Chapter Sixty-Six
Ethan
Waiting was the worst. If I was going to get punished, I wished Gleason would just finish it and send me packing back to the Hub. That would be fun as there were at least two bounties out on me now. Or he could send me to the brig or exile me to one of the mining asteroids. I'd disobeyed his orders and helped Amelie and Dax.
Why had I hoped I could get away with it? Why had I thought it was a good idea?
Because Vega wanted it. No, it wasn't just Vega. I'd wanted to help Dax.
I stood at attention in the circular room, deep in the center of the Mil complex. I'd been trained here. So much pain and blood. But I'd come out as an agent. I'd wanted nothing more.
Two agents flanked the door on the inside and refused to meet my eyes or answer my questions, following orders.
The double doors opened, and a man in a lab jacket entered. I didn't see an insignia on him, but I remained at attention anyway. Some of the med crew didn't wear their stripes, but that didn’t mean they didn't have them. Then I noticed someone standing in the shadows of the room, arms-crossed with a glare that could kill. Gleason.
“James, I hear you've had some trouble following orders,” the doctor said.
I didn't reply, but dread crept through me. When the white coat showed up, things got bad.
“Come with me, James. We have some things to discuss.” He motioned me to an opening I hadn't noted before. It had a transparent door and led into a room that smelled of antiseptic and alcohol. Gleason followed silently and avoided my gaze. The pit in my stomach yawned.
A weird sensation, like a low electrical current, was running under my skin, and I automatically scanned for exits, but there were no outlets to the central station. The doctor looked a bit too smug and took off his magnifiers. Gleason settled in the rear of the room again. His quiet scared me more than anything. I had always gauged Gleason’s moods by his volume. This was new territory.
The doc looked at me as if he could see inside of my skin—creepy.
“What is our motto, Junior Lieutenant James?”
I wanted to be flippant, but I gave him the party line. “Bonded forever.”
I had prepared for a beat down or being tossed into the brig but not questioning in the med facility.
“How do you feel about the Axis military?”
“Good, sir.”
“Good?” The doctor wrapped his hands together behind him and circled me. I wanted to follow him. I didn't like him behind my back. It felt like he might jump me at any moment. He had the same energy as any of the predators in the Hub, looking for an opportunity to attack.
I didn’t know what game we were playing. Or if it was a game, what were the rules.
“We don't feel as if your loyalty is as strong as it once was, Junior Lieutenant James, but Commander Gleason assures me of your commitment.”
My eyes flickered to my CO again. I let a bit of the panic creep out as Gleason pushed up and walked forward.
“Remember who rescued you from a smoking mass of twisted metal? Who gave you training and a purpose?”
“You, sir.” I started remembering some of the questions they had asked me repeatedly when I’d first been recruited. Just the same questions over and over again while they showed me images of Hub horrors.
They showed me everything I had understood about the Axis military and what good it was doing for the universe. How I could be one of them.
I’d tried to leave at first before I’d understood.
I found the more I agreed, the easier my life became—the more food and resources I received. Things were just...better.
“Have you forgotten everything the Mil-station has done for you? Everything I’ve done for you? How we saved your life? How those Hub bastards tried to kill you again and again, and we saved you?”
I couldn't deny it, and suddenly waves of real guilt rose, thinking of my behavior for the last few weeks.
“I've always been loyal to the Axis Military. And to the Phantom Corp.” I said it like a prayer that would keep me from any punishment. ”And to you.”
Gleason stepped closer and looked at me square.
“Then why haven't you found out any information about the traitor Vega Volante?”
The last phrase hit me like a slap.
“She saved everyone aboard the Lazarus.”
“How did Vega Volante survive a direct assault from multiple assailants on Clementine?”
I swallowed. No matter what I said or did, it would be wrong. It would hurt someone. Gleason had been my only family. The only person who had my back for six years. In the Hub, loyalty meant something. But Vega hadn’t done anything wrong.
“I-I-” I was going to say I didn’t know, but I couldn’t lie to him. My resolve weakened.
His face shifted from stoic to imploring. “Ethan, I can only protect you so much. Your career and mine are on the line. Tell us what you know. The worst that could happen is that we question her. If she tells the truth, she’ll be released. Simple. But we have to have cause to bring her in.”
“Her brother helped her. He went AWOL and joined the insurgents. She can’t be responsible for her sibling’s loyalty.”
I had no doubts about Vega’s loyalty and that she didn't know where her brother was. I had complete faith in her.
The doctor’s eyes widened. He pulled up a holo screen and scrolled then nodded. “Subject 728. I should have known. We had verified reports that he had been eliminated. He has technology that could undermine the safety of the entire Mil-station. Do you think she doesn’t know? Why didn’t she tell us about him?”
Part of me understood. If I'd had family, I would've protected them, but to me, Gleason was family.
“I don’t know why she never reported seeing him, but she’s no traitor.”
“And what do you say, Junior Lieutenant James, next time you face a choice between a pretty cadet and helping your brothers and sisters in arms?” Gleason asked.
“Bonded forever,” I whispered, feeling suddenly unsure and unsteady.
“You’re now assigned to the Ax-Atlantis as a pilot. Good job, son. You’re dismissed,” Gleason said.
I turned to leave, the hollow feeling only worsening with every step.
Chapter Sixty-Seven
Vega
It took a few minutes for me to clean up, calm down.
I crashed in the cot. Hard. Binary and Kenzie had found their bunks and snored peacefully. What felt like seconds later, the lights burst on, and the morning alarms sounded.
Binary, McKenzie, and I scarfed down a semi-tasteless protein composite in companionable silence. No one wanted to rehash what had happened, but I felt a new connection with them. We made it to the flight deck early.
“How are you feeling?” I asked Binary at last. She looked bright-eyed and alert as if nothing we’d done the night before affected her.
“Stellar.”
“Really?”
She snorted. “Vega, that was like a normal Saturday night back on the Valhalla. You know what it was like growing up the daughter of the captain on a ship full of bored soldiers?”
I shook my head.
“You see a lot. Nothing much shakes me now.” Her expression grew distant, then snapped back to the moment.
“Hmm. It must have been hard.” So many people had lived such different lives than me: Binary, Ethan, Dax, those poor Hub-slaves, Amelie. I’d never considered how varied everyone’s background would be when I started my mandatory. How diverse and interesting. Terrible and beautiful.
“I wonder where Teach is?” Binary said.
Gleason entered the room, and I closed my eyes. What was he doing here again? Jess stood nearby, back in his dress whites.
Gleason’s eyes skimmed the class. He gave us a wide toothy grin that appeared unnatural on his stern, heavily lined face. His beard was wild and unkempt, and he looked like he hadn’t slept in days. I knew the feeling.
He strutted through our ranks, moving wi
th the knowledge that he could drop any one of us from the program on a whim. He disappeared behind me, and I tensed, ready for anything.
I felt the warmth of him before I saw him from the corner of my eye. He paused, then continued in a slow, deliberate walk, as if he were trying to pick the meat for his dinner. He eyed us, standing with his chin and chest thrust forward.
“You are potential Star Defenders pilots. We call on you to do things that no class has done since the original Defenders. You’re being asked to face Hostiles and protect the Mil-station with your lives.”
What about the colonies and other stations? And where was Ethan? What happened? Had he gotten caught helping us?
McKenzie stepped forward, her expression blank as she waited to be recognized to speak. What the hell was she doing?
She didn't look haggard or bruised. I would never have guessed she'd been out all-night battling in the Hub.
“Permission to speak?”
Gleason nodded in her direction.
“Sir, where is Junior Lieutenant James? I thought he was our instructor.”
Gleason appeared pensive for the first time. He licked his top lip then looked at McKenzie.
“He's been reassigned.”
Binary’s eyes widened, and we shared a long look. Gleason had us move to the ships in lines.
We walked in silence, not in a real formation, but Gleason’s presence dampened any casual conversation.
The old excitement heated my blood as a flight plan flashed on the screen.
“I'll be sending random simulations,” Gleason said in my helmet com. “Your guns are only set for stun, so they won’t do damage, but you will earn points. Go full out. Try to take down your classmates. Your performance will help me determine who will be assigned first and who will be retained for additional training.”
I flipped the flight-ready sequence above my head.
“Separate into Teams A and B. Most kill shots wins.”
My monitor showed my group outlined in blue. I turned off the AI assistant and headed out.
Kenzie came in hot, guns blazing. I pushed down on my controls and swooped under her attack.
Binary and Kenzie ran on Team A, the red team. Gleason had put all the better fighter pilots on Team A.
I knew because I was on Team B. And my team kept losing. And losing badly.
If there was one thing I hated, it was losing. But I was learning. I may not have known what all the different controls did, especially the fancy ones, but I knew my basics.
And the more I flew in this agile ship, the more I improved.
It took the other cadets five minutes to kill me this time. It wasn't good enough. The Admiral was gonna be choosing the best.
And I wasn’t the best.
Hell, I wasn’t in the top ten. I was going to have to corner Ethan and get the extra training he promised. Tonight.
The thought made me want to cry.
I had been beaten to a pulp every day this week. There was nothing on me that didn't scream.
All the confidence I’d felt on the Lazarus ebbed after everything that happened in the Hub.
If my friends couldn't depend on my strength, what else did I have? My mind was distracted, and Binary tagged me. I was dead...again.
The lights in my cockpit flashed red, and I was instructed to come back to the landing pad.
Dammit, I’d allowed my thoughts to wander. And now I’d screwed up. I got down on the flight deck and watched the rest of the dogfights.
Only small flashes of photon blast showed their locations. They blended into the sky so perfectly.
The projected map showed their formations. The pilots banked and dipped so fast it was hard to keep track.
Behind me, the Admiral stood with Jess and Gleason.
Binary and McKenzie’s Team Supreme systematically destroyed the rest of the squadron, and her team was announced the winner in my headset. She was fantastic. Maybe even as good as Ethan.
She was intuitive, fast, and smart. Two times the other fighters had ganged up on her, but she maneuvered, letting them almost ram into each other as she cut her engines and doubled back.
It was a thing of beauty. Maybe I should take lessons from her instead of Ethan. They landed. We stood in formation, ready for a review of our performances.
Gleason descended the open-air staircase that separated the upper observation deck from the flight deck. We held our helmets to the side and stood at attention.
The smell of exhaust cooling engines wafted from behind. With a harsh exhale, Gleason stalked through the group. The atmosphere sent a ripple of apprehension through me. He paused and met everyone with a steely glare and stood in the center of the group stroking his beard.
“Some of you did very well.” Some eyes flicked to Binary. We all knew she was the best.
“Some of you did acceptably.” This time he lowered his gaze to Kenzie, one of the flyers who had survived much longer than me.
“And some of you did... Let's just say you will not be on a battlecruiser anytime soon.” His eyes speared me.
Knives rippled through my heart.
I’d thought I could make it. My shoulders collapsed, and I closed my eyes against the pain. I'd be stuck here learning stupid quantum physics while my parents were fighting for their lives.
It almost broke me. I almost stepped out of line and screamed that I needed to go. I was good enough. But some sense of self-preservation saved me.
Maybe it was the warning look that Jess gave me as he was coming down the stairs. And I remembered it wasn't just Gleason who would choose. Maybe I still had a chance.
“The SIMs will be open after hours for additional training. I wouldn't expect anyone to advance enough to change their position, but you never know. Dismissed.”
The Admiral had followed just down to the launchpad.
I caught Jess’s eye as the class broke apart and cornered him.
“Jess! I'm so happy to see you.”
“I'm happy to see you too, Vega. What the hell happened last night after we were separated? You don't... You look like you’ve been through quite an experience.”
“You know me. Trouble magnet.” I indicated my entire body.
He laughed, and I smiled at him. Being with Jess was easy and comfortable. We always had a rapport even though he was a military brat, and I was planetborn. We both had worked hard, and we both thought of others first. Maybe that was why we always tended to get along.
“How are my chances looking?” I honestly didn't want to know, and his drooped eyebrows verified my fears.
“There are some outstanding pilots in this group. The Admiral has some opinions already.”
“But there's still a chance?”
He looked up at the sky as if deciding how much of the truth to tell me. I hated that. I didn’t like candy-coated facts.
“My dad always said if the crops have the croak, it’s better to know so you can plan for the worst.”
He shook his head. “I think I understand that reference. You want the truth straight up?”
“Have I ever wanted less?”
He gave me a smile that melted my insides and made me forget why I was upset for at least five seconds. He was a charming, strong, beautiful man. So level headed and kind.
For some reason, I thought of Ethan. He was a Hub kid who'd had a tough life. Who’d both betrayed and saved me. A boy who maybe didn’t even know who he was.
I shook my head and tried to focus on what Jess was saying next. Weariness made it hard for me to focus on anything but a sharp pang in my stomach.
“You'd have to show a great deal of improvement. I mean, there's always a chance. I'll use my influences as much as I can. I’ll show him your previous file. Having experience with the Hostiles is a definite benefit.” He pressed his lips together. “I'm just so used to telling you things. I know I can trust you implicitly, but I'm under a lot of scrutiny, and if I tell you too much, it would be bad. For both you and me.”
I wanted to hug him. Instead, I gave him my best smile.
“Stranger things have happened. I don’t plan on giving up. It’s not in my DNA.”
“Yeah, I think your DNA is part bulldog, part OE butterfly.”
I tilted my head hard to the right and tried to imagine the OE versions of those two things together. “Poetry is not your thing, but I appreciate the sentiment.”
We had a casual rapport, which was so nice after all the animosity with Ethan. I shouldn't compare them. It wasn't fair to either.
After being at the Academy, I understood better why Ethan had kept his identity a secret. Every movement was judged, every word weighed, every action analyzed. Everything was a test.
I couldn't say what I would’ve done in his shoes. Although I’d rather chew on a proton blaster than to be a spy and have to lie all the time. Give me a good honest, face-to-face fight any day. But did it change anything between us?
The students scattered, rushing to their next classes.
I looked up at Jess with one final smile. “I gotta go.”
“Bye, Jess.” I couldn't remember where I was supposed to go next. I pulled up my schedule and found Analysis of Aerodynamics in Space. The thought of it was painful, but such was my life until I could earn my place on a ship and get back home.
Chapter Sixty-Eight
Amelie
I couldn't believe the doctor wasn't in.
Doing busy work in the back lab after last night was torturous. I could barely stand up straight.
I'd just been desperate for something to get my mind off what Dax had said. He’d been angry that I’d helped him. Angry at me. I stabbed at the tank with my wooden prong.
All I had to distract me were stupid aquatic creatures that did nothing but eat and reproduce.
Sinclair hadn't officially picked his new first assistant. I had to stay alert. I reviewed the notes from overnight and watched the vidcaps. Most notably, these creatures grew at a phenomenal rate.
I examined them more closely. They looked like tiny monsters with big teeth. Creepy but fascinating. What had they mixed to get such a creature? I wondered what creature’s DNA they had combined?
Cadet: Star Defenders Book Two: Space Opera Adventure Page 32