by H N Bezdek
“But you said they wouldn’t remember up to an hour before you shot them,” said Christina, narrowing her eyes.
“That’s what Tundra told me when he let me borrow it,” said Minotaur. “But he also said it was an early prototype, and the amnesia might not work yet.”
“You had us use that blaster without knowing its effects!?” cried Blazer.
Minotaur smiled awkwardly back.
“A little bit of luck goes a long way,” chimed in Wisp with a smile. “You did the best you could with the information that you had.”
“Plus, everyone performed well at their assigned tasks,” said Ghost. “Oscar was excellent at providing necessary updates, Viper and Blazer were able to sneak into a General’s office undetected, Minotaur refueled the ship and took care of any hostiles, and Null worked well on her feet.”
“What were the odds the General thought he recognized your voice?” laughed Blazer. “Him being so interested in you nearly ruined the mission!”
Christina faked a laugh as best as she could. “Super weird, right?”
“All this talk is good and all,” said Viper, cutting off any further discussion. Christina was thankful for the girl’s bluntness for once. “But what about our exam? Does this mean we pass it?”
“Your unit has successfully passed this mission, and the espionage exam,” smiled Wisp. “You will be able to move on to your next class.”
“No exam!” cheered Minotaur and Viper as they jumped up and down.
“I told you we didn’t need to worry about studying!” Oscar gloated.
Christina rolled her eyes.
“Don’t get used to this kind of treatment,” warned Ghost. “We won’t happen upon a task that will allow you to skip an exam every time you’re struggling in a class. You two should really consider studying more if you think you’re going to fail.”
“Uh huh,” Viper said, winking at him in an over the top fashion. “I’m sure these missions won’t keep popping up when we need them.”
“I’m… I’m serious,” said Ghost, looking as concerned as Christina felt.
“So am I,” replied Viper.
She waited a beat, then winked again.
Chapter 10
Christina woke up in the middle of the night, her heart racing from a nightmare she just had. She was back on the Operations ship and had gotten caught with Blazer and Viper. General Trent sentenced her friends to death, and she was being sent back to her father’s Juggernaut. She had tried to save her friends, but there was nothing to be done.
She flipped her pillow over and tried to go back to sleep. After a few minutes, her adrenaline was still flowing and she realized sleep wasn’t going to happen so easily. She glanced around her room and saw Oscar wasn’t in there. Christina peeked her head over the divider into Viper’s room, expecting the robot to be with her. Viper was snoring and spread out over her covers, and there was no sign of Oscar.
He must’ve been trying to contact the Emperor!
Christina covered herself in a blanket and hurried down the hall toward the front of the barracks. All she heard was snoring and an occasional cough until she reached the end of the sleeping area and could just make out Oscar whispering. She thought about hiding out and listening in to the conversation, but figured it would be best to jump in and help guide it. She’d have no idea what was already said, but maybe she’d be able to end the call faster that way.
She popped around the corner and saw Oscar projecting the familiar image of the Emperor’s throne. It was empty.
“Never picks up anymore…” Oscar mumbled.
“What are you doing?” asked Christina.
The robot jumped in surprise and immediately killed the feed. He spun around, then seemed to relax when he realized it was just Christina.
“Don’t sneak up on a robot like that!” hissed Oscar.
“If you’re trying to contact someone, you should really make sure your back is covered!” insisted Christina with a shake of her head. “If someone found you talking to my dad, we’d both be in a ton of trouble!”
“Okay, okay,” sighed Oscar. “I admit I screwed up on that front. Still, it’s not like it would’ve mattered. The Emperor didn’t pick up.”
“Maybe he’s busy,” shrugged Christina. “It’s not like he has a lot of free time.”
“You’d think he’d make time when his daughter called, though,” said Oscar.
Christina laughed at that. As if she ever took priority over his work.
“I’m getting worried about all of this,” continued Oscar. “We’re starting to get in fairly deep, and I’m worried we’re being a little too successful on our missions.”
“What would you rather we do?” asked Christina. “Should we start tanking everything we’re told to do? That’ll get us kicked out, or the others might start to suspect something.”
“But we could fail a mission or two,” argued the robot. “There’s no way all of the other units will have a flawless record by the time they’re done.”
“And we might not either. It’s impossible to know how hard things will get. I’d rather not choke on these easier ones, because then we might not be given the really important missions. If we don’t get the important ones, how will we be able to report back what’s happening?”
“I can’t even report back on this one,” sighed Oscar.
“Do we really need to report on this one?” asked Christina.
She didn’t want to push too hard, but she also didn’t want the Emperor knowing what happened. There was no telling what was on General Trent’s cards until after the Rebels decoded them, but she knew it had to be something good. If the Galactic Empire knew whatever was on them was compromised, they’d change plans.
“Surely it’s important,” said Oscar.
“We don’t know that for sure,” pointed out Christina. “What if it’s just some personal notes made by Trent? Do you think the Emperor would really care about that being taken?”
“Probably not,” acknowledged Oscar.
“He might actually be mad that we took up his time with something like that,” pushed Christina.
“I could see that…” said Oscar slowly. “It does feel like he’s tired of hearing from us unless it’s something substantial…”
“I was thinking the same thing!” said Christina.
“So you think we should just let this go?” asked Oscar. “What if it turns out to be important? He might call us back if he found out we knew something and didn’t tell him.”
Christina made a show of pretending to think, crossing her arms and looking off into the distance. After a moment, she snapped and pointed at him. “What if we promise to never tell him about it? There’s no way for him to know which missions we were on unless we told him.”
Oscar thought about it. “Seems risky.”
“I’m definitely not going to talk,” shrugged Christina. “The only way you get in trouble is if you spill it. I guess we do know how much you like to talk...”
“Hey! I can keep a secret!” said Oscar defensively. “You know what? Deal. We won’t say anything to the Emperor about this.”
“Works for me,” smiled back Christina. “Let’s make sure we discuss with one another what we tell my father before we call him from now on, okay? Just so that we keep our story straight.”
Oscar nodded. “That’s probably for the best.”
“Great,” said Christina, shivering slightly at how close they were to the outside. “How about we get some sleep, then?”
Christina smirked as she and Oscar went back for her bed. It seemed like she was making some good progress on turning Oscar, even if it was ever so slightly. While she would need to keep at it, the robot’s resistance to disobeying the Emperor wasn’t as strong as she expected it to be.
She was so happy that she had convinced the robot not to tell her father about the intelligence stolen from General Trent that she didn’t notice the girl hiding in the shadows of the wall ne
xt to the entrance. The blonde haired girl poked her head out and watched them disappeared into their room.
Valkyrie smiled wickedly as she went for her own bed, satisfied with what she had overheard.
The End.
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