by Ted Mayes
“If you'd pass it on,” the lieutenant said, handing over a card, “I'd be grateful. You also might pass on to your big shots that it would be helpful to have a person that could be contacted directly on matters like this.”
“I'll pass it on, Lieutenant, but if rumors are correct, you'll get your wish sooner than you think.”
The lieutenant looked up with sudden interest. “A little more openness? Should make for some interesting … events … to be dealt with at first.” Jon just shrugged in response.
The principal rose. “We'll get in touch with you, Mrs. Jordan, about how we'll be handling Beth and her … tools. If you would pass that on to Beth before the first day of school, I'd appreciate it.” Everyone shook hands and Jon, Beth and her Mom walked out into the hallway.
Before Mrs. Jordan left, she hugged Beth and said, “I'm not sure I like the idea of you carrying weapons.”
“Mom, I'm the same person I was a couple of months ago.”
Before her Mom could say anything else, Jon echoed her. “She's no more likely to harm someone intentionally, Mrs. Jordan, than she was a year ago. She's learned quite a lot, but that should make you feel better about her safety. If anyone would try to harm her now, they'd get a very unpleasant surprise. Personally, I have a hard time imagining Beth picking a fight with someone.”
Mrs. Jordan had a hard time disagreeing with that, so after a few more moments of goodbye, she left, heading for home. Beth turned to Jon. “Do we have a few moments for a quick tour of the school?”
Jon grinned. “Is it okay for us to run, or at least jog, in the halls? We can do without the decurion getting on our case.”
She grinned, too. “A quick, running tour, coming up.” She managed to show him all the major areas of the school at a fast jog. They didn't bother looking in any of the classrooms, but occasionally they passed one that was open and had a teacher working inside the room. The tour was done quicker than Beth expected, and she realized, with a little surprise, that her school, which had seemed so large last year, was significantly smaller than the mall at Ostia.
They had almost reached the front doors when a group of young girls burst through the doors, talking excitedly. It was something of a shock to Beth that it took a second or two for her to recognize the girls as the cheerleading squad that she was supposed to have led this coming year. Finally there were squeals of recognition and Beth was surrounded by her friends and deafened with questions. Before she could start answering anything, she saw Jon mouth the words 'I'll wait at the van' and then tap his watch to remind her they needed to get back.
She answered questions as quickly and generally as she could. She'd had to take a job to help with her sister's medical problems, so she wouldn't be in extra-curricular activities this year. She didn't think she was supposed to talk much about the job and besides she didn't know too much about what she was going to be doing next. No, she hadn't talked to a boy she'd dated last year for months, and doubted that she'd be free to date much, if at all, this coming year. Yes, she worked with the man who'd just left, and yes, she supposed he was cute, but, no, he didn't have a phone number, and she doubted he'd have any more time to date than she would.
She excused herself as quickly as she could and hurried out to the van and they returned to Ostia in time for some hand-to-hand training. In some ways she welcomed it, because she found she needed to work off some emotions. She felt an uneasy sense of loss. It seemed that her senior year of high school was going to be much different than she once had thought. The school was smaller than she remembered and her friends seemed to act much, much younger. And what also worried her most was a little sense of annoyance at some of her friends' blatant interest in Jon.
* * * * *
Graduation day from basic training finally arrived. Most of the parents of the codjits were unable to make it, but at least it was recorded, so those who missed it could see it later. It was a fairly low key event. All the trainees lined up in formation on the 'parade ground' (where morning exercises normally took place) and the tribune (whom they had rarely seen) gave a short speech, congratulating them on completing the first part of their training. Then the decurions began dismissing their decurys after informing them of their upcoming duties.
For whatever reason, their decurion took his own sweet time, although he did allow them to stand at parade rest. Everyone else had either already left, or were hurrying to crowd into the their building before the decurion called them to attention. They quickly noticed that they had attracted an unusual amount of attention. Not only were Beth's and Jon's families there, standing somewhat in the background, but there were now a bunch of other people there, sporting more stripes on their sleeves than Beth had ever seen. There were several centurions, a couple of tribunes, a legate and even a quaestor, not counting various aides who were standing around waiting for the big shots.
Eventually the centurion stepped out in front of the platoon and began speaking quietly. “You all may, or may not, be happy to hear that your decury was the outstanding group in this summer's class. You're hearing about it now, after everyone else is gone, because it is imperial practice to be as quiet about this type of thing as possible. You have made an excellent beginning in the empire and it would indeed be a sad thing if you were to get a swelled head and do something that would destroy a promising career – your career.”
“Let me make it as clear as possible. You are all gifted young people and much is expected of you. Your service to the empire and the emperor will be of great benefit to your fellow Latins and citizens and to humanity in general. Your service will, probably, be honored by all and rewarded by the emperor. But you will also be under great scrutiny, not only by those above you in rank, but even more so by those who are of lesser rank than you. You all have acted, these past months, with integrity, honesty and honor. Continue to do so, in all that you do, in all that comes to hand.”
“Now, what do you get for this number 1 ranking? First, in whatever training or duty that will come your way over the next few months, you will be at the head of the line and get first choice over the rest of those in your class. Second, by the gift of the emperor, each of you will receive an aureus – spend it wisely. Third, though everyone else will only be informed of the honors they would have been awarded
if they weren't in training, the emperor grants each of you the right to wear a minor honor stripe, the first of many honors that we hope will come your way.”
“Fourth, you will receive something that may, at first, sound much worse than it really is. The rest of your classmates are now on a week's leave before they report for duty. You, however, will have leave only until 2000, at which time you will report back upstairs to your barracks. Then you will move to another location for a special assignment, which will last for two weeks – and then you will get your week's leave. One thing I suggest that you learn from this special assignment is that the more gifts and honors that you have and earn, the more is expected of you – more dedication and service to the emperor and to others. Things are different in other lands and places, but rising in rank and honor in the empire is not the route to an easy life.”
“Now, some members of first rank decuries of the past,” he gestured at all the higher ranked officers standing nearby, “wish to congratulate and encourage you. When that is done you, are dismissed until 2000, at which time your decurion pro tempore, Jon Harrison, will fill you in on what's happening next. At ease.”
The officers drifted over and every single one shook hands with Beth, as well as the others. All of them were kind and gracious in what they said. They just were … real, with no pretense or artifice, though she knew they commanded the obedience, even the loyalty, of hundreds, even thousands. She was a little shaken by their calm confidence that she might someday be in their company. It was such an unexpected event that even after the officers had excused themselves and left, she was so surprised that the centurion had to tap her on the shoulder to get her attention long enough to drop a heavy gold
coin onto the palm of one hand.
Then the centurion was gone, too, and her family came over to hug her. They were thrilled that she had not only survived the training but had earned honors as well. Her sister and brother-in-law were intrigued by her gold coin, but Beth was especially entertained by Ruth Harrison, who had appointed herself to be the one chasing Brent around, but at the same time wanted to cuddle with now 6-month old Sophie. However that all came to an end when Mr. Harrison invited everyone to lunch at a new smörgåsbord that had just opened on the Via Emporia, 1st level.
It was a wonderful, relaxing afternoon. Getting to pick what they wanted to eat coupled with not having to rush anywhere was wonderful. Beth's sister and her family left first, to get the little ones down for a nap, and Jon's family left a little later. Finally, Beth's parents left and the codjits looked at each other for a while.
“Do you have any idea what's in store for us next, o great one?” Ari said. Jon's surprisingly rude return comment indicated that he wasn't exactly pleased to be referred to in that way. Ari grinned and said, “Tough. You're the one sitting there with three chevrons on your sleeve. As every poor, stupid one-striper knows, that means you are the fount of all wisdom.”
Jon looked at him quietly for a brief moment and Beth got the impression that Jon was trying to control his temper. Finally, he said quietly, “Since two of those chevrons are silver and are probably going to be gone soon, I'd appreciate a pass on further sarcasm.” Ari nodded, with a grin, and Jon continued. “I can tell you what I know so far,” and he pulled a set of orders out of a jacket pocket. “Here's what our orders say: 'To: decurion I-633. From praetor a militaribus' – that's the same as the army chief of staff – 'On' - today's date – 'your decury is transferred to' - it gives an address on level 1, Via Publica – 'and take up such duties as will be given to you until' – it gives a date two weeks from now.”
“Now, add that to two other thing. One is a rumor that's been floating around for several months, that the emperor is ready to appoint a consul – who will be the visible head administrator and head judge of the empire, the person who's going to be second in power to the emperor – obviously a very important person to know. The second thing is that I know that address, even been there once with my Mom, who had some hand in decorating the place. According to her, it was supposed to be a public residence, something like a governor's house.”
Several soft whistles and murmurs rose from the codjits who were listening closely to what Jon said. “That's right,” he said, “it's the equivalent of being an intern in the White House or a clerk for the Supreme Court. We will get to know and be known by the movers and shakers of the empire. I'd like to suggest that we show up early for that kind of special duty.” It took only a very short discussion for everyone to agree with Jon.
“Secondly, this duty is only for two weeks, then we get a week's leave. After that, Beth finishes high school, some of us will have training, others will have classes at the University. We could continue to live in army barracks, but I have the feeling that we'd all prefer a little more room in the future.” There was head nodding and agreement with that. “There are some apartment areas down on levels 4 and 5 that might suit us, if you've gotten as used to hanging around with each other as I have.”
Shawna jumped into the conversation quickly. “What do you mean by 'might suit us'?”
“Well, as I recall, there were some new apartment complexes down there – living room and kitchen, two big bedrooms, bathroom, and each bedroom with a huge closet. If that sounds interesting, we could check it out and pick out apartments we could rent now and move into as soon as this assignment is done.”
There was quite a discussion on that suggestion. Would there be enough room for all of them? They'd have to go and see. What was the cost? No one had an idea, but the cost would be split three or four ways, so how bad could it be? After thoroughly considering everything they could think of, they all agreed it was worth taking a look at, before they showed up early to their new assignment.
“Lastly, although I'm only a temporary decurion, I've decided that we all need to celebrate graduation and our new assignment with a beer, and I'm buying.”
Maria quietly asked, “That will not cause a problem with officers?”
“If you remember the rules the centurion gave us weeks ago, there is no rule against drinking, even on duty, but severe penalties against being unfit for duty,” Jon said.
“That sounds like a science fiction story I read once,” Nick commented.
“I think I read the same story, but the point is that we get to live that story, rather than just read about it.”
Beth interrupted, “But I'm underage, a year younger than the rest of you.”
Jon looked quietly at her and then the rest. “Beth, it seems to me, that you, and maybe all of us, haven't really realized what happened to us this morning. We are now members of Imperial Security, or maybe more accurately, we're imperial soldiers. We've been trained to fight and kill and there are probably quite a few people in the world who would think we're pretty scary individuals. More than that, at least in your case – in the eyes of imperial law you are an adult, no matter what your age is. When we walk into a nearby bar in a little bit, they will take a look at your uniform, and especially the honor stripe, and not a single person is going to have a single question about treating you as an adult.”
The quiet that followed seemed to indicate that everyone was thinking over what had been said very carefully. Finally, though, Kevin asked, “Nobody's told us anything about these honor stripes, yet.”
Jon smiled at him. “In case you hadn't noticed yet, there's a thin red stripe on the pocket of your jacket, underneath your name – if you still remember what that is. Lesser honors, like ours, are a quarter inch wide, top to bottom, and indicate an award similar to an American purple heart or a combat infantryman badge. Middle honors are a half inch wide and indicate something like a bronze or silver star. Major honors are an inch wide and indicate something at the level of the Medal of Honor. There's a Roman numeral in the center of each ribbon, indicating how many awards have been made of that grade, so you see a 'I' on ours. The higher the award, the more rarely you see it.”
James, who was usually very soft-spoken and said little, asked “Do you know how all these markings appeared on our jacket, since the honor stripe was not there this morning, and I didn't notice anyone attaching anything to my jacket?”
Jon looked at him and said carefully, “I don't know how it was done, and very frankly, I'm pretty sure that I don't want to know, or even whether I could understand it right now. I've always thought, though, that somehow our own individual 'clerk' is able to somehow put them on our jackets. Now, if there are no more questions, let's head down the road to a nearby bar and grill, and I will buy each of us the only beer we're going to have today.”
It was definitely a different experience, as far as Beth was concerned, never having been in a bar before, but it seemed like the same was true for most of the codjits. Jon was right, though, that no one said anything about their being there – the uniform apparently was enough. In fact, the bartender heard that they were celebrating graduation from basic training, carefully noted that each one of them was wearing an honor stripe, and announced that the beers were a gift of the management. They toasted the emperor, the end of basic training, and their new assignment, but even then most of them didn't leave an empty glass behind them. Beth's was more than half-full when they left to check out apartments – she decided that beer was an acquired taste.
They found a number of apartments, right next to each other, that everyone was happy with on the fourth level of the Via Schola. It was incredibly roomy, compared with the barracks they'd been living in, but what struck Beth was how bare and empty it looked. Beth, Maria and Shawna, immediately started discussing what they wanted in their future home.
They were having so much fun, in fact, that they barely noticed returning to their old barracks
to start packing up. They carried one load down from the top floor and discovered that someone had managed to draft a couple of 'golf carts' to carry most of the stuff. Jon left a couple of guys behind to load up the carts and everyone else made a second trip getting the rest of the gear downstairs and the sheets and things turned in. By that time everything was all loaded up and Jon led the way around the corner and down the Via Publica to the elevators half way down the street. They took a couple of elevators down to the first level and quickly found their destination.
Jon opened the locked door by putting his palm onto the plate set by the side of the door. They hurried to get everything into the large room that opened up beyond the door. Then, while Ari and Jong returned the carts, Jon had everyone else move all the gear into the barracks room on the left side of the room, which Beth has happy to see was roomier than the one they had had in basic. When that was all done and Ari and Jong had returned, Jon gathered them all in the large room.
“House, how do I address you?” Jon asked.
“The name I've been assigned is Publius.” Beth wasn't very surprised at all to hear that a 'clerk' had been assigned to such a public building.
“Publius, this decury has been assigned to this place for the next two weeks. Are you ready start the recognition procedure for all of us?”
“Yes.” Jon started by giving his name and then the name of his paedogogus. He pointed to everyone else one at a time, and each one of them did the same. When they were all done, the house spoke again. “Thank you, decurion. I will recognize all of you in the future. For your information, another decury has also been assigned here, although it should be several hours before the first of them report in.”
“Thank you, Publius.” Jon motioned everyone into a huddle. “We only graduated this morning, but we're going to try and be as professional as possible. As of now, we're on guard duty in this house. We'll be four hours on watch and four hours off. It's almost 1600 so my squad will take the 1600 to 2000 watch, and Ari, your's will take the 2000 to 2400, then mine 2400 to 0400 and yours 0400 to 0800. We'll see what happens then when the other decury gets here. From now on, you go everywhere armed, pistols, knife, baton, and combat goggles. Ari, your group can get settled and look around – ask Publius if you have questions – and then I suggest you get some rest. Beth, you and Kevin take the first hour's guard at the door, parade rest most of the time. You can move around, stretch your legs by walking no more than 20-30 feet away, but at least one person is always by the door.” He looked around. “Okay, let's move, people!”