Owen

Esther sat on the edge of my bed. Her brown hair was tied back, but wavy strands had fallen loose around her cheeks. She tucked a strand behind her ear. In her lap was the ancient wall she had stolen.

"Decipher anymore of it?" I asked. I went and sat next to her on the bed.

She held it between us so I could see it better. "Maybe a fresh pair of eyes would help," she said.

I looked, but it only looked like circles with various lines in them.

"This," she pointed to one of the circles, "means light and this," she pointed to a different circle near the bottom, "means the Corruption. I think this one," she gently tapped the first symbol, "means the Awakened Ones. I think this one means war, but I might be forcing it too much. I want it to say war because if it does, then I think this one means death, but if it doesn't mean war, then I'm off on a lot of my other guesses."

I made a pretense like I was studying the broken wall. "What if it means barter?"

The corner of her lips turned down. I was only teasing, but she said, "What if it does? What if the Awakened Ones were trying to barter with the Corruption and it went wrong?"

"Or what if," I said, "the Corruption were the ones trying to barter and the Awakened Ones made it go wrong and that was how all of this started in the first place?"

"No," she said, but she bit her bottom lip and I was sure she thought of the possibility.

"Can't you ask that Awakened One you are trying to find? You have some kind of connection with him don't you?"

She sighed. "He's sleeping. He hasn't responded to me since he suggested I open the light in others."

"Are you sure he is sleeping? You said the Corruption killed the Awakened One who originally taught you. They haven't found and killed this other one have they?"

"No," She looked up to the gray ceiling. "I can still feel his presence. I don't think I could ask him directly what these symbols mean anyway." She turned her attention back to the broken piece of wall. "We've never been able to communicate with words, just impressions. You should login to the ansible. School will start soon."

There was something in the way she spoke that made me think she wanted to join me in school. She was a stowaway though and wanted by security. She couldn't just randomly show up to school.

I nodded and put my head back on the pillow. I reshaped the okulus to fit over my head and logged in to the ansible.

I was early to school, but I was still the last one to arrive with the exception of Teacher Miller. Vai, Minmin and Shel had blocked their conversation from the rest of the class, but they included me when I sat at my desk.

"We were just talking about Vai's experience with the Corruption last night," Minmin said. "It seems like those with the Corruption on your ship are guarding themselves better. It makes sense after all the disappearances. You both - and Esther - need to be more cautious from now on."

I nodded. I thought that went without saying, but apparently Minmin thought otherwise.

"Shel killed someone last night - or rather very early this morning - with the Corruption too," Minmin said.

"But," I said. I looked from Minmin to Shel, "you don't have the light."

"You don't need the light to kill someone," Shel said.

"Killing someone is different than also killing the Corruption. You also don't have the Aether Field Prototype," Vai said. "How did you kill the Corruption?"

"You don't need the prototype either," Shel said. "Any Aether field will do."

"He threw her out the Aether field in the shuttle bay," Minmin said.

It took a moment for that to process through me. Shel had thrown a living person out the Aether field. The field killed the Corruption, but it wouldn't have killed the person. Space killed that person. I had been in space all my life because of my mom's job. I knew space was dangerous, but I always felt safe in the G.E. vessels. For a moment, I imagined myself alone in space, the cold, the vacuum, the lack of air. My real body shuttered, but it wasn't translated through the ansible.

"Who was it and how did you lure her close enough to the Aether field?" Vai asked. "I thought the Corruption wouldn't go anywhere near it."

"She was a pilot our age who went through the accelerated program," Minmin said. "She was known for her sudden fear of space. As for how he got her near the Aether field. Well. I might have followed him too if he had used that sexy voice on me. Too bad I can't just take it from him and put it on a Starwatcher with cinnamon colored fur." She put her elbows on top of her desk and put her chin in her hands and sighed as she stared ahead at nothing.

Teacher Miller appeared and began class. We ignored her and kept our conversation going as we continued to block out the rest of the class.

"Sexy?" Shel asked.

"Only the voice," Minmin said with that same far away look.

"My friend," I said, "is there a specific Starwatcher you have in mind to put Shel's voice with?" There wasn't a male Starwatcher in class with cinnamon colored fur, but it seemed like she was speaking of someone specific.

She turned to me and smiled. "Do you know the actor Bars? From the horror show Waters Reaching?"

"I haven't watched too many Starwatcher shows," I said. It was a lie though. I hadn't ever watched a Starwatcher show. Or a K'thaktran show.

"You're missing out," Minmin said. "It's really good."

"And he must have cinnamon colored fur," Vai said.

Minmin nodded and her floppy ears swayed from side to side.

"We're in the middle of class," Teacher Miller's voice broke through our blocker. She could speak to us, but she wouldn't be able to hear our conversation.

We ignored her. Class just didn't seem important anymore.

"Was his sexy voice different than usual?" I asked. "Because his voice doesn't normally sound sexy to me."

"Yes," Minmin said. "It was different than usual. His mother must have taught him."

"That makes it sound weird," Shel said to her. To me and Vai he said, "My mom thought it better to train me herself in the ways of the Jo-Dinun rather than send me to the accelerated program."

"I really must insist that you drop your blocker and pay attention in class," Teacher Miller said to us. "If you are going to talk all through class, don't bother showing up at all. It isn't fair to the other students."

Shel and Minmin faced the front of the class and Minmin dropped the blocker. I wasn't sure who had put it up in the first place until then.

"And you chastised me for the blocker when I first put it up," I whispered to her. She frowned at me, but it didn't last long.

There was only an hour left in class when I heard them enter my bedroom.

"Not again," my dad's voice said. "He hasn't done anything. He has complied with everything you told him to do since the smuggling incident."

"This isn't about smuggling," someone said.

I was forcibly logged out of the ansible. I thought about quickly going back in to tell Vai and the others that security was at my place again, but decided against it. It left me with a headache last time to be forcibly removed from the ansible multiple times.

My okulus was removed from my head by one of the four security that stood around my bed. The two on my left were both Starwatchers. The two on my right were Bundu-Jo. It was the male Bundu-Jo that had taken off my okulus.

Esther.

I looked at the bathroom. Two security went inside. One a K'thaktran female, the other a human male.

Please don't be in there. I sent the thought to Esther. I didn't have a connection with her like she had with the Awakened One. There was no way for me to warn her.

Lie. You're a good liar. I calmed the rapid beat of my heart. I willed my limbs to relax. The officer handed my okulus back to me. I reshaped it around my wrist.

"I haven't smuggled anything else on board, officers," I said. "You can check." I waved toward my desk. "I've been following all the rules given to me. I haven't even made one piece of algae chocolate."

The two officers came out of the bathroom empty handed. No Esther being dragged or fighting between them.

The Bundu-Jo who took off my okulus waved a hand at the others and they began to rummage through my things. "Have you been in contact with the owner of the Starrise recently?" The officer left standing by my bed asked.

"No," I said easily. "I don't have any reason to now that you confiscated my chocolate."

My dad stood nearby, but didn't interfere with the security officers. He held his viola and bow in one hand by his side.

"When was the last time you saw her?"

"Not for awhile and I haven't met with her personally since the Remembrance. Is she really missing? You don't think I had anything to do with it do you? Check the security feeds. I haven't done anything."

"Then why haven't you been by to see how your schoolmate is doing? You're on the same ship, you know his mother has disappeared."

"Wait a minute," my dad finally stepped forward. "Is this really what this is about? The missing people? Owen has smuggled before, I admit that, but he has never hurt anyone. He couldn't even think of hurting someone."

"Spencer and I aren't on good terms. Not since the Remembrance," I said interrupting my dad. I wasn't sure if his words were helping. And it wasn't true. I could think of hurting someone. I had played a big part in Adi's death. "I didn't think it would be appropriate to go see him since he hates me." And I killed his mom.

"Did you know Officer Hansi?"

"No," I said. "I don't think he was any of the officers I dealt with. Wait. Is he the one my friend, Vai, gave his statement to? I never met him personally."

"What about Mechanic Turner Wilson?"

"I've never seen him. I think anyway. I guess it's possible I saw him in the shuttle bay, but I rarely go there and I wouldn't know him by name. Sorry. I hardly pay attention to the mechanics."

"What about Alessandra Garcia?"

"That name is familiar," I paused as if thinking. "Is she the scientist that works in the labs with Vai Ma'amaloa's dad? I've never seen her before. Vai has spoken about all the scientists in his father's labs. He likes them. Is she missing too? I haven't heard an announcement about her."

"Have you seen anything or anyone suspicious?" I noted he ignored my comment about Alessandra missing and the lack of an announcement.

"Besides the mystery girl Vai and I already told you about? No." We had already mentioned her to security. It would be weird if I didn't mention her now. Where was Esther?

"Do you know how much contact your friend, Vai Ma'amaloa, has had with any of these people?"

I scoffed. "You don't suspect the son of the chief science officer do you? That won't go over well with Lieutenant Commander Ma'amaloa. And I can vouch for Vai. We're together almost all the time." As an afterthought - because there would be witnesses at the Museum Delectables - I added, "Alessandra...I think Vai went on a date with her last night. I don't know the details. I was going to talk to him today after class, but you pulled me out before class was over."

"Vai isn't a suspect," the security officer said. "Maybe he saw something that will give us a clue though."

I hadn't seen any glint of pink in the security officers eyes so I didn't think he had the Corruption inside him.

"Nothing here," one of the security officers said as they finished rummaging through my room. They never bothered to put back what that they took out. There were clothes and various items strewn along the floor. It looked like my afternoon would be tidying up after security officers.

"If you think of anything or see anything suspicious, let us know."

I nodded and the security officers left. My dad paused by my bed. He looked at me seriously for a moment - he only looked at me like that when I broke the law. Then he shook his head and smiled. "No. Smuggling is one thing, but you wouldn't have anything to do with the disappearances." He took two steps towards the bedroom door before he turned back to me with the serious face. "Unless you were smuggling people."

Was that really what my dad thought of me?

"How would I smuggle them and where would I smuggle them to? Don't be ridiculous, dad."

He smiled and laughed as if it had all been a joke and he hadn't seriously thought for a moment I could smuggle people. I didn't smuggle people. Just killed them.