Stray Cat Strut

Chapter Seven - Where Rules Bend to Power

"The biggest detriment to a proper, rigid school system where education is standardized to the degree we wish it to be, are teachers that refuse to comply with our standards."

--CIAL board meeting, 2051

***

Olivia seemed to go quiet after a while of walking through the campus. I noticed that once we were away from the Bastion, the number of stares I was getting decreased pretty sharply. I guess I was sorta fitting in, what with the ridiculous uniform and all that. Still, I was pretty sure I'd never fit in fully.

There was just this feeling in the air as I walked past yet another group of students. Actually, group was putting it lightly.

The people I saw here were usually on their own. Some of them were moving in pairs, or in little cliques, but more often than not they were alone, and from the look in their eyes, they were alone in their headspace too.

I wasn't sure what to make of that, but I decided to file it away for later. Maybe it was just too early in the morning for most of these folk, but people where I was from generally tried not to be caught out in the open alone like this. It was asking for trouble.

"So, where's this Combat and Tactics class anyway?" I asked.

"Just this way," Olivia said. "It's in one of the main gymnasium buildings. CIAL has several alumni who are Olympic athletes, and it has professional college teams in hockey, volleyball, American football, soccer, several esports, drone racing, and we have one of the largest pickleball teams in North America!"

I sighed. "Okay, that's nice," I said. "You know, you don't need to sound so much like an advertisement."

Olivia glanced at me from the corner of her eyes. "I'm just doing my part to highlight the values of the school I love and cherish so much," she said with the perkiness of someone who'd just taken a bite into a happy pill.

"Uh-huh," I said.

I couldn't say she was a bad guide, however, because we made it to our destination soon enough.

The gymnasium building was a rather large one, with a curved roof covered in solar panels between large windows and a front that opened into a large lobby space with free seating and a concession stand to the side.

It reminded me more of a mini sports arena than the kind of gym someone might go to lift heavy things and put them back down.

"Students entering a CIAL facility need to approach the door-side scanner," Olivia said as she walked us up to the main doors. There was a blocky black thing next to it. "By scanning the scanner here with your CIAL student app on your augs, you can confirm that you're allowed within a space and unlock the auto-locking doors."

"Okay," I said. Pretty normal feeling level of security, I supposed.

"Ah, have you subscribed to the app yet? It's a quick and easy process, most of the questions aren't intrusive at all. I'm afraid that I can only open the door for myself."

I stared at her, one eyebrow raised, then looked at the scanner again. There was one of those QR code things on it, and starring had my augs pop open a prompt.

Want In? Use your CIAL-Pass Student eID to enter now! CLICK HERE to download the app now!

I clicked, out of curiosity, and was immediately frustrated when it opened up a seven-page questionnaire that started with questions about my date of birth and social security number and address, and seemed to end with questions about the number of hours I slept per night. In the middle were some places to attach files, from recently taken pictures of myself, to my medical records.

"Fuck that," I said. "Myalis, can you fuck this thing up?"

I could, easily, but I feel like you wouldn't actually want me to crash the entire thing.

I rolled my eyes. "Can you just get me in?" I asked. "Please? And maybe help Lucy."

Oh, I helped her already. She asked nicely to begin with. I didn't even have to tease her into being polite. Sometimes I wonder if I picked the wrong idiot.

"Hey, who're you calling an idiot?" I asked. Olivia stared at me, clearly not ready for a samurai arguing with the ghostly AI in their head.

I have more thoughts in a minute than your entire species has in a year. It's all relative, Catherine. Don't worry, I still like you.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

I was about to grumble some more, but the door shifted open in front of me, and I decided to take the win where I could.

Olivia waited outside for the door to close before it reopened for her, then she caught up and gestured ahead. "Right this way," she said. "I think you'll be impressed. Our teachers for this lesson all have impressive pedigrees." ṚАΝ𝙤ꞖЕŜ

"Teachers, plural?" I asked.

Olivia answered. "The primary teacher will be able to explain things better, I think."

She led me over to a pair of double doors at the back of the lobby, then down a short corridor until, finally, we entered a classroom... of sorts.

The room has a few rows of seats and small uncomfortable tables that looked like they were meant to fold into the floor. The rest of the room had that kind of bouncy-looking flooring that I'd usually seen in like, indoor basketball courses, but without any sort of markings on it. The kind of flooring that made loud squeaks if you stopped on it suddenly.

The seats were mostly filled, and I got my first look at the other students taking the class.

There was definitely a male skew to things. Of the almost thirty others, at least twenty were guys. The rest were women, or people whose gender I couldn't guess at with a glance. The age was a little older than I expected. It looked like Olivia and I would be on the younger side, because while only a few of the folk here look like they were older, in their forties and the like, the rest seemed to be in their later twenties or early thirties at least.

Two men in different uniforms were talking at the front of the class. When the older of the two saw us entering, he patted his buddy on the shoulder, then walked over. "Thank you, Miss Bennet," he said. "I'll take it from here."

"Of course, Professor Rogers," Olivia said. She smiled at me, then walked up towards the front of the class where a pair of seats had been left open.

"Hey," I said to the prof. "You're one of the teachers, then?"

"I am," he said with a nod. "Professor Rogers, formerly a captain of the US Armed forces, then a private military contractor for twenty years."

The dude looked like he was in his mid fifties or so, but he was still fit, even if he had a bit of a gut. "Alright," I said. "I'm Stray Cat, but folks just call me Cat."

"Good," he said. "I wanted to talk before class started. The school is making a lot of exceptions to have you here. Personally, I'm not fond of that. It's disruptive. At the same time, I've had a long enough career that I know that sometimes breaking patterns is exactly the right thing to do."

"Alright," I said. "I get what you're saying. I'm not even sure I'll be sticking around."

He nodded. "I've done what I can to cut out anything from my course that I thought might be superfluous. There's a lot that we emphasize that won't apply to a samurai. An entire module of the class is about chains of command and working under the auspice of an incapable superior, for example. Or handling situations where logistics have fallen, or situations where current armaments are insufficient."

I nodded slowly. Yeah I could see why he thought none of that would apply to a samurai. I could kinda see how it might but then I wouldn't want to waste an afternoon on a very niche scenario. "A lot of problems can be solved when you can summon a nuke with one sentence," I said.

One of his eyebrows perked up at that, but he nodded, conceding the point. "I think you see what I meant. If there's any time where a course feels like it's covering something unnecessary, please approach me after class and we'll skip ahead."

"What about the rest?" I asked with a gesture to the other students. "Can't imagine them being happy about it."

"They'll cover it with their homework, or additional classes. As I said, the school is making a lot of concessions to make this as smooth as possible."

"Damn," I said.

He nodded. "Find a seat, if you would. Class will start in a couple of minutes. Again, we can talk afterwards to make sure things are up to your expectations."

"Alright, thanks Prof," I said.

He chuckled. "I've had my ass saved by some samurai a time or two. I'd like to think of this as returning the favour, in a small way."

***