Rigel Rising

Stage 11- Duality

"But to see someone as young as you captaining this ship at such a young age and even managing not just getting it out in one piece in that burning colony but also decimating an entire armada is very curious indeed, to say the least, Captain Caerus."

Looks like it is my turn to talk. I have seemed to have exhausted his bravado and hot air, for now, so the admiral turned his attention to me as we look onto the black prototype ship being loaded with additional auxiliary supplies and parts.

"You think so, Rear Admiral?" I asked coyly, and he grinned mischievously in my direction.

"I don't think, I know, youngling. Let me tell you a little classified secret, the Nebula-Class carriers are accidental byproducts of the prototype ship you were commanding. Rigel is supposed to be the first of its class in a line of next-generation battle carriers, not a prototype as they wanted everyone to know. But near the end of its completion, they found out that its systems, weaponry, and overall capabilities are too much for a normal captain to handle. Even the most seasoned, experienced, and veteran captains such as the one who was supposed to bring it here complained that it is too much for him to handle other than do basic things."

I understand what he said, but for the sake of drawing out our conversation, I acted dumb, "With excellent bridge members, I must say anything is possible."

"Hmph, bridge crews, no matter how skilled they are, can only bring you so far. With only five, there's only so much they can do other than handle your periphery," he then gazed upon the gleaming black tungsten armor of the Rigel, "Yet still, you managed to haul it all the way here, mostly intact without a single casualty. As a seasoned veteran myself, I must admit, that is something else for a barely legal captain without any combat experience, much less forced into the position abruptly."

"It helped that I graduated from the Royal Space Academy, Rear Admiral," I answered quickly as this conversation of ours is slowly inching towards my Irradiated status, "If I am, to be honest, I have the privilege and honor to learn from the top four of our graduating class. The captains of the Nebula-Class carriers."

The annoying man suddenly chuckled and shook his head, "Too bad their accolades are their undoing. Another woeful miscalculation by the higher-ups. Putting greenhorns on the captain's seat, much less our newly constructed ones, is a big mistake, and it showed. We lost all our new carriers in one fell swoop."

"Well, it's not their fault that an entire fleet of the armada, no less than the First Fleet of the empire, appeared suddenly and attacked without provocation," I said quietly as I try to control my emotions of anger and indignity as this fool is ridiculing my fallen friends right in front of me, "If you were in that position, even with a cutting edge ship, there's nothing much you can do in the face of a swarm."

But he looked at me directly, and I know that after our very long talk, we are arriving at the main point of this useless conversation, "But you managed to survive in front of that swarm. Not just survived, you wiped them all out. We detected a massive wave of energy coming from the Regina Colony last week, which destroyed most of our sensors. After that, a series of massive explosions shined like a thousand stars flickering through the blackness of space for a few seconds."

"It is the Rigel that did it, not me, sir," I answered pointedly, "The Panthera Gravity Cannon is something we stumbled upon in desperation, and out of sheer, dumb luck, we managed to fire it once before damaging our hull to the point that we are almost destroyed ourselves. As your engineers and scientists have seen and studied, the heat sinks are thoroughly melted, the circuitries are fried to ashes, and the gun barrel itself is as good as useless. Even if we want to, we don't have the means to use it again."

"I have to agree. The kingdom idiotically destroyed all the files and blueprints of the Rigel, deeming it a weapon and ship that shouldn't have been built in the first place. But I know a country that can fix and make much better use of it..."

I blinked at him, and then it dawned on me.

Of course, it all makes sense now.

The delayed response, why this base is still intact, and the treasonous attitude of the Rear Admiral towards our nation.

"Caerus Aeter, for illegally taking command of a Royal ship without proper clearance and approval from the Royal Space Command, you are hereby under arrest," he said severely, and the two guards following us immediately manhandled me.

I pretended to act surprised and tried to resist, "Wait, there's got to be a mistake. I only acted based on what is for the best of the kingdom. You can't just arrest me without bringing me to the court-martial!"

"In this base, I am the court-martial, in of itself, youngling. Now, if your crew plays nice, they won't suffer the same fate as you do. If you resist, they will accompany you in the prison cells."

I immediately stopped resisting and let the guards take me away as the duplicitous Rear Admiral gaze upon the Rigel again with a burning hunger in his eyes.

He wants it for himself.

-0-

"No one knows the answer?"

I raised my right hand and waved it in our Military Science instructor's direction to try and get his attention.

The severe old man obviously noticed me but, as usual, decided to ignore even my presence.

I usually don't even bother participating in discussions and lectures if I can help it. Gone were my freshman days where I really, really tried to excel at every subject that I need to study.

So much that I understandably incur the annoyance of my classmates and teachers alike. 

But can you blame me for wanting to get the highest grades as much as possible?

I am only accepted here at the Royal Space Academy because my benefactor, His Majesty the King himself, sponsored or, rather, shoehorned me at the throat of this school.

In terms of grades, I have no problems there. I grade skipped several times, so much I graduated very early from primary and middle school when I should have been just starting my studies at the secondary level rather than tertiary.

The real problem is my complete lack of physical aptitude for formal admission.

I failed miserably even the most basic of the practical physical evaluation test during the entrance examinations.

Not to mention my age.

I am almost three years shy of the minimum age requirement. If not for the Royal Household stepping in, they would have kicked me out by the entrance.

This fact is very much known amongst other students and faculty members, minus the minor detail about the king.

They made it look like I am a prodigy and was an exception to the rule. It will be a waste of talent and time if I am forced to wait for years before my acceptance here should the "passion for the military" faded away by then.

For almost the whole time of my first year here, I tried to prove that I am worthy enough to be here, even at least academically.

Though understandably, I am seen as an upstart, good for nothing know all.

Maybe because I am blinded by my immaturity and eagerness to prove myself, I was unaware that I am already being seen as a joke, an annoying outcast even by my classmates and homeroom instructor that they are forced to live with.

It wasn't until the start of the second year that I was called by the guidance counselor, not because I did something terrible nor he is required to do so, but it's out of pity that made it even more painful for me.

In his office, he told me the truth that I failed to see around me. 

No one likes me. Almost everyone is annoyed by my seemingly unquenchable thirst to be on the top, which I did because I quickly left to dust my second on the academic ranking of our batch by the end of the last school year, which made everything even worst.

So high were my grades. Even my mediocre scores in physical education were pulled up by my stellar performance on other subjects, which resulted in even more friction between me and those around me.

The kind guidance counselor noticed that I am woefully unaware of what is happening around me and decided to try and warn me about it.

He said that I have three choices moving forward. First, keep doing what I am doing and be kicked out soon enough. Second, try and talk to my classmates and instructors about what's best to do, or third, fade into obscurity.

Getting kicked out is the worst-case scenario for me, so that's out of the choices. Meanwhile, talking to my classmates and instructors about my behavior will not amount to anything in the end.

I know that you can never change how others perceive you, but you can definitely change yourself.

And so I did.

On my own volition, I started gradually to fade into total and absolute obscurity. Little by little, I scaled back my enthusiasm for learning and rein in my thirst for acceptance and accolades until I am firmly in the middle of everyone else in terms of grades.

Not too high to attract any attention, not too low to fail, and it did wonders with my social status with my classmates.

Instead of being annoyed and hating me all the time. They just flat out forget about me and, most times, pretend I didn't even exist at all, which is a lot better.

But I sure wish our instructor now will stop ignoring me. I only raise my hand if absolutely no one can answer the question for some points in recitation.

I am not confident with my grades in Military Science so far-seeing that this guy seemingly hates me even more than his other workmates, so a bit of boost in the recitation points will help a lot.

"I am really disappointed that you all failed to answer the question. So much that I am forced to pick Mr Finis here to do it for you," he said coldly to our class before continuing and finally looking in my direction, "Aren't you all ashamed that I have to resort to picking him just to save your sorry asses for the education inquisitor review? No matter, just give the answer, boy, and be done with it."

I quickly stood up and recited in detail the key point summary of the stratagem method he is asking about. It is actually written a few chapters in advance of our current lesson module, which I read a few days ago before going to bed out of boredom.

After I did, he just raised an eyebrow as I sit down, "What, are you expecting praise for doing what is expected of you? If you didn't study way more than your schoolmates here, then you don't deserve to study with them. Insufferable grade skipper," he said scathingly that made my classmates chuckle under their breaths as our instructor closed his book, "That's it for today. I hope this is the last time we have to resort to Mr Finis. Let's not give him the wrong idea that he is allowed to bore us all to death with his supposedly advanced knowledge of the field when he can't even finish a single physical education class without tripping on his own feet. Anyways, you are all ordered to proceed to the auditorium for your thesis groupings. Who knows, you might be picked to be a member of our academy's prestigious excellence group compromised of highly talented and exemplary students."

He then looked in my direction and grinned a little.

"The real deal, not the pretentious, know-it-all kind..."