by K. Aten
“Oh?”
“I know that you and my daughter translated the new documents while on the railer. She mentioned that you and I shared similar concerns about the potential for destruction and abuse of the antoraestones. I have no doubts that ’Vienne will be the one to find the third temple, but for my own peace of mind I would like someone on the ground with her who takes a more practical approach when dealing with world destroying artifacts.”
Tosh drained the rest of her scotch and sat forward on the chair. “What exactly are you saying?”
Olivara’s violet gaze met Castellan’s with all seriousness. “I’m saying that I don’t ever want the antoraestones found. And if such a discovery were to be made, I’d be just as happy if they could be destroyed or locked away until we were capable of dealing with their power.”
“And you don’t trust Olivienne to carry out this task?”
The Queen looked at her knowingly. “I know my daughter, she usually sees the good in something and forgets that there are often two sides to everything. She is much like her father in that way.”
Seeing that their glasses were empty, Castellan offered to play host once again. “Would you care for a refill?”
Olivara held out her empty glass. “Actually, I would appreciate some water.”
Lt. Commander Tosh’s mind whirled with the Queen’s words even more than after her meeting with the generals. As she rinsed the empty scotch glasses and filled the Queen’s with water, she thought about what the sovereign was truly asking of her. Could she push aside her and the Connate’s contentious past and become the professional Shield officer that was needed? Castellan drew in a deep and calming breath before heading back outside. She handed the Queen her glass and rather than sitting down, Castellan straightened her uniform and drew herself up to full height. “If accept this post, I need reassurance on two points.”
“Go on.”
The officer held up a single finger. “The first time the Connate violates protocol resulting in the injury of her or another, I will be reassigned from this position.”
Olivara scowled. “Give her three chances to prove herself.”
A pale eyebrow went up in response. “You have assured me that your daughter is a changed woman. Are you really willing to risk three citizens to Olivienne’s willful disobedience?”
The Queen sighed and rubbed her temple. “You’re right, of course. My apologies. What was the other thing?”
Castellan held up a second finger. “If I need to be reassigned to a different post, I keep my promotion to Commander and it will not affect my potential for advancement down the road. That promotion was promised to me for stabilizing the region around Ostium.”
“That seems more than fair, Lieutenant Commander Tosh. Why would you think that you’d be penalized for reassignment?”
Tosh’s face darkened. “I have already had my future career threatened by General Leniste if I do not take this position.”
It was the Queen’s turn to be surprised. “And still you turned it down?”
“I have my honor, ser!” Castellan’s reply was nearly indignant and Olivara smiled to hear it.
The Queen set the glass aside and stood to face the officer dressed in blinding white. “I can assure you on both points. Now, do we have a deal?” She held her hand out and with only a sec hesitation, Castellan clasped it within her own. When the Queen released her, she smiled at the younger woman. “I will personally let General Renou and General Leniste know of your decision. I will also tell them of your conditions and that they were approved by me. As for now,” Olivara looked around the tranquil estate then turned back to Tosh, “I will tell you to relax until you next meet with your new Corp leader. I would like this transition to be as smooth and fast as possible because you will have your work cut out for you when it comes to putting together the right team. But I trust you to handle it all with skill and panache.”
Tosh bowed to her, ever so slightly. “Thank you, my Queen.”
“I think I will take my leave now after all...I can never escape the office for long. My advisors are convinced that my face alone governs Psiere, rather than my intellect.”
Castellan gave her a rakish smile. “Well then, they are seeing only half your substantial charms.”
Olivara laughed and pointed at the daring woman. “Oh, how smooth you are, Commander.” The Queen paused to take in the soldier before her. “You know, my daughter spoke well of your brilliance...she never mentioned how dashing you were. Had I never met my wondrous Keshien, someone like you would have surely turned my head to oathing. Good dae, Commander!” And with those last words, the Queen teleported away. Castellan could only stand there in disbelief with a blush rapidly staining her cheeks.
AFTER THE QUEEN’S visit to the Renou estate, everything moved quite fast. Before Castellan knew it she was given a completely new wardrobe and assigned an office in the Shield Corp headquarters, as well as given Capt. Shendo’s old room in the bottom floor of Olivienne’s home. It was originally meant as service quarters but Olivienne had no need for such things so she just turned it over to whatever Shield captain she had at the time.
As for the Connate, at first she was overjoyed to find out that Castellan Tosh would be assigned to her Shield unit. However that joy soon turned to blinding intractability when she discovered to what extent Tosh would be changing the unit. They clashed of course but Commander Tosh remained firm with her course of action.
Perhaps what annoyed Olivienne more than all the changes was that Castellan had become like a stranger with her no-nonsense professionalism switched on one hundred percent of the time. Gone was the woman who had started to become a friend and more on the railer. No matter how many times Olivienne made her interest in more personal pursuits known over the course of Tosh’s first weke as Commander, the officer never once acknowledged the offer.
For her own part, Castellan thought she would go insane between Olivienne’s hot attraction and her cold protests against team changes. It was enough to give her a headache most daes. On top of her issues with the Connate, she was saddened by the fact that four of the ten original members of Olivienne’s Shield unit asked to be reassigned. She assessed the remaining six to verify their fit in the newly revamped team.
The six that remained were Lt. Gentry Savon, Spc. Ben Devin, Spc. Gar Soleng, Spc. Zed Qent, Spc. Gren Holling, and Spc. Eliseo Calderon. All but Calderon had been on the railer for the trip south. Spc. Calderon was the unit pilot that had been on leave at the time and Holling was their medican. It was too bad that he was one of the four that remained on the railer when Tosh was shot. She really had gotten lucky with the proximity of the telesana channel doctore.
Shield Corp members were considered the best of the best. They had to be in order to qualify to protect Psiere’s royal family and all the interests of the sovereigns. There were only two routes that led to a person wearing the infamous black uniform. You could test in straightaway after completion of an advanced Academy track. Or you could be invited to join like Lt. Savon and Tosh were.
But it wasn’t as simple as a mere invite. The Psi Shield Corp required a minimum telekinetic channel rating of four, and an all-channel average rating of four. That put them well beyond the average citizen of Psiere. Shield specialists and officers also needed to pass stringent physical and psychological evaluations, as well as have a commission specialty or advanced specialist training. There was no better soldier than the ones in the Shield corp. The black uniforms were truly a symbol of pride and excellence.
Tosh sat at a desk in her office at Shield headquarters with two files in front of her. The first one contained a collection of Shield Corp records for each specialist currently unassigned to unit duty. The second was full of Defense Corp officers that were eligible to be invited into the Shield Corp. Castellan felt pretty accomplished with the way she had already filled five of the eight empty positions within the unit.
One thing she noticed with the previous units for Oliv
ienne was that they were almost predominately male. Since the team was responsible for guarding a woman, it made sense to have guardians who could follow her wherever she went. That meant Tosh had to not just plan around security and career, but she had to balance the team as well.
Lt. Savon was excellent at planning as well as being a tinkerist and Tosh brought Lt. Auda Madlin on board to act as his balance. She too had tinkerist training as well as being a senior officer. Spc. Devin had advance training in salvo and rescue so she brought Spc. Tian Meza on board with the same training. Spc. Soleng was an engineer with focus on mechanics and the addition to balance him was Spc. Branda Leggett with her generalized engineering commission.
The medican, Spc. Holling, was joined by Spc. Almeta Yazzie. Yazzie had been serving in the Defense Corp prior and had recently transferred to Medi Corp, much the way Gemeda had. Both women stated that the reason they were leaving Defense was because they felt a lack of challenge in their careers. While someone like Dre. Shen was much too valuable to pull into the Shield Corp, Castellan was delighted that Specialist Yazzie had both accepted her invitation and passed all the proper tests.
Tosh was surprised to note that Spc. Qent not only had a commission as an adventurist, but he also had advance specialist water training. When she looked through the un-assigned file two daes previous, she found another specialist who would be a good balance. A woman by the name of Veva Dozier also had an adventurist commission and advance training in caves and mountain work. Specialists Qent and Dozier were sure to come in handy as the translations of Antaeus documents sent them on more and more missions. Adventurists were known to travel all over the two continents and she wanted her team to be ready.
Five daes into her new promotion and Cmdr. Tosh was quite pleased to be left with three positions to fill. But those three specialists were taking a considerable amount of thought process. Occasionally she would rifle through a stack to look at a current team member before making notes and going back to her selection stacks. When she was done, she looked down at the vellum she had been making notes on. She was interrupted from her rumination by a knock on the door.
“Enter!” As soon as General Renou had cleared the doorway, Castellan stood and saluted her superior officer. She was a little surprised by the unexpected visit, but not completely so. The clock was ticking down on the amount of time she had to build her team. She knew Olivienne would want to go out sooner rather than later and she wanted to be ready, if only to prove that neither she nor her Shield unit would slow the adventurist down. “Ser! What brings you to see me?”
General Renou took a seat in a guest chair near Castellan’s desk. The small woman looked around at the spare office, not at all surprised that Cmdr. Tosh had not wasted any time on personalizing it. She suspected the only reason the commander was even using the office was because she needed the files that were available within headquarters. “I stopped to check on your progress. How goes the hunt?”
Tosh straightened a stack that was less than square on her desktop, then looked up to meet the general’s silver-gray eyes. “Well enough, I believe I’m nearly finished. You heard that four opted for transfer?” General Renou nodded. “My original objective of staffing up to the full fourteen members was of course made more difficult when I suddenly found myself down to six.”
“And how do you find those six? Are they all acceptable within the plan of this proto-type team the Queen has requested?”
The commander nodded. “Luckily, they are all well-qualified and good fits for what I envision. Noting a lack of gender diversity, I’m adding a significant amount of female specialists. I surmised that with our assigned sovereign being female, we should have specialists prepared to go wherever she goes without awkwardness or discomfort.”
Camen Renou smiled to see Castellan Tosh living up to her full capability. “The fact that you are seeing these things right from the beginning tells me that you will be a different sort of Shield Corp leader from all the captains we’ve had in the past. Where are you now in the process?”
“I have been attempting to not just balance the gender of the team but also match existing resources as well as add people with resources that can directly help with the Connate’s occupation as a historical adventurist. I never realized how many people came out of Academy with an adventurist commission. While most likely not practical for standard Defense service, or even standard Shield service, I think it is a great addition to this team. My current status is that I’ve filled eleven out of the fourteen slots.”
General Renou motioned toward Castellan’s vellum. “May I see your list?”
“Sure.” Tosh slid the page across the desk to her senior officer.
“I see you’ve added another lieutenant to supplement Lieutenant Savon. Good call on that.” She pointed to another section of the page. “What is this section here?”
Tosh leaned forward to see the page. “That is a list of all the resources I currently have. I was hoping that if I wrote everything down, anything missing would be obvious. I’d be happy to hear any suggestions you may have.”
Renou squinted. “Where is your communication specialist?”
“What?” Tosh peered at the page in shock. “How could I have missed something so vital?”
The older woman chuckled. “Don’t worry, it happens to the best of us. I see you have one pilot already, what about another? I always find it handy to have people that can fly or drive anything. You never know what will happen out in the field.”
Tosh nodded. “Both great suggestions. Just one meen...” She rifled through the stacks until she pulled out a file from each. She opened the first one and scanned down the page. “Specialist Dante Lazaro has commissions in both communications and chemistrae.” She set that file aside and opened the next. “Specialist Necole Lear just spent four rotos on the eastern side of Endara and has only recently returned to Tesseron. She’s currently serving in the Psi Defense Corp but her file is flagged for a Shield invite and she’s also due for reassignment. That leaves me one short.”
Interested, the general leaned forward slightly. “What do you have in mind?”
Castellan sighed and rubbed at her forehead tiredly. It had been a long morning of staring at files...a long weke. “I was hoping to bring an interpretist into the unit because I’ve witnessed how vital that role is in the Connate’s dae to dae investigations. Unfortunately, I found no one in my files that had that commission.”
Renou rubbed her lower lip thoughtfully. “I may have someone that would fit the bill. She is commissioned as both an interpretist and a communications specialist.”
Tosh sat forward abruptly. “That would be perfect! Is she in the Shield Corp?”
“Unfortunately, no. Ciera is with the Divinity Corp, which as you know has always held an interesting collection of talents all geared toward solving the Divine mystery.”
“Bollux!” Castellan sat back in her chair and shut her eyes out of sheer frustration.
She was brought out of her dejection by quiet laughter. “Fear not Commander, all is not lost.”
“But if she is neither Defense, nor Shield, your interpretist would not pass the necessary tests!”
General Renou smiled. “You younger generation officers always think the combat corps are the only ones with exemplary skill! I do believe that Interpretist Penn would pass the physical and psyche evals. She has a four rated telepathic channel, as well as a four eidetic memory and threes in both enhanced memory and intuition. Yes, she is quite the intellectual, but also very fit.”
“And how do you know so much about Interpretist Ciera Penn? And how was she not steered into Defense during her initial Psi tests?”
Renou touched the side of her nose and winked at Tosh. “She is my sib’s daughter. As for her career, Defense was an option for her, as was Academic. Ciera is incredibly well-rounded. But my sib has always been an overly protective father and begged her to steer clear of the military corps. Ciera said that Divinity sounded
most interesting of the other two available. I know she loves her job, we have spoken quite a bit. But she is too much like me I think and would welcome a faster-paced career.”
Castellan smirked at the general’s wistful tone. “But won’t your sib be angry if she switches to Shield Corp, after trying so hard to keep her out of the more dangerous professions? How long has she been out of academy?”
Camen Renou’s eyes twinkled. “He’ll be furious but Steben is my younger sib and has been a pain in my backside for my entire life. I trust you to keep Ciera safe and well managed and I will look forward to Steben’s upset. As for my niece, she just turned twenty-five and has been out of Academy for about three rotos now.”
“Well, as long as you can convince Interpretist Penn and she passes all the tests, I would gladly welcome her on my team. Will you contact her todae?”
The general smiled broadly. “I can do better than that if you let me use your teleo.” Castellan stood and moved the teleo from one side of her desk to the corner nearest General Renou then waited while the general flipped the correct switches and punched in a connection code. After a few secs wait, Renou began to speak. “This is General Renou calling for Interpretist Ciera Penn...yes, I’ll hold.” A meen went by before Renou began speaking again. “Ceecee? What would you say about an offer to join Shield Corp? Too intellectual? Actually, I’ve got someone putting together a new kind of team and provided you pass all the usual tests, you have just the skillset she’s looking for.” A sudden screech could be heard over the handset of the teleo and Renou quickly pulled it away from her ear. She looked at Castellan with a grin and covered the speaker with one hand. “She’s excited.”
Castellan grinned back. “So I gathered.”
