ShipCore - Book 4: Chapter 179: Career Choices

USD: One day after a FUBAR ground mission

Location: Meltisar, Mil-1A, Naval Academy, Gathering Hall A1

Alex leaned against the wall, tapping her fingers nervously on her thigh as she glanced around at the other cadets. They were all in a spacious room with sleek metal walls and a high ceiling, waiting for their fates to be announced. A message from Tia beeped on her HUD, and Alex took the time to quietly read the news on her HUD. Elis and Thea were returning to orbit with the rogue NAI safely imprisoned, minus one Avatar. Alex frowned as she realized that they had been forced to kill the Avatar.

The news that Tia’s last in person meeting with the Solarian Envoy, Veliana, had gone well was almost an afterthought, despite its importance.

Rachel shifted on her feet enough to brush Alex’s shoulder. Alex glanced at her friend and found Rachel wringing her hands together. An anxious shared glance hinted at the other girl’s anxiety. There had been too many applications for the command track, and now they were all waiting to see who would be selected for command positions and who would be assigned other roles for their early careers.

With only two command slots available in their cadre, there was a tense undercurrent hanging around the entire group like a fog. Alex felt a pang of guilt; she already knew that one of the two slots would be going to her. That had already been confirmed to her by Admiral Westlake several days earlier. Reaching up to pat Rachel’s shoulder to try to reassure her only earned her another anxious glance and a weak, fake smile.

She would have offered some words, but as Lieutenant Bridges entered the room, every cadet immediately fell silent. He carried a datapad with him containing the list of assignments he was about to announce.

One by one, he called out names followed by their assigned officer track. Each announcement caused waves of relief or disappointment among those listening closely; after all, these initial assignments could have significant impacts on their careers.

They all had received the chance to elect their top three choices, but it was the navy who would select what they got according to their aptitude and the navy’s needs.

Despite knowing that requests for specialty changes could be made later down the line this moment was critical and would set the tone for the rest of their careers. Command was obviously the most coveted position; but the others weren’t actually ‘bad’ and many officers were eventually promoted from tactical, engineering, or other branches to senior command positions. Eventually.

Alex felt another pang of guilt as she considered her own situation; to her, it didn’t matter what track she was assigned. She was merely trying to learn as much as possible, unsure of her future path. Lieutenant Bridges called Alex’s name and confirmed she was tracked for command, but the words barely registered in her mind.

Lost in thought, Alex questioned what she truly wanted to do. She had decided to stay in Meltisar and help deal with the backlash from the events months earlier because there had been little other choice.

Anywhere else she went; she would be hunted just for existing. If… and it was a very big if, they made a deal with the Solarians then maybe that wouldn’t be true forever—though trusting them wasn’t going to be an easy or trivial thing. Nothing she had heard about any of the NAI rulers had been good, although that might have been tainted by her encounters with the Corpos and what she had heard from Tia.

Maybe Solaria was nice? Then again, the Solarians had been dumping the poor colonists on Dedia without much support for years… it was hard to imagine that with as much control as Tia and Nameless had over things in Meltisar that Solaria could have missed that… but… maybe?

Alex’s mind wandered back to her arrival. Even if she did manage to return to the frontier would 92 Pegasi be any safer? Doubts swirled within Alex’s mind. If Meltisar fell – and there were concerns about Tia handling things without Nameless – what would stop the four powers from pursuing them into frontier systems?

She couldn’t help but worry about Elis too. From what Alex had seen of the Imperium and Corpos’ vindictiveness and coldness, safety seemed unlikely for anyone involved. Especially after she had delivered an ultimatum to the Corpo spook to save Elis. They were going to need to watch their backs wherever they decided to go and whatever they decided to do.

And if she had to industrialize and fortify 92 Pegasi and had Nameless turn the place into a fortress, they would still be a few cut-off systems against the rest of human space and all the NAIs.

The exact same position they had in Meltisar—except with far fewer warships and people available. They were still cut off from resources, but if they could strike a deal with the Solarians, then Meltisar’s strong industrial base and interstellar position might make a difference.

Suddenly, Rachel tensed beside her, breaking Alex out of her introspection.

“Command Track—Cadet Tamara Harding,” Lieutenant Bridges announced. “Engineering Track—Cadet Benjamin Fields. Tactical Track—Cadet Rachel Mackey.”

Alex could see the disappointment on Rachel’s face. Her gut turned. She felt an odd bit of panic that Rachel might blame her or hate her for it. On the other side of the group of cadets, Cadet Harding was ecstatic about her assignment; friends congratulated her while Alex tried to maintain her stoic expression. Hoping to cheer Rachel up, she gave a gentle pat on the back, but Rachel was rigidly stiff, and her face was frozen like a statue.

They were all left to stand for a moment, but then the Lieutenant called her and Tamara over to speak with him. She gave Rachel a weak smile and the other girl gave her a nod.

Bridges wasted no time, turning to Tamara first.

“Tamara, you’ll be going through the ACTC—Advanced Command and Tactical Course—for five weeks,” he explained. Then he looked at Alex with a slight frown. “As for you, Cadet, you’ll be apprenticing directly with a senior officer. This is not standard procedure but was determined necessary by the training board.”

Alex understood that her unique circumstances meant she couldn’t follow the normal route like other cadets. She could feel the Lieutenant’s disapproval in this bending of the rules, but there really was no other choice, not if she wanted to remain in the service. She could have just started hopping around the system doing whatever she wanted on the Iron Horse; but she felt like that would have been an even worse choice than bending the rules.

Alex swallowed, thinking of Rachel. “Why can’t an additional command track slot be freed up if I’m doing an alternative?” she asked, keeping her voice polite.

Bridges glanced at her before his eyes slid toward Rachel. He sighed and his disapproval softened. “You should trust the training board’s decisions on assignments. Everyone has been placed according to their aptitudes and potential—no one was bumped because of you.”

As Bridges’ meaning became clear—that they believed Rachel would make a better tactical officer than captain–Alex found herself wanting to argue but restrained herself.

“Yes sir,” she responded respectfully instead.

USD: A week later

Location: Meltisar, Meltisar A, MNS Alacrity, CIC

Alex leaned over her petty officer’s sensor console, looking for any sign of irregularities. There were only the same old blips she’d been staring at for the last hour, representing Meltisar’s regular traffic.

The worst thing about her apprenticeship and everyone receiving their training tracks was that it had split them all up. That included Rachel, and despite a level of nepotism that even Alex was finding hard to ignore, the other girl was whisked away to the tactical training course. Rachel would be learning everything from the history of naval warfare to the specifics of each weapon system the Meltisar navy employed on its warships, and even the ones employed by the other powers.

Alex was receiving a crash course at every division; it wasn’t quite as deep in any one field as Rachel would be pushed down; but it covered everything. From naval etiquette to sensor reading and theoretical tactical exercises. The latter of those tended to suit her well. She often gave a silent prayer of thanks to whoever her ancestors had been for giving her at least one edge that she could count on.

In general, she had agreed that during exercises she would avoid using Nameless too heavily. While that was a steep handicap—Nameless could do just about anything she asked of him—it let her develop her own skills. Actually, she had directed him to avoid helping her if he determined it would be detrimental to her training. So far, things had turned out quite well in her opinion; if she needed a simple answer to a question he might oblige, but she still had to think and determine things on her own.

“Keep an eye out for anything,” she finally said.

The seaman looked up at her and nodded. “Aye aye, ma’am.”

She was fairly certain that nothing out of the ordinary was underway, but Captain Turner liked to throw curve balls she had found. But if the watchman said everything was normal, she was going to listen to him.

She had not worked with the crew for very long, but one thing she had learned quickly was that while she might have been new at this, they were not. The one time she’d argued with them, she’d made herself look stupid, because of a leaky radiation filter on an ice hauler’s cargo baffle.

Mistaking a ship full of ice on route to the orbital for a ship full of unauthorized nuclear ordinance was something you tended not to forget. Captain Turner hadn’t yelled at her or berated her in front of anyone. Instead he’d taken her to his office and worked through her thought process and asked her what she had done wrong, and what she had done right.

She was grateful he hadn’t done that in front of the crew, because she’d been twisty tongued the first half of the conversation, especially when he pointed out delaying the ice barge might have caused serious ramifications. Just as bad as nuclear explosives sneaking onto the processing station.

It was her job to get things right, and the tools to determine if was a leaky piece of equipment or something more malicious were available, but she’d jumped the gun and launched into crisis mode prematurely.

Maybe that was because her life so far had been often leaping from crisis to crisis as she self-analyzed.

“Captain on deck!” The watch sergant called out, and Alex, along with everyone in the CIC, stood and turned to salute.

“At ease.” Captain Turner ordered quickly and everyone went back to their jobs. Alex hurried over to speak with him. He looked at her with a stern expression, but she didn’t tense up; as far as she knew, she hadn’t done anything wrong today… yet.

“Cadet, I hereby relieve you of the watch.” Turner intoned formally.

“I am relieved, Captain.” She echoed back at him.

He nodded and took the command seat. “Anything to report?”

“No sir, nothing out of the ordinary. The Eta Monocerotis traffic has stopped coming through, though. No word from SYSCOM on an alert bulletin, so it’s probably still too early to plan on an Imperium incursion.” Alex said quickly.

Turner nodded as he silently went through various summarization screens and reviewed the information for himself. He paused when he reached her watch log.

“Cadet, did you have your MainComputer write your logs for you?” Turner asked.

Alex’s cheeks immediately flushed, and she stood a bit straighter. “Yessir, but I specifically detailed each element for each log. I didn’t generate the entire thing again.”

Turner eyed her before finally letting it go. “Very well, that’s acceptable. Just so you know the importance of keeping a detailed watch log and don’t skimp on detailing it accurately on your watch.”

She nodded profusely.

“Very well, Cadet, you’re dismissed.”

She let out a sigh of relief, then cleared her throat. “Captain, permission to change hats?”

“Granted.”

Alex reached up to adjust her cadet’s cap. A few of the watch crew turned to eye her, but quickly returned to their consoles and maintained discipline. The gray-gold fabric of her headwear changed from a gray-gold to a deep navy blue. She avoided changing her entire uniform because it was just a bit much.

“Sir, I talked to Tia, and she needs me to go inspect the new shipworks.” Alex said, reaching down to point on Turner’s nav console. “It’s been running for a while, with just the navy units and Nameless working on it and neither her nor I have inspected it yet, and she thinks it needs an eyeball.”

The main screen lit up, highlighting the growing shipworks at the destination. She had been working hard with Tia and Nameless to establish a new shipyard building facility to increase Meltisar’s shipbuilding capacity. Well, mostly Nameless did the work while they liasoned with the navy to gather more resources.

So far, neither she nor Tia had personally inspected it; they’d left that responsibility to Nameless and navy assets. However, Alex wanted to see things for herself—not just through video feeds.

Captain Turner gave the order for navigation to lay in a course; they were only two hours away from the facility. “Thank you, Captain,” said Alex gratefully. “I’ll be back after a quick break.”

He waved her on as she headed towards her quarters. The familiar hustle and bustle of crew members moving through the ship’s passages greeted her; all sailors stepped aside respectfully as she passed by them.

The scene brought back memories of her days aboard the Iron Horse en route to Meltisar—but now she was an actual officer on this ship instead of a mere passenger. Her cheeks heated slightly as she recalled how awkward and sometimes inappropriate some of her actions had been.

Alex entered her quarters; her bunkmate was absent, as was normal. The other girl was on the opposite watch schedule. They had never really had the chance to talk beyond their initial introduction due to having opposite watch schedules. Either one of them was asleep or working when the other was off duty.

Grabbing a fresh uniform, Alex made her way to the shower. The officer’s facilities were separate from those of enlisted personnel and consisted of gender-separated shower rooms—though much smaller. There were only four showerheads available, but each stall offered relatively ample space.

Eagerly stepping into an empty stall, Alex turned on the water and enjoyed her allotted fifteen minutes of hot water—a luxury compared to what she’d experienced at Fort Glisson. As the warm water cascaded over her body, she felt like it was washing away her fatigue. In a way it was; she required relatively little sleep due to physical stress, but mental stress was always a contender.

Sometimes she thought that being around so many new people all the time was almost as bad as being alone on the failing Shrike while being hunted by drones with Elis. Alex signed and began to rinse her hair.

After finishing her shower, Alex took a moment to look at herself in the mirror as she wiped away steam from its surface. Her hair remained short but had grown slightly longer since basic training’s mandatory haircut. She began to brush it carefully.

[Informative: Avatar hair-length adjustment is possible if current length is undesired.]

Alex hesitated for a minute to think it over. She did want her long hair back eventually; she knew that much. But it would be bothersome to deal with the regulations for long hair if she did so now. Netting it all in a hairbun would be annoying and not any better than what she had now.

“No, thank you.”

[Informative: Available ANUF units are sufficient for variable length hair modification in real time.]

Alex blew at a stray hair before continuing to brush. “Yeah, I don’t need people looking at me funny any more than they already do.”

Taking her dirty laundry, she tossed it into the bin for cleaning, then headed back to her quarters.

There were several important bits of information she needed to look over. The entire purpose of the new shipworks was to expand the Meltisar Fleet’s numbers. “Nameless, can you pull up the system fleet roster? I want to go over it.”

||Current Meltisar Fleet Roster||

| Type | Class | Number in Fleet | Dimensions (L x W x H) | Example

| Dreadnought | IS FL | 1 | 36km x 6km x 6km | MNS Aegis

| Battleship | IS FL | 5 | 14km x 4km x 3km | MNS Solion

| Battleship | IS RR | 48 | 12km x 3km x 2.5km |

| Battlecruiser| IS RR | 24 | 8km x 2km x 2km |

| Cruiser | IS HA | 1088 | 2km x 800m x 800m |

| Cruiser | IS FA | 587 | 2km x 800m x 800m |

| Cruiser | IS RR | 487 | 1.8km x 700m x 700m | MNS Alacrity

| Destroyer | IS HE | 4873 | 1km x 500m x 500m |

| Destroyer | IS HA | 2011 | 1km x 500m x 500m |

| Destroyer | IS RR | 1878 | 800m x 500m x 250m |

| Corvette | IS HE | 8382 | 400m x 200m x 150m |

| Corvette | IS HA | 6783 | 400m x 180m x 150m |

| Corvette | IS RR | 3211 | 300m x 150m x 120m |

| Corvette | IS C | 468 | 200m x 75m x 75m |

| Cruiser | OS P | 28 | 300m x 200m x 100m |

| Corvette | OS P | 32 | 120m x 60m x 60m |

The MNS Alacrity, the ship she was currently aboard for training, had played a significant role in her life before—it had miraculously chased down the Corpo cutter that had fled with Elis during the AGAI incident. Things had been close, but somehow, she’d managed to snatch her sister back from the Corporate spook who’d abducted her.

Meltisar’s fleet consisted of nearly 80 capital ships, over two thousand cruisers, and more than twenty-five thousand smaller warships. It was an impressive number for the system and easily surpassed any offensive fleets that the four powers could muster—except maybe for the Imperium.

As Alex reviewed force estimates, she realized that while all other powers had more warships overall, a large portion of their units were required to protect their interests and assets. Meltisar’s advantage lay in having everything localized within one area. However, if all opposing forces combined efforts against Meltisar, they would be outnumbered—badly.

Veliana had seemed like a potential ally; Alex hoped they would have luck forming a pact with the Solarians. Tia spent an extra day at negotiations before meetings were called off; this deliberate move ensured other envoys remained unaware of their talks with Solarians. Because of the limitations on their firewalls, communications and negotiations were stifled slightly, although from what Alex understood, Tia had continued to meet with her over audio-video feed.

Sitting there studying fleet numbers and considering political alliances weighed on Alex’s mind as she tried to envision possible outcomes and strategies to secure Meltisar’s future safety.

It made her inspection of their new shipyard even more important. Meltisar was going to need more ships. The third moon had large amounts of the basic resources needed to build things; the main issue were more sensitive and rare minerals required for exotic systems.

You could surround yourself with a kilometer of steel, but if you didn’t have the required material to build a thruster that could push that… it wouldn’t be that useful.

Still, she had to try.

“Nameless, can you help me figure out how we can optimize the materials we have?”

It seemed like the colors on her holographic monitor began to flicker a little faster.