Orbital Academy IV

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by MaddiroseX

(Did you love this story? Hate it? Want a sequel? Please let me
know at maddirosex@gmail.com!)

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*I wonder if this is an abuse of power,* Jane idly mused,
dragging her carbon scraper across the nose of her cruiser. She
had been pondering the question for the past few hours, as the
rookies complained and joked and chatted around her. *The problem
is that on the one hand, I can't resist a man who knows his way
around a cruiser and can keep it clean...but on the other, any
pilot worth anything will have that knowhow...*


Jane finally decided that these mechanic exercises were for the
rookies' own good. Everyone appreciated a squadmate who knew how
their ship ran, man or woman. *Thus,* she reasoned, smashing a
chunk of charred carbon from the intake valve with satisfaction,
*forcing the rookies to learn the ins and outs of their cruisers
isn't an abuse of power at all. Well, no more than normal.*


Although no one had actually accused her of overstepping her
authority, Jane couldn't exactly say she had been easy on her set
of rookies since they had gotten there four months ago. She
couldn't even say she'd been fair to them. From the first day,
she had been as tough on her rookies as she would have been on
any of her pilot or captain friends in a squad. She had held her
rookies to standards impossibly high, then gently advised and
guided when they failed to reach those goals.


The other captains frowned and tutted, timidly offering her
advice. The rookies under other captains gave her rookies pitying
looks in the hallways, and gave her terrified glances whenever
they saw her. Her rookies complained to her whenever they had the
chance...but...


*They're good.* Jane thought with pride, *far better than I was
as a Rook. Maybe better rookies than any of us were.* She glanced
around the hangar, its huge space littered with the nine docked
ships of each of her rookies in addition to the one she was
sitting on. When she saw that Tess was using the wrong tool to
clean the lower thrust drive, Jane waited for a moment, watching
out of the corner of her eye. She didn't have to say a word;
within a few moments Jackson tossed his mecaspanner from halfway
across the hangar, calling out "Heads up Tess."


With barely a glance in his direction Tess snatched the tool from
the air, her extensive reflex training making the action second
nature, barely worthy of comment. She looked at the instrument in
confusion for a moment, then made the connection and started to
work on the lower thrust drive again. *They really have no idea
how impressive their progress has been,* Jane half-marveled,
*They spend all their time together, they're clueless about how
far ahead of the other rookies they really are.*


Jane, on the other hand, was not clueless. In addition to her own
memories of her awkward first year at the Academy, she had a
bigger picture that let her compare. On the first morning of
every week, the captains assembled in the Capitol Lounge, a huge
and comfortable retreat only open to captain-level and above.
Officially the weekly meeting was to schedule the station's
facilities, to make sure that no room or equipment would be in
conflict for the rookies. Unofficially, by this time the entire
orbital had already settled into a routine, and there were few
scheduling changes needed from week to week. The captains met to
confer with each other about their rookies. It was up to each
captain to determine what their rookies should be learning, and
at what pace, but the truth was the captains often felt just as
lost as their charges. Comparing and contrasting rookie groups
was a good way to make sure they were doing alright, and to
reassure themselves that their groups wouldn't be too far behind
their peers when they graduated to pilot-level.


Jane's rookies weren't too far behind. They weren't even in the
same league. In every stat, everything measurable, they
outstripped their yearmates by so far that the charts might as
well have tracked them separately. The other captains had first
viewed Jane's numbers with disbelief, then suspicion, and finally
had simply dismissed her group as too out-of-the-ordinary to use
as a model. Jane was both disgusted and amused by the varieties
of excuses the other captains came up with to explain her
rookies' successes away: "They're going to hate the whole Academy
at this rate" "You'll burn them out by pushing them as hard as
you do" "What good are top quality rookies that graduate as
husks?" "You don't have to overcompensate Jane, no one really
believes those rumors about you falling in love with your
rookies." It had been Captain Leftrain, "Lefty", who had made the
last comment, and Jane gripped her scraper tighter at the memory
of it. His comment had left the room in an awkward silence, but
no one spoke up in her defense, and he had just stood there with
a smug look until someone had changed the subject.


Since then, Jane had remained silent about the progress her
rookies were making. The other captains hadn't pushed her on it,
and she now came to the meetings to observe and take note. In
private, she began comparing her Rooks' stats against pilot-level
stats instead. Most of them were doing quite well even for
pilots.


Jane sat back and rubbed sweat from her grimy face with an
equally grimy sleeve. She glanced over at Marcus, bending over
the wing to clean their flaps, and mused at the irony of having
such dirty thoughts about a man who was cleaning. *It's about
being attracted to competency*, she decided, *that's what's so
hot. That young man is going to take care of his ship. He won't
be caught off guard by a part that sticks or a piece that
rattles. He'll know every bolt on the vessel he's trusting his
life to.* Some flyers were content with simply assuming the deck
scrubs would handle that sort of thing. Some flyers paid for the
assumption with their lives.


"Remind me again why we have to do our ship cleanings ourselves?"
Jackson grunted, jerking Jane out of her reverie. "The other
captains don't seem to think it's very important," he was rubbing
down his ship's canopy with ditric acid, keeping his hands clear
as it ate away at everything but the metal fastenings and the
clear plasticine canopy, "the other rookie squads just let the
scrubs handle the cleanup."


"The other rookie squads?" Jane leaned back on her heels. She
noted out of the corner of her eye that Marcus was glancing at
her rear as she did so, and she struggled to keep a smile from
her stern face, "let me tell you something Jackson, let me tell
you about the other rookie squads-" "Sure they do things
differently," Aimee broke in, deepening her voice in a mock
impression of the Captain, "but that's their captains' decision,
not theirs, and definitely not yours..." "IF their captains,"
Julia and Preston had both joined in from their spots on the
hangar, and Jane was fast losing her struggle against cracking a
smile, "want to train up pilots that can't handle real flyin',
that's their business. But I'm gonna train me the BEST. DAMN.
ROOKS. This Academy has ever seen!" each word chanted in unison
was accompanied by dramatic wavings of various tools and
instruments, and Jane broke down and laughed. The three rookies
struck exaggerated poses that were apparently supposed to be her,
leaving the rest of their squaddies in hysterics around the
hangar bay. "Alright, alright, you all know the speech so fuckin'
well, maybe it'll actually sink in one of these days," Jane
pretend-grumbled, a grin still on her face, as she turned back to
her own ship and got back to work.


By the time the speakers buzzed a muted tone that marked the
hour, most of the rookies had successfully cleaned their ships,
and the ones that had finished were helping the others. As Jane
had hoped, most of them had encountered and noted several small
issues with the cruisers along the way. They slowly drifted out
of the hangar in pairs or threes, and Jane walked over to Marcus'
ship, where he was putting his tools away very slowly, waiting
for her. "You have the next hour free don't you?" She asked,
plucking up a tool he had put in the wrong place and setting it
in the correct slot in his tool panel, "do you want to stay
around here and have some fun?"


"Here?" Marcus asked, surprised, casting his gaze around the
hangar. Jane affectionately watched his beaded dreadlocks click
together at the motion, and turned to look at the familiar room
with him. It was wide and open for multiple small ships or single
large ships to take off and land. Clear plasticine walls on
either end made the whole giant room appear as if it open to
space, and made the hangar seem exposed and free.


"Sure!" Jane grinned, "this is probably one of my favorite places
to have sex!" Marcus looked shocked, as she knew he would, and
she chuckled as he looked around, alarmed. The other rookies had
already left, leaving them alone in the huge echoing room. "Maybe
you shouldn't say that so loud..." He suggested, nervously "If
you don't want me to," Jane gave him a quizzical look, "but I
hardly think it's a huge secret. You don't think your squaddies
have put two and two together by now?" "They might not have..."
Marcus shifted uncomfortably. Jane was often surprised at how
naive the young man could be. She had known many rookies over the
years, but Marcus was the first to make her feel like she was
dealing with someone *young*. The thought made her feel vaguely
uncomfortable, but she pushed the feeling aside.


"Come on Marcus, you disappear at the same time I do, and
afterwards I'm in a good mood and you've got that 'I just had a
woman' grin on your face, your squadmates aren't idiots." "So
you've had sex in this room before then?" Marcus hastily changed
the subject "Mmm," Jane smiled, walking lightly over to the clear
plasticine wall, "there's just something about that vast, huge
expanse, and all those beautiful sparks of light. It's so serene
and beautiful, something about it turns me on like nothing else.
That's why its my fantasy to have sex in a cruiser sometime." She
didn't mention that she also enjoyed masturbating in her cruiser.
She had learned the hard way that that particular bit of
information led to more teasing than it was worth.


"Well maybe someday we can do that," Marcus said, joining her by
the see-through wall, "I mean probably not this year, since my
off-orbital trips are pretty closely monitored, but sometime in
the next few years maybe." That was another thing that had been
putting Jane off lately, Marcus' newfound propensity to talk
about the future, always including the two of them together in
it. *Please, please by all that is holy,* she mentally begged,
searching his face as if she could read his true feelings there
*tell me I'm just paranoid and that this schoolboy doesn't have a
crush on teacher.*


"Come fuck me," Jane said finally, not responding to his comment
but taking him by the hand. She led Marcus between one of the
cruisers and the plasticine wall, so they were hidden from the
rest of the hangar deck, and she was facing the stars. With a
smooth practised motion she slid her uniform pants down her legs,
watching him over her shoulder as he admired the curves of the
backside he had been staring at before. She grinned as she bent
over to give him a better view, leaning against the invisible
wall and spreading her legs slightly until they were hampered by
the pants pooled around her ankles. There was already a
glistening patch between her legs, and she winked at Marcus, "we
only have an hour you know, so are you going to stare all day or
are you gonna stick your-"


Marcus had yanked down his pants before she even finished
speaking, and only waited long enough to position himself behind
her. Jane enjoyed the young man's eagerness; she wasn't overly
fond of being teased, especially when they were rushed for time.
He slammed into her, rough and fast. She grunted as she was
pushed against the plasticine wall. *This is what it should be,*
she thought, her lips parting as she gasped, *just like this, no
fluff or window dressing, just his warmth inside my wetness, over
and over and over...* The clear screen was cold against her
hands, but she didn't mind. She let out a breath as she pushed
back against him, taking his last few inches inside of her.


For a second they both stood there, completely still, Marcus
buried inside of her, both of them looking out on endless expanse
of space. Jane knew what he was feeling, remembered the first
time she had looked into the void while bound with another
person. It was dizzying, and the emptiness seemed to suddenly
surround her and make every feeling much more intense. Marcus
pulled away and slammed back into her, and she pushed her hips
back obligingly again. She was so aware of the feelings in her
body, so aware of the sensations, and above all so aware of the
infinity that spread out in front of her, that when Marcus spoke
she was almost startled.


"I can see why you like this room," he panted, his thrusting
growing faster and rougher as it always did. "Hush, shut up,"
Jane breathed, grinding against him and smiling as she tried to
settle them into a rhythm, "listen to the silence." He had broken
her experience, but she tried to ease back into it. Grabbing his
wrists from her waist she stood straight, pulling him with her,
so that her breasts and stomach pressed against the cold wall.
His inexperienced hasty motions pressed her entire body against
it, then away again, sending shocks of alternating cold and
pleasure through her.


Jane would've been able to tell that he had finished even if she
hadn't heard his rough breathing in her ear. His warm length
pulsed in her body, and she could feel him releasing inside her,
the sudden hotness contrasting with the almost unbearable
coldness against her breasts. She reached behind her and wrapped
her arms around his waist, pulling him just a little deeper as
his hips bucked. He started to pull back, but she held him fast.
"Stay," she whispered, closing her eyes and enjoying the feel of
his breath against her neck, "we have a while if you want to go
for round two in a little bit." "I'd like that," he whispered
back, and Jane smiled, eyes still closed. She leaned her head
against the coldness, enjoying it as well as the warmth of his
body pressing against her back and her butt, and from his soft
cock still inside of her.


"I didn't understand what you meant about the stars," Marcus said
quietly, "but it makes sense now." "A lot of guys don't get that.
I use words like 'void' and 'endless dark', and they think it's
morbid and grim. It couldn't be anything farther than that, it's
so, so beautiful." "It makes me feel pretty insignificant,
compared to that." "A little I suppose. But that can be good
sometimes. As a way to put all your problems in perspective.
There's no drug or stimulant anywhere near as good as sexual
release while surrounded by the stars." "There's more to it than
just release though, isn't there?" Marcus asked, "I mean, you
have a lot of sex." "I have a lot of problems." "Maybe...maybe I
could help you with that?" Marcus' voice was just a whisper now,
but Jane wasn't quite sure how to take his words. Did he mean
what they were doing now? Or was he referring to something
deeper? *Paranoid, or crush?* Her worrying was interrupted by a
deep pulse of pleasure, as Marcus slowly hardened inside of her.
"Mmm I think you could help too," she smiled, moving her hips in
small circles that rubbed his length around within her body.


Jane let herself drift off into the feelings of pleasure and
depth, watching a far-off comet and taking in the spikes of light
as Marcus pushed in and out of her unevenly. Her fingers slipped
across the smooth wall as her legs started trembling, and her
breath came out in gasps. The only sounds were their heavy
breathing and the soft sounds of sex. The only thing that existed
was her, Marcus, and the stars. She was close, so close, but
Marcus's pace was so uneven that she couldn't quite finish. *Just
a little more...oh god just a little more*


He slipped all the way out of her, then moved his length higher,
pressing in against her other hole. *Is he *trying* to ruin the
moment?* Jane thought, annoyed, and she shot a curious look over
her shoulder and lifted her hips higher so that he slipped back
inside of her. As they settled into the same pace, she tried to
adjust her mindset back into the blissful peace of the stars,
tried to feel once again the all-encompassing all-embracing-


He pulled out again and pressed against her ass. *Okay, that
wasn't an accident. He's really going to try to go for this.*
Jane straightened and took a step to one side, sending him
staggering slightly off-balance. She turned to face Marcus,
suppressing a whimper at feeling his warm cock slipping out of
her when she was so close to orgasm. He looked up guiltily, as if
wondering if he had made a mistake. Crossing her arms, pants
still around her ankles, Jane fixed him with a blank look. "Hey."
She said, her voice flat and neutral. When Marcus didn't respond,
she repeated, "hey there." "Um...hi?" "That's my butt." "Um
yea...I guess that's off limits?" He asked sheepishly. "Well,
normally people ask me before they stick something in it."
"Sorry, that's fair. I guess I just figured with where our
relationship was at, you'd be up for it," Marcus shifted
uncomfortably, clearly wanting for them to return to what they
had been doing. Jane frowned. *Damn. So much for paranoid.* "I'll
ask next time," he grinned.


"Marcus, where exactly do you think 'our relationship' is 'at'?"
she asked, *Come on Rook, don't make me do this with you, don't
make me have this conversation...* "Well, you know," Marcus
shrugged, "we're pretty much a couple, but you don't want it
known all over the academy, which is cool." Jane passed a tired
hand over her eyes, taking a deep breath. "No, Marcus, it's not
cool," she turned her back to him and pulled her pants back up,
"This whole time I've been absolutely crystal clear what this
was. It's a casual thing. It's always been a casual thing." "Well
sure you've always said that, but you have to admit it's grown to
be more than that. Admit it, you think I'm a pretty good guy."


"Of course I think you're a good guy Marcus, I always have!
You're a good guy and a good lay, why else would I want to have
fun with you like this? But that doesn't mean I want you as a
boyfriend." Marcus stayed silent, and Jane turned to belatedly
see the hurt look on his face. Her anger softened a little. It
was hardly his fault that he had fallen for her. Just because she
had been upfront with him didn't mean he could repress his
feelings. "I don't want *anyone* as a boyfriend, Marcus," she
clarified gently, "I like doing my own thing. I like being able
to fuck who I want to fuck. I don't want to do the whole 'tied
down' game. I thought I had made that clear when we started doing
things together." "Okay, point taken," Marcus yanked his own
pants back up, not meeting her gaze, "from now on, just casual.
Nothing more."


Although her sex drive cried out against it, Jane knew the
decision she had to make. She looked at the young man in front of
her, his face red, embarrassed and ashamed, and shook her head
sadly. "I don't think we can keep doing this Marcus. It means
something way different to you than to me, and I don't want to
keep on doing this if it's going to hurt you." "It won't-" Marcus
began to protest, but Jane stopped him with a finger on his lips,
"Can you honestly tell me you'd be perfectly happy with nothing
else out of this? Knowing nothing else will *ever* come from
this?" She asked. Marcus' shoulders, sagging in defeat, were
answer enough. Jane stepped forward and kissed him on the
forehead, like she had the first time they'd been together,
months ago. "It was fun, Rook," she said quietly, and then she
left, making her way as swiftly as she could out of the hangar
and towards her quarters, leaving Marcus to look out at the dark
expanse of space.


***


The F.A.C. room of the Academy was officially the "Forward Alert
Counteraction" room, but in private Jane always thought of it as
"Fuck, A Complication" room. She had never received a summons to
F.A.C. for anything less than an emergency, so when the small
display just under the skin of her wrist lit up with the letters,
a seed of worry settled into her gut immediately.


Minutes later Jane entered the small room, making her way around
the horseshoe-shaped metal table. Built into the surface of the
table at regular intervals, screens displayed vital statistics on
the Academy's crew and residents, ships, and intelligence about
the planet below. Although the information represented the life
flow of the orbital, the screens were muted and unobtrusive. The
focus of this room wasn't the data, but rather on how their minds
could use it. Jane slipped into an empty seat next to Captain
Winchest, trying to listen in on the low rumbling of conversation
throughout the room to get an idea of what was happening.
"Evenin' lass," Winchest said in a friendly rasp, nodding. Grey
hair and a matching grey scar across the side of his head gave
Winchest a singularly aged appearance, but he was one of the most
spry and active captains on the orbital. "Evening Winchest. Any
idea what this nonsense is about?" "Typically use the F.A.C. for
red priority don' we?" The machinery in Winchest's throat booted
up after the first two words with a quiet hum. It had been
installed decades ago, after his throat had been ripped out on a
planetary run, but it still ran perfectly. When he continued, the
jagged rasp from his throat injury was smoothed out, and his
voice was clear; "but I didn't hear any alarms. I'd think we
would've heard about invaders or structural damage before bein'
summoned here."


"No alarms that I heard either," Jane agreed, scanning the faces
of the assembled captains and majors for someone who looked as if
they had a clue. In the open space of the table General Auspus
stepped forward, and the room grew quiet. Auspus looked in his
early twenties, with slick black hair tucked behind one ear
framed his youthful face. The fact that he had been in the
service for seventy years had caused much speculation, and rumors
abounded of expensive surgery or biotechnology, although either
would've cost far more than a typical citizen could afford. Since
the man refused to comment or even acknowledge that there was
anything odd about his appearance, the speculation stayed
unconfirmed.


"As you've probably surmised, we have a situation," Auspus spoke
with the voice of a new recruit, but with the confidence of the
commander of the orbital, "if you'll note the data from the
terrestrial scanner, it appears we have an incoming Drake." The
room immediately burst into quiet but urgent conversations, and
Jane's eyes snapped to the screen in front of her to read the
data Auspus was indicating. "That's impossible," she said aloud,
"I was on the team that put the last Drake down, that was two
weeks ago." General Auspus nodded, "I'm not questioning that,
Captain Asset. I am aware of the mission and your contributions
to it." "Drake's don't just show up that fast Major," Jane stated
flatly, "no disrespect but they just don't. The planet can throw
one Drake at us a year, that's all it's ever been able to do.
Other things, maybe, not Drakes." The other Captains were
nodding, thinking the same things, but they were letting her
challenge the General. She might have had a lascivious
reputation, but her record gave her words weight, and everyone
knew it and listened. Rather than answering, Major Auspus nodded
towards a man to his left, who stood without looking up from the
personal screen in his hand.


"My name is Telmach," he introduced himself, "I've been sent over
from Orbital Techrider. As the equivalent to your 'captain-level'
here, I believe you'll agree that I am qualified to interpret
this data for you all?" The assembled captains nodded their
assent, and Jane blinked. To have a tech shipped over directly
from another orbital wasn't unheard of, but getting someone this
qualified so fast must've cost the General dearly in favors and
promises. Jane had to begrudgingly hand it to the Auspus, he was
at least giving the situation the concern and attention it
deserved.


"Thank you," Telmach continued, "for the unfamiliar, the upper
atmosphere of the planet contains a thick ring of unknown
composition, you've probably heard it referred to as "the fog".
We've been able to determine a few of the chemicals that makeup
this ring, enough to confirm that the ring is what obscures any
scans and data collection we do of the planet. The complete
makeup of the fog, and whether it's naturally occurring or
created by tech on the surface, is one of the main questions we
deal with on Orbital Techrider. Either way, the surface has
always remained beyond the reach of our instruments. That's why
we have you do planetary runs." Jane nodded. It wasn't the only
reason they made planetary runs, but information gathering was
usually the reason Orbital Techrider requested one.


Telmach began flicking fingers across his screen, sending an
image full of numbers and charts to each of the screens along the
table, "As you can see here, anything that moves about halfway up
through the fog will show up, at incredibly low resolution, on
our scanners. This is how Orbital Techrider has been able to
provide Orbital Academy with warnings and alerts about threats
incoming from the planet. The closer the incoming mass is, the
more well defined a scan we can perform, but we can usually tell
what is coming to greet us several hours before it actually
breaks the fog's "surface". In this case the report is so
unbelievable that Techrider sent me over to assure Orbital
Academy that we are confident of our assessment."


The screen split into two, displaying identical sets of numbers
on each side. "On the left, the data from an hour ago. On the
right, the data we recorded during the last exothermic Drake
attack." There was a silence for a moment, before one of the
newer captains cleared his throat. "I'm not sure I understand the
significance..." he said hesitantly, "...sure any Drake is bad
news, but it's not as if we've never dealt with a Drake before,
right? And if it's a flamer Drake that's barely a threat at all
right? Hell, we send pilot-levels out to handle flamers."


Jane opened her mouth to explain, but Winchest leaned forward,
his voice grave and gravelly even with the voice module. "The
Drake isn't the problem son. It's the timing that's the threat."
"Most Drake attacks pose an element of damage to our resources."
General Auspus addressed the entire room, "with the exception of
exothermic Drakes, every single Drake encounter has resulted in
severe damage before we put it down. It's considered a victory if
we can counteract the average Drake with a minimal loss of life
and low-level damage to one or two orbitals. Our engineers
already have their hands full at our current schedule of repair.
Multiple Drake attacks in a year would wear us down faster than
we can afford. So yes, this Drake is just as much a non-issue as
any exothermic. What it implies is that we could have a
situation, very soon."


The silence stretched out longer this time, and the General
spread both hands in a gesture that seemed helpless coming from
such a young looking man. "For now that is all. I'll be in
communication with the commanders of each orbital. Please bring
any suggestions or comments on the situation to me, they will be
welcome. For now, all that remains is to assemble a team to face
this particular Drake. Captain Appet, I believe it's your turn to
take point, I'll leave the team selection to you."


A thought had been forming in Jane's head as the General spoke.
*Things are changing. This lazy schedule we've been holding to,
six years to take a group from rookie to captain...that's not
going to work for much longer.* Her treatment of her rookies no
longer seemed too intense, indeed, it seemed quite tame. *The
orbitals are going to need a new influx of skilled new blood,
pilots and engineers and technicians. The Rooks are going to have
to advance faster. They can't do that sitting on their asses in
the orbital.*


"My current team will handle the Drake," Jane said casually.
General Auspus stopped and turned in the doorway immediately, but
it took a few moments for the captains to make the connection
between her words and the team she was talking about. "You're on
your teaching year," sitting across from her, Captain Doubl spoke
as if Jane had forgotten, "your 'team' is just rookies right
now." "My team can handle a flamer Drake," Jane repeated
confidently, although her eyes flicked to the Major watching her
with narrowed eyes from the doorway, "their rank doesn't matter,
what matters is whether or not they can handle it." "We don't
send rookies to fight Drakes, Appet," Captain Leftrain's voice
grated on Jane's nerves, "it's possible that your emotional
attachments have clouded your objectivity. If we really want to
push our newer recruits, we should sent out pilot-levels. They
both need the training and are able to handle themselves."


Jane wasn't listening, flicking her fingers across her screen to
pull up data in response to the arguments she knew were coming.
She synced the various training records for the Academy to the
screens along entire desk as she went, and soon the the captains
were frowning down at the data in front of them. Training flight
records, accuracy ratings, tactical scenario training scores; all
of them showed her rookies ranked far above the rest, all of them
somewhere in the middle range of the Academy's pilot-levels. Jane
purposely didn't pull up the stats for areas where they were
still at rookie-level; physical training, engineering tech,
navigation and radar interpretation, but even so the statistics
were impressive. She noticed with surprise that Alexandria's
accuracy scores were actually some of the highest at even
pilot-level, only a few spots away from matching the scores of
the lower-level Lieutenants.


In the silence that followed as the captains read the screens,
Jane spoke. "I've been accused of being too hard on my rookies,
and of being too attached to them. Now that we know about this
Drake situation, I hope you'll be glad I've been so rough on
them; they don't have as much catching up to do as all the rest.
It sounds like we're going to need a lot of top-tier flyers soon.
My Rooks have been held to a higher pass-standard than any rookie
year in the past decade. They train for sixteen hours a day. They
don't even know it's *possible* to set the exercises to 'easy' in
most rooms. I've been pushing them to be the best they possibly
can be, and they've lived up to every challenge I've set for
them. They're ready to step up to the next challenge."


The other captains stayed silent throughout her speech, though
more and more glanced in the General's direction. He was staring
at Jane, his steely eyes uncomfortably deep and aged compared to
his face. Jane steadfastly kept his gaze. The others didn't
matter; he was the only one who could technically forbid her from
taking the rooks against this Drake. Without a word, General
Auspus turned and stepped out the door, and Jane breathed a sigh
of relief. Those gathered began collecting their things and
standing, the meeting's business concluded. Jane was too elated
to give much attention to the worried looks or the low muttering
that followed her out the door. She was so excited that even the
voice of Captain Leftrain didn't bother her as it floated from
the room behind her, "We should decide on a backup team to send
out once Appet's upjumped rookies make a mess of this Drake."


Jane almost skipped into the barracks, but she focused hard on
slowing her step into a measured, professional pace, adjusting
her face into a neutral mask before entering. The Rooks were all
there, enjoying the brief few hours they had before lights out,
some reading and playing games with each other, some just
talking. The room quieted the instant she entered, the rookies
not snapping to their feet, but still giving her respectful
attention. Jane allowed her gaze to rove across the room, feeling
proud and fond of each one at the same time. She felt a momentary
stab of disappointment meeting Marcus' eyes, knowing she wouldn't
be able to have any celebratory sex, but she didn't let it show
on her face. She took the whole room in as a whole, and took a
deep breath. *This is going to be the most amazing, frightening,
valuable experience they're likely to get...and they'll have no
idea until it's over*


"Alright Rooks," she said good-naturedly, "seems like the Academy
has decided you all don't hate me quite enough yet. Suit up,
we've got a new assignment...