Ignition Broker: Chapter 37 Sabotaging the Saboteur

Chapter 37

Sabotaging the Saboteur

“Sometimes the best way to win, is by giving praise to others when they least want or need recognition. Nothing says you were double crossed by your own saboteur, than everything going better than expected.” -Marcon on how problems can often fix themselves

(Cadet Rayalta)

There was a nervous tension in the air, as Rayalta suddenly felt sweat beading down her body as she tried to come up with the best response for why their report was the way it was. Unfortunately, being yelled at and having to explain things to superiors, especially things she had no control over was not something that she was capable of handling on her own. Fortunately for her, she was not alone.

“Well?”

“Sir, if I may,” Lisom began, cutting in like a knight to the rescue of the clearly flustered Rayalta. “There was a problem with the printing function on our craft, as such we had to write out and confirm the answer by hand. Then the temporal anomaly was noted,” at this Lisom pointed to the note on the paper.

Rayalta didn’t know if Lisom was this fast on his own, or if he already had an answer worked out, but there he was able to articulate an answer from out of nowhere. Honestly, of all the skills possible, this was the one Rayalta wished she had, the ability to fabricate a believable truth on the spot.  This was why she watched as Lisom took over the negotiations for their team.

“Once the anomaly was noted,” Lisom began again, this time pointing to a spot off in the distance. Looking up to follow the finger, Rayalta could see that a large and ominous thunderstorm was happening. While the protective biome around the Academy grounds would protect the students from such events, these were clear indicators that the school had drilled into them to be aware of and anticipate ways to work around such obstacles.

Seeing the storm, suddenly Rayalta realized why the earlier squads that had arrived were getting scolded. Even the random pointing off in the distance by the lead Drill Instructor made sense to her. The instructor was pointing out the anomaly coming, and then stood there over the teams as they now had to work out a trajectory by hand. Something that was impossible, at least Rayalta thought such a feat was impossible, even she had cheated by using a calculator. But thinking back, Cadet Proma, their leader had done so by hand and nearly flawlessly at that.

Rayalta was so distracted by looking at the anomaly, then at the other teams that had to work the problems again by hand, to identify a faster launch window, or be stuck here until the next possible time, that she failed to notice that the Drill Instructor had been appeased by Lisom’s answer.

Looking down, it was clear that the instructor was hand jamming the answers provided by Cadet Proma. As he entered the first string of digits, the instructor was surprised for a moment.

Watching the instructor work, it became clear what the issue was, as the coordinates and measurements provided by the Squad Leader went to ten decimal places, while the machine that the instructor used to check the work only went to eight decimal places.

Pausing to look at it, the Instructor stopped and looked at the paper before turning to face Rayalta. “You did this?”

Rayalta just shook her head, unable to speak with such an intense glare directed at her. Fortunately, Lisom was still there and able to take over with an impressive response.

“No, that was by our team leader, Cadet Proma,” Lisom responded.

At that, the instructor just stared at Lisom for a moment, then seemed to nod in understanding. The instructor put in the numbers in his machine, then held up the machine so that Rayalta and Lisom both could verify that the numbers entered were correct.

Lisom checked each number one by one, matching them one for one. Everything was there, from the launch time, to the exit speed, to the launch angle, to the time to breach atmosphere, to the arcing path to be made in space, complete with the time until Faster than Life systems were engaged. Once he was certain all numbers were entered correctly, he nodded.

“Okay, your moment of truth,” the Instructor replied, suddenly sounding a bit apprehensive for some reason.

Happy beep.

The machine spit out a congratulatory pass indicating that their squad had completed the first phase.

“I will mark you down as having completed the first portion of the test on your first attempt. Know that this will be enough to let you all pass. While you will not get full grades as completing, for ones at your rank this is more than enough to qualify to continue here,” the Instructor stated, a note of concern etched in his face as he first held onto the document. Only handing it over once Rayalta and Lisom both nodded in agreement.

Then as the instructor extended his hand to provide the document he continued, “if you find anything wrong, or don’t feel safe you can back out of the mission right now, knowing that you all will have passed.”

With that Rayalta’s ears began to burn as she could swear that he was warning them about something dangerous happening. While Rayalta suddenly felt fear due to the unease that the Instructor was directing her way, Cadet Lisom just looked angry.

Lisom’s anger wasn’t easily noticeable, and the only reason why Rayalta noticed it now was that she had spent so much time with the cadet. Everything about Lisom had changed, from the way he went from a loose and jovial stance to a sudden stiffening of his body spoke volumes to the fact that he was now well and truly pissed at what was being said. The last time he looked this pissed was when one of the S-Rank girls bumped into him and then laughed at ruining his uniform with hot soup. While he didn’t do anything at the time, it was clear that he was one moment away from striking a higher ranked cadet, a double no for the Academy.

“Roger that, sir,” Lisom hissed out as he took the form and performed a perfect about face, complete with toe pivot and exited. Rayalta for her part was lost and ended up just smiling awkwardly at the instructor before giving a half wave, before turning and running to catch up with Lisom who was storming off angrily.

Rayalta waited until they were a few paces away before Rayalta quietly asked, “what was that about?”

At that Lisom’s face flared with a second of rage, before he looked visibly shocked at the look of fear Rayalta clearly made at the gesture. Taking a moment to collect himself, he shook his head while still walking away but clearly forced his face to go to a more relaxed state. He still wasn’t calm, but he was clearly more in control of his emotions than he was a moment ago.

“Don’t you get it,” Lisom began.

“Get what?” Rayalta asked, suddenly confused.

“It’s a setup, everything is a set up to take down the one leader who believed in us.”

“Wait, what?” Rayalta asked, suddenly stopping as her feet no longer moved, while her brain tried to kick into gear and process everything.

“It’s a setup, all to take down Cadet Proma. Everything, from the overqualified engineer who sabotaged our vessel, to even the instructors who were clearly warning us not to take off because we might kill ourselves if we do.” Lisom spat out, his voice oddly dropping to a lower pitch as he snarled out the last part. Rather than filling Rayalta with calm, he was not as angry, it filled her with more fear as he was clearly getting in that dangerous but determined area. The one where he might do something stupid and not immediately regret the actions.

“Kill ourselves?” Rayalta parroted back, all she could do as she tried to understand what exactly Lisom meant.

“Yes, that ship was a death ship, one designed for us to first double fail the navigation. No doubt it would give us a wrong set of coordinates, after which point we would have been given one chance to fix our mistake, likely not informing us of the impending anomaly at all. Then the ominous warning just now about how we have already passed as C-Rankers, because not much is expected of us. Thus if we abandon our leader now, we will still pass, the only person who won’t is our leader. The only person here in command that is actually worth a damn.”

As he finished, Rayalta couldn’t help but nod her head. Thinking back, Cadet Proma was the only one who always had their backs, always showed the team how to succeed, even over S-Rankers and overpowered teams and squads. For the first time since coming to the Academy, Rayalta felt comfortable. Not confident, it was clear that she was still an outsider, but she did deserve her spot here, along with everyone else from their C-Ranked squad, and it was all thanks to her.

This was a lot to take in, it was one thing to think that fellow Cadets had it out for you. That the fellow cadets would attempt to sabotage you and keep you from rising higher, but to know that the Instructors are also in on this process. Knowing that these Instructors who had been tasked with their care and safety were also plotting against them, that was a bit much to take in all at once.

“Okay, so what do we do?” Rayalta asked, her stomach doing flips at the thought of possibly letting down the one person that had actually treated them as humans.

“Well, if any of us leave, or feel nervous for whatever reason, it will of course be a black mark on Cadet Proma. Yet another example of how the system is being designed against her. No doubt, the Engineer if he were capable of leaving would cite fear of Cadet Proma’s leadership abilities, and leave, while trying to encourage others to join him in his exodus, further ruining Cadet Proma’s performance evaluation.”

With that part of the equation pointed out, Rayalta suddenly felt sick, as that would be a huge black mark against her. Even if it later showed that the reason the Engineer wanted to leave was because he sabotaged the ship, it would still result in a failing leadership mark. That and the fact that she was supposed to note any discrepancies in the ship before now, meaning that since she hadn’t it would be a definite fail on her part.

The more Rayalta looked at this process, the more she realized the Academy was seemingly doing everything within its power to kick out Cadet Proma, the only officer candidate that seemed worth a damn.

“So what do we do?” Rayalta asked.

“We go back, inform our leader that her launch calculations were accepted and ask her what she needs us to do,” Lisom replied.

“Wait, you want to go back to the ship that could blow up?” Rayalta asked, suddenly fearing for her life. She remembered all the panels that were removed and all the broken wires. She also remembered the way that Cadet Proma seemed somehow skilled at fixing such problems, even going so far as to put in more wiring than was originally there. Again, she had no clue what any of those wire things did, but she assumed more was not always better.

“Yes, you saw her,” he began, but then corrected himself. “Well maybe you didn’t as you went off to do the measurements by hand. But while you were gone, she was like a machine, finding everything, testing each segment of wire for power readings, all while welding in new sections that I believe are extra power relays.”

“Power relays, what are those?”

Lisom looked at her and then asked, “what exactly do you know about mechanical circuitry and in particular older hybrid circuitry like the one being used in these older vessels?”

“Not much,” Rayalta answered honestly.

“Figured, needless to say power relays were the next evolutionary step in engineering that preceded the most high tech designs that are in use now.”

“Oh, so she is good at all that mechanical stuff?” Rayalta asked.

Scoff.

Hearing that Lisom just shook his head, “she’s not just good, but possibly the best I’ve ever seen. Not only is she good, but she is also efficient, able to hold wire, weld it into place and then torque the line . . .” Lisom began, but quickly saw that he was losing Rayalta.

For her part Rayalta was happy that he stopped with his explanation that made no sense and sounded like technobabble. That’s when he concluded his piece. “So, yeah she is good, far better than the other first year engineers. She is also part of the Advanced Engineering program, which I can see why. I had wanted to go down that path, but if she is the standard, then I will have to find a new field of study.”

Hearing that, Rayalta just nodded, and followed Lisom who began walking back to the ship. As they moved, an odd calm silence fell over the duo as they both seemed to get lost in their own thoughts.

Rayalta for her part tried to understand why the Academy would go so far as to allow sabotage to stop promising cadets from getting a chance to rise in the ranks. Then as soon as she had that thought, she realized that Cadet Proma herself wasn’t the issue, it was the fact that she proved that with proper leadership and guidance you could take a team of C-Ranked cadets and proved they belonged in the military. That was the rub, not that she succeeded, but that she showed rankings meant nothing next to supreme skill.

Swoosh.

The mechanical door opened at their approach. Hearing it, Rayalta was instantly drawn from her thoughts as she realized that was a lot crisper of a sound than had been there before. Did she also fix the door?

“Cadet Proma, we have received the blessing to continue on with the launch time, and calculations that you provided,” Lisom stated, going to probably the crispest salute and presentation of military bearing that Rayalta had ever seen him perform.

“At ease, and thank you. Prepare for take off,” Cadet Proma stated taking the approved order from Lisom’s hand and folding it crisply to fit into her breast pocket.

As she entered, Rayalta couldn’t help but see that cadet Goldbridger was in the nearby alcove. Still knocked out, but clearly fastened into place by protective restraints. Seeing him, Rayalta couldn’t help but feel a sense of fear and discomfort rise from the depths of her soul.

“Anything you need from me?” Lisom asked, also seeing the comatose body, but not making any note of it.

“I need you both to strap in and get ready, we are about to take off,” Cadet Proma declared confidently.

With that Rayalta realized that this new launch window only gave them a few minutes to prepare for take off. Still, after seeing the knocked out body of Cadet Goldbridger just laying there, Raylata wondered if it would be best to allow someone like that to remain on their team. Even if it would cause a black mark on Cadet Proma’s leadership score.

“What of him,” Rayalta asked gesturing with her eyes.

Following her gaze Cadet Proma smiled a malicious smile, one that didn’t go to her eyes.

“Why he is our lead engineer taking a well deserved nap after all the help he did in getting us to this point. I will be sure to speak his praises highly throughout this journey.” Cadet Proma stated, before bowing her head and leaving the area.

Hearing her response Rayalta saw that Lisom too had the same malicious smile form on his lips. This was the smile a wolf gave when it knew it had you surrounded by its fellow pack mates.

Following Lisom to two free restraining chairs to be used for takeoff, Rayalta found herself asking.

“Why would she praise him, he tried to kills us?”

Lisom just turned to Rayalta, letting his smile finally reach his eyes.

“You don’t get it, by praising Cadet Goldbridger, we are informing the other that either he failed. Or better still, he defected, meaning he will have to deal with the fall out of not just failing his mission, but betraying those he worked for.”

At that Rayalta just paused as this was clearly an area of expertise that was well over her head.