by JA Huss
I move on to flips and gymnastics but have the same problem. Ashur holds me as I twist, flip and flop, setting me down like my aerialist coaches would when I was small. Again, the wings are throwing me off balance. He tapes them down and I do it again. And again, and again, and again. I'm sweaty and gross when I notice the crowd watching and feel self-conscious.
"Again, Junco."
I try something new, something I think I can do well regardless of the wings, and I begin a Wan Woo form that I've practiced religiously since I was a pre-teen. It starts out slow, supposed to be done in the riding ring, in the dirt, right? Both on and off the horse. The first twenty-three moves are all balance – standing, weaving, hands, shoulders, and the head. The second part is on horseback, obviously it isn't now, since I have no horse, but I draw a mental box that is ten inches square around my feet to keep me focused. This is how you practice your tricks before going live on the back of an animal that could kill you with a hoof to the head if you fall.
My wings are an added weight that throws off the first of the boxed moves, but I compensate as I spring into a handstand and tilt my legs forward a little. From there I push off one-handed, spin, and catch myself on the other hand. My three remaining digits squeal with the pressure.
The kata pattern speeds along nicely as I rotate between straight flips from the hand and foot position. It's more like a vertical dance than anything, since that's really what mounted acrobatics is. I'm balanced on my head, getting ready to push up with my shoulders when I notice Ashur smiling at me. I smile back and heave, twisting my hips and swinging my knees down in a swoop as my upper body and feet trade places. I land at the very edge of my mental box and throw my arms in the air.
It was pretty sloppy, but I'll take it.
I smile over at Ashur and I'm just about to walk towards him when a big guy, one of Kush's buddies from the other side of the room, steps in front of me. "What the hell was that?"
"Wan Woo long form for aerialists, why?" He's a big brown-winged guy who looks pretty much like Kush – square jaw, intense blue eyes, and stout build, except he's got his head shaved and some marks on his arms. Tattoos or something.
"Never heard of that pattern, or seen anything like that before."
I stare at him sideways, not because he's particularly interesting to look at, but because his words come out like a challenge. A growl of dominance.
"Well, you wouldn't, would you? I mean, unless you've been to Earth, right? I've been told there are no horses in space, so that pretty much rules out mounted acrobatic routines."
Ashur is between us before I can even finish. "That's enough, Junco, let's go fly."
I turn to follow him but the big guy grabs my arm and turns me back. "Hey, I'm still talk–"
I react, I can't help it. My knees are bending on the word "hey," and by the time he gets to "talk," I've smacked him in the jaw so hard with my heel he drops to the ground.
Ashur lets out a deep breath and motions me to follow him, but I kneel down to the guy instead. "I'll let you live because maybe you're just having a bad day, but there will be no next time. Don't ever fucking touch me again."
I stand and glance over at Isec, his smile is so wide I have to shoot him a wink. Then Ashur and I leave the training room and make our way down the stairs to the front of the building.
Outside we stop at the benches so I can puff a cigar. Ashur holds a hand up to his face to shield his eyes from the sunlight. Or whatever it is, since it's obviously not the sun. "Now you'll have to watch your back for that guy, Junco. I hope it was worth it."
I shrug. "He grabbed me, Ash. You can't let guys get away with that shit or they take it to the next level." I blow rings upward and lean back on the bench, my disfigured hand behind my head as a cushion.
"Yeah, I know. But he looked off. Keep an eye out for him."
"Yeah, OK. So we gonna fly or what?"
He smiles down at me, plucks the cigar from my hand, stomps on it, and pulls me up. "This will be a lot harder than in the free-G, you'll be sore tomorrow."
I smile. "I'm ready." And I am.
Flying is not all that fun when you're learning. For one thing, you fall an awful lot. And I'm not talking about some pansy-ass baby fall. Even in the grass that hurts. It takes me hours to get a few feet off the ground and my stomach muscles are burning with the strain of keeping my body parallel. I had no idea it took so many muscles to get into the correct flight position.
Eventually, after Ashur tugs me up into the wind, I find my stride with gliding. The wind is stronger up high so I have to compensate by twisting, using muscles I never knew I had. Well, probably didn't before a few days ago. We take advantage of the air stream and fly out above the train rail, following it into a town a few miles away. People stare at us as Ash lands and I crash and roll near a pub, but we're both wearing the Aves uniform, so they get disinterested quick enough.
We drink and eat, Ash watches some kind of sport on the screen, and I throw darts at a board that has the face of Jax Justice on it.
Internally I find that quite funny.
Some things are universal and hatred for this guy's high-drama action screens back on Earth is one of them, like politics and parties on the news. I hit him in the eye several times, and from the looks of the missing paper pieces in the orbital region, that seems to be a favorite spot for many of the locals as well.
On Earth I don't recall ever having so much freedom. Back home I was in a routine where I did what I was told to do, saw who I was told to see, and went where I was told to go. It wasn't exactly orders, more like habit to the extent that I was unable to even see that I had options. I had boyfriends when we were out on the scrub and on maneuvers, but never at home. As I got older my father got more and more weird about boys, so I kept that shit out of sight. Even the horses were more of a job than a social engagement.
Take Peaks, for instance. I had a vehicle and a Farm Family passport stamped with military privileges, yet I never went to the city alone. Never even went shopping or just to grab a chicken sandwich. It's refreshing, freeing actually, to be in charge of myself. I watch Ash across the room and wish the other guys would come visit too, especially Braun – I really need to talk to that fucker – but the casual routine Ashur and I have slipped into is satisfying in a way I've never experienced before.
Normal.
I walk over and join him and he explains the rules of the sport to me. It's a lot like gridiron, but more violent and takes place in free-G. After a while we leave and grab the train back so I don't have to try and fly against the wind in the dark. Ash gives me a hug at the door and I wave an arm at him as I walk inside.
It's past midnight when I finally get back to the dorm, so I forgo a shower and just slip into bed with my uniform on. I can hear Isec in the next bunk, his breathing even, but the remnants of crying linger in the way he hiccups air. I am thinking about how I will kill Esta tomorrow for scaring him so badly when the arms come up from below my bed and clamp against my mouth. In a blink I am dragged silently down the middle of the room and into the showers. When we get there the door closes and I hear the click of a lock just before the lights flick on.
It's the big guy from earlier.
What a dumb fuck.
His rage is dialed up to maximum and his two buddies stand around him with their arms crossed. "Not so fucking tough without your bodyguard, are you, little girl."
I laugh and he kicks me in the ribs, making me laugh again. "Keep laughing, girl, I can't wait to see you without teeth."
I cough a little to clear my throat, just to make sure I can enunciate everything properly. "Wow. You think he was my bodyguard? Shit, I'm his bodyguard, you dumbass!" I laugh again, and the boot finds its mark, making me roll a little to the side.
I wait it out because there's only one reason to drag a girl into a locked room and it always ends with the asshole on top. And once he gets that position in his head, he'll have made his last mistake.
"Hold he
r down, Bann."
"Bann," I say, looking at the guy he was just talking to, "if you hold me down, I'll make sure and kill you first. Don't say I never warned you."
He ignores me and makes to hold my left arm while the other guy tries for the right. I grab Bann's foot first, since I did warn him, and he goes down hard. I wince as his head cracks against the cold tile floor and the blood spills out.
The other guy hesitates, making him already too late for the party. I kick up with my right foot and take out his nose. The blood gushes out in a way that reminds me of nightdogs and caves. I swing my legs back to my head and fling them forward, forcing myself up on my feet. The SEAR exits my shirt silently, but the hiss of power makes the ring leader snap to attention. "What the fu–"
His head is rolling towards the shower drain before he can finish his curse. The broken-nose guy is scrambling to his feet, making for the locked door, when his head goes rolling down towards the blood-red drain as well. The other guy is already dead, so I don't soil the air with any more burning flesh than I have to.
The whole fight is over in less than a minute and I thumb the mechanism on the SEAR and put it away.
I leave the front shower door locked and go looking for the moderators near the cubbies. I spy another care package for me, but decide to take care of clean-up before grabbing it and going back to my bunk.
Chapter Twelve
It takes me several minutes to find someone who gives a shit about the three dead bodies I left in the showers. They want to make me wait in a small room off the office, but I refuse and go back to my bunk with my package. Not my problem anymore.
The entire dorm is awake now and I watch Isec's face as I approach the bunks. "They said they would kill you, Junco. I'm sorry I didn't stay awake to tell you, I thought you'd stay away with your friend."
"Don't worry about it, kid, they're dead now." I rummage down to the bottom of the bag and smile as I pull the note out.
"What's this one say, Junco?"
Poor Isec, he looks like a little baby standing there next to my bed. I read it and laugh. "He says, Junco, you are a giant pain in the ass. Lucan."
Isec screws up his face at me and even the coughing girl is looking down at me with interest. "Are you and Lucan friends?" He says it like it can't be possible, and if he would have asked me two days ago I would've agreed with him. But tonight, I just shrug.
"Maybe, but once he finds out what I just did, he might not be so friendly with me anymore."
It's the coughing girl who speaks next. "What did you do, Junco?"
I look up at her and notice that her eye is swollen shut. It wasn't like that earlier. "Did they hit you?"
She looks down and nods.
"Well, I'll tell you what I did then." I wait for her to look me in the eyes. "I chopped his fucking head off with a SEAR knife. Along with his buddy's. The third guy, Bann – well, he cracked his head open when I pulled his feet out from under him, so I can't really take credit for that one."
She lets out a deep breath and I know relief when I see it.
I spy a moderator walking down the middle of the room towards us. "Shit, here we go."
Isec looks panicked. "What will they do to you, Junco?"
"It was self-defense, Ise, they won't do anything to me. Be back in a little bit."
I get up and meet the mod halfway. He smiles. "Sorry, Junco – Lucan's on a com in the break room. Wants to talk to you."
"Course he does." I follow, a slight bit of panic rising up in my chest.
My knee bobs up and down as I wait for him to appear on the screen. In place of his face is an emblem, a seal actually, like diplomats have. It's hard to read, but I think the little letters around the perimeter say Capitol City of Amelia, or some shit like that. It's bona fide, let's just leave it at that.
My eyes begin to droop when his voice brings me back to attention.
"Explain."
I smile, then lose my bravado and look away. "What do you want me to say? I chopped their heads off. The other guy cracked his noggin open when I pulled his leg out from under him. It was self-defense, Lucan. They were gonna rape me."
He winces as the word leaves my lips, but fuck, it's true.
"Meet me outside immediately."
The screen goes blank and I get up and knock on the door so the moderator can let me out. His dark face peeks through a crack in the door, trying to see past me and over to the screen. "He wants me to go outside. Immediately."
He opens the door all the way and takes me by the arm, apparently I can't be trusted to walk outside without killing people.
We both see Lucan standing over by the train stop bench, so the mod lets go of my arm when we reach the door and I make the final distance alone. Lucan points to the bench when I get there, so I slump down and take out a cigar. His hand stops me and I put it away.
"Junco, you are taking up a lot of my time."
I wait it out because his statement doesn't require an answer.
"Did I or did I not forbid you from using that weapon?"
"You did, but–"
"There were no exceptions, Junco. If people find out what you are there will be a lot of – hostility. Do you understand this?"
"No, Lucan." I look up at him and shake my head a little. "I don't get it. You act like I'm a disease or something. I've had the SEAR my whole life and I never went off and started killing people like a lunatic. So, why? Why do you think I'm so wild?"
His head turns to look down the empty train tracks before he speaks. "How do I explain who and what you are, Junco? You are not human, you are not avian, yet you morph into one of us and have machines in your body. You may in fact be an authentic Seventh Sibling and you have a very dangerous weapon that we cannot remove from you or else–" He stops abruptly and I watch his jaw clench with tension. He straightens a bit and then continues. "We're not sure what you are, Junco." He turns back to me, finished.
"I'm not sure what you are, either. And you don't see me getting all freaked out about it."
He stays silent.
"Would the SEAR knife kill you?" His expression hardens and I have a feeling I've crossed a line.
"Not much can hurt me, Junco."
"You didn't answer the question."
He blows out a little bit of air in a half laugh. "Do you, or do you not, understand that I have forbidden you from using the weapon while you are here?"
"I do."
"Then why?"
"It was three against one, I needed to stack the deck. They weren't small guys, Lucan. Three against one." The night breeze sweeps my hair aside and I lift my chin up and breathe in.
Lucan is watching me when I look over to him. "Why didn't you use the ionsprays?"
I screw up my face. "I thought you wanted to yell at me for killing people?"
"It happened as you say, so it is excused this time."
"Then why come all the way over here in the middle of the night?"
"I am checking to see if you're OK, Junco. Is that so unusual? I would have called Ashur, but…"
I wait. "But?"
"I was in the neighborhood."
I laugh. "Oh, right."
He takes a seat on the bench next to me, his head eases into his hands and he pushes against his temples. I know the look, it means I'm giving someone a headache. Tier used it frequently.
"I wasn't hurt."
He looks up and then his eyes track down my body. "Yes, I can see that. I'm glad."
"No, I mean, I didn't use the ionsprays because I wasn't hurt."
"Oh." He straightens up again, then flattens out a wrinkle in the sleeve of his black suit. "Right, well, they're just glycogen analogs, Junco, not health sprays. It is forbidden to treat you with health sprays. Besides, you heal yourself anyway. These will help your new muscles acclimate."
"OK, well, I'll use one when I get back in. I learned to fly, ya know. I'll probably be sore tomorrow."
He smiles and I crack one as well, I can't help mys
elf. He goes back to picking at his suit.
"Why are you always so overdressed?"
His laugh blurts out in the night silence. "What?"
"That suit, Lucan. It's so formal."
"How should I dress?"
I shrug. "I dunno, but hell, a suit in the middle of the night? Something a little less rigid would go a long way."
"You really don't know why I wear this suit, Junco?"
"No, I have no idea." I raise my eyebrows at him and he has a genuine look of surprise on his face.
"Well, that might explain some things about your behavior."
"Yeah, want to let me in on it?"
"Who do you think I am?"
I recycle back my memory to my morph day. "You said you were a commander. My commander, actually. In fact you said, I'm Lucan, Junco. Your new commander. Is that not true?"
He smiles. "It is technically accurate. I am your commander because I command all the Aves. They are my official military force and the 039 is my personal force."
"What's that mean? You're like the President or something? Commander-in-Chief?"
"Yes."
"Yes? You are the President? Of Amelia? Or of what?"
"Of the avian, Junco."
I grimace. "Oh. I'm sorry, then. I really didn't know. I wouldn't have said all those things to you if you told me that up front."
"It's OK, I find your honesty refreshing."
I snort at this. "Well, I've never been called that before."
"Which, honest or refreshing?"
"Ha ha, that's funny." I lean back on the bench and stare up at the fake sky. Windows. Scaffolding, whatever the hell it is. I stare up. "I miss the stars on Earth. I can't see anything here."
"I can take you to see them. If you want."
"How many trains will it take? I'll probably fall asleep."
He reaches out and taps my shoulder and I'm just about to look over at him when the sky changes and the stars shine down on me. I try and sit up before I realize I'm no longer sitting. We're standing in the middle of the night sky, nothing above and nothing below. "Holy shit, what is this? A simulation?"