Elodie Fleurmieux

8/14/2019 Elodie Fleurmieux

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Chapter 1: Starcastle War

"Subatomic particle cannons are beginning to overheat! Banks 7, 9, 11, and 22 have all

failed!"

"Armor is falling rapidly, the adjustment cycles aren't keeping up! NRD is down to justfourteen percent!"

"Is the missile system still maintaining the lock?" Her voice was calm, eerily so in the

surrounding pandemonium.

"Aye captain."

"...Jocelyn, we don't have to do this. We'll find another opening. There'll be another

chance. I'll make another chance!" She took one black-gloved fist and pounded it into her open

palm, the brilliant scarlet of her long-coat ruffling with the motion.

"No, Ro. This is our chance. This is what I want to do." Normally Jocelyn's voice echoed

over the entire command bridge but this time it played only in the speakers directly around Ro's

station. She was surrounded on all sides by a holographic globe showing various system reports

and information. One small square illuminated in the corner, the woman's face determined and

solemn. She was young and beautiful, as she always had been. A golden angel, in some

respects, with warm brown eyes and such bright yellow hair that Ro wondered if the sun was

ever that bright. Compared to her own darkened features; skinny angular body, carmel-tan skin,

feathered but thin black hair, and a fearsome grin that could either instill the confidence to fight

through hell or force the same fear of that hell; she had been an impossible goal of beauty and

grace.

Fortunately Ro wasn't much for beauty and grace.

"Very well." She cleared her throat slightly as she looked up to the officers behind theircontrol stations. "Full speed ahead on the plotted course. No more variances. Let 'em see what

we're made of."

"Fifteen seconds to point-defense threshold."

"Open all vents." Ro's order was met with a brief flash on her screen followed by an

incongruously pleasant chime.

"Defensive pattern?"

"None." Ro set her hands on her hips, setting her jaw arrogantly.

"Ten seconds."

"Look alive gunnery. Can't expect Jocey to do all the work."

"Five seconds."

Ro stepped forward with her right foot and thrust her fist out in front of her with all the

force she could muster. Determination welled up like a volcano and erupted through her mouth.

"This is what happens when you underestimate us!"

"Threshold!"

Nothing.


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Ro frowned. "Report."

"Maintaining course...there's nothing."

"What're they waiting for, we're in range. Any benefit for them to wait?"

"Negative, the maximum number of canons were in range at the threshold...they're losing

firing capacity every second we move."

"The hell? Jocelyn?"

"Surprise, sis." The small window blinked into view, a handsome man with equally

tanned skin and gleaming grin stared at her.

"Mark what're you doing?"

"We figured out a way to use the tachyon relays to send Jocelyn into the enemy point-

defense system. She's in there now, holding it back."

Ro raised an eyebrow. "Bloody genius. Could've told me about it, though."

"We weren't sure it was going to work and we wouldn't know until we hit the threshold.

Seems to be fine though."

"Can she hit the station with them?"

"No, it's too far out of range...besides, that might need more control than she's able to

get with this amount of time. Hold is about as good as I can get you."

"About as good? It's more than enough." Ro's mind began to spin through the

possibilities. She had planned on taking a lot more damage as they passed through the

defensive field. This would mean she'd be more prepared, more armored. Get the ship back in

one piece? No that was asking for too much...but maybe at least this way...

"Devlin, how long until we're free of the point defense weapons?"

"Two minutes at top speed. We'll have a three minute space of safety before we're in

range of the station's weapons.""Three minutes?"

"Aye captain. I don't think they were worried about the fleet getting past the first four

lines, much less their point defense field in one piece. There's a gap where neither side's

weapons can hit at range."

Ro grinned. Okay, this could work. And now her choice to keep her fighter squadron

grounded would be vindicated. The holographic display around her wavered as she lifted her left

hand, brushing commands through the floating panels. With another soft chime, the microphone

in her command station was immediately connected to the ship's intercom.

"Attention crew, this is the captain speaking. Standby for immediate evacuation of the

ship. Non-essential personnel to the shuttle crafts, pilots standby to scramble fighters. Section

commanders remain at your stations until Jocelyn's focus has returned to the Keeper, then

transfer all control to her. Ro out." She swiped her finger on the com switch and the transmission

was cut off. She glanced up at her bewildered command staff. "That means you too. Transfer

control of your systems to my console and head down to the shuttle bays."

"Captain..."


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"You're not going to start crying are you Devlin?" This earned an uneasy chuckle from

the bridge.

"With all due respect, sir, he's right. We'll stay. You can't operate the ship with just you

and Jocelyn."

"Oh, now you think I can't do something? You didn't seem to be this doubtful when we

broke with the Admiralty and plowed our way through the entire enemy armada."

"That's not what I mean sir it's just that-"

"Just that what? We run simulations for this very reason. It'll work. The Keeperis going

to be in a lot better shape than we initially thought, we won't need to be patching coolant leaks

or shifting armor plates at the last second. Our particle cannons will be fully cooled. Trust me,

this'll work. Besides, I have no intention of dying."

There was a moment of hesitation, hesitation to obey, hesitation to rebel. Suddenly one

of the command chairs went dark on the deck, and Carmine Palermo, the first mate, stood up

and stretched.

"You're okay with this sir?" Devlin was open mouthed. That was understandable,

Carmine and her had served on too many ships together for too long to be separated now.

"Psh, you want to get her mad by ignoring her orders? I wouldn't recommend it. Besides,

if she says she's not going to die, then she's not going to die." He began sauntering towards the

lift door, hands in his pockets, yawning casually. "And if she does die, I'll find whatever's left of

her and kick her ass."

This earned a more sincere laugh from the crew. One by one the lights began to blink

out on the system consoles and Ro's holographic display began to get more and more crowded

with her crew's former control systems. One by one they filed into the lift, following Carmine's

atmosphere of nonchalance. Devlin lingered a moment, giving Ro a snappy salute."Good God man, get in the tube and stop weeping. You're never going to get that nurse

down in medical if you keep acting like a girl." Ro grinned her twin-edged grin, shocking, hurting,

and forcing Devlin to smile all in the same instance. He entered the tube and the door shut.

Ro was alone.

Three minutes later one screen on her display showed a cluster of dots; transport

shuttles encircled by fighters in defensive formation, waiting to be picked up. Hopefully to be

picked up. If the plan worked, the rest of the fleet could cut a swathe through the enemy

stronghold faster than a knife ragged cotton...if it didn't work, well.

No. There is no room for failure. She punched her palm again, gathering up her

determination. "You feeling okay, Jocey?"

"Yes, I'm fine." She sounded tired, dazed.

"You did great."

"Thank you...is the plan still the same?

"Unless you got a better one." Ro suddenly found the long coat stifling and shrugged it

off, tossing it onto the deck. Her hand reached up and grasped onto the zipper on her suit and


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Standing in the center was Jocelyn in all of her splendor, gorgeous and radiant. Mark

stood behind her, hands wrapped around her waist, his face buried in her golden curls.

"Mark!" Ro stomped forward snarling. "I ordered a complete evacuation! What the hell

are you doing here!"

"Us, follow orders? I didn't think it was our style, given our situation. I figured it ran in the

family."

"This is the dumbest thing you've ever done! Jocelyn, all stop."

The beautiful woman nodded imperceptibly, though the guilt on her face was incredible.

The Keepercame to a stop, just seconds away from the range of the station's weaponry.

"What'd you think I was going to do, just skip out on her right at the end? Leave her

alone and scared? She might not be able to perform at her highest without me, you know that."

"This isn't your job! Your duty isn't to sit here and die!"

"And it's yours?"

"I'm the captain. It's my prerogative to die."

"Well it's my prerogative to ignore my little sister."

"I'm the captain. You get off this ship now."

"I can't. I love her."

Ro stomped her foot on the floor, hard. So hard that it hurt, perhaps bruised her foot.

"Love her!? Love her! You can't love her, Mark, you just can't! She's not real! She a bloody AI!"

Her eyes met Mark's, locked in a familial stare. Her peripheral vision caught Jocelyn

shrink back into Mark's arms at Ro's words, pain and betrayal clouding her crystal blue gaze.

Mark laughed.

"Oh, Roby. This is all worth it just to see that flash of doubt in your eyes."

The rest happened so quickly. Holographic restraints, as real and as physical asanything else, materialized around her arms and legs, holding her in place. Mark swept from

around Jocelyn with incredible speed, the flash of orange in his hand the only warning of the

plasma cutter. The blade scorched across Ro's left wrist, causing her to yell in pain as the heat

melted through her jumpsuit, the metal from the override circuitry. With a wave of her hand,

Jocelyn sent the restraints backwards, dragging her towards the door.

"I love you Roby. Try to make mom understand somehow, kay?"

"Mark!"

The doors slammed shut. The hologram dissolved the minute she was outside the

second doors, but there was nothing else she could do. The padded but extremely powerful

arms of a security drone slammed around Ro, pinning her arms to her side and lifting her into

the air as its hover pad allowed it to glide gracefully. Ro struggled and yelled, screaming Mark's

name over and over, spewing a volcano of every insult and curse word she knew. The drone

ignored it, dragging her into a lift tube, which had been pre-programmed.

The lift opened and the drone moved down the corridor to the first opened door. Ro lifted

her legs to try and catch the jamb of the hatch, but the security drone's physical power was too


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much, throwing her violently into escape pod. The hatch hissed shut with immediate precision

and all of the controls in the pod itself went dark. Ro found her feet and leapt to the hatch,

pounding on the transparent window but it was too late. A vibrating rumble shook around her as

it blasted away from the side of the Keeper, rocketing away towards the shuttle craft.

"MARK!"

She watched the whole thing through the viewport, pounding on the bulkhead

relentlessly. The Keeper's engines blazing back to life as it shot into range of the station. The

spewing trail of jumpdrive fuel rocketing out the front, being intersected with the rainbow streams

of particle cannon fire from the station's weapons, igniting it into a blaze of beautiful plasma. The

Keeper's armor plates cycled to the front, angling and adjusting themselves as it blasted

through the flaming nebula, the armor collecting the ignited fuel around it. It flew with rapid

precision and undaunting determination, like a flaming arrow through space as particle cannon

fire struck ineffectively into the flaming shield.

Her hands were bleeding when the fire was finally extinguished, the armor plates melted

beyond recognition. The front of the Keeperhad rearranged itself as planned, winged and

pointed like an arrow. It hit the hull of the sphere at full-speed, the station's protective armor

giving way. The Keeper's particle cannons lit across its surface, blazing it with every color it

could provide as it fired in continuous stream with no heed to heat considerations. Though Ro

couldn't see it, she knew the next part of the plan, the tip of the ship falling open to reveal every

last missile that the Keeperstill had, including its full compliment of thermonuclear warheads.

It exploded in a brilliant flower of multi-colored light. The Keeperhad remarkable

resiliency, maintaining its shape for a full second after the initial detonation. All she could think

about was Mark and Jocelyn holding one another as the wash of atomic reactions consumed

their bodies. Did Jocelyn dissolve first when the quantum drive was incinerated? Or did Mark'sfragile human body die long before hand from the impact? It was a question she would never

really be able to answer.

That explosion was the end of the war. Ro knew it. And yet she weeped, pounding

bloody fists against the glass and smearing it crimson until those hands finally found her face,

weeping into it. Tears and blood ran down her face and dripped onto her uniform.

Chapter 2: Starjack Training

"Oh my gosh, he's coming this way."

The three girls instinctively huddled closer together at the cafeteria bench, some inborn

sense of self-preservation taking over, some inherent need to protect themselves from males.

Elodie was the unfortunate soul in the middle, being sandwiched by her slender companions on

either side, nearly causing her to tip over the bottle of lemonade onto her uniform. Managing to


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set it on the steel table, she instinctively ran a hand across her pants to smooth out wrinkles and

send away crumbs, regardless of the fact that no one could see her legs under the table, and

straightened up in her seat.

The opposite side of the table was vacant, and he realized this as he approached. He

didn't sit though, just took his right leg and propped it onto the bench daringly, crossing his arms

low to use to brace himself, leaning in. Red hair fringed across his face in perfect, dashing

strokes, like a strawberry splashed with copper. The freckles on his face transformed it from

plain "dashing" into "dashing yet adorable," a deadly mixture to the female mind. He wore his

uniform jacket open, the cuffs of the long sleeves rolled up neatly to just above his elbows,

showing the red inner-side of the navy blue jacket. A white shirt was beneath his jacket, plain.

The uniforms of the Starjacks were a remarkable piece of fashion ingenuity, Elodie had to admit.

When done properly, the precision tailoring and design of the golden piping, the ornate sun

design tastefully placed on the high collar, the golden rings around the ends of the cuffs, the

jacket flaring to the mid-thigh, the matching navy blue pants with the single gold stripe down the

side merging into the black knee-high boots all came together in a princely fashion, transforming

the men who wore them into elegant handsome men.

Of course, very few Starjacks wore their uniform properly. A luxury afforded them by their

position. Still, somehow the fleet uniform designers had taken that into account, and the

disheveling of their clothing only served to turn the princes into pirates; rugged, dashing, daring,

reflecting every bit of skill and every bit of arrogance these boys held within them.

"Hey ladies. Elodie."

"Hi Penn." Cecily waved with her fingers, giggling slightly and leaning even harder into

Elodie, if that were possible.

"You three look wonderful today." His brown eyes twinkled. Elodie had no doubt hemeant that, teenaged boy that he was. The three of them were still in their jumpsuits from the

simulator training they just exited; functional and ingenious no doubt, but they were form-fitting

and efficient, leaving nothing of their curves to the imagination. The colors were different, of

course: Marina's was yellow and black for the security and ground forces program, Cecily's was

red and white for command school, and Elodie's silver and blue for analysis. For Elodie, this was

a blessing. The blue and silver made her gray eyes grayer and more mysterious; blue in some

perspective, nearly silver in other. It also transformed her rich brown hair, turning it into a vibrant

splash of color on her otherwise pale and snowy body.

"You're not looking bad yourself." Marina grinned, folding her arms beneath her breasts.

And breasts they were; the most curvaceous of the three, Marina was by far the one who

received the most attention. And gave the most attention.

"Well, you know. Regulation to look handsome and daring." Penn took a hand to brush

the lock of fringes away from his forehead. They fell right back to where they started. "But, I

have a rather direct question to make."

Elodie suppressed a snicker. Question to "make"?


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"Elodie. Care to join me tonight after instructions? I was thinking of taking a walk on the

upper gardens. The flowers are in bloom, you know. Lovely scent, starlight night." Penn grinned.

"How about it?"

Cecily and Marina spun their heads to their friend, their bodies frozen in anticipation.

Elodie drew in a breath.

"Pft. No thanks."

The other three were stunned. "...wha-what!?"

"I said no thanks. Oh, I also said 'pft', but that was more for effect." Elodie kept her face

bland.

"But...why not? Am I that bad a person? I'm not expecting anything out of it, just want to

get to know you better." Penn shifted himself from dashing to adorable, and she could feel the

excess pools of Marina and Cecily's hearts as they melted around her. Elodie set her jaw.

"Because you're not sincere." Elodie reached down to her bag which sat quietly below

her bench and clamped her fingers on a datapad. With one flourish, she clacked it onto the table

and began keying strokes across it. Names appeared in white text on the black glossy surface.

"In the last six hours, you are now the tenth Jackstar cadet to initiate or attempt to initiate a

romantic encounter with one of our female classmates. Most have been successful inquiries, but

there have been a few instances of rejections. Mostly due to the Jackstar's mistake. But,

regardless, the number and time-frame suggests to me that you're not looking for a date nor is it

simple competition, this is an assignment. Training. Am I right?"

Penn turned his head sidelong, narrowing his gaze at Elodie. "How'd you figure all that

out?"

"Girl gossip. More powerful than any known information network." She smiled sweetly.

Penn returned the smile with a blank stare, and Elodie thought she could see a glimmer ofthought in his brain. He turned his head.

"How about you Marina?"

"Definitely!"

"Great. See you tonight." Penn flashed a winning smile and he shoved off from the

bench sauntering away. Both Elodie and Cecily turned their head in disbelief at Marina.

"I can't believe you!" Elodie frowned.

"Yeah, really! Man, those boobs really do a number..."

"Not that!" Elodie elbowed Cecily in the arm in disapproval. "I just laid out exactly what

they were doing! Penn didn't even deny it, and then he asked you secondand you're still going

to go?"

Marina shrugged innocently. "Why not? I don't care why he's asking. In the end I still get

to go do something fun right?"

"But it's part of their assignments! You're nothing more than...experimentation. You might

as well be a toad and he a biology student."

Marina thought about this. "...how do you know?"


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"Huh?"

"I mean, for sure. Yeah, I know, you're an analyst and all that and you spend your time

making up scenarios from pieces and bits of data, but you never really know for sure, right?"

Marina turned back to her sandwich, picked it up, stared at it, then set it back down.

"Fine. I don't know for sure. But it's a highly likely scenario." Elodie grasped her

lemonade, tipping it to her mouth so forcefully that it splashed along her upper lip nearly to the

base of her nose. She swallowed the lemonade angrily.

"Look, Ellie, I think you're thinking too hard about it." Cecily jumped in, seeking to play

diplomat. "I mean, we're fifteen. It's natural for us to start doing things like dating, right? Maybe

whoever the first boy-"

"Finnian Kelricson."

"Right, Finn, maybe he just started off a trend? As hot-shotty as they are I've never seen

one Starjack ask a girl out before this." Cecily landed her pudding spoon into her mouth with a

decisive pop, her eyes shutting in that 'I know best' way that she did. Elodie glowered and drank

some more lemonade.

"And like I said," Marina stretched her arms into the air, as if mocking them, "I could care

less if they were ordered to do it. I'm tired. I'm stressed. I'm burned out. Watching a mighty

Jackstar fumble around for words while I judge him will be fun."

"It really doesn't bother you at all? We're being used not only by the boys, but the

teachers to have them practice wooing women?"

"Mm. Not really. Besides, if you think about it, letting them practice is sort of a patriotic

duty."

"I don't believe you..." Elodie sunk her head into her hands disapprovingly.

"Look, it's like this." Marina got up from the table and swept around to the other side,sliding into the opposing bench. She released the clasp that had been holding her hair, letting

the chocolate brown ringlets bounce around her shoulders and around her olive toned face,

somehow making her appear even older and more beautiful. "My sister explained the whole

thing to me. Everyone wants something from everyone else. Boys want our bodies. Girls want to

be loved and admired and treasured. It's as simple as that. As long as each side is giving

equally, then everyone's happy. I want to be loved, and orders or not Penn wants my body. He

gives some lame 'love' then he doesn't get any body. And all you have to do is regulate properly

and wait for the right guy to come around."

Elodie looked over to Cecily, who was enraptured. She let out a puff of disapproving air.

"Please Cessy, do notlisten to this."

"And why not? It makes sense if you think about it. The theory applies to the Academy

too. They want us to take their place in protecting them when they get too old to do it, so they

teach us. We want to serve a function in society so we listen to them. If the Jackstars have been

ordered to date girls, then its because they want to betterment of all of us. The SASAI are

designed to work that way, so they have to train them that way. Everything has a want or need


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no aid from the automated systems that loomed overhead to prevent total loss should something

go wrong. It was in fact part of the reason it had been chosen as the training headquarters of

the Confederate Admiralty, with a variety of terrains available without having to go off-world,

training became well-rounded as well as cost-effective. It was also well within Confederation

Space and short of a direct attack on Earth was probably the most foolish and dangerous strike

target any enemy might attempt.

They had proved that in the War.

This picnic area was one of the downtime areas constructed for students like herself,

with no particular training function in mind. It was perfectly sculpted from the gravel stone

pathways, the emerald green grass, the variety of waterworks flowing through intricate fountains

and streams and their adorning plantlife. Elodie felt very at peace in this area, though she had to

admit that even after four years it still felt quite foreign to her.

This area was relatively small and ended in a circular door that skiffed open as she

approached it, revealing the concourse. A steady flow of students meandered in and out in a

variety of dress; some in downtime casuals, some in jumpsuits like herself, others in classroom

wear hefting bags and datapads. Doors slid open and shut as they passed in and out, small

egg-shaped drones floated by, their sensors and cameras sweeping with an ever-present eye

looking for troublemakers. A cadre of Starjacks sauntered by, loud and laughing at some inane

joke one of them concocted, or more probable, repeated. Elodie rolled her eyes at their

shrinking backs and found a lane of foot traffic to begin walking.

It wasn't that she hatedStarjacks, per se. She understood intellectually their purpose,

and in fact had grown to understand their position as one of the most difficult in the entire

Admiralty. They were tested and demanded of on a level well beyond anything she herself would

ever have to sacrifice in the name of the Confederacy. And if they failed to do that job, toperform well, then people died. Ships were lost and people died. Of all the decorated heroes of

the war, forty-two percent of the decorations went to Starjacks. No, wait, just Starjacks or their

SASAI too? Were the SASAI counted separately? She wasn't sure.

Actually, she didn't think anyone was sure of the answer to that tricky question.

"Elodie Fleurmieux, 4th Year, Analysis and Intelligence. How may I serve?" In front of

Elodie was a narrow cylinder about four feet high and six inches around, silver with a white

beam of light emanating from the top. The light spread suddenly, a holographic display

spreading out in front of her displaying her name and identification. This was a verification

procedure, not for security's sake, as anyone that had already gotten this far into the Academy

was either supposed to be there or far too powerful to do anything against. Simply to correct if

the identity circuits in her wrist band had malfunctioned, or in the more probable case, been

tampered with. Not even Admiralty students were above pranks.

Elodie stared at the panel. What was she doing? This was pointless. Was she really this

bothered it? So bothered she was going to endure who knew how long with him?

"Locate Dare Tomote." Apparently it was. The display wiped clean and a map of the


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13/37

So Dare was shirking it altogether.

In a situation like this he knew every second counted, but it was just...easier to ignore it.

Floating there in the zero-g arena with nothing more than his propulsion pad and a high-

powered gateball, the pressures were gone. His navy and maroon jumpsuit glistened in the

bright florescent lights, flashing reflections of the green and yellow runner lights on the sides of

the wall, each blinking in sequence towards one gate or the other; it was easy to forget which

way was which in zero-g. The lights were simply a reminder.

"Cha!" Dare hurled the gateball as hard as he could below him. The blue-cored metal

ribbed ball blinked on as soon as his hands released it, the ribbing vibrating with a nearly

imperceptible aura of its own. It struck the surface and ricocheted forward at a hard angle.

Dare's propulsion pad was already humming beneath his feet, soaring him at a high arch. The

arch intersected the angle and he caught the ball skillfully. He rotated in place, like a tornado,

and hurled the ball towards the gate-wall; not at the gate directly, high and to the right so that it

would bounce off the bulkhead. A trick shot he found let him figure out whether his opposing

goalie was a seasoned vet or just some panicky rookie he leapt into action every time anything

remotely blue and spherical approached their reach. Dare dropped below the gate rapidly,

almost as if he were falling towards the surface below him, as the ball bounced in the opposing

direction. It bounced off another wall and then down at a steep angle, right where Dare was

waiting for it; he launched it upward and into the gate. The hexagon gate began to flash brightly

with its green border, a loud tone chiming to indicate a point had been scored.

"Whoo! And that's the game folks, Dare Tomote is the MVP!" He pumped his arms high

into the air as he let out another whoop, with the reckless abandon of an animal.

"I'd say that was pretty accurate. You would have to play by yourself to become MVP of

anything."Dare flipped his propulsion pad upside down, turning him to face the entryway, eyes wide

open. "Elodie?"

"Although, maybe if we got MVP to stand for something else you could swing.

Depending, you know." Elodie's smile was full of scorn. That was fine, it was a smile all the

same.

There was always a weird mixture of thoughts and emotions that happened when Dare

saw Elodie. Mostly it was a sense of being glad to see her. With his Starjack training and her

duties in A and I it seemed like their paths never crossed Academically. And they didn't see

each other much socially...Dare actually had a feeling Elodie was avoiding him socially. And

really that was nothing new, it had been that way back home. But, home had been different.

Even if they spent every moment of the day apart, they were there together in that home, their

aunt working on dinner, them staring across the wooden table trading news.

He couldn't remember when it was that it switched to trading insults.

There was also a little bit of dread when they met. Dread that she'd come to unload

some frustrations or humiliate him or...something. Often times the hostility was so confusingly


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pointless and pointlessly confusing that he wondered why she bothered at all. Not to mention

some odd twinge of guilty fear, like she was going to catch him doing something and she'd be

sending the details to their aunt through tachyon transmissions as soon as she could.

Still, given the choice between seeing her and not seeing her...

"Most Venomous Platypus?"

"That's an insult to platypus." Elodie was hanging in space just inside the entry door. She

had her arms folded and her head tipped just so, though the effect was lost as her hair drifted

aimlessly above her head, floating in every direction it may. Dare spun himself around again,

orienting his position with Elodie's.

"So to what do I owe the distinct honor? You had to have worked a little bit to find me

here." By little bit, he meant simply ask a computer interface pole, but it implied intent to find him

regardless.

"I want to know the truth about something. You Starjacks, you were assigned to date girls

weren't you?"

Fortunately four years of training hadn't been for naught. Dare just blinked confusedly at

him, scratching his head in a completely natural mannerism. His mind, however, was racing.

How on earth did she know? "Assigned? Like, as in, ordered?"

"Don't be dumb." Her arms moved from crossed to on her hips. Dare noted that she

didn't say don'tplaydumb. "I have all the data to prove it, numerous Starjacks have asked out a

number of girls. Penn asked me at lunch and then Juran on my way here."

"Did you alert medical? They might have a fever that's affecting their judgment!" A

thought crossed his mind just then. Why hadn't he thought of Elodie?

Elodie didn't acknowledge the shot. "Spill it Dare. What's going on?"

He balanced the situation in his mind a moment, looking at the scenario from everyangle, just as he had always been taught. Be clever. Be quick. Preserve your own life.

He grinned.

"I don't know what you're talking about. Even if I did, you don't have clearance."

"I have Level 2 clearance!" Elodie snapped defensively, throwing her arms out at her

sides exasperatedly. Level 2? That was higher than the usual A&I student.

"Well Starjacks have Level 1, and you know that. I'm not obligated to tell you anything. If

there was anything to tell, that is."

"Dare, seriously! If the teachers are using the female students as hormonal target

practice then we at least have the right to know about it! Don't you have any loyalty to me at all!"

"Okay, I'll tell you."

"You-....what?"

"I said I'll tell you. But on one condition." The propulsion pad hummed and Dare floated

over to the center of the arena. "You have to beat me."

Elodie's glare was a mixture of confusion, amusement, disbelief, and anger. "You got to

be kidding me. I don't have time for this."


15/37

"Just one point. Unless of course you're afraid. I mean, I am better than you, after all."

With a tiny click a small box on the utility belt of Elodie's jumpsuit opened. She took out a

small black hair tie and gathered up her wayward mane forcing the shoulder-length strands into

a ponytail, then folded over that ponytail into the tie, looping it backwards to form a small...hair

nub. "Arena. Pad."

A small hiss and click filled the cool air of the zero-g arena as the arena's AI responded

to her command. A propulsion pad was released and hovered slowly over to Elodie until her feet

touched the receptors. The pad jerked slightly as it released itself from the AI control and

synched up to the nano-web of Elodie's jumpsuit, responding to the nanobiotics in her body. She

skimmed through the air easily to the opposite side of the centerline of the arena.

"Arena. Ball." Dare grinned excitedly. A new gateball floated down between them, a

meter from each of their grips. "Let the best man win."

"You mean player."

'"I know what I said." A tone sounded. Dare swept in immediately with his propulsion pad

and bashed his hand against the ball to his left, veering to his right. The ball spun off in the

opposite direction of Dare and he aimed himself to the intersection of where the ball would

meet.

Gateball was relatively easy. Throw the ball into the gate. Have fun while doing so. Most

of the rules pertained to what kind of physical contact between players was allowed, and in

effect boiled down to no deliberately harming the other player that all contact had to be directed

at the ball. It was wildly popular with its own professional league and had become as accepted

in human society as the Earth-born sports football, basketball and baseball. Everyone that could

get theri way into a zero-g chamber played it; even the elderly.

Of course, they hadn't had an accessible zero-g chamber on Helios. It was tooexpensive to even rent time in one for their aunt, and Dare never dare to ask for such a burden

on his surrogate mother. So he and Elodie did what most poor children did in the Confederacy

worlds: played groundball.

Groundball was basically gateball. An enclosed room with painted hexagons on the walls

to serve as gates. The ball was rubber instead of the expensive particle field ball and there was,

well, gravity. It was nothing like gateball, in actuality, the speeds and physics and tactics

involved. But there was more than one rags-to-riches story in the gateball leagues of kids

playing groundball. He remembered one saying that groundball taught him arcs. Kids that

started in zero-g thought in angles, but with gravity affecting a ball in groundball, it let them think

in arcs, arcs that could be manipulated if the ball was thrown with the correct rotation. Gentle

enough curves could really throw a rich-kid's sense of angle off.

Elodie wasn't going to fall for it, though.

Her propulsion pad zipped above him in a high arc, one that was dizzyingly graceful,

placing her head pointed at the ball. As Dare reached out to grab the ribs, Elodie's hand

clamped around another one. The two immediately began rotating around the sphere, pulling


16/37

and twisting as fast and as hard as they were able. This was why it was dangerous to simply run

the ball to the gate; the gyroscopic forces in zero-g were difficult to maintain, and one wrong

pull, turn, or slip could send you careening into the wall.

Dare let go. Elodie spun wildly a moment, but she corrected herself a split-second faster

than he anticipated. The two zipped along the arena heading straight for her gate, ball tucked in

close to her torso. For a second he thought about simply trying to pry it out of her, but had a

feeling she'd use a rule violation to declare herself winner. Instead he dropped back and below

Elodie, sitting in her blind spot as she approached the gate, angling herself for a shot. Her arm

raised and spun, flinging the ball at a steep shot towards one of the hexagonal corners. Dare

sped and scooped upward looking to intercept; if he thought out her angle correctly she had

aimed it at the corner so that it would bounce upward and pass the threshold not where she had

planted the ball but in the opposing corner. Dare juked himself hard and put himself in the path

of the ball and its bounce-path, reaching out to catch it.

Nothing.

The ball had curved left instead of right and bounced awayfrom the gate instead of into

it. Elodie snatched it mid-flight and then redeposited it in the dead center of the gate.

The tone chimed and the lights flashed.

Dare wasn't sure if he was bewildered, angry, or impressed. He just floated there with an

odd smile on his face and shook his head. Elodie spun around gracefully.

Then stuck out her tongue.

"You're right. We were ordered to date girls." Dare adjusted the strap on his duffle bag

slightly trying to hold it...more daringly? Maybe it was just for something to do. He stood by the

lockers watching as Elodie meticulously prepared her own bag, undoing her hair tie and

brushing it out. When had her hair gotten so long again?"I knew it. I knew it!"

"But, just one date. Due by tomorrow actually. Colonel Polaris was already worried that

someone might figure out what was going on, so he made it a crash-course of a mission."

"That slimey...okay, then what?" Elodie slung her bag over her shoulders. Dare frowned.

"What do you mean 'then what'?"

"What happens after you date them?"

"...nothing?"

"Nothing?"

"Well, I mean, I guess that depends on the date. But there's no orders beyond one date."

The door hissed open and the two stepped into one of the small monorails. Dare keyed in a

destination and then used his command code to lock it out; no one but another Starjack,

teacher, or commissioned officer could stop the car now. Complete privacy. Well, sort of. He had

a feeling these things were bugged, but he could care less.

"So you're just supposed to...go out with them?" Elodie looked disappointed and

confused all at once.


17/37

"And write a report."

"What kind of report?"

"You know. A report. Oh, there are some strange criteria to some of it. I don't remember

what it is, it's saved on my homework database. I can't look at it unless I'm at my workstation."

Dare slung the duffle bag off his shoulder and let it drop to the floor, leaning against the wall of

the car as it rolled on nearly silent. Elodie waved away the excuse, already knowing there was

nothing Dare could do for her now short of memorizing it and coming back to her, but she didn't

seem that interested. A moment passed.

"So who was the unlucky lady who got stuck with you?" She finally asked, her gray eyes

fixed on the passing scenery.

"You." He smiled in anticipation.

"What!?"

"Well, I did ask you to play gateball with me. And then we went on a monorail ride." He

sounded almost innocent. Elodie's normally pale skin was flushing red; he couldn't tell if it was

with rage or embarrassment.

"But! But that was hardly a date! Not to mention you'll have to admit you told me about

the orders otherwise you'll be falsifying a report!"

"So? That's fine. After all, there's no way for you to verify anything I told you. I could be

yanking you around, which you know is possible. I'll just explain I figured the risks of you finding

out for absolute certain were low and playing this gambit was effective in getting you to agree.

Polaris'll buy it, he always does."

"You! You!"

"What, is going on a date with me really that bad? Besides, you always told me when we

were kids I needed to take school seriously and do well and get high marks. I need this grade."It was Dare's turn now to look out the window. "...all the other girls I tried rejected me."

This earned him a rare moment of silent sympathy from Elodie. The hardened shell she

put up in his presence seemed to fall away in that moment as her gray eyes took him in long and

hard, a glint of bewilderment betrayed in her face that Dare appreciated to no end.

"I...uh...well you know."

"Yep." Dare cut her off, sparing her to find nice words to give to him.

"I'm sure you would've found someone." Elodie managed. Dare only nodded. They

silence rolled on. As if this wasn't already awkward enough, Dare couldn't help but wonder if

now was the time to bring up the subject. It had been eating at him for weeks now, and they saw

each other so infrequently.

"Hey El, what're you doing for mid-term leave?" He managed to look at her again,

reaching up with hand to grab one of the passenger bars over head. Elodie turned quizzically.

"Staying here. Like I always do. Why?"

"Well it's just that...well, you know how Starjacks get special treatment and stuff right?

Privileges the rest of you don't get?" He almost winced when he started. He could already see


18/37

the annoyance break through whatever patience Elodie had summoned to get through this.

"Yes. Your point?"

"Well, the other day I was playing poker with Kyle and Dusty and...well, that's not the

important part. The important part is, I won a whole bunch of favors that I traded here and there

and this way and that. Mini-Starjack economy, you know. And I uh...I got something pretty

valuable."

"What, a helmet that fits your big head?"

"Off-world passage to Helios."

Dead silence. She just stared at him, long and hard, questioningly, piercing, trying to

determine with every once of her mind whether he was being serious or not. He was.

"You're...going home?"

"Well. Maybe."

"Maybe? Maybe! We haven't been home in four years, what's keeping you from going

now!?"

"I can't show up there by myself. You know how secretly upset Aunt Mercedes would be

if I came waltzing in there without you? She'd never say anything, but I'd remember the look in

her eyes forever."

"Oh." That was all she could muster. Suddenly she found the scenery more interesting

again, the sadness and anger and jealousy pouring out of her. Dare frowned, confused at first,

but then realized he hadn't been very clear.

"So...you wanna come with me?"

Chapter 4: Briefing

So what's the deal with Dare, hm?

Elodie glared at the message flashing on her datapad, then aimed that glare to her side

at the message sender. Carly held back a snicker behind her grit teeth, staring hard down at her

desk on the opposite end of the room, her body shaking with quiet laughter. Oh she would get

her...

It was history class. More specifically, History and Development of A&I Divisions in the

Confederate Admiralty, a specialized course designed to show the young cadets whythey were

obeying what orders and regulations they obeyed and how they came about. And because it

was specialized, every uniform in the room was blue and silver.

Elodie wasn't wearing her jumpsuit; instead her usual classroom uniform was placed

sharply on her body. Far more modest and comfortable, the top was a long-sleeved, tunic-like

garment. It was the pale silver broken only at the shoulders which became the matching blue of

her division colors. The Admiralty icon with the cadet wings was emblazoned over her left

breast. The bottom of the tunic was cinched at her waist with a small black belt that matched


19/37

with her black pants and boots. The classroom uniform didn't leave much in the way of pockets,

forcing her to rely very heavily on her pack to carry the gear she needed.

What do you mean, exactly? Elodie's fingers brushed gently across the glossy

surface of the datapad, then hit a surreptitious icon in the lower right hand corner of her pad. It

blinked once, and the message vanished. Sending messages during class was, of course,

forbidden, but Elodie and Carly had figured out a way to get past the local radio jammers by

using a sight-to-sight transmitter. Laser transmitters like that were sort of bulky and most

attempts to fit them onto the typical datapads were unwieldy by other students. But Elodie and

Carly were A&I cadets for a reason. They instead built the transmitters into their packs and set

them pointing at each other on the floor, then used a typical wireless connection to receive the

message from the transmitter into the pad. Easy as insta-cake.

Well I heard you and he went on a little zero-g date. And then you've been

seeing him a lot lately. The message faded and Elodie suppressed a sigh.It wasn't a date. He tricked me so he could use it on his report. And he's been

seeing me because we're working out our leave schedules. She hit the send button,immediately regretting it.

Our leave schedules?

He has off-world tickets back home, to Helios. She didn't offer further explanation

but did risk a glance in Carly's direction. A distinct look of understanding lit up across her face.

Ooh, I get it. That makes some of it less confusing.Some of what less confusing?The rumors.

Elodie blinked. What rumors?All kinds. You don't want to know. But you have been asked out a lot lately,

right? Mostly by Starjacks?

Elodie pursed her lips, pausing her response to tap down a few notes from the lecture.Yes. I have. All of them were Starjacks.

Why?I have no idea.

And there's where the rumors come in.

"Elodie Fleurmieux."

Elodie's head shot up, wide-eyed and panicked as she looked at the professor. Had she

been caught? No, wait. The professor, a hunched over bulky man with beady eyes and a

prominent nose, hadn't called her name. Instead a woman standing in the doorway, a black

woman with neatly braided hair with silver fringes, slender and tall. She wore a full

commissioned officer's uniform also in the blue and silver of A&I.Elodie stood up. "Katherine?" She forgot to address her division advisor by her rank.

"I need to see you for a little bit. Bring your things." Katherine applied a flat smile that

offered Elodie no comfort. Obediently, Elodie scooped up the bag from the floor. She shot a

glance at Carly, who only shrugged with a mixture of sympathy and confusion, mouthing "I don't

know?" Well, it wasn't one of these rumors then. She passed through the door and into the

corridor, Katherine taking up a position at her right.


20/37

"What's wrong?" Elodie looked over at her advisor. Katherine and her had gotten along

well throughout her Academy training, it was she who had decided Elodie needed to be moved

into A&I and out of Command School. She had become something of a big-sister to Elodie, a

surrogate aunt when she had some sort of problem. Her first years were the hardest, and Elodie

realized it had been some time since she had seen Katherine at all.

"It's..." Katherine was tight-lipped, striding in long strides that Elodie could barely keep up

with. "I'm sorry Elodie. I'm ordered not to reveal anything to you. But know that I tried to keep

this away from you as best I could. There are just factors much much larger than myself at work

here...I'll try to protect you as much as I can, but be strong. Don't let them push you around."

"Don't let who push me around!?"

Katherine turned right. A round door marked "Faculty" remained silent a moment.

Standing on either side of the door were two imposing men in black combat armor with yellow

details. Both wore full helmets and carried rifles, standing perfectly statuesque. Now Elodie was

very confused; there was no security needed on most of the Academy grounds, and certainly

not in the faculty quarters. The door responded to Katherine's wrist identifier, chimed once and

opened. Elodie soon had her answer.

The room was a conference room with a white-shined oval table, a blue outline of the

Admiralty symbol with the Cadet's wings emblazoned on the surface. There were four more

people in the room, sitting around one end of the table. Her eye was drawn to the right side first,

where people she recognized sat. First was Colonel Crag Polaris, the head of the Starjack

division. He was a rough, angular man, blocky in all form. His head was nearly a perfect

rectangular prism, now that Elodie thought about it. He had bristly gray hair, bushy eyebrows,

and a permanent scowl that remained even when he was laughing. His face was marred with

wrinkles and a single scar that crossed the bridge of his nose. He wore his military uniform,though instead of the command colors of red and white, his were the Starjack colors of navy

blue and maroon. Tassels adorned his shoulder as well as a number of command bars and a

medal on his chest that Elodie didn't recognize.

To his right was Victoria Chen, the Academy's headmaster. She wore no uniform, just a

simple green blouse over her plump figure. Technically she held the rank of Brigadier General,

though her career had been mostly civilian in nature, starting in civil protection and then to the

Academy as a teacher. Her hair was black and perfect, cropped short to her ears, though her

own wrinkles beguiled the age that her perfect hair was trying to hide. She looked

uncomfortable, mixed with her usual ease as headmaster.

The remaining two were people Elodie didn't recognize. Sitting at the head of the table

was a man in a striking white uniform with red details. His chest was also adorned with

command bars and medals, though far more numerous than Colonel Polaris. His military

presence was imposing, but he had a kind face and thick locks of white hair that swept around

his head in an almost dashing fashion. His blue eyes were still bright and alert. Elodie was

reminded of an old hero, a man who had once belonged in the thick of things and forced to the


21/37

desk through age. He was the only one smiling as they entered.

The last man was the man on the left, an balding, middle-aged Indian man with a

bulbous nose and a hunched form. He was wearing glasses, which was something an oddity

given the ease of corrective surgery these days. He wore a white labcoat over a golden button-

down shirt. He had two datapads in front of him that he was operating with both hands, his head

swiveling from one to the other, frantic in his work.

"Cadet Fleurmieux," Headmaster Chen said, as she inclined her head towards the man

at the head of the table. "This is Admiral Swan."

Instinctively Elodie snapped to full attention. "Admiral."

The Admiral smiled warmly, almost grandfatherly, and gave her a gentle nod. "At ease,

Cadet. Sit down, please."

Elodie set at the opposing head of the oval under Katherine's nudging, Katherine herself

sitting to Elodie's right, as if forming a protective barrier from Polaris and Chen. She said

nothing, but still had a solid look of stone. A moment passed as the two settled, then the Admiral

cleared his throat genially.

"Well, cadet, we've brought you here today to ask an important duty of you. But before

we begin I have to tell you that this meeting is of the highest classification, per my orders.

Regardless of the outcome of this meeting, you are to not repeat the happenings to anyone of

lower than an Alpha level security clearance. Not even to the other attendants of this meeting.

Understood?"

"Yes, Admiral." Elodie's mind raced. There weren't many Admirals within the Admiralty,

which meant that this had to be of the highest importance. This was only doubled with the use of

Alpha level security; that sort of security clearance was only granted to a select group at High

Command. He might as well have told her to never tell another living soul for the rest of her life."Good. Now Cadet, can you tell us what you know of the SASAI system?" The Admiral

leaned back in his chair slightly, getting comfortable. Elodie's eyes flashed over to Katherine, but

got no response. She turned back to the Admiral, rehearsing her answer in her mind.

"The SASAI is a Self-Aware Shipboard Artificial Intelligence. A super-advanced AI that is

programmed specifically for their assigned battleships. They have advanced personalities that is

equal or nearly equal to human intelligence which allows the ship to move intuitively and work in

conjunction with the crew in a more organic fashion."

The Admiral nodded slowly. "Very good. What else do you know about them?"

"Well...all the SASAI are female in personality in order to play off the motherly instincts of

the female mindset. A ship that protects its crew like a mother protects its children." Elodie

struggled to say those words without adding in a number of opinionated asides. The entire

concept made her stomach churn angrily; to so quickly classify the world into such narrow

gender definitions infuriated her, moreso than even Marina's inane dissertation on human

relationships. Still, this was not the audience for such sentiments. "The Starjacks are their...well,

I guess they're their husbands for lack of a better term. Trained officers who interact directly with


22/37

the SASAI in order to keep them stable and maintain the mission goals and parameters. Some

say the Starjacks are trained to fall in love with their ship."

Okay, so one aside managed through her filters. Colonel Polaris' scowl deepened and

Headmaster Chen shifted uncomfortably but Admiral Swan was unphased. "Yes, I've heard that

theory before. In fact, they're doing intensive personality studies on this phenomenon at the

Human Psyche University on Thebes Colony...you wrote a paper on this, didn't you?

"I did." He had read her file? Interesting.

"Cadet, what are your personal feelings on the SASAI and Starjack system?" The tone of

his voice seemed to indicate he already knew the answer, but the fear of being thrown out of the

Academy was something Elodie couldn't push out of her mind. She looked again to Katherine,

but her eyes were fixed on the table. She then glanced to Headmaster Chen, who offered no

indication either way. Swallowing hard, Elodie looked at the Admiral.

"Permission to speak freely, sir."

"Go ahead."

"I think it's unnecessary. The efficiency garnered by an intelligent computer is not worth

the manipulation of human lives. In fact, there are several schools who believe that the SASAI

blurs the definition of humanity itself. Still others believe that SASAI should be classified as their

own lifeform and consider our usage of them a form of slavery combined with a denial of

reproductive rights. I don't subscribe to that sort of extreme thinking, sir, but when we studied

the Republic's hive-mentality drone weapons it seemed odd to me that the Confederacy had

continued with the SASAI direction when drones are not only cheaper but save human lives in

the process."

Polaris was red now, about to burst into an explosion of words but a slight glance from

the Admiral seemed to calm him down. A muscle in the Admiral's jaw twitched as well, andthough he kept a smile on his face there was a sense of 'you know not what you speak of, little

girl' in his eyes.

"Noted, Cadet. However, I believe before you make a final judgment you should be

informed of the entire purpose of the SASAI...the man on my right here is Doctor Pillai. He's the

inventor of the SASAI."

The doctor didn't move from his work, still operating the two datapads independently at a

frantic rate. Elodie stared at him. The inventor of the SASAI was one of the most classified

secrets within the Admiralty, a secret that needed to be kept from their enemies at the highest

cost. No one knew how old he was, where he was from, or whether or not he was even a he.

The honor alone of getting to meet this man awed Elodie, but the sense of dread began to swell

inside her. Just how many more top secrets was she going to be exposed to today?

And what were they about to ask her to do in return?

"...doctor." The Admiral said firmly. The doctor glanced up, then around the room as if

trying to remember where he was.

"Oh! Ah, yes, the cadet, hello, hello." He switched off his datapads and pushed them to


23/37

the side. "I am supposed to teach you...what was I supposed to teach her?"

"You are going to explain why the SASAI is so critical." The Admiral looked patient, as if

speaking to a child.

"Ahhh, yes yes, of course. Now uh...sorry what was your name?"

"Elodie." She replied without thinking. Cadet Fleurmieux was probably the correct

answer.

"Yes, Elodie, how much do you know about quantum mechanics? And the subsequent

quantum fields that surround it."

Elodie blinked. "Admittedly not much, sir. Just that it has to do with subatomic principles

and dualities, things behaving as particles and waves simultaneously. Uncertainty. Then there's

the thing about the cat."

Doctor Pillail's laugh was a hearty belly laugh and Elodie smiled in response. Clearly the

doctor was not a military officer, the cold tone of formality didn't apply to him and he was

exuding tremendous waves of freedom that Elodie took comfort in. "Yes yes, good, very good. I'll

try to keep things simple for you to understand. In quantum theories, anything can happen.

Physics turns upside down in a world of the quantum, and science has spent the last hundred

years trying to control this phenomenon. The power of unbridled probability on the subatomic

scale could mean any number of practical applications! Ah, but there, I digress already. Let's

see, where to start, where to start...let me ask you a question, Elodie, can a particle cannon

increase its power simply by someone wanting it to?"

"No...?"

"No, of course not! A particle cannon's output is limited by a number of physical factors

that are easily defined: the coolant ability of the ship, the size of the cannon, the available power

output for that individual cannon, the presence of other particles in the space that it is firing into,and so on. There are limits. But what if we could break these limits?"

"Using...quantum mechanics?"

"Yes!" Pillail clapped his hands together with great delight. "Oh, you were so right

Madame Chen, she is very smart. Yes, with quantum manipulation, we could let the ship

perform beyondits specifications!"

"I thought you just said we couldn't manipulate quantum principles." Elodie was frowning

in confusion. The doctor frowned back, equally confused for a moment, before realizing his

mistake.

"Ah, yes. Well, there are many people in the galaxy that believe that there are instances

of natural quantum manipulation. While the occurrences on the subatomic level are random, the

where and when of the occurrences are not! The recorded variances in probability have

overwhelming been in the positive for this natural source of quantum manipulation. I am a

subscriber of this belief and have dedicated most of my career to understanding how to replicate

the abilities of these natural quantum manipulators."

Elodie almost glared at Katherine for not forcing her to take quantum mechanics last


24/37

year. Instead, she raced through the possibilities of what this natural source of quantum

manipulation might be, and how one might control it. Was it a...mineral? A quasar, a plant, an

animal? What? More than likely it was some sort of particle physics principle that she wasn't

aware of.

"What are these natural manipulators?"

"Hm? Well, humans of course."

Chapter 5: Quantum Manipulation

She wasn't sure if she found the idea too far-fetched to believe or if she was simply being

loaded down with too much, but Elodie couldn't hide the look of complete disbelief and

skepticism. It would seem like if humanity were a natural set of quantum manipulators they

would've figured it out by now. Maybe not in those terms, but at least...something. With a race so

concerned about discovery, it seemed that something so rudimentary wouldn't be overlooked.

"I...don't think I understand."

"Ah, yes, of course. Quantum mechanics have been applied to various fields of science

since its discovery in an attempt to find answers where there were none before. One of these

fields was the emergence of a theory of quantum evolution, which used uncertainty principles to

explain rapid changes in DNA structure. Of course even with the level of quantum understanding

we have today none of these can be proven. But, think for a moment about the stories you have

heard throughout all humanity."

Doctor Pillail, who had been explaining this revelation to Elodie in a frenzied pace and

with such a concentrated manner that it seemed like they were the only ones in the room, begantapping his fingers across the table. A holographic interface appeared and then swished over

the table to Elodie, a perfect display. In neat rows there were names, dates, and brief

summaries under a header named "events" that waited for her touch. She brushed a finger

through the air, brining up one of the case studies for her to view. Skimming it, she found it was

an accident report from Thebes in which a hovercar crashed through two buildings and

subsequently had a power core meltdown, but with such peculiar circumstances that not only

were there no deaths, there were no injuries. She closed it and began scanning another one as

the doctor continued.

"Throughout our history, humanity has been remarkably resilient. Mankind survived the

trials of living on earth, the era of colonization, the rise and fracturing of the Empire. Each of

these eras has had monumental difficulties to overcome and each has a period where the

destruction of all or most of humanity was imminent. And yet it survives on. Furthermore, even

within in this history of resilience, there are thousands of tales where individual human beings

defy all probability and do the impossible. The cases could be millions if we had a way to

document them all! And of course, get people to believe they were worth reporting."


25/37

"You mean luck." Elodie stopped scrolling through files, her questioning gaze trying to

shake the doctor from his sudden reverie.

"Yes, it goes by many names, luck being the most common. There is of course the

power of the human mind, psychic abilities, a number of theological explanations all offered to

explain what we don't understand. But if you apply quantum mechanics, all of these improbable

things are possible! It's just a matter of correlating the human will to the manipulation of

quantum state!"

"And you can prove that?"

"Well...no. Not yet, not beyond a doubt. But I'm getting close! Very close! All thanks to

the SASAI!"

"Huh? How?"

"Very simple, very very simple. I programmed the SASAI to be the maximum

approximation of human personality. And while the SASAI does provide for maximum reaction

time, synchronized battle positioning and the increase of saved human lives, it also serves as

the perfect test subject for the concept of quantum manipulation!"

Admiral Swan, sitting at the head of the table, cleared his throat at this juncture to retake

control of the situation. "You see, Cadet, Dr. Pillail here didn't explain to us that he would be

using our battlefleet as an experiment. He only revealed this little detail of his to us after the

conclusion of the Confederate-Republic War."

"But it worked! It all worked perfectly!"

The Admiral had a pained look of reluctance and annoyance, as if he wanted to

contradict the excited professor, but couldn't. "Yes, well. Data from our battlefleet does suggest

that his quantum manipulation theory does in fact work. We're not talking about adding engines

or repairing armor plates but...there's interesting results. Cannon fire doing more damage thanpossible, systems operating well beyond their rated efficiencies, missiles having extended

range, a number of other technical things. And the memory cores suggest that these events

were tied in with the SASAI's intent. In fact it's been suggested that the final battle of the war

was heavily influenced by the Mars Keeper's SASAI."

Elodie sat silently. So, it was true. Cannons that worked better because they wanted

them to work better. She suddenly understood why the Confederacy went with the SASAI route

rather than the Republic's attack drones. The drones, while ruthlessly efficient, had difficulty

adapting to anything that fell out of their preset parameters. While they might have perfect

maneuvers for certain battle movements, they might be totally caught off guard with even slight

variations of the pattern, leaving them easily destroyed. While this served as an advantage, the

adaptability of the drones made it such that a new maneuver worked, at maximum, only three

times. But, with a SASAI, with a ship that could make minute corrections based on its own

sensors, and even alter the chances of those corrections making a difference, the advantage of

the drones would shrink by bounds.

"So...what does this have to do with me?" The inevitable question seemed to signal a


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shift in the room.

"It has to do with the uh...mistake." Pillail looked as if he was going to launch into another

round when the Admiral's hand waved him down. He did so reluctantly, looking sullen and

forlorn until he seemed to remember his datapads, which he then flipped on.

"Cadet, this is part of the reason this meeting is so highly classified. What the good

doctor is referring to is our current development on our newest strike frigate." The Admiral

placed his finger onto the desk deliberately. The lights dimmed immediately and a holographic

projection of a battleship appeared, floating silently and rotating on its Z axis to display all sides.

The ship was sleek and narrow even despite the armor plates that were still attached to its hull.

In another moment, the armor plates extended out from the ship as if entering combat,

displaying the array of weaponry, ports, hatches, and maneuvering engines along its hull. The

rear quarter of the ship looked to be entirely made of engines; Elodie didn't know much about

ship design, but she imagined this made the craft faster than most. The front was tapered and

narrowed into a rounded nose, almost like a type of starfighter. Elodie glanced to either side of

the projection, only to find empty space. Odd. Usually ship statistics would display in neat rows.

Was it really this classified?

"This frigate is the culmination of every technological advancement the Admiralty has

developed since the end of the Starcastle War. It's, in essence, one massive experiment

designed to test all of these new systems simultaneously. But of course since every experiment

needs a control, standardized systems are built beneath these new systems. It's a ship built

upon a ship, if you will; one layer of experimental systems, another of back-up systems that also

monitor and record the results."

"It sounds...complicated." Elodie was furrowing her brow now and had forgotten entirely

that she was speaking to an Admiral."It is excessively complicated, let me tell you!" PIllail shoved his datapads aside and took

off his glasses, cleaning them fervently on the edge of his lab coat. "To run two independent

systems requires a level of automated programming and awareness for an SASAI that had

never been attempted! I had to build the program from the very beginning, using my own

theories as guidelines. The level of frustration involved is beyond anything you can even

imagine! Not to mention having to encode the Quantum Field Generator along with that!"

Pillail exhaled, exasperated, missing the look Admiral Swan swept at him entirely. Elodie

swallowed at the disapproving glare, watching him as he balanced whether to reveal the

meaning behind the doctor's statements.

"In light of the results, the Admiralty is experimenting with a quantum field generator that

would enhance the results of the SASAI's quantum manipulation...but you weren't supposed to

know that yet." He tried another glare at Pillail, but again it went ignored. "The point is, that this

SASAI was one of the most complicated that the doctor ever created."

"Five years! Three of initial programming and two more of in-ship development!"

"In-ship development?"


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"Yes yes, in-ship. Once the computer cores of any ship are constructed, I implant the

SASAI into the core and continue the developmental programming from there. This allows a

SASAI to grow along with its ship-surroundings, much as a child grows with their own body as it

advances in age. By the time it reaches completion, the SASAI understands every portion of

itself as well as why it was created in that order. The process is somewhat automated now,

controlled by Admiralty Science and usually only takes one year to develop and then the

remaining time in-ship."

The Admiral raised a hand again to regain control, his patience appearing to wear thin.

He touched the table again and the lights returned, the holoimage vanishing. "The point is, when

the ship is about to enter its final stages of construction, the holographic SASAI interface is

activated and the assigned Starjack begins their work. The problem is when we activated the

interface, something...unexpected, happened."

A pause. Each of the adults, including the stoic Polaris and the fuming Katherine

seemed to be avoiding the next phrase, save for Pillail who was oblivious and Swan, who

seemed to be waiting for the doctor's usual loud-mouthed nature to jump in.

"Hm? Oh, oh yes! The SASAI for this ship is male."

Elodie's mouth dropped open. "...male?"

"Yes! Fascinating isn't it? Totally not by design, of course, but something seems to have

altered the intending programming. The fact that it is manifesting itself as male is a baffling

mystery that I am even now trying to decode." Pillail motioned to his datapads.

"But...what? How is that possible? The programming to change?"

"Admiralty Science isn't sure. They think that it has something to do with the complexity

of running two automated subsystems through parallel computer cores on one ship. Corruption

of data, overload of information, something of that effect.""Or, it could be the quantum manipulation! It wantedto be male!"

The Admiral waved at him dismissively. "Yes yes, the doctor believes that it might have

manipulated itself into becoming male. That's not the point. What we have here is a situation

that the Admiralty is completely unable to deal with. Which is where you come in."

Her mind was already racing and she was beginning to put together a good idea of what

she was about to be asked. Tired of this meeting already, Elodie decided the direct route might

be the fastest. "You want me to work on making it female?"

"No, no, no no, that's impossible. This is not a simple change of interface, its mentality is

most definitely male. All of the behvaiors have been analyzed by the top psychologists from

Earth, Thebes, Hyperion...it's male. There's no changing it, not by simple interaction. It might

change by a manipulation of programming, but I'm not sure where yet." Pillail kept looking at his

pads as he worked steadily.

"We want you to be his Starjack."

She felt dizzy. Her hand instinctively grabbed for the edge of the table, her eyes

squeezing shut. Katherine put her hand on her shoulder, inquiringly quietly to see if she was


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okay.

"Why...why me?" There were a thousand questions swirling around her head, but that

was the first that came to mind. "I mean, why not a real Starjack? Or someone more trained to

deal with this, like a psychologist or an officer or...anyone?" What she wanted to say was

'anyone other than me,' but managed to refrain.

"Believe me, cadet. We tried all of those and more. But this SASAI is difficult. Very

unreceptive, very slow to trust."

"I had to give him quite a bit more willpower to compensate for the amount of data he

would be handling." PIllail added.

"Colonel Polaris will explain more." The Admiral motioned to the Colonel, who was still

scowling and only seemed to scowl deeper at being assigned his task. He cleared his throat.

"Starjack training is designed to deal with the female mind." Everything about his voice

grated on Elodie's nerves; gravely baritone that was the defining sound of every holomovie

military commander stereotype. Perhaps, though, her perception was colored by the content of

his voice. "Starjacks have to learn how they think, how they process information, how they

negotiate. Granted an SASAI female has some constants we can train, but half of their training

is devoted to female interaction. The other half is a multi-disciplinary study that would boggle

your mind. They are trained in every other field we have; Engineering, A&I, Combat, Command,

Medical, Science...it goes on. The reason being that since the SASAI is the ships computer the

Starjack might need to help it make decisions about any situation. They have to be prepared.

Unfortunately this preparation doesn't allow for the interaction with a male SASAI. They have no

idea what they're doing, and their training gets in their way. It won't respond to a male."

The Admiral leaned in slightly. "Furthermore, every other female we've deemed capable

and with the needed experience has been too old.""Too old?" Elodie managed. Her throat suddenly felt very dry, and she swallowed several

times.

"Ah yes, each SASAI assigns themselves a relativistic human age. Usually completed

SASAI begin at 18 or 19, which is the age of most Starjack graduates. They respond well to

similar ages because they are programmed too. However, this SASAI currently believes he's

15." Pillail explained.

"So that left us with a situation. He wouldn't respond to a male and he wouldn't respond

to an older female. Where do we draw our resources from? The Academy, of course. With

Headmaster Chen's permission and Colonel Polaris' expertise, we conducted an initial search of

the fourth year class females."

"The date assignment." Elodie leaned hard forward in her seat, her eyes blazing with

realization and vindication. Polaris nodded, surprised.

"Yes, the uh...'date assignment' as you call it. The Starjack cadets dated all of the female

cadets over a period of a few days and wrote reports on how they responded to their Starjack

training. Then, we took the interesting candidates and sent follow up dates after them."


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"I didn't go on any 'follow-up' dates. I hardly went on the first one, I was tricked into that."

"We know. This is why we picked you. One of the reasons, anyway. You are the top

student in your class, not just in your A&I classes but your inter-disciplinary studies as well. You

have a vested interest in AI mentality, you believe women are equal to men, and perhaps most

importantly, you disagree with the SASAI program to begin with. We need these qualities." The

Admiral pressed the table again and a new image appeared. The ship was displayed again, but

this time instead of a perfect representation of its completed form, a picture of it nestled within a

space dock appeared, surrounded in construction pylons. "Let me clarify this a little bit, cadet.

We don't intend on having you on as the ship's final Starjack, we're already training a cluster of

female cadets for that purpose as we speak. What we need you to do is to hold the role during

the frigate's shakedown cruise. It's a simple run, a few days to test systems in Confederate

space then back to the space dock. During that time you'll interact with the SASAI."

"And...what?"

"Determine if it'll work. This ship is far too important to the fleet to be stuck with a

stubborn SASAI. If the doctor can't figure out how to fix its gender, we'll need to use a female

Starjack. But if you don't think anyone can work with him, then we need to take a different

course of action. If you clear the project, then fine. We'll send a Starjack with you, of course, and

there'll be a full crew. There are other issues at play here, Cadet, but I have to tell you time is of

the essence. The Republic is...on the move."

"I...I..." her eyes shut again and her fingers moved to her temples. "I...need time."

"Cadet, we-"

"You're asking a lot of her!" Katherine finally snapped. The sudden outburst caused

Elodie to open her eyes. The Headmaster glowered disapprovingly, as did Polaris, both

appearing as they were about to speak."No. She's right." The Admiral folded his hands and lenaed forward on the table. "You

can have twenty-four hours. But I need to know by then. Is that enough?"

"Yes, Admiral."

"Good. Then I'll see you tomorrow. Until then, Headmaster can we have her excused

from all duties and classes?"

"Of course Admiral, whatever she needs she'll get."

"Excellent. Remember cadet, highest security. Dismissed."

Chapter 6: Homesick

"Dare! Two seven five, two seven-...come on man!"

Dare blinked. Oh, right. He glanced up at his scope watching as the two green lights that

had been right behind him blinked off. He didn't bother to crane his head over the back to watch

the explosions flowering behind him.


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"Now you're alone!" The voice cracked annoyed. Dare glanced at his scope again, then

shrugged.

"There's only two of them."

"Only? That's Cecily and Marina! They'll have you eating your own thrust exhaust before

you can blink again!"

"Well then I'll just get rid of my exhaust." His lips curled in a grin as his hands tightened

around the controls.

The blue-white glares from his engines vanished as he jerked back the throttle and

twisted the stick, sending his fighter into roll. He clicked a switch on the throttle and two small

cones of blue shot in front of him, firing his ship in reverse. The sudden dead-stop in space was

enough to throw both girls into slight curves, each of them sliding outward from their initial

pursuit paths and lurching around towards him. Not bad strategies; it wasn't a dual attack,

instead each of them was independently pursuing the two most obvious maneuvers Dare had.

Well, too bad he wasn't in the mood for being obvious.

He pushed the switch again.

The retro-thrusters were meant for sudden stops and not much else, but in a pinch they

could let him fly in reverse, albeit at remarkably poor speeds. His right hand slid across the hat

of his stick, windows blinking on and off his HUD rapidly. Two white circles began spinning

around each enemy fighter as they spun themselves into an intersecting course for Dare. He

pulled the trigger. Two missiles shot out from his wings, the slender warheads trailed by orange

streams of flame aiming directly at their intended targets. Optical recognition locks were

effective, but dangerous: instead of tracing transponder codes or heat signatures, they attacked

anything with the proper image that had been data-tagged. An ideal lock data-tagged an entire

fighter before launching the missiles, but with only a front-view he had to count on them notturning to the sides to ruin the lock. A real fighter would've had the entire shape banked in

memory, but a simulator could only do so much.

He hit a switch that began charging the proton cannon mounted directly under his

fuselage. As if reading his mind, both Cecily and Marina fired their proton cannons, not

bothering to adjust their course. The streams of orange energy struck their targets perfectly,

detonating the missiles in their path.

"Gotcha."

The heat seekers fired next, completely without a computer-guided lock, which their

fighters would warn them of. Instead, they began streaking immediately towards the explosions,

which vanished in the cold vacuum of space rapidly. With no explosions to follow, the missiles

then moved onto the next greatest heat sources; with Dare only using retro-thrusters, that left

Marina and Cecily's fighters.

Both needle-like craft spun and angled in different directions, each using remarkable

finesse to keep their ships just out of reach. Dare noticed that about women pilots; that they

coaxed their ships rather than ordered them, creating a far more graceful flight path. Both ships


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managed a quick after-burner boost to gain distance on their missiles, then each banked hard.

Right at each other.

Metal began to fly. The fighter-grade mass-drivers pelted spheres of titanium at

tremendous speeds perilously close to their friendly fighter. In an amazing display of flight-

prowess, each managed to crack a sphere into their wingmate's encroaching missile, detonating

them in perfect unison.

"Oh my God!" The voice of his flight controller yelped in surprise, watching as the girls

did the impossible. Dare was impressed, but only slightly so; he had expected it from them.

In fact, he had counted on it.

His own proton stream scarred space as the two fighters passed by one another. It

struck the closest fighter's wing and spun it hard in a roll, crashing into the other fighter. They

scrapped against one another horrifically, and one fighter's engine exploded, sending large

portions of her craft into space.

"No way!"

Dare just shook his head, firing up his engines again. His flight operator was a first-year,

and clearly hadn't seen the "Danger Twins" in action. Nor had they seen Dare in action.

The fighter with one engine was spinning off helplessly, most of her controls dark. Power

cell down? Wouldn't surprise him. It didn't matter, the more mobile fighter was the dangerous

one, he could clean up that girl later. He toggled his weapons over to his own mass-drivers and

angled himself into an intercept path. The metal ammunition began to fly at incredible speeds,

streaking dangerously close to the still wiley enemy. Still, without her control rudder and the right

maneuvering thruster out of calibration, she'd-

His simulator went dark.

"...crap."Only one monitor remained, displaying the proton stream that skewered his fuselage,

directly through the cockpit and into the little pilot that represented him. The source? The "dead"

fighter.

The lid of the simulator hissed open and Dare stretched his hands above his head in a

yawn. He was wearing his normal Starjack uniform, though the tie was gone, his sleeves were

rolled up and his jacket was actually draped over the railing that led into the simulator. He

stepped out of his pod casually, flung his jacket over his shoulder, and began sauntering towards

the other cluster of dour Starjacks.

"Come on, man! We're never going to live this down." Sydney "Sonic" Ramirez

complained with his debonair eyebrows and dark features folded into a childlike pout.

"Live what down?" Dare raised an eyebrow. "The fact that we got mopped up by the

'Danger Twins'? They're the best pilots in our class, you can't expect us to win, even seven on

two. Besides, I almost got them. If anyone has anything to live down it's the fact thatyou got

tanked by your own missile..."

Laughter erupted and Sonic folded his arms in disgust. Dare spared a glance over to the


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other simulator bay, where Marina and Cecily were jumping up and down together hand-in-hand,

almost as if they had been surprised that they won. They weren't, but it was that sort of sweet

naivete they had about winning that made their skill that much more frightening. A few more

comments were traded amongst the team, but most were t

Elodie Fleurmieux

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