Seven

If the mail Diur had received had been for him, Kon didn't know. She didn't speak about it and when he quietly alluded to it she would gracefully pretend not to hear him until he dropped the conversation. A prickle of unease grated on him about that exacerbated by over the last three days they were tested in numerous ways. From stretching to agility drills to textbook knowledge. Kon didn't like the knowledge portions of the testing as he suddenly found himself near the bottom of the class. Mathis had become a near constant, the older man finding them and often coaching them as they worked their way through the tests.

Kon had known his knowledge was shallow, but the sheer breadth of it he was supposed to understand had boggled his mind at first. Not only was it basic squad formations, rune knowledge, and weapons skills, there was also biology, xenobiology, political matters, human history, and so much more. He fell flat on his metaphorical face every time he submitted his holo scores.

Jurgen wasn't in charge of those tests, but every time they returned to the gymnasium after taking them, the man's disappointed frown followed them through their workouts. Knight Jurgen hadn't said anything yet about the poor scores, but Kon could feel it growing and had a feeling he might hear from the stern Knight after the test they had just finished.

"I don't understand how I know more about human foreign relations policy than you do," Diur said as they walked under a hatch on their way to their morning workout. The last test had been particularly brutal for Kon, asking about a series of formal treaties that the World-ships had signed with specific systems and how that affected Knightly contracts.

"On the colony we were more worried about starving to death than stuff like this. Tell you what, we should take a test on hydroponic farms and food production and I bet you I'll do a lot better than you," Kon replied testily. The smell of sweat signaled their arrival at the gym, interrupting the conversation before the clanging of metal reached their ears.

"This is the only place I feel in control." Kon had started to develop a fondness for the gym, especially as his strength increased. His body had been filled with energy after leaving Crucible and his nodes continued to draw energy from his body to repair his muscles. In combination with the balanced diet the Knights were feeding him, he was growing rather dense, his body looking more sculpted every day.

Diur wasn't experiencing as much of a change in body as he was, but the plentiful food and exercise was changing her from a thinly, leanly muscled, woman into a healthy looking athlete. She hadn't said a word about her change, but Kon had caught her a few times looking at herself in the mirror, taking in the rapid changes that were occurring.

"It's a good thing I don't plan on becoming a farmer then," Diur said, chuffing in amused laughter as they entered the gym. Jurgen's dark eyes were already glowering at Kon as he made his way into the room.

"CADET!" Jurgen's voice boomed through the room, the few squires working out all pausing as every eye tracked to Kon. The weight of the judgmental gazes hit him as he stood there flat footed as Jurgen marched toward them, every step increasing the furrow in his brow until it looked like a valley on his forehead.

"Sir!" Kon barked, straightening as the muscular Knight reached them, staring Kon down as he leaned in to whisper.

"I have met some dumb fucks in my day, cadet. Absolute void heads who were teethed on the stupid tree. BUT I HAVE NEVER!" The sudden roar rocked Kon back as Jurgen's face darkened further with rage.

"MET ANYONE WHO LACKED THE MOST BASIC UNDERSTANDING OF HIS OWN PEOPLE AND STILL HAD THE AUDACITY TO NOT KEEP THEIR HEAD BOWED IN SHAME!" Every eye was now locked on them, faces blank as they stopped their lifts and stood with rigid discipline, leaving nothing for the enraged Knight to pick at.

"I've seen your results and you better thank every deity known across this sprawling universe that you are good at picking heavy weight up over your head, because you are the most ignorant bastard I have ever met. There is a reason that cadet's don't have a surname. That reason is so their stupidity does not bring shame to their families. I sometimes forget why they implemented that rule, but you are a shining example of why the rule was implemented." Jurgen stalked away from him, looking around at the rest of the squires in the room.

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"Be blessed for ignorance is not stupidity. It is a disease and there is a cure. A bitter cure to be sure, one that involves long nights of study, of admitting to one's weakness and asking for someone to aid them in banishing this rotten disease. So tell me cadet, are you ready to be cured?"

"Sir, yes, sir!" Kon barked as fast as he could. Jurgen was looking dangerous as he stalked around the gym and whatever good feeling Kon had had about entering the gym had been destroyed by the Knight's impromptu speech.

"That is excellent to hear!" Jurgen said, a predatory smile on his face as he looked at Kon. There was a cruel excitement in his eyes as he walked closer to them. He reached inside of his pocket and pulled out a pair of headphones, offering it to Kon with one hand.

"This has the complete history of the World-Ship government on it starting with the exodus. It is nearly five thousand hours of recorded content. You will listen to all of it starting now," Jurgen said. He turned to look at the treadmills behind them and pointed at them.

"Cardio today. I want you to maintain a seventy second kilometer pace."

"How far sir?" Kon asked, grabbing the small earbuds and holding them in one hand.

"Until I say you are done," Jurgen said, spinning on his heel and leaving them behind as he looked over the rest of the gym.

"Does this look like a social hour?" Jurgen bellowed and everyone leapt to get back to their workouts, leaving Kon and Diur by themselves as they mounted their personal treadmills.

"You know, this isn't what I was hoping to do today," Diur commented as they started to slowly increase their pace. Kon just grunted in annoyance as he put the headphones in, a dry academic voice coming out nearly instantly.

"The remnants of humanity had found themselves organized by geographical, ethnic, and cultural norms that no longer applied in the face of the Great Exodus, instead they began to…" the voice continued on as Kon let his face drop toward the black belt under his feet as he ran.

Jurgen relented after nearly an hour. Both Kon and Diur were sweaty, gasping, messes, neither of them having been able to maintain the brutal pace the Knight had set for them, but neither had quit. The older man had been grudgingly happy about that, letting them off the treadmills to recover with a series of gentle stretches and breathing exercises until both of them were ready to collapse.

"Those are yours now. Here's the case, just put it on any type of charging port and you'll be fine," Jurgen said, passing off a cheap plastic case to Kon as they were leaving.

"I will be testing you on the first ten hours tomorrow," Jurgen said as they left and Kon felt his shoulders droop as they left the gym to hit the showers and dress in clean fatigues.

"Do you really hate learning that much?" Diur asked as they left the area and had some semblance of privacy. The showering area was just a series of opaque stalls, completely recapturing all the water that was used for the showers. Kon had seen more advanced setups in holos, but it was a reminder of just how old the dreadnought was.

"No, I don't. I just hate being told to do it," Kon said. They stepped into their individual stalls and the material darkened, making it impossible to see each other, but talking was still easy.

"I just don't see the point of it. I'm going to be a Knight. A fighter. I should be learning weapons platforms and fighting styles and tactics, not why the founding of the Admiralty matters to me," Kon said, a trace of bitterness in his words as he stripped the sodden clothes off of himself and placed them in a chute on the back of the cubicles, shoes and all. It all disappeared, the chute closing shut with a metallic clang. His limited personal effects went on a slight ledge on the back of the cubicle.

A jet of water hit him, stripping him of the salt and slick sweat as it all slid off of him. The water lasted only for a half minute before turning into a soapy mixture. Kon used his hand to rub the mixture across his skin as fast as he could before it switched back to water for a full minute.

Hot air buffeted him, water stripped free in seconds as Kon was left mostly dry, the entire process taking less than five minutes. All of the water pooled and dropped down the slightly concave floor, draining away in seconds. A wave of bacteria killing U.V light flashed over him, Kon hardly closing his eyes in time as the bright lights flashed.

The chute tray flashed and a new set of fatigues appeared in the tray, a pair of shoes along with underclothes available. Kon took a few minutes to dress, the fatigues fitting him just as well as every set had. There was some type of measuring going on in the showers, allowing the basic A.I in to keep him dressed correctly.

Diur took a second longer to leave her cubicle, tugging on one of the soft shoes that they wore in the heart of the ships. Heavy duty boots were required outside of the living quarters area, but all the visitors currently on the dreadnought were dressed in matching fatigues and shoes.

"Ignorance is a darkness that can cloak threats. If you don't understand how your own people work, how will you be able to tell others? You will leave yourself vulnerable," Diur said as they continued their conversation without hesitation. Kon repressed a sigh as they made their way back to the center of the ship and their quarters. He had a lot of learning he had to do.

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