Heritage (Under Revision)

Chapter 5 - Ethan

A few minutes had passed since my son and the instructor had left my office and I finally had peace to myself for the first time out of the day. I spent some time going through all the various paperwork that I was buried in for the past week.

I wasn’t able to work on hardly any of it due to all of the Cadets that have been passing through for various reasons, mostly trouble though. I sit back in my chair from my work and take a deep breathe, placing hands behind my head and staring at the ceiling.

The minute I close my eyes though, a flashback enters my mind. The face of the little girl is plastered on my vision, never leaving, her wicked smile taunting me. I grit my teeth and open my eyes.

I take another deep breathe and then decide to text Elena to inform her of Leon’s actions. I ask her to meet me in the mess hall to further discuss it.

Seconds after I put my TAPs back into my jacket pocket, another Cadet reports to my office, saluting me as he enters.

“At ease, what can I do for you?” I ask politely.

“Sir, Senior Cadet Jameson has his reports for his squad activity,” the Cadet responds handing me the thick file of contents.

I take it from his hands and begin to scan through it. My frustration grows more and more as I turn each page of the report. Once I finally get to the end of the report I can only shake my head at the disgrace of it.

“Cadet...what the hell is this?” I ask in annoyance.

“Um...a squad report sir.”

“I know that...I mean what is going on with your squad. Every single one of you has demerits for unclean quarters and improper uniform wear. Not to mention the demerits for misbehavior. Your squad leader is pathetic.”

“I apologize sir, I have been trying my best to stay on task, unfortunately for everyone else, they’ve begun to slack,” the Cadet says with guilt in his voice. I look at my clock and see that there’s not enough time to talk with the Cadet’s squad leader.

“Look Cadet, I want you to tell your squad leader to come see me after lunch is over. I want a few words with him. Is that clear?”

“Crystal sir.”

“Good, you’re dismissed, go to lunch.” The cadet gives me a salute and leaves formally.

I grab my coat, put it on, and leave my office for the mess hall. On my way there I walk past Elena’s class. She’s in the same position that she’s always in; hunched over her desk going over quiz after quiz, grading them all. I swear she could have the record for most quizzes graded in one hour.

She doesn’t notice me so I stand there for a moment and watch the class. I see Leon sitting with Stella - my favorite squad leader, always flawless with her leadership. I see them both on their tablets searching things that I can’t make out from a distance.

One thing I do see is a massive hole in a holo-projector circuit board. I assume that they’re searching for a way to fix it, but I can’t be sure. I walk away just as Elena is standing up to dismiss the classroom.

*************************************************************

As I’m unpacking my lunch, Elena approaches the seat next to me and sits down. I give her a smile and kiss her on the cheek.

“So,” Elena says, hesitating as she takes a drink of her water. What’d he do now?” She finishes.

“Our son is a trouble magnet, I can tell you that much. He may be brilliant when it comes to electronics, which he gets from you,” I say giving a brief smirk, “but the boy could run this entire station into the ground in one afternoon if we weren’t around.”

“I won’t disagree with you on that,” Elena says while taking a bite of her sandwich, waiting for the rest of my explanation.

“He was in Firearms Class and they were down at the firing range, learning how to shoot the automatic M53 carbine rifles, the ones with the optical sights. Well, he took it upon himself to pull the secondary trigger, launching a grenade at the wall and blasting a ten foot hole in it. I’ll tell you this much, the Commanding Officer is not pleased, and neither am I,” I say, finishing my explanation.

“Well, that’s not the only thing he did today, honey…” Elena says to me, piling on the frustrating and causing me to rub my temples.

“Let me have it.”

“Well by fluke, he and Stella Cooper ended up being partners today, working on their A.I. Projectors, which I guess could be considered my fault, since I asked them to partner up, she starts, but they’re both so damn stubborn that they both ended up punching a hole in the circuit board with the tool they were using. It’s fixable, but I told them they had to fix it together, and I’m making them partner up on it,” she finishes, waiting for me to respond.

“Well, first of all, don’t blame yourself for their mistake. You did what you had to do, and I agree with you putting them together to work on it. Maybe this way it’ll loosen some of the animosity between those two.

“My thoughts exactly Ethan, what are we going to do with him? Most parents send their kids to Military school when they misbehave, but hell, he’s already a Cadet and I’m not sure what to do anymore. I worry for him,” she says to me as she takes my hand in hers, lacing our fingers.

“I don’t think he really means to cause trouble, Elena because if that was the case, he wouldn’t show any remorse for his actions. Every time he gets himself into a bind, he always looks regretful and takes his punishment like a man. I just think his curiosity gets the better of him sometimes.”

I lean in close to her, grab her by the waist and give her a quick kiss on the lips and look her in the eyes, giving her the smile that only she brings out of me. Elena grabs up her wrappers from her lunch and gives me one more kiss as she leaves the mess hall. I stand up myself and leave just a few minutes after, returning to my secluded office.

Fifteen minutes after lunch ends, Senior Cadet Jameson enters my office, saluting in his sad excuse for a uniform. Even his salute is sloppy, having no snap to it what so ever. His hair is untrimmed and I see the remnant of facial hair growing. His clothing is ruffled and wrinkled, there are no military creases period. And my biggest pet peeve is what’s on his shirt, a big, red stain from an unknown source shooting daggers at my eyes. I stand up, walk in front of him and scan him up and down.

“Cadet...you are a complete and total mess. You look the exact opposite of you did before I gave you command of a squad. You better have a damn good explanation for this.”

“Sorry sir, I just didn’t feel like doing it anymore,” he responds in a jackass tone.

“You didn’t...feel like doing it anymore. This is the military boy, nobody cares if you don’t feel like it, you do as I say and that’s final. I am your mother, your father and all of your siblings here, on my ship. Seeing your state is allowing me to not wait any longer...you lose your command, and you lose all Senior Cadet Privileges for a month.”

“But General—“

“Don’t give me any buts Cadet. You knew the consequences, and honestly, you have taken them to a whole ’nother level. You should consider yourself lucky I didn’t give you any longer for the absolute crap state you’re in. You are dismissed Cadet, I suggest you get out of my sight now, and never let me catch you looking like that again.”

Cadet Jameson gives me another sloppy salute and leaves my office as I glare at him the whole time. I sit back in my chair and take a deep breathe, wondering who I’m going to give the squad to.

“I think I have just the two perfect candidates.”