The most annoying thing about ensigns, Jane considered, was that too many of them were just so fucking cute.
She’d had cause to ruminate on that particular point as she spoke to the assembly of real-officer-wannabes.
It was a class of about twenty, and, typical in this era, mainly female, with only three men. It was a good mix of species as well, though it skewed decidedly human.
Most non-military people assumed that ensigns were always super young. Whereas that had a kernel of truth to it, the fact was that people in their late-twenties or even their thirties could be ensigns. That was either through having a lousy career and not earning any promotions, or by starting off as an enlisted person and then taking enough courses to earn a place in an officer training division.
Today, Jane noticed two ensigns who looked older than herself by at least a handful of years.
However, the majority of the group were young—her age or less—and quite a few of the women were…yummy.
Particularly Former Ensign Veronica Vale…
Blondes had always been Jane’s weakness, and Vale’s hair was lustrously blonde—as blonde as Kitten Chavver’s, who was a big movie star back on Earth.
Boobs—big surprise—had also always been another of Jane’s weaknesses, and Vale’s short and tiny frame boasted a pair of breasts which filled out her uniform tunic very nicely.
And lastly…
A bonus.
British accents had never failed to make Jane’s knees weak, and Vale’s was as British as they come, with the accent carried on a sweetly feminine voice. It was one of those highbrow British accents which made Jane think of the current queen of the UK—herself a young woman who was only in her twenties.
Of course, she wasn’t here to check out the cute ensigns (or the extra cute JG)…
For the better part of the past thirty minutes, she had been giving her audience a sanitized version of her first contact encounter. Sanitized because although Commander Voss had been pleased that Jane had agreed to meet with these lowlies, she had stated that under no circumstances should any mention be made about the transmission the unspac had sent. That information was being restricted to a select group of individuals for now.
She had, however, been given leave to mention the thing about the prime numbers…
Relating that part of the tale now was causing a frisson of excitement to fill the air in the room, and Jane wanted to laugh at how wide-eyed every member of the audience was.
She took a glance at Former Ensign Vale, seeing that the JG was just as wide-eyed as the others. But on her it looked particularly cute.
Jane finished up the story by stating that the unspac had flown away “soon after” they had exchanged prime numbers, omitting mention of the transmission.
“Any questions?” she asked.
Every hand in the room shot up.
Jane had to admit that it pleased her that the lowlies seemed eager to hear more.
Well…rank has its privileges…
With that thought in her head, she pointed to Former Ensign Vale, who—after herself, of course—was the next in rank.
“Vale,” she said.
“Thank you, ma’am,” Vale said, standing. “What did you learn about the tactical capabilities of the alien craft? And do you believe this species poses a threat to the Fordham? ”
“I have no real evidence that they are a threat,” Jane replied, “but naturally, we need to assume they are, and trust me, your superior bridge officers are assuming that as well.
“As for the unspac’s tactical capabilities,” she continued, “it was no match for a Spacehawk. My biggest concern would have been the maneuverability of the craft. It was smaller than a Spacehawk. If we assume that a skilled pilot was onboard, it might have been a challenge to target it in a dogfight.”
She pointed to someone else, a gorgeous Lydig.
“Were you concerned that raising shields might be considered a threatening act?” the Lydig asked.
It was a fair question, Jane thought. There were cultures on Earth and other planets for which the refusal of a guest to partake in the offer of food was considered a monumental insult. It was therefore possible that an alien species might consider the raising of defensive shields when no hostile gesture had been made to be akin to a slap in the face.
“It was not something which I thought of at the time,” Jane answered. “You need to understand that I wasn’t in a giant starship—I was in a small starfighter, alone in space, three parsecs away from anyone who could help me. Despite my considerable skills as a pilot, it was a very vulnerable position to be in. Besides, if they had interpreted the raising of my shields as a threat, at least then we’d know what kind of beings we’re dealing with.”
“So…” the Lydig went on, “…did you feel as if they were benevolent?”
“My instincts told me they were curious ,” Jane said. “As I stated before, we have to assume the worst until we see evidence otherwise.” She shrugged. “Of course, I’m trained as a combat pilot, which means that when I come across something unknown, I always have one finger on the trigger.”
“Did you ever consider jumping to plus-C as soon as you saw that unspac?” a different ensign asked. “Running away before making contact?”
Jane looked at her, folded her arms, and cocked an eyebrow.
“I’m Sabre Squadron,” she stated. “We don’t run away.”
***
Eventually, Former Ensign Vale called a stop to the question-and-answer session, ten minutes before it was scheduled to end.
She had the entire class give Jane a round of applause, and then instructed the ensigns who were on duty to report to whatever stations they were assigned.
“Thank you so much, ma’am,” Vale told Jane as everyone else began filing out of the classroom. “This was very helpful.”
Jane shrugged. She also wanted to giggle. Vale sounded so much like British aristocracy that she expected the JG to tell her to do something involving tea and perhaps an execution.
“I hope you all got some benefit out of it,” she said.
Vale nodded eagerly.
“We did!” she insisted. “Well… I did, for sure! I was on the bridge that day when you were overdue to return, and so I remember clearly how the atmosphere up there changed when you finally appeared and announced, ‘Contact!’ Hearing you tell the whole story now really tied it all together for me, especially in relation to all of the orders which the captain and the other senior officers then gave. It’s going to allow me to imagine what I would do in a similar situation when I become a starship captain.” She paused, and then suddenly added, “Ma’am.”
Jane gave her a quick smile. Close-lipped…polite but not inviting. She called it her professional smile.
Ambitious little thing.
She liked that in a woman. She herself had designs on becoming the leader of Sabre Squadron. Of course, that was going to take time…Mbuwe would have to be reassigned or retire, and Jane didn’t want either of those to happen. The colonel was an incredible leader, and a hell of a mentor.
But if it did happen, then obviously Chang would be next in line, and she would probably end up flying starfighters until she was 109-years-old—the average life expectancy of humans in this era.
Still though, it was her ambition…
Right now, however, she was reminding herself not to flirt with Former Ensign Vale…
Technically , there were no prohibitions against one officer dating a lower-ranked officer, and there were no prohibitions against Air and Space Defense dating Navy. The Unitary figured such liaisons were going to happen no matter how many rules against it were put in place; therefore it made more sense to allow it, set guidelines, and hope everyone followed them. The most important codicil was that the lower-ranked officer could never be assigned to any division, department, or project that would place them under the command of the higher-ranked officer. Nonetheless, Jane didn’t want to venture down that path with Vale.
That the former ensign was gay, she had no doubt. Throughout this little…seminar, Jane had caught Vale looking at her with eyes which indicated that the young woman was interested in more than just the story about the unspac.
It had given Jane something of a thrill recognizing that, and had made her think that she certainly would not mind hearing Vale cry out whatever she cries out when she has an orgasm…in her British accent.
She hadn’t had that thrill since Lauren—a British-born journalist she had dated on Jabari Prime, a planet in the Sagittarius-Carina Arm of the Milky Way.
However…Jane felt it might be a bit dicey to date one of the bridge crew. Well…with the exception of either Captain Yarrum or Commander Voss—preferably at the same time.
And it was probably particularly dicey to date one of the lowlies of the bridge crew.
Or any lowly…full stop.
“Well, Vale…normally when I have downtime like now, I run a few laps around The Ring, but I think today I will just head back to my quarters and relax,” Jane said, as a way of leading up to her goodbye.
The truth was, she was exhausted.
Word of her contact with an alien vessel—though not the details—had spread around the ship, giving Jane a bit of notoriety. It had even reached the ears of the sexy pharmacist. She and Jane had then spent a few mind-blowing hours in Jane’s quarters having a different kind of close encounter.
When the sexy pharmacist had then left—pursuant to their no overnights rule—Jane had managed to get some sleep, but not enough. The result was that now, all she wanted to do was skip running laps around The Ring, and take a nap.
“Good job setting this up, Vale,” she said.
“Thank you, ma’am,” Vale responded. “I appreciate you accommodating us.”
Jane gave her another professional smile and then headed for the door.
“See you around, Former Ens—I mean, Lieutenant ,” she said in parting.
As she made her way to the nearest lift tube, Vale’s pretty face stayed in her mind.
Maybe I’ll look her up when she becomes a grown-up lieutenant…
***
DingDingDingDingDingDingDing!
Jane stirred in her bed, instantly alert though she had just been woken up. Years of training, and of having needed to scamper out of bed from a sound sleep in order to scramble to her starfighter because of a sudden battle situation, had conditioned her mind to boot up quickly.
However, she recognized that the alarm waking her up now wasn’t a scramble alert, so she knew she didn’t need to hurry into her flightsuit and then use the drop chute in her quarters to rocket down to Hangar Bay 1.
Instead, the alarm was an urgent message alert.
“Holly, what’s going on?” she croaked, propping herself up on one elbow, the bedsheet falling away from her bare breasts.
“You are required in the main conference room in twenty minutes,” Holly answered. “Captain’s request.”
Jane sighed.
Again?
How much more could she explain about that first contact?
But then she considered that perhaps this had to do with that transmission she had received from the unspac. Perhaps Meg had been able to make sense of some of it.
She started getting out of bed.
“Acknowledge my receipt of the message to the captain,” she ordered Holly.
“Sending acknowledgement,” Holly replied.
Standing beside her bed, she checked the ship’s clock in her bedroom, which showed not only the time but the day of the week. The clock was telling her that she had managed to get a little over three hours of sleep since returning to her quarters after meeting with the lowlies.
Technically, she was still off-duty, and when she was off-duty she preferred wearing cute, girly, and casual outfits. And she was entitled to do so. However, an audience with the captain changed the rules. She also assumed other senior officers would be there—as well as Mbuwe and Chang.
Fine!
She chose a clean duty uniform from her closet, tossed it on the bed, and then selected a black smart bra from a drawer that was embedded in the wall. Putting the bra on, she felt the nanomaterial shape itself around her breasts at her preferred settings for both control and lift.
She shucked off the gray gym shorts with the words UASD Academy embroidered above the hemline, decided to wear the same panties, and then pulled on the duty uniform.
It was also made of smart fabric, and usually, she had it set to be somewhat loose-fitting. But out of resentment for having to put the damn thing on at all during her downtime, she instructed Holly to adjust the nanomaterial so that the uniform cinched more at her waist, as well as hugged her bosom and ass more closely.
Looking at herself in the full-length mirror, she was pleased.
She may have to wear her uniform, but at least it would look cuter and show off her figure more than usual.
A few minutes later, she was walking out of her quarters.
“Holly…fastest route to the main conference room, please,” she said.
It was only her second time going there, and although the first occasion had been fairly recently, the Fordham was an enormous ship, and she had already forgotten the best route to take.
From the special earpiece Jane had placed on her ear before leaving her quarters, a flexible and clear plastic screen emerged and then curved around the left side of her head to position itself in front of her eyes.
As Holly provided voice directions in her ear, arrows and other data appeared on the screen, augmenting the instructions by signaling the turns she needed, the distance until those turns, and things like which lift tube she needed to take, and which deck she needed to get off on.
With this help, Jane was able to reach the main conference room with a few minutes to spare, walking into it alongside Dr. Xeric—the linguist—and Commander Dell, the hyper-paranoid Chief Tactical Officer.
The captain and Commander Voss were already waiting. However, unlike the previous meeting, all of the Fordham’s other senior officers were present as well.
Jane saw Colonels Mbuwe and Chang.
Mbuwe gestured to a vacant seat next to her, which Jane promptly sat down in.
The captain leaned forward in her seat, and rested her arms on the table, looking at everyone gathered.
“There has been a development,” the captain began. “Meg?”
Without further prompting, the starship’s AI gave her report…
“It was impossible for me to translate the characters of the message,” she said. “However, I did determine that there is a mathematical pattern to the material we were given. After some time, I believe I have successfully interpreted the pattern to within a point-seven-three chance of error.”
“And what is the pattern?” Captain Yarrum prodded.
“The pattern translates into a representation of a three-dimensional area of space, Captain,” Meg answered.
Suddenly, the vidwall displayed an image that looked like a three-dimensional line drawing of a dodecahedron. Within the shape were a lot of dots of various sizes, and it was obvious—to Jane at least—that they were meant to represent stars.
“What are those two circles?” Captain Yarrum asked.
There were two circles within the dodecahedron, quite some distance apart from one another.
“I believe they represent starting and ending points, Captain,” Meg answered. “In fact, I believe this is a map.”
Jane, who was already intrigued, became even more so, and she could not help stating the first thing that came to her mind.
“It’s an invitation,” she said.
Every head in the room turned to her.
She swallowed but met all their eyes.
“It’s an invitation,” she repeated.
She noticed the captain and Commander Voss share a look. After a moment, Voss turned to look at her.
“Now the question is…was it an invitation to you , or to us ?” she stated.
“With respect, Commander,” Dell said, “the question really is…if it is an invitation, do we accept it? I couldn’t care less who among us it was intended for.”
“Your opinion is noted,” the captain said to the tactical officer. Jane sensed Yarrum was getting a little impatient with Dell and her tendency towards hypervigilance. “And it will be considered. In the meantime, I want us to explore the option of accepting the invitation—even if it is just hypothetically. With that in mind…” She looked at the vidwall. “Which circle is the starting point, and which is the ending point?”
Jane spoke up again. Even she was surprised that in a room where nearly everyone outranked her by a lot , that she was willing to be so…outgoing.
“Captain,” she said, “I have an idea about that.”
Captain Yarrum looked at her, and her eyes silently told her to proceed.
“I think it’s obvious,” Jane began, “that one of the points is where I was on patrol. The message was sent to me, after all. If we can return to that point and then…I don’t know…compare the stars we can see out the window, so to speak, to what’s drawn on the map. That will tell us which circle is the starting point.”
“Captain,” Meg said, “I believe Lieutenant Belivet’s suggestion has merit.”
Captain Yarrum sighed.
“Great,” she muttered. “If Meg agrees with you, that means I’m in trouble. It probably also means you’re after my job.”
Apparently, that was a joke, because all of the senior officers laughed, and so Jane laughed as well.
“Opinions?” the captain asked the group.
“We’re a ship of exploration,” Commander Voss said. “And we were sent to Andromeda to explore. This falls under our mission parameters.”
“But contact with a species that is at least as advanced as our own is dangerous!” Commander Dell pressed. “What if this is less of an invitation, and more of a trap? What if the Fordham is captured? What if they learn the secrets of the fermion drive, and then use that to invade the Milky Way?”
As a military pilot, Jane had to admit that Commander Dell had a good point…
The fermion drive was what had allowed the Fordham to reach the Andromeda Galaxy in the first place. It had been invented by Colonel Chang’s girlfriend, Dr. Lia Ketterman. Jane didn’t know the specifics of how it worked, except that it somehow allowed a starship to open up a temporary wormhole between two far-off locations and allow that ship to instantly traverse the distance.
It was revolutionary technology. But like all revolutionary technologies, it had just as much capacity for harm than good.
“We have three years here in Andromeda,” Dr. Xeric—the lone civilian in the room—said. “If Andromeda is even only half as populated with advanced species as the Milky Way is, chances are we are going to encounter many of them. At some point we are going to have to decide if we want to join that community or continue hiding from them.”
“Jeanne,” Commander Parikh began, looking at Commander Dell. Parikh was the Chief Security Officer. “You know that you and I can both prepare the Fordham for any…treacherous eventuality.”
She looked at the captain.
“If we accept this invitation, ma’am,” she went on, “we need to show up ready to fight.”
“And ready to run ,” Dell added.
Captain Yarrum nodded slowly but said nothing. Everyone else in the room waited.
Eventually, after nearly a minute…
“I cannot in good conscience allow this opportunity to pass,” the captain said thoughtfully. “Against all odds, we have discovered evidence of at least one spacefaring species in this galaxy. Furthermore, that species has communicated with us—or more specifically, with Lieutenant Belivet, which is why she is sitting here…and so far, that communication has been done in a peaceful manner. Of course, there is a risk involved…but the Unitary did not become what it is without risks.
“Even more to the point,” she continued, “we are—for all intents and purposes—alone here in Andromeda. If we wish to remain for the full three years of our mission, it will behove us to learn who our friends and enemies might be. Therefore…we will set a course back to Lieutenant Belivet’s patrol position. Then, if we are able…” She gestured to the vidwall and the map. “…determine where to go next.”
She stood.
“That is all,” she stated. “Senior officers…let’s adjourn to my ready room. I’ll be there shortly.”
Everyone else stood up and began filing out of the room.
“Lieutenant Belivet,” the captain called out. “One moment, please.”
Jane shared a look with Colonel Mbuwe, but she stopped heading towards the door and stood where she was, ramrod straight.
Soon, the room was empty save for herself, the captain, and Commander Voss. Under other circumstances, Jane knew she would let her mind wander…
She was alone in a room with two stunningly gorgeous women. The captain, in particular, was generally considered the most beautiful example of womanhood on this entire ship: a dark-haired stunner with a mouth-watering figure.
What’s more, there was a huge conference table, which could provide a suitable—if hard—surface for all sorts of fun activities. Hopefully, her brain would file this tableau away and reuse it tonight while dreaming.
However, right now, Jane felt a little nervous, curious as to why the captain had asked her to stay behind. She and the Fordham’s commanding officer hadn’t exactly crossed paths much on this mission so far.
“Good thinking earlier,” Captain Yarrum said.
“Thank you, Captain,” Jane replied.
“I’m sure you were wondering why you had been invited to join this discussion?” Yarrum asked.
“Yes, ma’am,” Jane admitted.
She had been wondering that. She was far from a senior officer—even within Sabre Squadron—and her absence in the meeting wouldn’t have been missed, despite her rather brilliant idea about returning to her patrol location…though she suspected someone would have come up with that eventually.
The captain came around the table and approached her, stopping only about a meter away.
Jane couldn’t help noticing how heavenly the woman’s perfume was. She wondered what it was. She was certain she had never smelled that scent before.
“Call it a professional courtesy,” Yarrum said. “You were the one who had the contact with the alien, therefore I feel as though you should be included in any discussions about how we proceed.”
She tilted her head towards the first officer.
“Commander Voss agrees with me,” the captain added.
Being this close to Yarrum was making Jane feel a little lightheaded. However, she managed to give a curt nod.
“I understand, Captain,” she said, her mouth feeling dry. She licked her lips. “I appreciate the consideration.”
The captain smiled. On such a beautiful woman it was devastating, and Jane wanted to melt.
“I just wanted you to know that,” Captain Yarrum said. “I hope I can continue to rely on your cooperation?”
“Of course!” Jane told her.
With the aliens, with any other clever ideas, with…scrubbing your back in the shower…
Captain Yarrum smiled again.
“Excellent,” she said. “That is all, Lieutenant.”
Jane snapped off a crisp salute to the captain, gave a nod to Commander Voss, and headed out of the room.
When she was in the passageway, and had walked some distance away, she let out a breath along with a dry chuckle.
“Rings of Saturn!” she exclaimed softly. “That woman…”