After killing time at the barracks, I made my way with several hundred other of the new Cadets to the Protectorate Auditorium and Lecture Hall. It was the same building I had met my potential Protectors only four days before. It looked exactly the same, but I certainly felt different. A lot had happened in that short period of time, and I certainly didn’t feel like the same person who had entered here before.
This time I walked past the grand foyer and actually went into the auditorium. It was a magnificent place with a slightly tilted floor that ran past row after row of seats that ended up at a large oval platform, that looked like it spanned at least fifty feet at the widest part. Sharp yellow spotlights lit up the empty stage, while soft receded lighting in the rest of the auditorium was enough for people to not trip over themselves to find their seats. Many of the seats close to the stage were already taken, but the bulk of the seating remained empty. It probably would even if everyone at the assembly today showed up. This auditorium looked like it could hold thousands.
Hotoe was chatting with another recruit midway down the aisle, so I walked up and waited for them to finish. I was introduced to Kenri Wesz who had been in the Galactic Exports too. Kenri was a smaller man than Hotoe, and in fact, he looked to be the same height as me. He even had blue eyes, though they were a darker shade than my own. Well, my own when I wasn’t wearing a modifier. Kenri had a serious look about him, and didn’t even give me so much as a nod as we were introduced. He simply turned away and went to find a seat.
I gave Hotoe a raised eyebrow.
“Oh, don’t take his attitude personally. Kenri does that to everyone. We’d flown five shipments before he would even talk to me, and that was because we were both assigned to fix a busted fuel line together. Hard to do that and not talk to each other. Guess he decided that he liked my company well enough after that not to ignore me on our next shipments.”
“So he decided to enlist too?” I asked curiously as I watched the man take the last seat in the seventh row.
“I was surprised to see him. He never said a word to me about it, even when I mentioned signing up myself. Guess maybe he heard me talk about it enough, and decided to give it a shot.”
Cadets brushed past us and kept filling in the rows. Number eight was already almost full. “We better get a seat before this thing starts.”
We ended up in row nine. All the way at the other end. I was happy with that. It seemed like a nice inconspicuous place to sit. Hotoe didn’t seem to care one way or another. He just turned his attention to the grand scrollwork on the pillars and ceiling of the auditorium. I got the impression Hotoe hadn’t had much chance to see such elaborateness. I certainly was impressed as well, but I was far more concerned with someone recognizing me.
I guess I should calm down and relax. I had been up close to Pledge Sasseni and she hadn’t noticed. I had even been in the presence of Captain Dexter, albeit at a distance and in a crowd, and he hadn’t noticed me either. I had seen the change myself in that window in the back alley, but I still felt unsettled like any moment this little farce would be up and everyone would know who I was. And for some reason, I felt that feeling more intensely as time went on. God, this was going to be a long couple of days if I couldn’t reign this in.
It wasn’t long after we sat down that a lone man stepped onto the stage and introduced himself as Lieutenant Havlor. He was dressed in the black and had that short buzz cut that everyone else had. He wasn’t tall or short, but somewhere in between. He wasn’t muscular or overly skinny, but about average to most people. In fact, there was nothing at all about this man that would make him stand out in a crowd, except for the fact that he was the only one in the auditorium right now wearing the uniform of a Protector.
His manner of speaking certainly left more to be desired. I felt like I was going to fall asleep with only listening to him for five minutes, which really sucked, because this orientation lasted for almost three hours. Somehow I managed to make it to the end without zonking out, but it took a lot of shifting in my seat and pinching myself more than a few times.
Hotote hadn’t faired so well. I had to elbow him twice to stop him from snoring. And his hadn’t been the only snores in the crowd. After Havlor was finished, he dismissed us and many people just sat there blinking at him like they were just waking up from a long sleep.
I sat there myself just shaking my head in disbelief. “Why did we need this class? He didn’t say anything we weren’t already told, or didn’t know, or couldn’t easily find out for ourselves. How in the world could he possibly fill that much time with a bunch of nothing? I feel like I was cheated somehow.”
“Naw, it was good sleep time.” Hotoe said as he stood and stretched like he’d just had a full nights rest. “I heard you have to sleep when you can get it here. That just because they block out eight hours for rest on your schedule, doesn’t mean they actually let you have it. They like waking you up in the middle of the night for drills and stuff like that.”
That was news to me. “You know that for sure, or you just guessing?”
Hotoe shrugged, turned, and filed out as the rest of our row started to move. I followed, but as I came to the end of the seating and started to head up the middle aisle, a short muscular woman with blonde stubble on her head and a dark brown uniform stopped me.
“You are Cadet Ruloc, yes?”
I hesitated a long moment before I nodded. “I am.”
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“There’s been a small mix up in your registration. I will need you to come with me.”
My stomach clenched up and I felt like I should look around for the exit, but instead, I made myself keep looking at the woman like I was unconcerned. “What kind of mixup?”
“Nothing big. I just need a few more details that were left out. We can go to a room in the back so we are out of the way. This won’t take more than a few minutes.”
“Is there a problem?” Hotoe said as he came walking back down the aisle once he noticed I hadn’t followed him.
I shook my head at the big man. “I guess I didn’t fill out the registration all the way. You go ahead. I’ll meet you at the cantina in a bit.”
Hotoe gave the woman a long look, he then nodded to me, and left. I finished walking out into the aisle. The woman turned and led me down toward the stage. Right before we reached it, she stepped through the door at the foot of the stage. I followed.
The door slid shut behind me and it left me and the woman alone in a small room with a sitting area. This must be a place for people to lounge right before getting on the stage.
“I am Gayle Tau-mine. It’s nice to meet you, Highness.”
Part of me was relieved. Markus had said that his friend Gayle would introduce herself. I had forgotten in my trepidation that I was being singled out. Still, I looked around the room suspiciously, wondering if there was anyone else around that might overhear our conversation.
She saw my concern and responded. “Don’t worry. I took the time to secure this room before bringing you here. We can speak freely, at least for a time.”
That helped me settle down at least a little bit, but I still felt jumpy. “Is Markus alright? He wouldn’t tell me what he was up to. I’ve been kind of worried about him.”
The woman grunted. “Don’t be. He is quite capable of taking care of himself.”
“So I guess I have you to thank for setting all this up?” I plunged forward relieved to be talking to someone who knew the truth of what was going on. “How secure is this really going to be? I’ve been walking around here half expecting someone to call me out. And did you know about the special assignments? They are talking about sending the new recruits out to search into the desert for me? Is that even safe?”
“The College makes excursions out into the desert all the time. It’s an important part of the training actually, but I’m trying my best to make sure you only have assignments inside the College. You do have your distress beacon implanted?”
I nodded and held up my wrist to show her the tiny bump there. “Yes, he said to just push and hold for five seconds and it will call you guys.”
The Pledge nodded. “Yes, but make sure it’s a real threat. The beacon will only work one time. After that, we’ll either have to give you another implant, or put you on a ship to Dyniss.”
I had a lot of questions running around in my head. A lot of things I needed clarity about, but there was only one thing I felt I really needed to know the most right now. “Why are you doing this? I have a feeling you are risking a lot here. This isn’t something the College is going to forgive easily, is it?”
The woman before me was quiet for a long time, but I could feel the turmoil behind the stony facade that she’d given for my supposed benefit. “Honestly, I don’t like this plan, and I questioned Markus about it many times while we set this up. But in the end, I trust Markus, and if he says this needs to happen, then this needs to happen. Is there a better way? I really don’t know. I’m just a Pledge. He’s the one with the high born background and used to the cloak and dagger stuff they do.”
I grunted at that. It seemed we both were putting a lot of trust in Markus. It was one thing for her to do it. She actually knew the man. I had only just met him for a few hours, or at least I had only remembered that one meeting. But I knew we had known each other in another lifetime, and because of those memories still locked away somewhere in my mind, I could feel the echo of it when I had met him.
So for me it wasn’t so much as trusting the man I had just met in a creepy underground bunker, but trusting a deep knowing that felt right in trusting Markus. And besides, it was either pretend to be a new Cadet in the Program, or risk trying to get a shuttle off-world without anyone finding out who I was. So here the two of us were, trusting in a person that I was finding a bit of an enigma the more I learned about him.
“How does a son of a king become a member of the College? I get the feeling that nobles don’t exactly have a place here in the Protectorate ranks.”
Tau-mine laughed. “They don’t. He was the first, and I suppose you are the second, not that they actually know who you are––yet. And if you want that story, you will have to ask him.”
I nodded. “You must be a really good friend of Markus’s to be doing this. For what’s it worth, I thank you for your help. If we all get out of this in one piece, I think I will owe you one.”
The woman’s face parted in a wicked smirk. “Oh, Markus already owes me two really big favors.”
I chuckled. “I bet.”
“You should probably get back before people get suspicious. I just wanted to introduce myself, so you know what I look like. I won’t be making physical contact again with you unless there’s a change or an update I think you should know. Until then, just keep playing the part of a new Cadet, and keep yourself off anyone’s radar.”
I nodded. “Of course, Nice meeting you Pledge Tau-mine. I will see you around.” I turned to leave, and then remembered the chip I was supposed to insert.
“Actually, I could use some help on something. I was given an identity chip to have implanted, and Chief Winters said it has to be done by tomorrow, but–”
“But if you go to a Caretaker, they will know you aren’t who you say you are,” the Pledge finished for me and shook her head as a frown settled on her face. “Yavit, I can’t believe I didn’t catch that. I’m sorry. We had to put all this together last minute. There was bound to be a few things that got overlooked.”
The woman stood there for a moment as she thought, and rather quickly she nodded to herself like she was agreeing with one of her thoughts. “Unfortunately, I can’t just go into the system and say the chip was implanted and I don’t have easy access to the injector to implant the chip. So let me get with Master Kiev and see what he suggests. One of us will let you know what to do about that.
“I know that this uncover thing is supposed to be short term, but the College’s data system automatically kicks out a list of those who aren’t implanted by the third day a recruit is enrolled. We don’t want you on that list, so we will figure it out. What’s next on your schedule for today?”
“Dinner, then free time, then retiring for the evening,” I replied.
“Well, we might not be able to do anything about this today. Just go about the rest of your evening, and one of us will be in touch with you tomorrow. But have your chip on you, so when we do, we can implant it.”
I nodded, and felt a surge of relief. I hadn’t realized how much this little hick up was bothering me. “Great, thanks.”
After that, I exited the lounge and made my way out of the auditorium to find Hotoe and some dinner. My stomach had been growling for the last hour and I hadn’t had anything to eat since breakfast. It was hard to believe that so much had changed in just the span of a day.