking Habraum up and whirling him in the air as if he were a small child.

His mother Vara, refined and elegant like most native-born Cercidalean humans, was a little less dramatic in her show of affection. But to Habraum, it was still as potent and meaningful as his father’s. Vara silently wrapped her arms around the much taller Habraum in a long, warm embrace.

Within a few orvs the whole Nwosu clan joined in the celebration: his five siblings and aunts and uncles from both sides of the family. How they all got there so fast boggled Habraum’s mind, but he could not have cared less at the time. No one asked about his time with the Cybernarr, a blessing he thanked the Maker for.

Hugs, kisses, many praises to the Maker of Cercidale and plenty of tears swelled throughout the get-together, along with more delicious real food. Seeing how scrawny he looked, everyone plopped more food onto Habraum’s plates—it got to the point where he needed three to hold all the food. The reunion with his family was magical, lasting until the early morning. He wished that it had never ended.

After spending the night at the ranch, Habraum knew he couldn’t delay the inevitable. He had to report to the Cercidalean Union Command headquarters outside of Medillius. So in the late morning he left his parents and Jennica after a delicious three-course breakfast and headed to the UComm HQ.

As he expected, there was an inordinate amount of disbelief among the UComm brass once they did an ID scan. Habraum was then grilled with a battery of physical and mental tests to verify if he was indeed Habraum Nwosu and if the Cybernarr had altered his physiology by any means. The Cerc maintained his patience during all the tests. This newfound tolerance was definitely something Habraum felt proud about, because in the past he would not have sat still for more than 10 nanoclics.

After they confirmed that it was him and his physiology type was fine, then came a tedious debriefing. He told them everything he could remember about the Cybernarr and their technology, though he made sure to leave out the communication device that Marguliese gave him. Habraum actually meant to keep his promise of staying in touch with the Cybernarr who freed him.

Thankfully, the debriefing only lasted a few orvs, and then he was free to go. By that time it was the early evening. Habraum returned home to his apartment and found Jennica there, who gave him a message from the UComm AeroFleet to “get his arse to Terra Sollus HQ immediately.”

He left for Terra Sollus the next day with Jennica in tow and met back up with his SR-21 squad for another emotional reunion—mainly with his longtime chum and fellow Cerc, Rukk Rigeff. Within the week, he received three medals of merit for his actions in the Ferronos Sector War. As honored as Habraum was by his awards from his peers, he felt uncomfortable receiving all this attention. In his mind the real heroes won the war while he, the genius that he was, got captured and just happened to get a lucky break. Jennica was there, his pillar of strength as always. When Habraum and Jennica finally traveled back to Cercidale, the young pilot was actually looking forward to spending some time on the ground and reacquainting himself with his life entirely. Or so he thought.

Habraum was not only deemed a war hero, but also an intergalactic luminary. Within the span of that week, word spread like wildfire throughout the Union about Habraum’s return from Cybernarr space. Holozines dubbed him “The Fearless Navigator of Cercidale.”

Just weeks after his return he met the Viceroy of Cercidale, the Magistrate of the Cercidalean Sector and even J’Kyver Leon-Greyse, the Chouncilor of the Galactic Union. But that was just the beginning.

Habraum became the subject of countless news stream stories on all the local IPNN™ and GBC™ affiliates around the Union. Holojournalists fought tooth and nail to get an interview with him. Holodocumentaries and biographies were mass-produced for holoview detailing his bravery and courage during the Ferronos Sector War, along with ludicrous imitations of the Cybernarr who held him captive. Most were so unspeakably awful that Habraum found them more comical than offensive.

At first Habraum rather enjoyed the attention, just a little, and did some interviews for the more credible holozines like the Union Tribune. And since his commanding officer at UComm AeroFleet had given him an indefinite leave to get back into the flow of things, Habraum had the chance to help train any new AeroFleet recruits. The fame and press were joined quickly by charity functions, sporting events and super posh parties. He only attended maybe five or six gatherings of the latter category because of the mob of sentients trying to meet him and Jen.

And of course, there was free stuff from the megacorporations. And not useless stuff either. How else would Habraum have gotten the new SR-23 V-wing he currently flew months before its release date?

But after a month, the luminary lifestyle got tiresome. He couldn’t go anywhere in Cercidale, Terra Sollus or any other GUPR memberworld without attracting a crowd. The same went for Jennica, who had to take a special covert transport just to get to and from her teaching job on Terra Sollus. The Union Command had to create fake IDs for him just so he could get on and off GUPR memberworlds discreetly.

Now he sat in the solitude of his SR-23, dreading the moment it broke out of luminal space. He felt more trapped now than he did with the Cybernarr. Habraum shuddered at the thought.

“Trajectory to Terra Sollus completed. Preparing to break from L-Space.”

 Habraum jerked forward, the computerized voice jolting him out of his reminiscence. He glanced at his navicomputer’s multicolored array to confirm. “Ah
hazik!
” Habraum fumed. Had it been two and a half orvs already? The lowered hum of the stellar drive engine kicked in, and he felt the ship vibrate for an instant as it reverted back to normal space. Habraum watched as the shimmering smear of light beyond his viewport broke into separate star lines, and then as those shrank into bright, distant dots. And there, at the midpoint of this starry vista lay his destination: a bluish-green sphere swaddled in feathery white.

It still wowed Habraum at how much it resembled Terra Firma, or Earth. With the exception of the higher land-to-water ratio and the shape of the continents, this planet was virtually identical. The similarities between the two worlds, coupled with Earth’s overcrowding and polluted environment, was why the Terra Firma humans had declared this planet their new homeworld almost 150 years ago. The mass relocation inspired the Terra Firma humans to rename it Terra Sollus.

As the capitalworld for the Galactic Union of Planetary Republics, Terra Sollus was a melting pot of politics, commerce, magnificent landmarks and diversity. The Union Bicameral and the GUPR Chouncilor were situated on this planet, making it the most orbital-defense heavy world in the Union.

Habraum always regarded the planet with cynical ambivalence. Despite all of Terra Sollus’s beauty and opportunity, the Cerc couldn’t get past how Earth humans basically stole the planet from its natives, the Korvenites. That was part of the reason his family chose to live on Cercidale. He only tolerated Terra Sollus due to its importance in the Galactic Union and because Jennica’s family was there.

Terra Sollus now filled up his viewport, its greenish continents looking more defined. He eased his fingers onto the flight console and shot the ship past the countless spacelanes to the planet’s surface. Every lane was back-to-back traffic, a variety of different space vessels in each trying to reach the planet.

“Ha, amateurs,” he laughed, rolling to port and rocketing toward the very edge of Terra Sollus’s nightside. This was a useful military shortcut just over the continent of Onisus that he learned about in the AeroFleet. As he expected, the space lanes over in that area were moving along rather quickly.

“Transmit your GU ID.” Habraum tapped on his comm transceiver, broadcasting the ship’s Galactic Union ID to the traffic controller station floating somewhere above orbit. The response was immediate.

“Thank You. Welcome to Terra Sollus,
Wilbur Troubadour.
” Habraum gritted his teeth and punched the throttle forward without a word. Wilbur Troubadour, his horrid fake ID name, was a necessary evil so he wouldn’t be stopped and extolled by traffic controllers.

Shooting through the billowy clouds, a myriad of city lights shot past several thousand pentametrids beneath him. Since he had a military-issue jet, normal speed laws were relaxed on him. The inky night bled away into lighter gold pastels of daylight. Habraum smirked, giving the ship an extra kick of speed as he approached Vesspuccia. The SR-23’s flight controls were so responsive it was scary.

Because it was Terra Firma Memorial Week, Habraum volunteered to speak for Jennica’s second-level class at Lincoln Elementary School in Conuropolis, the capital city of Vesspuccia. Because of the potential bulrush of media, Jennica tried to keep it quiet and made sure Habraum only spoke to her class. But she warned him to park in a corona wood forest about one pentametrid from the school and take his hovercycle, another free gift from Mekaal Ship Yards, and ride it the rest of the way.

“Are you sure the Union Intelligence Bureau isn’t your calling?” he had quipped with her last night when they discussed this overly meticulous plan. Presently, Habraum soared over the sprawling cityscape of Conuropolis, heading south to the city’s more suburban Corowood District, where Lincoln Elementary was. Even though Corowood was less metropolitan than the rest of Conuropolis, one could still see a similar congestion of residences spread out below, worming up the bases of the distant hills.

Once he found the corona wood forest, Habraum hit the landing thrusters (the roar was much quieter with the SR-23) and parked in the open patch surrounded by the towering, gold-leaved corona wood trees, which is how Corowood got its name. He popped open the cockpit and hopped out, taking in the vast flora around him. The noonlight sparkled off the blossoming corona wood leaves, so much so that their reflections cascaded down on the surrounding forest soil. He then unloaded his hovercycle from his jet’s underbelly storage section and blasted through the forest toward Lincoln Elementary.