Directorate School (The Directorate Book 1) Page 19

  Ebsa thanked the man politely, took the chips and kept the grin under control until he was out of the room. Ra'd and Paer had their heads together out in the quad. He trotted over to them.

  "Yes! We're going Across!"

  They both tried to glare and ended up grinning.

  "You would find something to be happy about." Paer shook her head. "They couldn't possibly let me do anything dangerous. So count on boring."

  "I'm going Across! And he said empty worlds, not algae worlds. So there's some hope. But it'll be outside. No classrooms, no lectures, no tests. And even algae worlds will have beaches, right? Algae. Water. Has to be water in there somewhere."

  "Ebsa the Optimist." But they were both looking happier.

  Ra'd shrugged. "So . . . do algae worlds tend to be warm or cold? What shall I pack?"

  "Everything but your tux." Ebsa grinned. "What? All those button down dress shirts and you don't have a tux?"

  ***

  Warehouse 329 B was half of an otherwise indistinguishable building among the many other warehouses. The equipment bay doors were rolled all the way up. Someone had somehow managed to cram in three all-terrain vehicles. Size large. Three axles, balloon tires, the undercarriage curved up all around as if it were amphibious . . . The overhead curved to fit through the gate. Standard crawlers. Pity we don't have any experience driving them.

  "Damn. Now those are what I call commuter vehicles." Ra'd looked impressed.

  Paer snickered. "Just roll over the idiots? They'd better not let you drive."

  "I am not the person with thirty-nine tickets."

  "They were dismissed. My record is clear."

  Ebsa snickered. "And we all got paid for temporary duty with the Presidential Directorate. So it was an official vehicle, being driven by a directorate agent."

  "Even if we were hired retroactively." Ra'd looked around. "Hello?"

  A head poked out of the open door of the furthest crawler. Thinning greying brown hair, receding hairline, features unremarkable. "Ah, yes. The subdirector said he was sending me some interns to dispose of. Don't let his sense of humor bother you, I haven't lost anyone yet."

  He hopped down. Middle-aged, tall, like a Oner, but otherwise unimpressive. "I'm Team Leader Ajha. Did you get a brief from your Counselor?" He glanced Paer's direction and paused. "Umm, we're doing a study of how the plant populations vary according to what's eating them. So, we'll be identifying plants, calculating rough percentages of the biome, and identifying and counting the herbivores . . . and avoiding the carnivores. Twelve days on each of four worlds, trying to get to the same place on each world. The four were chosen because they all have beacons in the north central part of North America." His eyes drifted back to the daughter of the President of the Empire. "Umm, Paer, right? And you two are?"

  "I'm Ebsa, he's Ra'd. He's better at chemistry, I'm better at biology. If it makes a difference."

  "Ebsa and Paer are both better with people than I am." Ra'd shrugged.

  Ebsa grinned. "And I recommend Paer for dealing with any sizable animals. Well, unless you want them killed instead of ridden. If you want them killed, Ra'd's the marksman."

  "Excellent. The labs are in the third rover, so only two bunks over there. The Fiend has claimed it for females only, so Paer you bunk there. The electronics are here, not that we'll be needing them this time, but the computer geek and I will sleep here. The second rover is the bunkhouse. It has something that pretends to be a kitchen and is where the rest of you will bunk, so haul your stuff there. Leave a low bunk open for the professor. The rest will go to his grad students." He eyed their single case and backpack each with approval. "We're out of here in three hours."

  A truck of the ordinary variety pulled up to the doors, and three people leaped out and started throwing bags and boxes out of the back.

  "And here's the rest of the gang. Fean, generally referred to as Fiend; Obhi, usually called Hob; and Enda, aka Dan. Guys, our interns have arrived. Be nice."

  The woman—drop dead gorgeous, with glowing golden tan skin and silky deep brown hair—looked them over. "So . . . What did you do to deserve us?"

  Ebsa paused. "Umm, are you sure you haven't got that the wrong way around? We, umm, err . . . "

  Hob snickered. "I recognize that one." He pointed at Ra'd. "That's the guy that exposed that judicial murder, well, attempted murder, in New York."

  Blank looks.

  Paer looked around in disbelief. "Where have you been for the last six months?"

  "Across. Except Hob, who got stuck in an office for a year. Well, we've been doing some of the most boring research ever invented." Dan shrugged. "Judicial murder? I'm delighted to hear they've backed off from out and out assassination."

  Ra'd snorted. "Well they were exposed, and we didn't flunk out. So far."

  The Fiend woman eyed them, then shook her head, and looked past them at Ajha. "Where's this Professor and his students?"

  "Lunching with the Director. They should be showing up with just enough time to demonstrate their importance, and surety that we'd have waited for them."

  Ebsa snorted. "If this is their project, would you have?"

  "No. It's in the contract, if they aren't here and loaded half an hour before gate time, we cancel the gate reservation to avoid the penalties, and reschedule. At their expense." Ajha shrugged. "The Directorate picks up a lot of the expenses and sends teams to support these academic research projects, because we benefit from the research. And this way we maintain control over access. We're the hosts, not hirelings. However, while our jobs will involve some assistance to the scholars, your main job will be to keep them alive. And yourselves."

  Ebsa and Ra'd swapped glances.

  "Where exactly are we going? I think perhaps a bit more detailed brief might, umm, make us better assistant guards." Ebsa hoped he didn't sound too bossy.

  Ajha just grinned. "Right. Well, you know that when worlds split, it is usually some major astronomical event, like the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs?" He paused for nods. "When worlds split, the rate at which time passes in each is often not equal, pretty much randomly. So by hunting around, we can discover worlds where the time differential was extreme. We can, in one sense, time travel. Those are the worlds we'll be researching. We're going to spot check the Carboniferous, the Permian, Triassic, and Cretaceous."

  "Whoa." Paer's eyes were wide, and the corners of her mouth were starting to turn up as her eyes brightened. "I thought I'd be classifying algae."

  "Those must be extreme outliers in the time differential." Ebsa boggled a bit. "The Carboniferous? That's . . . three hundred million years ago!"

  Ajha nodded. "Yep. Should be interesting."

  "And, and, Triassic and Cretaceous? That's . . . " Ebsa gulped.

  "Dinosaurs."

  About the Author

  I was born and raised in California, and have lived more than half my life, now, in Texas.

  Wonderful place. I caught almost the first bachelor I met here, and we’re coming up on our thirty-seventh anniversary.

  My degree's in Geology. After working for an oil company for almost ten years as a geophysicist, I “retired” to raise children. As they grew, I added oil painting, sculpting and throwing clay, breeding horses, volunteering in libraries and for the Boy Scouts, and treasurer for a friend’s political campaign. Sometime in those busy years, I turned a love of science fiction into a part time job reading slush (Mom? Someone is paying you to read??!!)

  I've always written, published a few short stories. But now that the kids have flown the nest, I'm calling writing a full time job.

  Directorate School is my seventeenth novel, and first in a spin-off series. I've also issued four collections of novellas and short stories, and published other short stories separately.

  I've got two new books in the Wine of the Gods Universe under way, and a novella in The Directorate series. And then a third "Zoey Ivers" book in the Doors series. So I may manage to squeeze in a few more titles
before the end of the year.

  I need to find the time to get more books out in print, out to Kobo, Sony, B&N . . . I need to find the time to invent a time machine . . .

  Email pamuphoff@gmail.com to join the mailing list for notifications of new releases

  Other Books by Pam Uphoff

  Wine of the Gods Series:

  Outcasts and Gods

  Exiles and Gods (Three Novellas)

  The Black Goats

  Explorers

  Spy Wars

  Comet Fall

  A Taste of Wine (Seven Tales)

  Dark Lady

  Growing Up Magic (Four Novellas)

  Young Warriors

  God of Assassins

  Empire of the One

  Warriors of the One

  Dancer

  Earth gate

  Mages at Large

  Art Theft

  Triplets

  Sea Wolves

  Bad Karma

  Dark Side of the Moon

  Cascades

  Rael

  The Lawyers of Mars

  Fancy Free

  Writing as Zoey Ivers

  YA Cyberpunk Adventures:

  The Barton Street Gym

  Chicago

  Atlantis (2016)

  Fantasy:

  Demi God