Page 24 of Every Almost

This was when Veth hesitated. It was only for only a second, but it was long enough.

Reyna moved forward, deciding to do something completely out of character without speaking or weighing her options. As she watched the crisis developing fast, her brain went into chess mode, thinking of the effects of how each second that passed by caused more and more damage. It was while she was thinking about this that she opened her mouth and began to bark orders.

"Seal deck four, now," she said, her voice cutting through the chaos. "Veth, take your team to handle the secondary breach and contain it. Elena, handle the environmental controls. There's only ninety seconds before atmo fails on the third deck, so we need to move. Go."

As she said those last words, she realized she was already moving herself, redirecting cadets she encountered with precision, going so far as to pull one out of a danger zone before the simulation had even flagged it. She took it upon herself to reroute power all while continuing to give orders. For a designated period, Reyna Solas embodied a captain of a shipthat didn't exist, and every person in that room followed her without a second thought.

And then, it was over. Simulation ended, everything returned to normal and all the lights back on.

Reyna blinked, then took a look around. She saw the entirety of the whole team staring at her.

The silence was palpable, almost deafening in its absence. She could feel it pressing against her chest. Reyna had just taken command of a room full of people without express authority or permission. She'd stepped out of the role she'd assigned her own self, the silent, background, invisible worker, and now every single face was looking at her.

She stepped back, folded her arms, and went quiet.

As she slowly scanned the room, trying to move as little as possible, she caught Elena and Jere exchanging a look. They seemed to have a whole conversation in a single glance. Elena's expression alone seemed to say something that Reyna couldn't translate, nor was she positive she wanted to. But it was actually Jere smiling at Reyna, gentler than usual, that caught her attention.

But instead of focusing on their obvious assumption of her, she just looked away, completely refusing to acknowledge anything resembling what they consider her to be.

Two days later,their cohort was in the habitats attending the animal sciences practical for those in the specialty. Reyna and Elena were there, and they were finally given the chance to watch Jere do something extraordinary.

The animal specialists in their cohort were working with creatures from a Korveth mining colony, including somedisplaced fauna. The creatures were visibly stressed and aggressive, especially considering their arduous transport to the academy. Most of the specialist cadets approached these troubled creatures with extreme caution, making effort to follow protocol but also looking to keep more of a distance that was needed. But Jere didn't hesitate in any capacity, instead walking straight into the enclosure without concern.

This was when the truly remarkable thing happened. It wasn't that the animals left Jere alone, or didn't attack, but instead the evident and immediate change in the animals at his presence. There was this one reptilian creature, about four feet long that slithered on four limbs, all covered in spines and spikes. Noticeably one of the most agitated creatures upon arrival, the reptile went still when Jere entered the containment and crouched beside it. Jere held out his hand, palm up, and just... waited. And what seemed after no time at all, the creature pressed its snout against his fingers and visibly exhaled.

"She's scared," Jere said softly to the instructor. "She's not aggressive, she's just been stuck in a box for six days and smells twelve different species she doesn't recognize. If we can give her a place that's dark, silent, and about three hours alone, she'll come around."

"How do you even know that?" The instructor asked in awe.

"She told me," Jere said with a shrug.

It wasn't news to Reyna and Elena that Jere could talk to animals and understand them. He'd outright told them that first day in orientation. And during that revelation, he had stressed even then that the difference between talking and understanding the animals, something he would explain at great length to anyone who would listen, was quite important.

Once Jere had provided the necessary communications for all the animals in the transport, the instructor pulled him aside. Reyna and Elena slyly moved closer so they could try and heareverything, the words "rare gift" were mentioned. Both Reyna and Elena smiled at that, and when Jere finally returned to them, and he was grinning.

It was clear and pretty much expected that Jere was meant for this speciality, with or without his special talent. But what came after the practical was unexpected.

And it had nothing to do with Jere, but everything to do with the Coalition animals.

What Reyna came to understand about Jere was that, when he talked about animals, he talked about them as though they were his family. He would speak about them with a tenderness so profound, but also a deep frustration that sharpened as time went on.

He explained to Reyna and Elena all the different species that were going extinct across Coalition space. Hundreds of species across the universe.

Reyna watched Jere's face as he explained this radical inequality happening to the Coalition animals. She watched his eyebrows track further and further in until he displayed full-on disgust, which Reyna could understand when he spoke about how habitats were being destroyed by mining operations, expansion, and neglect at the Coalition's own hands. Creatures were being displaced, ecosystems collapsing, entire biological networks unraveling while the Coalition focused on trade routes and territorial negotiations, basically everything it considered a problem worth their time, which didn't seem to include these poor creatures.

As time went on, Reyna discovered just how big of an issue it truly was. Jere talked about it over meals, on walks through Novahall's corridors, in the hours after training when the three of them sat together. Elena listened, too, seeming to become entranced any time Jere spoke about the issues befalling the creatures. Reyna watched something change in Elena's faceduring the conversations, something new that didn't seem to fit into the neat categories Elena applied everywhere else.

On a rest day, Jere invited them to the habitats. "Rey, Elena, come on. You have to see this. Both of you."

And so, she and Elena went. They moved through the habitats with the same measured attention they were learning to hone at the academy. Reyna appreciated the creatures with respect and care, and the kind of gentleness she could permit herself because it was directed to a place that couldn't hurt her. She asked intelligent questions and even let a small feathered avian creature of some sort perch on her wrist, holding very still while it regarded her with its one bright eye.

But it was Elena that took most of her attention, even over the animals.

Something happened to Elena Voss among those creatures. The creatures there in the habitats, from the small ones, to the fierce ones, the ones that were hurt, and the ones that needed saving, Elena responded to all of them in a way Reyna had never seen. Her face softened and her hands reached out while she knelt beside a small and bandaged creature, and her entire bearing changed.

At one point, Elena caught herself, pulling the composure back on like a coat. But Reyna had seen it. Not the Elena who assessed rooms and filed people into categories. This was the Elena who had a heart she kept locked behind four generations of Voss expectancy, and had just discovered that a room full of wounded creatures held her key.

Later, when all three of them were walking back together, Elena stopped.