The Making Of A Survey Service Captain
By Gary L.M. Martin
[Note: This Science Fiction story is an
intense character study
with occasional sex scenes.]
The High School Years
Things changed.
For one thing, Mike became Michael.
Michael entered Malik Shabazz High School at the tender age of 15. Actually, the school used to be called Abraham Lincoln High School, but the local PTA objected to the name because President Lincoln didn't subscribe to man-made temperature change and he only believed in two genders. So the school was renamed after someone named Malik Shabazz (maybe he was one of the earlier presidents? Michael didn't know). The statue of Lincoln in the front of the building was covered in a tarp, as the school's vegetarian bake sales hadn't yet generated enough money to fund a replacement.
Mister Peepers was gone. One day, Michael got up and discovered his pet robot dog had disappeared. He looked everywhere for him, but couldn't find him. Darden was his natural suspect. It was only years later that he learned that it was his father's work, his father who thought it was time for him to grow up and shed his fantasies. If he could have thrown Mike's dream of joining the Survey Service into the trash atomizer, he would have done that too.
Classes started to get harder. Michael had focused and become a good if not great student in grade school. But now he was taking tougher subjects like Spatial Geometry and Solar Chemistry which taxed him.
And then there were girls.
Michael suddenly developed the urge to stick his organ of urination inside of women. In school they had warned him it would happen, and even told him how to do it, with smiling professional Comforters providing live demonstrations to the students which made them oooh and aaah, in case they couldn't figure it out on their own. Michael learned there were a wide variety of holes he could use for that purpose, both on the human body and in many objects and domesticated livestock. He also learned that it was perfectly natural to want to put himself inside women, or men, or anyone from any of the ninety four other genders. But Michael was only interested in putting himself inside women. But he didn't want to urinate in them, at least, not with the usual bodily fluids. No, he felt the increasingly imperative urge to give them something special, something surprisingly
different
.
Michael, however, was still something of an outcast. Additionally he felt tainted, scarred by his experience with Sister Audra. He felt rather defensive about it, and was afraid to approach girls because of it.
He still wanted to join the Survey Service, however. That desire was creating more and more friction between him and his father. Edwin wanted him to go to college and become an economist for the World Government, to follow in his footsteps. Michael wanted to go to the Academy. He couldn't do both.
His father warned him that while he would subsidize a college education, he wouldn't pay a penny towards the Survey Service Academy. "Just try and think, son," said Edwin. "Ninety percent of applicants never get in. Ninety percent! And of those who get in, seventy percent flunk out! You'd almost have a better chance being an actor than a Survey Service officer."
"I'm going to make it," said Michael stubbornly.
"How?" his father asked.
"I'll get a job," said Michael. His friend Bob Petrovic also still wanted to join the Survey Service, and he was getting a part time job too. The only other person Michael knew who wanted to join the Survey Service was Allyson Harshbarger.
Allyson Harshbarger would never need a part time job to join the Survey Service. Her family was very wealthy. Her father had invented the Virtue algorithm which was used by the World Government. He had sold the patent to it at quite a price. Allyson lived in the fancy section of Cambridge, up in the hills.
Allyson liked to talk about how she came from a long line of Survey Service officers. "My mother, Regina Harshbarger, was the commander in charge of the supply base on Relis III. My Grandmother, Alberta Harshbarger
,
was a captain of a deep space cruiser who discovered 17 planets. For Harshbarger women, joining the Service is practically a family tradition."
"And what do Harshbarger men do?" Bob Petrovic asked.
Allyson gave him a dirty look, before turning her attention back to Michael.
"Hi, who are you?" Taylor's Ambition asked.
"I'm Allyson's Ambition," said Allyson's Ambition.
Oh. Different peoples' ambitions could communicate with each other, sometimes, if they were all on the same motivational plane.
"Nice to meet you, I guess," said Ambition.
"I'm hoping we can be friends," said Allyson's Ambition.
"I'd like nothing better," said Ambition cautiously.
"Can you tell me, is Michael really set on joining the Survey Service? Isn't there anything else he'd rather do?"
"Oh, he wants to join the Survey Service all right. There's no doubt about that," said Ambition.
Allyson's Ambition frowned.
"What's wrong?"
"Then I'm afraid we're at cross purposes," said Allyson's Ambition.
"We are?"
"Yep," said Allyson's Ambition. "It's rare enough for someone to be admitted to the Academy. For two people from the same high school to be admitted, well, it's practically unheard of."
"So you would like Michael to drop out."
"It's not like he'll be any real competition," said Allyson's Ambition. "I hear he's a loner, a dreamer, and kind of... strange. He doesn't even stand up straight or look people in the eye."
"Then you shouldn't be worried about him being a serious competitor."
"I'm not. I just don't want him getting hurt," said Allyson's Ambition.
"Your concern is noted," said Taylor's Ambition dryly.
"It's so nice to meet you," said Allyson. "I'm sure we'll be good friends." She extended her hand.
Michael took it, and a thrill went through his body. He was actually touching a girl! He was happy; he had just started high school, and had made his first friend already!
But Michael didn't have better luck with other girls. He tried to talk to Melissa Saks at the bus stop; she gave him monosyllabic answers and looked away the entire time. He tried to talk to Susan Bloomingdale, who was in his very social studies class, and in mid conversation she turned away and started talking to someone else. And he tried talking to Michelle Kohls at lunchtime; she simply walked away while he was talking in mid sentence.
There was one girl who tried to be friendly with him. Her name was Shanice Robinson. At first he thought she was white, until other people told him that she was black. Shanice was a very, very light skinned black girl in his class. She had a slender nose, and long, straight dark hair, styled like a white girl. The only indication of her blackness was a slight tinting of her skin and her lush thick lips.
"Hi there, I'm Shanice," she said, as they waited in line for lunch.
"I'm..." Michael was suddenly tongue-tied. She was so startlingly beautiful.
"You are....?"
"Ah... hungry," said Michael.
Shanice broke out in a laugh. So did Michael.
"Michael. My name is... Michael."
"Are you sure?" Shanice asked.
Is she flirting with me?
Michael turned red. "I, I think so."
"Better make sure before they take attendance tomorrow," she said, winking at him.
********
Spatial Geometry. Particle Physics. Solar Chemistry. Basic Electronics. Michael didn't have to take any of these courses. He could have substituted popular geometry for spatial geometry, social physics for particle physics, dessert chemistry for solar chemistry, and basic income redistribution for basic electronics, which were the courses that most college bound students were taking.
But Michael wanted to take a different path. These were the courses he needed to take if he had any hope of trying to get admitted to the Survey Service Academy in Pensacola. Once again, he found he had trouble focusing on his work. The subjects were intensely difficult. More than once he found himself daydreaming as he lay staring at his Pad, which was turned to a random page of his Solar Chemistry reader.
"How's it going, Captain?" Darden asked mockingly one day, as Michael tried to puzzle over nuclear elements he had never even heard of.
"I'm working," said Michael tensely, reading from his Pad.
"I'm glad you've joined me in High School," said Darden, admiring himself in the mirror. "You're the talk of the school."
"I am?"
"Yes," said Darden. "The brave Survey Service cadet who is going to get into the Academy and make Shabazz High School proud. Only... you have to take such difficult courses, don't you? While I'm taking classes like Relativistic Morals, and Income Redistribution, and Valuing Gender Differences, you're bogged down in advanced physics and chemistry. How's that working out for you, Lifeboat?"
"I'm working through it," said Michael stubbornly.
"That's good, really good," said Darden. "Because if you can't do well in these subjects, you'll never be able to get into the Academy. And if you change your mind at the last minute and decide to go to college, you'll find that colleges look very critically at people who take odd courses like math and physics." He grinned as he turned and left.
"Maybe we should reconsider," said Cautious. "These subjects are really difficult!"
"No. I want to join the Survey Service," said Love the Survey Service.
"But if we don't make it, and we don't switch courses in time, we'll be stuck. We won't have the Academy or a college to go to!" said Cautious.
"We'll figure out a way, we'll make it work," said Love the Survey Service.
********
Michael's friend Bob Petrovic was acting strangely.
He used to walk home with Michael every day. Now he stayed on after school. He wouldn't tell Michael why. And now he was acting odd. Distant.
Michael resolved to find out why. One day after school he followed Bob home. Except Bob didn't go home. He went into an ally just two blocks from the school.
After waiting a few minutes, and seeing he didn't come out, Michael cautiously followed him in.
Bob was there, sitting on ground, with two other boys, a big smile on his face.
"Bob?" said Michael uncertainly.
"Mikey," said Bob, with a big smile on his face. "How are ya?"
