“Uncle Blake?”
“Yes, your Uncle Blake. He didn’t like being yelled at all the time either,” Linda said. “He came home during the break before the second half of Basic. I remember him punching a few walls.”
“I’d like to punch some walls, but I don’t want to hurt my hand.”
“Blake told me that you’re going to Guatemala next week?”
“Yes, for field training,” Catie said.
“Hmm, I’m not so sure I like that.”
“I was going to go do it anyway,” Catie said. “Everyone in Delphi Forces has to go.”
“Well, I think a fifteen-year-old girl should be waiting until she’s older,” Linda said.
“No way!”
“Especially a fifteen-year-old girl who was kidnapped by a Moroccan crime lord when she was twelve.”
Catie grimaced. “Aren’t you over that yet?!”
“We haven’t talked about it.”
“I was hoping we didn’t have to,” Catie said.
“Why didn’t you ever tell me about it?”
“Because I didn’t want you to make me come home,” Catie said. “It was all over by the next day.”
“Yes, but it had to have traumatized you.”
“Not really, I woke up in the car trunk. I talked to Daddy when I woke up, and then they shoved me into that cabin on the fishing boat. Daddy and everyone came and got me after that. The worst part was that I needed to pee and didn’t want to ask those thugs.”
“If you weren’t my daughter, I’d say you were weird,” Linda said, trying hard not to laugh or cry.
“Daddy took care of the guy who kidnapped me,” Catie said.
“I know; he had ADI show me what they did to rescue you.”
“Then you know.”’
“Yes, but it still terrifies me that you keep taking all these risks,” Linda said.
“Hey, the kidnapping wasn’t my fault,” Catie said.
“I know, but I saw you demanding to go on their mission to capture Omar Harrak. I wish you weren’t so adventurous.”
“You mean crazy?”
“I was trying to be nice.”
“Well, you should know that my goal is to captain my new cargo ship,” Catie said. “Liz and I are partners, and we’ve formed a new company.”
“That sounds safe, but then why are you going to the Academy?”
“Because Daddy says that you have to be an Academy graduate to captain a starship,” Catie said.
“He told me that.”
“Are you and he talking?” Catie asked.
“After I beat on his chest for ten minutes we talked,” Linda said. “He told me that you and Samantha sneaked out somehow. That wasn’t very nice of you to run away.”
“Maybe not. I like to think of it as a strategic retreat,” Catie said. “You didn’t hurt Daddy, did you?”
“You can’t hurt your father. I only pound on his chest because I know it doesn’t really hurt him. And it lets him know how mad I am.” Linda started to laugh, “I do have a terrible temper,” she said. “I hope you didn’t inherit it.”
“Maybe just a little,” Catie said.
“Well, you better be careful with that at the Academy, or you’ll be in trouble.”
“I know.”
◆ ◆ ◆
“So, what are your plans for the weekend?” Sharmila asked Catie after they sat down to dinner.
“I have to check on the design of the StarMerchant,” Catie said. “I’ve had zero private time for the last three weeks. I need to do a walkthrough.”
“You are doing too much,” Linda said. “Can’t you just focus on one thing at a time?”
“You have more than one patient at a time; I have more than one project at a time,” Catie said. “And I have to check up on some work that Nikola and Artie are doing for me.”
“How are you going to do that?” Linda asked, pointing to Catie’s black hair.
“I’ll do a virtual tour of the ship, using my Avatar,” Catie said. “I couldn’t even manage that at the Academy. Same thing with Artie and Nikola. It won’t be that unusual.”
“I don’t know; I think you’re too busy,” Linda said.
“Strange to hear that from Dr. McCormack, who worked eighty-hour weeks back in San Diego,” Catie said.
“Now, children, play nice,” Dr. Sharmila said.
“Sorry,” Catie and Linda said together.
“What are we going to do?” the twins asked.
“What do you want to do?” Catie replied.
“We want to go to the space station and work out on the obstacle course,” the twins said.
“I can check to see if Liz can get us a ride up,” Catie said. “I can’t just grab a Lynx like I used to.”
“Oh, right, you’re just Alex now,” the twins said.
“What else do you want to do?”
“Can we go outside and practice our exosuit maneuvers?”
“If Liz has time,” Catie said. It required special clearance to go outside on a spacewalk, and although Catie McCormack could have someone issue the necessary permission at any time, Alex MacGregor could not.
“When are you going to be finished at the Academy?” the twins asked, obviously not happy to be losing their main conduit to special privileges in Delphi City and Delphi Station.
“Probably one year,” Catie said. “I sure hope it’s not two.”
“Us too!”
◆ ◆ ◆
“ADI, I need you to turn off your surveillance of me for the next two hours,” Catie said.
“Oh, you’re going to get even with Sophia!” ADI said, sounding like an excited little girl.
“Who knows,” Catie said. “The surveillance.”
“Oh, let me come along.”
“I can’t; you would rat me out.”
“No I won’t. My surveillance of you is compartmentalized, so as long as you don’t do anything that I would have known about without surveillance, and you tell me to switch to privacy mode, I won’t be able to report it. So can I come?”
“Sure, that’ll work.”
“I assume we’re going to go get that thing you had printed,” ADI said.
“You know about that?!”
“Same rule applies,” ADI said.
“Good, and yes, we’re going to get the gizmo I had printed.”
“Gizmo, a small mechanical or electronic device with an unspecified practical use,” ADI said.
“Yeah, that’s what it is,” Catie said.
She left Dr. Sharmila’s condo, careful not to wake the twins. Then she ran down to the corner where the printer was and got her gadget, stuffed it into her backpack, and headed towards the Michaels’ condo building.
