Read Online The Second Ship by Richard Phillips - Free Book Online

eighteen-hundred-and-fifty-square-foot ranch home, two hundred and fifty thousand, owner financing available.”
    Mark pumped his fist in the air. “Yes. I can see it in my mind and read it later. You know what this means? Tests just got a hell of a lot easier.”
    “It may not last,” Jennifer said. “This could be a short-term side effect of the download from the ship's computer.”
    Heather paused as she considered the implications. “I think it could be more than that. Just like a phased array radar directs a beam by synchronizing radar emissions, it’s possible for the neurons in our brains to function in a more synchronized way. I think the reason the headbands hurt us so badly was because the computer was scanning all our neural pathways and accessing them, even neural centers we don’t normally use. That may have caused those neural pathways to stay synced, even after we de-linked from the ship's computer. One of the side effects seems to be a true photographic memory.”
    “All right!” Mark shouted.
    A worried look settled on Jennifer’s face. “You don’t think it did anything to our DNA, do you?”
    “Not likely. Not with how we linked with the ship. There weren't any bodily fluids exchanged.”
    “Now there’s a moderately disgusting thought,” Mark said.
    Heather ignored the interruption. “As for other side effects, I don’t have a clue. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”
    Glancing at the gathering darkness outside the windows, Heather rose to go. “Since we can’t tell anyone else about this, we’re just going to have to protect each other, even more than normal.”
    “And hope we don’t wake up with a third eye,” Mark called after her as she stepped out the door.
     

Chapter 10
     
    Los Alamos High School had endured disastrous starts by students before, but Heather doubted it had seen a worse start to junior year.
    True, they had been a bit distracted, unable to resist whispering amongst themselves. And that forced several teachers to split them up, seating them as far apart as possible. Worse, it seemed that the teachers talked to each other over lunch, forming a cabal that zeroed in on Heather and the twins like homeland security.
    Then Mark failed his first science test in record fashion, having ignored Jennifer’s admonitions that he study.
    “Why?” Mark had said, tapping his head. “I scanned the book. Got every page, right up here.”
    It had only been during the test that he realized that having the textbook scanned into his brain was no substitute for reading it. Although he’d been able to read through its pages during the test, he ran out of time with only a third of the problems finished.
    Game over. Grounded for a week. As a result, the three had to postpone their planned trip out to the ship last Saturday.
    And now this. The three of them sitting in Principal Zumwalt’s office as Ms. Gorsky leaned her large form against the principal’s desk, banging a chubby finger on their test papers so vigorously that the vibrations threatened to send the pencil jar over the edge.
    Ms. Gorsky’s beady eyes swept angrily back over Heather and the twins.
    “Cheats! That is what they are, and I, for one, want you to make an example of them. To start out the first test of the year in my class by cheating indicates a lack of character all too common in their generation. If it had only been the two girls, I may not have caught it, but when I noticed that Marcus had also quoted a paragraph from the history text exactly the same as the girls did, there could be no doubt. They were copying.”
    The principal, a big man with kindly features who embraced his thinning hair by shaving his head, leaned forward, motioning for Ms. Gorsky to move out of his line of sight to the juniors.
    “Marcus. Is that true?”
    Mark’s face flushed a bright red. “No, sir, it is not.”
    “Then how do you explain the exact quote on one of the essay questions, a quote which appears to be