Starfleet Academy Read online

  “Sure,” Corin said. “He had the newness of the unexplored galaxy. He was out there working where there weren’t any regulations, or where he had to make up new ones. He had it easy.”

  “Easy?” I skewered him with a look of complete bafflement. What an attitude!

  M’Giia shook her head disapprovingly. “I don’t like the idea of looking for ways to go against Starfleet regulations, even if James Kirk got famous that way. You can’t invent a new rule for every situation.”

  “Statistically speaking,” Sturek offered, “the current Starfleet regulations have brought the Federation unprecedented success.”

  “We don’t have the choice to make,” M’Giia said. “We’re not James Kirk. If we don’t follow established procedures, we invite chaos.”

  “Starfleet’s not perfect,” Corin told her. “And neither are regulations. I say we break ‘em all.”

  “How did this come up?” I moaned. “I just wanted to get acquainted! Can we scroll back and start over?”

  But Jana scowled at Corin and said, “Look, I didn’t join Starfleet because I thought I knew better than the best minds in the Federation.”

  “Maybe you didn’t,” M’Giia interrupted, “but I know I have something to offer to Starfleet.”

  Snatching at a chance to change the subject, I turned to my right, “How did you get into Starfleet, Corin?”

  “Bought my way in,” he said around a sip of his drink.

  Rats—I forgot about that sore point.

  “This may be a joke to you, Corin,” Jana shot, “but it isn’t to me!”

  “How’d you get here anyway, Jana?” Corin returned. “Stealing the ore shuttle or just hitching a ride on a barge?”

  Jana braced against her chair. “Wing slug!”

  “Down!” I put my hand out between them and risked having it bitten off. “Down, down. Both of you, stop.”

  Corin shrugged. “Well, if she can’t take a joke—”

  “You’re out of line,” I told him. With a glance at Jana I added, “Both of you are. Nobody acts like this on my crew.”

  “Oh, your crew.” Corin slumped deeper into his chair.

  I shook my head, despairing. “Look, maybe that’s enough getting acquainted for today.”

  When I stood up, they all did. Apparently they didn’t want to spend time together unless ordered to do so—not a good sign.

  “Hi, Robin.”

  The voice, a woman’s voice, startled me because I hadn’t thought there was anyone else nearby,

  “Faith…” Robin turned and turned into even more a tower of gelatin than usual.

  The female cadet was pretty—pretty? She was practically a ballerina! For the first second I inwardly chided Robin for blushing, then noticed I was probably doing the same. That was an attractive girl!

  “Can I talk to you for a minute?” The girl took Robin’s hand—just like that!—as if they were going for a walk on a hillside.

  Without introducing her, Robin glanced at me with a flicker of pure fear and kidlike infatuation, and let himself be drawn away by the siren.

  “Mmmmm…” Corin spoke for the rest of us as we watched them go.

  We stood there for a few moments, then I sighed and sat down again. We couldn’t just stand and watch, could we? On the other hand, we couldn’t file past them, gawking like fourth graders either. Sit.

  Something happened then that took me by surprise. All the others sat down too. They were taking my lead. Was this what it meant to be in command? Not so hard.

  We sipped our drinks, but nobody could muster small talk, at least not in time to make the exchange seem natural. The glances from Robin and—what was her name?—told us they were both aware we were not looking at them. She spoke, he shrugged, she shook her head, he shrugged again, she smiled. It went like that.

  Corin put his drink up to his mouth and mumbled into the glass. “Mmfff ee want wiffim?”

  “Mmm dunno,” I muttered back, rubbing my nose to hide the sound.

  “Didn’t think,” Jana murmured, trying not to be obviously murmuring, “he was the type … girls go for.”

  Corin pulled his glass back from his lips and blurted, “What would you know about what girls want!”

  Robin and the female cadet looked at us suddenly, and Robin turned four shades of miserable. Seemed like a long time, but there she went, and here he came.

  “Everything okay?” Corin asked him as Robin sat down.

  “Hmm?” Robin’s head snapped up, then almost as quickly went down again. “Oh … yes. Fine.”

  “We have all spoken,” Sturek said then, “except Robin. In the interest of completeness, I suggest we hear from him.”

  Had I snubbed Robin without even realizing it? And was I being scolded for emotional abandonment by a Vulcan? Perfect. My personal log was going to read like a surrender.

  “Robin?” I turned to him. “Have I been ignoring you?”

  “Oh … uh, no, no.” He seemed as out of place as any cowboy might be here in this pleat-perfect place. That’s what he was, after all, a Colorado loner who happened to have a touch with warp engineering. Maybe that was lucky, or maybe it was bad luck. I’d never been sure. Until lately he’d been my roommate at the Academy and pretty much hidden behind me, but those days were passed. He was on a command training team now. I wouldn’t be able to protect him anymore.

  But he wasn’t one for talking to girls. So what had that cadet wanted with him?

  We could all tell what he saw in her, though. I didn’t know detail for detail what made some girls magnetic, but whatever mad scientist had built that cadet sure knew the formula.

  With a certain look I reserved for times like these, I egged him on under the skewering gazes of our new teammates.

  “I wasn’t … sure I wanted to join Starfleet,” he admitted, his voice getting fainter by the word. “I was happy working on the weather control satellite thruster systems, but Starfleet’s a lot more…” He almost hit a stride, then looked at the carpet. “I don’t need to talk, really.”

  “A lot more what, Robin?” I encouraged.

  He raised his eyes and blinked as if I’d slapped him. “A lot more socially … complex.”

  “Socially complex!” Corin howled. “Hah!”

  I swung around and snapped, “Corin!”

  Corin deflated like a balloon and cuffed Robin on the arm. “Sorry.”

  Robin’s face turned pink and he looked down again. His voice dissolved to nearly nothing. “I just wanted to serve … that’s all.”

  “I concur,” Sturek said amiably. “When one has capabilities that are of use to many, service is a logical response.”

  “I agree,” M’Giia offered.

  Jana nodded. “Absolutely.”

  “And we’ll all get that chance,” I said. Picking up my glass, I added, “To the crew.”

  Sturek raised his drink, and so did the others. “To the crew,” he said.

  And we all looked at each other, and I wondered how long the promise would hold.

  “Once you’re out of direct communication with Starfleet, you’ll face challenges we cannot anticipate. You think you understand the distances, but you don’t. And despite the events presented in the first two simulations, we are not just testing your combat ability. You must be able to make well-informed decisions on your own.”

  Captain Sulu was lecturing, and behind him Commander Chekov demonstrated the same piloting sequence as we’d just run in the simulator, this time running the dangerous pattern on a small simulator screen in the briefing room instead of the big one on the mock bridge that we had so effectively turned to rubbish.

  Chekov was doing all right, but asteroids and space debris “hit” his “ship” from time to time, making lights and sirens flash and whine. Several cadets were watching, most of whom I didn’t know yet. I was glad to have Sturek standing beside me. We didn’t know each other well, but in this new environment, even one familiar face helped.

  Smili
ng at Chekov’s difficulties, Sulu said, “We train you on simulators, but believe me, the open galaxy is no simulation. Your crew will have to live with what you decide. For instance, Commander Chekov here would’ve been dead several times already.”

  Chekov struggled with the controls, but twisted around and gasped, “This has been upgraded! Why didn’t you tell me! I should make you show them!”

  “Big talk from a dead man,” Sulu drawled.

  Boom—the simulation on the screen showed a pulverized ship and Commander Chekov actually winced as he pushed himself away from the controls.

  “That’s it! I’m dead! What kind of lesson is that?”

  “It’s the next great Russian tall tale.”

  Chekov pointed at him and said, “Only in Japan!”

  “Maybe. But I’m from San Francisco.” Captain Sulu folded his arms and broke out in a triumphant grin.

  “All right … all right, shut down! Shut it down! Corin!”

  “I’m doing it!”

  “Use protocol! Say ‘aye’!”

  “Aye aye, sir!”

  Jana cast me a glance. “Are we getting a little full of ourselves?”

  Blistered with spark burns and still shedding hot matter from my arms and shoulders, I dragged the back of my hand across my wet forehead and ignored her.

  The simulator was a wreck again. State-of-the-art technology had whipped us a second time. The best and brightest were dead. Again.

  “Oh, sure,” I moaned.

  Behind me, Robin coughed. To my right, M’Giia spat a bit of insulation off her lower lip. Corin shook his hand, which was reddened from some stray electrical snap on the helm console.

  “Why don’t they build more safeties into this thing?” he complained.

  Jana stepped around the helm past him and scooped up a length of cable. “What good would that do?”

  She piled the cable back into its trunk, which had been blasted open by the enemy attack we had allowed to cut through to us. I felt as if she were stuffing my innards back into my gut, and they didn’t quite fit anymore.

  By the time we put the simulator back together, cleaned up, scrubbed the walls of all the soot and buffed out the scratches, my whole body ached and all I wanted to do was get back to my quarters. I wanted to lie down, sleep, snore, do inactive brainless things like breathe and twitch.

  There was no sympathy in the known universe. I had to review the mission. I had to figure out how to avoid doing a third time what we had done twice already. If I’d been the only one at risk, that bunk over there would’ve sucked me in like a giant flange, but unfortunately Mr. Jump-on-the-Platform was now team leader and I had five other people depending on me.

  While I watched our march to destruction for the fifth time and the mission shots became a lovely blur before my eyes on the desk screen, the door chime sounded and almost severed every nerve still working in my spinal column.

  “Come in.” Did I sound at least humanoid?

  The door opened, and Jana stalked in. Her lips were set, her hands clenched, and her shoulders tight.

  Well, at least one of us was awake.

  “Is this a bad time?” she asked, but her posture told me she wasn’t leaving, bad or good.

  “Hi, Jana,” I croaked, then cleared my throat. “Have a seat. What’s up?”

  “It’s about Corin,” she said bluntly. “He’s out of control! He’s not pulling his weight. He’s a spoiled brat.”

  My head rattled when I nodded. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you didn’t like Corin.”

  “Oh, no, I’m secretly in love with him. That’s why he drives me crazy. He’s the weak link in our team. We get evaluated as a team. He’ll drag us all down. A real commander would think that was a problem. This is going to determine whether we get assigned to a starship or a garbage scow!”

  “You’re right,” I said, still stuck back on that “real commander” crack. “We should get rid of him.”

  Pausing, Jana blinked, squinted, and shook her head. “What?”

  Taking the moment to stretch my back muscles, I let her off the hook. “Okay … look, I understand, but we’re all new at this.”

  She frowned. “It’s affecting Robin too. Haven’t you noticed how he’s been in the simulator?”

  Too exhausted to put A plus B together myself, I drew a sustaining breath. “How’s Corin’s attitude affecting Robin?”

  “Haven’t you noticed how he’s been acting in the simulator?”

  I blinked. “Which one? Corin or Robin?”

  “Robin! And Corin!”

  Her expression made me scared to ask again.

  After a moment of grilling silence from me, Jana sighed hard. “Look, it’s not that I mind Corin’s going out with that cadet. It’s just that he wasn’t even interested in her until he found out that Robin had a crush on her.”

  Was the room spinning? “Hold on—you lost me. What cadet?”

  “I’m talking about Faith Gage. Haven’t you heard about this?”

  “I’ve been busy.”

  Evidently I was expected to monitor the love lives of my crew. Or maybe Jana’s hair was pulled back too tight.

  After a moment I asked, “Is this that same girl who was in the lounge today?”

  She held out a hand. “Yes, of course! This is serious!”

  “I don’t know, Jana,” I protested. “My crew’s personal lives don’t really fall inside my command sphere.”

  “When we wash out, you’1l change your mind.”

  “Okay, okay, you’re right about that. I’ll talk to Robin and see what’s up. Next mission, investigate my crew’s love life and see if it’s compromising our survival. I’m starting to see that garbage scow in my future.”

  Jana’s hard eyes eased some. She seemed satisfied—at least, as satisfied as Jana Akton could get. “Don’t tell him I talked to you,” she added.

  “I won’t.”

  “Are you ready to go?”

  “Go? Where should I go?”

  “Back to the simulator.”

  “We just got off the simulator an hour ago!”

  “What about the Old Soldiers Mission? Didn’t you look at Captain Sulu’s all-hands memo? We’ve been moved up because of demand for use of the bridge simulator. Our results are due at zero eight-thirty.”

  “Jana?”

  “Yes?”

  “Would you kill me now, please?”

  Chapter 4

  “He thought it was a miracle, but I said it couldn’t have been God, because God was commanding the Enterprise at the time!”

  “That was your own fault.”

  “My fault? My fault? Those were real attackers, not simulations, which is all you had ever seen before that. And you didn’t mind steering the Enterprise where I told you to that day. And all the days before, and after.”

  “I was carrying you.”

  “Carrying? How many planets would have had to jump out of your way without my navigating?”

  Had I come in at the wrong moment? The two voices were strong and laced with underlying enthusiasm. The simulator was fritzing and smoking, real debris from a fake battle, and Captain Sulu and Commander Chekov were waving away the smoke. Had they been using the simulator? Two senior officers, playing on the simulator?

  I turned to leave—quickly, but Sulu called, “Forester! Front and center.”

  “Sir!” Turning on a heel, I came to attention on the upper deck.

  “You tell us. In Simulation 4-A, should you go to Scenario Z or Scenario A?”

  The two officers stared at me. Was there a right answer?

  So I told him what my team had done. “Uh … scenario Z—”

  “Not you too!” Commander Chekov blurted.

  Oh, right. We’d botched that simulation.

  “Or scenario A could work,” I filled in quickly.

  “Great minds think alike,” Sulu said, grinning devilishly. “After all, this was the boy who clipped Captain Kirk, remember?”

>   “I remember!” Chekov snapped. “You two are ganging up on me. I’m going to put a demerit in Forester’s file.”

  “Right next to the commendations I’m giving him.” Sulu smiled again, this time at me.

  Now I could actually smell the garbage scow. “Permission to go hang myself, sir?”

  “You stay right here,” Sulu said. “You can help Commander Chekov with his neurofeedback resolution reprogramming. Is that your report on the team’s results?”

  “Oh … yes, sir.”

  “Good. I’ll go have a look.” With one final victorious grin at Chekov, Captain Sulu vectored into the fake turbolift and left the two of us alone on the simulator bridge.

  “You know,” Chekov said, eying me, “I’ve known Captain Kirk since I was twenty-two … and I never got to hit him.”

  Agony.

  The “lift” doors parted and for a horrible instant I thought Captain Sulu was returning, but instead a burly cadet strode in, the same senior who’d threatened Robin in the auditorium. So it hadn’t been a trick of the prism sunlight—he really did have more muscles than I’d seen on most draft horses.

  “You Forester?” this guy asked bluntly.

  He darned well knew who I was.

  “Identify yourself, cadet,” Commander Chekov interrupted.

  The burly guy flinched, as if he hadn’t noticed there was an officer present. How could he have missed seeing Chekov?

  “Yes, sir! Cadet Frank Malan, sir, senior command candidate, sir.”

  How did anybody get that stiff in only a couple of decades?--but Chekov wasn’t intimidated, in spite of his slight stature against the cadet’s solid-rock frame.

  “Report, Cadet Malan,” Chekov allowed after a critical silence.

  “Captain Sulu sent me in to inform Cadet Forester that his team is expected on the phys ed field in fifteen minutes, sir.”

  “Fifteen minutes?” I gasped. “Then that’s been moved up too!”

  “Yes,” Chekov confirmed. “With a large incoming cadet class this semester, we’re having to adjust the schedule.”

  “Permission to gather my team, sir!” I was suddenly breathless as my mind shot into responsibility mode—how was I going to get the whole team on the soccer field in fifteen minutes? I didn’t even know where they were.