A Higher Education

After what seemed like hours, Alex finally walked out of the laboratory, his head felt as if he had been on a forty-eight hour pub crawl, right before going out to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.

The waiting room outside the lab was filled with a mixture of recruits, some waiting for their name to be called, others recovering from headaches like Alex was.

"45!" A female recruit called out.

Alex turned his head and saw Danielle Gautier slumping on a sofa, pressing an icepack to her forehead. She motioned to the empty spot next to her on the couch, Alex made his way over and dropped himself on the couch.

"I haven't had a headache this bad since I graduated from l'Universit'e de Caen Basse-Normandie." Danielle commented, while handing the icepack to Alex.

"Turn of the Millennium for me." Alex responded. "Bunch of friends and I went out into the Nevada dessert, bringing enough booze to keep us sedated, just in case the world would end. Don't really remember what happened between 22.30 pm December 31st and 11.15 am January 3rd."

Danielle laughed at that, followed immediately with a groan.

"Laughing shouldn't hurt this much." She moaned.

Alex pressed the icepack to his head. Shutting his eyes from the sharp light in the room.

"Why did they keep you in there this long?" Danielle asked. "I thought you already went back to your bunk."

"They finished with you quickly then?" Alex asked.

"Well, I was here when you went in, and I'm still here, plus major headache when you come out." She retorted. "Yeah, they were done quickly with me."

"They believed I had potential, so they kept testing me. Headache just kept building the whole time."

"So you're an Epsilon recruit now?" Danielle asked him.

Alex shook his head in answering in a somewhat relieved voice. "No, not a shred of Psionic talent within me. I just had a fucking high tolerance for their mental probing."

She let out another laughing moan. "Let me guess, hanging out with the Psicho made you a mental bodybuilder."

"They got through my defenses. Eventually." Alex said. "They seemed disappointed."

Danielle took the icepack back from Alex and rubbed it on her face.

"They are trying to rebuild Delta division." She said.

"I figured as much."

"And they want at least one Psionic in each squad."

Alex grunted in agreement.

"And the odds that someone can be made into a psionic are, how much again?"

"1 in 3407, give or take a few." Alex concluded.

"Something like that." she moaned while getting up. "Well, I'm of to my bunk."

Alex got up as well. "I'll walk you there, I don't want you dropping down in the hall somewhere."

Danielle moaned again. "Seriously, don't make me laugh like that. If anyone is at risk of a face plant, it's you."

"At least you'll be able to carry me to my bunk if I go down." Alex responded.

"In your dreams 45, next thing you'll ask me to tuck you in and read you a story as well."

"Don't forget the good night kiss." Alex grinned.

"How about I knock you out right now?" She said mockingly.

Alex looked down at her, as she was a good head shorter than him, her blond hair, normally tied in a tight ponytail was hanging loose, framing a face that could be called delicate, were it not that her nose seemed to have been broken on several occasions.

"I still don't understand where you hide all that muscle." He said while they walked down the hallway.

"You can keep up with our guys while hauling double the weight in gear."

"It's all in the love and joy you have while carrying your gear." Danielle replied, giving him a big smile."I haul a heavy tube, several rockets and enough explosives to make a crater out of a neighborhood. How can you not be motivated to keep up?"

"One of these days, I'm going to have to tell you what the guys have been calling you behind your back." Alex said grinning.

Danielle replied without pausing. "They've been calling me BoomBoom."

Alex raised his eyebrows. "You knew?"

Danielle smiled: "I had to threaten Victor with bodily harm, but he told me."

"You know Victor could have shoved you through a wall, had you actually harmed him, right?"

"Hell yeah, I was kind of hoping to get in a fight, would have been interesting to see how I held up against a psi." She answered, slightly more cheerful than Alex would have liked. "While on the subject however, I'm disappointed in you, 45."

"What did I do this time, oh unstable one?" Alex mockingly asked.

"According to Psicho, you never call me BoomBoom. You always use my regular name." Danielle said accusingly.

Alex just shrug his shoulders. "I don't like using nicknames."

"You call Victor Kid, you refer to Will Dexter as Grumpy, and I believe you call Aingeru The Asshole." She said counting them off on her fingers. "So why am I not BoomBoom according to you?"

"Those are names that I have for them, and none of them mind me calling them that, not counting Aingeru."

"And yet, you refuse to call me by the most awesome name I've ever been called?"

"It's a matter of respect Danielle,let's just leave it at that okay?"

"So when I call you 45, I'm disrespecting you?"

"Oh, look, we're at your quarters already." Alex said somewhat relieved. "See you later, Danielle."

As he tried to walk away quickly, Danielle grabbed his arm and twisted it behind his back, while shoving him face first into the wall.

"Answer the question, Alex." She said twisting his arm slightly further.

Alex squirmed, trying to free himself, but Danielle truly was far stronger then she looked and she kept him locked in place. After a few moments of struggling, Alex gave up.

"Because everyone calls you BoomBoom, and I don't want you to think of me like I'm everyone else."

"Pourquoi est-il un idiot?".Danielle sighed behind his back. Letting go of his arm, she turned him around.

"You don't have to worry about that Alex." She said. Then she got onto her toes and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. "See you later, 45."

With that, she entered her quarters.

"See you later BoomBoom." Alex replied, shaking his head as the door closed behind her.

"Class is in session!"

Maria Evans entered the auditorium in full gear, her voice sounded harsher then Alex was used to.

"You!" She bellowed, pointing out one of the other recruits in the room. "Which squad member gets the most kills each mission?"
The recruit snapped at attention. "I don't know, Ma'am!"

"The squad's sniper, recruit." Her gaze fell upon another recruit. "You! Which squad member will be the first to come face to face with an enemy?"

The girl that she looked at hesitated. "The… uh… scout? Ma'am?"

"Very good." Once again her gaze fixed on another recruit. "Which squad member will be most likely to turn a building into a pile of rubble?"
"A Demolition expert, Ma'am." The recruit answered.

Maria nodded. "And who? Who is the one that will be mocked by rookies the most?"

The room remained silent.

"We are." She said, scanning the room for reactions. "They say we have the easiest jobs, just run around, fire a few shots and use some gadgets. But any squad that returns from a mission will tip their hat at us."

Her eyes fixed on the recruit that she had questioned first.

"Who runs up and places an electroflare right in the middle of an enemy squad so that the sniper can take his shots?"

"We do?" The recruit answered. Evans' gaze shifted to the girl who hesitated.

"Who is providing covering fire for a scout that ran into more than he could handle?"

"We do." The girl answered, more confident this time.

"Who moves into the flames to poke any surviving enemies with a stun rod?" She asked the third recruit.

"We do, Ma'am."

Evans stood there on the stage, seemingly watching every recruit simultaneously.

"Who is the first to run into the defense of a fallen comrade?" She belted.

As one the auditorium responded. "We do!"

"We are the Tactical Combat Support. We bring the toys that make it possible for our squad to be successful. We are there right beside them when the invaders are raining death around us, returning the favor with glee. We are the medics, who treat the wounds of our brethren as said death rain is coming down upon us." She paused for a moment, letting her words sink in.

"Most rookies think we are a joke, not good at anything but good enough to carry a medkit into the field, and spray it on them when they get hurt. I say, let them joke. Because once they had their first contact, they will thank whatever deity they believe in for our existence."

A man walked onto the stage, Evans turned to face him and saluted.

"Thank you Sergeant Evans, for inspiring my class." The man said smiling. Evans returned the smile.

"You are welcome sir." She said, turning her head to once more capture the eyes of the entire room. "You have some good recruits here, I'm sure you will make them great TCS."

Alex had been in the library for six hours when Victor entered the studyroom he and two other TCS recruits had occupied.

That's a lot of medical textbooks.

"Some of us need to do more then run up to a critter and shove a shotgun into their face, Kid."

The other two recruits looked up in confusion, but when they saw Victor, the just shook their head.

Come and stretch your legs a bit Grandpa, your not making any sense of what you are reading right now.

Alex looked down at the page and realized he had been going over the same page for fifteen minutes now, not taking in a single word. As he got up, he stretched to get the kinks out of his muscles.

"I'm taking a break, do you guys need any of my textbooks?" He asked the other recruits.

The others just mumbled something about wanting to look up some info in one of the books Alex had been using. Alex just nodded and accompanied Victor outside.

Outside the library he spoke up. "I need some un-recycled air, want to go topside for a while?"

Victor nodded. "Sounds good."

Alex was kind of surprised, this being the first time in over a week that he had heard Victor's actual voice.

"Getting burned out on mindspeak, Kid?"

Victor remained silent for a moment. Then he answered. "Aingeru was send out with a squad today, Gamma Division, Unit 3, Squad 4. They are sending recruits that they consider ready out with experienced squads to get their feet wet."

"And you worry that they send that asshole out, but not either of us?"

"I spend the last two weeks trying to make the 100 meters in under twelve seconds. I learned how to most efficiently wield a shotgun in close combat, and ripped a captured sectoid's mind to shreds in two stages. First with my mind, then with buck shot." Victor said. "I'm considered to be in the top of my class, and yet, they send out Aingeru, who has placed below me in the last six examinations, and keep me on base."

"You think they are keeping you as a guinea pig?"

"Could be."

They approached the checkpoint that lead to an elevator to the observation plateau. A quick check of their I.D.'s later they were standing in the elevator.

"So what do you pack donkeys train for, while we learn to fight?" Victor asked mockingly.

"In the past week, I learned about setting broken bones, the weak spot in a Snakeman's armor, how to stitch up a talon wound, how to disable an alien plasma bomb and I have spend a total of eight hours on the shooting range." Alex counted of on his fingers. "Any hour not spend sleeping, I was either studying for exams, or learning how to use a zapstick as a hand to hand weapon."

Victor smiled. "I guess you heard about Old Ben then?"

Alex laughed. "The guy is a legend on base. His Skyranger was shot down, most of his squad was disabled, before he could equip himself with anything other then a zapstick, the ranger was being hit by three snakes, he took them out with just his psionics and the zapstick."

"Doesn't help that the guy does a mean Alec Guinness impression." Victor added.

"It's the beard, that really nails the nickname." Alex concluded.

The elevator doors opened and Alex stepped out into the cold Alp air. Behind him, he heard the elevator doors close again, he turned and saw Victor looking regretful.

She said she wouldn't inflict any bodily harm on me if I lured you here.

Alex scanned the plateau, and sure enough, at the far end, he saw the petite figure of Danielle Gautier.

"You do know, you could shove her through a wall if she tried to harm you? Right?" He yelled as the elevator doors closed.

I know.

There was no way around it. Alex had been burying himself in his training in order to avoid Danielle, as he was still slightly embarrassed by the talk they had outside her quarters. But now, he had to face her again.

"Oy, 45, you're joining me or what?" Danielle bellowed across the plateau.

"Keep your skirt on, Danielle." He said as he walked up to her, for some reason putting emphasis on her real name.

Alex made it halfway to her before a speaker spoke up.

"White!." The Viking's voice rang across the plateau. "Get ready to gear up, you're heading out with Gamma, 2, 1."

Alex made an apologetic motion towards Danielle as he turned back towards the elevators. As he got on them, however, Danielle joined him.

"Damn, you get to go into the field before me." she pouted.

"Don't worry, soon they will need someone to turn a small town into ash, and then they'll ask you."

"Not just that, 45." Danielle answered. "You're heading out with Gamma, 2, 1. You know what squad that is right?"

Alex nodded. "It's Ben Tyler's squad."

"You're rolling with Old Ben himself."

The elevator doors opened. Alex hurried himself towards the prep rooms. Hoping to shake Danielle along the way. He had no such luck, as she kept up with him until they were right outside the prep room.

"See you later, Danielle." Alex said, making to open the door.

Danielle, grabbed his arm and pulled him back. "This is for good luck, 45."

To Alex, the next ten seconds seemed like ten minutes.