Shades of Learning (The Athena Lee Universe Book 1) Read online

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Authors Notes

  Copyrights

  Other Books set in the Same Universe

  Bonus Short Story

  Chapter 1

  This had to have been the hardest thing I had ever done in my entire life, and yet here I was doing it again. That is what I kept telling myself as I climbed to the top of the Slide for Life yet again. This was the third time I had run this crazy obstacle course. Command Sergeant Major Yannos Thoukudides told me that Special Operations graduates needed to run this course in under 15 minutes to graduate. Special Operations officers are nuts! Which of course is why I, Enyo Tisiphone, want to be one. The course is excessively brutal. But from up here it doesn’t look all that hard.

  The course itself is about a half mile long. It begins with ten feet of parallel bars followed by the tires. The tires are linked together on the ground and you have to run across them alternating feet in each hole. Then there’s a low wall to climb followed by a high wall. Then a low crawl which is a wood and barbed wire trench to crawl through. It’s rumored that on the advanced course they shoot at you as you pass that section. If you aren’t tired by now, climbing the twenty-five foot rope cargo net will take care of that for you! Balance logs, Hooyah logs, and a transfer rope complete the tortuous course. The list goes on: twenty different obstacles in all. There was at least sixty feet of sand to run through between individual obstacles. How anyone could do it in less than fifteen minutes was mind blowing. It took me an hour the first time.

  So, finally, I get to the top of the Slide. This thing is a four level wooden platform with a rope slide that you have to climb - not actually ‘slide’ down. Sitting on the edge I can see most of the new Landing Military Academy from here. This was going to be both a challenge and an adventure for me. This is my second time doing something similar to this. I’m a native on this planet and when I turned seventeen, I went off-world and joined the Imperial Military. I was first sent to the basic officers school, and they made me an ensign. My first deployment, ironically, brought me back to my home system. Our ship was hijacked, and I helped to free it from pirates. In the aftermath I had a chance to visit my family on Hong Kong.

  Shocking was not the best word to describe what condition my family farm was in. The local Imperial Governor had raped the land around my family's farm. A casino and brothel now occupied what had been the lower forty acres. The land had been ‘seized’ for the good of the state by the governor. His cronies owned the new businesses. My family told me horror stories of poor farmers or homesteaders forced off their land with taxes or farm levies that took the food from their children's mouths. The policies and practices he put in place had eventually touched off a revolution following a massacre at a protest rally. My family informed me that I lost two of my favorite cousins during the Farmers Union Day massacre. Hearing that caused me to resign my commission and return home to my people. I was still a trained weapons officer, but that is not what I wanted to do with my life anymore. But CSM Yannos approached me and asked if I would consider joining the local Militia and attending the new Academy as a cadet.

  That is the real reason I’m up on this tower. If I complete the three year Academy and graduate, I can apply to the Special Operations School. If this crazy course is an example of what is to come, count me in.

  ~~~

  Command Sergeant Major Yannos Thoukudides watched his recruit as she sat atop the obstacle course tower. She had grit, he had to give her that. Not many new recruits would come back day after day and try to run this thing. He smiled to himself: the course was designed to be brutal. Special Operations forces had been using similar courses since the American SEAL program on Old Earth during the twentieth century. It was a good way to sort the chaff from the wheat. He could tell she was testing her limits by running the course. The new Landing Academy would be using the course but students would not have to run it in fifteen minutes or less like the Spec Op troops. Former Ensign Enyo Tisiphone was a tough kid. His operatives witnessed her performance during the fight with the pirates on the Paney. She showed initiative and an underlying toughness that was surprising in an Imperial officer. Many of them only did what was necessary. Volunteering was frowned upon in the Empire. That fact alone was what first brought her to his attention. The new Hong Kong military needed people like her in it. She would be wasting her life working the family farm - and they’d be losing a valuable recruit. Everything was in flux at the moment. Now was the time to get the planet’s youth focused and trained. It was going to be a good first year!

  Chapter 2

  This crowd was just crazy! There with had to be at least five thousand people in the stadium. Fighting my way through the masses of people I finally managed to find a place to sit way up in the nosebleed section. Most people avoided this section of the stadium because of the way it was constructed. Over half the seats were located behind support pillars or obstructions. This stadium had been a gift to the people of the planet over a hundred years ago from a little known religious sect from the Camp system. They were know as the Church of the Obstructed View. They made it their mission in life to bring the sport of gridiron football to the galaxy. To facilitate this they built stadiums all across the galaxy free of charge to every planet they came to. The Church had a few followers still on the planet: we had religious tolerance after all. But football never caught on here. This was more of an air-hockey or anti-grav polo planet.

  The seat I had found was not obstructed. It had been years since I came to this stadium. My parents even brought me here for a few of the COV religious ceremonies. The shoulder pads and helmet regalia were not really to my taste and I still don’t know all the words to ‘Bear Down.’

  From my location I could see the podium and the dignitaries pretty well. Using my link I tuned into the proceedings and brought the picture up on my tablet. This was the event of the year for Landing City. The new Landing Military Academy was the first construction to be built here since the last Interstellar War. This was truly our planet's own achievement. The old Academy had been located out on the South coast. The Imperial governor had it demolished in the name of progress.

  “Can I have everyone’s attention, please?” Governor Roy Stoner repeated the question until the crowd settled down. “I would like to thank all of you for coming to the grand opening of the New Landing Military Academy!” The roar of the crowd was immense.

  Laughing, the Governor made quiet motions with his hands. “Thank you, thank you! You have no idea how grateful I am to all of you and to the Militia of our wonderful planet! We pulled together in times of hurt and pain. We have achieved so much in the past year. The revolution broke the back of the Governor’s forces and freed the planet from his tyranny!” The roars from the crowd were even more deafening.

  When the noise died down he continued. “Many of our heroes are here behind me. Colonel Alexander Lee, the head of the Planetary Militia, his daughter Minerva Lee, the current head of Freedom Station, and Athena Lee, the hero of Freedom Station and the War of the Rock!” More cheers and crowd noises followed this announcem
ent.

  I strained my eyes to get a real glimpse of Athena Lee. She was a hero of mine. I had met her on the Paney but I doubted she’d remember me.

  The Governor then introduced the other officers behind him including Command Sergeant Major Yannos, the new Academy headmaster. Lots of controversy over his appointment. The fact that he was not an officer was brought up a lot. But he had the support of the entire Militia and he was the only Special Operations commander left alive after the last war. The Imperials don’t use them. His supporters always brought up that he and his people founded their own colony way out on the Lost Peninsula and trained all of their people in special operations on their own. He was a natural leader and teacher.

  “I would like to thank Commander Athena Lee and Chief Engineer Tadeusz Kościuszko for their assistance with building the wonderful new Academy. Each officer had input and helped design many of the buildings that students will be using. The school will be open to the sons and daughters of any Hong Kong resident. We are also offering scholarships to students from some of our allied planets. Many of the graduates will go on to become officers in the New Militia or space forces protecting our planet. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the New Landing Academy.” He swept his arms upward and a large hologram was projected in front of the podium.

  The hologram was very lifelike. The detail was amazing. Who knew that this planet had this sort of capability? I had not seen something this nice since leaving the Imperial Space Navy. The hologram stayed up so that many could get a good look and then it dissolved into nothingness. The Governor ended his speech and many from the crowd mingled and talked about the new school. I watched the officers on the stage. Their bodyguards were obviously waiting for the crowds to disperse before allowing them to move.

  ~~~

  “Commander Lee, thank you again for helping to construct the school. Tell that friend of yours Mr. Theai thank you too for that wonderful hologram. I have yet to meet him. Let him know he has an open invitation for a round of golf sometime.” Governor Stoner shook her hand and moved on.

  “Wilson, I’d like to see you try to play golf with that hologram of yours. It would be pretty funny.”

  “I might surprise you one day.” Maybe he could play one of the RAM robots. “I will think of something and show up one day. Might surprise him.”

  “Don’t scare him too much. He’s the best Governor we’ve ever had.”

  “I won’t. Speaking of going out, my new club is almost finished. I did promise to get you and Dar tickets to it.”

  “You still have not explained to me exactly how you managed to build that or even pay for it.” She felt more than a little perturbed at the thought.

  “I might tell you about it one day. Is this all we have to do?”

  “It’s all I have to do. You can disappear if you wish. Don’t forget that in the morning we have to stop by the publishing house and arrange for those books for the new tech schools. You said that you wanted to see what a book publisher looked like.”

  “Yeah, that should be fun!”

  “I know your brand of fun! You have to promise me that you will not cause any trouble. No burning the building down or breaking his machines. I mean it Wilson! Those new trash compactors are looking pretty good up on Freedom Station.”

  “I promise Athena! I won’t break the machines or set the buildings on fire. I promise.”

  “OK, good. Go play if you like.” Athena left the stage with her sister. All the while muttering about insane computers.

  Chapter 3

  Today was moving day. I kissed my parents goodbye again as I started another new chapter of my life. For me this was round two for the military. Last time I left when I was barely seventeen. Everything I read about the Imperial Military Academy proved to be wrong. My first week I was homesick and a fish-out-of-water on a strange planet. All the training they gave me was sub-par. It was geared toward the lower ranking, non-advancement roles in the military. Turns out the Empire did not like colonials all that much. That was ironic considering that we all were colonials. That doesn’t matter much now. This is my planet and our school. Time to make it ours for real.

  There were four dormitories scattered around the campus, I was in Revolutionary hall. It was located at the end of the campus between Spaghetti and Rigatoni. The local Pastafarians raised a full fifth of the funds used to build the campus. It was only fitting that a few buildings be named by them. The fourth dorm was to be named Freedom. It was still under construction. When it was completed, it would house third-year students. I was excited that the obstacle course was located near my dorm. I will try to run it everyday. Everything was within walking distance, or depending on what class you have, running distance.

  Curriculum was very different from what the Empire offered in its facility. Here it was assumed that we knew language and mathematics. Hong Kong was a progressive planet in that basic education was required of all citizens. Many of my classmates would have already fulfilled their mandatory service requirement or were active duty. That was another difference between us and the rest of the galaxy. On our planet there was a mandatory Militia service requirement.

  The Hong Kong planetary Militia was based on a tradition of service to country the former Israeli colony ship captain espoused. The Colony founders used the military models created by his former country and the Swiss armed services. Military service became compulsory for all seventeen-year-olds. The crews from three former colony ships formed the cadre of what the militia was to become. The militia itself was made up of less than 3% of the population. The rest were considered auxiliary or conscripts. The auxiliary members had all taken a seven week basic training course and had four weekends a year muster meetings. Over 80% of those aged 18-50 were a part of the planet’s militia auxiliary. Most considered it an honor to serve. Members were allowed to take their weapons home, making our planet one of the safest in the galaxy.

  Basic military instruction was exactly that here at school, very basic. Most of my soon to be classmates already knew how to put on a uniform, salute, and clean a rifle. What we did not know were the tactics, advanced military knowledge, and leadership skills. The youth of this planet was a resource that needed to be trained and this school intended to do it. To me it was a stepping stone to my career. I wanted to be that girl who went on to do something great and helped to protect her planet. Now if I don’t hurry, I won't be doing anything. It’s the first day and I am almost late for the Commandant’s speech!

  I just made it! Panting from my run I took a seat at the back of the room. CSM Yannos saw me slip in and gave me a slight shake of his head. That man and I had a bit of an understanding. He let me use the facilities in the off time and I promised to do my very best schoolwork. I looked around me. The seats were filled with men and women of all ages. I knew the cut-off year was twenty-five, but it did not register until now. Some of those obvious farm boys were huge! Uniform supply will have fun fitting them out with school uniforms.

  “Attention please!” The Command Sergeant Major still had it in him. In his youth he claimed they could hear him across the polo field. The crowd of students settled down and turned to listen.

  “I want to thank all of you who chose to represent your districts and towns by attending our new Academy. Many of you will leave here and return to your military district with the knowledge and training to command them and make them the best they can be. Others will continue on to flight training or command school and become officers in our space Navy. A select few might even join my personal unit and train to become special forces. Whatever path that you choose, this school is where you start. My name is Command Sergeant Major Yannos. That is what you will call me. Show military respect to all of your instructors and the staff of the school. Now, a few rules to live by. This is a school, not boot camp. Almost all of you have been to boot camp already. Inside the buildings your will show military courtesy, but are not required to salute or follow the UCMJ with a few exceptions. Anyone found bre
aking local or any planetary laws will be expelled and prosecuted. None of that crap in my school. You will respect one another. Basic rules apply. Now, notice I said inside the buildings. Outside is another matter, that is where you will learn your practical lessons such as the obstacle course, tanks, marching, and survival. Any classes that take place outside fall with the realm of the UCMJ. So let’s recap, shall we? Inside the uniform code does not apply but you will respect your uniform. Outside you are a soldier. Understood?” There were a few murmurs from the group but most seemed to get it.

  “You will be issued a handbook so don’t try to remember everything at once. The dorms are also outside of military rules but be aware that there will be random room checks so try to keep everything picked up. Rules and regs are posted in all living areas. I am aware that all active duty Militia members are to be armed at all times. But, not here! There are armories in your dorms. Rack-em and secure all weapons except when required for your classes. Theft will not be tolerated! If you don’t have an assigned weapon, there is a really nice gun shop just outside our gates.” He turned to the officers beside him and spoke a few quiet words. Turning back to us he began to speak again.

  “Behind me are some of your instructors. I don’t have time to announce them, but some you may recognize them from the Militia, others have come to us from other worlds, and a few are fairly famous. Plus we have a few floating teachers who will drop in from time to time, assignments allowing. I am informed that classes begins in ten minutes. Try not to be late and don’t rush. This will be a great year!”