They Were 9

It was the start of initiation day. It was February of 1989. the last year for class Lupus in Celio’s military academy. They will have their first voyage into space as a part of a training mission, the first of many to come this year.

The idea is for the soon-to-be cadets to get some hands-on experience before graduation. They were firearm and combat trained, yet they needed to adapt to the harsh environment of space. There is only so much books can teach you about space, you need to experience it in order to be ready for its challenges.

“Are there any more questions before we wrap this up?” Instructor Mok looked across the classroom.

Roy raised his hand. “Instructor, may I ask?” He was dark-skinned, taller than Brigham and a real stickler for rules and regulations. “Is the West or the East superior? Should Nova Occasio join NATO or the Warsaw Pact? If one side is superior is neutrality worth it?”

Instructor Mok scratched his head. “You asked me very complicated and broad questions. It depends on how you look at it. Are you looking at ideology and values? Are you asking about the interests of the nation? Answers will depend on which person you ask. It’s a conclusion you ought to come to yourself and it’s something all of you will be able to vote on.”

Roy nodded. He wasn’t quite happy with the answer Mok gave him. Roy expected a definitive this side was superior. He had many strong feelings about the galactic cold war.

“Anyone else?” Nobody raised their hand. Mok said: “Okay let me say a few words before we leave. In December if you pass all the practical exams you will graduate. I will be saluting you as you will be officers of the Dominion of Nova Ocassio. All of you will have reached the age of majority. I think I’ve made my opinion clear on tobacco and alcohol. A good officer fights with his head, not with his fists. Therefore he needs a clear mind and a healthy body. You will become adults and many new things that you previously couldn’t you will be able to do.

“Now I remember how it was back on Earth for me although the age of majority was different there. Anyway, I remember how it felt. You want to do all of these crazy things that you couldn’t do before. But remember just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should do it. As adults, you will also be responsible for the consequences of your actions. I know your minds are already drifting towards the initiation and what I say will fly over your heads. You will want to do stupid things no matter what I say but keep my words in the back of your head.”

The class stood up and bowed. Everyone packed and got ready to leave. On their exit Roy and Ana came into a standoff. They bumped into each other and the tension in the air grew, both of them ready to fight. There was a feud between them and an intense hatred. The rest of the class didn’t know why they had such animosity for each other. Ever since the start they got into several pretty nasty fights. Instructor Mok tried to intervene in the past but they both remained silent about their reasons.

This time Mok had already left the classroom and failed to see their standoff and stare down.

“C’mon guys. Let’s not fight on initiation day.” Lei Mei came in between them. She was a small black-haired girl with a bob cut. “We have to be in this together. The academy will fail you if you two fight.”

Roy moved along without saying a word and Ana kept staring at him with a vicious look.

Lei Mei breathed a sigh of relief. She was the person who always had to lower the temperature in the class and try to get everyone to get along. She was of a gentle nature and someone who avoided conflict. Many wondered why someone like her was even in a military academy. Lei Mei always ended up having to break up fights between Roy and Ana, she tried many times to have them open up but with no success.

I am so not looking forward to being the peace negotiator for these two for the next week. I would have an easier time if I at least knew what their beef was, Lei Mei thought to herself.

There were 3 more members of the class Lupus:

Khalid, a huge green-haired boy with a buzz cut. He is larger than anyone in the entire academy, towering over all of his peers. He was so muscular his uniform often got torn. He asked for a bigger size but the academy didn’t have anything bigger for him. Khalid was physically the strongest of the class, but rarely anyone has both brains and brawn, and he was no exception with his barely afloat academic record. He gained a reputation around school for his signature move.

The Khalid slap. His hands were so large that one slap where he used his entire strength was enough to knock out anyone who tried to pick a fight with him. Many after-school fights resulted in the one-slap knockout.

Hitomi was a pink-haired girl. She had a reputation of being the mean girl. She had a knack for nasty insults and was a bit of a verbal bully. Similar to Ana had a perpetual look of anger on her face. Much like Ana, not someone Brigham found easy to interact with. Unsurprisingly Ana got along well with Hitomi. Hitomi found Brigham’s excitement very annoying. She also picked on Curro for being a nerd.

Finally, there was Ljubiša. A redhead and an odd fellow. He had a problem with stealing. Ljubiša was a Kleptomaniac. He had an uncontrollable urge to steal things and he was also a pathological liar. He often had crazy stories to share with the rest of the class that nobody believed happened. Because they didn’t happen. Ljubiša was almost kicked out of the academy because of several incidents of stealing and fraud. Instructor Mok intervened and Ljubiša is on his last chance before expulsion.

***

Class Lupus took a train with Instructor Mok to the Space Station of the Dominion of Nova Occasio. On their way, the kids were seated and talked amongst each other. Mok was farther up on the train talking with other instructors. Class Lupus had their initiation day with two more groups.

“Hey Roy,” Curro tapped Roy’s shoulder. “Why didn’t you join Emidio, Brigham, and me at the arcade yesterday?”

“It’s against school regulations to go to the arcade on weekdays,” Roy gave Curro a disapproving look. “We are only allowed to go on weekends!”

“C’mon dude give me a break. I know those are the rules, but we are going to be off-world for a week. Couldn’t you have allowed yourself to get loose at least for one day instead of always sticking to the rules?”

“You compromise once and it’s over. You’re done. You’re a failure. Rules are rules. We have to follow them no matter the situation! But, we are friends so I won’t report you guys to Instructor Mok”

“You seriously misjudged him,” Emidio rolled his eyes. “You invited him to the arcade with us. Pfft, he and Ana are like the most anti-fun people in the class.”

“What was that you little worm?” Ana turned around and snapped at Emidio. “If you spent more time working out and less time playing stupid video games you wouldn’t faint at the running test. You wouldn’t be such a failure of a man.”

Hitomi nodded along with Ana, who was sitting next to her on the train. “Ana’s right.” Hitomi snapped her fingers while chewing pink gum. “Only losers play video games. And you Roy? Aren’t you breaking the rules by not reporting these nerds? So much for law and order.” She said with a punctuated eye roll.

Emidio wanted to say something but he couldn’t think of a comeback. He was afraid of the girls because they would easily beat him in a fight. He had the worst physical scores in the class and Ana was only second to Khalid. Hitomi annihilated him in hand-to-hand training. Instead, Emidio just clenched his fists and said: “You two are the losers.”

Roy ignored Hitomi and focused his gaze on Ana, giving her a glare of death. Ana, once she noticed gave him a similar glare back. The two were once again ready to fight despite not saying a word to each other.

“Guys PLEASE! Can we not fight just today?” Lei Mei clasped her hands in desperation pleading with her classmates.

Khalid and Ljubiša were sitting in the back. They both found the tension in class funny, probably because they were always outside of the drama. The two would just look at each other and be like did we both just see this and barely contain a burst of laughter. They loved to gossip together about the ongoing Cold War, not in the galaxy, but in class Lupus.

Brigham shook his head and thought to himself, this day isn’t going at all like how I imagined. How is our dysfunctional class going to survive our first mission together? This isn’t going to be easy. Instructor Mok can fail us all. We could all throw away our futures if we don’t do this the right way.

“C’mon, kids!” Instructor Mok yelled. “This is our stop. We don’t want to keep the president waiting.”