Keep Your Friends Close

by N. D. Roberts

  What would he wake up to?

  6

  Alexis woke up to a bright light raking her eyes. She lifted her arm to cover her face, only to have it pulled down again.

  “Keep still, recruit,” a stern voice ordered.

  Alexis opened her eyes and found herself on a gurney inside a vast tent. The light burned her eyes. She squeezed them closed and willed the fuzziness in her head to clear.

  Gabriel was less disoriented, but not by much. Waking up on his back when he’d been in a vertical position in the stasis Pod would do that. He caught the attention of the technician by his bed. “Where are we?”

  The technician smiled sadly. “You’re a soldier now. Don’t ask questions; they don’t like it. Just do as you are told, and you’ll be fine. Now, let me see your eyes. We have to be sure the year in stasis didn’t cause any damage.”

  The journey had taken a year? Gabriel wondered what that meant for their training. He looked around while he waited for the technician to finish checking him over.

  He spotted Alexis and K’aia easily, but there was no sign of Trey’s skinny behind anywhere he could see.

  There was another Baka a few beds over, but he was fully grown.

  The Baka frowned at Gabriel. “What the hell has happened to me?” he hissed in Trey’s voice.

  Gabriel’s mouth fell open when he realized the Baka was Trey. “You grew some,” he managed to reply.

  The technician shook her head. “No fraternizing. You’re good. Make your way to the parade ground, recruit.”

  Gabriel thanked her and made his way out of the tent. He was joined by the others as he stepped into the hot, damp air of the planet they were on.

  K’aia sniffed and growled. “Great. My braid is going to be a nightmare to maintain in this humidity.”

  “Check out my guns!” Trey enthused. He flexed his arms. “I should charge admission for the show.”

  Alexis rolled her eyes, chuckling at Trey’s joy. “You look like your uncle Li’Orin.”

  Trey patted his stomach. “I’ve got a good few pounds to gain before that’s true.”

  They walked over to a grassy knoll that separated the expansive, graveled parade ground and the collection of tents and long, low, prefabricated buildings they’d just left.

  Trey scanned the tents dotted around between the buildings, then turned to scrutinize the activity around the parade ground. “This must be a dedicated training facility.”

  Alexis snorted, stepping off the grass onto the gravel as the sound of multiple staff instructors ordering recruits to fall in drifted across the parade ground toward them. “You’re a smart cookie. At least there is some training. I was starting to worry we were going to be thrown straight into battle.” She waved a hand at the gravel. “Come on. We’d better get on with it.”

  They followed Alexis, glancing speculatively at the groups forming as they walked across the parade ground. “This one?” Gabriel suggested, indicating a smaller group of around twenty NPCs of varying species.

  “Good enough for me,” Trey agreed.

  “What now?” K’aia asked once they were in a loose formation with the NPCs.

  “‘What now,’” a bulky blue alien in a light-tan officer’s uniform yelled into K’aia’s face, “is that recruits will not speak unless ordered to.”

  K’aia headbutted the officer purely out of instinct, cutting her forehead on the horn protruding from his face. Her eyes widened when her carapace was suddenly filled with dancing red laser dots. “Dammit…”

  The parade ground echoed with reports of gunfire as every NPC wearing a guard uniform fired on K’aia.

  Gabriel and Alexis grimaced.

  “Not the best way to go,” Alexis supplied.

  Trey watched in horror as K’aia’s body was jerked around by the impacts of multiple shots. “She can feel that!”

  Gabriel lifted a shoulder. “Nah, it only hurts for a minute, then shock kicks in, and it’s no worse than being punched.”

  Trey’s reply was cut off by the void descending.

  Attempt #2

  A blink later, they were back on the training ground on the grassy verge they’d been standing on a few moments before.

  K’aia held up her hands. “My bad.”

  Trey snickered. “Yeah, even I know that attacking an alien with the ability to impale you on his face is a bad idea.”

  Yeah, let’s avoid him this time, Alexis snarked, swerving to avoid the officers altogether as she led them back onto the parade ground. We should stick to mental communication when the officer NPCs are around. Keep our heads down. Try to keep your humor to yourself, Trey. This is going to be a very long game otherwise.

  Trey wrinkled his nose as they headed back toward the group they’d chosen. It was going to be a very long game for him if everyone had to be so serious the whole time.

  He was still in shock at K’aia’s death. The authenticity of the scenario was beyond anything he’d expected. The smell was what had done it, he decided. That, and the heat. He’d never been in a game where you could taste the air. Even holomovies didn’t have immersion like this.

  The officer K’aia had overreacted to strode out in front of the loose ranks, his face in the air, ignoring the bewildered recruits and the staff trailing behind him alike.

  Oh, look. It’s my loudmouth friend, K’aia grumbled. I hope he falls flat on his stupid face and gets that horn stuck in the ground.

  Why has he even got that? Alexis pondered, finding it an effort to keep her face straight. It’s about as useful as an appendix. We should have risked it and reset before we got on that ship.

  Yeah, but hindsight isn’t any good to us now, Gabriel reasoned. We need to play out the scenario.

  The officer made it to the podium front and center of the recruits without karma answering K’aia’s prayer. He cleared his throat and spoke into the microphone on the podium. “Welcome to your new lives. If you are fortunate enough to catch my attention for a positive reason, you will address me as General Kispin. This is the Corral, where the dregs of the many societies you hail from are broken and rebuilt into elite weapons to be used against our mutual enemies.”

  He looked out with a solemn expression. “Many of you will not survive the selection process. Those who do not die will be ranked according to ability. The top one percent of those who pass will be assigned to Zenith Unit, where you will fight well and serve your people with honor in return for your freedom.”

  The general paused to allow the information to sink in. He grasped the sides of the podium and turned his head from side-to-side, looking out over the recruits without a drop of mercy in his gaze. “However, if you cross my path for anything other than excellence, expect to be met with disappointment. You do not want to disappoint me, or any of the personnel at this base. You have no purpose other than to survive to fight the next battle. Any failure to obey the staff instructors will result in undesirable consequences for the whole unit.” He released the podium and straightened his spine, looking off into the sunset at the mouth of the valley. “I wish you all luck.”

  With that, the general stalked off the parade ground, his personal staff following like a pack of undersized dogs at his heels.

  The staff instructors stepped forward and began splitting the fifty-deep super-phalanx into more manageable units.

  Trey took it all in with growing anger, feeling so far out of his depth that he feared being swept away in the undertow. How are you all taking this so calmly? We’re prisoners.

  Not prisoners, Gabriel modified. Recruits. We’re not free to leave, but we will be provided for and trained. I bet Aunt Tabitha’s class is going to be like a vacation compared to what we’re about to experience. Don’t sweat it. We’ll get through this together, as a family.

  Alexis smiled and patted Trey’s arm. It’s a shame your cousins couldn’t be here to experience this. You’ve got us to watch your back.

  It wasn’t news to Trey that he’d missed out on part o
f life as a Baka thanks to his family. I can’t wait to see what my body can do now.

  It could take a while to get used to, K’aia countered. I was a bit wobbly after my enhancement.

  I’m not worried about that. What if I suddenly start shooting energy balls or something? I’m nervous, Trey admitted.

  Alexis moved the subject along, seeing the officer headed their way. Your body gains every skill you train for in here, so make the most of it. Think of this as an opportunity to show your family what they missed out on, and think on how much they’ll regret treating you badly when we all get out of here and you kick their asses into shape.

  The staff instructor ordered their section of the phalanx to break off and they began moving.

  The team shuffled along with the NPCs, going with the flow.

  The SIs yelled instructions, waving their arms to direct the disarrayed ranks toward the largest of the prefab buildings. “Stay in line. Remain with your unit. You will be assigned a barracks after you leave the requisitions building.”

  The continuous line eventually ended in the aforementioned building, where they were each handed a tied bundle containing two sets of black uniform clothing, two sets of underwear and socks, a pair of boots, a shower bag, a towel, a pillow, and a set of sheets.

  Trey paid attention to everything he saw, managing for once to keep his mouth shut until they had been escorted to one of the mid-sized prefab buildings, along with sixteen other recruits.

  The officers he understood the reason for. He wasn’t certain what to think about their supposed teammates. They appeared to be real, but was he supposed to treat them like they were? How would he feel if he bonded with one and they died or turned out to be an enemy in disguise?

  It was too much to comprehend for the moment. He turned his attention to the room, which held ten scaled-up double bunks, ten footlockers, and a sturdy rec table, which was surrounded on all sides by cheap-looking chairs.

  Gabriel spotted Trey’s slightly dazed look and steered him toward a bunk. “It’s a lot to take in, right?” He tossed his bundle onto the footlocker and started making his bed. “I wish I could tell Eve what a great job she did. If it wasn’t for the features she allowed, I’d have trouble telling it from reality.”

  “Agreed,” Alexis chipped in, climbing to the bunk above K’aia’s. “You okay, Trey?”

  Trey furrowed his brow as he made his bed, unsure of what answer he could give when he was feeling overwhelmed by something as simple as the size of his mattress in comparison to his newly-enlarged body. “Yeah. It’s just new, is all. I’ll get used to it.”

  K’aia laid back on her bunk with her arms folded behind her head. “This place isn’t so bad, but I’ll wait to see what the food is like before I get too enthusiastic.”

  “I don’t know,” Alexis murmured. “I’m missing home all of a sudden. It’s quiet without CEREBRO and ADAM and Winstanley and the feeds from network command…” Her voice tapered off as she drifted to sleep.

  Gabriel pulled his blanket around his shoulders, settling into his pillow with a yawn. “As long as the NPCs don’t get in the way of us finding our objectives, I’m peachy.”

  Trey laid on his back with his eyes closed after the lights went out, unable to organize the whirlwind of events that had made his real life what it was.

  Without his curiosity, the situation in the Enclave on Belv’th would have come around on Devon. His initial courage had opened the door to deliverance, and persuading his cousins to accompany him to the Hexagon had been the first step on the path that had altered his people’s course irrevocably and forever.

  A wave of homesickness hit Trey hard.

  The challenges were being away from everything he knew and the absence of his mother. Mahi’ had always been within reach, even after he had come to live with the twins and K’aia at the Hexagon. His whole life, it had been just the two of them against the world.

  Now they were separated by a million miles.

  Trey had to stay strong and succeed for her sake.

  Morning

  Alexis woke suddenly, sensing a presence outside the barracks. A moment later, the lights came on and a bell sounded from the holoscreen over the door, splitting the silence with its discordant chime. “Wake up, everyone.”

  “Already awake,” Gabriel told her.

  K’aia rolled out of her bunk. “There’s someone outside.”

  “Just the officers,” Alexis told them. She sat up and stretched, getting a better look at their new home for the foreseeable future.

  In addition to everything she had seen in the brief time before lights out last night, there was also a quartet of bathroom doors along the wall opposite the door; which had a strip of holoscreen above the casement.

  “Hey,” the NPC in the top bunk opposite called. “I’m Sibil.” The slender reptilian covered her snub nose with the back of her clawed hand and yawned. “Guess they’re not big on beauty sleep here, huh?”

  Alexis grinned. “I guess not.” She glanced at the door as it opened and three staff instructors came into the room. “Doesn’t look like we get a minute to wake up, either.”

  Two of the SIs marched down the center of the bunks, banging their batons against the bedposts.

  The largest, a sour-faced male with a double bar on his epaulets, stood with his arms folded and his feet apart while the others performed their unasked-for wakeup call. “Rise and shine, meatsacks,” he barked. “You don’t want to miss chow.”

  Sibil’s lip curled as the SIs left, revealing a double row of serrated teeth. “I should chow down on them,” she muttered under her breath. “I wouldn’t even bother with barbecue sauce.”

  “I already don’t like them,” Alexis agreed. “Don’t know about eating them, though.”

  K’aia chuckled as she headed for the other end of the room. “I don’t think we’re supposed to like them,” she called back as she went into the bathroom.

  “They don’t matter,” Trey told them. “Like Gabriel said yesterday, we’re here to become the best damn warriors we can be.” He yawned as he dragged himself out of bed. “Might have figured we weren’t going to get mothered, but at least we get a meal in the morning.”

  Breakfast turned out to be an odorless blob of pale-brown paste dropped into their mess tins by a catering officer with a dour expression.

  The unfamiliar culinary experience was no barrier to K’aia’s appetite. She marched over to the nearest table with the intent of filling her stomachs before the meal was sidetracked by the beginning of the day’s training.

  Alexis eyed the contents of her mess tin warily as she and Gabriel made their way over to sit with the rest of their unit. “Mmmm, nutritional substitutes. Because chewing is so time-consuming, right?”

  Gabriel snickered, accidentally getting the full flavor experience. “Mercy. What do you think we have lined up?” he asked while they waited for Trey to extract himself from the line.

  Alexis shook her head, contemplating the purposes of the various buildings and training areas they’d seen around the valley. “Could be anything, but my instinct tells me this “selection process” is going to start with eliminating the weakest.”

  “That would make sense,” Gabriel concurred, doing his best to swallow his next mouthful without tasting it.

  Trey joined them at the table, his opinion on the nutritional substitute clearly on par with the twins’ reaction, going by the expression of revulsion he wore. “What is this stuff? It smells about as tasty as wet cardboard.”

  K’aia waved her spoon at him between bites. “We’ll go with ‘mush’ and leave the questions there, huh?” She shook her head. “It’s not that bad. We could be responsible for our own food.”

  Trey continued to contemplate the gelatinous paste in his mess tin for a moment longer before tasting the mush. “It tastes of sadness.”

  Gabriel shrugged. “Eh, I’ve had worse. Have you ever tasted overdone dinosaur meat?”

  Alexis’ eyes wi
dened. “Please don’t remind me about Dad’s grilling obsession. Seriously.”

  More of the NPCs from their unit wandered over to the long table. The main course for breakfast was complaints about rough treatment, with a generous side-serving of bitching about the slop they’d been given to eat.

  K’aia poked at her food with her spoon. She found herself wishing she didn’t know better than to turn down a meal when the next one was uncertain, despite her earlier assertion. “Maybe that elite squad the general mentioned gets real food.”

  Trey tilted his head at K’aia’s suggestion. “Zenith squad?” he asked in a low voice, glancing around to make sure none of the NPCs were in earshot. “I thought the point was to take out the people running the pressgangs?”

  Alexis swallowed a mouthful of the thick paste without tasting it. We missed that chance. We’ve got to play this through now. This program is designed to prepare us for leadership, right? You have— She looked away when the mess tent was bathed in light from the entrance. “Oh, look. It’s the wake-up crew.”

  K’aia followed Alexis’ look of mild disgust over to the three SIs who had burst so rudely into their barracks earlier.

  The SIs swaggered straight over to the food line and pushed in at the front with no regard for the recruits who had been waiting.

  Alexis started to get to her feet when the largest officer shoved his mess tin in the catering officer’s face and yelled at them for not being fast enough at filling it. Yeah, no. They need a lesson in humility.

  Leave it, Gabriel cautioned, pulling Alexis back into her seat by her sleeve. I don’t like it any better than you do, but we don’t know if we’ve made enough progress to pass a checkpoint yet.

  Are we supposed to sit back and watch like it’s okay? Alexis implored, folding her arms. Look at those rejects, pushing the catering staff around. For what? We’re all eating the same slop.

  Trey continued eating as though nothing were happening. He was smart enough to keep his head down and look disinterested. This is about dominance, he reasoned with the experience of someone who had been the youngest and smallest his whole life. You’re used to being at the top of the pecking order. You should listen to me. If we intervene, we become targets for the whole group. Nobody is getting hurt. You have to pick your battles and fight sneaky.