This is an original piece of sci-fi heavily influenced by authors like Orson Scott Card. Hope...
Deep Space Combat Station: Nexus
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This is an original piece of sci-fi heavily influenced by authors like Orson Scott Card. Hope you enjoy, and comments are welcome.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Victor Vance pressed the back of his left hand against the cool half an inch thick nano-glass, the only thing separating him from the dark oblivion outside. It wasn't the stars he was looking at however, but the back of his right hand lying on the desk in front of him. The tattooed 'V', the signature mark of his family, was etched on the back of its brown skin in deep black ink. It was evidence of a destiny that had been incontrovertibly decided for him before he'd been born.
"Mr. Vance," said the cool, robotic voice of the teaching simulation on the screen at the front of the classroom, "Your family name does not entitle you to ignore instruction."
Victor broke from his thoughts, looking around the room in sheepish embarrassment. Most of the students were busily scribbling notes and didn't spare him a glance. Next to him his best friend, a shaggy haired red headed boy named Alex, snickered.
After class Alex walked with Victor to the mess hall of Nexus for midday meal.
"There's never any telling what that damn A.I. will pick up on, Vance. Try looking up every now and then. I think it's got some sort of sensor that goes off if you're not writing or making eye contact."
Victor shrugged as the two entered the hall, an automated self service station that carefully measured portions to students based on their daily credit and calorie allowances.
"Alex, I'd really prefer it if you called me Victor," he said simply, pleased to note that in vitro beef burgers were on the menu of the large hologram floating above the thirty foot line. The pair grabbed a tray each, designating what food they wanted by selecting the item on the touch screen area of the tray. Victor chose the in vitro beef burger, kale fries, and non-alcoholic wine, then placed the tray on the conveyor line.
"You need to chill out about the name, man," Alex said, chuckling. "Everyone goes by their last name here. You're the only one who prefers their first," he put his own tray on the assembly line. "Besides, do you know how many people here would fucking kill to have your last name?" There weren't many students from the 'E' socio-economic class. Battle school was a place for 'M' and 'X' class people, usually where families sent their best if they were looking to move up in the hierarchy.
"If they want it, they can have it," he said. He was already tired of this conversation. "You wanna hit the sim, later?"
Victor watched the battle school's automated hands assemble his meal, putting each item on the tray where he had selected it. Despite the length of the line, it was an efficient process: in a few seconds they had their trays. Victor frowned in annoyance at amount of kale fries.
"No thanks, man. Me and some of the guys are gonna go for a space walk," Alex said excitedly as he sat at the nearest table, "Then we're gonna go comm diving". Then, noticing Victor's expression: "What's wrong, Vic?"
"Is it just me or is the battle school skimping on the kale fries, lately?"
On Victor's plate were exactly six kale fries lined next to each other neatly on the 'side portion' area of the tray.
"Yeah, it's been like that about a few items, lately. Maybe there was a shortage."
A small rumbling ran through the station. Students held on to their portions, some going to far as to hug them. If you misspent or wasted your food credits, the Nexus' automated station would not feed you again until the next designated feeding window. Alex and Victor exchanged a glance. It was times like these that they realized that they were all alone in space, trusted in the hands of a completely automated station. If anything went wrong there were no adults to save them but the A.I., and no one trusted the A.I.
"Goddamnit," Alex said, hugging his tray until the tremors subsided. Cursing was one of the bad habits that the all-watching A.I. didn't pick up on. Many students took liberal advantage of this. "You know," Alex continued, "It wouldn't be so bad if there were girls here. That would make the whole 'no adults' thing a lot more appealing," he said, grinning. "Sixteen is not the time to be stranded on 'Deep Space Cock Station'. I'm missing my golden years."
Victor laughed. That was why he loved Alex. The guy was always able to put him in a better mood when his thoughts had somehow turned to his family. Even this deep in the stars, separated by the unimaginable distance of space and the significant amount of time spent traveling in hyperbolic sleep, memories of his homeworld still haunted him.
"Well, who knows? There could be girls on the other side of the station," Victor chided with a grin. Alex raised an eyebrow.
"Vic, you know that we've already seen what's on the other side, right? A little thing called comm diving I may have just mentioned? We've accessed portions of the other side's A.I. viewing ports. Cock city."
After midday meal, Victor decided to give his usual speech about going for what the students called 'space walks'.
"I'm telling you Alex, it's dangerous. And who knows when the A.I. will get some funky update that locks you outside or drops your Social Score? You don't want to go to 'the box', do you?" 'The box' was what the boys aboard the statoin called the hyperbolic chamber in the med bay. Students that suffered injuries beyond the significant healing capabilities of the station were put into cryogenic suspension, freezing time for them biologically until the next supply pod could take them on its outbound journey back to the homeworlds. There was a secondary purpose to 'the box', however. If an attending student's Social, Physical, Mental, or Eco Scores ever reached zero or below then they were automatically escorted by the hall drones to the med bay hyperbolic chambers and sent back at the earliest supply pod.
Alex shrugged at Victor's warning. Sometimes it felt like Alex could shrug off anything. Victor shook his head, but was smiling.
"Well, I tried. Good luck, then. Contact me when you guys go comm diving."
Alex's eyes widened in mock-surprise. "The exalted Vance name is going to grace our dirty comm-diving session? How the mighty have fallen."
Victor was annoyed at the mention of his family, but suppressed it. Alex was his only real friend on the station and Victor didn't want to mess that up by being to sore about his family. "That's right," he chuckled, playing along. "What can I say? You're a bad influence."
After they parted ways Victor headed down toward the information rooms in the first quadrant of the station. The Space Station was a loop inside of another loop connected by a hall. It was separated into four quadrants - two on the side which Victor resided and two that were separated and mysterious (whatever Alex claimed). They'd been told upon arrival that their mission during their four years of school was to prepare for a simulated battle against the students on the other side, but they had never met the students in person and had never seen them outside of snippets that some of the advanced computer students had managed to pull from the A.I.'s information bank. The second quadrant held the living quarters on the outer loop and mess hall on the inner. The center most sphere doubled as a testing arena and classroom separated by a holographic force field barrier that suppressed vision or sound from the other side. On the first quadrant were the information room and med bay on the outer loop and training arena and simulation room on the inner.
Victor was already beginning to imagine the additions he was going to make to the constellation chart he was building of the stars surrounding the station when he bumped into the last person anyone at the combat school wanted to bump into, Roger Nettleton.
"Well, well, well, what have we here? Thoughts off in the space clouds, Vance? Watch where you're walking you fucking clown." Roger was already in Victor's face. They were about the same height, but Roger was a solid wall of muscle as opposed to Victor's toned but svelte form. "Actually," Roger said, speaking loudly enough so that other students stopped in the hall and turned toward the scene, "Since your silver spoon fed mind is out in space how about we send your body to join it?"
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Victor Vance pressed the back of his left hand against the cool half an inch thick nano-glass, the only thing separating him from the dark oblivion outside. It wasn't the stars he was looking at however, but the back of his right hand lying on the desk in front of him. The tattooed 'V', the signature mark of his family, was etched on the back of its brown skin in deep black ink. It was evidence of a destiny that had been incontrovertibly decided for him before he'd been born.
"Mr. Vance," said the cool, robotic voice of the teaching simulation on the screen at the front of the classroom, "Your family name does not entitle you to ignore instruction."
Victor broke from his thoughts, looking around the room in sheepish embarrassment. Most of the students were busily scribbling notes and didn't spare him a glance. Next to him his best friend, a shaggy haired red headed boy named Alex, snickered.
After class Alex walked with Victor to the mess hall of Nexus for midday meal.
"There's never any telling what that damn A.I. will pick up on, Vance. Try looking up every now and then. I think it's got some sort of sensor that goes off if you're not writing or making eye contact."
Victor shrugged as the two entered the hall, an automated self service station that carefully measured portions to students based on their daily credit and calorie allowances.
"Alex, I'd really prefer it if you called me Victor," he said simply, pleased to note that in vitro beef burgers were on the menu of the large hologram floating above the thirty foot line. The pair grabbed a tray each, designating what food they wanted by selecting the item on the touch screen area of the tray. Victor chose the in vitro beef burger, kale fries, and non-alcoholic wine, then placed the tray on the conveyor line.
"You need to chill out about the name, man," Alex said, chuckling. "Everyone goes by their last name here. You're the only one who prefers their first," he put his own tray on the assembly line. "Besides, do you know how many people here would fucking kill to have your last name?" There weren't many students from the 'E' socio-economic class. Battle school was a place for 'M' and 'X' class people, usually where families sent their best if they were looking to move up in the hierarchy.
"If they want it, they can have it," he said. He was already tired of this conversation. "You wanna hit the sim, later?"
Victor watched the battle school's automated hands assemble his meal, putting each item on the tray where he had selected it. Despite the length of the line, it was an efficient process: in a few seconds they had their trays. Victor frowned in annoyance at amount of kale fries.
"No thanks, man. Me and some of the guys are gonna go for a space walk," Alex said excitedly as he sat at the nearest table, "Then we're gonna go comm diving". Then, noticing Victor's expression: "What's wrong, Vic?"
"Is it just me or is the battle school skimping on the kale fries, lately?"
On Victor's plate were exactly six kale fries lined next to each other neatly on the 'side portion' area of the tray.
"Yeah, it's been like that about a few items, lately. Maybe there was a shortage."
A small rumbling ran through the station. Students held on to their portions, some going to far as to hug them. If you misspent or wasted your food credits, the Nexus' automated station would not feed you again until the next designated feeding window. Alex and Victor exchanged a glance. It was times like these that they realized that they were all alone in space, trusted in the hands of a completely automated station. If anything went wrong there were no adults to save them but the A.I., and no one trusted the A.I.
"Goddamnit," Alex said, hugging his tray until the tremors subsided. Cursing was one of the bad habits that the all-watching A.I. didn't pick up on. Many students took liberal advantage of this. "You know," Alex continued, "It wouldn't be so bad if there were girls here. That would make the whole 'no adults' thing a lot more appealing," he said, grinning. "Sixteen is not the time to be stranded on 'Deep Space Cock Station'. I'm missing my golden years."
Victor laughed. That was why he loved Alex. The guy was always able to put him in a better mood when his thoughts had somehow turned to his family. Even this deep in the stars, separated by the unimaginable distance of space and the significant amount of time spent traveling in hyperbolic sleep, memories of his homeworld still haunted him.
"Well, who knows? There could be girls on the other side of the station," Victor chided with a grin. Alex raised an eyebrow.
"Vic, you know that we've already seen what's on the other side, right? A little thing called comm diving I may have just mentioned? We've accessed portions of the other side's A.I. viewing ports. Cock city."
After midday meal, Victor decided to give his usual speech about going for what the students called 'space walks'.
"I'm telling you Alex, it's dangerous. And who knows when the A.I. will get some funky update that locks you outside or drops your Social Score? You don't want to go to 'the box', do you?" 'The box' was what the boys aboard the statoin called the hyperbolic chamber in the med bay. Students that suffered injuries beyond the significant healing capabilities of the station were put into cryogenic suspension, freezing time for them biologically until the next supply pod could take them on its outbound journey back to the homeworlds. There was a secondary purpose to 'the box', however. If an attending student's Social, Physical, Mental, or Eco Scores ever reached zero or below then they were automatically escorted by the hall drones to the med bay hyperbolic chambers and sent back at the earliest supply pod.
Alex shrugged at Victor's warning. Sometimes it felt like Alex could shrug off anything. Victor shook his head, but was smiling.
"Well, I tried. Good luck, then. Contact me when you guys go comm diving."
Alex's eyes widened in mock-surprise. "The exalted Vance name is going to grace our dirty comm-diving session? How the mighty have fallen."
Victor was annoyed at the mention of his family, but suppressed it. Alex was his only real friend on the station and Victor didn't want to mess that up by being to sore about his family. "That's right," he chuckled, playing along. "What can I say? You're a bad influence."
After they parted ways Victor headed down toward the information rooms in the first quadrant of the station. The Space Station was a loop inside of another loop connected by a hall. It was separated into four quadrants - two on the side which Victor resided and two that were separated and mysterious (whatever Alex claimed). They'd been told upon arrival that their mission during their four years of school was to prepare for a simulated battle against the students on the other side, but they had never met the students in person and had never seen them outside of snippets that some of the advanced computer students had managed to pull from the A.I.'s information bank. The second quadrant held the living quarters on the outer loop and mess hall on the inner. The center most sphere doubled as a testing arena and classroom separated by a holographic force field barrier that suppressed vision or sound from the other side. On the first quadrant were the information room and med bay on the outer loop and training arena and simulation room on the inner.
Victor was already beginning to imagine the additions he was going to make to the constellation chart he was building of the stars surrounding the station when he bumped into the last person anyone at the combat school wanted to bump into, Roger Nettleton.
"Well, well, well, what have we here? Thoughts off in the space clouds, Vance? Watch where you're walking you fucking clown." Roger was already in Victor's face. They were about the same height, but Roger was a solid wall of muscle as opposed to Victor's toned but svelte form. "Actually," Roger said, speaking loudly enough so that other students stopped in the hall and turned toward the scene, "Since your silver spoon fed mind is out in space how about we send your body to join it?"
Last edited:
- Location
- Houston
There was a small crowd gathering now. Victor cursed his luck on being just out of sight of the A.I. Sometimes he could convince himself that the things like the A.I. blindspots were due to budgetary constraints. Instances like the one he was currently experiencing made some of them feel uncomforatably intentional....
"Yo Roger, what's the deal, kid?" It was T.J. Pinbrick, another unwelcome addition.
"Nothing much, T.J. Just talking with my good buddy Vance. He was thinking of taking a walk outside."
"Is that so?"
Victor knew better than to say anything. It would only fuel the fire. He could fight, but his Social Points would go down. Any dip in his points would mean a call via ansible with father. That was the last thing in the universe that he wanted. Roger and T.J. were great at gaming the points system. Victor wasn't entirely sure how they'd avoided being put in the box, but he suspected that they interspersed and alternated on their terrorizing to make sure their points never dipped below a certain threshold.
Presently T.J. grabbed Victor by the arm, and Victor reflexively slapped it away.
"Oh ho! What's this? Since when do you have some balls, Vance? Now that Dixon is gone you're stepping up to the plate, eh?" Roger shoved Victor back, but Victor held his ground. He knew the logical choice was to go for the space walk and catch Roger and T.J. apart but, didn't care.
"Dixon was a sociopath and a murderer. He deserved much worse than the box."
A silence filled the hallway as a throng of students waited for Roger's response in open-mouthed silence. Dixon and Roger had known each other since they were young on their homeworld. Dixon had always been much worse than Roger, and many of the students onboard Nexus mysteriously died after standing up to him or pissing him off. VIctor had finally lured him into a vicious fight when his threshold was too low and Dixon was promptly put in hyperbolic sleep and sent back to his homeworld. Victor himself had gotten off with a two-hour lecture via ansible with his father.
"What did you just say?" Roger said, stepping forward. Victor felt his heart beating fast, but he wasn't scared. Since Dixon, nothing really scared him any more. But Victor's social score still hadn't fully recovered for the incident with Dixon and he wasn't anxious to fight the hulking wall of muscle that was Roger.
"I don't know," said Victor, shrugging casually. "Why don't you ask me again outside? That is, after I kick your ass in a race."
Roger frowned, considering.
"Unless you're scared," Victor added, looking to the students around him with a smile that portrayed a confidence he did not at all have. The groups sniggering was putting Roger in an awkward position. If he beat up Victor now it would look like he really was afraid of a race.
Roger laughed, looking to T.J.
"You hear this guy?" T.J. shook his head in response, smirking. "Alright then," Roger said.
"Ladies first," Victor said. Roger had agreed while there was sniggering, but what Victor felt sure that the temptation to stuff him in a space suit and throw him out of the airlock would increase with each step if Victor took the lead. Roger whispered something into T.J.'s ear. T.J. nodded.
"Sure thing, buddy," Roger said. He shrugged and led the way.
With that some students went back to whatever it was that they were doing or wherever it was that they were headed. But for however many were lost two were gained on the long walk to the airlock, another suspiciously unmonitored spot aboard the station. Victor prayed that they would bump into Alex on their way. Alex might be able to diffuse the situation. Even Roger didn't seem to totally hate him.
When they reached the airlock doors and the space suits were all safely in their nano-glass lockers Victor knew he was out of luck. It was a little strange that Alex had finished his space walk so quickly, but Victor had other concerns.
Victor and Roger suited up in silence as the students talked and mumbled amongst themselves. One, a short boy named Bracias, stared at Victor with morbid horror, like he was looking at a corpse.
T.J. was a thug but good with computers. Victor realized too late that Roger had probably been teasing when he had threatened to throw him out of the air lock. T.J. hadn't been there when Roger had made the threat - he wouldn't have been able to get past the security. Speaking of which, where the hell were the hall drones? Weren't they supposed to patrol the blind spots?
"You're dead." Roger said simply over his space suit comm. The airlock door closed. He drew a finger across his throat to emphasize his point.
Space walks were apart of the automated curriculum. It was considered 'adverse conditions training'. The curriculum was full of vague, general training. The air lock drained of all air and the doors opened to space. The local gravity was turned off and the magnetic mechanism in both Roger and Victor's shoes activated, pulling them to the ground.
Victor again let Roger lead the way, pulling himself over the edge of the airlock. Victor followed. He looked around. There was something beautiful and at the same time frightening about the stars all around them. The nearest sun was the blue giant Dharma. They were much further from it than, say, Victor's homeworld from its sun. But because of the size and power of the star the station's outer shell gleamed a brilliant white.
"We race to that relay post," Roger said over the random radio noise. Comms on Nexus, even ansible communications, were common on the station and as mysterious as the odd, intermittent, rumbling. Victor nodded at Roger's challenge.
"You guys have quite the audience," said T.J.'s voice over the comm. The outside of the ship was one of the few areas that students could view at any time through the ship's A.I. terminal. Victor imagined the throng of students watching and wondered if word had reached Alex, yet. T.J.'s voice buzzed over the comm. "On my mark. Get ready...Go!"
The two took off dashing at a frantic pace. The only sounds that Victor could hear were his own breathing, the thump of his feet against the side of the outside of the station, and ambient cheering and shouts over the open comm line. The two were even for the first minute, Roger's raw strength matching Victor's long legs, but by the third minute Victor's strength began to give out. Their destination, a long, conical pole with a red light blinking at the top, was still around three minutes away.
Victor could feel victory approaching. He knew in his head that he should lose, but his heart wouldn't let him. He thought of his father, he thought of Roger, he thought of Dixon. Why were there so many people that wouldn't leave him alone? What was it about him that drew them to him, that made them want to put him down or control him? Victor didn't know and didn't care. He was a approaching a 'y' shaped antenna, twice or three times his size but still several times smaller than the pole that meant race's end. Victor was huffing hard now, but didn't let up. His space boots pounded the ground, pulling against the sticky magnetic force with each step. Physical exercise was a part of the curriculum, but he had never pushed himself so hard. He would push harder if he had to, nothing would stop him from winning this. Nothing.
Then his magnets on his boots failed and the next step sent him hurtling into the abyss.
"Yo Roger, what's the deal, kid?" It was T.J. Pinbrick, another unwelcome addition.
"Nothing much, T.J. Just talking with my good buddy Vance. He was thinking of taking a walk outside."
"Is that so?"
Victor knew better than to say anything. It would only fuel the fire. He could fight, but his Social Points would go down. Any dip in his points would mean a call via ansible with father. That was the last thing in the universe that he wanted. Roger and T.J. were great at gaming the points system. Victor wasn't entirely sure how they'd avoided being put in the box, but he suspected that they interspersed and alternated on their terrorizing to make sure their points never dipped below a certain threshold.
Presently T.J. grabbed Victor by the arm, and Victor reflexively slapped it away.
"Oh ho! What's this? Since when do you have some balls, Vance? Now that Dixon is gone you're stepping up to the plate, eh?" Roger shoved Victor back, but Victor held his ground. He knew the logical choice was to go for the space walk and catch Roger and T.J. apart but, didn't care.
"Dixon was a sociopath and a murderer. He deserved much worse than the box."
A silence filled the hallway as a throng of students waited for Roger's response in open-mouthed silence. Dixon and Roger had known each other since they were young on their homeworld. Dixon had always been much worse than Roger, and many of the students onboard Nexus mysteriously died after standing up to him or pissing him off. VIctor had finally lured him into a vicious fight when his threshold was too low and Dixon was promptly put in hyperbolic sleep and sent back to his homeworld. Victor himself had gotten off with a two-hour lecture via ansible with his father.
"What did you just say?" Roger said, stepping forward. Victor felt his heart beating fast, but he wasn't scared. Since Dixon, nothing really scared him any more. But Victor's social score still hadn't fully recovered for the incident with Dixon and he wasn't anxious to fight the hulking wall of muscle that was Roger.
"I don't know," said Victor, shrugging casually. "Why don't you ask me again outside? That is, after I kick your ass in a race."
Roger frowned, considering.
"Unless you're scared," Victor added, looking to the students around him with a smile that portrayed a confidence he did not at all have. The groups sniggering was putting Roger in an awkward position. If he beat up Victor now it would look like he really was afraid of a race.
Roger laughed, looking to T.J.
"You hear this guy?" T.J. shook his head in response, smirking. "Alright then," Roger said.
"Ladies first," Victor said. Roger had agreed while there was sniggering, but what Victor felt sure that the temptation to stuff him in a space suit and throw him out of the airlock would increase with each step if Victor took the lead. Roger whispered something into T.J.'s ear. T.J. nodded.
"Sure thing, buddy," Roger said. He shrugged and led the way.
With that some students went back to whatever it was that they were doing or wherever it was that they were headed. But for however many were lost two were gained on the long walk to the airlock, another suspiciously unmonitored spot aboard the station. Victor prayed that they would bump into Alex on their way. Alex might be able to diffuse the situation. Even Roger didn't seem to totally hate him.
When they reached the airlock doors and the space suits were all safely in their nano-glass lockers Victor knew he was out of luck. It was a little strange that Alex had finished his space walk so quickly, but Victor had other concerns.
Victor and Roger suited up in silence as the students talked and mumbled amongst themselves. One, a short boy named Bracias, stared at Victor with morbid horror, like he was looking at a corpse.
T.J. was a thug but good with computers. Victor realized too late that Roger had probably been teasing when he had threatened to throw him out of the air lock. T.J. hadn't been there when Roger had made the threat - he wouldn't have been able to get past the security. Speaking of which, where the hell were the hall drones? Weren't they supposed to patrol the blind spots?
"You're dead." Roger said simply over his space suit comm. The airlock door closed. He drew a finger across his throat to emphasize his point.
Space walks were apart of the automated curriculum. It was considered 'adverse conditions training'. The curriculum was full of vague, general training. The air lock drained of all air and the doors opened to space. The local gravity was turned off and the magnetic mechanism in both Roger and Victor's shoes activated, pulling them to the ground.
Victor again let Roger lead the way, pulling himself over the edge of the airlock. Victor followed. He looked around. There was something beautiful and at the same time frightening about the stars all around them. The nearest sun was the blue giant Dharma. They were much further from it than, say, Victor's homeworld from its sun. But because of the size and power of the star the station's outer shell gleamed a brilliant white.
"We race to that relay post," Roger said over the random radio noise. Comms on Nexus, even ansible communications, were common on the station and as mysterious as the odd, intermittent, rumbling. Victor nodded at Roger's challenge.
"You guys have quite the audience," said T.J.'s voice over the comm. The outside of the ship was one of the few areas that students could view at any time through the ship's A.I. terminal. Victor imagined the throng of students watching and wondered if word had reached Alex, yet. T.J.'s voice buzzed over the comm. "On my mark. Get ready...Go!"
The two took off dashing at a frantic pace. The only sounds that Victor could hear were his own breathing, the thump of his feet against the side of the outside of the station, and ambient cheering and shouts over the open comm line. The two were even for the first minute, Roger's raw strength matching Victor's long legs, but by the third minute Victor's strength began to give out. Their destination, a long, conical pole with a red light blinking at the top, was still around three minutes away.
Victor could feel victory approaching. He knew in his head that he should lose, but his heart wouldn't let him. He thought of his father, he thought of Roger, he thought of Dixon. Why were there so many people that wouldn't leave him alone? What was it about him that drew them to him, that made them want to put him down or control him? Victor didn't know and didn't care. He was a approaching a 'y' shaped antenna, twice or three times his size but still several times smaller than the pole that meant race's end. Victor was huffing hard now, but didn't let up. His space boots pounded the ground, pulling against the sticky magnetic force with each step. Physical exercise was a part of the curriculum, but he had never pushed himself so hard. He would push harder if he had to, nothing would stop him from winning this. Nothing.
Then his magnets on his boots failed and the next step sent him hurtling into the abyss.
- Location
- Houston
There were a few moments of sheer panic as Victor spun out toward the stars.
"Shit shit shit shit." He took two deep breaths and reached for his air release. Small pufts of air out out of the right side of his oxygen pack stopped him from spinning. The station grew smaller by the moments as he carefully coordinated pufts of air out of both release valves at the same time, propelling himself back to the station. It was enough to bring him back to the 'Y' shaped antenna. Holding on for dear life Victor considered going back. Then he remembered that Roger had whispered into T.J.'s ear. It was a big assumption, but what if the magnetic fail hadn't been by accident?
Victor fought panic and fear, reminding himself that no matter what Roger did he was no Dixon. Roger was nearing the pole, about to clench victory. There wouldn't be a better chance to show him that Victor wasn't afraid of him and never would be. Standing on the pole so that the top of his head faced the finish line (pole), Victor crouched down and sprung off of it. Being hurled into space gave him an idea. The oxygen packs were equipped for an hour outside the station, but Victor had no intention of being outside for anywhere near that time. He put his oxygen on full thrust, using it to propel himself toward the finish.
He kept his eyes on the small glowing HUD at the left of his helmet visor. At fifty percent oxygen he stopped using air and simply sped forward on his own momentum. He saw Roger's helmet look up in surprise. Victor laughed. Roger was slowing down by the moment and tired while Victor was cruising easily through the air. It was clear who was going to win.
There was another problem. Victor was going fast enough now that if he hit the pole he would seriously hurt himself or crack his visor. When he was ahead of Roger by enough that his win was certain he spent a little more air slowing himself to a reasonable pace and faced the pole feet down to brace for impact. When his feet touched the pole he was pleased to find his magnetic boots were working again.
Over his comm he heard cheers. Had they been making noise this whole time? Victor hadn't been paying attention to it.
"I win," Victor said simply, looking at Roger from his spot on the pole. Roger looked at him a long time, his expression inscrutable from within his space suit, then turned around to walk back to the station.
Inside there were cheers as students gathered around Victor and patted him on the back or ruffled his hair.
"Good job, Victor," Bracias said. He was beaming like he had just seen someone defy death. Had Bracias known that there would be sabotage of some sort?
Despite himself Victor found that he was loving the attention. Thankfully Roger and T.J. were already gone by the time he'd made it to the airlock. As the students began to disperse, the show being over, the monitor next to the viewing port buzzed to life.
"Victor? Are you there?" Victor was surprised to hear Alex's voice, though all the monitor showed was static.
"Alex? Where were you? You just missed --"
"Dude, drop what you're doing and come to Reactor Club." The monitor buzzed off again, switching back to view of the ships hull.
The club rooms were in the giant hall that connected the inner loop to the outer. They were thinly veiled station maintenance assignments that were voluntary but popular due to their consistent yield of Eco and Social points. Victor was currently at the airlock nearest to the dorms, but was still running high on adrenaline. He ran the whole way to the club rooms, clocking himself at about ten minutes when he reached the The Reactor Club room door.
"What's up guys?" he said as the electronic door slid open. No one payed him any attention. The Reactor Club consisted of about fifteen people. It was one of the least popular clubs because it consisted mostly of people with high Mental Scores and low Social Scores. Hanging out with people who's scores were higher than yours boosted your own score when you interacted with them. That was why Alex had joined. His Social score was through the roof, but his Mental scores were fairly average. "Yeah, average compared you geniuses," Alex was fond of saying when it came up, "back home I was top of my class." The high Mental Score low Social Score Reactor Club had welcomed Alex with open arms. Victor suspected that even without scores on the line they still would have done so.
"Hey, Vic, you're just in time, it's crazy in here," Alex said. He was grinning from ear to ear. All around other members of the club were shifting papers, typing rapidly, and communicating via ansible with the homeworlds. Seven members of the club were gathered around one of the wall monitors that showed the reactor along with readings and statistics.
"What's going on?" Victor asked. He'd tell Alex about his near-death experience the next time they sat down together.
"Okay," said Alex excitedly. "Where to begin?" He gestured over to the monitor overlooking the reactor. The reactor was a large, cylindrical structure that was underneath the center of the station, below the classroom. It was easy to forget because the only way to it was through the inner loop airlock with a space suit along the outside of the ship. "I don't understand it as well as these guys, but it looks like physics is breaking down in The Reactor room. The numbers aren't making sense, and it's not an error."
Victor wondered just how well Alex understood what was going on. He took a closer look at the monitor screen and listened in on the conversation of the other Reactor Club students.
"It just isn't making any sense," one boy with short black hair said as he pushed his glasses up on his nose. "According to these readings the energy is infinite."
Another boy with crossed arms and an unbuttoned white Nexus uniform that revealed a pot belly shook his head and rubbed his chin. "It's much worse than that. Pi doesn't even equal what it's supposed to near the anomaly. I mean, this reactor is highly experimental. We knew that. This is something entirely different. Physics is breaking down in there."
Victor turned to Alex, his expression betraying his worry.
"Don't worry. According to the readings the containment field seems to be holding up fine. We don't know how, but it is. We're contacting home via ansible to figure out what the hell is going on."
The student on the ansible was talking to a foggy figure in military uniform.
"You are to keep this to yourself. I repeat, you are not to make any mention of the readings from the reactor room to anyone but me. Any mention of this incident will result in automatic hyperbolic suspension. Do I make myself clear?"
The student listened nodded. After the screen went dark he ran his hands through his hair and turned to Alex. "What do we do now?"
The room was silent as the rest of the room exchanged glances and eventually all looked to Alex. Victor realized that he was their leader. Alex beamed a wide, reassuring smile and looked each and every person in the room in the eye.
"We're going to keep this quiet. Creating panic won't achieve anything. Keep monitoring the anomaly and report back like we were told."
"So we just go along with it?" One student said, incredulously.
"Yeah," said another. "They're clearly hiding something from us."
"No," said Alex, beaming. "We pretend to go along with them. They said not to tell anyone. We won't. However, they didn't say we couldn't investigate. They've underestimated us because they probably think we can't figure it out. We're going to prove them wrong."
The room considered this, smiles and nods beginning to appear as spirits lifted. Alex was working his magic. Victor admired his social ease. Out in the hallway Alex was different, nervous.
"They knew, Vic." He said simply as they headed for the last meal of the day. "They knew what was going on in the reactor. That was why they wanted to keep quiet."
Several hall drones pulled up to the pair, surrounding them from front and back.
"Alex Normstrom," said the mechanical, droning voice of the A.I. "Proceed to medbay hypebolic chamber, immediately."
"Shit shit shit shit." He took two deep breaths and reached for his air release. Small pufts of air out out of the right side of his oxygen pack stopped him from spinning. The station grew smaller by the moments as he carefully coordinated pufts of air out of both release valves at the same time, propelling himself back to the station. It was enough to bring him back to the 'Y' shaped antenna. Holding on for dear life Victor considered going back. Then he remembered that Roger had whispered into T.J.'s ear. It was a big assumption, but what if the magnetic fail hadn't been by accident?
Victor fought panic and fear, reminding himself that no matter what Roger did he was no Dixon. Roger was nearing the pole, about to clench victory. There wouldn't be a better chance to show him that Victor wasn't afraid of him and never would be. Standing on the pole so that the top of his head faced the finish line (pole), Victor crouched down and sprung off of it. Being hurled into space gave him an idea. The oxygen packs were equipped for an hour outside the station, but Victor had no intention of being outside for anywhere near that time. He put his oxygen on full thrust, using it to propel himself toward the finish.
He kept his eyes on the small glowing HUD at the left of his helmet visor. At fifty percent oxygen he stopped using air and simply sped forward on his own momentum. He saw Roger's helmet look up in surprise. Victor laughed. Roger was slowing down by the moment and tired while Victor was cruising easily through the air. It was clear who was going to win.
There was another problem. Victor was going fast enough now that if he hit the pole he would seriously hurt himself or crack his visor. When he was ahead of Roger by enough that his win was certain he spent a little more air slowing himself to a reasonable pace and faced the pole feet down to brace for impact. When his feet touched the pole he was pleased to find his magnetic boots were working again.
Over his comm he heard cheers. Had they been making noise this whole time? Victor hadn't been paying attention to it.
"I win," Victor said simply, looking at Roger from his spot on the pole. Roger looked at him a long time, his expression inscrutable from within his space suit, then turned around to walk back to the station.
Inside there were cheers as students gathered around Victor and patted him on the back or ruffled his hair.
"Good job, Victor," Bracias said. He was beaming like he had just seen someone defy death. Had Bracias known that there would be sabotage of some sort?
Despite himself Victor found that he was loving the attention. Thankfully Roger and T.J. were already gone by the time he'd made it to the airlock. As the students began to disperse, the show being over, the monitor next to the viewing port buzzed to life.
"Victor? Are you there?" Victor was surprised to hear Alex's voice, though all the monitor showed was static.
"Alex? Where were you? You just missed --"
"Dude, drop what you're doing and come to Reactor Club." The monitor buzzed off again, switching back to view of the ships hull.
The club rooms were in the giant hall that connected the inner loop to the outer. They were thinly veiled station maintenance assignments that were voluntary but popular due to their consistent yield of Eco and Social points. Victor was currently at the airlock nearest to the dorms, but was still running high on adrenaline. He ran the whole way to the club rooms, clocking himself at about ten minutes when he reached the The Reactor Club room door.
"What's up guys?" he said as the electronic door slid open. No one payed him any attention. The Reactor Club consisted of about fifteen people. It was one of the least popular clubs because it consisted mostly of people with high Mental Scores and low Social Scores. Hanging out with people who's scores were higher than yours boosted your own score when you interacted with them. That was why Alex had joined. His Social score was through the roof, but his Mental scores were fairly average. "Yeah, average compared you geniuses," Alex was fond of saying when it came up, "back home I was top of my class." The high Mental Score low Social Score Reactor Club had welcomed Alex with open arms. Victor suspected that even without scores on the line they still would have done so.
"Hey, Vic, you're just in time, it's crazy in here," Alex said. He was grinning from ear to ear. All around other members of the club were shifting papers, typing rapidly, and communicating via ansible with the homeworlds. Seven members of the club were gathered around one of the wall monitors that showed the reactor along with readings and statistics.
"What's going on?" Victor asked. He'd tell Alex about his near-death experience the next time they sat down together.
"Okay," said Alex excitedly. "Where to begin?" He gestured over to the monitor overlooking the reactor. The reactor was a large, cylindrical structure that was underneath the center of the station, below the classroom. It was easy to forget because the only way to it was through the inner loop airlock with a space suit along the outside of the ship. "I don't understand it as well as these guys, but it looks like physics is breaking down in The Reactor room. The numbers aren't making sense, and it's not an error."
Victor wondered just how well Alex understood what was going on. He took a closer look at the monitor screen and listened in on the conversation of the other Reactor Club students.
"It just isn't making any sense," one boy with short black hair said as he pushed his glasses up on his nose. "According to these readings the energy is infinite."
Another boy with crossed arms and an unbuttoned white Nexus uniform that revealed a pot belly shook his head and rubbed his chin. "It's much worse than that. Pi doesn't even equal what it's supposed to near the anomaly. I mean, this reactor is highly experimental. We knew that. This is something entirely different. Physics is breaking down in there."
Victor turned to Alex, his expression betraying his worry.
"Don't worry. According to the readings the containment field seems to be holding up fine. We don't know how, but it is. We're contacting home via ansible to figure out what the hell is going on."
The student on the ansible was talking to a foggy figure in military uniform.
"You are to keep this to yourself. I repeat, you are not to make any mention of the readings from the reactor room to anyone but me. Any mention of this incident will result in automatic hyperbolic suspension. Do I make myself clear?"
The student listened nodded. After the screen went dark he ran his hands through his hair and turned to Alex. "What do we do now?"
The room was silent as the rest of the room exchanged glances and eventually all looked to Alex. Victor realized that he was their leader. Alex beamed a wide, reassuring smile and looked each and every person in the room in the eye.
"We're going to keep this quiet. Creating panic won't achieve anything. Keep monitoring the anomaly and report back like we were told."
"So we just go along with it?" One student said, incredulously.
"Yeah," said another. "They're clearly hiding something from us."
"No," said Alex, beaming. "We pretend to go along with them. They said not to tell anyone. We won't. However, they didn't say we couldn't investigate. They've underestimated us because they probably think we can't figure it out. We're going to prove them wrong."
The room considered this, smiles and nods beginning to appear as spirits lifted. Alex was working his magic. Victor admired his social ease. Out in the hallway Alex was different, nervous.
"They knew, Vic." He said simply as they headed for the last meal of the day. "They knew what was going on in the reactor. That was why they wanted to keep quiet."
Several hall drones pulled up to the pair, surrounding them from front and back.
"Alex Normstrom," said the mechanical, droning voice of the A.I. "Proceed to medbay hypebolic chamber, immediately."
- Location
- Houston
Alex didn't struggle and didn't resist. He nodded once at the hall drone and followed the escort away. Victor watched dumbly as his only real friend on the station was taken to be put on ice. He felt ashamed at his complete and utter inability to do anything about the situation despite the numerous times Alex had saved his hide.
That was when he felt the slip of paper in his hand. When had Alex managed to slip it into the palm resting on the side of his leg? Victor's first instinct was to look at it immediately but he resisted. The club hall was one of the places the A.I. watched carefully, though the rooms themselves were unmonitored. Victor suspected that this was because the clubs had important responsibilities on the station.
He headed for the bathroom at a moderate walk, not wanting to raise alarm. Alex hadn't really broken instruction. Not really.
"Bu- but I didn't do anything!"
Victor turned at the familiar voice. It was one of the Reactor Club members, one of the ones that had been commenting on the nonsensical data. He and the other members were surrounded by three hall drones.
"Please proceed to the hyperbolic chamber in the med bay."
One of the students broke into a run. A the hall drone pod turned simply on its wheels, fired a stun pellet, and turned back to the remaining students.
"Please proceed to the hyperbolic chamber in the med bay," it repeated.
"Why are you doing this? We haven't done anything." Said the black haired boy with glasses.
"Don't bother, Schmidt. They can't be reasoned with. Those stun pellets cause cognitive decline in .05% of people. Better to simply go with them."
The black haired boy backed away. It was clear he was beginning to make a run for it, but the pot-bellied kid grabbed his arm.
"Calvin," he said, calling the boy by his first name. "Let's go." Calvin relaxed and hung his head. The drones watched patiently, letting the situation resolve. Victor guessed that their lack of action was a prioritization of saving resources, namely the electro pellets. He wondered if the A.I. had it's own Eco score.
The other kids fell in line and were promptly escorted out of the club hall as other students watched and whispered.
In the bathroom Victor activated the holo-projection that prevented viewing in a private stall and unfolded the slip of paper.
Information Room 5. 0900 hours, station time. Tell Najar that Normstrom sent you.
Victor committed it to memory then put it in the waste disposal unit, closed its lid, and pressed the button to activate the mechanism that extracted water and evacuated the remainder out into space. Why had the drones not arrested him? There was no escape from them, they were on a station in the middle of space, after all. No avoiding it then, he would go to his next scheduled appointment as if nothing had happened. It wasn't much of a plan, but it was a plan.
Today he was scheduled on the combat roster, so he headed back down the club hall toward the center of the station. When his father first enrolled him in this school it had been without his notice or permission. Apparently getting him in had been in the works for a long time, before he was born. He had been informed many times that it was his duty to represent the Vance name while on the station. He had resented the decision but had looked forward to being away from his father and brother. He missed only his mother and the one or two childhood friends that he'd left behind.
His research on the station had revealed that the school had been around for a long time, hundreds of years. In its earliest incarnation it had been primarily a combat school, readying young pilots and military personnel for the rigors of war. In peace time it was found that the environment and curriculum produced extremely successful people, from world leaders to famous inventors. The combat aspect was toned down, though they kept it in the name. Still, the old ways persisted in some traditions. One of these was the weekly combat match and the all-important Physical stat, the one that was brought down most easily.
The outside of the former lecture hall turned arena, Victor looked for his name on the roster. His heart dropped. He was on the same team as Roger Nettleton.
"Looks like we're teammates," Roger said, grabbing him by the shoulder and squeezing hard. Victor grunted and pulled out of his grip. "Sorry buddy. Didn't mean to harm your girlish figure." Other students, some who were going to be on his team, sniggered. Off to a great start.
"Let's get this over with," Victor said, simply. He already knew what would happen. Roger, who's physical stat was near a hundred, the highest, would throw the game and use the opportunity to terrorize Victor. He would be ready.
When the previous team vacated the arena they were allowed into the space. Just outside the door was a chest that contained whatever weapon would be used for the match. Generally it was a plastic gun that the A.I. projected lasers out of when you pulled the trigger. That was the case, today. Most of the time the space inside the arena was a lecture hall, but during battles the arena style seating was mechanically pulled back, the holographic partition was removed, and the holographic force field objects were added.
The arena was always different, and you never knew what you were dealing with until you entered it. Today the gravity was turned off, so the players floated to the green holographically projected circles on both sides of the arena for both teams. These loops were mere light projections with no force fields, so Victor passed easily though it with the other four players on his team including Roger.
Victor recognized a few of the students from the opposing team. One kid from the Comm Club, another that was familiar from classes Victor took, though he didn't remember the boy's name.
"Prepare for battle. Today's Rules: Defend Red player."
"Aw man. I fucking hate it when it's not a straight battle. Then there's some trick," said Roger to another player.
Green bars floated above each player's head on both sides, moving in real time. Over Roger's head floated the Red bar. He was the one the team would have to defend.
Holographic cubes with mirrored sides appeared to offer cover.
"Alright team. Take cover behind the crates and aim for their Red guy," Roger said, taking up the mantle of leader. Victor resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the obvious advice as he floated toward a crate in front of him. At least if Roger was leader it meant that he couldn't do anything to Victor without losing team trust.
"Match begins in 3.....2.....1....."
A horn sounded and both teams started firing. Someone from their team, a boy with shaggy brown hair tied back, was hit with a laser from the enemy team. His health bar evaporated and was replaced with a red exclamation point.
"Player Peter Hornbuyer is retired." said the voice of the A.I.
"Shit," Peter said as a small green circle appeared around him and dragged him back to the main green circle to wait for the match's end. "It's one hit kills today, guys. Be careful!"
Victor noticed that, as he was firing, the lasers were bouncing off of the mirrored sides and back towards his team. In fact, he was pretty sure that Peter had been hit with his own laser. The memory of pushing off of the 'Y' shaped antenna flashed in his mind, giving him an idea. First he tested that he could actually move the holographic cubes. Sure enough the force-field physics programmed into the projections allowed them to move easily.
Victor motioned for the boy next to him, who was busily firing back at the enemy team, to come over to him.
"What is it?" the guy asked as he continued to return fire.
"I'm going to push off of your cube using my feet," Victor said. The guy shrugged. "Whatever, dude."
"Everyone, get ready!" Victor said.
"Vance. What the fuck are you doing?" Roger screamed. Victor ignored him, placing his feet on the adjacent cube and pushing up and at an angle as he shoved the mirrored cube above the enemy team. Though the other boy had been able to grab his cube and swim down with it, Victor was left totally prone. Within seconds he was shot with a laser. A green force field hoop appeared around him and dragged him back to the large green circle to wait for match's end.
It was too late, however. Victor's damage was done. It took only seconds for Victor's team to realize what he had done and begin shooting into the mirror floating directly above the enemy team, raining laser down over them. Within seconds three of their members went down, and at last a shot hit their Red team mate.
Another horn sounded.
"Match over. Victory Green Side."
In the locker as they changed back into school uniform, Roger approached Victor.
"Pull something like that without telling me again Vance, and you'll be going for a walk without a space suit." he said. No one else congratulated him, maybe because they were afraid of Roger.
But Victor had already forgotten about the match. The only thing that was on his mind was a meeting he had at 0900 hours station time.
That was when he felt the slip of paper in his hand. When had Alex managed to slip it into the palm resting on the side of his leg? Victor's first instinct was to look at it immediately but he resisted. The club hall was one of the places the A.I. watched carefully, though the rooms themselves were unmonitored. Victor suspected that this was because the clubs had important responsibilities on the station.
He headed for the bathroom at a moderate walk, not wanting to raise alarm. Alex hadn't really broken instruction. Not really.
"Bu- but I didn't do anything!"
Victor turned at the familiar voice. It was one of the Reactor Club members, one of the ones that had been commenting on the nonsensical data. He and the other members were surrounded by three hall drones.
"Please proceed to the hyperbolic chamber in the med bay."
One of the students broke into a run. A the hall drone pod turned simply on its wheels, fired a stun pellet, and turned back to the remaining students.
"Please proceed to the hyperbolic chamber in the med bay," it repeated.
"Why are you doing this? We haven't done anything." Said the black haired boy with glasses.
"Don't bother, Schmidt. They can't be reasoned with. Those stun pellets cause cognitive decline in .05% of people. Better to simply go with them."
The black haired boy backed away. It was clear he was beginning to make a run for it, but the pot-bellied kid grabbed his arm.
"Calvin," he said, calling the boy by his first name. "Let's go." Calvin relaxed and hung his head. The drones watched patiently, letting the situation resolve. Victor guessed that their lack of action was a prioritization of saving resources, namely the electro pellets. He wondered if the A.I. had it's own Eco score.
The other kids fell in line and were promptly escorted out of the club hall as other students watched and whispered.
In the bathroom Victor activated the holo-projection that prevented viewing in a private stall and unfolded the slip of paper.
Information Room 5. 0900 hours, station time. Tell Najar that Normstrom sent you.
Victor committed it to memory then put it in the waste disposal unit, closed its lid, and pressed the button to activate the mechanism that extracted water and evacuated the remainder out into space. Why had the drones not arrested him? There was no escape from them, they were on a station in the middle of space, after all. No avoiding it then, he would go to his next scheduled appointment as if nothing had happened. It wasn't much of a plan, but it was a plan.
Today he was scheduled on the combat roster, so he headed back down the club hall toward the center of the station. When his father first enrolled him in this school it had been without his notice or permission. Apparently getting him in had been in the works for a long time, before he was born. He had been informed many times that it was his duty to represent the Vance name while on the station. He had resented the decision but had looked forward to being away from his father and brother. He missed only his mother and the one or two childhood friends that he'd left behind.
His research on the station had revealed that the school had been around for a long time, hundreds of years. In its earliest incarnation it had been primarily a combat school, readying young pilots and military personnel for the rigors of war. In peace time it was found that the environment and curriculum produced extremely successful people, from world leaders to famous inventors. The combat aspect was toned down, though they kept it in the name. Still, the old ways persisted in some traditions. One of these was the weekly combat match and the all-important Physical stat, the one that was brought down most easily.
The outside of the former lecture hall turned arena, Victor looked for his name on the roster. His heart dropped. He was on the same team as Roger Nettleton.
"Looks like we're teammates," Roger said, grabbing him by the shoulder and squeezing hard. Victor grunted and pulled out of his grip. "Sorry buddy. Didn't mean to harm your girlish figure." Other students, some who were going to be on his team, sniggered. Off to a great start.
"Let's get this over with," Victor said, simply. He already knew what would happen. Roger, who's physical stat was near a hundred, the highest, would throw the game and use the opportunity to terrorize Victor. He would be ready.
When the previous team vacated the arena they were allowed into the space. Just outside the door was a chest that contained whatever weapon would be used for the match. Generally it was a plastic gun that the A.I. projected lasers out of when you pulled the trigger. That was the case, today. Most of the time the space inside the arena was a lecture hall, but during battles the arena style seating was mechanically pulled back, the holographic partition was removed, and the holographic force field objects were added.
The arena was always different, and you never knew what you were dealing with until you entered it. Today the gravity was turned off, so the players floated to the green holographically projected circles on both sides of the arena for both teams. These loops were mere light projections with no force fields, so Victor passed easily though it with the other four players on his team including Roger.
Victor recognized a few of the students from the opposing team. One kid from the Comm Club, another that was familiar from classes Victor took, though he didn't remember the boy's name.
"Prepare for battle. Today's Rules: Defend Red player."
"Aw man. I fucking hate it when it's not a straight battle. Then there's some trick," said Roger to another player.
Green bars floated above each player's head on both sides, moving in real time. Over Roger's head floated the Red bar. He was the one the team would have to defend.
Holographic cubes with mirrored sides appeared to offer cover.
"Alright team. Take cover behind the crates and aim for their Red guy," Roger said, taking up the mantle of leader. Victor resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the obvious advice as he floated toward a crate in front of him. At least if Roger was leader it meant that he couldn't do anything to Victor without losing team trust.
"Match begins in 3.....2.....1....."
A horn sounded and both teams started firing. Someone from their team, a boy with shaggy brown hair tied back, was hit with a laser from the enemy team. His health bar evaporated and was replaced with a red exclamation point.
"Player Peter Hornbuyer is retired." said the voice of the A.I.
"Shit," Peter said as a small green circle appeared around him and dragged him back to the main green circle to wait for the match's end. "It's one hit kills today, guys. Be careful!"
Victor noticed that, as he was firing, the lasers were bouncing off of the mirrored sides and back towards his team. In fact, he was pretty sure that Peter had been hit with his own laser. The memory of pushing off of the 'Y' shaped antenna flashed in his mind, giving him an idea. First he tested that he could actually move the holographic cubes. Sure enough the force-field physics programmed into the projections allowed them to move easily.
Victor motioned for the boy next to him, who was busily firing back at the enemy team, to come over to him.
"What is it?" the guy asked as he continued to return fire.
"I'm going to push off of your cube using my feet," Victor said. The guy shrugged. "Whatever, dude."
"Everyone, get ready!" Victor said.
"Vance. What the fuck are you doing?" Roger screamed. Victor ignored him, placing his feet on the adjacent cube and pushing up and at an angle as he shoved the mirrored cube above the enemy team. Though the other boy had been able to grab his cube and swim down with it, Victor was left totally prone. Within seconds he was shot with a laser. A green force field hoop appeared around him and dragged him back to the large green circle to wait for match's end.
It was too late, however. Victor's damage was done. It took only seconds for Victor's team to realize what he had done and begin shooting into the mirror floating directly above the enemy team, raining laser down over them. Within seconds three of their members went down, and at last a shot hit their Red team mate.
Another horn sounded.
"Match over. Victory Green Side."
In the locker as they changed back into school uniform, Roger approached Victor.
"Pull something like that without telling me again Vance, and you'll be going for a walk without a space suit." he said. No one else congratulated him, maybe because they were afraid of Roger.
But Victor had already forgotten about the match. The only thing that was on his mind was a meeting he had at 0900 hours station time.
- Location
- Houston
The station was always eerie at night. To preserve circadian rhythm cycles the station had two modes, day mode and night mode. During the 'day' the nano-lattice embedded in the large station windows portrayed a simple blue sky with ambient sunlight that lit the halls. During 'night' the lattice turned off, revealing their actual position in space the blue giant that the station encircled. Some students would stay up and night watch - though this almost always dropped your Physical score for staying up late. Other students refused to leave the sleeping quarters when the daytime lattice was off. They found the immensity of space and relative nakedness and vulnerability of the station to be disturbing.
Victor walked through the halls, his black coat turned up at the collar to hide his face. The A.I. often changed certain variables on the station as it had been found that humans physically and mentally needed a certain amount of variability in their environment to remain healthy and well-balanced. For example, the A.I. usually mimicked seasons by making certain periods of months cooler or hotter and by making the sunlight lattice brighter or darker, clear or cloudy.
The A.I. was in an autumn season, so Victor's coat didn't look completely out of place. He made a bee line for Information Room 5 as instructed in the letter.
The main Information Room was a large round room with smaller rooms along it's side. The wide center area was filled with cushoined chairs and holo-tables for discussion amongst students. Information Room 1 was directly to the right upon entering, so Information Room 5 was only a couple of doors down. Victor pressed the button to open the door panel and allow access to the room, praying it was empty. It was.
Victor entered the small compartment and tapped the door panel button twice to leave the door open. He sat in the small white chair placed in front of the holographic research panel, a small version of the holo-tables, and swiveled toward the door to wait for the mysterious 'Najar'.
Victor knew just about everyone on board Nexus. There were only about a hundred students, after all. Was 'Najar' a codename of some sort. In that case why had he been instructed to use Alex's actual last name, Normstrom. There was no help for it, Victor was going to have to wait and see.
At 2130 Victor began to worry. Maybe 'Najar' had decided not to risk a meeting after hearing that students had been put in the box. Maybe 'Najar' himself had already been caught and put in the box himself. Possibly he had heard that Alex was put into hyperbolic suspension and so didn't think there was any point to coming to a meeting.
At 2145 the holo panel next to him began to blink. Some student had probably been aggregating facts and had forgotten to tell the panel to stop. Victor caught himself drifting off around 2200 hours. No one had shown up. He was getting ready to head to bed when realized that the holo panel was still blinking. Even if a student had left it on, it should have gone into auto shut down after having been left idle for so long.
Victor waved his hand to wake the panel fully and show it's contents. There were no articles, facts and diagrams, however. Just a simple text box with a single word written in it.
Hello? Are you there?
Victor made the gesture for the holographic keyboard and typed a response:
Yes. My name is Victor. I was sent by Normstrom.
Victor looked at the blinking cursor, waiting for a response.
That's an odd last name. What happened to Normstrom?
Victor didn't particularly feel like discussing his feelings about his family name with a stranger, so decided not to comment. More importantly, Najar hadn't gotten the news yet.
He was put in the box with the other Reactor Club students.
The box? You mean hyperbolic suspension? So, it's the same over there as it is here?
Victor's brow furrowed. What did Najar mean by 'Over there?' But his next message came before Victor could ask.
I'm not sure how much Alex told you. It isn't really safe for us to communicate for longer than a few minutes at a time. It's the longest I can keep our communications unnoticed by the A.I.
But why don't we meet in person?
....Because there are partitions dividing us and we are breaking the one unequivocal rule of this station.
Victor couldn't believe what he was reading. He fingers moved at lightning speed to verify.
You're from the other side?!
Yep. Listen, we're out of time. You should know that our entire reactor club was but into hyperbolic suspension as well. Normstrom and I meet on this panel at 2100 hours your time. I can't promise I'll always be here, but I'll come as often as I can. Tell no one about this.
The text box disappeared.
Victor's mind was bursting into questions on his way back to his sleeping area. So, they had clubs on their side, too. Was their side a mirror of this one? Why had they decided to separate the students in this way? Was there some sort of experiment going on in which one side was the control and the others the lab mice. It seemed a bit extreme, but Victor couldn't come up with a better explanation.
Victor's sleep was restless, and his dreams were strange. In one he and Alex had managed to undo the force-field partitions separating one half of the school from the other. When they got to the other side they found green, bestial aliens that began eating everyone on board the ship.
"Oh god. What have we done?" Alex said as he and Victor huddled in the Reactor Club room.
"Nothing," Victor responded. "We're where we need to be." Then footsteps approached their hiding place.
"We should have come sooner." Alex said.
Then the club room door slid slowly open.
Victor sat up straight in his bed, breathing hard. There was something going on on this station. The partition, the reactor. There were too many mysteries aboard this station, probably more than they had found if someone bothered to look. But anyone who did was put in hyperbolic suspension.
For the first time Victor started asking himself questions he had took for granted. Why was the stations automated? Was it really necessary for it to be so far from the homeworlds? He didn't have the answers, but he knew where to start. He knew what he had to do. Victor had to go back to the Reactor Club room.
Victor walked through the halls, his black coat turned up at the collar to hide his face. The A.I. often changed certain variables on the station as it had been found that humans physically and mentally needed a certain amount of variability in their environment to remain healthy and well-balanced. For example, the A.I. usually mimicked seasons by making certain periods of months cooler or hotter and by making the sunlight lattice brighter or darker, clear or cloudy.
The A.I. was in an autumn season, so Victor's coat didn't look completely out of place. He made a bee line for Information Room 5 as instructed in the letter.
The main Information Room was a large round room with smaller rooms along it's side. The wide center area was filled with cushoined chairs and holo-tables for discussion amongst students. Information Room 1 was directly to the right upon entering, so Information Room 5 was only a couple of doors down. Victor pressed the button to open the door panel and allow access to the room, praying it was empty. It was.
Victor entered the small compartment and tapped the door panel button twice to leave the door open. He sat in the small white chair placed in front of the holographic research panel, a small version of the holo-tables, and swiveled toward the door to wait for the mysterious 'Najar'.
Victor knew just about everyone on board Nexus. There were only about a hundred students, after all. Was 'Najar' a codename of some sort. In that case why had he been instructed to use Alex's actual last name, Normstrom. There was no help for it, Victor was going to have to wait and see.
At 2130 Victor began to worry. Maybe 'Najar' had decided not to risk a meeting after hearing that students had been put in the box. Maybe 'Najar' himself had already been caught and put in the box himself. Possibly he had heard that Alex was put into hyperbolic suspension and so didn't think there was any point to coming to a meeting.
At 2145 the holo panel next to him began to blink. Some student had probably been aggregating facts and had forgotten to tell the panel to stop. Victor caught himself drifting off around 2200 hours. No one had shown up. He was getting ready to head to bed when realized that the holo panel was still blinking. Even if a student had left it on, it should have gone into auto shut down after having been left idle for so long.
Victor waved his hand to wake the panel fully and show it's contents. There were no articles, facts and diagrams, however. Just a simple text box with a single word written in it.
Hello? Are you there?
Victor made the gesture for the holographic keyboard and typed a response:
Yes. My name is Victor. I was sent by Normstrom.
Victor looked at the blinking cursor, waiting for a response.
That's an odd last name. What happened to Normstrom?
Victor didn't particularly feel like discussing his feelings about his family name with a stranger, so decided not to comment. More importantly, Najar hadn't gotten the news yet.
He was put in the box with the other Reactor Club students.
The box? You mean hyperbolic suspension? So, it's the same over there as it is here?
Victor's brow furrowed. What did Najar mean by 'Over there?' But his next message came before Victor could ask.
I'm not sure how much Alex told you. It isn't really safe for us to communicate for longer than a few minutes at a time. It's the longest I can keep our communications unnoticed by the A.I.
But why don't we meet in person?
....Because there are partitions dividing us and we are breaking the one unequivocal rule of this station.
Victor couldn't believe what he was reading. He fingers moved at lightning speed to verify.
You're from the other side?!
Yep. Listen, we're out of time. You should know that our entire reactor club was but into hyperbolic suspension as well. Normstrom and I meet on this panel at 2100 hours your time. I can't promise I'll always be here, but I'll come as often as I can. Tell no one about this.
The text box disappeared.
Victor's mind was bursting into questions on his way back to his sleeping area. So, they had clubs on their side, too. Was their side a mirror of this one? Why had they decided to separate the students in this way? Was there some sort of experiment going on in which one side was the control and the others the lab mice. It seemed a bit extreme, but Victor couldn't come up with a better explanation.
Victor's sleep was restless, and his dreams were strange. In one he and Alex had managed to undo the force-field partitions separating one half of the school from the other. When they got to the other side they found green, bestial aliens that began eating everyone on board the ship.
"Oh god. What have we done?" Alex said as he and Victor huddled in the Reactor Club room.
"Nothing," Victor responded. "We're where we need to be." Then footsteps approached their hiding place.
"We should have come sooner." Alex said.
Then the club room door slid slowly open.
Victor sat up straight in his bed, breathing hard. There was something going on on this station. The partition, the reactor. There were too many mysteries aboard this station, probably more than they had found if someone bothered to look. But anyone who did was put in hyperbolic suspension.
For the first time Victor started asking himself questions he had took for granted. Why was the stations automated? Was it really necessary for it to be so far from the homeworlds? He didn't have the answers, but he knew where to start. He knew what he had to do. Victor had to go back to the Reactor Club room.
- Location
- Houston
Victor racked his brain all the next morning trying to determine whether or not it was safe to revisit the Reactor Club room. He moodily moved a spoon through his morning gruel and pushed the thought of Alex being sent to hyperbolic suspension out of his mind, instead opting to weigh arguments for and against going back to the Reactor Club room. On the one hand he had just seen an entire club room get sent to the box. On the other they hadn't sent him. Maybe there was some sort of blind spot in the A.I.? If Victor's understand was correct, most A.I. operated based on a prediction algorithm. The A.I. gathered more and more data over time and refined it's predictions based on the data. However, this had a flaw: it wasn't good at dealing with new situations the first few times they occurred. Before it learned.
In principle Nexus was no different, though it's A.I. was much more powerful. How often was it relevant that someone not part of a club was in a club room. How often did it even happen? It might well be that Victor could just stroll straight into the room, investigate, and leave. Of course, because of the A.I. quick learning curve he probably shouldn't risk it more than once, and he probably shouldn't stay long.
What was he hoping to find there? He wasn't sure, exactly. But if he was ever going to uncover the mystery of this ship, it was important for him to give it a shot.
"Mind if I sit here?" a voice said. It was a blonde haired blue-eyed boy by the name Lucas, one of Alex's friends.
"Suit yourself."
"So you and Normstrom were friends right? I mean, the guy was friends with everyone. But you and him were best friends, right?"
"Why are you asking?"
"Well. Me and some of the guys. We think it's pretty weird that they sent a whole club to the box. We were thinking --"
Victor slammed his fist down on the table so hard that his spoon popped out of his gruel and landed on the floor.
"Leave it alone, Lucas."
Lucas looked shocked.
"But he was our friend," Lucas said, his eyes pleading.
Victor got up and began to walk away, leaving his tray on the table and spoon on the floor - Eco score be damned. The last thing he needed was to get Alex's friends sent to the box, too. This was a one man job and Victor was the man.
It would be better to go to the club room closer to the time for his meeting with Najar. That way he had a better chance of reporting his findings, even if he was put in the box.
When the sun lattice began to fade Victor headed toward the club room hall. There were a few students milling about, but not a lot of other activity besides. It was the least busy period of the day in the club hall, so there was only one hall drone patrolling back and forth. Fortunately the hall was long, so Victor waited until the drone passed the Reactor Club room door.
The club room was completely vacant. To conserve energy, only a single light in the ceiling turned on when you entered a club room during night. Victor went straight to the screen in the wall and used the terminal to search for the data on the reactor that had been so strange. He found nothing. Victor switched to the live reactor monitoring system, but the erratic red numbers from before were gone. Everything looked normal. If they had been willing to put an entire club into hyperbolic sleep then it was no surprise that they had erased all evidence of the events that had transpired here. Still, there must be something.
On a table next to the monitor were a few scattered data cubes. Most people just used one, a personal data cube, because of their enormous drive size. Maybe one of the club members had decided to look over the data in bed and had made and had left the data there.
He began checking the cubes one by one, inserting them into the small, square slot below the monitor to read their contents. The first cube contained a few written assignments and a journal that needed a password. Victor doubted he'd find anything of use inside it. The second cube was nearly full to the brim with naked photos of women. Perhaps unsurprising on a station full of adolescent males. Victor resisted the desire to put that cube in his pocket and moved to the last one.
Bingo.
He couldn't prove that he'd found what he was looking for, but the triple encrypted file labeled 'Weird Reactor Shit' gave him some confidence. Timing his exit was tricky. He could open the door to peek at the hall drone, but risked being seen. He put his ear to the cool door and listened for the sound of the drone's wheels passing. When he heard them fade he opened the club room door and headed straight for Information Room 5.
Victor spent three hours waiting for Najar to show. He opened the simple text box and typed a few simple messages, but no response came. He barely slept that night. He became more and more certain that if the cube was discovered he'd be put into hyperbolic sleep, immediately.
At lunch he caught Lucas looking at him, but when Victor looked up the other boy looked away. He wished that he hadn't scared Lucas off. More than anything Victor wished that he had a friend.
That was when a pair of hall drones planted themselves on either side of him in the cafeteria.
"Victor Vance. Please follow us."
All eyes were on Victor as silence fell on the mess hall. Drones almost never entered. So, it was all over, then. He'd never figure out the mystery of this place. He'd be sent back and promptly disowned according to the harsh strictures of this family. He stood, laughing at his own ridiculous desire to run. Where, exactly, was there to go? No, he would face this head on.
He walked through the halls one drone in front of him and one in back, dragging his heels as much as possible. Instead of turning at the end of the club hall and going right towards the med bay, however, the machines went left. What was going on?
When Victor realized what it was he almost wished that he was being sent to the box. When the drones reached the sleeping area Victor walked to the series of small sound proof stalls on the side and entered the open one. Sure enough his father's face, foggy and full of static though the picture was, showed an incredibly displeased expression.
In principle Nexus was no different, though it's A.I. was much more powerful. How often was it relevant that someone not part of a club was in a club room. How often did it even happen? It might well be that Victor could just stroll straight into the room, investigate, and leave. Of course, because of the A.I. quick learning curve he probably shouldn't risk it more than once, and he probably shouldn't stay long.
What was he hoping to find there? He wasn't sure, exactly. But if he was ever going to uncover the mystery of this ship, it was important for him to give it a shot.
"Mind if I sit here?" a voice said. It was a blonde haired blue-eyed boy by the name Lucas, one of Alex's friends.
"Suit yourself."
"So you and Normstrom were friends right? I mean, the guy was friends with everyone. But you and him were best friends, right?"
"Why are you asking?"
"Well. Me and some of the guys. We think it's pretty weird that they sent a whole club to the box. We were thinking --"
Victor slammed his fist down on the table so hard that his spoon popped out of his gruel and landed on the floor.
"Leave it alone, Lucas."
Lucas looked shocked.
"But he was our friend," Lucas said, his eyes pleading.
Victor got up and began to walk away, leaving his tray on the table and spoon on the floor - Eco score be damned. The last thing he needed was to get Alex's friends sent to the box, too. This was a one man job and Victor was the man.
It would be better to go to the club room closer to the time for his meeting with Najar. That way he had a better chance of reporting his findings, even if he was put in the box.
When the sun lattice began to fade Victor headed toward the club room hall. There were a few students milling about, but not a lot of other activity besides. It was the least busy period of the day in the club hall, so there was only one hall drone patrolling back and forth. Fortunately the hall was long, so Victor waited until the drone passed the Reactor Club room door.
The club room was completely vacant. To conserve energy, only a single light in the ceiling turned on when you entered a club room during night. Victor went straight to the screen in the wall and used the terminal to search for the data on the reactor that had been so strange. He found nothing. Victor switched to the live reactor monitoring system, but the erratic red numbers from before were gone. Everything looked normal. If they had been willing to put an entire club into hyperbolic sleep then it was no surprise that they had erased all evidence of the events that had transpired here. Still, there must be something.
On a table next to the monitor were a few scattered data cubes. Most people just used one, a personal data cube, because of their enormous drive size. Maybe one of the club members had decided to look over the data in bed and had made and had left the data there.
He began checking the cubes one by one, inserting them into the small, square slot below the monitor to read their contents. The first cube contained a few written assignments and a journal that needed a password. Victor doubted he'd find anything of use inside it. The second cube was nearly full to the brim with naked photos of women. Perhaps unsurprising on a station full of adolescent males. Victor resisted the desire to put that cube in his pocket and moved to the last one.
Bingo.
He couldn't prove that he'd found what he was looking for, but the triple encrypted file labeled 'Weird Reactor Shit' gave him some confidence. Timing his exit was tricky. He could open the door to peek at the hall drone, but risked being seen. He put his ear to the cool door and listened for the sound of the drone's wheels passing. When he heard them fade he opened the club room door and headed straight for Information Room 5.
Victor spent three hours waiting for Najar to show. He opened the simple text box and typed a few simple messages, but no response came. He barely slept that night. He became more and more certain that if the cube was discovered he'd be put into hyperbolic sleep, immediately.
At lunch he caught Lucas looking at him, but when Victor looked up the other boy looked away. He wished that he hadn't scared Lucas off. More than anything Victor wished that he had a friend.
That was when a pair of hall drones planted themselves on either side of him in the cafeteria.
"Victor Vance. Please follow us."
All eyes were on Victor as silence fell on the mess hall. Drones almost never entered. So, it was all over, then. He'd never figure out the mystery of this place. He'd be sent back and promptly disowned according to the harsh strictures of this family. He stood, laughing at his own ridiculous desire to run. Where, exactly, was there to go? No, he would face this head on.
He walked through the halls one drone in front of him and one in back, dragging his heels as much as possible. Instead of turning at the end of the club hall and going right towards the med bay, however, the machines went left. What was going on?
When Victor realized what it was he almost wished that he was being sent to the box. When the drones reached the sleeping area Victor walked to the series of small sound proof stalls on the side and entered the open one. Sure enough his father's face, foggy and full of static though the picture was, showed an incredibly displeased expression.
- Location
- Houston
Victor sat and watched the screen as it hissed and cackled. His father, a robust man with an angular face, wore a sour expression on the other end. He looked older than when Victor had last seen him.
"Victor. What did I tell you before you left Aurora?"
Victor was silent. He knew well that his father needed no responses to have a conversation.
"I gave you simple instructions. Pass your exams and come home a winner. Someone worthy of the Vance name. Like your brother, for example."
Victor forced himself to continue looking at the screen. If he looked away he knew his father would accuse him of being a coward. His fingers dug into his knees as he sat and took the torrent of his father's rebuke.
"I should have had you forcibly enhanced. You'd have been less human, but at least you'd be more useful. Do you know why I am so mad?"
Victor shook his head. He didn't really think it mattered. What influence did his father have over a secret military station while he was an unfathomable distance away? And Victor certainly had no intention of returning to Aurora, though he missed his homeworld dearly. The only reason he came to the ansible when his father called was because he didn't want a drop in his Social score. And there was always the chance that he could be forcibly sent back. Strategically, grinning and bearing it was the best way to go at the moment.
"I'm mad because I had to give you special treatment. I received notice the other day that you were to be put in hyperbolic suspension. Through some political sacrifice I was able to avoid this."
The news hit Victor like a dagger. The only reason he had escaped and Alex hadn't was because he was from the E socio-economic class of planet Aurora and his father had connections. He'd been saved by the person, by the family name, that he had grown to hate so much. His father nodded, satisfied with Victor's reaction, though Victor doubted he knew what was really being thought.
"That's right. You've embarrassed yourself by depending on the help of others. You're a Vance. Act like it. The next time I hear about you infringing on forbidden ground I'll have you sent back in hyperbolic suspension myself."
The ansible turner dark.
The conversation with his father made Victor think twice about going to meet Najar. He eventually decided to go, anyway. If unknowingly walking onto forbidden ground got him into so much trouble then nothing would save him now that he had taken the cube. He might as well go through with it. If he was walking onto forbidden ground, he might as well do so intentionally this time.
The Information Room still had a few people milling about when Victor arrived. Among them was Lucas and group of other students that Victor recognized as some of Alex's other friends. They seemed to be deeply involved in a conversation and Victor took advantage of this to get to Information Room 5 unnoticed.
Inside, he saw the red light that indicated an active panel blinking. Victor hoped Najar was able to do something with the encrypted file and the data within. If he was smart enough to make contact with this side unnoticed then surely he could unlock an encryption done by a student. He took the holo panel out of idle mode with a wave of his hand and read the text box:
Are you there?
He summoned the keyboard:
Yeah. Sorry I'm late. But I got my hands on something.
?
It's a data cube from the Reactor Club room. Should I send the information to you through this terminal?
NO!
Victor was a little put off by the response. After all, they'd been able to talk securely through the same room. Najar's explanation came moments later:
This is a simple unencrypted text conversation. It's easy enough to go piggy back it on the A.I.'s monitor network. A file of that size and, I'm guessing, encryption level will be marked with a red flag by the A.I. You'd have to decrypt it on your side and send it in small chunks. Isn't there anyone on your side that can do it?
Victor thought for a moment. Did he know anyone in the System Club? Not well enough to put them in danger, he didn't. Anyone who looked at that cube was as good as frozen if they were discovered.
I'd prefer not to drag others into it. You and I are already in it. We should both be trying, anyway. In case one of us is caught.
Agreed. Get it finished as quickly as possible.
The text box shut off.
On his way back to the dorms, Victor began to wonder if he shouldn't just ignore the whole thing. It wasn't like Alex was dead. He was in
hyperbolic suspension. And it wasn't like anything Victor did would change that. Maybe the logical thing to do was destroy the cube, keep his head low, and graduate - though no one on board knew exactly what 'graduating' entailed other than a match with the other side of the station.
But there was a foreboding feeling in the pit of Victor's stomach that spurred him on. Something wasn't right with the station. Something huge that the adults were hiding from them. Victor couldn't shake the feeling that he and everyone on board the station were in some sort of life or death situation that they didn't understand. A rumble shook the station, as if agreeing with his thoughts.
"Hey Vance, how about a rematch buddy?"
Roger Nettleton was standing in front of him with his arms crossed. T.J. Pinbrick was standing next to him. Victor smiled. There were two drones in the hall facing in their direction.
"No thanks," Victor said simply. But when he tried to walk around the pair they blocked his path.
"Woah there buddy," T.J. said.
Victor actually laughed. He considered pulling the same thing he had done to Dixon. While his Social score was hardly the top of his class, it was sure to be better than theirs. A fight out in the open had a pretty good chance of putting at least one of them in the box. Despite everything, however, Victor decided against it. He had done what he had done to Dixon because he feared for his own life and that of his friends.
"Listen guys. Do you really want to end up like Dixon?"
Roger and T.J. just laughed. What was going on? Any mention of Dixon by Victor usually destroyed his mood.
"He still doesn't realize, does he?" T.J. said.
"I guess not. Just goes to show you: Mental scores aren't everything."
What the hell was Roger talking about?
"Guys, if you don't back off --"
Victor felt a hard fist in his stomach before he could finish his sentence. Roger caught him after the punch as he doubled over.
"Take it easy little fella. We're gonna go for another little walk outside."
The punch had stunned him totally. Roger was among the highest Physical scores on the station. Victor waited for the drones to intercede, but each one continued it's course down the hall as if nothing was happening. The hall was otherwise empty. There was no one to help Victor as he was carried over Roger's shoulder toward the airlock. He realized that if he struggled and they killed him, they wouldn't even be put on ice. Was this how Dixon had gotten away with it?
They neared the airlock and Victor realized he was going to have to make a choice. Play along and race Roger once again, or fight back. He took deep breaths as his stomach recovered from the sucker punch, and waited for his chance.
"Victor. What did I tell you before you left Aurora?"
Victor was silent. He knew well that his father needed no responses to have a conversation.
"I gave you simple instructions. Pass your exams and come home a winner. Someone worthy of the Vance name. Like your brother, for example."
Victor forced himself to continue looking at the screen. If he looked away he knew his father would accuse him of being a coward. His fingers dug into his knees as he sat and took the torrent of his father's rebuke.
"I should have had you forcibly enhanced. You'd have been less human, but at least you'd be more useful. Do you know why I am so mad?"
Victor shook his head. He didn't really think it mattered. What influence did his father have over a secret military station while he was an unfathomable distance away? And Victor certainly had no intention of returning to Aurora, though he missed his homeworld dearly. The only reason he came to the ansible when his father called was because he didn't want a drop in his Social score. And there was always the chance that he could be forcibly sent back. Strategically, grinning and bearing it was the best way to go at the moment.
"I'm mad because I had to give you special treatment. I received notice the other day that you were to be put in hyperbolic suspension. Through some political sacrifice I was able to avoid this."
The news hit Victor like a dagger. The only reason he had escaped and Alex hadn't was because he was from the E socio-economic class of planet Aurora and his father had connections. He'd been saved by the person, by the family name, that he had grown to hate so much. His father nodded, satisfied with Victor's reaction, though Victor doubted he knew what was really being thought.
"That's right. You've embarrassed yourself by depending on the help of others. You're a Vance. Act like it. The next time I hear about you infringing on forbidden ground I'll have you sent back in hyperbolic suspension myself."
The ansible turner dark.
The conversation with his father made Victor think twice about going to meet Najar. He eventually decided to go, anyway. If unknowingly walking onto forbidden ground got him into so much trouble then nothing would save him now that he had taken the cube. He might as well go through with it. If he was walking onto forbidden ground, he might as well do so intentionally this time.
The Information Room still had a few people milling about when Victor arrived. Among them was Lucas and group of other students that Victor recognized as some of Alex's other friends. They seemed to be deeply involved in a conversation and Victor took advantage of this to get to Information Room 5 unnoticed.
Inside, he saw the red light that indicated an active panel blinking. Victor hoped Najar was able to do something with the encrypted file and the data within. If he was smart enough to make contact with this side unnoticed then surely he could unlock an encryption done by a student. He took the holo panel out of idle mode with a wave of his hand and read the text box:
Are you there?
He summoned the keyboard:
Yeah. Sorry I'm late. But I got my hands on something.
?
It's a data cube from the Reactor Club room. Should I send the information to you through this terminal?
NO!
Victor was a little put off by the response. After all, they'd been able to talk securely through the same room. Najar's explanation came moments later:
This is a simple unencrypted text conversation. It's easy enough to go piggy back it on the A.I.'s monitor network. A file of that size and, I'm guessing, encryption level will be marked with a red flag by the A.I. You'd have to decrypt it on your side and send it in small chunks. Isn't there anyone on your side that can do it?
Victor thought for a moment. Did he know anyone in the System Club? Not well enough to put them in danger, he didn't. Anyone who looked at that cube was as good as frozen if they were discovered.
I'd prefer not to drag others into it. You and I are already in it. We should both be trying, anyway. In case one of us is caught.
Agreed. Get it finished as quickly as possible.
The text box shut off.
On his way back to the dorms, Victor began to wonder if he shouldn't just ignore the whole thing. It wasn't like Alex was dead. He was in
hyperbolic suspension. And it wasn't like anything Victor did would change that. Maybe the logical thing to do was destroy the cube, keep his head low, and graduate - though no one on board knew exactly what 'graduating' entailed other than a match with the other side of the station.
But there was a foreboding feeling in the pit of Victor's stomach that spurred him on. Something wasn't right with the station. Something huge that the adults were hiding from them. Victor couldn't shake the feeling that he and everyone on board the station were in some sort of life or death situation that they didn't understand. A rumble shook the station, as if agreeing with his thoughts.
"Hey Vance, how about a rematch buddy?"
Roger Nettleton was standing in front of him with his arms crossed. T.J. Pinbrick was standing next to him. Victor smiled. There were two drones in the hall facing in their direction.
"No thanks," Victor said simply. But when he tried to walk around the pair they blocked his path.
"Woah there buddy," T.J. said.
Victor actually laughed. He considered pulling the same thing he had done to Dixon. While his Social score was hardly the top of his class, it was sure to be better than theirs. A fight out in the open had a pretty good chance of putting at least one of them in the box. Despite everything, however, Victor decided against it. He had done what he had done to Dixon because he feared for his own life and that of his friends.
"Listen guys. Do you really want to end up like Dixon?"
Roger and T.J. just laughed. What was going on? Any mention of Dixon by Victor usually destroyed his mood.
"He still doesn't realize, does he?" T.J. said.
"I guess not. Just goes to show you: Mental scores aren't everything."
What the hell was Roger talking about?
"Guys, if you don't back off --"
Victor felt a hard fist in his stomach before he could finish his sentence. Roger caught him after the punch as he doubled over.
"Take it easy little fella. We're gonna go for another little walk outside."
The punch had stunned him totally. Roger was among the highest Physical scores on the station. Victor waited for the drones to intercede, but each one continued it's course down the hall as if nothing was happening. The hall was otherwise empty. There was no one to help Victor as he was carried over Roger's shoulder toward the airlock. He realized that if he struggled and they killed him, they wouldn't even be put on ice. Was this how Dixon had gotten away with it?
They neared the airlock and Victor realized he was going to have to make a choice. Play along and race Roger once again, or fight back. He took deep breaths as his stomach recovered from the sucker punch, and waited for his chance.
- Location
- Houston
The kick caught T.J. by surprise. He fell back with a grunt, holding his broken jaw with a pitiful moan.
When Roger turned to see what was happening, not realizing that Victor had kicked up while draped over Roger's shoulder. Victor used the momentum of Roger's turn to twist down to his feet while getting an arm over Roger's neck in a reverse under arm headlock. Victor had turned the tables, but Roger was already struggling. Now what? Victor wasn't sure he could incapacitate Roger from this position without killing him.
Roger began struggling harder to get out of the hold. His thundering fists began pounding hard against Victor's back. Victor felt his grip beginning to loosen as the torrent hammered against his spine. He squeezed. However afraid he was that he might kill Roger, he was more afraid of what Roger would do if he got loose. Especially when he saw T.J.
When Roger's grip began to loosen and his punches went limp, Victor broke free and made a run for it. Behind him he could hear Roger coughing. As he ran back through the hall Victor realized that he was a dead man. Roger and T.J. could somehow stop the A,.I. from noticing them. Since Victor wouldn't kill them, they would get to try again and again and again. Next time they might just beat him to death where they found him.
But what if they're control over the A.I. was only temporary? They couldn't possibly be doing it for more than a few minutes at a time, or they'd have already taken over the school. As Victor ran past a hall drone he tested his theory.
"Reporting fight by Airlock number 3," he said.
"Report acknowledged. Proceeding to Airlock 3."
Victor didn't stop to look. He continued running until he reached The Information Room. He hid in Information Room 10 in case they were aware of his schedule. The encounter earlier had felt more like a planned ambush than unfortunate coincidence.
A knock at the door made Victor jump. He didn't answer.
"Vance? Are you in there?" It was Lucas Martin's voice. Victor opened the door.
"Is everything alright? I saw you come here."
"It's fine," Victor said quickly, but his eyes darted around the Information Room and what he could see of the hallway. No Roger, no T.J. He relaxed. Had the drones done their job for once?
"What did you want?"
Lucas shrugged. "Me and some of the guys have been talking about what happened to Alex and the Reactor Club."
"I told you to leave it alone Lucas."
"I know. But how could I? Alex looked out for a lot of us low Social score people. If not for him, some of us might have been sent to the box, already."
Victor sympathized. He hadn't been lacking social contact to quite the degree that would get him suspended, but the social contact that he had made before befriending Alex had been mechanical, forced. Done because it was required. Victor sighed and shrugged. If Lucas was determined than Victor might as well hear him out at the least.
"Alright. When do you guys get together?"
Lucas nodded over to a set of cushioned chairs and a sofa surrounding a holo table. Three other students were looking at Victor and Lucas speak.
Well, it's not like I'm all that anxious to wander the halls, he thought.
He sat on one of the empty chairs. He recognized one other person from the group, a boy by the name Fumio, though like most students he went by his last name, Tanaka. Fumio was average height with large round spectacles and lanky. The other two boys were twins, though Victor couldn't remember their names.
"You've met Fumio. That's Frank and Edgar Wright. They go by Wright One and Wright Two," Lucas said as he sat between the twins. Victor raised an eyebrow. Why was everyone this insistent on using last names? Lucas continued. "I'm just going to go over what we've got so far. Let's start with all the questions."
Lucas produced a piece of paper from his pocket. Victor didn't blame him for not using the holo tables. You could supposedly disconnect them from the network, but you could never be too sure. On the paper were several questions. Lucas read the first one aloud.
"First off, question one. The reason this group was formed to answer: Why was the Reactor Club put into hyperbolic suspension? It's the number one question on all our minds. Our best guess so far: they discovered something they weren't supposed to. Question number two: what the hell is going on with the A.I.? It's the question we've all been too damn afraid to ask. It's time someone did. Question three: what's up with the static and noise on the comms and the rumbling in the station? We're using ansible, so communication should be instantaneous and crystal clear. It's not. I mean, what are those booster relays surrounding the station for if not to 'boost' comms?"
Lucas put the paper back into his school uniform jacket pocket.
"Victor, since you're new here we'll let you go first. Do you have any ideas about those questions?"
Victor looked carefully at all of the boys in the group. One of the twins looked skeptical. Fumio's expression was blank. Victor Vance felt like everything was closing in on him. He had no way of deciphering the contents of the data cube currently in his pocket. A homicidal bully who could disable the drones was probably searching the station for him, and it was becoming clearer to him that his current quest was going to get him put in the box if he didn't resolve it quickly. It was time for a gamble.
He took the data cube out and placed it in the center of the holo table.
"I'm willing to bet it's all in here," he said simply. "If you can decrypt it."
Lucas shook his head, smiling. "See guys? I told you," he said. Then to Victor, "You're just full of surprises, aren't you Vance?"
When Roger turned to see what was happening, not realizing that Victor had kicked up while draped over Roger's shoulder. Victor used the momentum of Roger's turn to twist down to his feet while getting an arm over Roger's neck in a reverse under arm headlock. Victor had turned the tables, but Roger was already struggling. Now what? Victor wasn't sure he could incapacitate Roger from this position without killing him.
Roger began struggling harder to get out of the hold. His thundering fists began pounding hard against Victor's back. Victor felt his grip beginning to loosen as the torrent hammered against his spine. He squeezed. However afraid he was that he might kill Roger, he was more afraid of what Roger would do if he got loose. Especially when he saw T.J.
When Roger's grip began to loosen and his punches went limp, Victor broke free and made a run for it. Behind him he could hear Roger coughing. As he ran back through the hall Victor realized that he was a dead man. Roger and T.J. could somehow stop the A,.I. from noticing them. Since Victor wouldn't kill them, they would get to try again and again and again. Next time they might just beat him to death where they found him.
But what if they're control over the A.I. was only temporary? They couldn't possibly be doing it for more than a few minutes at a time, or they'd have already taken over the school. As Victor ran past a hall drone he tested his theory.
"Reporting fight by Airlock number 3," he said.
"Report acknowledged. Proceeding to Airlock 3."
Victor didn't stop to look. He continued running until he reached The Information Room. He hid in Information Room 10 in case they were aware of his schedule. The encounter earlier had felt more like a planned ambush than unfortunate coincidence.
A knock at the door made Victor jump. He didn't answer.
"Vance? Are you in there?" It was Lucas Martin's voice. Victor opened the door.
"Is everything alright? I saw you come here."
"It's fine," Victor said quickly, but his eyes darted around the Information Room and what he could see of the hallway. No Roger, no T.J. He relaxed. Had the drones done their job for once?
"What did you want?"
Lucas shrugged. "Me and some of the guys have been talking about what happened to Alex and the Reactor Club."
"I told you to leave it alone Lucas."
"I know. But how could I? Alex looked out for a lot of us low Social score people. If not for him, some of us might have been sent to the box, already."
Victor sympathized. He hadn't been lacking social contact to quite the degree that would get him suspended, but the social contact that he had made before befriending Alex had been mechanical, forced. Done because it was required. Victor sighed and shrugged. If Lucas was determined than Victor might as well hear him out at the least.
"Alright. When do you guys get together?"
Lucas nodded over to a set of cushioned chairs and a sofa surrounding a holo table. Three other students were looking at Victor and Lucas speak.
Well, it's not like I'm all that anxious to wander the halls, he thought.
He sat on one of the empty chairs. He recognized one other person from the group, a boy by the name Fumio, though like most students he went by his last name, Tanaka. Fumio was average height with large round spectacles and lanky. The other two boys were twins, though Victor couldn't remember their names.
"You've met Fumio. That's Frank and Edgar Wright. They go by Wright One and Wright Two," Lucas said as he sat between the twins. Victor raised an eyebrow. Why was everyone this insistent on using last names? Lucas continued. "I'm just going to go over what we've got so far. Let's start with all the questions."
Lucas produced a piece of paper from his pocket. Victor didn't blame him for not using the holo tables. You could supposedly disconnect them from the network, but you could never be too sure. On the paper were several questions. Lucas read the first one aloud.
"First off, question one. The reason this group was formed to answer: Why was the Reactor Club put into hyperbolic suspension? It's the number one question on all our minds. Our best guess so far: they discovered something they weren't supposed to. Question number two: what the hell is going on with the A.I.? It's the question we've all been too damn afraid to ask. It's time someone did. Question three: what's up with the static and noise on the comms and the rumbling in the station? We're using ansible, so communication should be instantaneous and crystal clear. It's not. I mean, what are those booster relays surrounding the station for if not to 'boost' comms?"
Lucas put the paper back into his school uniform jacket pocket.
"Victor, since you're new here we'll let you go first. Do you have any ideas about those questions?"
Victor looked carefully at all of the boys in the group. One of the twins looked skeptical. Fumio's expression was blank. Victor Vance felt like everything was closing in on him. He had no way of deciphering the contents of the data cube currently in his pocket. A homicidal bully who could disable the drones was probably searching the station for him, and it was becoming clearer to him that his current quest was going to get him put in the box if he didn't resolve it quickly. It was time for a gamble.
He took the data cube out and placed it in the center of the holo table.
"I'm willing to bet it's all in here," he said simply. "If you can decrypt it."
Lucas shook his head, smiling. "See guys? I told you," he said. Then to Victor, "You're just full of surprises, aren't you Vance?"