The dead silence following his words was not enough on its own, but the determined looks burning in the eyes of their classmates were conclusive. They were in.
ERIC PULLED THE BREAK lever, then paused to give Yalena enough time to take note of the action. “And only then, you lift the engine protector.”
Yalena nodded, but she wasn’t listening. “Got it.”
Sitting in the V-flier with Eric for the hours he tutored her in flying remained the only time they could spend alone. While Eric did his best to also convey useful flight tips to her in those extra classes, Yalena’s mind was solely preoccupied with their mission. The real mission.
“Can you repeat it all from the top?” Eric asked, but Yalena had already pulled out her Berry and was flipping through the extended holo screen.
“Sorry,” she said. “I just can’t sit still knowing it’s all up to Natalia now.”
The Moonie had been cockier than ever three days ago, when she’d left to go pick up the precious cargo, without which no freshman team would reach anywhere near the Farsight coordinates. The extra antimatter fuel was a few droplets only, but even so, bringing it out of the production facility and transporting it to Unifier undetected would be a miracle too good to be true. It made Yalena’s skin crawl every time her Berry buzzed. What if Natalia had been caught?
Eric evaluated the way Yalena fidgeted in her seat. “You might not like her, but Natalia gets results. She’ll come through.”
She unlocked and locked her Berry a few times for no reason. “How come you’re so calm? It’s your money, after all.”
“I’m not calm. I’m patient. There’s a small difference.”
A feeble buzz made Yalena drop the Berry in her lap and then grab it again. The message from Natalia shone in pale blue on the screen. “I’m through.”
“Finally.” Yalena sighed with relief.
“You see? It’s all starting to fall into place.”
Yalena returned Eric’s smile. “And not a second too soon.”
“Speaking of things going for us, Jen scored some extra anti-shock breathing dispensers from the ward yesterday,” Eric said.
“Really?” Those would be useful if they had corpus breaks from the particles and smaller asteroid rocks swooshing around in the belt. Still, she couldn’t help being surprised at the news. The dispensers were strictly accounted for. “How did she manage that?”
Something akin to pride shone through as Eric replied, “Dana lets her access the register. She could alter it.”
Yalena cringed. “We’re a horrible influence on her.”
“Or she’ll be a good influence on us.” Eric shrugged, making Yalena snicker. That sweet talker would find any excuse to stay close to her friend.
With all the mission preparations, Yalena was grateful that the commander and the Academy professors insisted on letting the crew leaders manage the whole process, because neither of the teams was doing what they were told. With only a few days left until the official mission launch, most things they could think of were in place. Still, Yalena was having trouble falling asleep at night. Scheming for months had left her brain in a state of overdrive.
“Do you think your dad would forgive us faster for going rogue if we come back with good news?”
Eric grimaced. “Let’s not get carried away.” They had told the rest of their classmates that the commander was likely to forgive their indiscretion, but Eric and Yalena knew he was going to make sure they paid for it in full, even if he wouldn’t expel them. “Don’t think of failure. Think of success—like the moment we find out if a Migration ship has been trapped in one place for over a century. Maybe we can save them.”
Eric might have tried to sound positive, but Yalena saw the tortured look in his eyes. It was hard to imagine that a crew that had run out of fuel would still be alive. The more chilling thought was, what if they found a well-preserved mass grave?
An unexpected knock on the V-flier’s window made Yalena jump in her seat. It was Chris and Katarzyna, who looked businesslike, just like every time they needed to make a formal announcement.
“You’ll have to excuse us for crashing your date,” Chris said, annoyed.
“It’s not a date. It’s a flying lesson,” Yalena corrected, wondering if people would ever let that rumor go. No wonder Eric wanted to make sure he was in the clear.
“Yeah, right,” Katarzyna said, rolling her eyes. “You have the best pilot in the Academy on your team, yet you’re here fraternizing with the opposing team leader?” The second-year sniffed with disbelief. “Anyhow, it serves us well that you’re both around. The commander has instructed us to check on your chain of command arrangements.”
“What chain of command arrangements?”
“You need to appoint a person in your team as your second-in-command officer,” Chris said.
“You also need to come up with a coded command that triggers a switch in leadership from you to the second-in-command, should you be compromised or unable to fulfill your duties,” Katarzyna supplied the details in a mechanical way.
Yalena glanced at Eric, slightly terrified.
“Don’t worry. It’s just routine stuff. In fact, our Berries even have self-destruct sequences you can enable,” he hurried to explain.
“And you should set one,” Katya said. “Mission protocol requires it.”
“Oh,” Yalena exclaimed. These measures seemed so unnecessary. “Fine, I’ll set a sequence on my Berry, and my second-in-command officer will be Alec,” she said without hesitation.
“Of course.”
“And the coded command will be,” Yalena continued, ignoring Chris, “Course Cattleya.”
“What on Earth is Cattleya?” Katarzyna had to ask.
“Fancy word for medium purple,” Yalena answered, pulling herself up and out of the V-flier. “You said coded command, right? It shouldn’t matter what the word normally means.”
Katarzyna nodded and added to the already-walking-away Yalena, “Remember to convey that to everyone on your team.”
THE ANNOYING DOORBELL made Heidi and Yalena jump in unison.
“I swear, we should leave for this mission already before either of us has a heart attack,” Heidi murmured, while Yalena opened the door for Jen.
“Special delivery for Yalena Russo,” she said, pulling out a small flask from behind her back. “Eric said you were maxing out in the stress department. This will help.” She handed the metallic bottle over.
Heidi frowned. “You’re getting her drunk on the night before she flies out?”
“Let’s say it’s medicinal,” Jen said. “Besides, there are just a few sips in there.”
“Where did you get it?” Yalena asked, already uncapping the bottle. Her mind was clear and focused on the mission, but her body had traitorously begun to feel weak and shaky, and she didn’t hesitate to have a sip.
“Natalia’s personal stash,” Jen replied. “One can only possess so many multicolored self-shape bras in the bottom drawer. I knew she must have it stashed under there.”
Heidi reached out a hand to Yalena, asking for the bottle, but Jen scolded her at once.
“Not you! You’ll be operating heavy machinery tomorrow. Yalena will just bark out orders.”
Yalena let out nervous laughter as she watched Heidi’s hand drop down as quickly as the frown settled on her lips.
Sitting on the floor between Jen and Heidi, clutching their hands, Yalena felt calmer, and it wasn’t because of the few sips of alcohol. Having her friends understand was more than most people could ask for. To lull herself to sleep, however, Yalena had to think of them as co-workers and the mission as a work project, not a self-imposed assignment that would put everyone through a load of uncertainty.
Chapter 22. The Wild Side
BREATHE. JUST BREATHE, Yalena kept repeating to herself.
Under the strong light in the launch room, her knees felt shaky and her stomach tight. If the commander needed proof, she was going to get
him some, whatever the cost. The trembles and that fizzy feeling inside couldn’t stop her. It couldn’t stop the teams.
Apollo and Artemis, the two beautiful, white Eagles, were already set for the first-year mission, their shiny surfaces sparkling. Professor Howards had the honor of making the last speech of the academic year. He stood with the other Academy professors by the entrance to the command cabin, observing the twenty students lined up in neat rows. His normally monotonous voice had picked up a more excited frequency. Still, Yalena hardly heard a word he said. Looking over to Eric and his team behind him, she had to focus on re-running their conversation from the night before to make sure she wouldn’t crack under the expectant looks of their professors.
“I’ll be just a call away the whole time,” he had kept saying.
Behind Eric, Heidi looked somewhat restless, probably dying to take off, and not just because she loved flying. Yalena had been sensing it in her ever since the Gala—the raw determination to prove that she really did deserve to be called out as a first pilot. She had first substituted the post-break-up tears with anger, then with hard work, and lastly, with anger and hard work. Now, she resembled a dangerous explosive about to go off.
Thinking of piloting, Yalena cast a quick glance over her shoulder to Dave and Alec behind her, as if to confirm they were still standing there. Dave stared down at his shoes in sharp contrast with all other team members who had put their most dauntless faces forward. This official moment must be forcing him to face the embarrassment after the way he had treated Heidi at the Gala, especially since he never found a way to apologize. He just wore the same expression as he complied with his team duties—one tortured grimace.
It made Yalena wonder why he couldn’t say he was sorry. Maybe Dave had crossed the line, and now, there was no way to get back in Heidi’s good graces, no way she would forgive him for being so jealous and for destroying what they had.
Yalena felt something in her stomach twist, and she frowned. Great, that’s what everyone needs—a second look at my breakfast. She sought for Eric’s face again and repeated his words to her. He also peeked back at his team before raising his eyebrows at Yalena. She knew what he meant. Everyone’s going to be safe.
Jen. Straight, blonde hair tied up in that signature looped ponytail, clear and innocent eyes sizing up the shiny Eagle. It was odd to see her looking so uncomfortable in her own skin. Jen probably wanted nothing else than to let a grown-up team relieve them of this self-imposed duty. Still, she hadn’t cracked under the pressure thus far. She persisted in a way that was nothing like Eric’s and Yalena’s. Perhaps she didn’t see the grand scheme of wild possibilities like they did, but she fulfilled her promise to them all the same.
“With great pleasure, I believe it is time to wish our two teams bon voyage,” Professor Howards finished. “And remember, all great journeys start with a single step forward.”
Applause broke out, and after nodding one last time at Eric, Yalena headed toward the open door of the Eagle. The inside of the spacecraft felt smaller than she had imagined—training in the hidden room didn’t match the real thing, no matter how well-executed the simulation was. The engine and equipment compartments were at the back of the spacecraft, where two fold-up beds could be pulled down from each side, providing the team with a much needed place to nap. When the mission could last for days, it was hardly a luxury.
Alec and Dave hurried past Yalena and took the first and second pilot seats in the front, while the rest of the crew entered the narrow corpus to find their assigned compact workstations and perform the routine pre-departure checks.
“Seal it,” Yalena gestured to Dave, and the Eagle door closed tightly, making a sucking sound.
“We have about a minute offline, Yalena,” Nico reminded her. The team leaders were traditionally allowed a moment to address their teams before each mission, and what they chose to say was considered a part of their management style and was thus kept secret.
“Everyone,” Yalena started, even though she hadn’t prepared much of a speech. She and Eric must have given the team a thousand pep talks since the Gala, and one would struggle to find an argument they hadn’t already used. “I never told you how much this means to me. I know it sounds bonkers—the whole business with the signal and what I feel from it. It sounds like mumbo-jumbo. Still, you believe in me enough to follow me out there. Others in your place wouldn’t have. As I look around, I see that you are ready for this—ready to make space history. Today. Not some day in the future. So, I guess the only thing left to say is ‘thank you.’ Let’s go.”
They all nodded firmly and waited for her final signal.
“Go on, Nico,” Yalena invited him to speak.
“Now,” Nico said, addressing the whole crew, “we will turn on our own personal recording devices. They are the metallic, flat circles attached on the uniform in front of your right shoulders, everyone. You’ll need to sync them to your Berries every hour to make sure all info they gather is stored safely.”
They all examined the small, metallic objects sewn into their uniforms. The students had been warned that the recording devices would be one of the main ways to evaluate the success of their mission; thus, each student was required to describe his or her actions in detail while they were on the mission. Needless to say, the devices had been Yalena’s first concern, and Nico had long ago reassured her that the recordings were only to be used after the mission and wouldn’t give away their plan to their professors prematurely.
Yalena tapped the metal circle three times. “Connection trial one; this is Apollo crew leader Yalena Russo.”
The rest of the ream followed her lead, and Nico confirmed that all the recording devices worked well. Yalena’s crew leader chair was in the navigation cabin, standing lonesome in the middle behind the two piloting seats. Simply settling in that seat made her feel a sense of allegiance and accountability to STAR Academy. It threatened to give her a bad conscience, but that was a distraction she couldn’t let in now. It was time to get to work.
Whatever happens, I am not going to lose control of the situation, she thought to herself. After she strapped herself in, Yalena took a deep breath and gave the start command. “All systems go. Let’s do this.”
The engine was close to silent, but in her perception-heightened state, Yalena felt it buzz while Dave and Alec documented the take-off.
“Corpus is sealed, and Unifier gate doors are open.”
“Course for Jupiter calculated. Take-off from Unifier station, disconnecting from gate 92 at 0700. Pull-out maneuver initiated.” Alec kept his voice calm as he listed the procedures. With roughly four days of travel time to the coordinates, it was wise to reel in the emotions. Not that Yalena could do so, she realized, when with a slight rotation, Apollo slid out of the parking position.
“Any final remarks on the calculated trajectory?” Alec asked routinely. It was silly, since they had known the target for their mission for two months, but the Academy professors had only revealed it the week before, and everyone on the crew was doing their best to play along.
“Trajectory route confirmed,” Yalena repeated as convincingly as she could.
“Copy that,” Alec said, while the Eagle gently pulled out of the dock and into the darkness.
It must have been the adrenaline, but venturing out into the vast, black ocean of space felt liberating. Yalena’s mind cleared instantly. There was no time or energy for nail-biting any longer; there was just self-given permission to act.
“Speed take-off in five, four, three, two, one,” Alec counted down before the Eagle lunged forward, gluing the Apollo crew to the back of their seats and turning the view of space outside into a blur.
“Ready for the first status reports. Alec?”
“We’re on a stable course to Jupiter, estimated to arrive at the asteroid in 34 hours. Fuel efficiency optimized,” he said. Yalena had the feeling that all the pretense made him uneasy. It would get better, she wanted to tell him, once th
e comms were interrupted and they wouldn’t have to tiptoe around and check in with STAR Academy every hour.
“Good. Dave, give me information on the competition,” Yalena went on.
“Team Artemis is currently behind us. They must be opting to save some fuel by flying at a lower acceleration rate.”
Yalena nodded. It was all part of the plan, of course, to make it seem like they were working on some elaborate strategy for the mission. If the STAR Academy professors had only known how elaborate it really was, they would be sorry they let them leave. Yalena’s heart raced, but she was in the zone. Taking off from Unifier had meant leaving the fear behind, and now, she silently counted the seconds until Nico would interrupt the radio connection and their real mission would begin.
“Nico, get me Eric on the line,” she said. With a day and a half to go before they passed by the Jupiter asteroid, ignoring their mission and throwing STAR Academy into havoc, she couldn’t help but reach out to the one who always understood. Nico’s silence made her walk over to his work station. “Everything all right?”
Nico’s fingers typed faster than she had ever seen them. “Comms between the Eagles,” he said, panting like he was mid-run. “They’ve been disabled.”
“I don’t understand...” For a tense second, she searched for a reason why Eric would want to interrupt their connection.
“It’s the Academy,” Nico said, scratching one side of his face. “They’ve used my own firewall against me!” His fist smacked against the translucent glass surface of his workstation, shaking it.
The Unsound Theory (STAR Academy Book 1) Page 19
