Anxiety leapt in my stomach but I ignored it. We’d trained for this. We’d played with scenarios like this before. We could play this the exact same way we played scenarios in class.

“We find a way to contact the Council. Peggy, can you compile the data? Gem, you find the contact details for the Council. Cory, can you contact the emergency line for the Guardians? I know we just saw that they are aware of the situation on Irision but surely they can’t ignore the risk.” I commanded.

They nodded and grabbed screens to begin the work. I looked over Cas’ shoulder at the screen where he appeared to be waiting to gain access to the data site. His leg was bobbing rapidly and he kept clenching his hands until his knuckles clicked.

“You okay?” I asked, resting my hand on his shoulder.

He nodded without looking up.

“I believe that they would react like that but... Surely if they knew the planet was going to explode and kill everyone they would send ships or something. wouldn’t they?”

My heart broke for him. I wanted to believe they wouldn’t just ignore them too. I had some faith in the Council then. I don’t now.

“I’ll check flight plans and see if there are any records of ships on their way to Irision. They have to do something, right?”

I sat next to him and began hacking into the emergency flight records, so relieved that we all had experience hacking due to visiting Chal so much. We had to hack Frida each time so that it looked as if we were visiting somewhere else and I was so grateful that I’d made us all practice so it wasn’t just Can and Peggy who were good at hacking.

“Okay, I can call the Emergency Assistance line and they’ll pass the information on to the Council if they deem it urgent enough?” Gem read from her screen.

“Okay, once Peggy has all the details together call them and send it,” I ordered, not looking up from my screen.

I was about halfway through the emergency services’ encryptions but still had a way to go. I glanced around at my crew. They were all staring intently at their screens, typing furiously or reading intently. Cas’ eyes were flitting back and forth between two screens and his mouth mashed together angrily.

“You’re right, Peg. You’re completely right.” He confirmed, horrified.

She looked at him with fear in her eyes.

“We need to speak to the Council.”

“I have the line for the Guardians too,” Cory added.

“Okay, let’s call the Council first, then Guardians.” I decided.

Gem nodded before starting the call on her wrist monitor. We waited, barely able to breathe, for someone to answer.

“Hello Emergency Assistance, how may I help you?” A pleasant voice chimed.

“Oh… hello. Umm… I was wondering if you could help us? My name is Gemini and I am a trainee on the Nova Space Corps Base number twenty-five.” Gem started, her eyes flitting to our faces worriedly.

“Hello Gemini, thank you for calling. What is your emergency?”

“Umm… I think that Irision is at imminent risk of explosion.” Gemini winced at her own indelicate phrasing.

There was a pause.

“Oh, that is quite the emergency! Tell me more please.” The man’s voice did not change at all.

“One of my crew members has been researching the planet for an assignment—”

“What is the name of the crew member and crew number, please?” The voice interrupted.

“Pegasus and crew 761.”

“Thank you, please continue.”

“So, Peggy has been researching Irision’s mining community as part of an assignment and she thinks that the planet’s structure has been damaged by the machinery that they are using.”

“Oh no.” The voice said calmly.

“Yes. She’s seen the seismic data and it seems to be mirroring the same patterns as Noviel and Earth before they exploded.”

“And how did she access the data?”

There was another pause as Gem looked at Peggy who nodded then at me. I nodded as well. She had to tell them to explain how dangerous the situation was.

“Someone from a messaging boards sent it to her randomly, she didn’t know what it was when she opened it.”

“Ah, so you’d like to report Pegasus for the distribution of illegally obtained information?”

“No!” Gem almost shouted, staring at Peg with wild eyes.

“So, you’d like to report the person who sent her the data? Do you have the name of this person so we can begin the report?”

“No! We’d like to make sure that the Council knows that Irision is at risk. That’s what is most important here, not who sent who information!”

“Distribution of illegally obtained information is an extremely serious crime to the Council.” The voice chided calmly.

“Fine, I’ll file the report later once we know that Irision is safe!” Gem said, shaking her head in exasperation.

“Great! I’ve checked our system and we have no reports of any danger on Irision. Thank you for your call, is there anything else I can do to help?”

“What? No, we are making the report! We have evidence!”

“Ah, of course. I simply meant that we had no official reports of danger. If it would make you feel better, you may send illegal obtained data to our inbox and I shall send it on to an analyst.”

Gem looked at me and I nodded.

“Okay, I’ll send it now.”

Her wrist monitor pinged.

“I have sent the contact details to your wrist monitor as well as the form to report the crew member and other person who has been distributing illegally gained information. Please feel free to call again if you have any problems. Thank you.” He disconnected without waiting for a response.

I sighed.

“Okay, Peg send the data to Gem. Make sure when you send it to the Council, you have it set to alert us when the data has been opened.”

They both nodded and began angrily typing.

“Let’s try the Guardian’s emergency line next,” I said, my hope fading fast.

Cory called them this time and I watched growing steadily more disappointed. He had almost the exact conversation, also being advised to send them the information and told that there was nothing wrong with Irision according to the official reports despite what Peggy had found.

His wrist monitor pinged, seeming to echo around the otherwise silent room. I stared at my screen, my eyes glazed as my brain worked furiously to determine how to save the Irisians.

“What now?” Peggy asked sadly.

“What else can we do?” Gem replied, a hint of desperation breaking through her voice.

I felt Cas’ eyes on me and turned to look at him. His face was steeled in determination.

There was something else we hadn’t tried yet but it had to be his decision.

“I have a way we can speak to the Council.” He said, his voice strong.

The others turned to look at him in confusion.

“Oh, nik! Your father!” Gem shouted, hitting herself on the forehead as she realised.

“Yeah. He’s in charge of the Irision situation.”

“Oh,” I said almost silently.

Cas’ reaction to the video early suddenly made more sense.

“You don’t need to Cas, I’m sure we can think of another solution,” Peggy said quietly.

His hands clenched by his sides, his knuckles clicking quietly.

“No. I’ll do it.”

He tapped a few buttons on his wrist monitor, his fingers trembling slightly.

“Do you not know what time it is?” A cold voice from his wrist monitor demanded.

“Hello, father. I’m sorry for calling so late.” Cas’ voice was restrained and formal.

“What have you done, Adam? Have you finally managed to get yourself kicked out of the Corps? I knew it was only a matter of time.”

Cas’ throat bobbed.

“It’s not that. Is mother there?”

“No. I’m in my office. If you wanted to speak to her you should have called her.”

“I don’t have her ping, you know that.” He took a shaking breath. “I need to speak to you about something... confidential.”

“Oh for nik’s sake. Did you get someone pregnant?” The Councillor sounded bored and dismissive.

“No! It’s nothing like that! Is anyone else there?”

“One second, Adam. Could you step outside, please? My son,” he said the word with disgust, “needs to talk to me. You know what he’s like.”

Cas waited, his face flushed slightly.

I reached out and squeezed his shoulder in support. His dad seemed like a total dick.

“What is it?” His voice was somehow much colder now.

“We think that Irision is in danger.”

“Oh, for nik’s sake. And who is this we?”

“My crew. We have evidence of seismic activity that mirrors Noviel’s activity before that exploded. We believe it will happen again.”

“It’s fine.” The Councillor said shortly.

“It’s not fine. Someone reached out to Peggy, they’ve been having quakes and tremors! They aren’t safe!”

“Ah yes, Pegasus… The daughter of two addicts. I wouldn’t believe what she says if I were you. Drugs can addle one’s mind, especially when they start so young.”

Peggy’s face flushed and her eyes filled with tears.

“She is the smartest person I know. I believe her more than I believe you.” Cas replied, his voice taking on a dangerous edge I hadn’t heard before.

“That says more about your friends and the quality of your base than it does about Pegasus.” He sneered.

“I’ve seen the data myself! They aren’t safe there, you need to do something!”

“Enough, Adam! I am in charge of the Irision situation and I say they are safe. I’ve had enough of your nonsense. I assume you have illegally acquired the data and if you don’t leave me alone and I will pursue this matter with the Guardians.”

Cas stared down at his wrist monitor, his face blank.

“I don’t know why I expected anything from you.”

“I expect very little from you, Adam, and yet you always manage to disappoint me.” He hung up.

My discarded screen beeped quietly, letting me know that it had finished hacking into the emergency flight records. I picked it up and began scanning it to give Cas a minute to compose himself, his face white with rage. Without meaning to, I gasped. The data didn’t make any sense.

“What is it?” Cas asked, wiping a hand over his face.

I wordlessly handed the screen over to him, hoping he’d draw a different conclusion from the data. Surely, I couldn’t be right. I hoped I wasn’t.

“They recalled all Guardians earlier tonight. They’ve told them to leave all Irisians there.” He said hollowly.

“They’re leaving them to die?” Peggy whispered in horror.

“It looks like it.”

“What do we do?”

I look at Cas who is still staring at the screen before looking back at Peggy, her eyes still shining with tears. Gem and Cory looked at me too, waiting for my decision.

“I’m going to call my father back,” Cas said, his hands clenching the screen in front of him.

“Cas, it’s pointless. He’ll just call the Guardians and have us arrested and then we can’t do anything.”

Cas rubbed the back of his neck, scowling.

“I knew he was a heartless asshole but this is truly a new low. What the fuck do we do?”

I ran through the scenarios in my head before offering them to the crew.

“The first option is that we do nothing, we go to bed and hope this is over by the morning. For all we know, the Council does have a plan.” I said, knowing that they didn’t and if we did that, we’d be complicit in the Irisians’ deaths.

My crewmates said nothing in response.

“Yeah, I didn’t think so either. We could go to Andy, explain what’s going on and hope he helps us?” I suggested, not feeling right about this option either.

“He wouldn’t side with the Council… but he’d have to…” Peggy said quietly.

“What do you mean?” Gem questioned.

“If he goes against what they say, it counts as treason,” Cas answered instead of Peggy.

She nodded sadly.

“We can’t do that to him, can we?” I said, already knowing their response.

“No. They’d arrest him and take the base.”

I nodded at Cas then looked around at my crew, analysing their facial expressions.

“We can’t do nothing.”

They nodded in agreement.

“Peggy, what’s the punishment for treason?” I heard myself ask, wanting us to have all of the facts before I decided but knowing that at this point, it didn’t even matter.

I’d already made my decision and I knew they had too.

“It depends.” She evaded the question.

I waited for her to continue.

“The best we can hope is that they’ll kick us out of the Corps. Or... the punishment could be death. The law’s pretty open to the Council’s whims.”

I swallowed. I already knew this was a possibility but at the same time, hearing it out loud made it seem more real.

“I don’t want anyone to make this decision lightly. No one has to do this if they aren’t comfortable with it and we won’t hold it against you if you don’t want to come.” I said, looking them each in the eyes and seeing their answer written on their faces.

“I’m not leaving people to die just because my father doesn’t see their worth,” Cas said, his hands shaking with fury.

The rest of the crew nodded in agreement.

“Okay, what do we do now?” Cas asked me.