“Maeve, seriously,” Isaiah said uneasily. “Don’t get too close. The ducts up here are full of vents. They might not be able to support our weight.”
Just then, the colossadon rammed its plastene partition, shaking the entire structure. Maeve was knocked off her hands and knees. She rolled onto her side. The grate beneath her creaked.
“Get off of that!” Dev shouted.
But it was too late; the hinges gave way and Maeve tumbled down into the pen below.
“Maeve!” Lewis screamed.
She gripped the edge of the opening. Her fingertips were white and straining. “Help me!” she cried. The colassadon sniffed and turned its attention to the girl dangling like a snack inside its enclosure.
Lewis grasped her wrists and pulled. Tessa wrapped her hands around Lewis’s waist and held tight.
Maeve’s face flashed with terror. The colossadon reared up on its hind legs. It snapped its massive jaws, its teeth glinting. Maeve could feel its hot breath on her shins. She pulled her knees up to her chest, just out of reach of the creature’s open mouth.
“I won’t let you go, Maeve,” Lewis said. “I promise.”
“You’d better not!”
The colossadon thumped down on all fours and turned away, snorting angrily.
“It’s leaving. Thank goodness. Quick. Pull us up,” Lewis shouted. The others yanked with all their might.
All of a sudden, the colossadon tossed its head and rammed the partition again, sending both Maeve and Lewis tumbling downward, clinging to each other like a chain. Tessa held on to Lewis for dear life. Dev, Isaiah, and Virri grabbed Tessa’s legs and tried to pull her backward. Dev had never considered himself particularly buff, but his friends’ lives were at stake and he felt a burst of untapped strength.
The colossadon eyed the cadets. Now it could surely reach Maeve. It reared its head, clawing the ground and preparing to pounce.
Isaiah’s ears rang. Heat built up behind his eyes. His racing heart stilled. A sort of calm fell over him. Time slowed. He blinked and found his vision crisper and clearer than ever before. He focused all his energy on the tree beside the colossadon, a thick-trunked palm studded with leafy fronds. He stared at it, thinking about how it had felt to drop that tuba on Gage’s foot back at NASA. How he had harnessed his anger, his fear. He felt those same things now, more intensely than ever. Energy surged through him; pressure gathered until it was almost unbearable.
Maeve screamed. The colossadon roared. Isaiah’s vision flared, white and hot. A pulse of light arced, striking the tree. The huge palm cracked as though it had been struck by lighting and toppled onto the beast, stunning the animal just long enough for the cadets to wrench Lewis and Maeve up to safety. Virri quickly bolted the grate back in place and scrambled away from it.
The cadets lay on their backs in the duct, heaving deep, ragged breaths.
“No one hurt or eaten?” Lewis asked, checking to make sure everyone was okay. Maeve could barely speak, but she was unharmed.
“Wh-what was that?” Tessa asked, dazed. “Where did that blast come from?”
Isaiah’s head was pounding. He looked down into the enclosure. Below, the colossadon bucked the tree off of its back as though it were no more than a twig. Still, in the moment, it had been enough. Enough to save his friends. He rubbed his eyes. They stung and were tender to the touch. He studied the splintered tree. Could he really have done that? With his mind alone?
He hadn’t been able to move a dinky potato the night before, but now he could suddenly fell an entire tree? The thought sent a shiver down his spine. Something stirred in his chest. For once, Isaiah wasn’t afraid. He didn’t feel doomy or full of dread. He felt powerful, alive. He didn’t share any of this with his fellow cadets, though. Not yet. He needed to figure it out himself before telling anyone else.
53
EARTH
Dr. Khatri hurried into the Gwen Research Center as the Conroy sky blushed apricot-pink. On weekday mornings, the building would be buzzing with activity at this hour, but it was Saturday and Dr. Khatri was grateful to be alone. He couldn’t afford any distractions. He needed to gather the necessary equipment and return to the portal as expediently as possible.
As he hurried toward the quantum studies supply room, he heard muffled sounds coming from Dr. Scopes’s office. He stopped. He crept closer, listening, pressing his ear to the door.
Thump! Bump!
He pulled a master set of keys from his pocket and unlocked the door. He pushed it open.
“Hello?” he called, stepping inside. Something rustled behind Dr. Scopes’s desk. He rushed over, hoping it might be one of the missing children.
On the floor, bound and gagged, was Professor McGillum.
“You!” Dr. Khatri yanked the gag from his mouth roughly. Professor McGillum cried out, cowering behind the nearest chair.
“How dare you construct a collider without consulting with the department!” Dr. Khatri shouted. “Do you have any idea—”
“Mohan! Stop! Please!” the professor croaked, his throat dry, his eyes struck with terror. “It wasn’t me! Genevieve is behind this. She’s a fraud!” He coughed and wheezed. “She received some sort of urgent message during the field trip. The kids were having lunch in the café, so she asked me to look after them for a moment. I agreed.” He scrunched up his forehead, trying to remember each detail.
“A few minutes later, the building shook. I assumed it was just a quiver, but then a second jolt hit. I thought we’d been hit by a bomb, the impact was so powerful. I helped the teachers evacuate the students and then I ran down here, only to find Genevieve clutching her crystal paperweight and speaking some alien language into the pendant necklace she always wears.”
The shock of gray hair on his head stood on end. “I told her we needed to get out of the building, but she refused. When I asked her what was going on, she turned and looked at me with eyes made of ice. Then she blasted me with some sort of stun gun. It knocked me out cold. When I finally came to, she was gone and I was tied up.”
Dr. Khatri let the information sink in. “How do I know you’re telling the truth?”
“She cannot be trusted, Mohan. I’ve suspected for some time that she was receiving private research funds from some very shady investors. I can’t help but think there is a connection to whatever happened yesterday.” He pulled himself to his feet and shuffled through the files on Dr. Scopes’s desk. “Here. See for yourself.”
Dr. Khatri inspected a glossy pamphlet advertising some sort of paradise for the elite. A thirteen-pointed logo was embossed in gold foil on the front.
“She was recruiting billionaires, promising them passage to a utopian world—on another planet in another dimension.”
“But why?” Dr. Khatri asked, confused.
“I don’t know. But here are the highest bidders. Not exactly the cream of the crop, if you know what I mean.” Dr. Khatri read the list of names. Oligarchs. Warloads. Billionaire bad boys.
“Is she trying to profit off her access to NASA equipment and research?”
Professor McGillum shook his head. “I wish I knew. I don’t understand her intentions. All I know is that she is not the person we thought she was.”
“Clearly,” Dr. Khatri agreed. He opened an envelope on her desk and unfolded a letter from someone named Salvido Finto, an executive with EnerCor, the world’s leading energy producer. According the letterhead, Mr. Finto was based out of Italy and was in charge of the corporation’s global drilling and mining efforts. The letter was addressed to Ms. Genevieve Scopes, Ambassadorial Advisor for the World Intelligence Organization. He paused. “Have you ever heard of the WIO?”
Professor McGillum shook his head. “Never.”
“I suppose it could be related to the UN? Or NATO?”
“She must have been working for them undercover.” Professor McGillum logged on to her computer and pulled up an email from her private server. “Look! On September first, Genevieve contacted Fi
nto and offered him a position, a diplomatic post of some kind with the WIO, in exchange for continued access to his drilling sites.”
“Drilling sites? I’m having a hard time following,” Dr. Khatri said. It had been a long twenty-four hours and his head was spinning.
Professor McGillum unrolled a map on the desk. It was marked with at least a dozen Xs scattered on nearly every continent, indicating various EnerCor bases and headquarters. Two blue stars also appeared on the map—one outside of Milan, Italy, in a small town called Luciana. The other was smack dab in the middle of Conroy, Ohio, at the Gwen Research Center itself.
“So, Dr. Scopes built the collider,” Dr. Khatri said. “Which means she knows more about the children’s whereabouts than she’s letting on.”
He was devastated. Emotions surged through him: relief that the kids were alive, fear that they might still be in danger, anger that Dr. Scopes put them in this position. He squeezed his eyes shut as frustration welled up. He felt like a fool. “Ian, I am so sorry I suspected you.”
Professor McGillum waved his hand. “No need to apologize. She is cunning. She deceived us all, but we can still make this right.”
“Yes, I intend to.” He picked up the phone and dialed Mayor Hawthorne’s number. “Dr. Scopes’s deception ends now.”
54
STATION LIMINUS
“Hey punks,” a voice echoed through the duct.
The kids stared as Kor crawled toward them.
“What’s the matter? Colossadon got your tongue?” she snickered. Her white hair was disheveled, her capsule bag slung across her back. The beast below roared. “Yikes. You guys pissed that thing off, too?”
Lewis nodded silently, still in shock.
“Wow. You have quite the track record.”
“You would know all about records. How many times have you escaped from jail?” Maeve replied. “You’re a wanted criminal, after all.”
“Look who’s talking.” Kor shot Maeve a feisty look.
Maeve glared back. “We are highly valuable assets on a mission to restore interdimensional diplomacy and stave off planetary collapse. Thank you very much.”
“Ohh, fancy. How’d you score that gig?” Kor pretended to be impressed.
“We just played our music and this little glowy rock started doing something special,” Lewis explained.
“Wow. So technical. Your brain’s capacity for highly advanced concepts is astounding. It’s shocking you humans only barely learned to cross the Threshold,” she said sarcastically.
“Get lost, Kor,” Tessa snapped. She did not have a good feeling about this girl.
“Okay. Good luck with your little concert.” She paused. “Though I would have thought you’d need these.” She pulled a brand-new drumstick out of her bag.
“Whaaat?” Lewis gawked.
“Oh, you like this, huh? I got another just like it.” She reached her hand deeper into the bag and retrieved a second drumstick. “I got one of these, too.” She pulled out Maeve’s long, skinny oboe.
“Where did you get that?”
Kor shrugged. “Where do you think? I acquired it from your sleeping quarters last night.”
“You acquired it? Really?” Maeve seethed, moving closer to Kor so she could snatch it from her hands. “You mean you stole it.”
“Stole. Acquired. Potato, potahto, I say.”
“Hey! Did you take our baked potato, too?” Lewis asked angrily. “’Cause I was saving that for breakfast.”
“Give us back our instruments,” Dev said, getting madder by the minute.
“Okay, okay.” Kor sat back and perused the contents of her bag. “I’m willing to make a trade.”
“A trade? That’s ridiculous,” Maeve said. “They belong to us. Give them back.”
“I mean, I could always ‘accidentally’ drop them down there … with that thing.” Kor gestured to the colossadon. “Bet she plays a nice allegro on the flute.”
“It’s an oboe, okay?” Maeve hissed. “Why is that so hard for everyone to understand? They don’t even look or sound alike!”
Kor scooted back. “Whoa. Attitude much?”
“Calm down everyone,” Isaiah said. “Kor, what do you want in exchange for the instruments?”
She leaned forward and met his eyes. “What I want is your word.”
“Our word?”
“Yes. That when you get off this Station you’ll take something with you. I promised someone I would deliver some items personally, but I have some … important business that I need to deal with first.” She pulled a glowing magenta stone the size of a Rubik’s cube from her bag. It illuminated the dark duct with pulsing pinkish light. Virri watched carefully.
“What is that?” Isaiah asked, mesmerized.
“It’s a rare ore from Virri’s dimension.”
“Wait a minute, you’re not giving us that nasty bug, are you?” Lewis said, making a face.
Kor frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“The virus that’s ravaging their planet. The reason Shro ordered an interdiction.”
Kor shook her head. “The silvox virus is not as bad as Shro wants everyone to believe. The interdiction is a cover.”
“For what? Does the council know that?”
“Not sure exactly. But the Queen of Klapproth paid me these to transport some very precious cargo to the Station.” She held up the cube.
Maeve looked at Kor suspiciously. “What sort of cargo?”
“You Earthlings sure do ask a lot of questions. In this case, you don’t need to know. Better if you don’t.” She pulled out four more cubes, each glowing the same shade. “I promised someone special I would bring these to him.”
“Ooh, someone has a boyfriend,” Lewis teased.
“It’s my grandfather, you wingnut. Promise me you’ll transport the cubes to Earth in Dim14 and I’ll hand over the instruments.”
“Are these illegal? What if we get caught with them?” Maeve asked.
“Yeah, I don’t think this is a good idea,” Dev agreed.
“They’re not illegal, but they are valuable. They’re made from regenerex.”
Dev looked at the others. “Isn’t that the ore the council wanted us to help them mine?”
“Probably,” Kor said, giving a nod. “This stuff is mad valuable. It’s the most concentrated fuel source in the multiverse, plus it’s environmentally friendly and can naturally self-renew, so it never runs out. But there’s a super limited quantity and every dimension wants to get their hands on it. Apparently there are some deposits of it running beneath Klapproth’s ocean floor, and there are deposits in a few other dimensions, but it’s almost impossible to extract.”
“Which is why the council wanted us to help find more of it,” Maeve said. “Though I don’t know the first thing about mining.”
“So, why does your grandfather need these cubes so badly?” Tessa asked, still distrustful of Kor and her motives.
“His omniabus broke down and he can’t get back home,” she replied.
“His what?”
She huffed. “His time-traveling, dimension-hopping vehicle. Duh.”
“Excuse me, what?” Isaiah said, wanting to make sure he’d heard her correctly.
“He was passing through Dim14 a while ago, and since you Earthlings only managed to build a few functioning portals, my grandfather’s been trapped on your dumb planet ever since. He needs the regenerex to fix his bus, okay?”
“But … how will we find him when we get back to Ohio?” Dev asked.
Kor shrugged coolly. “Don’t worry about that. He’ll find you.”
Tessa looked down at her watch. They were wasting time. “Fine,” she said. “We promise to bring the cubes home with us. Happy now?”
“Good choice,” Kor said, her lips curling into a smile. She took the cubes and pressed them between her palms, one at a time, flattening them into paper-thin squares. She handed one to each cadet. Isaiah was surprised that it felt as light as air
. “Keep them somewhere safe.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Lewis said, slipping his into his back pocket. “Now hand over those sweet drumsticks.”
Kor doled out the instruments. When she was done, she wiped her hands. “Nice doing business with you. I always enjoy a fair trade.”
Dev raised an eyebrow. “Not sure that counted as fair, but whatever …”
Kor made a trilling sound deep in her throat and opened her capsule bag wide. Virri rolled across the duct and slipped inside, giving a friendly wave before disappearing within the mysterious expanse of Kor’s Mary Poppins bag. “See ya,” Kor said, before crawling away in the opposite direction.
“I don’t trust her as far as I can throw her,” Dev said as soon as Kor was gone. “Who knows what these cubes really are? What if they get us in more trouble?”
“We didn’t really have a choice. Let’s get a move on.” The cadets shuffled through the ducts, hunched and crawling on their hands and knees. “Hustle up,” Maeve instructed, getting back into her role as drum major. She looked over at Tessa’s watch. “We have a concert to play in five minutes. Aten—”
“Ahhh!” Isaiah screamed as the grate beneath him and Tessa buckled under their shared weight and gave way.
55
STATION LIMINUS
Duna was searching for a way to unlock the message contained within the Klapprothi pearl. They had a hunch that the Station’s translation equipment might be helpful, so they had slipped across the Station before the cadet’s musical performance to try and find a solution. Their attempts hadn’t worked yet, but they planned to stop by the Station’s encyclomedia desk later that day to request additional information about the unusual gem.
Before leaving, Duna decided to surf the various radio channels, listening for a frequency that might activate the pearl. They twisted the dial to the left, then the right, picking up mostly static and the Voyager Golden Record, which played on repeat in the low frequency channels.
Duna was about to disconnect their headphones when a voice caught their attention. The channel’s translator filter made it impossible to tell who was speaking, but Duna’s ears perked up. They raised the volume, listening carefully. Only one voice was audible, coming through in broken, patchy fragments.
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