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morning, and see that they are ready for class, and to get them to their appointed stations on time. They'll come to you first with their problems, and if you can't handle them, call me, but I'll want to know why you can't.
Now, enough of my jabbering. Coms!" The Commandant cried, and from the corner of the stage came a small robot cart loaded with black pocket coms, followed by two more. They stopped in front of The Commandant and he reached out and picked up the first one.
"You will now be issued your battle coms. Whenever you report to a Simulator or any other training, you will present your com at station and be logged in. For the rest of your life, this com will be with you. It will record every move you make while on duty. It is your official log and you cannot take command without it. If you have a personal computer, I suggest you transfer all the information you have in it to your com and all the information in the com, to it. It's a good practice to do this daily. It's always good to have a spare. These things are damned hard to damage, but it can happen. They're even harder to loose! Watch!"
The Commandant took off his own com and sat it on the podium, then walked off acrossed the stage. When he reached twenty feet away, the com started to let out a screech that was almost deafening. When The Commandant walked back, the screech stopped.
"When you're handed these and you press the activate button, it registers your body frequency and automatically squawks when you get twenty feet away from it. If you ever loose this, you're going to have to do alot of explaining.
Now, if you gentlemen will form ranks to either side, and come up on the stage, you will officially enter Academy."
"Attention!" an officer cried, and North and the others came to their feet. Moving to the center aisle he joined Morn, and side by side they marched up the steps and stood before The Commandant. The Commandant picked up a com and said,
"Cadet Officer Morning Star." Morn saluted and The Commandant handed him a com. Pressing the activating button he said,
"Cadet Officer Morning Star reporting for duty, Academy Station."
"Cadet Officer Northern Star," said The Commandant. Northern Star saluted, and The Commandant handed him a com. Pressing the button Northern Star said the words he'd been waiting to say for so long.
"Cadet Officer Northern Star, reporting for duty, Academy Station."
"Welcome to Academy, gentlemen," The Commandant told them. "I understand you two are damned good Ball players. Ground Academy has taken the trophy two years running. I want it back, gentlemen. You can consider that an order, if you like!"
"Yes sir!" both replied. They saluted and marched back to their seats. When The Commandant had presented all the coms, he looked one more time at the Class.
"There are, gentlemen," he told them, "certain pieces of infor-