A dutiful, ace soldier from Mars faces a dilemma. She can accept an offer from an infuriating gen-eng man from Venus, grab her loyal cat + dig up her inner rebel and maybe become the first human to explore the Galaxy. OR she can keep flying security...
Time Stamp: 11th of the 3rd month, year 2696 CE, not too long after Log 2
Location Stamp: Space cruiseliner Solar Wind, home port Mars, owned by the Stellar Cruises Inc., destination: Jupiter, Solar System, Milky Way Galaxy
***
Shameel's eyes darted between the assembled team members. Pale-gray in color, his eyes should have made a striking combo with his dark coarse hair, but to me his spongy features and ruddy complexion stole the spotlight. I was pretty sure Shameel liked what saw.
Solar Wind wasn't on a run-of-the-mill, bi-weekly cruise-tour of the Galactic Heritage Planet Earth, but on the exclusive Jovian Journey, organized once in a normalized galactic year. It was an affair for the richest of the rich, and so we were hand-picked to provide the best security Mars could offer. Our backgrounds were double-checked and our readiness to act on any threat, however threatening, was tested. Our connections were vetted to ensure the most reliable contingent.
If anything, my resume was among the least colorful. I made it to a low-ranking officer in the Asteroid Belt War, and had never been involved with anything secret, elite or stormtrooper-like. But I advanced through the chain because I was solid, and everyone in this room appreciated the solid person next to them.
The hush was so deep, that the click of Snameel's remote control caused a few scoffs. A 360 holo-projection in 3D hung in the middle of the room and rotated at a slow speed. The image centered on our gorgeous space cruise-liner. The ships' energy panels outstretched in every direction to capture the waning light of the Sun, which gave the rotating spherical core an effortlessly graceful appearance.
Our destination, Jupiter, loomed straight ahead of the Solar Wind's bow, so it didn't look like we were off course.
The side view-frames rotated through the asteroids in Solar Wind's wake, since we'd just passed through the Asteroid Belt. Once in a while, our home-port, Mars, came into view. It looked so distant, my eyes stung a little. A loyal cat was waiting for me on Mars, and I missed him.
***
File Excerpt: Ven-Mar Alliance
Ven-Mar Alliance includes the trio of planets, Venus, Earth and Mars, as well as Earth's Moon. After a mega-volcanic explosion in Yellowstone of 2296 on planet Earth, the humans resettled on Mars, while the industrial activities became concentrated on Venus. Earth is designated as a cultural preserve.
***
Okay, forget Mars... as much as a gal can forget her homeplanet... Shameel wanted us to see something here.
I stared at the port-side, expecting a dent in the hull or something. It looked as slick as ever, with a wasteful but pretty gold coating. Jupiter shone in the background. The planetary disk sported the same salmon tint as the walls of our conference room, except it was much more fun, with the stripes of swirling clouds across it and a bunch of giant storm vortexes. Gas giants know how to throw a welcoming party, heh.
Three crisp shapes silhouetted against Jupiter: two of its moons and the Solar Wind. The ship and the celestial bodies appeared to be almost the same size at this distance. The velvet blanket of cosmos barely made it into the frame, but it filled in everything in between as a subtle hint that we were floating in a tin can through eternity.
"Jupiter is really beautiful, if underrated," Davie quipped, breaking the tense silence. He was baby-faced and laid back, but most of his service record was redacted. "Tourism Ven-Mar should send another promotional bundle down the Perseus' Arm. If we screen-capture this, they can include it into the brochures."
He had a point. The tourists would love this visual, but Shameel growled his response. "Have you all gone blind as well as soft since the peace treaty with the Raiders?"
***
File Excerpt: Asteroid Belt and the Raiders
The Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter is populated by a mysterious, war-like isolationist faction called the Raiders, led by the Warlords. They had recently clashed with the Ven-Mar Alliance for the control of Jupiter's moons, resulting in a stalemate and a Peace Treaty of 2689 seven standard years ago. It allows safe passage through the Asteroid Belt for Ven-Mar ships, but it is still a risky undertaking. Now you know as much about the Raiders as the Ven-Mar Intelligence.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
***
Inspired by my leader to try harder, I squinted at a smallish dot in the corner of the image. For a second, I had an absurd thought it was a speck of dust on the virtual projection. Which, of course, was impossible, but I still scratched at it with my finger. Hoping that it would fall off or what? I don't know, it was a reflex, okay?
The image oscillated so much, I expected an echoing sound like from a metal sheet, as if I needed to attract more attention to my idiocy. Red-faced, I had to say something to cover the stifled chuckles.
