Saving the Academy: A Short Story from the Brad Mendoza Chronicles by Skyler Ramirez

Author:Skyler Ramirez [Ramirez, Skyler]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Persephone Entertainment Inc.
Published: 2023-12-21T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

The next day at chow, I’m delighted when Anita drags Carla over to our table, and the two girls join us for breakfast again. I’m significantly less delighted when Laraby Garrison again slides onto the bench next to me a minute or so later.

We all make small talk, though Carla can’t take her eyes off of Garrison the entire time, and Anita keeps catching my eye and giving me shy little smiles—seriously, how can a woman who looks like Anita Klipfel be shy about anything?—while Skelly just sits there uncomfortably.

Garrison seems oblivious to all of it and starts chatting away about some of our plebe classes. Like the rest of us, excluding Skelly, he’s already settled on the command and tactics track at the Academy. Skelly wants to be an engineer, which blows my mind. How could anyone want to stay down in a stuffy engine room instead of being on the bridge flying the ship and shooting at stuff?

But I digress. Breakfast feels like it takes way too long, but simultaneously—in the moments where Anita and I make eye contact—it moves way too fast.

Morning classes are uneventful, and I even manage not to stare too much at Commander Evans in his tactics class. I somehow pass three surprise uniform inspections, and clean one of the heads in Worthington Hall to the satisfaction of one of the more stringent instructors Things are going pretty well, my restriction aside, until I once again get caught by a firstie at dinner. And just like that, I’m back on fire watch on the beach.

But this time, I’m prepared. I raided the armory earlier this morning and checked out a pair of night-vision binoculars. And by checked out, I mean hid them under my uniform coat as I left; there’s really no legitimate reason for a plebe to need night-vision binoculars.

When I take over the watch on the beach at 11:45, I stop every few meters and use the binoculars to sweep the ocean in front of me, looking for any sign of the mysterious rowboat. I find none, and the time goes by faster than normal before I’m relieved at 3:45 and stumble back to my bunk.

Two nights later, the same. Fire watch on the beach, but no boat. I actually find myself searching out the upperclassmen who like to assign me the duty, just so I can keep looking for the thing.

A week passes since the last time I saw the boat before I see it again. Three times, each spread out by a week, appears to form a pattern. I’m ready, with my borrowed night-vision binoculars trained on the ocean. I see the rowboat coming from much further out, and I backtrack its origin just in time to see something slip down under the waves.

What in Hades? If I didn’t know any better, I would think I just saw a submarine. But a submarine on Prometheus? Why?

Sure, I’ve heard of oceanic researchers using submarines to explore the depths, but Prometheus is so industrialized that I’ve never even heard of them exploring here.

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