"Hey, where'd you come from? What's the matter, did the old barracuda in the West Section scare you over here?" he laughed, assuming she understood what he was talking about.
“Excuse me?”
"Come on now, which section did you transfer from?" the young man continued. "I heard Major Douglas lost a few cadets this year, the bastard. Whoops, did I say that? Better not let W hear me." He glanced over his shoulder at the smallish Asian women at the center of the crowd. Erin's eyes narrowed; somehow the features of the round-faced, sharp-eyed woman seemed familiar to her.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Name's Erik. And you are?" He asked.
"I'm Erin," she answered, dropping her weathered bag to shake his proffered hand.
He was a head taller than she, with short hair, blue-green eyes flecked with gold, and an amused, roguish smirk.
"...we're going to head back to the barracks now to get settled so we can, you know, maybe let a few of the new recruits in the door..." the major was saying.
"Ah gee, W, do we have to?" someone asked.
“Knock it off, Hans..."
The team moved away and down the moving corridor to the East Wing Barracks.
“So, you been here long?”
Why was this Erik being so nice to her? she wondered.
She was reserved and aloof, not the type of hysterical girl who flitted back and forth and laughed in overabundance, nor the type who plodded along insensitive to the needs of the human animal nor to the depths of the human soul.
“You were a gymnast in physical training, huh?”
“Yea.” Erin said. “And running.”
"I was a long distance runner,” said Erik. “And basketball.”
“You're tall.” She said suddenly in a funny way.
Erik listened, then burst into affectionate laughter.
“I am.” He laughed.
“What are you doing here?” asked Erik. “You must be one of this year's cadets, huh?” He slapped himself on the forehead with the palm of his hand. “I forgot they were coming today.”
“Me, yeah, I somehow managed to score highest in the continent on the final training test,” she said. “So they assigned me to the UESRC for my last two years of senior training.”
“Oh.” Said Erik.
* * * * *
When they arrived at the barracks, Erin started to remember having lived there before. Finally, Watanabe noticed Erin, as the other recruits dispersed to the rooms of the G15 corridor, leaving Erin alone.
"Seems we’ve got a new face here," Watanabe said quietly. "They forgot to tell me you were coming today, but we can accommodate. I didn't get but one of the new cadets this quarter," she added, regarding Erin's uniform, "but you seem to be in the right place. Cadets Gehring, Quinn, and Chen are sharing one of the four-person rooms. Why don't you put your things in there for now, and if you decide you want to live with one of the other groups just let me know, cadet..."
"Mathieson-Blair." Erin said. Watanabe's eyes widened, but she recovered quickly.
"Welcome to our unit, Mathieson-Blair." W said quickly, without any outward feeling. "In a few moments, we'll be having our first status meeting. I'll see you there," was all the Major said, curtly, before heading hastily away.
The other cadets were unpacking as Erin entered.
"Hello, I'm Erin Mathieson-Blair. I'll be rooming with you," Erin offered, feeling awkward.
"Oh. Well, I'm Katrin Gehring." A tall, dark blond-haired girl with wide-set, light brown eyes, a round face and a small, pointed chin stopped stowing her bags to extend Erin a friendly smile. “It’s nice to meet you, Erin.”
"Nathalie Quinn." The small girl beside Katrin flung the words at them, her olive green eyes flickering with interest.
"Where did you come from?" Nathalie demanded, dropping her bag to the floor, then smoothed her dark fine curls behind her ears. She looked up, arms akimbo, a slight smile lighting up her pale, heart-shaped face.
"Be nice, Nathalie." The tall, slender Asian girl in the corner sighed with elaborate patience. "Hi, I'm Ho-ling Chen. And profoundly sorry you’re stuck with us. Well, I guess you'll be filling in the space beside me—just press the blue button to slide the bed out so you can put your things down, and I'll help you learn the rest of the instrument panel." Ho-ling folded the last item from her bag and laid it neatly on her bed before coming around to show Erin how to work the sanitizer.
"It's a bit more complicated than you're used to," Ho-ling began explaining. "I transferred to this unit myself during the middle of last year, and it took me nearly a week to re-learn the whole code system. These were the original quarters—before they expanded the UESRC."
"Mathieson-Blair, huh? I've heard of your sister Moira, but I didn't know you were here, too." Continuing her earlier line of thought, Nathalie had finished unloading her things and stood leaning against the wall, her arms folded and her legs crossed. "So what's your story?"
"Nathalie," Katrin interrupted in tones of disapproval. "Don't be so rude." Katrin turned around from where she had been placing her bags in the wall closet to make eye contact with Nathalie.
"Ho-ling, what are you doing push-ups for?" Nathalie demanded.
"It's better than listening to you pick a fight, Quinn," Ho-ling spat between repetitions, then stood, having finished a set.
"Piss off." Nathalie shrugged.
"She's in a bad mood today," Katrin whispered to Erin.
"That's beside the point," Nathalie insisted as though she had heard the comment, giving Katrin a dark expression. "We're supposed to comm-yu-ni-cate.”
“What the hell, she hasn't even had the chance to say anything yet. Why are you being so severe on her, Nathalie?” Ho-ling said in a hard way.
“Because she’s been reacting like our questions are invading her personal space. We don't have personal space here."
"Oh, give it a rest, Nathalie," Katrin begged. “You are a jackass.”
"She can defend herself, Katrin." Nathalie countered, still looking at Erin. "Well, Erin? What have you to say for yourself? Can we depend on you, or are you a quitter? A little spoiled momma's girl?”
Erin watched as Ho-ling sighed but remained silent. Ho-ling returned to her bed, then gathered her bags to put into the closet.
"There's a place to put your uniforms, clothing, and personal items in your wall cupboard over there, Erin," Ho-ling pointed to the outer wall across from bed-side one where Nathalie was watching them with an uninterested expression.
"Whatever I did to offend you, I don’t know," Erin coughed to disguise her hesitation as she found her cupboard and activated it, "but since this is my first day here, could you tell me where the nearest washroom is?"
Nathalie barely moved, but her eyes flashed in surprise.
"That's impossible!" Katrin exclaimed. "New cadets are never put with second years."
"All right," Erin said, shrugging. “All the same, I’d still like to know.”
Ho-ling gave directions, and a few moments passed in silence. Then several light tones sounded from above their heads, signaling the beginning of the meeting Major Watanabe had warned them about.
"Hurry up, Katrin," Ho-ling almost shouted to the girl standing in her way, dropping her own clothing and heading to the door behind Erin and Nathalie.
* * * * *
After the meeting, Erin was returning to her room when Major Watanabe stopped her and asked to speak with her for a moment privately in her quarters. Erin followed as her commanding officer took them down a transport elevator to the next highest level and down two more hallways before they came to a wide door space that whisked open at Watanabe's handprint.
Once Erin was comfortably seated in a chair across from Watanabe, the Major took only a minute to shuffle the computerized notepads on her desk around before finding an object underneath them and tossing
it to her startled new cadet.
"Now that you are a part of the Blue Stripes, you'll be needing one of these," she explained. "It's a mini-communicator. You'll get a real higher grade wristband communicator when you graduate, but until then, get used to wearing that—put it on your uniform somewhere so you can be reached anywhere and at any time.
"Okay, I just wanted to welcome you to the UESRC and to our Sky Hawk Unit." She began, lacing her fingers on her desk. "Since you're new here, we'll give you a while to get used to the place, but I expect you to catch up and prove yourself second year material before the end of this month. If you have any problems, I want to be sure you know that you can always come here and talk to me about them.
“Oh, and, be sure to make some friends you can trust.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
The morning dawned crisp and chill beyond the slim window that bordered the aboveground barracks of the UESRC. Dr. Sergei Zhdanov paused in his routine at his desk to watch the dim light that began to filter into his modest two-roomed apartment and to listen to the little sparrows chirping outside the window.
It was going to be a beautiful cool day out there. The summer had been too hot to his liking, even though he had spent the bulk of it indoors. Like most people, he preferred the spring and autumn, seasons that had all but disappeared during the Crisis Years and had come to be regarded as precious on the healed Earth, as well as refreshing.
Many of the UESRC staff including himself dreaded the hot summer days. Moreover, the stifling summer heat only reminded people unconsciously of the nightmare dust bowls and swamps that still held out in regions to the south.
Zhdanov massaged his tired, itchy eyes and glanced at the timepiece on the wall, which read 0600 in bright blue letters that made his eyes grow bleary and begin to tear. He had been up all night reading over the list of new pilot division, research science, and engineering trainees out of some compulsion; he had gained an almost legendary reputation for knowing the complete file of each staff member of the base inside and out, trainee or veteran.
He considered the information necessary. Without the knowledge, he could not give the welcoming speech at the Convocation Ceremony later that afternoon, and it saved time later when the cadets graduated, since he could more accurately assign them to suitable positions. Glancing over the last stack of files, he wasn't even sure why he had been putting it off all week, especially since things had quieted down since the beginning of the year.
He shuffled to the next file, clicked the button-sized holo-projection, and concurrently, a synthesized voice rasped the cadet's name.
"Mathieson-Blair, Erin. Placement: Third Level, year two, Blue Division Sky Hawks, Major Watanabe." An image of Erin in her previous uniform taken at the second year final examinations appeared six inches tall in the mini-holofield.
Zhdanov jerked backwards as if he'd been slapped. This was a ghost from his past. Yes—he could hardly believe it, but he'd quite forgotten about the little girl whom they had rescued the day the first ship arrived. He had shoved all of the events of that day to the back of his thoughts, that day that had changed all of their lives forever, but crystal clear recollections surfaced from time to time, buried somewhere in his mind, as fresh as yesterday despite the count of difficult years that had passed.
He searched his memory further a moment before coming up with the recollection of a day when the recon escort team left the UESRC to join the Statue City Base. It had literally been years since Zhdanov had seen Sasha and Richard in Statue City. They had become friends at the UESRC but had been forced to go their separate ways; the couple had only really maintained their ties with Cameron.
Zhdanov studied the holo-projection. He smiled. Had that much time passed already?
He was remembering the child that had played hide-and-seek in the maze of corridors surrounding the communications center, and who had rearranged all of the surgical instruments in the medical center when he left for a moment to discuss possible methods of treatment with her father.
She had fascinating eyes.
They had all thought that Erin's adoption was temporary then, but despite his efforts, Cameron had never been able to discover who her biological parents had been, and certainly now that would have proven impossible with the civilian deaths totaling almost a hundred million in the last ten years alone, including thousands of people in the rural zones.
So much had happened since Zhdanov had last seen her. Despite Zhdanov's and his colleagues' push to create new underground dwellings across the planet, the division of resources between the military and the civilian programs more often shortchanged the cities. Even with the piecemeal establishment of underground shelters and the fortification of the domes, there were still more aboveground cities than underground ones.
The Tethys Ocean Colonies were the closest thing to complete security; it appeared the enemy hadn't detected them yet, and despite the need for pilots, the aboveground forces did little to contact them or disturb their lives in order to maintain their security.
Strangely, the enemy appeared to continue concentrating its invasion on the sea coasts, leaving most of the cities in the continents' interior alone. The top priority of the new underground construction had been given to the coastal cities; now that they were nearing completion, Zhdanov often obsessed over the idea that the aliens would change their tactics and target the interior urban centers.
But there was only so much he could worry about, and at the moment, he doubted he would finish reviewing the candidates by afternoon.
Zhdanov concurred with the positive report as he reviewed Erin's examination results. She had scored so well, that she had been placed with the second years.
Zhdanov tapped a button on his desk and called the attending officer to make a private video connection to the Colonel's quarters. Zhdanov frowned, waiting for the communications channel to open, as he continued to review the other stack of papers on his desk informing him that materials for the project were late in coming. Their usual supplier had been the plastics plant in New Kiev that had been leveled seven months before, and the New Prague plant could not meet the UESRC demand until New Kiev could be reconstructed.
Perhaps by the time they received a shipment, the new recruits would be ready for their commissions, he observed in irritation.
* * * * *
During the first week back at the UESRC, the older cadets felt obliged to help the newcomers familiarize themselves with the enormous complex—and of course felt gratified by their own, elevated status as second years, so much the wiser. Following the schedule, the Blue Division second years paired up with Major Buscotti-Leonhardt's green stripe first years to visit the Training Rooms, Botanical Gardens, Greenhouse, and Physical Training Center. By the evening of the Convocation Ceremony on Saturday, most of the green cadets bragged that they already their way around the main corridors.
The week had been longer for some than for others. Erik Ross was eager to get back into the swing of things early on, and while this wish excluded the restriction of free hours and gatherings imposed after the first week, it did include a prayer that they could just skip all of the introductions and group tours.
Tuesday afternoon, and they were visiting the Research Center. What a waste of time, Erik Ross' bored expression said as he turned away from the speaker and gave the new recruits a wink. Now there was a much more interesting sight. At a break in the conversation, he quipped a joke and received one of Watanabe's patented frowns with a shrug and a contrite but roguish smile.
Kobaiyashi and his roommates had promised to throw a party that evening. It was a good thing he was standing near the back of the group, or Watanabe would have noticed him inching towards the green squadron to extend invitations. The old stick-in-the-mud didn't approve of parties. She didn't understand that they were a traditional part of the first week festivities, permitted even by Colonel Arnaud
, who was against such things in general.
Erik was only a few meters from the nearest green cadet when he saw that girl from yesterday come into view at the other side of the crowd in front of the speaker and stopped in his tracks. He still had yet to get her story, why Watanabe recognized her, her full name and history.
Einar would know, of course. His older sister Mika knew all sorts of information. Erik frowned as he caught a glance of his roommate, Einar, standing behind her; the big blond Viking was chatting away. Just how had he managed to find her in the crowd? He was supposed to stick with his roommates, the traitor.
Erik headed back to the edge of the Blue Squadron Sky Hawks and nudged Nikolai's elbow, indicating across the room to where Einar had disappeared, and mumbled in his roommate's ear something that made Nikolai smile from ear to ear before he checked himself and nodded.
Once they trapped their prey that evening, the interrogation began, with Hans, their fourth roommate, joining in. Their targeted victim, Einar, gave in easily to the united front, with a complacent attitude that said that the only thing he enjoyed more than keeping a secret to himself was the attention it earned him by telling it.
"You mean you don't know?" Einar shook his head in mock disapproval. "Mathieson-Blair. Yes, she's their daughter, not just some random coincidence, in case you were wondering."
Nikolai slapped his head with his palm. "So that's how Watanabe knows her. She was a cadet when Mathieson and Blair taught at the school." Nikolai didn't notice Erik's startled look as he continued. "Can't imagine anything worse than having famous parents." He shrugged; his own parents were agricultural engineers—part-time farmers and relaxers—for one of the agricultural zones by the Don River.
“Mathieson and Blair,” Hans repeated. “Well, I’ll wager she’s a fairly good pilot. And I’ll bet she acts like it, too.”
"Maybe she does. So what? She can be annoying all she wants.”
“I’ll say. She's sweet.” Hans said.
“Hands off, she's mine,” said Erik.
“But there’s more. She's not a transfer like we thought," Einar continued.