Auberje wondered if he would get time to study for geometry while onboard the Lion. He knew the test he was supposed to take in a few hours was postponed, but he wasn’t sure if he would remember all the material. He decided to ask the headmistress.

“Auberje, you bring up a fine point. Why don’t you tell the other 3-4 firsties they can take the exam while onboard the ship. I’ve set up a proctoring room on deck 2 - Cabin 5. Anything else?”

“What is the point of all this?” Auberje was laying on his back in the captain’s luxurious cabin. When he tried to give it to Marcus the ship’s AI nearly mutinied. Marcus wasn’t worried about it, so neither was Auberje. He had tons of room now. Much like his old rooms at home. He was getting used to the cramped quarters of 3-4s’ Firstie Hall. A terribly packed set of rooms split by gender.

“Ah, back to the crux of Greathing,” Headmistress sounded amused, “It’s preparation for life. For what might come next. It’s a way to teach the skills that matter most.”

“Oh? You mean more than geometry?” He considered his other classes as well. Auberje was taking five classes currently, geometry, astrophysics, beginner’s tactics, logistics, and child psychology. He found them all to be interesting in their own way. He thought he identified with tactics and astrophysics the most.

“Ha! In a way, yes. You see, greathing is about humanity’s place in the stars. You will see, someday. Or hopefully, you won’t and you will think of greathing as nothing more than a collection of strange quests you overcame with your dearest friends,” to Auberje she sounded wistful. He’d just read the word and looked it up.

He went back to his book, reading a series of thrilling alien adventure books. He was fascinated, like many humans, about alien races. The very fact that none had ever been found made them even more interesting. He daydreamed about being the first one to ever do so. He laid back and relaxed, displaying the images from his book above him. The text glowing faintly in the darkened room.

As he started to drift to sleep, he remembered he never told the rest of the firsties they could take the exam in the morning. He quickly sent a message to them. A few replied, most did not. Riley was awake too, he noted, then slipped into sleep. His clothes still on, a robotic butler came and tucked the young boy in. Mechanical eyes watching with something close to caring.

***

Morning came too soon. Lights flickered on, slowly powering up and waking Auberje and the other sleeping 3-4s. A pair of the strange catlike androids waited for him. “Would you like your morning briefing, sir?”

“My morning what?” Auberje stretched and pulled the blankets back, jumping out of bed. He was ready to get this day going. He wondered where the bathroom was. He had used it before bed but couldn’t remember.

Sesning his needs, the robots pointed politely to the large restroom. He went there quickly and was delighted to see a urinal and a huge shower. Too big really for Auberje. He used the urinal, hopping in the shower as the robots patiently took his clothes in their arms.

“A briefing is a way for the ship to tell you what’s going on with her and her crew, and where she is in comparison to close celestial bodies.”

“Ah! Like an update. Got it. Speak, but louder please, hard to hear with the water on,” Auberje was used to being doted on by android and robotic support staff. His family owned thousands of robots. Many dual purpose but also many singular ones. The staff on this ship were similar to the ones he knew from home.

The robot flashed a friendly smile, giving him a sense of that catlike look again. Sharp incisors and pleasant front teeth, black and pink gums. The thing opened its mouth and spoke louder. Its voice came through the speakers in the shower, Auberje noted with delight.

“The ship is at nearly full complement of crew, number of crew that is. We are delighted to inform you that we are exactly where we thought we would be last night. Our navigation systems are tuned to perfection. The 3-4s have settled in well, monitoring of social media, text messages and other communication shows no unusual feelings.”

“Wait, you’re spying on u?”

“Standard military protocol, sir. Should you wish it to stop, let us know, it is a valuable tool to monitor your sailors and soldiers' state of being.”

“Hmm, no continue. What else?”

“The XO and a few of the other 3-4 offices are meeting in the bridge conference room to go over their plans to locate the objects.”

“Any idea where they are?” Auberje wanted to win this greathing. He wondered for a second about Helos Bulger. He wished the boy didn’t hate him. He was the smartest of their year, Auberje just knew it, and was really clever. Auberje stretched, dropping the towel on the ground and pulling a fresh set of clothes off the shelf in the bathroom closet. The androids helped him dress, provided a small vial of toothites, those lovely, minty cleaning nanobots. He squeezed the bottle’s contents into his mouth. Swirling the mint-flavored bots around in his mouth he made the universal “ah” sound as it hit the back of his throat. He spit the depleted bots into the sink and walked away. Handing the squeeze tube to the nearer of the pair of androids. They spoke with the same voice, they were not individuals.

He put on the hat they handed him and headed toward the bridge. It was a short walk. Twenty steps. As he entered, the robots announced his presence, “Captain on the bridge.” No one stood, and a flash of anger lit the faces of the androids. Auberje, who could not see them, walked to the empty chair in the middle and sat down. The androids left and went to the corners of the room, taking up positions near the two entrances.

“Nice hat, Auberje,” Xin Mae said from his left. Auberje turned to look at her. The seat swiveled, it’s fine white and green and gold leather moving with him.

“Thanks, Mae. I see you have one too.”

“Not as fancy though.”

“What are you doing?” Auberje wasn’t sure what the senior girl, thin and tall with black straight hair and a pert nose was doing at that station.

“Running sensors. We are trying to locate the data cores.”

“Any luck?” Auberje leaned toward her, chin on hands, eagerness on his face.

“Not yet, but I’m hopeful. Let me show you what I’m doing.” She motioned for him to turn to his display. As he did, he saw the small sharing notification from Mae. He accepted it and his screen was split into her two views. She was monitoring something called “Long Range Gravitational-Wave Sensors” and the other side showed “Sensor Array B: Midrange Object Sensors” he saw warnings about delays in readings and how nothing on the screen was in real-time.

“Wow, this is cool,” Auberje said, looking at the data coming back from both.

“Isn’t it,” she was obviously excited about the sensor data too.

“What is it though?” he was innocently puzzled. His face was a concentrated thirst for knowledge. He pursed his lips.

“Okay, on the left you have the long-range sensors telling us where celestial bodies are in our current solar system.”

Auberje interrupted, “What’s the name of our solar system?”

“WK6710 - we’ve been calling it the Week System.”

“Okay, so Week system because we are here for a week?”

“You got it.”

He smiled proudly, “Great, okay back to the sensors.”

“Right, so the left shows the long-range grav sensors and what they see. On the right though is our midrange scanners. These are pretty advanced. They show a series of smaller objects and events.”

“Events?” Auberje was confused. Sensors usually showed things not actions.

“Yes, we can see when the other groups came into system and last night two of the teams, not sure which, fought a pitched battle. Our sensors picked up the sound waves and the light flashes.”

“Wow, that’s great,” Auberje gave her an air high 5.

She returned it with a smile, “Yes, it is, but I didn’t do anything.”

“Doesn’t matter, it’s your job as the sensor person, officer.”

“Yes, I suppose so.Thanks Auberje.” She was genuine in her response, as he was in his praise of her.

“Of course, you rock. Now what else can you tell me about the location of the others? And of the data cores?”

“Data cores: so far not much. I don’t think they are on the planet. This makes your gift of the Lion even more important. Sensor data just doesn’t see anything resembling the data cores on Week 1a.”

“Okay, now that is really awesome. Where else could it be?” He looked out into the simulated space in front of him. He peered closely at the celestial bodies. She laughed behind him.

“I think one of them is in this asteroid belt, out near Week’s rim.” Her screen changed and his followed, a circle was drawn on a far, far away ring of asteroids.

“Oh wow! Why do you think that?”

“I’m sensing the wreckage of a pair of ships.I think one of them is a Federal cruiser like ours. The other appears to be some kind of unknown ship design. Half organic, half metal. I think this is the “alien” vessel the headmistress has placed for us to find.”

“Right, well, have you told Marcus?”

“Not yet, but you are the captain. You don’t have to wait for him.”

“I’m not sure about it. Plus, I don’t mind him making the decision. I am only 7 after all.” He smiled proudly. The child psychology class he was taking had taught him that being 7 was great, but it didn’t mean he knew everything. Professor Laurence had stressed, “When you don’t know something, ask for help and advice. Everyone one of us was once your age. We will help.”

She laughed, “Makes sense, I think they are about done anyway. Looks like they are headed this way.” She gestured behind her with a shake of her long hair.

“Good morning, captain,” Marcus said.

In mock seriousness, with a youthful smile, Auberje replied, “Good morning, XO. What’s the plan for today?”

“That depends on what my scientists have found. Any luck?” he walked over to the sensor officer’s chair, looking at Mae.

“Nothing so far, XO,” She bit back a smile, “I was just briefing the captain on our two types of sensors.”

“Oh yes,” cut in Auberje, “We have these long-range ones and some closer range ones. I think we know lots now but have not located anything other than the one in the belt.”

“You’ve found one?” Marcus’ eyes lit up with a near fanatical fire. He was the image of the consummate officer, uniform perfect, hat placed just so, boots shining, hands clasped behind his back. Auberje tried to emulate his pose as he rose from the seat to peer over Mae’s other shoulder.

Of course, he was too short to do it exactly right, but he gave a good impression. He wasn’t bothered. She had shown him the sensor readouts previously. He only had to remember what they said.

“Yes, XO, see on the left where she has pulled up the long-range scanners and they highlight the asteroid belt. It’s in there. In one of the quadrants called 7A9 or something to that extent,” Auberje did a flourish with his hand as if to say close enough. It was a gesture his father was quite good at. Auberje did a fair approximation. The rest of the bridge crew held back smiles. Their captain was doing a fine impression. Marcus was following the screen avidly as Mae followed her captain’s words, highlighting the area in 7A95X, a small sliver of space where the two ships she located were caught in the asteroid belt’s gravity well.

“Well done, Mae! Captain, can you order our pilot to get us there?” Marcus took his seat behind and to the right of Auberje’s.

“Aye, of course, XO. Pilot,” Auberje held up his hand and pointed toward the wall display. “Forward to the coordinates Mae will provide you.” He dropped his hand as the ship started to accelerate. He felt none of it, but saw the numbers growing on his captain’s screen. The ship was zipping through space at an appreciable percentage of the speed of light. A time to destination countdown was added to his display by Marcus. He smiled back at them. 10 minutes.

“Marcus?”

“Yes, Captain Auberje?”

“When we get there, what are we going to do?”

“I’m going to take a dropship or a few of our fighters and head over with a boarding party. I hope to find our prize quickly. If we do, we will reconvene on the ship. At which point, we make a new plan and locate the second core. I want to win this. Three wins in a row and we start to look like the favorites we are for this year’s Greathing Crown. Headmistress awards graduates of the Academy with gifts based on our standing. I want one of these.” Marcus patted his seat’s arm.

“Great idea, Marcus,” sarcasm dripped from Mae’s voice, “what are you going to do with a light cruiser?”

“I want to find the pirates that killed my mom and pa. I want to drown them in particle beams. Rip their throats out with my bare hands. I…” He caught his violence like a ball holding it tight to his chest. He shrugged, his eyes roaming over the others present on the bridge. “All those who graduate with me, you are invited, welcome, to come with me. Those after, well, maybe we can put in a call to port if the Headmistress will let us, and pick you all up as you graduate.”

A sad voiced headmistress spoke over the bridge speakers, “If only it were that simple, Marcus. You win this round, I’ll give you this ship. It would be wasteful to disassemble her. The heat death of the universe is an ever-present concern.”

He was stunned. In truth, they all were. This was the first time Auberje considered Marcus or any of the others leaving. The others were thinking more about what Marcus revealed about his past. Marcus was intent on the headmistress’ words. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet, go out and earn it. And know, earning this ship, graduating from this school. There are conditions, favors I might one day call upon you to do. Do you understand Marcus? Do you others?”

“I understand and agree to them.”

Bitterly she replied, “don’t be so quick to agree to it. Those who do my bidding do not always live to tell the tale. But enough of this, good luck.”

“I understand the risks and accept,” Marcus’ eyes were downturned to the bright black floor, gleaming with ambient lights.

“2 minutes to destination, Captain, XO,” the Lions jAi spoke softly. Her voice again reminding Auberje of the intense similarity to the headmistress. Perhaps she had just used her voice as the voice matrix for the AI.

“Right, Captain Auberje, with your permission, I will take my boarding party onto the alien vessel.” Marcus was straight-backed now. His hands clasped behind him. Back to the soldier.

“Very well, XO, you have my permission. Would you be taking a look at the other vessel as well? It wouldn’t hurt to have another cruiser for us to use.”

“I… Good point, Captain,” Marcus smiled softly, wanly, life returning to his eyes, replacing fanaticism and revenge. “May I suggest you send 3-4-1 there?”

“Good idea! I don’t think I should go too though, do you?”

Marcus looked at this wise little boy, “No, I agree. You will need to stay with the ship. In case we are attacked, can I trust you to run and defend yourself?”

“Of course. Now that we know you will have the Lion after, I have to take care of her.” They saluted after a quick nod from Marcus. Marcus and half the bridge crew left. To Auberje’s credit, Marcus issued no order to watch over the youth. He was 7 but he acted like he was 30. The boy was well loved and respected by his fellow students, and the other bridge crew were clever. They would help him.

Marcus had no doubts on the subject.

The ship AI interrupted his thoughts, “I have turned on five Allen SCISS fighters in Hangar 11. You will be able to take a crew of 5 per ship. Will you need more? I have also highlighted a series of landing sites I believe sufficient for your purposes.”

“No, that’s perfect. Thank you. That’s fairly advanced stuff for an AI built from scratch and created in a day.”

“In 11 minutes, 5 seconds.”

“Truly?”

“Yes, the headmistress is thorough. I am patterned off the Republic warship AI standard across the galaxy, with… something else thrown in.”

“Probably Star Academy proprietary shit. I get that. Hundreds of smart AI programmers come from Star Academy every decade. I doubt we would be just sitting idly by with the talent.”

“Yes. That’s a plausible explanation.”

“Okay.. weird. Moving on, can you alert 3-4-2. 3-4-3. They are coming with.”

“Done, they are heading to Hanger 11 now.”

“Good send a launch checklist to the best pilots amongst us, me included.”

“Done, good luck, XO. I hope you find what you are looking for.”

“Thank you.” Marcus shook his head. AI were a weird and touchy lot. He left the elevator and entered the hanger. It was filled with spacecraft. Starsfighers, a pair of dropships, a single large commercial hauler, a freighter tug for dragging asteroids to mining facilities, a pair of dual hull catamaran racers. The starfighters were painted silver and black. They were teardrops with a cockpit in the center, front thin part of the teardrop split at the center to allow for a large particle accelerator. They were armed with beam weapons as well. The left side of the ship bent downard slightly in the front, a small chunk of titanium holding a targeting computer and scanner.

Already his men and women swarmed over the starfighters. So many ants around so many crumbs. He snapped a salute to the pair of guards at the lift door. Whoever was in charge of the hangar was paranoid. Marcus could only think of one person who would be so paranoid.

“Charles.”

“Marcus, XO, sir,” the last two sounded like a curse.

“I suppose I’ll have to start calling you Chief now.”

“Yes, that would be appropriate. I’ve taken over all hangar functions and I expect to have my work cut out for me when you all return. I know how these so-called pilots fly.”

Marcus laughed, studying the burly man. He was 18 also, senior class. Marcus would count Charles A. Lester was his greatest friend in the galaxy. Chuck was thickly muscled, dark of skin, light grey eyes the color of the deck’s gunmetal flooring. The hangar was organized and finely running. Techs, mostly in their 5 and 7th years were running about. The 5th years were just now taking engineering classes and the 7th years were graduating from welding and machining classes. The whole operation looked slick. It made Marcus’ heartbeat proudly.

“Chuck, you coming with?”

“Hell no, I have to prepare for you coming back. I told you, I’ve seen you fly.”

Marcus affected a wounded face, a smile ruining it. Chuck laughed now. The pair embraced and walked together.

“I have ship 8 for you and the crew,” Chuck glanced at the 2 men and 2 women who were permanent shadows of Marcus. They were the only others left in their cohort. Their class had once numbered 11 but 5 had left for various reasons over the years. There were a dozen or more other seniors who would graduate this year, but they had come in one of the other cohorts. The recruiting was done quarterly so each year had 4 cohorts in them. It kept each cohort to around 10 students; the headmistress seemed to like it that way.

“Well, thanks for having the bird ready to go. Does she have a name?”

“Hell no, you don’t give a fighter a name, you give a pilot a call sign.”

“Ah, right, and I am?”

“Big bird.”

Marcus felt his jaw fall open. His four shadows cracked smiles, hiding them at a sharp glance from Marcus.

“You have to be kidding me.”

“Nope, Big Bird, you get out there and perform well today.”

“I hate you,” there was no heat to his words and no tone.

“Mhm, I know. Good luck,” Chief Chuck A. Las was laughing heartily now.

“I truly hate you,” Marcus rolled his eyes and took the ladder two rungs at a time, he entered the cockpit through the back of the ship. There were seats for four in the rear of the vessel, looking toward the outside walls. Each had displays and job duties. The pilot seat was in the front under a half see-through canopy with panes of hardened glass composite.

“Let’s get to it shall we?”

His companions broke into their usual pairings, 1 boy and 1 girl in each. They were split up as the relationships were. They were amongst his greatest friends and he was always trying to keep up with who was dating who now. The foursome seemed to change partners as quickly as he could ask.

Currently, by all appearances, Grace was with Zhao. Alberto with Alice. He wasn’t surprised. Over the years those pairings were the ones that lasted the longest.

He didn’t think on it anymore. Running through the preflight checklist, he familiarized himself with the ship’s controls.

“Let’s do this!” He hit ignition: on. The dual engines roared to life and the ship lifted off the deck a foot in teh air. He pushed the throttle forward. The ship zipped out of the hangar and through the plasma membrane keeping space at bay.

They were off.

***

On the bridge, Auberje and Mae watched the ships depart. The 5 SCISS fighters were dispatched swiftly. He was surprised at their speed compared to the bigger light cruiser’s. He asked the AI a question about it, received his answer, and sat thoughtfully.

“Are we checking for others in our area, Mae?”

“I am not currently, but I can be. Expecting others?”

Auberje sat thoughtfully, “If I were the others I’d be coming here. This one was pretty easy to find. WIll you check please, I think our XO and commander would be mad if I lost him his ship.”

“I know he would be. Yes, let me start scanning.”

There were a few tense moments before Mae let out a breath, “Nothing in the area. I have our ship actively scanning out to 25000km. We will know if they try to sneak in.”

“How much time is that?”

“30 seconds or so. Want me to push it out more?” Mae would have laughed at taking orders from the little boy, except he kept coming up with better and better ideas.

“Yes, please. Ten or 12 times, please. Can we do that?”

The AI answered him, “Yes, would you like me to show you how to initiate standard Away Party sensors, Mae?”

“Oh, um, yes, please,” Mae looked a bit sheepish for not knowing about it. Auberje had seen the same look on Riley’s face before.

“Don’t worry, Mae, I didn’t know about it either.” He looked at her with genuine reassurance.

Mae couldn’t help but laugh and feel better, “thanks, Auberje. Show me Lion.”

“Of course, Mae. You’ve been doing a fine job. The new sensor suite will give you 20 minutes of sensor range and throws a damping field for all hyperspace travel around us.”

“We can prevent fold travel?” Auberje had just learned about fold and hyperspace travel.

“Yes, for a short time. Eventually, the ship is getting through, but we can hold them off for 30 minutes or so. Long enough to run away or make a plan of attack.”

“Auberje, have you ever fished with a net?”

“Yes, once or twice in our lake at home.”

“Damping fields work the same way. You can catch a ship in a net but eventually, it will find a way to calculate the route between the strings.”

“Ah, I see. Thank you.”

“Absolutely. This new sensor suite is much better than what I planned on doing. Thanks for the help, Lion.”

“Lioness, if you please, Mae, Captain.” The AI spoke nonchalantly but with authority.

Mae glanced at Auberje, eyebrow raised. Auberje shrugged, “I’m named after a type of building. Don’t question it.”

Mae guffawed as did half the rest of the bridge crew. Miranda Del Treist spoke up from the helm’s chair. She was a 17-year-old and considered 3-4s best pilot. “Would you two stop?”

“Why,” Auberje asked as only a 7-year old can.

Miranda sighed, hands extending off the throttle, “I just think we should be concentrating on what the boarding crew is doing.”

“OH! Right, I forgot you have the hots for Marcus,” Mae smiled wickedly.

“NO!” The word was spoken too loudly and too high to be anything but a lie.

Auberje nodded solemnly, “if I swung that way, I would also have the hots for Marcus.”

That comment brought a deep red to the already blushing Miranda’s face. “What?” Auberje looked suspiciously at all the laughing crew, “The man has it all. He’s our leader. He’s smart, he’s tall, he’s strong. He’s nice to me.” Auberje shook his head. It was so obvious.

Mae was dying with laughter, but she stopped long enough to agree with Auberje, “Yes, you… are right, Auberje. Now we just need Marcus to notice Miranda.”

Auberje sp[oke before Miranda could defend herself. “He notices her, I’ve seen it. I can mention something to him if you want, Miranda,” he said in a way that was both endearing and maddening.

Riley and Miranda both said, “NO!” Loudly to Auberje’s offer of help.

“Okay, okay, sorry.” His feelings smarted like a slapped cheek.

Riley replied as Miranda hid her face in shame. “Auberje, you wouldn’t like it if someone told the girl you liked you liked her, would you?”

Auberje muttered something under his breath.

“What did you say, Auberje?” Mae asked catching her breath from all the laughter.

“He said, “I like you, Riley”,” Lioness said.

Now it was Auberje’s turn to turn bright red. “Lioness!”

“Yes, Captain?”

“You didn’t have to tell them.”

“I believe that was the point, Miss Riley was trying to make.”

“I suppose... But still,” He looked up at Riley, eyes meeting across the room. She looked completely unphased by the pronouncement.

“I know you like me, Auberje. I like you too.”

“Good.” he said smiling broadly. He never was this happy back on Dyson 37. Not once.

Riley’s eyes fell back on Miranda, “that is exactly how it would go if you told Marcus.”

“I doubt it,” Miranda said sadly.

“I have no doubt,” Jeremy spoke up from the gunnery seat. He was wiping tears from his eyes but his face showed no mirth or deceit, “I’ve watched Marcus like Auberje has. It’s easy to see how often Marcus watches you. He likes the way you look, at the very very least.”

“That gets you pretty far,” Mae said with a toss of her fine black hair.

“Thanks, guys. I will think on it. Can we get back to watching the boarding party?” They all turned back to their duties.