The Solarian War Trilogy by Felix R. Savage

Author:Felix R. Savage
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: space opera science fiction thriller adventure
Publisher: Knights Hill Publishing
Published: 2015-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

ix.

Petruzzelli quickly figured out that Elfrida Goto’s testimonial had been worth its weight in physical iridium. This was a process of elimination, as she realized just how underqualified she was in relation to the others in her Star Force squadron.

Gwynneth Blake was the reigning All-Europe Existential Threat champion. Petruzzelli tried very hard not to fangirl all over her when she discovered this fact.

Harry Zhang had spent ten years flying for Uber Galaxy, the ultra-high-end space taxi service.

Taneela Williams had been a professional stratojumper, thrilling millions as she parachuted from low earth orbit.

Luc Zubrowski was a chess grandmaster, ranked 23rd in the world.

And so on; to a man and woman, they were either pro gamers, elite civilian pilots, record-smashing daredevils, or all of the above.

Petruzzelli’s own resume, which she’d bragged about so blithely in Boise, Idaho, now embarrassed her. Star Force had sifted through millions of volunteers and selected the crème de la crème for Gravesfighter pilot training. Why had they picked her?

Not for her experience or skills.

Nor because Martin Okoli, her former boss at Kharbage LLC, had slurred into a camera that Petruzzelli was “a painful warrior famous for fight,” whatever that meant.

Which left that five-minute vid recorded by Elfrida Goto in a bedroom in Rome.

In an intense and painful conversation with herself, Petruzzelli admitted that the value of Elfrida’s endorsement probably lay in who Elfrida was, not any of the flattering things she’d said about Petruzzelli. Elfrida had tangled with the PLAN at 11073 Galapagos, on 4 Vesta, on Mercury, and on Luna—a streak of crappy luck that had to be pretty much unique, among people who were still alive. The first of those adventures had made Elfrida a media heroine, for all of about fifteen minutes. Her name had subsequently been suppressed, so Petruzzelli still didn’t know the details of her more recent adventures. But on the ISA’s in-house list of anomalous survivors, Elfrida must have achieved some freakishly high rating. So Petruzzelli’s personal connection with her made her special, too. It was probably all based on statistics.

Which still didn’t mean that she belonged here.

But here she was. This was what she wanted, and she’d be damned if she’d screw it up.

So she worked twice as hard as the others. She slogged through extra sessions in the flight simulators. She lifted weights, crosstrained, and took every seminar on offer.

For the second month of their training, to be sure, she couldn’t do much work. None of them could. They were flat on their backs, monitored by medibots around the clock.

Star Force joke: What’s the difference between boot camp and a stay in hospital? Answer: In hospital, the food is better.

Carbon-based nanites colonized the volunteers’ bones, altering the crystal structure of their constituent minerals. Their lungs were removed and replaced with plastic ones that they could collapse at will. Their hearts were also reinforced with piezoelectric motors that enhanced pumping capacity. These were the elements of reconstructive surgery for the spaceborn—but nearly all the volunteers were Earthborn to begin with, so they were being reconstructed into something else.

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