Vai

Eighty years earlier, the Shadow had been the most lethal ship on either side of the Gathering-K'thaktra war.

Years earlier than that, when I was nine years old, I’d had a toy of it. The most prized possession of my childhood. It had come as a model kit. Four-hundred elaborate pieces that I spent months carefully cauterizing together with a vibroscalpel.

I must have dropped that model a dozen times during my backyard adventures back home on Mars, climbing trees, digging pits, re-enacting spectacular battles I had no knowledge of, but felt sure had taken place. The Shadow flying over K'thaktra cities. Carving my name—for some reason—onto the surfaces of thriving alien worlds.

Vai, until they screamed in terror.

Vai, until they wept for their dead.

Vai, until they begged for surrender.

Obviously, that hadn’t really happened, but nine-year-olds excited by reports of the Shadow single-handedly turning the tide of war against the monstrous K'thaktra become possessed by a kind of bloodlust. At least, I did.

Being on board this war legend had been a bit overwhelming at first, once I had got over the fact of how I came on board. It was becoming home. The corridors were becoming a familiar backdrop, especially my short journey to the gym from my quarters and back.

Father hadn't gotten back to our quarters until late. I was in my room, but heard him come in the main door and then retreat into his room. He hadn't even come in to ask how my first day of school was.

Warpaint woke me the next morning for school. Apparently my father had already left for work.

"You must get your daily nutrients," Warpaint said. He lifted the breakfast shake to my lips, but I took it from his hand.

"I know," I said and downed it quickly. The aftertaste wasn't so bad this time. I was sure that was just because I was getting used to it. Maybe in the next week or so the food on the ship would actually taste good.

I woke up early enough that I had time to shower. I wondered briefly if I should call Owen to make sure he was awake. In the end, I didn't. He was 17, same as me. He could take care of himself.

Today everyone would look like their normal selves in school. I wasn't sure if I hoped to see that mysterious girl in school or not. There was probably a good explanation surrounding her mystery, but I kind of wanted the mystery to live on a little longer. It gave me something to think on - something other than Thrissko's betrayal, my father's betrayal, my old friends and the dead friends.

I sat in a chair and changed the shape of my okulus to fit around my eyes and then entered the ansible and the school program.

I wasn't the first one there, but I was one of the first ones there. Where the giant bunny sat the day before, there was a human girl maybe two years younger than me. In front of her, where the anchovy sat the day before, was a boy about my age. The two looked a lot alike and I assumed they were siblings.

I went and sat at the same desk I had sat in the day before. A female Starwatcher with soft cream fur, large floppy ears and green eyes sat next to me where the chocolate bar sat the day before.

"Hello," the chocolate bar's voice said from the little Starwatcher.

"Hello," I said back. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name yesterday. I think you're on the Armstar. Did I remember that right?"

She nodded and her floppy ears bobbed exaggeratedly with her head movement. "My name is Minmin."

"Vai," I said.

A tall male Bundju-jo came and sat in the seat in front of me. He sat in the seat backwards so he was facing me and Minmin. He was the same color of blue as the waterdrop the day before. His white stripes were a little wider than what I normally saw on Bundu-jo.

"Hi," he said to us.

"Hi," I replied.

"He's Shel," Minmin said. "He is on the Armstar with me. We met the other day on the arboretum." She leaned in closer and held up a small hand over her face as she whispered up to me, "He was trying to eat the fish."

The right side of the Bundju-jo's blue lips lifted up in a half smile. "They looked tastier than the algae food."

"That I agree with," Owen said as he came and sat next to me, "but still it's frowned upon."

Shel frowned at Owen and stood up, swung his leg over the chair and sat down properly facing forward.

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Minmin leaned in again and whispered. "Shel's dad is the captain of the Armstar so he's a little rebellious."

Shel let out a long, low sigh. "Minmin, I can hear everything you say."

The Starwatcher sat hunched forward at her desk and clasped her hands together in front of her.

I hadn't noticed until that moment, but Shel had 5 piercings in his left ear all filled with small, black studs. His right ear didn't have any piercings. I hadn't seen any Bundju-jo with piercings before. I wondered if they were real or if it was just a feature he added to his ansible self. A human sat behind me where a leaf had sat the day before. He wasn't as tall or as strong as I was, but he was still taller than most humans.

When he sat, he stretched a long leg out and kicked at the leg of Owen's chair. Owen's jaw twitched and tightened. He looked over his shoulder to give the guy behind me a rough look then he rolled his blue eyes and looked back to the front of the class.

"Is that the guy you mentioned the other day?" I asked Owen. I didn't try to lower my voice.

Owen nodded.

I turned to look at the student behind me. I was sure I could have handled him in a fight.

"I don't think you need Warpaint for him," I said still not trying to lower my voice.

Owen raised an eyebrow. "You don't think you could take him do you?" He threw a thumb over his shoulder to indicate the guy behind me. Minmin and Shel seemed to take an interest in our conversation but didn't add anything themselves.

"Why not?" I said. "He doesn't look like much. I told you, didn't I, that I used to box with a K'thaktra."

"Yeah and you got . . ." Owen looked at Shel, Minmin and the guy behind me as if just realizing we had an audience. "...beat." I wasn't sure how many people knew about how banged up I was when I came on board, but I hadn't heard anyone talk about it except Owen and he had been on the shuttle with me so I imagined not too many people knew and those that did my dad had talked to about being quiet. That was my assumption anyway.

"Only that one time," I said even though that wasn't exactly true. I beat Thrissko a few times in our sparring sessions, but I knew he wasn't going full out then either. Still, if I could go up with a K'thaktra, I was sure the guy behind me wouldn't be an issue.

"I'd still be more comfortable with Warpaint," Owen said.

"It doesn't really matter," I said. "Warpaint goes with me everywhere anyway."

"That's true," Owen said.

A human woman entered and stood at the front of the class. "Are we all here today?" she asked with the Owl's voice. She didn't look up from her desk as she started to call out attendance.

"She's not here," Owen whispered to me.

I looked around at the other students. All the desks were taken, but the mysterious girl wasn't among them.

"She's a ghost," Owen whispered.

"She's not a ghost," I whispered back.

"Then she should be here."

We stopped talking as the teacher called out our names. When she finished with attendance she said, "I have exciting news. As you know, the fleet will be stopping tonight in the Brist system. The locals have asked us to monitor a solar storm, look for patterns, dangers, temperatures, that sort of thing. Our class has received special permission to go planetside and observe the migration of their Slpsis. We are a small class, but we still don't want to alert the population so we will keep our size small and go down in groups. And to promote friendship among the ships, we will be mingling students of different ships. So keep in mind not everyone on the same ship will be going down at the same time. I've already divided the groups. Here is the list. Make sure you are at your shuttles on time. They won't wait for you if you're late."

My okulus bleeped as I received the list. I opened it and saw I was to be at the shuttle bays by 1:00 p.m. and I was to be joined by Owen. Planetside we would meet up with Shel and Minmin from the Armstar and Hani and Rebecca from Fallfrost. I didn't know who Hani and Rebecca were, but at least I knew the others and they seemed nice. Well, maybe not Shel. I couldn't tell about him yet.

"So there won't be regular classes tomorrow," the teacher said. "Don't worry about coming into the ansible, just be at the shuttle bays at your appointed time."

The rest of the lesson was about the Brist system, it's sun, the local inhabitants and the Slpsis which turned out to be similar to elephants. The local inhabitants of the Brist system were an alien species that hadn't joined up with the Gathering. For one, their technology was not as advanced. And mainly because they didn't want to. They wanted to stay holed up in their system away from the Gathering and the wars between other alien species.

When class was over I turned to Owen and said, "What about Ma...what I asked you to look into yesterday." I changed what I was going to say because Minmin, Shel and the guy behind me were all listening.

"I've looked into a little bit," Owen said. "Don't worry, I'll let you know when I find out. And I will find out."

"Making promises you can't keep," the guy behind me said.

"You don't know what you're talking about, Spencer," Owen said.

"No? I seem to remember a promise made to me that you broke."

Owen had said he was a good liar. Could I trust him to find out about Thrissko?

"You broke the agreement first," Owen said.

Spencer stood up and towered over Owen. I stood up and put myself between the two. He couldn't really hurt Owen and I couldn't really hurt Spencer. Not in the ansible anyway, but at the moment I wanted it to be known that I was on Owen's side. I wondered if that was wise though as I really didn't know much about Owen and even less about Spencer and knew nothing about their circumstances.

"I didn't break any agreement," Spencer said to Owen, but his eyes were on me.

"Now, now," Minmin said as her little frame came between us. For a moment, I wanted to pat her furry head. I had to remind myself that Starwatchers, cute as they might be, were not puppies (a phrase my dad had told me when I was little and wanted to have one for a pet) and were in fact capable warriors, scientists, artists. I wasn't sure where Minmin fit in that spectrum, but one should never underestimate a Starwatcher. "This isn't the place for grievances," she said.

Shel came up to stand by me, but I wasn't sure if that was in support or curiosity or something else.

"Spencer," a Bundu-jo came up behind Spencer and clapped him on the back. "We miss you on the Remembrance." Two humans came up behind the Bundu-Jo and nodded their heads.

"Yeah, my dad was transferred," Spencer said. The others led him away.

I wasn't sure, but for a moment I thought I saw disappointment, maybe loneliness in Owen's eyes as they led Spencer away. I knew Owen had been on the same ship as Spencer. He must have been on the same ship as the others too, but they hadn't even looked his way.

"I'm working on it," Owen said to me.

I nodded. "Thank you for looking into it for me."

"What are you looking into?" Minmin asked.

Shel grabbed her hand and led her away from us as he said, "If they had wanted us to know they would have spoken more specifically about what it is."

"But," she started.

"See you tomorrow planetside," Shel said to us.