Chapter 20: Five Stars

Angela sat on the lab table with her hands flat on its edge. She had not looked at one instrument. She was looking at the door.

An AI droid stood beside it, its orange eye lit. Ruby sat on a stool by the wall, hands folded, face polite.

Chang’e circled the table with a tablet half her size, Mr. Bunny at her shoulder. She asked the way she would ask a machine: joint torque, sensor reach, cooling. Angela answered each one in a small, careful voice.

On the record Chang’e had watched this same girl strike students with red eyes, a beat late, doing what someone else told her. She did not like the thought. She asked the next question.

“First result. An empty socket between her shoulder blades. The Council’s control unit is gone.”

“I pulled it out,” said Ruby. “So she’s safe.”

“So that door is shut. I can’t prove there’s no other.”

Chang’e tapped the tablet. “Her code. That doll. Anything that can receive can be told what to do. She stays on checks.”

Angela’s hands tightened on the table.

A red square blinked on the screen. Forty lines lay hidden under Angela’s walking routines, behind a lock, with a triangle marked DANGER.

“What is this?” said Chang’e.

“Mine,” said Ruby. “It opens to my hand only. It’s a safeguard. If Oro ever takes her again, it lets me stop them.”

Angela looked at Ruby, then away.

“I can’t read it. I can’t open it.” Chang’e typed. “A box only you can open, inside a girl I’m meant to sign off. It goes on the list.”

“Then put me on the list too,” said Ruby sweetly.

“And the doll.” Chang’e held out her hand. “Its left eye is a camera, and it has a live link to Oro. It stays here for checks.”

Angela folded both arms around it. “No.”

“It’s a camera on a world that wants her back.”

Ruby slid off her stool. “Give it to me.”

Angela looked at her, and gave it. Ruby turned the doll over. Green lines ran from her glove into its back, and a tiny light went out.

“Cut,” said Ruby. “It only sees for her now.”

LINK: NONE, said the tablet. Four seconds. Chang’e had once spent a week cutting a link like that. Ruby put the doll back in Angela’s arms, and Chang’e let her.

The last line of the scan blinked amber. “A fault in your chest,” said Chang’e. “It comes and goes. I can fix it in a minute.”

“Whenever I think about the friends I lost, a malfunction always occurs. But I don’t want to fix this.”

AngelaVoice line

Chang’e’s stylus stopped. “Noted,” she said. She did not fix it.

“Fair is fair,” said Ruby. “You’ve read her code. Let me read his.”

Mr. Bunny’s screen went blank.

“Mr. Bunny is my best friend. I won’t let anyone take him away.”

Chang'eVoice line

“I only meant to read him.”

Chang’e heard what she had said. She had said it to the girl whose best friend she had just put on a list. She wrote WEEKLY on the tablet anyway.

Ruby’s own assessment came next: a glove, a dial that read aspirant power, a number. The needle passed the line with room to spare. Angela’s came last. Whatever drove her shield, the needle read it as aspirant power too.

The Academy hall.

Rows of chairs faced an altar, and five great stars stood above it. A tall window threw colored light across the floor. Chang’e stood at the back with Mr. Bunny. A director could stand where she liked.

In front stood four Aspirants in combat suits. Layla and Fanny were shoulder to shoulder, not arguing. Ruby had her scythe grounded and her eyes on the floor in front of Lesley’s boots. Angela had the doll clipped at her hip.

Lesley stood before them with her hands behind her back. “Ruby, Angela: you are Aspirants as of today. The four of you stand together.”

“We still don’t fully understand our own power. But by trusting each other, we can gain limitless strength.”

LesleyVoice line

Vexana waited by the door in her school uniform, arms folded. Guinevere, also in uniform, saw her from along the wall and waved with her whole arm. A chibi keychain, a tiny big-headed doll, swung at each girl’s belt. Guinevere wore a black-haired Vexana. Vexana wore a pink-haired Guinevere.

When the hall emptied, Chang’e caught Lesley at the door.

“You told four people to trust each other. I’m still waiting for my turn.”

“Not here.”

“It’s never here. You say ‘we’ to everyone. To me you say no. Give me a reason.”

Lesley said nothing. She never did.

“I put Angela on a list this morning,” said Chang’e. “It’s the same thing. I know it’s the same. I did it anyway.”

Lesley looked at her for a long moment. Then she walked out without an answer.

In the doorway, Angela stood with her doll against her chest. She had heard all of it.