Prodigious Alignment: Chapter 3

The following week passed by at an excruciatingly slow pace for Areanna. After her father identified the dust on her clothing, she decided to play it safe. Unfortunately, safe was boring. She was so distracted that she received an imperfect score and constructive feedback on an assignment, her first in years.

Granted, it was a single point for “treading similar ground as your previous two papers,” a criticism she begrudgingly had to accept. Following the excitement of breaking into ADMINISTRATION, she could hardly be bothered to focus on something as mundane as schoolwork, even if it was for History.

When her father saw the less-than-perfect score, he scrunched his nose for a moment. It was a reaction she rarely encountered, so quickly she almost missed it. But when he handed her Muse back after reading her paper, all he said was, “Good job, kiddo. By now, you must be the biggest expert on the Prussians on the Arvad!”

He was right about that, as best Areanna could tell, but she felt sure he was covering up his disappointment with the sentiment. She just smiled and took her Muse back to her quarters.

Things with Natalie were tense, as well. While usually inseparable, she seemed to take Areanna’s exploration of ADMINISTRATION personally; it was as if Natalie felt Areanna had abandoned her with Oscar. For his part, Oscar seemed to think nothing in particular about that day, which Areanna was happy to encourage.

It was four whole days before Natalie spoke to her again. Classes were letting out for the day, and Areanna was walking with Oscar, nodding along as he prattled on about dinosaurs, ninjas, or whatever random genre he wanted to pretend to be that day.

“Hey, Areanna,” she said softly, stepping forward quickly to fall in step with the pair.

“Oh, hi, Natalie!” Oscar said brightly. “We’re about to play heroes and villains. Would you like to be my sidekick?”

“Sidekick!? I’d rather be a villain so I can sidekick your butt.” She narrowed her eyes and snarled menacingly.

Oscar scoffed. “That face makes you look like you’re trying not to fart.”

“Ew, Oscar, why are you always making everything about bathroom stuff,” Areanna complained.

“It’s not my fault! She talked about my butt first.”

The girls looked at each other and rolled their eyes. The tension between them seemed to melt away, and Areanna could tell they would be okay.

“Oscar, go wait for us over there,” Areanna said, pointing to a younger group of children. “We’ll come to play soon, but first, we have to talk about girl stuff.”

He punched her lightly on the arm and ran off, calling behind him, “I hit you first, so when we start playing, you already have damage!”

Once he was several meters away, Areanna quickly checked to ensure no adults were within earshot. The steel walls of the communal play area gleaned as if freshly polished, but no one was close enough to hear them if they spoke quietly enough.

“Does he ever run out of silly ideas for games?” Natalie asked.

“No, but a healthy imagination is healthy for a child his age.”

Natalie laughed. “‘His age?’ Areanna, you’re only one year older than him.”

Areanna shrugged. “I’ll be nine in a few days, remember? Besides, age is just a number, and girls mature more quickly than boys. I’m at least six years older than Oscar, relatively speaking.”

“Ooookay, Madame Areanna. You are so old and learned.” She swept her right arm forward and bowed slightly.

“Make fun all you want; you know I’m right.”

Natalie just smiled and looked at her friend another moment; the conversation paused as they reflected on the past few days of silence.

Areanna broke first. “I missed you! Why did you stop talking to me?”

Tears began to form in Natalie’s eyes, and her nose sniffled as she tried to keep herself from crying. She must have inhaled too quickly, though, as she abruptly hiccupped. Areanna jumped at the sudden noise, then laughed as tears came to her eyes. The two friends hugged and let themselves cry for a moment.

“I didn’t want to,” Natalie said as they pulled away. “But I was scared! We’re not supposed to go into certain parts of the ship; you know that. There are rules, and then there are rules. Plus, when I got home that night, I asked my grandfather about that part of the ship. He got a weird, intense look on his face and told me never to talk about it ever again.

“Something bad happened past that door, Areanna.”

Areanna nodded as Natalie spoke. She had wanted to tell her friend everything she had encountered in ADMINISTRATION after returning that day, but Natalie had stormed off without listening.

“Well,” Areanna whispered, “I think you’re right. It was strange and scary on the other side of the door.”

“Scary how? What was over there?”

“It was the same as the rest of the ship we’ve seen, actually. Same monitors, same chairs and desks, even the same designs on the wall. But it was quiet and,” she paused, “still.”

“What do you mean it was ‘still?’”

Areanna thought a moment. “Nothing was moving or had moved for a long time. Maybe years.”

Natalie’s eyes widened. “You mean there is a part of this ship that people haven’t used for years? I thought we didn’t have extra space on the Arvad; why would that be? And how could you tell?”

“I could tell because there was dust everywhere.”

“What’s dust?”

“Uh, I think it’s dead skin, dirt, and other small particles from our bodies and stuff.”

Natalie looked confused. “I’ve never seen dust. How do you know what it is?”

“I think we don’t see dust because the air gets recycled throughout the ship,” Areanna explained. “Stand still for a moment and hold your arms out. Pay very close attention to what you can feel on your skin.”

The two girls stuck their arms out and concentrated. After a moment, Natalie said, “Oh yeah, I can feel a little air moving.”

“That’s the ship making sure we are getting enough oxygen and nitrogen. It pulls in all the air we exhale, runs it through filters, and sends it back. I imagine if the filters are fine enough to capture carbon monoxide, they can probably also capture dust.”

Natalie considered this. “Okay, that makes sense. What does dust look like?”

“It’s kind of gray and kind of brown? And it looked like some sort of blanket about the thickness of a sheet of paper. Every surface was covered, and the dust would swirl in the air when I touched or stepped on it. It’s very light.”

“I’m having a hard time picturing that,” Natalie said, her eyebrows furrowing with thought. “But I guess it makes sense that we wouldn’t see dust in the living areas if it’s that easily disturbed and the air is being filtered.”

“Exactly,” Areanna said, nodding. “ADMINISTRATION wasn’t just still; it seemed abandoned, cut off from the rest of the Arvad. I couldn’t feel the air moving as it does here, and of course, there was the dust. But that’s not the scary thing.”

Natalie leaned in conspiratorially, her eyes locked onto Areanna’s. “What was the scary thing?”

“The blood. And the bullet holes.”

Natalie pulled back suddenly and swatted Areanna’s shoulder instinctively. “You’re lying! Go tell that to Oscar if you want a sucker to believe your crazy story.”

“No, no, I’m telling the truth!” Areanna insisted, holding her hands out palm down and patting the air to quiet her friend. “And shh, I don’t want the adults to overhear.”

Natalie nodded apprehensively. “What do blood and bullet holes look like, exactly?”

“It took me a while to recognize them. The holes were the weirdest. Have you ever taken your thumb and pressed it into the top of a protein cake?”

“The spongy ones?” Natalie asked. Areanna nodded. “Yes, I think so. It makes kind of a dimple on the surface, right?”

“Exactly. There were maybe two dozen dimples in the wall and door.”

“You mean the actual ADMINISTRATION door itself?”

“Yes, right on the other side. And on the walls and floor. There are shapes that look like puddles but are dark brown. I’m guessing that if anyone cleaned up at all, it was perfunctory at best.”

“Perfunctory?”

“Sorry, it means they did the bare minimum,” Areanna explained.

“Wow, okay. So bullet holes and blood. Does that mean someone died?”

“Who died?” came a sudden voice. Areanna and Natalie jumped; Oscar had returned.

“Oscar! Why aren’t you waiting for us over there?” Areanna asked.

“You guys were taking too long. I want to know who died!”

Oscar’s voice echoed, and several adults glanced in their direction. Thinking quickly, Areanna struck an exaggerated combat pose.

“You’ll be the one to die if you think you can stop my evil plans, Mr. Superhero!”

Oscar grinned. “That’s Captain Starman to you, Miss Stinkyfart!”

Natalie snorted, choking back a laugh as Areanna hopped from one foot to another, further imitating a fighting stance. “You’ll never defeat me, Captain Starman.”

“Nor I, for I am Miss Stinkyfart’s sidekick, Lady More-Powerful-Than-Captain-Starman.”

“That’s a stupid name, and I’m going to beat you with my star powers!”

The three children began running after one another, laughing and shouting. When Areanna was sure no adults were paying them any mind, she said to Natalie, “We’ll talk more about this later. I think I need to ask my dad some questions.”