Interstellar Academy, Kennedy Harkins [epub e ink reader TXT] 📗

I will be teaching you all about life in someone elses shoes, as the Earthlings would say.”

He went on to explain that we’d be studying cultures, wars, everything from what people eat to how the species is most likely to die out. I tried to take notes, but I kept looking at his hat. He shouldn’t have a Tundrian hat. He was an Animarian. I grit my teeth thinking about it.

“Are you coming?” Mae asked, already packing up her books.

All around us students were piling out of the the classroom. Professor Adal was still perched on the desk, though now he was looking in our direction. I shifted uncomfortably and nodded at Mae, gathering my things.

“Did we get any homework?”

Her eyebrows rose. “To read the first couple of chapters in our text books and be ready to test over the primary religions and origin stories of each world tomorrow.”

I’d missed all that? My mind whirled with incomprehension. Perhaps, this school would prove a greater challenge than I’d expected.

Astra

 

September 3:

I walked along with Kavi in front of the gruesome two-some we boarded with.“Why would I want to know all this?” I thumbed through the electronic text. “My own origin story is bad enough.”

Kavi asked, “So, you don’t believe that--” He squinted at the text. “--God created humans and everything on Earth?”

“Nope. Even if it weren’t the least likely explanation, Christianity goes against everything I believe in. I mean, the whole doing no evil thing is no way to get ahead in life. Who ever heard of an honest business man? If the Alkaevs adhered to that crap, I’d be no better off than you. Shudder at the thought.” I paused. “When’s our next lesson?”

“Our Aerial Studies will not take place for a couple hours. Do you want to get a start on our assigned work?”

“No, but that comes in at a close second.” I grinned. “I want to go find some ships.”

We walked on for a bit. I deliberately put more distance between Mae and Drusus and us. Something told me that tweedle bored and tweedle uptight wouldn’t be keen on any plan to bend the rules.

After dropping our books off at apartment five, Kavi followed my lead in sneaking out through the tube while our counterparts were bent over their books. Drusus’s eyes flickered over in our direction as we left, but he said nothing, and his expression didn’t change from looking like he’d smelled something foul. Mae didn’t even look up.

“Are we going to ask Professor Accia if she can give us a tutorial on the crafts before class?” Kavi asked.

My feet hit the well trodden grass before his did. I headed towards the middle of campus. “Not exactly.”

We passed Kai, who was looking far too studious squinting at his work in the artificial sunlight. He leaned over to one of his Syreni friends, pointing out something in the text they were both looking at. He caught sight of me and shook his head, tapping the watch on his wrist. He had a wry smile on his face.

When I turned back toward the object of my pursuit, I actually heard Kavi’s words for the first time. “Hang on,” I said. “Did you say Professor Accia?”

“Yes, she is our flying and battle instructor.”

We passed a couple upperclassmen who sneered at my outfit. It was sad, really. That they’d let this institution beat the individuality out of them in just a few, paltry years. “Isn’t the moody one’s name Drusus Accia?”

“I believe she is his maternal aunt.”

“Goodie. I bet she’s all smiles.”

The arena’s side doors were wide open, inviting anyone to step into the practice area. I walked inside, but this wasn’t the section of the coliseum that I wanted. There were smooth steel walls with fighting dummies, battle AIs, and lasers attached to the walls. There was a small door that I knew would lead out to the sporting area, but that wasn’t where I was headed either.

It was the only path that wasn’t exciting the way we came; however, so I took it. As expected, it lead to a large expanse of artificial dirt floors, true Roman style. A story or two up the wall, the thousands of rows of seating began. With no one sitting in them, it felt like ruins, not almost new. I expected to see a lion and a couple hundred skeleton gladiators at any moment, baring down on me with the furious intent of defending their burial grounds.

Where the battle half of the giant circle ended, opposite from the large entrance doors, was a metal exit on the great wall that cut the area in half and didn’t fit completely with the decor. The wall had no seating and extended almost all the way up to the top of the ceilingless colosseum.

“If I was hiding an airfleet, that’s where I’d put it,” I told Kavi. “I don’t think they’re hiding it,” he said. “That was probably just the best place for it structurally.”

“No, it was the best defensible position. Don’t forget this place was put into effect by the United Galaxy twenty years ago, right at the end of the Galactic War. Architecture had nothing to do with it.”

The dirt got all over my lovely, magenta boots, but I barely noticed. I practically ran to the door, Kavi at my heels the whole way. My heart was pounding at my rib cage like a teenager at their snooze button. They were in there. Dozens of them. Maybe more. Definitely more than the entire Alkaev armada combined. Not that I’d ever seen it.

I ran my fingers over the surface of the metal.

“Is it locked, Astra?” Kavi asked, breathless.

The doors slid open in the moment to reveal a large hangar with nondescript wall and floors. If it hadn’t been for the rows upon rows of beautiful, aerodynamic crafts, someone might have thought it a storage space. But they were there. There were so many. I felt my attention span being pulled in the direction of each ship and then snapping painfully back when the stretch of concentrating on all that was too much.

I walked up to the one closest to me. It was a white Cruiser, but of a different sophistication than the one I’d crashed, able to drive off roads. Looking closer, I realised the gorgeous machine wasn’t able to go off-world, however.

I stepped to the next one, looking for the tell tale star emblem that meant it could fly through free-space. Nothing. The next one sported nothing as well. I ran around the hanger, checking each and every ship. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.

“None of these are off-worlders. Where are the off-worlders?”

“Not here, human.” I spun around to find the source of the voice. “Underclassmen aren’t allowed to even set foot in one until their junior year, so we keep them in a different hangar,” a woman with muscles and wings just like Drusus’s said.

“Students have to wait two years before they get behind anything worth its salt? What kind of school is this?”

She grinned, all teeth. “One that doesn’t like its kids crashing billion dollar machines.” Professor Accia pitted me with a piercing stare. “Or escaping with them into free-space.”

I gasped. “Do people actually do that? The galaxy we live in....”

She turned away, exiting through the doors we’d entered in. “Come along, human. The rest of the class is waiting outside--where they’re supposed to be.”

I dragged Kavi, who was standing, shocked, staring at the spot where Professor Accia had been, along. He trailed after me without a word, his mouth still slightly agape. We’d have to work on that if he was going to have any potential as a lackie.

The class was the same size as the first two--about forty. A mix of races, species, genders, and backgrounds, the only thing we had in common was our age. That, and the fact that no one was completely at ease with their companions from different worlds. This was especially true for the Tundrians, who wore their distaste like a heavy trenchcoat--obvious and for everyone to see.

When she was sure she had our attention, she said,“My name is Professor Accia, and I am not your friend.” She locked eyes with everyone of us, and she held mine just a fraction longer than the others. “I’m not here to be. I will expect new heights of achievement from all of you. Fail to provide me with the best I could possibly expect, and you will be left behind. Do I make myself clear?”

There was a soft chorus of yeses. Most of the students--even the Tundrians--were afraid to make eye contact. They said their confirmations to their shoes or the ground beneath them. Neither Mae nor Drusus looked down, I noted. But Mae hadn’t been looking at Accia to begin with, staring at the equipment around us with expressionless features.

Drusus the Cheerful, however, was looking at me. I gave him a finger wave which caused his frown to deepen. Though the curriculum was turning out to be a little harder than what I’d anticipated--but still nothing I couldn’t handle, no matter what Earhart said-- I was happy to have such friendly roommates. It’d make the moment that much sweeter when I came out on top, and they scraped the bottom.

“Alright, then. Let’s stop messing around.” Accia walked over to a craft I couldn’t believe I hadn’t noticed when I came back into the arena. It was larger than the majority of the ships in the hangar, able to hold half a hundred people easily. It wasn’t a passenger stylecraft, meaning it had sleek lines not made for comfort and no seating. The straps to keep people secure were on the walls, where you would stand until takeoff or landing was finished.

My heart sunk to the ground-- where most the students were still staring. I saw no star emblem. It wasn’t off-world capable.

“Everyone who can stomach it, get in,” Professor Accia barked.

Off-world capable or no, I was first onto that craft. It required a lot of shoving, some indiscriminate tripping, and insulting someone’s mother to get there, but Alkaevs took what they wanted. No excuses. No exceptions.

We lined up against the walls. Mechanical tendrils slid out of the surface, coiling around our arms, legs, and midriffs, securing us for takeoff. The metal was cold was cool against my feverous skin, and I could feel my blood pumping against the restraints.

Kavi was greener than usual, and, standing next to him, I had reason to fear for the purity of my boots. Across from us, Mae was--you called it-- bored. Drusus next to her was examining the cabin with just about as much excitement as Mae. I couldn’t believe it. How could someone not be loving every second of this?

The engine roared to life, and we shot into the air, straight up. Gaining altitude, my ears began to pop like wild, and the ship vibrated with a force that shook my