“Your seat will be displayed on your HUD! Find it!”
Catie gave Joanie a nod as they each moved to the table and seat they had been assigned. Catie took up position behind her chair and assumed an at-ease pose. The Plebes who had been sitting down at the table quickly stood up and followed her example. The other tables also followed the example and stood behind their assigned seats.
“Those of you who were not paying attention and took your seats when I distinctly told you to find your seats, will owe me an extra ten push-ups tomorrow morning! Now Corporal Hendricks will demonstrate how you are to seat yourself! Everyone, turn around, and watch!”
Corporal Hendricks demonstrated how to be seated, how to stand. Then she demonstrated how to eat, setting the fork and knife down while you chewed each bite.
“How are we supposed to actually get any food into ourselves,” Catie moaned to herself.
The answer was you didn’t; nobody ate very much food, and the Chatty Cathies didn’t eat anything. After lunch, the Plebes were escorted into a large auditorium classroom. They were each handed a notebook and pen and told to find a seat.
Catie found a seat toward the back. She flipped the notebook open, but she didn’t plan to take notes. With her eidetic memory, it wasn’t necessary. The auditorium quickly filled up.
“I am Commander Marshall, and I will be giving you the basics on the spaceplanes and starships in the Delphi Space Navy,” he said. “You will be expected to memorize the details of each vessel and spaceplane. You will have those details ready to recite at any time.”
Catie darkened her specs and brought up the design of her new cargo carrier. She and Liz had decided to call them StarMerchants. Using the sensors that Dr. Metra had placed at the nerve endings in her tailbone, she was able to draw and type without any apparent motion. She had her specs set to notify her if her name was called or someone came close to her.
She flipped through the design, reading the notes that Ajda, the aerospace engineer in charge of designing and building the ship, had left her. She answered the various questions, adjusted the specs to get around restrictions that Ajda had pointed out and added in things that she’d forgotten to specify.
“Sir, Plebe MacGregor wants to answer a question!”
Catie looked up to see one of the NCOs two aisles down from her, giving her a stare.
“Plebe MacGregor, what it the wingspan of a Fox?” Commander Marshall asked.
“Sir, a Fox has a wingspan of fifteen meters!” Catie responded.
“Correct, now what is the max capacity of the Enterprise flight Bay?”
“Sir, the Enterprise has four flight bays. The first three can carry one hundred twenty-eight Foxes; the fourth one can carry fifty-nine Foxes.”
“Did he talk about operational mode?” Catie texted ADI.
“No, Cer Catie,” ADI replied.
“Very good, Plebe MacGregor,” the commander said.
“Do not darken your specs,” the NCO, who had caught her, ordered.
“ADI, can I adjust my specs so I can work and not have them appear darker to these instructors?” Catie messaged ADI.
“I will adjust them for you,” ADI said. “I will also adjust your alert to pick up someone approaching you from farther away. It will also alert you if someone gives an instruction.”
“Thanks.”
◆ ◆ ◆
“You now have one hour to get your rooms ready for inspection. You will unpack all your gear, stow it, make your beds with the linens provided, and clean the head! Move it!”
The Plebes filed out of the auditorium and hurried as quickly as they could without running.
Catie was stowing the gear from her duffle bag when Joanie showed up. There were several uniforms and shipsuits laid out on their beds that they also needed to stow. There were also several pairs of shoes, tennis shoes, shipboots, and dress shoes. They both had one pair of dress shoes with low heels that had been issued for the women and a pair of regular shoes. Catie put her civilian clothes in the closet, then her military issue. She wasn’t expecting to wear her civvies anytime soon.
“Why did they give us skirts and high heels?” Catie asked.
“I don’t know, but they gave us both types of uniforms, unisex and female,” Joanie said. “I guess they figured some women would want to wear skirts.”
“Seems stupid to me.”
“Whatever. Hey, how did you know about the fourth flight bay?” Joanie asked. “He hadn’t covered that yet.”
“I studied up on the ships before I came,” Catie explained. The fact that she had actually done the baseline design for all the spaceplanes and starships for Delphi’s Space Navy hadn’t hurt, but she couldn’t mention that.
“We are going to starve if we have to eat like that every meal,” Joanie said as she started to stow her gear.
“I’m sure they have a way to get the calories into us,” Catie said. “I’ll clean the head if you’ll dust the shelves and clean the floor.”
“Deal!”
Chapter 4The Paraxeans Move Forward
“Governor, President McCormack is here to see you,” the Paraxean aide to the governor announced Marc as soon as he presented himself at the office. They had assigned the governor a full floor of offices in the building next to MacKenzie Discoveries’ office.
“President McCormack, please come in,” Governor Paratar said after the aide opened the office door. “Would you like some refreshments?”
“I’m fine,” Marc said.
“Do you have news for us?”
“I do.” Marc and the governor seated themselves in the chairs by the window. The governor’s office was impressive. He’d decorated it with fine wooden furniture. It was reminiscent of what one would have expected to find in Napoleon’s office when he was emperor of France. Marc had been made aware of the governor’s lavish spending but had decided to ignore it. The man had a vast array of problems to deal with; what did it matter that he liked to surround himself with fancy furniture and antiques?
“May I inquire what it is?”
Marc smiled. “The governor isn’t a very patient man,
