The decision to confront Andri wasn’t easy. I didn’t trust him, hadn’t for a while, but if anyone on the station knew about sabotage, it was him. As I made my way to the observation deck, my hands clenched involuntarily. These few months of rivalry, of smug comments and calculated looks had built a wall between us that felt insurmountable, despite the other weird moments we had shared. With my team’s safety on the line, my pride was a luxury I couldn’t afford.
I found him in the observation deck, leaning casually against the railing as he stared out at the glowing expanse of space. His reflection in the glass showed his typical smirk, the one that always made me want to throw something at him.
“Andri,” I called as I stepped into the room, trying to keep my tone neutral despite the anger simmering beneath the surface.
He glanced over his shoulder, his smirk widening. “Piotr. To what do I owe the pleasure? Here to thank me for the motivational glare during your first Zero-G run?”
I ignored the jab, coming to a stop a few feet away. “We need to talk.”
His smirk faltered slightly, his eyes narrowing. “Sounds serious.”
“It is,” I said, crossing my arms. “Someone sabotaged my suit. Thruster override, stabilization disabled—the works. I nearly crashed into my team at full velocity.”
“Sabotaged?” he repeated, tilting his head. “And you think it’s me?”
I ran a hand over my face, thinking. “I mean, no, not really.”
“So if not me, let me guess—you think it’s Macks stepping up his game.”
I frowned, surprised by his bluntness. “You think it’s him too?”
Andri’s smirk disappeared completely, replaced by something I rarely saw on his face, genuine concern. He kicked the barrier, a loud thwack echoing around the room. “Of course it’s Macks. No one else on this station has the skill or the gall to pull a stunt like that. If he couldn’t get to me, he’d go after you and your team to send a message instead.”
“He’s coming after me to get to you?” I said, unconvinced and putting my suit over the barrier. My pulse quickened at the implication.
“Not just you,” Andri replied, leaning back against the console. “Your team. Anyone you care about or rely on. That’s how Macks works—he dismantles his targets piece by piece. If he can’t touch me directly, he’ll isolate me, take away my support, and then strike when I’m vulnerable.”
The meaning behind his words settled over me like a cold shroud. Kerry, Sylvk, Rob—they had no idea they might be targets in a game they weren’t even playing.
“Why now?” I asked. “We’ve known about him since the poisoning. Why would he escalate now?”
Andri hesitated, his eyes drifting back to the stars. “He’s not alone,” he said quietly. “There’s something bigger behind him, Piotr. Bigger than us.”
“What do you mean?”
“Someone’s paying him to,” Andri turned back to me. “And whoever it is, they’ve got deep pockets and a bigger agenda. This isn’t about me anymore, Piotr. If Macks is targeting you, it means you’re a threat to whoever’s pulling his strings.”
“Protecting you makes me a threat?” I asked, the words sharper than I intended. The idea that my team was in danger because of some power play I didn’t understand made my blood boil.
Andri actually laughed, a short, bitter sound. “Protecting me? You think that’s what this is about? You’re in the way. And if Macks sees you as a useful pawn to manipulate me, he’ll use you—and your team—without hesitation.”
His expression darkened. “Look, the Brakers have been after my family for three generations now. You know what they call us? ‘The defectors.’ As if we betrayed some sacred trust by refusing to weaponize our tech.”
That caught me off guard. “The Brakers? I thought this was about Macks.”
“Brakers and Boutacks are family, not by blood. Marriage only. Macks is just a hired gun,” Andri sighed. “They all used to work together, then they fell out. The Brakers side are the real threat. For a decade they’ve been trying to get their hands on my family’s tech for years. My great grandfather developed the core protocols that would eventually become the foundation for advanced AI systems. He refused to let them be used for military applications.”
“Wait,” I said, trying to process this new information. “Are you saying the Brakers are after—”
“Doli,” A flicker of surprise crossed Andri’s face. “Yeah, they know about her too. That explains a lot.”
“And you know about her,” I muttered. “So you know I’ve been working on her?”
“It took some digging,” he admitted. “But soon as I knew Macks was involved and the others were planted by my family to protect us here, yes. You finally made sense. Mr. Fixer.”
“What do you mean?”
Andri sighed, running a hand through his hair. “My father built safeguards into all our tech—ethical constraints that prevented AIs from being weaponized. The Brakers have been trying to crack those safeguards for decades. If they’re after Doli, it means they think she might be the key.”
“The key to what?” I pressed.
“To removing the constraints completely,” Andri said grimly. “An AI without ethical limitations, without safeguards—it would be the ultimate weapon. My grandfather saw that potential and buried it deep in the code. The Brakers have been trying to dig it out ever since.”
“And your family has been fighting them off all this time?”
Andri’s jaw tightened. “My grandfather died in a ‘shuttle accident’ three days after refusing their final offer. My father barely escaped an assassination attempt last year. And now they’re here, on this station, trying to use me to get to what they want.”
“Which is?”
“The override codes,” Andri said quietly. “Only a handful of people know them. My father, and a few trusted allies. With those codes, the Brakers could strip away every ethical constraint in any AI system based on our protocols.”
“Including Doli,” I said, the realization hitting me like a physical blow.
Andri nodded. “Especially Doli. She’s the most advanced application of our core tech I’ve ever seen. If they could remove her constraints...” He trailed off, the implications hanging heavy in the air.
<
I clenched my fists, the memory of my spiraling suit flashing through my mind. “And you didn’t think to warn anyone?”
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“Warn who?” Andri shot back. “The station commander? The same guy who barely trusts us to tie our boots without supervision? This isn’t their game, Piotr. It’s ours. And now, apparently, it’s yours too.”
I exhaled slowly, trying to tamp down my frustration. “So what do we do?”
“We don’t do anything,” Andri said. “I’ll handle Macks. You stay out of his way. The last thing I need is you and your little band of rookies getting in the middle of this.”
“Rookies? You do know who my team are, right?”
He sighed again. “Hired by sponsors, my father, and the academy. Yes. And very much stuck in the middle of this.
“It nearly got me killed, Andri. You really think I’m going to sit this out?”
Andri sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. Then, unexpectedly, his expression softened. “Listen. This isn’t bravado—it’s caution. Macks ruins lives. I’ve seen it firsthand. My cousin tried to stand up to their agents three years ago. She’s still in a rehabilitation facility, learning how to walk again.” He paused, swallowing hard. “Don’t let him ruin yours too.”
The sincerity there caught me off guard. For a moment, I glimpsed the person beneath the arrogance—someone who was genuinely concerned, who had seen the consequences of this conflict up close.
“Why don’t we just leave?” I asked, “Sticking around here, playing ‘training games’ it makes no sense.”
“Public persona is everything to my family.”
“Like being a dick?” I asked.
He rolled his eyes at me. “Exactly.”
“Fine,” I said after a beat. “But if he makes another move—”
“I know,” Andri interrupted, his expression hard. “I’ll deal with him. Just keep your team close. If Macks can’t reach me, he’ll go through you to get what he wants. Don’t give him the opportunity.”
For once, his words weren’t smug or mocking. They were a warning, and I couldn’t ignore them.
I caught myself examining the thrusters built into our armor. “So they knew the suits were vulnerable,” I said, keeping my voice low. “But seriously, why make them so easy to hijack remotely?”
Andri’s face hardened, that familiar flash of resentment in his eyes. “Easy is relative. Could you and I hack them, no. But… Nexus might.”
“Nexus?”
“I’m talking too much,” he said. “Look, brass wanted failsafes—if someone blacks out, someone at a control center needs to pilot them back. So they built in these remote hooks early on.” He gestured at the access panel. “They are not easy to crack. Add in all these fancy new training modules constantly streaming data to instructors, and you’ve got yourself a back door for anyone who knows where to look.”
“Which Macks obviously does,” I said, remembering the sickening lurch when my thrusters went haywire.
<
<
“Yes, he does. They never expected this level of infiltration, so they kept the remote access active—you know, for medical emergencies and fancy AI integration stuff.” He tapped the side of his helmet. “Now someone’s walking right through the back door they left unlocked.”
<
<
<
<
“The Brakers tried to recruit my father once, you know,” Andri said quietly as I turned to leave. “Offered him everything—wealth, power, protection. He told them that some lines shouldn’t be crossed, that AI should serve humanity, not control it.” His eyes met mine, intense and unwavering. “That’s what they want to change, Piotr. That’s why they’re coming after Doli. She represents everything they want to undo.”
As I left the observation deck, I pondered everything. If Andri was right—and I had no reason to doubt him, then the game had changed.
It wasn’t about me anymore. It was about protecting the people I cared about from a man who wouldn’t stop until he got what he wanted.
His words cast our entire history in a new light. What I’d interpreted as arrogance and hostility had been something else entirely, caution, perhaps even protection. His cold demeanor, the calculated distance he’d maintained between us, it wasn’t simple rivalry.
Andri had been watching me, assessing whether I represented a threat or an ally in a conflict that had been raging since before either of us was born. His family’s legacy, the weight of responsibility he carried, it explained the contradiction between his public persona and his private intensity.
I wasn’t just a classmate to him. I was a potential vulnerability in a security system his family had spent his entire life maintaining. The realization didn’t excuse his methods, but it made them make sense in a way they never had before.
Kerry waited outside for me. She leaned against the wall, arms crossed, expression thoughtful.
“Team’s been looking for you.”
“Sorry,” I replied. “Had to check something out.”
Kerry studied my face for a moment. “You mean you needed to speak with Andri.”
I raised an eyebrow. “How’d you know?”
“You’ve got that look,” she said. “The one you get when he’s involved. Part irritation, part confusion.” She pushed off from the wall, falling into step beside me. “So, what’s the deal with you two anyway? One minute he’s Mr. Perfect Cadet with everyone else, the next he’s looking at you like you stole his inheritance. Did something happen between you at the Academy?”
I hesitated, weighing how much to share after everything Andri had just revealed. “It’s complicated.”
“That’s obvious,” Kerry said, raising an eyebrow. “But his hostility toward you is getting worse since we arrived at the station. And after what happened with your suit... I’m not the only one noticing.”
She wasn’t wrong. What had started as competitive tension back on Earth had evolved into something darker—or so I thought until our conversation today.
“His family has expectations,” I said finally, deciding to share part of the truth. “Their tech innovations go back generations. I think anyone who might challenge that status quo becomes a concern.”
Kerry nodded slowly. “And you, with your mechanical genius and that special AI project everyone pretends not to know about, definitely qualify.” She paused, then seemed to make a decision. “Look, I should probably tell you something. I wasn’t assigned to your team by accident.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, slowing my pace.
She glanced around to ensure no one else was within earshot. “My family has been in medical research for generations—top neurologists and bioethicists. After I finished med school, they pushed for this assignment. They wanted someone to help my sister, someone in the background monitoring any cutting-edge tech developments coming out of the Academy.”
“You were sent to spy on us?” I couldn’t keep the edge from my voice.
“Not exactly,” she said quickly. “I wanted this assignment too, but for different reasons. The training here is my ticket to the deep space stations—the ones with the most advanced medical facilities. I need experience with experimental systems if I want a placement out there.” She met my eyes directly. “What I didn’t expect was to actually care about this team.”
I studied her face, looking for deception. “And now?”
“Now I’m caught in the middle,” she admitted. “My family still expects reports, but I’m not giving them anything about your project. And after what happened with your suit...” She shook her head. “In medical training, they drill into us that emergency override systems need triple authentication, but these suits...” She shook her head. “It’s like they never considered someone might use their own safety features against them.”
I nodded slowly, unsure how much to trust this revelation even as I kept Andri’s information to myself. “Just like Rob and Sylvk, then. Special assignments.”
“We all have our reasons for being here,” she said with a shrug. “But unlike some, I’m not willing to compromise safety for family expectations.”
“For some reason I believe Andri won’t either.”
She raised an eyebrow at me. “Just be careful, okay?” she added, changing the subject. “Andri’s got connections that go deeper than most of us. Whatever game he’s playing, it’s not just about cadet rivalries anymore.”
“You have no idea,” I muttered.
The Boutacks, Brakers, the Hinadas, and Major Kuba’s family. They were all tied together, I just wasn’t sure who was really pulling Ashley’s strings. Her words echoed what I’d just learned from Andri himself, but for very different reasons than she suspected.
“You know more than you’re saying,” Kerry observed, “but I won’t push. Just remember we’ve got your back, whatever’s going on.” She frowned, tapping her med scanner absently.
I nodded, grateful for her support. The less my team knew about the Brakers, the safer they’d be—at least for now
As we walked away, suit slung over my shoulders, Doli finally broke her silence.
<> she said.
<
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I was confused. <
<
That was odd, so odd.
<
<> I replied, <
<
> There was something in her voice I’d never heard before—something almost like fear.