Chapter 2: Chapter 1 Bis: Preparing for Disaster

“According to deep space intelligence, a new race has reached the capabilities of FTL travel. It is the task of you three to provide us with more detailed information on their intentions.” 

“These ‘humans’ apparently have a violent history, so it is adamant for the safety of the Conglomerate that your assessment is complete and accurate.” 

“If this race cannot be trusted, they will be snuffed out.”

“We do not want a repeat of what happened with the Empire.” 

“Speaking of which, keep your eyes out for the Empire’s involvement. The humans have been developing very fast, the Empire’s influence has been suspected.”

“As usual you will be equipped with advanced disguise kits, translation AI’s and hacking tools.”

“Be sure to keep us posted frequently.” 

The screens that showed the security council went black.

“Hyped for your first mission, Ln?” One of my two colleagues puts their hand on my shoulder.

“I’m nervous, Kt.”

“You’ll be okay.” Sr said while inspecting their locker. “You’re the most competent rookie we’ve seen.” 

“Otherwise they wouldn’t have picked you.” 

“Thank you for the vote of confidence.” 

 

--Two years later-- 

 

“Ln, you’ll be assigned to the UFS Roald Amundsen under Commander Lauren Davis.” Kt contacted me after I set up my silence bubble. 

“A ship? Wouldn’t I be more useful on the planet?” 

“The Roald Amundsen is the human’s most advanced ship to date and is set to go on a long-term exploration mission. It’s our best shot to see how humans will react to new lifeforms.”

“Do I need to keep an eye out for the Empire’s meddling?” 

“We haven’t seen any signs of them yet, but always expect the unexpected.” 

“Isn’t that a human saying?” 

“It’s a good saying.” 

I sighed. “Could you send me the files on the crew and the mission?” 

“Already on your coms device. Encryption key 3n1gm4” 

“Thank you.”

“Good luck.” 

“You too.” I cancelled the call and collapsed the silence bubble, putting the small round device back in my drawer, taking out my holostick tablet in the meantime with a deep sigh. “I’d rather stay on earth. Their clothes are just so cute...” I looked at my closet on the other side of my room. “Maybe I could take some clothes aboard? Can human officers not do this?” I sighed again and plonked down on my bed. “At least I can keep this body….” 

 

It took me a while before I got up and decided to read up on the files Kt had just sent me. The mission looked pretty standard for a race that’d just discovered FTL engines. Most of it would revolve around finding colonizable planets, research and the age-old-yet-already-answered-question: “Are we alone in the universe?”. It was remarkable however that their ship was somewhat more advanced than usual. A couple of parts of the ship were also redacted on the documents Kt had sent me, but that was to be expected. I’d need to inspect the ship myself anyway because it’s easier to judge in person.

“As for the crew…” I opened the other folder and browsed through it a couple of times. The only file that really pulled my attention every time was that of Commander Lauren Davis.

 

UFN File on: Cdr. Lauren Davis.

Age: 25

Date of Birth: 26th of February 2179

Place of Birth: Federation Antarctic Region 

Gender: Female.

Height: 187 Cm. 

 

“That’s pretty tall for a human woman, isn’t it? I’m 15 centimeters shorter…” I looked at the picture that was placed next to it, the subscript said it was from two years ago. “She’s pretty handsome too, you know, for a human, I wonder if that eyebrow slit has any cultural meaning…” I continued reading. 

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Enlisted on: 8th of April 2197 - At: Federation Antarctic Region Recruitment Office 

- As: ‘Corporal’ in the UFN Marine Corps.

 

Followed by an entire list of deployments that went on for almost an entire page. “She’s definitely seen a lot of battle…” 

 

Promotions: 

Field promotion to ‘Staff Sergeant’ at the Battle of Luna on the 3rd of June 2197 after leading a squad to capture the enemy trench after her leading officer was killed by enemy fire. 

Field promotion to ‘Sergeant Major’ at the Battle of Japan on the 2nd of January 2198 after organising a relief effort of trapped soldiers, even against the direct orders of her superior commanding officer.

Field promotion to ‘Lieutenant’ at the Battle of The Federation Antarctic Region on the 1st of May 2200 after mounting a complete evacuation of civilians from behind enemy lines. 

Promotion to ‘Commander’ was awarded on the 20th of October 2203 for her services shown to the United Federation of Earth during the Unification War against the Imperial Commonwealth and after passing the prerequisite tests. 

 

This was followed by half a page of awards and medals she’d received. The one that jumped out most was her ‘Hero of the Federation’ medal, which is the highest one that can be achieved by military personnel. However, what intrigued me was her medical records. 

 

Medical Records: [Redacted]

 

The only thing I could tell was that at least ten lines of text had been completely blacked out. I wondered why and decided to do a bit of my own research, but that mostly turned out blank. I did find something interesting on ‘the internet’, as the humans call it. A couple of wartime propaganda videos that had her starring as the main star. She was so terrible at acting, it made me laugh so hard I had to concentrate on something else for a couple of seconds to calm myself down. “I guess I should go back to the file.” 

After the medical records, there was just a small page dedicated to how she had sent in multiple requests to lead the exploration mission, together with requesting a couple of crew members for the mission. A Gunnery Sergeant named Robert Turner and a doctor called Eva Winter who held the rank of Lieutenant. 

I read the files through a couple of times more to make sure I knew everything important there was to know. Preparation is key with these kinds of missions. I wouldn’t want to be exposed, that’d be pretty bad… There were stories about people who had been caught before, and those were never pretty to listen to. A cautionary tale for anyone assigned on spy missions.

“Anyhow…” I put the holostick away on my night stand. “Should get some rest because I have a lot to pack tomorrow…” 

 

--Two Days later, January 5th 2205-- 

 

When I arrived at Earth’s Central European Spaceport, I could tell there was something happening as there was a ridiculous amount of traffic both inside and outside of the spaceport. 

Having entered the assigned transport terminal, I almost immediately got yelled at by a Lieutenant for having a bottle of water on me. I also saw him barking at some younger looking Ensign who’d just asked him an innocent question. After which he just shoved her on board a transport that was about to leave. Since I had to wait a bit longer for my own transport, I decided to keep an eye on him a little while longer. It quickly became clear he’d target mostly women and weaker looking men. 

I wrote down his name on my holotablet to make sure to report this to the human chain of command before launching. In all honesty, I could probably have reprimanded him on the spot because I was technically a superior officer but… he looked pretty intimidating, and I didn’t like confronting people if it wasn’t absolutely necessary. I did feel somewhat bad about it, but luckily our transport landed quickly after, so I could remove myself from the situation.

These ‘Lunar Transports’ as the humans called them were incredibly rudimentary spacecraft. Built to transport the highest volume per trip without anything extra holding them back. Just metal tubes with pulse engines strapped to the back. It amazed me that these things were even space worthy. By what I could tell of the reactions of the humans trapped inside of this hulk of metal with me, they weren’t so sure of that either. 

The ride through atmosphere was frightening and incredibly bumpy, but luckily the ride through the vacuum of space was quite calm. Once they weren’t being pushed into their seats anymore, the humans around me started talking to each other again, and I noticed most of these people would be part of the crew of the UFS Roald Amundsen as well. Except for a couple of unlucky women who got shoved on this transport by the aforementioned Lieutenant. 

Most of them were talking about trivial things like what they saw on the media networks the day before or what they were planning to have for dinner. I did catch a bit of chatter about our soon-to-be Commander, but it wasn’t more than gossip or people asking each other what she’d be like. It did make me start to wonder as well what she’d be like outside of what I’d read and seen on ‘the internet’. 

 

With a loud pshhh the pressure between the lunar base and our spaceship was equalized and the docking ports opened. I let the others go out before me before I finally stepped out. The gravity was only slightly lesser than on Earth itself because of the gravity generators I’d read about in technical documents. It reminded me of the first time I’d set foot on earth, feeling so light on my feet.

When I left through the docking port, a robotic staff member halted me and asked me for my documents. “Lieutenant-Commander Luna Moore. Welcome to Lunar Base Delta. Want me to communicate to your commanding officer you have arrived?” 

“Yes please.” I took my identity card back from the staff member. Interacting with AI like this still felt a bit weird, as The Conglomerate had specifically forbidden AI units to have bodies, out of fear of uprisings.

A couple of seconds later, the AI spoke to me again. “Commander Davis is on route to meet you.” 

“Thank you.” I nodded at the staff member and stared into the hall full of people. It was adamant to make a good first impression, as was stated in the handbook to human interactions. But the moment I saw her walking down the stairs into the main hall, a weird feeling started to creep up on me. The way she confidently moved through the crowd even with people staring at her just made something inside of me break a little. Doubts arose in my mind. -She’s going to see right through me.- She’s a war hero, what will she do if she finds out…?- The pistol on her belt was dangling menacingly. I gulped, my heart was racing. Was she really only 15 centimeters taller than me? Because I was feeling smaller by the second. By the time she’d reached me, my body had completely frozen and was acting almost like it was a spaceship set to autopilot.

I saluted her. “Commander Lauren Davis, I’m Lieutenant-Commander Luna Moore, reporting for duty on the UFS Roald Amundsen.” 

I didn’t even hear her reply, I needed to get out of there now.

“I’ll go on to the ship to do some pre-flight inspections.” and I walked off.

This was such a disaster. My heart was still racing when I walked up the stairs.

“At least I didn’t stutter…” 

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