"The second successful candidate is Miss Lina Laing from Hubble class, who achieved an average score of 9.2," Rachel continued, initiating an applause as Lina rushed over to join them.
There was a moment’s pause before she spoke again, the entire audience waiting on tenterhooks for her to reveal who the last person accepted onto the team would be.
"The third and final successful candidate is Mr. William James, from Galileo class, who, despite experiencing a minor hiccup at the end of the course, secured an average score of 8.9, impressing the team with his ability to regain control of his rocket."
Will's mouth fell open in disbelief. Unable to believe his ears, he looked over at his friends for confirmation that he wasn't hallucinating. Emily, Finley, Lois and Matina surrounded him, their faces euphoric as they burst into a deafening cheer, patting Will on the back and clapping their hands together furiously. His legs shaking, Will staggered over to Rachel to accept his stripes, taking them in the palm of his sweaty hands and attaching them to his spacesuit. He moved along the line of other racers, shaking each of their hands and beaming with an immeasurable gratitude that they had decided to vote him onto the team. When he reached Spencer, he hesitated, uncertain as to how he would respond to the offer of a handshake. Before he had a chance to decide, Spencer took his hand firmly and shook it, grinning at him sheepishly as he averted his eyes to the ground.
“Congratulations, Will,” he nodded.
“You too,” Will replied awkwardly. “I didn’t realise you liked racing.”
“Well, a lot has changed since we were friends I suppose,” Spencer shrugged.
“No hard feelings, then?” Will asked him, hoping their new shared interest would put all animosity between them to rest.
“No hard feelings,” Spencer agreed.
Before any more could be said on the subject, Rachel announced the end of the trials, causing the crowd of spectators to disperse, making their way slowly towards the exit. Will stood on his tiptoes, scanning the room for his friends with hopes to catch them on the way back to the dormitory. Before he had a chance to locate anyone, he was interrupted by Alasdair, who strolled over to where Spencer and Will stood, shooting a contemptuous glare in their direction.
“Well done, Spencer,” he said upon his arrival, his knuckles turning white as he gripped his helmet between his hands. “At least the Rocket Racing team has some taste.”
Will sighed loudly, preparing himself for the torrent of abuse that would surely follow Alasdair’s forced congratulations.
“What’s wrong with you, Will?” Alasdair asked. “You made the team. There’s nothing for you to be unhappy about.”
“I’m just waiting for your opinion Alasdair,” Will smiled thinly. “I’m sure you’re dying to give it to me.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Alasdair replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “You earnt your place fair and square. I’m sure the team voting you in has absolutely nothing to do with you being part of the ‘Famous Four’. I mean, that couldn’t possibly be the reason, could it? After all, your try-out went perfectly.”
Spencer bowed his head and dropped his gaze to the floor as Will’s face flushed red with humiliation. In one quick second, his greatest triumph had become a hollow victory, and he turned away from Alasdair, not wanting him to see the effect of his words.
At that moment, he was pulled into a bone-crushing hug by Matina, who seemed to have materialised from nowhere and was squealing incoherently in his ear. Finley, Lois and Emily arrived a few seconds later, admiring Will’s new stripes and praising him for his success.
"Let's celebrate!" Finley grinned. "Who’s up for Earth Wars?"
"Oh, actually Finley I've organised a little party for Will in my room," Matina interjected, grabbing Will by the arm. "I just knew he was going to make the team. You're all welcome to come of course," she added hastily, noting the look of anger on Emily's face.
“Why don’t we let Will decide what he wants to do,” Emily suggested, eyeing up Matina with disapproval.
“The party sounds good," Will nodded, his mind still distracted by Spencer’s words.
With a triumphant smile, Matina led the group out of Launch Bay and into the hallway beyond, weaving her way through the groups of mingling students with purpose. Will was stopped several times on their journey to the dorms, his peers offering him congratulatory handshakes and patting him on the back. He had almost reached the lift when his Student Planner dinged loudly, informing him that he had a new message from an anonymous sender. He stopped walking, frowning at the notification on his screen as the others walked on, oblivious to his sudden disappearance. Will hesitated for a moment, wondering if he was about to receive further abuse for his questionable appointment onto the Rocket Racing team. He tapped the device and opened the message, bracing himself for the worst as the words loaded onto the screen.
His blood ran cold as the message appeared, a chill shooting up his spine as he twisted around frantically, ensuring that he was, in fact, alone. The corridor around him was completely silent, with no sound to be heard at all, save for the fading voices of Will’s fellow students from somewhere in the distance. Swallowing hard, he looked down at the harrowing words flashing on his planner, re-reading them several times to confirm that he wasn’t mistaken.
“They are here,” the message stated, in bold, black lettering. “And they are watching you.”
9.
The Detective Team
Finley sat bolt upright in bed, sweat drenching through his cotton pyjamas as the room span sickeningly around his head. His hands trembling, he swung his legs onto the floor and placed his feet firmly on the ground, waiting for his heart rate to steady. A quick glance at his Personal Device told him that it was three o’clock in the morning. Knowing he had no chance of getting back to sleep, he stood up, dragging himself over to the drinks machine in the corner of his bedroom and selecting a hot chocolate, which appeared from a small hatch a few moments later. He picked the drink up, the warmth of the liquid spreading through the mug and into his hands, providing him with comfort. Rubbing his bleary eyes, he made his way over to the seat he had fashioned with cushions on top of his window ledge.
Staring out at the view of the school grounds, he slowly began to relax, all thoughts of the nightmare he had been trapped in a few minutes ago fading as he returned to reality. He had been having the same dream since the end of his first-year, the frightening images of him falling through the endless vacuum of Space haunting him on a nightly basis. Sometimes, he found if he slept for long enough, the dream would change, and he would look down at his arms and legs with horror, watching helplessly as they transformed into pale, slender limbs, his hands mutating into four razor-sharp claws before his eyes. Distracting himself from the thought, he began tapping on the interactive screen that had been fixed in front of his window, which at present was displaying the temperature, time and the Mayfly’s position in the current galaxy. He swiped through its features, discovering an option he had never seen before which allowed him to make queries about the planet Novum. He paused, trying to decide what to ask about the mysterious place he would one day call home.
“How long until we reach Novum?” he asked after some deliberation, curious to find out how many more years of his life he would be spending in Space.
“That information is classified,” the device replied in a cool, female voice.
Finley shrugged and looked back out at the grounds as he sipped his hot chocolate. He let out a yawn, his sleepy mind drifting absent-mindedly into a montage of the previous day’s events. His heart sank as he remembered the displeasing end to the evening he had naively hoped that sleep would allow him to forget.
The day had begun normally, with Finley, Emily, Lois and Will meeting in the hallway outside their rooms to make the journey down to breakfast together. However, the moment they had reached the Dining Hall and sat down at an empty table, Will suddenly announced that he had received an unsett
ling message after his Rocket Racing trials. Pulling out his Personal Device, he showed Finley the frightening words on the screen, the thought of such a sinister communication causing his stomach to churn with nausea.
“What does that mean?” he gulped. “Who’s watching you?”
“It’s probably just somebody trying to scare you,” Emily scowled. “I can think of a few people who would enjoy terrorising you with a message like that.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Will said, his face visibly relaxing. “It might have even have been Charlie trying to wind me up.”
“I’m not so sure,” Lois interjected, a guilty expression spreading across her face. “There’s something I haven’t told you. It’s about the night I had detention with Rudy.”
“Oh no,” Will replied. “Don’t tell me you made friends with him.”
“Of course not,” Lois said hastily. “I can’t stand him.”
“Well, what is it then?” Finley probed her.
“When we were on our way back to the dormitory, we heard a huge crash in the corridor. It turned out that one of those hanging quotes had come loose and fallen from the ceiling,” Lois explained.
“Thank the Universe you weren’t underneath it!” Emily exclaimed. “It could have killed you.”
“I wouldn’t have minded if it hit Rudy, though,” Will muttered.
“That’s not all, though,” Lois frowned. “When we went to look at the sign, we found that someone had graffitied it with the words, ‘our day is coming’.”
“Isn’t that the same thing the Society of the Enlightened said when they sent out that broadcast in the lobby?” Emily mused.
Finley’s cheeks reddened as he remembered the incident, the stress of which had caused him to faint embarrassingly in public. Noticing his obvious discomfort, Lois continued her story with haste.
“I think so,” she replied. “Whatever it means, it scared Miss Fortem. She arrived a few minutes later and warned us not to tell anyone about what we’d seen.”
“Maybe there’s a member of the Society here at the school?” Emily suggested. “That might explain who sent Will the message.”
“But why would the Society of the Enlightened be here?” Finley asked. “What would they want at The Space Academy?”
The four of them sat in silence for a few minutes, Finley’s question resonating loudly through their heads. If it was true, and the Society of the Enlightened were, in fact, hiding out at the school, the chances of them somehow becoming involved in the ensuing drama seemed uncomfortably high, particularly for Finley, who wished for nothing more than the continuation of normality.
With an unspoken agreement not to discuss the topic any further, Finley, Will, Emily and Lois left the Dining Hall, travelling through the main school building towards their Combat and Weaponry lesson, which they hoped would provide a sufficient distraction from their unsettling discussion. Much to his surprise, Finley found himself in high spirits during the class, which involved the opportunity to fight a variety of different robots, Mr. McGowan teaching the students the techniques he had learnt during the War against A.I. Every so often, Finley would catch his teacher’s eye, a glimmering of understanding flashing between them as they each remembered the conversation they had had at the Medic Ward. Though Mr. McGowan hadn’t acknowledged the discussion out loud, Finley sensed that he had been keeping a special eye on him since the start of the new school year, the thought of which comforted him greatly. When the lesson ended, he felt a familiar sensation of disappointment and dread, wishing he could stay in the presence of his favourite teacher for a longer period of time.
Begrudgingly, Finley made his way to Resources, which that year had been taking place in a simulated Jungle environment. Finley listened to the distant sounds of animals calling to each other as he strolled through the hot terrain with Will, Emily and Lois by his side. Their task for the lesson was to search for a viable source of food and return to Ms. Dido with samples, proving their ability to survive in the turbulent terrain. Despite his best efforts, Finley found it difficult to concentrate, his mind inadvertently drifting back to his earlier conversation with the other three. Try as he might, he couldn’t shake the fear that malevolent forces were at play at the school, and he found himself nervously glancing over his shoulder several times throughout the day.
By the time he had reached Civilisations class, which Miss Fortem still insisted on teaching despite her numerous other duties as Headmistress, he was completely despondent, struggling to keep his eyes open as the last lesson of the day dragged on. Whilst listening to Miss Fortem speak, however, he noticed her glancing in his direction several times, her words trailing off as she became distracted, losing focus on her teaching material. At the end of the class, she called Finley, Emily, Lois and Will to her desk, waiting for the room to empty before she spoke.
“I’m afraid I have a request to ask of you,” she sighed, once everyone else had gone. “I need your help.”
The words seemed to leave a sour taste in her mouth as she spoke them, and Finley wondered if she had ever asked anyone for help before in her life. The four of them stood spellbound, waiting to hear what the steely Headmistress required their assistance for. After taking a deep breath to compose herself, she spoke again.
“As you may be aware, there have been some strange events occurring at the school this term. So far, there has been an incidence of graffiti, which caused significant damage to one of the plaques in the main school building. We have also had reports of items going missing. Mr. Mayheim has informed me that one of his deactivated robots has been taken from the Tech Lab, and Mr. McGowan has also complained of some of his weapons going missing. As you can imagine, this is all very concerning, and it is paramount that I get to the bottom of whatever is going on before it escalates any further,” she grimaced, rubbing her temples.
“Are we in trouble?” Will panicked, “because I can assure you, Miss Fortem, none of us were involved in any of that.”
“No, you’re not in trouble” Miss Fortem sighed. “I know you don’t have anything to do with it. However, your involvement with the Admiral Allance scandal has led me to believe that you four might be able to find out who’s responsible.”
“What makes you think we’re capable of doing that?” Emily asked, her voice trembling as she challenged the Headmistress.
“You discovered what a school full of highly-trained adults never possibly imagined could be true. A race of aliens that deceived the most advanced security forces the Mayfly has to offer were exposed by you- a group of teenagers. After going through all of that, I don’t think it’s too ridiculous to assume that you’d be able to unravel a small amount of illicit student activity.”
“But how are we supposed to find out what’s going on?” Lois frowned. “Can’t you use the security cameras to catch the culprit?”
“There are blind spots in the camera system,” Miss Fortem replied. “Whoever’s behind all this is using them to get around the grounds undetected. The security bots haven’t been able to pick anything up either, which is why I suspect a human touch is required to get to the bottom of it. Since the activity seems to be happening at night, I’ve updated your privileges to allow you out after curfew.”
Will, Emily and Lois looked at each other with delight, which did not go unnoticed by Miss Fortem.
“I’m sure I don’t have to warn you that there will be severe consequences for abusing this freedom,” she warned them.
“Do we have a say in this?” Finley asked Miss Fortem bluntly.
“I’m sorry, I don’t understand the question,” she blinked.
“Do we have to take part in this?” Finley clarified. “Or can we opt out?”
“Well… there’s no obligation,” she replied uncertainly. “But it would reflect poorly on you if you chose not to protect the best interests of your school.”
Finley nodded, reading between the lines of her answer, his body boiling with resentment. He loa
thed the thought of being part of a special team, assigned with the task of investigating untoward activity on school grounds. He didn’t care to find out what secret liaisons were going on around them, nor did he wish to uncover any more terrible truths. The other three had unfortunately not taken his stance on the matter and were chattering excitedly amongst themselves about their new and exciting responsibility. Their eagerness to become part of Miss Fortem’s detective team kept them animated for the remainder of the afternoon, their enthusiastic babble on the topic lasting throughout the whole of dinner, leaving Finley to stare dejectedly at his plate, pushing his food around with his fork as he tried hard to drown them out.
For the first time since joining the school, he found himself wishing for the holidays and he longed for the security of his bedroom, hoping he would be able to hide there for the entirety of the Hallowed Eve period, shutting out the rest of the Mayfly and their unfair expectations of him. Sitting back on his chair, he had listened as Will, Emily and Lois made plans to go out that evening, using their fingers to plot an imaginary route across the grounds on the table’s surface. Noticing Finley’s silence, Will broke from the discussion, asking him if he was interested in joining them for their first investigation. Finley shook his head, faking a yawn and making up an excuse about being tired and promising he would join them on his next venture.
Back in the present, Finley continued to peer from his window, imagining Will, Emily and Lois out in the grounds, enjoying the thrill of being able to roam as they pleased after curfew. Despite having sought his solitude, he felt a strange sense of loneliness as he sat enveloped by the darkness of his room. Even his personal android, Bobby the robot, was on standby mode, his batteries recharging after a hard day’s work cleaning Finley’s bedroom.
With the prospect of sleep eluding him, Finley headed over to his desk, sitting on the comfortable white leather chair and turning on the large, touch screen in front of him. Upon logging into his personal account, a notification popped up, informing him that he had a new video message from his sister, Felicity. A warm smile spreading over his face, he hit the ‘play’ button, causing his sister’s image to appear in 3D before him.
The Secret Society Page 11