An Assignment and a Social Visit

> “If I had the courage, I’d leave her in the morning, I’d leave her in the evening, as soon as I can stand. I’m in danger! I’m in mourning! I’m in love with the girl holding my hand.”

>

> -from “Courage, Voice, and Heart”, traditional spacer song

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After the Governor's dinner, things became serious for the three apprentices. They trained with Halen on an almost daily basis, they studied political theory and military strategy, and they were dragged along to every possible event that Aymon attended, sometimes as a group, sometimes as individuals. They were in the public spotlight. The first time a person stopped Yan in the streets to ask her a question, Yan froze in shock. But then she became accustomed to being photographed, talking to reporters, being recognized. It was a rapid change, but the changes piled up so quickly one after another that individually they all seemed insignificant.

Yan, Kino, and Sid all found themselves in Sandreas's office, a now familiar place for them. Yan was swiping through a document on her tablet that described the latest Fleet operations on Tyx III, which was turning into a real mess. Sid was drinking a bottle of juice and relaxing on the couch, and Kino was typing out some sort of message on her phone. The three of them were waiting for Sandreas and Halen to arrive. They had all been instructed to meet, but had not been given a reason why.

It was a sunny day, still warm, despite the oncoming fall. It was a twosday like any other, just after lunchtime. Light was streaming in through the windows of the office. Sandreas and Halen came in together, and the three apprentices sat up straighter on the couch. Yan put down the tablet, Sid capped his juice, Kino put her phone away.

"Good afternoon, Kino, Sid, Yan," Sandreas said,

"Afternoon," Yan said in greeting.

Sandreas sat down on the couch across from the three. Halen sat down at Sandreas's desk and took out his phone, apparently planning to work and ignore the conversation that Sandreas and the apprentices would be having. Sid looked at Halen with a brief, questioning expression, but he turned back to face Sandreas when he started talking.

"So," Sandreas began, "How are you all feeling about your work thus far?"

"Fine," Kino said, tugging on one of her braids.

"It's been keeping me busy," Sid said. "You've been giving us the real run around."

Sandreas looked at Sid with an expression that made it clear that Sid wasn’t as hilarious as he thought he was.

"Well, I have some good news for you. I'm sending you out," Sandreas said.

"Off planet?" Yan asked.

"Yes. Two of you will be heading to Olar, to deal with the ongoing disputes there. The third will be accompanying me to the front, and then to Jenjin. On Jenjin I will be replacing Vaspar with an interim governor, which will hopefully allow the farmworkers’ strike to end," Sandreas said.

"Who's going where?" Sid asked.

"You can decide that for yourselves," Sandreas said. "I have suggestions, if you would like to hear them, but you are all capable of making your own decisions."

"How long will we be off planet for?" Yan asked.

"I don't expect this to take more than a month," Sandreas said.

"When will we be leaving?" Kino asked.

"Whoever is coming with me will be leaving in a week aboard the Fleet transport Telescope. The group going to Olar will be taking the Sun's Gold out of system in five days, at Byforest Station transfer to the Sky Boat to Zhani, and from there take the Fantastic to Olar."

"Will we be alone?" Kino asked.

"God, no. You will have a full Fleet escort, whichever team you are on. The Olar mission is comparatively easier, in my opinion, which is why I am entrusting it to you," Sandreas said.

"What if something goes wrong?" Yan asked.

"Then I'll be extremely angry. Endeavor to make it so that nothing goes wrong." Sandreas sounded completely serious.

"Why would you trust us with it?" Sid asked.

"You need to experience decision making firsthand. I can't hold your hand forever, and the faster you become actually useful to me, the better," Sandreas said. "There isn't a better time than the present."

From the back of the room, Halen spoke up. "You'll have the time until you leave off to put your affairs in order. Your transportation has already been arranged."

Though putting her affairs in order sounded ominous, Yan was grateful to the time off. She was already thinking that if she had five, or seven, days to get ready, she was going to book a plane ticket this afternoon to go see Sylva. As she had promised, the first vacation she was getting, she would go see her. This was the first vacation, even though it was sudden, and right before a major outing.

"So. Pick your teams," Aymon said.

The three were awkwardly silent, and looked at each other. One thing that was clear to all of them was that Sid and Kino couldn't go together, they would drive each other insane before they even got to the planet. Sid was exuberant where Kino was phlegmatic, and they were both uniquely bad at people skills. Sid made things unnecessarily difficult for people to prove a point, and Kino was, well, Kino. Yan knew that whether or not she would have preferred to accompany Sandreas, she would be heading to Olar.

"I'll go to Olar," Yan said after a moment. Now it was up to Kino or Sid to decide if they preferred to work with Sandreas or Yan.

Kino, predictably, let Sid choose, staying quiet until he had made his decision.

"I'll go with Yan," Sid said.

"And that leaves Kino with me. Fine," Sandreas said with a wave of his hand. "Glad to have that settled. Yan and Sid, you'll have a consultant on hand who is an expert on the situation, but your primary purpose will be to interface between the Trade Guild and Olar government. You need to make it clear that the Empire is dedicated to stopping piracy, but cares about the people of Olar. It's a publicity thing. You should not need to make any policy or sweeping changes. If you think that you do, you need to get in contact with me immediately. I will be reachable at all times unless I'm in transit."

"What if you are in transit?" Sid asked.

"Then do your best to wait. I cannot stress enough that I don't want you to make a worse mess of this than it already is. If it's a true emergency, get in contact with Fleet leadership on Emerri; they can send a ship to back you up. I don't anticipate that happening, and you shouldn't either."

"Just making sure we know all our options," Sid said with a shrug. It was probably for the best that he was coming with Yan, since he was constantly doing the most to push the limits of Sandreas's rules and patience.

Yan hoped that no one expected her to force Sid to toe the line. Maybe she should take back what she said and trade places with Kino. On the other hand, traveling with Sandreas would mean traveling with Halen, who she had been doing her best to engage with on only the most surface level for the past month. Maybe some time away from Halen would be good for her.

Though the whole mission had only just been proposed, Yan was already feeling apprehensive about it.

"What are we even going to be doing?" Sid asked, broaching the real question.

"You know about the situation on Olar. They were originally one of the planets implicated in the black market business that the Guild was wrapped up in. They were told to clean up their act, and the Trade Guild restricted the number of their ships that would be traveling there. Now, unfortunately, it has become clear that rather than crack down on their black market, someone on the planet had the bright idea of having pirate ships trade with them directly. The Trade Guild, since their ships are now in danger whenever they visit the planet, has called for a total blockade. Two of their heaviest armed ships, the Skyfish and the Imei, are parked in local space and are taking potshots at any carriers headed on or off the planet. Apparently, there have been plenty of in system ships, without stardrives, that have been ferrying goods between pirates parked in local space and the planet. Some of those ships are legitimate mining operations and the like, but the Skyfish and Imei have been firing on them regardless. The Guild has said that until all black market activity on the planet is stopped, they won't be trading with Olar at all, and they’ll be keeping their ships in orbit to stop piracy. The whole thing is a major mess within the Guild, as well. Half the Guild was angry about the original restrictions, and now the ships that do have authorized runs to Olar are unable to complete them. Vaneik has taken it upon himself to make this a major anti-piracy push by making an example out of Olar."

"Sounds like a disaster," Yan said. "So we need to get the Olar government to keep pirates away, and the Trade Guild to let normal operations resume?"

"Yes. And if you can avoid having Vaneik ousted from his leadership position because of this fiasco, that would be advantageous," Sandreas said.

"I thought you didn't like him?" Sid asked.

"I hate the man, but he's competent, and anyone who would try to step up and fill his place would be a loose cannon. I always prefer the troublesome Guildmaster that I know to the one I don't," Sandreas said.

"I don't know why he'd be pushed out, pirates are a threat to all Guild ships," Yan said.

"Some people are more concerned with their money than their safety," Halen piped up from the back. Yan frowned.

"Regardless, the most you will realistically be able to do is put some pressure on the Olar government and the Guild to stop acting so idiotically. You're really just a reminder that the Empire doesn't forget about what happens in the outer colonies," Sandreas said.

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"Great," Sid said. "I love being merely symbolic."

"Get used to it," Sandreas said with a small smile.

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The next morning, Yan stepped off a plane into the Landis airport, with only a backpack on her back containing a few days worth of clothing and the bare minimum of supplies required for her to work. She had already packed all the materials she would be taking to Olar in a larger suitcase and she had handed it off to Sid for safekeeping for a few days. Yan would be flying to the Emerri spaceport directly from Landis, while Sid would be flying there from Yora, the Imperial Center.

Yan didn't want to worry about any of that now, though, because she was here for one purpose and one purpose only: to visit Sylva, whom she had been missing. Yan was dressed in her simplest cassock and cape, and though she didn't blend in exactly, her status as a government official was certainly less obvious than it could have been..

The airport was busy. People were rushing in every direction, and though Yan was taller than most, it wasn't easy for her to pick out anyone in the crowd. Yan was quite surprised, then, when someone crashed into her from behind and wrapped their arms around her. Yan jumped and almost yelled in surprise, but she twisted herself enough to see that it was Sylva, who had done a better job at finding Yan than Yan had done at finding her.

"You could have given me some warning before you jumped on me," Yan said happily, turning so that she could reciprocate the hug.

"And ruin the only surprise I could give you?" Sylva asked. "Not on your life."

"I've missed you so much," Yan said. Carefully, she raised her hand to stroke Sylva's cheek. Sylva shivered and smiled.

"You've changed," Sylva said. "You've let power get to your head." She joked.

"Is that a bad thing?" Yan asked.

"Not in the least," Sylva said. "But do you want to get out of this airport?"

"Yeah, I do," Yan said.

They linked arms and headed outside the airport. The air was muggy beyond belief, and Yan began to sweat immediately. Landis place was much closer to the equator than Yora, where Yan lived.

"How do you stand this weather?" Yan asked.

"I don't know," Sylva laughed. "It's pretty miserable, I guess, but some parts of it are nice. Really good fruit grows here."

The sun was about a third of the way up the sky, and birds were singing in the ornamental trees planted in the parking lot. Sylva led Yan confidently down through the rows of parked cars, until they got to a slick, two wheeled yellow speeder.

"You bought a speeder?" Yan asked, incredulous.

"I have a job, and my apartment is far away from it that I need something to commute on. So I figured I might as well get something fun," Sylva said.

"Wow," Yan said. "Good thing I didn't bring any luggage."

Sylva laughed. "I would have made you take the bus by yourself."

"You're downright cruel," Yan said. "Do you have a helmet?"

In response, Sylva popped open a small trunk on the back of the speeder and pulled out a helmet. She tossed it to Yan.

"Safety first," Sylva said as Yan put on the helmet.

"What about you?" Yan asked. Sylva shrugged.

"You need it more. After all, the taller they are, the harder they fall," Sylva said.

"I don't think that's really something that applies when it comes to speeder crashes," Yan said.

"Well, I just won't crash," Sylva said calmly. "Hop on."

Sylva clambered on the speeder, and Yan got on behind her in a somewhat more sedate manner.

"You need to hold on, you know," Sylva said.

Hastily, Yan wrapped her long arms around Sylva's waist, and Sylva started the speeder up. The engine was quiet, and so Yan was startled when they began moving, sliding out of the parking space, into the lot and then out onto the street.

The wind whipped past them as Sylva drove. The edges of Yan and Sylva's cassocks flapped wildly, and Yan held onto Sylva so tightly she worried that she might be strangling her. Yan had never been on a speeder before, or anything like it, and though she knew logically that they would stay up, she still buried her face in Sylva's braided hair whenever a turn approached.

They were driving away from the sun, out of the massive city proper and towards the suburbs that nestled up to the feet of the mountains in the distance. Yan felt free; free of obligations for at least a minute, and free of the oppressive atmosphere of Stonecourt and the expectations of Sandreas and Halen. For just a moment, holding Sylva in her arms, it felt like God wasn't even paying attention to them. Driving down the roads, quiet and fast, Yan felt like they had slipped out of time. She could just stay here forever, clinging onto Sylva as they sped away from the sun.

Eventually, though, the ride came to an end, and they pulled up in front of a two story house. There were no other vehicles in the driveway. The yard was well kept, with a small fruit tree out front, and taller trees peeking out over the top. Yan and Sylva disentangled themselves from each other and from the speeder, Yan handed the helmet back over and Sylva returned it to its compartment on the back of the speeder.

"Home sweet home," Sylva said, gesturing to the house. "Come on up."

Yan followed Sylva up a rickety set of wooden stairs to Sylva’s apartment on the second floor of the house. The interior of the apartment was warm and cozy, with fanciful tapestries hung on the walls and scattered mismatched furniture. The kitchen was down a small hallway, and was spacious and brightly lit.

Yan deposited her backpack on the floor and took off her shoes. Sylva pulled her own cassock off over her head and draped it on the back of one of the kitchen chairs. In what seemed to Yan like a shocking twist, Sylva was wearing a brightly colored floral button up shirt instead of the usual white.

"Wow, I love the shirt," Yan said.

"It's nice to not be a student, I can wear whatever I want. Within reason," Sylva said with a smile.

"But you still wear the cassock?" Yan asked.

"Well, we have to keep some modicum of discipline," Sylva said with a lighthearted shrug.

Yan knew there was more to it than Sylva's joking reply. Above all the cassock signified Academy training, which gave status of some sort. It wasn't fair, maybe, but it was important. In Yan's case, the only time she didn't wear the cassock, unless she was truly trying to be discreet, was when she was on the Iron Dreams. There, among family, wearing her family's clothes meant more than wearing the Academy's uniform. Such things were important to understanding everyone's position in the world. If you didn't have a group that you belonged to, who were you, really?

Maybe Yan was reading too much into it. The bright button-down was a nice touch, though.

"Want anything to eat or drink?" Sylva asked, getting herself a glass of water from the sink before hopping up to sit on her counter.

"Nah, I ate on the plane," Yan said.

"Why would you do such a thing?" Sylva asked.

"It wasn't that bad, I got to fly first class, and the food breaks up the monotony of the flight," Yan said. "I don't mind planes, but I do mind being stuck in one seat for hours and hours."

"Well, yeah. It's not really the most fun thing to do," Sylva agreed. "Beats driving, though."

"Even if I wanted to drive I wouldn't have had time. Train, I maybe could have gotten away with, but plane was the most direct route," Yan said. "I don't get a lot of time off." She laughed awkwardly.

"Why were you able to come now?" Sylva asked. "I got the time off because I knew you were coming, but I wouldn't have used my time if I hadn't known."

"I'm going off planet for a while," Yan admitted sheepishly. "Sorry for not telling you before, I just wanted to break the news in person."

Sylva frowned. "How long is a while?"

"A month, maybe? I'm going to Olar to resolve a really ridiculous trade dispute they're having."

"With First Sandreas?" Sylva asked.

"No, he's going on a separate trip to Jenjin," Yan said. "I'm going with my coworker Sid and a diplomatic team. It's kinda just a public relations thing, though. Pretty low stakes."

"But I won't be able to talk to you if you're off planet," Sylva said, sounding truly sad.

"Oh! No, I got you an ansible card!" Yan fished around in her pockets and pulled out a thick plastic card, which she handed to Sylva. "It's not real time, obviously, so no video calls, but we can still email and stuff."

Sylva looked the card over. It had a chip embedded into it, and a long identification code on the back.

"You'll have to bring this to, uh, the communications office and they can give you net access to the ansible," Yan explained. "I had one back when I was at the Academy, so I could send messages to my family, so it's not super hard to use."

"Guess it's pretty weird that I didn't have one," Sylva said. "Not that many Academy students actually came from Emerri. Thank you, Yan," Sylva said, turning the card over in her hands. “You know what still sucks, though?”

“What?”

“I’ll miss your birthday. You’ll be off planet.”

Yan laughed. “We can celebrate it when I get back. I’ll just say I’m on a different planet’s date system for a while.”

“Sure, you do that. I guess that gives me extra time to find a gift for you.”

There was an awkward pause in the conversation.

"So. How's your apprenticeship been going?" Yan asked, changing the topic.

"Better. I don't know. It's good now that I've been force fed the language enough that I can actually get work done. Had the world's worst headache for about a month straight while they tried to drill it into me, though."

"That sucks," Yan said. "Couldn't they just let you learn it the long way?"

Sylva shrugged. "It would take too long, and it's mostly over now."

"Do you like your coworkers at least?" Yan asked.

"Yeah, they're all pretty great. That reminds me: you need to come in to work with me to meet them," Sylva said brightly.

"Why?" Yan asked, sounding wary.

"They don't think that you and I are actually, you know..." Sylva said.

"They think you're just some sort of obsessed weirdo?" Yan asked.

"Yeah, they do," Sylva said. "At first I was a little mad about it, but, well..."

"Please don't tell me you've been playing some sort of long con on your coworkers."

"You know that's exactly what I've been doing," Sylva said with a laugh.

"Exactly how embarrassed am I going to be when I go in for this?" Yan asked.

"Don't worry, I've been keeping it subtle," Sylva said. "No collages of your face, just like, one tasteful picture."

"I'm glad to hear it," Yan said dryly. "I can't really complain about that, I have a picture of you on my desk at home, too." The fact that the desk in question was in her own apartment was not mentioned. Yan hadn't quite achieved the status of having a permanent office in Stonecourt.

"Aww, that's so sweet of you," Sylva said. "There's just an inherent hilarity in it. You know how Academy students will say, like, 'oh, I've got a girlfriend on my home planet', and that girlfriend does not exist on this plane of reality? It's the next step up to say 'I have a girlfriend that doesn't live around here, AND she's the apprentice to the top politician in the universe.'"

"I get the joke," Yan said, "But the fact that I'm real does put a little bit of a damper on the hilarity, doesn't it?"

"Not at all," Sylva said. "It's just the cherry on the top of my long con. On one hand, it would be funny to keep it going, but on the other hand, I do want to see the looks on their faces."

"You're using me," Yan said. "You're abusing my status to get ahead in office politics."

"On the contrary," Sylva started, then laughed. "Actually, I have no defense, that's exactly what I'm doing."

Yan laughed. It was so good to be back with Sylva, even if just for a few days. There was still an awkward feeling in the air, but Yan was pretty sure that would go away after a while of being back together. The sad thing was that she was already anticipating having to leave again. Maybe that was what was spoiling the atmosphere.

"Yan," Sylva said.

"What?" Yan asked, looking up at her, perched on the counter next to the sink.

"You've got a leaf in your hair," Sylva said.

"Well it must have been a leaf that was in your helmet," Yan said.

Sylva beckoned Yan over to pick the leaf out. Yan leaned over so that Sylva could extract the leaf, and Sylva did, but then she put her hands on Yan's cheeks and planted a kiss on Yan's forehead.

Yan looked up at Sylva.

"Finally we're the same height," Sylva said with a pleased smile.

"You wish," Yan said.

Yan leaned forward again and bumped her nose on Sylva's, coming in to kiss. Sylva's legs wrapped around her hips and her arms draped around Yan's shoulders. Sylva giggled into Yan's mouth.

They were like that for a while.