Vai

"Let's not jump to conclusions," Owen said. "We need to check to make sure the captain is infected with the Corruption before we kill her."

"I can't believe we're still talking about killing people," I said.

"Do you want the K'thaktra war to happen all over again?" Esther asked. Owen and I both shook our heads. "Then this is what we need to do. The Corruption are horrible beings. We can't let them take over more and win. If they get their way, every being will have the Corruption inside them. Even children. They won't discriminate."

I hadn't given any thought to the girl that had been in the basement of Papa's store until then. She must have already been infected too. They all had. And Thrissko. If Esther was right, the Corruption was still inside him, had bonded with him and it would be impossible for him to be without them.

"We need to at least be sure they have the Corruption in them first," I said.

Esther nodded. "I agree. Let's be sure."

"How can we be sure?" Owen asked. "Pink in their eyes?"

"The pink only shows itself when the Corruption is telling the host something directly," Esther said.

"I saw it in Officer Hansi's eyes when I gave him my statement," I said.

"I saw it in his eyes when they came down to level 8 to find me," Esther said.

"You didn't see it in anyone elses?" Owen asked.

"No," Esther said.

"Sir," Warpaint said, "if we can't go to the authorities I at least think we should tell your father."

Esther sat on the bed next to Officer Hansi. She opened the top drawer in the dresser next to the bed and pulled out the Aether Field Prototype. She turned it slowly in her hands.

"No, Warpaint," I said. "He'll want to keep me away from all this." I waved in the direction of Owen, Esther and the sleeping Starwatcher.

"Maybe you should stay away from all this," Warpaint said.

I put my hand over my chest. "Remember what happened last time I thought Owen was going to die and I couldn't help him? I almost died." I exaggerated my breathing.

Owen smiled, but turned away from us before Warpaint noticed.

"All right, sir. Just don't die."

"So," Owen said, "we need to find out if the captain has the Corruption in her and then we can go from there. Vai is probably the best one to find out."

"How?" I asked. It wasn't like I was on good terms with the captain where I could just look into her eyes.

"I don't know," Owen said. "Go to the bridge."

Esther placed the Aether Field Prototype into her lap and touched the Starwatcher's cheeks with both her hands with almost affection.

"I guess I could go to the bridge using the excuse that I thought my father would be there. Maybe he will be there."

Esther twisted the Starwatcher's head suddenly, violently and there was a loud pop as his neck broke. She had said we needed to kill him, but I wasn't expecting like that in the middle of a conversation. I'd thought I'd have time to prepare myself. She stared down at Officer Hansi's face and gathered the Aether Field Prototype in her hands. Owen took a step away from her and a step closer to me and Warpaint. She turned on the Aether Field Prototype.

Pink smoke came out of Officer Hansi's ears and nose. Esther swiped the Aether Field Prototype over the Corruption and they fizzled away into nothingness. She turned it off.

"What are we going to do with the body?" she asked.

There was a long stretch of silence until Owen and I both realized she was genuinely asking us. I was still in shock. I wasn't sure how I should feel about Officer Hansi. I was glad the Corruption were dead, but Officer Hansi hadn't done anything bad that I knew about. It wasn't like he was the K'thaktra during the war that tore us apart with their bare hands in a bloody massacre before the Shadow had turned the tides.

"Throw him out to space," Owen offered.

Esther shook her head. "The ship's sensors will pick him up right away and then everyone will know he's dead. Then they'll be looking for me not just for stealing, but for murder. And the ones with the Corruption will know I'm targeting them."

There was another long pause. Part of me wanted to contribute, but my mind went blank. Esther had just killed someone and I just stood there by her side contributing to whatever madness this was.

"We can't just leave him here," she said after a while had passed. "He'll begin to rot."

"Burn him," Owen said.

"Where? The ship's sensors will report the fire," she said.

"Chop him up and dissolve him in acid." Where did Owen keep coming up with these ideas?

"Maybe I could sneak into the science labs," Esther said, "but that's harder than the medical labs. There is always someone in the science labs no matter what time of day or night. There is only someone in the medical labs at night if there is an emergency."

"Vai could get into the labs easily," Owen said. "His dad is the Chief Science Officer."

I looked at him and blinked.

"Would you do that?" Esther asked me.

"I . . ." my voice trailed off as I looked at Officer Hansi's body.

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"Move," Warpaint demanded as he strode up to Esther. She quickly got off the bed and stepped to be next to Owen. Warpaint opened the front half of his body as if it was on a hinge. The wires, gears and electrical equipment inside him shifted and folded so there was suddenly empty space. I might be able to fit in there if need be - wear him like a kind of suit. He took off Officer Hansi's okulus and put it and Hansi's volo on top of the dresser. He picked up Officer Hansi, put him inside and closed himself.

"What . . .?" I started to ask, but stopped at the sudden heat that wafted off the mechatronic. I could hear the crackle of flames and smell the ash. The sound and heat died away, but the smell of ash was strong. He opened himself back up.

"Clean out the ash please, Vai."

So many crazy things happening all at once. I nodded and went to the bathroom to retrieve a towel. I didn't realize Esther and Owen had done the same until Warpaint said, "Only Vai. I don't trust you two."

I looked behind me to see them both standing there with towels in their hands.

"I can clean it out with my handheld sweeper," Esther said.

"No," Warpaint said. "You can use that to clean whatever spills out of me."

She nodded.

I brushed all the ash out, but saved a handful. It seemed wrong not to do some kind of farewell for the Starwatcher. I would take this small amount of ashes to the arboretum. I put them in my pocket. Esther sent her handheld sweeper out to clean what had fallen onto the gray carpet.

I went to wash my hands in the bathroom.

"Are you all right?" Owen asked as he followed me. He put the towel back from where he had retrieved it.

I nodded because what else was I supposed to do.

"Me too," he said, but something about the way he said it made me think he was in shock like me.

Warpaint took the Starwatcher's okulus and volo off the dresser and put it inside his chest.

"I'll take care of everything else down here," Esther said when we came out of the bathroom. Warpaint had closed himself. "Here is my contact information."

My okulus buzzed when the info came through.

"You can contact me anytime," she said. "Let me know when you find out about the captain. The sooner the better."

"All right," I said.

She led us back to the elevators. Owen waved to her as the elevator door closed and she was left on level 9. We stopped at level 5. Owen got out and started down the corridor to his quarters, but stopped when he realized I was still in the elevator.

"You're not coming?"

"I'm going up to level 2," I said.

"To the science labs to see your dad?"

"No. I want to go to the arboretum."

Owen nodded as if that made perfect sense. "Should we tell Minmin and Shel about what just happened?"

I couldn't imagine telling anyone we just killed someone. "Not yet," I said. "If they ask . . ." I didn't know what.

"If they ask," Owen said, "we'll tell them we found Esther. We saw her evidence of the dangerous aliens and they are real, but not more than that. We can say we'll tell them more later, when we're ready so we're not lying to them."

"Okay. I'll get going then."

"I'll talk to you later," he said.

The elevator went to level 2. I got out, followed closely by Warpaint. Once we were in the arboretum, I walked all around to be sure we were alone. We were. I stopped and sat down on a bench beneath a phosphorescent tree. "I'm sorry," I said out loud to the Starwatcher who was no longer alive. "The Corruption might have been forced on you like they tried with me. I hope it's a relief to you though, not having to live with them inside you - forcing you to do what they want."

Beside me was a small pond teeming with bandian fish. The roof of the Observation Deck was transparent, and we were moving faster than light; the stream of stars overhead created a ghostly atmosphere.

I reached down and scooped up some of the bandian fish, and watched them dart back and forth within the cup of my hands. They were shimmering with electricity, as tiny as houseflies, their elegant fins swishing extravagantly as they made their turns. They were too stupid to realize there was any difference at all between the safety of their little pond and the isolation of my hands, cut off from the habitat that had been designed for them. If I were to carry them to the next pond, beneath the next tree, just a few meters away, and slip them into its waters, they would quickly be eaten by the k'thaktran arachnids beneath the surface. And it would still probably be all the same to them.

I lowered the fish back into their own pond, and they assimilated into the shimmering school, effectively disappearing. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the ash. "I'm sorry," I said again and dumped it into the pond. The bandian fish swarmed the tiny ashes and nibbled at them until there was nothing left.

"I hope you didn't have family." The thought of him having little children around on the Shadow was almost too much for me. "No," I said out loud. "You can't have a family. Sorry, but that's what I'm going to believe."

I stood. Might as well go up to the bridge and feel out the captain. My okulus buzzed with an incoming call. It was Owen. He had made it a three-way call between myself, Owen and Esther. I answered. Owen and Esther's projections came through my volo.

"I just remembered something," he said.

"What?" I asked.

"Remember that day when I went down to Mazax VIII?"

"Yes."

"I overheard Lieutenant Tanpo on a call with your father. She said the captain refused to go planetside when she was supposed to which makes me think even more that the Corruption might be inside her."

"That makes sense," Esther said. "She wouldn't be able to pass through the Aether Field without it killing the Corruption."

"Your father specifically asked her if anyone refused to go near the Aether Field," Owen said.

"Does your father know about the Corruption?" Esther asked.

"I don't know," I said, but it seemed more and more likely that he did know and if he knew, there were probably a few others that knew. It was probably highly classified information. "Did Lieutenant Tanpo say if there was anyone who refused to go near the Aether Field?"

"Yes. Her mechanic, Wilson."

"Then he has the Corruption too," Esther said. "It will be easier to kidnap the mechanic than the captain. I'll start with him."

"Be sure before you take him," I said. "Be sure he really has the Corruption inside him."

"I will," she said.

"I remembered something else too," Owen said.

"What?" I asked.

"Shel said the captain of the Shadow sent his father, the captain of the Armstar, a metal box. Remember?"

I nodded.

"And that was when the rift between his parents began and his mother commissioned your father to make them those special earstuds."

"I remember," I said.

"And his earstuds reacted strangely to the aether shield Warpaint created on Brist," Owen continued. "I think Captain Axa of the Shadow sent the Corruption teleportation device to Captain Svolun of the Armstar which probably means he's been infected too. And I think Shel's mother knew about the Corruption and how to stop them and those earstuds are special, maybe even like an aether field. Remember how adamant your dad was about Shel not ever removing them?"

"Do you know, Warpaint?" I asked. "My father installed a small aether shield inside you to protect me. Do you know about the Corruption? Does my father?"

"I do not know about the Corruption other than what we've learned today. I cannot speak to what your father knows or doesn't know."

"Maybe the Gathering who know about it don't call it the Corruption," Esther said. "That was a name the Awakened One had used. We didn't have a name for them."

"That would make sense," I said. "Maybe they still call them zek, but there are a few who know it isn't a drug."

"Can you ask your father?" Esther said.

I shook my head. "If he knew I was looking into this, if he knew we killed someone, he'd lock me away forever and I'd never be able to help you. Do we warn Shel and Minmin? Minmin doesn't have any earstuds to keep her safe and her mom is the second in command on the Armstar. She'd be in close contact with Shel's father."

"I don't think we can tell them yet," Owen said. "What if they were to tell their parents? Then Esther would be found out and if their parents are controlled by the Corruption already it would be disaster."

I nodded. "We don't tell them yet about the Corruption, but maybe we could warn them to stay away from the drug zek. I could explain how it changed Thrissko."

"Yeah, maybe that would be a good idea," Owen said.

The arboretum doors opened and two small Starwatcher children came in. I immediately closed the connection to Esther and Owen. I didn't think the children had noticed me yet. I walked to the doors and studied them to see if there was any likeness to Officer Hansi. I didn't see any resemblance.

They finally noticed me and Warpaint right before I reached the doors. I waved to them and tried to put on a friendly smile. They waved back, but seemed more interested in my tall height than me.

I stepped through the doors and went to the elevators. It was time to see the captain.