The rest of the ceremony passed in a blur and Alyra struggled to keep her discipline throughout. Years of practice made sure her mask of professionalism never broke, but she felt it crack a few times. At one point, she congratulated Shadron but had nearly lost her temper when the damn rich kid had the gall to look upset. Luckily, she just had to smile and shake their hand before leaving. Hadron gave her a worried look as she beelined out of the hall. A few called out to congratulate Alyra as she walked by but she only gave them a nod or quick salute and did not stop.
Alyra reached her quarters and closed the door. She stood there for a moment before sinking to her knees. Tears rolled down her cheeks, and her shoulders shook but no sound came from her. She knew she was being stupid. The ache in her chest and the empty numbness swallowed all attempts at reasoning.
She knelt for a while, just feeling the pain and letting it run it’s course. A notification blinked on her HUD and she was tempted to ignore it, regardless of who it was. Her rationality reasserted itself and she opened the message. It was a message from High Major Yessan, summoning Alyra to her office. She froze temporarily. What did the High major want with her?
With an effort, she pushed herself to her feet, wiping the tears from her eyes. Closing her eyes, Alra took a deep breath and reentered herself. With her emotions properly wrangled into submission again – with the exception of simmering anger and frustration that refused to be quelled – Alyra straightened her uniform and walked out the door. A glimpse in the mirror as she walked by it showed that her eyes were swollen and red from crying, but she couldn’t bring herself to care.
Despite her turbulent mood, she walked down the halls with purpose. She noticed absentmindedly that her hair was swirling in the air behind her like she was standing in a stiff breeze. She dismissed the phenomenon, thinking she must just be walking faster than usual in her frustration and anger, and she had no intention of slowing down.
Eventually she reached the last turn before the High Major’s office. The anger had started to boil, and she had to forcibly tamp it down. No matter how angry she was at the ridiculous placements, mouthing off to the High Major, the highest ranking officer on the vessel, would be a Bad Idea.
With her anger put properly away, Alyra walked with confidence towards the office. The two lieutenants flanked the door, and snapped a salute to her as she approached. Alyra returned the gesture and said: “Greetings Lieutenant Pilla, Sierra. I have been summoned to speak to the High Major.”
Pilla And Sierra lowered their salutes followed by Alyra.
“We’ve been expecting you, Lieutenant Alyra,” Sierra said with a smile, her bell like voice filling the hall, “Let us announce you.”
Without missing a beat, Pilla turned and rapped on the door.
“Lieutenant Alyra has arrived, sir,” they said facing the door. If Alyra hadn’t seen it several times before, she would have found it a little silly.
There was a muffled “come in” that came from the other side of the door. Pilla opened the door and nodded to Alyra. She returned the nod, and walked into the room with her back straight, instinctive assuming her confident posturing. Behind her, Alyra heard the distinctive foot steps of Sierra following her.
The High Major’s office was comfortable, but not extravagant. The Major sat behind a simple black desk made of metal and glass. On it’s top, she could see documents and diagrams that were pushed to the side while the middle was blank. The only other furniture were two chairs and a couch made of simple nano weave material that would conform to the user slightly to make the user more comfortable. With the wide variety of races the served in the Republic chairs like these were necessary to keep them all happy.
Alyra was surprised to see Hadron standing in the room as well, though it seemed he hadn’t been there much longer than she had. He was standing at parade rest with his hand clasped behind his back. The major was sitting behind her desk, watching Alyra as she entered. She stood to Hadron’s right and snapped a salute to the Major.
“First Lieutenant Alyra Cresti, reporting as requested,” he said. The major gave her a slight smile and stood, returning her salute.
“At ease, Lieutenant. Thank you for your quick response to my summons,” the High Major said, walking smoothly around her desk. Yessan had a smooth, melodic voice when she wasn’t speaking with the authority required to address recruits. Alyra was surprised at the friendliness in her voice. She chanced a glance at Hadron to try and get some clue what was going on, but he wasn’t revealing anything that she could make out.
“Of course, sir,” Alyra said, dropping the salute and standing at parade rest like Hadron.
“Now that you are both here, please, sit. We have much to discuss,” Yessan said, motioning to the seats.
Hadron and Alyra looked at each other out of the corner of their eyes, but waited to seat themselves until Yessan sat at the couch. Sierra positioned herself behind the major, standing at ease and smiling at Alyra and Hadron. With some trepidation, the pair sat at in the two chairs, the nano weave adjusting itself to conform to her form.
Yessan observed them for a moment, taking in their stiff posture and uncertain gazes before chuckling and waving a hand. A serving bot rolled out of a hidden door beside the desk carrying three beverages. It stopped by Yessan first who picked up a glass of translucent yellow liquid that fizzed slightly. The bot approached the newly minted Lieutenants next.
“Relax you two, this is my way of congratulating you for your promotions. You aren’t in trouble or anything. I took the liberty of ordering your favorite drinks according to your cafeteria profile, so please drink and relax,” the Major said, some amusement in her voice.
The pair shared another confused glance. There was a brief awkward silence before Hadron shrugged and grabbed a brown carbonated drink off the serving bot. Alyra knew it was something he called cola, and it was native to his home planet. It had caught on throughout the Republic when the human’s had their system invaded after they accidentally rammed a probe into a Republic scout. The carbonation made her want to sneeze, but Hadron drank it like his life depended on it.
Alyra took a green drink that steamed in its cup. It was a drink that was popular with most Drasee, but not this flavor. Most Drasee preferred the more bitter flavor of a plant that grew in their space habitats. She preferred the sweeter version based off a fruit found in a star system near where she was born. When Hadron had tried it, he claimed it tasted like thickened strawberry milk – whatever that was – and had promptly dumped it on a passing recruit. The food fight that day was forever emblazoned in legend.
Alyra relaxed slightly as she took a sip. The flavor always reminded her of her fathers and home. Yessan watched them and smirked. It bothered Alyra for some reason, and she was tempted to set the drink back down but decided against it. She had had a long day already, and it wasn’t even the midday meal.
“Again, congrats on your promotions. First and Second Lieutenant straight out of the gates is impressive. Most groups are lucky if they get one rank increase, maybe two. For the entire top 5 to get rank increases is truly astounding,” Yessan said, idly sipping at her drink.
Alyra’s hand hitched as she went to take another sip. The movement was barely noticeable, and she hid it quickly, but Yessan’s golden eyes locked onto her and the smirk deepened.
“Do you have something to say, Lieutenant? You may speak freely, I promise that what ever you say stays in this room,” Yessan said, the smirk transforming into a sly smile.
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Alyra knew it was a trap. There was no way a high ranking officer in the Republic Combined Forces would take any criticism of their actions well. The bottle that contained her pent up rage and frustrations shattered, and she felt it roil inside of her. Hadron gave her a startled look, and opened his mouth to say something, but he was too slow.
“With all due respect, High Major Yessan, I believe that your evaluation of this groups rankings was utter bullshit. Both of Hadron and I worked ourselves to the bone and then some, and beat Shadron," Alyra said their name with dripping contempt, “in both the combat simulations and academic tests. We both logged twice as much training time. And made sure our squads were constantly in the best shape we could.”
“Alyra!” Hadron tried to interrupt her tirade but Alyra had built up steam, and turned to him, her glare causing him to flinch. Some distant, still rational part of her mind knew that she should stop digging her own grave before she couldn’t get out, but she couldn’t stop now. It also noticed, vaguely, that Hadron’s hair seemed to be moving like a fan was blowing on him.
“Hardon, you know as well as I do that we should have ranked above that useless fool. You and I were neck and neck, as far as I could tell, for the last 5 years. Shadron was barely, barely, third rank by merit alone. I would have been able to accept the ruling if Hadron had ranked above me, but having neither of us rank above Shadron is insulting, and throws all that we have sacrificed for the Republic out the airlock. I cannot accept this.”
Alyra was aware of a dull rushing sound around her, and Sierra’s crystal hair fluttered, catching the light and scattering it. Alyra took a deep breath, and tried to calm down. The rushing sound stopped, and the room fell into a dead silence, broken only by Alyra’s heavy breathing.
The High Major stared at her. The smirk was gone, replaced by a look of utter and total surprise. A cold dread crept up Alyra’s spine as her brain caught up with her raging emotions. She was definitely going to lose her shiny new rank. She figured she would be lucky if she got sent home in disgrace. She wondered if there was need for a twinblade expert and space combat tactician in the private sector. She very much doubted it.
Yessan took a deep breath, and without any further warning, broke out into deep, sonorous laughter. Alyra blinked rapidly as she tried to process the Major’s laughter. Hadron looked just as confused as her, and looked rapidly between Alyra and Major Yessan. The Lieutenant standing behind her had the trace of a smile on her lips and her eyes glittered with amusement. Finally, the major had calmed down enough to speak again.
“That was perfect,” She said, wiping a tear from her eye, “We definitely made the right choice for this mission.”
Alyra and Hadron said nothing, choosing instead to look straight ahead. A bead of sweat ran down Hadron’s face, and Alyra could practically feel the tension rolling off of him. In fact, she noted off handedly, she definitely felt something from the man, like the temperature around him had risen a few degrees.
“What do you think, Hadron?” Yessan said, turning her gaze to the uncomfortable man.
Hadron remained silent for a moment, the muscles in his jaw flexing before his lips settled into a determined line.
“With all due respect, High Major, I agree with Lieutenant Alyra. I have been neck and neck with her for my entire training, and Commander Shadron was nowhere close to us,” He said with determination. Alyra felt a fierce glow of appreciation for Hadron, and silently thanked him for his straightforward and honest nature.
The major nodded and seemed to consider his words before saying: “Good. Neither of you are cowards and are willing to stick up for each other. Good, good. Well, I guess I should inform you that you both are correct. Both of you are lightyears ahead of that fop Shadron. Their posting was to keep them out of danger. It’s likely they will spend the next five years patrolling inner systems and feeling powerful before retiring and spending the rest of their life in their dad’s compound.”
Alyra felt her rage flare again, and again felt that strange sensation well up inside of her and the air in the room started circulating again around her. And this time, she was sure the area around Hadron was heating up. Yessan’s eyebrow went up, and her eyes flicked to the Gemini behind the two young Lieutenants. Unseen to Alyra or Hadron, Pilla nodded to the major.
“You two, however are going to do something much more important for the Republic. And more dangerous,” Yessan continued.
Aylra felt her anger freeze. It was replaced a sense of general confusion. What does that mean? she thought. She suppressed her anger again and forced herself to calm down.
“What do you think that wind was just now? Or the heat coming off Hadron there?” Yessan asked.
“I’m not sure what you mean, sir,” Hadron said, tilting his head slightly in confusion.
“The area around you rose by,” Yessan paused and her eyes flicked to something on her HUD before continuing. “14 degrees Celsius just now. And the air around Alyra started moving when it should be completely still in that area. You two have something special that many of us don’t.”
The thoughts in Alyra’s mind spun chaotically. So the wind that she heard wasn’t her imagination? And that heat she felt from Hadron wasn’t her mind playing tricks on her? What did that mean? There wasn’t a logical explanation that she could see. Yessan leaned forward, putting her elbows on her knees, and resting her head on her clasped hands.
“We have reason to believe that you two are capable of the same power the natives of this planet, which they call magic.”
Alyra’s first instinct was disbelief. Everyone knew magic was just a fairy tale, and whatever the natives of Faet’ra use was just some unknown technology. But how does that explain the wind just now? The logical part of her mind whispered. Alyra momentarily felt betrayed. Wasn’t logic supposed to be on her side? However, a small part of her couldn’t help but sparkle with childlike excitement. She still loved reading books about mages and wizards going on adventures and working powerful magic to defeat foes or bring down castles. Not that she would ever admit that to anyone.
“I can see that you don’t believe me. Well, let’s see if we can repeat those occurrences. After all, something being repeatable is the cornerstone of science,” Yessan said, sitting back and spreading her arms theatrically, “Try to identify the part of you that reacted to your strong emotions. We believe that there is something that resonates with strong emotions that can make manifesting magic easier.”
Alyra glanced at Hadron and their eyes met when he looked over at the same time. She could see the conflicting emotions in his eyes as well. Finally, he shrugged and faced forward, closing his eyes. Alyra followed suit.
The Major had said strong emotion helped magic to manifest. She considered reigniting her anger from before, but discarded the idea. Instead, she focused on a different memory, one from before she entered the officer’s academy. She closed her eyes.
In her mind’s eye, she stood in one of the many parks on the space station she grew up on. She was about 14, still a child for her kind, but one nearing adulthood. The bench she sat on was made of metal and carbon fiber and she wasn’t alone. The person sitting next to her was first love, and only one since. It was dark, the station dimmed to simulate night, and the park was empty except for them.
“I am leaving soon,” the other person said, their voice quiet and filled with emotion, “My family has been reassigned.”
Alyra didn’t say anything, instead sliding over so she was leaning on them. She slid her hand into theirs and the two of them sat in the dark park, silent. What words could she say that wouldn’t feel like empty lip service and hollow promises. Instead, she held them as close as she could, and desperately wished that this moment would last forever.
In the major’s office, the air began moving again, but instead of the swift current it was before, it was slow and heavy. Without realizing it, Alyra started humming. The sound resonated through her horns, becoming louder and more powerful. She could feel it now, the strange power that controlled the wind. It was impossible to accurately describe, but Alyra knew, instinctively, that she only had a limited amount and it was being consumed as her hum got louder. The feeling however, was like nothing she had ever felt before. Icy power ran through her veins that left burning trails as it went. The air around her once again felt like it was getting heavier and harder to breathe.
Beside her, she felt more than heard Hadron start humming as well, and the room instantly got warmer. The two sounds harmonized, and suddenly the intensity of the heat seemed to double, and the wind became thick, like jungle air after a rainstorm. However, the sounds felt slightly off to her, like it was missing a note in a chord.
Abruptly, she felt her power stop flowing, and she crashed out of her trance-like state, breathing heavily. Hadron’s voice also cut off, like her harmony had supported his magic as well and when she dropped out, his magic power also stopped flowing.
The room fell silent. Alyra looked around the office. It had been trashed. The seat that she sat in had several small cuts across it and Hadrons was burned around where he sat. The air in the room had a dry heat like a desert and Alyra could practically feel her lips starting to chap. Abruptly, the vents in the room opened and cold air rushed in to replace the superheated air with a drawn out hiss.
“That,” Yessan said, leaning forward in her chair, “was perfect.” A wicked grin split her face, and for the first time since the ceremony, Alyra felt a spark of hope.