Starfleet Academy Read online

  My spine went rigid, and I actually leaned forward an inch. “That’s not what you did to Cadet Kirk, sir!”

  “The Academy can take any disciplinary action it chooses,” Captain Sulu said. “We’re putting you on probation and letting it be known that we’re considering expulsion.”

  I parted my lips to protest, then decided that just wouldn’t help. What about Sturek? And Robin?

  “Don’t worry, David,” Chekov said. “How good would it look for the Academy to expel the second cadet to ever beat the No-Win test?”

  “So you’re not going to expel me?”

  Was the room spinning?

  “No,” Sulu said. “We just want things to appear that way. So you appear desperate.”

  I licked my cut lip. “Sir … I don’t understand.”

  “Cadet,” Rotherot began, “what would you be prepared to do in order to clear your science officer of the bombing charges?”

  Facing him, I blurted, “Anything, sir!”

  “Good,” Sulu said. “We believe Cadet Sturek is innocent. However, there’s evidence to indicate that another of your crew may have been involved in the incident.”

  My chest felt as if it were caving in. They knew.

  “Yes, sir,” I admitted with a sinking tone. “Robin Brady.”

  “If you had evidence,” Rotherot charged, “you should’ve brought it to our attention immediately!”

  “I stumbled across it just before taking the Kobayashi Maru. I did know how to handle it. So I decided to keep it to myself until I could confront him as his commanding officer.”

  Sulu nodded approvingly. He seemed to understand better than Rotherot did. “Cadet Brady is confirmed as being in the engineering library at the time his access codes were used to break into the lab. We don’t believe he’s the one who set the bomb.”

  “I never believed it either, sir,” I told him with a rush of relief.

  “To find out who did,” he went on, “we’d like you to undertake a covert mission for us.”

  Rotherot stood up and came around his desk. “We’ll announce that you’re on probation. We’ll tell the cadets that we found some vital clue as to the identity of the bomber and that we’re examining it in the science lab compound analysis section.”

  Chekov stood up too. Were we going to dance?

  “Then,” the commander said, “you get to complain about how unfairly the Academy has treated you. Hint that you’re looking for a way to get back at us. A lot of the cadets know you’ve been working with me on the simulators, and that you have access to the lab.”

  More relaxed now, Rotherot held up a finger. “Now, keep in mind, Cadet—if you agree to assist us, you cannot talk about this mission to your team. They must believe you’re being expelled.”

  “Well?” Sulu asked. “Are you ready to take on the challenge?”

  They squared off in front of me, and they already knew my answer. Great, because it was a complete surprise to me when it came out.

  “Yes, sir. I’m ready.”

  “Congratulations,” Sulu said with a canny smile. “You’re officially on probation pending expulsion from Starfleet Academy. Good luck with your mission. And don’t forget—this one’s no simulation. Dismissed.”

  The cadets’ lounge was a flurry of mixed emotions awaiting me from two dozen fronts. My own crew sat in a corner clutch of chairs, their faces in the carpet, and between us was a field of cadets, some sullen, others beaming.

  I was pummeled with congratulations and sympathy as I tried to get through to my crewmates. Some people lauded me for beating the No-Win, and others expressed anger or regret that I was being expelled. I felt as if I were the star attraction at a funeral—people mourning and murmuring reassurances at the same time.

  Finally I broke through all the handshakes and backslaps and attempts at moral support, and joined my crew in the corner. Sturek, of, course, was conspicuously missing, still in confinement since he hadn’t been cleared. Yet.

  “We have to do something,” M’Giia said instantly. No hello, no nothing. Just that.

  “We can’t just let them expel you, David,” Jana agreed. “We’ve all agreed to stand up for you. If they want to expel you, they’ll have to explain to all of Starfleet how they expelled an entire command team.”

  Corin squeezed my arm. “Right.”

  Robin handed me a hot cup of something—chocolate—and I turned to him with a sad smile. I was glad to see him and be free of the suspicion. “I’m not about to get the rest of you expelled trying to help me,” I told them. “We tried to help Sturek, and it backfired. We’re not trying that again. I’ve got my own plans.”

  “What does that mean?” Robin asked.

  “Hey, Forester.” It was Frank Malan. He came through the lounge with three of his own crewmates, not looking very sympathetic. “Well, well, well … guess you’re a civilian again, right?”

  Corin vaulted to his feet and rammed Malan back into two of his crewmates. “You’re about a millisecond from sudden death, Malan!”

  “Corin!” I jumped up and pulled him back. “Settle down.”

  Luckily, he’d gotten to like taking orders from me.

  Turning to Malan, I simply requested, “Get the hell out of here, Frank.”

  “He’s looking for a fight,” Jana accused.

  “No, he’s not,” I said. “He knows there isn’t one here. Right, Frank?”

  “Oh, right,” Malan mocked. “Sure knew that. Didn’t mean to break up your pity party.”

  With a victorious glance at his crew, he gave me an unconvincing pat on the shoulder and vectored off.

  “Everybody sit down.” I settled back onto the couch next to M’Giia.

  Corin could only manage to perch on the arm of Robin’s chair. “I still think we should take some action. Confiscate the scores or the files or burn down a building or something. If the evidence against you disappeared, what could they do?”

  I smiled. What an idea.

  “This is unjust!” M’Giia agreed. “The Academy is wrong!”

  “It’s my fight,” I told them. “I want all of you to stay out of it. I haven’t been expelled yet. I’m just on probation.”

  “Pending expulsion,” Robin reminded me. “It’s not fair, David.”

  “Yes, it is,” I said.

  Just when I was trying to think up a great lie for which they might not hate me later, Cadet Faith Gage appeared in front of me.

  Faith Gage. Just the person I wanted to see. Corin had wanted to be attractive to her, Robin had wanted to, and suddenly I wanted to.

  “Hello, David,” she said then. “Can I speak to you for a minute?”

  “Oh, sure.” I looked at my crewmates. “You guys better get going. Believe it or not, we have another simulator mission at eight hundred hours. Better get some rest.”

  They didn’t want to leave me, and that made me feel better. On the other hand, I hoped they would just go. The less time I spent with them, the less I had to keep from telling them the truth. I’d just won their trust, and now it had to be risked.

  “Go on,” I encouraged, in a tone that was meant to communicate that I was okay, not upset, resigned to fate, could be left here, wouldn’t jump off Golden Gate Bridge.

  Faith Gage was sympathetic enough to offer Robin a hug on his way past me, but there was something hollow and superficial about it. I couldn’t tell whether or not Robin got that feeling. Soon I was sitting alone with her, and the other cadets in the lounge were making a point of not coming around.

  “David,” she said again, “I heard about what the command staff did to you. They’re completely unfair.”

  “I know.”

  “Look, David, I know time might be short, so I’ve got to tell you … I visited Robin the day before the explosion. I spotted a schematic for a homemade bomb in his quarters.”

  I tried to keep any reaction out of my face, but I don’t think I succeeded. “You think Robin planted the bomb?”

  �
��I don’t know! But when I heard they found some new evidence, I was worried.”

  “That’s good of you, Faith.” I patted her hand, hoping the move wasn’t too ridiculous. “You’re the only friend Robin has, outside of our team. You’re the only person he’s talked to since we got to command school.”

  “Oh, I know,” she said. “I don’t want to see anything happen to Robin.”

  “Neither do I. But what can we do about it?”

  She put her long, elegant fingers across my arm. “I’m afraid he was driven to this by his infatuation with me … I feel responsible, David, if they’re going to expel you anyway, then I’m the only one with anything to lose. You’ve still got the access code. And I know where to look for the evidence.”

  I was either the luckiest bastard in Starfleet or the unluckiest. What a target I made.

  “Where?” I asked.

  “In the lab,” she said. “If there are any remnants of the things I saw in Robin’s quarters, we can get them out of there before the investigators find them.”

  “But if Robin’s guilty,” I suggested, “he should get caught, shouldn’t he?”

  “I think it’s my fault,” she said quickly. “Whatever he’s involved in, it’s got to be just to get my attention. Somebody’s using him. I’m willing to risk breaking in, if you’ll go in again. I’ve only got a communications access code. The lab security system requires command or engineering.”

  Keeping my voice low, I nodded. “Why not? They can’t expel me twice, can they?”

  “Good.” She smiled. “Okay, I’ll meet you tonight, after the nebula analysis seminar.”

  “Perfect.”

  “Can you get me into the computer?” Faith asked.

  “Sure.”

  “You look nervous, David. You want to help Robin, don’t you?”

  “I’m just a little jumpy lately. Don’t worry about me, Faith, just do what you can.”

  “Type in your access code.”

  The lab computer made no sounds, but flashed bright patterns on Faith Gage’s classical features as we huddled in the darkened room. I didn’t know why she wanted to be here, but it sure wasn’t to clear Robin Brady.

  It bothered me a little that she thought I was so dense, but maybe she had that power over people. She certainly had it over Robin, and shy or not, he wasn’t stupid.

  “Look at this,” she said. “Robin used his access code the day of the break-in. It looks like the investigators stored the remains of the bomb in locker D-forty-seven.”

  “Let’s take a look.”

  She was too eager. She pushed out of the computer chair and hurried to the security lockers around the corner. I was the only one here who could access the locker code. She could’ve easily just let me do it by myself, but instead she crowded me at the locker panel like a hungry wolf.

  I keyed my command candidate code, and the locker’s magnetic trap clicked. The panel slid open.

  Faith nudged me aside and looked in. “There’s nothing in here!”

  Her voice changed to a bitter snarl—no more seduction in it at all. She backed away and drew a concealed palm phaser.

  “What’s going on, David!”

  I lowered my chin and glared at her. My nervousness fell away. Now I was just angry. “What are you doing, Faith?”

  “Just stay over there!” She glanced around. “This is a trap!”

  “You used Robin’s crush on you to get the code from him,” I said.

  Her pretty face crumpled with fury and misery. “How did you know? Even the investigators didn’t know!”

  “Because I know Robin better than the investigators do. He hardly ever speaks to anybody except our crew, and you were the only person who had any effect on him. He even did what you said and went to the Vanguard meetings. That’s a pretty powerful spell you cast on him. And you planted the bomb that almost killed Sturek. Why, Faith? What makes a cadet do something like that?”

  Her complexion paled. “We never meant it to go this far. But we couldn’t let Sturek finish his project! We had to be sure the Klingons got blamed for Bicea!”

  “Who’s ‘we’?”

  “You can still work with us, David! You can still join the Vanguard!”

  “Vanguard,” I sighed. Again. I guess I knew, not all that deep down.

  “You’re just the right kind of person for us,” she encouraged. “You could join us and stand at Captain Kirk’s side as the only two people to ever beat the No-Win scenario!”

  I took a ridiculous step toward her, and toward that phaser, and her posture suddenly changed enough to show me that she’d use the weapon if I didn’t back off. “What’s Captain Kirk got to do with the Vanguard?”

  “He’s our hero,” she said with quiet awe. “We,re approaching him to be our leader.”

  “Are you kidding? James Kirk?”

  “David, he hates Klingons. They killed his son. Don’t you know that?”

  “No, I didn’t know that…”

  “If we could get him on our side, we can change Federation policy toward Klingons and all the other hostile races out there. We could aggressively end their reign of terror over whole sectors of the galaxy. Think of how life would improve!”

  My chest started to hurt and I realized I’d stopped breathing. So I breathed. And got a headache.

  “Faith … you guys really believe in all this, don’t you?”

  “Yes! I’m sorry about Sturek. He wasn’t supposed to be caught in the explosion. It was just bad timing. It’s about the survival of the Federation, David!”

  Inner rage boiled up in me for the inexcusable mistake that almost cost my crewman’s life.

  “Well, I hope this was worth ruining your career, Faith,” I said. “You’re under arrest.”

  Her face hardened. “I’ve got the phaser, David. I’m going to kill you and leave your body next to the empty locker. I’ll tell them you committed suicide when you couldn’t find the evidence.”

  “That won’t hold up.”

  “I think it will. I’ve got ways of making people trust me.”

  “I know you do. There’s just one problem.”

  Her lovely eyes narrowed. “What problem?”

  Tremendous relief flushed over me when Captain Sulu, Commandant Rotherot, and three security guards stepped out of the auxiliary lab, all three holding phasers on Faith Gage.

  “It’s not his trap,” Sulu said.

  For an instant, through the shock on Faith’s expression, I saw her hand cramp briefly on the phaser that was aimed at me. Then the terrible doubt caught her by the throat and she couldn’t go through with killing me. I wanted to believe there was pure humanity at work in her, but had to live with the disappointment that she was just looking out for herself. An espionage charge was less grave than a murder charge.

  “Looks like we caught our bomber,” Rotherot said. “Good work, Cadet Forester.”

  As he and Sulu came to my side and the security guards took charge of Faith, I leaned against the locker and said, “Strange … I thought it would be Frank Malan. Guess I misjudged him.”

  “It happens,” Sulu said with a grin. Then he turned toward the auxiliary lab and called, “Cadet Sturek, come out, please.”

  Now, I hadn’t expected this, but here came Sturek. I guess they wanted him to see how far I’d gone to clear him. I looked at Sulu with tremendous gratitude as Sturek came to my side.

  “I appreciate your standing by me, David,” he said sincerely. “I have never before enjoyed such devotion.”

  Offering only a smile, I backed it up with a handshake and a feeling we both shared of how good it was to stand together.

  “Cadet Forester,” Rotherot began with that puffed-up pomposity he did so well, “your actions were above and beyond the call of duty. Any charges against you are hereby dropped and you are fully reinstated at Starfleet Academy. You have the appreciation of the entire command staff of Starfleet Academy.”

  What could I say?

  �
��I’m honored to serve, sir.”

  Not bad.

  “Cadet Sturek,” Rotherot went on, “it’s my pleasure to clear you of any suspicion of sabotage, and you may continue your work on the Bicea attack ship. Cadet Forester, we would like you to assist Mr. Sturek in his analysis.”

  “Sir?”

  “And also, we would like you to help us investigate the further activities of the Vanguard. Will you do this?”

  I gazed at him briefly, then at Sulu, who said, “It’s not official business, David. You’re free to decline.”

  Oh, sure.

  “I’d be happy to assist, sir”

  “Good. Then you need to be brought in on the secret about Sturek’s work and why the Vanguard thought they had to destroy the evidence. Tell him, Mr. Sturek.”

  I turned to my science officer. Sturek looked drawn and overworked, but relaxed and relieved that he’d been cleared of suspicion. “I found a neural network etched into the molecules of the attack ship.”

  “What does that mean?” I asked.

  “It means the ship itself is a life-form.”

  “You’re kidding! A ship that’s alive? You mean a life-form that just looks like a ship?”

  “In some manner, yes. Or a vessel that is tied directly into the living bodily functions of those who drive it.”

  “It also means,” Sulu added, “that the Klingons had nothing to do with the massacre on Bicea. They have no technology like that.”

  “Sir,” I began, “if Sturek’s evidence was destroyed in the bombing, how can we keep going with the investigation and prove it wasn’t the Klingons?”

  Sturek offered a subtle Vulcan version of a shrug. “I memorized some of the DNA sequences and metallurgical compounds and have fed them back into a database. They’re incomplete without the actual fragments and molecular structure. Identification will be painstaking, but there’s still a chance of breaking the genetic code and discovering who is staging these attacks. The work will not be easy, David. You should reconsider.”

  “No, I’m not going to reconsider. I’m going to help stop whoever’s doing these things. Just for M’Giia’s sake if nothing else.”