Academy Snippet 3

 Happy Veterans Day!

So, Rea sent me the manuscript back yesterday. I finished the edits and shot it off to Goodlifeguide. Fingers crossed it will come out before T-day.

Speaking of which, I was asked to throw a second T-day (today) for family who surprised us by coming into town. So, I'm about to run around like a chicken with its head cut off some more. (oh, wait, that's the turkey! never mind)

On to the snippet!

This is from the second story:

 

Katya followed the directions she had been givenand walked down the corridor on her assigned floor with her gear. She tried notto look too closely, aware of the line of other students behind her. They had avery short window to get into their dorm rooms, get squared away, and thenready for an inspection. She saw a group of cadets being balled out by anothercadet, possibly an upperclassman. She was a bit confused about that distinction;she initially didn’t understand that the upperclassman was acting as aninstructor. The guy was in their face, chewing them out while brandishingsomething she couldn’t quite see yet.

When she got closer, she noted it was a crumpled-upwrapper from a candy bar. There was a balled-up bag for chips too. More debriswas on the ground. The deck she reminded herself. The room looked like a bombhit it, strewn and torn apart.

One of the cadets, a human girl, was damn near intears. She wanted to intervene but was shocked by the tableau and slowed herstride.

That was a mistake; it drew the attention of thepredator in the form of the senior cadet. He turned his glower her way and shestiffened. “Problem, Larva?”

“Just ah … passing through,” she said carefully,swallowing her pride. She should know better than to make waves and drawattention to herself.

He sized her up and down. “You new here?”

“Yes … sir,” she said. She didn’t know whatinstinct told her to call him sir but she knew better than to ignore it in thisinstance.

“Keep moving!” a voice said from the back of theline.

“You haven’t learned to report at attention,cadet?” he asked icily.

She frowned but put her gear down and braced toattention. Others following behind her were suddenly blocked. There was somemumbling but then they too dropped their gear to see what the holdup was.

The senior cadet sized her up and then the group.His brown eyes trailed to them like knives. Katya glanced at the duo of girlswho had been his original prey. They seemed to be regaining their composureduring the momentary distraction.

“Name, cadet?” the voice said, making her snapback to attention.

“Katya Budnova,” she replied.

“That’s Cadet Katya Budnova. Didn’t they teach youanything, plebe?” the senior cadet demanded.

She thought about how to respond and then justdecided to be honest. “There is a first time for everything,” she replied witha shrug.

He glowered at her. Some of the other cadetslooked surprised at her insolence.

“Put yourself down for two demerits cadet. Thenget out of my sight. Get your gear squared away and read the in brief pronto.”

“Yes, sir,” she replied as she gathered up hergear and got into motion once more. Prick, she thought as she paced him.He had already turned his back to her. She gave the girls a roll of her eyesand kept going. The group behind her quietly moved to their assigned quartersas well.

<<<*>>>

She had just enough time to find her quarters andstart to put her gear away before the senior cadet arrived in the doorway for asnap inspection.

Her roommate arrived behind him and blushed as sheducked past him and stood by her rack.

He examined the room and then sniffed. “You twobetter get squared away. You are in the kiddy pool now, but being in the navyis not for kids. Learn the ropes fast or get yanked.” He glowered at Katya. “Ihave a feeling you won’t last long,” he growled before he about-faced and left.

Katya felt her spine stiffen but she didn’t sayanything. She looked at her roommate who was sagging a little.

If she couldn’t hack that, she was in for a roughride, Katya thought. “I’m Katya. And you are …?”

“Sorry, Norma Jean.”

“Ah.”

“Are you from Syntia’s World?”

“No, ET.”

She wrinkled her nose in confusion. “ET?”

“Epsilon Triangula.”

Her eyes widened. “Oh! The place with the mob andbig cities?”

“Yeah,” Katya drawled. She turned and finishedputting her stuff away. She compared it to the image on her HUD. So far sogood.

“Um …,” the girl was just putting things into herpress willy-nilly.

“Follow the inspection list,” Katya warned. Shewas used to checklists and inspections from her time as a pilot.

“Excuse me?” the girl asked defensively.

“The inspection sheet in the manual. They’ll comeback and check our stuff. If the socks aren’t right, they’ll throw them on thedeck and make us redo stuff. And we have to pay in demerits later.”

The mousy brown haired girl blinked.

“You may want to get a haircut too. They can dingus for a lot of stuff. Hair, nails, uniform, bed …,” she indicated the racks.They were still clean and neat. “Dust,” she indicated the single desk andchair. “Anything.”

“Oh. Was that what that was about? Those kidsgetting balled out for having food?”

Katya nodded. “Yeah.”

“Oh. Damn,” the girl bit her lip. “What did I getmyself into?” she muttered before she got to work. “Can you ah … help me?”

“You don’t have the implant module?”

“Um, I’m not sure how to access it. What was yourname again?”

“Katya. Here,” the older woman pulled up her HUDand sent the girl a text. She had to patiently explain how to access theimplants while they exchanged contact information. Along the way, she got a bitof the girl’s backstory. Norma had been a wet merchant officer on a ship on herhomeworld before jumping at the chance to join the navy.

They bonded a little as they got squared away. Shelearned a bit about how it was important to share knowledge and help eachother. You could know everything with your implants but if you didn't sharethat information or know how to access it then it wasn't worth spit.

She also learned that they could be penalized forinfractions that were collective. If one failed, they all failed, just like ona ship. It was a bit hard to take in. There were a lot of concepts to absorb,and they definitely liked to leave the plebes to flounder and find their ownlevel.

A female senior cadet came around and did aninspection. They could see outside the door where a pair of males were gettingballed out by another senior cadet across the corridor. The girls were nervousbut resigned to what was about to happen.

“Been through this before?” the woman asked.

“Pilot, ma’am,” Katya volunteered.

That earned a bit of side eye. “I didn’t ask foryour life history. Very well. Which of you got the demerits?”

“I did, ma’am,” Katya sighed internally.

“You’ll have to work them off Friday. Don’t letBrian or Ferris catch you looking bad. No food in the dorm rooms obviously,”the woman sniffed. “Make sure your room and appearance are clean and neat atall times. Regs are regs, stick to them. If you get dinged, don’t offer anexcuse, just accept the punishment. If you try to fight it, you will just endup sorry and sore. This is the navy—rightway, wrong way, navy way. You have the rules in your implants. Read them andlive by them or be sorry.”

“Yes, ma’am,” the two ladies responded in unison.

“Trying to stay under the radar works for some. Youget by better if you remember to work as a team, just like on a ship. Getmouthy and uppity and you’ll pay for it,” the woman said as she leveled a lookon Katya again. Katya didn’t rise to the bait and kept her own counsel.

“Seriously, familiarize yourself with yourimplants, regs, and honor code, all of it. You need to be a sponge, quiet butabsorbing everything. Eyes, ears, and no mouth unless required. Can I get aread back?”

“Be a sponge, ma’am—eyes, ears, and no mouth unless required,” the twowomen replied in ragged unison. Norma Jean hesitated a little but fell intoplace with Katya’s impersonal tone of voice.

The senior cadet nodded curtly.

“Protocol too. I know it is a lot. Sir or ma’am isfine. Right now you are Larva, the lowest of the low. A plebe. Get used to it.The only way out is to quit or upwards. Figure your path out. If you can’t hackthe class load, well, there are tutorials, and there are cadets who can help.Don’t drown.”

Katya noted Norma Jean ready to ask something butthe woman’s eyes shifted to her. The girl gulped and straightened up,swallowing back her question instantly.

“Don’t get stupid and raise a sexual complaint unlessyou record it. If you do file one, all hell will come down on you so becareful. No one has time for that crap so don’t be too sensitive. Some of theguys will press you just to push a button. They’ll be recording too. Get areputation as a tattletale and you’ll make yourself a target. So don’t.”

The two didn’t know what to say so they remainedsilent.

She gave them a few more looks and then left.

Norma Jean sighed and sat on the bed. Katya notedit instantly ruined the sharp folds but said nothing. She just shook her head.

“What have I gotten myself into?” the other womansaid with a sigh.

Katya was wondering the same thing.

<<<*>>>