5: The Adversity

Academy Hill, Vidako
Imperium Stellarum
August 12, 2847

“Easy.”

Arc felt an enormous hand on his back, steadying him, and a glance over his shoulder showed him that Pika was there, solid and unmoving as a tree trunk. We’ve hardly known each other for a couple hours, Arc realized. The Alu’kan who shared his bunk didn’t have any real reason to get involved, and yet here he was. Arc resolved to remember it.

Cassie, with another girl on each side of her, faced Cadet Van Camp with absolutely no fear. It didn’t surprise Arc—how could she possibly be intimidated by some random cadet, when her father was the emperor of the entire Imperium Stellarum?—but one of the girls at her elbow was clearly terrified.

She was an Alu’kan, like Pika, but she must have been half the size, and the way she curled in on herself and wrapped her arms around her torso made her look even smaller. The way Cassie stood next to the girl looked downright protective, Arc realized.

“Is there something you need, sir?” Cassie asked.

Van Camp’s face twitched, as if he were struggling to suppress a simmering anger. “I wanted to apologize,” he finally said, and the words sounded about as sincere as a truant child who’d been dragged up in front of the class by their teacher. “I shouldn’t have addressed you by your title in front of the other cadets.” His gaze shifted past Cassie, into the crowd of students who’d slowed or stopped to observe what was happening.

Arc followed the older boy’s gaze, and saw that the first class cadet who’d taken the girls under her wing earlier in the day, Cadet Ọlatẹru, was watching. She nodded, silently, but didn’t walk away.

For just a moment, Arc thought that Cassie was about to let Van Camp have it, anyway: her eyes practically burned with contempt. But instead, she simply nodded. “Apology accepted, sir. Think nothing of it. Was there anything else?”

Van Camp and Ọlatẹru exchanged another glance, and then he shook his head. “No. Good evening, cadets.” With that, he turned and strode off into the crowd, toward the dormitories.

The moment he was safely away, the Torean girl on Cassie’s other side bounced on her feet and let out a warbling noise halfway between a raspberry and a jeer. Her cerulean crest of feathers bounced in the air. “What a jerk,” she exclaimed.

“Are you alright?” Cassie asked, turning to meet Arc’s eyes. “We all saw him push you.”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Arc assured her. “Pika here made sure I didn’t faceplant or anything. Um, Cassie, this is Pika, my bunkmate. Pika, this is -”

“Cassie Sabran-Solaris, cadet fourth class,” Cassie said, stepping forward and extending her hand. It was practically consumed in Pika’s enormous grasp, but the big Alu’kan must have been very careful of his own strength, because Cassie didn’t even flinch. “This is Vee Nightjar,” she said, once their hands had parted, and made a motion to indicate the Torean girl. “And Rain Makani. We’re all in the same dorm room. Girls, this is Arc Sandhurst—we met on the elevator down.”

“Hello, boys!” Vee flitted over to Pika first, and then Arc, offering her hand briefly to each of them. When Arc’s turn came, he was astounded at how delicate the girl felt. He wasn’t strong by any means—in fact, the only physical exercise he’d ever done was the kind that was forced upon every student from primary school through secondary. But he was absolutely positive that if he’d simply squeezed, he could have broken every bone in her fingers as easily as snapping a twig.

The Alu’kan girl, on the other hand, didn’t approach any closer, didn’t offer her hand, and in fact hadn’t even raised her eyes. When she spoke, Arc had to lean forward to be certain he caught her words. “Hello.”

At Arc’s side, Pika stirred. “An interesting name,” he rumbled. “Ole’Alu doesn’t have the human ‘r’ sound. You’re of mixed descent, I’d guess? Born off the ringworlds?”

Rather than answer, Rain hid behind Cassie. The motion was furtive, frightened, and one glance at Pika’s face was enough to tell Arc just how much it not only shocked the big man, but hurt him, as well.

“Could I -” Arc hesitated. If someone had told the Arc of only a standard month ago that he’d be saying this to a princess imperial, he’d never have believed it. “Could I talk to you for a moment, Cassie? Maybe on the way back to Tycho Hall?” Even using the nickname felt as if he was intruding somehow, assuming an unearned familiarity that would have half a dozen imperial guards emerge from the shadows and tackle him.

“Sure,” Cassie said. “Vee, can you walk Rain over?”

“Can do!” The Torean cadet practically snatched Rain Makani up by the arm and dragged her off. To Arc’s surprise, the Alu’kan girl didn’t flinch at the touch, and practically fled the scene in relief.

“I will catch up with you at the dining hall,” Pika said. “Perhaps we can find our dorm-mates, as well.” He hurried away, following the two young women at a deliberate distance.

“He seems nice enough,” Cassie said, watching the big man leave.

“Yeah,” Arc agreed. “He seems like the kind of guy who likes to watch out for the people around him. Did you catch how surprised he was when your friend flinched away from him?”

Cassie nodded. “I did. Rain’s—well. She doesn’t seem very comfortable with men. Shall we walk?”

Arc nodded, and stepped off, pacing himself at her side. For all the confidence with which she held herself, now that they were neither seated next to each other, nor preoccupied hauling luggage, he was surprised to find that he was just a touch taller. “It feels awkward to say this right after Van Camp, but I wanted to apologize,” he said. It was terrifying, but he pushed ahead without stopping so that he could get all the words out before he ran out of courage. “I didn’t—well, I guess you probably guessed that I didn’t have any idea who you were. I hope I didn’t do anything to upset you.”

“You really, really didn’t,” Cassie said. “I didn’t come here to be treated like a princess, Arc. I came here to be a mech pilot. The entire idea of being a part of fleet is to be treated just like everyone else, for once.”

“I’m not sure that’s possible,” Arc admitted. Overhead, lights flickered on, casting pools of white light down on the paths which wound through the campus.

“Not now that asshole blurted it out to everyone,” Cassie grumbled.

Arc winced. “They all already knew though, didn’t they? Or at least suspected—that’s why the only empty seat on the elevator was next to you, wasn’t it.”

“Maybe. Still, it would have been nice to not have it blow up in my face on the very first day,” Cassie complained. “But none of that’s your fault, Arc. And you don’t need to worry about having offended me. If I’d wanted to be treated like I was at a state dinner, I would have presented myself that way. I didn’t, and I don’t.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Good—I’m glad,” he said. “I was worried that, you know, I’d maybe made a single friend here, and then already messed things up.”

Cassie nodded her head to the shadow of Pika’s body, far enough ahead of them to be indistinct, large enough to be recognizable at a glance. “I think you might have made two, actually.”

“You know, I think I might have,” Arc said, with a smile. “You think we can get all of them to sit down at the same table and get to know each other?”

“I bet that we can.”