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“You…” he swallows, hard. “You were at Horus IV?”
I stiffen up a bit and nod.
“Affirmative.” Here I am, snapping back into soldier speak. “Not the best time to be an Alliance soldier, to be sure.”
“It says here you were decorated for extreme valor and awarded the Violet Sun.”
“Affirmative.”
He takes the chit out and hands it back to me.
“My grandpa was a child when Horus IV went down. He says a Vakutan saved his life. I’m starting you at three thousand creds a week.”
My eyes widened. That was the salary a veteran cargo handler would command. I did the math in my head and realized I could save up for my operation in a much shorter span.
“Thank you, sir.”
“No, thank you for your service,” he says. Then he has to go and make things awkward by saluting. I imagine myself telling Olivia that I’m gainfully employed.
I salute back and then he sits back down. Thankfully.
“Oh, one more thing. I technically filled the last spot I had, so you’re going interstellar for your first rotation. The next six months you’ll be out in the field, but then you get a month of shore leave.”
My heart sinks. I’ll have to leave? But then I won’t be able to pursue Olivia.
Still, I must do this. I can’t say no to such a lucrative offer.
“When do I ship out?” I ask, my voice breaking a little bit. I clear my throat and make like I was coughing. “Dusty in here.”
“In two weeks,” he replies.
Two weeks. That’s not much time.
I guess I’d better give up on this fantasy of getting with Olivia. Not like I could find her, anyway. I don’t even know her surname.
One door opens up, and another slams down right on my foot.
Seven
Olivia
Shielding my eyes against both the bright Verdan sun and the dust kicked up by the descending vehicle, I take a cautious step back. Elena has come to pick me up in the most unlikely of vehicles.
A hover sled, with the rear rigged for livestock. Adorable quadrupedal creatures stuff their curious faces between the bars of the safety cage to get a look at me. Their bleets are almost as cute as they are. No wonder Elena is so happy.
“Hey, girlfriend,” Elena says, smiling at me from under a wide brimmed hat with a sun visor attached.
“Hey,” I say back, climbing into the passenger section of the sled. “You’re looking good, Elena.”
Her skin is browned and freckled by the sun, and she’s really toned up.
“I guess the outdoorsy life agrees with me. It’s so much better than working in an office or on a ship somewhere.”
She laughs, and her good mood is infectious.
“And I have to admit, Brom keeps me in a good mood. I never thought I would have ended up with an alien guy, but you know how funny life can be sometimes.”
Elena takes the hover sled straight up. The beps bleat as they ground retreats below us. She turns the ship around and vectors toward the edge of touchdown, where the farms and ranches lay spread out like a many colored tapestry.
