He pointed at my ribbon display after we had changed our postures and said, "I do not approve of the theatrics you have just displayed. Landing your ship this way made me put half the planet's emergency responders on alert!"
"Sir, we never exceeded the speed limitations and were at no point endangering ourselves or anywhere else."
"There is a difference between recommended speed limits and keeping your descent at only zero point five percent under the maximum legal speed, Mr. Olafson. However it is always an honor to meet a man so highly-decorated." He kept looking at my ribbon display. "I have not seen many officers, even after a lifetime of service, so highly-decorated. It appears to me you have managed to collect almost every medal and commendation we have on the books before even becoming a commissioned officer."
Wintsun stepped behind him and handed him a PDD in clipboard mode. "Sir, here is the personal file on Cadet Olafson."
Becker took the device and glanced over it. "It appears most of it is classified."
Wintsun responded by saying, "Commander Becker Sir, I know this man, I am sure he earned each of them."
Becker turned. "I have no reason to doubt the President of the United Stars or any fellow officer who recommended these rewards for valor and excellence; I was merely surprised to see a cadet in his third year so decorated. You have met Mr. Olafson before, Cadet Wintsun?"
"Yes Sir, Cadet Olafson and I went through basic together and he is a friend of mine."
Becker nodded and turned back to us. "We do not use the term Midshipman here. You are called cadets. I know you are used to being Midshipmen while serving on a ship, but this is not a ship. Mr. Wintsun is one of the finest cadets that ever came to Newport and I value his opinion. Maybe Captain Harris sent us a group this time that manages to get second place."
In my ears, he sounded just like Lt. Clusen, despite the fact that he was not a Thauran. He said to Wintsun, "See to it that they accommodated and situated."
"Yes, Sir!"
The Commander was returning to the skimmer.
The Saran officer bowed before Elfi. "Your Majesty. What an honor! Is this an incognito visit?"
Elfi said, "I am just a cadet like anyone else, Sir!"
Becker stopped in his tracks and barked annoyed. "Lt. Commanders do not bow before cadets!"
The Saran said,"Sir, they do if in presence of Her Majesty's daughter Princess Elfiatra. I must not remind you, Sir, we are not just in Union space, we are also inside the Saran Empire, and her Mother is the Empress!"
Becker was now clearly angry; I could see the muscles of his jaws move as he was grinding his teeth.
Technically Elfi's social status made no difference in the Navy and we were all the same. But as the Lt. Commander just said, she was the daughter of one of the most powerful persons in the galaxy. Queen Cleotrix ruled over the Saran Empire. The Sarans were the ones that gave Earth faster-than-light technology and the Saran Empire was one of the founding members of the Union. Almost a third of the Fleet was maintained by Saran contribution. Elfi's mother was the undisputed absolute ruler of that Empire. Elfi's heritage elevated her to levels of importance I still could not comprehend, even after meeting her mother.
Elfi suddenly radiated authority that was almost physically detectable and she said, "Your recognition and devotion pleases she who is the Princess. I command you, however, to disregard this aspect of her person. She who is the Princess is a cadet in this Navy and you will act upon her as if she was any other cadet."
The Saran officer did not salute but bowed deeply. "My life has gained much meaning, Your Highness. I am fortunate to gaze upon your likeness so closely and learn that She Who Is The Most Precious has chosen to serve the Union in such fashion makes me proud beyond comprehension. Hail to Sekhet Nefertiti Elfiatra the Precious, Princess to the Saran Empire, second daughter to Her Majesty the Queen Cleotrix the Second." After saying all this he stopped bowing. "It will be as you wish, Cadet Elfiatra."
Our princess was suddenly Elfi again and she smiled disarmingly."Thank you, Sir."
The Commander kept grinding his teeth but he too bowed. "It is an honor to meet you, Your Majesty."
He then boarded his flyer, barked at the Lt. Commander to follow suit and the skimmer left, accelerating fast.
My green-skinned friend Wintsun had been left behind and he flung his arms around me. "It is so good to see you again! I was so sure I would never see you again, damn Viking pirate, after what happened at Camp Idyllic. "
I returned the embrace. "I missed you too, Chlorophyll-face."
He seemed genuinely happy to see me and until now I should have felt the same way, but I could not shake the feeling that there was something odd about his behavior. Did Olia not tell him, or Limbur, his best friend? They knew the truth and tried everything in their power to save me.
Wintsun slapped my shoulder."You know Galmy is here too, and Limbur!"
"That is awesome!" I responded. His news only deepened that strange notion of mine. If they were here, they surely had told him that I had been exonerated, especially Limbur, who was his friend even before he joined the Fleet.
He still smiled and added, "Galmy and Limbur came yesterday with their team from the USS Avalon."
He pointed with his finger at an area beyond the landing field. "We don't have a real spaceport here and usually everyone comes in small craft, but the battleship landed over there and everyone was certain no one could top that, but then you show up in your own destroyer. Landing it like a maniac."
I tried to suppress my suspicion and thought of myself as a fool for even having such thoughts about a friend. I said, "Alsher, let me introduce you to my friends!"
I had just finished introducing my friends to Alsher Wintsun as the skimmer returned. The pilot, a male Garbini cadet from the looks of it, said, "Lt. Commander Apep sends you this skimmer with his personal regards."
Wintsun said, "It appears we don't have to walk the seven clicks to the Academy Compound after all."
So we loaded our gear and the skimmers' arti grav protested with a high-pitched hum as Hans stepped aboard, adjusted it, and off we went.
The surroundings reminded me of the forests of North America I had visited during a virtu class excursion back in basic school. Wintsun explained. "We have all kinds of climates and conditions here; there are deserts and mountains as well as jungles and permanent ice areas. All used for cadet training. Here on the main continent is the main installation of the Academy and Newport City, with stores, shops and the like."
He went on telling us about the planet and the Academy and how hard they trained and how high the standards were of succeeding in tests and training exercises.
While he was talking, the Academy complex came into view. It was a collection of buildings inside an almost sterile-looking park, with lawns, manicured trees and bushes.
The buildings were completely different from what I had seen on Arsenal II, where most of the facilities had been underground. The buildings were made of brickwork, had slanted roofs covered with dark red tile and small windows. They reminded me of Nilfeheim and not a modern naval school. None was taller than three stories. Flights of Duro-Crete stairs led up from paved roads to wooden doors. The flags of the Union, the Fleet and the school fluttered on flagpoles before what I assumed to be the main building.
There were no robots anywhere, no slideways and nothing else that would suggest this was an installation of a tech level eight society.
We stopped at one of the long buildings and Wintsun said, "That is Block C and your dorm will be on the second floor." He waited till we had grabbed our gear and then he showed us the way.
The doors were indeed made of wood and did not slide, but had to be opened manually.
The floors inside were made of polished stone tiles and the walls paneled with wood. A peculiar scent stung my nose, a smell I had not noticed anywhere since I had left Nilfeheim. It was the distinct odor of floor wax.
He led us up a flight of stair
s and down an identical corridor with many doors, just like the one below.
He opened one of them into a simply furnished room, with bunk beds, metal lockers, wooden desks and a number of chairs. There were no auto-beds, no door that led to a shower.
Wintsun made an inviting gesture. "This will be your dorm for the time you are here."
Cirruit didn't sound happy as he said, "This place is so retro, dare I say primitive. These beds are made for humanoids, what are non-humanoids like Krabbel to do? Not to mention these beds will never hold a Saturnian."
"Everything here is supposedly very traditional and designed to instill self-reliance. There are hardly ever any non-humanoid cadets as regulars here. I guess those who are non-human have to cope and find a way."
Cirruit said with a sharp tone in his voice, "So non-humanoid cadets are not considered to be elite material for this hallowed Academy?"
"It would be prohibited to bar any Union member cadet from studying here and all I am saying is I have not seen many non-humanoid cadets. There are some of course. You have seen the Garbini."
I didn't like what was said between the lines, looked around and said, "It will do, we will make it work and we will find a way to make this place as comfortable for my non-humanoid friends as it is to the rest."
Wintsun did not respond to that and changed the subject. "You ended up on the Devastator. I should have known. I expected you to end up here with me."
Now I was sure he was lying, just at the landing field he claimed to be surprised to see me still alive.
He went on, not missing a beat. "You would not have liked it here though; cadets spend a lot of time waxing floors and tending lawns between training classes! Not exactly an environment where you could show your special talents."
"What talents do you think of as special?"
"Oh, being independent, finding your own solutions to things and all that. These are traits they do not like here at all!"
Har-Hi gave me a questioning look as he sensed the edge in my voice, but he then asked Wintsun, "So you are competing in this contest?"
"I won't personally compete, I and my team are in the admin staff and Commander Becker picked me as one of his assistants, but the Newport Team is primed and ready and they are expected to win, of course."
Wetmouth, usually not known to make sarcastic remarks, said with a snappish tone, "It always helps believing your own propaganda, I guess."
Wintsun either did not get it or did not choose to respond. He took a step back. "Look at those uniforms! And you got the Ace patch! Sometimes I wish they had sent me to a ship instead, but it is an honor to be here, and it always leads to commanding. The Admiral who runs this place would not like to see me being friendly to you. He disapproves of the training methods of other academies and is of the opinion it should be him who decides on the training curriculum of the entire cadet training program and not the Ult of Arsenal II. At least that is what he tells us."
Mao snorted. "That sounds indeed just like Stahl described him!"
"You met the Immortal himself?"
Har-Hi crossed his arms. "Admiral Stahl gave Eric command over the Devastator for a while and that is no joke. He even fought a space battle commanding her against a whole Dai clan!"
Wintsun seemed impressed and said, "That sounds like Eric all right!" Wintsun went to the door. "Got yourself the Princess of the Saran Empire no less, you are sure moving up in the galaxy, coming from Nilfeheim and all. Well, I've got to go and tend to other new arrivals." He waved from the door. "Good luck all of you, and it was sure good to see you, Eric. We will have time to catch up after the Challenge, the competing teams are always allowed to stay and celebrate with us after Newport wins. We'll catch up later!"
He left.
Elfi came real close. "Got yourself a Princess, eh?"
"Hey, those were his words, not mine. I haven't talked to him since I left Basic."
She kissed me on the cheek. "Oh don't be so shy, this Princess could fare much worse! I know mother would not mind."
Har-Hi still looked at the open door. "He seems nice."
I was certain he didn't mean what he said.
"I can't help but think he lied to me the entire time, but maybe it is this place that made him that way. He is the same and yet he is different. I guess we both grew up."
Mao slammed his ham fists into his hips and said, "Now what? What are we supposed to do? I am hungry!"
I said, "Let's make this hole livable. Cirruit, you see if you can organize extra mattresses so we can make Hans a bed. Liberate them from wherever you can. Those bunk beds never hold his weight. And take Krabbel with you. Mao you go snooping, intel mission if you will; keep your eyes and ears open and report back in an hour. Wetmouth, see if you can find a local library or something like that and reference past competitions. Let's see exactly what they will demand from us."
"I am way ahead of you on that one, Eric," she said. "I did that already." She then said, "But you are right, it wouldn't hurt to check the local sources."
I looked at each of them and said, "Second place is no longer an option, friends; I begin to understand how Captain Harris feels and without sounding vain or too self-assured, I think we can."
They all agreed.
INTERLUDE: ADMIRAL DENT'S OFFICE
The commandant of the Newport Academy stood on the open balcony of his office, his hands wrapped around the railing. As it was his habit at this time of day, he watched his Cadets run around the exercise yard.
It was an exceptionally well-trained bunch this time and they would only need a little of his special brand of help to win the trophy this year.
He was a short man, especially to Venusian standards, since natives of this sol system planet tended to grow taller than the average Terran human, due to the slight difference in gravitation. It wasn't much of a difference, but over the millennia Venusians grew to an average of 220cm. Admiral Hiro Dent was only 165cm tall, and that included the special insoles he wore. He blamed his parents for not doing anything about it. Of course there were surgical options open to make him much taller, but now his pride did not allow that and he promised vengeance to anyone who noticed his size or even dared to mention it. He strongly believed that his shortness was the very reason he tried to excel in everything.
It was a long road for him to get his first star and to be given command over this, the most prestigious academy of them all; he had kissed every behind there was to kiss, even used bribery once to get past the psycho-evaluation and sold his soul to the Devil. Not the real Devil, of course, but in order to get here he had accepted the help of the Worm and they had owned him ever since.
Sometimes he wished his Academy buddy Swybar had not introduced him to these people, but without them, he would most likely still be a Commodore at Academy Headquarters, constantly overlooked when a new posting as Academy Commandant became available. He had been so sure they would pick him as the next Academy Commandant, but no, they overlooked him again, promoted that stinking fish-maw from Ulta who was younger and had fewer years in the service. They always promoted non-humans over humans when they had the choice. He hated Webb Stokes, the cursed Ult, with a burning passion. It should have been him!
Dent's hands pressed so tight around the steel rail, they turned white with strain even now, as he thought about it.
The Worm was burrowed deep into the Fleet, much deeper back then as it was now and they offered to assist him in obtaining an equally prestigious posting, complete with a promotion to Admiral. He accepted of course.
Admiral Connors, the Commandant of the Newport Academy, had a sporting accident the very next week. The accomplished alpinist loved to climb around in the rugged mountains of Newport North and somehow lost his footing. This accident and a set of completely new evaluations turning up in his personal file finally opened the doors and he was picked as replacement and arrived here almost exactly 20 years ago.
He immediately stamped his own brand of leadership on this pl
ace. He made sure that most of the non-human cadets, no matter how good they supposed to be, failed or left. He carefully selected his staff and made sure they were loyal to him and didn't mind to bend the rules here and there, to assure his cadets would excel above all others.
Of course he was not completely his own master and had to accept the guidance of the Worm. His position was a perfect platform for them to place officers who were connected to this organization in leading positions all over this huge fleet.
His scheme had almost been discovered by a cadet, almost right at the beginning. A cadet excelling in almost every field was sent to him, by the Immortal Admiral McElligott, yet that cadet was too nosy for his own good and could not be persuaded, no matter what he tried, to see the light. He made the life of that cadet a living hell and thought this was the end of it after he dismissed him as unsuitable from his Academy. That this misfit, John Harris, somehow managed a stellar career and made Captain of the Devastator was a burning thorn in his side ever since. Especially since the Worm blamed him, missing a prime chance to get a man of this organization at the helm of the most powerful starship in the known universe.
He leaned over the railing that had been made lower especially for him and smiled to himself; Harris had been Captain of the Devastator now for almost 10 years and sent him his finest Midshipmen to compete and never managed to take home the coveted trophy. That no other team really had a chance against his cadets because he made sure they would win was unimportant.
It was then when he noticed a shooting star; something broke through the cover of the clouds and descended way too fast to be a shuttle. It was also much bigger than the ships that usually landed here.
His mind raced, was it an orbital attack? Did the Nul or someone manage to penetrate this deep into Union space? Of course Newport would be on top of their lists of targets.
Whatever it was, it had disappeared in the distance and behind the South Forest, exactly where the landing field was.
No explosion, no fireball and no rising mushroom cloud.
Eric Olafson Series Boxed Set: Books 1 - 7 Page 49
