by SF Edwards
“You know what you did wrong, right?” a smooth, authoritative voice asked.
Blazer peered around the hologram. The voice was familiar, but not enough so for him to assign a face to it. Another of his teammates, Enerian Zithe sat across from him in his robe, the light of the holo, playing off his hairless scalp. “Fatigue,” Blazer answered. “We were in triple overtime, and had a match earlier that cycle too.”
“That’s just an excuse,” Zithe replied and sat up straight. “A true pack-leader would have seen his team succeed no matter what.”
“Excuse me? I didn’t see you out there. I took my team to second place on all of Anul. That is one Sheol of an accomplishment, and I won’t be ashamed of that.”
“It is quite the accomplishment, but there is no room for second place here, and if fatigue is going to bring you down. Then perhaps…”
“Perhaps what?” Blazer snapped and jumped to his feet. “I’m not going to take this from you.”
“No you’re not,” Seri, their team leader, called out as she entered the common area, Arion in tow. “We have a long cycle of classes ahead of us next cycle. So I want all of you to get some decent rack time.”
Blazer nodded, but the self-satisfied look on Zithe’s face told him that there was more going on here.
“Zithe, I need to speak with you in private. Chris let Bichard finish your hair. We should be done in my quarters by then.”
Zithe nodded and followed Seri when she turned to leave. Arion made a show of stepping out of the way and gave Zithe a mock half bow.
“What was that all about?” Blazer asked.
Arion shook his head and stepped up. “It seems that none of us are quite up to Lord Pack Leader Zithe’s standards. He’s been sizing up the whole team; trying to determine who his most likely rivals for power are.”
“And he’s figured it’s me?” Blazer asked. “Screw that noise. Seri’s in charge.”
“But she needs a second,” Chris chimed in from the couch. “And Zithe wants it.”
“Exactly,” Arion added. “Add to that the fact that he’s been nitpicking everyone’s faults this cycle and we have a situation brewing.”
“More like getting ready to boil over,” Blazer replied. “Fine then, he wants a competition for Seri’s second, he’s got one. I won’t stand for him as a leader.”
UCSB DATE: 1000.142
Star System: Classified, UCSBA-13, Main Cafeteria
Blazer still couldn’t get the conversation he’d had with Zithe the cycle before out of his head. The situation at breakfast only served to reinforce his unease. Only half the team headed out of the cafeteria to their first class. “Seriously, what was he thinking?”
Arion raised a curious eyebrow at Blazer as he walked beside him. “He being?”
“Zithe, obviously. He had to have seen what the lines at dinner were like last cycle.”
“Power trip of some kind I would bet, especially after how he was squawking off last cycle.”
Blazer sighed and his friend Deniv hurried up beside them, a mock conspiratorial look on his face. His pale complexion was in marked contrast to Arion’s dark olive skin. “So what’s our plan for dealing with Zithe then?”
Blazer smiled as he looked at his comrade from the Navigator’s Guild. Deniv would often provide a perspective on a situation that Blazer wouldn’t otherwise consider with a comedic bent or tone. “I… I mean we won’t play by his rules, I’ll tell you that much. But at the same time, Arion’s right. I have to go for the position of Seri’s second.”
Chris cleared her throat from behind Blazer. He turned to see Bichard walking behind her, tugging at her hair as he braided it for her. “So how do you figure on doing that?”
Blazer shot a surprised look at Chris. Her loose, mustard yellow jumpsuit made her look like a completely different woman from the one he’d met the cycle before and Bichard’s antennae sticking out from behind her didn’t help. It was a relief to find her covered up. Her lithe body was a distraction otherwise even though he appreciated the cultural roots of her clothing aversion. “I thought you were behind with Seri.”
Chris gave her head a careful shake, the Coretherian behind her pinning one braided tail into a bun on the right side of her head before starting on the other side. “I couldn’t stay behind. My Bichard, here, is my new hairdresser after last cycle.” Bichard smiled his horrid smile in response, his antennae pointing to attention with pride.
“I don’t really have a plan yet, but if I did, it would be to lead the way that I always have.” Blazer caught the smirk that spread across Arion’s face. “Don’t go there, Arion.”
Arion held up his hands in a mock gesture of defeat.
“Anyway, I need to learn as much as I can about everyone on the team. I need to know their strengths and how we can best match up the team to cover for any weaknesses. I’m not going to just sit idly by. Zithe has the potential to be a good leader. I read his jacket before lights out. His style of leadership doesn’t suit this team though. We come from too many diverse backgrounds and won’t just fall into a pack mentality. We need to show him that.”
Arion shrugged and his uniform looked like it might split in response over his bulky frame. “That might be harder than you think. I mean you know all of us already and Gavit,” Arion looked around and found their fifth roommate missing. “Where is Gavit by the way?”
Chris sneered in response to Gavit’s name and spat out her reply. “He ran on ahead. He wanted to get a good seat for basic flight.”
“Like he needs it,” Deniv snorted. “The guy was one of the top aeroracers back on Anul before he joined up.”
Chris shook her head in disdain. “And a total playboy.”
Blazer stopped dead in his tracks beside a meandering line of buildings placed to mass balance an outcropping of rock on the exterior of the academy. Nip this in the bud now. The infighting that his bid for power was going to cause would be bad enough. He and the team could not afford another battle within its ranks.
“Chris you have Gavit all wrong. That playboy image he had was all an act he put on for the media. They ate up the whole philandering, hotheaded pilot bit. Gavit is a whole other animal beyond that stereotypical fighter jock image. Over the last couple of cycles, we’ve all seen that.”
Chris shook her head again as Bichard finished pinning up her left bun and began braiding her red ponytail. “I’ll believe that, if I see it.”
Arion held up a hand, pulling the conversation back. “What I was trying to say, was how are you planning to reach the rest of the team? They all share the same room with Zithe and he can poison them against you anytime he likes.”
Blazer considered that a moment and the path wound around a patch of trees towards the flight training building. “I’ll get to them when they’re outside of the dorms. We have plenty of classes together as a team: basic flight, ground combat, drill, PT, everything outside of our academic classes. Those will be great chances for me to talk to them individually and to see them in action.”
Blazer could almost see the synapses in Arion’s mind firing as he considered that. “Better idea, you use us. We’re neutral in this. We’re not shooting for the lead so they might open up more to us.”
Blazer thought about that a moment and looked over as Deniv picked his nose. “What?” Deniv asked, wincing and pulled out a crusty bit of mucus. “Blasted thing’s been bugging me all dawn.”
Blazer shook his head. “I see what you mean Arion.”
“Exactly. I have classes with Datt and Treb, so I can talk to them there. Deniv?”
Deniv scratched at his nose for a moment in thought. “Um, I have one with Gokhead, but I think he might actually be the TA for it.”
Blazer shook his head. “I wouldn’t be surprised, but find out. Chris, what about you?”
She shrugged as Bichard affixed a bladed resin accoutrement to the tip of the braid. “Other than the guys you’ve already mentioned, no.”
“No one has
any classes with Rudjick or Zithe?”
All of them shook their heads as Blazer considered that. I don’t even know what those two are majoring in. “OK. We’ll deal with that later. Rudjick is already fully entrenched with Zithe. They served and went to school together…”
“And played slamball together too,” Deniv reminded him.
“Right, but I’m hoping that the others are still undecided. So if we can sway them and show Seri that they’d rather throw their banners behind me as second…” he trailed off as he reached the doors to the flight instruction building. “The question just becomes how do I show Seri I’d make the better leader? That I am the better choice to be her second?”
“Better to think on that later. For now, let’s wrap our heads around this class,” Arion commented and tapped the key to open the door.
UCSBA-13. Flight Training RM 310
Blazer kept himself busy as he waited for the rest of the squadron to arrive for class, making notes on his macomm as he sat in his assigned seat. He pulled up the team’s master schedule and crosschecked what classes any of his teammates shared. He considered where he could pair them off into study groups to help each other out. Is Seri thinking like this too? Maybe I should suggest it, he considered and started looking at his own upcoming classes.
The Explosions filed in and took their seats. Then, with a pulse left before the buzzer rang, Seri ran in with the rest of the Blade Force. Blazer couldn’t help but shake his head at the scene. Several of them were choking down the protein bars the autocook churned out in lieu of a real breakfast. Why were they so late? Did Zithe order his roommates to wait for the wakeup call instead of getting up early like he had to join Seri and Chris’ dawn run?
Blazer watched them take their seats and realized something. The room’s design featured twenty-six workstations to accommodate a full squadron, but there were two seats left open. He tapped Seri’s shoulder ahead of him. “Any idea whose seats those are?”
Seri nodded and pushed back her sandy hair, cleaning up a few stray hairs. Blazer read the reluctance in the motion. “I think they belong to our two squadron commanders.”
Blazer didn’t like the sound of that and turned to Trevis with a questioning gaze. “No one on my team be meeting them or knowing who they be,” the giant Tomeris replied.
That opened up a pit in Blazer’s stomach large enough to fly a fighter through. Murmurs rose up throughout the room in response and Seri stood to address them. “Don’t dwell on it right now people. There is no telling where they are or why they’re late. They could just be lost for all we know.”
Gavit scoffed from his seat and brushed his perfect, quaffed ebon hair aside. “Lost? You can’t be serious! I mean the old starfighter mounted on the roof is a dead giveaway that this is the flight instruction building.”
Seri regarded Gavit with a cool eye that melted the arrogant look on his face. “Be that as it may Cadet Markus, we don’t know,” she replied with a stern note in her voice. It convinced the room that she wasn’t up to dealing with attitude this early in the cycle.
A call to attention from the back of the room ended all conversation and everyone sprang to their feet.
“At ease!” a gurgling, guttural voice called out.
Blazer relaxed, sliding his hands behind his back. He looked to his instructor and raised a curious eyebrow in response to the eight-metra tall, shark-like Lodran that strode down the central aisle. Blazer felt their instructor’s four cold black eyes wash over him and did his best not to show any emotion. Unlike his old commander, the instructor’s purple/grey skin signified that he was a Lake Lodran. Blazer felt honored to have a Lodran instructor. The Lodran flew in space like they took to swimming in their deep oceans. It came naturally to them.
Blazer’s attentive eyes followed the instructor to the podium at the front of the room. His crisp blue fleet jumpsuit made a marked contrast to their nightmarish mustard yellow cadet’s uniforms. Blazer stiffened when their instructor pressed a stud on the podium with the lower thumb of his right hand and turned to face the room.
“I am your instructor for basic flight, O-50 Po ‘Joda’ Vadair.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Blazer caught Gavit perk up at the name.
“Seats!”
Blazer dropped down into his seat, still kept his attention on Joda.
“As you are well aware, if you have read your orientation manual, basic flight will be conducted flying Splicer 1000 Daggers, the fleet’s current primary trainer.” He looked over the squadron, to see if anyone was surprised. The smile on his face revealed that none were and Blazer let out a silent sigh of relief. His eyes soon fell upon the two empty seats and his expression soured. “Your team is short! Where are your squadron leaders?”
Blazer felt relieved that he was not the team leader right now, Joda focusing his question to Seri and Trevis. The pair exchanged quick glances before Seri raised her hand and Joda nodded for her to speak. “We’re not sure sir. We haven’t been able to locate them and their files are blocked out on the local intraweave.”
Joda opened the shoulder pocket on his jumpsuit and pulled out his cylindrical macomm. Holding it in one hand he grabbed a tab sticking out of the side and pulled, a holographic screen lighting up in response. He tapped several places on the screen, and after giving the display a puzzled look, tapped a stud on the cylinder deactivating it. “You assigned squadron leaders have already washed out.”
Several people gasped while a few chuckled in response. Blazer had a hard time believing it, but Joda’s expression told him all he needed to know.
“It seems that one, Cadet Craine, turned his form 618-G last cycle. He couldn’t handle the physical training regime.” Murmurs rose up throughout the squadron in response and Blazer forced himself to remain quiet, pondering that.
“And Cadet Vailen never made it off the transport,” Joda continued.
“Not Terrel Vailen?” Gavit blurted out and Blazer turned to see Gavit shrink under the attentive glare of Joda’s four eyes. What’s that about? Lodran are common throughout the Confederation. Gavit’s sure to have met one before. It can’t be the attention either. His time as an aeroracer must have made him used to the spotlight. To see him pull away from any look was odd.
“You’re familiar with mister Vailen, Cadet Markus?” The titles did not go unnoticed.
Gavit shot to his feet and Blazer watched the attitude and bravado he always demonstrated to the cameras snap into place. “Yes sir! He was a canyon race pilot and extremely good from my memory. I raced against him many times, in both the individual and team races. He always struck me as quite confident in the cockpit and in command of his teams. That being said, I’m not surprised he washed out so quickly.”
Gavit’s description of the man triggered a flash of memory for Blazer but something felt odd to him. Blazer turned to Joda, the skin around his four eyes crinkled in concern. “Explain.”
Gavit swallowed hard and looked about the room. Unlike everyone else here, he’d transferred to the academy by himself. Though he’d made fast friends with Deniv, Blazer could tell that Gavit felt nervous about whether or not any of them would back him up. “Terrel Vailen was strictly an aeroracer. Other than a suborbital hop here or there, I never once heard of him flying into space. If I had to guess, I would say he got Horizon Sickness.”
Joda scoffed at the assertion “Horizon Sickness isn’t real.”
“I disagree, sir. I’ve seen pilots who are fantastic in atmo just lose it when they hit high orbital. As soon as the horizon drops away and they can see the whole world before them, they start to crack. Space travel just isn’t for everyone.”
Blazer considered Gavit’s words and wondered how many cadets would drop out just for that reason alone. Even he’d had to adjust to the reverse curvature of the interior of the academy but for cadets who got horizon sick it must be even harder. Blazer recognized why Joda didn’t believe Gavit. The Lodran’s natural environment was the ocean or below t
he surface of the water. Those that dwelt on land only regarded the horizon as a curiosity. So the loss of the horizon didn’t affect them like it did other races.
Joda waved Gavit back into his seat. “This complicates matters,” Joda commented. “You are now without squadron leaders and there is no one to replace them at this time. So I put it to you, team leaders. Cadet Trevis, as a former sergeant in the Space Forces Ground Army you have clear leadership experience and potential. However, you are lacking in flight experience. Cadet Amare, as a former chief in the Space Forces you also have displayed leadership experience in combat and have some limited flight time. Both of you are equally qualified.”
Blazer considered the implications of the coming decision and caught Zithe sitting up prouder in his seat. A slight smirk formed on his face. This decision had the potential to change the power dynamic in the squadron and the team in a big way.
Trevis raised his hand.
“You are volunteering cadet?” Joda asked.
“Nay sir, I not be wishing for the position of squadron commander. I be needing to learn too much about flying to be taking that on too. I be seceding to Cadet Amare. She be having two annura on me with the fleet, and be leading more diverse groups. She be the more qualified to be squadron leader.”
Blazer exchanged a quick glance with Arion. Arion nodded in appreciation before Joda cleared his throat to draw back their attention.
Seri then jumped to her feet and addressed the group before turning to Joda. “I gladly accept the role and duties of squadron commander. I would however like to discuss it more with you when you have an availability, sir.”
