Star Cat: War Mage by Andrew Mackay

Author:Andrew Mackay [Mackay, Andrew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chrome Valley Books
Published: 2018-07-05T18:30:00+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

USARIC Data Point

Space Opera Charlie

Days traveled: 545

Distance to Enceladus: 178,616 miles

The Hyper-Sleep Chamber

Level Five

A low hum crept around the chamber. It dispelled an otherwise perfect silence. The lights snapped on, illuminating the circular quarters.

Three hyper-sleep pods fanned out like a star from the central feeding column.

The first of the three pods shimmied to life. The screen blanketing its occupier slid into its housing.

WHIZ-WHIR.

A pair of eyebulbs blinked, “Captain?” Its squeaky voice woke Oxade from his slumber.

He opened his eyes and immediately squeezed them shut, shifting his body around the pod’s foam interior, “Oh, God. My head.”

“It’ll take some time to get oriented.”

Oxade pressed his elbows onto the fabric and lifted the top half of his body upright. Poz Bass, one half of the death drone duo, spun his head around three-hundred-and-sixty-degrees.

“Welcome to the vicinity of Enceladus.”

“Are we there?”

“Yes, five-hundred-and-forty-five days of sleep,” Poz extended his rope-like arm and bopped thumped the glass case on Nutrene’s pod. She didn’t react, “Manuel-2 asked us to wake you up for debriefing ahead of the others.”

“Okay.”

Oxade threw his legs over the side of the pod and placed his bare feet on the ground. Poz forgot that his captain was only wearing a pair of briefs He looked away in shame.

“Hey, it’s okay, Poz. We’re all guys together,” Oxade stood to his feet and gripped the oxygen tube attached to his pod. His balance was all over the place, “This is going to take some getting used to.”

“I respect your modesty, Oxade,” Poz trundled over to Alex’s pod and pressed his ‘nose’ - which resembled more a mini ventilation shaft - against the screen, “Look at him. Fast asleep.”

“What did you and Neg do to pass the time?” Oxade ran his fingertips over his five o’clock shadow as he stared in the mirror.

“We played chess for a while,” Poz chirped. “I won, of course.”

“Of course,” Oxade cleared his throat and opened the slider next to the mirror. His enhanced leather USARIC mercenary jacket floated inside, “I’d expect nothing less.”

“Men are much better at games than women, aren’t they?”

Oxade threw his arms into the jacket sleeves. The five letters in his name lit up on the outer part of his upper right arm, “Well, technically, you and Neg are both sexes,” he said as he reached into his pockets.

“Don’t patronize me,” Poz moved his head away from Alex’s pod and watched his captain unfold his gloves, “We are both, yet we are neither.”

“You’re vicious little bastards,” Oxade finished, snapping his gloves onto his hands, “How did you get on with Manuel-2?”

“Oh, she and Pure Genius cheated. Destroyed me in five moves—”

“—No, not in chess, you dummy,” Oxade removed a belt from the cupboard and strapped it around his waist, “I mean generally.”

“Neg is at the control deck with Manuel-2. They’re trying to communicate with Opera Beta.”

“I want an update,” Oxade fanned his fingers out on both hands and pushed them down his thighs. A tight synthetic material unraveled from his waist, down his thighs, past his knees and secured around his ankles.

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