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Star Force: Nemesis (SF3) Page 8


  Megan glanced around then answered for the others. “Nope.”

  The medic moved on, taking her anti-numbing injections to those who needed it.

  Behind them an unfamiliar man walked out of the doorway and approached Neira.

  “Well done,” he congratulated her.

  “Thank you, sir,” she said with a muted smile.

  “You adapted well, especially with the trainees’ unexpected request. Your mission score will reflect that.”

  Neira nodded then turned and waved gently to Megan and the others as she left with the man, passing by a grumpy trainer waiting in the shadows on the other side of the door to log out the trainees after they were all tended to and flag the course for cleanup.

  Paul and the others were revived to the view of a blue landscape, which at first seemed to be a side effect of getting stunned. When their heads cleared enough to look around they realized it wasn’t their eyes at fault.

  “Did we win?” Paul asked when the others walked down to join them.

  “That we did,” Megan said, offering her hand to pull him up, “by a whisker.”

  “How close did he get?”

  “About thirty meters,” Dan said, walking over and helping Jason up. “Nice job with the diversion. You kept him busy longer than I thought.”

  “That was the idea,” Jason said, rubbing his chest and wincing in pain.

  “Cracked rib?” Paul guessed.

  “Oh yeah,” Jason confirmed. “But worth it.”

  “We’ll get you fixed up inside of an hour,” one of the medics hovering nearby assured him.

  “I’ll tag along,” Paul added, walking out with his teammate. When he passed Megan she leaned over and whispered in his ear. “Your girlfriend did well.”

  Paul paused and leaned back. “So much for the dumbness of blondes,” he said, returning her sarcastic kiss from earlier and walking off with Jason and the medic.

  “We finally beat him,” Emily said, stepping up beside Megan.

  “Escaped him,” Megan corrected. “But yeah, it’s definitely a long overdue victory.”

  “You think he’ll be extra pissed next time?” Emily asked, cringingly slightly.

  Megan blew out a raspy breath, feeling her elation mildly deflate. “Probably.”

  The 2s went back to the shower/equipment room, got cleaned up and headed off to lunch, after which they had another Dino class and, aside from Jason, got in another two hours of training time, followed by two more hours of individual challenge work.

  Victories, as they’d learned long ago, were never an excuse for laziness or its twin, celebration. Victories were to be stepping stones to even greater skills and abilities, and were best followed up by new challenges.

  As the old sports slogan went:

  Losers quit before they win...

  Winners quit after they win...

  Legends never quit…

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