by Dan Wells
Nyx stared back, realization dawning on her face. “Wh—what?”
The desktop viewscreen changed again, this time showing an old-timey phone icon, and two bright blue words: Incoming Message.
Zero frowned. “Who could be calling us?”
“Who do you think?” asked Nyx, and leaned forward to tap the screen. The words disappeared, replaced by the faces of Mama, Jim, Kratt, and Spider, all clustered around a screen of their own in the cockpit of the Drago.
Mama smiled with a frightening blend of sweetness and spite. “Hello, children.”
Nyx narrowed her eyes. “What do you want?”
“Your heads on a stick,” growled Kratt.
“Quiet, you,” snapped Mama, and then her sickly smile returned. “We want our ship back.”
“It’s not your ship,” said Zero.
“It was,” said Mama, “and in a couple of minutes, it will be again. What we’re giving you now is the opportunity to get back in our good graces. When we get back on board that ship—and we will—you want to be our friends, right? Not our enemies.”
Sancho spoke up: “The reboot process appears to have deleted the virus in my software that prevented me from detecting their ship. I can see it clearly on my sensors, attempting to redock at a different airlock.”
“Don’t let it,” said Nyx.
“I will not,” said Sancho.
“There’s no code you can use that I can’t break,” said Spider.
“Look,” said Zero. “You can’t come on board, and you can’t have the ship. In about eight minutes we’re going to Boost the Medina drive, and head off to Kaguya at a speed that will literally kill you if you’re not in a stasis pod.” He pointed over his shoulder. “Nyx is taking this one, and I’m going to keep you away from her and from everybody on this ship until my last breath.”
“But Nyx is on our side!” cried Mama. “You fool! This was all part of our plan: you feel sorry for her, take her into your confidence, and now when you least expect, she strikes!” The pirates froze, waiting. After a moment, Mama said it again. “She strikes!”
Zero looked at Nyx. “You’re not going to strike, right?”
Nyx sneered. “Pshh. Of course not.” She looked at the pirates on the screen. “Are you seriously trying to bluff me with a plan that I clearly know is not real?”
“We’re giving you a chance to come back to your family,” said Jim.
“You’re not my family,” said Nyx. “You’re just the criminals I couldn’t get away from until now. And now I’m getting away to a place where you’ll never be able to follow me.”
“You’re giving us up for a nobody,” said Kratt. “He’s nothing. Even his name is Zero!”
Zero rose out of his chair. “My name is Su-Shu Huang. And this is my ship, and Nyx is my friend, and you can’t have any of them.” The pirates started to protest, but he reached out and tapped the screen, closing the call. “So stay out.”
“Su-Shu, huh?” asked Nyx.
Zero shrugged. “Yeah, it’s kind of a dumb name.”
“I think it’s cool,” said Nyx. “My name is, um . . .” She trailed off, like she was embarrassed of it. “Catherine.”
Zero raised his eyebrow. “You really don’t look like a Catherine.”
Nyx smiled. “Tell me about it.”
“I have scrambled the airlocks in such a way that it will take them at least ten minutes to hack through. We are scheduled to Boost the Medina StarDrive in six minutes,” said Sancho. “The stasis pod initiation process takes four. Whichever one of you is going to use the pod needs to get into it immediately.”
“You,” said Zero.
“And leave you to die?” asked Nyx. “No way.”
“But we have to—”
“We can share it,” said Nyx, and pulled him over to it. It was designed for an adult, just like the pod Zero had been in before, which meant there was more than enough room to fit two children. She hit the button on the side and the door swung open.
“Are you sure?” asked Zero.
“Stop arguing,” said Nyx, and then broke into a smile. “Just try not to get your paint all over me, okay?”
“Okay,” said Zero, and took her hand. They stepped in together, squeezing in next to each other, and then the pod door swung closed again.
“I’m kind of scared,” said Nyx.
“Of the pod?”
“Of the future,” she said. “It’s a long way away.”
“It’s okay,” said Zero, already feeling sleepy. He held her hand tightly. “It’s gonna be great.”
And then the gel started to fill up the pod, and then he was asleep.
Chapter Thirty
TOMORROW
ZERO WAS SWIMMING again, like a dolphin in an ocean the size of the universe. He turned and dove and danced through the water, until at some point it occurred to him that he had felt like this before. When had that been? He’d been doing something, or thinking something, or . . . oh yeah. It had been a dream. He wondered if that meant this was a dream, too.
And that’s all it took to wake him up.
The stasis effect wore off more quickly this time, and the pod worked the way it was supposed to: the sticky gel that surrounded him drained out the bottom, and the door swung open with a smooth, satisfying motion. It happened so quickly, in fact, that Zero was already floating out of the pod before he noticed the tall, stern woman hovering in front of him.
“You’re not the pilot we left home with,” she said. She was wearing a United Earth uniform. “Neither of you are.”
Zero’s eyes went wide. “Uh—um—uh.”
“Hi,” said Nyx, floating out next to Zero. “We can explain.”
“Sancho filled me in on most of it,” said the woman. She looked at Zero. “Your name is Su-Shu Huang, and your pod malfunctioned, and then Jim Gaynor betrayed his post and brought a crew of pirates aboard.” She looked at Nyx. “I take it you’re one of the pirates.”
“My family were the pirates,” said Nyx. “I kept trying to . . . tell them to . . . be good? And stuff? But I’m just thirteen years old. They never listen to anything I say—”
“It’s fine,” said the woman. “You’re not in trouble. In fact, let’s make this official.” She held out her hand, shaking each kid’s hand in turn. “My name is Tamira Hatendi of the United Earth Fleet, Head of the Pathfinder mission and Governor of the Kaguya Colony. You’ve saved our ship and the lives of everyone on it. Please allow me to be the first to thank you, from the bottom of my heart. As soon as the colony is established, at our very first meeting, I will award you our highest—and at this point, only—honor.”
Zero didn’t know what to say. “Thank you!”
“No,” said Governor Hatendi. “Thank you. As I understand it, without you two helping us back there, we’d been living in a mine right now.”
“Even as a purely navigational computer,” said Sancho, “I can see that you deserve this honor very much.”
“Thanks, buddy,” said Zero.
“You said we helped you ‘back there,’” said Nyx. “How far back is ‘back there’?”
Governor Hatendi smiled. “One hundred and five years ago,” she said, and gestured to the window. “We’re in orbit around Kaguya—have a look.”
“What?” Zero could barely contain himself—he pushed off of the stasis pod and flew across the room to the window. A giant blue marble appeared below them, blue and green and white.
“It looks like Earth,” Nyx whispered. “I mean—it looks like the pictures of Earth. I’ve never actually seen it.”
“The continents are all different,” said Zero. “And Kaguya has way more islands.”
“Most of the landmass is in a single archipelago,” said Hatendi. “Though there is one large continent, just out of sight around the curve to your right. It’ll rotate back around again in about an hour.” She pointed to the edge of the planet. “That’s where we’re landing three days from now.”
Nyx was in awe. “It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
“What do you mean ‘three days’?” asked Zero. “I thought we were going to wake up right when it was time to land?”
“Most of the passengers, yes,” said Sancho. “Governor Hatendi was awakened early this morning to assist with the preparations, and after I explained the situation she insisted on waking the two of you early, as well.”
“What can I say?” asked Hatendi. “I couldn’t wait to talk to you.”
“Is my family okay?” asked Zero.
“Every passenger is safe and accounted for,” said Hatendi, “including your family. Would you like to see them?”
“Maybe in a bit,” said Zero. “Honestly, right now I’m just starving.”
“Me too,” said Nyx.
“Sounds good to me,” said Hatendi. “Why don’t we move into the rec room, and we can talk more over food. There are a lot of preparations to make before we land, and a whole new world to explore, and not all of my staff is awake yet.” She smiled. “I could use your help.”
“Done,” said Nyx with a grin.
“Let’s go,” said Zero, and smiled. “I’ll make you my specialty: a double-sized, one-of-a-kind Zero burger, with floating fries and ketchup.”
“And a side of baby carrots,” added Sancho.
THE END
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Huge thanks to my agent, Sara Crowe, my editor, Heather Alexander, and my wife, Dawn. Also to my children, off of whom I bounced a thousand ideas, and to my brother, Robison Wells, who helped me come up with the core of the story. Last but not least, a massive thank you to all the fans who listened to Zero’s story in Audible, and helped to make it such a success. We wouldn’t be here without you.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dan Wells writes a lot of books for teens and adults. ZERO G is his first book for children. In addition to science fiction, he also writes horror, fantasy, thrillers, and historical fiction. Dan lives in Utah with his wife, six children, a dog he likes, a rabbit he tolerates, and a cat he despises.
Table of Contents
Abassi Station
The Boarding Agent
The Pathfinder
Jim and Sancho
The Stasis Pods
Waking Up
Empty
Alone
The Asteroid
Double Bacon Cheeseburgers
The Kuiper Cliff
Cargo
Action Figures
Pirates
Plan A
Tacita
The Ghost
Cat and Mouse
Hiding
Plan B
Tomato Sauce
Plan C
Caught
Paper, Rock, and Scissors
Life Support
The Alien
Payback
The Last Minute
Bedtime
Tomorrow
Acknowledgments
About the Author