Two days of frantic designing, building, mining, manufacturing gave Auberje a headache. The whole 3-4 team had signed up for the ThreeFour Employee Owned Limited Partnership which was filed with the necessary galactic authorities. Each of 3-4s members were given an equal share in it, revocable if they did not graduate.
The bylaws called for an election for a board, a CEO, a COO, and a few other positions. Marcus was unanimously confirmed as CEO and President of the Board. Grace was made COO; Chuck was made Chief Technical Officer; and Auberje, much to his surprise, was named a Vice President and given a board seat. The rest of the positions went to older students, with one exception. Riley was named a Senior Vice President overseeing Operations. She was Grace’s right hand.
Minden and Miriam were placed as Captains in the Pilot Corps. The organization was half military positions and half business ones. It was the perfect combination for Star Academy graduates.
Even as they finished building the base, a hollowed-out asteroid with 500 rooms, most empty with dozens upon dozens of large manufactory, scientific, and engineering spaces, Auberje and Riley monitored the radio and communication traffic of the other school houses and greathing teams. Nobody went into space. They scrabbled and brawled over the planet's surface. But none looked to the sky. It wasn’t surprising given the 3-4s reaction to Auberje asking for a starship.
No one could find 3-4, which was driving 1-1, and Helos, in particular, mad. They knew they were somewhere in the Greathing arena because they had found 3-4s satellites in orbit, but they could not find them on the planet's surface. Finally, on the last day of the Greathing, Helos asked the right question as Auberje and the others were finishing up a particularly hard-to-build shipbuilding and repair facility that involved spacewalks and robotic scaffolding.
Auberje knew because he had asked the Lion to monitor for any communication from Helos about 3-4, Auberje, Riley, or space. “Oh shit,” he said, “We’ve got trouble coming.”
“What?” Riley looked up from her welding torch, the space suit’s mirrored visor falling away to reveal her consternation.
“Helos knows we are in space. I think 1-1 will try and cause us some issues.”
“We can’t let them find the base,” Riley looked almost panicky.
“I know, we won’t,” Auberje said, “Headmistress, I’m calling in another chit. This base has to be secret from anyone who isn’t 3-4. Can you do that for me?”
“I won’t hurt any students who find out, Auberje, but I’ll prevent anyone from heading in this direction. It is an easy enough change to their computer’s coordinates for this area always to be somewhere else.”
“Perfect, thank you,” Auberje thought quickly, “Alert Marcus of the danger, Lion.” A brief moment later and the intercom light blinked red, Auberje answered, “Hi Marcus.”
“Auberje, thanks for bringing this to my attention,” Marcus sounded harried, “I’m supervising the Den Mother’s loading. We are pulling everyone out of the base, and getting ready to go back to the planet and exit the arena. Do you think you can keep us safe if the 1-1s come up? I want to make sure we are not discovered anywhere near here.”
“Yes, sir. I was thinking of taking a trip closer to the planet, positioning ourselves away from a straight line to here. Then I propose engaging the 1-1s if they try and leave the system. We should be able to smash them,” Auberje unconsciously smashed a small fist into his palm, he smiled wolfishly “Helos has asked Headmistress for a small survey ship. He’s onto the right idea but the wrong application. We will have the bigger hammer.”
Marcus’ release of breath was audible even with the computer’s automatic noise suppression software. A sure sign of the tension the boy was under, “Very well. Do it. We will follow. My plan is for us to put both ships in a high, non-degrading orbit as we exit. That way they should be here when we come back.”
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“Makes sense to me, Marcus,” Auberje said nodding. Realizing he had not considered what to do with the Lion when they left. He had a lot to learn. He felt suddenly self-conscious of his age and lack of knowledge. He was smarter than anyone he knew, in many ways, but… he remained an almost 8-year-old in many other ways. He made a mental note to replay the events of this Greathing with a critical eye not only for his and Riley’s actions but also for Marcus’. He had a lot to learn from the other student.
“Excellent, get moving, Marcus out,” the intercom link clicked once and the light turned off.
“Well,” Auberje started, pausing for a deep breath, “Take the Lion back to the planet please, ship’s AI. Beat to quarters, and sound the general readiness alarms. Shields charged and on please, and let’s see what we can do.”
“The shields never turn off, Auberje,” Riley said with a small twinkle in her eyes, “if they did dust would shred us.”
He thought she might be making a joke, but the computer confirmed she was absolutely right, “makes sense, Lion, I expect you to keep us alive when I say stupid stuff like that.”
“Captain, I will do my best, I am a ship though. So a large part of keeping alive is up to you and your decisions. I will endeavor to keep the ship safe for human crew and passengers though,” Lion’s voice almost whispered in his ear. He shivered. AI were dangerous. Everyone knew it. But then, common knowledge was often wrong, wasn’t it? Their psychology class had discussed the madness of crowds repeatedly, almost heavily handed in its denunciation of trusting the wisdom of the masses. From Copernicus to Margerie Albex, individual humans were constantly driving knowledge forward and being persecuted by the masses of slightly less advanced human monkeys.
It was again a sign of Auberje’s dark mood that he focused on the downside of humanity even as he sailed through the stars on a ship which might as well have been powered by magic. Two and a half trillion humans had lived and died in the galaxy. None of them had more advanced technology than he had at that moment. Yet, technology wasn’t wisdom, he knew that too.
He shook himself, trying to free his young mind from the dread grasp of doubt. Riley looked at him concerned. He shrugged and smiled softly to her. “Let’s see what we can do about another smart first year.”
Ten minutes and two small, local jumps later, they were on the far side of the planet watching 1-1s survey ship take off from the surface of the planet. They were tracking its trajectory, prepared to throw down an anti-jump dampening field. He also had a pair of tractor beams readied. If they could, they would disable the ship’s engines with Lion’s plasma cannons and missiles, tractor the survey ship to them, and force Helos’ surrender.
It worked out in almost perfect fashion. The 1-1s were not expecting trouble. They simply could not comprehend the size of the Lion or the small boy who demanded their surrender in his blue and red uniform. Helos was not onboard. The first year 1-1 was crouched behind a rock, taking fire from two sides when he heard the news of his survey ship.
He wasn’t sure if he was better off where he was, precarious and dangerous as his current position was than those on the ship. At least this way he was not an embarrassed guest of the 3-4s. Lauen Xavier’s voice cut through his com’s chatter, “pull back, all 1-1s to retreat through the arena portal. We are out of options people, we will have to settle for 2nd place.”
On a private channel, “Helos, I want to apologize, you were right. We should have looked to the stars earlier. I should not have been so flippant because of your age. I owe you one.”
Helos tried to waive her apology away but she stuck to it. “No,” she said, “I was wrong to treat you so because of your relative inexperience.”
“Thank you, miss. I understood it then, and now. Just wish things had worked out slightly differently,” Helos said he ran back from his rock, working his way carefully toward the exit portal. Shots fired from somewhere to his rear were scarily close. He laughed as he ran, to think that Lauren Xavier was apologizing to a first-year for not listening to his idea. He shook his head. His thoughts strayed to space. He wondered what the 3-4s had found out there. Maybe a couple of cores? It was hard to know. Perhaps, he could ask Auberje about it.
Their rivalry was strong, but they were of an age. They had more in common than anyone else their age. Helos decided he would try to find out. Pride aside, he was interested in knowing what they had found in the great beyond.
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The 3-4s were the last ones through the portal. Shuttling down to the planet’s surface, they were quickly marched through the portal, 1-1 captives led by a group of 3rd years. They joked and laughed together, talking about nothing important so the 1-1s couldn't find anything out about their activities in space. They were a merry lot, even with the horrors of the fake aliens fresh in their minds. Marcus alone seemed to carry the burden of the future on his broad shoulders. He and Auberje were the very last two on the planet.
Marcus stopped Auberje, looking him straight in the eyes, his hand on Auberje’s small shoulder. He was stooped low to try and maintain some semblance of height equality. “Auberje, I don’t want to inflate your ego, but… I think you must understand, you are very special. Even surrounded by especially bright humans whose genetics are about as perfect as our race can engineer, you are a remarkable individual.”
“No, don’t interrupt, not yet. I know you may feel differently, but it is not just your intellect, you are a curious soul and not afraid to speak up. Few enough of us are like that. I want to tell you because it means you are marked as different by the others. It will be both a curse and a gift. If you ever need someone to talk to, come to me. I will help you as best I can. Finally... “ he took a deep breath, watching the boy squirm uncomfortably from the older boy’s praise, “Thank you. This week you set into motion something truly momentous. The events of this Greathing have changed the course of my life and I appreciate that more than you can know.” He squeezed Auberje’s shoulder and before the boy could say anything he shoved him gently through the blue and white light of the portal back into the school.
Marcus followed close behind. The portal shivered and snapped shut with an electric crackle.