The Worker Prince

by Bryan Thomas Schmidt

  O O O

  After two weeks spent covering the basics of flight, Davi allowed the first of his students on the simulators. His class had increased in size since it started, with Aron and the leaders adding more and more candidates with each new rally. Davi had done his best to keep the new students up to speed with the others. Some of them had the advantage of prior flight experience, while others had skill with skitters. He still had neophytes to train, but at least some had a head start.

  At the moment, Dru, Brie, Nila and another boy their age occupied the four simulators. Tela and the other students sat at desks behind Davi, observing as he took them through their first mock battle. Each student pilot sat in a mock cockpit, with controls similar to those of VS28 fighters—a screen where the blastshield would be simulated stars and incoming enemy fighter craft. The simulator itself moved as the trainees moved the joystick. Combined, the effect was a sensation reminiscent of being in an actual fighter during a battle. Watching them evoked fond memories of his Academy days.

  “Keep your tails up there,” Davi instructed. “Easy on the joystick, Brie. It’s sensitive, designed to move as one with your body. Dru, you’ve got one on your tail. Evasive action!”

  The trainees reacted to his instructions. Dru tried hard to stay out of the fire of the enemy on his tail as explosions flashed in front of him on the screen with each hit.

  Brie steered her fighter toward the enemy behind Dru. “I got him!”

  Davi realized that her excitement was distracting her. She was coming in at an odd angle and way too fast. “Slow down, Brie! You’re going to hit him!” Too late.

  Brie’s screen erupted in flashes of yellow light and her console went dead. “What happened?” Brie asked, confused.

  “You’re dead,” Tela said.

  “You got him off my tail though. Thanks,” Dru said, chuckling.

  Brie stuck out her tongue at him. “You’re welcome.” She turned to Davi with a sheepish grin. “I’m not getting it, am I?”

  Davi smiled. “It takes practice.” For some more than others.

  Brie cocked her head to one side in a flirty way. “Can you show me one more time please?”

  Davi smiled. “Okay. Look.” He leaned over her from behind, holding his hand around hers on the joystick as he ignored the flowery scent of the perfume she always wore around him. “Pull back a tiny bit, like this. Enough to make her go the direction you want to go. Not too hard though.”

  Brie smiled, looking up at him. “Oh, right. I gotta practice it.” Davi let go and she tried what he’d showed her. “Like that?”

  Davi nodded, ignoring her flirting. “Much better. Keep practicing.”

  He turned back to the other students and saw Tela shaking her head and heading out the door. Virun and a couple of others followed her.

  “Wait a minute! Class isn’t over. Where’s everyone going?”

  The others looked at him and shrugged.

  What’s wrong with her?

  Brie and the others climbed out of the simulators as other trainees took their place.

  “Okay,” Davi said, “let’s try this again.”

  The second group was better than the first. A third did better still. At the end of the session though, Davi walked away discouraged. Some of the students would improve with practice, but others had him wondering if they weren’t wasting their time. He wished Tela had participated. She would have handled herself quite well, he imagined. Her performance would have at least been more encouraging.

  He left the classroom confused and wondering why she’d disappeared.

  O O O

  Tired of watching Brie throwing herself at Davi, Tela had stormed out of the training room. It was disgusting, shameless—totally inappropriate in the classroom. She’d grown more and more irritated, until deciding she needed a breath of fresh air.

  As she wound her way through the corridors, she started feeling silly. Why did it bother her so much? You don’t like him, remember? She’d known women who acted like Brie before. It wasn’t like she had any claim to Davi. They were barely friends.

  Sure, things between them had settled down since they’d talked in the shuttle. He’d asked Tela’s opinion from time to time, and she’d done as he requested, helping him explain things when the trainees didn’t understand. So why did seeing Brie flirting with him like that make her so tense? What was the big deal? Brie had every right to flirt with him. She’d acted like a fool. Why did she have such a tendency to do that when Davi was around?

  She spent a few moments calming down, then turned back toward the classroom. Rounding a corner near the classroom, she spotted Davi exiting and heading up the corridor away from her. He looked very discouraged. She hoped not because of her.

  She followed him across the hangar and into a smaller cave on the far side, where the skitters sat parked in several rows.

  Long slender bodies topped with leather seats and two handlebars attached to a control panel, skitters had been designed for recreational use, but were so fast and easy to handle, they’d been adapted for other uses. Borali Alliance ground patrols used them on a regular basis.

  She stood in the shadows as he began looking them over. Two mech-bots entered through another tunnel and began working on some of the skitters behind him. As she stepped out of the shadows into the cave, Davi looked up at her.

  “Hey,” she said, with a slight wave and a smile.

  “Hey,” he said, going back to examining the skitters.

  “How’d the rest of the session go?”

  He shrugged. “We have a lot of work ahead of us.”

  Not even eye contact. So maybe he was upset with her. “Sorry I left. I needed some air.”

  “I was disappointed you didn’t stay for your turn,” Davi said as he examined another skitter. “Seeing someone actually succeed on the simulators would have been encouraging. I sure could’ve used it.” His voice sounded tired.

  “Was it really so bad?”

  “You tell me. You saw how some of the students did,” Davi slid into the seat of a skitter, fiddling with the controls.

  “Some of them are a long way from being flight-worthy,” Tela said, watching the mech-bots working behind him.

  “Some make me wonder if they ever will be. Sometimes I wonder if Brie actually thinks she can flirt her way out of trouble with the enemy.” He rolled his eyes.

  Tela laughed. The flirting bothered him? Good. Still, it saddened her to see him so discouraged. He had always been so positive and supportive of the students. She wanted to do something to cheer him up. She took a seat on another skitter and turned it on, hearing the steady hum of the engine and feeling it rise up off the floor to float on the air as she adjusted the controls.

  “Come with me.”

  “For a joy ride?”

  Tela smiled. “Sure. There’s something I want to show you.” She waved toward the skitter he’d been examining.

  He shrugged, climbing onto the skitter. The engine hummed as it rose into the air. “Okay. Lead the way.”

  She slid the skitter into gear and drove it out of the cave into a small tunnel. Davi accelerated his own skitter and followed along behind her.

  They emerged into the dense forest along a path. Sunlight streamed through the tall cedars, creating a patchwork of dark and light areas on the ground. The chirping of birds and insects blended with the hum of the skitters as a light breeze tousled their hair and the sweet smell of cedars filled her nose.

  Tela sped up, forcing Davi to speed up behind her. She admired the fluidness with which he maneuvered the skitter. She’d never seen him fly, of course, but it seemed to her he must be as skilled as the commanders said. She doubted he’d had much time to explore the forest around the base yet. She hadn’t seen him in the skitter bay, but then she hadn’t been there much until the past few days herself.

  She led him through several twists and turns then around a bend into a clearing where she pulled to a stop and waited for him to come alo
ngside.

  Amid cedars at the edge of the course on both sides there were several wood pylons with various markings. As his skitter pulled alongside hers and stopped, the scent of his sweat and cologne mixed with the pollen from the cedars and she smiled. It was not altogether displeasing. Looking around, she nodded. “Well, here it is.”

  “What is it?” Davi said, trying to make sense of the pylons and markers.

  “Our skitter training course,” Tela said proudly as she watched him. “Aron asked me to set one up.” Why was she so anxious waiting for his response?

  Davi’s looked around and smiled. “You did all this yourself?”

  “Well, I may have borrowed some from a schematic of one of the Alliance’s training courses. With a few minor adjustments to compensate for ours being on land and not in outer space.” She had to admit it had been enjoyable working on the course.

  Davi nodded, looking pleased. “This is impressive. You amaze me.”

  He’s impressed! She almost blushed. Why did she care so much what he thought? She’d never had time for men, not since her father’s disappearance. She’d been too busy for much of a social life.

  She took a breath, trying to hide how pleased she was. “Thanks. Wanna give it a try?” She opened the side pocket on her skitter and pulled out a helmet. “Gotta put on the helmet to see how it works.”

  She slid the helmet on as Davi opened the pocket on his own skitter and retrieved the helmet. As he began to put it on, Tela flipped the switch to activate the weapons simulator on her skitter.

  After they’d both adjusted their helmets, Davi nodded. “Ready.”

  Tela accelerated and took off like a flash, zigzagging in and out between the pylons. Wind nipped at the skin of her face like tiny bugs. Trees passed almost as a blur as she focused on the markers and pylons. All her senses were a blur as she went and she loved the sensation. Glancing down at her control panel, she verified that the weapons simulator was fully charged. The visor of her helmet showed a targeting frame as she passed the next pylon. Everything seemed to be working right.

  The next pylon she came to, she maneuvered the frame to aim at the pylon and then hit the fire button. The visor image flashed as she hit the target.

  She flipped her communicator on and keyed the switch. “Flip the red switch on to activate the targeting simulator. The black button on the joystick is for firing.”

  She slowed down, allowing Davi to pull alongside as he fiddled with the controls. “Do you see it?”

  “Yeah,” his voice came in through the helmet. “You did all this?”

  “Well, I had some help. Go for a run,” Tela said, accelerating again and aiming as she came to each target.

  Davi raced his skitter alongside hers, also aiming and firing. He broke into a huge grin as they raced in and out of the pylons, keeping pace with each other. The visor kept count in the bottom right corner of hits and misses. So far she had been dead on.

  The total time for the course at full speed was less than four minutes. They reached the end in what seemed like a few seconds. She pulled to a stop as Davi stopped beside her, looking pleased.

  “How’d you do?” she asked.

  “Missed two,” he admitted.

  She smiled. “I didn’t miss any.”

  “Well, you designed it. It’s my first time.” He said with a shrug, but she saw disappointment in his green eyes.

  With an exaggerated shrug, she laughed. “Excuses, excuses.”

  He scowled. “Wanna go again?”

  Gotcha. She grinned and accelerated her skitter like a rocket.

  Davi raced to catch up with her.

  They followed a curving path which took them back to the start of the course, and then both launched into it again. Davi gave it his best effort. She had to accelerate a few times to keep up with him.

  As they neared the end of the course, he zipped in front of her. Her skitter misfired. She groaned in frustration, pulling back alongside and getting back on course. He laughed as they raced onward, finishing the course in less than four minutes.

  “Perfect score,” he said with a smirk.

  That’s the Davi I know. She shook her head. “I missed because you distracted me.” But she knew his move to cut her off hadn’t been the only distraction. She had butterflies in her stomach.

  “Oh right, like the enemy won’t ever try that,” he said, shooting her a look.

  She laughed. He was right. They couldn’t count on total focus in a real battle. Maybe there were some things he could teach her on her own course after all.

  “Shall we go again?” he asked, shifting excitedly on his seat. His voice had regained its usual energy, and she noticed the usual sparkle had returned to his eyes. The smell of adrenaline mixed with sweat wafted to her nose, adding to her excitement.

  “Wanna switch sides?”

  He nodded. “Catch me if you can!” He took off like a rocket.

  She raced to catch up, determined that this time she’d be ready for any distractions.

  O O O

  Bordox arrived at the LSP office early the next morning, anxious to see the results of the e-post logs he’d asked Corsi to locate from public kiosks near the worker house they’d searched. He’d noticed a terminal nearby in a park both times they’d been there. Maybe something would turn up.

  They’d gone to Celedine after searching the house and coming up empty. A woman from the address had worked there for a time, but disappeared after Bordox’s first visit to the house. The owners, loyal to the Alliance, had no idea where to locate her. Bordox was sick of dead ends.

  He entered the office to find Zylo and Corsi already there.

  “I found some reports of suspicious activity in the forest on the far side of the planet,” Zylo said.

  “The forest? What kind of activity?” Bordox asked.

  “A few farmers reported shuttle flights, voices in the trees from time to time,” Zylo said.

  “I thought the forest was undeveloped,” Bordox said.

  “It is. We haven’t even deployed full radar there,” Zylo said. “And gods know the farmers are always reporting unknown flying objects out there. It’s low priority intel, but Xalivar insists we check all possible leads.”

  Bordox nodded. He expected it would be another dead end, but then at least it would get him out of the office and away from Zylo and they hadn’t been that far south yet. He’d make a pass or two down there as soon as he’d finished retracing the areas they’d already visited.

  He logged onto his terminal and found a folder with the log records waiting for him. He double clicked to open it and began scanning the lists. Xander’s worker name popped up several times in the weeks before Bordox’s team had first searched the house. What had he been doing in that neighborhood so much? Hiding out? Living there? How was he connected to those people? Someone had to know something. Who hadn’t he talked to yet? His eyes continued searching the e-post list. There! Xander had sent an e-post to Presimion Academy. Of course! Xander was always in touch with those two.

  Bordox turned to Corsi who sat at a terminal nearby. “Corsi, get me files on all duty assignments for officers overseeing guards in the agricultural districts.”

  “All of them?”

  Bordox whirled around so fast his chair squeaked. “Stop asking questions and do it.”

  Corsi hurried back to the other terminal as Bordox turned back to his vidscreen. He didn’t expect Farien to volunteer any information. Farien and Yao disliked him as much as their buddy Davi did. Nonetheless, Bordox had the authority to question anyone he deemed necessary. Yes, indeed, he would enjoy this, though he knew Farien wouldn’t.

  He smiled at the thought of Farien’s reaction upon seeing him again and energy filled his veins. “Look for the name of Lieutenant Farien,” he said to Corsi.

  O O O

  Tela arrived at the command center conference room to find Aron, Joram, Uzah, and General Matheu waiting for her around the table. Commander of the Workers�
�� military, General Matheu’s uniform breast bore medals and ribbons he’d earned over a career spanning back to the Delta V tragedy. Although the Vertullians had no formal military much of that time, certain veterans had nonetheless created medals to recognize their fellows’ achievements and remind those who encountered them of their service and sacrifice. And now the General had an opportunity to wear them properly again. His hair was dark with graying ends and his stomach had thickened in a way common for men of his age. But the eyes which met hers showed the same strength and focus she’d seen in him for years.

  “Tela,” Aron said with a smile, “so glad you could join us.” He motioned to an empty seat at the table.

  The others nodded as she moved toward the chair. The room carried the usual scents of military areas: men’s sweat, musty uniforms, and dust. It was so familiar she barely noticed. Matheu stood and closed the door behind her before returning to his seat.

  “How’s the flight training going?” Joram asked.

  Tela shrugged, searching their eyes for a clue as to why she’d been summoned. “It’s proceeding slowly for sure, but we are making progress. Except, some of the students are questioning whether they can trust the instructor.”

  “They’re not alone,” Matheu groused in his scratchy baritone.

  Uzah nodded. “We have doubts of our own.”

  “Not all of us,” Aron corrected.

  “He spoke passionately at several rallies,” Tela said. “We didn’t have any trouble.”

  “How do you know he wasn’t just trying to earn your trust so he could gather information for the Alliance?” Matheu asked.

  “If he was going to betray us,” Joram said, “he would have done so already.”

  “I’ve told you time again,” Aron added, “I’ve known his family for many years.”

  “His worker family or the Royals?” Matheu snapped.

  Tela knew his years of military disappointments had left him skeptical and extremely cautious. She couldn’t blame him.