by Kal Spriggs
Left side, I sent to Osmund and Jonna through my implant. There was a narrow crevice there that opened up a bit into a smaller tunnel. The three of us scrambled inside. I pushed my rifle ahead of me and then went in feet-first, so that I could keep an eye back down the tunnel. With my broad shoulders and height, it was a tight squeeze. In fact, as I scrambled through the back of the crevice into the passage beyond, my uniform bunched up around my chest and I found myself stuck, unable to get all the way through the gap. The narrow point was almost two meters inside, deep enough for me to hide in the shadows, but not anywhere deep enough if someone shone a light inside.
“What are you doing!” Jonna hissed at me. She tugged on my legs and I felt skin tear, but I barely budged. I was stuck, wedged tight around my chest, barely able to breathe as the lights approached and I made out the sound of voices. “…stupid crates are heavy. I’m getting really tired of carrying them.” The speaker had a harsh accent, one more fitting the streets of the Barrens than I would have expected here under the Heart.
“That’s too bad, Ralsh,” Another voice snapped. “Because carrying them is what you’re here for, same as the rest of us. And if you’re not carrying your weight, well, then maybe House Mantis doesn’t need you anymore.”
My heart stopped as I heard Mantis. House Mantis had been the pirate House I had, while pretending to be Vars, betrayed. In fact, I’d killed one of their senior people and triggered a firefight and a few explosions that had killed quite a few of their people. To be fair, it was Lokka and his fellow civets who blew up their skimmers…
House Mantis had a bounty on Vars’ head. Seeing as I’d stolen Vars’ identity, that bounty was on my head.
“Sorry, Kore,” Ralsh whined, “I didn’t mean anything by it.”
“You better not have,” Kore growled. “Still, we’ve been carrying them a ways, I figure we can take a pause.” To my horror, the group had paused just outside the crevice that I was wedged in.
There were six of them, all in the green armor of House Mantis’ people. Four of them were their common foot troops, with light armor and side-arms. Two of them were Hunters, in the angular, predatory body armor normal for the Pirate Houses’s elite fighters. Both of them carried wicked-looking carbines.
The four foot soldiers settled two heavy crates to the ground. “Thank you, Kore,” Ralsh said, his voice trembling a bit. Apparently, they had as much fear of the Hunters as the rest of society.
“Oh, it’s not for your sake,” Kore’s voice purred. The Hunter didn’t have the gutter accent normal to the Barrens, I noticed. “I saw light earlier, from just about down here… and I wanted to see if I could find the source.”
I’d pushed my rifle ahead of me through the crack. I couldn’t reach it with how I was wedged in the opening. Jonna and Osmund didn’t have room to shoot at them past me. I really, really hoped that they didn’t bend over and shine a light in, because if they did, there was nothing I could do.
***
Chapter 9: I Turn Up More Questions Than Answers
I could see Kore’s legs as he walked up to the crevice, shining a light at the floor. I was suddenly grateful for the damp floor and the slime that lay just about everywhere. There were no soggy boot prints or smears of water from our sodden uniforms.
Ralsh seemed to notice Kore’s attention, “Doesn’t look big enough for someone—”
“Quiet,” Kore hissed, “I’m listening.”
I held my breath, my pulse seeming to roar in my ears. I waited for what felt like forever. Then, just as I saw Kore start to go to one knee, in the distance, I heard a clatter.
Kore straightened. “It seems our… trade partner has arrived.”
With the resumption of noise, I took a quiet gulp of air, my chest aching with how the rock pinched it. I wanted to sob at how little it seemed to help, fighting to take even small, panting breaths was an effort. I wanted to scramble back out towards the tunnel, but the group still stood there and as I gasped for air, another light source approached. From the angle of how I was wedged, I couldn’t make anything out, just the single bright light and the shadows it cast. “House Mantis brought the agreed upon payment?”
“We wouldn’t short your master,” Kore’s cultured voice sneered. “Did you follow through on your end?”
“I did,” the voice answered. “Patrol routes for the next three weeks. You should have no issue slipping your cargo in or out. But I’ve got something more for you. Something House Mantis will want to reward me for, above and beyond our current arrangements.”
“Oh?” Kore asked. “Tell me, friend, how do you presume to know what House Mantis cares about?”
“My patron saw fit to pass along that there’s an entrant, you care about. Two of them, if we’re being honest. Entrant Vars and Entrant Hayden.” If I could have breathed, I would have gasped in shock and probably given away my position.
“You’re offering to arrange an accident?” Kore asked. “I’m drawn to understand that everything at the Institute is observed closely, even your patron wouldn’t be able to do anything to them.”
“Normally, yes,” the voice answered. “But it seems the pair of them volunteered for a patrol in the Underwarrens. They’re down here right now, as a matter of fact.”
Kore tensed, “Where?”
“The information for their route is on the data card,” The speaker stepped forward, presumably to pass that over. “But their patrol may bring them out of reach soon.” I noticed he wore black boots and black military fatigues. Someone in the Institute or maybe an officer in the Drakkus Imperial Space Korps?
“Unfortunate,” Kore noted. “We don’t have time to divert today.”
“The patrol routes cover the next three weeks. If I find out that either of them have volunteered again, I’ll message you in the usual channels,” the traitor noted. “I need to get back.”
“Of course, and we need to deliver our goods,” Kore’s tone was dismissive. “Tell your patron we appreciate his assistance in this matter.”
The traitor turned and left. A moment later, Kore and his people followed after him.
I was barely able to wait until their lights were out of sight before I scrambled back out of the tight spot, shredding part of my uniform and a good amount of skin. I took whooping, deep breaths, panting as my oxygen-starved body gasped for air.
“Someone’s dealing with House Mantis,” Osmund had crawled out next to me. I could hear the uncertainty in his voice.
“Someone in the military,” Jonna growled. “There’s a traitor.”
“They want the both of you,” Osmund seemed incredulous, “But why? Who would dare betray the Empire—”
“Not the Empire, the way he probably sees it, just us,” I told him. “After all, I’m pirate scum and she…” I trailed off. Honestly, I didn’t know why they’d want Jonna.
“I’m the daughter of my father,” Jonna finished. “But whoever it is, he’s clearly taking bribes already. Betraying the Empire further probably isn’t that big of a step for him.” She went over to where the crates had been set down on the floor and turned on her light, looking for any clues. “They’re smuggling something into the Heart, which is interesting.”
“I’d think it would be the other way around,” I nodded.
“No one in the Heart wants for anything, is what I heard,” Osmund noted.
“Was that back on Oberon?” Jonna asked.
Osmund didn’t answer, but that made something click in my head. Osmund wasn’t from Drakkus, he was from the Oberon system, which explained some things about him. It had to be harder to get an appointment to the Institute from the conquered world. It also explains why he’s so nervous not to be in the sights of Imperial Intelligence, he probably already feels like he’s suspect.
“Well, they didn’t mention Vivar,” I spoke into the silence, “so maybe he hid when he saw them coming, like us.” Neither of them answered, but I could tell they weren’t all that optimistic.
&
nbsp; I led the way off, checking my chrono on my implant. We were getting really short on time. Given the presence of the House Mantis team doing who knew what down here and the traitor, I really didn’t want to miss the lift and have to wait down here until who knew when.
“Wait,” Osmund said from behind me.
“What?” I turned.
He pointed down a narrow offshoot. “Caught movement.”
I went up to the edge, “Vivar?” I asked. “Nikki Kenyon told us you came down this way, we offered to help find you and bring you back to her group.”
Vivar turned on the light on his weapon and I felt my stomach muscles tense up as I realized his rifle was pointed right at my head. It had been a day for that. “How do I know you’re not just saying that?”
“She told us your uncle has a freighter and you came this way to see if he’d take you. I told her that spaceport security scans implants and may have flagged you as a deserter, which is why we offered to look for you.” I said it all in as calm a voice as I could manage.
He lowered the rifle, “I knew about that last part, but I hadn’t told the others.” He came forward. In the reflected light from our flashlights, I could make out weariness on his face. “My uncle’s freighter isn’t in port. I avoided the security at the port, there’s a couple smuggling routes. I assume you lot want to come with?”
“Not on your life,” Osmund scoffed.
“We offered to help find you in the hopes that we could help each other,” I told him. “The rest of your group is in rough shape. But we figured they might be able to help us in other ways, especially if you aren’t able to go right away.”
“Yeah, maybe,” he shook his head, “I got some food from a stash my uncle had, just some emergency rations, but…” He shook his head, “There’s some House Mantis pirates moving around down here…”
“Yeah, we barely avoided them,” I told him. “Let’s get you back to your friends. We can talk later, because right now, we’re running low on time if we don’t want to be missed.”
Vivar gave me a narrow look, “You could just go right up to the surface and tell them where we are.”
“I could, but that wouldn’t get me anything,” I told him levelly. “Imperial Intelligence would wonder what I was trying to gain from it and they’d probably wonder why we went so far off our patrol routes to find you. Then they’d interrogate us on why we didn’t shoot you all. At this point, I think the three of us are fairly committed to keeping our mouths shut, right?”
I said that for Osmund’s sake as much as for Vivar. I didn’t miss how both of them nodded.
***
As we hurried up to the lift entrance, I shot Jonna a look. “What do you think?”
She raised her eyebrows at me. “I think you’re an idiot, Vars. But you’re surprisingly lucky, sometimes.”
Osmund didn’t say anything. He seemed caught up in his own thoughts. I hoped those weren’t going to lead him to informing on us. Because that wouldn’t work out well for me.
The other patrols were waiting by the lift doors. None of them looked as rough, sodden and tired as us, but they all looked grimy and we didn’t stand out too much.
The doors opened and we all shuffled in. Again, each of the groups stood in little islands in the big space. The ride to the surface was quiet. As we came out, Daewa Tong awaited us. He cycled each of our patrol groups through, questioning us on what we’d seen and if any of the tunnel sections we’d entered had differed from our patrol maps.
Jonna answered for us, noting the collapsed section but not mentioning anything else we’d seen. I felt sweat bead my forehead as I worried that follow-on patrols might notice differences to what we’d seen, but there was no helping that. We’d gone wildly off our assigned route and in hurrying back, we hadn’t even come in from the right direction. I had to hope no one would notice.
Daewa Tong didn’t seem satisfied by her response and he asked Osmund and then me if we’d noticed anything out of the ordinary on our patrol. I answered to the negative. Osmund hesitated for a moment, then noted, “We had to squeeze through a couple narrow spots, that’s how Entrant Vars’ uniform was torn, sir.” That was true, I supposed.
“Very well,” Tong told us. “Return to your flight.”
We hurried off. I was grateful that Osmund hadn’t taken the opportunity to rat us out. Maybe there was hope for him, after all.
***
With the patrol, we got back with just enough time to shower, change clothes, and collapse into our bunks for a couple hours of sleep.
I felt like the entire place had shifted under me and I was worried I wouldn’t be able to sleep. Even so, Princess Kiyu shook my shoulder to wake me up and I didn’t even remember falling asleep.
I’d missed the night’s quick heal injection and I felt every ache and scrape as I climbed out of my bunk. The instructors weren’t giving us any time, though, so I hurried to join the others, falling in on our armor.
We went straight to Tangun’s Steps. Maybe it was the encounter with the deserters from Gyu Flight, but it seemed like there were fewer entrants on the course and many of them were exhausted. There were a couple that I had to get physical with, either because they tried to pick fights with me or because they just got in my way, but I used my brawling style and they weren’t a real challenge.
That meant I had more time to focus on the obstacles themselves and linking my brain, my implants, and the armor. Oddly enough, I found it was almost meditative. As I settled into a rhythm and stopped over-thinking, I started making the jumps without issue. I was picking it up more quickly than I had expected.
Finishing up our four hours, we shed our armor and moved get our day’s rations. I noticed that some of the flights were more aggressive, almost desperate, while others were warding their strength. I wondered which group was Garnet Flight and if they even bothered to enter the brawl.
Princess Kiyu and Jonna had taken over the maneuver for our group and I found myself in the front rank as we pushed through the mob to get our rations. Without armor, I wasn’t nearly as effective at fighting and there were more than a few hits that left me reeling out of the formation, but each time I stumbled back to my feet to push and punch back.
We came away from it with five boxes of rations. The instructors gave us a few minutes to eat before we went into our afternoon classes. When they gave me two ration packs for the day, I split the one and set the other to the side, thinking of the deserters. One split between the six of them probably wasn’t much, but it might be enough to keep them going.
“One thing that all of you at this point should understand is the importance of teamwork, of trust,” Richardson said to us as we formed up in front of him. “We teach you to trust your flight. We teach you to work together towards goals.”
In the process, you teach us to trust no one else, thought to myself. I didn’t trust the instructors and even if I hadn’t been here under false pretenses, I would have been terrified of Imperial Intelligence. For that matter, there’s the traitor I heard talking with the House Mantis Hunter. It seemed to me that the way the system was, there’d be plenty of incentive for people to look out for themselves, first and foremost.
“Today we’re going to talk about trust between your subordinates and superiors,” he went on. “Even now, the men and women you will lead as officers in the Drakkus Imperial Space Korps are undergoing training of their own. Their training is difficult and grueling… but it is not aimed to test them as hard as we test you.”
I was more than a bit surprised at that and from the slight gasps from a few of my fellow entrants, I wasn’t the only one. It seemed to me that officers would face less hardship than their enlisted, since their focus would be more technical and cerebral.
“We test you harder, train you harder, because you will need to earn their respect. Discipline is central to our military tradition. Absolute, iron hard discipline. The hulls of our ships are but tissue compared to the steel of our personnel�
� but you must still be capable of earning their respect. You must be capable of bearing the hardships with your enlisted, of standing next to them in the midst of an artillery barrage or while your ship takes antimatter hits. You must be able to bear that strength without flinching,” Richardson put extra weight in that. “Because when you order your people into the maelstrom of war, they must know that you bear that risk with them.”
I wondered at that, though. Did Crown Prince Abrasax work his way up? Had is son, Prince Ladon faced the daily brawl for food, or had someone quietly eased his path? I darted a look out of the corner of my eyes at Princess Kiyu, who stood patiently. She still had a bruise across the side of her face and I’d seen her limping a bit after our run at Tangun’s Steps. No one had eased her path, not that I’d seen, anyway.
Even bad people can be brave, Shadow cautioned me. But I didn’t think it was as simple as that. Kiyu knew who I was and she hadn’t said anything. The entrants here at the Drakkus Imperial Military Institute weren’t evil. They were just people. Their system was teaching them that they were doing good, that they were protecting their world.
It’s also teaching them that it’s necessary to conquer other worlds, Shadow reminded me.
“We will need every bit of strength in the years and decades to come,” Richardson went on. “The Empire has many enemies, within and without, and the Drakkus Imperial Space Korps is our sword and shield, our defense and offense, that the Emperor utilizes to bring our enemies to their knees.”
Richardson looked around at us for a long moment. His gaze seemed to linger on me and there was something to his expression that suggested I was like a splinter stuck under the skin or an itch he just couldn’t scratch. “Think about that as your instructors train you on principles of ground and space combat tactics. Dismissed.”
