by Wendy Mass
The evening before they were scheduled to leave Gamma Speed, Chris called a meeting to go over the last-minute details. Everyone had been so busy on board the huge ship, that the eight of them were rarely all together in one room other than meals and movie nights. Dash hoped the meeting wouldn’t go too long—it was finally going to be his turn to show his favorite alien movie.
Chris stood at the head of the table and clasped his hands together. “I am going to tell you the story of my visit to Dargon. Admittedly, before some of your other trips I wasn’t fully forthcoming with what I knew about the planet.”
“You can say that again,” Piper said. “Especially on Meta Prime! Knowing you’d created a giant video game and were plopping us in the middle might have been nice.”
“Wait, you guys didn’t know that?” Anna asked.
The Alpha team shook their heads and glared a bit at Chris.
“Don’t forget Infinity,” Carly said. “A heads-up that we may have become permanent guests on the planet wouldn’t have hurt.”
Dash bounced in his seat. “Or on Aqua Gen, those Thermites were way more vicious than you—”
Chris held up his hand. “Okay, okay, I get it. Some details were news to me too. And others, well, I didn’t always know whether it would be helpful or harmful for you to have too much background on my own experience, knowing it could just distract from retrieving the elements. But this time you need to know the whole story or retrieving the element will be impossible. You already know the basics—the ogres, elves, and dragons that inhabit this world.”
They nodded, leaned back in their chairs and waited.
“When I visited Dargon about a hundred years ago, the ogres were constantly attacking the elves, burning their ancient, hollowed-out trees just for sport. The trees aren’t simply the spiritual center of life for the elves; they are their homes. But the ogres can’t burn the trees on their own; they taunt the dragons, whose fiery hot breath burns the trees.”
Carly raised her hand. “So it wasn’t the dragons’ fault that the trees burned; it was really the ogres?”
Chris nodded. “Although of course the elves retaliated in kind. Can’t really blame them. The element I needed—that you will now need to retrieve as well—is made from the embers of a burnt tree root. They would not agree to part with any piece of the tree until I came up with a plan they couldn’t refuse.”
Everyone leaned forward in their seats now.
“During my time on the planet, I’d discovered that the ogres were very sensitive to sounds. There was one tone that seemed to put them into almost a trance state. It took many weeks, but I was able to construct a special horn that would produce the exact tone I needed. If sounded once, it would put any ogre who heard it to sleep. The same sound would also wake them up. The plan would be to put the ogres to sleep and leave the horn with the elves, who would keep it safe. As happy as I’m sure they are with their peaceful existence without the ogres, I made the elves promise to protect the horn from destruction. They know a day will come when the horn will have to be played again. Tomorrow is that day.”
“So let me get this right,” Ravi said. “First we have to get the elves to agree to let us sound the horn and awaken the evil ogres, then hope the ogres make the dragons so angry they breathe fire on the houses of the elves? And then we just walk away with a piece of the wreckage?”
“Not a lot can go wrong there,” Gabriel muttered under his breath.
Ignoring Gabriel’s comment, Chris nodded to Ravi. “Sounds about right.”
Ravi’s shoulders slumped. “Well, that doesn’t seem like much fun.”
“Especially for the elves,” Piper said. “We have to burn their house down.”
“I even feel a little sorry for the ogres,” Siena said. “Who gave you the right to decide to put them to sleep like that? No disrespect intended.”
Chris opened his mouth to reply, then closed it again. He sighed. “I hear you, I do. But these ogres were really awful. It brought peace to the land and no doubt saved many elves’ lives, not to mention the ancient trees.”
Carly stood up and started pacing. “What if we skip the whole thing with the ogres and the dragons, and just set the tree on fire ourselves? I mean, with the elves’ permission, of course.”
Chris shook his head. “Believe me, if I could take the dragons out of the equation I would. Unfortunately, only the dragons have fire hot enough to burn the wood to reach the root, and only the ogres can find them. The combination of a dragon’s breath and the material in the tree is what provides the element we need. It’s called dragon cinder. Best-case scenario would be that the ogres only awaken one dragon. They are solitary creatures who hate everything else that moves on the planet, even each other.”
Carly sighed and sat back down.
“It was worth a try,” Gabriel said, patting her on the arm.
“What if the elves don’t want us to sound the horn?” Dash asked. “We could be out of the game before we even start.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Chris said. “I warned them that I would be back again one day and we’d need to reawaken them. They agreed, making me promise that after the next trip, I would take the horn far away from the planet, and the ogres would sleep forever. I fully plan to uphold my end of the bargain.”
“So you’re going with us?” Dash asked.
“Yes. As on Infinity, I think having me on the ground with you will be an asset to the mission,” Chris answered.
The crew exchanged glances. They weren’t convinced that it would be that easy—and what about Colin? They couldn’t just leave him alone on the Cloud Leopard. There was no telling what he might do! Chris could feel their skepticism. He needed to turn this around. He planted a smile on his face and said, “On the positive side, there will be more manpower than—”
“Manpower?” Siena, Anna, Carly, and Piper said at the same time.
Chris stopped talking and looked at them. “Um, manpower and lady power?”
Carly and Siena wrinkled their noses.
Chris tried again. “Girl power? Woman power?”
“Better,” Piper said with a nod. “Go on.”
“As I was saying,” Chris continued with a sigh, “you’ll have more man and woman power than ever before. Plus, you’ll have four days on the surface of the planet, much longer than at our other stops. I had to build in the extra time to get the ogres up the cliffs to find the dragons. They move very slowly.”
“Who is going to be on the ground team?” Carly asked. “Besides you and Dash, I mean.”
Chris glanced at Dash before answering. “We talked it through very carefully. We’d like Carly and Anna to remain on board as cocaptains in Dash’s absence. Carly will continue to monitor the source machine and prepare it for the dragon cinder.”
Carly nodded, not looking at Anna. Anna slumped in her seat.
“Ravi and Niko will man the Cloud Cat, delivering anything necessary to the team on the surface. Niko will also continue his duties as medic on board.”
Ravi and Niko high-fived each other. “That’s cool,” Ravi said, “even though I totally have the best whistle out of everyone.” It was true. He could blow out whole melodies, and they actually sounded like the real songs.
“I’m sure the elves will still welcome us without your contribution,” Siena said.
Ravi grinned. “Maybe they will; maybe they won’t.”
“Moving on,” Chris said. “Piper will go to the surface, along with Gabriel and Siena.”
Piper grinned. She’d missed going on the missions.
Dash was glad that no one was complaining about their assignments. With so many crew members, the choice had been difficult. Before Chris could turn away from the table, Dash said, “There’s something you haven’t told us.”
Chris froze. There were actually a few things he hadn’t told them. Which one was he referring to?
Dash hesitated. A few weeks ago, he wouldn’t have asked this in front of t
he others, but now he felt comfortable enough and he was sure they’d want to know the answer too. “You said we’ll need four days on the planet, but I only have four days left before I run out of serum. Right?”
Chris nodded. He relaxed a bit when he realized where Dash was going with this.
“I don’t understand how it can take us only one day to get home,” Dash said, “when it took us a year to get here?”
“It won’t take you one day to get home,” Chris replied.
“It won’t?” the others said together.
Chris shook his head and smiled. “It will take one second.”
Chris walked back toward his room, Rocket at his heels. The dog had taken to following him everywhere over the last few days, as if he knew they were soon to part ways.
He ran the briefing through his head to make sure he hadn’t left out any important details. He hoped his description of how the Source worked was clear enough. He’d tried to explain that once the elements were mixed, the power would be so great that even a tiny amount could punch a four-dimensional hole through space-time that would send the ship back to Earth almost instantly. They all acted like they understood, but they were also anxious to enjoy their last evening in Gamma Speed, so he couldn’t be entirely sure.
He picked up his pace. He didn’t like leaving Colin alone for too long. He hadn’t told the kids how difficult it had been these last two months keeping the clone out of trouble. More than once he’d caught him trying to patch into the communication system to get a message to Ike Phillips. And, once, Colin had managed to override the force field that kept him in the room. Chris had caught it with one second to spare. He was very glad the mission was almost over so he wouldn’t have to deal with Colin anymore.
Chris had almost reached his room, when he felt something shift in the air around him. It was almost imperceptible, the slightest change in the hum that ran through the floors and walls, such a constant that no one ever noticed it anymore. Until it stopped.
Chris broke into a run.
—
Back in the rec room, the crew settled into the couches to watch their last movie of the trip. While the ZRKs were flying in and out depositing bowls of snacks on the table, Siena took the opportunity to pull Dash aside.
“I was just wondering,” she began, then hesitated. Dash and the others had made her feel welcome from the start, but there was no denying that she still felt ashamed of her actions while on the Light Blade. As a result, she’d kept a lower profile than the others had. She took a deep breath and tried again. “I was just wondering why you chose me for the ground crew. I mean, I want to go and all.”
Dash answered right away. “You’re fast, you’re smart, and you’re good with a sword.”
She looked at him with surprise. “You know about my fencing?” She’d been practicing at night sometimes, running through training simulations when the others went to bed. It calmed her down and made her feel stronger.
He smiled. “It’s a big ship, but not that big.”
She smiled back, tentatively at first, but then with genuine affection. For the first time in a long time, she was looking forward to being needed.
Suddenly, Chris’s voice boomed through the ship. “Brace yourselves! We’re leaving Gamma Speed in ten seconds. Nine…eight…”
There was no time to ask what was going on. Their hearts in their throats, the crew scrambled to the simulation machines, pairing off two per seat. The robots—who always watched the movies with them—hooked their arms around the base of the seats. Piper pulled her chair up beside Dash’s seat, and he looped the seat belt around her. He’d just clicked it closed when Chris’s voice said, “Zero. Brace for impact.” The ship wobbled and shook violently for what felt like forever before finally grinding to a screeching halt. Their heads flew back against the headrests, making more than one person groan.
“Is everyone okay?” Dash shouted, throwing off his straps. Groans and yeses came back. He did a quick check of the crew. Pale and shaken, but in one piece.
“You were right,” Anna said, rubbing her neck. “Leaving Gamma really was a lot worse than going into it.”
Dash pressed at his Mobile Tech Band with shaking fingers. “Chris! Come in! Why are we out of Gamma already? What’s going on? Did we arrive at Dargon early?” He waited for a reply but only got silence. The crew exchanged looks of alarm. “Chris!” Dash tried again. “Can you hear me?”
Still silence. The rec room didn’t have any windows, so they couldn’t tell if the planet lay below them or not.
Finally, the intercom crackled to life. “Crew to the flight deck” was all Chris said before cutting out again. It took a second for everyone to move. They’d heard Chris sound anxious before, even fearful. But they’d never heard him sound defeated.
“I don’t understand,” Dash said, pacing back and forth in front of the long, curved window that currently revealed nothing but black space. No suns, and definitely no planet Dargon. “How could Colin have done this?” He raked his fingers through his hair, over and over until it stood on end. This used to soothe him when his mom did it. It wasn’t working now. The others paced right along with him.
“I don’t know,” Chris admitted. He sat in his usual seat on the flight deck, shoulders slumped, his face expressionless. “He must have planned this with Ike.”
“He got through to Earth?” Carly asked, stopping short and causing Anna to bump right into her, and Ravi to bump right into Anna.
“Maybe,” Chris said miserably. “Or maybe this was their plan from the beginning.” He put his hands on both sides of his head. “He used my own memories, my own knowledge. He knew we’d be stuck here.”
“It’s not your fault,” Dash said. “There’s no way Ike and Colin knew the Light Blade was going to catch fire. And you didn’t create Colin. You’re as much a pawn in all this as we are.” Once the words were out, he wished he could take them back. The hurt on Chris’s face was clear.
“Is that how you feel?” Chris asked, looking around the room. “Like you’re being manipulated or tricked?”
They all exchanged glances. Piper floated forward. “Maybe in the beginning,” she admitted. “For one thing, we were told we were on a mission to one planet, not six.”
Chris sighed. “I know. We were afraid no one would go on the mission if they knew how truly dangerous it was. And the mission is so important. Your whole world is only years away from total darkness. We had to weigh the risk of keeping things from you against the reward of coming back with the Source.”
“We don’t have to like it, but we understand,” Dash said. He needed to get Chris’s focus back on their current situation. “So where is Colin now?”
“Vulcan death grip?” Ravi guessed.
Chris just stared at him and shook his head. “Locked in my quarters again,” he answered.
“Okay, then. What does coming out of Gamma too early mean for the mission?” Dash asked.
“Can’t we just go back into Gamma Speed?” Ravi said.
Chris shook his head. “We had only enough material for one burst between each planet. That’s why we would have needed the Source to get us home. Even so, I did try to restart when the ship first shut down.”
“How fast can this thing move under its own propulsion?” Anna asked.
“Honestly, not fast,” Chris admitted. “The Cloud Leopard was never meant to fly long distances at normal speeds. So far, it’s only gone from Earth up to where we boarded. We are a lot farther away from Dargon than that.”
Gabriel stepped away from the control panel, which he’d been studying carefully since they got up there. “According to my calculations, we’re about three days’ journey away from Dargon now. If we could get this thing moving…” He trailed off. They all knew the answer, though. They didn’t have three days.
“You’re forgetting something,” Anna told Chris. “You have some of the best engineering minds of their generation in front of you. And some pretty smart
robots. You need to snap out of this funk you’re in and focus. What’s the least amount of time we can spend on Dargon and still have a chance of getting the element?”
“Four days,” Chris mumbled.
Anna repeated the question, more forcefully this time.
“Two?” he offered, not even sounding remotely confident.
Anna turned to face the crew. “We will have to be resourceful and think outside the box. Failure is—”
“Not an option!” the crew shouted. Even the robots joined in.
“That’s right,” she said firmly, her hands on her hips. “We have two days max to get this hunk of metal to Dargon. Let’s get to work.”
—
It was now clear to Dash why Ike Phillips had chosen Anna to be the captain of the Light Blade. She may be bossy and demanding, but when not under Colin and Ike’s control, she proved able to get everyone to keep from freaking out about being stuck in the cold, dark depths of space. Of course, she did this mainly by cutting off anyone midsentence who had begun to express worry or doubt, but still, her method was effective.
Chris explained that the amount of fuel left in the Cloud Leopard’s engines would only be enough to get them closer by one day. That left two days in which they’d be stuck drifting in space. That was two days they didn’t have.
“Whatever happened to saving some fuel for a rainy day?” Ravi muttered. “This ship has duplicates, sometimes triplicates of every item, and we have enough food to last for at least five more years, you’d think they might have thought ahead about carrying some extra fuel.”
“It took us a decade to put together enough for the mission,” Chris explained, a bit put off. Then he sighed. “But I see your point. I’ll be sure to mention it to Shawn the next time we have to plan a mission to the far reaches of the universe to keep a planet from dying.”