Athena Lee Chronicles 0: The Lost Pilot (3 page)

Chapter 3

Shortly before our fourth birthday's our world changed. As a whole, we only were aware of the political change because we were studying Government policy and structure at the time. The Cyber Wars and then the push for colonization had made many changes inside Earth's governments. Here in the United States the Government had grown less effective. It's worldwide reputation as a 'voice of reason' now heard only faintly. Overseas, the European Union was broken- it was shattered into a thousand small city-states by the Cyber Wars that had raged across the planet. Robotic drones still rampaged in a few areas as one city warred against another for precious resources. The African nations reveled in the bloody strife and, ethnic cleansing had taken the place of the rule of law. The middle-east was surprisingly calm. Many of the wealthy governments in that area had already left on colony ships built specifically for that purpose. The Nation of Israel in a surprising move built three massive ships, packed their people aboard and Left. Destination Mars Colony. Islamic adventurers had gathered on government sponsored ships and departed to bring Islam to the stars. Millions of people had already left the Earth voluntarily or been sent off to prison worlds by their governments. Why fight over land when there were entire worlds to be had elsewhere?

The United Nations had for over a century been a political entity past it's expiration date. It's ineffectiveness dated from the late 20th century when the blue hat wearing 'peacekeepers' became more joke than real. Too many rules and restrictions prevented troops from effecting change in the nations they helped. During the Cyber Wars the UN had helped nations secure the peace. Many misunderstandings had to have already occurred before they would step in to help. But with the world so very disorganized and still in conflict in so many areas, it was ripe for a takeover. The thought of a single world government had often scared many people in the past. Wars throughout history had been fought in this endeavor. All of that had been before the chaos of the Cyber Wars. Votes in the security council were taken, armies were marshaled. Military might and hidden powers were about to be revealed.

Almost overnight the United Nations organization went from an ineffective organization to an effective one. Money and troops poured in from everywhere. To some in the news media it seemed to be an organized effort by someone to take over the planet. Those reporters that announced this theory aloud all disappeared from public view. Within six months the UN controlled 80% of the world. The only holdouts were Russia and the United States.

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My brothers and I watched the political developments as part of a history lesson. We were now four years old. Our basic training was almost complete. Understanding the structure of government helped us to understand why the colonies needed more control like the countries of the Earth. A controlled system would help to manage resources, growth, industry, and progress. Over an over that lesson was pounded into us both by the academics that taught us and the trainers that beat us.

Arriving back at the dormitories that we called home, we found packets of information on our beds. Enclosed were detailed instructions of both our training and future assignments. I, like my brothers, grabbed my packet and flipped through it studying it intently. My new assignment was flight school and combat training. Future postings could be anything from front line military to a colony ship pilot. The posted schedule also stated that I was also leaving in the morning for flight school.

"Anthony, what assignment did you get?

"I got flight school. How about you?"

"The same. I think most of us are going to the same school. Unit's two and three are to recieve Military training and Unit four is being sent to Intelligence."

"Yes, brother Issac said that most of Units five and six were being sent somewhere else. He and brother William 07 are going with them."

I looked at my brother. Unlike me Anthony was a large naturally heavyset boy with dark hair. Our genetic studies would say he had Asian or Northern Russian ancestry. I like many of my brothers have a slight build and paler skin and hair. The textbooks say that we'd come from Northern Europe or the British Isles. None of that really mattered to us. My brothers were my brothers and I was sorry to see many of us leaving.

At that moment Sergeant Slight opened the door to the dormitory and began shouting.

"OK, you have your assignments now move! I want those beds stripped and the linens dumped in the hampers. All kits shoud be packed and ready for inspection no later that 1040 hours. Everyone and I mean everyone is to be in uniform and ready for personal inspection at that time! Do you understand me!"

"Sir, yes, Sir!" We all yelled at the same time.

"Excellent. Now get to work!" The sergeant turned and left the doorway. We, secretly, called him Sergeant Slaughter, after an animated vid we had seen in the library.

Getting the dorm ready was a team effort. It was already 1000 hours and forty minutes was not a lot of time to pack, get dressed, and police the area. We were ready at 1038 hours when the sergeant returned. With him were several civilians and a strangely uniformed military officer. What we remembered the most about them was the officers blue hat.

Sergeant Slight did not introduce the civilians. He and the officer inspected the Unit very carefully. They checked our uniforms, personal gear, and living spaces. It was almost as if they were looking for something that we could not see. The civilians never said a word to us. They watched us like we were rats in a maze, with the sergeant holding the cheese. Later in life, I would see some of those civilians again.

After inspection Sergeant Slight introduced the officer. "All right cadets! Listen up, this is Major Johann Ahlf he is the Commandant of the Flight school that many of you are traveling to. If your assignment is flight school, you are to shoulder your duffel and line up outside to await transport. Move It!"

As we ran from the room I mentally said goodbye to my brothers. It would be many years before I saw any of them ever again.

Chapter 4

Flight school! The best part was that is was in space on the UN's new space station, Hope. Major Ahlf traveled with us to the space port and then we left the surface of the Earth. The UN surprised the world by building Hope shortly after the Cyber Wars. It had been a massive undertaking that cost a fortune. Where that money had come from was still a mystery. Only one high profile newsie investigated those rumors and she died in an air car crash shortly after. No other reports have been filed after that.

Our shuttle was more of a flying box with wings than a real shuttle. As troop transports go it really sucked. We had one window to see out of and all 100 of us were trying to use it. They had just piled us in and sealed up the doors. No spacesuits for us. The Major said that we would get all of our equipment once we made it up to the station.

The station looked massive. It was bigger than many of the colony ships that Earth had produced. It resembled a large spinning toy top with it's three levels and a pointed ends. A surprisingly elegant design. Judging from the many windows and sheer size of it all, there must have been room for thousands of people on board. We could see several hundred suited workers still finishing up construction on the station. The final level looked to be almost finished. As we began to dock several of the US Air Forces' newest space plane the X-50 flew by. Maybe this wasn't just a UN space station?

The docking bay resembled what pictures of the hangar of an aircraft carrier looked like. It was a large warehouse-like room empty in the middle. On both sides of the bay were X-50 space planes. From the numbers it looked like there was a full squadron present. These fighters unlike the the Mark 1 Starfury had upgraded missiles, double War Shot cannons, triple the armor, and fly by drone capability. Their presence surprised me because our instructors back in the program had said that they were still only in the testing stages. With a grinding noise the large hanger doors closed and a whoosh of air signaled that the bay was being pressurized. A flashing green light gave the OK signal. Our cargo container was unsealed and we were let out.

Stumbling out of the cargo container we noticed that three other transports were unloading just as we were. All four groups of us began to line up in columns as if awaiting inspection. Overhead we heard a loudspeaker call "Attention!"

"This is your Commander Major Johann Ahlf, as you can see there are four groups of trainees. In the coming years you will be tested, as we train you to be either the best pilots this world has ever seen or its greatest military commanders. You are the best that this world has to offer. You have been specially designed to meet every trial we can throw at you. Believe that we will, too. In a moment you will be led to your housing areas. But first, take a moment to study the fighters before you. Soon you will be flying them." We all studied the gleaming white fighters. All were without US markings and carried an unusual symbol on the tail section. It was a golden pyramid with an eye in place of the point. The letters N.O.S. were shown underneath the symbol. It would be many years before I understood what that symbol meant to either to myself or to the galaxy at large.

A trio of sergeants marched up to our groups. "Attention! Each group will be split into quarters and will room in mixed dormitories. This is to help integrate the groups. Never fear, each group will be receiving the same training. Now count off one to four."

All four of our groups began to call out numbers. I was a four. My brother Anthony was a two. We were separated in to four new groups and led off into the bowels of the station. Each group had it's own section on deck one of the space wheels. The station had three movable wheels that spun in sync with Earth. These wheels provided internal gravity to the station. Our dorm was on wheel three, deck five, subsection four. The other groups were on the same deck, but different subsections. Upon arriving at our section Sergeant Smith told us to pick a room and a bunk. There were fifty rooms. My new bunkmate said that his name was Miguel 009. According to him he was from "The Program' base in Argentina. That meant the the other two groups had to be from somewhere else too. This was going to be fun!

"Attention! Get unpacked, get your new rooms shipshape, then report to the cafeteria for shipboard lessons!" Sergeant Smith pointed to a door at the rear of the hallway. "Go through that door and turn left. Your cafeteria is at the end. You have fifteen minutes to report." He then left the room.

Miguel and I smiled and got to work unpacking. He and I had the exact same items to put away. His Program and mine had to be the same one. Rushing a bit, we both finished early and left the room to go meet our new family. We soon learned that the other two groups were from Norway and Great Britain. All had similar training to ours. As a group we filed out of the room. Following the sergeant's instructions we found the cafeteria and sat in the chairs we found there. Computer terminals built into the tables lit up and our lessons began. This was now our new classroom with our new classmates.

Chapter 5

Flying the Starfury Mark 1 has got to be the best ride in the galaxy! The single seat fighter was easily the most recognizable fighter in the galaxy. Each of us were assigned one as part of our training package. The UN trainers had set up an obstacle course of sorts in the space surrounding the station. The objective was to do as many laps as possible in the time allotted. The sneaky part was that, starting on the second lap there were simulated pirates and meteors to deal with. On the fifth lap, the ships systems were programmed to produce random failures. The goal was to teach us to expect the unexpected and how to quickly and correctly react to it. Upon completing the course, each fighter was stripped down and checked for damage and wear. The ships were then rebuilt and reprogrammed. All of this was done by us, the cadets. This lesson was all about self-sufficiency. Everything that we did contained a lesson. Some good some bad. Some of these lessons had casualties.

My brother Anthony was one of those that had suffered. Now that 'The Program' was in its fifth year, genetically programmed growth spurts had kicked in. We went from being the size of normal-five-year-olds to that of 18-year-olds in a matter of months. The Doctors that were part of the system informed us that we would have one more growth spurt at age eight, which would 'set' our basic shape permanently. To me this made a whole lot of sense. Space suits pretty much came in one or two basic sizes. How would we find new suits if we grew older normally? It dawned on us that the Program administrators had been waiting on us to finish our training. We all needed to be bigger to fly the ships.

The first thing we had to learn was how to properly wear a space suit. Each piece of the suit served a specific purpose. Leave one off, even by accident, and there could be a tragedy. Poor Anthony was one such loss. Underneath the suit, each person was supposed to wear three specific layers of jumpsuit. A basic gauze-like body suit that allowed the body to breathe and keep us cool. The second layer was similar to a sensor suit that a VR participant might wear; it read your bodies responses to heat, cold, and other external stimuli. The third layer was a cross between nomex and neoprene. This layer protected from fire and cold. The layers needed to be worn in that specific order. Over them was the newest state-of-the-art space suit. These were made from a new lightweight metallic compound that had been discovered in the asteroid belt. Not found on Earth, Rigveda was easily mined and the UN used it to build practically everything. Putting on these suits in regular gravity they were no heavier than that of a old fashioned rubber diving suit. As one complete unit the suit kept you at an even temperature at all times. One of the things that had been stressed to all of us was to follow procedure when putting on all the layers. Anthony taught us all to remember that lesson.