Текст книги "The Best and the Brightest"

Автор книги: Susan Wright

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Текущая страница: 3 (всего у книги 14 страниц)

Irritated, Titus left as the laughter continued to ring out behind him. He decided to take the transporter to the workout arena to blow off some steam. He couldn’t wait to get that big Rex down on histurf. Then they would see how tough he was.

By the time their next free day came along, the Enterprise‑D had finished its preliminary investigation on Earth. The analysis of the artifacts found at the dig site suggested they originated from the planet Devidia II in the Marrab sector.

It was barely dawn when Titus woke to the news that the Enterprise‑D was breaking orbit and was en route to Devidia II to investigate. He quickly called the others to get them moving. They needed to get past the upper tunnels and into new territory before the caverns were filled with secondary Starfleet investigators.

Bobbie Ray was like a limp rag, never eager to get up early, and being provocative undoubtedly because he knew how impatient Titus was to get down to the caves. “Yeah, yeah, just a few more minutes,” the Rex repeated, rolling over lazily.

Titus prodded him again, fresh from his own shower and ready to go. When Jayme poked her head around the door, also up and eager, Titus finally warned, “I’ll tell everyone you wimped out and we had to go without you.”

That did the trick, and within minutes the three cadets had transported into Chinatown. Jayme had taken the entire Quad on a tour of the city soon after the academic year began, so Titus had already gotten a glimpse of the riot of color and noise and smells offered by the historic district. The streets were narrow canyons–very different from other Earth cities he’d seen so far, with their open green parks and towering spires. They had to watch their step along the sidewalks to avoid the squatting Asians who were tending their ion‑grills, roasting a variety of real and exotic animal products right on the street.

Bobbie Ray kept stopping to toss credits at the vendors, picking up skewers of unidentifiable meat, while Jayme kept running into the makeshift booths to rifle through colored scarves and costumes. Titus was too busy trying to get his bearings with the map on his padd, but somehow in the past few hundred years, the street locations and names had inexplicably shifted.

“We’ll never find it!” he finally exclaimed, standing in the center of a five‑way intersection that shouldn’t have existed.

Bobbie Ray stuck a large fried insect in his mouth and briskly began crunching. The guy had a bottomless pit where his stomach should be.

“Close your mouth!” Jayme snapped, obviously disgusted by the sight of legs and feelers being randomly mashed around in the Rex’s mouth.

“Want one?” Bobbie Ray asked, offering her a plasteen container that was piled with the desiccated bodies of Terran grasshoppers.

“You know,” Jayme told him with a wicked glint in her eye, “you shouldn’t wear that color. Orange on orange makes you look like a big Zarcadian squash.”

“Will both of you pay attention?” Titus demanded. “We’re going to have to pick another access port. We’ll never find the one in here.”

“Oh, give me that!” Jayme snatched the padd from his hand, muttering under her breath about “tourists.”

With a few flicks of the screen, she overlaid a current map and zoomed in on their targeted access port.

“Here it is,” she said. “Right behind the Ho Ching Acupuncture and Telekinetic Healing Clinic.”

“Oh, what a relief,” Titus said sarcastically, taking back his padd.

“What would you do without us?” Bobbie Ray commented, grinning around the spindly legs of the grasshoppers.

*   *   *

Jayme was right–no one paid any attention to three orange‑clad workers opening the access port in the alleyway. Kids were running past, people were hanging clothes out overhead, and antigrav carts trundled by on both sides laden with warehouse goods or fresh produce.

Closing the access portal overhead, they stood in a rounded dirt‑floored chamber similar to the one shown on the media broadcasts where Data’s head was found. Titus felt a sinking feeling, wondering if all the caverns had been reconditioned by the workforces over the years.

“This way,” he ordered, keeping his worries to himself. At the rear of the chamber was a long ladder, leading down. Here the walls were rougher and the black pit was too deep to be illuminated by their handlights. Titus began to feel a little better. “Down we go!”

“Wait,” Jayme said, unslinging her pack. “We have to put these on.”

She held out the white jet‑boots issued by Starfleet.

Titus took one look and groaned. “We don’t need those!”

“I’m not going down without safety gear,” Jayme insisted. “And I’m not going to let you two go, either. This is supposed to be fun, not life‑threatening.” She glanced down into the shaft. “And those rungs look slimy.”

Bobbie Ray checked the two pairs she set out for them. “You brought my size!”

Jayme slipped her white boots on and tightened the straps. With a little puff of dust, she activated the jets and lifted a few inches off the ground. “Good for thirty hours use.”

Bobbie Ray buckled his boots on and was soon lifting himself up to the ceiling. “Maybe we should skip the ladder and go down this way.”

“Maybe you want to give up now and go back to the Quad!” Titus retorted. “What’s the use of exploring if you might as well be in a holodeck?”

Both of them hovered silently, staring down at him. After a few moments, Titus flung up his hands. “Have it your way, then! But we only use the boots in an emergency or I’m quitting right now.”

Jayme sank back down to the ground. “That’s why I brought them. For emergencies.”

Titus waited until Bobbie Ray also slowly floated down before jerking on his jet‑boots and tightening them in place. “Ithink if you can’t manage to hang on to a ladder, then you get what you deserve.”

Bobbie Ray laughed. “Then you go first, fearless leader.”

Titus had the satisfaction of hearing the Rex’s laughter abruptly end as they started down the ladder. For most humanoids, any sort of vertical drop offered a test of nerves. Especially when you couldn’t see the bottom.

The light at the opening at the top dwindled as they descended. He skipped several side tunnels that went in the direction of the Presidio and Starfleet Academy, choosing to go as deep as he could. The fracture widened at the bottom, becoming more rugged and raw. They climbed through a steeply inclined crack, into an underground canyon that stretched as far across as the Academy Assembly Hall. A stream had eroded the bottom into a gorge, and they had to edge along the wall, brushing their hands against the slippery, calcified coating on the rocks. Titus could imagine the tremendous force of earthquakes breaking open the crust around the San Andreas Fault, leaving behind this network of caverns and crushed rock.

They passed cave flowers slowly extruding from holes in the rock, growing from the base and curling back like squeezed toothpaste. Titus checked one of the largest, nearly twenty‑five centimeters across, and found that the delicate formation was pure gypsum. There were also shields or palettes forming from water seepage through cracks. The ridges of calcite were deposited on both sides, growing radially into parallel plates or disks, separated only by a thin opening through which drops of water continued to fall. Jayme stopped behind two large circular shields, her light outlining her body through the translucent calcite.

Titus was more than pleased with their awe and wonder at the underground world. But he wasn’t satisfied yet. Bobbie Ray refused to acknowledge the effort it took to climb down so far, and he even scaled the wall bare‑handed to get the tip of a crystal‑clear stalactite for Jayme. Her glance at Titus clearly said who she thought was winning this little contest of skills.

Titus took them up a high talus mound and into the next cavern, where flowstone coated the cave fill, narrowing the volume of the void. This cavern was filled with fallen ceiling blocks and most of the stalagmites had been broken off near the base by earth tremors. Additional seepage gave them an unusually fat, short appearance.

They retreated back to the shaft. Though the ladder left off, the fractured hole continued down. Titus uncoiled the rope he had brought and hooked it onto his belt. The other two followed him without a word of complaint.

A couple of dozen meters down the shaft narrowed, too small for them to go any further, but another fracture led east, fairly horizontal, following the path of the caverns far above them. Water coated the walls and floor, and here Bobbie Ray had even more of an advantage with his surefooted agility. Titus and Jayme kept slipping, and once Titus would have fallen badly except for Bobbie Ray’s obliging hand.

After clambering carefully some distance through the tunnel, Titus noticed a fissure overhead only because he was looking for it. With the help of Bobbie Ray’s height and reach, they muscled their way up the fissure into another large cavern, in line with the other two they had already explored.

“It was cut off from the last cavern by the talus mound,” Titus explained nonchalantly as first Jayme, then Bobbie Ray, emerged through the jog in the fissure that led into this small cavern. They were slightly elevated above the floor.

Titus was pleased that he had guessed correctly. Jumping down, he felt the loose rock shift and slip under his feet. Jayme actually went down on her hands and knees, unable to keep her balance, while Bobbie Ray hung on to the stone lip they had just jumped over, staring up open mouthed at the dramatic low‑hanging ceiling that dripped continually. The fat drops sparkled like rainbow stars under their handlights.

Titus knelt and picked up some of the rocky debris on the floor. “Hey, these are cave pearls.”

“Real pearls?” Jayme asked, picking up a handful of the shiny white spheres. “They’re huge!”

“It’s calcified gravel and bits of stuff,” Titus clarified. “You don’t find them very often, usually only in unexplored caves. I wonder if we’re the first ones to find this place.”

“That was a tricky entrance,” Bobbie Ray agreed. “I would have never seen it.”

Titus finally had his moment of satisfaction. He felt as if he had been trying to catch up to his roommate since they both arrived at the Academy. Except that Bobbie Ray had all the advantages of a childhood on Earth, supported by wealthy parents, while Titus felt like some kind of country bumpkin, unable to tell a sonic haircutter from a steak knife.

“Look up here!” Jayme called, halfway up the gentle slope of the talus incline. “I think the ceiling fell in back here.”

“It looks like the roof sank until it ran into the ground,” Bobbie Ray agreed, swatting at the elusive, fat drops that continually bombed them from above.

They climbed the shifting slope to the point where the ground and ceiling met. The rounded debris constantly moved under their hands and knees. Titus examined some of the bits, and was surprised to see elongated pieces as well as the more traditional “pearls.”

“Why aren’t there any stalactites in this cavern?” Jayme asked, standing in the last possible space at the upper end. A dense curtain of drops speckled the air in front of them.

“This cavern is lower than the others. If there’s too much water, there’s no time for the sediment to form between each drop,” Titus explained. “That’s what makes the cave pearls–the sediment forms as they’re polished and agitated by the water.”

“I think they’re beautiful,” Jayme said, gathering a few in her hand.

Titus squatted down next to her in a relatively dripfree zone. He aimed his tricorder at one of the elongated pearls. “This is bone! Human bone!”

Bobbie Ray immediately dropped his pearls, absently rubbing his hands on his coveralls as he looked at the tricorder readings. “You’re right. They’re ancient!”

Jayme was also hanging over his arm, trying to see. “Give me a second,” he ordered, keying in the commands. “Somewhere between twelve and fifteen thousand years old!”

“That’s when humans first moved onto this continent,” Jayme breathed, gently cupping her pearls in her palms. “They must have used these caves as shelter or storage. Maybe even burial. This is amazing!”

Titus barely had a second to absorb their find before Bobbie Ray muttered, “Uh‑oh! I think we’ve got trouble.”

The Rex was staring back at the hole they had climbed up. Water was welling up and pouring over the low lip that held back the piles of cave pearls. It made a rushing sound as it disappeared into the cave pearls piled on the floor.

“Oh no!” Titus exclaimed, running back down to their only entrance to the cavern. Now it was full of water. Even worse, water continued to pour over the stone lip and began to rise among the cave pearls. Soon, it had flooded the shallow basin and was rising higher, filling the cave.

“What’s happening?” Bobbie Ray cried in true panic. “How are we going to get out?”

Jayme dipped her fingers in the water, sticking them in her mouth. “Salty. That’s what I was afraid of. The tide must be rising.”

They both turned to look at Titus, mutely demanding that he do something. He knew he probably looked as panicked as Bobbie Ray. “The tide?”

“Yes, the tide’s coming in,” Jayme repeated, frantically scrambling through the cave pearls to the wall, searching up it with her handlight. “I don’t see a high‑water mark anywhere. Could it . . . is it possible . . .”

“You mean this whole cave gets filled with water?” Bobbie Ray asked in a high voice.

Titus could only shake his head. “I don’t know! We don’t have oceans on Antaranan!”

“What!” Jayme shrieked. “You brought us in here and you didn’t know what you were doing?”

Bobbie Ray leaned over the hole, digging at the rising water with his hands. When he came up soaked, his fur sticking out in clumps and clinging to his surprisingly skinny neck, Titus had no urge to laugh. The fear in the Rex’s eyes was too real.

“I’m going in,” Titus said, suddenly feeling much calmer, knowing that he had to take control. He got them into this mess.

“You’ll drown!” Jayme cried out. “That tunnel we came down–it’s lower than this cave. It must be filled with water, too!”

Titus swallowed, remembering how long the tunnel was. “We may not have oceans on Antaranan, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t have water. I’m a good swimmer.”

“I’m not!” Bobbie Ray wailed, trying to shake the water from the fur on his hands. He was shivering and wet through.

“Get up to the top,” Titus ordered. “I’ll have you beamed out of here in no time.”

The other two cadets reluctantly retreated as he flung gear from his pouch–water flask, extra rope–leaving only the necessities, with just enough room to spare so he could wedge his jet‑boots in.

Standing hip‑deep in the hole, wincing from the biting cold water, he glanced back up at the cadets. “Hang tight!”

They didn’t look reassured.

Taking a deep breath, he ducked under the water. Immediately he knew it wouldn’t work. The surge of water welling up carried him back to the surface.

As he broke into the air again, he was saying, “All right! It’s all right! I’ve got an idea.”

He quickly removed the jet‑boots and strapped them on. Water was nearing his waist now. He didn’t care if it killed him, he wasn’t going to give up this time.

Diving down headfirst, he got around the jag in the fissure and then turned on the boots. The jets churned the water and almost drove him into the rock wall, but he eased off the power and used his hands to guide him down to the tunnel. Underwater, even with the handlight, he could hardly see, so he groped his way down, feeling the scrape of rocks against his coveralls as the boots propelled him through the water.

He knew he had reached the tunnel by the strong surge of the current pushing him in the direction he wanted to go. But he was running out of oxygen. His jaw clenched as he gunned the boots, squinting his eyes against the pressure of the water as he shot through the murky light cast by the glow of the jets.

Everything was getting dark and hazy, and his chest seemed ready to burst. Titus wasn’t sure he was going to make it to the vertical shaft.

*   *   *

Jayme felt sorry for Bobbie Ray, huddled next to her at the top of the talus slope. “Maybe it won’t reach this far,” she offered.

Bobbie Ray was wiping at his fur with the fleshy palm of one hand, smoothing and smashing it, pressing all the water out. Then he would twitch and shake, making the damp hair stand out again. Then he would pick another patch and begin the whole process over again. It seemed like more a nervous reaction than an effort to dry himself.

“Do you think he drowned yet?” Bobbie Ray asked, unable to meet her eyes.

“Umm,” she murmured, “by now, he either drowned or got out alive.”

“Are you going to try it?” Bobbie Ray asked.

Jayme wasn’t aware that her calculating glances at the hole had been that obvious. “I’ll try it before I drown in here.”

Bobbie Ray went back to stroking his fur, concentrating on every swipe.

“I’ll help you,” she assured him.

“That won’t do any good. I could barely pass the Starfleet swimming requirements. And you don’t know how hard that was for me.”

Jayme silently patted his knee. She wasn’t sure she could make it, but every bit of her mind and body was focused on that hole, ready to dive through the water and turn on her jet‑boots just as Titus had done. Even if it killed her. Because that was better than sitting here until the water rose up around her chin.

“I just wish I knew if he made it,” she murmured.

“Wait a few more minutes. Maybe he’s at a public transporter terminal right now. There was one right outside the access port.”

They both stared at the hole.

*   *   *

The shaft was full of water, too. Titus desperately revved the boots, aiming straight up, his hand clenched on the control so tightly that even if he drowned he knew he would surface.

When he thought he was passing out, he broke into air. A shower of water rose with him, and his surge in speed left him gasping and laughing and, when he finally could, crying out in relief. Arrowing up, he raised both arms, trying to pick up more speed, thinking about Jayme and Bobbie Ray back in that death trap.

He was going so fast that the opening approached before realized it. Braking, he hit the ceiling and bounced down, managing to twist in midair so he would land on the floor of the access entrance.

Still panting and gasping, almost hysterical with his near miss, he rolled over in the dirt, trying to wipe away the muddy dust that settled on his face and eyes. When he could finally see, Starsa, Moll Enor, and Nev Reoh were several meters away, standing in the access room and staring at him.

“What happened to you?” Moll Enor demanded.

“What are you doing here?” Titus said at the same time.

Starsa raised one hand slightly, blinking in amazement at his dramatic appearance. “I listened outside your door the other night, and I heard you planning to come down to the caves without me–”

“You what!” Titus interrupted.

“I followed you,” Starsa admitted, “but then the hole started filling with water, and you didn’t come out.”

“We beamed over when she called us because we were afraid you were in trouble,” Moll Enor added.

“Jayme and Bobbie Ray!” Titus forgot about Starsa’s gross invasion of privacy–just one of many. “They’re trapped in a cavern. We’ve got to beam them out fast–”

“I already tried that!” Starsa interrupted. “You went below the network of seismic regulators. The active energy field is interfering with the sensor locks on the transporter.”

“That’s why we brought the sonic cutter,” Reoh agreed as Titus clutched at his hair.

“Where?” Titus demanded. He grabbed the cylindrical unit, practically ripping it from Reoh’s back. Leaving the others to follow as best they could, he turned his jet‑boots on and jumped into the shaft, hardly breaking his fall toward the rising water.

Jayme and Bobbie Ray were treading water, barely six feet over the original opening into the cave. “It’s easy,” Jayme told him. “Just dive and when your boots are pointed up, hit the jets.”

Bobbie Ray nodded glumly, more concerned with keeping his chin out of the water than judging the angle of the hole. Jayme reached up, but she couldn’t touch the low‑hanging ceiling.

“We’re running out of time. You have to try it,” she told him.

The Rex took a few deep breaths, then a few more, hyperventilating to get enough oxygen in his system. With a thumbs up, he splashed awkwardly under the water. Jayme peered through the brackish water, ready to cheer as he dove through the hole. But even before his hindquarters went through, he was pushing back out and paddling frantically up for air.

He grabbed onto her, almost pulling her under as he sprayed her with water. “Let go!” she shouted, trying to pry his fingers off her. She gulped air just before going under. Then her instincts kicked in and she was more concerned with getting away from him than helping.

“I’m sorry!” was the first thing she heard. “I’m sorry!”

Jayme tried to catch her breath, treading water out of his tremendous reach. She knew Titus had brought then down here because he wanted to get one over on Bobbie Ray. She had agreed to come along became, secretly, she also wanted to see the dashing know‑it‑all brought down a few notches. It seemed like all the girls in the Academy–except for her and Starsa–thought Bobbie Ray was the hottest thing in a uniform. She couldn’t get over the fact that all her friends were drooling over that smug, self‑satisfied grin. Now his whiskers hung almost straight down, dragged by the water at his chin. If only Titus could see him now.

But they hadn’t counted on this.

The water was rising. She could almost touch the ceiling. But she couldn’t desert Bobbie Ray. “Now what do I do?” she moaned.

“Right there,” Titus ordered, positioning himself at the top of the talus slope.

Nev Reoh nearly knocked over the sonic cutter as he and Starsa hung on to stabilize it. Titus swore under his breath at the Bajoran. He had tried, but the cutter was too powerful for him to stabilize it himself. And it took too long for the others to climb down and join him.

Water poured into the first cavern and coursed through the crevice just below the ledge they had to use to get to the next cavern. Titus practically ran to the rear of the second cave, working on the assumption that the top of the talus slope was the narrowest point of the barrier leading into the next cavern.

Moll Enor adjusted her safety glasses. “Are you sure about this?”

Titus took hold of the handles of the sonic cutter, snapping to Reoh, “Get it locked, will you! We’re running out of time.”

With more brute force than was usually necessary, Titus aimed the cutter at the rubble near the ceiling of the cave. Dust and bits of rock were flung back and caught in the stasis field, hanging in mid‑air until he shut off the cutter for a moment to see his progress.

Reoh clambered up peering under his arm. “How far?”

“You think I know?” he demanded, taking hold of the cutter once more.

With another everlasting flurry of stones and the straining whine of the cutter, Titus kept the beam pointed at the rocks long after he should have paused and checked his progress. “Come on!” he muttered through gritted teeth. “Give!”

“Wait?” Moll Enor yelled through the rumble of cut rock. “I see–”

Titus was suddenly pulled forward as the sonic cutter broke through the rock. Leaving the beam on short intensity, he swiped around at the rock to widen the gap.

As soon as the cutter was deactivated, Moll Enor ducked through the hole ahead of him. “Bobbie Ray! Jayme! You okay?”

Titus pushed her through and with one pass of his handlight, he knew. “It’s not the right one.”

Moll Enor splashed down into the water. “Jayme! Bobbie Ray!” Her dark skin made it difficult to see her in the dim light.

Nev Reoh poked his head through. “Are you sure they aren’t there?”

“Pass that cutter in,” Titus ordered. He had been afraid they weren’t in the next cavern–it was even lower than this one. “It’s the next cave.”

As he set up the sonic cutter, he didn’t add the words that rang through his head– I hope it’s the next one.

“The water is rising in here,” Moll Enor murmured behind him.

“Yeah, and every cave is lower than the next one,” Titus explained.

“Why are you going through this part?” Reoh asked, even as he helped.

“The ceiling’s collapsed in the next cave. We’ve got to aim lower or we’ll just bore through rock over the top of it.”

“Oh.” Reoh looked frightened, standing knee‑deep in water. Starsa clutched him, practically pulling him off balance to keep herself from falling into the water. Reoh steadied her and aimed the tricorder at the wall. “I don’t read any lifesigns. Do you think they’re okay?”

“I don’t know,” Titus said as he opened up the power on the cutter again.

“You better try it,” Bobbie Ray told her, gasping in the depleted oxygen. Their faces were bobbing near the ceiling now. “Before we run out of air.”

“We would have already suffocated if there weren’t air seeping in,” she countered.

“The point is,” Bobbie Ray reminded her, “you can’t breathe underwater.”

“What about you?” she asked.

“I’ll take my chances.”

Numbly she looked at him, those big golden eyes, the orange fur plastered to his face. “I can’t leave you here!”

“You have to try to get out.”

Desperately she glanced down at the hole, nearly ten feet below them now. “I don’t know if I can make it.”

“You have to try,” he insisted.

“I’ll try only if you follow me.”

For a moment Bobbie Ray seemed about to refuse, then he suddenly nodded. “Sure. Maybe I can make it if I follow you.”

Jayme narrowed her eyes. “You serious?”

“Sure, why not? Die here, die down there–what’s the difference?”

She hardly believed him, but in their current situation, what choice did she have? “You better follow me,” she ordered. “Or I’llkill you.”

Bobbie Ray actually smiled at that. “Yes, sir!”

“Okay, breathe deep.” They both took deep, cleansing breaths, five or six each. “Ready? Then here we go–”

Jayme ducked underwater, but she heard the rumble and saw a bright light glinting through the water. When she broke surface, Bobbie Ray hadn’t even submerged. Instead, he was pointing to the side wall near the ceiling. A hole was opening up, and they were drawn along with the water pouring out of the cavern.

“Hello?” a frightened voice called.

“That’s Moll Enor!” Jayme cried out. “We’re here! Enor!”

They started swimming toward the hole and were easily sucked through with the water. Sitting on the rocks, hip‑deep in water, looking up at Moll Enor, Nev Reoh, Starsa, and Titus, all she could say was, “What took you so long?”

“Hey,” Titus said defensively. “I told you I’d take care of everything.”

“Well, at least you’re working together now,” Superintendent Brand told the Quad as they stood in a row in her office. “That’s some progress.”

Bobbie Ray and Starsa looked pleased with themselves. Even Reoh relaxed. But Jayme, Titus, and Moll knew better.

“You would be good cadets if only you could work toward something constructive,” Brand added. “Since T’Rees is on field assignment, he won’t receive the formal reprimand that will be placed on each of your records.”

Titus was glad to hear he wouldn’t have to explain this to their Vulcan quadmate. He thanked whatever gods there were that T’Rees was temporarily on field assignment at Starbase 175.

Brand’s severe tone eased somewhat. “Because you conscientiously notified the authorities about the cavern you discovered containing the calcified human bones, I have decided notto place you on probation.”

Titus finally began to breathe easier. They had just barely gotten off probation from their first Quad reprimand, and it felt like he’d been waiting forever for the next tryouts to join the Parrises Squares League.

Titus shifted. “Excuse me, Admiral?”

“Yes, Cadet?”

“I checked before we went down, but there are no rules against entering the access tunnels.”

Brand raised one brow. “No, but there are rules against doing something that can get yourself killed. You doadmit you nearly got yourselves killed?”

He swallowed. “Yes, sir.”

Brand turned to Moll Enor and Nev Reoh. “And you doadmit that taking a sonic cutter down there was dangerous? The maintenance workers have to shore up that region. You could have destabilized the entire fault zone.”

“Yes, sir!” they both answered immediately.

Brand considered them seriously for a few moments. “I won’t ask what possessed you to venture into the caverns in the first place, however it was a smart move to have a backup team ready.” Titus couldn’t look at the smirk on Starsa’s face. “But I warn you that another Quad reprimand will require that you re‑do this academic year–the same class, same Quad next year.”

“Oh, no!” Starsa exclaimed, then quickly put her hand over her mouth.

“Oh, yes,” Brand assured her. “In Starfleet, we either win together or fail as a group. Here at the Academy, when a group regularly fails together, then we find that it serves in the long run to give them additional time to work things out.” She actually smiled. “It saves wear and tear on your fellow officers later on down the line.”

All of the cadets looked a little queasy at the prospect of repeating their hard work. For the first‑year cadets had the hardest time. Rarely were field assignments given to unproven freshmen. They would be stuck at the Academy, stuck in their Quad, for another year. While everyone else they knew would venture into the galaxy, serving temporary duty on starships and starbases from here to the borders of the Romulan, Klingon, and Cardassian territories.

The others glanced at Titus more than they had in the beginning. He suddenly knew how Jayme must have felt the last time they stood in Brand’s office–like all the silent blame for their punishment was being heaped on herhead.

“We’ll do better,” Titus assured Admiral Brand, taking it on himself to speak for all of them.

She fixed her all‑seeing gaze on him. “Make sure that you do.”

Chapter Three

“BE SURE TO TELL ME what it’s really like,” Moll Enor insisted to Bobbie Ray. “Describe exactly what happens into a tricorder and send me a copy.”