by Gemma Fowler
Aggie kept up with Mir’s trotting pace until the tunnel started to spread out into a wider platform. The ceiling stretched up and out until it soared above them like a glossy undulating sea. Aggie knew that ceiling.
‘Why are we in the shuttle bays?’
‘I just told you, Aggie.’
Mir led Aggie down a metal gangway and out onto the main shuttle platform that ferried human cargo between the base and Earth. The vast hangar was dotted with grey wedge-shaped United Earth shuttles, with their gold-overalled crews scuttling over them like shiny beetles.
They walked away from the shiny vehicles to where a giant, battered, old cargo transporter sat with its doors hanging wide open.
‘Am I being Shuttled?’ Aggie joked, genuinely worried, as Mir lead them up the ramp and into the dark hold. Something about this didn’t feel right. Not at all.
Inside, the cargo shuttle was lit by strips of low, flickering violet lights that ran around the edges of the walls. The walls themselves were buckled and dusty, and dotted with broken comms hatches and smashed Ether screens. It was packed with grey, dented supply boxes and crates. The whole ship looked like it was ready for scrap. Aggie shivered. It was freezing too, even in her overall.
She stopped.
There was someone in the corner.
Someone wearing red.
‘This is a nice surprise,’ Danny muttered with a smirk.
Aggie stepped back as a guard instantly materialized behind the prisoner. A black shadow closing its arms around his red throat and chest.
‘Danny!’
Danny didn’t shout. He didn’t even flinch. His eyes remained locked on Aggie’s as the shadows descended on him, pinning him quietly back against them.
Aggie’s overall started to chug more oxygen into her face, worried about the fact that she’d stopped breathing.
In the dark, claustrophobic hold, the prisoner looked as battered and abandoned as the cargo boxes that surrounded him.
‘On first-name terms, are we? That’s cosy.’
Rix emerged from the shadows, munching on a Spacefood bar.
He smiled and leant on Danny’s shoulder. ‘If there’s one thing I got, it’s good intuition about people. Never let me down in the Peace Army; it hasn’t let me down now.’
Rix’s eyes glowed in the dim lights. He looked wired. His energy was making the air vibrate. Mir shuffled nervously up beside her.
‘What’s going on?’ Aggie said quietly.
‘I was going to ask the same thing,’ Danny said, rubbing his wrists. The guard shoved him back again.
Mir looked up from her comms unit. Her expression was placid, calm, but her jaw was set tight. ‘We’ve suspected FALL have been planning to infiltrate the base for years. It was actually part of the reason for the intake of the two-hundreds. The commander picked out 209 as soon as I reported the incident on G Face. He needed to see you together to make a clear assessment of the risk—’
‘Why?’ Aggie interrupted, even though she already knew the answer. Rix had been watching them. He knew that Danny knew.
Rix zeroed in on Danny. ‘So, no one’s come close in ten years, but you got it. What was it? Intel? Someone on the inside? Lucky guess?’ Rix shoved Danny’s shoulder again. ‘Or maybe she just told you? How about that?’
Aggie suddenly felt like the gravity had been switched off. Rix’s protection had been the only comfort Aggie had, but right now it was a vile thing. A thing that could hurt the prisoner, kill him, even. She didn’t want that. Not because of her.
Rix would do anything to keep Aggie’s identity quiet. Her godfather had always told her that.
‘Roger—’ Aggie began, but Rix’s hand shot up, stopping her. His cool green eyes were fixed on Danny, his white teeth bared in an animal snarl.
The guard’s buzzer was aimed directly at the soft connection between Danny’s overall and his helmet. The prisoner looked so vulnerable, so powerless. Pins and needles started to prickle all over Aggie’s body.
‘What are you planning?’ the commander whispered, bending down and speaking to Danny through his perfect, gritted teeth. ‘What kind of useless suicide mission did they set for you, you pathetic piece of clag? You’re just a bag of bones to them, you know that? Fodder. Me, I care more about you. You know why? Because it looks bad if my prisoners start dying, that’s all.’
To Aggie’s surprise Danny snorted with laughter. The blood drained from her face. What was he thinking?
Rix smiled. ‘You think you can beat me? You and your filthy insurgents think you can come here, to my base, and ruin me?’ Rix was right against Danny’s ear now; the prisoner winced as spittle hit his face. ‘You failed here. You FAILED. And now, you’re going to find out what a real prison’s like.’
Every tendon stood out on Rix’s neck. Aggie had seen the commander’s temper flare many times in the past, but never like this. There was desperation in his tone, as if he was on the edge of losing control.
He flung his arm out at Aggie. ‘Whatever it was that you were planning on doing with her – to her – take a good long look. Because I guarantee it will be your last.’
Rix stepped back. Danny’s stare had never left Aggie. She shuffled away from his gaze, but it burnt through her.
‘Thank you,’ he said to her quietly, as if Rix and Mir and the guard didn’t exist.
‘What?’
‘YOU DON’T SPEAK!’ Rix cried.
Danny’s body shuddered as the guard’s buzzer bit through the tough material of his overall.
‘Rix! Stop!’ Aggie cried, instinctively jumping forwards.
‘Stay there!’ the commander shouted. He took a breath then rounded on her. ‘He was using you. You idiot kid. He was asking questions, getting formation. A scout.’ Rix wiped his mouth with his sleeve. ‘When he met you he hit the jackpot, didn’t he? Gullible little Aggie. Lucky I got to him before he got to you.’
Aggie stumbled back. She felt as if all the light had suddenly gone from the world. She looked at Danny, Rix pacing and Mir occupying herself with her comms.
She knew, right then. Rix was right. This was all part of a game – not just FALL’s game, but Rix and Mir’s too.
Danny’s scar stood out on his cheek in the dim light. Aggie no longer wondered about its origin, she sympathized with whoever gave it to him.
No one in this shuttle cared about her, not him, not Rix, not Mir. They were all using her.
‘Have fun in the Pen,’ she said tightly and turned and raced out of the shuttle.
Out in the hangar, Aggie choked back tears. This base, this whole fragging pointless rock of a moon and all the pointless people on it could go float off into the void for all she cared. Screw them all. She upped her pace towards the wall of the vast hangar. Every time something made sense to her, something else would happen that blasted it all apart. The prisoner, the party, the fragging hallucination she’d had on the border. She was one star short of a galaxy, surely. The tenth anniversary was making her lose her mind.
She could hear Mir’s surface boots clacking on the hangar floor behind her. She took a deep breath and tried to stop the shaking.
‘Aggie!’ Mir shouted. Aggie couldn’t deal with Mir right now.
She spun around to meet her. ‘Are we done?’ she demanded.
Mir opened her mouth but Aggie got there first.
‘Are we done for today?’
Mir hesitated. ‘Yes. That’s it.’
Aggie pulled away. Her head was buzzing as if it was running its own gravity system. She just needed to get out of Tranquillity, get away from Mir and Rix and back to her pod.
‘Aggie!’ Mir shouted behind her. Aggie waved her away and upped her pace. In the corner of her eye she could see the flight assistants and guards gathering to watch the commotion.
‘Frag’s sake, Mir, just leave me alone.’
‘No. Aggie!’
Aggie pulled the handle on the first door she came to. It wouldn’t budge. She pulled it again,
so hard that it activated the exo in her glove.
‘Celeste!’ Aggie shouted, desperate to get out, away from the lights and heat and noise and faces.
‘Hey Agatha.’ The computer spun from the Ether beside the door.
‘Aggie, wait!’ Mir’s footsteps echoed behind her.
‘Go away.’
‘No, Aggie! That’s the waste disposal!’
Aggie pulled her hand back from the door. ‘Oh, right.’
‘Hey Agatha, do you wish to dispose of an unwanted item?’
Aggie turned in a circle, suddenly aware that she had absolutely no idea where she was or how to get back to the main building. And that about fifty people were now staring at her as she tried to break into a giant bin. Cosmic. Just cosmic.
‘It’s this way.’ Mir panted, pointing to a huge airlock on the other side of the platform.
‘Great,’ Aggie muttered and pushed past her.
She tried to lose Mir in the deserted tunnels that led back to the bustle of the main Tranquillity building. Lost in her thoughts, Aggie didn’t notice how busy the corridors were becoming until she smacked straight into the black overall of a guard.
She staggered back and looked up.
‘Oh frag, sorry I— SEB?’
Seb was standing frozen to the spot, his Blipcard still hovering over the sensor on a giant Spacefood vending machine.
‘Seb!’ Aggie launched herself into him with the velocity of a meteor. Someone here did care about her after all. Relief swept over her so fast she felt giddy. Seb was here, in Tranquillity, just when she needed him. Hold on. Why was Seb in Tranquillity?
When Aggie finally pulled away, Mir had caught up. Seb looked as if he’d seen another Rock-Alien.
Actually, so did she.
The clatter of Seb’s Spacefood hitting the tray seemed to bring him back to reality.
‘Aggie!’ He said, a few octaves higher than normal. ‘Are you OK? What are you doing here?’
‘What are you doing here?’ Aggie panted, resisting the urge to hug him again in front of the Mir-bot. Seb never mentioned working in Tranquillity before. Plus, he was supposed to be on border patrol – wasn’t he?
‘Guarding stuff,’ Seb squeaked.
Aggie looked around. ‘Guarding what?’
Seb laughed too loudly, then did a double take. ‘Hey, you OK? You look pale. Here –’ He passed Aggie his cherry pie Spacefood bar – ‘are you sweating?’
Aggie wiped her forehead. She was. Badly.
‘That makes the two of us, then,’ she said, looking at Seb’s shiny, red face.
Seb glanced at Mir and turned a deeper shade. Mir was looking at him as if he’d gone insane. Aggie was starting to think that too. He was acting beyond weird.
Then she remembered. Had Seb taken Astrid’s stupid ‘secret mission’ comment that seriously? Had he been following her? Had he seen her with Rix and Danny?
‘Seb . . .’ she began, but Seb was already starting to back away down the corridor.
‘You’re OK, though, right?’ he said, frowning and giving her a thumbs-up at the same time.
Aggie shook her head, but he’d already disappeared.
A weight settled in her stomach.
Why was everyone lying to her?
Day-Cycle 09
Aggie lay back on her bed and stared up at Celeste’s Eye in the ceiling. The red light of the iris bounced around in its black orb.
She reached up and felt for the ridge under her eyelids. Her anger at what had happened in Tranquillity still simmered uncomfortably under her skin. It was surreal to her, as if she’d dreamt it all. She remembered the desperate look in Rix’s eyes. The man was usually so in control, so considered. Aggie had seen the commander’s unpredictable side more than once over the years, but never like that. It was impossible to have any perspective on anything any more.
She wanted her old life back. Badly.
She rolled over and groaned into her pillow. If her life seemed overwhelming now, how could she cope after the party? How could she go back to Analysis as the Angel? The Angel of Adrianne couldn’t exactly test the swimming pools for urine, could she? More likely they’d bang her up in Tranquillity with all the perfect Earth Relations and media people, with their make-up and their buzzwords and their fancy sky-blue outfits. Aggie would rather spend it out on the fragging faces with the prisoners.
Aggie saw again the look on Danny’s face before she’d stormed off. Did he really hate her? Did she really hate him? Did any of that even matter any more?
‘Danny,’ she sighed, remembering the flash of his eyes from behind his visor.
‘Who?’
Aggie’s head snapped up.
Seb appeared at Aggie’s pod door and backed into the room carrying a tray piled with half-melted frozen custard. A flustered, pink-overalled maintenance guy appeared in the doorway after him, ‘Hey, hey! Please, look at the mess you’ve made of the hallway!’
Seb smiled. ‘Hey, Aggs, I stopped by Whole Earth on the way over. Thought you might need custard, you know, after yesterday.’ He winked theatrically and set the tray down by the bed. Aggie made a face in the direction of the maintenance man.
Seb rolled his eyes. ‘Oh him? Dude’s been following me since the shuttle station.’
Aggie smiled, ‘You walked that here all the way from Whole Earth?’ she said, genuinely moved.
‘You can tell by the trail of sticky little spots!’ The man tutted. ‘Blue spots, for miles down my corridors! I’ve got your number now, you,’ he said, glaring at the ID panel on Seb’s chest, ‘and I’ll see that it goes on your report.’
‘He’s very sorry!’ Aggie shouted as she pushed the close button on her door. She fell back on the bed in a fit of giggles.
Seb rolled his eyes, ‘Aw, man. Seriously? I tried my best, but trust me, these things do not shuttle well. I thought I was going to get hit by a tech head at one point.’
‘Why?’ Aggie said, peering at the tray.
‘Well, he may have a blueberry-flavoured ponytail now.’
Aggie laughed, ‘Oh no.’
‘Yeah.’ Seb sat down on the bed beside Aggie and presented the tray to her as if it was a silver platter. ‘So, we’ve got interstellar toffee, but that’s for me, obviously. Key lime pie, because it’s your favourite. Chocolate because, you know, it’s practically a medicine, right? And finally –’ he twisted the tray around, revealing a pot of what looked like bright blue soup that was so full there was now more of it on Seb’s overall than in the pot – ‘blueberry nebula,’ he said proudly. ‘It did have silver bits in it when I got it, but I may have eaten them all.’
‘They look kind of gross now,’ Aggie said, taking the key lime pie anyway.
Seb took the blueberry nebula and started to walk around the tiny little room, sipping it like a fine wine.
‘Thank you,’ Aggie said, scraping the bottom of the tub loudly. ‘I feel better already.’
As she ate, Aggie watched Seb out of the corner of her eye. His guard’s overall was creased and his hair was its usual mess of curls, but there was still something off about him. Something was going on. He’d acted like a total freak when she’d bumped into him in Tranquillity. Aggie was convinced he’d been following her, that he’d seen her talking to Danny with Rix and Mir, and that had helped her make up her mind. She hadn’t invited Seb over just to hang out – it was now or never. Seb deserved to know who she was.
‘Aggie, this pod is a disgrace,’ he said, picking up a sticky, half-eaten Spacefood bar from her desk that had a sock stuck to it. ‘You’re disgusting.’
Aggie took a deep breath. ‘Seb . . .’
But Seb had followed the trail of mess under her bed. ‘Earth below, is that part of an oxygen unit? Aggie, you can’t just take this stuff!’
Aggie frowned. ‘I broke it and I didn’t want to get in trouble . . . Look, Seb, please, just sit down.’
‘But, someone might need it. You know, for breathing and stuff. Ooo, is that one
of those massaging shower heads?’
‘No, it’s an air duct filter. Seb . . .’
Seb dropped the cone-shaped filter back onto the floor. ‘Oh, OK, gross.’
Aggie pulled him onto the bed beside her. ‘I need to talk to you. It’s about the party.’
She felt her blood pumping in her ears. This was really happening, she was really going to do this. If she messed this up, if she lost Seb too, she’d only have her distant godfather left.
Seb looked up at her nervously. ‘Aw, man,’ he said softly, rubbing his forehead. ‘I knew this was coming.’
‘What?’
‘Aw, man.’ Seb put his pot down. He looked really nervous. All shiny and red – just as he’d been in Tranquillity. ‘Thing is, Aggs, I know we would, but the thing is, there’s this . . . and I just thought that maybe it would be OK to go to the party with someone else. Instead of you, I mean. Not that I don’t want to go with you – it’s just . . .’
Aggie blinked. ‘You’re going with someone else?’
‘Yeah.’
‘A girl?’
‘No, Aggie, a dinosaur, it’s here on an exchange programme from the birth of time.’
Aggie didn’t register the sarcasm. ‘Oh, right.’
‘You OK?’
‘Yeah, I’m good.’ She glanced around the room, she wasn’t good, she felt as if she’d been kicked in the stomach. ‘Cosmic.’
There was an awkward pause.
‘You sure? Your face is all screwed up.’
Aggie nodded and tried to force her chin to relax.
‘Thing is . . . it’s Mir.’
Aggie’s heart forgot to do its job for a second, ‘What?’ Did she hear that right? Did he say Mir?
The Ether screen beside Aggie’s bed sprang to life. Aggie had forgotten what time it was. The Lunar Inc. logo spun against its spacey backdrop.
‘I said it’s Mir, from the Academy,’ Seb explained. ‘We had some dumb space rocks class with her. You were with her in Tranquillity, actually . . .’
Aggie couldn’t believe it. That Mir? Earth-Relations Mir? Suddenly the way Seb was acting in Tranquillity made sense; he wasn’t following her, he was waiting for Mir to finish her shift. Aggie felt the biggest black hole in the universe for not seeing it before. No wonder Mir had looked so shocked.
