Chapter 5

The following characters appear in this chapter:

Maguire

MSG, Senior Instructor, 5’-8’’ tall, 160 pounds, 48 years old, short brown hair with streaks of gray in it, blue eyes

O’Floinn

MSG, the other Senior Instructor, 5’-9’’ tall, 150 pounds, 47 years old, auburn hair starting to turn gray, hazel eyes

“What’s up?” Luther asked as we entered our own recreation area a few minutes later. He had already started to have a drink and play some solitaire, as we weren’t allowed to gamble here at the school for obvious reasons. He had noticed Kaera with us as we entered.

“There was a little problem downstairs,” Trish told him. “This is Kaera,” she added.

“We brought her up with us to help her relax, and to learn a little more about her and her Talent,” she continued. Kaera appeared a bit startled on hearing this.

“Don’t get upset, dear,” Trish told her sensing this. “We’ve never met anyone who could do what we saw you do and only wish to learn more about it. We won’t disclose what you tell us to anyone else,” she assured her following that.

“Who are you people? All of you are much more powerful than the others here. Even more powerful than I am. I was shocked when I first met you,” Kaera told us.

“Our last mission was to the planet ’Parthas’ which is Gaelic for ‘Paradise’. There are many very strong Magic users there, and our Talents were expanded so we could negotiate with them. That turned out to not be necessary, but we still have our expanded Talents. We are Tiger Team, and are a part of the First Mobile Headquarters Team,” Trish told her.

“Would you like something to drink?” she asked following that.

“Just some juice if you have that. At home, we don’t drink alcohol. It’s a waste of time, as our systems burn it off too fast for it to have any effect,” she explained. Lucy produced a tall glass of orange juice from behind the bar and handed it to her.

“What planet do you come from, dear?” Trish asked in a gentle voice after we had all gotten something to drink.

“I’m from the planet ‘Aorigem’. It’s a long way from here. It’s still a frontier world even though it’s been settled for some 300 years. We don’t have many cities or any heavy industries. The few cities that we have are mainly located on the large rivers. There is farmland to raise the crops that we need, but mostly, there are forests and grasslands where the animals that the original settlers brought with them roam. Our ancestors came from northern Brazil and the areas around it on Earth. Brazil had become too settled and had eliminated much of the jungle where our ancestors had lived for many centuries.

“We had been crowded into smaller and smaller areas there over the years. Finally, a group of farmers and ranchers came to talk to them. They wanted the remaining land which the Brazilian government had given us. They said that those working for them had discovered a planet that we could colonize, and they would give it to us and move us there in exchange for our land. Some of our leaders at the time went to look at it and agreed to move there. They said that it would be a good place for us, but would require a lot of work. Our people moved there in several waves. It was a good planet, but we needed to remove some of the indigenous life forms to make it acceptable for us.

“It turned out that the group that our ancestors negotiated with had an ulterior motive. They wanted us to move there and remove the troublesome life forms for them, so they could move their farms and herds there. They tried that about 45 years after we moved there. The Unity had other ideas and prevented them from moving there. We were left alone for many years following that, but eventually representatives from the Unity came and setup a presence on our planet. In the last few years or so they have recruited a number of our people to work for your Special Operations, as we are very good at tracking and moving through the forests and jungles,” she finished.

“Do many of your people have the Talent, like you do?” Lucy asked.

“Yes, many do, especially those of us who can change into our Jaguar form. We are the best hunters and trackers. I chose to take Magic training, as I thought it would be more interesting than just tracking or following those we were after,” Kaera told us.

She stayed and talked about her home world for a short time after that, but it was evident that she was uncomfortable doing that. It was as if there were other, possibly darker, things that happened there, or that she didn’t want to talk about. Before she left, the Colonel had a message for her.

“If you ever tire of where you are assigned, or want a change for any reason, contact me at the First Mobile Headquarters Team here on Ainalhai III. I’m the current Commander of the unit, and we would be glad to have you join us,” Trish told her in her Colonel’s voice. Kaera seemed shocked on hearing the last part of this.

“You’re an officer?” she gasped.

“All four of us are officers, dear. Why are you so surprised?” Trish asked but as herself, not the Colonel.

“We were told that officers never associated with enlisted people. That they were different than we were,” she said. “Is that why you are so much more powerful than the others here?”

“We are not officers because we are more powerful. We were made Officers because we needed more authority to complete our last few assignments. Other Officers are not as powerful as we are. In fact, some have very small Talents,” Trish told her. Kaera seem relieved to hear this and about the offer that Trish had made her. She soon departed to return to her room. The rest of us remained a while longer, but soon also headed for our beds.

“She’s hiding something,” I told Trish in her room after we had showered, but before we went to bed together.

“Probably. Those who lived in the jungles of Brazil had a number of unusual practices,” she told me in a knowledgeable voice. “It may be that she is afraid to reveal them, or that she is ashamed of them,” she continued.

In the morning at breakfast, Lucy rushed up to the table where the three of us were eating.

“We need to see the School Commander at 0900 hrs.,” she informed us.

“Is this about last night?” Trish asked.

“Yes, I’m pretty sure that it is. Otho woke up last night at around 0300 hrs. and was hysterical. The medics calmed him down and put him back to sleep according to one of the medics that I know.

“They woke him at around 0730 this morning. The SGM was there and heard his rantings about shape changing animal students ... especial Kaera. I don’t know how much of what he said was believed, and neither did my medic friend,” she finished.

“Another storm to weather, and this one not of our making, though we did our best to cover it up,” Trish said philosophically with a smile. We hurriedly finished our meal following that and returned to our quarters to don our best uniforms for the meeting with SGM O’Cionaoith.

We four were outside of her office just prior to 0900. On knocking, we were told to enter. The Sergeant Major was seated behind her desk, but we didn’t have a chance to report before she spoke.

“There is no need to report. This isn’t an investigation. Have a seat all of you,” she told us. Once we were all seated, she spoke again.

“Otho awoke last night screaming about Kaera changing into some kind of large spotted cat, and then changing again into some other kind of creature that was half cat and half human. He also claimed that she threatened him,” she told us.

“Did he mention anything about threatening her and harassing her?” Trish asked. “We all heard him do that,” she added.

“No, there was no mention of what he had been doing there, or why he was there in an area reserved for those in classes junior to his,” the SGM said with a bit of a smile. “He knew better.”

“Are you insinuating that he was bothering her?” the SGM asked following that.

“I am more than suggesting that. When we arrived there, he was definitely harassing her,” Trish told her.

“That does put a different light on things,” the SGM said. “We had great hopes for Otho. He has a strong Talent and could have gone a long way. This incident puts a hold on those hopes. We can’t afford to have a strong Magic user who would take advantage of others with his Talent and his Magic. We will need to keep an eye on young Mr. Otho and determine what to do with him,” the SGM told us, before changing the subject.

“That wasn’t why I asked you in here today,” she said and looked uncomfortable. “The real reason is Kaera. How is she able to hide her real level of Talent so that none of us could detect more than she wanted us to? What we all felt last night from her was much stronger than she normally allows us to see or feel.

“If we had known that she has a Talent that strong, we would have put her in a more advanced class. Did you learn more about her last night when she left with you? She seems a very private individual and doesn’t interact that much even with her classmates and certainly not with the instructors. She could almost be considered a recluse, which isn’t a good thing in a Magic user either,” the SGM told us.

“We learned that she is from a planet settled by native people from the Brazilian jungle. She told us that even after 300 years, it’s still considered a frontier world, and the people there like it that way,” Trish told her. Lucy spoke up then.

“Perhaps Otho’s story isn’t so wild after all. It’s possible that what he saw was a projection of images from her home planet and from their form of native belief. With the level of Talent that I felt from her, that is an interesting possibility. It may also be something that she used on her home planet, as she certainly didn’t have any trouble creating it nearly instantly,” she proposed with a smile.

“Perhaps that is a possibility, but believe me, Otho definitely believes that she turned into some kind of large spotted cat before becoming some other large creature,” the SGM reiterated. “If what you suggested is true, that would indicate that Otho didn’t check on what he was seeing, and that his train of logic was faulty under just the least bit of pressure. That also is not good in a strong Magic user. We will definitely need to keep an eye on young Mr. Otho. We can’t afford to pass a faulty Magic user either. That’s two strikes against him. It’s looking very doubtful that he will graduate. We’ll see how he does when put under real pressure,” the SGM said in a rather unhappy voice.

“Go ahead with whatever you had planned for today. We’ll keep an eye on both of them and see what happens,” we were told in dismissal. We didn’t hear anything about either Otho or Kaera for some time following that.

Nearly six weeks later, we were close to finishing the normal course of instruction taught here at the Magic School. We had completed four months of instruction in a bit less than three months, and were looking forward to a little break before starting the advanced course, which is only attended by select Magic users with very strong Talents.

This was where Otho came into our lives again in a major way. The present Senior Class was due to graduate in a couple of days, and they were finishing up their last lessons and tests prior to graduating. This was when SGM O’Cionaoith needed to break the news to those who hadn’t qualified to graduate. Normally, it was because they hadn’t successfully completed some part of the required work and would need to repeat it successfully in order to graduate. Occasionally, it was because they just didn’t have a strong enough Talent and Magic to complete the work. Usually, they would have been released before getting this far, but for a few the problem wasn’t clear until the very end of the course.

The Sergeant Major did this in person herself because it was a very disturbing revelation for a student to learn that they hadn’t made it after doing all or most of the work.

This turned out even worse with Otho. While he had a good Talent, he didn’t think things through, or think logically. He tended to go off on tangents rather than solving the problem in a rational way. He was also a ‘sloppy’ Magic user. He would leave spells half done or missing a part or parts of the spell. He would even use the wrong glyph for the spell he was casting. Of course, it was never his fault, it was always the fault of someone else.

Two days before graduation, Otho was called into the Sergeant Major’s office. He entered in a slouch with wrinkled clothing and didn’t present a good appearance. He was already antagonistic.

“Mr. Otho, you have not shown the diligence, or the attention to your lessons that we expect from someone with your level of Talent. Your use of Magic is sloppy, and you have failed to pass a number of the required tests,” the Sergeant Major began.

“Therefore, you will not be graduating with those in your class. Instead, you will be dismissed from Special Operations to return to civilian life on your home planet. Prior to that, it will be necessary...,” she started to say before Otho totally lost his cool and erupted in violence.

“NO!” he screamed in rage. “You won’t remove my Magic,” he shouted surprising SGM O’Cionaoith and casting a powerful spell not taught here to knock her out. One of the Senior Instructors had been standing by in the adjoining office to aid in canceling his use of Magic, and she, too, was affected by the spell.

Otho then ran out of the office to escape the building, but how he thought he could get off the planet was a mystery to everyone. As chance would have it, he ran right into Kaera and several other students who were on their way to a class. Otho immediately recognized the young woman.

“You!” he screamed in anger again, “you are the one responsible for me not graduating.” Kaera was taken completely by surprise, and Otho cast a freeze spell on her before she could do anything. Of course, he was blaming her for his own failings.

The initial spell that he had cast had set-off alarms and sealed the building. We on Tiger Team had been talking to one of the other Senior Instructors on the third floor at the time. She had turned pale on hearing the alarm.