I said. "Wintsun is here too."
They both looked at each other and then at me. Olia hugged me again and whispered in my ear, "Yes, we know. We haven't told him anything about you because somehow he has changed. Limbur thought we should be careful around him."
Limbur said nothing but I felt he was troubled about something in regards to Wintsun.
So we shook hands and wished each other luck and they both returned to their group.
Back in our dorm, Hans said, "Now those two were genuine and I am certain they are going to be real fine officers."
Har-Hi nodded. "I think they already are."
Wetmouth sat down at the table and pulled out her PDD. "Was it just me or did you think that Lieutenant who ate with us had something else in mind?"
I was surprised I wasn't the only one who had that feeling and nodded. "I did think so too."
She checked the readout of her PDD. "I scanned him under the table. He has both human and Shiss DNA and he also had an active transmitter of some kind on his body. Whatever we said was transmitted to somewhere else."
I put my finger on my lips and took the PDD from her and typed on it. "Let's check the dorm and our stuff for listening devices and perhaps ourselves as well."
She nodded and showed the text to the others.
We started to discuss ice-cream flavors with Krabbel while Wetmouth and Cirruit scanned the room and us. Cirruit held his hand up, displaying four fingers.
He then took a small device from his belt and worked fast.
After about 10 minutes he said, "The listening devices are neutralized."
I was certain now that Admiral Stahl's feeling that there was Clusen business going on was correct. "Let us record everything from now on, for later reference."
Mao sat down on one of the chairs and shrugged. "Maybe it is just part of a test and we are to find the bugs and do something about it? Security and counterintelligence are part of our training after all."
I had to agree. "You are right, that is of course an explanation and a likely one at that, but my gut tells me otherwise."
"Well, whoever was listening might need a new set of ears. I sent a hyper frequency sound pulse and disabled the filters in the listening devices that would take out such noises. The pulse also destroyed the bugs."
The thought of someone getting a set of bleeding ears after listening to us felt strangely satisfying and I said, "We've got to stay on our toes and I think we should even keep watch through the night."
We were interrupted in our conversation when we all heard a heated discussion just outside our dorm.
We went to investigate and were met by a small crowd of cadets and a Lieutenant in dark green uniform.
A group of nine cadets argued that they were assigned to the dorm we occupied while the Lieutenant tried to explain to them and said, "We have more teams this year than usual and we are out of dorm space. You can sleep outside and we will issue you tents, or stay in your shuttle. Just be here at 06:00 hrs every day during the challenge."
The leader of that cadet team was not satisfied with that and said, "We were dropped off, we don't have a shuttle. Is that how you try to eliminate us even before the contest, by not providing rest and hygiene facilities to us?"
The Lieutenant hissed. "Watch your language, cadet."
That, however, did not intimidate that cadet, who was an Attikan and his team included two Petharians, four humans and three Blues. He responded, "I will lodge a formal complaint with Fleet Command and protest this unfair treatment. Others get dorms and we have to fend for ourselves outside."
I interrupted their conversation. "Lieutenant, Sir, these cadets can use this dorm. Since you mentioned that it is possible to sleep outside or in a shuttle, we have our own ship and we can stay there."
It was obvious that the Lieutenant didn't like to make such a decision on his own, but he could not backtrack on his own words so he nodded. "That will be an acceptable solution to this problem."
The other cadet team, who I learned was from a new branch of the Academy and came all the way from across the Bridge, accepted this as well.
So we vacated the dorm and returned to the Barracuda and all our moods drastically improved the moment we were aboard. Here we were certain no one could listen in on our conversations and we had all the creature comforts one could ask for. Especially Hans, who was glad to have a vari-matic bed that accommodated his enormous body adequately.
Krabbel, who could find a comfortable resting place just about anywhere by hanging from a thread, also preferred an actual bed in which he could adjust to low gravity.
INTERLUDE: ADMIRAL DENT
The short Admiral leaned back in the high-backed chair that had an extra thick seat cushion so he looked as tall as the others sitting there; that his feet did not reach the floor was something no one dared to notice. He steepled his fingers and nodded to Commander Becker, his second in command. "All teams have arrived I gather?"
"Yes, Sir, they are all here now. We have confirmation that the USS Shetland will also arrive later today."
Dent was still calm."We will show those self-important meddlers that we earned the right to be the elite, of course. You had time to go over the files of the teams?"
"Yes, Sir, there are a few that might pose more than a challenge for us this year, but we are working on a few ideas to ensure our victory despite external supervision."
"I'd like to hear more about these ideas later."
The short Admiral looked over the conference table at what he called his inner staff; three women and eight men he had hand-picked over the last two decades and all but two were former cadets at Newport. He had promoted them and given them special privileges. That each of them had almost failed the psych evaluation at the Academy entry exam with a warning note from the psychological examiner was exactly why they were here. Actually, he had developed a little search logarithm that was looking for exactly those character traits in all the Academy applicants and it was those applicants who received an invitation to Newport.
On his right sat Lt. Belinda Morgan, she was a genuine Terran from Earth region Northern Europe. Her psych profile classified her as obsessive with ambition, a general hatred for men, a high level of easily evoked envy at anyone having success greater than hers and an inflated self-image. She was accepted with only one psych evaluation point above the dismissal threshold and with a note stating that her character development should be closely monitored by Academy staff. She was a perfect fit for Dent, as he saw those traits not as a handicap, especially since his psych evaluator back then had made similar observations. He would have failed the exam if his friend Swybar had not introduced him to a bribable records clerk who altered his exam notes.
These traits made them malleable to his ideas and ways of doing things, none of them were stupid and had the necessary level of intelligence to pass the Academy intellect requirements and they were well aware that the things they did for Dent over the years were not just against Fleet regulations but some activities were nothing less than treason or would be classified as capital crimes. Doing these things tied them even closer to Dent.
None of his staff had the usual smug and confident faces they usually had during staff meetings, they all looked worried today.
The news that the USS Shetland was only hours away, bringing the Admiral of the Fleet in person for a close inspection, had traveled fast.
Belinda had spent all night erasing and doctoring files that would not stand up to closer scrutiny.
He sipped at his cup of Venus Sun tea, grown in the first terra-formed gardens of his home world. It was an acquired taste, as almost everything that now grew in the soil of Venus and still had the distinctive smell and taste of sulfur. It was almost a ritual, no one talked while he sipped his tea, and he put down the cup in a measured move and gave Lt. Morgan a sign to give her report.
The woman had, despite all the options available, a weight problem. Of course she did not even consider any of
those options, as she found nothing wrong with herself; she considered the fitness standards of the Fleet oppressive and solely designed to discriminate against her. She had made the decision to join the Fleet because her classmates had made fun of her and told her she would never be accepted.
Belinda filled her uniform, stretching it to its limits. Usually she loved to give her report and sound important and efficient, but not today. Her eyes shifted back and forth between her notes and the Admiral. "I have done what you asked me to, our main data bank now shows a malfunction and all the internal files have either been lost or adjusted."
Dent played with his cup and looked at her. "Well if that is the case, why do I get the distinct impression you are not telling me everything?"
A red shade flushed over her round cheeks. "While doing that I noticed someone had been in the archive section of our cadet library and downloaded a considerable portion of these files."
Dent's facial color changed too and he paled visibly. "How can that be? Those files should not even be accessible from the library and they are encrypted, are they not?"
She said, "Whoever accessed the system at the library ran a very sophisticated and customized search program. All Computronics are connected, Sir."
Dent inhaled slowly. "Sophisticated and customized, does that mean a spy perhaps of NAVINT or CID tried to gain access?"
She shrugged her round shoulders. "Our chief Computronic analyst is of the opinion that this someone had made up that program on the fly and tailored it exactly to our system parameters. He also reports that this individual broke into our encrypted files in less than five minutes. According to him, that should have been almost impossible."
Dent's blood pressure was rising. "Do we know who did that?"
"There were only six cadets at the library at the time this happened. There were two of ours and four of the visiting teams." She looked to Lt. Gorham, the Security Chief. "David checked the files of all four."
Dent simply gestured to the tall man of Glen Planet and he responded. "All four are the science specialists of their teams and all four have considerable computronic skills, but only one of them has a Level 12 intellect, holds four PhDs in computronic-related fields and declined an invitation to join the Mastermind Society of the Science Corps to become a regular Union Fleet Science Officer."
Dent waved his hand with disbelief in his face. "Nonsense, you checked the wrong files. There has never been a cadet in the Fleet with a Level 12 intellect, they are immediately snatched up by the Science Corps and no one would decline an invitation to the Mastermind Society. Four PhDs? Those are young cadets, they would have had no time for that!"
The Security Chief of Glen Planet looked insulted. "I triple-checked. The cadet in question has nine PhD titles and works on her tenth right now. It does not take years if you go straight for the dissertation and it is accepted by the scientific peer. Cadet Wetmouth, the Sojonit of the Olafson Gang, declined that invitation three times already."
"You are telling me that Sin whore, that somehow managed to become a Fleet cadet, is that smart that she broke into our encrypted files and made copies?"
Lt. Gorham spread his arms. "I am saying that this is the information I got from her personal files. I triple-checked with Fleet Personnel Central and they confirmed that. I am not saying she did break into our files because whoever did it left no evidence. But she is the most likely one."
The Admiral leaned forward. "What exactly did those files contain that she might have accessed?"
Belinda answered, "Your search logarithm that preselects possible candidates, your notes of previous challenges you wanted us to keep, the altered accident reports from the past 20 years and the personal files of all Newport staff."
Dent asked, "Why has this all been kept in the first place?"
The head technician of the Academy, Lt. Caro, felt addressed and answered, "Sir, our main Computronic is directly linked to Fleet Command and to Nelson, the machine's base programming cannot be altered by us without Fleet Command knowing. Since we had to alter files and personal records the only workaround was to create a second set of files and isolate the real files in an encrypted location. The altered files were sent to Fleet Command while the real ones were kept, but no official records can be erased without raising alarm bells."
Dent cursed silently and then said, "So how did you get rid of those files then, Belinda? Did you not report to me they were gone?"
"We did the only thing possible and physically destroyed the memory bank of our system. This too will cause Fleet Command to investigate and they will send technicians, but in the light of the upcoming visit of the Admiral of the Fleet we had no other choice and we came up with a way to explain the damage."
The Academy Communication Officer, an unusually silent man said, "I just received Fleet news and the Devastator is on her way as well. She will arrive during the final challenge. That also means Admiral Stahl will most certainly come for a visit as well."
Commander Becker was the only one who somehow still believed he was a good Fleet Officer, but the news that McElligott was coming for an inspection had him wake up to the reality of things. "Maybe we should simply come clean and give ourselves up. I prefer McElligott and fair court martial proceedings to what Stahl might do when he comes and finds something suspicious. The Admiral of the Fleet we might be able to fool, but I am not at all confident we can do the same to Stahl."
Everyone looked at him as if he had lost his mind and Dent hissed, "Don't worry about Stahl, worry about what I will do to you if you don't shut up."
Even though he tried to appear confident, he actually contemplated the very same thing after he had talked again to his special friends. All their contacts aboard the Devastator had fallen silent. They did not know why Cadet Suppor did not show up as planned or how Olafson and his gang managed to escape what they thought was a certain death trap.
Dent then said, "We have nothing to fear, we just have to be careful. This is Newport, we know this planet and the training facilities better than anyone and we will utilize our knowledge and our skills to ensure that our team wins. As long as we don't give them an obvious excuse to investigate, we are fine.
"Those Immortals stick to the rules and as long as they don't have evidence of anything there won't be any problems. The Sojonit will have an accident and that will solve the problem of the copied files as well."
***
We all had a good night's sleep and used one of our own cargo skimmers that was part of the destroyer's equipment to fly back instead of walking. We were told to join all the other cadets in a large assembly hall with flags of the Union hanging from the ceiling, where I estimated perhaps 600 senior cadets had gathered.
There were no chairs, everyone was standing. At one end of the assembly hall was a raised platform and a lectern with the Newport Academy logo.
I saw an Admiral coming in. I assumed it was Dent, the Commandant of this Academy and he immediately approached the lectern. He was human and while he was not exactly a dwarf he appeared quite short. Admiral Dent climbed on something behind the lectern.
I also saw Admiral Webb Stokes; he was standing on the side with a dozen other high-ranking officers.
Everyone had been called to attention as he entered the hall. Music began to play and we all sung the Union Anthem followed by the Fleet Song. After that the Admiral nodded to Becker who was standing behind him.
The Commander now had us switch to parade stand and Dent began his speech: "Welcome to Newport. I am Admiral Dent and I am the Commandant of this Naval Academy. You are all here to compete for the Reagan Trophy, which is the most prestigious award in our Fleet. Every four years the finest senior cadets converge here, display their skills and knowledge competing, and thus help to revaluate the training procedures of our academies. For over 20 years, since I was chosen to be the leader of this, dare I say, elite school, our cadets have won this contest. While it is no forgone conclusion that Newport will win this year, it is
nevertheless almost certain. So to all you who visit us and compete, let me say that your very efforts are noted and respected and there is no dishonor in coming in second.
"Now I have the privilege to give the stage to none other than Fleet Admiral McElligott himself, who is joining us for the first time to observe you all."
Commander Becker stepped forward and said with a magnified voice, "Everyone, attention!"
Dent stepped down from the lectern and the Admiral of the Fleet walked in from the side, almost tripped over something behind the lectern and pushed a stepping stool aside. Even though we were all at attention, there were a few suppressed giggles. Dent's face turned visibly red.
McElligott raised his hand and said, "At ease, Midshipmen, cadets and fellow officers, at ease!" He waited a brief second and then continued. "Like you, I have listened to the opening words of Admiral Dent. His address was heavily laden with pride and confidence in Newport Academy and past results, we all applaud his dedication and look forward to experiencing these extraordinary results first-hand.
"I am here to wish you all the best of luck, each and every one of you have earned my personal admiration and it lifts my heart to see teams from ships, Fleet installations and academies from all corners of our Union compete with each other in this traditional, friendly competition. Each of you has shown to be on top of your peer group and I am convinced you all will become fine commissioned officers of which we can all be proud.
"May the best team win, regardless of where it came from!"
I had watched Dent while McElligott delivered his address. When the Fleet Admiral mentioned that he wanted to supervise, I noticed Dent's eyes twitch and I knew he was not at all pleased about that.
McElligott concluded, "This year will be marked as the first, where an independent commission of Academy commanders and command-level officers assist Admiral Dent and his staff in the daunting task of evaluating and testing you all, to quench any notion of bias and prejudice and assure everyone these are fair and forthright proceedings."
Eric Olafson Series Boxed Set: Books 1 - 7 Page 51
