Niko's frowned deepened as he struggled with his conflicting emotions. "I—
"
"She's going places you can't follow," FA Canlas said cutting him off. "You
know that just as much as she does."
Emotion threatened to swallow him. Was that the reason he couldn't tell her
he loved her? Because he knew their paths would diverge?
Instead of saying all the stupid things whirling around in his head, of them,
their future, which Malaki Canlas obviously knew, he noted the time and coughed.
"I really do need to get in there, get this done."
Malaki held her wrist out. "Here's my ID. Knock when you want to chat."
"I will," Niko put his wrist to hers and accepted the number, then he moved
to enter the officer's building.
"Niko," she called out before he could enter the building. He turned. "Just be
honest with yourself, and them."
"Thanks." Niko nodded, his mind racing now with the possibilities of what
could happen if he aligned himself with Malaki. He knew one thing for certain: it
would be a hell of a ride. With that, he turned and stepped inside the officers'
building, ready to face whatever lay ahead.
Ocean Oil Fields - Sector Two - Officers' Quarters - 135th year - January 17th
Niko straightened his uniform, standing as tall as he could. This was a whole
other reason for seeing the higher ups than it had been back in December.
This was on his terms. He'd scraped by the sheer ticking off he would have
had because he'd saved a life.
Chief Master Sergeant Drust had survived, and he'd gotten a huge pat on the
back for it, but it still came at a cost. He shouldn't have done field surgery. His
orders were to get him off the field and back to Rise as fast as possible. Field
surgery wasn't what he had been training for…. Yet…. He would do it again in a
heartbeat and they knew it.
This year would bring many changes for him. He'd already made some of the
biggest decisions of his life. The first one was requesting this meeting with Ocean
Fields CO.
"Come," the CO's voice said over comms.
Niko hesitated for just a moment, no… it was longer than a moment. "Come,"
the voice called once more.
Niko pushed his palm against the door, and it slid open with a hiss. He stepped
inside, noting Lieutenant Colonel O'Conner at his desk, though he didn't look up
just yet.
Niko moved to the front of his desk, standing at attention as he waited for
acknowledgment.
"You're one of our brightest students," Lieutenant Colonel O'Conner said,
making Niko's face redden fast. "What made your name cross my desk today of
all days?"
"Choices, Sir," Niko said and tried to hold himself steady, though he felt far
from it.
O'Conner moved from behind his desk and sat on the edge of it, his eyes drifting over the young man before him. "You'll be taking your second-level tests
and moving to third in the next few months. What choices are you meaning?"
"First Airman has been bumped," he said quietly. "I hear she's re-sitting the
whole year, Sir."
O'Conner crossed his arms. "You have information you shouldn't," he said.
"But that doesn't surprise me. Her lack of decorum this last month has spread
through the ranks of everyone on the base."
"She's not a bad person," Niko said, then reined himself back in fast. "Sir,
I'm sorry.
"Speak freely," O'Conner said.
"I want to re-sit," he said.
O'Conner swallowed. "You can't."
"I'm failing badly," Niko lied, and couldn't look him in the face this time.
O'Conner's hand flicked out, and he brought up a 3d image before them.
"You're not failing anything." He glanced over the reports quickly, "Not failing
at all." Even Niko could see from here that things for him were in the high
percentile for his classes.
"I want—I want to re-sit," he said.
"You want to stay with Canlas, you mean?"
"Yes, Sir."
O'Conner regarded him for a long moment, his expression unreadable.
"Why?"
Niko honestly didn't know the answer to that question. He'd spoken with
Lacy briefly about their future, they'd spent a few hit and miss weekends together,
but nothing more substantial. Him sitting the whole year again and her…. Well,
like Canlas had said, she was going in a whole other direction. He just didn't want
to accept all of it just yet. Just one more day together, one more moment…. One
more everything.
Niko's breathing quickened as he struggled to find the words he wanted.
"Because she makes me better," he blurted out. "She pushes me and challenges
me in ways I didn't know were possible, Sir." His palms sweated and his throat
tightened. As much as the fear of staying behind terrified him, and the thought of
losing Lacy, he wanted this. He'd spent a lot of time building up the courage to
be here, today, to say this.
"I looked over all her records, her past."
O'Conner raised an eyebrow. "How much so?"
"All of it," Niko admitted.
"Her family history?"
"Yes, Sir," he replied, and his face pinked. There were a lot of things in
Malaki's past people shouldn't know. Things he wished to some degree he now
didn't know. But he did.
"You hired someone to do that digging for you?"
Niko thought briefly back to the report on her accident, and the death of her
sister. The damage done to Malaki's body would have killed someone on the spot.
Not Malaki, she somehow survived, then with top tier surgery, she'd been gifted
the spine from her sister.
"No, Sir," Niko shook his head. "I am fully capable of hacking a few
systems.