The Patriot I: The Awoken

Chapter Three | Embark

                Compared to the years I spent in the military, the six-month training period for the mission felt like the blink of an eye. On the first day, I stepped into the training facility in Florida, unknowing of what would happen. Now it was the final day. It felt as if no time had passed, but I had knowledge I didn't before.

    Each individual went through a specific training program. Mine was varied, likely due to the varied nature of my position. I spent days memorizing the layout of the ship, how the life system, food system, weapon system, and flight system worked, the duties and processes of every department, and even the specific layout of the computer system. There were emergency training scenarios, in which I was tested on how to repair the life system, detain someone, and how to locate problems in the various physical systems.

    A large portion of my training was spent on learning how to administer the cryogenic freezing to a crewmember. First I learned the science, and then I learned the process. I ran through simulations over and over until I was able to put the simulation to sleep quickly and without error.

   I'd worked hard for six months. Yet, as I walked off of the bus and onto the concrete, I felt woefully unprepared. Small, vague questions remained in my mind, but they were so vague that I wasn't able to voice them.

   The warm breeze brushed past my bare head. My nerves tingled, still unused to not having hair. The cryogenic freezing process would dissolve anything other than living, organic cells. My hair would grow back afterwards. Still, I decided to cut off my hair and donate it.

   I have to be the last Bridge Officer boarding, I thought, squinting into the light. I'd taken the second bus dedicated to transporting the Bridge crew, and I was alone. The others had already arrived at the elevator.

   Faint voices could be heard across the launchpad. My gaze followed the line of news vans and security, mildly amused at the desperation on the faces of the reporters. They yelled, frustrated upon seeing the arrival of another bus, but they were unable to get past the security.

   The public had been kept unaware of Zoel-2, the mission to build, launch, and send two ships out of the Solar System. However, the ISGC knew they couldn't keep it secret for long. Technology would detect the ships leaving the atmosphere, and people would see it. Thus they made plans to conceal the mission until six months before takeoff.

   Parts of the Pioneer and Patriot were constructed in secret. A space elevator was built several years before, with special attachments that would allow the ISGC to send up the pieces of the spaceships, bit by bit. The elevator wasn't put under scrutiny until the public noticed that two rather large things were being built at the top, at the edge of space.

   Three weeks before takeoff, both ships were completed. They'd sat at the edge of the atmosphere since, waiting for their crews. At that point, the public worldwide realized what had been done. Reporters had staked out the Florida space elevator for weeks. Now busses would be arriving with the crewmembers, in which they'd take the elevator to their ships.

   The lack of information was driving the media nuts. I shook my head and started walking towards the building, carrying my duffel. Just before I got inside, I gave in and looked up at the sky.

   Despite the incredible distance, I could see the ships. The Pioneer dwarfed the elevator. It was easily the size of the largest cruise ship, suspended in space above the Earth. It was shaped as an oval and shone brightly in the sun. I couldn't see many details from down here. The small speck next to it had to be the Patriot, my soon-to-be-home.

   My gut churned, but I stepped inside.

~

   Underneath the hull, the Patriot appeared to resemble the International Space Station: bits and pieces put together with no real sense of conformity. It was five hundred meters long, which was large, but when viewed next to the behemoth Pioneer, the Patriot felt tiny. A smooth hull covered the exterior, which shaped it into a bullet with wings. The outside was painted grey with a red line that ran down the side. The Patriot I was painted at the end, with a small American flag and Earth beside the text.