Chapter Eleven: The Assignment

Jonathan was asleep when a knock was heard on his door. It took a minute for him to stir and go and open the door. He looked bleary eyed into the face of Captain Fortowrth. Hius internal clock was not adjusted to teh local time.
"We've been given an assignment and must ship out immediately." the Captain said simply. Behind him were two people Jonathan did not recognise. They were both wearing the uniforms that Jonathan recognised as those belonging to the Spacing Commission. "This is Andy and Helen," Captain Fortworth introduced them. "They are the other crewmen on our ship. They've both been breifed on your situation."
There was a hard edge in Captain Fortworth's voice that Jonathan had not heard before. He wondered if there was more to this man than he suspected.
Andy stepped forward. "I have to go down to the second floor to pick up some supplies for the mission. I could use some help loading the truck, could you give me a hand?"
Jonathan shrugged, "Sure."
"You'll need to get your uniform while you are in supplies, Jonathan." The Captain reminded. "Helen and I will go prep the ship for our journey. We'll meet you there."
"Sure thing," Andy said. He was a young man, and, if Jonathan had learned anything about the Spacing commission's uniforms, he was an Initiate. He wore his feild jacket, stripped of many of the materials usualy found in the many pockets open over his shirt. He seemed very eager to please and obviouslly had a passion for his job.
"So, you're really from earth, eh?" He asked Jonathan as they walked down the stairs to the second floor.
"I am." Jonathan replied. He didn't really want to talk about it at the time, but Andy was a likeable enough person. "Listen kid, I'm sort of homesick. I was supposed to go back to Earth a few days from now. I don't really want to talk about it."
"No problem," Andy replied. "What do you know about the Spacing Commission?"
"I read upon it last night." Jonathan replied.
"So you know all the boring technical details and the general history?" Andy asked.
Jonathan chuckled at the description. "I guess you could put it that way."
"Oh man, you have yet to hear all the sxciting parts. I can tell you just about anythign you want to know about the Spacing Commission."
At this point, Jonathan reached the quartermaster desk and asked for a uniform. he was provided with the light brown pants, blue dress shirt and feild jacket of the Spacing Commission. The Jacket was also a light brown with patches of dark brown leather (at least, Jonathan thought it looked like leather). It had various tools that a Spacing Commission officer might need in the feild in all of it's many custom pockets. He was also issued a holstered gun and a badge that had been made for him. He stowed the materials in a pack and followed Andy to the mission equpiment section of the floor.
It was like a huge factory with all sorts of strange machines ready to be turned on. Andy had a worn, folded piece of paper in his, using it as an inventory list.
"We're going to need some micro-satteltites." he said. "And, some general supplies, as well as a new dynamo."
Jonathan didn't really know what any of what he was loading was, but he packed it into a storage room at the back of the warehouse. The room wasn't actually so much a room, but a container that would be lowered onto a truck that could then be driven to the Spaceport.
It didn't take long to load everything. During the entire operation, Andy told Jonathan about the Spacing Commission.
"The Spacing Commission is probably one of the mose interested aspects of the colonial society. Each family has a system to themselves, and some have even pleanted minor colonies in other systems. The Spacing Commission regulates the areas between these planets are the realm of the Spacing Commission."
"I know all this, kid." Jonathan said as he lugged a crate over to a cart.
"Well, okay, but I just wanted to make sure."
"Tell me some of the intersting stories you were describing earlier."
"Okay - I like this one. It went like this, there was a Captain named Grinder who was in charge of one of the police vessles back during the Bush-Gunderson conflict... Do you know about the Bush-Gunderson Conflict?"
"Can't say I do."
"Well, that's okay, it was one of the colonial wars. It doesn't really matter to the story why they were fighting. Anyway, this Captain, Grinder, he was in charge of one of the big policing vessles. Really are they are is like a battleship, right? And, uh, well, there was this incident during the war, where, well, the Spacing Commission watches over wars real tight, right? It's so they can make sure that the wrong people don't get killed. Anyway, there was this incident where Grinder was escorting a convoy of mechant ships through disputed terrirory. The war was over a minor colony war- both families wanted to control it. Anyway, the convoy, it was attacked by some space fighters. Grinder, of course, fought back in an attempt to make sure that the convoy got though - it was carrying humanitarian aide, by the way. Well, as soon as one of the enemy fighters was destroyed, the other fled. Grinder thought he had won an easy victory, but they, out of no-where, six big, I mean, huge Bush family cruisers come out, and attack the convoy. They were trying to control the surface of the planet, adn the humanitarian aid would disrupt that. Anyway, Grinder's up agains these six battleships, hugely outgunned and outnumbered. It seemed like a hopeless fight. He ordered the convoey to break, try and make it to the planet if they could, but to preserve themselves first and formost.
"The Police vessle was a fast one, but it lacked armor like the big, slow battleships had. So, Grinder used his advantages as best he could. One of the ships chased him around a moon, and as he crested the opposite horizen, another of them opened fire, accidently striking their own vessle. Although it wasn't destroyed, it was out of the fight. Grinder managed to take the ship that had missed him and hit it's engines, leaving it cold in space. He forced another one down on to the surface of the moon by attacking it from above. through various tactics, he managed to outsmart and out manouever all the enemy ships." Andy was entierly awestruck by the account of the story. He seemed to worship Captain Grinder as a hero.
"How old are you, kid?" Jonathan asked.
"Oh, uh, I'm eigteen. I streemed my secondary education towards Spacing and fast-tracked the training program for the Spacing Commission."
"Right." Jonathan said. He didn't want to shatter Andy's view of the hero, but it sounded like captain Grinder was just lucky. Jonathan couldn't help but like the kid, he was enthusiastic, if not the best story teller. And he loved his job, that was something Jonathan could respect.
They took the stairs down to the first floor and went to the reception desk. The same girl was sitting there, he attention focused on the screen. apparently, she had take Captain Fortworth's advice.
"Hi!" Andy said as he walked up to the counter.
"Hey Andy," the girl said. "Checking out?"
"Yup. I'm not sure how long we're going to be gone for," he said, awkwardly.
"Alright. I guess, uh, I'll see you when you get back?" The girl asked.
"I suppose."
"You're checking out, too, Mr. Brooke?" The girl asked Jonathan.
"Yes, thanks, I guess I am."
"Alright. Have a safe trip," she said as they started away. She blushed when Andy winked at her.