Earthlight Space Academy Boxset

by Heather Lee Dyer

  Kai looks at me, studying my face.

  My heart thumps against my ribs and my first instinct is to scream “No!” But I find myself unable to say anything. I just smile. I know it’s what’s best for Cam. I’m unable to take care of him while I’m in school. And Kai’s parents love him.

  “I didn’t abandon him or threaten him,” my father snarls. His face is even redder than before.

  “In what reality are you living?” I step away from Kai and bend over, so I’m face-to-face with my father. “I was nine when you left. I watched you take our only vehicle and drive off. I was there to hear Mom crying herself asleep every night.”

  “That’s not the whole story.” He’s still red in the face, but his tone is less confident.

  “Are you going to tell me the whole story? Right now?”

  Silence.

  “I didn’t think so. And we have messages from you as “Anonymous” threatening both me and Cam. So, yes, you will be prosecuted for breaking space law.”

  “I’m on Earth. They can’t take me back. They’ll have to try me under Earth law,” he spits out.

  I shake my head. “You’re in a spaceship parked in the lower atmosphere.”

  “No, we’re at the academy.”

  “Really? You’re going to argue with me? Of course, we’re at the academy. The space dock, attached to the very top of one of the twin buildings, is in the lower atmosphere. We’re subject to both Earth and space laws here.”

  His face drains of all color. I straighten up and step back with Kai.

  “I demand to see a lawyer.”

  Anger flares inside me again. “You abandoned us. You left Mom in so much grief that her Lupus flared and eventually killed her.” I ball my hands into fists. “I’ve raised Cam, not you and not Mom. And now when you finally get to talk to one of your kids, you cry for a lawyer? What on Saturn’s moons is wrong with you?”

  “I need Cameron’s software code,” he says quietly and looks away.

  Kai takes my hand and pulls me toward the door. My father seems to shrink inside himself as I turn the corner. Then Kai has me outside the door, and all four guards nod to us as they hurry back into the room.

  Alone in the corridor, I allow Kai to gather me up in his arms and I cry into his shoulder. He holds me tight until I’ve cried myself dry.

  “You all right?” He leans back and peers into my face.

  I let go of him and dry my face. “This sucks. I don’t know what to say to Cam about this.” I sound as lifeless as I feel inside.

  Kai cups my face in his hands. I look into his deep brown eyes, so full of empathy and love for me. A tingle goes up my spine.

  “You don’t have to explain anything to him right now. We’ll call him so you can see he’s safe, but you don’t have to say anything to him about what happened until you’re ready.”

  I roll my shoulders, realizing I was tense the whole time while I was in there. My muscles ache from the stress. “I could use a run,” I say.

  Kai smiles. “Sounds good.” He pulls me down the corridor and into the room where the general and the commander both turn as we walk in.

  The commander studies me for a minute before he asks, “Are you all right?”

  I sigh. “I will be. It’s going to take time to grieve for him all over again.” I glance at the vid where my father has leaned his head back and has his eyes closed. “Did you get enough on either recording?” I unclip the small recorder from my hoodie and hand it to the commander.

  “Yes, more than we thought possible. Thanks to you,” says the general. “the SIA will be pleasantly shocked that you got so much information out of him.”

  I shuffle from one foot to the other. “Do you know why he was talking about the SIA like that? Like they were after him?”

  The general shares another one of those glances with the commander before answering. “I’m not exactly sure what his issue is, but a few years back the SIA tried bringing charges against him for stealing a jump ship.”

  “Seriously?”

  “He said he needed to save Earth from our own future.” The general glances back to the vid screen. “He spent some time in the mental ward at Starlight Max. They only released him back to work about a year ago.”

  “Are you trying to tell me my father has mental issues?”

  “That’s what the experts said at his trial. But he was functional enough to go back to monitored work on the moon base.”

  “If you were watching me talk to him the whole time, did you see when he got angry?”

  They both nod.

  “Did it look like his face completely transformed? He looked unrecognizable to me. Like he turned into another person altogether.”

  They share another glance. Commander Svell clears his throat. “Yes. I’m not a psychology expert, but it sure looks like he might have a multiple personality disorder.”

  “Great. I hope it’s not genetic,” I mumble. I’m suddenly exhausted and look at the time stamp in the corner of the vid. “It’s three in the morning?”

  “You two report back to your dorms and get some sleep. I’ll delay your sim testing until later in the morning. I’ll send a message to your tablet when you need to report to the sim level.”

  “Do you mind sending the message a bit earlier than our testing time? We’d like to get in a run before the testing.” Kai explains. I could kiss him right now, but I refrain.

  The commander studies us. “Yes, that should work. We’ll have Josh up in the sim room, so you should be safe.”

  My jaw falls open. “You know about Josh?”

  He chuckles. “I know everything that goes on in my academy, Miss Toland.”

  I exchange a glance with Kai. “Then why haven’t you stepped in to stop what he’s doing to the other students?”

  He looks hard at me. “Do you think your supervisors on a spaceship or space station will step in and help you settle your differences with your shipmates? Would you want them to?”

  Huh. “No, I guess not. I never thought about it that way, sir.”

  “Besides, part of being a leader is knowing when to let your crew learn and take responsibility for themselves. Right?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  The commander walks us out of the ship and across the dock. At the main corridor he reminds us to go straight to our dorms. Kai and I say goodnight and make our way to the lift.

  I lean against the wall as it takes us back down to the residential level. “I’m so exhausted,” I say.

  “Me too. That was all pretty intense. You all right?”

  I nod. “Can we send a message to Cam to see if he’ll reply now? I just want to make sure he’s all right. He must be pretty scared having to leave home like that so suddenly.”

  Kai nods and sends a message on his tablet.

  The lift opens and we walk slowly toward our dorms. Although I haven’t been this exhausted since working in the fields, I’m anxious to hear from Cam.

  “He might be sleeping,” Kai suggests.

  I shake my head. “No. Once his adrenaline spikes, it takes him a while to settle down. He’ll answer.” I look away, not nearly as confident as I sound.

  Kai’s tablet pings and we both stop in the middle of the dim corridor. We’re only lit up by the blue strip lights that lead to the dorms. Kai turns his tablet so I can read the message.

  “I’m fine. What’s going on??????”

  I grin. “Told you. He’s going to be a pain in the butt for your parents for hours. We need to tell him something, so he’ll settle down.”

  Kai hands me the tablet.

  I stare at the green glowing words. Finally, I type, “They have our father in custody. We’re all safe now.”

  He immediately writes back, “What will they do with him?”

  I bite my lip. “He’s going to be facing several charges of violating space law. After our sim tests tomorrow, we’ll call you and explain everything. But tonight, get some sleep. Okay?”

  Kai a
nd I start walking again as we wait for a reply. When it comes it’s just, “Okay. Love you guys.”

  Kai grins as I hand him back his tablet.

  I make a show of rolling my eyes. “I know, I know. He said he loves both of us again.”

  21

  Dark Friday

  Kai and I quietly come around the corner into the common room, half expecting Josh to be waiting for us. But the space is empty.

  Kai stops me and pulls me to his chest. My muscles slowly relax as Kai kisses me thoroughly. When he pulls back, I’m smiling tiredly. He laughs quietly and pushes me toward the door to my dorm. As I let myself in, I glance over and see he’s paused in front of his door doing the same. I grin and shake my head.

  I barely remember making it to my room before a rude pinging wakes me up. I lift my head off my pillow to find myself still dressed and wearing my shoes. I look at my tablet and it says ten in the morning.

  My heart races and I stand quickly before I realize the commander let us sleep in. I go back and pick up my tablet to read the commander’s message.

  “Everyone is halfway through their sim tests. Get a run in, get dressed and meet us up here.”

  I hurry to the bathroom and just splash water on my face and wrangle my messy hair into a ponytail. At the last second, I remember to grab my weighted pack before I meet Kai out in the common area.

  “Ready?” I ask. He looks as tired as I feel.

  “Hopefully this helps us wake up.”

  We hurry down the corridor and take the lift to the zero-G track. As we cycle through the airlock, I find myself nodding off.

  Kai smacks my thigh. “Wake up. Almost there.” As he says this the light turns green and we float out to the track. We adjust our packs and then take off in the weird running form that is used in zero-G.

  Several laps later I’m feeling much more awake. As we make a final lap, I allow myself to think about last night and the conversation I had with my father. By the time we get back to the airlock hatch I’m sweating and mentally ready to talk about him.

  “Do you think he’s unstable? Mentally?” I ask Kai.

  He studies me as we float into the airlock. “There’s something not quite right with how he rationalizes reality. I’m not sure how unstable that makes him, but I don’t think most people can go from such emotional extremes so quickly.”

  I give him a crooked smile. “Josh does.”

  Kai nods. We hold onto the railing as gravity slowly drags us to the floor. “Josh isn’t quite right either. Like your father he doesn’t seem to be aware of the harm his words and actions have on others.”

  I furrow my brow as I think about that. I’m staring at the white metal door as it opens toward us. We step out and adjust our packs as the full weight of gravity tugs on our shoulders.

  “Is it bad that with all the horrible things my father has done, I still feel sorry for him being locked up?”

  Kai grabs my hand and we set a brisk pace back to the dorms. “No, I don’t think so. He was your father, and he must’ve meant something to your mom at one point.”

  I frown as an icy cold sadness washes over me. “I miss her,” I whisper.

  He squeezes my hand and slows down. “You really haven’t had much time to grieve for her.”

  “No, I haven’t. But you’re right. No matter how many bad things he’s done, he’s still my father. And Cam’s.”

  Kai glances sideways at me. “Yes, but that doesn’t mean you have to allow him to be part of your lives.”

  I look at Kai. “What do you mean?”

  “You can forgive him, and you can feel sorry for him, but you don’t have to let him hurt you again.”

  I let that sink in. “That’s brilliant, Kai.”

  He grins. “I try.”

  I bump my shoulder into his, making him scramble for balance. He laughs and comes back to my side.

  “That could very much apply to Josh as well, right?”

  Now it’s Kai’s turn to look confused. “How?”

  “I’ve been trying to make friends with Josh. Thinking if I do, he won’t bully me anymore. But that hasn’t worked well at all for his actual friends. So, like my father, I can forgive Josh, but I don’t have to be friends with him in order to be classmates.”

  Kai looks thoughtful. “Sounds about right. I’m not sure it’ll make a difference to Josh.”

  “It might not for him, but for me it gives me peace. I don’t have to mentally beat myself up because he doesn’t like me or respond to my attempts at being civil. I can just take confidence in the fact that I know who he is and accept that. And it’s okay not to be friends with him.”

  “Well, I seriously doubt we’d succeed at being friends with him, anyway.”

  I nod. We get to our dorms and go our separate ways. I take a quick shower and change into a fresh academy uniform. I ping Kai that I’m ready and I head out to the common area.

  Kai’s already waiting for me. I smile and accept a quick kiss before we hurry up to the sim level.

  When the lift opens, the change in noise level hits me hard. I have to stand still for a moment to get my bearings. Kai grabs my hand and squeezes.

  “I’m all right. Just sensory overload for a second.”

  “Understandable.”

  We head down the path between sim machines until we spot the commander. He’s flanked by his security and talking to several students. We hang back until he finishes.

  “Good, you’re here.” He types something into his tablet. “Here are your sim routines. Start at the beginning, and let’s see how far you get by the time your fellow students are done.”

  Of course, done means half of the machines in the room. “What if we haven’t finished?”

  He shrugs. “We’ll see about that when the time comes.”

  I glance at Kai. He just gives me a small shrug. We head toward the first row of machines. Kai and I alternate sims as we make it through the list.

  The lights dim inside my machine as I finish. I climb out and blink until my eyes adjust to the brightness outside the sim. Kai comes to join me.

  “Was that the end of class warning already?” I ask him.

  He nods and points to my tablet. It says three in the afternoon. I frown. “We missed lunch.”

  Kai laughs. “We just finished half the sims in this room in four hours and the first thing you comment on is how hungry you are?”

  “Half?” My brain feels sluggish.

  “Come on.” He grabs my hand and tugs me toward the lifts. “Let’s get something to eat.” He’s still grinning.

  That’s when I notice it’s silent in the room. As we wait for the lift, I ask him, “Everyone else is done and gone?”

  He shrugs. “Must be. They were all gone when I got out of my last sim. The commander must’ve left us to finish.”

  When the door opens, we find ourselves wading through a corridor packed with our classmates streaming out of the cafeteria and into the lifts. No one says anything to us. I frown as Kai leads the way through the throng and soon we’ve made it into the near-empty cafeteria.

  Rand hurries over to us, Philip in tow. “Where were you guys? We waited for you as long as possible this morning.”

  “Do you have class now? It might take some time to explain.” I grab a tray as my stomach growls. Kai grins and tosses an apple to me.

  “No, everyone is just heading up to the zero-G track or to work on projects. My group isn’t meeting until tomorrow morning.” Rand makes a face that is so unlike him that I can’t help but laugh.

  “Not looking forward to working with your teammates?”

  “Just one,” he grumps.

  Philip fixes himself a milkshake and scans it. We walk toward our regular table, noticing Josh’s table is noticeably empty. I sigh in relief.

  We sit down and Kai and I eat our lunches as Philip tucks into his dessert. I grin in between bites. “Still hungry, Philip?”

  He smiles and nods. “I love these.”


  “So, where were you?” Rand leans back in his chair.

  I look at Kai who stuffs a large bite of a sandwich in his mouth.

  “Chicken,” I tease and smack his arm.

  Philip’s eyes dart between us. He shifts backwards in his seat.

  What on Earth did Josh do to this kid?

  I look back at Rand making a mental note to talk to Philip later.

  “My father tried to break into Kai’s parent’s house to get to Cam last night.”

  “What?” He sits up straight, his eyes wide.

  “Thankfully, the general had a security detail on the house. I received a few more threatening messages yesterday and apparently when I didn’t answer them, my father concocted a way to make it down to Earth.”

  “Are they safe?”

  “Yes, they moved them somewhere else.”

  “You two got to see them?” Rand looks relieved but confused. “We’ve heard rumors you two left your rooms.”

  I look at Kai, who frowns. “We haven’t seen them yet. We’ll vid Cam tonight.” I look around the room. There are only a few students scattered around the room, but no one close to our table. “The commander got us out of bed because the general brought my father here.”

  “What?” Rand and Philip say at the same time.

  “Yep. Commander Svell met us at the dorms, scared the crap out of us, and then took us up to the space dock.” I grin at Kai.

  “They brought him here on a spaceship?” asks Rand.

  “The academy spaceship apparently went there to get him. They had him locked down in the passenger compartment.”

  “Is he violent? Did you see him?” Philip stares at me with wide eyes and a very pale face.

  “Despite the threats in the messages, my father isn’t violent. And he was strapped down. I was safe.” I lean forward. “But he wouldn’t talk to the general or the SIA, so they asked me to get him to admit he’s Anonymous and that he threatened me.”

  “Did you to talk to him? Face-to-face?” Philip asks again. I’m beginning to wonder if Josh was Philip’s only bully. I bite the inside of my cheek as he wrings his hands. When he follows my gaze he gives a start and puts his hands in his lap.