In Jason’s opinions, everything went surprisingly quickly from there. Whether that was down to the Shil’vati government having less of a boner for paperwork than a human government or the newness of human recruits resulting in less time for the program to acquire the accompanying bureaucracy, Jason couldn’t say.

Most of him was leaning toward the latter. Signing up for his engineering program at the university had certainly come with piles of paperwork.

It was kind of sad how few people he had to notify of his change in circumstances. While he wouldn’t go so far as to call himself a total loner, he had precious few friends and acquaintances. The less said about his family the better.

Which was why, barely a week after he’d fulfilled many a human’s dream of laying out one of their alien oppressors, he found himself in a hangar.

“You supposed to be in here, human?” a voice asked from behind him.

He turned away from the shuttle he’d been examining. “I should hope so. The Marine who marched me in here was quite insistent that I stay still and not move or touch anything.”

He had a feeling that the Marine in question hadn’t had a particularly high opinion of humans. If he was honest, her borderline caustic attitude had been kind of refreshing. It was proof that at least some of the aliens had opinions on humanity that ranged beyond a desire to sleep with them. In his time spent on base waiting to be shipped out, he’d been hit on more times than he cared to count.

To be fair, he recognized that the idea that all Shil’vati were horn dogs was probably an unfair generalization on his part. He was dealing with soldiers who’d been stationed on Earth for months, with nary a male of their own species in sight. It wasn’t particularly strange that many of them were ‘pent up’ as it were and looking for a fling with a ‘native’. A fact likely not helped by the fact that humans, male and female, had a similar morphology to Shil’vati males.

As he thought on the strange similarity between their races, his eyes roamed over the pilot who had just entered. She was in every way that mattered, a classic example of a Shil’vati female. Just under seven feet tall and built like an Amazon or perhaps a swimsuit model. Her lilac skin glistened under the hangar lights, and her race’s iconic long black hair fell like a waterfall as it fell behind the long pointed tips of her ears and down her neck. In truth, the face was the only place where the alien truly began to differ from a human, albeit, even there, not greatly. The black sclera of her eyes made the golden rings of her irises stand out all the more on her broad features, while the small tusks that jutted from the corners of her mouth likewise only emphasized the blue of her lips.

Lips that twisted into a smirk as she realized he was staring, forcing him to rapidly avert his gaze.

“Hmmm,” the black jump suited alien said. “I guess that makes you the recruit I’m ferrying, then. Kind of stupid of me in retrospect given that this is a human world, but I wasn’t expecting a native.” She stepped onto the ramp of the bulky angled craft. “Alright kid, hop into one of the seats and strap in. Might feel a bit odd when the seats morph to your dimensions, but don’t squirm too much and they should end up comfy enough.”

Jason froze. “We aren’t waiting for anyone else?”

The alien slapped her flight helmet on before shaking her head; a curious gesture that crossed the species divide. “My orders say just you. Ferrying you up to a frigate we’ve got in system. Where you go from there, I don’t know. Probably the Crucible.”

Trying to shake away the numbness that had stolen over him, he clambered up the ramp after her. “The Crucible?”

“Big training facility on Horizon. Trust me, you’ll love it. Or maybe not. The girls’ll definitely love you though. The lucky bitches. Wish we’d had a guy in my training cadre.”

Jason frowned, as he clambered into a seat and she passed through a partition and assumedly into the cockpit.

He was getting real tired of this. Humans were a proud and noble race. They were not the ‘green skinned space babes’ of the universe!

-----------

Jason could admit that he would have liked to get a decent view of the ship. Even if the circumstances that had brought him aboard were less than ideal, as an engineer, the fact that he was on a genuine FTL capable starship was all kinds of awesome.

Unfortunately, he barely got more than a single glance at the hangar before a pair of black armored Shil’vati were hustling him out and through dozens of nigh-identical metal hallways, a fairly uncomfortable proposition given their relative size differences. He survived though, and it wasn’t long before he and his silent escorts were standing before an ornately dressed Shil’vati in a yellow jumpsuit sat on a very fancy chair, dozens of terminals and technicians working in rows behind her.

She had sigils denoting her rank, but he had not a clue what they meant. Still, it didn’t take a genius to realize that this was the bridge and Jason was in front of the captain.

“You’re going into a cabin for the duration of the trip,” she said without preamble, the golden hoops through her short tusks ringing with the movement of her mouth. “Food will be delivered to you punctually at mealtimes. You will not leave that cabin. After this meeting I don’t want to see you or hear from you.”

With a horde of black-garbed mooks behind him and a very stern military woman in front of him, there was little he could do but nod. Certainly, he could have made some quip, but there was a fine line between retaining one’s pride and deliberate self-sabotage.

Like it or not, he was here. On a military vessel and ostensibly a member of said military. He’d signed the dotted line agreeing to that. Jason knew he was many things, but he wasn’t actively a liar. He’d said he would serve his term as part of the Imperium and that was what he would do.

He would play the game, and he would play it to the best of his ability.

“Yes, ma’am.”

The alien seemed surprised by his acquiescence. “I tell you this now. I don’t care for High Command’s pet project. It’s all too rushed. Humanity isn’t ready to serve in the Shil’vati Armed Forces. Empress above, many of you are still actively fighting against us. Earth has more red zones than green. Which is why I think you’re a security risk.”

She frowned as Jason refused to say anything. Perhaps that was what she wanted, for him speak out in opposition and vindicate her belief? If that was the case, she was going to be disappointed.

After a few seconds of tense silence, she spoke again.

“You are dismissed,” she said with a wave of her hand. “Take the human to his quarters and place a guard on them. I don’t want to see a single hide or hair of him until we reach the Crucible.”

Jason felt a gauntleted hand placed on his shoulder as he was, not ungently, guided from the room. Only one Marine went with him this time, the other walking off down a different corridor.

To his surprise, they were barely a dozen meters from the door leading to the bridge when his escort spoke up, her helmet distorting her voice only slightly.

“I wouldn’t worry about the captain,” she said, the featureless faceplate of her mask turning toward him. “She’s tough but fair. Just keep a low profile for the trip and you’ll be fine.”

Jason had to admit, he was a little surprised by the unexpected show of support. It must have shown on his face, because the alien spoke again.

“Don’t forget, you’re one of us now. We all bleed blue.”

Jason didn’t know what to say to that. So he said nothing and remained silent the rest of the trip down to his new accommodations.

----------------

“You doing okay, human?”

Jason glanced up from the terminal he’d been sitting at as his midday meal arrived, held in the hands of a bemused Shil’vati.

“No less sane than I was when I arrived, Sherila,” he murmured as he gratefully took the tray from the alien. The food on it wasn’t particularly appetizing, doubly so given that it was both Shil’vati and military food. Still, it served to break up the monotony of his isolation some.

“So not sane at all?”

Jason rolled his eyes at the alien’s smirk. In the time he’d come aboard, the video of his brawl on Earth had made the rounds through the ship and become a hot talking point. Some were impressed with his chutzpah, some were pissed at his audacity, but most everyone thought he was nuts. Which said a lot about Shil’vati arrogance in his opinion.

Of course, he had no way of confirming any of that, given that his only point of contact with the rest of the ship was the sailor across from him, and it wasn’t impossible the alien was just fucking with him.

He doubted it, but he was a cynic by nature.

An interesting detail about Sherila was that he was male. One of two on the ship. The other was part of the crew and worked down in the kitchens while Sherila was the captain’s steward. Hence why he had been given the job of ‘human watcher.’

Jason didn’t mind. It sure as shit beat having a silent Marine standing outside his door at all hours. The human-sized male had a fairly wicked little sense of humor and was easy enough to get along with.

As the human spooned purple mush that vaguely tasted like boiled yams into his mouth, he found his eyes glancing over the alien standing in the doorway.

Looking at him, he could kind of understand why Shil’vati sort of lumped human males and females together. Sure, most had a preference, but he’d heard plenty of the girls in his classes complaining about getting hit on in bars by drunken aliens.

In many ways, Shil’vati females were pretty close to big purple orcs and as such had pretty broad facial features. The males on the other hand, while they had tusks like the females, had a facial structure that ran much closer to what in a human would be dangerously androgynous.

Hell, if you took Sherila, removed the tusks, gave him contacts, and sprayed him something other than purple, he could pass as a reasonably attractive human woman. A flat human woman, but a woman nonetheless.

“I’d heard that the males of Earth had rapacious appetites, but I didn’t put much stock in it,” the alien observed, putting one finger to his chin. “Now though? Now I can see it.”

Jason almost spat out half-masticated food.

“Why-Why would you say that?” He coughed, pounding his chest.

The alien’s lips tilted into a teasing smirk. “You’re looking at me like a Marine that’s just spent six months on deployment in the Ice Box.”

Trying to get his breathing under control after nearly sending solid chunks of food into his lungs, Jason managed to direct a teary-eyed glare in the alien’s direction.

“Don’t you start,” he grunted. “I’ve had enough propositions from the female side of your species. I don’t need any from you.”

“Ha,” Sherila said. “It’ll take more than a saucy look to garner my attentions. I’m a proper gentleman after all, I need wining and dining.” He tapped his tusks. “Though the idea of two males together? How delightfully decadent. I suppose such is to be expected from a human.”

Jason rolled his eyes as he put the now empty tray on the side. He might have been offended, but he knew the alien was just teasing. Like most of his race, he seemed to delight in getting under Jason’s skin.

“You hanging around here just to shoot the shit? Or did you have something to tell me?”

“Shoot the… Why would you-” The alien shook his head. “I do in fact have something to tell you. We should be coming out of Phase any minute now, and I was curious to know if you would like to see the Crucible as we come in?”

Jason’s head shot up. “Wouldn’t that be going against the captain’s very explicit order to not to leave this cabin?”

“You’ll be leaving anyway. She wants you off the ship as soon as we’re within range of Horizon, so you’ll be heading to the hangar in a minute anyway.”

Despite himself, Jason was excited to see the planet where he’d be spending the next few months. The circumstances that had brought him here were certainly less than ideal, but damn it all, he was in space! Barely a few years back the very idea would have been dismissed as impossible for the average person, but here he was.

“Sure,” he said, trying to downplay his excitement.

From the amused twinkle in Sherila’s eye, he wasn’t entirely sure he succeeded, but the alien didn’t comment on it as he stepped out of the doorway.

The pair drew curious looks as they strode through the halls of the ship. To be honest, Jason was a little surprised that he didn’t have a Marine escort given how paranoid the captain had been when he’d first come aboard. Perhaps three days without incident had allowed the woman to calm down.

Or perhaps Sherila’s presence was deemed sufficient. For all that the ship’s steward was fun, affable, and less physically imposing than a female, he was still a member of the Shil’vati military. The sidearm at his waist wasn’t there just for show.

“The Patient Claw will be coming out of FTL in thirty seconds. All personnel, brace for Emergence.”

This time Jason didn’t need to be told like he did when they first entered Phase. He immediately gripped onto a nearby handhold as Sherila did the same. The resulting shudder wasn’t anything earthshaking, barely more than a light shift in the gravity of the ship. Still, if you weren’t expecting it, someone could easily get knocked on their ass.

“Right,” Sherila said, letting go of his own handhold as the bizarre sensation passed to continue on. “It’s down this hall, the entrance to the auxiliary hangars.”

The area they’d stopped in looked little different from any of the other drab hallways they’d walked down, save for a pair of large heavy duty doors and a glass viewport that showed the endless blackness of space outside.

“That’s not a window is it?” Jason asked, mind boggling at the wastefulness of the notion.

“No,” Sherila laughed. “The hangar’s on the other side of this wall. This screen’s connected to a camera on the exterior of the ship.”

Jason nodded. That made a little more sense. He was about to speak when the view from the camera shifted and he found the words tumbling away from him.

It was an exhilarating, depressing, and terrifying sight.

Dozens of Shil’vati capital ships hung in the void of space, surrounding a single massive donut-shaped space station. Each of those ships had swarms of support craft surrounding them in turn. The sheer scale of it all boggled the mind. Each of those massive ships must have been the size of a small town, while the station itself probably held the population of an entire city, if not more.

Almost against his will, his eyes tracked down to the planet the station orbited. They were currently facing the night side of the world, and he could see lights spread out across the surface in densities easily the equivalent of Earth. Just one of the many ‘inner sphere’ worlds that made up the Shil’vati Imperium, each with populations equivalent to or exceeding Earth’s.

“An amazing sight, isn’t it?” Sherila asked, pride on clear display.

Jason just nodded, a complicated feeling churning in his gut. How was Earth ever to be free if that was what it was up against? Did it even want to be free if that was the kind of power it took to stand alone in this universe?

Jason didn’t know, and to be frank, he didn’t want to know. Let someone else worry about Earth.

He had his own problems.

“Can you tell me which shuttle I’m getting on?” he asked tonelessly.

-------------

“So this is a human, huh?” a Shil’vati murmured from behind a massive wooden desk. “I think I can see what all the fuss is about.”

Jason had no idea what the woman’s rank was beyond ‘high.’ Her age and fancy uniform told him that much. His knowledge of the Shil’vati rank structure began at Private and ended at Captain – or what the Internet had told him was the rough Shil’vati equivalent to those roles.

He didn’t know whether her words were a prompt for him to speak, and so he didn’t. Better to be silent and thought a fool than open his mouth and remove all doubt. Certainly a different thought process than his usual approach to things, but being stranded on a planet who knew how many light years away from everything you’d ever known had a way of reshuffling one’s priorities.

At the minute, assuaging his own ego ranked pretty low on that list.

“They’re rushing things,” the other, slightly less fancily dressed and younger Shil’vati said from where she was standing in the corner of the room. “Getting excited about a new toy and putting politics before common sense.”

The first Shil’vati seemed amused. “You disagree?”

The other alien shook her head. “I’m a soldier. I’ll do as I’m told.”

“You just think that arming and training a people we subjugated less than a decade ago is a boneheaded idea?” the senior asked, prompting a nod. “Well, I agree.”

She turned to level a stern stare at Jason, who’d been slowly wondering if he was supposed to be present for this conversation.

“Unfortunately for all of us, I’m a soldier too. If the Matriarchs tell me to wrestle a Turox, I ask which one. And today recruit, you are my Turox.”

Jason had to resist the urge to shuffle uncomfortably, not just from the woman’s intimidating glare, but from the fact that those were her first words directed at him.

“I’ll say this now. Despite my reservations about this program as a whole, they have no bearing on you as an individual. Until you give me reason to think otherwise, you’re just another recruit to me. I don’t care where you came from. I don’t care how you got here. I especially don’t care what’s between your legs.” She pressed a single finger solidly into the table. “The only thing I care about is how effective a soldier I can make you. Anything else is beyond my purview.”

This time she waited until Jason realized she was expecting a response.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Good.” The woman nodded. “Unfortunately for you, you’re a day late for training. As I understand it, your inclusion in this program was last minute?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Jason dearly hoped she didn’t ask why, even though part of him was ninety percent sure she already knew. It would be pretty odd if she didn’t.

“Right, well, your training cadre have already had their equipment and bunks assigned and are currently enjoying a brisk jog around our campus.”

From the grin on both women’s faces, Jason doubted there was anything enjoyable about it.

“Sergeant,” she called, prompting another Shil’vati to step into the office, and the speed with which she’d responded suggested she’d been standing outside the door the entire time. “Get our newest recruit situated. He’s assigned to cadre seven. Logistics is dragging its feet, so we don’t have any kits specifically for humans, but I imagine a kit for males will suffice for now.”

“I’ll get it done, ma’am.”

The sergeant responded with a hand over her heart, the rough equivalent of a Shil’vati salute. Which belated reminded Jason that he hadn’t made the same motion when he’d been escorted in, though given that no one had bitten his head off yet for not doing so, apparently it wasn’t expected of him yet.

“Move it, recruit,” the sergeant barked, prompting him to follow her as she marched out of the office. He also quickly realized he had to really pump his legs in order to keep up with her long stride as they strode through the base’s corridors.

If anything, his presence drew more stares from passing Shil’vati than it had on Earth. He didn’t get much time to dwell on it though.

“I said ‘move it,’ pinkskin! You aren’t in the civvies anymore, recruit!” she chastised as he followed along behind her. “When you serve the Imperial Empress you are expected to move with some goddess-damned purpose!”

Jason felt his heart sink as the woman continued to berate everything about his pace, form, species, gender, height and stride, all without breaking her own.