“Well, this is a fine mess. How is he?” Gayle asked Kiev who was currently checking for a pulse on the Heir.
“It’s weak. We need to get him to a Remaker immediately.”
Gayle heard muttered talking and she looked up, noticing that they had a small audience. There was one near the toilet stalls of two men and a woman dripping wet and towels wrapped around their bodies. And a second one of many individuals at the threshold of the washroom door, trying to peer in and see what all the ruckus was about. All of them were currently staring open mouthed at the scene before them.
Gayle ignored them while she punched at her unity ring and activated the emergency function. The face of the person currently on crisis management duty for the College materialized in front of her.
“State your emergency and current location,” the man stated in the standardized crisis management response. She knew it well. She had to work the special assignment often enough as a Cadet.
“A blaster shot victim and two unconscious men at the Cadet Residence Hall barracks five washroom,” she said.
“We dispatched a Caretaker there no more than a minute ago.”
“Well, send several more and medi-boards. Some of them aren’t walking out of here on their own.” She disconnected the link without giving the man a chance to respond. Someone must have already gotten word out about the attack.
Roth had picked the captured Pledge from the ground and had secured his wrists with the nearly unbreakable namicord. The Vanguard Major had then pushed the man back against the far wall past the bank of sinks and well out of the way, while standing nearby with the Pledge’s gun in his grasp at his side.
The toweled woman and one of the toweled men had gone over to the downed naked man. He was now sitting up against a stall and groaning as he came to. His neck a bright red with purple bruising already starting to show. The woman had found another towel somewhere and had spread it across the big man’s lap. He now looked around and when he spotted the Heir, tried to speak. But only managed to start a coughing fit.
“Don’t try to talk, Hotoe. A Caretaker will be here soon. Just relax,” the woman told the big man.
But he didn’t seem to want to hear it as he shook his head. His coughing finally died down, and he managed to rasp out words. Gayle had to move closer to hear what he said.
“Jasper––I mean the Heir. Will he be alright?”
Gayle looked to the Prince who was still unconscious at her feet. Master Kiev had laid his coat over the ripped shirt and bare chest and arm. The Master eyed the gaggle of lurkers at the washroom door with a glare from his kneeling position by the Heir.
“Move along. There is nothing more to see here.”
The lurkers’s expressions said otherwise, but they obeyed the Master and reluctantly moved back and let the sliding door close and taking away at least part of their audience.
“He has a pulse, and a Caretaker will be here soon to get him the treatment he needs,” Gayle answered the big man, “You are a Cadet? Can you tell us what happened here? Were you a part of this?”
The man blinked at her a moment as if he didn’t quite understand, but he must have picked up the slight accusation in her tone.
He looked angry for a moment like she had offended him and shook his head. “No, or at least, I tried to help Jasper, but that one hit me good.” He nodded to Pledge Gunther. “I had not been hit that hard in a long time.”
Gayle nodded. She didn’t think he or the other toweled people were in on the attack against the Heir, but you could never be too sure. They had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Though she was certain Command would want to question them just the same.
“What’s your name Cadet?” Master Kiev asked.
The man looked to the Master still kneeling besides the Heir. “I am Hotoe Shem.” The man then turned his full attention back to the Heir with his expression morphing into that of incredulity. “I did not know it was him––the Heir. I had been with him for days, and I did not know. He seemed like any normal person. Anyways, I was in the shower, and then I heard raised voices. One of them was my friend Jasper, so I came out to see if he needed help.
“I see Pledge Pezeri, Disciple Wy-lin, and another Pledge I do not know around him. Jasper looks upset and tries to move away, but they attack him, they attack me. Before I know it, we are both in a fight. Pledge Pezeri and Disciple Wy-lin are ganging up on Jasper, and the other Pledge is going after me. I know I am outclassed, the Pledge that’s attacking me knows more about fighting than I do.
“I hear someone shout there’s a Zahn mark on arm. So my attention turns from my fight and I see Jasper’s shirt is torn and can see the Imperial crest. It was a shock. And that’s the last thing I remember, because I got a hell of a throat punch.” Cadet Shem then doubled over into another fit of coughing.
“Alright, just relax.” Gayle responded. She threw a look to Pledge Gunther. “So how did he get knocked out?” She wondered out loud, not really expecting an answer.
“The Heir hit him with a Hand of Death,” one of the toweled men spoke up. “I saw it just as I got out of the shower to see what all the commotion was about.”
“He needs help.” The other Pledge corralled across the room spoke up with a pleading in his voice. From Cadet Shem’s statement, she guessed this was Pledge Perzeri. “He wasn’t breathing when I last checked him.”
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Gayle swiveled her head back to Gunther. So he wasn’t just unconscious? Yavit. She stepped toward the downed Pledge, but the door to the washroom slid open to reveal an out of breath Markus.
“What happened?” he exclaimed as he entered the room in a rush.
Before she could move or even respond, three more people, including a Caretaker piled into the room. It took her a moment to recognize the faces of Director Shiperii, Captain Dexter and King Rainus Nador in all the excitement. While she stood there, the Caretaker had rushed to the closest patient, which happened to be the Heir.
“Pledge Gunther has not been breathing for at least a few minutes,” Gayle told the Caretaker as he passed her. She didn’t like it, but she figured the non breathing person should probably get priority, the Heir seemed at least able to do that much for now.
“The Heir gets priority,” King Rainus stated from near the door. There were so many people in the room that the Director, Captain, and King had to hover there to be out of the way.
The Caretaker stood paralyzed in mid-movement unsure what to do. He looked to Director Shiperii. King Rainus might be the superior in the room, but Shiperii was the Director and the one in charge of the College and all the people inside it, including the Pledge that was dying.
The Director nodded. “The King is right. Heir first, then the Pledge.”
The Caretaker didn’t waste any time kneeling down beside the Prince and started a scan, while the whole room looked on. Master Kiev had given up his position so the Caretaker could have space to work on his patient. It was only a matter of moments before the medical scan was complete and the Caretaker addressed the room.
“His respiratory system is significantly strained and I think he has about ten minutes or so before it shuts down entirely. Can someone go to the Repository to get a medi-board so I can transport him?”
Captain Dexter was the one who whirled around to exit the washroom. The door had closed only a few heartbeats before it opened again with Dexter escorting two Caretakers carrying the white square kits that had medi-board written across the front. It was the Caretakers Gayle had sent for. Gayle, Markus, and Roth backed up so the two Caretakers could enter. The Caretaker administrating to the Heir waved the first one of them over to him, while the other one went directly for Pledge Gunther.
Gayle eyed Markus who stood beside her against the wall with Roth and Pledge Perzeri. She bumped her co-conspirator with a shoulder and whispered to him. “They let you out?”
The man nodded absently as he watched the two Caretakers retract the board to its full seven foot length, set it beside the Prince, and then with one at head and the other at the feet, they carefully lifted the Heir onto the board. “Yeah, it’s been an interesting hour or so. Master Meh-len is dead. Apparently, he was the one that attacked the chalet earlier this week. Oh and Jordem was the traitor in Command.”
Gayle felt shock rush through her. Master Meh-len was dead and Jordem was the traitor? It seemed too surreal and impossible. Meh-len had become a permeant figure at the College during her time in the Program. It would be strange not to have him harassing the quat-lo students and standing like a statue of judgement on all the practice sessions.
And Commander Jordem? That just seemed wrong somehow. She didn’t know the man personally, but up until a few moments ago, she would have thought him a loyal man not only to the College, but the Empire as well.
“I get Meh-len. I could feel the hostility of his thoughts toward the Heir during the assessment, but what could possibly motivate the Chief Commander to do such a thing?”
“Because he’s an assassin sent by the Fazha––that’s why!” Pledge Pezeri yelled, startling everyone and making heads turn toward them, even the Caretakers stopped a moment, but only a moment, before they went back to work helping their patients. But every other conscious person’s eyes were on the four people against the wall.
Gayle herself was taken back for one, because she didn’t think anyone but Markus and maybe Nathias could hear her, and two, what the Pledge had said about Jordem.
“Jordem was an assassin?”
“Prince Adar is the assassin. He was sent by the Fazha. We have proof!” The Pledge was glowering at Gayle now, his eyes ablaze with anger. He looked like a madman. “He came back to kill the Emperor and he started by trying to get rid of one our own!”
Gayle’s mind fumbled to make sense of what the man had just said, but she didn’t have much time to understand it before King Rainus stepped from the wall and sent Pezeri such a withering expression that the Pledge flinched backwards like he’d actually been physically slapped.
“That so called proof you are talking about has been found false, so you will shut your mouth this instant and stop slandering the Heir, or you will be gagged from here on out. Is that clear whoever the yavit you are?”
The Pledge stopped a moment as if considering the words from the King, and then he shook his head. “No, you are just trying to protect him like you nobles always do. You protect your own. I know what I saw. Prince Adar is here to destroy us all. He disgraced Captain Hame and killed Gunther with the Hand of Death!”
The King simply turned to Roth. “Major gag that man.”
“Yes, sir,” was Roth’s reply he leaned down to the Caretaker kit closet to him and pulled out two long straps used to help secure patients to the boards. He balled one up, stuck it in the man’s mouth, while wrapping another around his head to secure it.
“Adar used the Hand of Death on Gunther? Is that why he’s at death’s door?” Markus asked.
“Yes, at least that’s what I was told,” Gayle replied.
Her friend started grinning.
“What?” She said, not sure what Markus could find about anything in this room that was worth a smile that big, and it further startled her that she could not remembered many smiles like that at all on the man beside her the entire time ten years she’d known him.
“I guess Aragon really did teach him well,” was his only reply.
She just shook her head and felt a deep weariness inside. It had been a trying week and the last half hour or so of it the most of all. She was just glad all this madness had finally come to an end and her part in this fiasco was done.
Gayle watched as the Caretaker kneeling by the Heir had activated the hovering ability of the board and it levitated from the floor of the washroom and stopped about waist high on the Caretaker. He then stood at the head to steer it, while the Caretaker helping him went to see to Cadet Shem.
“Make room please,” the Caretaker at the head of the Prince’s board said, though he didn’t need to have said it at all as the King, Director, and Captain Dexter moved automatically to make a path.
She watched as the Heir left the room with Markus following closely behind. Gayle considered following when Director Shiperii spoke up. “Pledge Tau-mine. It’s interesting seeing you here. Why don’t you come with me to my office so you can explain why you happen to be in the Cadet’s washroom this particular evening.”
Gayle’s stomach felt like it was twisting into a tight knot as she nodded slowly to let him know she understood and that she’d heard the tight tone he’d spoken with. She couldn’t read any of the Director’s surface thoughts, which wasn’t a surprise. The handful of times she’d been in the same room with him over the past ten years, she’d got nothing from him or anyone else in Command for that matter. They were all good at shielding themselves. But the tone made it clear she was facing a lot of trouble.
“Yavit, Markus. You better be true to your word to help me get out of this,” she muttered under her breath as she followed Shiperii out of the Cadet washroom and faced what might just be the end of her career as a Protector before it had even truly began.