Title: Reformation: Chapter 4
***
Chapter Four
There was nothing as mortifying as being called out of a
class at the Academy.
Being kicked out
of a class was one thing; at least when that happened, you knew why. Cody hadn’t
personally been kicked out of any of his classes so far, but Ten had a running
tally from the year before that was getting close to three digits. It was
almost a point of pride with hir, the ability to completely annoy, disrupt and
otherwise harass hir instructors into throwing hir out of class, and then acing
every test, quiz, and lab that came up. Ten’s attendance wasn’t an issue,
because ze always showed up, even if ze didn’t end up staying long.
Being called out
of a class, though…that meant something was really wrong. Either you’d been
caught for something so awful Admiral Liang refused to wait until you were done
with class to address it, or something had happened to someone else and
informing you shouldn’t be put off. Cody hadn’t been the one to set their room
on fire that morning, and so as soon as Hermes spoke through the implant in his
head, it felt like the bottom dropped out of his stomach.
“Cadet Helms, please
proceed immediately to Admiral Liang’s office.”
Oh, no. “What’s this
about, Hermes?” After months of practice, Cody had finally gotten the hang
of communicating with the Academy’s built-in AI system without speaking aloud.
“The Admiral can
explain things to you. Please proceed directly to his office. Your instructor has already been informed.”
Well, that tore it. Cody fumbled his bag closed and walked
down to the exit, careful not to make eye contact with any of the other
students. His instructor glanced his way and nodded, then resolutely turned
back to the rest of the class to continue the lecture.
Cody’s legs were shaking so hard he could barely walk. He
wanted to run, he wanted to teleport
to the admin building so he could get the news right now. Nothing was worse than hanging in limbo, not when there
were so many things that could have gone wrong. Had Ten had an accident in the
lab? Was it one of his dads? Was it one of his cousins? Shit, if something had happened to one of the girls Cody
was going to lose it.
He made it to the administrative headquarters in a little
under three minutes, which felt like a lifetime of hearing nothing but the frantic
beat of his own heart reverberate through his ears. His legs finally picked up
the pace as he entered the building, and by the time he got to Admiral Liang’s office
Cody had worked himself up to a sprint.
Chief Jessup stood outside the door, and latched on to Cody’s
arm before he could power his way through. “Slow down, Cadet.” The compassion
in his flinty eyes was almost enough to make Cody faint.
“No, please, let me in, I have to—”
“He’s setting up a secure call. It’ll just take another
minute or two.”
“A call to who?” Chief Jessup shook his head. “To who? I need to know!”
The door opened before Cody annoyed Chief Jessup so bad he
threw him in the brig. “A call to your father,” Admiral Liang said as he stood
aside, ushering Cody into his office. It was a big, impressive room, the walls
covered with moving holos of different battles and ships, the floor sumptuously
carpeted in the blue and gold of the Academy, and the furniture real, dark wood.
Cody had never been less interested in his surroundings in all his life. “Your
stepfather,” Admiral Liang clarified, and Cody’s breath suddenly came a bit
easier. Garrett could handle anything. No matter what was going on, he’d know
what to do.
“The comm is already set up at my desk, just press your
finger to verify. Visual and audio, and none of this is being recorded.” He
gently patted Cody’s shoulder, then turned and left as quiet as a whisper.
Cody sat down in the admiral’s chair. It felt huge, so much
bigger than him, just like the desk and the office and the news he was about to
get. He sat down, pressed his index finger to the ID pad and waited for it to identify
his print, blood type and vitals, and then the holo sprang into existence above
the desk. It was Garrett, and Cody felt himself slump with desperate relief. It
only lasted a moment, though. Garrett looked…
Terrible. He
looked like he’d been running wind sprints for hours, pale and exhausted,
visibly ill. Cody had never seen him look this bad: not when Miles had been
caught in an explosion, not even when Garrett had lost his eyes in a lab accident.
His hair was a mess, his clothes were rumpled despite being made of cloth that
was supposed to be impossible to wrinkle, and he wasn’t smiling. He always smiled for Cody, even if he
followed it up with hard news. That could only mean one thing.
“Garrett?” Cody’s voice sounded weak to his ears, but he
couldn’t make himself care. “What happened to Dad?”
“I don’t know for sure.” His voice was gravelly with fatigue
and fear. “He made it to Pandora fine, but the colony has just come under attack.”
Cody shut his eyes and bit the inside of his cheek so hard
it began to bleed. “Pirates?” he forced out.
Garrett scoffed. “This is no act of piracy. Pirates don’t
persist in wasting energy against an ion shield. They wouldn’t have demolished
the Eye, either; they’d have boarded it and taken it apart to sell or trade.
This is an attack that’s supposed to make everyone think pirates, when nothing could
be further from the truth.”
“How do you know?”
“Because it’s political. It keeps coming back to that, with
Alexander in charge. All of the attacks on Fringe planets have been curious
moves for pirates, and going after a colony as large and well-affiliated as
Pandora would be suicide for a pirate ship, much less a fleet of ships numerous enough to track, which is what I’m seeing.
This is President Alexander moving the focus around and hurting his opponents
in the process.”
“You mean you.”
“Among other people.”
“No, you mean you
specifically,” Cody bit out, his worry manifesting as anger at the only person
he had to take it out on right now. “He’s going after Pandora because of you. Because it’s important to you and
Dad and he knew Dad would be there, didn’t he?”
Garrett didn’t shrink away from the accusation. “Probably.
But that’s not the most important thing right now.”
“What’s more important than Dad?” Cody demanded. “What could
ever be more important to you than him?
You should be more worried about him, what the hell is wrong with you? Do you even know if—”
Garrett actually slapped his hand down on the table in front
of him, a display of temper so rare that Cody’s mouth slammed shut in shock. “Listen to me. The colony is cut off. The
ship is broadcasting an SOS. Jonah was supposed to be taking Lacey for a flying
lesson, so he wasn’t in the Box when the attack happened. He could have been
targeted anyway, he could have run into trouble with a storm, he could be fine
and seeking shelter. I don’t know,
Cody. No one knows, and until I can learn more I have to deal with the rest of
this fucking mess. That means making sure you’re out of the line of fire.”
“What, so I’m just a part of this fucking mess to you?”
“No. No.” Garrett rubbed a hand over his face. “You’re the
most important thing to me right now, Cody. Do you understand? I need to ensure
your safety. I’m sending a ship to pick you up and take you to a safe place
until it blows over.”
“No, I can’t leave!” The idea was anathema. “What about Ten?
What about Grennson and Darrel? I can’t leave them alone here.”
“Cody, the fleet is being mobilized to deal with this ‘pirate’
threat as a training op. Do you know what that means? It means that President
Alexander is going to present this situation as an opportunity for cadets to
get some experience in a real, largely secure altercation. He’s going to call
people up, and I’m almost positive you and the rest of your quad will be
called. And you’ll be put on a ship, maybe the ship that Miles is being
reinstated on―” Garrett’s mouth twisted bitterly “―and put in the very front of
the fleet, and when the firefight begins, your ship will be the only one lost.
You’re going to be sent out to die,
Cody, and I’m not going to let that happen to you. My people are coming to you,
and I want you to leave with them. Understand?”
Cody resisted the urge to shake his head. “What about my
friends?”
“I’ll talk to Admiral Liang. Together we ought to be able to
come up with a plan to shield them from harm.”
“Why can’t you just do that with me? I want to be part of
the fleet!” The more he thought about it, the more the idea appealed. “I want
to go to Pandora and look for Dad!”
“Out of the question. You’re leaving Olympus and coming back
here.”
“I won’t be any safer with you.” Cody didn’t mean for it to come out quite so harsh, but he
wasn’t sorry when Garrett winced. “You already said he’s targeting us because
of you. That means he’ll be looking for this, and he’ll be watching for me to
leave.”
“He can’t watch everything. I can get you to safety.”
“I don’t want to be safe, I want to help!”
“And I want your father here with me and my father safe in
retirement again, but it looks like neither of us is getting our way!” Garrett
shut his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, he looked mostly calm.
Cold, but calm. “I need you not to fight me on this. Please. I need you safe.
Your dad would want you to be safe.”
Maybe that was true, but Cody didn’t feel like agreeing with
Garrett right now. “My dad would want to know we cared enough about him to go
after him. He’d do it for us.”
“That’s enough.”
“Garrett―”
“My ship will be to you in five hours. By tomorrow morning,
this incident will be all over the newsfeeds. You need to be out of there
before that happens. Do you understand me?”
Fuck you. Cody
wasn’t quite furious enough to say that to Garrett’s face, though. “Yes,” he
gritted.
“Good. I’ll see you soon. I love you.”
Cody didn’t want to hear it―he didn’t want to hear one of
his parents talking about love when the other one might be dead. How could
Garrett even be thinking of love? How could he be thinking at all? “Bye,” he
said shortly, and ended the call. Cody stared at the swirling pattern of the
wooden surface for a long moment before coming to his decision.
Fine. He needed to be out of here by tomorrow? He would be.
And he’d be gone before Garrett’s ship ever got to him, too. There was another
way to get to Pandora.
It was time to take Jack up on his offer to see the ‘verse,
Drifter style.
Cari, great chapter! Cody's growing up, but at a bad time for Garrett. Doubling the stress on Garrett is gonna cause some backlash! You're right, bad decisions... Garrett's going to flip the fuck out. 😬
ReplyDeleteScottie
Oh darlin, Garrett is going to lose his shit. Nothing is going right for him. He's got all sorts of hard decisions coming his way, my poor baby. As for Cody...well, he's certainly going to get his adventure! Thanks for reading :)
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