55.
mation in your coms that is temporary. One, is the blueprints of Academy. Two, is the list of instructors and their ranks. In six months that information will automatically erase, and if you don't know it, you're flunked. I'll also add it can't be copied. Any attempt to, will mean automatic dismassal. Academy officers, dismissed! Cadet officers, attention!"
North and his nine companions and Morn and his cadets came to their feet.
"Sir!" they all cried.
"Get your men up, gentlemen!" said The Commandant.
"Cadets, attention!" cried North and his fellows and the cadets were standing.
"You have textbooks and equipment to pick up, gentlemen. I suggest you go to it. You will report for orientation classes tomorrow morning."
North and Morn marched their men from the hall and to the issuing station where they got their books and cadet dagger. This was no toy or deactivated wepaon. It was a full power beam dagger that could cut through six inches of unshielded steel five hundred yards away. If they were officers, they had to be trusted with the weapon command officers carried at all times. When North put his to his belt, he knew it would be there for the rest of his life. Just as his father's had always been at his side. He and Morn flew home together and were soon at their desks in the room they had made their office, already studying. Within hours, they were quizzing each other on how to get from one place to another in The Academy, and what officer was at what station. Finally North's mother and his wife came in and made them take a break. Everyone laughed and joked. The unbelievable dream had come true.
They were thinking about bed, when North's communicator rang. It was one of his junior officers. It seemed one of the daggers issued had been defective, and North now had a cadet that was missing a foot!
"Oh, no!" North sighed, "Not the first day!"
It took him five hours to retrieve the dangerous defective weapon and make sure his cadet was getting proper care. The man was in panic that he would be flunked, but North assured him that he'd get his lessons in the hospital and that because the weapon was defective, he wouldn't be held responsible. When he finally got home he looked at the clock and moaned, as he crawled into bed.
"Will we make it?" he asked his wife.
"Of course we will!" she replied. "The lord is with us, and you two have The Power. Nothing can stop you!"
North smiled and laid his head on her chest. The moment he closed his eyes, he was asleep.
** ** **