Vyyda Book 1: The Haver Problem by Kevin Bliss Read Free Book Online Page B

the official pronouncement of Andrew Dahl's death) to vacate the Bureau-owned premises.
    Traditionally, the receptions following memorials went on late into the evening.  Caroline hoped against hope that the one for her father would be an exception.  It wasn't.  The men who had worked for and alongside him over several decades didn't se em to want to leave.  They professed to be concerned about her. Assurances that she gave about being fine and just wanting to rest didn't pry them loose.
    She disposed of most of the personal possessions in the quarters which had been the only home she'd ever known.  Not so much a lack of sentimentality as an absence of a place to stow them.  She would still go to the Academy, and there was no room there for personal clutter.
    Word spread through Arcadia that poor Andrew Dahl's only daughter was Academy-bound.  Among the well-wishers was a pair of recent Academy graduates who had been assigned to the Bureau vessel maintenance depot.  They’d been underlings of Andrew Dahl for a brief period.  The duo offered a celebratory sendoff, along with a detailed rundown of what Caroline could expect from the three years of intense training.
    She was inclined to say no.  Caroline had spent years avoiding the approaches of Bureau personnel.  Yet these were the kind of people with whom she'd have to be working.  An advantage to get a sense of them as soon as possible.  Besides, they were both Earthers and she'd had extremely limited exposure to natives of the home planet.
    They took her to one of the newer spots in Arcadia, catering to the increasing influx of actual Academy-trained men and women who would, over time, squeeze out the old guard, the Andrew Dahls, who thought for themselves.
    A sense of urgency to move on took hold of Caroline that night.  She let go.
    The young men were extremely forthcoming about the nature of the Academy, telling tales of training routines, rules which were to be strictly followed, which tests were the toughest and how to survive three full years of the ordeal.
    Then they warned her that she'd lose her long brown hair upon arrival, per regulations.  One of the young men took a careful look at her and speculated that she wouldn't go through with it.  She'd be back in Arcadia within hours.
    "They'll make you shave it off.  You refuse – even hesitate – and you're on a transport home in no time," he said.
    "Except I don't have a home anymore," she replied with slurred speech, well into her fifth drink.
    "Someplace else then.  But you won't get to be at the Academy."
    Though intoxicated, Caroline assured them that she could handle anything the Bureau could throw her way – hair restrictions included.  They suggested casually that she prove it right there and then.  Have her head shaved before even leaving Arcadia.  That would put her in good stead with the Academy staff on day one.
    It didn't take much convincing.  She agreed.
    The whole story was a lie.  Neither women nor men were required to accept such a haircut upon arrival at the Academy.  And, as if the prank wasn't cruel enough, the two young men privately slipped the hair-tech an extra bit of currency to apply a topical solution used to kill follicles at the root, preventing the hair from growing back.  (In Caroline’s case, it also ended up turning the ‘stubble’ on her head completely white.)
     
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                  Caroline’s first days at the Academy were spent adjusting to the unwanted attention from her unusual appearance.  She didn’t bother trying to explain, so speculation ran the gamut:  it was an attempt to look tough, accentuate her status as an outsider, sign of a developing health problem, you name it.
                  Once the novelty of her nearly bare head wore off, however, Caroline found herself either well-liked or generally ignored by her fellow