The Academy Post #11

 

Notes:  Busy morning for me!  My coauthor and I turned in our f/f novella, I set up initial appointments with a new client’s family, and I wrote this.  I know it feels like baby steps, but I’m building a platform from which to leap.  Bear with me, darlins.

Title: The Academy

Part Eleven: Not Exactly A Fight Club

 

***

 

                “The first rule of humans,” Jason Kim had told his ward almost a decade ago, “is that humans are complicated.”

                Grennson had been intrigued by humanity ever since he was a little pup.  The tragedy of his youngest years had been transformed into opportunity by Matriarch Grenn when she took him in, and as he slowly got over his loss, Grennson had started to pay attention to his new circumstances.

                He’d gone from living in a rural community with no one but his immediate family group for company to Berenze, the capital of Perel, surrounded by hundreds of people who claimed fealty to his matriarch, all of them living together in her extensive home.  There had been dozens of other pups, many visitors from other Families and finally Jason Kim, a human, the real, live human who Ferran had married and brought to live with them.

                Jason was Grennson’s first real exposure to humanity, and for a long time he’d assumed that most humans were like Jason: calm, poised, smart, kind.  So kind, and so patient, and Grennson had fallen a little in love with him as a pup.  With Ferran’s help Jason developed an empathic ability almost unheard of in humans, and with their guidance Grennson was slowly introduced to the larger universe. 

                And it was terrible.

                Or at least, it was terrible at first.  Perels who went abroad were warned before they left to guard themselves carefully, because they wouldn’t like a lot of what they felt out there.  They learned how to shield their minds and hearts, to protect themselves from both the adulation and hatred that would be directed at them abroad.  Grennson was significantly younger than most Perel when he was introduced to his first big group of humans, and he hadn’t been prepared for all of the—

                So young—not as pretty—could be useful—looks like my daughter’s pet—sweet thing—turn him to—try to get—done here—alone, I might—want one—get in good now—introduction—

                --rush of thoughts and emotions that flowed at him.  He’d frozen up, and a moment later Ferran had taken him back into the ship, away from the party and the press of human minds, and spent the next few minutes projecting calm and love and warmth at him.  Once Grennson had calmed down, Ferran explained.  “Most of them mean well enough, but they aren’t raised to have the same control over themselves that Perel are.  We mold our purpose to the greater good of our Family, while each human’s personal wellbeing is usually his or her own greatest motivation.  It can be different for some, especially if they’re parents, but they are a naturally selfish species.”

                “How do they manage to work together?” Grennson asked.  “When each one wants something different?”

                “They have very complex minds,” Ferran replied.  “Very versatile minds.  They are capable of learning great things, and even though they cannot feel each other’s hearts, they can still be swayed by circumstance or sympathy or explanation.  Learning to manage humans is much harder in some ways than managing Perel, and it is something you’ll learn if you stay with Jason and I.”

                “I do want to stay with you,” Grennson said immediately, and Ferran purred and pulled him close.

                “Then you shall.  And by the time you are grown, you shall be a master at understanding the ways of humans.”

                Ferran had been right, and now, in his current living situation, Grennson had never been more grateful for his knowledge.  After Cody’s revelation and the sudden lowering of everyone in their quad’s boundaries, Grennson had seen two things immediately: one, that this was an opportune time to build bonds between the four of them, and two, that if they restricted their company to just each other, they would be going for blood in a matter of hours.  Their personalities simply didn’t mesh harmoniously, no matter the best of intentions, and until they had more time to really learn how to work together, sheer willpower wouldn’t be enough to force them to get along.  The obvious answer was to introduce new variables into the mix.

                Valero had been good for one thing when she hung out in here, and that was acting as a lightning rod.  Grennson couldn’t think of a better person to receive Ten’s bountiful ire, but he also didn’t want to replace one poor companion with another.  The best thing to do, he figured, was to spread out the challenge of integrating new companions into their group that would keep them from killing each other.  Hence—

                “You want to run a club out of our quad?” Ten demanded.  “Are you insane?  Does it look like we’ve got the space to accommodate dozens of Perel fankids all slavering to get their hands on you in here?”

                “Not a fan club,” Grennson corrected.  “A culture club.  Educating humans about my home and learning about their homes in return is part of my mandate while living here, and I’ve been very remiss so far about doing it.”

                “I thought you didn’t want to spread yourself too thin,” Darrel said, for once firmly siding with Ten.  Grennson suppressed a smile.  “Starting a culture club is just going to make it worse.”

                “I promise to start small,” Grennson said.  “If the meetings are going to be in our quad, then it would have to be small.  I have no interest in letting just anyone in here.  Perhaps you could each invite someone to attend?”

                “What is this, the Midyear Ball?  Should we come all painted up in our glitziest frocks?  Do we need a secret handshake?” Ten asked.  “And stop talking like a damn diplomat.”

                “Grennson is a diplomat,” Cody spoke up from his spot on the couch.  Since his revelation the day before everyone had been stepping a little softly around him, bringing him drinks so he didn’t have to get up, cooking him meals, giving him the couch all for himself.  He’d accepted their largesse with grins and increasingly ridiculous demands until Ten had gotten tired of it and thrown a pillow at his head.  Now Cody still got the couch, but he had to share it.  “So’s the rest of his family.”

                “That doesn’t mean he has to talk like one, it makes me feel like he’s coddling me.”

                “Poor baby,” Cody crooned, then laughed as he took another pillow to the face.  “Feeling emotional?” he asked, lobbing the pillow back at Ten, then grimacing as it pulled the muscles in his ribcage.

                “Idiot,” Ten snapped, snatching up the pillow and gently placing it behind Cody’s back.  “Moron, how can you not remember that you aren’t supposed to do stupid things?”

                “Why do you provoke me to them?” Cody asked, but he graciously let Ten adjust his posture and soften the tension setting on the couch until he was almost swallowed by the cushions.  “Thanks.  And I think a culture club is a good idea.”

                “I think it’s an abysmal idea,” Ten said.  “If you think I’m going to waste valuable time that could be spent on my experiments, think again.”

                “I bet we could do it for credit,” Darrel said.

                Everyone turned to stare at him.  “They offer credit for private clubs?” Cody asked.  “I didn’t think that was allowed.”

                “Every cadet needs to have at least three credits per year in—they call it Diversity Options, but that really just means doing something beyond the required classes for your specialty,” Darrel explained.  “Most clubs aren’t eligible because they’re connected to their member’s specialties, just like a lot of sports aren’t, but they make exceptions for activities with a heavy cross-cultural emphasis.  Most cadets just do the Many People, Many Worlds workshop at the end of the year, but that eats your weekends for a standard month and they’re run by the counselors, which means there’s a lot of group exercises and guest lectures.”

                Ten couldn’t have looked more horrified if ze’d tried.  “I am not doing that,” ze said carefully.  “Not.  Absolutely not.  I would rather excise my own kidneys with a hatchet.”

                “Then you’d better sign on to Grennson’s club idea,” Cody said.

                “But I don’t have anyone to bring!” Ten whined.

                “Well, you have a week to figure it out.  Make a friend.”

                “Do you know me at all?” Ten asked.  “I don’t just make friends.”  And Ten didn’t really want to, Grennson could tell; hir reticence simmered at the front of hir mind, making hir feel unhappy.  Ze wanted to focus on chemistry, Cody and naturalism, in that order.

                “I’m sure you’ll find someone that doesn’t bore you to tears,” Cody said.  “Try a medical student.  You might learn something from them.”

                “Oh, haha.  Your situation is off limits, remember?”

                “I’m not saying tell them about me,” Cody clarified.  “I’m just saying that they might know something you don’t, and it would be nice to have a source for information that doesn’t log every search you do on Hermes.  You know they’re monitoring you ever since the fire.”

                “Maybe,” Ten said sulkily, then took on a considering expression.  “Do you think they could get me into the med labs?  Because I need a pint of Regen to experiment on and it’s not available through the chemistry department.”

                “You should find out,” Grennson encouraged.  “I will set up a meeting with the educational directors and ask for their approval and guidelines.  If they agree, shall we start next week?  Only for a few hours,” he said placatingly to Ten. 

                “I suppose that’s acceptable,” Ten said at last.  “But it better not interfere with going for a joyride in the morning, because you,” ze said to Cody, “still owe me fuel samples and proof that you aren’t a wicked liar, since we had to push everything back thanks to you having bad judgment.”

                Cody rolled his eyes.  “Yeah, how dare I interfere in your beatdown?”  He held out an arm.  “Help me up?”

                “You’re not an invalid,” Ten said, but ze came over and helped Cody up anyway.  “Where are you going?”

                “To change.  I’ve been wearing these clothes for the past two days, they’re starting to smell.”

                “You can barely raise your arms over your head, how are you going to get your shirt off by yourself?” Ten huffed.  “Come on.”  Ze led Cody into their bedroom and shut the door.

                “You’re pleased with yourself.”

                “Hmm?” Grennson asked Darrel.

                “I can tell you’re pleased with yourself.  You’re purring.”

                Oh, he was purring.  He’d done it unconsciously all the time as a pup, but Grennson had thought he’d kicked the habit.  He cleared his throat and stopped.  “I’m sorry.”

                “I don’t mind,” Darrel said.  “Are you really this excited about a culture club, though?”

                “I’m excited about it as a solution,” Grennson said, deciding to be honest with his friend.  “I think we need to expand our circle a bit.  We’re bound together with a secret, but that won’t help us to appreciate each other, and I fear if Cody is the sole reason we try to get along he will effectively be used by us as a lever for good behavior, which might make him resentful.  So, a small club seems like just the thing.  Making it for credit was an excellent idea,” he added.

                “Thanks.”  Darrel hesitated, then said, “But we can still work on languages alone, right?  Just the two of us?”

                Grennson patted Darrel’s hand.  “Of course.  I wouldn’t give it up.”  No one here regarded him with quite the same mix of affection, attention and ability that Darrel did, and it was nice to be around someone whose mood lifted whenever they were together.  “Not for anything.”

               

The Academy Post #10

 

Notes:  Electrical crisis averted! Writing done! Swords sheathed, at least for the moment.  Prepare for détente, ladies and gentlemen.  Things get wacky from here on out.

Title: The Academy

Part Ten: You Might Be The Last To Know, But At Least You Know

 

***

 

 

                It didn’t take a genius to figure out that something serious was happening behind Cody and Ten’s closed door.  Darrel tried not to look at it, but he couldn’t help glancing over whenever the volume rose loud enough to be heard through the walls.  They were supposed to be soundproof, but apparently no soundproofing had yet been invented that could withstand Ten.

                “I wouldn’t worry,” Grennson said from the other side of their newly requisitioned kitchen table, where he sat and sipped on the spicy tea of his world.  It was sweet and peppery and Darrel was trying hard not to develop an addiction for the stuff, but Grennson always poured him a cup in the mornings and it tasted so much better than coffee or bissap juice.

                “I’m not worried,” Darrel said quickly, and it was such a lie that he wasn’t surprised when Grennson raised one eyebrow.  It was a very human expression of disbelief, and Darrel wondered if he’d learned it from Jason Kim.  “Fine, I’m a little worried.  Who’s Ten yelling at?”

                “I believe it’s Cody’s sponsor.”

                “Why is she here?”

                The quills on Grennson’s back fluffed up a little, like a full-spinal shrug.  “I’ve no idea, but I’m sure we’ll find out soon.”

                Darrel frowned.  “Why would they tell us anything?”

                “Because we’re their quad mates.”

                “But that doesn’t mean anything,” Darrel objected.  “All being quad mates does is put us into close proximity with each other.”

                “Proximity is an important part of forging emotional bonds,” Grennson said.

                “It’s not a guarantee, though.”

                “My human father is very fond of saying ‘There are no guarantees in life,’” Grennson replied tranquilly.  “He also says ‘True families are made, not born.’  Given that he chose to make his family almost entirely out of another race on an alien planet, I think that second saying is rather apt.”

                “You can’t get rid of the family you’re born with,” Darrel said dully.  He’d listened to two messages from his grandmother already that morning, one about why he wasn’t the captain of the paraball team yet, one about his “disciplinary issues” with regards to Ten.  She’d let him know that she’d be calling in another fifteen minutes, presumably so she could reiterate her problems with Darrel to his face.

                “No,” Grennson agreed.  “But you can minimize their impact if it has a negative effect on you, and I don’t think I’m wrong in assuming that your family’s effect on you is rarely positive.”

                “And you think all of us being friends is going to fix that?”  Darrel knew he was being harsh, but he’d barely slept at all last night, guilt and anger warring in him until he’d twisted so much that his blankets became a prison, wrapping him up tight.

                “I think it’s a good place to start,” Grennson said.  “I certainly enjoy being your friend, I don’t see why Ten and Cody won’t.”

                “Ten hates me.”

                “No,” Grennson corrected him.  “Ten takes advantage of your weaknesses in order to elicit a particular reaction from you.  Very few people have ever treated hir with kindness, and now ze lashes out at others before they can hurt hir first.  If the anger and disappointment comes as a direct result of something Ten has done, rather than what ze is, Ten can understand and cope with it.  You really aren’t dissimilar at all,” Grennson added.

                “I am nowhere near as rude,” Darrel said.

                “True.” Grennson sipped his tea and said nothing else, and after a moment Darrel couldn’t bear the silence. 

                “What?”

                “Hmm?”

                “What else do you want to say that you aren’t saying?”

                “There’s nothing else I want to say right now,” Grennson replied with a smile.  “How does the saying go… ‘Silence is golden’?”

                “If you have a problem with me you can tell me,” Darrel pressed.  “I want you to tell me.”

                “I’m not the one who has problems with you.  You’re always perfectly nice to me.  You’re my friend, and I value that friendship very much.”  He said it with the sort of earnestness that made Darrel want to shy away.  “And that—you see, that emotion, I feel it.  I feel all of your emotions, I can’t help it, and I know when I’m making you uncomfortable.  So I won’t.”

                “Yeah, but…”  But how was Darrel supposed to improve if Grennson wasn’t telling him what he was doing wrong?

                “I’m your friend, not your nanny,” Grennson murmured.  “Or your grandmother.  I’m not here to tell you all your faults and demand that you fix them.  Change isn’t something you can force on someone.”

                “That doesn’t keep people from trying.”

                “No, but it doesn’t mean you have to put up with it either.”

                Their conversation was cut short by the abrupt opening of Cody and Ten’s door.  Cody’s sponsor came out, red-faced and flustered, and stared at both of them for a long moment.  “He’d better be right about the two of you,” she said finally.  “You better not let him down, or so help me…”  Her voice trailed off, like she couldn’t quite catch her breath, and then she straightened up and walked out of the quad without another word.

                Darrel turned to look at Grennson.  “What was that?” he asked.

                “I’m not sure,” Grennson replied, looking worried.  “I’ve been trying not to feel what’s going on in there, but it’s hard not to notice someone else’s fear.”

                “Fear of what?”

                “I can’t tell you,” Grennson said, and he looked sad about that.  “I’m not supposed to know.  It’s a secret.”

                “Who’s secret?”

                “My secret,” Cody said from the door.  He looked a little worse for wear, and Ten was standing behind him and scowling at him but not, as of yet, saying anything, which was a miracle as far as Darrel was concerned.  “I should have guessed you already knew it,” Cody continued, looking at Grennson with a little smile.

                “You can trust me to keep your confidence,” Grennson said seriously.

                Ten huffed and pushed gently at Cody’s shoulder.  “Get out of the way, already, why don’t you go sit down?”  Cody complied, and Darrel took in the stiffness of his back and the little hunch in his shoulders and realized that Cody was still injured.

                “Why haven’t you healed yet?” he asked, standing up and pushing his chair toward Cody.  The table had been replaced fast enough, but several of their chairs had been broken as well, and apparently the office of requisitions found them harder to come by.  “Do you need a Regen boost?”

                “Don’t you think if that would have worked, I’d have already tried it?” Ten snapped.  “Are you as blind when you play paraball as you are with people?”

                Darrel bit back the insult that hovered on the end of his tongue.  You don’t have to say anything, Ten’s just trying to get a rise out of you.  The anger and worry he’d been fighting with all night sharpened in his chest like a knife, though, and Ten was such an easy target, ze could take it, ze was asking for it…

                “Don’t be an asshole,” Cody said tiredly.  To Darrel’s shock, Ten backed down, crossing hir arms and looking sulkily at the floor.  Cody sighed, then reached out and took Ten’s hand.  “And don’t be mad.”

                “I’m not mad, I just hope you know what you’re doing,” Ten said, sounding ominous.  But ze didn’t try to take back hir hand. Cody glanced over at Darrel and grinned.  It was slightly pained, but genuine.

                “I guess you’re the only one out of the loop.”

                “What loop?” Darrel demanded.

                “Mine, I guess.  I’m…okay, so…shit.  I guess the easiest thing to do is just come out and say it.”  Cody tilted his head back toward the ceiling and exhaled heavily, then said, “I’m a natural.”

                “A natural what?”

                “For fuck’s sake—”

                “Ten, c’mon, please,” Cody entreated, and Ten shut up again.  That was more astonishing than anything Cody’s said so far.  A natural…

                “I’m a genetic natural,” Cody continued.  “My body won’t accept Regen.  It’s hard to get it to accept a lot of medical treatments.  I’m going to age at a normal human rate, which means that if I’m lucky I’ll live to see a little over a century.  I don’t heal as fast as you do, which is why I’m still feeling the knee I took to the stomach yesterday.  I was accepted to the Academy with the idea that eventually I would go into covert operations, so it’s kind of a big deal that I’m telling you this.”  His dark blue eyes were fixed firmly on Darrel’s face, gauging his reaction.  “No one else can know.  Ten found out by accident this morning, and I guess Grennson’s known for a while…”

                “I wasn’t completely sure until last night,” Grennson said.  “But I did suspect something like this.”

                “I was supposed to keep it a secret,” Cody said.  “But I wanted you guys to know.  I would have told you from the beginning if I could have.”

                “Because you have no sense of self preservation and are a terrible liar,” Ten interjected.  “We need to know if only to help you keep your cover.  Which we will,” he added, staring at Darrel like he could bore holes through Darrel’s brain if he just tried hard enough.  “Right?”

                This was…confidential.  This was majorly, majorly confidential, there was no reason Darrel should know this.  He wasn’t brilliant like Ten or empathic like Grennson, he wouldn’t have figured it out on his own.  He shouldn’t know this.  He shouldn’t be part of some secret society, like they were a special little club, like they were—fuck, family.

                Darrel still hadn’t said anything, and Cody was starting to look concerned.  “Darrel?  Will you help me out here?”

                Fuck this.  Fuck this, Cody shouldn’t be relying on Darrel for anything, didn’t he know how bad Darrel was at this?  At everything?  He could ask for a transfer, someone else could take his place here, someone who really knew how to be a friend and keep a confidence…

                Darrel’s comm unit rang.  Mechanically, he pulled the caller information up on the table top.  Grandmother.  Right, she had an appointment to tell him how disappointed she was.  How unlike his father he was.  How hard he needed to try to live up to that impossible, unreachable ideal.

                Grennson’s hand on top of his made Darrel jump.  He looked up at the Perel, but Grennson didn’t say anything, just smiled.

                It was too late to keep from disappointing his family.  Maybe, though, Darrel might manage not to disappoint his quad.  He turned his comm unit to DNR, cutting off his grandmother’s call, and brushed her caller ID away.  “You can count on me,” he said.  “I won’t tell anyone.”

                “You’d better not,” Ten sniped, but Cody just grinned again.

                “Thank you.”  Darrel felt himself start to blush and made himself act nonchalant, shrugging slightly.

                “Sure.”

                “Yay, we’re all on board,” Ten cut in.  “Hurray for the Four Space Rangers.  Now we just have to figure out why we’ve been turned into a unit, and life will be lovely.”

                “You think there’s a reason we were put together?” Grennson asked.

                “For the umpteenth time, yes, seriously all of you need to meet Admiral Liang and figure this shit out for yourselves, the man is brilliant, nothing happens by chance, are you honestly that naïve?  Yes.” Ten said.

                “Why, though?” Darrel asked.  “What are we supposed to do together?”

                They all stared at each other for a long moment.  “That,” Cody said finally, “is a really, really good question.”

A Possible Delay...

Hi guys

I'm writing in between working with the electrician this morning to figure out why the house is so f*cked up.  It turns out none of our smoke detectors are wired into the electrical system, our fuses are too small for our current, and the wiring in the ceiling is unsafe.  All before breakfast!  So I'm trying to help and trying to write and trying not to scream imprecations at the builder, who isn't even here but screw it, it would make me feel better.  I'm going to post today, I swear, hopefully before noon my time, but I can't be sure.

Goddamn it!

Lego Movie Review

In a fit of nostalgia, my man and I went to go see the LEGO Movie on Friday night.  I was expecting it to be cute.

Aww, LEGOS, so cute!  And it was cute, but it was also completely awesome. 

I say this as someone who only played with LEGOS in a cursory way; I got most of my enjoyment of this movie out of its very effective self-ridicule and the general hilarity of the situation.  My man enjoyed it on the deeper level of someone who's played with a lot of those LEGO sets ("Oh my god, 80's Space Man! And that's exactly how his helmet broke, and that's how the insignia on his uniform always wore off! It's so realistic!").

There is exactly one catchy song for the whole movie, which is very deliberate, and great voice actors and fun special effects with LEGO water, LEGO fire, LEGO explosions...it should be cloying or ridiculous, but it really isn't.  I enjoyed it, at any rate.

The Academy Post #9

 

Notes:  Nothing is sacred to some people. Especially Ten. That’s why we love hir, though!  On a personal note, it’s been snowing here all night, should snow all day, and will probably snow all of tomorrow. Because Colorado can’t lose to New York when it comes to inches of snow, c’mon now. J

Title: The Academy

Part Nine: Constellations and Revelations

 

***

                The first thing Cody heard when he woke up the next morning was an argument. It shouldn’t have surprised him; he shared a room with Ten, after all. Ten barely knew what to do with hirself if ze wasn’t arguing. Cody was still tired, and his whole midsection ached like he’d—oh yeah, like he’d been kneed in the stomach before falling into a wall. He decided to give himself a break and prolong his time in bed instead of forcing himself upright. He drifted for a bit, listening to words that didn’t really make sense until, quite suddenly, they did.

                “—have an appointment with Cody this morning, one which he’s going to be late for if he doesn’t get up right now.” That sounded like Phil, which was strange. Phil never came by the quad, Cody always went to her when they had something to work on.

                “What kind of appointment?” That was Ten, sounding suspicious.

                “The imminent kind, so if you’d let Cody know I’m here I’d appreciate it.”

                “He’s sleeping, and he never sleeps this late unless he really needs it, so I’m thinking you should just reschedule his appointment for a later time.” Only Ten could make that particular tone seem natural, somewhere between snide, supercilious and sincere.

                Cody could practically hear Phil gritting her teeth. “Just tell him I’m here, Cadet St. Florian. Or maybe I should report you to the master sergeant for obstruction of a senior cadet?”

                Ten just laughed. “If you think that anything you tattle on me to Jessup about is going to change things, think again. I’m on the admiral’s naughty list, you should go straight to him if you’ve got a problem with me. I can tell you how to find his office, if you want.”

                “Tiennan, this is important!”

                “Convince me of how important it is and I’ll let you in.”

                “You’re not cleared to—”

                Important…an important appointment. Cody rolled onto his back, stifling a groan, and stared at the ceiling for a moment before it all came flooding back to him. The fight, getting hit, Hermes, the medical office—shit! “I’m awake,” he called out. His voice sounded croaky, and Cody coughed and tried again. “I’m up, I’m awake! Sorry, Phil, I’ll be there in a second.”  Cody swung his legs out of bed and grimaced.

                Both Ten and Phil stared at Cody like he’d grown a second head.  “What happened to you?” Phil demanded at the same time that Ten said, “Are you joking? Stay in bed!” Then they glared at each other.

                “No, Phil’s right, I’ve got an appointment that I need to make,” Cody said. “Sorry, I should have let you know.” He looked Ten over, pleased to see that the bruise on hir cheek had faded to a shadow and hir black eye was yellow now instead. “You look better.”

                “You look awful.” Ten frowned. “Is this because you’re a natural?”

                “Fuck!” That was Phil, who barged past Ten and shut the bedroom door fast before turning on Cody. “You told your roommate?”

                “No!”

                “I figured it out on my own last night, I’m not an idiot,” Ten sniffed. “Between the aftermath of the fight and a little research on your planet of origin, it wasn’t hard. Honestly, if you really wanted to keep it a secret you should have lied about your background.”

                “No, that sort of manipulation throws up red flags to administrators,” Phil said automatically. “Shit. Cody, I told you to be careful!”

                “I didn’t ask to get into a fight, it just happened, and once it did I couldn’t stand by and do nothing,” Cody protested.

                “Yes, you could have! We’re supposed to be innocuous, Cody—utterly forgettable! That’s the reality of your situation, and the sooner you adapt to that expectation, the better. You shouldn’t have gotten involved!”

                Oh, that…that was a step too far. Cody stood up, ignoring the strain in his abdomen, and stared straight at his sponsor. “If I have to let my friends get hurt just so I can look normal, then I’m fucked,” he said flatly. “Because I won’t do that. I just won’t.”

                “You’re going to have to learn to let go at some point,” Phil argued, but at least she had the grace to look ashamed of herself. “Naturals are covert operatives, Cody. We have to play to expectations, not buck them, if we’re going to be effective. Do you honestly think your intervention did Tiennan any favors last night?”

                “Ten isn’t just some person, Ten is my friend,” Cody argued. “Maybe I didn’t help in the fight, but ze wouldn’t have gotten into it in the first place if ze hadn’t been defending me, so unless you’re advocating that I give up all social interaction completely and turn myself into a hermit, it’s not going to happen.”

                “Being alone is safer,” Phil said.

                “You’re an idiot.”

                Both of them turned to look at Ten, who stood there, arms crossed, staring back and forth between them like ze didn’t know who was stupider. “Seriously, idiots, both of you. Have either of you even met Admiral Liang?”

                Phil frowned. “Of course. What does the admiral have to do with this?”

                Ten rolled hir eyes. “Wow, you’ve been here for what, eight years now, and you still haven’t caught on? You really are an idiot. At least Cody has the excuse of being new.” Ten heaved a sigh.  “When you started at the Academy, did you have quad mates?” ze asked Philomena.

                “Yes,” she replied, a bit defensively.

                “And were they naturals like you?”

                She started to respond, then hesitated. When she began again, her voice was more measured. “One of them was.”

                “Uh-huh. Out of the thousands of students at this school, you, a natural, got paired with another natural for a roommate. There probably aren’t more than a dozen of you in this entire place, so we can reasonably assume that your pairing was deliberate.” Ten spoke in a sing-songy, this-is-so-obvious tone. “So you had someone like you that you could be friends with and confide in.”

                “My other two quad mates weren’t naturals, and they never found out that we were,” Phil protested, but her insistence was starting to weaken.

                “Yeah, fine, you were working on being covert together, you learned how to keep a secret, wah wah.” Ten waved hir hand dismissively. “Cody is probably ten times more sociable than you, though, and he was put in a quad with—count them—no other naturals. On the contrary, he was put in with, like, the farthest people there are from naturals, and one of us is an empath. An empath, someone who reads emotions, do you not see where I’m going with this?”

                “You think he did it deliberately,” Cody said, finally putting together what Ten was saying.

                “Of course he did it deliberately,” Ten exclaimed. “Admiral Liang is a genius when it comes to figuring out people’s strengths and weaknesses. Trust me, I know.” Ten’s eyes lingered on Cody for a moment before ze plowed ahead. “You,” ze said to Phil, “might do just fine all by your lonesome, or with very few confidants, being all naturally and secretive, but Admiral Liang knew that Cody wasn’t going to be able to hack it alone.”

                “Hey!”

                “It’s not an insult, it’s a statement of fact! You’re a shitty liar but you’re a good person, and so the admiral put you with a group of people who were bound to figure out you were a natural, then ensured that we liked you enough that we wouldn’t care. That we, in fact, would help cover for you when things went wrong, like they so obviously did yesterday.” Ten frowned vociferously at Cody. “You should have told me you were really hurt instead of lying there hoping it would go away, you moron!”

                Ten was so indignant, so angry, so worried even as ze was tossing insults around like they were sweets…Cody couldn’t help it, he fell back onto his bed with a pained grunt and started to laugh. Phil and Ten both looked at him like he was crazy.

                “Sorry,” he gasped, “I’m sorry, but Ten…you are so smart, and you are so bad at telling people you like them!” Cody covered his eyes with his hands, his breath hitching as he fought to get his laughter under control, because damn it hurt his diaphragm. “I like you too,” he said around a giggle, “so you know.”

                “Of course I knew that, didn’t I just say you couldn’t lie?” Ten grumped, but ze sat down next to Cody and patted his knee. “Now stop laughing before you injure yourself, honestly, you have no sense.”

                “I can’t believe it,” Phil said, still standing against the wall with a dumbstruck expression on her face. “I can’t believe the admiral would intend for all of you to know. The more people who know the harder it is to keep it a secret.”

                Ten scoffed. “Oh please. I have no other friends, Darrel is the embodiment of ‘strong and silent asshole,’ and everyone is too in awe of Grennson to ask impertinent questions about him, much less to him about us. We’re the perfect secret keepers, although honestly,” Ten added, “I think the admiral could have done better than Darrel.”

                “He’s not a bad guy,” Cody protested. “Considering all the crap he has to deal with because of his dad, I think he’s doing pretty well.”

                “You would think that,” Ten said with a sniff, but ze didn’t stop petting Cody’s knee.  “Frankly, I just think he’s here because of his connec—hmm.” Ten’s eyes narrowed. “Now that’s an interesting thought.”

                “What is?” Phil asked.

                “What? Oh, nothing, nothing,” Ten said, not even pretending ze wasn’t lying. Phil looked highly offended, and Cody started laughing again. This was one of the most ridiculous starts to a day he’d ever had, and he and Wyl had once “borrowed” a tank before dawn to test out its max speeds over uncertain terrain. Robbie and Grandpa had not been pleased.

                “If you can laugh like that, you can’t be too badly off,” Phil muttered, coming over and helping sit Cody up.  “Lean against the wall.” Cody complied, and a moment later he felt the familiar thrum of the scan. Phil was having a rapid-fire conversation with Hermes, if the twitching behind her closed eyelids was anything to go by, and a few moments later she pulled back. “Hermes notes nothing but improvements in your condition since last night, so I’m canceling the trip to the medical office. I’m also canceling your time on the hoverbike course, since you’re not that healthy yet,” she added firmly.

                “Thanks, Phil,” Cody said.

                Phil snorted. “Don’t thank me. I can’t believe…Cody, this…this…” She shrugged helplessly. “This just isn’t how it’s done. Not for us.”

                “Your own status should be safe enough,” Cody assured her.

                “It’s not that. It’s…”

                “It’s that you’re weird,” Ten said, not without a tiny bit of compassion as ze looked at how Phil was struggling. “You’re a well-adjusted freak of nature who was raised to be comfortable with yourself, surrounded by people who love you despite the fact that you’re not going to live even a quarter as long as most of them will. I think it would be hard for a lot of families to really bond with a child they knew had such a limited life expectancy. Right?” ze asked Phil.

                Cody wanted to protest, to say that he really wasn’t all that exceptional, but his own memory betrayed him. The strain between Tamara and her father, the way Lacey fought with her own family, how her dad wouldn’t let her near the new baby, as though being a natural was contagious. Cody had always been the one to have people over to his house on Pandora, never the other way around. He’d been the most popular kid in school, and maybe more of that was due to the fact that his dads never looking like they’d measured and found you wanting than because Cody was just that awesome.  His folks weren’t perfect, but Cody was pretty sure no parent was.

                “I’ll be careful,” was all he said once it was clear that Phil wasn’t going to speak. “I know I have to prepare for the future, I’m going to have to get used to fitting expectations, but this is my home now. I should be able to be honest here.”

                Phil sighed. “If you say so.” She stood up and brushed off her uniform. “I’ve got things to do. Study up on those schematics before our next session, I want you able to rebuild three different types of listening devices out of an abandoned neural implant in two hours.”

                “Got it,” Cody told her. “Thank you for coming to help me.”

                “You’re welcome, but it looks like you didn’t really need my help.” She caught Cody’s gaze and held it for a long moment. “Just be careful, all right?”

                “I will be.”

                Phil shut their bedroom door behind herself, and Cody shut his eyes and relaxed against the wall for a moment, counting the seconds before Ten started to—

                “I want to look at your medical records.”

—Demand things. “Why?” Cody asked, standing up and pulling a fresh shirt out of his storage compartment. If he was going to have the morning to lounge around, at least he was going to do it in clothes that weren’t sweat-soaked and smelling like pain. Getting the old one off was rough, Cody could barely lift his arms as high as his shoulders, and he had a dark bruise spreading across his ribcage like an negative constellation, black on white. Getting the new shirt on was going to be a bitch.

“Good fucking grief,” Ten snapped, standing up and taking the shirt from him. “Arms in, I’ll get it over your head. I want to look at your records so I can start figuring out how to cure you, obviously.”

Cody chuckled for a moment before breaking it off with a hiss of pain as Ten tugged the shirt a little too hard over his shoulders. “Naturalism doesn’t have a cure,” Cody said once he had his breath back. “Just ways to manage the symptoms, and that doesn’t include a way to prolong life beyond about a hundred, yet.”

“Yet,” Ten emphasized. “Just because something hasn’t been done before doesn’t mean it never can be, that’s what science is all about.”

“You’re a chemist,” Cody pointed out.

Ten crossed hir arms. “Medicine is chemistry,” ze said stubbornly.

There was no use fighting it. “I’ll send you a copy later,” Cody said. “After breakfast.” He was a little surprised to find he was hungry, but his stomach’s growling was too loud to ignore.

“You’re going to tell them, aren’t you?” Ten asked as Cody moved toward the door. “Tell Grennson and Darrel about you.”

“Yeah, of course I am.” There wasn’t much of a point in hiding it, as far as Cody was concerned. He already felt better at the thought of the veil of secrecy lifting.

“Good.”

It would be. At least, it had to be better than lying, Cody rationalized as he headed out into the common room to explain his…complication…to his quad mates.