Part
Ten
Murder And Revenge
It was North's turn in The Command Chair. It was a simple maneuver: put the ship in a standard military orbit above commercial orbits. With correct precision, helm, navigation, and communications did their jobs flawlessly, but North carefully double-checked every move. He was expecting a throw in, but nothing happened. When the ship was in orbit, the lights flashed and everyone relaxed. The Academy Instructor stepped into the simulated Command Deck.
"Well done, gentlemen," he said, "you weren't a tenth of a degree off entry and corrected that superbly! You may go to your next lesson!"
North took his own group out of the simulator and waited for the rest of his squad. When they were all assembled, he called Cadet Bright Moon forward.
"We're on our way to weapons orientation," he said. "You lead."
The cadet saluted and led the squad off at a slow run. They went down the corridors two abreast, passing other squads going in different directions. They arrived in their class on time. Taking the officer's desk, North put today's lesson on his screen: Discussioin of shields and small arms malfunction. There wasn't much he didn't know here, but he'd watch for any new bits of information not in the books. The officer put three words on the large display screen behind him: 'Disruptor, stationary, deflector.' When he was done, he looked at the class.
"Now gentlemen," he said, "you all should know those are all shielding types. If you don't know by now, you shouldn't be in this class! Now tell me, are they in their correct order as to energy useage?"
North answered "Yes," and apparantly the rest of the class agreed with him.
"Gentlemen, I may be wasting my time," said the instructor. "You're all very bright! Now, Grey Moon, can you tell the class the correct order of protective value?"
The cadet stood and spoke. "Sir, the correct value of protective ray shields in most cases is: 'Deflector, Stationary and Disruptor.' There are exceptions though, and when installing shields, one should consult the service manual as to most effective for the situation."
"Are there any disagreements, gentlemen?" asked the instructor. "All right," he said, "Grey Comet, tell me why deflector shields are most practical for a space vessel."
"Sir," said the cadet, "disruptor shields would use too much of a