Alien Academia (part 1)

The cafeteria was loud, messy, and crowded. Shane knew it was always like this, but it didn’t stop him from being annoyed at it, like everything had annoyed him for the past hour.

He grabbed his lunch (annoyed), sat down next to Levi (annoyed), and glared into space over his small styrofoam cup of mud-thick coffee (still annoyed).

Levi stared placidly at Shane. He’d been his best friend for a while, so he knew that Shane preferred to be left alone while he stewed over his grievance until he was ready to be asked about it.

Levi picked up his sandwich and took a bite. The watery mayo dripped quickly down his wrist, so he staunched the flow with the crust before setting down the squishy meal of lunch meat and lettuce. Finally, Shane opened up (or, more accurately, exploded).

“I don’t get it, Levi!”

“I don’t get it either,” Levi said, not looking up from his potato-less mashed potatoes.

“Oh? And what do you not get?” Shane asked angrily amongst the hubbub of the 15-minute lunch break before more drills and classes.

“What you don’t get.”

Shane stopped and thought about that for a moment, “That has… two meanings?”

Levi nodded, “Precisely.”

Shane shrugged it off, “Whatever, but this new virtual reality session grading system is ridiculous!”

“How so?” Levi asked.

More and more, the ASA (the American Space Administration formed by militarizing NASA just after a failed alien invasion) was using virtual reality sessions to test their recruits’ ability to analyze realistic situations and come up with solutions quickly in the most recent one of these tests, Shane had begun the scenario standing in a crowded hallway on a civilian space freighter which a group of Earthite terrorists (an old terror group that had been mostly destroyed) had just threatened. Shane had ten minutes to find the bomb the terrorists had planted, deactivate it, and catch the criminal.

“I did everything right with 47 seconds to spare. Yet the computer spat out a B!”

Levi listened, “Well, I’m not sure, but it sounds like to me you were being too reckless.”

Shane blinked a few times, “Levi, I caught the criminal and saved everyone! How is that reckless!”

Levi thought for a moment, “Well, you said that when you had reached the second-floor main hallway, you fired at the villain and drove him backward so you could trap him in an unused cargo room.”

“Yes?”

“Weren’t there civilians in that hallway?”

Now it was Shane’s turn to think, “A few, most of them were trying to get out of there once the firefight began.”

“You don’t think it is a problem that you started shooting without warning and could have harmed innocents? What about when you used a blaster to destroy the bomb interface? That also could have turned out bad!”

Shane scowled. He did that a lot in contrast to Levi’s near-constant smile, “Well, nothing actually happened! The civilians didn’t get injured, and the bomb didn’t go off when I blew off the interface, so even if it was reckless, it worked!”

Levi drummed his fingers on the table, “As officers of the ASA, meant to maintain peace in this solar system and the known galaxy” (this was a term used to describe the area of space around all of the four species’ planets that was traversed by ships in lightspeed often), “if an officer is reckless and doesn’t take time to think through what he is doing, he will end up creating more panic rather than order and peace. In short, think before you do.”

A buzzer sounded, and students instantly ended their meals and got up. Levi left the table. Shane frowned and thought a bit more about what had been said, “I do think before I act!” he muttered, getting up. As if to disprove himself, because he didn’t look down at his feet first, he didn’t notice that his shoelace was united, which tripped him forward onto the table as he tried to stand up, launching him across the floor. In the process, he managed to knock over another student and an assistant.

Shane groaned and got up quickly. He had only two minutes to get to class after the warning buzzer. The assistant got up, glowering. Shane knew he was in trouble now. The assistants were a new form of discipline put into this new-age military school. They prowled the corridors looking for students doing the smallest misdemeanor and slapped on ‘negatives’ which, if you got too many of them, could get you in all sorts of trouble with the drill sergeants, not to mention the extra drills you’d have to run.

“It appears that you need to watch your step, student!” the assistant said in a lofty voice, “that will be a negative for you.”

Shane nodded silently and stood up straight. The other student, a short girl with light red hair in a very short braid, scowled at him. The assistant peered at him, “Hang on, you’re Shane Melniz, the Martian kid, right?”

Shane nodded glumly. He didn’t understand why everyone thought his being from Mars was a big deal; they treated him differently just because he’d grown up an extra 49 million miles from the sun: big whoop. Yet, continually, not only did he have to deal with Earth’s greater gravity and different temperatures, but also the scornful looks of other humans, treating him like another species.

“You knocked me over in the hallway three weeks ago,” the assistant continued, “I guess I’ll have to give you two negatives for this offense (it being the second), and I don’t remember giving you one back then, so that will be a third for good measure.”

Shane remembered this very same assistant, Daniel, whose name he recalled now, berating him in the hall and giving him two negatives instead of one when he learned Shane was from Mars. But Shane didn’t say anything: that would have made it worse. There was no accountability for these assistants who hadn’t even served in the military, but merely graduated from the academy. Daniel wasn’t much older than Shane, yet he gave him orders as if he were a senior sergeant.

Daniel smirked, “I would suggest you mind your clumsy feet, closer, seeing as this isn’t your native gravity.”

Another thing was that Shane had been on Earth for three years now, and people, for some reason, always thought he was new to Earth’s culture, geography, and climate. Shane was about to say something back to Daniel that might have gotten him in a lot of trouble when, thankfully, the girl he knocked over stood up and saluted, blocking Shane’s view of Daniel. Saluting wasn’t necessary with assistants, but it helped gain their favor. Shane never saluted any of them.

“Sorry, sir, it was my fault. I knocked you over, actually. It was just that I fell because he knocked into me.”

Daniel raised an eyebrow, a bemused look on his hardened, consistently harsh face covered in the beginnings of a beard clinging to his chin, “Really, huh? Well, I guess you can have one of Shane’s negatives. Now, I’d suggest both of you hurry if you don’t want to get in more trouble.”

He left with a huff, leaving an annoyed Shane hoisting his satchel of school books onto his shoulder and storming in the other direction.

The girl caught up to him, “Hey, you are from Mars?”

Shane looked back at her, and gone was the glower. “Yes, I am from Mars. Why do you care?”

She smiled sweetly and crossed her thumbs underneath her chin. This resulted in some of the books she was carrying slipping from her grasp and beginning to slide away. She hiked them up and stared at him expectantly.

Shane waited, eyebrows raised, his face at its most uningratiating. He realized this factor and calmed his expression, “Are you from Mars as well?”

She smiled again, “Yeah, my ancestors were on the first colonist ship.”

“Well, I can’t claim a long, illustrious line. My dad and mom moved there five years before I was born, but it is my home.”

“A martian is a martian,” she said again, brushing hair from her eyes and crossing her thumbs beneath her chin, waiting for him to respond, it appeared. He half had a mind to cross his thumbs under his chin, wondering if it was a Martian fad, but she would probably think he was mocking her, and Shane was trying to remember to be nice to people these days.

Shane started in surprise, remembering his classes. Turning to leave, he looked over his shoulder, “Well, nice to meet you, uh…”

“Lira, Lira Keiths,” she said, uncrossing her thumbs and looking downcast, likely because he didn’t respond as she wanted, “do you know any other Martians here? I can’t seem to find anyone who is from Mars.”

Shane was a ways down the hallway, and desperate to end the conversation and get to class. “Uh, Lucas, Lucas Yelloz is a Martian!” he exclaimed, and with that, he sprinted away, just barely making it in time.

• • • • •

It was late in the afternoon in the library, and Shane and Levi were studying. Shane had his textbooks out and several journals, annotating randomly. Levi, who was from Moon City, preferred a technological answer to everything, as most Lunars did. He had a screen reader out, and the pale light from the thin hexagonal screen illuminated his face as he took notes with a stylus.

Lira stopped at their table, which was taken up by both their books and papers and Shane’s laptop, “Hi! It’s me again. Is there room for me to study here?”

Shane looked at the table, on which there was obviously no room, and then up at her. “Hi, uh…”

“…Lira, remember?”

“Yeah, of course.”

Lira smiled, “Really, I can?”

Shane, confused, looked at Levi, who, grinning mischievously, got up, saying: “Yeah, he means you can study. I was just leaving.”

Shane followed Levi with his eyes, “I never…”

Levi waved him off and disappeared.

Shane went back to studying, and Lira apparently had no intention of doing the same. She pulled out a book and flipped through it mindlessly, biting the end of her stylus nervously, not putting it to the screen reader’s blow.

Shane looked up at her, bewildered, but mainly just appearing to be annoyed. He had this bad habit of looking angry, no matter what he was thinking. Lira looked up shyly and then down quickly, noticing he was looking at her. He sighed quietly and went back to reading.

“Do you like Earth more than Mars?”

Shane didn’t respond. Finally, when it appeared she expected an answer, he looked up, “The difference of…”

“Interrupting the quiet of the library, are we?” the dreaded voice declared. Daniel was standing behind them. Shane knew it was useless to complain that they’d been whispering, which was allowed, so he took the chastisement while Daniel didn’t say anything to Lira. Shane couldn’t help but suspect the difference in the number had something to do with the fact that he knew Shane was from Mars but not Lira. Shane couldn’t help but feel like Daniel was hounding him. He watched as the older boy left, then turned back to his studying in a foul mood.

Lira folded her arms and leaned forward, her hands on her chin and red hair falling over her hazel eyes, “Don’t you hate it when other people treat you differently just because you are from Mars?”

Shane looked up. He did, but didn’t feel like saying as much, “Sure, whatever.”

Lira frowned again. Looking down, she returned to flipping through her book.

Shane attempted to focus but kept wincing at how mean that had come out. He looked back up a minute later, only to see that Lira was still staring at him. She had that shy, conspiratorial smile on her face that weirded Shane out, “I was talking to Lucas earlier. He is from Mars.”

Shane nearly said something that likely would have sounded rude, knowing him, but managed to come up with, “Yeah, I told you he was… remember?”

He was pretty impressed with that until she did that frown thing and looked down. He got this weird feeling she wanted something like when she had stared expectantly at him in the hallway. Deciding to try again, he said, “Sorry, I mean, like I’ve known him for a while, he is a cool guy, just a little intense sometimes, accurate shot, patriotic, and a computer whizz.”

Lira smiled at this, muttering something to herself, and then they went back to studying.

“Don’t you wish Mars weren’t under Earth’s control?”

Shane looked up and once again made the mistake of letting his annoyance take control, “Look, you asked to study. If you want to, by all means, do so. I’m rather busy!”

Looking quite upset, she got up and grabbed her books, sliding them into a satchel like Shane’s and walking off.

“I’m an idiot,” Shane muttered to himself, confused as to why he couldn’t just be ingratiating to people.

He glanced over, noticing her going up to Lucas, who had just entered the library, and crossing her thumbs beneath her chin. He looked down, not caring what Lucas did in response. Levi came back grinning like a polecat, and Shane, in a more grumpy mood, got up to leave. They had drills before dinner, as usual. Levi aced it all, and Shane came under the attention of the sergeants.

Shane had gone through a rigorous training program for a year before arriving on Earth to prepare him for the greater gravity, but even so, he found it hard to do any of the exercises required of him when he had a hard time just walking some days.

“You call that a push-up, soldier?” A sergeant mocked. Shane tried harder and went farther down. The sergeant scowled and walked off. Daniel came over and stood over Shane.

“Not good enough, not good enough, you call that trying?”

• • • • •

After dinner, after drills, and after training. Shane was ready to collapse into bed, knowing that he was going to have to get up at four in the morning the next day as usual. He and Levi walked with all the students in their group to their barracks.

“I think that Daniel, the assistant, is out to get me; it is ridiculous how much attention he pays to me just because I am a Martian.”

“Daniel Georges?”

“Yeah, him.”

Levi thought a moment, “That makes me wonder… I think I’m going to have to do some research on him.”

And he did. The next morning, while the Sargents hollered at the students to ‘keep moving or so help them,’ Levi jogged effortlessly next to Shane, whispering all the while.

“Apparently, Daniel Georges is related to Jacob Glissan, the famed saboteur and terrorist, the very same one that Tyler Corick (that famous ASA General) caught on a periphery station nearly fifty years ago.”

Shane looked at Levi, huffing out of his limited supply of air as he ran, “That Glissan? How!?”

Levi nodded knowingly, “Jacob Glissan is Daniel’s great-grandfather.”

“What!?” Shane spluttered in shock.

“What is more,” Levi continued, “to disassociate himself from his incriminated father, Daniel’s grandfather changed the family name to Georges. Then Daniel’s dad, grandfather, and grandmother went on a trip to Mars together when Daniel was quite young, where they were murdered with other people from Earth by a lunatic who had gotten his hands on a radial blaster.”

Shane winced, partly from the story, partly from his aching lungs. A group of fellow runners swerved between them to take the lead of the group. A few minutes later, Shane ran into Levi again. Levi picked up right where he had left off, “Furthermore, he knows his great-grandfather, the Earthite, and keeps in contact with him regularly!”

“Where do you learn this stuff?” Shane asked.

“My sources,” Levi said dramatically. Shane had to believe a library computer had more to do with it.

Shane came to a stop, leaning on his knees, having crossed the line. Cadets all around leaned on trees or just stood gasping. Levi didn’t seem phased and easily saluted as an angry sergeant, and some assistants followed from behind. Shane scrambled up and saluted as they passed, getting only a glare from the sergeant (who glared indiscriminately, at least) and a mocking correction from Daniel (who didn’t give those indiscriminately).

“So, is Daniel an Earthite?” Shane asked quietly once they had passed.

Levi shook his head, “Hard to tell, but an Earthite would hate a Martian for living on Mars because Earthites believe that humankind was meant for Earth and Earth only. Maybe he became an Earthite because he hated Martians in the first place for his family’s murder.”

Shane rubbed his temple. “It doesn’t make sense. Why would an Earthite join the ASA?”

Levi bit his lip. “That is the thing, Shane. There would only be one reason that an Earthite would join the ASA, the reason several did back when it first started: to destroy it from the inside out. But we’re not even certain he is an Earthite.”

“No, not certain,” Shane said grimly, “there is no evidence.”

TO BE CONTINUED