Nathan frowned as he and Samara stood alone inside a small room overlooking one of the university's many hangar bays. It was a small room with a few couches, tables, a coffee maker, and some vending machines with a window that looked out over the entire colossal hangar bay. From the room, they looked at the Fleet Gorgon Assault Cruiser as it re-supplied and refueled itself. Nathan was absolutely exhausted. The ship in front of him, 4th Wish, was not known for its incredible speed. The 4th Wish was durable, mostly modular, and could move if it needed to, but it had arrived within hours of the fleet wide being received. To leave the Fleet and make it to Nova Caedes, was a trip that should have taken more than a week at minimum, even assuming the best case scenario for traveling along the Stellar Lanes. Samara was the first to break the silence as they watched massive crates of supplies and Gorgons entering the ship. The machines and people both looked tiny from their little vantage point.
"Just wanted to say thanks for the Gorgons" she said. "I think the food being served in the fleet was starting to get to some of them. A few weeks of what was basically shore leave was good for them".
Samara shifted a bit closer and held Nathan's hand in her own. Nathan gave her hand a little squeeze in reassurance. Samara returned the gesture. He rested his head on her arm and gave a long sigh before he spoke.
"It just doesn't make any sense, Sam. Those refrigeration units were almost a century old. I even got a look at the maintenance reports, and they said that those units are barely a couple decades old!" Nathan's voice continued to rise as he continued. "They were older than the damn ship and no one has any idea where the original ones went! Those assholes wanted to have you and Areli pay for the damn things!".
Samara gave his hand another squeeze.
"I saw the manifest for a lot of that extra food being loaded. How many of the paintings I made did we have to auction for all of that?" Samara asked.
"We only had to auction off a few. Most of it is honestly surplus from vendors who had orders canceled or just extra inventory that Nova Caedes didn't want to buy. They were more than happy to sell the stock so they could empty their cargo holds." Nathan said.
"Will it all last the trip then? If they pop open another crate and its all moldy..." Samara left the words hanging.
"I'm pretty sure" Nathan said. "I paid extra for better storage for some of the stuff I was less sure of. I think we got a couple tons of ice cream this time. In proper containers too. Might have to share a bit with our people on the 4th Wish, to get Captain Irlanda okay with taking on the extra cargo. I didn't expect her to have so much empty space."
Nathan rubbed at his eyes with his free hand. He had so little time to get everything together with the arrival of the 4th wish being so sudden. Nathan had been spending the entire duration of the job fair at tracking down food shipments he could get his hands, but he expected a few more days to wrap it all up after the job fair ended. He had only gotten hours.
He knew that no matter how much extra food he bought, it wouldn't be enough for the Gorgons. Last time Nathan was able to get a look at the supplies being ordered for the fleet as a whole, there were roughly 20 thousand Gorgons in the Fleet. Which was the point. Get popular on stream, so you don't have to eat like everyone else. Samara noticed Nathan's movements and bent a little lower to get a better look at his face.
"Coffee?" Samara asked.
"Please, Sam. Thank you. I'm gonna need something at roughly your level today" Nathan said, raising his head from her arm.
Samara tried to turn towards the vending machine, not trusting whatever kind of coffee she couldn't see in a coffee maker. She didn't bother to contain the giant grin on her face.
"Nathan, my dear" Samara said. "I can't get your coffee if you don't let go of my hand".
"Hmmmgh?" Nathan intelligently replied.
Samara gave Nathan's hand another squeeze and lifted their interlocked fingers in front of Nathan's face. Realization dawned on his face, but he returned the light squeeze before letting go. Samara finally turned to evaluate her coffee choices. Quickly skimming through her options, she found a brand that she knew Nathan liked and quickly typed in the selection code for both her coffee and Nathan's. As the machine whirred and spun up to grab the selected beverages, Samara took a plastic case from one of her pockets and dumped a small white tablet with a crease down the middle into her hand. The vending machine gave a little ding as both coffees clunked into the open box at the bottom. Samara grabbed both coffees and gave the bottoms of each an expert twist to start the heating process. Placing both coffees on a nearby table, she took the lids off and snapped the little white tablet into four pieces with the lid of the case. Samara deposited one part into Nathan's coffee and dropped the other three pieces in her own. Samara stared at the two cups of coffee as the chemical reaction at the bottom began to heat up the rest of the coffee. The cups were sized for normal people. For people who had a normal body. The average Gorgon's coffee consumption had prompted the fleet to quickly find a better solution than simply bringing larger and larger quantities of coffee. The little white tablets were the most functional solution, although the high concentration of chemicals was not normally advised for normal human consumption.
"You get a quarter, I need your heart to keep beating for a while longer yet" Samara said.
By the time Samara handed the coffee to Nathan, both portions of the tablet had finished dissolving and the coffee had reached a more palatable temperature. Nathan gave a deep sigh of appreciation as he took his first sip, the caffeine and extra content quickly bringing him back to life and alertness. Samara downed her coffee in a single go, the dissolved tablet to make up for the lack of caffeine. With both hands free, she moved the back of a couch behind Nathan and sat down on it to use the top of his head as a chin rest. Nathan didn't mind the extra weight on top his head, nor the extra weight against his back. The pair went back to watching 4th Wish fill up its cargo bay and the other Gorgons boarding the ship or helping carry more boxes of decent food. Samara and Nathan simply sat there, just letting the other recharge off their presence. It was a quiet moment, just for them.
Eventually though, life resumed for Nathan and Samara as there was a conversation that needed to be had before they went down to the Wish. Nathan broke the silence first.
"Hey Sam, remember that girl you caught in tug-a-war?" he said. "I don't think 4th Wish was here for us".
"Mmm. Thought so. Too much empty extra cargo space. They left the fleet in a hurry, someone lit a fire underneath them to get moving. Poor girl's eyes never left my chest after I caught her. Whose daughter is she? No gene mods, she wore the standard uniform, so not a lot of money behind her or she's keeping a low profile" Samara said as she took a sip of coffee.
"Ah hell, is she a runaway? Did we sign up someone's daughter to be a Gorgon?" Samara asked.
Nathan could feel her chin move on top of his head as she spoke, but he didn't move out of the way.
"Her name is Tori and I don't think she's from a family with money." Nathan said as he sent Samara a copy of Tori's registration.
"Damn. New Petrichor? We probably pulled her or someone she knows out of the rubble. Glad to see someone made it. Filed this 2 weeks ago, which roughly matches 4th Wish's travel time, but I still don't see why we sent an assault cruiser out here to pick up one girl. They sent us here on a civilian ship, why send one of the fleet for her?" Samara said.
"Euryale sent me a message directly after I spoke with her. She must be important to someone." Nathan said.
"Not gonna lie Nathan, I don't like it. Why would Euryale talk to us and single out the girl like that if she wasn't important? Could she be an anchor? It's the only reason I could think of that an AI would even care to talk to us" Samara said.
Nathan looked into Samara's green eyes through the reflection of the window in the observation room.
"Honestly Sam, I don't know. Euryale is a bit of a black box to everyone. But it looks like Tori is much more than just a recruit to Euryale. Check your muster. You have some new recruits to take care of. I think they are ones who nearly got you" Nathan said.
Samara was silent as the two continued to watch the regulated chaos of resupplying a warship. Nathan set his coffee on a table to the side and grabbed both of Samara's hands. He ran his thumbs in little circles on the back of her hands.
Samara's hands weren't as soft as normal human's. The Gorgon surgery changed them on a fundamental level. The skin felt mostly normal, but putting any pressure on a Gorgon meant that a person could quickly feel artificial muscle and armored plating. There were no veins beneath the surface of the skin, no hair unless the Gorgons wanted it, no scars, and even the wrinkles were designed. The Gorgons only bled red because marketing had determined that anything else would look too strange to the random viewer at home.
"Sam. It's not your fault. You and the other Gorgons do the best you can to keep new girls alive and welcome. We have both seen how other fleets treat their planet-siders" Nathan said.
Samara gave a long sigh. It wasn't the first time she and Nathan had this conversation. It was a ritual that the two of them had gotten used to. Nathan simply kept up with the slow, methodical circles until Samara was ready to move on. They still had time before they needed to meet with the Nova Caedes recruits. Samara was the one to break the comfortable silence of the room.
"Alright, lets go meet the new recruits. How many are attached to my Cohort?" she asked.
Nathan didn't need to look at the data pad next his coffee, he could just call up the information to displayed in his vision in front of him, but he did anyways. It helped to separate himself from work sometimes.
"Looks like there are only 147 recruits this time. 10 are going to be assigned to you, including Tori. The rest are spread amongst the other Cohorts in differing amounts" Nathan said.
"Well there you go, she can't be an anchor. No one is going to let an anchor get shot at" Samara said.
She made sure that Nathan did not stop moving his thumbs.
"Honestly" Nathan started, "You make a good point. Anchors keep an AI from psychosis, but that's about all I know. An anchor's abilities, if they even have any, are kept in the dark from the rest of us. Sure Anchors can control entire armies and fleets in media, but that's kind of everyone just guessing. Hell if I know how it all works".
Samara thought it over in her head and gave a final sigh.
"Alright, let's go get ready to meet the recruits" she said, chin stilled glued to Nathan's head. She didn't move her head. A smile broke out on Nathan's face.
"Sam, my love, I'm afraid you are going to have to let me have the top of my head back, or else we won't be able to make it on time" Nathan said.
Samara's only response was some grumbling about how being punctual was stupid, but she begrudgingly stood to her full height and removed her hands from Nathan's. Nathan picked up his computer tablet from the table and held it in one hand, leaving his other hand free for his coffee. Together, they walked out the door of the room overlooking the hangar and proceeded down the hallway to an elevator. Nathan punched the button for the hangar floor. The elevator itself was made of some transparent polymer, the labels assuring the occupants even if there could only fit about 20 people, the design allowed for 100 times that number. The elevator allowed Nathan and Samara to watch as those very distant figures from the observation room began to grow and grow in size as they reached the hangar floor.
The doors opened up to the equivalent of a massive food court that was dedicated to a multitude of "official business" hangars. From the food court there was access to a variety of different restaurants and bars that catered to both passengers and crews currently on break. Past the food court there was also tram access that would take a person deeper into the residential and city-like section of Nova Caedes University, that held hotels, resorts, and even permanent housing for the actual residents.
Those bars and restaurants were filled with Gorgons and crew from the 4th Wish. With Fleet Medusa being called into action, no one was ever sure when the next chance to completely let go would come around. The Gorgons that hadn't been volunteered into helping load the 4th Wish were all making sure they got the most out of their last few hours. Each Gorgon had more bottles than they had fingers in front of them. Nathan and Samara spotted Kho in a group of Gorgons playing cards. The other Gorgons at the table all let out a chorus of groans as Kho jumped to her feet and began to dance, cheerfully flaunting a particularly large victory. After finishing her theatrics, Kho walked over to the nearest bar and used a portion of the winnings to buy everyone another round. The groaning and cursing of Kho's new fortune quickly turned right back to cheers when the next round of drinks arrived at the table. Nathan was not too worried about any of the Gorgons getting too drunk and causing too big of a scene. The Gorgon's cybernetics made it harder for normal sized servings to really overwhelm their new livers. If the need arose, the artificial organs in their body could purge the alcohol in seconds, letting the Gorgons be ready to fight at a moment's notice.
Nathan and Samara walked through the managed chaos, waving at those who noticed the pair. Moving past the food court, the two made it to a conference room that had been marked with Fleet Medusa signage. Nathan quickly finished off the rest of his coffee and tossed the cup into a trash bin. Samara opened the doors for Nathan, giving him a grin that reached her eyes as he walked into the room. The notice had been short, but Nathan had managed to find a conference that wasn't already being used for another venture, tracked down a company to cater on short notice, and found seating and tables for the new recruits. Those recruits now nervously sat at the tables finishing up their meals until the door opened and Nathan walked in with Samara right behind him. The moment Nathan's foot crossed the doorway and the recruits noticed who he was, the already quiet noise died down to nothing. When Samara entered the room that noise went back up to excited whispering.
Nathan moved to the front of the conference room where a microphone had been set up on a little podium and handed his computer tablet to Samara. Everyone in the room was in various stages of finishing their breakfast. The catering company Nathan had hired for the event had done a pretty good job with the food for such short notice. It was the usual breakfast stuff someone might expect at a corporate function, omelets, sausages of dubious nature, potatoes, diced fruit mixed together, coffee, and fruit juice. Basic, but functional. Everything was clearly labeled and easily accessed. Everything came in uniform metal containers that could be easily carried and transported. There were even hot pads to keep the food warm and freezer bricks to keep things cool.
The crowd of students before him were vastly different from the wide kaleidoscope of colors he saw during the job fair. These students all wore much more muted colors, their clothes weren't made of cyber-fibers that could change colors and holographic designs at the drop of a hat. The wildest the students in the conference room got where the odd choice of hair color or even tattoos. They all had their luggage though. Each individual was allowed a single suitcase and a backpack for the trip, but there were services that would hold and then ship anything extra at a later date. Nathan thought back to his collection of Fleet Camelot memorabilia and internally winced at how much he had paid to hold onto it and then ship it to the first fleet he joined.
Nathan waited the last 20 seconds before the time ticked over to when the short orientation had been scheduled to start. A quick head count told him that only 122 people had made it, but every eye tracked Samara as she moved to stand behind Nathan and to the right. The moment the time ticked over, Nathan began his short prepared speech. He was thankful that he was just in charge of welcoming the new recruits, not needing to worry about training or explaining too much of what they would be doing. He just had to keep it simple, make sure the group of recruits got onto the 4th Wish, and made it to Fleet Medusa's flagship; the Sarpedon.
"Welcome everyone and I want to congratulate you all on your acceptance into Fleet Medusa. My name is Nathan Shivers. I am the ranking Handler of Fleet Medusa here on Nova. I am sorry that you are having to listen to me speak, instead of the beautiful Gorgon Samara here" Nathan started.
There was some laughter and eye rolling, as the tension of the room loosened up a bit. It did make for a good opener but Nathan had no doubt that his statement was true. The Gorgons were the face of Fleet Medusa and they were all literally made to look the part.
"As you all know, Fleet Medusa is an officially recognized Paramilitary Company by Terra United. We operate primarily as a planet side military force that takes on a variety of different contracts. All of you, however, are not going to be Gorgons. Many of you are going to be employed under the various branches that make up Fleet Medusa. You may not know this, but we do in fact employ about 32 people per each Gorgon that you see at home. Some of you have been hired on as engineers, scientists, medics, analysts, researchers the list goes on" Nathan said.
"Due to extenuating circumstances, I am here to invite you all to join me and the Gorgons on the 4th Wish. It is what we call an assault cruiser that is normally a part of the 5th Combined Operations Group. Normally, we would hire a civilian transport company to meet up with Fleet Medusa, but the 4th Wish is here, and so we shall be graciously be enjoying Captain Irlanda's hospitality. I will not be going over her rules for her, when we enter the ship, she will have another brief meeting with you all. I do ask that, as we are all guests aboard her ship, and that because it is a military vessel, you follow her rules. I am well acquainted with her and I promise that she is extremely good at her job" he said.
Nathan took another moment to look around the room and spotted Tori sitting amongst what he assumed were the ladies who had all coordinated during tug-a-war. There looked to be roughly 20 of them and Nathan knew that there was already going to be some turmoil. They had all probably believed that they were going to get assigned to the same Cohort together. Or maybe they already knew the realities that awaited them. Was Tori being assigned to Sam because Tori might be an anchor candidate? Nathan still wasn't sure. It didn't make sense for an AI to throw their anchor in front of a wall of bullets and railgun rounds.
The families whose kids usually attended Nova Caedes wouldn't have their kid joining a fleet through some conference room with a random catering company. There would have had to be a ceremony, some gravitas to the whole situation. Then, there had to be an even bigger ceremony when they eventually graduated from boot camp and then went through the surgery to truly become a Gorgon. This was too mundane. This kind of situation was for those who could only dream of joining the Gorgons, instead of being one of the people who lead them.
"Aboard the 4th Wish, it will take us about 2 weeks to reach Fleet Medusa. Upon arrival you will transferred to the Whale and split up between the various assignments that you have all been recruited for. Your journey from there will depend completely on you and the companions that you find along your way. If any of this sounds like too much for you, I suggest that you simply leave now. Once you are on board the 4th Wish, it will not stop until we reach the rest of the fleet. Once there, you may decide to leave whenever you like. However, the time to leave will typically depend on the traffic of civilian supply ships. Again, if this is not something that you feel like you can handle, I suggest walking away now. Within roughly thirty minutes, we will begin the boarding process. Nova Caedes crew will be the ones to show you to the ship and get you through the hangar. Regardless of your choices, I do wish the best of luck for everyone here" Nathan finished.
When Nathan wrapped up his little speech the crowd in the conference room made some very polite noises with a little bit of clapping, but at least the tension had changed to a nervous anticipation. Neither Nathan nor Samara had expected anyone to really walk out at this stage. None of the students in the room with them probably had all too many options. They had, of course, tested into the prodigious Nova Caedes University, but the positions that actually opened up were relatively few. The fleets were constantly looking for new people. Each fleet hoping to pick up someone who might invent or come up with the next big thing, the companies desperately trying to create some sort of advantage over the others. Hiring at Nova was great for the fleets because the company could hire someone brilliant enough to get into the school, but didn't have the money or backing to complain how the new hires were treated. The overwhelming majority of the people who attended Nova already had their life planned out from the start. It was less an education, and more of a formality.
Nathan and Samara left the students to finish up their breakfast without having anyone staring them down. The sounds of the food court immediately reaching the pair as they walked back towards the hangar. Nathan quickly sent a message on his computer tablet to Captain Irlanda to update her on how many of the students had actually made it to the meeting. He wasn't sure if it would effect the operations of the ship, but he did his best to keep the people he worked with informed about the situation.
"Hey Nathan, anything else you got on the list that I need to be present for?" Samara said.
Nathan looked up at the fiery red head next to him.
"Nope, gotta go find Irlanda on the 4th Wish, she wanted to meet but didn't exactly say what for" Nathan said as he rubbed his face with his free hand.
"You think anyone told her about Tori?" Samara asked.
Nathan scratched his head as he gave it some thought. He would assume that someone would tell Irlanda why her ship was being sent as a glorified taxi, but this was also Fleet Medusa.
"I don't know Sam, we were only told less than a day before the 4th Wish even got here. We don't even know if Tori is going to be Euryale's anchor, but the coincidence of Euryale messaging us the moment after meeting Tori, all of these sudden recruits, it seems a bit disjointed. Desperate." he said.
"Whatever happens", Samara said. "It's above our pay grade. If we go around investigating every little thing we are told to do, we'll get nothing done. If Tori really is so important, someone will tell us one way or another. I'm gonna make sure the girls don't get up to too much trouble. Lemme know when you got more free time, we got a couple weeks on the ship. Gotta hurry up and wait".
Nathan tried to let himself relax a bit. An endless marathon of meetings. He was overworked and running on a concoction of chemicals that he didn't even know the name of.
"Yeah, you're right Sam. I'll let you know." he said.
Nathan made the fatal mistake of turning his back on Samara. The moment his back was turned, Nathan was lifted a few degrees into the air by a mighty slap on his butt from Samara. Recovering from a surprise attack quickly, he slowly turned around and gave Samara a single raised eyebrow as he tried to stare her down. Samara simply returned the stare with a massive grin that reached her emerald eyes. The longer Nathan tried to stare, Samara's grin only grew even bigger. Nathan couldn't keep up his stare and completely failed to stop his snort. Of course, the exchange did not go unnoticed. The Gorgons around them gave a few whistles and cat calls of appreciation. Samara's goofy grin only on grew even larger. The sheer audacity of it all was too much for Nathan and he began to laugh. Once Nathan started laughing, Samara couldn't help it either and she joined in. The weight of the exhaustive meetings and time sensitive time tables didn't completely disappear, but it was no longer crushing.
"Thank you Sam. Really." Nathan said after wiping away a few tears that had almost escaped.
Samara wiggled her eyebrows at him.
"Don't worry about it, I am sure you can think of some ways to pay me back" Samara said while wiggling her eyebrows, making it very clear that she had some ideas already.
Nathan couldn't help it, Samara's mood was infectious.
"I've got my meeting with Captain Irlanda in bit. She didn't say exactly what for, but I can make some guesses. Make sure that Kho doesn't walk away with too much money, when she wins this much she gets insufferable" Nathan said.
With that, Samara turned away and headed towards Kho's group of Gorgons, where the gambler extraordinaire was buying another round of drinks after a victory. Nathan watched her go for a moment and started his own walk towards the 4th Wish and yet another meeting. Passing through the food court, Nathan returned the waves that the Gorgons threw his way. The magic booster in his coffee and Samara being herself left Nathan feeling much more energized and alive. The world for a moment, was a little bit lighter.
The moment Nathan stepped onto the 4th Wish, Captain Irlanda's voice greeted him through his implant.
"Handler Shivers, you will explain why I have an order with your signature to empty my ship of non-essentials and told to play taxi" she said.
Nathan stopped mid stride as the words sunk into his mind. He replayed them and they still did not change. He had never signed on such an order. Someone had moved an entire warship and it's crew, and it was on his orders.