Shades of Learning (The Athena Lee Universe Book 1)

by T S Paul

  Lina looked up at me and laughed. “If I was back home, my Uncle would already have had me rebuilding an engine by now. This is fun, don’t ruin it for me.”

  “If you say so. So what do you think of the kitchen set up? Neat, huh?”

  “I’ve already told your parents I want them to adopt me. This is just the kitchen, what else do you have around here?”

  In the end we got a tool kit from the barn and a RAM robot to carry everything. Lina spent the better part of the day fixing and repairing parts of the house. The front lift system was now working for the first time in living memory. I was so used to the stairs that I had simply forgotten that we even had a lift system. When the dinner bell rang we were finishing up work on the fountains in the rotunda outside. I dimly remember them working as a child. “Tomorrow we will do something fun! No tools for you Missy.”

  She laughed at the expression on my face. “Yes, Ma’am. Right you are.”

  When we walked it to the dining room half my family stood and clapped. Not for me, but for Lina. All by herself she had changed everyone's lives for the better. Dad motioned us over to the head table. “Girls you sit with us tonight.”

  Joining the head table was an honor for me. I had only sat here once before and that was when I was six. Usually only the most favored of the family sat with Mom and Dad.

  Not one to care about position Lina looked at Dad and asked. “How did it do? Any problems?”

  Dad actually laughed. He was not accustomed to strong-willed women who speak their minds. Lina must have been a shock to the system for him. “Lina, it was wonderful. My father used to speak about riding in the beast as a child. It has more power and capability than the new combine we just bought last year. I will admit that I should have brought someone in from outside to take a look at it. Thank you for repairing it.”

  “Reynold, it was my pleasure. Uncle Bart would have tanned my hide for not helping if I could. If it breaks down again, call that number I gave you. He will probably fix it for free just to work on something from Old Earth. Uncle Bart is like that.”

  The rest of my family listened to their conversation with awe. My father is very set in his ways. In the space of a few minutes he allowed someone to call him by name, had a woman joke with him, and actually regretted not asking for help. Who was this girl?

  “If you find yourself talking to him, tell him he has an open invitation to come and see the beast any time.”

  Spending the evening working with Lina changed my father somehow. I could only guess what the future would hold for our family.

  ~~~

  The next morning was the family’s rest day. It was supposed to be a day of reflection and worship. Members of the family followed two main religions: Pastafarianism and Druidism. At some point during the day an argument would start and the family would take sides. It happened every rest day. It was usually settled by someone getting dunked in the fountain out front. You would think that was not a horrible thing but until Lina fixed it, it was filled with slime and goo. This morning looked to be no different until a large air car arrived in the front courtyard. Three men in suits got out and approached the door.

  Mother stepped out and stopped them. “Can I help you gentlemen?”

  “Yes, we are here to see Frederick Tisiphone. We have business with him.”

  Mother smiled and told them the truth. “Freddie is a bit indisposed at the moment. Today is a day of rest here on the farm. Come back another time please.”

  “Look lady just trot him out here and there won’t be any trouble. He sold us something and we just want to collect it and leave.”

  The other two men looked suspicious as they looked around the farm. Lina almost stepped out on the porch but I grabbed her and told her to get Dad and some of the boys.

  Artemis had appeared out of nowhere and was sitting in front of Mom. That took much of my worry away. She would protect her.

  “What did Freddie sell you that you want so badly?”

  “Just some old junk that he said came from Earth. We collect stuff like that.”

  “I’m afraid that you wasted your credits then. Freddie owns nothing here on the farm. Legally he cannot sell you any part of it.”

  “What! That rat.” Laser pistols suddenly appeared in the hands of the other two men. “I guess we will just take it then.”

  “The combine is larger than your air car. How do you expect to carry it away?” Mom was completely calm as she stood in front of the men. On this day she was our High Priestess and showed it.

  “We don’t want the thing. What we want is the tools and computer system! Now where is it?”

  At the sound of a gun cocking the three men spun around to find Dad and half the family pointing guns at them. “Put the guns down boys and we promise we won’t kill ya.”

  The leader’s gun started to come up, and he fell to the ground shaking then went still. Artemis was sitting behind him cleaning her claws again. The other men, now without a boss, held up their hands and surrendered to the family Militia.

  “Damn, Tisiphone. That cat of yours packs a big wallop.” Dad stood over the prone man and relieved him of his weapons. Yelling at the cousins they locked the still twitching man and his goons in one of the farm holding cells. Ironically the one next to where Freddie aka Rerun was being held.

  “You could not just leave it alone could you Freddie? Stealing from the family now. You will get your wish now. Tomorrow you will be struck from the family rolls and will become a non-person. I hope it was worth it. Them, we will turn over to the magistrate. You get to go free. Betrayers deserve little. You will be allowed two changes of clothing and bus fare to the city of your choice. Have a nice life.”

  “You can’t do that to me! I’m a big man around here. Those three idiots will work for me! The Wardens gave me the job not them!… Shit!”

  My head jerked up at the word Warden. Freddie saw that and stopped talking. Could my little brother be working for the Cabal? “Dad, we need to call Military intelligence, not the magistrate.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Freddie here said he was given a task by the Wardens. That is what the enforcers of the Cabal are called. Military Intelligence will want to talk to these four.”

  “Tisiphone, we are pretty far out. The closest base is hundreds of miles away, you know that. Who would we call?”

  I looked down at Artemis. “Should I call her? Can you give Merlin a heads up so she takes me seriously?” The cat nodded her head.

  I pulled out the communicator that Commandant Yannos had given me. Lately I had been taking it everywhere with me. Punching in the number that she had given me, I called Major Minerva Lee.

  “Who are you calling Tisiphone?” Dad looked confused at the communicator I held.

  The communicator came to life and a small hologram formed in the air above the device. “Cadet Tisiphone what can I do for you? It must be bad if you called me. Spit it out I’m extremely busy right now.”

  “Sorry Major Lee. My roommate and I are out at my family's farm for the weekend. We had a little scuffle with some criminals that my brother was involved with.”

  “Get to the point here Cadet. I’m not hearing why you called me. Speed it up! That’s an order if you like.”

  “Long story short, my brother mentioned that he was hired by the ‘Wardens’ to procure something.”

  “Wardens? Damn. I thought we got rid of them. They are worse than cockroaches. Those we can find. Lock them up somewhere, including your brother. I will send a team down in a couple of hours. Thank you Cadet Tisiphone.” The hologram vanished. I looked to my left and my father just stood there with his mouth open.

  “How… Why do you have the number of the orbital commander? She is practically the head of the Militia these days!”

  “Lina and I did her a small favor. Artemis over there technically belongs to her. Except she is an AI, and the Assembly passed a law freeing the local AI’s.”

  He was now staring at
the cat like it was going to bite him or something. Artemis just meowed and walked off.

  “Tisiphone. I know that I have not been very supportive in your career. I just wanted you to know that I am proud of you. You will make a fine officer one day.” He left the porch and wandered off to watch the religious tug-of-war contest. I watched him leave and smiled. He was proud of me.

  Chapter 16

  The next morning the house was still all a-buzz with talk of the Navy drop ship that landed in the courtyard. Marines along with Military Intelligence agents took the prisoners and Freddie up the station. The agents cleaned out Freddie’s room and took anything that might lead them to the Cabal.

  The religious debate was not completed, and no winner was declared this year. The two leaders were dunked in the fountain as usual but instead of slime the water washed off some of the stinky mud. Much of the ‘war’ always takes place out in the swine fields. The feats of competition that my family puts on had Lina in tears from laughter. It really was pretty funny. Sometime in the distance past the family divided over religion. Instead of leaving, the opposing minister was told to put his credits where his mouth was and was challenged to a competition of strength. From that, the games were born. Many of my family, including me, worshiped both sets of gods. The trials were all in good fun. The winner of the contest wins the right to occupy the chapel and preach for a year. Without a victor neither of them can use the main chapel. They each have very nice places of worship of their own. Neither of them are centralized like the big one was.

  Father paid to have a private limo take us back to school. It was the least he could do he said. Lina told me in the car that she loved my family and wanted to go back again sometime. I told her she was always welcome and that I would love to take her to visit again. Personally, I think they will miss her more than me after she went and fixed everything for them.

  “Tis your brother Freddie gave me an idea on how to catch our spy.” Lina had a serious look on her face.

  “What did Freddie do to give you an idea?”

  “He didn’t really know what he was looking for. He probably shot his mouth off around someone who was Cabal. He must have mentioned the Old Earth equipment and tools. Much of what is in the barn is very rare stuff. The workshop alone is priceless.”

  “Workshop? What workshop? I’ve been in that barn a thousand times. There is a workshop in there?”

  “See! Even you did not know it was there. There is an Old Earth workshop filled with tools and spare parts for the combine. I could build a new one if I had time. Some of that equipment is priceless. Don’t worry I spoke to your Dad about a security system or something for it.”

  “So how does that help us?”

  “We set a trap. They seem to be looking for high-tech items and systems. We offer them some and catch them in the act of trying to steal it.”

  “How would we bait it? Is there anything at the Academy that they would want?” I liked the plan, but it would need some clarification.

  “At the moment there isn’t. But we could pretend there is and I could rig something up. We did just come from your family estate. They have to know who you are. We could say that there was a bit of Old Earth tech in the barn that could help the current military, but it needed some work and we were doing that in the lab.”

  “Lina I don’t like that idea at all! It puts you in too much danger.”

  “It’s the only way Tis. They would not expect us to use ourselves if it was a trap. That have to have someone in the lab. It is the only thing that makes sense as to why they are bugging us. Some of the projects we work on in there are ‘need to know.’ Very few know anything, including members of the school administration.”

  “That makes a certain amount of sense, but I’m worried about you. They could kill you for this.”

  “I will be fine. Artemis will be in the lab with me. What do you think we should use as bait?”

  “I forgot about Artemis. Bait? Well they know that my family collected Old Earth tech at one point and have that workshop I’ve never seen. We could say that you found some sort of targeting computer tech in the collection. You needed to study it but the design is revolutionary when compared to what we have today.”

  I was nodding. That might work. “OK we can go with your plan. How do we let them know what we ‘found’ in the barn?”

  “We have to assume that for now they don’t know about the CATTs. We need to find another bug and then talk in front of it or any others we find. That will be the hard part. Pretending we don’t know the bug is there.”

  “Do we bring the Commandant in on our plan? I think we need to. He has resources that we don’t.”

  “We should talk to him when we get back. He’s going to tell us we are crazy, but we should do it, anyway.” I agreed, and I sent him a message to expect us this afternoon.

  ~~~

  “You are both insane! You know that right?” Lina was right he did think we were crazy. “It’s too dangerous and you are still only students. We should use some of my spec ops troops.”

  “Sir, they will know if we do that. We think they have more than one agent in place here. At least an informant. Too many strange faces will tip them off and we’ll never get them. Lina will work on the gadget in the lab alone. Artemis will keep watch. There will be outer guards but use the local ones. Have your guys watch them. We are pretty sure it is an inside job. They already tried to throw us off once.”

  “What do you mean they tried to throw you off?”

  “When their bugs disappeared, they rigged up a couple of patsies to take the fall for them. They must have thought you would scan the staff and student list, find these two and end the investigation. They didn’t know about us.”

  “Who are the patsies? We did scan the lists but nothing leaped out at us.”

  “That is because you were involved with both the suspects. You are the one who brought them here, so they were not a suspect. Anyone else looking at those files would have called for arrests.”

  “Who?”

  “Mara Nevins and Seth Westin are the patsies. Both have sealed files. They were sealed by Military Intelligence and by an outside agency at the same time. That’s what threw us. Artemis was able to hack both but the second one took the longest. It was for the Department of the Interior. This planet doesn’t have a group called that. We checked. Those two are perfect victims if I was trying to make them look guilty. The pirate and the daughter of a monster.”

  “I trust that you will keep that information secret. It is not widely know that Governor Norton had any children. Or that she was on the planet at the time of his arrest. Her safety is one of the key things that has allowed him to talk to us. She was completely ignorant of what he was doing. She volunteered for Intelligence and is doing an excellent job at it. As for Seth if you read the file on him you know that he got more of a punishment by being locked up both on the Paney and later in prison with those five idiots. He is an excellent teacher by the way.”

  “Which is why we don’t suspect them. Not after reading the files. But someone knows and is trying to frame them.”

  “OK I approve of your scheme. What do you need from me?”

  Chapter 17

  Finding a bug to use was not that complicated. During our three-day absence the enemy agents replaced all the listening devices on campus. Artemis tracked down four of the little bugs. The one in front of the cafeteria and the common area in the waiting area of the Laboratory building were the ones we decided to use. The other two were also in high profile spots. The locker rooms at the gym and the reflection garden. The one in the gym was creepy. It was up above the drop ceiling positioned so that it could hear the whole room. Gender bias was a thing of the past on this planet. We had co-ed locker rooms and lavatories. It was not that unusual for people to go about unclothed. Many sporting events gear were very revealing. While I had never participated in the Olive Oil marathon I had seen it on the vid.

  I told Artemis to eat
the bug in the reflection garden. Much of what was said there was of a very personal nature. Both the dominant religions here expected their followers to meditate and make amends whenever possible. Much of that involved quiet reflection and silent or whispered apology. Whatever was said was between you and God, no one should be recorded doing it. The commandant arranged to have a sewer line explode under the gym, requiring that the locker rooms be unusable for at least a week. That is the length of time we thought we needed to catch the spy.

  Getting our story right took a full night of practice. I had more respect for those in the espionage field if they had to remember this much dialog and make it sound natural. Memorizing a whole conversation took time that we didn’t have. We knew the basics, so we decided to just wing it. Assuming that Lina might be under surveillance we followed our normal habits. We ate in the cafeteria for breakfast and then went to our classes. At lunch there was an unusually long line to get into the cafeteria, something about only one worker. So instead of waiting in line we got snacks from the food vendors by the entrance and sat at the table that we knew was bugged.