Seth Johnson: Freelancer Recruit

Nicholai returned with a tabcomp (*) and the touch pen for it. His heavy boots thumped the floor with each step. The big man took a seat on the table next to Seth's bed.

“All right, lets get this over with. Name?” Nicholai seemed bored with the whole initiation process.

“Seth.” The young soldier thought that the big man would have know that by now.

Nicholai sighed and closed his eyes before replying with, “Your full name, dumb a*s.”

“Oh, right. Seth Micheal Johnson.”

“Colony of birth?”

“Eastern province of New Maine.” This whole 'becoming a Freelancer' thing seemed a lot like taking a survey.

“Ah, so you're American, I thought so.” The Freelancer had a look Seth couldn't quite identify. It made him nervous.

“Whats wrong with that?” At least his voice wasn't shaking.

“Nothing. Did I make it sound like there was something wrong?” One of Nicholai's eyebrows was raised in a slightly confused manner.

Seth had a sinking suspicion that Nicholai was playing around with him, but he wasn't quite sure. “Uh, no. Whats the next question?”

“Date of birth.”

“April 9, 3124.”

“Ah, that puts you at about seventeen and a half. I joined younger than that.”

“How old are you now?” Seth had a feeling that his question would be shot down, but he still wanted to try asking it.

“Twenty-six. This should be enough to run through the database and find you. Gloria deal with equipping you and I will handle any additional training you need. I'm going to have to wait awhile to collect any family members you might have.” Up until the last sentence, he'd sounded like he was rehearsing lines in an old, boring play.

“Collect my family? You mean my mom, right?”

“Any direct living family members are brought to live on base. This is for safety reasons, theirs and yours, and to make life comfortable. Its not uncommon for whole families to live under Freelancer protection.” After he finished talking, he walked away. He turned before he got to the door and said, “You should also find Gloria immediately. She is your new superior in our squad, so she'll help you get settled in.”

“Okay...” Seth was talking to Nicholai's back as he walked briskly out of the room and down the hall. These Freelancer characters were always moving, they never seemed to slow down.

When Seth got out of the bed, he stepped gingerly. His body, still reeling from his round in the torture chamber, was anticipating pain. The young soldier was relieved when he realized that stiffness was the only lingering affect.

He turned to leave and saw Fletcher looking at him. Seth gave him a halfhearted wave and said, “Um, hi...”

“Do you have any idea where you're going?” The Freelancer medic raised his eyebrows as he questioned Seth.

“Yeah, I'm going to go find Gloria.”

The medic sighed as if he were very tired. “Do you know where Gloria is?”

“No... But I bet I can find her. How big can this station be?” Seth had an idea that the base was bigger than he'd first thought.

“I'll give you directions.” Seth listened as the reluctantly helpful medic outlined the directions to Gloria's room. The station was much larger and definitely more complex than Seth had originally anticipated. When the Freelancer had finished telling him how to get there, the young soldier walked off, trying desperately to remember the way.

* Sort of like a tablet computer, kind of like what doctors use. Its a touch screen computer. They're sort of out of date, everything is voice activated now. Freelancer's like using old stuff.