Part Ranger: Chapter 7

My mother always told me, “You need to go out there and have a son! They’re the only ones the officers are looking to enlist. Women are just dead weight to a space commander.” But women weren’t dead weight in the army. In fact, they were probably the most important people there.

“Your mother just wants you to do what she thinks is best for your safety. Have a son and she knows you could never be sent away for who-knows how long.” Dad always replied with that whenever I asked.

Was it really all for me? Or was it just to give the officers something they wanted? “What if I want to fight in the war?”

 

 

Two months have passed since our first battle. We were challenged by two other squads since the incident. Our strategy was randomly selected for each one. Games would be used in which we went inside the enemies’ minds or we used the skilled we learnt to our advantage.

Officer Benjamin hasn’t been seen ever since the battle. He should be scared around here! When I get my hands on him, oh it won’t be a sunshine and rainbow scene. Darren and Matt are the only other Mind Soldiers who know of what he did.

“So commander! Do you wish to continue battling like this?” Darren asked. We were alone in the hallway after another visit to the exam room. They just received a thing that helps my back realign itself correctly. It looks like metal rectangles were growing out of me.

“It’s all up to you guys! I only accept the challenges because I thought you wanted to continue them.”

“Some of us are getting tired from doing everything. Maybe we should stop for a little while.” Darren and I returned to the room and told the others. They all took it as a time for rest.

Everyone began to start sleeping in at morning and falling asleep before the lights go out. I got up at my normal time and went to breakfast in the hall. Charles started sitting with me again when he saw me arrive alone.

“I’ve been assigned to be transferred into the Kantopia squad after classes.” I looked forward in shock. When did he find this out? Who decided it was a good idea to send him out of training?

“I thought a trainee doesn’t join a squad until they are here for at least a year! Do you know what made them change their mind?” He looked at me. We both knew how I joked about human intelligence.

“Says the one who got promoted to commander of a squad after three months.” We both began to laugh.

“Well, good luck and don’t mess up.” I stood up and left the hall. Charles sat there, staring into space.

I started taking a morning self-defense class since the incident in the shower. A girl from the Earthling squad was teaching me. She looked to be about 17 and was very tough. Her hair was red and her eyes were blue. “You aren’t concentrating! Is something on your mind?”

My eyes weren’t on her. The blocks on my back hit the floor and temporarily dug themselves deeper inside. The pain surged up and down for a minute.

“Is it about that boy from back then? You can’t let that encounter bother you forever.” She helped me up from the ground. I readied my fists and waited for her to attack.

“It’s not that. A friend from Earth is moving up faster than I thought they allowed. He’s already being transferred into the Kantopia squad after six months.”

She kept going as we talked. It was nice to do this. “Well look at you! I’m sure he wants to surpass you like an other boy. My brothers did that kind of thing all the time when a cute girl appeared before them.” She continued to talk about her Earth life as training went on. It was a nice distraction from thinking about here.

“Why don’t we take a break from class for a week? The lack of having to be somewhere should help you think more clearly.” I ran my hand down my back to check the blocks. “You should also let your back rest with those in. Who knows what will happen if something broke.”

We began to pack up and leave the room. She sat on the floor with her legs crossed. I almost left her when I decided to ask, “Hey Zana, do you ever think about what you will do after this place?”

She looked at me with her eyebrow raised. “Not really. Everyone wants to graduate up to the UPCS. If they didn’t believe we could make it up there when we were ten, why would they waste the money for us?” I turned around and left. Zana’s question left unanswered.

A week has passed since everything I did stopped. Charles and I continued to eat breakfast alone. This time, a pair of officers came up to us. The taller one picked up Charles and placed him farther away. The other one sat down in front of me. Matt.

“We need to talk.”

“About what? I’m eating food and resting up. Is there something wrong with the plan?”

“No. Officer Benjamin knows about us though. Do you care to explain?” He was clutching something underneath the table.

“Benjamin is weird. He told our plan to the Arthromians before the battle. Somehow he found out about our power to enter minds.” His grip loosened. We knew something was up with him. The only thing left to do was get the proof we need.

I returned back to the room, alone, while everyone should be awake. If you know how it is to go from a peaceful space watching room to another full of aggravating children, you know just how I felt walking inside. Why did I expect less from them?

Each boy had their own crazy thing going on at their beds. Darren was crafting swords made out of paper and Soram was shoving pencils into the holes of his head. Some of the more childish ones formed civilizations with each other. At times, the civilizations would get into wars with each other.

I maneuvered through them and got to my bed. There was a note left on my pillow, “Johtolions. 500 tomorrow.” Already? Was this past week enough time for them to rest or should I just forget about it?

“Whatcha got there?” Darren was behind me with one of his swords against my neck. The last time I was up against these was some time after the death. He made it to act like a real sword and cut like one too. “A request, huh? Are we going to accept this one?” He let go of me.

I stood in front of my bed, waiting for someone to say something. “Does anyone have any objections to the acceptance of this request?” No one answered and I started to leave. Soram stepped in front of me before I reached the door. “What is it Soram? Do you think we should reject them?”

“No one wants to accept the request. We can’t tell you no as our commander.” I looked around. Every boy here was surrounding us with a glare in their eyes.

“What is that suppose to mean? I listen to everyone’s opinions. If you want to say something then say it!”

“You said we could have some time to ourselves!” Darren yelled. We don’t usually hear these outbursts unless he finds it is something important for all of us.

“Then why didn’t anyone say so earlier? I’ll just throw it out then.” When I tried to move, Soram grabbed my arm. “WHAT NOW?” My face got red. Soram just stood there with my arm in his hand. Everyone else was still looking at me.

“I asked you how long you wanted to quit battling. Why won’t anyone give me a real answer?” One of the strong boys, Vincent, walked up to me. He had blonde hair and blue eyes.

He held an American football in his hands. “No one wants to battle anymore. We aren’t use to doing normal things on this station.”

“So we should stop being a squad and go back to being the crazy ones?”

“That’s what we are! Crazy. Just psychotics brought here because of the pain and misery we had as children.” Darren was right in my face. He was right. Everyone had a story about being bullied or abused by their parents. The only reason why these boys accepted being here was to get away from the pain.

“But why did they specifically ask us to be here? They’re looking for normal soldiers who can attack or lead people to attack whatever they are told to kill. Not soldiers like us who destroy an organism’s thoughts and then attack.

“YOU KNOW WHY WE’RE HERE! You signed a contract to be here with your ‘friend’ Charles, right?” I looked down at my feet. I did sign something to be here with him. “We signed something similar, but it was to get away from people.”

It was hard to imagine people like Darren or Vincent to end up like this. How did they each go through the first day? “If this will help anything, I guess we will destroy The Mind Soldiers.”

 

A year has passed since The Mind Soldiers were taken off of the board. Charles and I were now 11 years and six months old, six years and six months away from seeing the Borgensons again. “Kren has been teaching me a lot about shooting better.” Kren was a girl from the Kantopia squad. She is known as the best marksman in the station. “Maybe you should come to practice with us one day! It would be fun to be in that room with you again.” I shook my head.

“I still have self-defense classes with Zana in the morning. Maybe after she graduates I can go with you.” He head dropped and his eyes closed.

Charles didn’t participate much in battles, but Kren still taught him stuff. It was good she wanted to help him as she could. “Why does she teach you how to battle better if she knows Forgo won’t let you act in battle?”

“Forgo will allow anything if it means I can be forced out of the squad for someone better.” Forgo was the Kantopia squad commander. He was 15 and Kren was 14. “I think I’ve gotten use to the whole showering with girls thing. The mental rules of a person change in the army, don’t they?” Charles looked to me for confirmation. I almost forgot we were here to train for a war that may or may not come in our lifetime.

“You aren’t changing from the Charles I came up here with are you?” He started scratching his right cheek.

“What do you mean? Just because I talked about mental rules means I’m changing?” He started laughing. At the end, it seemed forced like he needed to laugh just then.

“You need to be taking things more seriously here! If you plan to command anything, you need to know strategies and how to overpower the voices of any soldier there is. Technology does all the work for us, unlike in 1753.” My voice was getting demanding like I knew what commanders did. Why was I talking like this?

“Just because you became a commander before me and won all of your battles don’t mean you know more than I do!” He stormed off. I was left alone, with an empty tray. Zana came over and sat down across from me.

“Don’t you think that was a bit harsh?” She took a bite out of her egg. “Everyone wasn’t taught how to lead before they came here. The commanders now either learnt how to here or were natural-born leaders”

“I was asked to teach him about leading while we were here. The officers want him for something.” Good thing Matt wasn’t around to hear that. My head might be his by now if he did.

“Sometimes you need to assert yourself to lead people. Try it on your squad and see how it works.” Assert myself? That just gave me an idea. I left Zana and went back to the room.

I entered and was bombarded with paper balls and other flying objects. If they had the materials to make it, they threw it. “Was there a reason for that?” That all started to laugh at me.

“You need to lighten up in here! Everyone knows The Mind Soldiers aren’t supposed to do anything but sit here for eight years.” Only here to sit around? Away from their families for eight years?

“THEN WHY DON’T WE DO SOMETHING!” I started getting angry. Everyone just stopped and stared at me. “Doesn’t this get boring? Just acting like psychos for eight years away from your families? I couldn’t stand to do this for that long if my parents were still alive!” They all knew about my past. Eight others that came here suffered the same deal for being here.

“Since I’m the commander, I say we find a battle to participate in. Anyone who objects can gladly go back to whatever kind of life you had before.” No one moved. “Good. Darren, who is looking for a challenger?”

“The Kantopia squad is looking for a challenger by this week. Charles is going to participate in this one?” He held a piece of paper and pencil in his hands, ready to write.

Soram stepped up. “Forgo doesn’t let certain people battle? Make them sit out throughout the fun?” I nodded.

“We’ll send the challenge tomorrow. It will specifically request that Charles participates in the battle.” I smiled and ran up to Darren, hugging him.

“Good. Kren will be there too.” He squeezed me tighter.

“Then we will have two battles in one. You versus Charles and me versus her.”