Fledge

by JA Huss

  He looks over at me afterward and smiles. "You owe me now."

  I shake my head and smile, then take out a spastic girl who looks like she lost her mind several seconds ago and move on to the next one.

  I've got a girl by the hair and I'm about to slash her throat when the buzzer rings. I drop her and take several deep breaths and my vision screen says it's releasing cortisone to calm me down. The girl is heaving badly but my data display says she's not seriously injured so I pull her back up to her feet and bend her over and whack her on the back so she can cough. "You OK?"

  She nods at me, the fear still plastered on her face.

  "Relax, you made it. Fight one is history. Let's get the fuck out of here."

  We are instructed to stand on a transport block and then we are moving upward to the level two holding area. Isec and the coughing girl follow me into our new dorm, which is exactly the same size as the last room, but the bunks are only stacked two high. The reality of just how many people were ruthlessly annihilated hits everyone at the same time and we stand there, killers all.

  Even with my extensive experience, I've never participated in something so heinous in all my life and it takes whole seconds for me to push it out.

  The moderator for this level congratulates us, then instructs us to go shower and pick up clothing and, if anyone gives a shit about us, care packages. The coughing girl sticks to me like glue during showers, as does Isec, much to my dismay, but none of the guys are looking at us girls with anything other than weary apprehension. I wrap myself in a towel and I'm handed a care package, but no clothes. The woman who hands it to me reads my confusion. "Aves only wear standard uniforms, Junco. Your stuff is in the bag." Obviously she never saw me in my Snipers do it from behind t-shirt.

  I wait for Isec and the coughing girl to get their clothes and then we go back into the dorm and find some bunks. I lie down in my towel and fall asleep thinking about how I forgot my boots on the battlefield.

  I thought the care package was from Ashur and the guys, but after I put the uniform on and lace up my new boots I pull a card from the bottom of the bag and my heart stops.

  Lucan.

  I pick it up and it's written in avian. Isec and the girl lean in trying to look at it. "What does it say?" the girl asks. She shakes her head as I hand it over. "I only read English."

  My face screws up and Isec interrupts before I can ask her anything. "She knows that – only Aves read avian."

  I squeeze his leg and he jumps. "It's from Lucan and it says, 'Well done, Junco.'"

  He eyes me. "I thought you didn't like him?"

  The girl looks completely confused but I answer Isec anyway. "Well, he can't be all bad, I guess. He sent me clothes and," I pick up an ionspray, "some drugs apparently."

  "What kind of drugs?" the weary girl asks.

  I shrug. "How the hell should I know?"

  She leans back at my tone. I'm tired and hungry and she's not even on my team but I feel compelled to defuse the silence I've created. It's not her fault I have no clue. "Come on, let's go get some chow."

  We skip the ration line and instead go right to the machines. I let them pick whatever they want, then get what Isec orders, plus some beer. We eat in silence. In fact, the entire place is silent, the shock of today's fight still raw and open.

  "Got another one of those?" I look up and find the big guy who helped me when I was about to be killed, he's pointing to my beer. Everyone is looking at my beer now. I shrug. "Probably got enough, I have no idea actually. Let's give it a try."

  We walk over to the machine. "How would I order for everyone?" I look up to his face and smile. He's good-looking in a Braun and Ryse kind of way.

  He takes my thumb and flicks it over the panel, then swipes my index finger along until it gets to the catering section, and he orders beer. "There's no way that's gonna work, but hey–" It beeps an approval and I laugh.

  "You must be loaded."

  "I don't think it's my money…"

  "Kush."

  "Junco. Anyway, I'm pretty sure someone will be very pissed off at me tomorrow." I let out a little laugh of satisfaction.

  "Maybe you shouldn't do it then?"

  "Too late," I say, pointing to the servos. "It's already here." Everyone gets excited and I call out to Isec, "Don't get drunk, you twerp, you'll regret it tomorrow."

  The little fucker flips me off and I'm actually taken aback.

  I look back up at Kush. "There you are, go grab one."

  He does and then comes back and sits down next to me. The coughing girl has moved on and I'm pleased about that. I light up a cigar and lean back into the uncomfortable straight-back chair. I offer him one and he takes it.

  We puff in silence for a few minutes, watching everyone celebrate their extra night of life, and then I look up at him. "So, what's your story, Kush? You look a little out of place here."

  "Says the lion to the wolf."

  "Yeah, you noticed, huh?" I puff, then exhale. Breathe out, Junco. All the best parts are in the exhale.

  The big guy is still talking. "Well, the whole purpose of the General Fledge is to get into the Aves, Junco. You're obviously already in, so there's no logical reason for you to be here. None at all."

  I let out an ironic laugh. "So, your story is?"

  He smiles and takes the hint. "Not anything special. I'm in – was in – Political Cluster. I wanted to go for Aves, the draw of it is powerful. So here I am." He shrugs matter-of-factly at this revelation. I have no idea if it's true or not. Don't really care, either.

  "Good enough for me, then," I say as I puff out some rings towards the ceiling.

  "And you? What's your story?"

  I don't even bother meeting his gaze. "Secret mission, that's all."

  He nods. "OK, well, thanks for the beer."

  I watch him pick up his mug and turn. "Uh-huh. No problem."

  As soon as he's gone the coughing girl is back and I let out a sigh. "I'm not your friend, girl. So don't mistake me for one."

  She nods. "Yeah, OK. But can I sit here?"

  I shrug. "Knock yourself out." Then I get up and walk away to go find Isec and make sure he's not drunk.

  He's laughing and talking excitedly with a couple other younger kids who made it through when I find him near the back of the dorm room. They get silent as I walk up. "Enjoying yourselves?"

  Isec smiles up at me. "For now, but if you think you're gonna start acting like a clutch mother you better think again. I don't need a mother, Junco."

  "No? Well, Esta really is an Aves Mother, ya know. So try and let her down easy, eh?"

  I walk away, then stop and turn my head slightly, just enough so he can hear me. "And I could give a fuck about you, Isec."

  I take a step and catch his retort. "Back at ya, Junco."

  The grin spreads across my face and I go find the bunk where my shit is stashed. The coughing girl is back, lying on the top bunk over Isec's stuff. I'm on the bottom bunk next to Isec. No one has claimed the bunk above me. In fact, all the bunks around us are empty.

  I let out a deep breath, stomp my cigar out on the stone floor, and lie back. Exhausted.

  "We're not friends," the girl says. "I get it."

  "OK."

  "But I do want to live and you obviously have no plans to die in here, so I'm gonna stick around anyway."

  I turn my back to her. "Sure, whatever. Just stay out of my way in battle or I'll cut your throat next time."

  The shiver from her body actually escapes through her mouth and for a second I wonder if I've crossed the line. But then she's silent and soon my world dampens to the twilight of sleep. The thought seeps down into the darkness with me: my guilty conscience never really had a chance.

  Chapter Ten

  Esta is fussing over Isec on the other side of the training room and I can't help myself when he looks over at me, eyes pleading. I pretend a laugh while pointing and he flips me off. What a little creep.

  Meanwhile, Ashur's back
is to me and he's pointing up and going on and on and on about free-G flying. He pauses so I interject, "Uh-huh, yeah, that makes sense." He continues as I survey what everyone else is doing.

  Kush is on the other end of the training room with some of the older guys. I figure they're all from the Political Cluster since they hang out together, but I could be wrong. I watch him as he tries some hand-to-hand with a partner. He's got some good moves, but I can see ways out of every hold he tries.

  I look back and Ashur is staring at me. "Who are you watching over there?"

  "That big brown-winged guy. He helped me out yesterday. Got a little sticky at one point and he sort of saved my ass."

  Ashur tilts his head. "He sort of saved your ass – or he did save your ass?"

  I shrug. "He did."

  Ash stares over at the group until they notice him, he beckons with a finger and they point to each other. One at a time Ashur shakes his head until Kush acknowledges him and begins walking towards us.

  All I can think about is going outside to have a cigar.

  "Hi, Junco."

  "Hi Kush, uh," I wave my disfigured hand behind me, "this is Ashur, my XO."

  I go back to people-watching as Ash and Kush walk off a little ways, talking. If I was a guy, they would never do that. Ashur would never bring him over here to thank him, he'd just shrug it off and tuck it away in case the guy needed a buddy favor in the future. Like I did. But I know damn well that's what he's doing. I've been living with military guys my whole life so I know how it works. It doesn't matter how many people I kill or how many times I save their asses, if just one of them catches me in a weak spot, they go all big brother on me.

  I can't take it anymore so I get up and walk out, find the stairs and slip outside without incident. I cop a seat on the stone bench next to the train stop and light up my cigar. This day is so boring. I lie back on the bench and take in the sunshine, then wonder if it's real. Feels real, but there's no sky above me, just the criss-crossing of beamed scaffolding holding up the interior ring of the torus.

  My eyes close as my thoughts drift and my body gets heavy.

  I wake when I hear someone shouting my name. Several someones actually. I sit up and the long ash drops off the cigar as I move it. Must have dozed off.

  I watch Ashur send everyone back inside and then walk over to me. "What the fuck, Junco?"

  "What the fuck what, Ashur?"

  "You can't just get up and leave the training room like that."

  "Well, it wasn't too difficult, so obviously I can."

  He lets out a deep breath. "Are you ready to fly or what?"

  I smile. "Let's go."

  We walk back inside but don't take the stairs. Instead he palms the biometrics on the elevator and we take it all the way up to the Level Seven arena. "Isn't this cheating?"

  He huffs. "No. You can't even fly, how is that fair? Everyone else was taught except you. So what if you see the arena." I raise my eyebrows at him, but he continues, "Besides, the only other free-G Fledge facility on Amelia is at Aves, and it's in use right now. So we have no choice."

  I scratch my eye and shrug. "Whatever you say."

  The Level Seven arena is nothing like Level One. It is a giant sphere with mushroom-looking pedestals shooting up from the ground at uneven intervals. I listen as Ash explains. "Those," he says, pointing to the mushrooms, "are the only gravity wells in the room, OK?"

  I nod.

  "Everything else past here," he points to a glowing green line on the floor in front of us and then to each of the other regularly-spaced entrances around the perimeter, "is free-G." He pushes me past the line and I go sailing across the middle. "Flap your wings, Junco! Don't get sucked down to the pedestals!"

  I can feel the nearest mushroom drawing me in so I stretch my wings and flap a little and shoot towards it at an alarming rate.

  "Tilt your wings, Junco! Reverse thrust!"

  I do and barely avoid being sucked down completely. I flap my wings, thinking I will go above the mushrooms and avoid them but then I notice that they are growing out of the ceiling as well as the floor. Wait, it's free-G, so there is no floor or ceiling. I twist my body and the ceiling becomes my floor.

  Ashur glides up next to me, then tilts his wings to stop his forward momentum. He smiles. "Not so hard, is it?"

  I laugh. "Speak for yourself. I'm about to hurl."

  "Yeah, takes a little getting used to. Whenever you change direction, in Z-space, I mean," he clarifies, "just pick some random point to be your horizon. As long as you have a horizon, you'll be fine."

  "I don't think I'll get the hang of this in one day, Ashur," I say, a little frown creeping out of my lips.

  "No, you won't, but you've got time. The second fight is pretty much like the first one, just a different patterned structure. So don't sweat it."

  I nod. "OK, well, since we're here I might as well learn how to move and turn."

  It gets a lot more fun as I figure out how to move my wings. At first the muscles feel tight and unresponsive, but we stop on the largest mushroom and Ashur shows me how to stretch and move them so that they loosen up. I end the afternoon doing flips, my body careening across the length of the game field and bumping into Ashur as he fails to escape my mad thrashing legs. If I had wings on my feet, free-G would be so much easier.

  We swim through the air back to the perimeter gravity field and I start to fall when my feet touch down but Ashur steadies me and smiles.

  "You did real well, Juncs. Tomorrow we'll do real training and fly outside, in the regular atmosphere. That way you'll be ready for the second fight."

  I nod as we walk back towards the elevator. "So, what did you and Kush talk about?"

  He palms the biometric pad and the door slides open. He waves me in and then follows. "I just said thanks, that's all." The door closes and our descent begins with a quick jolt to my stomach. "He's a Political – wants to be Aves. They do this every time, but," he stops to look at me, "don't get attached to him, Junco, they never make it."

  "Shit, Ashur, you're a real downer."

  "Sorry, just the truth."

  The door slides open on two and he squeezes me goodbye. "See ya tomorrow."

  I wave and go back to the dorm. Dinner is over and almost everyone is either sleeping or sitting quietly on their bunks. The coughing girl and Isec are playing cards in our corner of the room. I smile at Isec as I walk up. "So, did you learn anything useful today, brat?"

  His face is pretty serious, so I pause and listen. "Junco, she said the stuff she taught me today, the Aves kids have to learn by the time they are five, or she has to kill them."

  Oh shit, Esta. What the fuck?

  "She's crazy, Isec, she's full of shit. Just trying to scare you."

  "Why would she want to scare me now, Junco? It's not like I can back out."

  My cheeks puff up and then I release the air out in one long exhale as I shake my head at him. "She's having problems, Isec, that's why she's here. She's not happy with her job, so don't take what she says too serious. I'll speak to her tomorrow, and if she says this shit again, we'll get rid of her and you can train with Ashur and me."

  This satisfies him and they go back to playing. "I'm gonna go take a shower," I say, but they are busy and don't even respond.

  The showers are empty so I strip down and languish in the hot water. My hair is a lot longer than it was before the morph and I secretly wish for a good haircut so it didn't take so long to wash.

  When I'm done I walk over towards the counter to see if I can get some clothes, but no one is there and the wall has been replaced with a line of cubbies that have biometric panels on them. They are all empty except the one that says Junco, Aves 039-9.

  I pass my thumb over the panel and the transparent door slides up to allow access to another care package. I take it over to the row of benches and sit down, being careful to hike up my towel. This time I fish all the way down to the bottom and find the note first.

  Junco,<
br />
  You have not used the ionspray. Do you think I would put things in the package if I don't want you to use them? Why must you be so difficult?

  Lucan

  I fish around again and pull up the ionspray. This time it has a label and directions: Quick recovery – To use, squeeze near nose. I consider using it, but I push it aside for now. I'm not hurt, why waste it? Besides, maybe Isec will need one after the next battle.

  I pull out my uniform but there is something else in the bag – shorts and a tank. For bed, I guess. I put those on and tuck the uniform back in the bag and carry it with me to my bunk.

  The bed is a lot softer than I remember any bed ever being and I drift off to sleep thinking about what Lucan's note will say tomorrow night.

  Chapter Eleven

  Ashur slams me down on the mat as I focus on Isec's face. Esta is talking to him across the room.

  "Shit, Ashur, that hurt!"

  "You're not paying attention."

  I nod over towards Isec. "Esta was telling him some fucked-up shit yesterday, scared him bad, too. I don't want her telling him that stuff. I need him to learn something useful so I won't be worried about what happens to him if he does manage to make it to the end."

  "He's not your responsibility, Junco."

  "Like hell, we're partners now. He calls out the people behind me and she's gonna ruin it with her mid-life crisis bullshit."

  He laughs and pulls me to my feet. "I'll talk to her later. First try and do some moves that you would normally do on Earth, to see how it's different with the wings and the less than 1G gravity."

  I nod and try a spinning kick on the dummy, but fall on my face, laughing. "Hell, I guess it makes a huge difference!"

  "Yeah, the last time I saw you do that, you took a guy's head off."

  He grins at me, but the image of Aren brings back the video of Moju. Please, God, I pray to myself, let Moju be OK.

  "Junco? What the hell are you daydreaming about now?"

  I sigh. "Nothing, let me try that again." I go through the moves and this time at least hit my target, albeit in very sloppy form. After several more adjustments my foot smacks the bag squarely and it feels right. Ashur just sits and watches me, pointing out ways to force my wings to lie flat against my back. It works better that way, less air resistance.