Chapter 23

“When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer 'Present' or 'Not Guilty.'”

―Theodore Roosevelt

It was the birds. Chirping, flying around, playing. Charlene Carr missed a lot from Earth. The sunny skies, beaches, the water! Ohh, the beautiful ocean! The warm Florida air! But it was the birds she missed the most. It had been two years since she was on Earth. Last time she saw her family, she had just graduated flight academy. As the only member of her family to ever graduate any form of military academy, she felt proud and nervous at the same time. No one in her family ever made it past basic. She wanted to prove a point. She came from a life of teasing and bullying from her family and her peers. Everyone teased that she would never amount to anything. Being a Carr meant living in the swamps of Florida, in a small house that was built in the early 21st century, pregnant with her second kid by seventeen.

She wanted to change all of that. Change her family curse. Throughout high school, she watched the news, saw it advertised everywhere on the net. Space travel! Explore the stars! Sail in the ever-mighty black ocean! Another aspect of her family she wanted to change. No one in her family—or even her town, for that matter—had ever been off-world. They were all too poor. Money itself may have gone the way of the dinosaur, but to get anything other than the absolute basics to survive, they would still have to earn Federation Credits.

She had many options. Join the crew of a Luxury Liner, sailing between the various spots in the Sol System, to the Orion System, and meeting lots of celebrities and politicians! Scratch that, she needed a four-year college education. Schooling was also provided to everyone, however the closest University to the Carr residence was in Orlando. One hundred fifteen miles one way. One hundred fifteen miles is nothing for the modern vehicles, but the only thing the Carrs had was an old, solar-powered wheeled truck. If only the thing would’ve broken down, they could’ve bought a brand-new Ford Focus. Those things could hover twenty feet off the ground!

How about work on a mining barge? No experience required, decent compensation, no schooling required. Complete on-the-job training. But mining is a hard life. Tedious and hard labor, long hours, never get to go home often. The only places she would ever see would be the outer edges of the Asteroid Belt. Maybe make it as far as Jupiter if she's lucky. Or live on Sopdet station in Sirius. No, she wanted more. She wanted to see the universe, not just our little corner of it.

She finally thought she found a great option by the time she was a senior in high school. Become a pilot! Not just any ordinary Earth Atmo pilot, but an Interplanetary one! She could visit everywhere! Flights to and from Earth, Jupiter, Mars, Orion, Sirius! This would be perfect! She had always dreamt of the birds. Always been fascinated by how they soared above all, looking down on the lower creatures in life. Plus, the benefits were excellent. The pay was so high; she could finally afford to provide her and her family a luxurious life well above the standard of living that the Federation provides. But wait! There's more. Four-year college education plus three years of flight experience required!

She was about to give up all hope when, one day, a military recruiter visited her high school. This was not just any recruiter. He was not from the United States Military, but a representative of the Federation Navy! Members of the Federation military rarely made an appearance in a small-town high school, where the town grocery store closes by 5 p.m. and is attached to the only fuel station. The usual recruitment pitch was made, you and your family get upgraded to tier three of the five-tier standard of living system, which meant a bigger house, three cars, more luxury credits. Plus, the big bonus of them all, service is counted as college credit if Charlene chose the flight school. Not only would her service count towards the college recruitment of an Interplanetary Pilot, but her flight training would count towards the flight experience as well!

Bonuses and perks aside, it was his uniform that sold her. The navy blue dress-suit was covered with decorations and medals. The United Federation of Nations logo was on his upper left chest, on the right chest were his wings. She was his only recruit, in a school with a vastly below-average G.P.A., where the most successful person to come out of the school was a used car salesman. Charlene had a perfect G.P.A., one of the few students who did. The difference between Charlene and everyone else in school was she was the only one who was a big dreamer, always wanted more. She got hell for it, too, always being teased for her beliefs, and for being smarter and more capable than anyone else. She signed up at sixteen, and joined at eighteen straight after graduation.

The Federation hopper made its descent and landed in front of her house finally. ‘Rocky landing, amateur mistakes were made,’ she thought, quietly judging the pilot’s ability to fly the small station hopper. She was nervous! Her family had no idea she was returning home, nor did she tell anyone that she had been promoted to a full-blown officer, and that she was stationed onboard an actual Starship!

“Gran!” Screaming at the top of her lungs, a very excited eight-year-old Bethany Carr, Charlene's youngest niece, ran towards her aunt. She dropped her toys where she was standing, ignoring the roar of the hopper taking off.

“What is it now, dear? What did the delivery guy bring?” Amelia Carr yelled out as she got up from the couch and walked towards the door. When she finally arrived, she was greeted with a sight standing twenty feet from the door. A person she had not seen in years! Her youngest daughter! The shock was so intense, she dropped her cup of tea. As the cup shattered on the porch, she leapt off the deck and ran full force towards the military girl standing just outside her door and squeezed her tighter than she has anyone in her life.

Charlene is almost the spitting image of her mother. Standing at five foot two, she is a full two inches shorter than her mother, and she is forced to wear glasses. They both have the same red fiery hair, their faces are both riddled with freckles, and they have the same blue eyes and pale skin. Amelia's Scottish heritage was passed down to only one of her kids, Charlene. Her other kids got their full Italian-American features from their father.

“Char!!” exclaimed her mother, who was way too excited. “Why didn’t you tell us you were coming home?” Amelia grabbed her daughter’s arm and dragged her into the house. “Beth, grab her bags!”

“Char Bear!” her father yelped in joy! “Will you look at that! Ensign! I'm looking at Ensign Charlene Carr of the United Federation of Nations!” He gave her a full proper military salute. She knew her dad would notice her uniform before anything else. She wore her full dress uniform for the sole purpose of impressing her dad, and her efforts paid off!

"Daaad," Charlene flustered. She loved it. Out of everyone, she knew her dad would be the one to be instantly proud! She was a daddy's girl, and she did everything to make him proud. This day he was so happy that her daughter had made it, tears came flowing from his eyes.

"Is that a good thing? Isn't that the lowest rank?" Amelia asked, confused.

“It’s an excellent thing!” her dad replied quicker than Charlene could speak. “It means she’s finally a full-fledged officer! No longer a junior officer, or just a petty crewman. And judging by these patches here,” he began to pick apart her uniform, examining every inch. “Golden Wings!” he couldn’t hold in his shock at the color.

Out of everything on her uniform, her wings were the first thing he noticed. She intentionally hadn’t said anything, hoping her dad, who had always been a huge military buff, could identify her pins.

“Gold Wings?” Beth asked, confused.

“That’s right, dear, getting military-issued wings by itself is a huge achievement, and comes with enormous amounts of honor,” he began to explain. “There are three levels of wings: bronze, silver, and gold. Most military pilots are under the bronze category, which is far more skilled than any civilian pilot. Twenty percent of military pilots have silver, and only one percent has gold. She is among the rare, the elite few!”

He was right, and a big broad smile beamed across Charlene's face.

“And what's this?” he beamed toward her right collar. “A starship pin! So that’s why you gave up your dream of working for Delta.”

Delta Airlines was one of the few air transportation companies to survive the third world war. As a result, they were the leading company to utilize new technologies, and were the first to take advantage of them. Delta was the first company to offer interplanetary transportation for civilians after the successful colonization of Luna and Mars.

“A starship!?!?” A wave of excitement hit little Bethany. She always looked up to her aunt, more than her other aunts and uncles, who were farmers or sales clerks. She wanted to explore the stars with her favorite person!

“The F.W.S. WarpStar?” asked her dad, looking closer at the patch.

“Why are you not wanting to go fly for Delta anymore, sweetie?” Amelia asked her as they all sat down on the dinner table, and she served her family a hearty Italian dinner.

“I'm going career, mom,” Charlene began to explain.

“That explains the officer rank,” her father finished Amelia’s statement.

“I love it. It's far more than I had ever dreamed! I'm doing amazing things! Seeing sights I have never even imagined in my wildest fantasies! I get to fly the most advanced ship humanity has ever produced, and I'm the chief helmswoman onboard!” Pride erupted from every corner of her body, and she glowed brighter than anyone had ever seen her.

“Honey,” her dad said with a tear in his eye. “This is the best day of my life! I'm so proud of you!”

Tearing up, Charlene began to say something when her mother, entirely out of left field, changed the mood. “What about the war? I don’t want to see you get hurt. I don’t know what I would do.”

“Mom!”

“Honey,” Antonio Carr took his wife's hands in his comforting her. “I feel the same way.” He looked at Charlene with sadness, “But someone has to do it. Someone has to defend our way of life. If we didn’t have brave men and women like our daughter, we would be speaking Russian or German if we didn’t fight hundreds of years ago. It's not pleasant, but she is the reason we are living the dream!” Smiling, he held his wife's gaze with love.

“Yeah, now more than ever …” Charlene let out something she shouldn’t have. First contact was classified for the moment, and no one knew of the hostile beast aliens that she had encountered. Her parents had no idea how close to death she had come a few months ago.

“What?” Antonio snapped to Char, surprised, unsure of what his daughter meant.

Sensing the tension that suddenly hit the room, and knowing her daughter said something she did not want to, Amelia changed the subject. “So, when are we going to meet this guy we keep hearing about in your messages?”

Charlene went from tearing up to completely blushing. She had forgotten that she told them about John! What was even worse, she made it sound like they were dating!

“I … uhh …” she began to say, but couldn’t find the words.

“You should invite him to your event tomorrow!” her annoying niece blurted out, uninvited.

“What event?” her father asked curiously.

“It’s the annual Coalition of Aerospace Industries Convention. Olympic Industries invited me to demo their new toy!”

The Coalition of Aerospace Industries is a group of multiple companies in the aerospace field focused on advancing technology for humanity. The convention is just a yearly event where the various corporations show off their new inventions and concept ideas.

“How did you even get in on that?” her father said.

“I have my connections,” she teased, smirking.

They had finished dinner and said goodbye to the day full of excitement. She lay in her bed thinking of John, wishing he was there. She had been secretly in love with him since the first day she met him, despite the significant tension they first had. She would never admit it, but that was partly the reason she never took the position of commander of Air Group Alpha onboard the carrier, F.W.S. Enterprise, the Federation’s top fighter carrier in the fleet. But she would invite John to the convention; after all, she wanted him to watch her toy with the other ‘Pilots’ that would be showing off other tech. Deep down inside, however, the main reason for inviting John and joining the convention was that she needed to prove to herself, and everyone else, that she was fit to fly. The near-death incident in the strange planet’s debris field put severe doubts on her ability to fly. She needed to do this for herself!