Pride x Familiar (35 page)

He handed the pizza’s over to Rina. That freed
him up to open up the van while Rina salivated over the boxes in
her hands.

We circled round to the open passenger door, and
looked at the interior of the vehicle. It was decked out like a
passenger van with three rows of seats; enough seating for six.

Maya sagged in unconscious relief. She looked at
the young man. “Who are you?”

“I’m Laurence, your designated driver.” He
pointed at each of us in turn. “Maya Khayman, Rina Sayen, Constance
Peligree, and Caprice Steiner.”

So he knew who we were. Did that mean we could
trust him?

“Right,” Laurence announced. “Everyone aboard
and we’ll be on our way.”

We climbed in and buckled up. Maya sat with me
in the front passenger row. Rina and Constance sat behind us.

Rina handed the small pizzas around.

I ended up with a peperoni and cheese pizza on a
thin crust. I wasn’t really hungry and wondered if I could eat it
later. On second thoughts I could eat a slice or two now and the
rest after training.

Maya asked, “Where are we going?”

“To the training center.”

“Where’s that?”

He laughed. “You’ll see.”

He started up the van, and drove out of the
parking lot and into traffic. About ten minutes later we were
travelling on a highway that ran the length of the habitat.

I noticed we were headed east toward the
exit.

Another ten minutes later and we were inside the
tunnels connecting Habitat One with the rest of the asteroid
Island.

I felt a tap on my shoulder. I glanced back and
saw Rina looking at me. “Cappy, are you going to eat that?”

“What?”

“The pizza. Are you going to eat the rest of
it?”

I stared at her. “Yes…later.”

She looked disappointed. “Damn, I’m still
hungry.”

“Here,” Constance muttered. “You can have mine.
I’m not hungry.”

“Really? Great. You’re so kind, Connie.”

“My name is Constance, not Connie.”

Rina shrugged as she eagerly opened up the pizza
box. To be fair, the pizzas were only around eight inches in
diameter, and they were thin crusted too.

Wait—she called me Cappy!

Now she was definitely not going to eat my
pizza.

I wolfed it down now rather than later.

A short while into the tunnel highway, Laurence
pulled off at an exit ramp which led into a small cavern with
rectangular walls. There was a separate exit back to the highway
tunnel, but also a driveway leading to a gated entrance with the
sign Artemis Industries beside it.

I narrowed my eyes in thin disbelief.

Artemis Industries?

The gate opened automatically as the van
approached it, and Laurence drove through into another tunnel that
was wide enough for two lanes of oncoming traffic.

We could only see through the van’s windscreen
and front windows, but it looked like a really long tunnel. In
fact, we drove for almost ten more minutes before arriving at its
exit.

Another large cavern with flat walls and a
curved ceiling awaited us. You could fit the entire cafeteria
building inside it. Cut into one wall was the façade of a building,
complete with transparent glass doors. Laurence parked the van in
an empty car spot in front of the building.

“We’re here,” he announced happily, unlocking
the van’s passenger door with a hidden switch.

I heard the locking mechanism whir for a
heartbeat and the latch release. Since I was closest to the door I
opened it, and climbed out of the van and into the parking lot in
front of the building. Behind me, Maya and the others climbed
out.

I looked around.

There were other parked vehicles on the lot so
at least the place was occupied. Plus, my Valkyrie Armor could feel
the presence of someone inside the building’s entrance.

The sign hanging over the glass doors into the
building read Artemis Industries.

If I had to describe it, the place did look like
a company headquarters…if you ignored the fact it was inside a
cavern somewhere deep in Island Three and the building was cut into
a rock wall.

Laurence remained in the driver’s seat. Leaning
out of the open window, he indicated the entrance. “You girls are
expected so go on ahead. I’ll take you back when you’re done.”

Again we shared looks amongst ourselves, then
hefted the straps of our school carry-bags onto our shoulders and
walked up to the glass doors of the entrance.

I had no doubt we were scanned and identified
even before the doors opened.

As a group, we stepped into the cool lobby of
the building. Maya led the way over to the concierge’s counter.

The girl seated behind it smiled at us. “Team
Galatea?”

Maya frowned. “Huh?”

The girl swept a hand before us. “Are you ladies
not from Galatea Academy?”

“Yes, we are. Is that what we’re designated
as?”

“It’s how I have you here,” the girl replied,
indicating the holo-screen floating above her desk which was
situated behind the counter.

I thought Maya would sigh, but instead her
shoulders rose and fell a little. “Then I guess that’s us.”

“Very well, you’ve been cleared to go through,
but your instructor isn’t here yet. Please make yourselves
comfortable. She’s on her way and won’t be long.”

Maya nodded and bowed respectfully. “Thank
you.”

We followed suit, then by silent decree stepped
a few meters away from the concierge’s desk.

Rina whispered. “Team Galatea? We’re a team
now?”

Maya shrugged faintly.

Constance was looking about the place’s
corporate style interior. “Not how I pictured things.”

I kept my expression neutral but nodded once in
agreement.

A couple of minutes later, a woman in her early
to mid-twenties entered the lobby from a set of glass security
doors at the far end of the room. She strode over to us with the
impression of great power held barely in check. Her long raven hair
was tied back into a ponytail, and a couple of hair clips kept her
bangs out of the way.

Rina described her best with a whisper. “She’s
so pretty….”

Yes she was, and the more I looked at her, the
more familiar she appeared to me.

The young woman was dressed in a black and grey
skinsuit that reminded me of bike riding leathers. The material
stretched around her chest. In fact, it was partially unzipped in
order to give her impressive bust air to breathe.

“…and big too,” Rina muttered, sounding morbidly
depressed.

Maya softly clicked her tongue in agreement and
displeasure.

Constance whispered, “Not fair. So not
fair….”

It was clear all four of us were hosting similar
feelings as the young woman walked up to us.

“A little late, aren’t we?” she asked without
formality.

Now that she was up close to us, I gave her a
long, studious look. She noticed and returned my stare but I didn’t
look away.

She really was familiar, or should I say she
reminded me of someone.

Maya stiffened but bowed politely, distracting
me a little. We had no choice but to follow her example.

“My apologies,” Maya said.

I thought she might explain why we were
late
but she made no effort to do so.

I realized there was no point explaining. The
busty instructress wasn’t interested in explanations. In her
opinion it would probably be a waste of more time. What she clearly
wanted was punctuality, not tardiness.

“Fine. You’re here now,” the woman said. “Let’s
get started. Follow me and don’t fall behind.”

I glanced at the others, keeping my emotionless
mask
firmly in place, while thinking the same thing they
were.

Rude. This woman didn’t even have the decency to
introduce herself.

Maya shook her head tightly, warning us all not
to say anything, then hurried after the skinsuit clad woman.

I had the impression Maya knew
something
but was not letting on.

Through the glass security doors at the end of
the lobby, and down a short corridor, she led us to a section that
resembled a training room or gym. Then she instructed us into an
adjoining change room with lockers and benches running between
them. We were told to pick out free lockers, and learnt these would
be assigned to us from now on. As it happened we chose lockers that
were all adjacent to each other.

The woman left us for a while, then came back
with four white bathrobes.

She spoke without room for argument. “Strip out
of your uniforms and into these. Then follow me.”

Maya asked, “May I ask why?”

The woman dropped the bathrobes onto the bench.
“You’re getting new skinsuits. Artemis skinsuits, not the low
quality crap you’ve probably been using until now.”

Constance tensed but I reached out and touched
her arm.

The girl shot me a glare but held her
tongue.

I knew that my skinsuit was high-grade, and
there was no doubt so was Constance’s. We hadn’t been told to bring
them, but that didn’t give this woman the right to refer to our
equipment as
crap
.

The woman folded her arms under her sizeable
bust. “What are you waiting for? Strip—now.”

I was growing more and more uncomfortable with
the way we were being treated.

Constance looked unhappy and Rina looked
distinctly depressed.

But Maya nodded just once and began
undressing.

Again, we had no choice but to follow her
example.

I sensed the woman watching us even with my back
turned to her.

Then she called out sharply, “Peligree, come
here.”

I half turned and saw Constance had stopped
while undressing. She was in her underwear, a cotton ensemble of
light pink panties and bra. “Ma’am?”

“Come here.”

The girl clenched her jaw, but she stepped up to
the woman.

The instructress walked around her. “That’s a
nasty scar. A piercer field, was it?”

“Yes…ma’am….”

Constance had her back to Maya, Rina and I, yet
I noticed her shiver when the woman studied her chest.

Then the instructress said, “Losing your head in
the heat of battle. This is what this scar symbolizes.”

I couldn’t see the look Constance gave the young
woman, but it must have been venomous, because the busty woman
narrowed her eyes sharply.

The instructress nodded in satisfaction. “Good.
That’s the look I want to see. You’ve got fire in you.” She leaned
down into Constance’s face. “But let me making something abundantly
clear. You lose your head on your time. Not on my time. While
you’re here you follow instructions to the letter, and if you don’t
you’d better have a damn good reason for not doing so. Is that
clear?”

I noticed Constance swallow then straighten her
shoulders. “With all due respect, but we haven’t even started
training, so I don’t deserve the way you’re treating me.”

“Consider it special consideration for a special
case.”

“That’s enough.” Maya’s voice cut between them.
She stepped up to the busty instructress. “If you have an issue
with a member of my team, you talk to me first. Is that clear?”

The young woman nodded. “Good. Spoken like a
team leader. The Commander has high hopes for you, Maya Khayman
afil Sora.”

“I appreciate that, Silia Alucard Raynar,” Maya
replied smoothly. “However, I’m not here for the Commander’s
sake.”

“On the contrary,” the young woman stated, “but
you’ll understand in due time.”

While watching the scene between the women, I
realized my body had subconsciously finished undressing. Padding
barefoot over to the bathrobes, I took one and slipped into it.

Rina was dressed in a robe too. She sidled up to
me and whispered, “Did she say Alucard?”

I nodded very faintly.

Silia Alucard Raynar. That meant this woman was
the Countess’s older sister. Arisa had told me Silia Alucard was an
Artemis that served with Caelum’s sister.

No wonder she looked familiar.

And no wonder she was so
large
.

A trait that runs in the family.

Damn, so unfair.

And yet, why is her hair raven dark? Did she dye
it? Or maybe it was the Countess who dyed her hair that odd ash
grey color.

Silia Alucard stared at the two girls standing
before her. “You’re wasting time. Get moving.”

A few moments went by before Maya and Constance
deigned to walk back to the lockers and resume undressing. It was
clear they were unhappy with the way Alucard was treating them.

I couldn’t help watching Constance slip out of
her underwear.

I saw the scar she bore clearly now.

It was a deep pink diagonal line that began from
her lower right midriff, ran across her chest and between her
breasts, before ending at her left collar bone.

In time it might fade away until it was barely
noticeable. But for now, she wouldn’t be wearing anything
revealing, not unless she wanted to display the scar for the world
to see.

I guess a bikini is off the books for her
now.

Constance noticed me staring. The girl glared at
me for a heartbeat before she turned away and finished undressing.
She picked up the last bathrobe and put it on.

Now all four of us were dressed in nothing but
the bathrobes.

No, that wasn’t right. All four of us wore our
Fragments
under
the bathrobes. In my case, I had the two
bracelets and anklets on me.

“Let’s go,” Silia said impatiently. “Time to get
you fitted and tuned.”

#

(Caprice)

The new skinsuits were indeed different from
what I’d been given by the Lanfears.

It felt lighter, and easier to move in.

However the tuning process took almost two
hours.

The first phase was a basic calibration with us
lying on a table with cables attached to the skinsuit.