The voice was a gentle and soothing mellow baritone. The intonation was sad and not mocking as some of the other men’s had been. A young man, slightly taller than Rachel, stepped up to the terrace rail and gently took her hand. “Can you ever relax, or must you always live in fear?”
“Perhaps it is safer to maintain one’s defenses,” she answered.
“Ah, but can love pass through those defenses?”
“That remains to be seen. Are you offering yourself as a test subject?”
“Too early to tell.”
“You could at least introduce yourself.”
“Ah, yes, there is that. The exchange of labels as a means of starting the discourse except that we have already started discourse.”
“Still, the proper thing to do is to identify ourselves to each other. Even in combat, our ships exchange identification.”
“But the people don’t?”
“Not generally. It is not considered healthy to know the names of the people you intend to kill.”
“That would make sense.”
“You still have not introduced yourself.”
“And you are still tense. Is it not good enough that we are both at the same party to which only a select few are invited?”
Wendy glanced through the window to see a young man put his arm around Rachel’s shoulder. She stiffened inwardly and stopped talking in mid sentence. The woman she was talking with followed her gaze and quietly excused herself leaving Wendy alone at the window watching as the young man gently advanced on her sister.
Another young man stepped up beside Wendy and said, “Hi, Wendy, I am Joshua Cohen. That, out there with your sister, is my brother Isaac.” He stood beside her and stared out the window. “Are you worried about her?”
“Yes.”
“You have reason. The last woman he approached, he gave a breast exam ten minutes after meeting her.”
Wendy giggled. “She’ll kill him.”
“That would be unfortunate. I have one brother. He may be a handful, but he is my brother.”
“When I was little, we used to watch Rachel fight with Sean. He was the only boy our age we knew growing up. She shot him with an arrow.” She chuckled at the memory.
“Should I be worried about my brother?”
“Perhaps. We are trained killers, you know.”
“I’ve seen the video. I’ve read the reports, but you seem so different from what I expected.”
“What did you expect?”
“Tougher, harder, meaner perhaps. You both seem pretty normal to me.”
“Except that we kill people. Aren’t you afraid I’ll kill you?”
“No.”
“No?”
“Not at all. I listened to you all evening. You are sensitive, caring and emotional. You are not the demon the press would make you out to be.”
“Is that a compliment?”
“Would you like it to be?”
“I don’t know.”
“Wendy, you are deep, conflicted and complex. Whoever you choose to love will need to be totally devoted to you for nothing less will work.”
“Any candidates?” She raised one eyebrow at him.
“I would offer myself, but I know that for the next three years I will have precious little time to give you the devotion you need and have a right to expect.”
“Joshua, you’re sweet. What will you be doing for the next three years that will be so intense?”
The conversation was stopped abruptly by the sound of a sharp slap from out on the terrace. As Wendy and Joshua watched, Rachel slapped Isaac with the open palm of her hand across his face. Isaac’s head spun from the force of the blow. Rachel calmly straightened her dress and turned back to face the skyline.
Joshua said, “That’s not the first time that’s happened. I’ll bet he never got hit this hard.”
“Rachel hits hard. Trust me.”
“Has she ever hit you?”
“We used to fight all the time. We’ve hit each other plenty. She didn’t scare him off. That’s a first. Tell me what you are doing that will keep you so busy.”
“Isaac graduated from Harvard Med in June and has been accepted into a special program for his internship.”
“What does that have to do with you?”
“I graduated from Fed Tech and I have been accepted into the same program.”
“Ah. What’s the program?”
“Actually it was inspired by the doctors at Homestead. They wrote a series of articles on the challenges of providing medical care under such isolated and primitive conditions. They knew that many of the conditions they could not help where they were could have been helped if they had been better trained or supplied with more of the latest technology.”
“That makes sense.”
“The problem comes in the fact that so much of today’s medicine is biomedical engineering technology that a doctor can't possibly learn everything they need to know in a single lifetime let alone have time to cure people. The first attempts to create the super doc failed. Most of the candidates cracked under the strain. We are in the first test of a new idea. The plan is to pair a doctor with an engineer. We make a life-long commitment to support each other in the business of saving lives.”
“And the program is that intense?”
“Yes, the goal is that we can go anywhere and with the support of some nurses and physicians’ assistants be an entire hospital worth of healing power.”
“That’s pretty heavy duty.”
“Yes.”
Wendy’s gaze returned to her sister and Joshua’s brother. “Um, Joshua, your brother is about to get killed. You may not be entering that program.”
Wendy and Joshua watched as Isaac’s hand drifted below Rachel’s waist and past the curvature of her hip. Suddenly there was a flurry of motion and Isaac found himself lying face up in the grass on the other side of the terrace rail. Joshua ran to his brother and scaled the rail in a single step. When he arrived, Isaac was opening his eyes.
“Wow! What a rush! It was like flying through space!”
Wendy vaulted over the rail to see if Isaac was hurt. She took one look at his goofy grin and turned back to her sister. Rachel’s expression showed the remorse she usually showed when she lost her temper. “You can be sure the rest of the guys will leave you alone,” Wendy scolded.
“Is he going to live?” Rachel asked, terrified.
“Conducting self exam!” Isaac said childishly.
Someone handed Joshua a flashlight which he shined in his brother’s eyes. “No concussion. You stupid fool,” Joshua said. “Groping the warrior princess. How does your back feel?”
“No pain. The grass is soft. My feet broke the fall. I am intact,” Isaac replied.
“We have too much riding on you staying fit for you to be pulling stupid stunts like this!” Joshua shouted.
“Sorry, Josh, it won’t happen again,” Isaac apologized.
Joshua pulled his brother to his feet.
Isaac brushed himself off and looked up at Rachel standing over him. “I apologize. You are the most exciting woman I have ever met and I am sorry I offended you. Please forgive me.”
Rachel glowered for a moment. Her face softened and she said, “You are forgiven. You are the first man I have met in as long as I can remember who thought of me as a woman first. If you promise to be less aggressive next time, I will see you at next year’s party. In the meantime, you need to devote all your energies to your work. Next year we will start over.”
“Fair enough.”
Faye Anne scurried over to them. “We need to leave. We have company.”
“What kind of company?” Rachel asked.
“Swordsmen,” Faye Anne replied.
“Are they armed?” Rachel asked.
“I don’t think so,” Faye Anne replied.
“How many are there?” Rachel asked.
“Maybe fifty,” Faye Anne said.
“That’s four to one. Not ba
d odds,” Rachel grinned.
“Rachel!” Wendy gasped. “Are you thinking what I think you’re thinking?”
“We can’t go out to the cars, they’ll be waiting for us,” Rachel said. “We can invite them inside and deal with them here. Twelve of us against fifty of them. It’s just a big barroom brawl.”
The retired intelligence officer ran to them. “We have to get you out of here!”
“Sir, with all due respect, we are staying. We will fight if necessary,” Rachel said.
“Are you sure?”
The Marines joined the group on the terrace.
“It’s clobbering time,” Rachel grinned.
“We’re always up for a good fight,” Darius said.
“Round the clock on the front door and invite them in,” Rachel suggested.
“Shall we see if we can do this without breaking a nail?” Pat asked.
Suwanee looked at her hands and asked, “How do you have nails to break?”
“I have the six!” Wendy said.
“Twelve,” Rachel said.
“Three and four,” Suwanee said with her arm around Reuben.
They took their positions by the front door. The retired intelligence officer opened the door and invited the mob inside. The first one through the door was a scrawny tough looking man in his early twenties. He was carrying a baseball bat and looked like he might have a knife in his belt. He advanced directly at Rachel, his walk a little unsteady as he strode toward her. He spit on the floor in front of her. “Jews and perverts.” He repeated the chant several times as the rest of the mob filed in behind him. When they were all inside, the old man closed the door and locked it. The twelve warriors stood in a ring encircling the mob. Their arms were at their sides. They stood tall and faced the ragged bunch. The rest of the party had backed away from the center and hugged the walls.
The scrawny man with the baseball bat said, “Jews and perverts,” several times. The crowd behind him grew restless waiting for someone to make the first move. The scrawny man swung at Rachel with the bat. She deftly grabbed the bat out of his hands and sent it skidding across the floor away from them. She spun him around and pulled the knife from his belt and sent it after the bat. Lionel grabbed the man’s feet and Darius grabbed his hands. With a push from Rachel in the middle, they tossed him over the heads of the crowd where he landed in the center of the mob. At a four to one ratio a half drunk mob is no match for properly trained Marines. The Marines were brutally efficient. While they did not kill any of the mob, some of the Swordsmen sustained severe injuries that would have them hospitalized for some time. As the mob retreated Rachel, grabbed one of the more intelligent looking ones and threw him to the floor. She held him captive until all the injured had been dragged away, some leaving blood stains on the floor.
Rachel had her captive face down. She held his arms behind his back as she sat on him.
“Who put you up to this?” she demanded as a crowd gathered around her and her captive.
“I don’t know,” he whined.
She pulled his hair and lifted his head. “Who put you up to this?”
“I don’t know,” he pleaded.
She smashed his face to the floor. “Does that help your memory?”
Several of the Jewish students winced in pain at the sound of his nose breaking.
“I don’t know,” he cried.
Rachel lifted her skirt and from the inside of her thigh pulled her throwing knife from its sheath.
“Do you always carry that?” Isaac asked in shock.
“Always.” She held the crystal clear polymer throwing knife in front of the man on the floor.
“I need names. There’s plenty of blood on the floor. Adding yours won’t even be noticeable,” Rachel threatened.
Joshua stepped close to Wendy and timidly asked, “Do you have a knife, too?”
Wendy leaned close to him and whispered, “We all do.” She put her finger to her lips and then to his as if to say it was a secret.
Joshua’s heart skipped a beat. He wondered almost fearfully if it was arousal or terror.
Rachel pressed the knife against the man’s throat and he started spouting names. When he was done, he begged Rachel to spare his life. She let him up and wiped her knife clean on his shirt tail. She pushed him in the direction of the door and he fled.
“Do those names mean anything to you?” Rachel asked.
Several of the students said that they did.
“The battle lines are drawn,” Rachel said. “We should clean up this mess.”
Isaac stood dumbfounded in the middle of the floor.
“She could have killed you,” Joshua said.
“But she chose not to. That is the most amazing woman I have ever met,” Issac said.
“You’re not man enough for her and unfortunately neither am I,” Joshua warned.
“But I will be,” Isaac replied confidently.
Josh raised his eyebrow and shook his head.
The energy level in the room after the fight was much higher than before. This group of students had seen live what they had only seen before on electronic games. They saw the reality of what it took to survive in hand-to-hand combat. Several resolved to join the military and do their part in the wars they all saw coming.
An hour later the intelligence officer who insisted that he not be named wandered by and reminded them that they had a plane to catch and if they wanted to be at the Academy in the morning, they needed to head out. They changed into traveling clothes before they left. They said their goodbyes and climbed into the vans. Lionel and Darius dropped the rest of the group and the luggage at the airport. The Marines’ plane for Savannah would not leave for several hours after the cadets’ plane left for Salt Lake.
Their last image of Boston as they headed down the loading ramp was Reuben and Suwanee in a passionate embrace.
A Space Force bus met them at the airport. One of a dozen running all night shuttle service, it brought them back to the Academy. The majority of the passengers slept on the bus. For some, it was the only sleep they had gotten for several days as they traveled back to Academy Village, Utah.
Formation in the morning was painful. They had been assigned new roommates over the summer so the first order of business after classes their first day back at the Academy was to move their belongings out of summer storage to their new rooms. The six quickly found that their new roommates were unpleasant people to live with. While their hygiene and the cleanliness of the rooms was mandated by upper class leaders and daily inspections, other, less savory, characteristics were not.
Late the previous spring, the Federation Supreme Court, in a victory for the evangelicals, decided that proselytizing was protected speech and in public areas where speech of any kind was allowed, it could not be banned. The case involved a man who was arrested in a theater for shouting “Praise Jesus” throughout a show. He was charged with disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace. He counter sued on the basis of free speech. The court decided in that since the theater was private property for which a paid admission had been charged and that the rules of conduct during the presentation were clearly posted, the man was guilty of breach of contract and upheld the conviction. The content of what the man said was not at issue. The manner in which he said it was. Writing further, the majority of the justices stated that had the man done the same thing in any public place, there would have been no recourse as long as his actions did not create a dangerous situation for himself or others. They did reference the illegality of shouting “fire!” in a crowded space. The minority dissented only to express concern that a concert in a park, while technically a public place, should be protected as well. The decision as handed down concluded that private, indoor venues could control the behavior of the people in attendance and organizers of free outdoor events could not except to the extent that such activities might compromise public safety.
Following the announcement of the decision Swordsmen and Evangelical Christi
ans massed around the edges of every public event held for the following months shouting religious slogans and taunts at the audiences and each other. Within six months, every outdoor event including those sponsored by Swordsman and Christian groups had been canceled.
For the Academy students, the decision meant that they were forced to endure the catcalls and shrieks of the Evangelicals every time they left a building. For the Evangelicals, freedom of religion had become freedom to persecute. They, of course, saw nothing wrong with this situation. They proclaimed that their right to free speech, previously abridged, had been released from illegal restrictions. Many of the Christian roommates of the Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu and atheist students made it clear that they had been insulted to be assigned a roommate beneath their station.
Religious messages appeared on public bulletin boards and stayed for weeks at a time. Some had scrawled the counter message “Beware the glassy eyed!” on religious posters. The comment was a reference to a late twentieth century journalist’s review of a religious theme park in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Students who complained about the harassment to school authorities often found that they and not the harassers were punished. Even though it was strictly against regulations, Rachel had a shipment of polymer throwing knives sent in and distributed them to other cadets who had become the victims of harassment.
ACADEMY - CHAPTER SIX
ESTHER SHERMAN WAS ON PATROL when the two P I ships who had raced at full throttle non-stop from the Central System dropped out of hyper and announced their arrival. She was shocked when the ships addressed her on open frequencies using Rachel’s and Wendy’s voices. The ships stated that Wendy and Rachel were not with them, but they had instructed the ships to rendezvous with Greg and Avi as soon as possible. She immediately called Greg and Avi for instructions. Esther had little patience with the time delay it took for a radio message to travel at the speed of light over the distances between her post and where Greg and Avi were at the time with a squadron of students. Greg called her on an open frequency knowing that the ships would be “listening” to their conversation.
Solomon Family Warriors II Page 52