There’s an earlier shot of me looking over my shoulder, wearing my beanie and my newly drawn-on coat, which seems to be the media’s new favourite image of me. And one picture of Kaoren, a really beautiful one with him standing in the central Kalasa circle looking down, which for some reason has sparked immense speculation among fans of The Hidden War over whether he’s the model for Lastier. And hordes of them are salivating over him, which doesn’t surprise me at all.
I’ve been stuck in medical all morning, having more brain scans and a new round of needles (tons of blood samples, which hasn’t put me in the greatest of moods), but at least they’ve taken my blue bandages off again. My legs still don’t look normal, but they’re a lot less uneven and seamed.
Joint training with First and Fourth soon – they want to try some two-team enhancement strategies. Not that it ever seems likely I’ll be sent out on rotation again.
Strategy session
Pretty straightforward combat training yesterday afternoon. I’d asked Mara beforehand how she dealt with being all on-duty professional with Lohn, and whether there were rules about it. She showed me the decorum-in-uniform rules, which are common sense, and I ended up behaving pretty much as I always do in these kind of sessions, the only difference being that I smiled at Kaoren when I arrived, along with all the other people I usually smile at.
After the session, Maze and Kaoren went off to have meetings as captains always seem to do – Kaoren arranging with me over the interface to meet at his apartment for dinner – and I spent a while sitting on the benches along one edge of the test room with the rest of Fourth discussing my projections, and Kalasa, and all the other news which had been released the previous day. All of the first four squads are now very well-documented, and I asked how they felt about the possibility that the image ban will be removed from in-uniform Setari.
"Given that almost all our appearances in uniform are in KOTIS facilities or in the Ena, it won’t make any substantial difference," Glade said. "We’ve had this kind of commentary since we were Kalrani, since the gate-spotters log everyone of around the right age coming out of KOTIS headquarters. And obviously image-blocking on Muina isn’t doing much."
"Is it correct that you are reviewing episodes of The Hidden War in advance?" Halla asked. She usually keeps quiet around me. Not because she’s a quiet type like Par: I think she’s just very cautious of what I represent. Or of second level monitoring.
"Maze is, but I asked if he could show them to me. Get them the day before."
"You’d be able to say what happens next even without that," Mori said, giving Halla a look I couldn’t interpret.
"Not really – they keep showing things out of order. Skipped couple of weeks in Setari facility before I went Earth’s near-space."
"What would come next? If they resumed telling it in order?" Sonn, too, didn’t seem to be asking just out of curiosity.
"Given a lot more interface rights, and an apartment rather than being locked in room in medical between training. Trained with First and Second Squad and then went on Unara Rotation with First." I paused (I was flipping through the images of my diary which I’ve recorded on my personal log). "Depends really on what’s in my leaked file. Next thing I’d consider important was that Zan told me what second level monitoring was, which no-one had bothered to mention to me before. I guess she or Maze might have filed report about that. After that – Lights Rotation, enhancement testing with Eighth, then Maze Rotation and I met Ghost."
"That’s the Ionoth cat?" Glade was watching me with a quizzical smile, but not quite looking happy. "Were you really locked up in medical?"
"Yes. They got pretty close to what I said to Maze – kept in box and taken out for tests." I shrugged. "After Maze Rotation, tested with Third Squad, then Castle Rotation. Then there was the stickie lockdown and Ghost showed up again. Then Seventh Squad, then Bridges Rotation, then Fifth Squad." I wrinkled my nose. "Then Pillar recovery, which is next time I had anything to do with Fourth, which I guess is why you’re asking. You were all unconscious by the time I got there, but I expect that episode will show what happened before that. Not likely script will follow all that anyway."
"We’ve been trying to work out a strategy to counter this," Mori said, giving Sonn a quelling glance. "All very well to be told that everyone here knows that it’s fiction, but when the interface is full of pictures of Tsee Ruuel, speculating over whether he is the template for Lastier–"
"What could you do?" I asked curiously, while trying to decide whether this would be a good or extremely awkward moment to mention that something rather major had changed.
"At this stage, gnash our teeth loudly and complain," Glade said.
"We can’t do anything," Halla said flatly. "You can."
"This isn’t the right way," Par told her, while I was busy looking surprised.
"You mean make statement to press or something?" I asked.
"No." I think Sonn and Mori had been arguing on a private channel – or just frowning at each other at random moments – but Sonn went on to say: "If you’re being given these episodes in advance, then object to this slander. Not just the most obscene excesses, but all of it, everything not true."
"Isn’t it too late?" I glanced at Mori, who was biting her lip but not quite objecting. "First thing Lastier said about me set the character, and is too well established now that even if stuck to exact truth and stopped sneering at everyone, would still be evil Lastier."
"She’s right," Glade said. "What would you suggest, Caszandra? I doubt talking to the press is going to be encouraged, but I swear if another person mutters filthy creature to me I’m going to be up on a fighting reprimand."
"Wait two weeks," I said, and stood up, well aware that I’d gone red. I really hadn’t wanted to talk to the rest of Fourth about Kaoren, not so soon.
"What happens in two weeks?" Mori looked very worried, which isn’t surprising since part of Fourth’s job is making sure I don’t get too upset.
I spoke quickly, face hotter with every word. "Given how little real privacy I have this planet, and how quickly gossip seems to spread, two weeks about longest I think will take before producers of The Hidden War frantically order rewrites to scripts and start trying to make Lastier more sympathetic. Maybe they’ll get me reform him?" I shrugged, not able to look at any of them when I added: "Don’t see how else they’ll reconcile evil Lastier with the fact that I’m sleeping with Kaoren."
I walked off immediately, wishing it was not such a long way across the training room, and was very relieved when I heard Glade burst out laughing. And Mori sent me an apologetic email before I’d reached my room, not saying very much and managing to express astonishment with every word, but at least not seeming angry. But I know, could tell, that she’s not going to be quite the same with me.
I sent Kaoren an email, just saying that Fourth had been talking to me about Lastier and I’d ended up telling them we were together. His response was "Perhaps they’ll start enjoying him now."