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

  I glanced at the instructors on the stage, several looked familiar to me. One in particular. I would almost swear was a pirate from my former ship, on that stage and he was staring at me!

  Chapter 4

  I got back to the dorm to discover that I’d acquired a roommate. There were two beds in the room, but I wrongly assumed that it would be just me in the room. You know what they say about assuming anything. I stepped into my room and there was several large boxes blocking to door. Using a bit of muscle I pushed on the door and it opened just enough for me to squeeze through. The vacant half of the room was in disarray. The bed was simply covered with clothing. Dress uniform parts and fatigues were strewn everywhere. The desk was covered in bits and pieces of what looked to be circuit boards, and there were several large, strangely shaped packages in the middle of the floor. I sat cross-legged on my bed and contemplated what they might have stuck me with.

  Like a statue, I sat on the bed in an almost meditative state when a short redhead pushed her way into the room. Hearing the noise I glanced in her direction. She was waif-like, dressed in what looked like mechanics overalls. She seemed to not be aware of my presence on the bed. “Hello?”

  Electronic parts went flying in all directions as the redhead jumped at least a foot off the floor! She let out a short scream and spun around to see me staring at her. I gave her a short wave. “Hello” I repeated, “sorry I scared you.”

  “You took a year off my life! I didn’t even see you there, how dense am I?” With that western accent she just had to have come from New Texas.

  “I really am sorry I scared you. Let’s try that again. Hello, I’m Enyo Tisiphone.” I held out my hand to her.

  She smiled and took my hand. “Hello, my name is Angelina Eberly. As you may have guessed I’m from New Texas. You didn’t have to introduce yourself. I know who YOU are. They told me in admissions that I would be rooming with a celebrity.”

  “I don’t think of myself as famous, all I did was help fight off a few pirates.”

  Shaking her head, she laughed. “Just a few pirates she says. The story that was broadcast on New Texas was a bit more than that. Believe what you will, I still think you deserve to be famous.” Quickly changing the subject she asked. “What do you prefer to be called? I like either Eberly or Lina. I’m not fond of Angelina.”

  “It’s a pretty name, Angelina.”

  “My parents claim it is a family name. Some ancient Old Earth ancestor had something to do with Texas history. Or at least that is what they say.”

  “You can call me Tisiphone. Only grandma calls me Enyo. Maybe one day I will like it, but I’ve always been called Tisiphone.”

  “Tisiphone it is then.” She leaned down and began picking up the bits of electronic gear. I climbed off the bed and started to help her.

  “What is all this… stuff?” I gestured around the room.

  “Well, I’m an engineering transfer student. I specialize in control systems and remote drone technology. I couldn’t just leave it all at home. My mum would have thrown it all away. She wants me to be a girly girl and stop ‘messing about with electronics.’ I decided to bring most of my projects with me.”

  “How did you manage to lift this much? When I first went into space, all I could bring was what would fit in a section like this.” I held my hands apart a foot square.

  “My Dad. He owns a shipping and receiving company. We brought the company transport. He allowed me a six foot square section for my gear. This isn’t all of it. I have a complete shop sitting down at the engineering department section. The instructors have promised me my own corner.”

  “You must really be good at this stuff then.”

  “Not bragging or anything but I won the planetary new tech competition last year.”

  She was really fascinating. “What did you build?”

  “I really like to scout the junk heaps at home a lot. I’m always looking for bits of gear. So I found an inertial compensator out of a military fighter. How it ended up in our junkyard is a mystery, but I found it and took it apart. I came up with a cheaper and better way to build them.”

  “What is it for?”

  “It lets those inside a ship be able to handle the G-forces without dying. Without one a ship has to slowly accelerate to protect the pilots and passengers. The human body is not built for those kinds of forces. For star fighters it is completely necessary.” She was trying to demonstrate using her hands as the ship.

  “I think I understand. So if you don’t have one it’s like the air cars. Go too fast and you black out,” I stated.

  “Exactly! But with ships it is more like having your brain explode or your limbs tear off,” she smiled.

  “OK now you are scaring me. Do those things break a lot? I say this because I spent half a year on an Imperial ship and never had those sort of issues.”

  “On the big navy ships? No, they have back-ups and well defined maintenance schedules. The smaller civilian vessels are the ones that need better units. The one that I found was an out-system unit so I could change a few things and not worry about a visit from Military Intelligence. In the end I had a visit from them, anyway. They invited me to the school here. So everything worked out.”

  “That’s good. I’ve been interrogated by intelligence and they can be scary. Did you get your schedule yet?”

  “I did! I have engineering specialties most of the morning followed by weapons and tactics. Once a week I also have obstacle course? Do you know what that is?” She looked puzzled.

  I laughed at her expression. “The obstacle course is out our window over there.” I pointed. “It’s an athletic challenge. They use it for Special Operations. To qualify you have to run it in less than fifteen minutes. My best time so far is an hour.”

  “I saw that when I prowled the school. We have to run that thing? For real?”

  I laughed at her again. “I’ll help you out. I’ve spent all summer running it. CSM Yannos let me stay here rather than with my family.”

  “Don’t you like your family?”

  “I love my family, but they are in the middle of planting season. I would just be in the way over there. Besides, they gave my room away to my second cousin. His parents were killed in the Farmers Union Day Massacre.”

  “Sorry about your cousin. We watched the vids of that. Horrific, really.” She looked at the expression on my face and said. “Is there a bug on me or something?”

  “No bug. You talk very strange did you know that? I don’t mean the New Texas accent either. Sometimes you sound like someone from New London.”

  She nodded and looked down at the floor. “I have a fondness for Old Earth Vids. For some reason there is a large collection of the early science fiction vids in our Capital City Library. I’ve seen them all more than once. The Doctor is my favorite.”

  “Who is your favorite?”

  “Exactly! You’ve seen them?”

  “Who are you talking about?”

  “You’ve got it. Who!”

  “Who, who. What the hell are we talking about?”

  “Who of course.”

  We continued like this for several minutes before she burst out laughing and explained by showing me some black and white Vid episodes. That night we sat up half the night watching ancient British Vids and laughing.

  Chapter 5

  The first day of class was utter madness. Too many students, not enough maps. Even with your link giving you directions many people got lost. I found myself giving directions more than hurrying to class. Luckily my first classes were out on the workout field.

  After checking the roll, Sergeant Zhang allowed everyone to sit on the bleachers at the edge of the ball field. “My name is Sergeant Zhang. You will call me Sergeant or Coach. This class is all about the obstacle course. If that is not what it says on your sheet you are in the wrong class!” He paused a moment and looked at us. “Excellent. Everyone here is supposed to be here. The course that you see before you is a tough one. Sim
ilar courses have been used by Special Forces since the early twentieth century on Old Earth. This course was modeled after one used by the SEALS. They were an American unit. The letters stand for SEa, Air, and Land. They were some of the toughest men and women that country had to offer. A similar course to this was a qualification to pass the training course. They needed to complete it in less than twelve minutes. On our course, the completion time is less than fifteen minutes. Cadet Tisiphone!”

  I jerked in surprise having my name called. I stood. “Sir!”

  He smiled. “The Cadet here is a graduate of the Imperial Academy. Some things are hard to break. She has been on campus since the start of the summer. How many times have you run the course?”

  Cocking my head and thinking I replied to the Sergeant. “Sir, I have run the course twenty times.”

  “At ease Cadet. Relax, you can sit.”

  I sat back down. This would take some getting used to. “Yes, Sir.”

  “Cadet Tisiphone, how long did it take you the first time and what is your current speed up to?”

  “Sir, when I first tackled the course it took me about an hour and a half. I ran it just last evening, and I completed it in around fifty minutes.”

  “Great! That is good time for a beginner. This class will teach you how to do it much faster and safer. While these obstacles may look easy, they can be very dangerous. Don’t worry cadet I can see from that look on your face that you never considered that did you?” I shook my head no. “The commandant assigned someone to keep an eye on you this summer. Now that class has started, no more unsupervised use. Understand?” Sergeant Zhang stared out at the other cadets. “Anyone that is caught out here without express permission from either I or the commandant will be punished severely.”

  So much for my teaching Lina the course. We will have to find other stuff we can do for fun.

  “Now, let’s take a short walk and we will discuss the form and function of each obstacle.” He motioned for us to get up and follow him. The rest of the morning was very strenuous. The Sergeant used me as an example and I ran each obstacle under his supervision. Many of the others in the class tried them too and my respect grew for many of them. The obstacles were very hard, and they made it look easy. After two hours a loud bell sounded on the clock tower. Class was dismissed and everyone went to their next classes. For me, weapons and tactics was next on the agenda.

  The shooting range was on the other side of the campus at the far edge. The school butted up against both a cliff face and a planetary forest reserve. The reserve was pretty cool but off limits to students without supervision. When this planet was colonized very few dangerous native animals were found. Most are in the ocean. On land there is only what are called ThereBears. I’ve always thought the name was strange but apparently it came from a joke that one of the founders kept telling. He was a homesteader and was the first to encounter one of the animals. They make a shrill whining noise like a bad bearing that just gives you the chills. A planetary survey crew visited the man’s farm and heard the noise for the first time. Asking what it was he said. “ThereBear!”

  “What is it?” They continued to ask.

  All he would reply is “There Castle!” The name stuck. As did the name of his homestead which later became Castleton farms.

  It was rumored that a large group of ThereBears lived in the forest. The cliff was more interesting to me because it posed a challenge for rock climbing. But, it was where the range was so only a fool would try to climb it while shooting was going on.

  I could see that having classes on either side of the school was going to give me a daily workout which might be the whole point. As I ran up, a shuttle bus was just leaving.

  “Cadet Tisiphone? Did you miss the bus?” It was Cadet Billy MacGregor.

  I gave him a head nod. “I needed the exercise.”

  “Are you sure? I’ll bet that you did not know about the shuttle. Am I right?”

  I did not intend to give him the satisfaction. I just smiled at him. Among the milling students I saw many of the same faces from the previous class. The ones that stuck out were MacGregor, Engen, and Merriman. Those three were, like me, the older students in the class. I suspected that I would be seeing them in most of my classes.

  “Welcome Cadets! I am Sergeant Barney Findlay. You will call me Sergeant. Almost all of you are or were Militia members at one time. With a few exceptions, almost all of you have been in the military before. Who here has fired a gun in anger?”

  I cautiously raised my hand. Looking about I could see that among the group of twenty about half had raised hands.

  “Excellent! Now how many of you have killed another human being with gun?” Of the ten previously raised hands only eight still had hands in the air. “Gun batteries or ship-to-ship does not count.” All but two of us lowered their hands. Only Merriman and I had hands in the air.

  “Cadet Merriman, would you explain your experience please?”

  “Sir, I was part of the Militia unit that attacked the Spaceport and industrial complex during the revolution.”

  “Which unit were you in?”

  “Sir, I was in the 1st armored battalion in the beginning, after the battle for the spaceport, my unit was sent to the industrial complex to help with the assault.” She sounded both bitter and proud of her performance. I really needed to read up on what happened here on the ground. To her, I might still be the enemy.

  “Well Cadet Merriman we chewed some of the same ground. Sorry for your loss.” Many of our classmates were murmuring about her. I really needed to read up on that battle!

  “Cadet Tisiphone? Would you share your experience please?”

  “I was an Ensign Weapons Officer on the Imperial ship the Paney. A pirate force took control of our ship and locked half the crew up in the cargo bay. Some of our on board Marines broke us out, and I volunteered to help them retake the ship. I killed several pirates up-close and personal.”

  “You did a bit more than that, but that is enough for now. The reason that I bring this up is all of you will become officers in either the Militia or the Space Navy one day. You will be called upon to take the life or lives of those you are fighting against. What this class will help you achieve is an understanding of weapons and tactics that may one day save your life! I won’t teach you how to kill. I will teach you how to shoot and how to shoot well. This is not a game, this is your life now! This class is mandatory for graduation. If guns scare you, get over it now! Or leave. There is the way out.” He pointed back toward the school.

  Several students at the back were talking loudly among themselves. “Either speak to me or get out of my class now! What is your name Cadet?” He had singled out one of the talkers, a short brunette woman named Nevins. “Speak up so we can all hear you please!”

  “I said, Sergeant that my specialty is intelligence. I have no need of a gun or even plan on doing field work. All of my time in the Militia has been spent behind a desk. This class is useless for me.”

  “You do not sound very intelligent then Cadet Nevins.” She jumped when her name was called.

  “Yes, I know who you all are. Knowing who you are dealing with is very important is it not? Especially for a member of Intelligence. You may be excused Nevins. But if you leave, you will not be allowed back into MY class. Ever. Do you understand?” She nodded and left the class.

  “Now that the dead weight is gone let's get down to work. Follow me I have a nice lecture planned inside.”

  We followed the Sergeant into the classroom. I chanced a glance back toward the entrance and could see Nevins walking down the road toward school.

  Chapter 6

  After shooting class I took the shuttle back to campus. It was lunchtime, and I promised Lina that I would catch up with her in the cafeteria. One of the largest indoor open spaces on campus, the cafeteria was still a work in progress. Local artists were brought in to design the murals and many of them were still on scaffolds putting in the final touches. One e
nterprising artist had waited until students actually began using the space and then put in the faces. I would like to imagine that my face is up there somewhere.

  I found Lina outside waiting for me. She was still dressed in her standard ship’s coveralls outfit but now sporting a custom tool belt and magnifying goggle array on her head. Spotting me, she smiled and waved me over. “Tisiphone quick! Come here.”

  I hurried over. She grabbed my arm and pulled me closer and pointed toward the main building. There was a young looking blond woman in a Navy officer’s uniform talking to an older man with graying hair. He too was Navy but the color of his uniform was different.