Vai

I came in with a left hook to the punching bag followed by a right uppercut. When not punching, my hands were up to protect my face from imaginary opponents. Thrissko's imaginary fist came across my cheek. I stopped and pulled off my gloves. I gingerly touched the spot on my cheek that had been split open. I felt the pain all over again. I brought my hand away from my cheek and looked at my fingers. Of course there wasn't any blood. It was only an imagined pain.

I had time to shower before class started. The water poured over me. I reached up and touched my eye. I had never thought my eyeball would not be where it belonged before my fight with Thrissko.

I searched for zek on my okulus while the water dripped off me. There was no recent mention of zek. The last reference to it I could find was 75 years ago and it only mentioned that it had all been destroyed. The other mentions of it were few.

When I had been a boy, it had been mentioned everywhere. The drug that crazed the K'thaktra into a killing frenzy. But those news reports were gone now. No trace. The Gathering must have done it, but why? To protect the K'thaktra when they joined the Gathering? It hadn't been all destroyed though. I had seen it. I had been infected by it.

I stepped out of the shower, dried off quickly and dressed.

"Sir, are you all right?" Warpaint called from beyond the bathroom door. "You are taking longer than usual."

"I'm fine, Warpaint."

I entered into my okulus search engine: screaming, pain with unknown cause where the person had been normal before and relatively normal after.

That got a few hits, but not as many as I had hoped. There were accounts on Earth, Mars, Europa, Bundu VI and more. But they were vague and no mentions of pink smoke. Some of the accounts seemed like they had been edited so maybe there had originally been mention of pink smoke.

"Sir," Warpaint called out, "School is starting."

I stepped out of the bathroom and went to my bed while reshaping my okulus.

"This is a ship wide announcement," a female voice came on over the ship's intercom. "Officer Hansi, please report to the security office immediately."

Hansi. He was the officer who took my statement. I waited, but nothing else was said. Maybe because I had just been thinking about zek, but I remembered the pink I thought I saw in Hansi's eyes while I was giving my statement.

I put the okulus over my eyes and entered the ansible. I went into the school program. Class should have started, but Teacher Miller hadn't arrived yet.

I went to my desk, but I paused when I saw Reef - a Starwatcher with chestnut colored fur - at the desk Spencer usually sat. Spencer now sat with his friends from the Remembrance.

Owen had contacted me when he got back on the ship the day before to tell me what had happened on the planet. Apparently, Spencer didn't want to sit by us after Minmin humiliated him.

I nodded at Reef and sat at my desk.

"Do you think Teacher Miller got fired and that is why she isn't here yet?" Minmin asked.

"That would be fine with me," Shel said.

"I don't know," I said. "I kind of feel bad for her."

"That's only because you weren't there yesterday. She was too wrapped up in flirting to pay attention to Spencer attacking me. She probably still thinks Minmin started it," Owen said. He raised his voice and mimicked Teacher Miller, "Oh, Mr. K'thaktra, I love this planet and these ruins and you. Who cares if you have the strength to rip me in half and claws and barbs on the back of your hands that could cut me."

I laughed despite the image of Thrissko high on zek cutting my cheek with those same barbs on the back of his hand. The right side of Shel's lips turned up into a half smile.

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"That's not what she said," Minmin said.

"I don't know what she said, my friend," Owen said. "We were too far away."

"I could hear her," Minmin said, "and that isn't what she said."

"Okay, friend," Owen said. "What did she say?"

"He was telling her that the ruins dated before their first known colony on the planet, but that they think rogue scientists started their own colony there without informing the K'thaktran government."

"Maybe the girl was right then," I said.

"What girl?" Shel asked.

"The girl that stole from the museum onboard the Shadow," I said. "One of the items she stole was a wall from Mazax VIII with ancient writings that no one could decipher. She indicated it wasn't K'thaktran."

"There is no record of another alien species colonizing in the K'thaktran galaxy though," Minmin said.

A human man stepped into the front of the classroom. "Teacher Miller is not available for the next few weeks. I'm Lieutenant Garcia from the Armstar. We will be going over the battle strategies of the Gathering during the K'thaktran war."

I supposed that meant she wasn't fired yet, but probably being reprimanded for letting a fight happen between students. If that had been the only incident she most likely would have been fine, but there was the incident on Brist too where the students - me included - almost died.

Lieutenant Garcia's voice stayed monotone throughout the lesson. It was difficult to stay awake. The strategies he taught weren't hand to hand combat, but the Gathering using airstrikes and ship to ship strikes. We couldn't win against the K'thaktra hand to hand. Teacher Miller had her faults, but at least her voice usually sounded excited when she taught.

I think I did drift off at one point, although my ansible self would show me wide awake. My body jerked when another ship wide announcement was made through my okulus just before class ended.

"If anyone knows the whereabouts of Officer Hansi please let the security office know immediately. If anyone has seen anything or anyone suspicious around Officer Hansi or his quarters, please report it immediately to the security office."

I looked at Owen. He looked at me. He had heard the announcement too, but since Minmin and Shel were not on the Shadow, they hadn't heard it.

Class ended. Lieutenant Garcia didn't wait for the students to leave. He didn't say goodbye. He just signed out.

"Guess that explains why Teacher Miller was late," Shel said.

"I hope she isn't gone for good," Minmin said. In a quieter voice she said, "I hope Lieutenant Garcia isn't our new teacher. He was boring."

"He's probably just filling in until they can find someone else," Shel said. "If he's a Lieutenant then he would have other duties he would need to attend to."

"True," Minmin said. She turned to me. "I keep thinking about that mystery girl on your ship. She seems like a stowaway even though I thought that was impossible."

"She is a hacker," Owen said.

We all looked at him. "Since when did you know that?" I asked.

"I...um . . ."

"Is there something you didn't tell me?"

"Well, there are things you don't tell me," he said.

True. I didn't tell him I had been asleep for 80 years for example or that my old friends and my love had grown old and gone on with their lives without me.

"You saw the girl again," Minmin stated.

Owen didn't deny it.

"You should turn her in," Shel said.

"I don't know where she is," Owen said.

"But she showed up in front of you again," I said. He nodded. The rest of the class had dispersed. The four of us were the last ones in the school program.

"So she stowed away onboard the Shadow," Minmin said. "She's a hacker. She told you the ruins on Mazax VIII weren't K'thaktran. What else?"

"She's on restricted levels," Owen said.

Minmin and Shel were friends, but I wasn't sure we should be giving them so much information. Their parents were the leaders on the Armstar afterall.

"She also took the Aether Field Prototype," I said. I was pretty sure they weren't going to go tell their parents. Shel wasn't on good terms with his father at the moment anyway.

"Did she take anything else?" Shel asked.

Owen and I both shook our heads.

"She told Owen something," I said, "but he can't remember."

"Anything else weird happening?" Shel asked.

"We just got a ship wide announcement. It seems like one of the security officers might be missing."

"Weird things are happening on your ship," Shel said.

"Yes," I agreed.

Owen suddenly grabbed my arm.

"I remember," he said.

"You remember what?" I asked.

"I remember what she said." He disappeared from the program.

"I think he's coming to tell me in person," I said to Shel and Minmin. "I better logoff."

"Don't leave us out," Minmin said. "Call us to tell us what he said."

I nodded and exited the school program and the ansible. I took off my okulus and reshaped it to fit around my wrist.

"How was school, sir?" Warpaint asked. He had an algae shake in his hand held out to me.

I pushed it away as I got off my bed. "I'll have that later."

"But, sir," Warpaint said. I walked passed him and out of my room. I reached the door to the quarters and opened it just in time to see Owen turn the corner towards me at a run.

"You don't need to run," I said. I stepped aside to let him into the living quarters.

"Yes I do," he said. "What if I forget again?"

"So, what did she say?"

"She said there are more dangerous aliens than the K'thaktra. She asked if I could fight them if I knew. She said they've always been here."