He sat alone on his bunk bed in a nearly deserted barrack. Most of the others were in the mess, catching some r&r. The only others in the barracks were Jabs and Dane, who had stayed behind after dropping him off on his bunk. They sat together on the far side of the room and were conversing through murmurs and whispers. Whatever it was they were discussing, they didn't want him to know about it.
His solitude was probably for the best. The sergeant had begrudgingly given him some of the rapid recovery ointment that had been such a relief the last time they got lashed. The next two days would be hell, but after that there would be a full recovery. If he could somehow get that damned lotion on the hard to reach parts of his back, that was. It had been much easier to apply last time, when all the recruits were helping each other out. This time he had to deal with the pain by himself.
Jabs, on his way to the showers and wearing nothing but a towel, walked past him. Voss knew he had to act. This was his best, and perhaps only chance to make some sort of inroad back into the group. ‘How are Hiyo and Tick?’ he asked Jabs.
Jabs grunted. ‘Tick will be fine. Sarge said he’ll be back soon. He said nothing about Hiyo.’. Voss knew what that meant. “They said nothing about” was Fifth slang for “He’s been kicked out”. It was as he had anticipated.
Jabs looked like he wanted to continue his path to the showers, took two steps, hesitated, and then turned around. ‘How about yourself?’
Voss gave him a pained look and replied: ‘I survived their torments. Now I must earn my redemption.’
Jabs gave him a small nod and then turned to Dane. ‘Hey Dane, come over here. Help our brother out please, he is in need of some proper medical aid.
Dane got up and walked over to them. ‘Is that so? Well turn around then and let me have a look.’
It had worked. He now had a chance to get back into Jabs’ and Dane’s good books. If he could get them to accept him back into the group, the others would surely follow.
‘Those faceless freaks sure got you good. These lashes look more vicious than the ones we got last time around. It will take a few days for them to heal, even with accelerated recovery.’ Dane pointed at Jabs to hand over his towel, which Jabs reluctantly did. Dane used it to clean the blood from Voss, back and make his wounds better visible. The open wounds burned as Dane applied recovery lotion to them.
‘Those guards give me the creeps.’ Jabs said. ‘I don’t know if either of you noticed, but even the sergeant is scared of them. He tenses up anytime they or the captain are near.’
‘It doesn’t surprise me.’ Voss replied. ‘From what I've seen, that captain is a dangerous and ruthless man. Don't make the mistake of falling for his charm; there's a cold and calculating man behind the charm. One that sees us all as disposable pawns. Stay far away from him if you can.’
'Is that so?' Dane asked. ‘So what happened after you were taken away together with that lieutenant? Did the captain order lashes right away or did more transpire?’
‘We were brought into his office. You should have seen the place. Most luxurious room I’ve ever been to in my entire life. Three times the size of our barrack. Tapestries on the walls, a giant map of the galaxy with live positions of stars and ships, a luxurious wooden desk and chairs. He even had ornamental plants.’
‘Ornamental plants on a spaceport?’ Jabs proclaimed incredulously. ‘Who would ever approve of such a wasteful and troublesome thing?’
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‘I don’t think the captain needs anyone’s approval, Jabs.’ Voss replied. ‘In fact those plants were given more space than we got in our barracks. They get better treatment than us too.’
'Why am I not surprised?' Jabs said more to himself than the others.
‘Ok, we get that his office is a display of his power.’ Dane said. ‘But what happened?’
‘Well apparently the captain and the lieutenant go way back. He was saying things about how her father was a better lieutenant than her, and was airing dirty laundry about her. I just stood there feeling awkward for most of the time. It didn’t seem appropriate for a recruit like myself to know any of these things. I think he was trying to humiliate her or something.’
Dane shook his head ‘Very inappropriate thing to do for an officer. You should never show discord amongst officers to non officers.’
‘Aha, so you are ex-military! I knew it.’ Voss said. He instantly regretted it as Dane pressed his thumb down into one of his open wounds. Voss shrieked out in pain. ‘Let’s let our pasts lie quiet’ Dane said. Voss judged it to be best to listen to Dane and not press the matter any further right now. Instead he continued: 'It's not just the captain versus the lieutenant. By the way they spoke to each other, it seemed like there's a lot of scheming and backstabbing amongst the officers. Their conversation made it sound like the officer pool is a snake pit. I also got the sense there's more going on out there than they're letting us onto. The captain spoke about some important and dangerous mission he wants to give to the lieutenant.'
'Citizens and their politics.' Jabs commented. Again it sounded more like he was talking to himself than to them. It was as if he was reminiscing about things that had happened in his own past. Like their conversation had awoken old memories that he was now stuck inside.
Dane on the other hand, was observant. ‘So you're saying he first scolded the lieutenant and then offered her an important mission right after? That doesn't make much sense to me.'
'I don't know man. He didn't give us any details. Just said it was very important. Maybe he was lying?'
'Or maybe he's got no one else to send..' Jabs replied. He looked more aware again, as if the memory had ran to completion and his mind had returned to the present. 'I don't know if you two have noticed, but the spaceport has seemed a little empty lately.'
Dane grunted: 'Hard to tell when we spend almost all our time in isolation in damp, claustrophobic rooms.'
'Yes that's true.' Jabs said. 'But the few times we're not stuck inside those damp, claustrophobic rooms, this whole place just feels a whole lot emptier than it did when we just arrived. There are less guards watching over us for instance. There used to always be several, now there's often only one.'
'I just assumed it's because they trust us more now.' Dane replied.
'I thought so too at first, but there are more signs of staffing shortages that weren't there before. It especially hit home with me just now, when Voss was getting his lashes. I don't know if either of you noticed, but the crowd was way smaller this time then it was last time.'
'You'll have to forgive me for missing that detail, Jabs.' Voss sighed. 'I was a little pre-occupied.'
Jabs ignored his comment. 'There were less than a quarter present of the amount of spectators there were last time. I'm telling you, there's something going on elsewhere that's requiring a lot of manpower.'
A short silence fell as Voss and Dane thought through what Jabs had just said. Dane was the first to break the silence. 'Maybe there is, maybe there isn't. It's not something we have control over. If what you're saying is the truth, we'll find out soon enough after we finish our training. Until then, let's just focus on getting through this thing.' Dane gave Voss a good pat on the shoulders. 'I’m done with your back, Voss. Even got a little lotion to spare. I’ll save it for you in case you need it later. Shame you didn’t have access to it when you bust your face open, eh? Could have saved you from that ugly scar of yours.’
‘I don’t mind the scar.’ Voss replied. ’In fact I’m fond of it. Acts like a reminder to me.’
‘A reminder of what?’
‘A reminder of what I am and what my purpose is.’
‘And what would that be?’
‘Let’s let our pasts lie quiet.’ He said with a wink.
‘Ah you two are a bunch of teases.’ Jabs sighed.
‘Then how about you enlighten us about your past, huh?’ Dane retorted.
‘Nice try, recruit Colonel. I’m going to take my shower now. The others should be back soon. I could use a nice shower without Wago standing right next to me, scrubbing his nut sack.’. Jabs walked away and began whistling a tune that Voss didn’t recognize. Dane got up and outstretched himself. Before he walked off back to his own bunk bed, he turned to Voss and said: ‘Better try to get some rest, kid. You’ve got some tough days ahead. Your back isn’t your only problem. Half the recruits still want to drink your blood and I haven’t fully forgiven you either. I’ll make sure you’ll get a second chance, but you better prove yourself, or you may find this time it’s your oxygen supply malfunction when we go back out into the void.’ With those parting words, Dane turned around and walked.
‘Dane’. Dane turned his head back around. ‘I just want to say thank you to both Jabs and you.’
‘Don’t thank me with words, kid. Thank me with actions. Prove to us that you belong here after all.’
With those words, their conversation ended. It took Voss an excruciating effort to lay down on his stomach. He usually never slept like this, but his back and sides were too battered up to sleep on them. Even on his stomach, he couldn’t really avoid the pain his body was in. Every small movement felt like an army of blades was passing through his back. This was going to be a long, painful night.