Rhoe’s Request Read Free

“Captain?”
    He turned, and she looked up to see a male dark swan that was not from her settlement. “You are Cadet Rhoe?”
    She nodded.
    “I am Captain Hiiron. Come with me, I will show you your quarters and then help you find your way around the training centre.” He inclined his head slightly.
    “Thank you, Captain. Am I taking you away from anything important?”
    He blinked and shook his head. “No. I am on medical leave, light duties. This qualifies.”
    Rhoe tried to control her reaction, but she had never been this close to another dark swan that she wasn’t related to in some way. Her heart pounded, and she blinked furiously. “Well, thank you for being on duty today.”
    “It is no trouble. Come with me.” He nodded over her shoulder. “Colonel.”
    “Captain. Take care of her. I don’t want her lost.”
    “Yes, Colonel Whisk.” He nodded again and jerked his head at Rhoe. “Let’s go.”
    She followed him, her head high and her back straight. She gave the colonel a small wave and got down to business. It was time to learn the ins and outs of her new home.
    Two hours of touring, a visit to the quartermaster and registration later, Rhoe was sitting alone in the commissary and eating her first meal not prepared by hands that were related to her own.
    It wasn’t bad, but it was going down as just another thing she would have to endure to get to her dream of flight.
    “May I join you?” A male in a cadet uniform stood next to her table.
    “Please. I am Rhoe.”
    “Yillik. Are you here for flight school?”
    “I am.”
    “Me, too.” He grinned and settled across from her.
    She looked at his markers and was stunned to find that he was not indigenous to Athuuna or at least not the surface.
    “Is my blue showing?”
    His skin was chalk white and the marks on his features were deep blue. They formed a peak on his forehead that ran to either temple, curved down and pointed across his cheekbones before slicing downward to his jaw.
    “I have never been this far away from my home before. I am seeing all kinds of new races here.”
    “You are…dark swan, right? I am merkind. See? Gills.” He extended his neck and moved his jaw from side to side. The long lines were obvious to see.
    “If you are merkind, why would you want to fly?”
    “You are a dark swan, why would you want to fly? You should be able to already.”
    She sighed and pushed her tray to one side. “I am not a pure breed. I can’t shift.”
    Yillik bit his lips and fell all over himself apologizing for his gaffe.
    She waved it off but distracted herself by returning her tray to the drop point.
    By the time she was seated across from him, she was under control. They went to the neutral topic of training and their appointments with the simulator. Tomorrow, they would get a jumpstart on training.
     
    Left, right, left, left again, Rhoe leaned back and forth using every instinct she had to control the flight simulator. She watched the screens and worked the controls to keep herself stable. She heard the stats being reported outside and kept flying.
    When she whirled her ship around to face the incursion forces, she had to take on firing as well as flying. It was awkward, and the shock of weapons impact on her virtual hull spun her around. She fired whenever she had a solid lock, but eventually, her ship went nose first into the ground.
    Rhoe sat and caught her breath. She had failed. Miserable, she left the simulator and walked out onto the gantry. Instructors held clipboards and were making frantic notes as the last round of cadets waited to take their turn.
    “Cadet Rhoe, may I speak with you for a moment?”
    She blinked and nodded, following Captain Hiiron into a conference room where three other instructors were waiting. He rounded on her, “All right, where have you flown before?”
    Wide-eyed, she stared at them. “Nowhere. This simulator is as close as I have come. What did I do wrong?”
    The instructors looked at each