Vai

Over the next few weeks, Teacher Miller got some of her vibrancy back. The lilt was in her voice again. She no longer avoided the students' eyes. Except for mine. She wouldn't look at me. She wasn't going to be fired or it would have happened by now. I wasn't sure if she wouldn't look at me because she was angry at my father or afraid of him. I guessed the latter.

Owen was in his usual spot for classes, so I'm not sure any of the other students knew something was wrong. Except, he was never late, never early. Always on time. He couldn't talk to me. And I knew it was because he couldn't and not wouldn't because the first day after he got arrested he did try to talk to me. I saw his mouth move, but I couldn't hear him. Then his image disappeared. He didn't try to talk to me again after that. He was exactly on time for class and as soon as class was over he was signed off.

"How is it having a thief and a smuggler for a friend?" Spencer asked behind me as soon as class ended that day and Owen disappeared. "He's still in jail you know."

Well, if the rest of the class hadn't known, they did now. Usually, people didn't stay after class, but they all were focused on Spencer.

"It's better than being friends with a bleep bleep," I said.

"You can't swear in class," Minmin said. "The program won't allow it."

I sighed. My insult to Spencer wouldn't be known unless I saw him on the ship in real life.

"He's not a thief," I said. "Those charges were dropped."

"Sure," Spencer said. "Thanks to your dad. Making up an imaginary girl that no one has seen to prove him innocent."

"First of all, my father didn't make up the girl. I've seen her."

"Sure," Spencer said. "Security has never caught this mystery girl," he said to the other students as if that alone should prove me wrong.

"Second of all, his volo never recorded him going inside the museum that night. Thirdly, the items were never found in his quarters."

"Still a smuggler," Spencer said. "Still in jail."

"He's not in jail," Shel said. "He's a minor. If anything he would be on house arrest."

"Yes," I said. "He's on house arrest. I tried to visit him, but there was a security guard at his door and they wouldn't let me. He can't get any calls either."

"What did he smuggle?" Minmin asked.

"You hadn't heard?" I asked.

Minmin and Shel shook their heads. I tried to ignore the rest of the class.

"Chocolate," I said.

Minmin and Shel laughed. The rest of the students soon followed.

"It's not funny," Spencer said. "He's stealing business from the legitimate restaurants onboard, including my mother's."

"How is it stealing from your mother's business?" Shel asked.

"Because it cuts into her chocolate sales," Spencer said.

"No it doesn't," Shel said. "She has a limited supply anyway. The people who go to her restaurant are going to buy from her. We are not scheduled to return for a year. Her supplies were bound to run out before then whether someone else sold chocolate or not."

"He overcharged me last time on the Remembrance when I tried to resupply my mom's restaurant and he was only supposed to sell it to my mother's restaurant. He sold it to individuals on the side. Way overpriced I might add."

"So what," Shel said. "The people buying knew it was overpriced. I'm sure at your mother's restaurant it is overpriced too. That's what happens when there is a limited supply of something."

Spencer stood up and came around his desk so he was directly behind me. I didn't like it so I stood up, but stood to the side so I wasn't in his direct path.

"Are you insulting my mother?"

Shel stood up and faced Spencer from the other side of my desk. "Does she not overprice her chocolate? Is it the same price as you would get chocolate on Mars or Earth? No? Then I didn't say anything untrue."

Spencer's hands balled up into fists. I was pretty sure if I couldn't swear in the school program, then violence wasn't allowed either. And it wasn't their physical bodies so even if they did fight, they wouldn't get hurt. Still - I thought about stepping in between them.

Minmin jumped onto my desk and held out a hand to each of them. "Let's not fight," she said. "You both have points."

Spencer scoffed, but he stepped away. Underneath his breath he said, "Now I have a little bunny creature telling me what to do."

Minmin's face changed dramatically from cute and friendly to angry and deadly. I took a step away from her before I realized it. She launched off my desk, her feet first towards Spencer's back. She was knocked backwards just before her feet could touch him, but the force also knocked Spencer forward flat onto his face with his arms sprawled out in front of him.

Minmin recovered much quicker than Spencer. By the time he sat up, she was above him. Her face close to his.

"I am not a bunny," her voice dripped venom. "I am not a pet."

"Okay," Spencer nodded. Starwatchers had floppy ears, cute faces and fur, but I wouldn't really say they looked like bunnies. I was really glad in that moment that I was not Spencer.

"Let's go, Minmin." Shel took her hand, but before they logged off Shel added, "You are really stupid to make a Starwatcher angry."

Spencer logged off immediately after Shel and Minmin. He didn't even wait for his friends from the Remembrance who were on their way across the room to help him up.

I left the school program, but before I could logout of the ansible, a female voice said, "You shouldn't be around fighting."

It sounded like something Warpaint would say, but it wasn't Warpaint. It was the ship's computer. I didn't think she was supposed to be talking to me so directly and especially not in the ansible, but maybe I was wrong. She spoke with my father. Maybe he had the computer spying on me too.

"I can't get physically hurt in the ansible." Why was I even replying?

"I know. But it isn't good for your mental health."

"My mental health is fine."

"It's okay to take a moment to breathe."

My heart flipped. My brain froze. I looked all around me in the emptiness that was the space between programs. I expected to see my mother, but of course there was nothing. An imaginary mother's arm wrapped around my shoulders.

My stomach churned. I left the ansible and ripped the okulus off my eyes.

"Sir?" Warpaint asked.

I got off the bed and ran to my little bathroom. The door seemed to take a long time to open as bile rose in the back of my throat. When it finally did open, I stepped inside and threw up in the toilet.

"Sir," Warpaint said. He patted my back a little too hard. I held up a hand to stop him.

"Are you all right, sir?"

It's okay to take a moment to breathe.

A tear spilled onto my cheek.

"Sir, did something happen at school? I should call your father."

"No." I grabbed one of his left arms as another tear fell.

"Sir, something is clearly wrong."

It's okay to take a moment to breathe.

"A memory," I said. "Only a memory."

I straightened up as my heart and stomach calmed. The moisture left my eyes.

"Only a strange coincidence," I told myself.

"What is, sir?"

I ignored him. I sat on my bed and called up my early volo recordings. I almost selected one. Volos were supposed to record your life. They were with you the moment you were born. There were times when accessing the volo's recordings were okay or even necessary. But there was a reason people weren't supposed to casually access their volo recordings. You could become lost in the memories. Addicted to them. Get immersed in the recordings of a passed loved one so completely that you couldn't function in your day to day life.

I closed the recordings and stretched out on my bed. Instead of a recording, I tried to remember.

I ran down the walkway. On Mars. I must have been young because my feet couldn't keep up with me. They got entangled and I fell forward. I caught myself with my hands so my mouth didn't bang into the walkway. My palms were scraped and bloody. I cried.

"It's not so bad," mom said. I remembered the words. I couldn't remember how her voice sounded. She knelt next to me and wiped the dirt and grit off my scraped hands. Her soft hands wiped the tears off my cheeks.

"It's okay to take a moment to breathe." Her loving arm wrapped around my shoulders and drew me in close to her.

It was a coincidence. Just a coincidence.

But . . .

"Warpaint."

"Yes, sir?"

"Does the ship's computer have my mother's voice?"

"I wouldn't know, sir. But it is highly unlikely."

I sat up. "You're right. That is highly unlikely."

"Yes, sir."

"Still. Did my father work on the ship's computer?"

"I don't know, sir. He did come to the ship early for preparations as the Chief Science Officer, but I don't know what those preparations were."

My phone chirped to notify me of an incoming call. A smile came to my lips when I saw it was Owen. I answered immediately. His image was projected through my volo.

"Done with house arrest so soon?"

Owen smiled when he saw me smile.

"Yes. Finally. They won't give me the chocolate back though." His lips turned down slightly. "Well, they will, just not until I get back to Earth. So much for my profits."

"At least you get them back so you don't have a loss," I offered.

"And I have to check in with security weekly."

"Well, you did smuggle something on illegally."

"And a security officer will be checking my quarters weekly just to make sure I don't smuggle anything else onboard."

"Sorry to say it, but you kind of deserve it."

"I guess," Owen said. "But they also said I couldn't make chocolate bars from the algae. Why is that a big deal? Algae is abundant onboard. All the food is made from it. And it isn't like the algae chocolate is any good."

"Why would they restrict that?" I asked.

The right side of Owen's lips turned up. "They saw I made it in large quantities onboard the Remembrance."

"Why did you do that?"

His smile grew larger. "Secret."

I shook my head.

"Warpaint," Owen said, "ready to be my bodyguard?"

"No, sir. I'm already Vai's bodyguard."

"I was just teas...nevermind," Owen said. "I've been cooped in my quarters for weeks. Want to go have dinner at the Museum Delectables?"

"Yeah. I'll meet you at the elevators."