We flew off the side of the mountain.
Chapter Thirteen
Vega
Where were they? Where were they? They'd just vanished. Like poof. Gone.
The rain limited my vision to a few feet, and the path had gone from gravel to sludge, but the bonus of having a few hundred pounds extra was that every one of my steps bore into the ground. I hated backtracking. We'd lose for sure now.
I inched slowly down the path we'd come, grinding my feet in to keep from slipping. The gravel looked washed out here, more like the Fingle Riverbed during the wet season than a path. The wind and rain cut my skin as I stepped into the open.
They'd gone over.
The Academy wouldn't let them die in training. I had to believe they wouldn't. Images from the bridge of the Lazarus and the training sessions filtered in my mind. Yep, they might let us die.
I lunged for the edge. My heart gave a painful stab with every accelerated beat. Not my friends. Not Amelie and Dax. No.
Bracing myself, I peered over the edge. Water flooded the valley.
Impossible. The rain had just started.
But in this VR environment, rules of nature and logic didn’t seem to apply. I searched for signs of Dax and Am. Nothing but black sky, dark rising water, and pounding rain.
Jumping off a cliff into a pool of unknown water wasn’t the most logical plan, but again, logic didn’t have a place here. Maybe the suit had some kind of water setting? I tapped on my wrist, hoping it had some tech. Nada.
Seconds ticked by.
It looked deep. I hoped it was deep, or else this would be a short trip. I retreated and ran as I jumped into the air—or attempted to jump into the air.
The megaton of added weight pulled me down, and I tripped on the edge of the stones.
Falling. Falling. Falling.
Water slammed against my belly. Air whooshed out of me, and I sank.
Another fun side effect of the weighted suit, I’d completely lost my buoyancy.
My body sank to the bottom with a muted impact and settled. I pushed myself to my feet, my lungs already screaming for O2. The suit kept me firmly on the lake bottom.
I slit my eyes to see if I could find Am and Dax. About fifty feet away, two figures flailed. I lumbered over as if doing a spacewalk but with more resistance. Damn, pinpricks of pain burst like tiny laser pistols in my chest.
If I didn’t find my center, not only would I die, my friends would. A sense of calm washed over me. That would not happen.
My legs moved in slow motion as if made from polysteel. I rose on my toes and leaned forward. My face itched. I yearned to let my breath out to find some relief from the pressure.
I closed the distance between me and the figures. Their movement had slowed, and they free-floated about ten feet above me. The murky water cut my vision, but it was Am and Dax, both motionless.
My upper back muscles twisted. Stabbing pains ran down my arm. I had to get them out of the water. I moved too slowly, and it had been so long.
“Just get the job done,” my dad had told me when the croak attacked us. It destroyed most of our crops and tried to kill us. We had survived but only by fighting back hard. I had to draw on that strength.
Pain scorched my tendons until they felt unhinged like they would detach from my body.
At last, I reached Amelie and powered to the surface, gulping in air like it was sweet honey. I snagged her limp body, fighting the turbulence.
My fingers slipped off of her sleek suit as I struggled to flip her over. My heart compressed. Her complexion was paler than usual, gray, her eyes closed.
I shook her, and the suit vibrated.
Not Amelie, the suit. It jerked and contracted, squeezing Am’s still body hard. A stream of water coursed out of her mouth. A pale blue light ran over her, and she spasmed, sucking in a breath.
Some kind of failsafe in the damn suit. Would’ve been nice if someone had told us. I wondered how long it took to kick in. Death? Relief cascaded over me in a cool, relaxing wave, even in the midst of all of the pounding water. She was alive. Now for Dax.
I struggled to stay above the surface and hold on to Amelie. My eyesight blurred from the blasting wind and undulating water.
A loud moan warned me a half-second before Amelie pushed me underwater. I inhaled a lungful liquid before I fought my way back to the surface.
I coughed up foul warm water. Stars flashed in my eyes. With effort, I refocused on Amelie. She threw her arms like a wild moonya caught in the branding chute.
“Am! Stop it!”
I understood the panic. I’d felt it the first time I’d gone into the water, but my brother had eased me in over time. There was no time for easing in. Dax was still missing.
Nothing stopped her as she lunged for me. For a socialite, she was scrappy. She latched on and pushed me down again.
Sucking in a lungful of water, I fought blind. Panic encased me as we both went under.
I didn’t have the strength to reach the top again, my vision blurred, and my arms flailed uselessly against the unrelenting weight of the suit.
A light flashed. The water vanished.
Everything changed in a heartbeat.
We dropped to the polyplastic flooring with a thud.
Amelie and I lay on the floor of the same chamber where we had started. Moisture dripped from Amelie, who lay flat, panting. I rose to my feet, looking for Dax.
He was about twenty feet away on his hands and knees, gasping for breath.
The artificial light blinded me.
We lay in the middle of all of the other cadets, panting and flicking their heads around, confused, scared, a few ready to fight. Some were struggling and had to be separated by the same officers who had overseen this test—training hellscape.
“Exercise complete. Fall in!”
I kept my senses on full to make sure no one and nothing got the jump on me. The exercise had spooked me, stirred up stuff I hadn’t felt since I’d been planetside with Jess. My fight-or-flight switch remained dialed to full. I was in enemy territory.
Amelie’s shoulders slumped forward. She coughed again as if phantom water still clogged her throat, and her hair hung limp on each side of her face, making her eyes huge. Dax and I joined her. He offered her a hand, and she rose to stare at him as if he was a freaking Sol rise.
Quickly, she released his hand and attempted to pull her hair up. The cadets scrambled to find places. Dax still favored his injured leg but came to attention next to me.
The smiley captain stood in the foreground near the exits that had reappeared.
“Your scores will appear shortly. If you fell below 500, your rank will be dropped to an enlisted support position. Above 500 will be placed according to their aptitudes.”
The entire Company stilled, waiting, watching for their numbers.
A small block of text flashed in front of me—872P in bright green. My knees trembled. I made it.
My eyes flashed to Am. 800S in blue.
Her brains had more than made up for her lack of strength. Her bottom lip jutted out. Obviously, not enough for her.
Then I saw Dax. His score flashed red 507 ES. I let a long breath out through my pursed lips. He’d passed, barely, but he’d passed. We were all in the program now. Sol help us.
Chapter Fourteen
Ethan
The quarters smelled funny. New. Unused. Foreign.
But that was the way of the Ax-Mil, new assignment, new quarters. The chamber was small, nondescript, no-frills. I didn’t have much to make it my own—just a bag of uniforms and me.
Whoever that was.
I’d showered and laid down on the hover cot. Heaviness pulled at me, and my eyes burned. I rubbed them and rolled over, searching for any comfortable position.
Minutes dragged. My mind replayed every interaction with Vega and Gleason. And tomorrow, I’d be an instructor at the Academy. How the hell was I going to do that?
I rolled out of bed and pul
led on my jumpsuit, Mil standard, but with the small double star that denoted my junior lieutenant status. Looking at the crest gave me a boost. I had graduated from the Academy in half the standard processing time.
Mostly because of Gleason. But I had a few tricks of my own that I’d learned long before Gleason volunteered me for service.
My mind stayed in hyperdrive. I had to calm down. And there was one thing that always calmed me down.
I exited my quarters and jogged down the twilight corridors taking two ladders down until I reached the bay.
Starscape peeked out from behind the rotating stations, and my heart quickened. Some people saw the stations or a planet and thought of home. If I ever thought of a home, I guessed it’d be out there—the only place where I felt right.
I walked further into the launch bay, and there they were, the Ax-Strykers. Blue floor lights glinted off their dark, angular hulls.
The ships lay quiet as sleeping beasts tethered to the bay, waiting to be awakened. I wanted to see them up close again, run my hand along their hull.
“Halt. You’re in a restricted area.”
Damn. I turned to find a dark-haired girl dressed in Ax-Mil gray. An enlisted who’d not passed the entrance test or had washed out.
“State your rank and business.” She snapped the words out and touched the laser pistol on her hip. From her body language, I assessed she’d never fired it in a real confrontation. Probably fresh on the job and still bruised from not making it.
“Junior Lieutenant James. I came to take one of the ships out.”
“Sir.” She put a fist to her chest in salute, but her brow furrowed. “I had no com that you were coming. Let me check the roster.” She pulled out a handheld and scrolled down a page of hover text. “Nope. Nothing.”
“What’s your name, Officer?”
“Fairbanks.”
“Fairbanks, thank you for your diligence. I’m going to be running maneuvers tomorrow and wanted to—” I pulled out the smile I used to get me out of a hundred scrapes in the Hub. “You ever ride in a Stryker?”
She smiled back and gave a short, bitter laugh. “No, sir. I’m an NCO and didn’t make it to flight training. I tested too low.”
“Want to go out? I need the practice, and you look like you need a break.”
“Sir!” Her smile faded, and her eyes rounded. “You don’t have a flight plan or permissions to remove the equipment.” Her hand twitched toward the gun again.
I had to lull her back into a sense of security.
“Look, Officer Fairbanks. What’s your first name?”
“Alak.”
“Alak. I’m a flight instructor at the Academy. I could go through all the proper channels and get all the permission. Wake up my CO in the middle of the night cycle so that I can take a twenty-minute excursion. Or...you can go with me. I won’t do anything wrong. You’ll be there with a blaster.”
I didn’t mention that I could not only take the blaster from her in less than a nanosecond, but I could incapacitate her and jack the ship without conversation. Before the taming of the military, I would’ve just done it and taken what I wanted.
But now I had manners. I asked before I took something.
Her stance relaxed, and she tilted her head. Good.
She pulled out her handheld and tapped. “I put the security on auto. My relief doesn’t come for another hour. I’ve been here for ten hours already. Do you know how boring this job is?”
I nodded and met her gaze. The military had a host of dull, stupid, thankless jobs, and I had had my share of them. The difference was that I’d moved up and out, and she was stuck.
“Just so you don’t think I’m a terrible soldier, I did run your credentials.”
I nodded and uncoupled the braces on the Ax-Stryker. My heart quickened as I punched in my code.
A docking ladder released and slowly lowered from the cockpit. The ship could hold two.
Alak smiled at me again and pushed a lock of fallen hair from her face. My plan had worked, maybe too well, from the eye contact, she was giving me. I’d learned a long time ago to use whatever assets I had to survive, but it still gave me a feeling of unease. I shrugged it off. I meant the girl no harm, and I was breaking up her boring night with an opportunity few Ax-mil got a ride in bonafide Ax-Stryker.
She took the gunner position, and I slid into the pilot slot. An outpouring of relief and comfort cascaded over me. I pulled on the helmet.
“Buckle in and enjoy. I got this.”
“I’m so excited!” Her tone rose, terrified. Perfect for her first time up.
I put my palm over the activating panel.
Nothing happened.
Damn it. I’d hoped my security clearance would allow me to bypass the protocols. The winding anxious feeling returned like it always did. The sensation of losing everything, of being alone and facing the universe, washed over me.
“Are you humming?” Alak asked.
“Hmm? I guess. Hold on. I have a small problem.”
The humming helped. It always helped.
Even when I was in the Hub. Even in the pits.
I beat down those memories and put them into the deepest, darkest crevice in my mind.
And while I was in the dark recesses of my brain, I grabbed an idea. I reached under the console and rubbed the electromagnetic coupling until it sparked, then I stomped on the backup power relay. A small pop sounded, and the controls lit.
I still had it. I saw my wide grin reflected in my helmet’s visor.
There he was—the Hub kid with a chip on his shoulder and way too many brains. I clicked the used flight paths through the Ax on the screen.
“Are we still—?”
The engine purr drowned her voice. I took the ship out of the bay and into the web of interconnected stations, my worries left behind in the bay of the Military Academy. At least for a little while.
Chapter Fifteen
Vega
The scattered officers gathered at the front of the hall.
Our wrists flashed and displayed our assigned berths. Above mine hung a giant green F5. Amelie had a blue S12, and Dax a red E17.
A sense of dread sopped up all my good vibes.
“We're not together.”
“You don't know that.” Dax took a step closer to us.
“She's right. F5 is on the bayside. S is in the Mil-Science Division deep inside the base, and E... She looked up and to the left, twisting her mouth to the side. “I think E is below us, but it wasn't on the map I glanced at.”
I rolled my eyes, and my spirits rose a bit. Amelie would always be Amelie, no matter where her bunk was.
“I don't like it,” I said.
“It’s probably based on our assigned study. But I wouldn't venture a guess. The faculty keep most of the detailed information about the syllabus locked tight.” Her voice had the eager edge it did when she was about to figure something out. “Now, I'm going to have access to it all.”
“Throttle back a bit, Am,” I said. “We have to last the full twelve weeks before we get real assignments. And that includes—”
“Phys-i-cal Traiiiinnninnnngg.” She elongated the words with a groan.
Dax and I both snorted, finally releasing some of the tension that still clung to the very air.
“We’ll have some classes together, and we can train in the early morning and evening.” I put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed.
“But morning and evening are for studying! How am I supposed to keep up?”
Even Dax took a deep breath and gave a tight smile. “You got the brains part down. Now let’s worry about the brawn.” Dax nudged her with his elbow. Friendly, but keeping his distance. He spoke fast. His eyes flitted to the exit as if he had to be somewhere. It was odd.
Amelie bobbed her head, and the tightness in her expression relaxed.
The groups dispersed to find their quarters. A green arrow lit one of the exits, blue another, and red just flashed next to the
exit. Which also gave me a twinge. Where were they sending Dax?
“Bye, VV. Bye, Am.” Dax’s voice had a tone of finality to it, like he didn’t think he’d see us again.
I reached out to slow him but got pulled along with the blue group. I waved at Am, who gave me a small smile before I got swept up with dozens of people, both male and female, older, younger, and everything in between.
After the longest day in history, every step sent a new streak of fiery pain through me. How long had we been in there anyway?
I was officially in, but the weighted uniform had almost sunk me. Literally. How was I supposed to compete without my natural abilities?
It wasn't fair, like putting goggles on somebody because they had excellent vision. It didn't make sense to take away something I was born with.
Part of me wanted to complain-maybe talk to a supervisor or a squadron leader. I sighed. Best not. After Basic, dealing with Commander Wu, and pretty much the entire time I’d been in the Ax-Military, I’d learned that complaining meant I wasn’t a team player.
The corridor stretched endlessly, too dark, too close. I would've paid good credits for a breath of fresh, planet air. Hell, I'd sell a piece of my soul for our cold shower and a piece of sev bread.
Finally, the hallway ended in a circular entrance that appeared more like a ship’s hatch than a door to a barracks.
The barracks I’d stayed in for Basic was broad, with long columns of cots, a fairly large entrance, and a view overlooking the Axis.
This space felt very much confined. Worse than the Lazarus even. No windows and very few breaks in the plain curved walls.
I ducked my head and stepped over the threshold into the main chamber. Circular entrances to pods covered every inch of wall that I could see from the floor up to the arched ceiling, and each entry looked like a small porthole.
Tight. Close. Cramped.
My throat constricting. I took a deep breath and centered myself. If I survived six months in a battleship and weeks in a shuttle, I could survive anything.
The duty officer stood a few paces away from the milling humans. As everyone walked in, she pointed a finger at her hover display. A number appeared on the left breast of each cadet's uniform. The numbers and letters coincided with numbers on each porthole.
Cadet: Star Defenders Book Two: Space Opera Adventure Page 8
