Interstellar Academy by Kennedy Harkins (read books for money .TXT) 📕

He shrugged. “On my planet we learn more through theory than actual doing, so this is how I would do it. I’m not sure if it’ll work for a human.” He paused, thinking. “But it really couldn’t make you any worse.”

September 6:

My fighting couldn’t have been any worse. I was distracted, a deadly state of being that should never happen on the battle field. I could almost hear my mother’s voice in my head, another distraction, telling me to get my head into the fight.

I reacted too slowly and had to use my arm instead of the stun stick to block her blow. Since Mae was using her stick, I felt a sizable bolt of electricity shoot through my arm. It traveled through the rest of my body also, but I rolled with it, having learned a long time ago not to tense. I let my movement carry me out of the way of Mae’s next hit too.

She grinned. One of the few times you can see Mae happy is when she’s causing me physical pain.

“You’re being sloppy,” she said. “Wouldn’t have anything to do with being paired with a human, would it?”

“No,” I said quickly then shook my head. “Or it wouldn’t if it were a competent human. Assuming such a creature exists.”

“It’s a myth. Scientists are moments away from proving it.” She blocked my overhead blow easily. I hadn’t been trying, and I chided myself. “Has she been slowing you down on the chemistry project?”

I rolled to the left just as suddenly as she thrust her weapon towards my abdomen. The move, since I was no longer where I was a few seconds before, left her vulnerable on her right, nondominant side. Right where I saw. My stun stick connected with her ribs, and she winced, but neither of us were using deadly force. The worst she’d have was a couple bruises.

As she faced me, I put my stick back up in a beginning defense stance. “Actually, no. Neither of us has made any headway on that. Have you?”

Mae shook her head. “I’ve been looking through a few encyclopedias but so far nothing.” She drove at me, bring our fight to the ground. “My partner’s...useless,” she said between gasps as we rolled around, both of us trying to land a blow.

“He’s... a Syreni... comes with the... territory.” The air rushed out of me like a punctured balloon when her elbow connected with my diaphragm.

I rolled away from her, caking myself in dirt during the process. We were both on our feet a scant second later, fists up. The batons were laying, forgotten, a few feet away. Mae smiled, a vicious thing but no less joyful for it. I prefered it this way too.

She circled me. “It’s probably not literal, that’s why we’re having trouble.”

I nodded, not dropping my guard. “Probably. That or the clue is deliberately misleading.”

What runs and has no feet, roars but has no mouth? The words echoed through my head for a millionth time since Tuesday. They made no more sense than they had then, but managed to be twice as frustrating.

Mae moved in with a couple of quick jabs to my body. They weren’t hard and were easily deflected. Because they were distractions. The real hit came hard and to the right, hitting me in the exact spot where I’d smacked her with the stun stick. Her knuckles were as hard as mine and had just as much force. I grimaced and spun away from her.

“Theatrical,” I said.

She acknowledged imaginary applause with a flick of her hand. “Has it occured to you,” she asked, moving towards me slowly. “That the human has already figured out the clue and means to make you look like a fool tomorrow?”

“Yes.” I crouched down and went at her low and fast. I landed a couple blows and used the momentum to spin around her, putting my at her back and in the perfect position to hit a few more vulnerable areas.

Mae didn’t turn, using her elbow and visceral knowledge of my fighting patterns to block some of my blows while moving out of range. We’d been dueling since we were very young. Sometimes, I’d find myself reacting to a block or a hit like Mae would.

Thinking of her skills led my brain on the path to the human, Mae’s opposite. Beating her, while satisfying, was not challenging or honorable. I prayed to Argona, not for the first time, that I’d be switched to sparring with Mae in battle class.

I reset my fighting stance, feeling the ground before my feet, centering myself by it. “The human would see me dead, if she could. It’s in her eyes every time I triumph over her. On the battlefield or in the simulation room. She’d relish in my humiliation.”

She dropped her hands at the wordless cue between us and stretched out her muscles. “Good fight.” She turned and started towards the exit of the arena.

We walked in silence towards the apartment for a few moments. Night was fast approaching, meaning the artificial lights were going out. Students all over campus, reading this signal, started back towards their rooms as well.

I spoke first. “I don’t think she knows.”

Mae nodded, deferring to my assessment. “But it won’t do either of you any good to show up to class with an empty bottle. We need to figure it out, and fast. When we get back, you can check the web, and I’ll go through some of the reference books I downloaded.” A pause. “Then what will you do?”

She was asking if I’d use the advantage. The human was grasping to the ledge of enrollment here with just a few fingers. I thought of myself stepping on one, if not all, of those fingers and watching her fall all the way back to Earth. It brought a rare smile to my mouth.

“It’d be a nice change, don’t you think, to have only three in our apartment?”

She threw back her head and laughed, still elated from the fight. “Yes. Yes, I think it would.”

We continued on into the night.

September 6:

The night continued on into day in far too small a period of time. But I was up long before the first rays signaled that it wandering the campus was now allowed for students. I paced around the apartment while my roommates slept, watching the light like a ticking clock.  

We’d all stayed up last night--far too late for how early I got up--bent over books and holos trying to find the answer to what to put in the bottle. Mae had retired first, giving an indifferent shrug after hours of fruitless work. Kavi had lasted an hour or so past that before his eyes wouldn’t stay open.

Surprisingly, the last couple of hours saw Dru and I working if not together, then right next to eachother. Almost like we were on the same team. We weren’t. Not even remotely. I pursued my lips just thinking about it.

As Mae started to stir, I left the apartment, having dressed long before that point. I didn’t know where I was going, just blindly hoping that fresh air would yield what days of studying and brainstorming had not. Even the weightlessness of the tube--usually the best part of my day-- failed to calm my shaky hands.

Walking through the common area in front of apartment number five, the grass tickled my bare feet, making me realize I’d forgotten shoes. I needed to get ahold of myself. They weren’t going to throw me out based on a stupid quest that no one had the answer to. Professor Adal had given me another chance with the makeup assignment--one I’d finished even if I hadn’t understood most of what I’d done.

That sounded perfectly reasonable, but still my fingers shook. Part of that was anger. I kept picturing Earhart’s smug face, hearing the harsh words she’d said. No one treated me like that, and I didn’t think I could bare it if I saw that expression again--this time, watching me leave the ship with my bags packed.

Without realising it, I’d come to the zero-grav Tak Raw court. I’d never been very good at sports--too much sweaty work involved, but I kept ending up here. I pushed open the door to the medium sized dome building made entirely out of glass.

To my surprise, there was a practice going on. The court, which looked a like like a fully closed in hockey rink, was alight, the ground glowing and illuminating the space. The gravity was turned off, making the players float and sway through the air.

The players bounced a ball that was weighed down by gravity around on their feet, legs, and ankles. The passed it from teammate to teammate, trying to get it all the way down the court into the scoring zone before someone from the other team intercepted it.

The group playing now was older and of mixed ages and genders. They weren’t wearing uniforms beyond their school suits, but to mark with team they were on, each player had either a red or blue flag tied around their calf.

They moved with smooth grace, like predators slinking through a jungle or swimming in the water depths. I watched, biting my lip at some of the stunts they pulled in the zero gravity. I didn’t feel any worry for them, though, but plenty of awe and envy.

I recognized one of the more graceful players about the same time he saw me. Kai raised his hand in greeting before driving after a red player that had tried to sneak past his defenses with the hard, woven ball. I smiled and returned the wave, but he was too busy trying to intercept to see.

It felt like I only watched them for a moment, but when I glanced at my holo, it was time to leave for my first class. My insides felt cold as I realized this would also be my first test at the Academy. I ran back to the apartment to grab shoes and my backpack, a knot in my throat the whole way.

The math building looked like a toddler had tried to build something out of blocks with velcro on them. Most of the shapes--rooms once you were instead--that were