Chương 19: Breakfast debrief Part 2

Zeph, who had not even made thirty steps past the door, stopped walking towards his seat at the front of the lecture hall style main classroom of the academy. He was sure that he would just have to turn around and walk back out of the doors down to the dining hall in a few moments. Opening his mouth, Zeph said, "Yes, Sir."

"Cadet, you have created quite the headache for Commissioner Vaughn, and me. In case you have not already figured it out, the so-called incident you were called to deal with was all just part of your training and intended to put pressure on you to work and study hard. Tarom Sareonel was asked to help us with the little scenario that the Xo, and I cooked up because he was a level six admin with time to spare as his workload is not excessive. Sergeant Simmons already sent us a report about how you found out that he had hacked the vending machines in the evidence room, so some good came out of it, and he will be punished for doing so. But prepare your backside for the chewing out our Xo is going to give you once you hand him your report. You can start by going to find an extra chair for him, so he can sit with us at breakfast. There is not much point in you walking to your seat just to file out with everyone else, so get going cadet."

"Yes Sir, right away Senior Instructor Sir."

Zeph's feet were already moving before he finished speaking, as he did not want to get grilled by Senior Instructor Westnight in front of his entire cycle for not doing as ordered fast enough. He only slowed down just enough to prevent the doors from slamming as he raced off towards the dining hall. It was bad enough that his squad was going to get to hear him get yelled at over whatever they were eating. Zeph was sure that his little naughty kitty was going to use whatever he got to hear to torment him like a trapped little mouse. He was just thankful that there was a stack of extra chairs on the far back corner of the dining hall when he made it in there. After lifting one down off the stack he carried it over to squad one's table, where he sat catching his breath. It was very clear that they did not force the staff to come in extra early to fix them breakfast after having to prep that banquet dinner. They were going to have to settle for whatever was in the automated food and beverage dispenser. That was probably why Senior Instructor Westnight said something about cereal. He made sure to jump to his feet when everyone else started to make their way into the dining hall behind Commissioner Vaughn, and Senior Instructor Westnight.

"Take your seats recruits. We do not need you all tripping over each other as you try to get something to fill your bellies out of the machine over there. Starting with squad five go up one squad at a time. I recommend the frosty O's or crunch bars, and you better leave some coffee for the Xo unless you want to join Cadet Demonbane for extended training this morning. He is already going to be giving a live demonstration of how to conduct an interrogation for all of you after breakfast. So, unless you want a crash course in writing after action reports of patrol duties weeks before you would normally receive instruction in them leave Commissioner Vaughn some damn coffee."

Sitting down Zeph said, "The captain said she would get the guys from holding to make sure we had some iced coffee in the interrogation room."

"Good to know, but unlike someone I have been stuck in a classroom flapping my gums going over every line of a guidebook on patrols, and answering loads of dumb questions, while you made a mess of the well thought out training schedule, we came up with for you, cadet. So, the Xo and I need coffee in the worst way."

"Relax, cadet he is just busting your balls because you did better than he expected you to in the interrogation. The plan was for you to fail to get out any kind of confession from our head of procurement, and requisitions department. That way you would understand we are not going to go easy on you just because of your status and ask for assistance getting him to say that he messed with the price of the iced coffee even though Sergeant Simmons said he had seen video of him doing so. I had no idea that he had gone as far as to do so for real, or that he had been hacking machines down in evidence to always say they are out of carrot juice. But I do not appreciate you giving him tips on how to woo my pet bunny. I also want to know why he sent me no less than ten V-mails saying that Mother Lillith came into P and R to requisition things using your ID, cadet?"

"Oh, I guess that he forgot that I told him I would be sending my service drone down to get a few outfits, as I find the standard one it came equipped with to be a tad bit of a distraction for anyone that finds female forms attractive. I used the painting in the living room area of ES001 as a reference when asked how I wanted it to look."

"Well, she is one Hell of a distraction, regardless of what outfit you choose to place the drone in. Give me a fast and dirty report of your time out on patrol that was supposed to just fill in for your extensive interrogation training from Sergeant Simmons. I had no idea what to do with you and I was mad about you giving him tips on how to win the heart of the pet I just signed a contract with. I have not even seen her out of uniform yet cadet. I thought a long boring walk would do you some good and boost your stamina if nothing else. You have several hours left to fill in your training day, and I know it is going to be a very short interrogation. Just be sure to quote the boob before you do what you are going to do to them. That way it will save me a few hours of explaining to the other recruits why they can't use such effective methods."

"Will do sir. I guess fast and dirty would be that I happened to see the same college student that I had seen leaving an always open shop alleyway a few trips around the block later. He had a clear bottle in his hand and yelled run as soon as he noticed me. The other two ran out of the same alleyway moments later. Thinking I might have just come across a Mod deal that the dispatcher half told me that no one was expecting me to handle on my own, I drew my mark six and yelled out Neph Enforcement stop where you are. They still kept running, so I identified myself as black badge, and that did not stop them, so I used the second stun setting on all three of them and called for back-up because I was only issued one set of cuffs."

"Well, you will be spending the rest of your training day knocking out all the paperwork, so it looks like I will have time to figure out what to have you do for training after the standard training day is over tomorrow, unless you have some fancy level one admin trick for pencil punishing cadet."

"About that, I have a special subroutine program that can write a report automatically for me in a format that meets or exceeds the standards set by Central NE Command sir."

"Fine, you win cadet. After you get those three punks to cough up who is behind all the Mod White in this part of the city, or at least confess to selling it to LDU students, you can just sit in one of the small auxiliary training rooms and start reading the code book for crimes. Once you finish it read the manual on patrol cycle operation. Should you somehow manage to get through all of that long drawn-out text, and memorize all of it, go see if a VR trainer is available for learning how to pilot the patrol cycle. That should keep you busy for several days. You will also be doing lots of extra PT until your physical score meets the standard as well."

"Hey squad leader Demonbane, it is our turn to go use the automat to get something to eat."

"Thanks, for the heads, vice leader."

"Grab me a coffee while you are up cadet."

"Yes Sir."

Zeph managed to get the last two crunch bars left in the machine, along with enough cans of coffee for himself, the Xo, and Senior Instructor Westnight before coming back to squad one's table. When he sat down Senior Instructor Westnight quickly grabbed the "extra" can and cracked it open, sucking it down before Zeph could say anything about how he wanted more than one can. Almost as expected the long-eared member of squad one had several bottles of carrot juice in her arms. If Zeph had to guess there was not a single bottle left in the machine.

"Cadet, I hope that you got that can for me, because it is already empty."

"It was for you sir, figured you needed it almost as much as the Xo, if you want you can have this one, I got for myself too. I can always wait for the iced coffee the kind captain has them getting me."

"You only think she is kind, because you have not delt with her before cadet."

"No, sir. I think she is kind because she is still going to buy us lunch even though I took down someone she wanted to be the one to bust that had a big bounty on them."