Lost Era 05_ Deny thy Father - Jeff Mariotte [105]
“Loud and clear, sir,” Paul said.
“Mr. Riker?”
“Yes, sir,” Will answered. “Understood, sir.”
“The fish incident was bad,” Superintendent Vyrek said. “This is far, far worse. Do not let it happen again.”
“Yes, sir,” both cadets replied in unison.
“I have nothing more I care to say to either of you,” the superintendent said dismissively. “But I believe Admiral Paris does.”
Owen Paris stepped to the center of the room and stood in front of the cadets, looking them up and down as if on an inspection tour. “Gentlemen,” he said. “That was quite a stunt you pulled. You should be ashamed of yourselves.”
“We are, sir,” Paul said.
“As Admiral Vyrek says, you are lucky you’re not both dead. You do realize that, right?”
“Yes, sir,” Will replied. “We do.”
“You went down on one of Saturn’s frozen moons, Rice. And you went after him, Riker, even though it meant flying with no shields in an ion storm, less than a kilometer from the surface.”
“That seems to be an accurate description, sir,” Will said.
“Stupid. Incredibly stupid.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I docked both your grades the last time we were here together, didn’t I? After what Admiral Vyrek so astutely refers to as ‘the fish incident’?”
“Yes, sir, you did,” Paul said. “And my squadron had to repeat the class.”
“The second time you took it, your grade improved, correct?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Well, it just improved again. Both of you. Out of a possible one hundred points in my class, you both score one-fifty.”
“I’m sorry, sir?” Will said, not quite understanding.
“You were stupid, both of you,” Admiral Paris explained. “By all rights your frozen corpses should be up on Phoebe. But you survived. I teach a survival class. I haven’t had any students show me what you two have, ever.”
“Yes, sir,” Paul said. Will was still at attention, eyes front, but he could hear Paul’s smile in his voice.
“But, sir-” he began.
“Just say ‘yes, sir,’ ” Paul instructed him.
“Yes, sir,” Will repeated, catching on. “And thank you, sir.”
“Don’t thank me,” Admiral Paris said. “Just stay out of trouble. A few more months, okay? I think even you two can do that.”
“Yes, sir,” both cadets responded.
“You are dismissed,” Superintendent Vyrek said from her desk. Her voice was weary. Will suspected he’d be weary too if he had to deal with cadets like himself all the time.
Outside, Felicia waited for him. She ran to him when he exited the building, arms wide, and he caught her in his own and scooped her up. “A reprimand in my file,” he said. “And Paris raised my survival grade.”
“So it’s celebrating and not consoling?”
“That’s right,” he affirmed.
“Oh, goody,” Felicia said. She nuzzled against Will’s neck and nipped the flesh there with her teeth. “Then I can tell you what I was suggesting earlier.”
“I’m not sure we need to really talk about it,” Will said, his lips urgently seeking hers. “In fact,” he mumbled against her mouth, “talking may even be counterproductive.”
Felicia broke away from him and started to run. “Oh, we can talk,” she shouted back over her shoulder. “Until we get back to my room. After that, I think we’ll be much too busy.”
And she was right.
Chapter 26
The last couple of months, Will had learned, were definitely the hardest. He had heard about schools where students could basically skate through their last year, but Starfleet Academy was not one of those. Here, course work got progressively more difficult from the beginning to the end. When he was finished at the Academy, a cadet needed to be able to step from the campus onto a starship or starbase, where the lives of others might depend on his knowledge, experience, and reactions. There could be no slacking off.
So he saw Felicia when he could, but mostly he bore down and worked. He closed himself in his room when he wasn’t at classes, usually alone-because when Felicia was there, they found it hard to focus on their work-and studied. He had, for the time being, set aside most other activities. Outings with friends, athletics beyond