Kim of New Eden
By Bryon Smith
>This is a character builder short about Kim of New Eden from the Ember Reign novel series. She is mentioned first in book 3 of the series and later becomes a main character. Novels are available as Kindle downlaodable books.<
A myriad of images flowed through her mind as the music played through her earphones drowning out the sounds of the world around her. For the moment, the music carried her away from her past traumatic experience. It was temporary, of course; it always was. The images always seemed to return - the blast of light, the concussion from the shockwave throwing her across the room. The room filled with smoke; strange, foggy, unclear images of people around her moving her along a long hallway; waking up days later in intensive care with a male nurse watching over her.
Her and her best friend Rose had not only disobeyed a direct order from their teacher, they had forgotten to activate the shields and the ventilation systems. For some reason, the safety over-ride on the ignition system had failed until after the explosion. They meant well, they just wanted to learn how to build their own rocket engine but following the rules wasn''t a thing that either of them was good at.
Suddenly her world was shaken as the familiar gruff voice bellowed at her like an angry bull.
"Wake up Kim!" Mr. Barnett yelled.
"What?" Kim asked.
"Sleeping on the job again, really?" He looked over his shoulder into the kitchen. "You were screaming and crying like a little baby back here."
"I was?" Kim asked wiping the tears from her eyes and slobber from her mouth. "I''m sorry."
"You have one job and that''s to run that machine. It''s not difficult. You have a computer screen and one button on each process." Chef Barnett wiped his hands on a towel. "You''ve been fired from two other jobs all ready, easy jobs. You can''t afford to lose this one too or it goes on your permanent record."
"I''m sorry, captain, I mean Chef Barnett." Kim straightened herself in her chair and up against the computer. Calling her boss captain seemed natural enough; after all he was captain over the kitchen. "Load of potatoes coming in, sir. I have the orders."
Barnett watched her for a few moments then egressed back into his kitchen.
Kim watched the robotic fork lift. The occupant going along for the ride, watching something on their 10" computer pad, would occasionally glance up to see if the robot transport they were riding was doing what it had been told to do.
Must be nice working in supplies and logistics. They had all the fun robots and access to the entire mother ship through what might otherwise be hidden passages that led all over the place between the floors and walls. They had elevator systems that went places only a few people could. They had routes through hydroponics gardens, the entire cargo bay, weapons and ammunitions including the missile bays and weapon pods that adorned the entire outside of the ship. Who would have thought being a package delivery specialist would be the best job on a mother ship? The job title was supply specialist but they were in other terms glorified delivery people.
Kim checked her orders for fries, baked and sliced potatoes. She pressed the sort button and watched the vid-screen as the sorting began making sure the robot sorting machine weeded out any that weren''t quite good enough to make the cut. Though rare, now and then it did happen.
Glancing to her right, she saw the delivery transport back up, rotate around, and stop. The young man in the seat looked at her inquisitively. A slight smile appeared on his face. He nodded then released his delivery vehicle back to the computer and vanished into the supply elevator.
Turning back to her computer, realizing he had smiled at her somehow eased the distress of a few wrong turns she had made. Other kids on the mother ship seemed to mix well but her and her best friend Rose had a tendency to make left turns when they should be going right. They always had and she didn''t really understand why.
Kim double checked her settings and hit one process button after another until all had been initiated. She pulled back in her chair watching as the lights flashed on the processing machines. She smiled then spun around in her chair. Her job was so easy it could hardly be called a job but like so many things on New Eden people tell robots what to do and occasionally watch to be sure the robot does the job correctly. She might work a total of four hours in a day during meal time and other times she might work two hours in a day but most of that time she sat in her chair, watched shows or movies on her computer pad, and waited for something to happen. After her job was done she could leave, go to her room, and do school work or zip over to the arcade and play computer games.
New Eden was a mother ship that never slept. New Eden was one of those things that shouldn''t exist but did. It was made by robots under human control and these humans were all from Earth, yet the existence of New Eden was a well-kept secret. A man was rescued by alien beings who seemed human enough except for their incredibly high intelligence and the craft they came in. He was a former A.T.F. agent who was left for dead by a gang of occult drug runners. They transferred his consciousness to an android body, repaired his body, and moved him back again. Then for reasons that were never explained they made him captain of their ship. Discovering this ship had a molecular fabrication facility he could recreate anything within the computer designs or anything that he might imagine. Finding people on Earth who were ready for a change wasn''t that difficult. All he needed was a place to put them. Mining precious ore from asteroids was child''s play and he began to build ships and find people to occupy those ships. He began by building a disk ship a quarter mile across he called Luxor and stationed it on the moon in a location where it could see the Earth but the Earth couldn''t see it.
The aliens who lived inside the moon took special notice of them, at first hovering and watching from their own ships. But it seemed clear these humans were not part of the ones on Earth they viewed as a threat so they left them alone. The central core of New Eden began on the back side of the moon. It was a half mile long and looked like a big pipe with giant "I" beams positioned at strategic locations for future expansion. At this point the gravity wave system was powered up and it was turned on end as construction continued. As it grew and essential things were completed it lifted off and maneuvered into space passing Mars and Jupiter on its way to Saturn. The construction process increased as more robots were added and more ore came in from the asteroid belt and other planets and moons that had what they needed to create a metal they called Trilliam X. As she took shape she was a mile across and a half mile high; a city in space, home to several thousand.
"Loser," a kid said pausing to have a look.
Kim looked up to see a small group of kids who thought themselves above the rest.
"Keep moving," Rose said taking a seat next to her friend.
"Oh, better watch out. There''s a companion here now, going to whip our asses!" the kid said as they moved along.
Kim glanced at Rose then sighed. "Heard anything about our sentencing yet?"
"You know I would whip all their asses if I thought it would do them any good." Rose looked at the computer pad in her lap. "Should be soon."
"We are so screwed." Kim shook her head.
Rose looked around the video arcade noticing others taking glances in their direction. "Look at it like this - we are the biggest entertainment on New Eden now."
"Now you''re going to tell me how that''s a good thing, right?" Kim shook her head.
Another group entered. "Oh look! It''s the trouble twins! Blown any classrooms up lately?"
"Shit!" Kim exclaimed. She got up and moved to the largest video game in the room, lifted the out of order tape, and climbed inside.
"You going to blow that up too?" some kid yelled.
Rose followed, closing and latching the door behind her. She looked around the room. There were two seats side by side and three in the back for observers or extra players. The two sat in the front seats where the controls were.
"Damn shame it''s broken," Rose said grabbing one of the joysticks.
"If it worked there would be five kids in here now." Kim studied the controls noticing the name ''Zip'' on a decal.
"So Zip designed this?" Rose asked.
"Yeah, he''s so freekin smart." Kim nodded. "He had to go to Earth for a while."
"You helped him build it, right?" Rose asked.
"Yeah, he even put me in the security system." Kim climbed from her chair into the floor under the large, wrap-around 3D screen. Pressing her thumb against a panel, it unlatched and opened.
"What''s wrong with it?" Rose asked joining her friend on the floor.
"Not sure. Would have to run diagnostics." Kim began checking the modular mother board. Hitting the power on she waited but the screen didn''t come up.
"Nothing," Rose reported.
Kim pulled a length of cable out and plugged it into her pad. "Run diagnostics," she commanded. A box appeared then expanded as information began to flow over it.
Rose watched her friend. All that computer tech stuff was beyond her understanding and Kim was without question more of a geek. Rose was good at physical things. She was one of the first children who were relocated to the Luxor from Earth. She watched the construction of New Eden''s core on the moon and the moment it was able to house crew members she moved. She loved everything about space and as far as she was concerned she had no friends on Earth. Companions were the first people to move to the new mother ship. They were the most intelligent, highly educated, versatile people among the crew. They got the best rooms and Rose had been given a brand new room of her own. When Kim came aboard she was directly across the hallway and they became quite close.
In a few moments the big screen lit up with diagnostics. Kim worked at her small screen then moved to the larger screen. In a few minutes she had the game up and running.
"Well?" Rose asked clearly impressed by her friend''s understanding of the game.
"It has two major problems. The video display screen is too large for the display output module. It must be replaced." Kim studied the programming. "The sensor throughput hyper-threading needs some tweaks."
Rose moved into one of the gaming seats as the high scores appeared on the big 3D screen. "It''s a simulation of one of the gunner pods on New Eden."
"Yes, Zip thought it might be a way to find people qualified to be pod gunners." Kim closed the access panel then took a seat beside Rose and started a game.
Rose sat in amazement as Kim took out the oncoming alien fighters and missiles with ease. "Wow!"
"It''s really instincts. Needs a lot of programming upgrades to be anything like the real thing but over-all it''s a fair game." Kim zapped the last incoming fighter on her screen. The top scores came up and her name was number two, right under Zip''s.
"That''s so cool!" Rose exclaimed just as the screen went dark again.
"It overheats. I''ll get a new module for the display tonight. They just didn''t have one when he assembled it," Kim explained. "Let it cool for a few minutes and I can restart it if you care to try."
A day later, Kim woke to the sound of Mr. Barnett''s voice. "Come on, girl, I can''t keep covering for you."
"I''m sorry, I''m…" Kim straightened herself facing her screen. "I''m not sleeping well at night."
"You should see your doctor," Mr. Barnett advised.
"I will, sir," Kim promised. She watched the delivery robot dump its load into the potato hopper and depart. She checked her orders, set her computers, and ran the buttons to begin the process. Once she saw it was all working she grabbed her back pack and ran out the door.
Quickly she entered the gaming room, made her way to the pod gunner game, and vanished inside leaving the "Out of Order" sign posted on the door to keep unwanted people away.
In the Companion camp Rose finished her last round of self-defense class, showered, and went to join Kim.
"Did you get it?" Rose asked.
Kim ran diagnostics on the big screen, smiling when the report came back. "We are good to go, Captain."
"I have to try this." Rose jumped into one of the gunner seats.
"All right, two gunners today, good deal," Kim said taking her seat.
The system worked without fail and Kim''s score tied with Zip''s at the end. Rose hadn''t done nearly as well being her first time at the controls, but she smiled admiring her friend''s unnatural skill. Rubbing the goose bumps from her arms, she patted Kim on the back. "Amazing," she said.
Their pad computers both beeped at the same time. They picked them up to see a message from New Eden discipline.
"Well, there goes the neighborhood," Rose shook her head.
Kim held her pad in her lap, as someone began beating on the door. "Hey, don''t hog the machine!" a boy called from outside.
"I guess I''ll see you there in the morning." Kim put her pad in her backpack. That news took all the fun out of her tying for high score.
Rodney Buildburger met Kim outside with a quick push. "Game hog," he barked.
Rose pushed up against him forcing him to take a step back. "You should be thanking her. She just fixed that thing for you." Rose sighed. "You know bullying is strictly forbidden on New Eden. It''s worse than blowing up a school lab."
"Is it?" Rodney asked.
"They can demote you all the way back to Earth for bullying here." Rose shook her head. "Frowned on big time. Don''t do it." Holding her pad up, she showed the appointment on her screen. "Yeah, that''s right, and Kim and I are meeting with the elders first thing tomorrow morning. It wouldn''t be good for you for either of us to mention this if you get my meaning."
Rodney looked at one of his friends. "That''s not right."
"Actually it is," Billy responded. "Once they took a kid who was bullying others to the lab, hooked wires on him, put probes into his brain, and the kid was never the same again."
Rodney looked to see Rose give a knowing nod his direction before leaving.
On a mother ship where the people are confined and work as a unit to the survival of the whole the animalistic behavior of dominance or being a bully was detrimental to the whole, therefore was punished accordingly. It was true a person who displayed undesirable behavior could be expelled and returned to Earth, providing the behavior couldn''t be altered. Therefore, bulling was almost unheard of. Those who stepped out of line far enough were met with challenges unpleasant enough to alter their thinking in more positive ways.
Kim tossed and turned most of the night. The judgment of New Eden''s disciplinary council was the thing foremost on her mind and the reason why she hadn''t been able to sleep. Those guys remembered every little infraction and, when someone accumulated enough, the judgment could be harsh.
She pushed the food around on her plate but wasn''t feeling hungry. The door signaled. "Open door," she commanded. The door opened. Rose entered to see Kim still pushing food around on her plate until she had a mixed pile in the center. She patted the top flat then scrutinized it for a moment. "This means something."
"I had about three bites of my breakfast this morning," Rose sighed. "We can''t afford to be late, wouldn''t help our case."
Kim grabbed her backpack and followed Rose out the door.
The two friends took their seats in the middle of the room facing the council seats. At each side were companion guards acting as bailiffs. Rose, being a companion, knew them both fairly well. Noticing one of them nod her direction she saw him holding three fingers down. He was signaling there would be three disciplinary judges, and that was a good thing. The more judges they had, the deeper the trouble they were in.
"All rise," the other bailiff commanded.
The two stood as two men and a woman took their seats.
"Be seated," the bailiff said. "Court recorder is now active."
The two took their seats noticing the video screens at each side of the front of the room now illuminated showing everyone in attendance.
The council reviewed the information on the screens before them. One by one they looked at the two before them. "Please review the accounts for the record," the man in the center commanded.
The two watched their crimes reviewed on the screens. Kim shook her head nearly in tears and Rose''s heart was breaking.
"You two have been reprimanded more times than anyone." One of the judges began to read. "Kim and Rose have been nicknamed the trouble twins of New Eden."
"Your supervisor called you a trouble maker, Rose," The second man read then looked at Kim. "You hacked the waiting list and put Rose on the invitation list for a personal with the big guy upstairs."
"As a prank the two of you collaborated and deactivated the artificial gravity in the companion''s cafeteria during lunch hour for your group." The other man read from the list. "There was food and people all over the room."
Rose fought to hold back a smile while glancing at Kim.
"It''s not funny." The woman in the center chair shook her head.
Rose noticed both of the bailiff''s fighting to maintain their composure, as they had been in the cafeteria when all that took place.
"We cleaned it up," Rose said.
"You crawled through the ventilation shaft and detonated a silly string bomb in central security''s main office!" The woman shook her head. "Security was off line for hours."
"We''re screwed," Kim whispered.
"You two built a rocket engine thrust evaluator in the science lab and tested it with a rocket engine you built. You knew the rules in the lab. a teacher must be present during tests of any kind. Ventilation and blast shields must be active." A man read from his screen. "You were nearly killed and we know Kim has had a mild case of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder since that event.
"Shit!" Rose exclaimed. "We were just kids. That''s like the first, uh, second, maybe the third thing we ever did. Heck I was just fifteen and she was eleven."
"Silence!" the lady commanded. "You two have a problem with authority and rules and that must change. We can''t exist on a mother ship living as we do without adhering to the rules."
"It would be chaos." One of the male judges shook his head.
The three judges consulted. Rose and Kim looked at each other with tears in their eyes.
"Please stand as sentence is read," one of the bailiffs commanded.
Rose and Kim stood facing the judges.
"We sentence you to a period of no collaboration until further notice," the woman said.
"You what?" Rose objected. "For crying out loud, she''s my neighbor!"
"Silence," the woman commanded. "One more outbreak from you and we will have you working in janitorial services for a year."
Rose and Kim looked at each other as the judges wrote their sentence into the computer, stood, and departed through the door behind their chairs.
"What does that mean?" Kim asked.
"It means we can''t associate with each other until they say otherwise," Rose explained.
The two bailiffs escorted the convicted to the door. "They didn''t say you couldn''t talk to each other; they said you can''t collaborate," Chuck said. "That means you can''t come up with any more plots or schemes."
"Are you trying to tell me they''ve handed down a sentence like this one in the past?" Rose asked.
"Not that we know of," the other young man answered.
The computer pads dinged in correspondence with the larger screens at the front of the room. "What does that mean?" Rose pointed.
"It means they will decide on further regulations for you within the next 24 hours," Chuck answered. "Sorry guys, we have another session coming into the court, you need to clear out."
"Fine!" Rose barked leading the way into the hall.
"Screwed, yeah, that''s what." Kim wiped the tears from her face.
Kim returned to her room, freshened up, then took a seat at her desk. Activating the vid, she logged into her next class. On New Eden it was possible to attend some classes from their rooms over the video system. She was not in any mood to associate with anyone. Seeing her pill bottle she took one for stress, washing it down with a drink.
The day was a daze to her. The next thing her mind registered on was Mr. Barnett waking her. She looked up. It was clear she had been crying. "Oh." She quickly wiped her face. "I''m ok, I got this." Quickly she noticed the potatoes had already been delivered and the system had been waiting on her to do something for the past fifteen minutes.
"I''m sorry, Kim. We can''t keep doing this. You need to process this batch for me and then find a new job." Mr. Barnett patted the girl on the back. "I had hope for you, kid. There are people literally fighting to have this job. It''s just about the easiest job on the ship; a child could do it."
She watched as he returned to his kitchen. He was right, she had the dream job. She set the controls, pressed the buttons, picked up her pack, and started toward her room. No point going to the game room, was there? She stopped in the long circular hallway looking toward the game room. Maybe one last game before the Judges could finish destroying her life.
She entered the game room to find Rose and Zip talking beside the pod gunner game. Rose hugged her, whispering into her ear. "Show him what you can do."
"Back from Earth I see," Kim said.
"Rose tells me you are really good at this." Zip opened the door allowing Kim to enter first.
"I fixed a few things, changed out the display unit, put in a bigger faster one, made a few tweaks to the input and control sensors here and there. Nothing you wouldn''t have done," Kim said taking her seat.
"Tied my score," Zip smiled.
Kim booted the game and Zip watched amazed. When the game concluded, Kim had beaten Zip''s score by several points.
"Amazing!" Zip exclaimed.
"It''s no big deal," Kim responded.
"You are on medication for P.T.S.D." Zip reminded her. "Rose said you two have had a seriously stressful day and yet you came in here and aced this thing like it was nothing."
Kim had not realized what she had accomplished. She couldn''t keep her mind focused to run the potato processing system in the main cafeteria yet she had taken the high score on a difficult game.
"What''s that mean?" Kim asked.
"It means your talents are being wasted is what it means," Zip answered. "Your head is wired to be challenged. You said you had some ideas to improve the game?"
"Yes." Kim pulled her pad from her pack. Bringing up the display for the game program modules, she began to point out things she thought would improve the pod gunner game.
Programs in the games were relatively simple and all modular. If you wanted a feature in the game all the developer had to do was pull the module into the game program within the assembler then select and fine tune the module for the desired results. Sure, to the regular users it was kind of complicated but to someone who had some understanding of the system and how they worked it was easier than trying to write the entire program from scratch. Adding a new weapon or target was as simple as dragging the module into the assembler, tweaking it with the presets, and assembling it.
The following morning, Kim once again piled her breakfast into a mush mound on her plate reflecting upon the previous day''s events. The doorbell rang to find Zip at the door.
"Come with me, please. I have something to show you," Zip said leading the way down the hall to one of the transports.
It was a short trip to the rim of the ship. The door opened and the two walked to a doorway marked in large letters - Pod-20. Zip opened the door. The two entered the dark room illuminated by a large view screen and the control lights from the panels.
"Have a seat." Zip directed her to one of the pod chairs.
Kim settled into the seat as it moved sizing itself to fit her. The gunner controls moved into position and smaller control screens on each side. The menu of all the weapons appeared on one of the screens.
"Oh, my God!" Kim exclaimed rubbing the chill bumps on her arms. "This is it. The real thing. The big guns. A gazillion gigawatts of lethal leverage."
Kim began scanning the controls reading the information. Smiling she took hold of the weapon controls. She could hardly contain herself.
Zip smiled. "And now there''s a fifteen year old girl with her finger on the trigger of a dual barrel ten-thousand mega-joule blaster."
Kim looked at Zip. "What are you trying to tell me?"
"I think it fits." Zip took the second seat and made a few selections. "Let''s see how you do with a simulation of the real thing. Somewhere out there is an enemy ship. It''s your job to use the scanners to find, identify, and destroy the target."
Having a fifteen year old teenager at the controls of such weapons had never been done before and the fact she had a mild case of P.T.S.D. and was on medication was even more unheard of. Zip thought perhaps all Kim needed was a place to fit in; something that challenged her mind, and this might just be something she was good at. As it turned out, Zip was right. Kim turned out to be an expert gunner and defender of New Eden.
In time she would go on to save the entire space station from an alien nuke. Her and Rose would once again be allowed to collaborate and they would both be assigned to a brand new ultra class fighter known as a Black Max. Reassigned to a matching battle ship called Star Dancer they would go on to new star systems to save entire worlds from enemy invasion.
Never judge someone because they are different from you. Remember everyone has a place in our universe and everyone has something they are better at than someone else.
Be content knowing there are people like us living among the stars doing their part to make sure the less we know about what goes on out there the better.
The next time you look into the night sky and think you see something, look again and wonder if you did. Remember, there''s a Black Max out there with a pilot named Rose and a top gunner named Kim helping to keep our world safe.
The End.
