Chapter 3

Mum and Dad were waiting for me at the air-shuttle port when we stepped off the shuttle and they greeted me warmly and, in the case of my Mum, emotionally.

Tough as you thought it would be?” Dad asked.

“Tougher. Grandad Tivey sugar-coated it quite a bit,” I grinned.

“He did the normal Ground Trooper training, Officers are supposed to be better,” he nodded. “You’ve lost weight too.”

“Just a bit of padding,” I giggled. “I’ll visit a sculpt shop and get the shape back whilst I’m here.”

“Cass will do it for you for nothing, just pop in at the medical centre. She’d be delighted to see you, as will Hiqua.”

“Yeah, I will. Thanks, Dad.”

“Let your friends know too, if they’re interested.”

“Prill and Caffa might be, thanks.”

“Let Cass know and I’ll cover their costs, if necessary.”

“Aw, thanks, Dad. You’re the best!”

I then introduced Mum and Dad to Prill, Caffa and Wahh and they did the same with their parents. Dad did his usual offer of feeding us all, though they all had other family things planned, but we all agreed to meet up soon, before we scattered to the winds to the various bases where we would do our specialist training before we’d be let loose in Ground Force proper.

The big surprise for me was all the gang as well as my Aunts and Uncles waiting for me in one of my Mum’s (and mine) favourite restaurants on the upper median levels. Everyone was there to congratulate me on qualifying basic, including Aunt Manny and Uncle Herrick, as well as Amanda and Vicki. I have to admit I got a little emotional at seeing them all and had a little blub until Dayyev told me to pull myself together like a proper Trooper and I felt obliged to elbow him in the ribs for spoiling my moment. All this did was make him burst out laughing and brighten my mood, as I found myself laughing too.

“Git!” I chided him, using one of Dad’s weird words.

“You’re supposed to be having fun,” he replied with a grin. “Besides, you don’t normally do girly stuff.”

“True, but it just got a little overwhelming, seeing you all.”

“That’s OK, that’s why you have me,” he laughed.

“Ignore him,” Amanda giggled. “I’ll pop his balloon later.”

“You get him, girl,” I grinned.

“Hey, don’t gang up on me,” Dayyev protested. “I just wanted sis to not come across on the tri-dee with puffy eyes.”

“Tri-dee?” I asked.

“Mum,” he grinned.

“Sneaky,” I grinned. “OK, bro. You’re forgiven.”

Yes, Mum was having the whole party tri-deed and had failed to mention it to anyone ... though I expect Aunt Manny knew, along with her security ... oh, and Uncle Herrick and Aunt Vilgra too ... Come to think of it, probably the only one who didn’t know was me.

“So, how was it, Kir?” Plenna asked me with Vicki in tow.

“Damned hard. They do their best to try and test you to your limits and then some as you learn you can overcome them. Some can’t cope and drop out, but there was no way I was.”

“Still planning on joining up?” Vicki asked Plenna.

“Yeah,” he nodded.

“Would you wait for me until I can do it too?”

“Er... , “ was all he could say as Vicki popped one of his bubbles in his not seeing her as girlfriend material.

“Come on, Plen, you must have noticed she likes you?” Dayyev chimed in.

“I ... I guess I could wait a year, find something to do...” he finally stumbled out, looking a little like a plumbech caught in a speeding flyer’s landing lights.

“Good,” Vicki nodded. “Now all I have to do is get Mum to agree to me being a Ground Force Officer.”

“Do it anonymously, Vicki,” I suggested. “Sooner or later a newsie will find out and accuse you of getting preferential treatment.”

“Yeah, I don’t want that at all,” she nodded.

“Plenna can take a meditech course while he waits and work in the centre,” Aunt Hiqua suggested, as she had been eavesdropping.

“It’ll get you extra credits,” Aunt Cass added as she also joined in.

“OK, sounds like a plan,” Plenna nodded as Vicki took his hand and gave it a squeeze and him a glowing smile.

“So you’ll be doing your healer training now?” Aunt Cass asked me.

“Yes. Because it’s fast tracked by Ground Force, it’s all neural emplaced and the rest is practice,” I replied.

“Not the best way of doing it, but it does work,” she replied with a slight frown.

“I can catch up with the more technical stuff once I’m out of training. Mostly what they’re after are trauma specialists to put the Troopers back in one piece during and after combat.”

“Yes, I’ve done it on board medical carriers,” she nodded. “Good meditechs will always help there with triage. Make sure you ride herd on them though, until they perform the way you want them to.”

“I don’t understand why meditechs can’t do the stuff healers do. It’s all done mostly by AIs,” Plenna commented.

“It’s not that easy,” Aunt Cass replied. “Anyone with a bit of training can use a wand to close wounds and do a few basic repairs. However, anything more technical requires skills, as well as knowledge. You can’t fix broken bones without ensuring they are in the right position to seal for one. That requires using the wand’s gravitic capabilities to move them as well as keeping the nerves from activating and killing the patient from shock. Same with DNA re-sequencing and viral eradication. It’s an art form in a sense and it’s not something the AIs are good at.”

“I hear meditechs can repair a girl’s virginity,” Plenna said with a grin at Vicki.

“Yes, but they can’t re-attach your balls if you try to take my virginity before I’m seven (Earth 19),” she replied, straight faced.

“Ouch! Vicki, I thought you liked me?”

“I do, just not that way, not yet and if you keep that sort of talk up, not ever.”

“I was joking, I was joking!”

“You’d better hope you were,” she replied with a frosty look.

“He was,” Aunt Cass commented as well. “He’s actually a pretty good boy with regards to his behaviour, just not his mouth.”

“I just like winding people up,” he grinned. “Just didn’t work this time.”

“True,” I added. “Normally Dayyev stops him inserting his foot into his mouth, but he’s over there with Amanda talking to her Mum.”

“Something to do with the Royal Princesses shouldn’t be joked about, my boy,” Aunt Hiqua stated. “Their reputations matter a great deal more than yours.”

“Yes, Mum. Sorry, Vicki,” he replied contritely (for once).

“Just don’t ever do it again,” Vicki replied seriously. “I like you a lot, Plenna, but as your Mum says, I have to maintain a reputation for being a good girl and talk like that won’t be tolerated, not so much by me, but by ImpSec, my bodyguards and my Mum.”

“This is true,” Trusha stated from directly behind me, making me start slightly at her silent approach. “You need to discipline your mouth, Plenna, before you lose something precious by it.”

“OK, OK, I get it,” he nodded, looking very embarrassed now. “I’m truly sorry, Vicki. What I said and implied was uncalled for.”

“Thank you,” she replied then gave him a kiss on his cheek and a grin.

“Wow!” he exhaled. “Did I ever get put in my place.”

“What we say and do in private will be something else again,” Vicki replied with sparkling eyes. “Just not that, the reputation comes first, always.”

“Yes, Vicki.”

I moved on from that group who were still ‘advising’ Plenna on how to behave or rather, Vicki had begun training him to behave, at least in public when with her or talking about her. I was hoping to catch up with Aunt Manny, but she was still busy with Dayyev and Amanda and a slight shake of the head from Truvia, her bodyguard, made me move on to Uncle Herrick.

“Uncle Herrick?” I asked.

“Yes, Kiria?”

“Do you know if Ground Force Officer Training requested someone from Kilios ... or from Close Protection, to train their staff?”

“Yes, they did,” he replied after a few seconds, presumably having been informed so by the AIs. “I take it they learned a few things from you?”

“Just a little. Aunt Janilla and Uncle Rigg then Truvia taught me well,” I replied with a grin.

“They did. Not one of the Royal ‘bratpack’ is someone I’d care to take on hand-to-hand at any time,” he nodded with a slight smile.

“I suspect the bodyguards enjoyed training us,” I grinned.

“All too much.”

“I’m glad they did make the contact. I was never too sure just how seriously they took me,” I added, returning to the original subject.

“Apparently very seriously indeed, if Monitor Hack’s report is anything to go by. He did not like the fact that a Cadet could take down one of his trainers with ease. Though in no way was disparaging about your ability to do it.”

“At least if Plenna and Vicki go down that route they’ll be in better company, training-wise.”

“So she’s going to follow him?” he asked with a slight frown.

“Only if she can’t persuade him otherwise. She’s already got him to wait a year till she catches up to him.”

“Smart girl,” he chuckled.

“They both are. Just Vicki is better at manipulation.”

“Yes, she’d be far better off in Fleet as an Admiral. Ground Force rarely get to fight on a planetary scale.”

“Yes, so I expect Plenna will change his mind now Vicki has marked him as hers. Though she’ll do it in a way that will make him think it was his idea,” I giggled.

“Yes, she’s her mother’s daughter all right.”

The following working period, after a good night’s sleep in a proper grav-bed, a lift deposited me near the medical centre where my Dad, Aunt Cass and Aunt Hiqua worked. With me were Caffa and Prill who were looking around at the market with some curiosity, neither ever having been down in the lower levels before. That said, whilst they’d probably have been nervous in times past, neither were nervous now. They’d survived Officer basic and picked up both situational awareness as well as the ability to look after themselves physically, including the use of extreme violence if necessary.

“Seriously, the Royal Healer works here in her time off?” Prill asked as she viewed the centre.

“Yes, as does my Dad,” I replied with a chuckle.

“I’m surprised they’re allowed,” Caffa added, alluding to the general view most Imperial subjects had about the level boundaries and some of the myths about them.

“It’s all charity based, giving some of the folk here decent medical aid that they wouldn’t necessarily be able to afford elsewhere,” I replied as we walked towards and into the centre.

“Including free cures?”

“Only for the terminally ill, there’s only one of my Dad after all.”

“How does a Cure do it?” Prill asked.

“Sorry, you aren’t cleared to know. The only reason I know is because he’s my Dad.”

“Kiria!” Aunt Hiqua greeted me when we stepped inside. “These must be your friends?”