by Matt Forbeck
Molly could understand having Kareem there. He hadn’t done any better in the fight than she had. He was also new here like her, and both of them needed as much help as they could get.
But then there was Gudam, which didn’t make any sense to Molly at all. No matter how hard the little Unggoy trained, she would always be shorter and weaker than nearly everyone around her. Molly couldn’t imagine what good teaching her self-defense would do. Why would Tom and Lucy waste the time?
The one that really pissed Molly off was Bakar. He was already so much bigger than both her and Kareem, and he wasn’t even full grown yet. He didn’t need self-defense lessons. In fact, he was one of the reasons the idea of self-defense appealed to Molly. And wasn’t he against fighting altogether?
Molly threw up her hands, glaring at Lucy. “Forget it. This wasn’t the agreement. The deal’s off.”
“What?” Tom said, confused. “Are you kidding?”
Lucy came jogging after Molly and caught up with her before she made it back out the door. “What’s wrong?”
“What do you think?” Molly pointed back at the others.
Lucy gave her a concerned look. “Did you think these were going to be private lessons, Molly?”
“I don’t even care about that,” she lied. “What are aliens doing here?”
“They were in the fight with you. They were on your side. I watched the recording. You all need the same help.”
“Even Gudam?” Molly chopped her hand out at about waist height. “Even Bakar?” She brought her hand above her head, emphasizing the ludicrous height difference between the two. To Molly, what had been a serious training session for a girl who needed to survive in this new hostile school had now become a circus.
“Are you saying that this is all about size?”
Molly wasn’t sure what she was saying. She was just angry, but she was fine with hijacking Lucy’s line of thought. “Sure! I mean, just look at them. I could practically step on Gudam, and Bakar could do the same to me!”
Lucy gave Molly a wistful shake of her head. “I get what you mean, but you’re absolutely wrong.”
“Are you trying to tell me that size doesn’t matter in a fight? Is it fair for me to fight Gudam? Or Bakar to fight me?”
Lucy put a hand on Molly’s shoulder and walked her over to the others. “You’re making two basic mistakes, Molly. First, there’s no such thing as a fair fight. Fair fights are fiction, they don’t exist. Not out there beyond the walls of a gym, at least. Someone always has the advantage. If you’re a smart fighter, that someone is you.”
“Fine,” Molly said, “but doesn’t it seem like it would be better for me to spar with someone closer to my level of ability?”
“In that sense, you will be,” Tom said, “because none of you has much in the way of combat skills at all.”
“Second,” Lucy said, “size and strength do matter in a fight, but not as much as you might think. Look at me, for instance.”
Lucy had brought this up yesterday at Molly’s house. It was true. Despite her being a Spartan, Lucy wasn’t any taller than Molly. She could look Lucy straight in the eye, though doing that did little to boost Molly’s confidence. Something cold and steely in the Spartans’ eyes made Molly refuse to hold their gazes for much longer than a few seconds.
“The way you see it, Tom should be able to take me out without any trouble at all, right?”
Molly glanced at the man, who was chuckling at Lucy’s proposal.
“But that’s not the fact. We spar with each other and the other Spartans assigned to Onyx all the time.” Lucy turned to Tom. “What are we at now?”
The man shrugged. “Who keeps score?”
Lucy pointed at herself and then at Tom. “Five hundred and forty-three to five hundred and twenty-one.”
Tom shook his head. “I actually wouldn’t have thought it was that close.”
“There’s more to fighting than height, mass, or strength,” Lucy said directly to Molly. “Speed, determination, and skill matter just as much, if not more. Some of those things I can’t give you—most importantly, determination—but the rest we can build. If you’re willing to work at it.”
Lucy let go of Molly’s shoulder and angled her head toward the door. “Otherwise, you’re free to go. But make no mistake here, Molly. If you leave, that’s it: you’re out for good. Tom and I have plenty to worry about outside these walls, and the last thing we need to deal with are glorified babysitting sessions. If we didn’t think this kind of thing was important, we would have never offered it. But it is, and it’s even more vital that you all do this together. In fact, that’s the only way this will matter in the end.”
Molly frowned and scanned the faces of the other kids. Kareem spread his arms wide, ready to accept her decision either way. Gudam was bouncing up and down on her forelimbs, in a fit of perpetual nervous excitement.
Molly couldn’t read Bakar at all.
She realized that she didn’t care if she could. Lucy was right. If Molly wanted to learn how to defend herself, it was going to come down not to her sparring partners, but to Molly herself. And if she could learn how to take on a Sangheili such as Bakar, that was even better.
“All right,” Molly said with a firm nod. “I’m in.”
CHAPTER 15
* * *
* * *
The next day, Molly was the sorest she’d ever been in her life.
Refusing to disappoint Tom and Lucy—or make them think she wasn’t going to live up to her end of the bargain—she hauled herself back to school, though, limping just a bit the entire way.
It got better every time they met. Not easier, but better.
School settled down for Molly after that first day of training, and she started getting into a groove. Part of her just wanted to blend in and get it all over with as fast as possible, but that didn’t seem destined to happen. Because of the fight—and maybe because Asha and Yong were always gone—Kasha ‘Hilot seemed to take a special interest in watching over Molly. She wasn’t entirely sure why the headmaster went to that trouble just for her.
It was a strange feeling, having a Sangheili such as Kasha fill this caretaker role, checking in on Molly between classes and after school. Molly at first found the attention bizarre and unnerving, but she came to appreciate it to some degree. She couldn’t describe how, but it reminded her of her mother—her real one. In time, Molly became more comfortable around the Sangheili, even though deep down inside she still harbored resentment and bitterness for what had happened on Paris IV.
Of course, Kasha’s attention only made things worse for Molly in other ways. It may have driven troubles with punks such as Karl, Zeb, and Andres underground, but the other kids didn’t stop either hating her or just going out of their way to ignore her. Whether because of the fight or her association with aliens, Molly was still being shunned, and no end seemed in sight.
The only two people she did speak with regularly were Gudam and Kareem. Lunches with them she could handle fine enough, but the rest of the kids spread out to make sure there weren’t any other open tables, which unavoidably forced Bakar to sit with them too. That was the last thing Molly wanted, and the Sangheili seemed to appreciate it even less than she did.
Nevertheless, after a couple weeks of this, they settled into a routine. She wouldn’t say it was pleasant, but it became more tolerable as the days came and went.
Molly’s Newparents may have been concerned about her, but they didn’t have time to do much about it. Their project was even more demanding than they had let on earlier, and Molly could tell that it was taking a toll on them. Most days, they left the house before she even set off for school, and they returned several hours after she’d come home, often late into the day.
That was if they returned together. Sometimes one would stay behind and continue through the night.
They were both overworked and exhausted, but when Molly did get a moment with them, their faces showed another kind of wea
riness. They were concerned about what they were working on, and Molly could tell it had heavier implications than she could understand.
“It won’t last forever,” Asha told her one night. “We’re just still finding our footing here.” What Asha said was probably a half-truth, but Molly could tell other things were going on—things Asha probably couldn’t share, even if she wanted to. Whether that was because they were too classified or because, if she did, Molly would be petrified by what was taking place, she didn’t want to know.
Something deep inside her said it was the latter.
“Me too,” Molly whispered, heading to bed.
Asha had tucked Molly in almost every single night when she was in elementary school. After what happened on Paris IV, Molly had desperately needed that sense of security, and her Newparents rarely missed an opportunity to let her know she was welcome and loved.
Over the years, things had changed. They became busier with their work, and Molly had simply gotten too old for it. She was sixteen now and far too comfortable in her own skin to need constant reassurances like that anymore.
In her mind, she was practically an adult. She didn’t want to be coddled.
But that night, Asha followed Molly upstairs and made sure she was completely tucked in and gave her a kiss on the forehead. Molly didn’t object this time. She welcomed it.
“Things will be better soon,” Asha said, turning out the lights. “I promise.”
The next day, Molly’s entire class—about fifty in number—piled into a large ground transport and went on their first field trip. They were headed to a Forerunner site called the Repository.
This trip was Molly’s first time beyond the Inner Barrier, a set of sensor relays and energy pylons that separated the interior area of Paxopolis and Trevelyan’s primary facilities from the less occupied outer territory, which had a number of research sites—such as the Repository and the one Molly’s Newparents were working at.
The Repository sat only five kilometers outside Paxopolis, but as Kasha ‘Hilot explained as they traveled through the row of towering pylons, because it lay inside the Outer Barrier, it was still part of the expanded security perimeter the UNSC had set up. From a bird’s-eye view, the perimeter surrounded an area anchored by the entrance into the sphere through which Molly and her Newparents had arrived. Those dozens of square kilometers inside the Inner Barrier comprised the extent of humanity’s foothold on Onyx.
Everything outside of that was wild.
“The marines have cleared out any dangerous creatures they could find between the Inner and Outer Barriers,” Kasha said. “Still, that does not mean the area is entirely safe. This is an enormous space, and some of it has yet to be fully charted and secured. Many of the animals here can also fly and burrow, and sometimes they’re rather good at hiding.
“Given the fact the Forerunners populated the sphere with creatures taken from countless worlds across the galaxy, it’s reasonable to suspect that we have not yet come close to cataloguing all of the types in this territory, much less to understanding each and every one of them. So, please—for your own safety and that of those around you—keep your eyes open and stay together. I do not want to have to explain to your parents why you weren’t able to make it back home.”
Most of the kids laughed the comment off, but Molly wasn’t inclined to join in—and Kasha didn’t show any indication she meant it as a joke. The idea of wandering around the surface of Onyx scared Molly more than a little. She wondered if the lack of trepidation on the other kids’ parts had more to do with their having ventured out this far before or simply ignorance. In all of Molly’s previous interactions with them, she’d have guessed the latter.
Still, the institute seemed to have gone to great lengths to ensure the class’s security, even calling in some of the local security and military assets, including a transport. The vehicle wasn’t a civilian ride but a heavily armored UNSC truck: long, green, and without any windows. The seats didn’t face forward. Instead, they lined the sides of the transport, each with its own set of safety restraints to keep the riders in their seats, no matter how rough it got.
That unfortunately meant they had to face other students, something Molly generally tried to avoid at all cost. She found herself in the absolute back of the transport, sitting next to Kareem, and directly across from Bakar and Gudam.
“I don’t like this any more than you do,” Molly said to Bakar, as she strapped herself in.
“I do not wish to be here at all,” he said.
“Exactly.”
“Then why are you here?” Kareem said to Bakar. “On Onyx, I mean?”
Bakar stared at Kareem as if the Sangheili were made of stone and didn’t blink once, not even when the transport lurched into motion. Kareem blushed, but now that he’d started down this road of inquiry, he didn’t retract the question or apologize.
“I was sent here,” Bakar finally said, as if that explained everything.
“We all were,” Kareem said. “But most of us seem to get along with the others.”
“Of their kind, at least,” Gudam said helpfully. “That said, we don’t all like school. Take the other Unggoy my age, for instance. They don’t care for it one bit. We’re all smart enough—we absorb things like sponges, really—but we usually manage that by . . . what do they call it? Experiential learning. That means learning things by doing. Me, though, I’m different. I like classes and books and brain work.”
“Is that why the other Unggoy don’t hang out with you much?” Kareem asked.
Gudam chuckled at that. “I see plenty of them at home, believe me. They just don’t like humans or Sangheili all that much—they see bigger people as threats—so they keep to themselves. Me, I’m just too curious for my own good. I mean, that’s probably going to get me hurt one day, but I figure it’s worth it, right? Who needs completely normal and safe Unggoy friends when you can have a bunch of weirdo friends like you guys?”
The question hung there for a second.
“Am I right?” Gudam continued, straight-faced.
Even Bakar let out a bellow at that, a deep rumble that seemed to escape from his chest before he could stop it. Molly had never heard a Sangheili laugh, but perhaps this was as close as they got.
“How about you?” Molly asked him. “Why are you always alone?”
The Sangheili sat there and stared at his symmetrical hands for a moment, flexing his fingers, tapping his thumbs together. The rest of the group watched him in silence and waited—even, to Molly’s surprise, Gudam.
“I came here alone,” Bakar finally said. “This school does not make me more so.”
“What happened?” Gudam looked both horrified and curious.
“My mother died. Kasha ‘Hilot took me in.” Bakar nodded toward the front of the transport, where Kasha stood, swaying on her haunches while she surveyed the students calmly and confidently, ready to cut them into shape with a series of sharp, well-chosen words at a moment’s notice. Even though she was a female, slighter than an adult male, she was still too large for the harness system, and she clung to grips on the truck’s interior walls instead. “At the time, I did not know that I would wind up here, so far from Sanghelios.”
Yet another thing this dangerous alien and Molly had in common. “And you hate it here?”
To her surprise, Bakar shook his head. “I had my fill of Sanghelios and the constant fighting waged there. In many ways, the Great Schism that put a stop to our war with your people never ended for us. My planet is still engaged in a violent civil war in which clans have risen against each other for power and territory. The Arbiter and his Swords of Sanghelios and what remains of the Covenant still do battle there, even to this very day.”
He paused, and Molly realized that he’d said more in the last two minutes than he had in the entire rest of the time since she’d met him.
“I am pleased to have put that world behind me. I only wish I could have found the peace I sought here.” He g
lanced toward the front of the transport, taking in the rest of the classmates riding along with them. They were laughing and chatting, being loud and obnoxious in the way of careless teenagers. The humans sat toward the front, the Sangheili sat in the middle, and the Unggoy sat toward the back.
Somewhere inside Molly’s heart, a strong part of her wished that she could be sitting up front with the rest of the humans. She realized that she didn’t know what that would feel like. To disappear as an individual and fade into the collective . . . perhaps even to find some sort of acceptance among them. For Molly, that would have been a refreshing escape.
But some parts of that crowd she couldn’t stand. In many ways, they were everything she was not. Because of that, Molly knew that she was better off by herself.
Molly was an outsider.
She glanced back at Kareem, Gudam, and Bakar.
They were too.
The four rode in silence the rest of the way.
They soon reached their destination, and the transport ground to a halt. Their little group in the back waited for the other students to leave, then shuffled off one by one.
Unlike many of the other Forerunner buildings Molly had seen—which often looked like temples or spires—the enormous Repository was long, narrow, and flat, even though it was a full forty meters tall.
As always within this part of Onyx, the weather was warm and temperate, the very definition of paradise. Gentle breezes carried fluffy white clouds through the bright blue sky, and the grass around the structure was soft and green. To Molly, it felt a little like paradise, but it seemed a little off, just like everything else here. It was almost too perfect, bordering on unreal.
Someone in the UNSC had decided to build a paved road that ran right up to the Repository’s front door. Molly was sure the road was seen as a form of progress, probably making it easier for people to get around inside the sphere. To her, it looked like an ugly scar on the face of the land. Progress without a purpose.