Chapter 11
“Hey… Hey, Strifer. You alive?” a voice said.
Morning came sliding back to Aurelius, accompanied by a massive headache. Aurelius cracked open his eyes, trying to keep the light at bay. The outline of a very large and dark man standing above him shifted into focus.
“Thought I was gonna have to call medical.” The voice chuckled.
Aurelius sat up. Apparently he had crash landed on someone’s dorm room couch, but he’d have sworn he had made it to his bunk, so where on Strife was he now then? The dark blurry figure towering over him tossed him a small jar of pills. Aurelius studied the jar uncomprehendingly for a time.
“Their Fizzies, take them.” the Figure said, as it slowly coalesced into a figure Aurelius was almost sure he recognized.
Aurelius recited the commercial numbly: “Fizzies, Fizzies when your stomach and head are in a tizzy.”
“Oh good. We can rule out long-term memory loss. How’s your short-term? How much do you remember from last night?”
Aurelius had to think about it. He laughed, The truth was at this point he was happy he remembered his own name, but the name of the giant standing in front of the couch was a mystery. “Oh god… I don’t know… I think I remember knocking a drink into your lap?” Aurelius said trying to fight through the fog of last night.
“Yeah you’re getting there.” the man said.
“Your Jerula? I think I remember you almost killing me… You didn’t did you?” Aurelius asked.
“Yeah. Didn’t really wanna get kicked out of Gina’s, ya know. You’re lucky.”
“That I am. Would you have really hit me?” Aurelius asked.”What do you think?’” Jerula asked, before continuing;, “You remember trying to kiss me?”
“Huh?” Aurelius quickly parsed his memory. No, nothing, “Very funny. I am sure I’d be remembering that.”
“I’m serious. You tried to kiss me. I told you that you weren’t my type, and you followed me all the way back here, crying the whole way. I felt bad and let you crash out.”
Aurelius paused for a second. That couldn’t be—he was reasonably sure he remembered kissing a brunette. He remembered how great her… eyebrows were, though that might have been a dream. Aurelius quickly checked Jerula’s eyebrows to make sure.
“Oh man. I totally had you there for a second.”
“You’re an ass.” Aurelius said.
Aurelius put a hand on his head. Life was painful right now, and all he could do was wait for the Fizzies to kick in.
“So Gina… She single?”
“I dunno.” Aurelius answered.
“She seemed kind of single last night.” Jerula laughed.
“What makes you say…” Aurelius cut himself short as a disjointed series of still images of the previous nights shenanigans blew past his mind’s eye, “Oh yeah... See. I knew I remembered kissing a brunette… I should probably call her…”
“I wouldn’t if I were you.” Jerula said.
“Why not?” Aurelius asked him.
“We may have left without paying.” Jerula answered.
“Shit. I’ll have pay a visit over there this afternoon hopefully Gina won’t be too pissed.” Aurelius replied.
“Well, we may have also left a mess in the bathroom.”
“What kind of mess?” Aurelius asked searching his mind for any memory of the event.
“The kind with spillover. You’re going to want to give Gina a little time to get over that kind of thing. You can send her the money. Think that will be safer for everyone.” Jerula said.
“I don’t remember that.” Aurelius said.
“I’m betting there’s a lot you don’t remember this morning.” Jerula said.
“Guess so. Hey where’s benny?”
“Who?” Jerula asked.
“My bunkmate, I came out with him last night.” Aurelius said.
“I’m sure he’s fine. he was passed out the last time I saw him, how much trouble could he have gotten into?”
“Wait, did we…?” Aurelius quickly pulled his dog tags out from under his shirt. Instead of being the more traditional little metal tags, Service-Corp tags were a single business card sized piece of reflective material. One side functioned as a touch screen and was even able to project a small hologram out in front of the device when necessary. He checked his messages, sure enough there was one from Benny flashing Priority, “You assholes left me at the bar lastnight!”
Aurelius was getting ready to shoot Benny a reply when he saw he had another priority message flashing in the queue, this one was from the Commandant of the academy .
“Mr. Blaze, report to my office at 08;30 hours, to discuss your assignment.
“What time is it?” Aurelius asked Jerula as he sat up.
“Man it says right there on your tag.” Jerula replied.
“I’m having trouble with numbers and letters right now.” Aurelius said.
“It’s 08;45.” Jerula said checking his own tag.
“Shit!” Aurelius said springing to his feet. This was a mistake as a wave of nausea and pain threatened to send him right back down to the couch.
“Yeah, that’s why I tried to wake you, your tags have been going off for the last hour.” Jerula said.
“I got to be someplace!” Aurelius said, quickly making sure he was wearing everything he needed to be and bursting through the room to the door.
“What about Benny?” Jerula shouted after him.
...
Aurelius hit the path to the commandant’s office at a sprint, the other people on the path quickly moving out of his way as he charged passed barely seeing them in his haste. The jog through the cool morning air was exactly what he needed to shake off the grogginess of a morning after a party. The hills were mild, and the tepid morning air gently blowing through the trees helped him pull himself together. He could see intermittent shots of the city of Blades all around him as the buildings peeked out from between the trees.
When Aurelius finally arrived he stopped just outside the unassuming building at the center of a large square. Quickly checking his tag to see exactly how late he was, Aurelius decided to take a few moments to compose himself. He was at this point already twentyfive minutes late and figured it was better to make it an even thirty and look a little presentable than to head in looking like he had been running a marathon and smelling like he was leaking hopper fuel.
Aurelius found a small fountain to the side of the path with a few benches around it, and smiling to those sitting there enjoying the early morning sun, Aurelius bent over the rim, and splashed some of the cold water over his face and ran his fingers through his hair. When he was satisfied that he was as good as he was going to get he made a quick wave to the people watching him with some amusement, and bid them a quick look that said “It’s been one of those mornings.” and headed through to the commandant’s office.
In another time and place he’d be nervous, but right now he was too hungover.
The receptionist was on break. The door to the commandant’s room was open, and the unmistakable smell of a cigar wafted out of the room. That meant Sarge was around. Shit.
“Mr. Blaze, get in here,” a familiar voice said out from around his cigar.
Aurelius walked in as confidently as he could and snapped to attention, trying to cloak his hangover.
“When the commandant requests your presence, he doesn’t mean in thirty minutes or less. He means immediately,” Sarge said, puffing on his cigar.
“Understood, sir. I was walking through the park when I got the message. Won’t happen again.”
There was no hiding it. Aurelius looked like hell, not like he had just taken a casual walk.
“Is the shower in your dorm malfunctioning, Hard Tech?” the commandant asked.
“No, sir. Just haven’t had time to use it this morning.”
“I hope she was worth it,” Sarge said sarcastically.
The commandant was sitting in his chair, reviewing Aurelius’s profile. Sarge stood next to his desk, holding a copy of his retake test. There were two other men in the room. One was dressed in the grey and blue uniform of the Service-Corps. He had the rank insignia of Captain just above his Service-Corp wings. The fourth and final man wasn’t wearing any type of military or academy uniform. He looked downright out of place in his denim blue jeans and oil stained work shirt and cap. At least Aurelius wasn’t the only one in the room that didn’t look like he’s in the corps right now.
The commandant slowly paged through his record that had stacked up over the past two-and-a-half years. It was mostly minor stuff, but several incidents involving instructors popped up. Aurelius knew his trade well, really well, and was never shy to inform an instructor when he knew a different, and usually more time efficient, way of doing something. Several of them had taken it to ego and written him up. This wasn’t something Aurelius was new to, but he had learned to temper himself, and more importantly, justify himself more delicately.
“You say he’s been in the hangars for nine months? Can’t seem to test onto anything else?” the Commandant said.
“Nope.” Sarge said, “I’ve never seen a kid like this one. He’s full of ‘alternative’ methods of diagnosing and fixing problems.”
The commandant glanced through some notes. “This kid has been in the hangars too long. You’ve been too easy on him.”
“He just can’t seem to play by the rules. I don’t think there is any place for him on this campus.”
The fact that two of these four men were talking about him like he wasn’t even in the room made him profoundly uncomfortable. Who were these other two men? If this was some sort of discussion before they moved him to another department, or even dropped his contract with the Corps in general, why had they summoned him? Surely they could have made some sort of decision and sent Aurelius the paperwork. That’s when he noticed the casually dressed man swiping through a copy of his record, “I’m surprised you didn’t know that coin trick, Barber.”
“Any reason I should?” Barber asked the man, his cigar flaring slightly as he spoke.
“It’s an old trick, it’s not pretty but folks doing home repairs have been using it for years. It’s not as exact as some people think it is, but in a pinch it works.” The man said absently, continuing to flip through the file.
“We believe in teaching our cadets the right way to do things here. Our calibration tools, and techniques focus on a best practices model.” The commandant added.
“I’ve no doubt of that, but there are times when you’re not going to have those tools. It’s good to have other options even if you never use them. An old friend told me that once.” The casually dressed man said.
Aurelius listened to the four men go back and forth, talking about one trick or another of his, one disciplinary issue or another. It was all he could do not to speak up, but Aurelius knew that that breach of protocol might very well be the last straw at this point. Instead Aurelius tried to figure out who this man was. He almost looked familiar. Was he another one of the quartermasters? Was he a director that had crossed his path before. Where had he seen this guy? It was driving him nuts, he knew he knew this man from somewhere, and it seemed that he somehow had a say in Aurelius’s future, but who was he.
“What about this here... Says that while you were suppose to be confined to your dorm, you were found in the hanger waist deep in a atmospheric loader... Why?” The man asked finally turning to look directly at Aurelius.
It took him a moment to find his voice. He knew he was nervous but he hadn’t until that moment realized exactly how much. This man may dress like a farmer who just finished fixing a harvester, but there was something about him, something that felt like an almost casual note of command. Something that made Aurelius not only want to answer but also to impress this man.
“Sir, the lift systems on those things are tricky. I knew the other guys hadn’t had much experience with them, and I worried that one falling out of the sky might cause some problems down the road.” Aurelius said.
“You were so sure your fellow techs in the hanger couldn’t have handled it?
This was from the man in the captain’s uniform, the first time he had spoken since Aurelius had entered the room.
“I needed to be sure, sir.” Aurelius said, trying to take in all of them.
“I like it. Tha’boy shows the take charge spirit we’re looking for.” The man said and something about the way he said it started to ring a little bell someplace in the back of Aurelius’s mind.
“You can call it spirit if you like but I see it as a cadet who shows no ability to follow the orders he’s given. Time and time again he’s shown no ability to understand that those above him might know a little more than he does.” The Commandant said.
“Comindont, are you telling me you’ve never known more than a commanding officer, not in all the time you were serving?” The man asked.
“Well of course, but there is a time and a place.” The Commandant said.
“Of course there is. He’s young and gifted and very aware of it. It’s going to take a little more real world to teach him those times and places. He ain’t gonna learn them here.” the man said taking off his cap and looking at Aurelius appraisingly. He had thinning gray hair and his face showed the lines of both age and stress, but his eyes were piercing and clear. They gave Aurelius the impression he was looking right through him. It was that moment Aurelius realized who this man was, this man who looked like he had just walked in off the street, but who had everyone in the room deferring to him.
“Kid I like you, more over, my Captain likes you. Barber… Sorry… Sarge... and he thinks you can be whipped into something like shape, but considering everything they thought I should meet you first.” The man said,
“So you’ve made up your mind then?” The commandant asked, his tone clearly indicating he already knew the answer, and very much disliked it.
“I think so. You can veto it if you want, this is your academy still but I’d suggest you not. Give us Aurelius, and let us do for him what this place couldn’t.” the man said a little smile coming to his face as he saw the look of almost outrage boiling up onto the commandant’s.
That’s when Aurelius realized who this man was. How could he have been so stupid. He had been seeing this casually dressed man’s face on hologram for the last five years. He was usually in a suit and speaking to the world from his desk appointed with the Service-Corp flag behind it but now there was no mistaking it. This man was in fact Strife’s own Governor, Christopher Maher. This was the guy, the guy on top, the guy elected and trusted to run it all.
“You could stay here.” the Governor continued, “I know Sarge would be happy to have you in his hangers forever, or we could have you transferred to one of our major repair installations for the rest of your contract... But I would prefer you sign onto my ship. We have a long trip ahead of us. We’re going all the way to Sol… To Earth in fact. What do you say?”
Aurelius couldn’t believe it. He had come in here expecting to be kicked out, or at the very least shipped off to scrub some floors on a mining station.
“Governor… Sir… Of course. I do have one question though. When do we leave?”
“Kid, you’re going to be seeing Strife from orbit tomorrow night.” Maher said.
A warm elation washed over Aurelius. For the first time all morning, he hadn’t felt lost in a fog. He couldn’t believe it. He hid his jubilation as best he could behind a vindicated smile.
“If you screw this up, you’ll be in a slush suit strapped to the side of a mining ship while you wash the space dust off it’s name badge, understood?” Sarge said, a smile briefly replacing his usual sneer.
“Yes, sir.” Aurelius sounded.
“You’re dismissed.”
The five men saluted and Aurelius found himself dumbfounded. He couldn’t wait to tell Benny he had been picked up by a ship too, let alone the Governor’s ship itself by the governor himself.
Sarge stopped Aurelius before he walked out of the room. “Mr. Blaze…”
Aurelius whipped around to face Sarge, “Sir?”
Sarge dug through his pocket and pulled out a coin. Smiling, he tossed it to Aurelius,
“Go get yourself some Fizzies, kid.”