Nova’s Odyssey: Love Among the Stars

An Assignment

Nova had never been inside the Captain’s office, and was surprised at its sheer size. Behind the his desk was a large porthole with a brilliant view into the wide expanse of space. His desk was designed as part of the ship, so followed the ship wide scheme of flowing and pointed designs, and was white to match the walls of the inside of the office.

There was a large, glass bookcase on the right of the office, filled with both books, and numerous awards and certificates that the Captain had acquired over the years. On the centre shelf, seemingly out of place among the military paraphernalia, was. A picture of the Captain in civvies, posing with a red haired woman on what looked like a park on Earth.

Nova didn’t remember much about Earth, but she did remember that there were a lot of trees and grass, and it was very unlike the colonies which were more barren and desolate, with the odd tree native to the planets in the colonies, which were far from pleasing to look at and always had a dull, yellow colour. The plant farm was hidden behind a large wall, and off limits to everyone in the colonies apart from the scientists and soldiers who tended to it and protected it, as the oxygen produced from the plants was pumped into the atmosphere.

Nova looked to the desk, where the Captain and two other men sat. She guessed that one of them was the Major General from his uniform, but she was unsure of the other man.

‘Private, announce yourself.’ Stated Sergeant Hall.

‘Private Nova Delgado of Alpha Platoon, sir’ she responded, saluting her commanding officers.

‘At ease, take a seat Private.’ Stated the Major General.

Nova sat on one of the blue leather chairs in front of the desk, awaiting whatever was coming next.

The Major General motioned to the man to his left.

‘Lieutenant Colonel,’ he said, growing impatient.

‘Here sir.’ Said the Lieutenant Colonel nervously, handing him a file with Nova’s name on it.

He flipped through the file, muttering occasionally to himself.

‘Hmmm top of the class.’

‘Highly skilled pilot.’

‘Good defensive fighter.’

He paused on a few words, before finally looking up at Nova.

‘It says here that you have never been put on assignment.’ He stated.

‘Yes sir,’ Nova replied. ‘That is correct.’

‘Why is that, Private?’

Nova hesitated for a second, formulating an acceptable answer, before responding, ‘My commanding officer did not feel I was ready to take an assignment.’

The Major General chuckled.

‘Don’t spew that bullshit, Private.’ He said gruffly. ‘I don’t want to hear what you think you should say. Tell me what you were going to say before you decided against it.’

Nova took a deep breath, wondering if she should take the bait and tell him what she was really thinking. His eyes bore through her and she felt like he would instantly pick up if she didn’t tell the truth.

‘It’s because I am a woman, and my qualifications are seen as a threat rather than a strength, sir.’ She finally stated, trying to sound confident but finding it difficult to hide the shake in her voice.

The Major General leaned back in his chair and let out a spirited laugh, smacking his knee.

‘I like this one!’ He said gleefully, before composing himself and sternly looking at the Captain.

‘Tell me, Captain, why is it that you have not utilised a soldier who, on paper, appears to be the strongest member of your platoon?’

The Captain gulped audibly, before responding. ‘It’s all in the file, sir. It’s an attitude problem, we simply cannot trust someone with her attitude to be unsupervised on sensitive missions.’

Major General looked at him in disbelief, before turning back to Nova.

‘So I see a lot in your file about you being “cocky”. Do you believe you are “cocky”, Private?’ He asked.

‘No sir,’ she responded. ‘Confident in my abilities, but never cocky.’

The Major General nodded.

‘If cocky was a problem, that Rodriguez would have been sent back to the colonies in week one of training, and not sent on, how many was it? Three(!) assignments.’

‘Sir, might I say, Rodriguez was not on her best form today…’ started the Captain.

‘Oh, I have a feeling Rodriguez was on her default today Captain. I asked for your best female soldiers and you sent me Rodriguez and that, that Fisk. I included a brief which it seems neither of you bothered to read! But Delgado here, she fits the brief completely and you have tried to steer me away from her because of your own personal biases.’

The Captain and Sergeant Hall looked flushed, but thought better than to say anything in response to the reprimand they had both received.

‘Tell me, Delgado, why did you join the Vanguard? Again, no bullshit answers about serving your planet.’

‘Sir, when the Aetherians invaded, my father was called to the frontline, and died at the Battle for the Capitol. With the second wave, my mother died when they attacked residential areas. She put me on the evacuation ship, but stayed behind as there was no space for her. I just want to get that Aetherian scum off our planet so we can go home.’ Nova stated, doing her best to choke back and emotions trying to make their way to the surface.

‘I’m sorry for your loss, Private.’ Stated the Major General. ‘That’s what we all want, and with soldiers like you we can hope to make it a reality. Now, I believe you have already had a rigorous training session today, but at 15h00, I would like to see you in the simulation area. I would like to see your skills in action. You are dismissed, Private.’ The Major General said.

‘Thank you, sir.’ Nova said with a salute, barely able to hold back the smile that had forced its way onto her face. Finally, her first assignment was within her reach.

She walked back to the barracks, trying her best to maintain a stoic expression so as not to appear arrogant when she entered the barracks and had to face Rodriguez and Fisk.

Back at the barracks, the other soldiers relaxed, some reading, others listing to music, and some holo-calling their families and significant others back home in the colonies. Fisk lay in her bunk, under the covers, sobbing quietly into her pillow. Nova walked over to her and sat on her bunk.

‘What happened in there, Fisk?’ She asked.

Fisk sobbed harder and buried her face in her pillow. Muffled by her pillow she stated that she didn’t want to talk about it.

‘Come on, Fisk. I’ve never seen anyone get to you before. You’ll feel better if you talk about it.’ Nova pushed, gently.

Fisk turned her head towards Nova, and started to relay her meeting with the Major General.

‘He said I was highly unskilled, and he was surprised that I was accepted into the Vanguard. Then…’ she paused, wiping her eyes ‘he said it appears that I was only brought on board to satisfy the s****l needs of the platoon so they could avoid unnecessary aggression due to s****l frustration!’ She sobbed harder.

‘Fisk, that isn’t true at all! You have plenty of skills! I’ve seen how you manage to get information out of anyone. I’ve seen how you know how every soldier on this ship’s body will react and you use that when we spar. What they don’t see on paper, I’ve seen first hand.’ Nova said, stroking Fisk’s back.

‘Yeah, because I’ve screwed them all, right?’ Fisk replied, rolling her eyes.

‘You’ve never screwed me but you got me on the mat on Monday.’ Nova laughed.

‘Thank you, Delgado.’ Smiled Fisk. Nova had said exactly the right thing to her to get her out of her funk.

‘What happened with your meeting?’ She asked.

‘Oh, it doesn’t matter.’ Said Nova, standing up and getting ready to leave.

‘You sly b***h, you got assigned, didn’t you?’ Asked Fisk jokingly.

‘I did, yeah. Well, provisionally I guess.’ Said Nova, feeling guilty that her meeting had gone infinitely better than Fisk’s, and not wanting to rub it in.

‘Own it Delgado. It’s about time they see how amazing you are. I’m happy for you.’ Fisk said, and Nova felt, for the first time, that there might be a possibility of forming a bond with one of the other women on the ship.

‘Thanks Fisk. Do you know where Rodriguez is?’ Nova asked. ‘I feel like the two of you should know before the word gets out to anyone else. It only seems right.’

Fisk laughed. ‘She’s in the gym beating the s**t out of one of the dummies. Unless you want the s**t beaten out of you too, I think you should leave her alone for a while.’

Nova agreed, and headed back to her bunk. She took her holo device out from her locker. She didn’t have family to call, apart from Zane, who had become her surrogate brother in the orphanage at the colony. He had been injured in the Aetherion attacks and had lost the use of his legs.

Although there was technology available that could help him to walk, this was usually reserved for wealthy or high ranking individuals, so Zane was confined to a wheelchair. He was an absolute genius, though, and had used spare parts found in the colony scrapyards to turn his wheelchair into a hover-chair, with the ability to clear several metres in height.

He answered the holo-call, happy to see Nova’s face.

‘Hey Supernova!’ He said. ‘To what do I owe the pleasure?’

Nova looked around to make sure that no one else was within earshot.

‘Zane, I got my first assignment! And it came directly from the Major General!’ She said excitedly.

‘f*****g awesome, I knew it was only a matter of time! I’m happy for you! So what’s the assignment, or is that classified?’ He asked.

‘I don’t have a f*****g clue!’ Nova laughed. ‘All I know is that my Captain got a bollocking for not giving me an assignment sooner, but when I find out more, I’ll tell you everything I’m allowed to!’

They spoke for a while, before saying their goodbyes and blowing a kiss to each other.

Nova got ready for the simulation deck, knowing that the Major General was expecting her to put on a show.