Conscription Day Read online

  “Not at all, the Nautilus requires a crew of 86 men and women, as a minimum. The standard crew is 150 men and women. Because this is the personal flagship of the imperatrix, the number is obviously a lot higher when she is aboard. You know: chefs, tailors, butlers, body guards, imperial troops, technicians and what have you. That makes 1,500, or more.”

  “Tailors?” I remarked, a little hesitantly and skeptically.

  “Of course there are tailors. Three of them. The imperatrix never boards a ship without at least a minimum of her entourage,”

  “Of course not. Forget I even asked,” my eyebrows raised. It sounded so decadent and strange to me.

  Ensign Keller noticed my skepticism and came to a halt. She stared at me and laughed out loud.

  “Captain Johnson, at court things are a little, let’s say, different. You’ll see.” Then she gave me another smile and started laughing so infectiously that I couldn’t help but join in. In the end, there was nothing funny about it, and I took a while to recover myself. Man, I hadn’t laughed like that in a while. I hadn’t had much reason to recently.

  Now it was Ensign Keller’s turn to look at me in confusion, which almost made me start laughing again.

  “Sorry, I’m not laughing at you. It seemed a little too much to a simple soldier like me. I’ll need a moment to get my head round all this. You see, I just climbed out of my tank a few weeks ago and my whole life has been turned upside down over the last few hours.”

  “Don’t worry, captain. You’ll get used to it. You know, you’re not exactly what I imagined. You’re not at all what your file suggests.”

  “You’ve read my file? You had security clearance, but why? I don’t like the thought of that at all. You really have the advantage over me now. I don’t know anything about you.”

  “Admiral Summer thought it would be a good idea, so I could get an idea of who you are, because I’ve been assigned to you for the next two … erm … well, until we get back to Earth. I’m like your liaison officer, although I’m not an officer, of course, not yet. But something like that. I’m to get you ready to return to Earth, and to get you up to speed on the customs and politics at court. Before I applied to the imperial bodyguard, I studied imperial history and I specialized in customs and traditions. But now I see that your file doesn’t say anything about you, and so we’re quits.”

  Shit, but she had a beautiful smile. Oh, not again. I had to stop picturing stuff! I had to keep my head clear. What was it my mom used to say? Don’t think with your thing. Something like that. I had never had much to do with women, so I hadn’t had much occasion to remember that particular saying.

  “So what were you expecting?” I asked.

  “Based on your file? A hard, grim, cold, and merciless bastard, who hides in the engine compartment when he wants to laugh. Excuse my directness, Captain, I didn’t mean to be impolite.”

  “That’s okay, I’m all for honesty. And hey, I am hard and merciless. But that’s just to the enemies of the empire. It could be that I don’t come across so charming sometimes. This doesn’t leave me cold, but you have to learn to control your emotions in war. I’ve seen too many good soldiers die just because they lost control.” Just thinking about it made all traces of friendliness leave my system, and now Ensign Keller got to see the side of me that was a merciless, cold, hard ass. It was just a moment; as soon as I saw the concerned look on her face I switched over to the charming John James Johnson. It also made me realize that there was something else that I urgently needed to deal with. There was definitely something wrong with the levels of my hormones. “It’s just a file,” I said, with a smile. “Don’t get me wrong. Everything in there is true, it just doesn’t tell you everything about a person.”

  “There’s one thing that definitely isn’t correct.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Your profile analysis,” the Ensign grinned.

  “What profile analysis? What does it say about me?”

  Ensign Keller ignored my question, as she abruptly came to a halt and indicated a crew cabin.

  “This is it: your quarters. I hope it will meet your needs. Like I said, there are appropriate clothes in the dressing room. There are several uniforms there for any occasion. You need the one with the golden stripes on the arms. That should do nicely. Take your time, get used to your new surroundings. When you’re ready, let Jules know. He will contact me and I will accompany you to the bridge.”

  “What profile analysis?” I asked again.

  She continued ignoring me, with a smile.

  “I have to leave you now, Captain. I will see you later. Jules, open up!” The ensign gestured invitingly at the open door, and I automatically went inside.

  “What profile analysis?”

  She turned on her heel and marched away along the corridor. I watched her go.

  My god, what an ass, I thought. I thought about visiting the doctor before going to see the admiral. The door closed, and once more I yelled, “What profile analysis?” There I stood, in my quarters, the size of an apartment, or a suite, or an amazing luxury home. It was so incredible, such an appalling waste … Oh, forget it. My entire quarters on Genesis Station would have fit in the living area. There really was a dressing room, just as she had said, crazy! A dressing room? It was no wonder I was wandering round with a stupid grin on my face. Dressing rooms, tailors, chefs, and stupid shit like that. I felt like Alice in Wonderland. A popular kids’ story. It got repeated on almost all the VID channels all the time. There was a shower in the bathroom that even used real water. There didn’t seem to be any limit on how much water I could use. What a decadent waste!

  While I was getting dressed, I spent some time chatting with Jules. He told me that the AI was responsible for many duties and most processes that had been handled by crew were now automatic. That explained why the ship had such a small crew. I was still a little wary of entrusting myself to a computer, but I kept my reservations to myself. I didn’t trust the AI. And I had never been a fan of computers, they were just tools. Some were useful, like the implants I no longer had, others were little more than toys. To call Jules a computer was surely a terrible insult, but he did only consist of ones and zeros, after all. That was what I assumed, anyway.

  Ensign Keller came to collect me, as promised, and escorted me to the bridge. There were two guards on the door. They were wearing exoskeletons the like of which I had never seen before. The guards had to be over seven feet tall. The silver armor showed that the exoskeletons were not just to enhance their muscular strength and improve reaction times. They were combat suits, which would make them very difficult to take out by any enemy. The golden crest of the imperial family was on their chests, which meant these guards were members of the imperatrix’ bodyguard. The large, two-handed beamers at the guard’s shoulders said: Don’t mess with us, unless you are tired of living.

  Both saluted at the same time, took a step to the side, and the door opened to allow us onto the bridge, which was surprisingly small, compared to what you might expect on such a big ship. My quarters were bigger.

  The bridge was located in the upper midsection of the ship and was surrounded by huge panorama windows that allowed an almost 360 degree view.

  Apart from the admiral, there wasn’t a soul on the bridge. None of the positions were crewed. The admiral stood at the center of the bridge, his hands behind his back. His hair was completely gray and many years of experience could be seen in his face. His gaze was unusually sharp and intelligent. I had the impression that nothing would faze him or make him lose his cool. It turned out I was wrong about this, too.

  The admiral smiled at us and waved us forward. “Captain Johnson, enter, enter. It is an honor to welcome you on board the Nautilus.”

  We shook hands, his handshake was warm and powerful. Then he nodded to Ensign Keller, who returned the nod.

  “The honor i
s all mine, Admiral Summer. You have an amazing ship here. A wonderful ship.”

  “Thank you,” came the same answer came from two different voices, the admiral and Jules. The admiral rolled his eyes, but in fun.

  “Not bad? It is a fantastic ship. You won’t find one like it anywhere in the universe. And Jules, control yourself!”

  “My apologies, admiral,” the AI answered.

  “You know, captain, Jules is very proud of his ship.” He shielded his mouth with his hand and leaned a little toward me, and continued in a whisper, “And he’s a little vain, too.” He grinned at me with a sparkle in his eye. “As you can see, Captain Johnson, we are already underway. We have set a direct course for Earth. They are expecting you there.”

  I didn’t know what to say next, so I simply remained silent. The admiral seemed like the talkative type to me.

  “You must have all kinds of questions, captain. Don’t worry, they will all be answered. My niece Vera will be able to fill you in on most of it. But we two can talk at length over dinner, tonight. I bet you have a lot of stories. Is seven thirty okay with you?”

  “Of course, admiral. It would be my pleasure. But don’t expect my stories to be all that entertaining.”

  So, Vera was his niece. I glanced over to her and gave her a reproachful look. She simply smiled one of her enchanting smiles in return, her gaze completely innocent.

  “Come on, don’t be so modest. But that’s how they are, the good officers of the military, isn’t that right, Vera?”

  “Of course, uncle. But I’m afraid that Captain Johnson is one of the very shy sort. You probably won’t hear any exciting war stories from him.” The admiral seemed to consider this for a moment, at first seeming to be insulted, but this was soon replaced by a charming smile.

  “Well, we’ll see.”

  “Five minutes remaining to jump gate, admiral,” came the voice of the AI came.

  “Thank you, Jules. You know the course. Please initiate the jump when you’re ready.”

  “Yes, admiral.”

  I had no idea how fast we were, but I could see the jump gate through the panorama window, and it was approaching rapidly. I couldn’t see any sign of breaking. I started to get worried.

  “You know, admiral, it looks like we’re traveling a little fast to enter the jump gate?”

  “Not at all, captain. If we were entering the jump gate, you would be right, of course. We have reached,” he glanced at the display suspended above him, “a speed of point eight light.”

  “Aren’t we going to, you know … use the gate?”

  “Dear captain, if we used the jump gate, it would just extend our journey by months for no good reason. The Earth is a distant place.”

  He said it so casually, as if it was absurd to use jump gates.

  “But, if we don’t … I mean … without a jump gate … I mean, only jump drives … how do we …” was all I managed to stammer out before the admiral interrupted me.

  “The thing is, captain, your security clearance isn’t high enough to tell you any more.”

  “So I’ve heard,” I said, somewhat bitterly.

  “True, captain, true. But I think we can make a small exception. You’ll see for yourself, anyway. We will reach Earth in two weeks. I don’t know how I would keep that secret from you. Besides, I think you’re intelligent enough to work out how we did this. The Nautilus has a completely new type of jump drive. Our best scientists have managed to work out how the jump drive functions, and they even decided it was inefficient. And so they developed a completely new jump drive with much better jump technology. The Nautilus is the first ship equipped with the new drives. She is pretty much a prototype. That’s why the ship is so big. Most of the space is taken up by the drives. Anyway, in a few seconds we will travel to Earth in just one jump. That will still take two weeks, because of the distance.”

  I was shocked, and the explanation took my breath away. I tried to imagine a war fleet equipped with drives like these. A fleet that could appear anywhere it wanted. It would be the end of our enemies, the end of this war.

  “I know exactly what you’re thinking, Captain Johnson. I can see the look in your eyes. But that will never happen. This jump drive won’t be delivered to the military, in fact we aren’t going to allow this anywhere near our enemies. Just imagine what would happen if this drive fell into their hands. The empire is large, and we can’t be everywhere. The imperatrix would never take such a risk.” Admiral Summer explained to me, though his tone wasn’t sharp, more instructing me. I heard the sheer disgust in his voice. I’ll admit, I hadn’t thought it through. When I realized the consequences, what it would mean if those monsters cold jump into any system they wanted with an enormous fleet, I started to feel ill. The color must have flowed from my face. The admiral seemed to notice.

  “Ah, you understand. Just thinking about it is enough to make you ill, right? That’s what I love about you soldiers. You saw straight away that we can’t allow anything like that to happen. There’s no way we can take the risk. You have more insight than a lot of those pen pushers on the High Council, who want to throw everything into equipping our fleet with the drives, in order to eradicate the Seisossa. But just one lost ship, a ship that couldn’t self-destruct, for whatever reason, could mean the end for all of us. Even the end of the empire.”

  “You’re absolutely right, admiral. That would be it. But I am still overwhelmed by this technological achievement. I’m afraid there’s more to come for me.”

  “You can bet on that, my boy,” the admiral said. His serious mood had disappeared and he glanced at his watch.

  “A lot! Unfortunately, we can’t prepare you for everything. You know how it is, top secret. I don’t think I have to tell you that a jump drive like this has to remain top secret, right? Even if you mention just one word word, I’ll shoot you myself without batting an eye.” His face hardened and I saw a look in his eye that made me believe what he said.

  Then he added, “Is that clear, Captain John James Johnson?” His gaze went right through me and I was pleased it wasn’t possible to kill people just by looking at them. Although, if anyone was able to do it, it would be this admiral. I came to attention, clicked my heels together and saluted with a stiff jerk of a salute.

  “Absolutely clear, sir!” I called out, loud and clear.

  “Top quality, our people from the ground forces, don’t you think, Vera?” He looked over at his niece, winked at her, then looked back at me, as I stood there, frozen in place. “At ease, captain. You’re standing there like you have a stick up your ass. I just wanted to make sure we understood each other.”

  It wasn’t easy to relax from this stiff posture. But, after a few seconds, I manged it.

  “Yes, sir. You made yourself very clear. You don’t have to worry about me talking.”

  “I know that, young man.,” aActually I couldn’t stand being called young man. Anyone else would have had their ass kicked by now. But I couldn’t hold it against the admiral. Just like General Schwarzer, who always called me the same thing.

  Besides, that was the sort of thing that gets put in your record. Warning! Captain John James Johnson tends to kick the asses of superiors, specially generals and admirals. Not to mention what it would mean for my psychological profile. I could do without that.

  “There is something else, Captain. I would like to ask you to pass by the medicenter on the way back to your quarters. Have yourself checked out thoroughly, one more time. They’ll be able to give you something for your, erm, how should I say this without being indiscreet, erm, against your increased libido.”

  My jaw dropped. The guy had some nerve, to talk to me about my libido in front of a woman, and one who was grinning cheekily at me again. Firstly, he absolutely had been indiscreet, and secondly, how did he know about it? I felt blood rushing to my cheeks, as I blushed red with embarrass
ment.

  “How, I mean …” I stammered I had to get out of the habit of stammering like that. I looked like an idiot again.

  “Don’t worry, captain. It’s very normal. It happens a lot when the hardware is taken out of the brain. Did they take out all your hardware?”

  I just nodded.

  “You see, it stimulates certain regions of the brain and releases dopamine. That in turn increases, well, your desire. It’s a temporary thing. Our onboard doctor can give you something for it.”

  Okay, at least I knew where my problem was coming from, and perhaps it was also why I was acting like a complete idiot. But why hadn’t Dr. Vandarez told me or even given me a few pills? Then I remembered his grin as I left the office.

  “Okay, captain. I have things to attend to. If you would excuse me, I’ll see you this evening.”

  With that, I was dismissed and the admiral turned his back, again folding his arms behind his back.

  As I left the bridge, I heard him mumbling something, something like “Pawn to E6,” but I couldn’t work out what it meant.

  Now I had to return to my quarters and think about what I had been told. First, Ensign Keller took me to the sick bay. She didn’t say a word to me on the way there, she just grinned. I didn’t know if I hated her for that, or if I should make a pass at her. What I wouldn’t give for a good assault rifle and a beautiful battlefield full of enemies.

  In the medicenter they gave me something for my hormone levels. They quickly did a blood analysis and confirmed what Admiral Summer had told me so discretely. I bet he was laughing himself silly when I left the bridge. Otherwise, I was in good health and in very good physical condition. The medicine worked very quickly and I was soon my old self again. But the medicine didn’t seem to have any effect on how I felt about Ensign Keller. The whole two weeks, she was nothing but smoking hot.