Page 18 of Tears of Tungsten
The New Teachers
Selene
Throughout my stay at Chimera Academy, people had constantly expressed their belief that Terrans were trash. For that reason, the addition to the new curriculum didn’t fill me with much confidence. Any teacher The Grand Judiciary sent would undoubtedly be as biased and cruel as three-quarters of the men on the asteroid.
Never in a million years did I expect walking into the room assigned to the new class and finding my mother waiting for us there.
For a few seconds, I froze in my tracks, not knowing what to do. Fortunately, I shared the class with people my age, which meant my lovers were with me. Pollux gripped my elbow with a gentle hand, and just like that, I remembered how to move again.
I shuffled into the room, and everyone followed me. The male students who’d been so disrespectful of me didn’t even dare to breathe in her presence.
As everyone settled down inside the classroom, my mother started to speak. “Welcome to Terran Sociology and Languages. My name is Tanya Renard and I am the High Priestess of Gaia on the American continent. While in this class, you will call me Professor Renard. The rest of the time, you will address me as High Priestess or Your Holiness.”
My fellow students looked between us and realization dawned on several faces. Despite my very distinctive red hair, I was still my mother’s daughter and we were physically quite alike. Between that and the last name, it was obvious that we were related.
I decided to not let it affect me. If she’d come here to teach, I’d be a student like any other. Our private dispute and blood connection didn’t matter, not right now.
“Yes, Professor Renard,” I said, and everyone in the room echoed me.
“You’ve probably been raised with some misconceptions about Terra. The purpose of this class is to fix this issue and clarify these misconceptions.”
Her comment snapped the other students out of their trances. “So… Terran women aren’t all whores, then?” one of the young men asked.
If I remembered well, his name was Ernest Boyle and he was one of the members of the non-chimera units. He specialized in Shuttle Piloting and for that reason, our paths hadn’t crossed a lot in the past.
As expected, my mother didn’t take the question well. “Obviously not. If they were, you wouldn’t have half the food you’re eating.”
I’d said similar things countless times in the past, but coming from me, it hadn’t made much difference. But my mother’s words held a weight mine did not.
“Let me make this perfectly clear, Warrant Officer Boyle. I’ll allow this question, because I know your minds have been twisted by your upbringing and your attitude isn’t completely your fault. However, in the future, any sort of disrespectful reference toward Terrans will result in automatic failure of the class. In case you’re wondering, this will also mean you’ll repeat the year and likely lose chimera privileges.”
Ernest froze, clearly realizing he’d miscalculated. I didn’t know what to make of this either. This was a huge change in tune compared to the previous attitude of the people at the school. After the way King Philip had treated me during the previous term, it seemed unbelievable that he’d do a complete 180 and decide to show the men of Tartarus Base the error of their ways.
Commander Trevor had told us during the incident in the hangars that disrespect directed at The Grand Judiciary was unacceptable. But I doubted the dean would have modified the whole curriculum because of one fight. The two chimera units had bickered plenty of times before and nobody had intervened.
I didn’t get any answers to my dilemma in the class. After putting the fear of Gaia in everyone, my mother gave us a brief summary of what we were supposed to expect. It would mostly be stuff I already knew because I’d lived through it, but there was some new information, things related to governmental affairs that I hadn’t been too worried about before.
Overall, though, the class would be a waste of time for me, so I wasn’t surprised when, toward the end of the class, my mother said, “Students who feel they have a good grasp of the material can come to me and take a test beforehand. But be advised that this will not be simple, and if you attempt it and fail, the mark will affect your final results for the class.”
The moment I heard that last part, I knew it was a trap. My mother might not like me very much right now, but this class of hers would give her the perfect method to humble the men at Tartarus base.
I suspected at least half of the students of Chimera Academy would run the risk of failing the class, if not fail it altogether.
My mother ended the lesson shortly after that, by giving us our first assignment. It would be on Terran contributions in the war with the apsids. Oh, boy, this would be an interesting project.
It wasn’t something I’d get to enjoy, because my mother had other plans for me. As she headed toward the door, she wordlessly gestured for me to follow.
I tensed but obeyed. It stood to reason that whatever had brought her here would involve me. She had an important position on Terra, and if she’d decided to absent herself regularly from New Washington, it could only be for a good reason. I had a free period next anyway so I wouldn’t be late for any class.
My mother pulled me into a vacant room and eyed me from head to toe. I couldn’t read her at all. “Mother? Is anything wrong?”
After what had happened on Terra, I half-expected her to tell me to call her Your Holiness. She didn’t, but what she did was much worse. She slapped me hard across the face.
“I understand that you and Prince Brendan are planning to have children,” she snarled with striking viciousness. “What in the world are you thinking? How can you even consider bringing children into your mess of a twisted life?”
I cupped my cheek in silent shock. My mother had never hit me, not even when I’d sneaked out to see Sphinx and had ended up being shipped to Chimera Academy because of my recklessness. That alone would’ve been surprising enough, but the comment about children made it irrelevant. What in the world was she talking about?
“Children? I don’t understand.”
