"Heading to our new monastery orbiting Jupiter," one of them said excitedly when he saw Justin looking at him. "Can't let the Franciscans and Trappists do all the work out here."
At the end of the open corridor, which stretched for several hundred yards and was lined with duty free shops, they reached a shuttle tunnel that would take them to the B docking area. It seemed like a flood of white uniforms was converging on the spot, and Justin looked around in surprise. During the summer session the only cadets aboard the ship were the scrub class, their cadet instructors, and a few hundred others who were engaged in special projects. Everyone else had been out at hundreds of different research and work sites all the way from Mercury to Jupiter. He felt decidedly uncomfortable at the sight of all the additional stripes on cadet uniforms, and he looked down self-consciously at his own empty sleeve.
There were no seats aboard the open shuttle tram so he just floated into the long compartment, grabbed hold of a strap, and locked his feet under the safety straps set in the floor. Brian was already lost to view although Justin could hear his voice laughing and describing what a miserable bunch of scrubs he had been forced to work with for the summer. Justin and Matt looked at each other a bit nervously, especially when they noticed the disdainful glances of the upperclassmenas if the presence of two mere third-class plebes were not even worthy of comment.
The tram started up and drifted into one of the tunnels leading to the outer rim of the station. As the car emerged from the tunnel, Justin was overwhelmed at the sea of white uniforms floating in the B docking area.
Leaving the tramcar, they looked around in confusion.
"Justin, Matt!"
"Hey, it's Madison Smith," Matt cried, and he pushed off to float over to their old classmate. Her dark features were crinkled up into a bright cheery grin and, using her sticky bottom gravity shoes, she clumsily walked over to them to give her two friends a hug. Justin looked around and saw his other friends coming over; in the back of the group he noticed Tanya talking with Sue. She broke away from her friend at the sight of Justin, came up a bit shyly, and extended her hand.
"Good to see you, Justin," she said quietly.
He had been nervously wondering about this moment ever since he left Earth. There had been that hug and kiss on the day that he rescued her and a second kiss just before leaving for Earth. He noticed that Sue was already up to Matt, giving him a hug. Hugs were acceptable according to Academy regulations but anything beyond that was definitely frowned upon, in public and in private. The rules were tough on that point, but everyone knew that when a bit of romance took hold it was kind of hard to clamp down on it completely. But lie wasn't sure if he really wanted a romance with Tanya or not. They had, after all, been bitter enemies right up until the moment he pulled her back from the edge of the cliff on the Moon. Now he wasn't sure, and he instantly picked up that she was nervous as well.
She pulled back a bit.
"Ready to head back?" he finally asked.
"Sure. I think it's going to be an interesting year."
"All right, plebes. First Battalion Company A, fall in, let's get a hustle on! Transport Twenty-Three leaves in seven minutes and I'll be damned if one of my pukes gets left behind."
Justin looked over his shoulder to see Brian approaching, and there was a low moan from Madison and several others gathered around Justin and Matt.
"Come on, move it! I'm sick at the sight of you pukes! And speaking of pukes" Seay came up to Justin and fixed him with a steely gaze.
Justin came to attention, amazed at Seay's sudden transformation from friendly comrade to company commander.
" It's gonna be a long year with you bums and with any kind of luck we'll get rid of most of you, one way or the other."
He could see that Brian was again all business. It was going to be an interesting year.
Chapter II
"Ships company, attenshun!"
Justin sneaked a quick look at the assembled crowd. The last time he had attended a meeting of cadets in the great assembly hall of Star Voyager Academy it was both to receive his award for life saving and to hear Thor Thorsson, commander of the Academy, discuss the declaration of non-compliance by the Mars Assembly.
The room seemed as if it had been empty then in comparison to the thousands who now stood in orderly ranks, arranged by class and company. The senior cadet commandant stood at the podium, her steely gaze sweeping the room for the slightest irregularity or disturbance.
There was a stir up towards the podium and
Justin fixed his gaze forward, snapping off a salute as the bosuns pipe echoed in the vast room. Thor Thorsson ascended to the podium, saluted the colors of the United Space Military Command, and then, facing his audience he returned their salute.
"Ship's company at ease! Be seated!"
Thorsson stood silent for a long moment, scanning his audience, and Justin felt that calm penetrating gaze sweep over him for a brief second. He sat a little more rigidly, as if he were alone in the room and Thorsson had singled him out for attention.
"I trust that all of you had a stimulating and exciting summer," Thorsson began in his deep rumbling voice, tinged with the faintest touch of a Norwegian accent. A stir greeted his words, a few of the cadets shaking their heads and chuckling.
"On behalf of the USMC, the faculty, and the staff of this ship, Star Voyager Academy, I extend greetings to all of you. Now, you've heard this before but you're going to hear it again call it my yearly ritual speech."
He paused for a moment, his features set in a serious expression.
"You are the best of the best. Gathered here today are seven thousand young men and women from Earth, the Moon, the orbital colonies, and outward to the farthest reaches of the solar system" he paused again for a brief instant, "and yes, even from Mars."
No one spoke at his mention of the breakaway colony.
Justin quickly scanned the room. Only two weeks ago word of Mars' Declaration of Secession from the UN and Colonies Space Commission had come, and over a dozen cadets from his scrub summer class had withdrawn to return home. The holo news had dwelt on little else while he was at home on Earth, and speculation was high that the crisis could very well spread and perhaps even erupt into a civil war.
"All of you have a tough year ahead. You upper-classmen have heard me say that every year, and you've thought nothing could be tougher than what you just went through; and you've learned that I was right. Those of you who recently survived scrub summer know that you started out with over two thousand classmates back in June, you're returning now in September with a class of thirteen hundred twenty-two. This year's senior class started out just like you and this morning we have two hundred and three sitting in the front rows, with another sixty-seven still out on assignments. I expect that around two hundred and fifty will finally graduate. You can figure out the math on your own.
"Remember the most basic rule'In space there are no second chances.' You first-year plebes, if you screw it up at this stage of the game, at worst you'll wind up just killing yourself, but by the time you reach your senior year you'll be taking on the full responsibilities of an officer with the USMC and a mistake could cost the lives of hundreds, perhaps thousands."
He again stood silent. Justin knew what was coming.
"Yesterday's incident with the Daedalus illustrates that well enough."
A low murmur swept the room. Six senior cadets and one hundred eighty colonists were killed when a section of an orbital unit suffered a massive decompression. Indications were that one of the six might have been responsible, from a failure to thoroughly check an internal airlock system just moments before a meteor impact punched through three decks. Once the bodies were recovered the six would receive full military honors, but if the fault was ever pinned on any one individual the name would be made public and the mistake openly reviewed. No one ever wanted to be another Cadet Hansen, who was single-handedly responsible for the accidental destruction of the Oak Forest colony and the nearly three thousand residents on board. His name was now synonymous with being a major screw up; "to pull a Hansen" was one of the worst insults an instructor could hand a cadet.