The shadow flitted from the end of one bed to the end of another. It was Roger. It had to be. They were two beds down from his now. Victor was contemplating rolling out of his head and under it when he heard a whisper.

"Victor? Are you there?"

The form was behind the bed next to Victor's. It was Lucas.

"Lucas? What are you doing up?"

"We're done with the program. Do you have it?"

Victor nodded.

"Good. Then meet us you-know-where."

Victor dressed and made his way to the Information Room. Lucas had already made it back, and he and Fumio were talking animatedly about the code as Edgar and Frank made adjustments to the holo-table. Everyone was silent when they saw Victor.

"The moment of truth," Lucas said uneasily as Victor handed him the data cube. Victor realized that he had missed the opportunity to meet with Najar, and wondered how long Najar had waited before giving up.

"Alright, the virtual environment has been booted. We should be invisible to the A.I. for all intents and purposes," Edgar said.

"You guys finished pretty quickly," Victor noted, yawning.

"Yeah. Well, we were already working on something kind of similar," Lucas admitted. "But it was all done on paper. Your idea never occurred to us."

Lucas handed Fumio the data cube. Fumio inserted it into the cube shaped slot on the side of the holo table. Numbers and letters began to scroll up in holographic lights above the table. After a while a folder popped up.

"There we go," Lucas said.

Inside the folder was the incomprehensible monitor stats that Victor had seen upon entering the Reactor Club room a few days prior. The boys all looked at it in silent wonder, trying to decipher it.

"It looks like deciphering the encryption was the easy part," Fumio said. "I can see that the radiation and energy readings are having odd fluctuations, but that's about it."

Lucas shook his head. "Same here. Can't really make heads or tails of it outside of the fact that it's odd. Why is Pi fluctuating?"

"Pi is not the only problem with these readings," said Edgar.

Fumio shook his head. "The Reactor club was too unique. They were students who were interested in advanced engineering and particle physics. We don't really have a particle physics club outside of them, and thing to engineering outside of them is the Civil Club."

Edgar scoffed. "They'll be useless. Civil club deals with the structural maintenance of the station. The station is still relatively new and the A.I. handles all minor repairs. More than that, the structure of a building and of a reactor are two very different things."

The other twin, Frank, nodded. "Edgar is right. Without the Reactor Club we no longer have the expertise among us to even begin interpreting this information."

"Do you guys remember that talk about zeta radiation when we first arrived here?" Lucas said, looking at the information.

"Uh. Yeah. They drilled it into our head about every other day for the first month here. Supposedly kills you in seconds if you get too close," Victor said, remembering the lectures.

"Supposedly. But if it's so dangerous, why is there no zeta radiation meter in these monitor records?"

They all thought about this. When no one said anything, Victor realized that the group had hit a dead end.

"I may know someone that can solve this," he said.

They all turned to him. Lucas smirked. "Always a wild card up that sleeve, eh? Let me guess. You can't tell us who?"

Victor shrugged and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry. It might still be too dangerous. We're already taking some huge risks, here. But if you can break this data into reasonable chucks and encrypt it I can get it to them."

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Edgar crossed his arms. It was becoming one of his signature moves. "We're all putting our asses on the line, why does this person get to remain anonymous? And how in the hell does breaking it down help? The information is useless without a virtual box to read it in. They'll be caught by the A.I. in seconds."

Victor sighed. He should have anticipated this. Lucas spoke up. "We wouldn't even have this in the first place if not for Vic. He took a big risk by trusting us with this. Now it's our turn. Unless any of you have a better idea about how to find out what's going on?" Everyone in the circle around the table was silent. Edgar made a sour expression. Lucas turned to Victor. "We'll split the file and encrypt it."

It took them only a few minutes to split and encrypt the data and put it back onto the data cube. Victor prayed that Najar would be there the following evening. He felt like he was racing against a clock he couldn't see.

The next morning breakfast was cereal made from grains grown and processed on ship, almond milk also from Nexus, and honey.

"What the fuck is this?" Edgar complained. Victor had begun to sit with the group at meals, though he was usually silent. Frank patted his brother consolingly on the shoulder.

"Take it easy. Apparently another shipment didn't come. We're beginning to rely on the Hydroponics Club more and more. We should be grateful we have one."

Lucas shook his head. "Never thought I'd hear those words."

Though it had the largest room by far and fair membership numbers, the Hydroponics Clubs was generally looked down on by the more intellectual clubs.

Victor realized that this was the most social activity that he had had and enjoyed outside of Alex. Tonight he would send the information to Najar, and they would either solve it or not. But either way, he was on top of things. He looked at the mark on the back of his right hand. He had hated the idea so much back on Aurora, but maybe he really could live up to the Vance name. He didn't have to let his family define him. He could define it.

An alarm went off in the station. Everyone in the mess hall began whispering animatedly. Drones blocked the wide entrance to the eating area, each lined up side by side. Walking between a small gap between two of them was Roger, followed by T.J.

"Shut the fuck up. All of you!" The mess hall went silent. "Good." Roger paced back and forth, his eyes scanning the room. Victor slowly lowered himself on his spot at the table. "This station is mine now. I own you. If you resist, you get put down."

A couple of students from one of the physical clubs stood up.

"What the fuck are you doing, Roger? You think you're a badass 'cause you hung around Dixon?" It was a buff student whose name Victor didn't know.

Roger smiled, pointed at the student, and a drone shot two stun barbs. The boy convulsed and fell hard back over his sitting place and into the floor.

"Anyone else?" No one said anything. "You guys do learn fast. Now, life can mostly proceed as normal. Nothing bad has to happen. I mean, I don't really want to massacre all of you. All I want is one tiny, little thing. That's it. Do this for me, and you can all leave. Don't worry. It's really simple." Roger paused for dramatic effect, clearly enjoying himself. T.J.'s jaw was in some kind of mechanical brace. Roger said the next words carefully, letting each word bubble with silent rage. "Bring. Me. Victor. Vance."