"I said, Stand down, Lenton," Zan said, and, wow, totally cold voice. She wasn’t smiling or frowning, but her eyes had narrowed and I decided then that it would never be a good idea to piss Zan off.
The Lenton guy didn’t take the hint though, and looked really offended and told Zan to put him down before he made her regret it. He was calling her "Namara", which is her surname. All the Setari seem to call each other by their surnames. Zan calls me "Devlin" and I generally avoid calling her by either name because I think it sounds stupid to call someone you see every day by her surname. Even First Squad seem to do it most of the time. I think – hope – it’s some kind of on-duty thing and that they’re more human to each other when they’re not being all proper.
Before the shouting match turned into a bigger mess all the Setari except Zan, who was probably expecting it, paused in clear reaction to suddenly getting a message in their heads. Zan put the Lenton guy down and though he glared at her, he strode off without another word.
"Get changed," Zan said to me, glancing back up at the observation room. The two Setari there were still watching, but turned and left when she just stood looking at them.
"Everyone’s really competitive?" I asked. "Or just no manners?" Except, given my grammar and how slow I say stuff, it was more like "Compete all much? Manners no?" I really hate sounding so stupid. Yoda with a lobotomy.
Zan didn’t reply. She never responds to questions like that, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to push her, so I went and changed out of the loose training jumpsuit into my knee-length cargo-style pants and a sleeveless t-shirt featuring my lab rat logo. I really did draw it on every shirt I considered mine – not my school uniform, but the clothes I’d bought with Nenna and her mother. Zan put on her black uniform, which she manages in a surprisingly short amount of time for something so skin-tight.
Next was the big testing room, where every Setari in the complex had obviously been ordered to assemble. Maze had told me there were twelve active squads of six people so the rows six people deep showed me who was in which squad. They left spaces for the people who weren’t there – three missing teams and a few random gaps. And then they brought me into channel and I saw that even a few of the missing people were there: attending the meeting through their interfaces rather than in person. Little see-through holographic pictures of them filled in some of the empty spots. Lohn from First Squad and Zan were the only ones out of place, over to one side near me.
Since Maze was at the first spot of the first set, it was pretty easy to guess that the squad captains stood at front. The team next to him was around the same age – mid-twenties – and everyone else late teens or perhaps twenty. The gap left by Zan in Twelfth Squad was the first spot, which meant she was their captain. News to me. The blond guy was next spot back and was trying to look super-correct, though his face was tense and set. The girl and guy I’d seen in the observation room were the captains of Third and Fourth Squad respectively.
Even the people in charge had shown up as interface projections: the first time I’d seen any of them. They wore blue, which I guess means officer. No-one was chatting, or doing anything but looking straight ahead. And me the only person not in uniform, sticking out like a sore thumb.
Another interface projection appeared. A woman, compact and stern, her hair clipped really short, with a hint of grey in it. She had the really black, almond eyes of the observation-room girl and guy. The Setari all saluted her – they do a fist to shoulder sort of salute – so it was pretty easy to tell she was in charge.
I can re-watch what happens next, and have a few times, because it occurred to me I could record everything. It’s really weird to be able to do that, and I’m glad they’ve not taken the ability away, since this is a scene it’s interesting to play over. So far as I can tell, I can’t play the recording for anyone who doesn’t have the right security level. It makes me wonder what security level I have.
"This is a level 5 classified briefing," said the woman. "As you are aware, Fourth Squad recovered a displaced person from Muina during last month’s mission. Namara and Kettara will demonstrate why this has become important."
Zan went first, turning and looking at the big metal blocks. "Current strength," she said, extra clearly, and lifted the largest block she was capable of managing alone. Then she glanced at me, totally giving orders just by turning her eyes in my direction. I was hard put not to roll my own, but obediently stuck my hand on her shoulder, which she’d suggested as less restrictive than hand-holding.
"Enhanced strength."
I had turned to watch their faces when she lifted all the blocks. Only First Squad didn’t react, since they’d seen all this before. Most of them did the eyes-going-really-wide thing. A few shifted from their spots, or were openly astonished or upset, but then went back to stony-faced as quickly as they could manage.
Lohn came forward next, and said: "Intense Light projection," and shot a few of his burning beams into a target. He gave me a little smile and when I put my hand on his shoulder said: "Same skill, enhanced."
The burning wall freaked the Setari out a good deal more than an extra-strength Zan. A lot of them exchanged glances before they went back to being correct.
"Subject Devlin’s effect on skill users is still under investigation. As you have observed, it is not simply a matter of increased potency. In addition, multiple simultaneous enhancements causes her lethal systemic shock. Until further notice, the subject has been assigned to Namara. Under no circumstances initiate physical contact with the subject unless instructed. Dismissed."
The woman in the blue uniform vanished, as did most of the other watchers. The Setari squad captains, although they were probably dying to give Zan the third degree, sent their squads straight out the door and then most of them left as well, though a few stopped at the door to talk to each other. Maze came across to me, Zan and Lohn and told me I did well. I pointed out that I don’t actually do anything, but he said at least I wasn’t doing anything consistently and he and Lohn grinned at each other and talked about what would have happened if the enhancement hadn’t worked. First Squad is so much more human than the rest of the Setari.
And then the leader of Fourth Squad came over. I was wondering if I should thank Fourth Squad for rescuing me, but if anything this guy was even more unsmiling than Zan is. As an added bonus he seemed to be staring at my chest, which was really amazingly uncomfortable until he said: "Experimental animal?"
Maze thought he was being insulting, and said "Rue-el," in a warning tone, but stopped, probably because he saw my expression.
"You can read English?" I asked – in English – completely disbelieving.
"Don’t neglect the psychological aspects," the Fourth Squad captain said to Zan and turned away without another glance at me. Though he added, "It’s not inapposite," over his shoulder as he walked away to where the Third Squad captain was waiting.
"How he know what say?" I asked Maze, who was taking his turn chest-staring. "Earth contact after all yes?"
"You’ve written Experimental Animal on your shirt?" Maze asked, clearly upset.
Zan answered my question: "See Rue-el’s primary talents are sight-based. He was reading the symbol, not the words."
Psychic psychic powers, in other words. And Zan was standing stiff and still, with her face so set that I couldn’t miss that she was mortified. Because she’d had no idea what my shirt said, and the Fourth Squad captain had dressed her down for that, even if it was just with a single sentence.