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Hello SF. This is the second installment of my ongoing series "A first for everything". We get to see Jack's journey beginning, a few bumps in the road and an unexpected situation, hopefully you will like it. If you are inclined to I would greatly appreciate any comment, vote or fave. I hope you enjoy!

Planet: Earth

City: Boston

Date: 2782.12.12AD08:00:00

Jack rode in the back of a black and white cab; while not the most comfortable it was the only one he had been able to book for the long trip to the space station in Delaware, he could have gotten a plane ticket or even a bus ticket but he preferred to be alone with his thoughts right now. The driver seemed to have figured that out from the minute Jack decided to ride in the back instead of the front seat, and other than one or two glances in the front mirror the driver had left Jack to his own, he even was considerate enough as to not turn the radio on, something which Jack was thankful for, he needed this moment to be a quiet one.

Jack laid his head on the window to his right, watching as the scenery passed and was left behind: buildings, stores, houses, everything came into view for just a few seconds before disappearing. Jack could not help getting sad at the realization that, much like the scenery next to the road, he was effectively leaving his entire life behind. It was not like the time he had to move from city and he left the city he had lived in for the past 5 years, now he was not only leaving the city he lived in, he was leaving his best friend, several colleagues, two very fulfilling jobs, even the planet! So much would be different; so much would be unknown and unexpected. Jack sighted and straighten on the seat, 'I cannot be thinking this way, I knew when I submitted my application that if I got accepted into to the army things would be different, but this is what I want: to help as I can so others won't go thru the same thing I did.'

~

Several hours passed since Jack's trip to the space station began, and other than a quick stop for lunch it had been a non-stop ride, which suit Jack just fine, he wanted to have as much spare time as possible before the meeting.

Jack was surprise when they first arrived at Salisbury. The city was one of the three cities that worked as a big military station on the east coast, and just as it could be expected from an army city, everything was neatly arranged: the streets were pristine clean, the trees and bushes were perfectly trimmed and to the left and right houses were identical to one another and extended as an endless line as far as the sight could reach. But what took Jack's breath away was the sight of the space station, it had to occupy at least a forth of the entire city. He could see in the distance the huge space ships, big as football stadiums.

Driving thru the city the cab reached a checking point at the entrance of the space station. A soldier with an assault rifle hanged at his back came out to their encounter, the driver lower down his window and the soldier spoke in a paused but imposing tone.

"This is a restricted area, you must leave immediately."

The cab driver pointed back with his left thumb "the guy on the back says he has business here."

Jack stepped out of the cab and was about to take out his ID card when the soldier suddenly took his rifle and with a swift motion pointed it at him; the driver stood frozen with his hands on the steering wheel as he noted that the automatic defenses have been activated and were pointing at him.

"Sir, do not move! Identify yourself!"

Jack was taken aback by the sudden moves of the soldier and raised both hands at the air to show he was not a menace. "M-my name is Jack... Dr. Jack Hallinger. I am here to join the Orion's crew" stammered Jack.

The soldier looked him for a moment, studying his body language to determine the possibility of him lying; reaching a decision, the soldier lowered his rifle and brought his left hand to his ear "central, this is guardian 1. I have at the gate a civilian by the name Jack Hallinger, I request instructions."

Jack waited for a few seconds that felt like hours, and then he saw the soldier nodding and assumed he had received his answer.

"Sir, I need your ID." Said the soldier as he approached Jack and extended his right hand.

Jack lowered his right hand and brought it to his shirt pocket where he took his ID and handed it over. He watched nervously as the soldier went inside his post and swiped his card in a reading terminal.

Some minutes later the soldier came out again and handed Jack's ID back "take any luggage you may have out of the cab and dismiss him, a transport will be here to take you to the base."

Jack took the offered ID and shoved it back into his shirt pocket, he lowered his hands and was relieve that everything had turned out ok, thou he still was a little nervous.

He pulled his bags out of the car's trunk and thanked the driver for the ride; there was no need to pay him since he had done so when making the reservation. The driver drove away as soon as he could, cursing under his breath.

Jack stood in front of the gate as it lowered itself to grant him passage. He stepped thru the door, luggage in tow and waited for his transport. The soldier who had "greeted" him was again busy checking images on a screen and waiting to deliver the civilian.

Some minutes later a jeep parked by the entrance, a young soldier, probably around 20 years old or so, hopped off and saluted the guarding soldier.

"Sir, Private Conway reporting for pickup, Sir!"

The guarding soldier saluted back "at ease Private", then he pointed to Jack "escort this civilian to the A-3 checking point, he is to board the O'rion."

"Sir Yes, Sir!" And with that Private Conway went helping Jack loading his luggage on to the jeep. Jack wondered why was it that "Guardian 1" had been so rough in comparison to Conway who was attentive.

Jack could see in the distant what he assumed to be the checking gates were people got cleared to board the space ships. There were 3 huge spaceships currently at the base, but there was enough space to fit at least 6 with plenty of room in between.

When they reached the front of the checking point the Private parked the jeep, climbed down and headed for the rear to help Jack unload his luggage; Jack was surprise once more for the difference in how he was being treated, but he dismissed the notion and hurried off the vehicle to take his luggage.

The Private motioned Jack to the doors by their side "Sir, head thru those glass doors up to the desk, someone will aid you there."

"Thank you" replied Jack as he started heading to the doors. Crossing the doors, which opened automatically for him, he found a brunet woman sitting in the desk and readying some syringes.

When he was close to her she lifted her head to look at him "Dr. Jack Hallinger?"

"Yes, nice to me--" started Jack as he stretched his hand to greet the female, but she got out behind the desk, a syringe like gun in her right hand.

"It is almost time to depart, lift your right sleeve."

He took notice of the time: 17:02 and thought there was enough time since the launch was scheduled at 18:00, but there was no use in questioning the woman. He lifted his right arm and unbuttoned his cuff, raising the sleeve all the way up to his shoulder; before he could returned his eyes on the woman the needle was in his arm drawing blood. Jack found interesting how the military always got the most recent technology so much quicker than the rest of society, like this syringe that did not required the use of a tourniquet or to disinfect the area with alcohol.

With the vial filled, the woman extracted the needle, but not before it released a chemical that coagulated Jack's blood, effectively closing the wound. She turned over to place the vile in a portable analyzer that stood a top of the desk; then she brought a second syringe back with her. "Look to your left."

Jack did as instructed and felt another pinch, one in his neck. He disagree that inoculation directly in his blood stream rather than intramuscular was faster and more reliable, thus reducing the possibilities of the virus infecting the immune system.

With that done, the woman returned behind the desk and seated, waiting for the result of the blood analysis to appear on her screen.

"Excuse me, I--" began Jack, but the female rose her right hand and stopped him, not even bothering look at him. She finished reading the results and returned her eyes back on him.

"Your tests are clean and you have being inoculated with the locally required vaccines. Proceed on to that corridor and someone will transport you to the O'rion. Leave your luggage where it is, it will be transported separately."

"Yes Ma'am" answered Jack and hurried up on to the corridor, taking from her behavior he concluded that he was late.

Jack arrived at the end of the corridor and was greeted by another soldier, who transported him to the base of the ship, where he stood on a small round platform. He was really surprised when he started "floating" up the ship. This was one of those anti-gravitational systems that Jack had read about but he never expected to see one, at least not for boarding a ship, then again he never expected to be boarding a space ship.

Once Jack was all the way up, he saw two men standing in front of him. The one closest to him looked to be in his early 50's, he was wearing a choker-style blouse with silver-braided epaulettes; in addition to this, Jack could see a lot of medals pinned on the left side of the man's chest; even if Jack did not know what they were, given the amount the man was wearing he assumed the officer was very important. The second man, probably in his late 30's, was standing slightly behind and to the right of the first man, and just as the other one, he was wearing the same type of blouse, thou with less medals.

Jack stepped inside and went to shake the closest man hand "Hello Sir, I--"

"Senior Master Sergeant" the younger man spoke with authority.

A confused "uh?" escaped Jack's lips before he could figure out what the man was talking about.

"You will address him as Senior Master Sergeant", the younger man pointed to the pattern in the Senior Master Sergeant's shoulder as if the figures there should have made evident how Jack should have addressed the man.

"Oh, hmm, yes Sir, I--"

"Master Sergeant", the younger man spoke louder, now point to his own shoulders, where Jack saw similar patters to the ones of the Senior Master Sergeant's, not that either of them meant anything to Jack, just that they were different.

"Ok. I--" began Jack, uncertainty showing in his voice.

The Master Sergeant was now clearly upset "recruit! Failing to address a superior by ranking as well as failing to salute when in their presence are both serious offences, regardless of the division you belong. These infractions can be penalized with --" the man stopped his reprimand when he saw a raise hand from the Senior Master Sergeant.

The older man observed Jack intently; drawing from his body language, the senior officer could tell that Jack was surprised and even nervous, not something he would have expected to see in someone that was purposely disrespecting them.

"Son, saluting and addressing a higher ranking officer are the most basic trainings you get in any military branch, even if you only did your 2 years service. Is there a reason you are not doing so?" spoke the Senior Master Sergeant in a calm voice.

"No Sir, I mean no disrespect."

Master Sergeant flinched as Jack, yet again, failed to address the older man properly, but he did not spoke as his commanding officer had taken control of the situation.

"I was not aware of these particular requirements, Sir--" Jack took a glance at the Master Sergeant and he could see the glare in them, that reminded Jack that he was not addressing the older man "appropriately".

"Err, Senior Master Sergeant. I was not aware of this. I was excused from the mandatory service as I was in medical school at the time."

The Senior Master Sergeant was surprised to hear that the man in front of him did not even have the most basic training, thou his surprise was masked from his face. He turned to see his second in command "Master Sergeant?" Was all that the man needed to say for his second in command to know what he was asking: how was it that a man with zero military training was being sent on an off-world mission were there was a war conflict present, even medical personnel, which would not be expected to engage in combat, needed basic training.

The Master Sergeant brought a "glass" pad in front of him and started to key some commands. "Your name, Doctor."

"Jack, Jack Hallinger... err, Master Sergeant."

The Master Sergeant input Jack's name in a military record search but the query returned blank. Surprised by this, he went to pull the records attached to his application that showed what was the reason Jack had been selected as a candidate for this campaign. The Master Sergeant started reading the information: Jack was a Trauma Surgeon 'he meets the requirement, but that hardly is enough.' He had a PhD in Genetics and Genomics 'that is not useful for his station.' The Master Sergeant read more about the qualification that Jack had, but none of them would have placed him above other candidates, thought the man, that was until he saw that Jack was being personally recommended by Sergeant Major Andree Bastin.

"Senior Master Sergeant..." the Master Sergeant stretched his arm and pointed on the pad were the letter of recommendation could be read. The older man read the "personal recommendation", which was basically an order for Jack to join the reinforcements.

He turned his head back to address the Doctor "son, what relationship do you have with Sergeant Major Andree Bastin?"

"I do not have one, Senior Master Sergeant. I have never heard of the name before."

"Never?" pressed the old man.

Jack brought his left hand to cup his chin and look to the side as if searching in his memories to see if the name rang a bell, then he looked back to both men "well, I have seen him in the news. I think he is someone important in the army. Years ago he was leading the expedition when there were conflicts in the Eastern Europe Union."

"Anything else son?"

"No, Senior Master Sergeant. What I have seen or read in the news is pretty much everything I know of him."

"Do you know why you were sent on this particular mission, son?"

"Ah, well I am Trauma Surgeon... and surgeons are scarce in the country right now, so I assumed that is why they called me."

The older man looked at Jack and tried to gather whether he was telling the truth or not. It did not seem as the Doctor was intentionally misleading, but there had to be something else.

The Senior Master Sergeant did not like the imposition, especially since Jack was actually under qualified to be so close to a hot zone; he wanted to know more about why was Jack specifically required for this mission, but this was not the time, the rest of the recruits needed to be dismissed and he was halting the process by keeping Jack here, he also decided that there would be nothing else to be gained by talking to Jack, "son, follow the aisle behind us and turn to your left. You will see the rest of the recruits; join the formation and wait for the Master Sergeant to arrive with further instructions."

"Yes Senior Master Sergeant" Jack saluted as best as he could, mimicking the stance and body position he had seen in movies with military themes.

The salute was a good try but needed improvement, the angle of the hand was incorrect and the fingers were touching Jack's forehead. The older man dismissed the thought and saluted back; Jack started to walk in the pointed direction.

When Jack was out of sight, the older man spoke again "what do you think, Master Sergeant?"

"There is definitely more to his assignment than just a surgeon shortage, but he looks as if he genuinely doesn't know."

"I agree there is another reason why he is being assigned to go to Neptune. We will need to investigate this, but there are more pressing activities right now. Dismissed the rest of the recruits, I want them in stasis before we take off. Meet me at the bridge after that."

~

The Master Sergeant stood in front of the 402 new recruits. It was by no means a large group, but it was not the first to be dispatched to Neptune. It was actually not even an entire platoon but rather reinforcements for very specific positions.

"Now that we are all present," he directed a disapproving look to Jack, before addressing the whole group again "we may begin your briefing."

"As you may be aware of, following the treaty of Ederin signed in Mars in 2233, the colonies in Neptune applied and were granted independence from Earth two decades ago; a new government was elected and they went conducting their affairs as they saw fit. That way, whoever was not to the agreement of Neptune's people, and two years ago riots started in every major city of the planet. Eight months ago it became a civil war, thou this was kept from the general population knowledge."

"The official government of Neptune requested the aid of the Earth Allied Nations. Our elected President, Ruth Anderson, along with the other 11 representative, in their infinite wisdom", disagreement showing in the face of the soldier, "decided that it is in Earth's the best interests to provide support of Neptune's government. Following this decision, executive order P-3348K-37, an army comprised of every nation in Planet Earth was formed and have been dispatch to Neptune over the last 7 months. O'rion is transporting the last group of soldiers to complete the army."

"We will arrive at Elherea, Neptune's capital, in 69 days and 12 hours. Upon arrival, you will be separated by company; each will have a commanding officer already assigned, you will report to them and get further instructions on your stations."

"Now, to save food supplies, you all will be traveling while in stasis. The Medical Corps Officers at the back of the group will direct you to the escape pods which, for your information, also work as stasis chambers. They will instruct you further about stasis; you are all dismissed."

And with that the Master Sergeant saluted, the squad saluted back in perfect synchrony, all of them except Jack. The group turned and started following the two man at the rear of the formation.

The Medical Officers divided the group in two and directed them to the pods at each of the side of the ship. Once the entire group was near the officer he pointed at one of the escape pods and started explaining:

"These are the stasis chambers, and as the Master Sergeant pointed out, they too act as escape pods." He saw some concern reflected in the faces of several recruits, he guessed what was worrying them and decided to appease their minds "the stasis chamber cannot be controlled without the access key card," lifting his hand high he showed the group the special card he was holding "and the only ones that have them are the Medical Officers, the Master Sergeant and the Senior Master Sergeant. Also, escape pods cannot be launched manually, not even from the station itself. They can only be launched by the ship distress protocol, and that can only be initiated by the Senior Master Sergeant."

With that out of the way, the man continued "each of you will be placed inside of a stasis chamber. Once inside, the chamber is sealed and gas released. This will help you drift into unconsciousness. When the pod detects you are fully unconscious, it will start filling the chamber with liquid Nitrogen, which will lower your temperature and keep your body functions to almost zero."

Suspended animation was a procedure that was being developed for treating patients with near dead injuries, given the Doctors time to prepare a suitable solution to the injuries. But that application was not yet ready and it was only for a day tops, so Jack wondered how would the pod keep the body alive for a period as long as almost 70 days.

Jack move slightly to the side, breaking formation, so that he would be visible to the Medical Officer "Excuse me, Sir? How will the pod keep the body alive for so long without food?"

The Medical Officer nodded to Jack and then return to address the whole group, "the pod has a life support system that would keep your body nourished, but it is unnecessary for a trip this short because your body energy requirements will be next to zero while in suspended animation, so you do not need life support for the duration of the trip, only reanimation at the end of it. The system is in-built as a failsafe mechanism, it you were ejected in the pod and unable to be retrieved in short time, the system could keep you a live for years, and since while in suspended animation your body consumes next to zero energy, the life support system can work powered by sunlight."

Having answered Jack's question, the man resume his explanation "once we arrived at our destination, the pods will reanimate your body. You will experience dizziness, disorientation, blurred sight and muscle weakness, these are perfectly normal symptoms and you should recovered within a day's time."

With the brief explanation done, the Medical Officer directed all of the men and women on the group inside the pods. While a simple procedure it took quite some time since he had to start the process each pod at a time using his key card. When all of his assigned group where on stasis, he signaled the bridge and went to the med bay to prepare for the launch.

~

The Master Sergeant walked into the bridge and stood behind the Senior Master Sergeant "we are ready to lunch, Sir." The older man simply nodded and turned to address the bridge "Staff Sergeant, take us in to space."

"Yes Sir!" The woman started issuing orders to other officers to initialize launching sequence: the ship was pressurized and then sealed, anti-gravitational dampers lifted the ship off the ground a mile before the nuclear pulse jet engines started a series of controlled micro-explosions that propelled the ship.

At a 75° angle relative to the curvature of the Earth the ship broke the atmosphere and stationed itself on the Earth's orbit. The staff Sergeant set the course to Neptune, going below the asteroids belt and correcting for the small movement of Neptune.

Within a few minutes, everything was set and ready for the autopilot "Sir, the course have been set, ETA 69 days and 12 hours."

"Good, page me when we are in orbit." And with that, the Senior Master Sergeant left the bridge.

~

Planet: Neptune's extra planetary limits

Date: 2783.02.20AD05:45:00

The O'rion navigated the space in straight line to its final destination: a nearby secondary orbit to the ice giant. Its nuclear engines long shutdown, the only source of propulsion was its inertial impulse from when the engines were working before the O'rion passed Jupiter's orbit. Since Saturn and Uranus' positions were not near Neptune's, as it had been with Jupiter, the engines weren't required to navigate to the final position of the ship, thus shutting them down had been commanded.

The Staff Sergeant was checking the trajectory and final stationing coordinates, glancing from one screen to another. Everything looked fine other than some debris floating in the way; they would be repelled by anti-gravitational shields since they were only floating. She open a channel directly to the Senior Master Sergeant "good morning Sir, we have entered the planet outer limits, ETA for destination is 15 minutes."

With a voice that showed he had been awake some time ago, the Senior Master Sergeant replied "good, initialize com--" suddenly the O'rion shook as if in an earthquake, a visual and auditory alarm was triggered signaling of a serious problem. "Bridge, report!"

Multiple diagnosis images filled the Staff Sergeant Control screen and she browsed them all trying to determine what the tremor causes were. "Sir, we just lost engine number one, the section A12 of the hull is damaged... it looks like we hit a space mine."

Surprised and anger mixed together in the voice of the older man "how is it possible?! Weren't you scanning for such devices?!"

Searching thru different scan readings, the Staff Sergeant review the reports "yes Sir, there isn't anything in the --" another explosion pushed the O'rion slightly up and to the right, more diagnosis screens popped to inform of the damaged and the automatic measures the ship had taken.

Reading fast on this new information, the woman learned of the damage "Sir, we just lost engine four and engine two has been deactivated because the A13 section has been structurally compromised", and then she realize the reason for all of this "the mines are in the debris! They are activating not by contact but by proximity with the kinetic energy of the ship!" declare the woman.

Without a moment to think the Senior Master Sergeant commanded "take us out of the debris, I want all non essential personnel on decks B and C. Also, contact the planet and let them know of our situation."

The Staff Sergeant started directing all non essential personnel from the D deck to either B or C deck, but before she could start the communications with the planet something caught her attention in the short range radar.

"Sir, we have a squad of 5 reaper size ships coming from behind the O'rion, they are in route to... they are shooting at us!"

The Senior Master Sergeant entered the bridge; apparently he had been running from where ever he was to the bridge during the entire conversation. "Start evasive maneuvers, activate the gun turrets, I want those ships down."

In moments, the O'rion was out of the debris and moving away from the planet. The turrets were quickly activated and locked on the enemy ships, but before they could manage to take down the ships, the shots they had made reached the engines on the back of the O'rion.

"Status report" commanded the old man.

"Engines one, four, five and six are damaged beyond repair, engine two is disable due to structural damage to its mounting base, only engine three is operational" reported the Staff Sergeant in a fast and yet calm tone.

"What do the deep scanners show?"

She started the scanning sequence using the deep space scanners "no more ships or other objects detected Sir, only the planet. Although, I do detect energy levels rising on the planet's surface; they seemed to be concentrated on a small point."

The Senior Master Sergeant leaned on the Staff Sergeant screen to look at the readings. His eyes widen at the realization of what he was looking, which was enough to make him break behavioral protocol. "Fuck." The man walked to his station in the center and pulled his key card out of his shirt and inserted it on a slot next to the key pad; then he punched his 12 digit code.

"Start engines two and three, maximum thrust, take us as far away from the planet as possible, in any direction."

The woman was startled by such sudden request "Sir, why--"

"Because that energy reading belongs to a plasma cannon, we are being targeted" informed quickly the man. "I want the already occupied escape pods launched and all non essential personnel evacuate into the pods, when you finish that, Staff Sergeant, board an escape pod."

Staring for a moment, the realization of what the Senior Master Sergeant was saying fell on the woman: not only the O'rion had been attacked and almost crippled; the beam coming from the planet would destroy them.

"Initializing emergency protocol; occupied escape pods to launch in T - 20 seconds; all personnel evacuate your stations and head for the remaining escape pods."

A bright light shown on the surface of the planet and yet another alarm came to the Staff Sergeant screen.

"Sir, the cannon had been shot, even at our current speed impact is in T - 106 seconds."

"Understood Staff Sergeant. Now, step away from your console and head for the escape pods, I will navigate the ship."

She stood up and saluted the old man "it is been a pleasure to serve under your command, Senior Master Sergeant", even with regret filling her face, pride could be heard in her voice.

The men saluted back "and a pleasure to serve with you... you are dismissed."

With that, the woman boarded her escape pod and was launched into space. One minute later, an explosion filled the space, the O'rion ceased to exist.