Leviathan SOLO campaign Unskilled OK Part 0.3 SIBWA Challenge
Cepheus Engine Leviathan SOLO campaign - Unskilled OK Part 0.3
Don't Think About The Interview
Sue-lin woke up sweating.
She reached for the unit, fumbling about in the sheets until she found it. Dialling the environment down, she took a long pull on the water tube and held the seal open, letting a few drops onto her face.
She'd been dreaming about home again.
Cyan had been an idyllic backdrop to her youth. She closed her eyes and sank back into the sheets, her hand clenching at the memory of her dog lead. Walking the dogs in the forest back home. That's what her dream always was. She could see them, tongues hanging, tensing and leaping for sticks. Impatiently barking for more. Leaping about in the water below as she stood throwing sticks down to them. Fighting each other over the sticks until each broke off a piece and paraded about in the water, triumphant.
It seemed so real in the dream, but it was so long ago, as if it were somebody else's life, or a vid she had watched.
Had she been happy?
The person that she had once been seemed happy in her dream. Was it a happy time? She wanted to go back there sometimes, just to see. If she went back there, would it be a happy time again?
Back then, the forest was logical. It made sense. It stretched for as far as she could see, had wanted to see. She could walk for hours in it and not meet another. Just insects, animals, birds. Nature had seemed like the universe back then.
She couldn't remember when it was that she decided to try for the Academy. The idea of going off into space, flying around in the Great Black. That summer, failing to get into Academy and watching friends head off into the Navy. More walking the dogs in the forest, but this time looking up, up into the sky and wondering where they were now.
Night-time walks were the best. The dogs wearing glowcollars, her with her headtorch turned off and neck craned to look up at the stars. Seeing ships go back and forth. Wondering where they could be headed, out there in that half-circle of darkness.
Then one day returning home, a message on the vidphone. The Academy. An opening had come up - not the Navy, no - some Auxiliary position. Would she be interested? A name, a number to call. But call soon, the recruiter would be heading offworld within one cycle.
The office had been sparse, rented. The recruiter was brief, direct. Sue-lin recalled a freckled face in the warm light from the porthole sunset.
"We can place you with a reputable company - Arkesh Spacers. They need a trainee - you come with recommendations from your college. And," the freckled face nodded in approval, "a recommendation from one of our Naval Officers at the Academy."
Sue-lin had frowned, wondering who this might be. "But, I don't know anyone at the-"
"Hari Durkheim. He mentioned you by name, in fact. Said that you showed promise."
"Hari? Wow. He and I, we used to-"
"Fly single-seaters in the upper atmosphere. Pretty well too, from the reports in this file. The Spacers are offering you a position on the Seagram. Unless you've got something better going on," those knowing eyes looked around, then back to Sue-lin, "I'd take this if I were you." She sat back, closing the folder. Pushed it over to Sue-lin. "Have a look. I'll give you ten minutes. Sign then, or not, as you wish."
Sue-lin looked through the crisp e-ink file as the woman took a call on her vidphone. Hari had done well for himself since he and Sue-lin had said their tearful goodbyes two summers ago. Commendations in basic training, fast-tracked to an officer rank. About to take up his first commission on the Allamu, one of the newer Kinunir class Navy ships. She felt pride for him, and that he had remembered her in this way. Thanks to him, she could sign and head to the stars after all. She pictured him, looking fine in his Naval uniform. She might follow in his footsteps. She might see him again.
Sue-lin smiled. "Where do I sign?"
She blinked. Back in the present, now. She looked around the room, at the bunk, the vidscreen, and the lone shelf with a framed holo of her parents on it. Had it been a happy time back in the forests of Cyan? She looked at the half-eaten cartons of food from the night before. Or possibly the night before that. She looked at the wall, with its display of stars mimicking a window.
Had she been happy, once? Was she happy now?
And what in the stars was she going to do if she screwed up the interview tomorrow?
(... To Be Continued ...)
Credits:
http://zho.berka.com/stuff/lbb-covers/
I made my header graphic using P-O Bergstedt's superb Traveller LBB Cover Generator at the Zhodani Base website.