- This article is about the Battle School student. You may be looking for the scientist on Shakespeare.
Cynthia Munk, best known as Monkey, was a student at Fleet School.[1] She was first introduced in Children of the Fleet.
History[]
Past[]
Monkey was born on a corporate mining ship. Since she was so small, she was frequently picked for the task of cleaning toilets, messes, and behind appliances. Her time on the mining ship led to her becoming quite proficient with mechanics.[1]
On one occasion, Monkey accidentally damaged the oxygen support while they were 3 months out from a station. While half the crew was planning to commit suicide to have enough oxygen for the rest, Monkey developed a plan to grow oxygen-producing crops that would sustain the crew until they got into port. Due to her life-saving plan, her parents paid for her to go to Fleet School.[1]
Children of the Fleet[]
She and a friend spent a day running through the halls of Fleet School and tapping the wall panels that would open to reveal machinery and suits.[1]
Monkey began to participate in Dabeet Ochoa and Zhang He's practice sessions for the battleroom construction system. Afterward, at lunch, she made a comparison of the constructions in the battleroom to stagehands. After another practice session where they practiced dividing the structures, the squad practiced the construction in an actual battle.[1]
While in the game room, she noticed Dabeet inspecting an air vent grate. She explained to him that it had been bolted down because a Battle School student named Bean had used them to spy on students and teachers. Monkey led into how Dabeet closed himself off from people and was bad at making friends, causing him to cry slightly. She realized that Dabeet needed her help and she told him that she would be glad to do so. They sat down and Dabeet explained to her that a group of terrorists were holding his mother hostage in order to force him to let them into the Fleet School Station so that they could cause a terrorist event, attempting to draw the International Fleet into involving itself in Earthside wars. They discussed what would happen when the terrorists came to the station and Monkey offered her help to Dabeet in ensuring nobody was hurt. Since she far outclassed Dabeet in knowledge of the station's mechanics and her past experiences on her home ship, she insisted that he follow her orders and keep her updated with his plans.[1]
Soon after, the two went to an unoccupied area of the station and opened a wall panel, looking around in the space behind it. She got into a discussion with Dabeet about how test scores do not really matter in the real world, and how he places far too much importance on them. She told him that he was likely chosen to betray Fleet School since he was from Earth and would feel no allegiance to them, and they deduced that the person behind the planned attack was likely someone familiar with Battle School and hated it, and wanted to kill everybody inside the station.[1]
Monkey organized a meeting with Zhang, Ragnar, Timeon, and Ignazio to tell them about the terrorist situation. When they met, she explained everything, leading to a tense silence. They discussed it, with the group being angry at Dabeet. He realized he was not wanted there so he left. The group continued to discuss the situation and looked for solutions, but Dabeet came back in twice to let the group know that he had realized that double-palming a door lock will open it no matter what and that he found a service corridor that could be used for escape.[1]
She asked Dabeet to show her the service corridor, and after playing with the carts in there for a bit they discussed the plan the group had formulated and the upcoming attack in general. To prepare for it, Dabeet asked Monkey to tell him tips for moving around in space outside the station. She gave him 6 rules, and when he repeated them exactly to her she wished him luck and she jogged off.[1]
While in logistics class, Dabeet was called out to be reassigned and was to report to the airlock. The teacher did not believe him but Monkey stated that the desk announcement did in fact have his name there. Dabeet gave Monkey his desk, pretending to return something to her.[1]
Five days later, Monkey and Zhang He received a message from Dabeet given by two older girls, saying that the raiders had arrived. They organized the rest of the group including Ragnar, Timeon, Ignazio, and Bartolomeo Ja at the service corridor and waited for Dabeet. When he arrived, he explained that the terrorists' ship was loaded with Vacoplaz explosives that were rigged to blow up simultaneously and destroy the station. They made their way to the airlock and planned to evacuate the ship's atmosphere to blow it away from the station. Since Dabeet already had a suit on board the ship, he took charge and said he would do it. The plan was for Dabeet to blow out the atmosphere, jump out as soon as he saw the station, and grab the line that Monkey would throw out for him, and she would grab him to pull him back. After he agreed to follow her rules, they saluted each other and Dabeet headed inside the ship.[1]
After the airlock blew the ship away, Monkey immediately left the station with the tether and headed for Dabeet. Some of the debris hit her suit and tore a hole. When Dabeet had grabbed the tether and saw the hole, he crawled over to her and locked his suit over her abdomen so the atmosphere would not leak out. They hit the station and rolled along the nanooze into the airlock, where pressure was restored and her suit was taken off. She was fine, and thanked Dabeet for saving her life. After a few minutes of dialogue between the cadets, Dabeet burst into tears and thanked all of them for helping. Monkey hugged him and the others clapped his shoulders and reaffirmed their gratitude.[1]
Suddenly, they remembered that the raiders were still onboard the station, likely in the battlerooms. The group decided to head to the commandant's office and use the intercom to tell them to surrender. Dabeet tried to delegate to Bartolomeo, but he insisted that Dabeet do the announcement. He spoke to the invaders and told them that whoever was in charge of them had set them up on a suicide mission that had failed, and told them that they should surrender unless they wanted to be killed by the Fleet ships that would soon arrive. Monkey and the group told Dabeet that he had done a good job, and most of them left to make sure the invaders had given up, leaving behind Monkey, Dabeet, and Ignazio.[1]
Monkey and the others looked at Urska Kaluza's pantry for awhile, with Ignazio considering the scotch before Monkey told him off. Half an hour later, Ragnar came in and let them know that 2 of the raiders' officers were shot dead by their own men and the rest were locked in the battlerooms. After 3 hours, the Fleet soldiers arrived, and a colonel checked in Commandant Urska Kaluza's office to find the three cadets there. They joked with him and he assumed they were drunk, but a teacher let him know that they were the ones who saved the station. Impressed, the colonel and his men left them to enjoy their just rewards.[1]
During the dinner celebration, Dabeet was constantly being approached by students so he could not finish his food. Eventually his friends, including Monkey, moved the crowd away so he could eat. During this, the head of security Robota Smirnova appeared and explained that the Fleet had been planning an operation to board the enemy ship before Dabeet and his team blew it away, saving their lives. She also told the students that Urska Kaluza was in custody for being a collaborator of the terrorists and informed Dabeet that his mother was safe. Dabeet began to cry and Monkey and his friends comforted him.[1]
Personality[]
She hated the name "Cynthia" and instead went by "Monkey". She was disarmingly friendly, as she got the rather closed-off Dabeet to open up to her. Due to her accident with the oxygen system on her ship, she was very angry when Dabeet said he was looking at how to control the life support system as she knew how much damage that could cause. This was also why she valued telling people immediately and exactly about what they were doing, because it saved the ship's crew's lives when she did so. Her teachers believed her to have good leadership potential.[1]
She was also quite selfless, as she was willing to risk her life by going into the open away from the station to pull Dabeet back.[1]