It was a long time before others started arriving in the maintenance area. Lucas and Fumio made their way there over the course of the next hour, followed by baby-faced boy named Jack. No one spoke beyond a brief greeting until Jack arrived.

"How many?" Lucas asked Jack.

"Four. Lewis, Andrews, Wright One, and Taylor. All dead," Jack said.

Everyone hung their heads in silence.

"Injured?" Lucas asked.

Jack shook his head. "Ten? Twenty? Who knows. Roger is only letting people who swear their allegiance to him go to med bay."

"That bastard," Miguel said, shaking his head. "That fucking cowardly bastard."

Dead. One of the Wright twins was dead, now. To Victor this all seemed surreal. He desperately wanted to ask for details, but felt it was best to remain silent for the moment.

"This is absurd beyond belief," Fumio said. "Victor, I am now convinced that you're theory is true. The A.I. is letting this happen."

"Victor might be right, he might not. For now we have to decide how we're going to deal with the problem in front of us," Lucas said.

"Maybe it's time to try hacking the A.I.?" Victor said. Everyone looked at him like they were just remembering he was in the room.

"I'd say so," Fumio said as he brushed his sweat soaked hair out of his face."But we'll need to go to the Information Room for that."

"Or we could just, you know, kill Roger," Miguel said. Everyone had been thinking it. No one had said it.

"It might be less risky than diving into the A.I." Fumio said. "However, the real problem is a moral one. Do we really want this to be the kind of place where people are put to death?"

"I'd say we're pretty justified," Miguel said, getting up.

"So were countless revolutions. But if they started with murder, they always got bloodier and bloodier as time went on," Lucas said. "Fumio is right. We need to avoid killing Roger if at all possible."

"What the fuck is wrong with you people?! Our friends were just murdered. Do you not fucking understand that?" Miguel was shouting.

"Calm down Miguel," Lucas said.  "The best way is to send Roger to the box. If he can program the droids to kill, we can at least get them to do that. Besides, there's no telling how the A.I. will react if we do manage to kill him."

Everyone considered this.

"Alright Lucas. We'll play it your way. For now," Miguel said, but his expression was dark.

A small timer ringed on Fumio's watch. "We've got to get going. Roger is having a school wide assembly and any who miss it will be 'punished'. If we're going to beat him some of us need to be able to walk around freely." Then looking to Victor and catching himself, "Uh - Sorry, Victor. I didn't mean --"

"No, it's okay. I understand. You've all taken some big risks for me. Thank you," Victor said. He didn't know how he'd ever return the favor.

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"We're not just doing it for you," Miguel said, patting Victor on the shoulder and smiling. He'd calmed down quite a bit, but his eyes were still red.

After they left, Victor sat down and thought deeply. Despite his decidedly above average tech-scores and top overall Mental score he just couldn't figure out how Roger and T.J. had managed to take over the entire system. He let it drop. Victor's mother had often told him that the answers were always just out of reach. Sometimes you just needed to stop looking for them to see them. Victor missed his mother, but found that thinking of her made him feel worse instead of better.

He let his mind wander back before this whole mess. Back to his homeworld, Aurora.

Aurora, along with it's sister planets Fos and Tenebris were located within the same solar system, Omnes, in the Milky Way galaxy. Together they were the central hub of the group of planets and the institutions that governed them that were known as the  homeworlds. Simply put, the planets of the Omnes System were together more economically and militarily powerful than the rest of the habitated planets, moons, and systems combined. It was wealthy and beautiful. All needs were met, if you had the right social ranking. Victor did.

And he'd hated it.

It was said that on Aurora, the E class never touched the ground. Victor knew from experience that it was true. The cities were, to a large degree, built vertically to sustain and accommodate as many people as possible. Or so it was said.

His brother, Evan, had been the golden child, living up to his father's strict expectations and going on to join the Auroran military. His father had never been satisfied with him, and mostly ignored him. When they did talk, it was generally when Victor was receiving a lecture because he had hacked the elevator and snuck down to ground level to play and explore.

His only friends back on Aurora, Alexander and Sara, were from the ground. Victor excelled at the E schools that he went to, and because of the competitive nature of them everyone hated students at the top of their class. So though he'd had no desire to leave Alexander and Sara, there were no tearful goodbyes on his way to the hyperbolic chambers that would prepare him for his journey to Nexus.

Sounds in the vent shaft brought Victor back to present. He turned off the small light in the vents and crouched low. He didn't know much about the ventilation system, but had heard that there were specialized drones that maintained it. There was no telling how much control Roger had. If it was an enemy then it was better to take them by surprise.

"He- hello?" said a timid voice. A form came through the smaller shaft into the main maintenance area. Victor turned on the light and the figure jumped like a startled animal. It was Bracias.