22 December 2017 – Hilltop Road, Lancaster, Massachusetts

Any cadet who took part in Sabrina’s uprising learned what their punishment would be within two weeks of reporting back from Thanksgiving break. Though the academy hadn’t dismissed any cadets, Sabrina still walked the knife’s edge on that. She would be gone if the Commandant heard one negative word about her before the end of the academic year.

The academy stripped cadets who supported Sabrina by skipping class or ignoring Fairhaven of any honors standing they held. No firstie involved would graduate with distinction, regardless of their performance. Supporters might also lose their class ranking according to the rumor, meaning they would automatically rank lower in their class than non-supporters. Post-USAFA assignments for graduating firsties are handed out based on class ranking. Cadets once all but guaranteed assignments near the top of their preference list now faced receiving much less desirable postings.

Sabrina soon learned what silencing felt like. People she met in BCT wouldn’t talk to her. Most of her cadet chain of command spoke to her only when necessary during their official duties, and they ensured it wasn’t necessary often. People left their seats when Sabrina approached their table in Mitchell or Arnold Hall. Thank God Linda still talked to her.

The scream of the Citation’s engines had masked Sabrina’s cry of frustration into her travel pillow as the chartered jet sped down the runway of Colorado Springs Airport three days earlier. Gazing out the window at the Rockies as the plane gained altitude she had wondered if she really wanted to return to the academy after the New Year’s holiday.

Sabrina now sat on her parents’ couch, hugging a pillow to her chest and staring off into space. Six inches of new snow covered the ground from a storm that began early last night and lasted into the morning. She’d normally love to see the new snow, but her thousand-yard stare while she considered her doubtful future at the academy meant the view outside didn’t register. She knew well that doing the right thing wasn’t always easy, but it hadn’t ever been this painful before. She was sure that no one would give her an award this time.

Outside, the drone of the snowblower stopped. The sudden silence startled her. Now the busy ‘scrape, scrape, scrape’ sounds of a snow shovel drew near as her father finished the snow removal to his exacting standards. Sabrina heard the garage door open and close, followed by the sound of her father stomping the snow off his boots. The door to the back hall opened behind her when he entered the house. The swish of nylon reached her ears as he took off his snow jacket and pants. He appeared in her peripheral vision and sat next to her on the couch. Gathering her in a hug, Jeff kissed the top of her head. They sat together silently.

“You want to talk about it some more?” Jeff asked some minutes later. “Would that help?”

Sabrina shrugged in response.

“Do you think it was wrong to stand up for that girl?”

“No,” came her weak whisper.

“So why was it wrong to stand up for yourself, then?” Another shrug. “Sabrina, what you did was no different than when you stood up to Glen Oglethorpe in middle school or any of the other times you’ve done so.”

Sabrina couldn’t help herself.

“It’s called ‘junior high,’ you elitist snob.”

She loved to needle her father because he attended a private college preparatory boarding school instead of a public high school. Sabrina tried to twist out of his grasp when the tickling started, but he was too strong. He also slapped her hand away when she tried to reach for his pressure points.

“Jesus, did you change your workout?” she asked when he released her. “Your grip’s way stronger than I remember!”

“A little,” her father admitted. “I’m working on a new project which requires good grip strength.”

“What sort of new project?”

“The secret kind. If I tell you, I have to tickle you to death.” Jeff raised his hands as if he were about to tickle her again. She squeaked and scampered away.

“I’ll keep any questions on that subject to myself then, thanks. When will Mom and Alex be home?” Once again, Ryan wasn’t coming home for the holidays.

“They called while I was outside. They’ve already left Hanscom and will be home in less than an hour. The highways are mostly clear now, but the surface roads are still a little sketchy.”

“I hope there won’t be any big storms after Christmas. I’d like to try and catch up with my friends from high school again before I head back to the academy.”

“So you’ve decided you’re going back after all?”

Sabrina sighed. “It finally clicked why the Commandant was so pissed at me, Dad. I could have handled things better. I could have worked through proper channels before staging my little mutiny. Running away won’t solve anything.”

“From a legal standpoint, don’t say ‘my mutiny’ around anyone else, Sabrina. Not even your brother or your mother. Admit you did wrong, but don’t admit you feel it was a mutiny.”

“I’ve already kinda shot myself in the foot, Dad …”

“Have you? You can’t get out from under this if you keep your nose clean for the rest of the year?”

“Dad, friends I made during my first summer there won’t even talk to me! What I did and encouraged others to do is jeopardizing all of our careers! The Commandant is salivating in her hope of getting rid of me!”

“‘You don’t go into battle because you’re sure of victory. You go into battle because it’s the right thing to do.’”

Sabrina blinked. That quote came from a book she read during her senior year of high school. She loved the book but she had felt, correctly it turned out, that she would be too busy at the academy to follow the series while a cadet there. Had her father read the book? How did he know that quote? Jeff interpreted the surprised look on her face.

“I looked up the title of that book when you started reading it. That quote popped up in the search results. It’s quite appropriate right now, as is one you might have heard me say from time to time: ‘With your shield, or on it.’ For you, your ‘shield’ represents your commitment to this country and its citizens. Abandoning it would mean abandoning your honor in the face of an enemy. You were honor-bound to do what you did.

“Doing the right thing is often more difficult than turning a blind eye to the situation, Sabrina. It frequently costs us more than we expect and more than we deserve. Will your actions have consequences? Yes, because every action does, both intended and unintended. What you did and why you did it says a lot about your character. How you face what’s coming next will say even more.”

Sabrina and her family trouped next door to the Jones’ house for a visit after their mid-afternoon Christmas dinner. Tommy was home this year along with his older brothers and their families. Sabrina hadn’t seen Tommy since she left for the academy. Their schedules had been out of sync the few times she’d been home. They traded the occasional email, but that had been about it.

Anne Jones hugged Sabrina tight when the teen stepped into her house for the first time in nearly two years. She was proud of her boys, but she’d watched this little girl grow up and meet every challenge along the way, including some very big ones. Anne felt like Sabrina was part of their family too, given how close she and Tommy were.

“Hi, Mrs. Jones!”

“Sabrina. You look wonderful. The academy’s treating you well?”

“It has its … challenges,” she answered cautiously.

“Well, come in! Tommy’s back in the family room with his brothers and their families. He’ll be glad to see you.”

Glad didn’t quite describe it. Gobsmacked did, however. Tommy stared at Sabrina like he hadn’t seen her in a decade, rather than sixteen months. Sabrina hugged her best friend tight, which drew envious looks from his older brothers John and Michael.

“Hey, TJ! I’ve missed your face!” Sabrina chirped while she molded herself to Tommy. He didn’t mind at all.

“Holy smokes, Sabrina, you look terrific!”

Tommy looked her over like he was trying to memorize every inch of what he saw. She would have been incensed had anyone else looked at her that way, but because it was Tommy she didn’t notice.

“You’re looking pretty good yourself! Westfield State’s agreeing with you, then?”

“It took me a while to adjust to life there but, yeah, not bad. How’s the academy?”

“I’m studying to be a glider instructor pilot right now,” she answered, glossing over the current issues there. “If everything goes well, I’ll be teaching other cadets how to fly gliders next year.”

“An instructor pilot as a cadet?” John’s wife Ashley asked as she tried to corral their one-year-old. “Is that unusual?”

“Not at all. Upperclassmen run training for other cadets in unpowered flight, which is gliders, and powered flight and parachuting. It’s part of our leadership development. We also plan and run In-processing Day when the new cadets arrive, Basic Cadet Training which is the following six weeks, and just about everything else that cadets are involved in outside of academics. We also run the four thousand cadet-strong student body like a military unit. It’s pretty regimented.”

“Do you get any free time?” Michael’s fiancée Courtney asked, her eyes wide.

“Oh, sure,” Sabrina replied. She pulled out her phone and showed everyone her off-duty photos. Her chest tightened when she saw the friends who no longer talked to her.

“See? There are plenty of opportunities to have fun at the academy. We’re required to go to home football games, but they’re a lot of fun. This is me out with our hockey team. A waiter at a restaurant in Laramie, Wyoming took this one during our road trip there. And here’s a shot from one of my parachute jumps this summer.”

“‘Parachute jumps?’” Michael asked. “As in, you jumped out of an airplane? On purpose?”

“Five times, so far. If I’m selected for pilot training after commissioning, I’m sure I’ll have to do a few more as part of survival training. For now, I’m just a five-jump chump as Dad would say.” She saw the question on their faces. “Airborne training requires five jumps before they consider you qualified and award you your wings. Five-jump chumps are folks who get their wings and then never jump again.”

“Did you decide to stick with Astronautical Engineering as your major, Sabrina?”

“Alex and I both did, Tommy. He’s going the propulsion route, while I’ve opted for avionics and flight controls. Anyway, are you sticking around until New Year’s? I try to hang out with whichever of our friends I can get hold of when I’m home.”

“Yeah, let me know what’s going on and I’ll be there.”

A screech of rubber on landing announced Sabrina’s return to Colorado Springs on January 2nd. Her report-back date was today though classes wouldn’t start until the 4th.

‘At least I was able to catch up with more of the gang this year,’ she thought to herself as the charter jet taxied to the FBO. ‘Tommy, Shawn, Erica, Naomi, Pete – it was good to see them all again.’ Despite choosing different paths after high school that moved them further apart, she hoped their friendships would endure.

Handing her ID to the airman at the academy’s North Gate brought back feelings she’d been able to escape while away from this place. Even as an unrecognized four-dig she felt more a part of the academy than after her little uprising in the fall. Grandma loved to point out that the consequences of your actions were inescapable, and Sabrina was walking right back into the line of fire.

The CQ barely acknowledged her return to Mighty Mach One. Sabrina made sure her return was properly recorded before walking away. She would leave nothing to chance this semester, not with admin gunning for her. She kept her head up, ignoring the stares and glares of her squadron-mates as she walked back to her room. She closed her door once inside. Sabrina took a deep breath and began putting her things away. Then, with nothing to do until classes restarted in two days, she stretched out on her bunk and closed her eyes. Sometime later the sound of someone unlocking the door woke her from her light sleep.

“Hey,” Linda said as she stepped into the room. “How’s it going?”

“Status quo.”

“Figured as much. Did you eat? Do you need to eat?”

“Yeah, I could eat. Where to?”

The pair walked to Mitch’s – Mitchell Hall – and grabbed something ready-made. They ignored the cold stares from the rest of the cadets and left when they finished.

“This semester isn’t going to be easy on you is it, Sabrina?”

“No. I’ll probably be wishing I was a four-dig again, just so someone would yell at me or something.”

“Let’s not get carried away now …”

The first day of classes passed without any fireworks. Other than her instructors and Linda, no one said a word to Sabrina. Her cell phone rang while she sat at her desk before dinner.

“Hi, Helen.”

“Sabrina, when were you planning on telling your sponsor what the hell is going on over there?”

“Well, my Astro classes are –”

“SABRINA! That’s not what I meant and you know it!”

“Helen,” she sighed, “this is a mess I made. I’ll get through it …”

“Listen up, Cadet! You did NOT make this mess, someone else did! You did the right thing, and it’s the academy that has its priorities screwed up!” Helen proceeded to give Sabrina chapter and verse on USAFA’s missteps. “You did what EVERY mother would want someone to do in standing up for that girl! Just because some hidebound, morally corrupt, don’t-upset-the-apple-cart idiot has a hair across her ass, that does not mean you should change YOUR behavior!”

“Geez, Helen, I hope the girls aren’t nearby.”

“No, they’re not. I’m standing outside in the driveway freezing my ass off so they don’t hear me ranting.”

“Well, in that case, the neighbors are probably about to report a domestic …”

“MY neighbors? You’re joking, right?”

“Helen, I appreciate the phone call, but for now I just have to hang my head, turn my back to the storm, and take it. It’ll work itself out, I’m sure of it.”

Helen grumbled at her for another minute or so. “Just because you’ve got a lot going on and can’t get out to see us very often, that doesn’t mean you can’t call to check-in or vent or whatever, okay?” Helen reminded Sabrina before hanging up.

“Who was that, Sabrina?”

“My sponsor. She’s an academy grad, and her husband was also an Air Force officer. They’ve got two great daughters who I’ve also connected with, but I haven’t kept in touch with them very well this year.”

“You carried twenty-one credits last semester, you’re playing hockey, and you’re kicking over every hornet’s nest you come across! I think you’ve been a little busy this year, Sabrina.”

Sabrina rolled to her knees and tried to pick herself up off the ice. Her teammate who’d slammed into her as she crashed the net stood over her.

“Stay the fuck out of my crease, bitch!”

“Krista, what the hell?” Brit Englund barked as she charged over. Brit was one of the few firsties who still talked to Sabrina. “She’s your teammate!”

Goalie Krista Hoglund rounded on her team captain.

“BULLSHIT! This selfish little bitch is gonna cost me EVERYTHING! I was near the top of our class before this … person … opened her goddamned mouth about shit she had no business talking about!”

Sabrina had enough. “IT’S ALL OF OUR GODDAMNED BUSINESS, YOU FUCKING IDIOT!” she roared. The other players who’d circled around skated away just a little.

“If you’re okay with abusive men pawing at you every time you turn around, have at it. I’m not okay with it! What Fairhaven did is a crime! Don’t you get it? It’s a felony under Colorado law, and more importantly, it’s a federal crime because it took place here! I stood up for a four-dig, a younger cadet and subordinate who did nothing wrong except give in to the unrelenting sexism here!” She took another look at her erstwhile teammates.

“You know what? I’ve had it! You can all fuck off.”

Skating to the bench, Sabrina stormed through the boards and out of the ice rink. It’s hard to stomp down a rubber runner in skates but she did it on her way to the locker room. She tossed her gear into her hockey bag without care or consideration. Her USAFA Women’s Hockey practice jersey got tossed across the room toward the trash barrel. The door swung open behind her.

“Sabrina, please don’t leave.”

Sabrina half-turned and sighed.

“I’m sorry, Brit, but I’ve had enough!” She stuffed more equipment in her bag. “I won’t be silent anymore when someone spouts off about how I’m ruining their life and their career. I chose to call Fairhaven on his bullshit when I caught him in Carla’s room committing a crime. I decided not to acknowledge him, to shun him. I warned everyone that admin likely wouldn’t be happy with me, and that they too could get retaliated against if they followed my example.”

“I’m sorry, Brit,” Sabrina said as she stood and faced her captain. “I committed to this team and I want to honor that commitment, but if my teammates don’t want me here then it’s better that I leave.”

“I’m sorry too, Sabrina. I agree with what you did, and how you handled Fairhaven. We might have gone too far when we shut this place down for a week. Yes, people don’t like having the status quo challenged. Sure, I might get posted to central Alaska now, but that might have happened anyway. You tried to realign the moral compass around here, and that’s nothing to be ashamed of.” Brit took a deep breath. “Are you done with USAFA hockey for good, then?”

“I don’t want to be, Brit, but we’ll have to see.” Sabrina tossed her hockey bag over her shoulder. “I’ll see you around.”

The hostile atmosphere surrounding Sabrina festered for close to a month. In that month not much changed: Sabrina existed inside a bubble that excluded her from normal cadet life. She worked on group projects for her astronautics classes by herself. She did PT by herself, and – except for her roommate’s company – she ate by herself. Brit occasionally stopped her on the T-zo to talk, but that didn’t happen very often. Sabrina hadn’t returned to the hockey team after her blowup. Her advisor approved a solo physical training regimen in place of her team participation.

Mighty Mach One’s AMT – the squadron’s academy military trainer, an Air Force enlisted counterpart to the AOC – brought Sabrina a message at the end of January.

“The Superintendent wants to see you, Cadet,” the non-commissioned officer told her. “Captain Tosu asked me to bring you the note so no one would ‘forget’ to deliver it.”

The summons was for the following day, immediately following lunch – not that she’d be able to eat much before a looming meeting with the academy’s commanding officer. Sabrina spent two hours that night making sure her service dress uniform was in perfect order. Sabrina’s hand shook while holding the summons out to the admin secretary.

“Cadet Knox to see the Superintendent, ma’am.”

Connie Nichols gave her a rueful chuckle.

“As if any cadet who’s not the wing commander would try to bluff their way by me to see him. Come on.” She gave his door a quiet knock before sticking her head in to announce his 1300 appointment. “May the odds be in your favor, Cadet Knox,” she whispered before opening the door wide.

Sabrina marched in, stopping the proper distance in front of his desk to salute.

“Sir, Cadet Knox reports!”

The three-star returned it, pausing a few interminable seconds before ordering, “At ease, Cadet. Take a seat.” Sabrina sat but was not at ease. “I’m sure you know why you are here?”

Sabrina gulped. ‘Here it comes …’ “Yes, sir,” she croaked.

“I’m not sure you do. After two months to ruminate and agonize over your decision to buck the system here – and let’s be honest, your mutiny – you probably think the hammer is about to fall. While you’re not entirely wrong, you are not being expelled.”

Sabrina’s face visibly eased when her worry over that possible outcome evaporated. The general nodded.

“You should be relieved, Cadet, because that was a distinct possibility until two weeks ago. However, when the Secretary of the Air Force calls to personally ask, ‘What the bleeping-bleep is bleeping going on out there?’ and says that I’m the one who screwed up, it makes you reconsider any possible punitive action. As if a phone call from my boss wasn’t enough, there’s all the other pressure being brought to bear on this institution.

“All the female members of the USAFA Graduate’s Association, as well as a significant number of male members, put the academy on notice that if you were expelled they would resign en masse immediately, forthwith, and without delay. The Youth Citizenship Foundation reminded us that you were appointed because your actions last semester were the same as the ones that brought you to their attention years ago. They also threatened to defund and discontinue awards given to our graduating cadets.

“A certain former professional hockey player of your acquaintance immediately threatened to relocate the hockey clinic planned for July in the Cadet Ice Arena to Colorado College. He simultaneously rescinded a three-point-five million dollar donation earmarked for the athletic department. That gift is not coming back.

“A rather famous, semi-retired country singer has also threatened to relocate her planned series of early fall concerts from Falcon Stadium to another Colorado Springs venue as to, and I quote, ‘not lend tacit support to a den of known hypocrites, liars, and misogynists.’

“The commanding general of the United States Special Operations Command at McDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida. The commander of the Army’s Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Their 18th Airborne Corps, 82nd Airborne Division, and 75th Ranger Regiments have all written me letters decrying your treatment as ‘a direct affront to an honored warrior’s daughter because she did the right thing.’

“Most notably Cadet, every group I just mentioned warned me that every news outlet they could think of would receive a full packet outlining your history of standing up for your rights and the rights of others, and about how the United States Air Force Academy ‘gives lip service to their whole leaders of character bullshit’ – to use their words – if you were expelled.”

Sabrina stared at the Superintendent, not quite believing what she was hearing.

“So, you will not be expelled from the academy. You will, however, remain on military probation until the end of the academic year. You are restricted to this installation until further notice, and that includes visits to your sponsor family unless the academy is on a scheduled break such as Spring Break. You will complete your twenty-five hours of punishment tours. You were on the women’s club hockey team, but have not practiced with them for a month, is that correct?”

“Yes, sir. I felt I was too much of a distraction to the rest of the team.”

“Will you rejoin the team?”

“At this point, sir, I believe my return would be detrimental. I’ve been working out, but I’m not in hockey shape.”

“What possessed you to stage your little protest?”

“I’ve taken on bullies and criminals my whole life, sir. The cadet I confronted in Cadet Neuheim’s room is the very type of person you spoke about last September when you told disrespectful and bigoted people to get out of this academy.” The Sup steepled his fingers and stared at her again.

“What you did was – at a minimum – prejudicial to the good order of this academy, Cadet. The former Commandant” – here Sabrina blinked in surprise – “was not wrong when she waved Article 94 in your face. I would have stopped short of a firing squad on the Terrazzo … maybe … but your ass would have been gone. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, sir!”

“As it is, the pressure brought by your family and friends has tied my hands. Some might even call what they did blackmail. I don’t want to hear your name again for some time. You will not receive an IP slot this summer regardless of your performance in Airmanship 461. You will be allowed to continue with the class, however.

“You may receive an IP slot next fall if – and I do mean if – you keep your nose clean, out of my hair, and out of my business. I run this academy at the moment, not you, Cadet. You’re dismissed.”

Sabrina popped to her feet and attention. She executed a smart about-face after the general returned her salute and marched to his door. She shut it quietly behind herself. She closed her eyes for a moment and exhaled. Feeling something tapping her leg Sabrina looked down to see her right hand twitching. She looked around the outer admin offices, searching.

“Around the corner to your left,” Connie Nichols whispered, pointing the way. It was all Sabrina could do not to run down the hall.

The women’s room was empty when she entered. The mirror showed Sabrina how pale she was after that meeting. By now both hands shook, and her stomach twisted itself in knots from the adrenaline dump. What little she ate at lunch landed in the trash barrel next to the paper towel dispenser.

“Are you going to be okay, Cadet?”

Sabrina saw Mrs. Nichols standing just inside the door looking worried.

“I probably will be now, ma’am, thank you.”

“Are you still going to be here?”

Sabrina nodded. “By the barest fraction, yes. He could have given me both barrels.”

“Not with the way your friends and family backed him into a corner.” Sabrina’s eyes flew wide open. “No one else will hear a word, Sabrina. Can I call you Sabrina?” The stunned teen nodded. “I’ve kept my job as the Superintendent’s administrative assistant long enough to know when to keep my mouth firmly shut, Sabrina. If I blab, it’d be like no one ever came to your defense. He’d toss you right out of here for challenging his authority, even though that would cost him his job, too. It’s your very own personal mutually assured destruction scenario here in the mountains.

“You take a deep breath and head back to the Cadet Area. The boss won’t ever say it, even if he believes it, but you did good. That other cadet needs to go. He’s as oily as anyone I’ve ever met here.”

Sabrina changed back into her ABUs and dropped her dress uniform off at the dry cleaners. She sweated through it during her meeting with the general.

Rumors swirled around campus about the Commandant of Cadets’ removal. Various theories circulated, but the one about her being an overbearing, difficult, micromanaging leader seemed to be in the lead. As a three-dig, Sabrina didn’t interact with that level of the academy’s administration often – except these days – so the change didn’t affect her much.

The revelation that she would be denied an IP slot this summer didn’t hurt as much as she thought it might. Sabrina figured after the past four or five months that she would need a break by mid-May, anyway. Despite that feeling, Sabrina applied for every off-campus exchange and training opportunity available to cadets that summer and during the following academic year.

Helen Gallardo wasn’t happy that Sabrina couldn’t leave the academy until after graduation, though she was relieved the academy wouldn’t take cadets’ phones away no matter what. They would get by with phone and video calls for now. Mia was less pleased with the restriction. Sabrina had become a big sister to her and she liked it when Sabrina came to visit. Sabrina was cool.

“Hey, Dad,” Sabrina said when her father answered his cell phone that weekend.

“Sabrina, how goes the battle there?”

“Funny thing about that, Dad … I had air support unexpectedly show up over the battlefield, along with a reinforced corps of paratroopers …”

“It’s good to have friends,” her father replied obliquely.

“It is. I’ll have plenty of free time to write thank-you letters to our friends, too.”

“They’ll be appreciated, I’m sure. How bad is it still?”

“Could be worse, I suppose. I’m still on probation until the end of the academic year, and I won’t get an IP slot this summer. I’ve applied for all the academy exchange cadet programs for next year, as well as Operation Air Force slots this summer, though. The worst they can do is tell me no.”

“Operation Air Force? What’s that?”

“It’s where you shadow a junior Air Force officer for two weeks somewhere. It could be overseas, too, but I doubt I’d get an assignment like that.”

“Sounds a bit like Army ROTC’s old CTLT program. Anyway, that’s better than I expected. I wasn’t sure how our actions would be interpreted, honestly.”

“Blackmail.”

“That’s not far off. We didn’t leave him with too many options. Getting the SecAF involved was a real coup. Make sure you include Senator Daniels and Colonel Withers on your list of thank you letters.”

“Senator? She won the election, then?”

“Sure did. She’s already on the Senate Armed Services Committee, too.”

“Friends in low places …”

“As I said, it’s good to have friends. Just remember, you answer to that civilian authority …”

Dismissal of an Honor Court member is a rare thing at the Air Force Academy. Dismissal of an entire slate of court members is unprecedented. Citing bias and violation of their oaths, the acting Commandant of Cadets barred the members who presided over Claire Neuheim and Sabrina’s hearings from ever serving again. He then charged them with honor violations and ordered them to be judged by their peers.

The results were not pretty. The remaining Wing Honor Board members recommended that all five be dismissed from USAFA, along with Cadet First Class Devin Fairhaven. The recommendations stated they had either lied under oath (Fairhaven) or presided over the hearings with prejudicial bias. The Commandant immediately dismissed the six from the academy.

The effect of the Commandant’s announcement was akin to dropping a bomb on the Cadet Area. The Class of 2018 polarized into the same groups as after Sabrina’s actions. If anything, both sides were angrier at each other than before. The younger classes weren’t as sharply divided though the division was still there. Debates about the decision led to shouting matches in the hallways and lounges of Vandy and Sijan, at the tables in Arnold Hall, and out on the T-zo.

Sabrina’s interactions with her fellow cadets improved two weeks later, however: Brit Englund sat down next to Sabrina in McDermott Library with Krista Hoglund alongside. Krista and Sabrina would never be best of friends, but at least Krista didn’t want to feed the younger cadet her hockey stick up her back side any longer. Having everyone’s class standing restored to the status quo had helped, too.

The Commandant’s decision restored some order to daily life at the academy. The majority of cadets who saw their standing improve during the uprising understood the new rankings weren’t earned, so they didn’t gripe about reverting to their previous spots. There are always exceptions, though.

Stares of hatred faded after the class ranking announcement, replaced by ones of indifference – something Sabrina could live with. And Spring Break brought permission to visit the Gallardos again. Rather than fly home, she spent the week at their house.

Sabrina took the girls to see the rock formations at the Garden of the Gods. They’d been before but not during winter, though winter’s grip had loosened by the last week of March. A trip to the Cheyenne Mountain complex was fascinating. The areas open to the public looked nothing like what Sabrina saw in Wargames, an ancient, 1980s movie her father liked. A casual comment from Joe that they weren’t going anywhere for Thanksgiving this year gave Sabrina another idea she would look into.

Without hockey practice to work around, Sabrina walked off her punishment tours two and three hours at a time. She used the time to review classwork in her head. Chemistry and Aero-Thermodynamics were challenging, and her final paper for Leadership 200 – “Choosing To Do the Right Thing” – touched off another spirited debate in that class.

Cadet Wing rolled into finals the second week of May. Four thousand cadets let out a collective sigh at reaching that milestone. They were ready to let this academic year pass into the history books. The seniors put an exclamation point on that when they continued an academy tradition: jumping into the reflecting pools on the T-zo Air Gardens following their last final.

Sabrina and Linda, still two years away from their own graduating plunge, walked to the Cadet Post Office following their last exam. Linda didn’t have any mail, but Sabrina did.

“Whatcha got there, roomie?” Linda asked.

“Not sure yet,” Sabrina replied. The envelope bore the return address for Headquarters, Air Force Academy. “Not sure I want to find out, either.”

“Oh, don’t be such a cry-baby … just open the damned thing!”

Sabrina held her breath as she opened the envelope and extracted the papers inside.

“Well?”

Sabrina blinked in disbelief.

“I’m going to San Francisco …”