Isolation

The three other soldiers all looked around at each little dumbfounded. Eudokia’s declaration was absurd, yet she held proof. They didn’t know what to do. However, each of them caught a narrowed eye from Eudokia. It gave them an unsettled feeling of command. It felt weird coming from a child, someone half their age.

Child or not, she was their superior in both rank and deed. While MPs out ranked most soldiers, it was a rarely honored respect. Eudokia silently demanded it from them. It compelled them to comply. They moved an awkward walk to the front of the cots coming to attention. “We apologize for our disrespect, sir!”

The Lieutenant Sergeant slowly turned his head towards his men in disbelief. “You’re calling that thing ‘sir’?!” He wanted to forget he even heard their words. It all had to be a dream.

“But sir, she is the new Squad Leader.”

“They are orders from command, Nikon. If you disobey them, you’ll be punished.”

Nikon ground his teeth together listening to them squawk. “You bastards! I’m your Squad Leader! We’ve been together for a year and this is the respect I’ve earned from you?” His yelling had the entire barracks watching, not that it wasn’t already. The attention made him sweat or possibly the looks of pity from his men.

Looking back down at Eudokia, it only made his blood boil more. Her expression looked nothing like a child. She demanded respect and his compliance. It grated on him. “You’re coming with me to the Captain’s office! We’re getting this mistake resolved now before your charade goes any further!”

Chapter 199 – Isolation

“What do you mean?!” Nikon slammed his hands down on the desk once more. “This isn’t something I can discuss with his assistant.” He glared down at the young man, probably no older than him.

The whole time Eudokia remained silent, merely watching everything play out. She was the first to notice when Captain Simonides appeared from the hall.

He managed to sneak up on everyone else. Surfacing near the side of the assistant’s desk, he interrupted the yelling, “Things are quite noisy out here.” There was a lighter tone mixed in with his commanding voice.

Nikon immediately went still as he realized the Captain stood nearby him. He came to attention shortly after, knowing his place. “I apologize for my rude behavior, sir!”

Narrowing his eyes, Simonides took in the area before responding. “That is of less concern to me right now. What is the reason for your being here?”

Driving straight to the problem, Nikon hesitated a little. It took him a few moments to react. Paper in hand, he handed it over to Simonides.

Simonides glanced over it for a moment. “There something wrong?”

“Yes, sir!”

He glanced over at Eudokia briefly and back at the paper. The orders disappeared in his hands. “I see, let’s move this to my office.” He motioned sharply at the two to follow him before he turned around.

Once inside, Nikon explained his complaint to Simonides. “I see.” He looked over at Eudokia, whose head was about the only thing that broke above the desk. Still, she remained silent. “I’ll grant you the unusual nature, but the orders are real.”

“Captain?!”

“Second Lieutenant Eudokia here was granted this request.”

“You can’t be serious! Sir.”

Pulling out a file from behind his desk, he placed his hand on the closed file. “The top cadet each year from the academy is granted a command of their own with them picking the posting.”

Nikon glared down at Eudokia with some jealousy in his eye. In front of the jealousy though was doubt, stubborn unmovable doubt. “What’s that got to do with her?”

Simonides sighed to himself. He read the scene already and didn’t want to spell it out. “This year’s top cadet was Eudokia.”

“That’s not possible! Besides being a child, she’s one of them. They aren’t allowed to participate.”

“It would seem you’re misinformed, as many are about the academy.” It was a common misconception due to the way things worked. When it did happen it always appeared like a miracle, an impossibility and easily forgotten, likely intentionally. “MPs are allowed to participate. Anyone in the academy can do so, but due to the system in the academy it is very rare for it to happen.”

“I’ve never heard of any MP achieving it.”

“You know at least one other, everyone does.”

“Sir?”

“General Demosthenes Alexander was the last one to achieve the honor of top cadet.”

“The General? Of course, it would make sense he would. There is no one greater than him.”

“Besides the King,” Simonides added.

“But she’s just a kid, sir!”

“The military does not distinguish between age when it comes to them.” He glanced over at Eudokia, who still said nothing while the entire conversation carried on. Any normal child would have been unable to stand still or even withstand the barrage of voices. She didn’t react to anything. “You went through the academy, so you know the training required to pass. She completed it at her age, surpassing everyone else. Remember that, Lieutenant Sergeant Nikon.”

Nikon realized then he had nothing left. “Yes, sir!” He came to attention and saluted. Dismissed, Nikon marched out of the room. He had Eudokia following behind him. It took until leaving the building for Nikon to turn back. “Listen here. You may be the Squad Leader, but that doesn’t mean I acknowledge you. I’ll be watching you and the moment you screw up your ass is mine!” After he said his piece, Nikon quickly marched off, likely to fume more about his misfortune.

Eudokia watched him leave, allowing enough time for him to disappear before slipping out of her stance. She sighed heavily and ran off in the opposite direction. It hardly mattered to her where she ended up, just so long as she was alone.

Empty fields just behind headquarters was where she found herself. There were a lot of green fields in Atlantis, most of the land was very similar. However, each area still felt different. Eudokia certainly felt the difference in the South Gate. She fell over eventually tired of moving. Her face landed in the grass with only her arm as a pillow. ‘This is completely different from what I was expecting!’ Her body trembled thinking back.

The scenes replayed through her mind endlessly. She tried to think of any way to have done things differently. None of the results turned out in her success. ‘It was all I could do. I have to appear strong. They’ll just see me as a child…’ Eudokia knew it was going to be difficult, but she hadn’t mentally prepared for the oppressive nature. She thought the academy’s cruelty was terrible, yet the aura she felt from everyone didn’t have the same feel. It somehow felt worse.

Hours passed until the morning turned to afternoon. Eudokia returned to the barracks. Her presence remained something of a wonder-filled show. A child charged with leading a team of adults. They all waited to see how long the show lasted. They took bets behind her back on when she would break, something that took her months to discover.

Another routine patrol came for the 241st Squad. Eudokia had her team lined up in the courtyard near their exit. She paced down the four members. “Corporal Hilarion,” she called, in a clear penetrating voice.

“Yes, sir!” the young man replied. He was the tallest of the group. While he listened to every order Eudokia gave, he did enjoy towering over her trying to push her. It never worked, something he did poorly to hide his disappointment.

“Corporal Hestia.”

The only woman in the squad piped up, “Yes, sir!” She saw nothing in common with Eudokia and actually kept more of a distance from her than the rest of the team. It was always difficult to tell what thoughts turned behind her eyes. Eudokia felt the woman judged her with every slight glance in her direction. She had the feeling she was the least approving of her as leader, even more than Nikon, which seemed difficult to believe.

“Corporal Daidalos.”

“Yes, sir!” Daidalos fell in line quicker than the rest with Eudokia’s new command. She felt he was scheming things along with Nikon, but never saw any proof of it. He went along with the flow, but there was something unsettling about him. Eudokia just could never place a finger on what caused her intuition to decide it.

“Lieutenant Sergeant Nikon.”

“By the book again,” he muttered, “Yes, sir!” It was merely by rank that he was Eudokia’s second in command. She would have picked someone else if she could, he was the most verbally disruptive and insubordinate of the group. Yet she preferred it that way, it made it easier to read him than the rest of the group. Eudokia always knew where she stood in the group by his actions. It was an odd measuring stick to have.

Eudokia turned around. Her hand motioned to the gatekeeper to open the massive stone doors. The doors looked impossible to move and hardly practical, yet when activated they moved with fluid grace as though part of nature. They made not a single sound, eerily so, more signs of the construction done by MPs.

Stepping out, she motioned to her team. “Corporal Hestia, you have point.”

“Yes, sir!” Hestia hustled to the front leading the team out. Everything carried out in routine. Nothing out of the ordinary happened. It had been six months since the last intrusion and it was only one scientist. It cleaned up quickly with no support needed. Most of the soldiers couldn’t remember any other intrusion. Only soldiers with more than one tour actually had other stories of intrusions. It was rare for more than a handful of soldiers to have actually been present at an intrusion.

Days continued to pass evenly for Eudokia. Those with early bets lost them as she outlasted most of the pessimistic estimates. She became a bit of a legend among the South Gate as word spread further. More soldiers joined trying to guess what would break her.

Eudokia walked briskly through the courtyard, ignoring all of the glances, half stares and fake ignored looks. She had grown used to it. The feel was truly different from the academy. She almost preferred to have been back at the academy, as no one was mature enough to hide what they felt. It was always in the open and you understood everyone’s place. Her new world was a silent cold war. She always had to remain vigilant.

She came to a stop, not quite to her destination. Her eyes caught sight in time, an irregularly shaped form of stone extruded out from the normally smoothly polished walkway. Eudokia walked around it, but discovered another, followed by more. ‘Another MP is somewhere nearby.’ Carefully, she scanned around the courtyard. There were too many for her to know who caused it.

It wasn’t the first time, so she just activated her Field and kept walking. ‘They’re just looking for a reaction, anything out of me.’ She always only showed them her soldier’s face. She knew it bothered countless numbers of soldiers that she failed to meet their expectations of how an inexperienced immature child should act.

The library finally arrived with only a few more steps. She disappeared into the tall structure that filled up a quarter of the headquarters. Border duty held a lot of downtime and long hours of little to do. Inside the library, soldiers had the chance to pass time or break up the normal grind. Eudokia used it as a safe retreat and place to keep learning. Learning was something suggested, but never required for the soldiers. A large percent of the books were related to foreign studies, usually history or language.

Eudokia retrieved the next book in the series she read and found a comfortable place to sit. No one was around. She couldn’t feel the distant stares or the whispered words.

It was silent. The way she preferred.

However, someone had discovered her, hidden away in the towers of books. A little child leaned around one of the massive hard wood shelves to stare at Eudokia. The girl watched intently for several minutes before tempting an approach. She looked down at Eudokia seated up against the shelf. “Hello, I didn’t think I’d find anyone else back here! My name is Dareia!”