Chapter 8
“Wake the fuck up” was the first sound I heard, preceding the thunk that followed, when my whole body hit the hard floor of my dorm room as my lovely roommate yanked on the sheet of my bed and sent me careening overboard.
“Good morning.” I managed, having barely slept as it was. I hadn’t heard him come back last night, so I must have dozed off at some point, but with the stress of the situation, those restful moments were far and in between.
“Is it though?” He mumbled before he returned to his side of the room.
His red hair was still wet from a morning shower, which I wouldn’t have time to take, and he was wearing a towel loosely around his defined waist. He tossed his towel onto the bed, but to my relief, he’d already put on form fitting, black boxer briefs, and again, I wasn’t staring.
I contemplated reprogramming to look at least a little more muscular, but my actual bench press and curl weights would be a dead giveaway. It was better to have a body that matched my… uh… humble arm strength.
I wrestled my way out of my blanket that had gotten twisted tight and snug around me in the tumble, and I sat up on the dorm room floor. He was shaking out his red hair, while I dug a pair of loose shorts and a shirt from my closet. I set it on my night stand, while I remade my bed.
To his credit, it was actually nice of him to wake me up before he headed out. Considering he still hadn’t introduced himself, that was unexpectedly considerate.
But also, as much as I appreciated the help, the thought of changing in front of him was mentally uncomfortable.
Which, in hindsight, changing in front of people probably wouldn’t have been all that weird if I was actually a man.
Vann never thought twice about taking his shirt off, be it a hot summer day or during training.
But even knowing I had solid visual proof of my masculinity while shirtless or even bottomless, it felt wrong to be naked in front of a stranger.
Maybe that sort of taboo feeling was social conditioning that women dealt with more than men, considering there was only one small portion of a man’s body that was deemed indecent, while a majority of my body was up for scrutiny.
And yet, as much as I wished he’d leave me to my devices, he stood their expectantly with his arms crossed, like I was going to take off my clothes right in front of him and follow him to class.
“Are you going to walk me to my first class or something?” I asked, hoping he’d stop staring me down if we talked. “Also, you still haven’t told me your name.” I tried next when that didn’t lead to any sort of conversation.
“No, I’m not, and no, I haven’t. I only woke you up because it’ll be really annoying if the patrol starts pounding on the door because you can’t stay on schedule. Program alarms into your CHRONO, because I won’t be so courteous in the future.” He was so ornery this early in the morning.
“Sir, yes sir.” I responded shortly. That earned me an eye roll and a huff as he turned and headed off without me. I made a mental note that being annoying and dismissive was effective with my yet unnamed roommate.
I shrugged, still not understanding what his problem was. I couldn’t count on my roommate’s short temper forever to keep my privacy, but it was helpful as I adjusted to a life of covert existence.
Moving on, I checked my CHRONO for my schedule. First order of business would be a hand-to-hand sparring assessment, it said. I suppose that was as good a test as any.
I dressed in my work out attire, then I followed the directions.
Breaker had already showed me where the sparring mats were, but with the way these corridors twisted and branched into different areas, all of which looked exactly the same, it was easy to get lost along the way.
My map had finally uploaded, however, so as long as I stuck to my track lights, I was fine.
The mats were arranged in the outdoor courtyard, fenced in by a gate that required someone official to access it.
A large overhead lamp at the top of the Saturn atmospheric dome blared down with rays of something that amplified the sunlight, as the real sunlight barely reached us way out here in the galaxy.
There were ten mats, side by side, each about 3x3 meters in size.
An older man in uniform was barking orders, splitting up all the recruits by arbitrary criteria. It was easy to pick out those of us who were newly drafted, versus those who had been here a while.
The man yelled at me next, and I took my place with four other men at a mat on the end of the row. I was the tiniest among them by a solid two or three inches, but a couple of the other guys throughout the crowd were my height or shorter, so I didn’t stand out that badly.
As the remaining recruits were assigned and organized, I started stretching and warming up, not really knowing what to expect of today’s first assessment.
I’d passed the psychological, fitness, and intelligence tests, presumably—they hadn’t shared my actual results, but I knew I wasn’t lacking in sit ups or pattern recognition—but the combat tests were the ones I was most nervous about.
I was grateful I had Vann’s tutelage, so at least I wasn’t showing up without any knowledge of maneuvers. I could only hope that my agility and flexibility would be enough to hold my own without also revealing my identity.
“Listen up.” The uniformed man bellowed once everyone was situated and sorted.
The whole field instantly fell silent. “Welcome new recruits to Astaroth Academy. You are to address me as Major Blume.” He had a thick jaw that was wider than his forehead, and an impressively large nose.
I wasn’t sure where the slight pink hue to his white hair originated, but the color was pale enough that I’d guess it was a station born trait, maybe from Protectorate 009 or 011.
Different stations in different proximity to certain planets resulted in different coloring, and I couldn’t keep track of what was where.
He paced between the two rows of mats, looking over the collective group with a discerning eye.
“Today, we’ll be doing a simple evaluation to see where each of you stand in hand-to-hand combat.
You’ll be placed in different units based on your performance, so give it your all.
” He paced past my group, then turned on his heel to start another pass between the mats.
“With thanks to our very own Sebastian Takeyama and Elio Marx, both the attack on Protectorate 005 and the attack on 008 were both squashed with minimal casualties, but it’s unlikely these provocations will stop there.
These frequent and egregious acts of terrorism cannot go unpunished, and we’re counting on all of you to be battlefield ready in time to answer the call. ”
Major Blume continued his speech. “While an official declaration of war has not yet been issued, the intent is clear. That said, it’s important that all recruits stay up to date on current affairs.
Your CHRONOS have been automatically synced with the latest information on the Gehenna Empire’s movements, and you can access news, orders, and training routines to use in your spare time on the official Mictlan Module.
We, at Astaroth, hope this will inspire you to train harder and train faster, so you can help us protect these territories we all call home. ”
I glanced at my CHRONO, where a new application had already appeared in my Module catalog. Another good reason to take Vann’s personal CHRONO instead of my own.
“Moving on.” The Major’s pacing cycle reset again.
“That brings us back to today’s trials. In order to assure all units are tested fairly, you’ll start by warming up with the other recruits in your section, then each of you will be tested against one of our best soldiers, whose trained eye will evaluate your current fighting ability.
Once an assessment is made, you’ll be distributed into individual units to assure your training progresses as efficiently as possible. ”
Without further ado, names were called, and two recruits stepped onto each mat.
I watched two men on my mat clash in an all-out wrestling match, squirming and grabbing and squeezing each other, and my face blanched.
Fortunately I’d had the forethought to wear a cup in the hopes that everyone would just assume it was actually protecting something.
Otherwise, this kind of grabbing and squishing wasn’t conducive to hiding my missing body parts or my softer ones.
This was my baptism by fire. One after the other, these obstacles would hopefully become less daunting over time.
As long as I could evade detection on the mat and in my dorm room, there weren’t a lot of other places that I could be exposed.
And by the time I was piloting a Shinka, my physical differences wouldn’t matter anyway.
The only one who would be able to expose me would be Vann, himself, and he wouldn’t dare.
Technically my being here was high treason, despite being for the good of the country, and I knew he would never allow himself to be the cause of my arrest or imprisonment.
He might disapprove, but even if he figured out what I’d done the moment he woke up, he wouldn’t out me.
The first match finished, then I was called next. My sparring partner was a full head taller than me, but he didn’t look much stronger than I was. Maybe I stood a chance.
The whistle blew, and the battle began.
Treat him just like Vann, I thought. But pretend I’m legitimately trying to kill him, because nothing else will connect.