Midshipman (11 page)

“Thank you, Instructor-Sergeant!” I replied.

He nodded. “The tenth, though… You sassed an officer, son. The Commandant, even. That one you’ll work off like everyone else. I promise you won’t enjoy it.”

“Yes, Instructor-Sergeant!” I replied. By now, somehow I was standing at attention again.

“Since you’re too great a goddamned fool to resign,” he continued, his face slipping into its perpetual mask of anger, “then I suggest you climb back up and perform the rest of your duty.” His face softened again. “If you feel woozy, you have my permission to climb down to the crow’s nest and take a twenty-minute rest. In fact, I so instruct you. The blame will come back entirely on me.”

“Yes, Instructor-Sergeant!”

“And as for the rest, well… I’ll be thinking about it. Maybe I’ll come up with a little something.” He shook his head. “Now climb up there, you snotty young fool! What’re you waiting for, an engraved invitation from the Queen Mother? Move! Move! Move!”

Despite myself I grinned. “Yes, Instructor-Sergeant!”

And so it was that I spent my entire first night at the academy standing at attention atop the Mast, looking out across the sleeping grounds. Though my legs ached like fire and my feet nearly froze, I never even came close to crying again. Or at least I didn’t until dawn, whose first, earliest rays cast a perfect shadow of the Mast across the Academy’s parade grounds.

And that shadow revealed the entire Mast beneath me was crowded with Rabbits and uniformed adult humans, all standing silently at attention and waiting for the Commandant to come and order me down.

19

The next day was unlike any other in the history of the Academy, I’m told, though I didn’t get to see much of it. Instead of the midshipmen being taught how to form up for roll call, as was normal for the second day of the session, soon they were wandering around all over the place, many standing at the base of the Mast and gawking up at us. This, I later learned, was because nearly all the instructor-sergeants were up there with me instead of coordinating the students. When the upper faculty leadership finally realized how terribly wrong things had gone for them, well… Let’s just say that officers are supposed to be good at dealing with unexpected crises, but that doesn’t mean they actually are. They scurried about in total disorganization, shouting so loudly at the cadets that sometimes I could make out their words despite the brisk breeze that'd sprung up sometime around midnight. “Back to the barracks! That’s an order, damnit!” Some even broke out their sidearms at the apparently-threatening sight of Rabbits and instructors standing silently at attention together. Eventually, though, the leadership managed to shoo all the other students back inside. Whereupon they all stood in a disorganized knot at the base of the Mast and gesticulated wildly at each other. Finally, around nine o’clock, Captain Drecher strode out away from the others and, shading his eyes, looked directly up at me. “Cadet Birkenhead!” he bawled out in long, loud tones. “Come down here this instant! Move, move, move!”

I honestly tried to move, move, move. But by then I’d been standing still for a very long time. So long, in fact, that merely bending my knees without any load on them wasn’t easy—they made cracking noises and didn’t want to move at all. Thus, I suddenly realized that I was much further gone than I’d appreciated. The world sort of spun ‘round on itself as I negotiated the rim of the crow’s nest, so badly that I teetered and might’ve fallen…

…save that a powerful hand grabbed me by the scruff of my neck and dragged me to safety. “It’s all right, David,” Sergeant Piper explained. “I’ll carry you.”

“I can make… I mean…” I protested. But my heart wasn’t in it and the sergeant knew it.

“Hush, now!” he replied. “You’ve done plenty, son. Let someone else carry part of the burden sometimes. That’s something all good officers must learn sooner or later, and now’s as good a time for you as any.” He tossed me over his shoulder and carried me down like a bag of flour. The man must’ve had muscles like an ox!

When Sergeant Piper stood me in front of the Academy Commandant, the ground heaved and bucked so badly that I collapsed. “On your feet, snotty!” the Commandant roared, and I took a moment on all fours to shake my head and try to bring myself around. But everything remained gray and formless no matter what I did.

“Sir!” Sergeant Piper declared. “The cadet should report to sickbay, sir!”

“How dare you?” Captain Drecher replied, his attention distracted. “And, while we’re at it… Exactly why are all of you instructor-sergeants standing around instead of performing your duties? Alongside a bunch of filthy Rabbits at that?”

“We
are
performing our duties, sir,” he replied.

The captain’s mouth dropped open.

“Our duties to our students, sir,” he continued. “To keep them safe, among other things.”

“What utter rot!” the Commandant replied, looking down at me. I’d tried again to stand but failed, and now was on all fours again. Plus, I was also starting to feel nauseous. “He was never in a moment’s danger. Why, the grounds-bunnies work up there all night long all the time!” He shook his head, then looked up at the Mast. “Come down, all of you!” he ordered. “This is your last chance before I file mutiny charges!” Then he turned back to Sergeant Piper. “It’s already too late for you, I fear. I know a ringleader when I see one.”

“The cadet,” Sergeant Piper replied, his voice now a loud, deep bellow that might’ve carried for miles. “Should report to sickbay. Sir!”

“The cadet,” the commandant replied, “will perform his daily physical training under my own supervision. And I will personally monitor his condition, to ensure that there is no danger.” He looked down at me. “You’re all right, Mr. Rabbit. A little hard work doesn’t even faze your brutish kind, does it?”

By way of reply, I threw up.

The commandant scowled and looked away. Then his eyes rose to the Mast, where everyone was still standing at attention. “I said to come down here!” he declared. “Immediately!”

Not a soul moved.

His scowl deepened. “You!” he declared, returning his attention to me. “Give me ten pushups for making that mess. Now!” He turned to his officers. “We’ll break him, all right! This very day! And that’ll fix it all! Everything will go back to being just like it was before.”

I nodded and tried to get up on my hands and knees and crawl away from the vomit. But a boot came down on my back and pressed me down into it. “That’s a good spot right there, snotty. Now, give me ten!”

“No, by god!” a nearby voice declared. It belonged to a lieutenant, one of the commandant’s personal staff. He stepped forward and stood between the Commandant and I. “That’s about enough, sir!”

“You miserable wretch!” Commandant Drecher screamed, a vein jumping out in his forehead. “I’ll have your commission, sir!”

“And you may take it from me whenever you damned well please, sir!” the lieutenant replied. “Folded until it’s all corners and tucked where the sun never shines! And what a shame that’d be! I’d have to return my estate and spend the rest of my life fox hunting. Such a tragedy!” He shook his head. “Besides, how much can a king’s commission be worth these days, anyhow? If they hand them out to uncouth brutes like you, I mean. That cadet is a
hero
, damnit! He's done nothing whatsoever to merit such mistreatment!”

“You….” The commandant muttered. Then he turned to another officer, this one equipped with a sidearm. “Frederick, arrest that man!” he ordered the commander, pointing at the lieutenant who’d spoken up for me.

The commander’s eyes closed as if in pain. “I don’t have an estate,” he replied eventually. “And I’m certainly not of noble birth. So there’s nothing protecting me. But…” He sighed and shook his head, then turned his back on the commandant. “The instructor-sergeant is correct, sir. As they usually are. I’d advise listening to him.”

Soon Captain Drecher was rushing from officer to officer, seeking support and growing more and more upset by the minute. But with varying degrees of reluctance, each and every one of them turned their backs on him. He was just approaching the very last, and I was wondering what he’d do if that one turned his back too, when I finally fainted and thereby missed seeing how it all came out.

20

Most cadets probably considered sick bay to be a bare, spartan place. Being mostly of the upper class, they weren’t used to sharing hospital rooms or seeing equipment wheeled about on naked, military-issue carts. But it was a very nice place indeed, in my opinion. Certainly it was a lot better than the veterinary hospital where I’d recently spent so much time. And the staff was nicer, too.

“…note the elevated heartbeat,” Doctor Jefferson was explaining to a younger colleague as he pointed to a monitor above my head. “In Rabbits, the heart-rate varies enormously with the patient’s emotional state. When they’re startled or truly frightened, I’m told, the readings can go off the scale.” Then he looked down and smiled at me. “Nervous, son?”

“A little,” I admitted, licking my nose and front teeth for the tenth time in as many minutes. This wasn’t something I normally did, at least not around humans. It seemed to upset them, somehow. But I’d broken an incisor on the sidewalk when I fainted and the putty-smeared stump was endlessly fascinating to my tongue—I couldn’t leave it alone to save my life. The injury was both a lot more and a lot less serious than it sounded. On the one hand, eventually it’d grow out and I’d be just fine. But on the other it was hideously ugly and I couldn’t speak quite properly. Much to my annoyance, for the first time in my life I now had a baby-bunny lisp. The Academy dentist didn’t wasn’t sure what to do because there was nothing in the textbooks about capping open-rooted teeth. None of the local vets knew how to handle the situation either, because people simply didn’t bother fixing broken slave teeth. So the debate raged on, and in the meantime I just tried not to talk any more than I absolutely had to.

The doctor laid his hand on my shoulder and smiled. “I don’t blame you, son. You’ve had a rough day. So just lay back and relax. I don’t want to have to prescribe a sedative.”

I nodded and smiled, even though I was growing a little frustrated at all the lying around. I’d slept all morning and well into the afternoon, which fixed most of what was wrong with me, and had taken in I didn’t know how many liters of fluids, muscle-relaxants and electrolytes via IV tube. As near as I could tell, that’d taken care of most of the rest. Yeah, I was still achy in places, and my tooth was broken off low enough that it hurt a little sometimes. But I was basically ready to rejoin my section in training, and everyone around me had to know it. The longer I was kept separated, the harder it’d be for me to become part of the group.

And worst of all, no one would tell me anything about what’d happened after I passed out!

It was almost eight o’clock in the evening before the first crack appeared in the wall of silence. James came by to visit, and I was never happier to see anyone in my life. “I can only stay for a minute or two,” he explained once we were done smiling and laughing at the mere sight of each other. “But… Wow!”

I felt my ear-linings darken. “What elthe could I do?” I lisped, shaking my head.

James smiled. “Knowing you, nothing. In hindsight I should’ve expected something like this, and so should everyone else. But… for what it’s worth I think you handled yourself well. I’m sure my uncle will agree. And so will many others.” 

My blush deepened, and to avoid more lisping I simply smiled. My friend smiled back, then impulsively fozzled my ears before dashing back to his quarters. His departure left practically all my questions unanswered, but at least I felt better.

I was just about to fall asleep at long last and make the doctor happy when about nine o’clock there came a knock at my door. Then it swung open…

…and in stepped a Royal Herald, in full Court regalia!

I blinked, then tried to scramble to my feet. A Herald serves as the personal representative of the sovereign, delegated at His Highness’s pleasure. As such he represents His Majesty's person, and was therefore one of the tiny handful of officials I was still obliged to bow to.

“No, no, no!” the Herald declared, shaking his head. He was an unusually young man for such a responsible position. It was difficult to tell through the makeup, but he was certainly still in his twenties. “Stay in bed, please! His Highness specifically instructed that you should.”

I nodded and gave up trying to disentangle my IV from the sheets. “Forgive me, th-th-th-… Er, sir.”

The Herald smiled and sat down in my visitor’s chair. “Of all the king’s subjects on these hallowed grounds this evening, David, you perhaps have the least to apologize for.” Then the expression faded and he sighed. “There’s much to be done, and little time to do it in.”

I nodded, even though I really didn’t understand.

“First,” the Herald began. “His Majesty has a personal message for you. He says that he appreciates you more than ever, and hopes you’re not too badly hurt.” The Herald scowled at my broken tooth. “May I examine that, David? So that my report on this matter can be complete?”

I nodded, and for a long moment the Herald held my chin in his hand, turning my face gently this way and that. “Thank you,” he said eventually. “Anyway, he also wishes you to know that you’ve made him proud. ‘This,’ he said—and I’m quoting now—‘is exactly what he was sent to do. Though I never dreamed that matters would come to a head so quickly’.”

I nodded again, at a loss for words.

The Herald smiled again. “David, you may not know this but my job is to be more than the King’s mouthpiece. I’m supposed to understand what he wants and why he wants it in great depth, so that I can behave as he would were he handling matters personally.”  His smile widened into a grin. “Otherwise I’d just be just another Court-fop in makeup and tights.”

I smiled, as I was clearly meant to.

“His Majesty is intervening on your behalf, David. As is right and proper and ethical, under these narrow circumstances. Indeed, it’d be immoral
not
to intervene. No one is criticizing you in any way. But…” His face fell. “It’s essential to your purpose for being here that you stand on your own as much as possible, son. His Highness can intervene in the face of gross injustice, yes—especially when you and others highlight it so well. However… The more the palace is seen to be propping you up, the less significant your achievements appear in the eyes of others.” The Herald sighed. “So, this time we can and will help. And, in similar circumstances of gross unfairness we can and will help you again. But every time we do so we’re damaging your image as a Rabbit who’s as good and able as any human.” He looked down.