Rise of a Valkyrie

Part 41

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"Okay," said a Ranger cadre dressed in camouflage fatigues. "Who can tell me the mortality rate of an expectant mother giving birth for the first time—before the onset of agricultural society? No priests, healers, or village midwife. Just you and your friends in a cave. Any guesses?"

Kayla shivered with excitement while the class of fifty Rangers pondered the question. They were sitting on a grassy field near the edge of a runway. Behind the cadre, a group of airplanes were fueling on the tarmac, and it had become common knowledge amongst the girls that they were going to jump out of them.

Day one of the six-month Ranger School had begun. The dozen immortal warriors that now stood before the class were going to train Kayla in everything she needed to know to be one of the most dangerous women in the galaxy. As interesting as the rhetorical question was, she was impatient to get airborne. Seated beside her, Rose, Thandi, and a few of the others looked pale as they eyed the aircraft.

Christie raised a hand. "One to five percent," she suggested.

"Way off," the cadre replied. "The actual number was fifteen percent. Today, women like you have better odds because you've been raised with good diets and healthcare. But, throughout most of human existence, you would have effectively been rolling a die. Once agriculture and civilization started to develop, the lifetime death rate for all mothers dropped to between five and ten percent. Even an upper-class woman in the Middle Ages, upon announcing she was pregnant, would be encouraged to write her will. Since the revolution of modern medicine about six hundred years ago, childbirth, and life in general, have been relatively safe. That's three hundredths of a percent of the history of the human species.

"So, for a tiny sliver of our existence, an extremely privileged group of people have been able to live free of the fear of an untimely death. Unfortunately, as you have learned throughout your training, this is not a gift—the shelter stands firm because of the people that stand at the edge of it, risking their lives to push the darkness back."

The cadre watched the silent Rangers before continuing. "The business of the infantry is to close with and kill the enemy. That means the enemy will have a chance to kill you. Dice will be rolled. You have endured so much pain and misery because you want the strongest possible odds on your side. While the rest of the world tries to ignore the anxiety of getting on a shuttlecraft to their summer vacation resort, you will crawl through the mud to meet your destiny face to face. For this, you will receive no recognition beyond the respect of the women around you."

She paused as she glanced at her colleagues, then looked back to the seated Rangers. "Deep within all of you is the desire to confront evil and overcome it. We will teach you how to do this, and how to do it better than anything else in the galaxy. Then, when you meet the darkness, you will crush it beneath your boot."

The class was silent. Kayla buzzed with energy. If they told her to jump off a cliff, she would do so without hesitation.

The cadre gestured to the runway. "We will begin by throwing you out of an airplane."

The girls were broken into groups of twelve. While most of the class were led away to classrooms, the other cadre members approached Kayla's group and paired off with each of them. The Rangers were told the basics of tandem skydiving, then fitted with a harness. Once they were all ready, the cadre shepherded them to a large idling airplane and loaded them on board.

The engines roared to life, and the aircraft sped down the runway. Kayla stared through a window and beamed as she watched the world fall away from her until the surrounding hills resembled a model landscape. Opposite her on the plane, Thandi and Rose's jaws were clenched. They looked subdued, though they didn't fail to respond to instructions.