Page 12 of Nova Academy

I enjoyed my charity work. Helping people was my main aspiration in life. I wasn’t anywhere close to the front of the line for Father’s throne and I was okay with that, but that didn’t mean I wanted to lounge about like a useless idiot like some of my brothers and sisters. I wanted to forge my own path to help improve other people’s lives. Ruling was out, so charity work it was.

Foryk’s large, steady presence moved behind me, a single oversized hand coming to rest on the small of my back. It was grounding, and I was grateful to my friend for his support. My heartrate slowed significantly, and I was finally able to process the scene in front of me.

The CWO had fallen again, buried under a pile of junk and wriggling to get free. Arty was quick to try to help, but it was going to take a little time to move some of the heavier items off of her to allow her escape. Reece, our most recent addition, was quick to follow Arty’s lead, helping to move things out of the way to free the clumsy woman. I wasn’t mad about him replacing the other guyafter the way he’d behaved, though. He gave off a more laid-back, easy vibe. Quiet so far, but there was a kindness in his eyes one didn’t often see in people from the upper echelons of society.

Foryk and I stayed back, unable to find a place to safely fit in the mess, so we kept our distance to avoid adding to the mayhem.

‘Four turns,’ his deep, gravelly voice muttered in my ear. ‘We only have to do this for four turns, and then we can eat.’

I snickered at his eagerness for food. And for this to job to be over. I didn’t blame him. He was a big guy and consumed more than anyone I had ever met. Tall and wide, his space for movement in here was restricted. There was probably not much he would be able to do to help, beyond a little heavy lifting here and there when required. I was just happy we weren’t going to be scrubbing anything. I wasn’t too fussed about the food since I never ate for pleasure, finding it in other, morestimulatingways.

We soon found a system that worked to minimise the accidents after a few more incidents occurred. Arty and Reece worked side-by-side organising a random pile, I stayed on hand, flitting between tasks wherever I was needed, and Foryk played bodyguard for CWO Brin. He had to frequently grab her by the straps of her overalls to prevent her from knocking over everything in her path. At one point he’d been too slow and ended up jumping in front of the avalanche to spare her being buried again. Luckily, he was broad and strong enough to withstand the barrage. We had to stop our current work to sort out that pile instead.

Four turns were over a lot quicker that I had anticipated. We welcomed the next team taking over our shift, giving them a rundown of how to proceed. One of them turned a startling shade of white as soon as he caught sight of the work that needed to be done. But they exchanged glances before rolling up their sleeves and digging in, giving us the chance to get out of there.

We followed Arty one deck higher to our room, where we took the opportunity to freshen up before the speaker alerted us to headback to the mess hall for the evening meal. Then it was a case of elbowing our way through the crowd of cadets all going in the same direction.

When we eventually made it to the mess hall Arty vaguely separated from us to eat his meal on the outskirts of our group, and it left a bad taste in my mouth. Our leader was acting like he wasn’t welcome in his own team and that settled heavily in my gut. I wanted to include him, to get to know him better, to start building a foundation for a friendship. Also, I had been raised with the knowledge that mealtimes were family time. It was a time for bonding and togetherness, and the way he was stripping that away from us didn’t sit well with me. I didn’t think it was personal, though. He was very obviously a reserved character and I understood pretty quickly that it would take some time and effort for him to open up to anyone here.

I wondered what would happen when Arty finally did open up enough to let us in. Would we see a completely different side to him that he kept hidden until we’d broken down those enormous walls? Or was what we saw exactly what we were going to get?

The mess hall soon filled up with both cadets and officers. They created a cacophony of noise from the scraping of utensils on the metal trays, to the chewing and gulping of food and drink, to the buzz of conversation, squashing any possibility of a real conversation. I could barely even hear Foryk or Reece and they were right beside me. I would just have to wait to strike up a conversation at the end of the day when we were alone in our room.

It was a completely different atmosphere from the previous meals we had eaten here, and that was when I realised the captain was nowhere to be seen. It clicked for me then that the tone was different because of his absence. Was he truly such a terror? I didn’t get the sense that he was a difficult person to be around so much as that he didn’t want to be saddled with a bunch of entitled newbies.

Arty rose with his empty tray, deposited it with the others readyto be cleaned, and made his way towards the wall by the exit to wait for us there. I didn’t take it personally, the way he left us. I was prepared to exercise my patience with him to earn his trust.

As I was sitting there eating my meal and minding my own business, I caught a hushed conversation from nearby. At the table behind mine sat a couple of officers I had yet to meet. They were using the surrounding natter to drown out their words, but clearly had overlooked the small gap between the tables that allowed me to eavesdrop.

I had to strain my ears to hear them, but I always did like a good bit of gossip.

‘I heard they shut it down,’ one officer retorted to whatever was said that I hadn’t caught.

‘They can’t shut down what they can’t find, and I intend to find it.’

‘Don’t be stupid. Why would you want to get involved in that?’

‘Why else? I want them to give me the implants. I heard they managed to create a device that heals you within seconds from any injury and stops illnesses before they can take root. And that’s just from one of theirlegalbranches, imagine what they’ve achieved at theillegalones.’

‘It’s illegal for a reason. They’re torturing people, turning them into monsters–’

The other guy scoffed loudly, interrupting his friend’s objections. ‘Whatever. Your source is just scared of what they don’t understand. The Program is going to change everything, and I don’t want to miss out on being on the right side when shit hits the fan. The entire Intergalactic Union will be ushered into a new age. Just you wait and see.’

The conversation was drowned out by another surge of noise, and I lost track of what they were saying. The parts I did manage to catch left me feeling cold and clammy. Something was happening within the IU that I hadn’t heard of, and it included hurting people.Why? In the name of science? An attempt at terrorism? A coup?

I needed to speak to my father about this.

But I wasn’t the only one to eavesdrop on them. Foryk had stiffened into a statue of muscle and spikes beside me, and Reece was breathing heavily on my other side, a look of unadulterated anger on his face. His pale white skin was turning a ruddy red, the pointed tips of his ears twitching with aggravation.

Whatever we had just learned, it wasn’t good.

‘Should we tell someone? The captain, maybe?’ Foryk whispered as much as he could under the overwhelming volume of the room.

‘Do you know what they were talking about, Bromm?’ asked Reece, his tone fierce with barely restrained fury.

I reared back at the accusation. ‘Why would I know anything about it?’

‘They were talking about it as if it were common knowledge among the military or the government,’ he retorted. ‘And no one is more connected to the government here than you.’

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