chapter 2

The trouble in those days was the system taught children how to be cogs in a repetitive machine no need to think just do what you're told when you're told how you're told ask questions someone will tell you how to do whatever it is no need to think.... That didn't work in fleet and they learned that really fast.

Officer recruit sanchas dissertation on early warring states personnel and their impact on modern warfare.

They walked thru the front door into the recruiting station  there were four more doors marked for the different branches. they walked thru the one with fleet stenciled on it was a normal office with a average looking man behind it his name tag read Reeds he looked up as the door open Will followed by Raven and Josh entered " welcome to Fleet recruiting what can I do for you today ?" Raven spoke up first very energetically " we would like to join up." Will thought the recruiter didn't seem surprised after all this was a recruiting station and all. Reeds just smiled back at them. " ok sit down and thumbs on the scanner please" the three took seats in a few of the five chairs in front of the desk.  Reeds signalled the holo display to light up for each of them Will was first " William Jonathan Russell criminal record none mental distresses none school scores passable congratulations you're eligible" the other two gave him a thumbs up. Reeds signaled Wills display to shut down and Raven's to turn on Will missed first part lost in thought"... Alison Carter criminal record"reeds paused as a red box popped up ". One public indecency" he looked up from his terminal for a second to give her a look of "i'm sure there's a good story there" then looked back down "grades passable.... Barely and no mental illness ok let me check one thing" he looks at the terminal a few things changed a list comes up scrolls by in seconds and closes " good news public indecency is not on the list of disqualifiers your approved" Raven let out a sigh of relief " and that must make you Joshua Charles McKenen no criminal record no mental distresses and exceptional performance in coding your approved as well"  he looked back up at them "congratulations all three of you are qualified and are given the status of potential recruit please hand in your worker IDs " he took there middie cards and ran them thru a shredder got out 3 red cards put them on a machine and gave them to the trio as well as three orange 24 hour leave slips " your entrance exam begins tomorrow at 0800 return here where you will be taken by bus to a testing facility those passes that's the orange one grant you leave keep them on you i'll explain why in a minute the red is your temporary id card return it at anytime in the next 24 hours or fail to show up tomorrow and you will not be penalised in anyway and you may reapply for fleet any time after a 6 month cool off time. The red cards will flag you on any police sensor as they are a irregular id those orange cards will let you carry on with your day they will dissolve immediately in 24 hours making your life very difficult if you have not opted out or gotten on the bus by that time and the bus leaves at 0805 if you can't make it then I guess you weren't ready for fleet any questions?" the three shook their heads " good heres some study materials they show you some basics of a ship particularly the republic R.S.S. Disaster while i can not tell you what the entrance exam is I will say it is to your benefit to study these and pay close attention to the emergency procedures section of your hand book." the three collected there booklets and left the office. Since they had gone in it had begun to rain Will and his friends huddled under the awning. "My apartment is a few blocks over if you wanna go we can stop for pizza "will offered pulling the hood of his jacket up raven and josh agreed doing say and the group set out stopping for pizza at old scalies named after a planet long ago settled by italians from the from the colonial period. History and connection to old earth was still a culturally significant thing across space. at least four space powers claimed to be direct governments from old earth but these were only rumors what is known is that a lot of things would still be recognizable to an old earther including Wills favorite pizza. Will opened the door to his apartment and they went inside Will sat in his favorite chair raven sprawled out on his couch while josh sat on the floor leaning against the couch. The pizza was delivered a short time later and Will got a few beers out. They began studying the rules and regulations and were soon very lost but a few beers later they agreed to call it a night. The next day was going to be busy.