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  Paige grinned, taking in what Molly was telling her. “Wow. That’s… incredible. I wish I’d had a teacher like you when I was at school.”

  Von laughed, a little embarrassed. “Well, I do think that the think tank technology has been an excellent addition to the teaching process,” she explained modestly. “But, if you’re actually interested in interplanetary relations you could always sign up for the course. I don’t think it would be an issue with the university, since your boss is entirely responsible for the funding of it.”

  Paige glanced over at Molly, not wanting to put her on the spot. Then she looked back at Von. “If it doesn’t look like it would interfere with my work, I may take you up on that generous offer.” She flushed a little pink in the small of her neck. “I must admit, I wasn’t the best student when I was at school, though.”

  Von winked at her. “I’ve always been told that there’s no such thing as a bad student,” she said.

  Paige grinned then turned to Molly. “And she blames the technology for the enthusiasm of her students.” She rolled her eyes, teasingly.

  Molly chuckled a little and shook her head. “I know, right?”

  Von looked a little perplexed. And then embarrassed. Again. “So, we should shoot the next bit telling them how to register now?” she ventured, changing the subject to something a little more within her comfort zone.

  Paige grabbed the camera and the autocue. “Yeah, I thought maybe we could do that out in the quad?”

  Von frowned. “Even though it’s dark?”

  Paige nodded. “Yup. We have flood lights. And it will make it atmospheric. Besides… all your students have seen the prospectus videos with perfectly manicured lawns and bright daylight making the buildings look like something out of a utopia. I think it will be refreshing for them to see something different. After all, I’m sure there are many of them who are around campus after hours, and this is when they feel most like this is their university.”

  Von was taking it all in, impressed. She glanced over at Molly. “This one has a lot of insight into the psychology of relationships.”

  Molly slid off the bench, and started helping Paige pack up the other pieces of equipment. “She does. She has her own company she runs now and the media she runs through her sales and marketing departments is top notch. Outsells all her major competitors by at least 100%!”

  Abigail looked even more taken aback. “Well in that case, I’d be honored if you were in my class. I have a feeling you have a natural ability for all things to do with communication and negotiations.”

  Northfield, Uptarlung Space Port

  Jack arrived at the office, her pack weighing heavily now on her shoulder. It had been a long while since she had to travel like a cadet. Not that she was averse to hauling her own gear or putting in physical effort.

  She found the registration office the Estarian at the station had sent her to. He’d said it was the fourth door on the right. As she approached the building she saw that the forth door was slightly ajar with a hand written sign taped to it: REGISTRATION, BRAVO EQUIP.

  That’s the one, she told herself, bracing herself for talking to civilians. She slouched her shoulders a little, and pulled at her jacket so that she didn’t look too orderly. Though she’d been in the military most of her life now, she hadn’t lost sight of how military folks were perceived by civilians - and she wasn’t about to give anything away here.

  She stomped up the wooden steps to the slightly warped door and knocked before pushing it open. There was no one about but a waft of the scent of sawdust and packing materials met her nostrils. She stepped up the final stair and shuffled in, slinging her pack down on the floor. She made a show of rolling her shoulder and loosening it from the load.

  She heard movement off to her right, and a short Ogg appeared from the backroom.

  “Bravo?” he asked.

  Jack wasn’t sure she heard him right. “Pardon?” she asked. Then her ears caught up with her brain. “Yes, Bravo Equipment,” she confirmed, mentally kicking herself for fluffing up straight out of the gate.

  The Ogg didn’t seem bothered. He simply opened his holo and started reading down. “Name?” he demanded.

  She’s been practicing this one. “Griselle Oriel,” she announced, trying to sound natural, like she had introduced herself a million times.

  He didn’t look up, but poked into his holo and then closed it. “Sent you some registration documents. Medic is through there,” he nodded to the door on the other side of the room. “He’ll call for you when he’s ready. You can wait over there.”

  He pointed at a bank of half a dozen hard back chairs. Jack glanced over at them, then back at the Ogg, and then down at her pack. Visibly unenthused by the whole situation she bent over and lifted her luggage unceremoniously and hauled herself over to the chairs. She sat down placing her pack on the floor in front of the seat next to her.

  Crossing her legs, she opened her holo.

  Here goes nothing, she told herself, as she eyeballed the bullshit paperwork she had gone to incredible extremes to avoid in her real life.

  About twenty minutes had passed before a strange looking Estarian hobbled into the doorway of the other room the Ogg had indicated at.

  “Oriel,” he called.

  Jack sprung to her feet. “That’s me!” she said, relieved to finally be getting on with something.

  The Estarian nodded and ambled back into the other room. Jack assumed this meant she was to follow. She pulled her luggage into an upright position and half lifted, half dragged it across the bare floor boards of the temporary airport building.

  Inside the room were two chairs, a desk, and an examination table. And not much else.

  “Sit,” the medic instructed.

  Jack took the seat by the side of the desk, and the doctor pulled his chair out and sat himself down. “I have a series of questions to ask you, then I need a blood and urine sample for drug testing and then… you’ll be free to go. If there are any problems you will be notified by holo and your shift will be canceled. If everything is ok, you won’t hear from us and you just report to duty tomorrow night. Do you understand?”

  Jack nodded. “Yes. I understand.”

  “Good,” he said flatly. “Onto the questions. Are you or have you ever been…”

  The next hour was filled with inane and ridiculous medical disclaimers that they wanted the workers’ confirmation on. All of the rest of the information she gave was either something basic that would show up in the blood tests or in any of the DNA scans they would care to run.

  After being poked and prodded, and having under gone an eye examination, and had her teeth counted, she signed a bunch of holo screens and was finally dismissed.

  Picking up her pack, she didn’t bother to tuck her shirt back in, because… well, not military now. She exited from the same door she had gone in, and noticed that in the time she had been in the exam room a number of other people had arrived. Her eyes fell immediately to the female Estarian, sitting delicately between two Estarian males who each took up a chair and a half by the time they had leaned and spread their legs comfortably.

  Jack averted her eyes so as not to give anyone the feeling that Maya and she knew each other. Maya did the same, pretending to study the patterns in the dusty floorboards. Jack shuffled herself and her pack out of the make-shift office and traipsed down the steps. She dropped her pack that she’d been carrying like a briefcase, and checked her holo for the instructions that had come through in response to her registration paperwork.

  She scanned the details and then swung her pack onto her back and headed off down the road to find the hostel they had been booked into for the night. She decided she would dump her gear, find out who else was around, make some acquaintances - or not - and then head out to find some food.

  Her chest felt numb and heavy at the prospect. She’d done enough traveling with the military to know that space ports weren’t the most inspired places for either accommo
dation or culinary requirements.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Tímabundið Hostel, Northfields, Uptarlung Space Port

  Brock arrived at the Tímabundið Hostel and looked up at the old brown, ugly building. He assumed that the others had made it here before him since he hadn’t seen any of them at the registration office. Mind, he hadn’t dared ask anyone for fear of drawing suspicion.

  He checked in and made his way up the staircase with the thinning carpet and entered the sparsely furnished shared room. The furniture consisted of a dresser, a chair and a bunk bed. There was gear on the bottom bunk, claiming it as taken.

  Guess we don’t get single accommodations on this gig, he mused, disheartened.

  He pulled out the clothes he would need for the evening and his sweats for sleeping in, and then set about the task of finding the shower room.

  He found the shower room down the hall, and after some faffing about gathering soaps and sponges and a change of clothes, he got himself showered and feeling almost human again.

  Half dressed in his fresh clothes, his damp towel encapsulating all of his other things, he pushed his way back into his shared room.

  There was a dark lump of a body on the bottom bunk. It moved, and he nearly jumped out of his skin. Still stunned he quickly gathered himself so as not to appear scatty. Then he looked a little closer.

  It was Sean.

  His body flooded with relief, and he wanted to say ‘Sean!’ - until he remembered: Sean is called Rex.

  And Rex and Tallus don’t know each other yet.

  Sean casually rolled his head on the pillow to look at the person coming through the door. “Ah,” he said. “Guess you’re my room mate for the night.”

  Brock shuffled into the room and closed the door, smiling. “Yeah. I’m Tallus,” he said, bowing in the Estarian way.

  “Rex,” Sean replied curtly. “Rex Baron.”

  Brock flushed a little, carrying the towel of shower things and dirty clothes. He glanced at the bundle and then shrugged awkwardly. “Nice to meet you Rex Baron…” he replied. “Good trip in?”

  Without an obvious audience to their conversation Sean seemed to be going through the motions. “Tube ride in. It was dull.”

  He lay back again, his eyes falling to the bottom of the top bunk above him, and then closed his eyes.

  Brock continued getting himself dressed and sorted his gear out. “How did you get on with the medical? Tedious, eh?”

  Sean grunted. “Yeah. But it’s all for insurance purposes…” he explained, almost as if he was embracing his role as the head administrator for the auditing company.

  He seemed to think of something, and turned on his side, propping his head up in his hand. “So what are you in for?” he asked with a slight smirk.

  Brock spoke as he shuffled his things around, glancing up now and again. “You mean what is my job on the trip?” He slung his damp towel over a towel rail in the airing cupboard. “I’m a chef. So food.”

  Sean lay back down again. “I see.”

  He paused. “Speaking of, we should probably go and find some food before we sleep. Maybe see who else in the crew has been put up here.”

  Brock’s face brightened. “Good plan… Have you met anyone else yet?”

  Sean had laid back down again, staring at the bottom of the bed above him. “I noticed a bunch of people who might be in the crew checking in earlier. Some Estarian chick said she was part of Bravo, doing computer maintenance.”

  Brock bobbed his head. “Hmm. Dirty work, that is.”

  Sean nodded. “Yeah,” he chuffed, springing up off the bed. “Ok. Let’s go do this then,” he told Brock.

  Brock, perplexed by the sudden decision for them to move out, grabbed his boots, his room key card, and checked his reflection before following Sean barefoot out of the room.

  Gaitune-67, Base Ops Room

  Molly sat in the dimly lit ops room. Paige sat by her side, clutching a mocha. Molly took the time to appreciate the sweet aroma wafting in her direction.

  “Looks like it will probably be full by the end of the week,” Von told them over the holo connection.

  Molly’s eyebrows raised up. “Seriously? All two hundred places?”

  Von nodded. “Yep. I think we’ve hit on something that is very much wanted right now.”

  Paige was beaming. “That’s excellent news. I think the video turned out to be very effective… I can’t wait to tell Maya,” she said to Molly, before turning back and explaining to Von who Maya was and that it was she who had written the script.

  “It worked like a charm,” the middle-aged professor agreed. “I don’t think they’re used to quite the same amount of thought going into a promotional video for a class. It certainly has stood out.”

  Paige was flicking through screens on her holo. “It looks like it has had five hundred times more views than the average video on the system… Its also been shared beyond just the students too.”

  Von frowned, suddenly looking a little uncertain. “You mean, beyond the university?” She noticed that Paige nodded. “How did you get hold of that data?” she asked.

  Molly leaned closer to the holo. “We have access to a lot of resources through various channels. The thing is, most of the data is publicly available if you have the expertise and the willingness to pull it. I just don’t think many people bother with it… because, well, they’re not trying to blaze any trails.”

  Von’s face relaxed again. “Ah. I see,” she confirmed.

  Paige was still flicking through screens on her device. “So… when did we say the course started?” she asked without looking up.

  Von responded without thinking. “Two weeks from yesterday,” she told her.

  Paige bobbed her head. “Neat. This is going to be awesome!”

  Molly smiled. “It is indeed.” She turned to Von, her tone a little more businesslike now. “So we should probably firm up the last few lecture topics you had on your last communication.”

  Von pulled up a screen in front of her camera, blurring her image a little. “Yes, shall we?”

  Molly and Von discussed the ins and outs of where they wanted the material to end up, and what the final take away they wanted the students to be left with. During the conversation they had a few sidebar comments which made it clear they had much they could learn from each other in terms of both the concepts and the application. Paige looked on in rapt attention, her enthusiasm for the subject mounting.

  Molly noticed and when the final lecture content was agreed she looked over at Paige. “I think you ought to take this course,” she said, smiling. “If you think you can manage the workload, that is.”

  Paige’s eyes lit up. “Yes, yes I can manage it. I’d love to, as long as you don’t think it will be a distraction from the work we do here?”

  Molly shook her head. “I think it’s important that we support this material, and that we bring these understandings in house. Yes, you’re here to do a job, but more than that, you’re here to grow as a person, so you can do bigger jobs and take on bigger challenges for us in the future. It’s my responsibility to give you the opportunity to grow into those future roles. Not just to get projects completed here and now.”

  Paige started tearing up. “That’s… amazing!” Her voice was wavering, as the emotion welled up in her. “You’re the best, Molly.”