“It’s… Do you know anything about what’s happening on the base?” he asked carefully.

“No,” I answered immediately.

“I have some information about it but not a lot,” Andy added.

Sammy visibly sagged. I could tell that he didn’t want to tell us what was going on.

“It’s not great here,” he started hesitantly. “Captain Aries, did you tell the Director how it was before you left?”

I glanced at Andy who’s face was an unchanging mask. I couldn’t remember telling him about the changes that had been made to the base as soon as Plend took over. I truly didn’t want to. I knew how much it would hurt him.

“No,” I said to Sammy before stealing my nerves and looking at Andy properly. “The Council assigned someone called Plend to take over as Director and Cas recognised her from some of his dad’s parties. He thinks she’s a supporter of the Council.”

“Yeah,” Elliot interrupted, his voice venomous. “That’s one way to put it. She’s a very vehement and outspoken supporter. Even during the early days, she was a fanatic. During the Cruitia Wars, when we were training, I remember her very vocally bragging about gunning down unarmed refugees because the Council shut their borders. She’ll follow their every command without hesitation.”

The rock of guilt and worry solidified in my stomach.

“That’s basically what we saw. Tutors were carrying stun sticks, kids were only allowed to eat basic rations, they weren’t allowed to talk or even look at tutors. It was… scary,” I explained.

Andy’s face didn’t change at all as I spoke but I could tell his brain was working hard and that he was furious.

“Things have gotten worse. Much worse,” he said, his face uncharacteristically grave. “I don’t really know what it was like before but… the tutors punish us for everything. We get locked in our room after lights out immediately after dinner and they switch off all technology. I mean, that part isn’t too bad because there’s a pretty good ring of people who sneak technology onto the base but it’s still a pain. We get woken up really early and we have to recite the Council Pledge every day.”

The words tumbled out of his mouth quickly but I was stuck on something he brushed over quickly.

“Wait, what do you mean they punish you for everything?” I asked.

His face screwed up and he shrugged.

“It’s constant. They’re always thinking up things to punish us for like speaking out of turn or using the wrong title when speaking to a tutor. It’s worse if they catch you doing something that’s actually not allowed…” He trailed off and glanced down the corridor.

“Is everything okay?” I asked, my heart speeding up in fear for him.

He looked back and smiled reassuringly.

“Yeah, sorry! I was just checking the proximity alarms!”

“Oh, good. What happens if they catch you doing something you’re not allowed?” I asked after another peek at Andy.

I didn’t really want to ask but I needed to know. I needed Andy to know. He’d worked so hard for the base to be a safe environment for kids to grow up and learn but this… It went against everything he’d ever wanted.

The only thing that hinted at how he was feeling was how tightly his hand was clutching Elliot’s. His knuckles were white and I could see that his fingers were digging in.

Sammy sagged.

“They just use the stun sticks generally but it depends how bad you’ve been. My last one was pretty bad…”

“What happened?” I asked, getting a sinking feeling.

He peeked up at me before checking the other screens he had set up.

“I got in trouble in my Council History class.”

I felt my lips purse.

“Why?”

The way he was looking at me already made me feel bad.

“Well… For telling the truth?” he said, clearly trying to skirt around the truth.

“What happened?” Andy asked.

“They asked if anyone had read the ‘lies’ published by your crew and I said I had.”

It felt like all of the air left the room.

“Then what happened?” I heard myself ask.

“They put me in deprivation,” he said shortly.

I had never heard of it but I knew it was something bad.

“What’s that?” I asked reluctantly.

“It’s not that bad. I was only there for, like, three days,” he insisted.

“Sammy,” I prompted when it became clear that he wasn’t going to say anything else.

“Basically, they lock you in a room by yourself and don’t give you any food and keep the lights on all the time so you can’t really sleep properly. They said it was to give me a chance to think about what you’d written. I probably could have gotten out sooner but I was kind of dumb.” He rubbed the back of his neck in an action that reminded me of Cas when he felt bad about something.

“What did you do?” I asked.

“Well… After the second day, they asked me if I believed what you wrote…” He sent me an almost apologetic look.

“And, you said no, right?” I said, feeling the guilt rise up to grip my heart.

“I know I should have but Plend is such an asshole!”

Andy was so furious at what they had done to the base that he didn’t even reprimand Sammy for his language.

“Sammy, you have to be careful,” I said, trying not to let my swirling emotions show. “I know you want to do what’s right but you need to protect yourself. The Council and Plend are very dangerous people.”

“I know but deprivation really isn’t that bad! Especially since we set up the system!”

My chest clenched again.

“What system?”

He grinned widely.

“Well. You know how all of the rooms here have vents?” he asked.

I nodded worriedly.

“We’ve started dropping in food for anyone who’s in the deprivation rooms. Only food without wrappers so once they eat, there’s no trace of it, and we’re really careful not to get caught! The vents have been fused shut from the other side too so people can’t escape the rooms so I don’t think there’s any way they’ll catch us anyway,” he explained.

“Even so, you need to be careful,” I said instinctively before noting the way Sammy’s face fell slightly and forcing myself to keep talking. “You’re doing a good thing though and you’re helping a lot of people.”

His face lit up with a radiant smile again.

“I’m just trying to protect people and do what’s right. That’s what you taught me. You always try and do the right thing, regardless of the cost,” he said happily.

That hit me like a phaser to the face.

I did try and do the right thing but sometimes it didn’t seem to matter. People still got hurt and suffered for it.

Gem still died.

“We should let you get back to your bed soon,” Andy said, placing a gentle hand on my arm. “You’ve been out of bed long enough and it’s dangerous after lights out.”

Sammy shrugged.

“It’s not too bad. We have proximately alarms set up in all of the vents so we know if any of the new tutors access them and I’ve got another…” He checked the time on his screen. “Seventeen minutes before they do the next round of dorm checks.”

“Dorm check?” I forced myself to ask.

They don’t really do those when I was at the base. They had cameras and motion detectors set up to make sure that kids weren’t sneaking around and getting into danger but they never did physical checks.

“Yeah, every two hours someone comes into all the dorms and turns the lights on to make sure we’re still there. I should be okay with missing it though. We’ve locked the bedroom door from the inside and set up a speaker system that Pav can activate with me saying I’m on the toilet,” he explained.

It was so clever but I hated that it was necessary.

“I’d rather not risk it, Sammy. Keep an eye on the private channel, we’ll send you a message to organise a meeting for next week. For then, can you do me a favour and try to get the names of all of the new tutors?” Andy asked gently.

“Of course! I’ll make a list!” he answered, clearly happy to be doing something to help.

“Thank you, be careful and get back to your room safely, alright?”

“Okay!”

“Thanks, Sammy. We’ll work out a way to get you lot out of there, okay?” I said, already running through a thousand different scenarios in my head.

“I know. I never doubted it for even a second,” he grinned.

That made me feel so much worse.

“We’ll speak to you soon,” Andy said, reaching towards the screen to disconnect.

“Bye!”

The screen went black and I felt myself slump in the chair.

Fuck. I knew things would be bad on the base but… I didn’t think it would be that bad.