If All Else Fails

by N. D. Roberts

  “I have a beard.” Gabriel’s four-word reply brought giggles from Alexis. He stepped over the lip of the Pod and stared at his sister. “What’s so funny?”

  “I don’t even know where to begin,” Alexis told him as she shucked her tight boots.

  “How about with you looking like a younger, pirate version of your father?” Trey laughed, his amusement spilling over. “Alexis, you look just like your mother.”

  Alexis snickered. “It’s true, you look like someone beefed Dad up in character creation.” She wagged a finger at him. “Stop smiling! You’re ruining the illusion.”

  Gabriel waved at Alexis. “Do the eyebrow thing, go on.”

  Alexis raised her eyebrow, then dissolved into giggles at the reaction she got from the others.

  Not everybody was having the same easy transition from being in stasis. SI Torrence was working his way around the hangar with a group of technicians to remedy the situation. He left one or two of the white-coated medical specialists with each soldier, starting with the ones who had vomited upon waking.

  Trey stretched his eight-and-a-half-foot frame and started working his muscles to test them. “This is the best! I have to be the biggest Baka since Qu’Hi. I wonder if people on Earth would mistake me for him?”

  “Qu’Hi never went to Earth,” Alexis refuted, rolling her eyes as she braided her hair. “You put two and two together and came up with the square root of pi after we watched Star Wars. There has to be a more reasonable explanation as to how George Lucas came up with the Wookiees than ‘my ancestor visited Earth.’”

  Trey lifted his hands in an approximation of a scale. “On the one hand, we have Chewbacca, hairy alien warrior who sounds a heck of a lot like my Uncle Li’Orin after a heavy meal. On the other we have, Qu’Hi, a legendary Baka whose travel memoirs mention hairless apes on a blue planet. Sounds pretty likely to me.” He smirked, loving how easy it was to rile Alexis up. “Can you prove my theory isn’t real?”

  Alexis snorted. “Can you prove it is? Statistically, the chances of yet another alien species are…” Her voice trailed off as she did the mental math. “Dammit.”

  Trey threw his hands up. “The proof is the whole part of human culture which celebrates him. Qu’Hi’s legend is told on many worlds.”

  Gabriel chuckled. “Do the chances go up with each new alien who landed on Earth? There were a fair few, sis.”

  Alexis narrowed her eyes at her brother. “That’s still not proof it happened.” She pulled at her shirt. “I need a change of clothes. If I was wearing an atmosuit, it wouldn’t be a problem.”

  SI Torrence finished tending to Boden, then walked over to the group with his technicians in tow. “How are you all adjusting? Any signs of stasis sickness?”

  Alexis gave up on the boots she was wearing. “I don’t think so. A uniform that fits wouldn’t go amiss. I’m also shoeless.”

  Torrence nodded. “Good. The techs are going to take your vitals and check your reactions, then you can make your way through the doors over there to get seats for orientation.”

  He left them with three technicians, who performed the same observations as the technicians at the Corral had—minus the injection—before handing them each a pair of dog tags, and releasing them with instructions to go straight to orientation.

  They made their way through the doors and into the auditorium beyond.

  Trey paused when he saw the group they’d traveled with was spread out around the auditorium. “Where do we sit?”

  Alexis pointed to a line of empty seats in the front row. “Down there.”

  “The back,” Gabriel decided simultaneously.

  “Middle it is,” Trey concluded. “We haven’t got all day to discuss the pros and cons of seat choice.”

  K’aia laughed as she spied the Yollin-adapted seat. “Keep talking sense, and I’m going to start thinking maybe Eve gave you a dose of maturity along with the nanocytes.”

  Trey sidestepped into the narrow space between their row and the one behind to let the others go first, doing his best to insert his bulk. “It’s more to do with the armed officers on the stage looking at us as though they’re wondering if we’re going to be trouble.”

  “Don’t make eye contact,” Sibil advised. She hopped over K’aia’s intended seat and slid into the chair between that and Gabriel’s, and Trey and K’aia took their seats.

  Gorrak indicated the lack of space with a frustrated wave. “Where am I supposed to sit?”

  Sibil pointed Gorrak at the row of seats in front of her. “Consider it a chance to get to know some of our teammates.”

  Slash and Boden turned when they heard Sibil's voice. Boden patted the empty seat beside him with a heavy hand. “We don’t bite.

  Jentek grunted. “Well, I don’t. Can’t speak for Slash.”

  “What kind of name is ‘Slash’ for a Noel-ni?” Trey wondered aloud.

  Slash was suddenly standing in Trey’s lap with one hand around his throat and the other pulled back for a strike.

  “You wanna find out?” Slash inquired sweetly. She looked over her shoulder, finding her wrist caught in Gabriel’s hand. “Let go of me!”

  Gabriel shook his head. “Not happening, fluffball. You don’t threaten my friend and get away with it.”

  Trey’s eyes widened in awe at the razor tips on Slash’s splayed claws. “Cool! Guess I know how you got your name.” Momentary confusion marred his usually sunny features. “But…are they a permanent modification? ’Cuz I don’t like your chances when you have an itchy ass if they are.”

  Slash released Trey and laughed as she climbed back to her own seat. “Wouldn’t you like to know?” Gorrak sat beside Boden, casting a doubtful look at the Noel-ni.

  Alexis relaxed when the Noel-ni proved to be no more immune to Trey’s innocent charm than the rest of them. She cast her gaze over the auditorium, taking a quick estimate of the number of people in the room. She counted almost a hundred people, all dressed in the same plain black uniform, before her effort was cut short by the arrival of their new commanding officers.

  A male Ixtali bearing a general’s insignia swooped in through the doors, followed by his retinue of staff. He mounted the stage without pausing to break the silence that had fallen with his entry.

  The team recognized the similarity to the way General Kispin’s staff had operated. The Ixtali’s entourage fanned out and took their various positions with an air of calm efficiency.

  Trey wrinkled his nose at the sheer girth of the Shrillexian staff sergeant’s neck as he squeezed into the chair behind the table set out for him on the stage. “I’d think we were gonna miss Sergeant Lokkel’s tender loving care,” he whispered. “But we might get more nurturing from this slab of angry muscle than we ever did from the ice queen.”

  He settled in his seat when the lights shifted and flooded the stage.

  The general took his position in the center of the stage and gazed out unblinkingly. “I am Commander Ixtayne. Welcome to Zenith Squadron, candidates. You were the best and brightest of your intake groups during basic training, the favored few who convinced your base commanders that you have the potential to claim a place with the best of the best. Some of you might even have been told that you are ‘special.’

  “Those halcyon days are over. Here is the reality check that will save your lives many times in the months to come.” He shifted the hem of his robe and took a step closer to the edge of the stage.

  “You are the least qualified assets aboard this station. Every person here outranks you in both knowledge and experience. Remembering that will serve to keep you alive long enough to pass the course.”

  A murmur of concern rippled through the seated soldiers.

  Commander Ixtayne paused to let the information sink in, his inner calm shown by his inactive mandibles. “Do not fear. Your basic training has prepared you for the rigors of the course. Over the next weeks, you will become acquainted with the station and the syllabus. Mandatory physical testi
ng will begin in two days and will be repeated every four weeks. After that, candidates will be placed into units for the duration of training.”

  The commander turned his upper body to the Shrillexian and held out an expectant hand. “The list if you please, Grom.”

  The staff sergeant handed him a datapad with a respectful nod.

  “Thank you. The Zenith course is intended to provide candidates the critical knowledge and skill base needed to perform the duties of an officer in an unconventional warfare situation.” Commander Ixtayne took a moment to scroll down the tablet he’d been offered. He read out the course requirements, stating which modules were mandatory as he went. “While the focus of the course is problem analysis and resolution, and modules offering language, medical, and interpersonal skills are not required, we will look more favorably upon candidates who have shown initiative, come selection time.”

  Gabriel pondered the ratio of study to practical exercises. I’m getting the impression we’re going to be spending a lot of time in the classroom.

  Alexis liked the sound of that. I’m glad. This is our chance to figure out where our place is in the real world.

  What do you mean? Trey asked.

  Alexis pursed her lips as she considered. We came into this gameworld to learn how to lead, right? Our goals have changed. We don’t need to lead anyone if we can do our part to bring the Seven to Justice. It’s not like we haven’t already fought every day of our lives in one way or another.

  “Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win,” Trey quoted.

  “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting,” Alexis countered. You have to do better than that if you’re going to quote my own species’ philosophers at me. If we want to be the best in the field, we have to pay attention in class. K’aia, you were annoyed when Kael-ven treated you like a child, right?

  K’aia nodded. Well, yeah. I’m not a child. I’ve worked like Baba Yaga was driving me to be the best at what I do. What does that have to do with all these classes we have to take?

  Alexis tilted her head to concentrate on the commander as well as the conversation. We are children, at least to people who have been around for hundreds of years. They’ve lived through everything we’re going to learn here.

  Makes sense, Trey agreed. Inexperience is the obstacle we have to overcome if we want to be taken seriously.

  Gabriel recalled a moment when General Kispin had reminded him of the real general in their lives, his grandfather Lance. You’re right.

  Commander Ixtayne got to the end of the list. “There is no need for me to go into detail. Suffice it to say that those who apply themselves to achieving excellence will be rewarded for their efforts. At the end of the course, the remaining candidates will participate in a live exercise, where everything you learned in training will be put into practice. Any soldier with extraordinary abilities will also be required to pass regular proficiency exams in their specialty.”

  He handed the datapad back to the staff sergeant. “If, and only if, you make it through this, you will be promoted to specialist. Right now, you will leave this room in an orderly manner and proceed at the direction of the staff instructors. Dismissed.”

  With that, the commander left the auditorium. The SIs spread out to monitor two rows each and started the task of organizing the candidates into a line at the doors at the rear of the room.

  Gabriel spotted SI Torrence making his way toward them.

  The Yollin waved the two rows of ten out when their turn to join the line came around. “Follow the candidate in front of you,” he told K’aia. “First stop will be Supply.”

  Yay for footwear, Alexis enthused.

  K’aia nodded and led the team out of the auditorium and into a utilitarian gray corridor. They walked at double-time to keep up until the line suddenly ground to a halt somewhere up ahead.

  Chapter Three

  Zenith Station, Candidate Quarters

  The seemingly endless lining up was over at last, and the team and thirty-four others, including Boden and Slash, had been deposited at the door to their quarters with the instruction to unpack everything they’d been given in Supply and prepare for the first round of testing.

  Alexis made up her bunk, her mind on the feeling she had of being turned inside out and shaken into an entirely new shape, now she had a moment of quiet. Everything was different, not just her body. She hadn’t noticed it right away, but her perspective had changed since Addix’s death and their reinsertion into the game.

  The recruitment methods of this military still bothered her, no matter that the majority turned out to be glad of the intervention. Perhaps she would feel better if the conscription was lawful, perhaps not. The game was just that to her now—a step out of time.

  The time she and Gabriel had been kidnapped was front and center of her thoughts. Addix had made it out of that situation unscathed, which was more than could be said for the kidnappers.

  Alexis realized that despite the wisdom her parents had shared, all that really mattered to her was getting through and out, so she could start getting revenge. Her heart hurt in the place Addix’s memory resided.

  She had known that people died. She and Gabriel had seen it happen both in and out of the gameworld. She hadn’t understood that the inability to reach the lost person again was the true consequence of death.

  What she was stuck on was how Addix had lived every day knowing she might be killed while protecting her and Gabriel. That she had survived their young childhood, only to give her life to save Trey’s mother and the Bakas they’d been rescuing, felt unfair to Alexis.

  Perhaps she would feel better about it if there had been something she could do. Mahi' had chosen to refuse the Pod-doc, saying she would bear the loss of her leg as a reminder to her people of the sacrifice made to ensure her survival.

  That was the Baka way.

  Alexis knew the way she could best honor her aunt’s memory was to be the person she had seen in Addix’s eyes. Even baddies had people who loved them—mothers, spouses, children. Was it fair to take from them because their loved one messed up?

  That’s why prisons were invented, Gabriel interrupted softly, hearing the tumultuous thoughts turning in his sister’s mind.

  Alexis looked across at his bunk. I’m not thinking of criminals. Crime has its own set of issues and solutions. We accepted this scenario, but we know that most of the soldiers are conscripts. She sighed and said aloud, “I’m thinking about war.”

  “What about war?” Gorrak asked, perking up at the mention of his new favorite subject.

  Alexis wrinkled her nose in thought as she settled into a cross-legged position. “How do we know we’re fighting on the right side?”

  “How does anyone know?” Gorrak retorted. “We’re just cogs in the machine. Let the higher-ups go to the trouble of thinking.”

  “Listen to Bullet Bait,” a mocking voice intruded. The female Torcellan the voice belonged to sneered at the team.

  “Linda, be careful!” one the Torcellan’s two friends spluttered. “They’re with humans!”

  Linda scoffed at the two males. “What do I care? Humans aren’t the shit. They will all be buried together when that dumb Shrillexian messes up. How did he even get through basic?”

  Sibil launched herself over the rail of her bunk and flew at the bitchy Torcellan. “I’ll bury you, you speciesist!”

  K’aia plucked Sibil out of the air before she could tear into Linda with her claws. “Don’t fall for it,” she told the apoplectic reptilian. “She’s too weak to make it, so she’s trying to get rid of the competition. Starting a fight is a sure way to get cut from the program.”

  Sibil shook free of K’aia’s grip. “Fine,” she acquiesced with a grumble. “But I’m going to whip her sorry ass come training.” She threw Linda and her group a dirty look. “It must suck to know the only way to win is to cheat.”

  Linda o
pened her mouth but had no comeback. She grunted in annoyance and flounced off toward the other side of the room with her clique in tow.

  Alexis met Gabriel’s dark gaze and saw that the altercation had riled him. “You okay?”

  Gabriel shrugged and went back to making his bunk. “Anyone who isn’t going to work for the good of us all is going to fail the course. Like K’aia said,” he told her, “she’s not worth our effort.”

  Zenith Station, Training Facility, Testing Labs

  SI Torrence ushered the candidates through the swinging doors. He paused in the atrium beyond, which led to five doors separated by plexiglass windows. “Welcome to testing. Every Zenith candidate goes through a series of mental and physical challenges designed to give the selection committee a picture of your progress.”

  Trey raised his hand. “What does the selection committee do?” he asked after Torrence nodded permission to speak.

  “They meet each month to decide which candidates get cut from the program.” Torrence waved down the reaction from the candidates. “You all knew this wasn’t going to be as simple as showing up. The committee will be looking for the candidates with the highest levels of improvement to advance. Those with the lowest margins will be cut. Today’s session is all about giving us a baseline to work with. Do your best.”

  Gabriel picked up a whisper at the back of the group. He tuned out the explanation Torrence was giving them about the various testing rooms to listen in on Linda ordering the two male Torcellans around as though she owned them.

  Alexis caught Gabriel’s distracted gaze and figured he was listening to the Torcellans. She tugged his sleeve to bring him back to the instructions at hand. We can take care of her later, she told him. We have to keep our heads in the game.

  I’m concerned for those guys, Gabriel admitted. Did you hear how she speaks to them? She’s threatening to have their families harmed if they don’t help her get through. I can’t see why they have to listen to that poison.