CHAPTER 015
With only one engine, and a misfiring hyperdrive, the schoolship was forced to limp along the safe and slow subspace lanes. This was fine because no one really knew where to go—other than to stay out of sight. Most everyone on board was either resting, studying, or just trying to have some fun. Elara was feeling stressed and had opted to spend a little time alone in her dorm room playing with Mister Floofyface. Like all the other kittens, Mister Floofyface had been returned to normal kitten size. But there was no way to change the kitten back from his monstrous form. Elara wasn’t bothered by it. And for the most part, Mister Floofyface acted just like any other cat. Only his claws were a lot sharper, and his fangs were a lot longer.
A sharp beeping noise interrupted Elara’s thoughts. “Come in!” she called out. The door to her room slid open. It was Beezle, and she had an unusual expression on her face.
Elara gently put the kitten down. “What is it now?” she asked. “You look worried.”
Beezle hesitated a moment and then stepped inside. The door slid closed behind her. “I was just hoping that it would be acceptable to you to have a difficult discussion.”
Elara raised an eyebrow. “About what?”
“I have concerns,” Beezle said. “I have concerns about you.”
“I’m fine. A few bruises, but—”
“That is not the manner in which I am concerned,” Beezle said, holding up a hand as she interrupted. “I do not know if you understand that there were some problems with you . . . from before.”
Elara’s brow furrowed. “What?” she asked, confused. “What did I do?”
“That you would ask suggests that I am right to be concerned,” Beezle said. “Before . . . when you were angry and not speaking with us. You were very difficult. And you were unkind.”
“But you were mind-controlled,” Elara countered. “All of you. I mean . . . I get it now. You guys didn’t want to listen to any warnings or anything. The teachers . . .”
“But we were not mind-controlled then,” Beezle argued. “Not at the start. We all remember our actions and words quite well, and those choices . . . they are unaltered.”
“But I was right!” Elara glared. “I tried to warn you, but none of you would listen—and look what happened! How many times did we almost die?!”
“What should we have done differently?” Beezle asked, calm where Elara was growing frustrated.
“Listened to me!” Elara shouted.
“And then you would have had us do . . . what?”
“Something!” Elara answered. “Anything!”
“But those are not answers. What specifically would you have had us do?”
“I don’t know! I don’t know specifically!”
“That is the problem,” Beezle answered. “We always believed you. But we did not know what to do, either. Which we did try to tell you. And you got mad at us for that—your friends.”
Beezle walked to the door, pressing the button on the side of the wall to open it.
“Elara . . . please understand,” she said as she stepped out of the room. “You can be right about something and still act poorly. I am sorry if this offends you. I just believe that it is important to . . . reflect on these things.”
The door closed behind her, leaving Elara alone.
Over the next few days, the tensions among the students grew worse and worse. A few of them were feeling that, though they had been mind-controlled, they had been safe. And even though Suue Damo’n didn’t agree with that notion, she made it clear that Elara was the worst possible choice to lead the students in their time of need.
“I’m just saying,” Suue argued, “that you clearly seem to attract all kinds of drama! Everyone knew it last year . . . and look how all that turned out. If it hadn’t been for all your crazy stuff, maybe we’d all still be happy and safe at STS!”
“All I wanted to do last year was learn about terraforming!” Elara snapped back. “It’s not my fault that the headmistress wanted to kill me!”
A flash of blue light interrupted the argument. “Hello!” said the still very broken headmistress hologram, with holographic cake in her arms. “You called and I have arrived! Let us celebrate!”
“Not you, Headmistress,” Elara struggled to explain. “I was talking about the other headmistress. From last year. Just . . . never mind.”
The hologram hissed at Elara and hurled the cake at the collected students. Which didn’t do anything because it was a hologram. With another flash, the AI and her holographic cake vanished.
“Look . . . ,” Elara tried to continue. “I don’t care who is in charge here. Sabik says the ship is almost ready to run . . . and we need to do something, right? What are our choices?!”
“Hold on . . . ,” Sabik interrupted, looking up from the eight-thousand-page ship’s manual. “I’m not a mechanic . . . I just, y’know . . . I like ships . . .”
Elara glared at him. “You said this one was almost ready to run!”
Sabik winced. “In the sense that it’s not on fire!”
“But . . . ,” Elara prompted, hoping for a win. “Pretty soon it will be . . .”
“Still super broken,” Sabik said, rubbing engine grease from his hands. “We can fly from one place to another. That’s about it.”
“All right . . . ,” Elara said, rubbing her hands together. “So what’s not working? What can we do to fix it so that next time we’re attacked—”
“Oh,” Sabik answered. “Oh, no way. If we get attacked again, we’re just little bits of space dust.”
“We need to be able to fight,” Elara snapped back, louder than she intended.
“Or negotiate! Or go home to our families! Whatever!” Suue countered, undeterred. “I can think of lots and lot of things we could do, and probably none of them will lead to our doom. Can you say the same thing?”
“Yes!” Elara shouted. “We can try to stop whatever it is that’s happening! That’s the only choice there is!”
“How is that the only choice?! We’re all kids, flying through space in a broken school! You’re talking about attacking the government?”
“A mind-controlling tyrant from the future is NOT the government!”
“It is if he’s in charge!”
Several kids murmured, and Elara felt the room slipping away from her. But before she could speak again, Beezle made a polite coughing sound, attempting to interrupt.
“I do not wish to cause further strife, but is it not of consequence that we are now considered enemies of the Affiliated Worlds?”
“What?” both girls asked in unison.
“Oh!” Beezle blushed. “It is my fault for forgetting you lack a networked hive mind. Since the mind-control machines have been disabled, I have once more been able to access the Arctuiaan OverMind. It is quite comforting to return to my people in this manner.”
“Beezle . . . ,” Elara said, sensing her friend was drifting from the point.
“Right!” Beezle said, refocusing. “Through the OverMind, I was able to access certain news sources. It seems that reports indicate that our class has gone mad with power and seized control of our ship, and we are now considered ‘highly dangerous criminals.’”
With that news, some of the students became visibly upset. A young Vereerian girl started crying, and one of the two Milos sat down and put his head between his knees. Suue just looked angrier and glared at Elara.
None of this is right, Elara thought to herself. This wasn’t how things were supposed to be. For the first time in two years, she really thought about how her crazy adventures—wanted or not—might affect the lives of people around her. She even realized what it must be like for Suue, who saw Elara as privileged with attention where others were so often overlooked.
Elara stepped into the middle of the room. “No . . . Listen,” she said. “Suue is right. In a lot of ways, this really is my fault.”
She held her hands up and stared at them. She could feel it . . . tingling right below the surface.
“Things happened last year. I didn’t want them to happen, but . . . they got out of control. And now . . .”
Her hands began to glow . . . just a little at first, but more and more with each word. Energy drifted off them like steam or smoke. All of the kids watched, even Suue, who had some foreknowledge of the strange power Elara had within herself.
“I’m who the Watchman wants. He wants to protect the galaxy from the Frils, and I . . . I’m somehow the key to all of that stuff. So . . . all of you can go home. No one will be looking for you. Not after they see what I can do.”
Elara held her hand forward, palm facing the deck of the ship. As the energy poured from Elara’s outstretched hand, metal and rubber gave way to a small patch of grass and flowers.
The entire room went silent for a minute, then everyone started shouting all at once.
“Hang on . . . ,” Sabik finally said, standing on the ship’s manual so he would be tall enough. “Everyone! HEY!”
Slowly the volume in the room dropped down.
“That . . . ,” Beezle said in a hushed tone, “is quite . . . unusual.”
“It’s . . . yeah,” Elara responded. “Something happened to me last year. I had to swallow one of Nebulina’s marbles, and the terraforming energy . . .” Elara sighed. “It really doesn’t matter. The point is, the Watchman knows that I know he’s a time traveler. So, I’m the one he wants. And . . . I think I can make everything better for all of you if I just give up. You know?”
Sabik raised a confused eyebrow. Several other students scratched their heads. Knot blinked, shaking her chin. “Wait,” the Grix said, confused. “Are you saying you’re going to turn yourself in? Just give up to this bad guy? The one who wants to control minds?”
Elara shrugged. “I mean . . . yeah. I guess I am. That way I can help all of you.”
Suue rolled her eyes. “That is just . . . now you’re, like, pouring dumb onto stupid.”
“Hey!” Knot said, standing up in defense of her friend. “Look . . . she’s right, honestly. But still! Be nice, Suue!”
“Why? She’s being dumb!” Suue countered, unfazed by the sight of the irritated Grix. “And you all know it! Like, what . . . ? Little miss martyr here is going to bounce on down to the bad guy’s house and wish all of this away?! Come on!”
Beezle looked at Elara with a shrug. “Our mean classmate speaks truth. Your idea is quite bad.”
Elara’s jaw dropped. “Oh, come on!” she said, unsure of what else to say.
Sabik stepped down from the manual, picking the book up with all four hands. “Look, you realize we all had our minds controlled, right? We’re all pretty deep in this.”
Suue stepped forward toward Elara, her chin thrust out aggressively. “See? Everyone gets it. Everyone but you! The point I was making is that we have, like, lots of choices we can make. And YOU only seem to want to make ones that focus on you! So, we’ll ignore you, and do things the proper way: with a vote! Let’s decide who gets to run things around here.”
And with that, Suue and most of the students filed out to put together a voting box. Sabik and Knot both looked at Elara, shrugged, and followed the rest of them.
Beezle smiled. “I have never voted before! This will be fun!” she said, and followed after Knot.
For a moment, Elara stood alone in the room, staring down at the patch of green she had willed into existence. Then she smiled and followed everyone else. Voting sounded pretty good, after all.