CHAPTER 4

Dorian

I wasn’t one for extreme displays of emotion, but I felt like the universe was at my fingertips ready for the taking. All I wanted to do was jump about and squeal like my sisters did whenever they got excited. Obviously, I refrained, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t doing a little victory dance in my head.

I couldn’t wait to talk with my family and let them know I’d received my first promotion on day one. Out of the two hundred and forty cadets here, only sixty of us had managed that feat, and I was beyond ecstatic. And all I’d had to do was walk through a door to eat a meal. I couldn’t understand how the other hundred-and-eighty cadets had already received two demerits – two! – when all that was asked of us was to follow. That was the gist of all his instructions so far, simply to follow .

As I stood with my team lined up in front of me, I took the time to study them. They were an unusual bunch, each one a mutt, just like me, though everyone presented differently. I had a feeling these mutts weren’t as genetically diverse as myself, probably born from two pure-bred parents of different races. Two clearly had a Terran parent, but the last was very clearly a Griknot-Yu’Rom mix. Pointed ears and pale features combined with the beard of tentacles that were very much Griknot, though his seemed to be thinner than a pure-bred’s. It didn’t detract from the appeal I was sure captured the attention of those he came in contact with. Anyone with Griknot blood was notoriously amorous, and with good reason. I had never slept with a Griknot male, my sexual preferences leaning fully towards women, but I had overheard friends gossiping about the experience and, even if my knowledge was purely second-hand, their beards were a pleasurable wonder. My experience with women of Griknot descent was extraordinary to say the least. Definitely a favourite pastime.

Captain Hironimus’ voice broke through my thoughts with more instructions. ‘Holo-tabs will be available to team leaders. Cadet Corporals, it will be your responsibility to ensure that your team is on time, presentable, and obedient. Your failures and your team’s failures, and the whole team will receive a demerit. If you obtain ten demerits, you will automatically be demoted.

‘You will receive your orders through the holo-tab. Each team will alternate between assignments, shifts and classes. You will begin your formal training today. Your teams are now cemented for the duration of your military careers, so get used to seeing these faces indefinitely.

‘You will succeed as a team, or you will fail as a team. Trust is paramount. Use this time wisely to get to know one another before the real work begins. Understood?’

The entire room was shouted their confirmation which seemed to please the captain enough to lighten the load on his shoulders. Literally. His shoulders visibly relaxed as he gazed upon us, examining us with a keen, critical eye.

‘For the benefit of those who’s bunk assignments have been altered, you will have the rest of the morning to get properly settled. Your individual uniforms should have already arrived in your rooms this morning. Cadet Corporals, please keep a look out for an alert on your holo-tabs regarding your first assignments. Dismissed.’

Everyone began to converge at the doors, coming to a halt as the narrow opening was unable to accommodate so many trying to exit at once. I hung back, my team staying by my side like good soldiers as we waited for the bottleneck to disperse. Our neighbours hung back as well. The unusual man from the bunk next to mine was focused solely on his team, who casually settled around him as they waited for the foot traffic to clear. After his reaction to me last night and this morning, I decided to make a little game of it, to see how awkward I could make him feel. Or maybe not awkward. I didn’t want to scare the man off. Perhaps I should just try to make him blush. Yeah, I liked that.

It amused me immensely whenever he blushed bright red and averted his gaze, as if I were shining sunlight directly out of my ass and he couldn’t bear to look directly at me. No one had ever reacted to me so strongly before. It was an amazing ego boost. I was curious what it was about me that had him so cowed. He was a thin man, not much muscle to him that I could see, but his movements were lithe and graceful enough to indicate a hidden strength beneath the cloth. He seemed particularly antisocial, I had yet to see him interact with anyone beyond formalities, and I wondered if he was even capable of behaving casually or if formal was his default setting.

An odd fellow, that one, but amusing all the same.

Sweet under all that sour.

The captain and his support officers watched the melee for a while, getting visibly more irritated the longer the traffic jam continued. I didn’t blame him. Military life was orderly and functioned like a well-oiled machine. Situations like this just didn’t happen. The deeper those wrinkles between their brows became, the harder they ground their teeth, and the higher their shoulders rose, the more ashamed I was of my association with them. They may have been rich, but that did not make up for their lack of brain cells.

That shame brought a heat to my cheeks that didn’t go unnoticed. My team cast me furtive looks, equally as appalled and just as antsy to remove themselves from the scene. Beside my team our neighbours stood stoically. Watching. Waiting. They seemed to be taking a page out of their Cadet Corporal’s book and were not only physically distancing themselves from the majority, but mentally as well. They, too, did not look particularly impressed by our peers.

Captain Hironimus’ piercing glare roved over us a moment later, processing how our two teams had disconnected from the rest, patiently (at least outwardly) awaiting our turn to leave. Something passed behind his eyes, and then he gave a decisive nod and beckoned us over. We approached, unheeded by those still struggling to exit through the doors we came in.

‘There is a staff elevator on the other side of the mess hall. It is typically reserved for ranking officers, but you might never leave this room otherwise, so I will permit your use of it this once,’ he offered, and I was taken aback by his act of kindness. He gave off a gruff, no-nonsense aura, so his extension of kindness took me completely off guard.

I prided myself on my ability to read people, to study them in order to determine their behaviours and predict their reactions. It wasn’t often I misread someone. Or perhaps I hadn’t misread him entirely. He was definitely gruff and strict, but he was more than his rank and title. He was a man under that crisply pressed uniform decorated with all those buffed-to-shine medals. A person. I resolved to adjust my perspective of him to fit.

There was, as he said, a single elevator on the other side of the mess hall, but there was enough space inside for us to all comfortably fit. The captain and his two officers rode with us, though they proceeded to exit on deck nine, leaving the rest of us to ride down in silence. At deck six, the fair-haired man from the other team hopped off, and then we were moving back downwards with a barely perceptible jolt.

Yesterday’s trip down was interesting. Being stuck alone with a nervous stranger was made even worse when I’d ended up following him all the way to his room. But this was just plain awkward. There was the knowledge of being in the elevator again with the same stranger, but this time there were others to act as a buffer. Unfortunately, those buffers were behaving as if we were on our way to our execution or something. The atmosphere was sombre and tense, and I didn’t know why. Was it just because we didn’t know one another? The idea of using an elevator that wasn’t intended for our use?

When a foul stench hit my nostrils, making me choke on the air I was in the process of inhaling, I understood.

‘By the stars,’ I coughed. That seemed to break the ice a little, and everyone reached up to cover their noses at the same time.

I stared at the number as it decreased.

Deck 6…

5…

4…

And finally, the door slid up as we reached deck three, each of us gulping in excessive amounts of air as we rushed into the corridor. It may have been stale from the ship’s circulation unit, but that didn’t stop us from greedily sucking it in.

‘Fess up,’ one of my team members, I believed his name was Urman, said with a chuckle. ‘Who just tried to kill us?’

‘It was you, wasn’t it Arty,’ the Griknot from the other team accused. ‘You’re the only one who isn’t gagging.’

I realised he was addressing the other Cadet Corporal, and that he wasn’t wrong. This Arty fellow was awfully, suspiciously nonplussed.

Yet, he shook his head, a small, bemused smirk lifting up the corners of his lips. ‘Not me. One of the officers looked pretty smug when he exited before us, though.’

‘Ha!’ the Griknot guffawed. ‘You’re just saying that to throw us off your scent.’

‘I don’t think anyone could miss that scent, Bromm,’ their Tornu teammate pitched in.

That brought about a round of loud merriment as we let the silliness of the situation win for a moment. Even Arty let out a little chuckle, though it was rather meek compared to our boisterous bellows.

‘Alright, lads,’ I called, grabbing everyone’s attention once we settled down. ‘We’ve got the morning off, and I wanna get a nap in before lunch. Let’s go.’

???

The rest of the morning went by in a relaxed state. My team was not one that had been switched up, so we spent our time lounging on our bunks and introducing ourselves properly. The Griknot-Yu’Rom was indeed named Urman, and his mother was a member of the IU’s Board of Officials while his father was a well-known and sought after surgeon. There was also Cadmus, a Terran-Drakfern mutt from the Entario System’s main waystation, owned a presided over by his father. And lastly, Henrik was the other mutt. Born into a military family, his neutrality over the military made me come to the conclusion that he had only enrolled at Nova Academy because he was expected to follow in their footsteps.

I took that as a challenge to change his mind, excited to share my passion with someone that didn’t feel the same. Maybe if he were presented with a different perspective he could grow to love it as much as I did. As much as his family clearly did, too. Or perhaps he simply needed to find his niche within the organisation. He had briefly mentioned wanting to go into medicine, so I could direct him that way. Our team could definitely benefit from having a medic among us.

It was nice to just sit back and chat without anything looming over us for a while. Last night, everyone had been far too tired to provide any conversation beyond polite greetings and well wishes before the lights went out.

‘So…’ Henrik began, drawing out the word. ‘Who do you think really gassed us out earlier?’

Cadmus snorted out a laugh. ‘It probably really was that Arty guy. He was quick to point fingers at one of the ranking officers.’

‘Nah, if you’re talking about pointing fingers then it was definitely the Griknot. He was the one who called out Arty,’ Urman retorted.

‘What if it was one of the officers?’ I asked. It had taken me the longest to notice the stench. I hadn’t even heard it happen, but I was at the back and furthest away from the culprit while the officers had remained closer to the exit.

‘It was probably the Tornu. Massive guy like that, his farts would surely take down entire cities,’ Henrik joked.

‘I still think it was Arty,’ Cadmus gave a particularly unattractive chortle. ‘Guy is stars-damned weird . Caught him laughing at the gate before we boarded, but he was by himself. Still haven’t figure out what was so funny.’

‘Well, whoever it was I guess we’ll never know,’ I said, ready to end the conversation. It rubbed me the wrong way how some people were so quick to judge and deem someone an outsider. They usually ended up getting blamed for things they were innocent of, and our current conversation was a perfect example of that.

‘I, for one, am keeping a close eye on the officers. It could’ve been a prank. Arty did say he saw one of them looking smug when they left. If he was telling the truth I don’t wanna get caught up in a prank war with the higher-ups, especially if it escalates. Didn’t you say your dad told you Nova’s notorious for hazing, Henrik?’ Urman asked.

‘Oh, yeah. It’s apparently a long-standing tradition at Nova,’ Henrik confirmed.

‘They can’t haze us. If our families found out there would be hell to pay. I know my dad would find a way to get them all fired and shut down the academy if they tried to mess with me,’ said Cadmus, his tone overflowing with arrogance and haughty privilege.

I scoffed .

His head snapped towards me as if I had physically struck him. ‘You got something to say, Cadet Corporal ?’ he sneered my new rank as if I hadn’t earned it fair and square and the promotion belonged to him. My hackles immediately rose.

I stood, ready to face him down. ‘You got a problem with my rank, feel free to complain to the captain since he was the one who promoted me. Otherwise, stand down and show me some stars damned respect before I issue you a demerit myself,’ I threatened. I didn’t know if I had that much authority yet, but neither did he. For all he knew, I could.

I was practically vibrating with untapped rage. My muscles clenched throughout my body in preparation for a physical altercation. He must have realised the danger I posed because he quickly backed down. Albeit with a pout and nasty glare in my direction, but he submitted all the same. I wasn’t about to play mind games or engage in a power struggle. My rank clearly marked me as the one in charge here, and that was that.

The good mood in the room plummeted with that one bad interaction. Urman and Henrik had shoved themselves as far back onto their beds as possible to get out of the line of fire. I gave them an assessing look, but soon sat back down, satisfied they weren’t going to try to test me, too. I would have to keep a close eye on Cadmus if this were his reaction to authority. I understood we all came on board this ship as cadets, the lowest of the low in the military’s ranks, but if he had an issue with authority then he should not have enlisted in the one career where it was paramount. His family’s wealth and status wouldn’t get him very far with me.

Pretentious prick.

Mood officially soured, I scowled at the speaker when a voice buzzed through it, demanding we make our way to the mess hall for lunch. I stomped out of the room but came to a stumbling halt when I accidently bowled someone over as they passed by.

Reeling my attitude back in, I noticed the man on the floor was the Griknot from next door. His entire team was either glaring me or ready to jump to his defence, but it surprised me that Arty was the one that looked ready to get into a scuffle with me. Despite his small size, the glare he sent my way was fierce . They were lucky that he was the Cadet Corporal in charge of their team. He seemed to care about their safety and wellbeing where I was sure other team leaders were more interested in personal gain.

Team leaders that were just like Cadmus.

‘Sorry,’ I apologised, my annoyance at Cadmus still present but pushed to the side for the time being. ‘I should’ve been watching where I was going,’ I finished, then gestured for them to walk ahead of us.

With one last probing stare, Arty led his team to the elevator, and we all followed a few steps behind.

For the third time in two days, the atmosphere in the elevator was strained, but this time I really was a part of the cause.