Chapter 1: Halcyon Days
Mister Forsythe droned on in the late summer heat.
"Which is why in 2447, one hundred years ago, Skopje became the most powerful colony in the sector with a booming industry and very generous tax rates" he chuckled to himself.
Mister Forsythe had his back turned and began to talk about Skopjean mining quota's during the crisis of the late 24th century. Completely disinterested, my hand slid deftly into my shirt and removed the Comms Pad from inside my bra. One of the boys pretended not to notice.
{Hey Maddie, what's up?}
Nico had texted me.
Not much, just bored out of my mind, you doing anything today?
{Yeah, it's angie's party! Don't tell me you forgot.}
Well.. maybe? Haha
{Come on Mads, you just wanted to make sure I'd be there, right?}
{}
Cocky bastard
{I'm not being cocky, I'm just right, again }
I began to type 'knob head' when I was interrupted.
"Madeline?"
Oh, crap, Mister Forsythe was looking at me.
"Yes sir?"
"I assume there's a reason you're smiling at your own genitals?" he cocked his head slyly, "I'm hoping thatit's only a com pad that you're looking at"
A round of sniggers swept through the room like a breeze, cooling the stale warm atmosphere that had built up over the last hour.
"I just find it more stimulating, sir" I said patting my lap. A wry grin extended across my face.
The older gentleman was not perturbed by this, in fact, he had a bit of a reputation for being able to take this sort of thing from his students. We'd all laughed over whether the man was some kind of modern stoic or a robot, unfazed by the teasing of his students.
"Well that's not for me to have any say on, just save your admiration for the comfort of your own bedroom, Ms Harper." He turned back to write on the E-board; "And focus on the lesson".
The bell rang out and the class emptied like water bled from a dam.
"Ms Harper?" Mister Forsythe stood with a small file in his hands.
"Yes sir?" I asked, stepping towards him and taking a seat in front of his desk.
"I hate to bother you but you need to pick an educational discipline before your final year, and the deadline is today."
I relaxed a little, glad that this wasn't a punishment.
"I haven't decided yet" I replied.
"I understand you have a few options, Madeline, but you have a passion for European history that, in all my years of teaching, I have never happened upon."
My eyes drooped and I stifled a yawn, not wanting to upset him.
"Well…" I began, slowly "It's just that it's more of a personal hobby, sir." I trailed off. "I like learning about it on my own terms, and I have money to think about as well," I said that last part rather sheepishly.
He smiled, almost knowingly.
"As your tutor, it's my job to get you to pick something before you leave this room. Have you narrowed it down at all?"
"A little. I was thinking AI Psychology, or Engineering, or Comp Sci, or…"
He laughed out loud, his thick bushy beard jutting about, jovially. "Okay Maddie, I'll pretend that you have picked already, and you can contact me later this weekend when you've made your decision, okay?"
It was my turn to grin now. "Thank you, sir" I rose from my chair and left the room, thankful to put it off for a few more hours at least.
Why do I have to choose now, anyway? How am I supposed to know what to do with the rest of my life now? I'm not even seventeen for a few weeks yet!
The thought of my future weighed heavily on me as I made my way towards my friends at the front of the school. My friends were a gaggle of your typical teenaged girls. We all looked vaguely similar, we all had the same styled hair, straight down to the shoulders with bangs that hung daintily from the sides of our faces. Luckily for me, that was just how I grew, I knew a few of the girls spent hours taming their hair.
Thank god for being a trendsetter.
I smiled politely at Angie who was busy inviting me to a party tonight. We were close so she'd told me about the party more than once before but she was the kind of girl who did anything she could to fit in even if it clearly didn't work for her. Tonight's party would likely be a similar affair, they were always the wildest and most exclusive parties in the year simply because her house was brilliantly lavish and her parents didn't care.
Promising that I'd be there, I partook in the usual suspects of conversation. How things were going between me and Nico, how badly our exes had taken the break up, and how the freshmen were annoying as hell.
The students on the streets receded until it was just myself, Angie, Nicola, and Ana, a mousy girl with sweet little eyes and a wicked mouth. We began our usual ritual as we entered the park behind our estate and with a warm glow on our backs we headed out and into the direction that took us away from our street and up a gentle slope to the top of a ridge.
There it is!
My favourite place in the whole world. The ash tree had the perfect little indent at the bottom of it, where I sat, like a Queen upon a throne. I would read hundreds of books about ancient Queens sat here, looking out across the gentle valley, its rolling green hills and the large stone castle in the distance that made the view look like a scene from a fantasy movie.
Some bigshot CEO had built it, maybe captured, as I was, by the mysteriousness of ancient Europe and the proto modern civilisations that were spawned there. It was clearly derived from either English or French architecture; it carried the gothic battlements and trims that were common in the style of medieval western Europe. Castles were symbols of power, and that was what I saw every time I looked out across the valley, its large and sweeping grasslands cowing before it, perched upon a large hill, dominating the landscape. It didn't matter that it was out of place. It didn't matter that it had no strategic value. It was stalwart, power incarnate, an immovable statement of wealth and influence.
It was fit for some of my favourite Queen's that was for sure. I could imagine Elizabeth the first, sitting in the war room, or in the tallest tower, waiting for news of the ruination of the Spanish Armada, or Victoria, at the height of the Pax Britannica, relaxing in a warm room and sipping on tea from the other side of her empire.
My friends had taken to bathing in the golden rays of the Skopjean sun, its honeyed rays lapping at their bare skin as they removed their blouses and relaxed in their underwear, tanning themselves for the party to come. I was thankful that our spot had never been discovered, sharing it with them had been hard enough all those years ago and I don't know what I would do without it.
Not that this lot would care, my little hill meant far more to me than it did to any of them. Sometimes I wonder why they haven't brought guys back here. Maybe I've been short about keeping it secret in the past or maybe they just like somewhere that's for us, free of parents or boys or siblings.
"Ugh, mads, how come you sit in the shade all the time and still look like something out of Raven's Beach?"
Raven's Beach, the flavour of the month streaming show, filled with blonde bombshells and thick-headed morons with more alcohol in their blood than smarts in their brains.
"Genetics" I said to Nicola, without looking up from my book. She was an olive-skinned girl with a round face and a curvy and elegant figure.
She babbled on but the book was more engrossing, so I did the usual theatrics, pretending to hear her, nodding etcetera.
"What did Mister Forsythe want, Maddie?" Ana asked as Nicola turned her attention to Angie who was spread out over a towel nearby.
"What?"
"After class, he wanted to see you"
"Oh that," I put down the book, dejectedly, marking my page by folding the corner. "He wants me to pick History as a discipline next year."
"Him too? Damn, Maddie, how many departments want you now?"
I smiled half-heartedly. Ana wasn't the most naturally gifted student, but she tried so hard that in the subjects she liked, she often did better than I did.
"A couple" I said, evasively.
She laughed. "You're full of crap, it's like five"
"is it?" I asked, feigning ignorance.
"Don't give me that, you know exactly how many departments want you"
Internally, I grimaced, it was five. Six if you count the Officer training primer course.
"I just don't feel like I deserve it"
"Don't deserve what?"
"Yeah you know, my grades and stuff"
"You work hard, Mads" she said, putting a hand on my thigh.
"Not as hard as you, Ana"
Ana shrugged. "You can't compare yourself to others like that, Maddie, that's one thing I know for sure."
I smiled weakly as the sun beat down on us. A thin layer of perspiration gathered on her brow as she leant into me. Perhaps Ana had grappled with this same issue. What would someone who struggled think of someone who didn't? They wouldn't feel like me, they wouldn't understand the guilt I felt about how much of my grades are really my own and how much are by virtue of genetics, a stable family, and luck.
Another reason to feel guilty, I guessed, pushing the realisation back into the depths of my head.
"What's everyone wearing tonight?" I asked, trying to take my mind off of the thoughts swanning about my head.
Nicola and Angie bolted up, which made Ana jump a little.
"You finally got your head out of the book, I see!" Angie smiled, pulling her shirt back on.
Nicola followed suit. "Now you're talking my language!" She said with a grin.
"I got that sexy one-piece from Orest Outfitters the other day" Angie said.
Nicola pouted, her eyes narrowing. "I thought you were going to wait until Prom to wear that…"
Angie sighed. "Ya but I decided I wanted a full gown for prom instead, it's not every day you get to go to a ball!"
I laughed. "That's a lot of daddy's money you'll be spending, then?"
Her smile was infectious as she shrugged at me with a wink.
Nicola wasn't letting this drop however, "Seriously Angie, you can't."
"Why not?"
"Because I wanted to wear my one piece and its black too"
"You can't be serious" I said.
"Of course, I am serious!" she said, her voice raised. Angie was sat quietly, she looked as though she were turning the thoughts over in her head, deciding whether it was worth Nicola's ire to defy her.
Like a skorgpus who challenged the pack alpha and lost, she slinked away in defeat.
"Well I guess I could wear something else"
My eyes rolled at her.
"You could wear that dress I picked for you again" Nicola replied, feigning friendship. Nicola was a firm believer in the high school hierarchy. Certain people were on top, for the girls that was us, for the boys, that was Nico and the schools Cricket team. Nicola operated on a level beyond that though, and once stated that all friendship groups have predestined roles that must be adhered to so that cohesion was ensured. She hadn't put it like that, of course, but the sentiment was the same.
Angie was a threat to her place in the group and Nicola acted like it. The issue was that they were both so similar, at least superficially, which was what mattered most to Nicola.
The outfit Nicola was referring to was… unflattering, to say the least. It hung from Angie oddly, clashed with her features and had to be worn braless, which was difficult for a girl as well-endowed as Angie. Nicola always happened to be around to accidently cause a wardrobe malfunction, and while it was very funny at first, it had begun to get old and a little tragic.
"I don't know…" I said, nonchalantly, "You wear it a lot, babe, you should go for the new one piece and that skirt you look amazing in"
Nicola looked stunned at my intervention, as though she thought I had approved of her toying with Angie.
"Nicola is great with fashion faux pas, she's told me off a bunch of times for wearing my favourite cami too much" I laughed "You know the one, right?" Ana looked puzzled for a brief moment before bursting into laughter and catching on. Nicola looked pissed.
"Yeah but she's totally right mads, you wore it like twice in the same week!"
Angie smiled weakly, spurred on by the protection we offered. "O-okay, yeah, I've been so desperate to try it on for a while, sorry Nicola, I guess we'll just have to go as twinsies!"
Nicola left not long after that. Angie left too, in the other direction, reminding us both to be at her place later that night. Again.
So, then it was just me and my best friend in the whole world. We did what we always did together, we read, chatted about school work and all the possibilities that our future was filled with.
"The war…" she said, her voice softening as she flicked through her Comm Pad at news articles "it seems so far away, don't you think?"
I blinked. "I thought your parents were fighting, that would be close for me"
She blushed, her pale cheeks flushed red as she looked up at me, her small head rested on my thigh. "Not exactly, Maddie"
"Well what do they do?" I asked, putting my book aside.
"They work for ONI"
ONI. The Office of Naval Intelligence. The Boogeymen.
"I'm assuming you're not allowed to tell me that" I grinned.
"I'm not even supposed to know." She said.
My smile dropped a little, she was serious, her eyes glared up at the thickset evening sky.
"I-I just feel so bad, I don't know what they do, if they fight, if they're just researchers…" she trailed off again.
"You're worried about them." It was a statement of truth, not a question.
"We're so far from the fighting, so far from them, don't you ever feel guilty for that Mads?"
I swallowed a lump that had formed in my throat like a grenade. "My Grandad. You know, Grandad Joey?"
"I do" she smiled, "you only mention him every chance you get."
"I'm proud of him, is all." My voice wavered, that grenade felt live. "I love him so much."
"Imagine not knowing what his job even is, Maddie. Imagine being in trouble for even finding out."
I stroked her long auburn hair in my lap as I looked out across the valley, the sun setting across the beautiful vista before me, bathed in honeyed light and accentuated by dark purple syrup in the eastern edge of the skybox.
Small cracks of light could be seen in the distance.
"See that?" I pointed at the cracks.
"What is it?" she strained her neck for a glimpse of the eastern sky.
"A UNSC fleet."
"Reckon it's your Grandpa?"
"I pretend to think so" I smiled. "If there's a prowler up there, and there will be, your parents could be up there too, watching over you."
Some time passed before either of us spoke, content to sit in silence. It wasn't long before we got up, dusted ourselves off, and began the short walk to our houses. Swinging past Ana's house to collect her things, we set off back to mine to get ready together as we always did. Arm in arm we walked under the dying embers of the warm Skopjean sun, laughing happily about nothing in particular until we reached my house. I boosted Ana onto the flat roof by my bedroom window as per the ritual. The house was modest and was centred in the middle of the streets on the outskirts of the estate. The garden was large but it backed onto the park and the grounds of that big shot CEO's land, who had built the castle out back, making my own families holdings look insignificant by comparison.
"Wait there!" I giggled softly, skipping to the front of the house and letting myself in.
I walked into the kitchen to find my sister, Maggie, sat at the table. "Margaret, wher-" She didn't let me finish.
"Going soon, so don't worry about being too quiet with your friend." She smiled sweetly. Unlike me, her hair was understated and casual, pulled back into a clean, tight ponytail, accentuating the sharp Harper features that all of our family shared.
"You won't tell Mum and Dad, will you?"
"It's way easier for me if I don't get involved, Sis"
I smiled. We had a loose understanding, I'd keep people at school off her back and she'd let me do what I want, so long as it didn't get her into trouble. She might have been two years younger than me, but she scarcely felt like anything other than my equal.
Her nose was buried in her books as usual; she had my looks and my smarts but not my social skills. Rather, she didn't care for my need for interaction. Despite being similar in every way, we seemed the furthest apart of all our siblings, a fact that I realised as she muttered under her breath, failing to understand the merits of all my sneaking about.
Just then, my parents entered the room, laughing about some joke that had begun in the other room. Dad smiled at me as he collected his keys from the shelf and Mum drew me in for a hug.
"Good day at school?" Mum asked.
"Same old" I shrugged, evasively.
Dad sighed and folded his arms, "You were on the comm pad, again."
My eyes rolled, seemingly out of my own control like a possessed dreidel, spinning in place.
"Phil…" Mum began
"What?" he replied, cutting her off with a dismissive swish of his hand, "she's slacking, she won't get that RCU scholarship if she slacks off"
RCU was Reach's Colonial University, one of the greatest institution's off of planet earth. I never explicitly said I'd wanted to go but when my aptitude had become apparent, Dad had continuously driven me harder and harder, pushing me as far as I could to achieve, what I could only assume, was his own dream.
With my brothers in the Navy and starting basic training, the pressure had ramped up, which was fine for Maggie, who was probably good enough to get into some old earth institution in Sydney, London, or wherever, I just didn't have the motivation for it.
"Yeah but I'm getting the grades, so what?"
"What if it's not enough?" he said, looking down on her, a softness in his eyes. He cared about me, of course he did, it was just infuriating to be ordered about like this.
I shrugged.
"Phil, she's doing well, leave her be" Mum said, winking at me as she placed a hand on his shoulder.
"My dad went to RCU, and so did I, your sister will probably go to Earth" he smiled, a little more light-heartedly, "So I'm running low on options to continue the tradition"
"You have another daughter, you know" I said, a little bitterly.
"Eliza hasn't shown much interest in her future, yet" he shook his head. "Dad will kill me, five kids and I can't get a single one of them into the family university."
Thinking about it, that was probably why I'd let him string me along on this charade for so long. If Grandad Joey would be proud to have another generation of Harpers at RCU, then that would be enough for me.
"So where are you off to?" I said, changing the subject.
They looked at each other, a sparkle in their eyes. It didn't take a genius to work out what exactly it was that they were going to be doing.
"We're spending the weekend in Orest, near the Riviera" Mum said, hanging loosely from Dad's shoulder like a teenager. As gross as it was, I was glad that they were so strong together and that they cared about us all. I knew from school that home could be a lot worse.
"That should be nice"
"Well I think your Dad needs it" she spoke slyly, probably alluding to my Dad's abrasiveness with me. "And you need a quiet house to study in" she added, likely for Dad's sake.
I thanked her and said goodbye. I skipped up to my room and unhooked the window, letting Ana climb in with a lit cigarette.
"Bloody hell Mads, you take your damn time."
"uh-huh-uh" I shook my head and smiled. "You know the fee" I said, crossing my arms in faux outrage.
She grinned and produced several packs of the small thin cigarettes from her bag.
"Just as you ordered"
I took them and unwrapped a pack, taking a lighter from the small pouch under my bed I lit it expertly and put it to my lips, taking a long, heavy breath.
Ana giggled.
"What?"
"You really liked that, huh" she said suggestively.
"Oh, shut up" I shot back before puffing hard on the cigarette again, draining it to its butt. It had been too long since my last one this morning and I'd become irritable again, it was probably why Nicola's games got on my nerves, although I'd like to think it was more a case of altruism than irritation.
I flicked another and popped it into my mouth, savouring this one as the smoke filled my lungs.
"Anyways, I'm sorry about that. Parents." I said, shrugging, the thin tube hung loosely from my lips. "Speaking of which, how did you find out about your parent's and ONI?" I asked, moving the conversation away from my favourite vice.
"They told me, Dad cocked up massively on some operation and got into trouble, he almost died and I was none the wiser, they figured bending the rules a little was worth it so that I actually knew what they did"
"I'm guessing ONI don't know that you know."
"If they do, Daddy will be at the bottom of some kind of lake about now" she laughed morosely.
The Office of Naval Intelligence were an ethereal organisation, one I knew little about. They were war spies and scientists mostly, public sector, deep state and that kind of thing. Some of the more rebellious colonists were fond of crafting elaborate stories about them, about their child stealing and their secret projects and what not.
Reading about the history of such organisations and the vids that are made about their ancient counterparts: from ONI, the Tendrils of Reach, and all the way back to earth and its CIA's and MI6's and KGB's, was more my grandfather's muse but if interested him, it usually interested me.
Few of my grandfather's interests tantalised me quite so much however, its heroes were legendary, their exploits seemingly a work of pure fiction and yet, they were real. There was something truly fantastic about spies.
"Well that's a bit grim, Ana" I smiled, flinging off my shoes and spreading the large doors to my wardrobe open.
"You're right, there's plenty of time for deep conversation when we are melted in a few hours."
She produced the weeks haul from her parent's pantry. Skopjean Rice Wine and Reach Pear Cider with a cheap budget cola to mix or chase.
I stripped off and stepped into my wardrobe, it was big enough to spin around in, which I liked but it didn't hold a candle to Angie's place. Her parents were lawyers, on retainer for Misriah, some big UNSC weapons manufacturer. It paid very well.
I pulled out one of the many dresses and looked it over, feeling the expensive material beneath my fingers and sighed, expelling a cloud of smoke. I grabbed the bottle of Sake and unscrewed the cap, throwing my head back and feeling the citrus and honeyed liquid drizzle down my throat. Ana giggled and took a swig as well, her face scrunching as it coursed down her throat.
She removed a couple of dresses from the little brown bag she'd lifted the alcohol from and we began the ritual, making small and insignificant talk and drinking in our underwear as the sky darkened.
"Tonight, is going to be rough" I said, finishing up the last of my makeup and knocking back several shots.
"Tonight" Ana said, cracking open a can of cider, "Is going to be awesome".