Fire and Ice

Chapter 8 [] Ender

I follow Kayleigh through the maze of books within the library. Shelf upon shelf upon shelf of books fill the room, wall to wall, ceiling to floor, of all kinds of books. Ornately decorated books, datapads, printed books with brightly colored covers and the titles emblazoned on the spines, unbound leaflets... and scrolls? Is this her personal collection?

Almost as if she can hear what I think, Kayleigh calmly states, "This was a collection of texts mostly belonging to my government. It was entrusted to me and my team centuries ago. We may have added a few books here and there... depending on, ahem, personal taste."  On my left I see old books that civilians would read out of sheer boredom, such as Sherlock Holmes, War and Peace, War of the Worlds..

"Are all of these books about fighting?" my voice echoes where somehow hers didn't.

"Mostly, yes. Officers used to study fictional wars to try and learn how to better strategize against future enemies. The rest are about technology and education," she explains as we pass a physical chessboard. We continue to wind through the maze until we reach a corner near the back of the room. Upholstered chairs, pillows, large blobs, and a couch surround a short table in the center of a plain grey carpet, all facing windows to the exterior of our dusty planetoid. My toon leaders are all sprawled around on various squishy things, but the second I make eye contact with Dink...

"A-ten-hut!" He exclaims, causing a chain reaction of people vaulting and catapulting, sprawling and accidentally hitting each other, out of previously comfy spots to get to attention. I giggle in my head as I call for them to relax. Kayleigh remains motionless and expressionless.

"Who's the stiff?" Petra sneers.

"Yeah, come on man, introduce us to the lady," Fly drawls, mocking a curtsy in Kayleigh's direction.

"Isn't this the chick who kicked your ass in the gym the other day when we couldn't find you?" Tom asks.

"Yeah... The crazy bat chick who was in the rafters," Dink says before I can chime in, tensing his muscles ever so slightly, angling himself to face the ever calm Kayleigh. No response from her at the accusations flying her way. The others sense his unease at Kayleigh's silent presence, all beginning to tense and look borderline defensive.

"She's ok guys." They look at me as I say this, face morphing from a defensive stance to a unified glare that demands answers. Before I can think of anything else to say, Kayleigh lets out an imperceptible sigh and flicks her long braid over her shoulder.

"I'm here to debrief you on my past. We are to be working together for an unknown amount of time, and your commanders deemed it necessary to declassify my whole past. I thought I'd tell you myself instead of whatever nonsense they planned to feed you." They look at me confused. Petra arches an eyebrow at me.

"Introduction, Ender," she demands quietly.

"Oh, oops," I say.

"Come on, this is common courtesy on Earth!" Petra fires at my embarrassed statement.

"Well, in case you've forgotten, Arkanian, I haven't been to Earth in years, and neither have you." The others snicker as Petra rolls her eyes dramatically, preparing her snarky reply.

"My name is Special Agent Kayleigh Bright, of the Norwegian Lunar Orbital Navy," Kayleigh states. The others' mouths drop as they turn to stare at her.

"Yeah," I say. "This is Kayleigh." Bean looks at me and mouths  Are you serious? I nod slightly.

-------------------------------

"You left them alone?" Graff looks down in shame. "With her? The girl you're so terrified of? What, one glance from her has you wetting yourself, Colonel? Get a damn hold of yourself and get our kids back!"

"She doesn't want to hurt them. Don't you see, Anderson? They remind her of her team. She'll do anything to protect them once she gets to know them."

"And what if she kills them before then?"

"She won't. That's why I'm trying to let her introduce herself on her own terms."

"'On her own terms?' If she had it her way, that would be never. She'd rip the universe to shreds and then go back into hibernation next week."

"Okay, so I gave them a little push. So what?"

"So what? So what? What if the Toon Leaders or Ender die because they act wrong in front of her?"

"You seem to forget that she has emotions, Anderson."

-----------------------------

Ender's group of friends sits around quietly for a bit after I make myself comfortable. Or perhaps, they deem me calm enough to lower their guards and sit down.

"I thought you were debriefing us?" they girl says. Oops.  

I grin up at her sheepishly. "Sorry. Still not really used to the whole 'being a Big Deal™' thing." She smirks in return.

"I remember when I could say the same thing." She reclines as she says this, causing several other people to relax slightly as well. They must be very close my thoughts choke out. Just like you, and Evangeline, and-

"Did you attend anything like Battle School? Do you even know what Battle School is?" Asks the boy called 'Hot Soup.' I don't understand why his soup in particular was deemed hot. He also seems more comfortable in my presence than the others.

"Your Battle School is kind compared to my training. Many rules were put in place to protect you as students because of my training at the Karlstein Institute." Eyes widen at this statement.

"The Karlstein Institute? What they did there was really illegal!" exclaims the small one. I have learned his name is Bean, not Beans. I wonder if he has a temperature associated with his nickname...

"So is Battle School, in all technicality," says another boy. Alai, I think.

"How come you have a normal name?" asks Petra. "Sorry if that sounds weird. I did tons of research on them for class projects. They took orphans off the streets right? And assigned them-"

"A letter and a number, followed by the surname of our institution," I finish. Petra nods meekly. "They did. Except I wasn't an orphan. A main by the name of Cain Dressel took me and my twin sister from our parents and trained us there, along with many others. Until I arrested him, at least."

"Yeah," Ender says. "That's one of the famous things everyone knows about you."

"Got it," I say, giving him a thumbs up. "My twin sister of course is.."

"Althia Bright.." they say softly. Reverently. I sigh internally. My perfect twin sister.

"She was assigned the name A11 Karlstein." Their eyes widen slightly.

"They're the same person?" Dink exclaims. "They were both respected peace keepers... but I never thought..."

"Historians will do that to ya." A small laugh ruptures from the group. Won't last long.

"What name did they assign you?" asks Alai, carefully using my terminology. I smile softly and stand up. I feel everyone's eyes follow me as I look out the window to the rocky, dusty surface.

"A9. I was assigned A9 Karlstein."