Cadet: Star Defenders Book Two: Space Opera Adventure

by Pamela Stewart

  It didn’t take long for me to get an answer.

  A rumbling sounded, then a single light flashed. An object hurtled toward me.

  “Proximity alert. Please stand away from the transporter tube,” the overhead voice chimed as if reminding me to take my bags upon exiting.

  I’d lose a lot more than my bags if I didn’t scramble.

  I jumped backward and hugged a wall beam. My muscles screamed, but I kept my feet as the hauler slammed by me without even slowing down. I had been lucky that time. The haulers were small. How much longer would that hold out? What if a passenger bullet used this line?

  I should go back. I should go back now.

  Why had my parents put me in this position? Why did they always fail? At everything? I’d given them credits. It should have been more than enough.

  But it wasn’t. Never enough for them. Nothing was. I closed my eyes, but images of my sisters broke the darkness. My parents had never been there for me. But I could be there for my sisters.

  The tube stretched in two directions. My family lay at one end, and safety and my friends on the other.

  I didn’t hesitate. There was no going back now, only forward, and I trotted down the tube. I imagined my sisters again before I forced my walk into a run. They needed me. I wouldn’t let them down.

  Chapter Forty-One

  Vega

  Once we were dismissed from the flight deck, and I’d spoken to Jess, I chased down Binary and McKenzie.

  “I want to thank you for what you did. You took a risk standing up for me. And...”

  Binary waved a hand and frowned. “Pilots stick together. You're one of us now. Bonded forever, right?” She looked down at McKenzie, who nodded. She was proving to be a speaks-with-her-fist kind of girl, which was fine. I understood that.

  “Want to meet up later? A bunch of us are going to the humbleball game and to kick around town.”

  “Are we allowed?”

  She snorted. “We’re pilots!” She said it as if it carried some gravitas. “Plus, my father is the Captain of the Valhalla. He gave me loads of passes.”

  The look on my face must have shown my concern.

  “You worry too much. Meet us at the bunks at 1800, and you’ll see. You can invite a friend if you want.”

  “Thank you! I might just do that. See you later.”

  The girls left for their next class. I was one of them now, which was the first time I’d felt any kind of positive since coming to this station.

  Maybe Amelie would want to go? No, it would be Dax. We’d both talked about our love of the game. I couldn’t wait to see him.

  Combat Class was uneventful. Gleason ignored me. I worked with a group of kids I didn't know. Most of them were scared of me, unsurprisingly. I had gone toe-to-toe with the teacher...I'd failed, but there was a certain distance I was accustomed to when I showed my planetstrength.

  I searched for Dax and Am, but neither appeared.

  Neither responded to the coms I sent between classes either. A low-grade worry rippled in my guts, but I shrugged it off.

  There wasn’t a place safer than the Mil-station. Classes must be consuming them. And I had other friends that I wanted to connect with, and a social outing was just what I needed.

  A real humbleball game in the flesh! My dad and brother would be so jealous.

  The dark specter of my brother coated my good feelings in ice. Would I ever know what had happened to him? Breathing deeply, I banished the thoughts of him and went to my next class, Space Aerodynamics. I’d much rather fly the ships than learn why they flew, but I’d do whatever it took to get my wings.

  I MET BINARY BY THE barracks at 1800. She led Kenzie and me out into the atrium, flashed her pass, and exited...just like that.

  “We should grab the next tube, or we'll miss the game. The Hub is a good distance from here.” She wore a casual bodysuit in white, not as stylish as something that Amelie would wear, but it worked for her tall, muscled frame. Kenzie was her foil as always in dark colors and wearing a dark green cloak, which was the most stellar thing I’d ever seen. It reminded me of OE fairy stories.

  I had no idea where we were going or how we’d get there. I just followed along. I'd never been anywhere in the Axis besides the Mil-station and a med satellite once.

  I wore standard-issue civilian clothes that I’d borrowed from Amelie back on the shuttle, and I’d pulled my hair up. I was still super-short, but so was Kenzie. For once, I fit in.

  We sat on the hover benches that lined the outer walls and waited for the next train. The rotating display said it would be arriving in the next ten minutes.

  Binary broke away from us and commed someone, whispering. I hoped all her paperwork was in order.

  I'd seen vidclips of those who'd gone AWOL from the Mil.

  It wasn't pretty.

  Corporal punishment was still a thing on the Axis. It wasn't used often anymore, but sometimes they made an example of some poor soldier.

  Punishments included things like public floggings, radiation exposure, or being sent to the asteroid mines. That was for the worst of the worst, years without natural light, in dank, cold darkness, digging all day. Even the mine on Clementine would have been better.

  We waited in companionable silence. I finally decided to try and get Kenzie to talk.

  “Where did you learn those attack moves you used on me? I've never seen anything like them.”

  A smile spread across her face, and her eyes lit. She liked this topic.

  “On my world, we hold to the old ways. We studied what our ancestors used in war and adapted it for the modern era. It's unique to my culture.”

  “Wow, that's interstellar. Would you consider teaching me a bit? As long as it’s not offensive to you or your people.”

  She looked up at the reflected red Sol light glistening through the polypastic roof of the station and tapped a finger against her full lips. “That was a respectful request.”

  An odd thrill ran through me. I loved learning useful things. Amelie loved all knowledge and could file it all away in terabytes, but I had only so much bandwidth, and this was something that would not only help me but maybe bond me with my new squad.

  “Thank you. It will be an honor to train with you.” Her face glowed. “Let's start.”

  “Huh? Now? Here?”

  “What better time?”

  The station wasn't bustling, but the hard poly-plastic flooring didn’t look very forgiving. I'd been beaten a lot in the last three days. Not much on me wasn’t already aching, but I wanted friendship and camaraderie. Damn it.

  “Okay.”

  Standing, she motioned me up. Binary had finished her call and slid onto the bench. The sides of her lips quirked up.

  Kenzie crouched into a fighting stance and motioned me to copy her. I lowered into a half squat.

  Shaking her head, she pushed me down farther and modeled the right stance again. This time she nodded and shifted her weight from foot-to-foot. She raised her hand and pointed to me to join. My thighs burned, but I did it.

  “Prime work. You are the cobra looking for a place to strike.”

  I was pretty sure I knew what a cobra was, some OE reptile that had venom. I’d never seen one, so I copied Kenzie instead.

  “Go lower. Crouch. Feel the wave.”

  “Am I a wave or a cobra?” My legs quivered as I shifted my weight again.

  Binary stifled a laugh. Kenzie cut her a look that shut her up. Binary was usually the lead, but in this, McKenzie held the power.

  “Feel the flow. Close your eyes. Sense the energy around you.”

  Feeling energy sounded like the Sol worshipers that had come to evangelize my colony years ago.

  It hadn’t gone over well.

  Their chapel still stood empty on the outskirts of town. I liked real things that I could punch.

  I tried it though, more to appease Kenzie than anything. The sounds of the waiting queue crept into my consciousness with chatting and mo
re voices. I could almost feel the eyes on me.

  A crowd gathered, and a boy approached us. No, a man with dark hair, and he was attractive wearing dress whites, an officer.

  Ethan. Again.

  Was he following me?

  I tipped back onto the floor, legs flung upward. A few snickers erupted from the onlookers. I scrambled to my feet, brushing off my rear.

  “Watch yourself. You lost concentration.”

  “Sorry.”

  Anger roiled up from the hot rock in my stomach that never really cooled. Then he put a hand on Binary’s shoulder. She smiled. Not a smile I’d seen from her. This one crinkled her eyes and showed her teeth.

  A flirty smile, and it was directed at Ethan.

  My anger tightened every joint as I straightened and stared.

  Kenzie stopped her tutorial, her gaze gliding over me, Binary, then Ethan. She shook her head and crossed her arms.

  Was it a coincidence that he was there? Probably not. Nothing was a coincidence when Ethan was concerned.

  “What’s wrong, Vega? You look like someone just swiped your guzzle chips?” Binary asked.

  “I...I...just didn’t know anyone else was coming. I thought it was just us.”

  Binary grinned, this time a closed-lipped smile. Her eyebrows raised and head cocked.

  “Naw, instructor boy looked like he needed a break. What happened to your blond friend and that Hub boy? Feel free to ask them to join us.”

  I’d not heard from either all day. I tried again and couldn’t raise them.

  But there was someone who may want to go. Ethan didn’t make eye contact with me.

  “Give me a second.” I stepped away and tapped a quick message into my wrist com unit. The train whizzed into the station as I waited for it to connect.

  The door slid open, and my group stepped forward. Right before the door slid closed, a message scrolled over my com.

  Meet you there.

  I smiled at Binary and found a seat with McKenzie. This was going to be interesting, whether I liked it or not.

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Amelie

  Nanami remained alive and in intensive care. I’d checked using one of my backdoor connections to the server. I’d learned a lot on the Lazarus about what the brass could and couldn’t trace. The knowledge made me want to be a better hacker.

  I’d been pulled from all of my classes to assist Dr. Sinclair.

  Of course, he was Axis-famous and one of the most brilliant men of the last century, but I hadn't wanted it like this. As I stirred the slimy goo and watched the small, toothy creatures snap at each other, all I could see was Nanami’s pale face gasping. Writing notes and observations became difficult. I did it, of course, but not with the same fervor I had before.

  “Any win is a good win,” Mom would say.

  I hated my mom sometimes.

  It seemed like they were growing these creatures and tweaking certain aspects to make them more resistant to lack of air, food, and water.

  Proper research for our future gen mod program, but I couldn’t see the current application to the Mil-station. As a gen-mod, I’d been custom designed to have certain aesthetics: hair and eye color, height, and body type, mostly external. Sometimes genes sneaked through the process that were less than desirable.

  Like in my case.

  Sinclair didn't share much of the whys of the experiments, but he did give me a list of tasks to perform. I deciphered some of his methods. Most of the tests revolved around reaction time, cognitive functions, and resistance to radiation.

  I tracked percentages of proteins, carbohydrates, and minerals that were in the water, changing it from aquarium to aquarium to find the right mix to make these small aquatic creatures grow faster. It seemed like the ultimate goal of the experiments was to see how quickly these creatures could achieve sexual maturity.

  Again, my brain tried to figure out reasons why they would be doing this. Maybe to assist in feeding the population of the Axis?

  But we had tanks full of different aquatic creatures. And now most were shipped from planetside. Planetfarmed fish was succulent compared to the tank-grown tripe.

  “What are you doing? The XP2 experiment requires regular infusions of calories at precise times.”

  I dropped my wooden stir wand and spun. The doctor had sneaked up on me. The feeding light had lit, and I'd ignored it. I hadn't forgotten.

  Now it was time to defend my efforts. I hoped he didn't chuck me out into the hall. “Studies by the Intergalactic Science Institute in the early 2400s concur that intermittent fasting increases growth hormone. After reviewing the research notes from the last six months, I ascertained this wasn't a variable that had been tested. I only did it with vat C holding the other three constants. You do want to see how fast they can grow, correct?”

  The doctor rocked back on his heels. Eyes wide.

  “You determined how to run my experiment, after being on the team for two days?”

  Oh no, I'd overstepped my bounds. I just never could figure out the right way of acting around other people. I would have been grateful for an assistant who took initiative and reviewed months of monotonous experiment notes and attempted a new method.

  He wasn't like me. Heat rose in my face and I waited, barely breathing.

  The doctor shuffled up to the vat, muttering under his breath. “Spoiled, know-it-all Sat-brat interfering...” He looked at the readout and sucked in a breath. “You were correct. Even the short-term effects are noticeable.”

  He shifted to look at me fully again. “Don't adjust experiments without permission again. That will result in your expulsion from the Academy or worse.”

  I didn't want to know what was worse than that, so I merely nodded. “Yes, sir. Doctor, sir.” Awkward. Always so awkward.

  “Hmm.” He narrowed his eyes. “I need a prime assistant with enough intelligence to understand what I'm attempting. If you continue to make precise observations and bring the results to me, then I will consider you for the position.”

  “Yes, sir,” I finally settled on. Even if he wasn't an officer, it was polite.

  Another snort and he marched back to the prep area, pulled on his protective lab wear, and disappeared through the poly-steel reinforced door. The door required ocular verification. There would be no hacking that door.

  Probably.

  Today was improving.

  Remarkably, I was fine with not being accosted by that Gleason character again. I just missed Vega and Dax. Especially Dax.

  I hoped he didn't do something stupid and brave again today. He couldn't afford any demerits.

  The vicious little creatures flowed around the vat in fascinating patterns. I noted their speed on my holopad.

  Nope. Life was getting better and better. My parents were quasi-pleased with me... or at least remembered I was alive. Dax liked-liked me. And it was possible I could avoid any more wastes of time like flight training. I'd be doing what I loved in a position that my parents would approve of. For the first time since I could remember, things were looking up.

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Ethan

  The look Vega gave me should have struck me dead as a laser pistol. But I had expected it. I knew I would have to do some bridge mending again.

  Binary had caught me in the hall after class.

  I'd been asked out by girls before, especially when I was a smuggler for the Hub. Young as I was at the time, I had a look that females seemed to like, but this was brave. To ask out her instructor. Not necessarily against the rules but borderline.

  “Don’t worry. There’s a group of us going: Kenzie, Vega and her friends, and me. You’ll be safe. Pretty much.” She tilted her head to the side in a come-hither way.

  I needed to keep tabs on Vega, for her own good. Maybe extract some of the information I needed. But was I using this girl to get to Vega? Was it right? Gleason would say so.

  Me? I wasn’t quite sure.

  “It would have to be on a
friendly basis only. I am your instructor.”

  Her smile lit the corridor as she jetted off. My heart drooped at the memory. Now I was stuck trying to draw information from Vega.

  If only I could just tell her that she was in danger and ask her straight out about the pirates.

  But I couldn’t. It was confidential. Caught between the girl I cared about and my duty, I couldn’t betray either.

  We boarded the train and shuffled single-file to our seats. Each side of the train had multiple pods of four, two seats facing two. I assumed they were to encourage conversation. Thus far, they had not been successful.

  I sat with Binary, who turned to face me. She laid her arm casually on the back of our joined seats—a high-level maneuver. I’d used it myself when I was attracted to someone. I stopped the sigh that struggled to escape. I had told her this was just friendly, but it seemed she was taking that as a challenge.

  Vega’s eyes tracked Binary’s movements.

  Interesting.

  She seemed to be upset about Binary’s interest in me. Maybe she didn’t loathe me as much as I thought? Or perhaps I was reading too much into a situation.

  Vega and Kenzie sat across from us, so the lack of conversation was like a living thing. All eyes skittered, avoiding direct contact. Binary and Kenzie had the window seats, so they had an excuse until we hit the internal tubes, no visibility, only more infrastructure, and tunnels for miles.

  I shifted in my seat, trying to find a comfortable position. I had been in two types of social situations when I lived in the Hub.

  Predator and prey.

  There had been rules of engagement, and real relaxed moments were rare.

  This felt like the Hub.

  I leaned forward and propped my arms on my knees. Allowing some of my tiredness and worry to ease off.

  “How did you become an instructor? You’re very young to be a lieutenant.” Binary’s honied voice brought me upright.

  “I was recruited a few years ago. I tested high enough to go directly to training, and I graduated in two revolutions.”