by Kate Moretti
Jane spotted her friend a few seats down. Vieve’s gaze was glued to the stage, where, any minute, Reyes would announce the winner. She twisted her metal hands in her lap, and Jane could read the stark anxiety in the girl’s face.
Wow, she really wants it. Jane turned back to the stage, where she and the other contestants had presented their entries earlier. Marcus Streger, with whom the winner would intern, was in the middle of a speech about the future of innovation and bright young minds, and blah, blah, blah. He was a terrible speaker, appearing both awkward and condescending, but she supposed that didn’t matter when you were a renowned genius. Watching him made her uncomfortable, and she realized she didn’t actually want to win the competition if it meant working for him.
Come to think of it, she’d never had her eye on the prize to begin with. Zared had been right about one thing: she wanted to be a musician, not a cyberengineer. But you didn’t have to work in tech for coding to come in handy. The harmonization app she’d written as her entry would sure be useful the next time she sat down to write a song. And mostly, she just wanted to prove she could do anything.
Streger wrapped up his speech, and Reyes took his place at the podium.
“And now, it’s time to announce the winner of the Fourth Annual Acuitas Interstellar Cyberengineering Competition.” She lifted her chin. “But before I do, I’d like to give two honorable mentions for entries that demonstrated exceptional aptitude and imagination. The first one is for Jane Colt.”
Me?! Jane blinked up in disbelief. She stood, as she knew she was supposed to, and made her way toward the aisle. The applause became a vague rumble in her ears as she approached the steps to the stage.
“Jane!” A young man called to her, and she spun.
To her surprise, her brother was standing in the aisle, clapping with everyone else. “Devin!” She ran and threw her arms around him. “You made it!”
“I snuck in right before your presentation.” He gave her a sheepish look. “Sorry I was late. I had to—”
“Doesn’t matter.” She only cared that he was there. “Thanks for coming.”
“I’m so proud of you.” He beamed then nodded at the stage, where Reyes was calling her name. “Go on.”
Jane rushed up, shook the judge’s hand, and accepted her small silver plaque. She was so busy reveling in her success that she didn’t hear who the other honorable mention was. It didn’t matter that she hadn’t taken the top prize. An honorable mention was good enough to prove to her jerk boyfriend—whom she’d shunned for the past few days to finish her entry—that he’d made a terrible mistake in thinking she couldn’t code. She scanned the crowd for his face and, spotting his shape among the other student supervisors, threw him a haughty look.
“And now, for the winner.” Reyes paused, and the corner of her mouth quirked. “This extraordinary student created something so brilliant, it nearly got her in trouble. Everyone, this year’s winner is Vieve Hua.”
“Yes!” Jane pumped her fist.
In the front row, Vieve stared up in stunned silence.
“Vieve!” Jane waved her arm in a beckoning gesture. “C’mon! You won!”
Vieve got up and walked onto the stage, where she was greeted with handshakes and congratulations. Jane clapped enthusiastically for her, happiness swirling through her head.
Reyes wrapped up the assembly, and the lights came on over the audience. Though Jane was still on the stage, the formal presentation was done, which meant she didn’t have to hold back anymore.
She gave Vieve a big hug. “Congrats! You deserve it! I—”
“Jane!” Hearing Zared’s voice, she stopped. He walked onto the stage, looking dashing in his businesslike blazer. “Nice job, sweetness.” There was something fake about the smile he flashed her.
She approached him. “You’re not forgiven.”
“What?” He cocked his head.
“Oh, I thought you were coming to apologize for thinking I was too stupid for this competition.”
He let out a dry laugh. “You’re not still mad about that, are you?”
Instead of responding, she just crossed her arms and glared. She didn’t need him to grovel or anything. A simple “Hey, sorry for being a jerk” would’ve been enough.
But apparently even that was too much to ask, since an annoyed expression crossed his eyes. “C’mon, babe. Wipe that look off. The local media’s here, and no one likes a sour face on holovision. Now, give me that pretty smile of yours and get ready to face the press.” He drew his hand across the air. “Can you see it? The Central Academy of Kydera Major’s honoree, Jane Colt, daughter of Quasar Bank Corporation’s head executive, and her mentor, Zared Ramos, son of the Kyderan President.”
“Excuse me? You didn’t mentor me.”
“I got you here, didn’t I? We’ll look so good together on all the news sites.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Is that all that matters to you?”
“Why are you being so difficult?” He sighed. “You’re beautiful, babe. Happy now?” He put his arm around her and steered her toward the staircase.
“Stop!” She twisted out of his grasp. “You’re really not gonna apologize?”
“For what? Enough with the crazy. Let’s just—”
“No!” She backed away from him. Did he really think he could order her around? Call her beautiful and assume that erased all the times he’d wronged her? Was that all she’d ever been to him—a decorative status symbol? Come to think of it, that’s all he ever was to me. Except she’d at least respected his intelligence. He, on the other hand, continued to insult hers and call her crazy for being offended. I don’t even like him… and I don’t need him.
She drew a breath, forcing herself to act calm. “Look, Zared, we had some good times, but frankly, I really don’t appreciate the way you’ve been treating me. And during these past few days when I didn’t see you… I didn’t miss you. So I think it might be best if we spent some time apart.” There. That was diplomatic enough. More than he deserves.
Zared scoffed. “Now, now, sweetness. I get that things have been tough, but there’s no need for dramatics.”
Anger flashed through her at his dismissive manner. Unable to feign politeness anymore, she strode up to him. “You want dramatic?” She inhaled. “I’m breaking up with you!”
The air shimmered with satisfying reverberations. The hum of the crowd went silent. Up on the stage, Jane gave Zared a disdainful look, glad that everyone was there to see. “You’ve been a jerk to me for the last time. Goodbye, sweetness.”
After throwing him a smirk, she walked past his stunned, still form and approached Vieve, who was grinning.
“That was awesome,” Vieve said. “Good riddance.”
“I dunno about you, but I’ve had enough scumbags.” Jane held out her hand. “What do you say we go celebrate the end of this crazy competition? Find that brother of mine and make him buy us some fancy food?”
Vieve laughed. “Sounds like a plan.”
The touch of metal fingers didn’t bother Jane anymore. She scampered down the stairs, with Vieve close behind, and together, they strode out of the auditorium, basking in the glow of triumph.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mary Fan is a hopeless dreamer whose mind insists on spinning tales of “what if.” As a music major at Princeton, she told those stories through compositions. Now, she tells them through books. “Takes a Hacker” is part of the Jane Colt sci-fi universe, which also comprises Artificial Absolutes (Red Adept Publishing, 2013), Synthetic Illusions (Red Adept Publishing, 2014), and Virtual Shadows (2015). Mary is also the author of the Flynn Nightsider and Fated Stars series, published by Glass House Press.
THOUGHTS ON BRAVE NEW GIRLS
“Popular culture is a powerful thing. That’s why we need more stor
ies about girls who use their brains to save the day, and about girls who aren’t afraid of showing off their nerdier sides. I hope that these types of heroines will become part of the cultural norm, so that girls with an interest in STEM fields can see themselves reflected in the stories they read.”
Illustration for “Takes a Hacker” by Mary Fan
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We are deeply grateful to all those who contributed to our crowd funding campaign and made this project possible. Special thanks to the below for their generous donations.
ALIEN BENEFACTORS
Libby and Jerry Barnes
Jianqing Fan
Han Liu
FLEET COMMANDERS
3 Anonymous Donors
STARSHIP CAPTAINS
Emily Conrad
Yang Feng
Xu Han
Feifang Hu
Eyal Mozes
Yue Niu
Byeong Uk Park
Nikki Thean
Dacheng Xiu
Jian-Lun Xu
Huibin Zhou
Ziwei Zhu
INTERSTELLAR PILOTS
Ahmet Emre Barut
Ross Harrison
Sabrina Longcore
Julie Montgomery
Kate Moretti
Ruston Van Lue
David Harten Watson
4 Anonymous Donors
Thanks also to everyone who donated at the Hacker Extraordinaire, Virtual Reality Netizen, and Interstellar Resident levels. And thanks to all the authors and artists who donated their time and talents to create this anthology.
We couldn’t have done it without all of you!
