by Zen DiPietro
“Besides that.” She laughed.
“I’d like to work on some database administration at the lab. I checked, and it’s open, and since no one else will be using it, I can work up some big configurations and do some testing.”
“Okay.”
“And I want to work on landing that backflip cleanly. I still don’t have it just right. And maybe that kick-me-in-the-head-over-your-head thing.”
She nodded. “Okay. We can do that.”
“And I happen to know that Whelkin’s around. What do you say to hitting him up for some training, with both of us?”
“I like it. He did say that I was his best afternoon class student and you were his best morning student.” She didn’t mention how much she’d taught Drew since the day they’d first met. The truth was, he’d helped her improve, too.
Neither of them said anything about having private lessons with Whelkin, either. She was sure now that he’d had them, though. She’d recognized techniques Whelkin had shown her when Drew had tried them. She was sure he’d noticed the same about her.
It was an unacknowledged secret between them. They were alike in more ways than they could talk about. Rather than being a chasm between them, it was a bond.
She wondered if she’d spend the rest of her life this way, keeping secrets from the people closest to her.
She imagined she would. But then, if the people close to her were like her, that would be okay, wouldn’t it?
“Is the cafeteria open?” she asked. She hadn’t thought to check.
“Why, are you hungry?”
“I am.”
“Well it isn’t. But we can get delivery, or we could call a taxi.” He patted his stomach. “I could use a meal.”
“Let’s order in,” she decided.
“An excellent choice, Miss. Shall we go with Italian, Zerellian, or Bennite?”
She didn’t have to think. “Bennite! Stew and bread. Lots of both.”
“Sounds perfect.”
“You order it while I visit the necessary. But get it delivered to your room.” She disentangled herself from him and stood.
“Why my room?”
“We’ve eaten here the last few times. We’re getting into a rut.”
He gasped. “Oh dear, we can’t have that! Well, Miss, go visit the necessary. Take care of nature, wash your hands, and I will order us a monster delivery of stew and bread. Then we shall feast at my abode. It will be glorious. A tale for the ages.”
She laughed on her way down the hall. He was so silly sometimes.
She loved that about him.
If Whelkin was surprised to see her on his doorstep with Drew beside her, he didn’t show it. Maybe he’d introduced them for a reason. Maybe he already knew how they’d hit it off, and how much time they spent together.
Emiko suspected that the people who mattered paid close attention to everything she did. Regardless of what he did or didn’t know, there was something she wanted.
She intended to get it, too.
“You two want to train together?” Whelkin asked before she had the chance to, looking from her to Drew.
“Yes.” She returned his gaze, keeping her expression blank, shielding her thoughts. If Whelkin didn’t reveal his motives and observations, she wouldn’t, either.
“Good. We can start on some two-on-one training. Let’s get started.”
Whelkin said nothing about them being on campus during break, or why he happened to be available to work with them. He just led them to a training room and got to work.
Three hours later, she was tired and sore, but pleased with the new skills she’d learned.
“Same time tomorrow,” Whelkin said before turning to leave. “Get to the infirmary and get yourselves ready for it, because we’ll go even harder.” He paused at the door, glancing back at them. “The time for managing it on your own with dermacare is over. I expect you to be in peak shape every time we meet.”
“Wait!” she called before he could disappear. “Is it a good thing or a bad thing that we handled our aches on our own?”
Whelkin’s hard demeanor softened just enough to show a glint of humor. “Well, you haven’t been disqualified for anything yet, so take it as you will.”
With that he was gone, leaving her and Drew staring after him, pondering his meaning.
“I’m going to take that as deeply, deeply subtle encouragement,” Drew decided.
“That’s how I interpreted it, too. Yes!” She gave him a high five.
He grinned at her as they gathered up their backpacks. “It doesn’t take much to make you happy, does it?”
“Not really. Give me a long stick and a lot of people to hit with it, and that’s all I need.” She widened her eyes at him, going for a wild, maniacal expression.
“I’m glad we’re on the same side,” he joked. “Let’s hit the infirmary.”
Drew improved his combat skills at an impressive pace. Two weeks into their intensive daily practices with Whelkin, she could see his personal style taking shape.
No matter what type of fighting a person did, once they reached a certain level of competence, they developed their own particular style. Tactics and movements they liked best along with what they found most effective for their strength and size combined into a unique set of base tactics.
He was already doing things that had taken her years to learn.
She should probably be concerned. He was her competition. They were both gunning for something elite, rare, and offered to a very select few. It might even come down to a her-or-him decision.
Even so, she was nothing but proud of him, and wanted to keep pushing him to get better.
He made her better, too. Hopefully, there would be room for both of them in covert ops.
“Think you could teach me some bo staff?” he asked her one day when they’d already worked with Whelkin and gotten patched up in the infirmary.
“Yeah. We could do that.” He was good enough to begin weapons training, and a bo was a good one to start with. “We’ll need plenty of space, though. Our basement dojo has too low a ceiling.”
“The quad?” he suggested. “Or the gym would work. Since campus is deserted, no one’s likely to see us in either place.”
He wouldn’t have said that if he weren’t training for covert ops.
“The quad,” she decided. “No walls. Plus, being outside would be nice. It’s a pretty day. If anyone does come along, we can quit or leave.”
They dropped by her room to pick up the staff, then went to the quad. They brought some lunch with them, for afterward.
Once they got into place, Drew sat down. “Show me some fancy moves. You know, the showy stuff. Inspire me.”
She smiled. He had a way of mixing sincerity and humor that was irresistible.
She let out a slow breath, bending her knees slightly. She began her warm-up routine, which involved sweeping arcs and quick jabs to loosen up her shoulder muscles and get her blood flowing. Then she moved faster, reversing the length of the staff and incorporating level changes, crouching low, then standing tall.
Once she felt warmed up, she launched into a routine she’d once done in competition. It involved a lot of reversals of the bo, using one end and then the other, and several spins and throws. Near the end, she planted one end on the ground and used it to launch herself up into a flying kick.
When she was done, she was breathing hard and feeling good.
“Wow. Looks like I have a lot to learn,” Drew said.
“Yeah. That routine won me a championship medal.”
“I bet. What’s it like to do something like that?”
She put the staff down and sat beside it. “What, winning or the form work?”
“I’ve won a thing or two, myself,” he drawled, making her wonder what he was referring to. “I mean doing a routine like that.”
“It feels amazing.” She searched for the words to describe it. “Doing something that is extremely difficult, but doesn�
��t feel that way because I’ve practiced it so much. It’s like transcending to a whole new level. Your body feels right because it remembers how to do it, and you don’t even have to think about it. It’s not about thinking, it’s just feeling and executing. It’s hard to describe.”
He nodded slowly. “Let’s get started, then.”
Over the next hour, she showed him the basics. He had no natural aptitude. He held the bo like it was a bazooka rather than a part of his body. But he worked tirelessly, and never let himself get discouraged.
He was still giving it his all when she said, “That’s enough for today.”
Another thing she liked about him: he put the staff down, even though she knew he’d like to keep working. She remembered herself, years ago, working hour after hour, working herself into exhaustion. She had been more stubborn. He was just as hardworking, but more willing to listen to expert advice.
It was probably one reason he advanced so quickly. He worked hard, but he also worked smart. He used everything that was available to him, including the expertise of those around him.
She hadn’t been nearly so wise in her younger years. She’d always charged ahead and done things her own way. If a square peg hadn’t fit into a round hole, she had made it fit, by any means necessary.
She was older now, and maybe it was time to change. Time to work smarter. She had a lot she wanted to achieve, and couldn’t brute-force her way through all of it.
Only some of it.
“Ready to eat? I’m starved,” Drew said, already laying out sandwiches and drinks.
“You’re always starved.”
“Shut up. So are you.” His grin belied his harsh words.
They ate lunch. Afterward they stretched their challenged muscles, lying on their backs, to study the clouds.
It was weird how he liked to do that, but kind of fun, too. She liked his whimsy.
“Look.” She pointed urgently. “A porcupine.”
“I was thinking evergreen tree, but yeah, I can see a porcupine there, too.”
They lapsed into a long silence, soaking up the warm rays of the sun, resting, and just enjoying this time together. Their second year at the academy would be more intense than the first, and they might not see each other as much.
He finally spoke. “So what happens if you don’t reach the highest heights? What then?”
“If I make it into OTS, I’ll become the best kind of whatever officer I qualify to be.”
“And if you don’t make it to OTS?”
She had no fall-back. “That’s not an option.”
“Imagine it, though,” he said. “What would you do?”
“No. This is it for me. It’s always been. There can be nothing else.”
He fell silent for a long time. Finally, he said, “Okay, hard-ass. OTS or bust, then.”
He reached for her hand.
“Yeah,” she said. “Thanks, though.”
“For what?”
“For being here. You’ve actually managed to make some of this fun.”
He squeezed her hand. “It should be fun. The harder things get, the harder we have to work to find the fun. Otherwise, we’ll get crushed by all the heavy things coming our way.”
“And then what?”
He turned his head to squint at her. “I was thinking that was kind of the end, the being crushed and all. But I guess if something happens after that, it’s us trying to dig ourselves out. Because that’s how life is.”
“Even if we’re all mangled and my face is crushed and looks like a bloody fist with a pair of eyeballs in it?”
He gave her shoulder a shove. “Thanks for the visual. But yeah. Even then. We keep going as long as we can.”
“Yeah. That sounds right.”
“Sooo…” he said, stretching the word out. “We should probably enjoy life while we can. Before your face gets smashed in and all.”
She had a good idea where his thoughts were going. “What did you have in mind?”
“I’m glad you asked!” He scooped her over his shoulder and took off at a loping gallop back toward his dorm.
“My bo! Wait, my bo!” She made grabbing motions in its direction. She didn’t care about the picnic basket or blanket, but she’d be damned if she’d leave her weapon behind.
“Right. Sorry.” He didn’t put her down, though. He went back, grabbed the staff, and resumed course. “We’ll come back for the rest.”
It was hard to laugh with her stomach pressed against his shoulder, but she did.
When the rest of the student population came flooding back to campus, Emiko felt oddly disappointed. Her weeks off with Drew and their nearly constant togetherness and training had been wonderful.
But it was time to get back to academics, and rededicate herself to being first in her graduating class.
She’d happily let Drew be second.
She threw herself into physics, math, diplomacy, and flight training. Instead of seeing Drew every day, she saw him four or five times a week. She’d expected to see a lot less of him since their academic paths were diverging more, but it worked out better than she’d expected.
Val and Jane, too, returned for their second year and worked hard to meet the renewed demands of their studies. Some faces Emiko had seen around campus had disappeared—they’d either graduated with the other third-years or washed out. New faces arrived, taking the place Emiko and her classmates had held a year ago.
Though she was only a year ahead of the newcomers, the disparity between her and them felt much greater.
Sometimes she wondered if her life as a PAC officer would be like that—prematurely aging her until she felt far older than a human could possibly live.
Nah. It wasn’t like clandestine ops officers had a history of dying of old age. She’d fight until she couldn’t fight anymore, and that would be it.
It was all she wanted, really.
Although she wouldn’t mind getting to fight alongside Drew. She hoped they’d end up in the same department after OTS and their specialty schools.
Year Two of the academy marked the beginning of actual flight training, though they still used the simulators a great deal.
Interestingly, a few people washed out right away. Three went right after the first atmospheric puddle jumper flight. Two went after their first trip up an orbital elevator to do a turn around the station in a basic little class-one cruiser.
The only significant difference, in Emiko’s opinion, was the fact that they knew they weren’t safe inside a simulator. Real physics were working on their bodies, with real-life consequences if things went awry. When she lifted her little plane up off the tarmac, her body was actually rising higher and higher above the Earth’s surface, and quickly reaching certain-death altitude.
That wasn’t a technical term. It was just what her classmates called it when the professor wasn’t around.
Fewer people in her class meant more flight time for her. She wasn’t sorry to see the washouts go. She loved the tickle in her stomach when her aircraft left the planet’s surface, and she loved the feeling of undocking a cruiser from the station, knowing there was nothing between her and the cold vacuum of space but a bit of technology and her skills.
It was exhilarating in a way that nothing else was.
Her love of flying made her wonder increasingly about what Drew’s specialty was. Clearly, fighting would be a particular skill for him, but what else? What did he do that was special enough to get him recruited like she had been? Was there something he loved as much as she loved piloting?
One day when she was lying on his bed studying propulsion mechanics and he was at his desk, she blurted it out.
“What do you do better than anyone?”
He looked up, blinking. He’d apparently been deeply entrenched in his study because it took him a long moment for his expression to clear. He didn’t even offer a suggestive response.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“I fight. I fly. Wh
at got you here?” She was careful not to say more, and to let him answer in a way that didn’t overtly say too much. It was the first time they’d broached the subject of why they were really there.
“I can hack anything. I can get into any system, and not leave a trace.” His words weren’t boastful. Merely factual.
She was surprised by how relieved she was that he’d answered. She’d crossed a line they’d never crossed, and it was dangerous. She wondered if he might refuse to answer.
“Show me,” she said.
His eyebrows lifted, but then he smiled. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” She got up and went to stand behind his shoulder.
He thought for a moment. “Okay. Watch.”
He opened up a multitude of windows, typing in lines of code as he switched between windows. None of it meant anything to her.
Finally, he said, “There. Look.”
She saw a security camera’s view of the door to her room. “No way.”
He nodded, glowing with pride. “Yep. And that’s not even a fraction of what I can really get into.”
“Wow. So pretty much, the academy had to either make you into an officer or lock you up forever.” She moved around and sat in his lap.
He laughed, and she felt the vibration against her shoulder. “Kind of.”
He put his arms around her and she leaned against him, glad to give her brain a brief rest.
“What about you?” he asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Show me something impressive.”
She nudged him. “You’ve seen me fight.”
“Yeah, I have. Show me something else. Wow me.”
She leaned back to get a better look at his face. “Really?”
“Really.”
She thought about what she could show him that might be impressive. “Well, there are two options.”
“Both,” he said immediately.
“What?”
“Show me both. I want to be super impressed. Like, a could-not-be-more-impressed kind of impressed. Don’t miss any opportunities to really knock my socks off.”
“What?” She leaned back to look at his feet, unsure what he was saying.