Sirius Academy (Jezebel's Ladder) (34 page)

Red walked out of her officer’s
exam tired but smiling. Her ex-roommate Risa met her at the door to the
classroom. “So?”

“I got my lieutenant’s bars, too!”
the pilot exclaimed.

“We never doubted it,” Risa said,
hugging her. “Did Z help you with the questions?”

“No. He freaking gave me books with
the answers,” Red groused. More quietly, she added, “He hasn’t talked much
since the Kaguya incident, even to me.”

“Did she break him?”

“No, but he’s hurting and
embarrassed. He doesn’t . . . touch me anymore. I admit that the first few
times we ever made love, it hurt a little, but now that he can’t, I miss it,”
Red whispered.

“Have you tried . . .?”

“He won’t
let
me touch him.
He feels like he betrayed me, like he slept with her.”

“He didn’t do anything wrong,” Risa
said.

“But his body thinks it did. The
jolt caused all his . . . muscles to spasm.”

“Oh. Why is that embarrassing?”

“He soiled himself, too. The
important thing is Trina thinks that Kaguya tried to break our pair-bonding.”

“Damn. I’d have thrown down with
that
puta
by now.”

“I wanted to. But everyone tells me
that wouldn’t help. Dr. Marsh said it’s like Conrad stared into the sun for too
long. We just have to give his central nervous system time to recover.”

Risa bit her lip. “I’m no expert,
but if it’s not all physical, you should talk to Yvette. She helps couples a
lot in her job.”

“I asked her and Trina. They all
agreed that the dolphins are therapeutic for Conrad. Cetaceans make more sense
to him than people. He says it’s like being a kid again. He took me with him
last time; it was liberating. He understands what their sounds mean.”

“Yeah. About that . . . people are
talking.”

“Tell them he’s practicing for our team-qualifying
exam. If we pass it, our group is officially sanctioned as a mission group.”

“I mean, the dolphins hang out
looking for him, Red. You know, can Z come out and play?”

The married woman shook her head.
“The whales can be discreet, but the dolphins live for the moment. I can’t
control them.”

“Other than that, how’s married
life?”

Mira smiled, glowing. “We do
everything
together, even laundry.” Whispering, she said, “It’s weird; he folds all the
clothing, even my underwear.”

“What’s weird is a man doing laundry
at all. You wanna hold onto that.”

“I plan to,” Mira said with a
little swagger.

“So, if you get the team-lead role,
what name are you putting on the roster?” Risa prodded.

“I don’t know, yet.”

“Girl, that means you
do
know and you’re afraid he won’t like it.”

“He’s letting me slide. You should,
too. Have you packed to meet Herk’s parents yet?”

“Yeah. Been packed for two weeks.”

“Nervous?”

Risa laughed. “After seeing your
grandmothers grill Z, hah. I’ve got it easy.”

Squeezing her friend’s hand, Red
demanded, “What’s bothering you, then? The price of the wedding?”

“No, Mama is handling it. She’s in
heaven planning all that. I’ve got relatives showing up even I didn’t know
about. I’m worried about my Rafael.”

“Who?”

“Herk! The big guy who follows us
around with your equipment. That’s his
first
name.”

“Sorry. You’re worried about his
date with the Rex page in three weeks.”

“Wouldn’t you be?”

“It’s perfectly safe and only takes
a few minutes. They haven’t lost a candidate for that page in twenty years.”

“But will he be the same?”

Red bit her lip. “It doesn’t change
who you are. I have to believe that. It just takes away the inhibitions—like
alcohol.”

“He cuddles when he’s drunk.”

“We’ll keep him human, Risa. The
whole team will be watching out for him.”

“Wait, the team-qualifying test is
the day before the semester starts.”

“Yeah,” Red frowned as she searched
her memory. “Conrad manages all that. He’s been buying gear and planning for
disasters all semester. It keeps him occupied. The Academy instructors have to shut
down the island because all of them watch the test. That’s why there’s only one
test a year. We go to some special shallow atoll that has the equipment we need.
The test changes every time, but the people who take it aren’t allowed to talk.”

“The test happens before my man
reads the page. What’ll we do for a Rex on the exam?”

Red shrugged. “For other training
exercises, I think I remember something about issuing us mentors for missing
talents. Trina usually assigns the person who’s going to be guiding our team member
in his new talent for the next year.”

Risa nodded. “Good. We’re safe with
Professor Horvath.”

****

The day of the team test, Herk ran
into the locker room in a panic, “Shut down Red’s goggles!” The young woman
already looked like the bear who’d found the little blonde trespasser in her
bed. “Too late.”

“
She
knows,” Red growled. “The
person in question sent her a link to the website. But since you feel compelled
to meddle in our personal lives, why don’t you share with the rest of the
class. That way, you won’t have to worry about how to whisper on the common
channel.”

“I can tell them,” volunteered
Zeiss meekly.

All the Actives smelled burning
pancakes. Red fumed, “Sure,
you
want to tell them. You’re the best sex
ever!” Then she stormed out of the room.

Zeiss ran after her.

Risa raised an eyebrow and Herk
explained, “Kaguya gave a press conference about the O incident. She claimed
Taz was the best, heart-stopping sex ever, before and after marriage. She told
stories about sex in his office, the women’s shower, and the isolation tank—handcuffs,
foot fetishes, and other total lies.”

Sojiro said, “Oh, damn.”

“Z would never do any of that,”
Herk insisted.

“Close enough to cause Red’s engine
to flameout,” Sojiro mourned.

Risa covered her face. “That bitch
did this to sink us, right before the test. We’re doomed.”

“I think that Kaguya was aiming for
revenge on Professor Horvath, not us,” Yvette said. “Kaguya blames the
professor for her jail time and is convinced she has a thing for Z. That’s why Mori
messed him up so bad.”

Toby kicked a locker. “The effect
is the same. We finally agreed on a female candidate from NASA, but she won’t
join us until we get our team rating.”

Yvette shook her head. “Red’s a
professional; she’ll pull it together for the test and punish someone later.”

Herk opened a tall locker and
handed everyone else a speargun as he recited, “Behold the seventy-five centimeter,
aluminum-shaft carbine: excellent for beginners. You’ll each get one shot and
about ten meters of line. The line will be strong enough to carry two ladies or
one of me. Though, don’t try to hit anything more than six meters away. We’ll
get a few minutes to practice once we get to the site.”

For himself, Herk removed a
teakwood shaft as tall as he was with four black cables on each side.

Sojiro snorted. “Why do you get the
big wood?”

“This is for long-range emergencies
and generates about five hundred kilograms of force,” said the bomb technician.
“I know how to handle it without recoil and can restring it in the dark. How
about you?”

When no one else complained, Herk
said, “Z says there are three teams trying out: ours, Green’s, and the Senior
citizens.”

Auckland jeered. “They failed last
year; they’ll fail again.”

Herk shook his head. “They passed
the exam last time, but their score was five points lower than the winners.
They’ve been polishing their weak spots for a year.”

“Rugged,” said the doctor.

“That’s why Red’s been pushing us
so hard, why she’s made Z run with weights on his ankles for weeks. If we blow
this,
we’ll
have to wait another year for the chance to train in space.”
Herk looked each team member in the eyes for emphasis. “Everyone suit up in
full space gear. Get every piece of equipment and fitting checked by two other
people because any safety violation gets that person bounced. Since we need thirteen
astronauts, half the official mission strength, to qualify for the test, losing
one person ends us before we even get in the ocean. Red’s counting on us. We’re
the
team that’s going to take that artifact.”

Auckland shouted, “Get your game
face on; this is it!”

Zeiss and Red came back minutes
later. She smiled at Risa. “Let’s win this.”

Her former roommate helped check
her gear while Herk passed out the last of the weapons.

The first thing Red asked was, “Why
is my gun so small compared to his?”

Sojiro snickered.

Zeiss said, “I bought them. I had
yours fitted with a stock and sight just like Claudette’s shotgun. I even had
it engraved for you.”

“For skunks,” she read. “Aw . . . How
sweet. We could switch.”

Her husband smiled. “My guess is
that this is going to be an underwater maze. Herk and I have practiced using
these to pole vault without killing ourselves. Yours is a weapon: for sharks,
breaking glass, and any unforeseen emergency.”

“Glass?” asked Red.

Herk cleared his throat. “When I
was using my telescope on top of the library, I might have seen the faculty
loading glass equipment into the boat.”

Risa said, “Z might have given me a
problem set concerning tensile strengths of glass and the force necessary to—”

Red held up her hand. “I trust you
all. We’re all doing what we do best—we’re the finest team out here. Let’s go
prove it.”

****

Their boat took them to an atoll
with shallow water and white sands that made the water a bright blue-green.
Most of the instructors from the Academy camped along the perimeter of the
natural pool so they could watch. There were record numbers of divers already
in the water, most with camera mounts.

The technicians on the boat fitted
them each with a new badge that had a micro-camera and a digital readout
labeled ‘radiation’.

“No pressure,” Red complained. She
was the last person to snap her helmet shut in the tropical sun and perform a
radio check. Her media blocker didn’t work underwater.

“You’re already recording this
yourself!” Risa countered.

“So
I
could pick it apart
and be critical,” Red explained. “I don’t like when other people analyze me.”

Yvette chuckled. “Then Z never
showed you his notes on the team from when he was your adviser?”

Red blinked. “He made criticisms on
the team?”

Risa waved her arms and shook her
head to stop him, but the doctor was too insulated in his suit to see. “Every
member,” Auckland admitted. “He shared mine with me when I asked. It was a
little painful but dead on the money. He pointed out that I only went into
medicine because my parents were both doctors. I really wanted to be an
athlete.”

Red overrode the rest of his
sharing with, “Conrad! Why didn’t you tell me about these notes?”

Zeiss was already over the side of
the boat. Dolphins greeted him as a he sank nine meters to the bottom. He
fussed over a few of them and then tried to shoo them off. “Cheerful Once
Bitten, I can’t play this morning. Maybe later. Thank you for the toy, Elsa
Deep Diver. Go, now. Human time.”

The female dolphin made a rude noise
and swam a few meters away, circling the entrance to the underwater maze of the
test. Cheerful approached Red, Zeiss’s mate, next as she dove in. Red projected
her ‘busy’ mood and the bottlenose said something in rapid squeak-speak to the
other. She could swear they were laughing as they did laps around the team
transport craft.

The last man in the water was from
another boat. He bounded over to shake Red’s hand. They could tell from his
face he was an islander. “Hey, I’m Apelu.”

Zeiss stood a step behind Red, to
her right, looking like a royal guard with his spear. Over the team radio
frequency, he said, “Sounds Samoan.”

“Good ear,” said the new man over
the same frequency. “They assigned me to your team today—pulled me off a visit
home to do it. I still have a little hangover from that party last night.”

“Why are you here?” asked Red.

Zeiss gestured to the armband.
“He’s our Override talent. I thought we were getting Johnson.”

The Samoan shook his head. “The
Senior team lost theirs at the last minute and called dibs. Sorry.”

Herk, on Red’s left, said, “They
wouldn’t have called you if you weren’t the best. How well do you move in the
water?”

“It was a surf party,” said Apelu.

“Welcome aboard, lucky fourteen.
Red there’s leader.” Herk said pointing to the metallic-red cherries painted on
her helmet. “Her husband Z—he doesn’t talk much, but when he does, listen.” He
pointed to the lieutenant logo on Zeiss’s shoulder.

Apelu said, “And you’re Rafael
Herkemer, Override candidate. Just a few weeks more. No limits!”

“No limits,” Herk echoed. “Red will
give you the broad strokes on our objective; Z and I will give you details on
execution.”

“Thas cool. Could you do it a
little quieter?” Apelu asked.

They all lined up at the entry gate
that resembled a moon base airlock. Rogers lectured them from an observation
platform above. “Welcome to moon base three. The reactor is in meltdown mode
and the entire site has been evacuated due to numerous leaks. Your group has
been selected to retrieve the data core before the enemy steals it. The data core
is extremely fragile and heavy. Rescuing it is worth one hundred points.

“If any individual’s radiation counter
exceeds one-thousand, we will instruct that person to collapse. Your Rex can
tolerate more for brief periods—you’re not sure how much more. Each person who
survives the exercise gives you another ten points, with another fifty bonus if
you push, pull, or drag
every
member across the finish line.