Chapter 10
‘Race you to the top,’ Mervyn shouted, swarming up the mound in the Stardome, his voice echoing in the huge empty space. He felt elated after their sledding lesson.
‘There before you,’ Loren called scrambling up the last few metres. The pair reached the top together, panting and laughing like small children, but Tarun beat them both..
‘I’m the Patriarch of the castle, I’m the Patriarch of the castle,’ Tarun taunted. ‘You two need to visit the gym a bit more.
Mervyn slumped onto the mound with the others. He resolved to practise in the swot pools more often and visit the gym -- not because he wanted to climb the mound faster, but because he desperately wanted to beat De Monsero in the Swot league. No, not just beat him, thrash him into the ground. To achieve that he would have to work-out and practise his moves.
Suddenly, Mervyn leaped to his feet, flung his arms wide and spun around, ‘Look,’ The mound rose higher than the surrounding walls so from the top they had an uninterrupted view of space. Academy One had returned to the Ethrigian system for a few days.
Tarun had seen it all before, ‘Why did you bring us up here, Merv?’
Below them the door opened and Aurora strode in.
‘What is she doing here?’ Loren hissed, as though Aurora had invaded her private sanctuary.
‘I invited her,’ Mervyn said. ‘We need a syndicate name, we need an identity, and we need it before the first syndicate results are posted.’
‘De Monsero has called his team The Raiders,’ Tarun offered.
‘Precisely,’ Aurora said cresting the mound and seating herself a little distance from the others. ‘And that is how we will forever remember them.’ She had a point, it was something to think about.
‘We could call ourselves The Racers,’ Tarun suggested, ‘we do all like racing.’
‘No, we will call ourselves The Patriarchs,’ Aurora declared. ‘It is the only possible name.’
The others recoiled at the name.
‘You can’t have the son of a traitor in a team called The Patriarchs,’ Mervyn said. ‘It would make you a laughing stock, Aurora.’
‘I’m not even an Ethrigan citizen,’ Loren reminded them.
‘What we need is something challenging and descriptive,’ Tarun said, ‘something not too political.’
‘What about ... The Misfits,’ Loren said.
‘That’s what De Monsero and Hidraba called us,’ Tarun said.
‘What could be more challenging than a successful team using his own term of derision?’
‘I like it,’ Mervyn said. ‘A constant reminder of our scorn for their corruption.’
‘Cool,’ Tarun said.
‘Absolutely not,’ Aurora snapped.. ‘It’s bad enough I have to put up with a syndicate of Outworlders, so there is no way I will be known as a misfit. People would laugh at me behind my back.’
‘It’s perfect,’ Mervyn said. ‘Why not?’
‘I am not a misfit. I am in my rightful place. And I do not want to be remembered as a misfit for the rest of my life.’
‘Ok, the Racers then,’ Loren said, ‘we can all live by that.’
‘No. ‘It is my team and I will not consider any other name – it’s Patriarchs or nothing.’
‘Your team,’ Loren yelled leaping to her feet, ‘since when has this been your team?’
‘Since I joined it,’ Aurora screamed, ‘I am the natural leader you know.’ She stormed off down the hill.
The restaurant that evening buzzed with lively chatter. Everyone related their tales of sledding mishaps, accompanied by much laughter, but Mervyn, Loren and Tarun were discussing their science lesson which had followed sledding. A lesson in which they had made their own star: an experiment which involved firing lasers at a spec of Helium3 trapped in a marble sized sphere of glass to produce superluminal (faster than light) and subluminal (slower than light) particles. Their science teacher was the impressive Professor Magenta Pike – impressive not just for her intellect, but for the range of hand and arm movements she employed to describe her experiments. In fact, Magenta Pike was unable to describe anything in words alone. Her efforts to visualise her concepts for her students became a source of much amusement.
‘Shame,’ Tarun said, ‘I’ve got twenty-six separate hand movements, that’s one more than you, Merv.’
‘No way! Let me see,’ Mervyn said. ‘You’ve cheated,’ Mervyn continued. ‘Waiving arm aimlessly at an imaginary diagram,’ and ‘Waiving arm aimlessly at student,’ are the same movement. She made them both in the same sentence. That means we’re even.’
Loren sighed heavily and propped her head on her hand, ‘We made a star today guys, a living, fusion reacting star. Don’t either of you want to talk about that.’
‘No,’ they said in unison and returned to their notes.
‘Still here, Human?’ De Monsero had crept up unseen. ‘Can’t find your way home? At least I know where I belong.’
Mervyn felt fury boiling in his chest, lately, just seeing De Monsero induced this feeling. He knew De Monsero was deliberately goading him, but could not remain silent, ‘My home is Starlight and I’m proud of it,’ he declared jumping to his feet.
‘Me too,’ Loren shouldered in beside Mervyn.
‘Starlight?’ De Monsero scoffed, ‘You think a has-been Helium3 mine ...’
‘– No Rufus, be careful,’ Hidraba interrupted. De Monsero glared at Hidraba.
‘You’re the has-been, De Monsero, you and your trumped up family’ Mervyn snarled. He couldn’t help himself whatever he might say about his own home and family he would defend them down to the dark-matter against the likes of De Monsero.
De Monsero turned back furiously, ‘At least I have a home, Bright. And my family’ll still be alive tomorrow. Whereas yours ...’
Hidraba lunged at De Monsero and tried to haul him away, ‘No, Rufus, not that ...,’ he whined, ‘... Not the midnight thing. ..you’ll ruin everything.’ The fury seemed to pass and De Monsero turned away, as aloof as ever.
‘What was that about?’ Loren asked.
‘Who cares,’ Mervyn said surly.
Tarun, though, looked worried, ‘I don’t like it, I don’t like it one bit. Something is up -- I can feel it in my chima. What in quark’s name is going to happen at midnight.’
‘Well we’re not going to find out standing around here,’ Loren said. ‘I say we get some sleep and see what tomorrow brings.’