VAI

“Wake up, Son.”

I pulled the covers up over my head which left my feet exposed.

“You need to keep your feet covered or you will be susceptible to disease.” The mechatronic grabbed the blanket and pulled it back over my feet exposing my head. Even though my eyes were closed, I knew it was Warpaint because my old man would not have been strong enough to tear the blanket out of my grip.

“Hurry,” my father said, his voice was gruff. His hand shook my shoulder. “School is going to start soon.”

I didn't need to go anywhere for school. I could just wake up, connect to the ansible and I would be done. I didn't need to shower or dress. My best image was already programmed into the ansible.

“Step back, Sir Father,” Warpaint said.

I opened my eyes just in time to see Warpaint lean in, grab me and lift me out of bed as if I had the weight of a small child.

“I'm up already.”

Warpaint set me on my feet and nodded as if he had made some big accomplishment.

Dad was dressed in his science officer uniform. “Behave yourself today.”

He'd been saying that since we first arrived on the G.E.V. Shadow. I swallowed my anger in a big lump down the back of my throat and looked across my bedroom to my punching bag. I already pictured it with father's face. My hands balled up into fists.

“Maybe,” was all I said.

He side-eyed me, but didn't say any more as he left my room. I heard the door to our quarters open and close as he left.

I grabbed my okulus to check the time. There were no new messages. Why would there be? Most everyone who was my friend was either dead or didn't know I was still alive and my father manipulated my okulus so I couldn't contact Mars or receive contact from Mars so I had no idea what happened to Thrissko. There was fifteen minutes left before school would start.

“Here is your breakfast shake,” Warpaint said. He held it towards me. I ignored it and tried to crawl back into bed. He grabbed me with all three arms and pulled me back. I banged on his metal chest, but instead of it pushing him back, it just hurt my hand. I pretended it didn't.

“I'm not hungry.”

“You must eat to get all your nutrients.”

Warpaint brought the shake up to my lips and tipped it so a little bit spilled around my closed mouth. The pressure on my lips hurt enough I tried to step back, but he placed a mechanical hand on my back and I couldn't back up. I rolled my eyes and opened my mouth. I also took the shake from him to ease the pressure on my lips. When he saw I was drinking it he stepped back. I downed it quickly and handed the empty carton back to him. He tilted his head as he stared at it in his hands. I still wasn't used to the strange aftertaste all the food on board the G.E.V. Shadow left in my mouth. I was told it was because all the food was made from an algae they grew onboard.

The punching bag called to me. I didn't put gloves on, I punched it with bare fists. The resistance against my weight was satisfying. I kneed it and steadied it when it came back so I could knee it again with my opposite knee.

The alarm on my device went off to let me know it was time to hook into the ansible. I stepped away from the punching bag and wiped away the sweat that had begun to form on my forehead. Perhaps I should have awoken earlier to take a shower. Eh, whatever. I wasn't physically going anywhere, what difference did it make?

I hooked into the ansible through my okulus. I quickly found the school program and entered. If I was in the correct place, then I wasn't the first one there. I wasn't sure I was in the right place though because at one desk sat a giant white bunny with red eyes and overly large teeth. It's long ears flopped along the side of it's head. In front of it sat an anchovy. Not a human size anchovy, like the bunny was, but the size of an actual anchovy. It wasn't seated in the seat, but on the desk.

On the other side of the room sat a green monster with algae hanging all over it. At the back of the room was a large insect with what looked like swords for its feet. It had pushed his chair behind him and was sitting directly on the floor as he was too big for the chair.

The strange heads turned to me and looked me up and down. The monster scoffed and looked away. The bunny and anchovy exchanged a whisper. I couldn't hear what they said, but I heard their giggles. They all looked at me like I was the crazy one for being normal.

I took a seat in the middle away from all of them. In the next few minutes, more strange creatures entered. They all seemed like it was strange that I was normal and I was beginning to think I was strange for coming as myself. It seemed father had forgotten to tell me something important. No surprise there.

They sat away from me at first until only the seats around me were left. A giant water drop sat in front me. It never turned to look at me. The seat behind me was the next to be taken by a leaf with human arms and legs. The seat to my right was taken by a chocolate bar. It looked at me and gave me a tentative smile with it's chocolate lips. I gave it a slight nod back. The seat to my left was empty when the teacher entered. I assumed it was the teacher only because it went to the front of the class instead of the one remaining seat by me. The teacher looked as odd as everyone else, a giant horned owl.

“Let's start with roll call,” a woman's voice said from the owl's beak. She held a chart in her wings and began to call names. She only said first names in her roll call, Rebecca, Nathan, Hani, Mingao, Robert, and they didn't seem to be in any order that I could tell. Definitely not alphabetical. “That's all from Fallfrost correct?” She asked Robert. He was a blanket, but the blanket shrugged. Fallfrost, I was pretty sure that was one of the ships in the G.E.F. armada. It seemed she was calling students by the ship they were on. She didn't say the ship's name until after she called all the students' names so I didn't realize she was calling the students on Shadow until she said my name.

“Vai.”

“Here,” I said quietly and barely raised my hand. I was trying to remember who answered right before I did, but all the strange eyes in the room suddenly turned to me and my mind emptied. The owl looked at me for the first time.

“Why are you dressed like that?” she asked.

One of my shoulders lifted in a shrug.

“It's not like this is your first...Oh.” She looked at her chart again. “It is your first time.” She looked at the rest of the class. “It is his first time. He was home schooled. Give him a little bit of slack for the first day.”

Understanding suddenly spread on all the strange faces and some even nodded. The chocolate bar next to me patted my arm with her chocolate hand. Her name had already been called, but I couldn't remember what it was. I think she was on the Armstar.

“On the first day of school we don't reveal our real faces,” the owl said to me. The chart was folded in one wing.

I nodded as if that made sense even though it didn't.

“Don't worry,” the teacher continued, “tomorrow everyone will be normal.”

“Sure,” I said.

She pulled out her chart again.

So my records said I had been home schooled. I supposed that was a good answer as to why I didn't know the current trends. I couldn't very well tell everyone I had been asleep for a very long time. And when I woke, my old man had home schooled me for the past year.

“Owen,” the owl said. There was no answer. She looked up from her chart. “Owen?” Her owl eyes looked all over the classroom.

The classroom door opened and a large birthday cake entered.

“I'm here,” a familiar voice said from the birthday cake. “Excuse me. Sorry. Sorry,” he said as he pushed his way to sit in the seat next to mine. “Sorry,” he said to the teacher as he sat. “I didn't realize I had hit the snooze button so often.”

“Be on time tomorrow,” the teacher said.

The birthday cake bobbed up and down in a semblance of a nod, then its entire head turned to look at me.

“I've been homeschooled,” I said.

“Ah,” the birthday cake said. “Next time you'll know.” The pink frosting smiled at me.

“Right,” I said. "You could have told me," I whispered to him.

"How am I supposed to know what you know and what you don't know," he said. "Where's Warpaint?"

"Why would he come into the ansible for school?"

"Good point."

“That's it for Shadow, correct?”

I wasn't sure who the teacher directed that question to, but no one answered.

“Good,” she said. “We'll start with languages.”

Languages, History, Math, Sciences. The only subject I wasn't ahead in was History and that was mostly the time frame I had been asleep. Interesting that it was once my present they were now teaching as History and I was only a year older. Why had father put me to sleep? He never did give me a clear answer. The anger I had quieted for class roiled up again.

“How was your first day?” the chocolate bar asked me.

“Fine,” I said.

“Sorry no one warned you about disguising yourself the first day. It's not that new of a trend. Didn't your parents tell you?”

“My mom died and my dad...is really old.”

“Sorry about your mom. That would explain why you didn't know though. Dads tend to look over that kind of thing.”

“Yeah,” I said.

"Yeah," Owen jumped in. "We'll see you tomorrow," he said to the chocolate bar. "Come with me."

He grabbed my arm and linked our ansibles directly. We stood alone among the stars. There was silence and light and darkness and us.

"I guess we'll know tomorrow if that girl is in school or a ghost," Owen said as he sat on nothing.

"I guess."

“What does your dad do here?” Owen asked.

“He is the Chief Science Officer.”

“Oh, wow. That's pretty high up. He must be pretty important. My mom's an engineer. My dad's a civilian, musician.”

“That's great,” I said. I kind of wished he would stop talking so I could go boxing. There was a gym a level up from our quarters. I had been there a few times. There was a ring there as well as exercise equipment of various kinds, but the few times I had been there, I hadn't seen anyone in the ring. A thought occurred to me then that would require Owen's help, but it seemed like he thought we were friends now anyway and Warpaint wasn't there to hear the conversation to relay it back to my father.

"Can you get in contact with Mars?"

"Why?" Owen asked.

"My father restricted my access. I want to see if that...friend I left behind is okay. Thrissko."

"He beat you up for leaving Mars and you want to see if he's okay? Are you sure he wasn't your lover like your mechatronic said?"

"No. No. It's just...when I left he wasn't in great company. He wouldn't have done that to me if he was his normal self. There was this small crime syndicate. They captured him and drugged him and then...well, he was messed up. Can you find out if he's okay?"

"I don't know anyone from Mars, but I can find out anything. The deal is, when I need Warpaint as my bodyguard, you and he need to show up and protect me. Yeah?"

"I'll agree to that if you can find out what happened to Thrissko."

"Deal."