Majesty

by Brooke Vinson

  “I thought I told you I wasn’t to be disturbed. Do you know who that was? That was the commander general! What do you think he would have said if he knew that my troops can’t even obey—”

  “Commander,” I caught his gaze and silenced him, “he would have been delighted to find we had made it safely here. We are an inspection team sent by the capital to observe your facilities first hand. I am Colonel Amsterdam and this is my personally trained team.”

  “I apologize, Colonel, I didn’t recognize you.” The commander saluted me and I nodded my head to set him at ease. “May I inquire as to what has brought about this inspection?”

  “New regulations. The capital has been having some trouble protecting its cargo trains coming out of Skypia. We need stronger, smarter better soldiers to protect our goods from the rebel forces. Inspection teams are being sent out to all the training camps. Your camp is of special interest due to your prime location at the Skybarrier. It would be quite detrimental to have a weak base guarding the last barrier between their world and ours. Don’t you agree, Captain?”

  “Yes sir!” He barked and headed to the door. “I assume you would like a tour of our facilities? We have a new batch of recruits heading in right now. You can tag along with them if it pleases you.”

  “That would be delightful sir but,” I could feel my companions tensing behind me, “that is not how our team works. We are an infiltration team. We will join your recruits as members of their ranks for the next couple of days. We shall be awarded no special treatment, no candy-coated lies. We only seek the truth.”

  “Oh, ah… right sir. I’ll take you to our testing center immediately and have you registered as temps. If you would follow me.” He took off at a brisk walk and as we left the office, Raven grabbed me with a fearful flutter.

  “What are you thinking!?” She whispered hurriedly in my ear. “I am not made for hard labor. I am a lady and a dainty one at that!”

  “If I remember correctly, you hit me with a two by four. You lost the title of dainty when you knocked me unconscious.” I smiled in true amusement, realizing this was the equivalent of hell for her and would account for payback. “It is only for a couple of days either way. You’ll survive. They don’t start killing off the weaklings until day four.”

  “You’re joking right?” Raven looked around with a panicked expression. “He’s joking right?”

  “Nope.” Amica patted him and sped up to walk beside me. “Think about it like this. There are plenty of hot men here and one out of ten of them swings your way.”

  “Medical Sergeant Reeves, we have some late recruits to fill out medical reports on.” The doctor the Captain had yelled at was sleeping with his mouth open on some papers. As he lifted his head, the papers stuck to his face.

  “Huh? What?”

  “Damn doctors, always a mess to handle.” The commander grunted under his breath. I knew after the Quake Plague the requirements for becoming a doctor had sky-rocketed and those who passed the test where irreplaceable. In essence, doctors obeyed no rule except their own.

  “I thought we were done?” He slurred slightly as he stood up with a yawn. “Whatever... send them through. I’ll test them and immunize them and the mess.”

  The commander left with a quick salute, leaving us alone with the doctor. “Very trusting isn’t he?”

  “A bit of a fool, then again, the doctor drooled.” Zuhara shrugged.

  “Here we are! Prick your finger with this and hand it to me.” I took the odd colored flat needle and drew blood with it.

  “What does it do?”

  “Test for an enzyme only found in Skypian blood. Don’t worry, it won’t turn violet—” I grabbed the doctors gaze as all but one of our strips changed to a bright pink violet. “Skypians.”

  “No,” I pushed, “humans. You just immunized and tested all of us. We are fit for duty like every other soldier you’ve passed through here.”

  “Just another bunch of bumbling idiots…” He muttered and went over to a holoscreen and tapped a few times. He pointed to some army color clothes in the corner and a bin. “Put your clothes in that bin and dress in the size that fits you best. We’ll put any of your valuables in a private bunker bag that will be returned to you upon completion of your basic training. Once you are finished head over through that door there. You’ll be put into your barracks shortly. Before that you will report to your commanding officer.”

  As we walked through the door, we were greeted by yelling and very rough hands shoving us and dozens of other troops onto an obstacle course. I was quickly separated from my companions except for Amica who somehow managed to grab my coat. A screaming sergeant chased us through the first leg and to a roped climb that we both easily scaled. That was the only thing easy.

  I cursed as we were forced to high step through a line of small holes before slamming to the ground and army crawling under barbed wire through a muddy mess. After that we had to sprint to a sort of elaborate, grown-man monkey bars that left even my supernatural strength arms stinging. Amica stopped fearfully at the lake we had to cross, but with an encouraging flash of my hypnotic eyes, we launched inside. We were panting after the final two mile dash and found that only three other recruits, Zuhara and Nihilo had managed to complete the grueling course.

  “Congratulations.” A heavily scarred and elderly man laughed at us. “Welcome to Hell. By completing our course you have earned the privilege of being able to eat tonight.”

  I caught the packet of dry meat and water with surprise. “You have ten minutes to scarf that down and report to the training field. Dismissed.”

  We all relaxed and looked at the food for a second before tearing at the hard packaging. It took all the water in the small bottle they gave me to enable me to swallow the completely dry mess that was supposed to be my meal for the night. We had to run to the field that had been marked by a large, flying green and blue flag with the symbol of the Earthen Alliance on it. We stood beside all the other recruits and I swore as I realized I had forgotten one thing. The other recruits’ heads were shaven, but since I had stopped the doctor, we still had our drastically different locks. I would have to catch the sergeant’s eye and make him forget before day broke.

  “Attention!” The scarred sergeant roared and we all scrambled to what we hoped was the position he was looking for. “You filthy maggots! What the hell do you call this slouching mess of a salute? Shoulders back, head raised, feet together… much better. My name is Sergeant Fulbright and I’m charged with turning you pansies into battle ready soldiers. Tonight we’re going to go easy on you. Most of your came from halfway across the Earth by holotrain. That’s why you’ll only be marching in formation until the night grows too dark to distinguish the trees from your fellow maggots. Now forward, march!”

  I managed to get Amica in the same barracks as me, but the others were on their own. I moaned as I fell on my stiff bed and Amica echoed my sentiment. “No wonder they hate Skypians… if I had to go through this in order to fight them, I’d hate you too.”

  “Would you?” I looked at him with a small smile as he blushed deep red.

  “Probably not but I’m an exception.”

  “Good job on the obstacle course.” I smiled wider at him. “Very impressive.”

  “You had to help me. I can’t swim.” He protested, but the cheerful whine gave away his true feelings. I shook my head at him and rolled over on my horrendously stiff bed.

  “We had best try to get some sleep. I hear they wake up fairly early in the morning.

  Amica

  The blare of a trumpet, a really loud, obnoxious trumpet woke me and turned my instantaneous headache into a migraine. I moaned as I half-fell out of bed and Amica had to hurry and catch me before I rammed into the wall. “Able, you have to open your eyes. I don’t think the walls will move out of your way.”

  “Attention! Rise and shine girlies!” The screaming sergeant burst into our room with a snarl. “What the hell is this mess? No
trousers? I don’t think those hairy legs of yours will do too well with briars grabbing at them.”

  I flinched as the spitting sergeant came to a standstill in front of me. “What is this mess supposed to be? You call this making a bed? Who are you soldier?”

  “Able—”

  “I didn’t ask for your name. You don’t have a name! You are nothing. You are a soldier in the Earth Guard and nothing more. Do you understand me?” I felt my migraine increasing to the point where I was growing dizzy.

  “Yes sir, sorry sir.” I managed to slur out, but it didn’t seem to please him.

  “What did you say? I don’t have any weak girls in my barracks! Drop and give me twenty! That goes for everyone!” I dropped and managed ten before my world went black.

  I woke with Amica beside me in the same room where I had started this hell-bent decision. I kept my eyes slitted as I glanced around, but could only see Amica. “Whose decision was this to pretend to be recruits? I’m going to kill them.”

  “If you care to remember, you decided this.” Amica nodded at one of the curtains. “The doctor is behind there running some extra tests. After you passed out, they noticed something weird in our results and pulled us out. They think you might be using steroids since you did so well on the course and then passed out after only a few pushups.”

  I moaned again and Amica smirked at me, but helped me sit up. “Stop me if I ever have another stupid idea like this.”

  “I thought you had a perfect IQ?” He teased, but I thumped him.

  “I may be brilliant; it doesn’t mean I’m perfect. Don’t tell the others.” Amica laughed under his breath and pointed somewhere behind my head.

  “They already know about you passing out. They have been detained and I’m pretty sure Raven is under military arrest at this point.” I raised an eyebrow and Amica elaborated. “She apparently tried to jump one of her sergeants and blatantly refused to do basic training because she would get dirty.”

  “I can just imagine what Nihilo and Zuhara O Kande did.” I thought about the loyal Buddhist and wildfire enchantress. “This is so embarrassing…”

  “Well, I don’t know about you, but I’ve found out a lot about the Earth Guard.” Amica was taunting me and we both knew it. I had accomplished the goal that had been the original plan. I just hadn’t expected it to be so tremulous or strenuous. I had miscalculated and if the Earth Guard commanders weren’t so dumb… we would really have been in some trouble.

  “We still need to take a look at their weapon training facilities.” I stood and stretched, sensing that sunset was still a few hours away. “But that might have to wait until—”

  “Quiet you two.” The snoozing doctor came in carrying another set of testing strips. He was shooting glancing looks at us like he didn’t want us to notice his extra attention. When he finally grew tired of trying to be sneaky, he finally came over and started holding a measuring tape to different areas of my body.

  He walked off again after a minute and came back with a holoscreen in his hand. “Somehow I seemed to have lost you reports. So can you fill in some of this information for me? You can do most of it later but seeing as your test results—”

  “What about them?” I inquired and even without my hypnotic powers, the doctor felt a strong urge to answer, so he did.

  “They tested positive for argon in the blood. Humans naturally have a small amount, but Skypians have a much more substantial reservoir of the element. The test we use to differentiate Skypians from humans is a simple chemical reaction that turns argon in the blood violet.” I nodded to show I understood and took the strips he showed us. I stared at the partially colored and slightly tinted sticks. “These, however, are only partially positive. I ran them twice just to make sure, but they came out the same both times. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  “So what kind of information are you looking for?” I squinted my eyes, thinking rapidly about what could cause the partial positives or partial negative in my case. “What could cause this do you think? Maybe Skypia tainted food or maybe excessive riding on a holotrain? Maybe being born and living in Skypia?”

  I purposefully left out my main hypothesis to see if the supposed doctor could figure it out too. “That wouldn’t cause this type of positive. This could only be caused by possibly two things, a Skypian ancestor or somehow receiving Skypian blood via transfusion. This is a medical breakthrough, especially if we can prove that you both are human.”

  I looked at Amica with a worried glance as the doctor typed things on his holoscreen, exiting through a door to our left. “If there is even a chance of us being Skypian, we’re not going to get a chance to look at their armory.”

  “Zuhara O Kande, Nihilo, Raven, Siniste, Dexter!” I called and I followed Amica to where he had seen them being held. We drew back the curtains, but only found a burned pair of handcuffs and a quickly scrawled lipstick message and kiss for some Sergeant Hot Ass. “Where did they go?”

  The siren rang over the compound about the time I asked the question and I knew instantly where they had gone. I looked at Amica who stared back with a horrified expression. “If they ditched, how are we supposed to escape?”

  “No one will be leaving this facility, especially not any Skypians.” I turned right in time to get clipped by a stun bolt that knocked me to the ground.

  “No!” Amica yelled and launched at my assailant and disarmed him with an expert flip of his writs. He grabbed the stun gun and searched the unconscious sergeant for his ID card. When he finally found it attached to his dog tags, we ran for the exit to the inner building. We hit a slight dilemma as we found the lock needed a pass code as well as the card key.

  “Here.” I pushed past Amica, stared at the pad for a moment and finally punched in the correct password. I never understand why people think birthdays are secure passwords. The door unlocked, but we waited until the hallway sounded clear to open the door. We rushed down the hall and headed to the stairs. When we heard the crashing sounds of boots, Amica dragged me to the elevator that was surprisingly empty. We were tense as the elevator passed unhindered to the bottom floor.

  “Which way is the dock?” Amica asked, looking down the three identical hallways.

  “We came in through the left one.” It took us only a moment to reach the dock, but I swore as we found an empty space where our train had been.

  “They left us…” Amica whispered, but I thought about Zuhara O Kande. She wouldn’t leave me, at least I was pretty sure she wouldn’t, but if they hadn’t been able to stay…

  “We need a holoscreen.” I turned back around and Amica followed me as I tried door after door, searching for a holoscreen of any size. As I finally slammed closed the last door on the level, I looked at the stairs with a wince.

  “We have to try the upper levels. If I can get a holoscreen, I can manually force the train back here. I’m sure the others barely managed to get the train moving so they had to head back down the tracks. Crossing the Skybarrier takes a lot of preparation; plus we have to have approval from these guys anyway.” Amica nodded at me then startled me by shoving me in a room and locking it.

  “Sorry, Able. As you are right now, you’re only a burden. I’ll be back with a holoscreen or not at all.” Amica’s voice was shaking and my heart squeezed in panic.

  “Amica!” I protested, banging on the door.

  “I love you, Able. I will be back.” I called for him again, but he was already gone.

  I was panicking. How could I not be? Amica was risking his life trying to get a holoscreen when I was stuck as a useless, weak human. Amica could die; he could be captured and tortured. Since I had linked our auras he would never test totally human again and they would try any of his crimes as a Skypian. This whole plan had been my idea. He was in danger because of me, because of me! I was useless… what use was a near perfect IQ when I couldn’t even keep those closest to me safe.

  I jumped as the door clicked open and prepared to launched myself a
t the intruder only to find a panting Amica waiting for me. He handed me a holoscreen without a word. I broke down for a second and launched at him, hugging him to me with what little strength I had. When I finally pulled back, I felt another wave wash over me and I forced my lips on his. He was so shocked and pleased, he couldn’t even respond.

  Then I regained my composure, grabbed the holoscreen and started the process to bring our train back. It took three tries to find my train, but when I did, it was only a matter of entering in my own passcodes and giving it directions to head back here. I had misjudged my crew. They had only moved far away enough to ensure the Earth Guard couldn’t ensnare our train. I looked at the estimated time of arrival with a deep smile. Ten minutes till pickup, five minutes till sunset, any second till discovery. This would be an adventure at the least.

  “Amica,” I looked at him where he was still blushing fervently, “ready to run?”

  “After you,” he nodded and I burst out the door running towards the stairs. Five minutes. We had to dash into a small supply closet as we heard boots slamming down from the floor above us. We stayed cramped in the small space for a good minute before managing to squeeze out and enter the second floor. The second floor was base level and where we needed to head to hit open ground. If we stayed anywhere long, the sensors would show us as the only unmoving people in the entire facility. Three minutes. I was wheezing as we reached the doors leading onto the training ground and past that the forest.

  “Able, can you—”

  “Just keep moving!” I wheezed, brushing past him weakly and running for everything I had. A few soldiers passed us, but with the uniforms we were wearing they didn’t recognize us. Two minutes. As we passed the last door, I let out an uneasy breath and slowed my gait slightly to try and catch my breath. Almost time, we had a good chance of making it without getting caught.

  “Freeze and put your hands in the air slowly or we will fire!” I froze and turned as I slowly raised my hands with Amica following suit. “Drop your weapon and the holoscreen and kick it over to us. Any sudden movement and we fire.”