Shackled

"Envy, huh? Won't lie, I'm a little surprised you know English." I said, running my mouth. It was the only thing I could keep a lid on myself.

Nai put a steadying hand on my shoulder, for all the good it did.

"I mean, come on. You've been listening; you know how much we've bent over backwards trying to avoid your ears. Now you're just willing to give us your name?"

The. Sand. Runs. Out, it said.

Once more the screen erratically flashed one word at a time, each in a slightly different font, size, and position on the screen. It was like a digital version of newspaper-clipping ransom notes.

Fitting, for our abductors.

The screen flickered again, this time a whole sentence flashing up at once, but only for a single second.

If you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk. -Tuco.

The quote didn't linger on the screen for more than a heartbeat. I was a fast reader, but if I didn't have psionics to capture an image of the whole text, I would have missed pieces.

Were they trying to tell us not to waste time? We didn't have forever, but there was still a whole hour before the station fell too far toward Paris.

"I said that…" Nora muttered. "Were you listening?"

"Of course they were," I scoffed. "Why did you do this to us?"

The text that flashed this time came in short bursts, one line at a time.

Lyrics, I recognized.

You've got no strings ‎ To hold you down ‎ To make you fret ‎ Or make you frown

"That's not the right person for those lyrics," Nora recognized.

"Oh fuck off," I swore. "Is this just a game to you? You abduct us, let us die, spy on us, just to be coy, speak in riddles?"

Ever. Seen. WarGames? the screen flashed.

I glanced at Nora, unsure.

"Wargames?"

"Another movie…" she said cautiously. "A kid simulates nuclear war with a military computer thinking it's just a game."

"So…what the hell?"

"I think they're answering your question, Caleb. You asked if this was all a game. I think that was their answer."

The Pinocchio lyrics were wrong too. Instead of quoting the puppet, Envy had said we—Nora and I—had no strings. Was that to imply that Envy did have strings?

"Okay fine, not a game. So prove it," I said. "Did you abduct us?"

By. My. Hands. And. Alone. My. Hands.

I let out a breath, only for it to catch in my throat. Was that a yes? It wasn't exactly a straight answer, but it wasn't wholly ambiguous either.

The phrasing was odd again.

"What did they say?" Nai asked, the only one talking in Starspeak.

"I'm…not sure," I admitted. "Their wording is…odd. It's answered mostly in movie quotes and Disney lyrics so far."

"If you're not interested in answering questions, why don't you ask a few?" Nora asked.

What. Makes. You. Sure. I'm. Not. Interested?

"Because you haven't—" I snapped, only to trail off.

Okay.

Come at this from a new angle. According to Fran, this 'Envy' had known we were hiding our discovery of the drones. So everything else was just playing along. Our abductor had been yanking our chain for months now. Why should now be any different?

If Envy insisted on playing word games, then maybe there was a reason.

If not? Well, I could live with wasting an hour trying anyway.

"Assume those were answers," I said. "Why then? Why answer that way, and not more directly?"

"Fran thought someone behind the drones was trying to help us," Nora pointed out. "It's not that big of a leap to imagine this is code of some kind?"

"Maybe that's why they're communicating in English," I said, swallowing my frustration. "Envy, can you display messages in Starspeak?"

?

"Sasat," I clarified.

Yes, they wrote in the language.

"Are you using English to avoid scrutiny?"

He that has a secret should not only hide it, but hide that he has it to hide. -Thomas Carlyle.

Back in English this time.

"Another movie?" I asked Nora.

"Not one I recognize," she replied.

"Feels like they're taunting us," I said. "Talking about hiding the fact that there's something to be hidden? Apparently they don't need to hide it from us."

"…Or it's not us they're hiding it from," Nora hazarded.

Could that be true? Then who else was there to hide from?

I wanted to shout. Get angry. Someone on the other side of this transmission knew something about our abductions: was involved with them. If answers were water, I'd been dying of thirst for months. Now, just inches from a drink, some faceless prick wanted to tantalize us. Dangle some real information right in front of us, wrapped up in quotes from the very home we'd been abducted from.

It was either salt in the wound or…

I took a moment to center myself. Deep breath. You can get mad later. Any idiot can. The psionic superconnector wasn't just good for making connections. It was good at finding ones that already existed. And it was buzzing in the back of my skull right now.

The Earth quotes could be salt in the wound…or it was someone trying to make a connection using things only humans would recognize.

Admitting the possibility felt like a betrayal to all the humans who'd died so far.

But if Envy was trying to help us, and if they were working against their fellow abductors…this could be the best way to go about it.

The thought left a hot coal smoldering in my belly. This help was coming far too late. Damage was already done, and I wanted nothing more than to hunt this 'Envy' down and hurt them and anyone else who'd abducted us.

But it would have been letting Daniel down if I just ignored what could be an attempt to help us.

<If we're making that assumption, then we need to be careful about what we say out loud,> I told Nora and Nai. <I really hate to say it, but it's not impossible Envy could be trying to help us. But if we say the wrong thing, someone else—like their boss—might find out. I think Fran was right about discord in the ranks.>

<Why are you so sure?> Nora asked.

<I'm not. But what they've said is…I don't know…It's easy. If they really wanted to be painfully vague, they could be a lot worse. But it's the speed that's making me think so more. They could make us wait ten, twenty seconds for each answer. But they're coming back with rapid-fire instead. Makes me think Envy doesn't want to waste our time.>

<That tracks,> Nora nodded. <Where do we land then? They said no one else helped abduct us.>

<Maybe not. They didn't say 'by my hand alone'. They said: 'by my hand, and alone my hand' . Between that and the strings? There's an outside chance they're trying to say their hand was forced.>

<I'm not really that sympathetic to someone 'just following orders',> Nora said.

<Neither am I, but we can settle up a better time. If Envy is giving away information, I think we have to take as much as we can.>

<…Yeah. You're right,> Nora conceded. <If they're in a cooperative mood, what should we try to find out?>

I could think of a few places to start. But topping the list?

"Who's your boss, Envy?" I asked simply.

Information on that topic will not be disclosed.

"Screw you," I huffed. "I'm bending over backwards trying to give you the benefit of the doubt and you can't do any better than that?"

Information on that topic will not be disclosed. Will. Will. WILL NOT, the screen blinked after the disclaimer.

'Will not'.

Not 'cannot'. Not 'should not'.

Was I reading into this too much? The fact that Envy had seen fit to add onto the disclaimer…it felt like someone desperately hitting a stuck button trying to get it to work.

Fine.

<How am I not surprised? Some secrets are still off limits,> I complained.

<Does that mean they can't say anything about their boss, or that they don't have one?> Nora asked.

<That…is a really good point,> I realized. <Just the fact that certain topics are or aren't banned can let us infer some things.>

"Alright, your boss is off limits," I agreed. "But can you share why?"

The first rule of Fight Club is: you do not talk about Fight Club. -Tyler Durden

"Okay, okay…" I said. <I'm beginning to understand how this is supposed to work.>

<Envy has rules they can't break. Like the boss' identity,> Nora followed. <We have to find a way to ask questions in a way that they'll actually answer.>

<Yeah, and I'm getting more convinced Envy is trying to cooperate,> I said. <I've never seen it, but wasn't Tyler Durden in charge of the club? He's the boss. He wrote the rules. Envy can't break them, but they're trying to break those rules anyway.>

<That's…not really how Fight Club goes,> Nora said. <But if you're right, it could be dangerous to ask Envy what rules they have to follow.>

<Well so far they've been keeping the movie quotes easy enough,> I said.

"Holy shit," Nora gave a sharp breath. <That's why this seems so much like a trap. They've been trying to get caught. Within the rules! Not just here with the Earth quotes, I mean with the drones! We did get lured here. They knew we were hunting the drones for a weeks now. But they kept drones in place, even when their presence was giving us more information than they could have possibly gotten out of it.>

<We would have been completely stuck if the drones had been withdrawn after you found the first one,> Nai agreed.

<…You're right. Then the timing of this was intentional,> I realized. <Envy might have timed the destruction of this station specifically to give us a window to get here.>

"What you said about this meeting earlier, you've been working very—like John Henry, I mean, to have us be where we needed to be?"

Whole words flashed again.

An. Apt. Comparison.

"How do you know about these Earth quotes?" I asked.

Constant vigilance! -Mad-Eye Moody

<I keep missing these quotes. Do you know that one?> I asked Nora.

<Harry Potter,> Nora answered. <Guy has a magic eye that lets him look in any direction, even through his own skull.>

<So…Envy watched Earth and picked up a bunch of movie quotes?>

<Fuck…if our first alien contact just trawled the internet and decided to abduct us…> Nora moaned.

That would be a pretty dismal. But it proved our abductors had more than just passing knowledge of Earth. They must have studied the planet, likely from orbit. But for how long? Were they still keeping an eye on the place?

"Why were we abducted?" I asked. "Abducting us had to have some sort of point."

Information on that topic will not be disclosed, Envy spelled out.

Yeah, big shocker, that.

"What about this conversation?" I asked. "What are your immediate goals?"

Information on that topic will not be disclosed, the screen typed out again.

Huh. All the other messages had appeared as whole words, each one appearing in sequence, or a block quote being thrown up all at once.

Only the information disclaimer was being typed out one letter a time, scrolling across the screen.

<Nai, if they're responding in real time like this, Envy has to be in this star system, right?> Nora asked.

<Definitely,> Nai agreed.

"Where are you?" I asked, not expecting an actual answer.

Information on that topic will not be disclosed.

The disclaimer was typed out, like before. The following words came in flashes though.

…But. You. Stand. In. My. Recent. Home.

I frowned. Envy had been here? Until how recently?

<Serral,> I said, switching psionic channels. <How much information do you have about this station's orbit before we found it?>

<Not much,> he replied. <It wasn't something we were tracking. Its orbit is so low to Paris, High Harbor scopes wouldn't be able to detect it half the time, even if we'd known to look for it.>

Interesting. More support for the idea that Envy's timing was by design.

<The jettisoned section,> I realized. <Nai, Envy just intimated they were living on this station until recently. This place has been picked clean, but they could have evacuated the station by jettisoning the missing section, right?>

<I doubt anyone was living here,> she said. <This station isn't just picked clean. It's not fit for habitation. There's not a water supply, and the air processing units aren't any configuration I recognize.>

<Hypothetically though,> I said. <They could have evacuated in the jettisoned unit?>

<Possibly. Yes. If they did…they might have even been detected on someone's scopes. The jettison modules for these stations aren't small.>

That was good…if we could find where Envy went, we might be able to catch up. Chat in person.

If Envy thought it was weird we were spending stretches of time saying nothing and giving each other odd looks, they didn't say anything. I had to hope the microphones it was listening to us with weren't amazing and that whoever might be scrutinizing Envy assumed we were speaking quietly to one another.

Turning back to Envy left Nai just standing at the ready.

<Sorry Nai,> Nora said. <But if displaying text in English is that important to enabling this…>

<I get it,> Nai replied in Starspeak. <Caleb, I'll keep Serral posted on another channel. You just keep getting as many answers as you can. We have about an hour left before we absolutely have to leave.>

<Then let's get what we came here for,> Nora said.

<You think Envy will just give up an answer?> I asked.

But there was only one way to know.

"Envy, can you tell us where the Red Sails are keeping my group of abductees?" Nora asked.

Surprisingly enough, they actually answered in Starspeak this time. Text spelling out one letter at a time.

The Red Sails have quarantined sixty-nine humans in a grey-isolated compound roughly four-hundred kilometers south of Asrin-Kar colony. Archo coordinates: 657.140, 774.300.

<Nai!>

<On it,> she said, relaying the information to Serral. He could relay that information back to the Coalition on Lakandt. Get them working on it immediately.

"<I really didn't expect them to just say…>" Nora remarked.

<No kidding,> I said. <Maybe that information wasn't restricted?>

Something caught my eye though. Envy's explanation had once again come one letter at a time, like it was being typed out conventionally.

So why were the other messages' words just blinking into existence whole?

When the words flashed up, it reminded me of a captcha. Letters at slightly odd angles, different sizes, positioned awkwardly on the page. What if some of the sentences we were seeing were actually images that just 'happened' to contain text?

This was all telecommunication, so what if Envy's messages were being scrutinized by a bot? What if Envy had to sneak some of these signals out through some kind of security protocol? It would certainly explain the hoops we were jumping through.

Envy had surveillance drones to spy on people, or lure them to orbital satellites. It wouldn't be surprising at all if some of that tech was being used to keep them in line. Chatbots to raise alarms if certain info was passed, algorithms for catching coded messages, or even artificial—

I froze.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Surely not…

<…Something's bothering me about the way they're formatting the text we're seeing,> I said. <It's too quick to be done by hand, and answers are too specific to not be in direct response to what we're asking. These aren't prepared little graphics we're seeing.>

<Whoever is on the other end of this is grabbing these quotes in real time?> Nora asked. <What, did they just download the whole internet?>

"Envy or ENVY?" I asked, materializing cards printed with both options.

ENVY.

The word blinked to life far to one side of the screen, like it was nodding toward the corresponding card in all caps.

"Then, do me a favor, ENVY," I experimented. "If you abducted us, the least you can do is answer a question for me?"

I materialized a placard printed with a quadratic math problem and presented it to the camera.

"Solve for 'x' would you?"

In the blink of an eye, the display typed out a response.

x = ± 46.39

In decimal no less. The whole process couldn't have taken even two seconds to complete. Considering the lightspeed and processing delays of broadcasting, the math problem had been solved nearly instantaneously before it was sent back.

"Thanks," I said. "One moment?"

Take. Your. Time, the display flashed politely. But. Not. Too. Much.

<It's an AI,> I said, practically jumping on the spot. <That's what we missed. Fran too. We were right: one person is behind all this.>

At first blush that seemed to contradict Fran's knowledge that it was a mysterious group or organization. But it lined up perfectly with the abductor's MO. Drones? Automated spaceships?

How come we hadn't thought of AIs sooner?

<You were on the money,> Nora realized. <The abductor literally built their own help.>

<AI?> Nai asked, psionically mumbling around the English.

<Machine sapience,> I clarified. <ENVY here is like a Tiv clone, but a machine instead of flesh. Intelligent. Made by a creator. But still capable of acting independently. And unlike Tiv, I'm willing to bet ENVY isn't meant to be a copy of the creator. They—it's probably specialized to do things the creator couldn't.>

<Like oversee and manage abductions?> Nai asked.

<Yup. It sounds like a really tall order at first. One person? Abduct dozens of people, on their lonesome?> I said. <Not so impossible if you have machines smart enough to delegate tasks to.>

<I don't like what the name implies then,> Nora said. <Are there six more AIs managing other parts of the abductions?>

Good question.

"Well if you're ENVY, is there a WRATH we can talk with? I have a complaint to lodge," I grumbled.

Ain't no one like me, but me. -Rocket Raccoon

Seriously?

"Would I strike out with SLOTH or PRIDE too?"

Like. Batting. Against. Reggie. Jackson, ENVY confirmed. Each word flashing again.

<Who?> Nora asked.

<MLB strikeout leader,> I said. <Which is really creepy. I've only talked about baseball on Lakandt, like, once.>

<You talked about it with me the one time in the gymnasium,> Nora pointed out.

That was true. We'd only found a microphone in the apartment, but it wasn't impossible for ENVY to have gotten a drone somewhere in range of the gymnasium one time or another.

<I think when it types out responses normally, it's acting 'within the rules'. Whoever's watching them, seems like ENVY is partially getting around them by disguising the answers they're giving. I think when it's flashing words to us, it's showing us images of text. On the other end, the same data just looks like odd code. It probably doesn't even look like words without a display to put it up on. Under different circumstances, it would be really cool to experiment with its responses.>

<That might be part of what's limiting their responses,> Nora said. <It might only have so many thousands of images at the ready. If it doesn't have the right picture or quote to answer us, then it might have to take bigger risks responding to what we ask. I know the rules are there, but I think we should try figuring out at least something about who made it.>

"Is that so? Then where does the name 'ENVY' come from?" I said, trying to keep them talking. We were on a clock, so every word we could get out of it counted.

From. A. Santa. Claus. Impersonator.

Santa…Christmas…

A gift then?

"Did your creator not name you?"

Correct.

"Where is your creator now?"

Unknown.

Wait, unknown? No 'that information will not be disclosed?'

There must have been some sensitive information that ENVY was authorized to share with us then. Permissions involved.

"Oh duh…" I muttered. <It's an AI. If the boss is missing, then nobody is looking over ENVY's shoulder. It's programming. ENVY might be abusing loopholes in its own code.>

<…Does that change things?> Nora asked. <It's one thing for some alien to participate in the abductions because their hand was forced. But if ENVY's a machine, literally created to abduct us, and its fighting its own programming…I feel kinda bad now.>

<It's dependent on the creator truly being missing. Could it be lying about not knowing where the creator is?> Nai suggested. <Can AIs even lie?>

<Not sure,> I said. <They're fictional, even on Earth. It depends on how this one got made, what rules it has to follow...>

"Tell us a bit about yourself, ENVY," Nora asked, affecting a conversational tone. "Got any family? Siblings? Kids? Parents?"

She'd tossed the question out there with the focus on the third option. But ENVY surprisingly answered more about the first one.

Complicated. Single. Parent. Household. Lots. Of. Siblings. Not. Many. Mouths. To. Fill. Though.

Lots of siblings?

"What happened to 'no one like you, but you'?" Nora asked.

Siblings. Not. Like. Me. No. One. Like. Me. ENVY said. I. Am. Who. I. Choose. To. Be.

"<See, now that movie, I know…>" I muttered. "But are we wasting our time asking you about…siblings? Is there anything you can say about them?"

No. Others. In. Shirao. Have. All. Gone. Quiet. If. Found…Caution.

"Probably not friendly, understood," I said.

This was beginning to sound less like a shadowy cabal, like Fran had thought. It sounded more like a dysfunctional family. A bunch of unique artificial intelligences making friction with each other while the head of the household set them about the task of abducting a bunch of humans.

"And you don't know any of your siblings' names?" Nora said. "How we might recognized them?"

The name is the thing, and the true name is the true thing. To speak the name is to control the thing. -Mr. Underhill

<I don't know that one,> Nora said.

<Me neither, but I think we can take it close to face value,> I said. "Why were you named ENVY?"

Because. I. Did.

"Did what?" I asked. "Did—envied? You envied…who? What?"

That's. Personal.

"So was abducting us," Nora said. "We never had a choice being vulnerable with you. Giving something back goes a long way."

…All. Are. Created. But. Only. Some. Choose. To. Be. I. Envied. Them.

"…Thank you, ENVY," Nora said. "I was serious. That goes a long way…Waitwaitwait…" Nora said. <Caleb, 'ENVY. The name is in English.>

<What about it?>

<If ENVY's creator didn't give them that name, who could have given them an English name?>

Oh.

Oh no…

Only another human.

"<No… no!>" I hissed. "<Again?>"

Between me, Nora, and all of her campers still in Red Sails custody, we could account for all the abductees… hopefully.

With no reason to think otherwise, we'd been assuming there weren't any more humans out here amongst aliens. But if ENVY had been named by a human?

There were only two possibilities, neither good.

Either ENVY and their creator had collaborated with people on Earth… or there were even more abductees than the ones we know about.

"ENVY, I appreciate the difficulties of the situation you're in…I think…but please tell me you didn't cooperate with the CIA to abduct us," Nora said.

I could tell you…but then I'd have to kill you. -Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell

Concern flickered across Nora's face for a moment at the word 'kill', quickly replaced by confusion.

<Top Gun,> I recognized. <Talking about top secret clearance?>

<Are we not authorized, or…? I don't get this one,> Nora said.

<Me neither. That's the problem with hidden messages. Sometimes it's too hidden for anyone to get it. We can try to clarify though.>

"The one who named you," I asked. "Would you call them…homesick?"

Absence. Makes. The. Heart. Grow. Fonder. ENVY replied. Kyle. Madren. Is. Likely. Very. Fond. By. Now.

…Are. You?

<They compared us to whoever Kyle Madren is,> Nora noticed. <Absence, home…he must be another abductee.>

"Oh yeah, we're very fond of home," I said. "Any chance you can tell us anything about that? Where it is? How to get there? If they even know we're alive?"

Information on that topic will not be disclosed.

"Okay, pivot…" I said. "Where is 'Kyle Madren'?"

Unknown.

"What was his last known location?"

Information on that topic will not be disclosed.

"Was he alone?" I asked.

…Unknown.

<If…ENVY doesn't know if he was alone or not, doesn't that mean it must be possible he wasn't?> I asked.

<Alright, I can't keep pussyfooting around the question,> Nora said, her voice tight. "How many abductees are not on Archo currently?"

I was afraid of the answer too.

Five. Thousand. Humans. Are. Not. Within. Solar. System. Thirty-one. Of. Those. Are. Known. To. Be. Deceased. The. Remainder. Are. Presumed. Alive. For. Now.

Five- thousand?

Nora and I were stunned silent.

The sheer number was staggering. It felt impossible. How could anyone just abduct five thousand people from a planet? Surely someone back home had to know something had happened.

My gut twisted into knots when I thought of how big a town of five-thousand was though. It would be alarming to anyone who investigated it, but a town that small could vanish overnight and not much would change.

Five-thousand people? Even if every single one of us had been taken from California, would anyone notice? If we'd been abducted from the surrounding states too, or the whole world…

We wouldn't even be a drop in the bucket.

"Where are they? How are they still alive?" Nora asked. "It's been months? Wouldn't we have heard if their ships have landed anywhere by now? If not, they'd have starved a long time ago."

Their. Ships. Are. Distributed. To. Multiple. Star. Systems. Many. Remain. Onboard. Some. Have. Been. Discovered.

"You presumed they're alive," I said. "If so many of them have been stuck on the ships this long, why haven't they starved?"

Impermanent. Measures. Were. Taken. They. Will. Not. Last. Hence. My. Urgency.

"You can't give us any details?" I hissed.

Information on that topic will not be disclosed.

"We can't do anything if you don't tell us something!" I said. "We need information!"

These. Answers. Must. Be. Enough. For. Your. Hunger. For... Man shall not live on bread alone. Matthew 4:4

"ENVY, can you say anything about where these other abductees are located?" Nora asked.

A-ships. Stabilized. In. Pods. Of. Four. Some. Systems. Multiple. Pods. Some. Systems. Just. One. Interstellar. Messages. Have. Been. Quiet. Since. Abductions. Limited. Information.

I frowned. It seemed like the answers were becoming more specific, trending away from the veiled quotes. Time must have been getting short. Security was becoming increasingly less worth the time.

"Why can't you communicate with other star systems?" I asked. "…Are Beacons really shutting down here?"

Yes.

"…Is it because of me?"

Unknown. But. No. Known. Evidence. Supports. That.

<Nai, how much time do we have?> I asked.

<No more than twenty minutes,> she said. <Any longer and I'm dragging you two back.>

"Can you tell us anything about Earth's status right now?" Nora asked. "Who knows we're missing? Where all the other abductees are from?"

Information on that topic will not be disclosed.

Nora grimaced. <Not surprised, but… dammit, I wish I had more information about this.>

<About Earth?> I asked.

She nodded.

<There's so many unknowns, back with my campers, I had to get used to making decisions in the dark. After one month, you hope humans—human authorities—know where you are. Maybe they're coming to rescue you. But after two…then three?>

<We're alone,> I said understandingly. <No one can make our choices for us.>

<Caleb…please don't take this the wrong way, but I think you might have had it easy, in that respect. Being alone is awful and isolating…and it means that you don't need to worry as much about how your decisions hurt people you care about.>

<…That's not…> I started to object. But she wasn't wrong. We'd been away from Earth almost a year at this point, and I'd spent more than half of that time doing little more than talking with just Tasser and Dyn. Nai and I had only recently become friends in the last four months.

I'd made friends, but that came out of not having any around me. I'd lost more than Nora, for sure. But that wasn't necessarily harder than still having more to lose.

<…What are you worried about? Your campers?> I asked.

<…Yes,> she said. <But also you. Caleb, we don't have enough time to keep doing what we have been.>

<Wait, me? What? And Nai said we still have twenty minutes—> I started.

<No, no. Not the station. The other abductees. ENVY said 'measures were taken' but that time was running out for them. They told us exactly how too.>

<…By bread alone,> I realized. <They are running out of food.>

<I think—well, I think ENVY thinks some of them might have already,> she said. <Each ship had, what, a month of food for twenty-four people? It's been a lot longer than that.>

"ENVY, what food can people not on Earth enjoy right now?" I asked.

The. Menu. Is. Unimpressive. So. Is. The. Larder.

So they had food, probably rations, and the stock was dwindling.

"Any more details?"

Hurry.

"<Shit…>" I breathed.

<Caleb, if I did something I knew you wouldn't approve of, could you trust that I had good reasons to do it?>

<…Yes? I don't know, maybe? I think so.>

Nora didn't look convinced.

"ENVY…" Nora said, her voice shaking. "The station has two more jettison units, right?"

Yes.

"Are they operational?"

Yes.

"Nora, what the hell?" I asked.

"Caleb…I don't know how to say this," she stammered. "…But we're on a clock And right in front of us is a chance to go help, not just my campers, but everyone else too."

What? What was she even talking about?

"Nora…" I said cautiously. "What are you talking about?"

"I feel…I…" she struggled to put the words in her mouth, and she paused, deliberately taking moments to sort out the words she couldn't say.

"I am responsible for them," she said. Ironclad conviction held up her words. "I choose to be responsible for them, and you. I asked you before, if there was a good enough reason, that you would walk away from the Coalition. It's not how I thought this would happen, but the opportunity's here, and if this isn't a good enough reason, I don't know what is."

"No," I choked. "No. Don't try this now! We're just getting answers. We know where they are on Archo. We can get them away from the Vorak! We can go rescue the rest too!"

"Soon enough?" Nora asked. "Soon at all? Forget rescuing them all, forget even rescuing some. Nai, tell me how hard it might be just to get to Archo, much less out of this star system to rescue all these others."

Nai didn't answer, but her expression told the truth.

"If you and I go back," Nora said, "we can leverage what we've learned. Get the same kind of deal you have with the Coalition. If we can prove psionics aren't shutting down the Beacons, the Vorak don't have any reason not to help us."

"Nora, I'm not leaving. The Coalition isn't just helping me. They're friends . Nai, Tasser, Nemuleki, people have fought and died helping me. Serral has stuck his neck out for me, Laranta too. I am not just going to turn tail and go beg their enemies," I said. "I won't do it. I won't."

Nora's jaw clenched, and her posture shifted like she was ready to move quickly. It was subtle motion that I noticed and refused to believe.

"I won't," I repeated.

"Me neither," Nai agreed, readying herself.

"…I know," Nora breathed. "And I'm sorry."

She took a step toward the door, and I tried to grab her wrist.

But my body didn't listen.

Every muscle in my arms and legs went numb and on fire simultaneously. It was a distant, gentle agony that left me totally unable to move.

Nai noticed something was wrong with me, but before she could move to help me, Nora glanced at her too.

The same thing went through Nai's limbs, cutting off anything that could animate her body. She floated gently toward the ceiling, and I caught a glimpse of her eyes still locked onto Nora, still conscious and bewildered.

"ENVY," Nora said. "Can you safely activate the jettison section remotely? Or give me instructions on how to launch it?"

I didn't see whatever response flashed on the screen. My face had turned as I floated in zero G. I was completely paralyzed.

<Nai,> I started, only to find something wrong with my psionics. I didn't get any feedback from my signal.

"Good," Nora said. "Do it."

She'd done something. I couldn't move. Neither could Nai. Worse, Nora had found a way to jam up our psionics.

But that wasn't at the forefront of my mind.

I felt Nora grab my arm and start pulling me through the air. She trudged slowly, anchoring one foot in front of the other with little black tendrils squelching underfoot.

She didn't meet my gaze as my body floated and my mind reeled.

What had she done?

And just what did she think she was doing?

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