Two weeks came and went, and during this time, Erich found that his life was incredibly dull. He had no friends to speak of, at least not in the Empire, and his connection to the grid had been severed, preventing him from speaking with his Oni friends who dwelled in the neighboring empire.
However, on the morning that he was to ship out from his home world of Alemannia, to the nation's capital of Germania, his mother was there to greet him. As Erich hauled his cargo out of his room, and towards the garage, where a hover car was waiting to transport him to the star port. Krista wrapped her arms around her son's back and whispered something in his ear's that he had not expected to hear.
"Remember, my sweet baby boy, even if the world is against you, mommy still loves you very much, and she knows you will make her proud!"
The moment Erich looked around to see his mother's face, it was filled with her same loving smile; she was perhaps the only person in the entire world who actually gave a shit about his wellbeing. The fact that he would be away from his mother for an entire year, before he was permitted to visit her for the holidays, filled Erich's heart with woe.
However, he did not say a word of this to his mother, and instead forced a smile and nodded his head, as he placed his luggage inside the back of the hover car, before entering the passenger seat. The vehicle was piloted by an artificial intelligence, and thus there was no need for Erich to actually take the wheel.
Just when he was about to order the vehicle to take off towards his destination, a knock resounded on the hull of the vehicle, where the electronic screens, which acted similar to windows, displayed his mother outside trying to get his attention. The woman's voice followed on the speakers as she said something which shocked Erich.
"Oh, by the way, Erich, since you are going away to the Naval Academy, feel free to turn the grid back on. I know I said that you are being punished for three months, but Mommy wants to hear from you every night when you are done with your studies!"
Erich could only smile, and this time with genuine happiness, as he did exactly as his mother had said, and turned his connection to the Interstellar Network back on. Once had had done so, he waved goodbye to his mother, before giving the AI the command to take him to the star port.
---
The journey to the star port was a brief one. After all, traffic and vehicles were operated by an advanced artificial intelligence, which completely removed the component of human error. Because of this, traffic accidents were an extremely rare occurrence.
In fact, most aspects of Germanic civilization were maintained by artificial intelligence and robots. Everything that could be automated was automated. Allowing the citizens of the Germanic Star-Empire to pursue more fulfilling careers.
Alemannia was a frontier world, meaning it existed on the fringes of the Germanic Star-Empire. It was named after an ancient tribe of Germanic warriors from the days of the Romans. It, like every other habited planet in the Germanic Star-Empire, was classified by the rest of the galaxy as a fortress world.
A Fortress world was a planet whose entire infrastructure was designed for defense. They were incredibly expensive to build, and most interstellar civilizations had a handful of them within their borders. But to the Germanic Star-Empire, who were a martial civilization, hell bent on defending every inch of ground they conquered until the heat death of the universe, it was considered foolish not to invest in planetary defense.
Thus, not only was every aspect of Alemannia built to withstand a full scale invasion by a Galactic Power, but the entire planet was littered with a variety of turrets, whether they be ion, plasma, or beams. Any location that could be filled with a weapon designed to counterattack against an invading force, you can bet it was.
However, despite the fact that Alemannia was indeed a fortress world, it was not an Ecumenopolis like the core worlds of the Germanic Star-Empire were. Thus, there was still some wild fauna and flora in the less inhabited regions of the planet.
After arriving in the planet's primary Star Port, Erich made his way to a large transport spacecraft, which would be taking thousands of citizens to the Capital. Many of which were young men like himself who were seeking to begin their military careers. While others were merchants incapable of purchasing their own starships, or any other number of passengers.
When Erich got into the cabin, he noticed that it was quite full, and thus, he immediately began to look for the first seat available. Where he noticed that an entire row was available aside from one person who was not a member of the Germanic race at all, but was instead a rare visitor from the neighboring Great Oni Empire.
As a man who had friends in the neighboring civilization, naturally Erich spoke the language, which he greeted the young woman in her native tongue, thus shocking her, as nobody she had met until this point was able to speak her language.
"Excuse me, miss, is this seat taken?"
The rather alluring, young Oni woman looked at Erich with shock, there were multiple reasons for this, the primary two being, that Erich was not only capable of speaking her language, but he did not look like anyone else she had seen in the Empire. Thus, she was quick to ask him just what race he came from.
"Not at all. I would be more than happy to sit next to a fellow foreigner. Which species are you from, friend?"
Erich chuckled when he heard this, as he stashed his cargo away in the allotted space before sitting down next to the woman. He was quick to challenge her misconception with a shocking revelation.
"I'm actually Germanic myself, however I am an aberrant, so I suppose you could say I am treated the same way, if not worse than a foreigner like yourself."
Despite being a foreigner, the Oni woman was a regular visitor to the Germanic Star-Empire. So much so that she was quite familiar with their society and its many customs. Thus, she knew exactly how rare an aberrant like Erich was, because most were terminated upon birth. The fact that this young man had been deemed unfit for termination meant that he must have lived a life filled with discrimination. She wouldn't doubt if his own family despised him, and thus, with a look of pity on her pretty face, she expressed her sympathy.
"You have my condolences, friend. I have been travelling to and from the Germanic Star-Empire for many years, and every time I visit, I feel the animosity your kind has towards the rest of the galaxy. Even though our two nations are allies, your people still treat us with the same disdain they do everyone else. I can only imagine what an aberrant like yourself must have endured. My name is Kondo Yumi, what is yours?"
Yumi was quite attractive in Erich's opinion, but then again, he may be a bit biased, considering the only porn he had ever watched originated from her homeland. If compared to a baseline human, she looked like a standard Japanese beauty, but with two horns growing out of her head.
However, there was most definitely a substantial size difference between the Oni and the Germanic peoples. As a result of the Empire's strict eugenic policies, and its mandatory genetic augmentation, the average height of a Germanic male was 195 cm, while Erich was only slighter above average at 198 cm. As for the average Germanic female, they were 182 cm tall.
When compared with the Oni, who were of an average Japanese height, Yumi was practically dwarfed by everyone else around her. Yet she appeared the most friendly of the bunch, at least to Erich, who shook her tiny hand while introducing himself.
"Erich… Erich Jaeger, it is a pleasure to meet you Miss Kondo."
The Oni beauty slightly giggled as she heard this before complimenting Erich on his manners.
"You know Erich, you must be the most polite man I have met since I first step foot in your empire over a hundred years ago. Are you sure you are Germanic? I don't mean to sound rude, but out of all the civilizations in which I have been to on business, yours is by far the most hostile."
It was Erich's turn to chuckle, as he accepted the woman's words as compliment, before responding to her with a jest.
"Sometimes I wonder myself. So you are here in the Empire on business?"
The woman nodded her head with a bitter smile on her face, though she was proud of her accomplishments, she could not say she very much enjoyed doing business with the Germanic Star-Empire, thus she decided to vent her frustrations on this young man who seemed to have endured the same discrimination she faced.
"Yes, his highness has requested that I broker trade with your arms corporations. People can say what they want about the GSE, but you guys sure know how to make weapons. I guess there is a reason your race is known as the Alfheim Dominion's war hounds…"
Erich chuckled after hearing this and nodded his head in agreement with Yumi's words as she continued on her little rant.
"I honestly don't know how a civilization as young as yourselves managed to reach the status of a regional power in such a short amount of time. We spent millennium growing our empire bit by bit, and in the span of four hundred years, your race becomes powerful enough for his highness to consider being a valuable ally.
A meagre thirty six systems, and a hundred habited worlds, and yet nobody in this sector of space wants to get on your bad side… Even I must admit, it is impressive what your people have accomplished in such a short amount of time.
However, your people are still severely lacking compared to many of the larger regional powers, let alone the galactic powers. Still, I shudder to think of what will become of our quadrant in the next few millennia. You might not be able to witness it, what with your short life spans, but I'm only two hundred and fifty years old. By the time I'm an old woman, I will be able to see what has become of the GSE…"
Erich knew that Oni, on average, lived for thousands of years. Though they were not biologically immortal like the Light Elves, they were still long lived. Moreso than most interstellar species. In fact, prior to the rise of the Germanic Star-Empire, they were the civilization most commonly used by the Light Elves to fight their proxy wars with the other major galactic powers.
Both the Germanic Star-Empire and the Great Oni Empire were highly militaristic and imperialistic civilizations. It was one of the reasons they got along so well, despite the Germanic people's fanatic xenophobia.
After venting her frustrations, Yumi looked over and carefully observed Erich. She knew quite a bit about the Germanic species. After all, her job involved trading with them quite regularly, thus she could guess where he was headed to and why. Which she immediately did, much to Erich's surprise.
"So, I'm guessing you're off to one of your nation's military academies in Germania, huh? I'm a bit perplexed, though. Aren't cadets usually given a three-month break to become acquainted with their new wives? Judging by today's date, you probably only graduated from high school a few weeks ago. So why are you so desperate to head to Germania? Wouldn't you like to be nice and cozy with your new bride? After all, your race tends to marry young…"
A bitter smile formed on Erich's face as he looked away from the woman. There was a hint of shame in his eyes as he explained the harsh truth to her.
"Well, you see, I am an aberrant, or if you want to be insulting, then you can call me by term mutant. That's what most people do… You see, because of my genetic abnormalities, the state has deemed me unfit for reproduction. So I have no wife and will never have a wife. Because of this, they have decided to get me started on my education earlier than my peers, who are not doubt siring children as I speak…"
Yumi's mouth fell agape as she looked at Erich with shock in her dark eyes. She had always heard about how strict the Germanic Star-Empire was with their citizen's daily lives, going so far as arranging marriages based upon genetic compatibility, but she would never expect them to prohibit a man from marrying, simply because his hair and eye color were different from the norm.
As someone who had worked with the Germanic Star-Empire for the last one hundred years, she knew all too well that sex outside marriage was strictly prohibited, and thus she could not help but ask the question that became most important to her in that moment. Albeit her voice was a bit loud, as she was genuinely outraged at what she was hearing, thus dragging all the attention in the cabin onto herself, even if the other passengers could not understand her.
"Wait, a second? So they expect you to go out and die for the Empire as a virgin? You have got to be kidding me? Please don't tell me you were selected for a dangerous role like a Star Marine?"
In that moment Erich scoffed and spoke in a voice filled with bitterness, as he still refused to look Yumi in the eye.
"Oh, I wish I was selected to be a Star Marine. I would have a better chance at surviving if that was the case, and even if I did die, the odds of me being successfully cloned would be much higher. No, I was selected to become a Starfighter Pilot. So the odds of me dying throughout the next twenty years are a near certainty, and if I am beyond the reach of the interstellar network when I do eventually in battle, I'm not coming back."
Yumi stared at Erich in disbelief for a long time, as the silence between them continued for what seemed like hours. She had never met a man from the Germanic Star-Empire that was so polite and open-minded, and yet he was destined for a fate that she would not wish on her worst enemies. To be used, and tossed aside by his nation as a tool, and without ever experiencing the most basic pleasures in life.
In that moment, the Oni business woman felt pity for the young man, and bit her lip as she debated something that only she knew within her own mind. After what seemed like a lifetime of indecision, Yumi made a suggestion to Erich that he never thought he would hear in his life.
"How about when we reach Germania, you come back to my hotel room for some drinks? You don't have to report to the academy immediately, right? I know alcohol is not usually permitted to be consumed in the Empire outside of a certain limit, but as a foreign diplomat, I'm granted an exception. We can drink until you feel better, and then maybe…"
The next words she spoke were whispered into Erich's ears in a voice so low, only he could possibly hear it.