Nyxia

A Babel employee brings Emmett to a room to say his goodbyes before the spaceship launches. While he waits, Emmett listens to music and thinks about his best friend (PJ), his music group (the Most Excellent Brothers), and the home he is leaving behind. A door slides open, and Emmett’s father walks in to say goodbye. Emmett’s mother couldn’t make the trip to see him because of her medical condition. His father acknowledges that the money would change their lives, but he asks Emmett, “Does it feel right?” (16). Emmett replies, “It’s hard to tell the difference between rich and wrong” (16). His father encourages him and reminds him to “[b]e worthy […] not in their eyes, but in [his]” (18). He then gives Emmett a key, which is a family heirloom. Many years before, Emmett’s great-great-great grandmother escaped enslavement in the American South and asked a locksmith to make a key that would unlock her shackles. Since that time, Emmett’s family has passed the key down from one generation to the next.

Emmett is brought to his apartment on the ship by Donovan Vandemeer, the Dutch doctor who will be treating him and his roommate throughout their time on Genesis 11. Vandemeer orients Emmett to the nyxian suit and language converter he’ll wear for the next three years of the mission. Emmett is shocked to see that his roommate is a Japanese girl, and Vandemeer gently mocks him for worrying about sharing a room with a girl.

Emmett puts on his nyxian suit and language converter and admires his reflection, thinking that he looks like “a galactic James Bond” (23). Emmett finds his way to the common room, where he meets the other competitors: Bilal, a good-natured boy from Palestine; Katsu, a large guy from Japan; Jasmine, a blonde from Memphis; Azima from Kenya; Jaime from Switzerland; Kaya (Emmett’s roommate); Isadora from Brazil; and Roathy. The 10th person on the trip is Longwei, a Chinese boy who doesn’t join in the introductions. They all can communicate with one another through the Babel-issued nyxian translators that affix to their jaws. Commander Crocker shows them which areas of the ship are off-limits. Then Marcus Defoe, the Babel executive who will be their trainer, starts their first lesson. 

Babel attendants enter the common room with pieces of nyxia formed into rings for each of the teens. Emmett slides on his nyxia ring, which is “cold to the touch […] [and] feels active, frenetic with energy” (34). Marcus shows them images of a marble and a pair of gloves and tells them to form their nyxia into these objects using only their minds. Emmett can do both tasks. Immediately, points appear on a scoreboard on the wall. Then Marcus tells them to make a specific flower, but he doesn’t give them an image to work with. This task is much harder, and Emmett barely succeeds, beating out Isadora and Roathy. Longwei is in first place by a wide margin. The scoreboard changes, and Emmett lands in seventh place. The rest of the morning is spent in nyxia manipulations, Eden geography lessons, and athletics training.

In the afternoon, Marcus Defoe leads Emmett and the others to the Rabbit Room, a virtual-reality enhanced training room where they will compete on an obstacle course in teams. Emmett is on a team with Jaime, Zima, Kaya, and Isadora. Though Emmett is ahead of Isadora in the current standings, he is still in the lower half, so the others on his team “think [he’s] one of the weak links” (41). The teams must traverse the obstacle course without falling; if a member of the team falls, then that team’s course increases speed. Emmett is the last one standing in his group, but he eventually falls. He expects to get more individual points for coming in third, but Marcus tells him that in the Rabbit Room, points are only calculated for the group. Emmett confronts Marcus about the unfairness of the system, and Marcus uses this as an opportunity to tell the recruits, “[D]ismiss your idea of fair here and now. Our rules are our rules […] [N]ever forget that this is our competition” (47). At the end of the first day, Emmett is in ninth place. Worried by the competition and his family’s centuries of struggle, Emmett stays up late into the night practicing his nyxia manipulations, committed to winning.

The next day, Kaya proposes an alliance to Emmett. She says, “If we team up, it’ll feel like we’re coming back every day to a safe place. I want to feel like I’m coming home” (52). At breakfast, the kids share some of the nyxia manipulations they’ve experimented with since the previous day, and they discuss why Babel might have chosen each of them for the mission. Emmett’s guess is that they have been chosen because they are all poor, except for Jaime, who Emmett believes is lying about his background. Jaime and Emmett form an early rivalry, which shows up in the lessons that morning. Emmett’s late-night practice pays off, and he moves into fourth place. 

That afternoon, Emmett and Kaya’s Rabbit Room team tries out Kaya’s new strategy, which exploits a glitch in virtual reality programming. Marcus Defoe is impressed, but he insinuates that the glitch will be fixed before the next competition. At the end of day two, Emmett feels more confident about his chances.

After the first week of competition, Emmett is in first place. On the seventh day, Marcus Defoe brings the contestants to a sparring room where they will practice fighting with nyxia-blunted weapons. Emmett’s first fight is against Roathy; Emmett chooses metal claws as his weapon because he plans to use his boxing experience to win the fight. Emmett lands a finishing blow, and even though the metal claws are blunted, he still injures Roathy’s trachea. Roathy is taken away for medical care, and the Rabbit Room competition continues despite the opposing team having one less competitor. Emmett sacrifices himself on the course so that his team can win. Then Longwei, the other team’s captain, kicks him and claims he cheated by getting rid of Roathy. Longwei is led away, but Emmett recognizes that he has made an enemy in both Roathy and Longwei.

Every 10th day is a “Sabbath,” a rest day for the competitors. Emmett sleeps in and then listens to Kaya read Alice in Wonderland. Before they can finish the book, Vandemeer comes to get Emmett for a therapy session because of his and Roathy’s fight. Emmett is uninterested in talking to Vandemeer, but Vandemeer shows him a video replay of the fight and points out that Emmett seems unmoved after the injury to Roathy. Emmett tells Vandemeer that he was only defending himself, but Emmett is secretly concerned that the competition is changing him.

After his meeting with Vandemeer, Emmett decides to visit Roathy in the med unit, but Isadora, Roathy’s roommate and girlfriend, is angry with Emmett for hurting Roathy and refuses to let him inside the med unit. Later, Emmett and Kaya continue their earlier discussion about why Babel chose each of them. Kaya believes it’s because they are all broken in some way, and Emmett reflects on how broken he feels because of the problems he’s endured in his life. Kaya shares that she can see people’s auras and that each of the competitors has a different aura of brokenness; she and Emmett are both blue, abandoned. Bilal interrupts their conversation to invite them to spend time in his room whenever they want, and his hospitality almost takes Emmett’s mind off Isadora and Roathy.

Longwei’s new strategy for beating Emmett is to win all the morning competitions so that he has a points buffer for the Rabbit Room, where Kaya’s strategy has made Emmett’s team incredibly effective. On this day, however, Marcus Defoe changes the Rabbit Room course to a virtual reality simulation of the mining that the competitors will do on Eden. He reshuffles the teams so that Longwei and Emmett are in the same group with Roathy, separate from Kaya. Roathy is still not back from the med clinic, so Emmett’s team is short one member. The mining equipment requires intense communication and cooperation, which Longwei and Emmett both struggle with. Kaya’s team wins, and Emmett decides to focus on the individual competitions since he is not confident that he will be able to work with Longwei.

In addition to changing up the Rabbit Room, Marcus Defoe also changes the nyxia manipulation task so that the competitors must manipulate larger stores of nyxia. As each competitor tries to manipulate the larger amount of nyxia, they are overcome by some psychic force and experience psychological pain. Kaya chooses not to participate, forfeiting her points for the exercise. On Emmett’s turn, his goal is to beat Longwei’s mark, but the nyxia overwhelms him: “[It] cuts [him] away from the world […] [He] feels [his] arms moving in and out of their sockets […] [His] lungs beg to be filled [and he] screams until they take [him] away” (114). When Emmett awakes, Vandemeer explains that nyxia can resist manipulation. Emmett, concerned about all that Babel might be hiding, steals Vandemeer’s key card so that he can explore off-limits parts of the ship.

Emmett continues to worry about Roathy taking revenge on him for the injury, and Emmett’s rivalry with Jaime bubbles over into the sparring ring. Longwei continues to try and complete the mining simulations on his own, so their team has yet to win a competition. On this day, Emmett finally convinces Longwei to let him help, and Emmett leads his team to a victory. However, Jaime and Roathy continue to act hostile toward him, and he continues to respond in kind. Emmett asks Kaya to read to him at night to push the nightmares away.

During the sparring matches, Emmett and Jaime are paired together. The fight is brutal, but it becomes clear very quickly that the nyxia blunting on their weapons has been tampered with. Jaime stabs Emmett with his knife, and Emmett blacks out.

Emmett is recovering from internal surgery and a blood transfusion. Vandemeer tells Emmett that he’ll be out of the competition for at least a week and maybe more. Emmett won’t be able to score any points during this time, so he worries that he’ll end up incredibly behind in the rankings. However, his injuries are too severe, and he must accept that he won’t be able to leave the med bay until he recovers. Emmett is certain that Jaime stabbed him on purpose, but Vandemeer says the investigation is still ongoing.

During his recovery, Emmett learns that nyxia cannot heal wounds caused by nyxia since the substance won’t undo its own work. Vandemeer arranges for Emmett to call home, and Emmett’s father gives him advice on working hard even when the odds seem stacked against him. Emmett shares his insecurities about being a bad person, but his father tells him, “Just don’t lose who you are. Are you a bad person? Of course not. Does that mean you’ll always do the right thing? Of course not. No one’s perfect” (150). Emmett tries to believe him.

Emmett is finally ready to return to the group. Marcus Defoe makes an unscheduled visit to his hospital room with a frightened man named Mr. Kapinski. Marcus reveals that Mr. Kapinski, who is Isadora and Roathy’s doctor, sabotaged the dagger that hurt Emmett. Marcus explains that in space, Babel operates on what he calls “primal law,” meaning that the person most affected by a crime is the one to pass judgment. Marcus challenges Emmett to kill Mr. Kapinski in retribution. Emmett refuses, and Mr. Kapinski goes free. Emmett is reminded of his first fight at nine; he let his anger control him, but his grandmother taught him to file his anger away and turn it into something better. Emmett plans to use his anger to keep Babel and Marcus from controlling him.

Later that morning, Emmett returns to the training room to see that he’s fallen into last place. The first day back is brutal, and Emmett struggles with how much time he’s lost and with how isolated he feels from everyone else. Kaya tells him that she wanted to visit while he was sick, but she wasn’t allowed. At first, Emmett doesn’t believe her, but then Kaya says, “I’m not going to leave you just because you had a bad day […] I’m not going to leave you just because you’re mad at everything” (165). Encouraged, Emmett shows Kaya the key card he stole from Vandemeer, and the two of them go to explore the forbidden parts of the ship.