Outside, he turned the recruit over to the med bot, while he looked at the disheveled mob milling about in the light rain. He waved to the crew chief and the jumper took to the sky, disappearing quickly into the low clouds. Once he had his orientation, he walked to the center of the group, oblivious to the fact that his blouse was still partially unbuttoned and an orange ‘cat face peered from within.
“Gather round,” he said, trying to project his voice without yelling. He wanted to scream at them, but losing his voice early in the process was not an option. He pointed at the largest recruit who had a vocalization device. “You, get everyone in a half-circle around me. You have ten seconds.”
The Wolfoid flailed for the first three as his vocalization device shrieked unintelligibly. Then he started running, nipping his fellows and stomping at the ‘cats as he tried to herd them toward Cain.
“STOP!” Cain yelled once he’d had enough. A couple of the new recruits kept moving. He stormed up to them, punching one in the chest. “When I say stop, you freeze where you are!” The other learned the lesson and turned into a statue.
One of the Wolfoids shook, splattering Cain. “What the hell was that, Recruit? None of you have any self-discipline! You will learn to control yourselves. On your faces!” None of them moved. The human expression was lost on the Wolfoids. He had to train them in what it meant to be punished, disciplined.
“You!” He picked the largest Wolfoid again. “Down on all fours.” The Wolfoid threw himself down, a good start. “Now crouch, until your chest is one hair off the ground. Further. Good. Now hold that. The rest of you. just like that now, NOW!” He watched as they flailed to drop into a crouch. Someone slapped their spear across his feet, which earned the recruit a kick in the face.
He watched them. The ‘cats had all drifted away, found someplace dry, Cain expected. All except Lutheann, who sat majestically in the rain, wet, but acting as if she weren’t, simply sitting and watching.
‘Thank you. We couldn’t make this work without you. I won’t torture the ‘cats, well, not all the time anyway. But they will need to get comfortable with being wet and miserable,’ Cain suggested.
‘Miserable, yes, but we’ll talk about the wet part,’ she said, already setting limits to the ‘cats’ participation. Cain started to get angry, but thought better of it. No ‘cat had ever failed his family, all the way to Braden. He’d seen Carnesto and Lutheann in action and they had never trained with him. They were naturals and could be counted on during the darkest of times.
‘You are, of course, right, my lovely snowball,’ he purred at her. She harrumphed and walked away, showing him plenty of ‘cat butt. She knew which billeting was going to be theirs before he did and that’s where she was going. He hoped that she’d take the rest of the ‘cats with her. He’d have a bonfire conversation with the new recruits once inside, get to know them. But first, they had work that needed doing.
Like uniform, equipment, and supplies. He opened his neural implant and tasked Holly with burning up the fabricators to give him everything he wanted as well as getting the maintenance bots to reconfigure the billeting, removing all the bunks and leaving single beds. He would have, at most, twenty-four recruits and twenty ‘cats. He didn’t want to force all the humans into the top bunk, so he made it easy. Everyone would get exactly the same thing. Holly told him that everything would be ready in twenty minutes.
He walked around the crouched Wolfoids, hands clasped behind his back. Some of them were starting to shake as they struggled to hold the position. One even risked Cain’s ire by resting his chest in the grass. Cain leaned down close to the hairy ear. “GET. OFF. MY. GRASS!” The Wolfoid almost came out of his skin, but settled back into the Cain-approved crouch.
“Up,” he said in a conversational tone. Most popped up where they were standing on all fours. Two stood up all the way. “When I say “up,” that means to all fours. When I say “stand up,” that means to two feet. Down,” he said. The Wolfoids returned to their crouch. Some of their faces contorted as their muscles struggled to keep up with what their mind was telling them to do. Cain checked the time.
Nineteen more minutes to kill. He rotated them between standing up and crouching for almost the entire time, satisfied when all were shaking and the first two collapsed, their legs unable to continue holding the pose. He felt obliged to yell at them, questioning their lineage all the way back to the Traveler’s Deck 10. He found it oddly invigorating to scream at the recruits. When Holly informed him that billeting was ready, he sent the Wolfoids that way, giving them half the time to get there that he knew it would take.
They surprised him by actually getting there within the allotted time. He jogged after them as there was no way he could outrun a Wolfoid on all fours. Know your limitations, he told himself.
When he arrived, it was another free for all. “STOP!” he yelled. He picked one of the recruits with a vocalization device. “You, what the hell did you think you were supposed to do when you got here?”
“We were, I don’t know, pick a bed?” she ventured.
“What?!” Cain feigned coming unhinged, picking up a footlocker and throwing it into the wall where it splintered and crashed back to the floor. The recruits flinched, then froze. Not an ear twitched. Not a single tongue darted from someone’s mouth for a quick nose lick. He had their undivided attention.
“Put your spears on your beds and gather round,” he told them. He was spent. The day had been far too long, and he was tired of yelling. It had gotten dark outside while he was waiting for the modifications to billeting.
The Wolfoids scrambled, running into each other, a couple nips as two fought for the same rack, but they eventually grouped around Cain.
“I didn’t care what you did when you got to billeting, as long as you all did the same thing. We’re individuals, but we’re one team, too. If you don’t know what to do, don’t fumble around. Wait for someone to tell you, or ask. We can’t have you all doing your own thing. Here’s what we’re going to do. You and you.” Cain pointed to the two largest Wolfoids. “First Squad and Second Squad. Stand here, next five stand in a line next to him. Last five in the row behind. This is how you will form up for everything.”
The Wolfoid who stood at the front of First Squad chuckled lightly.
“What?” Cain growled at him. The Wolfoid shook his head in response. “You’re fired. End of the line. Hurry up!”
The Wolfoids shifted. The large one, now at the wrong end of the squad, hung his head, ears drooping. “I expect all of you will get your chance to be the squad leader, and then you’ll probably get fired, too. Learn and move on. This is serious business. The reason we’re reestablishing the Marines, building a corps of Cygnus Marines, is because it’s dangerous out there. We went to a planet where they were happy to see us arrive, only because they wanted to steal our ship. They looked at creatures like you as freaks. All we wanted to do was talk to them. All they wanted was us out of the way. We fought them, but lost a number of good people. So we are arming ourselves and we are going to be ready for battle. Any time you think we’re too hard on you, think about what an enemy would do if they caught you.
“Here’s what the rest of tonight looks like. You’re going to get your gear.” Cain pointed to stacks of cloaks shaped for Wolfoid bodies that were woven of ballistic protective material and harnesses. “From this point forward, you will always wear your equipment. You will need to be able to operate as if it’s not there. You’ll come to think of it as a second skin. You will get a vocalization device if you don’t have one. Not everyone here speaks Wolfoid. We should be getting our human recruits within a week. After they arrive, training will begin in earnest. And finally, for tonight, grab that cleaning gear and make sure this room is clean, top to bottom. That means you’ll need to remove the dividers between the racks and stack them over there. You’ll move all the racks to one end while you clean, then switch, Then put the racks in line, twelve racks on each side of the bay. You will
take every other rack. Do you understand me?” They barked, yipped, and some even said “Aye, aye, sir” over their vocalization devices. He twirled his finger and turned them loose.
His room was in a different building, in an executive area. He was, after all, Major Cain, senior leader of the budding Cygnus Marines.
A New Dawn
Completely exhausted, Cain should have fallen asleep right away, but he couldn’t. His mind raced with everything unfinished from a long day. Lizard Men watched him from the forest. Aletha waved goodbye as she sat up in bed, tears running freely. A ‘cat slashed his face. Blaster fire and laser fire splattered the rocks and trees around him. Aletha crying as the bots patch him up in the med lab. He turned on the light to get a drink and saw his pillow covered in blood.
Brutus’s slash had torn open with his tossing and turning. He washed it out and drank deeply, then dressed and returned to billeting. The Wolfoids were moving at half-speed, but at least all the mud they trailed in earlier had been cleaned up. The floor sparkled, but was scratched where they slid the bunks. Cain put his hands on his hips as he looked at him. The Wolfoids froze while a dozen Hillcats lounged on nearly every surface that was above ground level. Cain felt the blood rise into his head.
“Every one of you worthless scumbags will grab one mattress and get in formation. Ten. Nine. Eight…” They didn’t understand until he hit eight that their time to accomplish the task was evaporating. Wolfoid hands are smaller than human hands, so when one Wolfoid tried to grab a mattress, they couldn’t carry it properly. He stopped counting as he didn’t want to suffer the embarrassment of hitting a negative thirty-seven before they were in formation.
Four Wolfoids banded together to carry four mattresses at one time, a task that was far easier than trying to carry one by themselves.
“STOP!” he shouted. The Wolfoids obediently froze, many breathing hard from their exertions. “You four, front and center. Leave the mattresses.” They dropped the stack and lined up in front of Cain. Only one of them had a vocalization device.
“Did everyone see what these four did?” A rhetorical question, he didn’t expect them to answer, but some of them attempted an “aye, aye, sir.” “Teamwork to accomplish a difficult task. They cut the time and arrived intact, ready to fight. Always our goal–get there first with the most and be ready to use it. What’s your name, Recruit?”
“Silent Tracker,” the vocalization device intoned emotionlessly.
“Who are they?” Cain asked, seeing that the other three wore new, Space School-issued devices. If they hadn’t worked with them yet, then it wouldn’t properly translate their speech. Cain wasn’t going to try and cross that bridge yet.
“Hidden Slayer, Lightning Flash, and Razor Fang,” Tracker replied, pointing as he went.
“What? Those are your real names?” The Wolfoids nodded vigorously. “Tracker, Slayer, Flash, and Fang? Well, I’ll be. Those are intimidating names, if I don’t say so myself. Get back in line. GET. BACK. IN. LINE!” he emphasized when they didn’t move quickly enough.
“You haven’t earned the right to sleep on a bunk. You will spread out the mattresses. Twelve on each side of the bay. You will put a footlocker at the end of each. You will sleep on every other mattress. You have three minutes to set up the bay. I turn off the lights in three minutes and five seconds. Now MOVE!”
Cain wasn’t surprised when they finished in two and a half minutes. They were already starting to gel as a team. They settled onto their mattresses and waited. Cain shut off the lights as the ‘cats found places for themselves. He had no idea what it would take for the recruits to win the use of their bunks. He expected there was nothing they could do. Shared misery to build a tighter team. He walked away from billeting proud of what they’d accomplished during part of the first day.
‘What do you think, Luthie? Are we doing okay?’ he asked the ‘cat. It wasn’t raining so Brutus was running alongside, staying close to his human.
‘Yes. You are doing okay. I’m picking out which ‘cats will work with which Wolfoids. I already know which six will be first. I expect all twelve will make the cut. We can dispense with all the trials and tribulations to move forward more quickly, or we can just do it your way.’
‘Thanks, Luthie. I expect you already know my answer,’ he said.
‘Your way,’ she droned.
“Exactly,” he said out loud as he started to whistle. When he reached his quarters, Brutus headed toward the woods. Cain didn’t care. He expected the ‘cat was going to hunt, then sleep until morning. When Cain returned to bed, he found his mind at peace. Sleep embraced him, and he drifted into the darkness.
Morning came too quickly. He awoke, sluggishly. Brutus had found his way into the room and stood on his human’s chest. Since he was smaller than other Hillcats, it wasn’t that bad.
“How’d you get in here?” The ‘cat looked at him, then slowly raised a paw and started biting at his claws. “I’m getting up now. I suggest you move.”
One second later, Cain threw the blanket over the ‘cat, capturing him as he rolled from the bed and swung his blanket bag filled with screeching ‘cat around in a circle. He let it drop gently to the bed, then unfolded it, laughing. Brutus launched himself at Cain’s face, but the human dodged, sweeping a hand to redirect the ‘cat’s line of flight.
Brutus landed on the floor with a thud, immediately bolting toward the wall, jumping, and springing from it back toward Cain. He ducked, but too late. Brutus’s claws scratched across his back as he flew past, jumping off and landing on Cain’s pillow. Brutus stood there, looking at his human, then squatted and peed.
“Brutus, what the hell?” Cain said as he contorted his back, feeling the sting from the claw marks.
‘Just establishing boundaries and a protocol where you are alert. You must always be alert,’ the ‘cat replied, stepping clear of the befouled pillow to sit and resume his claw biting.
Cain threw his pillow on the floor and stalked to the shower. He cleaned, shaved, and dressed quickly. His recruits would be hungry and had no idea where to go or what to do. ‘Luthie, here’s my plan for today. Chow, obstacle course, clean up, classroom for general education on the SES, then more chow, more obstacle course, then we start drilling combat formations. If the ‘cats can join us for some of the obstacle course, that would be great, but I think we really need them for combat formations,’ he told her over the mindlink as he jogged toward the billeting.
‘You think that, do you? It’s almost like you’ve never fought with a ‘cat by your side before. Here’s what we’re going to do. Nothing. We’ll watch you and your immature charges flail and then we may laugh, but that’s about all. I think the sun will be out all day. We’re still drying out from yesterday’s debacle,’ she stabbed at him with her words.
Cain knew better than to argue with her or try ordering her to do anything, so he compromised. ‘Sounds great, Luthie. Enjoy the sun.’
The sky was clear and dawn breaking when he entered billeting to find every single one of his new recruits on their racks, sleeping soundly. Many snored, some were upside down, most sprawled in one way or another. He realized that he’d never seen a pack sleep before. He’d get used to it.
He also knew that he’d never scared a pack awake before either. Their lightning spears were next to their beds, too close for comfort. Cain stood inside the doorway to the head, the restroom facilities, and cupped his hands around his mouth. “GET UP!” he yelled, gratified with the echo inside the billeting bay.
The ensuing chaos was nothing that Cain wanted to witness a second time. Two of the Wolfoids bolted, straight outside. He expected they’d return when their heads cleared. Others ran into each other. Only one lightning staff discharged, but it was uncomfortably close to where he stood. Three Wolfoids were unable to extricate themselves from their covers and wailed pitifully, trapped within.
“STOP!” Cain howled, trying his best not to laugh. Brutus strolled in through the doorway, with two
Wolfoids sheepishly following. Two last flails from those wrapped in their own blankets and all movement ceased.
He pointed to two of the recruits. “Help those knuckleheads out of their beds.” More flailing and wailing before the embarrassed three stood.
“Does he ever sleep?” one of the vocalization devices broadcast. Cain couldn’t see who said it, but his mystique was being established. He was earning a reputation.
“Why aren’t you in formation?” he said casually. The Wolfoids jumped into action and formed up, the largest of the Wolfoids at the back of the line, where he’d been put yesterday. He tried to look confident as if auditioning to get the position back. Cain liked the attitude.
“I’m here to take you to chow,” he started. That was when the yipping and barking began. They started slapping themselves on the back and Cain didn’t see how it began, but all of a sudden, they bolted out the door. Every single one of them. Cain looked at Brutus and threw his hands up in disbelief.
The ‘cat shrugged. ‘Wolfoids. What else did you expect?’
“Hey,” Cain cautioned. “GET. BACK. IN. HERE!” he yelled, again, trying not to laugh. He didn’t know what started the stampede, but it was impressive. He felt unusually hungry and as he thought about it, he’d forgotten to feed them dinner. He wondered if he’d get in trouble for that? No. Training. It was all under the auspices of training in shared misery.
Cygnus Expanding: Humanity Fights for Freedom (Cygnus Space Opera Book 2) Page 9
