Stray (29 page)

"Is Setari allowed drink alcohol?" I asked, since I'd only ever seen First Squad drink water and juices.

"Not in any quantity," Alay said, tilting her glass.  "Even if we weren't actively serving, the risk is too great.  I've
tried
alcohol, but the rule against control-diminishing substances is only good sense."

"Tsur Selkie main guy in charge Setari training?"

"A dominant force in our development, say."  Maze seemed even more tired and worn-down than usual, but he produced a wry smile at this.  "I have to admit to re-watching that testing session more than a few times.  So Selkie looks like a famous actor from your planet?"

I tried very unsuccessfully to explain Clint Eastwood, and then moved on to Johnny Depp, and now all of First Squad except Maze have sworn to find a path to Earth so they can watch
Pirates of the Caribbean
.

Afterwards, Zee took me to have my hair cut.  There are apparently hairdressers available in KOTIS for the brownsuits, who are properly called Kalrani ('juniors'), but they're what you'd expect for school barbers, and so Zee took me to the place she uses.  I had my hair neatened, without doing anything fancy to it, but I feel much less of a scruff now that the split ends have been cut out and the ends aren't so jagged.  Not that it makes much of a difference, since I've taken to braiding it.

As we walked back I talked to Zee about my eye changing colour.  I've moved past my first reaction to it, and was able to tell her that it makes me feel uncomfortable, without transforming into a rampaging drama llama.  And I told her about my nightmares, which I felt safe to talk about now that I'd stopped having them every damn night.

Then I asked Zee about Nils in Second Squad chasing her, and she said: "In his dreams."  And changed the subject. 

Wednesday, March 12

Fun

More getting drunk on aether.  Though I wonder if I should be writing 'high' instead of drunk, since I'm breathing not drinking.  I guess I don't like the idea of 'high', which is very contradictory of me since alcohol is just another drug.  'Party oil', as Perry called it: no big deal, just something to make things go.  Alyssa had made me promise never to drink without her, which I haven't technically, but even though I'm legally old enough now, I don't think Alyssa – let alone Mum – would be impressed with my current career.  There's something less than special about having breakfast, then lying on a couch being all tingly until I pass out.

On the flip side, I have lots of medical supervision, and I'm even trying to be conscientious about exercise.  This afternoon I went both swimming
and
jogging, though I'd have skipped the jogging except Zan came and joined me for the swimming (yay!) and I asked her if there was somewhere I could jog which wasn't quite so visible and well-populated as the obstacle-course park.  She showed me a different training area, an endless maze of corridors and stairwells and the occasional ladder.  This is probably a better thing for overall fitness than just jogging lightly in a circle, but gods I barely managed one circuit going at a pace which really wasn't more than a walk.  Way too many stairs.  My legs were jelly afterwards.

Zan kept pace with me, not looking like it was costing her the mildest effort, and told me afterwards that I shouldn't try and run the circuit at all, just walk it once a day, taking as much time as I needed.  I can't say I'm eager, but at least I would be without an audience, barring other people doing the course overtaking me.

We ate together after, and talked over one of the books she'd recommended: a historical novel set in Tare's past, before they had the interface.  Pre-Setari too, with an epic quest to uncover lost Muinan records in caves deep below Unara.  She made me miss Alyssa so bad.  I just can't bring myself to ask Zan to rate the smex level.

Instead I asked about the sports event I'd walked in on, and Zan explained that winning those things, while it gets you some nice privileges, doesn't count toward whether you qualify to become a full-fledged Setari.  And that's what the Kalrani are very focused on at the moment: they're choosing Thirteenth and Fourteenth Squads from those who have reached the right age and passed the aptitude tests.  There's about twenty-five of them who are of age, one of whom will have to be slotted into Sixth Squad.  Fifteenth and Sixteenth Squad won't be formed for at least two Taren years.

"Does anyone not qualify ever?  What happen them if that happen?"

Zan answered in the extra-neutral tone she uses whenever the internal politics of the Setari are involved.  "While there are some still Kalrani who are more senior than the members of Eleventh and Twelfth Squad, if it was felt that it was not possible for them to qualify, they wouldn't have reached this stage of the program.  But forming a balanced and effective Squad is more complex than matters of age and qualifications.  They'll be brought into active service when there is the right team for them."

I wondered if this touched on the reasons some Setari were so nasty to Zan, but kept my mouth shut about that and instead thanked her for showing me all the torturous stairs.  She said she'd come swim with me if our schedules matched up again.  Definite progress on the Zan front.

And now, while I was writing this, I've been scheduled to test with Fourth Squad tomorrow.  I think I'm looking forward to it, but I have to wonder if Ruuel's too-many Sights mean that he'll look at me and see right through to all the shivery anticipation the thought of him creates.  Alyssa used to say that time spent with impossible-to-achieve guys is time well spent because it gives you a chance to find reasons not to like them.  But I don't feel equal to dealing with Ruuel right now.

Ah well – the worst that can happen is that I can make a total idiot of myself, and have that immortalised in mission reports forever.  Such a lot to look forward to. 

Thursday, March 13

Fourth Squad

There was an email from Ruuel when I woke: "We'll be combining this test with productive work, so be prepared for an extended session."

Given how sore my legs were after all those stairs yesterday, my first reaction was to use what Dad would call "ripe and illustrative words".  But I decided it was a good thing.  Setari exploring the Ena aren't going to be the slightest bit interested in my internal monologue.

The contrast between my last squad testing session and this one was massive, but it started out almost identically, with Fourth Squad standing in a circle in the middle of the same test room.  The difference being that as soon as I walked into the room, Ruuel brought me into a squad channel and began the briefing, moving so that his back was no longer turned toward me.  Tiny things, but underpinning a vastly different attitude.

"We'll test in the same order that we will rotate enhancement, starting from myself to Sonn, then Auron, Ferus, Halla, Eyse.  Ferus, you'll be primarily responsible for ensuring Devlin's safety, with Auron as your flank.  You've observed the techniques Spel used to bypass the resistance to enhanced Telekinesis and Levitation.  We'll save testing Combat Sight and Speed for the combat simulation rather than individually, and concentrate on the attack elements.  Devlin, report any new or unusual reactions immediately."

Ruuel would have been a disconcerting team captain to start out with: he basically sets the bar high and expects you to get over it.  I suppose he would have taken it slower if I hadn't worked with First Squad already, but he sure likes to get through things quickly, testing unenhanced Levitation, Telekinesis and Light talents and then enhancing and going through them again in less than a minute.  Unenhanced he can lift maybe a hundred kilos, and enhanced about four times that.  With his Light talent he created a curving spike from his arm, much the same as the nanoliquid swords.  Enhanced it distorted the same way as Mara's whip, shifting colour and becoming more intense, but not too spectacularly different.

It's more interesting for me doing these tests now that I can look up squad information before each person tests.  Fourth Squad is evenly broken into guys and girls.  The girls are Fiar Sonn (primaries of Ena Manipulation, Combat Sight and Electricity), Charan Halla (Place Sight, Gate Sight) and Mori Eyse (Path Sight, Combat Sight, Teleportation).  My two minders are both guys.  Par Auron is very tall, about six foot four, with primaries of Path Sight, Gate Sight and Levitation.  Glade Ferus is my height, with primaries of Telekinesis, Combat Sight, Symbol Sight and Speed.  They both have minors of Ice and Fire and I get a bit of a buddy sense from them.

Personality-wise, there was no-one outstandingly off-putting.  Ferus has an evil gleam in his eyes occasionally: not nasty, but I bet he gets up to mischief when he's not on mission log.  Auron seems quiet and calm.  Sonn is serious with an impatient overtone.  I found Eyse interesting: she smiled at me once, a nice wry smile.  I guarantee she has a sense of humour.  Halla I haven't figured out.  She had a bit of an edge, but not directed at me I think.  Overall, although they were nowhere near as open and warm as First Squad, Fourth's one of the easiest squads I've worked with.  I think because they all treated me like a visiting consultant or something.  Like I understood what was going on.

Nils from Second Squad showed up while we were still testing the 'elemental talents'.  I still haven't decided how serious the thing is between Nils and Zee.  Or what I think about Nils, who does a good impression of a walking sex-god.  While the last of the elemental testing was going on he kept leaning down and telling me completely innocuous things in this incredibly husky voice, totally doing it to see if he could make me blush.  I don't think I'll ever be gladder that Ruuel seems to think that one minute is the maximum time needed to master any new skill, and that he soon sent Nils over to one side to summon illusions for Fourth Squad to chase.

Having Ferus cart me about with Telekinesis is not at all the same as Ketzaren doing it, and I probably would have been more embarrassed about that if I wasn't so relieved not to be at Nils' mercy any more.  Ruuel took more time and was far more exacting about getting everyone used to working with me and the rotations of enhancement in combat, but he still decided we were ready to go into the Ena in under an hour.  By then I wasn't nervous about it.  It was obvious they were as totally professional as First Squad, and that Ruuel hadn't allotted himself enough time to study me for signs of awkward lust.

We kitted up at Red Lock.  Getting ready to go into the Ena involves grabbing a little food and drink, a tiny med-kit, and one of the breathers in case of water-logged spaces.  And going to the loo.  I have no idea whether it's considered a bad idea to go in the spaces, but given the mission log I'm sure everyone wants to avoid the need, so it's part of the ritual of 'gearing up'.

"We will be mapping the gates off the new High Forest space," Ruuel said, once everyone was ready.  "Additionally, we will see whether Devlin's enhancements will bring us any closer to relocating Columns, or a reliable path to Hasata.  This is still a test situation.  Do not push limits."

High Forest space is beautiful.  Really.  Tall, slender trunks, branches soaring far overhead, silvery leaves drifting down to form a shushing carpet.  And, although I suppose someone might have killed them earlier, it doesn't seem like it's inhabited by any Ionoth.  There's a ton of gates leading off it, and I think the idea was supposed to be that we document where each of them led, but Auron, who is the strongest Path Sight talent in Fourth Squad, said he had a suspicion of a short line to Unara, and so we went off through a very low gate onto a rocky path winding up a hill (my aching legs!).  Just like with First Squad, Ruuel and Sonn go through the gate first as a pair, and the rest of us can't go through until they've signalled us.  With the hill space, Ruuel signalled us through straight away.  There were things there a lot like wargs, six of them in all, and they looked strong, but they weren't nearly fast enough.  Fourth Squad seems to prefer using close-combat methods.

After Auron found the next gate he was looking for, Fourth paused to survey the hill space and the other gates leading out of it, and Sonn used Ena Manipulation to ensure the gate we'd passed through and the one we were going to pass through were absolutely solid.  The next space was a cliff-top beside an angry ocean, and full of weather, grey and pounding wet.  That was a quick signal through and then a slog through damp bushes.  There were Ionoth there, misty grey horses which ran off as we approached, but though Fourth Squad were very alert, there was nothing that they seemed inclined to slaughter.

The gate Auron took us to was a new type for me.  It was as vague and unreal as the horses and you couldn't really see through it, except in occasional flickers showing the outline of buildings.

"Phasic," Auron said.  "I've never managed to track through one before."  And he gave me this solemn sort of nod which was more successful at making me go red than all Nils' teasing.

Then it was Sonn's turn, enhancing and frowning at the gate.  Phasic gates aren't steadily aligned, and thus are only open in short bursts.  Sonn frowned at it for a short age, nearly collapsing in the process, but looked pleased with herself when she was rewarded with a clear view into Unara's near-space.  Ruuel had Ferus pair with him to go through since Sonn was so clearly drained, and then signalled us through again, out of the downpour.

Leaving Sonn and Auron guarding me, the other four went hunting, tracking down a number of Ionoth in the area.  I stood about and dripped and tried to picture the people who owned the apartment we were standing in.