The station was always eerie at night. To preserve circadian rhythm cycles it had two modes, day mode and night mode. During the 'day' the nano-lattice embedded in the large station windows portrayed a simple blue sky with ambient sunlight that lit the halls. During 'night' the lattice turned off, revealing their actual position in space near the blue giant star that the station encircled. Some students would stay up and night watch - though this almost always dropped their Physical score for staying up late. Other students refused to leave the sleeping quarters when the daytime lattice was off. They found the immensity of space and relative nakedness and vulnerability of the station to be disturbing.
Victor walked through the halls, his black coat turned up at the collar to hide his face. The A.I. often changed certain variables on the station. It had been found that humans physically and mentally needed a certain amount of variability in their environment to remain healthy and well-balanced. For example, the A.I. usually mimicked seasons by making certain periods of months cooler or hotter and by making the sunlight lattice brighter or darker, clear or cloudy.
The A.I. was in an autumn season, so Victor's coat didn't look completely out of place. He made a bee line for Information Room 5 as instructed in the letter.
The main Information Room was a large round room with smaller rooms along it's side. The wide center area was filled with cushioned chairs and holo-tables for discussion amongst students. Information Room 1 was directly to the right upon entering, so Information Room 5 was only a couple of doors down. Victor pressed the button to open the door panel and allow access to the room, praying it was empty. It was.
He entered the small compartment and tapped the door panel button twice to leave the door open. He sat in the small white chair placed in front of the holographic research panel, a small version of the holo-tables, and swiveled toward the door to wait for the mysterious 'Najar'.
Victor knew just about everyone on board Nexus. There were only about a hundred students, after all. Was 'Najar' a codename of some sort? In that case why had he been instructed to use Alex's actual last name, Normstrom. There was no help for it, Victor was going to have to wait and see.
At 2130 Victor began to worry. Maybe 'Najar' had decided not to risk a meeting after hearing that students had been put in the box. If that was the case, Victor couldn't blame him. Maybe 'Najar' himself had already been caught and put in the box himself. Possibly he had heard that Alex was put into hyperbolic suspension and so didn't think there was any point to coming to a meeting.
At 2145 the holo panel next to him began to blink. Some student had probably been aggregating facts and had forgotten to tell the panel to stop. Victor caught himself drifting off around 2200 hours. No one had shown up. Disappointed and feeling foolish he got up to head to bed when he realized that the holo panel was still blinking. Even if a student had left it on, it should have gone into auto shut down after having been left idle for so long.
Victor waved his hand to wake the panel fully and show it's contents. There were no articles, facts and diagrams, however. Just a simple text box with a single line written in it.
Hello? Are you there?
Victor made the gesture to summon the holographic keyboard and typed a response:
Yes. My name is Victor. I was sent by Normstrom.
Victor looked at the blinking cursor, waiting for a response.
That's an odd last name. What happened to Normstrom?
Victor didn't particularly feel like discussing his feelings about his family name with a stranger, so decided not to comment. More importantly, Najar hadn't gotten the news yet.
He was put in the box with the other Reactor Club students.
The box? You mean hyperbolic suspension? So, it's the same over there as it is here?
Victor's brow furrowed. What did Najar mean by 'Over there?' But Najar's next message came before Victor could ask.
I'm not sure how much Alex told you. It isn't really safe for us to communicate for longer than a few minutes at a time. It's the longest I can keep our communications unnoticed by the A.I.
But why don't we meet in person?
....Because there are partitions dividing us and we are breaking the one unequivocal rule of this station.
Victor couldn't believe what he was reading. His fingers moved at lightning speed to verify.
You're from the other side?!
Yep. Listen, we're out of time. You should know that our entire reactor club was put into hyperbolic suspension as well. Normstrom and I meet on this panel at 2100 hours your time. I can't promise I'll always be here, but I'll come as often as I can. Tell no one about this.
The text box disappeared.
Victor's mind was bursting into questions on his way back to his sleeping area. So, they had clubs on their side, too. Was their side a mirror of this one? Why had they decided to separate the students in this way? Was there some sort of experiment going on in which one side was the control and the others the lab mice? It seemed a bit extreme, but Victor couldn't come up with a better explanation.
Victor's sleep was restless, and his dreams were strange. In one, he and Alex managed to undo the force-field partitions separating one half of the school from the other. When they got to the other side they found green, bestial aliens that began eating everyone on board the ship.
"Oh god. What have we done?" Alex said as he and Victor huddled in the Reactor Club room.
"Nothing," Victor responded. "We're where we need to be." Then footsteps approached their hiding place.
"We should have come sooner." Alex said.
Then the club room door slid slowly open.
Victor sat up straight in his bed, breathing hard. There was something going on on this station. The partition, the reactor. There were too many mysteries in this place, probably more than they had found if someone bothered to look. But anyone who did was put in hyperbolic suspension.
For the first time Victor started asking himself questions he had taken for granted. Why was the station automated? Was it really necessary for it to be so far from the homeworlds? He didn't have the answers, but he knew where to start. He knew what he had to do. Victor had to go back to the Reactor Club room.
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