by Robert Byers
“Oh man, did you see him run?” one of the men said as he mimed holding his stomach and hopping back and forth on his feet. “He’s all ‘move your asses’ and I just lost it. Who the fuck does that shit?”
“That was just classic man!” the other said as he clapped his friend on the back and they continued making fun of the man. “He’s so freaking stupid, really leaving his food out in the open? Really?”
“I know right?”
It was disgusting to Tiberius, he couldn’t believe they’d dosed a fellow soldier’s food like that. “Did you guys really put laxatives in Ortiz’s food?” he asked them.
“Oi, who d’you think would do it if not us?” the first one said as Tiberius looked closer at patches. Walsh, Maddox Wash, he remembered the name from the profiles. “Man, that prank was amazing!” he turned and high-fived his partner, his patch read Black and Tiberius knew his first name was Caelan.”
“According to Regulation fifteen-point-three—”
“Are you really going to try to talk regulations with me? Boyo you don’t need to tell me the rules and regs, I’ve spent enough time breaking them over the past four years. Trust me.”
“Then you know that it was not a prank, it was—”
“What do you not understand mister skin and bones? I don’t care about your speech so go space yourself and do us all some good.” Then he leaned in closer and his voice became a low whisper. “Or else I’ll go do it myself.”
Walsh was really getting under Tiberius’ skin, here was a soldier who’d been in the military for four years and was proud of breaking all the regulations. He clenched his fists and snapped, socking the man in the jaw with a swift right jab knocking him on his rear. “You are going to stop this shit, do you understand?”
He stared at Walsh, felt him move just a bit before they heard a female voice fill the corridor. “On your feet!” both of them jumped quick enough that Walsh stumbled from the sudden rush of blood and almost lost his footing completely. “You two think it’s okay to fight outside of the ring, do you?”
“Aw c’mon Captain, he started it!”
She looked at Tiberius and raised a brow, “Is that true Cadet Vesper?” she stepped in front of him and stood there staring, she had to look up but her gaze made him feel less than an inch tall. He’d have sworn it was a superpower all squad leaders and CO’s had. “Answer me boy! I am your commanding officer and you will answer me when I ask you a question! Her face becoming red enough to match her hair.
Tiberius locked his gaze on Walsh and said, “It’s true, and I do have my reasons, Sir.”
“Reasons? You’re new here, so fucking green your grass beneath our feet and you tell me you have reasons for attacking a four-year veteran?”
“He drugged another soldier’s food and caused the soldier to rush to the bathroom, and yet it was all fun and games for them.
Captain Sidonia stared at him for a second and then turned her fiery gaze to Walsh, her question-in said gaze telling him that he had better speak up, and it had to be the truth.
“It was just a prank, nothing more.” He said trying to defend himself.
“Just a prank? Just a bleedin’ fucking prank to dose a fellow squadmate’s food and cause that sorta issue? If your dose was too much he could be shitting blood and have to be on medication for a few days. I gotta prank for you then, this is a good one.” She looked back at Tiberius. “Tomorrow morning you two are getting in that ring, if you can best him two out of three times then you’ll win an extra ration. Walsh’s ration.”
At the mention of what was at stake Walsh’s eyes found him and glared daggers at him, if looks could have killed Tiberius, he’d be dust in the wind.
“If you lose however you will give your ration to him. Oh, and here’s the prank part boyos.” She fixed them both with a stare that showed just how much she was enjoying this. “I’ll decide which meal you lose the ration at.”
With that she walked away to find her bunk for the night.
Both of the men glared at each other and Tiberius was certain Walsh wished death on him. He wished it himself, for a soldier to betray a brother like that was just disgusting. If it had happened back home Walsh would be found hanging from the side of his house with a knife in his back to symbolize why he was killed. But this far out from Terra things were done differently, and he didn’t like it.
They continued to glare at each other until Walsh finally turned around and stalked away with his friend in tow. Tiberius walked back to his bunk with Quintus to check on Ortiz who just shouted “I’m going to kill that fucking Briton!” at the top of his lungs as soon as he saw them.
It took an hour for him to come more than five steps out of the bathroom, but when he did Tiberius asked him how he was and filled him in on what the captain had said.
“You socked him a good one then? Well, I guess my monies on you to win the fight.” He said as he tried to sit on his bunk, gingerly thanks to the repeated trips to the shitter.
Tiberius’ eyes widened, “But betting is illegal in Imperial space, how do they get away with it?”
“Don’t be daft boy, it’s illegal which means the Captain gets the biggest cut of it.” Tiberius’ eyes were still wide with shock as he explained. “As long as we don’t do anything too crazy and make sure the good captain gets her cut she doesn’t pay us any mind.” Then Ortiz’s face turned dark as he stared at Tiberius intently. “You wouldn’t go snitching to the Admiral, would you? Because being new here, well that’d kill your career.” He held his hands up, “I ain’t threatening you now, I’m just speaking the truth. There’s too many people who rely on their winnings to chance it being messed up.”
He sat on the bed for a second and said, “So it’s illegal in Imperium space to gamble, but everyone is allowed to do it on this ship? Do I have that right?” he was trying to understand the gray areas here. When he was younger he never had to deal with gray areas of the law. There was legal, and illegal. It was that cut and dry.
Ortiz put a hand up and nodded. “Let me put it plainly for you kid. Most of us signed up for military service because we had— and still have— poor families at home and needed the sign on bonus. But that only helps for the short run, in the long run we needed more than what our salaries pay so we gamble. When you win a good chunk of money you can sent hom to your family who needs extra food, or to your son who needs new shoes…”
He stopped as he looked off over Tiberius’ shoulder, he couldn’t think about what would happen if he couldn’t get some money home to his family. “if it gets messed up because you tell the Admiral about it and he’s forced to do something then it’s going to hurt a lot of people. Which means that you are putting a target on your back because you just screwed a lot of families out of what they need to survive.”
Tiberius sat there and thought about what Ortiz had said when the speakers crackled and a voice called out, “Lights out!” and all of the lights went out simultaneously, and just as immediately there were two lights on either side of the room at the bathroom and the shower that gave off a soft light. These were the only way to see when they were supposed to sleep but needed to use the head, it was safer than trying to navigate the room by feel and trip over your own feet or slam into the sink.
—
Tiberius woke like the rest of them, with a loud alarm going off in their room that sounded like an alarm bell in each man’s ears. He woke with a start and rolled off of his bed and right onto the floor. Standing he shook the sleep from his head and tried to remember where he was, Quintus jumped down from the top bunk.
“Are you alright?” he asked helping his friend stand.
“Just not used to being woken up like that is all.”
“Damn newbie, you need to harden up or you won’t make it here.” Ortiz said to him as he sat up in his bunk and looked at the pair. “Seriously keep doing that and you’ll end up with a concussion.”
Tiberius stood and looked around, grabbed his brush and went to th
e head only to find their fourth member was in there already. He went down the hall to the larger communal bathroom that could fit just over a squad between toilets and sinks. Tiberius rushed through brushing his teeth and cleaning his face before turning to use the facilities and he saw his soon to be opponent.
Walsh stood in the doorway and stared him down. But Tiberius wasn’t afraid of him, in fact he was excited for it. He wanted to beat Walsh to within an inch of his life for his so-called “prank” and he was willing to face the time he’d do for it.
But it would be freeing in a sense as it would be the first time he blatantly just went against rules and laws. He clenched his fist, ready to strike him again here, ready to really fight him.
“Wait for the mat you two.” Ortiz said as he walked up and stood between them. “Go Walsh, get the hell out of here before you do something you’ll regret.”
Walsh stared at him a moment longer before saying, “Soon greenie, soon.” And he walked away.
Once he was out of the bathroom Ortiz looked at Tiberius and said, “Hurry up and c’mon, you gotta get ready for your match.”
Ortiz walked him back to his bunk and he got his drill clothes on, a tank and shorts along with his shoes and he was ready to go. He kept thinking about what Ortiz had said the previous night, that most of the soldiers relied on winning bets to help their family, that without those their families would starve. It was a lot to realize that the Imperium he was fighting for wasn’t as good and noble as he’d been led to believe. As they’d all been led to believe.
He was raised to believe that their leader, known to all as Emperor Augustine XV, was fair and a merciful leader. The only reason this sort of poverty was happening to the men and women who fought for their freedom against the rebellion and kept their boarders safe from any aliens that might try to attack them had to be because the Emperor wasn’t aware of it. It was the only logical reason he could come up with, otherwise the Emperor must know, but didn’t care. And that was something Tiberius could never bring himself to believe.
Quintus, Ortiz and Tiberius walked to the gym passing a couple others from their squad who followed them. Once they got there all of them could see how mad Walsh was as he stood in the middle of the mat. His face bright red and his fists white knuckled, he was ready for a fight, he was ready to kill his opponent.
Walsh was a little shorter than Tiberius and infinitely more muscular, but that didn’t always translate into being a better fighter. As with all of the men he was clean shaven, and his hair was worn short to the skin. His shirt was tight against his skin just as his shorts were loose enough to hug his hips.
“Okay ladies here’s what’s going to happen.” Captain Sidonia said as she walked onto the mat. “You can place your bets, but one of these boys is going to medical with how the fighting was last night, that’s a guarantee.” She walked closer to the edge of the mat and motioned for Tiberius to walk to her. “Tiberius Vesper, a child of Terra and new recruit has attacked Maddox Walsh, one of our brothers, much as we loathe him sometimes. So, they are going to fight until one of them is knocked out.”
Tiberius heard this and wondered what she was doing. They were never supposed to spar like that. When one tapped it was over, but a match like this was against their regulations because there was no tapping. “Ma’am?”
She looked at him and sighed, “Yes, cadet Vesper?” her tone told everyone how much she was going to loathe talking to him.
“In the rule book we are told to only spar until one person has tapped out, why are we going to ignore this and just go until one’s unconscious? And I thought we were supposed to go two out of three rounds?”
“Let me explain something to you right now boyo. You may be trained to take on a leadership role in the future. But here you will follow my orders until I tell you otherwise, got it? So, you can either avenge your fellow soldiers honor and take Walsh out with a vicious fight, or you can puss out and lose your ration, and any street cred you gained by knocking Walsh on his ass last night.”
He didn’t even need to think it over, he nodded and stepped closer to Walsh, on the mat.
“Good boy, so as I was saying. Walsh has offended our squad by conducting another of his “pranks” which ended in Cadet Ortiz sitting on the pot for a few hours last night. Tiberius attacked, and whooped Walsh’s ass to defend his fellow squad mate, and now he will get the opportunity to really defend his friend.” She walked off of the mat and stood at the side before smiling at them both, raising her hand and calling out, “Fight!”
Chapter 4
Tiberius stood toe to toe with Walsh, staring daggers at him while putting his fists up in a guard. He was waiting, waiting for Walsh to make the first move and come at him. But Tiberius wasn’t expecting for him to be so methodical, he walked with a predatory lope towards Tiberius, one that told of his experience in fighting. He kept his hands up, moving closer to Tiberius.
As the pair got closer to each other Tiberius struck first, throwing his right foot out with a sweeping leg, Walsh jumped over the leg and threw a haymaker at Tiberius’ chest. When it connected, and he was thrown backwards, Walsh looked at him like a shark that smelled blood.
He was on Tiberius in an instant and drove him closer to the mat with each attack. Tiberius blocked as quickly as he could, but he couldn’t block them all and was driven back into the mat hard. His head bounced as Walsh picked him up and slammed him back onto the mat.
“Get up Tiberius!” Quintus called out, hoping to will his friend back into the fight.
Tiberius shook his head trying to clear it as he made his way to his knees.
“You giving up Cadet?” The captain called out, her voice strained as she spoke letting them all know who she was rooting for.
“That’s it, get your ass up you little greenie, so I can put you back down.” Walsh taunted, bouncing from foot to foot like a boxer making Tiberius wonder just how many fights he’d been in before the navy got their hands on him.
His vision was tinting red at the comment, he hated losing and was determined to make Walsh pay for the comment, but he couldn’t go full bore just yet. He took a deep breath and his vision began returning to normal as they rushed each other, and he drove a fist into Walsh’s right shoulder sending him back a step.Walsh tried to throw his hands up to protect his face just before Tiberius stomped on his left foot and drilled him in the temple with a right hook. Walsh landed on the mat a foot away with a resounding thud.
Captain Sidonia walked over to check on him, crouching to see if he was still breathing and he put a hand to his head like it would help the throbbing he had to be feeling there.
“What the hell?”
“Newbie here practically knocked your ass out in less than a minute.” She smiled as his face changed and he gave her a disbelieving stare.
“What? How?”
She shrugged her shoulders and said, “Simple, he was the better man in the match, and probably in other aspects too.”
He looked at Tiberius with shock, he couldn’t believe the new kid was this good, and he was a four year veteran.
Tiberius stood on the other side of the mat, his hands clenched, but at his side, he kept his eyes on Walsh.
“Huh? What was that Cap?” Walsh asked when he realized she was staring at him, waiting for an answer to a question he hadn’t been paying enough attention to, to hear.
“I said, are you able to continue?”
He nodded and stood up, determined he was going to win, this time he when he attacked he would be out for blood.. They squared up and he wouldn’t take his eyes off of his opponent. He was going to destroy him, and when the Captain yelled “Continue!” they moved in slowly.
He threw a couple of feints, a left followed by a right that he knew Tiberius could block easily. Tiberius launched a flurry of strikes at his face intending to finish him quickly and end the game, but Walsh blocked and swiveled to his right to avoid the follow up strikes.
They grappled with eac
h other and first Tiberius, then Walsh, tried to switch to a submission maneuver. Tiberius attempting an arm-bar while Walsh tried a knee-bar. Walsh switched it up and tried to pull Tiberius along with him in a circle with his right arm fully extended, fully intending to break the new kids’ elbow if need be to win the match
Tiberius turned it around on him by jamming his right knee into the back of Walsh’s calf dropping him to his knees. It provided enough of a distraction to make him loosen his grip and Tiberius wrapped his arm around Walsh’s neck and tried to choke him while the man was on his knees, he couldn’t grapevine Walsh’s waist this way so he couldn’t get the full rear choke locked in.
It was then that Walsh decided to win at all costs and break the rules.
Raking his fingers over Tiberius’ eyes causing him to release his choke hold and drove a fist into Tiberius’ balls. Tiberius doubled over, Walsh grabbed him in a headlock and drove his skull into the mat in a DDT style maneuver. Tiberius rolled onto his back slowly and lay there grasping his boys as the pain subsided and his head cleared from being slammed into the mat. But he knew Walsh was going to pay, his vision was beginning to tint red.
Captain Sidonia walked up to the pair and slapped Walsh upside his head, “You cheated.”
“How the hell did I cheat. You never said there were rules.”
“I shouldn’t have to you maggot! You should know not to cheat because it’s common fucking decency!” she was shouting at him now, and the other cadets were looking scared.
Quintus and Bowen tried to check on Tiberius to see if he was okay, but his eyes were narrowed and he sat upright.
“You never said there were common sense rules so I won!” he shouted back at her, he always got away with what he did, all thanks to his family. But Captain Sidonia was the one person who wasn’t afraid of his family, she was ready to kill him for his insubordination.