RITZA ACADEMY
LIEGEDEN, EMPORIA
FEDERATED SUNS
7 APRIL 3150
0818 HOURS
Jasper wandered into the common room in a daze. The emergency broadcast system had alerted everyone that something was wrong. The broadcast he’d watched had crushed his soul. Not only were they under attack by the Draconis Combine, the baron had surrendered. Baron Vogel, his Sponsor, had surrendered. This meant Count Ritza, his wife, and even the dowager countess must be dead.
He did not expect the excited buzz of cadets he’d run into. They were not heartbroken. Most of them weren’t anyway. Delany, Michael, and Pascal spoke in rapid, animated tones, gesturing to the screen.
Pascal pointed to Lady Shannon’s hand. “See here? Every time she twitches this finger to a particular statement, she’s agreeing with him. And there, when she squeezes her hands together, she’s indicating it’s a lie.” He pressed the play button.
“In order to save Emporia, our land, our people, the prosperity we have, and the happiness we enjoy, we will accept their generous protection and security in the form of troops, vehicles, and ’Mechs. In return, we will give them our respect and our obedience.”
Delany nodded. “Exactly. They’re pretending to accept the Dragon’s ‘protection,’ but we’re not supposed to. Right there, Lady Shannon indicates that we are not to give them respect or obedience.”
“What are you talking about?” The buzz of cadets rose around Jasper again. “Delany, what do you mean? Why are you so happy?” His voice cut through the din, and the room fell into an unnatural hush. Everyone stared at him.
“He missed the opening credits.” Ethan passed Jasper, shoulder bumping him. “He doesn’t understand.” The taller boy gazed at Jasper with pity—which was somehow worse than his usual disgust. “He doesn’t know about the code.”
Delany stepped to Ethan’s side, moving inside his personal space. “Why don’t you explain it to him?”
Ethan flushed and turned away. “You do it. You’re better at talking.”
“Fine. All noble families have personal sign-language codes. Different ways to talk or signal each other. Sometimes, this is a particular word, like resist or hide or wait. Sometimes, it’s a signal that they agree or disagree with a statement. Sometimes, it indicates they are lying. Most of the noble houses share a common code. A way to secretly speak in front of outsiders or non-family.”
Jasper shook his head. “Why haven’t I heard about this before?”
Ethan scoffed. “It wouldn’t be a secret code if everyone knew.” He glanced at Delany. “Obviously, it’s not going to be secret anymore.”
She met his gaze without flinching. “Because everyone needs to know. That wasn’t a surrender speech, even though it seemed like it. However, there are still enough free nobles to get out the word of Baron Vogel’s true meaning.”
“Which was?” Jasper asked.
“Fight the invaders. Resist in subtle ways until an actual plan comes down the line. Hide when you have to. Don’t let the invaders know the truth.” Delany raised her voice and looked around the common room. “This is the information we need to spread out to the rest of the academy and the professors who don’t know the code. Emporia has not surrendered in her heart, and we are to bide our time.”
Jasper’s head spun with emotional whiplash. On one hand, he was thrilled that they hadn’t actually been conquered—yet. On the other, war scared him to death. “But what happened to the Ritza family? Why is Baron Vogel in charge?”
Delany answered. “It’s a ploy to protect the ruling family. Baron Vogel ordered the uncaptured nobles and the Ritza family to go to ground. There were key phrases he used to tell us things. Like when he said, ‘I have faith in Emporia’s land,’ that was him telling everyone to go to the siege compounds. Or when he said, ‘the most noble houses of Emporia who still stand,’ he told those who had ears to hear that the Ritza family was safe.” She stopped. “No, not ‘safe.’ ‘Uncaptured.’ I don’t think any of us are safe.”
Claire asked, “Did anyone take notes on what the speech actually said to those with the “ears to hear” for those of us who are climbing out of the dark? Notes that we can read?” The tall teenager looked unruffled, though the slight puffiness around her eyes spoke of the same kind of emotional morning that Jasper had had.
“I did.” Delany waved her noteputer. “I’ll send it out to everyone. The short version is this: Yes, all the MechWarriors have been captured. We’re to act like we’re going along with this ‘change of fealty’ for as long as necessary. We are to resist, fight, hide, and sabotage things. Those are definites. There are a couple of other things that not all of us agree on. I think there’s a plan being formed. A couple of the others think the signs mean to form a plan. That we’re on our own. We’ll have to get someone inside House Vogel who knows the code to verify that for us.”
“How?” Claire asked. “We’re on lockdown.”
Jasper snorted softly. “I think I know a way.”
Delany nodded. “Thought you might. Go talk to her. But don’t be late to class. You don’t want whoever is actually teaching this morning to have a reason to punish any of us.”
Jasper nodded. “All right.” He took off at a run for Nadine’s dormitory.
“Franc, this is Tiamat. Are you there? Over.” Nadine sat in front of her dorm room’s shortwave radio setup with Jasper standing next to her. She waved him away. “Don’t loom. You’ll be able to hear him. I don’t have my headphones on.”
Jasper backed off but didn’t sit. He saw the shadows of people loitering outside her door. With a couple of strides, he opened the door and didn’t care who saw him. “Go away. We’ll tell you what we know when we know it. Promise.” He shut the door in the cadets’ faces, heedless of their scowls. “Is it always like that?”
“No. But I usually work with headphones or in the communications server room.” She toggled the switch and spoke into the microphone. “Franc, this is Tiamat. Are you there? We really need to talk to you. Over.”
“Tiamat, I’m here. I can’t talk long. Go to channel delta?”
“No. This is a conversation for everyone. We saw the emergency broadcast. We heard what Baron Vogel said.”
“It wasn’t what you think. His words were coded. Lady Shannon also sent a message.”
Jasper sat on Nadine’s bed, relieved. Someone he could trust, really trust, confirmed what Delany and Ethan had said.
“I know. We know. I’m with…. You know who I’m with. The Blooded told us about the code. But there aren’t any Blooded from House Vogel here. I was hoping you could help. You know the code?”
“Who do you think taught the young Lady Vogel back on New Avalon? I’ve been with House Vogel all my life. It’s not just the nobles. I also taught the lord when he married into the family. What do you need to know? ”
Nadine and Jasper gave each other a surprised look. Nadine shook her head. “Lord Zachary married into House Vogel? Didn’t know that.”
Jasper gave her a “hurry up” gesture. “Find out if they have a plan or if we need to do the planning.”
Nadine toggled the mic. “There’s a part about a plan. No one can agree if he was saying he had a plan, or he wanted us to plan, or what. ”
The silence was longer this time. It stretched from awkwardness to discomfort to worry. Just as Nadine raised her hand to toggle the mic again, the speakers crackled into life.
“It looks like a bit of both. He and the lady have something they’re working on, but he doesn’t want that to stop people from making their own plans. Everyone on the planet needs to work to undermine them. Resist, hide, survive. The Kuritans have the upper hand for now. We have to chip away at it.”
“Good. Good. Thank you. We’ll pass that along. Over and out.”
“Tiamat, wait. There’s something you should know.”
Nadine froze in mid-movement. She and Jasper exchanged a look. When anyone said something like that, it was bad. It’d been like that all their lives. It was how they found out their parents had died.
“Tiamat, are you there?”
“We’re here.”
Franc was silent for a moment. “Blunt is better. The lord and lady of the house don’t expect to make it out of their situation, and do not want anyone to risk themselves to rescue them. They are playing the hurt momma bird to protect the royal family. Do you understand?”
“No,” Nadine said. “No.” She looked at Jasper and shook her head. “We’re not just going to abandon them.”
“I don’t think we have a choice…” Jasper gave her a helpless gesture.
Franc repeated, “Tiamat, do you understand?”
Nadine got up and walked away from the radio, still shaking her head.
Jasper took her place and keyed the mic. “This is…” He paused, then shrugged. “This is Bahamut. We understand. We don’t like it, but we understand.”
“Bahamut…Bahamut…Ah, yes. Make sure Tiamat does what the lord and lady of the house says. If they get out, it’ll be on their own.”
“Acknowledged.” Jasper looked at Nadine. “You got anything else?”
She shook her head.
“That’s all for us. Over and out.”
“Fair winds and clear skies, you two. Over and out.”
Jasper peered at the shortwave rig. While he had the most rudimentary understanding of the machine, he wasn’t sure how to turn it off. After a moment of looking at each switch and toggle, he was fairly certain they weren’t broadcasting anything. Nadine could power down the machine—or whatever it was what she did with it.
“We can’t just let them die as prisoners,” Nadine said.
“We can’t just ignore what Lord Zachary told everyone.” Jasper looked at the clock. “We have to report in. You can bet they’ll be taking roll call today.”
“Jasper, we can’t let them die.”
He looked away as he stood. “We may not have a choice. Let them do what they need to do. I’m going to class. After I let people know what we just found out.” When Nadine didn’t respond, he brushed by her and opened the door.
Lyric waited there, leaned up against the opposite wall.
Jasper looked between the two girls before focusing on Lyric. “Make sure she gets to class, okay?”
Lyric nodded.
Jasper didn’t look back as he hurried out of the dormitory and headed directly to class. More simulator time. He hoped to see Delany there, but he hadn’t thought to see where everyone was assigned this morning. He’d only looked at his own name. Hopefully, there would be time enough to pass on Baron Vogel’s message before someone did something stupid.
At Straffin Hall, twelve upperclassmen MechWarrior cadets waited in the simulator bay. Delany wasn’t there, but Ethan was. He homed in on Jasper like a Streak missile. “Well, stray, what’s the word?”
Jasper glanced at him. “That the best you can do? Come on. Insult me some more. I’m sure that’ll make me want to tell you everything I know now.” He shrugged and waited.
“Geez, Roux. I was just joking. What happened? Someone kill your dog?”
Jasper stared at the taller cadet as the room went silent. “How is it a joke?”
“What?”
“How is calling me a stray a joke? Why is that funny?” Jasper tilted his head and crossed his arms. He didn’t raise his voice. At this point, he really wanted to know. “Is it actually funny? I don’t see anyone laughing. Not even you. I guess I’m just too feral to understand, and I need a Blooded cadet to explain it to me. So explain it, Goodryke.”
Ethan shifted, scowling and uncomfortable. “It just is.”
“Huh. Not to me. Don’t ever call me that again.” Jasper turned his back on the cadet and watched the door, waiting for the assigned professor to join them. He wished to high heaven Dame Emma would walk through that door and scold them for something. Anything.
“Roux, what did your sister say about the plans?”
Ethan stood behind him. Jasper hadn’t heard him coming. He turned, expecting a punch to the face, but got a concerned look instead. Ethan’s black eye was turning interesting shades of green and purple. Jasper considered not telling him anything, but he relented. “That Baron Vogel had something in the works, but the rest of us should continue to plan…but not to rescue him. He and the baroness expect to die as prisoners.”
The cadets within earshot reacted in varying shades of shock and dismay. Jasper didn’t feel a thing. Even with the blunt words out there on the floor, he was numb. Lord Zachary and Lady Shannon were going to die, and he couldn’t do a damn thing about it.
Dame Ivy walked in and the cadets moved into formation. “Lance One: Roux, Goodryke, Vasseur. Lance Two: Osborn, Dencort, Cole. Lance Three: Clements, Caron, Winter. Lance Four: Tourneir, Voigt, Smith. Lance commanders: Roux, Osborn, Clements, and Tourneir. First period: Lance One versus Lance Two while Three and Four take the written. Then reverse it after two hours. I don’t expect any battle to last a full hour. If it does, the defending team automatically wins. That extra hour will be for laps and clean up.”
“Shit,” Ethan muttered as he scowled at Jasper. “We’re going to lose today.”
Jasper couldn’t disagree.