SOMETHING TO BELIEVE IN, PT 2
As Dee starts basic, she looks back at her life just before enlisting...
Something to Believe In, Pt 2
Eight years later..."Heeeeyah!"
With a loud thud, Ana landed hard on her back, the wind knocked out of her. She laid there on the mat, dazed for a second, feeling yet another bruise forming on her butt. She probably had more elsewhere, but at that point, she couldn’t tell-she was a mass of bruises now.
"Okay, nuggets!" her self-defense instructor barked, pulling her on to her feet. "Remember, when facing an opponent larger than you, use their size to your advantage. Like the old saying goes, the bigger they come, the harder they fall."
"Yeah, unless they squash you like a bug first", quipped one of the other cadets.
"Callisto!"
"Uh, yes, sir!"
"Get over here!"
"Yes, sir!"
"Now, Callisto...you are going to advance on Dualla, and she will attempt to throw you."
"Aw, come on, Sir, she’s just a little girl. I’ll-"
"Now, Callisto!"
"Yes, Sir!"
Armand Callisto was a good head taller than her, and-while not beefy-had greater muscle mass. You can do this, Ana! You can show this cocky son-of-a-bitch what you’re made of! Remember who you are! Remember why you’re here!
When Ana was seventeen, she made up her mind to join the Colonial Fleet after graduation-a no-brainer, really. While most of her childhood friends were in jail or getting knocked up, she was trying to focus all her energies on a future far away from Naxos. She wasn’t the top student of her class by far, but she maintained good grades, kept her nose clean.
She had even found her calling. In her third year, her school sent out a written announcement about the signing up for one of the required "Real Life Skills" courses. She looked down the short list of options, disappointed that her Junior Fleet Reserve classes didn’t count for squat. She had her choice from among the following: Home Economy, Vehicle Repair, Basic Electronics, Office Skills, and Animal Care. Her mother had tried early on to instill in her daughter the fine art of cooking and cleaning, with no success, so she mentally crossed Home Econ off her list. She wasn’t crazy about the idea of being coated with engine grease every morning and being ogled by a bunch of boneheads, so, no Vehicle Repair. She definitely knew that she didn’t want to end up in a dead-end office job like her mother, wasting her life away as an overworked, underpaid secretary-forget Office Skills. As for cleaning cat cages and shoveling dog poo-ew! That only left Electronics. She had no expectations when she walked into Mr. Solustus’ course, finding herself one of only two girls among a bunch of nerdy boys (double ‘ew!’). However, after a couple of weeks, that fact that she was sandwiched between cross-eyed Lyndon Crassus and Charlie "The Smell" Vell in class didn’t matter, she was hooked. She somehow was able to grasp the fundamentals of building simple circuits and repairing electronic equipment, and, by the end of the semester, had built a transistor radio out of a pile of scrap as a final project (which earned her the "eternal adoration" of Lyndon (EW, EW, EW!). Soon, she was even confident enough to repair the tv and the digital music player at home.
She walked into the local Colonial Fleet recruiting office, where she checked out her options. The recruiter, a man only a few years older than herself, said, "From what you’re telling me, your grades may not qualify you for our Electronic Engineering program. Perhaps, with your skills, you’d might be interested in, let’s say, Communications?" That was fine by her.
The next step was to tell her parents.
When Ana informed her mother the next day of her intentions, Sally, with the Sagittarian mistrust of the military, was a little hesitant, but realized that the Fleet would give her daughter the opportunities that she couldn’t give her. Gently holding her daughter’s cheek in her hand, she looked into her eyes. "Ana, honey, I know you’re a smart girl, and I believe that you know what you’re doing, so don’t take this the wrong way."
"What’s that, Momma?"
"I gotta ask you, why are you doing this?"
She could have given the speech that the recruiter gave her-a chance to build her skills, to travel to exotic new places, to build self-respect...But she told her the truth instead. "Momma, I got to get away."
Sally simply nodded her head, the tears starting to flow down her cheeks as she held Ana tight in her arms. "I won’t tell your father yet, until you’re ready."
Good thing, too, because it took her another two months to get the nerve to face him.
"The Colonial Fleet is for emotional cripples and patriotic fools, Annie! When are you going to get that into your head?!"
Look who’s talking, she thought. She kept those words in her head, not because she respected her father-she didn’t-- but because it was better to let him run out of steam than it was to argue him.
"After all I’ve told you! After all you’ve learned! After all that’s happened-the Archeron Riots, martial law in Sixtus Town, the indiscriminate, vicious arrests of law-abiding citizens...You’ve joined the enemy!!"
Her father hadn’t always been this way. Her mother had told her the story of Frank Dualla-a sensitive, intelligent twenty-two year-old man from Naxos, had gone to the University of Saggitaron’s Archeron campus to study law, like his father before him. However, at that time, the University was filled with young people, like himself, who wanted to change the rules, make things better for everyone. They took over the Admin Building and held a hunger-strike, rioted over the closing of a Colonial-funded clinic for the disadvantaged...things like that. He had laid down in front of the marines, organized free-soup kitchens, and had even wrote a speech that Tom Zarek (her father’s eyes became misty at the sound of his name) had used in a press conference. But, all that had changed when things got out of hand, and five Colonial Marines were killed when they tried to stop the masses from entering the Archer Hotel, where the President of the Colonies was having a meeting. That’s when the crackdowns began. Zarek was arrested for acts of terrorism ("It’s a Gods damn conspiracy!"), the soup kitchens were closed, the students went back to just being students, things went back to "normal"...but nothing was the same for Frank. Several of his friends were either arrested or trying to distance themselves from the movement as much as they could. He himself was almost taken in for questioning, but was let go because his father was the friend of the local Chief of Police, on the condition he return to Naxos. He did-he got his teaching credential at the local college, married his high school sweetheart, became a father a few years later. On the outside, everything was okay, but inside, Frank became increasingly bitter, taking every opportunity to criticize, to fight every losing battle, to drag his family down with him. He’d gotten so difficult that he couldn’t even hold a permanent job, so he was only a substitute teacher for the school system.
And here he was, trying to make her feel like the disgrace.
"GET OUT OF HERE! YOU’RE NO LONGER MY DAUGHTER! GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!"
It should have been a relief, getting away from him, but, for some reason, it hurt all the same.
"You can stay with Auntie Nadine until you graduate", Sally said, folding the last shirt into the suitcase before closing it. "She’s a little ditzy, my sister, but she’ll take care of you. And honey, you’ll always be my daughter."
Aunt Nadine was nice. A little ditzy, like Momma said, but nice. She was the top cosmestics salesperson at the big fancy department store downtown, so she was well off. She even had a beautiful apartment in a nicer part of town she shared with a friend (who was doing a six-month stay at an ashram on Gemenon). Her new bedroom alone was bigger than her old kitchen, bedroom, and living room combined. She sank into the soft bed, crying into the rose-scented pillows. Nadine walked in.
"Aw, honey, don’t worry, everything will be okay...I know things are hard now, but your Momma says you’re really smart, and that you’ve got a plan, so don’t worry it...Say, your poor eyes are all red. They’re so pretty. Big and green, like my Momma’s. I know! I got some new makeup that I was going to test out on myself. Why don’t we try it out together? How about this...’Lilac Dawn’. That’ll be darling on you. Make the green in your eyes come out...
*****
"I’m sorry I gotta do this to you, Dualla, but-Sarge’s orders!" Callisto looked too cocky for his own good, sensing what he thought was an easy victory.
Someone among the other cadets shouted, "Come on Callisto, knock Purple Eyeshadow on her ass!"
Ana’s mouth quirked slightly at hearing her unofficial callsign. She had made the mistake of wearing makeup on the first day of basic, and hadn’t been able to shake the nickname ever since.
The instructor stood at attention. "Ready...Go!"
One second Callisto was lunging at Dualla, and the next he was on his back, stunned that a little thing had laid him low.
Hah! Purple Eyeshadow kicked your ass!
Ch 1 http://jenmay.livejournal.com/3927.html#cutid1
*****