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By monbvol[]
| Parent Teacher Conference | |
| Facts | |
| Author | monbvol |
| Series Name | Revenants of the Star League Anthology of short(er) stories |
| Alternate Universe Name | |
| Year Written | July 2023 |
| Story Era | Republic Era |
Intercepting Trouble[]
Free Time Physical Activity Area aka Recess Playground
Port Orphan Creche Facility
Port Orphan System, Periphery
15th June, 3129
Amanda Yeh M5 7775551’s perspective
A new child had joined the group today.
Alison Stabler. She was a small mousey girl who wore old fashioned glasses.
A bunch of boys had her cornered. All of them obviously had one, if not both, of their parents an Elemental Phenotype.
They’d only been here a few months themselves as best Amanda could remember.
Amanda counted six of them in all.
“Look at her. She is scrawny and needs glasses! How defective is she?” One of them said.
This elicited a laugh from all the other boys.
Amanda narrowed her eyes.
Bullies.
“George, do me a favor. You and Nick keep an eye on this situation. Elspeth, Ardis I’ll need your help to teach these guys a lesson.”
George and Nick were both 'service brats' from almost the beginning of Port Orphan, their mom was one of the senior Marines on OWS Tenebrous, and their Elemental Ancestry bred true despite fathers who weren't. When Amanda was placed in their physical training class she quickly gained their respect for her physical prowess and shortly after how smart she was for her age cemented George to her as an adoptive big brother. It took her standing up to a few bullies on her own before he accepted her as the leader of their small band of misfits as he couldn’t always be everywhere she was nor could Nick.
“We got this. Go.” George didn’t even hesitate.
While they were distracted she, Elspeth and Ardis snuck back into the facilities proper.
Unlike the brothers, Elspeth's parents weren't in the service…anymore. Accidents happen, and that includes lethal accidents. She had been in and out of trouble for getting into places and stealing things until she had fallen in with Amanda and the gang.
Ardis was the son of one of the dock workers. His mechanical talents quickly got co-opted by Elspeth and Amanda in their misadventures as they never actually stopped getting into places or taking things they shouldn’t but with the rest of the gang it became more directed and structured, making it much, much more difficult for them to be caught doing it.
Carefully she made her way back into the classroom.
She grabbed her learning pad and she kept at her desk. Ardis grabbed his tools. Elspeth his hacking rig.
“Pharmacy?” Elspeth asked.
“Yeah. I’m thinking something to put them to sleep after lunch.” Amanda answered.
“I can’t completely remove all traces but it should be tough for them to trace it back to you.” Elspeth warned.
“We’ll make do.” Amanda nodded.
Making sure no one saw them then carefully made her way down the hall to the medical bay dedicated to the school.
Opening the door the medical technician seemed engrossed in a soap opera on the trivid.
She ducked behind the pharmacy counter without being seen.
Ardis was next as he undid the access covers and handed Amanda a hookup cable for her pad.
Connecting her learning padd to the computer she began typing in commands.
Out from the dispenser came a handful of gel pills.
Disconnecting her noteputer from the terminal Amanda snuck back out of the medbay without being noticed.
Farther down the hall was the meal preparation area for the school. She found the boxes of food for the boys. It was easy. Given their parentage they needed larger meals with different nutritional balances from the rest of the students and each had to be labeled to make sure the right student got the right meal. Ardis again helped her to bypass the physical locks as Elspeth kept watch.
Amanda carefully stole then opened the six boxed lunches and carefully pulled apart the gel pills, dumping their contents into each meal.
Closing each box up and putting them back where she found them. There was no immediate signs of her tampering with them.
With a smile they made her way back to the classroom. Their freetime break would be over soon and meal time would be after Basic Physics.
Making a Friend[]
Lunch Room
A couple hours later
Amanda sat next to Alison.
“Hi. I’m Amanda.”
“Alison.” She said meekly.
“I get it. You are nervous I’m another bully like them. I am not. And this place is pretty crazy for a newcomer. So I am going to do my best to make you feel welcome.”
“This place really have AIs? Like real thinking, feeling AIs?” Alison asked.
“Sure does. ALICE is super nice. So is Billie Hoel, but of course my favorite is Phoenix.” Amanda smiled.
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
Amanda had to stifle her laughter as the boys ate their meals without any signs of hesitation.
After they finished they started talking and laughing.
Slowly but surely they started quieting down, yawning.
“Come on. We better finish eating too. We don’t want to go through physical training class on an empty stomach.” Amanda smiled.
“Okay.”
A Special Day[]
Gym
The students were gathered sitting on the floor.
“Okay class, today is a special day.”
Suddenly a loud snoring sound came from the middle of the pack of students.
Then a thud as one of the bullies from earlier fell over asleep.
Amanda couldn’t help but giggle as all six of the bullies were sound asleep and she wasn’t the only one.
“Okay something’s not quite right here… Obviously today’s lesson is canceled.” The instructor said as she looked over the other students.
Soon afterwards medtechs showed up and collected the boys.
Mom's pride and joy[]
Principle Bryant’s office
Phoenix’s perspective
“Miss M5 7775551, your daughter Amanda, she did something that could have gone horribly wrong today.”
“I’m not sure I follow and just Phoenix is fine, Miss Bryant.”
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Human-like appearance of the AI, Phoenix
“She led her little gang into hacking a pharmacy terminal and spiked the lunches of a half a dozen male students with sleeping pills. The only reason we figured out it was her and her cohorts was because they were too young to completely cover their tracks.”
“I know. I saw the recordings and accessed the logs. The doses were correct for their body mass. And Amanda tells me earlier in the day they were bullying another student. Honestly, I’m kind of proud of her and her friends.”
“We still have to discipline them so no one else gets the idea they should repeat her little prank, even if it was justified because not everyone else is as smart as she is and thus able to figure out correct dosages and take into account possible side effects.”
“Yeah. You’re right. I’ll be sure to talk to her about it when we get home.” Phoenix answered.
Phoenix exited the office.
Amanda was talking and giggling with a fellow student.
“Making new friends?”
“Yeah. This is Alison.”
“You know Phoenix?” Alison said in shock.
“Oh, did I forget to mention she’s my Mom? You should come over sometime! It’ll be fun!”
“Not tonight. We got something to talk about when we get home. But Alison, nice to meet you and soon, if it is okay with your parents you’ll be welcome.” Phoenix smiled.
Alison just sat there slack jawed.
“Aw but I did it for a good reason!” Amanda complained.
“I know. But they have to make sure no one else tries to pull what you did. Plus you got caught. We’ll have to work on that part.” Phoenix said as she took Amanda’s hand and began walking.
“Bye!” Amanda giggled and waved at Alison.
Playground Brawl[]
Playground area
19th June, 3129
Before class
Amanda Yeh M5 7775551’s perspective
The six boys were there waiting for her.
“We know it was you that drugged us. Three days of suspension did not make us forget and is far too soft a punishment for what you did. Could not face us like a proper warrior? We should expect as much from a geek like you.”
The boys laughed.
“You were not being very nice. I also didn’t want to embarrass you. Plus do you even know my name?” Amanda shot back.
“It doesn’t matter what your name is after what you did yesterday. We’re going to teach you your place!” The ring leader threw the first punch.
Amanda felt it connect with her left cheekbone.
Instead of going down or being knocked back she used the momentum to spin her body along the boy’s arm.
For a brief instant she was looking into his shocked eyes.
“That hurt you know. I’m Amanda.” Amanda said calmly.
She ducked under his other arm as he tried to swing his arm around.
Another boy stepped in to her left and started throwing a punch.
Amanda shifted her weight and put her own force into the boy’s elbow re-directing his punch into the ring leader’s right eye socket.
Crouched down she gripped the boy’s arm and she pulled with all her might and put him between her and a third boy that had moved in to try and kick her, instead hitting the other boy.
A fourth boy tried to pull the second boy free from her grip.
Amanda kept hers for just a moment, just enough that the fourth boy started putting real effort into pulling his friend free.
She then let go.
The two fell to the deck in a heap.
The ring leader and the third boy turned shoulder to shoulder and started charging at Amanda.
Amanda dropped down into a crouched position then launched herself over them.
They both tried reaching for her legs and arms but she was just out of their reaches.
“I’ve lived here all my life. You boys obviously haven’t.” Amanda bobbed to her right as the fifth boy tried to punch her in the stomach.
The sixth boy managed to land a hit on her left side below her ribs that she couldn’t quite dodge or redirect in time.
“Ow.” Amanda hissed.
The sixth boy pulled his other fist back for another body blow.
Amanda side-stepped into the boy, grabbed his arm, and rolled her bodyweight into this own momentum to spin the boy around just in time for the ring leader to check his punch before hitting his friend.
“Good. You boys are learning. Maybe at this rate you’ll grow up and actually be something other than bullet catchers.” Amanda once again used all her strength and body mass to shove the off balance boy she had hold of into the ring leader.
“Why won’t you fight back?” The leader said.
“It’s not hand to hand training class yet.” Amanda said as the third bully moved in to her right side.
The bullies were making a circle around her now.
She crouched down again.
The ring leader readied himself so he could jump after her but it opened his stance just enough she dove through his legs instead.
“I figure we have about another minute before Miss Bryant shuts this fight down. So come on boys. If you’re really that at me, the clock is ticking.”
“You know your friend Allison? We made her every day while you were away. She tell you that?” The ring leader boasted.
“Oh you’ll regret that for sure.” Amanda hissed.
“So there’s your weak spot. Now I know how to torment you too! Now you hold still! Or we’ll pummel her instead!”
“You will do no such thing.”
George. George had Silas and Nort by the back of the neck. "This doesn't seem fair odds." the older boy stated. "Does it seem fair to you, Nick?"
Nick (age 8) shook his head as Tomas, the third member of Timon's gang, rolled his eyes in a choke hold.
"Amanda, you can finish with this guy?" George asked, "Or do we need to step on him?"
“I think we’re out of time. Miss Bryant’s coming.” Amanda answered.
"Nick, let him go or you'll be in trouble." George said offhand, and Nick released his target. "Seems these bozos didn’t get your message Amanda."
"Are we doing this or what?" Nick interrupted.
"It's 'or what', Nicky." George said.
George looked at his younger, more aggressive brother.
"Fair." Nick said. "Timmy, if you pick on Alison again, I won't stop until you're hurt, you pick one with Amanda again, and it better be honor rules, or I won't stop until you're broken. Miss B won't even bat an eye if we tell her that you needed a group to pick on one girl."
Timon glared at the three of them, as his friends and sibmates pulled themselves together-except for the one Nicky choked out, who was just starting to wake up.
"This is not over!"
"It better be." Elspeth joined them. "Miss B's coming and if she doesn't put the arm on you, I betcha your fosters will…Hi Amanda!" she glanced at the other gang, and made a face. "Ew…Tommy peed himself. Gross."
"Where's Ardis?" Amanda asked casually.
"Ardis is outside." Elspeth stated, "his dad's got him for the week and he's doing 'prentice stuffs on the hull of the station."
“Thanks guys. If they actually knew how to plant their feet, not overcommit to their attacks, and a bit more used to life on a station they could have been trouble. I might have had to actually hurt one or more of them.” Amanda smiled.
“Amanda Yeh M5 7775551. You and your crew at it again?” Principal Bryant was now on scene.
“They started it. AGAIN!” Amanda said defiantly.
“A ship girl? Really? Can this day get worse?” Timmon said.
After the war there had been a rash of parents naming their children after the AIs, even going so far as to use the Caspar designators of the AIs as surnames.
These children became known as the ‘ship kids’.
But what Timmon didn’t know was the real reason Amanda’s last name was M5 7775551.
“No. My mom really is Phoenix M5 7775551. And my other mom is Fleet Captain Saya Yeh.” Amanda looked at Timmon.
“Oh man…” Timmon muttered.
“And to answer your question, yeah your day can get worse because George is right. I may not be a Clanner but I was a marine on the SLS Olivia Hazard Perry in the war. So if you’re going to keep picking fights on my watch they better be within the rules. And maybe wait a few years. She’s only five after all.”
“Five? But she’s BIG! She has to be at least NINE?!?” Timmon ranted, clearly confused.
“I know. But she is. Okay. Looks like we got kids that need checked out again and I have to call parents and fosters because of that.” Principal Bryant shook her head.
Principal Bryant’s office
Later
Saya Yeh’s perspective
“Saya your kid is extraordinary and she’s already getting quite a crew around her, but she keeps getting into incidents like this. I’d love to look the other way given Timmon and his group’s role in this but that’d set a bad example too.”
“If I understand your meaning you are punishing her once again less for what she did, but because of the circumstances she did it under.” Saya said flatly.
“Pretty much. Any fights need to be supervised and by the rules. While she never threw the first punch from what I’ve gotten out of the other students she clearly egged on the bullies. Once she gets some experience under her belt Amanda’s going to be a force of nature and no one will see it coming.”
“As with the last incident I see your point. What will her punishment be this time?”
“Since sending her home for three days didn’t work or things off? Time to double down. All of them will be so exhausted that they won’t have the energy to get into a fight outside of training periods.”
“Agreed. If there is nothing more?”
“Formalities have been observed.”
“Thank you, Sergeant.”
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