47. Twilight

Academy Hill, Vidako

Imperium Stellarum

November 6, 2847

Cassie hummed to herself as she folded the last triangle of thin, gold paper up, using her nail to score a sharp crease. Then, she took a small piece of tape from where she’d left it stuck on her left finger and used it to secure the pointed top against the rest of the wrapping. Finally, she flipped the package over, took a pen from where she’d set it aside, and carefully wrote, ‘To: Arc, From: Cassie.’ While she’d have enjoyed spending the day with him down in The Valley, Arc’s not-so-subtle expedition with Pika had given her a chance to make her own preparations for the winter break without risk of discovery.

The paper, the tape and the marker had come from the commissary, while the package had arrived on the most recent cargo ship to have made a stop at Terra. The same ship had taken a large box in return, filled with presents for her father, mother, and brother. She’d picked out shirts with the academy logo on them, which she’d wrapped around a framed picture of herself in her academy uniform. There was a package of holo-files, as well, containing more pictures and a recorded message, as well as a hand-written card. She only hoped that, one, the abundance of presents would defuse her mother’s temper, and, two, that Admiral Nakagami wouldn’t bear the brunt of Cordelia Anne Sabran-Solaris’s disappointment that neither of her children would be home for the holiday.

This particular celebration seems rife with contradictions, Lyra mused, while Cassie carried Arc’s present over to the closet and packed it inside of her empty suitcase for safe-keeping until their flight to New Toledo. My databases record that it is a fusion of traditions developed across centuries throughout a variety of pre-colonization Terran nation-states, half of them apparently more secular than religious. I have media archives of everything from an ‘abominable snowman’ to an apparently radioactive cervid purported to fly through the air.

Cassie laughed, closed the closet door, and headed back over to the desk to clean up the mess she’d made. “Welcome to the mess that is religion in the imperium,” she told the AI. “Try not to think about it too hard.”

She’d just put the leftover tape away in one of the desk drawers, along with the pair of scissors which had become a sort of communal property for the room, when the dorm door opened and Rain stalked in.

“It is time for dinner,” the Alu’kan girl declared, her voice more firm than Cassie could recall from any time other than their unarmed combat practices.

Cassie nodded. “I’m just about ready to head down.” She scanned the desk one last time, to make certain that she hadn’t missed anything, and then followed Rain out and down to the dining hall. To her surprise, she found a small group of women waiting for them, including not only Vee, but also Natalie Ramírez, Jessica, and C’rise. All four of them were carrying packed containers of food.

“What’s going on?” Cassie asked, as Rain ushered her toward the end of the line.

“We’re getting food and eating somewhere else,” Rain said. “To go, please,” she told the server on the other side of the trays of food.

Cassie had the distinct impression that she was being ambushed.

With a member of the imperial guard present, I estimate the possibility of any serious harm coming to us to be quite low, Lyra said. Two pieces of evidence corroborate this conclusion. First, none of the women waiting for us appear to be carrying concealed weapons of any kind. Secondly, their body language does not –

Not a literal ambush, Cassie told the AI, interrupting her. More that Rain’s planned something, and I don’t have the slightest idea what it is.

‘What,’ it turned out, was that everyone took their meals and followed Rain up to the top floor of Tycho Hall, where she led them to a short set of stairs which ended in a door out onto the roof. Cassie would have expected such a thing to be locked, but at her friend’s approach, a red light went out and a green blinked on.

One of the two suns had dipped down to touch the western horizon, while the second still hung fat and bright just above the trees and buildings of campus. A purple-orange spray of clouds spread out from west to east, ending in the first glittering stars visible in the encroaching darkness of an evening sky. With three storeys beneath her feet, and below that Academy Hill, Cassie could see all of San Teodoro laid out around them, to the west, the east, and the north.

There were three high points, two on the west side of the river, and one on the east, with gently sloped valleys between them, and they were connected by two bridges which stretched over the river—and over The Pylons, the slums where the street gangs reigned. Cassie could see the imposing structures of Government Hill across the river, and just north of it, wedged between the rise and the coast, a cluster of glass towers which made up Downtown. Cassie’s eyes were as close to perfect as a human’s could be, and she could pick out the lit signs of the city’s most prominent businesses: Meridian Power Corporation, Great Bay Shipping, Broadleaf Arms, and the First Bank of San Teodoro.

On the third hill, Uptown was glittering. There, elegant towers were meant for living, not for business, and they were adorned with balconies and rooftop gardens. Cassie could see patches of greenery marking parks, and then the hill sloped down toward the ocean, and Coastside. Beyond it all, across a short stretch of bay, lay the island which contained the spaceport and the Pinnacle Space Elevator, a line of blinking lights stretching up into the sky.

“Over here,” Rain said, collecting them all, and picked her way through a series of pipes, ducts, and humming air conditioning units. Cassie and the others followed her over to a clear section of room on the west side, and a sudden gust of wind brought the scent of the ocean over. A blanket had been paid out on the roof, and Rain sat down on it, leaving plenty of room for the rest of them.

Everyone seemed to hesitate for a moment, so Cassie carried her to-go container over, found her place next to Rain, and opened up her dinner. Natalie was next, settling down on Cassie’s other side, followed by Jessica, then Vee, and finally C’rise. By the time every one of the women had taken a seat, Cassie had a forkful of vat-grown pork loin in her mouth.

“So tell me the truth,” Natalie Ramírez asked, leaning out in front of Cassie so that she could look straight at Rain. “Did you crack the locks? Did you have your AI do it?”

Rain shook her head and looked down at her food. “I told Karisa that I needed a place I could go to be alone sometimes,” she admitted, voice so low that Cassie had to strain to hear it over the wind off the ocean. “Back during the second week of Hard Burn. She talked to Doctor Seung, and they agreed to give me access to the roof. I try not to come up here unless I really need it.”

Cassie chewed her pork, swallowed, and read between the lines. She’d never pushed Rain to tell the full story of her childhood, but the summary from Orion had been enough to tell her the girl had been thoroughly traumatized. Of course, if there was one aspect of mental health that fleet was absolutely equipped to treat, it was post-traumatic stress disorder. She had to admit that she was a bit curious about what her friend’s psych evaluation would say.

“It’s nice,” Cassie said, putting that thought aside quite deliberately. “Especially at sunset.”

Rain smiled, but didn’t relax, while the other women opened their dinners one after the next and began to eat. Finally, she seemed to have worked her courage up enough to speak again. “Vee and Cassie, you’re both my friends,” she said. “C’rise is our roommate. I don’t like that you’re fighting.”

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Ramírez laughed out loud, and had to raise her hand to her mouth so that she didn’t spray out half-chewed potatoes. “Oh, I get it. This is an intervention. Not sure why I’m here, though.”

“Because you’re part of the team now,” Rain answered.

“And the upperclassmen aren’t?” the tech asked. “Ireti Ọlatẹru and the rest of them?”

Rain set her fork down and shook her head. “They won’t be for long,” she explained. “We all have three and a half more years here, even after they’re gone. That’s why we need to stick together.”

I wonder how much of this comes from the Alu’kan need for a pod, Cassie wondered. Even if her friend wasn’t actually raised in one.

It would make a fascinating study, Lyra agreed.

“And I presume I’m here because, now that the secret’s out, you knew I’d be somewhere around anyway,” Jessica grumbled. “I suppose at least this way I get to sit down and eat my food. Alright girls, go ahead and work your drama out, then.”

“There’s no drama,” Cassie said, and then froze as Rain, Jessica, and Natalie all looked directly at her. Both Rain and Jessica managed to keep a straight face, but the tech student was practically cackling.

“That is not true,” Rain insisted. “You and Vee have hardly talked to each other in days. You used to be friends.”

“We still are,” Vee said, with a slump to her shoulders. “It’s just—awkward. For me, probably. I’m the problem, not Cassie.”

“Because you feel badly about Arc,” C’rise broke in, speaking for the first time. “You like him.”

Until that moment, Cassie didn’t think she’d ever seen a Torean blush before. She wondered whether they could all do it.

“You can’t just come out and say things like that,” Vee sputtered. “That’s private, and that’s why Cassie’s always had a problem with you!” She turned to meet Cassie’s eyes, and lowered her voice. “Anyway, I wasn’t gonna make it your problem. It’s my issue, and I’ll get over it. No big deal. You’re my friend, he’s a good guy, I’m happy for you, enjoy yourselves. Sorry it got awkward.”

“It’s alright,” Cassie said. “I probably should have talked to you sooner, honestly.” She set her fork down, picked her way across the blanket, and then kneeled down to wrap her arms around her friend. “Really, it’s ok. You haven’t done anything wrong. I was just trying to give you a bit of space. But no more cutting classes, alright? I want us all to graduate together.”