First Command Read Online Free

had done their best, but she became sullen and resentful. The cruelty of other children hadn’t helped. They were quick to bully the strange newcomers at their school and playgrounds, though Julia had been spared the worst due to the presence of two older brothers who could out-fight anyone twice their age. Nevertheless, she never forgave any of them for, as she put it, ‘taking away the stars.’ The photo of Julia was the last time Jonathan had heard from her in six years. She had emailed it to the whole family with the caption ‘Hello, and Goodbye’. Julia had always been one for classic literature.  They knew she was alive because the USU kept receiving her dues and would alert her next of kin if she were killed. The USU didn’t cover burial or corpse retrieval expenses after all.
    Less than a month after she left, Jonathan's father dropped dead of a stroke, leaving his mother heart broken. Three years after her husband's death she was diagnosed with Calbert’s Syndrome, a degenerative disease that robbed those afflicted of their motor functions. She lived with Jaroed now surrounded by grandchildren, and well cared for by Alena who had been a Registered Medic before she’d resigned to care for her children. Jaroed made sufficient income to support his family. He had just been promoted to Sergeant and assigned to the Vice Squad. He and Jonathan's mother's medical expenses were fully covered by the state, and by the virtue of both her sons being in government service. The Republic could skimp on creature comforts sometimes, but it rewarded the loyalty of those who served it. Shaking himself from the brief whimsy of glancing at his family photos, Jonathan began to dress himself for work. He pulled on his khaki trousers and white undershirt, buckled his regulation brown leather belt, before being at a loss for where his hat and jacket where. The jacket also khaki was found at the foot of the bed under some blankets, and Jonathan's peaked cap with the Solarian Navy Sunburst affixed to it was on top of his dresser. Jonathan sighed as he adjusted the single solid circle, which denoted him the rank of Commander Solarian Navy. The smart fabric from which the uniform was made eliminated any unseemly wrinkles so long as it was given a daily dose of static charge. Something Jonathan never forgot to do. Through his brother's incessant teasing, Jonathan knew himself to be vain in his personal appearance, but he really couldn’t help it he was, after all, a commissioned naval officer. No reason for him not to look his best. Glancing at the clock, Jonathan saw it was 8:00 and more than enough time for him to grab a bite before leaving for the office.  Before closing his door, Jonathan stopped at the small cabinet next to his bed and opened the top drawer. He withdrew the small bottle of Oxitanie, unscrewing the cap he let one of the small white pills fall into his hand before putting it into his mouth and swallowing as fast as possible. The Oxitanie was supposed to be tasteless but Jonathan always found it had a bitter bubble gum flavor on the way down. Oxitanie was an anxiety suppressant, something Jonathan needed, any time he was outside.  Growing up in the close confines of a ship had left him with a mild case of Terraphobia. Unlike more common agoraphobia, which was easily treatable with chemical readjustment therapy, he wasn’t anxious about being outside in general just in un-crowded, uncivilized places. Rather than this being a chemical imbalance, it was the by-product of a psychological affliction, thus manageable but untreatable.  At least that’s what the doctors said, but who listened to quacks? In the city he took one pill in the morning and another as needed, which most days he didn’t.  Singking was after all a city of over ten million. But in open fields or forests far from cities, he usually needed three a day. Placing the bottle in his pocket Jonathan picked up his boots and maneuvered down the steep