The Stars Came Back (22 page)

Two dozen exhausted recruits in light armor lay sprawled out, breathing heavily, around the center of the cargo deck
in the reddish light of the night shift. To one side SGT Kaushik stands watching them, not in armor, along with Helton. They are listening to sounds of the recruits recovering from another hard workout.

Horkle
: My sister was right, I must be nuts to join up!

Darch: So why
did
you?

Horkle: Magistrate’s choice.
Nine months in lockup or volunteer and make it past the first cut, into unit placement with a contract.

Darch: What’d a pansy
ass like
you
do to get nine months?

Horkle:
Judge frowned on my taking private spaceships for joyrides, even if I did return them when I was done. Especially
his
.

Darch: You’
re smart enough to steal a space yacht,
and
dumb enough to
return
it?!

Horkle: Stealing would be wrong! I just sort’a borrowed ‘em.

Darch: Yeah, you’re just stupid, volunteer or not.

Horkle: Hey, you’re here, too!

Kaushik: Save it for tomorrow. You get to do hand-to-hand sparring and field-expedient weapons. And it’s not considered proper to ask why someone joined; we care about what you
do
here
, not so much what you did to
get
here.

Darch:
Yeah, weapons training!

Kaushik: Yes.
Fancy things like rocks. A real hoot.

Darch: ROCKS?! That’s little boy stuff! I’ll just shoot the bastards!

Kaushik: You may not always have a gun.

Darch: I will!

Helton: Darch, if you had to play ”Rock-Rifle-Scissors“ against someone like First Sergeant Reel, you’d lose. Whatever you pick. So learn now, before you
do
have to fight someone for real. You may not get a chance to learn from your mistakes.

Darch: Yeah, right.

Helton: I saw him use a rock in a fight once. That’s all we had… Six punks died inside six seconds.

Darch eyes Helton to see if he’s kidding
and realizes Helton is deadly serious. Darch looks down.

Kaushik: He pushes you hard because he wants you to live through a
real
fight. Pay attention and learn. Or not… and don’t.

Darch
glances back up at Helton. Then they both turn to face the sound of moving armor to the stern. They see someone in armor, about level four, mail hauberk, greaves, various extra plates, helm, shield, sword in a scabbard, and a two-meter spear. The reddish light and the helm obscures the soldier’s identity. He stretches and flexes, moving smoothly. Definitely not one of the recruits. Similar sounds of movement are heard from the bow, shifting everyone’s glance that way. Another man, similarly clad, but with subtle bright brass-work gleaming around the eyes on the helmet. He, too, stretches and flexes a bit. Both soldiers stop moving and face one another across the length of the cargo deck.

Kaushik: (Quietly) Watch and learn.

Suddenly one of the two men runs to the port side, slings his shield and, midstride, tosses his spear up through a mid-deck window, and scampers unassisted up the wall like a giant squirrel up a tree using hand- and footholds the recruits didn’t see or trust to use, and rolls up and through the window with a grace and speed none of the recruits came even close to, even when not in armor. The other man starts a lap at the same moment, going starboard and up the stairs. They are racing down the middeck corridor at full speed, clearly with spear and shield. When they get to the far end one takes the stairs down, and the other tosses spear and shield out the window while rolling over the sill and down, making it look simple, fast, and easy. The recruits are in shocked amazement; these two were moving far faster than they ever did. The soldiers are now both running counterclockwise, a race to try to catch up to each other. A combination of speed, endurance, precision, decisions on relative speed and safety of stairs vs. windows. In a window, down a passageway, down a stair, across the deck, around and around. Simple. Fast. Graceful. Brutal. The recruits start cheering them on still unsure of the soldiers’ identities. The onlookers notice each man does not always take the same exact route. Stairs or mid-deck window, one path a little easier, one path a bit faster unless they hurt themselves landing or get hung up going through a window. The sound of their breathing is loud, but not gasping. Gradually they pull closer together, the one with the brass-detailed helm gaining ground. Five laps gained five meters. Ten laps, ten meters. Closing in. Getting close. Brass-mask goes out the window to the cargo deck with spear and shield in hand and drops down next to the stern stairway hatch and lunges toward it, bracing as the other comes out. Shield-to-shield they crash together, one with more momentum, the other well braced. It’s not clear who came out ahead.

Kaushik grabs a shield from a recruit and runs to the bow cargo bay door while the two men face off with spear and shield. Kaushik leans the shield up against the door, a good
thirty meters from where they are, and stands aside. He whistles loudly.

Kaushik: (
Shouting) Center Accuracy! Here!

The two men in armor stop facing off. They both turn and identify the target. The recruits realize they are between the target and the men throwing
. The cheering stops as they hit the deck. Brass-work helm stutter-steps a hard throw and hits the shield near the top edge, the spear biting deep. The other throws with a step and good body twist, hitting about a hand span from dead center, low, also deep. The recruits whistle and cheer. The two men lean forward, hands on knees, breathing hard, race over, a draw, then stand and stretch to expand lung capacity, clearly winded. They clasp hands and congratulate each other silently for a race hard run. Then they walk slowly towards the recruits, and the group falls silent.

Kaushik: Form
ranks!

All the recruits
fall into two neat lines, their own exhaustion temporarily forgotten in the excitement. The two armored men come up in front of the ranks. They take their helms off. Under the plain helm is Colonel Lag. Wearing the brass-work on the helm is the First Sergeant.

Lag: (
Still breathing hard) Civilizations stand on the shoulders of those who do what others will not, or cannot, do. There are few shortcuts in training, only good training and bad. Now, you must continue to
do
what others do not. We expect no more from you than we expect from ourselves. Stick with us and you’ll suffer in training like nowhere else. You will also win fights and live to tell your grandchildren like no one else. Want an easy life? This isn’t it. Want a worthwhile life in
any
field? You have to
earn
it, and the price isn’t easy to pay. Would you rather have someone like first Sergeant Reel here standing by your side… or facing you? You have a full day tomorrow, I hear. Get cleaned up and hit the rack. Keep at it, and eventually some of you will be racing us.

He nods to Kaushik, and Lag and Harbin turn and walk away.

Kaushik: Atten-
shun
! Hang your armor to dry, hit the shower, and bed. Lights out in twenty, gentlemen! Dismissed!

FADE TO BLACK

Roman candle

F
ADE IN

INT
- DAY - Engineering

Stenson
and a couple of his maintenance crew are working in open access panels near the back wall. He turns a wrench tightening a bolt, finishing with his immediate task. Out of the corner of his eye he sees the lit-candle logo dimly glowing just above a closed deck-level access panel. He looks at it, cocking his head thoughtfully.

Stenson: (
To the Ship AI) What does the candle signify? What’s behind the hatch here? (Taps it with the wrench in his hand)

Ship AI: (OC) It is the symbol for a roman candle. Storage.

Stenson: Storage for what?

Ship AI: (OC) A type of roman candle.

Stenson: What type?

Ship AI: (OC) The type we have on board that needs storing.

Stenson: We have roman candles on board?

Ship AI: (OC) Negative.

Stenson: But you just said we did.

Ship AI: (OC) Negative.

Stenson: Yes, you said we have roman candles on board that need storing.

Ship AI: (OC) Negative. I said roman candle.

Stenson: That’s what I
said
you said.

Ship AI: (OC) Negative. There is no letter “S” in roman candle.

Stenson: So we have
a
roman candle on board?

Ship AI: (OC) Partially affirmative.

Stenson: What the hell does
that
mean?

Ship AI: (OC) We have parts of a roman candle aboard.

Crewman one: How do you have only part of a candle?

Ship AI: (OC) By not having all the parts in proper storage.

Stenson: But you just said we only had one.

Ship AI: (OC) Negative.

Stenson: YES, you DID!

Ship AI: (OC) Would you like me to replay a record of the conversation?

Stenson: No! Tell me exactly what you
do
have.

Ship AI: (OC) Parts. Storage. Missing parts.

Stenson closes his eyes. Breathes in slowly through his nose. Hold. Out slowly though his mouth. Hold. He opens his eyes.

Stenson: So.
You have some of the parts of a single item you are calling a roman candle, and their proper place is inside that storage area?

Ship AI: (OC) Affirmative.

Stenson: Is there any other name that this “roman candle” might be known as?

Ship AI: (OC) Affirmative.

Stenson: What?

Ship AI: (OC) I forget.

Stenson: You for… Can you describe it?

Ship AI: (OC) A specialized high
capacity energy storage and conversion system.

Stenson: What capacity?

Ship AI: (OC) Forty-two gigajoules.

Stenson:
That
could be useful. What’s it for?

Ship AI: (OC) Storing and converting energy.

Stenson: What kind of energy?

Ship AI: (OC) Potential into useful.

Stenson: (Frustrated) Oh, for the LOVE of…

Ship AI: (OC) When stored properly, it should become readily apparent.

Stenson: OK, so where are the parts?

Ship AI: (OC) Not in storage.

Stenson: (Tiredly, to maintenance crewman) Some days, I just want to hit the big reset button.

Crewman: Why don’t you?

Stenson: Don’t know where it is yet.

A
ll the lights go out except those directly over three of the cylinders that have been getting kicked around. Two are being used like a sawhorse to support some machinery they are working on. One is standing alone in a corner with the remains of lunch on it, and a flower vase covering the center hole. On each of them, the lit-candle logo can be seen gleaming faintly in the light. One of the lights is full power, the other two are dim.

Stenson: I assume the
well-lit one goes in first?

Ship AI gives no response.
A long moment of silence passes with no one moving.

Stenson open
s the hatch and looks inside. It appears to be a top-loading access point to a tube below deck level. He leans in and peers down it. It stretches off in both directions, empty, fading into the distance towards bow and stern. Stenson stands back up, scratching his head in thought. He and the two crewmen go over to the well-lit cylinder and manhandle it over to near the open hatch; it is obviously heavy, and will be a tight squeeze through the hatch. A wall-mounted screen the side of the hatch displays a simple diagram and animation showing how to position and roll it into position, with the candle logo at one end. As they roll it into the hatch a wall-mounted mechanism locks onto it, rotating it in place, then lowering it down just below floor level. It gets whisked down the tube like a train leaving the station.

Stenson: Huh. Well, we can clear a bit of space up by getting them all in there. You two (indicates the two men he’s working with) get Alvarez, Kumar, Dixit, and Franks up here and get them all
loaded. Don’t know if order makes any difference, so you’ll have to be
very
exact with your questions. AI seems to be a bit more literal today than normal.

The crewman nods assent and
get to work.

FADE TO BLACK

Permission

FADE IN