Book 6, chapter 3

Over the next month, Zee ran her squad, and herself ragged. Whatever she put them through, she was always at the front, suffering with them. 

They clearly didn't like her, but none of them wanted to be outdone by an upstart commissioned officer. It was a fact she used to her benefit. Brick, especially, was a great example. Letting someone half his size outwork him was unthinkable. Like always, the squad met just after The Fist performed one of its two daily long-range jumps. 

Twice a day wasn't the ship's limit, but any more would strain the arrays, requiring maintenance far sooner than otherwise. During said maintenance, they couldn't jump for days, which was not ideal. It was better to only jump twice, as it was much more efficient. Pushing aside that tidbit of trivia Elvot had shared with her the other day, Zee focused on the people arrayed in front of her. 

They all stood straight-backed at attention, fists clenched over their left breast. Unlike a month ago, there was no awkward shifting, and no sidelong glances. After all, any of that and the squad would have to run until they collapsed.

She didn't even have to chastise them as if one person had to run. Everyone did. Having the entire squad glare at you while you were forced to run laps was something no one wanted.

A smile tugged at her lips. The training regime she had set forth had worked splendidly to get some discipline out of them. After a pause, she addressed the squad.

"It has been brought to my attention that today is an imperial holiday. It's too bad you all have training today," Zee said.

She could see the dejection in their eyes, though no one voiced their complaints. It was a marked improvement, making pride well in her chest. A devious smile tugged at her lips.

"Today, you are all ordered to relax and enjoy yourself. If I see any of you lift anything heavier than a tankard, you are all running laps until you throw up. You are dismissed," Zee said. 

The relief and surprise were palpable.

"Is this a joke, mam?" Tag, the short wiry pilot, asked hesitantly.

"No Tag, I am completely serious. If I see any of you sneaking off to run laps in your free time, I will allow the others to join," Zee replied.

One of the twins smacked Tag on the shoulder, 

"Just keep your mouth shut, Tag. If you ruin this day off for us, you're going to have to throw yourself out an airlock to escape my wrath," Geleta said.

Beside his fellow pilot, Rosco grinned. 

"Not even an airlock will save you," Rosco threatened.

Tag raised his hands in surrender as his squad threw friendly jabs his way.

It was good to see this sort of comradery. 

To one side, Brick let the argument carry on for nearly a minute before he cut it.

"Didn't you all hear the Ensign? You are all dismissed!" Brick snapped. 

At his deep commanding voice, everyone fled the training hall like a banshee was on their heels.

It left the two of them alone. She eyed the large man thoughtfully. Zee had to admit, there had been a lot less pushback over the last month than she expected. 

Without Brick keeping everyone in line, it would have been far harder. He might look like a meathead with a chin that could break stone, but Brick wasn't an idiot. The opposite, in fact. Intelligence gleaned behind those deep brown eyes. Seeming to read the questions in her eyes he spoke.

"Permission to speak freely?" Brick asked.

"You may speak," Zee said.

He clasped his large meaty hands in front of himself, straightening his back.

"When I first heard that an imperial princess was going to be our commanding officer I thought you would be a stuck up, narcissistic noble. After getting to see your methods over the past month, I have learned otherwise. You are nothing like that stuck up blue blood who was in charge of our squad before," Brick said, his body tense as though expecting reprisal. 

Under normal circumstances, to any other noble, saying such things about nobility would get Brick in deep shit. Zee was different. She actually agreed with him, having not been raised as a noble herself. 

When Zee simply nodded to his statement and turned to leave, he looked confused.

"Are you not angry?" Brick asked hesitantly.

"No, not at all. Most nobility I have met fit your description quite well. Though you may want to keep your opinion on them to yourself, others may not share your sentiment," Zee replied. 

With that, she left her second in command alone in the training hall with his thoughts.

She had business to attend to. Namely, she was going to convince captain Tanra to let her squad take a drop ship, and raid an asteroid belt or a moon.

Their role as a demolitions squad was to sneak in behind enemy lines and blow valuable stuff up. They could do all the running and sparring they wanted, but that wouldn't do much to iron out the kinks of practical combat. No, they needed actual practice, sneaking in, securing, and blowing up their targets.

It took her a while, but she found the captain surrounded by aids.. He looked angry as usual, his hissing voice filling her ears as he noticed her lingering on the bridge. 

"What is it Viotti? I'm a busy man, make it quick," Tanra snapped.

Stealing her resolve, she spoke. 

"I was hoping to give my squad some practical experience. If there is a moon with no life on it, or a dead planet on our route? I want to do a practice assault to see how my squad fares in a controlled environment," Zee said. 

Tanra grunted. "Not a bad idea Ensin, I will throw it up the chain of command. We have a lot of green recruits and General Danma might be interested," Tanra said. 

With that, the captain turned back to his previous tasks, clearly dismissing her. Surprised at the easy agreement, she left. She had a whole argument prepared, and it appeared it was unnecessary. She should have expected something like this. 

With the battle group's numbers bolstered through conscription, the officers in charge would be itching to make sure the new soldiers knew what they were doing. 

Now that she thought about it, not knowing how his soldiers would fare in the confrontation probably made General Danma have more than one sleepless night. 

Zee knew that because her squad made her feel the same way. Speaking of squads, she wanted to check in on her friends and see how they were doing. 

Using her com crystal, she sent messages to each of them to meet up. The first to respond was surprisingly Allison, though her message was short.

"Can't make it. Busy training," Allison replied.

"Same for me," Malden said.

Taylor's voice came next. "I'm going to have to bow out as well. The medical core is doing mandatory fun activities, and I can't bow out," Taylor said. 

Yukna's voice filled her mind next, sounding incredibly distracted.

"Hey, Zee, sorry, can't make it. I'm busy. Oh, could you send Dern over? We could use his help, and I bet he would love to check out some of the equipment we are working on," Yukna said. 

Zee could only sigh as she felt Dern's expectant gaze.

"Fine, go have fun, just stay out of trouble," Zee said, conjuring him.

"No promises, catch ya later," Dern said, giving her a wave with a tiny gauntleted fist as he ran off down the narrow hallway. 

She couldn't blame him for wanting to run off and join Yukna in whatever shenanigans she was up to. What a bummer. Now she was more alone than before. Her last hope was Bastion and Greg.

Those hopes were quickly dashed as Greg's voice filled her mind.

As always, he didn't have much to say.

"Target practicing," Greg said. 

Her brows furrowed as she waited for Bastion's reply. Where was that troublesome thief? He had been awfully quiet lately. Over the last month, she had only been getting short responses and hadn't even seen him once. It almost seemed like he was avoiding her. 

It took a few more minutes until finally he replied to her message to meet up. His voice was muted as if he were hiding the crystal under his uniform and trying to speak into it.

"Hey love, sorry for the wait. Our commanding officer, the supreme gift from the heavens, his lordliness Draveroc has been a pain in my ass for the past month. He won't leave me alone. It's like he has a personal vendetta against me," Bastion said. 

Zee winced.

"I didn't know he was your commanding officer. Do you need me to step in?" Zee asked, concern in her voice. 

"Don't worry your pretty head about me. As long as I follow orders, there is nothing he can do to me. Besides, it would ruin my reputation as a no good scoundrel if you stepped in to bail me out," Bastion said in a cheeky tone.

"You are such a dummy," Zee replied fondly.

"Love you too. Anyway, I gotta go! Draveroc is coming, and it looks like he has his gold-plated panties in a bunch," Bastion said.

Zee laughed at his description as the connection faded. It was bad luck that Bastion was in Draveroc's squad. After all, Bastion was a master of malicious compliance.

She did not doubt that Draveroc was more unhappy with the arrangement. Come to think of it, the captain may have put Bastion on his squad to punish Draveroc. The thought made her smile. With a pep in her step, she tried the last person she knew aboard the ship. 

"Yo, Elvot, wanna get lunch?" Zee asked. 

"Uhh, Hey, umm sure. Meet you in the stern mess hall, ten minutes?" Elvot asked hesitantly.

"See you there," Zee said.

A few minutes later, she sat across the table from the spindly man with a tray of steaming food.

His unruly black hair was in a mess, and his face was gaunt from lack of sleep. 

"You alright Elvot? You look like shit," Zee said honestly. 

He stabbed his steaming potatoes with a fork, letting out a tired sigh.

"My commanding officer is a slave driver. She has been working me to the bone every single day until my brain feels like mush. If I am forced to examine one more array for flaws, my head might explode," Elvot said. 

She grinned.

"If you get too bored, why not come down and join my squad? We will run you so hard you collapse from exhaustion," Zee offered. 

"On second thought, I am plenty happy with the current arrangement," Elvot said.

"Are you sure? I could try to convince your superior to let you come out for a few hours each day," Zee teased.

His back stiffed at her suggestion.

Just then, a short, dark-scaled lizard kin ambled on over, sitting beside Elvot. Given the density of her restrained aura, plus the lieutenant's insignia on her uniform, not to mention Elvots reaction, she was his commanding officer.

"Mam," Zee saluted.

The lizard kin waved a scaled three-fingered hand. "We are eating, no need for formality. I'm Peralla. You are Julian's grandkid right?" the woman asked.

"You know Julian?" Zee asked curiously. 

The stout woman let out a hissing laugh.

"I wouldn't go that far. He is more of an idol of mine. In our line of work, Julian is a legend. The only other person in the Lorocan empire who is close to his level of mastery is Anton of the academy," Peralla said. 

Zee could only nod in agreement. 

She still had her misgivings about Julian, but that was a personal thing. Instead of delving into that, she changed to another safer topic. 

"So, Peralla, would it be possible for me to do a little cross-training with your core?" Zee asked hopefully.

The stout lizard kin hissed out a laugh that made Elvot practically jump in his seat.

"Not a chance in hell am I letting you anywhere near the ship's teleportation arrays," Peralla denied.

"Why not?" Zee asked.

"You opened an abyssal gate," Peralla said, pointing a sharp claw at her chest.

"It was an accident," Zee replied defensively.

Peralla hissed a laugh. "That's the point. Opening an Abyssal gate is a very difficult thing, and you did it by accident! It is extremely impressive, but also too chaotic for my liking. I do not doubt that you could be an asset, but it's just too risky. I dread to think what sort of madness you could cause with the combined power of the ship's jump arrays," Peralla said.

Zee deflated. She couldn't exactly blame the woman for her caution. It's not like Zee had the best track record. Even Julian was miffed at her ability to destroy the incredibly expensive medallions he had given her. So much so that upon leaving, Allison was given the medallion instead. Having that reputation known amongst family was bad enough, but now it was spreading?

It appeared her reputation for breaking valuable artifacts, and causing a spectacle had finally caught up with her. Peralla must have noticed her dejection as she spoke up.

"Don't look so glum. Just because I won't let you near the ships' arrays doesn't mean I can't give you some pointers," Peralla said.

Zee brightened, straightening up in her chair.

"There is something I have been working on for a few weeks now. It's still in the planning phase and I have run into some issues I can't figure out, but I was hoping you could help me," Zee said. This was an unexpected opportunity. Might as well see if her idea was a dead end or not.

"Well, what is it?" Peralla asked curiously. 

With a ripple of spatial energy, a pile of paper, with notes, and ritual drawing appear between them. 

Zee reached for the top leaflet. "I have been thinking. One of the biggest issues with opening gates is the immense energy requirements. What if we were able to create a spatial storage that literally stores vast amounts of spatial energy," Zee said excitedly.

Peralla gave her a dubious look. Not seeing an objection Zee continued, her excitement growing as she spoke. 

"Hear me out. The idea seems paradoxical, but I think I found a solution. My first question was, how can space contain space? That took me a while to figure out, but I did. Creating a gravity well inside the spatial storage will be more than enough to stop any energy from escaping," Zee said.

She took a quick sip of water before continuing. 

"All we need to do is create a stable ritual diagram strong enough to supply the energy needed to contain and sustain the miniature singularity. The gravity well will draw in energy from the world river storing it, giving the ship a huge supply of energy to tap into," Zee said.

Sitting across from her, Elvot and Peralla stared at her with mouths agape. They were both looking at her like she was insane. 

Noting their looks Zee cocked her head. "What? It might have a few kinks in the idea, but the ability to store that much energy would have huge potential for the entire fleet," Zee said.

Peralla cleared her throat as she rifled through the various drawings and pieces that made up the ritual diagrams. It took her a long minute of examination before she replied.

"I don't know whether this is genius or madness. First off, tell me about this ritual diagram you are using. It's unexpectedly complex. Should be too much for a brat like you to handle," Peralla said.

Zee eyed the stout lizard kin thoughtfully. There was no way that phrase was a coincidence. Paralla must have recognized it as belonging to a certain grouchy creator. Said creator was, of course, Tarnival. She should have expected as much from a ritual specialist like Peralla. 

Even Master Garg would probably recognize the creator of the ritual given its complexity and efficiency. Tarnival might be known as a vile monster who killed trillions, but no one denied his brilliance with rituals.

"The emperor loaned me a book of rituals before I left. It has several copies of rituals created by the Butcher himself," Zee explained. 

The lizard kin nodded. 

"It's a good ritual, don't get me wrong, but it's not enough for what you are envisioning. The power requirements to conjure, and then contain a miniature singularity would be astronomical. And even if you managed to conjure one, how would you extract energy from it? Black holes are notorious for pulling things in, not letting things out. Not to mention the fact that the spatial flux created by the event horizon would make opening a gate nearly impossible," Peralla said.

Zee's enthusiasm faded more with each of the valid points Peralla brought up.

"Are you saying it's impossible?" Zee asked.

Peralla shrugged her scaled shoulders.

"No idea. The Ashary, and the Kul A Var have something that fits the same function you are trying to get, but i have no idea how they do it," Peralla said.

Zee's enthusiasm returned.

"I guess I'll keep working at it. It's probably a lost cause, but who knows?" Zee said, tucking her notes safely away.

Peralla could only shake her head. "Please don't do any testing without running it past me first. I would prefer you didn't blow up the ship," Peralla said.

Zee nodded. She wasn't sure what all the fuss was about but decided agreeing couldn't hurt. These were just rudimentary plans. Hiccups were expected, no point in being so riled up about them.