School Days (SC Marva Collins Book 1)

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First Printing: May, 2023 Table of Contents Chapter 1 Tehas System: February 16, 2379 Chapter 2 Viceroy System: March 6, 2379 Chapter 3 Newmar Orbital: May 2, 2379 Chapter 4 Newmar Orbital: May 2, 2379 Chapter 5 Newmar Orbital: May 2, 2379 Chapter 6 Newmar Orbital: May 2, 2379 Chapter 7 Newmar Orbital: May 2, 2379 Chapter 8 Newmar Orbital: May 3, 2379 Chapter 9 Newmar Orbital: May 3, 2379 Chapter 10 Newmar Orbital: May 4, 2379 Chapter 11 Newmar Orbital: May 4, 2379 Chapter 12 Newmar Orbital: May 5, 2379 Chapter 13 Newmar Orbital: May 5, 2379 Chapter 14 Newmar Orbital: May 6, 2379 Chapter 15 Newmar Orbital: May 6, 2379 Chapter 16 Newmar Orbital: May 6, 2379 Chapter 17 Port Newmar: May 7, 2379 Chapter 18 Newmar Orbital: May 8, 2379 Chapter 19 Newmar Orbital: May 8, 2379 Chapter 20 Newmar Orbital: May 9, 2379 Chapter 21 Newmar Orbital: May 13, 2379 Chapter 22 Newmar Orbital: May 23, 2379 To Evan Thomas. He cheered me on when things were darkest, convinced me that Linux would really work, and that baking bread was the hobby I needed. Chapter 1 Tehas System: February 16, 2379 We’d been slowing down to match orbits with Bar None for just over a week. A Moran tug would catch us in a couple of days. They’d line us up with the docking gantry so we could swap out our incoming can for an outgoing one. The company coffers would cha-ching. The crew would get a little richer. The stockholders—like me—would see the value of their portfolio increase a little bit. Then we’d do the whole thing again with another station. Commerce marches on. Pip breezed into the cabin, closed the door behind him, and seated himself in a visitor’s chair. I swiveled my chair to face him as he settled in and laced his fingers together over his chest. “Talk to me, Ishmael.” “Talk about what?” He cast a pointed look at the big display before looking back at me. “You’ve spent the last two weeks staring out at the Deep Dark. Moping in the cabin. I thought we’d seen the last of Captain Long Face, but something’s got you stirred up. Spill it.” His barb hit home. I had to tamp down a spike of anger. “It’s still a work in progress.” “Yeah. I get that, but lately I’m not seeing much of the two key words there.” His lips twisted into a wry grin. “You made an appointment with your therapist lately?” “I plan on seeing him when we get back.” I hated when he was right. He also didn’t move out of the seat. “Something else on your mind?” “You still haven’t really answered the question. What’s going on? And don’t try any of that work in progress crap.” He paused a moment. “I’ve closed the door. I know we’re not docked but, if I need to, I can make it an official CEO-to-captain meeting once we do.” His grin made me laugh in spite of myself. “I don’t know.” “Think about it. I’ll wait.” I had to fight the urge to turn back to the screen behind me. I drummed my fingers on the console for a few beats and stared at my hands. I took a deep breath and plunged in on the first thing that popped into my head. “I think I’m bored.” “You need a hobby.” His quick response made me look up at him. “A hobby?” “Yeah. You know. Something you do for fun. Just because you like it?” “Well, I run.” “That’s not a hobby. That’s just you working off your angst. Come on, man. What do you like to do for fun?” I could tell by the smug look on his face he was purposefully goading me. Unable to stop myself, I laughed. “Enough,” I said. “I give.” He nodded and the smugness evaporated. “So tell Uncle Pip what’s going on.” He made me laugh again. “Uncle Pip? Seriously.” “Ishmael, we go back a long way. If you can’t talk to me, you’ve got a bigger problem than I thought.” He paused for a couple of heartbeats. “Talk to me.” “I don’t know anymore.” His eyebrows shot up at that. “Know what?” I shrugged, shaking my head. “Anything. Why am I doing this? What’s the point?” He grinned. “To make more money, of course.” A sigh broke free from some anchor sunk in my chest. That’d been happening a lot lately. I looked down at my hands pressed onto the console and took a moment to relax the tension in my fingers before I spoke. “You remember when we met?” He gave me a small laugh. “Oh, yeah. Neris orbital. Wasn’t sure what kind of shipmate you’d be. You were wound up tighter than Hera’s holy bun.” “Hera’s holy bun? That what the kids are calling it these days?” He shook his head. “You landed on your feet. Once Cookie had you dealing with an actual problem, your baggage got a whole lot lighter.” “Yeah. From that day on, I always worked to make sure I had a place to land. A cushion to break my fall, if nothing else.” I snorted and shook my head, looking down at the desk again. “So much I didn’t know then.” “Good thing, too,” he said, derailing my thought. “Otherwise you’d have taken a different