Sirius Academy (Jezebel's Ladder) (3 page)

“Yeah. People smuggle carbonated drinks
in here, but that sucks the calcium out of bones. Keeping your bones strong is
a big problem in space.” He grabbed a seat behind a column where they could
watch people going through the line. “Did you want anything for lunch? My treat
until you get your badge.”

“I have a special diet.” She never
ate or drank anything prepared by someone without a security clearance. “But
you can grab something while I people watch.”

A beautiful young woman strode by,
half-Asian and almost six feet tall. She wore calf-skin, knee-high boots, black
tights, and a lingerie top. “OMG, who’s the fashion amazon? My grandfather
would say she walks like she has her own theme song.”

“She does,” he said shaking his
head. “‘Sway.’”

“I’d call it more of a lioness
stalk.”

“‘Sway’ is the hit song by Purple
Rockets. Kaguya Mori toured with the band last July. They wrote it for her as a
tribute to her perfect sculpting.”

“Oh,” Red said, disappointed that
poking fun wasn’t going to be easy. “Her breasts are pretty incredible.” Her
own chest was barely an A cup.

“Sonic sculpting. She synthesizes
voices by combining other artists. She adapted the Fortune bio-archetype
algorithms to human voices instead of bodies. It earned her a scholarship
here.”

“Mori: isn’t that the Japanese
video-game billionaire?”

He nodded. “Her dad supplies half
the computers here.”

Red half-heartedly suggested, “I
bet she’s stuck up.”

“She gives free massages at the
student gym. The waiting line is three months long.”

“Now I’m depressed,” the girl in
the flight suit said. “Is everybody here this spectacular?”

“Stiff competition, girlfriend. I’m
getting lunch.”

After Sojiro left, she scanned the
crowd with her goggles until she located someone on her watch list. A heavy-set
Latina was hiding beside the kitchen, slowly unwrapping a mass-produced chocolate-and-lard
cake from its plastic. The pop-up text next to her said she was seventeen and a
prodigy at structural engineering. Red glided over to the girl and whispered,
“Don’t do it!”

The Latina looked around to make
sure Red was talking to her. “Excuse me?”

“Suicide by cupcake. It’s never
pretty.”

The other girl dropped the dessert,
as if struck in the face. When she didn’t say anything, Red added, “Sorry.
There are just so few girls here my height and under-aged. Come jogging with me
instead. I’ve been sitting in the same cockpit for days. I heard you have paths
around the outside.”

The Latina curled her lip. “Look at
me. Why would I run? Are you just planning on laughing at the fat girl?”

The pilot took off her goggles so
the other girl could see her sincerity. Red had enormous eyes, the most
feminine thing about her. “Okay, we can walk. I just want to talk to you. You
can leave the self-pity here. This is the
honors
table. You get
fantastic grades even among these geniuses. Let’s start over. I’m Red, a pilot and
math freak.”

“I’m Risa—alien engineering.”

“How many languages?”

“Four,” Risa said, looking for the
catch.

“I’m planning on starting my own
team freshman year. I need a good engineer. But you have to pass the physical
requirements.”

“That’s not till year three.”

“I want to help. If you start now,
it’ll be easy. If you don’t, it’ll be impossible. You can be the first at so
many things. Just step away from the fat pill.”

“Okay, I’ll walk. I can show you
the agro pods.”

Red texted Sojiro on the way out.
“Back by noon. Risa’s taking me on a tour.”

On their way out, the pilot asked her
new friend, “So help me out; I’m trying to find some way to slam this Mori
queen bee.”

“She’ll have VD by twenty-five, and
be divorced twice by thirty. Of course, I probably won’t even have a boyfriend
by then.” As she warmed to Red, the Panamanian girl spoke with increasing
speed, like popcorn in a kettle.

“Quality over quantity,” Red
insisted. “My parents were married for life. That’s what I want. We don’t have
boyfriends because we’re career women. We have every moment planned till we’re
twenty-one, and we’re going to succeed.”

“When you say it like that, I
believe you.”

****

Since the two girls hit it off, they
went back to Risa’s study area. The tiny room was only three meters across, so Risa’s
roommate in the bedroom next door overheard Red complaining, “I wish I had
someone to room with. I’m alone enough as it is. Because of the space crunch,
they have me assigned to some broom closet in the nurses’ quarters.”

“Private quarters?” said the
roommate “I’d take that in a heartbeat, even if I had to sleep standing up.”

“When she says sleeping, she means .
. .” Risa said suggestively.

“What?” asked Red.

“I have a Senior boyfriend who I
never get to be
alone
with,” explained the older girl.

“I’m sorry; my last friend was my
sparring partner.” Red left off the bit about her leaving to train for the
Olympics. “You’ll have to spell this out.”

“S-e-x,” Risa spelled.

The roommate demanded, “Do you want
to trade or not?”

“Definitely,” said Red. “Risa and I
. . .” But the other girl was already gone to claim her new room.

“It’s short for Sonrisa,” said her
new friend. “It’s Spanish for laughter. My mom always says, ‘men plan, and God
laughs.’”

Red snorted. “I truncated mine,
too.”

“What’s Red short for?”

Red scanned her watch for
indications of bugs. Finding none, she said, “You can’t tell anyone.”

“I swear by the Virgin.”

“Redemption.”

Risa nodded. “Yeah. I guess the
name got popular after that story in
Time Magazine
.”

“Yeah. Well Dad was the religious
one. But we never went to church—too dangerous.”

“Someone tried to kill him?”

“Lots. But he was worried about the
other people attending. Dad said he couldn’t live with himself if someone blew
up a church to get to him. He was the real deal. People were always mad at him
for taking a stand of some kind.”

Risa nodded. “My father’s a
politician, too. My family goes on Sundays and holy days of obligation so
people can
see
us attending, but he doesn’t live it. He steals millions
but smacks me for swearing. Hypocrite. I’d love to meet your father over the
next break.”

“He didn’t last a year after Mom
died. He missed her so much, doted on her. As far as I know they never spent a
night apart, even when she was in the hospital.”

Risa sighed. “I want a marriage
like that. My dad has a mistress now.”

Their chat was interrupted by a
pounding on the door. “Security!” When Risa opened the door, the guard looked
inside and announced, “Found her.”

The guard practically dragged Red
by the ear to the first floor of the main school building. Then he escorted her
to the martial-arts dojo, shoving her though the door and closing it behind
her. Professor Horvath was seething and no one wanted to be around to witness
the confrontation.

Red gave her the once-over and
said, “You’re dying your hair now. Trying to cover the grey?”

Horvath shouted, “What the hell do
you think you’re doing here?!” She didn’t use the
name
, not even in her
sanctum, not even this angry. “Do you think your flimsy cover is going to hold
together?”

Locking eyes, the tomboy said,
“Yours did. I have a media shadow attending ladies’ finishing school in Paris. Even Grandma thinks I’m there.” The professor calmed a little and backed up for
another angle of attack.

“You had a Stanford scholarship.
Your father was so proud.”

“My father’s not here,” said the
girl. “You are.”

The instructor closed her eyes,
waiting for the blow.

In a soft voice, Red said, “You
abandoned our family when I was six.”

“I had a husband to care for.”

“So it was him over me?”

“I tried to come back, but there
were . . . complications. You had other people who loved you.”

“I lost
everyone
, except
that old harpy. You didn’t even come back for their funerals. You didn’t visit
once in ten years!”

“It’s complicated.” Trina sat down
on the mat, her breathing irregular. “We need to call Rebecca. If she finds out
. . .”

Red shook her head. “I’m
emancipated
now.”

“How?”

“I traded my board-of-directors’
vote to Grandma Rebecca for the next two years.”

“
Mien Gott
, that part of
your inheritance alone is valued at almost a billion.”

“It was worth it to be free of the
old crone who told me every day how worthless a woman is without a man, and how
you all ruined my dad’s life.”

Red stood over her to whisper the
coup
de grâce
. “I had to find out from
her
that you were my birth
mother.”

“Did you throw yourself at Dad when Mom was sick?” asked
Red.

“Benny would never do that,”
explained the woman who was using her maiden name, Nena Horvath.

Guards burst through the door,
confused to see the head of security on the floor, panting, and this slip of a
girl standing over her. “Sir, your heart monitor tripped the alarm. Is
everything okay?”

“Whiskers on kittens: Julia Andrews,”
said Trina. The man relaxed at the safety confirmation code. “I told her she’d
have to spar for her first three weeks’ credit in self-defense, and she
ambushed me. My fault.”

“This kid knocked you down?” asked
a guard with a receding hairline and the name ‘Grunt-Monkey’ taped over his badge.
Students, drawn by the commotion, were milling around in the hall.

“Two out of three falls?” Red
played along.

Propped on her hands, the
professor’s legs shot out, but the girl flipped out of the way.

“Acrobatics training. This could be
interesting,” commented the guard. People began to file in to watch.

The new freshman avoided every
strike and slipped every grab for minutes. The audience cheered for the
underdog like a new toreador at a bull fight. Then Trina switched styles, and
grabbed her in a headlock. “Point. One all,” shouted Grunt-Monkey.

In the buzz, the professor whispered,
“For this job to work, I have to win.”

“Your problem, not mine,” the girl
said, smashing down in a move that would’ve obliterated the kneecap of a real
mugger. As they broke apart, Red went on the offensive.

“Is that kick boxing?” asked the
referee.

“Probably Tai Bo,” joked a student.

When the professor cornered her and
reached for the headlock again, Red used a staff from the wall to block. “Can
she do that?” asked the student.

“Marquis of Queensbury rules. The
boss wants to find out what she knows.”

But her staff work was weak, for
emergencies only. When Trina grabbed another bamboo stick and disarmed her in
thirty seconds, the girl shifted into a form that most had never seen. Red
dodged or blocked each of Horvath’s staff strikes, knowing where it would go
before it got there.

“Heart-rate, boss,” warned the
referee.

“This is the longest I’ve ever seen
a newbie go.”

“Twenty bucks she goes the full ten
minutes.”

Trina swung the staff one-handed.
When Red leapt into the air to avoid, the instructor shot two rigid fingers of
her left hand into the girl’s solar plexus. The blow knocked the wind out of
her just long enough that she splatted onto the mat with a groan. “Still
champion and undefeated, Professor Horvath,” said Grunt-Money. “Does the
candidate qualify?”

Trina gave a wordless thumbs-up as
she caught her own breath. The crowd applauded and dispersed. “Let’s hit the
showers,” ordered the teacher, offering her hand.

Red stood as soon as she was able
and bowed to the woman. “
Sensei
.”

“Today’s lesson was humility. You
passed.” The words were bold, but Trina limped to the shower. When they were
alone in the changing room, she risked a personal comment. “You need to see the
doctor. It’s been almost a week since your last exam.”

“Emancipated,” Red sang, taking off
her jump suit.

When the shower head was on, the
professor hissed, “It was Jezebel’s egg. I just carried you.”

“You were my mother, too.”

“Not according to the law.”

“You could’ve fought.”

“I had a bigger fight on my
hands—taking care of Daniel. He’s better here, less strain on his limbic
system.”

“Why didn’t you call?”

Anger made her Dutch accent flare. “For
which you came to beat my ass? I’ll admit that given another few months’
training, you might succeed at that. But I’ve got 200 other kids now. Half the
world’s trying to kill them, too.”

“You’re avoiding the question.”

“I can’t tell you everything; I
have my reasons. This has been a nice visit, but . . .”

“I’m staying.”

“It’s too dangerous. Your schooling
should come first. This isn’t Stanford.”

“I can take the math online.”

“I forbid it!”

“No. I did some prep-work. Grandma
didn’t know about all the Swiss accounts. I now own fifty-one percent of the
academy’s emergency transport system, as well as the master codes to your new
shuttle.”

“Don’t ask for anything you can’t
take.”

“I’m only asking you to treat me
like any other student who earned a place here and to answer one question honestly.
Then I’ll sign control over to your shell company.”

The woman nodded.

“Why didn’t you come to Mom’s
funeral? She was your
best friend
.”

Trina bit her lip. “What’s your
security rating?”

“Sirius 2 for now.”

“There was an explosion on moon
base as we were landing. Most of the people living there were killed; we barely
limped away. Our ship’s air system was leaking. Daniel plugged one hole with his
bare hand, causing capillary bruising and frostbite. Still, we weren’t going to
make it. Jez pulled one last rabbit out of her hat to save us. None of us knew
that planning the rescue mission and computing our new orbit killed her. We
were on L5 station in the infirmary during the funeral.”

Red stared at her. “You were on the
shuttle? The shuttle Mom died for?”

Trina offered a hug, but the
teenager wasn’t ready to accept those yet. The teacher left her to cry alone in
the shower.

****

When Red was dry and dressed, Trina
asked, “What do you plan on doing here? Why is this so important to you?”

“I need an accredited college to
get access to my trust fund.”

Trina cocked her head. “Really?”

“Three things. One: I wanted to
meet my birth mother.” The instructor smiled at this. “Two: I want to get a
higher security clearance so I can listen to Mom’s last message to me.”

The woman wrinkled her brow. “She
left over a hundred hours for you. She always worried that she wouldn’t last
and wanted to be there for you somehow.”

“Thanks to the Feds, all but twenty
minutes was Classified Sirius three and above.”

Trina cursed. “And the last goal?”

“When I know you better,” the girl
stalled.

“You need to learn subtlety.”

“Did my mother?”

“No, she gave her all, her whole
heart to people, even those who didn’t deserve it.”

“What’s wrong with that?” the girl
demanded.

“I want you around longer than she
was, Mira.” The trained killer put a hand on her face in a flash of gentleness.

“Red, the name is Red. Am I a
student here or not?”

Trina knew by the set of her jaw
that the girl wasn’t going to yield. “Work with me inside the UN program until
you’re nineteen.”

“That’s compromise.” Her diplomat
father had used the word frequently, and it sat in her mouth like raw cauliflower.

“Take it or leave my island.”

Red shook her second mother’s hand,
smelling vanilla.

“But no favoritism if you’re going
to keep your cover,” the teacher insisted. “And for your math, by internet
won’t do. You need a good tutor, the best.”

“If we fly one in, someone will put
the pieces together.”

“No, he’s already here,
if
he agrees to take you—Conrad Zeiss. He’s introverted and private.”

“If?”

“No favoritism, remember? You’ve
got to interview on your own merits. He has a dual masters’ in math and physics
already. He’s working on his PhD in astrophysics; all he has left is the
dissertation. Fortunately, he’s chosen to work on Sirius topics, so we got him
for peanuts.”

“I could offer to pay him,” the
girl suggested.

Trina shook her head. “That won’t
work. His family’s in Swiss banking, or maybe it was Luxembourg. I don’t
remember the details. He lived with his mother in CERN until this year.”

Red raised her eyebrow. “A late-blooming
nerd?”

“She’s in a wheelchair. He . . . he
helps Daniel out when I can’t. They’re becoming friends. We’re paying for
full-time nursing and our company’s prototype Parkinson’s meds for her while he’s
here.”

“What page is he?”

Trina shook her head. “He’s a
nat—natural human with no augmentation.”

“Impressive, given how far he’s
come.”

“We need a few nats in the faculty
to keep oversight happy. Be kind to him. Despite his limitations, he’s very
capable and, more importantly, nice.”

The girl rolled her eyes, something
that reminded Trina of the six-year-old Mira. “Why don’t you just say ‘Some of
my best friends are nats’?”

“He doesn’t know we’re the Fortune
family, and he takes Daniel to work out every morning, even when he’s been up
late working the night before.”

Red knew how rare such kindness
was. “Okay. I won’t mace him or offend him till the second lesson.”