Stolen Valor

by Kal Spriggs

  Got it, you don’t want to get picked last for teams and you really don’t want to not get picked at all. It seemed like a backwards situation to me. If someone wasn’t a people person, they could fall between the cracks. Or worse, if they ended up in a flight where they managed to irk those with connections, they might as well give up on any career.

  It seemed that skill and proficiency were secondary to connections. And even then, someone born into the aristocracy was going to go further than someone born outside it. I glanced at Osmund, whose expression was calm, but I wondered just what my friend thought of that.

  I had a bit of a shock as I realized that I’d thought of him as my friend. I mean, he didn’t even know my real name, after all. But I trusted him. He was smart, capable, and loyal. Sanjaya, too, had my back. He’d dragged Osmund through to the end of Second Screening.

  Maybe they were from Drakkus, but they were still good people.

  “You should discuss teams among yourselves tonight and tomorrow morning. You will be expected to announce your teams tomorrow after your morning classes. Tomorrow afternoon you’ll begin training for Tangun’s Gate.” Richardson looked around at us and I didn’t miss how his gaze lingered on me, almost as if he were wanting to tell me some last thing, but he seemed to think better of it. “Dismissed.”

  He walked out and left us there. Most of the flight dispersed, some of them going to talk to one another. I didn’t miss how several of the entrants clustered around Kiyu, but she didn’t speak to any of them. Instead she walked past me, pulling her towel down out of her wall locker and heading towards the showers.

  “I’ll take you in my team, Vars,” Jonna said, coming up behind me.

  I started a bit. “You will?”

  “Of course, you’re capable, a good fighter,” she told me. “You’d be a good addition to my team.”

  “I’ll have to think about it,” I told her absently.

  “What?” Jonna asked, shock apparent on her face.

  “Well, I’d like to keep my options open, you know?” I gave her a look.

  Her expression clouded and sparks flashed in her blue eyes. “You think that you’d get a better offer? What, you think people will be lining up to have an insubordinate, arrogant—”

  I held up a hand, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend.”

  Her mouth snapped shut. “Of course, you didn’t.” She said it with such insincerity that even Osmund couldn’t have missed how angry she was with me. “Consider my offer. Despite your… poor selection of responses, it still stands.”

  “Thank you,” I told her. “I will consider it.”

  She stalked away.

  “You would have been wise to take her offer,” Kiyu said from behind me.

  I jumped and turned around, “Will people stop doing that…”

  I trailed off as I realized that she was standing there holding her towel and her clothing on each hand. She was still damp from the shower and very naked. Very, very naked. Her skin glistened a bit and I had to jerk my eyes up to her face. “Uh…”

  “I’d like to have you,” she told me.

  I choked a bit. “You… oh, for your team.”

  She gave me a slight smirk, “Of course.” She quickly got dressed, even as I averted my eyes. At least, I really tried to keep my gaze elsewhere. It was really difficult.

  “It would be a good partnership,” she told me. “I owe you, as it is, for my survival in the Second Screening. You are a capable ally and you have shown that you can exhibit loyalty. I could repay that loyalty with a position under me.”

  I assumed she was talking about sponsorship. Yeah, you assume that, Shadow laughed at me.

  “I have to think about it,” I told her.

  Kiyu raised an eyebrow. “I would think the answer would be obvious. You won’t find anyone with better connections who is willing to sponsor you. If you are trying to leverage me against Hayden to get a better offer from one of us, you’re unlikely to do so.”

  “I’m aware,” I told her. “But maybe what both of you should consider is the problems of having me with you will bring.” I told her. “Because I’ve got enemies and they’ve already shown they’re not all that particular about how many people they kill trying to get me.”

  Kiyu’s eyebrows went up, “That, is true enough. But I think you may underestimate things. Surely we would face our enemies better as a unified front?”

  Allying with her would burn bridges with Jonna, though. Just as allying with Jonna would burn bridges with her. Neither of them trusted one another. Part of me wondered if Jonna had offered me a place on her team just because she knew that Kiyu would do the same.

  I didn’t know if there was an answer to this. But then again, impossible problems seemed to be my thing, lately. “I will think about it, Princess,” I told her.

  “Very well,” she gave me a nod and walked away.

  I was exhausted, but my mind was racing. I needed to talk to someone. I found Osmund and Sanjaya standing conspicuously over by their exosuits, both of them doing maintenance that the Kavach’s probably didn’t need. “Trying to look hard-working?” I asked of them.

  Osmund gave me a sour look. “Yeah. You’re disreputable, maybe you could not ruin our chances? Isagani was looking like she might come over here.”

  I looked back at the noblewoman. She was talking with Gowri. Since the pair of them had been pretty close, I figured it was likely that she’d get an offer. And Nadzeha was close with Gowri, so there was a good chance that would be Isagani’s team.

  I looked back at Osmund, “Not to shoot you down, but…”

  Sanjaya snorted, “It was a long-shot. Even among the low-born there’s a rank structure, Osmund. We’re both at the lower end.”

  “At least you’re born here,” Osmund growled. He sighed as Isagani and Gowri shook hands. “Yeah, so much for that.”

  “Why not form your own team?” I asked of them.

  “Hah,” Osmund shook his head. “Sanjaya and I? Which one of us is supposed to be in charge? For that matter, who would we get to be number three?”

  “I’d be in charge, of course,” Sanjaya adopted a false noble accent, “My dining etiquette is obviously superior. Just ask anyone.” He gave an artful sniff.

  “Yeah, right,” Osmund bristled, “Obviously I’m the better pick!”

  “Guys,” I interrupted them, “forget I even said anything, okay?”

  “Yeah,” Osmund sighed. He looked around. “Going to have to partner up. There’s a few of the lesser born nobility who haven’t settled on anyone. Excuse me, but I’m going to try to make friends.”

  Sanjaya and I watched him go. “He so badly wants to prove himself, to move up.”

  “Yeah,” I shook my head, “that’s going to cause him problems.”

  Sanjaya nodded, “Nobility tend to distrust that ambition, especially in their seconds. They want someone who’s happy with their place, happy being number two.”

  Maybe that was what Kiyu wanted in me. An ally who had no interest in the politics and games. Maybe that was what Jonna saw, too. But I didn’t want that patronage. I really didn’t even want to be here. I wanted to go home.

  But that might be months or years away.

  “The Princess made you an offer?” Sanjaya asked softly.

  “Yeah,” I answered. “Hayden, too.”

  “I figured,” he shook his head, “You’re spoiled for choice. Princess is the better option, obviously.”

  “Probably,” I nodded. “I guess I could put in a good word for you…”

  Sanjaya snorted, “They wouldn’t take me. Too low born and I’m not really senior leader potential.” His expression went hard. “You might be low-born, like me, but you’ve got that magnetism, Vars. They’d be lucky to have you.”

  I laughed at that, “The only magnetism I have is to draw danger down on myself.”

  Sanjaya shook his head, “I’m not joking. I wish you could have seen how you were, coming into that mass
of the enemy there at the end. It was like you just pushed them out of the way with your presence. There was no wasted movement, no hesitation in your actions. I would have followed you anywhere. Any of us would have at that moment.”

  I didn’t really know what to say to that. “Well, thankfully we’re done with that.”

  “Yeah,” Sanjaya nodded, “thanks to you.”

  I shrugged uncomfortably and muttered something about everyone working together. I took the next opportunity to walk off, feeling oddly self-conscious. I didn’t think I’d done anything special. I hadn’t even really led them most of the way. Jonna had taken the flight the last two thirds. I’d just recovered our two lost personnel.

  Oh, please, Shadow told me, the rest of them would be toast without you.

  Again, it wasn’t something I really wanted to think about. I’d done what I could and I’d approached things from another perspective. That was all. Jade Flight as a whole had worked together. I decided to redirect my sister’s digital twin before she went off on another rant about Drakkus and their training. Any progress with the encryption?

  Some, she admitted. I think I’ve figured out the first level of encryption… at least enough to realize that there are more. The way the data is compressed is insane, too. I think there’s more information here than any kind of compression we could match, more than I’ve got on your quicksilver, more than the quicksilver implants back on Century.

  I considered that, even as I grabbed my towel and toiletries and headed to the showers. What does that mean?

  She didn’t answer for a long moment. When she did, I could tell she wasn’t comfortable with what she was saying. This isn’t like a few random files or bits of code. All of those bits of quicksilver, together, they could hold more data than the entirety of Century’s planetary network. House Mantis wasn’t trying to steal a little bit of data, they were trying to steal an entire archive, maybe the civilization’s entire knowledge base.

  We had stopped that, at least. Only that ancient alien empire’s information was back inside the Drakkus Imperial Research Institute’s archives. The Empire that had already tried to conquer my homeworld might well have access to the combined knowledge of an ancient alien empire whose technology had surpassed our own. I didn’t think that was a good thing.

  ***

  Chapter 20: If I’ve Got To Make A Choice, I Might As Well Be Consistent

  The deadline for joining a team was fast approaching and I really didn’t know what to do. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to work with Jonna and Kiyu. I liked them both. But I didn’t want to chose one of them over the other and that was exactly what joining one of their teams would do.

  They both knew that and I think that was why me not making a choice right away irritated the pair of them. In their minds, there was a right answer and the fact that I hesitated to make it meant that I couldn’t be trusted to make the right call.

  It went beyond that, however. Institor Dyer had said I had a target on my back. Prince Ladon and his father, Crown Prince Abrasax already had reason to hate me, but I’d embarrassed the pair of them twice now, just by surviving. I figured they both wanted Jonna dead, too, and Kiyu dead or neutralized. But they really wanted to kill me. I had to assume that they’d try to arrange some kind of accident or assassination of me and if they saw me and one of their other targets together on a team, they’d try to take out the pair of us at a time.

  By that measure, if I joined Jonna’s or Kiyu’s teams, I’d increase the risk to that person. I was more of a liability in that regard. Having me around was like having a lightning rod and I didn’t want to be the cause of either of them getting hurt.

  When you think about it that way, there’s only one real answer. As morning classes wrapped up, I went over to where Sanjaya and Osmund were sitting on Osmund’s bunk, the pair of them talking in low voices. “No luck with Dores,” Osmund said. “You?”

  “A couple people being cagy, I think they’re trying to use me as a bargaining chip to get others to commit,” Sanjaya admitted. “Sort of a ‘hey, join up or you’ll be left in the cold,’ tactic.”

  “Hey guys,” I sat down across from them. “So, I’ve got an offer for you.”

  “What?” The pair of them perked up. “Someone got an open slot?”

  “Yeah,” I told them. “Me.”

  They stared at me for a long, awkward moment. “Look, Vars,” Osmund began, “I like you and all, but you’ve got no connections. You’re not from one of the Houses.”

  Sanjaya nodded, “There’s nothing we get from working together. It would be like if Darad started a team. Yeah, he could, but no one cares.”

  “Not even if we do really well at Tangun’s Gate?” I asked. “Didn’t they say that senior Initiates sponsor those who do well?”

  “Well, yeah,” Sanjaya nodded slowly, “But we’d have to do really, really well. Most of the time, that’s higher houses taking on minor houses, sort of building networks of alliances and such.”

  “What if we beat everyone else, you think they’d want to take us on then?”

  Osmund chuckled, “Beat everyone? That’s a pretty bold claim. I mean, we don’t even know what this Tangun’s Gate is going to involve.”

  “Look, we worked pretty well together during Second Screening,” I told them. “And I’ve already got offers from Kiyu and Hayden.” The pair of them nodded at that, not seeming surprised. “If we go it with me in charge, and we do well, there’s a good chance one or the pair of them would offer us sponsorship.”

  “We’d be taking on a lot of enemies with either of them,” Sanjaya muttered.

  “We’re taking on a lot of enemies joining his team,” Osmund snorted, pointing at me. “I’m actually thinking about it, that’s the scary part.”

  “What’s your other options?” I asked. “There’s four teams that aren’t solid. Hadyen, Kiyu, Dores, and Sikandar. The last two, they already know who they want. That’s going to leave three people out in the cold, forced to make a team. If I go with either Hayden or Kiyu, then that leaves one open slot with one of them. Hayden might choose you, Osmund, since you’ve worked together. Alternatively, Kiyu choses you, Sanjaya, and Osmund is left out. Or, they pick other people and the pair of you and one other left-over form a team… and you’re right back here.”

  Both of them considered that. “I don’t like this,” Sanjaya told me. “Don’t get me wrong, you’re capable and you’ve got a spark, but we’re bucking the established system of patronage. We’re showing everyone that we’re ambitious and not willing to work outside the system. That’s likely to draw all kind of attention.”

  I hadn’t really thought of that, but I realized what he meant. Imperial Intelligence would focus on the three of us. If they thought we were too disruptive, they might choose to make us all disappear. Then again, since I was already in their crosshairs, I figured there was a better than even chance that Institor Dyer would just let things play out and see what happened.

  “It’s either wait to see until the end and be shown as the least desirable, and therefore less likely to get picked up later, or declare we’re a team, right now, and show that we’re confident of our abilities,” I told them.

  “That’s a point,” Sanjaya sighed. He looked at Osmund, who gave him a nod. “Fine then, Vars, we’re your team. Eye of the Dragon watch over us.”

  I didn’t know what he meant by that, but I gave him a nod. “You guys won’t regret it.”

  “I already regret it,” Sanjaya told me. “You’d best go tell Richardson before I change my mind.”

  I rose and hurried over to where Richardson waited. I’d seen a couple of other entrants from Jade Flight go over to him already, to tell him their team selections. I saluted him, “Sir, Entrant Vars, I wish to report my team selection.”

  “Your team selection?” Dekkas Richardson looked up from the datapad he’d been working on. He looked around, as if to make certain that none of the other entrants were within earshot. “I’m n
ot sure I heard you correctly, Vars. Did you just say your team?”

  “Yes, sir,” I told him.

  “I was under the impression that you had been made offers by two other entrants, to join their teams. Both of them of powerful Houses, who would be excellent allies.” Dekkas Richardson stared at me, as if daring me to argue.

  I chose my words with care, well aware that anything I said was probably being recorded, “I respect both of those offers. However, there is the issue that I have made certain enemies. It is likely that if I accept their offers, my enemies won’t hesitate to broaden their list of targets.”

  “I see,” Richardson considered that. I could tell he knew what I meant. “Do you intend, then, to try to gain high standing at Tangun’s Gate?”

  “I do,” I told him. Thinking of what he’d said earlier to us, I added, “I think that if our flight works in harmony, then all of our teams can finish well. I don’t intend to work against anyone from Jade Flight.”

  He gave a little snort at that. “Optimism is a symptom of youth, Vars. I assume that your team includes yourself, Sanjaya, and Osmund?”

  “Yes, sir,” I answered, a bit surprised that he knew who I’d selected.

  “Very well, I’ve registered your team,” he gave a very slight smile. “It seems that your two, would-be patrons are both headed over here to have a word with you. Best of luck, Vars, you’ll need it.”

  I turned and saw that Kiyu was stalking towards me, Jonna was coming from the other direction. I moved away from Dekkas Richardson and braced myself as well as I could.

  Kiyu reached me first. Her pale cheeks were flushed with anger. “I made you and honorable offer, and you threw it back in my face,” she snapped. Her green eyes flashed with anger, “Registering your own team is an insult of the highest order. You’ve as much as said that you expect me to fail!”

  Jonna came in at me from the other side, “You back-stabbing, little weasel! I’ve stood by your idiotic actions and you chose to spit on my offer?!”

  Wow, you got them both nice and fired up, Shadow told me. Girls, right?