by Jacob Gowans
Once in the cruiser, Byron pointed them back to Capitol Island. Not long into the journey, he sent a text to his son:
A critical matter requires your urgent attention back at A. headquarters. Can you return to base immediately following the ceremony? Bring Chin and Djedaa. Samuel is alive.
All speed, Dad.
He and Dr. Rosmir spent a good length of the trip discussing in private how he was going to explain the disappearance of Tango squadron. He’d need to come up with a very good excuse. Eventually things were going to come out, and Psion Command would be furious with him. Technically, he had the authority to give such orders, but he knew he’d be in hot water with General Wu. Before they landed, another thought struck him, and he sent a second text to his son.
And do not say anything to anyone. Even Gefjon or Marie.
He had much more work to do than he’d anticipated. And he was thrilled about it.
11. Graduation
March 3, 2086
JEFFIE AND BRICKERT moved down the aisle between the two large sections of chairs in sim room one looking for a good place to sit.
“Over there,” Brickert suggested, pointing to her right.
Jeffie counted the number of available adjacent chairs. “Not enough for everyone.”
“You mean, not enough for Strawberry and Antonio,” Brickert said, “which is more than fine by me.”
Jeffie reprimanded him with a look and continued meandering up the aisle, waiting for the crowd of Alphas, Command, and Betas in front to clear out.
“Do we really want to sit that close?” Brickert asked. “I’ll get sick during the highlight video.”
“Oh, quit whining!” She punched him on the arm playfully.
Brickert smiled back, and all she could do was shake her head. She looked back to see if their friends were following behind when someone tugged on her sleeve urgently. It was Al trying to squeeze between three members of Marie’s family. He wore a very strange expression.
“Hey, Al! What’s up?” She hadn’t seen him since his own graduation.
“I need to speak with you in private.” He kept his voice quiet, and she barely heard him over the din. “You know . . . after this is over.”
“About what?” she asked.
Brickert turned an ear to catch a piece of their conversation.
Al opened his mouth to speak, but Marie’s father cut him off. “Al, let’s hurry now. It’s about to start.”
He shot her a look of hopeful reluctance and mouthed: “After.” Then the tide of the crowd pulled him away from her and to the front of the audience where family received special seating for the ceremony. Jeffie’s mind froze on Al’s expression and she forgot all about trying to find a seat.
“Jeffie?” Brickert snapped his fingers in her face. “Earth to Jeffie?”
“What?” she finally answered.
“What did Al want?”
“He wants to talk to me after this is over.”
“Did he say what about?”
“No, he didn’t.” But she had a pretty good idea. It’s about Sammy. What else could it possibly be?
Brickert ended up choosing their seats, as Jeffie was too lost in her own thoughts to really care anymore. Twice, he had to steer her by the jumpsuit so she wouldn’t walk into someone. Natalia and Kawai arrived shortly and sat with them. Just before the ceremonies began, Strawberry ducked in with Antonio, taking the seats to Jeffie’s right.
“Where’s Hefani?” Antonio asked.
Jeffie pointed two rows up where the other new kid was sitting. She hated having Hefani around. He was nice, polite, and extraordinarily humble, but he shared too many similarities with Sammy. Often, Jeffie would see him and immediately think of her best friend. It wasn’t that they looked exactly alike. Sammy was taller, bigger, and much better looking with his strong chin and cute, stubby nose. Hefani kept his hair long and hardly ever spoke unless Antonio was around. But his dark skin and hair often made her do a double-take.
She didn’t remember much of Marie’s ceremony. It seemed as though a box of fireworks had been crammed inside her head and lit, causing her imagination to explode with daydreams of both wonderful and devastating tidings. What news could Al possibly have? Had they heard from Sammy? Were they going back to look for him? So many thoughts and ideas battled for the spotlight that she began to hate Al for making her wait for their conversation.
“I am not telling you how many boys I’ve kissed,” Strawberry whispered in mock offense.
“Come on. Don’t be such a prude,” Antonio answered under his breath. “I’m sure someone as cute as you has had a little experience!”
“Oh, right. Nice try, but—”
“Can you two act mature for two hours?” Brickert hissed, leaning across Jeffie to talk to his sister. “I’ll tell you . . .” he added under his breath to Jeffie, who answered with an indulgent smile.
“Sorry,” Strawberry replied, beet red.
Antonio hitched a cheesy grin on his face, and they both turned to watch the proceedings.
“Thank you,” Jeffie breathed to Brickert. “I didn’t want to have to say something.” No matter how great of a roommate Strawberry was, she seriously lacked social etiquette whenever Antonio was around.
Most of the Betas were getting bored with the graduation ceremonies. This was their third in about two months, after attending Al’s and Gregor’s. They were all fairly similar except for the highlight reel; an impressive collection of recordings of the graduate in the Arena and simulation fights. That was everyone’s favorite part. Each time Jeffie tried to pay attention, her thoughts strayed back to Al. What could he possibly need to talk to me about? Whatever it was, it seemed urgent.
Brickert leaned over and again interrupted her train of thought. “Would you mind if I sat in on your conversation with Al?”
“It’s fine with me if it’s fine with him.”
“Great. Thanks.” He beamed at her.
“Can you two act mature for two hours?” Antonio hissed at them, grinning as he did so. Jeffie glared back, and he shut up.
Finally the highlight reel began. Jeffie watched it with mild interest. When it ended to thunderous applause, Marie got up to speak. Sensing the end of the meeting, Jeffie sent several glances at Al as if her eyes could hold him in place until she reached him. He was sitting between Marie’s parents and her littlest brother, Domingo. Jeffie wondered vaguely if he, like Strawberry, had already tested positive for Anomaly Fourteen, but was too young to be recruited. Every few seconds, Marie’s mother or father would lean over and whisper to either Al or each other about something in Marie’s speech. Seeing Marie’s parents in the same room with their daughter reminded Jeffie of a late night with Sammy not long after he had beaten four Thirteens in one sim.
As he told her about beating the sim, he practiced levitating his ice cream spoon in one hand while using his other hand to spin it. Jeffie knew he’d picked the idea up from watching Kobe, but she didn’t mention it.
“I’m kinda jealous of the relationship you had with your parents,” she told him.
“Come on . . .” he responded, getting a really good spin on the spoon before it tipped over off his blast, “you make it sound like yours are terrible.”
He sat in his favorite gel chair, propping his legs up on a second one, the way he always did during their late night talks. He wore his old jeans and a T-shirt Al had given him a couple months ago with the Helsinki Hurricanes’ logo on it. Jeffie hated the Hurricanes, they were a big rival of the Oslo Otters. So, naturally, Sammy wore it more often.
“I didn’t mean it to sound that way.” She watched him spin the spoon, wishing he’d put it away and look at her. “They’re not terrible. I—I just wish they had been more down-to-earth.”
He dropped the spoon again, and didn’t bother to pick it up. Instead, he looked at her with that blank expression he wore when he was just listening to what she had to say. He probably did not know it, but it was the perfect way
to get her to keep talking.
“My dad was my basketball coach ever since . . . oh gosh . . . ever since I was old enough to be in recreation clubs, I guess. Did I ever tell you he fudged my age on the application to get me in?”
“No” Sammy smirked at her. “But I’m not surprised. In fact, I could see you doing the same thing.”
Jeffie threw a gel chair at him. He blasted it away without much effort. “Thanks for the workout.”
“You’re welcome. Anyway—where was I?”
“Fudging your age,” he told her.
“Oh yeah, so I was six months shy of the cut-off date, and he marked my half birthday on my sign-up form. He told me the bigger sin would be to not let me play.”
“Do you think he was right?”
“Playing with older girls definitely pushed me harder. But I was six! I mean, who cares about that stuff when you’re six? They don’t even care if you double-dribble until the eight and nine-year-old league. But if I double-dribbled or traveled or fouled out—it was like a cardinal sin!” Jeffie clutched her face in mock terror. “My dad would make me run lines after practice.”
“Really?”
“Oh yeah! The same with my brothers. That’s why they’re playing professional sports all over the continent—two play for football clubs and one plays basketball. At least, that’s the reason my father told everyone.”
“He’s probably right.”
“You know, the only time my parents ever got into arguments was when my mom wanted to take us to her film shoots. She wanted us to be well-rounded; he didn’t want us to miss practice. So, finally, she decided to direct a documentary on the Norwegian territorial football squad, and my dad had to let us go. I was nine then. We liked being on her film sets so much he had to let us go more often.”
“You got to do some pretty cool stuff,” Sammy remarked. “What are you complaining about?”
“But they weren’t my best friends!” she shot back. “Aren’t they supposed to be? I don’t know. Your parents sound so great.”
Sammy shrugged in his chair, causing the gel to squish inside. “They were.”
Jeffie mocked his nonchalant shrug several times until he smiled. “My dad was more concerned with winning and getting us sports scholarships to whatever school we wanted to attend. My mom was determined to culture us in the arts, but she rarely went to my games. She missed all my Olympic games because she was filming the first basketball holo-film. Ironic?”
“You were in the Olympics?” Sammy asked.
Jeffie’s expression told Sammy that the answer should be obvious. “Of course I was. But do you see my point?”
“Yeah, sure I do,” Sammy said as he got up to get more ice cream. “Do you want more?” he called back.
Jeffie grumbled a bit to herself about whether she should and then reluctantly answered, “Yes.”
Sammy came back, grabbed her bowl, and filled hers up as well. When he handed it to her, he said, “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I want to spend my life with someone like my mom. She was my best friend. I could trust her with anything.”
The words burned themselves into her memory. At that moment, she realized she wanted to be the person Sammy was talking about.
“What is that face for?” Sammy asked.
Jeffie mentally slapped herself. “Nothing . . . I just think you’re really lucky. And I wish my mom and dad had taken more time to be my friend.”
“You should remember that when you have kids someday.”
“Okay, can we talk about something a little less serious?”
Sammy just laughed.
Jeffie’s patience ran out about twenty seconds into Marie’s speech. She could hardly sit still, glancing every few seconds at Al, who seemed to have no problem listening to his girlfriend’s discourse about how grateful she was that her mother and father had taken a leap of faith and accepted Byron’s offer.
“Calm down,” Brickert hissed at her. “Everything’s going to be fine.”
Jeffie ignored this, glancing again at Al. This time he was reading a text on his com. When his holo-screen disappeared, Al sat up straighter and looked to his left and right as if he were making sure no one else read the message.
More questions jumped to Jeffie’s mind and she tried to keep track of them. As Marie wound down, Jeffie tapped her feet to a fast beat in her head and ignored the annoyed looks from Levu and Cala. A half-second after the ceremony finished, she sprang from her seat like a jack-in-the-box and made her way toward Al.
But Al, it seemed, had forgotten about their conversation. She watched him worm his way over to Marie, hug her, and then whisper something in her ear. Marie nodded and hugged him again.
That can’t be good . . . Jeffie increased her speed. Unfortunately, the entire Covas family had congregated in the aisle, blocking Jeffie’s access to both Marie and Al. She tried politely to shove through the crowd but by the time she got through, Al was gone. Unwilling to give up, she raced through the hall yelling his name, and barely caught him on the stairs to the rooftop.
“Hey! Where are you going?” she asked him a bit breathlessly.
“Oh . . . Jeffie. Hi.” Al glanced back up the stairs and then looked at Jeffie. He still wore the same strange expression, only now he looked guilty, too.
“You said you wanted to talk to me, then you ran off. What’s up?”
“Nothing,” he said. He looked uncomfortable. “I just wanted to see how you are. I mean, how are you?”
“I’m fine. That can’t be what you wanted to talk to me about. Is it?”
“Well . . .” Al stared at her blankly, then examined his watch. “I mean, yeah. I wanted to talk to you a bit more, just to see how you are. But I remembered I have an urgent meeting. It wasn’t anything . . . Sorry if you thought it was something important.”
Jeffie didn’t know what to say. As she stood there in silence, Al ducked through the door with little more than a goodbye.
She ran forward to stop him, but too late. The roof door closed, and she didn’t have the authority to open it. Frustrated and confused, she kicked the door. Her toe throbbed with pain. She ordered her com to call Al.
“Permission denied. Unauthorized number.”
She cursed at herself for forgetting she couldn’t call Al anymore. Second option: find Marie. She ran back down the hall and into the sim room. She had to wait until Marie’s family finished hugging her before she could get near.
“Congratulations,” she said with a semi-forced smile and hug.
“Thanks, Jeffie,” Marie said. “How are you doing? We haven’t talked much lately. My fault.”
“No—no, I’m fine. I was wondering where Al went off to in such a hurry. He said he wanted to talk to me about something. It seemed important.”
“Oh, I don’t know. He didn’t say anything about that. Right after it ended, he said he had to leave. Apparently that was urgent, too. Sorry . . .” She said this with a sad, knowing smile that made Jeffie feel uncomfortable. The idea that Marie thought she understood what was going on in Jeffie’s life stirred upsetting feelings.
She has no idea what I feel.
With no more desire for company, she went to her dorm and sprawled out on her bed. She wanted to stop caring about what she’d thought Al would say. She even felt a little ashamed at some of the daydreams she’d invented. Sometimes you can be such a silly little girl. Stupid. Childish. If it had been anything of significance, Al would have made sure to tell her.
The feeling of loneliness hit her harder than it had since the first days when Sammy didn’t come back. Sure, she had Brickert, Strawberry, the other girls, but they were not Sammy. She could not have the talks with them that she had been able to have with him. Sleepless and solitary, she let memories of Sammy pass slowly in front of her inner eye. Tears wanted to come, but Jeffie refused them.
Her door opened suddenly and she sat up, startled. It was Strawberry. She was crying. Jeffie’s sisterly instincts took over, sweeping
away the self-pity in which she had been wallowing.
Plenty of time for that later.
“What’s the matter, Berry?” she asked.
Strawberry, in a move that was so typical of her, hid her face. Jeffie knew how much her roommate hated crying—or anything else that caused her make-up to run. But she was actually kind of glad Strawberry was upset, because it made her forget her own feelings.
Strawberry shook her head and went to her closet as if she was looking for something.
“Hey,” Jeffie persisted, “talk to me.”
“It’s . . . nothing,” Strawberry said through small sobs.
“If it’s nothing, then I’m sure you won’t mind if I mention it to Brickert.”
Strawberry laughed a little and sniffled. “You wouldn’t tell him! You’d be breaking my sacred trust.”
Jeffie smirked at her friend. Strawberry could be funny, even when she felt totally miserable. “Will you talk you me now?”
“Oh . . .” she shrugged. “It’s Antonio.”
“I knew it! I’m going to pummel that boy.” Jeffie said it with more sincerity than Strawberry probably believed. Otravelli had already gotten off on the wrong foot with her by way of his cocky nature and his tactless remarks about Sammy. “So what happened?”
“It’s so stupid! During the ceremony we had talked about playing some games together, but when I went into the rec room to find him, he was already hanging out with Natalia.”
“Okay . . . why didn’t you talk to him?”
“I did. But he blew me off like I was a little kid.”
“I wouldn’t lose any sleep over Antonio Otravelli!” She pronounced his name like she’d heard in mafia movies. “Especially if he’s making nice on Natalia. He won’t get far.”
Strawberry laughed at Jeffie’s impersonation, but beneath Jeffie’s words hid an even greater pearl of truth. Since Natalia had arrived at headquarters, she’d suffered from a major crush on Brickert. Unfortunately for her, Brickert had eyes for the older girls, and Natalia’s thirteen month gain on Brickert did not seem to qualify her for his affections.
