Tears of Glass (The Jana Darren Saga Book 1) (3 page)

06. A Fresh Start

It was utterly overwhelming to drag her baggage out of the cargo bay. Three huge suitcases, a large duffel bag, and a stuffed-to-bursting garment bag swallowed her whole body, making it difficult to see where Jana was going. A man stood at bottom of the ramp of the docking bay, watching her. Jana glared at the onlooker and his raised eyebrows. He seemed amused at her struggle.

"Lieutenant Darren?"

"Yes?"

"First Lieutenant Jana Darren?"

"What do you think?" He blinked twice and said nothing. She sighed. "Yes, I am First Lieutenant Jana Darren."

"I'm Second Lieutenant David Poly." He offered a hand to shake hers, and Jana stared at it hanging there.
Seriously?
"Erm...here. Let me help you with that." He wasn't unattractive, but he had a shy awkwardness about him.

"Thank you." She smiled at him, more out of sheer politeness than anything else. The trip was over a week long, and she was past due on some sleep.

"I've been instructed to take you to your room, and to tell you that you have a meeting with the Director at 1800. I'll let you get settled, and then I could show you around if you'd like." Tired as she was, familiarizing herself with the station layout would certainly be beneficial. Jana sloughed off her baggage in one big shrug. Lieutenant Poly grunted under the weight of it all. After a few moments he recovered himself and breathlessly suggested they drop off her things before the tour.

"That would be wonderful, thank you very much." The thought of lugging all that crap around was unbearable. Her shoulder ached from the weight, and her hands had gone numb. Jana would have carried half if he hadn't looked so smug and amused earlier.
Who's laughing now?

Her room was bare except for basic furnishings. Through the porthole window laid the inky black of space. David left her to get settled in and told her he'd be back in an hour. She cringed when he called her ma'am, and insisted he call her Jana.

She dragged the heavy load of clothing to the closet and stared in dismay at the tall shelves perched high in the closet space above the hanger rack. Jana winced; they never designed things for short people anymore. She looked for something to stand on. The chair wouldn't be high enough, and the couch was far too big for her to move on her own. The desk was attached to the wall, and the refrigeration unit was built in as well.

Jana piled her suitcases instead, stacking them precariously atop one another. When her leaning tower of luggage was complete, she slung a duffel bag around her neck and hoisted herself up. The structure swayed, threatening to collapse. She quickly lashed out and grabbed onto the hanger rod for support, knuckles white. Jana's body tensed in anticipation for the hurt. It didn't come. She breathed a sigh of relief.

She began to stock the shelves with shirts and shorts, socks and underwear, all in neat rows. It was coming along quite nicely until one of the shirts stuck in the zipper as she tried to pull it out. She wrestled with it using her free hand, but it didn't budge.

Without thinking, she moved her left hand to grab the zipper. Wrong move. Jana let out a yelp as the unsteady tower of luggage collapsed under her from the shift in weight. It teetered for a split second before giving out, and Jana went flying backwards to the floor with a loud CRUNCH amidst a sea of clothing and luggage.

"Oww..." she groaned. It figured.
Jana Darren, chaos magnet
. Her lower back hurt like hell, so she lay sprawled there for a few minutes. The thick suitcase that broke her fall had a wound of its own. A large crack ran the full width of its side.
Great.

An hour later to the minute, Lieutenant Poly reappeared at the door. A low tone sounded inside the room, signaling his arrival. Jana saw David's face on the monitor and pushed the little blue button on the control panel in the room. The door opened.

"Come on in," she said, going back to her suitcase and putting the final changes on her new home.

"Thanks. Who's that? Boyfriend from back home?" He asked as she placed the new picture on the shelf above her desk. She looked at it briefly, shook her head and moved it to rest on the nightstand.

Curious how that's the first thing he noticed.
"Joey? Oh, no. He's more like my brother than anything else. He was my first real friend." David looked up at her, then dropped his gaze and shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

He motioned to the awards on the shelves. "Well you seem to be doing pretty well for yourself."

"Hmm? Oh, that's not even the half of it." Jana pointed to the open suitcase at the foot of her bed, still stuffed with awards. It was the luggage that had shared in the christening of her room. One of the trophy cups had squashed completely, but Jana wasn't particularly concerned about it.

"Now I see why that thing was so heavy." David rubbed his shoulder pointedly. "Lieutenant if you'll come with me, I'd be happy to show you around."

"Please, it's Jana. And that would be wonderful, thank you. Shall we?"

He led her from the room, the door whooshing shut behind them. Like most military stations, 311 had been built in a honeycomb shape with over a hundred levels. Each station had its own way of doing things, and that included delegating space. Above the large doorway down the corridor to the right the word
Enlisted
stood out in white lettering.  From her room they turned left, through a black hallway lined with doors identical to Jana's. This area was for the CHAOS officers.

"Each special team has their own floor. This is the CHAOS division, obviously. There are so many that eventually they gave up calling them by their proper names and the acronyms came into play. SCARECROW, GERMAN, WINTER..."

"Okay, you've lost me."

David laughed. "It takes a while, but you'll get used to it." There was a ramp downward, and they were on the next level of the station. He pointed to the directory posted on the wall at the bottom of the ramp. The display shimmered. He tapped the You Are Here marker and it zoomed in so she could actually read it. "This level we're on now? SOFT stands for the Special Operations and Fighting Tactics. They're sent out on highly classified missions, or tag along with another group but have special orders. Shady bunch, but not necessarily by choice. Either way, trust me, you don't want to mess with them."

"Gotcha."

He pointed to another level further down. "SPEAR is my division. Specialists Pertaining to Electronics and Radio. We deal with all the tech stuff from running the communications center to maintaining the mainframe for the station. There's a bunch of sub-divisions for each task, but you don't need to worry about that now."

Jana scanned the map and noted the levels at the very top designated for the station's military academy, the simulation level..."Okay, and what about this one?" There was a green highlighted level down towards the bottom of the station.

"That's a restricted area. That's the HADES division. Heavy Ammunitions and Demolition Experts of S311-M. Those are the major players, aside from the SCORPION team. Those are your doctors, field medics, and scientific researchers. In short, they deal with everything from chemical spills to virus outbreaks."

"I don't envy their jobs."

"That makes two of us, but I can't say I'd take yours, either. Are you hungry?" He nodded his head in the direction of the elevators. "We can talk more while we eat." David's next words went unheard. Something, or rather some
one
had stolen her attention. Six feet tall, black hair, wearing tactical pants and a t-shirt. Even though he wasn't in uniform, something about the way he carried himself made him unmistakably military. As he walked by, he looked over at them and his gaze met Jana's.

"Jana? Jana? Hey..."

"Oh, sorry. What?"

"Do you want me to walk you to your briefing with the director after this?"

"Yeah. Yeah, thanks."

David led her up the lift and through a few more circular hallways before they reached the mess hall. All of a sudden, the graveyard-like silence of the corridor morphed into a screaming jubilee of madness. She sat at one of the handful of empty tables while David got their food. The whole time, she couldn't get the stranger out of her mind. The encounter lasted only a few seconds, but she couldn't help but want to know about him.

He returned with a wide variety of things. Pasta, chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes, grilled cheese, and a salad. “I didn’t know what you liked, so I brought options.” He sat opposite of her and gestured to the dishes, each on a separate little plate for easy distribution. “So what did you do before you transferred?”

She didn’t look up from the large rectangular tray, but grabbed the salad and roasted chicken plates and set them in front of herself. “I worked in Humanities. I counseled academy cadets on what jobs would be best for them, and put in the paperwork to make it happen. No twenty year old wants to listen to a middle aged officer tell them what to do. Me, on the other hand...” She laughed.

“What do you mean?” He asked, loading up a forkful of mashed potatoes and shoving it into his mouth.

Jana swallowed a mouthful of salad and answered, “Well I was sixteen when I graduated. I didn't have anyone to really guide me through the process of figuring out where I’d fit in as far as military life, career. I was scared and overwhelmed. So, after graduation, I found an empty classroom where I sat in the corner and cried. This man comes into the room, a Major in his dress blues from the ceremony, and sits down on the floor next to me. He asked if I was alright, looked genuinely concerned.” She shrugged and half-smiled. “So he told me he’d take care of me until I wasn’t scared anymore. He offered me a position working with him in admin.”

David was listening intently, leaned in to hear her over the chatter and clanking around them. “He sounds like a really great man. If you don’t mind me asking, why did you leave your old station? Did something happen to him?”

She shook her head. “When I got up the courage to tell him I wanted to apply for the TAME position, he just smiled and said, ‘You’re not scared anymore’ and insisted that I do it. He knew it was time for me to move on and find something I was passionate about, and was my biggest advocate during the process.”

“That’s actually a really great story.” David seemed pleased by it, and finished his food slowly, pausing here and there to think. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be nosey.”

She waved a hand at him, “Don’t worry about it. I’ve been asked far worse. What about you? Is this your home station?”

“I wish. I’ve been at three different stations over the course of my career already. I’m hoping this will be the last stop, at least for a while. 311 is the end goal for a lot of divisions. I can’t tell you what I’m working on, unfortunately.”

Jana smiled, “I know better than to ask. I’m awful with tech, anyway. I’d hardly understand any of that even if you told me.” She chewed thoughtfully, and remembered something from earlier. “If the SOFT members are your special ops unit, why isn’t their floor restricted, too?”

“Part of it is. But SOFT members come and go so frequently. They don’t really keep a lot of personal effects, generally, and that floor has by far the best security surrounding their situation room and all that. It’s not all restricted because it doesn’t need to be. Anyone stupid enough to try to steal information from SOFT wouldn’t make it out the door. Not even I would mess with that system.”

“Fair enough.” She looked over at the universal clock. “We need to get going.”

David hurriedly cleaned up their table and left the empty plates at the drop-off on their way out the door to the director’s office.

Five minutes into the hearing, the director started repeating himself. Jana sighed inwardly and sat back in her chair.
Blah, blah, blah.
He wasn't telling her anything she didn't already know. It was just a bunch of garbage about how
happy
they were to have her there and what a great
responsibility
it was. The same crap Jana had been hearing for fifteen years.

Eight minutes in, she started to count the holes in the floor grating. At fifteen, it was the number of straight lines in his office. By the thirtieth minute, she was about ready to rip out her hair. Finally, it was over.

"You'll need to take all the classes for your certifications before you're able to choose your team. I suggest you do so quickly. Speak to someone in administration to schedule your exams. I read that you were Mech certified at your old station. I’d recommend looking back over Mech Mechanics, as we employ some models that other stations do not. Once you’re cleared on your certifications, admin will give you dossiers to look through and select your team members. Do you have any questions?”

“No, sir. I don’t believe so.”

“Then you’re dismissed, Miss Darren.”

She was relieved to see that David was no longer there. It wasn’t that she didn’t like him, but the constant chatter was too much at times. Joe was more the quiet yet friendly listener type. Jana didn’t go back to her room; she wasn’t confident she’d be able to find it on her own right away anyway.

Even in a station as big as this, there were mid-shift lulls. Jana passed a few small groups in the hallway, but not much else. She wandered around, enjoying the feel of the coated grating beneath her feet. The better part of her life was spent in military stations. After a few hours, this was already home to her. She was comfortable here. This was safe.

The admin floors were right below the academy section of the station. The office she needed was two floors down from the Director’s. It took a little while to get there. She’d never been on a station so
massive
before.

Her head snapped around at what she saw out of the corner of her eye. It was
him...

Unfortunately, as she turned she didn’t see the girl walking towards her. The double armful the girl was holding crashed to the floor. Jana turned scarlet and whirled around, apologizing for the accident.

“I’m so sorry! I wasn’t watching where I was going. Let me help you...” She knelt down and tried to right the sheaf of paper.

“It’s okay, really.” Said the girl, “It’s my fault, ma’am.”

“You don’t have to be nice to me just because I outrank you,” Jana fussed, casting a glance over her shoulder. He was almost around the bend, quickly fading from view.

When they’d gathered all the loose bits, Jana asked, “Do you know who that was that walked by a minute ago?”

“I don’t know him by name. Not many people do. He’s a SOFT member.” She paused, then whispered, “He should be dead.” It caught Jana off guard.

“What?”

“They said he’s been on twenty-six SOFT missions. Most don’t make it past their first.”

“Twenty-six?” Jana asked, impressed and a little on-edge.

“Three years, twenty-six missions, or something like that. It’s crazy, really. There’s been a few times when he’s been the only one that’s come back alive. Doesn’t talk much at all, keeps to himself mostly.” Curious, how the girl knew so much about his career and didn’t know his name. Maybe this mystery man had quite the female following.

“Hmm...”

“Thanks for the help.”

“No, it was my fault in the first place.”

The mysterious man was on her mind the whole way back to her quarters. The trip took three times what it should have; she kept missing turns and forgetting to get off the elevator at the right floor. Back at her room Jana swiped her card and the door opened. Sprawled on the black and gray bed, she realized she’d completely forgotten about the paperwork for her certifications.
Tomorrow.

Jana missed Joey—that was for sure.
In the morning, I’ll call him.

When she did try to sleep, Jana tossed and turned. Each time it felt like sleep might claim her, the face of the brooding man crept into her mind.