Interstellar Academy by Kennedy Harkins (read books for money .TXT) 📕

out onto the dock. There was probably some kind of bridge mechanism, but I wasn’t going to risk a freefall to find out.

Kavi--still on standing on the Cruiser-- rubbed his eyes, trying to shake off the drugs. “I thought we were flying there and back for practice. Why are we on land?”

The solid, metal platform felt nice under my feet. It was secure and something I couldn’t crash. I missed the Cruiser already.

I motioned him to jump over to me. “Kavi, we’re off the ship--no supervision-- on an Earth colony with a craft of our own and no one to miss us until morning.”

“So?” he asked, looking doubtfully at the space between the dock and the ship and long drop to the ground.

“So,” I said heavily. “I’ve never encountered this much raw potential for fun.”  When he still looked doubtful, I held my arms out. “Jump. I’ll catch you. Probably.”

He hopped down beside me. His jump was a lot more graceful than mine, and I could almost see him leaping from tree branch to tree branch for some reason, like a giant cat on the prowl.

He smiled wryly. “This is not what my people consider fun. This is against the rules.”

He seemed almost fully awake, and he wasn’t running screaming. It was a good sign.

We started down the deck, avoiding the eyes of interested people. “Your people need a re-education, then.”

Most of the people around us were human, which meant Kavi got a few strange looks. I handed him a jacket I’d found on board the ship and put one on myself. Unlike the suits, they didn’t have the school logo on it and would keep us from being recognized as students.

I withdrew a hat from the pocket of the jacket, something I’d brought with me from the apartment. It had a long visor that was easily lowered over my face, concealing it. I took it with me most places, partly because my features were very recognizable--especially when I didn’t want to be recognized as an Alkaev-- and partly because it had a septic tank truck on it and said “Yesterday’s meals on wheels”.

It had been a surprise discovery under a bunk bed at Camp Happy-happy-fun-time, or some such nonsense. I didn’t stay long--the place didn’t even have electric fences or guards to keep me in, can you imagine? But while I’d been there, the only happy time I’d had was blending in with that hat on my head. It was illuminating.

I pulled the hat down, now, a shield between myself and the commoners. It wouldn’t do for someone to see Astraea Alkaev, walking moneybag, wandering around, seemingly defenseless on this backwaters Earth Colony. No doubt there were some shady characters here. The thought made me smile.

Kavi sucked in a breath at the clothing and appearances of the towns people. Every one of them, old to young, looked like they were no stranger to hard work. Most were covered in dirt and grime. I didn’t think it was possible that all those people were just getting off work at somewhere industrial, so the Colony must just be lax with things like hygiene.

A couple people were dressed like us, in suits, but with darker, thicker material. Some had on the well-worn clothes of merchants or people who were travelers by trade. They all had the same boots, however, industrial, cheap, and made to withstand all manner of nasty.

I grimaced down at my own pink, delicate boots--the light of my life since being shipped off to the academy. I couldn’t bare for them to be ruined by the grime of the common folk.

“We won’t stay long, just a quick look about,” I said, whether to myself or to Kavi, I wasn’t sure. “But first, I need shoes.”

I pulled Kavi into the first shop I saw before hitting the dusty, muddy ground off the dock. It was shabby and cramped, but I found two pairs of boots for reasonable prices. They were what everyone was wearing and would allow us to blend as much as was possible for a human Animarian pair.

I pulled out my holo, which was in flattened form so as to easily slip into my clothes and remain unseen. I swiped at it a couple times and transferred the credits to the shop teller’s account. The old woman gave me a toothless grin that I reluctantly returned.

“Thank you for your business,” she said.

Saying thanks wasn’t really my thing, so I just inclined my head and grabbed the boots off the counter. We left the store quietly.

I pulled on my pair, making a distasteful noise in the back of my throat. They were not fashion forward in any way. I tied the laces on my pink ones to make them easier to carry. I threw the other pair at Kavi. He caught them and frowned.

“Put them on, genius.” I nodded to his bare feet.

“You should not have bought me shoes. What is that you called me?”

Stepping off the lower layer of the dock, I was instantly glad for the rough boots. The dust was thick, and enveloped your feet, making it hard to move. My pretty boots would have never survived it.  

“Didn’t translate?” I asked.

He nodded. “Maybe it’s the distance from the ship.”

I hadn’t thought of that.

And I didn’t have any more time to think on it, because in the next moment, a swarm of people flooded onto the dirt road between the rows of metal shacks. Kavi and I were swept up in the motion.

I grabbed onto his hand to keep from getting separated as the dirty crowd marched forward with us in toe. It was like some kind of angry parade, a protest. It seemed so out of place in this no nonsense, working town that I allowed myself to be pulled along in silence, trying to make heads or tails of what they were saying.

Most were speaking English, though a bastardized version that revealed their poor status and education more thoroughly than any dirt or boots could. They were shouting, everything slang and everything touched with anger. It was hard to make heads or tails of anything.

One man shouted in my ear, “Separation is the only equality I care about!”

I dropped Kavi’s hand like it was a red, hot poker. I’d heard that before, if not in those exact words. They were speciesists, people who believed that war, politics, punk music, and all other evils stemmed from the mixing of the species. Some just wanted separation--like the man I’d heard-- and some preached far more radical and violent solutions. I had no way of knowing which way this particular faction leaned.

I didn’t want to risk losing Kavi, but I couldn’t stand too close to him either. I stayed within a few people of him as the crowd proceeded with its march. Curiously, no one had noticed that they were protesting side by side with a green boy--doing the very thing they were protesting by protesting. That was irony if I’d ever seen it.

We flooded into what appeared to be town square, though it looked the same as the rest of the city: little, scrappy houses and shops. Kavi was getting pulled and push every which way the crowd swayed, standing in front of a small podium. I used all my tricks--acquired from years of raves and maneuvering through packed, illegal wrestling fights-- to keep from getting thrown to the front of the crowd. A place where someone was bound to notice me and the pink boots that hung off my shoulder.

A well kept young man got up on the stand. He wasn’t alone up there, but all eyes--even mine--gravitated to him. He had an easy smile and perfectly straight teeth. He could’ve been one of them; he had the boots, but I didn’t think so. He was too clean, despite being covered in the same dirt. He was kind of like me. He’d known the better side of life.

His hand rose, welcoming the crowd, and I realized he was more like my dad than me. “My friends. Please, quiet yourselves.” And the crowd was silent. “We wouldn’t want our... other friends to get the wrong idea about this peaceful protest.”

He glanced to the side, and I noticed the galactic soldiers for the first time. They were standing all about, muscled men with stoic faces that reminded me of Igor. They had weapons, though they were all partially concealed. A bright emblem--the United Galaxy’s-- stood out on their chest.

Seeing how the people reacted to that emblem made me clutch my jacket nervously, making sure my school badge was still hidden. Poor colonies are no friends to the UG, the organization too big to make regulations that wouldn’t tread on anyone’s toes. And I didn’t trust these people to know the difference between the UG and a school it sponsors and created.

The young man wasn’t saying anything, just smiling at us all. It made me vaguely agitated, and I shifted from foot to foot. Glancing around, I could see a few people doing the same thing. I looked over at Kavi, who didn’t seem to have a care in the world. Probably the drugs at work.

The young man spoke, “For those of you that don’t know me, my name is Junius Siddhi. And I am a criminal.”

A hush fell over the crowd and they watched him with awe. All the earlier shuffling had been forgotten like it had never taken place. Everyone was focussed solely on him. Even I felt the compulsion to give him my full attention, and it made my skin crawl. Great public speaker or not, nobody got that from me.

“At least,” he said with a small smile. “That is what the United Galaxy would have you believe. I travel to colonies around the universe, talking to people just like all of you. People who are tired and worn down, trying to appease a council of gods” --he sneered at the words-- “that has been in power since long before any of us were born.”

I rolled my eyes. Peasants, so predictable. And they wonder why we rule them? I searched the crowd for openings, trying to find a way out of this maze. I’d have happily shoved people aside--there was nothing more persuasive than a boot to soft flesh, but that would have attracted attention.

A man from the crowd shouted up at Junius, “They tax us, because we don’t have enough god damn dregs aboard our colony.”

Junius nodded emphatically. “Article nine, section five of the Equality Doctrine states that all habitats under UG rule are required to have a certain amount of diversity or face penilation.”

I barely contained my snort. I was all for bashing the government, and there was nothing like a protest to break up the boredom, but these people were too much. If they needed a tax break that badly, they should have just invited more aliens to live amongst them. There were plenty out there looking to relocate.

“I don’t want to live with those animals!” A woman shouted from the crowd, clearing up my confusion. I wrinkled my nose. I really hated speciesists.

But there were more important things than my distaste--hard to believe, I know. I moved closer to Kavi, slowly because it felt like at any moment Junius’s eyes would flick out my way, and this would turn into a witch hunt real quick.

There were frequently protests outside my father’s offices, poor people mostly, unhappy at their lot in life. I’ve joined in a time or two. The security cameras use facial recognition and send the information to the police, and it really pisses Dad off when his security guys point me out.