No more retreating-part 3
The hospital was quiet.
Too quiet.
A stark contrast to the chaos of Octavian’s childhood in the orphanage, or even the controlled noise of military training.
He had rested enough.
At least, that’s what he told himself.
Slowly, he got out of bed and made his way to the door.
He wasn’t limping anymore, but every step still hurt. The scar that ran from his collarbone down to his navel burned with each movement. In some ways, it felt worse now than when it still had stitches.
He tried to ignore it but every step he took seemed to burn his whole body, he kept walking
The corridor stretched out ahead of him, bright and pristine.
As he walked, he felt it.
Eyes.
People moving out of his way.
Staff greeting him as he passed.
“Commander.”
“Good morning, sir.”
It felt… strange.
Unfamiliar.
But he couldn’t deny it...
he liked it.
He reached the reception desk.
A young woman stood behind a terminal.
“Good morning,” Octavian said. “I’d like an EH-pad.”
She straightened immediately, slightly flustered.
“Of course, Commander. I just need your citizen identification number and your military identification number.”
He gave them without hesitation.
She typed quickly.
Then paused.
Her expression shifted.
“I’m… sorry, Commander. It says clearance level insufficient.”
Octavian frowned.
That didn’t make sense.
Even a lieutenant had access to an EH-pad.
“Try again,” he said.
She did.
Same result.
A third time.
Still nothing.
“Well,” Octavian muttered, exhaling lightly, “there goes my hope for an interesting evening.”
The girl laughed.
A bit too much.
Then noticed his expression, and immediately straightened.
“I’m sorry,” she said quickly. “Why did you need it?”
“I wanted to check enemy movement,” Octavian replied. “Fleet status. The usual.”
She hesitated.
“That sounds… restricted.”
Octavian looked at the terminal for a moment.
Then back at her.
“It is.”
A brief pause.
“But I guess information isn’t the only sensitive thing around here.”
She blinked, not fully understanding.
“What do you—”
But he had already turned away.
The corridor felt different now.
Not quieter.
Just… clearer.
As he walked back toward his room, the stares didn’t bother him anymore. If anything, they made more sense.
The young scientist got out of the shower, she hoped a hot shower would calm her down, but still all she could think about was Octavian in the hospital bed. He would bear that scar his entire life, was it her fault? Her system saved him but it was she that came with the idea to install it, still would he even have done such a thing if it he didn't have the ejection system? Of course he would, she thought.
Just like the day when they met, Tesla was supervising the systems for the chase combat training module, cutting edge technology from a friendly state in the Galactic Community, tweaked by Tesla herself to better suit it's use by humans, a fresh batch of recruits from the academy were going to be the first to try this tweaked version.
She took a look at the spreadsheet with their names and background, nothing special, except one "Octavian" 17 years old, Mars national orphanage, Northern District. "huh, another orphan" she said to herself before taking a sip of coffee, the door opened.
"The recruits are ready, miss Tesla" said one of her assistants
"Good let's go to the observation bay"
Nothing out of the ordinary, some failed almost every level of the module, some did great, others, not so much.
But then came Octavian's turn, as was customary, orphans were last, he aced every single level, it couldn't have been more than his 3rd or 4th time flying a spaceship, for all she knew it could have been his first time and yet he maneuvered it masterfully.
On the last level, an actual chase scenario where you'd have to outrun 10 enemy vessels inside an asteroid belt, he turned on them, slowly beating every enemy ship with surprise maneuvers and blitz attacks through very narrow gaps, when the last ship was hit the system encountered an error, it hadn't occurred to her someone might actually fight the ships instead of running, so the system had no way to calculate the results.
After fixing the system she transferred this young recruit's file to her personal EH-PAD, and headed to the barracks, she wanted to meet him in person, try to understand how and why he did what he did.
Looking in the cloudy mirror of her bathroom Tesla ran her fingers through her long coal black hair, and she caught herself smiling, she always did it, subconsciously and never noticing, but she smiled almost every time she thought about him.
Like she smiled when he called her ma'am when they met, he looked like a child, but she could sense his pain, and the numbness in his eyes carried a life story she could not even imagine, unlike 'perfect' earth, or the more rural frontier colonies, Mars was a single massive city meant to house the more than a billion farmers and other lower class citizens needed for the planet to function.
Mars was known as the concrete garden, name given on one side from the endless farmlands and on the other from the massive housing blocks, which unlike Earth's towers had no aesthetic to them, just boxes of concrete meant to house as many people as possible as efficiently as possible.
Octavian didn't even have that, growing up in the dangerous streets of the outskirts, where his orphanage was located.
"It must've been hard..." She said, looking in his eyes,
"I would choose those streets anytime, over that 'home' they kept me in" Octavian answered.
Looking at her he could sense her being uncomfortable
"sooo anyway, smartest human alive and you didn't think someone might not want to run?" He asked, smirking
"only an idiot would not run in that situation, but i guess you don't count since you still passed, technically and...."
Her daydream was interrupted "Liz! Dinner's ready sweetie I'm waiting for you" Nick shouted from downstairs.
Liz, Beth, Lizzie, She hated hearing those words, reminded her of her mother.
Sitting down for dinner she could sense something was in the air, her father, while usually a very serious person given his position, was not like this at home
"Anything on your mind dad?" Tesla asked
"Actually" nick said between chews as he set his fork down "Yes, something that came up during my last council meeting, almost slipped my mind, This Octavian, is he the same from the file you asked me to give to the Grand Admiral a few years ago? And don't lie honey, please"
She looked in her father's eyes, he wasn't angry he seemed.. worried?
"Yes..."
"Ok, and did you modify his ship?"
She thought for a second before deciding to not lie to her father
"Yes I did"
Nick leaned back in his chair, exhaled before taking a sip of water
"Listen very carefully honey, i think you of all people know what's the punishment for illegal modifications of government property, this time tho, I don't think i have to intervene, all is well if it ends well, the ship is gone and he is alive" he leaned forward "you are a grown woman and you do as you please anyway, but i highly advise against involving yourself with him anymore, at least for a while, he has all the attention from the council now and if they see you with him, it won't take long before they make the connection"
Nick got up, finished his glass
"I'm going to bed it's gonna be a busy month, we have to up quotas to refit the fleet, goodnight sweetheart" he said giving her a kiss on the forehead
"Goodnight dad"
Her father's words were stuck in her head "stay away from him", she had already visited him, the Grand Admiral had seen her there, most likely every council member knew she was there, how could her father not know?
Or maybe he knew, chose to ignore it for now, see what she does next. As she was struggling to go to sleep her EH-PAD lit up, and a notification chimed, she got out of the bed and picked up the PAD, it was from Octavian.
"Hey sorry if this arrives at a late hour. I didn't get to telI you this at the hospital, but I hope you don't get in any trouble because of the ship. It looks like they cut my credentials, I wasn't allowed an EH-PAD just a regular one, I feel like I'm stuck in time in here, too quiet. Do you know if your father will be there, at the war council? It's not exactly how i would've liked to meet him, take care"
The southern district of Mars City was littered with spaceship fragments, especially most of the enemy flagship, at least what remained of it after the explosion of it's engine, the smell of burnt corn filled the air, debris could be seen in the sky, slowly being cleared away by the special crews, the seemingly infinite cornfield was now full of pieces of hull, many as big as the apartment blocks themselves, you could still feel the dust in the air from their descent into orbit
"Word is out on the streets that it was a young orphan, from the Northern district that hit the flagship" said a worker as he pulled on a piece of metal from the rubble "yes i heard it too, that and that he was also the second in command to the Grand Admiral during the battles at the Titan Belt" another worker said as she dried the sweat on her forehead "you think he's alive?" She asked "well i think we would know if he was dead" "I hope he made it"
"So do i, but even if he did he might not be doing so well, rumors are saying that muppet Voss had ordered a retreat to Earth's moon, and that he disobeyed orders with his hit, they might even try to court martial him" he spat on the ground
"impossible the Grand Admiral won't allow it"
Meanwhile, on Earth celebrations were held for the victory over the Ordans, the imminent threat was no longer in humanity's home system.
In one of the many topfloor bars of a high-rise on Earth people were toasting the victory, "to Octavian" "to victory!"
Glasses clanked against each other, the electronic fireplace played an image of a campfire, its golden reflection covering the entire window-wall at their back, as they ordered another corn-cake. Beyond the window-wall, breaking through the night clouds, the council tower.
"They are celebrating him, toasting his name, here on Earth, on Mars, there are reports coming in of festivals of victory even in the frontier colonies" Voss said, struggling to keep himself composed, in front of the security minister "of course they are" Kovac said calmly "he did win the battle" she said, not raising her eyes from the EH-PAD "the question is, can he win the war?" Now she was looking Voss straight in the eyes "could you, win the war, councillor?"