The Sixth Line of Defense

by Shiva Winters

Chapter Two: Clearing Horizons

  "Hey there aren't you a cute little thing." The voice was an unwelcome drawl accompanied by some foul smelling breath and a presence in very real danger of facing some serious bodily harm very soon in its' future. While stopping had been a necessity, Shiva could help but wonder if there had been a more upscale kind of convenience store that could have served their needs.

  "Back away if you want to keep breathing." Shiva growled back at the unseen figure as she contemplated one of the ten dozen ways she could end this foul smelling figure hovering behind her.

  "I would do as the lady says before one or the other of us decide to end you." Gregor's deep bass rumble was most welcome at that moment and the figure casting a shadow over her quickly found a reason to retreat quickly away from her.

  "Thank you." Shiva whispered to him cautiously as he slipped in next to her at the drink fountain.

  "You get that a lot?" Gregor asked giving her a surprisingly gentle smile.

  "Often enough.. but being certified as lethal makes it a lot harder to prove 'reasonable force'." She whispered back to him, he gave a happy chuckle as she slipped away and moved to pile her armload onto the counter on top of what Hornton had already put up there.

  "Hey!" He complained a few seconds before Shiva held out a 100 credit bill over to the chuckling clerk. "Fair enough." He agreed as he too laughed. With everything bagged up, Hornton almost seemed playful as he offered his free arm, and feeling just a little guilty about how she had acted towards him the previous afternoon, it was hard not to take the offer. As they slipped outside Shiva was struck by the sight of two police cars parked nearby something that stirred up a serious dislike within her programmed instincts. "It would take more than a couple of street cops to make me feel comfortable about hauling you in." He whispered to her, surprised that he had noticed at all, she looked up to find him smiling down at her.

  "Sorry.. habit.." She mumbled uncertainly as they reached the car.

  "Training." He corrected without hesitation. "But since you were trained to kill on sight, I am just as glad that you are breaking that training." He murmured as he helped her into the front seat. "Gregor, I'll drive the next part you get some rest." He called back to the approaching figure before he closed her door.

  "Thank you sir." Gregor murmured as he climbed into the back seat.

  "How much further is it?" Shiva asked as Hornton took the driver's seat next to her.

  "We should be there by tonight." He told her with a smile as Gregor got comfortable in the back seat and they moved back out onto the road.

  "Do you think we should wake her up?" Gregor's voice murmured from the front seat. It was the slowing motion of the car that had unsettled her from her dreams, but it was his voice that set her towards waking. Still tired and not entirely sure if she was ready to wake herself up completely, she was nevertheless surprised to discover to find herself curled up once again in Hornton's arms. Though her first instinct was that he might not be so blameless in this, she was too comfortable in that moment to really decide to get angry about it.

  "No, let's hold off on that until we get where we are going." Hornton murmured as the car came to a complete stop and a moment later she was aware of flashlights washing across the two of them as several figures moved around the exterior of the car. The sound of the electric motor of the driver's side window came next and there was a subtle shifting of paperwork being passed about.

  "Lieutenant Hornton to see the Dean, he is expected." Gregor murmured as a wash of cooler air drifted back over them.

  "It's late." Another man murmured disapprovingly.

  "Hence she wouldn't thank you for delaying us any further, she is aware of our expected arrival time." Gregor stated with authority and rumbling disapproval.

  "Take the first right turn, go straight past the fountain and take the first left turn past that." The other man wisely relented and the car was soon moving. A moment or two later Hornton's arms shifted around her as the comforting warmth moved away much to her unintentional disappointment.

  "You can stop pretending, sweety." He whispered down to her, surprising her with his sharp perception and stunning her with a nickname that she would never have expected him to use for her. Shiva shifted up and then reluctantly away from that embrace not certain if he had been the one to gather her up or if she really was the one crawling over to curl up in his arms. It was hard to make out much of anything against the dark of the night and beyond the street lamps that illuminated the small streets, but soon enough there was a massive glowing fountain of light and dancing water 30 meters tall surrounded by a beautiful gardened square. At the promised next turn, the softly glowing building glimpsed in the nearby distance seemed to recall Hornton's words about this being the school for the elite. All at once and completely against her usual nature, Shiva found herself trying to comb out her hair with her fingers. "You look good, Shiva." Hornton murmured touching her arm gently, giving her a warm smile when she looked up at him with surprise. "But you are so pale, don't you ever get some sun?" He teased surprising her once again with the change in his attitude.

  "We were designed to survive in the harsher light present before the nanite dispersal of 2082, the ones that reseeded the ozone layer." Shiva murmured, he gave her a thoughtful expression and nodded back to her perhaps having forgotten that point of far off history. The car soon drew to a halt in front of the truly beautiful grand entrance to a mansion. It was a very large building, far bigger than any she had seen close up and it was most certainly an impressive structure with all the 'classical' taste of a previous age and all the sculptural elements to make more like a work of art than merely a building. But between it and that all too impressive fountain Shiva was certainly getting the first clues to back up that she was indeed finding herself on the fringes of one those schools for the elite. Hornton slipped out into the cool night air long before Shiva felt quite ready to follow him and Gregor stepped out of the car leaving her little choice but do the same. Truly was she was more than a little worried what events might follow since Hornton had seemingly told her nothing but the truth, for as much as she would never have 'fit in' at the normal high schools she had attended she wasn't sure if she wouldn't stick out even more prominently in an environment so entirely different than the ones she had seen before.

  "Devin!" A truly beautiful older woman called out as she emerged from the front door and came jogging across the distance towards him. She was certainly dressed for bed and her graying hair was left loose to fall over her shoulders and dance in the air as she ran up to throw her arms around Hornton in a very affectionate hug.

  "Devin?" Shiva murmured teasingly up to Gregor who chuckled and gestured her for to be silent as he unloaded her luggage from the back of the car.

  "And you must be Shiva." From one moment to the next the beautiful older woman was standing over her and reaching out towards her. Surprise and her own uncertainty about the situation produced an over reaction as she stepped back quickly and nearly slammed into the side of the car as she tried to back away. "Well at least your first instinct wasn't to hurt me." She murmured with a good natured chuckle and a warm smile as she moved close enough to reach out and touch Shiva's cheek. "Come.." Her order was given even as her hand ghosted down Shiva's arm to tangle their fingers together. As much as this behavior was extremely unacceptable to her unsettled senses, Shiva couldn't quite force her many objections to the surface as if some outside force was able to push aside her instincts and training. Even as her right arm extended out to take Shiva's fingers it was almost easy for Shiva's sharp eyes to spot the Series 3 tattoo that was inked permanently into the older woman's skin. "Devin, be a dear and take her bags up to the guest room. I can assume you'll both be staying for a bit, so just park the car somewhere out of the way."

  "As you wish, my lady." Hornton murmured sounding uncharacteristically playful as Shiva was lead up the front steps and into
the beautiful shadowy interior of the grandly appointed spaces beyond. As she was lead along past and through any number of richly appointed rooms, Shiva had a hard time not feeling even more out of place and emotionally off balance.

  "I won't ask if it was a nice trip, after all two days in the car with two men.." She chuckled as Shiva was lead through the dark house and into a softly lit kitchen. "Would you like something to drink?" She asked softly touching Shiva's shoulder as her hand was released near the stools sitting around the island. She nodded uncertainly and that confusing stranger stepped away to dig into cabinets and retrieve certain items to fulfill Shiva's half hearted request. As she climbed up onto one of the stools as she could not help but see her own serial number emblazoned across the files and pages spread across the counter top. She couldn't quite help herself but to shift some of the pages where she could reach them and read through some portions of her Earth Defense force personnel file. It seemed obvious that this was Hornton's doing since he was one of the few who had access much less motivation to put those top secret and unredacted documents into this woman's hands. "They didn't include your psychological profile if that's what you are looking for." The Dean commented to her having easily caught her snooping as she returned to a nearby stool. Looking away guiltily, Shiva accepted the cup of cocoa and shifted uncomfortably on her stool. "It would be illegal for any school to have that kind of information, not that I should have any of this.." She chuckled softly at that.

  "I'm still top secret.." Shiva agreed with a small little nod.

  "Clearance 3-A and above actually.." The Dean agreed as if she actually knew about that sort of thing, much to Shiva's surprise. "If some of the things Hornton has told me about some of the others is true, they wouldn't want anyone in the public sectors to know about you." She added with a sigh as she picked up one of the pages and glanced over it. "Was that what you were looking for?" She asked pointedly fixing Shiva with a piercing look, not quite able to meet her gaze, Shiva nodded in return. "Trying to find out if all of this told me that you have a few problems?"

  "Yes.." Shiva whispered back to her feeling very uncomfortable and just about half convinced that this was a very bad idea, and wishing she hadn't let her heart be swayed by the idea of going to a school without any gangs.

  "Devin would never have asked me for a favor if there wasn't a problem." Shiva felt her heart sink at those words, exhausted and left feeling uncertain by the previous two days, she could almost feel her emotions ready to spill over. "But he wouldn't have asked for a favor if you weren't worth it." Shiva's head snapped up to look at her, the Dean smiled and rubbed her knee encouragingly. "What did you get into trouble for?"

  "Fighting.." Shiva whispered back to her.

  "Did you start those fights?" She asked, Shiva shook her head. "But you finished them?"

  "No.." Shiva whispered back to her, looking away as a ghost of her anger surged upward. She made an interested noise in return, making it clear she expected Shiva to finish the rest of that answer. ".. had I 'finished' those fights, all of them would be dead."

  "Twelve altercations total, all with older boys all of whom had long histories with violence." Devin murmured as he entered the room having kicked off his shoes and taken off his suit jacket. "And one accident." He added with a small smile for Shiva as he dug something out of the refrigerator. "Despite the less than perfect circumstances, Shiva has a perfect gpa, her test scores are through the roof, and she has an IQ that probably can't be calculated by our most modern tests. As is only fitting for someone who shares the legacy of Series 3." Shiva gave him a curious look. "We were altered to be the greatest scientists, cryptologists, and analysts ever known, kiddo."

  "Well I understand that all of these occurrences of violence involved boys, but you make it sound like girls never find a reason to start fights, Devin." The Dean murmured over to him sounding just a bit annoyed. "Well I can tell you that they do, and it seems to me this happens more often when their aren't any boys around." She added coolly, glaring over at Devin who smirked back at her.

  "I.." Shiva murmured softly not entirely sure if she should interrupt the ongoing conversation. ".. don't care what people think or say about me, I never have. I don't starts fights, because I take no joy in combat." The Dean gave her a cold measuring look and it didn't take Shiva more than a heartbeat to decide she didn't like that look and met that look with a burning glare of her own.

  "Stop it, Shiva." Hornton ordered warningly, her eyes dropped back down to the floor though the desire to defy him was strong. "This is her last chance, Seila. She got misjudged right out the gate and has been taken from one bad situation and put into another for the last two years. She has not once used excessive force.."

  "Hush." The Dean murmured bringing his words to a halt. "Come on, Shiva let's get you up into a proper bed, we can talk about the rest of this later." In truth Shiva was starting to have trouble keeping her thoughts focused on the shifting conversation and was in no mood to argue with her on this issue. With a nod her glass was set aside and the Dean captured her hand to lead her up a staircase and into a mostly dark room. Feeling just a little uncomfortable, Shiva stripped out of most of her clothes before sliding under the covers the Dean drew back at her approach.

  "Shiva, I don't think I can ever truly understand what it is that you are going through.. and I know I don't even want to try and imagine what you've already gone through." The Dean whispered softly to her as Shiva was tucked under the covers. "I don't know if Devin is right and all your problems have stemmed from boys, and I don't know if this is the right place for you but.." She smiled at some thought she didn't seem ready to share. "Series 3 were recreated from people selected from the new recruits during that war, an experiment in making people smarter. We knew about the outside world long before we were released into the public, but you didn't have the benefit of that experience. So.. I'll make you a deal.. I'll just pretend that you are just like any other student if you promise me that you will do your best to stay out of trouble."

  "What happens if I do get into trouble, you stop pretending?" Shiva asked softly, having problems keeping her eyes open at that point but only too aware of how important this conversation would be later.

  "That depends on what kind of trouble it is.." The Dean murmured back to her. "Fighting, hurting someone.. destruction on a massive scale.."

  "Rape, torture, murder?" Shiva suggested hiding a small smile at that.

  "Don't tease." The Dean gave her half a glare, but with just a hint of playful amusement sparkling in her eyes and tugging the corners of her lips into a smirk. "I find myself debating how much I should tell you, I honestly don't want to discourage you."

  "Discourage me?" Shiva asked, not liking the sound of that at all.

  "Yes.. well.. most of the girls at this school have lived lives of privilege, some might even say that they have been spoiled. Many of them are used to having their way and they can be most persistent if they feel that there is something that they deserve. I worry what might happen if they decide that they don't like you, and how you might handle that." The Dean explained softly reaching up to caress Shiva's hair as the younger woman slipped closer and closer to falling to sleep.

  "I don't know.. scare them.. just as long as they leave me alone." Shiva whispered back to her.

  "Just don't hurt anyone, finish out the semester here and if you decide you don't like it, I promise to help you find some place you like better." The Dean murmured down to her.

  "Deal." Shiva agreed before being overtaken by a yawn.

  "Sleep yourself out, I won't make you face them with too little sleep." With a sleepy smile, Shiva watched her retreat across the room to turn off the only light source. They said their good nights and the Dean departed before sleep could take her completely.