Page 5 of Nova Academy

‘Cadets, at attention!’ the captain’s voice thundered throughout the room. Everyone obeyed, including those of us already seated.

Quickly, everyone quieted, not a whisper or a sniffle to be heard. The lesson was finally landing.

‘Not only are you all late, but you failed to follow the direction of your superior,andyou did it in a disorderly fashion. Each one of you has earned your first demerit. You will find out what that means soon enough. Now, line up and get your food, but I wantcomplete silence. Is that clear?’

A chorus of ‘Yes, sir,’ echoed around the room, reminiscent of earlier. It sounded almost robotic, the reverberation from all the metal layering upon one another to create an almost monotone response.

‘Dismissed!’

The captain remained on top of the table to watch over the cadets while they finally followed orders. Once everyone was seated and eating, not a word being uttered, he hopped down and stormed out of the mess hall. The doors sliding shut behind him were like a final blow, almost as if it sealed the presence of his foul mood and disapproval in the room with us.

Since he was gone and I was finished with my meal, I placed my tray into an empty slot on the tray rack and left without a backwards glance at the eyes I could feel burning into my back from my fellow cadets. I heard another follow close behind me from my table but did not bother to check who it was.

When the doors slid open, an officer was waiting on the other side with a hand-held scanner and a holo-pad. The scanner flashed white after it searched me, and the number one appeared, floating above the holo-pad in a blue glow.

‘Remember your number, Cadet Corporal. It will be how you are identified here on out,’ the officer informed me.

‘Yes, sir.’

He tipped his head toward the empty hallway, a dismissal, and I marched towards the elevator, pushing the button to go down. The door slid upwards to allow my entry, but before it could close the other cadet that had followed on my heels was stepping in. Matching my antisocial behaviour, he stood rigidly beside me as the door fell down and locked us in the small space together.

The elevator’s scanner drifted over the both of us with the thin line of a green laser, and the number three lit up in front of us. Just the number three. It seemed we were both bunking on the samedeck.

We rode down in silence, though something in the air had me shifting nervously from one foot to the other. Neither one of us made a move to break the rising tension and I didn’t understand where it had come from. I had never met him before, and there was no way he knew who I was. There was no logical reason for either one of us to feel so uncomfortable alone in the other’s presence. When I glanced at him askance, I noticed he seemed to be entirely nonplussed and realised I was the only one who felt uncomfortable. My anxiety must have been acting up over being stuck in an enclosed space with a stranger, even when I recognised him as the same boy that had first followed me into the mess hall.

Ireallyhad to get my paranoia under control, but I didn’t know how.

Thankfully, it was a quick ride, and the door lifted to let us out. I turned right down the corridor that led to my bunk, my strides long and hurried. What I hadn’t expected was for my elevator buddy to follow. The likelihood of this man being assigned a bunk near me wasn’t exactly low, but it wasn’t high, either. Some part of me expected him to turn left. When he maintained a short distance behind me, I felt my entire body lock as the awkwardness followed. I was suddenly all too aware of my body, the way my limbs moved, the tense muscles in my neck and back surely causing my strides to look as strange and clumsy as they felt.

He stopped at the room beside mine, and of course we were neighbours.

Before we entered our respective rooms, he turned and looked right at me, his gaze penetrating and meaningful, though what that meaning was alluded me. A single black eyebrow rose above a startlingly vibrant red eye. An array of emotions ran through his expression, most of which I wasn’t able to understand. The one that stuck out to me the most, though, was mirth. Pink lips twitched into a smirk, and then he was gone.

Confused, I stepped into my room, dropped straight onto my bunk, and closed my eyes. Embarrassment, shame, and despair washed over me, and with a full body shudder, I forced myself to shut it all out and focus on the objective.

Hide…

Learn…

Plan…

Survive.

CHAPTER 3

Artemis

Iwas awake long before the buzzer sounded through the room’s speaker. It hadn’t taken long for my bunkmates to arrive last night, their heavy boots stomping around while the fabric of their clothes and bedsheets rustled as they readied themselves for bed. And then I had lain awake listening to the deep, vibrating snores from Foryk and the gentleplop-ploppingfrom Bromm’s beard jostling from his breath. It provided a unique backdrop for my thoughts.

My least favourite bunkmate also stayed awake for the majority of the night, though he eventually nodded off around the early hours of the morning. I had waited for him to fall asleep before trying get some more for myself, but I was just too wound up to nod off again.

It turned into a blessing in disguise that I was up before the others when I was able to wash and get myself dressed for the day without anyone the wiser. By the time the speakers erupted with an obnoxious blast, I was prepared to face whatever the day would throw at me, breasts fully tucked away.

I sat up on my bed while the others roused, and I glanced over at Bromm in the bunk across from mine. He had fallen asleep facing the wall, but twisted around as the lights flicked on, eyes blinking blearily at me as he took a moment to fully wake up. His beard wasn’t wriggling, instead drooping limply from his face like a regular beard which was a relief. I didn’t know why I struggled so much with it, but it was profoundly disturbing watching something writhe around a person’s face. Yet, watching him yawn, stretch, and blink low-lidded, sleepy eyes, I found him oddly adorable.

The Program hadn’t afforded me much contact with other races. My particular facility consisted primarily of pureblood Terrans, though there were a few mutts scattered amongst us. But what we all had in common was that we were from Earth. There were other facilities containing different races scattered around the galaxies that made up the majority of the Intergalactic Union, but I hadn’t been exposed to anything beyond the occasional Tornu guard until recently. One such guard had even snuck me learning materials for a while, but I didn’t want to think about him or his so-calledkindness.

Anyway, research from the other side of space was a far reach from experiencing and interacting with diversity in person

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