Frontier: Book One - The Space Cadets by Laurence Moroney Page A

rinks.
    Could this be in my future, she wondered as she slipped into a peaceful, happy
sleep.

Chapter
14
Conflict
    Mahatma Gandhi once said, ‘An eye
for an eye would make the whole world blind’, which is a wonderful,
peaceful, sentiment.
    But if you aren’t willing to poke
out your enemy’s eye, then only you will be blind, and he, fully
sighted, will be encouraged and empowered to continue in his
oppression of you.
    So, if your enemy tries to take
out your eye, don’t take out his. Take off his entire head, and
make sure he can never hurt you again...
     
    Having practiced with
Patrice and Soo-Kyung, attending the fighting contests took a new
interest for Aisha.
    “ You shouldn ’ t,” said Patrice. “Not yet. You don ’ t want to be called out.”
    “ Called out?”
    “ It ’ s
common. If you are present, and someone calls you out, you really
should fight them. And while you ’ ve
learned and grown a lot, you aren ’ t yet
ready.”
    “ Can ’ t I
just say ‘ No ’ ?”
    “ Sure,” he said, pausing a little,
“but if you do, you have no chance of earning any respect with the
older kids. You need them on your side if you ’ re to get around this Sebastian thing.”
    “ Has he ever called you
out?”
    “ Never.”
    “ Why?”
    “ Because he knows he will
lose.”
    “ That ’ s
not how he sounded yesterday.”
    “ He ’ s all
talk,” said Patrice. But he didn ’ t sound
as sure of himself as he usually did.
    “ I still want to go,” insisted
Aisha.
    “ I can ’ t
stop you, but I can only ask you not to.”
    His words were on
Aisha ’ s mind all day, and she
couldn ’ t focus on her classes. Why did he
want to prevent her from going to the fights? What if she took
someone on, and lost? There was no shame in that. And if she put up
a good fight, she ’ d earn a lot of respect.
And just like the combat simulations with Simms -- if she only ever
practiced against one person, then she ’ d
only ever be good at combat with that person.
    She resolved to go. There was open
competition in the makeshift dojo that night.
    Then she remembered Patrice, and
his face full of concern telling her that she shouldn ’ t. She didn ’ t want to let
him down, but--
    “ Wake up,” said Soo-Kyung.
“You ’ re a light year away.”
    “ Sorry,” said Aisha. “I just
don ’ t know what to do.”
    “ Do what your heart tells
you.”
    “ It tells me conflicting
things.”
    “ Then sort them out, but keep your brain
focused on your proper work. ”
    As always Soo-Kyung was right.
Annoyingly so. Aisha sighed. Whatever would she do?
    ***
    I ’ m going to regret this, she thought as she
slipped out the apartment. Soo-Kyung was in the shower, so she
could be at her destination before her friend suspected
anything.
    She ’ d
slip in the back and find a discrete spot just to watch . It
should be easy.
    Sure enough, the room was full,
and the open space was divided into four areas where students would
match up against each other using the padded bos.
    Sebastian was nowhere to be seen.
She felt a little vindicated,
    The concept was simple. Win, and
you stay on the mat. Lose, and you go to the back
of the challengers line. Some of the challengers were
hopelessly overmatched and barely lasted a few seconds against
their attackers.
    One boy, David, was amazing. His
speed was unmatched. Even Patrice would look slow up against him.
He also exuded calm -- watching his opponent, measuring them, and
figuring out the combination that would take them down. He then
executed flawlessly, taking them out of the fight effortlessly. His
skills were apparent in his ability to simply apply the correct
amount of force to take out his opponent. No more, no less. And he
was always perfect.
    Challenger after challenger faced
him, and each was taken out with machine-like precision.
    She must not have noticed
Sebastian coming in, but suddenly he was at the front of the line.
David smiled, and took up his defensive stance, treating