Chapter Two: High Blood Drumming
Beta Eclipse Garson woke Ze'ev out of a night of bad dreams and constant stirrings.
"Come on. You have to be presentable for Master Jael."
Ze'ev yawned, sitting up. "What time is it?" he asked sleepily.
"Oh-five-twenty." Eclipse moved back, heading to the bathroom.
Ze'ev got up, shaking out his limbs. They were still stinging from the operation. He hoped breakfast would be soon – the small meat he'd scavenged at lunch and dinner yesterday wasn't enough.
He joined the steady trickle of people heading to the bathroom. There were five showers available, and despite a minor altercation between Betas Troya and Liu (it was a resounding victory for Gibbous Troya) most of the pack seemed content to wait in line without physical violence. Alpha Brock, of course, was in first. Ze'ev was one of the last. The water was icy and shut off fairly quickly; the familiarity made him ache with homesickness.
Beta Vanya Volkov told Ze'ev which of the boxes in the closet was his, and he tugged on one of the uniforms. Then the pack swarmed out of the barracks, Alpha Brock in the lead.
They took their place in the same area everyone had been standing when Ze'ev arrived. There didn't seem to be any order to the line, with Alpha Brock and Omega Katona both standing somewhat in the middle. Ze'ev found himself between Betas Garson and Becke.
The pack stood for another few minutes. Ze'ev watched his companions with interest. No-one spoke, but the operatives were at ease.
Then the familiar scent of Jael approached. Everyone stood up straighter, hands neatly behind their backs. Ze'ev mimicked them.
Jael came into view across the training hall. Several other thaumaturges were walking with him. They were all unfamiliar, but their scents surrounded the facility.
After a moment, Jael reached the pack, stopping in front of them. As one, the other thirteen operatives pressed their hand to the chest and chanted out "Master Jael," with Ze'ev just a second behind.
Jael observed each of the pack, before he smiled. "Good morning," he said. "I trust you all had an enjoyable sleep?"
There was no answer. Jael didn't seem to expect one.
"We will start with a run of the obstacle course. A little physical exercise to warm up."
"Yes, Master Jael," everyone barked. Ze'ev had instinctively known that was the reply. In a synchronised jog, they all turned and headed to the course.
Beta Rille Baines was sent to the course first. He didn't hesitate, but ran in at full speed. The first part of the obstacle course was to run a hundred meters on a series of stumps, all of varying sizes, in order to practise difficult terrain. Next, Beta Baines scaled a high pole with only his limbs to pull him up, in order to race across a thin tightrope. Next was a long row of monkey bars, which he then jumped down from onto the ground without a net. Finally, Baines finished with a kilometre-long sprint around the perimeter, going faster than Ze'ev had ever thought possible.
Jael tutted when Beta Baines stopped in front of him, breathing heavily.
"Almost nineteen seconds slower than last time," Jael said. Baines seemed to wilt under the mild disappointment. "You'll do better next time, won't you?"
"Of course, Master Jael."
"Stand with the others."
Baines saluted, fist to heart, and then jogged into line.
Omega Katona was next. He was somewhat slower than Beta Baines, almost slipping on the monkey bars. However, he still managed to beat Beta Sherazi's time a few minutes later, despite the fact that Aziz Sherazi was almost frothing at the mouth to have a go.
Beta Gibbous Troya went next. He obliterated Baines' time, taking the stumps and monkey bars two at a time. The moment he was done, he winked at Baines teasingly. Baines didn't react.
"Beta Kesley?" Jael said. Ze'ev straightened. "Care to step up?"
Quite honestly, Ze'ev didn't care to. However, he had no doubt it wasn't actually a question.
Ze'ev walked up to the start, crouching down in the same position Beta Baines had used. When Jael clicked, he started off.
The stumps seemed a lot taller and a lot thinner up close. Ze'ev forced himself to sprint at them, clumsily leaping into the air. He landed on the first one awkwardly, but it was a landing.
There was no way he was going to be able to run across the stumps like the others had. Ze'ev moved as quickly as he could, but still had to balance on each one before moving to the next.
After almost two minutes, Ze'ev dropped off the stumps. He darted forwards without trying to catch his breath, and then jumped for the giant pole.
Despite the fact he'd done the course on the day before, Ze'ev was still startled by how easy it was to scale the pole. His arms burned before he finished, but he was stronger than he should have been. The genetic modifications had some more practical advantages than the senses that still left him disorientated.
Within moments Ze'ev stood at the tightrope. He looked at the thin wire spread between the towers, and wondered if he would be allowed to crawl instead of walk.
Part of him wanted to try using his initiative to see if Master Jael would appreciate that, but his ribs still stung from the vicious blow Alpha Brock had given him the last time he disobeyed.
Slowly, Ze'ev stepped out onto the wire. Inch by inch, he crept across.
He was grateful to reach the monkey bars. They were fairly similar to the ones used in Physical Education at his school; in fact, the operatives had better quality ones that weren't simply loops strung from the rafters. Ze'ev scurried past them, not quite with the grace of Beta Troya, but at least somewhat better than Omega Katona.
Ze'ev faltered when he reached the end. He'd done it before and had watched the others, but he'd forgotten that there was no platform to step onto. It took a few seconds of hanging from the last bar before he could convince himself to drop.
He tried to land on his feet, like the others, but stumbled on landing and fell to his knees. The impact made him shudder, but there didn't seem to be any damage to his strengthened bones.
Getting up, Ze'ev started forward on the sprint element of the course. It took a while before he was able to regain his balance, but running with the new modifications was more exhilarating than anything else.
Finally, Ze'ev stood in front of Jael, nervously at attention.
Jael wrinkled his nose. "I would hope that you tried this course yesterday. What was your time?"
Ze'ev had no idea. He licked his lips, and slightly shook his head.
"Pitiful," Jael said. "I expect that you will be able to report on this in future."
"Yes, Master Jael," Ze'ev said quietly.
"Well, you'll be pleased to know that it was a rather average performance for an operative before the modifications have fully settled." Jael tilted his head to the side, observing Ze'ev. "However, I do not accept 'average' from my operatives."
"Yes, Master Jael. Sorry, Master Jael." Ze'ev hated the sycophancy in his voice, but he had no other response.
"Do better. Dismissed."
Ze'ev gratefully re-joined the pack formation. He saw Beta Eclipse Garson give him a smile, and Beta Gibbous Troya nodded approvingly at him.
Jael called Beta Huang Liu up to the course, and Ze'ev turned his attention back to the training.
"Enjoying the pack, Beta Kesley?"
Ze'ev turned apprehensively to face the operative who spoke. It was Beta Aziz Sherazi, the small fighter who Eclipse said would often switch between being omega and beta.
"It's an honour to be in the Queen's army," Ze'ev said hesitantly.
Aziz's lip twitched, clearly knowing the meaning behind the neutral description. Still, he didn't challenge it.
A couple of the other pack members were looking at the two of them, interested. Beta Troya was heading closer. To Ze'ev's alarm, Betas Wynn, Rafe, and Lobo weren't far behind.
"Do you enjoy it?" Ze'ev asked Aziz unsurely, more out of a desire to say something than actual curiosity.
"Like you said. It's an 'honour' to serve the Queen."
More pack members were heading over, spreading out in a loose circle as if Aziz and Ze'ev were an interesting show. Their expressions creeped Ze'ev out – ranging from Eclipse Garson's worry, to Alex Rafe's resignation, to an eager grin by Gibbous Troya.
That was not a good sign.
"Are you getting the hang of how this works?" Aziz asked. The older boy took a step closer.
"A little," Ze'ev said, moving a step back. He was the same height as Aziz, but less muscular and far less trained.
"And you know about the pack hierarchy?"
"Strongest is alpha, weakest is omega," Ze'ev recited.
"Good job," Aziz said, taking another step. Ze'ev glanced behind him to see the edge of the pack circle. There was no more room to retreat. "Do you know how we work out who's strongest and weakest?"
Ze'ev did, but he really wanted to be wrong. "No?"
There was a chuckle from the pack members around him.
Aziz's eyes glinted as he took another step closer. He raised a fist. "Allow me to teach-"
Ze'ev struck first. His punch was sloppy and untrained, but it was fast. He hit Aziz hard in the stomach.
Aziz gasped, taking a step backwards, one arm wrapping around his stomach.
It took less than a second for him to begin to recover, but Ze'ev kept moving. He was driven by pure instinct, a brand-new artificially added desire to cause pain. He kicked as hard as he could, hitting Aziz's knee.
Aziz gave ground again, stumbling. Ze'ev kept moving, and threw another wild punch.
This time, Aziz's significant experience came in to play. Aziz deftly moved the fist away from him, then brought his other arm around for his own attack.
Ze'ev jumped backwards, dodging the blow by only centimetres. Aziz pressed his advantage, raining down attacks on the new recruit who desperately ducked around every hit.
Somewhat to Ze'ev's surprise, he was able to keep up. Aziz constantly scored blows, but all of them were glancing. Despite running solely on guesswork and almost no fighting ability, Ze'ev wasn't badly losing.
There was a reason why Aziz was often omega, Ze'ev realised, and it wasn't because he was short.
Taking a chance, Ze'ev stepped closer to Aziz around a punch, and jabbed his fingers into his opponent's side. Aziz gasped in pain, instinctively shying away from Ze'ev's hand. The moment of poor balance was all Ze'ev needed, and he shoved Aziz as hard as he could in the chest.
Aziz fell backwards, collapsed onto the dirt. He snarled, a guttural, animal sound.
Without thinking about it, Ze'ev growled back.
"Waahoo! Yeah!"
Both looked up abruptly to see Vanya Volkov applauding. "Bravo, newbie!"
Aziz growled at Vanya too, still on the ground.
"Not bad for a first fight," Gibbous Troya agreed. He started to clap too, less enthusiastically than the exaggerated cheering from Vanya Volkov.
Ze'ev smiled broadly.
Aziz got up, glaring at him. However, the battle seemed to be over, and he didn't make another move against Ze'ev.
The pack started to move off again, spreading off.
"You did good," José Lobo said, pausing in front of Ze'ev.
"Thanks."
"Maybe you won't go down from the first punch when I fight you," he added. Seeing Ze'ev's expression, José grinned. "Don't worry. I'm not intending on fighting you today. But I promise you, by the end of the month you'll have fought every single member of the pack."
"Oh." The pleasure Ze'ev had gotten from his triumph quickly diminished.
"Just do your best never to be omega, and you'll be fine," José advised him, heading off.
Eclipse took his place, a slightly kinder smile on his face. "Even if you do get Omega, it's not the end of the world. Just bare it and challenge the weaker members as much as possible until you move up again."
Ze'ev licked his lips. He was starting to get used to navigating his new teeth. "Thanks," he said. He knew (or at least strongly suspected) that Eclipse was trying to cheer him up, but it didn't work.
The rush from beating Aziz, at least to the point where the other pack members had considered him the winner, was starting to fade. Ze'ev was starting to feel sick, remembering that savage desire to beat him.
What had those operations turned him into?
The second day went much the same as the first.
After his fight with Beta Sherazi, Ze'ev did his best to stay out of everyone's way. He thought the others knew what he was doing, but other than a derisive snort from Alpha Brock no-one seemed to care.
Instead, he tried to get a better understanding of the fights, but it seemed useless. Battles broke out over the smallest of things: Vanya Volkov and José Lobo got into a fight after lunch for retaliation for one or the other punching the other for a piece of steak; Gibbous Troya challenged Alpha Crater Brock for the title of alpha (Gibbous put up a reasonable fight, but Brock won decisively); Huang Liu and Aziz Sherazi fought for no discernible reason.
At the end of the day, Ze'ev returned to the barracks, grateful to be able to stop thinking for a few hours. The howling and bragging of the pack seemed quieter, everyone ready for bed.
He pulled on his pyjamas, finding that his dirty clothes from the day before had already been washed. He climbed into bed a few moments before Alpha Brock hit the light switch.
The voices quietened, conversations petering out.
It took a moment for Ze'ev to realise that Eclipse Garson was still talking. His hearing pricked up before he was conscious of doing it.
"—By Kingdom come Your will be done, on Earth and Luna as it is in Heaven. Give us today our daily bread, and forgive us our sins now, as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Glory be Your name, forever and ever. Amen."
Ze'ev sat up curiously. His own family had never been particularly religious, and all he really knew about religion mostly came from holos. He tried to focus on the older boy kneeling in front of his bed.
"Thank You for this time, and thank You that we all survived this day. I'm sorry that I sinned today. Please help me learn to love others as You loved us. Please help me to forgive everyone, even the thaumaturges and the Queen. I know that this is all part of Your will. Please help me to have the faith to follow You, no matter what. In the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, Amen."
Eclipse climbed into bed.
Ze'ev looked around. No-one else had even reacted to the prayer. It must have been a pretty common event.
Ze'ev wasn't quite sure about the details of the religion; he wasn't entirely sure which religion it was (he thought maybe Christianity, not that he'd know the difference between the types). Still, the idea that Someone other than the Queen held his fate was comforting: especially if that Someone had another plan than Ze'ev becoming a monster.
Tucking himself back under the covers, Ze'ev drifted into sleep.
As before, reviews are wonderful.