The Alliance Ch. 01

The teen sat on his bed finally winding down from a fun packed day of nothingness. A teens dream. The eighteen year old slowly plugged in his laptop as if he were sore although it was just exhaustion from the twenty hour days he had been pulling all spring break. He sat back up and thought for a moment as he stared out the window seeing nothing in turn from its blackness. The drizzle outside was a static rhythm and was pleasing to his ears. The teen had a deep psychological love for the rain and thunder.

He ran his hand through his slightly greasy hair, continuing to stare out the window in deep thought. His thoughts were on a girl as most boys his age often thought of but not in the same crude manner as his brethren. This boy was different, or maybe it was the girl who was different. He couldn't tell. He glanced at the clock catching only the hour and not the minutes. 2 am. He smiled at the peace that existed at night.

As those very thoughts ran through his head his ears perked at a noise from out of the window. A high pitch whine, part dog, part jungle monkey chirped in a rhythm as if a pack of exotic animals traveled his street. He knew this couldn't be real and shook his head. The sound grew louder as its source approached. The boy sat high in his bed; he could feel his heart speed and his vision heighten. They're coming this way. What if they try to eat him? Is the window strong enough to hold them off?

The sound of the door opening shook the man awake, shooting sweat across the small room, if you could call it a room. In the door or hatch as it was called stood a man in a simple maroon uniform with a gold aiguillette. "Get up, they need you at your post." The man saluted and walked away closing the hatch behind him. The sweaty man rose from his bunk in the cramped quarters wearing only his skivvies or underwear sweat poured from his slightly out of shape body. He had brown eyes and blonde curly hair cut short to meet naval regulations, which was very unflattering on his pale skin.

The room he stood in was only big enough across to have two bunks placed, but only just barely. The overhead lights gave off a red hue giving the air itself a red quality as the dust floats in front of his face. A simple switch flip fixed this however and the room lit up to reveal a mirror and very small sink and toilet both fitting to the dingy gray of the room. His quarters was one of three this size and were the second most spacious on board, the captains being able to fit a toilet, sink and a desk. It wasn't that the ship was small, but every inch of space was needed for living quarters, work area or the slew of onboard systems necessary to keep it afloat.

After a rough shave the man threw on his dirty uniform from the day before as it was his cleanest pair. He wore the same uniform as the messenger from earlier with two exceptions. He had a green stripe down the seam of his collar and cuffs and wore a orange aiguillette. His name tag read Handon and he was one many Americans in the fleet.

Handon stepped into the cramped passageway, which was only big enough for two people to walk alongside. It was crowded at all times as here the timezones had no meaning and the ship needed 24 hour operators. According to the unwritten rule of the fleet he switched to the left side away from his bunk to walk to the ladder that was up ahead. After a ten minute climb and subsequent walk Handon arrived in Central Engineering and got straight to work with his first officer, who was also marked by the green seam but lacked the aiguillette.

The first officer, with the name of Santos, was an unimpressive looking man with dark skin and darker eyes and a completely hairless lip and chin. The tattoo on his hand while technically put of regulation is a common place on sailors from the new nations. It was a simple butterfly with no color and somehow looked menacing. This man was from what used to be mexico if memory served.

"Why did you call me down here, you could have handled this on your own." Handon asked, with genuine curiosity. He may not be friends with Lt. Santos but Handon would stake his life on Santos engineering prowess.

"Sue's orders" Handon stiffened at that. Sue was the colloquial name for the skipper due to the slavic crew men's sight of the letters CO. He immediately walked to a small pad on the wall and pressed the red button.

"Bridge this is the See, where's the captain?"

"Commander this is the comm officer of the watch. skipper is in his ready room."

"See out, bridge."

Handon smiled at Santos to hide the confusion then left him in charge of the engineering section and a list of chores to give to the enlisted-men. It took Handon a full forty five minutes to reach the command section. The smell of alliance ships was always musty. Maybe he would talk to someone about acquiring some terraforming filters to fix that. That was unlikely however with the impending war. Soon the seven fleets and their more than five hundred ships will be enroute to the colonies to retake alliance control.

Handon finally reached the ready room, just outside of the command section, and pressed the ringer. When the ring chimed back Handon went in. Inside sat an aging man with a thick gray mustache and bald head. His uniform was the maroon of the alliance and had the green of the officer corps but on his collar was golden ornation mean standing for his seat on command group as a ship's CO.

"Yes, Commander? Is there something you need?"

"Yes i do, sir. You had a list of maintenance for me to complete. Most of these were scheduled to be done in dry dock next week. Is there something i need to know?"

"We leave in five days."

"Captain?"

"Terra one has fallen. Several Terra two cities are under siege. It has begun. We are to rendezvous with the 7, 5, 4 fleets at Terra Prime."

"Yes, Captain!" What a shame. Terra Prime is rumored to be quite the vacation spot. What a waste of a trip to Mars.