An Officer’s Duty (32 page)

“Here,” Bennie ordered, lifting her fingers.

Ia obligingly stopped, and with a few muttered directions, got the spot just below the bridge of her nose satisfactorily scratched. “Thank you, Bennie.”

“Not a problem. Now, if you could scratch an itch of
mine
,” she replied, “I’d appreciate it. But it can wait until you’re out of that tin can of yours. We can talk while you clean up.”

Sighing, Ia led the way to the building housing the mechsuit pool. “Aye, sir.”

Most of the mechsuits used by the Academy were more like stevedore suits, designed for hauling and manipulating heavy loads, or for construction purposes. There were only a dozen or so combat-grade suits like hers, most of which were reserved for training purposes. The TUPSF-Navy had less use for such things, particularly its officers, than either the Army or the Marine Corps. Their “mechsuits” were usually their ships, after all, and those few times when they needed such things, it was usually supplied by the Army and Marine Companies most ships carried.

Being fully mechsuit-trained was one of the things that would make her all the more suited for Blockade work, literally. Some Naval Academies specialized in mechsuit work, but not the
Academia in Sines, which leaned more toward ship-to-ship combat in its training style. Reaching the combat mechsuit bays, Ia sealed her helmet and stepped into the cleaning alcove. It didn’t take long to spray-wash the suit, nor for the scrubbers to go to work. In fact, it was sort of like being in an automatic car wash; kind of fun, if a little hard to balance at times.

As soon as the buffers retracted and the protective force field vanished from the entrance, Ia moved to her suit’s designated storage alcove. Backing up into the alcove, she rocked it back onto its chargers and powered down the suit, cracking it open so she could step out.

Bennie eyed the tight-fitted, silvery grey p-suit Ia wore, and the pressure-squashed muscles and curves it displayed. “Have you lost weight? I think this is the first time I’ve seen you without loose-fitting clothes.”

She shrugged and reached for the diagnostic kits, needing to check the suit’s levels of hydraulic fluids. The arms had felt a little weak during today’s run. “I’ve lost four kilos of muscle mass since I got here. I do what I can in the gym, but it’s only for an hour a day, not three or four. And without the pull of my home gravity to fight, I can’t stay in top shape. I also gained half a kilo of body fat. The food here is better than back on the
Liu Ji
.”

Bennie chuckled. “On that point, I’ll agree. Okay, time to get down to brass tacks. Cadet Harper tells me you’re barely talking to him anymore. What’s up?”

Ia ducked her head to hide her blush, crouching to give the leg pistons a quick pressure check. “Nothing’s up. And I talk to him all the time.”

“Bull
shakk
. The two of you get along fine in the classroom, but he says once you’re alone in your dorm room, you clamp up tighter than an airlock,” Bennie countered. “He also says you barely look at him. Treating your roommate like he doesn’t exist is rude, unhealthy, and a sign that something is seriously wrong.”

Slag, she’s not going to give up on this, is she?
Sinking to the floor with a sigh, Ia rested her diagnostic kit on her knees. She stared at her mechsuit, cheeks warm, and did not look at the chaplain. “It’s under control, sir.”

“Bull
shakk
,” Bennie repeated. Crouching, she settled onto
the edge of the alcove dais, squeezing in next to Ia. Off in the distance, someone was stomping around in a stevedore suit, but the two of them were alone in this corner of the building. “What’s wrong, Ia?”

Her blush deepened. “I’m…abiding by regulations as best I can.”

Bennie leaned over, interposing her freckled face between Ia and her suit. “And what does
that
mean,
hmm
?”

Rolling her eyes, Ia tipped her head back with another sigh. “It means I’m
attracted
to him, alright? But I don’t dare ask for a room transfer, because if I cannot ‘handle’ being in the same quarters as him in a professional manner, it’ll
shova v’shakk
my career chances.” She eyed Bennie, whose green eyes had widened. “Fatality Forty-Nine, Bennie. No Fraternization.”

The chaplain sat back with a smirk. “Now
that
, I can believe. I’ve seen that man almost naked, after all.”

Ia gave her a disgusted look. The edge of her mouth couldn’t stop quirking up, though. “Be that as it may, I’m stuck with it, Bennie. If I ask for a transfer, the DoI will black-mark me for a high command. If I did get to know him any better…I
know
he’ll distract me from everything I need to do…and I’ll run up against Fatality Forty-Nine. And that’s not a black mark; that’s an outright career bombing.”

She didn’t have to be precognitive to know that. Not that she could, precognitively—Meyun Harper was still as much of a blank as ever, save for the concrete moments of the past she herself had spent with him—but instincts older than Time were screaming that warning at her. Feminine instincts, the kind someone in her particular position could not permit to take control.

Shaking it off, she leaned forward and restarted her post-workout diagnostics. Bennie stayed silent for several minutes while Ia worked, occasionally leaning out of the younger woman’s way. Finally, the chaplain sighed and stood.

“Right, then. Report to my office tonight at nineteen thirty sharp, Cadet,” Bennie ordered.

Ia blinked and looked over her shoulder. “Sir?”

“Nineteen thirty hours, Cadet,” Bennie repeated, holding Ia’s gaze.

“Sir, I don’t understand.” This wasn’t in any future she had foreseen. “Are you writing me up for this?”

Bennie smirked. “Well, now that depends on you. If you
don’t
show up, it’s guaranteed that I’d have to, now wouldn’t I?”

“V’tekh na n’kah!”
The insult escaped her before she could stop it. At least it wasn’t in Terranglo, but from the arch of one auburn brow, Bennie understood the V’Dan version. Flushing, Ia ducked her head. “Sorry, sir.”

“Under the circumstances, it’s understandable. And in the name of our friendship, I’ll let it pass. But do try to avoid calling me that a second time, Cadet,” Bennie warned her quietly.

“Yes, sir. No, I won’t, sir…Thank you,” she added quietly.

“Nineteen thirty. Don’t be late.” Brushing off her trousers, Bennie left the mechsuit pool.

Resisting the urge to throw the diagnostic kit across the room, Ia instead closed her eyes and leaned her forehead on the elbow joint of her suit. The mirror-polished plates of the special alloy of ceramics and metal rapidly dissipated the heat of her skin, just as it would the heat of laser fire or the radiation of outer space.

It could not, however, dissipate the sick fear gathering in her stomach. She had no clue what Bennie wanted from her…which meant it clearly had something to do with Meyun bloody Harper. Bane of her precognitive skills.

The one man who could undo everything she was striving to save, simply by
existing
.

Back on the TUPSF
Liu Ji
, Chaplain Benjamin had possessed a cramped little office, a somewhat larger counseling room that doubled as her living room, a cramped bedroom cabin, and a head, the starship nickname for a bathroom. Here at the Academia, her office was completely separate from her apartment. That office was in the administration hall, at the far end of the wing opposite the admissions desk. In fact, the easiest way to get to Bennie’s office was to use a side door near the wastebins holding those rare few things which couldn’t be recycled on the Academy’s grounds in some form or another.

Which is appropriate,
Ia thought, her rare morbid sense of humor surfacing briefly,
because I certainly feel like I’m about to be tossed into the rubbish bin like useless slag
.

She did not like this amorphous, shapeless, senseless feeling of dread. Not since she turned fifteen and had her precognitive epiphany had Ia suffered from such sourceless fears. No, since that pivotal morning, her fears had taken on all too solid identities. Not now, however. Stepping into the shadow-darkened hallway didn’t help. It reminded her too much of old monster-in-the-closet fears, the kind where she didn’t know what lurked behind that closet door.

Ia hated—feared—the unknown.

Wiping her face with the back of her hand, and her palm on the back of her thigh, Ia squared her shoulders and touched the door buzzer. She was a full minute early, she had made sure of that much. When the door opened, she braced herself for the unknown.
Show no fear. Know no fear. Confidence, calmness, these things will sustain, whereas fear will only drain…

“Come in, Cadet,” Bennie told her. “I’m glad to see you’re on time.”

“I strive to be, sir,” she muttered, following the chaplain inside. The front room of the suite served as the general office for all the Academy’s chaplains and psychologists. The rest of the rooms in this sub-wing were either designated office space or counseling space. They bypassed the door with “Cmdr. Christine Benjamin, Chaplain” on its nameplate and entered the room two doors down.

Meyun Harper rose from one of the padded chairs at the far end of the modest-sized room. He glanced between Bennie’s
face and Ia’s, his expression as confused-looking as Ia felt. “Sir?”

The chaplain edged in behind Ia and poked at the door controls. The panel slid shut and clicked. “There. We are now locked in, only I have the access key, and this room is sound-proofed. It’s also after hours, I have turned off the recording equipment, and the two of you
will
discuss your problems under the privacy code of the confessional.”

She prodded Ia on the back, and when that didn’t move the stunned woman, pushed her forward a few stumbling steps. Comprehension dawning, Ia turned and narrowed her eyes. Bennie leaned back against the door, arms crossed over her chest.

“Meyun, the real reason why Ia, here, won’t talk to you when you’re alone together, or even look at you…”

“Oh, no you don’t,” Ia whispered, rage heating her cheeks.

“Is because she’s falling in love with you,” Bennie finished.

Embarrassed, furious, Ia clenched her hands into fists. Not from the urge to hit Bennie, but from the need to keep her gifts locked down. Glaring at the chaplain, she growled, “You know what? I take it back. You
are
a two-fisting bitch!”

“Ia!” Meyun snapped, striding forward. “You do
not
say things like that to a superior officer!”

He caught her shoulder. Overwrought by Bennie’s betrayal, Ia didn’t dare risk prolonged physical contact. Shrugging him off roughly, she backed up a couple of meters. “Don’t touch me! And
she is
one.” She pointed at the redheaded woman. “What I told her was said in the confidence of a soldier to her chaplain—in the confidence of the
confessional
! And that…
skut
just
violated
that!”

“Loving someone is
not
an unforgivable sin, you know,” Bennie snapped back.

“No, but violating military code
is
,” Ia retorted. “He
didn’t
need to know! Everything was under control before
you
stepped in.”

“You had
nothing
under control,” Bennie scoffed, giving Ia a disgusted look. “You were running away from the problem,
not
controlling it!”

Ia bristled at that. She wanted to protest it wasn’t true. If she
did
run from her problems, what the hell was she doing in
the military? But…
Damn her, she’s right. But that doesn’t make
this
right.
“So?” she asked, arms folded tightly across her chest. “Lots of people do that. It’s a valid reaction.”