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J. Joseph

Partnerships


The morning routine was one Albert knew well. The alarm sounded early, meaning he had a something to do today. He sat upright quickly and pressed the small touchscreen to shut off the alarm. If it was urgent, Nina would wander into his area to yell at him to get moving, otherwise, he took his time for his routine. He walked over to his personal treadmill and set it to wakeup. Albert would prefer actual running to running on a treadmill, but he made do with what he had available. He had the same wakeup protocol since before the first set of surgeries. They all did the regimen, as far as he knew, more out of habit than any sort of necessity. And it did actually help make him more functional.

Thirty minutes later, the machine slowed to a stop. Hopping off, he walked across the cabin to the compact bathroom. While it was small, it had all the luxuries one would want, save a relaxing tub. He set the shower to the hottest it would go, and walked out to the main area, stripping off the underwear he slept and worked out in. While he waited for the water to finish the heating cycle, he went over to his tablet to see what the alert had been for. Flicking it on, he read through the ship’s logs. Technically, the captain was the only one who was supposed to be reading this, but Albert didn’t care about that. He’d had his companion hack into Nina’s personal computer within an hour of when he’d stepped onto her ship. It seems they were arriving today at the location where the normal units would be dropped off.

The shower binged, telling him it had reached his set temperature. He walked back over to the shower and stepped in. Since the alert hadn’t been for him, Albert settled in for a long and relaxing time. The scalding water might get on some’s nerves, but he didn’t mind. It felt nice to feel something against his skin every once in a while, even if it was just scalding water. And so, he stood in the small shower, letting the water wash over him for almost fifteen minutes. Then, he pressed the button on the shower’s touch-panel labeled ‘Finish Shower’. The water temperature dropped from his set forty-five to a brisk fifteen centigrade. It remained such for thirty seconds, then shut off completely, leaving Albert standing, dripping with water. He grabbed the towel from its dispensary beside the shower, cursing the lack of a dehydrator unit in his cabin. He couldn’t help a chuckle as he walked out into the main room to get ready, thinking that he’d bet the captain’s cabin had a dehydrator. In the back of his head, his companion confirmed that she, in fact, did, though it was an older unit that took a while to rehydrate. He shook his head as he stopped to look in the mirror. Wiping the condensation off of it, he looked at his glistening form. He looked like a young man, barely over thirty or thirty-five. The scars that should have been all across his chest and abdomen were gone, thanks to modern medicine, but as he looked at the mirror, he could still see them, their echoes from his creation. He pushed it out of his mind as he put on his uniform.

Adjusting his cap, he walked out to the bridge. “Why’d you wake me up for a reg-op, Nina?” he asked the captain as he entered the massive command area of the ship. Captain Nina Soler was standing across the room from where he’d entered, hovering over the tactical map. Albert marched right up to her. “I asked, why’d you wake me up for a damned reg-op, Nina?”

She looked up at Albert, then sighed. “Captain Soler, if you would, Sergeant Spitz. And I didn’t wake you up for that. It’s off already, and it’s a burn, so we’re not even maintaining contact.”

Albert leaned on the table and sighed. “Then why was my cabin alarm set off?” he asked.

Nina looked up at the hulking man. “To annoy you,” she said with a smile.

Albert glared at her silently. Even he knew better than to question an officer on their own bridge, even if that officer was an irritating old friend like Nina. “I’m glad you’ve found a way to entertain yourself. I’ve heard it takes a bit of effort for someone your age, Captain Soler,” he retorted, keeping his voice calm, even jovial, in spite of his glare.

“Well, not all of us were cursed with eternal youth, Sergeant,” she replied, a smirk forming from her smile, “To think, of everyone they could keep looking like a young adult, they choose the ugliest fucker in the service.”

Albert mocked offense. “Ugliest? Clearly you haven’t met my old buddy Frank. Or Alicia. Or Quinn, for that matter.”

“You have friends?” Nina responded, feigning intense confusion.

Albert shrugged. “Tends to happen when you get tortured together for years.” He looked around the bridge. “Well, since I’m not here for any reason other than your sick amusement, I’ll be in the observatory.”

“Don’t kill anyone between here and there,” Nina said as Albert turned back towards the bridge’s sole set of doors.

“Spoilsport.” And with that, Albert leapt across the room and slid out the doors. The corridors in an old ship like this were intentionally obtuse. It was theoretically to give defenders an advantage, as they knew the lay of the land and could set up ambushes and traps around the halls. It was one of the dumbest ideas command had come up with, as generally it just ended up making travel within the ship take longer, and since each ship had the same layout, any boarders could easily find their way through anyways. They’d discontinued this layout after one production run, but some lucky officers like Nina got stuck with them.

It took him a few minutes, despite his swift pace, but he did eventually make it to the observatory. It was by far his favorite room in the ship. It wasn’t large, just a few comfortable seats and a massive domed roof. It didn’t have any real use, other than to relax and watch the universe unfold. The domed roof was entirely clear, and so the stars and other celestial bodies shone down on the observer, making for some truly spectacular sights. He looked back at the planetoid structure they were moving away from. It didn’t make sense. That was a corporate colony. Why on earth would the Service burn a unit by sending them there. It just didn’t make sense. It wasn’t even a paramilitary colony. As far as he had learned, its security team was a joke.

His companion chimed in from the back of his head, telling him that Frank had retired there. That suddenly made a lot more sense. He’d make short work of the team threatening his new home. The Service was trying to get him back in duty. It wouldn’t work, Frank had never been a fighter. Not really. He sighed as he watched the stars zoom by. Albert loved this part. The ship was about to make a fold, a truly beautiful phenomenon. He watched as the light of the stars began to bend and separate, as though it was rapidly changing direction around the ship.

The fact of the matter is, nothing with mass can move faster than light. Scientists had known this since the stupid ages when humanity was basically stuck on the Earth. Eventually, they colonized out into their local star system, but couldn’t travel any further feasibly until the grav drive was created. Essentially, because they couldn’t travel faster, they used an intensely massive production of gravitons to warp spacetime, making the universe itself twist near the ship and shortening the distance between two points. So, rather than the engine allowing the ships to travel faster, it just seemed faster to a distant observer because for the duration of travel the distance between the two points in space for the ship was smaller. One spectacular result of the drive was the lightshow that always occurred when the grav drive was turned on. Albert never missed an opportunity to watch that show, except when it was time for sleep.

The light show ended, and alarms blared. Something had gone horribly wrong. He looked around the observatory and saw it. A pirate was beside them, preparing a barrage. Albert tapped the comm in his neck. “Nina, heading to the tubes now.”

“Acknowledged, Albert. Don’t die.”

Albert laughed as he ran down the corridors towards the torpedo deck. He blew past the other crew members and officers, hurrying to their posts. Damned pirates were usually smarter than trying to strike a Ship of the Service. After all, there was almost never anything valuable on one of them. His companion chimed in that the ships logs showed payroll on this one. He laughed as he hopped into one of the torpedo tubes. That explained his place on this rickety boat. He was here specifically to protect the money. “You couldn’t’ve told me that a little sooner, En?” he complained at his companion. He sighed and shut the door behind him. Three. Two. One. Their own barrage followed the pirates’. And, along with all the normal missiles that launched from the torpedo deck, Albert went flying through space towards the ship. He slammed into the armoring, which had shielding to protect against the explosions. It was not prepared for the Albert, though.

Standing tall on the surface of the ship, he jokingly winked towards the SSS Iratus, then slamming his fist into the hull, the armoring shattered at the sheer force of the blow. Ripping his way into the ship, explosive decompression caused three pirates to be sucked out from the hallway he’d landed near. He calmly walked through the ship to the command bridge of the frigate, casually killing anyone that fired at him. He casually hit his palm against the door, and it shattered inward. Everyone stood up, frozen in shock at the boldness of this man in the black sergeant’s uniform of the Service Elite Operations Division. Albert didn’t even bother with attacking those who were firing at him. Bullets helplessly were stopped by his uniform. Those that missed his uniform broke the skin of his head and neck but stopped just beneath. Albert calmly walked to the front of the bridge and punched the wall. The first punch rocked the ship. Everyone who wasn’t armed fled into the halls. Those who were remained for the second punch, which produced a hole through which the inside of the hull was visible. All that remained for the third punch was the captain of the frigate.

Albert turned to face the man. “If you want to live, you best head for the escape pods about now,” he said calmly.

The pirate captain looked around at his abandoned bridge. He knew that there was no way a ship could survive with no one on the bridge. They would be reliant or runners for timing, and if anything was damaged, they couldn’t change course, or system power settings, or shielding directions. He sighed. “It won’t be the first time I’ve died,” he replied, resigned to his fate.

Albert nodded. He didn’t understand what that meant, but he knew that the man wasn’t about to abandon his frigate. Captains were weird like that, even disloyal and greedy ones like pirates. And so, Albert punched the wall for a third time, and the vacuum of space sucked all the air from the bridge. Tearing the whole open wide enough for him to go through, Albert climbed his way out of the ship and pushed off the hull in the general direction of the SSS Iratus.

Nina’s crew opened up the airlock for him, and he walked up to the bridge. Nina left the bridge to speak with him. Albert wasn’t angry so much as irritated. “You could’ve told me that this was gonna happen, Nina,” he said at her.

She shook her head. “I didn’t know this would happen, Albert,” she countered.

“Oh, fuck semantics Nina. You knew you had the money, you knew I had no real reason for being here. You may not have the fun zapping going around in your brain like me, but you’re not dumb. You figured command thought there was a leak and sent me just in case.”

Nina sighed and shrugged. “I did,” she admitted, “But it was just that, a suspicion. And you weren’t cleared to know about the money. How did you know?”

Albert rolled his eyes. “I had my ‘Nternal Personal Computer hack your shit the moment I got on. Call it force of habit, after so many commanders don’t provide me with the relevant information. You know, like you just fucking did?”

Nina shook her head at Albert. “Damn it, Albert. That’s insubordination. I’ve gotta write you up for that, you know?”

Albert smirked and shrugged. “Won’t be the first time me and NPC got written up, and it won’t be the last.”

Nina waved him off. “Go, get out of my sight. I’ve got a leak to find.”

Albert walked away, knowing better than mess with Nina when she was this angry with him. If their past was any good indication, two days and they’d be back to sarcastic and pleasant jibing. Then again, if their past was any indication, she wouldn’t’ve hidden that information from him. Shaking his head, he returned to his cabin, and turned the treadmill up to 90. He needed a real workout to deal with the anger, and running as fast as a sportscar would help, especially after a few hours.

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