Remember

On board Kyara, two days went by without incident. Finally, on the second day, Nayla and Torin ended their sparring session. The decisive factor was ultimately Nayla's superior endurance; she had methodically worn Torin down over a total combat time of nearly two hours before ultimately gaining a clear advantage. Yan was confined to his room during this time, and Amelina was also invisible. No one was overly worried about their absence; in the four months since they had gathered, the team had become well acquainted with Yan's inclinations.

 Their first match assignment is set for the day after tomorrow, and they have successfully registered their six-person team for the first-ever tournament in the Nova Sphere. Everyone in attendance worked frantically to finish preparations because they knew how much depended on their success or failure, and the competition was quickly approaching. At last, Yan strode onto the bridge while Kieran and Nayla were back in the simulator, rehearsing deployment tactics for the KRY-483-07 decryption virus. His eyes were half-lidded, his hair was matted and disheveled, and he had one hand pressed to his temple in the common sign of a bad hangover.

 "Mother of... What on earth have you been up to? Kieran asked astonishedly. Yan was just wearing a t-shirt and boxers as she strolled around. Nayla recognized the shirt, which he wore infrequently, with the words "The Legend" above a downward-pointing arrow and "The Man" underneath an upward-pointing one.

 Yan mumbled blearily, "All over creation and then some," "Damn, Kieran, you certainly had yourself one hell of a girlfriend back in the day."

 Silently, "Don't remind me," Kieran said. Nayla kept a close eye on Yan during this. He appeared more completely worn out than she had ever seen him, but he also exuded a greater sense of satisfaction than she had previously believed was possible.

 "She's still aboard?" Quietly, Nayla inquired. Yan nodded cautiously and slowly, as though he was afraid the motion would knock him down.

 "Asleep," according to him. He said to Nayla, "Could you excuse us for a second, sis?" After giving the two men a confused glance, she nodded and slipped out of the bridge.

 "Delete everything. "Render: Armchair," Yan told the blank space. A single, comfortable armchair floating in a field of sterile white immediately replaced the simulated mockup of Lek's office. Yan, with his hand still pressed to his head, shuffled over and slumped heavily into it.

 "Render: Stool," Kieran ordered, forming a plain seat across from Yan. He took a seat. "Well?" he asked nicely.

 Yan admitted, "I don't know, Kieran, that's the problem," with a lost expression. "The last two days have been amazing. I don't believe I've ever been happier, really. Even after spending every conceivable moment with Amelina, I still find myself wanting to spend more time with her. I'm not sure. The sheer joy must be fatal if being genuinely in love feels better than this.

 Kieran gave a quiet laugh.

 Yan thought, "Man, I must really be losing it," as he massaged his temples. "Sitting here asking for relationship advice from a guy who hasn't had a relationship in three years."

 Quietly, Kieran reminded him, "That's because my last relationship almost killed someone."

 Yan sighed and met Kieran's gaze. "Okay, here goes then," he said. "What do you think I should do?"

 "You're asking the wrong person, Yan," Kieran said bluntly in response. "I purposefully avoid developing strong attachments because of my past. I now consider it acceptable to live out the remainder of my natural life by myself.

 Yan sighed, shaking his head a little. "Damn, man," he said. "How do you live like that?"

 "If I knew the answer to that," Kieran said, grinning wryly and without humor, "I probably wouldn't."

 On the morning of the tournament's start, the expansive city below was shrouded in a spooky fog. Kyara's seven residents got up and took a shower. To get to the arena, the six fighters who were competing packed their combat armor into bulky duffel bags. Remarkably, Yan seemed to have recovered from his two-day party and was once again recognizable as a human. It seems that Amelina, who was going with them, was unaware that he had slipped off the ship in the middle of the night. When they arrived at the main entrance of the Nova Sphere at exactly 0800 hours, everyone was alert and ready.

 Despite the fact that the first matches weren't scheduled until 1000 hours, Amelina had set up a private tour, using her connections to show them areas of the venue that are typically only accessible by Lek's closest friends and family. Unnatural silence hung in the fog-filled air as Amelina used a keycard discreetly implanted under her wrist to open the imposing front doors. Within the enormous building, not a single light appeared to be on. Instinctively, each warrior looked around, watching for any sign of trouble. The only people who seemed indifferent were Yan and Amelina, who knew that the city was just recovering from yet another wild night of partying, something they had done several times in recent memory.

 The huge doors slid smoothly back into the walls on rollers that had been lightly greased after Amelina's key deactivated the locks. She moved aside and motioned for her friends to come in first. Their footsteps reverberated oddly off the bare sheet-metal walls of the vast, bleakly empty room that resembled a hangar. Amelina guided them to a different door on the opposite side of the reverberating room. Even this gave way to her implanted key. The seven friends went up the secret staircase behind it and came out twenty stories above it, back in the box-seat lounge where they had been at the reception. They kept their hidden secondary weapons but left their armor bags here.

 "This way," Amelina instructed, making her way to another door that could be seen around the soft bend of the outer wall of the lounge. The fine, polished dark wood used to make this door was more ornate than the others. It was locked again, and only Amelina's key could open it. The hallway beyond was lined with rich hardwood panels and ended at a second, identical wooden door at the far end. Amelina came to a sudden halt at the hallway's entrance.

 She whispered, "This is as far as we can go,"

 "Huh?" Nora answered, perplexed.

 "This entire hallway," Amelina said, pointing down the tasteful corridor, "is flooded with every kind of passive and active detection apparatus imaginable." Unless Senator Lek manually turns the system off, they are always fully operational.

 Yan whispered, looking around the walls, "Clever," "the paneling hides everything." He looked visually for any possible workaround, such as a control screen or data port, but he couldn't find anything. The wooden surface was uncannily flawless, with no interface to break it up.

 "What happens if we inadvertently trigger the sensors?" Nora inquired.

 "Instant lockdown," gave Amelina's grim response. "Heavy blast doors seal both ends of the hallway, and the entire corridor floods with a fast-acting neurotoxin potent enough to render anyone inside unconscious for at least a week."

 "Ouch," mumbled Kieran.

 "Any possibility of…" Amelina interrupted Kieran before he could say anything more.

 "No." She was aware that he would inquire about remote system disabling or electronic workarounds.

 For a few more seconds, the seven stood in silence at the entrance to the hallway, taking in the implications. The silence was finally broken by Okani. "Strange that a politician would employ such extreme measures to safeguard his secrets."

 Luna reminded them sharply, "Only if he truly has something significant to hide," displaying her innate mistrust of politicians.

 They stared down the impenetrable corridor for another moment before turning away and silently shutting the secure door behind them. They sat down once more to talk about their few choices in the lavishly furnished but now deserted lounge. Yan asked Amelina the first and most obvious question.

 "Okay, if accessing that office directly is impossible under normal circumstances, how do we manage it?"

 "There is one known vulnerability in the system," declared Amelina.

 "Which is?"

 "To enable the night watchman to conduct his rounds without setting off alarms, the entire security grid automatically deactivates four times every night, for exactly six seconds each time. At precisely 2156:54, 2159:54, 0356:54, and 0359:54 hours, this takes place. But," she warned, "the lockdown procedure is initiated automatically if someone stays in the office for more than three minutes after entering during one of these windows. Nobody departs until they are retrieved by the emergency response paramedics.

 Nayla summed up, "So, we have two potential three-minute windows during the night," Amelina confirmed with a nod.

 "When do we plan to attempt this?" Nayla went on.

 Okani resolutely said, "As soon as we have earned this man's complete trust,"

 "Remember," chuckled Kieran, "only those you trust completely possess the ability to betray you most effectively."