Nick James - The Pearl wars

I fight to keep my eyes open. It gets harder with each endless word that spills from Dembo’s mouth.

“Please open your textbooks to page 276,” she says.

I groan, lifting the heavy textbook from under my desk and halfheartedly flipping through the pages. It’s ridiculous. We never use textbooks, especially ones about “the use of predicate logic.” As far as I know, the Academy’s only got one set of books for each class, dragged out unceremoniously each Visitation Day.

Eva-a.k.a. traitor friend-sits to the side of me, diligently running her fingers through the pages of her textbook. She stops only to flash me quick, disapproving glances as if to say, “Can’t you just try, Jesse Fisher?”

After what Avery and I found out last night, I’m not sure I see the point in trying to be the perfect Skyship student.

Avery met me outside my room this morning, still mass apologetic for dragging me up into the vent. I told her I wasn’t mad. Not at her.

“Jesse.” Mrs. Dembo shifts her attention straight to me. “Care to start us off?”

I glance over to Eva’s book to see what page we’re on before looking up to Mrs. Dembo.

She frowns. “The text, Jesse. Read us a few paragraphs aloud.”

I nod through clenched teeth. We don’t usually do a lot of reading out loud here, especially in classes with this many people. With August sitting right behind me it’s just asking for trouble.

I labor through, clearing the first paragraph well enough, understanding next to nothing. But just as I’m starting to feel pretty confident, the words run together on the page. I stumble on the next sentence. August chuckles.

My vision blurs. I blink, shaking my head and trying again.

The words won’t come out.

Then something explodes inside my chest. Like, literally, explodes.

The jolt of pain stops me cold. I freeze, staring at the front of the room, eyes wide, mouth hanging open. Lightning bolts spread from my chest, coursing through my body with the force of an electric chair.

“Jesse?” Mrs. Dembo approaches me. “What’s the matter? Are you all right?”

I can’t speak. I close my eyes and focus on breathing. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.

I’ve gotta get out of here-escape the pain.

Inhale. Exhale.

I try to stand, but topple back onto my seat. The electricity turns mass cold, like I’ve been shot with a freeze ray.

“Jesse!” Mrs. Dembo rushes to my side, kneeling beside me. The room falls silent. Every last eye is focused on me.

I start to shake. So cold.

“Somebody call the medical staff,” Mrs. Dembo shouts. Eva bolts from her desk and runs to the door, ripping a communicator from the wall.

“Get it out,” I mutter, too quiet for anyone but Dembo to hear. There’s a polar icecap growing in my stomach. Before too long I’m gonna be frozen from the inside out.

She grabs my wrist. “Get what out? What’s happening, Jesse?”

I clutch my chest, mouth open.

Mrs. Dembo squeezes my arm. “Tell me what’s happening.”

I shake my head. Inhale. Exhale. All I can do is breathe and hope the pain goes away.

Then, relief. My arm goes limp in Dembo’s grip. As suddenly as it had started, the insanity snaps away. My body temperature stabilizes. The shaking stops.

Mrs. Dembo lets go and motions for Eva to put the communicator back. I sit up in my desk. The entire class crowds around me. Nobody says a word.

My breathing’s staggered. I keep my eyes peeled on the front of the room, wishing I could disappear.

“What was that about, Jesse?” Mrs. Dembo whispers.

I rub my chest, debating what to tell her. If I say what really happened she’ll tell Alkine, and who knows what he’ll do. So I lie.

“I’m fine,” I mumble. “I didn’t get much sleep last night.”

“You don’t look fine,” she responds. “I think we should send you to the infirmary.”

“No.” I meet her eyes, pleading. “No, I’m good.”

She sighs, clearly not buying it. She stares at me another moment before speaking. “Okay, here’s our deal, then. You stay here for now, but if you start feeling ill it’s straight to the medics. And I’m going to march you down there as soon as our visitors leave.”

“Fine,” I mutter. “Can I finish up the reading, then?”

She shoots me one final, disapproving glance and stands to motion for the rest of the class to get back to their books.

I continue the paragraph, making sure not to look at a single person in the room. Nobody pays attention to the words coming out of my mouth. I feel their eyes on me. I hear the whispers. I’m a walking canister of toxic waste. Even August Bergmann won’t dare hit me with a rubber band now.

Cassius’s sky taxi pulled into Horizon College’s docking bay, landing smoothly on the ground as the overhead seatbelt lights flickered off.

Cassius undid his belt, thankful that the trip had taken under an hour. Colin had managed to find a seat next to him and rattle off questions the entire way, concerning everything from life on Skyship Orion to Cassius’s views on the Unified Party. Cassius had supplied mostly single-word answers. Halfway through the journey, he wondered if Madame had secretly sent the boy up to test him. It certainly wasn’t beyond her.

Luckily the taxi’s cabin was reasonably spacious, and newer than it looked from outside. Cassius had taken the window seat so he could stare at the clouds while Colin blathered on. His mind raced from thought to thought, mostly regarding his meeting with Madame in the infirmary. The shiny black cube. Fisher could open it, she’d said. He had some sort of key. Why he’d have anything to do with it at all was beyond Cassius. And why hadn’t Madame mentioned the cube before? If it really belonged to his mother, then he had a right to know about it.

When the last of the onboard lights turned off, the driver shut down the power and moved down the ship’s walkway.

“All right, kids. In a moment I’m going to ask you to quietly file out using the side exits-two in the front and two at the back. There’ll be folks at the far end of the docking bay to meet you and let you know where to go next. I’ll be onboard waiting for departure, so if you need to leave anything behind, that’ll be all right.”

With that, he walked back to the driver’s seat and pushed the button to open the doors. Those nearest to the exits stood, stretched, and filtered off the ship.

Cassius waited a moment for the cabin to clear, allowing Colin a head start before leaving the ship himself. As he stepped into the docking bay, a shiver ran down his spine. This was it. No turning back now. He cleared his dry throat and took a deep breath, trying to keep his hands steady. He couldn’t let his anxiety show.

Once ready, he followed the group to the far side of the bay. It didn’t take long. Compared to Atlas and Polaris, the Academy was nothing.

At the arched entrance to the bottom level stood two adults. Mr. Sorenson and Ms. Gray, senior teachers who would be showing Cassius and the others around the Academy. Cassius wondered what they really did. If Madame’s intelligence was correct, he was looking at a pair of secret agents.

The teachers distributed a pair of pamphlets and went over the rules of the day: stay with your guide at all times, don’t get lost, don’t head into the students’ quarters. With any luck, they’d be taking him right to his target. Maybe things weren’t going to be so difficult after all.

Then they were split into two groups. Cassius ended up in Ms. Gray’s. Colin, thankfully, was put into the other group. That would make things easier.

Ms. Gray took a quick head count and Cassius’s group left the bay, traveling to the elevators. All the while, Cassius considered ways to separate himself. First he had to find Fisher, which meant playing along a little while longer.