Chapter 1 - 07: Pandora's Arrival

Classes were over, dinner was finished and Kanya was tired. Of course, nothing could beat the timing of the announcement that was to come at 10pm. A loud voice boomed through the speakers. "This is an announcement regarding our arrival at the trading station. Our arrival at the trade station will be delayed indefinitely due to an issue concerning our engines. We have an engineering team from the TRi Aegis to assist our own in order to expedite the process."

Kanya was too tired to bother.

***

Meanwhile, an investigation was ongoing in the engine room.

"Someone tampered with one of the limiters on the one of the zero point control modules," one of the engineers said.

A girl, probably not much older than 16-17 years of age, was next to him, looking at the same thing. "It looks like it had to be someone ranking pretty high on this ship. No ordinary engineer could have gotten access to the innards of these systems."

"Whoever did it replaced an entire board here so force it to overload."

Another engineer suddenly rushed in. "Pandora, our long range sensors just detected a group of pirate ships closing in on our position."

"The nearest pirate base is way too far off for them to have not planned this attack."

Pandora replied, "I have my suspicions, because I'm quite certain we don't have any pirates on this ship. Something else is up. Either way, this ship is ready to go. Inform the Aegis of our findings."

"Aren't we going back?"

"It's way too dangerous to return now."

"But all the equipment is back on the ..."

"I will not have all of you risking your lives over something as trivial as the analysis of the control board. An operative aboard a medical vessel is of a small concern. I've contacted the adminstration of this vessel, and they've agreed to house us until we arrive at Nakamura."

"Nakamura? Isn't that a lot further into the Dekaten System?"

"This ship cannot be allowed to dock this close to a possible attack. The upcoming trade station has been warned, and we are immediately making a jump from the trade gate from there to Nakamura. Erse already knows of this plan. Move along."

***

A loud voice boomed through the speakers again at 11pm. "Due to the risk of pirate attacks, the MV2904 will be making a jump as soon as we arrive at the trade gate. We will make a longer stop at Nakamura instead."

Chapter 1 - 06: Protocol Class. Maybe.

"She probably pissed off at you getting a better assignment than she did or something," the rookies suggested to Kanya as they were sitting through the protocol lecture. "No accident could ever let you forget something as important as what this lecture is about, that we happen to be ignoring," they continued.

"They've been pounded in hundreds of times even before we get the our real assignments, let alone when you're actually in one," another commented.

"So where did you get posted?"

Kanya replied in a very unhappy manner, "The Kirkor."

"The Kirkor?! Isn't that one of those 'classified ships'?"

"Huh?" Kanya was puzzled.

"A classified ship is a ship whose every move is completely secret. The only exception is that the existence of the ship and its crew are confirmed. There are 29 of those, and they usually have a Gifted on the bridge. My brother's been trying to get on one of those for years. Apparently, it's impossible unless you're handpicked or something."

"Odd though why they placed you on this ship. The crew on the Meganet generally unclassify those movements anyway, since the only reason their really classified is to prevent assasinations of the Gifted. The Gifted don't really care much since they very much think that people should know where their ship is at anyway."

"The Kirkor isn't going to go anywhere near this medical vessel, not at least for another few months. It's on an expedition to visit the Arltian Alliance. That means you're stuck here with us at least two more months. That is, of course, unless Erse decides to steal you first before you can get to the Kirkor, but that's unlikely."

"The crew of her ship said that she hasn't added anyone new to the ship for a long time. She used to go on these recruitment sprees for her ship, picking up a crew member from every ship she ever came on."

Kanya just sat silent, as the others busy chatting suddenly felt a cold glare upon them. The lecturer was obviously displeased with the heated discussion that was going on at the rear of the class.

Chapter 1 - 05: Rookies

At the Training VR (virtual reality) room, Kanya and Cassandra are warming up before the rookies come in. "This damn ship is so old, this is still called the VR room," Cassandra complained over the simulated communications line.

"At least the interior is of the ships of the current era," Kanya joked.

They had been chasing each other around an asteroid field when the two new rookies came in.

"So where's the instructor we're supposed to defeat today?" were the first words out of the confident duo.

"Get strapped in calibrate the devices to your liking. We'll begin as soon as you're ready." Cassandra's voice came out of a speaker nearby.

"No face to look at today? Did all the others warn you of imminent humiliation or something?"

"I'm busy training someone else now. Just get it and cut the crap."

Within the virtual asteroid field, Kanya was still hot on the tail of Cassandra's fighter. The other two had spawned within the field also. The radar display on the interior registered two new blips.

Cassandra immediately ordered: "It'll be the two of us against the two of you. Be prepared. All the ships have unlimited small projectiles - and no missiles, to closely simulate the standard loadout during most of the stuff you'll be doing on this ship."

"Affirmative," the duo replied in a more serious manner.

It didn't take long before the fighting began. Needless to say, the two rookies confidence was quickly shattered as their ships were decimated in one run by pure projectile fire. Apparently, their earlier instructors were pretty incompetent. Supposedly the reason why they ended up assigned to this ship anyway.

The rookies were another matter. It's supposed to be standard procedure to be just put on a random ship for to train them in protocol before being placed into their actual assignments. It just so happened that these were the top of their class. Unfortunately for them, Kanya and Cassandra were supposed to be the top in their field as well.

The horror show of their wings ripping apart, cockpits shattering, ships blowing up continued for about an hour before Cassandra called it quits. The rookies had improved considerably since the first run.

Then, they headed for the nearby pantry for a drink. Cassandra had obviously pulled the same thing she did with Kanya the previous day. Apparently, she was the 'cafeteria lady' as well.

It didn't take long before bonding (otherwise known as pointless conversation) occured. Cassandra was the leader for the entire fighter operations of the ship. That means she has a lot of tales (tall or short) to tell. Of course, nothing could possibly happen now. Travelling deep in Terran territory usually meant no trouble for a while. The Dekaten System happened to be among the central trading posts for the Terrans.

However, being a medical vessel, MV2904 is generally a prime target for sanctioned Arltian worlds or pirates for supplies. It was raided several times, but never again after Cassandra came onboard. The TRi, however, had little concern over these raids, since there rarely are any casualties from the raids. Of course, there usually aren't any important people on the ship either.

The first time in a decade that someone important would step onboard would be when Erse Arete walks aboard the ship. Kanya was, of course, oblivious to the significance of this event to the crew of the MV2904. The only Gifted in the entire TRi organisational structure coming aboard a relatively unknown ship.

The supply stop was coming soon. Kanya was pondering about the stuff he might find on the supply stop (induced from a conversation about the supply stop at a trading post) when Cassandra snapped him out of it. "Go follow those rookies to class. You're not exempt from emergency and military protocol. Follow them all day. I wasn't kidding about you having a long day yesterday. Today is a chock full of lectures since tomorrow is the supply stop. It's unlikely anyone will want to stay on the ship anyway since the trading post is a big one. We'll be stopping for a few days anyway - so all the classes got pushed to today."

Kanya showed an expression of the unpleasant day ahead of him, but of course, looked forward to the next few days, which would be filled with something less arduous than protocol lectures.

Chapter 1 - 04: It's Tuesday

Kanya awakens from his slumber to an odd sound. Before long, he realises its just his personal data device. He picks it up and presses a button. A projection appears out of the device. The huge words slowly come into focus of sleepy-eyed Kanya: "Wake up call! - Harrison "

He then looked at the time display on his device: 7:02am. Oddly late for military training. Thinking about it, he had spent most of the night researching data on the Gifted, Erse as well as filling in any holes in his memory with the file Harrison gave him.

He immediately went to the bathroom to prepare for the day. How else would you prepare for the day?

When he returned, his device had received another message. Now it said: "Meet me for breakfast as soon as possible at the Cafeteria. -Harrison"

Kanya was puzzled. Where was this cafeteria? He tried searching through his memory for this place. Of course, that being said, he obviously lacked some form of common sense. Everyone knew how to find the cafeteria. PDDs generally download the basic navigational data whenever it entered a ship.

It wasn't long before he found someone who pointed out that rather obvious fact. He then rushed all the way to the cafeteria, which happened to be another section of the ship. He then came in, seeing Harrison at one of the tables. The nurse from yesterday was with him. She wasn't in uniform.

"Oh yeah, you haven't been formally introduced. This is Cassandra Atlam. She's your training instructor."

Kanya looked in disbelief.

Harrison picked up on it immediately as Cassandra began giggling. After recovering, she explained that she decided to see her new recruit the day before, disguising herself.

"I'm going to take it you told him about Erse visiting already?"

"Of course I did. He should've spent all night puzzled about what I was saying."

Kanya felt obliged to respond, but couldn't find any words. He just continued eating his food, not very surprised by the situation. Cassandra was a little irritated by his silence. "Say something, Kanya! You're not supposed to keep eating and ignoring the conversation!"

"What can you expect me to say? I'm not exactly surprised. You didn't act like much of a nurse yesterday anyway. Didn't think you were a pilot though."

"Hmmph," she pouted and began cleaning up her tray, preparing to leave. "Simulation training is in an hour at the Training VR Room. You'll be meeting a few fellow pilots like yourself. The only exception is that you're just practising to get up to speed. They're fresh from the Academy. I fully intend that the both of us beat some sense into them, so they won't slack off."

Kanya was a little surprised by the revelation. "OK. Nothing like ragging rookies, huh?"

"Don't be late. 9:30am sharp at the room. No late antics like the cafeteria stunt this morning."

She then left the cafeteria.

Harrison then said, "Being the best pilot on the ship means she has a lot to live up to. She a little sore that the best assignment she could get was on this ship. Apparently someone higher up doesn't like her or something."

"If she's so good, wouldn't some admiral already be scrambling for her?"

"Apparently someone put a black mark on her file or something. She didn't know why, and she couldn't find out why. She's been trying to get the mark off the file for years. Apparently, the someone who's doing is some really powerful authority. Probably someone in the ranks of the Gifted, I'd say."

"Why?"

"I'd speculate they intend to put her into some high profile project later. She still thinks she must have pissed off some general somewhere."

"But speculations are speculations."

"This ship has seen plenty of fighting though. We tend to attract pirates and the sort pretty often - plenty of which Cassandra was probably the only person that could hold them off."

"Hopefully, we'll now have two." Kanya grinned cheekily.

"Dream on. She's way beyond your level. You'll see soon enough."

Chapter 1 - 03: Today is Monday

"Please come in," Kanya replied. A young nurse came in. "Where's Harrison?" she asked.

"He left quite a while ago."

"I brought food and drinks. So you're the new one, huh?"

"New one?"

"Never mind. You'll find out later anyway."

"Find out what?"

"Let's change the topic - have you heard of that Erse Arete is coming to visit the ship?"

"Who's Erse Arete?"

"You've even forgotten something like that? She's the 29th Gifted. We're meeting them at the station we're stopping at to resupply. She's quite fond of walking through any ships she happens to come across during any of her long trips."

"Gifted?"

"On second thought, maybe I should just leave you to your own devices for a while. It seems you don't remember much. The console in your room should have access the Terran Meganet. You should find out everything you need to know from there."

"Huh?"

"I'll leave you alone for now. And by the way, your room number is 230. In case you've forgotten that, or blindly followed Harrison without looking at your room number behind you. Which you probably did."

Kanya nodded in response.

"I suggest you return to your room once you're done with the file. You'll have a long day ahead of you tomorrow."