Alpha Class: A Kurtherian Universe Series (The Etheric Academy Book 1) Read online

  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 her 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.”

  “Are they still alive? Or do I need to go in too?” Diane looked past Dorene toward the BMW area.

  “They are fine. We need to get the kids packed, they’re headed to the moon to help break the base down.”

  “Ooh, that should be fun! They will enjoy that.” Diane reversed course and followed her sister.

  “They will need a week's worth of stuff, as well as skinsuits. I told them to include backups, or I was going back. I may have scared them just a bit.”

  “Knowing you, you scared them a lot. I remember what happened at the last family reunion.”

  Dorene smiled at the memory of that incident. “It wasn’t entirely my fault that time. That cop should have watched where he walked.”

  Snorting Diane chuckled. “You had him so flustered he walked right off the edge of the pool! Admit it, you can be scary.”

  “I have no idea what you are saying.” The two continued to bicker as they entered the main hall of the school.

  The two administrators found Team Alpha upstairs in the simulation room.

  “…go Ron. You’ve almost got her!” Tina stood behind the simulator, cheering on her friend.

  “Hurry Yana! He is almost here.”

  Gritting her teeth, Yana cursed in Russian. “Stop yelling at me, Maxim!” The Sim-Pod she was operating swerved to the left, then suddenly rolled to the right, directly into an Immelmann Turn maneuver.

  “Whoa, that was cool!” Ron said as he looked all around for her Pod.

  Yana, her Pod now above and behind Ron, came screaming down and scored on him.

  “You have GOT to teach me that!” Ron yelled, as his cockpit went red and his controls froze.

  “I will, Ron. I will. Wait until we pilot for real.” She got out of the Pod and walked over to pat the smaller boy on the back.

  “Tina, how did you do against Nestor?” Yana asked.

  “He smoked me as usual. Yana, he is getting really good.”

  Yana’s eyes lit up, “Good. We will have our own squadron some day. Take the fight to the enemy.”

  There was a light knock on the door which caused even the Wechselbalg kids to jump. They didn’t smell or hear the women come down the hall.

  Diane and Dorene stepped in, “Sorry. This room is shielded and soundproofed as well as having special climate controls. Those Pod sims are state-of-the-art when it comes to TQB tech, and they have special needs. I have your new assignments. The gentlemen at BMW are taking the five of you down to the Moonbase. Expect to stay at least a week.” Dorene informed them.

  “The Moon? I thought the base down there was already closed?” Tina looked at the twin Admins.

  “Not yet. They want you to help them with that. You will be issued the new skinsuits along with all your survival gear. Marcus, William, and Boz… I mean Bobcat will go with you. For four hours each day, you will help them recycle and break things down. This is a golden chance to get your space legs and a feel for the new suits. Go pack. Take light outfits and the long underwear you were all issued.”

  “Why long underwear?” Tina asked.

  “It is what you’ll wear under your skinsuit. Your body needs the extra layer of protection. It’s not traditional underwear, it’s made of a special material. You were all issued it and told to leave it in the wrapper.” Diane waved them toward the doors. “Move it!” Once they were out of the room, she muttered, “Kids.”

  Dorene chuckled at her sister.

  Ron hurried to keep up with his classmates. He was beside himself with excitement. The Moon! One of his hobbies was conspiracy theories and their ties to space exploration. It didn’t matter to him that he was already in space or that Aliens existed. The Moon was the goal of most space fanatics down on Earth, and he was actually going there!

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  “This is so cool!” Ron had said the same thing at least twenty times so far.

  Nestor could only roll his eyes. “Ron, you know we have been in space for months now, right?”

  “I know that Nestor. But space isn’t the Moon! It’s the first celestial body that man walked on and we get to do it too!”

  Nestor covered his own mouth so as not to respond. Or he at least covered where his mouth should be. The new skinsuits were exactly as advertised. Skin tight. The instantaneous radio communication was pretty cool as well.

  Both boys were riding with William in one of the two, experimental, five passenger Pods they had created. The Queen had told them to make bigger ones, so these were the only mid-sized Pods in existence.

  “Hey William, why are we going around the Mare Crisium? I thought the Sea of Tranquility was over there?” Ron pointed in another direction.

  William smiled, “You’re better than a map book, Ron. Do you know all the craters?”

  “Most of them. Or at least those related to NASA missions.” Ron agreed.

  “Well, something that NASA didn’t tell you, the area around the Mare Crisium has some sort of electromagnetic field around it. Our etheric sensors tripped it after we lost a couple of probes. The geologists say it may be a rare magnetic mineral. We were about to dig it up to see, but BA, I mean the Queen, said wait. Earth has been getting pissy about us up here and strip mining the moon would really irritate them. So we go around. Less chance of damaging the Pod that way.”

  “I wonder if NASA knows about it?” Ron asked.

  William glanced at Ron and smiled. “You can ask Marcus that if you like. He might know. We’re coming up on the base ahead. It’s in the Sinus Medii Mare if you are trying to locate it.”

  Ahead of the Pod was a rocky area with large rock formations. Domed buildings could be seen sticking up here and there among large shipping containers.

  Ron’s eyes went wide, “Wow, this is huge!”

  The Pod zipped down for a landing as the central dome opened u
p like a clamshell to receive it. William expertly flew the Pod down and landed next to the other five-person Pod. Several prototype three-person Pods lined the interior wall.

  William called back to his group, “Wait for the dome to close. The suits will protect you, but without gravity, you will bounce easily and find yourself missing things and landing badly. Here on the Moon, unless you are in the base, you have to wear special gravity boots. We have enough for all of you so don’t worry about not getting a pair.”