A month into the program, Derran was rather happy with how things were progressing. He was satisfied that the seventy candidates who still decided to stay in the program all seemed to be already in a very good shape with many of them picking up skills faster than he originally anticipated. Maybe not all of them were mommy’s boys and daddy’s girls after all.

Yet, he was well aware of the depressing fact that it would still take him years to teach them everything they needed to know and that he was not given enough time. But, at least, it appeared to be a very satisfactory beginning.

So he was less gloomy and almost enthusiastic until he got an unknown call on his communicator. It was meant to be used only in the case of military emergency or a call from the councilmen, so naturally, it got his full attention. But, it was neither.

As he answered it, he saw a man he had never seen before. Deep blue eyes stared at him.

“Who are you?” He asked as the man was not eager to identify himself.

“I am sorry to disturb you…” The man didn’t seem sorry at all.

“But there is something we would like to talk to you about…”

“Who are you and how exactly did you get connected with me?”

"I am Filo Donovan, Donovan of Donovan Industries…Well, you have our grandchild in there, Wrankies, and…"

Derran didn't want to respond at all to that, so he just kept his mouth firmly shut.

“He has been saying all these great things of how great you are, and how much he is admiring you, and that you are one really great-”

“Wrankies saying that? Are you kidding me?”

“Well, yeah, he was saying how great it is that he can have such a great mentor as you, the chance to learn from the best - you being decorated war hero and everything…” The man stopped to clear his throat. “But anyway, we were just thinking how great it would be if you would consider becoming an instructor for his younger brother and cousins. After, I mean, after your job is finished over there and our grandchild successfully completes it all, graduates and all…We would naturally pay well for it, pay for it all, if you know what I mean.

“Really? I did never consider myself an instructor…That is a lot to think about,” Derran seemed to had put on his thinking hat and scratched his head as if that would help him think faster.

“How do five hundred thousand credits sound to you?”

"Five hundred thousand?? Hum… Five hundred thousand things to think about… that's a lot to think about. It might take me a lot of time if you know what I mean… It may take me a long time to think about it all.

“Well, does six hundred sounds better then…? I mean even if you pass him successfully, there is no quarantine if he will pass other sections as well, and just imagine…”

“Yeah, six hundred a section, that would be like three million in all to you… wow, that is some serious thought to think about.”

“Well, so you see that seems very fair, and…you can see why we are not ready to offer more?”

“Yes, of course, but can I just ask you one question?”

“Yes, certainly…”

“Now, I had no clue, as I didn’t want to have a clue who Wrankies was, but now that I do, I mean things change drastically. Now, I have a whole new appreciation for him. Before I just considered him a spoiled brat, but now with what you showed me and what I know, I think he can do so much more. Actually, I think he is good to go and do so much more. I think I was holding him back all this time.”

Derran paid no attention to how gloomy and frowned the face of the man was becoming. "I think he is all good to do some cliff climbing in this rain we are having today, I mean, good to do some serious cliff-climbing right now. I was not going to make anyone do it on the account of it being very slippery and we have already lost a boy doing it. He slipped, fell a hundred meters down. Now dead. Sack of mashed bones and churned meat dead. Crazy what one fall could do."

"What do you want?" the man asked with a shivering voice and a face white as a choke.

"Well, now, on the account of him being Donovan, of Donovan Industries, I think he can handle it all…"

"Don't you dare!" Mr. Donovan shrieked. "Just tell me what you want?".

“You know, you know I have every right to do so. I can take your boy out. Right now!! I decide. I know you know that. And if slippery rocks don’t present a big enough problem, a little push, well, a little rock to his head… Like who would ever find out that that rock was kicked off by someone’s boot? They would probably never even find the rock, might not even suspect that it was it that got him down the fastest way.”

“Just tell me what you want?”

But Derran ignored his plea. "So, you do know this, this that I have every power to do so right now, but my question to you is, do you know that I have every bit sick mind to do just that? I bet if you talked to anyone who knew me, they would have warned you, didn't they?"

The man's face was frozen in disbelief, mouth trembling, a mind incapable to comprehend what is going on.

“I am not your fucken instructor, old man! And now that I know who you are, think! How much is it worth to you that I, at this very moment, don’t do something like that?? Only six hundred thousand?”

“If you do that…”

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Derran extended his hand to shut off the communicator.

"Six hundred fifty…seven hundred…?" the man spoke swiftly, eyes panicking.

His hand stopped, but the crazy look on Derran’s didn’t change.

“Eight hundred thousand? More? That is incredible!?”

"And I thought you loved your grandkid, build all this empire and have a family to help you grow it. Maybe I am talking to a wrong person, maybe I should be talking to his father or mother?"

“One million? But you better-“

“No!” Derran cut him off sharply. “I think I made it very clear, you do not make demands. You meet them, understand?”

“You would not dare do it?!”

“Ask the guys who gave you this number if I would not. You know, I do not even like the kid. What you need to do is ask yourself a question if that all he is worth to you. And don’t go cheap. I hate cheap.”

The next day, Derran called Wrankies into his office. He played him a full recording of that call.

“You see, they really do love you, to the point…” Derran said

“Sir…You were just kidding, right? I mean about taking me out-“

"Would I lie about a thing like that? You think I am the type who would do that?"

“No, Sir.”

“I mean a type of a man that would lie?”

“No, Sir.”

"And about the other stuff… The kid… I did a worse thing than that to people I did not even know. And you, as I said, I do not even like. I watched you around, how arrogant sometimes you behave, how much you like to splash to others about all the places you were able to travel to, how you had this and how you had that… I mean, if I take you out, I certainly know nobody here would miss you. Do you understand that?"

"Yes, Sir." The young man uttered it quietly, obviously hurt by his words.

Derran saw it clearly, nodded his head and pointed to Wrankies to sit down.

"You see, they have already sent the money. I mean, it is a lot of credits. There's no way that I will ever be able to make even half of that in my lifetime. And with that money, you know, I can live forever. So what do you think I should do?"

“Keep it. You can keep it if you want. I won’t tell anybody. Do with it whatever you want. I don’t care. But I will definitely not retire from the training now. If you want to, you can kill me. I know that. I don’t care.”

After that, Derran stared at the kid for a long time, neither of them saying anything. Nothing needed to be said. It was all understood. Wrankies’s face fully showed it all with tears that were hard to be fought back. He did not even need to continue, but yet he did. “I stay. I’ve got nowhere else to go. And if you thought my grandfather bad, you should meet my parents.”

Derran sighed. “They still love you.”

Wrankies smirked. “On some level, they probably do. But… they love some other stuff much more than they care about me. No, I am here. And if I do not make it, it’s okay that I end here.”

“You don’t need to. I actually want you to live. And of course, I cannot keep the money. I will forward it to the commission. I think they will be glad of 1.5 million credits to go into their budget.”

"You know, Sergeant, the sad part is how little my family has faith in me, how much they distrust that I cannot make it on my own. But the saddest part of it all is how much I am worth to them…One and a half million might seem a lot, but that is less than my father makes on one freighter in a single month. And he's got fifty of them. I guess that is the value of my life to my family, less than a month of work of one of their freighters…"

“So, what should we do with you then?”

“Just send me back home… I probably deserve it.”

“Stop that!” Derran raised his voice for the first time, seeing his eyes nailed to the floor. “Self-pity stinks, and I have no place for it here.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“So, raise your head and look me in the eyes as I talk to you.”

“Yes, Sir.”

"You listen to me now, boy, you can't choose your parents… they are who they are. You do not even need to judge them. It's all futile. You have not walked the road they had to know why they became who they are. Besides… maybe they are the best parents you can ever hope to have. I do not know. Nobody does. And all of that is beside the point anyway. The point is that none of us have control over our families or other people. We cannot choose how they behave, understand?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“We cannot control them. They are the way they are. Once you accept that, the fight stops, the struggle ends. You just accept them the way they are. However, that does not mean you have to be the same way.

"No, it doesn't. Because you have a lot of power residing inside of yourself. So much power, so much power… and all that power permits you to make your own decisions. So, you can pick your own path, choose who you are really going to be. You. Choose. That."

"You cannot change the past and erase your history. But that is all it is. Just your history. Today, this very moment, and every moment afterward, you have to know that you have the power to decide and shape yourself into a person who you want to be. It's really all up to you. Do you understand me?"

“Yes, Sir.”

“So, if you accept what I just told you, and you understand that you can decide who you are now and choose who you want to be in the future, why then get upset over what someone else does?”

“I do not know, Sir. Maybe I am hoping that they would be better.”

“Yeah, maybe that is what it is. And maybe, it is a way that our brain is trying to find an excuse to say, well, I failed because my parents are like this and like that… they didn’t do this and they have not done that… You can fill in this and that with all you want, but that servers nothing to help you… So, to say it in a simple term, no excuses and no blame games. That’s for the weak-minded, for those that decide they want to fail. And you… you are not going to be a quitter and blame your family for it, and you will move on and try to be one of the first emperor’s investigators in the history. Understand?”

“And when you get there… and if you listen to me, you will get there. That I do promise you, I bet my life on it… Then, you will not waste your life opportunity to try and regain their love and approval. You will be your own man. And just as you will accept them as they are, they should accept you. If they can’t, it will be their loss.”

Wrankies continued to intensively stare at him with gleaming eyes, forgetting even to breathe properly, and Derran nodded his head as he continued. “You - You will have enough integrity and knowledge of how money can change and influence people that you will never let it do the same to you… Because you, you are worth so much more than that.”