Chapter 7

Lucy has the Narrative

Joel and I didn’t know anything about the new Team or what had happened until we finished the administrative portion of the Officer’s Basic Course.

On reporting there, we met with the Senior NCO Instructor and were briefed on the class we were joining, and what our responsibilities would be. We were then taken to the bay where the class lived to meet them. There were presently 12 males and 9 females in the class.

“Attention!” the first student to see us called as we entered the area, and all of the students came to attention and moved to stand by the area of their bunks. We and the Senior Instructor moved further into the bay before he began to address them.

“You are being joined by these two Senior Lieutenants for the administrative portion of the course. They are both combat veterans and will be leading the class. They will have the two rooms at the entrance of this bay. That is all,” the Senior Instructor said before departing.

“At ease,” Joel gave before addressing the students.

“I’m Lieutenant Luther and with me is Lieutenant Miranda. I will be overseeing the male portion of the class, and she will be overseeing the female portion of the class. Are there any questions?” he asked.

“Yes,” one individual answered, “why are you here?” Joel smiled at me, and I answered the question.

“We are here because we were promoted to Senior Lieutenants from Master Sergeants, and we are required to take the administrative portion of the course,” I told him and the others.

“What were your assignments?” one of the women asked.

“I am the Team’s Magic user,” I told her. “Lieutenant Luther has an Eagle for a Partner,” I finished.

“So you were both on a Team?” the same woman asked.

“Yes, we are both on the same Team, Tiger Team,” Joel told her.

“Just what did you do with this Eagle?” another young man asked. He was about Joel’s size, but appeared to be a smart-ass.

“The Eagles are our eyes in the sky. They cover our advance and run patrols of the area around us. On Parthas, they ran reconnaissance patrols twice a day most of the time. They love to fly. We have two Eagles on our Team and two Tigers,” Joel told them.

“How exciting can that be?” the smart-ass asked with a chuckle.

“Exciting ... no. Vital to security ... yes. Combat is not always exciting, but security is always necessary,” Joel reminded them. This was followed by more questions about what we had done and seen. The smart-ass continued to annoy Joel with stupid questions until he’d had enough.

Casting a freeze spell on him, Joel transported him to the barred security cage at the back of the room. It was used to secure weapons and other sensitive gear that the students needed to have available. Finally, he slammed the door shut and locked it, before removing the freeze spell. All of this was done while never having moved an inch or developed a sweat. The smart-ass screamed bloody murder on realizing where he was, and what had happened to him. All of the other students were staring at us in amazement.

“I’m not the strongest Magic user on our Team. Lieutenant Miranda is,” Joel told them quietly. The others just continued to stare at the two of us. Eventually, the smart-ass quieted down, and Joel released him from the cage. Again, without moving or sweating any. We returned to our rooms to set up our uniforms and other gear following that.

“Well, what do you think?” Joel asked once we were alone again at our rooms.

“I think it will be an interesting five weeks,” I told him with a grin. “Perhaps a listening spell wouldn’t be out of order to see what they think of us,” I added before casting the spell after we had moved into my room. Some of the things we heard were very revealing.

“What do you think of them?” we heard a male voice ask after I cast the spell.

“He handled mister smart-ass without a thought or even giving any sign that he was upset. I would say it isn’t wise to upset either of them on seeing what they are capable of,” a female voice added to the discussion.

“He wasn’t the stronger one either,” another female voice added. “That Lieutenant Miranda is a lot stronger than he is. I worked with some Team members before applying and being accepted here, and I never felt a Talent anywhere near as strong as hers. She could do you some serious damage if you piss her off,” the female voice added.

“Do you really think that he has an Eagle for a Partner?” another male voice asked.

“Didn’t you see the way his left sleeve and the shoulder of his uniform are worn?” a male voice asked.

“Yeah, what about it?” the other male voice asked.

“I’ve seen the same kind of wear on the uniforms of those with flying Partners whether they are Eagles or Falcons. They all had that kind of wear on their uniforms,” the same voice told him. I canceled the spell after that, as we had heard enough, and we still needed to get our uniforms and gear setup.

The administrative portion of the course is five weeks long. It was quickly apparent that Joel was less than enthusiastic about all of the paperwork involved, but he worked his way through it, as he had everything else that we had ever done. He was somewhat more interested in the legal aspects of the course. I didn’t have any problems with either part of the course. Both of us having spent nearly six months at the Magic School, we were somewhat less than well prepared for the PT aspect of the Officer’s Basic Course. Still, we did as well as the other students did, and were much better by the time we finished the course.

On completion of the administrative portion of the Officer’s Basic Course, Joel and I returned to our headquarters. We were not surprised to find that many of those assigned to the unit were still away at various schools related to their military occupation, to career enhancement schools such as advanced NCO or Officer’s school, or were on TDY (temporary duty) assignments to other locations to fill in for those attending similar schools, or who were on leave, sick, or were absent for other reasons.

What did surprise us was the presence of Kaera Melang and a partial new Team that was composed of Jaguars and their Human Partners. They were the only Partners here presently.

“How did this come about?” I asked Cleve once we had been welcomed back and had a chance to learn what was going on.

“Kaera was assigned here first. The first Team that she was assigned to were afraid that her Magic was too strong. I spent some time familiarizing her with how we operate in the field. Thyne Midthunnder had already been assigned here. She attended one of the NCO schools after reporting in and was then sent TDY for a time while waiting for the Partners to return. This gave us half of a new Team.

“Trish went to see Colonel Royal about acquiring ground Partners and their Human handlers for the ground component to finish the new Team. As luck would have it, these two Jaguars had been donated to Special Operations and were in training at the Partner School at the time. They joined us two weeks later. I have been working with them and Kaera on ground operations. When the other Partners return, we will need to get all of them integrated to work together. It will require time to get everyone used to working together again, especially with the new Team,” Cleve reminded us. The Colonel joined us then.

“Lucy, I would like you to work with Kaera on the spells that we normally need to use in the field or while on deployment. We haven’t really gone over that in more than a general way with her,” Trish told me before changing the subject.

“Now that we have four Teams, I believe that we need someone to be in charge of each of the components of the Teams for coordination and cross training,” the Colonel continued. “Obviously, Cleve will be the one in charge of all of the ground personnel and their Partners. Joel, you are the most obvious to take charge of the flying Partners and their handlers. Lucy, you will be in charge of the Magic users. That will include the four of us also for general Magic training.

“For the remainder of the unit, we should have at least four other officers available to take charge of the various sections. We will need to see who returns before making those assignments. There are also sufficient Senior NCOs to instruct the the younger personnel in their duties and the general responsibilities of all Special Operations personnel. Hopefully, we will have the time to both implement these procedures and to do some field training before we need to deploy again. Our last deployment certainly wasn’t like any of the previous ones had been. I want to be sure that we are ready for a deployment similar to the one to the Addison system,” Trish told us.

I could sense that she was really worried about our readiness posture. We did have a lot of personnel now, and it would require a lot of training to get everyone working as one unit again, and this presumed that we received all of our original people back and not a lot of replacements who had no idea of how we worked.

I spent time over the next two weeks or so working with Kaera on the spells used in the field when she wasn’t out in the field with the remainder of her Team and their Partners. It was easy to tell that the Jaguars really looked up to her. However, she was a long way from being ready or able to be a Team Leader. She would require much more time on active field duty before she would be ready to even try that.

Nine months had passed since we had left the Partners when the personnel assigned to our unit began to return and remain, having completed all of their schools and temporary duty assignments. One of the first was Thyne Midthunnder. She was very surprised to discover that she and her Partner were assigned to the new Team and that the other Partners on the Team were already here. She started working with them even before her Partner Chet arrived.

The next to return was Sergeant, now Staff Sergeant, Hershel Preetorius, our senior cook and a great chef. Everyone was glad to see him back. It didn’t take more than one meal for our new personnel to realize why everyone was so glad to have him back with us.

A week or so after our people began to return and none of the others had left, we received word that our aerial Partners were ready to return. The Colonel, Joel, Art Ward, Abby Reed, Dan Khawam and Thyne Midthunnder all flew to the Partner Training School to personally retrieve their Partners. They were gone for a day but had returned by the middle of the second day.

Of course, Tiger Team’s Partners, Samson and Sara, had their own nest on the roof of the building to return to. John and Jen, the Falcons of Team A-23, still had their cage to return to, though the partition had been removed since they were now mated. However, there was a problem with the new Eagle Partners. Millie and all of Team A-31 had only been with us for a short time before we deployed to Parthas. On returning, she had started on a small nest in the top of one of the trees behind our building. The nest wasn’t finished yet. When she returned with Chet, who was assigned to the new Jaguar Team, it wouldn’t be large enough for both of them. What to do about this was the question.

“I blame myself. I should have considered this problem when we returned from the Training School the first time,” Trish said in a reproachful voice, as we discussed the problem after their arrival.

“What could WE have done though?” Cleve asked.

“I don’t know. Sara built her nest after I had the roof reinforced and the box placed on it in Arnold along with all of the other work on the building. She had plenty of time to work on it. Eagles and other birds all build their own nests,” she finished. (See Partners, Chapter 3 for the details.)

Millie and Chet had apparently heard our discussion and flew towards us from where they had been perched in one of the trees. Millie landed on the Colonel’s arm when she extended it.

“We finish nest. Small, no chicks,” she sent to the Colonel and the rest of us before spreading her wings and rejoining Chet. They circled the building before landing in the top of the tree where she had started her nest. Dan and Thyne, their Partners, joined us then.

“Don’t worry, sir. They’ll be all right for now. We can do something more permanent later. There is no way to know how long we will be here,” Dan assured the Colonel. Thyne hadn’t said anything but apparently agreed with him.

The following day, Luther had a meeting with all of our flying Partners and their Human Partners to start them training to work together again and checking out their camera equipment and controllers. They were able to do this right here at our headquarters as there were no problems with the Partners flying in this area, unlike there would be with our ground Partners.

More than a week and a half passed before we received word that the remainder of our Partners was ready to rejoin us. Cleve took Laurine, Max, and Natalie to the Training School on Two to collect Bob and Susie, Mike and Mindy, and Clare to return them here. There was a bit of a surprise when they arrived there, as Susie greeted them with two new cubs. It appears that she had gotten pregnant before leaving Parthas, and the Entity had helped hide the fact from us. She’d had a male and a female cub. This was in addition to Clare’s two male and one female cubs. Bob had been as proud as could be, and both Susie and Clare had clawed him in response. Bob was still happy as were the people at the Partner Training School to have the extra Tiger cubs. Things went well on the return until they arrived at our headquarters building. All four Human Partners had washed very thoroughly before leaving to remove any scents from the Jaguars.