Random Ideas

“You guys head off to the shuttle. I have to return to the Aegis to do some paper work,” Pandora told them before immediately running off to another shuttle bay.

***

Nakamura is a human colonized planet. It is located within the Dekaten System nearby its own trade gate. It has five orbital stations with shuttle services to the main cities on the surface of the planet.

The planet has been used mainly for agricultural and mining purposes, as well as residential areas for those who prefer planet-based settlements. It was found already ready for human habitation. There was no terraforming involved with this planet. Hence, massive amount of care has been taken to ensure that human settlement would not affect the ecosystem too much.

It orbits a small star, roughly the size of the original Earth’s sun, from a slightly further distance. Hence, the meteorological system of the planet is slightly different from the original Earth, and this somehow, made it suitable for growing modern crops that have been engineered by the GMTi.

It is currently considered to be under the control of the TRi, although the TRi does not use its influence and allows Nakamura to flourish without corporate control. This, in turn, makes it rather attractive to traders and refugees from other parts of the universe.

***

Pandora is walking down a corridor. The interior of the Aegis is noticeably newer and more advanced than the MV2904. She stops at part of the wall. She removes her PDD and visibly activating a few buttons. A doorway opens in front of her.

All that is ahead of her is darkness. She walks in and the wall section returns to where it was.

“Well, Pandora. What do you have to report?” a hologram in the room appeared and spoke.

“We would also like a status report on the specimen known as Kanya Methodius.”

“He must be ready before he is moved onto one of our ships.”

“The Kirkor is extremely important. Should the specimen fail to operate as an ordinary pilot, we expect you to take full responsibility.”

Pandora, immediately replied, “It wasn’t my idea to start this experiment to begin with.” She points towards one of 28 holograms in the room.

The hologram immediately replies, “It’s true I suggested it, but you carried it out.”

“His abilities are still present, so it would follow that his skills should be as well.”

“Enough. Pandora, give us your report. We Gifted have no time to continue this pointless banter.”

“The pirates we hired to protect the ship and its valuable cargo was being attacked by an unknown fleet. From my analysis of the recordings given to me, I am quite certain the ships were rented from one of the more war oriented colonies in Ryzak Alliance. It will be impossible to determine who ordered who to attack the ship. I have sent some false intelligence through specfic channels. I believe we can expect a massive assault on the Aegis when we enter Arltian space.”

“The Kirkor will be ready to assist the Aegis in the battle.”

“Thank you, Jon. I can only hope that it will not be necessary,” Pandora replied.

“And what of Kanya?” another asked.

“You already know.” Jonathan replies. “He will continue to be trained by Cassandra before being transferred over to my ship.”

Pandora continues to elaborate, “I have not been able to perform my duties regarding him, but I believe that an opportunity will come within the next 24 hours.”

“Good. We await the good news.”

“This conversation is to be kept secret from Erse. She will know nothing of this experiment and plan. She was always one to oppose our more radical projects.”

Pandora nods in agreement as the entire room darkens as holograms dissipate. She smiles as she leaves the room. Everything is going according to plan.

It wasn’t long before Pandora had destroyed at least double as many drones as anyone else could. And then she decided to say something.

“Kanya, what are you doing? Stop holding back.”

Everyone’s attention got pulled towards Kanya’s kill count. It was half one of the rookies.

“I’ll stop holding back if you will do the same, Pandora.”

“Deal.”

It wasn’t long before the three experienced pilots began to gain kills many times greater than any of the two rookies. They had finally realised that they had a long way to go before being able to challenge any of these elite pilots.

“How in the world did you guys manage to rack up those kills so quickly?”

“Probably experience in high speed battle combined with plenty of talent,” Cassandra replied.

Pandora quickly stated, “We’re due to arrive at Nakamura soon. The announcement should come any…”

An announcement interrupted Pandora. “We are due to arrive at Nakamura within the next half hour. We will dock with the orbital station. From there, you will be able to take shuttle services down to the surface. We will be meeting the Aegis later, for which all crew are expected to be on board. A schedule will be downloaded to your PDDs which you will be expected to keep.”

“OK, so the announcement beat me to it. Let’s get ready to leave for the surface. It’s bad to be cooped up in a ship for too long.”

“I’m pretty sure you have no clue why I called you here. Since you are in the military, you should know this is the only room here without surveillance that we can both access,” Pandora immediately informed Cassandra.

“What is this top secret thing you have to tell me anyway?”

“Erse intends to meet with you when we arrive at Nakamura. You are to take a shuttle to the Aegis as soon as possible. When you arrive, your PDD will automatically tell you where you need to be.”

“I don’t even have clearance to get on the Aegis.”

“You will have temporary clearance when the time comes.”

“Can’t you tell me anything?”

“Not on this ship, not here. For now, let’s just enjoy a light VR session. Whatever I told you is to never leave this room.”

It wasn’t long until Kanya showed up.

“Pandora is here?”

“Just get in and start playing.”

The two rookies Cassandra was supposed to train showed up later. It wasn’t long until they decided to determine how good Pandora really was with space combat.

“Yo Pandora.”

“What?” she replied as she was busily, but easily cutting through swathes of drones with missiles.

“Wanna show us your skills? Four of us versus you.”

“You do know that would be pointless, right? Get real. No human pilot in this piece of junk simulated ship can evade 4 other skilled pilots.”

“You’re just afraid of losing to us.”

“I’d say rather than duelling each other, let’s see who can kill more drones in 20 minutes. I’ll reset the count and our positions now. 20 missiles.”

“You’re on.”

Pandora immediately relays a command to the ship’s commander: “Depart for Nakamura at once.”

The ship’s commander, John Hummings, immediately passes the order on to his crew. “What’s the hurry? The pirates weren’t here to attack us.”

Pandora replies, “They weren’t. Something else was. If we don’t leave soon, that something else will.”

“Understood. I’m going to assume Erse still wants everything classified as high as I can put it?”

***

An announcement boomed through the halls of the ship: “Attention to all passengers, we will be making a jump soon. Please note that all Meganet activity will cease until we have completed the jump.”

A comment escaped from Cassandra’s lips, “That was hasty. She must have gotten information about something.”

“I wonder what Nakamura looks like.”

“You’ll know soon enough. Maybe more of your memories will return when you see it. You should’ve been through the Dekaten System plenty of times.”

***

Within less than an hour, the MV2904 made the jump. It would have to travel another day or two to reach Nakamura.

“My crew will be leaving for the Aegis soon. I’ll be staying behind for a while,” Pandora told John.

“What for? Your services are no longer needed on this ship. Anyway, wouldn’t you have matters to attend to on the Aegis? You are pretty important.”

“I have things to discuss with Ms. Atlam. I believe she’s the head of your fighter crew.”

“Erse has took an interest in her, huh?”

“Unfortunately, I cannot divulge any further information to you. Pointless TRi protocol.”

“At least it’s more lenient the GMTi ones. Under the GMTi protocol, you wouldn’t even be allowed to tell me why you came onboard.”

“I wish I didn’t have to be military staff.”

“Your piloting skills are superb. Everyone knows that. Of course, you are Chief Engineer for the TRi.”

“I’m still wondering why the Gifted don’t want to recognise me. It doesn’t make much sense.”

“Nothing you could do about that. Even Erse wasn’t let into the GMTi although she’s recognised.”

“They’ve turned into politicians more than the ‘Gifted’.”

“Heh.”

“OK, I’m going to head back to my temporary quarters. I’ll be gone as soon as we dock with one of the Nakamura’s orbital stations.”

“Understood. We’ll prepare for Erse’s visit as soon as possible after we land.”

“You’d better.”

***

“We’re so close to Nakamura I can smell it,” Harrison said jokingly.

“It’s still at least 24 hours before we get there. That’s assuming there wasn’t any damage to the engine systems during the last incident,” Cassandra said sharply.

“What’s Kanya doing now anyway?”

“He’s in his quarters. God knows what he does in there.”

“Oh yeah, by the way, Pandora asked me to pass you some message.”

Harrison hands over a piece of folded paper.

“Who in the world still uses paper? What in the world be so important that she couldn’t send it to my PDD?”

Cassandra read the piece of paper.

“She wants to meet me at the VR room tomorrow?”

“Any idea what for?”

“I don’t know. Maybe she wants to make up for having to disappear into the middle of nowhere today.”