The Jinn woman waiting outside the conference room took him to the quartermaster so he could be issued clothing. When told where they were going, Hector imagined a grumpy old soldier obsessed with inventory numbers matching the paperwork. That was not the case.

  The quartermaster was a function handled by a machine on the Jinn vessel. It automatically picked the items he requested and dispensed them into a bin. The only hiccup happened when he broke the bio-metric reader by pressing too hard with his thumb.

  His assistant Amy studied the busted reader. “Huh. Don’t know your own strength?”

  “Sorry about that. I had a pretty big jump in my body enhancement while I slept.”

  “It wasn’t on purpose,” she allowed. “I don’t know that we are able to source replacements now that we’ve gone rogue. Maybe other people should give thumb prints on your behalf.”

  Hector nodded. His thoughts flashed back to the cart he’d damaged earlier. Through the years he’d gained a great deal of dexterity through nervous system enhancement and mental strengthening. Those benefits allowed him to navigate a world of mundane material without leaving a trail of debris. His sudden jump in strength had yet to be taken into account at a subconscious level – usually improvements were gradual, especially at the later levels.

  In a latrine, he swapped out his gown for a Mercom military uniform. Then, feeling much better wearing proper attire, he accepted the offer from Amy for a tour of the vessel.

  The crew portion of the cruiser was five decks tall, about a hundred meters long, and about ten meters wide. Due to the narrow space, the thin hallway only had rooms on one side – which side alternated on each level. The middle deck held the medical bay, sanitation facilities, dining room, laundry, quartermaster, and observation lounge. They climbed to the fourth level and walked through the bunk rooms. Hector had an officer room assigned to him. It was small but he didn’t have a roommate.

  The fifth level had a small gym, a rec room, and a large amount of space dedicated to life support machinery. There was also a bright red hatch leading to sections of the vessel that were only accessible by maintenance technicians. “That’s for internal access to the sensors and half of the gravitonics array. It’s a highly sensitive area that only three members of the crew are qualified to enter.”

  Her serious demeanor caused Hector to assure his compliance. “I would never disrespect the boundaries of Cruiser Erin. Nor would I do anything to place the crew in danger.”

  Mollified, Amy continued the tour. They went down to the second floor where Hector saw the massive storage compartments for consumables and weapons and parts and anything else the crew may need. The shuttle bay was also integrated into the rear of the facility, with cradles for two smaller vessel, one to either side. At the moment one was absent. Overall, it was a drastically scaled-down version of what he’d seen on numerous war barges.

  They continued to the bottom-most deck. The space held a large number of workshops and a handful of computer stations. “Most of the crew are maintenance technicians. The next largest designation is combat personnel. That includes soldiers and shuttle pilots. There are only a few operations staff. Cruiser Erin handles most things herself, you see. She only needs staff for the fusion reactor and communications. And that red hatch leads to the other half of the gravitonics, plus the energy systems and the critical electronics.”

  “And I won’t go anywhere near that stuff,” Hector preempted her concern.

  Amy smiled. “Look at little old me, giving orders to a level nine Xian. And he listens.”

  “Well, you give the impression you know what you’re about,” he said.

  The level four Jinn woman rolled her eyes. “I’m just an unrated crew. My restoration rates are barely good enough to get me a place on a vessel. Until I get qualified, my job is cleaning and general maintenance of the crew area. I will never be qualified. We’re all traitors now.”

  Hector studied the woman before him. She didn’t look upset about her announcement. It was simply a fact that she decided to share. “You’re patriots of humanity. Not traitors.”

  “Exactly! Do you want to go outside now? It’s the yellow hatch. Red paint means ‘do not enter’ and yellow means ‘no opening in flight’. We’re on the ground now. Oh, I suppose I should explain how to know that. See the signal lights? Red color means we’re in flight. Yellow color means we’re grounded but exit isn’t permitted for operational reasons. The green you see now means you can exit. For us that is always conditional on getting approval from our supervisor. Since Cruiser Erin is at your service, I’m not sure what the proper procedure will be.”

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  Hector shrugged. “It would be best if I coordinate my actions with Cruiser Erin.”

  “That’s a good idea. I have to say, you’re a lot nicer than I expected a Lord to be.”

  “I’m not from Tian, Amy. Nor do I approve of Amaratti society in general.”

  Amy pulled the hatch open. “One more thing you should know. The hatches have systems in them that make them easy to operate. If they aren’t moving, that means some safety mechanism is engaged. Please don’t use your Xian strength to force them open or closed.”

  “Wise advice.”

  She stepped through into the five by five meter space. “The far hatch won’t open until the other one closes – not without numerous of those safety mechanisms being disengaged, at least. This space is called an airlock.” Amy closed the hatch behind them and walked forward to open the next. She then pulled out a small device. “This is a communications ear clip. It doesn’t have a secure channel, but there shouldn’t be any electronics on this world to intercept the messages.”

  Hector clipped the device onto his ear and stepped out through the hatch. Before him a ramp extended to the grass below. He turned and waved to his guide. “Thank you for the orientation, Amy. I’ll see you around.”

  Halfway down the ramp, he stumbled as gravity twisted without warning. “What the hell?”

  His earpiece provided the answer in Cruiser Erin’s voice. “I’m quite heavy, so I keep my gravitonics active when parked on anything less sturdy than reinforced concrete. You just passed beyond my current field of influence.”

  He continued down the ramp, moving beyond the body of the vessel above him so that he could see his surroundings for the first time. A large estate of red brick buildings separated by hedge-lined walkways and immaculate lawns being grazed by sheep. It appeared to be a bucolic paradise.

  Two Jinn soldiers on guard duty turned to watch him, offering smart salutes once he passed an invisible line defined by protocol. “Good day, Lord Dragonbane.”

  Hector returned the salute awkwardly. He wasn’t sure what to say, but thought it would be inappropriate not to interact with the soldiers. If he understood the situation, their choose to aid him made them traitors to Mercom. Their motivations might not be loyalty to him, but sacrificing their futures for the sake of the species was far more worthy in his opinion.

  He shook hands, requested names, and thanked them for their dedication to the cause. Not sure where else to say, he promised that he would do his part to make sure they didn’t fail. Judging by how much taller the two men stood, he’d done some good for their morale. They pointed him towards a nearby pavilion at the center of a rose garden and indicated that most of his retinue was there at the moment.

  Hector walked down a sidewalk formed of cunningly fit stones towards the pavilion. A glance back revealed the exterior of Cruiser Erin. The vessel, while nowhere near as massive as a war barge, was still roughly the size of a naval battleship from Earth. Its matte gray outline was more regular than an ocean going vessel, with the exception of ridges extending like sleigh runners on the bottom to support its mass on the ground.

  Before he arrived at the pavilion, cheers reached his ears.

  “Looks like Lord Bedsore finally got tired of slacking!”

  “The man, the myth, the fainter.”

  “I hope his lordship deigns to speak with us dirty commoners.”

  Each quip came quick on the heels of the previous. They’d obviously been cooking these up for a while. Hector scratched his cheek with a single finger suspiciously kept straight. That gesture, oddly enough, perfectly translated anywhere with an English equivalent language.

  “A Lord is propositioning me!” Ajax’s rumbling response to his gesture made Hector laugh.

  Stepping into the pavilion, Hector was swarmed by friends embracing him. His eyes grew warm as they slapped each others’ backs. He never expected to see any of them again – or any other human, for that matter. One of the individuals present remained aloof.

  “It’s good to see you, Conrad. You were my first mentor in the war against the monsters.”

  The cyborg gave an awkward Amaratti style bow. “Lord Dragonbane.”

  Hector paused. “That is far too formal for my taste.”

  “I am sworn to your service as a member of your retinue.”

  The words of the cyborg were solemn and serious. Hector pondered the situation while everyone waited to see his response. This was an important moment, he understood. These people, most of them dear friends, had agreed to a role traditionally defined by subservience. It remained to be determined what that looked like for their group. Whether they had agreed to be his colleagues or slaves or something in between would be defined through their interactions.

  Hector chose his words carefully. He was addressing Conrad, but his words were for everyone. “I’m honored, Conrad. Truly. I will do my best to meet the expectations placed on me. Your pledge means a lot to me, but when it comes to discharging your duties… I need friends and allies and advisors far more than followers.”

  When it was clear he was finished, Esther put an arm around his shoulders. “I promise not to kiss your ass, Hector.”

  “Not unless he starts wiping better,” Piercing added.

  Ajax snorted, a sound like a rifle shot. “Sages are so picky.”

  Conrad watched them skeptically. Whatever his thoughts, he kept them to himself. Though he did change the subject. “The Thrush family expressed interest in entertaining the leader of the expedition. If you are not opposed, it may be worth visiting with them. They are hardly better than unempowered people, so they shouldn’t offer any threat to you.”

  Thrush family. The name sounded vaguely familiar for some reason. “Let’s meet them.”