Conscript by Bartlett Scott

Author:Bartlett, Scott
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mirth Publishing
Published: 2024-03-13T00:00:00+00:00

19

Of his three DIs, Sergeant Scott seemed the most approachable—though “approachable” wasn’t a word he’d really use to describe any of them. Still, Po was glad that Scott was the one with the platoon when he asked about going to a religious service.

The sergeant narrowed his eyes. “You didn’t go last week.”

Po shrugged.

“Well, I can’t deny you. What denomination?”

“Uh...Catholic.” That was what he’d been baptized, and he’d been confirmed Catholic too, though his family had stopped going to Mass pretty much immediately after. GEA would know all that, so it’d be foolish to say anything different.

Sergeant Dawson was in the barracks the next day, and while the rest of the platoon stayed to practise assembling and disassembling their rifles under his watchful, bug-eyed gaze, Po followed Navarro to the parade ground’s south side.

Instantly upon stepping outside, Po felt a sense of freedom that made him realize just how suffocating and constricting he was finding bootcamp life. Big, fluffy clouds obscured the upside-down terrain overhead, and a flock of what he thought were geese was flying through them in a V, from one end of the cylinder to the other. More birds chirped from a line of trees that stood just north of the field where he’d seen an Emplor running at him, and nearby two crows fought over a crumpled piece of foil.

I guess even the birds have been trained to pick up litter. He wondered if he’d see a fight between a squirrel and a goose before he finally left Cycler 3, whenever that would be. The goose would probably win. Unless a squad of squirrels attacked it together.…

There was a light breeze blowing across the surface, and Po paused for a second just to breathe it in.

“You look more chipper already,” Navarro said, grinning back at Po from where he’d paused a few meters ahead.

“This was a great idea.” Po frowned. “Did Paisley give you any trouble for sitting with me last night?”

“Not too much. I have the advantage of being a lot better liked than you. That gives me pretty good protection.”

Po had heard there were five training battalions garrisoned in Cycler 3 at any given time, totaling over five thousand recruits. So he was surprised when they reached the parade ground and found little more than a hundred waiting to march to where the various chapels were found.

Aren’t most recruits from extraplanetary colonies? The colonists in places like Psyche and Vesta had reputations for being mostly traditionalists, which included religious tradition. But judging from this sparse group, their parents’ generation had done an even worse job at passing that on than Po had thought.

To him, it only went to show how shallow those traditions were to begin with—or at least, how shallow the versions of them were that they’d been fed by the historical sims.

Real tradition holds for thousands of years. When you think about how our ancestors really lived, us colonists might as well be playing house.

The recruit chapel stood on the southern end of the training base.

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