by Patty Jansen
'It is ridiculous,' Erith said. 'I don't see why you'd want your child to attend anyway. Here we are in the frontier of Earth space exploration and the school is teaching human history from 300 years back, while out there, there are many worlds for children to learn about, so that when Earth joins the Union, young people will know the basic facts.'
A soft voice sounded in the corridor. Theariki stood there, looking small and skinny in Cory's pyjamas. Her father's face split into a wide smile. He took her hand and bowed to bring it to his forehead, speaking softly in their language.
His father had spotted Cory and whispered, 'Hurry up. You'll be late for school. You've slept in. It's already a quarter to nine.'
Ferrets. 'What's going to happen to Theariki?'
'I don't know. It might be better for her to stay with relatives not at Midway.'
'I don't want her to go.' He hated how his voice sounded unsteady.
'She can't stay here, Cory.'
'Erith likes having her around. Theariki makes her happy, too.'
His father didn't respond. His mouth twitched. Grey eyes that had smiled at him a few months back looked weary. 'I know.' He sighed. 'Go to school, Cory. I will sort it out. At this point in time, I don't have time for another argument with that teacher.'
Cory gobbled down some breakfast, and grabbed his school things from his room. He felt determined. Why could Theariki not come to school if his father simply ordered Miss Rosier to accept her? At the door, he waved to Theariki. He mouthed, 'I'll ask if you can come to school.' She returned his look with a smile, and he wondered if she had heard him.
He slid open the door, stepped out, and almost crashed into someone.
'Hello Cory.' Harvey MacIntosh, his father's friend. The Earth delegation had arrived.
'Harvey!' Cory's father pushed past him, shaking Harvey's hand, while clapping him on the shoulder with the other hand. 'Had a good trip?'
Harvey chuckled. 'Nothing as stimulating for the mind as a long trip in space.'
'It's good to see you.' That remark, Cory heard, came from the very depth of his father's heart. It occurred to him that his father might be lonely, too, if all he had for company were people like Sullivan.
'How do you like it at Midway so far, Cory?' Harvey asked.
'Uhm . . . good.'
'Yes, I reckon it must be pretty exciting for a young boy to live here and see all this happen close up. In twenty years' time, people will look back to these meetings between Earth delegates and the Union, and know that we pioneered something good.'
Cory was puzzled. Why didn't he mention his letter, or the Terran League, or having to talk to him?
'Cory.' His father gestured with his eyes. 'Run, or you'll be late for school.'
Too dazed to think of a reply, Cory hurried to the lift, clenching and unclenching his fists. Guess the Nations of Earth had put his letter aside as not to be taken seriously.
* * *
Cory raced into the classroom as Miss Rosier was about to shut the door. She raised her eyebrows but said nothing while he slid into his seat, still panting. Joseph gave him a disdainful glance. Guess one of the advantages of being late was not to have to face his questions about Flopsy - oh, ferrets - Flopsy! He had meant to take some more salad.
After Joseph's accident, Miss Rosier didn't leave the students out of her sight for as much as a second; she even stayed in the classroom when the canteen delivered their lunches. The hot chips and sausages—made from leftover rabbittooh meat no doubt—caused much cheering.
'The food's always much better when there's important visitors,' Rory said.
This launched Miss Rosier into a long talk about the upcoming conference and how the children's behaviour would be on display.
'You mean we get to watch?' Bianca asked, wide-eyed.
Leon muttered something about conferences being boring.
Cory expected Miss Rosier to get angry and remind everyone of whatever class rule they had broken, but she said nothing, her chin propped up on her hands, staring at the back of the room.
The phone rang. Miss Rosier started and went to answer it. 'Yes . . . Oh, Mr Wilson . . . yes . . .'
Cory's heart jumped in his chest.
'Yes, I will do that. Immediately.' She put the receiver down. 'Cory, you are to go up to the Control Room. Right now.'
Cory gasped, blood rising to his cheeks and rose from his seat. Alma gave him a wide-eyed stare. Leon and Marnix sniggered.
Feeling alternately hot and cold, Cory ran through the corridor, up the stairs, into the central hall, where he took the lift to the command centre.
The entrance to the control room reminded Cory of a pulled-up drawbridge into a medieval castle. The door had no handle and could only be opened from the inside or by sliding a pass through a reader against the wall. Above the door, a camera looked down like an evil eye. A sign said, Press buzzer for access.
Cory pressed. The door clicked open almost immediately. A bad sign; his father had been waiting for him.
Cory stepped into the semi-darkness of the control room.
People worked at computers on rows of desks. At the far wall were a set of screens offering views of the docks, parts of the outside of the station and various security cameras around Midway's corridors. The Aurelian in the maintenance dock looked small. All the ship's engine panels were open and engineers crawled around like ants.
'Cory!'
His father's voice had come from the other side of the room, where a number of chairs faced another panel of screens. When Cory had come here for the first time, the station's head of operations had been sitting there. Now the man in the chair was his father.
The screen in front of him flickered, displaying an image of a man in a white shirt and a blue tie, dark curly hair, and an enormous moustache.
Cory's mouth went dry. That face was on portraits on the walls around the station—President Pedro Gonzales of Nations of Earth.
'You sit here.' His father rose and pushed Cory down in the chair, still warm from where his father had been sitting. Cory's face appeared on a second screen.
Both screens froze for a few seconds. Then President Gonzales' mouth moved. A tense silence later, a deep voice said, 'Is that the boy?'
'It is, Sir,' Cory's father replied. There was not a spark of warmth in his voice.
Both screens froze for a few more seconds, then President Gonzales' mouth moved again, longer this time. A bit later, his voice crackled through the speakers. 'Do you know who I am, Cory?'
'Yes Sir. You're President Gonzales of Nations of Earth.'
A brief smile moved the corners of the moustache up. 'You wrote me a letter, Cory.'
'With a friend, Sir.'
'I wanted to talk to you about what you wrote. Do you still believe it's true?'
'I do.'
'You are serious about this? I know, sometimes as a kid, you do strange things, trying to impress your friends with stories that are—well—not entirely true.' He chuckled. 'Now, Cory, if you tell me in all honesty that some of what you wrote is . . . made up to impress someone or sound cool in front of your classmates, I promise I will not get angry.'
'It's nothing like that, Sir. Alma and Theariki and I told you what we think. We wrote to you because no one here believes us.' He could almost feel his fathers glare burn in the side of his head.
'You are raising some very serious allegations in this letter, Cory. You said that the instructions for attacks on both the Aurelian and the Union delegation are in a game.'
'That's what we think, Sir. They changed the game and put in ships that resemble the Aurelian and a group of evil people exactly the same as the Union delegation.'
'Cory—there is no game on the Terran League site.'
'They took it off.'
'You have a copy?'
'We did, but my teacher deleted it. She is—'
'Cory, stop it.' His father's voice sounded harsh.
'But I'm telling what happened.'
&n
bsp; 'I'm sure President Gonzales doesn't need to hear the details. Sir, I'm sure my son has misinterpreted and there is no risk to any party involved in the conference.'
President Gonzales' black gaze shifted to the corner of the screen where his father's face just showed over the back of the chair. 'Mr Wilson, I understand the Union delegation is arriving this afternoon.'
'That's correct, Sir.'
'Good. Just to be on the safe side, put maximum security on the conference delegates.'
'We have already done that, Sir. We have part of the receiving dock sealed off for their ship. Nowhere except in the large seminar room will the delegates see any of the Midway staff, and to get into the seminar room, each person will be searched.'
'Good.' A smile came across the president's face. 'So, Cory, it seems everything is in the capable hands of your father.'
'Your Excellency, please let me apologise for my son's behaviour. You certainly have nothing to worry about, Sir. We have the situation under control.'
President Gonzales unfolded his hands and brought his elbows on the desk. 'Mr Wilson, I trust your judgement. Please let me know if anything changes.'
'I will, Sir.'
The image on the screen dissolved into snow.
Tears pricked in Cory's eyes. He had tried his best.
His father's hand closed tight around his upper arm. 'Come. It's time you and I had a very serious talk.'
Chapter 21
Cory let himself be pulled through the control room. There was nothing more he could do except face his father's anger. A little voice in his head said that perhaps his father had a right to be angry.
A staff member rose from his seat as they strode past. 'Mr Wilson—'
'Later. I'll be in the conference room.' His father's voice sounded as brittle as burnt paper.
Cory cringed. He was really in for it now.
His father slid open a door and pushed Cory into the darkness beyond. A slam of his father's hand on the wall brought soft blue light to life, showing benches in a small amphitheatre. The door thudded shut; his father locked it. 'Sit down, Cory.'
Cory inched into the centre of the room, where a dais faced the benches. His footsteps sounded oddly muffled. He sat down in the first row, clamping sweaty hands between his knees.
His father leant against the dais, his chest moving with deep breaths. 'Do you know why I brought you here?'
'Because you're angry with me?' Cory looked at his knees.
His father heaved a sigh. 'Yes, I'm angry with you, but probably not for the reason you think. I'm angry because I'm concerned for your safety.'
Cory looked up, facing his father for the first time. 'Safety?'
'This, Cory, is the soundproof room. That's why everything sounds funny in here. It is the only room in the station where I can be certain no one overhears what I say.'
Cory's heart hammered in his throat. Up until now, he had expected a lecture on boarding school and returning to Earth, but his father's words spoke of something else.
A wry smile spread across his father's face. 'You are a very smart boy. I have underestimated you badly.' He chuckled. 'President Gonzales. How did you even come up with the idea?'
'Theariki did.'
'Yes, you have an extraordinary couple of friends, too. Friends who could teach us a thing or two about how we should live together.' His father's face fell back into a serious expression. 'Unfortunately, the world isn't like that. Yes, Cory, we've landed in a Terran League extremist hotbed. Yes, Cory, it's most likely they had something to do with the Aurelian accident. Yes, Cory, it's likely that the games contain instructions for their next move, but we have security on alert. No one will get anywhere near the docks while the Union delegates are here.'
Cory had to clamp his jaws to stop gaping. Hot anger rose in his chest. 'You lied to me?' All those soothing words, the trip to Rocky's workshop . . . was it all a facade?
'I wouldn't call it lying as such—'
'Well I would!'
'Let me speak, Cory!'
A brief and tense silence followed the outburst, before his father continued. 'Is it lying to hold back facts you have no business knowing? Facts that might even bring you in danger? I did it for your protection. I didn't want you to believe you were right because you might talk to kids at school. I didn't want you to ferret around anything to do with the Terran League, because they might realise the new director doesn't agree as much with their presence as the old one did. As I said to you many times, those are not things for kids to be involved in. People get killed.' He let out a deep breath. 'It seems you are every bit as persistent and stubborn as I was as a ten-year old. Right now, I wouldn't take that as a compliment. Do you know that out of the fourteen families with kids in school, twelve belong to the Terran League? Do you know your teacher is the Reverend Paul Rosier's daughter, the man who was one of the founding members of the Terran League? '
Cory looked down. Here he was thinking he had discovered something new.
'We're surrounded by Terran League members.'
'Couldn't you have told President Gonzales?'
'And have the entire station listen to me?'
Cory shivered. 'You mean everyone listened to me talking to President Gonzales?'
'Not everyone, but the outside audio channels are open, and people do listen to them. That's why I stopped you, not because I didn't want him to hear it. I didn't want them to hear it.'
Cory stared at his father, saliva rising in his mouth.
His father continued, 'Besides, what can President Gonzales do? The Terran League by itself is not an illegal organisation. They're an ultra-conservative worldwide political party. There is nothing wrong with that. Most members are devout Christians who do not believe in violence. You know: Thou shalt not kill, it says in the Bible. But some groups within the Terran League believe it's fine to kill Union members because in their eyes, these are not people. My problem is that of all Terran League members at Midway, I have had to individually assess each worker for those I can trust enough for this project. All the guards are safe, but amongst the technical staff, I don't know who belongs to the violent cells. That is the truth, Cory. We are in a dangerous position. I am afraid. For you, for Erith.' He sighed and shook Cory's head.
Cory nodded, tears springing to his eyes. Through his stupid persistence, he had brought his father in danger. He rose from the bench and let himself fall into his father's arms. 'I'm sorry, Dad, I really am.'
His father's hand ruffled his hair. 'The question is, Cory, what to do now. The supply ship Bounty is leaving for Taurus this afternoon. I could get you and Erith a space on board—'
'No, Dad, no. I've got to go back to school.'
'I won't have that. These people are dangerous.' His father took a deep shuddering breath. 'Cory, when I lost your mother, I swore to look after you and keep you from danger whatever it may cost.'
Cory felt embarrassed to see tears gleaming in his father's eyes. His voice sounded small when he said, 'If I don't go back to school, Miss Rosier will get suspicious; she'll find out where I am and know that you're suspecting something. I think it's better to just carry on as before.'
His father let his arms slide off Cory's shoulders. He gave a small nod, while he glanced at the clock. 'I think you might be right. There's only an hour of school left. When you finish, come straight to me. Bring Alma Savage, too.'
'She and her father are the other family who are not members of the Terran League?'
'Very smart, Cory.' He patted Cory's shoulder. 'You're brave, my little boy. One day, you'll make an excellent station director. Go back then.'
He unlocked the door to the room and opened it. As soon as they stepped through a number of people mobbed his father. 'Mr Wilson, we have contact with the Union ship. They request instructions.'
'Mr Wilson, Brendan at the docks needs to talk to you.'
'Mr Wilson, the Nations of Earth reporters have asked for a meeting room. Which one can they have?'
<
br /> Cory slunk away between the rows of desks.
* * *
Cory made his way back to school, glancing at every clock he passed. Another hour to go. Never would a school bell sound as welcome as it would that afternoon. Tomorrow... he'd worry about that later.
He thudded into the school corridor.
A streak of white of grey shot into an open wall panel.
Cory stopped. Flopsy. Of all times the animal could have turned up...
In a few steps, Cory had reached the maintenance tunnel. He pushed open the panel far enough to stick his head in. 'Flopsy?'
The rabbittooh had vanished in the darkness. Cory slipped his bag off his shoulder. If he remembered right, he still had a small light in one of the pockets, a fun present given to him by Garreth back on Earth. He found the light, turned it on and peeked into the tunnel. Two gleaming spots flitted aside: the light reflecting in the rabbittooh's eyes. The light also reflected off the bars of a metal grate blocking the tunnel a bit further down. Ha. Trapped.
Cory pushed the panel further open, squeezed through onto the metal grate. He had to crawl on his belly to move forward, holding the light between his teeth. The rabbittooh hopped to and fro in front of the grate, bits of white showing in its eyes. It was a most curious creature, a miniature kangaroo with a rabbit-like head. The tail and back legs were grey, as was the head, but the shoulders and sharp-clawed front legs were white.
Dust coated the animal's fur and its flanks looked hollow. Cory crawled closer, lunged and grabbed the animal by the tail. It made a sound between a grunt and a hiss. Furry feet kicked out, hitting Cory's wrist, where blood welled up in nail marks. Cory struggled to get the animal feet down on the metal walkway, keeping a hold on the tail. Flopsy glared at him accusingly, wriggling a pink nose.
Cory pushed himself backwards, dragging the animal along. Nails screeched on the metal grate.
