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to fill the center sections of the first two
rows.
    Standing on the proscenium stage, waiting for
the cadets to file into their seats, were two men. One they had
already met: their Company Commander, Captain Wagner. The other was
an older man, tall and lean, with thinning white hair, a bushy
white mustache and watery blue eyes, wearing the eagles of a full
colonel on his shoulder straps.
    When the cadets had settled in, the colonel
cleared his throat and began to speak into a microphone on a stand
before him.
    “Welcome, cadets, to the National Women’s
Military Academy at High Point,” his amplified voice boomed from
the overhead speakers. “I am the Cadet Commandant, Colonel Lester
Miles. My job will be to help you to become the female officers
that our country will need in the coming years. You cadets will be
the pathfinders for hundreds, thousands of your sisters who will
someday pass through this Academy; the first of many who will train
here and win commissions as officers in our armed services. Each of
you will become a cadet advisor for a group of new cadets when the
first full class enters the Academy in the spring.
    “The motto of the United States Military
Academy is ‘duty, honor, country’. Your motto is adapted
from that one: it is ‘duty, service , country’. You have been
selected as the best of the best to be in this first group, the
First Platoon of the “A” Company of the Women’s Cadet Regiment. The
success or failure of this unit, you thirty cadets, will go far in
determining the future of the whole idea of women officers.”
    He paused, looking them over thoughtfully. “I
want to tell you a little about the officer training program of
which you are now a part. This Academy is the special project of
the Chief of the General Staff, General Cafferson, who will be personally following the progress each cadet in this group,
you of the First Cadet Platoon, ‘A’ Company of the Cadet Regiment.
Each one of you was individually approved by General Cafferson
himself for appointment. The General wants this Academy to succeed,
and he wants you to succeed. Unlike his predecessor, who did
not believe that females had a place in the American military,
General Cafferson has the strongest possible faith in the unique
abilities of women. This Academy was designed to harness those
gifts. When you are commissioned upon graduation, you will each be
assigned as a personal aide to a combat officer of
brigadier-general’s rank or higher, or the naval equivalent
thereof.
    “You will therefore receive training in every
aspects of modern warfare, logistics, electronic warfare, space
weapons, drone systems, strategic planning, everything, in short,
that your general or admiral will need you to know to be able to
function efficiently as a member of his staff. Your test scores
assure us that each of you will be able to complete the course of
instruction.”
    Colonel Miles paused again. Robin had the
feeling that she was about to discover the reason for the unusual
nature of this military academy. “But you were not chosen for
brains alone. No, you will also be serving a second role, as
important as the first. You will be your general’s personal aide. You were each selected for your youth and sexual
attractiveness, because you will be required to satisfy your
general sexually, in every particular, whenever called upon to do
so.”
    At this, several of the cadets blurted out,
“No! I’m not a whore! We won’t!”
    Captain Wagner moved to the front of the
stage. “Silence, cadets!” he shouted in a voice as hard as steel.
The room fell still. “This is disgraceful conduct. The
insubordinate cadets who have demeaned themselves by their
interrupting the Commandant will now identify themselves for
discipline. If they do not do so, their fellow cadets shall report
them.”
    There was a dead silence, during which the
cadets exchanged glances, then drew themselves up and looked
defiantly ahead. Robin had not said