by Sam Sea
“Out of eight of you, there should always be a panel of three which should go over each one of their 'investigations'. I plan to periodically go over their files as well as go over your files… Just to make sure they are satisfactory.
“But, the idea here is, since they will have all that great power, almost the power of the emperor himself, I do not want them to investigate just every-day crimes. Do you understand that? For that, there is already a local police, and internal police which should worry about the corruption within. Sure they can have an authority to prevent any wrong doing they see happening, but I want these elite group of investigators to concern themselves with the matters that might upset the core of the balance of the entire empire.”
The emperor, stroke his beard, sudden and unexpected enthusiasm gleaming in his eyes. He didn’t want to stop talking. He liked the idea. He saw its benefits clearly, as well as its danger. “They are to investigate cases which are given to them directly by you or by me, the cases which seem to carry overweighting important for the wellbeing of the empire as a whole. If we had people like that before, Vazz would never be able to build their war machines, the war could have been prevented and the lives of billions spared."
"And you were right - the selection process has to be done right, and I see what you planed out seems to go in the right direction… Very interesting starting point, that is.
“To the list of those two thousand candidates, you will also add additional ones. I want each great house, all twenty of them, to have a chance to volunteer one of their family members to serve in this unit. It will be up to them if they can complete the course and become investigators, but I want all of them to have a chance. Understood?”
Everybody shook their heads in reverential silence.
"I believe I will have more to say once I take a longer time to think about this matter. So I will shortly let you know about my final decision. Until then..." The emperor finally got up from his seat, and the councilmen followed, each one of them smiling, not hiding the pleasure to see their restructuring plan being so positively accepted.
If they only knew back then what they have started and what timeline they helped create, if they only knew what that future would bring on themselves personally, bring on to the entire empire, and beyond…
C
hapte r 4 - The Candidates
The Fifth Battalion of Siva Camp, Planet Fyora
Three men sat in a darken conference room, looking at video bits being played in the air in front of them.
"I’ll tell you one thing my son…“ A woman with deep face lines and graying hair was hugging her boy and whispering in his ear. “Our house might be one of the smallest and, right now, certainly the least well off. Through the past hundreds of years, we’ve been betrayed, manipulated, targeted, almost to the point of a complete extinction...That is all true, no need to be ashamed of it. But take that as a motivational tool, something to push you forward, to fight that much harder.”
The boy struggled to come out of her embrace, but she put her both hands on his cheeks as she continued: “You know, a long time ago, the emperor came from your blood line, and if this gives you a chance, maybe you can return that fortune and respect to your house and family once again."
Three men turned their heads to another video showing a man in covered in knee-long, brown coat made of the most expensive Echemonian-96 quality silk talking to a young man who was standing, tall and thin, a few inches above him..
“Don’t you pay no attention to those that say our house is made of criminals! Don’t you dare fall for that! Besides, there has never been any proof, any real proof that we are members of organized crime! I can’t believe that anyone could even suggest that…” The voice seemed a bit too loud, and the man in the coat lowered it instantly. “You are given a chance here, a chance to work for the police, for the empire. Just consider, if you succeed and you become one of these top investigators, how much help would that be for a family, for your brothers, for me? So, of course I want you to go, and not just go - I want you to win! Make it work! However you can.”
The man in the coat didn’t seem to like the soft tone that persisted in his son’s eyes and face. “Listen to me boy! You have not done almost nothing your whole life. The only thing you did was enjoy what was given to you by me. This is your chance to become someone more, someone that can help contribute, help your family become even bigger and stronger. So, of course you will do it. Either make it, or don't come back. Do you understand?"
Three men stopped the video and looked at each other.
"So, what do we do? Do we disqualify these two candidates right away?"
"Why should we?"
"Well, their family ambitions will obviously skew their judgments, compromise their integrity. I mean, one of them is told to become the criminal and help his family become even more deviant and powerful, the other to become an emperor himself!"
"Yes, that is true. But let's turn the table around, if they were told to become the best possible agents they could, would that really make a difference? I believe they need to make their own choices. Being isolated and away from their family might change a lot of things. That is my opinion. What do you say councilman Wallic?”
“I say, let them stay here a bit longer. Their training and testing has not even started yet. We can note this and vote on their removal at the later moment."
“But how about this one?” One of the councilman said pointing to the video stream that filled the air above them the very next second.
"Take this! Take it!" A woman was pushing a small communication pod into the jacket pocket of a long-haired, blond teenager.
"But mom, didn't you read the file they gave us... They specifically said 'no' to any communication devices."
"I know, I know, but how would they know...If you hide it good enough, they will never find out. And who knows, that way you can always call us, ask us for help, if there is anything that we can do."
The councilman who put the video in continued explaining, "I understand that the kid kept the pod..."
"That kid needs to be returned home,” the other one answered. “The whole scene is making me feel angry and disgusted. Doesn't matter what test scores he had, how brilliant he might have been. If he can't resist his mother plea to break the rules, who knows if he will ever be ready to walk all by himself on his two legs straight?"
"I agree. He is already 21 years old. He should have some sort of self-esteem build up, some sort of rebellious independence, some mechanism to say what is right and what isn’t.”
"Same here. He already broke the code. Could not follow what was asked. So, send him home now, together with his mother. Better now than in a week when he starts sobbing after talking to his mommy. I bet he was never even away from her. Spacespirtis! Twenty one years old."
After long hours of examining video bits, six councilmen gathered outside in a gazebo overlooking the campus. They set around an oversized, rude, ceramic pot from which the wild flower tea was steaming and fragmenting the air. Each, using a long wooden ladle, served themselves a cup.
Above them, heavy clouds were piling up, looking gray and menacing. An autumn came fast to the Planet Fyora and lasted short, and those clouds might break out in snow rather than rain.
"It was a good idea to let one of their parents or guardians come here on the planet to say 'good-byes'."
"Yes, the idea of letting them see where their children would be living was a good one, and this way we can put them into elevated stress situation like saying 'good-byes' always are, and see how exactly they all behave."
"It is not to say that these kids cannot outgrow a lot of errors of their youth and upbringing..."
"But that would require so much more effort on the part of educators...To change many of them this late in their development years would require a lot of energy."
"And a lot more time, and time we do not have...so, this is a very good preliminary screening. Great idea, Senator S
ulivaro. "
“So, all in all, we already tossed out fifty of them.”
“Yes, that leaves us with exactly one thousand nine hundred and seventy nine candidates to start with the training process. The youngest is only fifteen, the oldest twenty-one. ”
“Not all of farewells were bad. Look at this girl here…” The man placed a video bit above the fire pit. One skinny girl, dressed in running pants and a thick winter jacket was not taking her eyes of her mother. “Only fifteen years old. She is one of the youngest ones. And, look… She is comforting her crying mother. Look at that look in her eyes. How strong, how determined. She looks so calm, so assuring. And her hands, touching her mom like that!”
“You think it would be the other way around. Mother consoling her daughter.”
“Not here. She seems trying to be so strong for her mother. She seems tough…so ready to be here, so eager to embrace her opportunity.”
“What is her name?”
“Siya Flint from the Siux system… Her scores are in top one percent of all the aptitude tests. She is very impressive indeed… She displays the capacity to retain almost perfect memory, can learn a thirty line poem by heart after a single reading.“
“It would be good to have individuals of such quality work for us.”
“Still, she is not through yet. It will be interesting to see if she can make it to the finish line.”
“Maybe we can help a bit, push her…”
“No. Actually, move her to the toughest group…If she makes it there, then we’ll talk about her. If not, she is better off then becoming a doctor or a scientist. That is the best what we can do for her.”
“I hope she makes it,” murmured one of them.
“So do I.”
C
hapte r 5 - The Drill Sergeant
After saying good-byes to their parents or guardians, the candidates were led to a medical lab where they were anxiously waiting in a very long line.
“So what are we doing here?” one of them asked nerviously.
“Probably another set of medical tests.”
“But I’ve already done those, haven’t you?”
“Sure,” the boy who was a head taller than anyone answerd. “But these are probably new ones, probably just a routine exams.”
Those words did little to calm anyone down. Most of them were nervous. Nobody wanted to be turned down just because of some medical conditions. In the end over fifty of them did not make it and did not even get to see the inside of their training camp.
Those that did were finally given the password to walk through the tunnel toward the camp and the direction to which barrack to report to.
In the Green barrack, situated in the middle of the camp, one hundred of new candidates didn’t even have time to fully unpack when a boy-sized man in a light brown fatigue suite and a perfectly shinning combat boots walked in. An over-sized, rounded green hat covered most of his face.
“Attention!” he yelled, forcing them all to hustle and line up in front of their bunks.
“Hello boys and girls! And those of you who are neither,” he continued, walking slowly between the bunks, wood creaking sound of his boots the only noise filling the silence of his pause.
“My name is Sergeant Derran, and I am here to be your combat training sergeant.”
“Now you look at me, how short I am… compared to the tallest of you - even two heads shorter, right? And the scars on my face… ’who would want to keep this body, short and ugly?, you may be wondering...
“So I am sure some of you, probably, do not find me to your liking right now. But I promise you, by the time I finish with you, none of you are going to find me to your liking at all...I can guarantee you will not like me at all! Probably will hate me enough to remember me for the rest of your life! Which by your looks, should not be that far off anyway.”
He took a moment with only his deep and angry inhales could be heard for the words to sink in before continuing. “What you need to know right now is that I just do not care! I don’t care who your mommies, your daddies, your granddaddies, your grand-grand-grand-daddies are, or who they were. I do not even care who you are for that matter! The only thing I care for, as of right now, is how well you listen. And how well you can do what I ask from you!
“I think you were previously properly briefed of what you can and cannot expect here. Wake ups…” He looked at the piece of a paper he put in front of his face. “Says here, 6 AM. I say, spaceshit!?! I say wake-ups are any moment I damn please to come in here and tell you to get your sorry asses up! Do you understand that?”
“Yes, sir!”
“Breakfast at… Hell, I won’t even bother going through the rest of this paper. It’s useless,” he said as he tore the paper up and threw it on the floor.
“The only thing that I can tell you is… You may think you will eat three meals a day, but you will be lucky if you get three meals a week! They lied to you! They all lied to you! All of them! Your parents when they told you how smart you are, or the best or whatever other crap they told you to inflate your useless little egos. They lied to you when they told you that you had a chance to become someone, someone special, that you’re ready for this. Well, you ain’t.” Derran stopped in front of two candidates who had extra pounds of fat around their bellies.
“The bottom line is that you will eat, sleep, exercise, and even shit whenever I tell you to, is that clear?”
“Yes, Sir!”
“That is the only way to pay for the privilege of being here… And for those of you who do not like that privilege, remember, the only right you have right now is to quit, to pick your bags and run to your mommies. The way I see it, for most of you that is by far the smartest thing to do. Do you understand that?”
“Yes, Sir!”
He walked to the tallest candidate and scanned his tag. “Says here, Fedorankiss ROekj, What kind of parent would name their child like that? You can break your tongue just by saying it. I guess they did not like you from the moment you were born… I guess that’s why they sent you here, wanted to get rid of you and your stupid ass!”
Even thought saliva from Derran’s mouth was reaching kid’s face with each word the sergeant was yelling, kid’s eyes did not move, did not flick, and face stayed stone firm.
“Now, that’s what I call a soldier… brave and stupid, ready to die whenever his superiors tell him to. Are you ready to die, boy?”
“No, Sir!”
“Fkiss my ass… I bet you are ready to die.”
“No, Sir!”
“Don’t you fucken be hero with me!”
“No, Sir!” he yelled even more forcefully with his whole lungs.
Derran nodded his head and walked to the boy next to him, passed him, went further down, his face souring in disgust. “Fear, that’s all I fucken smell here. You all reek of it! Don’t even need to look at you… could smell it out of the barracks. And you have right to be scared. Because many of you may die here… maybe some of you even came here to die. Did you come here to die?”
“No, Sir!” only few dared to answer.
“Well, if some did, you just let me know. And I’ll just shoot you down right now and get it over with. Understand?”
“Yes, Sir!” Everyone answered and barrack windows shook.
“Don’t you fucken never forget that.”
Derran started to walk back to the entrance, looking at each of them, not sparing them
“For those of you who are stupid enough to stay, I’ll teach you how to shoot, how to fight, how to sneak to an enemy guard and slit his throat right open before he even has a chance to piss his pants…I have to teach you how to be the meanest daughters and sons of bitches that space has ever seen, and I have less than a year to do so…
“And just by looking at you, looking at how pathetic you look, worse than a wet cat - I say that a year will not be enough time for many of you...”
“So, right now, I see through the window that we are being b
lessed by what locals call here ‘Fyoran drizzle’…” Even those that didn’t dare to move their heads had moved their eyes toward the windows where torment shower poured its soul outside, and the raindrops washed over the windows with a frenzy of a waterfall.
“So, we are going to take a little 10 mile run outside through the countryside. If any of you think of dropping dead, well, please do so, for I will not stop to pick your sorry ass up, but will be glad actually to have one less sorry ass to yell at! Now move!!!”
The dirt road that snaked up the thick pine forest became slippery enough for almost all of the candidates to fall down, at least once. As the slope increased, it became more of a stream of rushing muddy water than the running track. Their line, started with four of them running abreast, soon stretched. As they circled the mountain, and headed back, it was more than a mile long.
The first ones made it back to the barracks as the rain stopped and the fog started to set in. The last ten, as the night fell, and they could not even see their step, needed the help of sergeant’s flashlight to guide them home.
But Derran had counted only ninety nine of them. He walked backward, stopping every few steps trying to listen. He hoped that nobody was stupid enough to venture in the woods, looking for shortcuts.
He took out his military-grade thermal scanner. Far up the road, beyond the second curve, he could see a heat signature of a body lying down.
“Are you okay?” He asked as he appeared suddenly on top of Siya.
“I think I sprained my ankle,” she said unable to stand up.
“Relax…” he said as he made her stretch her leg and then pulled out her ankle. “See if that feels better.”
“Yes, Sir, yes it does…”
“Good, because I was not planning on carrying you,” he said as she got up, surprside how little pain she felt. Then they quietly walked back to the barracks.
“Sir?” She stopped before the entrance stairs.