by Jerry Aubin
The Boss closed the exterior hatch and restored atmosphere to the cell. He considered leaving the body for someone else to deal with but then chose to finish what he started. He entered the cell and withstood the urge to gag at the smell of voided bowels. He removed the Captain’s arms from around the toilet and positioned her body against the exterior hatch. The blue tint to her skin from the lack of oxygen made the scar on her throat even more pronounced than usual. The Boss reached over and attempted to close the woman’s eyes, but they were frozen open. She deserved better, but that made her just like the rest of the Crew who deserved far better than the civilian rule they were now stuck with.
Once the cell was sealed tight behind him, the Boss increased the pressure within it to twice the normal setting. There would be zero doubt about the Captain’s corpse being blown well clear of the Ship this time. He keyed his authorization code once more, and when he pressed the button everything worked as expected. The Boss stood and presented a mock salute to the camera which was still broadcasting to Imair.
5
Half.
Zax’s first day in the Pilot academy began with emotional extremes. Breakfast started on a high note when he scored the last of his favorite pastries. Even though there continued to be plenty of food in the mess hall since the civilian uprising, there had been spotty availability of certain items including the sweet he enjoyed the most.
His short-lived positive energy suffered a killing blow when Zax received a message via his Plug as he sat down. Kalare was supposed to be there for their typical morning meet up, but was skipping breakfast because “Aleron asked for some help with something.” Kalare had spoken the name of his long-time nemesis far, far too often over the past few days. He attempted to rationalize it away as a short-term blip given their shared experience at the hands of the civilians, but his only friend talking repeatedly about the boy Zax despised was pushing him to his breaking point.
Zax struggled to decipher his uncomfortable mixture of feelings about Kalare’s message until he got distracted. The morning newsvid had started, and an image of the Captain pushed Kalare out of his mind.
“I’m sad to report the Captain was discovered dead in her cell yesterday. She left behind a suicide note that expressed deep remorse for her personal treatment of the civilians and took full responsibility for forcing them into taking their recent drastic actions. She concluded her farewell message by requesting that everyone in the Crew learn from her mistakes and focus on working side-by-side with the civilians for the good of the Ship and the ultimate survival of all humanity.”
The announcer paused as if he was dealing with some form of internal debate. He looked quickly at someone off-camera and then took a deep breath before addressing the audience again.
“She was a fine captain and will be missed by all of us who understood her contributions to our Mission.”
The Captain’s days were numbered based on the conversation Zax had witnessed between her and the Boss during the civilian uprising, but he was shocked to learn she was dead by her own hand. It was even more surprising to learn that she apologized to the civilians. The fact the civilians were treated poorly was clear to Zax, but it didn’t ring true the Captain would see things the same way—much less feel remorse about the situation. Zax wanted to talk through the situation with Kalare when he saw her, though her reaction the last time he tried to share his doubts about something from the newsvid had not ended well. It was most likely moot. Given how much time she was spending with that oxygen thief, he’d probably never see Kalare again anyway.
Zax’s stomach churned once more at the thought of Kalare and Aleron together, so he gave up on breakfast to make his way to the Pilot Academy instead. He cleared away his tray with all of its uneaten food and headed to the mess hall exit. Rege was entering, but the civilian was talking with someone else and Zax avoided being seen by him. Flight Ops wasn’t operational yet, so Zax had not been forced to spend any additional time with the deranged civilian. That good luck was about to expire, though, since duty shifts there were rumored to begin the day after next.
The Tube wasn’t reconfigured to allow civilians to ride yet, so it had been shut down until that work was complete. In the interest of fairness to all. Forcing the Crew to walk for no good reason was a colossal waste of everyone’s time, but Zax put his fifteen mins journey to good use. He pushed the visions of Kalare and Aleron laughing together out of his mind and replaced them with excited thoughts about what training would be like in the Academy.
Zax arrived ten mins early and was underwhelmed. So much of the Ship that was dedicated to Flight involved environments that were impressive—Flight Ops with its massive, dual panoramas, the sheer volume of the hangar—that Zax had imagined the Academy to be a shining pilot factory. The first room he encountered was nothing but a dingy meeting space like so many others on the Ship. It held ten rows of ten seats arranged amphitheater style around a lectern. Zax picked a spot up front and observed as the room filled in.
The vast majority of the arriving cadets had been in Theta Cadre for the past year along with Zax, so he recognized their faces and the names on their uniforms even though he had rarely, if ever, interacted with them. Zax had worried he’d stand out as the oldest cadet since most enter the Academy during year one of Theta, but there were more than a few cadets sprinkled throughout the compartment who were most likely even older. On the other end of the age spectrum, one cadet was clearly young enough to still be in Zeta or Epsilon. He stood a quarter meter shorter than Zax and his head was shaved practically to the scalp with just the slightest hint of light blond fuzz. The boy sat down next to him, and Zax snuck a peak at the name on his uniform. If Mase was indeed as young as he appeared, then he must be pretty talented to be entering the Academy so early. Or he had a particularly influential mentor. Either way, he was someone worth keeping an eye on.
The background chatter hushed as a woman entered the compartment and walked down to the lectern. She was extremely tall—more than two meters—and carried her height with posture and grace that accentuated her near perfect physical conditioning. Thick and glossy chestnut hair framed an oval face with the palest green eyes Zax had ever seen. The woman’s uniform featured a patch with a pair of wings superimposed on a starfield, and this identified her as a pilot. She surveyed the cadets before her for a few secs with a neutral expression.
“Good morning. My name is Major Eryn, and I have led the Pilot Academy for the last twenty years.”
The major was either far older than her appearance suggested, or she had been promoted at an absurdly young age. Zax assumed it was the latter. She continued.
“All of you here today represent the best the Ship has to offer. You rank at or near the top of your cadres’ Leaderboards and have sponsors and mentors who have staked their reputations on your nomination to enter. The majority of you come from Theta Cadre, but we also have a handful of aspiring pilots getting a late start out of Kappa Cadre. I particularly admire our oldest cadets who are starting their second year in Kappa. If they remain enrolled until their training is complete in two years, they will have chosen to spend an extra year as a cadet. Now that’s dedication.”
The major paused for a moment before looking toward Zax. He squirmed at the prospect she might call attention to his being at the very top of the Theta Leaderboard. Or perhaps mention his role in keeping the Boss safe during the Revolution.
“Most impressively, for the first time in over a decade, we have an exceptionally young cadet in our midst. One who was selected for the Academy during his first year in Zeta Cadre. He has set a new record on the Zeta Leaderboard with a score nearly double that of his nearest rival.”
Everyone around the room craned their necks to follow the major’s eyes as they focused on the boy next to Zax. Mase kept his eyes locked on the woman, and his expression didn’t change despite all of the attention directed his way. Pretty impressive composure for a fourteen-year-old cadet. As much as Zax had worri
ed about receiving any special attention from the major, he was stung by a sharp pang of jealousy when she instead praised the boy.
“We have one last housekeeping item before we get started. I want you all to count off alternating between one and two. Let’s start with the cadet here in the first seat.”
The major pointed at Zax who replied with a loud “one.” Mase followed with a “two” and the remaining cadets repeated the pattern around the room until all one hundred had spoken.
“I’m pleased we managed to do that without any issues or confusion. Every few years a class manages to screw up that simple exercise, and more often than not it’s a signal they’ll continue to frustrate me over the entirety of their two-year term.
“I want all of my ones to look to your right and all of my twos to look to your left. The person next to you will be your training partner for the next month. This first pairing will only last a month because we will drop the two lowest ranked cadets from the program at the end of that time and then rearrange the pairings. This process of dropping cadets and rearranging the pairings will continue for the next two years, at which point I will graduate exactly half of you who are here today. Half.” The major paused to let the word sink in. “Between the two of you who are looking at each other right now, odds are that only one will become a pilot. I suggest you give your partner a good once over and ask yourself how you’ll beat him or her out for that spot.”
Given a nearly unhealthy obsession with worst-case scenarios, Zax had never been one to suffer from overconfidence. Nonetheless, he often looked around and convinced himself he was the smartest cadet involved with any given activity. Mase, who sat and stared back at him with an expression devoid of any emotion, was likely destined to hold that top spot in their Academy class. At the age of fourteen no less!
Zax allowed himself a smile. He would not waste any mental energy figuring out how to win against the boy genius but instead focus on identifying the fifty other cadets he would beat out. He had worked too hard for too long and suffered too much for anyone to get in the way of his wings.
6
We are heading back the way we came.
His first two days in the Pilot Academy left Zax as bored as the worst parts of his previous cadet training. The sessions were nothing but his fellow cadets asking stupid questions and then getting berated by instructors. Even though the introductory material was clearly a challenge for some of his classmates, Zax had spent so much time studying orbital mechanics while he built his fighter sim that he fought to remain awake. The sole bright spot was identifying a handful of cadets who were undoubtedly among the first to get booted from the Academy. He was safe from Major Eryn’s cadet dismissals for at least the first few months.
Zax filled his tray with the usual breakfast assortment, including two of his favorite pastries, and spotted Kalare. She wasn’t at their usual table because a group of civilians was sitting there instead. At least Rege wasn’t with them.
“Good morning, Zax. How’re you doing? How were the first few days in the Pilot Academy? I saw your class from across the hangar yesterday when you were getting your tour. I wanted to run over and say hello, but I was with Major Eryn and she doesn’t appreciate it when I do things like that.”
Zax grinned at the vision of Kalare interacting with the major. The Omega running the academy had come across as fairly icy and unlikely to appreciate Kalare’s particular brand of exuberance.
“It’s been OK. All of this intro material is stuff I already know, but it’s letting me get a jump on what’s coming next. About halfway through the first-year syllabus, I’ve run into topics that I haven’t been exposed to before, so I’m doing some background reading to get ready for those.”
“There’s a syllabus? Cool! How come I’ve never seen that? They must not have had one for my class. It would’ve been interesting to know what was coming up, though I don’t think I would’ve done anything differently with that information.”
Zax wanted to laugh at Kalare’s notion his was the first year where they created a syllabus. In fact, the changelog on the document showed it had not been updated in almost twenty years. As always on the Ship, once they found something that worked they tended to stick with it. How someone who never managed to plan beyond her next meal managed to stay so close to him on the Leaderboard would forever be one of life’s great mysteries. Zax changed the subject.
“You should see this Mase kid I’m partnered with. He’s only fourteen! He barely ever opens his mouth, but it’s clear he knows even more than I do about all the stuff we’re looking at. In fact, he corrected the woman leading a session yesterday afternoon. He jumped in and pointed out one of her orbital calculations was off by a thousandth of a percent. You know I’m not one for random chitchat, but this kid’s silence makes me look practically like…well…like you.”
“Everyone in my class is talking about him as well! They’re all trying to figure out good ways to trip him up and take him down a few notches when we get a chance to lead some of the training for you guys. Doesn’t strike me as being worth the energy. It’s not like we’re competing for the same slots or anything, so I don’t get why anyone in my class feels it necessary to go after some kid in yours. It’s such a funny coincidence that your first partner in the Academy doesn’t talk much. My first partner didn’t either! Come to think of it, I’ve had a whole string of partners who were pretty quiet.”
Zax refused to touch that comment. Too, too easy.
“What can you tell me about Major Eryn? We haven’t seen too much of her yet.”
“You’re going to like her, Zax. She’s super, super smart. She’s pretty tough as well. When we did some hand-to-hand combat training a few months ago, she stepped in to lead the class when the instructor got hurt. She’s not Mikedo-level badass, but she’s close.”
A pang of sorrow arose at Kalare’s mention of Mikedo, but all the craziness of the last week had pushed those old emotions pretty deep and Zax moved past it quickly. Kalare continued.
“She’s pretty focused on the big picture, so it’s great to not have all of the little, annoying demerits that many instructors enjoy doling out. Don’t cross her, though. She hit one of the cadets in my class with 30,000 demerits a few months ago. I never heard the full story about what happened, but clearly she will do more than just boot you out of the Pilot Academy if you give her reason.”
Zax had no intention of doing anything to anger the major, but he made note of the story to learn more about what happened. A message arrived via his Plug that made Zax groan.
“Are you seeing this too?”
“Yeah,” replied Kalare. “Too bad Flight Ops isn’t ready yet. I’m not that shocked based on the images of the damage we saw, but I was excited about getting back in there today. I wonder what we’re going to talk about during this meeting the Boss has called instead.”
“I don’t know.” Zax stood and grabbed his empty tray. “We should get going, though. I don’t want to risk being late for my first interaction with the man in a week.”
Their trip between the mess hall and Flight Ops was uneventful, though Zax swore there were far more civilians roaming the halls than he had seen previously. Were all of these people actually around for official business, or were they just taking advantage of newfound freedom to explore areas of the Ship they hadn’t seen previously? Either way, it gave the passageways a vibrancy that Zax didn’t believe had existed when he last roamed this part of the Ship a year ago.
They passed the entrance to Flight Ops while a group of maintenance staff happened to be leaving. Kalare snuck a quick glance inside and then smiled at Zax.
“It’s pretty close to being ready. Everything is so new and shiny!”
Zax wanted to be excited about a refurbished Flight Ops. He had a hard time putting aside the knowledge that a week ago the compartment had been shredded by explosives and covered with the shattered remains of Crew and civilians. He was still trying to reconcile his feelings when t
hey reached the conference room.
The Flight Boss sat on a table near the entrance, and Zax involuntarily paused for a moment. They were supposed to have met right after Zax got out of medbay, but the Boss cancelled at the last moment. This was his first encounter with the Omega since the man restored Zax’s career with his award of 50,000 credits following the Revolution. The officer turned toward Zax and what might have been a genuine smile formed around the man’s cigar.
“It’s good to see you, Zax. It was unfortunate I had to cancel on you the other day, but my new boss can be a bit of a…” The Boss paused and glanced at three civilians who sat nearby. “Well, let’s just say that I’m still getting used to the situation. How’s the Pilot Academy?”
Zax had mentally prepared for this first meeting, but his legs still wobbled in the man’s presence. There was an uncomfortably long pause as Zax calmed his body and gathered his wits.
“It’s fine, sir. A little boring right now given I’ve already studied a lot of the initial material, but I’m confident it’s going to be a wonderful experience.”
“I heard you got partnered up with that fourteen-year-old from Zeta. I still can’t believe Major Eryn lobbied so hard for him to get in at his age. The only reason the rest of us approved it was because she’s been mentoring the boy for a while and acknowledged her career was on the line. I suggest you keep that relationship in mind during your dealings with him, Zax. You understand what I’m getting at?”
“Yes, sir.”
