Chapter 3

Initiation

Susan got back to her office with fifteen minutes to spare, to find her client already waiting for her in her secretary's office. Understanding the woman's eagerness to get the review proceedings started, Susan invited her in. The secretary announced six more arrivals while she worked with the first one—the work load of a VHQ lawyer was normally light enough that walk-ins were routine. As a result, it wasn't until near the end of the work day that she finally had a chance to do so much as open her briefcase. Thus Allen Compton, at the front desk of the Records department, was getting ready to call it a day when a page brought him the envelope from Legal. He was about to toss it into his "in" box to deal with in the morning when he saw the word "expedite" written on the outside.

Grumbling a little about the delay of his plans this could cause, he opened the envelope and scanned the contents as the girl left. He made a disgusted sound when he saw what it held; his guess on when the adoption would occur had missed by a mile. He slid the forms back in and handed it to another page. "Field section, Personnel Update desk," he instructed. "After you deliver it, you can knock off." Then he turned back to his desk and picked up the phone, never noticing the fact that the page took a peek at the papers himself and made a sour face before he left.

"Parker," came over the handset Compton held to his ear.

"Will, it's Allen over in Records. Time to close the Bogg pool; the papers just crossed my desk."

"Whoa, that was quick; just—what, two months?"

"So who won it?"

There was a pause, presumably while Will checked his list; then, "Tim Shelby," came the reply.

"Again? For cryin' out loud! You gotta find a serious short-straw job for him this time; that's the third time in a row! I'm tellin' you, Will, he's gotta be using his Archive access!"

"Wouldn't've done him any good this time; there's only a file cross-reference to show that it happened at all. I checked."

A grin spread slowly across the clerk's face. "Something just occurred to me. The kid's our newest Voyager, isn't he?"

"Yeah,"Will drawled; Allen thought he sounded like he knew what was coming.

"You do realize he's never been dared, don't you?"

His grin was actually audible in his voice as Will asked, "You got something in mind?"

"I'd seriously like to see him do a solo."

The former Marine snorted. "Allen, he's in the hospital; he looks like somebody worked him over with a two-by-four."

"He won't be laid up forever. It can't hurt to ask, can it?" Allen challenged.

"Actually, it can. You have any idea what Phin's temper is like? He'll be worse than a wounded bear if he thinks there's any threat to that kid!"

Allen let out a wicked-sounding chuckle. "And that's about as short as any straw gets," he said significantly.

"Point taken. I'll have to run it by Professor Garth first, though. Want to place your bet now?"

Garth was just locking up his office when he spotted Will approaching. "Ah, William," he greeted the man cheerfully, moving to open the door once more.

"No need for that, Professor; I just need to ask you something real quick."

"Walk with me, then. What's on your mind?"

"Well, at the moment, Jeffrey Jones is our newest Voyager, and someone suggested a dare for him."

"And since when does anyone ask me about dares?" Garth teased. "I've had my files mixed up, my pens hidden, my office…ah, papered, I believe you call it, and more, and not once has anyone ever said a word in advance."

Will laughed at the memory, as he and Bogg had been the ones to perform that last prank after their graduation. "This isn't the usual hit-and-run mischief, sir. The individual in question wants to challenge Jeffrey to a solo mission."

The old professor's eyes lit up. "Now that's something I wouldn't mind seeing myself," he admitted. "Anything particular in mind?"

"Not yet, but I think, in order to be a real challenge, it needs to be something that happened after 1982, so he'd have to rely entirely on his Guidebook."

Garth might have been well into his seventies, but that had not damped his own playfulness one bit. He became increasingly animated as he and the physicist began to toss ideas back and forth.

Released from his duties for the day, fourteen-year-old Tony Ingram left the Records department, heading for the junior recruits' study hall and his waiting homework. How he hated that kid! It didn't matter that he'd never met him. Not quite thirteen, he'd already been in the field, doing a Voyager's work, for a little over a year, while Tony himself wouldn't even be allowed to start his field training until he was sixteen. Worse, the little so-and-so had actually gotten himself not just fostered, but adopted!

Recruiting seemed to acknowledge little in the way of age limits. Children as young as six had been picked up by field workers and brought here, or snatched through the Leapgate from potentially deadly circumstances and deposited into a Blue Room, descriptive of any of the dozen or so featureless Receiving Chambers, with their memories fragmented to varying degrees. It was an effect of that particular transport process, it was said, from which most recovered in a few days, though a rare few took longer. From Receiving and Orientation, they went to the dormitory section reserved for the junior recruits. A few were lucky enough to be fostered out to VHQ staffers, but most of them spent their entire childhood and/or adolescent years in what was informally called the Page Complex. The name came from the page duties those thirteen and older performed for two or three hours a day after school, serving as runners and otherwise assisting the staff. They were rotated through the various departments, which gave them a chance to learn about the various jobs available before choosing a career track. Almost without exception, they started out wanting to be field workers, lured by the life of adventure they perceived it to be, though they were all required to register at least one other preference by the time they completed their first semester at Voyager school.

Tony had been no different from any other junior recruit until two months ago, when all of VHQ had been riveted by the broadcast of the trial of Voyager Drake's thirty-first victim, which had ended with Drake himself fleeing in disgrace. That had been the good news, for the martinet's adherents had been making life miserable for everyone, but had dropped their campaign like a hot potato when their leader's duplicity had been exposed. The bad news, at least as far as some of the pages had been concerned, had been Voyager Bogg's young companion, who had never seen the inside of a Receiving Chamber or any of the rest of it, but had gone straight into the field from his home. His very presence had been part of the charges against Voyager Bogg, though that one had been dropped from the list when it had been proven that an Omni malfunction had been the root cause.

Everyone had been gobsmacked to see the boy's courage displayed from the Omni's memory unit, because of which most had applauded the tribunal's decision to bestow full Voyager status on the twelve-year-old and send him straight back into the field with his guardian. The kid had gone from junior recruit to probationary field worker in the space of a few hours, a fact that had been a bitter pill for the pages to swallow. Jealousy had run rife among them for a while, but it had eventually quieted down, even turning to admiration in some cases as news of more of the boy's exploits had begun to spread. He was a natural, the adults were saying, born to be a Voyager, but the envy had only grown and festered in Tony's heart.

Because status trumped age, the pages would be required to address him as "Voyager" should they happen to have occasion to speak to him, but Tony would be a monkey's uncle if he'd give that honor to a kid younger than he was. He was more likely to beat him to a bloody pulp if he ever actually met him, even if the headmaster gave him a whole year of detention for it.

Walking into the study hall, he found Billy Schaeffer there, one of the oldest pages—just a month shy of sixteen, he would be transferred to the Voyager Academy at the beginning of the next term. No one else was in the room yet.

Billy looked up as Tony dropped his books on the table. "Man, you look like you just ate a whole bushel of lemons," he remarked. "What happened?"

"I just got reminded of Jeffrey Jones' existence, that's what," Tony said bitterly. "Oh, excuse me, Jeffrey Bogg," he corrected himself with a sneer. "Voyager Bogg just adopted him."

Billy sighed. "Don't tell me you're still jealous of that kid," he said.

"Aren't you?"

"Not really. Field work's not the big, fun adventure you think it is. Sometimes bad stuff happens in history, and you have to let it. I mean, could you Omni out and let the Titanic sink? Or keep your mouth shut about Pearl Harbor if you were there the day before the attack? I sure couldn't, and they say he did both. The way I see it, any kid that age who can do the hard stuff deserves the title—and you really should be using it."

"That'll be the day," Tony snarled. "He's not even old enough to be a page yet."

"Doesn't matter," Billy said, gathering up his books. "He's got the title, and we're supposed to use it." With that, he slung his book-bag over his shoulder and left.

Irritated, Tony sat down and forced his mind onto his homework. Others began to trickle in, some settling down in the study hall, and others just passing through on their way to their rooms. The hall remained mostly quiet until Ray Swirski came in and announced, "Voyager Shelby won the adoption pool, and they're daring a new Voyager."

The latter announcement immediately claimed the eager attention of everyone present; even Tony momentarily forgot his resentful mood. The dares always made for a great deal of hilarity, as they usually took the form of pranks on teachers and other authority figures; not even the Elders were immune. An enterprising page could usually make a little extra pocket money by serving as a lookout while a rookie did whatever he'd been dared to do.

"What's the dare?" someone asked.

"They're letting the new kid take the Academy's final exam; Professor Parker just sent Voyager Shelby to ask Voyager Bogg's permission."

Tony slammed his book shut. "That tears it!" he exploded. "We have to wait until we're sixteen, and he gets to bypass the whole thing? Not on your life!"

"Not much you can do about it," one girl said.

"Like fun, there isn't."

"So what are you gonna do?" someone else wanted to know.

"I don't know yet. I'll think of something."