Another recruit collapsed under the tazer’s sting.
Crippin climbed onto a small two-seat buggy and started the quiet motor. “Run, hayseeds,” she shouted and then sped off.
Ten kilometers was no distance for Jack and he set off at a jog. Others sprinted past, all glancing back over their shoulders, looking out for Sergeant Hacker and his busy little tazer. Gravity on the training moon was high for its size. The moon had formed around a neutron star fragment, creating a gravity field on the small moon just above one-G. The atmosphere was thin but breathable.
After what felt like an eight-kilometer run, Jack saw the training complex at the base of a small hill in the distance. The buildings looked to be around four kilometers away. The extra gravity and the thin air was making the run more difficult than Jack was used to. He glanced back and saw he was leading the field. The recruits were strung out over a distance of about a kilometer. Jack slowed to a jog. The runner coming up next was the recruit who’d taken Jack’s ration bar, Sam Torent. Behind Torent came a small bunch, jogging and puffing, red cheeks and sweating brows.
Torent fixed Jack with a stare as he pushed on. Jack could see Torent was struggling to keep the pace but he was ahead of all the others and closing in on Jack. The look was icy and hard with threat and menace. Jack guessed Torent was angry that a university reject was leading him in the race.
Jack focused on the buildings of the training complex. It was still a long distance, but Jack knew he had the energy left to make it comfortably, even given the slightly heavier gravity. It was too far out to sprint, but Jack knew how hard he could push himself. He ran hard.
Jack felt his lungs burn and his legs wobble as he ran the last few meters up the hill to a parade ground in front of the set of buildings. Lieutenant Crippin was waiting, sitting on her buggy. Jack smiled at Crippin and raised a hand in the air to claim victory in the race. He slowed to a walk and approached Crippin.
“Pleased with yourself?” Crippin asked.
“That was a bit slow for me,” Jack replied, smiling.
“Sir!” Crippin shouted.
Jack came to attention. “Sir, sorry, sir.”
“And will you always run and leave your squad behind, hayseed?”
“Sir?” Jack asked, confused.
“You have left a dozen of your squad-mates back there all getting tazered by Sergeant Hacker just so you could get here sooner. What did you expect to find here?” Crippin climbed off buggy and approached Jack. “A warm and friendly welcome? A nice soft bunk? A glass of lemonade?” Crippin jabbed Jack in the shoulder. “Run, hayseed. Go help the squad. And if you leave your team behind again, I’ll tazer you myself. Run.”
Jack turned and started jogging down the slope. Away in the distance, he could see the most distant recruits all panting for breath and keeping one step ahead of Hacker and his tazer. Jack paced himself carefully. This was turning into a longer run than he had first thought.
Up the hill came Torent. He’d fallen in with the small group that had been snapping at his heels. Torent grinned at Jack as they passed each other on the slope. Jack heard Lieutenant Crippin shout as Torent as his group came close.
“Fall in, hayseeds. Two neat ranks. Hands by your sides. Eyes front. Do you get me, hayseeds?”
And as Jack dug deep for his extra reserves, he heard the small group of recruits shout their reply.
“Sir, yes, sir.”
Chapter 4
Jack stood in the second row of recruits. Crippin stood to one side, calling out instructions to the recruits, instructing them on how to stand at attention in their ranks. Sergeant Hacker went along the lines, his tazer fizzing and ready for action. Jack wanted to sneak a look at his watch to check the time, but recruits that had been spotted making the most minor unauthorized movements had been punished for it. He guessed he had been standing here for over an hour. The sun seemed to hang on the horizon permanently, bathing the small parade ground in a weak twilight.
Standing still for a prolonged period was harder than Jack thought it could ever be. He felt his legs turning slowly to jelly. He had already run ten kilometers and then doubled back to help the struggling recruits. It was all taking its toll and Jack felt sure his legs would give way under him. The last recruit to have collapsed had been treated to multiple stings from Hackers tazer. Jack would avoid the tazer if he could. He tried to focus on a distant point and recall a happier time.
Jack thought of home. It had been a happy childhood and he had enjoyed the long, warm days in the fields of his island home on the planet Eros. But soon, thoughts of home reminded him of loss. He remembered his father leaving to join the military when the Chitins first made their presence in the outer system known. His father had been lost in the first conflict with the Chitins during the attempted blockade of the Chitin’s gas giant planet, Zelos.
His mother had become a shadow after that. She neglected herself and the boys. And then one day, she was gone. The social workers who had come to take Jack and his brother away couldn’t tell them what had happened to her. Jack had asked if she was looking for his father. The sad smile from the social worker that answered Jack’s question blew away all hope. That was the moment that twelve-year-old Jack grew up.
His childhood had crumbled and ended in a few cruel months. Jack’s brother became angry and then distant as he buried himself in virtual reality. He played the hero of the military and spent days on end fighting the Chitins in the various government provided training simulations barely disguised as games.
Jack buried himself in school. It was an escape. It was a challenge. It was fun. Jack enjoyed numbers and the certainty they seemed to offer. He spent years in quiet calculation. At times, he wondered if he was avoiding calculating all he had lost.
The sun dipped a fraction and the parade ground was plunged quickly and cruelly into a deep cold. The cold air burned Jack’s lungs. His legs felt the cold bite and his sweat-soaked shirt began to stiffen with ice crystals. The door to the bunkhouse slid open and spilled a bright welcoming light out over the parade ground.
“All right, hayseeds. Shower time.”
Lieutenant Crippin walked in through the open door. Sergeant Hacker stood at the open door and waved the recruits in. They marched in single file through the open door. Jack was one of the last recruits in. The door slid shut and closed the recruits into a long, bare corridor. Lieutenant Crippin walked along the line with Sergeant Hacker marching behind.
At the end of the corridor, Jack saw a small doorway. Crippin shouted along the line. “Strip, you hayseeds. We will wash away your civilian life and dress you in your military skin. You will leave the last of your old life behind in this corridor and step bravely toward your new life as a Fleet Marine recruit. You get me, hayseeds?”
The recruits stripped reluctantly. A brief threat from Hacker’s tazer hurried those who showed reluctance. Jack picked his watch out of his pocket. Maybe they would let him keep it if he told Crippin it was all he had left of his family. Somehow, he guessed he was being inducted into a new family and Crippin would take the small silver watch from him.
He watched as the recruits stripped. Some were more willing than others to undress in front of a group of strangers, but none of them were quick enough for Crippin and Hacker. Resistance was clearly unacceptable and Jack saw a recruit tazered, pushed to the ground, and stripped by Sergeant Hacker.
Jack held the watch in his hand. It was hidden in his palm but only just. He pressed it into his armpit. It was better hidden, but it made it very difficult to move freely and he certainly couldn’t get undressed while holding it there. The line ahead of Jack was shrinking by the second. The recruits were becoming more comfortable with stripping as the pile of discarded clothes grew. Jack pushed the watch into his mouth. It fit, barely. It tasted of dirty silver, a tang of salt and acid. It was the best place to hide it. He hoped he would not have to answer Crippin before he had a chance to hide it somewhere else.