Red emergency lights blinked on in the arena. An alarm began to sound. There was a swushing sound as all of the arena doors opened.

"Guys, look," Miguel said, pointing to the other side of the arena. The doors leading to the other side of the station were open.

No one said anything. Victor could hardly believe it. After all the speculation, all of the comm diving, and all of the trouble at keeping the station separated into two halves, the answer was being dropped into their laps.

Lucas was the first to start toward the opposing side of the arena.

"Wait Lucas," Victor said. "We should go together."

Lucas smiled, but Fumio shook his head. "Peek all you like, but you probably shouldn't step through the doors. If you're caught on the other side when the lights come back on, you'll be put into hyperbolic suspension."

Miguel shook his head. "If the lights come back on at all."

Victor decided not to think too hard about the idea and instead moved over to the opposing arena side alongside Lucas. When they got close to the door they could see forms moving.

"Who's there?" Victor said.

Out into the dim red lights stepped three figures. Whatever Victor had expected, whatever he had thought about what was actually on the other side of the station, despite what Alex had seen in his comm diving exploits, he had never expected this. The answer had been so simple, obvious even. They weren't other boys. They weren't aliens or robots or experiments. The other side of the station was girls.

The three girls standing in front of them were all different. One had straight jet black hair and brown skin. Another was a tall blonde with blue eyes. The third had brown hair and spectacles.

"I'm Najar," siad the black haired girl. "Rajia Najar."

Neither Lucas nor Victor responded. Both were still stunned.

"What's going on? Who is it?" Miguel asked from the other side of the arena. The light was too dim and the line of sight for the other boys was blocked by Lucas and Victor.

"I'm Victor," Victor said. "Victor Vance. This is Lucas Williams."

"Victor? So it was a first name. Of course. I just don't understand. When we went comm diving, we saw all girls on this side."

"You're girls," Lucas said, dumbly.

The blonde nodded. "And you're boys," she said, raising an eyebrow and stepping forward.

"So, this was the big secret," the spectacled girl said as she pushed her glasses up on her nose. Najar looked up to the red lights.

"We should get the introductions out of the way, that's probably all we have time for anyway," she said. "I can't imagine the power will be down long."

"I'm Eve Storm," said the blonde. "You've apparently already met Najar. This is Valentina Juarez," she said pointed to the brown haired girl with glasses. The girl waved a shy hand and smiled sheepishly.

"Woah." It was Miguel. Apparently he and the other students in the arena had become curious enough to step forward and look for themselves. The red lights shut off and the station lights of the battle arena blinked back on.

"Looks like time is up," Eve said, flicking her blonde hair behind her. "Come on, girls." They all stepped into the open door of their side of the arena.

"Wait I -" Lucas began, but the doors slammed shut behind them as power returned to the station functions.

For the rest of the day everyone was in an incredible mood. Word began to spread through the boys side of the station that there were girls on the other side. Lucas remained dejected, and it wasn't hard for Victor to guess why. His social score was nearly as high as Alex's had been, and yet he had totally froze in his only encounter with girls in a very long time.

"Cheer up, Williams. Making no impression is better than making a bad one," Miguel said, his voice was teasing.

"Shut up, Mr. 'Woah'," Lucas said, throwing a crouton from his beet salad at Miguel's head. Miguel dodged expertly. Lucas sighed. "Who knows when the system will shut down like that again."

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Another rumble shook through the station and Lucas perked up, but when the lights stayed on he drooped back down again.

"This is exciting," Fumio said as he ate his salad. Even he seemed to be excited by the news. Victor would have to admit that he was pretty happy about it to, but he wondered if the implications had occurred to anyone else but him. They probably would have occurred to Alex. He was good at reading situations and intentions. Maybe he had read the intentions of the people who had built this ship. Maybe that was why he had been put in the box.

At a table nearby Roger Nettleton sat alone. His eye was swollen. According to rumors, the high Physical stat student that he had stunned that fateful day in the cafeteria as well as a few of his friends had cornered Roger and delivered payback. Miguel noticed him sitting alone and couldn't resist.

"What the hell are you doing showing your face in public you fucking murderer."

That was all it took. When others began noticing Roger, they began standing. The mood had changed suddenly. No, people were still high on the news of the other side of the station. Victor looked over at Wright Two. He had an expression on his face like a rabid animal about to strike for the kill.

Roger stood, but didn't seem to care about the attention.

"You guys don't get it, do you? You're not safe here. You were never safe here," he said, turning in a circle around him. "You are only made to feel safe."

Miguel and a few of the others were surrounding Roger. He only laughed, not even trying to escape.

"Go ahead. It doesn't matter. Because they want you to feel safe for one reason and one reason only: so they can take it away as ruthlessly as possible. You don't understand. I'm the least of your problem -" A kid shoved Roger to the side. Victor stood, not knowing how he was going to stop what was going to happen from happening. Not sure he wanted to. He noticed that Frank had a knife clenched in one hand and was closing in on Roger.

"Warning: Violent action anticipated. Preparing disciplinary measures."

It was a pair of drones that was now in the cafeteria. The group dissipated instantly. "See you later, Roger," Frank said.

They all sat back at the table and ate in silence. Victor was anxious to change the subject.

"At least we can communicate with the other side," Victor said.

Miguel dropped his fork in his salad. "What?!"

Lucas shushed them both and looked around.

Victor shrugged. "No use, Lucas. I'm suspecting that the station wanted us to contact the other side. I'm not sure if the power outage was intentional, though."

Lucas sighed. "Well, I guess it's not all bad. Just a matter of time before we figure out the mystery of this place."

"And of what happened to Alex," Victor reminded them.

"We've got plenty of food, good friends, even girls nearby. On top of that there're no adults and we'll soon have control of the station," Miguel said. "We're safe as houses."

--------------------------------------

Out in the area just outside Nexus orbited two relay stations for boosting and relaying information via ansible to the homeworlds. A solitary figure looked at a screen and whistled. On the screen was a view of the mess hall. Was a view of the bastard known as Victor Vance. The solitary figure had a surprise for Vance. He had been taking his time and planning it carefully for maximum agony. Sadly, Roger Nettleton had proven useless. They had grown up together in the ghettos of their homeplanet, but Roger never did quite get his teeth and claws, so to speak. But the figure that sat and watched the boys eating, unsuspecting of what awaited them, had his teeth and claws. They were still razor sharp.

It was time for a change of plans. It was time for a more direct approach.