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.

The Academy Post #8

 

Notes:  And we’re back to the main story, and somehow I wrote over 3k of it in two hours, so let’s hope it’s comprehensible.  A little illumination, a little introspection, a few pointed threats…all in a day’s work.

Title: The Academy

Part Eight: Hit Me Where It Hurts

 

***

 

                If there was one thing that Ten hated above all else, it was waiting.  Sitting around with nothing to do and no way to get something to do because ze was, ostensibly, being punished…well, it really was kind of punishing.  All Ten could do to get through it was to try and make the wait as punishing for the people around hir as possible.

                Ze and Valero sat on opposite sides of Admiral Liang’s antechamber, waiting for their sponsors to arrive so they could go in and get chewed out together.  Which, hah, if inconveniencing hir sponsor was supposed to make Ten feel extra bad, the admiral was going to be sorely disappointed.  Ten’s sponsor hated hir, and the feeling was mutual.  The thought of Barré hoisting himself out of bed and running to the admiral’s office just to be told off for not being more responsible for Ten…well, sweet didn’t really do enough to describe it.

                But Barré wasn’t here yet, and neither was Valero’s sponsor, so they only had each other and the two security officers assigned to watch them while the admiral and Master Sergeant Jessup dueled over their fates.  Ten didn’t know what was going to happen, but ze figured the punishment would land somewhere between scrubbing latrines and expulsion.  Second warning and all that, but on the other hand ze hadn’t started it, and Ten also could count on the sympathy vote for the black eye and the huge swelling bruise ze could feel puffing up on hir right cheekbone.  Not to mention the bloody nose…Ten checked to make sure the dried blood was still crusted on hir upper lip.  Perfect.  Now ze could look small and pathetic and be sort of believable, as long as ze didn’t laugh or something to ruin it.

                Bored.  Bored, bored, bored.  Ten kicked hir feet against the base of the bench ze was sitting on, making it thud.

                “Stop it,” Valero snapped.

                Thud.  Thud.  Thud.

                “Stop it, you chummy little sack of wormbait!”

                “Is that an insult on your planet?” Ten asked idly, still thudding hir heels against the bench.  “Is it bad to be wormbait?  Wait, does that mean I’m bait for worms, or bait made from worms?  Because either way, it makes me feel useful.”  Valero glared angrily at hir but didn’t reply.  “On Solaydor, for example, if I wanted to insult you I’d call you…”  Ze looked Valero up and down.  “An unfashionista, maybe.  Or better yet, just an un.  Uns are what we call people who have no function in society.  Before at least you were decorative, like a lamp, but now—well, with that hair, I mean—”

                “If you,” Valero breathed, her expression murderous, “don’t shut your hateful mouth, I swear that the next time I get you alone, I’ll—”

                “Val.”

                Ten and Valero looked over at the door, both of them startled.  Ten hadn’t even heard the man walk in, and ze was usually more observant than that.  Both the security officers looked relieved.  This was someone who could control Valero then, probably her sponsor.  And oh, wasn’t he pretty?  Wavy brown hair, golden tan skin, ridiculously fit…and angry.  You couldn’t see it in his perfect face, but Ten read it in the stiffness of his shoulders and the tension in his voice.  Valero clearly saw it too.

                “Kyle, it’s not my fault.”

                Oh, the infamous Kyle, captain of the paraball team.  Ten froze for a second as the young man’s eyes flashed toward hir, then forced hirself to relax.  Just because Valero’s sponsor had the eyes of a viper didn’t mean he was going to strike.

                “Really,” Kyle said mildly, turning back to look at Valero.  “Because from what the master sergeant told me when he called me ten minutes ago, this—” He gestured at Ten, “really is your fault.  So is breaking a table and trying to headbutt an alien.  The only alien on campus, the one that people are falling all over themselves to get a glimpse of, much less an invitation into his quad.”

                “To be fair, she’s never really gotten an invitation,” Ten said cheekily.  “She just shows up.”

                Kyle turned and stared at hir again, and Ten shrank back despite hirself.  This man was packing some serious intensity.  After a long moment he looked away, and Ten could breathe again. 

                The door to Admiral Liang’s office opened, and Master Sergeant Jessup called out, “Senior Cadet Alexander, Cadet Balteran—get in here.”  Valero stood up shakily, her eyes on the ground, and Kyle took her elbow and walked her into the office.  It shut after them, which gave Ten a chance to come to grips with what ze’d just heard. 

                Alexander…Senior Cadet Alexander, and he had to be a Legacy or Valero wouldn’t have anything to do with him, and Alexander was an old-world name, Central System for sure, and as far as Ten knew there was only one Alexander with the pedigree to be a Legacy, which meant…

                Holy whoa.  Kyle Alexander was the younger brother of the President of the Federation.

                Raymond Alexander was at least a full generation ahead of Kyle; he’d been in politics for the past fifty years, and President for ten of those, half of the terms he was allowed by law.  The Alexander patriarch who spawned both of them had had a reputation as a playboy, not a politician—it had been sheer bad luck that his ship had been attacked by pirates as he traveled between central planets.  Foster Alexander had, by all accounts, behaved very heroically as he fought to save his crew and his youngest children, who were travelling with him, but didn’t make it out alive himself.  His commission in the military, even though he hadn’t been active duty for decades, made all his children eligible to be Legacies.

                Kyle must have been one of those kids.  He’d been there when his father—and mother, Foster’s fifth or sixth wife, Ten thought—had been murdered.  That was…rough, Ten acknowledged.  Very, very rough.  But then, whose life was a perfect party?  Ten was effectively an orphan, Darrel hated his family, Grennson was a stranger in a very strange land…the only person Ten could think of who had it close to perfect was Cody, with his doting dads and his high-performance bike and his “I like everybody” personality.  Cody and his inoffensive nature, his adequate but not exceptional intellect and his natural cuteness.  What did Cody have to be sad about?  Nothing.

                Well no, not nothing.  There was something there, something different about him, and Ten felt on the verge of a revelation, especially after tonight.  Cody was lying about himself.  Ten just wasn’t sure exactly how yet.  Ze’d figure it out, though—Cody wasn’t a very good liar.  Ten felt sure that with just a little more time and the right questions, ze’d be able to—

                “Tiennan!” Barré hissed, slinking into the room and onto the bench next to Ten.  “For the love of God, what did you do?”

                “I set myself on fire, what do you think I did?” Ten demanded, instantly irritated.  Ze and his sponsor weren’t a very good match.  Barré was a genius at chemistry, but way too cautious to ever come up with anything spectacular.  He was all about “improving current chemical processes to reduce waste and blah blah blah,” which was so boring that Ten hadn’t been able to keep hir eyes open during their introduction.  That had gotten them off on the wrong path, and two months in things weren’t any better.  “I got beat up by a stupid Legacy,” Ten continued.

                “For the love of God, don’t call them that!”

                That was the other annoying thing about Barré.  He referenced God in almost everything he did.  “Why are you even here?” Ten asked.  “We haven’t even seen each other since the first week of classes.”

                “When Admiral Liang himself asks me to come to his office and explain the actions of my plebe, I obey,” Barré said gloomily.  “Even when that plebe is you.  God is punishing me with you, I know it.”

                “But why is he punishing me with you?” Ten asked snidely.  Barré didn’t answer, he just sank his head into his hands and whimpered.  Wuss.  It was no fun to tease someone who refused to tease back.  Ten went back to thunking hir feet against the bench, hoping to get a rise out of hir sponsor, but Barré seemed immune to any distraction from his misery.

                A few minutes later, the office doors opened and Valero and Kyle emerged, Valero looking incredibly chastened.  She walked straight over to Ten and said, very stiffly, “I apologize for losing my temper with you.  It won’t happen again.”

                “That sounds like a promise destined to be broken,” Ten said.

                “For God’s sake, be gracious,” Barré muttered.

                “I’m just telling it like I see it!”

                “I personally guarantee that it won’t happen again.”  Valero shrank a little as her sponsor spoke, blushing so hard that her skin almost matched her hair color.  “Random violence is never a good solution to interpersonal problems,” Kyle continued.

                Well, that was…true, if weirdly phrased.  Ten nodded.  “Okay.”

                Barré nudged him.  “Now you.”

                “Now me what?”

                “Now you apologize?”

                “For what?”

                Valero scowled, and Barré rolled his eyes.  Kyle looked on imperturbably.  “For her hair!” Barré said.

                “But I’m not sorry for that.  I’m just being honest,” Ten added when hir sponsor looked like he might erupt.  “She was being mean to Cody, which is like the equivalent of kicking a baby catterpet, and so she deserved it.”

                “And she’ll apologize to Cadet Helms personally as well,” Kyle said smoothly, “but you seem the sort to understand that he’s going to have to learn to deal with conflict and verbal defense on his own at some point.  I’m not saying assisting him wasn’t warranted, but you denied him the opportunity to fight for himself by intervening.”

                Oh, fucking logic.  And worse yet, it was true.  Cody was too nice, it made Ten want to lock him in their room and keep him with hir all the time.  “Fine,” Ten huffed.  “I’m sorry I denied Cody the chance to stand up for himself by pouring dye all over your hair, Valero.  I’ll give you the solution to remove it tomorrow,” he added in an effort to be extra nice.

                Valero still scowled, but Kyle seemed satisfied.  “Thank you.”  He nodded to them, then turned and left the antechamber, his plebe hurrying after him like a bright orange hazard flag.  It would be a shame to wash that color away, Ten thought.

                “You two, in,” Master Sergeant Jessup called.  Ten popped to hir feet and walked into the office, followed by a very dispirited Barré.

                Admiral Liang sat behind his desk, as stylish at midnight as he was every other time Ten had ever seen him.  The admiral had an element of elegance that seemed to defy time and space, his own private dimension of class that he carried with him at all times.  He should give seminars on that, not graduate level quantum theory, Ten mused.

                “So,” Admiral Liang said, a little smile on his face.  “Here you are again, Cadet St. Florian.”

                “Yes, sir.”

                “I’ve been told by numerous people that the incident which occurred tonight, while precipitated by you, wasn’t really your fault.”

                “That’s true, sir,” Ten agreed, pleased that the admiral saw things hir way.

                “Mmhmm.  I’ve also been reliably informed that you are still performing experiments in your quad, keeping Class Four chemicals in unsafe containment, and heedlessly involving yourself and your quadmates in unnecessary altercations.”

                “No!” Ten exclaimed.  “That’s not…I mean, okay, yes with the experiments but it’s all in my room, not in the common area, and the chemicals are perfectly contained because I’m the only one who can get to them and I know how to use them safely, sir, the stuff I poured on Valero is completely nontoxic, and I don’t see why I should be punished for sticking up for a fellow cadet!  Sir,” ze added.

                Master Sergeant Jessup didn’t look at all convinced, and it sounded like Barré might hyperventilate before too long, but Admiral Liang nodded slightly.  “Valid points.  Nevertheless, you were warned about fighting, and it can’t be denied that your actions tonight were excessive.  You didn’t land the first blow, but you did fire the first volley, if you take my meaning, cadet.  You escalated a situation that had no direct bearing on you, and the subsequent brawl disturbed the serenity of your entire floor.  Having warned you in the past, and having had that warning ignored, I’m left to come up with an appropriate punishment.”  The admiral steepled his fingers.

                “We tried physical punishment last time, and that seemed to have little effect on your actions.  I suspect I could have you trimming every hedge on this campus and you’d find a way to do it that made it pleasurable for you.  Due to your declared major, we can’t bar you from the public labs, and I hate the thought of you resorting to making your own chemicals.”  Ten smiled at that.  The admiral didn’t smile back.  “Expulsion is always an option, but it’s a drastic one, and I feel like expelling you would be doing you a disservice.  You’re not a hopeless case, Ten, just a stubborn one. 

“Most cadets can be relied upon to change their behavior because of their sense of shame, but I’m beginning to think you don’t have one.  So, what is an appropriate punishment for someone as self-sufficient as you?”  Admiral Liang leaned forward.  “Tell me, what do you think of your roommate?”

“Cody?”  That had changed directions fast.  “He’s nice enough.”

“Nice to you, even?”

“Yeees…” Letting me do experiments in the shower, cooking me food, telling me jokes—stupid jokes, but he tries—and telling me all about his family…  “He’s nice to me.”

“And you, Cadet, are you nice to him back?”

Helping him with his chemistry homework, with his implant, with everything a Fringe kid doesn’t know about life in the Central System, he’s so happy to listen, he makes me feel…responsible.  “Yes,” Ten said quietly.  “I try to be.”

“Would another roommate be as nice to him, do you think?”

Oh, oh no.  “Are you saying you’d move him?” Ten demanded. 

“Cadet Helms would be easier to relocate than you, certainly.  Not to put too fine a point on it, but no one in your class would welcome you into their quad with open arms,” Admiral Liang said calmly.  “I put the two of you—the four of you, really—together for a reason.  You have complimentary skillsets, and you in particular are very strong willed.  I think you could be good for your quad mates, Cadet, but if you can’t control yourself enough to solve things with your brain instead of your little toys, then I’m not sure you’re the best influence for someone like Cody.”

“But…this…”  No, Cody couldn’t be moved, he loved it in their quad.  He was like a sponge, he soaked up everything, even Darrel talked to him, Grennson loved being around him, and Ten…

“Please don’t.”  Ten couldn’t be the reason Cody was sent somewhere else, ze just couldn’t be.  “Don’t move him.  I’ll do better.”

“You’ve said that before.”

“But I mean it this time!” Ten exclaimed.  “Really!  I’ll be better, I swear, just leave Cody alone.”

“I want to,” Admiral Liang said.  “I truly want to.  And I will, for now.”  Ten relaxed with a sigh.  “But you have to learn some self-control, Ten, before you draw one of your quad mates into a situation that they can’t help you out of.  Something that could get one of them hurt.  Do you understand?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Your frankness is a gift, don’t ever think that it isn’t,” he added.  “I wish more people spoke their minds like you do, there were be far fewer misunderstandings in this universe.  But you need to temper it, Cadet St. Florian.  And you,” he looked at Barré, “have been underserving your plebe.  Managing people is as much a responsibility of a Federation officer as managing your own tasks is, and I expect you to use this opportunity as a chance to learn and improve.  You might start by making some room in your own lab for your cadet’s use.”

Barré opened his mouth to argue, then shut it.  “Yes, sir,” he said a moment later.

“Good.  Good!”  Admiral Liang sat back and lowered his hands.  “Then I think we’re done for now.  Good evening, Cadets.”

“Good evening, sir.”  They both saluted, then Barré led the way out of the office door, which shut promptly behind them.

“I can’t believe you’d argue with the admiral,” Barré muttered.  “To his face!”

“I can’t exactly argue with him behind his back,” Ten replied.  “So…lab space?”

“Fine.  Two meters square, but that’s all!” hir sponsor insisted.  “And you have to buy all your own chemicals, don’t even think about filching mine.”

“Deal.” 

Barré scarpered and Ten walked back to Hebe Tower, lost in thought.  Admiral Liang was…tricky.  Very tricky, Ten concluded.  Ten was no stranger to threats, ze’d been dealing with them all hir life and ze was an old hand at playing them out.  Punishment?  I can handle whatever you can dish out.  Expulsion?  Fuck you, I can have more fun in a less restrictive environment.  But moving Cody out of the quad…Ten didn’t think ze could take that. 

And it was stupid to be so concerned about another cadet, it wasn’t like moving out would kill Cody or anything, he would probably be fine, but Cody liked them.  He liked where he was, and he was already a little insecure after such a huge change in his life, and yes, fine, Ten was selfish and didn’t want him to go anywhere and fine, damn it, ze’d restrain himself a little if it meant keeping them all together.  Even Darrel, although frankly Darrel should have been dragged to Liang’s office too, in Ten’s opinion.

Their quad was dark when ze opened the door, everyone already in bed.  Ten locked the door with a thought and headed for hir own room.  Ze looked over at Cody, lying curled in a ball, his transmitter still on his pillow.  He’d been talking to his dads, probably.  He looked…uncomfortable, a line of pain furrowed between his eyebrows even now.  But how could he possibly be in pain?  Everyone here had painkillers built into the nanos that were refilled with every Regen treatment, and Cody had barely been tapped with that knee, he shouldn’t…

Unless—he couldn’t process the painkillers.  Why wouldn’t he be able to do that?  Was it a religious thing?  God, Ten hoped not…Cody was from Pandora, wasn’t he?

Ten took a moment to look up Pandora’s specs.  Class M planet, one small community, some interesting scientific research in genomics and—

Oh fuck.  How had ze not seen this before?  But there were so many Fringe planets, all of them weird and unique, and Cody seemed so normal, except now Ten knew, almost positively, that he wasn’t.

A natural.  Cody was a natural, he had to be.

Well, Ten thought, settling into hir bed but staying awake.  There was no way ze was going to sleep, and while ze wasn’t quite rude enough to wake Cody up, as soon as morning came, ze was getting some answers.  At least now I know what you were lying about.