Rift

  Chapter 14

  SUE

  Strategos Command was an impressive building, and especially the great atrium. Flags hung from the balconies, black and white Covenant banners surrounding the great open space, where men and women in every uniform she knew, and quite a few others, milled about. She recognized every Janissary variation, of course, but also a few she had never seen in person, such as the Intelligence operatives and Military Academy staff. The Warden uniforms were familiar to her, but only because she had seen the First Warden at Initiation Day. There were few from the Corpus, as expected, while the Students had a number of scholars assigned here, it seemed.

  Other uniforms were completely unfamiliar to her, and it surprised her that there were so many of them. But then she had never seen Moon blood units, except for airmen, and she knew there were entire units, numbering thousands of people, that were comprised entirely from Moon people volunteers.

  Everyone she saw, regardless of unit or Service, had one thing in common, though, with hardly any exceptions. They were all Moon blood. Even the few from the Corpus had the distinct features of the Moon people.

  She wondered why Counselor Novak had sent for her.

  “Just follow me through here,” the sub tacticus leading her said. He was young, barely seventeen, but had an air of authority about him, the kind that came from the knowledge that he was born to command. She had seen it so many times now, she didn’t pay attention to it anymore. She just followed the youngster, wondering where they’d end up.

  “This is the Janissary education office, where all basic and advanced training for Janissaries is planned,” he said, opening the door for her. She entered, and saw three officers, from head tacticus to meridian, sat in front of computers, swiping documents and images back and forth.

  “You will sit over there,” he pointed at the desk in the back of the room. The others will fill you in. Just get yourself familiarized with the tech and get to know your colleagues, and tomorrow you will receive your orders.”

  Sue took a step toward her desk and turned toward the kid.

  “My orders?” she said, wondering what she could possibly contribute with here.

  “Your task. A word of your advice,” he said, puffing out his chest. Sue almost laughed, waiting for him to dispense wisdom gained from his vast experience, “Just do your job here, whatever it is, and you will be on your way to greatness. I saw you, you know.” Sue looked at him quizzically.

  “The ceremony. With Head Servant Lunde,” he said, extending his hand. She took it.

  “It’s an honor, Tacticus Atlas,” he said, and pivoted before he marched out.

  As soon as the door closed, someone guffawed from behind her. She turned around and there was Evan Hordvik, grinning at her.

  “Tacticus Atlas. How on Earth did you end up in this place?” he asked. Sue let out a somewhat relieved gasp and walked over to him.

  “Evan,” she said. He smiled knowingly.

  “Finally learned my first name, Susan? Well, you couldn’t keep calling me Tac now,” he said, his silver star stating the obvious. She smiled back.

  “Head Tacticus now. So you finally abandoned that foot soldier-forever thing, did you?”

  “Hell no! They had to give me a star for me to work here, but if they try to make me meridian or something, I’d like to see them try,” he said, grinning even more broadly. Then he walked with her to her desk, where a computer stood waiting for her command. A blue disc flashed softly on the screen, inviting her to touch it. Sue had never used one of these before. The computers they used back in Charlestown were all but obsolete, and fixed up more than once. This one didn’t even have a keyboard. She sat down on the perfectly ergonomic chair, and looked at the screen.

  “How am I going to write? I assume they want me to write something,” she said. Evan leaned over and pressed a finger to the blue disc. It turned red, but nothing happened.

  “See? It’s already configured for you. I can’t open it,” he said. Sue put a finger on the disc, and it expanded, revealing a landscape of icons and groups of images.

  “So, here on the right are your communication tools. On the left are shared and personal files. Access to shared files depends on your security level. On top are utilities, such as clock, calendar, notes, and so on, and once you get started, all your active stuff will be down at the bottom. In the center, you will find your current assignments. Don’t worry, that one tends to fill up quickly.” Sue saw there was only one icon in the middle. Welcome, it said. She assumed that was a good place to start.

  “How do I control it?” she asked. Back in Charlestown, they had swipe pads and control sticks in addition to the keyboard.

  “Look, try to forget how you did things back home. This system is designed to be intuitive. See an icon you’d like to open, just press it, tap it, or spread your fingers from the middle. You can do it directly on the screen, or just on the desk in front of you. The system will learn your habits. Wanna switch screens while multitasking? Just use your palm, swipe from side to side. Wanna close something? Just bring your fingers together or double tap. Everything is designed so that you figure stuff like that out yourself and find methods that work for you.” He looked at her as she tapped the Welcome icon.

  “Thanks,” she said. “Just one more question.” She looked up at him.

  “Where is the keyboard?” He laughed.

  “All right, just look.” He opened her message folder. It had just one item, some kind of standard welcome message. He tapped an icon to produce a new message. A cursor blinked in the recipient field, and he tapped it. A blue light projected a perfectly ordinary keyboard onto her desk, right where a physical keyboard would have been placed.

  “Now you can write,” he said.