Inspired Leadership, I guess
13 Apr 2021User319792
He came aboard the Ovid almost as soon as I docked in Cemiess. He had that big dumb smile on his face and was in the black suit again rather than his dumpy flight suit.
"Congratulations, Cadence, on your Pilots Federation promotion to the rank of Master in the field of combat."
I curtsied, thanking him with a smile, and we made our way through Ovid into the lounge. He mentioned that the rest of the suits were happy with my progress, and appreciated the scans of Facece, but were a little upset at my decision to submit them to the UC at Chona rather than back at home in Cubeo.
I asked why that would bother them between draws from my hookah pipe. He followed the trail of smoke down through the chamber, watching it curl before coalescing into an opaque white and snaking its way through the inter-twining tubing before entering the glass gauntlet wrapped around my left arm that connected to the mouth tip.
"Why would you waste your time with tobacco, Cadence? Lave makes a brandy that people kill for."
I exhaled a thin stream and depressed the trigger on the gauntlet, which emitted a thin green laser through the growing cloud.
"I paid to have mine mixed with strawberries and vanilla spice. What's the issue with submitting the Facece scan to Chona rather than Cubeo? I just didn't feel like dealing with the lurkers from Cubeo's Patrons Principles gawking at me in my flight-suit."
The man in the black suit watched the green hologram of what the original Sol video called a "jaguar" bite into the neck of a "crocodile" before saying something about trying to smooth things over with the Imperials. The jaguar leapt onto the back of the crocodile without loosening its grip before viciously shaking it.
"Are people still upset about the slapping thing?"
I took another draw from the hookah and rotated my wrist within the gauntlet before depressing the trigger, again, and this time a dim, aquamarine Fer-De-Lance rolled to avoid a dumb fire missile before ducking behind an asteroid and firing a dumbfire missile. The man in the black suit watched as the missile instantaneously grew in size, detonating and sending a flechette directly through the cockpit of a Cobra MK III, shattering face-mask of his life-support system and sending him running immediately into the next compartment with his gloved hand desperately trying to keep his face from being sucked through a half-inch hole in glass.
"Cadence, you seem to have a really hard time understanding the nature of Imperial society. I understand you're an Earl now. I understand you were a Count when you slapped him. But your rank in the Imperial Navy is a much different thing than who and where you stand in Imperial society."
I sat for a moment in silence, taking another draw from my hookah.
"Nah. He shouldn't have tried to make Imperial society seem less barbaric than I know it is."
I meant it, but I also said it because I knew he thought it hadn't occurred to me that what I did was a severe violation of Imperial norms. After he'd left, I made a point to save that part of our conversation on the ship's surveillance cameras so I could replay the look on his face in my holograms during my more quiet moments of contemplation.
"Cadence," he started, before his head dropped in exhaustion.
"You can't just do things that are going to shake up Imperial society. Whatever our relation to it, they have a hard enough time keeping good pilots committed to the Imperial cause, just like everyone else has with their own people. They won't take too kindly to having people do anything that's gonna make the idea of disregarding their sacred ideas of status and social position. What do you think your precious Aisling would say if you'd tried something like that in her presence?"
I shot him a look that I hoped he felt like a plasma slug.
"She'd probably congratulate me for not taking any of that uptight class nonsense seriously and then tell me she loves me and that I should join her personal fleet."
He looked at me in the same way he used to look at his HUD whenever his FSD would lock up.
"Did you leave your cargo hatch open?"
He lifted his hand up quickly, extending his fingers to his thumb toward me while giving me a look that said watch it.
I looked away and exhaled another thin stream of smoke, depressing the trigger to display a celebratory parade traversing the equator of Mercury in the Sol system.
He grumbled softly before asking how it went about making Master. I mentioned that I'd went over to some combat zones in Facece and Macame. He dropped the pen he'd been dawdling with and glared at me.
"You did what?"
His voice was quiet but tense. I dropped from out of my reverie instantly.
"I said I went into some combat zones in Facece and Macame and did some work for Facece Electronics Holdings and The Fuel Rats Mischief."
His expression deadened and he slowly stood up. I watched him for any sign of what might have upset him about the idea. He stood there for a minute or two, he in distracted silence and me in confused wonder. I put down the gauntlet and walked toward him.
"Is something wrong?"
He looked at me with a look of deep concern. We were an arms length away from each other and I thought that he might reach out to touch me by the arm like I'd seen him do to Callie and some of the other trainees. He was not so gentle.
"HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU IT'S NOT OUR FIGHT!?"
The volume of his anger went beyond the loudness of his voice. He grabbed me by the lapels of my coat and shook me violently. I was too shocked to do anything but stare back at him, not in fear or anger but an even deeper confusion. All I could muster was a quiet,
"huh?"
His face was red and his jaw clenched tightly before he let slip another word.
"THEY KNOW YOU'RE WITH US!"
Still nothing from me. This wasn't anything like when the woman or her son would whip me or beat me or any of the other awful things they used to do to me.
"What the are you talking about?"
The poison in his voice only grew more potent with every word.
"WHAT DO YOU THINK IS GOING TO HAPPEN WHEN SOMEONE PIECES TOGETHER THE FACT THAT A PILOT WITH OUR ORGANIZATION TOOK A SIDE IN A SYSTEM-WAR!?"
He shoved me hard and I tripped on the footstool, my head barely missing the table before I hit the ground hard. I tried to get up but a silent laugh stitched my stomach up and I couldn't move. It all seemed so melodramatic. His breathing grew hoarse and he looked over at me before turning toward the hookah. He picked up the gauntlet and took a draw before exhaling and turning to me.
"That is good. Get up."