62: Packed

Veraa checked her bags one last time to make sure she had everything from the list.  The letter of offer still lay open on the dresser, dog-eared and coffee-stained from her nervous re-reading over the last couple of days.  She checked the sturdy little Seiko wristwatch Sam had left in her locker, boxed neatly with a red bow.  Her ship would sail in nine hours, giving her plenty of time to sleep and to travel from the dockside hotel to the docks themselves.

Her mobile link started ringing and she picked up without even looking at it.

“Hello?”

“Veraa, that you?”

“Sam!  Oh my gosh, I’m so glad to hear your voice,” she said breathlessly, sitting down on the edge of the bed.  “So you got acquitted, right?  Not-guilty?  Everything’s gonna be okay, right?”

“Yeah,” he laughed, “cleared of all charges.  I’m a free man again.”

She jumped up and danced around the room, laughing ecstatically.  “That’s great!  Oh, I really wish I could see you again before I leave.”

“So you got in?  That’s great, good for you!  It’s a steep learning curve, but you’ll learn to love it.”

Her eyes started watering, and she sniffed as she wiped them with a hand.  “Oh, Sam, I’m so nervous.  Really, really excited, but really nervous too.  I hope I don’t wash out or anything.”

“You’ll do fine.  Recruit School isn’t a pass-fail kind of course, it’s designed to help you pass.  If you fail an exercise, you keep doing it until you pass.  Some of the category schools, however… let’s just say those can be more competitive.  What job did you choose?”

“Um, I’m going to be a Light Cavalry Scout.  What you think?”

There was a pause.  “Wow.  That’s… wow.  I’m impressed.  I was expecting you to pick something…”

Veraa laughed.  “You were expecting Steward or Cook or maybe Air Traffic Control, right?  Some kind of support role.  So was I, to be honest.”

“Well, I was gonna say ‘something less specialised’, but yeah.  How’d you stumble upon that one?”

“Oh, the recruiters were great, they took the time to figure out what I might enjoy doing, and showed me some videos, and I liked the idea of Armoured and Cavalry, so they gave me some job sheets to look at, and I came back to my second interview totally keen for Cavalry Scout.”

“Hope you can swim,” laughed Sam.  “If your vehicle gets flooded, it’ll be like a giant fishbowl.”

“I’m an awesome swimmer, thank you,” she laughed.  “Anyway, what’s new at your end?”

Sam gave a long sigh.  “I wish I could tell you, I really do.  I’ve been… offered a new position.  Promotion, pay rise, the works.  Wish I could say more, but it’s an experimental thing, which means it’s classified to hell and back.  I can’t guarantee we’ll get to see much of each other for a while.  I’ll be bouncing all around the place for the next couple of months, and then it’ll only get worse.”

“Will you keep this address number?”

“Yeah, they’re issuing me with a work link, so this one will just be for private use.  Call me whenever you like, yeah?”

“You’re going to regret saying that,” she laughed.

“Probably will.  Look, I’ve got to go, and I know it’s getting late where you are.  Sleep tight, and have fun at Recruit School.”

“I’ll try.  See you.”

“Bye.”

Veraa dropped the mobile link on the bed and crashed backwards, sniffling miserably.  She pressed her hands to her face and tried to stem the tears.

She wasn’t crying because she couldn’t see her boyfriend, or even because he was on a different planet, doing who knows what.  She was crying because she was scared and excited at the prospect of doing something as crazy as joining the military during a time of war.  That wouldn’t stop her, though.  All her life she’d run away from responsibility; from her days in school skipping class and avoiding study, to stowing away on a freighter to avoid her parents’ expectations of her going to university, her preferred tactic was to turn tail at the first sign of trouble.  The old Veraa was gone now, she told herself.  Time for the new Veraa to step up to the plate.