[...]
        Miyami looked up from the room's terminal.  "Have you guys seen
this yet?"

        "Seen what?" Dusty asked.  "I haven't checked the bulletins in a
few days."

        "You mean the inviations sent to our parents?" Rhiannon said.
"Oh, that's right.  Your parents wouldn't have been invited, would they,
Cadet Tyler?  Not when they would be shot on sight as soon as they
arrived."

        "I'm sure you and your parents would love to see that, Your
Queenship."

        "Would you two stop it?" Miyami exploded.  "I'm sick of you two
fighting all the time."  She snapped off the terminal and stormed out of
the door.

        "Look what we've done," Rhiannon accused, staring at the door.

        "It wasn't us.  She wasn't even listening to us," Dusty said.
"Try using your head instead of using it to store your tiara."

        "What are you talking about?"

        "Most people's parents don't sponge off taxpayers for their travel
budget."

        "If you have a point, get to it."

        "Miyami is from the Veldt system, in the heart of the Empire.  Do
you have any idea of how much it costs to get to this backwater from
there?"

        "I didn't realize . . . "

        "Of course you wouldn't."

        "So what do we do?"

        "We?"  Dusty cocked an eyebrow.

        "The squad.  It's not like I expect you to help."

        "What makes you think she wants our help?  Miyami has too much
pride to beg, and she's not going to take charity from any of us."

        "I'm sure that someone will come up with an idea that she'll like."

        "I'd be surprised."

        Rhiannon snorted.  "Why do I even bother speaking to you?  If
anyone is looking for me, I'll be on the range.  I'll be thinking of you."
She left the dorm.

        Dusty sighed.  Visits by parents, all that she needed.  She tried
to suppress a twinge of jealousy.  She hadn't shown it, but Rhiannon hit
too close to the mark with her comment about Dusty's parents.  Dusty tried
to dismiss it.  All the remark meant was that Rhiannon still hated her.

                                      -**-

        Rhiannon chambered a round into the 10mm semi-auto.  She hated to
admit it, but Dusty could be right.  Miyami's parents couldn't afford the
fare to the Academy, and Miyami wouldn't accept money from her classmates
easily.  It was difficult enough to treat her to a coffee after classes.

        Rhiannon stood in her firing pose, holding the pistol in both
hands.  She sighted down the gun's barrel at the target.  Dusty would be no
help with a solution.  Rhiannon wondered how the girl ever was allowed in
the Academy, let alone back in the Empire.  By all rights, Dusty should
have been arrested, tried, and convicted for the murder of Rhiannon's
brother.  She must have a guardian angel at the Academy.  That, or she was
blackmailing someone high up in the Guard.

        Still fuming, Rhiannon pictured Dusty on top of the target.  She
squeezed off the entire twelve round clip without pause, and pulled the
trigger twice more before she realized that she needed to reload.  Rhiannon
lowered the pistol.  The result flashed on the monitor:  no misses, four
rounds hit the target's head.

                                      -**-

        Miyami walked across the grounds to the library.  What was it with
her roommates that they had to be on each other's case all the time?