Back Columbus Day
Chapters (19)
  1. CHAPTER ONE    COLUMBUS DAY
  2. CHAPTER TWO    DEPLOYMENT
  3. CHAPTER THREE     CAMP ALPHA
  4. CHAPTER FOUR    PARADISE
  5. CHAPTER FIVE    INTEL
  6. CHAPTER SIX    FORT ARROW
  7. CHAPTER SEVEN    COLONEL
  8. CHAPTER EIGHT    PLANTING POTATOES
  9. CHAPTER NINE    JAIL
  10. CHAPTER TEN    SKIPPY
  11. CHAPTER ELEVEN    AWAY BOARDERS
  12. CHAPTER TWELVE    MERRY BAND OF PIRATES
  13. CHAPTER THIRTEEN    FLYING DUTCHMAN
  14. CHAPTER FOURTEEN    SPACE SUITS
  15. CHAPTER FIFTEEN    RAID
  16. CHAPTER SIXTEEN    HOME
  17. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN    IDLE HANDS
  18. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN    TICKING CLOCK
  19. CHAPTER NINETEEN    OUTBOUND

Once our group was all done with the doctors, guards directed us to the transport ship, and hustled us along with no time for sightseeing. There wasn’t much to see on the station corridors anyway, blank walls in a light blue color, with markings in several human languages attached to the walls. The Kristang ship was more interesting, lots of access panels, corridors going in every direction, pipes or conduits along the ceilings. The walls and floors had recessed handholds, I guess for when the ship was in zero gravity. No Kristang were visible, I still had never seen one of the lizards in person. A Marine took charge of our group, and directed the men into one compartment, women into another. The compartment I was in had row after row of bunk beds, stacked three high. Each group of three bunks was attached to an arm that could rotate the stack 90 degrees for when the ship was under thrust. The Marine told us this was a Kristang multi-mission pod, which was currently configured for troop transport. We were lucky, he said, that the bunks were sized for Kristang, who were slightly larger on average than humans. I shrugged and found an empty bunk, tossed my small duffel bag into it, and secured it with a strap that I figured was there for that purpose. The bunk wasn’t bad, seven feet long, and about four feet to the bunk above it. Luxury. Somebody already had a card game going, Jesse wandered over to the game, while I flopped on my bunk and pulled out a book to read on my tablet. I was getting anxious about the tablet, it was down to about 25% power, and there didn't appear to be an electrical outlet anywhere. It looked like I'd been stupid to bring the thing into space with me.