by David Adams
God fucking damnit, Dad. Of course it was him, sent to greet her. Of course!
She simmered quietly as her old man—emphasis on old—slowly made his way up to her and the rest of the recruits. Why… why did her family, living or dead, have to follow her everywhere?
Still, Allison did not want to get in trouble on her first day. She bought her heels together.
“Recruits,” her father said in a soft voice tinged with more emotion than she had expected. “As most of you know, I am Captain James Grégoire. It is my most sincere pleasure to welcome all of you to the Melissa Liao Academy of Military Sciences.”
During the slightest of pauses, Allison gritted her teeth. C’mon, Dad, keep it together, you super-old piece of crap.
Fortunately, he continued. “Regardless of species, you all have the honour, and the privilege, of being the very first students to come through these halls. You will live here, you will train here, and when you have completed four years of study—if you show yourself to be worthy—you may have the chance to serve in the fleet of our united people, as part of Task Force Endurance. The work will be hard. The days, long. I do not promise that the task ahead will be anything other than difficult.” His eyes, ever so briefly, met hers then looked away. “But I have every confidence that you will overcome.”
“Sir, yes, sir,” Allison said, in chorus with the recruits.
Her dad seemed to pause, eyes roaming over all of them.
Please don’t look at me. Please don’t look at me. Please don’t look at me… Fortunately, he didn’t.
“Good,” Captain Grégoire said. “Take your belongings to Central Administration and be prepared to be billeted to rooms. Your very first training day begins tomorrow at oh eight hundred hours. Dismissed.”
With that, her dad turned and began the painfully slow, painfully annoying walk back to the campus.
“This is awesome,” Saven whispered to her, his voice full of so much energy, it was hard to believe that the translation box had successfully communicated it. “I can’t believe we’re finally here.”
“Yeah,” Allison said, picking up her duffel bag and throwing it over her shoulder, unable to keep just the littlest tinge of sarcasm out of her voice. “This is going to be great.”
The end.
The Lacuna series is over, but Allison Liao’s story begins anew with the novel Academy, the first of a new series which has yet to be named. Stay tuned for more!
THE LACUNAVERSE
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