by Greg Dragon
“He’ll be fine. I heard that his uncle is kind of a big deal. I was thinking that one day when he’s old enough, his Uncle Rafian could show him how to be strong and how to survive all the things life will throw at him.”
“I’d be honored.”
She then landed the car in the area designated for them outside of her apartment block.
~*~*~*~
On Vestalia, Tayden Lark stood in front of a procession of Phaser recruits who were dressed in uniforms of black and red as they sat waiting for the promotion ceremony to begin. At either side were the handsome Yuth Varience, smiling as he always did, and Frank OTA, who had come in from his new destroyer The Gheist to see who the new Phaser Ace was that would be joining their number. Camille YAN stood off to the side with her las-sword drawn at the ready and Dott Toga, dressed in a silvery-blue 3B suit, began to ascend the tall stairs with her own las-sword drawn and a fierce look in her eye. When she reached the top of the stairs, to the stage where the leaders stood, she screamed a loud battlecry and held her sword aloft. The crowd of Phasers erupted into cheers and Tayden concealed a smile as she walked up to the podium and began to speak.
“There is nothing more dangerous than a Phaser for an enemy of Anstractor. There is absolutely nothing. We finish our missions, we fear nothing and we cheat death—the ultimate of losses. While these words may be true of a Phaser agent, a recruit has to risk death, risk failure and ignore fear in order to prove him or herself worthy of the crystals. Many have come to us, but only a few have crossed over. Look at those who stand in front of you and those who stand with me. Know that they have sat where you now sit, and have gone through what you go through now to earn the title of agent. Today we have a woman that would be an agent, but has proven to be so much more due to her actions on the poisonous planet of Geral.”
Dott then walked over to the center of the stage and turned her back to the crowd. She bowed to Tayden and the other leaders and then turned to bow to Camille YAN. She respected Camille the most out of all of her leaders because she knew her story well. She knew her to be a woman of no fear and action when it was needed. Tayden was a role model for all women in the Phaser agency, but Camille YAN was a legend; she had single-handedly taken out a crew of pirates and was one of the soldiers that had helped Tayden and Rafian turn the older Jumper Academy into their own operation. To become a member of the Phaser elite, Dott would have to prove herself with a las-sword, a pistol and the crystals. She would have to fight a master in Camille YAN and she would have to survive, until one of them was sufficiently defeated, or—at worst—sent to the cloner. It was a fight that she should be afraid of, but she wasn’t.
Camille stood tall and beautiful in her black 3B suit and newly spiked hair. She kept her eyes ahead of her as Dott began bouncing in her fighting stance, ready for their duel. As Tayden made the alarm go off for them to begin her test, Camille blinked from her location and appeared in the air above Dott, falling with the las-sword humming dangerously, as if to cut her in half. Dott did not expect her to be the first to attack and was barely out of the way when the sword came down and caught hers as she threw up a guard and shifted out of the way. She began a series of deflections and parries, as Camille stayed on the offensive. When she saw that there was no letting up from the attacks, she used the crystals as she had been taught and blinked back near the edge of the stage to get away from Camille’s onslaught. She pulled out her pistol and began firing round after round at Camille who dropped down low after the first shot and then was suddenly behind her with the hilt of the sword knocking her gun away. She followed this with a roundhouse to Dott’s jaw and a sidekick that threw her off the side of the platform. The crowd gasped as she fell to her death, but she had dropped a crystal when Camille surprised her and threw one below her as she fell, so that she passed through the tear and appeared in front of Camille with her sword ready. The women fought like demons for the better part of five minutes and though it was intense and life threatening, Dott could hear Camille encouraging her under her breath and saw that Yuth Varience was actively cheering her on, also.
She had learned the way of the sword from Yuth and though Rafian had taught her one or two moves whenever he had come by the temple, Camille YAN still had a significant advantage over her. She knew the Phaser legend was holding back and though she appreciated the sentiment, it angered her that she would need their help to earn her star.
The two women clashed swords violently and Dott leaned in and whispered, “Please, Camille. Take off the training gloves. I want your respect, not your pity.”
Camille used the sword to push Dott back and then wiped the sweat that had collected on her brow from the hot afternoon sun. She took out her gun and cocked it and then stood with her sword still buzzing, as if she was waiting for Dott to move. When the young girl did not move, Camille addressed the Phaser who stood in anticipation of the fight.
“You will not get my respect if you die. Do you understand me?”
“More than you think, Commander.”
With that Camille vanished and Dott followed her, to the bewilderment of everyone watching. A loud scream brought everyone around as they appeared near the stage. Dott was crawling away from Camille with her sword up to guard as the veteran Phaser swung deadly arcs of the blade at her. The first swing had caught Dott in the side and while the suit she wore deflected the powered-down edge of the las-sword, the force that Camille had swung it with had reinjured the ribs she had hurt before. The pain was unbearable for her and she screamed, but deflected the sword using every ounce of strength she could muster. She had only one crystal left and she wanted to save it for a final move, but Camille was not letting up and she needed to get out from under her.
“You’re bleeding, Dott. We can stop this at any time. You can be a Phaser agent; there is no shame in that—gods know you’ve earned it, girl. But if you want to be one of us, an Ace, you will need to stop your crawling and show me that you are A PERSON!”
The word person had a bitter tone that echoed bad memories into the minds of Tayden Lark and Frank OTA as they recalled the past when the agents that graduated from the Jumper academy were “persons.” The title implied that the organization recognized you. The Jumpers looked down on everyone that was an outsider and when they drafted a soldier into their ranks, he had to earn his way up to becoming an individual in their eyes—or “person.” Earning person status meant that you had been re-educated, retrained, and had made your first jump. It was the highest of honors.
The persons in the Jumper academy were their elite class, and while the Phasers forced those who would become aces to fight their masters, the old “persons” endured worse. The thought of it made Tayden sick, as she wanted nothing of the Phaser agency to be like that of the Jumpers. But Camille was a cynic and she saw very little difference in their methodology than what they had been put through as recruits. Dott rolled out of the way of her last swing and pulled a knife from her boot, a leftover from her days as a Ranger. She put the weapon up to her face with her right hand and used her left to hold her side. The las-sword had cut through the alien fabric of her suit and had broken the skin where the blood now flowed freely from the wound. The world was losing focus to her and her slow death forced her to go back to the weapon that she knew and trusted, even though she knew it was nothing against a las-sword.
Camille powered down her sword and put it back in the sheath before raising her sidearm. She looked disappointed with Dott, and it was obvious that she disliked the ceremony. As Dott rushed forward to stab her with her knife, Camille fired off three rounds in succession. Two burned through the 3B suit to take out Dott’s legs, and the third was in her chest, where it barely missed her heart.
“Okay, recruit, I’m impressed. You have a lot of heart and you do not fear death. Can we stop this stupid gladiator nonsense now? Or do I really need to kill you?”
“CAMILLE!” This time it was Tayden and she was visibly angry as she ran up to the
Phaser Ace and began talking to her in hushed tones as Dott tried in vain to stand.
“What the hell is your problem, sister? Do you not agree with our methods?”
“This is the same schtill that Arn did Tayden. We are better than this!”
Arn Stryker was the Supreme Leader of the Jumper organization back when Rafian, Camille, and Tayden were recruits. His methods were cruel and archaic in their time, and after Rafian killed Arn and restructured the Jumpers into the Phasers, Camille expected them to do much better.
“So why wait till now, to put on an embarrassing spectacle in front of the recruits? Why couldn’t you share your thoughts on this a long time ago?”
“Because, it never crossed my mind then, okay?” Camille snapped. “This is the first time I am seeing this and I am not impressed. Why do we rely on our physical prowess to determine who is worthy of the next level of education? Shouldn’t it be much more than this? Tayden, we are Aces because we were able to survive hell.” She was shouting now to where everyone could hear her, and Yuth Varience and Frank were attending to Dott. “I did a stint in a prison where I was brutalized and—ugh! They threw Rafian into the middle of a civil war. You managed to take out the leader of an advanced military and Frank was able to survive three months of torture. As Jumpers, the trials we were given prepared us to be the type of warriors that could dominate any situation. A young girl getting her ass kicked and killed will not be on our level. It isn’t fair to us, it isn’t fair to her, and it isn’t fair to them.” She finished her speech and stared at the crowd, who had gotten so quiet it was as if they were frozen.
“What about Yuth? He is a new Phaser Ace and he has proven himself matchless in his abilities,” Tayden said.
“Yuth Varience is the equivalent of a Rafian VCA on his home planet of Louine, Tayden. Are you even listening to me about this? Dott deserves to be properly made!”
Tayden felt helpless and angry as Camille undermined her in front of the recruits. Dott was held up to stand by her two comrades. She blew the hair that had gotten in her face, and then took a deep breath and looked around the stage. Dott knew she was dying, but she did not want to say anything to ruin her induction and was hoping that Camille would come around and grant her entrance. It was Yuth Varience who spoke up after what seemed like a long pause and when he did, it was to the surprise of everyone listening.
“This is disgraceful, Camille,” he said. “This girl fought you with everything that she had and lived. Before this trial, she accompanied Rafian and I as we took the tower in Geral and performed actions that only an Ace could do. I vouch for her, Rafian VCA vouches for her, and Frank OTA vouches for her. Why muddy her graduation with this questioning of our methods while the poor girl bleeds out in front of us?”
Camille looked at Dott as if noticing her wounds for the first time and then screamed for the medics to give her help. The men in blue ran up the stairs and saw to Dott with a healing rod and a floating equipment droid, as the leaders stood around discussing her fate. Camille, whose rage had gotten the better of her, calmed her nerves and then nodded rapidly at Yuth to let him know that she agreed. Dott had fought like a Phaser Ace and though it bothered her that she would be on the level of those that had been through the hell of the Jumper organization, she knew she was being unfair.
“I apologize, Phasers,” she said to the crowd as she holstered her weapon and smiled anew. “I get caught up in the battle sometimes and I lose focus on what is truly important. If none of you are allowed entrance into the Ace ranks, then why should we even have it? My temper got the best of me and I am ashamed. I vouch for Dott Toga and I welcome her into the Ace program. It is a hard life as an Ace and as you know, only those completely committed to the Phaser way of life would even consider it. Dott will heal up and stand tall amongst us, and I will greet her as a sister. I hope to see many more of you up here one day – not just as agents, but as crazy Aces willing to let me kill you.”
And with that, the crowd erupted and Tayden felt extremely proud of Camille YAN.
~*~*~*~
Maes/Sako was beside himself. He had finally met Rafian VCA. Not only had he met the Phaser leader, but he had walked with him, talked with him and stood close to him. But then Aurora had shown up and he’d had to remove himself from the scene quickly. She was such an annoying woman. The hours of preparation, speech rehearsal and strategy it had taken to find out when the Phaser would arrive, to get himself in position to escort him and prepare a conversation that would lead to an assumed friendship – it had all been for nothing. He hated the skin he wore and the long period of time he was forced to live amongst the humans. Now that time would be extended due to Rafian VCA slipping from his grasp.
With Rafian being on the ship it was time to act, but with a man as dangerous as he was, what could a lone spy like Maes hope to do to capture him? He would have to be inventive, and it would have to involve Aurora. Maybe something lethal that would put her brother off completely. She had a husband and a child, but harming a child could be unpredictable. He thought on it for a time and then he had an idea. He could be her hero. If he could get a Geralos destroyer to attack Helysian, there was no doubt that the people onboard would be frightened. Aurora would be in a panic, just like the other humans, and he could be a stalwart and lead her to safety as the ship was ravaged. No, it was still too unpredictable. What if the destroyer’s appearance prompted another battleship, or worse yet, the Phaser Aces, to attack? Then there would be no panic; there would only be a loss of Geralos lives. He would need to be creative.
Maes hovered near the entrance to Aurora’s home, where he had followed her car with his makeshift hover-bike. The layout of the homes was interesting: there were apartments stacked on top of one another, but each “home” had two floors. The entire complex looked like a metallic honeycomb of hexagonal buildings, each with a door or window. Aurora’s sat a few floors up, near the center of the honeycomb. He stared at the door as other cars flew by him and landed at their own doors, the honeycomb an active, moving thing.
“Go ahead and feel safe for now,” Maes muttered under his breath, then hopped onto his bike and headed back to his own home.
~*~*~*~
The baby boy kicked and spat up all over Rafian, as he used the bib to wipe his mouth. Aurora stood back in her husband’s arms, smiling. Her brother seemed to be a natural at the role of caretaker for his nephew. The man she had married was Velman TOR. He had once been a close friend of Rafian’s back when they were cadets, and had become a bit of an engineer in the Corps, looking after the engines of the Helysian as she drifted in space. Velman was a tan, good-looking man, who kept his face clean-shaven and his hair neatly combed. Aurora had met him on the bridge where they worked and after what seemed like years of passing by one another, he had courted her and married her in one of the biggest weddings on the ship.
“Rafian, besides the fact that Velman and I want to stay on Helysian to raise Ian, we are officers and cannot leave our posts in the Vestalian military. I know that Phasers are allowed to pull who they can to become agents, but you wouldn’t be doing that. You would be asking me to commit an act of treason and leave this ship high and dry, which you do not want to do. You are on the ground in a city you control, with dangerous men and women to take care of anything that would interfere with your way of life. We are on a military ship whose purpose is to protect the refugees of Vestalia and answer any call to action that is made whenever the Geralos threatens one of our allies. You aren’t seeing the reality of what is happening up here, brother; you have become disconnected.”
“We have Marines on the surface, too,” Rafian told her. “You two would fall under the command of Val Tracker and you would be set up in one of the cities we have reclaimed. There would be no treason, just a transfer, for the sake of Vestalia.”
Little Ian settled peacefully in Rafian’s arms as he bounced him gently to put him to sleep. He looked around at the grand apartment that Aurora had
. When he was a Marine, an apartment of that size would have cost a Colonel’s wages, and he was impressed with them for making it feel as warm and comfortable as it did. Aurora had called him disconnected and though he knew what she meant, he did not like the implication that he was no longer a part of the people.
“Disconnected,” he said, repeating what she’d said. “Nevertheless, I am on the ground, tearing down the lizards’ terra-form towers to get us back on our own planet, sis. I see the reality of our hell every day as I wake up in a place I had always believed to be inaccessible. No Aury, I am beyond connected, and everything I do is with the purpose of making sure that children like Ian will once again breath Vestalian oxygen without the worry of some lizard trying to bite him in the head.”
“Rafian, I know that and we all appreciate the amazing feats that you and the Phasers have accomplished. But what I mean by disconnected is much more…I don’t know. Velman, help me out.”
Velman looked at his old friend and smiled. He had known Rafian when he was just a tall, awkward, teenager, trying his best to impress his superiors while staying away from bullies.
“Rafian, do me a favor. When you leave Helysian, fly over to one of the hubs and hang out for a couple of hours. Just walk through, get yourself some coffee and take a look around. I won’t tell you what to expect because it needs to be new to you. Travel to a hub and then you will understand why Aurora and I cannot leave.”
“Okay, Vel, I will do that. I am due for a ceremony on Vestalia, but I will visit a hub on my way there. Don’t think that this means I am okay with you and Aury staying here. This ship is a big accident waiting to happen. Come down to our hidden city, to the Vestalian soil where you belong—where my nephew belongs. I promise you will not regret it. At least think about.”
“We will, Rafian. Thanks for keeping us close to your heart.”
