"Good morning," said Ensign Jason Grivar.  He stepped into
the aft cabin and took a seat at the table with Ryo and Taeon.
"We should be arriving at Earth in three hours."
     "Good?" questioned Ryo Gunn.  "This has been the most boring
four days of my life!"
     "Nonsense," said Jason.  "Diverspace travel is the most
remarkable and extraordinary experience one can possible
imagine."
     "If you say so," said Taeon.  He turned back to Ryo.  "Like
I was saying, it still bothers me that the spy's at large on the
Vigilant."
     "As I recall, Kay went to through basic training at a camp
just south of Anchorage," said Ryo.
     "What of it?"
     "Kay who?" asked Jason.
     "Don't worry about it," said Taeon.  "It's a personal
matter."
     "I don't recall any of the signed transfer papers for her
having come through," said Ryo. "Her records and files are on the
ship's computer, transferred from the Anchorage training camp.
Yet none of the official paper work ever arrived."
     "Anchorage camp is the primary training center on Earth,"
said Taeon.  "They probably lose a hundred records a day."
     "Still," said Ryo.  "I think we should check up on Kay's
records if we get a chance.  The training camp is only thirty
kilometers south of the academy."
     "Sounds good," replied Taeon.
     "You guys in for a game of cards?" asked Jason.
     "Sure," said Taeon.  "What's your game, Ryo?"
     "Solitaire."
     "Hmmm," said Jason.  "Deal me in."
     "What the hell are you talking about?" asked Ryo.
     "Hey, I'm kidding," said Jason.
     Taeon stood up.  "Forget it.  I'm going back to my bunk.
Wake me up when we enter Earth orbit."
                           *    *    *
     The FTL shuttle Renmer swooped out of the sky and thundered
over the tops of a snow capped mountain range.
     "Watch it," said Ryo.
     "I know what I'm doing.  There were some hikers down there,
probably skiers or boy scouts or something.  I just wanted to
scare 'em silly."
     Ryo settled down in the copilot seat.  He looked up as Taeon
entered the cockpit.  "We're about to land.  Anchorage base is
five hundred klicks east."
     "Four hundred now," corrected Jason.  "Oh.  Three hundred."
     "Damn," said Ryo.  "We're going over mach five.  You buzzed
some hikers at mach five?"
     "Uh," stammered Jason.  "We were far enough away... I
think..."
     "I hope so."
     Jason looked at the display screens on his console, then
looked up through the cockpit window.  "Well, here we are.
Dropping speed."
     The shuttlecraft quickly slowed to subsonic speed and
dropped in altitude toward the Anchorage Academy spaceport.  The
shuttle slowed to a stop and hovered above a landing pad on its
antigrav lifts, descending a moment later to the landing pad
below.
     "Okay," said Jason.  "Grab your gear and move out.  I'll be
back to pick you guys up in thirty-four days.  Good luck."
     "Thanks," said Taeon.
     Taeon and Ryo departed from the shuttle with their duffel
bags in tow.  As they walked across the landing field, they
spotted a non-com officer heading toward them.
     "Hello," he called.  "I am Corporal Smith."  He looked at
the names on Ryo and Taeon's uniform pocket, then down at a
clipboard he held in his hand.  He flipped through some screens
and nodded.  "Sergeant Gunn, Sergeant Toshio, welcome to
Anchorage Academy.  I'll show you to your quarters."
     "Lead on," said Ryo.
                           *    *    *
     "I'm thinking about taking the DAA test again," said Taeon.
     Ryo dropped his duffel bag on the lower bunk.  "You can take
it as many times as you like.  No matter how many times you do,
it won't make you a diver."
     Taeon looked around the closet of a room they had been
assigned to.  The scuffed carpet attested to the years of abuse
from countless cadets who had shuffling endlessly in and out of
the room.  Telltale signs of coffee stains on the desk spoke of
long, restless nights of hard study.  Taeon knew it wouldn't be
easy going through Officers' Academy.  Taking on the Diver
Aptitude Assessment test wouldn't make it any easier.  There must
be a quicker way of finding out if he had diver powers...  He
closed his eyes and concentrated, centering in on Ryo's thoughts.
He got nothing but the voice of his own doubt.
     "Taeon?" asked Ryo.
     "Huh, what?" asked Taeon, opening his eyes.
     "Man, you're getting weird," said Ryo.  "Maybe you are a
diver."
     "Thanks for the vote of confidence," replied Taeon.  He
opened his bag and began taking out his clothes and the few
belongings he had brought with him.
     "And what about Kay?" asked Ryo.
     "We can take off and visit the basic training camp on the
weekend.  Checking for her records and talking to her supposed
instructors should tell us something."
     "Agreed," said Ryo.  He began to unpack his own clothes,
accidentally dropping his holodisk on the bunk.
     "Hey, a holodisk," said Taeon, throwing a pillow up to the
top bunk.
     "It's nothing," said Ryo.  He grabbed the holodisk and
stuffed it back in his bag.  "Just a little sentimental thing.  I
try to keep it with me wherever I go."
     "No kidding," said Taeon.  He pulled out a well-polished
flute from his bag. "I'm kind of the same way about this."
     "You play the flute?"
     "Not really," said Taeon.  "My mother, now she knew music.
This belonged to her.  I got it after she passed away, long, long
ago..."
     "I hope you're not planning on playing it while I'm around,"
said Ryo.
     "Don't worry.  I just keep it with me for sentimental
value."  He smiled.  "Like you and your holodisk."
     "Was she a diver?" asked Ryo.  "Your little sister is,
right?  Isn't it supposed to be sort of a genetic thing?"
     Taeon nodded.  "My mother was a diver.  Quiet a powerful
one, as I'm told.  That's how she died."
     "What do you mean?"
     "She died during a session of astral projection."
     "She died in astral space?" asked Ryo.
     "It happens sometimes.  No one knows why."
     Ryo nodded, then shook his head.  He never would understand
divers.
                           *    *    *
     "Listen up, cadets!" barked the grizzly old man at the head
of the room. "I'm Captain Dranton and I'm going to be your chief
instructor while you're here!"
     There were forty-one students in the room.  Taeon had found
himself a seat at the front of the room in the hopes that he
could 'impress' the instructor and thus come out with a better
grade.  Ryo, on the other hand, had found a place in the back
corner so that he could go unnoticed, thus avoiding any questions
the instructor might ask.
     Captain Dranton paced across the room and put his scared
hands behind his back.  He surveyed his class.  Dranton's face
had the texture of wrinkled leather.  Taeon wondered how a face
could be made to look like that.  Must have taken years...
     "I expect you all to graduate and become the best damn
officers in the fleet," Dranton went on.  "Of course, you won't.
Only a few of you will.  Humph.  Last term none of my students
made it through."  He smiled, wrinkling his face even more.  "I
guess you babies won't do much better."
     "This is like boot camp," someone mumbled from the middle of
the room.
     "Cadet Paterson!" yelled Dranton.
     "Sir!" returned the culprit.
     Ryo flipped a pencil around his fingers as he watched the
exchange.  Apparently, Dranton had taken the time to remember all
the names of his students along with their pictures.  No doubt
he'd memorized everything on file about his students.
     "Cadet Paterson," repeated Dranton.  "Did you enjoy boot
camp?"
     "Sir!  Boot camp was not designed to be enjoyed, sir!"
     "I see," said Dranton.  "Are implying that you'll not enjoy
my class?"
     "Of course not, sir..."
     "Don't patronize me, cadet.  The trials of boot camp will
seem mild compared to the trails of the classes taught here.  Oh,
I know what you're thinking...  I'm no diver, but I know what
you're thinking.  Officers' Academy is not nearly as physically
demanding as basic training boot camp, or so they say.  Well, I'm
here to remind you that the most grueling tasks are the tasks of
the mind.  I know most of you have gone for over forty-eight
hours without sleep, but you were probably partying.  Ha!  Here,
you'll go for twice that long, studying!  You'll need to, to pass
my exams."
     The class remained deathly quite.
     Dranton nodded.  "You're pitiful.  Not a spark of incentive
in any of you.  How do you plan to be officers if you don't have
incentive?"
     "Uh, sir...  I have incentive, sir," said someone.
     "Shut-up!" yelled Dranton.  "You'll have incentive when I
damn well tell you to!  For now, you do what I say."  He walked
over to his desk and picked up a stack of papers.  "On to the
official business of getting you signed up for your classes.
These papers will be the easiest ones you'll fill out here, so
don't screw it up."
     He continued to talk as he passed the forms through the
class.  "You have a set of core classes, all of which I will
instruct.  That includes tactical science, leadership skills,
social etiquette, officer protocol, and how to give orders and
pep talks.  You'll be taking some additional weapons and fighting
classes as well.  Also, you need to sign up for a couple of
special concentration classes.  You can choose from such courses
as electronics, ECM, communications, computer science, biology,
physics, engineering, navigation, security, medical, dentistry,
hair styling, and much more."  He was starting to sound like a
bad TV commercial. "A complete list is on these forms.  You must
take a total of three classes outside the series that I teach."
     "That's impossible," someone muttered.
     "Is it, Cadet Thamen?" asked Dranton.  "Perhaps you should
just run back home to mamma!"
     "No, sir.  I can handle it."
     "I doubt it.  Class dismissed.  Turn your forms in to me by
this evening.  Classes begin in two days."
     The students slowly made their way to the door.  No one
spoke a word.  There was really nothing to talk about.  Not in
the presence of Captain Dranton, anyway.
                           *    *    *
     The students from the class headed down to the mess for
lunch.  Dranton's class congregated around the same few tables.
Most of those students were talking about the Captain, and
nothing good was said of him.
     "Can you believe that guy?" asked one of the cadets.
     Ryo nodded. "Yes. I can."
     The cadet stared at Ryo for a moment, then wandered off
looking for someone else to complain to.
     Ryo forked a chunk of some kind of meat into his mouth and
looked down at the class signup form.  "What are you planning to
specialize in, Taeon?"
     "I don't know," said Taeon with a shrug. "Maybe security or
something.  I'll probably take some extra weapons classes and
maybe some mecha tech classes too just for the heck of it."
     "I think I'll go for that general concentration option."
     "General concentration?" asked Taeon.  "Talk about an
oxymoron.  That's just like the military to think of something
like 'General Concentration'."
     "Well, it just means I learn a bunch of general skills so
that when I graduate I have my choice of several career
directions.  I'll probably take some fighting and weapons
classes, some clandestine operations classes, and maybe mecha
engineering or ECM tech."
     "Sounds good.  What do you plan on being an officer of?"
     "I don't know," replied Ryo.  "I just want to be an officer.
Pay's better and people will have to salute me."
     "Great goals," mumbled Taeon.
     "Yeah.  I know."
                           *    *    *
     "The primary control center for a ship is called the
bridge," said Captain Dranton to his class.  "The bridge is the
duty station for the captain, the first officer, and the chief
officers of the primary control divisions.  Mr. Toshio..."
     "Sir?" asked Taeon.
     "What are the primary control divisions?"
     Taeon smiled.  This was an easy question.  "Command,
navigation, helm, communications, damage control, CIC,
operations, sensors, engineering, weapons, and aviation."
     Dranton nodded.  "All orders come from the bridge, unless
the bridge has been compromised.  On most large ships, there is
more than one command center.  The secondary control bridge is
normally located near engineering.  Should the bridge be
compromised, the secondary control bridge will be used.  In a
battle situation the first officer is normally stationed in the
secondary bridge so that if the captain becomes a casualty, along
with the primary bridge, he can immediately take over all command
operations.  However, should the first officer become a casualty,
the Chief of Engineering will take over the secondary command
center."
     Captain Dranton surveyed the room, hunting for a new victim.
"Mr. Paterson.  The ship's control systems are tied directly into
the bridge.  Name them all."
     "Yes, sir," said Paterson.  "The information system network,
the sensor suite, the astrogation suite, sublight control,
diverdrive control, CIC, weapons fire control, engineering
command, and communications."
     "And what about intercom?"
     "Oh, yeah..."
     "And life-support control?  What about aviation control?
Mr. Paterson, you have not studied nearly enough."
     "Yes, sir," grumbled Paterson.
     "Now, if you will open your texts to page 43, I will give
you tonight's assignment..."
     After the nightmarish assignment had been given, the class
silently filed out the room.
     "Mr. Toshio," called Captain Dranton.
     "Sir?" asked Taeon as he finished packing his books away.
     "Cadet, you signed up for the DAA test."
     "Yes, sir."
     "May I ask why?  All military personnel are given DAA tests
when they first enter the service.  Did you miss your test?"
     "No sir.  It came out negative.  However, I believe I am a
latent diver."
     "Really?" asked Dranton.  "Why's that?"
     "I've been having some strange dreams, sir."
     "I have strange dreams all the time, Cadet."
     "One was precognitive, sir."
     "Has it come true?"
     "No, sir.  And I hope it doesn't," Taeon glanced at Ryo who
was packing away his books in the back of the room.
     "Well, it's your right to take the test again.  But don't
get your hopes up.  Fail it once, you'll probably fail it again.
If you're not a diver, you're just not a diver."
     "Of course, sir."
     "Dismissed, Cadet Toshio."
                           *    *    *
     Hundreds of years ago, when diver powers were barely a speck
of what they are today, several reputable institutions had
established tests for "psychic" abilities.  Mind reading,
guessing card symbols, dream analysis, and sensor deprivation
experiments.  Even astral projection, then called remote viewing
or out of body travel, was under scrutiny.  Later came
experiments with telekinesis and pyrokinesis.  In that time, most
of the experiments were inconclusive at best, scoffed at as pure
fantasy at worst.  But truly, the tests and experiments were all
valid.  The "psychics" simply weren't powerful enough to show
significant results.
     Eventually, the human race reached out to the stars with
their "diver" drive spacecrafts, entering and leaving that sub-
dimensional plane for FTL travel.  Psionic radiation in this
"diverspace" caused latent psychic genes to reawaken in some
highly potential individuals.  Exposure to diverspace not only
reawakened those powers but also altered and amplified them.
After generations of diverspace travel, mankind had evolved truly
powerful psychics, dubbed divers for their connection to
enigmatic realm of diverspace.
     Less than one percent of the population was estimated to
have diver powers.  Fifty percent of those were latent, doomed to
never awaken, and thirty percent of them had minor, almost non-
existent powers.  Only a very small minority had significant
powers. The tests for diver powers had not changed in four
hundred years.  Several new tests were used, such as aura scans
and psion particle count.
     Taeon spent an entire weekend at the Academy undergoing
those brain-twisting tests.  In the end, he had failed at mind
reading, guessed only 34% of the cards correctly, and was unable
to lift even a paper clip or raise the temperature by any
noticeable degree. His experience in the sensory deprivation
chamber consisted mostly of seeing pretty colors dancing in the
darkness.  However, his psion count was rather high, and the
diver-sensors detected his aura to have colors similar to that of
a latent diver.
     "That's it?" asked Taeon, after he completed the last test.
     "Yes," said the doctor.  He plugged some more numbers into
the computer.  "I've got the results.  Want to here them?"
     "Of course."
     "There is a nine percent chance you are a latent class nine
diver on the verge of becoming active.  There is a twelve percent
chance you are a latent class seven, a twenty-five percent chance
you're a latent class four, and a fifty-four percent chance that
you are not a diver at all."
     "Oh," said Taeon.  The results were better than the ones on
his first test he had taken several years ago, but still not
good.
     "If you are a latent, the only thing I can tell you is that
most latents become active only under extremely traumatizing
events."
     "Such as?"
     "Well, such as taking severe injuries, watching a loved one
die, or being caught in a terrifying situation.  Long term
exposure to another diver or being psionically attacked by a
diver can also trigger the powers."
     "Can you set up anything like that for me?"
     "No," replied the instructor.  "It's different for everyone,
and it's also against the law do such.  If you are a latent diver
you have to come out on your own."
     "I see," sighed Taeon.
     "Well, that's it," said the instructor.  "Looks like you
have the rest of the day off."
                           *    *    *
     The second week at the academy was just as hard as Captain
Dranton had promised.  Of all the instructors, Dranton was the
toughest.  But he was a good instructor and the students in his
classes learned a great deal from him.
     Taeon and Ryo spent long nights studying and consumed vast
quantities of coffee and stimulants.  Ryo hated coffee, but
forced himself to chug it down along with a hand full of stim
pills nearly every night.
     When the weekend finally came they were almost too tired to
make the trip down to the basic training camp.  But they knew
they had to go.
     "I just want to sleep for a couple days," said Taeon.  "This
academy is killing me."
     They were already on their way to the camp in a rented army
jeep.  "We don't have time for that," said Ryo, who was at the
wheel.  "Bring up the sat-nav map.  I think we're lost again."
     "Punch in the camp and set the thing on auto," said Taeon.
     "I can't.  The autodrive computer is down."
     "Just like the army to rent out defective vehicles,"
grumbled Taeon.  The cold wind continued to bite into his face,
and he turned up the collar on his uniform coat.  It didn't help.
He wished they had gotten a jeep with a roof on it, but all this
one had was a windshield.  It was mid-April, so the temperature
wasn't too bad.  Then again, it was Alaska.  The temperature was
always bad in Alaska as far as he was concerned.  He flipped on
the satellite navigation system.  On the screen, an overhead map
of Anchorage appeared.  "What's the course to the basic training
camp from our current location?" asked Taeon.
     The computer responded by placing a snaking line on the map,
starting from their location icon and ending somewhere out side
the city.  "Hmmm," said Taeon.  "We should have taken the by-pass
and gone around the city back a klick and a half ago."
     "Now you tell me," said Ryo.
     "Take a left on Albion Avenue.  It's coming up right now."
     Ryo nodded and steered the jeep down the street.  "Where did
you go for basic training?"
     "Huh?  Oh, I went to Premmen base on Eridani."
     "I trained at the Imbrian base on Mars.  It was a pretty
nice base, all things considered.  Okay, where do I turn now?"
     "Just keep going.  You'll have to take a right about five
blocks from here."
     Ryo nodded.  "I sure hope we find something to pin Kay
with."
     "Don't jump to conclusions.  She may not be the spy.  That's
why we're here, you know?  We just have to find out if she is or
isn't, not simply to confirm that she is."
     "I'm pretty sure she is."
     "Maybe so," said Taeon.  Kay was in his vision, and in it
she killed Ryo.  He sat back in his chair and thought about the
dream...
     Metal, fire, and death...
     So much for the future.
                           *    *    *
     "Kay Sabre?" asked the big drill sergeant.  "No.  Doesn't
ring bell."
     Ryo blinking, wondering at the odd phrase.  It must be an
Earth thing.  He pulled out a sheet of paper, supposedly Kay's
basic training profile.  "It says here you were her instructor.
She would have been here... Let me see...  Five months ago."
     Sergeant Chaman rubbed his chin.  "Well, let me check my
files."
     Taeon walked into the sergeant's office.  "Ryo?"
     "Find anything?"
     Taeon shook his head.  "No. The archives didn't have any
paper trial records, but the computer system does.  There's a
notice in one of the files that states her official paper records
were lost in a clerical mishap, but there are no details as to
what happened."
     Sergeant Chaman shuffled through various draws in an old
filing cabinet.  "Nope.  No Kay Sabre here.  You sure that's her
name?"
     "That's Sabre, spelled with an 'ar-ee', not an 'ee-ar',"
replied Taeon.
     The sergeant shook his head.  "No.  No Sab-anything.  She
never went here."
     Taeon looked down at the floor.  Part of him wished he had
been wrong.  He had hopped Kay wasn't the spy, hopped it was all
a misunderstanding.  Yet now it looked as if she was...  No point
in trying to deny it anymore.  He had almost worked the nerve up
enough to ask her out.  Oh well, he thought.  Now he would just
have to kill her.
                           *    *    *
     "Congratulations," said Dranton to the remaining students.
"You all made second lieutenant."
     Ryo smiled and looked around the classroom.  Only twelve of
them remained out of the forty-one students.  Seventy percent of
the class had either failed or dropped out.  But he and Taeon had
made it.  He had cheated a little bit on the final exam, but no
one would know.  Everyone who passed had to have cheated.  There
was no other way.
     Dranton took out a handful of second lieutenant rank pins
and began to unceremoniously pass them around.  "Here you go.
You're officers now.  You should know what that means.  I don't
need to waste your time by giving some dumbass speech."  He
glanced at his watch and his leathery face folded down to a
frown.  "It's a little early...  Oh well, class dismissed."  He
smiled.  "You'll make good officers."
     Captain Dranton gave a short nod and headed for the door.
He had never used the word 'good' once in the entire month,
thought Ryo.  He must have meant it.
     The remnants of the class headed down to the base store to
pick up their new uniforms.  Each of them got a change of five
new officer uniforms and were instructed to bring down their old
non-com uniforms as soon as possible.
     The new officer uniforms were nice, much better than the
bland non-com uniforms they had been wearing.  The mecha pilot
officer uniforms had dark gray pants, black boots and gloves, and
a white button up shirt.  The jacket was navy blue, and fastened
across the right side at a slight angle, using low strength
magnetic strands woven into the fabric.  A black belt circled the
long jacket at the waist.  They were also given a pilot officer's
cap and second lieutenant chevrons to go on the jacket's sleeves.
     Ryo and Taeon had to wait a couple days for Jason to return
in the shuttle.  When he finally did arrive, he came with enough
news to keep them all talking for the entire trip back to the
Vigilant.
     "What is the word on the spy?" asked Ryo.  He sat down in
one of the cockpit seats next to the communications station.
     "For the past month the Vigilant has been on standby alert.
A drug vial of Berserker-B was found in the garbage reclimator."
     "So the spy was trying to dispose of the evidence," said
Taeon.
     "Right, well, the investigation has been reopened.  About a
week ago, there was an incident similar to the one Rycce was
involved in.  One of the MPs on the investigation team was off'd.
No suspects were arrested, though.  As it stands, the spy is
apparently still on-board.  Funny thing is, Admiral Steele has
tried to scan everyone to see who the spy might be.  She came up
empty handed.  The spy must have undergone extensive mind
blocking training.  Whoever this guy is, he's good.  Real good."
     "Or she," said Taeon.
     "Right," said Jason.
     "Any other news?" asked Ryo.
     "Hold on, a sec.  We're entering orbit."  Jason typed away
wildly at his console.  Ryo and Taeon looked out the cockpit
window.  The blue sky quickly faded to the black of space.
Seconds later, they could see the curved blue and white orb of
Earth below them and the starry void above.  "Okay.  Course laid
in for Eridani.  Stand-by to dive."
     The view outside shrunk away and was replaced by a brilliant
river of dancing colors.  The colors of diverspace.
     "We're underway.  ETA to the Eridani system is about four
days."
     "And the other news?" asked Ryo.
     "Right.  Something really important..." Jason banged his
hand against his forehead, then snapped his fingers.  "Oh yeah.
General Briggs has completely taken control of the GSC!"
     "What?" demanded Taeon.  "You're kidding?  In just under a
month?"
     "Why didn't we hear about this in the Academy?" asked Ryo.
     Jason shrugged.  "You must have been too busy to watch the
news I guess.  It's the only thing that's been on for the last
week."
     "How did it happen?" asked Taeon.
     "He had a bunch of ships.  More ships just kept on joining
his fleet.  After a while, the whole military was on his side."
Jason shrugged. "Go figure."
     "Why do I have this dark, sinking feeling in my stomach?"
asked Taeon.
     "I don't know," said Ryo.  "Maybe because a fascist military
dictator with a deity complex and some short range plans to take
over the universe just got a hold of the entire Coalition fleet.
Could that be it?  Or maybe there's a problem with the artificial
gravity..."
     "What the hell are we going to do?"
     "First," said Ryo, "we stop Kay.  That is, if in fact she is
the spy.  If she downloaded the technical specs on the psi-amp,
and she's working for Briggs, we're in big trouble."
     "Well, if she has the data, why is she sticking around?"
asked Taeon.
     "I have a feeling she is looking for something else."
Mainly the holodisk, added Ryo silently to himself.  He had no
idea why she would be looking for it, only that she had a
strangely persistent interest in it.  "Of course, I could be
wrong."
     "Well, I'd be happy to help out however I can," said Jason.
     "Thanks," said Taeon, "but we can handle it."
     "You can handle Briggs?" asked Jason.  He shrugged.  "Okay.
I'm cool with that."  He stood up and headed out of the cockpit.
"It's about lunch time.  Anyone for a ration pack?"
                           *    *    *
     Four days later, the shuttle Renmer arrived in the Eridani
star system and rendezvoused with the Vigilant.  Once onboard,
Taeon and Ryo headed straight for Major Falcon's office before
they had even unpacked.
     "Major," said Taeon as he and Ryo entered her office.
     "Lieutenant Toshio, Lieutenant Gunn," she said.
"Congratulations."
     "Thank you, ma'am," said Ryo.  "We heard the spy is still at
large."
     "That's correct.  The spy has not done to much else, aside
from murdering another MP."
     "Arrest Kay Sabre," said Ryo.  "She's the spy."
     Katana was taken aback.  "I can't have her arrested without
proof.  As a matter of fact, she's been cleared of suspicion."
     "What?" asked Taeon.  "We went to the basic training camp at
Anchorage to check up on her records.  Found out she has no
records.  Not even her instructors remember her.  She's got to be
a planted operative working for the GSC!"
     "According to on board cameras, she was at her duty station
in the ship stores during the second murder."
     "Did anyone see her there?" asked Taeon.  "Cameras and
digital records can be altered."
     "No one else was with her, but those recordings you speak of
are very hard to alter.  It would take a programming genius."
     "Still, it is possible," said Taeon.  "We know the spy is a
very skilled hacker, after all."
     "True.  But I can't arrest her for having misplaced records.
I can have the matter investigated, as the records are important
to have on file."
     "Yes, ma'am," replied Taeon.
     "Anyway, I have your on-ship duty assignments.  Lieutenant
Gunn, you are assigned to be chief sim-room officer.  Lieutenant
Toshio, you will be the assistant chief of security."
     "Hey," said Taeon, "now I can arrest her!"
     Katana smiled.  "You will have to find something to charge
her with."
     "No problem, ma'am," said Taeon with a grin.
     Katana nodded. "Unpack and get settled in, then report to
your stations by 1400.  That's about one hour, so hurry up."
     "Yes, ma'am," answered Taeon and Ryo.  They turned and left
her office.


Written and Directed By
Mark Chase

http://www.meta-earth.com

Copyright 1998.  All rights reserved.

Casting By
Mark Chase

Starring
Ryo Gunn         -  Mathias Russ
Taeon Toshio     -  Jonathan Fuller

Other Characters - Mark Chase
Katana Falcon
Captain Dranton
And Everyone Else

(all mecha were constructed under
the Mekton Zeta© RPG system, by
R. Talsorian Games, Inc)