by Paris Singer
“But I didn’t do anything,” I protested.
“You fell asleep during my class, that’s bad enough. You don’t strike me as a troublemaker, Seven, which is why I’m only giving you one detention, but don’t push it. Stay behind after the lesson. I’ll tell you what, where, and when it’ll take place.”
With that, Ms. Venir’s holographic projection re-entered her flesh-and-bone body and she continued to teach as if oblivious to what had just happened. For the rest of the lesson I did everything I could to stay awake, including pinching my legs under the desk, which hurt. Somehow I made it through, and Ms. Venir gave me the horrible details of the detention.
When the last lesson of the day had finished, I stepped outside the academy, and made my way around to the other side to serve it.
CHAPTER THIRTY THREE
Mial had half his body inside a small storage unit. I could hear him grumbling to himself as I approached. A moment later, he emerged holding some kind of long cylindrical machine with some straps attached to it, and a long, thin movable pipe or tube coming from the main part. He turned and noticed me.
“Finally. You done anything like this before?”
I shook my head. “No, never.”
“There’s nothing to it. All you’ll need is this.” Mial handed me a large, light orange sac made of some thin, rubbery material. “Thing to remember,” he said, slinging the machine onto his back with the aid of the straps, “is never to get in my way. You do that, you’re dead. Got it?” He squinted one eye.
I nodded, a little anxious again at the prospect of dying.
“Good. All you got to do is collect ‘em. Easy job.” Mial fastened the other two straps around his waist with a clasp. “It’s this way.”
Near the storage unit was a large metallic door. Mial placed his paw in front of a square pad next to it, and it clunked open. The elevator had a rusted metal floor, with metal grid walls. When we stepped inside, a small light above came on and the door closed.
“Sewer system two.” The elevator began its slow descent, rattling all the way down. The doors opened to darkness. I could hear the dripping of water coming from somewhere. The air was dank. Mial stepped out of the elevator. “Where is it?” he asked, feeling around the wall. A whir echoed all around, and rows of yellow lights gradually came on. Ahead was a large tunnel with high walkways on either side, and steps leading up to them. Two tunnels branched left and right.
“Come on,” said Mial, walking toward the steps that led to a walkway. He focused his gaze on the grimy brown-green ceiling. He looked all around as if searching for something. “Stay behind me, but not too close. I wouldn’t want another one of you to die.” I hoped he was joking. “They could be anywhere, so help me look. The faster we get ‘em all, the sooner we’ll be out of here.”
“What do those things look like?” I asked. Ms. Venir had earlier told me I would help Mial dispose of vermin that chewed, burrowed into and corroded the sewage systems, but didn’t tell me anything else about them.
“Nasty little things, Skeebers,” said Mial. “About the only things you’ll see moving down here. They’ve got no eyes, their noses are upturned and flat, have long square teeth, small bodies with long arms and fingers, and short legs. Repulsive. Oh, yeah, their oily skins usually make ‘em resistant to fire, lasers, etcetera.” Mial stopped, turned and smiled. “But they didn’t count on ol’ Mial to come up with this beauty.” He patted the long tube he was holding.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Oh, just a concoction I came up with in my spare time. Not quite fire, not quite acid, not quite liquid nitrogen. They can’t stand it. Now, help me look and I’ll show you what it does to ‘em.”
We walked deeper into the tunnel, the constant sound of water dripping from the ceiling into the green sewage water below.
“There,” cried Mial, pointing the long tube up toward one of the rectangular lights. From the tube came an orange-red burst of a substance that looked like liquid, electrical fire. The creature which I didn’t have the time to see, screeched, its pitch so high it hurt my ears. Mial stopped the flow of the liquid, and said, “There, that’s one. Probably only a hundred or so to go.” My face sank. “Now you can go pick it up.” He pointed to the floating charred remains of the Skeeber.
“How am I supposed to get it?” I asked.
Mial raised a bushy eyebrow in apparent confusion. “You go in there, pick it up, and put it in the bag. Easy.”
“You want me to go in there?”
He smiled. “This is detention, isn’t it?”
“Don’t I even get gloves?”
“Not even that.”
I took a deep breath. There was nothing for it. Mial wasn’t about to change his mind. If there really were over a hundred of the Skeebers still to get, the faster I got used to the idea that the detention was going to be an unpleasant ordeal, the faster I would finish and leave. I stepped into the sludgy sewage up to my waist and waded through to the floating Skeeber. The creature was clammy and cold to the touch. I fought back the urge to vomit and placed it in the sac. I walked back toward the stairs.
“No, wait,” said Mial. “You may as well stay in there—no sense you getting in and out all day. Any that drop on the walkways you can just pick up later on our way back.” It was going to be a long evening.
***
I waded through the foul sludge a few meters behind Mial, picking up dead Skeebers for what seemed like an eternity. My back ached like it had never done. I’d noticed that, no matter how many vermin I placed in the sac, it never seemed to get full. I asked Mial about it, but he grinned with a complacent air and boasted it was another of his inventions. It was nighttime when we’d finished and had gone back up to the surface. I was wet, freezing cold, and stunk like the sewer.
“Bonus point for managing to stay alive,” said Mial, putting his machine back into the storage unit. He took the sac from me, opened a lid on the wall, and emptied its contents inside a dark, rectangular opening. As soon as the sac was empty, he passed his paw over a small pad on the wall. Intense blue flames rose in an instant from within the opening just before Mial closed the lid.
“You can go,” he grumbled. “If they send you down here again, it wouldn’t be the worst thing.”
I shuddered at the thought of ever going back down there. “Okay, see ya,” I said, worried he’d come up with something else to do.
“Yeah, clean that stuff off, you stink.”
I made my way back to my quarters, grateful that I hadn’t run into anyone on the way. I walked across the bridge and opened the door.
“Cease your ingress. You are in violation of Code Fifty Four B,” said Al, in an authoritative tone.
“What have I done now?” I groaned.
“You are releasing toxic gases inside academy premises. Please vacate the quarters, or detoxify by standing on the cleaning plate.”
“The what?”
“You may find the cleaning plate in the far left corner of the washroom.”
I stepped through and saw a cylindrical chrome plate on the floor. “What am I supposed to do with this thing?” I asked.
“Step onto the cleaning plate to activate it.”
I did as Al said and stood on it. The plate glowed a bright yellow, and I rose off the floor. I had the sensation of being completely submerged underwater, so dense was the air around me. A warm feeling spread throughout my body. Moments later, the air density returned to normal and my feet met the plate once more. To my surprise, my clothes were now dry, and even smelled good. I felt great.
“You are no longer in violation of Code Fifty Four B, Seven.”
“Good to know, Al,” I yawned. It had been a long day, and I was exhausted. I ambled over to the bed and collapsed on it, falling into a deep, long sleep.
CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR
“Time to wake, Seven.”
“’Morning, Al,” I said, sitting up in bed and stretching. It felt like that had been the first t
ime I’d really slept since getting to Simia. “Which lessons do I have today?”
“You have Quantum Mechanics, History, Biology, Physical Development, Astronomy, and Astrophysics, Seven.”
It might have been because I felt refreshed, or maybe because the detention had scared me off ever getting one again, but I decided then to try harder to integrate and do better at the academy. The Council had given me creds, and I would use them. I needed books, and if I would ever catch up with some thirty years of knowledge I’d missed out on, I’d need a lot.
My stomach growled, so I got myself a burger and dango fruit shake at the canteen before finding my way to the Quantum Physics class with the tracker. The square room was white and illuminated by tubes of white light that ran along its edges. In the center rows of white desks faced a white rectangular pillar, behind which was a yellow holographic board.
I sat at the only available desk at the front. When everyone had sat down, a robotic voice that sounded as if it were coming from everywhere at once, said, “God morning, students.” Above the pillar there appeared the holographic head of a bald, Simian-like man. “Welcome to today’s Quantum Mechanics class. Please turn to file seventeen. We will continue the lesson on eigenvalues and eigenvectors.”
I had definitely studied that at the Sky Drifter, but I couldn’t remember any of it.
“New student, I am Dr. Cael. If you please, what do you know about the properties of eigenvectors?”
I swallowed, aware all eyes were on me.
“Please, tell me two important properties.”
I searched my mind, desperate to find the answer. I pictured myself in Mr. Clarus’ class, willing him to tell me what I needed to know.
“Student Seven, please answer the question. Perhaps you were not listening? Would you like me to repeat it?”
“Um, no, no. Um, I don’t know.”
“Student Seven, you are required to learn given lessons prior to each class so you may advance adequately. Failure to do so will lead to detention and suspension.”
“Yes, but I just got here,” I said. “I didn’t know we had to study this, and no one told me. I don’t even have the book files.”
“Every student is required to read the codex provided. All relevant information about studies and schedules are contained therein. It is your responsibility to educate yourself with the rules and requirements of Laurea Academy.”
My face burned red from the embarrassment.
“Do you understand these requirements, student Seven?”
“Yes,” I mumbled. So much for making a new start.
“Can anyone answer my previously stated question? Student Elibar, perhaps?”
A student sitting behind me with a whistling, nasal voice, said, “The eigen properties of a hermian operator are orthogonal, and the eigenvectors of a hermian operator are spanning the space.”
“Correct, student Elibar. Please note, the eigenvalue spectrum of the adjecency matrix of Stochastic Block Model consists of two parts: a finite discreet set of dominant eigenvalues, and a continuous bulk of eigenvalues.”
The class continued much in the same way, with everyone except me following along with what the teacher was saying. He asked me a few more questions, each time I couldn’t answer reminding me the academy requirements and of my responsibility. I wanted to leave, thinking back to the Sphere gym. How I looked forward to going back.
After Biology class with the loud Mr. Hibutt, I descended to the atrium in search of Sally in the canteen. I looked around from the long queue that had already formed to the tables where many students sat, enjoying their food together.
“Hey, kid,” came Sally’s voice from behind me. “I was just looking for ya.” He lowered his voice and came closer. “There’s practice tonight, so meet me at the same place and time as last time.”
“Like, the Dome at—”
“Shh, man.” Sally looked around. “Keep it down. You crazy?”
“Oh, right, sorry. So, same as last time?”
“It’s what I said, ain’t it?”
“Okay, cool.” I couldn’t wait. Knowing I’d be playing Sphere again that night made the trauma of the morning’s lessons fade out of my mind.
“Word is you went Skeeber hunting in the sewers,” Sally grinned, getting in the lunch queue.
“Seriously, how do you know that? Who tells you these things?”
Sally laughed and tapped the side of his nose. “People talk, kid. Yeah, should’ve warned you: old Ms. Venir is detention happy.”
“What’s the deal with her, anyway?” I asked.
“You mean how she goes all limp and changes like she does? No one really knows, though rumor is that she had her memories of when she was younger downloaded into a system in the black market, and had ‘em fill her body with nanos filled with coding based on her younger image so she’d always be young. It went wrong, though, and the projection somehow fused with her old body instead of replacing it. 'Course, she couldn’t get her creds back ‘cause it’s all black market stuff,” he laughed. “Now her projection comes out whenever it wants and she can’t control it.”
“Whoa, that’s… weird.”
“Yeah, but pretty funny.”
We waited in line for a while. I got a slimy-looking burger, which seemed like the best choice of foods available that day, and Sally some kind of yelping glass worm-like things. We found seats at the other end of the canteen where we sat opposite each other.
“Hey, you know what an Equinox is?” I asked.
Sally chewed his worms for a moment as if deliberating what I’d said. “An Equinox. Sounds familiar. Isn’t it one of those old-time game dealies?” We were around the same age, but his words made me feel old.
“Uh, yeah, that’s it.”
“Why d’you ask? You into antiques, or something?”
“No, I’d just heard about them and was curious, that’s all.” I wasn’t sure why the Equinox had popped in my mind. I guessed the fact we were in a canteen took me back to when Iris and I used to play on them together. Sally shrugged and continued slurping his worms.
From somewhere to my right a familiar voice said, “Move.” I turned and saw the Gelorian looming over a Fumo student that was sitting next to me. He quickly vacated his seat, and the Gelorian sat in his place. He stared at me.
“We need to talk.”
“What do you want?” I asked, remembering how he’d left me for dead in the ancient ruins.
“Yeah, what’cha want?” said Sally in a mocking tone.
“Shut your face, loser. Wasn’t talking to you.”
“Didn’t need to be, Winkle.”
“Don’t call me that again. I’ll smash your face in.”
Sally covered his face with his hands, pretending to cower in fear. “Right, right: big, bad Gelorian will get me. Somebody help.”
The Gelorian smashed his fist into his palm.
“What do you want?” I asked.
“Not here. Follow me.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
The Gelorian huffed and, in a low tone, said, “Please follow me.”
I raised my eyebrows in surprise. The Gelorian stood up and walked away. I looked at Sally, who showed similar surprise. “You might as well find out, kid. Then come back and tell me what he said—might be funny.”
I shrugged and followed the Gelorian to a quiet spot just outside the canteen, near a wall.
“Look,” he said, looking around as if to make sure no one was within earshot, “my kind, we are the way we are, so don’t expect any apologies for any of your stupid hurt feelings, or whatever.”
“Wow, thanks. So glad you came to tell me that. See ya.”
“Wait a second. That’s not it. I’m not used to this, so shut up and listen.”
“Whatever it is, make it quick, okay? I’m hungry.”
“Don’t push me.” The Gelorian took a deep breath and frowned. He said something under his breath too quiet for me to hear.
&
nbsp; “What did you say?”
“Sorry—okay?” His face, arms and legs turned a deep shade of red. “You saved my life. I ‘preciate it.” He took a step toward me and scowled. “Now we’re even. If you ever tell anyone I said that, I’ll kill you. I’ll pound you into the ground.” He turned and walked away, looking around for anyone who may have overheard.
There’s a first time for everything, I thought, and walked back to the canteen.
CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE
The rest of the day didn’t go as well as I’d hoped. There was a lot I had to catch up on with my studies. At least I had Sphere, the one thing that still made sense. I’d met Sally in the Dome as planned and, after getting changed into the suits, we left the academy and got to the gym. After greeting Tanks, his father, we practiced together.
“Remember,” Sally said, “I won’t take it easy on you this time.”
“I’m counting on it,” I grinned.
We had put on some practice gauntlets. The ball it contained was made of a thick rubbery material instead of steel. We squared off against each other and began. Sally and I paced back and forth, waiting for the other to make he first move. Sally pressed the button on his right gauntlet, which released the light-chain and ball. Faster than I thought he could move, he cartwheeled toward me, swinging the ball up then down where I stood, narrowly missing me as I jumped back to avoid his attack. I leapt toward him, releasing the light-chain, and grabbing the ball with both hands. As I was about to throw it at his head, Sally jumped straight up, head-butting my chin and lip. I flew backward, and threw my hands up to meet the ground, flipping back onto one knee. Blood dripped from my lip, down my chin.
“Told ya, kid,” he said, “it won’t be as easy as last time.”
I wiped the blood off with the gauntlet. “Are you saying you let me win?”
“No, not exactly,” he replied. "I wanted to see what you could do. You’re good, but sloppy in your form. And that makes me better.” He smiled. Anger rose in my chest.
