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

She nodded when everyone stayed quiet, waiting for her next move. “Alright, everyone up. Get into groups of five with the people around you.”

Which meant I was stuck with the Animarian and the human. Borko and Borna, large Scala twins, joined us. It seemed I couldn’t catch a break when it came to partners.

“I’ve sent each of you a strategy driven questionnaire,” Aunt Eidel said. “Fill it out with your group and send it back to me at the end of class.”

We pushed our desks together and pulled out our holos. I whistled through my teeth at the amount of questions my aunt had sent us. The human volunteered to write down our answers and mail them back from her holo a split second later. I grit my teeth and said I’d read them aloud.

The first one said, “Your bunkmate plays music at all hours of the night, and it is effecting your performance. What do you do?”

Borko jumped right in, grinning like a doofus and cracking his knuckles. “I’d make them stop.”

Borna and I nodded, but instead of typing anything, the girl sat back in her seat and crossed her arms. “What good is that going to do? Now you have a bunkmate that hates you.”

“Why should I care what he think of me?” I challenged.

The girl gave me a put upon look. “Because he or she will be less likely to do your bidding in the future. You’ve made an enemy when you could’ve put someone in your debt.”

“How?” Borna asked, eyeing the girl like a bug. It almost made me like Borna, that she obviously felt as little friendliness towards the human as I did.

“I’d sabotage them,” she said. “Tank their grades through the computer system or mess with their tools. Even if it’s temporary, I can tell them that I’ve seen them thrashing in their sleep. I give them the solution of turning off the music to improve their standing, and when it works, I’m the hero.”

I was silent for a moment while she wrote that down. “Wouldn’t work on me.”

She gave me a simpering smile. “Sure it would.”

I didn’t reply, reading the next, “You are in command of a small ship and crew. A popular crew member must be court marshalled. You cannot let him go unpunished, but punish him incorrectly and you will lose moral points and more crew members might disobey you. What do you do?”

“Well,” Borna said. “We must punish them, yes?”

“How about a flogging?” Borko shook his head like he was knocking ideas out of his ears. “A nice public one.”

“That’s what they’d do in the army,” I said reluctantly.

“And the army does everything right,” the girl said sarcastically. “But a flogging is a pointless punishment--it makes him a martyr to the rest of the crew.”

This assignment seemed to fall right in the girl’s area of expertise. If such an area existed, and I had my doubts. I preferred her on the battlefield when I could hit her everytime she annoyed me or set loose her sharp tongue. In this context, I didn’t know how to put her in her place, much as I wanted to.

“And you suggest,” Borna said. “What, exactly?”

The human picked at her nails.“Public humiliation, like cleaning all the bathrooms or assigning him to a below his station duty for awhile. It’d kill two birds with one stone. He’d lose his standing with the crew--a dangerous thing for him to be allowed to keep, because they’re can only be one leader. Hard to respect a man who cleans up your fecies. Secondly, you’ll be seen as merciful and gain points.”

The rest of the class went like that: the girl answering all the question with roundabout answers that I didn’t even understand until five minutes after she said them. She knew how people would react, how to get around that. Everything she said was laced with psychology and sociology (my worst subjects at the training center). And she just knew all about it.

My aunt called me over to her as the rest of the class filed out into the arena to spar for the second half of the period. She waited for everyone to leave before saying anything, which was never a encouraging sign.

She thumbed through the questionnaires on her holo. “You’ve got to do better than that, Drusus.”

“Are the answers wrong?” I asked, barely containing my glee at the thought of knocking the girl down a few more pegs.

“No. They’re perfect. But it wasn’t your work, was it?”

I shook my head.

“You have a lot to learn about people, Dru.” She thrust a thumb towards the window where you could see the human and Animarian walking down the steps to the battlefield. “Greenie over there, much as it pains me to admit it, knows people. Sure, it’s all coldhearted manipulation, but I’ll take what I can get from humans.”  

She stood back and looked at me for a moment. “Work on it.” Eidel went back to her desk and continued grading the responses. “Now, go kick the crap out of her on the field. I don’t like that superior look on her face.”

That, I could do.

I sprinted down the stairs after my fellow classmates. The girl was standing apart with Kavi, who was sitting and looking a bit disheveled. There were dark, green circles under his eyes. He didn’t move when I approached, but the human narrowed her eyes.

“Come for another serving of kick ass?” she asked.

My eyebrows rose, but I made no response, only getting into my ready position. She left Kavi sitting a few yards away and put her hands up in front of her face not far from me. That she had learned that much was a miracle. 

I made my move towards her, striking out at her face. It wasn’t all that fast. I didn’t want this to be over too quickly, before I could savor it. She ducked unsteadily, a hand pressed to her right side. I snorted. She was so out of shape, she had a stitch in in her side already.

The girl teetered back a bit before coming at me with a kick. I let her land it on the outside of my upper thigh, wanting to see what kind of power she could put behind it. My face wrinkled in disgust, because it was like being kicked by a child. She had no muscle strength.

There were AIs everywhere, and at least one of them had to be a medbot, but I held my strength in check, not wanting to call them. Yesterday’s incident and Mae’s broken arm had left me wary.

She slowly brought her hands up, back into the ready position. Planting my feet firmly, I swung my leg at her side. I made it connect with enough force to knock the air out of her, picturing her condescending face in the classroom the whole time.

The girl went down like a rock, gasping and holding her ribs. After a moment’s hesitation, I knelt beside her, wondering if I’d forgotten myself. Agrona knows, I’d thought about breaking a few of her nonessential parts before.

“I barely tapped you,” I said, though I wasn’t altogether sure that was true.

She bared her teeth. “That’s all your kicks ever are. Taps.” But she didn’t get up. “I was just surprised. Fell down.”

Kavi was suddenly right beside us. They were both too close for comfort, so I retreated to my original position. Resetting my position.

“Good,” I said. “Then get up and fight.”

“I told you we should’ve gone to the medbots,” Kavi said quietly to the girl. Not quietly enough to escape my ears, however.

She shook her head at him and struggled to her feet with the Animarian’s help. Pushing him away, she stood there under her own power with labored breathing. Her hands went back up, and she started towards me.

I had been enjoying her pain up until that point, but her approach wiped the smile off my face. If the ribs were just bruised, I didn’t want to take the chance of breaking them and alerting the medbots which could go feral at any moment. If they were broken, a direct blow could kill her, and , fantasies aside, I wasn’t sure I wanted to do that.

I evaded her, thinking there was something peculiar going on here. My brain did some quick math, adding up the girl’s injuries (the one’s not caused by me), the Animarian’s exhaustion, and the fact that Mae and I had been gone all yesterday, meaning there had been no one around to stop any shenanigans. That all equalled trouble. I just didn’t know what kind of trouble.

I deliberately dropped my guard. “You should listen to your pet and get those ribs checked out.”

She snickered. “Your concern is touching. Sure you’re not just afraid to fight me?”

Maybe a fragment of rib breaking free and embedding in her lung would be good for her, I thought, clenching my fists. At least it’d probably stop her constant yapping.

I forced myself to walk away from the fight and out of the arena. Hopefully, without someone to argue with, she’d just do the sensible thing and get treatment. That way, I wouldn’t have to pull any punches next time. An elated grin invaded my face. I was looking forward to that.

Proud of my manipulation, I was sure she’d get the ribs checked out.

October 29:

I didn’t get the ribs check out, but since the next time Dru and I sparred his punch to the side didn’t kill me, I figured it hadn’t been serious. Kavi was very upset with me over the whole thing--the drugs and the ribs and the putting him in danger, but it didn’t stop him from chatting me ear off or following me around. It was highly annoying, though I wasn’t becoming numb to it, like if a mosquito bit the same patch of skin repeatedly.

I continued to suck at flying and assessments. My grades weren’t flat out dropping, rather they were on a steady slope downward. In fact, the only classes I was doing halfway decent in was ethics and chemistry. The others (tech, life studies, battle, flying, and calculous), however, more than made up for my brief shining moments in those two courses.

Still, I hadn’t given up. I was determined to see this until the very end--or when Earhart kicked my can all the way home. For that reason, I had stayed up most of the night studying for a Life Studies quiz.

When I woke up--late, I might add, Dru and I were the only ones in the room. He’d been up even later than I trying out some new ninja move,