She was also sure she’d just made an enemy for life, no matter what happened after that day, Zane would try to sabotage her career, or perhaps even seek to harm her if he thought he could get away with it. He was… not a good man, she saw that now, recognized him for what he truly was. He was charming, confident, and persuasive, but when he didn’t get his way he would fight, lie, and destroy whatever was in his way.

  He'd failed to convince her, failed to bully her, failed to gain traction by dismissing her as a coward, and when put in his place after that he’d tried to figure out what her secret was, had studied her as an adversary as his people were shot at.

  Narcissist, and psychopath came to mind.

  He was the kind of man that would join Harbinger, if the fleet kicked him out, he’d see it as their fault, not his. He’d want vengeance, and other men and women were simply disposable tools to reach a goal. That is in fact, how she recognized him finally, she’d seen that look in the eyes of men before, usually right before they’d hurt her or tortured her in the lab, under the guise of training.

  She didn’t say any of that out loud, she had no proof, outside of what was already in the record, so it was better if the reviewing officers took action off of that. There was no point in risking her career further, to destroy his, when that wasn’t ever her goal. She wondered if she didn’t already read too far into it, his words had been smugly dismissive and subtly threatening, but he hadn’t actually threatened her with anything but his eyes, along with the strange out of place attention and blandly arrogant comments.

  She hoped the examiners would see what she did, what she knew to be true.

  For the rest of the exercise, he avoided her. He did manage to take alpha’s base with only eight losses, and his secondary plan wasn’t needed because Daniel had stolen the flag out from under Charlie’s nose while Alpha was attacking them with their offense force. Two of the six had been taken out in the subsequent chase. Charlie chased after them hard, once Alpha went offline and their attack ended, thanks to Zane returning the alpha flag, but they’d made it back to camp with the flag, which ended the exercise.

  She was proud of her people, but it didn’t really feel like a win. Zane, and the Harbinger attack, poisoned the moment for her. She wondered if it was just too dangerous to have her around.

  Chapter Ten

  There was a light knock on the door Sunday night, and Stacy jumped up to answer it, laughing as she slipped out of Brent’s grasp. Her and Ella sat up as well, not wanting to be seen leaning against Crandall and Daniel, respectively, by someone out of the core group.

  Stacy came back in a moment later with Lieutenant Julie Taylor in tow.

  Julie said, “I thought I’d come by for this. I have some good news and some bad, Ash.”

  Ashley nodded, “Okay?”

  Julie said, “After I got your message, we did an investigation, to see if he was really a threat or not to the secret. We turned up some disturbing information. His psych eval was a forgery, and it took a little searching to find the real one. He’s a classic narcissist, and a sociopath with violent tendencies. He doesn’t see others as important at all, just tools to use or spend, or roadblocks to smash.

  “So, he’s gone. Packing as we speak. His father, Admiral Jason Argyle, is also to be court martialed, since it was him that forged the eval to get his son into the service.”

  She sighed, “I’m going to assume that’s the good news.”

  Julie nodded, “The bad news is Admiral Argyle has a lot of friends, and there is a slight chance this will be swept under the rug. If it is, you got rid of an enemy peer, but you gained a much more powerful enemy doing so. Not that you were wrong, that young man has no business owning a turtle, much less holding the lives of others in his hands.

  “The other aspect is Zane has been fooling his platoon all year long. He’s very good at faking emotions he obviously doesn’t possess. He’s confident and persuasive, knows how to manipulate others, and ever since your confrontation with him he’s been turning his whole platoon against you. I wouldn’t be surprised if most of them are convinced you turned on Zane for some inane reason, and that because you’re special friends with Daniel you had the juice to get him unjustly kicked out. Watch for that, at least one platoon of your year won’t be a fan, and those kinds of dark rumors spread faster than anything else.

  “The reason to kick him out will be public record, but his closest friends will see it as political lies, so watch yourself.”

  She was fairly sure that special friends implied she was sleeping with him. Which was ridiculous of course, since her roommate was. She also wouldn’t step out on Crandall, but ironically perhaps, to defend herself with those truths would paint her almost as badly given the context of what they believed.

  She sighed, “So, a twelfth of my class hates me, more may do so as they spread salacious rumors and lies about me, and if the admiral isn’t court martialed then I’ll have him as an enemy. I bet if he is court martialed, it might even be worse, as he’ll send all his friends after me in his stead?”

  Julie bit her lip, “That could be, but let’s not borrow trouble. If he’s court martialed for fraud and sent to prison, which has nothing to do with you, all of those friendships and favors will dry up fast.”

  “Okay, want my impression?”

  Julie’s lip twitched, “What?”

  “Keep an eye on Zane, he’ll be looking to join harbinger.”

  Julie said, “Already on my to do list.”

  “Do you want a drink or anything, thanks for coming by the way.”

  Julie smiled, “I’m good. I have a hot date tonight, otherwise I would accept. Hang in there.”

  “I’ll be fine, my platoon has my back.”

  Julie waved and left.

  Brent said, “I’ll make sure everyone knows not to believe anything they say.”

  Stacy kissed him, “Thanks.”

  It wasn’t pervasive or obvious that next morning at breakfast. Not at first anyway, but the hostility from Zane’s old table was clear enough to notice if someone knew to look for it. Other tables looked at her curiously too, speculation in their eyes, and whispered rumor.

  She’d missed the start of it, since Sunday they ate meals in, on the weekends really, but that Saturday had been out in the field. What made it worse was Zane had apparently launched a campaign on Sunday, the fact he was mysteriously ejected for fraudulent entrance into the mage fleet service a few hours later no doubt added fuel to the fire and played into his machinations.

  Not at first, because when their platoon got up to leave, they all looked at her in self-righteous anger, and it was closer to fury in the eyes of a redhead with brown eyes, and a face and body that gave Ella a run for her money.

  “Who was the redhead? She looked extra angry.”

  Ella said, “Their new platoon leader. Sally Sevier. I think they were dating.”

  Well, that fury made sense then, sort of, even as she shuddered at the idea of any woman subjecting herself to Zane. But they didn’t want to start counter rumors, so she changed the subject.

  “Well, at least Lawrence’s and Frank’s platoon looked… on the fence about it.”

  Jace nodded, “Those two never liked him. I suspect they dropped a word or two to that effect when the rumor mill sprinkled their people. Not that strong a one, obviously they aren’t your biggest fans either.”

  She snickered, “Fair.”

  On the positive side her own platoon was firmly on her side, and they were the only people she had classes with, save the occasional joint exercises which were few and far in between. It was only at meals and walking around base where she’d have to deal with the hostility, and while she wasn’t completely immune to it, since no one but a narcissist would be, she’d certainly faced a lot worse than unfair rumor, innuendo, and anger when she was younger. She could bear it if she had to, and with her head held high.

  Glares and furious whispers, unjust foolish judgement, didn’t really compare to beatings, mental cruelty, and mind control.

  She did consider leaving briefly, but it had nothing to do with that mess. She’d gotten used to her closest friends, her chosen squad, putting their lives on the line to fight with her. Her platoon too, to a certain extent. But that last weekend her presence and Harbinger’s desire to take her out had put her whole graduating year at the academy at risk. Two hundred and eighty-five cadets.

  They’d also handled it well, not one cadet had died in the fight, with her plan slightly modified by Frank. She did give it serious thought, that maybe she wouldn’t be so lucky next time, but at the same time if she quit the Harbingers would win. The council knew, the spooks knew, and even the school knew she was a target now, and not one officer in charge had suggested she needed to move on.

  So, she decided it was a manageable risk, and that all those people couldn’t be wrong, even if she’d continue to worry about it, she just needed to be prepared.

  She never did find out how many ships Harbinger towed away that day, for trading off three q-ships and ninety-six men on the ground, but she didn’t imagine it would be good. In a few months at most, they’d be back to terrorizing the space lanes.

  It was just a week later, a week of dodging glares and rumor, that everything changed again.

  Stacy called out, “Ohmygod! Get in here, now!”

  Her and Ella ran out of their rooms and into the living room. It was next Sunday evening, and the guys had already left.

  Stacy pointed at the wall screen, where the news was playing.

  She froze, as she saw a picture of herself. At the age of fourteen, but it was clearly her, easily recognizable, save for the fact plasma was billowing around her body. She honestly wasn’t sure which test that was, as her stomach fell.

  “Uh oh.”

  Stacy snorted, “Wait for it.”

  The anchor said, “This image of a younger Cadet Ashley Foster was given to us by a anonymous source who we believe is part of the Harbinger terrorist organization,” another picture came up, one of her in uniform shooting a man in tactical gear with a gun shoved in his mouth. There’d obviously been a drone in that first incident in the city, and the look on her face was of tightly controlled fury, “This image is from early this year, where she killed this man in defense of several civilians. She took out a team of six fully trained operatives after her first week as a first-year cadet, with minor help of others.

  “We can’t verify the video we’re about to show you, but we certainly do want answers. We’ve reached out to the government for comment, but thus far they’ve chosen not to respond to our inquiries. This video might be disturbing for children.”

  An older man with a craggy face and bulbous nose, with white hair and a beard, came on the screen. His eyes were flat and cold.

  “We are the harbingers of justice, harbingers of the fall of the corrupt and degenerate union society. We work hard to bring true freedom and liberty to you all, dedicate our lives, spend our lives, to that ideal.”

  The old man shook his head, “But sometimes even we make mistakes in our fervency to end that corruption, and I am sending this video as an appeal to sanity. You have among you the result of one of those mistakes. An abomination before god and man. This,” he sneered, “Cadet Ashley Foster, is an ill-advised and foolish experiment run by one of my rash ex-comrades who paid his life for it. She is engineered to control certain magics without spells, and without limits.

  “The intent was to not only to break through the current barrier in LS1000 from magical limitations, but to completely smash it. The project was a failure as well as foolish, but before we could destroy the genetically engineered monstrosity she escaped our control. She is not human. She is faster, smarter, more focused, and has at her fingertips magic that could lay waste on the planetary level. She could destroy an armada, faster than you could blink an eye, and what does the idiotic corrupt Union council do? They put her in a uniform, as a hopeful form of social control on her actions so they can have her defend the union if it comes to it, when it’s far more likely she’ll end up destroying worlds.

  “We have expended ships, whole units, assassins, and several smaller teams in an effort to save you all from a certain dread future. They all failed. So this is it, our call to the Union itself, the corrupt bureaucracy to act with some semblance of sanity, and destroy her before it is too late. Before we all die in an abomination’s fire.”

  The video ended.

  Stacy snorted, “They just don’t want you destroying their new fleet.”

  She just stared in shock, as the anchor came back on.

  The newsman said, “These accusations are outrageous, and we are dubious of any claims made by terrorists, but at the same time they bring up questions that demand answers. From what we could find out, Ashley Foster is a cut above the rest. Currently on track to be valedictorian of her graduating class, winner of the dueling competition, and she’s also purported to have a close relationship to the sons of councilors Robert Duke and Daniel Evans, senior, who are also first year cadets in her platoon.

  “At the same time, we have found no evidence of her using these powers ascribed to her save a picture from a dubious source which could easily be a fake. She has personally led the fight against the Harbingers in skirmishes to save lives and last week a battle, and each time she’s driven them back while keeping her people safe. So, is she an up and coming threat to the Harbingers that they are hoping we will eliminate for them, merely an exceptional young woman who is driven to serve and protect, and be her best? Or is she what was said, a designed human hiding her true power and a ticking time bomb. Or maybe, she’s both those things. We still await the answer.”

  Stacy turned it off, “You okay? Because I’m kind of wigging out.”

  She shook her head, “Absorbing, brain broke. This is… not good.”

  Ella sighed, “Yeah. It couldn’t have come at a worse time, either.”

  She thought about that, then nodded in agreement. If it’d happened two weeks ago, she had no doubt her fellow cadets would close ranks around her, but with all the rumors and her infamy, it just might turn more of them against her, those sitting on the fence. Worse, it’d give Zane’s father, Admiral Argyle, a far firmer platform to speak out against her.

  Daniel senior had told her the fleet mages would have her back if it ever came out, and she’d believed that. But now she wasn’t so sure, not with all the pernicious rumors going on, and the false conspiracy that she’d gotten him thrown out for reasons other than what was claimed officially.

  “I just never imagined they’d be the ones to out me, I didn’t even consider it a possibility.”

  Stacy nodded, “They’ll probably stonewall, and ask you to weather it.”

  She sighed, “Then I’ll be lying to everyone, which will make the backlash ten times worse when it inevitably comes out. There’s a difference between keeping a state secret, being a state secret, and lying to everyone about it.”

  Ella nodded, “Granted, but if they order a coverup, what choice will you have?”

  She shook her head, “Probably none. But nothing stays a secret forever. Not when it’s shared with more than two, at any rate. It doesn’t feel like the right move to me, but I’m not going to disobey whatever the council decides.”

  She’d know soon enough. As soon as they’d decided, she’d no doubt get a visit from Julie. Until then she’d do nothing, and just continue her education. She wondered if the old Harbinger leader know how ironic he’d sounded, touting liberty and freedom with one breath, while with the other demanding a death and talking about controlling and experimenting on people.

  “I think I need to absorb and sleep on it. I’m… I don’t know.”

  Ella put a hand on her shoulder, “We’ll figure it out.”

  She smiled faintly, “Good night.”

  Depressingly, the next morning at breakfast went about how she expected. The ones on the fence picked sides, not all against her, and her year became even more polarized over her. The other years were also affected, although mostly just giving her curious looks, when until then she’d been mostly beneath their notice. They all wanted to ask questions, but none of them were brave enough to flout the secrecy act.

  The press might be clueless, and most of the worlds, but it was clear they all believed it. Or at least, thought it was related and an unlikely version of the truth, but not that far from the truth. The fact she had state secrets and had history with the Harbingers was very well known among her peers, after all. It wasn’t so clear though, what parts of it were true or not.

  She was human, but she was also more. Not an abomination, but she was faster, more focused, and could wield great power. Not more intelligent, but certainly at the top of the bell curve for humans, but that was most powerful mages. It was really only the old Harbinger’s stoking of fears and horrific acts he’d named, that were in her mind, unthinkable and completely off base. The spin of it all had been way off, dangerous abomination and all that, but the facts he’d laid out were just… true.

  But all her classmates had was speculation based on that partial knowledge, and the pernicious rumors started by a psychopath had robbed her of the expected support. No doubt some were seeing the clues, the assassin incident when she should’ve died, how the harbinger scout ship had a drive error that killed all aboard, and other things like that which didn’t fit the narrative of secrecy perfectly.

  The worst part was being outed had infected her own platoon. It was clear to her that Brent and Jace had fought over it. Brent was sitting with Stacy that morning, and Jace wouldn’t even look at her or his roommate.

  A couple of others also looked uncomfortable, when she looked their way. Most of them still supported her, most of them even more than before, but it still bothered her that she’d lost that bastion and was now down to their inner circle as far as steadfast supporters in a solid block.