Ætherglow #146

“Good, my first semester of training went well and I aced my mid-term exam,” you say.

“Excellent. Just what I want to hear,” Yelena says.

“Great job, Aydan,” Ælita says.

They’re being a little too encouraging. You know better than to let your guard down now.

“Have you picked a specialty school yet?” Yelena says.

“No, we don’t until the start of second year,” you say. “I’m supposed to make up my mind during the next semester though, so they’ll have me take a wide variety of classes again.”

“Administration specialists make the best commanding officers,” Yelena says. “But I’ve also known great officers from the Systemization school.”

“Well they did say my AdminTech was pretty good... I don’t know yet, though, it’s a big decision, a very personal one...”

“I think you would make a great Administration specialist,” Ælita says.

“And I understand you’ll be starting your military training next semester too,” Yelena says.

“That’s right, with all the contract students,” you say.

“The academy has a great combat instructor. She was a Redshift contractor, I met her once,” Yelena says.

“Aydan will do great I’m sure,” Ælita says.

“You know, they don’t just teach us technopathy at the academy,” you say. “They teach us a lot about social engineering too. For instance, how to tell when someone’s words carry more intent than they seem to on the surface. So, all this praise and support, what’s the other side of it?”

Your moms look to each other. “Our Aydan is a smart one,” Ælita says.

“There’s going to be an expo tomorrow,” Yelena says. “All the Spaceside security firms will be there, and a lot of important investors. We’d like you to be a part of it. The future of Redshift in the flesh. Maybe give a little demonstration of your progress.”

“We’ve really been pushing the skill of our technopaths as our greatest selling point,” Ælita says. “We want you to be the centerpiece of that promotion tomorrow.”

You know they can contractually press you into service to make you do it. They would only go about it in this manipulative way to make it seem like your idea. It’s nothing new with them. They just don’t want to deal with you being annoyed about it.