Alpha Class

by TS Paul

  Bobcat looked around, “Sure. This is all stuff from before we came up here and went entirely digital. Research notes, a few blueprints and sketches, tech diagrams, and all the mathematical equations. We couldn’t leave it at any of the bases safely but haven’t transferred it yet. It should keep you busy. Have fun.” He left contact information and directions to the bathroom facilities.

  Yana turned to stare at Tina who looked a bit down and mumbled, “That was a bit uncool of him.”

  Yana nodded, “You think so? We might as well see what we need to do. Maxim, can you bring one of those boxes over here?” The large Were grabbed a box like it weighed nothing and set it on the table.

  It may have been a file box, but it was filled to the brim with loose paper. Ronnie peered into the box. “Are all of them like this? This could take forever!”

  “He did say they were busy in the labs. It’s just busy work.” Frustrated, Tina grabbed a handful and began to sort it.

  Nestor shook his head. “They should be more prepared for students. It’s school after all.”

  “Marcus can be a little scatterbrained when he’s working. The three of them have been at the forefront of TQB technical developments. The Queen trusts them. We should too.” Tina looked at her friends.

  “If you say so.” Ronnie sat down at one of the terminals, “I trust you, Tina.”

  The rest of the day was spent pouring over the many notes and diagrams. One box was what appeared to be bets and payoffs.

  “Should we even record this stuff?” Ronnie held up a sheaf of papers, “It looks like the results of betting who would grab a hot piece of metal first.”

  “They like both jokes and betting here. Set it aside, we can ask Bobcat about it.” Tina took the papers and glanced at them with an audible sigh.

  “What does electrogravitic propulsion mean? Is it the properties that make the Pods go?” Maxim held up a sheet of paper.

  “Ooo, that may be some of the original research work. What else does it say?” Tina tried to look at the paper he was holding.

  “Something about ‘Project Winterhaven’ and using electrostatic energy sources coupled with a form of gravitic energy to produce lift in saucer shaped craft,” he answered. “Did this come from TOM?”

  Ronnie spoke as he looked at his own handful of papers, “Project Winterhaven is a catch phrase for secret projects the US Government did in the 1950s using Tesla technology along with some stuff stolen from the Russians, to build their own version of flying saucers. Or at least according to some groups on the internet.”

  He looked up to see everyone staring at him. “What? Secret societies and aliens are sort of a hobby of mine, sorry.”

  “Don’t be sorry, Ron. It’s a good hobby to have. We are in space after all and The Queen knows an alien.” Yana smiled at him.

  “Good work Ron.” Tina beamed at him which gave him goosebumps all over. It was only later that he realized they all called him Ron instead of Ronnie.

  —

  “Eight engine points along with an extra generator is what we need to make the ten passenger pod function the same as the others. TOM agrees that more power is better than less. What do you two think?” Marcus looked up from his calculations at the holo table.

  “Uh, what did you say?” William was staring at his tablet making notes on a piece of paper.

  “What are you doing?” Marcus pointed to the paper.

  “Making notes. Why?”

  “Do it on the tablet, please. We already have an entire room filled with hard copy research. Don’t make more of it! What do you think of the Pod?” Marcus pointed toward the hologram.

  “I like it. According to my figures,” William held up the paper. “We should be able to make the shell here in the fabrication shop. It’s four times as big, but we can save material here, here, and here by using those new composites they cooked up by accident in Jean’s area. It will save on weight, too.”

  “Why worry about that? The extra engines we are placing will lift a chunk of metal the size of...of… a jumbo jet.”

  “Call it material cost then. You forget I’m used to dealing with cheapskates like Bobcat.” William pointed with his thumb toward the man in question.

  Bobcat looked up from his own work, “Hey! I resemble that remark.”

  Marcus raised his eyebrows and laughed. “Forget about cost. These are for the Queen. Those composites look good, and we can use them for some of the other projects. What were they making that created them?” Marcus squinted at William’s tablet over his shoulder.

  “Jean wouldn’t say. Some sort of armor I think. We would have to test it, but that might be good for re-plating the older spacecraft.”

  “Pass that off to the captains and shipbuilding. We don’t need another project dumped on us. Say, what happened to those kids?” Marcus looked between his two brothers-in-arms.

  Bobcat jerked a thumb over his shoulder, “I put them to work in the file room,” he replied.

  Marcus stared for a moment, “Doing what? Some of that is necessary research.”

  Bobcat looked up, “They are cataloging it, and doing some data entry. It’s a good way to get it done and clear that room out at the same time. We could use the space.”

  “For what? We can always hollow out another room.” Marcus waved at the walls.

  “I ordered an industrial walk-in cooler for libation storage.” William gave Bobcat a smile and the two fist-bumped.

  Marcus shook his head, “You two. Fine. Whatever, it’s your area. Did you look at my calculations?”

  —

  “It makes me wonder if ADAM dug up some of that for them. Some of it was pretty far out there.”

  “We could ask him if you like. If it’s a secret, they just won’t tell us.” Tina stopped and looked over at Ron.

  “Hey, move along lovebirds, you can talk over dinner. I’m hungry.” Maxim pushed his way past the now blushing duo.

  “You two are cute. You know that right?” Yana squeezed past them.

  “We’re just friends,” Ron yelled after her.

  Nestor picked Ron up and moved him rather than squeeze past, “Sure you are. The pheromones you are putting off tells me different.”

  Still blushing, Tina glanced at Ron. His face looked surprised as his classmate set him down.

  “Come on let’s go eat something,” Tina said.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  “Do we have to go back today? I mean the boxes are all done. Those filing cabinets scare me.”

  “Ron, I’m sure they haven’t forgotten about us. I mean they keep refilling the vending machines. Right?” Even Tina was looking a bit down in the dumps as she talked.

  Yana glanced down at her tvorog and smetana. The yogurt dish was starting to get a bit boring, and she thought that switching to another option might be in order. Chef Norman just had to be a secret magician. He was able to come up with so many tastes of home. Even the non-Russian kids were enjoying the meals. Except for the caviar and liver dishes. Only the Weres enjoyed those. Too strong of a taste for her. “We should either ask or report them somehow. It only makes sense. We are learning nothing that will help us later.”

  “Yana I’m learning about electrogravitic engines and magnetic fields. Some of that research could only have come from Tesla’s research. I wonder where they found it?” Ron commented.

  “Ron, only you like that stuff. Even Tina’s eyes are starting to cross. Yana’s right. We need to report to someone about it.” Maxim stood up from the breakfast table.

  “Whoa, there big fellow! Why don’t you sit back down and tell me all about it?” Maxim felt a strong but firm hand on his back.

  Dorene sat down and stared at everyone. “What is this all about? Is Marcus too hard on you?”

  “Uh, we haven’t seen him yet. We are working to digitize old files.”

  “All week? Has no one taught you anything? Who have you been talking to? Tell me right now.” The smallish woman now had a fiery gleam in he
r eye.

  “Miss Dorene, we don’t want to cause trouble.” Surprised by the sudden change in the little woman, Tina tried to pull back.

  “Dear, you are here to learn, not be someone's secretary. We have others that can do that sort of thing. Now. Who did it, Bobcat or William?”

  “It was Bobcat. He assigned us the task after telling us that Marcus was too busy to see us.” Maxim almost cringed when he said it. Waiting for the blow, he leaned back in his chair.

  “I see. Well, you kids finish your breakfast. I will fix this. Do not leave until I tell you. Understood?” Five heads nodded yes as the little woman stormed out of the room.

  “Did I say the wrong thing?” Maxim worriedly looked at Tina who knew those involved better than he did.

  “No, you didn’t. I think she will take care of it without going to the Queen. Not a good time to be named Bobcat right now.”

  —

  The brains behind BMW were just starting their day in the main workshop when doom arrived.

  “I had a brilliant idea last night. We have already talked about using that new composite to beef up the armor on the outside of ships. But what if we use it internally too?”

  “By internally, what do you mean?” Marcus cocked his head and stared at Bobcat.

  “Just the bulkheads and support structures. We beefed those up during the refit, but with this new stuff, we could ensure that a penetrator doesn’t breach the security doors and make it into the superstructure of a ship. Here let me show you.” He was just turning on the holo-table when they all heard the outer door open with a slam.

  “Bobcat, get your ass out here right now!” The voice was female and furious.

  “Who is that?” Bobcat looked at his two friends who were looking at him and called out to the E.I. “Meredith, who is in the outer room?” Bobcat looked up at the ceiling.

  The E.I. intelligence that ran the Asteroid knew all and heard all. “The person in the outer room is Dorene, one of the Academy administrators. Her twin sister Diane is en route to your location also.”

  “Crap!” Bobcat looked around wildly as if searching for a place to hide.

  “What is going on? Wait? The Academy. I’m supposed to teach a class or something there aren’t I?” Marcus turned toward William.

  “Don’t look at me,” The large man pointed at his friend who was now staring at a shipping container full of parts. “He said he took care of it.”

  Marcus’s head looked over to Bobcat, “What did you do, Bill?”

  Bobcat winced. When Marcus used his real name, he knew he had probably stepped into something. “The students showed up last week, and you said you didn’t have time for them. I put them to work clearing out the paperwork storage area. They have been scanning and doing data entry.”

  “We are supposed to teach them. That is the reason for the school after all. You should have told me.” He looked up. “Meredith Reynolds, please let the lady in.”

  A short, extremely pissed off, redheaded woman stormed into the lab completely ignoring both Marcus and William. “I’ve got a bone to pick with you, mister!” She marched right up to Bobcat and began poking him in the chest with her finger.

  “What.” Poke. “Gives.” Poke. “You.” Poke. “The right to pigeonhole those kids and make them your own personal paperwork slaves?” Poke.

  “I didn’t…” Bobcat started to defend himself.

  “What?” Poke. “Who put them to work without teaching them anything?” Poke.

  “But I…” Poke.

  “You gave them food and water? Like good little slaves?” Poke.

  Bobcat grabbed her hand to stop the next round. He held up his other hand. “Whoa! Look, I gave them some busy work when Marcus said he was too busy to teach. They were doing such a good job, I left them in there.” He smiled at her and tried for a sad puppy dog look.

  Dorene wasn’t buying it. She yanked her hand out of his and spun on Marcus. “You!”

  Marcus held his tablet up in front of his stomach,“What?” He looked at his best friend who had just thrown him under the bus and shook his head.

  “You knew the kids were coming. The Academy was your idea, remember? You didn’t bother to teach them, so you let Bozo over here make them sort papers for a week?”

  “Hey, my name is Bobcat.” Dorene ignored him completely. She continued to focus on Marcus.

  “So? Do you have anything to say different?”

  “Uh, no? I didn’t know about the fact they were even here. I just found out this morning.”

  She snorted. “A likely story. Here is what is going to happen.” She looked at all of them, including William this time.

  “You and Bozo here are going to teach them something. These kids are the future of our Empire! They came to the Academy to learn. You will teach them, or I’m coming back! Do you hear the words coming out of my mouth?”

  All three men could only nod their heads, yes.

  “Good. Now, what are the plans for today? They better be good ones too.” She folded her arms in front of her and glared at all three of them.

  “Uh, we could take them out in a Pod and … uh.” Bobcat looked back at William mouthing ‘help me’ to him.

  “Yeah, we can take the Pods and teach them about maneuvers and show them how to pilot…”

  “Wrong! We have a piloting class for that over in piloting. Bozo sit down. You too, William.” She looked back at Marcus.

  “What you got, smart stuff?” she asked the scientist.

  Marcus looked to his friends for help, but they were trying to hide from the scary woman. “We are dismantling the moon base we established and cleaning up all the tech scattered around. No sense in leaving it for NASA to find. The students can help sort and pack up. We still have living quarters down there along with supplies. Since they aren’t adults they will only work eight hours…” Dorene shook her head at him.

  “Six hours…” Another shake.

  “Four hours?” She gave him a big smile. “Four hours on the project, the rest of the time can be lectures and maybe some show-and-tell. NASA and the Soviets, as well as the Chinese, left a bunch of junk up there. We are cleaning and recycling all of it,” Marcus informed her.

  “Good plan, boys. I will outfit the kids for a week of travel and study. Make sure you have skinsuits for all five as well as backups. Nice chatting with you... You can go back to work now.” Dorene did a smart about-face and exited the room, leaving the three stunned men behind.

  “I blame you for this.” Marcus looked at Bobcat who was rubbing his chest and stomach.

  “Me? Why? That woman is all your doing. Remember, you created the Academy.”

  “That may be, but you could have given me some warning they were coming, rather than bet with William about it.” He began to chuckle, “Bozo.”

  “She did get you there, Bobcat.” William began to laugh.

  —

  Dorene ran into her sister halfway to the Academy. “Did you fix it?”

  “Of course I did.”