Vai

"This is a ship wide emergency."

I awoke with a start. Emergency. I threw off the covers and stood up. Was there a hole in the ship? Had we ran into asteroids? Had the K'thaktra attacked? No. The K'thaktra were friends now. Warpaint was by my side before I could take a step.

"Unless authorized, you are to remain in your quarters."

My door opened and my father rushed in. He looked all around my room as if the emergency might be in there.

"If you have seen anyone or anything suspicious on the 6th level, please report it to security immediately."

The girl. What did she do? No. I didn't have enough information yet. It might not have anything to do with the girl. I didn't even know what was going on yet.

"Please remain in your quarters until we make a further announcement."

I looked at my father. He looked at me. His okulus buzzed as a call came through. He answered. He must have been bothered because he didn't think to hide it from me.

The captain's profile was projected through my father's volo.

"Lieutenant Commander, come to the bridge immediately."

"What's going on?" my father asked. "An attack?"

"No. The Aether Field Prototype was stolen from the museum."

The girl had been in the museum. And Owen and I had always seen her on the museum level. Should I say something? I opened my mouth, but closed it quickly. I probably shouldn't interrupt my father's conversation with the captain.

"Was that the only thing stolen?" my father asked.

"No. But the other item wasn't important."

"What was it?"

"The K'thaktran ancient writings that no one can decipher."

A chill ran from the top of my spine down my back.

"Why would someone take that? It's useless." my father said.

"Isn't the Aether Field Prototype useless?" I asked.

"Is your son listening to this conversation, Lieutenant Commander?" the captain asked. "This is confidential information."

My father scowled at me before he left the room, still on the call with the captain. The door closed behind him.

"Isn't the Aether Field Prototype useless?" I asked Warpaint. "It's just a model of what was used on the Shadow in the K'thaktra war isn't it?"

"No, sir," Warpaint said. "It's fully functional, just on a small scale. Much like the Aether Field your father installed in me."

"You probably weren't supposed to tell me that," I said.

"I wasn't supposed to volunteer it. No. But you asked."

I wondered how long it would take my father to figure out that loophole and fix it.

"Then that means the writings are probably not useless too. I should tell my father."

I stepped out of my room just as my father walked out the door into the corridor. The door shut. I probably should have gone after him, but I didn't. Maybe it had nothing to do with the girl. Okay, so that was unlikely. I should tell him.

I went back into my room and climbed into bed. I pulled the covers up to my chin. Maybe she had a really good reason for taking it. Maybe it was a life and death situation and if I told on her, something really bad would happen. I should talk to her first.

Now that I knew there wasn't any immediate danger, I fell asleep quickly. Warpaint woke me in the morning for school. I almost said I didn't have to go since I was confined to quarters, but then realized I didn't actually go anywhere for school. I just connected through the ansible. I got out of bed and drank the breakfast shake he handed me.

"Did my father come home yet?"

"Not yet, sir."

That didn't really surprise me. He was the chief science officer and the Aether Field Prototype was science. Or maybe it was engineering. Probably both, but since my father had installed an Aether Field in Warpaint, I assumed he knew a lot about it and why someone might take it. As far as I knew, something that small couldn't be used as a weapon and the shield it would make would be small.

I connected to the ansible and the school program. I wasn't the first one there. The bunny and anchovy were. Okay. They're humans, but I would probably always associate the other students with what they were on that first day. I nodded to them and continued to my desk. Our seating had never officially been assigned. It was just an unspoken rule that you always stayed in the same seat. Maybe I should be rebellious and choose a different seat.

I didn't. Spencer arrived before Minmin, Shel or Owen. I planned to ignore him, but he spoke to me.

"You shouldn't trust Owen."

I turned to look at him. "I don't," which wasn't completely true. I trusted what he told me about Thrissko, but I knew Owen wasn't honest in all his dealings. I knew there were some secrets.

"And don't ever make deals with him. He'll backstab you."

"What did he do to you?"

"Hi," Minmin interrupted. I didn't think she did it on purpose.

"Hi," I said. Spencer didn't say anything. He was suddenly preoccupied with something imaginary across the room.

"Do you think Teacher Miller got fired?" she whispered. She looked at Spencer, but he wasn't paying attention to us. And in the ansible it really didn't matter. It wasn't real life. If we didn't want him to hear our conversation he wouldn't be able to - even if we were yelling. It was considered poor manners though - to block others out.

"I don't know," I said.

"You didn't hear anything about it from your parent?"

I smiled at her word choice. It was oddly cute. "No. He doesn't say much to me except that he won't allow me planetside anymore."

"He can't stop you when you're officially an adult," Shel said. He sat backwards in his chair so he was facing us.

"I bet he could," I mumbled.

"What?" Minmin asked.

"Nothing. So did someone tell your parents? What did they say?"

"The captain and first mate . . ." Shel started.

"That would be his dad and my mom," Minmin interjected.

"They were waiting for the shuttle," Shel said. "So they knew, but they are high ranking officers so they would know even without Teacher Miller telling them."

"No one told my parents," Owen said. I hadn't realized he had arrived and that he sat at his desk. "I told my dad when I got home and he called my mom. She got off work right away. But hey," he smiled, "they took me out to eat at Starrise."

"My parents took me out to eat too," Minmin said. She stood up and reached across my desk to high five Owen. Their high five didn't even come up to my chest level.

"Well," Shel said, "my parents still aren't talking with each other so I spent my evening alone. In my room."

"Oh hey. That reminds me. I'm not sure why it reminds me, but Minmin," I said, "have you ever met my father?" He had said she was a cute baby. But maybe he had a picture of her in his notes.

"No. I've never seen him before yesterday." She leaned in and whispered, "He was scary."

"I agree," Owen said.

"Me too," Shel agreed.

"He didn't take it out on you guys did he? It wasn't your fault."

"Not us," Minmin said, "but poor Teacher Miller."

"What did he do to her?"

"He was just frightening, my friend," Owen said. "Especially when he was quiet. Quiet after yelling. Scary."

Owen looked behind me at Spencer. I had forgotten Spencer was there. I looked over my shoulder. Spencer was interested in the wooden lines in his desktop. I didn't think he had always been so interested in them. There was a quiet woosh that went around the four of us blocking out Spencer.

Minmin looked at Owen. "That's rude," she said. Owen had blocked everyone else from our conversation.

"So is eavesdropping," Owen said.

"It was weird though," Shel said.

"What?" I asked.

His blue eyes - the same color as his skin - pierced into mine. "Your father said Teacher Miller had no idea what he had done to keep you safe. It sounded ominous. What has he done to keep you safe?"

Put me to sleep for 80 years. Kept secrets. Moved classified, special equipment out of our house as if he knew our house would be broken into. Accepted a position in the G.E.F. out of the blue. Lived longer than he was supposed to. Blocked all my communication with Mars. Gave me a mechatronic bodyguard. What else had he done? And why?

"I don't know," I said. Owen knew about the house, but I didn't want to share that with Shel and Minmin. None of them knew I had slept for 80 years. I was from a different time.

Teacher Miller walked into the room and Owen dropped the block he had put around the four of us. Her appearance was normal, but her voice was not. Normally there was a lightness to her tone, but now her tone was flat. She didn't look at us - not just us that had experienced the predators planetside, but all of her students. She didn't take roll call. She didn't answer students when they asked questions with the exception of Hani's.

"Teacher Miller," Hani interrupted the lesson.

Teacher Miller didn't look up, but she did pause. Maybe it was because Hani had been in the group of students that had experienced such trauma.

"When do you want our reports on the Slpsis?"

There was a long pause. "Whenever," Teacher Miller said quietly. She didn't look at any of us. "You can turn them in when you finish them. There isn't a deadline."

Something had happened with her, but it didn't appear that she was fired. I had thought my dad would fire her. Of course, he didn't have the authority to, but it seemed like he was allowed to do a lot that his authority didn't allow him to do.

Owen vanished from his desk. Some of the students on the other side of his desk gasped. You don't just cut out of class like that. Not like that.

He reappeared as suddenly as he vanished. He wasn't sitting though. He was by my side. He grabbed my arm.

"It wasn't me," he said. The students all around began to whisper.

"I saw the surveillance video," Spencer said. He had an awful smirk on his face. "You were on the 6th floor late last night."

They wouldn't think - couldn't think - Owen stole the Aether Field Prototype.

"It wasn't me," Owen said to me a little louder. "Please. You've got to believe me. It wasn't . . ." He was gone again.