Vai

Spencer and his father greeted us in the Starrise. We all filed in. Teal light surrounded Spencer's dad.

"Did you two plan this out?" El asked Hani. "Open the light without informing us?" Her voice had a subtle, dangerous tinge to it.

"No," Hani said. "We never discussed it with each other."

"I didn't know she opened the light in her family," Spencer said. "And I lost my mom to the Corruption. Of course I would protect my dad."

"What about Nathan?" my dad asked. "Did he open it in his family too?"

"I don't know," Hani said. "I didn't know Spencer had until just now."

"I don't know either," Spencer said.

"Should we call him and tell him to come here?" Minmin asked.

El exchanged a glance with my dad. El slowly nodded her head. "Call him," she said to Hani. "I guess if his family doesn't have it yet, we shouldn't leave them out."

Hani called Nathan. While we waited, I watched Waters Reaching with Minmin. She was ecstatic to have a friend who actually wanted to watch it. We sat at one of the tables with our chairs together and her okulus shaped in a screen in front of us. I didn't really find it scary like it was supposed to be, but part of me felt guilty over the way Other Vai had been so dismissive of it. It was silly to feel guilty over something I hadn't done, but he was a clone of the Original Vai just like I was so didn't mean that part of him was part of me?

I also found it fascinating the way her face and eyes would change whenever Bars came on screen. If she ever met him in real life, she might be one of those fans that faint.

The others talked about the Bundu-Jo broadcast that got cut off. We all hoped that more people knew about the Corruption and had a way to fight them. There was always the first way - the way the Shadow had won the war - the Aether field, but were the Corruption too incorporated into our populace and government that it would be impossible now?

Nathan, his parents, and his two younger brothers arrived.

"What is going on?" Nathan's dad addressed the other adults. "Nathan said you were attacked by aliens and that we were all in danger."

"So he hasn't opened your light," El stated.

"What is the light?" Nathan's dad asked.

"Was I supposed to?" Nathan asked. "I thought we were keeping that secret."

"Your family is the only one in the dark at the moment," El said. "We might as well enlighten them."

El told them all about the Corruption and the Awakened One and the light. Nathan and El opened the light in them.

Nathan's little brothers went around the Starrise tables waving their lights - white and gray - all around. They didn't know what their powers were yet, so they didn't damage anything.

"So that Bundu-Jo reporter was correct?" Nathan's mom asked. "The station hasn't said anymore, but others have picked up the report and it has been spreading rapidly. I honestly thought they were a crazy conspiracy faction and there wasn't anything to the reports."

"There is," my dad said.

"People need to be warned," Nathan's dad said. "We need to spread the light to everyone we can and they need to spread it and so forth."

"The Corruption will stop us," Lieutenant Tanpo said. "They've already undermined those reports. Only a small portion of the population believes them."

"We could show them," I said.

Everyone turned to look at me - except Nathan's two little brothers and Hani's little sister who had joined the brothers in running around the restaurant.

"In the morning," I said, "Gathering morning, we'll go to the bridge and expose the captain or first officer - whichever one is on duty."

"It would be the captain," my dad said, "but how are you going to expose them? Fight them? The rest of the bridge crew will try to stop you. Some have the Corruption and those that don't - they don't know any better."

"We have to make the Corruption think we are trying to kill the captain," I said. "Make them desperate enough that they will try to escape. If we record and broadcast it on social forums, the government - the Corruption - won't be able to cut off the feed fast enough. They will be exposed."

"But we have seen the Corruption before and mistaken it for a frenzied drug concocted by the K'thaktra," El said.

"We tell the bridge crew why we are there first while we are broadcasting," I said. "We'll make sure they know it is aliens. And the K'thaktra were always surrounded by the zek fog in the war. The fog didn't come out of them - out of their brain - like we'll show it do with the captain."

"That means we kill the captain of the ship and first officer," my dad said. "It could be seen as mutiny. Are you sure that's what you want to do?"

"Does the second officer have the corruption?" I asked.

"Not that I've noticed," my dad said.

"That would be a no," El said. "Your dad isn't wrong about such matters."

"The Corruption is readying for their big move," I said. "We are the only ones in the entire Gathering with the light. We must warn everyone about the threat whether they believe us or not and I think Owen is right. I think we need to open the light in as many people as possible. First with everyone on the Shadow, then the entire G.E.F. and then to colonies and planets."

"And I know where the Awakened One is hiding," Esther said. "If everyone on the Shadow and G.E.F. know of him, we wouldn't have to hide him. He could board and help train all of us with the light."

My dad looked to El for her opinion. They stared at each other a long time without saying anything.

Finally El spoke, "I think if the Corruption are readying for a big attack - which it sounds like they are - we should reveal them and strike first in what way we can. The G.E.F. should be ours. Not theirs."

My dad nodded. "I can hack into the 9:00 Gathering news programs as well as various social medias to show your volo feeds. I'll need permission to access all of your volos. I think Spencer, Hani and Nathan and their families should stay here. You are all new to your light and there are children involved. The Corruption don't know about you yet. If something goes wrong you will need to be responsible for spreading the light. Spencer, go ahead and open the Starrise as planned, but the rest of you stay here. Don't go into work. Call in sick or something."

Everyone agreed.

We all tried to sleep on the benches and floor of the Starrise for the few hours left to us, but it was difficult with how wound up the younger kids were and the fact that we were going to confront the captain in a few hours.

When the time came, we - myself, Owen, Esther, Minmin, Shel, El, Lieutenant Tanpo, my dad and of course Warpaint - loaded onto the elevators and headed to the bridge. I knew my mom was watching even if she had to act like the ship's computer and couldn't say anything to us.

We exited the elevators. The officers standing guard outside the bridge doors looked at my dad confused. My dad waved them aside using his grim set, commanding, no room for no, expression. They stepped aside and didn't stop any of us from entering.

Every head - 10 of them - turned to us. The captain stood up from her chair.

"Lieutenant Commander," the captain said, "this is highly irregular. What are you doing here with these - " She stopped when she saw Lieutenant Tanpo.

"Lieutenant," Captain Axa said, "aren't you supposed to be on duty?"

"Captain," my dad said in that commanding tone. Captain Axa scowled and for a brief moment the pink glinted in her eyes. "You are to step down from your position immediately due to your conspiracy with a hostile alien race."

She scoffed. Everyone working on the bridge stood up and turned fully to us.

"You don't have the authority," Captain Axa said. "If this were true, it should be the first officer standing where you are."

"Except he has also been consorting with hostile aliens."

Pink glinted in some of the eyes around us, but not all. The ones with clear eyes were confused.

"This is ridiculous," Captain Axa said. "Leave, Lieutenant Commander. And take your children with you."

"We can prove it," my dad said. "The hostile aliens - the miasmids - look like zek. No they are zek. Watch."

Captain Axa's blue eyes narrowed with sudden suspicion. "Watch? Who are you speaking to?"

El attacked her.

All of us put our light shields around us. Warpaint's red lines spread across his white body until he was mostly red. The crew members attacked with their stun batons.

Two went for Shel. He kicked one using his purple light to enhance the kick and the human he just kicked flew backwards. The second person - a Starwatcher - tried to hit Shel with his stun baton. Shel grabbed the stun baton, but didn't try to pull it away. Instead, he focused his purple light around it and the place he touched collapsed into itself. The baton kept folding into itself until there was nothing left. The Starwatcher stepped back in surprise - pink glinted in his green eyes. He jumped high - high enough so that his feet were to Shel's eye level and then he kicked out several times before he dropped back to the ground. Shel's purple shield kept the kicks from reaching his face.

A Bundu-Jo tried to stun Minmin, but her white shield kept out the baton. Minmin did something similar to what the other Starwatcher just tried with Shel. She jumped eye level to the Bundu-Jo and kicked him in the face. A tooth fell to the floor alongside the Bundu-Jo.

A human with the pink glint in his eyes thrust his baton in Owen's side, but Owen's yellow shield kept it out. Owen lit his entire body in flames and the human fell backwards stumbling over his own feet to get away from Owen.

A K'thaktra female went after Esther. The K'thaktra's eyes remained red. There was no hint of pink. Esther used her pink light to push the K'thaktra away from her. The K'thaktra's face twisted in confusion.

Two went after Lieutenant Tanpo. A K'thaktra male and a human female. The lieutenant pushed out with her orange shield until they were pushed back to their seats. I didn't see pink in the K'thaktra's orange eyes, but I did see it in the human's.

A human went after Warpaint and the last human went after me. Warpaint stepped in front of me. He blasted both of the humans in the chest with Aether. I was worried he killed them. The Corruption hadn't come out of any of their hosts yet and we needed them to in order to prove their existence.

I stretched forth my green light to make sure they were alive. They were, but they were both hurt and unconscious. I started to heal them. Neither of them had the Corruption in them. I was tempted to heal all that were hurt. I could see all of their injuries, knew what to do to heal them, how to mend the bones and tissues and cells. I resisted and turned my attention to El and Captain Axa. We needed the Corruption to reveal themselves and it would be best if that was revealed through Axa as she was the most notable.

Captain Axa had several cuts on her arms and hands. The uniform over her arms was sliced in several places showing her blue skin and red blood underneath. El's red light allowed her to cut. El's shield kept out all of Captain Axa's attempts to hurt her. I knew before they had the light or the Corruption the two of them would have been on par with each other in terms of fighting. I honestly thought Captain Axa might have been a little better than El, but El used her red light to enhance her speed and strength.

With El's enhancements with her light, she should have been better than Captain Axa, but Captain Axa - aside from the cuts - still seemed on par with El. Did the Corruption enhance her strength and speed as well? I remembered the old vids from the K'thaktra war and the killing frenzy of the K'thkatra in the zek cloud. They had been stronger and faster, almost impossible to beat. I had always thought that was because of the drug only zek wasn't a drug. I knew that now. It was the Corruption.

I stretched out with my green light to Captain Axa. I saw them. All of them. Each tiny Corruption inside her - centered around her brain. Controlling her with pain and pleasure. They did enhance her speed and strength. I saw how they connected to her.

I knew how to tear them away from her.

"Stop!" I shouted. Everyone stopped I think more out of surprise than my actual words. "I know what to do," I said as I stared at Captain Axa. I took a step towards her. El took a step back to allow me to get closer.

"I can force them out," I said.