Chapter 18
Aurora’s head snapped up and she tossed her hair defiantly, ‘The team... My team, are called The Misfits.’ The class gasped. Spoken in this charged atmosphere, the name sounded like a challenge. Some held hands over their mouths in surprise, others just let their jaws hang slack in shock. Loren clenched her fist under the table in a sign of victory. Mervyn didn’t know whether to be shocked or elated, he found himself grinning at either possibility.
‘I’m not quite sure I caught that,’ Gant said, frowning suspiciously at Aurora.
‘The Misfits,’ Aurora repeated firmly.
‘You said it,’ muttered a voice from the back, it sounded like Hidraba. This produced a burst of sniggers from the Raiders and nervous giggles from the rest of the class.
‘Quiet class,’ Gant snapped, she looked flustered. ‘Very well, The Misfits have scored eighty-nine per cent.’ Instantly, the class fell silent again – another shock. The grin on Mervyn’s face spread even wider, it seemed De Monsero had nothing to say.
Aurora looked as surprised as everyone else. It was a brilliant score considering every other team had known the answers. But it was still nine points less than the worst and that meant humiliation for Aurora.
Gant seemed unimpressed, ‘Professor Pike will set the next syndicate challenge.’
Aurora’s face remained impassive until the end of the lesson. Then, from her position close to the door, she slipped out first before the rest of the class. The remaining Misfits had to queue to get out. Most students pushed past without speaking or looking, but not De Monsero who had finally thought of something to say.
‘How does it feel to be bottom of the class, Bright? The proper place for an Outworlder.’
‘For a misfit,’ Hidraba chipped in.
‘Just ignore them,’ Jenny whispered at Mervyn’s elbow. ‘They’re just annoyed Aurora got away. Maurice and I wanted to give you the results, but the rest of our team wouldn’t let us. I think De Monsero threatened them.’ At least someone showed sympathy.
‘Well done,’ Maurice muttered, looking around nervously, ‘Great score – considering.’
As the trio headed back to apartment twenty-five, they heard De Monsero calling after them, ‘Hard-luck cousin. That’s what happens when you back losers.’
Amazingly, they found some of ‘The Girls’ waiting back at the apartment -- they had let themselves in. If they thought they could still ingratiate themselves with Aurora, now the deed was done, they were wrong and they soon realised their mistake.
Aurora suddenly burst through the door, she froze, and just stared, ‘Please leave,’ she said quietly, but her chima burned blood red. Mervyn could feel the suppressed rage in her voice and backed out of the way. The ‘Girls’ just stared back.
Sinita made a move towards Aurora. ‘No hard feelings... huh?’
‘GET OUT!’ Aurora screamed. The hangers-on didn’t need telling twice, and as one they bolted for the door. ‘AND DON’T COME BACK!’ she screamed charging down the corridor after them. ‘EVER.’
After clearing out the ‘Girls’, Aurora did not return for the rest of the afternoon. Nor did she show for dinner.
‘Let her be,’ Mervyn said, ‘she just needs some space, wouldn’t you?’
When suppertime arrived her team-mates started a search.
‘She’s in a simulator,’ Mervyn informed his friends when he eventually found her, ‘and judging by the way it’s throwing itself around, I’d say she’s running a particularly violent program.’ Mervyn replied. The three of them crowded into the next simulator in the line.
Mervyn grabbed the pilot’s seat, ‘I’ll call her.’ Aurora’s biolink failed to respond. ‘Loren, can we see what she’s running?’
‘Not from here. We’d have to get in via Cage’s control box.’
‘Can you hack us in?’ Mervyn asked, he had limitless faith in the Loren’s ability to do anything with bioelectronics.
‘Let’s see,’ Loren’s eyes glazed over as he concentrated on her biolink and located the master program.
‘I need a password. What sort of thing would he choose?’
‘Something obvious,’ Mervyn said.
Loren considered the possibilities, ‘Does he have a family?’
‘No.’
‘Pets?’
‘No.’
‘Nicknames?’
‘None he’d be aware of.’
‘There must be something interesting about him, surely. How does he sign himself online?’
‘J. Cage.’
‘That’s boring. Wait a minute,’ Mervyn said, ‘isn’t there a top-twenty of all-time-great simulator scores on here somewhere? He must be on that.’ He brought up the list on the main viewscreen. ‘Hey, did you know Aurora’s on this list at number twenty, and who’s Rebel One? Rufus De Monsero?.’
‘I believe so, De Monsero senior was an ace pilot too in his time, so he’s probably on there as well,’ Tarun said. ‘Which one do you think is Cage? Destroyer, Fighter Pilot or Nomad?’
‘I’ll try them all,’ Loren said entering each name. ‘Got it - Fighter Pilot.’
‘Of course,’ the others said together.
‘I bet Lord De Monsero in destroyer,’ Mervyn muttered to no one in particular.
‘Here she is,’ Loren said, with a hint of satisfaction. ‘She’s smashing her sled into meteors. She must have disconnected the destruct cycle.’ They watched as Aurora drove her sled head-on into a massive meteorite. Tarun fell heavily against Mervyn’s chair as his senses responded to the crash on the viewscreen. Even from within the cabin, they heard Aurora’s simulator protesting as it lurched backward to simulate the shock of a full-on crash.
Tarun steadied himself, ‘That can’t be good, can it?’
‘Yeah, quite a ride,’ Loren agreed. ‘She’s really beating herself up.’
‘She’s still not responding to her biolink,’ Tarun said. ‘How are we going to talk her out of this?’
‘We’ll just have to grab her attention another way,’ Mervyn said. ‘Loren, can you get us into that program?’
‘I can’t, but Cage can. Let’s see what you can do Fighter Pilot,’ Loren said as her eyes glazed over once more. She hummed to herself as she worked.
Suddenly, the viewscreens filled with images of meteorites hurling towards them through the depths of space. Mervyn instinctively threw the sled to his left to avoid a spinning meteor, ‘Whoa, hold on, this’ll be bumpy.’ The sled flew so close he could see separate impact craters on the surface as it skimmed passed. He eased forward on the throttle as a way opened between the meteors and their speed increased, ‘Where’s Aurora?’
Loren brought up a schematic of the meteor field, ‘There, just ahead of you. Do you see her?’ Mervyn steering a zigzag path through the meteors towards their Aurora.
‘She’s going for that large meteor that looks like a fist,’ Tarun said, with only two seats in the sled, he had managed to wedge himself into a corner.
‘This should get her attention,’ Mervyn said and shot across Aurora’s bows as close as he dared. Aurora’s sled turned away from the meteor, and she broke her self-imposed silence, ‘Who’s that? Is that you Mervyn,?’ she demanded over her biolink. ‘It must be, neither Loren or Tarun would be that crazy?’
He dodged another meteor and came round behind her.
‘Leave me alone, I am enjoying myself,’ Aurora said.
‘No you’re not,’ Mervyn said, dodging another meteor, ‘you’re beating yourself up.’
‘Why shouldn’t I beat myself up?’
‘It’s not your fault,’ Tarun said.
‘Yeah right, everybody loves me. Loren, do you like me?’
‘Well...’
‘See, the touchy Outworlder hates me.’
‘Ok, so you’re a stuck-up brat,’ Loren said, ‘but that doesn’t mean you deserve what they did to you,’
‘I should have seen i
t coming, you did. I was just so full of myself, so sure of my position. Now everyone’s laughing at me.’
‘You’ve still got us, your Grace,’ Tarun said.
‘A couple of social outcasts and a political pariah?’
‘She should fit right in then’ Loren murmured to the crew of her simulator.
‘I wouldn’t say pariah, you Grace.’
‘You lot are just a bunch of misfits,’ Aurora said. It should have been the perfect put-down, a week ago it would have been, but now it held a different meaning.’
Mervyn sniggered -- he couldn’t help himself.
‘That’s not funny,’ Aurora snapped.
Mervyn bit his cheek in an attempt to control his laughter, but it made no difference. Soon they were all in fits of giggles, even Aurora. Every time one of them tried to speak, they all burst into renewed gales of mirth.
Tarun rolled around on the floor, oblivious to the plunging sled. Mervyn could not tell if his friend were laughing or crying – his chima had turned bright purple, so had Loren’s, a colour Mervyn had never seen on any Ethrigan. Slowly they brought themselves under control.
‘Thanks, guys,’ Aurora said, as they completed the tricky manoeuvre of landing their sleds back on a virtual Academy One. ‘I needed a good laugh. And you did brilliantly at the project -- eighty-nine per cent is an incredible score.’ No one knew what to say, so they said nothing. ‘And I didn’t do anything to help you. I know you tried to tell me, but I didn’t want to....I don’t know....I just didn’t want to listen. Shame everyone else got full marks.’
‘Actually, no one scored full marks,’ Loren said.
‘One hundred per cent is surely full marks, Loren,’ Aurora said.
‘I’ve been studying the marking schemes, there’s an extra ten percent for presentation and another ten for additional relevant information, so the maximum possible score is one-hundred and twenty per cent – not that I can see Gant offering extra marks, but Professor Pike might.’
‘Which means we could still be in with a chance,’ Tarun said. ‘All we need to do is change the rules.’
Mervyn turned the simulator off and unbuckled himself, ‘What are you going to do, Aurora?’
‘I’m going to fight back of course... no, we’re going to fight back.’ That sounded more like the old Aurora.
Mervyn felt slightly unsteady on his feet as he climbed from the simulator. He paused on the top step to steady himself. Aurora emerged from her sled beside him, but it was a different Aurora to the one he had last seen.
‘What have you done to your hair?’ Mervyn asked.
‘I cut it off,’ she replied defiantly, ‘I’m no longer the niece of the Patriarch, I’m a Misfit.’ Mervyn stared at her short spiky hair.
‘It kind of suits you,’ Loren said.
‘There’s going to be trouble, your Grace,’ Tarun said without thinking.
‘Tarun, for quark’s sake stop calling me ‘your Grace’ -- I am your team mate, a Misfit,’ she caught the look of horror on Tarun’s face. ‘I command you to call me Aurora.’
‘Yes, your Grace... I mean, Aurora, your Grace... I mean,’ he waived his arms helplessly in a way that reminded Mervyn of Professor Pike.
Mervyn dived in to save his friend from more embarrassment, ‘Why ‘The Misfits’, Aurora?’
‘That’s what we are. We’re all outsiders here, even me -- especially me. Besides, they all knew what was coming and I wanted ram it up their noses.’
‘Well you certainly did that,’ Loren said. Mervyn offered his team-mates a high-five, ‘If you don’t like the game...’
‘Change the rules,’ they responded, and for a brief moment all four hands came together above their heads. The Misfits were in business.
End of Book 1 – Helium 3.0
Book 2
HELIUM 3.1
By Nick Travers