“Nope. Here’s to freedom in a few short weeks,” declared Andie.
♦
Those few short weeks were a lot longer than Andie expected. Her father’s departure date got delayed because of some technical problem with the docking port on the space station. Unfortunately for Andie, that meant that her report date for the Academy was the day before her parents were scheduled to leave.
Casey didn’t help matters. He laughed out loud when she told him her dilemma. They were sprawled in his living room listening to music while she explained her latest roadblock.
“I don’t think it’s funny,” Andie growled.
“You were so confident just a few days ago,” Casey returned with a grin. “Where’d all that determination go? Or are you just paranoid that you are actually going to lose the bet?”
“No, I’m sure there’s still a way around this. I just haven’t thought of it yet.”
“Why don’t you try telling your parents the truth?” Casey suggested, as if this was the obvious solution.
“Are you kidding?” Andie was horrified. “And watch my only chance to become a skiff pilot sail out the window? I don’t think so.”
Casey propped himself up on his elbow, his face more serious. “At some point, you are going to have to tell them. Your father could still throw his rank around later, and then where would you be? Stuck on the reserve list or permanently grounded. Nobody who actually wants to get anywhere in the Armada can afford to have anyone in the admiralty set against them, Andie. You know that.”
“I know that,” Andie admitted. But still, it was a risk she had to take. Would her father go so far as to wreck her career in the Armada just to keep her “safe?” When they were much younger, her father had always told them that he would be so proud to see his children serve in the Armada like him. Then after Erik’s death, that had all changed, but still, wouldn’t her father be proud of her deep down?
“Well, it’s too bad you can’t just ask to stay over here for a few days,” Casey offered jokingly. “Then you could take off without them knowing. But over his dead body would your father agree to that.”
“That’s it!” exclaimed Andie. Finally, a possible solution. Casey was a genius!
“What?” Casey asked bewildered. “I was joking, Andie. Neither your parents nor my mother would agree to us having a little slumber party.”
“Of course not. But they would let me stay with Jo,” she said excitedly, pulling her flipcom from her pocket. “She said she would help if I needed it.”
“Jo? And her mom is just going to let you head off on the shuttle without saying something to your parents?”
“Casey, Jo’s mom is so overwhelmed with taking care of her other kids that she is not going to notice if Jo announced we were going to the moon.” Andie started tapping a message to Jo on her keypad. Jo would still be at work right now, but Andie was sure that she would agree. Jo’s mom had two year old quadruplet boys with her second husband. Jo’s stepfather was currently on a deep space assignment, which meant that Jo’s mom was constantly short on sleep, short on time for her daughter, and perpetually distracted. In a way, Andie envied Jo. Her mother had so little time for her that it gave her enormous freedom.
The door chimed and Casey’s mom walked into the apartment. “Well, hey there, Casey. Look who had time to grace the house with his presence.” She dropped her bag on the chair. “And how are you today, Andie?”
“Hi Dr. Morten,” Andie greeted, as Casey scrambled to get up off the floor. He gave his mother a quick hug and then turned off their music. Andie moved to sit at the breakfast bar while Casey’s mom rummaged through the fridge. Dr. Morten was one of her favorite people. She always treated Andie like she was an adult. “So, off work already, Andie?” asked Dr. Morten as she poured herself a glass of juice. Casey raised his eyebrows at Andie as he slid onto the stool next to her.
“Uh, I was off today,” hedged Andie. When she had given her notice at her job on the maintenance crew, her original plan had been to work right up until her parents left so they wouldn’t realize she was quitting her job. Then, her crew chief had misunderstood which week she intended to quit, so she had not been scheduled for this week. Her last day of work had been two days before. In the meantime, she had been killing time away from home during her normal work schedule, hoping that no one would notice. Today, Casey had a break from his volunteer work so she was hanging out with him. Hopefully, Dr. Morten wouldn’t mention it to her parents!
“Lucky girl,” said Dr. Morten as she rinsed out her glass. “I’ve only got a short break, then I’ve got to head back. I’m covering for Dr. Curran, so I’ll be home late,” she added to Casey.
“Sure, I’ll fend for myself.” Casey shrugged. He was used to this kind of stuff, Andie knew. It came with being the son of a single parent who was also a base physician. Casey’s father had died when he was very young, and Dr. Morten had never remarried. It was odd to think that Casey had been born on Terra. Terra was the home planet, the center of the Planetary Union. His father had come from a family of extremely wealthy Terran politicians. After his father had died, Dr. Morten had joined the Armada and been assigned to Zenith. Andie idly wondered why a successful doctor decided to join the military. The Mortens sure didn’t need the money. Casey’s father had left him a huge trust fund, and Andie was sure that Dr. Morten was as well off. Maybe she had just wanted to escape.
“Well, you two, I’m going to take a quick nap before I go back to work. Keep it down out here, OK?” Casey’s mom requested.
“No problem, I’m just on my way out anyway,” Andie responded.
Casey walked her out of the building. Just outside the door, Andie pulled out her flipcom and found Jo’s reply.
“Perfect,” Andie said as she scanned Jo’s comm.
“You really think this is going to work?” asked Casey skeptically.
“Of course! Jo’s got me covered. This is just another minor obstacle, Casey. Nothing is going to stop me. You’ll see.”
♦
That evening she broached her request to her parents.
“You want to stay with Jo Cruz the night before we leave?” her mother asked incredulously.
“I know, the timing is terrible, but Jo’s mom needs her to babysit, and she just doesn’t think she can handle all four boys by herself,” Andie explained, trying to sound as casual as possible.
“Well, I don’t see any reason why she can’t go,” her father interjected. “We’re going to have to go to bed early anyway, Marian. We have to make such an early start for the shuttle launch.”
Andie looked to her mother hopefully. “Oh, all right,” her mother conceded. Andie smiled in relief. Now she just needed her luck to last a little bit longer, and she would be on her way.
♦
Her luck did last. The day before her supposed stay with Jo, she smuggled over the bags she would be taking to Omphalos, and no one noticed. The morning of her shuttle trip to Omphalos, she kissed her parents good-bye, explaining that she would be heading over to Jo’s right after work. The lie made her wince a bit, but she knew pretty soon she would be on her way, and it wouldn’t matter so much. It was all going to be worth it, right?
“Stay out of trouble while we’re gone,” ordered her father sternly.
“I don’t get into trouble,” protested Andie, a little too innocently.
“We mean it, Andie,” added her mother. “Behave yourself.” Andie nodded sheepishly. OK, she had been a bit of a troublemaker in the past. There was probably some reason behind why her mother had never left her before. Still, she was an adult now. What did they expect? That she was going to spend her evenings partying in the club? Getting drunk with the off-duty enlisted guys? Running through the mining town and throwing rocks through the windows? Sheesh!
When she finally managed to pry herself away from her mother, she race
d to Jo’s house, where Jo was waiting with her bags. “You’re all set, Andie. I’ve got a long night ahead of me though—I’ve convinced my mother she needs a night off and we would watch the kids for her, but now I’ve got to tackle those boys by myself.”
“I know, I owe you big time,” Andie promised.
“Well, good luck! Comm me and let me know how it goes,” Jo told her. “I’ve got to take off, or I’m going to be late to work.” Andie quickly hugged Jo, and then watched her hurry off to the lift. It felt so weird. Saying goodbye to her parents and then to Jo had left her feeling a little bit lost. She sighed and then picked up her bags to trudge off to the lift herself.
Downstairs, Casey was waiting for her in the lobby. Together they made their way to the base shuttleport, where Andie’s flight was due to leave in an hour. At the port Andie couldn’t help but glance nervously around. Any minute she was expecting her father to storm up and demand of her what she was doing.
“I think you can relax, Andie,” Casey observed wryly. “You’ve become a much better liar than you used to be. Nobody has any idea.”
“That doesn’t sound very flattering,” remarked Andie. She quit glancing around.
“It’s not,” conceded Casey. “But I like you anyway.”
“Thanks,” Andie responded sarcastically. The nerves and excitement of several weeks were starting to get to her. Some part of her was beginning to wonder if it was really worth it. Of course it is, Andie reminded herself firmly. Being a skiff pilot was all she had ever wanted to do.
After she had checked in for her flight, she slumped into a seat next to Casey in the waiting area. “I didn’t realize it was going to be so hard to leave,” she confessed to him. “As I handed the agent my ID, suddenly I wanted to yank it back and run right out the door.”
“Then don’t leave,” Casey said simply, taking her hand. His hand felt warm and reassuring. “What am I going to do without you?”
“It’s only one term,” Andie reminded him. “Then you’ll be in Omphalos too.”
Casey dropped her hand and stared out the window. “But where will you be?” There was something in his voice that Andie had never heard before, and she couldn’t quite identify it. What exactly was bothering him? Normally, she could make a pretty good guess about what he was thinking, but this mopey behavior was completely unlike him.
“Well,” she answered brightly, “hopefully, I will still be in Omphalos too, doing the advanced pilot training. Eating at a fancy restaurant on your tab, right?”
Casey laughed in spite of himself. “Right. Well, I’ll believe it when I see it.” The playful tone was back in his voice, and Andie relaxed. This was the Casey she knew and loved.
They passed the hour with Casey telling stories about his volunteer stint in Rhindhol. He had a way of telling vivid stories, and Andie found herself caught up in his tales about superstitious miners and cantankerous housewives. Before she knew it they were calling her flight.
They stood up together. “Stay out of trouble,” Andie told Casey lightly, echoing her mother.
Casey smiled. “Easy. I only get into trouble with you around.” Andie swatted his arm, and then Casey pulled her into a tight hug. “Take care of yourself,” he told her quietly. He lifted his flipcom. “I’m only a comm away, right?”
“I’ll bug you so often you won’t even notice I’m gone,” promised Andie. He let her go and she pulled her bag onto her shoulder. Then with one final wave, she turned and headed for the shuttle gate. She felt like she was leaving half her self behind. What fun was growing up if you had to go away and leave all your friends?
2. Pilot
The pilot training program was not at all what Andie had expected. There was no gradual introduction to the course. From the first her class was thrown headfirst into a mass of academic classes. Since Andie had arrived the very day that she was supposed to start she had barely enough time to toss her bags on her assigned bunk and report to her orientation meeting. She quickly found that flight school was far more rigorous and serious than secondary school. Most of her classmates were older; only one other young man was straight out of secondary school like she was. Many of them had already graduated from the University and were enrolled in flight school before joining the Armada Academy’s Officer Training School or OTS. They were already used to tough academic schedules, she supposed, because they didn’t seem to mind twelve hours of class each day.
Twelve hours! The first day Andie’s head started to swim as she stared at the desk terminal screen of her first section on aircraft systems. Much of her course was apparently going to be self-guided instruction. But she gritted her teeth and plowed on. To her surprise, she soon found herself immersed in what she was learning. It wasn’t easy, but after a few weeks, she was scoring at the top of the class in the end-of-week examinations. Finally it occurred to her that maybe she wasn’t as terrible at school as she had always thought. Now that she was studying something that she wanted to, she found that it was easy to concentrate and memorize the massive amounts of information required of her. After basic aircraft systems, they went on to study deep spacecraft and shuttle systems, the basic instruments of most major classes of ships, flight planning, air traffic laws and procedure, and aviation weather. There was a lot to cover in a short period of time.
Much of her free time was spent in the simulator, practicing pre-flight routines and checklists. As the term progressed, she began practicing in-flight procedures. To her surprise and delight, she mastered the routines more quickly than anyone in her class. Her instructors were very pleased with her progress. Andie took that as a sign that she was indeed always meant to be a pilot.
In the very few hours of free time left over, she hung out with her new bunkmates. At first it had been difficult sharing a room with three other young women, but soon enough she got used to it. Kelly, Marin, and Raiola were all older than her, but they included her right away. Kelly was her favorite. A born entrepreneur, Kelly had already started three businesses of her own, none of which had lasted long. In the end she had decided to become a pilot with the hope of one day starting a trading company. Marin wanted to go straight to being an officer. She had finished her University degree the year before and hoped to get her pilot’s license before heading into OTS. The last of Andie’s bunkmates, Raiola, was the only one who didn’t want to join the Armada. She just wanted her pilot’s license. “This program is faster than most of the others in Omphalos,” she had explained. “Most of the others are for people who are doing it on the side, and it takes twice as long. I’ve already got a cargo job lined up. I just need to get that license.” Raiola was twice as old as Andie, and she spent much of her free time sending comms to her husband at their home in the Weston province near the coast. But for fun, when they had a bit of time, Kelly, Marin, and Andie would drop in on the Academy dances. Both Kelly and Marin loved to dance, but there was no way Andie was going to embarrass herself like that. Dancing was not one of her talents. Instead, she used the time to meet as many of the Academy OTS students that she could. Someday they would probably be her commanding officers, and it couldn’t hurt to start building some ties now. Plus, after living her whole life at Dos Cientos, it was fascinating to meet people from all over the planet. She had never known, for example, that people from Zuniga had such strong accents. Or that the colony of Auralia was strictly vegetarian.
Between the occasional social outings, the intense classroom and terminal time, the study groups, and hours in the simulator, the time just seemed to fly by so fast that before Andie knew it, she was halfway through the course.
She should have known things were going a little too smoothly to last.
One late weekend night, she left the dance early, pleading exhaustion. Marin and Kelly chose to stay (Marin in particular was really enjoying her dance partner), and Raiola was off base for the evening, so when Andie arrived back at her bunk, she expected to find
it dark and deserted. However, the light was already on. She opened the door to find Jenna sprawled out on her bunk leafing through a flight manual. A neon orange visitor’s badge was pinned to her shoulder. As soon as Andie walked in, Jenna sat straight up.
“So I found the elusive Andie at last,” she commented coolly.
“Hi, Jenna,” Andie managed, her throat dry. “What are you doing here?” She tried to sound casual, like a visit from her sister was a welcome thing, instead of a horribly unwanted surprise.
“Imagine my surprise when I went home for a weekend only to find that you weren’t in Dos Cientos,” Jenna said severely. “And clearly, you hadn’t been living at home for quite awhile. All our neighbors could tell me was that you were going to school. At first I thought Mom and Dad had sent you off somewhere to keep you out of trouble while they were gone, but judging by the notes they left you in the apartment that wasn’t the case.”
“Well, you see . . .” Andie began.
“Oh, I’ve covered for you so far,” interrupted Jenna. “I didn’t want anyone worried just because you were off doing something stupid again.” Inwardly, Andie sighed in relief. So her parents still didn’t know.
“How did you find me?” she asked her sister in a subdued voice.
“I checked with Casey first, but he wouldn’t tell me anything other than that he knew you were fine. But Jo Cruz caved. Are you crazy, Andie? Why in the world did you sneak off to flight school?”
“You know Dad would never have let me come if he knew,” Andie muttered sullenly.
“Probably not. But don’t you think it will be worse now, when he makes you drop out? You’re going to lose your tuition fees, and you’ve wasted several months,” Jenna lectured.
“Jenna! You can’t tell them now,” cried Andie. “I’m halfway done! Just a few more months, and I’ll have my pilot’s license.”
The Legend of Sirra Bruche (Roran Curse Book 1) Page 2