Peter David - After Earth

Instead, she was black and blue for days. Her father was one with his weapon, athletic and graceful as he put on a one-man demonstration of forms until he used the cutlass to sweep her off her feet, letting her fall ass-first onto the hard ground.

He reached down to help her up and finally gave her a smile of approval, something withheld the last few hours.

“I think you’ll do,” he told her.

His rare praise gave her the confidence to apply to the Rangers the next morning.

After completing the two-part training period, she was thrilled as she crossed the stage and received her badge while her father watched. He looked taller than ever in his crisp white uniform. Nothing compared with that feeling of elation, of accomplishment. Their eyes met, and she saw all his love and pride revealed as if for the first time. She couldn’t help but steal a glance at her mother, Faia, and younger brother, Kitai, as they cheered from the second row.

A week later she moved out of the family’s tidy, tiny apartment, preferring to bunk with her fellow Rangers until the time came for a place of her own. She visited the family for meals, and the first time she arrived, she brought her cutlass with her to show Kitai.

After dinner, she put on a demonstration for him, with both parents watching intently. She showed him several of the many configurations of the C-10 model, pirouetting and explaining several of the attack forms she had been taught. He watched with saucer eyes and clapped in delight.

Faia was full of praise, but Cypher pointed out things she was doing wrong, taking her outside to spend the next two hours working with her. She did not take offense at his criticisms or argue but worked intently. This, after all, was how he showed he cared, and she loved him for it.

Now, four years later, she was nineteen and already had been promoted to Ranger, second class. Senshi Raige was on the fast track to commander, determined to do her father proud. More than that, she knew that the moment she took the Ranger oath, she was committing to a way of life that her family had embraced dating all the way back to Earth. While her little brother played, she was immersing herself in the family history, starting with the first Supreme Commander of the Rangers, Skyler Raige II. It wasn’t long after they arrived on Nova Prime before the title of Supreme Commander was retired in favor of Prime Commander. More recently, her great-grandmother Khantun was even the Imperator for a brief time, and now her father was the Prime Commander. Although he might be expecting her to replace him one day, she wanted the job.

Kitai might have tested off the scales in terms of Ranger potential, but he was still young and not interested. Their mother seemed resigned to his entering the Corps at some future point but acted as a counterbalance to Cypher’s infrequent comments about what was expected from him. Instead, the boy was currently excited about the Landing Day celebration, being a typical boy.

She reveled in being a Ranger. She enjoyed being out on patrol, getting to know the city’s nooks and crannies, watching how businesses found new uses for the remarkable smart fabric. The skies buzzed with mag-lev traffic, and the city was thrumming with life.

It had been fairly quiet, giving her a chance to brush up on her piloting. She had expressed an interest in the Varuna Squadron and was taking extra lessons back at command. Scheduled for her first solo flight in a few weeks, she’d already invited Braden to come watch. He might be a civilian, but he was a cute civilian, and they had been dating for months now. Faia had even started questioning how serious they were getting, but Senshi was living in the moment and was not focused on that kind of a future. Not yet. There was time for that. The Raiges tended to marry and start families later than the average person, and she was fine with that. It brought less pressure.

All of that ran through her mind as she put on a fresh shirt and shorts before heading to the rec center. The spacious training and physical recreation facility was deep within the mountain housing the Rangers, kept cool by the natural rock and lack of windows. There were discrete areas for weight training, for calisthenics, and a general-purpose parquet floor for other activities.

She began a light jog around the perimeter, warming up before going out later on patrol. Halfway around, she noticed that Kiara Kincaid, another nineteen-year-old Ranger, was lifting weights on her own. As she passed, Senshi called out a friendly, “Hey, K!” and kept moving. On her next circuit, Kincaid dropped her free weight to the cushioned mat and joined her on the track.

Kincaid was curvaceous where Senshi was lean and muscular, a marked contrast that got remarked on more than once when the Rangers from their class went out drinking. Somehow, Kincaid added a dollop of sensuality to her every movement, earning her more than a few admirers among the Rangers and citizens alike. Senshi couldn’t help but notice their differences because both families measured the other with minute precision. She grew up constantly being compared with Kincaid’s accomplishments and found herself mentally competing with Kiara, whom she genuinely liked, in most everything from bust size to obstacle course times.

“Quiet shift?” Senshi asked her running mate. She was already beginning to sweat.

“Gate duty is boring,” Kincaid answered. “Nothing ever happens.”

“True that,” Senshi said. “It still beats the alternative.”

“Does it? Wouldn’t you rather have, I don’t know, a band of marauders come charging across the desert?”

“You’ve been watching too many vids. There are no marauders. The occasional brigand, sure, but those are crazy solos, not organized.”

“A girl can daydream, can’t she?”

“Sure, and better marauders than Ursa.”

“What’s the matter, doesn’t the OG’s daughter want to take down an Ursa all on her own?”

Senshi bristled at the jibe, not hearing it for the first time. Yes, she was Cypher Raige’s daughter, and yes, he was the Original Ghost, meaning there was undue pressure on her to replicate his remarkable feat. She joined the Rangers because that’s what Raiges did, but did she want to do everything her dad did?

“I’d rather blast them from the sky,” she said.

That earned her a fresh appraisal from the redhead. They continued jogging in silence until, finally, Kincaid asked, “Are you trying out?”

“Already training to qualify,” Senshi said.

“Varuna Squad. Huh.”

Senshi recognized the tone. It meant Kiara Kincaid was seriously considering the Varuna Squadron for the first time. After all, as the latest generation of Raiges and Kincaids to serve in the Rangers, the centuries’ old rivalry between the families was continuing through them. She couldn’t recall how it all began back on Earth, but somehow it endured the century-long voyage to Nova Prime and flourished when the tripartite government was formed. A Kincaid developed the F.E.N.I.X. tech to repel the Skrel, then another Kincaid turned that into the cutlasses they still used today. Raiges kept the planet safe and secure. Members of both families were found in the historic records of the Rangers, the Savant’s Mirador, and the Primus’s Citadel. Both families served Nova Prime with pride, but the tensions rose and fell between the families with regularity. Earlier this century, a Kincaid went down as the worst Prime Commander, supplanted by Senshi’s great-grandmother, who was considered the greatest. And now her father was in charge while the best the Kincaids could offer was a Chief Medical Officer.

Yeah, no pressure on the girls.

They continued to jog quietly as other Rangers arrived to do their own workouts. Men and women began their routines while two were setting up a net for what appeared to be a volleyball game.