3.45.

  Vladislav Sokolov sat in the library fumbling with his calculator as he tried to figure out his calculus homework. He was on the last question, but the teacher always assigned a teaser at the end of the homework. It was technically extra credit, so Vlad didn’t really need to complete it.

  Except that he needed the extra credit. He was squeaking by with a passing grade, but his hopes of completing his first semester with a 4.0 was out the window. He sighed.

  It wasn’t that college was much more difficult than high school had been. He was having trouble adjusting to the freedom. He was living in the dorms, and it was just so easy to get caught up in the social events instead of ducking down and studying. And he didn’t have his father setting curfews or chasing away his girlfriends.

  He sighed. “You are a man now, Vladislav,” his father had said when he’d moved out. “I have worked hard to save for your eduction. Don’t fuck it up!”

  Vlad shook his head. His relationship with his father wasn’t complicated. Not really. It was pretty typical, he thought. Which meant that sometimes it had been strained during his teenage years as he’d struggled against the authority of his parents. He knew that they wanted what was best for them, but he was only just starting to appreciate how much they had done for him.

  He sighed and focused on his homework. He thought he saw the solution to the problem, and after a few minutes he worked his way through it and received an answer that sort of fit. He plugged the answer back into the initial problem, graphed it on his calculator, and decided that if he was wrong then he just wouldn’t get the extra credit.

  Sighing, he put his books back in his bag and left the library. He was walking back to the dorms when a boy who looked a little too young to belong at the university stepped up beside him.

  “Hello!” the boy said. He was wearing a black T-shirt with a scull on it and those edgy pants that were pre-torn. He had a strange accent to his voice, one that Vlad couldn’t place. “Would you like a spaceship?”

  Vlad looked at the boy, frowning. “What are you talking about?”

  “Go on Korjakala! Trade your junk and go to the stars!” the boy said, passing Vlad a pamphlet. “Have good time! Like backpacking Europe except instead of sexy European babes you have sexy alien babes!”

  Vlad frowned at the boy, but took the pamphlet. The boy walked away, on to find the next victim to assault with his terrible English.

  Vlad just shook his head and put it out of his head.

  Three days later, he found the pamphlet and typed in the internet address that it listed into his laptop. He frowned.

  He explored the website, certain that it was a scam. He looked over to desk, where his binders filled with trading cards sat. He didn’t play the trading card games, but he was an avid collector. The website specifically said that Earth collectibles were extremely valuable.

  He frowned deeper, but took out his phone and began uploading pictures of his collection. Once he’d submitted the application, he put it out of his mind.

  For ten minutes, when he got a phone call.

  “Hello hello Earthling! I am Tonom Genisi! I want your stuff! Fifty thousand Acklatic Credits and fast fast spaceship for your collection of trading cards. Is good deal, yes yes!”

  Vlad frowned, looking at his phone with suspicion. “Is this a joke?”

  “No joke! Three hundred thousand Acklatic credits or spaceship and fifty thousand. That is good offer, yes yes?”

  Vlad considered. “Okay, sure. You give me a spaceship and a bunch of alien money and you can have my trading card collection,” he said eventually. “But you have to pay up front. I’m not turning over my cards until the ship is in my name and the money is in my … space bank account or whatever.”

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  “Yes yes! Three days! Send you rendezvous point to make trade,” Tonom agreed, and the phone call ended.

  Vlad got a text with a location outside the city and a time. He chewed his lip, and then went to class. He was half convinced that he would be robbed if he went alone, that this was all a scam. So he brought four friends and a baseball bat to the meeting.

  It wasn’t a scam.

  His father was so incredibly disappointed with him when Vlad informed him that he would be dropping out of college to go on Korjakala with his friends.

  ~~~~~~

  Sergeant Luca Moretti gasped, waking up from his nightmare. Tangled in the sheets, he looked up at the holographic readings displaying his vital signs and brain waves. He sighed.

  He hadn’t had a decent night’s sleep since the battle.

  “Are you well, Luca?” Trenola asked.

  “I’m fine, doc. Just the nightmares again,” he said. “You can come in.”

  Her hologram rezzed into being next to him. He looked at the clock; it was three thirty in the morning. Shipboard time at least; technically it didn’t really matter what time it was because they were in orbit around Jupiter, on one of the Yonohoans level three medical ships.

  “Your condition is showing signs of stabilizing, Sergeant,” Trenola assured him. “Once we are confident that the damage caused by your decision to expose yourself to subspace during the battle, we can begin with the medication to shock your brain back into an adolescent state and begin the process of reversing the damage.”

  “I know that,” Luca said. He sighed and began pulling on his clothes. He didn’t really care that Trenola could see him as he dressed; she’d seen his medical scans so what was the difference? “Do you think I made a difference? Do you think it was worth it?”

  Trenola was silent for a moment. “The ship you were piloting shot down three Rosantean fighters before you lost consciousness,” she said. “In the grand scheme of things I can’t honestly say that it was a wise decision for you to pilot the Stingray class fighter that was developed and considered experimental by your own government prior to contact with my people. But you fought honorably and your sacrifice was noble, and for that you are to be commended.”

  Luca nodded. “Yeah. I know. You know why they sent us out there? It wasn’t to shoot down their firefly fighters.”

  Trenola nodded. “The presence of your stingray ships, with their Tunnel Drives, caused a significant wake in the subspace foam, which in turn obscured the origin points of the subspace munitions which were so effective during the battle.”

  Luca sighed. “Yeah. We were just sent out to chum the waters.”

  “You volunteered for the role you played in the battle,” she reminded him. “Despite knowing the potential costs.”

  “I did. And I’d do it again,” he said. “I just wish that I didn’t see visions of stars dying every time I close my eyes. That’s what I saw when I went through the Tunnel Drive without sedation, doc. I saw the deathscream of a dying universe. You think the rejuvenation protocol you’ll be putting me on will fix these visions, or you think I’m stuck with them?”

  “I don’t know, Sergeant. I wish I did. All I can tell you is that the protocol has been successful on the members of the Seeker . But none of them went through subspace while conscious, and they didn’t suffer your visions.”

  “Yeah, I know,” Luca said, smiling grimly. “Me and the crazy eight who piloted the Stingrays are freaks. You don’t have to keep hiding the cutlery from me though, doc. I’m not going to hurt you. I’m sorry about the last time.”

  “I know you are, Sergeant. I took no offense. You weren’t in your right mind.”

  “But you’re still not coming in the same room as me again, are you?”

  “I apologize if it upsets you, but no. Not until you’re further along in your recovery.”

  “Yeah, I figured. Good talk, doc. I’m going to go see if there’s any coffee made yet. So far, I think today is shaping up to be a good day.”

  He got out of bed and wandered into the common areas with the rest of the crazy eight, who were recovering from their valiant service to their birth planet during the third battle for earth. Now, half of them couldn’t even remember their names.

  Luca, with his spontaneous violent impulses and the visions he suffered, had gotten off lucky.

  ?