“Care for some snackage, Lieutenant?” he asked. “Your favorite snacks were listed in each of your EDA profiles, so we stocked up on all of them. You’re a Lucky Charms man, right? Dry, with no milk? We laid in a few dozen boxes for you, see?”
He pointed over at one of the unoccupied pods across the room, where half a dozen boxes of my favorite breakfast cereal sat stacked up like crates of ammunition. The other new recruits had an assortment of snacks and beverages laid out on the floor around their sunken pods, too. Stacks of Nacho Cheese Combos and Slim Jims were scattered around Milo’s pod, along with a small mountain of Diet Mountain Dew. There were bags of Cheddar Jalape?o Cheetos and a row of two-liter bottles of Hawaiian Punch laid out for Whoadie, bags of multicolored Skittles for Debbie, and beside Chén’s pod, dozens of silver energy drink cans with qi li printed on the side, surround by writing in Chinese.
“How did our favorite snacks end up in our EDA profiles?” I asked Shin. But it was Graham who answered.
“The EDA knows everything about everyone, kid,” he said. “Your food and beverage preferences weren’t the only things being recorded while you were playing Armada and Terra Firma, trust me. Your pulse rate, blood pressure, sweat content—the EDA makes the CIA and the NSA look like the PTA.”
“Great,” I said. “The government has been spying on all of us our whole lives, but at least we get to have our favorite snacks. Bonus.”
To my surprise, my father grinned at my remark. He seemed about to respond, but just then the other new arrivals emerged from their pods, and he went over to greet them. Chén snapped to attention when he saw my father approach, and the others scrambled to follow suit.
“At ease, recruits,” my father said as he walked over to them. “Welcome to Moon Base Alpha. I’m General Xavier Lightman, your new CO. I apologize for keeping you waiting.”
He scanned their faces, waiting for a response, but my new friends all seemed too starstruck to speak. My father walked over to stand in front of Milo, who was grinning like he was about to meet one of his favorite movie stars, his earlier disdain apparently forgotten.
“You’re Milo Dobson, right? Better known as Kushmaster5000?”
Milo nodded imperceptibly, caught in the throes of some sort of gamer fanboy aneurysm.
“It’s an honor to finally meet you in person, Lieutenant Dobson,” my father told him. He turned to the others. “It’s an honor to meet all of you. Whoadie, CrazyJi. AtomicMom.” He shook hands with each of them in turn, then nodded at me. “And, of course, IronBeagle. You’re five of the most gifted pilots I’ve ever seen in action. We’re privileged to have you here.”
The others smiled and their faces flushed with pride—and mine may have a bit, as well.
“Thank you, sir!” Chén said, carefully repeating his QComm’s translation.
“Yeah, thanks, General!” Milo said, finally recovering from his stroke of paralysis. “I mean, holy shit—that’s a huge compliment, coming from RedJive himself! You’re the best of the best of the best, sir! I’ve been studying your moves for years—we all have.”
My father seemed genuinely embarrassed by this praise.
“You’re giving me way too much credit,” he said. Then he pointed to his two comrades. “Shin and Graham were both heavily involved with your simulator training, too. I’m sure you’ll recognize their call signs. Shin uses the handle MaxJenius, and Graham—”
“My call sign is Withnailed,” Graham finished. “Though these two rarely use it.”
“We prefer to call him ‘Limes’ instead,” Shin said. “It’s short for ‘limey.’ He hates it.”
Graham nodded. “Indeed I do.”
We all smiled in recognition at their familiar call signs. MaxJenius and Withnailed were both mainstays in the top-five pilot rankings, too. Since the first year the game was launched, they had both alternated between second and third place, right below RedJive.
“I don’t mean to be rude, General Lightman,” Debbie said. “But when are you going to tell us why the EDA sent us up here?” She glanced over at Shin and Graham. “Why couldn’t we just remain back on Earth with the other recruits?”
My father exchanged a strange smile with his two friends, then nodded at Debbie.
“I was just about to brief all of you on that subject,” he said.