On the Roster - Chapter 3

Kiri lunged forward and scrambled under the chair near the desk. She wished she’d changed out of her orange cleaning frock, but it was too late now.

The door finished hissing open, and she could see two pairs of polished boots.

“Ahh, here it is.” The lieutenant’s gravelly voice said.

Suddenly one of the sets of boots advanced to the sidetable next to the board. She heard something being taken off the table. Then nothing.

The grate was open!

Kiri’s heart started to race. If one of them looked up, they would know something was wrong.

She held her breath and started counting in her head, trying to distract herself and slow her beating heart.

Here she was, the daughter of a planetary governer, hiding under the desk. She would have laughed if she wasn’t so petrified about being caught.

“What do you think?” the lieutenant’s gravelly voice said. “Did we make the right choices?”

“I think so,” said the other man. Was that the Captain? She hadn’t heard his voice before. “I don’t know some of the new recruits, but I trust your judgment. This is your domain after all.”

“I wonder if Festerwel or Krushank would want any changes,” lieutenant Creustal said, his voice sending frissons of fear down her spine. “Maybe they know something we don’t know…” There was a rapping sound on the table. “Well, the mission is simple. In and out. It shouldn’t matter.”

“True enough. Emperor willing.”

“Yes, but I do wonder …”

Kiri strained to hear, trying to edge closer to them without becoming visible.

“Wait, do you hear that?”

The lieutenant’s boots turned and faced the rest of the room.

He took a hesitant step in Kiri’s direction.

Just then, klaxons began to blare and the room shook.

“The geller field!” One of them yelled, and both of them took off sprinting out of the room. She braced herself as the room shook. Items flew off the desk and chairs toppled over. Eventually the shaking died down a little, though it didn’t disappear.

Kiri breathed a sigh of relief. Somehow trouble with the geller field felt easier to deal with than being found in the room.

She stood up, remarkably calm amidst the shaking and flashing lights.

There it was, off to the side. A photo of her, labelled Voidsman K Havelock. She yanked it and held it up next to Voidsman K Haverton’s photo.

“Sorry Kimber,” she whispered.

She swapped the two photos and put Haverton up where Havelock had been.

Then she brought a chair over to under the vent and grabbed the lip before kicking the chair off to the side. She climbed in and wedged the grate tightly, gripped the tool in her mouth and started crawling back towards the maintenance closet.

“I’d prefer the Blue Spider,” she said to herself, “but anything is better than another six months of mopping.”

Careful not to snag her cleaning uniform on the wayward screw the second time, she couldn’t help but feel optimistic.

Let’s see if this will work.

~

“Dagger squad. Petty Officer J Krushank. Leading Voidsman H Gundersmal. Voidsman Q Heslo. Voidsman Y Yerlanna. Voidsman W Justino. Voidsman C Lpsortiv. Report to hanger Yellow-12.”

Kiri’s stomach was clenched. The 50 or so of them stood in ranks before Lieutenant Creustal as he read off a dataslate that his aide had given him.

“Diamond squad. Voidstalker. Ensign Festerwell. Leading Voidman Marrick. Voidman Varro. Voidman Dravik.”

Kiri realized she was holding her breath and forced herself to relax.

“Voidman Corwin. Voidman Tallow.” The Adjutant continued.

Kiri stared straight forward, feeling like the rest of the room was looking at her and doing her best to pretend she didn’t notice.

“And Voidman K Havelock. Report to hanger Green-42.”

Now she was sure everyone was looking at her. She was still fresh. Still hadn’t graduated mop duty. And everyone knew it. The worst thing she could do now was react. Hasta, bless the old tutor, had always been very clear — you are always the biggest variable and the greatest source of your defeat, he would say. Remove yourself from the equation.

So she pretended no one else existed and stared forward. There was a sinking feeling in her stomach. Guilt. Had she cheated? Maybe she shouldn’t have. Too late for that. And poor Kimber.

And more than any of that, she was elated that she might get a chance to fly again.

Everyone started moving. They must have been dismissed while she was stuck in her thoughts. She’d arrived ready to move out just in case her gamble had worked, and so she didn’t need to go back to her quarters to get her voidsuit.

Or her inheritance. She’d deliberately brought it with her, even though she knew she shouldn’t have. Two pieces of her family’s history sat with her. The signet ring on a chain around her neck, and a family heirloom tucked comfortably in the small of her back. It’s weight a comfort. It had been her father’s. The one thing he wanted her to have. She knew she should leave it, that it would raise questions she didn’t want to answer if someone found it.

And yet she’d brought it anyway.

She headed straight for hanger Green-42.

There was a lightness in her steps — she’d made it onto the roster.