Ayako put some butter in it.
***
The morning of the tryouts came. Each of the prospective team members from Red Squadron lined up at the appointed place, an outdoor hangar close to where Fintan and Ayako had had to repair the ship for their science project. Ayako had decided not to try out, Starball not being her thing. Fintan, Nizhoni and Zack all showed up.
“Run!” said Simon. “And don’t stop until I tell you to.”
A few began to protest, Zack included, but Nizhoni shut him up with an elbow to the ribs. Those that complained were kicked out of the team already, without a tryout.
“You can’t do that!” said one girl, angered almost to tears.
“I can and I have,” said Simon. “Now get out.”
So they ran. And ran. And then they ran some more.
“Good thing we got practice at your Kinaalda,” said Fintan to Nizhoni as she ran past him. “Hey, hang on!”
After almost thirty minutes of running, Simon finally stopped them. Most fell to the ground, exhausted and breathing heavily.
“Flying in a Starball match is physically demanding,” said Simon. “It’s not like playing a video game. If you want to play, you have to be at peak condition. Look at you! Most of you can barely breathe after a simple run. How do you expect to be able to play?”
Faces fell.
“Sit-ups!” said Simon. “Give me fifty!”
This time they all tried without protest. Most of them couldn’t handle it.
“Don’t worry this time,” said Simon. “Obedience is what I was looking for, and you all passed.”
He stopped, and then, voice dripping with sarcasm: “For now.”
Next he led them into the hangar. A number of saucers were waiting for them. “A few of you,” said Simon “have probably never flown a real saucer before. You think you can fly them in a game? Let’s put that little dream back where it belongs, right?”
He divided them into groups of two. “What you’ll do is very simple,” said Simon. “The two of you will fly against Red Two and Red Three. If you can last more than thirty seconds without getting zapped, you can stay in the trials. If you can’t then you don’t belong here. Got it? Oh and don’t worry, you can’t get hurt by the shots, it’s just a simple tagging.”
The first pair, a couple of third-years that Fintan had seen around the dorms got into their saucers and took off. They hovered over the hangar as Red Two and Red Three took off. As soon as they were in the air Red Two and Three started shooting, and the rookies were out in less than a second.
“Tsk. Tsk,” said Simon. “They had a chance at least to run, but they sat around and made themselves targets. Too dumb for the game.”
He stroked a red line through their names on his sheet. “Gone.”
Next up were Jo-Jo and Monica, a pair of French Canadian first years. Fintan didn’t really know them well, as they mostly kept to themselves. Red Two and Three’s saucers were still hovering over the hangar, and it was clear to Fintan that it was likely that they’d start shooting when the first years left the ground.
Fintan noticed them play a game of rock-paper-scissors before getting into their saucers. It was clear that they had a strategy planned out. This would be interesting to see. They started their saucers, but remained motionless on the ground, spinning.
Simon raised an eyebrow. What were they up to?
They kept spinning, but not moving. Red Two and Red Three were getting impatient and began to drop closer to the hangar before pulling away. Then, without warning, Jo-Jo’s saucer bolted straight at Red Two in a head-on collision course. Red Two barely dodged, but instead of escaping, Jo-Jo changed course to aim at Red Three. She also dodged, and Jo-Jo attempted to escape. They both attempted to follow before realizing that they’d been had. While distracted, Monica’s ship had slipped away and was heading for the far side of the dome and gathering speed. Jo-Jo was dodging like crazy, and it took several well-placed shots before the hunters got a hit.
Twenty-Five seconds. That was close. By now, Monica was at the far side of the city. There was no way that they would be able to catch her. She passed.
The next pair ran for their saucers and tried to escape while Red Two and Three were distracted. It didn’t work, and they were tagged before they got to a hundred feet. Two by two everyone else fell, except for a couple of lucky exceptions.
It came down to just Zack, Nizhoni and Fintan left. Simon was smiling. He was going to enjoy this.
“I’ll go by myself,” said Zack. “I can take them on easily.”
Simon raised an eyebrow and opened his hands towards the saucer.
“What’s he up to?” asked Nizhoni.
“Dunno,” said Fintan. “But I know it’s going to be good.”
Red Two and Three hovered above the hangar waiting for him. Two was close to the front entrance, and Three close to the back, covering his exits.
Zack started his ship spinning on the ground. He spun it faster, accelerating it.
“He’s going too fast,” said Nizhoni.
The ship was spinning so fast that it was humming now. The whole hanger seemed to be vibrating. Fintan’s ears began to hurt. Suddenly, Zack shot straight up, through the roof of the hanger, throwing a huge amount of debris upwards. The shards of wood from the hangar roof exploded into Reds Two and Three, knocking them off course. Red Two crashed into the ground at the front of the hangar, while Red Three got stuck momentarily. In the cloud of dust, Zack was nowhere to be seen.
“No!” said Fintan, looking up at the ‘sun.’ “That clever guy!”
In the glare of the sun he thought he could see a saucer darting around.
However, the thirty seconds expired before Red Three could gather himself up and chase Zack.
“He’s in,” said Simon, smiling.
With that it was Fintan and Nizhoni’s turn. Fintan had no idea how they could top what Zack had done, but Nizhoni strolled confidently into her saucer.
Her face came on his heads-up display. She was smiling.
“I have an idea,” she said.
As earlier, the two saucers were orbiting the hangar. Now they had three holes to cover, the front and back doors and the huge one Zack had left in the roof.
Nizhoni started her ship spinning. She hadn’t said a word, perhaps afraid that Red Two and Red Three had tapped into their communications. Instead of launching she gently angled her ship so that it was hovering about ten feet above the ground, but at a forty-five degree angle.
Red Two and Red Three weren’t dumb – they realized that she was getting ready to exit the hangar at an angle, so making her harder to hit, so they changed their orbits to get the best possible shot at her as she exited.
Then it dawned on Fintan what they were really up to. He hovered his ship and angled it in an identical way to how Nizhoni had done it. He then moved his ship so that he was at the opposite end of the hangar from her, and started to move upwards towards the hole in the roof.
They moved to intercept him, which meant that they were in range of an edge shot from Nizhoni.
She shot twice, in quick succession. Both were direct hits. Then she made a run for it through the hangar does as Fintan launched through the roof.
They were long gone before the others could react.
Simon’s voice came over their intercom. “Come back,” he said. “You passed.”
***
That night it was hard to get Zack to do anything but celebrate.
“I’m a Starball player!” he exclaimed. “And I’m only a first year! Woo Hoo!”
“So are Nizhoni and I,” said Fintan. “But we’re not quite so loud about it.”
“Party poopers,” said Zack. “This is huge. This is awesome! You hear me man? This is awesome!”
Fintan thought that Zack simply wasn’t going to sleep that night. Luckily it was Saturday so they could sleep in.
In the middle of the night, in the middle of a deep dreamless sleep
, Fintan began to hear a voice.
Fintan it said wake up.
It was quiet, almost whispering. He grunted, turned in the bed. Then he felt small hands on his shoulder, shaking him gently. Wake up.
He opened his eyes. Nizhoni was looking down on him out of the darkness.
“Nizhoni?” he whispered. “What are you doing here?”
“Wake up,” she said. “Get Zack up too. Hurry!”
Fintan looked at his clock. It was a little after 4 in the morning.
“What’s going on?” whispered Fintan.
“I’ll explain on the way,” she said.
Fintan clambered over to Zack’s side of the room and shook him. “Wake up, Zack!” said Fintan. “Something’s going on.”
“What?” said Zack. “Go away, I’m sleeping.”
“Come on,” said Fintan. “It’s important!”
“Oh wake up!” said Nizhoni, louder than she intended. Fintan shushed her.
“Nizhoni’s here?” said Zack. “Huh?”
“Just get up and follow me you idiots,” said Nizhoni. “Quickly!”
Fintan didn’t argue and quickly dressed. He grabbed the binoculars that Bob had given him while Zack dressed. They scurried out of the dorms to the common area. Ayako was waiting for them.
“You have to see this,” she said.
They left the dorms, but didn’t go to the train station. Instead they walked out, past the dome into the fields behind it. A service ladder led up the dome towards its roof. Ayako led them up towards the roof, and pointed at a scene near the center of the city, about a half mile from them.
The roof and observation platform were open and saucers were coming and going. Several larger ships were also landing.
“What’s that?” said Fintan. “What’s going on?”
“That’s the question, isn’t it?” said Ayako. “It’s been going on for over half an hour.”
Fintan took out his binoculars and focused on the scene. He watched a saucer land and a soldier get out of it. He was wearing reddish camouflage fatigues.
“Looks serious,” he said and handed the binoculars to Ayako.
Her eyes squinted as she looked through them. “It’s busy,” she said. “Whatever it is.”
Nizhoni took the binoculars. “I see a transport ship,” she said. “It’s landing.”
She paused for a moment. “Oh my God!” she said.
“What is it?” asked Fintan.
“Take a look.”
“I don’t need the binoculars to see what’s going on,” said Zack.
Fintan looked and could see some ambulances lining up near the transport.
“They’ve been in a war,” said Zack. “And they lost.”
Chapter 26. Puzzles
They returned to their rooms for a sleepless night. The following morning all were bleary-eyed at breakfast.
“Something is clearly happening,” said Zack.
“I wonder where we fit into it,” said Fintan. “Or indeed if we fit into it.”
“They are teaching us to fly saucers that are similar to the combat ones,” said Nizhoni. “Are we being trained to be soldiers in this war?”
“We don’t even know what this war is,” said Ayako. “There’s no point talking to the teachers about it. We’re on our own.”
“Not on our own,” said Fintan. “There are other students.”
“What are you suggesting?” asked Nizhoni.
“A conspiracy,” said Fintan. “A conspiracy of light. Let them assume we don’t know anything, but let’s reach out to the other students; some of them may have other pieces to the puzzle. Let’s all work together. Let’s not be ignorant recruits in a war we don’t know about.”
“Not a bad idea,” said Zack. “But who can we trust?”
“Most,” said Fintan. “We’ve got nothing to lose right now. Let’s just approach them carefully so we don’t look foolish. We can start with Raj and Heather.”
“Not just Red Squadron,” said Ayako. “We should reach out to the other squadrons too.”
“There’s an ideal opportunity,” said Zack. “The Starball games.”
“I know a Japanese boy in Yellow Squadron,” said Ayako. “They are our first game.”
“Conspiracy of light,” said Zack. “I like the sound of that. Let’s do it.”
He put his hand out, palm down in front of him. Ayako placed her hand on his, followed by Nizhoni. Then Fintan joined in. “Shine the light!” said Zack.
***
They were supposed to be concentrating on their schoolwork, but as with everyone else, it was hard for them to think about anything other than the upcoming Starball game against Yellow Squadron.
As expected, Simon was driving them hard, but his urgency appeared to be surprising even to the older kids who had been on his team for several years. “He’s really desperate to win this year,” said Melanie, a tall, dark haired New Yorker who was a fifth year, and had been on the team for three years. “He’s really driven.”
When pressed, nobody wanted to talk about it further than that.
The teachers were still teaching as usual, but it was getting harder to concentrate on lessons. One day, after a particularly boring Cosmic History lesson, Raj just threw his hands up in the air.
“I’m not coming back,” he said. “It’s boring and pointless!”
Heather tried to calm him down, but he couldn’t be appeased.
“I gave up my family to come here,” said Raj. “They told us that nobody fails, nobody drops out, so why bother working? What’s the point?”
“Good grades now will help us later,” said Heather. “They’ll help us choose what we specialize in.”
“Maybe that was true once upon a time,” said Raj “but look at the older kids. What are they doing? Do you see them following different careers? They are all either pilots or kids who want to be pilots. Is that all that is waiting for us in our future? Where are the scientists? Where are the researchers?”
He paused before continuing.
“Heck,” he said. “What about diplomats? Politicians? Artists? We’re supposed to be training to go to the stars, but what about when we meet someone when we get there? We’re training to be combat pilots! Doesn’t that tell you something about what they are expecting us to meet out there in space?”
His words rang true in the light of what Fintan had seen a few nights before.
“So to heck with classes,” said Raj. “If they want pilots, let’s quit the pretense and just be pilots.”
“We should talk,” said Zack. “But not here.”
“Before the Christmas break,” said Ayako. “We used to have Friday night study parties. We should continue them.”
“Haven’t you heard a word I said?” said Raj. “I’m done!”
“You aren’t listening,” said Ayako. “We should continue our Friday night study parties.”
Heather understood. “Good idea,” she said. “Raj and I will be there.”
He looked at her angrily, but she stared back, impassively.
Something passed between them and Raj looked downwards, nodded at Ayako, and he turned and wandered off. Heather followed him a short distance behind.
***
Friday came, the night before the first Starball game. It was easy for the Conspiracy of Light to meet up without being noticed, as parties were breaking out all over the dorms.
Raj entered, looked at Zack and Ayako. “So,” he said. “Let’s get down to business.”
They told him about the ‘Conspiracy of Light’ and welcomed him and Heather as the newest members. Sitting them down, they took turns explaining everything that they had discovered.
Fintan spoke passionately about his dreams. Nizhoni explained about her abduction and Ayako about the activities that they had seen a few nights before.
Heather and Raj looked to each other.
“I thought it was just us,” said Heather. “We didn’t want to talk to anybody else ab
out it, but something odd happened to us too.”
“What is that?” said Zack
“I am from Seattle,” said Heather. “Raj is from Mumbai, but we were recruited by the same person. A tall, thin white guy called-”
“Mister Smith,” said Fintan and Zack at the same time.
“So you were too,” she said.
“Not that unusual, he just gets around,” said Zack.
“Maybe,” she said. “But, think about the test. That’s a lot of equipment for the first part of the tests and a real and space-worthy saucer for the second part. Are you telling me that they have a setup for that in Seattle, another in Mumbai, another in Tokyo, another in Fresno, another in Dublin and another on the Navajo reservation?”
“You’re right,” said Ayako. “That doesn’t make sense.”
“That’s not all,” said Heather. “When we tried to discretely enquire with some of the others about where they came from, and how they were enrolled, their stories were different.”
“They were?” said Fintan.
“Yes. They didn’t say much, and we weren’t able to piece much of a story together, so we kept it to ourselves.”
“So Smith is recruiting some, and somebody else is recruiting some. That’s not a big deal, right?” said Zack. “I mean they must have a few recruiters?”
“True,” said Heather. “That’s what we thought too. What was different was that none of the others would even talk about their recruitment! They just completely shut up when we mentioned it. Until now, we thought that we were the only two Smith-recruits.”
“I only knew you were recruited with a flight test, when I saw you on the plane,” said Ayako to Fintan. “I just assumed that we were all recruited like that.”
“That’s odd too, right?” said Heather. “That Zack from California, you from Japan and Fintan from Ireland just happened to be on the same plane at the same time?”
“So what is your conclusion?” asked Nizhoni.
“I don’t have one,” said Heather. “If you think about the resources that Smith must have to be able to travel the world and cherry pick us, he must be military. Who else would be able to do it?”
“If he is,” said Raj. “Then surely he’s recruiting some people to be in the city that are the type that the military want.”
“And,” Heather continued. “He made an educated guess that we’d find each other.”