When they reached the holo table, Fumio entered the command for two panels made of light to appear. These were terminals in which he and Lucas navigated the code. The file tree was displayed in the center of the table, though it was less a tree and more a shifting maze. This was one of the security measures that discouraged tampering. Victor summoned a third panel for himself. He was no Fumio when it came to computers, or even Lucas, but he was proficient and it was becoming clear that this would be an important skill on Nexus.

"You joining us, Vic?" Lucas asked smirking. Victor gave a simple nod as answer.

"I'm not hiding in those vents, again. Let's resolve this," he said.

Some of the students in the Information Room were whispering and pointing at their group. Or was it at Victor? They didn't have long to prove his innocence, if they could. Comm diving was notoriously sketchy, and it had already failed them once when it had lied about the other side of the station. It was clear that the vids could be tampered with by the A.I. or other people. The question was, who would want to....

Victor Vance smacked his head.

"What is it?" Fumio asked.

In the excitement of suddenly not having to hide for his life and the aftermath of the station going dark, it had completely slipped his mind. He had heard something in those vents. It hadn't made any sense.

"I think Roger was working for someone," he said. Fumio raised an eyebrow, but continued on the comm diving operation. Victor couldn't help thinking that when he was on a computer he was like an asteroid hurtling toward an unsuspecting planet. Unstoppable. Intense. Victor had Lucas' full attention, however.

"When did you learn that?"

"In the vents. I heard him talking via ansible."

Lucas sighed. "I suppose it doesn't matter. The only people he could really be working for is Homeworld HQ, right? And if the people who built Nexus want him here causing trouble, then knowing who he's working for doesn't help us a whole lot. Besides, Roger's been taken out of the equation. He won't be getting any power any time soon."

Victor nodded. "That's what I thought, too. Something's still off, though. There are things about Nexus that haven't been adding up, but I think the pieces are coming together."

"What do you mean?" Fumio asked. His fingers were still moving at a furious pace.

"Well, something that's been bugging me is where people go when they're put in the box."

Fumio and Lucas exchanged a glance. Fumio stopped typing.

"They go back to the homeworlds, right?" Fumio asked.

Victor shook his head. "That's just it. It doesn't make any sense to send people back as a disciplinary measure. Maybe not even because of a medical emergency. This station cost billions and HQ has gone through a lot of trouble to keep it secret. Sending an outgoing ansible communication drops your Eco Score dramatically. We were told nothing about this place before coming other than it was a school and the facilities housed top-secret technology. We don't even know where we are in our own galaxy, and lessons on star charts aren't scheduled until years from now."

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

"Well if they don't send people back to the homeworlds, where do they send them?" Lucas asked.

Fumio frowned. "Wait. You don't think that they would actually..."

Victor shook his head. "No. I don't think they'd kill us off, though it's clear that they're willing to let us die to reach their end game."

"Which is?" Fumio asked, raising an eyebrow. Victor could sense he was losing him.

"Who knows. But here's another question. Why do we need two ansible relay stations? Ansible comms work on entangled atoms. They shouldn't need any 'boosters'. Yet it's clear we do need them. The comms are always full of noise."

Lucas' eyes were far away in thought. "Why are the relay stations separate form Nexus? It seems like a lot of trouble to put them in orbit around the station."

Lucas and Victor had the realization at the same time. "Unless they were keeping something on the relay stations that they don't want us to find?" Lucas said. "It's a pretty big leap, Vic," Lucas said, but Victor could tell by his expression that he knew it was true. Fumio's expression was blank. That, Victor was coming to learn, meant he was thinking it over.

Like a buoyant thought bubbling up from his subconscious mind Victor's intellect began to run with this speculation. What it would mean if he was right? The sick games. The power grabbing. The taunting on the memorial wall. The killing. Who did this remind him of?

A sickening lurch in Victor's stomach forced him to rest his hands on a nearby cushioned chair for support. In his deepest soul he had known the truth for a while now and had done everything to keep himself form realizing it. There was only one person that could be causing this.

"Dixon," Victor whispered hoarsely.

"What?" Lucas asked. His eyes were wide with horror. Even Fumio's mouth dropped, his face contorted in worry.

Victor rushed over to Fumio's panel. "How close are you to pulling up those vids, Fumio?"

"Uh, I've had them for a few seconds now, but I haven't looked," he said, regaining his composure.

They pulled up the vid. The area in the hall was empty, the names scrawled neatly on the wall in preparation for the event later that evening. Victor was almost relieved when it wasn't Dixon that walked on screen.

They could only see the back of boy's head while he scribbled on the wall, etching the awful words in with some sort of metallic object. When he was finished, he turned around and waved at the camera with a smile.

For it was indeed not Dixon who was smiling and waving. It wasn't Roger or T.J. or even someone unknown. The person waving back in the camera was Victor Vance.