Alpha Class

by TS Paul

  “The future waits for no one? What the hell was that? That was the cheesiest thing you’ve said yet!” Dorene was staring at her sister.

  Diane blushed, “Sorry? It was all I could think of on the fly.”

  “What about all the speeches you had ME write for you? Did you forget all of them?” Dorene couldn’t believe her sister. She just shook her head.

  “Pretty much, yeah.” Diane waved her hands. “It got the point across. We have an hour before Max gets here with the train, did you want to stay and say hi to him?”

  “To Max? Are you crazy? You know as well as I do that Running Wolf has a thing for him! That would be worse than pinching John again.” Dorene shuddered. “She’s a doctor and has lots of sharp, pointy things. Besides, she knows where we sleep.”

  Dorene looked sideways at her sister, “You’re just trying to get me killed.”

  Diane smirked, “It gets boring around here. I have to find humor somewhere.”

  Dorene blew out a breath. “I’ll give you humor! Come on, let’s get out of the way before we get trampled.”

  The cafeteria doors burst open, and students streamed out heading in multiple directions at once. They acknowledged the bickering sisters but had already witnessed their behavior before.

  Nothing new here, move along, move along.

  Thirty teenagers might not sound like a lot, but when they are charging at you all at once, it can seem that way. Both of the D’s froze in their tracks and watched as the stream of kids parted in the middle and went around them.

  “That was cool! Let’s do it again.” Dorene looked at her sister with wide eyes.

  “Let’s not and say we did.” The two sisters continued walking, “Did you notify the departments they were getting interns today?” Diane looked sternly at her sister.

  “No. I thought that was your job as Administrator.” Dorene replied in a snarky voice.

  “I thought we agreed… Dorene, you’re killing me here. We have a bunch of calls to make and in a hurry too!” The twins scurried off to notify extremely busy people they were about to be invaded.

  Whether they liked it or not.

  —

  “Yana, what should we take with us?” Ronnie looked up at the older girl.

  “The stuff they issued us for sure. This says we have Team BMW as our first class. Why are we being taught by car makers?” Yana held up her tablet.

  Tina spoke up, “BMW? For real? That’s awesome! Marcus himself will teach us. Yana you will love it! Team BMW is the one that made the pods and helped design this place. The guys on that team are so cool!” Tina was beside herself.

  “This Marcus, he is the one who introduced you to space? That Marcus?” Maxim stared down at the smaller girl.

  “Yes. He used to work for NASA, Space-X, and a few of the others. He’s brilliant!”

  Nestor piped in, “Maybe this won’t be so boring after all.”

  “It shouldn’t be Nestor. Marcus is a fun guy. But then so are William and Bobcat.” Tina really was excited. She had always wanted to work with Marcus. He had taught her so much about orbital mechanics and trajectory targeting when she was younger.

  “This Bobcat is Were? He comes from China?” Maxim almost growled the words.

  “No, no Maxim. It’s just his nickname that’s all.” Tina cocked her head to one side as she searched her memory. “I think his real name is William something. I can’t remember his last name. Everyone just calls him Bobcat, even the Queen.”

  The large Were nodded his head. “Is good.”

  “Do any of you need clothes or anything? The train should be here soon.” Yana looked at all of them.

  None of the others in the group moved, they all looked at the tall blond girl attentively. This was one group that was actually a unit, leader and all. Their bond had developed early and was holding so far.

  “Good. We should go outside then.” Yana led her small team out the large double doors into the main corridor of the Asteroid base. Dozens of pathways like this zigzagged through the base. An invader would be hard pressed to discover the proper way around without a map. Physical maps didn’t exist and were not posted. Why, when you had only to ask aloud, and the base’s E.I. would answer your question.

  The people-mover train looked to be the same one as before with Max, the school's maintenance supervisor as the driver. Several of the other groups slowly made their way outside to join Team Alpha standing by the main doors. Many of the other teens carried notebooks and excessive clothing items.

  “Should I have brought a coat too?” Ronnie looked over at Yana.

  “Only if you wish one. It seems comfortable in here now. There is no ‘outside’ to go to, so it’s up to you.”

  Ronnie nodded. “One of my favorite authors calls that ‘Earth think.’ We should adopt it. We don’t belong down there anymore, do we?”

  “No, Ron. We don’t.” Tina tapped her chin with a finger, before continuing. “‘Earth think,’ sounds like a good way to explain the differences. Tell me about your favorite authors later. I like to read too.” Ron got the shivers when she smiled at him.

  “You kids ready to go?” Max was now standing in front of the train.

  —

  “Uh, guys? Did you see this?” William held up his tablet for the others. They were hard at work trying to configure one of the Pods so it could hold more than two people. They had made a five-person Pod work, but the boss said she wanted more.

  “What is is?” Marcus had his head down and was peering at a notation on the holographic table.

  William continued, “Did you forget that today was the first day of class?”

  “Hmm, class? What class would that be?” Marcus tried to fine tune the virtual engines for the Pod. Four just wasn’t cutting it. Maybe six?

  “The Academy class that will be showing up in about a half hour. Five kids that you are supposed to teach. Remember now?” he asked, without much patience.

  “What? Is that today?” Marcus rose up with a jerk. “How many did you say?”

  William hit a button on his tablet and stared at it for a moment. “This says five. But it’s for six weeks.”

  “Six weeks? That can’t be right. Let me see that.” Marcus reached for the tablet, but William pulled it back.

  “Uh, uh. The last time you took mine, it got left behind on the moon! Use your own.”

  “Fine.” Marcus jerked out his tablet and called up the information. “No. We don’t have time for this today. Tell them to come back later.”

  Bobcat opened a beer and set it on the table. “It doesn’t work that way, and you know it. Don’t worry I have just the thing to keep them busy and out of our way.”

  “What?” asked Marcus.

  “I’ve got this. Don’t worry about it.” Bobcat smiled to the two of them.

  This would kill two birds with one stone.

  —

  The ride on the train was, as always, one of the best parts of the trip. Every day, the engineers made functional and other safety improvements to the station. Updates on construction were posted often, and everyone was excited to hear they might have a virtual sun inside the base before long.

  “We’re almost there guys!” Tina was excited to see her friends again.

  “I hope this is everything you say it will be Tina. These guys sound a bit boring.” Maxim had pulled a knife from somewhere and was cleaning his nails, as he spoke.

  “It is I promise. It’s not just them. They have a ton of engineers and scientists backing them up. Look at this train. They had a hand in creating it too.” The others looked down at their feet for a moment. The magnetic propulsion train was state-of-the-art.

  Ronnie looked around the car and pulled up the video map on his tablet. They had passed through the main part of the asteroid, stopping numerous times to drop off groups of kids. According to the map only the engineering, and BMW areas were left. Even now he could feel the train starting to slow down.

  “This must be
the Engineering area.” Ronnie peered out of the window of the car. “It looks like Delta team gets to work with them this session.”

  “Engineering would be cool. My mom said they are building the interior of the base as well as working in the shipyard.”

  “Do they fly around in space with jetpacks?” Nestor peered out of the window too.

  Tina looked at him funny. “I don’t know. They might. We will find out in six weeks according to the schedule. So unless Delta tells us…”

  “Cool.” The older boy sat back down with a smile to find the others watching him. “I read about it in a comic book.”

  They all felt a slight movement as the train resumed motion. Their stop was next!

  “Tina, have you been where we are going?”

  “I have, but not for several months. I’ve known Marcus for years. William and Bobcat are like brothers from another mother the way they act. When we lived on the old Space Station, I saw them almost every day. But since we moved here I’ve been busy with school and helping to take care of the littles.”

  “You worked in the nursery?” Yana looked over at her friend.

  “Yep. In the beginning, they needed lots of help. Since the Queen opened us up to immigration, there are plenty of certified day care people now for the center.”

  “Does it worry you that the wrong sort of individuals might get up here? I mean, spies are everywhere in Russia. What keeps them from coming up here too?” Nestor stared at Tina.

  She answered, “Nestor, I know you would be able to sniff out anything with that nose of yours, right? The Queen has people who do the same sort of thing with other senses. We are safe here.”

  Yana put her hand on Nestor’s arm. “If I can trust these people, you can too. You know what the Cheka would do to me.”

  Tina looked puzzled, “You keep mentioning the Cheka, Yana. Who are they?”

  Yana made a spitting noise. “They are Russian secret police. They were known as KGB many years ago and NVA now. Evil, evil men. They have hunted my family for almost a hundred years. Romanovka was our last refuge. We were moved so many times I lost count. My mother was not so lucky as I.”

  “Why? Why hunt you down? You’re just a kid like us,” she asked.

  “Politics, hatred, status maybe? Hunt down the unreachable. My family has a claim to the throne of Russia. Is a moot point now. Part of something else. Something better. As you say, that is Earth think now.” Yana stared out the window.

  Tina laid her hand on her friend's arm. “I’m sorry Yana. Sorry about your mother. Does that make you a princess?”

  Maxim began to laugh. “She could be a queen if she wanted to, even we know that. That option is gone now.”

  Yana spoke, “He’s right about that option being gone now. We abdicated and swore fealty to a new Queen, a more powerful one. Earth and Russia are no longer my destiny.”

  The train began to slow down again. “This looks like our stop. Time to go to school.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  “Are you sure this is the place?” Ronnie looked at the simple door cut into the rock wall. He had been outside of All Guns Blazing, it was garish and loud. This was just a door without any signs or names on it.

  Tina shrugged, “I’ve been here before. Bobcat calls this his lair, so I guess they want it to be secret?”

  The five kids stood outside of an unassuming plain metal door. Max had dropped them off telling them to “go on in.”

  “Do we just go in?” Yana looked at Tina. She claimed to have been here before.

  “Sure. Come on.” Tina opened the door and stepped inside. The door opened to a smallish room that only contained another door and a scanner station. It was blinking on and off. The device was brand new to Tina’s eyes, and she didn’t know what to do now.

  “Problems?”

  “Sorry Yana. That wasn’t here last time. Maybe they have a doorbell?” None of them could see a button.

  Nestor called out to the E.I., “Meredith? Can you tell the BMW team we are here?” Everyone turned to stare at him.

  “Certainly Nestor. Thank you for asking.”

  Seeing the looks, he held out his hands in supplication. “What? You are the ones that said the E.I. knows everything.”

  “We did. But we didn’t think you were listening.” Tina grinned at the boy.

  A loud BOOM echoed through the door causing everyone to jump just a bit. The scanner lights changed from red to green as the door opposite opened.

  “Hello, Tina. Who are your friends?” A man in what looked like military fatigues stepped into the room.

  “Hi, Bobcat! This is my new team from the Academy,” she pointed to everyone as she introduced them, “Yana, Ronnie, Nestor, and Maxim.”

  Bobcat nodded to all the new interns and smiled. “We aren’t quite ready for you inside at the moment. Marcus is working on a delicate systems drawing that requires his constant attention. However, I have a project you can get started on that should make the time pass rather quickly.”

  Waving his hand over the scanner causing the door to open.

  Peering at the flashing lights, Ronnie looked sharply at Bobcat. “Biometric?”

  Bobcat shook his head, “Not anymore. We had a few problems with unannounced visitors, and some of the enhanced folk don’t have fingerprints anymore. The scanners work on both DNA and computer monitoring. Meredith double checks all entrants just in case. All of you have had your DNA entered into the system as part of your enrollment testing. Not every system door will open to you, but as you progress in your education that will be updated too.” He led them through the large door.

  The door led to a ‘T’ intersection of unmarked doors and hallways, he pointed down one. “Down there is the access to ‘All Guns Blazing,’ our bar. You are all underage so that door won’t open for you. Back the other way, are the workshops and our manufacturing area. We will go that way later, but for now, you will be working in the office section.”

  The offices were a quartet of doors along one wall. On the other wall was a small kitchenette complete with Alcoholic vending machines. “Those are off-limits too. My office is down there at the end. William and Marcus have these offices.” Bobcat pointed to the doors in the middle.

  The last door was where he led them. As he opened the door, he spoke. “This is the project I have for you.”

  File cabinets lined one wall as well as three large piles of boxes. A table with chairs stood in the middle of the room. Scanners and computer input devices were set up and looked ready to use.

  “The job I have for you is simple. Input the files and contents of the boxes into the system. Super easy.”

  Yana looked at the boxes, there must have been over thirty of them. “All of these?”