The Ninth: Invasion (15 page)

Ever since that first day when the troublesome boy had arrived on the academy Nathan’s life had become a nightmare.  First Jack had demanded they replace the standard placement exams, ones used for well over four hundred years no less, with specific ones to test the boy.  By the end of the day most of the recruits were in Medical clinging to dear life.

Nathan paused for a moment.  Even he had to admit he was exaggerating.  The recruits were in Medical, but they weren’t that close to death.  Despite the brawl in the mess hall and a disastrous combat exam they were just a bit bruised with only a few broken bones.  He sighed openly.  If only he could go back and tell his younger self to enjoy that first day, as it only got worse from there.  It seemed like the boy had a special ability to attract chaos.

Nathan shook his head as he thought about it all.  Exams going crazy and getting stuck on reenactments from the Great War, Weavers trying to kill the boy, division leaders trying to kill the boy, and even an
assassin
sneaking a live weapon into a trial.  The boy was more trouble than he was worth.

“We are in the clear,” Jack said as his entire body relaxed.

“Maybe if we had more than mood lighting I might be able to take your word for that,” Nathan grumbled.

“Are you afraid of the dark?” he asked with a small grin.  “Would you like me to turn the lights on for you?  Perhaps while I’m at it, I could make a giant ‘shoot here’ sign in brilliant neon.”

“Mock me all you like, I still get to say I told you so in the end.  I
told
you the ITU was up to no good.”

“Yes you did, Nathan.  Would you like a cookie?”

“I’d like to be off this blasted academy and away from the walking black hole.”

“Who?”

“The boy!  Brent!”

“You’re blaming
him
for all this?” Jack asked with an amused grin.  “How do you figure that?”

“How can I not?  I haven’t had a good night’s sleep since that boy set foot on this station.”

“That’s a bit of an exaggeration.”

“Let me put it this way, Jack.  If I got the boy health insurance, I’d be convicted of fraud from all the near death claims I would have had to file up to this point.”

Jack laughed and patted his friend on the shoulder.

“Are we really safe?” Nathan asked after a few deep breaths.

“For the moment.  The ITU is searching Deriso, but their hearts aren’t really in it.  They aren’t finding anything valuable and they won’t hang around much longer.”

“And the boy?”

“I lost track of him some time ago.  My guess is that he jumped away.”

“The boy can jump?” Nathan shouted.  “He can fold space on his own?”

“I mean in a ship,” Jack laughed heartily.  “You watch too many plays.”

A harsh tone woke Brent.  He held still as the images from his dream lingered.  He had dreamt about the fifth exam again.  His mind had taken the complex finish of his first day on the academy and twisted it into a nightmare.  The command exam hadn’t been the most difficult test he had faced that first day, but it was the one that left the greatest impression.  He had been tasked with defending a stronghold against an army.  What left its imprint on him was the fact that stronghold happened to be a Shard Citadel.  He had to fight alongside the mechanical foe of humanity as he kept the other recruits at bay.  When the instructor grew tired of the exam, she ended it by destroying the entire world.  The image of the warships in orbit jumping away and the massive maw filling the sky over the Citadel sent a shiver down his spine.

Slowly but surely, the images faded into the mist of half forgotten dreams and he took a deep breath.  He remembered where he was and pushed off the grogginess of sleep.   The harsh tone wasn’t as gentle as the three tones of the academy but not quite as annoying as the sunbeam had been.  Without thinking, he started to stretch and immediately rammed his arm into the wall of the small alcove.  Any trace of grogginess was instantly replaced by tremendous pain.  Checking his pocket watch, he was startled to find it was an hour before lunch.  As he adjusted himself in the small space, he wondered why they were being awakened at such a late hour.  Minding the walls, he gingerly stretched.  He couldn’t hear any sounds of stirring from the other troopers; they were no doubt still asleep.

Grabbing his pad, Brent started searching for any information on the war.  There wasn’t a single bit of new information.  Everything from financial reports to news fluff about lost kittens was time stamped at least a week old.  Most likely, the ITU had started interfering and blocking all news outlets long before they officially started their campaign.  As he was about to put away his pad, he noticed the clock at the top of the page.  It clearly read nine a.m. GST.  Pondering the meaning, he remembered the day they had left the academy.  Their departure had been three hours after breakfast, but they had arrived only a few hours before dinner.  Jumps were instantaneous, so the time differential couldn’t be blamed on their trip.  Tapping on the time at the top of the screen brought up a larger display.  The day, month, and time were all displayed along with various important dates coming up.  With the increased space, the abbreviation changed and spelt out complete words, Galactic Standard Time.

Brent took out his pocket watch and reset it to the proper time.  Different worlds had different rotational and seasonal periods, so it made sense they’d have a local time.  The pads must automatically update to the appropriate time whenever they enter or leave a ship.  As he put away his watch, he had the uncanny sensation he was being watched.  Turning to look out of his alcove, he found a head peaking in from the bunk above; the hair hanging listlessly was obviously female.  The illumination from the hallway behind the head cast a small halo of light around it, making it impossible to see the face clearly.

“You awake?” the head asked in a whisper.

“Of course.”

“Always been an early riser?”

“I suppose so.  Is something wrong?”

“Not exactly, I just wanted to thank you.”

“Thank me for what?”

“For everything.  I don’t even know where to start.”

“You can start by letting me know who I’m talking to.”

The head let out a soft chuckle and disappeared.  A moment later a hand was reaching in to help him out.  Once free of his crawl space, Brent stretched properly.  Tyra was standing near the doorway and gestured for him to follow.  She took him to a small room with a couple of tables.  The walls were just far enough away from the edges of the tables for a person of
average
dimensions to sit down.  One size fits none.

“You don’t really need to thank me,” he said, taking a less than comfortable seat along the left table.

“Of course I need to thank you!” she said in exasperation.  “First, you leave your division for a perfect stranger, then you lead us through the Gauntlet but give me credit for the whole thing, and just last night you saved my parents while everyone else was thinking only of their own survival.  Don’t you think that deserves
some
recognition?”

“I’m never going to be able to convince you that
you
led us through the Gauntlet, am I?”

“Probably not.”

“Fine, thanks accepted,” Brent said with a resigned sigh.  “Now that we’ve settled that, what did your mother mean when she said she wouldn’t interfere?”

“That’s a long story.”

“Those are usually the best kind.”

“You
did
give in, so I suppose I owe you at least a story.”  Tyra sighed and glanced out of the small eating area.  It was obvious she didn’t want anyone to overhear.  “When I was a young girl my family lived on a core world.  My father was one of many, mostly unimportant, government employees.  He would come home every night with long boring stories about his day.  We would talk for hours about our days, my boring studies and his boring job.  My mother would brag about his position to all her friends, embellishing it just a tad every time someone asked what he did.”

“Sounds like you enjoyed it.”

“I really did.  It wasn’t much, but those were the best days of my life.”

“So what happened?”

“Deriso applied for full membership in the Commonwealth.  Up until that point it was a rim world with too small a population for full membership.  As luck would have it, my dad was the one who had been in charge of trade relations up to that point.  When the Commonwealth offered him a more prestigious position on the world, my mother made him take it.”

“Is that why you have a grudge against her?”

“Not exactly.”  Tyra shifted uncomfortably.  “It was hard at first, but in time I adjusted to life on a rim world.  My dad worked with the planet’s leaders, gaining their trust, while my mother devoured her new status.  When Deriso’s membership was finally approved, the region officially joined the Commonwealth.  As time went on, the leaders of Deriso found they were constantly confounded by the policies of the Commonwealth.  Eventually, they elected my father as Governor since he knew more about the workings of the Commonwealth than the rest of them combined.”

“And your mother got drunk off the power?”

“Pretty much.  She saw herself as the queen of the entire region.”  She let out a long sigh.  “She’d throw lavish parties and did everything in her power to keep the spotlight on her.  Meanwhile, my dad kept everything running smoothly from behind the scenes.”

“So what does all that have to do with her promising not to interfere?”

“After a while, she ran out of people to impress.”  Tyra shrugged.  “Deriso is a rim world after all.  Once the excitement of joining the Commonwealth faded, so did the number of important guests.  She was desperate to find some way to attract back the important figures of the Commonwealth.  After one of her parties, the Governor of a much more prestigious region approached her with an offer.  Apparently his son had taken a liking to me . . .”

“You don’t mean . . .”

“An arranged marriage,” Tyra said with a heavy sigh as her shoulder sank.

“Aren’t those illegal?” Brent asked with a raised eyebrow

“They are unheard of on core worlds, but out on the rim they
do
happen.  My ‘husband to be’ was an intolerable man.”  She shuddered slightly as she thought about him.  “I couldn’t stand being in the same room let alone talking to him.  When he traveled, he needed two ships, one for himself and a second for his ego.  Fortunately, I reached the age where I could join the military
before
the marriage took place.  My mother protested, of course, but the military wasn’t about to lose a recruit.  She reached a compromise with the military liaison and made my participation in the military conditional.”

“If you didn’t get a suitable posting you’d have to return to her and your waiting husband.”

Tyra looked at him in surprise.

“A guess.”  Brent shrugged.  “Most logical reason why you would get so worked up about me joining you back at the academy.  I was your best hope to secure a decent posting and avoid your mother’s trap.”

“Sometimes you surprise me,” she said as her surprise faded.  “I know you are a Weaver, but you seem to know more than you should, even with that ace up your sleeve.”

“I suppose I’m just more observant than most,” he said, tying to deflect the praise.  “So I’m guessing when she said the choice was yours it was her way of releasing you from the arranged marriage.”

Tyra nodded with a smile.  She paused a moment and shot an odd glance at him.

“You know, you are the first person I’ve told any of that to.  Even Ronald has no idea about the arranged marriage.  You didn’t use those powers of yours to make me open up, did you?”

“I would never,” he said confidently, leaving out the fact he wasn’t able to in the first place. “I guess I’m just a good listener.  Cassandra told me about her troubles a while ago too.  Sometimes it feels good to get these things off your chest.”

“I don’t know if I would go that far.  You can imagine it wasn’t something I wanted to dwell on.  Although, when I think back on it, I think Ronald knew it was important for me to succeed – even though I never told him why.  I hate to admit it, but without his help, I probably wouldn’t have lasted very long after I was promoted to division leader.  When things were at their worst, he was always there to support me.”

“Always?”

“
Always
.  Come to think about it, I guess he had been helping me out
before
I was promoted to division leader.”

“Do you know why?”

“I can’t say I’ve given it much thought, really.  I just got used to him always being there.  He’s been backing me up for as long as I can remember.  It doesn’t make sense when you think about it.”

“Why do you say that?”

“I’m a bit ashamed of it all,” Tyra said sheepishly, “but I kind of took my frustrations out on him.  He was the only guy on my side, and I did nothing but gripe and complain at him.  Despite it all, he has always remained at my side.”

Ronald set down a plate of food in front of Tyra.  She nearly jumped at the surprise.  He took a seat next to her, carrying his own meal.

“That’s the duty of a second,” he said before he took a bite from his food.  “I didn’t have enough hands to grab you a plate, Brent.”

“Don’t worry about it.  Tell me, Ronald, were you two recruits together?”

“Not at all.  I had already been on the academy for a while when she took her exams.”

“So when did you first notice her?”

“I suppose I’d have to say during Bloom’s opening remarks.”

Tyra raised an eyebrow as she silently ate.

“That early?” Brent pressed.  “Out of so many recruits you spotted her?”

“She was standing against a wall, all alone.”  Ronald seemed as if he was reliving the event as he spoke.  “The division leader wanted a good seat in the observation room, so she sent me to observe the opening remarks.  Tyra was so nervous I could tell she was shaking, even from the gallery overhead.  Despite the shaking, she had a look of fierce determination to her.  She had the appearance of a cornered animal fighting for its life.”

“So how did she do?”

“Quite well for someone with no military history.  Although, it was obvious that she lacked any training.  The division leader completely ignored her, focusing on the star recruits.  I couldn’t change her mind about Tyra.”

“Wait a minute,” Tyra said, confused.  “The old leader of the SF was a guy, not a girl.”

“I see,” Brent said with a smile.

Tyra eyed him as Ronald went silent.

“What are you talking about?” she asked.  “
What
do you see?”

“He made a deal with the SF the same way I did with you.”

Tyra stared at him for a minute, not understanding.  Suddenly, the full meaning of his words hit her.  She quickly turned and locked her gaze on Ronald, demanding a response with her eyes.

“Weaver or not, you certainly are perceptive,” Ronald said, taking another bite out of his meal.

“He’s right, isn’t he?”

“I couldn’t convince my division leader, so I started feeling around,” Ronald said hesitantly.  “Asking pointed questions around the observation deck.  Before you had finished the final exam, I had made a deal with the SF.  I’d join them if they also adopted you.  They were . . .
pleased
with the arrangement.”

Brent suddenly found himself wondering exactly how high up Ronald’s first division had been.  For a division in the
sixth
grade to willing take on an untrained recruit, Ronald must have been in the top three – at least.

“Why would you do that?”  Tyra looked at him silently for a moment.  “Why would you risk your career on a recruit you hadn’t even met?”

“It was something I had to do,” he said plainly.  “There was a struggle I couldn’t ignore.  Training was just training to the rest.  Something they did because they were told it was good for them.  You were the only recruit who was desperately fighting for something
more
.  I had no idea what it was, but it seemed important that you succeeded, beyond that.  I
wanted
you to succeed.  I don’t really know why.”