09-partds (8)



(c) 2018

-1- Almost everyone knew Z Point Station, yet he was certain not many knew what it actually was. Truth to be told he hadn't wasted much thought on it until recently. Now that he was getting off the Space Train at Stepping Stone Hub and with that station being his ultimate destination he made an effort to learn more. The station was, so GalNet had informed him a Gigamon  type station, parked at a theoretical Z axis apex point about one million light years 'above' the center of the Milky Way galaxy. It had a sister station in the Z Minus station, at a similar z axis nadir point 'below' the galaxy. Starman Linsey Alexander, a native of Belowkistan colony in the far distant Spinward sector felt a little forlorn, standing there with his personal gear bag and wearing his United Stars Navy uniform. Stepping Stone was a major Union system in the lower regions of the Upward sector. Three major space train lines ended here, a fourth went all the way to the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Attikan empire while a sixth connected to the Klack Hegemony of the Coreward sector. The hub itself was a huge space station, above the local star. Like all Union traffic hubs, it offered a bewildering choice of transport options for both distant and local destinations. Linsey was a standard human, and the word standard pretty much described Linsey as there was nothing particularly special about him. He had finished Union school and decided to serve his Citizen service of twenty-two month with the Union fleet. During basic training, he decided he liked the Navy and signed up for an eight-year commitment with the option to go fully professional after that. Basic training had been quite demanding, yet he had completed it to the satisfaction of the Navy, to his parents and perhaps most of all to his own. His marching orders were quite easy to follow and understand and technically one could not get lost, as there were Infobots, guide drones , police officers and easy to understand pictograms that assisted travelers to find their way, but he grew up in a very small fringe colony with a total population of only eight thousand individuals. Places like this where it seemed to him half the galaxies population was on the move, were always overwhelming and more than a little bit confusing. He studied the main pictogram tree with signs pointing in virtually all directions. Signs directed travelers to the various space train platforms, to the space bus terminal. There were big display boards visualizing the departure times and destinations of passenger ships, buses, and trains. Beings of almost every member species, many he had never seen before rushed back and forth all around him and everyone apparently knew where to go. "I am sorry to approach you like that," a polite friendly voice said next to him and he turned to face a Leedei, also in the gray and black uniform of Union Spatial Navy. The humanoid Leedei native to the M-82 globular galaxy had the rank insignia of a Starman  as well. "I could not help but notice that you are a Starman third class like I am and it appears you might benefit from directions." "Oh, boy do I need directions. Yes, Sir. I was just about to consult an InfoBot." Linsay added."Can't hide the fact from a Leedei, right?" "Your body language was quite obvious, no need to use psionics or violate psionic privacy laws . No need to call me Sir either, I am not exactly outranking you." Linsay grinned."No, I guess not, but that is the first time I am on official navy business outside basic training that is. Everyone and everything usually outranks me as a rule of thumb." "No worries, I just finished specialization school  myself and on my way to my first assignment." "Oh, me too! I just completed AFOST myself. I am going to be a Sensor System specialist and

Naval Occupational Training Naval Occupational Specialization Union Armed Forces Ocupational Specialiuza  UAFOST