“The model is continually updated to reflect our expanding knowledge of the stars,” Meredith replied.
“Good to know,” Yana said to Meredith, then, “We have to go. It’s time to call the team.”
“Thank you, Meredith,” Nestor said. “Goodnight!”
“Farewell, children.”
They raced up the right-hand staircase, arriving in the Alpha Class dormitory as Nestor’s tablet began to buzz.
“Just give me a second.” He plugged his tablet into the TV monitor in the common area and accepted the call.
Tina, Ron, and Aleksi appeared on the screen. Yana was concerned to see that Ron looked tired and pale. They all appeared troubled.
“What is wrong?” she asked. “Is everything okay down there?”
Tina shook her head somberly. “No, not really.”
United Kingdom, North Wales, Conwy Castle, Student Dormitory
Earlier that day...
Tina dried her hair with a towel, tied it back out of the way, and pulled her coverall on over her sweats in preparation for going back to work.
Ron was sleeping soundly, so she headed for the packing bay. She wasn't the type of person to leave it to others when there was a job to be done.
She thought about the smartphone while she made her way down the stairs to the manufacturing floor. Logically, it must belong to whoever was running Doctor Llewellyn.
She left her ruminations behind as she pushed the plastic curtain aside to enter the bay she'd been working in before Ron's accident.
The breakdown was in full swing, and moving rapidly toward completion. She saw that much of the machinery which had been there when they arrived was gone. The rest was in the process of being disassembled by the facility’s staff and Jean's techs, ready to be packed and taken to Jean's R&D labs on the Meredith Reynolds. The buzz of the adults’ conversation added another layer to the chorus of clangs, bangs, and power tools.
Jean noticed Tina and waved her over to a bay at the far end of the floor, where she found Aleksi stripping what remained of a robotic arm. He was focused on the task, so she waited until he'd removed the piece he was working on and turned to put it on the cart beside his bench.
Aleksi looked up, putting his tools down when he saw her. “Hey! How is Ron?” he asked, speaking loudly to be heard over the commotion.
“It was a mild concussion. He'll be back at the dorm by tonight, just in time for our call home,” she replied. “It's a shame Maxim is off in the forest with John. He'll be sad to miss a chance to talk to Nestor if they don’t get back in time.”
“They'll be back together as soon as all this work is done and we can go home.” He held a socket wrench out to Tina.
She took it with a grin. “True. What are we doing this afternoon?”
Aleksi smiled ruefully. “More of the same. Strip whatever we're given down to its constituent parts, fill the cart, and take it to Jean and Doctor Llewellyn to be either packed and sent up or taken to the furnaces to be smelted and then sent up.”
Tina took another of the robotic arms from the pile of mismatched parts waiting to be disassembled and settled down next to Aleksi at the bench. The time passed quickly, the rhythm created by the adults working guiding their pace as they reduced the pile.
When their carts were full they left the bay, pushing them to the edge of the area where the walkway was wide enough for them to walk side-by-side without obstructing anyone walking the other way.
There was a short wait when they got to Jean's station. Doctor Llewellyn was just leaving through the plastic curtain when they got to the front of the queue of people waiting to drop off their carts.
“Where do you think she's going?” Tina asked Aleksi quietly.
Aleksi shook his head. “I do not know. Maybe we should follow her?”
Tina pursed her lips. “How will we get away without being noticed?” A thought occurred to her. “Leave it to me.”
They moved forward as the adult in front of them deposited his cart and left with an empty one.
Jean looked up from her station at the workbench, smiling brightly at Tina and Aleksi when she saw them pushing their carts over to her assistant. “Hey, I wasn't expecting you to finish so soon! Great job, kids.”
“Thank you, Ms. Dukes,” Aleksi said.
“Would it be okay if we stretched our legs before starting the next batch?” Tina asked hopefully.
Jean was distracted by the parts scattered around her station. “Huh? Oh, yeah, sure. Just don't go into any of the restricted areas.” She already had her head down again and was focused on her work.
“We’ll go and visit Ron,” Tina told her.
They said goodbye, receiving a distracted grunt and a wave in return, and left the floor in the same direction Doctor Llewellyn had exited a few minutes before.
“Where do you think she went?” Aleksi asked when they were in the corridor. They dismissed the elevator, which was still sat waiting on their level, headed past the sign at the nexus of corridors directing employees to the different workspaces, and went through the stairwell door.
Tina looked up through the middle of the windowless stairwell, trying to guess. “I don't know.” She saw the flicker of a lab coat two stories up, which was ground-level.
Shortly thereafter they heard a door close.
“She's on the ground floor,” Tina said. “She's probably headed for her office. Come on!” She ran up the stairs, treading softly to avoid the echo.
Aleksi panted as he kept pace behind her. “What are we going to do when we find her? If we get caught snooping around near her office again, she'll know we had something to do with the phone going missing.”
Tina halted at the door leading into the main hall on the ground floor. “It’s in the same building as the infirmary, which is why I told Ms. Dukes we were going there. What do you think we should do?”
“We should keep moving, at least,” Aleksi said after a moment. “We can make a decision when we get to the main hall. Is there anyone out there now?”
Tina pushed the door open a crack and peered into the hall. “Not that I can see.” She went into the hall, Aleksi following close behind.
“Don't skulk. It makes you look guilty,” she told him. “Just walk normally, like you're supposed to be here. Haven't you ever broken the rules before?”
Aleksi straightened up. “Have you broken them often?”
“Not as often as you think,” she retorted with a wink. “That's better. Come on, we'll take the front way. Then if anyone asks, we say we're going to see Ron in the infirmary.”
They crossed the hall, heading for the corridor that led to the old visitor’s center, which now housed the infirmary and administration offices.
Tina shuddered at the change in temperature between the hall and the windowless corridor. She was about to complain when the lights went out, plunging them into darkness.
They immediately turned and went back through the door to the hall, where the stained-glass windows let in the late afternoon sun.
“Sabotage!” they exclaimed in unison.
Tina's heart beat faster. “She must have gone to the generator room and cut the power. But why?”
Aleksi had the answer. “To cause a distraction. That's what I'd do. Get everyone in one place so I could be in another.”
Just then their tablets began to bleep.
Tina was almost relieved. “It's Ms. Dukes, so we'd better answer.”
Jean's face appeared. There was a line in the middle of her forehead that told them not to say anything that would inconvenience her further. “Where are you kids?”
“We're in the main hall, Ms. Dukes,” Aleksi said.
“Do you want us back on the floor?” Tina added.
Jean shook her head. “No, there's a problem with the power. Work is on hold until it's back up and we have light to see by. You two can take some time; go up to your dorm and stay there until John gets back with the others. I'll be up as soon as I
can. We'll all have dinner together tonight.”
Tina smiled. “That sounds great. Are you sure we can't help?”
Aleksi made a face where Jean couldn't see. Tina waited nervously to hear Jean's reply.
“No, we're good. You kids go have some leisure time.”
Almost clear, Tina thought. “Is John due back soon?”
“Within the next hour or two,” Jean confirmed before signing off.
“So, what do we do?” Aleksi asked. “Should we look for Doctor Llewellyn, or go to the dorm?”
Tina gave a shrug. “We may as well go to the dorm. Whatever she needed a distraction for, it worked. I say we look at the phone.”
Aleksi's eyebrows shot up. “Are you joking? After everything you said to stop me from looking at it the other night?”
Tina smirked and moved toward the tower door. “Let's just go and get the phone. I have a solution.”
The stairway was illuminated only by thin lances of sunlight let in by embrasures farther up. They headed upstairs, activating the torch function on Aleksi's tablet to light the dim spiral as they ascended to the dormitories on the top level.
They walked in silence, concentrating on not falling on the uneven stone steps in the near-dark, but suddenly the silence was broken by a deep scraping sound which echoed around the tower walls. Tina ran toward the sound, rounding the final bend just in time to see the fireplace across the hallway grinding shut.
“What the hell?” Aleksi said from behind her.
Tina let out a small scream and spun without thinking, taking a swing at Aleksi.
Aleksi backpedaled and held his hands up, dazzling her with the light from his tablet. “Easy there! You almost got me!”
“Oh, it’s just you!” Tina almost hugged him in her relief. “Sorry, Aleksi.”
Aleksi had already forgotten about it. He went to the fireplace and used his free hand to feel around the edges, since they'd seen the fireplace move. “It is a secret passage, Tina—like Ron told us about!”
She joined him, closely inspecting the crevasse between the wall and the fireplace. “I can’t even tell. If I hadn’t seen it, I would never have guessed it was a secret door. I wonder who was up here?”
He stepped back and looked at the wall as a whole. “It's seamless. I can't see a way in. It must have been Doctor Llewellyn.”
“That’s not good.” Tina bit her lip. “Do you think she was looking for the phone?”
Aleksi's eyes widened in the dark. “What if she found it?”
They gasped in unison and rushed into the dormitory, where they made a beeline for the sleeping area. Light from the windows helped them avoid falling over the furniture as they tore over to the bunks.
They scrambled underneath Maxim and Craig's bunk and pulled out the loose stone they'd hidden the phone behind.
“Whew!” Aleksi grabbed both items and Tina put the stone back in place.
They wriggled out from under the bunk and dusted themselves down.
“What next?” Aleksi asked. “You didn't tell me your plan.”
Tina raised a knowing eyebrow. “Did you stop to read the sign on the wall downstairs?”
Aleksi admitted that he hadn't.
“Well, I did,” Tina said, grinning smugly. “There's a Faraday room down there.” She went over to her bunk and pulled a dark knit cap from the drawers.
Aleksi drew a blank. “A what room?”
“A Faraday room,” she repeated. “Like a Faraday cage, but bigger. The facility has a whole room capable of blocking signals.”
Aleksi turned and headed for the door. “What are we waiting for? Let's go!”
Tina stopped him before he got ahead of himself. “It's no good to us until the power is fixed.”
He visibly deflated, and slumped into a chair.
Tina grabbed Aleksi's backpack and patted him on the shoulder. “Ms. Dukes will have it back on soon. Here’s your bag of gadgets. We'll go see if Ron's ok.”
United Kingdom, North Wales, Conwy Castle, Infirmary
Matron smiled warmly at Tina as she entered the infirmary with Aleksi in tow. “Hello, Tina. Nice to see you again, my dearie.” She looked Aleksi up and down, smiling warmly. “You must be Aleksandr. I recognize you from the photo in your medical file.”
Aleksi shook his head. “Just Aleksi, please, Matron. Only my father calls me Aleksandr.”
“Is it okay if we see Ron, Matron?” Tina asked, returning the smile. She liked the motherly woman.
“I can do better than that,” Matron said, coming out from behind her desk. “You can take him back to the dorm with you, if you like. He's clear to go, as long as he's supervised. I was about to take young Ronald back to the dormitory before the power cut, but now I must transfer all the perishable medicines, like Doctor Jiani's insulin, to the backup refrigeration unit. You’d be doing me a favor.”
Tina hid her delight at the stroke of luck. “We can take care of him, Matron.”
Ron was dressed and ready to go when they got to his room, and he jumped up from his seat on the edge of the bed when they came in. “Can I go?” He saw Tina and grinned.
Matron pulled a sheet of paper off the clipboard in her hand, giving it to Tina. “Read through this. If he starts having any of these symptoms bring him straight back, do you hear?”
Tina looked over the information. “Yes, ma'am,” she said in her most responsible voice.
Matron nodded. “Good. I'd better get back to those medicines. You can see yourselves out.”
Tina took Ron's arm as the three of them left the infirmary. “How are you feeling?”
“I feel good,” Ron said, stretching his arms out wide. “A little tired from being asleep so long. Why?”
“Not here,” Tina said, glancing back at the infirmary to make sure Matron wasn't in hearing range. “Come on, we need to get going before someone asks what we're doing.”
They each took one of Ron's arms, helping him along to preserve his energy. When they reached the main building they took a break to give him a chance to recover.
“Spill,” Ron said as they walked. “What’s with all the secrecy?”
Aleksi grinned and said softly, “Tina found a way for us to switch the phone on safely.”
Ron looked at Tina with awe. “I knew you would,” he told her quietly, matching Aleksi's caution. “What's the plan? Does it have anything to do with the power going out?”
They shook their heads at Ron's question.
“The power was Doctor Llewellyn, we're sure,” Tina said. “We were following her.”
“You were doing what?” Ron interrupted.
Tina arched an eyebrow, not appreciating the tone of his voice. “She left in the middle of the shift, so we asked Jean for a break and followed her up to the ground floor. We'd just gone into the corridor leading to the walkway when the power went out.”
“There is a secret passage in King's Tower!” Aleksi blurted. “What?” he said to Tina with a shrug. “You were taking too long! OW!”
“Serves you right for ruining my story,” Tina said, narrowing her eyes in mock rage as she pounded his arm a second time.
Aleksi rubbed his sore arm gingerly. “You don't hit like a girl. Why did you do it again?”
“You have a lot to learn about girls, Aleksi. Now quit your whining and come on,” she ordered, taking Ron's arm again and steering him toward the stairwell. “We have some sneaking around to do.”
The power came on when they were halfway down the stairs to the lower levels, causing Ron to swoon at the sudden return of the overhead lights.
Tina caught him. “Ron! Are you all right?” She looked at his eyes, checking for a difference in the size of his pupils as the care instructions Matron had given her said to do. “Your eyes look fine.”
He blinked a few times and rubbed his eyes. “So do yours,” he said with a wink. “I just went dizzy for a second. I'm all right, scout's honor.”
“Were you even in the scouts?” she ask
ed skeptically.
“Wouldn’t you like to know? Let's go!” He took the railing firmly and descended toward the door at the bottom of the stairs.
Aleksi and Tina shrugged at each other and followed him. “Wait for us,” Tina called softly.
When they peered nervously through the little window in the door, the nexus beyond was empty.
“This way,” Tina whispered, taking the lead. She took the third corridor to the left of the elevator.
“Where are we going?” Ron asked.
“To the Faraday room, now that the power is back on. I brought this.” She gave him a quick flash of the phone in her pocket.
Ron's jaw dropped. “I thought we were going to... Did you say Faraday room?” He grinned. “That knock must have scrambled my brains. Perfect! That's exactly what we need! And it's down this way?”
Tina nodded patiently.
Ron was already moving down the empty corridor toward the heavy metal door at the bottom.
He stopped when he saw the red light and the keypad on the door. “How are we supposed to get in? We don't have a keycard.”
Aleksi stepped forward, rummaging in his backpack. “This is where I come in.” He pulled out a blank keycard with a USB wire attached.
“I am learning more than I want to about people's dark sides on this trip,” Ron muttered. He raised a questioning eyebrow, folding his arms.
Aleksi grinned. “Hey, it's no big deal. I can't get the processing power for my games in my quarters, so I made this to get me into somewhere I can. The EI knows all about it, I promise.”
Tina and Ron watched Aleksi insert the USB into his tablet and start up an app before putting the keycard into the slot. He tapped his tablet a few times, and the keypad beeped softly.
A moment later the red light turned green, and the door gave a heavy clunk.
“Quickly, get inside,” Tina urged, pushing the door open with her shoulder.
The lights and ventilation system kicked in as the door closed, startling them for a moment.
“We're such a bunch of scaredy cats!” Aleksi said with a nervous edge to his voice.
“You would be too if you'd been chased by alien killer robots and shot at by the Americans, the French, the Chinese, and the Mongolians,” Ron snarked.
Alpha Class - Discovery Page 10
