Children of the Void: Book One of the Aionian Saga (11 page)

He hadn’t noticed that Joseph was doing all he could to hide a smile. Gideon’s ears turned red as the other two burst out laughing.
 

“Ha ha. Why don’t you kick me while I’m down, Joe?”

Joseph doffed his armor. “Sorry, Gid. I couldn’t help it. Hey, are you guys going to be at the party tonight?”

“Of course,” said Takomi. “Why wouldn’t we be there?”

“Well, you two weren’t at the last one. I looked everywhere for you.” Joseph looked over his shoulder at the two of them as he put his suit in its locker. A sly smile crept over his face. “I didn’t realize you guys needed so much alone time.”

Takomi turned red, and she punched Joseph in the shoulder. She immediately cried out, clutching her hand. “Dammit, Joe, are you made of rock or what?”

Joseph straightened up and grinned down at her. He rapped his knuckles on the side of his head. “Only up here. But hey, that was your own fault. I can’t help it if you’re used to being wrapped up in Gideon’s doughy arms.”

A snort came out of Gideon’s nose as Takomi rolled her eyes and stormed out of the locker room.

Joseph chuckled as he finished packing away his suit. “Sorry about the jab about your arms, Gid, but I think Takomi was more offended than you were.”

Gideon was bright red but still snickering. “Don’t worry about it. The look on her face was worth it.”

As they walked out of the locker room together, Joseph leaned in close and took on a conspiratorial tone. “Seriously though, are you two a thing now or what?”

“Me and Takomi? No way. What makes you ask that?”

Joseph shrugged. “You two have always been close, but lately you’re always together. She definitely looks at you differently now.”

Gideon blinked. “Really? Like how?”

“You know, she just does. Ever since you two got detention or whatever.”

The official story was that Gideon and Takomi had spent the last several weeks greasing engine parts because of a practical joke they’d played on Commander Devereux.

“I think you’re imagining things, Joe.”

Joseph shrugged, and they walked on together toward the exit. Gideon didn’t say anything else, but he couldn’t help but wonder about what Joseph had said.

A skinny boy with jet-black hair sat apart from the other cadets in the conference room, and they went over and sat next to him.

“Hey, Raj,” said Joseph. “What happened to you? I didn’t see you in the simulation.”

Raj looked up at them with a scowl on his face. “My armor malfunctioned. I couldn’t even move. Connor had to hot-wire it to get me out.”

“What?” asked Gideon. “Sentinel Armor never malfunctions.”

Raj shrugged. Before they could press him further, the back door opened and Connor and Veronica Hallows stepped into the room. When the room quieted down, Veronica spoke.

“Unfortunately, something came up and I wasn’t able to watch your sim today. I’ll go over the recordings, and we’ll debrief tomorrow. That means I’ll have more time to analyze each and every one of your mistakes, so be prepared to be grilled about it. Until then, enjoy the party tonight. Dismissed.”

☥

By the time the party started, Gideon had forgotten all about the malfunctioning armor and the strange debrief. Since he’d missed the last party, he was determined to have a good time at this one.

The park was once again lined with white canopies and strings of lights. Dozens of holographic tables dotted the lawn, each one displaying information about Valkyrie that they’d gathered and analyzed since their flyby a month and a half ago. In the center of the park, a large hologram depicted the planet and its moons. The spinning globe was overlaid by real-time weather patterns, bringing the world to life.

Gideon spotted Takomi over by one of the displays, and he made his way toward her. He hadn’t talked to her since the simulation earlier that day, and was determined to ignore what Joseph had said and act normal around her. As he approached, however, his heart rate jumped.

She smiled as Gideon took a spot next to her at the display table. “Check this out, Gid. They’re already analyzing different sites to colonize.”

With a series of pinches and swipes, she manipulated the small holographic globe in front of her. Different spots were marked with yellow dots, all of which hugged the equator, far from the large ice caps at the poles.

“What do you think? Should we put the colony on the beach or in the mountains?”

Gideon shrugged. “We’re going to have two colonies, so we could do one of each.”

“Yeah, but where would you rather live? I want to live on a tropical island and spend all day at the beach.”

Gideon laughed. “I don’t think there’ll be a lot of time for lounging around. We’ve got a whole world to explore.”

“That’s true. I can’t wait.”

Gideon took a turn manipulating the hologram. Suddenly, someone pushed their way between the two of them. Gideon was about to say something to the rude newcomer when he saw it was Connor Hallows. The flight instructor placed a piece of paper on the table in front of them, then turned and left without ever making eye contact.
 

Gideon unfolded the paper, revealing a simple message.

Padre’s house. Soon as you can.
 

Gideon looked up at Takomi. “What do you think it means?”

She shrugged. “It must be something to do with... you know.”

Gideon nodded and stuffed the note into his pocket as they walked away from the table and made for the edge of the party. As they were leaving the ring of lights, Gideon looked up, and his eye met Joseph’s a few yards away, near one of the pavilions. Joseph smiled, then winked and raised his glass. This earned him an eye roll from Gideon as they left the light of the party and snuck away to the nearest autopod station.

Padre’s house was so small it was really more of a hut. It was the smallest house in the biosphere, and though the humble dwelling was made of rough-cut timber, the building and yard were lovingly maintained. They walked past rows of flowers and up the stone steps to the front door. No light shone through the small windows.

Takomi raised her hand to knock, but the door opened before she could. Inside the dark entryway, they could just make out the priest’s silhouette.

Padre poked a head out and looked past the two of them back the direction they’d come. He put a finger to his lips and tapped his bare wrist, then pointed to their wristcoms. Gideon and Takomi removed them and handed them to Padre, who waved them inside.

Gideon jumped as he turned a corner and ran into a huge figure. Vincent Uritumbo stood in the shadows as he peered through the windows at the street outside.
 

After placing the wristcoms in a large, insulated box, Padre finally spoke. “Sorry about all that. Something’s come up.”

“You should’ve warned us Vincent was right there,” said Takomi. “I about had a heart attack.”

Vincent smiled but didn’t take his eyes from the window. “It’s good for you.”

Padre motioned for them to sit down as he took his own seat around a circular wooden table. Even in the dim light, Gideon could tell the inside of the house matched the outside. Simple, clean, and unadorned.

“Connor’s here,” said Vincent before they’d settled in.

A moment later, Connor snaked through the door without a sound, then sat at the table next to Takomi.

“I’m fairly certain we weren’t followed.”

Padre nodded. “I wasn’t too worried about that. If someone did, they’d risk being spotted and compromising themselves. No, they’ll wait a little longer before they strike.”

Gideon flinched. “What are you talking about?”

Padre turned to him and Takomi. “The saboteur, or more likely, saboteurs, have struck again. More malicious code, this time infecting the Sentinel Armor. From the looks of it, the code lies dormant in the suit’s memory, waiting for an uploaded command to shut down the system, effectively locking the user inside.”

Gideon’s jaw dropped. “So that’s what happened to Raj today.”

“Exactly,” said Connor. “Sentinel Armor has redundant fail safes to keep it from malfunctioning. When Veronica and I saw Raj stuck in his armor, we were both shocked. After you cadets left, we took the armor to Commander Devereux, and he found a subtle code that caused the system to freeze up.”

“We were lucky that Raj’s armor froze when it did,” said Padre. “From what we can tell, the code is meant to hide within the software until someone sends a signal to shut it down. We think the saboteur planned on organizing a coup, then, when the opposition was all suited up and ready to defend themselves, they’d send the signal and basically turn the Sentinel Armor into a cage. If Raj’s suit hadn’t frozen prematurely, we would have only found out after it was too late.”

The implications of that made Gideon feel sick. “So what now?”

“The good news is we can erase the code and program defenses against future attacks. The bad news is it takes a long time. We have to do it one suit at a time, and we haven’t figured out a way to involve other engineers in the process without alerting them to the fact that there is a saboteur on board.”

“How long is it going to take?” asked Takomi.

Padre shrugged. “If we don’t get some help from outside the Order, we’re looking at one, possibly two months.”

“We’re putting together a list of engineers we think we can trust with the secret,” said Connor. “But even with a dozen programmers working with us, we’re still looking at several weeks of work.”

Gideon raised one eyebrow. “Well, that’s not too terrible. I mean, it’s not great, but it’s not the end of the world.”

Padre leaned forward and looked at each of them in turn. “We’re going to need your help with this. Can we count on you?”

Gideon nodded. He looked over at Takomi, and she did the same. “We know a little about programming,” she said. “If somebody shows us what to do first, we should be able to help.”

A bright smile flashed across Padre’s face. “That’s good, cause we’ve already made arrangements for you to move into CENTCOM. This way, you won’t get too bored.”

“Move into CENTCOM?” said Gideon. “What for?”

“A couple reasons. For starters, it will be easier for you to work from there, but mostly your parents want to keep you safe.”

Gideon scowled. “You realize my mom was killed in CENTCOM, right?”

Padre gave a slow nod. “You’re right, but the alternative is for you to be home alone half the time. We’re only just beginning to understand how dangerous our enemies are. We still have no idea who’s behind the explosion that killed Monica and Byron, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that we have several conspirators on our hands, perhaps dozens.”

Gideon’s eyebrows shot up. “What? How is that even possible?”

“It’s hard for us to admit we’ve been blind for so long, but we can’t deny it any longer. We have to be careful with who we trust. The conspirators could be all around us.”

“There’s a scarier possibility,” said Vincent from his post at the window. They all turned toward the sound of his rumbling voice.

Vincent didn’t look away from the darkness outside as he spoke. “The Order could have a traitor in its midst.”

E
VEN
AFTER
TWO
weeks of sleeping on a hard bunk in CENTCOM’s crew quarters, Gideon still couldn’t get comfortable. Typically, his grueling training in the morning followed by hours of Sentinel Armor debugging in the afternoon and evening was enough to wear him out, but tonight he tossed and turned until he couldn’t stand it anymore.

The clock next to his bunk read 0330 as his feet touched the cold metal floor. After a few seconds of searching for his slippers, he gave up and shuffled barefooted to the door. Despite his best efforts, the door screeched as he opened it enough to slide through. He didn’t bother to close it again, and he continued down the dim corridor.

Safety lights came on as he approached, then turned off again when he’d passed. Without thinking about it, he found himself walking toward the observation deck.

A three-meter thick security bulkhead on air bearings hissed open, and he walked through it and into the curved room. At a more decent hour, the empty tables and benches would have been packed with people, all staring out the wall of glass that took up one side of the room. It was the only place on the ship where one could look upon Valkyrie with their natural eyes, separated from the alien planet by a few centimeters of polymer glass and the empty vacuum of space.

Half the planet reflected the light of the system’s star, glowing blue and white, with splotches of brown and green. The few times Gideon had visited the observation deck, it had been crowded and noisy. But as he took a seat in front of the glass, the only sound was the low hum of the machinery deep within CENTCOM and Gideon’s own breathing.

“What are you thinking about?”

Gideon jumped, turning his head to see Takomi had snuck up on him. She stood in the doorway, illuminated by Valkyrie’s reflected light, making her look as mysterious as the unknown world outside the window.

“I guess I was wondering what it’s going to be like on Valkyrie.” He put his hand against the glass. “So you can’t sleep either, huh?”

Takomi nodded as she walked over and sat next to him. She leaned forward and rested her head in her hands with her elbows on her knees. Gideon looked down at her back, surprised to find that he had a strong urge to touch her. He sat on his hand instead.

“Do you ever get scared?” She spoke without looking up at him, and he caught a hint of fear in her voice. The urge to touch her, to comfort her, came back stronger than before.

“Scared of what?”

She shrugged. “Just scared in general. Everything’s going to change, Gid.”

“I thought you were talking about being scared of monsters and aliens.”

She elbowed him as she looked up and grinned. “Well, that too.”

“It’ll be a while before we have to worry about it,” he said. “They’re saying we’ll spend over a year in orbit before anyone goes down.”

Takomi nodded but didn’t say anything. They both stared for a while without speaking, mesmerized by the glow of Valkyrie. Before long, Gideon’s eyelids grew heavy, and he had a hard time keeping his head up.