Petra Arkanian

Ghosts

2012-12-02T02:39:47Z

Petra is happy to take some time away from the school. She doesn't know what day it is; it really doesn't matter when you're in space. The only time that mattered was when the next game was, and when the lights went out.

But she's here for now, and feeling tired. The fireplace was unusual and so she finds herself near it more often than not. She's even small enough to curl up on one of the chairs and fall asleep.

Something causes her to awake and be on edge right away. There is something near her that wasn't there when she fell asleep. She looks up to see a woman she didn't know. She wasn't in uniform, so she must be a patron of the bar. So far her experiences have been that so long as you're polite, other people are polite back. She yawns, and sits up. "Ho."

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A new confidant

2012-11-17T22:54:09Z

Petra Arkanian has been in an out of the bar for a few weeks now. She's met some people, and had some conversations that are forcing her to look at everything she's taken as par for the course with a new light.

For one: The teachers. They were so careful all the time. The instructors stuck to their topic to the exclusion of all else. There were no friends between the students and the teachers, though, of course their were favorites. There were some kids that the teachers obviously thought were better than others. The classes. There was nothing covering the normal topics that regular students would learn. Everything centered around the game, and eventually around life after the school. Occasionally students just disappeared, their destinations listing their homes. They'd iced out- they couldn't make it. New waves of launches arrived eery few months, kids that now looked so tiny as to be unbelievable. Anger began to blossom in her thoughts as she looked at all of those kids. Most of them wouldn't make it to the final commands. Some just there to fill in the spaces- placeholders. And yet they were having everything taken from them. Family, regular experiences. And everywhere, the faces of the teachers. Former fleet commanders, none the best that humanity had to offer, and none that cared what they did to the kids they brought.

And yet, Petra still wanted command. As she and Bonzo continued to clash her game got better. The isolation of the army served one good thing- she got plenty of practice at skills that kept her apart. The respect she gained was won though grit and work. She was a dead shot in the battleroom, and accounted for herself well enough.

The order to stay away from other soldiers continued to build her isolation.

"I'm Dink."

The voice broke into her thoughts. She's in the game room playing a solitary game, and had managed to shut out the rest of the room. Petra's avatar dies as her attention is diverted to the voice that is speaking to her.

"And you're Petra, Salamander Army." It's no surprise he knows her. There's only so many girls here in the school and even though there was little to distinguish her, the boys always knew.

"And what's it to you?" She shoves away from the game, her arms crossed. There's a belligerent look in her eye, and she takes a step forward looking him up and down. The boys always wanted to test themselves- just because she was different.

"Nothin. Figgured we should talk." Dink is shrugging. "You no buy into this crap more than anyone else. Someone with sense shouldn't be ignored."

"What you mean?" They slip into the slang of the school. It's now that Petra notices that their corner of the game room has few people in it.

"Them teachers- you no like them more than anyone else." Petra rolls her eyes as he says this.

"Like I'm dumb enough to say somethin, ain't you got something better to do then talk crap? You like ice that much?"

The boy laughs. "They don't care if we shits on them. Just win that's what they want neh?"

He makes sense. "'sides it an't like you got nothing to loose, being bugger bait for loony Bonzo Madrid." Petra rolls her eyes.

"And you with Rose de Nose, ain't anyone loonier than him."

Dink grins at Petra.

It's a start.

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Relaunch III

2012-10-14T05:03:07Z

“Luter is an idiot.”

Petra stands toe to toe with her newest and most recent Toon Leader, continuing an on going argument about their commander. No matter that she is being insubordinate, someone should call it as it is. The toon leader is about to pop his top when Petra rolls her eyes and turns back to her bunk thinking: It's like talking to a brick wall. Not only does Luther, commander of Spider Army, have a pathetic win-loss ratio (middle of the pack), his toon leaders are just as uninspired.

She flops down on her bunk and flips out her desk. There was school work to be done, and anything was better than listening to the break down of the last battle.

Ping!

A message pulls up that makes Petra’s frown grow to an epic angle. Ah shit.

Assigned Salamander Army. Commander Bonzo Madrid. Code Green/Green/Brown.

Did it have to be Bonzo? Even if he was turning out a better commander than Luther, he still annoyed the hell out of her. He believed he was the best, and walked around with so much crap swirling around him, it was amazing no one had asked if the sewer words on-board weren’t broken.

Between Bonzo Madrid and Luther? She’ll take Luther any day.

Petra gathers herself up and without a backward glance makes her way to her new army.

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Relaunch III

2012-06-25T03:28:31Z

It has been three months since Petra joined Spider army. In that time little has happened. She has made no friends in the army, though she did meet one boy from another army called Dink Meeker. It was in her nature to ignore others, and considers her time to be special.

Petra earned a reputation of being good, but lacking experience. She follows orders, but always spoke out. Her sarcasm is biting and tends to put put others on edge.

Spider had just lost a battle because Luther had sent them to a badly defensible position. Petra had tried to tell someone, but she'd been told to shut up and do it.

Upon returning to the barracks Petra threw her towel onto the bed.

"Idiots! Who in the hell sends the whole army where there is zero cover? Is incompetence the only thing Luther knows?"

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Relaunch III

2012-06-18T05:48:10Z

[Background: Petra has fallen very far off canon, and though I love her dearly as she is, I would like to put her back on. For this Bonzo Madrid-mun and me are going to experiment with restarting Pet. These threads will occur before the book Ender's Game when Petra is serving in her first army. Many of the details I am making up, due to the fact that the cannon does not expressly state these early details of Petra's time in battle school. I hope to keep in character who she will become when she first meets Ender.

Petra holds the paper slip in her fingers. She'd reread it several times but rereads it again.

Spider Army. Red-White-Red. Commander Luther.

She'd been close to the top of her launch group. It wasn't surprising that she received her orders at seven, though she fully expects her launch mates to get promoted within the next few months also. There weren't many females on the ship, which means she has to be the best. Better than the best. Only problem, her mouth kept getting her in trouble. There were enough males on board with egos larger than the whole station, and Petra sees it as part of her military duty to shoot them down.

Luther doesn't have a reputation of being an arrogant cuss, though she'd heard rumors of other Spiders who did. Petra squares her shoulders and draws herself as tall as possible. She'd teach the Spiders to respect her, no matter her sex. Her places her palm on the pad and the doors swoosh open.

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In the interim

2012-06-16T04:20:13Z

The crutches dug into her armpits as Petra navigates the hallways of the hospital. Her leg was encased in a cast from knee down, the left over of her accident with the kid and bike. Such a stupid accident.

A black car blocked the cross walk, and Petra glares at it for making her life just that much harder to get to the cab that she had called to take her home. The door opens on the black car and a man gets out in one fluid notion. Petra feels more than sees the side arm under his coat. She doesn't think twice, and dives sideways, her broken leg hitting the floor hard enough to make her head whirl with pain.

No guns go off, and she looks up into the face of a stern stranger. Behind him a face she does know exits the vehicle and looks down on her.

"Help her up." The man in black picks up the cruches and offers Petra a hand, which she takes.

"I'm don't suppose you're going to let me get into my cab are you?" The face just smiles and gestures mockingly to the car. "You know, they'd kick you out of office if they knew how much of a bastard you are."

Peter doesn't say anything, just smiles as the car takes off.

*~*~*~*~*~*

"I'm going back." Petra is trying to make her argument, but her leg is propped up on a chair, making her argument that much less compelling.

"They recognized you, which means if you want to continue to live there, you're going to have to come out as the real you, and that's not a risk I'm willing to let you run."

Peter sits across from her at a desk, doing paperwork while they talk. After a moment he looks up to see her simply glaring at him. Her arms are crossed across her chest, and she looks more like a sulky child than a child-genius who participated in the annihilation of an enemy race that was technologically more advanced.

Petra watches him sigh and put down his papers. She's aware of what she looks like, but at this point doesn't care. The leg didn't hurt as much as a majority of the things that had happened to her, but it did hurt, and she was tired, and more than a little annoyed at being faced with the one person she would rather never see again.

"I have a job for you, if you're willing to take it." Petra instantly shakes her head.

"No."

"You can't tell me you're happy at your paper shuffling job."

"I'm not going back to the military."

"Your nightmares are still happening aren't they?" Petra looks away from Peter, and bites her lip. "I heard about how you lost your first job." She'd punched a male co-worker who had haplessly stepped to close to her when she had her back to him, then kicked him while he was on the ground. He'd ended up with a black eye and brusing across his chest before someone had pulled her off of him.

"You're not going to get any better unless you deal with it- and you can't do that outside of the Hegemony. " Petra's mind flashes to the bar- if she wanted help, there were psychologists there who wouldn't have to keep an identity secret. "However, if you take the job I have you'll get to actually use your skills, and I'll provide someone to help you start dealing with it."

Peter stands and moves towards Petra, going to lay a hand on her shoulder, but she flinches back. "Let me help."

She shakes her head and he sighs again and moves back to his desk.

"I've frozen your bank accounts." This makes Petra sit bolt up, glaring at him.

"This is bull Peter. I don't work for you, and you don't own me." Peter ignores her and points at the door.

"I've had a room set up for you so you can think over my offer."

"I don't need to think, I need you to let me go."

The door opens and is held for Petra to leave.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"What's the job?" It has been three weeks. Unlike her forced captivitiy with Achilles, Peter wasn't her enemy. He didn't want anything from her, and deep down Petra knew that. What he wanted, was to get her help. The nightmares still happened everynight. She woke up screaming more often than not, and her side gun had disappeared. Petra has a feeling that it was taken on purpose. No matter how much he might trust her, Peter had to look after his own people.

"Working with my military intelligance teams analyzing data for possible threats. It's right up your alley, and you don't have to do anything you don't feel comfortable with. You'll still have to go in under your fake name, but I will have someone who will know your whole story that you can see to start dealing with the PTSD."

Her eyes stay fixed on him. He was the Hegemon, of course he knew about what her last skrink had said, what the dianosis was. It doesn't make her like it any less.

"Fine. But I want to be able to come and go as I like." Peter nods to this. "And my money back." Again, he nods.

"And I want to leave. Now." He doesn't look surprised as she adds this particular request. He picks of a set of papers from his desk and holds them out to her.

"Welcome to the Hegemony Lara."

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