I never imagined that I would be a privateer.
A privateer dedicated to hunting the Invid.
Where do I start? I got a full scholarship to attend the Tirol Aerospace Academy, mostly due to being a smart, talented girl. I was an aerospace engineering major and completed the United Nations Merchant Aerospace Licensing Program, which meant that I was licensed as a Third Assistant Engineer.
Of course, before graduation there were recruiters from the aerospace industry, as well as the United Earth Forces, trying to hire fresh talent. One of these companies was Trans-Galactic Shipping, which interviewed me for a position as a third assistant engineer on a merchant vessel.
And I was offered a position that would pay even more than what a first mate would make on most merchant spaceships.
I could be on a privateer ship.
From what the recruiter, this guy in a suit with slicked black hair told me, privateers are private ships authorized to attack enemy ships. Trans-Galactic has a Letter of Marque and Reprisal, issued by the United Nations Plenipotentiary Council, giving the company permission to attack the vessels, aircraft, and mecha of the Invid Regency. The ships were as heavily armed as Spacy cruisers, and mostly staffed with veteran,. I specifically would be in charge of making sure the ship's mechanical systems functioned.
My second interview was with the admiral. Well, he was a retired rear admiral from the Spacy, who commanded the Military Spacelift Command and actually flew in the same squadron my dad did during the First Robotech War, though not in the same flight. The corporate office was back on Planet Glorie, in the Commonwealth, which I found to be somewhat ironic. He was impressed with me.
The day I graduated from the Academy, after the commencement ceremony with me in a cap and gown, my parents and sister and niece witnessing, the Academy band playing- I got a call and that Trans-Galactic offered me a job as a third assistant engineer on a privateer vessel.
I accepted.
The vessel was based in Aresburg, a city on the planet Mars, which was in the same system as the planet Earth. So I was leaving home again, and I had a going away party at Seafood on the Bay on the Island. I had worked there as a hostess the summer before going to the Academy, and the Trio who owned the restaurant all personally congratulated me. Many regulars were there, including the Piano Man playing the piano.
After that, I took a flight to Mars. I did catch a glimpse of Aresburg from the air. The city was underneath a complex of pressure domes, as the Martian natural atmosphere was a bit unbreathable. A company car chauffeured me from the spaceport, which looked pretty much like commercial passenger spaceports with lobbies and stores and ticket booths and stuff.
My chaperone- this nice young lady with blond hair and clad in a gray suit, took me to the apartment building which the company was renting for me, and gave me a cashier's check for the advance I was promised when I was hired.
"Don't spend it all at once," she said in this cheerful voice. "I mean, I know the city has a lot of clubs and casinos."
My apartment wasn't much, just a studio that had a kitchenette in an alcove. Still, it was bigger than the dorm room I had as a first class midshipman at the Academy. I had to rest for my meeting with the skipper and the officers and the crew the next day.
So that was what I did.
Oooooooo
My chaperone picked me up from my apartment and took me to the Trans-Galactic corporate hangar in the Aresburg Spaceport.
"We're only doing this because you're new to Aresburg," she said. "You'll either have to take mass transit or get a Martian driver's license and buy a car."
"Got it," I said.
The hangar was a huge, plain, drab building. I walked through some hallways and into an office. Behind the desk was a scruffy-long, lavender-haired man wearing a khaki uniform, similar to that of the Spacy.
"I am Zam Tazzel, Skipper of the Trans-Galactic Privateer Vessel Golden Eagle."
I introduced myself.
"Corporate forwarded me your file," said the skipper. "You have quite an impressive academic record."
"Thank you, sir," I replied.
"Which means nothing outside in real space. There are no professors to judge fairly, who have all the answers, who can guide you if you have trouble with the subject. Out in space, not knowing could get your and your crew killed."
"Uh, with all due respect, sir, I did two training cruises at the Tirol Aerospace Academy. It was required for graduation."
"Ah, training cruises? Where experienced officers babysat you, where you were in no real danger? This is a privateer ship. We raid the Invid for their ships and their protoculture. We are practically a warship."
I can tell this guy was tough.
"If you really don't want me on your crew, why didn't you tell the admiral?"
"I might want you, I might not," replied Tazzel. "I am going to tell you how it is like really out there. If you don't like it, you can walk away. You understand, right?"
"I'm learning."
"Then you need to learn about the Golden Eagle. The chief engineer will take you through a tour."
And so I did, as the chief engineer, a grizzled man in his thirties, showed me around.
The Golden Eagle was a huge ship, maybe about six hundred or so feet long. True to its name, it was painted with a golden hue.
And so basically he did. He showed me the bridge, with its consoles and panels and instruments and levers and buttons and stuff like that. He showed me the dining room, which was pretty nice, nicer than the mess on the ship where I took my training cruises. He showed me my quarters with a bed and a desk – twice as big as the quarters I had on that training cruise before first class.
And then he showed me the engine room where I would be working. I saw the main reflex furnace, auxiliary power units, hyperspace fold drive, thrusters, as well as all of the control and instrument panels. I heard the echoes of my footsteps on the metallic surfaces. And I can smell the faint, sharp odor of the lubricants used to keep these machines running smoothly.
After my tour, I went back to the skipper's office.
"You know your way around the ship?" asked Tazzel.
"I'm definitely learning," I replied.
"Learn fast. Remember that you are paid more than a lieutenant commander in the Spacy, which I am, part-time."
"If it isn't our hatchling," said a voice.
I turned and saw this young man with black hair and amber-complected skin.
He was Han Sang.
"How are you doing, Hatchling?" he asked.
"Getting used to my new job," I said.
"Just remember; I'm second assistant engineer, so I outrank you."
Han Sang was my midshipman instructor back when I was a hatchling, the nickname for 4th class midshipmen at the Academy. Hatchlings were the lowest of the low there, having to do all the dirty work, with 1st and 2nd class midshipmen constantly telling is what to do. I of course had my turn at training junior midshipmen in the latter years of my scholastic career.
"Understood."
"Well, I've heard you've gotten your tour. So now we need you to check the ship's systems."
"Which system would that be?"
Ooooooo
Being the third assistant engineer, I happened to be primarily dealing with the electrical, lubrication, and sanitation systems on board the Golden Eagle. I mean, I guess maybe a single paragraph's worth of what Doc Nichols taught me about hyperspatial mechanics might be useful in these tasks, but not that much useful. Under the supervision of Han Sang and the other senior engineers, I checked the power switches, the generators, transformers, fuses, evaporators, condensers, pumps, valves, and other things.
After that, I had this somewhat boring lecture regarding privateering laws. Anything we captured from the Invid had to be brought to a United Nations Aerospace Court for condemnation. Only when what we seized was condemned would the company- and us- be paid.
There was not much time to get used to my new neighborhood before we had to deploy into space. It made sense, as the Golden Eagle sure did not make any money sitting in port.
That meant that I had to go over all the ship's systems. There was no roadside assistance in deep space, especially when hunting Invid.
Because I would be spending the next two days doing ship maintenance, we decided to go celebrate in downtown Aresburg.
Downtown Aresburg was typical of the downtown area of a mid-sized town, only with the bulkhead of a pressure dome overhead instead of a sky, even the red Martian one. There were neon lights advertising businesses that were open after hours. Automobiles moved along the streets. My fellow officers and I went to a bar and grill. It had the typical look of a bar and grill, with wood-varnished surfaces. There was the typical bar offering, beer, wine, sandwiches, bar-style appetizers like mozzarella cheesesticks and potato skins. A live band played in a corner with various instruments.
That night, I noticed some people in U.N. Spacy Class "A" service uniforms walk into the bar. This was not surprising, as Mars Base was nearby and I figured that UEF personnel from there would spend much of their time off downtown.
I recognized one of them, a woman with black hair tied in a ponytail, slanted eyes, and amber-complected skin.
"Mimi! I exclaimed.
Tatsunoko Mimiko exclaimed my name in return, and we hugged. "How are you doing?"
"Just celebrating before I deploy," I answered. "I'm in the private sector. Third assistant engineer for a cargo ship. And you? What have you done since you graduated? I know you're an officer in the Spacy.."
Mimi had been a year ahead of me in the Academy. I remembered that she once lived on Earth until she was evacuated eleven years ago, when the Regency invaded. She completed the Spacy ROTC program and was commissioned as a third lieutenant.
"I'm a third lieutenant, as you can tell by the uniform," she said. "I'm a veritech space aviator, flying the VFA-6 Alpha veritech fighter, assigned to Mars Base." I could hear the pride in her voice.
"Here?" she asks. "In Aresburg? That is so great. We're gonna have so much fun together."
"At least when we have leave at the same time. How are things going with that guy, Kylinn I think his name was?"
"Kaifun," I said. "Things aren't…going anymore. But we were just children, I guess. We have to grow up."
Mimi looked at Han Sang. "Nice to see you, Han."
"Great to see you, Tatsunoko," replied Han, in a calm voice.
"He's an officer in the same ship as I am," I said to Mimi. "Second assistant engineer."
"At least you've made quite a career in the engineering section of the ship. "Me, I get to fly in an Alpha, out in open space"
"Inside a tiny crawlspace with no legroom."
I had never observed this interaction between them when I was at the Academy.
"How do you know Mimi?" asks a red-haired lady in a Spacy uniform.
"I went to the Tirol Aerospace Academy with her," I said. "She went to the military; I chose the private sector."
"Anyway, my name is Aisha, I'm a veritech pilot like Mimi."
As if on cue, Mimi spoke out. "I didn't know our commander was here," she said.
"Who?" I asked.
"Lieutenant Commander Scott Bernard," answered Mimi. "He just took command of my squadron last week."
I saw a dark-haired man in class "A's" sit at one of the booths. The band was singing "Stage Fright", a song from over thirty years ago; my dad was actually at the premiere of that song. A lady clad in an outfit like Mimi's sat in a booth with him.
"Oh, let the commander have his date," said Aisha, who had been glancing at their direction.
And so we did. I focused on dinking cold glasses of beer and munching on appetizers while reconnecting with Mimi and getting to know my fellow officers better. We all had fun.
But deep down, we knew the Invid Regency was out there, ready to strike at any time.
ooooooooo
After two days of double shifts going over the ship's systems, my first deployment started. I took my station, reading the instruments. All systems looked normal.
The chief engineer announced everything was okay. I could feel the ship rise, noticing the change in the readouts and instruments. I could imagine the Eagle rising from the Aresburg spaceport, and up through the red Martian atmosphere into orbit. I could imagine the bridge crew speaking with Martian Orbital Traffic Control.
"Prepare for hyperspace fold," said the skipper's voice over the speaker. I checked the instrument panel; all of the readouts were normal and there were no warning lights.
I saw double vision, with the bulkheads and panels and pipes seemingly dividing in two, a side effect of folding into hyperspace. The effect stopped. The instruments confirmed that we were in hyperspace, hunting the Invid.