******************************
– Chapter 6 –
Mervyn met up with Loren and Tarun in the restaurant for dinner. Aurora sat by herself on the far side of the room, about as far away from her team-mates as she could get.
Tarun looked glum, ‘Bad news, guys, the Patriarch himself insists Aurora stays in our syndicate – apparently, he thinks it will be good for her, give her a good grounding. She volunteered to come to the Academy you know, so he’s not going to help her out.’
Mervyn felt the dark wings of despair stealing into his mind ‘Is he mad?’
‘Probably, but I can’t think of anyone better suited to bring her down from the ether than you two,’ Tarun said. ‘In fact, I’m sure you’ll bring her crashing to the ground in no time.’ He laughed at his own joke, but with an edge of hysteria fuelled by hopelessness. Aurora looked up when she heard the laughter.
‘De Monsero is beside himself with glee,’ Tarun continued. ‘He still intends to withhold the syndicate answers from us, but now he gets one over on Aurora as well, he hates her.’
'How do you know all this, Tarun?'
'Information is the currency of politics, Merv. I have contacts, my father has contacts, and our contacts have contacts. I've spent the entire afternoon trying to discover why Aurora is in our syndicate. I don't have a lot of favours left.'
'Surely the other houses won't let Aurora sink?'
'Who would you stand by, the niece of a weak and failing Patriarch, or the rich and powerful pretender?'
'So we're going to have to work anyway?' Loren said.
'Yep, right up until Aurora fails her end of year exams, then we're out. I told you, apartment twenty-five is jinxed,' Tarun sighed.
'Does Aurora have any idea?' Mervyn asked. He assumed the Patriarch's niece would have an intelligence network at least as good as Tarun's. He glanced over to where Aurora sat at a solitary table.
Tarun glanced in the same direction, 'None. She thinks it's going to be a breeze.' They stared ominously at each other.
'How much worse can it get?' Loren whispered. 'She's a nightmare already.'
'We could warn her,' Mervyn suggested.
'Threaten her,' Loren said.
Tarun shook his head, 'Do you think she would listen? The only person who can possibly make Aurora work is Aurora herself, and the chances of that happening are greater that me becoming Patriarch.'
Unseen, De Monsero had entered the restaurant with the rest of his syndicate; Hidraba, a mean looking girl called Isabel Slope, and a thin sullen lad called Malcolm Lazzard. De Monsero spotted the trio straight away.
'Ah, the misfits - I trust you find your new quarters to your liking,' De Monsero sneered. 'The VIP suite isn't it?' Hidraba laughed uproariously at De Monsero's joke.
'They're gonna call their syndicate 'No Room To Move',' Hidraba shrieked .
'How about the 'Teeny-Weenie-Twenty-fiver's ',' Slope offered.
'No, no, it'll be 'One Month Wonders',' Hidraba roared again, but an ice-cold voice from behind, cut short his amusement.
'Crawl back under your rock, Hidraba! They're with me.' Hidraba immediately backed off, bowing his head as he went. Aurora had crossed the room unnoticed in the commotion and now faced De Monsero. He stood his ground and squared up to the Patriarch's niece. A hush fell over the restaurant as every eye turned to watch.
'Ah, the fourth member of the crew. How are you settling in with your misfits?'
'They will do well enough,' Aurora replied.
'They're a liability, Aurora. Just make sure they don't bring you down with them.'
'You would like that, wouldn't you, Rufus - bring me down, bring my uncle down, become the next Patriarch?'
'Nothing would give me greater pleasure,' he said with a mock bow. 'Now, if you will excuse me I would like to eat,' Rufus turned his back on Aurora and sauntered away.
'Thank you, your Grace,' Tarun said.
'He is such a creep,' she said to no one in particular.
'I thought you didn't do friendship,' Mervyn said.
'I don't, Marvin, but for some bizarre reason it looks like I am stuck with you lot.'
'Mervyn. My name is Mervyn, and this is Loren.'
'Sorry, Marvin. Well I hope you are prepared for a fight, because my syndicate will not grovel to De Monsero,' she said in an unnecessarily loud voice, 'or that slime Hidraba.' The other diners suddenly took a keen interest in their meals as she glared round the restaurant. Without waiting for an answer she stalked off to her solitary table.
'I think she likes you, Marvin.' Loren ducked as Mervyn lunged at her.
Tarun ignored them and stared after Aurora, 'It ain't much guys, but it's a start.'
The rest of Mervyn's first week proved both exciting and confusing. Relations with Aurora deteriorated to the point where the common room became a no-go zone. Aurora claimed it for her own and drove out anyone attempting to use it, except for specially selected guests from other syndicates, the 'Girls' as she called them. There was one place where Mervyn felt very at home: the stardome become his private refuge. Maybe, the starscape above his head reminded him of Starlight, or maybe he just craved personal thinking space away from the bustle of the Academy. The magnificent room remained silent following the welcome ceremony, no one disturbed him. For Mervyn, it was the most exciting place on the whole ship. From there, he could see all the wonders of space for himself. He soon found that if he pinpointed a feature accurately enough, he could zoom in and superimpose all the normal viewer images onto the dome itself: micro waves, radio waves, gamma rays, x-rays and thermal imaging -- like a virtual telescope. Most of the time, though, he liked to just admire the beauty of the galaxy trough his own eyes. He spent an increasing amount of his spare time in the dome, particularly while chatting to his family and friends at home - everyone except his father, who still refused to speak to him.
'Listen to them,' Tarun said, nodding towards the common room, from where laughter and giggles abounded as Aurora entertained, 'The Girls. It's her own mini court,' Tarun explained. 'The daughters of minor families hoping to find favour. Though I fail to see what they can possibly gain through Aurora.' Tarun did not approve of 'The Girls' -- even though he was their darling.
The trio sheltered in Tarun's room from the latest court.
'But they're round here all the time, haven't they got somewhere else to go?' Loren complained. 'What do they talk about anyway?'
'Oh, the usual things: hair, make-up, clothes, the latest gossip, make-up, who they fancy, clothes.'
'Ah, all the things Loren doesn't have a clue about,' Mervyn said
Loren glared at him, but let it pass, 'And they talk about you too, Tarun, by all accounts. Though you're welcome to them, they haven't got a brain cell between them.'