Starcorp 1: Escape from Sol

The last time Eric Pettorino was summoned by Joshua it was to inform him, and the other Division Heads, of a drastic change in the political complexion of Earth. When Eric received this new summons, his first thought was that there was a new development. Shortly, he dismissed this thinking when he discovered that the other Division Heads were not called to this meeting. This information told him that the subject of the meeting concerned him and only him. It also made him aware that he had no idea why he was being summoned to Joshua’s office.

Eric had become accustomed to Joshua’s frequent unannounced visits to his work sites and his daily electronic communications. For all general updates and directives, the one-hour weekly meetings of the Division Heads seemed to be working well enough for this. It was for these reasons that Eric could not imagine what Joshua had to say or show him that warranted a face to face meet. Anything that he could say to him in person could just as easily be communicated electronically. And the only work that Joshua wanted to scrutinize with him present was the work going on in his labs. The more Eric thought about it, the more it seemed to him that this trip was a waste of his time.

The trip was especially annoying to Eric because of the distance. Joshua’s office was aboard the Starship Dominion. All the executive, administrative and political offices were gathered there. Eric’s work site was located aboard the Greyson Star-Factory. A sector of this ship was allocated for his office, manufacturing plant, laboratories, and engineering workrooms. Traveling to Joshua’s office involved nearly an hour of space flight from the Greyson to the Dominion. In Eric’s mind, the group meetings aboard the Dominion were already a waste of his time. This one-on-one meet seemed even more extravagant when compared to that.

It was the start of the first shift of the day. All Division Heads were expected to be at work from the start to the end of the first shift. This simplified the scheduling of meetings, events, and communications. When it was convenient, these things were transacted within the work periods of the individuals they involved. Each day was divided into three eight-hour shifts. A project clock was used to synchronize work schedules, shipments, deliveries, and maintenance to a twenty-four-hour work day. Despite this scheduling, Eric had been awake at his job for the past eighteen hours when this summons arrived. This was not an unusual practice for him or any of the Division Heads. The Titan Project was in high gear and time was at a premium.

Eric arrived outside of Joshua Sloan’s office looking and feeling more than a little sleepy. Normally he would have been napping in his office at this time. He had taken to spending several days in a row at work. The pace of innovations and alterations within other divisions of the project had him and his team forever adapting to new power levels and capabilities. The work that this was creating was only a portion of the motivation that was driving him. Each new challenge that the project presented enhanced his zeal for the task that was handed to him.

“You’re expected, Director. Go right on in.”

Eric acknowledged the instruction from the secretary with a nod and then made his way through the doorway to Joshua’s office.

Joshua’s office was unfamiliar to Eric. He knew where it was, but he never had an occasion to go inside it before. All his past meetings with him were either in his own office, a conference room or in a large workspace. His initial inclination when he entered the room was to inspect it. He was surprised to see that it was scarcely furnished. A desk with three chairs around it was situated in front of the wall opposite the doorway that he came through. A computer was integrated into the desk. Two large video monitors were built into the wall on either side of the door. The first person he noted was a stranger to him. A tall, well-developed, stern-faced male was seated in one of the chairs in front of the desk. His uniform provided Eric with one bit of information about him, he was a high-ranking officer within the newly formed RG01UTC2182 Space Fighter Force. The second person he noted after the entering the office was Joshua. He was seated behind the desk.

“Have a seat, Eric,” Joshua beckoned with a gesture towards the last remaining empty chair.

Eric responded to this by moving towards the seat next to the stranger.

“Eric Pettorino, this is Commander Ronald Noonan,” Joshua announced with a point towards the stranger.

Eric and Ronald acknowledged each other with hellos and a brief handshake. Joshua waited for a second after this was completed before continuing to speak.

“Commander Noonan is in charge of the Space Fighter program.”

Eric was more than a little confused by this introduction. He had heard the name Ronald Noonan and the news of his posting as the commanding officer of the Space Fighter Force. New developments in the Titan Project was common talk among high-ranking RG01 officials. What made this meeting confusing for him was the fact that it was happening. He could not imagine what he and Ronald had to say to each other.

“I brought the both of you here to discuss a situation with our fighter pilot training program,” Joshua added after a pause.

This declaration was a surprise to both Eric and Ronald. The expressions on their faces intimated this. They had no idea that there was a situation that needed to be addressed.

“I don’t see how that concerns me,” Eric spoke up with a shrug. “I have nothing to do with pilot training.”

“And I’m not aware of any problem with our training program,” Ronald articulated an instant behind. “We have four times as many volunteers as we have fighters to put them in. The simulators are working out great and training is ahead of schedule.”

“The schedule is moved up,” Joshua countered flatly.

This report took Ronald by surprise. He had heard nothing about a new timetable for the development of his forces. He hesitated for a second to cycle through this thought and then he asked the question his thinking produced.

“What does that mean, exactly?”

“We’ve been activated,” Joshua explained without embellishment. “I have orders to bring the Space Force to Mars, ASAP.”

Hearing this was alarming to Eric. Up until this moment, the RG01 Space Force was just an exciting project. The idea of it being deployed for battle was, until this moment, a far-off possibility in the back of his mind. His head began to fill up with thoughts of him in the middle of a war in space. He had a sudden need for verification that this event was about to happen. He reacted to this need by asking a question.

“Has there been an attack?”

“The League believes that United Front Pact is amassing a large force of space fighters,” Joshua answered after turning his attention to Eric. “They want us in position to engage it if they do attack.”

“Why Mars?”

This question was almost a reflex action for Ronald. Instinct told him that high Earth orbit was a better place to lay in wait for an armada of military spacecraft leaving the planet. Going to Earth would give them the ability to engage a space force before it could scatter. Mars was just one possible target. There were dozens of starcorps positioned inside the perimeter of the asteroid belt. In his mind, it seemed impossible to protect them all while all their forces were congregated around Mars.

“The League is rallying all starcorps to Mars. That includes RG01.”

Joshua knew that this answer explained why they were being positioned around Mars. He also knew that it invited another question that he could not answer. The star drive that the league was installing in all starcorp starships and spaceships was a top-secret program. He was under orders not to reveal this to anyone. For anyone not in possession of this knowledge it made no sense for all the starcorps to congregate in one place. Doing this had two obvious negatives. First, it brought to a halt all starcorp enterprises. And secondly, it created one target for the Earth forces to engage. However, it was the creation of this one target that the league wanted.

Time was needed to ready the starcorp spaceships for interstellar travel. The mounting evidence that Earth was producing a space force gave the league reason to consider the possibility that time was running out. It was thought that a piecemeal exodus would provoke Earth into an immediate response. To prevent this, a single launch date from a single location was decided upon. Joshua and his RG01 Space Force was being called in to shield Mars space while final preparations for this launch was underway.

“Why move everything to Mars?” Ronald questioned with a perplexed expression.

“They have their reasons,” Joshua answered with a blank face.

Ronald took away more from Joshua’s poker face than he did from his reply. He knew that something was triggering this action and that Joshua was not about to tell him what.

“I can’t imagine what that might be,” Ronald retorted with a soft shake of his head. “But it doesn’t matter. I have more than enough pilots trained and ready right now.”

“No, you don’t,” Joshua countered with an emphatic inflection.

Ronald was surprised anew by this repudiation. He shortly cycled through this feeling and moved on to defensive.

“I have more than two-hundred volunteers trained and ready to operate two hundred and eighty-four Mows,” Ronald insisted. “Another one-hundred will have completed their training before we reach Mars. I don’t see the problem.”

Joshua gave no thought to responding to this verbally. With one hand, he manipulated the computer console that was built into his desktop. The two large wall monitors switched on a second behind this. A read out of names with an average simulation score attached to each one, began to scroll up the screens. With a gesture of his hand, Joshua directed the attentions of Eric and Ronald to it as he spoke.

“There’s the problem.”

Ronald and Eric noted the display with looks of confusion. They had little interest in the names. It was the numerical data that puzzled them. The significance of this information was not understood by either of them. Impatience got the better of Ronald fifteen seconds into his study.

“What are we looking at?”

“Monitor one is displaying the average simulation scores of your space force volunteer pilots,” Joshua explained in a calm voice. “Monitor two is displaying the average simulation scores of Eric’s test pilots.”

Both of Joshua’s guest took another minute to examine the data scrolling up the screens. Periodically they switched their attentions from one screen to the other. Before they were through assessing this data, Joshua began to speak again.

“As you can see, most of your volunteers are not half as good as Eric’s test pilots, and the rest are barely at that.”

“Joshua, my test pilots, have been doing this for more than two years,” Eric offered in defense of the trainees. “These volunteers started their training less than six months-ago.”

“They just need some more time,” Ronald added in with a defensive inflection. “They’ll get there.”

“We’re out of time,” Joshua retorted.

Ronald became suspicious of this statement from the instant he heard it. The suggestion that there was some urgency to this seemed to be a poor fit with his understanding of the situation on Earth. He was not ignorant of the United Front Pact member’s disposition. He had been following the news on the changes that were occurring there. It was his guess that the Earth’s space force was still in the early stages of its development and not likely to attempt to assert itself militarily over the next twelve months, at a minimum.

“Why the hurry?” Ronald challenged. “Is there something you’re not telling us?”

Joshua took a moment to consider the question before answering with the only reply he considered safe to give.

“The possibility of armed conflict at some time in the near future is real. That’s all you need to know for now.”

Eric was still mystified by his presence in this meeting. He had nothing to do with the pilots and he certainly was not about to participate in the fighting. The talk of armed conflict and time running out had finally pushed him to the end of his patience.

“I’m not understanding this,” Eric spoke up with a confused shake of his head. “I have nothing to do with pilot training. Why am I here?”

“We’re going to replace the space force volunteers with your test pilots,” Joshua answered in an impassive voice.

The definitive tone of Joshua’s speech did not go unnoticed. Eric was shocked into silence by it. Ronald was shocked into a blurted response.

“You can’t be serious.”

Joshua was not offended by Ronald’s dissension. He understood the magnitude of what he was suggesting. Replacing trained security personnel with civilians on the eve of a war was not his original plan.

“Are we talking about conscription,” Eric questioned with a look of concern. “Because my test pilots are not soldiers.”

“No,” Joshua corrected. “We’ll offer them the same contract that we gave the security force volunteers.”

Eric was not convinced that his test pilots would accept this offer. He was not intricately familiar with their lives and characters, but he did believe them to be more passive than aggressive.

“And what if they don’t sign on?” Eric queried with a semblance of puzzlement.

Joshua had no ready answer to this question. This was true even though he had been considering that possibility for the past two hours. After a moment of thought, he gave the only answer that was a fit into his plans.

“They will.”

“No, they won’t,” Ronald disputed. “Our security force volunteers are career officers. Putting their lives on the line and combatting hostile adversaries is what they do for a living. These test pilots are just a bunch of cyber geeks and weekend warriors. They’re not equipped with the mettle necessary for a war.”

“Weekend warriors or not,” Joshua argued back, “We need them. Their skill level is twice that of your security force officers. I need people with the skill to win more than I need people with the mettle to lose bravely.”

Ronald was astonished by this opposition to his thinking on the subject. The fact that these test pilots had no combat training seemed to be a major failing to him. He took a moment to digest this bewildering counterargument from Joshua and then he asked the question that this action produced.

“You can’t believe that this is going to work?” Ronald questioned with a look of incredulity.

“It has to work,” Joshua insisted flatly.

Joshua paused to give weight to this declaration. He looked from Ronald to Eric and back again with an expression of determination. At the end of his pause, he spoke again with greater intensity.

“We have to make it work.”

The intransigence in Joshua’s speech was clearly noted by Eric and Ronald. After a moment of thought, they both accepted his decision with looks of resignation and dismay. Shortly after noting this acquiescence Joshua delivered is final directive.

“We’re going to have this in place by the time we get to Mars. Is that understood?”

After a moment of thought, Eric and Ron acknowledged their understanding with grudging nods of their heads.