Victor racked his brain all the next morning trying to determine whether or not it was safe to revisit the Reactor Club room. He moodily moved a spoon through his morning gruel and pushed the thought of Alex being sent to hyperbolic suspension out of his mind, instead opting to weigh arguments for and against going back to the Reactor Club room. On the one hand he had just seen an entire club room get sent to the box. On the other they hadn't sent him. Maybe there was some sort of blind spot in the A.I.? If Victor's understand was correct, most A.I. operated based on a prediction algorithm. The A.I. gathered more and more data over time and refined it's predictions based on the data. However, this had a flaw: it wasn't good at dealing with new situations the first few times they occurred. Before it learned.

In principle Nexus was no different, though it's A.I. was much more powerful. How often was it relevant that someone not part of a club was in a club room. How often did it even happen? It might well be that Victor could just stroll straight into the room, investigate, and leave. Of course, because of the A.I. quick learning curve he probably shouldn't risk it more than once, and he probably shouldn't stay long.

What was he hoping to find there? He wasn't sure, exactly. But if he was ever going to uncover the mystery of this ship, it was important for him to give it a shot.

"Mind if I sit here?" a voice said. It was a blonde haired blue-eyed boy by the name Lucas, one of Alex's friends.

"Suit yourself."

"So you and Normstrom were friends right? I mean, the guy was friends with everyone. But you and him were best friends, right?"

"Why are you asking?"

"Well. Me and some of the guys. We think it's pretty weird that they sent a whole club to the box. We were thinking --"

Victor slammed his fist down on the table so hard that his spoon popped out of his gruel and landed on the floor.

"Leave it alone, Lucas."

Lucas looked shocked.

"But he was our friend," Lucas said, his eyes pleading.

Victor got up and began to walk away, leaving his tray on the table and spoon on the floor - Eco score be damned. The last thing he needed was to get Alex's friends sent to the box, too. This was a one man job and Victor was the man.

It would be better to go to the club room closer to the time for his meeting with Najar. That way he had a better chance of reporting his findings, even if he was put in the box.

When the sun lattice began to fade Victor headed toward the club room hall. There were a few students milling about, but not a lot of other activity besides. It was the least busy period of the day in the club hall, so there was only one hall drone patrolling back and forth. Fortunately the hall was long, so Victor waited until the drone passed the Reactor Club room door.

The club room was completely vacant. To conserve energy, only a single light in the ceiling turned on when you entered a club room during night. Victor went straight to the screen in the wall and used the terminal to search for the data on the reactor that had been so strange. He found nothing. Victor switched to the live reactor monitoring system, but the erratic red numbers from before were gone. Everything looked normal. If they had been willing to put an entire club into hyperbolic sleep then it was no surprise that they had erased all evidence of the events that had transpired here. Still, there must be something.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

On a table next to the monitor were a few scattered data cubes. Most people just used one, a personal data cube, because of their enormous drive size. Maybe one of the club members had decided to look over the data in bed and had made and had left the data there.

He began checking the cubes one by one, inserting them into the small, square slot below the monitor to read their contents. The first cube contained a few written assignments and a journal that needed a password. Victor doubted he'd find anything of use inside it. The second cube was nearly full to the brim with naked photos of women. Perhaps unsurprising on a station full of adolescent males. Victor resisted the desire to put that cube in his pocket and moved to the last one.

Bingo.

He couldn't prove that he'd found what he was looking for, but the triple encrypted file labeled 'Weird Reactor Shit' gave him some confidence. Timing his exit was tricky. He could open the door to peek at the hall drone, but risked being seen. He put his ear to the cool door and listened for the sound of the drone's wheels passing. When he heard them fade he opened the club room door and headed straight for Information Room 5.

Victor spent three hours waiting for Najar to show. He opened the simple text box and typed a few simple messages, but no response came. He barely slept that night. He became more and more certain that if the cube was discovered he’d be put into hyperbolic sleep, immediately.

At lunch he caught Lucas looking at him, but when Victor looked up the other boy looked away. He wished that he hadn’t scared Lucas off. More than anything Victor wished that he had a friend.

That was when a pair of hall drones planted themselves on either side of him in the cafeteria.

“Victor Vance. Please follow us.”

All eyes were on Victor as silence fell on the mess hall. Drones almost never entered. So, it was all over, then. He’d never figure out the mystery of this place. He’d be sent back and promptly disowned according to the harsh strictures of this family. He stood, laughing at his own ridiculous desire to run. Where, exactly, was there to go? No, he would face this head on.

He walked through the halls one drone in front of him and one in back, dragging his heels as much as possible. Instead of turning at the end of the club hall and going right towards the med bay, however, the machines went left. What was going on?

When Victor realized what it was he almost wished that he was being sent to the box. When the drones reached the sleeping area Victor walked to the series of small sound proof stalls on the side and entered the open one. Sure enough his father’s face, foggy and full of static though the picture was, showed an incredibly displeased expression.