Free Ep.#5 - "Rise of the Corinari" by Ryk Brown

Josh admitted.
    “What, you don’t know how old you are?” Nathan wondered, his attention diverted from his data pad.
    “Well, I know my twentieth birthday is coming up. But I was born on Palee. We moved to Haven when I was four or five, I think. Haven’s years are all screwy because it orbits a gas giant instead of a star. After my mom passed, Marcus tried to do the math to figure out when each of my birthdays were, but I’m not so sure he got it right.”
    Nathan was amused, having never considered such a conundrum. “Well, since we have all the navigational data for the Pentaurus cluster and the surrounding systems, including Palee, I’m sure if we asked Abby she could figure it out for you. Since you’re serving on an Earth ship, I guess we should figure out your birthday based on the Earth calendar.”
    “Sounds good enough,” Josh agreed as the shuttle fired its thrusters and ascended off the Aurora’s landing apron and began to drift to starboard. “Jeez, is he gonna fly this slow the whole way down?”
    “Patience, Josh. I’m sure Tug won’t take off until you get there.”
    “I’m just dying to get in that thing. I’ve never flown anything into FTL.”
    “Neither have I,” Nathan told him.
    “Really?” Josh said, somewhat surprised. “But how the…”
    “We jumped here, remember?”
    “Yeah, I guess you did at that,” Josh realized as he sat back in his seat, watching the planet below as it slowly moved closer to them.
     
    * * *
    After a rather lengthy clearance process, Josh was finally allowed into the heavily guarded portion of the Aitkenna spaceport that was reserved for the Corinari combat air and space operations. Although the various interceptors and tactical shuttles operated by the Corinari were significantly inferior to those used by the Ta’Akar, they were still decades ahead of what Josh had flown back in the Haven system. Nothing he had flown had been armed, except for a few side arms stored in a locker on board.
    Josh had to walk all the way across the compound, asking several Corinari technicians—most of whom spoke little to no Angla—where to find Tug and his Takaran interceptor. Finally, after wandering about in frustration, he was directed to a back corner where an unmarked maintenance hangar stood. Its main door open, Josh could see the forty-year-old interceptor standing in the middle of the hangar. Tug stood next to the spacecraft in a black Corinari flight suit speaking with Marcus. The relationship between the Corinari and the Karuzari was tenuous at best. Because of this, Tug had asked Marcus to personally oversee the maintenance on his interceptor while Tug continued to represent the Karuzari at the alliance negotiations.
    “Man, they sure stuck you way back in a corner, didn’t they?” Josh commented as he walked in the front of the small hangar.
    “Yeah, I get the feeling the Corinari are none too fond of you Karuzari types,” Marcus commented.
    “Yes, there is still a great amount of distrust and suspicion yet to be overcome,” Tug agreed.
    “She all good to go, Marcus?” Josh asked. Although Marcus was a gruff old guy, he had been taking care of spacecraft for as long as Josh had known him. The man had practically raised him after his mother had died, so he was one of the few men that Josh actually trusted. Even though Marcus always rode him, Josh was glad that Marcus had also ended up marooned on the Aurora after the events back on Haven.
    “Good as new,” Marcus boasted. “The Corinairans may not be as advanced as the Ta’Akar, but they sure know their way around forty-year-old technology. Those boys can fix just about anything.”
    “They have had to make do with a reduced production capacity for several decades now,” Tug explained. “They have been forced to keep what they have in good repair.”
    “I know how that goes,” Marcus reminded Tug. “I’m from Haven, remember?”
    “Of course,” Tug remembered, having lived there off