I examined my cork board to ensure I had set everything up in a way that would make sense to my trio of associates. Everything I had pieced together over the last three years was compiled on that board. I knew there were still holes in the story I had constructed, but this would have to do until we found more answers. 

"You didn't connect the Minister of Resources to that fake charity he has been funneling money through."

I attached the picture of Minister Saltyr to the People's United Fund. "Thank you, Anak. This is why I keep you around."

My companion chuckled. "Yes, just this. I'm just your fact-checker."

I rolled my eyes. "You know what I mean. How's everything else look?"

Anak stepped up to the board and touched each connecting point. "Looks good to me. You sure your friends will be able to follow along?"

I shrugged as I hung the corkboard on the wall. "That is the hope. Also, they aren't my friends. I barely know any of them."

Anak lounged on my bed. "You were pretty willing to offer your help to people you barely know. This is quite a dangerous venture to take part in with strangers."

I slid my gloves over my black veined hands. "Desperate times call for desperate measures. This might be our only opportunity to change things before everything goes terribly wrong. Again."

My concentration was broken when there was a knock at my door. I let Xamber, Kolyver, and Maera in, quickly closing the door behind them. "Thank you for meeting with me. Make yourselves comfortable."

Maera tilted her head as she sat at the head of my bed. "Were you talking to someone, Ryka?"

I gestured to the terrarium in the corner of my room. "Just my shade snake, Anak."

Kolyver suddenly changed their mind about which side of my room they were going to sit on. "Wish you would have mentioned you had a pet snake." They turned my desk chair backwards and sat so they could keep an eye on Anak's habitat. 

Xamber sat at the foot of my bed with a small laugh. "I don't see why you're so scared of snakes, Kol. It isn't as though shade snakes get big enough to hurt anyone, much less an individual your size."

Kolyver shrugged with a grumpy look. "I'm not scared of them. I just dislike being around them. They creep me out. I think it's the lack of legs."

I raised an eyebrow. "Finding something creepy means you find it frightening."

Kolyver crossed their arms. "Being scared and being creeped out are different."

"Folx." We all turned our attention to Maera. "We can have a snake intervention for Kolyver later."

Kolyver glared at her. "The hell we can."

Maera smirked at her friend. "We came here to talk about your insane plan to investigate the disaster in Omega-Delta."

Kolyver huffed and made an attempt at ignoring my companion by examining my cork board. "This looks...complicated."

I scanned my handiwork. "Conspiracies are always complicated. Especially ones that are this deeply embedded in our society. This mess goes way back. Get ready for a small history lesson."

Xamber groaned. "I just had history today. Please be more interesting than Instructor Corik."

"I promise, this will be far more riveting than anything the instructors will teach us. These are the things they don't want us to know. It would threaten their precious power balance." 

I removed a laser pointer from my coat pocket and aimed it at the first point of interest. "I won't bore you with facts we all know. There was a war on the surface, some of humanity escaped underground, everyone else was left for dead. The plan that was set in place had a one thousand year timeline. The scientists said that should be enough time for the surface world to become livable again."

Xamber tilted his head. "How did they decide that? Thought the bio-weapons weren't that well understood when they went off."

I moved my laser to the next point. "A very good question, Xamber. They weren't actually estimating how long it would take for the surface to be safe again. They were estimating how long the life support systems could maintain the population. A millennia was an ambitious estimate, but not an improbable one. The issue was that these numbers were based on only a small fraction of the human population. They set up the lottery which was supposed to give everyone an equal opportunity to survive. At least everyone who could afford to pay. Tickets weren't cheap and everyone could buy as many as they could afford, giving the rich and powerful an unfair advantage. This caused a lot of unrest, but none of that matters at this point."

"So, let's skip ahead. Lottery happens, riots and murders occur, colony doors close and condemn millions. Those that do get in are separated into the various sectors. It's pretty hard to miss the class hierarchy this caused. Those who could afford it got to live in the inner colonies while those who could not were segregated into the outer colonies. The differences in quality of life were not immediately evident. Not until things started to break down. Despite having higher population numbers, the outer colonies were seen as less important. The shortages, malfunctions, and deaths went unnoticed by those of us in the inner colonies because it was hidden from us. Why? Because this was always part of the plan."

Kolyver furrowed their brows. "What do you mean?"

"I mean there is a portion of the population that those at the top consider a sort of buffer. People they are willing to let die in case something ever went wrong. I don't think they thought things would go wrong two hundred fifty years early. That's why they're intentionally sabotaging the outer colonies."

Maera's eyes went wide. "Whoa, backup. There is no way the government murdered most of a colony to extend our deadline."

I shook my head, pushing my glasses up. "I didn't say the government was doing this. Not all of it, at least. Have any of you heard of The Invialoti?"

Maera crossed her arms with a dismissive scowl. "You mean the supposed secret cult that rules the world from the shadows? You don't actually believe in them, do you?"

I took a rust colored ring from my pocket and offered it to Xamber. I watched as he ran his thumb over the engraved eye with an "i" where the pupil should have been. He handed it to Maera who examined it closely. 

"That ring belonged to my grandfather. He wore it until the day he died. He brushed off questions with generic stories of a fraternity he belonged to in university. When I told him I couldn't find a fraternity that symbol represented, he told me the fraternity had been disbanded due to internal conflict. When my grandfather died, I acquired it so I could find more answers. My hunt led me to The Invialoti and a frightening number of powerful figures. They are few and far between, but I have found several images of these people with rings that match my grandfather's almost exactly. The latest picture is the one that worries me the most."

I moved my pointer to the Director of Resources. "This is Minister Saltyr, Director of Resources. This man has the power to distribute all resources in the colonies where he wishes. His position answers to no higher power and there is nothing keeping things fair. You can see the ring in this image."

All three of them moved closer to examine the vaguely grainy picture. Maera held the ring up to the picture, the doubt fading from her eyes. She stood and offered me the ring back. "Are you saying he's withholding resources from the outer colonies to ensure the inner colonies can live out the rest of the original timeline?"

I nodded as I took the ring back. "Exactly."

Kolyver scratched their head. "How do you plan to prove this by checking out Omega-Delta?"

"If explosives were used, this man has his fingers in the situation. There is almost no way someone could construct a bomb without at least stealing from the Resources Department."

Xamber rubbed the light peach fuzz on his chin. "And you know what to look for to tell if it was an explosion?"

I gave him a short nod. "You could say I've dabbled in incendiary methods. Did you have any luck with Evans?"

Xamber shook his head with a sigh. "He said it was too dangerous."

I rolled my eyes. "As if he has any right to pretend the safety of students is one of his priorities."

Maera furrowed her eyebrows. "What do you mean by that?"

I made a politely dismissive gesture. "Don't worry about it. I'll talk to him. We'll have an instructor sponsor by the end of the week." I was glad when they didn't push the issue.

I ushered the three of them toward the door. "I hate to seem rude, but I have to feed Anak." Kolyver was out the door almost before I opened it.

Xamber chuckled at his friend's behavior. "No worries. Thanks for sharing all of this with us and for talking to Instructor Evans. You have a good night, Ryka."

I sighed in relief when they were gone. "Being around other people is so draining." I relaxed a bit further when cool hands began rubbing my shoulders.

"You did a good job, Ryka." 

I leaned on Anak, sharing my body heat with my reptilian friend. "That was the easy part. I had hoped Evans would just say yes to them."

"You've got this."

"I hope so."