"That's not a secret. We're going to a planet the Kristang have set up as a training base for us, we're calling it Camp Alpha."

"And how far is that?" Cornpone asked as he shot me a look. He was doing math in his head also.

"The Kristang won't tell us, but people who've been there took pictures of the night sky, and from the position of stars, our astronomers have got it fixed at 1223 lightyears from Earth." Just then, one of the doors at the end of the line opened, and the lieutenant was called in.

Oh My God. A twelve hundred lightyear journey, aboard a ship that traveled three hundred times the speed of light, meant we were going to be stuck aboard a Kristang ship attached to a Thuranin star carrier, in zero gravity, for four years! I'd heard the troubles astronauts had aboard the international space station in zero gravity, how their eyesight deteriorated, their bones became brittle and their muscles wasted away after a couple months. What good were human soldiers going to be after four years in zero gravity? I was so shocked, it didn't even occur to me the lieutenant had said somehow humans had already gone to Camp Alpha and come back, obviously in much less than a year.

"Four years, dang! Is that right, twelve hundred lightyears away, at three hundred a year?" Cornpone's voice reflected the shock we all felt. "Maybe they're going to freeze us, make us sleep the whole way? They did that in Avatar, right, you saw that movie?"

People were grumbling, stunned at the implications of what the lieutenant had told us. Then it was my turn with the doctor, who was wearing civilian clothes and a white lab coat. She looked bored. "Do I need to take my shirt off, ma'am?" I was hoping I could keep my pants on. It was embarrassing enough standing around in my boxer shorts in front of a male doctor, with a female doctor it was worse. I mean, I didn't want my friend to be obviously happy to see her, if you know what I mean. But maybe it was worse if he didn't rise to the occasion. The doctor was cute, and I was a healthy guy, so I felt that out of respect for her I should at least have a semi-

"No, soldier, keep your shirt on. Lift your chin, please." She held what looked like a plastic and chrome gun under my left ear, and squeezed the trigger. I hardly felt anything. Same thing on the right. She put the gun down and checked a computer display screen, tapped it a few times, and said "Looks good. You've been injected with Kristang nano machines, that will soon migrate to your inner ears, and prevent you from feeling nauseous in zero gravity. They will dissolve after a while, and you shouldn't feel any effects. If you do feel like your balance is off while you're in gravity, contact the medical staff aboard the ship."