The Optimum Project: Revised Edition

Chapter 13

Dinner and a roommate

I sat down to dinner with Brea and Sarah, my plate of space station mush jiggling as it was placed on the table.

I poked it with my fork, "Man, this stuff looks nasty."

"It goes down easier if you hold your nose," Brea said mockingly

Sarah rolled her eyes, "Come on Brea, we've been here two weeks, today was his first day."

"I know, I'm just having a bit of fun with him," she said, twirling her fork and putting it into her mush. The fork stayed verticle as she released it to fix her hair, and I suddenly lost my appetite.

I turned to Sarah, "So how'd you and Daemon do with the sims?"

She shrugged and swallowed a lump of mush, "We did fine, we were one of the three fighters facing you and Brea, actually."

Brea turned to Sarah, "That's riiight, I thought I saw you standing down there when Jones asked."

I tried to keep the conversation going, "So what role were you?"

Sarah shrugged, "Pilot, I kept the ship safe but unlike you, I didn't do too great of a job, Daemon was cursing every time I rolled the ship."

I smiled, "Maybe he gets motion sick."

Brea laughed, "Then he wouldn't have even passed the entrance exam then, they make you fly in a simulator. If you score Proficient or Advanced you're given the option to enroll in the Navy... otherwise you're placed in one of the other branches based on aptitude."

A confused look must have crossed my face because Sarah seemed worried, "You did take an entrance exam... right?"

"Um..." I was debating whether or not to answer truthfully when my eyes suddenly spotted Clipper, waving his hands and mouthing 'yes'.

"Yeah, it's just... I didn't think I scored that high on the sim for the exam." I answered hesitantly

Brea rolled her eyes, "Now you're just being modest, I can't name a single cadet who could fly like that."

Sarah seemed to doubt the validity of my response but seemed to be somewhat satisfied for now.

Clipper walked up, "Hello ladies, do you mind if I steal your little boy toy for a moment?"

"Boy toy?" I asked insulted.

"Yeah you can take him, Brea and I need to have a private girl talk anyway," Sarah said with an odd look towards Brea.

I don't know if I should be worried about myself or them...

I stood up and followed Clipper out of the meal hall, "So what'd you want to talk to me about?"

Clipper turned and faced me with a smile, "First off, very nice job with the piloting sim. You're not supposed to know this but we ran your combat pattern through an analysis matrix and it thought you were a veteran fighter pilot with two combat tours under your belt. Also, you need to not be that good for the duration of the class."

I blinked, "Wait... you want me to what?"

Clipper bit his lip, "I need you to purposely be average."

"Why?!?" I asked exasperatedly, "What possible purpose does holding me back serve?"

"We need to keep you under the radar, average all across the board. Every one of your teachers is aware of the situation and has stated they won't draw any attention to you, so even if you become an unstoppable super soldier with perfect scores in everything... they're not going to point it out. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if they punished you for it." Clipper said.