The professor arrived just before the top of the hour. “Please take your seats,” he called out in a strong voice. “This is advanced aerodynamics; if that’s not the class you were expecting, please exit.”
He waited to see if anyone left, before continuing. “During class time, I expect everyone to pay attention, there will be no use of phones or other electronic devices.”
“Sir, our Comms are disabled during class hours,” one of the cadets informed him.
“Excellent, then we shouldn’t have any problems,” the professor said. “I’m Dr. Carl Madison. Now let’s talk about wing deflection when an aircraft is at supersonic speeds.”
◆ ◆ ◆
Catie’s last class of the day was Military Space Strategy, and the instructor was Admiral Michaels. This time everyone was in their seat, sitting at attention. Catie followed suit and waited. She wondered if Admiral Michaels might recognize her. She was pretty sure that her father had kept her attendance at the Academy secret from him.
Admiral Michaels entered the room wearing civilian clothes. He was after all the minister of defense for Delphi Nation.
“At ease,” he said to stanch everyone’s rise to attention. “This class will be taught by a collection of men and women who served in the war. We are still developing the concept of how to fight in space, so you can consider yourselves guinea pigs. As part of the course, you will be presented with various scenarios. You will develop battle plans to deal with them, and then we will conduct simulations to test those plans.
“These simulations will be conducted by some of our most valuable assets, so do not take the work lightly. This is an elective class, but if you do not take it seriously, I will not hesitate to dismiss you so you don’t waste our resources,” Admiral Michaels said as he gave everyone in the class a hard stare.
“We have records from previous encounters that the Paraxeans have had with other civilizations as well as our experience during the war. We will break down each of those encounters into minute detail, examining what worked, what didn’t work, and what opportunities were missed by both sides.”
Catie leaned forward, “This is going to be a lot of fun,” she whispered to herself.
“Yes it is, Cer Catie,” ADI said. “And since I’ll be the asset running the simulations, I’ll be able to make sure you have extra fun.”
“No fair picking on me!” Catie messaged.
“I won’t be picking on you, just making sure you’re suitably challenged.”
◆ ◆ ◆
“How were your classes?” Yvette asked when she joined Catie in their room.
“Interesting,” Catie said. “A lot more relaxed than I expected.”
“This is a college, so unless you’re in one of the military electives, it’s just the same. You’ll have to watch for when you’re taking a normal class from an active-duty officer, they can be a bit of a pain. But most of your instructors should be normal college professors.”
“How’s your homework load?”
“I’ve got two chapters to read in the theory of logistics management,” Yvette said. “Plus, I have to read the first three chapters of Brave New World. How about you?”
“I have to read the after-action reports from the first battle of the Paraxean war. I’m also supposed to read the first chapter of Advanced Aerodynamics, but I’ve already read the book.”
“You’ve already read the book?!”
“Hey, I’m studying to be an aerospace engineer, I read it last year. It was part of a project I was working on,” Catie said. She’d read the book when she was trying to figure out the sonic-suppressors on their spaceplanes that allowed the planes to fly at supersonic speeds without creating a sonic boom. Eventually, Dr. McDowell had been able to decipher the math and close the gaps that allowed them to design the supersonic airliner that they were now building.
“So you’re one of those.”
“What do you mean by one of those?”
“A brainiac,” Yvette said. “I think you call them nerds.”
“I guess I am, but that doesn’t mean I’m not fun, or dangerous.”
“Well, Cadets Watanabe and Sanchez can testify to how dangerous you are; I’ll let you know if you’re any fun after a few weeks,” Yvette said with a laugh.
◆ ◆ ◆
On Saturday morning after PT, Catie headed over to Dr. Sharmila’s house. The Cadets were allowed to spend the weekend with their Academy family or their real family, but only from 1000 Saturday to 2200 Sunday unless they requested official leave. Catie waved goodbye to Yvette, who was also going to spend the weekend with her Academy family.
When she arrived at Dr. Sharmila’s house, Catie was swamped by the twins. After hugs and kisses, they wanted to know everything that had happened in Guatemala as well as her first week of classes.
“Hey, hey, I need to have some time to do work,” Catie said.
“Why?!” the twins demanded. “This is the weekend; you’re supposed to be on break!”
“Cadet MacGregor is on break, but Catie McCormack has projects she has to review,” Catie explained.
“Later, we’ve been waiting for a whole month.”
“Girls,” Dr. Sharmila scolded.
“Tell you what. You give me two hours while people I need to talk to are still available, and then you can have the rest of the day,” Catie said.
“Girls, you could finish your homework,” Dr. Sharmila said. “Then you’ll be free to spend the rest of the afternoon with Catie. Catie, we’re going out to dinner tonight; 7:00, and dress nice.”
“Anything special?” Catie asked.
“Just your visit,” Dr. Sharmila said.
◆ ◆ ◆
Dr. Sharmila shamed Catie into wearing a dress for dinner since they were going to Deogene’s. When they arrived, Kenyon met them at the door and escorted them to the back room.
“Surprise!” Marc said meeting her at the door to the room.
“Oh my gosh, Daddy, how, why?” Catie asked as she rushed to hug her father.
“We thought we would take advantage of this room so we could all get a chance to see you after your big summer, and do it without the risk of blowing your cover,”
