Defender of the Empire: Cadet #1 (8 page)

             
Before I could nod my head, Ensign A’zarsha hopped down from her stool again. “Why they insist on making these desks for the big people I’ll never understand.” She muttered good-naturedly. I don’t think she saw my shrug. I heard her open a drawer. She disappeared for so long I started to get worried. I rose up on my toes and tried to peer over the expanse of desk. Nope, couldn’t see a thing. I settled back down on my feet. There was a clatter before she popped up again on her stool. “Sorry about that. Here, you will need these.” She said putting a stack of papers next to the pile of clothes. “The top sheet is a map of the campus.” She picked up a pen and with delicate fingers traced two paths on the map. I watched attentively. She glanced up with her amber eyes to make that I was paying attention. “This line here,” she said tapping a line, “leads to the barracks. You are on the third floor in room number 321. Your roommate is 5
th
class Morgan.” She then tapped the other line that I saw went in the other direction of the barracks. It ended at a small square that said ‘medical’. “You will need to report there after dinner. They will run you through the placement tests and a check-up.”

             
The Avren slid the map aside to reveal a blank form of some kind. “Now I need you to fill this out so I can check your admission and add you to the roster and let the Medical Center know you are coming.” She said handing me a pen. I took the pen and glanced at her before turning to the paper. I wondered briefly if she was telling me what she would do with the information to be nice or to warn me not to skip out on the tests. I turned to the form and decided that it was probably both.

             
Being a generally honest person I filled out the form as fully as I could. I gave my full name,
Rylynn Tara Sinclair of Colony Lenti
. Sinclair was my aunt’s last name. I have no idea what my parent’s last name was… nor did I even know their first names. I knew next nothing about them. What I did know was that Aunt Sylvie had been the older sister of my mother and that they must have been close. But Aunt Sylvie never talked much about my mother or father. Whenever I asked she would get this look in her eye that held a universe of secrets. Then all she would tell me was that they had been very good people and that they had loved me very much. I never learned anything else, no matter how I questioned. Eventually I noticed that my pressing questions were causing my Aunt pain, I guess because her sister was dead. So I stopped asking, but I never stopped wondering.

             
I finished filling out the form as best I could not knowing what some of the questions meant and pushed it toward Ensign A’zarsha’s side of the desk. She smiled and told me that she would plug it in right away and pushed the uniform to me. I took it and the map and backed up a step wondering if I was good to go or not. I watched her plug in my name into her consol. I saw her hesitation, her quick glance at me, before checking the screen. She must have seen the verification of my admission because she seemed even more surprised. Eventually she turned wide amber eyes to me. She blinked and managed a small smile before shooing me away with her fingers.

             
I nodded back and made my way to the entrance of the building. My pace was a quick, ground covering walk. Had to get to the doors before she changed her mind.

Chapter 6- The Weed in the Garden

              The line that led to the barracks took me from the administration building and to the left of the circle about the garden away from the landing pad. The sidewalk slipped between two buildings. As the map had implied, the Academy grounds stretched out from the garden center. According to the map, there was only one barracks on the grounds. I figured that meant it must be huge considering that this was the Legion Fleet’s main training facility. There were probably hundreds, if not thousands, of trainees.

Of those, I only saw a few in the distance jogging around the training yard. There were a couple pairs that were
facing off with some sort of staff weapons in the yard. I figured it was lucky that they were off over there, away from me and my destination.

I won’t lie, I was nervous. Terrified really. History wise, I was the first colonist to walk these grounds. But more personally I didn’t know anyone and I was alone. Aunt Sylvia… my hands trembled and I clutched my uniform bundle to my chest. I couldn’t think about her just now. I smile ironically to myself. I hadn’t thought about Aunt Sylvie for a long time, mostly because I had to push the grief away in order to survive. Even on the
Hail Mary
I could not let myself relax as I was still on edge. Being locked up in a that tiny shuttle with Admiral Knight must have pushed me over the edge because it seemed that every time I turned around I was thinking about my aunt and my life back on Lenti.

To verify my reasoning another memory found its way through the cracks.
“You cannot bottle up your emotions, Rylynn.”
My aunt had said once when she was trying to figure out why I was hiding in my tiny closet. I hadn’t wanted to tell her that Ace and Carden had once again verbally attacked me. It was before they had decided to beat me for fun. The verbal attacks had always been the worse because they cut deeper than anything the boys could do to me physically. Bones and skin heal eventually. A mental wound was easily reopened by just remembering it. You couldn’t defend against it either.

I had come to the conclusion that Carden and Ace liked to see me cry. So I was trying to keep from crying. I had taken all the hurt and locked it deep inside. Coming home I found that I couldn’t
let it out. That I didn’t want to. That I didn’t want my never afraid aunt to see the proof of my fear. It was a weakness that Ace and Carden often enjoyed pointing out to me.

Aunt Sylvie had sighed.
Rylynn, if you don’t let it out it will turn to poison. If you don’t vent, it will cause one of two things to happen to you.”
I had glanced at her then.
“Either you will meltdown into tears that won’t stop till you are all cried out or you will explode in anger. It will be an anger far more potent than whatever the situation was that set it off requires. Let it out now so you can heal. I’ll hold you.”
She had said opening her arms to me. All those years ago I had taken her up on her advice and flung myself into her arms and cried my pain. She held me even though I had turned her blouse into a sopping wet rag.

That was then, this was now. I had no safe place to vent as I did in her arms or my pillow. I couldn’t afford the show of weakness now. Not until I knew
my surroundings better.

             
My gray eyes looked around and I forced myself to breathe. As I went the intimidating elegance cut down to just amazingly well-made. After the administration building I could handle it. I eventually came to the barracks. It was still made out of the same white marble, but it wasn’t as high… though looking at the map it was much bigger than the administration building. I don’t really know what it was that made the barracks less intimidating. It was even soothing in the lobby. I think it had something to do with the warm wood flooring. The lighting was soft making everything seem cozy. Off to the right of the door was a desk with wood paneling with carvings of starflowers. To the left was a sitting area. There was no one there.

             
A soft foot step had me turning back toward the desk. A young man with blond was standing at the desk. His eyes were hazel and held mild curiosity. He wore a uniform much like the one I held in my hands. A student then. “Can I help you?” He asked in a soft voice.

             
I smiled nervously at him. “I hope so. I’m new here and...” I trailed off. I wasn’t sure what to ask him next. Did I need a room key or was it done by password here like on the ship? And how was I supposed to find my room? I knew from what the ensign had said that my room was on the third floor. I found a small sense of comfort in that room numbering was the same here as it was on the colony in the few buildings above two stories. The comfort was very short lived. How do I ask any of my questions without revealing how truly ignorant I am? I
hated
being ignorant.

             
The student behind the desk smiled kindly. “I figured. I knew I hadn’t seen you before.”  He looked down at something and I figured it was a computer hidden by the high edge of the desk on my side. “You Rylynn?” He asked. I nodded. And he looked back at the computer. “It says here that you are rooming with Lassie Morgan in room 321.” I nodded again as that sounded familiar. He nodded to himself and did something with the hidden computer. There was a sound very much like the printing noise the old printer at the small library back home made, only with a lot less wheezing. For a couple moments as it printed I wondered about the name of my roommate. The name ‘Lassie’ reminded me of a book my aunt had. It was a story about this boy and his heroic dog, Lassie. It had also been a show on the old world, the long lost Earth.

The blond guy passed a blank white card to me. “That is your temporary ID. You’ll get your real one after going through the various exams they put new recruits through. Don’t let them worry you, though. They are just aptitude tests to see where you should be placed and what classes you need. You can’t fail them.” I knew he was being kind and trying to raise my spirits, but I had this feeling that I might be the first to fail the unfailable tests.  Who knew what they were about? And I knew there were things that were basic knowledge to a Citizen but were unknown to me. Again, that nasty ignorant thing raised its head.

             
“Thanks” I said taking the card from him.

             
“There is a lift over there that will take you to the third floor.” I glanced where he had indicated before looking back at him.  “Your room is in the Diamond Wing. You’ll see signs leading the way.”  I thanked him again and began to move in that direction when he stopped me with a question. In his soft voice he asked “Is it true what the computer says?” I turned to face him with confused frown.  His polite welcoming smile from before was replaced by a serious expression. “Are you really from Colony Lenti? Not Lenti-solum that had been entered incorrectly?”  His voice got softer with each word as if he didn’t want to be over heard.

             
I sighed and answered him honestly. “There is no mistake. I’m from the Colony.”

             
His hazel eyes searched my face as if trying to figure out if I was kidding him or not. When he realized that I wasn’t joking he shook his head slightly. A mix of pity and awe filled his expression. “I, personally, think it is wonderful that the Legion Fleet has accepted you into the ranks. I have no idea how that could have happened, but I am happy that it did.”

             
That was the last thing I expected to hear from him and my shock must have been all over my face because he chuckled dryly.

             
“I’m from Ser-etten. We don’t have any colonies because we see how the others treat theirs. I, like the rest of my people, do not agree that colonists have no rights. Everyone was created by God, thus everyone deserves to be respected.”  I had never heard this before, but I could tell he wasn’t lying to me. There was something real about him that I had to believe. It was also nice hearing that someone didn’t see me as less than them simply because of where I was from. Even so, I knew what he was going to say next would be less welcome and more expected.

             
“Unfortunately,” He continued as I knew he would, “my view point is not shared by many. Especially Miss Morgan. She is from Coronaius. A noble. She sees those not of her class as less than she. Once she learns that she is rooming with a colonist, she will probably get very… nasty.”

             
I sighed. “Thanks for the warning. I kind of expected it from everyone, so thank you for being different. She can hate me if she wants. She can pretend that I am not even there. I’ve seen worse things than a girl who thinks her pedigree makes her better.”

             
He smiled at my words, humor lighting his eyes. Putting a finger to his lips he glanced exaggeratedly around before saying “There
are
worse things than a girl with a pedigree, just don’t let anyone else hear that.” He came around the desk then and offered me his hand. I managed to shift things so I could shake it. “My name is Michel Serra. If you ever need to get away from Miss P,” I grinned at his shortening of ‘pedigree’, “I work the desk every evening. You can come and visit.”

             
“Thank you, Michel.”

             
I left him feeling better now that I had at least one friend in the whole academy. I wasn’t totally alone. I could face my roommate. I would treat her with the respect another person deserves and try not to think about how she may very well treat me. As I had told Michel, I was prepared for negative reactions. I knew how to let them slide off of me. In recent months I had had a lot of practice.

Lassie Morgan
was a budding Jewel Rose. Statuesque with long auburn hair and golden eyes. If I had cared about complexion, like she obviously did, I would be suffering from awed jealousy. Her skin was a creamy golden color that must draw male attention even though she was still a girl. She was about my age, perhaps a year older at fourteen. Regardless, she was beautiful and I knew that Ace and Carden would have been drooling and wondering how best to get her to work for them once she was a little bit older.