Page 9 of Nova Academy

‘They can’t haze us. If our families found out there would be hell to pay. I know my dad would find a way to get them all firedandshut down the academy if they tried to mess with me,’ said Cadmus, his tone overflowing with arrogance and haughty privilege.

I scoffed.

His head snapped towards me as if I had physically struck him. ‘You got something to say, CadetCorporal?’ he sneered my new rank as if I hadn’t earned it fair and square and the promotion belonged to him. My hackles immediately rose.

I stood, ready to face him down. ‘You got a problem with my rank, feel free to complain to the captain since he was the one who promoted me. Otherwise, stand down and show me some stars damned respect before I issue you a demerit myself,’ I threatened. I didn’t know if I had that much authority yet, but neither did he. For all he knew, I could.

I was practically vibrating with untapped rage. My muscles clenched throughout my body in preparation for a physical altercation. He must have realised the danger I posed because he quickly backed down. Albeit with a pout and nasty glare in my direction, but he submitted all the same. I wasn’t about to play mind games or engage in a power struggle. My rank clearly marked me as the one in charge here, and that was that.

The good mood in the room plummeted with that one bad interaction. Urman and Henrik had shoved themselves as far back onto their beds as possible to get out of the line of fire. I gave them an assessing look, but soon sat back down, satisfied they weren’t going to try to test me, too. I would have to keep a close eye on Cadmus if this were his reaction to authority. I understood we all came on board this ship as cadets, the lowest of the low in the military’s ranks, but if he had an issue with authority then he should not have enlisted in the one career where it was paramount. His family’s wealth and status wouldn’t get him very far with me.

Pretentious prick.

Mood officially soured, I scowled at the speaker when a voice buzzed through it, demanding we make our way to the mess hall for lunch. I stomped out of the room but came to a stumbling halt when I accidently bowled someone over as they passed by.

Reeling my attitude back in, I noticed the man on the floor wasthe Griknot from next door. His entire team was either glaring me or ready to jump to his defence, but it surprised me that Arty was the one that looked ready to get into a scuffle with me. Despite his small size, the glare he sent my way wasfierce. They were lucky that he was the Cadet Corporal in charge of their team. He seemed to care about their safety and wellbeing where I was sure other team leaders were more interested in personal gain.

Team leaders that were just like Cadmus.

‘Sorry,’ I apologised, my annoyance at Cadmus still present but pushed to the side for the time being. ‘I should’ve been watching where I was going,’ I finished, then gestured for them to walk ahead of us.

With one last probing stare, Arty led his team to the elevator, and we all followed a few steps behind.

For the third time in two days, the atmosphere in the elevator was strained, but this time I really was a part of the cause.

CHAPTER 5

Artemis

This time I knew it wasn’t me that was responsible for the weirdness. I was woman enough to take accountability for my own reactions in the previous elevator awkwardness, even if I didn’t fully comprehend it, but the strange man with the humour in his eyes was definitely the source of this one. There was no levity to him right now, and I felt strangely bereft as the elevator rose back up to the fourteenth deck.

He was the second person to have their light dimmed since our arrival onto the ship, and I had endured enough of that for multiple lifetimes. I tried my best to ignore it, because at the end of the day it wasn’t my problem and I didn’t need to fix it. But watching him now, the way he scowled and the jerky movements of his tense muscles, I didn’t like seeing him like that. And not just because he had practically mowed down one of my team in his angry rush to leave his own behind, but because I didn’t like seeing him so down and out. It reminded me of when Libby would come back from her turn in The Program. Her usual bubbly personality would be wiped clean of all that made it good. She would still find it within herself to smile and joke around, but it would either be an act or full of sarcasm. Witnessing her like that felt like she was cutting through my flesh down to my very core to poke and prod at my soul.

I learned a long time ago that watching someone I cared about suffer in any capacity made me suffer too, but I didn’t know this man. He wasn’t someone who held any value to me or my life, but neither did Bromm when the piece of shit we’d been rooming with before had talked down to him.

I wasn’t used to being around people. Was that why I was suddenly so perceptive to other people’s emotions that I struggledwhen complete strangers were struggling? I would have to keep track of how I reacted to those around me. I wouldn’t be useful to anyone if I were constantly focusing on everyone else rather than my mission. I had important goals that Ihadto achieve. Life or death goals.

Purging the deepening feeling that everything was spiralling out of my control, I focused on the task at hand. Eat, get my orders, and follow through. There was not much else of value that I could do until we reached Nova Academy and I was able to conduct a more thorough investigation. I would still snoop around during the journey to Nova Station, but I doubted I would find anything here. The likelihood of the people I needed to locate and dig into being on this ship was low, since it was just Captain Hironimus, his crew, and the cadets, but not impossible. Captain Hironimus or his officers could be involved somehow, but I doubted it. Yet it would be neglectful of me to assume, so I needed to remain vigilant even now.

After receiving the holo-tab in my bunk this morning, I now had unfiltered access to everything stored in the ship’s databases. While I only had access to The Carina’s files for now, it was more than enough for an in-depth peep into the captain. Once I was on academy grounds I would have access to more files from there, but there was too much of a disconnect between the captain’s clearance for classified information and those closer to the top of the food chain that worked at the academy.

I would have to start my investigation tonight while my roommates were asleep. It wouldn’t do for anyone to notice how much time I was spending on the holo-tab, or how I was using it.

The research I had managed to complete so far brought up some interest facts about Captain Hironimus and his past in the military, but I skimmed through those details, largely because they didn’t pertain to my mission. It seemed he and his crew had gotten into some trouble. Though the details remained unclear, his positionas an instructor at Nova Academy was relatively new. For lack of better terminology, he’d been grounded and put on babysitting duty.

Despite the lack of information regarding his current plight, he didn’t seem to be in the sort of trouble that ruined lives. The file I read referred to it as a ‘temporary reassignment’. Considering his previous missions consisted of a significant amount of action, his current surly disposition made a lot more sense.

Whatever he’d done to earn the punishment, it wasn’t bad enough for a demotion or even a dismissal, but it clearly wasn’t great, either. What that meant could range from a conflict between the captain and a higher-ranking officer to a blatant rule break. The latter seemed like it would be a little out of character for him, from what I’d gleaned. My research alongside what I’d witnessed of him so far suggested he was a stickler for the rules.

Regardless, he did not strike me as suspect, so I let it go for now.

The rest of the officers, however, still needed some deeper digging. On the surface, they were spic and span. But that was just it. A couple of them were a littletooclean, and it raised some red flags. I had already decided that was the task I needed to complete tonight.

Sounds of disgust brought me out of my reverie and into the present moment. I was seated in the mess hall, my tray of food untouched in front of me. Today’s lunch consisted of a mystery meat that, while it tasted okay, the texture was so unusual that I was glad for my ignorance regarding its composition.

The noise came from Bromm. He had attempted to grab a cup of coffee, but Foryk had persuaded him to stick with water, which he was currently using to wash down the meat and swill around his mouth.

Our newest team member and roommate was sitting beside him and opposite me. He had introduced himself earlier as Reece Hastings, a mutt from a prominent family line, but that was allthe information we (and by ‘we’I meantBromm)had managed to squeeze from him. He eyed the coffee machine from his seat as if he would jump out of the ship without a suit and get sucked into the vacuum of space if it meant he could have some. Bromm shot him an empathetic look before he, too, gazed longingly at the machine.

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