I dug into my omelet and tore off a chunk. I dropped it beside the others, growing my collection of shredded omelet bits. I usually loved Friday morning breakfasts, but when I thought about the morrow, I just wanted to hurl. My permanently weak appetite didn’t help either.

The sweet scent of Laura’s pancakes wafted into my nose. She devoured them like that was her main priority. Manning stood by the black stove, chewing his bacon in silence. Our silver refrigerator hummed in the corner. I was taken aback when Manning said it was stocked with food. I thought we’d have to go grocery shopping, but Frost had come through again.

“So, you’re telling me that the Oppressed is made up of a weasel and some girl?” Laura somehow said with a mouthful of pancakes. “One with a blue streak in her hair? Why does that even matter, Wander?”

I flinched. “Wha—you need to know what she looks like for the search! Anyway, it’s not like they’re the only two members. We just need them to lead us to the others. That Surge guy is probably the one with the stupid generator.”

“It will be difficult to get information out of them. They never admitted to being members.” Manning waved his bacon around as he spoke. “We would have to see them before they saw us. Otherwise, they would flee again. Our next encounter must be perfect to yield results.”

Laura glared at my plate. “Are you eating your food or preparing for war with it?”

My army of bite-sized omelet pieces looked sad, even to me. There was melted cheese everywhere. I didn’t want to waste food, but I also didn’t want to eat.

I pushed my plate toward her. “I thought I was ready for omelet, but nothing can replace Beth’s. Her food was out of this world.” I pointed up at the Earth in the sky. Except we were indoors, and no one laughed. “Sorry. She loved that joke. It works better on the Moon.”

Laura frowned. “Forget I said anything. You can slice up your food all day if it makes you feel better.”

“Thanks, but I’d deserve a lecture at that point.” A wave of emotion hit me. My grip on the fork loosened as my thoughts raced. “Laura, we were born into this war. We’ve never known a peaceful reality. Can you even imagine it? The galaxy after the war?”

Laura stared into her syrup. “Sure. I think of a galaxy where people wake up free of stress. No more AI attacks, destroying planets, and maybe even no more violence at all. If you fought for 400 years, do you think you’d ever want to do it again? I think, as awful as this war is, it’s paved the way for peace.”

Manning set down his bacon wand. His back was to us. I waited for his thoughts, but he offered none. The humming refrigerator was the only sound. I wanted his say, as the only one who’d personally seen what the AI had done, more than anyone else’s.

“Manning? Do you think this war will have an end?” I asked.

“I already said as much, didn’t I? When I warned you two in the classroom.” His voice was dangerously low. He grabbed a knife and sliced at something I couldn’t see. Was he chopping his bacon? “If this war ever ends, it’ll be with a bloody bang. We will all be dead by the end, and the AI? They’ll still be around. How couldn’t they be? They’re machines.” He raised the knife and brought it down on his plate. “They’re literally made for this. We can’t stop them, which is why Madam President needs this shield. She knows all we can do is hide! Hide until they decide to leave us alone because what other scenario do we survive in?! I’d love to win, but it’s impossible. I’d love to annihilate every last machine they have. Vengeance, for the people we lost, for my team! For my brother!”

CHOP!

Manning dropped the knife, which clattered to the floor. Laura’s ears were covered, and her eyes were shut. Shouting always put her in that state. I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her close, hoping that my frantic heartbeat wouldn’t freak her out more.

“I…apologize.” Manning picked up the knife and placed it in the sink. “That is not who I am. Emotions can be…difficult to control.” He froze, presumably thinking of ways to diffuse the tension. It was so thick that I felt trapped in it. His shoulder slumped as he seemed to realize that he couldn’t diffuse it. “Well, enjoy the rest of your morning.”

Manning trudged out of the kitchen. His exit was followed by the sound of a distant sliding door. I guess that meant he was in his room. Whichever one belonged to him. That was nothing if not eventful. I didn’t even know he had a brother. I doubt Laura knew either.

“Are you okay?” I asked Laura, whose eyes were still welded shut.

“Yeah, I’m cool.” She pushed herself up and looked around. “What was all that about? I’ve been tutored by Instructor Manning so many

times, but I’ve never seen him like that.”

“About that…you are not the type of person who needs tutoring. Manning also let slip that you saw it as an escape. What was really going on? Whatever it was, why didn’t you tell me you needed something like that? You were already at my house all the time.”

“But I couldn’t be there all the time. Your house was great. Don’t think you didn’t help too. It’s just, there was something missing.” She pursed her lips as her eyes got watery. “You know those times when your dad would take you out for ice cream? Then he’d buy you that toy you begged him for? Then you’d see that new movie with the CG lemurs? It was like you got your holiday. Not me though. I never got those days. Not from my actual dad. I had our Instructor. He was there when I didn’t feel like bugging you. He made me feel like I had a dad who cared.”

Laura smiled as she seemed to recall those fond memories. Just as she said, I understood exactly what she meant. My dad would give me those days when I was a kid. It helped me feel better about having a sister—someone that, for a time, I didn’t like at all. It was tough feeling like you had to share your parents! Thank goodness I got over that.

“So, were those lemurs actually cute?”

“A lot cuter than they sound, that’s for sure!” She snickered. My heart warmed at the sight of her smile. I rarely got to see it in such a pure fashion. “I didn’t need tutoring. I needed a real parent. That’s why I’ll be patient with all these ‘secrets’ he’s keeping. When he’s ready to spill, I’ll be ready to listen.”

Laura’s loyalty to Manning was crystal clear. I never knew the old man had it in him to play parent. That meant I owed him, for being there in the one area I couldn’t be.

I rubbed her back as I got up. “Enjoy my omelet bits. I’ll be repairing the Columbus. Call if you need anything.”

Her answer was to pounce on my plate and shove a forkful of bits into her mouth. All right. Before sleeping the previous night, I’d emptied my suitcase and loaded my suit with the tools I’d need. Now I was almost as heavy as the Columbus itself. I’d need to be if I was going to fix that precious treasure of mine.

My beloved cruiser sat beside Manning’s in the parking bay. The ruabrum had left it there after dragging it in. Fixing the cruiser’s puncture wounds was as simple as using the metalbound ray, but I’d have to start it to see what else was wrong. Hopefully, nothing. I hopped in and turned the key. The Columbus shook and rumbled to life. It wasn’t as majestic as purring, but at least it started. Now I just had to read through the error messages clogging up the monitor.

“Still obsessed with your machines, I see,” said a heavily distorted voice. Chills ran down my spine as I remembered the last time I’d heard it. It didn’t belong to Laura or Manning but to someone who needed to back off. The knight stepped in front of the cruiser, looking as unusually detailed as always. “Then again, you get obsessed pretty easily, don’t you?”

My blood ran cold as I gripped the wheel. “How did you get in here?”

“That’s the first question you ask? Don’t you care about how I tracked you to New Earth? Or how I knew this was your ship? Maybe because you already know the answer: I’m in your head.”

“Nah. I already knew you’d say some crap like that. You’ll tell the truth during the interrogation. I won’t let you get away this time.”

I slammed on the pedal. The Columbus lurched toward my armored enemy. We were centimeters apart when he glowed blue and disappeared. I only had time to gasp before I crashed into the wall. My head smacked against the wheel. A nauseating wave of pain washed over me as I touched my forehead. It was wet.

“If you came to fix this vehicle, you’re doing a poor job,” said the knight. He was behind me, and he sounded close. I turned and saw the smug jerk sitting in the back row of my cruiser. “Hey, nice pistol. You didn’t have that last time.”

“You’re right, do you want a closer look?” I whipped it out and pulled the trigger. The blue bullet dissolved against the knight’s chest. He didn’t even move. “What?!”

He leaned back. “You thought a stun shot would affect this suit? Coward. Be more ruthless. Blast me. Injure another human being.”

“There’s…a human under there?”

“Could be. Care to find out? Unless you’ve accepted your coward status.”

I needed options, and fast. The stun shot had been inefficient. I couldn’t ram him if he was in the cruiser! If I got up to melee him, he’d shoot me within seconds. My remaining options were to talk this out (unlikely), message the others for help (that would just endanger them), or…blast him. Dang it. I was fine with ramming him because his suit would absorb that impact. A blasting shot was more power in a small package. It felt worse.

“Of course Wander Locke is afraid to do what’s necessary. You’re all about your efficiency and your analyses until something takes real guts. That’s when you back down. Not this time!” He reached for his sword rifle. “Three…two…o—”

ZWOOM!

My shot soared past his head and dissolved against the wall. My heart pounded in my ears. Even though I’d missed, he now knew that I wasn’t messing around.

“Not bad. I didn’t think you had the guts.” He paused, and I felt what was coming. “Because you don’t. You never switched it to blast.”

Busted.

He shot my hand. Flinging my gun, I screamed. My hand seared with pain. I was lucky it didn’t disintegrate. The knight stalked toward me, probably in the false hope that he’d catch me off guard. Even though my hand felt like it was in a meat grinder, my mind was intact. I reached into my suit with my good hand and smacked his helmet with my wrench. He cried and fell as he grasped his head. The suit full of tools had come in handy after all.

He growled and smashed his fist against my face. Blood spewed from my mouth as pain seized every inch of my body. I searched my suit for the other tools and found my screwdriver. I drove it into his chest, but it bounced off. He grabbed my face and slammed it against the floor. My vision blacked out and came right back. I smacked his arm with the wrench, but it didn’t even budge. He yanked the wrench and chucked it across the room. I screamed, but his palm muffled it.

“You like statistics, don’t you? Well, you have a zero percent chance of victory. Just give up now, and you’ll get off with a headache. The AI want you alive, but I can’t guarantee that if you keep resisting.”

My skull squished my brain as he refused to let up. I screamed louder despite his hand negating it all. I couldn’t stop.

“You don’t understand how much good you could do with the AI.” His “face” hovered over mine. I saw my own reflection in his mask.

“You don’t understand who the real enemy is. It’s not enough to hear it from me. You’ll come with me if you want the truth. The last thing I want is your help, but I understand what must be done. I’m willing to put aside the past to save this galaxy’s future. Are you?”

My screams weren’t stopping. Something had come over me. My brain was only receptive to the command to protest. I didn’t want to hear about my capture. I didn’t want to hear that my mission was wrong. What was wrong with wanting to see my sister again? If the AI wanted anything from me, they shouldn’t have killed my parents! How dare they send anyone after me, demanding my cooperation, after what I had lost!

“What?!” His grip went slack. I threw his hand off and rolled away. When I got up, he hadn’t moved. He was…frozen. He was still on his knees, reaching for my face. “I—I can’t move! My suit!”

“Hah!” I struggled to my feet and leaned on my cruiser for support. “Fancy suit, but it malfunctions like everyone else’s. Excuse me while I get my friends. I doubt you have those. We’re gonna pry that thing off your face—even though I think I already know who you are.”

He laughed, but it was more distorted than usual. “Idiot. Believe what you want. I see now what the Alpha is capable of. Next time we meet, I’ll be fulfilling my objective. Not a warning but a guarantee.”

Empty words from a prisoner, but I wasn’t about to burst his bubble. I limped over to the elevator. Even walking was too painful to bear. We were out of medic bracelets, so how would I heal from this one? The elevator dinged and opened, spilling out Laura and Manning.

Both of them gasped at the sight of me.

“Wander!” Laura hooked her arm under mine like she had back in the desert. “What happened? We heard loud bumping even though you’re on the bottom floor. I thought you were having trouble with the cruiser, but—”

“I’ll explain later, but we need to hurry! I got the knight right where—” I pointed…to air. The knight had vanished for the second time. Had he recovered enough to teleport within seconds? Actually, my limping had probably stretched those seconds into minutes. “Figures. New request: take me to my room so I can lie down and die in peace.”

“Ow! Is this stuff supposed to sting?” I howled. “Never mind, it’s because you’re applying it like you’re trying to swat a fly!

“Would you rather not be healed, dummy?” Laura responded. “I was saving this stuff because I knew you’d need it more than me. Your complaining is a funny way of saying ‘Thanks for caring, Laura!’”

Laura squeezed out another green glob from her vita-gel tube. She smeared it all over my face like she was fingerpainting. I had forgotten that Frost had given her that gel. It had been for her cheek, but seeing as she now wore a scar on it, she couldn’t have used enough…

“A man in AI armor?” Manning said to himself. He stood in the corner of my room, more interested in his thoughts than in my condition. “I’ve never seen anyone like that. That can’t be all that he is. There’s more to him.”

That was the most confident statement I’d ever heard from him.

“Don’t forget that he can teleport!” Laura said. “The AI and their technology…it’s just like what those robots said, Wander. No one understands tech like machines.”

“As someone who’s been on the receiving end of their might, I agree.” Manning inhaled quickly. I don’t think Laura even noticed. “Anywho, we shouldn’t stay in the Eachtra any longer than we have to. Not if the AI’s bounty hunter knows our location. I’m surprised he didn’t just take Mr. Locke while we slept.”

“Can’t we just call the ship ‘Stardust’ or something?” I complained. “Manning has a point though. We should get the heck out of here. It’s time to search that other place. Crimson Tower, right? Know anything about that place, Redhead?”

“Just stuff I’ve heard. Tallest structure in the city, home to the best view, that kind of thing. I’d love to see the city from that point of view.”

“If you want a good view, just look out the window while I drive the ship—”

“It’s not the same, don’t try to ruin this!”

I smirked. “Manning, are you down for the tower?”

“Of course! I admire a lovely view as much as the next person. Even though the Oppressed are our main objective. What business would they have in a place like that?”

“Good question. Not that it matters since we’ll stop them. Let’s go—ouch!” I tried to stand, but the pain reminded me that my butt had just been kicked. “Maybe five more minutes.”

I lay there for half an hour! You could have watched a full episode of a cartoon in that time! And the Oppressed: who knew what they could have done in that time?

Laura bounced in her seat like an excited child as I drove us to the Crimson Tower. Red City’s humming streets were distracting, but Laura was more so. If she had wanted a nice view that badly, we could have just flown in the Stardust for a minute. That would have given her a good view of the city. Nah, I wouldn’t suggest that. She would tell me off for “trying to ruin everything.”

I saw the Crimson Tower long before we even got near it. The thing had really earned the title of “skyscraper.” It was red (of course) and tall enough to pierce the heavens. Hopefully their elevator was faster than our cruiser, otherwise, it’d take us hours to reach the top.

“In expression of my gratitude for being brought here, I’ll pay for everyone’s entry,” Laura announced as I wedged myself into the crowded parking lot.

“We have to pay to get inside?”

“It took millions if not billions of dollars to make, Wander. Of course we have to pay. Ninety percent of the building is off-limits to civilians anyway. We’re paying to get to the Aerial Deck.”

She’d definitely done her research. I thought the tower was tall from the cruiser, but when I got out, I realized I couldn’t process how big it was. It was like one exploration ship vertically stacked on top of another. Who would build such a thing? All these resources would have been better spent building ships.

“It truly is a marvel, isn’t it?” Manning said. “This building is a product of Almas Pretiosus, isn’t it? That famous CEO?”

“Yup!” Laura said, now bouncing on her heels. “His company uses this place as a giant office. There have got to be at least a hundred computers per floor. I hope they’ve got some killer Wi-Fi.”

This tower smelled like expensive suits and money, just like every fancy building. The low ceiling gave the impression that it was a normal building. It didn’t fool me; I was an ant to this place. After Laura paid the receptionist (who was way too passionate about selling things), we went straight to the eleva—the giant, glowing blue dot in the corner.

“What the heck am I looking at?” I crouched next to it. It hummed like a cruiser. “It seems familiar. I think I saw this in an expo once.”

“It’s a transpad, dummy,” Laura said. “Just step on it. You won’t have questions after that.”

Manning grinned. “Yes, I think Mr. Locke will greatly appreciate this technology once he understands it.”

A piece of tech that Laura knew more about than me? How could I pass up a chance like this? I stepped onto the pad. Everything became highlighted in blue. Then everything changed all at once. My surroundings were completely different. It was like warping! It was just as taxing on my brain too. I rubbed my eyes and took a look around.

A wall of colorful paintings. Tables covered in fancy tablecloths and filled by people in suits. Fancy ones, not space suits. Last but not least, there was a gaping hole to my right. It was like someone had cut a huge rectangle out of the building. The rest of the city sat below, just begging to be sightseen. It looked like the galaxy’s largest playset from up there. Hard to believe that so many people lived in it.

“This is way nicer than it looks in pictures!” Laura said as she wandered in beside me. Her eyes yearned for more sights than she had taken in. “The food court must be downstairs. Oh hey, did you figure out how the transpad works, dummy?”

“It’d be amazing if he hadn’t,” Manning said. “Especially after the matter making up his body was vertically transported over ninety stories. Fascinating technology, isn’t it?”

“If you could warn me before my matter gets transported next time, I’d appreciate it.” I shivered at the thought of it. “Laura, how much did you pay to get us in here?”

“Money is no object…until my parents realize what I’m doing with their account. Which is why we should enjoy our time here while we can. We should also hope my parents don’t know what bounty hunters are.”

We were mostly here for the Oppressed, but we were here for Laura too. She deserved that much, especially since she had bought our entry. I crossed my arms and grinned as I watched her stare out of the huge rectangle.