The Orpheus Plot

by Christopher Swiedler

  When they’d gotten to Ceres, Lucas’s dad had already been there waiting for them. As soon as they’d climbed out of the transport, Tomas had grabbed him in a hug so tight Lucas thought his ribs might crack.

  “I’m fine, Dad,” Lucas managed to say.

  Tomas let Lucas go and turned to Tali. She put her hands in her pockets and looked down at the hangar floor. “It’s good to—”

  Their dad pulled her toward him and wrapped his arms around her. He held her that way for a long moment and then finally let go. Tali cleared her throat and looked at Lucas. “I know you two haven’t seen each other in a while,” she said. “But if you don’t mind . . .”

  Lucas nodded. This was a conversation he wanted desperately to hear, but they deserved their privacy. As he watched them head over to the other end of the hangar, talking quietly, he decided that seeing them together again, even for just a moment, was worth more to him than almost anything else in the world.

  But since that brief reunion in the hangar, Lucas had hardly had five minutes alone with either Tali or his dad. The Navy had insisted on a full medical screen and multiple debriefings, where he’d had to repeat his story in agonizing detail. But whenever he asked what was going to happen to him, all anyone would tell him was that he’d have to wait for the tribunal.

  Waiting, apparently, was what tribunals were all about. He’d been sitting out here on this bench for over an hour while Tali gave her testimony. He was starting to wonder if he had time to find a bathroom when the door opened and Tali walked out.

  “How did it go?” Lucas asked, jumping off the bench to meet her.

  “Well, I’m expelled from the academy and barred from the Navy. But at least they’re not going to put me in prison. The captain put in a recommendation. I think that was what persuaded them.”

  A wave of relief flooded over Lucas. He’d tried not to think about what the tribunal might decide to do to Tali. But this was as good an outcome as he could possibly have hoped.

  “Have you thought about what you’ll do next?”

  Tali shrugged. “I’ll probably head out into the Belt. As a private citizen this time. I’ve got an open offer to be a copilot.”

  “Wait,” Lucas said. “Do you mean—”

  “No, not McKinley,” she said, waving her hand. “This one’s different. Very legitimate.”

  “That sounds great,” Lucas said. “So maybe I’ll see you out there?”

  “Oh, you will,” she said, punching him lightly on the shoulder. “Count on it.”

  “Ready?” Sanchez said from the doorway.

  Lucas took a deep breath and followed her inside. The room was large and imposing, with decorative paneling made to look like real wood. Two men and one woman sat behind a long table at the far end. A smaller table with two chairs faced them. The rest of the room was taken up by rows and rows of chairs, as if for an audience that hadn’t arrived yet. The three admirals watched him with expressions ranging from intense curiosity to bored indifference. Sanchez led him to the smaller desk and sat down next to him.

  “You are Lucas Adebayo?” asked the woman. She was tall and imposing, even from her seat at the table. Lucas was pretty sure he wouldn’t ever want to make her angry.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Lucas said.

  The woman looked around at the other admirals. “We have a full accounting of the events near Vesta, both written and verbal. Are there any questions for the cadet?”

  The younger of the two men leaned forward. He had black hair and a short, old-fashioned-looking beard. “No questions,” he said. “But I would like to point out that by my count the cadet violated at least five different major regulations and about fifty minor ones. Under normal circumstances—”

  “But these aren’t normal circumstances,” the woman said smoothly. “It’s clear that without Cadet Adebayo’s intervention, a great many civilians would have died and the Orpheus might still be in enemy hands.”

  “That’s true,” the man said, “but—”

  “Unless there is further objection, I move that we close this portion of the case.”

  The man paused for a moment, and then nodded reluctantly. Lucas let out a quiet sigh of relief. At least that was over.

  “I believe we have another matter to attend to,” the other man said. He was much older than the others, and spoke with a slow drawl. “That being his performance as a cadet. We had serious questions about his suitability when Captain Sanchez made her original proposal to bring him on board.”

  Lucas’s mouth slid open. They still hadn’t decided whether he was good enough to stay on the Orpheus?

  Sanchez stood up. “I believe you have the results of our initial evaluations, along with the reports of his performance during the term so far.”

  “Yes,” the man said, peering down at a screen on the table in front of him. “I’ll admit, none of it is quite what I expected.”

  “I’d like to hear the cadet’s views before we decide,” the woman said. She turned to Lucas. “Do you feel you belong in the academy?”

  Lucas remembered Sanchez asking him that same question in her cabin once. How long ago had that been? A month? Six weeks? It felt like ages.

  “No, ma’am,” he said. “I don’t.”

  The woman raised her eyebrows. “Oh?”

  “I want to belong. I want that more than almost anything. My sister did too. She told me that I ought to pretend to be someone I wasn’t, because there was no other way it was going to work.”

  “It doesn’t seem like you took her advice,” the older man said.

  “Sometimes I wanted to,” Lucas admitted. “But it’s hard to hide when you stick out as much as I do.”

  “Are you saying you don’t want to go back to the Orpheus?”

  “No, sir,” Lucas said. “I still want to be a cadet. More than ever, actually. But I guess it’s up to you.”

  He took a deep breath. There was no point in stopping now—and after all, they’d asked for his opinion, hadn’t they?

  “But the real question isn’t whether I belong at the academy. I’m just one kid, right? You can let me stay or you can kick me out now, and either way, it’s not going to change much. The real question is whether you’re going to do what it takes to make all the other kids in the Belt belong. There are thousands of them out there who could learn how to be great pilots and engineers and navigators and commanders. They deserve a chance to fit in without needing to pretend like they’re somebody else. If you really want to make things better out in the Belt, then you need to make them belong.”

  He shrugged. “Like I said—it’s up to you.”

  It took thirty-five agonizing minutes for the admirals to decide what they were going to do with him. Lucas paced up and down the hallway, keeping his eyes on the clock on the wall the entire time. How long could this last? What could they possibly be discussing? From the skeptical expressions on the admirals’ faces, it had seemed pretty clear what they wanted to do. Couldn’t they just get it over with?

  He looked down at his sleeves. He still hated the way they clung to his forearms. Who would design a uniform like that? He tugged nervously at the material, trying to get it to relax. With a slight tearing sound, the seam on his sleeve tore open a few centimeters. He stared at it for a moment. That wasn’t what he’d expected.

  Impulsively he opened the seam even further and rolled the sleeve up to his elbow. He repeated the process on the other sleeve and looked at his arms in satisfaction. There. That was how a Belter cadet wore his uniform. He leaned back against the wall and waited.

  After several more minutes Captain Sanchez came out into the hallway and escorted him back inside. The three admirals watched him with—what? Curiosity at his appearance? Irritation at his lack of respect for his uniform? Lucas didn’t know, and he didn’t care anymore. He sat down and laced his fingers together, with his arms on the table. Finally the woman cleared her throat and spoke.

  “We’ve been put into something of an o
dd position. According to all of our standard mechanisms for evaluating potential cadets, you are entirely unsuited for our training schools.”

  Boy, that’s the truth, Lucas thought.

  “When you arrived on the Orpheus, you had an inadequate educational background in several key subjects. But in other areas, you immediately demonstrated a mastery we don’t often see even in fourth-year cadets.”

  The white-haired man nodded. “There’s also the matter of your actions during the hijacking and insurrection. The traditions of the Navy don’t appear to have an appropriate response for a situation like this.”

  Lucas nodded, though he didn’t quite understand what the man was saying. Response? As in some kind of punishment?

  “However, after a decision-making process that was about as fast as I’ve ever seen in this Navy, we’ve come up with an answer that I believe is quite suitable.”

  “Cadet Adebayo, at attention,” Sanchez said.

  Lucas fumbled out of his chair and stood up. He was still trying to figure out what was going on when Sanchez pinned a medal on his uniform.

  “It is my honor to award you the naval medal for conspicuous bravery and heroism. You are the very first cadet to receive this award.”

  Lucas stared down at the red-and-gold medal on his chest. His mouth opened, but he couldn’t think of anything to say. Conspicuous bravery and heroism?

  “Thank you, ma’am,” he said finally, and then turned to the admirals. “Thank you.”

  The woman nodded. “I sincerely hope that other cadets—from all parts of the solar system—will follow your example.”

  “Captain Sanchez, it is our recommendation that Cadet Adebayo return to the Orpheus to complete his training,” the younger of the two men said. “Do you concur?”

  “Yes, sir,” Sanchez said. “Without question.”

  “Then I believe these proceedings are complete,” the man said. “Cadet Adebayo, Captain Sanchez, you are dismissed.”

  Sanchez took Lucas gently by the arm and led him back into the hall. His mind was still spinning with everything that had happened. He kept looking down at his chest to convince himself that he hadn’t just been daydreaming.

  “Congratulations, Cadet,” Sanchez said.

  “Thank you,” Lucas said. “And thank you too, for helping Tali.”

  “I did what I thought was right,” Sanchez said. “No more, and no less.”

  She led him down to the hangar, where a half-dozen ships were being loaded, unloaded, or repaired in a row of berths. In between two gleaming white Navy shuttles was the Josey Wales. She was as awkwardly shaped as ever, and she was still stained with years of mining dust, but to Lucas’s eyes, she was utterly beautiful.

  His dad jumped up from his seat on the gangway and rushed over to them. He stopped abruptly and then reached out to shake Lucas’s hand with an embarrassed smile. Lucas grabbed him and hugged him tightly.

  “It’s good to know heroes still hug their dads,” Tomas said, kissing Lucas’s forehead. He stepped back and inspected the medal on Lucas’s chest. “Seems like it could be a bit bigger, under the circumstances. But it’s pretty enough.”

  “I wish you could have been there,” Lucas said.

  “The Navy likes to keep some things private, I guess,” Tomas said. He tapped on the hull of the Josey Wales. “Anyway, it gave me a chance to polish her up a bit.”

  “She’s a fine ship,” Sanchez said.

  “Have you found a copilot yet?” Lucas asked.

  “As a matter of fact, yes,” his dad said. “And I think she’s going to work out beautifully.”

  Lucas craned his neck to see into the cockpit. His heart swelled as he recognized who was sitting in the copilot’s seat.

  Natali Adebayo saw him watching her and smiled. How long had it been since Lucas had seen that smile? She looked as if an invisible weight had been lifted from her, one that she’d almost forgotten was there. He saluted, and she straightened up in her seat and returned the salute emphatically. “Good luck,” she mouthed.

  “I’ll see you out there,” Lucas said to his dad.

  “Every chance we get,” Tomas said. He leaned down and kissed Lucas’s forehead. “Take care of yourself.”

  He hopped into the Josey Wales and closed the cabin door. Lucas ran up a flight of stairs to a small observation deck. The Josey Wales emerged from its berth and rose up into the dark sky. Lucas followed it with his eyes until the lights from its engines were just a tiny white star among thousands.

  “Now, Cadet, I believe we still have the rest of your term to finish,” Sanchez said. “Are you ready?”

  Lucas smiled. “Yes, ma’am.”

  Acknowledgments

  One of the best parts about publishing a novel is that you get to work with fantastic people whose profession and passion is making your story better than it ever could have been on your own. It’s been a joy working with Sarah Homer, Tara Weikum, Laaren Brown, Renée Cafiero, and everyone at HarperCollins. I hope they all found the experience to be as positive as I did.

  Literary agents these days are about much more than contracts and sales, and I’m lucky to have Bridget Smith of JABberwocky as my partner in publishing. I’m frequently amazed by the combination of skills that it takes to be an agent, and I’m grateful that there are people like Bridget who can pivot so neatly between all the different parts of the job.

  Shirin Bridges and her wonderful troupe of Bay Area writers have kept me grounded, connected, and inspired for almost ten years now. I’d like to thank Amanda Conran, Cady Owens, Cameron Lund, Carole Stivers, Cassia Brill, Chris Hall, Debbie DeVoe, Jenn Siebert, Julie Sullivan, Leata Holloway, Robyn Murphy, and especially Shirin herself for their feedback and friendship. I know I’ll always be The Other Chris, but it’s a spot I wouldn’t give up for anything.

  When you’re growing up, you need family and friends who can help you discover the kind of person you want to be. Looking back, I know that I would have been much more lost if I hadn’t had people like Casey McCann and Jonathan Malko alongside me. Both of them are immensely talented and creative, but even more important, they have strong internal compasses that have always helped guide me in my own life.

  Almost exactly seventeen years ago, I sat outside a bar in Atlanta and talked for hours with a woman whose combination of warmth and wit made the rest of the world disappear. I remember very clearly the first time I reached out and held her hand, and I’m extraordinarily glad I never let it go. I love you, Kendra.

  This book is dedicated to my children, Eleanor, Andrew, and Jack. I’ve never been given anything more precious than the opportunity to be their father. Each of them never ceases to amaze me, and I can’t wait to see the worlds that they and their generation will build.

  About the Author

  Photo credit Katy Ravazza

  CHRISTOPHER SWIEDLER is an author and software engineer who lives with his wife and three children in California, where they’re under constant threat from earthquakes, tsunamis, and the occasional killer asteroid. His goal in life is to win the Newbery Honor (not the Medal itself), because he believes being a runner-up builds good character. You can visit him at www.christopherswiedler.com.

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  In the Red

  Copyright

  THE ORPHEUS PLOT. Copyright © 2021 by Chris Swiedler. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  www.harpercollinschildrens.com

 
Cover art © 2021 by Antonio Javier Caparo

  Cover design by Catherine Lee

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2020950477

  Digital Edition JUNE 2021 ISBN: 978-0-06-289446-5

  Print ISBN: 978-0-06-289444-1

  2122232425PC/LSCH10987654321

  FIRST EDITION

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