Defender of the Empire: Cadet #1 (27 page)

             
“What?!” The second voice, who was probably Race, demanded. “You aren’t paralyzed, how could they have gotten past the six of you?”

             
“Let’s just say I hate the hidden supply stashes all about this place.” D’trace grumbled.

             
Grim laughed dryly. “Careful, the admiral will hear you.”

             
“What happened?” A third, quiet voice asked. It must have belonged to Bennett. We were close enough now to peak around the bend to see two men standing just outside a door down the hall. Couldn’t see the third guard. Marius eyed the reasonably short distance and pulled out two throwing holographic knives. I got down low and sighted along my stun-gun. Westley followed suit. Jason scurried back down the hall we had come down to keep an eye out.

             
“Someone threw some light lamp oil at us.” D’trace reported.

             
“Shit!” Grim gasped.

             
“Did anyone get hurt?” Hanson asked.

             
“No.” D’trace said and I sighed soundlessly. I had been worried about that. “Just had to drag a stunned Brad out of the way. Any sign of the cadets yet?”

             
Grim shook his head. “Not yet. It’s all quiet.” I guessed they hadn’t been warned that it would be the quiet ones who would get you.

             
Marius chose that moment to fire one knife right after the other.  I never want to be on Marius’s bad side. The radio hit the floor a moment before Grim and Hanson, a stun-blade in Grim’s heart and another in Hanson’s throat.

             
“Damn!”  Bennett swore. A radio crackled. “D’trace! Get your guys here now! Grim and Hanson are down.” He ordered, unknowingly proving my guesses right.

             
We didn’t get to hear D’trace’s response because Bennett clicked the radio off. There was silence from the room. Marius and Westley moved forward as I covered them. They ducked behind opposing beams and Marius waved me forward, another of those wicked stun-knives in hand. I scrambled from my crouch and scurried past them to the next beam set. 

             
At that moment Jason came running toward us. We figured we had company even without the stun blasts following him. “Four are coming.” He told us as he got closer.

Westley cursed. “They are trying to box us in. Quick! Let’s take care of our friend in there.” He waved us onward. I dashed forward and dodged
into the room, Marius, Jason following with Westley bringing up the rear. The room was circular with the hostages bound in the middle of the room. Bennett was on the same side of the door that I had rolled into. I dodged his reflexive stun blast much like I did for that reflex test Nurse Meghan had me do. I then brought up my own gun and caught him in the gut. He fired while he could still shoot. I sidestepped, but not fast enough. His last shot clipped me on the shoulder.

I leaned back against the wall and pulled out a strip of cloth that I worked to tie over the ‘wound’. My shoulder was getting slightly numb. The older boys were holding the door. Jason was
untying the three hostages. I tied off the bandage after a few fumbled tries. Shots came through, but thankfully fell short of the still bound hostages. I hurried forward and helped Jason finish up the group before our friends got lucky and hit someone.

All three hostages, I realized, were my classmates.
“I can’t believe that you guys are the first team to rescue us so far.” The girl I was untying admitted softly. She was more familiar than the others. I finished my task and led her out of the way. Jason had gotten the other two.

“Your one of Lassie’s friends.” I said, finally placing her. She was the poor girl who had thought I had wanted to sit at their table the day I had first met Jason.
She had the decently to flush.

A grunt
from the passage way and Marius’s satisfied “got’cha” told me that someone else had gone down.

“Two left, it looks like.” Westley observed, ducking behind the wall. Marius nodded.
Westley turned to Jason and I “Get them out of here!” We nodded our understanding and the freed students followed us with quick steps. They may have been only tied up for only a few hours as part of a scenario, but they still wanted to be free. Even though we were sure that the last two bandits were behind us Jason and I were still careful, keeping our senses open to any threat. The sun was bright and warm as we exited the warren. We got the hostages around an outcropping and waited for Westley and Marius.

“It’s so nice to be outside again.” Lassie’s friend said with her eyes closed
and face tilted toward the sky. The other two hostages, another girl and a boy, were also basking in the sunlight. I shook my head and wondered how they would have reacted if they had been held captive for days or weeks instead of a few hours. I turned my back on them to keep a look out for the guys. “Hey, what happened to your back?” Lassie’s buddy (I really need to learn her name) asked.

“Huh?” I tried to see over my shoul
der but got nowhere.

“What’s going on?” Jason asked
from his look out perch he had just ascended.

“There is a hole in her uniform.” The girl pointed.

“Let me see.” He said. I turned my back toward him and the next thing I knew I was hearing him scrabble from the perch he had just reached.

“What’s wrong?” I asked looking over my shoulder at him.

His eyes were wide in shock while his forehead was furrowed in a confused frown. He brushed my hair out of the way. “I don’t get it. Your uniform has a burn hole in it. It’s like you were shot with a real blaster, but the skin is unmarked.”

“What?! But no real weapons are allowed…” I paused as I remembered the brief flash of pain earlier in the hall. Had I been shot with a real weapon?
Had my body, with its energy heightened immune system, healed it before it had even fully registered? Damn… “How big is it?” I asked hesitantly.

Jason held up his hand with
his fingers spread wide.” Right in the middle of your upper back. Your hair covers some of it.” I gulped as Jason stared at me in concern. “When and
how
did this happen?” He asked.

Before I could respond there was a fascinating commotion from the entrance of the outpost. Both Westley and Marius had
run out of the doorway one after the other. They had run out in a purposeful line. Westley moved to one side of the entry. Marius followed his movement slightly just before he veered to the other side.

Shots were fired at an angle to try and clip Marius.
I saw him pull out another holographic knife. A moment later he moved as fast as a tree viper. He rolled under a red stun-blast and ran the stunning blade up and under the bandit’s guard. The guy sagged in a helpless numbed fall. The last man aimed at Marius and ended up getting shot numb by Westley. Marius nodded his thanks to Westley and sheathed his stun-knife. Then both guys ambled their way in our direction.

             
“That was like poetry.” I said before wincing. Great, now I was using Ace’s common phrases. Just great.

             
Westley grinned. “Let’s get out of here.”

             
“Let’s, ‘cause Rylynn needs the infirmary.” Jason announced.

             
“I don’t.” I said hurriedly as Westley lost his grin and Marius stared at me.

             
“Why?” Westley asked.  Jason raised an eyebrow at me and with a sigh I turned to show the mysterious hole in my uniform.  “What the
hell!?
How did that happen? It looks like you got shot by a real gun.”

             
“I think when we were ambushed.” I admitted, I saw the storm in his eyes and added quickly. “I know you asked, but it had been nothing more than a quick flash of pain then nothing. I wasn’t feeling numb, so I figured I had imagined it. We can ask why I’m not hurt
after
we finish this thing.” I said putting action to words and began to walk back toward the safety-zone.

             
I figured since there was no real injury they decided to agree with my decision. That and it would see me to the infirmary sooner if they just went with it. I could see that all of them, including the hostages, were puzzled by the fact that no damage had been done and concerned that a real weapon had been used. Thankfully they didn’t talk about it. Marius helped by chatting with the hostages about their experience of doing nothing while they waited to be saved.

He was the only
other one who knew what must have happened. I just wondered how we were going to explain things to Medical. We didn’t have much time to come up with something since Medical came to us once we stepped into the safe box. How, though, do you explain to a bunch of scientists that the reason your body can heal so quickly is a side effect of having so many of the Empire’s most ethereal citizens connected to you in some limited fashion? Hell, if you told your average person they would think you should be shipped off to the nearest loony bin. Especially if you were a colonist. As everyone knew, only Citizens from the Noble Class could have any contact with Spectrals. Everyone knew… except, it seems, for the Spectrals themselves. Someone must have forgotten to send them the memo.

             
In the chaos following our ending the challenge, I began to realize that this next week was going to be insane with medical exams, inquiries, training for the next challenge (since we were one of the three winning teams), classes, and the requisite homework. Pretty much a normal week for me. I still don’t know how I survived it. The only possible explanation I can come up with is God must have decreed that I survive. The Universe obeyed its Creator, but it still had its fun.

Chapter 21- Mysteries

“How is she?” Captain Braeden Wingstar asked Dr. Clayton an hour later.

The dark beauty glanced over her shoulder at the young girl sitting on a patient table. Her friends were around her and she w
as waving away their assistance. Dr. Clayton shook her head slightly. “Just fine, Captain. Healthy, even, to all appearances. Fit to continue life as normal…”

Braeden lifted an eyebrow. “But something troubles you.” He observed.

Dr. Clayton turned back to him. “I never thought I would ever say this, but she shouldn’t
be
healthy. By the size of the hole in her uniform she should have been in serious trouble.” The usually calm doctor’s voice dropped to hide its stress. “Captain, it was a
white
blast for crying out loud
. At the very least her skin should have been boiled off, the underlying muscle charred. But none of that is true! If it wasn’t for the hole in her shirt I would have thought the shot had missed.” She looked back at the young cadet standing and leaving the medical bay. She had been Okayed to leave, but Dr. Clayton was still distressed by the mysteries surrounding Rylynn. First those random seizures that came without warning and left without leaving a mark. It bothered the good doctor that she could find no cause for the seizures. Nor could she know explain how a humanoid could get hit by a white plasma blast and walk away unscathed.

“I just don’t know what to make of it.” She finally admitted.

“A miracle.” Braeden said following with thoughtful eyes as Rylynn left chatting animatedly with her team. Unlike Dr. Clayton, he knew
exactly
what had saved Rylynn. God had protected the girl by allowing an incredible number of Spectrals to loop their links over hers with a mythic Spectral. The Creator had given Rylynn the gifts that would one day soon protect the Empire from evil. It was the only reason why she had a chance to live despite the energy probably frothing beneath the surface. The same energy that had powered her quick healing.  Braeden couldn’t see the energy, but he knew it was there because he could see the ethereal Spectral animals following her. There had to be at least four present now. Two would have killed your average Shade. What Rylynn was could take at most three half links. At least that was what he had read… He was starting to question those accounts though. Rylynn had
five
links.

THE OLDER BOY WITH GREEN EYES. Raj whispered in the silent way of Spectrals to their Shades.

What about him?
Braeden thought as he turned to the doctor to take his leave.

“Do we yet know why someone would bring a real weapon into a simulation?” She as
ked before he could go out to the lobby.

He paused and tur
ned slightly back toward her. “No. Not yet.” Braeden said with a shake of his head. Anger born of worry rose swiftly to flash in his eyes and power the determined smile he sent her way. “But we will soon if I know Admiral L’Seral at all.” And with that parting remark he left.

Dr. Clayton blinked at his expression before nodding in understanding, not that he saw it since he was already gone. She understood his anger, because she was angry too. Someone had tried to harm/and kill one of her wards.

She sighed and turned back to her work in her office. It gave her a moment to pause and ponder.
Why,
she wondered,
had he been angry like that, though? Was it just Rylynn or would he have been that upset if someone else had been harmed?
Frowning she glanced at the picture of her husband and Dev’shawn as she always did when troubled.