The Inquisitors (The Space Merchants Book 6)

by Wendie Nordgren

  Whispering to Cormac, I whispered, “What crawled up their asses?”

  “Most of the Warrior Caste is opposed to females joining our ranks in any capacity. As it stands, the only branch that will accept members of the Materfamilias Caste is that of the Inquisitors. Strict guidelines will be put in place to restrict female participation in field assignments outside of Parvac controlled space. In effect, females will be given research and clerical positions.”

  I sighed. “That’s better than nothing.”

  “I’m relieved you think so.” Cormac led me to a transport and then drove me to the Academy where he taught me the correct way to salute and then turned me over to my instructor, Inquisitor Rovek.

  “Ensign Probus, you will spend three hours here each day. Allowances for you have been made due to your Imperial status and familial obligations. Your time here will be divided between academics and self-defense. Allow me to introduce you to your academic class.” Inquisitor Rovek gestured for me to enter a small room containing chairs and free-standing vid-screens where two other students currently engaged in their studies.

  “Aunt Teagan!” Galina said.

  Rovek barked, “Cadet Treves, as you were.”

  Galina paled, sat, and went back to work on her assignments.

  Inquisitor Rovek continued. “You are familiar with Cadet Treves. Your other classmate is Cadet Rheanna Verok. The three of you have made history by being the first females ever admitted into any military branch in the Empire. I expect decorum and maturity at all times that you appear in uniform.”

  Galina’s cheeks had turned red, and I offered her a sympathetic glance.

  Inquisitor Rovek pierced me with his frightening glare. “I refer to you, Ensign Probus. Holding hands with a superior officer while skipping down the Palace halls was asinine.”

  “Well, I guess it’s a good thing that they didn’t see me with my legs wrapped around him before that.” I gave Inquisitor Rovek a healthy dose of my fully matured Parvac pheromones and watched as his pupils dilated, and the fight went out of him.

  “Aunt Teagan,” Galina scolded.

  I laughed and took my seat.

  “For that, you will spend time in the ring, Cadet Probus. Get to work.”

  I chuckled and rolled my eyes at his departing back. He had resorted to calling me a cadet to piss me off. Galina, Rheanna, and I had to begin with the same educational programs that the youngest cadets were given. However, we could progress at our own paces. It only took me an hour to complete the curriculum assigned to ten-year-old cadets for their first year. Understanding the programs and how to navigate them allowed me to complete the second year more rapidly.

  “You’re really smart, Aunt Teagan. I’m still on the fourth lesson in the first year.”

  “Galina, I already did all of this back on Earth when I was your age. It’s not that different. So, are they being nice to you here?”

  “Yeah, it’s different though, being away from home. Rheanna and I have an entire dorm room all to ourselves.”

  “We got to pick whichever bunks we wanted and get the bathroom all to ourselves,” Rheanna said.

  “How many bunks are in a dorm room?” I asked.

  “Ten,” Galina answered.

  Inquisitor Rovek came back and escorted us to a large gym. “Cadet Treves and Cadet Verok, you will train with the other first years.” The girls joined a group of about twenty boys and began doing sit-ups. He led me over to a smaller group. “Ensign Probus, you will train with your team. Within this facility, Cadet Cedrenus is your commanding officer. Regardless of your rank, you are junior to Cadets Binder and Ross. The four of you will train together each day. Cadet Cedrenus, Ensign Probus owes me disciplinary time in the ring. See to it.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Inquisitor Rovek strode away from us.

  “Already in trouble?” Cadet Cedrenus asked.

  I started to shrug, but recalled one of the very first lessons and answered with the appropriate, “Yes, sir.”

  Inquisitor Rovek shouted over his shoulder so that everyone in the gym could hear, “Ensign Probus is to be treated like everyone else.”

  Well, maybe he wasn’t such an asshole after all. I smiled at his departing back.

  “Come here,” Cedrenus said. He tossed me a pair of gloves and put on his own pair. Then, he climbed into the ring. “I’m sorry about this. Try not to get into trouble again, alright?”

  I had the sinking suspicion that I was about to get my ass handed to me. I joined Cedrenus in the ring. He started to circle me. He looked like someone who had been served all of his least favorite foods but had no choice but to eat them. Darting in, he gave my gloves a gentle tap.

  “Oh, come on. What the fuck was that? She wants to be here. She thinks she’s good enough to be one of us,” a male said.

  Cedrenus stopped and turned to glare at him.

  Another male said, “Yeah, she may have fucked her way into our ranks, but now she has to try and remain. I’ll bet she won’t last the week.”

  “I didn’t fuck my way in. My team made it to the beacon. But, hey, at least I know how to fuck. If I had fucked my way in, I’d already be an admiral. Come join me in the ring. It’s probably the closest your dick will ever get to a female.” I smiled down at him. I was ready for a fight.

  “Teagan, what are you doing? He won’t go easy on you. His House is greatly opposed to female military service,” Cedrenus scolded.

  Another male yelled, “She’ll probably cheat and get one of her husbands to fight for her.”

  “I don’t need to cheat.”

  The male yelled, “Go get her, Clark!”

  Cedrenus looked pissed, but he hopped down from the ring. Clark put on a pair of gloves, ran, grabbed the top rope, and leapt over it and into the ring. He tapped his gloves together, gave me an evil grin, and came at me. For an eighteen-year-old, he was corded with muscle, and he was fast. Clark was also intent on putting me in my place, and from the look in his eyes it wouldn’t be a pedestal. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the wide, frightened eyes of Galina and Rheanna. This is what they would face, males trying to scare them out of their secret club, males using their strength to subjugate females.

  Knowing my history as everyone did, Clark probably assumed I would cry and drop out. However, a lot about me was probably classified. Clark didn’t know me. I wasn’t the emotionally crippled girl who I had once been. My training with Yukihyo clicked in my head, and I began moving my feet. Clearing my mind of everything but Clark, I moved to the side just as he was about to hit me in the center of my face. His punch had enough strength behind it to stir the air. Clark meant to hurt me.

  I avoided a series of strikes and pivoted away. All of my moves were defensive. I would become tired before Clark even became winded. Avoiding a punch to the ribs, I was unable to get out of the way of the fist that glanced off my jaw. My head flew back with the force of it and rattled my brain. Ducking low, I got away from him and to the ropes. Clark came after me. Instead of running, I charged him, getting in close to his body. I brought my right fist up into his nose and drove my knee into his side twice before he spun away. Now, he looked angry.

  I smiled at him. He came at me like a starved ice bear. I dropped and kicked out with both feet at his ankles, knocking his feet out from under him. Clark was airborne for a glorious moment before he caught himself on his hands and flipped himself over and back to his feet in a move that reminded me of Hiroshi. I couldn’t avoid a punch to the shoulder. I spun with the force of it and jumped up, putting my roundhouse kick into practice. My foot connected with the side of his face. Clark took a second to shake his head. I used what I had learned from sparring and from watching Yukihyo’s fights. My legs were stronger than my arms. I lashed out with my right foot kicking Clark in the leg with all of my strength. Then, I tried to sweep his legs out from under him. It didn’t work. His glove filled my vision, and a pounding filled my ears. Yelling surrounded us. I jumped back up from
where he had laid me out on the mat.

  “Haven’t you had enough, little girl?”

  “No, little dick.”

  Anger filled his eyes. I grinned at him and moved to the side as he lunged for me. I got him in the eye before he had me against the ropes and started raining blows down on me. Gasping and desperate, I dropped to the mat, crawled through his legs, and kicked the back of his knee as hard as I could. He staggered and turned. I kicked him in the face. With a roar, he grabbed my ankle and knocked me flat on my back. I brought my legs up around his neck and twisted. His expression turned from rage to shock. I squeezed harder until he stopped struggling. When he hit his glove against the mat, I let him go. His face and neck slowly changed from purple to red as he breathed in the air I had kept from him. Our spectators were quiet.

  A male cleared his throat. “Ensign Probus, I will spar with you tomorrow. Your left hook needs a lot of work,” Ensign Bishop said.

  I recognized him from the awards ceremony. “Thank you, sir,” I said.

  I bowed to Little Dick Clark and climbed down from the ring. Cedrenus helped me out of my gloves. I gave a nod to Galina. She had a fierce determination sparking in her white eyes. Cedrenus, Binder, and Ross, walked with me into the locker room and over to the infirmary. The doctor on duty looked furious. To Cedrenus, he said, “You should have been the one to spar with her.”

  The cadet bowed his head in shame.

  “No, Clark wanted to see if his dick was bigger than mine. I had to whip it out and show him,” I said.

  “Oh, shut up. I piss harder than you hit,” Clark said as he entered with his team.

  “I went easy on you. It was your first time being with a woman.”

  The doctor was dabbing at my bloody nose. I jumped when I saw Inquisitor Rovek watching us. “Cadet Cedrenus, each day, you and your team are responsible for bringing Princess Probus to the Academy and returning her to the Palace. She may outrank you at the moment, but don’t forget that she is your most junior team member. Each of you is responsible for her. Is that clear?”

  “Yes, sir,” they said as one.

  Less than an hour later, they drove me to the front of the Palace and walked me up the front steps where both Cormac and Eli waited. Unreadable as usual, Eli stepped close to me and trailed his fingers over my face. He didn’t say a word. The boys with me were actually trembling in fear.

  “Dismissed,” Cormac said to them. They saluted and left.

  “When I’m at the Academy, stay out of it, Eli. I need to do this.” His eyes left my cheek and found my eyes. “They are trying to scare us out, and I won’t let them. If you want to help, then help me study. Bishop offered to help me.” I lifted my chin.

  “Yes, he is a bright boy. Siding with you is the smartest thing he can do for his career. In your good graces, he might gain more power for himself. These boys aren’t typical soldiers that you might find in the fleet or the army. They are shrewd, cunning, and violent. Most of them have a sadistic streak or can distance themselves from their emotions. Don’t be fooled by their ages into thinking of them as harmless. They are pups now but grow into sharks.”

  I moved closer and rested my head against Eli’s chest. Closing my eyes, I wrapped my arms around him and hugged him as I did Papa. The tension melted from me, and I felt safe. Leaning back, I smiled up at Eli. “I love you.” I lifted up on my toes to kiss his cheek and then went to my wing where I took a long, hot shower.

  By the end of the week, I had settled into a new routine. I woke up early, played with Peter, Niklos, and Neema, and had breakfast as Princess Teagan. Then, as Ensign Probus, I went to the Academy until lunch. After the cadets took me home, I conducted myself as Princess Teagan again until the next day. In a moment of self-discovery, I realized that I thrived on living a double-life. At the Academy, I had to follow rules and obey others, but I could be myself, and I had a tendency to be sarcastic and crass. My smart mouth was helping me get better sparring partners. After our first match together, Clark wouldn’t even make eye contact with me. Academy gossip was that Clark and his team had had a midnight visitor who had terrified them. I didn’t know if it had been Eli, Kaoti, Drex, or someone else, and no one would tell me. I decided to find out.

  After completion of my second week at the Academy, I had mastered the educational programs through year eight which put me at the level of the eighteen-year-old cadets. That was when I began to feel challenged with new material and unfamiliar terminology. However, as a level nine cadet, I was no longer sequestered with Galina and Rheanna. Instead, I was allowed to study with my team. They even helped me with my mathematics and chemistry, my weakest areas of study so far.

  Everything was going great until Inquisitor Rovek walked in. Without saying a word, he handed Cedrenus a data chip and then left. Curious, we all crowded around Cedrenus to see what was on it. Unfortunately, the message was encrypted. It took us the next two days working together while running continuous programs to decipher it. All we discovered was a set of coordinates and orders to remain a cohesive unit.

  Cedrenus said, “This is on the other side of Parvac.”

  The rules for any assignment were always the same. Arrive at the target without discovery and await orders. Cadets weren’t allowed to use any transports owned by themselves or by their families, or anything that could be used to trace our identities.

  “How do we get there?” Ross asked.

  “Leave that to me,” Binder said. He had an affinity for hacking into locked systems and rerouting power, when it didn’t cause an explosion.

  “I’ll handle our disguises. Trust me,” I said.

  “I’ll start running scenarios,” Cedrenus said.

  Ross said, “I’m on weapons and tech.”

  Cedrenus said, “We’ll pick you up at the Palace at the regular time tomorrow to avoid suspicion.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  That evening, after the children had gone to bed, what I would do for our disguises finally came to me. With very little persuasion on my part, I had our disguises prepared and my plan organized.

  When my team picked me up the next morning, they seemed nervous. “Are you ready to go?” Cedrenus asked.

  “No, I had an idea. Want to hear it?”

  “Alright, Bishop’s team already got caught this morning. They never even made it to their target,” Ross said.

  “Shit.”

  Bishop had a reputation. He was the best, always. I told the team my part of the plan. They were not enthusiastic, but they were game. We spent our morning in our classroom. Then, at lunch time, they dropped me off as usual. When my children went down for their naps, my team slowly started to trickle into my wing.

  An hour later, Sparrow, Tracy, Violet, and Terre left the Palace to go shopping. Laughing, Violet said, “Do you see how he looks at her?”

  Terre stared pointedly at her.

  “Now, ladies. Let’s focus on having some fun,” Tracy said.

  They got inside of a Palace transport and went to a boutique where they spent a few credits.

  “I want to visit the indoor market that Teagan told us about,” Terre said.

  “Fine,” Sparrow said.

  They hired a nearby shuttle and flew to Cephissus. Violet pulled a frilly dress she had just purchased from one of her bags and held it up. “How do you think I’ll look in this?” she asked.

  Sparrow said, “Dickless.”

  We all laughed. Binder, who appeared at the moment to be Terre, lowered the shuttle. Then, when Violet and Tracy walked arm-in-arm into a café, the other ladies followed. Violet, who was actually Cedrenus, entered our code into a device we found under one of the café’s chairs. My green and gold eyes were hidden behind black films. It had been easy for me to disguise myself as Tracy after the experience I had had with Sara Eos. While waiting in line, I rubbed my left thigh, trying to make it appear as though I attempted to hide my discomfort.

  “Are you alright?” Sparrow, actually Ross, asked.

 
; Tracy nodded.

  We all ordered and sat at a table. Men smiled and flirted with us. We flirted back to a small degree, except for Sparrow. She just stared at them.

  “Ready to shop?” Violet asked.

  “No, I have to go tinkle,” Tracy said. The four of us went into the bathroom together. True to my word, or rather Tracy’s, I went into a stall.

  “Seriously?” Cedrenus asked.

  “Yes. What? You don’t need to go?”

  “Shit. Yes, but how?”

  “Carefully, hold your skirt up so it doesn’t get in the waste unit.”

  From the stall beside me, Ross asked, “So, where to?”

  Cedrenus said, “We are to search the home of Captain Osvaldo Decius.”

  “For what?” I asked.

  “It didn’t say.”

  We left the café and entered a dress shop where we immediately began trying on clothes. No one noticed when a maintenance worker left the store out of the back exit. We were still trying on clothes when he returned an hour and a half later with an encrypted message. Then, with several shopping bags, the ladies returned to the Palace.

  The next day, my team picked me up. In our classroom, I asked, “So, what did you find?” Cedrenus held up a scrap of paper. He slid it over a table to me. I read, “Cedrenus Team passes.”

  The sound of a voice made us all jump. “Very good. Yours was the only team to succeed. The level twelve team who was tracking you still hasn’t figured out how you did it.” Inquisitor Rovek gave us a rare grin.

  I smirked. “They allowed themselves to be distracted by beautiful women. See? I told you pink was your color,” I said as I smacked Binder on his arm.

  Rovek smiled which was frightening. “You have the rest of the day to enjoy your own pursuits.”

  After he left, I said, “I’m taking that as permission.”