Praesidium V

Previously

Aiden and his followers sprinted out first. James hurried out after, not wanting to face his man’s glare alone. He hurried back into their room and to his bed. He ignored the grins from Aiden and his followers, the disgusted looks on the girl’s face and the sympathetic looks from the other three boys.

James tucked himself into bed, turned onto his side so he was facing the wall and closed his eyes, willing sleep to take him away.

The next morning came quick and fast. James woke to a loud alarm ringing through the bunks. It rang one, twice, three times before falling silent. James groaned quietly. He felt like he had barely had any sleep. His limbs felt heavy and tired from all of the tugging and pulling when he was trying to escape. The dream that Aiden and his friends had woken him from was also still lingering in his mind.

James sat up in his bed with another reluctant groan. He saw that everyone around him was quickly preparing for the day. Considering that they had experience with the morning routine and James didn’t, James thought that it would be wise to copy so he quickly got out of bed and changed. Access to the bathroom to wash in preparation for the morning was done in a similar fashion to the showers. Girls first, boys in line after.

They walked together, in their seniority line, to the dining hall for breakfast. Breakfast wasn’t as nice smelling.

'It’s the same every morning. Porridge.' Ellias whispered as James caught sight of the gloopy creamy slop that was being ladled into their bowls.

As James and Ellias took their seats at the red table, James scooped up a spoonful of the porridge and eyed it distrustfully. The others were eating so James took a deep breath and took his first bite of the porridge. It was as gloopy and lumpy as it looked but the taste wasn’t too bad. It had a tangy taste. He chewed needlessly while he tried to work out what it tastes like.

‘Blueberry’ a young female voice commented from beside him.

James glanced over to see Allison looking up at him from the seat beside him. He didn’t remember her taking a seat there. She was usually sat opposite her sister on the other side of Spencer.

While he hadn’t noticed her moving, he did notice the glares that were being sent towards him by Aiden and his friends. Even though it had not been James’ fault that they had been caught dunking his head in the toilet last night, he realized that they were going to blame him anyway. After all, how dare he not just lie back and let them dunk his head!

‘It’s blueberry porridge. It’s my second favorite. Sometimes they do my favorite, Strawberry, but that’s rarer.’ Allison explained. ‘Strawberries are harder to grow.’

‘I’ve never had either before. Blueberry is okay.’ James replied, not entirely sure what to say and why she was talking to him in the first place.

Allison handed over a small sheet of paper. ‘Commander Dextera asked me to pass this onto you.’

As soon as he had taken the paper, Allison left, slipping back into her spot opposite her sister. James glanced down at the paper that Allison had given him. The paper had boxes printed on it and each box had some form of text in it. Helpful! James sarcastically thought. He couldn’t read so how was he meant to know what this said.

‘It’s your timetable.’ Ellias explained. ‘It’s the first thing we learnt to read. Do you want me to read it to you?’

James nodded and handed over the piece of paper. Ellias read it out, pointing to each square as he read it, helping James picture the table and what it says. There were seven days in the week. Apparently that was something that had remained from the ‘good old days’. Each day had two sessions. A morning session and an afternoon session. Both sessions were four hours long. Physical exercise featured in the timetable heavily but James supposed that being physically fit was an important part of survival.

The other sessions were all about survival: navigation, First Aid, hand to hand combat, strategy and Drivers Ed. Well, all sessions except from one. Reading and Writing. He would have his first reading and writing lesson that afternoon. Apparently it was Sunday. Physical fitness in the morning and Reading and Writing in the afternoon. Sounds like a thrilling day!

Physical Fitness quickly became James’ least favorite session and it had only been one day. When the red squadron had walked to the race track, James was excited. He would consider himself rather fit, so surely he would be okay in this session. If he could do well, then he could avoid any further problems from Aiden, hopefully.

He was even more hopeful when the man that had saved him the evening before turned out to be their Physical Fitness ‘coach’.

‘Commander Morne’ Ellias whispered the Commander’s name. ‘Don’t get on his bad side. He’ll have you running suicide laps for the rest of the week.’

James would have pointed out that according to their seven day timetable, it was already the end of the week, so it wouldn’t be very long but as James observed the Commander as he approached and remembered his grumpy expression from the night before, James considered that the Commander might not care. He would have them doing suicide runs, whatever they are, for the remainder of this week and then the whole of the next.

‘ATTENTION’ Commander Mourne yelled as he approached the line.

Everyone stood to attention in the line. Commander Mourne walked up and down the line, scrutinizing them.

‘Today is about stamina. Stamina is extremely important for survival. Exhaustion is a weakness and WEAKNESS IS NOT ALLOWED! If you can not keep moving, you WILL DIE! If you can not run, you WILL DIE! If you can not think, you WILL DIE!’ Commander Mourne, half spoke and half shouted as he walked up and down the line.

Commander Mourne paused in front of James and James could see in his eyes that all Commander Mourne was seeing was the boy that had his head stuff down the toilet. Would Commander Mourne consider him weak for not being able to fight off four older boys? James couldn’t deny that that thought and the intense scrutiny that Commander Mourne was putting him under made him nervous. He was soon given the answer.

Commander Mourne seemed to see something that he didn’t like as he sneered down at James. ‘Five laps. Everyone.’

Nobody dared groan but James could feel a few glares in his direction, like he was the one that caused them to have laps. He didn’t, did he? All he did was… well, he didn’t know what he did. He had stood the same way as the others. He didn’t glare or frown or react in any way. Sure, he had been nervous but he fought hard with his muscles to not let that show.

The squad began running. Five laps of the track, or five laps of the Praesidium grounds, depending on how you saw it. They ran passed all of the buildings on Praesidium grounds: the bear marked front, the barracks, the training building, the Commander’s block. James could see the building that Commander Dextera had not introduced him to during the tour. It was actually a collection of three buildings. One large one, right on the fence and two smaller on either side.

As James completed the first lap, he noticed that Commander Mourne wasn’t even watching them run. He was sitting on a chair by the beginning and end and his nose was buried in some plastic screen. He hadn’t glanced up once in the entire time that they had been running. James obviously wasn’t the only one to notice. Aiden and Scott had been expecting it. James wasn’t sure at what point they left the rest of the group but one minutes they were running alongside them and the next, they weren’t. James rounded the bend to the final stretch. He could just about see an Aiden shaped figure and a Scott shaped figure dashing into the Commander’s barracks.

James heard Jennifer mutter ‘Not again’ under her breath.

By the end of the second lap, the squadron was starting to spread out based on physical fitness. James was leading the pack. He may have spent a majority of his days scavenging but scavenging involved a lot of physical activity and he and Isaac had run from the beasts plenty of times in the past. This run was nothing compared to sprinting for your life. Aiden’s friends, Thomas and Dylan were the closest to James, running just a meter behind him. Allison, Jennifer, Aaron, Ellias were pretty evenly matched and ran mostly together as a group but Spencer lagged behind.

By the fifth and final lap, the gaps were bigger. The group of Allison, Jennifer, Aaron and Ellias had spread out with Allison and Aaron falling behind. James was now quarter of a lap ahead of Thomas and Dylan. He was in the lead. At least, he was.

Aiden and Scott reappeared as James passed the Commanders barracks. Aiden and Scott placed themselves at the front of the group and with completely fresh legs put themselves way ahead of everybody else, including James. As they approached the final half of the track, James put everything he had left into his speed. However, Aiden spotted his sprint and started sprinting as well. James didn’t stand a chance after doing four more laps than Aiden had. Aiden passed Commander Mourne first and came to a stop. James lined up equal to Scott as they too passed Commander Mourne.

As they caught their breath and waited for the others to finish, James couldn’t help but wonder what Aiden and Scott had been doing in the Commander’s barracks. They didn’t appear to have stolen anything. The clothes that they all wore didn’t leave much space to hide anything. Perhaps they could have stolen something smaller but James didn’t know what that could be and what they gained from it.

Spencer was the last to finish and he was gasping dramatically as he came to join the rest of the group.

‘NOT GOOD ENOUGH! FIVE MORE’ Commander Mourne yelled.

James wasn’t the only one that silently groaned and looked to the Commander in disbelief. James, Scott and Aiden had a slight advantage as they had managed to get a good break while they waited for the others but poor Spencer had barely caught his breath from the first five laps. Well, Scott and Aiden didn’t really run in the first place so they had little to complain about.

Aiden and Scott didn’t dare pull the same trick twice. They would have to run this time. Aiden put himself in front with his less worn legs. Scott was close behind with James close on his heels. The three of them remained in that order for the rest of the five laps. Maybe, James had to admit that Scott was perhaps a few inches ahead but he hadn’t already ran five laps.

As the five laps came to a close, James was edging slightly ahead of Scott. His physical prowess beating Scott’s. Not that that mattered to Commander Mourne. The three of them crossed the ‘finishing’ line and came to a breathless stop in front of Commander Mourne.

‘FRONT RUNNERS GO! AIDEN! SCOTT! YOU ARE FREE TO GO!’ Commander Mourne yelled. ‘REST OF YOU, ANOTHER LAP’

Aiden and Scott grinned. James glared. I was ahead of Scott! I should be going!

‘ARE YOU QUESTIONING ME BOGHEAD?’ Commander Morne yelled, directly towards him and suddenly James realized that he had said that out loud. He could feel the glare from Commander Morne and the scornful looks from Aiden and Scott.

‘WELL?’

‘No, sir.’

‘TWO LAPS FOR YOU BOGHEAD.’

James scowled and continued running. He could hear the others behind him, continuing onto their extra lap. As he came to the middle of his second lap, the others began finishing their extra lap.

‘FRONT RUNNERS GO! THOMA! DYLAN! YOU ARE FREE TO GO. THE REST OF YOU, KEEP RUNNING!’

Ridiculous! This is ridiculous! Why do they get to go and I have to keep running. I was ahead. The thoughts - definitely thoughts this time - lingered in James’ head. They fueled his running. They kept his legs pumping, regardless of how tired they were beginning to feel.

‘JENNIFER! ELLIAS! GO’

Another lap.

‘ALLISON! AARON! GO’

It was just Spencer and James left. James had already lapped Spencer, poor Spencer. He was clearly starting to struggle but there was no doubt now. James was leading. He could go next. As he reached Commander Mourne again, he slowed to a stop, breathing heavily. He was so exhausted that he didn’t even notice Commander Mourne approach him until he was standing directly to his side, leaning down to yell directly into James’ ear.

‘DID I SAY YOU COULD STOP?’

James jumped from the noise and looked up to him in a mixture of disbelief and anger. He huffed angrily, picking himself up and starting to run again. As James reached the halfway point around the track he grew even angrier when he heard Commander Mourne let Spencer go. James didn’t dare slow down again when he reached Commander Mourne at the end of the lap. He could almost see the words coming out of his mouth before he heard them.

‘ANOTHER!’

Another lap. And Another. And Another.

James was exhausted. He had good stamina but this was ridiculous. He was barely running now but his heart was still beating uncontrollably out of his chest from the exercise. Just as James thought he was going to collapse from a heart attack Commander Mourne finally said the words that James was waiting for.

‘BOGHEAD, YOU CAN GO.’

Commander Mourne didn’t linger to see if James could actually manage the walk back to the dorms. He left. James, whose strength had left him, was nothing more than a puddle of skin and bones on the floor. At least that was what it felt like to him. He just lay on the ground, looking up at the morning midday sky, breathing heavily. James wondered if he could even make it to the squadron bunks, let alone make it to the rest of the day’s activities.

James wasn’t sure when Ellias arrived, but he helped James up to his feet and directed him back to the squadron dorm.

‘You just have enough time for a shower before lunch. You won’t be allowed in without a shower’ Ellias warned him, gently pushing him towards one of the shower cubicles.

James had never felt as relieved as he did when he sat down at the dining table with lunch in his hand. Ellias told him that they were sandwiches. Gammon sandwiches. James didn’t care much at this point about what he was eating, just that he was eating and sitting.

‘He really drove you hard’ Ellias commented on the training session.

‘Yeah. I wonder what I did to get him that mad at me.’ James pondered.

Ellias huffed a laugh, ‘Didn’t you hear him? He called you Boghead. He was the one from last night, right?’

James nodded.

‘That’s why. He hates weakness. You show it in front of him and he’ll hate you for the rest of your time here.’ Ellias told him.

James groaned, ‘And he has to be our physical fitness commander? I’m screwed.’

‘Just a little. How did you get so good at running?’

‘Well, my brother and I had to run away from the beasts a lot. Didn’t you?’ James questioned.

Ellias shrugged on shoulder. ‘Not really. My Mom and I lived pretty far away from beast turf. I can remember the first time we met one though. It was big. Mom said that she’d never seen one so big. It was red too. The second one was smaller but…’

Ellias’ voice trailed off. Part of James wanted to ask, but the other half, the more sensible half, told him not to. James couldn’t help but be painfully aware that Ellias’ mother was not around just as Isaac wasn’t around. Ellias had said that he joined a week ago. Could his mother have been the catalyst that sent Ellias to Praesidium just Isaac was James’?

X - X

Reading and writing was just as one would expect. James, Ellias, Allison, Aaron and Spencer were all placed in a classroom with a ‘teacher’. Ellias said that it was Commander Marcus, but nobody ever called her that. She was always Mrs Marcus, the English and Math teacher. She was ancient in comparison to the others on site. She was easily the oldest person on the campus. Her hair was thin, grey and wispy. It was cut short and the back stuck up at odd angles. She spoke slowly and quietly so everybody had to strain themselves to hear her. She spoke so slowly that by the time she had reached the end of the sentence, you had forgotten the beginning.

Ellias had been correct on one thing. The first thing that James was taught was how to read his timetable. Reading the time came next. On both a circular face clock and a digital twenty-four hour clock. Then his name and the name of his squadron mates. It was only after all of that, that he could sit with the others and learn the written alphabet and all of the other words that came with it.

Writing was another matter. Pen’s were weird. Writing was weird. James’ writing was nothing more than chicken scratch, especially compared to Mrs Marcus’ neat cursive. It was small, messy and shaky. James would have thought that a baby had written it. But somehow it was good enough for Mrs Marcus’ standards.

‘As long as you can understand it dear.’ The old woman had said to him.

They had Commander Mourne again for hand to hand combat training. And yet again, Commander Mourne showed his absolute distaste for James. James was aching from his toes to the top of his head by the end of the session thanks to the many times Commander Mourne had thrown him to the ground. Especially, his head which hurt from the one time it cracked against the solid hard ground when Commander Mourne threw him down at the very edge of the mat.

They had Commander Dextera for a few of the sessions. Apparently that was new as the others in the squadron members were surprised when he turned up. They had him for both Strategy and Navigation. James struggled in strategy. It never really fit with his way of working. He didn’t make plans. That was Isaac’s job. James made it up as he went. Navigation, however, was better thanks to the lessons he had received from Noah on the way to Praesidium.

Navigation lessons always left him rather subdued. He wondered if it would always remind him of Nixie and Noah and mysteriousness behind what happened to them. He wondered if they were okay and hoped that he would one day see them in the halls of Praesidium. He would like to see them. He would like to reunite with them. Even if they didn’t stay at Praesidium, he would just like to know what happened to them, or at the very least, have his treasured picture returned to him.

Though, he would prefer that they came and stayed.

They would be safer here.

James’ favourite lesson was definitely Navigation. James and Ellias always paired up. Commander Dextera would give the pairs a map. He would also give each pair a starting point and an ending point. The task for them was then to navigate their way through from the starting point to the ending point as quickly as they could. Throughout the task Commander Dextera would call out obstacles in their path, prompting them to have to analyse the map for their next best route.

The sessions were always stimulating and exciting. It helped that James was easily the best navigator in the squadron, though Aiden would never admit it.

As the week had progressed, James quickly came to terms with the fact that he and Aiden would never be best friends. Actually, never be friends at all would be a better description. They would continue to exist in a mutual disliking for one another.

Another thing that James had noticed as the week went on was that he was struggling to sleep. Despite their initial hazing being at night, Aiden and his friends had left James alone after lights out, but that didn’t prevent James from keeping one eye open until he knew for sure that Aiden and his friends were all fast asleep.

Then, when he does close his eyes, he is transported back to that horrific nightmare. Beasts surrounded him. Their familiar eyes haunted him. Everybody that he knew had taken their turn as the eyes of a beast. Ellias. Nixie. Aiden. Isaac. Even Commander Mourne.

James would then look down and see that they were not alone in becoming a beast. He was too. His paws were large and his claws sharp. He stood lower than his usual height but he towered above the others.

Sometimes Commander Dextera appeared, just like that first night. He would be larger than he usually was. He stood amongst the beasts, leaning dramatically over James, glaring down at him. 'You failed.' The Commander leaned further into him. 'Failed'

Other times, the Isaac beast would change back into Isaac. He would be lying on the ground, one blood covered hand placed on his neck. His eyes would be accusing as he glared up at James. ‘You did this! You did this’

No matter which appeared, James would shake his head in denial. No! He didn’t fail. He didn’t do it. No. He would retreat away as far as his dream would allow. No. No.

Then, he would-

‘WAKE UP’

Allison had screamed in his ear, prompting him to yell and scramble up and out of bed in alarm. Allison laughed and joined her sister on the girls side of the room. James, however, had placed a hand over his heart as he waited for it to stop beating out of his chest.

Allison was slowly becoming a friend of James and Ellias. When Jennifer had started hovering towards Aiden over the last week, Allison had started hovering towards James. It was strange and amusing watching Aiden and Jennifer together. Most of the time they seemed to hate each other but then there would be a moment when they seemed to share genuine affection. Only a small moment, mind you. But it was enough.

Allison had started eating beside James and Ellias regardless of the supposed order on the table. The first time she had done it, it had looked like Aiden would argue with all three of them, but Jennifer had caught his attention and distracted him away from them. James could only assume that Jennifer had sweet-talked him into letting her sister break the rules as he didn’t even glance over to them for the rest of the week.

So it wasn’t surprising when, at dinner time, James took his normal seat with Ellias opposite and Allison sat next to him. The food today was strange and James couldn’t help but stare at it curiously. It looked like pasta, but both the pasta and the sauce were blue. James poked one of the pasta pieces and lifted it to have a closer look.

‘What is this?’ James questioned.

‘You’ve had pasta before.’ Allison replied with a smile.

James nodded, ‘Yeah, but not blue’

‘Oh, it’s a graduation meal’ Ellias explained. ‘When a squadron graduates they have a graduation meal. The food is always the colour of the squadron on that day.’

‘Have you never seen a graduating squadron?’ Allison asked. ‘There’s been two since Jenny and I got here.’

James shook his head. He hadn’t seen a graduating squadron yet. Ellias nodded his head but then paused and corrected himself, ‘I kind of saw one. On my first day here, it was the red squadron graduation. You know, the one before us. I wonder who is going to get pulled into the new blue squadron.’

‘What do you mean?’James asked.

‘Well, different people are at different levels in the squadrons. People learn quicker and such. When one squadron graduates they create a new squadron. They’ll take an experienced person to lead it, and then fill the squadron with people who don’t fit in where they are. I was in the yellow squadron when I first arrived, but Jenny and I were moved to Green so the rest of Yellow could graduate and then moved to Red when Red was created because Green were getting close to graduating too.’ Allison replied.

‘Yeah, each squadron has a score and each squadron member has a score. They calculate the squadron member’s score by averaging the scores given in all of the training sessions. When over half of the team have a certain score, then the team score goes up. So, right now, red is on six. That means over half of us have an average score of six or above. A squadron graduates when they get to ten.’ Ellias continued.

‘Anyone who has eight or below is moved to another squadron to build up their own score and sometimes a high scoring member of another squadron is moved in to take their place.’ Allison finished.

‘That’s confusing’ James commented.

Ellias nodded and then shrugged, ‘Yeah, but it makes sense to them. I think it’s also so they always have ten training squadrons. They don’t exactly have a consistent and steady stream of new blood to fill the spaces of those that have graduated.’

James looked over to the blue squadron who were excitedly chatting as they ate, except for two people. They looked to be the youngest. James wondered if these two were graduating with the others. They didn’t look particularly happy. One looked over as James was observing them and he and James made eye contact.

His eyes didn’t scream excitement for graduation or sadness for not graduating with his peers. No. They screamed fear and panic. They were screaming for help. But why? James frowned. He supposed that going out into the world, without the shelter of the training center could be scary, but Praesidium had trained them. If they had received the same training that James and his squadron were receiving, he didn’t understand what the problem was. Yes, it might be a bit scary but so was growing up. So was leaving the only home that James had ever known but he’d held his chin up high and marched on.

‘Oi! Boghead!’ It hadn’t taken long for Aiden to pick up Commander Mourne’s favorite name for James. He had obviously noticed where James had been looking as he had stood and moved behind him. ‘Don’t think that that will be you anytime soon. I heard that you have the first minus score ever given. You’re a disgrace.’

James knew that wasn’t true. He knew that he didn’t have a high and nearly graduating score, but he definitely didn’t have a negative score. James picked at his blue pasta. He could ignore that taunt with the knowledge that it wasn’t true.

‘You’re pathetic. No wonder your brother died. He was probably trying to get away from you’ Aiden commented with a laugh. His ‘followers’ laughed too.

James couldn’t ignore that. He didn’t even stop to wonder how Aiden knew about Isaac. James certainly hadn’t told anyone. It didn’t matter though. Aiden had no right to say that. He didn’t know Isaac; he doesn’t really know James and he certainly didn’t know what had happened. James sprung round, one hand already curled into a fist and swinging to meet Aiden’s jaw.

Aiden staggered back a few steps from the punch, before he glared heavily at James. He waved away his ‘followers’ from joining him and stepped up nose to nose with James.

‘You better apologize for that, bogboy.’

‘No.’

James’ voice certainly sounded stronger than he felt. He was a bubbling mixture of worry and anger. It was his anger that fueled him and it was also the part of him that he was listening to. However, even he knew that Aiden was big and strong and a very competent fighter hand to hand. That little bit of worry was his reason and the only reason that he didn’t immediately throw a second punch. He did however dodge a punch thrown by Aiden. He backed away, putting more space between them.

Both Ellias and Allison were now on their feet too. The whole of their squadron was, and the other tables had all turned to watch them. Some had stood up to get a better view. Ellias stood hesitantly, unsure of what to do, but Allison turned and fled from the room.

James threw another punch that Aiden dogged. In return, Aiden used the opening to punch James in the stomach, winding him. James staggered back, one hand going to his stomach as he gasped in much needed air. He failed to dodge the next punch that hit on his jaw. There was a loud ‘Oooh’ from the surrounding squadrons. James staggered back further and Aiden pursued him.

James blocked Aiden’s punch with his left arm and dodged the next by ducking down and to the left. He then dodged to the right. As Aiden threw his punch, James saw his opening and he took it. His fist connected forcefully with the right side of Aiden’s face. Aiden’s head snapped to the left. There was another round of ‘Oooh’ from the surrounding squadrons. He then aimed for Aiden’s stomach, returning the earlier favor. Before Aiden could recover, James swung his right leg out, connecting with the back of Aiden’s left leg. Aiden’s left leg buckled, throwing off Aiden’s balance and leaving his face undefended. James punched him in the face again, and again, and again. A final punch knocked Aiden down to the ground. ‘Oooh’. There was a mix of Oooh’s, cheers and jeers.

A loud whistle rang out and everybody fell silent.

James and everyone else in the room looked over to see that Commander Dextera was standing at the cafeteria door. The other squadrons quickly took their seats and turned their attention back to their food, pretending that they hadn’t been fully invested in - and cheering on - the fight.

Commander Dextera looked directly at James and James couldn’t help but gulp nervously as he realized how this looked for him. He was stood above Aiden, his squadron leader. James was sure that Commander Dextera would have seen the final punch if not a few before that as well. Would Commander Dextera kick him out? Would he ask him to leave? James bit into the side of his cheek nervously.

‘With me’ Commander Dextera simply said to James. He didn’t shout it. He didn’t need to. Everybody, especially James, was hyper aware of him. He could have whispered it and everybody in the cafeteria would have heard and understood.

Commander Dextera turned and began to march away. James quickly scurried after him, with a single last glance at Ellias and Allison. When did Allison return?

X - X

Commander Dextera's office was in the Commander’s block. It was a large office. It had a desk that had a comfortable chair either side. The desk was pretty standard with paper, tablets and boxes of pens stacked up. There was a single mug on the desk. There was also a two seater couch either side of a knee high coffee table. On the coffee table was a single plant.

Commander Dextera moved to one of the two seater couches. He waved to the other one. ‘Take a seat James.’

James nervously took the other seat. He sat right on the edge, his muscles sprung ready to rush out, though he knew that that wouldn’t be a good idea.

‘Do you know why I have asked you to come here?’ Commander Dextera asked as soon as they were both settled, or as settled as James was going to be.

James nodded, ‘I was fighting with Aiden’

Commander Dextera nodded. ‘Yes. We do not allow fighting within the squadrons outside of combat training. You will not succeed out there in a squadron when there is division in the ranks. I need to know if this is going to be a problem with you?’

James shook his head fiercely. ‘No, sir’

‘Explain what happened today between you and Aiden’

James hesitated. Not because he was in the wrong with Aiden but because he wasn’t sure how ‘snitching’ was seen here. Was it classed as a weakness? Was this a test of loyalty to the squadron? On the other hand, if he didn’t tell the truth then was that disobeying an order? Commander Dextera had asked him a question.

‘We have a difference of opinion.’ James replied simply. He was just going to leave it there but the look that Commander Dextera gave him told him that it wasn’t an acceptable answer. ‘We got off on the wrong foot and he likes to, eh, put me down, just a bit. He was just saying some things about me and I got mad.’

Commander Dextera nodded, ‘You shouldn’t let him rile you up’

‘I know. He just knows all of the right buttons to press.’

Commander Dextera remained quiet for a while as he observed James. He leant forward so his elbows were leaning against his knees. He looked like he was about to share the secret of the universe with James.

‘Do you know what is said the most in your file?’

James shook his head.

‘Your rash; quick to anger; careless. I’ve noticed the same.’ Commander Dextera told him. ‘You showed the same things in this situation. Quick to anger: you let Aiden rile you up. Rash and careless: you allowed Aiden to bait you into a fight in the cafeteria.’ Commander Dextera leaned back against the chair, ‘Question is, what are we going to do about it?’

James didn’t answer.

‘When Aiden comes to you for a fight, ignore him. If that doesn’t work, I want you to walk away. If needs be, you can walk here. I doubt he would follow you here. Do you understand?’

James nodded, ‘Yes, sir.’

‘I also want you to work on your temper. If your temper starts rising I want you to count to ten. I want you to do the same with strategy. When you come across a problem, I want you to pause and count to ten’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘Count with me now. One.’

‘One’

‘Two’,’Two’

‘Three’. Their voices echoed together.

Commander Dextera and James counted together until they reached ‘Ten’. James had to admit that he was calmer. The anger that was still left over from his fight with Aiden had gone. He was less tense than when he walked in the room.

‘It works. I want you to try it in future.’ Commander Dextera told him. ‘Your a good kid and you are doing well. You have a lot of potential, James, and I want to see you reach it.’

There was a pause.

‘Perhaps, red squadron isn’t a suitable fit for you. We’ll see. You might find that Aiden will leave you alone now.’ Commander Dextera commented, his face contemplative as he observed James. ‘You should get back to dorms. Your friends will be worried, I am sure.’

James nodded. ‘Thank you Commander.’

He wasn’t sure what he was thanking him for. His help and assistance? His advice? His compliments? Or for simply not kicking him out?

To be continued...

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Praesidium VI: Follow the Leader