“Yes, I did face him. He was shocked I was there and that I knew he was Anonymous.” I grin at Philip. “He’s now afraid and in awe of my “source” who helped me figure out his identity.”
Philip’s pale faces turns red. He studies the table.
“Don’t worry, he has no idea who you are. He did have some rants about how the SIA was after him though. And we noticed some odd behavior,” I glance at Kai, “when I pushed him until he got angry.”
Philip looks up at that. I put a hand out. “Not really violent in his anger. It’s like he turns completely into someone else. Multiple personalities, the commander thinks.”
“Does that explain why he threatened and stalked his own children?” asks Rand.
I sigh. “Not completely. I couldn’t get any real answers about why he abandoned us or why he felt he had to approach us in secret.” I wrap my hand around my water bottle. The plastic is cool against my palm but quickly warms. “But he did say something about needing Cam’s research, and that it was a life or death situation.” I look up. “I’m not sure how lucid he was.” I shrug.
“What is Cam researching?” whispers Philip as he pushes aside the remains of his milkshake.
Kai answers as I take a long drink of water. “He’s working with my father on some kind of genetics project. Cam’s made some kind of breakthrough in the coding of the software.” He looks at me, and I nod. “My father put Cam’s name on the research, and that’s how Mr. Toland found them.” A frown creases Kai’s forehead.
“Even then he would’ve needed to break into the SIA secure databases to find them at a safe house.” Philip leans forward.
“Yes, and he somehow forged his supervisor’s credentials to get on a transport to Earth. I kind of wish you had been there, Philip. Maybe you’d be able to figure out how he keeps bypassing the SIA’s systems.”
Philip appears thoughtful at that.
Kai elbows me. “Tell them about the capsule.”
“Oh yes. Commander Svell had the foresight to attach a local recorder to my hoodie. He had an idea my father, after all the hacking he’s done, would be able to somehow block the main vid recording. And we needed his admissions of guilt to charge him.” I pause for another sip of water. “And he was right. My father, I believe got angry on purpose at one point in the conversation, so he could fidget in his shackles. He had a capsule embedded underneath his skin. The general confirmed that when he moved, he was able to somehow trigger the vid damper.”
“But it didn’t affect the local recorder?” asks Rand.
“No. Because it wasn’t on any sort of system. It just recorded straight to the commander’s tablet.”
“That was very smart of the commander,” says Philip. “I think I admire him even more. I didn’t think he was a hacker.”
“The commander? A hacker?” asks Kai.
“Yes, he would have to know how to hack a system in order to find a way around it,” answers Philip with a small smile.
Well, this is one way to get him out of his shell.
“What will they do with him?” asks Rand.
“He’ll face several charges in front of the space council. The general thinks he’ll end up at Starlight Max.”
“The prison on the moon?” asks Philip, wide-eyed.
“Yes. Apparently, he’d been there for a short time in the mental ward.” I lower my voice. “He stole a jump ship years ago because he thought he needed to save humanity from our own future. Whatever that means.”
“He’s crazy?” asks Rand.
I shrug. “He’s got some sort of mental instability. He sat there and justified threatening his own children without hardly any emotion.” I glance at Kai. He takes my hand and squeezes.
“Guys?” Philip asks quietly.
I turn to look at Philip. His expression has lost its previous wonder and excitement. “What’s wrong?”
His eyes dart around the room. I glance over my shoulder and see Alex sitting at a far table with a few students I’ve not yet met. They’ve got their heads together talking quietly, but Josh isn’t anywhere to be seen.
“Philip?” urges Kai.
He sighs and fidgets again. “I’m glad everything worked out for now, and that you’re safe from your father. But we have another problem.”
22
Brainstorming
I think that’s the most I’ve heard Philip talk other than about tech stuff. “What problem?”
He leans forward again. “Someone saw or heard you leaving with the commander. Josh is spreading around the lie that you met with him during the night so he could give you guys assistance to ace your projects. He’s trying to turn everyone against you.”
Kai and I look at each other and start laughing.
When we turn back to Philip and Rand, they both look uncomfortable.
“You’re serious? And people are believing him?” I ask. The little hairs on the back of my neck stick up as the full implication of it hits me.
Philip nods. “No one will talk to us or either of the other students on your teams.” He points to both Kai and me. “And Katrina cried all during the sim tests. She’s upset that everyone is believing his lies and that no one will talk to her.”
I frown. “I need to find her.” I stand and look over at Kai. “You find your project members too.”
“What do we tell them? We can’t tell them the whole story.”
I plop back down in my chair. “True. But we have to tell them something.” I put my head in my hands. “We’ve worked hard to get to a point where we’re all working together as a class.”
I look up as Rand’s chair squeaks on the floor. He stands up. “I hope you guys figure something out tonight, because I have to work with him tomorrow morning on our project. I need to go finish a bunch of research he gave me for it.” Rand’s face scrunches up.
He strides across the room and is gone before I can even think of anything to say. I turn to Philip. “Is there something else that happened? With Rand?”
Philip tries to look away, but Kai stops him with calming words. “You aren’t betraying him or causing issues by talking to us. Rand is our friend, and we want to understand why he’s so upset.”
“Besides just the whole Josh telling lies thing?” Philip gives us a crooked smile. He’s still trying to evade us.
“Philip,” I say, not letting him look away from me.
His expression crumples. “They got into a fight at one of the sims. The commander sent them both back to their dorms…with escorts.”
“What?” I look at Kai. “Did he say anything to you about that?”
Kai shakes his head.
We both turn back to Philip. “What else?”
He squirms for a second, then answers, “Josh threatened to find a way to get Rand kicked out of the academy if he won the class leader position again.”
“Is that what started the fight?”
“Yes.”
“But class leader is earned, not won. Do you think Josh could really get Rand kicked out of here?” I ask, not really wanting to hear the answer.
“I’m sure he could. He’s sneaky and has contacts everywhere. How do you think he’s made it this far?” Philip asks quietly.
I sit back in my chair. “I wonder why Rand didn’t tell us.”
“That’s easy. He says you have enough to worry about right now.” Philip stands up.
“But we’re friends, and friends support each other no matter what they’re going through.” I realize I’m frowning so much my jaw hurts. I move my jaw around as I think about everything going on around me. Cam getting adopted, threats from both my estranged father and Josh, regular school stuff, a project that is half my grade, and now everyone hates me again. “I guess I can understand where he’s coming from, though. I’m pretty messed up right now.”
Kai squeezes my hand, but I still feel miserable.
Movement draws my attention, and I look up. Philip is shifting his weight from one foot to the other.
“You ready to get out of here?”
“Yes. He could come back at any time.” Philip picks up his empty cup and hurries to take it to the san station.
Watching Philip in all of his nervousness still taking the time to clean up after himself, gives me an idea.
“Philip, I think we can do something to get our classmates to talk to us again. And ensure we’ll all have successful projects. But we’ll need your help to pull it off.”
He looks at me and then at Kai, who laughs. “I’m just sitting here. She hasn’t said anything yet. Not out loud anyway.” We stand up and clear our plates and trays.
The three of us walk toward the lift in a near-empty corridor. Any students we do encounter just ignore us.
My heart sinks. “How can they all believe Josh after how poorly he’s treated them all?” I whisper.
“Between the special attention the commander gave you and Rand the first week of school, and then him letting you out of the dorms in the middle of the night, I think everyone is confused. They just don’t know what to think.”
I grind my teeth as we get on the lift. I mash the button and the lift starts upward. When it stops, we step out and follow the corridor to the glass lift.
“What are we doing here?” asks Philip.
“I figured it’s a good place to brainstorm. And no one will overhear us.”
He doesn’t look convinced. We take the short lift and head straight for the main greenhouse door. We wait for it to unseal and step inside.
The humidity wraps around us and we all involuntarily breathe in deeply. Grinning, I head down the path toward the benches. I take out my tablet and settle onto the bench closest to the pond. With my father locked up I don’t have to worry about threatening messages. I tab through several saved documents until I find the one I’m looking for. I turn it to show Kai and Philip.
“Angel’s Hells Canyon Tamales?” Philip reads out loud. “What does that have to do with us?”
“Entrepreneurship, Philip. Not only did Angel teach me Spanish, but she taught me about marketing and how to run a business. I think if we combined marketing skills with the engineering ideas for our projects, we could make all of our projects really stand out.”
“Stand out?” asks Kai.
I swipe through a few of the ads and logos Angel and I created for some of the food trucks. “Yes. With a business, marketing is about standing out in a crowd in order to make money. I propose we use the same principles when we create our drone spaceships.”
“Market our spaceships?” asks Philip.
“Sort of. I think if we as a class add an element of usefulness to each of our projects, it’ll make an impression on the commander and the Year Two judges. Remember, our advisor hinted to us to make our projects useful as well as functional. And working with our classmates to do this will help us earn their trust back.”
“But it’s not our fault they don’t trust us.” Philip throws out his hands in frustration. “Josh is the one who’s spreading lies.”
“I know, but we can’t stop him. We can’t fix him. We just need to concentrate on ourselves and our other classmates. Eventually, the truth about what he’s doing will come out.”
“That’s a very mature outlook,” a woman’s voice says from behind us.
The three of us swivel around and find Ms. Germain standing in the path, a bucket in one gloved hand, and a bag full of clear liquid and plants.
“Ms. Germain.” I stand, my heart racing. “You startled me. I’m sorry if we’re in your way. We can leave.”
She walks toward us. “No, you’re fine. I just need to add more lilies to the pond.” She holds up the bag. “And I am sorry I was listening as I came up the path.”
I look between Kai and Philip. “It’s all right. We just needed privacy from our classmates.”
“Sounds like you have a problem you’re trying to solve.” She kneels down beside the pond and opens the bag.
“I think we might have a solution; we just need to figure out how to implement it.”
She pours the water and plants into the pond. The plants separate and she carefully makes sure they’re all right side up. “How to make your spaceships marketable?”
My face warms. “Yes. I thought maybe that would help our projects stand out a bit if they were not only functional but had some purpose.” I kneel down beside her, watching the lily pads drift to join the others already floating in the pond.
“Smart. Marketing is what helped fund this greenhouse, you know.” She turns and smiles at me. “And the reason there’s a greenhouse on every ship and space station.”
“Really? How?” Kai asks.
“I was originally a business major with a minor in space law.” She stands and brushes off her pants. We all get comfortable on the benches. “But I had a rough time getting through the academy. Back then it was just a few classrooms on one of the space stations. It was sterile and clinical and I almost failed because I mentally couldn’t handle it.”
“I heard before the new academies were built, they held classes in space. I just didn’t know it was so dreary back then.” All the pictures I’ve seen of space stations have always included greenhouses, open colorful spaces, and comfortable furniture.
“Yes. Quite dreary.” Her eyes unfocus as she talks. “I remember begging to come back down to Earth. The commander at the time took me up to the observation deck, and we talked under the twinkling lights of distant suns. He reminded me that what I was experiencing was just a temporary period of discomfort. And if I didn’t want to give up, or keep feeling that way, that I should come up with my own resolution to the problem.”
She laughs and looks straight at me. “I think what he was trying to say was just to deal with it, but what I actually did was start thinking of ways I would be at home on the space station. I went through all the things I missed, like trees and birds and just the sound of wind through branches. I missed nature, not the life down on Earth. So, I basically started a marketing campaign directed toward the space council. I lobbied for a greenhouse on our station. I researched what it would take, how much it would cost, and the logistics of getting dirt and plants to space. I convinced them it was a good idea and necessary, not only for the spacers’ mental state, but also as enclosed research facilities. This last point took it into a financially viable idea, and they built one. And the rest is history.”
“Wow. I had no idea you were responsible for all that,” says Kai. “My father studied all your work in plant genetics. It’s what drew him to the genetics field.”
“That makes me sound so very old,” she says laughing.
Kai’s face turns red. “I’m sorry, that’s not how I meant it.”
“I’m teasing you,” she waves her hand as if erasing something in the air.
“I didn’t know that either. Is that why you’ve had us doing experiments in class?” I ask.
She nods, her eyes sparkling. “Yes, that’s where science and marketing meet. We get paid to try out ideas from corporations and private parties who need a controlled environment. And in return they pay for the upkeep of this wonderful place.”
I twist a loose hair around a finger as I think about that. “What we need to do, then, is figure out how we can monetize our spaceship drones. But there are already drones being used for all sorts of things on Earth.”
“But these ones are made for going off Earth, correct?”
I nod slowly. She’s been here long enough; she knows exactly what the projects entail. There’s something there that she wants me to discover. I stare at the lily pads she just released into the water and listen to the birds hidden in the trees call to each other.
“Space drones,” I say slowly. “There’s got to be some use for small spaceships to leave Earth, but also have a reason to stay in space.” I look at Kai and Philip.
Philip’s face lights up. “Recycling. Our small ships can filter the debris left at the lower atmospheric levels.”
&nb
sp; “Can we add a payload area to capture that?” Kai looks between us.
I nod vigorously. “Yes. Some of the projects left from other classes were large and clunky. With new, lighter alloys, we could make the same size ship, but hollow them out for whatever size payload is needed.” I turn to Philip. “Do you know how many square feet of debris our size spaceship could clean and bring into its storage?”
“I could calculate it. In the lower atmosphere levels, there are super tiny particles. I think our ships could possibly make a full round of Earth before getting full of space junk.”
“And how does that help us?” asks Kai. “Not that it isn’t a good idea, but we have to justify it if we’re going to market it, right?”
I nod. “Yes.” I grin. “The recyclers are paying good money to help clean up the different atmosphere levels. We could research how much one payload would get at one of the space recyclers and how much it’ll cost to make and launch.”
Philip is already doing calculations on his tablet.
“And we’d also be doing humanity a great service. Earth’s pollution levels keep rising each year. Cleaning the different levels of atmospheres would not only make us a bit of money, but we’d be contributing to the future clean environment. Especially if we could talk all the academies into doing this.”
“Sounds like you have a great idea to present. I’ve got to get back to my experiments, now.” She winks at me. “See you Monday morning.”
Kai and I settle onto a bench opposite Philip.
I wait until he pauses in his calculations and looks up.
“Could this work?” I ask him.
He grins. “Even if we just launch our projects once, we could get enough at a recycler down here to pay for the cost of each project. If we made them so they could be reused and stay in space longer, they could dock at a recycle ship numerous times. And they pay even better up there.”
“By “we” you mean the academy would get paid, right? Because it’s a school project and they’re paying for it.” Kai looks between Philip and me.
I clap him in the shoulder. “Exactly. That’s the way we need to market it. The academy not only is teaching us how to work as a team and build drone spaceships, but they’ll get money back for the ones that are successful enough to make it around the Earth. And the academy will get carbon credits as well.”
Earthlight Space Academy Boxset Page 36