Vai

"What's going on?" Shel asked as soon as class was over. He and Minmin always seemed to be able to read right through Owen and me even through our ansible selfs.

"We can't talk about it here," Owen said. His eyes drifted to Spencer's empty seat.

Minmin and Shel looked at each other.

"Fine," Minmin said. "We'll call you later." She didn't say goodbye - just logged out of the ansible.

Shel looked at us a moment longer and then he too logged off without saying goodbye.

"Come to my quarters," Owen said and then logged off.

I stayed a moment longer after everyone else had left the school program. I didn't want to face what would be in Owen's room.

I logged off and reshaped my okulus. I put it around my wrist. Warpaint waited by my bed with an algae nutrition bar.

"How was class today, sir? Did you learn a lot? Did you have a fine time with your much younger friends?"

I took a bite of the algae bar.

"School was fine," I said. He followed me out of the quarters and into the corridor.

"Are we going to your young friend Owen's place again? Honestly, sir, I'm not sure about him. I don't think he and Esther are a good influence on you."

"Warpaint, please don't talk so openly about them." No one would think it was weird I was going to Owen's place, but Esther wouldn't be in the ship's listing if someone overheard and decided to look her up.

"Very well, sir."

I finished the algae bar as we reached Owen's door. It slid open and Owen greeted us.

"Is your dad home?" I asked. I didn't see Esther.

"I don't know." He walked to his bedroom. Warpaint and I stepped inside and the door slid closed behind us.

Owen wasn't himself. He walked in a daze. His shoulder bumped into the doorframe.

"Are you all right?" I asked him as I stepped into the room behind him. The door slid shut behind Warpaint.

"Sure. Fine. We just killed Spencer's mom."

"What happened to your neck?" There were red marks on his neck. He reached up and touched them gingerly.

"She tried - the Corruption made her choke me."

It was hard to imagine the smiling woman I saw the night before choke anyone. How many others had the Corruption taken over?

"I could use your mechatronic to take care of the body," Esther said from the doorframe of the bathroom.

Warpaint looked at me. I nodded at him. He walked into the bathroom. I didn't follow. I didn't want to see Adi dead.

"Are you all right? Do you need to go to medical?" I asked Owen.

Esther answered. "And tell them what? Adi strangled Owen so I killed her, but I had already planned to kill her to begin with." We both stared at her.

"Are you all right?" I asked her.

"I wasn't the one who got strangled," she said.

"I didn't mean physically," I said.

Warpaint came out of the bathroom with his front opened and ash inside.

"I'm fine," Esther said, but I wasn't sure she meant it. She had killed three people. Did that make her a serial killer or a hero or something else entirely?

"And your neck?" I said to Owen.

"She's right. We can't go to medical. I'll be fine."

I nodded and went into the bathroom. I found a gray cloth to use to wipe out Warpaint. It was almost becoming routine.

"We need to find more of them," Esther said. "We will be arriving at Doussix in a few weeks. I'm not sure how I'm going to get to the surface yet, but I need to. We can't lead the Corruption to the Awakened One."

I finished cleaning Warpaint and tossed the cloth with Owen's other dirty clothes. Esther used her handheld sweeper to get rid of the ash that had spilled onto the floor.

"I guess," Owen said, "that Vai and I should just walk around and see if we can see pink in anyone's eyes. Unless either of you have a better idea."

"Vai can steal his dad's list," Esther said.

"That's not possible," I replied.

"And I really can't allow that," Warpaint said. "Stop trying to corrupt the elder."

My okulus beeped with an incoming call. "Shel," I said to Esther and Owen. We had told them everything - well, except Spencer's dead mother, but that had just happened. I answered the call.

Shel's and Minmin's images came in through my volo. Their eyes both drifted to Esther. Esther stared back at them. They were in living quarters. I couldn't tell if it was Shel's or Minmin's. I obviously hadn't been to the other ship to differentiate. There wasn't much of a difference between quarters on these ships anyway.

"Friends," Owen said in his usual bright voice - something that had been lacking since I arrived at his quarters. "This is Esther. Esther, this is Minmin and Shel." They gave brief nods to each other.

"So," Shel said once the greetings were done, "do you want to tell us what happened? It seems like you know why Spencer left class early."

There was silence. How could I tell them we killed our classmate's mother?

"Does someone in his life have the Corruption?" Minmin asked.

"His mother," Esther said.

"And what are you going to do about it?" Shel asked. "Have you kidnapped her already? Is that why Spencer left early?"

"What happened to your neck?" Minmin asked Owen.

"Spencer's mother choked me," he said quietly.

There was a brief pause before Minmin said, "Where is she?"

"She's dead," I said quietly.

"Then you did the right thing," a new female voice said. A Bundu-Jo stepped in behind Shel and Minmin. She had to be Shel's mother. They were the same shade of blue and their eyes and nose were the same. Her white stripes were different. "There is no escaping the miasmids once they get a hold of you,"

"Miasmids?" Esther took a step forward.

"That's what they call themselves," Shel's mother said. "Although I like the Corruption better. It's a better description."

"How do you know what they call themselves?" Esther asked. It didn't sound accusing. In fact, it sounded almost hopeful. For some reason she seemed to have instantly identified with Shel's mom.

"Torture," Shel's mother said easily.

"How can you torture the Corruption?" Esther asked. It almost felt like the rest of us weren't there. "They don't talk. Do they? Do they and I just don't know?"

"Obviously they can talk to each other and their hosts," Shel's mother said. "But that is telepathy rather than actual words. No. We can't understand them. They have to be tortured while in their host's body."

"How do you do that?" Esther asked.

Shel's mother touched the bottom stud in her ear. "Aether Field. A small aether field won't kill them, but the vibrations will hurt them and their host."

"Is that what is in your ear?" Esther stepped even closer to the images projected through my volo. "Why don't we all have those?"

"And have a constant vibration in your ear?" Shel's mother said.

"Shel has only complained about his vibrating once and that was when Warpaint's Aether shield was up," Owen said.

I remembered that time planetside. My one and only trip planetside. The native predators had tried to kill us in an upturned transport. Warpaint's shield was the only thing that had saved us. Shel had mentioned the ear studs vibrating, but before he could take them out, my father's voice spoke through Warpaint that Shel should never take them out.

"Only a small number of Bundu-Jo can handle them," Shel's mom said. "No other alien species that I know of can."

"My father knows then," I said, "about miasmids."

"Yes and he must absolutely not find out that you know. I know a lot about you, Vai. More than anyone here." She gave me a certain look and I knew she knew I had slept for almost 80 years. "Not a lot of us know about the miasmids and we keep quiet so they won't kill us. There are many miasmids in high ranking places with a lot of power. There are many in lower stations too. They spread themselves out strategically. They still want to destroy the Gathering, but they are going for a subtle approach this time instead of direct war as what happened with the K'thaktran war."

"So, pretty lady," Owen said, "you have a lot of information that it seems your willing to share with us, but we don't even know your name."

"Don't do that," Shel said flatly.

"What?" Owen asked.

"Pretty lady? She's my mother."

"But she is pretty," Owen said.

"It's nice to be complimented every now and then," Shel's mom put a hand on his shoulder. "And my name is El."

"Just don't do that anymore," Shel said to Owen.

"Okay," Owen said. "I'll respect that calling your mom pretty lady makes you uncomfortable and won't do it anymore."

"You never called me pretty lady," Minmin said.

"That's because you're pretty, but adorable and I thought you'd hate it if I called you adorable."

"I would."

"And you," Owen said to Esther, "are pretty too."

The right side of Esther's mouth almost turned up into a half smile.

"Shel told me about the Lion of Judah Research Station," El said to Esther. "I would like you to send me your vids. I'll keep them to myself for now, but I would like to see the miasmids kill outside of host bodies. I've never heard of that before." All 3 of our okulus's beeped with El's contact information. I assumed she got our contact info from Shel - except Shel didn't have Esther's contact information.

"Sorry for her abruptness," Shel said to Esther. I hadn't noticed it at first, but now that I looked I could see the pain in Esther's face at the mention of the Lion of Judah Research Station. "My mom was a Jo-Dinun."

Esther's face brightened. "Can you teach us? How to fight?"

I thought Esther was already an amazing fighter. She could go one on one with my mechatronic bodyguard after all.

El smiled. "I have a lot to teach and I think I have a lot to learn from you as well. I would like to see the light Shel mentioned in person. It's too bad you can't join in the sparring sessions with me and Shel and Minmin."

"Minmin spars with you too?" Owen asked.

"Just recently," Minmin said.

"What have you done with the bodies?" El asked.

"My mechatronic has been burning them," I said.

"Excellent," El said. "Keep up the good work."

"Do you know of those with the Corruption on the Shadow?" Esther asked.

"I know of a few," El answered. "I know more on the Armstar. I'll send you a list of who I know. Contact me before you act against them though. You've already gathered enough attention and I don't want you to gather anymore of the wrong attention. Captain Axa is off limits for now."

All three of us nodded.

"Good," El said. "Then I'll be in touch." With a nod from his mom, Shel ended the call.