“What’s wrong?” Falling Star asked as he came over to James’s side. “I’m sorry I was teasing you.”
James looked up at Falling Star, his eyes red, his cheeks damp with tears. “That’s okay,” he began. “I guess I never really cried about my breakup.”
“You mean Paul?”
“Yes,” James said and sniffled. “Just being around him again at Project Jedi must have brought it back up. I thought I had dealt with my feelings. I guess all I did was stuff them down inside. I mean, he was my best friend, and he betrayed me. And now I’ve met you, and you’re wonderful. You’re everything I could want in a boyfriend. And I’m too scared to tell you how I really feel. I’m too scared to let something start between us because I’m afraid I’ll get hurt again.”
Falling Star smiled and leaned down to put his hand on James’s shoulder. “Is that all?” he asked with a sigh of relief. “I thought you were mad at me.”
James looked at him quizzically. “No, I’m mad at myself for not acknowledging my feelings.”
They were both quiet for a few moments. “So, you really like me?” Falling Star asked with complete sincerity.
“Of course, I do. You’re great. I have so much fun with you. That’s part of the problem.”
“How is having fun with me a problem?” Falling Star asked as he sat down beside James and put his arm around James’s shoulders.
“I don’t want to lose that. I don’t want to lose you.”
“But you won’t lose me. Look at the back of your hand.”
James rubbed the circle of fur. At once the golden hairs began to sink back into his skin until all that was left was bare flesh.
“What happened? Where did it go?”
“You have accepted me. We don’t need it anymore. We have a real connection now.”
“Really?” James asked as he wiped a tear from his cheek.
“I’m going to let you in on a little secret,” Falling Star said. “When you love someone, you’re taking a gamble on a little sorrow.”
“I know. It’s always a gamble. Life is a gamble. Nothing is certain.”
“Your tears are for that old relationship.”
“But I’m also sort of crying because I’m happy too.”
“Desire for the new love is faithfulness to the old love.”
James laughed and wiped his cheeks with his palms. “I guess that sort of makes sense.”
“As much sense as anything else around here does,” Falling Star said and stood up again. He offered his hand down to James and helped him up. “Let’s get back to the base.”
“Good idea,” James said and then turned Falling Star around to face him. He motioned for him to lean down. When Falling Star’s face was close enough, James gave him a gentle kiss on the cheek. “Thanks.”
“For what?”
“For being you.”
“You’ll have to thank my parents for that.”
James grimaced at the flip remark. “Ha, ha.”
15.
“IT’S ONLY a week until the launch,” Lumen said. “But I still feel like we don’t know enough about what we’re doing.”
“I know, right?” Keira said as the three teenagers headed down to Blue Level in the express elevator, their flight suits clinking against one another.
“And there’s all that other stuff we’re supposed to learn. Like, I don’t know why we have to practice rendezvous and docking with the International Space Station in the systems engineering simulator,” James said. “We’re not going to be anywhere near the ISS.”
“I thought we were done with Basic Training, anyway,” Keira replied. “That’s what my mother said.”
“Everyone says a lot of things around here,” James replied.
“We’ve trained on the Soyuz simulator, and ISS systems. We’ve done flight safety and operations, as well as land and water survival simulations,” Lumen said. “But we’ve done so little on the actual Sun Stone itself.”
“We haven’t even had the spacewalk training yet,” Keira said and twirled a finger through her hair.
“You mean, the EVA training?” James asked.
“Whoa,” Lumen answered. “You remembered the fancy acronym.”
“I was paying attention,” James continued. “Not playing footsie like you guys.”
“You’d play footsie too if Falling Star were in our class,” Keira said. “I’m glad you guys are finally a couple. You’re so cute together.”
James smiled bashfully. “I am too. He’s really great. I like him so much.”
“And he’s totally built. I mean, talk about muscular,” Lumen said and whistled. “That is one hard body.”
The elevator stopped at Blue Level, and the door sprung open. The three of them stepped out and headed down the hallway on the left to the microgravity room.
“At least they aren’t calling us AsCans anymore,” Lumen said. “I was like, Ass-Cans? What the hell?”
They laughed at the nickname for Astronaut Candidate.
“Who was that guy who told us about EVA anyway?” Keira asked.
“Someone from NASA, I think,” James said. “I didn’t catch his name.”
“The project folder for today says we’re going to be using a vacuum chamber and/or neutral buoyancy tank,” Lumen said.
“What are those?”
“I guess they allow us to get acclimated to the microgravity environment, particularly for EVA. There’s also going to be some virtual reality used to immerse us into the space environment too,” Lumen explained as she read from the project file.
They entered the microgravity room and discovered a dry-erase board in front of a row of plastic chairs. On the board someone had written: Orbital mechanics, Life support systems, Payload deployment, Nibiru observations, Physiology in Space. Helmets and gloves were hanging from hooks on the walls around them. To the far right was a large chamber with one huge window on the side. In the center of the floor, a gigantic black pool stretched out and filled half the room.
“That’s a relief,” Lumen began. “At least it’s not going to be another three-hour lecture.”
“Are we going to go in there?” Keira asked as she pointed to the dark water.
“Probably,” James said. “That must be the neutral buoyancy tank.”
“We’ll see when the instructor gets here.”
“It looks really scary,” Keira said.
“Really?” Lumen asked. “If something tried to attack you, you’d just turn it into a big pillow or a giant marshmallow.”
“I know, but I still don’t like the looks of that dark water.”
An older man with dark eyes and white hair at his temples walked into the chamber and addressed the teenagers. “I’m Dr. Singh. I’ll be instructing you in the neutral buoyancy tank, the NBT.” He wore the standard white lab coat, held a tablet beneath his arm, and moved directly toward James and Lumen. “Please find your helmets and a pair of gloves while I get the tank ready.” The doctor walked to the edge of the water and reached his hand into it. “Not cold enough. Let me turn on the lights. I’ll be back in one minute to help you with your helmets.” As quickly as he appeared, Dr. Singh exited the chamber.
“You heard the man,” James said. “Let’s find our helmets.”
Before they could get their assigned helmets, the tank lights flickered on. Distracted, the three of them wandered to the tank’s edge and looked in. The lights revealed an obstacle course—monkey bars, large spheres, hurdles—on the bottom, thirty feet below.
“Are we going to be climbing all over that stuff?” Keira asked.
“It sure looks like it,” James replied.
“Let’s get suited up,” Lumen suggested as she went to the nearby wall and located the helmet with her initials on it. She lifted it over her head and lowered it onto her shoulders. The magnetic coupling fastened instantly. Then she retrieved her gloves and put them on. Her whole suit pressurized in an instant, and she began using her own oxygen supply.
“That was easy,” Lumen said into the microphone, but no one could hear her because they weren’t wearing their helmets yet. She sent them the message telepathically.
“What are we waiting for?” James asked happily as he located his helmet and gloves and put them on.
Keira went to fetch her helmet and gloves more hesitantly. The images she saw during her Cube trip came back to her suddenly. She shook a little as a chill ran down her spine. But how are they connected? she asked herself. I never saw a water tank or anything like this. But somehow, they are connected. I can feel it. And it has something to do with Paul. So weird! She lifted her helmet from the wall and stood with it in her hands. Lumen noticed her uncertainty.
“What’s wrong?” Lumen asked.
“Nothing,” Keira thought back.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. I have a funny feeling. But maybe I just don’t like that water tank.”
“You’re safe with us. Nothing bad is going to happen.”
“I know,” Keira answered and put on her helmet, let the suit pressurize, and spoke into the microphone. “I’m just being silly.”
“No, you’re not,” James said, stepping into the conversation. “Trust your gut feelings.”
Dr. Singh reentered the chamber. He held the microphone on his white lab coat collar to his mouth. “Oh, good, you’re already suited up. Now would you proceed to the edge of the NBT and lower yourselves in via the ladder and railing on the side of the tank. When you are at the bottom, I’m going to ask you to go through a series of EVA simulations.”
James gave Dr. Singh the thumbs-up, which was difficult through the thick glove. Lumen turned around and lowered herself into the tank slowly, carefully stretching her feet down to find the rungs beneath her. She could feel the water pressure as it rose over her body and pressed the suit against her skin. In a few moments, she was standing on the tank bottom watching James and Keira come down the ladder into the tank.
“This is really strange,” Lumen said. “It’s like moving through Jell-O.”
James laughed. “It’s just like going through the dome.”
Lumen could see Dr. Singh looking down into the tank.
“Now that you are all on the bottom, let see how flexible your new suits are,” Dr. Singh said as he watched the underwater camera feeds on his tablet. “Lumen, could you climb to the top of the pyramid?”
“Sure,” Lumen replied and walked slowly over to the pyramid-shaped jungle gym. She firmly grasped the bars with her silvery gloves and pulled herself up a bar at a time until she was standing on the very top.
“Now, James and Keira I want to you climb up and carry Lumen down from the pyramid. Pretend she’s injured and you have to bring her back on board the Sun Stone.”
James turned toward Keira, and she smiled back at him, the tank lights reflecting from their face masks. They both moved with a great amount of effort to the pyramid. Keira climbed on first and pulled James up beside her.
“Thanks,” James said. “I’m really sweating in here.”
“Me too.”
“You’re stronger than you look.”
“Just because I’m a girl…,” Keira began to say, looking a little bit angry.
“No! That’s not what I meant,” James said, fumbling. “It’s not that you look weak because you’re a girl. It’s just that your muscles aren’t obvious.”
Keira’s glare softened to an amused grin.
Lumen snickered into the microphone as she listened to the conversation between James and Keira.
“I can hear you laughing, Lumen,” James said.
“You always manage to stick your foot in your mouth,” she said.
“We’re coming to get you!” Keira announced playfully.
The two of them climbed up the jungle gym until they were standing next to Lumen.
“Very good,” Dr. Singh said. “Now I want you to practice the water evacuation medical emergency protocol.”
“Copy that,” Keira said. “You take her feet. I’ll carry her under her arms.”
Lumen obliged her rescuers by falling limply into their arms. James started down first, carefully maneuvering his footholds and keeping hold of Lumen. “This is harder than I thought it would be.”
“I know, right?” Keira replied. “I know the water is making her weight nothing, but it’s difficult to get down the slope of this pyramid while holding her.”
“Less talk. More rescuing,” Lumen said.
A shock wave rumbled through the tank, shaking both James and Keira loose from their footholds. They dropped Lumen, and the three of them sank to the bottom of the tank through a sea of bubbles. A metal bar came away from the side of the tank and plummeted down near them. It clanged loudly when it hit the bottom.
“What was that?” James asked as he managed to right himself.
“It felt like an explosion,” Lumen said. “Dr. Singh? What’s happening?”
“I don’t know,” the doctor replied. “I’m just getting new orders right now. Hold on one minute.”
“Was it an earthquake?” James and Lumen helped Keira up.
“I knew something funny was going to happen,” Keira said. “I could feel it.”
“Maybe this is a new power you’ve developed, seeing the future?” James suggested.
“The other thing I felt is that Paul is behind whatever this is. I can sense it’s him.”
“Paul? What could he do now? He’s lost all his powers,” James said and laughed, a little bitterly.
“What?” Lumen asked.
“I promised I wouldn’t tell Dr. Albion, but I can tell you guys. He’s no longer a Blod Heilun. All his powers are gone.”
“When did this happen? He’s been walking around here for weeks acting like he’s a king,” Lumen said.
“I think Falling Star is the Blod Heilun now. He seems to have absorbed all Paul’s powers,” James started to explain.
“Quickly, everyone,” Dr. Singh ordered. “Climb out of the NBT! We need to get off the base immediately.”
“Oh my God!” Keira gasped, sweat running down her brow.
“What’s going on?”
“It doesn’t matter. Let’s hurry,” Lumen said as she looked at James and Keira. Lumen moved over to the ladder and climbed up. James and Keira followed her to the surface. She pulled off her helmet, dripping water, and breathed heavily.
“There’s been an accident with the Sun Stone. We need to evacuate the base,” Dr. Singh said. “Hurry, there’s a Gulfstream G550 waiting for us on the airstrip.”
“What happened?” James asked as he pulled his helmet off.
“All I know is radioactive contamination is imminent if we stay here.”
Several armed MPs appeared and indicated that they’d be escorting them to the express elevator that led to the surface. They marched the small wet group to the doorway.
“What about our helmets and gloves?” Keira asked.
“Just leave them,” Dr. Singh said.
“Where’s Tenzing and Cedric?” Lumen asked. “And Falling Star?”
“And my mother?” Keira asked in a panic.
“They’re already on board and waiting for you,” Dr. Singh said. “Please hurry.”
They were led down the hallway. The express elevator opened, and everyone piled in, MPs in front. The doors closed, the nearest MP put his security badge against the lockpad, and the elevator zoomed up to the surface. Once outside, the MPs helped everyone into Jeeps, which then raced across the base toward the airfield. James looked out the window and saw the luxury jet waiting for them. The Jeeps stopped next to the airplane and two of the MPs hopped out and herded Dr. Singh, James, Kiera, and Lumen up the staircase that led into the Gulfstream.
Everything in the interior of the jet was covered in fawn-colored leather: the walls, the plump seats, and the partitions that separated the plane into sections. A few high-level military people were already seated in the front of the cabin. Keira saw Falling Star in
the back and headed down the aisle toward him. Tenzing sat on his lap staring out the window.
“Keira,” Falling Star said. “What’s going on? They won’t tell us.”
“Something happened to the ship we were going to fly into outer space. A radiation leak or something. We have to evacuate the base.”
“But where are they taking us?” Tenzing asked.
“That’s a good question,” Keira said and turned to look for Dr. Singh.
The MP shut and sealed the aircraft door. Lumen sat down quickly in a seat near the front, her space suit dripping onto the leather upholstery. James passed her and sat next to Falling Star.
“I’m so glad to see you here,” James said as he leaned over and hugged him.
“You’re all wet,” Falling Star said as he began brushing the water off himself.
“What? Are you afraid of a little cold water?” James asked sarcastically.
“I know you are,” Falling Star said and winked.
James smiled, and then his face took on a look of grave seriousness. “I don’t know what I’d do if they left you behind.”
“Well, they didn’t,” Falling Star said reassuringly from his window seat. “Where you go, I go.”
“And Tenzing too,” James said and petted the cat.
“Oh my God,” Keira gasped. “Where are Alexander, Cedric, and my mother?”
A small bell rang. “May I have your attention, ladies and gentlemen,” the captain announced. “Please take your seats and fasten your seat belts. We’re cleared for immediate takeoff.”
The jet’s idling engines surged into life with a roar. Keira quickly sat down across the aisle from James and fastened her seat belt and pulled it tight across her hips.
“Where are they?” Keira asked again, anxiety starting to set in. “Why aren’t they on the plane with us?”
“I hope they made it out in time,” Tenzing said.
“I’m sure they did,” James answered. “Fort Bragg wouldn’t let anything happen to them.”
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