by T S Paul
“What am I looking at?”
“Just wait for it.”
As we watched another blond woman came out of the building and stood next to the other one. I shook my head to try to clear it. I was seeing double! “Why do they look the same?”
“Those are the Double D’s! They are the new legends in the maintenance community! Rumor is they helped Commander Lee on the Freedom stop the asteroid! They have been involved with all the new tech advances of late. The man they are talking to is Commander Waldrip from the Miner’s Union.”
“Miner’s Union? That is one I don’t know.”
“They used to be called the space rats or troids as they call them back home. They unionized and are trying to change their names. They are the asteroid miners and smelters. A large amount of the metals and materials that we have been using lately come from them. The League voted to include them as full members. The commander is on loan to teach a few classes. He is really awesome! He is the Chief Engineer at BMM. They make circuit boards and build tablets for half the galaxy.”
“I’ve heard of them. Weren’t they called some kind of fruit before?” I really had heard of them.
“Yes! They used to be MyPeach but when the union joined the PPL, they changed the name. Something new I guess. He taught our class today, and it was awesome!”
I pulled her away from the doorway and into the cafeteria. “Come along fangirl. I’m hungry and we both have more classes today.”
As we opened the inner door a wave of sound rolled over us. The cafeteria was full of people and they all seemed to be talking at once! We grabbed trays and got into line. Once we had our food, we found a mostly empty table and sat down.
“Tis, that girl over there is staring at you!” Lina can whisper but to me it sounded like a shout.
“Tis? Did you just shorten my name?” I stared incredulously at her.
“It’s shorter and short is good.”
“Says the short girl.”
“I’m vertically challenged. Stop changing the subject. Who is she and why is she glaring at you?”
I glanced over my shoulder and saw Sarah Nevins staring at me. Sighing I turned back to Lina. “She is a girl from my weapons and tactics class. Her primary study is Intel but she thinks that she doesn’t need to know how to shoot to do her job. The Sergeant teaching the class kicked her out, sort of.” At her questioning look I explained the whole lecture and conversation.
“Well, watch out for her. She is giving you the evil eye.”
“I will, thanks. So other than visiting Navy commanders how are your classes?”
“Awesome! I have free build and design first thing in the morning, followed by production and thought taught by Commander Waldrip. After lunch I have a free work period then technical drawing and mathematics! That should be a fun class.”
Math and technical drawing would only interest an engineer. Give me guns any day. I smiled at my roommate. “If you say so Lina.”
“What do you have the rest of the day, Tis?”
I made a face. I’m still not sure about a shorter version of my name. “I have two classes left. Special Operations which is also called ‘Dirty Tricks’ in the syllabus and Survival Tactics. The dirty tricks class is being taught by the commandant since he is the expert. For me that will be fun!”
“It sounds like we both have a lot to discuss later tonight. I have to go, my fingers are just itching to get started on a free design. I have such a great idea! Catch you later Tis.” She dumped her tray in the bin and ran off to her class. I watched her go and looked over to my left. Darlene Merriman was watching me. I could almost see a question in her eyes. Unlike Nevins, she gave me a short nod then got up and left. Behind me Nevins was still glaring at me. First day of class and I have a both a potential ally and enemy. Way to go Tis!
The rest of the day’s classes were as awesome as I thought they would be. Dirty Tricks was lots of reading and lecture. I now have a two hundred page paper to write due at the end of the semester. In the other class there was a practical scheduled half way through that sounded really interesting. All-in-all a good first day. Checking my schedule I could see that I had a few short hours before the dinner bell of free time. The one building I had not as yet been to was the student union. It was a large building with multiple floors. The directory out front claimed that inside were student offices, library, a lounge, cafe, and cadet run vid station. It sounded like fun and a way to keep cadets out of trouble in the city. I took some of the informational fliers and jogged back to the dorm. I was sure that Lina would be involved with a project and needed to eat.
Chapter 7
It took several weeks to establish a routine. Eat, sleep, study, became the normal routine for both my roommate and I. She was getting less and less sleep as the many projects in her study group took control of her life. To keep the school work from taking over her life, I put Lina on an exercise routine. My exercise routine. Since we could not run the course, we began by jogging around the campus. I have a sort of course laid out in my head that weaves its way around the main buildings.
“Tis. Stop. Please. Stop.” Lina was breathing so hard she sounded like a pre-space locomotive. Or that wolf that went after the pigs. I chuckled at the image of her trying to blow a house down. She would use explosives or tech of some kind.
“Lina are you OK. You look out of breath.” She shook her head and gave me a rude gesture. Movie night was the day before yesterday and they showed some ancient 2d movies from Old Earth. How they got them is still a mystery. Even to the school officials. The vid was called Animal House. It was about out-of-control college students. Even after two days many of the cadets were still quoting it. Several of the gestures and sayings have already leaked into common use.
“You do this to me on purpose don’t you? Don’t answer me because I know the truth. You love to torture me.”
I laughed at her. “I’m saving you from yourself. Those instructors of yours are working you to death. You need a break from science land. I thought about it and figured exercise was the solution.”
“So instead of not working I am out here, in the middle of the night sweating my ass off.”
“Yup! Fun isn’t it?”
“Yeah, fun. How much more of this fun is there to go?”
“Just a bit more. Around Hero's’ Hall, the administration building and back to the dorm.” She looked bad. I should have started her on something easier.
She looked up at the moons, “It is currently around three in the morning. It’s good we don’t have class in the morning, or I would be upset with you.”
“You really need to teach me how you do that.” We were now just walking the course. The admin building was completely dark, but the path was lit by moonlight and easy to see.
“Do what?”
“That trick you do with the moons. You are the only person I have ever met who could tell time that way.”
She stopped walking for a moment and turned toward me. “It is really easy. If you know the position of the Sun, you can estimate the position of the Moon. The Sun is usually one-hundred degrees opposite the Moon. The light from…”
“Stop, stop. You lost me at position of the Sun. Tell me later with maybe diagrams and a small child to lead me through the math.” We laughed about that for a few minutes. The front of the admin building was lined with large bushes and flower gardens. At this time of night the moonlight made it very beautiful. It was my favorite part of the course.
“Tis? Is there anyone in there this time of night?” She was pointing at a light glimmering through the window. We both stopped walking and peered through the bushes. On the second floor of the building a light was shining. As we watched, it bobbed to and fro.
“Lina! Someone is in there robbing the place!” I quickly called security with my link. I knew that this time of night there was only old Mike Jones in the security office. Everyone on campus called him ‘Barney’ for some reason.
Officer Jones w
as actually asleep in his air car out by the lake when the call came in. When he took this job, he braced himself for wild parties and other college debauchery. This was a Military Academy and that sort of thing was left at home. He now worked the night shift where it was peaceful. There was barely any activity or cadets to chase at this time of night so he could be found in out of the way places asleep in his squad car.
Ding. Ding DING! The soft then loud ding woke ‘Barney’ from his nap. “Campus security Barn.. I mean Officer Jones speaking.”
“Barney! Someone is robbing the admin building!”
“Cadet Tisiphone is that you? If this is another attempt to get me to chase you…”
“I did that once! I’m serious. My roommate and I are out in front of the school and we can see the lights of someone moving around inside the building!”
“OK, you two get to safety somewhere. I’ll check it out.”
I thought of something and called him back. “Barney! Don’t use the sirens you will scare them off!” In the distance I could hear the siren of his air car. So much for tact.
Still hiding in the bushes we saw the light go out and two hooded and black covered people ran from the building. I started to chase after them but Lina grabbed my arm. “Don’t Tis, they could be armed or something!”
Officer Barney showed up lights flashing and sirens wailing. If half the school wasn’t awake by now, they must be dead. We both pointed in the direction the figures ran. “Barney! Barney! That way!”
The diminutive officer climbed out of the air car and came over to us. “What are you saying?”
“They went that way!” We both pointed.
“What are you saying?”
“Officer, we saw two people run that way.” He looked at us and jumped back in his car. He tore away in his patrol car, waking up the rest of the school. Lina and I eventually sat down on the front steps to wait for someone to come talk to us.
Sometimes the world can be very unforgiving. You pull one prank! One! And no one believes you anymore.
“Commandant Yannos, I swear to you by the God’s of my ancestors that I saw lights up on the second floor and when Barney, I mean Officer Jones, came howling up two black-clad people ran out the side door and went that way.” I was pointing in the direction of the auditorium and gymnasium.
“Cadet Tisiphone, the prank you pulled on Security during the summer has made us not want to believe you. However, Cadet Eberly backs up your story this time. I have ordered a search of the building.” He turned his piercing gaze toward us. “Be prepared to have a similar conversation with Military Intelligence very soon. This has now become their case. Now, I believe the two of you have classes? Dismissed.”
As we walked away Lina leaned in towards me and speaking low asked. “What did you do this past summer that has them so upset?”
“I was bored. Remember I moved in here this summer? So beyond the Course, I had very little to do. Most of the main buildings were still under construction. The library was sort of open but much of the available media was not here yet. I’ve never been a huge fan of the net or VR. So I sat around a lot and watched the daily routine. Security watching became a pastime of mine. I had been given keys to the student union so I could access the vid rooms. So I thought up an epic prank that would really screw with them.”
“What did you do? They really don’t like you!”
I smiled a sly smile at her. “I waited until they ‘officially’ locked up the Student Union for the night. After they left, I unlocked the doors and turned on all the lights. A short while later another officer came by. He called on the radio and then went in and shut it down. I waited a bit and reopened it and turned on the lights again. The next officer by was the Chief. He called all the officers in and yelled at them. The first two swore that they turned it all off. So they all went inside to check.”
“That does not seem that bad.”
“I wasn’t finished. While they were in the building, I painted over all their headlights and cut the connections to the police lights.”
She snickered. “That is still not that bad. What did you do?”
“Have you ever heard of Space adhesive spray?”
“You didn’t? That stuff is crazy sticky! You could spray it on a car and glue it to a building and it would hold. They use it to do emergency repairs on ships!”
“I sprayed all the seats in their air cars. They got into the cars and drove off.”
“What happened?”
I laughed. “They had to cut the clothing off of them. The chief and all of his men were buck-assed-naked. It was pretty funny. They traced the key use back to me and reprimanded me pretty good. Still it was funny.”
“It sounds funny. I can see why they are mad.”
“Since then I have done nothing. They actually got in trouble for leaving their cars unattended. So, anything I do leaves me suspect in their eyes.”
“Oh, I see. Is that why Barney got out of his car rather than chased the thieves?”
“Pretty much.”
We hurried back to the dorm and changed for class. The day went as usual until our lunch period.
My link dinged with a noise loud enough to rattle my brains. Checking my tablet I found a message all lit up in flashing red. “Cadet Tisiphone report to the Commandant’s office, immediately!”
So much for lunch. I hurried to the office and found Lina sitting on the couch looking worried. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know, they snatched me out of class and dropped me off here.”
“Who snatched you out of class?”
“That would be me. Or at least it would be those that work for me. If you ladies would join us in Commandant Yannos office please.”
I swear I did not hear the woman behind me approach until she began to speak. I turned and looked at her. She was Major Minerva Lee, the Commander of Freedom Station.
As we sat in the chairs provided, I looked over at Lina. She had big eyes, she obviously knew who was meeting with us. Yannos and Major Minerva sat on one side of the table and we the other. Her very large, hulking bodyguards stood at the door and tried to be invisible.
“You two cadets are quite the problem.” At our wide eyes she corrected herself. “Sorry, you are not in trouble. I misspoke. You have brought to light something which has us worried that’s all. Someone was bugging this office last night. That was what you witnessed.”
“Ma’am, why? We aren’t active duty yet. We don’t know anything.” I puzzled me.
“Since you room with Cadet Eberly here I will tell you this. The engineering department here does do lots of experimental technology trials. It is cheaper to use students than hiring someone. Also we do train Special Forces here too. Someone must think it is worth the trouble.”
“Can we ask if they found out anything?”
“As far as we can tell they did not. But they did put listening devices throughout the offices.”
“They bugged the offices? Wow!”
“I have a special anti-surveillance team coming to the school. They will get to the bottom of it all, don’t worry. Now for the reason I, as you called it, ‘snatched you out of class’ is that I wanted to thank you two. If you had not been outside, they would have gotten away with it. So thank you. Don’t tell anyone about it. I can make it an order but I think we can trust you two. Go on back to class.”
The Major’s goons allowed us to leave without an escort this time. As we left the building a military vehicle was pulling up and two Navy Officers were unloading two small boxes with handles on the top. Our classmates asked very few questions when we returned to class. My reputation had gotten around, apparently.
“Is this them then? Athena introduced me to Wilson before she went to Mars. He is a sneaky little devil.” Yannos was peering at the two metallic boxes on the table.
“Did she tell you about his alter-ego, Wilson Theai? That ‘little devil’ as you call him owns the best disco club on the planet. He is also the m
astermind behind Athena’s RAM robots and these.” Minerva pressed a button on her tablet. There was a whirring noise and the two boxes opened up revealing two copper-colored robots, shaped like house cats.
“These are CATT’s. Robots-Are-Us calls them Counterspy Anti Terror Termination units. Personally I think they are both a blessing and a nightmare all in one. Wilson created these when Athena told him he could not have a real pet. They eat surveillance and most foreign electronic equipment. They can track down infiltrators and are able to defend themselves fairly well. Those are the upsides. The downsides are they are cats. Wilson loaded the original one up with every real cat vid he could find. He also put a bunch of Old Earth 2d vid called movies in it too. They are AI’s of a sort. Once activated they are independent. They will take orders, but like real cats they have a mind of their own.”
