A Soldier For All Seasons Ch. 25

Nate bled a trail to the finish line, streaking red over fresh snow, his vision blacking in and out.

"Almost there," Lunar urged. "They have a big gold flag on a pole, stretching above the trees, even."

"Guh," Nate dribbled blood down his chin, mustering his strength. He wanted to walk across the finish line of his own accord.

But as they made their way past spiky pines, they heard the finish before they saw it. A ship settling, the trees shaking in its wake, the unmistakable roar of the engine, the clap-clap-clap-clap o as ship's legs settled down, the hiss of the ramp unfolding.

Through the dense pack of trees, Rivero stalked toward them. Her black eyecovering was awash with red...and hung around her neck. The full fury of those glowing red eyes stormed toward them. Even her long shock of beautiful ivory hair was bloody.

Nate limped forward to meet her.

"Are you okay?" He got out first.

Her lips twisted. Annoyance or humor, he couldn't tell. "Are you?"

"No," He said honestly. "Bastian — the inside man. One of them. He had five others, trainees or smuggled in, I don't know. Snowmobiles, guns." His breath cut off, his lungs hurting. So much to say, but his words failed. "H-he said they were purging the whole Judge programme. The trainees. You. The Admiral. We fought...things got out of control."

"For you and me both. Is he dead?" She said shortly. Her head tilted to the side, considering him.

"Yes."

"And his—"

"Dead. All dead."

"Good job."

"Lunar helped. The Admiral?"

"Dead." She lowered her head.

"Fuck." Nate bit out.

"Yes."

"I," Nate took a long painful breath. "I think Bastian was going to finish the trainees at the finish line, the ones that—" He trailed off.

"Yes," Rivero's eyes glowed. "I've taken back control of our drone array. I'll send them to pick up those still out there." She snapped her fingers, gesturing someone forth. "The people I trust will search for in the places the drones can't. You've got questions — they'll have to wait."

"Ok." Nate's knees buckled. Lunar held him up.

"Get this man medical assistance, now." Rivero barked behind her.

He hobbled past her. Her hand on his arm stopped him. "Nate?" She squeezed his arm, looked past him with a distant stare, shoulders low. "Thank you."

The words didn't come. He nodded and moved away.

###

Nate sat in a rickety wooden chair, watching as his fellow trainees streamed into the Oversight deck, a swarm of medics fussing over them. Not as many as there was, and those that remained were gaunt, bloody, blue. The lucky walked. Some lay in stretchers, straight to the medbay. Some took a different direction, zipped into body bags.

Nate watched it all with tired eyes. Lunar stood next to him, a silent guardian, her fingers tousled in his hair.

He embraced Hakeem when he saw him, the triumph on the man's face dissipating when he saw Nate's condition. Lita clutched him too tightly, shaking in his arms. Graziano was silent, pale, even as he joined them. His hand trembled.

Finally, when people stopped streaming in, Rivero stood on some crates. Her deep red eyes glowed evermore, its black covering abandoned. Nate wondered if she'd even noticed.

Her voice was firm when she spoke, but her tone was flat. "As soon as you were dropped into the wilderness, we were attacked by a well organised mass attack on the entire Judge camp. They hit our camps. The dorms, the offices. They were well equipped — some of the attackers came from within. They killed Admiral Li—" She took a deep breath. "My friend."

She held her arms behind her back and then held them in front of her and then finally rested them by her side. Nate had never seen her like this. "My friend Carmichael turned out to be...not my friend." Her jaw set. "A traitor. In this camp," She gestured to the medics, to the staff that remained. "We had to fight for your lives."

The silence was stifling — Nate felt it in his throat, like it took even his breath. "And yet — and yet," Rivero tilted her head. "I know that what we went through did not compare to what you have all been through."

The crowd buzzed, stifled rage, confusion. "I have excuses, many." She said. "They took control of our drone array, halved them in number. They used the crates to direct many of you, to trap you, and to starve the others." She stared down at her hands. "We could not recover the drone command center."

Rivero looked around with dull eyes. "We should have seen it coming, should have seen their preparations, should have realized something was wrong."

"No," She reconsidered. "I should have seen it coming. We failed you." Her chin trembled. "I failed you."

A man sobbed, loud and sharp, breaking the silence. But it was a woman he didn't know who spoke, a Revert. Five of her twigs shook, like there was a storm inside that transparent bowl. "I offer the fullness of apologies, but what remains of the Judges? What will be the fate of the organization?"

If anything, Rivero looked even more miserable. "We are still waiting to hear back from our people in the field. We number few already, because few can be trusted..." She laughed bitterly at her own words. "I...I have spoken to the Council already. They will send support, with our own people pulling out of their active missions."

Her spine bowed. Nate felt a pang of sympathy. "Considering my failures, I suspect that I shall be removed from my position as the lead instructor here."

"What about the traitors?" It was Hakeem that asked that, his fists clenched.

"Of the traitors, we know only of Bastian of the Eagles." All eyes met his team. Nate swallowed. "Nathan Clancy has kindly doled out an appropriate punishment already. We do know he had help — at this point, we believe that help was smuggled in on the far side of the planet."

A Lops woman stood up, ears blood-red to match her bloody face, her chair scraping on the floor sharply. "I don't give a fuck about them, what about the rest? Is this all of us?"

Rivero scanned them all. "My best people are searching. However, of those who have not yet returned, it is highly likely they are dead."

"Fuck you!" The woman cried. She ran forward, slammed into Rivero. The Voor woman didn't flinch — stepped off the crate, let the woman slap her. It was like slapping stone. The woman buckled, went to her knees, weeping. The grief wracked through her body like a wave, arms stretched, nails digging, back arched, legs bouncing uncontrollably. From the floor, she gasped out. "You - you put weapons in crates. You put us naked in freezing conditions, amongst the monsters and the wolves. And then you fucking dare to pretend to care when we die?"

The crowd murmured in agreement. Rivero nodded. "You're right, in some ways. My assignment here was to break you and remake you. To make killers, unbreakable unshakable killers, killers who could make decisions no one else could. And..." Rivero swallowed something in her throat. "And to put those conditions in place, there was an...acceptable death rate." She didn't wince. Nate watched for it. "All of you knew that coming in." She stared around the room, meeting their gaze evenly.

"But—" Someone started.

"But," Rivero held her hand up, cutting them up. "But the risks have far outweighed any benefits of joining the Judge programme. I know that. That, that is my failure."

Nate didn't expect it to be Lunar's voice that spoke next, her fingers digging into his shoulder. "When Nate was first attacked in the medbay, you should have known then of the threat."

Rivero smiled grimly. "I should have. I thought I knew the last perpetrator. I wasn't even close. I," She exhaled a long breath that blew her white bangs high. "I was arrogant."

Someone's voice muttered, but it was loud enough for everyone to hear. "They never should have put a Voor in charge."

Rivero flinched but said nothing.

"What will happen to us?" A voice came from the crowd.

"While the council investigates, I cannot graduate you, with my own abilities in doubt." Rivero said honestly. "I ask you all to return home for the time being. As soon as we have cleared house, we will be in touch — we need the time to understand if more...rot remains amongst the Judges."

"This is fucking bullshit." Nate heard. The room grumbled. Some wiped wet eyes. Rivero was implacable.

"There are shuttles arranged to depart to any of the three nearby planets. Alternatively, you may continue to stay in your dorms and wait for own transportation."

Slowly, they trundled out of the room — sleep-deprived, shellshocked — to find a bed, Nate imagined. They looked how he felt.

Nate waited until they'd all left, even his own team. Except Lunar, who simply shook her head when he looked at her.

Rivero was expecting him. She just threw him a look as she reviewed her tablet, showing various drones flying back to base.

Nate crossed his arms. He wasn't going to let her dismiss him. "What about the bug threat? The reason behind all of this. The invasion — you have to know that all of this—" he threw his arms wide— "was just the first step." t

Rivero scrunched her face up. "I'm stuck here, Clancy. I can't do anything — I'll be lucky if I'm not bodyguarding popstars next month."

He ran a hand through his hair, turning in place. She didn't see. Nobody saw. The bugs were coming. Traitors everywhere. Where would they hit next? Something big. Something to weaken them, to panic them, to split the Lunari, the Fed—"The Jubilee!" He took her tablet and threw it aside. "The Fed Jubilee, it's next week. That's where they'll hit." He rubbed his neck. "The Judges are being pulled off, the Admiral dead," He muttered to himself. "The Council's will be all over the place, panicking...they'll hit the Jubilee."

Rivero wrinkled her nose. "Really, Nate? The Jubilee is the most protected party in the galaxy. Nothing's getting through that blockade. They're moving entire battlecruisers around it."

His anger boiled over. Didn't she see? "Fucking damnit, Rivero, would you wake the fuck up?"

Her eyes widened but he was on a roll. "It's a systematic fucking dismantling of our whole alliance. First the Lunari, Ana — fuck, maybe they even have her now. Then they hit you, the Judges. What comes next? The Federation. Don't you see? They're laying the ground for a full scale invasion — removing the leadership, causing panic, splitting us up."

Rivero was silent, looking down at the ground, processing. Finally, she stared at him. "Fine. Fine. I'll talk to the right people but I've been ordered to remain here. We're trying to clean our own house," She paused, looking at him in a new light. "But you're not a Judge. Not yet. You could go to the Jubilee."

Nate laughed, pulled at his hair. "How the fuck am I going to get an invite..." He trailed off, realizing.

Rivero smiled wryly at the look on his face. "Yeah."

"Yeah." He repeated. "That feels dirty."

"Using your royal girlfriend to get into the biggest party of the year?" Rivero raised her eyebrow. "Yeah, I'm sure she'd hate it."

"I don't want to use Ana that way."

"Use me what way?"

Nate turned around slowly. Ana. Ana! Ana, standing on the deck, innocent in her white sundress, like she'd come from a picnic. He swept her up and squeezed her tight.

"Ana, you're okay. Ana, Ana, Ana," He babbled, burying his head into her hair, willing himself not to cry. She was warm. She was real. She smelled like vanilla.

"Hey, hey, I'm okay, I'm here. Sssh..." She murmured softly, hand caressing the nape of his neck, wrapping up into his hair. "I'm fine, it's okay. We're okay."

He held her at arms length, examining her, turning her round. "How—what, I mean, why?"

She melted into him, hands examining his gel-stasis bandages, his injuries. "We found how they signaled the Prince to leave Tallaris when the bugs invaded," Ana threw a look at Rivero. "And the signal lead back here."

"You're a couple of days late." Rivero grimaced. "Carmichael sent it probably, but it could have been any of Jarek's grunts. Even Jarek himself." She considered. "It seems we have a lot of cleaning to do."

Nate stared at Ana in amazement, still in disbelief that she was here. "So the Prince was a traitor?"

Rivero hummed. "Is that why I'm being told that he was murdered in his own ship...did you have something to do with it?"

Ana rolled her eyes. "Yes, I, the Princess of the Lunari, murdered the Prince."

"Good answer, keep it that way." The white-haired woman said simply, picking her tablet up again.

Nate felt like he was in hallucinating. Ana, the Prince, murder? "What, what? Ana?" He caught Cora over her shoulder, looking guilty. "Cora?!"

Ana gripped his hands, tugged him back to her. "We are okay." She repeated gently. "I'm with you. I'm not leaving again."

"No," Nate crumpled, burying his face into her hair. "No, we're not."

She stroked his skin soothingly, pausing on his injuries. "You know, I'm getting tired of you being hurt — oh, hi, Lunar!" She caught sight of Lunar, who stood silently at the side.

"Greetings, Princess Anariel." Lunar cleared her throat. "We have much to discuss."

Ana's smile was mysterious. "Do we now? How intriguing." Her hand traced his hip. "Speaking of intrigue, why did you say 'I don't want to use Ana that way'?" She tugged at his lip and whispered. "You must know I'm useful in many ways."

Nate took a deep breath and looked around. Ana, her white dress ruined his mud and blood, but glowing with happiness. Cora, with new enchanting eyes — had he done that? Lunar, who'd found some hospital scrub pants to go along with her puffer coat — staring with adorable and unblinking intensity. And pretending not to listen, Rivero.

"It's like this." Nate pinched the bridge of his nose. "We need to go to the Federation Jubilee and into the big party in order to prevent an alliance of traitors from assassinating someone. Or everyone."

A moment of silence.

"Well, you're never boring." Ana murmured.

Cora chuckled.

Lunar perked up. "A battle, then?"

"Almost certainly." Nate said.

"Then I shall accompany you—"

Ana threw her a sharp look.

"...if I am welcome of course." Lunar continued.

"Of course you are." Ana smiled happily.

Nate looked between them, unsure what just happened. "Of course you are," he said slowly. He frowned, thinking of something. "But the ship only has one master bed and one little cot and there's four of us."

In the corner, he thought he heard Rivero snort.

Ana kissed his cheek, eyes twinkling. "Oh," She said lightly. "I'm sure we'll manage somehow."

###

Nate leaned down to grab his shirt from the dorm floor and then gasped, sheer burning heat searing through his shoulder. The adrenaline had long since worn off, leaving only torturous pain.

"Nate!" Ana admonished him. "I said to let me pack." She examined his shoulder.

"I was trying to help." He grumbled.

"Can't you take some painkillers?" Lita frowned.

He shook his head. "Got addicted to that shit back in the Battle of Lagashay. Used to knock 'em all back, every brand, type. Can't take them anymore, it fucks with my head."

"So you're just going to be in pain forever?" Ana scowled.

"Seriously, hun, you like me better like this." He sighed in relief as he leaned back on the pillows she fluffed, cradling his arm. One arrow had gone through his left shoulder, the other through his left forearm — now the adrenaline had dissipated, it left his whole left side unusable. "Besides, they've used that weird gel shit and injected it into the hole to start patching cells up. I'll be right as rain before you know it."

"Right as rain." Lunar tested the sentence out, sitting on her own bed, blankets made, bags packed — if it weren't for the bandage on her arm and some cuts on her face and hands, she'd look like she'd just been on vacation.

The rest of his team packed quickly and settled on their own beds, watching that last empty bed, its owner conspicuously absent. Bastian.

"I'm sorry." Nate said softly. "I didn't have a choice."

"Don't be sorry." Graz growled. "He made his choice. Just another traitor."

Nate felt the emotion welling up, reaching for his eyes. He needed to sleep. But there were conversations still to be had before he could rest. "How...how did you all do in the trial?"

Hakeem shrugged, a light smile on his face that didn't reach his eyes. "I met a dude I know on Plasma, we tag-teamed our way for a while, felt pretty good. Then some fucking assholes tried to kill us with this insane improv bear trap they made. It really fucked my leg." He pointed at his leg, which was wrapped from ankle to knee in a blue-gel pad, pulsating slowly. "They've stasis'd it for now because they're busy, but they're going to operate on it in a few hours, hopefully."

"You'll be—" Lita started.

"I'll be fine." He waved her away.

"How did you get out?" Graz leaned over to poke at his leg. Hakeem swatted him away.

"They tried to strangle me while I was stuck." The short man snorted, pointing at his neck, which was almost as thick as his entire head. "Barely felt a thing but it got them nice and close so I got my revenge." He bared his teeth. "After that, we were slow and I was leaving a blood trail. We chased this snow deer into a cave, managed to brain it with a rock I threw, you shoulda seen it, unbelievable throw, honestly."

Lita caught Nate's eyes and rolled her own.

"We got stuck in that cave though, there was a pack of like ten wolves outside, followed us or the deer, I dunno. We had to boulder the cave shut, sat in there for hours and hours. But we had the deer to eat, so..." Hakeem shrugged.

"And you, Lita?" Nate wondered. He knew his team was good, respected them. But the trial had challenged resilience and luck more than anything.

She scratched her neck, looking embarrassed. "Nothing exciting, not like you two. I found this girl I knew too, teamed up. We found this fluorescent orange jacket in a crate early on and it clicked that it was kinda the same color as a crate."

"You didn't." Nate laughed.

"We did! Made some fake crates, sat back and watched, stole some food and weapons off the idiots." Lita's smile dropped. "We took off but when we realized the flares weren't doing anything, we went back for the people we'd tricked."

"You're such a girl." Hakeem chuckled.

"Fuck off, pirate-leg." Lita threw her pillow at him.

Nate just laughed.

"Anyway," She glared at him. "We ended up taking them with us, one big group. Got pretty far but we hid when we heard these snowmobiles coming out way. Good thing too..." She trailed off.

That was a good thing, Nate thought, paling. They would have all been gunned down.

"I'm glad you did." Nate told her. "And you, Graz?"

"Yeah, well, you know." He started, fidgeting. "Didn't get a chance to show them all everything I could do, it was bullshit that we were naked. I—it was so cold, you know?"

"It's fine, Graz. As long as you survived, you won." Lita told him encouragingly.

"Yeah, well, didn't deserve it." He said darkly. "Some guy gave me his coat and some food once he realized I was part of the Graziano family. Then I just walked around aimlessly, couldn't really where to go." He slumped back against the wall. "I ended up following these people north but I saw them—" His words failed him. "I saw them get taken by this crazy ginger guy, huge dude, you've seen him around properly. I watched what he did to them. Brutal..." Graziano swallowed. "I've seen some shit in my family, but even we have a code, you know? I got scared. Hid. Buried myself in a snowbank. I'm not proud but..." He brought his knees up, resting his arms on them.