“Are you excited for the exam?” Urgg asked, their voice loud and booming in the mostly silent training room. “Maybe someone will bleed or break a bone?”
I swallowed a whimper. Barbarus, much like us drakcol, had been a warring species prior to joining the Coalition of Planets.Like their fellow species members, Urgg loved fighting, drinking, and spilling blood. According to them, those things, plus vomit, bonded people together.
“Hopefully not,” I replied.
They slapped my back again, making my scales sting. Urgg never realized how strong they were. “Come on, it’ll be fun. Tomorrow Seth will be here, and we’ll all drink.”
That made me smile. Captain Talvax’s duties often took Urgg away, and Seth was becoming busier with human affairs, but for the next year or so, it would be like old times.
“We will.”
Urgg grinned, showing off their peg teeth. When the door opened, they glanced over their shoulder and said, “Oh, it’s Monqilcolnen. Do you think he’ll still call you ‘Ensign Puke?’”
A frown pulled on my lips at the dreaded endearment.
Three cycles ago, I’d gotten drunk in the canteen with Seth and Urgg and puked not once, not twice, butthreetimes on Commander Monqilcolnen, then when I’d gotten sick on the planet Vx-98, I’d puked on him again. The endearment had followed me for my entire stay on theAdmiral Venand after. Any time one of my colleagues from theAdmiral Vensaw me, they would call me Ensign Puke, and I would cringe.
The popularity of the story was Monqilcolnen’s fault. He’d told everyone, and I had no idea why. The commander wasn’t much of a talker as far as I knew, but he’d shared this one story over and over again. And each time, it was like a claw to my self esteem, which normally wasn’t so fragile, but where the commander was concerned, I wanted to curl up and hide whenever he was near.
Urgg went to greet Monqilcolnen. They were close; they did travel together often, after all. This was without mentioning Captain Talvax’s close friendship with Empress Vyn, Monqilcolnen’s aunt.
Every time I heard the empress’s name, I wanted to shake my head. Vyn. A single letter, like me. She came from the lowest social class and had lived on a small moon. When Emperor Kontolmakqilnen, who’d been crown prince at the time, had sought the Crystal, it had sent him to Vyn. Their love story seemed almost mythical to me. I wasn’t sure what was fact or fiction. All I knew, it was hard to believe that Vyn, a one letter name with no social standing, was empress.
An elbow rested on my shoulder, making me flinch, and I shifted away. Camden smiled at me, not remarking on my movement.
I liked the human well enough, but we hadn’t discussed permissions, and he frequently touched me. Humans touched indiscriminately; it was common among friends, family, and lovers to touch however the person wanted, whereas drakcol discussed what was welcome or not in every relationship. Some people didn’t care to be touched, and I was one of them. I didn’t mind a touch here and there, but not with the frequency Camden did.
When Seth boarded, I planned to ask him how to discuss permissions with Camden without hurting his feelings. The human had been damaged in the past, though I wasn’t privy to the extent or even how, but his time on Xome couldn’t have been without trauma. I didn’t want to add to any strain he might be experiencing.
“Urgg and Monqilcolnen know each other?” Camden asked.
“Yes.”
Urgg smacked a young ensign’s shoulder, and the blonde drakcol went sprawling to the mat.
Camden chuckled. “He doesn’t know his own strength.”
“They,” I corrected. “Urgg is non-gendered.” Barbarus were a mono-sex species, but they identified under three genders: male, female, and non-gendered.
“Oh, thanks for letting me know,” Camden said. “They don’t know their own strength. Urgg sent me crashing into a wall last night.”
That happened frequently. The only person Urgg was careful with was Seth. They had accidentally hurt him in the past, and Prince Kalvoxrencol had gotten angry about the bruise left behind. Now, Urgg was careful because Seth wouldn’t speak up for himself most of the time, though he was getting better about voicing his needs.
Monqilcolnen moved to the front of the training room, standing on one of the three grappling mats in the long room. Blue and black targets lined the wall behind him—blaster targets. Their glowing lights almost seemed to mock me with every little shift or wink in color. I wasn’t going to pass, and I was going to have to attend this class non-stop, facing Monqilcolnen every single week.
“Let’s begin,” Monqilcolnen said. He and Urgg were assessing who met muster and who did not. The exams would be done in groups over the next few days, then staggered in the future to not cause any issues around duty shifts.
When Monqilcolnen motioned for me to join him, I swallowed, tail twitching. I’d hoped for Urgg.
“Lieutenant Wyn,” he said when I remained in my spot half-hidden behind Camden.
I offered him my throat. Thank the Crystal, he hadn’t called me Ensign Puke. That was a small mercy.
We faced off, and I took a calming breath. This was something I could do. I had always excelled at hand-to-hand combat, even before I’d joined the academy and received formal training. The small moon I’d grown up on hadn’t been the most pleasant place, and I’d had to defend myself more than once, though most of the situations had been of my own making. I hadn’t always been so calm or rule-following as I was now.
I countered every move he made, dodging blows while keeping my eyes on his tail. Our tails were far stronger than they appeared. He punched, and I knocked his arm away, hitting him in the side. I’d pulled my hit, as the intention of this wasn’t to injure anyone.
He smiled, just slightly, and I paused. I’d never see him smile. Not once. And if I had, it had never been directed toward me nor had it made much of an impression. Not like right now. With him right in front of me. The sight of the little quirk made my soul tumble over itself.
