Foxxtrot.Net

Caleb Tyrin was born in June of 2288, on the planet of New Earth. His childhood had been the same as almost all others born in the AEU, some of the best schools in Known Space. While Caleb did well in school, he’d always looked up to his cousin, Ambar Koturian, who had joined the ranks of the pilot league in 2300. He knew that all he wanted to do was fly. Caleb’s parents were less excited about that path. They didn’t try to steer him away from it, hoping that he’d simply outgrow it.

Still, in the AEU’s educational system, you can’t simply choose to study ‘piloting’, so Caleb spent his school years working on Particle Physics, all the while spending his free time preparing for the pilot’s exam. Then, October 2304 arrives, and the Outsiders perform their now infamous coup, cutting off communication between Human and Jinu, and laying the groundwork for the disbandment of the pilot league.

Making a hard decision, Caleb decides not to try to fly, at least for a little longer, and follows in his father’s footsteps, taking a job on a team designing plasma weapons in June 2306, days after his 18th birthday. At the bequest of the AEU government, Caleb’s team sits down with the new Mutuality Pilots in August, to examine their technology, the highly educated AEU engineers find themselves amazed at the quality of the engineering, but in their conceit point out hundreds of relatively minor flaws that these engineers would never have allowed. All things considered, the Mutuality pilots take the criticism well, though it is clear that they prefer quick, dirty, and effective to the AEU standard.

In November of the following year, when Caleb and his team believe that they are literally days away from making a huge discovery, Caleb watches in horror as the computer system he was working on crashes, as the Outsider virus hits. Caleb copies out as much of his research as he can, but without computer hardware and a full lab with which to run the simulations and some of the higher calculations, he’s not sure he’ll ever be able to finish the work. And with all he’s lost, his research has easily been set back at least six months, maybe more. Assuming, of course, the research can even get back into a lab.

At around that time, Ambar, Caleb’s cousin, didn’t return from a flight. He was seen flying in the direction of the Jinu Space, but was not seen again. The Pilot League still lists him as deserter to this day.

With the ensuing crackdown on research, Caleb, and the other’s like him, suddenly find themselves in a practical welfare state. He finds himself working in a factory, working on factory droids producing titanium plates, ready to be formed into practically anything. He assumes that is what is meant to be. During the next years, he’s unable to even look at his research, hidden in a locked box in his apartment, for fear the papers, which he assumes would be considered contraband, would be taken and (at best) destroyed.

In the early months of 2309, Caleb started looking at that lockbox more and more, still not willing to open it, but knowing that things needed to change. He started meeting with a small group at lunch, who shared similar feelings. When the rumors of the returned ship begin again, Caleb decides that he’s waited long enough. The outsiders are off balance. It’s time for him to fly.