Endless Summer

Rock The Boat

Back at The Celestial, your classmates stand around in a circle in the lobby. Nobody moves. Nobody speaks. They all stare slack jawed and wide eyed at Iris.

Iris's image flickers. "Error. Visual input is registering as frozen."

"No, Iris. They're just..." You scratch the back of your neck. "staring at you."

Everyone gawks at the flickering hologram of Iris, emitted from the tiny, spherical drone floating behind her.

Quinn tilts her head. "So, this is the Observatory's A.I.?"

Sean shakes his head. "Not exactly. She's a backup copy Y/N restored. But she doesn't know what happened on the island."

"It remembers nothing?" Aleister frowns.

"No." Iris replies. "I apologize for the inconvenience."

"Nearby, on the couches, Michelle is using a first-aid kit to tend to Craig's injuries. She snorts. "Sounds more like convenient to me."

Craig winces. "Ouch! Easy doc!"

She only rolls her eyes. "Pipe down, you big baby! You clearly sprained your wrist in that fall on the mountain! I thought you were the toughest guy in school."

Craig sheepishly grins. "Hey, you really think so, Meech?"

"Shut up." Michelle growls. "I'm just saying. How do we know if she's telling the truth?"

"You do not." Iris says matter of factly. "I was not programmed to have any facial tics to signal deception."

"Thanks for making my point." Michelle flips her hair back. By the way, I'm shocked we didn't all get killed out there."

"We're fine, Michelle." Sean steps forward. "We handled ourselves well."

You nod. "I believe we were strong. We just dealt with some serious craziness out there, and we're all still in one piece. That's something to be proud of."

Sean smiles at you. "Damn straight."

Michelle rolls her eyes. "This coming from a guy who played through a fractured tibia. We got lucky. Keep pushing things, and the world's gonna push back."

"What's important is that Michelle has a point." Estela glares at Iris. "The machine can't be trusted. We should destroy it. Now."

Iris frowns. "Please refrain."

Raj shakes his head. "What? No way, dude!"

As Estela moves towards the hologram, Raj steps in front of her, arms outstretched. She glared up at him.

"Out of the way, Raj."

He glares back. "No."

The two face off in intense staring contest. You step between them before things got ugly. "Take it easy, you two. Estela, not too long ago, none of us trusted you either."

Raj nods. "Exactly!"

Estela growls. "That was a massive gamble on your part."

"And one that paid off." You take a tentative step close to her. "We wouldn't be alive if it weren't for you, right?"

Estela stares into your eyes before backing down. "Don't be too sure that it paid off just yet."

Iris turns to you. "Thank you, Y/N."

"You can thank me by proving me right, Iris."

Iris nods. "Affirmative."

Zahra sneaks up behind Iris. "If I could just get my hands on that golden snitch thing, I could get a look at what makes Iris tick!"