“Are you mad at me?” I asked.
He paused, pursed his lips. Charles, at a loss for words. “You saved my life,” he said finally. “You saved everyone’s lives.”
I thought for a minute. “I don’t really know what that means.”
“It means you’re getting into pilot training, when the time comes,” he said. “I made a request, and they’re holding a spot for you, when you’re ready.”
That was too big to think about right now.
“Charles, what happened? To the shuttle, what really happened? It was sabotage, wasn’t it? Stanton?”
He glanced away, his lips curving into an inexplicable smile. “That’s a complicated question, it turns out. Stanton did drug the pilots. A time-release dermal sedative in a patch stuck inside their headsets. They didn’t even feel it. She knew the shuttle had enough automated systems we weren’t likely to get in serious trouble. She expected exactly what happened to happen—we’d make an emergency call, we’d have a big adventure, and we’d all grow and learn as human beings.” The cutting edge in his voice indicated exactly what he thought of this plan. It matched the pattern of the previous “adventures.”
“But the air leak?” I prompted. “The explosion?”
“Not planned. The shuttle just broke. Freak accident, at the worst possible time.”
“Seriously?”
“Yep. A seam in the hull by the engine compartment cracked—normal failure, not serious in itself. But the pressure differential caused one of the power cables between the fuel cells and the engine to rupture. Cascading failure after that. That’s what they think happened, anyway. A trained crew probably could have handled it without it becoming a huge drama. But there wasn’t any trained crew. Just us.”
I chuckled, but my lungs hurt, so I stopped.
“There’s more,” he said, and he had the look of an astronomer discovering water on the Moon.
“More what?” I croaked.
“Stanton wasn’t just being sadistic. She’d been hired.”
“Hired to rig those accidents? Hired to mess with us like that?” If I could have sat up, I would have, but I was too snuggled into the pillows, too comfortable. My brain was getting very awake, though. “Who would do that?” But I had an idea.
As I talked, he reached to a bedside table for a tablet, scrolled up a file for me, and held it up so I could see the screen. I reach out to adjust it so I could see more clearly.
“Mom,” I murmured at the image. Supervisor Newton of Colony One. Her face filled the screen, her brown hair slicked back, her uniform creased, perfect and professional. Of course this was a recorded message. Somehow I still thought she might look through the screen at me, see me with my burst veins and bloodshot eyes and banged-up body propped up in a hospital bed, and her eyes might go wide with shock and her lips purse with concern. She might even express some kind of sympathy and … love?
But knowing my mother, this could have been a live feed and the image’s expression still wouldn’t have changed. Seeing me bruised and broken wouldn’t have affected her at all.
She spoke like she would to an underling. “Charles, I received your message. Thank you for that. I’m not going to deny your accusations, you’ve collected too much evidence for me to embarrass myself like that, or to condescend to you. Though I am very, very disappointed that you would investigate my personal financial records. I thought you would trust me, trust that everything I’ve done has been for the good of you and Polly. Under normal circumstances, even a place like Galileo wouldn’t give you a chance to prove yourselves. I simply made sure that you would have that chance. I had no doubt that given the opportunity, you would excel. And you have. Of course I never intended for Dean Stanton to take her mandate as far as she did. But my faith in your and your sister’s abilities was not at all misplaced. You’ll have to agree with me there. However, I’m sure you’ll be glad to know that I’ve submitted a complaint about Dean Stanton’s behavior. This won’t happen again.
“And of course I’m glad that Polly isn’t seriously injured. Let me know if anything changes with her condition.”
Because it was a recording, I couldn’t yell at her. Couldn’t argue. And by the time I was able to record a reply, I’d have forgotten everything I meant to say right now. Maybe I could just take a picture of me glaring at her and send that.
“‘This won’t happen again.’ Why don’t I believe her?” I said disgustedly as he set the tablet back down. “What are we supposed to do, Charles? We can’t just go back to Galileo, can we?”
His smile turned even more sly. How long had I been unconscious? How much conspiring had he gotten done in that time?
“Angelyn and Ethan and some of the other students told their parents what happened with Stanton. President Edgars’s press releases are sounding increasingly panicked. Not only has Stanton been asked to resign, criminal charges may be pending. An independent advisory council is being convened to examine the school’s entire operating structure. So much for Galileo’s great tradition.”
“Wow.”
“No doubt.”
“So what’s next?” I asked. “What are we going to do?”
“This is a perfect opportunity for you to go back to Mars. If you want to.”
I was very surprised to find myself shaking my head. I tried to explain it to myself, as much as to him. “I know you’re not going to believe this, but I don’t think I want to go back to Mars. At least not right now. Not while I’m this angry at Mom. And … I still have to finish school before I can start pilot training. Right?”