i command armies

[autokinetic]

Sue graduates from Tactical School a year early, he's barely fifteen. He's toned down the flirting - he treats Aegis completely platonically, in particular - and has cut down on the unhealthy amount of sleeping-with-everything-that-wants. And he's apparently, via his independent study, gotten far enough through the curriculum that they're nudging him along to Command.

They've given Sue a strange old man for a tutor, who appeared in his room and started a physical confrontation, which Sue won; Sue related this story to her with something between amusement and irritation.

And a quicker-than-average flurry of notes has been piling up in the psych data since about that time, according to the timestamps.

Aegis knows before they tell her that they're going to send her to Command early too. She's just barely fifteen herself when she gets another update of the psych files and sees that Sue's had - well, the files aren't terribly clear, some of the communication is happening via in-person conversation and memos that don't get stored in these folders, but Sue's had some kind of breakdown and the only things they can think of to get him out of it, get him back into shape to train and fight, are her friendship and Howlett. They have mixed feelings about both - Howlett's insubordination problem; their bewilderment that Aegis and Sue can be so close when "she's the one person he can't link!" - but they're desperate.

Bird? They don't talk as often over the long distance, just as there was a lull when he went to Tactical ahead of her; their schedules have nothing in common and their contexts less. But he knows her, and he can reach this far if he tries. And she wants to know what's wrong.

Comments

[autokinetic]

"Exploring?"

[pythbox]

"I'm thinking," he says brightly, "that we keep walking until we're out of doors you can open or we find somebody to yell at. Or somebody shows up to give your exo back."

[autokinetic]

"Okay," she says, and she leans her head on his shoulder, because holding it up when it won't stay up just from wanting is exhausting and terrible.

[pythbox]

Sue keeps going, down to the end of the corridor, where Aegis can try her hand again.

[autokinetic]

A certain nasty old fart opens the door before they get there.

"She's not paralyzed, boy," he says to Sue.

"I might as well be," murmurs Aegis.

[pythbox]

"You're gonna give her exo back, right?" he says with false cheer.

[autokinetic]

"I don't have it," the man says.

"You know who does," hisses Aegis.

"It's not safe for you to have it while there's any of the C24 left in your system suppressing your mutation," replies the man. "But on the plus side, now you can link up with your friend."

Aegis buries her face in Sue's shoulder and sobs.

[pythbox]

Sue hugs her.

"You know," he says to the nasty old fart, "I really want to kick your ass again right now. Have any of you shitstains heard of asking?"

[autokinetic]

"You didn't join a social club, you joined a military," says the nasty old fart. "Now. We only need her to link up with you for a short time, you can finish a certain simulator sequence with her and some of her old Battle School friends, and we can give her something to suppress the C24 and she'll be back to normal - with her exoskeleton too - or you can prolong this power struggle."

[pythbox]

"Whaddya say?" he asks Aegis.

[autokinetic]

"How am I supposed to work the simulator when I can't fucking move? How'm I supposed to concentrate on anything, even if you set it so it's completely voice-operated?" exclaims Aegis.

"I'm confident you'll work around the distraction issue with the extra processing power you'll get from being in a link," says the nasty old fart.

[pythbox]

"If you wanna do it, I'll do it," Sue says to Aegis. "If you don't wanna do it, they can kiss my ass."

[autokinetic]

"It doesn't matter if I want to. If I don't I never get my exo back," Aegis says quietly. "I'd never be able to move right again."

She's not Sue, and threats work on her.

The old fart folds his arms and waits.

[pythbox]

Tentatively, Sue nudges her mind.

[autokinetic]

I don't know what to do, I don't know what to do, she says, turning her face into his shoulder again, and this time sharing is easy, there's no hurdle to clear or circumvent, and she sends a rush of feelings - the sack-of-cement awfulness of her traitor limbs and the terror that it's permanent and she'll never, ever fly, the creeping fear that now her brain's exposed to the elements and someone less friendly than Sue might notice and hurt her where she lives, impotent fury at the IF and their clumsy, stupid, secretive misrule and she could do it better, and she is so glad Sue is on her side but she doesn't know what she wants her side to do, she's defiant and terrified all at once.

[pythbox]

If we can get off this rock, he says, and get back to Earth, I guarantee you you can have your exo again. Howlett's a pilot, I bet he'd be in if I tapped him. It'd be risky, but we're fucking geniuses. We could get it done. Or we could knuckle under and do what they want and get it back fast, unless and until they decide to fuck us over again. I'm with you either way.

[autokinetic]

How would getting back to earth get my exo back? There isn't another one back home. I have the only complete set.

[pythbox]

My mom would cry buckets over you, is how. Enough money will get just about anything done.

[autokinetic]

Aegis is not so sure, and sends so.

On the other hand, if they knuckle under now, that'll just set them up for next time, if there's a next time.

[pythbox]

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking, he says to the latter. And I promise you, if it is physically possible to build you another exo, my family can get it done. The one you've got didn't just appear out of thin air one day; people built it.

[autokinetic]

If we leave the station now we're fugitives. They don't have to let us go anywhere till we're eighteen. We could get caught, especially if anybody starts doing something obvious like getting exoskeleton specs. It was originally supposed to be military hardware, the IF definitely has people involved in whoever's keeping the plans.

[pythbox]

Yeah, and then we let out they gave a minor illegal drugs against her will, he points out. Mutie suppressants are banned by international law.

[autokinetic]

It's our word against theirs and - I just don't think we'd win - but - I could tell them that I know how to let you in even when I'm in working order, she sends slowly. That I've been doing it for years and it's safe...

[pythbox]

You trust them with that?

[autokinetic]

I don't trust them with shit. But if they want something and they'll do whatever they have to to get it and I can tell them that they can get it without hurting me so bad...