Doyun knocked back the can of energy drink Anna had left outside his door like a care package. He had no idea what was in it, but it was doing a good job of keeping his mind sharp without needing sleep.
He wasn’t unintelligent, but sitting like this for days on end, cramming content into his head in a short period of time, just wasn’t his style. He ended up muttering to himself as he clawed at his hair.
“Checkpoint. A point that must be confirmed during transit. Scramble. An emergency deployment order that skips preparation procedures. Zero hour. The time at which an operation commences.”
Just then, the transmitter sitting in the corner chimed.
》 Message received
▸ Inbox
[Ding dong ♬] 18 days past due on your interest payment!
Immediate enforcement begins at 30 days overdue ⁀‿⁀
Dear valued customer ♥ Please deposit promptly ♥♥♥
☛ Pay now
☛ Ease the pressure with revolving credit
☛ Connect to another lending service
from. Bone Marrow Capital Co., Ltd. — Lending with Heart
“…Immediate enforcement. So if I keep missing the interest payments, they’ll take the house.”
Doyun set the book down for a moment. He was under disciplinary measures, so he couldn’t even draw an advance on his salary, and he’d already burned through all the cash he had on hand paying for the spacecraft ride to Varnas Space Station.
The transmitter blinked again.
》 Message received
▸ Inbox
Oppa, you doing okay? You haven’t caused any trouble yet, have you? They said the surgery date hasn’t changed. Don’t worry. Don’t push yourself too hard — let’s just both stay healthy and get through this one year!
The corners of Doyun’s eyes reddened slightly as he read his sibling’s message. He’d caused trouble alright — big enough to blow eighty percent of his salary. On top of that, he was now on the verge of having his enlistment revoked. Doyun tilted his head up and held back the tears.
He was actually glad he’d brought that useless hunk-of-junk transmitter that couldn’t send replies. If his sibling were waiting for one, he would have had to lie.
“…One year.”
Whatever it took, Doyun had to make it through one year here.
Feeling suffocated, he finally closed the book and got up from his seat, leaving the dormitory. He’d been pulled from training, but personal training wasn’t prohibited, so every night he headed to the empty training facility to work out and keep his body from losing its edge.
Having left the dormitory earlier than usual, Doyun ran into an unexpected group.
“Hey, you little rat.”
It was the Lieutenant Colonel he’d gotten tangled up with at the black market on the first day. Behind him, in addition to the Master Sergeant he kept around like a lackey, several more people had clustered together.
“Bold of this rat to walk around with his head held high.”
The Lieutenant Colonel grabbed Doyun by the back of the neck and dragged him off. Pulled into a corridor connecting the training facility and the dormitory where a surveillance camera had been left broken and unattended, Doyun found himself surrounded by six people before he knew it.
“I heard you got pulled from training after just one day?”
Mockery sat plainly on the Lieutenant Colonel’s eyes and mouth.
“How shit do you have to be to get benched on day one? What a moron.”
“……”
“A country bumpkin from Earth like you was never going to last long anyway. Even if old humanity performs at S-rank, how long is that going to hold? You’ll probably wash out before the year’s even up.”
Don’t cause any more trouble. Doyun thought of Odin’s cold, disapproving gaze. He wasn’t unaware that being pulled from training was, in truth, the last chance he’d been given.
Breathing in deeply, Doyun said nothing in response and simply bowed his head, waiting for this time to pass. He was prepared to take a few hits and have it end there.
“What, did this little shit sew his mouth shut? You ignoring me?”
“……”
“Hey, hold him.”
With his arms and legs pinned, someone shoved something like a sock into his mouth.
“You’re already benched from training — what are you doing wandering around alone? Going to trip and break a bone for no reason.”
The Lieutenant Colonel wrapped his fists in cloth and spoke with a sneer.
“That’s what you get for scurrying around like a rat. Yeah?”
Doyun glanced briefly down the corridor and closed his eyes in resignation. The punches came not for his face but only for his ribs and abdomen. He’d get bruises, but nothing would be visibly injured.
This kind of harassment didn’t even register on Doyun’s scale of injustice in life. Knowing that the more he resisted, the worse the abuse would get, he simply swallowed his groans inward.
But in order to hold back the urge to fight back, his nails dug into his clenched palms hard enough to draw blood.
An hour later than expected, Doyun arrived at the training facility and quietly pushed the door open. His whole body ached with the evidence of the beating. Maybe I should just get in the bio-capsule and rest.
Already thinking like someone from the space station, he flicked on the light — and startled, pulling up short. Every member of the Genius Strike Force except the Colonel and Major had stayed behind in the training facility.
Anna came running toward him with obvious delight.
“Doyun!”
He couldn’t hold back a groan under the weight of her hug pressing into his injuries, and Anna immediately pulled back.
“What’s wrong? Are you hurt somewhere?”
Fred had appeared at his side before he knew it. It was the first time they’d faced each other since the vacuum corridor training. Doyun’s face stiffened as he thought of this person who had coughed up blood from internal injuries because of him.
But Fred was smiling as he lifted Anna off the ground. Then he spoke to Doyun first.
“If it hurts, want to get in the capsule over there?”
“Thank you.”
Fred helped the new recruit into the capsule, and just before administering the anesthetic, leaned in and said quietly:
“You know that once everyone in the United Space Forces leaves the space station, rank doesn’t matter — everyone’s fair game, right?”
Whether he’d guessed something from Doyun’s injuries, he offered a helpful explanation.
“From what I’ve heard, this upcoming recon — we might be heading out with the unit those guys from the black market belong to.”
Fred finished adjusting the equipment for recovery and grinned.
“So hurry up and finish studying and get back to training.”
Doyun looked at Fred’s bright smile with a startled expression. Before he could even get a word out, the anesthetic took hold and his eyes began to drift shut.
I can legally beat the hell out of that Lieutenant Colonel bastard in just two weeks? Doyun closed his eyes with a considerably more at-ease expression.
“This kid — is anesthesia his element or something?”
Having finished calibrating the capsule settings precisely and straightening back up, Fred murmured as he looked down at the sleeping Doyun with an expression he’d never worn before. Doyun was smiling — a wide, loose grin.
“Sweet dreams, new recruit.”
Fred gave the top of the capsule a couple of satisfied pats, a fond look on his face.
Odin finished grading the test and smiled briefly. The large, lopsided handwriting — as if the writer found the universal space language unfamiliar — looked like something from a kid Anna’s age.
Doyun had cleared the passing mark of sixty points. It was barely enough to scrape by, but it was quite a remarkable result. Given that he’d self-studied in two weeks what trainees at the reserve United Space Forces training center learned over a full year, the memorization ability was impressive.
“Remarkable drive.”
Did he need money that badly? It was easy enough to infer that someone from Zone 4 would be financially strained, but the new recruit had seemed more desperate than that could account for.
While Doyun was laying low, Odin had also reviewed the other Guide applicants — but no one looked more promising than Doyun on paper.
Fred, having now had a taste of an S-rank Guide, had even gone so far as to actively defend Doyun. He pictured that cheerfully grinning face, smiling happily despite having had his internal organs all but ruptured because of the new recruit.
Odin activated the interface on his biowatch.
“Kapu, have Corporal Ahn Doyun return to training effective tomorrow.”
[Even so — he’ll only have a week of practice before he’s heading straight out on recon. Will that be alright?]
“You’ll just have to teach him on an intensive schedule yourself.”
When Kapu didn’t reply, Odin sent another voice message.
“And apparently the Guide matching rate test results are in — let’s all check them together tomorrow.”
[Why did they come out so late this time?]
Just as I thought. She was deliberately ignoring me earlier. Odin snorted quietly and switched off his biowatch. He read back over the test Doyun had written.
“His mind isn’t half bad, at least.”
With Guides who had both skill and brains, the problem usually came down to attitude. Odin thought back to the defiant look in Doyun’s eyes at the disciplinary hearing. Those dark eyes, barely rattled even after causing an incident that size. This wasn’t someone who’d pulled a stunt or two for the first time.
Thinking back to the way Doyun had bristled at the news of his pay cut, Odin quietly drummed his fingers against the desk. If money really was all he cared about, he’d actually be easier to handle. That was, if this were anywhere other than the Genius Strike Force.
This was an elite unit where bonds as loose as those held together by money alone couldn’t keep you alive. Odin, who had marked down the date of Paulo’s joint memorial service, opened Doyun’s application again.
Twenty-two years old. For Espers, there was no minimum age requirement — cases like Anna, who had started unit life early, weren’t uncommon. But Guides had to be at least twenty before they could begin working.
Doyun was a kid who had barely just stepped into the world. And one who had only been on the space station for three weeks at that. The awareness that he should be more understanding, look at him with more generosity and without bias given all of that — and the impatience over the countless recon schedules lined up starting next year — churned together inside Odin.
“…It’s not easy.”
Odin had been getting frequent headaches lately from worrying about the new Guide recruit.
