Axira Episode One by Odette C. Bell Page B

Elle and lingered
there until she shifted back awkwardly. "So now I'm going to
demonstrate what you have to do."
    I was hardly paying attention now. The lieutenant's words
were affecting me, pushing me back into my memories.
    I hadn't been kidding when I'd said I was good at distracting
myself. 450 years of being locked inside my own consciousness had
made me very comfortable with my thoughts.
    As I stood there in the front of the class, eyes locked on
some innocuous patch of dirt on the ground before me, I thought
again about how I could help change the future.
    That's why I was here.
    To guide the Coalition against my master, to take him down
before he could do more damage.
    Before I was aware of it, Lieutenant Ma'tovan reached in,
clapped a hand on my shoulder, and shoved hard.
    His muscles strained, his feet skidding against the floor,
but he couldn't push me over.
    In a second, I snapped back to reality, my body taking
control as all those years of training snapped through my
muscles.
    I dropped the shoulder he was shoving, twisting to his side
just at the right moment and letting his momentum pull him
forward.
    He stumbled.
    I was half a second from snapping towards him – from
attacking.
    Then I stopped myself.
    In fact, I stopped myself when the lieutenant straightened up
and shot me a challenging look. "It seems Cadet Em here already has
some combat training. Well, that may be the case with some more of
you,” he turned towards the assembled crowd, “But you're going to
have to forget what you learnt and learn to do it the Coalition
way. The correct method of deterring such an attack,” he whirled on
his boot and addressed me once more, “Is this." He demonstrated by
ducking forward, rounding his shoulder, then shoving
hard.
    It was a waste of energy. My move was more efficient. I kept
that fact to myself as I looked past his left shoulder and mimicked
his move.
    He straightened up and nodded towards Elle. "Push her,” he
said simply.
    I turned and tried to calculate how hard I could push Elle
without shoving her right through the floor.
    She cowered away from me, wincing, but eventually nodding.
"I'm ready."
    I shoved her.
    She fell over. Hard.
    I'd used approximately the same force I would use to open a
door.
    I moved down to help her up, but the lieutenant growled at me
that she had to learn to get up on her own.
    As the lesson continued, I tried hard to control myself. I
took cues from the cadets around me, imitating their behavior, even
their reactions as they failed.
    The lieutenant kept teaching us moves, and while some of them
made sense, others didn't. I was reminded of the failings I’d
witnessed in Coalition soldiers – failings I’d once capitalized on
to overcome them.
    I tried to keep myself contained, and aside from my initial
mistake with the lieutenant, I did. I measured my performance based
on the average of the other recruits around me. By the end of the
class, I was neither the best nor the worst. I was considered
competent enough.
    That didn’t stop the lieutenant from pulling me aside as
everyone else was leaving. “Why do I get the feeling, Cadet, that
you were holding yourself back during that class?” He crossed his
enormous arms in front of his chest, the muscles practically
bulging through the fabric of his uniform.
    I considered him in what I hoped was a non-challenging way,
ensuring my gaze was directed at the floor by his feet.
    “ You resisted my initial throw like a professional, Cadet. You
clearly have experience with combat techniques,” he continued. “I
saw your feat of endurance on the track yesterday too. Do you know
what I hate more than a cadet who tries hard but fails?”
    I didn’t shift my gaze.
    “ One that won’t try hard at all. You may think you can breeze
through this Academy course. You may think your past life –
whatever it involved – has set you up to get through the next five
years without a challenge, but I’m here to tell you that isn’t