Act II, The Free LandChapter 24
Chapter 24: The Void
Selrick Academy. The end of that year.
The best duo of the year learns what sends the Enders, and where the thing that steers them hides.
Guinevere held her badge of honor over her head with one hand. Vexana held hers at her side, as if it might go off.
“We’re the best partners in The Aspirants!”
The hall cheered. They had just been named the best Aspirant Duo of the year, and they were holding hands.
Chang’e watched from a box at the side, where she could see over the crowd. Mr. Bunny held her tablet. Beside her, Lesley smiled.
It was a small smile. Chang’e noted it, the third that year, because she noted everything. She looked away before Lesley caught her counting.
That afternoon she taught the Core lesson. Layla sat at the front. Guinevere and Vexana sat at the back, badges still pinned on.
Selena slid in late on Silverbolt, grumbling about mornings. A red danger alert flashed on her phone. She swiped it away without a glance and began to sketch.
Chang’e passed her desk and looked down. It was a suit of armor, drawn to fit a person. Plates, a visor, a weapon on one arm, joints like an Ender’s. ENDER MECHA SUIT, said the corner. Brilliant, Chang’e thought. Every Aspirant suit was built from Ender wreckage, so Ender plates on a drawing were excellent homework.
She climbed onto her stool beside the screen. Nobody laughed at the stool anymore.
“Who sends the Enders?”
“Nobody knows,” said Layla.
“Somebody does.” The screen showed a black circle. “The Will of the Planet. It is a mind. It judges a people, and when it decides they have grown too strong, it sends the Enders to cut them down.”
She tapped the circle. “Its body is the Mother Matrix. The Enders are what it sends.”
“Hidden in the Will’s dark void is the Enders’ Control Core. It steers them. Destroy the Core and the Will is beaten.”
“Hurt the Enders badly enough and the Will falls into a coma. That is why they go quiet for weeks. That is a lull. Then it wakes and sends more.”
Guinevere’s hand went up. “How do you know?”
“Years ago Lesley shot a core component out of a living Ender. It picked up the Enders’ signals. Whenever a lull begins, every signal goes silent in the same instant. Something is switching them off.”
“So how do we get to the void?” asked Layla.
“I don’t know yet.” Chang’e said it flat. Saying it to a class cost her something. “Nobody can get near it. I’m working on it.”
“I have one idea, in a paper on black holes. It’s untested, and I don’t teach untested things. I won’t send a student anywhere I can’t bring them back from.”
She hopped off the stool. “Don’t look so grim. The Aspirant power is strong.”
Under a shady tree on the Academy lawn, Guinevere lay with her head in Vexana’s lap. Vexana patted her hair.
“Teacher Chang’e told us,” Guinevere recited to the leaves, “to defeat the Will of the Planet, we must destroy the Enders’ Control Core hidden in its dark void.”
“I was there,” said Vexana.
“It sounds better out loud.” Guinevere stared up through the branches. “It sounds heroic.”
“But we can’t get near the void.”
Guinevere sat up so fast she almost hit Vexana’s chin. “Don’t worry! I will definitely find a way to destroy it.”
Vexana did not answer.
That evening she went to the library alone and asked the library droid for anything on the void. It listed three papers. Two were old. The third bore Chang’e’s name.
On Aspirant Power and the Black Hole. A theory of the void. Status: untested.
She read the first page twice. Her finger stopped on one line and stayed there.