Shades of Learning (The Athena Lee Universe Book 1)

by T S Paul

  “Can they help us find the spies? They don’t look like much.”

  Min laughed at that. “Merlin, the original one, was able to hack into several computer systems and find a Cabal agent inside my Father’s house. She had avoided detection for years. The CATT found her in about a week. One thing to note. Once I activate them they are totally independent. I have an officer that I will assign here to liaise with them but they work alone usually.”

  “Do they talk?” Yannos was now peering at the cats.

  “I have no idea. Merlin acts like he could sometimes. Who knows? I did ask the RAU company that question. They have no idea either. The operating system came from Wilson. These here were programed my Merlin. So whether he added anything is still up in the air. Let’s get this show on the road.” She pressed a button on her tablet. As they watched the two CATTs opened their eyes and stood still for a few seconds. They both wore collar’s with an electronic name tag. The one on the left looked at the two humans and meowed. Its tag glowed for a second and now read, Ares. The CATT on the right did something similar except it’s tag now said Artemis.

  “Artemis and Ares?”

  The two CATTs sat up and eyed Minerva. “My name is Major Minerva Lee. Do you know who I am?”

  Both the CATTs looked at each other than slowly nodded their heads.

  “Excellent. I will send you what I know and you can head out. Lieutenant Wilbur Post will be your Navy contact here at the school. Do you need anything else from us?”

  Artemis was pretending to clean herself and ignored Minerva. Ares eyed his ‘sister’ with disdain and shook his head. Both robotic cats jumped off the table and left the room.

  “There they go Yannos. If they can’t find your problem no one can.”

  “Thanks Major, I think. I will let you know.”

  Chapter 8

  It was Lina who spotted them first. We were eating lunch in our usual spot under the trees outside the cafeteria. It was peaceful here and not as noisy. I was reading up on infiltration techniques on my pad when Lina’s lunch went flying with a curse.

  “Bloody hell would you look at that!”

  Picking bits of lettuce and other salad parts off my clothes I sat up. “What, is there a bug on you or something?”

  “No. Look over there! What does that look like to you?” She was pointing at the entrance to the cafeteria.

  I peered at the door and finally saw it. There was what looked like a cat just outside the doorway. “It’s a cat. Those things are all over the place.”

  “Ones that can jump down from a four story building and not die?”

  “No, we don’t have those kind of cats.”

  “Well, that one just did that.” As we watched, the cat followed a fellow cadet into the cafeteria.

  “They will toss it out. That is one rule this place has, no pets!” It was the weekend, so we had nothing more constructive to do so we watched the front door. Cadets came and went but no cat. Finally, the door opened, and the cat trotted out. It sat on the steps and licked its paw. At one point it noticed us watching it and stared back. It finally looked away and walked into one of the hedges and disappeared.

  All weekend we looked for cats. Needless to say we got very little work done. Lina tried researching ‘super’ cats on the net but found nothing but 2d vids called cartoons. I was the one who saw either the second one or the same one.

  I was sitting by the window of our dorm room watching other cadets walk by when I saw it. There was a cat sitting on top of a table in the common area between the dorms. It was scratching at something on the table. As I watched, it appeared to bite something, eat it, then gaze around as if watching to see who saw. As it gazed around, it looked up and saw me watching it. It stared at me as it walked across the table and jumped off. Intrigued, I told Lina about it and we went downstairs to check out the table.

  There were several tables in the common area. The one the cat had been on was the closest to the pathway. As we approached, I could see a hole in the table.

  “Tis, these tables are made out of Titanium. It is one of the hardest metals around. It would take an armored piercing pullet to penetrate it. There is no way that a cat could do this.” She was fingering the hole in the table. I noticed that there was a tiny bit of what looked like computer crystal on the ground under the table. Lina shook her head in disbelief.

  “Tis, super cats do not exist. There has to be an explanation for this.”

  “I guess we are hunting cats now.” We returned to our room but continued to watch for cats everywhere.

  A couple of days later I saw another one. I was in the admin building to check on transfer credits from the Imperial academy. I had written my former school and requested my transcript be sent here. Even though I was a former officer and on a planet that had broken away, they promised to send them to me. I really wanted to opt out of some of my lower education classes. It would allow me to shave at least a year off my coursework here. A Naval officer wearing a strange patterned camo uniform walked out of the lift carrying what looked like a cat. But was it the same cat? The Officer caught me staring and looked away hurrying out the door. The cat he was holding ignored me.

  Lina still thought that super cats existed. She claimed that they grew things really big on New Texas but maybe here they had super cats too. I told her she was crazy. But if the Navy was involved… I was tempted to ask the Commandant since he taught my next class. He would know.

  I didn’t have to ask the Commandant if the super cats existed because I came face-to-face with two of them that night. After our night time adventure I stopped jogging at night for a few weeks. I only recently started doing it again. Tonight I was running the student commons in between the admin building and the student union. The pathway made a perfect loop, and the benches were good for jumping over. I was on my third lap as I jumped the last bench before the turn. As I landed, I lost my balance and fell into the grass. Five feet away were two cats. They were staring at me, their eyes gleaming in the moonlight. If I had not fallen, I would have missed them completely.

  “Hello. Are you Navy cats?” I felt like an idiot, I was talking to a couple of cats.

  The cat on the left swished its tail back and forth and hissed at me. The other one swatted the hissing cat knocking it over. They glared at each other for a moment. The first cat turned and ran off into the courtyard disappearing.

  “You did not have to chase him off like that. I like cats. My parents have several on their farm. I think I have seen one of you three times so far. Are you working with the Navy?” A voice interrupted me making me jump.

  “Cadet Tisiphone who are you talking to?” I looked up into the face of Sergeant Max Greevey. He was the replacement for the old Sergeant. The one I sort of got fired. He was the one who assigned Barney to night shift. This new guy knew me so that was sort of bad.

  “I was talking to the cat.”

  “What cat would that be? There is no cat anywhere around here.”

  I looked around and he was right. Not a cat in sight. Damn. “Sorry Sergeant, I guess I was talking to myself then.” Trying to change the subject I asked him a question. “Out for a stroll Sergeant Greevey?”

  “No.” He said with a smile. “I’m enforcing the curfew. Come along Cadet.” He grabbed my arm and pulled me to my feet.

  “What curfew? We don’t have a curfew!” He pulled my arms around my back and cuffed me.

  “We have whatever I say we have. You are a troublemaker and I intend to teach you a lesson.” He grabbed my arm and began to drag me toward his air car.

  “You can’t do this! I have rights! Help! HELP! Hel…” He zapped me with a stunner and everything went black. I hate those things.

  I woke up in an old fashioned jail cell. This school was mostly new but sat on the site of one of the early forestry camps from the colonization period. Campus security was in the only building to survive the wear of time. It was built like a bunker and still had cells with bars at the back of
the building. I had been under the impression that they were not in use anymore. I was wrong.

  “Let me out of here!” I had been yelling for about an hour and my voice was hoarse and my throat was dry. The thick walls and heavy doors trapped the sounds of my yelling. I sat down on the ancient bed and dry swallowed trying to help my sore throat. Along the walls were field rations, and what looked like a case of bottled water. I refused to eat any of it fearing it might be drugged. I had already tried my link and found it blocked. The Sergeant took my tablet, so I was trapped. I’ve been in a situation like this before. As long as I kept a clear head I should be OK.

  I found out later that a frantic Lina had called campus police after I failed to show up after my run. They promised to investigate. Bastards! They ignored her requests and told her I must have run off with some other cadet. Lina was not the pushover that many thought her to be. She might look like a cave-dwelling-geek but she had a backbone of steel. As she told me on more than one occasion, “Talk slowly, think quickly!” Of course she also liked to say, “don't squat with your spurs on.” She didn’t give up on me. It was the weekend, but she was an engineering student who worked on top secret projects. I had no idea that she had the director of Military Intelligence’s comm number on her tablet. Neither did they apparently. Gotta love my roommate.

  Her recording from her conversations with security eventually made its way to the ears of the commandant. “What in the hell is going on at my school?”

  Sergeant Greevey was surprised to get a visit from both Commandant Yannos and Special Agent Peter Stirling of Naval Intelligence at the same time. After all it was a Sunday and a holiday weekend. School did not start back until Tuesday.

  “Good morning Sergeant. We have something serious to discuss with you.”

  “You do? Sir, if it is the performance of the night shift I can’t be everywhere at once. I mean I told those…”

  “Let me stop you there please. This is about a young cadet who reported her roommate missing on Friday and you have done nothing to help her. You have not even reported it to the local constabulary or Naval Intelligence. Even NCIS isn’t aware of an investigation.”

  The Sergeant began to sweat. Stupid! He should have at least started a report or something. “Sir, what missing person report? I don’t know anything about a report.”

  “Interesting. Then I suppose that this isn’t you on this comm call from Cadet Eberly asking you to find her roommate?” Special Agent Stirling did not look amused.

  “I don’t know what you are accusing me of but I want my lawyer before this goes any further.”

  “If you look at your contract with the school, you might have noticed that you are employed by the Hong Kong Militia not the Landing Military Academy. There is a little known legal definition in our constitution that gives the Militia legal standing to punish its members without going through the court system. The contract that you signed made you a temporary Sergeant in the Militia under the auspices of the commander of the school which would be me. So start telling me the truth or I will convene a court martial right here and the Navy mining corporation will get a new member!”

  “You can’t do that to me! I’m a free citizen!” He was sweating very heavily now.

  “You signed the contract not me. Now, is this you or not?” Both military men stared at the red faced Sergeant.

  “Meow!” Yannos and Special Agent Stirling both looked down together at the cat that was batting at Yannos’ pant leg.

  “Why is there a cat in here?”

  “Meow!” The cat now sunk its claws into Yannos’ leg.

  Yannos bent down to pry the animal off of him when the color of the cat changed to a metallic copper for just a second then changed back. The Special Agent witnessed the change and his eyes widened.

  “OK, I get it. Stop already.” The CATT released the Commandant and began to walk toward the rear of the building.

  “Stirling, keep an eye on him. I am being summoned.”

  “Is that what I think it is?”

  “Probably. I knew this thing would be trouble.” He walked faster to catch up to the CATT.

  At the rear of the building was an armored door. Yannos had helped build this office, and he thought that door did not close. Checking, he noticed that the hinges were new and so was the lock. He was about to call back to Stirling for the keys when the CATT meowed again.

  A thin laser beam projected out of the robotic cat and cut the lock right off the door. With the hole still smoking Yannos pried the door open and entered the ancient prison area. Someone had repaired the cells and outfitted them with beds and bedding. At the far end he found me asleep on the small cot.

  “Cadet Tisiphone? Wake up!” It was not he who woke me up. It was the weight of a forty pound metallic cat landing on my cot that woke me up.

  “Commandant? Thank the Gods of space and his noodleness.”

  “Are you alright? How did you get in there?” I related the whole incident to him.

  “We need to get you out of there. Artemis? Can you take care of the door?” I watched as the cat walked up to the cell door and burn the lock right off it.

  “That is a handy cat to have around. Is Lina OK? She must be frantic.”

  “Your roommate’s perseverance is what saved you. She called the head of Military Intelligence and he called me.” The Commandant walked me back into the main part of the station. The Sergeant spotted me and slumped into his chair. I looked over my shoulder, the cat was standing in the doorway watching me again. Maybe I would finally find out what super cat is really doing here.

  Chapter 9

  Unfortunately, I did not get to ask my questions of the commandant. I was whisked away by medical and evaluated. I had not eaten or drank anything in over a day so they immediately put me on fluids and tested my blood. When they finally released me, Military Intelligence and NCIS took a turn at me.

  So I’m sitting in a chair at a conference table with a large sandwich in one hand and a cream soda in the other. Up on the surrounding monitors was the vid from my link. It’s interesting how they fast-forwarded through the part of me talking to the cats. “Tell us again Cadet. What did Sergeant Greevey say to you? How much contact have you had with the security department? Have you had sexual relations with non-cadet personnel? Did you ask to be locked up?”

  The questions went on and on. Then they started to sound as if this was MY fault! Using my link I fired off a message to CSM Yannos to save me and included a short vid of the questions. Surprisingly, I received a quick response back.

  “Gentlemen you’re done!” The officer in the doorway was unfamiliar to me. The questioners seemed to know him though.

  “Commander Melrose, Sir. We aren’t finished yet. She still could know details about the security forces.”

  “You’re done! Pack it up. The Cadet sent us some of the questions you have been asking her. Expect a review of your practices in the morning. We don’t accuse victims of collusion. Not now, not ever. You too Stirling. You’re out too.”

  The Military Intelligence man did not argue like his NCIS counterpart he just nodded his head and left the room.

  “If you are ready Cadet, I will escort you to the administration building. There are a few people who would like to see you.”

  “May I ask, who exactly are you? I mean those two obeyed you instantly.” I left the remains of the sandwich on the table, let the NCIS guy clean it up.

  The tall officer stopped walking and turned toward me. “I assumed that you knew. Sorry about that. Commander William Melrose at your service. But YOU can call me Billy. I’m the current head of Special Services.”

  “Special Services? What is that? I’ve never heard of that organization before.”

  He stopped walking again. This time I noticed the bodyguard unit walking behind us. “I checked your records, you used to be in the Imperial Navy, correct?”

  “Yes, Sir. I was a weapons specialist Ensign.”

  “That is wha
t I thought. You might be familiar with the ESS? I’m pretty sure they covered what they are at the Imperial academy. Plus you are from here, so you must know what they are infamous for here.”

  I had a horrified look on my face. “Sir…”

  “Don’t freak out Cadet. Originally the ESS worked for the good of the people. Their charter mandated that they supervise and direct the intelligence services. They perverted it and did the investigations themselves creating their own army in the process. This planet’s Special Services is a bit different. We supervise, not control. We operate under the Director of Military Intelligence’s oversight. There are a dozen officers in my group. That is all we are allowed by law.”