Chapter 30: Tour
"Yeah. I'm sorry I didn't tell you before you came down here. It slipped my mind, but that's no excuse." Kate said in an apologetic tone as she looked at Solis. But, Solis's eyes weren't focused on her. Instead, they were focused on Arbus.
"I don't care about that," Solis growled. "What I want to know is why a half-Human is now a Renegade."
"Why in the Emperor's name would the Council allow something like this?!" she shouted as she gestured at Arbus, who simply stared at the instructor silently. Her eyes softened for a moment as her gaze fell. "Especially after..." Her words trailed off as she gritted her teeth in rage.
Eventually, she glared at Arbus one last time, then turned away from him as she stormed off into the facility.
Kate watched her leave with a somber gaze. She turned to the trainees a few moments later as her eyes surveyed them.
The prince, Jet, sported an apathetic expression on his face—his opinion of this facility now a few notches lower than it was before. His reason why, though, was anyone's guess. Rin stood at the far end of the trainees' line-up, her eyes filled with pity as she watched Solis's retreating figure. Alexander just seemed annoyed.
Kate's eyes met Arbus's last. She did her best to stop herself from frowning, but did anyway, before looking away.
"I want to apologize to all of you for this incident," Kate said, drawing the attention of everyone who wasn't already looking at her.
"I can assure you that something like this will never happen again," she declared with a small bow towards the trainees. Considering the fact that she towered over all of them, it was a bit hard for the cadets to call it a bow.
"I want to, once again, welcome you to our training facility. We promise to do our very best to turn you into Renegades worthy of the title of knights." She paused, considering something for a moment, then deciding against it.
Then she turned to the Mornan who had entered the room with her. "Instructor Dutch, can you handle things here? I need to take care of other matters."
"Of course, leave it to me, Bo—instructor Kate," Dutch replied with a nod as he pushed up his glasses.
"Thank you," Kate replied as she strode out of the room and towards the lounge to find Solis.
***
Dutch had no complaints about Kate handing over her responsibilities to him. He understood that she probably needed to calm Solis down right now, before she did something she would later regret.
She had a promising future despite being a red Mornan, after all, so they couldn't let her ruin it by questioning the orders of those she wasn't supposed to question. Not for something like this. Or more precisely, someone.
Dutch stared at Arbus coldly for several moments.
He was the cause of what was probably the most stress Solis would experience in her entire life.
It wasn't everyday a Renegade ran into a human, after all.
Solis had just believed that she was preparing herself for death and condemning everyone in this facility along with her. He knew the guilt, fear, and hatred she must have felt in those moments would be indescribable. It was only natural that she would be frustrated by the current events.
"...Follow me," Dutch ordered eventually as he turned to the door leading into the facility. The trainees did as he asked, with some difficulty. Most of them wanted to keep a wide berth between themselves and Arbus for now, after such an explosive reaction to his presence. They were once again unsure if he was actually just half-Human.
Since he was in front of them, they trailed behind him like a swarm of locusts. The only exceptions were Alexander, Nota, Rin, and Jet, who just followed along with steady steps—either not minding Arbus being beside them or doing their best to ignore him.
Dutch glanced back, making sure they were all following. He frowned when he saw the distance between the five closest to him and the others, but didn't bother to comment as he opened the doors in front of him.
The trainees stared around in wonder as they arrived at the first area of the training facility. High above them was a glass ceiling, similar to the one in the entrance, although far larger. From it, they could see the storm cloud high above them obscuring the brilliant glow of the planet's three moons. The fact they could see an almost imperceptible sliver of moonlight reflecting on the glass simply meant the storms were calm tonight.
The room itself was a large hall painted in silver and yellow coloring. A podium stood on a stage to the west, with hundreds of seats bolted to the ground in front of it. Clearly, it was an assembly room. Given the number of seats, Dutch was sure that the trainees would come to the conclusion that it wasn't just for them.
There were several Renegades in charge of keeping the base afloat moving about and staying busy by chatting about random topics with their colleagues.
Most of them barely had to do much a large portion of the time, so they often found different ways to stave off the boredom. That was unless, of course, they were in charge of overseeing the arena.
Right now, Dutch was certain they were discussing the sudden lockdown.
"This is the main hall of the facility," Dutch said suddenly, addressing the trainees. He gestured to the stage and podium. "It's where you'll all be assembling whenever there's an announcement or important event."
He continued moving, not willing to waste too much time on this tour. They went down the corridor leading deeper into the facility as Dutch gestured towards a row of closed doors as they passed them. "This is the med bay. The cafeteria. The general lounge. The bathing area for the females. The bathing area for the males." He paused, glancing back at the trainees for a moment. "...don't mix those last two up," he said with narrowed eyes as he continued walking.
Several members of the maintenance team glanced in their direction briefly as they passed by. A few of them were even perceptive enough to notice the half-Human among them—causing them to run away in a panic.
Dutch realized they would need to do something about that later, so the staff wouldn't end up shooting Arbus in fear. He found himself considering if that would really be such a bad thing, then immediately drove those thoughts away. It wasn't his place to think about something like this. All he had to do was listen to his orders and get promoted. As long as there was no danger, he didn't want to get involved.
Finally, the group arrived at another corridor with several routes to take.
Dutch pointed down one of them. "That's the combat training area. There are rooms for training hand-to-hand combat, close-range weapons, long-range weapons, and practice bots. They are all open for you to visit at all times."
A lot of the trainees let out groans of surprise and interest as they peeked down the corridor, including Arbus, whose eyes seemed to gleam. They noticed the doors were also closed for now.
Dutch pointed down another one. "Down this hall is the utility area. It has rooms where you'll be required to train various skills. A pilot room. A gym fitted for every species present. A civilian management training room."
He remained silent for a moment, a slight frown crossing his features. "And a mental training room." He turned, noticing the confused looks on the faces of the trainees trailing behind the five upfront, and decided to explain more. "It's a room where you're placed under the effects of a machine capable of creating imaginary scenarios in your minds. An illusion of sorts. But one that will feel very real to you in that moment. It's an important factor in your training that you need to take very seriously," he said in a grave tone.
Then he adjusted his glasses again as he placed his hands behind his back. "And that's it. The entire tour of the places in the facility that you need to know. Everything left is just your dorms, which you'll be escorted to after getting assigned to one, and the rooms off-limits to you."
Dutch glanced to the side, noticing Nota's raised hand. "Yes?"
"Aren't we... going to go into the facilities you're showing us?" she asked hesitantly.
Dutch's brow raised slightly. "What's the point of that? All you need to know is where the rooms are. You'll all visit these places yourselves at some point, anyway."
"Well then, if that's all—" Dutch paused as he realized something. "Oh, wait. I suppose... there's one more place I haven't shown you all just yet."