Chapter 1

1

Summer of 2272 CE in an urbane area of North America, just inland from the northwest corner of what had been the United States of America

“That should be all for today. You’ve done very well.”

Sensei Jayanta DeKendran placed her hands together, palm to palm, and bowed to her students as they bowed to her in old-world reverence.

“Arigato,” she thanked them in the language of the discipline. The students thanked her in turn. They turned to each other, bowed, and then happy banter started softly as the twenty students started toward the locker rooms.

“Anna,” Jayanta called to stop one of the students in the class. The student, a woman of just over thirty years, with medium length, medium brown hair, stopped and turned back to her.

“Yes, Sensei?”

“May I speak with you for a moment?”

“Of course,” Anna replied, walking back to her teacher. “Is something wrong?”

“Just one small thing. When you move to your left, you leave your right side unprotected.” Jayanta repeated the move as Anna had done it so that Anna could see her mistake. “You need to turn back and guard that side. Bring your shoulder forward just a bit more.” She demonstrated the correct move.

Anna repeated the correction. Jayanta stepped forward and repeated the move to reinforce it. They both repeated it several more times.

“I see what you mean, Sensei,” Anna said with a smile. “It’s just the same as that old kata. I’ll work on it for next week. Thank you,” Then she corrected herself and used the old Japanese word of appreciation. “Arigato.”

“Arigato gozaimasu. Now please, do practice. You’ll be testing for your next belt in two weeks.” Jayanta watched as her student’s eyes opened wide.

“Really? I’m not sure I’m ready,” Anna said nervously.

“Then you’ll have to work extra hard, won’t you?” Jayanta raised one eyebrow in a sly questioning expression.

“Uh…yes…Sensei,” Anna stammered. “I will.” She sighed in resignation.

“I think you’re more ready than you realize. You’ll do fine, but you’d better head for the showers. Don’t you go on duty in an hour?” Jayanta smiled for the first time in the session and patted Anna warmly on the shoulder.

“Yes, I do. Thank you again, Sensei.” Anna bowed once more, turned, and headed for the locker room.

She works much too hard, Jayanta thought as she watched Anna walk away. She’s much too serious. Just like my sister used to be when she was in her twenties.Jayanta chuckled to herself as she reached for her gym bag which contained her street clothing. She laughed aloud. Good goddess!I must be getting old. That was twenty years ago.

Her sister, Kailyn, was five years older than she was but had always viewed life much too critically. She worked very hard and very long and was always the one anyone turned to if they needed help. She was always ready to help, many times at her own expense. Jayanta was glad Kai had changed, at least a little.

Jayanta sat down on the mat and bowed her head. Yes, just a few moments to relax, and then she’d be ready for the rest of the day. She counted slowly to forty-nine in groups of seven, took seven deep breaths and was on her feet again.

As she picked up her duffle bag, she looked back into the dojo, really an older warehouse in use by the security forces for physical training. She’d been teaching here for the past year, ever since she’d attained the highest level black belt. It was the first indoor job she’d had that made her happy. The outdoor air with sunshine was the place she’d rather be working. Maybe in the spring, if she could finally gather the credits for her own training facility, she’d be able to do some training outdoors. The open air would benefit the students and provide free advertising as passersby stopped to watch.

She took out a towel and a clean set of clothes and tossed her bag onto the upper shelf in one of the small casings in the locker room. Quickly she stripped off her gi, hung it on the hook on the inside of the casing door, and put her clothes on the lower shelf.

She walked into the shower room. She usually waited until her students had gone to take her shower but she had a lot of errands to run today.

As she entered the shower room, she found Anna and another student, Chell, discussing something that seemed to disturb both of them.

“And no one knows what caused it?” Anna asked.

Her companion shook her head.

“No, it was totally unexpected. By the time we got more security forces there, it was totally out of control. They ended up arresting fifteen people.”

“Is something wrong?” Jayanta asked as she took her soap out of its container. “Fifteen people are quite a lot.”

“Most of them were released this morning,” Chell answered when she realized who had asked the question. “I think only three or four were detained for litigation.”

Anna started to explain when Jayanta’s expression told them she had no idea what they were discussing.