Sirius Academy (Jezebel's Ladder) by Scott Rhine Read Free Book Online Page A

goggles on
motion-detector mode, Red reluctantly went to sleep in the hospital bed.
    That night, Zeiss tried to be
helpful and set up a preliminary class schedule for the girl. While he was
doing research, he stumbled upon an odd date stamp on one of her digital
records. All the signatures matched and everything seemed plausible, but one of
the records had been created a year before the document in the image. Someone
had forged her school records. He dialed Professor Horvath at 2300.
    She answered, sounding tired. “I
read the medical response report. Good job.”
    “There’s a problem with the new
girl.”
    “What did she do this time?”
    “Her transcript has an anomaly.”
    “Shit. Has anyone else seen it?”
    “No. My access stamp is the only—”
    “Fix it.”
    “Excuse me? I’m reporting a
security violation.”
    “Repair it and any other errors you
find. Fake damage if you have to. Then wipe your computer and forget what you
did.”
    He would lose over an hour of sleep
time. “Confirmation code, sir?”
    “Sirius level four. The world is
full of beautiful things: Dr. Doolittle.”
    “Yes, sir. Can you tell me why?”
    “No. But I vouch for her
personally. Just help her fit in.”
    “That mission’s above my pay grade,
sir,” he replied, deadpan.
    That was the first laugh Trina had
all day.
    ****
    Red awoke early Sunday morning and
tried to sneak out the back. The nurse who caught her said, “That means we’ll
have to lock you in your room until Dr. Marsh arrives.”
    “But he’s adjusted all my meds and
he took all the samples and readings. God, I’m so tired of this.”
    “He said to add an hour every time
you argued,” the nurse explained.
    Red growled as she climbed back
into bed, dressed in yesterday’s flight suit. Due to the ‘no thought’ rule, she
wasn’t allowed to have a computer or her goggles. She was attempting to jerry-rig
the TV to get access to campus resources when a voice behind her said, “Is
there a rule that you haven’t tried to break?”
    She almost hit her head on the
overhang when she jumped. It was Zeiss, the damn sneak. She replied, “The
problem with any authority that requires enforcement of arbitrary rules is that
it’s almost always wrong.”
    His hair was wet, reminding her
that she still hadn’t showered. The blond TA handed her an ID badge. The
picture was the one taken during her admission to the clinic. She looked
terrible in the gown. “Professor Horvath expedited your student ID so I could
schedule some classes for you.”
    Glaring at the badge, she muttered,
“Real mature, Trina.” Turning her best eyelash-batting smile toward Zeiss, she
said, “You’re too kind. You wouldn’t happen to have a comp-pad handy so I could
look over that schedule?”
    “Sure,” he said, pulling the
portable out of his gym bag. He brought up the last page accessed and showed
her. “0900 has to be Intro to Alien Technology with Professor Sorenson. The
next hour is Anti-terrorism with Professor Horvath, the same as everyone else.”
    “Can’t I test out or something?”
    “You need to take that up with
her.”
    “Fine,” she said in a tone that
meant anything but.
    “At 1400 on Tuesdays and Thursdays,
you have Extreme Environment Training.”
    She snorted. “Wash out 101. I’ve heard.”
    He nodded. “Each week, by Saturday
at 0800, you’ll have to drop off a log entry to Dr. Marsh. It’ll be encrypted
by your badge key and no one else will be authorized to listen. There’s a list
of suggested questions.”
    “Yeah, email me.”
    “I teach a seminar on quantum
particles next semester. Meanwhile, I have you slotted for remote class in Calabi-Yau
modeling at 1700. I hope you don’t mind a Chinese accent.”
    When she saw the professor’s name,
she smiled. “No. Sitting in his class will be an honor. How did you get me in
this late?”
    “I did some work for him at CERN.”
    Her glow lasted till she saw the
next class. “Intro to Tensor Calculus