Omega Academy

by Lily Archer

  “Silence.” Master Rav motions me forward.

  I put my fists up, thumbs out and fingers clutched tightly. Pausing, I try to figure out where I might be able to hit her. Maybe I can—

  Whap. The stick thwacks the back of my ankles, pulling them out from under me, and I fall to the floor with a hard thunk. My pride and my bottom are wounded simultaneously. Ilwen snickers louder, and Gavros snorts out a laugh.

  “Hesitation earns you death on a battlefield.” Master Rav reaches for me. I take her hand, and she pulls me to my feet with feline ease. “Learn to assess and wait for your moment, but never hesitate.”

  “You’re fast.” I rub my sore ass.

  “You will be, too.” She points to the sparring area. “Pair with Kilden.”

  “Who?”

  “Me.” A greenish male waves me over to him.

  A low sound ripples across the wide room, and several sparring partners stop and look around.

  “What is—” And then I realize it’s Ceredes. He’s growling. And he’s not the only one. Jeren and Kyte are tense, their teeth gritted.

  A flash blurs in my periphery, and when I hit the floor again, this time on all fours, I let out a loud groan. What the hell?

  “Ilwen!” Master Rav barks.

  “Apologies, Master, I lost my footing.” Ilwen stands above me, a satisfied look on her face. She attacked me so quickly I didn’t even know she was there. She simpers, “It was an accident.”

  “Get back to your partner.” Master Rav doesn’t look convinced, but she turns to schooling the remaining Betas and Alphas.

  “Your foot in my spine was an accident?” I sit back and rub my knees. Now they ache right along with my ass.

  She shrugs, then flounces back to Tilda and throws a hard punch.

  Tilda dodges. “Jealous of the new Omega?”

  “Of her?” Ilwen throws another punch as I pull myself to my feet. “I don’t get jealous of lower life forms.”

  “Sure you don’t.” Tilda rolls her eyes, disappears, and somehow reappears across the gym.

  My mind would be blown, but it’s already scattered into a million shards.

  The growling has stopped, but when I approach Kilden, he’s pale and staring past me at Kyte.

  “We’re supposed to fight, I guess?” I hold up my fists again.

  He’s a light green shade, but I don’t know if that’s natural or because of whatever look Kyte is giving him.

  Jeren strides up next to Kyte, the dark a perfect complement to the golden. “She needs to learn.”

  “I’m fine.” I wave them away and throw out a half-hearted kick at Kilden. It connects, though I wish it didn’t. “Youch!” I grab my foot.

  “I’m a Yuro. We have thick hides.” He swallows hard and looks at Kyte.

  “Kyte, lay off. Jeren’s right. She needs to learn.” Ceredes points at Kilden. “Don’t hold back. Got it?”

  “Hey!” I round on them. “He can hold back all he wants.”

  “No, he can’t.” Ceredes bites each word out. “The fleet doesn’t suffer cadets who can’t defend themselves. You have to train. You’re already far behind all the other Omegas. If you don’t catch up, you’ll be cut from the academy. Now, get out there and fight him with all you’ve got.”

  “I don’t need to get my ass kicked any more than I already have!”

  Ceredes’s face turns incredulous. “You can’t be serious.” He points to Master Rav. “That was nothing.”

  I mean, yes. He’s right. I’ve had far worse. But this is all too much. Aliens, fighting, the fleet, mean girls—I can’t do this. “I’m not supposed to be here.” I know it sounds dumb and that I keep saying it, but I mean it.

  Kilden looks back and forth between Ceredes and me.

  Ceredes comes closer, Kyte and Jeren at his back. “I know it’s hard.” His voice is low, but somehow warm. “This is all new. I get it. But if you don’t swim now, you’ll sink. Push past everything that’s holding you back, past your questions, past your fears. You need to be here now, or things will get much, much worse for you.”

  “How?” My eyes water despite my efforts to swallow the tears.

  “Being cast out of the fleet is no life for you.” Jeren shakes his head. “You’ll be a pariah.”

  A Beta flies past us thanks to a hard kick from Master Rav. Then she barks, “Alpha,” and her next victim steps up.

  I tuck my hair behind my ears. “If I fail, won’t they just send me home?”

  “No.” Kyte’s gaze darkens. “You’ll be sent to work on one of their source planets, procuring whatever goods the fleet needs. And you’ll be assigned an Alpha not of your own choosing. If you run? They’ll find you. Once the fleet claims you, there’s no going back.”

  My breathing quickens, and I clench my eyes shut.

  “Stay with me.” Ceredes squeezes my forearm.

  “Stay with us,” Kyte corrects.

  Jeren has somehow crept around to stand behind me, his voice soft in my ear. “You can do this, Lana.”

  “Once classes are over for the day, we’ll find you and talk through it, okay?” Ceredes’s blue eyes are so serious, and I realize he’s worried. Worried for me.

  “Alphas, get back to your sparring partners,” Master Rav calls.

  I take a deep breath and try to center myself. Maybe I should pretend this is one of my games and these three men are my squad. We’re in enemy territory and need to work together to make it out alive. This is a mission I’ve played hundreds of times with my online team. If I think of it as a game, maybe I can unfreeze long enough to get through the day. “I can do this.”

  “I know you can.” Ceredes gives me one more squeeze and lets go. “For now, you need to do your best. Show the teachers and the students you belong here. Don’t be afraid to fight back.”

  I nod as they walk away and resume their battles.

  Kilden is still green, so that must be his natural coloring. He looks sort of toad-like, his skin thick and ridged along his forehead, nose, and disappearing down into his gray shirt.

  “I’m Lana.” I try to smile at him.

  “I know.” He wipes the sweat from his brow. “Everyone knows the Omegas from the moment they get here.”

  “That’s not creepy or anything.”

  He blinks slowly. “Um.”

  I shake my head. “Okay, no jokes, then. Straight to business. Surprise attack!” Launching myself at him seems like a good idea.

  Until I do it.

  And bounce off.

  Then hit the floor again.

  Hard.

  The guys stare for a second, then continue sparring as if it’s completely ordinary for me to get my ass kicked. And maybe it is. Because I get up to do it all over again.

  Kilden gives me an apologetic wince. “Sorry.”

  “No, it’s cool. I just need to keep trying, apparently.” Ignoring my aches and pains, I shake out my hands and plant my feet. This won’t be easy, but at least here I can fight back. Here, I don’t have to just take the beating.

  I steel myself and motion for Kilden to approach. “Come at me, bro.”

  10

  Kyte

  “She didn’t land a single blow to that stodgy Beta.” Jeren shakes his head. “How can that even happen? Kilden is a slow oaf.”

  “She’s not trained.” I pull a plate of green, leafy veg onto my dinner tray. “Remember how it was odd to recruit an Omega from earth? Lana is even more of an anomaly than I first thought. She’s had zero preparation to join the Gretar Fleet. Not the first class or instruction. No wonder she was utterly terrified on the shuttle.”

  “I spent my first twenty-seven years studying and preparing.” Ceredes snags a hunk of some sort of meat. “I don’t know of anyone who didn’t get at least some prep before being called to the academies.”

  “I was trained, too. It’s unusual, especially since they gave her place in a higher class instead of starting with the newer cadets.” I’ve been trying to figure
it out, even coming close to opening a comm with my mother about it, but then again, she’s pretty close-lipped about fleet business, not to mention busy with the Council of Regents. And would she even know about the new Omega cadet at the academy? Seems unlikely.

  “Maybe she got a pass because Omegas are so scarce.” Jeren glances at her. She sits with Tilda at the end of the Omega table, but I can tell she’s watching us from the corner of her eye. She’s not the only one. Ever since we returned from our trip, the three of us have been gravitating toward each other. It’s weird. I mean, I will do dirt with Jeren off and on, and sometimes I’ll spar with Ceredes—but all three of us together isn’t a thing that has ever happened. A Larenoan shadow, a Calarian noble, and a Bellatian Alpha commander being friends instead of rivals? Unheard of. I understand why everyone is staring.

  “Omegas are scarce, but the fleet doesn’t go outside its borders to obtain them. So I don’t think that’s it.” I make a few more selections from the usual buffet. “She’s something different. I still want to know what the high commander told her when she got off the transport.”

  “Me too.” Jeren follows as I lead the way to the Alpha table behind Lana.

  “We’ll catch her after dinner.” Ceredes settles beside me. “We have questions, and I suspect she has a lot more.”

  “Yeah, I have questions.” She turns, her big brown eyes almost calm for once. She pops a piece of bread into her mouth and chews. “God, was I hangry. And if Tilda hadn’t shown me the restroom, I may have wet myself. This place is like a dose of coke at Coachella. It gets you all crazy, won’t let you eat, and there’s nowhere to pee.” She shrugs. “At least that’s what I assume Coachella is like.”

  “All I caught from that is you’re hungry and needed to relieve yourself.” Ceredes raises a brow.

  “That’s enough then, yeah.” She pops another piece of buttered bread into her mouth. “And the food is weird, but filling. Like, this isn’t bread, but it sort of is?” She holds up the loaf grown from terranseed, the prevailing grain on this planet. “Anyway, at least it’s edible.”

  Another Omega slides into the seat across from Lana.

  “Hi Uaxin,” Lana says brightly.

  The Omega doesn’t respond but picks up her fork and begins eating with a structured sort of diligence.

  Tilda whispers to Lana, “She never sits with us. You must have impressed her.”

  “By getting stomped by the teacher and then Kilden?” Lana stabs a chunk of reconstituted protein and stares at it on the end of her fork. “Sure, okay.”

  “You’ll get used to the food,” Tilda offers. “I was pretty shocked that they had no raw daran meat or strips of freshly-slaughtered byrin, but I’ve managed to find some things that can sustain me.” She points to her plate piled high with every meat available.

  “Have you ever had a fresh glazed donut with sprinkles?”

  “Is it a sort of meat?” Tilda asks.

  “Of course not.” Lana sounds almost aggrieved. “No donuts on this planet. That’s just more proof I need to go home.”

  No. The thought roars through me. I can’t let her go. Given the stern looks on Jeren’s and Ceredes’s faces, they are of the same opinion. Not that it’s up to us. The fleet has her now. Just like it has us. We will go where the Council of Regents command.

  “Miss your parents?” Tilda gobbles an entire steak of some sort in far too few bites. “I know I missed mine when I got here last year, but we still see each other through the comms, and I know they’re proud of me. But I guess it’s still new for you.”

  Lana seems to freeze when Tilda mentions parents. Uaxin appears to notice it, too, because she stops chewing and looks up. There’s something going on there. I open the smallest conduit between Lana and me, tiptoeing down the connection until I can get a sense of her feelings. Fear, pain, and love that died at the end of a fist. Anger rises in me like a wave of mist, so I back away from her thoughts before my emotion poisons them. She’s been hurt, her own mother the culprit. I try to keep my demeanor even, but it doesn’t stop the need I feel to comfort her, to tell her she’ll never be hurt like that again. Why does she want to go back to that?

  “It’s very new,” Lana says carefully. “I still can’t fully wrap my head around it.”

  “You’ll feel better once you’ve slept.” Tilda downs another huge chunk of meat. “I always feel better once I sleep on things, you know?”

  “Maybe.” She doesn’t sound so sure as she picks at her food.

  I reach out to touch her shoulder, then stop. But she seems to know I’m there, because she leans into me. Something about our connection lights me up from the inside, the gold in my veins surging and pulsing. But I can still feel echoes of her pain, of the memories and still-fresh bruises. “We should talk about—”

  “Let her eat. She’s hungry and tired.” Tilda shoos us back to our table. “Mind your Alpha business over there.” Flicking my hand away, she gives me a hard look. “Omega table here. Alpha table there. Bye.”

  Ceredes grumbles, but we all turn back to our own plates. We eat in silence for a while, though I can tell we’re all straining to hear the conversation going on between Tilda and Lana. A few other Omegas have joined them, and the dining hall is filling rapidly. Before long, I can’t hear anything except the low din of hundreds of conversations.

  I give up on eavesdropping and turn to Ceredes and Jeren. “Are we going to talk about what happened earlier?”

  “What do you mean?” Jeren spears a piece of fish with his knife and pops it into his mouth.

  “The connection.” I fork some bits of salad. “I felt something when I touched both of you.”

  “You gonna touch me, too, golden boy?” Gavros slams his tray down across from us and sits, the chair groaning beneath him.

  I glance down the table where plenty of Alphas whisper or outright stare at the three of us sitting together. “Look at all those empty seats. Why don’t you take one of those, big guy?”

  “Because I want to keep an eye on that pretty new Omega.” He chugs his protein solution, some of it dribbling down his chin.

  “Staring at things that don’t belong to you—that’s a good way to lose an eye.” Jeren stabs his blade into the table top.

  “She’s got your knots in a right twist.” Gavros scoops his food like his spoon is a shovel. “You sure you didn’t get a taste of her on that shuttle?” He raises his voice, getting the attention of the nearby students. They quiet down, and it spreads until the entire cafeteria is focused on us.

  “Shut your mouth.” Ceredes is just shy of violence. I’m right there with him.

  “Hey, pretty Omega,” Gavros calls.

  “Shut up, Gavros.” Tilda turns in her chair, her eyes narrowing.

  “I said ‘pretty Omega’, Granterry trash. Not you.” He points at Lana. “You.”

  Tilda hisses at him.

  “You again? What do you want now?” Lana’s voice is fierce, but I feel her quivering on the inside. I can tell she’s used to standing up to bullies—her life hasn’t been easy.

  “I want to know what’s so special about you.”

  “Why, are you jealous?”

  “Just hungry.” He shows his teeth.

  “Leave her alone.” Ceredes stands, blocking Gavros’s view of Lana.

  Gavros leans back in his chair, a satisfied smirk on his stupid face. “Seems like maybe you three are trying to turn her into a profligate. Unless she already is one, in which ca—”

  I’m over the table before I can even think it through. Ceredes has an arm around Gavros’s thick neck as I kick him onto his back, his chair slamming against the tile floor. Jeren kneels next to him as Ceredes holds him still and I keep one foot on his chest.

  “Didn’t we already tell you to stop running your fat mouth about her?” Jeren twirls his blade in his hand, the silver glinting in a perfect rhythm as he moves it closer and closer to Gavros’s face.

  “Get off me!” He struggles and
tries to buck us, but I stomp harder and Ceredes squeezes his throat.

  “You don’t seem to learn, Gavros.” Ceredes flexes, his bicep cutting off Gavros’s air. “I told you to back off, to leave her alone, but here you are talking shit again.”

  “I could take that eye.” Jeren leans closer.

  I toy with implanting a nightmare into his mush of a brain. One that would be like a time bomb, exploding when he’s sound asleep tonight.

  “Don’t look at her, don’t speak to her, don’t even think about her,” Ceredes hisses.

  Gavros’s eyes are bulging, his tongue lolling at the side of his mouth.

  “Ceredes!” Master Harlan’s voice cuts through us like an energy blade, and he stalks between the tables with fierce, determined steps.

  “Pillars,” Jeren swears under his breath at the trouble headed our way.

  “Release that cadet!” Master Harlan’s pointed tone doesn’t leave any breathing room.

  Ceredes gives one more squeeze, then lets up. I hop back over the table, and Jeren sits on it, no blades in sight.

  “You three decided you weren’t in enough trouble already from that transport shuttle stunt?” His glower is as severe as the rest of his battle-scarred body.

  “They were just trying to protect me.” Lana walks around to Master Harlan, squaring up with the Plontian Alpha who’s easily twice her size.

  Jeren gives me a look that says, “you seen the knot on this Omega?” I have to agree with the sentiment. No one goes toe to toe with Master Harlan, not even the other Alpha instructors.

  But Lana doesn’t shrink away. Her shoulders are back, her chin high. “This Gavros person—”

  “Alpha,” I offer.

  “Right, this Alpha was being a total dick and he called me a profilter—”

  “Profligate,” Jeren growls.

  “Right, that. And that’s why the guys jumped him. The ugly one started it.”

  Master Harlan, his sharp eyes missing nothing, stares down at her. “And you are?”

  “Lana.”

  “You’re the new Omega?”

  She shrugs. “Yes.”

  “Then keep to the Omegas.” Without taking his eyes off her, he shouts, “Where is the Omega commander?”