*
Lyil hurried into the building. By jogging she had managed to meet Hast at the appointed time, and ten minutes later they were situ sparing.
Hast, a tall, handsome man, looked up at Lyil from the mat. His masculine face was frowning. "You always take your practices too seriously," he said.
There was a snicker from the practice mat next to theirs. One of the two G-staff men who had been sparing before Hast and Lyil got there had overheard Hast’s comment, and he either thought it was funny that Hast couldn’t take on a woman or he was trying to impress Lyil with some macho bullshit.
Whichever it was, Lyil didn’t like it. “Shut up and mind your own business,” she said in a low voice.
The man tried to make light of it and made a noise as if to imply, “Oh please don’t hurt me,” but under Lyil’s glare he finally ignored her and went back to his match.
In this particular situ arena there were one hundred mats, and only half of them were being used. Why did we have to choose this mat? she asked, chastising herself. She looked down at Hast. "No I don't," she replied. She reached down and gave him a hand up. "It's possible that someday we'll be in a combat situation. And if we are, I want to be ready."
Hast laughed sarcastically (which didn't please Lyil). "The possibility of that happening is almost nil," he said. "The Federation is too strong, and most, if not all of the governments are happy with the political structure." He gave her that all knowing look.
Lyil went into the Situ stance. "Maybe," she said, without displaying any anger, "but I'm still going to my best to kick your butt." She was only half serious, but she said it softly so the G-staff on the mat next to theirs wouldn’t hear her.
It was apparent that Hast was surprised by her comment. He stood speechless for a moment, then asked, "What's wrong with you today? You don't seem to be quite yourself."
"Nothing's wrong," she replied. "In fact, everything's great." She smiled up at him.
"Well maybe someday I'll kick your butt. Maybe even now." It seemed she had stepped on his ego a little, and he wasn't handling it well.
"Maybe," she said as she stepped forward. "Let's find out."
Hast stepped forward and executed an unorthodox move, probably hoping to catch her off guard. He quickly took the stance of a boxer and sent his right fist toward her jaw.
She saw it coming and ducked her head to the right side. She reached forward with her right hand and grabbed his right thigh. As it went into spasm she crossed over, reached down and hooked her arm around his left calf muscle. She then gave a pull while simultaneously slamming her body into his abdomen. He went down on his back while she landed on her feet. She immediately put her right foot to his throat.
"Okay, okay," he said. "You win this one." She let go of him and walked over and sat down on a bench. "It's almost time to go to work," she said.
"Good. Next time let's do something besides Situ."
Lyil smiled. "Let's practice on the phasor range."
"Fine," he agreed.
They sat for a moment while resting.
"So, how's the job going?" she asked.
"Same as always.” Then after a pause, "Well, that's not quite true. Thorne has had a great many visitors lately. They've almost taken up all the guest quarters. And for the next three weeks he's got more coming in.
"I've never seen anything like it,” he continued. “So, just out of curiosity I checked with the computer, and the second-in-command, throughout the entire history of the Federation, has never had this many visitors at one time."
"So, I know," answered Lyil. “I’ve read all his files.” She pondered the situation for a moment and then asked, "Why do you think he has so many visitors coming in?"
"I have no idea. Since you're closer to this information than me, I thought maybe you would know."
Lyil had never liked Thorne. His personality was cold, impersonal, and calculated with no emotion, except for his occasional fits of anger, and in conjunction with that there was something about him that made her think he shouldn't be second-in-command of the Galactic Federation. She could never quite figure out what it was. But his haunting eyes made her feel there was something sinister about him.
Aside from that, and more importantly, Thorne's resume was too suspect for him to have been considered for the job as second-in-command. His birth records and school records were destroyed in a fire when he was twenty-four years of age. (Since he lived in a small town all these records were kept in the same building). In order for his existence to be verified and new birth and school records to be created and filed, witnesses had to be called in to testify of their knowledge of him during his babyhood and childhood. The circumstance that Lyil found odd was that most of these witnesses had moved to the planet just before Thorne was born. But checking it out she found no discrepancies in their testimony, so considered it simply a coincidence.
Later, when he took the tests for Galaefship the computer denied him consideration for the job because of the records reproduction, but his test scores were very high and because of this he was given consideration for the job as second-in-command.
Lyil had been G-staff for eleven years and was on her second Galaef, so to speak. Two years into her G-staff status the first Galaef died of old age, and two months later the computer chose Taul Winler as the new Galaef. After all the ceremonies and all the hoorays had taken place the Computer offered one hundred names of men and women to be his second-in-command. Since Lyil had interviewed all the prospective candidates for the job and since she knew their backgrounds, it was a mystery to her as to why the Galaef had chosen Thorne. But the mystery didn't stop there. Over the years Thorne had had many strange visitors who gave a reason for their visitation, which didn't seem to fit the circumstances. Then several years back, he organized an archeological expedition to the fifth computer planet for the supposititious purpose of enhancing the archaehistory of Galactus Five. Since then he had made seven more trips and then about a year ago the trips stopped. But Lyil had yet to see any papers written on the subject by Thorne or any of his associates. The entire project had an air about it which smacked of insidious stratagem and political deception. If this were true, then she couldn't imagine what Thorne could be trying to accomplish. What could he possibly gain?
Nevertheless, the project was never questioned by the Galaef nor his upper echelon G-staff. So Lyil assumed everything was okay, mainly because she didn't always understand the internal workings of Galactic politics and since the Galaef appeared to be on top of the situation.
"Maybe he's organizing another archaeological expedition," she said without having any idea what Thorne was up to.
“Yeah, maybe," said Hast. A smirk crossed his lips.
Even though it only lasted a split second, Lyil noticed it and was quick to say, “You know something.”
“What?”
“I saw that look. You know something, and you’re not telling me.”
“No. No. I was thinking about something else—about when I was in college and went on an archaeological expedition. It has nothing to do with Thorne. Believe me, if I knew anything, I’d tell you. After all, you and Mandril do the interviews and need to be up on everything concerning Thorne and the Galaef.”
“That’s right,” said Lyil. “And I’m glad you understand that.” She stood up, slung her sweat-suit jacket over her shoulder and started toward the shower room.
Hast yelled after her. "After all the beatings I take, you should at least have dinner with me."
She turned her head and body slightly to the left as she continued to walk. Her long red hair partly hid her face to him as she said in a soft, singsong voice, "I don't think so." She wasn't trying to be cute, but she was growing weary of his continual hounding.
She rubbed her right arm. It was a trifle sore from the workout. Early in the sparing Hast had caught her with an unexpected move and almost had her on the mat before she got out of it. All in all it wasn’t v
ery graceful, and the price she paid was an elbow to the right biceps.
The injury wasn't bad, and she knew the pain would be gone by the afternoon.
Chapter Six