Marooned on Giri Minor
The colors outside the massive viewports on each side of the passenger cabin are fascinating, but you are puzzled why no one else seems as interested in them as you. The ship is traveling through hyperspace, the alternate dimension where the laws of nature permit people to travel much faster than the speed of light. Instead of stars streaking by, your ship seems to be flying through a tunnel of multi-colored clouds. Perhaps no one else is as enthralled as you are because they are all veterans to space travel--to them, this all humdrum stuff.
You are a young technician in the Astral Navy, serving aboard a transport vessel en route to Star Base Ishtria, the headquarters of the Fifth Fleet. You were born and raised on the planet Usul, located a long distance from here; and like many of your people you have an oto leaf emblem pinned on the collar of your duty uniform. On this ship you hold the rank of Starman, which sounds impressive but really means you're a young recruit on your first deep-space assignment, and the youngest member of a 4-person crew.
Your primary job here is to serve as steward to the sixteen passengers on this voyage. Right now those passengers are relaxing throughout the cabin--sitting, napping, holding quiet conversations with their neighbors.
Just about everybody here is traveling to a new job. There is a team of engineers on their way to Star Base Ishtria, for instance, to study irrigation practices on the Khubu homeworld, and a tactical officer off to a new posting in the Delphid Sector. There by the aft bulkhead is Dr. Lori Munro, a noted xenoanthropologist. She and her husband Ander Dyo are heading to a research mission on the planet Folvan.
Even your youngest passengers, little Easa and Yigaro Belson, are returning from an adventure on Cassandria IV, where they have been visiting their aunt and uncle at a paleontological dig on the Southern Continent. They have been telling you all about the fur whale fossils they helped unearth.
Everybody, it seems, has come from an interesting place and has someplace important to go--everybody, that is, but you.
Your dream is to land a posting on one of the big Starships, like the Orion or the Southern Cross. That's the only way you really get to see all the exotic worlds and the far star clusters! But those assignments are all highly competitive, and to land one you first need lots of experience.
But how can you gain that experience when they put you on a transport ship that only goes to the same few places over and over again? This ship doesn't even have a name, just a designation: EWR210819. Your biggest responsibility on this voyage is watching after Easa and her older brother Yigaro--who prefers to be called Yiggy. Their father is a commander at Ishtria, and they'll be home the day after tomorrow, when your ship pulls into the spaceport.
You've spent much of the last day playing space games with them, many involving a model of the transport vessel you're on: a long needle-like hull with a ring surrounding the aft, anchored to the hull by four pylons. At the end of each pylon is one of the hyperspace field generators that permit your faster-than-light travel.
But right now you don't even have Easa and Yiggy to worry about, because they've been busy coloring with another one of the passengers, Dionysya Andrade, a newly promoted lieutenant commander on her way to serve as the communications officer aboard the Orion. Commander Andrade probably suspected you needed the break, or maybe the Belson kids reminded her of her own son when he was that age. But it's not like you had any other pressing duties to perform; sometimes you think this little ship would run just fine without you.
Back home on Usul your family grows gava rice on a small farm on the Elliott River Delta. Your parents and your older brother seemed content with that lifestyle and were remarkably uncurious about the world around them, let alone the galaxy. Not you, though; you craved challenges and adventure, so as soon as you were old enough you enlisted in the Astral Navy.
But look where it has gotten you. Even here no one seems to find you suitable for more than the most basic tasks.
Then, unexpectedly, you feel the ship slowing. Outside the viewports the tunnel of clouds fades away, revealing an ordinary star field in a black sky. There is an unfamiliar brown planet very close by, and indeed you can tell that the ship is heading into orbit around it.
This is odd, because there were no scheduled stops until the star base. That's when you hear your name on the ship's comm. It's Captain Siggo, the commander of this vessel.
"How's the situation with the Belson kids?" he asks.
"Fine," you reply. "Right now they're coloring with Commander Andrade."
"Perfect. Can you come up to the bridge for a moment?"
You really like Siggo, although you have a hard time figuring him out. You know he has years of experience in the service, and once even served as a bridge officer aboard the Starship Draco. But that just baffles you all the more, because why would such a person choose an assignment on a routine transport run such as this? He'll never give you a straight answer to that question, and he has a habit of changing a conversation by singing a few lyrics from one of his favorite songs.
The bridge of the transport ship is nothing like on a Starship. It's small and cramped, with stations for just two people. Normally it would be just Siggo and Lieutenant Hatuso manning the controls, although when you arrive right now the captain is by himself.
"Ah, Starman," he says, calling you by your rank. "So here's the situation. Our link with Ishtria went dead a moment ago, so we think there is a malfunction with the communications array on the dorsal pylon. Lieutenant Hatuso and Chief Indrian are suiting up for a spacewalk to see what's going on, because I don't like flying in the blind. I parked us here in the glow of this little dusty world called Giri Minor because we were in the neighborhood and I thought the light would help them with their work."
"I see," you say.
He continues. "I know you want more experience so you can get transferred off this boring transport run as quickly as possible. So do you want to suit up with Hatuso and Indrian, or man the helm here with me?"
You are a young technician in the Astral Navy, serving aboard a transport vessel en route to Star Base Ishtria, the headquarters of the Fifth Fleet. You were born and raised on the planet Usul, located a long distance from here; and like many of your people you have an oto leaf emblem pinned on the collar of your duty uniform. On this ship you hold the rank of Starman, which sounds impressive but really means you're a young recruit on your first deep-space assignment, and the youngest member of a 4-person crew.
Your primary job here is to serve as steward to the sixteen passengers on this voyage. Right now those passengers are relaxing throughout the cabin--sitting, napping, holding quiet conversations with their neighbors.
Just about everybody here is traveling to a new job. There is a team of engineers on their way to Star Base Ishtria, for instance, to study irrigation practices on the Khubu homeworld, and a tactical officer off to a new posting in the Delphid Sector. There by the aft bulkhead is Dr. Lori Munro, a noted xenoanthropologist. She and her husband Ander Dyo are heading to a research mission on the planet Folvan.
Even your youngest passengers, little Easa and Yigaro Belson, are returning from an adventure on Cassandria IV, where they have been visiting their aunt and uncle at a paleontological dig on the Southern Continent. They have been telling you all about the fur whale fossils they helped unearth.
Everybody, it seems, has come from an interesting place and has someplace important to go--everybody, that is, but you.
Your dream is to land a posting on one of the big Starships, like the Orion or the Southern Cross. That's the only way you really get to see all the exotic worlds and the far star clusters! But those assignments are all highly competitive, and to land one you first need lots of experience.
But how can you gain that experience when they put you on a transport ship that only goes to the same few places over and over again? This ship doesn't even have a name, just a designation: EWR210819. Your biggest responsibility on this voyage is watching after Easa and her older brother Yigaro--who prefers to be called Yiggy. Their father is a commander at Ishtria, and they'll be home the day after tomorrow, when your ship pulls into the spaceport.
You've spent much of the last day playing space games with them, many involving a model of the transport vessel you're on: a long needle-like hull with a ring surrounding the aft, anchored to the hull by four pylons. At the end of each pylon is one of the hyperspace field generators that permit your faster-than-light travel.
But right now you don't even have Easa and Yiggy to worry about, because they've been busy coloring with another one of the passengers, Dionysya Andrade, a newly promoted lieutenant commander on her way to serve as the communications officer aboard the Orion. Commander Andrade probably suspected you needed the break, or maybe the Belson kids reminded her of her own son when he was that age. But it's not like you had any other pressing duties to perform; sometimes you think this little ship would run just fine without you.
Back home on Usul your family grows gava rice on a small farm on the Elliott River Delta. Your parents and your older brother seemed content with that lifestyle and were remarkably uncurious about the world around them, let alone the galaxy. Not you, though; you craved challenges and adventure, so as soon as you were old enough you enlisted in the Astral Navy.
But look where it has gotten you. Even here no one seems to find you suitable for more than the most basic tasks.
Then, unexpectedly, you feel the ship slowing. Outside the viewports the tunnel of clouds fades away, revealing an ordinary star field in a black sky. There is an unfamiliar brown planet very close by, and indeed you can tell that the ship is heading into orbit around it.
This is odd, because there were no scheduled stops until the star base. That's when you hear your name on the ship's comm. It's Captain Siggo, the commander of this vessel.
"How's the situation with the Belson kids?" he asks.
"Fine," you reply. "Right now they're coloring with Commander Andrade."
"Perfect. Can you come up to the bridge for a moment?"
You really like Siggo, although you have a hard time figuring him out. You know he has years of experience in the service, and once even served as a bridge officer aboard the Starship Draco. But that just baffles you all the more, because why would such a person choose an assignment on a routine transport run such as this? He'll never give you a straight answer to that question, and he has a habit of changing a conversation by singing a few lyrics from one of his favorite songs.
The bridge of the transport ship is nothing like on a Starship. It's small and cramped, with stations for just two people. Normally it would be just Siggo and Lieutenant Hatuso manning the controls, although when you arrive right now the captain is by himself.
"Ah, Starman," he says, calling you by your rank. "So here's the situation. Our link with Ishtria went dead a moment ago, so we think there is a malfunction with the communications array on the dorsal pylon. Lieutenant Hatuso and Chief Indrian are suiting up for a spacewalk to see what's going on, because I don't like flying in the blind. I parked us here in the glow of this little dusty world called Giri Minor because we were in the neighborhood and I thought the light would help them with their work."
"I see," you say.
He continues. "I know you want more experience so you can get transferred off this boring transport run as quickly as possible. So do you want to suit up with Hatuso and Indrian, or man the helm here with me?"